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hiyaluronic · 3 years

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The beginnings of the ragnarok/loki series xover that has decided to take over my brain is below...

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The chaos of the battlefield around him dwindled to nothing more than a muted play of distant actions that seemed foreign to him, almost dreamlike; as if he was watching everything happen from far away. He could hear someone scream behind him, the person’s voice so loud that the earth vibrated beneath his bare feet with such frenetic energy that Laurits swore the reverberations shook the very energy that made up his being.

Something sweet and pungent drifted across the barren valley while everything seemed to slow. There was a flash of lightning above that split the grey sky and illuminated the battle around him, the clash of swords and shouts of rage dulled when the lightning gave way to a loud crack of thunder that echoed and rippled through the valley, seeming to shake the mountains that framed the basin.

Laurits turned, his hands bright and burning at his sides, his fingers a deep green from pent up magic he’d yet to unleash. He watched, time seeming to stretch to an infinite amount of seconds before him, as Ran notched an arrow across the valley and aimed. Off to his side, somewhere in the rage of angered shouts and cries of pain, he heard Oscar scream his name. The deep timbre of the other man’s voice was shaky and lilted in concern. Laurits flexed his fingers and raised his hands in warning to Ran. The seidr that he’d worked so painstakingly hard to master interweaved around his fingers and crackled like fireworks.

Laurits was so focused on Ran that he missed when something sharp and agonizing slammed into his side and caused him to crash to the ground in a heap. He gasped, colors swirling across his vision when his head bounced off the rocky ground beneath him. Laurits groaned and blinked, the bright blue of Magne’s otherworldly eyes staring wide and unsure down at him.

“Ma-magne?” He hated how childish his voice sounded, how his brother's name rolled off his tongue in uncertainty. He could see the deep obsidian of Magne’s pupils expanding to eat away at the blue of his brother’s irises and contrasting with the ashen pallor his brother’s skin had taken on, making the cherry red of Magne’s cheeks stand out in worrisome detail.

“I… I couldn’…”

A haggard cough had Laurits reaching up to grasp his brother's shoulders when Magne’s arms buckled. “Magne?”

“I…i saved...you.”

“You’re an idiot.” The affectionate reprimand made Magne smile, his brother’s teeth stained a ruddy color that reminded him of the time he and Magne had eaten one too many cinnamon candies.

Laurits hesitantly tightened his grip on Magne’s shoulders to steady his brother, concern and ice cold fear settled uneasily in his gut as he quietly called Magne’s name once more. When his brother ignored the soft plea, he gently rolled the older boy off him and scooted to his knees. His hands hovered in uncertainty over the mess that made up his brother's side. He winced in sympathy, a section of Magne’s shirt had been burned away, the skin left charred around the edges of an angry looking wound that wept bright red and brown fluid in vigor, saturating the jeans Magne wore and smelling foul.

“I don’t know what to do Magne, Wotan wouldn’t teach me healing magic.” And he’d hated the older man for it. Odin had deemed healing magic to feminine an art, and unworthy of a male learning the finer workings of magic. Laurits now wished he had told Odin to get fucked as he turned his attention from the wound to the blood speckled face of his brother.

“H...hornns.”

Laurits frowned and leaned closer to Mange, “Horns?”

“Fe-feel it.”

“You’re not making any sense.” He shook his head and gripped the lapel of Magne’s jacket until his fingers were white and aching. “Magne, stay with me, yeah?”

He could see Magne fighting against the chilling grip of death. He watched his brother gasp tiny wisps of air while trying and failing to form words before seeming to settle and still; his otherworldly blue eyes fading. Laurits’s eyes burned at the realization that his brother had slipped from this world with little fanfare. “Y-you idiot. You self-sacrificing bumbling idiot.”

Another flash of lightning - orange this time, Laurits noted - sparked above, casting an eerie glow over Magne’s blonde hair and vacant gaze. Laurits closed his eyes; his brother wasn’t supposed to die. They had made a promise to each other that it would be different this time… Ragnarok would not be the death of everything they had worked so hard to achieve and protect. It would not be their end. He and Magne had forbidden it. And, yet... “Please, brother, please…”

Laurits curled around Magne’s chest, his own chest heaving with each heavy breath he took.

This had to be a dream.

Had to be an illusion.

Some sort of spell cast by the Jutuls to distract from the battle.

The air seemed thick and cloying, settling like a heavy blanket around him and creating an unbearable heat that gathered within him at the notion that someone would use such a cruel trick to subdue a godling. Laurits sat back on his haunches, focused on the battle of gods and giants with an odd sort of frozen numbness. His head lolled to the side, attention settling on his Stepmother who had just loosed an arrow and was in the midst of notching another. Laurits slowly stood, his mind and body a million miles away from one another and caught Ran’s attention from across the valley. His hands moved without conscious thought as seidr gathered and swelled around his fingers. He realized how easy it would be to smother the very essence that made up the giantess with the gentlest push of his will. How easy it would be to bring Ran to her knees by burning her precious waters till nothing was left but the cracked silt of the ocean floor and the floundering bodies of the creatures that lived there in their death throes.

His fingers twitched.

“Variant identified.”

The voice barely registered, Laurits was too focused on Ran to notice that someone had stepped up behind him until a hand grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn. Laurits brought his hand up to defend himself but was stopped when the unknown woman grabbed his arm and jerked it painfully out to the side and twisted, one of her hands coming to rest against the base of his neck.

“On behalf of the Time Variance Authority, I hereby arrest you for crimes against the Sacred Timeline. You’re to come with us, Variant.”

“T-the what?” Laurits hissed as something tight settled around his neck and he was pulled up and shoved into the waiting arms of two men dressed in black armor. “Let go!”

The woman huffed and turned to another person dressed in the same strange getup, “Reset the timeline.”

“Hey!” Laurits shouted when the unknown person the woman had addressed knelt and situated a glowing tube beside the still form of Magne. “Get away from him!”

The woman turned to him with a raised brow and shook her head, dismissing him. “Let’s go!”

“Magne!” Laurits fought against the arms around him, trying and failing to reach his brother as he was pushed and pulled backwards by the men holding him, “Magne!”

He dug his heels into the ground and grunted with effort as he tried to pull away. The men holding him yanked back on him and pulled him through an oddly colored orange doorway. The last thing he saw was a wash of yellow saturating the still form of his brother and Magne melting away to the ground below.

“No!”

#ragnarok netflix #ragnarok 2020 #ragnarok fanfiction #laurits seier #ragnarok blurbs #loki series/ragnarok xover #started this today and not beta read #...yes i killed magne lol #but he got better

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lorei-writes · 3 years

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Impression of Infinity

Vincent x Reader Fluff (?) Fantasy AU

Word Estimate: 1.5k

I blame @cheese-ception for this. Also, excuse typos, I literally wrote the last parts with closed eyes, because I can’t see anything just regardless - it’s all blur.

Content Warnings: none Disclaimer: Reader & Vincent are of the same age, Vincent just found himself in a very peculiar situation

Vincent’s finger twitches – and green grows between the rows of students, translucent, reaching up to the very ceiling. His wrist twists the brush by what could be an error margin, the swing of his arm summons purples, invites them alongside violets, to rest between the stars – and you watch very carefully, although you know you should observe his work, not him, that you should listen to his words, not the thumping filling your head… Yet how could you, if he has you charmed, if you cannot turn your eyes away? Vincent nearly dances, his cheeks growing redder from exercise, the canvas he chose being much greater than the body he inhabits. To paint it must be tiresome, you reckon, although your concerns vanish, the spark in his eyes causing something inside of you to sting. Clearly, he is not the same boy you used to know, not the one sentenced to the fate of failure due to his inability to enchant with his voice alone. Yet… Is there anything wrong with that? After all, his greatest flaw turned into what made him a prodigy, as you always claimed.

The heat does not hold against the chilly air of the corridor, you think, the soles of your shoes clacking against the granite floor. The air vibrates outside, kept ablaze by merciless sun, the dreaded celestial body refusing to set even at night, its halo extending from one end of the horizon to the other – and even as your eyebrows furrow, you cannot stop and stare through the tinted-glass windows for even a moment, a steady stream of humans behind your back pushing you forward. In this world of yours, rather secluded from the outside realm, it is another sort of movement that agitates the air, lively chatter lifting in clouds, further replenished by curious students.

The lecture theatre is a marvel in its own right, rows of wooden benches and bookrests refusing to fall apart despite all the centuries passed. You take your seat, in the very front row – and although you try to, you cannot help wondering who sat there before you. Have… Have they discovered anything? Gained some fame? You cannot tell for sure, that much is certain, yet… It would not be unthinkable, it would not be impossible in any way. The Seventh Century University have had quite a number of excellent graduates.

Your hands beginning to hurt, you forcibly unclench your fists, your gaze lifting up from the floor. Right in time, as the chatter stops abruptly, killed by the shriek of the walnut door. A man, no taller than average, steps inside – and something perhaps stings inside your chest, just a little bit. His robe is somewhat crooked, just the way you remembered it to be, the traditional pointy hat (much dreaded by any student, in all fairness) seemingly glaring at him from its place in his arms. He looks around, as if lost, mildly dishevelled blonde hair appearing not to have grown any more obedient the past year. Your throat tightens. He is already at the lectern. “Good evening,” he laughs awkwardly. “My name is Vincent van Gogh and I will be your Practical Astronomy professor.”

The room grows dark, obsidian seemingly crawling over all stone spaces and consuming them whole. Your jaw tightens. Was it truly just a year? To think, so much would have changed… For you both to start at the same time, and then…

It happens as if a sea of fireflies was released into the room, a single twitch of the brush in his hand colouring the nothingness anew. “As we all know, Tralangea is located within the Galatos triad, in the galaxy of Saana. Little is known about the outside universes, however, the most recent findings indicate the remaining splatter points present different variants of the reality known to us. As you should already known after going through Analytical Divination, it would align well within the still-standing model of inter-crossings. In this moment, I want you to imagine the infinite number of elements, circulating through space and interacting with one another. I will give you a second.” The light dies down again, the previously invoked golden specks splashing against the ground. “How does it look?”

No one dares disrupt the silence. How can he ask? It is impossible to answer, of course – and you are very well aware of that. How to picture an infinity? Is it… A trick question, perhaps? You go over the possibilities in your thoughts. A void? The light? You do not know. Something completely abstract, the end of all times? For all you know, it may be just that, and your fellow students seem to agree, confused whispers beginning to hum behind your back. The hushed voices growl, a sea of flies united in mere human distrust. “Professor?” some brave soul asks. “Yes? Do you have an answer?” “I… I think this is impossible.” “Oh? Why so? I might have given you too tough a question at the start,” Vincent laughs, seemingly mildly unease. “It is infinity, professor.” The room quiets down, the concern of all having been spoken out loud. “It is impossible to picture infinity with a finite mind. It would fry it up!” A smack, a couple steps. “I see, you are not aware,” Vincent muses, something swishing in the air. “Your life already is an infinity, in this very moment.”

The room begins to glow, the brush in Vincent’s hand seemingly coming to life with a mind of its own, streaks of navy blue and petrol painting below the dome, swirling and tying with shades of orange, lined with golden dust. “We do not need perfection. We need a model,” he explains softly, almost tenderly, his gaze focused.

Vincent lifts his arm over his head, a halo emerging above him. His lips move, a barely audible charm seeping out of his lungs and pulling his creation into a newly created sphere. The room lights up again, granite having conquered the walls. You blink fast. Is it over already? “We have a little more time, so allow me to repeat myself. It is not about creating perfection, but much rather… An impression,” Vincent laughs, perhaps a little shy of what they have just witnessed. “The universes are infinite and so are their interpretations. With our current state of understanding, we cannot provide an accurate depiction. However, different stances on them can be beneficial in certain contexts. Do you know what my model could be used for?” “Map of the stars!” somebody shouts in the back. “Exactly,” he agrees, nodding happily, his lips curled into a smile. “It is what I focused on. By the end of the year, I want you to be able to process an infinite amount of information and take only a fraction of this information. Starting next week, we will be deconstructing our universe. Any questions?” Silence. “You’re free then, thank you.”

The seats around you empty at a gradual pace, some pooling around the lectern (it appears the shyness is quite infectious, you note) while others speed out of the hall, seemingly terrified of classes which are yet to come. You, however, you stay still, as if unable to move, although there is nothing holding you back. Is it you? Is it a mean spell somebody has cast? You do not know, although it seems it is not your day for knowing anything, Vincent, the very Vincent you knew so well, emerging right before you, from who knows where. He graces you with the brightest smile you have seen in a year. “Hello. I didn’t know you were taking my class,” he says, a trace of laughter in his voice. “I saw you listed as the professor and could not believe it, so of course, I had to see it for myself,” you reply, shaking your head, perhaps mildly amused. “Congrats! That internship must have been so hard, you skipped so many years! I hope they didn’t torture knowledge into you there, professor Van Go –” you stop before you finish the word, Vincent scratching his head, his eyes drifting way from you. “Vincent?” “Well, emm… I didn’t skip any years,” he laughs. “It is just those models. The rest, well…” “You still need to pass them?” “Please, tell me you have not chosen my subject over Astral Projection this year,” he forces out of himself – although you barely hear it, laughter shaking your arms violently. “I haven’t. How does this even work?” “I don’t know. I don’t think they know either.” “Oh, Vincent. Well, professor van Gogh, get ready for failing Astral Projection, Miss Szajna took over it this semester and I do not see anything painting in bright colours, unlike your models.”

You get up, the both of you walking to well, the next class. How does it all work? You have no clue. However, it does not matter in the slightest, a weight having been lifted off your heart. You can still tell him those three words. You have not lost your chance.

Tag List: @cheese-ception, @kisara-16, @nad-zeta, @rikumorimachisgirl @bestbryn If you want to be tagged under my future works, let me know (any way works)! ^^ Also, do remember to specify fandoms (and characters, if you are interested only in some) :D If it ever happens that you wish to be removed from my taglist, for any reason, do let me know. I will not ask why, it’s all fine ^^

#vincent van gogh #ikevamp vincent #ikevam vincent #ikevamp #ikevam #ikemen vampire #ikemen series #my ff #my writing

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everlune-evotide · 2 years

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Name Meaning Tag

I was tagged by @crazybunchwriting! Thanks for the tag. I’ll tag anyone who wants to do this!

Rules: Search and post the meaning of your OCs’ names (if you made their name up or they go by a nickname, post an explanation of how it came to you)! Bonus if you can find something for their last name too.

Broken Resonance

Jasper: “treasurer”

Jerecho: normally spelled Jericho. It means “city of the moon,” and was the city that the Israelites marched around and felled. It spelled “wrong” because his bioparents were trying to be artsy (also I was trying to be artsy because his nickname Echo. Echo came to me because I thought it was a cool name for a ghost which was what he originally was.)

Brass: (for spoiler purposes we won’t be using his real name) an alloy of copper and zinc. His nickname however comes from the fights he gets in because he uses Brass knuckles. Idr how it came to me, just thought it was cool.

Mitchell: English variation of Michael "who is like God"

Mercedes: “gracious gifts, benefits.” “Mercedes is one of the few names attached to luxury living…it being a legitimate Spanish appellation stemming from one of the epithets given to the Virgin Mary--Santa Maria de las Mercedes, or Our Lady of the Mercies.” Source

Sterling: “of the highest quality”

Raegan: “little king”

The Darkness Chronicles

Desabelle: I made this one up actually. I wanted her nicknames to be “Des” and “Desa” so I just looked for other names that had that “a” sound with an extension if that makes sense (see: Annabelle)

Axel: “father of peace” (real ironic since he creates a lot of conflict)

Logan: “little hollow” (this is fitting)

Shane: “God is gracious”

Raelynn: “Raelynn is an invented English name that became popular during the 21st century. The name starts with the element rae. This use of rae can have several meanings. Rae is the short form of Rachel (meaning “ewe”), the feminine short form of Raymond (meaning “protective advisor”), or the alternative spelling of “ray” (as in sunbeam). The suffix -lynn means “lake.”” Source

Cassiopeia: “cassia juice,” “she who chooses to excel.” “The name Cassiopeia is a girl's name of Greek origin. It is “the name of a mythological mother who became a stellar constellation.” Source

Unnamed supernatural WIP

Dakota: “friendly one”

Xander: “Defending men”

Mackenzie: “son of Kenneth”

Paisleigh/Rebel: “church, cemetery.” The nickname Rebel comes from Paisleigh being a huge Star Wars fan growing up.

Miscellaneous

Zereus: another one I made up of two names. Zeru which means “sky” and another one I can’t find :/ maybe Zeus which also means “sky” but his name on Lyre means “stormy.”

Kaiper: Axel’s future son. He wanted to name him after a space related thing, his wife wanted to name him Kai, which means “sea.” Axel tried for Kuiper, his wife asked for the spelling “Kaiper.” Axel settles for the spelling but they argue about it a lot.

