extraordinarytourist

[dairine-bonnet]

Why is immortal Sion ready to fight with the Exile in the Sith Academy on Korriban and chase them to the entrance, but not ready to step out the door and chase the Exile? And why does Kreia recommend going to the Academy first, knowing that Sion is there, and only after that coming into the cave? Can't Sion enter the cave for some reason? I can't get it... Does anybody know the answers?:)

[bringerofdeathandtheapocolypse]

Honestly, having been rewatching the early episodes now, I'm a little annoyed how little what we learned about Ivan and what was going on with him and how horrible his actual debut truly was.

Fantasia set up that Ivan was exiled for an unknown reason (something which is still unknown since Makarov didn't know Ivan knew about Lumen histoire until Laxus asked about it so it wasn't that), that he had some interest in Laxus although again never specified what for or why, that he was the one to give Laxus his lacrima and that Gajeel was working as a double, double agent for him.

Then we learn through a flashback during GMG (I think. I might be remembering when wrong) of Laxus asking Makarov about what he was doing with Ivan and learning that he didn't attack Fairy tail over the 7 years. Something which we do know the reason for, that being no one remaining would have known the information he wanted.

Now I'm not saying that Makarov or Laxus need to info dumb about their pasts or something. It would be quite OOC for either of them unless it was an episode/chapter focused on say Laxus and the thunder legion, you know, the group he is the closest with.

Better ways of dropping small hints would be, even just taking canon events, have Makarov think about things when he's beaten by Hades. Think about how not only did one of his potential father figures turn down the dark path but his son and almost his grandson did too and have him think about what he could have done for that to happen.

Stories can have unreliable narrators. Not everyone is going to see things through the same lens as you do. Makarov thinking he was a good father and grandfather could make sense if perhaps he wasn't entirely aware of what was going on behind the scenes.

If, like I have mentioned before, Ivan grew resentful of Makarov and Fairy tail because it took away his father's attention which started out as Ivan acting out for that attention but it didn't work and got worse then its possible Makarov may not have noticed his son was feeling neglected. And I will stand by my belief that Ivan was an abusive father to Laxus. Maybe not physically but definitely mentally. And its possible that he said something to Laxus for him to be too afraid to take to Makarov about what was going on.

Fairy tail has a mix of villains who you can understand why they might have fallen down the path they did(the seiz with bad guidance, Lyon with becoming obsessed with his goal, Gajeel being raised in a guild that practically praised him for his violenece) while others where they just are evil because (Brain/Zero, Mard Geer and the rest of Tartarous, Erigor) I personally believe Ivan could have been the former. Give more context to it. Sometimes, children who aren't treated correctly by their parents fall into the wrong crowd, that could have happened with Ivan.

And again, his debut and build up in GMG was not good. His whole reason for joining the games was to get at Fairy tail and possibly get to Laxus specifically. So why was it only targeted on the first day. Third I get since there was no way to attack each other although they could have tried to trip up Cana or sneakly hurt Erza or Cana while they stood around.

But there isn't an excuse for day 2. Natsu and Gajeel could barely move. Wouldn't it make sense for RT to go after them while they were down?

And why not attack Juvia as well as Gray? Both are from FT.

And the fact that Gajeel being a double agent is brought up once with Laxus just mentioning that was how they got the info and Ivan being angry about it. Why not bring it full circle to have Ivan order Gajeel to work at sabotaging FT and aiding RT. Maybe even make him attack his own guild members during the night. Gajeel would likely refuse to do this since he at this point cares about FT so Ivan proceeds to threaten one of the members he's close with. It could be Lily or Levy, maybe Juvia or any other member he has an attachment or relationship with (Like how I see him being close with Mira and Wendy) Which forces his hand and makes it a case where the members are sceptical and think Gajeel is falling back into his old ways and betraying the guild.

So then when its the fight with Laxus and Ivan reveals some info to Laxus since he thinks he'll be on his side, it gets Laxus angry that Ivan would be willing to harm any of his guild and breaks what little hope he had for his dad.

Plus, it could lead to a little more chaos if Ivan is questioned by the council because he could try to put the blame on Gajeel and cite his sudden behaviour change. The council bring Gajeel in for questioning and then you could have a moment where Laxus reveals Gajeel was never wanting to hurt the guild and that he was being threatened into doing what he was doing and Makarov reveals Gajeel was a double agent the entire time.

The consequences can vary. It could be Gajeel is arrested because its a 4 to 5 vs 1 and its canon Gajeel has been in legal trouble before or he could be let go with a slap on the wrist and a warning to the FT guild where it could come back up later. (Maybe in a Gajeel centric arc perhaps something similar to the Rhodinite manga)

Or have Ivan cause harm to Gajeel now that he knows he was a double agent, attacking Gajeel and causing him to have a permanent injury. A branding, missing limb, damaged eye. Something other than a basic scar that isn't that noticeable to put out permanent consequences.

What can I say, I just love putting Gajeel in angsty situations.

[emaginations]

What may happen if the Fundywastaken wedding fails

I already posted this on twitter, but it’s generally easier to find posts on tumblr so I’m putting this here too. I want to know what other people think.

TL;DR: The Fundywastaken & Dreamnotfound setup is a ploy by Dream himself to ensue chaos on the server.

LONG EXPLANATION & DEEP ANALYSIS FURTHER

Now, I’m going to start off by saying that I didn’t catch the entire stream. I was watching Quackity’s love or host, so anyone feel free to add more info or fill in any blanks in reblogs or the tags

I’m honestly not sure if the wedding is going to go in the positive direction. During the streams today, we say Dream purchase some flowers from Niki and Puffy’s flower shop, supposedly for Fundy. Dream, however, initially says they’re for George, seemingly in a slip-up. Perhaps a mix-up of names. 

Hidden from Fundy’s view, however, is this little tidbit that Dream mentions:

He doesn’t want Fundy to know about the flowers.

We as the viewers can conclude from this that the flowers were indeed for George. Dream is supposedly cheating on Fundy with George. Now Dream does have a child, not apart of the server lore too much but still. We are not sure to this day who the other father of the child is. It could be concluded that this fling with George has been long coming. He even made George the king of the smp.

But here’s the thing. 

There may be more ill intentions behind this situation that Dream is brewing. We all know from past experiences that Dream’s character only cares about chaos. He constantly switches sides based on who’s winning or who would cause the most destruction. He even surrendered in the most recent war so that Wilbur could blow up L’manberg with more ease. Wilbur’s actions, enabled by Dream, brought chaos unto the server. One big detail we all know and love about Fundy and Wilbur’s relationship. 

Fundy is Wilbur’s son.

Wilbur, who blew up an entire nation in reaction to loosing it. 

His interactions with Fundy, when romantic, are few and far in distance within the lore. I believe Dream may be setting up this entire wedding, his entire relationship with Fundy, in order to instill more chaos in the server. It’s what his arc revolves around, constantly stewing in more conflict. He may be pulling the entire thing by the strings to do this. If this is revealed at the wedding, that their relationship was never meant to be (haha crying), Fundy would be heartbroken.

With Fundy being Wilbur’s son, with his blood, there are some extreme actions that he may take from the fallout of the wedding. He could fall apart more, fall into a deep despair. He could be broken and hollow, he could fill it with the fires that reigned with Wilbur while he was exiled from Manberg. 

Fundy may not take this route now. He could be swayed away from this ending by Phil, Eret, Tubbo, or Niki. These are the people that I would say would care about him. With Phil being his grandfather, he is slowly building a healthy relationship. Eret, offering to adopt him, could serve as a new parental figure, a new shelter. Tubbo, being the president and finally giving him an official political position, also offering to adopt Fundy. And Niki, his election running mate and trustworthy, loyal friend. He has all these people to help him.

But then again, Wilbur did have people to pull him away from his thoughts too. Niki was still on his side, he had Tubbo on the inside, and Tommy being forever loyal. Still, this wasn’t enough. He still did the deed.

If Fundy snaps, if his friends and family aren’t enough, what would he do? He may go against the source, against George who took Dream away from him. There are already tensions brewing there with Tommy burning George’s house, so this would be reasonable. But Fundy could also go against the entire server. He could burn the world. Be like Wilbur, except instead of just L’manberg, why not the entire server? Our children are supposed to be better than us, so why not go big or go home, huh? He could seal his fate as the son of Wilbur, him too going off the edge. Or Fundy could go directly against Dream. Perhaps be bent towards restoration, directly against the ideals that Dream has. Though this would be a more positive ending than the chaos that may happen. It is a believable result.

Fundy could also side with Technoblade, though this part is more speculative and unlikely. They would both be technical loners in this world. Techno has little to no allies left. Fundy could join him as an orphan, divorcee, another loner to join the set. They were both abandoned, so if they somehow make friends in the aftermath, it may be a good form of symbolism for those that are rejected for one reason or another. A way for those with similar demons to find each other. They could take the world that rejected them and change it to their desires. This would be a powerful duo. The chaos that they could cause would be unmatched, compared to the destruction of L’manberg. Fundy would have the resources to act with Techno on his side. He would play into Dream’s plan.

To roughly summarize, I believe that Dream wants this to happen. He might have never cared about Fundy at all. He is using his bond with George to break him into the shadow within himself, much like what happened with Wilbur. With Fundy on a rampage, he may cause just as much, if not more chaos within the server. Depending on how the others react, he could either go free, or dive deep and doom himself. If he eventually sides with Technoblade, their combined power could also prove a powerful source of chaos. He would be the one in control of the chaos with Techno. He would be doing Dream’s work.

Fundy would be Dream’s pawn.

[equipz]

The resemblance during the latest stream.

Warning! Following post contains spoilers of the newest stream. Trigger Warning include: Mentions of Exile Arc, Abuse , Prison Arc, Mention of character death.

Most kind of knew the plan would have failed.

I mean one of the things C!Tommy always says to C!Dream that he is unsure how to feel about him. Always mentioning that he doesn't know if he wants to he his friend or stab him. So the fact he pulled out the weapon early when he walks back into the prison room aka where he was beaten to death he would pull out the axe early. Your going to feel unsafe and scared and one exposure therapy session is not going to fix that fear.

So when I watched the VOD I noticed how similar the scene reminded me both of the Exile Arc and Prison Arc.

C!Sam yelling at him and threatening to kill him? Sounds a lot like our old buddy C!Dream during the exile arc. Even as far as going to mention that everything was C!Tommy fault. Using C!Tommy as a scapegoat for his failure of protecting people and not realizing that maybe the prison is controlling him. C!Sam is not only one of the TWO people who knew what happened in exile, but he also possibly knew details of everything that happened during the exile arc. (Ranboo knows very few details) Also let me add that C!Sam knows very well C!Tommy didn't want C!Dream to escape prison. Practically the whole server knows C!Tommy hates C!Dream. So for him to accuse C!Tommy of helping the prisoner escape and speaking multiple times over c!Tommy is also c!Sam trying to convince himself that he not in the wrong.

