#and bunch of secret witch lore

[lilypixels]

hiii! 🥺💖 list 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to 10 simblrs whose sims you adore 🖤

Hiiii

So this ask is making rounds again I see~ I’m not sure I have anymore facts atm for sims (at least that aren’t spoilers)….so what if I share some random story lore instead?? Most of it will remain unknown so I’m just looking for excuse to share soz

Story takes place about 100 years after what is simply dubbed The Demon War which was when demons sought control of “Earth” and all kinds of supernatural beings came out of shadows and essentially all of humankind had worst nightmares confirmed real

Because of this war, many religions lost believers as no one of celestial realm origin particularly cared to get involved cause this ain’t about them ok

Witches used to be broken up into bunch of separate and smaller clans but war brought them all together and made subsequent changes you will see

There are still some “magic” hate groups around and many humans haven’t yet adjusted to this new world where they can walk outside and see all manner of supernatural beings, from dragons in the sky to vampires in the club (tho obviously younger gens more adjusted than older)

This world is truly like a parallel universe and is like if world war 1 was spawned by demons ?? So you could say events of story are happening in same year we currently live in; it’s mostly this way cause it’s easiest for my brain to grasp and relate timelines with

[beansprean]

E11 Ideas in no particular order:

Simon the Devious rug pull/reveal

Simon the Devious was behind the documentary all along. He is Greg the camera guy. The documentary was produced by the Daltry Brothers Production Company with thanks to the Toby Daltry Memorial Film Foundation

Outrageous nandermo flirting throughout

Nandermo secret off-camera relationship (we already have canon nandermo QPR I just wanna remind everyone Guillermo is officially in the polycule)

We find out via tv news in the background that Jordan got hit with that sign Nandor threw and he died (no one cares bc they are doing more interesting things)

Nandermo get served by the local Staten Island Chapter of Vampire Vigilantes for operating as superheroes without a permit

"Clip show" where they all watch the documentary

"Clip show" where they all watch the documentary and its full of 'deleted' scenes that we have never seen before (leading to revealed secrets and arguments and confessions and-)

1 hour special that is literally the documentary (with a special guest narrator)

The Guide x Miguel I am so serious

The entire episode is just a backdoor pilot for a spinoff series (seanmaine sitcom?) (life as cravensworth's robinson's monster?)

The house blows up/is destroyed somehow

Colin, as part of the house based on my own personal EV lore, dies or nearly dies bc of this. They get a new house and bury him there and then he pops back up babystyled and the monster has to be his dad now

The monster sacrifices himself to save his dads (noooo!!!!!!!!)

Last scene all the vampires are going into the fancy room to have an orgy and Nandor pokes his head out to say 'arent you coming Guillermo?' and he grins and shrugs at the camera and goes in and thats how it ends

Jenna was there The Whole Time (please god it would be so funny i will die on this hill)

Guillermo dies and Nandor has to turn him anyway

Guillermo dies and Nandor tries to turn him but apparently thats how energy vamps are made whoopsie

Laszlo says "Guillermo" correctly

Red carpet premiere of the documentary with all the fan favorite characters returning as guests

(maybe even including the two Freddies bc it would be very funny. Nandor getting jealous like excuse me step away from Guillermo you had your chance and Freddie is like oh sorry no I'm the other Freddie and Nandor is like o rly hello and Guillermo is like exCUSE ME STEP AWA-)

Red carpet premiere of the documentary with all the fan favorite characters returning as guests that turns out to be a trap set by the Vampiric Council and they all have to fight their way out of that shit again

Red carpet premiere of the documentary that turns out to be a trap set by Batdor and Robllermo to murder a bunch of rich people

Nadja starts an mlm foot pic empire with the monster as her bouncer (dressed in a cute little pimp suit and feathered hat)

Somehow, the Witch's Skin Hat has returned

Guillermo returns to his pre-corporate color palette (greens and browns and reds and patterns pls!!) but its well fitted and non shitty sweaters

All the ghosts of all the people they ever killed/buried at the house rise up and attack (including lisa's severed head), and this somehow leads to Dolly finishing her unfinished business and saying goodbye

The Guide is proud and relieved to see that Nandor is no longer obsessed with her and they are buddies now

She insinuates that he found what he was looking for (in Guillermo). sometimes you hurt every woman in your life because your soulmate is a man

Sean dies (noooooo!!!!!!!!)

Sean gets turned into a vampire

Sean gets turned into a vampire and immediately breaks every rule and also turns Charmaine and somehow manages to take over the entire eastern seaboard and overthrow Tilda Swinton as supreme leader of the Vampiric Council

MAJOR timeskip, like multiple years or even decades. 10 year retrospective post-documentary release?

They recreate the supernatural finale beat for beat, complete with colin in a very bad wig and two covers of "you're dead" back to back to fill up the runtime

Vampire society rises up against the house after the documentary is released and they all die

[homestuckreplay]

psychoanalyzing rose’s mother (because rose won’t do it)

(page 903-910)

The Skaianet Laboratory Unestablishment countdown ticks from 1:43 down to 1:34. I see those 413s being snuck in. I am genuinely at a point where if I see a number that isn’t 413 I get suspicious.

I love Rose so so much. And I love that she’s into psychoanalysis (kind of). But her saying ‘this incongruous thing? I pretend I do not see it’ is just like her saying there is ‘nothing to psychoanalyze’ about her mother’s love of wizards (p.360). She’s going in with preconceived expectations and not willing to interrogate the unexpected.

Like. Let’s look at the facts. In this massive, empty lab with thousands of twinkling boxes and no people, somebody has left a pink plastic table and chairs, a tea set, a scarf, a pink and white bed with cat, flower, heart and paw print designs, a princess themed dresser, cat stuffed toys, and WIZARD DOLLS. Pretty pink masters of the arcane with their long beards and pointy hats. Kind of a giveaway as to which local wizard-loving woman might own all this.

Rose’s mom has brought all this down to the lab, where she either works or just spends time. And she’s probably lonely down here and trying to recapture a childhood, whether that’s her own or Rose’s. We know from the pretty princess doll (p.363) that Mom likes to buy traditionally girly gifts for Rose, so this could even be old toys of Rose’s that she doesn’t even remember, her mom still playing with them to remind her of when she used to play with Rose. If Mom works here, then she’s up at this meteor terminal thinking about how one day, her daughter and anyone else they both care about are both going to be in danger from this upcoming apocalypse. And maybe she wants to hold on to the time she’s had with Rose before everything changes, or maybe she wishes she could be the one being taken care of, miles from the nearest town and with no partner or other family at home. She’s looking for comfort, she may well want to escape her own daughter’s judgment, and ultimately she has to parent herself as much as Rose does.