Alias: not his real name, but when he’s on the run and trying to keep his name private, he’s asked what his name is. “My name?” “Yeah, your name” “…” “Your name, kid. Your alias, what you go by. C’mon, it ain’t that hard.” So he took Alias lol

Lunaura: another one I made up, literally from the words “Luna” and “aura.” It means “moon’s aura.”

Varian: “variable” or “fickle.” He’s one clone of many, all of them are called Variants. He was just the one his father deemed the best, cut off the “t” and bam. His name. (Apparently it’s the name of a WoW character?? But I didn’t know that. I don’t play WoW.)

#name meanings #name meaning tag #tag game #writeblr #writers of tumblr #writers on tumblr #writeblr community #writing #lunartyphoon ocs #Lune plays

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #127: Leonardo Da Vinci

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the one person with enough free time to be both a universal genius and the best ninja turtle, Leonardo Da Vinci! Like many casters you’re super power is Being Adaptable, so just imagine every level summary ends with “Adjust your spell list to fit what your party needs” a lot.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Tamamo... 3!

Race and Background

Like a couple other servants you’re technically a homunculus, but we need that feat bonus, so we’re making you a Variant Human. This nets you perception proficiency, +1 Intelligence and Dexterity, and the War Caster feat. This gives you advantage on concentration checks, the ability to use cantrips for your attacks of opportunity, and the ability to use somatic components with full hands. That glove’s cool, but it’s probably hard to flash gang signs in that thing.

You’re Chaldea’s resident Izzet Engineer, giving you proficiency with Arcana and Investigation. You also get the ability to look up public building’s schematics to look for secret entrances and the like (it definitely would make the opening to Descent into Avernus a lot easier...) You also get enough background-based spells to make your first level spell list look downright silly. We’ll get into those at the levels section though.

You should probably try and keep that “Izzet” part under wraps. Mixing servants and mizzium could only end in disaster.

Ability Score Improvements

As the poster child of the Renaissance Woman, your Intelligence and Wisdom should be pretty goddamn high. After that is Dexterity- you literally made your body, and your craftsmanship is impeccable. Your Charisma isn’t amazing, because despite your body being a literal work of art you get a demerit due to the writing team’s transphobia, and also the standard array’s inability to give you all 20s. Your Constitution isn’t great for the latter reason as well, but we’re dumping Strength. Once again, the caster class’s 90% damage modifier is not going to help you get buff.

Class Levels

1. Wizard 1: You’re smart and magic, that’s a wizard. You get proficiency with Intelligence and Wisdom saves, as well as two wizard skills. History and Insight would be my pick, but you’re good at everything, so pick your poison.

You also get an Arcane Recovery once per long rest, allowing you to regain a couple spell slots on a short rest as a freebie, but their total level has to be half your wizard level rounded up. Oh yeah, you get spells too. They use your Intelligence to cast.

As the Universal Genius, your entire schtick is about being adaptable, so I’m not going to list spells in the breakdown this time around. If you want them, my personal picks are in the character sheet.

That being said, you do get some guaranteed spells from your background. Thanks to being an Engineer, you get Produce Flame and Shocking Grasp as cantrips, and Chaos Bolt, Create or Destroy Water, and Unseen Servant at first level.

2. Wizard 2: Another problem with being a renaissance woman is that there’s no “everything” specialty for you to grab. That being said, the Transmutation school will help make your body a bit stronger on a more permanent basis than bladesinging would. You become a Transmutation Savant, meaning it takes half the time and cost to transcribe transmutation spells into your spell book. You also learn some Minor Alchemy, spending ten minutes per cubic foot of your target object, turning a nonmagical item made of wood, stone, iron, copper, or silver into one of the other materials on that list. This lasts for an hour, or until you drop concentration. I’m sure you can come up with fun ways to abuse this.

3. Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells, including your background spells Heat Metal and Rope Trick. Everyone needs a bit of alone time. And also to slowly set people on fire. Also, you should probably grab Enlarge/Reduce. It’s a secret tool that will help us later.

4. Wizard 4: Your Ability Score Improvements are all going to intelligence, but we can be smart about it. Your Keen Mind gives you a small boost to Intelligence, but it also helps you navigate, tell time, and be a jerk to your DM by forcing them to keep notes on literally everything. Use this power wisely.

5. Artificer 1: You’re not just a mage, you’re also an inventor. And an artist, but we’re sticking with int casters today. Maybe for rider. With your Magical Tinkering, you can add minor effects to tiny items, because it’s not like you’ve already got prestidigitation or anything. Speaking of, you get another Spell list, which also uses your Intelligence to cast and prepare. Again, you’re a caster-almost literally any spell is canon for you, aside from maybe the divination ones. Specifically the futury spells.

6. Artificer 2: Second level artificers can Infuse Items, allowing you to create magical items for your party. Again, you can make almost anything, so take some liberties. Or check the character sheet. Either or.

7. Artificer 3: As an inventor who’s specialty is “inventing”, you’d think picking a subclass here would be hard. Normally you’d be right, but I want to make the Bastenyan X, so we’re going Battle Smith. This gives you some specialty spells, like Heroism and Shield, as well as making you Battle Ready. This gives you proficiency with more weapons, and you can use your intelligence instead of strength when using magical weapons. You also get a Steel Defender, a construct to help you in battle. You have to use your bonus action to command it, but you weren’t using it for anything else, so that’s fine.

You can also make the Right Tool for the Job after rests, creating a set of artisan’s tools until you make another.

8. Artificer 4: Another ASI, and another half feat. The Observant feat rounds out your Intelligence, allows you to read lips, and gives you a +5 bonus to perception and investigation checks.

9. Artificer 5: Fifth level battle smiths get an Extra Attack with each attack action, for when you really want to slap someone with your giant hand. You also get second level spells, like Branding Smite and Warding Bond.

10. Wizard 5: Third level spell time! You also get your background spells, Call Lighting, Elemental Weapon, and Glyph of Warding. And that’s not even counting your normal spells.

11. Wizard 6: Sixth level transmuters can make a Transmuter’s Stone over the course of eight hours, and a creature holding possessing the stone gets one of several benefits. These include darkvision, and extra 10 feet of speed, proficiency in constitution saves, and resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage. If you’re holding onto the stone, you can even switch up the effect every time you cast a leveled transmutation spell.

12. Artificer 6: Hopping back into artificer gives you Tool Expertise, giving you doubled proficiency with any tool. I’m not sure if I was explicit enough here, but you’re very smart.

13. Artificer 7: So smart, in fact, that you can use your Flash of Genius to add your intelligence modifier to a nearby ability check or save, a number of times per long rest equal to your intelligence modifier. You might not be great at athletics, but you do know a lot about the technique!

14. Artificer 8: Nope, we’re not maxing out intelligence yet. Use this ASI to become a bit Tougher. No real reason for it, but you’re kind of a melee fighter with less than 100 hp at the end, which isn’t good. This gives you +2 hp every time you level up, and a nice +28 hp immediately.

15. Artificer 9: You get third level spells again, including your specialty spells Aura of Vitality and Conjure Barrage. You also learn how to add an Arcane Jolt to your magical weapon attacks, either dealing extra damage or healing a nearby creature. You can use this once per turn, and a number of times per long rest equal to your intelligence modifier.

16. Artificer 10: Tenth level artificers see a lot of their infusions become a bit stronger, and they become a Magic Item Adept, which gives them an extra attunement slot and makes building magic items from scratch much easier.

17. Artificer 11: Eleventh level artificers can make Spell Storing Items at the end of long rests, allowing you to give your Bastenyan a Knife of Enlarging so you can ride in style by hasting and growing it at the same time. Despite the name, these items have to be weapons or focii, you can only have one item at once, and they only hold a number of charges equal to your intelligence modifier.

18. Artificer 12: With our final ASI, we can finally max out our Intelligence score for the best spells, the strongest hits, and the most effective magic items.

19. Artificer 13: With your fourth level spells, you get specialty and background spells at once, netting you Aura of Purity, Fire Shield, Conjure Minor Elementals, Divination, and Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere. And again, these are all spells that don’t count for your prep.

20. Artificer 14: Your capstone level makes you a Magic Item Savant, allowing you to attune to five items at once and ignore all requirements for using magic items. True genius knows no limits, after all.

Pros:

By mixing some wizard levels in with your artificer, you can learn a frankly silly number of spells by default, allowing for a lot of magical versatility. Multiclassing also lets you steal higher level spells from other spellbooks, negating some of the weaknesses you’d normally get from multiclassing. By the end, you can still copy over seventh level spells! Not bad for someone who just got fourth level spells on paper.

With pseudoproficiency and advantage in concentration saves, you’re pretty good at holding onto spells even with your lackluster Constitution score.

Your DM’s going to have a really hard time keeping secrets from you with a maxed out Investigation checks, plus good insight and perception, plus the ability to perfectly remember everything that happened in the last month. Proficiency is +6, intelligence is +5, Observant is another +5, Flash of Genius is another +5... That’s a base of 22, even if you roll a one. Rogues aren’t that good at investigation. Okay, maybe rogues are, but still.

Cons:

Multiclassing still has downsides. You don’t get ninth level spells, which is a bummer, and you also don’t get the capstone ability of Artificer, which is downright broken. That being said, it’s not like most games get to level 17-20 anyway, so it’s probably not that big a deal.

I don’t like making builds that rely on DM fiat, and this build kinda does. In a low magic setting, or against a DM who just doesn’t like you, you’re stuck with, at max, fourth level spells. A situational weakness, but one you should be aware of.

Despite having tons of abilities to join in the melee with your other party members, you’re actually pretty bad at surviving there. You have an AC of 15 with mage armor (the in-character option), and your HP is probably somewhere in the 130s without a magic item we get at level 20. That’s not to say you can’t get in a fight, you just really don’t want to stand out.

#Fate Grand Order #D&D 5e #FGO #Leonardo Da Vinci #Fate and Phantasms #Wizard #Artificer

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fineillsignup · 5 years

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tips for choosing a Chinese name for your OC when you don’t know Chinese

This is a meta for gifset trade with @purple-fury! Maybe you would like to trade something with me? You can PM me if so!

Choosing a Chinese name, if you don’t know a Chinese language, is difficult, but here’s a secret for you: choosing a Chinese name, when you do know a Chinese language, is also difficult. So, my tip #1 is: Relax. Did you know that Actual Chinese People choose shitty names all the dang time? It’s true!!! Just as you, doubtless, have come across people in your daily life in your native language that you think “God, your parents must have been on SOME SHIT when they named you”, the same is true about Chinese people, now and throughout history. If you choose a shitty name, it’s not the end of the world! Your character’s parents now canonically suck at choosing a name. There, we fixed it!

However. Just because you should not drive yourself to the brink of the grave fretting over choosing a Chinese name for a character, neither does that mean you shouldn’t care at all. Especially, tip #2, Never just pick some syllables that vaguely sound Chinese and call it a day. That shit is awful and tbh it’s as inaccurate and racist as saying “ching chong” to mimic the Chinese language. Examples: Cho Chang from Harry Potter, Tenten from Naruto, and most notorious of all, Fu Manchu and his daughter Fah lo Suee (how the F/UCK did he come up with that one).

So where do you begin then? Well, first you need to pick your character’s surname. This is actually not too difficult, because Chinese actually doesn’t have that many surnames in common use. One hundred surnames cover over eighty percent of China’s population, and in local areas especially, certain surnames within that one hundred are absurdly common, like one out of every ten people you meet is surnamed Wang, for example. Also, if you’re making an OC for an established media franchise, you may already have the surname based on who you want your character related to. Finally, if you’re writing an ethnically Chinese character who was born and raised outside of China, you might only want their surname to be Chinese, and give them a given name from the language/culture of their native country; that’s very very common.

If you don’t have a surname in mind, check out the Wikipedia page for the list of common Chinese surnames, roughly the top one hundred. If you’re not going to pick one of the top one hundred surnames, you should have a good reason why. Now you need to choose a romanization system. You’ll note that the Wikipedia list contains variant spellings. If your character is a Chinese-American (or other non-Chinese country) whose ancestors emigrated before the 1950s (or whose ancestors did not come from mainland China), their name will not be spelled according to pinyin. It might be spelled according to Wade-Giles romanization, or according to the name’s pronunciation in other Chinese languages, or according to what the name sounds like in the language of the country they immigrated to. (The latter is where you get spellings like Lee, Young, Woo, and Law.) A huge proportion of emigration especially came from southern China, where people spoke Cantonese, Min, Hakka, and other non-Mandarin languages.

So, for example, if you want to make a Chinese-Canadian character whose paternal source of their surname immigrated to Canada in the 20s, don’t give them the surname Xie, spelled that way, because #1 that spelling didn’t exist when their first generation ancestor left China and #2 their first generation ancestor was unlikely to have come from a part of China where Mandarin was spoken anyway (although still could have! that’s up to you). Instead, name them Tse, Tze, Sia, Chia, or Hsieh.

If you’re working with a character who lives in, or who left or is descended from people who left mainland China in the 1960s or later; or if you’re working with a historical or mythological setting, then you are going to want to use the pinyin romanization. The reason I say that you should use pinyin for historical or mythological settings is because pinyin is now the official or de facto romanization system for international standards in academia, the United Nations, etc. So if you’re writing a story with characters from ancient China, or medieval China, use pinyin, even though not only pinyin, but the Mandarin pronunciations themselves didn’t exist back then. Just... just accept this. This is one of those quirks of having a non-alphabetic language.

(Here’s an “exceptions” paragraph: there are various well known Chinese names that are typically, even now, transliterated in a non-standard way: Confucius, Mencius, the Yangtze River, Sun Yat-sen, etc. Go ahead and use these if you want. And if you really consciously want to make a Cantonese or Hakka or whatever setting, more power to you, but in that case you better be far beyond needing this tutorial and I don’t know why you’re here. Get. Scoot!)

One last point about names that use the ü with the umlaut over it. The umlaut ü is actually pretty critical for the meaning because wherever the ü appears, the consonant preceding it also can be used with u: lu/lü, nu/nü, etc. However, de facto, lots of individual people, media franchises, etc, simply drop the umlaut and write u instead when writing a name in English, such as “Lu Bu” in the Dynasty Warriors franchise in English (it should be written Lü Bu). And to be fair, since tones are also typically dropped in Latin script and are just as critical to the meaning and pronunciation of the original, dropping the umlaut probably doesn’t make much difference. This is kind of a choice you have to make for yourself. Maybe you even want to play with it! Maybe everybody thinks your character’s surname is pronounced “loo as in loo roll” but SURPRISE MOFO it’s actually lü! You could Do Something with that. Also, in contexts where people want to distinguish between u and ü when typing but don’t have easy access to a keyboard method of making the ü, the typical shorthand is the letter v.

Alright! So you have your surname and you know how you want it spelled using the Latin alphabet. Great! What next?

Alright, so, now we get to the hard part: choosing the given name. No, don’t cry, I know baby I know. We can do this. I believe in you.

Here are some premises we’re going to be operating on, and I’m not entirely sure why I made this a numbered list:

Chinese people, generally, love their kids. (Obviously, like in every culture, there are some awful exceptions, and I’ll give one specific example of this later on.)

As part of loving their kids, they want to give them a Good name.

So what makes a name a Good name??? Well, in Chinese culture, the cultural values (which have changed over time) have tended to prioritize things like: education; clan and family; health and beauty; religious devotions of various religions (Buddhism, Taoism, folk religions, Christianity, other); philosophical beliefs (Buddhism, Confucianism, etc) (see also education); refinement and culture (see also education); moral rectitude; and of course many other things as the individual personally finds important. You’ll notice that education is a big one. If you can’t decide on where to start, something related to education, intelligence, wisdom, knowledge, etc, is a bet that can’t go wrong.

Unlike in English speaking cultures (and I’m going to limit myself to English because we’re writing English and good God look at how long this post is already), there is no canon of “names” in Chinese like there has traditionally been in English. No John, Mary, Susan, Jacob, Maxine, William, and other words that are names and only names and which, historically at least, almost everyone was named. Instead, in Chinese culture, you can basically choose any character you want. You can choose one character, or two characters. (More than two characters? No one can live at that speed. Seriously, do not give your character a given name with more than two characters. If you need this tutorial, you don’t know enough to try it.) Congratulations, it is now a name!!

But what this means is that Chinese names aggressively Mean Something in a way that most English names don’t. You know nature names like Rose and Pearl, and Puritan names like Wrestling, Makepeace, Prudence, Silence, Zeal, and Unity? I mean, yeah, you can technically look up that the name Mary comes from a etymological root meaning bitter, but Mary doesn’t mean bitter in the way that Silence means, well, silence. Chinese names are much much more like the latter, because even though there are some characters that are more common as names than as words, the meaning of the name is still far more upfront than English names.

So the meaning of the name is generally a much more direct expression of those Good Values mentioned before. But it gets more complicated!

