#You see this a lot in actual play just because of elves as a concept

[rooolt]

big fan of characters who when they stand still could be almost statuesque in their elegance and beauty and then they open their mouths and are the most insufferable annoying cringefail loser on the planet

[felassan]

Some more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from an older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube video where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago -

"I imagine that the only way that broodmothers would remain in the game [DA:O] would be in a remaster. In a remake I'm sure they would make changes, I would be very surprised if they didn't. But in a remaster you can get away with a lot more. I think they would change their appearance. Also, there's been an effort to unify the look of the darkspawn a lot more, so." "You're never gonna see broodmothers, probably in any form, in the mainline games, definitely not in the form that they're in in DA:O. I don't think you'll ever see a broodmother again. I guarantee that you're not seeing broodmothers in any future Dragon Age thing. I would be very confident in that statement."

Chat commented "Male Desire demons on the other hand" and Mark replied that there is a concept art out there for male Desire demons.

Chat asked "If we won't get Broodmothers, do you think we'll get the original Archdemon design? The Tentacle Monster one?". Mark replied "Probably not the tentacle version for an Archdemon. I could see that being created as another monster or high level boss, but probably not as Archdemon because the, sort've, dragon as being part of an Archdemon is too intertwined in the lore at this point."

Chat commented "I just hope the Mythal death in DA:I was a fakeout". Mark said, "One thing with Mythal is that, Kate Mulgrew, as her stock has risen and fallen, her price has gone all over the place, so 'is Mythal gonna show up?' decisions will be partially based upon if she's priced herself out of the market or not. Though I think she actually was sad, based on the DA:I stuff, so maybe she'd be willing to do it on a little bit of a lower price. But I actually don't know, because is Orange Is the New Black still on the air? Her price may have come down again." "I mean definitely you can see, sometimes characters disappearing is because the voice actor became a pain to work with, or became expensive, those are definitely factors, no question."

Later on this topic chat asked "Would you say Laura Bailey is still in the affordable VA space? I know she's become a mega popular/busy thanks to CR, but she's always been VA first afaik." Mark replied "Depends, you can always sort've write less for them, if you can do it in one session you can kind've afford anybody, it's a question of how much they're gonna show up."

Chat asked "Do you agree with the criticism some people have that DA lore focuses too much on elves?" Mark said "Yeah, kind've, I think it sort've, it's not on purposes, the elves, they just kind've end up sneaking into everything it seems like. I think there's a recognition of the elves kind've being too present." "I don't think elves are going to disappear, I just think that they don't necessarily need to, one of the things that sort've constantly happened is that the stories ended up presenting the elves as, they keep sort've having them make just the worst decisions. So I suspect there's a goal to maybe make them not do that and then that would allow them to sort've rebalance with everyone else. It's also harder to get, dwarves kind've require a, they're either harder to integrate in, because they're off [over there], they're not just in a forest, you gotta go into a hole to talk to them, so they kind've always are gonna be less present unless you're doing something in the Deep Roads or Orzammar."

"It's always hard to kill off the protagonist. Always gonna get people who are against that but y'know [shrug]. I can certainly see the argument for killing off the Inquisitor in Trespasser".

Chat asked "Would it be more likely that we would be able to get answers to the more deep-fan stuff like The Calling etc by assuming those would be in DLC and not the main game of DA:D?" Mark replied "I don't imagine that there's gonna be a ton of, it's possible that you're gonna see that sort've stuff in DLC but I don't know what the live service plan is gonna be for DA:D to be honest because that was definitely, has been in flux over the course of DA:D, that's for sure."

[source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise and things in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length -

[when party camp is ambushed by darkspawn] "That's one of the few times that we actually pay that off"

[during Leliana's party camp song] "Very impressive cinematic design. It shows off the age of the models in the close ups, but the long shots are really great." "They're desperately trying to get the lipsyncing to match and failing"

Chat asked "Any insight as to why class design was made so much stricter in DAII and DA:I? DA:O had dual wield warriors, rogues with swords, etc." Mark replied "In DAII and DA:I I think we were trying to make the roles more clear. DA:O is basically DnD with no clerics and the serial numbers filed off"

In later DA games they suppressed visual effects (like glowing auras from active skills) during conversations. "Probably for the best because I'm also having... weird glowing stuff coming off of me"

[when Dagna in Orzammar talks about a bunch of nerdy magic lore] Chat asked "When you made this part about dwarfs and lyrium, had you then made enough lore to know how it all worked? aka how the Descent in DA:I would play out? Not story, but lorewise." Mark replied "The lore, like the magic sources in DA:O are kind've a mess so there is, there's been an effort since DA:O to kind've draw them back together. There was an understanding of why dwarves didn't have magic in DA:O, so kind've." Chat followed up "'​Like theres four sources [of magic]: Fade, Blood, Lyrium, Blight?" and Mark said "Yeah, that's sort've the problem. You've got lyrium, you've got the Fade, you've got the Blight, you've got blood magic, you've also got some other, sort've genericized stuff where it's not explained. So from my perspective you kind've wanna collapse that down. You either want magic to just generally be from everything, which a lot of settings do, or you want it to have a somewhat unified source or sources, so you can see that there's like, things have been slowly drawn into a more common metaphysical explanation over the last two games."

Chat asked "​I'm not sure when you came on to the DA:O project, but do you know which of the origins was the last to be added? Were any kind of 'last minute afterthoughts'?" Mark said "The actual truth is we cut an origin. There was an origin for the Avvar as well that got cut, so there was supposed to be two elves, two dwarves, two humans and then mage, but we cut the Avvar for time." "I actually really like the idea of us having implemented at least one faction where you come up with the Treaties and they're like 'good to go, just let us get our stuff'. That could've been the Avvar, as well"

"I think that lyrium will eventually drive a dwarf mad. I think that's established canon." "I would say that just because lyrium drives you mad doesn't mean that dwarves would stop using it. It only slightly drives you mad. Certainly there are lots of examples in [irl] history of people continuing to use things that are very bad for them because they're convenient or cheap."

"I've always wondered about dwarves, I mean you're burning big fires in the middle of a cave, and everyone's living together, it does seem like you're gonna run out of breathable air pretty quickly"

Chat asked "Were you involved much in the class design aspect of the game?" and Mark said "With DA:O? Not too much. When I took over, the game was largely design-locked. There was content still being created but most of the game design was done well before I took over"

Mass Effect 1's combat was aspiring to be something it was failing to reach

Chat mentioned that Citadel was a fan service/love letter DLC. Mark said "Citadel in ME is definitely, you're absolutely right, it's definitely a 'please stop being mad at us' piece of DLC." "I don't even know if it hit its profitability goals"

"The asari in ME didn't succeed at being a parody of the 'green space babes' trope. ME races are like Star Trek races, they're all defined by a relatively small number of characteristics. If they're attempting to be parodies of those kinds of races in something like Star Trek they are not succeeding at doing that. It's hard to imagine that you're succeeding at making a commentary about it when you're basically just doing the same thing. If you're using the codexes to talk about how well executed they are then it's not coming through in the main game, if that's what's required."

