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zeondraws · 1 year

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So about the chosen ones, they have to carry the powers on to the next generation

They have to protect the homeplanet they currently reside on, and the solar systems/their trading routes

There was this thing I once thought about woth an ancient dragon who found a dying race of humanoid like reptiles who were hiding inside large caves that were covered in large vegetations that they called their homes

This dragon would reach out to them and save them from their extinction. Thus they were able to rebuilt their society and expand much further into the galaxy and fight those who tried to eradicate them.

This dragon gave the individual called Zeon the powers that he and his kind were carrying on, they were not the original makers but he was looking for someone else to chose.

These powers that the makers made don't last forever for one individual and one civilisation. They have to continue giving these powers to another group of living beings so that the powers do not fade away.

This time period is usually not noticeable, it takes a few thousand years to completely fade away. It is unknown how many chosen ones were in the hands of these powers and lost them because of how long they kept them.

It also depends on how many versions/dimensions were before the current one.

Sometimes these realities communicate with one another and some others don't

But all these realities add up to how long these powers last.

It is still a significant amount but maybe it would roughly last 300-400 years until they start to noticeable fade away slowly

Zeon was a dragon humanoid who would bring her people to a new save galaxy that would give them some breathing space from all these hostile humanoids that are trying to eliminate them.

She became one of the chosen ones after she was born, it took a few years for these powers to take effect and change her way on how she views the world.

Her parents and relatives noticed that she has been granted these powers that this ancient being talked about, thus her having to carry the burden to keep her people save from the dangers of the world.

Which meant that her parents kept her on a strict routine so that she could grow up to be a good leader, she did not have many friends and would spend her time in solitude.

So much she had to do and learn to be able to properly use these abilities without major restrictions.

Her younger sister was always jealous of her abilities, since she got the smaller end of the straw and would be in the shadow of her. Feeling unrecognised, even if she had the luxury of living a more relaxed life having friends, free time and not having to worry about big responsibilities she would still become jealous of Zeon.

Time passes and this civilisation would thrive without major issues, Zeon would slowly have to figure out whom to grant these powers afterwards or atleast attempt to.

These powers don't immediately latch onto whatever Zeon or another chosen one would pick, the selected individuals would firstly have to live long enough and survive any incidents that the outside world would throw at them. If they proof to be successful then they'll get granted these abilities and the powers that were granted won't fade away so soon.

In Zeons lifetime these abilities were still in full swing, it enchanted the world around them, making it appear "magical" for others who entered their home planet, in comparison to todays chosen ones on Ester their powers became more restricted. They won't loose them but they're undable to do certain things because some part of these powers faded away already.

Why do these powers fade away? I still have to figure this out myself, since I haven't touched this part of the story that much, this will be very important to figure out, or I might change things around in the future

So Zeon picked someone when she was in her mid 20s, the one in particular was R5, she saw great potential in him, it might not have been clear why to some extend

He is based on a character from DC because young me used to make OCs from already existing characters but I will have to make an alternative version that doesn't look too closely related to said character. Including another character I made after him which I'd have to change etc etc.

It's also the reason I named him R5, I haven't had some alternativ Name for him yet and the R is from his original Name and the 5 is just some ooooold thing from when I was 15. I was playing around with Dimensions. R5 was apparently from a Dimension 5. I think I named it D5B5? I don't remember, maybe I have some random old note somewhere stating this

I do not remember it much sadly, that's what happens if you don't write down every lore related thought you had over the years.

Some youtuber once said "Ideas are fleating" so when you have a good idea always write it down asap, because quite alot of ideas appear at random and not when you try to actively think about them.

(i just forgor where I was at, but I am listening to ebic music bte, future me shall remember what music it was LOL)

These dimensions are mainly named like this because they are examples or different realities which the chosen races can access through these powers (and also because the planetary labs should have everything that ever existed in it like a museum, I'd have an excuse to add whatever and try to properly put it into the story to make sense of it) and R5 for example knew 16 versions of himself personally (something interesting where someone meets different versions of themselves is the series "Loki" on netflix if you haven't watched it yet, very interesting to see how they play with alternative realities)

There were ofc even MORE versions of himself (also something that M5 struggled with, another chosen one after R5, because some alternativ realities band together and some are against certain realities, so they have their own small community of realities where they keep contact with)

but some of these versions were far too dangerous to talk to, I think I had something like D1-16, the main ones we'd encounter, the other ones that exist would be D17-32 and D33-64, these bands of realities are a but more difficult to communicate with, and well they're far bigger than the main ones.

I atleast remember thinking about where R5 had trouble in certain occasions with these other realities

R5 and his other 15 versions (R1-R16, basically that's their shortcut) would sometimes meet and discuss their goals. They'd have some sort of interdimensional keys that would help them meet each other

But you see the problem is that these powers I talked about would fade away slowly and certain abilities would go away at some point. They can return but they'd firstly have to find a new chosen one.

Around the time where MA5 is in charge and managing the planetary labs etc he is unable to communicate much with his other versions, only with one of them (whom he despises alot at first but after cooperating with him for some time they'd be more chill with one another)

Random thought rn, I think the chosen one can grant others abilities too, so that they can cooperate together, so it doesn't also have to rely on them choosing another one official or needing offspring but also having others who aren't "officially" chosen. So that they can help out. This has been done on multiple occasions so that they'd have enough power to fight against enemies ofc. And prolly other stuff (all this lore is confusing me a bit, so much I still have to write down)

Well and all these Rs from these 16 ralities had to decide which one they should fpcus on helping out, because D2-3 had fallen after some bad events and D1 was mostly unstable and there hasn't been much communication with it. And D4 also had problems recently

When they made the planetary labs they all swore or atleast agreed to give alot more focus to the planetary labs of D5, because it seems this reality seems to be the most stable one and should give them the highest hopes of success. Also because D16 was also struggling and M16 was also somewhat mad or trying to hurt R5

Since some other versions who had the planetary labs had fallen, because their experiments on there had failed, one of the Js (in the busses storyline J5 already passed away together with most of his versions excluding one specific version who remains alive, this one has dark hair, blueish hues and glows in the dark/sun, so that I remember whom I'm talking about it's the one that is based on a bird of paradise)

basically did an oopsie and one of the planetary labs git corrupted which in turn destroyed that version of Ester, so they had to cut ckntact to avoid getting anything from there to D5s reality, tho they explore the fallen realities to see what happened and to avoid from doing the same

Also hence WHY R5 was also nervous about the bus project, what if it failed? What if he'll also fail just like the other realities? The other ones had high hopes for him and tried their best to hand them aaaaall the resources and artifacts they collected so that the planetary labs museums would be full/the archives would be consistent enough and nothing would be missing. It would set them back by a lot.

And hence WHY the planetary lab that stranded had to get back to Zeons system, otherwise it would be super bad for all of those involved who worked on it. R5 told Plock all that he knew and also taught him all that he could, so that Plock could take care of the busses. R5 mightve known something bad would happen, since he is able to see a bit further ahead.

And it is even worse when Plock tries his best to get home ASAP but Helene literally makes them be unable to get back for her selfish needs. Since she felt lonely but also knows it is devastating if the humanoids cannot find the missing planetary lab they workes on for decades or hundreds of years if you count all the years each dimension spend to collect the items!

It will be very emotional for Plock

I have to stop writing noe because my roommates want to watch a movie and I have to make a pizza RN

I will continue on this because I still have to explain a bit about Zeon, her death and R5 and the other chosen ones and how it all correlates to the busses and how the busses react when THEY finally get their chosen one (Plock also taught his son everything R5 did, so that Milos would be fully aware what Ploxk is working on/for and why Milos has to take his place once Plock dies of old age)

also here some screenshots of some lore notes I wrote down when talking to my friend kyro

#bus #busbusbusbusbusbus #zeons thoughts #zeons projects #lore post

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w1tchd3str0yer · 11 months

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What I found on the 1rst page of Googgle about Greek names for planets.

Astra Planeta (Αστρα Πλανητα / Astra Planêta); "Wandering Stars", "Planets" the Stellae Errantae)

//In Greco-Roman Classical Mythology, the Astra Planeta are brothers, and are five of Eos' and Astraeus' children, along with the Anemoi and Astraea, personifying the Classical planets (minus the Sun and the Moon (Eos' siblings), and the Earth (Gaia)). Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not included, as they are invisible to the naked eye and were thus unknown to the ancient Hellenic peoples. //

There is an interesting thing that you should know to understand why I include this information here. In my research on Boiling Isles, there was some kind of celestial war between "Titans" and "Star people" deityies. Both sides have a religeous cults dedicated to them. Most of the followers are witches.

Since witches that steal human teeth are from Mars then it means they serve "star people" and therefore the "Titans" cult is their opposite. Maybe we could find some temporary alligment with "tolerable" witches that oppose this sky alien race. (But the Titan look like litteral Satan so that is questionable.)

Mercury

// Original name is stilbon (Στίλβων). In the ancient Greek religion it is the sky god of Hermaon and one of the Astra Planeta. The word, Stilbon, means shining. //

The name sounds like "stillborn" missing "l" and "r". Maybe we could get a date out of this.. L = 12 (!!!), R = 18. I have 0 ideas.

Venus

// Hesperus (/ˈhɛspərəs/; Ἕσπερος, Hésperos) is the Evening Star, the planet Venus in the evening. Hesperus' Roman equivalent is Vesper ("evening", "supper", "evening star", "west"). Also called Εωσφόρος / Φωσφορος //

Dont see anything in particular yet.. I see only "Herpies" and "Hes-per-us" aka "He is per us"

Mars

//Pyroeis (Πυρόεις) in ancient Greek religion is the god of the wandering star (Aster Planetos / Astra Planeta) Areios. He is also known as Mesonyx (Μεσονυξ; "midnight").//

Bonus: I see Me-sony-x hidden message. The company is definetly connected to demons-! Maybe it is the one sending the teeth on Mars using teleportation tech. Or magic even.

Saturn

// Phaethon (Φαέθων), means "radiant" (from the verb φαέθω, meaning "to shine"). This name could be understood as, "the shining/radiant (one)". Ultimately the word derives from φάος, phaos, the Greek word for light. Phaethon, also spelled Phaëthon. //

I think the easiest connection we can find is to Photons.. but the truth cant be that overly simple. Phaos sounds like chaos, Phaethon sounds like Python (Pythonidae). So what I am taking from this is that Saturn is a capital for Lisard people Empire. And they could be behind the egyptian pyramids. Probably they hyde a good amount of radiation inside of them, that was prodused by the mummies.

--Your №1 Fan

BUT OF COURSE......... IT ALL MAKES SENSE.

THIS WHOLE TIME. THE ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM HAS BEEN APART OF THIS.

NASA IS LYING TO US AND THIS IS OUR PROOF.

You're absolutely right. Of course, the rings on saturn are the roads satelliates for communication from lizards to demons.

The pyramids... the radiation.... mummy energy... WE'RE CRACKIN THIS THING WIDE OPEN.

#ask #ooc tags #I READ THIS WHOLE FUCKING THING BTW #anon ask #n1 anon

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mymiraclebox · 2 years

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To add to my previous Question and your answer to a person claiming every Alpha Pairing in existence, what about kaalki? If this person was clever enough, they could put together the reason why they can't find Vitaa and Shii's Miraculouses is because they're not on earth and then just get kaalki and use her Voyage to go to space and, with magical protection of course, and possibly with barkk, find the Being Duo, would this work?

Is it possible? Definitely. Is it likely to ever happen, I don't think it could.

We as outsiders know that the Forgotten Box is somewhere in space, but for someone looking for an ancient source of magic? Space travel is seen as a very modern thing, and with the world being so big at what point would one be able to confidently say they've searched all of Earth? When will they known they've search every cave, every mountain peak, every inch of the ocean floor, all of the expanse of wilderness, the hidden nook of every house? On top of that space itself is uncomprehendingly huge, even in our corner of the solar system. If someone were to begin searching without a direct location it could very easily be something never found.

And with all this combined, it's called the Forgotten Box for a reason. Perhaps only a dozen humans at a time would know that it exists, and little else. Even the Order of the Guardians did not know of it. And if someone was so desperate for the powers of Life and Death, seeking out another Alpha Duo for a Wish would have much better odds.

So yes, there are means and Miraculouses that could be put together to find the Forgotten Box, but the odds of getting that information let alone finding the location in the end are very very small.

#anon ask #the forgotten box #alpha kwamis

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pocketdragonpub · 3 months

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As you know, Mystic Bond is a Pathfinder 2e adventure. We had a table of players who are new to the system, and we have our veteran player and game master simultaneously teaching the rules and running the game. Our tavern keeper, Vixie Belle, took some time to chat with Jake, ThatOneBlondeNerd, Ian Alexander, and Solar Greye about playing Pathfinder 2e and what their experience was like.

First, Vixie sat down with the players to chat about their experience playing Pathfinder 2e.

Was this your first time playing Pathfinder 2e? If so, what was your impression about the system? If not, what were your thoughts on the system before playing this game? Would you say that your impression changed afterwards?

Solar: This was my first time playing PF 2E. It's a good stream line, especially for combat.

TBN: It was my first time! I thought the system was really fun. I understand now both why people say it's a bit crunchy and why they love it. I would agree that it's crunchy, but not in a way that affects the enjoyment of the game - it's complex in an interesting way. It's a system I'd definitely love to play again so I can really get a feel for it!

What is the thing you liked best about playing Pathfinder compared to other TTRPGS, such as Dungeons and Dragons?

Solar: Honestly, the combat system. Having 3 actions instead of Action, Bonus Action, Reaction, and Movement is closer to what modern role players imagine playing RPGs are like, providing more open choices for their actions.