Now let's talk about how ghostbur is a resembles C!Tommy during the prison arc. I mean ghostbur is screaming for his help so he won't be revived in the cell. Sounds a lot like how c!Tommy screams for help to c!Sam to let him out.

What I found somewhat bittersweet is that c!Tommy was calming down Ghostbur. Something he would of probably liked if he was stuck with c!Dream.

At the end of the day the warden should be held responsible and has the last word of what goes down. The rules are complete bullshit. Why? Because they were made by c!Dream himself. It been also made clear that c!Sam would break the rules himself aka allowing Quackity to come with weapons during his visit with Dream.

It also not like c!Tommy could've chosen another candidate to go to the prison. I mean he trust very little people with any info on his past and literally 3 people with any of future plans and his trauma.

- c! Tubbo [Who Sam would never let him in ]

- c! Ranboo [Who is banned from going into the prison]

- Ghostbur

Honestly the scene of c!Sam yelling at him like c!Dream did during exile and Ghostbur yelling at c!Tommy for his help (mirroring himself when he screamed for help) is pretty traumatic. So add that to the trauma list.

So who should be held responsible? C!Sam

Did c!Tommy have a fault in this?

Yes and No.

He brought Ghostbur and didnt have a back up plan in case the plan would have failed. He also knows the extent to c!Dream power and forgot the safety of ghostbur.

Why it also not his fault? Because he thought c!Sam could have saved ghostbur and he thought the plan was going to work. Also add in that pulling out a weapon was possibly a trauma response for the scene in front of him.

On a end note: YOO WILBUR BACK

[travllingbunny]

The 100: 7x01 From the Ashes

Disclaimer: This post is about the episode of the show The 100, From the Ashes, the season 7 premiere, and only about it.  In this post, I will NOT be discussing any original scripts, unused takes, bloopers, behind the scene photos or videos, scribbled notes exchanged between the writers, or any  tweets, Instagram posts, SMS or e-mails by any of the cast or crew members,  considering the fact that none of those things constitute the  show’s canon, which consists of the actual episodes.

I will also not be discussing anything about the future episodes posted by any ‘spoiler accounts’, and, in fact, I am unaware of most of these things, since I’m trying not to read any spoilers. Please do not tell me any spoilers for future episodes or ask me about them.

I really enjoyed this episode, in spite of the unfortunate lack of Bellamy (which I was already expecting since what happens to him here was already spoiled by the trailer. Of course, I’m looking forward to see Bellamy again, and, before that, to everyone finding out about disappearance and it becoming the focus of the season. But until then, the show has quite a few other storylines to deal with, from setting up and delving more into the Anomaly mystery, to dealing with the fall-out of season 6 in Sanctum, and both of these were handled well, for the most part.

This episode in particular had really good characterizations all around - for Murphy, Echo, Indra, Madi, Raven, Emori, Gaia, even Jackson - and, of course, Clarke, who had an arc that took her tendency to try to repress her feelings to an extreme, until they exploded in a most memorable way. It will cause her trouble, no doubt, but it was great to watch, and something I had been wishing for for quite some time. 

There is just one character whose storyline I’m still not sure how I feel about, because I’m not sure what the show is doing with him. 

After the last season’s cliffhanger, there was some concern in the fandom that Bellamy would regress to being all about protecting his sister, after their relationship had been redefined with “You’re my sister, but you’re not my responsibility”. Some of that was really exaggerated: there’s absolutely nothing odd or surprising about Bellamy crying over his sister disappearing in his arms. Of course he loves her and wants her safe. But I was concerned they may regress his development if they make him forget about everyone and everything else in his life in order to impulsively jump after her into the Anomaly. However, that did not happen - Bellamy didn’t decide to go on his own, rather than tell others and make a plan. He was taken.

The mysterious people from the Anomaly seem to be able to control the Anomaly, and have some sort of a cloaking device, presumably connected to their suits and helmets, that makes them invisible to others. They also have some sort of a screen inside their helmets, with facial recognition of targets and commands. It’s all a bit creepy - these seem to be humans, but they are receiving orders the way a robot would. (It’s all very Terminator-like!) Maybe because they also have lost their memories while going through the Anomaly? Where did they get the info about who Bellamy, Gabriel and Echo are - was it from Octavia’s memories? 

Memories and memory loss are obviously going to play a huge role this season. People who come from the Anomaly to Sanctum seem to lose their memories, except when the Anomaly is still there. Does this happen only on Sanctum, or at the other side(s) as well? How does the fact that the Anomaly sucks in radio signals fit into that? Hope had to use a message she put into her own arm to remind herself to “TRUST BELLAMY”. (Interstellar is mentioned a lot as an inspiration for this season, but this reminds me of another Nolan film, Memento.)

We also see Clarke spout knowledge about how the big mansion was built (by Russell for Simone, to remind her of her house on Earth), which she would know due to still having some of Josephine’s memories. And I’m sure that the fact Madi still has the memories of past Commanders will play a big role - specifically, the fact she has Becca’s memories, which could be the way to tie the present day story to the prequel/story about what happened during and right after the apocalypse. (She also probably knows about Sheidheda more than anyone else alive, which may play into the Sanctum story.) 

It’s too early to judge Hope as a character, but the mystery surrounding her is certainly super interesting. Why do the mysterious people from the Anomaly have orders to kill her on sight (as opposed to capturing, which they were supposed to do with Bellamy, Echo and Gabriel)? Is it because of who she is, or what she is - is it about her actions, does she know too much, or is her existence itself that’s the problem? 

I loved the Octavia cameo in Hope’s hallucination, with the confirmation that she was an “aunt” figure to her, a part of a found family with Diyoza and Hope. The Anomaly makes you see your biggest desire or biggest fear - and Hope’s biggest desire seems to be to be reunited with her family 

Echo’s hallucination, on the other hand, is obviously about her biggest fear - so it makes perfect sense that it’s Roan who appears to her, as he exiled her from Azgeda. Of course biggest fear would be losing her kru and her king/queen and being left alone and adrift. I’m as surprised as anyone that I found Echo's scene to be maybe the best in the episode. But she did have some really good character moments in seasons 6, and this is IMO her best character moment so far, picking up from her red sun hallucination in 6x02, and flashback from 6x11. which revealed that even her identity as “Echo” is fake. It seems the show is finally doing the character development it neglected to give her in season 5, and addressing all the obvious issues with Echo’s development and her relationship with Bellamy. I think this confirms that it was indeed Echo talking to herself while hallucinating Emori in 6x02, since her hallucination of Roan tells her the same thing, that she is still just a killer following another master’s orders. We finally see Echo feeling guilt over the things she did in the past, including her betrayal of Bellamy in season 3. When she imagines him calling her out on betraying “the man she now claims to love”, is it just about her thinking the others would doubt her love, or is she herself questioning whether her feelings for Bellamy are really romantic love, or just loyalty to her current leader? Their relationship, especially in S6, often came off more as the latter.

 (It was also really cool to see Zach McGowan again) 

The timeline of 7x01 seems to have confused some fans, but I think it’s pretty obvious that, at the beginning of the Sanctum story, no more than a day (probably less than that) has passed since 6x13 - going by the facts that 1) the Anomaly storyline picked up minutes after the end of 6x13, and the Sanctum story was presumably happening at the same time, and 2) Indra had to explain the situation in Sanctum to everyone. The only thing that seems to go against that is that Russell is said to “not have slept” since what happened on the ship, which makes it seem like it’s been longer. Or maybe Russell was just being extra dramatic. “Oh, I have no slept for a whole day!” He certainly spent a lot of this (his last) episode feeling sorry for himself. At least he seemed to have finally realized he wasn’t the superior good guy in all of it (”Tell them I’m treated better than I deserve” - yes, indeed.)

Indra was great, even though poor Adina was forced to be an exposition machine for a part of the episode. 

A common complaint I’ve seen among fans is that it’s weird that Clarke and others in Sanctum aren’t worried about Bellamy and co. I don’t understand this complaint, as it’s clear that very little time has passed and that Bellamy, Octavia, Echo and Gabriel must have told everyone they were leaving and why (though I don’t know how many details they told them about the Anomaly Stone). People have been gone for a whole day in season 6 when they just went to the Offering Grove (Echo in 6x06) or the radioactive shield (Raven, Emori and Echo in 6x05), which are within the confines of Sanctum and much nearer than the camp by the Anomaly. What are they supposed to do but wait for a couple of days for them to come back? It’s not like they can call them, when radios and other means of communication usually don’t work on Alpha because of the Anomaly sucking the signals.

In fact, their absence was mentioned in the picnic scene, when Raven toasted to “absent friends” and we got a reaction shot of Clarke (I know, Clarke, I'd be annoyed too if I was you, but Bellamy had to be all "I'm gonna go now and explore the Anomaly Stone while Sanctum is in chaos and you're in mourning for your mom" because the plot needed him to..., before Niylah toasted to the “departed ones” (which would include Kane and Abby) and we got a close-up reaction shot of Clarke trying to keep it all inside, as she did every time in this episode someone mentioned Abby. 

The idyllic picnic by the mansion - everyone’s attempt to get some rest and nice time after everything they had been through - was such a contrast to the “powder keg” of Sanctum and the end of this episode. But it also felt fake - just as fake as the deception and lies that Murphy and Emori are Daniel and Kaylee Prime, or that Madi still has the Flame in her head - to keep the devout and Wonkru under control, respectively - and just as fake as Clarke’s attempts to convince everyone she’s “fine”. As usual, the song playing in the background (”Darkness” by Pinegrove) was very fitting:

Suddenly I find I've got darkness on my mind It's a question mark that keeps me looking And it's never satisfied And it's never what I thought Saying I'm happy when I'm not No, I got darkness on my mind Leaning out the frame When it's particulate and gray I'm perpendicular to my whole being When I lean a certain way Saying I'm happy when I'm not Finding roaches in the pot Oh, I got darkness on my mind Some people spend their whole lives looking For someone who could understand While meanwhile a lilac blooming Sometimes on the driest land And I know it's been a long time coming I'm angry and I know that's weak And I'm longing out that open window For whatever it is I seek [musical breakdown] Some people spend their whole lives looking For someone who could understand And while meanwhile a lilac blooming Sometimes on the driest land And I know it's been a long time coming I'm angry and I know that's weak So I'm trying not to be so bitter I'm just looking at it honestly Well, I know it's been a long time coming I'm angry and I know that's weak And I'm longing out that open window For whatever it is I seek Some people spend their whole lives looking For someone who could understand While meanwhile a lilac blooming Sometimes on the driest land, yeah 

I like that there was anger, blame and conflict between our kru and that everyone didn’t just forget what happened last season (and for once, Clarke is not the one getting the blame!) It would've made no sense if no one was blaming Murphy, and it makes sense it would be Jackson, who was so close to Abby and who’s not particularly close to Murphy. It also makes sense there was disagreement about the method of keeping peace in Sanctum, and that not everyone would be happy with Memori cosplaying the Primes. 

