#The Wheel of Life and Death

[the-iron-orchid]

Jinana’s Birthday Renderpalooza! 

Requested By: @vissentasenadz

TFW you about to send that gurl into subspace right there in da damn club (ft. a special closeup to show off lil Scorp collar :3 ♏)

[trappedinafantasy37]

There are multiple gods in the game that you can directly interact with and they all have ties to the narrative. You can interact with Shar via Shadowheart. You can interact with Mystra via Gale. You can interact with Myrkul via Ketheric when he takes on the avatar form. You can interact with Bhaal via Durge and in the fight with Orin. You can interact with Bane after killing Gortash and using "Speak with Dead" in which the soul you speak to is not Gortash, but Bane himself. I would include Vlaakith in this list but Vlaakith is not a god, she is a lich presenting herself as a god. And, of course, there is the Absolute which doesn't really become a god until it ascends into the Netherbrain (although that is debatable).

But, did you know that Lolth will also interact with you? As far as I am aware, Lolth is the only non-story related god in which you do have interactions with. One of them is only available if you are a Lolth-sworn drow, and the other is only available if you are a Cleric of Lolth (you do not need to be Lolth-sworn for it).

The first instance is in the goblin camp with the spiders in the pit. This does require that you are a Lolth-sworn drow and that you have the ability to speak with animals. When talking to the spiders, you will have the option to present yourself to the spiders as Lolth herself. If you fail the persuasion check, Lolth gets pissed off as she was listening to you and is not happy that you tried to present yourself as her. And she tells the spiders you are an imposter and they attack you. But if you succeed the check, Lolth doesn't do anything and the spiders will think you are Lolth. So, Lolth doesn't really have a problem with you pretending to be her. But if you are going to pretend to be her, you better do it right. If the spiders think you are Lolth, you can ask them about what's going on in the goblin camp and the spiders only talk about one thing. They immediately tell you that there is another drow in the camp who has forgotten her way and that she is forsaken. And, as I said, Lolth is here. She heard the spiders admit this. Lolth does nothing about it.

The second instance is in the Underdark with the Phalar Aluve. When you interact with the sword, you have two different checks, a Strength check and a Religion check. If you do the Strength check, you can just pull it out of the stone and be on your merry way. If you perform the Religion check, the narrator will tell you different things depending on certain conditions. If you are a Lolth-sworn drow and/or a Cleric of Lolth, the narrator will tell you that the religious rite to pull the blade from the stone is blasphemous as it pays honor to the weak. If you are of any other race and/or cleric of any other god, the narrator will tell you that the sword is of Eilistraee and the rite pays honor to the fallen. The religious rite is that you spill a little bit of your blood and the sword will rise out of the stone on its own. If you do this as a Cleric of Lolth (you don't need to be Lolth-sworn) you will feel hundreds of spiders crawl all over you as Lolth is warning you not to do shit like that ever again. Not only did you perform the religious rite of another god, you performed the religious rite of a god she hates. And she is letting you know how much she hated that.

These are the only two instances in the game that I have found in which Lolth interacts with the player but there are plenty of other moments in which Lolth could interact with you, but doesn't (such as with the Phase Spider, the baby spiders in Grymforge, Kar'niss, or the dead spider in the Gauntlet of Shar). Of these two moments where Lolth does interact with you, one of these instances is in the goblin camp, and the other is in the Underdark not too far away from the goblin camp. I don't think it is much of a coincidence that these two interactions occur in close proximity to Minthara. Almost as if Lolth has a reason to be in that area specifically to watch and monitor things, and you just so happened to be there. And the only things that compel her to interact with you is because you pissed her off. But, as long you don't piss her off, she will do nothing and she will say nothing.

When Minthara was being tortured by the Absolute, she prayed to Lolth and begged Lolth to give her the strength to fight her enemies. But Lolth does nothing and Lolth says nothing. In fact, that was the full extent of Lolth's "punishment" for Minthara, nothing. All Lolth did was not answer Minthara's prayers and not show up when Minthara needed her the most. Lolth did not torture Minthara like the Absolute did, Lolth did not turn her into a drider, nor did Lolth eat her. All she did, was nothing. And yes, Lolth is known for abandoning drow and no longer interacting with them. A drow has to do something incredibly awful in order for Lolth to just back away from them entirely. But you cannot convince me that Lolth is going to let one of her Baenre's go so easily. It's not as if Minthara has done anything truly awful either to make Lolth that mad.