TBN: I really liked the interesting lineages. Seriously, go look up the Ghorans and their history. It's WILD! Did I expect to be playing an ancient, awakened flower with a seed that is also herself in her chest, allowing her to re-sprout every 20 years and who is also, apparently, absurdly delicious? To the point her people almost got eaten to extinction and had to learn how to "people" and be endearing/cute so they wouldn't be dinner? Not even kind of, but it was so much fun! Basically: crunchy and a bit of a learning curve from other systems? Yep. Worth it? Absolutely.

What was the thing you found the most challenging about playing Pathfinder 2e?

Solar: I didn't find the system challenging at all. It was pretty easy to understand, and Jake explained the rules well.

What's your favorite moment in Mystic Bond?

Solar: Honestly, the player reactions were the most fun to watch.

TBN: Walking into a tree and sassing an apocalypse lord!

Is there anything else you'd like to add about the experience?

Solar: Keep doing what you guys are doing.

TBN: Learning how the abilities/turns worked, especially for combat, was a bit of an adventure. It was different than other systems I've played, which was cool, but it did take me a bit to figure it out.

Next, Vixie sat down with Jake Kile, the GM and a veteran player of Pathfinder, to get his thoughts on running Mystic Bond.

Tavern Keeper: There was more than one first time Pathfinder player at the table for this one shot. Would you say there are significant differences in how new players approach Pathfinder vs. veterans? (i.e they take more risks, they are overly cautious, etc.)

Jake: New players are always a mixed bag and come from many many different directions, but most have the same problems. A lot of the time they will make their characters sub optimal on accident. For example, a fighter who doesn't have a sword with runes or a caster who has no damaging cantrips… BUT Veteran players who understand the system more will usually find really interesting ways to make their characters sub optimal on purpose! While they will have the basics to survive they will do builds that aren't great but fill a specific power fantasy they want to play out. Like a caster who casts spell swords using their magic to put themselves in the middle of battle instead of in the back casting spells safely.

Tavern Keeper: What is the thing you like best about playing Pathfinder compared to other TTRPGS, such as Dungeons and Dragons?

Jake: The choices. You can build SO SO SO many interesting and different things already with the system, and it is only growing. My largest issue with TTRPGs like DnD is that while you all are "different" the only thing that's really different is how you describe it. The mechanics of the game also don't support the game play style as much. I aso feel that Pathfinder's Action Economy is THE best combat Action Economy I have ever seen.

Tavern Keeper: What would you say is the most challenging/intimidating thing about getting started with Pathfinder 2e?

Jake: Peoples FEAR that the game is crunchy because it has more optional rules than DnD, which isn't very deep. When most people are used to the only being in the hot tub, they are scared to go into the kiddie pool because it is deeper, but it is no where as bad as people think it is. Stepping into it once will make you realize that there is so, so, so, many more possibilities.

Tavern Keeper: What's your favorite moment in Mystic Bond?

Jake: Seeing everyone's reactions to the story. Seeing them being ripped from their normal lives to find out they were actually going to be something Evil in the world.

Tavern Keeper: Is there anything else you'd like to add about the experience?

Jake: There are so so many tools out there, and the rules being free for everyone makes playing easier. Having everyone on Pathbuilder, Pathfinder's online tool that allows for a character planner, builder, and sheets to be created and shared with the GM, and being able to help them with their character in and out of game was so nice. I encourage new and veteran players to help make things easier for themselves with this tool too!

#pathfinder2e #ttrpg #pocketdragonpub #actualplay #tabletopgames #tabletoprpg #fantasy #rpg #althaven

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groupdrita · 2 years

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Darkstar one extra artifacts

#Darkstar one extra artifacts update

As you cruise through the universe, having lots of fun, you'll find artifacts that your ship will absorb once you approach them. The ship you command in the game is unique, and consists of biological parts. Does it now? Don't know, been a while:ģ) use notepad or any text editor to open aĤ) Search for "BattleLib.CreateWing = function( BG, Data )"ĥ) Scroll down a little bit until you see the following section:Ħ) add "temp.Number = 1"(without the double quotes) right below this section. Speaking of artifacts, that's one of the few ways DarkStar One diversifies itself from the rest of the pack. I copy and paste here for you-ok NOW have fun!-(Don't forget to change it back after you complete the mission)įound this from playedout from years ago- it helped me. Looks like I might not get 100% artifacts, though now I've hit that "Flak Defense (2)" mission it's looking like I might not ever finish this game at all! 100 artifacts or not! :/Ĭheck these forums for the thread about flak2 workaround-I too was stuck here but used the "fix" I found and reposted it in these forums. Some of those systems have opened up since, but not all. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.Originally posted by gartheastwood:Will do bruv. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior. With 3 artifacts, your ship will become level 2 so you can pick another upgrade. It had been created several centuries ago by the greatest of the light ones, and not a single of their enemies had managed to break through its spell. You’ll have to head through Mesehkane to reach there so pick up the artifact in this system.

Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time Dark Star knew that Riversar’s Sentinel was a magical artifact that made the citadel impregnable for the dark elves.

#Darkstar one extra artifacts update

DarkStar One Steam charts, data, update history. Explore a vast array of solar systems in search of hidden artifacts of ancient races, essential objects for upgrading your ship-the Darkstar One. The story-based missions gradually lead you deeper into the galaxy to new races, new technologies and ever stronger opponents. This adventure also presents a great opportunity for players to get their hands on some powerful magical artifacts. Darkstar One offers a fantastic amount of freedom of choice. This DnD one shot adventure is a great choice for those who want to explore magic and its darker implications. Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content It is a barren, lifeless place where the only thing that grows is the Darkstar.Running a "scraper" or "downloader" program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection You should reach level 14 with the additional artifacts available.Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine.There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. Keep everyone connected by sharing dice rolls and the actions you and your players take in the Game Log, or make rolls in secret and choose who can see them The Game Log is accessible from your campaign’s page and from the Encounters tool. Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does. D&D Beyond’s Game Log is the quintessential DM tool for D&D.Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests. If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse.The most common causes of this issue are: Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests.

#Darkstar one extra artifacts

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noctivague · 3 years

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Incense in Ancient Greece

I looove incense so I really wanted to have a look at what the ancients used. Incense comes in a wide variety of resins, woods and dried herbs so here is an overview of what one may have encountered knowing that this list is not exhaustive.

The same way that meat was burnt so that the aroma could be offered to the divine, good smelling substances in the form of incense were offered to please the gods and were part of the rituals.

“The virtues associated to the scents are multiple: pleasure, protection, purification, communication. (...) the pleasant and often artificial scent of the rite helps to make the perception of the divine more present and noticeable, the ‘’similar is attracted by the similar’’.’’

Veronique Mehl, pdf in sources, translated by me

It is complicated to trace the scents that were used due to them not being recorded or not being able to be archaeologically found (unlike votive offerings or animal sacrifices), especially in the case of more ordinary rituals. Very often they only call it ‘‘incense’‘ or simply refer to the act of burning, but we don’t know exactly what product they refer to.

I showed when a specific substance was indicated for a specific deity (such as in the Orphic hymns or with sacred plants), but that does not mean that you can’t offer them to other deities ! People of that time were likely to use whatever they had readily available, as long as it smelled good and seemed pleasing to the gods, so don’t feel constrained by that. Try out different things and see what feels logical to your practice or what you like to use.

Dried plants

Laurel Leaves - Famously used at Delphi in relation to the oracle of Apollon. The leaves were chewed and burnt as an offering and to facilitate visions. Sacred to Apollo, as seen in the myth of Daphne (the greek name of laurel is daphnai), but also as a sign of victory as the god received a wreath after killing Python. The laurel is also seen as having purifying properties. In Thessalia it is also connected to Dionysos and menadism as they were said to chew on the leaves. Also connected to Asclepios. Ovid also tells us that they were burnt on altar even before resins such as myrrh were used.

Saffron - Called krokos, it wasn’t only used to dye clothes, as a pharmaceutical substance or as a fragrance but also as a burnt offering, dating back to the Minoan/Mycenaean period. It was a very pricey item due to the complexity of obtaining it. Seems particularly good to offer to Hecate as seen in the Orphic Hymn and because of the color of her robe described as saffron. Also the crocus is said to be sacred to Hermes, and there is a connection to Demeter (mentioned in her Homeric hymn) and Apollo (solar). On top of that it is connected in the Orphic Hymns to Aither.

Barley - The seeds were thrown in fire in an act of purification and probably for the sensorial experience as well. Example of such act can be found in the Odyssey, when Nestor sacrifices a cow to Athena and burns barley as part of the ritual.

Oak Leaves - Again in the Odyssey, Odysseus crew burns oak leaves on Helios Island when sacrificing his cows, showing us that those were ritually burnt and could be part of an offering. Oak tree is sacred to Zeus

Myrtle - From the plant Myrtus communis. Associated mainly with Aphrodite, but also with Artemis, Dionysos and Hades and even Demeter. Garlands and wreaths were made of this and used in rituals. The leaves can be burnt as an incense.

Pine Needles - Similar idea than with oak leaves, pine needles can be burnt for their pleasant smell.

Mugwort - Called Artemisia vulgaris, it takes its name from the goddess Artemis and would thus make a particularly fitting offering for the goddess.

Sage - Called elelisphakos, it was seen as a universal remedy, seen as a tonic and a cure, and used in funerary and magical rites, as well as offered to deities. In a myth, it is said that Zeus was raised by the goat Amalthea near a sage bush.

Rosemary - Associated with funerary rites, its ever green color making it a symbol of immortality, it was also used for wreaths. Purifying properties when burnt.

Olive - Very important plant for the ancients, a cornerstone of their diets, statues of divinities were also made from its wood. The leaves were also burnt ritually. Sacred to Athena.

Flowers

Rose Petals - Closely associated with Aphrodite, it appears in the story of Adonis as well as in the Iliad when the goddess protects the body of Hector with rose oil. Its petal can be burnt to release a fragrant scent.

Lavender - Its association to sleep makes it a good choice for Hermes and Hypnos.

Chamomile - From the greek khamaimēlon, meaning earth apple, it was widely used as a tea but makes for a good incense. It has a connection to solar entities.

Violet - It appears many times in myths, sacred to Aphrodite for its sensual scent and who is connected to the birth of the flower, but also to Priapus, Iamus (son of Apollo), Orpheus, Persephone who was plucking flowers before being captured by Hades, and a symbol of the city of Athens (violet-crowned city).

Myrtle - Sacred to Aphrodite and Demeter but also to Iacchos.

Resins

Storax/Styrax - quoted multiple times in the Orphic Hymns, it’s a resin that comes from the plant Styrax Officinalis. It seems though that this resin is no longer available as the tree doesn’t produce it. Nowadays what we find as storax is a black bark often reduced in a powder.

[43] XLIII. TO SEMELE The Fumigation from Storax (...)

Indicating that burning storax as an offering while reading the hymn is suitable. Also recommended for Kronos, Zeus, Proteus, Dinoysos, Demeter, Misa, Ippa, Hermes and the Graces.

Benzoin - decided to make it separated from the Styrax category for more clarity but it is indeed the same incense ! Benzoin is the name of a wide variety of resins such as Styrax Benzoin or Styrax Tonkinonsis, and as you can tell from the name, it comes from the same variety of the plant, Styrax Officinalis just being the Mediterranean version, and since the later is not available you can use any type of benzoin as a good alternative.

Frankincense - Coming from the Boswellia family, also called olibanum, this is one of the most widely used incense, often used in rituals and sacrifices, and one that is said to be suitable for all the gods. It appears many times in many instances. For example, Pytthagoras is said to have offered it Apollo. There is also the myth of Ovid where Helios turned into the body of his dead lover into the frankincense tree.

In the Orphic Hymns, it also appears numerous times and is recommended for Ouranos, Herakles, Zeus, Thethys, Hermes, the Titans, Kouretes, Dionysos, Dike, Dikaiosune, Ares, Hephaistos, Tykhe, the Daimones, the Muses, Mnemosyne, Themis, Boreas, Zephyros and Notos.

And if one assumes that Manna is frankincense, then the hymns connect it to: the Furies, Apollo, Artemis, Asclepios, Helio, Ios, Hephaistos, Dionysos, Nike, Silenos, Thalassa, Thanatos, Hygeia and Zeus. It might not be the same though, but it is hard to know what they referred to.

Myyrh - From the desert plant Commiphora myrrha. Another very widely used incense in ancient Greece that appealed for its beautiful scent.

It is mentioned multiple times in the Orphic Hymns, to Protogonos, Poseidon, Nephelai, Leto and Nereus.

Ladanum/Laudanum/Labdanum - Extracted from Cistus Ladanifer shrubs, dating as far as the Minoan period.

Opium - Harvested from the poppy pods, the Orphic Hymn links it to the veneration of Hypnos. The poppy is also sacred to Demeter.

Woods

Sandalwood - with the conquests of Alexander the Great, sandalwood made its way into the panoply of substances the Greeks used to diffuse precious scents.

Cedarwood - Sacred to Artemis, this wood produces a wonderful scent and one I like to use often.

Cinnamon - from this plant, the bark is most commonly used and it was used as an offering. A mention of this is found when Seleucus I sends various offerings to the sanctuary to Apollon Philesios in Didymes. It doesn’t exactly says wheter cinnamon should be burnt or not but either way, you can offer its scent.

Also I already mentioned them earlier but oak wood and olive wood are also common.

Resources: theoi.com (Orphic Hymns); Of Incense and Beans elusive plants in the Greek religion; Books of Dante (french, I used different posts as he has one for many many plants); Olfactive and festive atmosphere of the Greek sanctuary: the smell of the divine (french).

#incense #offerings #helpol

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cleanlenins · 3 years

Text

Ectober Day 5: Ouija

Words Spoken at the Witching Hour

Chapter 1

AO3

Warnings: None

“Jack, please don’t get your hopes up. We disproved this in college,” Maddie sighed, flopping into her chair at the kitchen table. She had just checked to make sure that both of the kids were snug in their beds. Danny had gotten into a concerning habit of sneaking out at night. Jack fiddled with the candles on the table, lighting them one by one.