All this very important content is immediately overshadowed by the tiny kitten. There is a kitten hiding in the teapot. A TEAPOT SIZED KITTEN. I thought I was over this but I am not. A SMALL KITTEN!

Page 909 is composed similarly to Jade’s furry thoughts on page 797, but with the opposite emotion behind it. But clowns is clowns, and I don’t think John is scared of finding a bunch of regular ass harlequins like Dad might keep downstairs. That also wouldn’t explain why John’s always been kept from going in Dad’s room (and I could be wrong but it seems uncommon to not even know what’s inside a parent’s room). I think John is scared that his dad has a different secret. Based on the contents of Dad’s safe (p.544) I wonder if Dad is an amateur investigator who’s been looking into some of the strange phenomena associated with Skaia. Maybe John is about to encounter red-string cork boards and more tidbits about meteors, and find out that his dad is way more involved in current events than previously thought.

In page titles, ‘ascend’ first appears on page 660 and ‘descend’ not until page 840 (though the word is used in passing on both page 358 and 361). ‘Ascend’ also appears on page 759 in Nanna’s prophecy, where she states that ‘together [the Heir, Seer, Knight and Witch] will Ascend’. On page 909 the narrator treats ‘descend’ as an expectation, but it’s a fairly recent one. It’s one of my favorite things about serial fiction to see these tidbits of patterns and lore be dropped in and then woven through the narrative as if they’ve always been crucial, until it’s impossible to divorce the two. But it’s still possible to see that Homestuck characters weren’t ascending on day one.

> John: Examine room.

[star-boi0720]

Giant lore dump here, basically they're the seven deadly sins, in my version to become one you commit an act to break a seal that Irene made to contain the devil within and their punishment is to become the new host for said devils. so I'm gonna go person by person and explain how they became a sinner

(the concepts aren't complete, still needs work but I just want to have it written down)

Aaron-Wrath, has a similar backstory to the OG, but I added a thing I remembered from Emerald Secret of the Utltimas backstory (this was solely from my memory and might not be exact) and took Zane out of the equation, basically Aaron had a hobby of hunting and he without knowing killed this holy wolf that Irene created, and as a punishment he was combined with it and in the foggy haze of his transformation he murdered his whole village and his family.

Lucinda-Gluttony, Her hunger for knowledge killed her best friend(/ maybe girlfriend aka Sasha don't 100% know yet) and sealed away her mother to the cursed forest. Hyria used to have like a coven/school for witches she made after Irene left. Lucinda was a prodigy and wanted to just keep learning to the point she was so desperate she stole a book her mother told her never to even touch (which had sin inside and was trusted to hyria by Irene) which made Lucinda's magic go crazy and destroy the school and seal her mom away and kill Sasha.

Travis-Lust, so his mom dies to seal his dad away all that's the same but Travis is just super lonely right, but then a girl comes to visit him and he eventually falls in love with her but she actually is a member of his fathers cult to break him free and Travis is so obsessed with her he doesn't notice, and before he can stop her fully she partially freed him and travis in the struggle to stop her he kills her and breaks his mothers necklace(which had lust inside) but right after he kills her a bunch of villagers burst into the chamber the demon warlock was locked in and it looks like Travis just sacrificed some girl to his father and they try to kill him so Travis hides deep in the mountains

Katelyn-Envy, her entire life in her village of dragons she was treated as lesser compared to her brothers Kayden and Cain cause she wasn't as strong as them and she pushed herself but wasn't enough, her jealousy boiled over and in a fight with her brother Kameron she broke a statue that had the sin inside she didn't kill him but burned him beyond recovery

Garroth- Pride, He was the cocky prince troupe kinda like Hercules from the Disney movie and he liked to play hero, and vylad always went with him like Garroth's little sidekick. but one day they came against a monster they couldn't beat and Garroth refused to back down and in which the monster which was a huge lion killed vylad garroth killed it but it had the sin of pride inside it Garroth returned home and when he told his mother of what happened she hid him away knowing the world would see garroth as a threat and kill him. So Evelyn(Aka Zianna I changed a lot of the parent's names cause it seemed repetitive to me, so mom is now Evelyn and the father's name is now Adam) sent Garroth to hide in Phoenix Drop and claimed the beast killed both of them.

Zane- Greed, Zane was always a good man the whole kind young priest get up. but after the sudden deaths of his brothers, his faith was shaken, and in a desperate attempt to bring them back he began to research black magic and corrupted his mind and he opened a box deep in the catacombs of Okasis which was Pandora's box which held the sin of greed and became and the once kind prince became a true monster.

Nana-Sloth Nana is the eldest daughter of a duke of the Tula Kingdom, her mother died when Nana was young and her father was very heartless about it, like had a new wife in 2 days and all her other siblings were only her half she tried to be close to them but her father kept her away from them to the point she stopped trying after so long but on a night a raid happened she was only able to save one of her siblings her youngest Juno who was only like 7 but as she was escaping she broke a mirror that had the sin of sloth inside and possessed her and nana escaped to ruan and made her little cafe with her sister. (Nanas I don't fully like it yet but it is something ig)

So that's pretty much just some tragic mfrs sorry for any spelling mistakes

[head---ache]

Hi yes, I have MANY questions about the arthuriana au. mostly it's a bunch of 'well who's going to be this knight and that witch and that magical fellow', but i also have a question about Galahad's role in this au. In King Arthur Lore proper he's Lancelot's son, but it's never specified in SATBK (though it did spark many a SIlver headcanon), so I was wondering if you would be elaborating on that. Will Galahad be Lancelot's son? Little brother? Ward? Squire? Just standing there menacingly??? And if Lancelot and Galahad are related/close here, how do Galahad and Mordred feel about each other? Is Mordred being the child of the King (not to mention Arthur and Lance's lovechild) a secret here?