According to Minthara, she herself has sinned against the Spider Queen, but it's not as if she chose to abandon Lolth, she was forced away and mind controlled into being devoted to another god. But would this make a difference to Lolth? Does it really matter if Minthara was compelled to have faith in another god besides Lolth? It isn't until Minthara is freed and feels the absence of Lolth that she chooses to no longer follow Lolth. Minthara even mentions how turning against Lolth is a big no-no in Menzoberranzan. Minthara herself at one point has hunted down and killed those who turn their backs from Lolth so she knows the same will be done to her if she were to ever return home. In fact, if you are a Lolth-sworn drow or a Cleric of Lolth, you are given unique dialogue options with Minthara to kill her because she is a traitor to Lolth and these options continue to show up until you recruit her into your party and she joins your roster. Despite all of this, Lolth does nothing. Minthara spews anti-Lolth rhetoric left and right, and Lolth does nothing. If you take Minthara to the tabernacle, she will spit on a shrine to Lolth, and Lolth does nothing.

Minthara is also able to walk through the Gauntlet of Shar, which is in the Underdark, and Lolth does nothing. Sure, you could argue that its connection to the Shadowfell and the fact that Shar is there via Shadowheart is enough to keep Lolth away. The lore of DnD does not make it quite clear what the relationship between these two goddesses are. But I am willing to bet that Lolth is smart enough not to step on Shar's toes because Shar would annihilate her. However, there is a small little section of the Gauntlet where it actually does spit you out directly into the Underdark and into Lolth's territory. Minthara can walk right out there just fine, and Lolth does nothing.

But most importantly, Minthara's default ending is her returning to the Underdark with the sole purpose of destroying House Baenre and then killing Lolth. Destroying House Baenre could lead to a chaotic and political disaster in Menzoberranzan, and Lolth does nothing. Minthara quite literally wants to kill Lolth and has intentions to do so after taking House Baenre, and Lolth. Does. Nothing!

If Minthara goes into the Underdark and destroys House Baenre, this will cause chaos and death. And the Baenre's won't be the only ones she has to destroy, but any and all allies of House Baenre in which they do have a lot. And Lolth will feed off of all the death and carnage and chaos that Minthara is about to bring to Menzoberranzan because Lolth loves chaos more than she hates traitors.

Maybe, Lolth has not abandoned her as Minthara thinks she has. Maybe, Lolth has done nothing and said nothing because Minthara has not actually upset her. Maybe, Lolth has done nothing and said nothing because Minthara is already doing everything Lolth wants her to do. And all it took, was making Minthara think that Lolth abandoned her. There was no need for Lolth to answer Minthara's prayers, because Minthara always had the strength to fight her enemies.

[stuckinapril]

Went from being totally lost as a teenager to finding solace in aesthetics and fitting urself into a template in my late teens and now I think I struck a healthy intermediate where I know who I am as a person generally but I’m also completely subscribed to the idea of evolving and would never deny trying something just bc it doesn’t fit the image of myself I crafted in my head

[sherlockig]

[all-about-the-tea-parties]

The show consistently establishing that Ishamael Wants To Die™️:

Some ppl during the finale: umm??? How did rand kill him with just a sword? Why didn’t Ishamael fight back??? That’s so stupid! He’s a Forsaken™️ like, he wants to kill the dragon, Rand should’ve had to use the One Power

The writers: *slams head through wall*

[cruelplatonic]

ruminating on 'the vees died despondent nobodies' thoughts

velvette interrogates vox after she hears him give various conflicting and bombastic accounts on air. a selection of these include: blew his brains out on live television, administered the death penalty for killing his "bitch wife," a tragic accident involving two shetland ponies, dubiously legal iranian yogurts, and a whole lot of cocaine. the actual cause was shockingly ordinary- a heart attack in front of the television, alone, his corpse only recovered after two weeks passed. he was watching a game show and his last mortal regret was never even learning who won, because he died during the commercials.

[onaperduamedee]

The Wheel doesn't want anything. It can't. Any more than a river or the rain can want something. It's people who want.

[dont-look-me-in-the-eye]

it is in my nature.

a scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river.

you know how this story ends, no?

it is in the frog’s nature to swim, and in the scorpion’s nature to sting.

it is mortal nature to die.

Do you ever wonder, if the scorpion wished it could change?