Murphy himself had a really good characterization in this episode - we saw his grief and his feelings of guilt. While he tried to defend himself when blamed that he didn’t know what Russell would do, when left alone, he blamed himself for various actions that led to it, which is something Murphy from a couple of seasons ago wouldn’t do.

It’s great to see Raven looking more like her old, pre-season 6 self, and even better to see that her self-righteousness has gone. She’s more like the old Raven but without the snarky b1tchiness. I’m glad that she got called out by Murphy on her “Miss Morality” role from last season (which never really made sense, pre-time jump Raven was never a moral compass of the group, she was smart, pragmatic and could be as ruthless as anyone).

Another major theme of the Sanctum plot were the new beginnings.  Clarke pointing out season 3 feels like another world seems almost like the show going meta and pointing out to the audience how much Clarke and all these people have lived through and been since.What is Sanctum now after the Primes have been defeated, with Children of Gabriel coming back home and clashing with the Devout - brainwashed and loyal followers of the Primes, with the rest of the Sanctumites in between? How are Wonkru and the 36 Eligius prisoners going to start again on a new planet moon? (36?! Wow, so they really suffered heavy losses in that gorge, too, when there are so few left?) Can Grounders be without a Commander? Gaia without her religion? Can Madi be a normal kid, without the Flame - or is that even possible while she has to pretend to still be Heda? The title From the ashes seems to refer to that - and maybe the end of the episode means that you have to burn down the old beliefs and old idols to build something new? 

Mothers and daughters were another theme.  I liked that Madi mentioned her biological parents (well, mother) on-screen for the first time, since the fandom tends to forget about them and ignore them too often. Madi was unsuccessful in her attempt to make Clarke share her feelings with her - maybe because this conversation showed a big difference in how they see each other? Clarke thinks of Madi as her child, but Clarke has never had a child before, while Madi had parents and suffered their loss; Clarke assumed Madi was talking about her and what happened in S6, but Madi always calls Clarke “Clarke” rather than “Mom”, and tried to connect to her on the equal level, as another daughter who’s lost a mother. Maybe it’s exactly because Clarke sees Madi only as her child that she feels she must be “strong” for her all the time and not show grief. 

There was an unexpected parallel between Indra and Clarke in how Indra also tried to suppress outward expressions of grief when her partner - Gaia’s father died, which clearly wasn’t healthy and caused a rift between mother and daughter. (I’m not sure about when that happened, i.e. when Gaia first decided to become a Flamekeeper. I guess it must have been before the timeline of seasons 1-3. So Gaia’s dad is probably not the man that Indra recognized in 2x15 as one of the Reapers? I’m still angry that we never got any resolution to that storyline and that the Reapers were forgotten after season 2.)

 The one thing I’m not sure about is Jordan’s characterization and arc. I’m not sure what the show is doing with his exactly, and I’m afraid that they’ll try to leave it ambiguous just how much he is or isn’t brainwashed. 6x13 made it very clear that he has been “adjusted”, which Russell confirmed here, and Jordan’s “adjustor”, who was creeping behind him in the season 6 finale, was very present and active in this episode, and clearly still had a big influence on him. At the same time, we learn that Jordan does not believe in the divinity of the Primes - instead of that, his hallucinations made him see something connected to the mystery of the Anomaly, which Russell describes as something “greater” (almost like he has finally found God, of sorts, after all, which he talked about 236 years before when he first landed on Alpha)? The good news is that it means Jordan will have a role in the Anomaly story, rather than being the advocate for the Devout. What I’m afraid of is that the show will gloss over the fact that Jordan was brainwashed - whether or not he came to believe that Primes were gods, he certainly did a 180 from despising Primes as murderers, being outraged by their actions and knowing very well that Priya was not Delilah but someone who took over her body; to (just a few days later, after “adjustment”) spouting Prime propaganda about the “peaceful” society they had before the Bad People from Earth came (that’s the peace they had when they regularly murdered their people to steal their bodies, left babies to die, and made them go crazy and kill each other from time to time) and having some kind of attachment to Priya herself and her mind drive.

At least, I hope that Russell unceremoniously smashing the mind drive means we’re done with that storyline. I loved it, it was my favorite storyline of the show, but it’s time for it to be over. It makes no sense that anyone is still letting Russell keep his mind drive, for starters. When will they realize they need to destroy these things?

- Clarke’s way of dealing with grief over her mom’s death was certainly unhealthy - repressing her feelings even more than usual, trying to be calm, composed, logical, to do the things needed to keep peace. In her last scene in 6x13, Clarke was open about her grief with Bellamy, looking to him for comfort, finding comfort in his arms and his words. But now he’s absent, there’s no one else she can be that open and vulnerable with. (The only other person Clarke looked for comfort to was Abby.) It’s nice to see that she and Raven have mended their friendship with Raven, she is starting to develop a new one with Gaia over their mutual care for Madi, she has mutual respect with Indra, she’s known others - like Murphy or Miller = for years, since the Delinquent days... and they all want to help her, but she’s not opening up to anyone, not even Madi. She thinks she must be “strong” for all of them, and her Head and Heart are unbalanced - she’s repressing the latter, until she finally explodes. 

I love the scene of Clarke finally losing it and beating up Russell (I had already seen it in the trailer, and it was my favorite moment) and then crying while holding Abby's clothes. I don’t know about anyone else, but I love seeing an angry, emotional Clarke, letting it all out, especially when it's anger at people she has every right to be furious at. We haven’t seen that from her since early season 3 (when she yelled and spat in Lexa’s face over her betrayal). It had bothered me for a few seasons that Clarke - who used to be vibrant and could be impulsive, angry, hold grudges, yell at people in seasons 1-2, had become so repressed and muted due to her constant self-blame. I’ve had enough watching Clarke look sad while other people keep yelling at her and blaming her. (The only other instance of Clarke being furious was her hurt and rage at Bellamy and the slap in 5x09, but that was more of a silent, “internally screaming” rage/hurt, which turned into Clarke being emotionally frozen for the next couple of episodes, until learning he was alive. When Clarke is keeping everything inside and not yelling, that’s when she’s in the worst emotional state.)

It is, however, so sad that she still blames herself, too, for her mother’s death, whispering “I’m sorry”, the same way she whispered after seeing her father floated.

My only problem with the scene of that stupid palace burning down is that  "mistakes" is a serious real understatement for what Russell has done. I know, I know, this will cause a lot of trouble in Sanctum and Clarke will probably have to go back on some of these decisions to keep peace. But there’s really nothing morally wrong with deciding to execute Russell - not only does he deserve it, but he’s arguably even an exception from the general objection to death penalty, since he’s lived several times the normal human lifespan, by stealing other people’s bodies. And the palace burning down is a symbolic way to send the message that the old power structures are gone - which Clarke pointed out when she said there will be no kings or queens anymore.

Sheiheda taking over Russell’s, or rather his latest host’s body, wasn’t surprising, as that was the most popular theory. But it was cool to see Sheidheda’s creepy mindspace again and Sean Maguire as the original Russell. The bodysnatcher got bodysnatched. That’s something like poetic justice.

I just have to post this because it’s such a beautiful shot!

Rating: 8/10

[elleonmybeloved]

Fondly Dreamed

TERA (The Exiled Realm of Arborea) | Gen/Multi Words: 12,721 Chapter 2 Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29024796/chapters/74517459

Summary: The titans Arun and Shara dream of a world they call Arborea. Arborea was never a peaceful world, but it was always beautiful and full of magical creatures. When one of their first and most powerful creations turned on them, they banished him to the underworld, Agaia. But the barrier between worlds is weakening, and corruption is beginning to invade Arborea, unmaking it's very essence and turning the world into a wasteland of Argon blue. Lest their sleeping forms and their precious world be destroyed, the sleeping titans dream of brave, strong heroes who can go against the very gods, and banish the corruption once and for all, before it is too late.

Yeriss dreams of glory in a world full of meaningless death. Sahlin dreams of freedom. Elleon dreams of acceptance. Jelena dreams of a world of smiles and laughter instead of blood and tears.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moving with more care than she usually does, Yeriss balances a bowl of moongourd and noruk stew in one hand and a mug of apple cider in the other as she takes a seat on a flat looking stump next to one of the tents that are farther away from the campfire. Normally, she’d want to sit with her friends and chat during the rare time they have to socialize and have fun, but some kobold-brained idiot threw a painted scrap of wood in the fire and it’s stinking up the whole area around it. That, and Winra has been a real pain in the ass recently and she’s just not in the mood for her constant competitive quips. Especially since Sein seems to always take her side.

It’s been a week and a half since she first arrived. She’s pleased with how much she’s been contributing, but for some reason they only ever succeed to drive the monsters back for a day or two. Then suddenly there’s twice as many of them, and they lose the ground they won just as fast as they gained it.

Zoning out as she chews her food, it’s a minute before she realizes that she’s listening to a conversation coming faintly from the tent nearby.

“Another two gravely injured today.”

“Are the priests making any progress on their condition?”

“They’re trying their best, but we’ve run out of mana potions. The next shipment won’t be for some time.”

“Well that’s not good news. But slow healing is better than nothing. We need those soldiers back in the gorge as soon as possible.”

Yeriss recognizes the first voice as Tribune Adria, having been accustomed to hearing it at all hours of the day. The second one she’s not sure, but it’s a man’s voice.

“It’s like the supply of monsters is endless. It’s getting harder to keep them contained. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say someone is making them.” Adria complains, exasperatedly.

“It’s an island, the only thing past the gorge is a cliff and miles of sea water.” The man refutes. “But I know what you mean. Clearly there’s a source we don’t know about.”

“What if we sent a team to investigate? There’s one part of the island we’ve never been able to lay eyes on. A small group could sneak through, see what’s there.”

“That means getting past the hydraths. Who would we send? There’s only a few veterans among the soldiers who can even handle one. Sending anybody else would be a death sentence.”

“What about the squad that encountered one on accident the other day and survived?” Adria suggests.

“Oh right. From what I’ve heard, one of their group was stunned and couldn’t run, so their slayer uh... Yerenica, managed to take it down by herself.”

Yeriss perks up at the mention of herself, setting down her spoon. Invited along for the super important secret mission? Sounds like exactly where she wants to be. She smiles into her stew.

“Alright so her, Davina, Adrastus, Perrin, Jorhon…” Adria counts off. “Who else?”

“It’s a shame Leander refuses to help with anything other than his research until Elleon is found.” The man says with a sigh. “He’s the most experienced sorcerer on this island.”

“I wouldn’t risk asking him.” Adria replies in a cautionary tone. “Just yesterday I heard that he found one of Elleon’s twin swords, all muddied up with demonic magic. He was happy to get a clue after all this time but considering how foreboding of a sign it was, you can imagine the kind of mood he’s in.”