Haven't decided, but I think I'm going somewhere in the middle between the satbk approach and the actual story. So- Just cherry pick whatever I think works BSKXBSXBAKFBS like how I named this version of Emmie Mordred! Sir Mordred is King Arthur's illegitimate child (in some stories), and so I kind of just picked the name and ignored the illegitimate part lmao

So about Galahad, I still don't know! I do love a good dadow story but idkidk, i'll see. the idea that sir mordred may have a brother kiiiiinda conflicts with a story point i have in mind, but idk! maybe i can work around it???

[bioniclechicken]

since you've been posting your house of h/powers of h stuff again, i'm really curious to know more about your hf fanon, especially human makuro. what's up with that?

Okay damn, long post time:

Full disclaimer a lot of this shit is disjointed and me just redoing a lot of Hero Factory lore with zero regard for much of anything:

Basically, my version of Akiyama Makuro is that he used to be a teen genius who was a sidekick to a legion of galactic superheroes that he idolized. All of these heroes were killed in a battle against Black Phantom and his Legion of Darkness over the planet Quatros and its natural resource Quaza.

The grief-stricken Makuro would eventually research the Quaza and find that it can be imprinted with memories and brain-patterns, but after he figures out a way to synthesize it, Witch Doctor exiles him from Quatros so he and his allies won't desecrate it further. With the Quaza in hand, Makuro begins work on forming Hero Factory and using the Quaza to resurrect his heroes in the form of robotic sentries that will enforce law and order across the galaxy. Unknown to him, Black Phantom had also imprinted his own brain-pattern into the Quaza in Makuro's possession as part of an elaborate plan to get revenge on the sole survivor of the heroes that defeated him.

Hero Factory is soon formed, but Makuro's young daughter died from illness. In his grief, she ends up imprinted into the Quaza, and is later reborn as Natalie Breez. Makuro as a partial result of his despair would fully abandon flesh and blood and become a brain preserved in a cybernetic body. Meanwhile, Black Phantom's consciousness is born as Von Ness, who would later betray Hero Factory to become Von Nebula, an unwitting pawn to Black Phantom's ultimate revenge.

From here on, a lot of the same events as the original series happens, but with a bunch of other weird shit and different contexts because I felt like it:

William Furno is actually a duplicate of XPlode, the original William Furno who went rogue. Furno would eventually find the truth and abandon Hero Factory to become a vigilante.

A lot of the villains in general are secretly former Heroes who were effectively abandoned by the Factory and labelled as the bad guys. Von Nebula's gang is mainly comprised of victims of this and he's ultimately trying to avenge their mistreatment.

Recon Team is secretly trying to take over Hero Factory by exposing much of Makuro's past crimes, including the villains being former heroes and the origins of Quaza. They realize Daniel Rocka would be against the coup and tried to kill two birds with one stone by causing him to crash on Quatros and having his remains expose Quaza's origins. They don't know that they're pawns to Black Phantom.

Witch Doctor isn't Aldous Witch, he's a native inhabitant of Quatros trying to defend his home from those wanting to drain it of Quaza.

The Breakout has catastrophic ramifications as a lot of secrets coming out causes Hero Factory's standing to completely collapse; the villains effectively take over Makuhero City as its protectors while the Heroes either go on the run or join the villains.

And as mentioned before all of this is basically Black Phantom's elaborate plot to take down Makuro for defeating him decades ago. In fact, Black Phantom's been long dead. He's now basically an AI copy of himself piloting his armor, but since only his biometrics can make the suit function his skeletal remains are in there. My take on him is that much of a hater.

So basically, my idea for a Hero Factory fanon is that all that shit happened and now the Heroes (and villains) need to find a way to settle their differences and all their hangups about their origins to fight an evil French skeleton in a suit of armor before he can fully wreak havoc on a defenseless galaxy.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Hello! For a hypothetical Into The Scarlet-Witchverse which generations (classic,90s,etc) or versions (Earth 'insert here' or Cartoon Shows) would you want in your line up? Are there any fun or interesting interactions you would want to see between them?

It's shame that Wanda doesn't have more fun multiverse storylines under her belt, because she's uniquely well-suited to them. One of the main things we learned about Wanda's Nexus powers in Scarlet Witch (1995) is that Wanda has an innate connection to other Nexus beings throughout the multiverse, several of which are alternate versions of herself, like Lore. So, it should, theoretically, be pretty easy to get a bunch of Wandas in a room together.

I've said it before, but I think that understanding Wanda's Nexus powers is the key to understanding how her reality-altering abilities are supposed to work and properly contextualizing everything that happened with both her babies and the Decimation. I've written at length about it here and here. So I really want to refresh this subject for modern readers, and I think that throwing Wanda into something like The Variants or the roadtrip arc from Young Avengers (2013) would be a great way to do it.

I wouldn't want to do a multiversal-hub/peacekeeping-corps situation like Spider-Verse or Captain Britain-- for Wanda, the stakes of using her Nexus powers are usually more personal and close to home. It's more about how opening herself up to the expansiveness of her abilities makes her powerful, but also vulnerable, and the stories which relate to this usually involve Wanda being taken advantage of and having to reclaim her agency. In the past, most of those stories have been... problematic, to put it lightly. Revisiting it with fresh eyes and her contemporary treatment could be really rewarding.

This might literally be where Scarlet Witch (2024) is heading-- in this year's Women of Marvel, there was foreshadowing that Wanda would be "exploring the possibilities she holds," and her featured story was actually about Wanda getting support from one of her variants. We also know that Wanda will be encountering the Queen of Nevers and coming face-to-face with Lore again. Wanda's new enemy, the Griever, is a universal abstract that represents the final end of the multiverse-- maybe exploring her multiversal potential is how Wanda will defeat her.

What versions of Wanda would I want to see? Well, as I mentioned, she doesn't have that many interesting canon variants, but part of the charm of Spider-Verse is that it always generates a bunch of new, eclectic Spideys. Momiji and Weapon Hex are both great, and I think Wanda Strange from the Variants and Imperious Hex from Tarot could both be developed into fun What If characters. I really liked my Bride of Doom and Witch of Wundagore concepts from this post. I'm extremely fond of the Elizabethan fantasy world that Gillen invented for the Secret Wars version of 1602, and it would be cool to see Romani characters in that setting that are, like, authentic and not racist. I feel like you could do something inspired by The Tempest...

Also, Wanda's powers are very broad, so I think the key would be to give each Wanda a specific focus point or gimmick based on her universe. The Wolverine, Namor, and Strange fusions are obvious, and Momiji could focus on illusions and mental manipulation. The others, I'm less sure.