[source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

[minecraftbookshelf]

ok so I know you’re writing and probably already thought of this but I’m case you didn’t: the differences in elven courting rituals and oceanic courting rituals, specifically when it comes to wedding gifts. if you have thought about this feel free to ignore but the way I see it

elves live a while,and probably know about the arranged marriages a decent amount of time before they happen, so in between wedding planning and normal life each half of the marriage is planning some extravagant amazing wedding gift like gardens of gold or giant tapestries and stuff like that

meanwhile ocean/swamp folk who don’t live as long probably have more personal gifts, even in arraigned marriages bc they’re still getting to know each other! but either way the gifts are more personal and specifically tailored to the other half

so keeping track we have Scott, panicking bc he has like zero time to plan a wedding and learn a language and make a wedding gift and so the necessary things for life in however little time he has, Jimmy, panicking bc he doesn’t know anything about scott, no one he knows knows anything about scott, and even when they finally meet scott isn’t exactly an open book! so Jimmy is trying to do the same things as scott (tjough his doesn’t need to be as extravagant) in addition to finding out who the hell he’s getting married to and also ruling a kingdom

AND (you thought I was done NO the adhdemons love this concept and filled the no-box fan void with fictional politics) you have Lizzie, Joel, Xornoth, and Iona, who also had to get gifts for each other

first I need you to know that I saw your url and had the immediate gut reaction of "oh same hat!" XD

Anywho

So courting traditions in general:

I don't have too much set in stone currently, lots of ideas and concepts though, because I'm half shaping the story around it and half shaping it around the story, because writing be like that (rip) but I do have a few things.

Rivendell is basically just Tolkein's elves partly isekai-ed into minecraft, lets be real. So I've yoinked the tradition from there of the bride-to-be's family gifting a jewel (usually of magical or historical or familial importance) to the groom-to-be as a sort of pre-dowry. Only because heteronormativity does not exist here it is usually a mutual exchange of gifts. Tapestries and other labor and skill intensive textile arts also play a role because of the importance of textiles in Rivendell culture (see the ask that I'm answering after this one for more details on that) And there is also just a general idea of "a demonstration of what you are bringing to the table" for the actual wedding exchange. Like the most intense and stressful art show where both your entire extended family and also your significant other/others's extended family will be judging it. (Exact form of art varies depending on the skills and interests of the elf in question; culinary, poetry, musical, metal working...the list goes on)

The Swamp has fewer actual universal traditions. Due to their recent (past few centuries) history they are basically two nations that mixed and mingled and also include a few different diasporas interspersed within them. Jimmy himself tends towards more Oceanic traditions, which include things like feats of bravery and provision. This will go both exactly as well as you think it will and genuinely very well. (Oceanic traditions tend towards dramatic and grand gestures and statements. Ability to protect and provide is a huge thing both in the Ocean and the Swamp.)

Also Jimmy absolutely panics and ends up asking a good dozen random citizens for advice.

You also have the added layer of this specific instance being an arranged marriage (which isn't especially unusual) between two empires (which is wildly unusual at their social level) That custom is, in fact, purely an Oceanic one. (Which is why Joel and Lizzie were the previous example)

Most/all of the other Empires don't tend to intermarry their royals because enough Empires don't use familial succession models that it renders it fairly unstable as an alliance technique. There's more context for the Oceanic take on it but that is a whole nother post/will be in the fics explicitly.

The point of all this is that both parties are kind of stressed and trying to figure out how to compromise/accommodate while not really having a fully applicable framework for this situation (on Rivendell's part.)

Rivendell barely has interacted with the other empires for generations let alone married them.

Xornoth and Iona actually had it fairly easy, outside figuring out how to navigate the religious minefield that is Xornoth's entire existence. It was a very matter of fact, business like courtship that Scott and Iona ran with all the stringent focus of a military operation (which it basically was) and not even Xornoth's tendency towards chaos could really do much in the face of that.

In the context of like, personal gifts Joel and Lizzie actually got off really easy because by the time they got married-married they'd technically been married for several years already.

[sorcerous-caress]

Oooh I made a human Durge priestess of lolth in one of my playthrough ( unhinged I know). Could u do companions reactions to that

I don’t know what why but human priest / priestess of lolth who actually received blessings / favor from her sounds funny as hell

— RED Anon

That concept is so wild anon, bless your Durge.

Like not only they abandoned their father, a whole god of murder, and went to worship Lolth instead. But also them being a human who just subscribed to Lolth's agenda and she found it so hilarious that she granted them a priestess blessings, A PRIESTESS OF LOLTH.

Drow noble women start whole fights just to get this position.

Companions reaction would be something like:

"...why? Just why?" // Gale, Wyll.

They're mostly confused. You were supposed to be a human team and all of that. Gale is especially a hypocrite by mansplaining how Lolth wants humans as slaves for drows as if you're a naive baby who doesn't know better. Wyll is hoping it's a phase, and you'll see the light eventually.

Doesn't care much, you do you // Laezel, Karlach.

Laezel doesn't concern herself with the mythology of Faerun. The only queen she cares about is vlaakith. Karlach has seen much worse in hell, so Lolth seems like a lesser evil in comparison. She knows to judge you on your actions and not who your boss is.

Suspicious of you // Jaheira, Halsin.

They have a very terrible past with Lolth worshippers. Both of them will keep an eye on you and all of that. Maybe even get jumpy or look at you weirdly whenever you're too nice to them. Most elf groves have a strick "kill drow on sight" policy because of the surface raids.

Although since you're a human, they'll mostly think you're just in need of guidance and your misdeeds will be easily forgiven and overlooked because they think you don't know better.

That is so fucking funny but also stay away // Astarion

You know he always thought he'd make such an amazing drow, besides the whole matriarchy and using men as slaves thing. If he looks past it, he really is fascinated by them. Also it's hilarious that you were such a traitor to both your god father and your own race, Ha.

But also don't bite his head off, he knows that Lolth demands high elves as sacrifices for her so don't even think about coming his way.

Fuck you, your goddess is shit // Shadowheart

While Lolth and Shar don't have much beef between each other, their followers definitely do. Their domians overlap a lot, so followers will occasionally migrate from one goddess to the other. Viconia herself used to follow Lolth before and now despises her after Lolth retracted her blessing from Viconia's house and made them fall as a noble house. That's when she found Shar.

I believe she will teach that hatred into Shadowheart.

Minthara

It's complicated. She abandoned Lolth but she is still a paladin who swore and oath to her. And Lolth doesn't seem to have abandoned her just yet.

Lolth sees drows as her property, her toys. She doesn't care for what they personally think or feel. She plays with them and wagers their lives like it's nothing.

Minthara knows the only reason Lolth still grants her power is because she finds it amusing, she is toying with her. Lolth adores chaos and Minthara is a great tool to cause it.

When she meets you, she will think you're another one of Lolth's toys. Either sent to entice her back into the spider queen's embrace and seduce her. Or you're also a victim of her cruelty.

Yet she is curious, you're not a drow, you're a human. That is unheard of. So you fully chose Lolth by your own free will? She honestly doesn't know what to think. She both is annoyed and fascinated by you.

You represent the past life she escaped from, but you also represent the new beginning you granted her by saving her. Deep down she thinks if you stealing her heart is just Lolth stringing you like a puppet.

Also, Lolth can possess any of her priestesses at will, so she can simply come down to have a chat with Minthara through you if she felt like it. And that does put Minthara on edge.

[tyrantisterror]

Wizard School Mysteries: Book 2 Side Characters

Ok, the supporting cast expanded a lot in this book because of the tournament arc, but let's see if I can account for them all.