“Ugh, Goddess Velik have mercy… let’s assign one of the researchers working on the shields to help him. Jairus can complain all he wants, it’s about time we made progress on something. I swear, at this point it’s almost like Elleon doesn’t want to be found.”

“I won’t deny thinking we should just pack up and leave this island. What does Commander Seir even want with it anyway?”

“Oh he didn’t tell you?” Yeriss realizes then that Adria must be speaking to Consul Dougal, since he’s the only one who’d know Commander Seir’s plans. “Once we’ve cleared the whole thing top to bottom, he wants to set up a pegasus route and turn it into a private Federation training spot for all the brand new recruits. Private, defensible, and strictly regulated on who gets in and out. Away from prying eyes.”

“Really? I suppose more than half the island is beautiful and serene with plenty of open space and soft grass.”

“If you ask me, it’s not worth the effort.” Dougal says. “Especially with the Mysterium cracking down on us for entry. Not sure who leaked the info, but once they heard about the island and the World Tree, they demanded to be allowed entry to study it as soon as the island is safe for non-combatants.”

“Don’t let the poporian recruits hear that.” Adria says. “They’ve been quite protective of that tree.”

“That so? Honestly I’m kind of surprised they recognize it as a real tree.” Dougal remarks. “It certainly doesn’t look like one.”

Yeriss listens a bit longer, but they don’t say much else before Adria leaves the tent. She doesn’t look back and see her, instead making a beeline for the food table down the hill. Relatable.