I don't personally care for any of Wanda's movie or TV versions-- I think most of them are very poor adaptations of the character. Obviously the M C U is the worst, but even the cartoons usually whitewash her. But if you change up the visual designs a little and give them a better backstory, some of them have potential--

United They Stand Wanda as Agatha's successor in a story that focuses more on historical covens, New Salem, etc.; drawing inspiration for her powers from the psuedo-pagan treatment she got in the 80s.

Iron Man Wanda in the Force Works costume as the version who's most focused on her probability powers, maybe play her as more of a tech specialist than the other Wandas.

WatXM Wanda as the main representation of Wanda-as-Magneto's-daughter, being the princess and heir of a mutant nation experiment (better than HoM, that's for sure!)

Evolution Wanda as a rebellious punk kid-- maybe with a new, matching design for Pietro? Just based on how the design was inspired by The Craft, it might be cool to play like a character who just stepped out of a horror movie.

[just-the-girl-in-the-chair]

Blog Intro!

Hi! I'm Miracle (She/her. Mira for short. It's my codename don't @ me about it).

I'm a handler/manager for superheroes working for the Millennium City Hero Commission, mainly the support hero Witch but I sub in for others occasionally when needed. Basically I manage her logistics and routes and if necessary track down and rescue her or other things if the situation calls for it.

Recently I was thinking that despite many heroes and sidekicks (and some villains) having public social media accounts, I haven't really seen anything for the handlers. So I asked and got permission to make a blog. This blog!

Ill be able to answer questions about the general workplace, some stupid moments from here at hq, some shitposts, and maybe pass on some of your questions to some of the heroes.

But before you begin asking there are some rules in place so I can legally keep this going.

I cannot and will not reveal any confidential information, such as secret identities or stuff like that. I care for the safety of my coworkers, so trying to ask will likely end with you blocked. I also won't respond to some asks or anon hate depending on the content.

With that out of the way, happy asking!

Tag directory (may change):

#miracle worker - general posts from me

#tales from hq - posts about work

#hero time - stuff involving heros or villains

((Ooc stuff under read more. Do read before sending asks. it is long))

hi! This blog is run by @jester-writing and is mainly here cause I wanted to shove a bunch of my ocs into a superhero setting. I'll update this post if any other blogs get affiliated with this askblog.

If you want to try join in with an ask blog set in this universe please ask me first at my main or au/oc side blog @jester-creates so i can work with you to make sure it doesn't contradict any lore i have set up

The setting of this askblog is not within any major comic or movie universe.

Mira will respond to stuff as if they're in her universe. Tags on posts other than this one will be in character unless stated otherwise.

Anything tagged "non-canon rps" is not Canon to the main askblog and cannot be asked upon. What happens in non-canon stays non-canon.

----

some setting stuff:

This Universe is currently set in the mid 2100's, some things stayed the same when compared to modern times other things (especially robotics) are very advanced. At least about 20-55% of the population have some power of some kind, whether through being an animal hybrid of some kind, being an alien, being a fae, getting them from an accident, etc etc and about 60-80% of those are mostly very minor ones

----

some general information on the ocs that will be showing up/mentioned and if you can ask on them. (note: you cannot ask based on actual names for some of them): Mira "Miracle" Ordell- main character of the blog. Manages and works with the superhero Witch. She has no powers, only training

Sigyn "Witch" King- A support superhero that uses magic and potions to help teammates. She also basically has minecraft inventory via her bag. She is partially fae giving her pale green skin and purple eyes.

(these two are the main two)

--- Heroes/MCHC workers mentioned

"Demon"- A detective who also works as a reserve hero for the MCHC. He has pyrokinesis after an incident during a case that burned him among other things. Works with the MCHC for protection for himself.

"Seer"- the receptionist at the MCHC. Has the ability to see a person's greatest secret, at the time of viewing them, drawn onto them. Sometimes it's secret identities, other times it's crimes the person's committed in the past. he keeps a tight lip on secret identities. His eyes are a bit weird as a result of his power.

"Blackjack"- quantum divorced with his wife, "Andromeda". no one really knows what stage of their marriage cycle he and Andromeda are in at any given moment. Oh and he can summon a posse of ghost horses to corner foes and do other cowboy skills... i guess.

"Captain Berry"- Pirate themed hero that has control of a ghost ship and crew

[ultimateutopia]

[ also theories about wtf is going on in ffviii. mind you the party just divided after jailbreak so idk shit about fuck about whats gonna happen so pls no spoilers orz ]

im pretty sure the lady dressed in blue is sb from the laguna prespective. either the kid orrrr the lady hes into i dont remember the name of atm. not julia the other one

im also p sure the moon is fucked. like its mostly me having dealt with a game too many where the moon is the final boss but. Its Big Right? its a huge fucking moon. considering the second moon in ffix is there for plot and lore reasons they had to make it big on purpose

the little guys from the prison mistook squall for laguna. besties are related.

galbadia's garden told the gang that seifer was dead and then immediately sent a bunch of kids who became seeds like yesterday to kill a witch and save the world. thats suspicious. thats weird. i dont trust a single garden headmaster.

smth about rinoa's dad LUCKILY having a big artifact that can drain witch magic and girls being kidnapped to become witches and julia being married to him and him, AGAIN, sending child soldiers to what might as well be a suicide mission. julia is a witch im calling it

Zero Clue about the secret of the SeeD but considering that like. Theyre seeds from a garden. meant to spread around the world. im cooking idk what but im cooking it just leave me a few more minutes on the grill

also smth about junctioning causing amnesia and laguna. yea the whole "I got lost lol" could be for the funny hahas but laguna is obviously a much deeper character than he first seems so. uhhh. yeah

[flirtyambiguouswizard]

LORE POST

Hey! Flirty Ambiguous Wizard here, you can call me also Lanfear. I prefer they/them pronouns but he/she are fine if you switch them from time to time.

This (side) blog is a safe space for the Queer Folk and is run by a queer person.

Don't be afraid to send me questions if you want to interact! In fact, please do!

I live in a moving castle in wizard island island. I sell paper, ink and other stationary (magical and non magical), i also write cards or scrolls on commission (if you have a request hit my DMs or send a question) but most of all I wander trough wizard island island and stick my nose in other's affairs.