Being too direct has, across many eras of Chinese history, been considered crude; the very opposite of the education you’re valuing in the first place. Therefore, rather than the Puritan slap you in the face approach where you just name your kid VIRTUE!, Chinese have typically favoured instead more indirect, related words about these virtues and values, or poetic allusions to same. What might seem like a very blunt, concrete name, such as Guan Yu’s “yu” (which means feather), is actually a poetic, referential name to all the things that feathers evoke: flight, freedom, intellectual broadmindness, protection...

So when you’re choosing a name, you start from the value you want to express, then see where looking up related words in a dictionary gets you until you find something that sounds “like a name”; you can also try researching Chinese art symbolism to get more concrete names. Then, here’s my favourite trick, try combining your fake name with several of the most common surnames: 王，李，陈. And Google that shit. If you find Actual Human Beings with that name: congratulations, at least if you did f/uck up, somebody else out there f/ucked up first and stuck a Human Being with it, so you’re still doing better than they are. High five!

You’re going to stick with the same romanization system (or lack thereof) as you’ve used for the surname. In the interests of time, I’m going to focus on pinyin only.

First let’s take a look at some real and actual Chinese names and talk about what they mean, why they might have been chosen, and also some fictional OC names that I’ve come up with that riff off of these actual Chinese names. And then we’ll go over some resources and also some pitfalls. Hopefully you can learn by example! Fun!!!

Let’s start with two great historical strategists: Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, and the names I picked for some (fictional) sons of theirs. Then I will be talking about Sun Shangxiang and Guan Yinping, two historical-legendary women of the same era, and what I named their fictional daughters. And finally I’ll be talking about historical Chinese pirate Gan Ning and what I named his fictional wife and fictional daughter. Uh, this could be considered spoilers for my novel Clouds and Rain and associated one-shots in that universe, so you probably want to go and read that work... and its prequels... and leave lots of comments and kudos first and then come back. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

(I’m just kidding you don’t need to know a thing about my work to find this useful.)

ZHUGE Liang is written 諸葛亮 in traditional Chinese characters and 诸葛亮 in simplified Chinese characters. It is a two-character surname. Two character surnames used to be more common than they are now. When I read Chinese history, I notice that two character surname clans seem to have a bad habit of flying real high and then getting the Icarus treatment if Icarus when his wings melted also got beheaded and had the Nine Familial Exterminations performed on his clan. Yikes. Sooner or later that'll cost ya.

But anyway. Zhuge means “lots of kudzu”, which if you have been to the American south you know is that only way that kudzu comes. Liang means “light, shining” in the sense of daylight, moonlight, etc; and from this literal meaning also such figurative meanings as reveal or clear. (I’m going to talk about words have a primary and secondary meaning in this way because I think it’s important for understanding. It’s just like how in English, ‘run’ has many meanings, but almost of all them are derived from a primary meaning of ‘to move fast via one’s human legs’, if I can be weird for a moment. “Run” as in “home run” comes from that, “run” as in “run in your stocking” comes from that, “run” as in “that’ll run you at least $200″ comes from that. You have to get it straight which is the primary meaning, which is the one that people think of first and they way they get to the secondary meaning.)

“Light” has a similar “enlightenment” concept in Chinese as in English, so the person who chose Zhuge Liang’s name—most likely his father or grandfather—clearly valued learning.

I named my fictional son for Zhuge Liang Zhuge Jing 京. The value or direction I was coming from is that Zhuge Liang has come to the decision that he has to nurture the next generation for the benefit of the land, that he has to remain in the world in a way that he very much did not want to do when he himself was a young man. In this alternate universe, Liu Bei has formed a new Han dynasty and recaptured Luoyang, so when Zhuge Liang’s son is then born he chooses this name Jing which means literally “capital”. This concrete name is meant as an allusion to a devotion to public service and to remaining “central”. After I chose this name, I discovered that Zhuge Liang actually has a recorded grandson named Zhuge Jing with this same character.

above, me, realizing I picked a good name

ZHOU Yu is written 周瑜 in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters.

The surname Zhou was and remains a very common Chinese surname whose original meaning was like... a really nice field. Like just the greatest f/ucking field you’ve ever seen. “Dang, that is a sweet field” said an ancient Chinese farmer, “I’m gonna make a new Chinese character to record just how great it is.” And then it came to mean things along the line of complete and thorough.

Yu means the excellence of a gemstone--its brilliance, lustre, etc, as opposed to its flaws. It is not a common word but does appear in some expressions such as 瑕不掩瑜 "a flaw does not conceal the rest of the gemstone's beauty; a defect does not mean the whole thing is bad".

Zhou Yu has gone down in history for being not only smart but also artistic and handsome. A real triple threat. And this name speaks to a family that valued art and beauty. It really does suit him.

Zhou Yu had two recorded sons but in my alternate history I gave him four. I borrowed the first one’s name from history: Xun 循, follow. Based on this name, I chose other names that I thought gave a similar sense of his values: Shou 守, guard; Wen 聞, listen. The youngest one I had born when he already knew he was dying, and things had not been going well generally; therefore I had him give him the name Shen 慎, which means “careful, cautious”.

SUN Shangxiang 孫尚香 is one of several names that history and legend give for a sister of w//arlord-king Sun Quan who was married to a rival w//arlord named Liu Bei in a marriage which, historically, uh, didn’t... didn’t go all that well. In my alternate history it goes well! You can’t stop me, I’ve already done it!

The surname Sun means “grandson” and the given name components are Shang mean “values, esteems” and Xiang “scent” which we can combine into meaning something like “precious perfume”. A lot of the recorded names for women in this era (a huge number didn’t have any names recorded, a problem in itself) seem to me to be more concrete, to contain more objects, to be more focused on affection, less focused on hopes and dreams. This makes sense for the era: you love your daughters (I HOPE) but then they get married and leave you. You don’t have long term plans for them because their long term belongs to another clan.

I gave her daughter by Liu Bei the name Liu Yitao 劉義桃. Yi 義 meaning righteousness, rectitude and 桃 meaning... peach. Okay, okay, I know "righteous peach" sounds damn funny in English, but the legendary oath in the peach garden, the "oath of brotherhood" is called in Chinese 結義 "tying righteousness" and the peach garden is, uh, a peach garden. I also give her the cutesy nickname Taotao 桃桃 which you could compare to “Peaches” or “Peachy”. Reduplication of a character in a two-character name is a classic nickname strategy in Chinese.

GUAN Yinping 關銀屏/关银屏 is a “made up” (scare quotes because old legends have their own kind of validity, fight me) name for a historical daughter of Guan Yu. Guan means “to close (a door)”. Yin means “silver” and ping means “a screen, to hide” and according to the legend, her father’s oath brother Zhang Fei named her after a silver treasure. So here again we see a name for a woman that completely lacks the kind of aspirations we see in male names. Who would have an aspiration for a daughter?

My fictional characters, that’s who. I named her daughter Lu Ruofeng 陸若鳳/陆若凤, Ruo (like the) Feng (phoenix), based on a quote from a Confucian text about what one should try to be during both times of chaos and times of good government. I portray her father as a devoted Confucian scholar, so that was another factor for why I looked to Confucian texts for a source of a name.

Modern parents also now have big dreams for their daughters :’) and so modern girls receive names that are far more similar to how boys are named.

GAN Ning 甘寧/甘宁 is a great example of a person whose name does not suit him. Gan 甘 depicts a tongue and means “sweet”, and Ning 寧 which shows a bowl and table and heart beneath a roof means “peaceful”. Which, it would be hard to come up with a name for this guy, a ruthless pirate turned extremely effective general:

that is less suitable than essentially being named “Sweet Peace”.

And when he was an adult, his style name—a name that Chinese men used to be given when they turned 20 (ie became adults) by East Asian reckoning—indeed reflects that. Choosing your own style name was widely considered to be crass. I absolutely think that Gan Ning chose his own style name; he was that kind of a guy. And the name he chose! Xingba 興霸/兴霸! I’ve never seen another style name like it. It means, basically, “thriving dominator”! Brand new official adult Gan Ning treats his style name like he’s picking his Xbox gamer tag and he picks BadassBoss69_420, that’s what this style name is like to me. Except, you know, he had almost certainly killed many hundreds of people by the time he was nineteen, so, uh, it wouldn’t be a wise idea to make fun of his name to his face.

In my fictional version of his life, he married a woman whose father was the exception to the “parents love their children” rule and who named his daughter Pandi 盼第 “expecting a younger brother”, which is a classic “daughters ain’t shit, I want a son” name. Real and actual Chinese women have been given this shitty name and ones like it.

Because Gan Ning had an ironically placid name, I also gave his daughter the placid single character name Wan 婉, which means “gentle, restrained”, as a foil to her wild personality.

So there are a bunch of examples of some historical characters and some OCs and how I chose their names. “But wait, all that was really cool, but how can I do that? You can read Chinese, I can’t!”

I originally had a bunch of links here to dictionaries and resources but Tumblr :) wouldn’t let the post show up in tag search with all the links :) :) :) so you need to check the reblogs of this post to see my own reblog; that reblog has all the links. I’M SORRY ABOUT THIS. Here are a list of the sites without the links if you want to Google them yourself.

MDBG - an open source dictionary - start here

Wiktionary - don’t knock it til you try it

iCIBA (they recently changed their user interface and it’s much less English-speaker friendly now but it’s still a great dictionary)

Pleco (an iOS app, maybe also Android???) contains same open source dictionary as MDBG and also its own proprietary dictionary

Chinese Etymology at hanziyuan dot net

You search some English keywords from the value you want, and then you see what kind of characters you get. You should take the character and then reverse search, making sure that it doesn’t have negative words/meanings, and similar. Look into the etymology and see if it has any thematic elements that appeal to what you’re doing with the character--eg a fire radical for a character with fire powers.

And then, like I mention before, when you have got a couple characters and you think “I think this could be a good name”, you go to Google, you take a very common surname, you append your chosen name—don’t forget to use quotation marks—and you see what happens. Did you get some results? Even better, did you get lots of results? Then you’re probably safe! No results does not necessarily mean your name won’t work, but you should probably run it by an Actual Chinese Native Speaker at that point to check. Also, remember, as I said at the beginning, sometimes people have weird names. If you consciously decide “you know what, I think this character’s parents would choose a weird name”, then own that.

THINGS YOU SHOULD PROBABLY IGNORE!

Starting in relatively recent history (not really a big thing until Song dynasty) and continuing, moreso outside of mainland China, to the modern day, there is something called a generation name component to a name. This means that of a name’s two characters, one of the characters is shared with every other paternal line relative of that person’s generation; historically, usually only boys get a generation name and girls don’t. (Chinese history, banging on pots and pans: DAUGHTERS AIN’T SHIT AND DON’T FORGET IT!) “Generation” here means everyone who is equidistant descendant from some past ancestor, not necessarily that they are exactly the same age. For example, all of ancestor’s X’s sons share the character 一 in their names, his grandsons all have the character 二，great-grandsons 三, great-great-grandsons 四 (I just used numbers because I’m lazy). By the time you get to great-great-grandson, you might have some that are forty years old and some that are babies (because of how old their fathers were when they were conceived), but they are still the same generation.

In some clans, this tradition goes so far as to have something called a name poem, where the generations cycle, character by character, through a poem that was specifically written for this purpose and which is generally about how their clan is super rad.

If you want to riff off of this idea and have siblings or paternal cousins share a character in their names, ok, but it genuinely isn’t necessary. Anyone with a single character name obviously doesn’t have one of these generation names, and by no means does every person with a two character name (especially female) have a generation name. If you’re doing an OC for an ancient Chinese setting (certainly anything before the year about 500), you shouldn’t use these generation names because it wasn’t a thing. Also, in a modern setting, even if such a generation name or name poem exists, it’s not like there is any legal requirement to use it (though there may be family pressure to do so).

As a further complication, some parents do the shared character thing among their children without it actually being a generation name per se because it isn’t shared by any cousins. Or, they have all their children (or all their children of the same gender) share a radical, which is a meaning component in a Chinese character.

If someone does have one of these shared character names, then their nickname will never come from that shared character; either they will be called by the full name or by some name riffing off of the character that is not shared. For example, I knew a pair of sisters called Yuru and Yufei with the same first character; the first sister went by her English name in daily life (even when speaking Chinese) while the second sister was called Feifei.

tl;dr If you don’t already know Chinese, consider generation names an extra complication for masochists only. Definitely not required for modern characters.

Fortune telling is another thing that I think you should either ignore or wildly make up. Do you know what ordinary Chinese people who want to choose a lucky name for their child do? They hire someone to work it out. This is not some DIY shit even if you are deeply immured in the culture. There are considerations of the number of strokes, the radicals, the birth date, the birth hour. You’re the god of your fictional universe, so go ahead and unilaterally declare that your desired names are lucky or unlucky as suits the story if you want to.

MILK NAMES

In modern times, babies get named right away, if for no other reason that the government requires it everywhere in the world for record keeping purposes.

However, in traditional times, Chinese people did not give babies a permanent name right away, instead waiting until a certain period of time had passed (3 months/100 days is a classic).

What do you call the baby in the meantime? A milk name 乳名, which your (close, older than you) family may or may not keep on using for you until such time as you die, just so that you remember that you used to be a funny looking little raisin that peed on people.

This kind of name is almost always very humble, sometimes to the point of being outright insulting. This is because to use any name on your baby that implies you might actually like the little thing is tempting Bad News. Possible exception: sometimes a baby would receive a milk name that dedicated it to some deity. In this case, I guess you’re hoping that deity will be flattered enough to take on the job of shooing away all the other spirits and things that might be otherwise attracted to this Delicious Fresh Baby.

Because milk names were only used by one’s (older) family and very close family friends of one’s parents/grandparents, most people’s milk names are not recorded or known, with some notable exceptions. Liu Shan, the son of Liu Bei, who as a baby was rescued by Zhao Yun during the Shu forces retreat from Changban. Perhaps because his big debut in history/legend was as a baby, he is well-known for his milk name A-Dou 阿斗, which means, essentially, Dipper.

If you’re writing a story, you really only need to worry about a milk name for your character if it’s a historical (or pseudohistorical) setting, and even then only if the character either makes an appearance as a small infant or you consciously decide to have them interact with characters who knew them well as a small child and choose to continue using the milk name. Not all parents, etc who could use the milk name with a youth or an adult actually did so.

Here are some milk names I’ve come up with in my fiction: Little Mouse/Xiaoshu 小鼠 for a girl, Tadpole/Kedou 蝌蚪 for a boy, and Shouty/A-Yao 阿吆 for a boy. In the first two cases the babies were both smol and quiet (as babies go). The last one neither small nor quiet, ahahaha. 蔷蔷 Qiangqiang, which is a pretty enough name meaning “wild rose” (duplication to make it lighter), except the baby is a boy, so this is the typical idea that making a boy feminine makes him worth less, which, yikes, but also, historically accurate. Also Xiaohei 小黑 “Blackie” for a work that I will probably never publish because I don’t ever see myself finishing it. I might recycle it to use on another story.

Here are some more milk names I came up with off the cuff for a friend that wanted an insulting milk name. They ended up not using any of these, so feel free to use, no credit necessary. Rongzi 冗子 “Unwanted Child”; Xiaochou 小丑 “Little Ugly”; A-Xu 阿虛 “Empty”; Pangzhu 胖豬 “Fat Pig”; Shasha 傻傻 “Dummy”.

PITFALLS!

Chinese has a lot of homophones. Like, so many, you cannot even believe. That means the potential for puns, double meanings, etc, is off the charts. And this can be bad, real real bad, when it comes to names. It is way too easy to pick a name and think to yourself “wow, this name is great” and then realize later that the name sounds exactly the same as “cat shit” or something even worse.

Some Chinese families live the name choosing life on hard mode because their surname is itself a homonym that can make almost any name sound bad. I’m speaking of course of the poor Wus and Bus of the world. You see Wu may have innocuous and pleasant surnames associated with it, but it also means “without, un-”. (Bu is similar, sounds like “no, not”.) Suddenly, any pleasant name you give your kid, your kid is NOT that thing.

This means picking a name that is pleasant in itself yet also somehow also pleasant when combined with Wu. So you might pick a character with a sound like Ting, Xian, Hui, or Liang - unstopping, unlimited, no regrets, immeasurable. A positive negative name, a kind of paradox. Like I said, this is naming on hard mode.

If you are naming an ancient character, I am going to say in my opinion you should ignore all considerations of sound, because reconstruction of ancient Chinese pronunciations is on some other, other level of pedantic and you just don’t need to do that to yourself.

For modern characters, however, an attractive name, in general, should be a mix of tones and a mix of sounds. As a non-Chinese speaker, basically this means especially if you go for a two character given name, having all three characters start with the same sound, or end with the same sound, can sound kind of tongue twistery and thus silly/stupid. That doesn’t mean that such names never exist, and can in some cases even sound good (or at least memorable), but how likely is it that you’ve found the exception? Not very. (Two out of three having repetition isn’t bad. It’s three out of three you have to be careful of. Something like Wang Fang or Zhou Pengpeng is probably fine; it’s something over the top like Guan Guangguo or Li Lili you want to avoid.)