Actually, shit, first I have to go with two I forgot to add to the last batch, and pretty important ones at that. Zebul Blaa, the Dökkálfar/Dark Elf extra who ends up being part of the villainous plot in the first book. Dark elves in Norse mythology were born from the maggots that ate the giant Ymir's body, so in Midgaheim they're basically fly-people. Zebul himself is still in his maggot/larval stage of his life cycle at the start of the series, but as this concept art shows, that will change. He's got more to do in the overall story yet, so keep an eye out for him.

Laurel Creusa, meanwhile, is the student whose disappearance sets James on his whole mystery solving path. I tried to set up a red herring with her as well - James drops the word "tower" is his one conversation with her, which, given how the arcana are revealed in book 1, could have been taken as a hint that she was the final ally James needed to make in that book. But, alas, twas not to be - and I'm not sure if anyone fell for my ruse to this day.

Ok, back to book 2 proper. Professor Prospera Bubos and Professor Heka Tlancheb are the two teachers who are most responsible for the tournament at the center of the conflict in Tournament of Death, and it's fun because they're kind of polar opposites from the magic end of things - a professor of healing magic vs. a professor of combat magic - yet they both ultimately prove to be reasonable authority figures who protest the school turning an blind eye to how the students get hurt. Professor Bubos is loosely based on an alchemist character I drew ages back - mainly the big, pointy shoulders with prominent stitches. Meanwile Heka is just me being horny on main making fun of my own fondness for terrifying witch women.

We also get to see Professor Kobut Nyftek, who I think was mentioned in book 1 but not actually seen. They're one of the nicer teachers in the school, and costume-wise I took a lot of inspiration from Dr. Maruki's supervillain get up in Persona 5 Royal. There is... so much Persona in Wizard School Mysteries's DNA, way more than there is Harry Potter, and yet I know Harry Potter is the only thing it'll ever be compared to. A tragedy.

Simeon Helmschmied isn't a terribly complicated teacher concept - I just wanted to make him look like a badass, grizzled wizard blacksmith. D&D really popularized the idea of wizards not being armored and, like, I get it for mechanical reasons, but also I think some wizards deserve to also be heavily armored tanks.

Lacey Spidergrin is part of my ongoing attempt to sexualize Slenderman, and I think it's working gang.

As I said in the last post, before I enacted the grand plan to create a vast reserve of Spare Wizard Students, I plotted out a few supporting cast students based on alternate names for the Major Tarot Arcana. Godfrey Lionhardt and Columbina Paggliacci are based on alt names for The Magician - the Magus and the Juggler respectively - and loosely embody the traits of that card in turn, with flavorings based on the alt names they're given. A Magus is a more respected, princely equivalent of a magician - "Gift of the Magi" and all that - so Godfrey has a princely look about him. His last name, Lionhardt, marks him as being part of one of the noble houses in his home country of Bretonce, so he may well actually be a prince for all you know. Meanwhile, Columbina obviously takes the clown associations with "The Juggler" and plays them up to the hilt - which also allowed me to emphasize the fact that clowns are a monster species in my setting rather than just a job strange weirdos take.

I've mentioned how Joan Tatou is basically a collection of traits that Margot and Gretchen lost in the prewriting stages of the series, so I won't go heavily into that here. She's the Papesse, i.e. the High Priestess if she was more imperious and French. Wiglaf and Wagner, meanwhile, represent The Road and The Victory, which are alternate names for the Chariot - and also words that are used in a lot of descriptions of the Chariot, which makes them both feel like incomplete versions of it. That is to say, if you substitute The Road or The Victory for The Chariot in your Tarot deck, you're kind of specifically simplifying the meaning of the card. Which is why Wiglaf and Wagner are, like, just Margot's soccer hooligan fans - an extension of the Chariot, if you will.

Tinnea Lunae's prompt was "vampire who's primary animal form is a moth instead of a bat." She's trans, too, even if it hasn't come up yet. She, Titania, Sadie, and (eventually) Zebul work on the school's Newsparchment, What's the Buzz?

Grammy Crumblebuttons played a valuable role as a red herring in book 2, but her part in the narrative isn't over yet. Demented old women are too fun to write.

The Great Nyaa and Ursula Cobb are both animal-themed gag characters, but I like to think they're pretty distinct outside of that. Not that we'll know very much about the Great Nyaa given, you know, what happens in book 2.

Ok I think we can actually get to the contestants in the tournament now. Aldonza Dulcinea's outfit is specifically based on the movie outfits for Professor Umbridge. Her earlier designs were less good more generic wizard outfits, but by this point the "Let's spite the Terf Queen" streak in me was strong, and I thought it'd be fun to have a plus size character who's into pink and "girly" stuff not only be a hero, but an explicitly kind and beloved one.

I think my original concept for Breowyn was "what if a studio head forced me to tone down Margot's character concept to be more easily marketable." She's a warrior girl but, like, in the "kind of a tomboy" way that's socially acceptable instead of being a giant with a fucked up arm who looms over everybody. Ironically, I ended up really liking her design - I guess even a watered down Margot is still a fun character for me to work with.

Waldorf Brimli is, like, a wizard in the vein of the evil cult leaders in H.P. Lovecraft's stuff, and a student in the vein of those specific kind of nerds/geeks who are deeply misanthropic and antisocial under the excuse that they assume everyone hates them so they might as well hate everyone back. So, like, the kind of person who'd update the Chris Chan wiki, basically.

Gyrion Clodson is part of the "LOTR Gang," a subgroup of the Spare Wizard Students comprised entirely of Midgaheim versions of various sapient races from LOTR. Gyrion is our dwarf, though in Midgaheim dwarves are synonymized with gnomes.

My goal with Serena, beyond simply homaging magical girl tropes, was to have her be a "badass" character who's explicitly feminine - all her kickass offensive spells use pretty shiny crystals, she loves pink so much that her hair turned that color, she's very much a girly girl. So when I picked her opponents in the tournament, I wanted them to be various shades of masculine to contrast her, with three of them specifically underestimating her because of her feminine traits.

Margot's opponents (Shere Statchell included but not pictured here since she's in the previous post) are meant to play on different traits she has - Shere is has a physical disability (even worse than Margot's, since she fully lost her arm), Chungo and Eruz are both inhumanly large and somewhat ostracized for the danger people fear they present, and Sarkani is a wizard whose powers are distinctly ominous, even if she revels in that rather than trying to hide and restraint it like Margot. Sarkani also has an explicit dragon motif to go with Margot's more subtle one.

Next: alternate outfits!

[cumbiazevran]

I know I’m batting at the hornet nest, and please know that if you like this character, it’s nothing personal bc we interpret things as they make more sense to us that being said, I cannot stand the Solas gang who paint him as nothing BUT someone who has the interest of elves at heart and was their liberator, who is just kind and thoughtful and does his best to help people. I do not have a problem with people who like Solas bc this isn’t a morality competition about who has the most correct opinions, nor I care about people who do that, but did we play the same game?