Lanfear's body is but a mere flesh vessel, it's mostly empty inside (more full of voidness rather than empty), their left knee if made up of alien technology and alien organic matter, I don't really know a lot about it but it reacts weirdly when I'm near Combustion Witch. I am mostly immortal since my soul can easily migrate from flesh vessel to flesh vessel (I have a bunch of them cloned in a secret dongeon in my castle)

I'm also a proud member of the @slutty-wizard-council so this blog will be 18+, i won't block you if you're a minor/ageless blog but I won't interact with you in explicit topics, if you're 18+ for said explicit roleplays I will be using @lanfear-on-a-full-moon . There are older threads that might be explicit or romal RPs that start to become explicit so thread carefully if you don't wanna see them. sorry but I don't tag stuff

More images to better understand my vibes

Golden/amber eyes, with slit pupils, usually with some make up around them. A straight and pointy nose with two gold septums. Pointy ears, pierced as well. Usually use a clownish, red and black make up. My skin tone is naturally pale.

Long, Silver/white hair, sometimes with purple streaks. Almost always in a single bun.

Short, black sideburns and mustache.I generally use some red/purple/black lipstick.

Wide shoulder and a solid build but not visibly muscular. I'm average/on the taller side of height considering humans as a reference.

[lydiaalin]

would love to know more about your horror cowboys! are they from a personal project or some other media (game/book?)

they’re from a game called Hunt Showdown, it’s an extraction shooter in a horror western setting where some entity called the Sculptor has taken over an area in New Orleans and is essentially corrupting every living thing (see: shambling zombies everywhere, giant spiders made out of a bunch of people, some dude made out of bugs, headless dudes that see through leeches coming out of their body etc.)

there’s a secret organization called the American Hunters Association which deals with the occult and supernatural and they went in to contain the situation and banish the bigger monsters, but the whole event attract the outside attention and there are rich benefactors vying for a piece of those monsters as trophies (and who knows what else) so there were a bunch of bounty hunters and money desperate, or people with something to prove, going in besides the Association and fighting over the, which has been dubbed as the Hunt

The three ‘cowboys’ I posted are my own OCs that are all in some way involved in the Hunt but ngl I haven’t really ironed out all their lore 🏃‍♀️

▫️ Amarante Montandon’s father was a Hunter of the Association who went in for the Hunt but never returned home, had left her in the care of their close neighbor. Amie ran away and went looking for him but soon after stepping foot in the city of New Orleans she was snatched up and put on a train to the Bayou with a bunch of other orphans, where Sheriff Hardin was using them as fodder to cull the monster population with the promise of reward if they returned with trophies, only to then shoot them himself if they survived (x, x)

Amie was of the few that survived, both the monsters and Hardin, and ran back into the Bayou where she scrapped by on her own for a while, before she ran into Hardin again who after a standoff and a brief talk of the Association and her father he offered to make her his Deputy, which more out of necessity for survival more than anything, she accepted - while she doesn’t trust him nor like him, she has come to be one of the more reliable of the Lawful Pact in the Bayou

▫️The Tracker AKA Eleanor Callahan was from a family of Wolfers (wolf hunters) in Colorado where she was one of their best trackers even from an early age, until she got tired of that life and ran off. She quickly fell in with the bad sort, briefly joining various gangs and robbing and scamming people in the city. Eventually she wronged the wrong people, joined a gang only to run away with their stockpile of money which of course they did not take lightly and chased her down tirelessly - they caught up to her in the Bayou and beat her within an inch of her life, leaving her for dead.

She was left in an area affected by the Sculptor and in her death roes was attracted to one of the rifts which are “punctures between worlds”, she was subsequently healed by it to a degree but was left visually impaired, only being able to see a short distance in front of her in black and white but also being able to see other rifts a great distance away, a kin to the Dark Sight the Hunters use, though they were required to use a special serum to acquire that ability.

She was later found and picked up by Felis and the Bone Doctor, Hunters of the Primal Pact and she ended up joining them in the Hunt, putting her newfound ability and her knowledge as a tracker to use.

▫️ Devany Kesserly honestly has very little lore at the moment, all she has right now is that she was killed during the Hunt by being shot and then drowning in the swamp, she was revived via necromancy on the spot by a Hunter named Gar, who was part of the Drowned Pact, Hunters who had also drowned and were revived by the will of some witch - Devany not being revived by the witch herself did not become part of the Pact, but she did end up with the ability to heal when in contact with water, even heavy rain

She also knows Amarante in some way but haven’t decided how and why yet 🏃‍♀️💨

[noahsbookhoard]

📚July 2024 Book Review (Part 1/3)📚

I separated the book for July at more or less random and it comes that today's three novels are mostly character driven stories! I don't think I had read many such books before but they really grew on me and those three are all really good!

Du thé pour les fantômes de Chris Vuklisevic

Felicité and Agonie are sisters, one helps ghost leave the living world with magic teas, the second is a witch. They hadn't seen each other for 30 years when their mother dies. The sister must meet again to uncover the secrets left by their mother and maybe repair what could be of their relationship and of their complicated childhood.

First thing that struck me was the style. There are two different style of narration in this book: one in which the narrator is welcoming the reader in a teashop and telling them about Félicité "La Passeuse de Fantôme", and another in which he narrates from an omniscient point of view Félicité's and Agonie's childhood (the names are transparent words and tells you a lot about how they were treated as kids), their separation, their reunion and the quest for answers from their mother that takes them from South East France to Spain.

The first one is really direct, informal and speech-like. Pretty funny too, I wasn't expecting to be compared to a tuna and egg sandwich by page 2 but here we are! The second one is much less oral but very poetic and melodic. It sets an heavy atmosphere even sometimes dark especially when it comes to the mother and Agonie.

The characters are more than what appears at first glance and they evolve a lot throughout the book, especially Agonie, given that we hear a lot about her childhood but she herself appears relatively late in the novel. The mother too is a mysterious figure, when you think you have a good idea of who she was you realise there is more to uncover and as you do the sisters also appear under a new light. The character development is masterfully done and I got really attached to them.

This book hasn't been translated yet in English but I hope it will, it deserves to be!

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper just joined the Wormhole tunneling ship Wayfarer, a scrapheap of a ship but with a tight knitting crew. She will travel to deep space and learn to live and work with her new crewmates, a diverse and chaotic bunch of individuals with lives and background as complicated as her own.