Do you wonder what it thought as it went down,

“please, please, I’m sorry, I can’t help it, I don’t wanna kill you,

I don’t wanna die.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid. If only the frog didn’t help.

Do it again.

a scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to help it cross a stream.

no, no, no, it’s all the same.

again.

a scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to help it cross a raging storm.

it ends the same way.

you will never be free.

again.

i cannot swim. I ask you to help me cross a raging river.

…

Stop it! Let me drown this time!

you kind, stupid frog. why must you help me across every time?

it is in my nature.

Why couldn’t it be in mine?

[leslie-redirects-here]

[poligraf]

« Yama, The Lord Of Death, Holding The Wheel Of Life » [Unidentified Artist]

[the-iron-orchid]

Jinana’s Birthday Renderpalooza!

Requested by: @fullyfunctionalapprentice

The sandwich everyone wants to be the meat in, Jissana 😂

I was hoping we’d get to see more cleavage, but all those arms just get in the way, lmao

[lexa-griffins]

Oh God someone stop me from creating a full backstory for a amnesia au that popped up into my head!!!!😩

[piplupod]

idk there is genuinely something a little bit funny how your body can somehow hurt from the nervous system acting up and your brain can be blaring alarms and you can feel yourself on the verge of crying and yet the whole time you're just kind of sitting separate from it all and being vaguely irritated about the fact that you have to get up and make a dinner for yourself

[extravalgant]

PART 2 OF MY SECONDARY SCHOOL POSTS!! since i recently rbed something about them thinking about doing school-centric pips and what it means for both my own lore and how i might interpret more of these into canon... +_+

storm/myth

the two sides of a violent coin; the yearning to create, to consume as much as possible, before destroying it with your own hands. it feels like the wild beat of rain against your face, of wet ink smearing across your fingertips, a gold-tipped nib piercing through paper. it looks like the eye of the storm in the worst typhoon you’ve ever seen—but your mind is as clear as day.

life/death

it’s the idea that you are part of the cycle—when something is born, it ultimately dies, and that’s it. but you can bring life to it once more, and you do. it looks like gold pouring into the cracks of a shattered pot like kintsugi, feels like the first breath you take after being brought back from death in the heat of battle. 

balance/life

it feels like the flora already knows of your own destiny before you do—twisting vines that mangle and warp themselves across ancient ruins; that there is a cycle that even you cannot escape from. it’s the toll of a grandfather clock, the first leaf of a baby sprout, and it’s the indescribable feeling in your chest that feels a connection to the old, oaken trees. 

myth/ice

it feels like a brain freeze—unable to move until it's over, clawing at your head as information files itself neatly into stacks against your skull, or spills into your mind like papers thrown hastily off a desk. visions come blinding and bright, and laid before you is a path of snow, footsteps already leading to your destination.

fire/storm

it feels like the low, dark rumble of an incoming thunderstorm; as lightning crashes upon tumultuous ocean waves. the thick stench of ozone descends upon them; passion that burns away to anger, bubbling hot and low in their stomach until they explode violently and messy like a volcano, leaving ruin in their wake.

[bugflies00]

unrelated to any post i may just have made i can't express how much i want stim toys

[beemintty]

i am afraid of alcohol...

i am afraid of what it does to people....

i have sworn my whole life that i will never get drunk and i swear it loud.

people have laughed in my face at such a promise i make, but i'll have you know that i will not allow such poison to take control of me.

because that is what it does, it loosens your control on yourself like it loosens your tongue.

you'll tell me to "relax", "settle down", "have a drink", "what's the worst that could possibly happen?!"

no you're right, it isn't the worst to find yourself making out with someone you don't love, or having sex with a stranger, or falling off a ledge, or getting a bit hurt, or ending up in the hands of the police or the hospital, or spilling your secrets, so what's the problem?

what if i stepped behind a wheel... what if i drove without seeing? what if my sister was my passenger, or my partner, or my best friend? what if someone was coming home to their daughter that night, or their cat, or their dad? what if i drove right into them at 100 km/h? what if i survived? and what if they didn't?

this is what that poisonous drink does.

it makes you do things without seeing.

so what's the worst that could happen you ask?someone doesn't get home and i walk away with blood on my hands.

i will never drink enough to let it root in my brain and make me a murderer.

and if i ever do.... i hope it kills me before i kill anyone else.