Destroying the world is not the revolutionary move of liberation you think it is. I think we have seen enough movies that deal with that ecofascist narrative (bc even if the character isn’t, the narrative is). People still live in the world, and anyone who would genuinely suggest this would be destroyed in an argument by people who do actual mutual aid and left-based activism. What is or isn’t revolutionary doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and the devs being terminally Canadian/USAmerican don’t get to redefine things that exist beyond and over them

Solas isn’t a particularly helpful person. Not even to elves. Thinking pitifully of city elves and as the Dalish as savages, without any will to recognise the culture that flourished among them is also not the solidarity move you think it is

Solas isn’t particularly kind. Being soft spoken isn’t the same as being kind

For a fandom that usually has a lot of issues with other characters being used as BioWare mouth pieces (which is honestly understandable and I’m not jabbing at bc me too bestie), a lot of people in this fandom seem to be okay with Solas being one of the most blatant mouth-pieces there is

A person who laments hurting you, and saying he doesn’t want to hurt you, and how he wish he wasn’t hurting you, and who has the space to STOP and DOESN’T is you know. not someone who’s particularly interested in listening to other people

This is the guy who killed his best friend because he had the audacity to believe that a city elf could actually better the conditions of elves who are currently alive. Which is the revolutionary thing to do

The Elvhenan being destroyed is literally Solas’ doing. Organise unions and commit regicide like a normal person if it bothers you so much

“But they were enslavers” gee listen, I’m not saying the ancient elvhen empire should be pristine and perfect and a happy utopia, but you’ve never stopped to think how it’s at least a little racist that they modelled a people after several indigenous cultures and cultures of colour and then decided that the guy who wanted to fix them was a white looking king and fallen god who thinks people who are lesser than him are underdeveloped and savage? Not only that but that BioWare decided that that very culture was going to be based on slavery like a wildly inaccurate, racist, methodologically questionable global north high school text talking about Mesoamerican cultures? That they took the ancient practice of face tattoos and decided they were slave markings? How white are you???

Once again he constantly distances himself from modern elves, and the only one he speaks kindly of is a high approval Dalish Inquisitor.

He is one of the biggest “all faith in anything at all is subjugation if you disagree with me you are committing an attack on the very concept of freedom" characters in the franchise. I fully see going that route when you’re playing with Andrastianism, because of the narrative around it in the game and the influences it has. But with other minority religions and Otherised cultures in the game? It is straight up racist to me, and sounds too close to white atheism for my comfort. This isn’t just a Solas thing, but a Bioware thing in general. Even if Andrastianism is criticised or portrayed as genuinely damaging, every single person who isn’t a human andrastian is portrayed as being Oppressed Without Knowing It. every single dialogue and investigation option is framed like this.

Also foreign liberators don’t really tend to be liberators. People who seek to free other people because they know better should be met with resistance. It is with the people or not at all, and Solas actually fits in this category. He sees himself as the granter of Freedom. Where I come from, we call these people gringos or conquistadores, so you choose.

I’m not saying you can’t find entertainment, enjoyment, pathos or whatever else in this particular character. On the contrary, as different narratives and different narrative devices satisfy different things. That, however, doesn’t mean the narrative they use is extremely skewed and can be interpreted as extremely infective in terms of what people pretend it is aka a story about Liberation.

In my personal opinion, Bioware doesn’t have stories about liberation because it does not have the range for it in Dragon Age, which leaves us with a lot of half assed attempts, but I digress. My point is I’m not claiming to know what you see in this character just because I don’t enjoy him, or that you can’t at all. I’m not the boss of you. I am, however, proposing that perhaps people should stop ignoring Solas’ negative traits and the actual text material to pretend he’s some benevolent, lost, elvhen King Arthur come to fix things while being willing to kill everyone else in the process. Again.

[antivanwine14]

Thoughts on Unicorn Overlord now that I finished, both positive and negative (long post):

Positives

The graphics are beautiful. The models are great and it was a very pleasant game to play in that sense. I also appreciated the fact you can skip the battles when grinding or just doing minor battles.

Game play: the tactics and team building was a lot of fun and challenging. I really enjoyed building the squads and experimenting with different builts.

Characters: I enjoyed a lot of the interactions and thought the characters really carried it. The rapports were good and there were several times where I wish there was more. Some of them were very funny and others really did a lot of world building.

Drakenhold: By far the best developed of the lands. It is a very strong second area to go to and really builds on a lot of things. The story rapport with Gilbert and Alain is actually some of the best and shows a different side of the relationship between Cornia and Drakenhold which I liked a lot. Even though Drakenhold is supposed to be worse than Cornia, things actually have complexity and I enjoyed it.

Negatives:

The story is middling at best. At the start I enjoyed it and I thought the time spent in Cornia was actually decent if not very close to a middle tier Fire Emblem Story. Drakenhold was good and I wanted more of that. Ellheim was alright but very predictable with nothing interesting going on. But then we got to Bastorias and it was literally a filler arc. There was no real reason to go there besides being curious on how they were handling things. The plot in Bastorias was not related to anything else and none of the main central characters really had anything to do with the area. By the time we got to Albion I was pretty over the repetitive story beats (bad person who really isn't SOOO bad and no we are really best friends) and I thought Albion's bad guy reasoning of ‘I did it to protect the church’ was the weakest. I have no issue with him being against you but I almost wish they had just gone mind control on him rather than his weak reasoning.

Also the amount of times a scene ended with everyone laughing was ridiculous and I don’t understand it. This isn’t an after school special, not everything has to end with a laugh. Let there be emotions besides happy. It would have been nice for there to be more conflict in the areas we have been too besides just clearing out Zenoira. Like, if Zenoira went back and tried to take places or something. It was all just one and done and the war was both pretty easy and happy. A big set back would have been appreciated.

Plot hole: Fun fact, if you accidentally missed the Tatiana quest in Cornia, like I did when I went into Drakenhold, you are going to be absolutely baffled by Hilda’s stuff because characters are going to talk like you’ve been there and dealt with that plague and people.

Character design- oh boy is that something. The female design is so unfortunate and what makes it worse is there are elements of good. Some of the outfits are just fine and not all the body shapes are thin and tiny, which is always nice to see. I don’t mind some level of fan service (Hades did it very well) but SOOOOOO many of the women in UO are just designed to be sexual. To make it worse they try to excuse it with Yahna being like I want to dress like this (completely fine, if this didnt mean ALL the witches had to be dress like her) and then the elves can’t wear metal because of the fae which is interesting in concept but why are most of the lady elves in their underwear but the male elves are fully clothed? PS, Scarlet's boobs bobbing ALL the time got really annoying quickly.

Alain- he isn’t allowed to have almost any emotion except mild and happy and that is unfortunate. This is a character who has been through a lot and he should have been super interesting. I know he is supposed to be stoic but there is more to stoicism than being mild all the time. Let the man have character. I almost wish they made him a little more like Alear (good personality, shows their youth) or even something along what Intsys wanted to do with Byleth (very stoic and closed off in the beginning, starts to open up as the story goes along)

Male Romance- they were cowards and very few of the men can even hint at something more than friendship. You can marry your cousin but can barely get anything from a man. Some of the rapport's show some promise and funny enough some of the most random characters have decent romantic rapports. Rolf has almost no connection to the plot or other characters but is one of the best ones. I am fine with not all the men being romantic (Josef's extremely sweet father son stuff being some of the best and not romantic at ALL), but it would have been to see more done with them.

Romance in General- honestly, I know they would have taken out all the guys but they should have not made every character available for Alain. It takes away from their individual stories. I honestly wished they picked a handful of characters (men and women) and allow them to build the story and romance with Alain and allow the other characters to form their own relationships without worrying about Alain. Sharon and Ochlys have something going on and it really annoys me that they can up with Alain.