Finishing the last, somewhat cold bites of her own meal, Yeriss springs up and takes her dishes over to the collection area with a pep in her step. It’s really nice to see that her abilities have been noticed by her higher ups. She’s got a feeling she and that group will find something that finally brings some changes to this island.

~~~

It’s not a surprise when instead of gathering with her squad the next morning, Tribune Adria is outside her tent waiting for her.

“I’ve got a special job for you, Yerenica. You interested?”

“Does it involve using my sword, or using a broom and dustpan?” Yeriss asks cheekily, remembering that she’s not supposed to already know about the mission. “Because that changes my answer.”

“Definitely your sword. Though if you were a witch like Sorcha, maybe you’d be using one of those other things.” Adria says, gesturing at her to come with her. “Let’s go, I’ll debrief you in the war tent.”

The war tent is a big red thing, with heavy fabric curtains and a large Valkyon Federation symbol made of metal atop it. Important people like Vene, Aide to the Vanarch, Consul Dougal, Tribune Adria, Leander, and Jairus are the only ones she sees regularly using it. When Adria holds the heavy curtain aside to allow Yeriss entry, she can’t help the pleased smile that pulls at her lips. This is where she’s meant to be.

Inside, Consul Dougal stands behind a table covered in maps. To his left, stands a group of other soldiers she recognizes from around the island.

“Welcome. As you know, despite our continued siege on the gorge, the monsters easily replenish their numbers. It’s more than likely that they are coming from somewhere, which is what we need to find out. Our researchers have pin-pointed the source of the corruptive mana somewhere in the southeast of the gorge.” Dougal pauses briefly. “Past the hydraths. You all are here because at some point or another, you’ve managed to prove your own in battle against one. We need you to get past them and investigate the source of the corruption and report back.”

“Ideally, you won’t have to fight the hydraths.” Adria adds. “Best case scenario: you sneak past them without being noticed. We have a general idea of what you should be looking for, but I’ll let Volis here explain the details on that.”

At her gesture, a high elf man carrying a tall staff steps forward from the group of soldiers. “This entire island is covered in unique magic that seems to emanate from the World Tree. It is the source of it’s thriving nature and the reason so many fey have come to life here.” He begins.

“It is also the reason why the corruptive dark mana present in the Tainted Gorge is able to twist the fey into monsters so easily. I, and the others researching this have managed to extract a core full of this dark mana from a corrupted sporewalker found in the Timeless Woods. Channeling energy into it with my staff should allow me to lead you in the direction of the source of the corruption.”

Volis pauses for a moment, considering. “The researchers and I are not sure if the source is an artifact, or a being, or several beings. Regardless, the magnitude of dark mana being produced and at such a rate suggests either something big, or perhaps the presence of many beings capable of summoning dark magic. It’s too painful to withstand the energy long enough to study it to be sure. Therefore, investigating it directly is unfortunately necessary.”

With a polite nod, he steps back, having finished his remarks.

“Once you find the source of the corruption, destroy it, if you can.” Adria says. “If it’s too dangerous, don’t do anything rash and just report back so that we can organize a charge with more forces.”

“Through the hydrath’s territory?” Yeriss asks. She’s surprised that they would put the regular forces up against something so dangerous. When it comes to hydraths, strength in numbers helps little, unless you know what you’re doing. “Wouldn’t there be casualties?”

“It’s almost certain.” Adria replies reluctantly. “But it’s the only way to destroy the corruption on the Island for good. We’ve expended more resources than we should have already.”

That’s not encouraging to hear. Yeriss vows that she won’t let it come to that anyways.

After answering some of the other soldiers' questions, everyone kits up, and Dougal and Adria are ready to send the group of soldiers on their way.

“Goddess Velik go with you.” Their tone is grave, like they expect the worst.

As her fellow soldiers reply in various versions of determined “Victory for Valkyon”s, all Yeriss feels is excitement. Instead of the usual path to Arun Heights, Yeriss finally gets to go down the other path to the east this time. Wild and seldom walked, the natural foliage of the island encroaches on the path.

It’s pretty at first, but the further south they go, the grayer and coarser the plant life. Unlike Arun Heights hill, the path to the hydrath’s territory is a much more gradual downward slope.

When they come upon the old bridge that leads across the ravine to the gorge, Yeriss doesn’t need Volis’s warning to know that there are hydraths ahead. Several of them line the path on the other side of the bridge, and unlike the other metallic-grey ones she’s seen, these are a striking deep shade of onyx. With two of the three shields that protect the Federation’s territory on the island behind them, only a single layer of magic holds back the palpable corruption.

“In order to get past though without being seen, we’ll have to go through that brush on the side of the hill there.” Jorhon, the older looking human man with a large battle axe strapped to his back says, pointing at it. “Nothing else looks thick enough.”

The tallest members of their group are Perrin, the high elf lancer, and Volis. Both light-skinned and two differing shades of blonde, they present the highest risk of being seen. Yeriss on the other hand, has nothing to worry about. Her red-tinted skin and dark horns blend in well with the thorny, corrupted brush and sparse trees.

“I’ll wait for the nearest one to turn it’s back before I bring down the shield.” Volis says as he lifts his staff.

Yeriss sees he intends to lift the stone up with magic, and back down for only a brief moment.

“I am not certain but it’s likely that if we can sense the dark energy in these monsters, they too could sense the clean, uncorrupted feeling of our own. We must be swift in breaking for the bushes, lest we are seen. Are we ready?”

Yeriss looks to the members of her group, who all nod in tandem. “Do it.”

“Go!”

At Volis’s cry, the group takes off across the bridge. The rotting old wood is thick, but noisy, and though she is light on her feet the sound of their haste is audible. It’s but a few seconds later that they hurtle into the brush for cover. As they catch their breath and cast worried glances out towards the hydraths, they are relieved to see they made it undetected.

“It’s like I always say.” Adrastus, the other lancer, a castanic like her, quips. “Keep your eyes on your opponents and your feet moving at all times.”

Davina cracks a smile at this. “I’m pretty sure not a day has gone by that I haven’t heard you say that to every new recruit that sets foot on this island.” Her twin daggers snip quietly as she cuts a path through errant twigs for them to walk through.

“Hey, wait a minute.” Adrastus says when they’re about halfway through. “Look at that.”

He’s pointing somewhere ahead of them. Past three onyx hydraths, floating about as they do, is an archway made of a dark pink-red stone. Short horizontal spikes poke out from the outside of the arch starting halfway up. The bottom half of each side sports a sconce in which a burning torch burns. A strange pink and gray orb of energy floats above the archway. Behind it, the entrance to a large cave.

The corrupted sporewalker core at the top of Volis’s staff starts to pulse and glow the same color as the orb above the archway.

“The source of the corruption…” Volis murmurs quietly. “It must be inside that cave.”

“This is strange.” Jorhon remarks. “Those archways are too well crafted and delicately engraved to be made by the hands of any of the large monsters we’ve observed here. Could it be that the corruption of the fey is not a coincidence, but intentional?”

“You mean there’s other humanoid races on the island apart from the Federation?” Davina says slowly. “That’s not good.”

“We’ve seen no evidence of any other intelligent races on the island, though.” Perrin refutes. “How could there be? Perhaps it is an older relic, like the World Tree.”

The sinister spikes of the archway look nothing remotely like the World Tree. But the confusion of trying to make ends of the situation before them swirls around them like the tepid air. Yeriss can’t think of anything either. That stuff has never been her strong suit.

“So… let’s get a closer look and find out.” She says, not seeing the point in further speculating.

“Alright.” Adrastus lifts a leg to stretch his quadricep in anticipation of another run. “We’ll have to be fast to get past those hydraths, I say we rac-.”

“Wait.” Jorhon cuts in. “It’s too risky. If we’re seen, we’ll be in for a fight with three of them at the least, and all the ones we saw on the way at most. And there’s no guarantee there aren’t even more of them waiting inside the cave.”

“There’s a large boulder over there we could hide behind.” Volis points to the right of the cave. “I could cloak our presence, but only for a time. The dark energy here depletes my mana reserves.”

Perrin and Jorhon look to each other, and then to Volis.

“A risky wager, but the Federation needs this information. We shouldn’t give up the chance to destroy the source of the corruption until all other options have been exhausted.” Perrin says.

“Very well.” Jorhon acquiesces.

Volis’s staff hums with energy as he casts the spell. As soon as the distortion settles around them, they run out of the foliage for the cover of the boulder. Adrastus is first to duck behind the rock, Yeriss hot on his heels. Sprinting headlong across the dirt, Perrin, Jorhon, and Volis are but five strides away, with Davina a short distance behind them due to her much smaller gait.

Suddenly, Volis goes pale. With a flicker, the distortive veil spell lifts off the group. The three men just barely make it behind the rock before being seen.

Unmistakable screeching, and a sound like an allemantheian power generator being turned on break the silence. Clearly aware of having been seen, Davina stands frozen in spot, mind whirling. Realizing that she can’t let the hydrath know of the others’ location, she whispers“ Go on without me” and gives them a brief, reassuring smile. Then she whirls on her feet, running to the side to draw it away from them. Unable to risk looking out in front of the rock, all the information they get is the fading sound of the hydrath’s low hum and it’s hissing metallic snake heads.

“Shit.” Adrastus curses.

“My deepest apologies.” Volis sounds distraught, words tumbling out of his mouth in a rush. “The dark mana was stronger than I anticipated-”

“It’s not your fault Volis.” Jorhon interrupts him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We knew this was risky.”

“...” Volis doesn’t look like this comforts him, his features are twisted into an expression of guilt.

“What shall we do now?” Perrin asks. “It is unlikely we will be able to assist her without alerting the rest of the hydraths. If we do so, it will be impossible to get back to this point.”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?” Adrastus asks incredulously. “We go back through the brush and try to find her without getting seen, forget the mission.”

Yeriss blinks. “Forget the mission? No! We can’t give up now, we haven’t even found the true source of the corruption yet. We’d be going back completely empty handed.”

“That’s better than going back without Davina!” Adrastus shoots back. “Don’t you know who she is?”

“Huh?”

“She’s the younger sister of one of Consul Dougal’s best friends!”

Yeriss doesn’t see the issue, but the reminder apparently affects the rest of the group deeply, each face suddenly drawn. No way. They’re really going to stop when they’re less than twenty meters away? The entrance to the cave is right there!

“Didn’t he and Adria pick each of us specifically because we’d proven our ability to go one on one with a hydrath before? Didn’t Davina herself just say for us to go on ahead without her? The Federation needs this Island!” Yeriss insists impatiently.

It must be because they don’t know, she thinks, that the Federation doesn’t have long to secure and claim the island before the Mysterium starts bearing down on them. And everyone knows once the Mysterium gets its hands on a site they want to research, it’s too late to do anything to disturb the area. Not to mention build a training base on it.

“Perrin?” Yeriss turns to him, hoping for back-up due to his earlier comment. Perrin is silent. “Volis?”

The answer on the high elf’s face is clear. Yeriss can’t believe this. “No way. You know how bad the corruption is.” She reminds him. “We need to at least find it so that you and the researchers can come up with a way to destroy it, right?”

“...Davina getting seen was my own mistake.” Volis says, guilt overtaking his expression. “I must go see it rectified.”

Clearly unanimous in their decision, Yeriss tries one last ditch attempt to convince them. “How about we kill these two hydraths and then try to signal her? You can do that with your magic, can’t you Volis?”

The group actually considers this for a moment.

“That would mean taking on two of them at once, while down one of us. I wouldn’t bet on those odds.” Perrin says slowly.

No wonder he carries such a big shield. Coward. Has he really taken one down on his own before?

“I’ve killed one before and I can do it again.” Yeriss says firmly. “Don’t worry. This is what we’re here to do, Perrin.”

“What about Davina?”

“She’s not the type to lie is she?” From what Yeriss knows of the younger castanic, she’s kind and honest to a fault. Rare qualities for one of her kind. “She can handle herself.”

“No. Unlike normal hydraths, these onyx ones are brutal.” Jorhon says, with a tone of finality. “I witnessed them take down a whole squad of soldiers during the first expedition. We’re going to save Davina before it’s too late.”

This is ridiculous! A veteran from the First Expedition, and he’s afraid of two measly monsters that they outnumber more than two to one! Frustration boils up inside her at his commanding tone. It’s as if he is in charge, and she is just a rookie. She’s earned her place here more than any of these pigling-nerved cowards.

“You’ll be going without me then.”

“What?” Adrastus’s grey eyes bug wide like he can’t believe what he’s hearing. “I don’t like going back with nothing to show either, but come on Yerenica, it’s too dangerous on your own.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m not afraid of a few hydraths. And I won’t need to, if you come with me.”

“Enough of this.” Jorhon says dismissively. “We’re leaving.”

“What?” Yeriss is shocked. “Who made you the leader? Can’t you at least consider my plan?”

“The longer we delay, the more likely it could be too late to help Davina. Let’s go.”

This time, Volis is meticulously careful with his spell, and the group makes it back into the brush without complication. But as they all flicker back into sight, Yeriss reappears across from them, still behind the boulder. Jorhon’s eyes bore into hers, willing her to come. She stares right back, unintimidated. After a moment’s hesitation, they leave, creeping along the foliage on the very edge of it this time, in the direction Davina went.

When they are gone, a bit of doubt swirls in her chest. Should she have done that? She hadn’t meant to lose her temper… Jorhon’s authoritative tone echoes in her mind, and anger replaces the doubt. The way he’d spoken to her… Yeriss seethes. Enough caring what everyone else thought. If he was going to treat her like an underling, she’d just have to prove that she wasn’t one.

Yeriss risks a peek out from behind the boulder to assess the current situation. The two hydraths are still there. She could take them out, like she suggested earlier. But now that she’s alone, she’s got another option.

Picking up a loose bit of rock from the bottom of the boulder, she rears back and launches it over the top of the rock as far away from her as possible. It strikes something in the distance. Once she hears the hovering hum sound of the hydrath’s movement fade, she makes for the cave entrance. It’s easy, and she’s not being pursued at all. With a last bound she makes it inside, and darkness swallows her up almost immediately.

Yeriss steps further inside. Squinting her eyes at the drastic change in light, she waits impatiently for her eyes to adjust.

“It’s darker than Poporia after Karas cursed it in here.” She mutters.

Eventually giving up on waiting, she just walks sideways until she hits the wall, and then places a hand against it to follow it. Quickly, the level ground slopes downward. It would be bad if she were to trip, but the ground is surprisingly free of the kind of rocks and debris you’d expect in a cave, instead having the consistency of a well-walked path.

A ways ahead of her are glowing torch lights. To her surprise, it sounds like there are people ahead. How could anyone have possibly gotten here before her? Rushing forward to get a closer look, she sees people who look very much like her, but... a foot or two taller with much bigger horns. Devas! They all wear a similar style of garb: pointy red linmetal armor with a motif on the chest like a plant with three branches sticking out straight on each side and atop it, a horizontal eye surrounded by a diamond. Her relief that they are not federation recruits who beat her here is short-lived.

I feel like I’ve seen that symbol somewhere before… but regardless, the Deva relentlessly worship evil gods. Could they be the source of the corruption?

“Lord Kugai,” One of them says as they take a knee to another. “We chased the elf through the catacombs, but he was too fast. He managed to destroy all of the mana potions in the cache we stole. What shall I tell our sorcerers?”

“Take heart, my friend. Our trials are many but Lok watches over us and will commend us for our efforts when he returns. Encourage them to continue channeling Karascha’s energy into the Divine Tree for as long as they can. Our sources within the Federation tell us that supply ships are to arrive within the week, or perhaps even sooner in light of their continued defeat to our pets in the Gorge.”

Yeriss stiffens. Sources within the Federation? The very idea of a traitor in the Federation is almost unthinkable.

“Will mana potions be among the supplies?” The devan subordinate asks.

“It’s almost certain. There are many gravely wounded among their number and there’s no doubt their priests are struggling to keep up.” The devan lord, Kugai, clasps his hands together. “Unlike Lakan, Lok will not forsake us. See to it that the sorcerers maintain their spell.”

“Yes, my lord. But what about the elf?”

“Hmm… he cannot stay hidden forever. Like us, he will need food and water. We will deal with him when he next reveals himself.”

“Surely it would be faster to hunt him down. I could assemble a task force-”

“No. Every available member of our fold must remain guarding the sorcerers. Karascha is strong enough to hold his own, but should we lose our connection to the World Tree, our resurrection ritual will be interrupted.”

“As you wish, sir. I will go notify them that the potions they expected will be delayed.”

Despite her knowledge that they are in fact of the same race, hearing this cult’s ridiculous intentions to revive Lok , the god who tricked them into killing Balder, whose demonic remains literally corrupt the lands of Essenia still to this day makes Yeriss angry. Like a stain that refuses to wash out, Devas have always been a smear on all castanics’ reputations. Stuff like this is why everyone assumes you’re up to no good if you’ve got horns and red skin. As if suffering the scalding pain of getting her markings as a teen wasn’t enough of a punishment.

Yeriss grits her teeth and grips the handle of her greatsword. Including Lord Kugai, there’s maybe fifteen of them in the room.

Launching herself out the shadows, she swings her sword hard across the turned backs of the three cultists nearest her. The loud clang of her sword against their armor alerts the others, and with a shocked pause they watch as the other cultists collapse to the ground dead. A large dent in the armor of their lower backs reveals the blow that shattered their spines.