This novel, in my opinion, is the very definition of character driven narrative: not much happens in the plot but the story is packed with episodes that highlights the characters, their stories, their relationships, their feelings... The novel devotes a lot of time to establishing the dynamics of the crew, the friendships, the inimities, and even the characters who keep the most to themselves are forced at some point to open up and divulge more of who they are and why they are so isolated and secretive. And it is all done oh so subtlety! no character development is forced, even when the bad guys end up literally beating it out of one particularly aloof crewmember. It feels really intimate but never intrusive, the novel invites you in on their private moments, the love stories, the sad ones too. It is wonderfully balanced.

The soft sci-fi setting works really well, it isn't so lore and science heavy that you don't have time to properly focus on the character but it creates some really diverse and interesting alien species, a wormhole tunneling system that is not too lingo-heavy but completely believable (mainly because Rosemary has no idea what is going on so why would the reader? The specialist can deal with it that's what matters) and varied planets and settings for that different adventures of the crew. I especially liked the market, it felt like every market in the world and yet completely alien in its content.

It is an new favorite of mine, although as of posting this I haven't read the rest of the series. I laughed, I cried and I felt like I traveled far and wide with this crew. I am deeply fond of the novel, as if I had read it ten times before.

Le dernier des siens by Sybille Grimbert

1835, Gus is a young zoologist on an expedition to study the northern European fauna. When the crew of the ship calls on a little island to hunt a colony of Great Penguin for their meat he saves one individual that he names Prospero. He has unknowingly rescued the last of his kind. For the next 15 years man and animal will develop a profund bound. Exploring from Faroe island to Denmark in search of others of Prosp's kind Gus will deal with the realisation that he is witnessing the extinction of an entire species.

I read this book in one sitting, the style is simple but fluid and the story is intriguing: a man saves a rare specimen of penguin and, once the scientific curiosity transform into something of a friendship, he sets of to reunite the animal with his kind only to realise it might be the very last one. The feelings of Gus evolves very quickly and interestingly from the 19th century lack of care for the preservation of species to a burgeoning of ecological consciousness to the tragic realisation of the damage already done and still done in his time.

Seen through the prism of 21st century ecology Gus is horrible in the first part of the book. Sometimes when I was angry at him for his mistreatment of Prosp or the way other characters talk about a near extinct species, it was always good to remember that, although the Great Penguin did go extinct and it was very much was mankind's fault and that there has been a trend of rich people adopting endangered species to exhibit them live around their house, this specific story is fictional. That doesn't make it less tragic, it just made me refrain from mentally strangling fictional characters.

His growth is that much interesting that he first conveyed the mainstream opinion of the time: "there's no species extinction, only evolution! Animals that disappear were just not suited for survival and whatever happens it certainly isn't our fault!"

But he learns, from Props and from people, biologists and zoologists, who already in the 1830's realised that we were destroying entire biomes with oblivious enthusiasm. It doesn't change history and the fate of the Great Penguin but it reflect to us what we know but tend not to realise deeply enough: there are entire species going extinct far more quickly than the natural rythme of evolution and balance of biodiversity and it is entirely our fault.

It is a very touching story, but not something that I ever want to see actually happen (it reminds me of the film "The Fox and the Child" in which a little girl tries to befriend a fox and it doesn't go well at all): it is a warning, a beautifully written one, but a tale of caution more than of inspiration.

[sabraeal]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤️

This is always the toughest because I have written over 100 fics (much more, if you count the ones in collections) and I truly do love pretty much all of them. I think I will keep this to Obiyuki fics I really found technically difficult, and creatively satisfying!

All Pain Will Turn To Medicine Joanna likes to refer to this as "as close a crossover between Jen's obiyuki fic and original writing as she can come and still call it fanfic" which is absolutely correct, since this fic require making an ENTIRE CAST of OCs to support the premise of "Obi and Shirayuki grow up as childhood friends in the canon universe." I worked on mainly original writing before I started posting fic, so I delight in making characters and then convincing people to care about them, sometimes even against their will.

And That's the Reason We Need Lips So Much Written for the VERY FIRST Obiyukiweek back in 2016, I had been talking about doing something just like this since I pretty much started posting Seven Suitors. Sorata has a love of taking tropes an twisting them, and I thought the "true love's kiss/kiss of life" would be a hilarious one to tackle because...CPR usually ends with vomiting and cracked ribs. I had to do some really in-depth research into the mechanism of hemlock poisoning, since there is no actual known cure, and make up a very convincing one for Shirayuki to discover-- half the reason U started writing fic for this fandom was because I had professional biology knowledge, I wasn't gonna handwave it!

Creatures of a Brief Season Like All Pain, this was for the first AU bingo we ever ran, and I was using a bunch of ideas we had all come up with almost six months earlier on the obiyuki server we had at the time. I'd been so taken with the idea of doing a retelling with daemons, especially with Shirayuki having a daemon that settled late, and Obi having a the witch's tether for his daemon...the biggest hurdle was hoping that I'd done the whole concept justice. It was a LOT of pressure, but it remains one of my favorite fics.

Family, Duty, Honor A Song of Ice and Fire is possibly one of my favorite fantasy series of all time (the show....exists), so when this showed up on my bingo board a few years ago I was ECSTATIC. I had many, MANY ideas for a long-form series that would involve SECRET PARENTAGE and POLITICAL INTRIGUE, and probably DRAGONS, but since it was just for bingo, I wanted it to focus on Obi & Shirayuki...and thus we started at the Fake Marriage, Real Baby plot 🤣 ASoIaF is very densely packed with lore and I wanted to keep this fic the same way...but also make it readable to those who do not shove themselves face first into 800 page fantasy novels. It was a balancing act that I feel like I ultimately got; there's lots of little hints left for fans of the series, but it's enjoyable to people who aren't!

A Color By Any Other Name I had been talking about writing a fic like this for YEARS before I got to sit down and write it; I was initially hesitant because sometimes relatively benign disabilities like colorblindness are used more as like...entertainment in fic, either just as jokes or something to be fixed by the end of the narrative. And my philosophy is always that if I am going to include and experience in a fic-- whether it be something playing a tabletop game, or experiencing grief-- it should feel relatable to a person who has experienced it. So if I wanted to write someone discovering their colorblindness (based more than a little off a close friend's experience in college), I didn't want the colorblindness to be the punchline. In the end I had more than a couple people mention they had read it out to colorblind boyfriends/husbands who had also thought it was funny, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

[wyrmskulls]

I havnt recovered from the Caz fight yet. BUT

here are some genuine thoughts on Astarion from my- knew nothing of baldurs gate before playing run: (from me the Ace with no sense of self preservation)

"Oh great a sexy vamp man- bet friend XYX is all over that, they are romanceable, right? like dragon age?"🧛‍♂️

".... that 'don't touch me' sounded too real.... hope im wrong"

" I mean if we are cool with Shar worshippers and devil pacts why not a vamp, join the club buddy."