Just like the West (sigh), in the modern Sinosphere it is widely acceptable for girls to have masculine names but totally unacceptable for boys to have feminine names. If you see the radical 女 which means woman, don’t choose that character for a boy, at least if you’re trying to be realistic. Now Chinese ideas of masculinity doesn’t have the same boundaries as Western ideas, but if you want to play around in those boundaries, you gotta do that research on your own; you’ve left what I can teach you in this already entirely too long tutorial.

Don’t name a character after someone else in story, or after a famous person. In some/many Western cultures, and actually in some Eastern cultures too (Japan is basically fine with this, for example), naming a baby the same name as someone else (a relative, a saint, a famous person, etc), is a respected and popular way to honour that person.

But not in Chinese culture, not now, not a thousand years ago, not two thousand years ago. (Disclaimer: I bet there is some weird rare exception that, eventually, somebody will “gotcha” me with. I am prepared to be amazed and delighted when this occurs.)

Part of this is because of a fundamentally different idea in Chinese culture vs many other cultures about what is valuing vs disrespecting with regard to personal names. The highest respect paid in Chinese history to a category of personal names is to the emperor, and what would happen there is that it would be under name taboo, a very serious and onerous custom where you not only have to not say the emperor’s name, but you can’t say anything that sounds the same as the emperor’s name.

Did I mention that this is in the language of CRAZY GO NUTS numbers of homonyms? The day-to-day troubles caused by observing name taboo were so potentially intense that there are even instances where, before ascending to the imperial throne, the emperor-to-be would change his name to something that was easier to observe taboo about!

So you see this is an attitude that says: if you want to honour and show respect to somebody, you don’t speak their name.

As the highest person in the land, only the emperor gets this extreme level of avoidance, but it trickles down all through society. You can’t use the personal names of people superior to you. Naming a baby after someone inherently throws the hierarchy out of whack. Now you have a young baby with the same name as a grown adult, or even a dead person, who is due honour from their rank in life. People who would not be permitted to use the inspiration’s name may now use that name because they are superior to the baby who received the name! This would mean that hierarchy was not being preserved, and oh my heaven, is there anything worse than hierarchy not being preserved? All of Chinese History: Noooooo!

Now. As an author—and I hope to God no one is using my Chinese name guide as a resource to name an actual human baby because I can’t take that kind of pressure—you can use the names of characters to inspire the names of other characters, in the following way.

Remember that I said that the key, the starting point, to naming someone in Chinese is to start from a value. Okay. So what you do, if as the author you want to draw a thematic connection between two fictional characters, is take the Inspiration character’s name, think about what the value is that caused that name to be chosen, and then go from that value to choose the New Character’s name.

If you’ll recall what I said about Gan Ning and his baby Wan, this is exactly the approach I took. Gan Ning had a placid single character name that belied his violent and outrageous personality; I chose a placid single character name for his similarly wild daughter to make them thematically similar. As an author, I named his baby after him. But within the context of the story, she was not named after him. Does the distinction make sense?

Values also run in families for obvious reasons. It’s very common to look at a family tree and see lots of names that follow a kind of theme and give you a sense that, eg, this family is rather low class and uneducated; this family is very erudite but a bit too fussy about it; this family is really big on Confucianism. So yes, as an author, looking to other characters for inspiration is not a bad idea.

Remember, a lot of times, as an author, you can and even should kick realism to the curb sometimes. If you want to make some Ominous Foreshadowing that Character A’s name is something to do with fire but! They name their child something to do with water and therefore they are destined to clash with their own offspring, gasp, you can do that kind of thing because you are the god of your universe. Relish your power.

Do you have any more questions? Feel free to send a PM or an ask. I hope this was helpful! Go forth and name your Chinese OCs with slightly more confidence!

Edit 22 April 2019: I added some more sections (fortune telling, Milk Names, and taboo on naming after people). I also need to overhaul the entirety of the previous to emphasize that even thought I thoughtlessly used “Chinese” as if it was synonymous with “Han”, there are non-Han Chinese and they can have very different naming customs. Mea culpa.

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raeynbowboi · 4 years

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How to Play as Yugi Muto in DnD 5e

A long time ago, I made a build for the Dark Magician (I’ll leave a link [here].) At the time, I’d considered trying to make a build for Yugi, but since Yugi lacks any real powers of his own, there wasn’t really enough to go off of. But with new UA spells that prioritize summoning and new UA subclasses, the time has finally come to give Yugi his proper build. For this build, we are considering Yugi and the Pharaoh to be one character. We will also be treating this build as though Yugi has the Dark Magician as his Deck Master, a special feature used in some side content and video games where the Deck Master actually assists their duelist. So Yugi’s spell list will merge two primary conditions: summoning creatures to fight on his behalf, and spell effects of cards in Yugi’s deck, including one-off cards and less famous cards he’s used to fill out his Wizard Spellbook.

Yugi is an anime character. In the past, my general rule for anime characters is to make them Variant Humans. This is primarily because Anime Characters are stronger than normal humans and often have magical powers that make them not quite human. I’ll be using the Variant Human option, however Kalashtar also works due to Yugi’s split minds and resistance to psychic mind games. Halflings aren’t my favorite race to play, but Yugi is abnormally short, and the Pharaoh is uncannily lucky, so it can definitely work for their build. As a Variant Human, we’ll pick up the Lucky feat and give ourselves +1 INT and +1 DEX.

The Pharaoh is willing to kill Kaiba to win a children’s card game. Yugi is not. They average out to Neutral Good.

The Pharaoh was the King of Egypt. Obvious Noble Background is obvious.

Heart of the Cards

WIZARD Order of Scribes. This ended up being a perfect storm. Firstly, the new UA batch of summoning spells primarily landed under the Wizard umbrella. So, this gives Yugi a nice variety of summoning options. But it gets even better once you look at your subclass abilities. The Wizardly quill is about the only thing that doesn’t really fit for Yugi, but everything else will. Awakened Spellbook grants the pages Yugi summons from a level of sentience. In Yugioh the cards house duel monster spirits, and Yugi’s grandfather taught him to value the Heart of the Cards, the very idea that Yugi’s deck is a sentient thing. This subclass technically talks about a bound book, but Yugi’s still channeling his magic and spells through his cards, so I’d consider Yugi’s deck a reflavor of his spellbook, thus he’s able to use it as his spellcasting focus. Yugi’s able to alter the damage type of a spell he casts. You could flavor this as classic season 1 Yugioh where nobody played by the rules, or as Yugi pulling a card out of his deck that he’ll never use in any other duel, which tended to be a common deus ex machina for him. Master Scrivener can allow Yugi to copy a card onto a scroll and pull it out of his butt whenever he wants. a fun cheeky way to mock his plot armor. It also casts at 1 level higher, meaning Yugi is one again breaking the rules because he’s the King of Games. Manifest Mind is where the Deck Master concept becomes more clear, as you can create a tiny spectral form of the Dark Magician fighting beside you, and really lets you fully embrace the partnership between Yugi and the Dark Magician in combat. Since this feature does specify using a tiny specral creature, Kuriboh is another good Deck Master monster for Yugi. Finally, One with the Word allows Yugi to swap places with the Dark Magician to avoid one or both of them from being killed. Yugi can also destroy some of the cards in his collection to bring him back to life if Dark Magician is on the field and his spellbook has the resources. This also motivates Yugi to want to collect as many cards/spells as he can, even if he doesn’t prepare them all or use them in his deck. If you really want to play up the roleplay aspect of this build and commit to the gimmick of playing as Yami, you could write spells on sheets of paper and treat them like an actual deck of cards. It’s really just for roleplaying purposes, and could make the game needlessly challenging, but it could also be a fun challenge to hope you draw the spell you need right when you need it. This could be as vague as just having a card that says “3rd level spell”, or as specific as having say as many copies of a specific spell as you have spell slots to cast it. As it’s just flavoring and roleplaying mostly, come up with your own fun ways to incorporate the deck aspect into a mechanic for gameplay and tell me your ideas. I’ll bet there’s many fun ways to make this character work in an inetersting way.

King of Games

SUMMONING

Find Familiar Flock of Familiars Spirit Shroud Summon Fey Spirit Summon Lesser Demons Summon Shadow Spirit Summon Undead Spirit Conjure Minor Elemental Summon Aberrant Spirit Summon Elemental Spirit Summon Greater Demon Conjure Elemental Infernal Calling Summon Fiendish Spirit

SPELLS & TRAPS

Brain Control // Dominate Person, Dominate Monster, Enemies Abound Change of Heart // Charm Person, Charm Monster Lightforce Sword // Banishment, Plane Shift Magic Jammer // Antimagic Field Burning Land // Blight, Abi’s Horrid Wilting Magical Hats // Blur, Mirror Image Raigeki // Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning Trap Hole // Circle of Death Magic Cylinder // Counterspell De-Spell // Dispel Magic Heavy Storm // Whirlwind Spellbinding Circle // Hold Person, Hold Monster Swords of Revealing Light // Imprisonment Thousand Knives // Power Word Kill Mirror Force // Prismatic Wall, Wall of Force, Wall of Light The Eye of Truth // True Seeing Yami // Darkness Makiu, the Magical Mist // Fog Cloud, Cloudkill, Stinking Cloud Cursebreaker // Remove Curse Dust Tornado // Dust Devil Premature Burial // Animate Dead, Create Undead Ragnarok // Melf’s Minute Meteors General Magic // Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield Setting a Trap Card // Glyph of Warding Anime Protagonist Plot Armor // Wish

As a Wizard, our most important stat is going to be Intelligence for casting. Our Manifest Mind feature gives our Dark Magician our AC, so we’ll want a high Dexterity modifier to improve our Armor Class. Yugi is pretty hard to fool, so that’ll give us a good Wisdom score. Yugi is pretty good at destiny speeches and turning enemies into allies. We’ll give him a pretty decent Charisma score so he can persuade people to adopt his philosophies, or send people running into the shadow realm with his Intimidation. Our build prioritizes amassing strong minions between us and enemies, so we can neglect our Constitution a bit. That leaves our Strength stat to be ignored. Lifting all those small thin pieces of paper doesn’t exactly get Yugi ripped.

Name: Yugi Muto Race: Variant Human Background: Noble Alignment: Neutral Good Class: Order of Scribes Wizard (20)

Base Stats:

Strength: 8 (-1) Dexterity: 20 (+5) Constitution: 12 (+1) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 14 (+2) Charisma: 10 (0)

Saving Throws:

Strength: -1 Dexterity: +5 Constitution: +1 Intelligence: +11 Wisdom: +8 Charisma: 0

Combat Stats:

HP: 102 AC: 18* Speed: 30 Initiative: +5 Proficiency Bonus: +6 Passive Perception: 14 Dark Vision: 0 feet

Proficiencies:

Acrobatics (+5) Animal Handling (+2) Arcana (+11) Athletics (-1) Deception (0) History (+11) Insight (+8) Intimidation (+6) Investigation (+5) Medicine (+2) Nature (+5) Perception (+2) Performance (0) Persuasion (+6) Religion (+5) Sleight of Hand (+5) Stealth (+5) Survival (+2)

Spell Slots

1st (4) 2nd (3) 3rd (3) 4th (3) 5th (3) 6th (2) 7th (1) 8th (1) 9th (1)

Yugi’s Deck

Cantrips Firebolt Frostbite Lightning Lure Message Mind Sliver

1st Level Charm Person Find Familiar Fog Cloud Mage Armor Magic Missile Shield

2nd Level Blur Darkness Dust Devil Flock of Familiars Hold Person Mirror Image

3rd Level Animate Dead Counterspell Dispel Magic Enemies Abound Glyph of Warding Lightning Bolt Spirit Shroud Summon Fey Spirit Summon Lesser Demons Summon Shadow Spirit Summon Undead Spirit

4th Level Banishment Blight Conjure Minor Elementals Summon Aberrant Spirit Summon Elemental Spirit Summon Greater Demon

5th Level Conjure Elemental Dominate Person Hold Monster Infernal Calling True Seeing Wall of Light

6th Level Chain Lightning Circle of Death Create Undead Summon Fiendish Spirit

7th Level Plane Shift

8th Level Antimagic Field Dominate Monster

9th Level Imprisonment Wish

Features:

Arcane Rociety. covery. Regain 10 or less level 5 or lower spell slots on a short rest.

Awakened Spellbook. You can alter spell damage type and cast a ritual spell instantly once per long rest.

Lucky. 3 lucky points, add a d20 to rolls before you know the outcome.

Manifest Mind. Your spellbook projects a tiny spectral construct. Its HP is your INT + your Wizard Level and it uses your AC and saving throw die. It has darkvision at a range of 60 feet, sheds dim light at a range of 10 feet, and can pass through solid objects.

Master Scrivener. Copy a 1st or 2nd level spell from your spellbook onto a scroll. Use the scroll any time, and the spell is cast as being one level higher.

One With the Word. When you would die while Manifest Mind is active, purge spells from your spellbook whose level adds to 3d6. They can only be restored with a Wish, and are otherwise lost to you.

Position of Privilege. You belong in high society. People bend over backwards to accommodate you, and you can get an audience with other nobility.

Signature Spells. cast Summon Fey Spirit and Summon Undead Spirit once without using a spell slot.

Spell Mastery. Cast Mage Armor and Hold Person without spell slots.

Wizardly Quill. Less time and money copying spells into your spellbook.

A major downside to this build is that all of his summoning spells require a gold cost, but if you’re fortunate, your DM will be generous enough with the gold to support the costs of this build. Technically, this build really could work for any duelist, and there’s plenty of other yugioh cards that could translate to DnD spells, but we were focused on Yugi’s canon spell and trap cards. We’re also extremely reliant on summoning, so if Yugi can’t summon, he’s going to have a bad time, and the build won’t be so useful.

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faelune-home · 3 years

Text

FFXIV Write 2021 #21: Feckless

(a/n: Another quick rush to submit this, so there is definitely some clean up near the end of this I’ll have to do when I post this edited for ao3 XD

But I realised I hadn’t written a job specific piece yet all month, and I was reminded of some astro fluff I’d done last year, which I suppose is tentatively mentioned here? If you want to read that and more of my WoL’s job learning habits, it’s here; Shuffle

But yes, a mix of wanting to write job stuffs - Jannequinard being the feckless one here, the inspo for this piece - and maybe have a Scion meet a job trainer, in this case Alphi. Which def makes me want to add another section to this given the trainers in question...but that’s for later edits, I already rushed this greatly aha.

Also, after sticking to using Fhara to refer to my WoL, and sticking to such situations where people would only know her as that, I finally got to try using “Fufu” as an adventuring alias with a crowd that would only know her as that. Finally representing the idea I’ve long had now. XD

Set after 3.2 and all that happened then. This is kind of taking my WoL’s penchant for taking on extra jobs more for the experience than to dedicate entirely to it, but then mixing that with her desire to do more to help her companions when she feels rather hopeless and lost.

Word count: 2006)

The air in Ishgard was tense following the failed peace conference in Falcon’s Nest, with uneasy whispers filling the cobbled streets and nervous glances to the skies. Alphinaud could scarcely blame the people for their wariness, having heard Nidhogg’s warning for himself. So set on revenge, he had even renounced his own kin, set on having the blood of Ishgardian and dragon alike to stain the land. And Estinien would be the one to administer the attack, against whatever will he would still possess.

The sight of his friend in such a state, the prone body of Vedofnir beneath him, skewered on his lance, had chilled Alphinaud at the time, and even still to recall it. Alongside the image of Aymeric, primed with a bow, ready to shoot his own comrade without hesitation...were it not for Nidhogg’s timely departure, that would be another companion sacrificed in the name of war.

In amongst his tormented memories of that calamitous day, he recalled Fhara’s conflicted expression. In amongst the rising roars and jeers of a hungry crowd, they were in their own bubble where not a word was said, only the share looks of pained terror at the turn of events, yet even her own fear seemed so much more. It was only later, overhearing the Fortemps family discussing the conference that he had learned more of what had happened that day, and Fhara’s own struggles with the conference, to put it lightly.

Afterwards, Fhara started going for more frequent lessons at the Athenaeum Astrologicum. So eager was she in her studies that she was often away from the manor or out of the city for days at a time. Alphinaud knew she was only keeping busy, and that he had no reason to fear for her safety, but eventually, after a few brief greetings in passing at the manor, he found himself desiring her company proper.

For all the bustle the Athenaeum Astrologicum had been put under in the recent weeks, it was surprisingly peaceful the day he arrived to visit, a welcome reprieve from Ishgard’s otherwise heavy atmosphere. Only a few students milled around within the building, hard at work studying star maps or tomes. The receptionist stood to attention at Alphinaud’s entrance, pushing aside a tome that had clearly been giving him some stress, the frustrated creases giving way to a welcoming, if affected smile.