“I know. But now with the portal open, maybe it will actually have a chance of working,” Jack set the planchet in the middle of the board, before turning out the light.

“Ouija boards don’t work, Jack,” Maddie huffed as the light clicked off. The light from the candles was the only illumination. She could just barely make out the thick salt circle around the ouija board, and blinked to try and adjust to the low lighting as well as stay awake. It was well after three am.

“Yes, but communicating with ghosts is a common practice across many cultures. It was all in my great-great-great-great-um-some-amount-of-great grandfather’s book,” Jack said. “Think of it as an archaic version of the ghost gabber.”

“The ghost gabber didn’t work, sweetie,” Maddie said.

“Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Jack grinned at his wife. He thumbed an ectoblaster on the table. Maddie smiled at her husband fondly.

“So, who did you want to try to talk to?”

“The ghost boy, of course!” Jack boomed. “If we can somehow trap him here, it will be so much easier to drag him into the lab.”

Maddie nodded along to that thought. She didn’t believe this would work, but it would make Jack happy to try. Almost all of the things written in the Nightingale journal were nonsense in her opinion. Why would ghosts be afraid of random flowers? The man also went on about witchcraft, which was complete foolishness. Magic didn’t exist. Everything ghostly could be explained with scientific fact.

Even so, she had humored Jack into doing her best on this. She had found an older talking board, one before the commercialization of the late 1800s. One that, honestly, deserved to be in a museum. As she had researched this board in particular, she couldn’t even pin down what kind of wood it was made with. Technically, it wasn’t a Ouija board. It didn’t have the same layout as the popularized version. Instead of using English letters, it used Ogham. It was an ancient way of writing Irish script she had studied back in high school when she was learning more about her family history.

The elderly lady she had bought this from had given her a long spiel about how the board works, what to do to protect yourself from spirits. A lot of it was superstitious nonsense, but Maddie had written it all down anyway. Hopefully, if they followed it to the letter Jack would concede defeat when it didn’t work.

“You ready, Mads?” Jack asked, pulling off his glove. Maddie sighed and followed suit.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Maddie pulled out a sterilized needle. She pressed it into her finger tip and squeezed a few drops into a divot on the board. Jack followed suit, grinning wide. The two of them reached for the planchet, a worn old stone piece that was so dark it seemed to absorb the light of the candles. They each placed only the bloody finger on it, lightly so as not to push it by mistake.

“We invite the spirits of the other side to speak with us today,” Maddie said, trying not to roll her eyes. The candles flickered dramatically. “We wish to speak with the ghost of Phantom. Phantom, will you speak with us today?”

The two of them sat in the dark waiting. The candles continued to flicker, but the planchet on the board did not move.

“Ask it again, Mads,” Jack prompted. Maddie complied.

“Phantom, we would like to speak with you. You can move the planchet to tell us anything you have to say,” Maddie said again. She waited a moment more before huffing. “Jack, I told you-”

The candles all went out. The two of them sat in pitch darkness for a breath before the candles reignited. They glowed with a fell light. Maddie couldn’t describe the color. It was impossible to look at, but left her with the impression of a corona from a solar eclipse. She couldn’t bear to look at it.

“Maddie, it’s working,” Jack whispered, a childlike grin on his face. Maddie swallowed convulsively.

“Phantom? Is this you?” Maddie asked, listening in the room for the characteristic childlike voice of the Amity Park scourge. Instead she felt the little planchet under her finger move, her eyes snapping to the board. It rolled over different symbols before stopping.

“What does it mean, Maddie?”

Maddie tried to parse it out. Ogham wasn’t made for English, but this was only one word and she translated for Jack.

Yes

“Phantom, where are you right now? We can’t see you,” Maddie gulped as she watched the spirit board.

Sleeping .

“Sleeping? How could you be sleeping? You are talking to us,” Maddie scoffed. Of course, the ghost was probably lying. Why would ghost’s sleep?

Dreaming

“So what? This is the equivalent of sleep-talking?” Maddie was getting irritated.

I don’t know

“You don’t know,” Maddie deadpanned. “How could you not know?”

I have never done this before.

“Ask him about why he is in Amity,” Jack prodded. Maddie nodded.

“Why are you in Amity Park, Phantom?”

Amity Park is my home

“You are dead, Phantom. The Ghost Zone is your home, not Amity Park,” Maddie said. She watched the little stone cursor flit around the board.

Amity Park is my home

��We’re not going to get anywhere with that,” Maddie grumbled. She tried to remember some of the questions Jack had wanted to ask.

“How did you die, Phantom?” Maddie asked. The planchet seemed to hesitate, before it slowly spelled out the words.

An accident

“What kind of accident?” Maddie urged. The planchet did not move. She waited a full minute before asking again. “Phantom, what kind of accident killed you?”

I don’t want to talk about this

“Phantom, answer the question. How did you die?” Maddie pressed.

It will hurt

“You’re a ghost, Phantom. You can’t feel pain.”

Wrong. But that is not what I meant.

“What did you mean, then?”

It will hurt you

Maddie blinked and looked over at Jack. Her husband had his brow furrowed as he met her stare.

“How could it possibly hurt us?” Maddie’s voice trembled.

You will blame yourself

“Why would we blame ourselves?”

Because it was your invention

Maddie stopped breathing. She felt a twinge of fear before it was overshadowed by anger.

“Our inventions don’t hurt humans,” Maddie spat.

They hurt Vlad. They hurt me.

Maddie felt like she was punched in the gut. How did Phantom know about Vlad? It’s true that Vlad had been injured in college. And it had been one of their inventions. Was it possible? Could they have inadvertently caused someone’s death?

“Ghosts lie, Mads. No one besides our family had even been around our inventions before the ghosts showed up. And Phantom was one of the first,” Jack said. Maddie took a deep breath.

“We won’t fall for your lies, Phantom,” Maddie said. “We are not to blame for your death.”

I know. It was my fault.

“So stop evading the question, Phantom. How did you die?” Maddie asked more forcefully. Once more the planchet paused, before it slowly started to move.

The Portal

“What do you mean?” Maddie pressed.

I was inside. When it turned on.

Maddie scoffed at the obvious lie as she translated it to Jack. But the planchet kept moving.

I just wanted to look inside. I tripped over a wire. I hit the button on the inside. The portal turned on. And I died.

“There is no button on the inside of the Portal, Phantom,” Maddie looked up to share a look of irritation with Jack. However, the man was pale as a sheet. “Jack?”

“I-Maddie. There is a button on the inside of the Portal,” Jack’s voice trembled.

“What?” Maddie gaped at her husband. The man swallowed.

“I put it in at the last minute. I thought it would be useful to have a failsafe if one of the kids-” Jack suddenly froze, a horrible expression on his face. “Maddie. Ask Phantom where he is sleeping at. Right now.”

“Phantom, if you are asleep right now, where are you?” Maddie’s voice shook.

In my room

“Where is your room?”

Upstairs

“Phantom...Are you Danny? Are you our son?” Maddie whimpered. The planchet moved once more.

Yes

The two parents sat in horror, staring at where the planchet rested.

Maddie grabbed her gun and blasted the board to ash.

#Ectober Month 2021 #Ectoberhaunt 2021 #Ectoberhaunt trick #Danny Phantom #My writing #Cartoons #identity reveal

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andthisiswitchcraft · 3 years

Text

Hello and welcome to Folk Magic Friday! 🖤

✨ Today is Friday the 13th. A perfect date for this post as I want to write something about slavic superstitions and old wives tales. And, as we all know, there is always something true in all old wives tales. Well, there was a reason they were told. I will also tell you something about making your own lucky amulet for days like this

✨ Most popular, still believed in and practised are:

red ribbon tied on baby's crib/trolley/hand as a lucky charm and for protection from evil powers or hexes

gathering of straw or branches placed under the roof of the house under construction

swallow's nest on your roof brings luck, be good to them

welcome newlyweds with bread and salt

burning and drowning effigy of Marzanna (I wrote about this here --> https://www.facebook.com/groups/487888341893851/posts/697057317643618/ )

eating mushrooms and poppy-seeds on Christmas - poppy was a connection with Nawia, slavic Nether. All Christmas dishes were typical for funeral meal

worshiping and being respectful for storks, waiting for their come back at the beginning of spring

divination by wax, especially for singles that are looking for love, at Saint Andrew's Day

no welcome or goodbye on the treshold of the house as it brings bad energy - always do this either in or out of your house

three kisses in the cheeks as a welcome and goodbye - for health, luck and prosperity

if you're pregnant don't go under or across any strings, ropes or wires as it may make umbilical cord tangled on your baby's neck

building a wayside shrines next to crossroads for protection

✨ As a protection from evil powers and bad luck Slavs made their own amulets called nawęza. It was little pouch with things closest to the person that was wearing it. Nawęza was wore as a necklace or was tied to the belt. Old Slavs usually put in their amulets animals fangs, feathers, magickal stones (especially hag stones), shells and herbs.

✨If you want to make your own nawęza, you can make it with little pouch with little things that make you feel powerful, safe or brings you luck. There are three types of nawęza:

❤️ nawęza of love - put there the closest things that belongs to the love of your life: hair and nails. Add two tangled red ribbons, rose quartz, mugwort and lovage. Spray it with musk oil and keep close with you or sew into your partner's clothes.

💎nawęza of wealth and prosperity - put there few wheat grains, acorns, some money, wallnut, leaf of mint and sunflower petals. Keep close with you.

🌿 nawęza of cleansing - put there garlic, quartz, sand, little piece of salt (not grinded), St John's wort and marjoram. Keep close with you or put under your pillow.

✨ Good thing to put on your own nawęza is magick symbol. It may be typical slavic symbol or symbol of your beloved goddess/god/entity. Typical for slavic nawęza would be one of these symbols:

Swarga/swarożyca/swarzyca or kołowrót (turnstile) - symbol of Swarog, the divine blacksmith. This symbol is also a slavic uroboros, snake eating his own tale. Arms of swarga are going on and on in the circle like sun and moon. Eight arms are a reminder of eight holidays important for slavic witches through the year. It was common symbol found above the doors or on cribs. It protects from evil in forms of illness, demons and bad luck.

Triskelion - known for Celts but also for Slavs. It was believed triskelion is a symbol of Weles, known as Three-headed god. Weles is a god of Nawia, to which leads a spiral way which was a metaphore of life.

Six-petal rosette - most popular symbol of Perun, the god of thunder, but also warriors. It was a protection from thunders and lightnings, placed inside the house, mostly on roofs or windows. Wear this symbol when you need to feel your inner strenght (for example before important interview).

Lunula - known for ancient Romans, but also for Slavs. It's a symbol of Mokosza, Mother Earth, patron of all women. It's good for love spells and rituals, helps with beauty and protects from health issues typical for women.

Symbol of Veles - a letter V that makes a triangle with added horns. God of Nawia, patron of cattle, god of magic and divination. It was also believed that a bear is an incarnation of Weles, so you can also use a bear paw as his symbol.

Hands of God - symbol of Perun, it is believed that four arms of this symbol are four powerful hands of Perun and each is reaching for each side of the world. It's used as a symbol of protection and inner strength.

Sun Cross/Solar Cross - symbol of Świętowit, most important god in Slavic pantheon. He is a god of all creation, the world maker. Circle means Earth divided by four seasons. It means the beginning of the world. Wear it when you need calm, harmony and inner peace.

Would you like to make your own nawęza? What would you put in your magick amulet? Tell me in the comments 🖤

And have a great Friday the 13th! 🐾

Iga

#Friday the 13th #ihatiw #iga #slavic superstitions #folk magic Friday #naweza

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the-lightning-strikes-again · 3 years

Text

A Review of Voltron DDP Comic: A Legend Forged (2008)

I knew the old Devil’s Due Publishing (DDP) comics for Voltron were lit…but the sequel, A Legend Forged, really resonated with me! This 5-issue comic series is DDP’s interpretation of the history behind the Voltron robot itself, and it wraps this lore within an adventure plot featuring our main pilots (Allura, Keith, Hunk, Lance, Pidge) in an alliance with Lotor.

I’ve meant to write a review about A Legend Forged for a while because I know that older Voltron comics aren’t always accessible. I think this one deserves some attention because it does things that I find just really refreshing after watching the 2016 Legendary Defender show. It also has some fun details that could have been source material for the world building and events in the 2016 VLD show.

The basic summary of this comic is that Team Voltron and Lotor are accidentally transported 1,200 years in the past after some classified time travel tech destabilizes in the middle of a fight. Powerless from the blast, they crash-land on a nearby planet, and they’re soon captured by people on the planet who have exceptionally advanced technology. Lotor agrees to a truce with Team Voltron to help find a way out of their prison, and back to their own time.

In arriving through the wormhole, however, they catch the attention of a very powerful group who are missing an important piece to complete their special defense project (the Voltron robot). The robot is being built in part by King Altarus, Allura’s ancestor, to fight off the villain in that ancient past—Empress Jain IX, Lotor’s evil great great (10X) grandmother, who is a sorceress hellbent on intergalactic domination.

Ultimately, Team Voltron and Lotor get caught up in the efforts to stop Empress Jain and assist King Altarus’s Council…and they discover some interesting things about themselves and about Voltron along the way!

I found A Legend Forged to be one entertaining, snarky shenanigan after another. Although it does source the 1984 character designs and backgrounds along with some references to Vehicle Voltron (which may be alienating to fans familiar only with VLD), I love that this comic deeply and openly explores what makes the Voltron franchise so identifiable and unique—its Arthurian legends/magic in the midst of an expansive space opera.