“Intruder!” Belatedly, the others shout and draw their weapons.

Deflecting the hasty blow of a greataxe, she quickly reverses and catches their side and shoulder in an upward sweep. Most of them are using typical devan twin curved blades, and with a great thrust she skewers through several before they can get near enough to cut at her.

“You, go alert the others, we need reinforcements!” Lord Kugai commands one of the cultists at his side.

Unwilling to be overwhelmed in such an enclosed space, Yeriss uses her sword to vault her up over the wall of enemies in front of her and uses the force of her leap to bring her sword down hard on the retreating back of the cultist. The devan screams out in surprise and collapses to her knees. Yeriss brings her sword back up just in time to block Lord Kugai’s blade, and stumbles back a step from the force of it. Pain rattles up her arms.

“Nice try.” She bites, before slamming him back. Before she can take advantage of his vulnerability, there’s someone beside her raising their axe in rage. There’s not much space to fully roll out of the way, so as she comes up out of the roll she brings her sword up in a left to right sweeping motion, catching the cultists across it as her blade travels sideways, making space. Several of them slam against the cave wall.

While slashing in front of her to drive back three cultists trying to rush her with stabbing thrusts, she notices a retreating horned form disappearing down the tunnel. Damned cultists. Her moment of distraction costs her a cut to her upper arm and two across her shoulder.

The three of them that are left, and Kugai, advance towards her. Kugai comes straight at her while the others break off to the side. Not allowing herself to be completely surrounded, she thrusts as hard as she can into the cultist to her right, before swinging around her blade, using their body as a buffer between her and Kugai.

Holding her greatsword out lengthwise in front of her warningly, she addresses Kugai directly. “Tell them to stop this ritual, or I’ll strike you down! How many real people will you sacrifice to resurrect an evil god better off dead?”

Reinforcements arrive then, what must be twenty more armed cultists sealing off the tunnel exits. Yeriss doesn’t budge.

“Not a chance!” Kugai spits back, emboldened by the return of favorable odds. “How dare you call our lord evil? Lok may have killed Balder, but it was a tragic accident. He was tricked by Ishara! All Lok’s life, he was a force for good, and a beloved child of Karas and Elinu just as Balder was!” Kugai yells, and lunges at her. “He will free us just like he did the amani from their chains!”

Yeriss dodges one blade and deflects the other, but the movement drives her too close to two others behind her. One knocks her greatsword from her grip while the other binds her to them in a crushing grasp.

“As one of our kind, you should share his burden! We endure this pain for him!” The cultist behind her, a woman, hisses into her ear as she struggles to escape her grip, only bloodying her elbow as it meets hard plating instead of flesh as she throws a jab behind her. “You will make an excellent servant for our lord as a hydrath. You and that blighted elf. Be honored!”

“Indeed. A most fitting arrangement.” Lord Kugai seems to like this idea, sheathing one twin blade. He reaches out to pry her armor away from her stomach, and Yeriss suddenly realizes how hydraths are made. He intends to sever her at the waist! Yeriss squirms harder, but to no avail.

“I’m afraid I have to disagree. I don’t much like the idea of living life half upside down with a woman I hardly know.” A new voice breaks through the excited bloodthirsty silence of the cultists. Kugai relinquishes his grip on her armor and whirls around to look for the source.

“Though I’m sure you’re excellent company, my reckless friend,” The voice continues, “Not many a sense of humor survives a demonic ritual.”

Everyone turns to face the tunnel on their right, where a tall high elf man stands on top of the fallen bodies of the four guarding it. Behind him several others are slumped lifeless against the wall.

Taking advantage of their surprise, Yeriss grips the arms of her captor hard, hanging all her weight on them before she swings her lower body forward and kicks Kugai hard in the side. The shift in her weight causes her captor to drop her, and Yeriss rolls to her side on the floor where her greatsword fell, picking it up as she leaps to her feet.

“It’s a good thing I don’t intend to be a part of any demonic rituals then.” She calls back to her helper. This must be the elf they mentioned sabotaging their potions. His dirtied silver armor somehow glints brightly in the dim light. “But I’m great company for crashing one. Or ten.”

“What great news. I just joined the market for such a person. There’s a really ugly one going on-'' He pauses to block a blow from one of the greataxe-wielding cultists, then dispatches the devan man with a double bladed stab that he rips outward in both directions. “-Not too far from here.”

That must be the source of the corruption! It’s a relief she doesn’t have to look for it without Volis’s guidance.

“Count me in.” Yeriss smacks her blade across several enemies in a great knockdown strike, sending them rolling like bowling balls. Another cultist tries to get in close, but her quick reflexes have them skewered on her sword first. “That’s exactly what I came here for.”

Reinforcements already more than halved, Kugai seems to notice that his people are losing this battle. He turns to retreat to the tunnel, but Yeriss is already flinging herself across the room, landing on his back in a tumbling tackle.

“Not so fast, mister holy worshipper. What happened to being willing to sacrifice yourself for your precious Lok?” She taunts, struggling to keep the large devan man pinned. In the corner of her eye she notices the high elf man send the last two cultists crumpling to the ground. “I’ll spare you if you tell us how to stop the corruption.”

“No need, my reckless friend.” The elf says, coming up on her side. “I already know. There’s a large, evil demon made from Lok’s demonic remains further down in this cave. Kill it, and we kill off their corrupting source.”

“Hah! Kill it? You’ll never manage to kill Karascha. Even if you could, you wouldn’t get past the shield to our sorcerers. Death will only release the rest of his corruptive essence all at once.” Kugai bites out, and Yeriss grips him by the horns to push his face in the dirt where it belongs. “It’s only a matter of time before we take over the divine essence left in the World Tree. Lok will live again!”

Choosing to believe the elf over the desperate cultist, she brings her greatsword down through the back of his chest, silencing Kugai for good. After the devan chokes out his last breath, Yeriss stands up and dusts herself off. A large circular object rolls out of the dead cultist lord’s hand - a metallic thing the size of a compass, with the same diamond eye symbol they all wear on it. Yeriss takes it for herself. War trophy.

“So.” The high elf man’s gaze flickers from her face down to the federation crest on her neck. “‘Yerenica.’ Congratulations on officially being the first Federation soldier to make it down here in weeks. At all, actually. Why are you by yourself?”

The question throws Yeriss off guard. For a second, she doubts her decision to press on alone. But no, she was right in coming here. The Federation needs this island, and nobody back at base even has a clue that there were Lokian Cultists here. The high elf probably just thinks the rest of her squad died or something.

“Because I’m the only one on my squad who Kaia gave any balls, apparently.” She says boldly, meeting his curious gaze. “What about you?” She turns the question back on him, pointedly looking at his armor, distinctly lacking in an identifying badge.

After all, upon closer examination, he doesn’t look like a Federation soldier. He looks like he hasn’t slept in a week, although some high elves do have a naturally gray pallor to their skin. Certainly handsome, but there’s no mistaking those dark circles. It’s almost like eye shadow.

“Ah, right. I forgot to include myself in that count, eh? I’m not really a soldier but I am part of the Valkyon Federation, rest assured. My name is Elleon.”

Yeriss’s eyes bug. Elleon? The Elleon Kubel, argon war hero and missing leader of the First Expedition? All of a sudden the gray pallor of his skin seems more like silver, and the gold of his eyes shinier.

“Did you know your brother is looking for you?” Is all she can think to say.

Elleon raises a brow. “Leander is here? That didn’t take long. Why isn’t he with you, then?”

“Actually, Dougal and Adria did ask him to come along on our mission, but he refused to do anything not directly related to finding you as quickly as possible. He’s been here looking for almost two weeks already. The second best sorcerer on the island had to come in his stead.”

Elleon blinks. “Ah. All of a sudden the wind of Zenobia is beneath my feet. Let us make haste to the demon’s lair, my friend.” He’s already moving by the time he finishes talking, not even throwing a glance over his shoulder to confirm his words.

Yeriss bounds after him, pausing to grab a torch off a wall sconce, and follows Elleon’s lead through the tunnels. They pass many banners sporting the red diamond eye of Lok, and crates marked with the federation crest. Stolen, no doubt. Eventually the cave opens up into a wide underground cavern. High above them is a large pink orb of energy, like the one outside the cave. Strange arched windows filled with colorful stained glass adorn each wall of the cave, like some kind of underground church. Something large shifts in the shadows, and moves into sight.

“It’s a vulcan.” Yeriss remarks with a surprised whisper as she takes in Karascha’s form. “But purple. And with wings.”

“You say that like you’ve seen one before.”

“Yeah, I’ve got lots of experience taking these down. They’re supposed to be green, though.”

“Hmm.” Elleon muses. “Now that you mention it, the color is remarkably similar to the cursed remains of Lok south of Tria in the Blighted Wood, eh?”

“Oh really? I wouldn’t know.” She shrugs. “I’ve never been to Shara… what’s that behind it?” Yeriss asks, looking at the large arched doorway behind the demon. Instead of a door, a magic barrier shimmers across an invisible surface, veiling whatever is in the room on the other side.

“The core of the World Tree, and all of Kugai’s precious sorcerers. Perhaps fourty in number. Karascha sends his essence through the barrier and they channel it into the core, corrupting it. It is a delicate process.” Elleon smirks. “Kugai was quite confident despite knowing this. Killing the demon will release massive energy, true. But their sorcerers are tired and all but drained of mana. This is the perfect time for us to strike to kill.”

“Great! What are we waiting for?” Yeriss sets the torch down and unsheathes her greatsword. Before she can charge into the cavern, Elleon outstretches a hand in front of her, blocking her path.

“Not so fast, my reckless friend. You should know this is not some mindless beast. Be wary of Karascha’s curses- try to prevent him from casting them, if you can.”

Before Yeriss can ask what he means, a deep two-timbre voice booms through the cavern. “So, the meddling elf is back for another beating. I see you’ve brought a friend with you this time. Hah!” The demon’s laughter grates like gravel. “You should’ve brought an army.”

A large stone collides with the tunnel wall beside them. The two of them instinctively dodge out the way of the flying debris, sending them further into the room.

Recovering from her shock of a vulcan talking, Yeriss rises up and races towards Karascha, sword high.

“He doesn’t need an army. He’s got me.” She says with a grin, dodging the demon’s fist as it pummels the ground behind her, and slashes the demon across the chest. Karascha steps back from the blow, and Elleon is behind him ready, raking his blades down the demon’s back. Roaring, the demon suddenly extends his wings and swipes in front of him at the same time, sending the two of them flying.

Yeriss gasps as her back hits the wall painfully. Elleon tumbles backward to a rough stop. But with a shared look, they are up again, moving in sync as they approach the demon. This time Yeriss stabs for the heart, but Karascha dodges and her greatsword instead screeches across the metal plate guarding the demon’s neck, throwing up sparks. Dark red, almost black blood bursts from Karascha’s shoulder as the tip of one of Elleon’s blades appears through the flesh.

Karascha shakes like a dog, trying to dislodge the elf from his back. Yeriss plunges her greatsword through the other shoulder. Before she can try to drive her blade downward, a huge hand suddenly grasps her face. She hears a muffled outcry of pain from Elleon, but can’t see what happened to him.

Letting go of her sword, she struggles to escape the crushing grip that digs into the back of her head, feeling warm blood trickle down her neck from where the claws of the beast pierce her skin. It’s not working, but Yeriss has horns. Instead of trying to get out of the grip, she takes both hands and forces it down hard on her head, impaling the demon’s hand on her horns.

Suddenly she is free, and she falls to her knees to gasp for air. Dizzily scrambling to her feet, she closes in again, narrowly avoiding a swipe from the demon’s non-injured hand to grasp her greatsword -still embedded in Karascha’s shoulder- and yanks downwards as hard as she can. Karascha screams out in pain, a noise that rattles Yeriss’s ears. Unable to help it, she hastily pulls out her greatsword and gets away from the loud sound. As she backs away, Elleon steps up behind her, steadying her with a hand on her shoulder. He’s limping slightly, and she sees blood staining the silver armor of his right leg.

“Pests that don’t understand anything and get in the way should just die!” Karascha yells, and then begins chanting in a demonic language. Yeriss can’t distinguish the sounds well, but he seems to repeat something that sounds like Haargwahrosh . The long claws that are attached to his glove begin to glow an eerie blue, siphoning energy from the pink ball hovering high in the air above the arch.

Behind her, Elleon stiffens. “Not good. We must stop him, or we’ll suffer.”

Karascha is chanting Ganiir-bolohosh now. Lacking inspiration on how else to shut him up, Yeriss leans back and chucks her greatsword, blade-first, right at Karascha’s face. By luck, and some decent aim, her sword slips through the grate of his face plate. She can’t see what damage she’s done, but the demon’s dark blood pools and seeps through the face plate to splatter on the ground. Stunned into silence, it takes Karascha a moment to react.

In the most ginger manner a demon can have, it extricates her blade from it’s face and tosses it aside, the metal clanging against the stone floor of the cave. Before she can react, Karascha slams his fist on the ground in front of her, shattering the stone and sending her flying towards the stained glass window. Yeriss crashes into the window, breaking the glass and sending shards flying. Nothing is behind the window but the hard stone of the wall, and her body bounces off it and she slides down to crumple on the ground, leaving a trail of blood in her wake where the shards of glass have embedded in her back past her zalisleather armor.

Though the wounds aren’t deep, the collision knocked the air out of her. For a minute all she can do is kneel and try to breathe. Karascha gives a sadistic laugh of pleasure, and makes to close in. Before he can take so much as a step, Elleon is sailing through the air and slashing both swords through the demon’s wings. There is a heavy thump as they slump uselessly to the ground. The ruined stumps of Karascha’s wings give a twitch as he shakes in dismay. Before Yeriss can blink, the demon is reaching behind him, snatching up the elf, and throwing him to the ground.

Already scrambling up off her knees, she sees Elleon’s attempt to push himself up fail as his injured leg gives. Karascha’s claws glint in the darkness as he rears back.

“No, stop!” She yells, desperately launching herself in between the two.

Just barely catching the blow, Karascha’s claws, intended for Elleon, collide with the flat of her blade instead. Yeriss stumbles back a couple steps. Unwilling to be thwarted, the demon continues to press back against her sword. In moments, her arm begins to tremble, and sweat rolls down the back of her neck, stinging the small wounds there. Her stance was hasty, and her footing doesn’t lend her much strength. But letting go means the death of her new friend, so she won’t.

Bending her knees and shifting her feet as much as she can, she stabilizes herself and renews the strength of her push. Behind her, Elleon grunts as he shakes off his daze and tries to get up, but his wounded leg gives under him and he stumbles back down.

Locking eyes with the gleam of the demon’s own beyond it’s daunting faceplate, Yeriss realizes the beast’s strain mirrors her own. The blood he loses will continue to weaken him. In seconds, she will win. As if also realizing this, Karascha suddenly begins his chant again in haste.

“Haargwahrosh, haargwahrosh, ganiir-bolohosh, ganiir-bolohosh-”

“No no no, shut up you son of an orcan!” She struggles to move against the stalemate, knowing she has to silence him before he can-

“Yeprasiabalolosh!”

There’s a brief moment of quiet dread, and then across her body, a quiet heat begins to grow. Uncomfortable quickly grows to terrible, sizzling heat all over her stomach, arms, legs, and back. Pressing her lips together she struggles not to loosen her grip, unable to stop a whimper as reflexive tears start to drip down her face. She’s only ever felt pain like this in her life once before. After she finished her Crucible. A pained grunt behind her confirms her companion’s own suffering.

“Stupid little thing. You dared to defy Lok and his servants with his very mark upon you.” The demon laughs wetly. “It amplifies the pain of my curse two-fold.”

“Ngh… aaargh!” Yeriss bites down her screams, refusing to give the demon any additional satisfaction. “Don’t be... so smug when... you can’t even win a fair fight!” She trembles all over, but stubbornly refuses to let go, holding her blade fast against the demon’s claws.

Suddenly, Karascha stumbles to the side and her greatsword slides free as the demon’s claws leave the interlock. Her first thought is that he succumbed to his wounds, but then she sees a fresh deep gash across the demon’s legs. Elleon is crouched to the side of them, blood dripping off his twin swords, and she realizes that he must have rolled between them to land the blow. Genius.

Wasting no time in pressing their advantage, Yeriss uses all her willpower to ignore the pain that courses through her body like a livewire and whacks the demon hard with the flat of her greatsword, sending him tumbling. When he’s on the ground she leaps up and drives her blade straight down. Karascha’s armor does nothing to deflect such a direct hit, and she pierces the demon through the heart. The curse dies with him.

Shuddering with relief as her markings stop burning, she watches the last twitch of the demon’s death throes. When Karascha is finally still, she straightens up and turns to Elleon.

“It’s dead.” She announces matter-of-factly.

Elleon blinks and gives a breathless laugh as he gingerly rises to his feet. “Are you sure? Better poke it a few times in case it’s just playing, eh?”

“It’s not a city garbage rat.” Yeriss says, but taps the demon’s face plate with the tip of her greatsword a couple times. “Yep, definitely dea-”

Before she can finish, there’s a boom as the pink orb explodes overhead, and in the room ahead. Elleon flinches and assumes an instinctive combat stance, but all that happens is a brief rain of particles of magic as they fall and dissipate around them.

Relaxing, Elleon re-sheathes his swords. “Ah. Now it is dead.”

“What was that?”

“Just as I expected, Kugai told no lie that killing Karascha would release all his demonic energy at once. And just as I expected, his sorcerers would be too drained and too few to contain the blast. We should go check to make sure, however.”

Yeriss nods and jumps down off Karascha. They approach the arched doorway. It still shimmers with energy, but turns a different color when they get near it. Hands resting on their weapons, they step in.