Overall:

I had fun and it definitely kept my attention, but I don't know if I can recommend it. Maybe get it on sale.

[sniperct]

hullo! I suppose I've just been curious about Ithilrin, your elf OC. How did she get started? What universe(s?) is she a part of?

So for years my wife and I have taken our LOTRO characters and played and RP'd with them in various AUs and universes before we started to write something original with them (in a sort of technomagic type setting with fae, elves and humans(there's a human city that's more advanced in tech and certain kinds of magics, while the fae courts are high magic with some tech, and the elves are more like wood elves and traditionally naturey. But are related to fae. There are also dark fae which play an important role), along with air aspected dwarves). These are elves and rangers and regular folks who all kind of became interconnected over time playing the game and writing them.

And as we were writing some of this in that setting she just kind of popped into my head and announced her existence as the younger sister of two of our elves (granted she's still many thousands of years old, 8200 in LOTRO, 2800 in the original setting)). She ended up filling in some key missing bits in their backstory and is now firmly one of my favorite OCs. Everything tends to revolve around her siblings and her (and their immediate circle which ended up with several polycules)

So was easily backfilled into LOTRO and quickly spread to other MMOs I play lol this got long. But her most filled out settings are LOTR and the original universe. I don't actually play her in FF14 but she's a viera there, I did roll her up.

In the original setting (which is super self-indulgent ngl) she was presumed to be dead for a few thousand years, due to being run through by her father but had been revived from near death and working with a group that was uh, they do a kind of ritualistic sex work. Magic that improves the harvest and the planting, and also a lot of general therapy type stuff. (in hindsight, the companions from firefly and Inara in particular may have played a subconscious role in developing Rin).

Because of that and assorted past trauma's she's a champion of consent/safe words, and a very do-what-you-want-but-don't-harm-others kind of person.

In most settings she's a noble at best (in LOTRO she's the High Elf race, specifically a Noldor from Valinor. High Elves in LOTR are those that saw the light of the trees).

In the original setting she and her siblings are the heirs to the Lunar court and also aspects of assorted concepts and gods. Her brother is the chosen of war, her sister is death, and she's chosen of the moon. Chosen in this universe act as both high priestesses and also vessels of their goddess(sun/moon/various seasons, etc) and will all eventually replace their goddesses by taking their power into themselves, but as themselves rather than being deities themselves.

So right now she's the Queen. Her brother is older but he married the Sun chosen so is king there now. Her sister was removed from the line of succssion. I could go into all the other characters (like the mermaid pirate captains and the messengers called the Crows and Lomea the Queen of the summer court who long time followers may have seen in other forms ;) Or Rin's brother in law who has the gift of seeing the past clearly.

And then there's the heir to the abyss who's mother is the mother of monsters and rules over the city that is the last safe place for the dark fae and adheres to darkness doesn't necessarily mean evil)

So they need to replace their gods and then kill God himself because he keeps 'restarting' time since nothing goes right and there's always darkness. So that'll be fun. Oh but first they have to kill their father, who's basically satan, three times as was foreseen. And then the fatesinger (this was before endwalker lmao) will speak and undo the world so they can sing in a new world, imperfect, but a world of their choosing. And darkness must exist for there to be light, etc etc. The mother of monsters is very invested in making sure there's room for her and her kind in this world. (and they have to kill god before remaking the world, or before he remakes it, of course)

(Illidan voice: I AM MY SCARS)

Her lover is an elf who's a wolf-spirit/shifter and said shifter's twin sister is also often involved, while also being with the Summer chosen maiden.

(My PFP is Ryscewen, aspect of Chaos, and one of the few who remembers the worlds that came before. (She started out as Fox in another original setting my wife created many years ago that we would like to also finish some day) her love is raven, who is the fatesinger who cannot speak because if she does it will kill those around her. Hence when she speaks it will end the world)

She became, in a way, a vessel for exploring darker and more taboo subjects

[moonandris]

In the reference to the elf & faeries post (referred to as elves and fay, cause typing is hard)

For me the first thing that comes to mind with fay are pixies from disney movies and leprechauns, and maybe fauns, they are for me beings of fairy tales not fantasy, if that at all makes sense? I know of course that there are fay creatures, and they exist in worlds like d&d and so on, but I have never ended up interacting with those media as much. With that in note,

I mostly write short stories and got one larger project in mind. I do various worldbuilding, but usually not too extensive, and my count on elves and fay is quite low. Which is to say, I have written elves before, and planning on using them a lot actually, but for now it's mostly in my head. I do differentiate between High, Wood, Low and basic elves in my worldbuilding, they are more varied than just one race. The fay I have actually not written at all, maybe one short story or two could be considered to have them. This post actually remained me that I like the concept of dryads a lot! I should write those things. (Are those fay?) Perhaps in my world there will be fay, it might be simply something that I haven't got around to that aspect yet

I think I use elves more often because I feel like they fit the stories I write more, and because I'm not as familiar with the fay.

Here are some notes on how elves I write work:

High - They are region specific, dystopian! Utopian society which is pretty, isolated and rotten to it's core

Wood - just generic elves that live in the woods for now

Low - The elves who were forced to live in desert regions of the world, hard work is their life, rare to see outside those regions

basic - the elvish travellers, ones you most often see on the roads and towns

My dear @hachi-qo (go poke him, cool but shy fella) on the other hand in his worldbuilding project(intended for an rpg) has both fay and elves in his world. In short both small 'pixies' and elves exist and are intended as +- common thing, I don't know much more on his world but wanted to include another perspective while writing this,

This was a mouthful, I'm sorry if it's a bit long, Hope this helps with your thoughts, and have a nice day! (｡◕‿‿◕｡)つ🫖🍵

(also hi, this is an ad, I'm not yet properly a writeblr, but I'm planning on being one)

I like your races ideas for elves, there's honestly soooo many ways you could write them and have them play a part in your world. I especially love when different writers use the same naming tropes for elves, like you said High elves, Wood elves, Low elves, and basic elves (which you could also call them Common elves if you wanted to) but I love how everyone's version of a 'High elf' can differ. Seeing the same tropes implemented in different ways is such a cool thing to see when reading fantasy books.

Don't ever worry about apologizing to me for writing so much bc I LOOOOVEEEE when people share their worldbuilding ideas with me. Thank you so much for the detailed response and apologies for the late reply. :)

[relamune]

Kael'thas for the ask meme thingy please i need

favorite thing about them Okay I'll try not to write a novel here but there's so little I don't adore about Kael'thas & it's hard to choose just one thing for this lmao. Like you can tell he cared/cares about his people a LOT, he just made some very poor decisions. I love that despite everything he tries to put the blood elves first, he definitely shouldered way more responsibility than he really needed to even for their leader imo, he had other people he could have relied on to share that burden! but he didnt!

Even before the scourge or the outlands, kael had SUCH an interesting personality? Like hes sometimes this bratty childish prince that can be stubborn as hell if he doesnt get his way but he's also easily one of the most powerful mages at the time, even getting on the council of six seemingly relatively easily because of it. So he may be a bit spoiled but he definitely clearly knows how to reign himself in & be serious when he needs to be & that makes him such a fun character with depth beyond just leaning into one trait or another.