The comic is meant for slightly older audiences compared to VLD—it includes several instances of adult cursing, frightening images, some brief images of romance/non-graphic sensuality, and occasional graphic violence showing blood. I couldn’t find a publisher-recommended age for this comic on the book covers, but I think it might be T for ages 12 and older.

If you’re interested, a deeper overview of A Legend Forged is included under the cut!

___

At a high level, there’s certain things that just really attracted me to this comic, even though I’m usually not much of a comic reader:

THE WORLD BUILDING

The whole timeline distortion that takes them back 1,200 years is a direct consequence of humans attempting to back-engineer the mysterious Voltron robot. Within that back-engineering, they’d stumbled into creating a time machine:

(Photo Description: The city of Toronto in the future. Someone asks, “Time travel?” Coran replies, “Devised using reverse engineered technology from Lion Voltron, no doubt.” An alliance official responds, “Come on now, how would that be possible?” A second official responses, “Coran’s right. The way that Lion Voltron summons energy and weaponry is a mystery. We learned how to mimic the ability with the vehicle units, without really understanding it.”)

So there’s a lot of undertow here about just what exactly all these different parties (Earth/Galaxy Alliance, space pirates, Lotor) were planning to do with a time machine to begin with before it gets blown up in a battle over it. But there’s also something interesting happening here involving Fate/Destiny and plasticity of time itself.

At the very heart of this comic is the concept that the Voltron robot could not have been completed 1,200 years ago if Team Voltron and Lotor were not accidentally tossed back in time to help complete the project. And idk, I think that’s just pretty cool. It ties these lives of these characters together in a way that I don’t think I’ve seen in any other Voltron iteration—that they were meant to pilot Voltron, because their presence helped to unlock the final missing piece to bring it to life.

---

In addition, we get a really interesting look into the ancient past of the Voltron universe, back to the beginning of the first space empire. The comic’s big bad, Empress Jain IX, is an incredibly powerful and heartless sorceress of Drule heritage, from the planet Doon:

(Photo description: Empress Jain standing before the leader of a world she’s conquered, declaring, “And thus, the mighty fall! The powerful kneel at my feet! Behold the grandeur of your empress, and witness what happens to those who stand in her way!”)

But there’s always been this larger question in the Voltron franchise around King Zarkon’s unique, fish-like features compared to other Drule characters like Jain, and this comic answers that.

This is what the OG Zarkon looked like:

Compared to the ancient people of Korrinoth, who have similar ears and coloring as he does:

(Description: Keith says to the team, “I think we may be witnessing the beginning of King Zarkon’s people’s assimilation into the Drule Empire.”)

The planet that our protagonists crash-land on 1,200 years in the past is called Korrinoth. The people here had been recently conquered by Jain and share many similarities with the visual features of Zarkon. So this comic establishes that Zarkon has both Drule and Korrinite heritage. Unfortunately for Lotor, the Korrinites of the planet don’t acknowledge his Korrinite blood because he looks too Drule in comparison. So this comic reaches back on the hints that Lotor struggles to fit in with his own people…and it helps to explain why he’s captured along with Team Voltron:

(Photo description: Team Voltron and Lotor stand together, having been captured in a purple energy field functioning like jail bars.)

---

There’s also the concept that Voltron—just like the surrounding environment in Voltron franchise—is an amalgamation of science and magic. The comic’s big bad, Empress Jain, had discovered that her own dark sorcery arts could be challenged by the “lion gods,” who were demanding an increasing price be paid for her horrific conquering. In order to negate the lion gods’ power, Jain explicitly banned religious worship around them and any lion god iconography from her empire.

(Photo description: The dark entity Sarga says, “It is coming, and soon, that which may be your downfall. A twisted abomination of science and technology. The might of the Lion-Gods with the heart and mind of Man.” Jain says, “But I have banned worship of the Lions through the empire.”)

So the Voltron builders were reaching back to a very ancient, lost power that they were risking their lives to resurrect. The connection to a pantheon of lion gods helps to provide some logic around why the Voltron robot itself splits into lions—because it’s literally the symbol of these lost gods.

The visual design of Voltron is also reflected in the armor worn specifically by warriors fighting in the name of these banned gods:

(Photo description: A humanoid warrior wearing Voltron-based armor, coming to Team Voltron’s rescue at the command of the Council.)

So Voltron as a machine metaphorically stands as the Ultimate Warrior in humanoid form, supported by the individual lion gods.

---

Within the comic, it hints at some pretty intense religious discrimination—that Empress Jain was willing to arrest and torment even her own daughter, Azakhi for becoming a Lion Priestess:

(Photo description: Jain’s daughter, Azahki, is revealed to be a dirtied prisoner captured by Jain’s forces. She tells Team Voltron, “Do not fear my Drule appearance. I am a devout follower of your ways.”)

This background battle supports why Team Voltron and Lotor are instantly targeted by Jain’s forces when they crash-land on Korrinoth, bearing the banner of the lion gods in the form of Voltron.

Later on in the comic, we also see that the colors themselves represented the various domains of these lion gods:

(Photo description: An image of Voltron as it’s being built, with King Altarus narrating in the background, ““Yellow for win, red for fire, green for earth, blue for water, and at the center…the might blackness of space which houses all of reality.”)

So we really see Voltron pick up a lot more backstory to explain the robot itself.

We do get a deeper look as well into King Altarus and his Council.

King Altarus, Princess Allura’s ancestor, is the leader of the group. But the work involved in building Voltron doesn’t just rest with him like it did with Alfor in VLD. His council is just as equally if not more powerful than him in other ways.

In this panel, King Altarus introduces his four other team members as the most powerful scientists or sorcerers of their respective planet:

(Photo description: An introduction of the five council members of Altarus: “Cybrus hails from a world of sentient machines…More than a computer, he is also sorcerer to rival any other. The striking beauty to my right is Heket. Born of a nomadic race who travels the galaxy bestowing gifts of knowledge to primitive worlds. She is also the most brilliant scientist of her people. Phelos is a brilliant sci-mage from the neighboring solar system. If you are truly who you say, you may already know legends of our final ally. From a primitive world, but master of the most advance wizardry in the galazy: Merlin.”)

The combination of Altarus, Cybrus, Heket, Phelos, and Merlin all echo the 2016 Legendary Defender’s backstory—in which leaders of various people united together for the greater good of their galaxy. Once again, we have five unique planets represented in the Voltron effort—but in this case, it even includes Earth. This helps to explain part of why Voltron’s original design had very medieval attributes.

Maybe some would think it’s a bit hokey that the OG builders included the actual Arthurian figure of Merlin, the wizard? Idk, I think it’s kind of a fun way to connect Voltron’s ancient, magical past to Earth as well, and it suggests that Merlin was preparing or called by the others to help prepare for a future of advanced warfare. I’ve always wondered why the OG Voltron looked so medieval with the crests and the swords and such—and actually, it being built in part by a medieval human wizard would help to explain that!

We also see in the DDP comics a very heavy evolution to Allura’s character and to the world building within the Voltron franchise itself. She’s no longer just a princess who knows how to fight—she’s actively a Clairvoyant, with untapped power. King Altarus acknowledges, and the other Council members sense it, that Princess Allura has way more internal magic than she even knows about herself:

(Photo description: Council member Heket says to King Altarus, “I have a feeling about the girl [Allura]. Her aura is oddly similar to your own.”)

We also see that the dark entity Sarga recognizes this in her as well:

(Photo description: The dark entity Sarga says to Empress Jain, “The visitors…they each have a link to this monstrosity. However, the blood of only one of them pulses with the magic of Arus. The one called Allura! She is the one! She must be—” Jain cuts in, “The host!” And Sarga confirms, “Yes, with Princess Allura, Sarga will live in this realm once more. With her, we can control Voltron.”)

I feel like this magic probably helped to set the tone for the Princess Allura we meet in the 2016 Legendary Defender reboot, who ultimately got the opportunity to grow into the powers that are hinted at here in this previous iteration.

---

I do also like this comic because the protagonists (with the exception of Pidge who is 16) are adults, and they’re a little more mature in their decisions and interests.

Like, for example, the Lance in this comic has a much more extensive sensitivity to and interest in culture. Instead of it being Hunk bonding with aliens through food, we see Lance as the diplomat, bonding with Jain’s daughter Azahki, just by asking her questions:

(Photo description: Lance and Jain’s daughter, Azahki, sitting at a table and eating. Lance says, “That hit the sport. I was frickin’ starving.” Azahki says, “After being held prisoner for so long, I had forgotten what real food tastes like. So much time was wasted…so much life. Just sitting in a cell because of my beliefs. I…I’m sorry, Lance. This should be a nice evening, and I’m bringing the mood down.”)

(Photo description: Lance replies, “Actually, I’m fascinated to learn more about the followers of the Lions, and about you. Like, where you come from. You feel free to talk about whatever comes to mind.” Azahki responds then, “You’re too kind.”)

I think along with this, we see a more nuanced view into the Drule themselves. Azahki, as both a Drule and as Empress Jain’s daughter, has turned away from the evil deeds of the empire and has suffered dearly for trying to do the right thing. This falls in line with DDP’s dedication in the worldbuilding to show that not all Drule are bad.

We also see some very interesting, Honervian backstory relating to Empress Jain’s dark powers. Like VLD Honerva, Jain is in part backed by an ancient spirit/power she likes to “talk” to. She calls on it as the “Mother of Power.” This creepy creature is named Sarga in the comics:

(Photo description: Jain summons Sarga: “Mother of Power, Great Spirit, I summon thee.” The dark entity Sarga manifests and says, “Yesss, sweet Jain! You know my name! Feel free to speak it. Have you found the Host?” Jain replies, “Not yet, great Sarga. But the search continues. To date, my body is the only one that could sustain you in our realm.” Sarga says, “Jain. Do not be so simple-minded. It’s only your mortal shell.” Jain retorts, “One that I rather like, thank you.”)

Sarga is pushing for Jain to give up her mortal body entirely so that Sarga can walk the mortal plane, but they don’t see eye to eye on this. Jain likes having her own body. Even so, Sarga knows that she has to protect her investment in Jain, and so she’s the one who plants a devious idea in Jain’s head—that she could potentially use the Voltron from the future to destroy the Voltron of the past, and therefore reestablish her supremacy over the lion gods and their legacy.

Tbh, I visually get a LOT of vibes from Jain relating to VLD’s Honerva character? Down to the long stringy hair and gold eyes…and she really does look like a female version of Lotor, tbh, lol.

(Photo description: Jain leaning in a circle of candles, exhausted from summoning Sarga, who has referred to Voltron. Jain murmurs to herself, “Pow..power. There is power in that name.”)

I think what I like about Jain as a big bad, though, is that she’s legit just an evil person. She doesn’t have an abuse backstory, like what so many content creators like to reference as the reason for someone going insane/evil. She’s clearly very talented and very powerful and very in control, and she’s using those abilities in all the wrong ways just because she can.

Given DDP’s contributions to the Voltron franchise with its female villains (Merla, Jain), I almost can’t believe that the 2016 VLD show didn’t carry these characters forward but instead raised up the all-new Honerva as “needed female villain rep.” But I can definitely see the echoes of Jain in the Honerva that we see throughout VLD.

I also really, really see similarities in how Jain is willing to use her own daughter, Azahki, as a pawn for her own aims. And by the end of the comic, Jain eventually accomplishes bringing Sarga into the mortal plane by sacrificing her own daughter’s body. This pretty hauntingly echoes the lack of maternal instinct seen in Honerva in VLD and Honerva’s malicious interest in and use of Lotor, even post-death in s8.

I feel like I relived Honerva’s interactions with Lotor in s8 when I saw how Jain acts with her own daughter, Azahki:

(Photo description: Azahki has been shot in the battle. Jain kneels down to her and cries, “Daughter. My only daughter.” Azahki says, “Mother...you…you’re crying? I…I’m sorry…you didn’t give me… a choice.” Jain pleads, “You can’t do this, Azahki, not now. After being gone for so long and now…” But then Jain has a complete switch of demeanor. She stands up and declares, “Now you’ve ruined everything! Everything!” Azahki, bewildered, says, “What?” And Jain yells, “I should have killed you in your crib!”)

Another association with Honerva is that Honerva/Haggar killed the original paladins. Likewise, it is Jain who takes down the Council one by one:

(Photo description: Jain breaks into the Council, hand glowing with power and fallen warriors around her, saying, “How could someone with such feeble defenses have eluded me for so long, Altarus? I give you credit for that, at least.”)

(Photo description: Jane is surrounded by the dead bodies of Merlin and Heket. She says, “Now, to finish this.”)

So I guess I’m just fascinated by Jain as a villain and find her similarities with Honerva interesting. In Jain’s case, however, there’s absolutely nothing to be sympathetic with her on, lol.

In terms of Lotor’s part:

I think this comic represents probably the most actively hopeful iteration of him that I’ve seen in the Voltron franchise? Like, Dynamite Comics had Lotor moving to ally with Team Voltron to bring down the rift creatures in a massive alliance, but those comics were canceled before we could see the whole story that Brandon Thomas intended. Here, we have a whole, complete story in which Lotor actively does good deeds and lives, wow.

(I didn’t think that was, like, allowed in this franchise, lol?)

I do think it’s really interesting that here, Lotor comes face-to-face with just pure, unadulterated evil—and it scares him. Just like in VLD, this Lotor is forced to watch Jain decimate an entire planet and enslave its people. Despite being canonically “evil,” Lotor does not take this level of destruction very well:

(Photo description: Empress Jain speaking to an underling, saying, “For now, rid this planet of its luscious environment and warp home.”)

(Photo description: The planet is set ablaze by Jain’s forces. Lotor is looking on from a different ship. He is unsettled by Jain’s power and says, “My god.” His prisoner that he’s watching on Team Voltron’s request (the space pirate Captain Stride), teases, “Nothing like a little global decimation to build character, eh, Lotor?” And Lotor warns, “Stride,” with an upset look on this face.)