"he is a cagey little fuck I think I'll go after him this play through love his little faces"

"I'm not into pain, thinking this was a bad choice" chains and whips to not excite Tav XD

"I mean maybe it's the years of slavery and not sexual trauma???" 🙏

"noooo, I mean of course the sexy vamp wants to fuck, I probly have to- to get more of his story...." proceed to worry stupidly about unskippable sex scenes and noises for no reason (you can press x any time to get to the next thing / dialog)

get propositioned again at party.... "maybe this relationship won't work out, he's way to thirsty least there wasn't another sex scene lol dun worry buddy, I'll help you murder that guy that hurt you, just can't keep up with the horny XD"

"so I just feed him bad guys and tell him he is pretty? yup that checks out"

act 2

Start working on wyll, he seems like a cool guy... "whoa bud, is this you first romance scene.... by saying yes to a dance... feels icky cause I know sex happens at some point, like some entitled jerk at a bar, least astarion was real upfront about it" ( in hind sight this was unfair to wyll, but everyone was being so horny and the only scene I had was astarions so I drew some incorrect conclusions with wyll being a 'good guy' asshole)

"I mean we has evidence that deals with devils are bad.... or is it demons... anyways I support you in a friend way, getting raphel to Facebook stalk your abuser to make sure he not still pineing after you is OK with me."

Got his Act 2 scene "OHNooooooo I was right it was a sexual trauma 'don't touch me....' ohhhh noooooo. he didn't wanna fuck either????? baby boy, you never gotta sex again if you dun wanna, we can hug forever!" cried a while ngl

"look here blood witch- no means no, if your house wasn't destroyed, I'd destroy it myself."😈

"i mean he said he kills kids, so it's ok to kill him, then raphy boy will tell us if you back is bad news or really bad news <3"

"It's really bad news..... so no big astarion lover of cuddles l, will help you kill the guy who ruined your life. that's what romantic partners do. we kiss and nothing else and I will murder people to keep doing that <3" pondering an evil play through honesly

"he was so upset when Tav died in battle.... like doesn't he know rez scrolls are a thing? it's ok Tavs gonna live forever.... not sure how we will figuer that out" researches dnd lore to find several solutions XD

"Gale bud. friend. pal. I care about you and your life. your ex is shitty for asking you to do this, but also if you do blow up you'll take us all with you.... and even if you don't, #1 priority over there will be back under vamp thrall so this is a no go, put your shirt back on."🙃

act 3

found a cliff in the camp before act 3 with a song that made me cry again it is for sure astarions "wtf dude I was emotionally stable now what have you done"

"circus lady, here are all my loves deepest secrets- oh no she's a shapeshifter???? oops, it's ok love we will kill her too why not" No one can know how hurt you are but meeeeeee 😋

"a statue of my boyfriend in camp don't mind if I do~☆ aww now he has a halo so everyone can see he is a good boy who totally doesn't cause me to murder people and would never murder anyone himself" 😇

"Astarion NO, we are not gonna kill a bunch of other spawn just cause you are scared. I get it, and you don't have time for therapy but trust me that not gonna feel great in a few hundred years"

"ooooo blood bitch is back and you fucked up. look at this boy standing up for himself - yes that's right take us to your private house so we can kill you at our leisure.... man oh man I used to have morals now I got Astarion."

*****

and now I'm tired XD

[end23]

People often ask what’s the difference between witches and wizards.

I think it comes down to context

Wizard study the arcane, figuring out how and why, their magic knowledge be theoretical or practical. They’re often magica researchers in scientist., and yes, you get a few crazy people who want to conquer the world, but those are just mad scientist.

Which is on the other hand are completely to at least moderately in the dark about what they cast, which doesn’t know how the fire ball functions they do know if they do the special chanting dance in the fireable just shooter people, I wish you would know the dance isn’t required, and that they’re doing a very bad job at spellcasting, but which has no formal education that’s why which is often use alchemy or talk to spirits. Those are things that require very little magical knowledge, and just requires., a bunch of experimentation and luck.

This is also a moost Witch have big hats, if you spend your life basically in the woods, attempting to figure out the secrets of magic by ingesting 50 different mushrooms you probably want people to know that you’re skilled at the arcane arts.

Actually, this could be a pretty cool lore tidbit where witches were the one who originally discovered magic, and then later the ones were find it were called wizards as much of him less accepted wizards became more fans of hoods for witches didn’t

Hence, keeping my earlier example of a hood over stealth or big wizard hats, or witch hats, are used to display magical power .

[honda-hatch]

Reviewing A Subsequent Set of 14 Spider-Man Issues

Welcome back, non-existent audience. We begin our return with

The Amazing Spider-Man #15 (August 1964): Our first appearance of Kraven! Not to mention, our first mention of Mary Jane! This one is a thriller. If you haven't figured it out already, I am a fan of drawn-out fights in these older issues, and this one doesn't disappoint, with a drawn-out cat and mouse game in its latter half. I'm not entirely sure how I fell about Kraven's potion stuff, though. Perhaps its the word choice. "Poison" just makes it sound more fitting, but perhaps that was banned by the CCA. Though, I'm not particularly a fan of Kraven having gotten his abilities from a Witch Doctor in a lost tribe, I do prefer him just being a peak human. Chameleon is also definitely underused here, merely calling in Kraven and then helping with his scheme -- it seems as if they wanted to bring him back, but were worried that they would encroach on plot territory they had re-allocated to Mysterio. Ah well. Still a fun issue! Also, we learn that JJJ apparently has a secret stash of milk chocolate bars hidden in the Daily Bugle. Truly deep lore.