Blizzard really shafted themselves when they tossed him away, I would have LOVED to see him progress through the expansions beyond being forgotten about until Shadowlands. least favorite thing about them how blizz threw him away :) I will never recover from the knowledge that they used him PURELY to fill a raid boss slot. He had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I guess on the other hand we probably wouldn't have nearly as much content with the triumvirate as we do but I'm still not happy about nerfing Kael like that. favorite line "This is your brain, say hello brain. (brain says 'Hello!') And this is your brain on fel magic: (fel magic burns)(brain cries in pain) Any questions?"

(Honestly any of the HoTS quotes are gold this one just made me laugh the hardest) brOTP Hot take perhaps? Sylvanas pre-scourge. I like to imagine he kept trying to play matchmaker with her & lorthemar at that time & both of them hated the concept (but unfortunately kael is a stubborn bitch) but otherwise their friendship was equal parts business and jovial (as much as Sylv could be anyways) OTP honestly a BIG tie between Kael x Rommath & Kaellidan nOTP Controversial take in the Kael fandom probably but Jaina. I like them as friends or friendly rivals but don't really understand why there would be romance between them. random headcanon okay idk if this is gonna make sense & this is more of like a character study headcanon rather than a legit "this is how I think he goes about life" sort of thing but i have a big hc the triumvirate are just...sections of Kael. His laidback/care free traits being Hal, His leadership & determination & drive to protect the blood elves being Lorthemar, & his passion for magic & everything scholarly being Rommath. Idk maybe I'm looking to far into it but the fact Lor has reminded Rom of Kael on more than one occasion & vice versa really has me thinking on this.

If you want like a legit headcanon tho I definitely think Rommath got his humor and love of puns from Kael back from when they were younger. Kael said one (1) pun once, Rom laughed his ass off (& still refuses to admit it), & has come to appreciate the crafty wordplay of puns ever since.

Also another for you as an excuse to put it somewhere :: his title "the sun king" was actually from Illidan, back during one of their first meetings. Illidan meant it more in a derogatory way towards kael but kael thought it was brilliant & adopted it unpopular opinion i,,, actually dont like his VA in TBC. Nothing against the guy personally, imo it just doesnt fit Kael? I liked the one they used in Heroes of the Storm & SL (which i...THINK is the same person? idk im bad with remembering names but they sound similar so im sticking with that assumption) song i associate with them I have way too many actually that are just ship songs but I do associate this one specifically with Kael

Glass Animals - The Other Side of Paradise favorite picture of them his hearthstone battleground illustration does very gay things to me

[utilitycaster]

Idk if you've been asked this before, but what did you think of the one dnd ua so far?

I haven't! I did make this post but that's about it, so more extensive thoughts:

I think moving the ASIs, equipment, and language to background is a really smart move, and while I am a passionate fan of half-orcs and half-elves I do think it's ultimately better to provide a general mixed-heritage ruleset.

The actual builds by race seem good, and for what it's worth I do like ardlings in concept; I just also like classic aasimar and think the name ardling is silly. Fortunately, the backwards compatibility means you can still play as a classic 5e aasimar, so I can't be too broken up about it. Also, Chthonic legacy is the first thing that has ever made me interested in tieflings.

I do think, even though they state that you can change the background language, that it would be better to expand the list a little by background (eg, acolyte could know celestial or primordial, for example) for newer players less comfortable with the general lore, but the new background structure in general is very good and I think will help in backstory development. I also don't happen to mind the tendency to play certain optimized race/class combos (halfling rogue, half-elf bard, elf wizard, etc) but this does open things up.

I do miss that some races had weapons or armor proficiency by default because that was a fun way to play with sorcerer/wizard, and I think there should be backgrounds that grant it (eg, guard, gladiator, or soldier). Again, you can still do this though, because it's backward-compatible, so I can't complain too much.

I'm intrigued by the split into arcane, divine, and primal (which makes a lot of sense to me, honestly) but I'm holding off on further judgment until I see how that's going to come into play with classes.

[spyglassrealms]

Okay kids, strap in. Uncle Spy has some worldbuilding to lay on ya.

So the new Spelljammer 5e was announced a few months back, releasing in August (it's just turned June as I write this). Since then my friend and I have been gushing about it and planning some stuff around it, but one of the things that always struck me as disappointing about original Spelljammer was how... boring the Forgotten Realms solar system (Realmspace, where Abeir-Toril lies) was. It's much smaller than our solar system: eight planets, and only one of those is explicitly a giant planet (Coliar, said to be a "gas giant" but really more like a small ice giant). Two of them (Garden and H'Catha) aren't actually planets either, just constructs the size of dwarf planets. Two other planets are just ocean worlds, one with a sargasso sea around its equator and the other full of rocky atolls. Only two planets have any moons at all, to boot. Simply put: there's not a lot to look at, really. I'm hoping the new Spelljammer canon will retcon this and give Toril a larger, more varied solar system with more giant worlds and moon systems.

HOWEVER, there's another factor at play here. I made a character who's a space bard, directly inspired by all the filk I've been listening to lately. The problem is... a good chunk of that filk either A) uses names (planets, programs, people, etc) specific to real life space exploration and/or B) is rocketpunk instead of sailpunk like Spelljammer is intended to be. That got me thinking... I'd had a vague idea for a rocketpunk alt-Toril in the back of my mind for a while –a universe where the magical beings of the Forgotten Realms had reached the stars not through magicked-up sailing ships with atmosphere bubbles, but through magicked-up classic rockets– and this seemed like the perfect excuse to deploy that idea and start hammering it into a more coherent shape.

All of this added up to... well, something! Behold, my attempt to have my cake and eat it too: Terraspace.

This map was made using the template/assets developed by DeviantArt user slimysomething.

Terraspace is a fantasy version of our solar system within the wider Spelljammer setting where elves and dwarves and beastfolk all sing the rocketpunk blues. The Apollo Program exists as part of their history, but Apollo 13 was fine because of hasty Purify Air enchantments and some innovative abjuration. Dragons funded the Space Race. That sorta bullshit. Also, spiced up the solar system with a little idealism, as you can see; part of that was also me leaning into old Golden Age pulpy SF concepts like Jungle Venus and Pyramids of Mars. I don't thhhhhhink this counts as a new worldbuilding project,,, yet? Stay tuned I guess.

[princeofhags]

Musings on my playthrough with Iraestra, my Lolth-sworn drow wizard and romance. spoilers for Minthara & Astarion stuff under the cut because I'm me.

Still debating what noble house I want Iraestra to be from, but thinking a lot about how you can tell her that you committed the grove atrocities for Minthara, no other reason. While Iraestra certainly did it to integrate herself into the cult and look for more answers, I think she mostly decided to do it when she saw the mark of house Baenre on Minthara's neck.

Unsure how well Iraestra would know the actual faces of House Baenre aside from the matron mother and a few others, but she would have immediately recognized their emblem. Iraestra's curiosity about how Minthara ended up in this situation would be insatiable, as well as her desire to gain Minthara's favor. The life of a few tieflings and druids was nothing in comparison to gaining Minthara's favor.

In my current game I turned down Minthara because I'm doing Astarion's romance, but I hope? That when Minthara is less buggy I can either keep both active at the same time, or...? Because even if Iraesta wasn't attracted to Minthara (which she very much is), she would never say no to sleeping with her in the vein of trying to get on her good side.

That being said, I also think Iraestra borders on being just as possessive as Minthara; she's owed the world and intends to take all that she can, after all. It's her right, carved into her face by the eye that she has given Lolth (she has a scar running across one eye and my headcanon is that she did so in a ritual intended to please her goddess/show her devotion. Which I'll also have to contend with how faithful Iraestra is and how clearly Minthara has abandoned their goddess hMMMM).