His motivations for helping out and connecting with both Team Voltron and King Altarus’s council do start with just wanting to save his own neck. But as the comic progresses, we see him taking larger and larger risks to help protect the team, and he responds more emotionally to the stakes being faced by other allies.

Jain’s level of evil, and her later attempts to target Princess Allura as a host body for the dark entity Sarga, are what really push Lotor out of the antagonist/villain role into the position of antihero. And I like this exploration of him because Lotor is a really fascinating character in the franchise and usually always a wild card. Like, he has the capacity to play both sides and be unpredictable.

And it’s interesting too that this comic even opens up by acknowledging that. In the beginning, King Altarus and his council are watching Team Voltron and Lotor recalibrate from their crash-landing on Korrinoth. King Altarus notes that Lotor is evil, but that he’s capable of doing good…because of his love for Allura:

(Photo description: King Altarus judging the team: “The girl has a clairvoyance about her, but doesn’t even realize it. I sense something noble about all of them…save for the Drule who should not be trusted. Although his apparent fondness for the woman may cause him to fight his true evil nature at least for a while.”)

Later in the comic, it’s King Altarus himself who leans on Lotor when he thinks all hope is lost. And it’s Lotor who holds him up and tries to take down Jain:

(Photo description: King Altarus leans upon Lotor and mourns, “She’s…she’s done it, Lotor. She’s ruined our chances. Five generations…for nothing.” Lotor has raised a blaster and replies, “Not without going through me first.”)

So we really see this comic actively allow Lotor’s character to do things outside of the typical bounds of a villain. The very person who called him inherently evil is the one wailing to him and counting on him to save the day, lol.

We also see echoes of VLD Lotor’s pride in this comic. The DDP Lotor is also a man of mixed heritage and is very proud of who and what he is.

(Photo description: Lotor is on the battlefield, having slain an enemy who’d called them pathetic. Lotor responds, “Pathetic? My noble blood begs to differ.”)

So I liked that once again, Lotor is actually proud of who he is even though the world around him actively tries to devalue him. I think that’s been something meaningful about the Lotor character that a lot of people have connected to.

In his efforts to assist Team Voltron in reclaiming their own recharged Voltron lions (so that Jain can’t get them), Lotor is actually a very helpful ally as well, and a skilled warrior. So it was fun to see panels of Team Voltron and Lotor fighting together, side by side.

THE CLIMAX AND RESOLUTION

Ultimately, the evil Empress Jain tries to take over the Voltron from the future, in realizing that Allura has deep, spiritual connections to the machine. She agrees that this makes Allura the perfect host body for the dark entity Sarga, and as their way to control the robot. And so she enacts the rituals to possess Allura:

(Photo description: Allura’s features are mutating unnaturally as Sarga begins to posses her. In the background, Jain calls, “Don’t fight it, child. Don’t fight the honor of becoming a god.” Someone in the background, revealed later to be Lotor, calls out, “No! You can’t do this!”)

With Jain threatening Allura’s life, Lotor steps up to defend her, still holding up the battered King Altarus:

(Photo description: Lotor yells, “No! Not Allura!” And he shoots Jain through the shoulder.)

(Photo description: Jain snaps, “Lotor! How dare you attack your own kind! I’ll smite my own daughter, let alone a pissant distant grandson!”)

Ultimately, Lotor’s decision to shoot his grandma (what is it with this franchise and matricide/patricide lol) results in Jain being distracted long enough for the combined spiritual/soul energies of Allura, the previous Council members, and Altarus to bring “life” to Voltron.

This completes Voltron as a spiritual being as well—that it’s sentient and not just a robot, but imbued with the hopes and impulses for a defender against the evil attacking them.

(Photo description: Voltron awakens as a sentient robot and stands to move against Jain.)

Realizing that she has lost, Jain flees in a poof of magic—with her daughter, Azahki, oddly disappearing too. The comic ends for them on an unsettling note that Sarga has in fact slipped through to the mortal realm…by choosing Azahki instead of Allura as her host body:

(Photo description: Jain kneels and cries, “Oh mighty Sarga, I humbly beseech thee. Forgive my failures. Forgive my ability to bring you into our world. I beg you to be given a second chance! I vow to you we will see this through.” From behind, someone says, “Don’t be so harsh, mother.” Jain turns around and asks, “Who dares?” A woman in a cloak appears and says, “You may have failed to give me Voltron’s power, my child. But do not fear.” The woman is revealed to be the possessed body of Azahki, Jain’s daughter. Through her body, Sarga says, “I found a body that will do just fine for now.”)

However, we don’t see this thread explored any further. Shortly after the battle, the Galaxy Alliance manages to rebuild a temporal manipulation device to lock in on the missing Team Voltron and Lotor, and pull them back through time.

(Photo description: A strange flying machine appears. Someone asks, “What…what is it?” Allura echoes, “What’s it doing?” Lotor peers at it curiously and says, “I believe it’s scanning us.” The comic panels show the device scanning and identifying people to send back to modern times.)

And so, eventually, this wayward team makes it back home, with the final panels suggesting the Garrison had to complete a couple of temporal jumps to do it.

FUN LITTLE PIECES ALONG THE WAY

The comic itself had some interesting and funny scenes in it, including the following:

Please enjoy this image of a boi having tamed a dinosaur in the middle of an active battle:

(Photo description: Prince Lotor sitting atop a large, dinosaur-like creature that he’s tamed, calling joyfully to the paladins, “You can put your toy away, Pidge. I know where to find the lions.”)

Pidge jokes about Hunk and Lance:

(Photo description: Hunk had saved Lance from a shot. In running past them, Pidge calls, “Keep moving, guys! There’ll be time for spooning later.”)

Some time-traveling paradox humor:

(Photo description: Lotor shooting an ancient Drule, “Hope you’re not one of my forefathers.”)

Some Keith and Lance badgering:

(Photo description: Lance complains, “Keith Kogane seriously isn’t going to lecture me about battlefield romance, is he?”)

Did VLD get the name Kaltor from this comic??? Because Kalthor sounds pretty darn similar to Kaltor from VLD:

(Photo description: Jain calling out for an underling, “Kalthor! Sigh. Kalthor, this effort is beneath me. Extract the information I seek.”)

ALSO BLESS, THIS COMIC LETS ALLURA CUSS:

(Photo description: Princess Allura raises a blaster to use, but it doesn’t work. She says, “What the--? Damn! Now is not the time for you to malfunction! And I do not know how to fix a 1,200-year-old—”)

This comic probably is also the singular place in the DDP comics that offers any evidence whatsoever that Lotor and Allura actually did have positive childhood experiences together prior to his father decimating Arus, helping to explain Lotor’s curious loyalty to Allura throughout:

(Photo description: Lotor standing before Allura and saying, “I knew you’d pull through, Allura. Speaking of treehouses, do you remember climbing the Arusion orchids in the royal gardens when we were children?” Allura responds, “Yes…of course I do. I…”)

And finally, this comic has no issues whatsoever with making fun of itself or the concept of robotic lions:

(Photo description: A space pirate complains to Lotor, “Think about it! How you think this place ends up looking like it does in our time? Looking like Planet Doom?! Meanwhile, the Kitty Cat Club up there gets out without a scratch!”)

VOLTRON IS THE KITTY CAT CLUB, 2008 CONFIRMED

CONCLUSION

The 5-part comic A Legend Forged (2008) adds an incredible amount of history and lore to the Voltron franchise. It gave me some things that I personally was really craving out of this franchise—including some logic behind the lion imagery, a legit alliance between previously warring groups that doesn’t just end in catastrophe, some adult snark and some good-old fashioned silliness, some deeper exploration into dark entities/spirits, and also just a really powerful villainess that you can love to hate.

I think the comic ultimately took on the theme of Strength in Unity and fulfilled the concept that people really can work together. Even if the Team Voltron and Lotor and Council alliance was all just temporary, it was still nice to see that alliance come through for the greater good of the universe, instead of leading to more mass insanity like it did in VLD….

I liked that in this iteration, Voltron stood as a collective effort on the part of various worlds who were oppressed by Empress Jain. That helps to tone down the savior complex inherent in the franchise, that at least here, Voltron wasn’t one nation’s attempt to play police for all other people.

From a critical perspective, if you read carefully, there are some instances where you can tell that various alien races are prejudiced against each other and discriminate on the basis of appearance and religion, and even Team Voltron feeds into this at times in their initial assumption that Korrinites are a barbarian race when in fact they’re very intelligent and advanced. These aspects are just not fully reflected on within this comic, but they definitely feed into the conflict as we experience it 1,200 years in the past. Interestingly enough, the comic also makes fun of Team Voltron members who are from Earth as being “primitive” too. So I guess the DDP world does function in a “problematic” state where all of these alien races are struggling with how to interact well with one another. I’m not sure if that baseline would be a potential trigger for someone just entering this series, so I wanted to call it out here.

I do also occasionally find comics hard to read because of the all-caps print and because comics will switch back and forth between past and present, with only small visual markers to warn you. So I don’t think these comics are designed in the most accessible way. But that could just be me.

---

Overall, I think A Legend Forged ranks as one of my more favorite comic iterations of Voltron. It definitely has some differences from both the 1984 and 2016 shows, but it pulls on enough shared content to remain accessible. And while it was a quick read, it felt pretty tightly constructed. I would have liked to see more aftermath and epilogue, but I feel thankful that the story got an ending and that both Team Voltron and Lotor are shown being transported back home. The comic’s similarities and differences compared to VLD made it fun to read and analyze as well.

So yeah, if you get the chance to try reading it yourself, I recommend it! And if you’ve made it to the end of this very long post, thank you for reading!

#Comics #Voltron #Comics review #A Legend Forged #Allura #Lotor #Keith #Hunk #Lance #Pidge #Zarkon #Jain #Azahki #Coran #DDP Voltron #yay I finally finished my review piece #it actually was a pretty enjoyable read

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sylvanvixen · 3 years

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@dungeonqueering

It’s here and it’s amazing! I cannot overstate how hyped I am for this project! Exalted is a fantastic and beautiful setting and the design for Exalted Essence has been fabulous.

It’s an amazing mythic fantasy world drawing from myths, legends and pop culture from all across the world, actively choosing to focus on world building that diverges heavily from medieval western fantasy. Various stated locations include cultures inspired by mixes of various places and time periods including China, India, Venice, Athens, Baghdad and a heck of a lot more.

The system that we’ve seen so far is an amazing game that runs fast and straightforwardly, rewards cool descriptors, makes convictions and bonds between characters mechanically relevant and gives every character cool magical abilities that enhance their stats and an awesome battle aura that buffs their skills, it’s also not restrictive in it’s powers for the most part, a fighty type character can totally invest in the knowledge skill and all the cool powers associated with it. There’s full social mechanics engaging in romance or rivalry (or both!) and for downtime projects like running a kingdom, navigating a wilderness, crafting and magical rituals.

The design team for this game is awesome, they’ve been incredibly cool and open while talking with fans, they’ve put in deliberate effort to avoid cultural stereotypes in their work, the art for the game includes diverse, multicultural characters, a number of women doing awesome things and several disabled characters. The design team is also majority queer, several of them even run a podcast about queer women speaking about rpgs called Bonus Experience!

The character options for this game are really rad!

Characters play as mortal heroes who've been empowered by one of the major gods or other cosmic beings of the setting who are given the power to perform magical and mythical feats in a diverse fantasy setting. It's got 10 Exalted (basically classes) each with subtypes called Aspects or Castes (basically subclasses).

Solars: Heroes with conviction to change the world powered by the Sun god they're mythic heroes and kings of light and excellence, basically most of the Avengers, Hercules, Adora, classic 'protagonist' dudes.

Lunars: Heroes who stand outside society empowered by the Moon God/ess, they’re shapeshifting warriors, tricksters and witches, think Maui, Loki and Double Trouble, the more wild card characters, explicitly trans validating with a gender fluid patron.

Dragon Blooded: Heroes born of blessed family lines empowered by the elemental dragons, passionate and numerous, basically elemental samurai, think the Avatar, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and most of the She-ra Princesses.

Sidereals: Heroes chosen by Fate, secret agents of heaven trying to create a better future with powers to forsee fate and obscure memory, like spy-thrillers with weird esoteric ninja powers, imagine if sailor moon was a spy/ninja show.

Getimians: Heroes who never were, heaven in Exalted is a bureaucracy and sometimes prophesied heroes end up edited out of destiny, returned by a rogue sidereal these heroes awoke in a world in which they were never born and their great deeds undone, now with funky quantum powers, like It's a Wonderful Life as an anime protagonist.

Alchemicals: Heroes born of metal, found in ancient tombs of the machine-titan, these heroic souls were reborn in bodies of magical metal and made to serve a community, able to incorporate magic item powers into their bodies, basically the Iron Giant meet every awesome sentient robot hero but in a fantasy setting

Liminals: Heroes born from death, resurrection doesn't work in Exalted but when someone tries you get a FMA situation where some new being is born in the body blessed by the OG death goddess with awesome ghost hunting powers and creepy body horror, think Frankenstein or FMA hommunculi, but with psychic powers and the ability to hunt ghosts in order to help protect the veil between life and death.

Abyssals: Heroes brought back from death, empowered by the ghost kings of the underworld these deathknights are empowered to become the lords of the underworld with spooky dark powers, very castlevania, vampire hunter D, and basically any gothic heavy metal album cover, not necessarily villains but it's an option.

Infernals: Heroes beaten down by the world order and empowered by the trapped titans to rebel against the world that hurt them, Punk rock kings of hell with their own final boss demon form and awesome alien powers, totally able to play a lot of villains, totally don't have to be evil, you could easily do Dante from DMC or Bayonetta.