The Amazing Spider-Man #16 (September 1964): Overall, this is a pretty solid issue. Spidey decides to go to the circus for the contrived reason of... making sure the public likes him? Which he figures can be confirmed or helped by performing in a circus that falsely advertised having him for free? Whatever. The Ringmaster's hypnosis powers give us a quick tussle against Daredevil, which, while lackluster, at least give Matt Murdock an excuse to appear in the issue. What follows is another fun setting-fight, with the webhead battling a bunch of circus goons. I'm not sure this is "one of the greatest issues I've ever read," as the title proclaims, but I already have a bone to pick with Marvel editorial, so it matters not. At this point, Pete is still fumbling Betty Brant and rejecting the concept of meeting MJ, lmao.

The Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 1 (October 1964): I'll be honest, I was kinda disappointed with this annual. 72 pages my ass! only like 43 or something are the actual sinister six story, with the rest being random background info blah blah blah. Not to mention, constant friggin ads for other Marvel comics!! Even Pete's existential crisis that block his spider powers felt like an excuse to advertise other heroes while he was trying to get his mojo back. At least his resolution to fight and die was pretty badass. Is this the whole point of annuals? Ugh. What a letdown. The sinister six don't even fight Spidey at the same time, instead they all want to defeat him on their own. We get a whole single page image for each fight, which all look great, but the actual solutions to the fights are lame, because Spidey is more occupied with getting to Betty and Aunt May. They all get arrested again at the end, but meh. At least the art was good, and the idea of May having a crush on Ock is funny. Blegh. Here's hoping future annuals are better.

The Amazing Spider-Man #17 (October 1964): This is a bizarre issue to judge. This version of the Goblin definitely feels more complete, with his bat glider and pumpkin bombs, and the driving plot being Flash's Spidey fan club is amusing, but the fight seems to just spin its wheels. I do enjoy Johnny jumping in to help, but... gah. Aunt May's health failing again does create another fun "city hates Spidey" situation, though. I fear I might get tired of that, however. We shall see!

The Amazing Spider-Man #18 (November 1964): This is an solid little issue. Sure, it technically focuses around Pete being a whiner and not wanting to hurt himself for the sake of Aunt May, but seeing Flash and the Human Torch stand up for him while the public rails at him is nice. Not to mention, it's kinda hilarious that May is the one to tell Peter not to be a pussy.

The Amazing Spider-Man #19 (December 1964): Spidey's triumphant return to crime fighting is another fun issue. Honestly, I'm just really surprised that, somehow, the Enforcers always make for such great fights. Between them and Sandman, this issue has a lot of great action, and because Torch is there as well, we get Montana's newest weapon: "The Asbestos Lasso!" Gotta love the 60s. Anyhow, between the action, JJJ's "a second plane has hit the towers" moment, and the spooky cliffhanger, this is a great way to finish out 1964. Also, Ned Leeds debuts. Surely nothing will happen with him.

The Amazing Spider-Man #20 (January 1965): What a way to kick off 1965! Here we start to see a few things: first off, we get an immediate continuation of the cliffhanger from the previous issue, indicating more of the connected storytelling that will develop. Secondly, we get a lot of great facial reaction shots, especially from JJJ (which apparently Ditko was getting real fond of, between this issue and last). Thirdly, we have our first fight with Spidey having his suit torn up. It's a little touch, but knock-down, drag-out fight between him and Scorpion really does seem to indicate Pete's growth as a fighter -- most of the time he usually comes up with a clever solution to win, but between Scorpion and the Enforcers, it's fun to see him win fights based on skill and reflex alone. Really an excellent issue. Honestly, its going to become difficult to not repeat adjectives as I write these reviews, especially since the standards of comic writing will change with the times -- so just consider that I'm attempting to write in relativity to the period in which I'm currently reading from.

The Amazing Spider-Man #21 (February 1965): This issue is more amusing than anything. The conflict with the Beetle kinda takes a backseat to Peter's personal drama, which makes for an entertaining issue -- they've been playing up the idea of what will come to be called "Parker Luck," and it makes for a fine issue. One of the best parts about the bok is that every character introduced functions both as someone to be put in danger for Spider-Man, as well as someone to conflict with regular old Peter Parker -- even if Betty's shtick of "ah jeez he's pulling other bitches" is starting to get just a bit stale.

The Amazing Spider-Man #22 (March 1965): This... is a bizarre issue. The leading villains aren't particularly interesting, but we get some funny individual panels, such as

But aside from that, if I had a nickel for every time they said "female" in this issue, I could pick up a few more old comics. Also, there's a brief battle with a giant snake? Anyway.

The Amazing Spider-Man #23 (April 1965): This issue is alright. It's another mob story, which have become rather common already. The Goblin once again has a weirdly contrived plan that doesn't really work out, which leads to the highlights of the issue being Peter's new white casual outfit and the fact that he's being passive aggressive at Betty Brant for not mentioning a letter from Ned Leeds -- that, and Pete calls aunt may from a landline in the middle of a fight.

The Amazing Spider-Man #24 (May 1965): This is a fun issue. There isn't much in the way of action, but instead we get to see Peter go a bit insane. Or do we? It's a good thing nobody in his rogue's gallery deals in illusions. It is also definitely hilarious to see Lee commenting, again, on how easily people are influenced by the news. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

The Amazing Spider-Man #25 (June 1965): This one's cover is pretty crazy in retrospect, lmao. Surely its someone's amazing fantasy. The spider-slayer chase itself is rather mundane, but Peter's personal drama sorta makes up for it, even if the book itself doesn't call attention to the idea that Peter, a seemingly-nerdy 18-year-old guy is swimming in women this early on (not to mention, we're getting more teases of Mary Jane). I don't take issue with it, it's just funny in retrospect with all of the "status quo" arguments that get tossed around these days with the character. But that's something I'll get to later.

The Amazing Spider-Man #26 (July 1965): This is quite an entertaining issue. We've drama with Peter losing both of his costumes last time, we've got drama with Liz and Betty, and also... the mob. But they manage to be the most mundane part of it all.

The Amazing Spider-Man #27 (August 1965): This is another solid issue, with Peter having to worm his way out of the mob's grasp, and then the police shooting the villain of the week to death off-panel. What a riot. I would like to make note of Green Goblin's glider on the cover though. Get a load of that.

Anyway, that's another 14 issues read. Admittedly, like old comics do, it is getting a bit formulaic at this point, though I know Peter is graduating high school sometime soon. That's mostly what's keeping me going, along with the promise of the MJ reveal. Onwards and upwards