“Good day, my young ser,” the older elezen said with a bow, “What manner of business brings you to our humble hall? A prior meeting or a dire emergency?”

“Nothing of the sort, sir, I’m merely looking for a friend,” Alphinaud stated, looking around the small space, trying to catch a glimpse of a blonde tail or the familiar pigtailed head he knew, “I’m aware that she’s made use of your establishment for study purposes?”

“Study purposes? Ah, I see,” the receptionist brightened up, after an initial look of curiosity had crossed his face, “You must mean the ever charming Miss Fufu. She does indeed study here under our own Lord Rufin, but she is out at the moment on an errand. Although I’m quite certain she’ll return soon, if you don’t mind waiting.”

“I wouldn’t wish to take up space, I’d be more than happy to return later-” Alphinaud started, already making for the door, when the other man quickly said, “Come now, there’s scarcely anyone here for you to trouble! And with how much work needs getting done here and how eager the young miss is about assisting us, you’d be better waiting here to catch her lest she runs off again.”

“I...I suppose knowing her, she does have an unfortunate tendency to take on more work for herself than is necessary,” the boy mumbled, ignoring the mild pang of guilt at how often he had given her that work in the past, even if she hadn’t ever questioned it or limited herself. He’d already promised her that he wouldn’t continue to blame himself for past mistakes.

“Then stay a while, all the better to wait with company, right?” Yet before Alphinaud could agree, if only to cease the chattering man and resign himself to a corner to wait, the sound of footsteps from the back stairwell seemed to make the receptionist’s grin fall to a worn grimace.

“If I were to ask now, how much is her work that of her own, and how much of it is meant to be yours? Even if you wish to say she took it on willingly, need I remind you that you’re still behind in your own studies in comparison? And I would be very surprised if you say you’re taking the time now to read up on your necessary materials while you’ve chosen to stay behind here.” The voice of the barrage of questions appeared, a hyuran woman with cropped purple hair and wearing a long white robe not unlike that of the city clergy, and with a firm disappointed frown aimed directly at the other man.

“How kind of you to join us Lord Rufin,” the receptionist coughed, attempting to give a placating smile, “Although I was under the impression that you had other business elsewhere.”

“And I returned while you were away from your post,” she replied, expression unwavering, “I did assume you were off assisting with whatever the Observatorium needed, and I would understand given the current troubles in the city, but if it turns out it was another pointless meeting with a young lady-”

“Not at all! My uncle has me far too busy for such arrangements, I assure you,” he scoffed, “Have some faith in me. And some faith in Miss Fufu, she offered to deliver my missives so that I would have a chance at further study.” The woman, Lord Rufin, narrowed her eyes, but didn’t press him further, only nudging his cast aside tome back in front of him, and then turning to Alphinaud.

“So, you’re a friend of Fufu’s? She has spoken somewhat of her companions, but most of our time together has been advancing her studies in astromancy,” she said, casting a quick glance across the boy, as though taking stock of him. He would’ve felt uncertain of the gesture if it weren’t for the friendlier tone she addressed him with.

“Aye, she has said that she found the time to learn such arts. Although I’m rather surprised that it appears to be the Sharlayan variant of healing magicks. I would’ve thought Ishgard opposed such methods,” Alphinaud nodded, noting the star globe hung from Rufin’s back. He did recall the first time Fhara had showcased her small talents, so long before her foray into the Aery, before many of the disasters that had followed them. Minor though they were, she did have an aptitude for some healing spells.

“They were, at first,” Rufin smiled, “But with enough work and convincing, plus admittedly the Holy See’s...diminished say in matters around here, some few folk have been willing to take on the arts. It helps that even outside of any fate reading skills, astromancy is a boon to have on the battlefield, something many of the soldiers have been keen to have for aid.”

With a glance over her shoulder at the begrudgingly studious elezen at the desk, she added, more quietly for Alphinaud only, “And I suppose I have to admit that, for all he’s rather feckless when it comes to his studies vs Miss Fufu’s enthusiasm, Jannequinard was a great help in getting interest to take off amongst the other student here, and getting us the chance to showcase our skill in the first place.”

“I see,” Alphinaud nodded in response, noting the name and recognising it as a notable - for many reasons - Durendaire lord, however his curiosity was taken on another note, as he asked, “But why come all the way here to teach? Even if Ishgard eventually allowed it, knowing the Forum…”

“Yes, we had some letters and disagreements sent our way,” Rufin huffed, waving a hand in dismissal, “But in the end, they didn’t try to stop us, so I’m not going to worry about it.” Alphinaud suspected otherwise, noting how quickly she brushed aside the topic, plus his own experience overhearing his father at work, but chose better than to pursue it. It wasn’t any of his business.

At that time, the doors burst open, and Fhara appeared, panting heavily as she swept into the room, the skirts of her long gown flourishing behind her as the last of the chill wind caught it.

“I’m back! Sorry I took so long, I got rather turned around in the Crozier delivering some of the messag-” Her eyes widened in surprise as she caught sight of her friend. “Oh, Alphinaud! I wasn’t expecti- I mean, is everything alright? Did something happen?”

“Calm yourself first,” Rufin chided gently, “You’re clearly quite flustered.”

“Please, nothing is wrong,” Alphinaud nodded, taking a seat from the table and guiding his friend to sit, “I was merely here waiting for you.” Some few seconds passed as Fhara breathed, trying to recollect herself. A tome snapped shut, and Jannequinard stepped out from the desk. “Lord Rufin, perhaps we should give these two a moment, given that the young lad came all this way to meet with his companion. And if you would be so kind, I could do with some help understanding a page or two here.” Rufin raised an eyebrow, but nodded, casting another glance at the pair before leaving with her coworker.

When the sound of footsteps ascending up the wooden stairs faded, Fhara turned to her friend and asked, “So, are you alright?”

The boy was briefly taken aback. “I’m perfectly alright. It is you I would ask that of.”

“Me?” She blinked.

“Well, it has been some time since we’ve properly seen each other these past few days. I know that you look for things to pass the time and keep you busy, of course, but I’ve been rather worried that you were almost too busy. And it seems so given how you seem rushed off your feet here.”

“It’s nothing like that!” Fhara gaped, although a guilty flick of the ear was already betraying her, “I’m just here learning from Rufin. Everything I’m doing is part of that, or doing some idle favours to show my appreciation.”

“Or lightening another’s workload to busy your own mind?” Fhara flinched at the accusation.

“But why? You’ve never been one for the healing arts other than as an idle study, more so for emergencies. I don’t wish to sound as though it’s odd to see you so invigorated for a subject, but why throw yourself into it now?” Fhara didn’t answer, her head turned down and gaze focused on the floor.

“...Is it because of the peace conference?” No reply.

“The Vault?” Her tail flicked.

“...Ysyale?”

“Yes,” she finally replied, a quiet mumble half buried into her chest, “Ysayle, and Minfilia, and Haurchefant, and everyone else. Estinien and Vedofnir, and Honoroit and Emmanelain, and that woman that tried to insight an outburst at the conference, and everyone else.” She finally looked up, wearing a guilty smile with tears already seeping from her eyes.

“I just want to help. But I don’t know what to do.” An ache pounded in his chest to see her weep. Even for someone so emotionally open, she was normally of the cheery type. To see her cry and bemoan how she couldn’t help everyone...

“You know you aren’t alone in this. I am here to help you- all the Scions are.”

“I know-”

“Don’t throw yourself into this if it's not something you really truly want. If it’s only for the sake of others. You would only bring yourself harm if you force it upon yourself.” Fhara sniffed, brushing aside the tears.

In that moment, he swore he wouldn’t leave her to shoulder it alone. He had already asked so much of her. He could spare his own strength to support her as well.

#ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2021 #my writing #alphinaud leveilleur #Jannequinard de Durendaire #leveva byrde #my wol #keeper of the moon miqo'te #fhara laali #heavensward #ffxiv #Final Fantasy XIV

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windstormwielding · 3 years

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How did you come up with Kotaro's zanpakuto? (i really love the bird theme of his attacks!) did you go through a lot of changes when coming up with names, abilities, and the general concept?

{ ooc } bUCKLE UP KIDDOS ‘CAUSE IT’S TIME FOR SOME LONG OVERDUE GODDAMNED KŌTA META-

Kōta’s zanpakutō was essentially conceived out of my own love for great big storms and heavy winds – and yes, I have a story to go with that! On one occasion many years ago, I hopped on a bus to visit a friend in town, but I was ill-prepared in that it was about to rain heavily and I had jack shit but a jacket. No raincoat and not even an umbrella. I thought I would make it there on time, buuuuut evidently, I did not. It already started raining and thundering hard by the time I walked out of the bus and had to walk a few blocks by myself.

And honestly, Plouton, looking back? I would not have changed a single little detail that day. Those several minutes I spent outside at the mercy of a live thunderstorm left such a huge impression on me! The incessant rain keeping me tethered to the ground, the sheer volume of deafening thunder cracking so hard and so loudly that the air around me quaked... pair that with times I’ve enjoyed feeling myself at the mercy of heavy winds, or even the smell of the outside after rain falls...

...pretty much all of that served as the biggest source of inspiration behind the wind and storm-oriented zanpakutō, and I wanted Kōta to embody that himself.

Besides, aside from Senna herself in Memories of Nobody, the Gotei 13 lacked a dedicated air-manipulating shinigami barring Kensei’s unique take on the topic with Tachikaze, and we’ve only seen antagonists use this power (Dordoni of the Arrancar within the main story, Kariya if you want to go filler with the Bounts... whom I’ve honestly forgotten about prior to creating Kōta WHOOPS) in the traditional sense. Not to mention, air as an element is SUPER malleable and there’s so much you can do with it if you get creative?? So, given we’ve got some real powerful element-leaning shinigami already with water (lbr Kaien would’ve been a beast had he not been nixed), fire (Yama), snow (Tosh), and electricity (Sasakibe), why not keep adding to the idea?

With that, we’ve got the main concept locked down. Powers and general theme? Check. Bird-like zanpakutō spirit? Check. Defined attacks? ...noooooot quite there yet—in fact, those were a fairly late addition well after the blog reboot. As for what led to it, this never took off since the other mun blipped on an indefinite hiatus, but our thread would have likely turned into a fight thread between our muses and uh...

...yeah, I realized named techniques are kind of an important thing to have, especially when writing within the context of an action-oriented series like Bleach. It wasn’t just about the cool factor, but having a readily available kit for reference (for myself, my writing partners, and folks reading in) was a must, not to mention it helped better define just what his main friggin’ weapon is capable of like those of most of the existing cast. In case a fight thread does come around in the future, it’d be an ideal thing to have ready to go and bring him further up to par with other fighters!

Just like that, I subjected myself to extra homework. Coming up with the moves themselves came to me simply enough, in seeing how air was played with in other media I was familiar with (key ones being Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, and Avatar: The Last Airbender) and fashioning some of my own spins on top of some original ideas. I knew I wanted to lean hard on the bird motif since his zan spirit is a tengu, and given the wide variety of things the element of air/wind can do, I thought to make full connections between the two by theming each special move after certain species of bird! Creating those moves and naming them were the easy parts.

Naming them, that is, in English. Naming them all in Japanese was, by far, the hardest part. Why? Parce que je ne suis pas japonais, et aussi parce que je ne parle pas la langue, you see. On top of language barriers, the Japanese tongue operates on a whole other set of rules, compared to the Latin/Germanic-based ones I’ve grown used to with English, French, and (at one point) German. I did take some Japanese classes as an elective back in university, but that was only in first year – my own understanding, as a result, was threadbare and surface level at best, so that was not going to get me anywhere. I did not want to half-ass it with romaji and I love Bleach too much to not want to do these ideas justice.

I am a stickler when it comes to detail and canon-compliance, so getting the naming right by abiding to the proper conventions as best as I possibly could became my topmost priority. Google Translate was not going to fly because lord knows it’s no good without proper context between wholly different languages in English and Japanese, and it only gets wilder once you throw Chinese into the mix, given I’m supposed to use kanji. Thus, the name of the game here turned out to be “reverse engineering,” and I had to go in accepting I probably wasn’t going to get it 100% right the first time.

“What rules do zanpakutō names and special attack names follow?” “How do I apply on- or kun-reading in spelling out a group of certain kanji?” “Where are the common denominators in those rules that I can identify?” “Which language conventions have I already picked up from watching god knows how much anime over the years that I can replicate?” “Which set of words best conveys this particular English word that has no direct Japanese translation?” “How does [x] roll off the tongue? Does it sound right and fluid enough, or does it still feel super stilted and weird?” It was a loooooooot of this until I was finally satisfied with each individual end result!

Tl;dr: Jisho.org and Wikipedia were godsends during this whole process. I also want to thank @tigrextoque who gave me some helpful pointers after the fact!

ALSO... the ones on the Battle Info page aren’t even all of the ones I’ve thought about. Because I’m a glutton for punishment apparently, I purposely went and submitted a request for a certain ask meme on an ask meme source blog, JUST so I could play around with more ideas that came or would come to mind. This time, however, it was through the form of COMBINATION ATTACKS (which, by virtue alone, are honestly peak awesomeness). Those that implicated other shinigami got new bird motifs to meld the aesthetics of both muses, while I did get a couple of Quincy ones (with their referenced attacks actually using romaji as a base! Whoo-hoo for saving me the effort!) as a bonus to mix things up!

I’ll link them all right here (and later on the Battle Info page) for your convenience:

Noboru no mai, Shiro Fukurō (騰の舞・白梟, Rising Dance, Snowy Owl), with Rukia Kuchiki

Ahōdori Kyōka: Flying Battery (群烏強化: フライングバッテリー, Albatross Strengthening: Flying Battery) with Bambietta Basterbine

Muragarasu Kyōka: Galvano Volley (群烏強化: ガルヴァノボレー, Flock of Crows Strengthening: Galvano Volley), plus upgraded variant Muragarasu Kyōka: Galvano Storm (群烏強化: ガルヴァノストーム, Flock of Crows Strengthening: Galvano Storm), with Candice Catnipp

Hagetaka Rinbu (禿鷹輪舞, Vulture Round Dance) with Rangiku Matsumoto

Senkō-fū: Kitsutsuki (穿孔風: 啄木鳥, Drilling Wind: Woodpecker) with Nemu Kurotsuchi

Gyaku-fū Fūsa: Benizuru (逆風封鎖: 紅鶴, Headwind Blockade: Flamingo) with Byakuya Kuchiki

Hikuidori Hinshō (火食鳥頻傷, Cassowary Frequent Cuts) with Ueno Chie

Yes, “Flying Battery” was a deliberately written Sonic the Hedgehog reference. No, I will never apologize for that.

...might I reblog that meme again in the future though...?

...probably not right away.

So, uh... Plou, I should probably apologize for giving you a lot more than you likely bargained for, but hey, I just didn’t want to leave any stone unturned! Thank you so much for sending me your three questions, I enjoyed writing these little deep dives into my Bleach OC, and thanks for taking interest in Kōta! I hope all of my responses have been both enlightening and to your satisfaction.

#deivorous #{ i’m falling free in the wind ☁ headcanon ☁ }#{ cut for length }#{ whispers in the wind ☁ replies ☁ }#{ beyond the sky ☁ ooc ☁ }#{ ooc: we hope to return to our regular programming tomorrow-! }#{ i just could not focus much until i answered all of these hahahaha- }

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just-your-local-cryptid · 4 years

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DnD Headcanons - Damian Wayne

Build

Background: I think criminal makes the most sense for Damian, due to him being raised to be an assassin by Thalia al ghoul and the league of shadows which is criminal organisation (cult really), however acolyte could also work due to the devotion given to the league and the bat clan

Race: human variant with either the linguist or animal handler feat. linguist because Damian canonically Arabic and I can imagine though his training he learnt many languages. Animal handler as Damian loves animals more then most people… batcow … ace … Goliath …Titus… Alfred the cat to name a few

Class: now if I didn't pick this class and subclass I would be stupid, Damian would totally be an assassin rogue, he’s just this super serious 5’2” ball of pre teen rage who wields theses Katanas and has been trained in the arts of assassination since birth.

Other: technically he could also be a hollow one with Jason as he has canonically died before

Headcanons

Damian is the second most dnd adapt out of the family after Jason.

When maps asked him to join the detective club for games night at Gotham academy he didn’t want too look like a fool so he asked Jason to tell him everything.

Damian is a very much go hard or go home intense person when it comes to interests so as soon as he latches onto something he likes to know everything he can and takes it a tad too seriously.

By time it comes around to game night he has a massive folder spell cards dice everything.

He would totally be a dice goblin i’m sorry, he would collect them make them buy them for people just an insane dice bag like Laura Bailey but like serious and strategic.

Damian would defiantly main ranger or druid because he gets to be badass and have pets that kick ass.