Exigents: The exalted of any number of smaller gods and basically the homebrew Exalt, the example one is the champion of a Field God who gave up his power to empower the Strawmaiden who began cutting down an army of evil fairies like wheat. Has provided rules and guidelines for making your own exalted and their cool own powers, so you could be the champion of a god of rainbows, mice or libraries.

Exalted doesn't have proper 'race' options like D&D, if it's going to say something isn't human than it means it (Elves are called Raksha and they're vampiric chaos spirits given shape by dreams to look beautiful and terrifying for example) but you can totally play a 'mortal' with weird fantastic features; some people are beastmen so you could play a snakeperson or a catboy, some people carry the descent of spirits so you could play a character with the style of a tiefling, aasimar, genasi or weird fey character and some people just hung around faerie realms or sorcerers and were given strange mutations or powers

This game is just so damn cool. Check out the project, you can back it for 5$ and you’ll get access to the full rules text of the game, released in chunks throughout the kickstarter (Basically the full book, just without the editing, formatting and all the art) and if you like it you can bump up the pledge at any point afterwards, including after the project is over. It’s already funded several times over!

#exalted rpg #Exalted game #Exalted Essence #Long post

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mymothershumility · 3 years

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neverflownwithme asked: “Princes bleed just like other men.”

past transmissions || { always accepting }

{ Part 1 } & { Part 2 } & { Part 3 } & { Part 4 } & { Part 5 }

{ Part 6 } & { Part 7 } & { Part 8 } & { Part 9 } & { Part 10 }

{ @neverflownwithme }

Though the room about them is small in size, it is packed to near bursting with all manner of items. Leather bound tomes are piled upon shelves, scrolls arranged atop desks, and trunks stacked along the stone walls. For then, such items pale in comparison to the painting that had drawn her eye when the room had been flooded with light.

Eyes drift over the portrait, gaze flickering across the seven figures painted upon the canvas. She knows them all save for one. The youngest of the seven is little more than an infant with her dark mahogany curls and shining amethyst eyes. She is swaddled in deep grey and white silks and cradled in the crook of her mother’s arm.

Saera.

Laira recalls the name as if it is an extension of herself... as if it is a part of her. As she ponders the state of her dreams of late --looks upon the physical manifestation of them-- she cannot help but think such a thing might be true. Her visions have been too detailed --have felt far too real-- for there to be another explanation.

And, now, there is all of this.

“There has never been a recorded recount of the Targaryens and the Starks marrying,” Hal says, eyes still trained on the painting.

His voice surprises Laira, has her own gaze turning to look at him. He has been quiet since their discovery, focus devoted to the portrait before them. Still, there is no disbelief or confusion in his voice. As Laira looks to him, he seems almost relieved by what they have stumbled across hidden within the walls of her solar.

“None before the two of us,” Laira offers, pausing as she considers her next question. She is hesitant to voice it aloud.

‘Ask him if he knows,’ something whispers to her. ‘Tell him what you have seen while you have slumbered.’

It is not the taunting voice from King’s Landing that speaks to her. Instead, it is the comforting one that had soothed her when she had first woken upon Dragonstone. Again, fear seems to slither its way down the column of her spine. Is she losing herself to grief and anger once again?

Has the damage already been done?

Is she going mad?

Has she already slipped into the abyss?

“It is Visenya Targaryen,” Laira begins, her voice hesitant, “and Tor...”

“I know,” he interrupts, eyes still trained upon the portrait. “I know who they are.”

His words shock her, make her body go rigid as she reaches for him. Her hand sets itself upon his arm, fingers practically trembling as she holds on to him. “How?” Laira asks, fearing what he may say to her. Has she told him of her dreams in some past conversation? Has she confided in him and forgotten it?

When he reaches and sets his hand over the top of her own, thumb ghosting across the bumps of her knuckles, some of her fears abandon her. She feels as though his coming answer is not so dire... that, perhaps, her fears are unwarranted. All the same, he seems hesitant himself to speak after her inquiry… if only for a moment.

“I’ve had dreams about them,” Hal finally admits, the words low. His brow has pinched together in thought again, a look of practical relief fluttering across his face the longer he gazes upon the portrait before them. “All of them,” he goes on, giving a nod towards the portrait.

Laira cannot keep herself from clinging to him all the tighter, relief bleeding through the press of her fingers and the gaze that she casts across to him. “I have seen them as well,” she admits aloud. There is something freeing about the admission, something that lifts the weight that has been settled over her shoulders since she had awakened screaming not so long ago. “I have been dreaming of them since arriving here.”

“So have I,” Hal returns. He lets his gaze linger a moment or two longer on the portrait before he turns to look at her. “I thought, perhaps, all the trials and the losses we have faced might have been to blame for it. Some sort of wishful thinking on my part.”

He pauses in his explanation once more, a sigh working its way from him. When he does, Laira speaks before he can continue on. “I do not believe that our dreams are so simple in their origins,” she admits. Not now. Not after the bloodstained stones within her solar. Not after the portrait that seems more mirror than painting to her. “Do you?” she asks him.

“No more than you do.”

They keep their positions just on the outskirts of the room, neither wishing to breach the threshold and pass through the open doorway before them. Too much uncertainty lingers ahead of them. Far too many questions are brewing. Though Laira wishes to find some sort of answer to all that has been occurring in the capital and there among Dragonstone’s ancient walls, there is also a part of her that worries what she may discover.

“It’s late,” Hal murmurs over to her, arm moving so that he can set it across the plain of her back. His hand finds a home at her waist, fingers dipping into the fabric of her robe. “We can investigate matters further when morning comes. You need to rest,” he reminds. His statement is punctuated by a brief kiss to her temple and the press of his cheek to the crown of her head. “We will find the answers to our questions.”

She cannot deny his observation, does not even think to try. Her body is sore in all the ways that she anticipated it would be from their lovemaking mere hours before. And, though her nightmare has faded away to nothing more than a passing discomfort, her head now aches and throbs because of it. Rest would be wonderful, yet Laira is uncertain how much she will be granted now.

The Queen allows her husband to draw her away from the room and back towards the main living area of their apartments. She allows her magic to slip, watching over the line of her own shoulder as the sconces upon the walls flicker before extinguishing all together.

Returned to their bed, there is little rest to be found despite the exhaustion that clings just at the back of her mind. Buried beneath the sheets and the heavy duvet atop their bed, back pressed to Hal’s chest, Laira attempts to let the calming hammer of her husband’s heartbeat and the grumbling roar of thunder sooth her back to slumber. Disquiet awaits her each time her eyes slipped closed. She sees the portrait in the back of the hidden room within her solar at times. But, mostly, she sees Shiera Seastar, gasping and dying among a pool of blood in ruined silver and pearl silks.

If Hal sleeps, she cannot be certain. Too many times she feels his breathing change, feels his muscles bunch as if in anticipation of some sort of strike. He keeps still despite all of that, holding her to him as they both attempt to rest. It is a hopeless attempt, in the end; however, Laira welcomes the comfort he gives to her all the same.

When dawn begins to break, casting a hazy gray light through the windows of their apartments, Laira slips out of Hal’s hold to go in search of clothing to change into. She has fresh dresses and gowns available to her, all of them hanging pristinely within her armoire. She sees very little use in donning them, though. With all that she is planning to do that day, it seems senseless to ruin a dress or a gown among the dust of the hidden room. She pulls out a pair of soft riding leathers and one of Hal’s worn tunics, slipping on both in relative quiet. Taking up her abandoned pair of silvered hair pins, she sweeps her hair up into a tangled nest of curls atop her head before securing the hair in place.

Feet bare, but dressed otherwise, she steps back into her solar. The doors are left ajar as she enters, the sconces upon the wall bursting to life with flame. Those within the hidden room do the same, yellow light reflecting off the dark stone within it and casting dancing shadows across the space.

Everything is as it was those few short hours before. Leathered journals, tomes, and heavy trunks are stacked in every available space. There is another Myrish carpet set along the floor, one that stretches from wall to wall in all directions.

Pausing for only a moment at the threshold Laira steps into the small room, breath momentarily hitching in her chest. She anticipates something. What, she cannot say. A vision, perhaps. Or some other oddity. When none manifest, her breath leaves her in a relieved sounding sigh.

Stale air still lingers in the space, clinging to the walls and carpet beneath her feet. Everything seems to loom about her as she stands just inside the doorway. It’s near overwhelming, the stacks of tomes, scrolls, and sealed trunks. The portrait at the end of the space, lit by the dim rays of dawn breaking through the windows of her solar, is all the more striking.

Turning, she reaches and begins sorting through the stacks of leather bound journals and scrolls that are piled upon a desk near the doorway. She does not know how else to begin, does not know if there is even a correct place to start. Among the stacks, one journal above all the others draws her attention. She recognizes the Lyseni craftsmanship, the deep amethyst leather impeccable. Moreover, the three headed dragon of House Targaryen is emblazoned in silver along the front cover.

Flipping through the pages, she finds them filled in their entirety in a foreign --yet strangely familiar-- hand. The pages are filled with various journal entries, recounts from as far back as 193 AC. Laira begins reading from the first entry, eyes traveling across the page and the carefully penned words that are written upon it.

The first several entries are short, snippets of encounters and happenings. Some of the entries contain notes, reminders for the recorder. Others contain desires or wishes. Some, even, list grievances and fears. It is not until a quarter way through the journal that the entries seem to shift. They become longer, more detailed. It is easy for Laira to pinpoint the cause of the change. By then, she has seated herself in the middle of the room, legs drawn up so she is sitting cross-legged upon the Myrish carpet. The journal is resting in her lap, fingers ghosting along the silvered edges of the bound parchment as she devours the words.

She does not start when two familiar presences join her. The first comes to rest against her side, black fur brushing against her legs and the exposed skin of her arms. Moone whines for attention, going quiet only when she is granted the sweep of Laira’s hand over the top of her head. The second presence comes but a moment later. Hal slips up behind her, bending until he is sliding into place behind her with a tired sounding sigh. She recognizes the exhaustion all too well… feels it herself bearing down upon her shoulders.

Still, she slides back to sit between his legs at the press of his hand to the crook of her elbow, her own legs uncrossing to help push herself back. She folds them underneath one of his own when she settles, toes momentarily curling against the carpet.

“You did not sleep,” Hal speaks, leaning over her shoulder to see what she is reading.

“Neither did you,” Laira returns, mouth quirking when she feels him press a kiss down onto the bare line of her shoulder. “I hope that it was no fault of mine.”

“You know better.”

“Perhaps,” Laira concedes. Another smile lifts the corners of her mouth when a porcelain cup is passed over her shoulder to her. The porcelain is warm under her fingers when she takes it from Hal. The contents swirling within it smell heavily of orange and ginger. “Thank you.”

His initial answer comes in the form of a quiet grunt, arms moving until they are wrapped around her. The flats of his palms rest against the plain of her stomach, fingers intertwining until they are steepled together over her. “Mira gave me a rather scandalized look when I granted her entry.”

“I pray you were clothed,” Laira murmurs. When she sips from her cup, she releases a quick sigh of approval. Her tea is sweetened perfectly with honey. There is a hint of lemon lingering in the background of the brew as well. Her husband’s doing, she knows. Laira holds the cup back to Hal in offer, keeping hold of it until she feels one of his hands rise to take it from her hand.

“Partially,” he admits, drinking from the cup himself. His sip is more careful than his wife’s, not wishing to scald his tongue or the roof of his mouth. “My tunics have begun disappearing once again.”

“A curious mystery.”

Laira welcomes the ease of the conversation, welcomes the way that they are able to converse in such a manner despite what they have stumbled upon just hours before and what surrounds them even now. There is some sort of unspoken vow there between them, Laira thinks. A vow that they will find the answers that they so desperately hope to, yet will not allow anything to sway what they already are to one another. They cannot allow a desire for answers to ruin what is already there between them.

And, they shall not.

“What have you found?” Hal finally asks her, taking another drink from the cup before passing it back to Laira. “A maester’s recount of something?”

“A personal journal,” Laira answers, fingers plucking the cup back from him. She takes her own sip and then sets it aside on the carpet beside them. “It belonged to Shiera Seastar.” As for all of the other items within the room, Laira cannot say. “Aegon IV’s final mistress, Lady Serenei of Lys, has been mentioned among the pages I have read a number of times. Queen Naerys and the Dragonknight have been as well.” She goes quiet. Then, she admits, “I dreamt of her last night. Shiera, that is. She was in my nightmare.”

There is little known about the Star of the Sea. That, Laira already knows too well. Yet, Laira can recall the various dates that surrounded Aegon IV’s last Great Bastard. Those recorded, thus far, within the journal intersect perfectly with the life that Shiera Seastar would have lived. What baffles her most, though, is the mystery surrounding the latter portions of her life.

Why was there such secrecy? Why was there so little known of her?

As she ponders such a thing, additional questions spring to mind. Why was Visenya Targaryen surrounded in mystery? Why was Rhaena of Pentos?

“This entry,” she begins, fingers lightly tapping the edges of the pages, “is of particular interest.”

“What does it say?” Hal asks. Some of the script he can read over his wife’s shoulder.

Laira lifts the journal from her lap, holding it closer to her so that she may read from it while allowing Hal the opportunity to follow along with her if he wishes. “The Wolves have journeyed to the capital at Daeron’s request. More have come in tow than originally anticipated. I encountered the Heir of Winterfell earlier in the day out among the gardens. Having listened to my good-sister speak of him, I had expected him to be older than he was and not of my own age…”

The Queen’s private gardens are her favorite. Here, she can sit and read without being bothered by the stares and the whispers of others. The Queen and the King are always kind to her -- have always been kind to her. The King calls her little sister and dotes upon her in a way that her father never had in the few short years that she had known him. And, the Queen is as near a mother to her as she can desire.