So poly is an interesting concept to play with for Iraestra, but I think it works because she would begin a fling with Astarion not thinking of him as an equal.

I have a lot to say about Iraestra and Astarion's relationship in general, especially with how Iraestra views men and surface elves (very much what you would expect of her upbringing).

I obviously already like Astarion as a player, but his line that triggers when you take him into the Underdark about vampires thriving down there really made me begin to think about Iraestra considering taking him back down there with her as a consort. That may even be my headcanon for when she really started to consider him as 'hers' internally. Ah yes, this one is very pretty, dangerous, and happy to go along with my multiple war crimes.

I feel like her relationship with Astarion begins as her viewing him as an incredibly useful asset. She finds him amusing and fun to look at the very least. She's not exactly...the best person ever, and doesn't have issues with drow-typical slavery, so her affection for non-drow probably leans more towards 'they're mine and I protect what's mine' in an unflattering way. I was joking with my friend that Astarion bucked off Cazedor's yolk just to get Iraestra instead.

Me: Yeah, he's still on a leash but don't worry! Iraestra has a gentler hand! And she would never make him eat bugs <33333 He's only allowed to feed off her so he's reliant on her uwu. Also why settle for swill when he could be having the finest wine in all the realms every night (Iraestra).

Astarion really went from from mansplain manipulate to girlboss gatekeep 😔 Is there potential for their relationship to bloom into something more real on both their ends? I think so. But I don't see Iraestra changing as a person, more just maybe growing to have real affection for Astarion and thinking of him as an exception, not the rule.

[ourlastbastion]

Confession: this is actually my first time actually playing DA:I. Most of my knowledge beforehand came from playing DA2 so much and tumblr. And since I’ve been playing for a couple days, I just gotta say….

I think I’m growing to genuinely hate this game.

The approval rating is just “we’re gonna make it SEEM like it matters if they like you or not. No benefits if you max out friendship or rivalry, and you have no simple way to tell if you’re friends or if they just tolerate you because glowy hand needed.

The overwhelming fucking side quests. I wanna get to the plot shot but I cannot bring myself to further the plot when I’ve got an ungodly amount of side quests, but no matter what I do I somehow keep getting more.

Big scary hole in the sky is cool, but I honestly prefer Dragon Age 2s story where it’s about everyone’s personal story where they just end up involved in crucial things by chance, because they managed to garner attention and can’t say no. I liked the smaller map, even if it was constantly reusing dungeons, I liked that no matter what Hawke has a personality. A CONSISTENT personality that you could mold to be sarcastic, diplomatic, or mean.

My inquisitor feels like she’s got less personality than a stale piece of toast, and a lot of the flirting comments don’t even feel flirty?? It’s just (in monotone voice) “I’m glad you’re here”

I’m glad I can play other races, but I picked an an elf because I thought “Dalish mage sounds fun and like you’ll get good lore, and I can bond with the other elves over being elven” but even the other elves hate the dalish!!

The companions barely speak to each other while ruining across a map. I miss the constant banter between my motley group that we’re friends and rivals that respected each other. They don’t have those little lines if you click on them. Just random walking and maybe after 30 minutes of aimless walking you’ll get some banter if you’re lucky, one line comment about the location if you’re not.

I’m holding out hope that when I see my Hawke appear in game I might have some alleviation from this suffering. I was so happy to see Varric but he’s just… there. I feel like right now we could swap him out for some random dwarf and it wouldn’t make a difference beyond two cut scenes so far.

I hope it gets better but right now what doesn’t frustrate me just bores me. The more I play the more I just wanna be playing DA2 instead. Or Skyrim, because they did the open world concept so much better.

I also miss pretty much every conversation was a mini cutscene, even idle banter.

[sorcerous-caress]

RIGHT ON THE MONEY.

My npc introduced himself as Liandalon (which I fully bullshitted bc I forgot to name him) but I kinda wanna come up with a less traditionally elven name that's more basic to add to the idea that he's playing up all the elf stereotypes.

So like the first thing I had my players see with him was him following the party around and then slicking his hair back in a shop window and giving his reflection finger guns for confidence. Then, with the swagger of a much more respected man, he showed up in front of the party and very suggestively offered them lodgings at the local tavern under the guise of "meeting the locals". Party immediately decided he was a goofball and kept him around, so now he's basically just this one guy puffing his chest out and acting like he's a super cool magic elf (he knows like 2 spells and it's shape water and control flames). He's totally lying to him bc he screams and freaks out at tiny things before remembering he's supposed to be protecting them. They have yet to go to his house, but when they get there, all his walls are gonna be covered in really stereotypical human pin-up posters and he's got a bunch of strange books on human customs shoved under his bed.

I'm so excited to expand on this concept because my party doesn't know that it's totally a gag, but soon enough I'll introduce them to some non-loser elves and let them make the connections lmao

I'll protect Liandalon with my life

This is hilarious and endearing, I love him so much omfg. It's such an honour to inspire a character like that AAA <333

Okay okay so full speculations ahead but what if you take a Michael Scott from the office turn with him? Like the reason he bullshited a very stereotypical elf name bc his actual name is known as an important figure in a company and he holds a high position or something. Which is why he can just afford to offer the entire party rooms at a tavern and why he had a whole big room filled with human posters, relics and very weird books.

Basically, most of his salary goes into fueling his human obsession and to human site subscriptions. He is such a loser irl and very bad at magic which is why he moved to the city and took an office position, which he weirdly turned out good at bc people saw a seemingly respectful elf and continued to promote him.

And huh, maybe he actually had a good talent in sales management or something. But he doesn't care about it at all, he just focuses on the humans around him.

Or maybe, his bullshited elf name is actually his human forums handler? And he got so used to associating that name with humans that he panicked and spat it out in front of the human party by accident.

And god when the gag is broken, it has some potential for drama or some angst.

The party is finally faced with the harsh reality of elves, how much they look down on humanity. How condcending they are while pretending to be nice and sweet. Underestimating the party or completely ignoring them.

Maybe they mention their elf companion to the other elves as a way to get them to approve of the party too, but the other elves just laugh and say they don't consider that human-lover as a real elf.

Like they finally see how much this goffball lovable character sacrificed just to be with the humans and help them, how a lot of elves scorn him because of the party and they blame him for allowing these humans to think they can have any potential as adventurers.

Odnsofjskd man I love angst. Gag characters have potential to go beyond their single gag if done right. Even when the party eventually leaves that city and their elf friend stays behind, he sends them letters every now and then.

Because they were his only friends, even most elves didn't like him because of his human infatuation so he was mostly lonely before they came.

[shamanofthewilds]

My current feeling on the Dracthyr... So i’m going to write out how I currently feel about the Dracthyr, before I make one, do the intro story line (not the prepatch stuff I did that so far) and before I watch their cinematic lore videos.

I want to do this because I will update on how I feel after the fact of getting to know them more. Because this entire time, there is something I really can’t seem to get with. This feeling was almost there with the vulpera, but the vulpera I can really sell and advocate for.

Once again, I’m writing a lot but...what is a blog for if not to write my thoughts down. If you happen to be curious ...

I’m going to just try and give my starting feelings down here:

To start off with, I want to talk about their appearance/what they are.