I think when he first plays he would still be very uptight about all of it ( an absolute rules layer at first partially because he spent so long memorising all of it) so his first character might be a lawful good human paladin who is totally not an idolised version of his dad, as well as a completely min maxed tank who is a purely combat character but as he gets comfortable he makes these intricate characters with 10 page backstory whilst also being edgy and goofy.

Defiantly plays the weirder/ rare races but also would make at least one character a lycanthrope or vampire cause he thought it would be fun

Also very good at staying in character

If he where to dm I think he would run the coolest dark/edgy/ urban campaigns that don’t feel like there trying too hard, like I can see him running the curse of strahd and ghosts of saltmarsh

His first time DMing he would think it was dm v players and try and kill everyone

When it comes to home/ family days he is just 90% exasperated sighs and face-plants.

Jason is weirdly proud of him and is happy they found a common interest to bond over, also wouldn’t hesitate to help him with homebrew and writing campaigns

If he wrote a campaign he would take heavy influences from classic grime fairytales and folk stories, so it would just end up full gothic fantasy with lots of deeper meaning.

this is the second in this series of headcanons, my writing may not be perfect as i have dyslexia. any more suggestions for characters or headcanons feel free to add them in the comments or my ask box.

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unseeliefaelass · 3 years

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Darksiders: Origins

Chapter 1: How Things Start

Ale had begun things as always that day. Doing her work as Elder of her clan around their village. By midday however, the woods around her sang within her mind. Informing her of a coming visitor, who upon hearing the name of him Ale was quite apprehensive. Nevertheless she went on to greet the man who would be making his arrival. He stuck out against the natural beauty around him, clanking softly with his gait. He was already tall to begin with, his mechanical enhancements made him taller still. One rabbit ear was chopped in half, and barely twitched as the other remained intact. The intact ear twitched far better, but still held a sort of semiring around it. A small crystal on the ring's end was centered at his ear canal, which Ale recognized as his way of communicating long distance when away from his own clan. The rest of his body held a thin balance of his organic body and the mechanical 'enhancements' to it. The most well known of those, being his red eyes. They had originally been a different color, but Ale couldn't recall it anymore. They were red as currants, whilst any time his 'pupils' dilated or constricted they appeared like the apeture of a camera. Which very few races in creation had truly mastered by this time in history.

In this way and more, Llildan was a true reflection of his clan and ideals. He believed in achieving progress to become the best of one's self was the best path in life. His expansion however, was coming at the cost of his sanity. He even had a dial on the right side of his head that would switch off some of his emotions. Which he only did when in battle to make it easier on his psyche supposedly. So for now it was switched on, and he could feel some semblance of emotion. At least that's how it always seemed to Ale. Llildan could tell that much as he gazed upon his daughter. Her white kinked hair was worn down as she preferred it. Reminding him of her Mother in the moment. Her clothing was also made from natural material, from Limt fur gained from Limts Ale would shear during summer months. Ale also differed from her Father in ideals. Being a pacifist in nature, Ale always believed in trying to find peaceful resolutions first. That violence shouldn't be a first choice, and thus always the last resort. But most of all she didn't believe in her Father's choice to attach a dial to his brain and head that could turn off his emotions. As Ale always believed very deeply that emotions were something to let out when needed and not to keep bottled up or caged in. These conflicting ideologies often caused the two to come to arguments at times, and there certainly was a tension in this moment.

One could feel it easily between both scrutinizing gazes, though both just as quickly softened after a moment.

"Ceiser.", Ale greeted him.

Llildan nodded simply, "Atari."

Cocking her head Ale inquired, "I'm assuming this isn't a social call? Due to our past encounters and such."

"I'm afraid you're right..", Llildan sighed before continuing, "I've been commissioned by a being that I'm....less than thrilled to work with. But what she offers is...useful to me. More so than you may think."

Ale's head cocked the other way, "And that is what exactly?"

"Access to Arkaddian technology. They're among the most advanced in such things, if not THE most advanced. Their work could benefit the clan, our research, my advancements, and more."

"What is the price then? Who is it that you choose to work with despite not being keen without such bribery?" Ale chided.

"Lilith, the Mother of Monsters herself."

Ale froze a moment at Llildan's serious tone, and quietly gasped at the name he told her, "Ceiser....are you sure..that this is wise? Why would you..even consider it? What if she's just using you? She's known for such things."

Llildan raised his hand dismissively, "Yes I know, you needn't remind me girl. I am fully aware she may go back on her bargain, but I found a possible way to ensure she can't. Regardless I will work with her as commissioned to, and thus you will not be dealing with her much. If at all."

Ale's eyes widened, "You've told her I'd help you with whatever she wants?"

"No. What I told her, was that it was possible, yet unlikely given how strained things are between us. I'll not force your hand in this, due to the risks involved. I will say this however, she wants quick, efficient results. Through your magic, and the healing biopods the forest grants you with, we could make things go much more smoothly. The sooner it finishes, the sooner she's out of our hair after all. Am I not correct?"

Sighing Ale responded after some thought, "Very well Ceiser. Just know I do this NOT for that twisted Demonness, but because despite all our troubles you are still my Father. Losing Mother was hard enough, helping you now may prevent the same happening to you next."

Llildan nods before letting her return home for a time. So that she may sort out her affairs and leave someone in charge in her stead. But leaving herself open to being asked for anything her clan may need. Llildan handled things with his clan similarly, so he wouldn't judge or criticize this choice. Instead he waited patiently on his daughter. Once she was finally ready, the two used a teleportation spell to return to Llildan's clan territory in the Fae Realm's version of what would become Russia for humanity so many eons later. At this time however, Llildan led Ale further on to his home. Which was now a mix of the natural mountains and metals of various kinds humming with tech. Ale could even compare it to High Elven architecture in places. Even she could admit it was a beautiful if delicate balance of the two, though she wasn't in the mood to do so aloud. Instead she continued on after her Father in silence. That is until 'she' greeted the two.

A sultry, tempting voice rose up from the silence, "Welcome back Grand Elder Llildan."

Ale watched as the Demonness stepped forward. Lilith could only be described as the very concept of Lust given form, then twisted together with doses of the femme fatale and survivor archetypes respectively. Her mere presence alone would intimidate and turn on the Drow Elves' queen in Ale's eyes. Her voice and choice of words held a tender yet terrifying mix of authority and eroticism. Her body language captivated and enticed all who viewed her with deadly efficiency. Ale was suddenly caught off guard by Lilith being right in front of her.

Jolted from her thoughts with one sentence alone, "Oh my, she really is a spitting image of her Mother isn't she? Seems shorter than her though."

"You are inaccurate in that. Her Mother while taller was...closer to Ale's height than you may think. I just make....made it easy to miss with my own height." Llildan replied, forcing back the pain that rose up from mentioning his wife. As well as stepping between Ale and Lilith. Like her, Llildan wasn't keen on losing another family member.

"Oh? Ohohoho....well my mistake then." Lilith said as her hand, which had cupped Ale's chin a bit, slid away. Ale couldn't quite explain it, but the lingering feeling of longing washed over her as Lilith released her. Though it quickly passed as she witnessed the Demonness approach her Father next, "And it seems you are right...about your height hiding your wife and daughter's I mean."

Llildan grabbed the wrist of the hand attempting to touch him. His own hand forming a vice grip that he tenced in silence as he stared her down. The clearest of warnings he'd be giving the Demonness. Lilith chuckled before apologizing, giving Llildan reason enough to release her wrist. From there he told her, "If you're quite finished with...THAT..we have work to do yes?"

Lilith sighed in mild annoyance, "Well you're no fun. No matter though, I've plenty of toys waiting for me at home. In regards to our business, we need a private room. One that only the four of us can and should enter."

"Four of us?", Ale questioned with yet another slight head cock.

Lilith turned around a bit more annoyed before suddenly calming in realization, "Oh yes, that's right. You've not met him yet, the fruit of my recent labors. Which I intend to duplicate with your help. Absalom!"

Ale glanced towards a door that then opened, revealing a truly large man. As tall as Llildan was with enhancements added on, but far larger than him in terms of sheer mass. His body may as well have been pure muscle, though he clearly some fat to him as well. Just enough to still be fit, but it was in fact there. He lumbered towards Llildan and Ale slowly, and with authority to rival Lilith's own. A gruff, commanding voice came from his lips, "So, this small rabbit is the 'extra help' you mentioned?"

"She is needed my child, and therefore I expect you to show some kind of respect. Am I clear?" Lilith ordered him.

"Transparently, Mother. I shall hold my tongue, for now."

Llildan then ushered everyone to another room in silence, this time a more annoyed variant of it. Lilith went around it in seemingly pure bliss, clearly enjoying the space. Though she did briefly grimace at the structure in the middle, "Though this could've been...thinner I guess?"

"It is what the pods shall be connected to. Your...'children' will be grown in them, and this structure is necessary to that goal. I assure you of that much Lilith.", Llildan told her in his annoyance, however minor it was.

Lilith glanced his way with little care, "Oh is that so? Well then pardon me. I'll be more..considerate of your knowledge about the technology you possess. Just know you may find the Arkaddian technology I have to be more...convenient. In more ways than one at that."

With all said and done, Llildan pushed a button that revealed sliding doors in the floor that opened up. Each one leading to a patch of dirt as big as each door, and being deep enough to accommodate for the roots of each pod. Upon receiving a nod from her Father, Ale began planting the seeds of each pod into the patches. Llildan then started up his machine as Ale used her magic to get each pod to grow quickly. Once they were the size of the average person Ale stopped, but Lilith insisted she continue longer. Looking to her Father briefly, she received another nod and thus continued. Only when Lilith asked for her to stop did she do so. These were the longest, and biggest pods Ale had ever grown. Ale could barely make out Lilith's reasoning behind needing their exaggerated size. Luckily Llildan explained it once he had her laying down. In short, Lilith intended for each 'child' to grow into adulthood. However, she wanted them as 'unimpeded' as possible. Having stressed that vehemently to Llildan earlier on in their correspondence up to this point. Ale was to be the pods' caretaker, as she did grow the pods. Thus by proxy, she was to care for the 'children'. A sort of midwife type job as Lilith apparently put it. Ale agreed to the task, but reminded Llildan of her reason for aiding him with Lilith's machinations at all. He understood of course, and finally let her rest before continuing his own part of the task. Maintaining the machinical components of this whole thing.

#Darksiders: Origins #Darksiders OCs #Lilith #Absalom #Welcome To The New Story #Darksiders Fandom #Darksiders Fanfics

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mint-yooxgi · 5 years

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Obsession - Prologue

Yandere AU - Part of the EXO Obsession Series

Genre: Mature, Horror, Angst, Smut (In later chapters)

Pairing: EXO OT9 X Reader (with a particular focus on X-EXO)

Words: 3,002

Warnings: This is a Yandere story, it will contain themes such as stalking, violence, obsession, possessive natures, and just general overall creepiness and swearing. You have been warned.

A/n: On the sixth day of ficmas, Jackie gave to me~ So I know this technically isn’t what was originally scheduled to be posted, but life caught up with me and since I already had this finished, I figured you guys could enjoy this as the update instead! I do really hope you all like this one, as I have a lot planned for this series. Without further ado, feedback is always greatly appreciated, enjoy lovelies!

Walking into the base in the early evening, you’re greeted by a few of your coworkers. They either wave slightly or nod in your direction as you walk past, heading straight for the mission quarters near the back of the building for your next assignment.

You work for the company EXO, under the Supernatural Mutations department which is in-charge of taking care of variants found throughout the city, as well as nulling any types of threats that may occur which could harm the civilian population. This force includes humans, as well as certain supernatural beings. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.

Ever since about fifteen years ago, supernaturals have made their presences known to the human population, and after a war which lasted five years, both sides came to an agreement to live in peace and harmony, as they once were. However, there are still rogues out there whom love to cause havoc, and bring harm to the civilian population of both humans and supernaturals alike.

This is where your team comes in. Whenever there is a serious threat, your team is sent in to take care of it. Whether it be a murderous vampire, a feral werewolf, or even a rogue mutant, you’ve seen it all. However, your biggest challenge currently seems to be a witch whom is hellbent on bringing down your strike team.

She seems to hold a grudge against all ten members of your team for taking down her coven a few months back after learning of their schemes to assassinate the world council leaders at their yearly conference in Busan. Clearly, she has some unresolved issues of not being able to move on.

One thing that’s frustrating though, is that you have yet to take her down. No matter how hard you work to catch her, and end her evil plots, she always manages to escape at the last second.

One thing that you’ve always appreciated about your job is that it doesn’t discriminate. Since supernaturals are allowed to work on the team, they simply add to the prowess and skill of the whole. You’re grateful for many of your coworkers, for you don’t know where you’d be without them.

Before you can even raise your hand to knock on the mission’s office door, an alarm blares to life, red lights beginning to flash all around the base.

“That’s not good,” you mutter, more to yourself than anything.

You nearly stumble back as the door in front of you gets flung open and your team begins to run out. Seeing you standing there, Jongin stops in his tracks long enough to grip your wrist and begin dragging you along with them.

“What’s going on?” You question, being pulled into the weapons room as six of them begin to gear up while the other three grab their tool kits. You begin to suit up as well, able to see the seriousness of the situation already.

“Shelly is on the move again,” Minseok informs you as he begins to lead the way to the bunker where all the vehicles are stored.

“Apparently, she just set off a large scale explosion, trapping about a hundred civilians inside a warehouse,” Sehun adds, slinging his bow onto his back as he exits the weapons room.

“She sent out an announcement minutes ago saying that she’s going to cast a spell over the city within the next ten minutes which will ‘shed light on everyone once and for all,’ so we need to hurry,” Junmyeon adjust his earpiece as you all make it to the bunker.

“Give me more details on the way,” you say, hearing the engine of the hovercraft start up as the gate lowers for you all to enter inside. “Let’s get this bitch once and for all.”

“Right,” you hear them all say as you enter the hovercraft.

On the way over to the warehouse, you discuss your plan of action with your strike team, consisting of Jongin, Jongdae, Junmyeon, Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Sehun. Yixing, Minseok, and Kyungsoo will all remain in the hovercraft, scanning the area for potential threats, as well as making sure the civilians get out safely while no rogues escape.

Each member of your team has a certain specialty, each having a specific role to play. Yixing is the pilot, as well as the certified medic. Minseok and Kyungsoo are the tech specialists, while the rest of you are the infiltration and strike team, each with your own unique abilities.

Chanyeol is a fire sprite, meaning he has the ability to manipulate heat and flames. Jongin can teleport, and is usually very good at getting out of tricky situations unharmed. Jongdae is a thunder kitsune who can control lightning, but is also a master strategist. Sehun is an incredible marksman with a bow, while Baekhyun is a skilled swordsman who can handle any blade. Junmyeon, a vampire, is particularly skilled at hand to hand combat, while your specialty is guns. You’re also the leader of this band of misfits, of which you couldn’t ask for a better team.

You’ve taught them a lot of what they know as you were the one to train most of them when they first arrived to EXO. You’ve saved their lives countless times, and they’ve saved yours. You wouldn’t trade them for anything, and you know that they feel the same way.

“Alright, everyone, switch your earpieces to channel five,” you say, noticing how they immediately do as told. “We begin the drop down on my signal.”

Receiving nods from your team, Yixing flies in closer to the roof of the building, but not before making sure to activate the cloaking mechanism. Once you’re close enough, you lift your mask over the bottom half of your face, and nod.

The hatch opens, and you give your hand signals for the first team to drop, watching as Junmyeon, Jongin, and Baekhyun all drop down to the roof. The next team to follow is Jongdae and Chanyeol, followed shortly by you and Sehun.

Feeling your feet hit the roof, you begin to move over to your respective point of entrance with Sehun, seeing the others do the same. With a final nod from you, the seven of you enter through separate hatches on the roof, your plan being to converge in the centre, the spot in which the most power is emanating from.

Entering into the darkness of the warehouse, you’re quick to switch on the small light that’s attached to your gun. What little light from the hatch above you does nothing to make the hallway you’re in more visible.

Hearing Sehun drop down beside you, you give the all clear to start moving, hearing the others through your earpiece also beginning to make their way through the warehouse after maintaining a clear coast.

With Sehun at your side, you quickly clear the section of the warehouse you’ve assigned to yourselves, letting the others know through your communication pieces. A few minutes later reveals their sections all clear as well.

Your brow furrows slightly as you continue to make your way through the warehouse. So far, you haven’t ran into anyone, which is concerning, considering you were informed of the many hostages that have been taken. You thought you would have at least ran into someone, or at least another enemy working for Shelly.

Rounding the corner with your gun raised, you come cross the stairwell that will lead you down towards the main area where Shelly supposedly is supposedly hiding out.

With a quick nod to Sehun, you begin to descend the stairs.

Your brow furrows even further when you hear the faintest whisper of your name on the air, followed by a distinct laugh which can only belong to the witch in question. You’re getting a sneaking suspicion that this may be a trap.