All the same, the King and Queen’s pleasantries cannot undo the gossip and the sneers that members of their court give to her when she walks among them. Even at the age of five-and-ten, she has garnered a reputation for herself. It is a reputation fanned into flame by slander and misunderstanding, yet it is a reputation all the same.

It is such a reason that she prefers the solitude of the gardens to the chattering halls of court.

Silver skirts bunched beneath her knees, Shiera bends forward to snip pieces of lavender from the bush in front of her. The trimmings join the others in her basket. She has found all manner of things in her trek among Queen Myriah’s gardens that day. There are pieces of lemon thyme, lavender, and mint in her basket. There are also pieces of tansy, basil, wormwood, and pennyroyal among half a dozen other plants and herbs. And, Shiera has use for all of them.

Some, she will use in medicines and tonics. Others, for cures that some ladies of the court dare not speak of aloud.

Humming softly, she is leaning to snip pieces of rosemary from a nearby plant when a shadow falls over her. She feels the presence clawing faintly at the back of her mind before the voice comes.

Both are uninvited. Both are unwelcome.

“Shiera.”

The young girl scowls, focus devoted to the rosemary plant that she now cuts. She drops the sprigs into her basket alongside all the others, refusing to acknowledge the presence that still hovers just behind her. She hates Bloodraven and everything that he brings forth with him in his wake.

How someone as kind as Lady Melissa Blackwood could birth a son such as Bloodraven truly baffled her.

“Don’t be cold,” Bloodraven says.

There is a hint of a growl to his words. Shiera hears it as well as the birds chirping in the trees all about her. The growl sends a shiver up her spine… or, perhaps that is Bloodraven’s tampering once again. She feels the clawing at the back of her mind once more, a desperate attempt by something dark and incredibly dangerous to gain access to her in some forsaken manner.

Shiera refuses to yield, has long since proven to be a host that Bloodraven cannot gain access to. The daughter of Serenei of Lys would never be one to be so easily controlled. Her defiance only serves in fanning Bloodraven’s temper. Such a feat seems to be a more common one as of late. There is a great deal of pride in that for Shiera.

Let him know that he has met his match in her. Let him know a girl five years his junior already holds more power than he does.

When the shadow above her moves, and Shiera sees a hand stretching out for her, she whirls and slaps the hand away from her. Her gardening shears are dropped, another blade snatched up from the amethyst belt at her waist and thrust in Bloodraven’s direction. The dagger in her hand had once belonged to her mother, had been an heirloom of Serenei’s Lyseni family for generations. Forged from Valyrian steel, Shiera grasps the handle of it tightly in her palm, the blade gleaming smoke gray in the early afternoon sun.

Bloodraven stares at her, having stopped in his advance. He stares. And then, all at once, he begins to laugh. The sound makes Shiera’s skin crawl.

“What are you going to do, Shiera?” Bloodraven taunts. “Kill me? Our dear brother will have your head for such a thing.”

He moves again and, when he does, Shiera slashes with merciless intent. The blade drives home, slashing deep across the other’s untainted cheek. There is nothing that has ever sounded so sweet as the surprised yell that Bloodraven gives in answer to her strike.

Her victory --no matter how small-- is short lived. In the next moment, Bloodraven’s hand is connecting with her own cheek. The force of the slap sends her stumbling to the ground, body upsetting the contents of her basket in her fall as her dagger jolts out of her grasp and scitters across the brick pathway winding through the garden. She attempts to scream when Bloodraven’s weight falls atop her, finds that the sound is muffled, though, by the press of his palm over her mouth and nose. She can’t breathe. She thrashes and shrieks behind his hand, screams louder and louder when she feels his free hand attempting to yank the bottom of her skirts up.

Just as quickly as Bloodraven’s attack starts, it stops.

Shiera feels the other’s weight leave her, hand torn away from her mouth and nose. She gasps for breath, half screaming in the process. Over the sound of her panicked gasps, she hears the sound of flesh connecting against flesh. The sound of snapping bone comes and then Bloodraven is howling and cursing. Shiera looks about her at the sound, searching for her dagger. She spots it only a second later, shining just across the garden pathway. She nearly trips twice over the length of her silver skirts as she bolts to retrieve it.

“You bitch!”

Shiera hears it screamed at her, turns just as she is snatching up her dagger to see Bloodraven making another bolt for her. His cheek is still bleeding from the strike she dealt him. But now, there is additional injury. His nose looks crooked. There is blood pouring openly from it. Broken, Shiera realizes. She cannot temper the fluttering satisfaction that rises within her at the sight. She anticipates another slap from the man, braces herself as she clutches her dagger tighter in her hand. Another body is stepping between her and Bloodraven in the next moment, an unmoving shield between her and her demented half-brother.

“Northern dog!” Bloodraven yells.

Bloodraven never advances beyond the man standing before her. When he tries to bull through him, the man --a Northman, Shiera gathers-- takes hold of Bloodraven’s doublet and throws him back onto the brick pathway. The Northman’s arm extends back while Bloodraven attempts to collect himself upon the ground, urging her to remain hidden behind him. Shiera makes no move to depart from the safety of her spot. She does not move to relinquish the hold upon her dagger, either.

Stumbling back onto his feet, Bloodraven growls low in his throat, glaring over to where Shiera still hides behind the safety of her rescuer. He spits blood at the two of them, wiping his bloodied nose upon the now ruined sleeve of his doublet. A finger is jabbed in Shiera’s before he skulks away, a threat growled out as he retreats.

“I will have you.”

The words send fear cascading down the column of her spine. She takes half a step closer to her rescuer, her free hand touching at his shoulder to steady herself. She’s surprised when she feels his own hand set itself against her arm. She flinches --unwillingly-- with the contact, but does not shrug away from it.

Neither she nor her rescuer make an attempt to move, not until Bloodraven is retreating down the garden pathway in a near whirlwind of black and crimson silks. Each and every step that he takes is framed with a loud curse. It isn’t until he is out of sight that Shiera finds herself willing to move. She steps away from the remaining man, hurrying back across the pathway to where her herbs now lay scattered among the grass. Half of them are bruised and flattened. She will be able to find some purpose for them, she knows, but it will not be what she originally anticipated using them for.

With a sigh, Shiera bends and sets her knees back into the soft grass, skirts bunched up around her again. Her basket is righted before she begins collecting all that has been scattered in Bloodraven’s strike. She keeps her dagger in hand, working slowly. When a presence settles down beside her in the grass --the Northman, she realizes a moment after--, Shiera pauses in her gathering to watch him out of the corner of her eye. He has short-cropped dark brown hair and eyes that are a near match. As she watched him, she thinks his eyes are actually a shade darker than his hair.

“Are you all right?”

Shiera nearly laughs at such a question. This is not the first time that Bloodraven has acted in such a way. She knows that it shall not be the last as well. This is the first time, though, that he has come as close as he did in succeeding in his attack. He is becoming bolder each time.

“Would you like me to find a maester for you?” the Northman asks, a bundle of herbs placed back into the young woman’s basket. “Or one of the Queen’s guards?”

Shiera immediately shakes her head, gathering another fistful of herbs. “They do not need to know,” she tells him. And, then, “You should not have done that. He will be angry now…”

“Princes bleed just like other men,” the Northman tells her. “I should have done worse for what he was attempting to do, Princess.”

She smiles at his response, less from his reasoning and more from what he calls her. “I am not a princess.” To many there at court, she was barely even a lady. The Westerosi courts had little favor for bastard born daughters and sons… even those of royal and noble birth. “And Bloodraven is no prince.”

The thought occurs to her, just a moment later, that the Northman assumed such about Lady Melissa’s son… that he’d defended her in such a physical manner against a man he thought to be a royal.

“He’s not even a man.”

That makes Shiera smile. There have never been truer words spoken. “No, he is not.”

At times, Shiera thinks he is something entirely inhuman. She had thought so since the very moment she met him.

With her herbs back in her basket, Shiera gathers her shears and begins to stand. She’s surprised when her basket is taken up ahead of her. She is even more surprised at the hand that the Northman offers down to her in aid. There’s a moment of hesitation before Shiera reaches to take hold of it and climbs back to her feet. Shiera expects him to relinquish her basket back to her and be on his way. Instead, he keeps his hold on it and offers his free arm to her.

Shiera watches him for a time before slipping her dagger in her hand back into the belt at her waist. Then, she reaches to slip her arm through the other’s own.

“Do Northmen make a habit of defending ladies from unwanted advances and then acting as their escorts?” she asks him, walking with him as he leads her back to the garden pathway. He turns them back towards the Red Keep as they begin walking side-by-side. “Or is it merely a personal code for some?”

“My father would be angered if he discovered I had left a lady to journey anywhere on her own after such a harrowing encounter.”

Shiera makes a sound of understanding. Then, she asks, “And, what would he say to not formally introducing yourself to the lady you aided?”

He laughs at her question. “He would likely be angered all the same,” he admits. “My name is Donnor.”

“Donnor,” Shiera repeats. “Thank you for coming to my aid,” she tells him. Most of the men visiting court would not have… would have been turned away by the reputation that followed her about the court.

“You owe me no thanks for that.”

“That does not mean it is not owed to you.”

It’s Donnor’s turn to hum in understanding. He follows it with a question of his own. “Would my lady grant me her own name?”

“Shiera,” she tells him. When she turns to look at him, she finds him already watching her. “My name is Shiera.”

{ @truetargaryen & @fullrangeofemotions & @xcoatlicuex & @thequeenmaker & @ialwayswasthebest & @viperparamour & @hisvipereyes & @nolongerhispawn & @adornishviper & @shewhoisironborn & @anunfailingkindness & @therosesofhighgarden & @aladyofwinterfell & @fairytalesandstars & @iveneverbeenagoodgirl & @zaldrizo & @arisiarrxb & @alionessroars }

#neverflownwithme #;transmissions #v; fire cannot kill a dragon #;drabble #otp; you are the light in the dark #tw: assault

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adapembroke · 3 years

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Cupid and Psyche: An Allegory for Moon People

The ancient Greeks and Romans told a story about a woman named Psyche who was so beautiful, she was compared to Venus.

Venus was angry at the comparison and punished the land. A seer was consulted and decreed that Psyche must to marry a monster to assuage the wrath of the goddess. Her family marched Psyche to the wilderness where she was left to die, but she was carried by the wind to a beautiful house.

Later that night, in her dark bedroom, Psyche was visited by an unknown lover who left by dawn. During all of these visits, Psyche was never allowed to see her lover or know his identity.

For many nights these visits continued until Psyche’s sisters, wracked by worry (and, no doubt, curiosity) were allowed to visit Psyche at her new home. Jealous of her new life, her sisters chided her for her foolishness, suggested that Psyche’s lover must be a monster. Why else would he refuse to be seen in the light?

In response to her sister’s cajoling, Psyche brought a lamp and a knife (in case her lover really was a monster) to her bedroom and lit it when her lover was asleep. Instead of a monster, she found a beautiful man with wings, the god Cupid, Venus’s son.

In her shock, she spilled some of the oil, injuring Cupid, and Cupid flew out the window leaving Psyche alone.

Thus began her grief and trials. She wandered the earth looking for Cupid, helping the gods and receiving no help in return, until she appealed to Venus directly for help. Venus punished her for seducing her son with a series of impossible tasks, hiding from Psyche the fact that Cupid was healing in Venus’s own house.

With help, Psyche completes all of Venus’s tasks but the last, a descent to the underworld for beauty from Proserpina. Curious, Psyche looks in the box just as she is about to finish her task and is sent into a magical sleep.

Fortunately, Cupid has healed by then and saves her from her sleep, carrying her to realm of the gods, where he begs Jupiter to allow her to marry him. Jupiter agrees in exchange for Cupid’s help seducing women, and he gives her ambrosia to drink, transforming her into a goddess.

The gods attend the wedding of Cupid and Psyche, and they live happily ever after.

The Trials of the Moon-Ruled

The story of Cupid and Psyche is often told as an allegory—the union of the soul with God, the temptations of the flesh, the reward of committed love.

As an astrologer, I see another story in it: the trials of being a person who is ruled by the moon in a world ruled by the sun.

In the story, Psyche is swept along from one thing to the next in a passive way. This can be interpreted through a feminist lens as a statement about the proper role of women in the patriarchy, but it is also the way lunar people prefer to go through life. It is solar people who prefer to go through life with a plan, and lunar people are taught that their way of being in the world, responding to their surroundings instead of forcefully creating events, is misguided or irresponsible.

Initially, Psyche’s approach works for her. She is carried into the arms of a man who loves her. Like lunar people, she listens to her intuition, which tells her that her circumstances are lovely, even if she isn’t able to see everything that is happening to her clearly. The moon is the luminary of the night. Moonlight does not reveal the world with the precision of sunlight, but its dimness allows us to hear more clearly the voice of intuition and the heart.

Things go badly for Psyche when her sisters insist that she bring a light into her bedchamber, revealing the identity of her lover in a blinding, solar way.

Psyche’s trials are the trials of a lunar person who is forced onto an achievement-oriented track in life. She is thrust into the role of the solar heroine and despairs every step of the way. It is her lunar drive to form relationships that saves her. At every challenge, she is met by an ally with special knowledge who gives her what she needs to succeed.

Cupid and Psyche: A How-To Guide for Lunar People

Ultimately, the myth of Cupid and Psyche can be read as an instruction manual for lunar people:

1. Trust your intuition. Even if you don’t have all the cold, hard facts, your intuitive sense of people and situations is designed to help you navigate situations where you don’t know everything.

2. Resist advice that tells you to use rationality in a situation you feel requires mystery, intuition, and emotional finesse to navigate.

3. Life doesn’t have to be a competition. It’s okay to just enjoy life and not orient your life around collecting accomplishments.