~~~

Materializing on the other side of the barrier as they cross through, Yeriss sees that Elleon was right in his prediction. The bodies of the devan sorcerers lay collapsed around the great roots of the tree. Not only was Karascha’s energy too much for them to contain, in its potency, it killed them. It’s a relief. Tired and wounded from the fight with Karascha, it would have been a pain in the ass to fight a bunch of pissed off cultist sorcerers. She would’ve done it of course, gladly, but there would have been complaints afterward. Many complaints.

One last moving devan sorcerer, a woman, crawls feebly towards the rapidly fading light of Karascha’s energy as it drains from the root of the tree.

“No… no…” She sobs weekly. Her breathing is harsh and labored, each breath a great wheeze. When she sees the two of them, her expression contorts into grief. “How could you? We were finally going to be-” She breaks off with a wheezing cough. “Free!”

“Zuras, Balder, Lakan, every living creature from Arun to Shara… have forsaken us. Slaughtered us.” She sounds so bitter, Yeriss feels a pang of guilt. “ I just wanted to live in peace with my son. I thought…”

For several moments the woman is silent and still, and for a second Yeriss thinks she is dead. But when she steps tentatively closer, she sees the woman’s lip trembling as she gazes at something fallen on the ground in front of her. It’s an open locket with a bundle of brown hair, just like the woman’s own. With a final breath, the woman’s gaze hazes over and she slumps against the ground.

Wow. Yeriss takes in a deep shaky breath, not having expected that at all. Processing what she just witnessed, it takes her a minute to realize that Elleon is looking at her strangely. Feeling the burning of his gaze, she feels pressured to say… something.

“I won’t lie. My kind have it rough, and in the past it was much worse.” She raises her chin and meets his eyes. “But resurrecting a demon god? I know that would have only brought more evil and pain to this world. I’m proud of what we did.”

“Good.” Elleon’s gaze goes distant for a moment, as though being reminded of something. “It is one thing to do evil. To be evil is another. It’s... a shame that some are driven to such extremes by circumstance.”

“Did that happen to someone close to you?” She guesses tentatively, from the tone of his voice.

“Me? No. I was thinking of the traitor within the Federation, actually. I am lucky to say I fully trust those closest to me never to betray me, no matter how dire the circumstances.”

“Oh right!” Yeriss recalls the vassal’s earlier words to Kugai. She’d forgotten about it in the chaos. She kneels on the ground to take a closer look at the fallen sorcerer closest to her. “They said ‘ sources within the Federation .’ Could there really be a traitor so high up they’d know about the top secret Island?”

“Yes. I’ve had my suspicions for a while, but being here confirmed them. It seems even being chosen to lead the First Expedition was planned as a way to get rid of me.” Elleon says as he rips some fabric off his cape to bandage his leg with, sitting down on the floor to do so. “I’ve had the chance to overhear a great many things while hiding out in the tunnels.”

“Did you find out who it is, then?” Yeriss asks.

“Unfortunately, no. I have my own guess as to who it could be, but without evidence it’s impossible to be sure.” Elleon exhales irritatedly in a way that suggests there wasn’t a shortage of searching for search evidence on his part.

Yeriss frowns and casts a glance over at the core of the tree, which despite the recent demonic interference now seems as serene as nature can be. “Well that sucks.”

She meant to approach the plinth in the front of the room to hope some answer would magically pop out of the tree itself, but as she stands her world suddenly careens and shifts dizzily.

“Woah.” She says, stumbling backward into the root behind her.

“Yerenica!” Elleon looks at her in concern, already half standing to come to her aid. “Have you been injured badly?”

Yeriss hastily waves him off. “Nah, I’m fine. Just stood too fast.” The majority of her wounds are bruises, but now that the adrenaline is starting to wear off, the pieces of glass in her back are starting to sting.

“I see. Hmm.”

“What?” She asks defensively. It’s true, it’s really not that bad. His leg wound is without a doubt worse than any of hers, and she didn’t even get to see the extent of it.

“Though the source of the corruption is gone, there will still be hydraths between us and the tower base camp. We’ll need to move quickly.” Elleon suddenly rises and begins weaving between the bodies, searching them for something.

“What are you-”

“I personally saw to it that their supply of mana potions was destroyed. But I’m willing to bet we can find someone with a health potion. No reason not to give ourselves the best chance at being present for our own victory speech, eh?”

That has her imagining the look of begrudging respect even prideful Winra and stuffy Sein will have on their faces when she comes back with the news that she not only found the source of the corruption, but destroyed it, along with the rest of the cultists that had been living right under the Federation’s nose. And found the missing Elleon, to put the cherry on top of the sugar cake. Suddenly she can’t wait to be out of here and back at camp. The smile that parts her lips is wide, and she pushes off the root to join her friend in his search.

“That’s a good idea. I’ll search this half.”

For the next few minutes they crouch by the bodies of the fallen cultists, checking pockets and satchels.

Plenty of keys, coins, and other personal effects later, Yeriss has yet to find a health potion. From Elleon’s silence, he hasn’t either. Unclipping another satchel from a cultist’s belt loop, she flips up the leather flap. But when she reaches in, instead of glass, she feels paper.

Curiously, she takes it out and unfolds it. It’s probably just trash.

At the top of the paper, something is written in what looks like castanic, but not quite. Must be deva. The two languages are really similar, so she can read almost all of it, and the rest she can easily guess. It says:

My loyal friend, and fellow devotee to our Lord, your complaints have not fallen on deaf ears. Your goals and my goals are the same. The reason I have failed to return some of your number in haste as you requested was not due to my own wishes, but rather those of our benefactor. I know you grow weary of my own words, so have a look for yourself. -Kugai

Below it is a letter, written in neat, bold human.

Lord Kugai,

I heard of the complications your group are experiencing with the task I asked of you. I fully understand the importance of your efforts regarding the tree. Surely your sorcerers are not so incompetent that you cannot spare even half a dozen to hunt him down and finish him. How hard is it to kill a single, lone man in your own territory? I’ve received your request for more supplies. A supply ship is making its way to the Island and should arrive within a few days. The potions will be within the crate that I’ve had marked with the usual symbol. I hope my faith in our alliance is still warranted. I expect to receive the good news that you finally put the Federation’s dog down for good. Don’t expect any additional supplies until you do.

-B

No way. “Um, Elleon?” She calls, not looking up from the paper.

“Hm? What is it? Have you found something?”

“I think… the evidence you’ve been looking for.” Yeriss says slowly. It was one thing to come to know of the traitor in general. But to see that it was the truth, solidly presented in ink and parchment was another thing entirely. The Valkyon Federation was huge, and had amassed great power from the alliance of several of the most advanced societies in Arborea. A traitor, especially one high enough up in the ranks to know of the Island of Dawn and the specific people and supplies present on the expeditions, was a devastating thought.

Elleon is by her side in moments. “Let me see.”

Yeriss readily hands him the paper.

“Ah. Devan.” He remarks. “Can you read it?”