“Viper, Null, have you come across any variants yet?” You hear Junmyeon’s voice through your earpiece.

“None,” you reply.

“What about you guys? Chen, Loey?” Sehun inquires as you reach the bottom of the stairs.

“Nothing yet, which is surprising,” Jongdae’s voice rings through, the others humming their agreement.

“You guys, I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” Yixing’s voice can be heard, followed by some static.

“Be careful, the radar is glitching, so I can’t get a read on the inside of the warehouse anymore,” Kyungsoo adds, and you can hear Minseok fumbling with something the background.

“Seems like most of our detection equipment is malfunctioning,” Minseok grumbles.

“What’s everyone’s position currently?” Your voice is heard as you round another corner, gun raised.

“Closing in on the meeting point,” Jongin tells you, and you hear a grunt of confirmation come from Chanyeol, signifying they’re also close.

You can faintly see streams of light beginning to come from down the hallway, and off to the right. You know the main area is just around the corner, so you switch off your flashlight, putting your hand up to halt Sehun in his tracks. Following your lead, he presses his back to the wall beside you, waiting for your signal.

“We’re ready, just give us the signal,” Jongin says lowly.

“Ready when you are, captain,” Jongdae adds, and you know that they’re all in position now, surrounding the room you’re peeking into.

You can faintly see the outline of a figure standing in the centre of the room, their back turned to you. They seem to be chanting something under their breath as a massive swirl of energy begins to grow in front of them, shifting the air in the room.

“What is that?” Baekhyun gasps.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like the feeling I’m getting from it,” Junmyeon replies, causing you to hum in agreement.

Your eyes cautiously scan the entirety of the room, not seeing anyone else in sight. You furrow your brow once more in confusion. You thought there were hostages in this situation, but it no longer seems you have to worry about any civilian casualties. Looks like it was just a plan to lure you out here to the warehouse.

“Looks like she hasn’t noticed us yet,” Sehun observes, watching how Shelly seems to be focusing all her attention on the growing mass of energy in front of her.

“Okay, Suho, Kai, Guan, approach from the centre,” you instruct. “Loey, Chen, left side. Null and I will take the right.”

Small sounds of approval are heard as you all begin to slowly approach Shelly from behind, weapons raised. As you get closer, you can hear her voice growing louder in her chanting, until she suddenly stops.

Immediately raising a hand with a closed fist, you halt all movements of your team, waiting to see what she does next. However, what you don’t expect is for her to start laughing maniacally.

“How nice of you to finally join me,” she turns to face the seven of you, and so badly do you want to wipe that grin right off of her face.

“Yeah, thanks for the invitation,” Chanyeol scoffs, flames appearing in both his hands as he holds them at his sides, squaring his shoulders as he prepares to lunge into an attack at your command.

“Well, I had to do something that would grab your attention, and not one of your measly little subordinates,” she chuckles, tossing some of her hair over her shoulder in the process.

“Just go ahead and make this easier for all of us,” Junmyeon says, locking gazes with her. “Surrender.”

“Oh, but then where’s the fun in that?” She hums, tilting her head slightly to the side in a mocking fashion.

“Saves you the humiliation of getting your ass kicked,” Sehun smirks, raising his bow more fully to take aim at her chest.

“That’s a nice thought, but I don’t think so,” she responds, eyes flicking towards where you’re standing. “I’m not the one who’s going to lose today.”

“You sound so sure of yourself,” you reply, resisting the urge to roll your eyes.

“Once I finish this spell, I know I’ll have nothing to fear,” she counters, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “You’ve taken everything from me. Everything. Now, it’s time for my revenge.”

With those words, she springs into action, moving her arms in a sweeping motion and sending the seven of you flying across the room. You hit the wall with a loud smack, the others getting scattered throughout.

In an instant, Shelly is in front of you, a deadly smirk on her features. Before you can raise your gun to take aim, she’s flinging it out of your hands, pinning your arms to the wall using magic as she lifts you by your throat with her one hand.

“Soon, you’ll know what it feels like to have nothing,” she snarls, tightening her grip around your throat, making you gasp slightly for air.

“Let her go,” Jongin snarls from behind her, and you barely manage to shake your head at the six of them who now stand in a semi-circle in front of you.

“One wrong move and I’ll crush her throat,” Shelly threatens, causing the men before you to hesitate slightly.

While her focus is on them, you manage to move your arm close enough to your side and slide out your switchblade from your pants’ pocket. Your arms may be pinned to the wall beside you, but you can still slide them for side to side. Some witch she’s supposed to be, can’t even pin you properly. Well, she was never the strongest, or smartest, of her coven.

In the instant it takes for you to lock eyes with him, Jongin teleports beside Shelly, sending a quick punch to her side. This causes her hold to loosen on you just enough to free your airway properly, but serves to distract her long enough to break her magical hold on you.

Moving swiftly, you lunge at her, burying your switchblade into her chest and causing her to stumble back a bit. She holds a hand up to her wound, blood slipping through her fingertips as she attempts to stop the bleeding.

Instead of panicking, seeing as she’s been injured and is now surrounded by the seven of you, she laughs. A grin pull at her features as her eyes become crazed.

“Now you’ve done it,” she jeers, as a rumble sounds off to the side.

The giant energy sphere begins to swirl faster, catching all of your attention. It begins to flash different colours, expanding and contracting as tendrils of energy swirl and flare around it. You hear Shelly chanting one final line, and your eyes widen. You need to stop her before the spell is completed.

Lunging at her, you’re quick to put her in a headlock. Junmyeon is the first to react, racing over and ripping her heart from her chest. Her body slumps in your hold, eyes now void of life.

However, this only seems to cause the massive ball of energy to become unstable, swirling faster as it begins to shake the entire building. You can hear the worried voices of Kyungsoo, Minseok, and Yixing in your ears asking what’s going on, but you’re all too distracted to answer, concerned with how you’re going to make it out alive.

Just as you open your mouth to speak, a bright light blinds you, causing you to bring your hands up to block the flash, dropping Shelly’s body to the floor in the process. You get thrown backwards once more, eyes closed as the sphere shoots out beams of energy, tearing through the building wherever it makes contact.

You can hear the six men with you grunting, hearing as they get hit with something, getting thrown backwards just like you shortly afterwards. You worry for their safety, but you can’t do anything at the moment.

It takes about two minutes for the light to die down, and some dust to settle around you. Blinking, you manage to clear your vision enough to take in the damage around you. Luckily, it isn’t as bad as you thought it to be, sounding much worse than it is.

Looking around, you spot the six men on the ground surrounding you. They groan slightly as they stand up, a few of them rubbing their heads as they get shakily back onto their feet.

“What in the hell was that?” Baekhyun groans, blinking a few times to clear his vision.

“I have no idea, but is everyone okay?” Junmyeon asks, eyes briefly scanning everyone for injuries.

“Was I the only one who got hit with something, or did you guys feel it, too?” Jongin voices, running a hand through his already ruffled hair.

“I think we all got hit,” Sehun mutters, dusting off his jacket before picking up his fallen bow.

“Not me,” you mumble, to which they hum in acknowledgement. You take this time to look over them carefully, making sure they’re all okay. You also allow your gaze to travel over the room one last time as you say these next words, “it looks like our radios are broken. We need to get out of here and contact-“

You cut yourself off as you inhale sharply, eyes widening slightly as you take in six new, yet familiar figures now standing on a ledge in front of you, looking down at your small group.

The others, noticing your stare, furrow their brows in confusion as they turn to look at what you’re currently so fixated on. Their eyes widen, and a few gasps escape their lips as they take in themselves standing on the ledge. Only, the six new figures seem to be wearing slightly different outfits. However, they all seem to have their gazes fixated solely on you.

“Aw, leaving us so soon, sweetheart?” One of them calls out, grins tugging at all their lips as a shiver runs down your spine. “The party’s only just begun.”

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years

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5e Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

I’ll take “Champions Everyone Hates” for $300, Larry!

Jokes aside Illaoi was a beyond obvious build with all the Unearthed Arcana subclasses being shown off. With Tasha’s Cauldron on the horizon and recent news that Illaoi is actually getting another skin it only makes sense to make a build for her.

But this is also an opportunity to make something interesting. In particular I see a lot of people online saying that the only viable melee Warlock is Hexblade, and while the Hexblade subclass certainly makes creating a melee Warlock easier it isn’t the only path you can choose. So to prove that you can play other Warlocks with a big ball to slam people with here’s a more melee focused Warlock build!

GOALS

Sheeyutu Nagakabouros - So Illaoi needs tentacles. What? Lurker in the Deep Warlock? I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Broken bones teach better lessons - Illaoi is a buff lady and I want her to crush my head between her thighs... What? Uhhh STRENGTH BUILD TIME!

Many gods ask for worship; they are weak gods - Probably the only hard part about this build is going to be ripping people’s souls out of their body... Good thing I’m honestly probably not going to do that and simply reflavor some stuff.

RACE

League of Legends has its gods and monsters, but the majority of the characters are human. Variant Humans get to start with a little bit more than the average human, but let’s get the normal things out of the way first: increase your Strength and Charisma by 1 to break bones more easily and to find more people who want you to break their bones. You also get a proficiency in a skill of your choice such as Athletics to lug a giant Kraken god head statue around all day, and a language of your choice like Deep Speech to speak to your god through your statue.

But most importantly you get a free Feat, and unfortunately this is a case of me being forced to stick feats into this build for the sake of aesthetic. Illaoi doesn’t wear armor in-game but I could make the argument that her massive arm pauldrons and general outfit could be seen as Medium armor. So even though you could get Heavy Armor “proficiency” thanks to the Eldritch Armor Invocation from the Class Feature Variants UA I’m instead going to suggest taking the Moderately Armored Feat for Medium Armor proficiency and +1 to your Strength score. Feel free to take something like Great Weapon Master instead if you’re okay with actually wearing Heavy Armor at the cost of an invocation.

ABILITY SCORES

15; STRENGTH - Eat your heart out The Last of Us 2 haters. (BTW screw everyone who’s been harassing Laura Bailey on Twitter. I know this is old news but still.)

14; DEXTERITY - Something something Medium Armor, even if Heavy Armor is an option.

13; CHARISMA - Ultimately this is a requirement for the class we’ll have to be playing, but I’m sure there’s a reason this tentacle-lover keeps showing up to ruin my soloqueue games.

12; CONSTITUTION - Illaoi is a tank in-game and while I’d love this to be higher unfortunately we need other things more.

10; WISDOM - Illaoi has knowledge of the old gods which I’d personally consider to be more Wisdom based than Intelligence.

8; INTELLIGENCE - Signing yourself off to be the priestess of some deep sea Cthulhu monster isn’t something you do when you have a high GPA.

BACKGROUND

Fun fact: you can be a priest and not be a Cleric! The Acolyte background lets you grant your service to a god, even if that god isn’t commonly accepted. You gain some Religion proficiency as well as general Insight, as well as two languages of your choice like Abyssal and Primordial to speak to all the ancient beings of Bilgewater.

Your feature Shelter of the Faithful will be a... little odd for your DM to implement. There are few temples to Nagakabouros, but if you can find followers of the Bearded Lady they will provide shelter for you and your allies, and also support you (and you alone) as their Priestess. But regardless you will still be able to find your people in your hometown, and will be able to perform sermons for your god. Even if those sermons involve cracking skulls.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - WARLOCK 1

Did you enjoy seeing the word “Fighter” a lot in my Garen build? Well you’d better be ready to see a whole lot of “Warlock” in this one. As a Warlock you get two proficiencies from the Warlock skill list so learn about the History of Nagakabouros and also take Intimidation proficiency because I’m pretty fucking intimidated when an Illaoi comes into my lane if you know what I’m saying.

But unlike most classes Warlocks get to choose their subclass at level 1 and low-and-behold we’ll be going with the Lurker in the Deep Unearthed Arcana Patron which will soon be appearing in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. One may ask why I didn’t wait for that book to come out to which I reply “I need to make content.” Regardless you get Scion of the Deep at level 1 to communicate telepathically with (almost) any creature that has an innate swimming speed that’s within 120 feet of you. The creature can understand you regardless of your shared languages and can respond telepathically. Look all I’m saying is that you’ve gotta be able to talk with Nami somehow.

But of course what you’re really here for is Grasp of the Deep. As a bonus action you create a tentacle at a point you can see within 60 feet of you. The tentacle lasts for 1 minute or until you make another tentacle. When you create the tentacle, you can make a melee spell attack against a creature within 10 feet of it. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 cold or lightning damage (your choice when it takes the damage) and its speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. You can also move the tentacle up to 30 feet as a bonus action on your turn and repeat the attack with said bonus action. You can summon the tentacle a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Yes I did just copy-paste the description of the ability because it’s a lot of words to say something very simple: make tentacle in 60 feet, slam people with bonus action, move it up to 30 feet per round.

But unlike in League you get more than just tentacles at level 1! You also have access to Pact Magic! You can learn two cantrips from the Warlock list: Lightning Lure lets you pull your opponent’s not-quite-soul closer towards you, and Eldritch Blast is an Eldritch Blast that lets you Eldritch Blast; I’m not going to pretend you don’t know what this cantrip is.

You also get two spells from the Warlock list and now it’s time to just take any spell that has the name “Hadar” in it. Arms of Hadar lets you strike everyone near you with tentacles; isn’t it fun to get your ultimate at level 1? For some sort-of Soul Stealing action I’m actually going to recommend Witch Bolt: after hitting an enemy with the spell you can keep hitting them from a distance and they can’t do anything about it! Truthfully though there are a lot of really great spells for this build at first level and I’m sad I can’t list them all, so if you don’t like my spell picks try out:

Hellish Rebuke (Thornmail)

Hex

Protection from Evil and Good

Thunderwave (Subclass-specific spell, otherwise known as “better Arms of Hadar that aren’t tentacles so they’re actually worse)

Yeah level 1 is always overloaded.

LEVEL 2 - WARLOCK 2

Second level Warlocks get access to Eldritch Invocations to improve their abilities, and you know what we still need? A proper ability to rip out people’s souls. Shame we won’t get that, but Grasp of Hadar will pull them closer and Lance of Lethargy will slow them for trying to escape their Test of Spirit. These invocations do stack (IE there’s no rule saying you can’t apply both at once) so you can theoretically pull someone 10 feet closer to you and make them 10 feet slower, resulting in 20 total feet of distance you’re gaining on them.

You can also learn another spell at this level and while there are plenty of good ones I’m going to suggest some Thornmail, or rather Armor of Agathys. The spell doesn’t require Concentration, gives you some bulk, and makes enemies think twice about hitting you. And it scales well too!

LEVEL 3 - WARLOCK 3

So how about we get something big to bonk our enemies with? Hello Pact of the Blade! In short you make a weapon in your hands to fight with, and I’d argue that a Maul is probably the closest to a big two-handed bludgeoning weapon.

I should mention that technically you need the Improved Pact Weapon invocation to be able to cast spells while you have a weapon in two hands, but you can get around this by using a component pouch instead of a focus. (And Illaoi seems the type to cast with squid organs.)

Oh and you can learn second level spells now! Spells like Earthbind to make sure your foes don’t take to the sky to escape the wrath of the ocean.

LEVEL 4 - WARLOCK 4

4th level Warlocks get an Ability Score Improvement so it’s time to invest in your main stat: Strength! What was that? Charisma? No no silly Warlocks use Strength obviously, so put +2 into that.

You also learn another spell at this level, and another cantrip! For your cantrip Mage Hand will let you summon a little tentacle for you to grab smaller things at a distance. As for leveled spells Ray of Enfeeblement will let you pack Exhaust for your foes, reducing their attack damage. It’s a bit of a dirty trick but Nagakabouros doesn’t fight fair.

(Artwork by ERDJIE on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 5 - WARLOCK 5

5th level Warlocks get another Invocation so guess what we’re taking? Yup: Eldritch Smite, pretty much a given whenever I make a Pact of the Blade build. This will let you slam your foes so hard that they fall over! I’m also going to suggest you replace Lance of Lethargy with Thirsting Blade, as by this point Grasp of Hadar is already pulling them close enough thanks to two Eldritch Blasts per turn.

You can also learn another spell at this level and remember when I said we’d take any spell with the name “Hadar” in the title? Hunger of Hadar lets you make an area pitch black and summon a bunch of tentacles in that area. Basically Hadar is this world’s Nagakabouros. "Bearded Lady, Nagakabouros, names don't matter! Action does."

LEVEL 6 - WARLOCK 6

At 6th level your tentacles finally have some lifesteal! And by lifesteal I mean defensive properties. Guardian Grasp lets you use your reaction to make a tentacle shield an ally from a hit, reduce the damage they would’ve taken from an attack by half. The tentacle can shield any ally within 10 feet of it, and it disappears after defending them. Note that this works for spells too, so if someone’s having their soul ripped out of them you can use your abilities to pull it right back in!