4. Look for allies. You don’t need to be the conquering hero, achieving everything by yourself. Your ability to form relationships with people who have knowledge and strengths you do not is wisdom, not weakness.

How about you? Does the myth of Cupid and Psyche resonate for you? I would love to hear about your experience on Instagram.

Learn more about the moon in astrology…

#astrological moon #archetypal astrology #mythology

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matovilka · 3 years

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"Shapes In The Ice" - old Planescape stuff

I wrote this Planescape fluff for old D&D forums I frequented in early 2000s, and found the file as I was cleaning my disk. Do what you will with this.

Shapes In The Ice

It's been a year since his mentor was lost in Gehenna, and young Arvandor was on his second expedition without his mentor. Last time, he was in Gray Waste, and in Gehenna, looking for his teacher. He didn't find him. Whatever happened to him, there was no trail left to follow, and no spell however powerful it was, could locate him. Arvandor lost all hope three months ago, while escaping a party of 'loth soldiers on the slopes of Mungoth.

This time, he was chasing one of those mythic shapes in the ice, deep in the cold Cania. He always thought Hell was hot, justifying the term "hot as Hell". And now he saw he was going to have to pay off some debts, as the "Hell has frozen over". Life couldn't be more miserable at this point. Well, it could, seeing how greedy local officials were. Luckily, the contract was pretty solid, with very few loopholes they could use.

Their camp was on a large glacier, far from Mephistar and the Pit, constantly protected from the penetrating cold by magic. Very expensive magic. Arvandor was getting more and more frustrated by every day that was spent on this freezing place, so deep in Hell that they were almost at the bottom. Expenses for protection from cold, supplies, permissions from and kickbacks to various devil clerks, lords, guards... it was all taking a toll on his budget, and unless they managed to drill into that glacier soon, and extract that shape, they would all have to pack, and leave until they managed to get more funding (and all of the permits) again. He almost wished he was back in the Wastes; at least he didn't care about much there.

After almost two months of digging through the hardest ice, so old it was not possible to reliably date it, they were only dozens of feet from the first shape - a winged humanoid. It seemed there were two more shapes in there, one more that was most probably winged, also, and another that was only a large blot. At the current rate, in two, maybe three days, they would be able to extract the first fossil.

Arvandor was at the dig site almost all the time, and he ordered the diggers to work around the clock, with three of his assistants constantly monitoring their progress, and making sure that they wouldn't destroy anything. With every minute passing, he was getting more excited, and more nervous. He couldn't wait till they dug it out.

Finally, on the morning of the third day, a block of ice, with first shape, was ready to be carried out of the tunnel. It seemed to encase a very tall humanoid, with feathery wings. It seemed to be frozen in the middle of combat, one hand gripping a large sword, and another pointing in what could be interpreted as arcane gesture. The block was carried to the camp, into one of the buildings erected from solid ice blocks, reinforced with more magic. Additional guards were put up, not the local devils, but modrons specially contracted out from Mechanus. Arvandor hoped that they would live up to their reputation of keeping their contracts true.

For the first day, Arvandor and scientists brought from their headquarters in Elysium were working on measuring, quantifying, sketching, and recording all that could be recorded. On the next day, they started to thaw out the creature, real, real slow. In the meantime, diggers were making their way to the second form. They would need to dig for three, or more, days until they reached it. And the form beyond it would be reached in a week, unless there were, powers forbid, problems.

On the third day, almost all of the ice was melted around from the first form. Most, but not all - some of it was preserved magically, and already sent to headquarters for further tests. The sword was already put aside, a magnificent large greatsword, obviously magical. A composite longbow was also found, but its string was broken, and there were no arrows to be found. Both weapons were put in special cases, preserved in stasis until they were transported to a better equipped laboratory.

Upon even a superficial examination, it was confirmed - it was a solar. It was a suspicion for the last few days, but it could not be confirmed while it was under ice. And now, it was plainly evident - golden skin, and pearly white wings. Everyone was excited, for it was a mystery what an angel was doing so deep in Hell, and more mysteriously - why was it frozen, being known that solars were immune to cold. The solar's flesh was hard as a rock, and terribly cold.

With use of magic, slow thawing of the frozen solar was started, while Arvandor went to supervise the final cuts around the second form. From all visible clues, it was evident that it was a devil, and most likely a pit fiend. This started to form an image in his mind - an ancient battle of good and evil, happening aeons before men walked the planes. Within hours, the devil was freed, and the block was carried to another building, to be processed similarly to the solar. But, now, as there were a fiend and a solar, Arvandor decided to erect even more magical barriers for protection. Around each building was set a circle preventing any evil aligned creature from entering or leaving, which was almost assuredly an insult to any devil that will come to check on them, and a circle that will prevent any good aligned creature from leaving or entering, which will make it harder for them to work on the fossils. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

At the time when solar was defrosted all the way, and his flesh was soft, fiend was also freed from ice, and there was yet another problem - it's aura of fear kicked in. More expenses on the magic part were needed. But this meant that the fiend might still be alive, only frozen. And more good news was coming from the dig site - the third shape was almost ready to be transported to the camp. But there was no clue as to what it was.

In the morning when they brought the third block into the camp (and some workers were left back to see if there were some more items to be found), solar opened its eyes. Which scared Arvandor's assistant into developing a grey streak of hair on his temple.

At first, solar was disoriented, confused, and very aggressive, until it realized that it was not in combat any more. Then it passed out again, and stayed unconscious for the next twelve hours. Pit fiend was still solidly frozen, but he was not as cold any more. He was warming up.

In the morning, solar woke up, and asked about his location, and general information. It couldn't tell with certainty how old it was, but from his tales, and events it told about, it was obviously from when multiverse was still young. From what it could be understood (it spoke an ancient language that even magic had trouble translating), Cania was not even part of Hell back then. During all the time, it constantly complained how cold it was, even though there was a roaring fire, and almost unbearable heat filled the room.

Then... it remembered the combat it was in, and freaked out completely. Those that never saw an angel in a murderous rage are blessed. It probably hasn't regained all of its strength, for it hasn't managed to break out of the building. They had to use specially prepared items to put the solar into stasis for time being, until they could at least put up some force fields that would hold it in.

The noise, for it was heard across the entire area of the camp, probably woke up the fiend, but they were prepared for him. Force walls and binding circles were in place, and fiend soon realized that there was no point. It shivered constantly, and asked for more heat. It asked for more even after they set a permanently enchanted firewall inside his prison. Eons of cold don't get out of bones easily.

Fiend constantly asked about its location and what happened to the enemy. Translation magic was also needed, and it didn't work very well, either. At first, Arvandor thought it was asking about the solar, but even with faulty translations, there was something wrong about that. And another thing was that it was a completely new type of devils. Or, a completely different old type would be more accurate.

It took an entire day until they calmed down the solar, another one until they managed to get it to answer more questions. From what it could be gotten out, solar didn't like the fiend much, but it wasn't its enemy. The third creature was. That presented a problem. The third creature was defrosted, and extensive studies were made on it. It seemed to be dead, and completely alien - a formless blob, with a strong psionic and magical residue field on it. The biggest problem was how to prevent it from spilling out of the container it was in, and how to cut it - it was resilient to all forms of blades, even magical ones.

From combined stories of fiend and angel, it seems that they were chasing the thing for a long time, across many planes - or layers, cause multiverse was a bit different there - before catching it up on Cania, which was a lush tropic paradise back then, and in what could be considered upper planes. The battle itself seemed to last for years, with fiend and angel trying many tactics and strategies, and always failing - until the angel and devil made a pact, and used their abilities to make wishes. They decided that if they can't kill it, they will capture it in ice for an eternity.

But fate has a mean streak, and combined wish was seriously perverted and deformed. What started as a block of ice large enough to encase the thing soon started to grow uncontrollably and encased fiend and angel into the prison made for a thing. Getting the details took all day, and it was promising to upset a lot of historians.

It is not known what happened during the following night, but angel, fiend, and creature, all disappeared in a titanic battle that left most of the camp vaporized, and only a dozen people alive. Modrons on guard of the creature's building were found melted, almost a mile away, but the force fields in which the creature was kept, and anti-magic field inside were untouched. In other buildings, there was nothing left, save for solar's sword and bow, which were polished to a perfect shine, with no marking visible, and no magic left.

Arvandor retreated from the public, and never went to the field again. There are rumors that he is in a home for the befuddled, somewhere deep in Elysium, locked away for his own good.

Last thing his companions heard him say was "... hunger incarnate... devourer of worlds... save us all... mercy on us...", and then he screamed himself unconscious.

#roleplaying #rpg #planescape #dungeons & dragons #dungeons&dragons #dungeons and dragons #d&d

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adorascake · 3 years

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for the kiss prompts 15 and catradora? 💙

I was going to write a modern au dancing in the kitchen at 2am type deal, but then i wrote this instead👁👄👁✌🏼

a gentle “i love you” whispered after a soft kiss, followed immediately by a stronger kiss

“Adora, you haven’t looked up from those maps in hours.”

The break in the silence in their room hardly deterred Adora’s focus. She simply hummed to let Catra know she heard her, then went back to muttering under her breath and drawing lines and shapes across the map in front of her. They were leaving for their space road trip in just a few weeks, after months of rebuilding the planet and planning, and Adora felt nowhere near ready. Darla had a system of maps in her programming that assured them they would never get lost, yes, but she still felt like there were details missing from the ship’s maps that could mess everything up and put them in danger. After all, Darla was at least a thousand years old, so who was to say that her maps of the universe were up to date with modern day?

As she worried over minuscule things, an arm draped itself over her shoulder, resting just below her sternum. Another one quickly followed, then Catra’s head, resting gently in the crook of Adora’s neck. “It’s almost midnight. Don’t you want to get some sleep? Sparkles mentioned a visit to Plumeria to check on Perfuma and Scorpia’s progress tomorrow.”

Adora’s shoulders relaxed almost unconsciously beneath Catra’s gentle hold. “I’ll come to bed in a minute,” she said, pressing a quick kiss to Catra’s nose. They had been together for nearly six months now, and they had slept in the same bed the entire time. With both of them experiencing frequent nightmares from their time in the war, they hadn’t spent even a single night apart. Adora felt bad for making Catra wait a little longer to go to bed, but her mind was preoccupied with her work.

To compensate for it, she tugged at Catra’s arm. Her girlfriend seemed to get the message, standing up straight and walking around Adora’s chair to sit on one thigh. Catra leaned back, arm slithering around Adora’s shoulders. She hummed in delight when Adora’s hand grabbed her waist to hold her steady.

“Tell me about the universe,” Catra said softly, only loud enough for Adora to hear.

Adora did, explaining what each planet was known for and how old some of the stars and suns were. It had taken some research and digging into Lance and George’s library, but she was pretty confident in her knowledge of space. One had to be if they were going to voyage across it, and especially so if they were planning on restoring magic to every planet.

The more she talked, the slower her free hand worked on the papers; eventually, it came to a complete halt, dropping the pencil and instead pointing to the different constellations and solar systems she had identified. She was aware of Catra watching her, but where that would’ve made her nervous with someone else, it calmed her now. Catra always let her talk as long and as much as she wanted about things like this, never once interrupting, unlike some people Adora had come to know. It was nice, knowing her best friend cared so much about the little things.

“And right now, I’m trying to find the best route from Destia to Brelus.” Adora sighed, sitting back. “It’s not exactly the safest journey. According to this one Eternian text, the two planets hardly traded with each other because it was too dangerous.”

When she didn’t speak for a moment, Catra finally opened her mouth. “Well, that was also a thousand years ago. Don’t you think it’s possible that this danger zone no longer exists?”

“Why do you think I’ve been losing my mind over here?” Adora smiled up at her dryly. She found similar issues with charting courses to the other planets on their list as well, constantly doubting herself and the reliability of the ancient texts from the library. It was frustrating at times to know that they had missed out on so much of the universe’s history, being in Despondos for so long, but Adora had to remind herself that Mara did the right thing, and with Prime being a threat everywhere, there was no telling what would have become of Etheria if they never went through that portal.

Catra reached her hand forward to pull Adora’s ponytail down. When her fingers began combing through her hair, Adora closed her eyes. In just the short time they had been dating, Catra had grown more and more comfortable with showing affection, both with Adora and with Bow and Glimmer. It was a work in progress, like how it was when Adora first arrived in Bright Moon, and Catra was only like this when they were alone, but it made Adora smile knowing that Catra was adjusting to life outside of the Horde.

“You aren’t alone, remember?” Catra murmured, fingers scraping a sensitive area on Adora’s scalp. A soft groan escaped Adora’s lips “We’re in this together.”

“I know.” Adora opened her eyes to smile apologetically up at Catra. “I’m so—”

But Catra hushed her before she could finish the sentence. Instead of addressing Adora’s slight slip up, she placed her hand on her cheek; Adora leaned into her touch. “We can bring up your concerns tomorrow to the others, if you want. Four minds are better than one, right?”

Adora couldn’t help but chuckle. “Since when did you get so good at pep talks?”

Catra’s proud smirk was telling enough. “I’m just amazing like that.”

Adora hummed, still smiling as she leaned up to meet Catra halfway, kissing her softly. It lasted no more than two seconds, and when they pulled apart, she tugged Catra just a tad closer to rest their heads together. “I love you,” she said, not much louder than a whisper, hoping that those three words were enough to let Catra know how grateful Adora was to have her in her life, how lucky she was.

“I love you, too, dummy.”

Their next kiss was stronger, not like the gentle one preceding it. When they separated this time, it was for air.

“Come to bed?” Catra murmured, tracing a finger down Adora’s jaw.

Adora still wasn’t satisfied with her work sitting on the desk, but Catra was right; she wasn’t alone. She never was.

#she ra #spop #she ra spop #shera #catra #adora #catradora #my writing #asks #thanks diana!❤️

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