What I really do like about their appearance is that they capture expression on a kind of animal type that seems pretty neutral. They look curious and agile as if they were made to learn and do it fast. The different choices I’ve seen so far create very interesting silhouettes. They also have a very big cute factor which makes it or breaks it for a lot of people. 

I’ll defend the dracthyr to the point that I don’t really see them as a ‘furry bait’ edition. Considering that a lot of the popular fantasy games we do have include a sort of lizard or dragon-folk type race that people can play as or interact with. To me, this actually just feels like the Warcraft version of giving people their lizard/dragon-folk. Only, it seems jarring for us because where Elder Scrolls had it from the start, we’re just now getting it and getting a playable dragon means something different in the context of this game.

What is good about it is that they stay true to the dragons we are familiar with when it comes to colors and their abilities. They are intelligent and capable of speech. And they appear to be powerful, but also off putting to society. I will give them the props that it clearly shows that people are not use to dragons or always *comfortable* around dragons since being in your guise puts other people at ease. The fact that they are weird to look makes a bit of sense.

But then...I really do look at them. And they are weird to look at. There is a strange NPC-like quality to them that almost feels too grand of an inclusion on the Horde and Alliance. They remind me a lot of the issue people had with the Nightborne. Everyone loved the Nightborne’s look. They had a much different face. Then we get playable nightborne and their eyes are wide with horror and look GREATLY different than what people have wanted.

Throughout Warcraft history, we’ve seen endless models of dragon-humanoids that are either extremely skinny and look like a talking Dilophosaurus to the very buff and intimidating hulk dragonkin we often see running at us twirling their staff, ready to chop our head off.

There are also very early concepts that they did want a dragon race from the very beginning (much like playable demons , but I feel like that niche was filled with demon hunter).

So we have all of these very intimidating or fantasy dragon people with very interesting outlines and designs that we  have known about already over a long time. And then....here is a secret race you have no connection with, the dracthyr.

Now I will of course say yes... you could feel at ease with this by saying the remnants have always been there with the dragonkin that we do know and the failed dragonmen experiments who were suppose to be similar. Now, here is the REAL dragon people , and you all get to play them.

From this standpoint, I can completely get it. There is an allure to having something with no background weight or it be a faction that has to pick a side. It is a clean slate of an intelligent race who get to make the choice themselves.

But there is still just...

Something missing for me. No matter how much I justify, something is not falling into place for me.

In a way , it’s how I feel about the void elves. The void elves felt very tossed onto the table by Alleria. They just come out of no where, even with the build up of Alleria’s interest in the void and her being a connection to like minds. There is no history for me to feel fond of. No characters for me to think back on and be happy that it’s there. There is, of course, the interest that the void was embraced as an entire character aesthetic to contrast the Lightforge, which that had a very cool and symbolic mixture that can create some cool later story telling beats that may even turn into creating a “Who’s side are you on.”

The dracthyr are as good as a compromise as one can get with a dragon race that fits in this universe and was added later on. The only way for there to have been a hidden race of dragons this whole time, and them not get involved at all without being ridiculed for it, WOULD for them to be in stasis for as long as they were.

Because the other option would be a collection of the current knowing kinds of dragon people and in this case it would be very much about who’s side they would be on. We would unfortunately either have dragons pick only one side or have to deal with a narrative of... here is a dragon type for the Horde, and here is the lithe pretty type of dragon for the Alliance. (It makes me wonder, had they known about the Sundering, and only knew of the High Elves involvement in that, who’s side they would have chosen...could go either way depending on how its sold to them.)

So in a way, I guess I can at least say...they are as good as a situation as they can be for the factions to have a playable dragon-like race. One that lets players ,and RPers, have a humanoid guise, an in-between guise. Then after that what ever your dragon flying mount is if you’re RPing a full dragon.

But still. It doesn’t stop them from them feeling disjointed to me. I don’t feel a sense of connection to them. In all actuality, what made me feel the most excited was seeing people run around with updated gnoll models on the Horde and seeing just how natural they looked. From there I went on and thought of how that could have been a reality. The gnoll have been the enemy , beaten down repeatedly and are among some of the most iconic warcraft races that we know and have grown up with. We also have quite a few accounts of them having a culture and trading and helping out occasionally.

I just don’t feel very connected , though. More and more, the races we are getting are ones without much feel good backstory built up over the years that make me feel excited to see finally getting their time to really be fleshed out.

And...to be completely honest, while I know that both factions will need to have one to balance it out, literally none of the remaining races make sense for me to see to go on the Alliance (excluding the obvious balance of Jinyu and Hozen and Pearlfin and Gilgoblin...but I still do not feel very hip on playable Hozen. But that is me.)

But with Arrakoa, Tuskarr, Taunka, Yaungol, Ogre, Vrykul, Gnolls, Murloc (🙄), Centaur, Quillboar...  all of these are highly shamanic, traditional races two of which have their native home on Draenor. Not even the vrykul, in my opinion, would enjoy the company of rigid humans I feel. Then you have the harpy, who probably should not be on either.

So when all you have are races left, where it’s hard to justify letting them go to the Alliance without making up a story where the Horde can’t find any common ground at all... Things like Lightforged Draenei, Void elves, Alternate Universe Mag’har (when Garadar is right there), Vulpera and Dracthyr fill the need of something new without disappointing people that the Alliance got gnolls or for some weird reason, the Tuskarr join the Alliance when they should be with the tauren. (I do not want Tuskarr.)

So.... I’ll end it with this. There is nothing wrong with loving the dracthyr and their ability to capture the flamboyance of high fantasy and wild colors. They are very in depth in design and I think they introduced a great show of how the customization can expand and how we can start toning down the wild body sex dimorphism wow has been mocked for. There is a lot of justification you can make for them making sense and how some of this is the only way it can make sense to give people playable dragons and to fill in the niche that was a concept long ago.

But I’ll always see them as hard to connect with for me. New things are good, but it’s hard when I see so many current things continue to not get their time to expand and left to gather dust when the world could be expanded on, rather than add more to it where it becomes harder to give the other things the attention they deserve. They just feel too odd, too out of place and I feel should not even be on either faction at all. They have a lot of great things going on...but that is what they have. A lot going on.

My idea would have been to not have dracthyr at all, and instead, introduce the hero class of the Dragonsworn to bring back old lore that people have always found interesting and to bring interest in things of the past and connect them to old and new characters. To create that sense of call-to -action among Azerothians of all kinds to come forth to the Dragons who protect the world. To truly try and fight for the planet with the ones who have been there to be blessed by a higher power. It would have been the bridge between faction, person and player to the world that awaits by gaining a mystical call to learn the ways of the healing flame, the magical ice, the shifting sands of time or the molten sturdiness of the earths. The shaman who heighten their senses, or the villager who exceeds all expectations. To truly feel the awe and grandness of what it means to see dragons, to work with dragons and to gain insight into protecting all that is around them. They can be a part of something both great, but humbling on a down to earth level that still lets you be with those you love without everyone needing to look human-elves.

So..that is a lot of my thoughts for now. I want to like them, but I will have to see them more in action. I understand that there is a place for things strange and new.

 For now, I’ll continue to fantasize about my middle school wish of wanting a Devilsaur mount, playable Broken Draenei and better orc customization.

If you read this far, I appreciate you  and hope you get a raise, pass your exam or find exactly 30 dollars on the ground and then free internet for some reason.