Additionally your servitude to the Bearded Lady grants you a Fathomless Soul for the ability to breathe underwater, a swimming speed, and resistance to Cold damage.

And finally you can learn another spell like the Unearthed Arcana spell Spirit Shroud. This spell will let you slow enemies that are near you and also do extra damage.

LEVEL 7 - WARLOCK 7

7th level Warlocks get another Invocation but there’s nothing that particularly interests me. May as well get Devil’s Sight in case you’re playing against a Nocturne.

You can also learn another spell at this level and hey look more tentacles! Evard’s Black Tentacles is a subclass-specific spell that makes tentacles that can hold people down!

LEVEL 8 - WARLOCK 8

8th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement: increase your Strength by 1 and your Constitution by 1, as those are your two main stats as a Warlock. Definitely.

You can also add another spell to your list, and while there are plenty of great choices I’d opt to rid yourself of the unworthy with Banishment.

(Artwork by Diazex on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 9 - WARLOCK 9

9th level Warlocks get access to another Eldritch Invocation, but again none of these are that particularly interesting so I suppose you could grab Otherworldly Leap for the Jump spell at will?

But you get access to another spell and if you need guidance from Nagakabouros then Commune with Nature will let you gather information to aid you to spread your faith.

Now (or ideally sometime before) would also probably be a good time to replace a lot of your old spells, so depending on your DM here’s some spells you should probably swap out, and what they should be swapped to:

Arms of Hadar (RIP tentacles) with Vampiric Touch (3rd level) for some lifesteal. (Enervation at the 5th level is also a decent alternative that works at range.)

Witch Bolt with Dimension Door (4th level) for a Teleport back to lane.

Earthbind with Synaptic Static (5th level) for a Leap of Faith against your foes. (By that I mean it’s my build and I like this spell.)

Ray of Enfeeblement with Cone of Cold (5th level) for another powerful AoE spell in a teamfight.

LEVEL 10 - WARLOCK 10

At 10th level Lurker in the Deep Warlocks can feed their god’s Devouring Maw. As an action you can create a 10 foot radius sphere centered on a point you can see within 60 feet. Each creature in that area must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be restrained. And then: teeth... this feels like Pyke’s thing. Regardless any creature that starts its turn in the area takes 3d6 cold / lightning damage (your choice.)

Restrained creature can try to get out on their action, and at the start of your turn if anyone is in the area you gain temporary hit points equal to your Warlock level. You can use this ability once per short or long rest, so essentially consider it like an extra spell that’s exclusive to you and your faith.

Speaking of extra spells you don’t get another spell known but your tentacles do more damage now: 2d8 to be exact. You also get another cantrip: Minor Illusion will let you summon more small ghost tentacles, except these ones don’t do anything except for fool the enemy into thinking they’ll have a fun laning phase.

LEVEL 11 - WARLOCK 11

11th level Warlocks get their 6th level Mystic Arcanum, which is a spell you can only use once per Long Rest. Basically it’s a regular spell slot, unlike your Warlock slots which come back on a short rest. Unfortunately there really aren’t a lot of Mystic Arcanum options, and the ones at level 6 aren’t spectacular. Circle of Death is probably the best even if the lore is a little iffy.

You can also add another Pact Magic spell to your list: many say that a Dream is a window into one’s soul, so messing with people’s dreams only makes sense for you to test their souls. Oh and you get a third spell slot for your Pact Magic! Yay!

LEVEL 12 - WARLOCK 12

12th level Warlocks get an Ability Score Improvement but I’m going to instead suggest the Resilient feat for Constitution, increasing your CON to a 14 and giving you proficiency in CON saves. Constitution is one of your main stats as a Warlock after all!

You also get another Eldritch Invocation and now it’s finally time for an invocation we will keep! Lifedrinker will let you add your Charisma modifier as damage to your weapon attacks. I know it’s such a weird thing for Warlocks to have since they rarely use Charisma, but it’s still useful!

(Artwork by sharrm on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 13 - WARLOCK 13

At level 13 you get your 7th level Mystic Arcanum. To test weak souls Power Word Pain will see how much they can take before they reach their limit. If a target is at 100 HP or less they are affected by crippling pain. Their speed can be no higher than 10 feet, they have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws (other than CON saves), and if the target tries to cast a spell, it must first succeed on a Constitution saving throw, or the casting fails and the spell is wasted.

A target suffering this pain can make a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. On a successful save, the pain ends. While this may seem weak this doesn’t require your concentration, and can set up for all your allies to break the nonbelievers.

You can also add another Pact Magic spell to your list like Elemental Bane. Here’s the trick: pick a damage type of your tentacles that your allies are also doing. This will make both them and your tentacles stronger!

LEVEL 14 - WARLOCK 14

14th level Lurker in the Deep Warlocks get their final ability, Unleash the Depths. As an action, you choose a point within 30 feet of you to summon a manifestation of Nagakabouros. You then have one of two options:

Transport. You and up to five willing creatures of your choice that you can see within 30 feet of the manifestation point are grasped by spectral tentacles and teleported to a point of your choice within 100 miles that you have visited within the past 24 hours.

Fury. You can direct a barrage of spectral tentacles to strike up to five creatures you can see within 30 feet of the manifestation point. Each target must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, the creature takes 6d10 cold or lightning damage (your choice) and is knocked prone. On a successful save, it takes half as much damage and is not knocked prone. The tentacles then vanish.

You can only do this once per Long Rest, so you can essentially consider it another Mystic Arcanum of sorts.

LEVEL 15 - WARLOCK 15

15th level Warlocks get their 8th level Mystic Arcanum and to truly test one’s faith try Feeblemind. You choose a target to damage and force them to make an Intelligence save: if they fail their Intelligence and Charisma become 1 and they become unable to do most things that require thinking. (Detailed in the spell.) This spell lasts for thirty days unless healed by a specific spell, afterwards they can try to repeat the save.

But more importantly you get some more Invocations and sweet Bearded Lady we can finally get some good ones! Grab Witch Sight to know the truth behind one’s soul.

And you get one more Pact Magic spell like Sickening Radiance to exhaust the spirit... because it causes Exhaustion... the D&D status not the LoL Summoner Spell.

LEVEL 16 - WARLOCK 16

16th level means an Ability Score Improvement so it’s finally time to stop beating around the bush: get more Charisma so Lifedrinker is better. There really isn’t much other use for it.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 17 - WARLOCK 17

At 17th level you get your 9th level Mystic Arcanum; the strongest spell you can cast! When a soul is too weak to fight it must die: Power Word Kill will instantly kill a target with 100 health or less.

In addition you learn more Pact Magic: by this point your foes should truly Fear you (and the fact that I’m not allowed to take any spell that creates undead.) Yes most enemies by this point can resist fears, but on the bright side you finally have four spell slots for your other spells! (Or Smites.)

LEVEL 18 - WARLOCK 18

18th level Warlocks get their final Eldritch Invocation: Visions of Distant Realms will let you use the vision of the Bearded Lady to see across all of Runeterra... or at least as far as Arcane Eye lets you.

LEVEL 19 - WARLOCK 19

19th level Warlocks get our final Ability Score Improvement and yeah: Charisma for Lifedrinker... among other things.

And you get your final Pact Magic spell: take Hold Monster as the final option to keep an enemy down as you beat them into shape.

LEVEL 20 - WARLOCK 20

20th level Warlocks are Eldritch Masters. You can spend 1 minute praying to regain all your expended Pact Magic slots. Once you regain spell slots with this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can do so again.

...I mean yeah you could just spend an hour to Short Rest, but being able to get 4 more 5th level spell slots in just a minute could be useful! ...Maybe...

FINAL BUILD

PROS

They need wisdom; they don't need teeth - Even though you only have two attacks as a “casting” class you do plenty of damage thanks to Lifedrinker and your tentacles. (Assuming you’re using a Maul) you’re doing 4d6 + 10 bludgeoning, an extra 8 necrotic, and an extra 2d8 of Lightning or Cold damage with your Bonus Action. If you take the averages of those numbers you’re going to be doing about 44 damage per turn! Not to mention Eldritch Smites to truly break their spirits!

Blessed is motion - Your AC shouldn’t be terrible with Medium Armor, but the real strength is in Guardian Grasp. Being able to reduce the damage of an attack by half is universally useful. Above-average HP (thanks to a good CON mod) definitely helps too.

I am a teacher; Bilgewater will learn - Despite your weak mental stats you have a good amount of utility with proficiency in a number of skills and spells to gather information like Arcane Eye, Commune With Nature, and Dream. Not to mention Witch Sight which will see through any illusions or shapeshifting. This means you’re a fighter who can see through invisibility!

CONS

If I hate something, I destroy it - Illaoi is a big lady, and while her physical abilities may be strong her mental capabilities are a little lacking. Your Wisdom saves are fine enough thanks to Proficiency but your Intelligence and Dexterity saves are rather subpar, and as mentioned earlier your Ability Checks aren’t going to be great thanks to your low mental.

My god is not love; it is a kick in the pants - All the memeing I did in this build aside the focus on Strength over Charisma was probably not the brightest, especially considering that the hit chance of your tentacles is based on your Charisma. See if you can get Point Buy for this build instead to max out Strength and Charisma: Medium Armor was taken more for cosmetic than anything, and Heavy Armor would probably be a better choice. And of course feel free to take Charisma ASIs early if you think you need them.

Something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens - Truthfully while 9th level spells an extra invocations are nice this build would’ve probably benefited a lot more from some Fighter or Paladin levels to get a Fighting Style and subclass features. I built this build Warlock-exclusive partially for flavor and partially to show that melee Warlocks are possible outside of Hexblade, but 5 levels into Fighter or Paladin would get you Extra Attack (so you wouldn’t need Thirsting Blade) along with other class features. And starting as Fighter or Paladin would let you take armor proficiency too, so you wouldn’t need a feat for it! (You could grab something like Great Weapon Master instead!)

But here you have it: a level 20 Warlock build, a melee Warlock that isn’t Hexblade, a devout character with no Cleric levels, a Tasha’s build before Tasha’s comes out, and a powerful melee fighter with good use of their Bonus Action and plenty of utility through spellcasting. As long as you live life to its fullest and grab every combat by the reigns then Nagakabouros shall be pleased. Test the nonbelievers and strike at the heart of corruption! For it is her way... to get camped all game by the jungler... and still get double kills.

(Artwork by epimeral on DeviantArt)

#dnd #dnd build #dnd guide #dnd warlock #it's literally just warlock #yup no fighter #League of Legends #League of Legends Illaoi #DnD 5e #Nagakabouros #tentacles #Tumblr ToS

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dnd-vigilante · 3 years

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Tawny Jack

Tawny Jack is dark skinned with messy, frizzy black hair that often stands on end and frequently contains twigs, leaves, or bird feathers. Tends to wear subdued colors like brown, black, or dark green. Responding to “Tawny”, “Jack”, or “Tawny Jack” others viewing Tawny Jack are not sure whether they are male or female and when asked directly they respond with something along the lines of “you can’t tell?” or “you must not have very good vision then,” but never gives a direct answer. Tawny Jack was born to parents who made a living as trappers and hunters for a village. As such, they spent most of their time in the wilderness, only coming into the village with their parents to trade for goods and any village gatherings that required everyone be in attendance, such as when an Envoy of the Forgotten passed through the area.

They showed an interest in how the natural world functioned from a very young age. They spent much of their free time trying discover why things worked the way they did.Exploring the deeper places of the jungle that most if not all of the villagers never entered. They once found an ancient silver coin with a stylized owl on one side and a blank silver face on the other. (Once a day you may flip the coin, heads you roll a natural 20, tails it does nothing. This can be used on ability checks or an attack roll. Old item of Owlbert’s.)

They met a man named Ignatius who held compatible, though not identical, ideas about the natural world. More reserved than their new friend, Tawny Jack actively encouraged Ignatius’ flamboyant personality as a way to vicariously express themselves without having to do it themselves. This encouragement eventually led to a confrontation with the village elders after trying to convince the town to value innovation as a natural part of being a sentient being rather than just mindlessly listening to the Envoys and being “encouraged” to leave the village with Ignatius.

One night during their travel the two friends ran into some trouble on the road. Fleeing the danger they ran into the jungle where they were rescued by an interesting creature. He called himself Lightsong, and claimed to be a creature older than time. Speaking with Lightsong, Tawny realized the world needed help, the Daemons and Terrors were not of this world and needed to be stopped. Lightsong advised Tawny Jack to follow the path of Nature, for it is, as they suspected for years, the soul of the world. Gifted by Lightsong with armor and a sword formed from ironwood, Tawny Jack gained a sense of power that day. The very day a mark of silvery light appeared on the back of their left hand. Soon after gaining their powers, Tawny Jack realizes that the bits of feather that frequently adorned their hair were now actually growing from their scalp and were all of the same tan and white variety(tawny owl).

Mount Variant - Guard Drake

The Shrine of Esso appears to be a breeding ground for these magical creatures. Perhaps through the magic of the shrine they appear to be smarter than the average Guard Drake. They have become accustomed to dealing with people and are willing to be trained. You spend several years training the Guard Drake and forming a bond with it, allowing you to use it as a mount in your adventures.

Tawny’s Log

Rather than returning to Eastcliff, and having no desire to go exploring after the traumatic events of the fall of Noh Weir, Tawny makes their home near the dragonshrine of Esso. Remembering the blue guard drakes and thinking that they would make a wonderful complement to their newfound penchant for riding down enemies on wooden elk back, Tawny decides to spend their time over the next few years raising a drake from the egg and training it as a mount.

“The battle for Noh Weir was rough. I had a wall fall on me. Not to mention that other weird place we were all transported to. I have never seen so many daemons in my life. Others of the group seem to want to go out into the world exploring and hunting, but I don’t think I can quite bring myself to do that… I think I need a break from all the slaughter and violence. Some time to myself and to reignite my light if you will. After we split up with the promise to meet again at the shrine of Esso in four years time I went straight there with Thelonius and built a small hut in the jungle not far from the shrine itself. If I remember correctly, those drakes were pretty interesting. I wonder if I can make friends?”

Tawny has several moments of inspiration during this time.

The first happens soon after they manage to trade an egg from the drakes for copious amounts of food. Tawny spends several days meditating over the egg and picking apart the spell they use to summon their paladin mount, binding the drake to them while it is still in its infancy.

“Good news, bad news time. Yes, the drakes can be reasoned with. No, the adults will not let me pet them. I think I need more bandages. Regardless, I have managed to persuade them to part with a single egg and I could not be happier. The branch and vine elk was neat, but a living, breathing friend will be way better. I’ve been spending the last few days with the egg tucked under my shirt to keep it warm. Since I can’t really move around too much while the egg is there I’ve been thinking a lot. I know, shocker, but the meditation seems to help. Both with coming to terms with the violence that happened and in my ideas about this little lizard here. I swear I can almost feel it within the shell.”

Another instance of clarity occurs when the young drake manages to gore itself on a tree branch in the jungle while Tawny had been running alongside it in armor. Why not make armor for the drake? Tawny took the time to slowly craft leather armor from crocodiles alongside the saddle and other tack they were already designing. Feeding the crocodile meat to the drake of course.

“AHHHHHHHH!!!! Chompy hurt himself! ….why am I writing down a scream that happened hours ago? He’s fine now. Good thing my healing seems to work on him just as well as it does on my friends and I. I need to find a way to prevent this from happening so easily again. I don’t get hurt nearly as often as he seems to. Ow. I just smacked myself in the forehead. Remember not to do that so hard. I was wearing my armor while the two of us were running in the jungle. Maybe I should make Chompy some armor? I could probably use the hide from all the crocodiles and Chompy sure wouldn’t mind the extra meat. He’s been growing like crazy recently.”

The final brilliant insight that Tawny has occurs in the final year of the downtime period. While practicing riding one day the drake made a sharp turn when is saw a small crocodile it wanted to snack upon. Tawny slipped from the saddle, caught their foot in the reins, and was subsequently dragged for a few dozen yards while the drake chased after the crocodile. How to put this ability to drag people to use? Tawny began to experiment with their thornwhip cantrip and after much trial and error was able to create a thornless variety that stuck around after the initial casting and could be used to lasso passing objects and creatures. (Ranged attack to hit with the “lasso” and then a grapple check)

“So this is kind of embarrassing, but also awesome! Embarrassing part is that I fell off of Chompy. I thought I was past that point in his training, but nooooooo, he had to go after the baby crocodile he saw sunning itself. Maybe I should have gone a little easier on the amount of crocodile meat I fed him when he was younger? My foot was caught in the reins and dragged me along the ground for a bit before the silly bastard caught his crocodile. While that was uncomfortable, it did give me an idea. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to grab things with a looped rope. It kinda works and once it does I want to try doing it while riding Chompy. I wonder if I can catch things with my thorn whip spell too?”

#world building #Vigilante Gaming #npc #player characters

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