“Yeah, of course. It says...” After explaining the contents of the cultist’s addition to the letter, Yeriss steps back as Elleon reads the rest. His gray lips press together the more he reads, but when he’s finished they quirk up into a smirk.

“Excellent work.” He says, sounding pleased. “This confirms many things. I’m sure Dougal will agree.”

“Consul Dougal knows about the traitor?”

“Indeed. He was the first to have suspicions, actually, and shared them with me.” Elleon stoops down and plucks something up off the ground by the cultist’s other hip. “Aha. You missed something, my reckless friend.”

A vermillion health potion sloshes in the small glass vial between his gloved fingers.

“Hey! I would have found it. Right away, if I hadn’t been busy finding your much-needed evidence. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Elleon laughs at her affronted tone. “I’m teasing you, Yerenica.”

“Oh. ...” The way his gold eyes sparkle with mischief in the dim light makes her feel strange. Breaking eye contact, she instead impatiently gestures at the vial. “Hurry up and drink some already and let’s head back.”

“Ladies first.” Elleon says, holding it out to her. Yeriss raises her eyebrows at him and doesn’t budge.

“People with serious leg injuries first.”

He takes it back without protest and uncorks the vial, taking a couple mouthfuls. He hands it back to her, halfway full, and watches her quietly as she presses the glass to her lips and finishes the rest. The cloying taste of crimson essence is unpleasant as ever, but the relief she feels as the rapidly healing wounds in her back push out the glass shards that land with little clink-clink s on the floor is palpable. She’d need more to heal her bruises, but there are priests back at camp that can help her with that. For now, she’s all set to make a victory dash back to base.

The cover of night makes the run back through hydrath territory a breeze compared to her earlier foray with company. Elleon is quick - extremely quick, in fact. So much so that she loses sight of him in the brush, following the path Davina cut through it earlier back down. He’s waiting for her by the bridge by the time she arrives.

Kaia’s flaming sword, the barrier! She completely forgot about it. But before she can even open her mouth to ask what they should do, Elleon leans back and launches his sword through the air. With knife sharp precision, it wedges itself between the source stone and it’s bed, lifting it up just high enough to deactivate the shield. Genius, again. She hadn’t even thought to use the way it only barricaded living things, not material, to get by.

They make haste across the bridge, and Elleon removes his sword from beneath the stone in a fluid motion as he passes by, not even having to stop to do so. It’s not long before they encounter some of the Federation’s guards patrolling the area, and with a surprised shout as they are recognized, one of them breaks off the group and accompanies them back to camp.

~~~

A kind pair of priests -an older human woman and a gentle demeanored baraka- tend to Yeriss and Elleon’s wounds as they sit around the quietly crackling fire in Dougal’s personal tent. As smoke spirals out of the opening in the canvas roof up to the stars, Dougal himself leans forward in his chair with concern as they begin to report.

“As much as you know I appreciate your speed, you two, I wouldn’t have minded if you had taken some time to recover first.” Dougal gives the plate full of tiny red-tinted glass fragments the priest had extricated from Yeriss’s back a glance. “In fact, I really would’ve preferred it.”

“You know I don’t like to waste time.” Elleon says with a shrug, but gives the man an appreciative look for his consideration. One of his silver boots lays on its side by his chair, but despite being bare from his toes to his knee one on leg, he still manages to have distinct poise.

Yeriss nods in agreement with Elleon’s sentiment.

Dougal raises an eyebrow, but shakes his head and rests his hands on his knees. “Alright, since you insist. Let’s start off with you, Yerenica. I heard from Jorhon that you stayed behind to finish the mission while they went to help Davina.”

Yeriss stiffens. Uh oh. Dougal had put it quite nicely just then, but she had her doubts that he was using the same words Jorhon had. Not when she had disagreed so blatantly with the rest of the group. “Ah, yes sir. Um, were they able to reach and help Davina?”

“Yes. Actually, she had already managed to take down the Hydrath pursuing her by the time they caught up to her.” Dougal makes a fond expression. “I have to say I wasn’t at all surprised to hear that. She’s very much like her sister in that aspect.”

Elleon makes a very quiet sound. Or coughs, she can’t quite tell.

“Oh, I see.” Yeriss is confused. Where’s the lecture she was anticipating?

“Unfortunately, they had to compromise their cover to chase after her, so at that point they were being pursued by quite a few of the hydraths. They had no choice but to retreat back to the base. Being so close on the other side of the barrier meant I couldn’t send any reinforcements in after you, I’m sorry.” Dougal looks sincerely contrite about this, and Yeriss is shocked. She was expecting to get chewed out, not apologized to.

“It’s- okay.” She says quickly, a bit uncomfortable. “I’m just glad she was alright after all... Anyways, I managed to get inside the cave undetected. It wasn’t long before I came upon a large group of people hiding out in them. Devas from the cult of Lok. So then I-”

Yeriss relays the events of the past few hours, and Elleon fills in the blanks of her account with his own side of things on occasion. By the time they are done, Dougal looks both shocked, impressed, and pleased at the same time.

“The cult of Lok… to think, this whole time they were on the Island with us and we had no clue.” Dougal muses as he thumbs the token with Lok’s symbol Yeriss had taken from Kugai. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, he hands it back to her. “Well, more than job well done you two. Now that the source of the corruption is gone, I can assemble a decisive force and get rid of all the remaining monsters on the Island push by push. I’ll have a group go investigate the caves and make sure they’re clear. For now, you’ve earned some rest. I can’t imagine taking on a demon that powerful was easy.”

“Actually, Dougal… there’s something else.” Elleon says, catching his eye, and then looking pointedly at the priests.

“Ah.” Dougal turns to address the healers. “It seems these two are in much better shape, thank you for your efforts. If there’s nothing else, you can go.” He says in a kind, but clear dismissal.

They both nod and take their leave. Once they are gone, Dougal temples his fingers and raises his eyebrows at the man across him. “What is it?”

“We found some correspondence between their leader and someone inside the Federation that confirms someone was working with them behind our lines. I have no doubt it’s the same person responsible for the other suspicious events we discussed.” Elleon hands him the paper they found.

Before reading it, Dougal exchanges a look with him, glancing almost imperceptibly in her direction. If she didn’t just witness his methods in silent communication, she would’ve completely missed the discreet question he just asked Elleon without even saying a word.

“Yerenica already knows about the situation.” Elleon says quickly. “I told her about our additional suspicions. At a certain point down there I likely would’ve been quite dead if not for her. You can trust her.”

Dougal nods, readily accepting this. “Sorry Yerenica, just had to be sure. This is a uh, delicate situation, as you might imagine. We’re trying to keep as tight a lid on it as possible. Alright, let’s have a look at this.”

Dougal unfolds the paper and holds it out in front of him as he reads.

To her surprise, Dougal doesn’t ask about the devan. It’s not uncommon for a man of his position to be able to read the languages of multiple races, but he doesn’t give off the impression of the scholarly type.

“Someone who knew the personnel of the expeditions as well as interfere with the expedition supplies at some point, at least once, to apply the identifying mark, and to move them from the camp on the Island to a place the cultists could retrieve without being detected.” Dougal says to himself, thinking it through. “Huh… could be… someone high up certainly, but there’s only a handful of us with this level of clearance. But no, couldn’t be. More likely it’s someone who could access one of our confidential reports perhaps. An assistant?”

“Once received, you burn those. How could that be possible?” Elleon doesn’t seem to agree with him.

“None of us are infallible. Someone could’ve forgotten to do it, or been called away to discuss an emergency. I can think of plenty of situations.” At Elleon’s silence, Dougal frowns. “The only ones who could access this information are myself, Seir, Gislan, Samael, Fraya, Eyhian, Loana, Kanmur, or Ukenul. I highly doubt any of them could manage such an alliance without our notice.”

Elleon nods hesitantly.

“I hate to say it, but we need more evidence.” Dougal states reluctantly. “This is a great start though, when previously all we had were suspicions. Once we get more information we can figure out who this “B” is.”

“I think we should be cautious not to rule anyone out too early, lest our own bias cause us to miss something right under our-”

The opening to the tent flaps out harshly and Elleon’s mouth snaps shut as they all turn in their seat to face the doorway. Standing there, hands crossed tightly across his mostly bare chest, is none other than Leander himself. Looking none too pleased.

Dougal coughs awkwardly. “Leander. Uh, come in, make yourself at home.”

Leander takes a few steps forward and then resumes his previous posture. “All that time and effort searching for you like a needle in a haystack, and somehow I’m not the first to know when you’re found, brother.”

Elleon doesn’t react negatively at all to his brother’s irate tone. In fact, his eyes light up as he takes in the form of the blond man. “Is that my missing blade I see on your back Leander? Did you know that you’re my favorite brother?”

“I’m your only brother.” Leander says, rolling his eyes. But his expression softens as he catches sight of the bloody scrap of black cape-turned bandage laying loosely around Elleon’s ankle. “You’ll be pleased to know it contains none of the corrupted mana I found it inundated with. Are you alright?”

“Fine. My wounds have been healed, just haven’t had a chance yet to wash the blood off.”

“I see. Well. I don’t suppose you have some time for us to speak in private.” Leander asks, dropping his gaze.

“Of course.” Elleon quickly re-dons his boot. “Dougal?”

“We can speak more on the issue later. Go ahead.”

With a parting nod to Dougal, then Yeriss, Elleon stands and follows Leander out.

“Now that we’re alone,” Dougal begins. “I have an offer for you, Yeriss.”

At the sound of her real name, Yeriss freezes up. But before her blood has even started going cold in her veins, Dougal is patting placatively at the air.

“Relax, relax, you’re not in trouble.”

Yeriss stops holding her breath, but gives him a wary glance. “...I’m not?”

“No, I promise.”

“You knew this whole time?”

“Yeah. The day after we arrived some of Mahera’s crew asked me what to do with some crates full of badges and papers. I realized we forgot to unload them while we were at the docks in Velika. Knowing every soldier under my command is impossible, but I always make an effort to remember those that have given up their lives, to make sure their personal effects get returned to their families.” Dougal explains. “I have them written down in a log. So when there was one missing, it wasn’t hard to figure out who. Afterward I asked Mahera about it, and she explained what happened to me.”

Traitor! All that money and treasure wasn’t enough to prevent her from ratting her out?

Her thoughts must have shown on her face, because Dougal shakes his head. “Hey, don’t feel bad. She was actually quite tight-lipped at first, and didn’t end up answering me until I pressured her. Amani are quite big on honor, you know.”

Yeriss stops planning a future confrontational rant in her head.

“After that I had a friend in the Swords verify your identity, and kept an eye on you in case you were dangerous. All I saw was you managing to kill more monsters single-handedly in a week and a half than most of the people that arrived on the second expedition have in the whole time they’ve been here. If that wasn’t enough, you also just solved all my problems in one go, including finding Elleon. I’d be a fool to punish you for being the best thing that’s happened on this island since I got here.”

She has no idea what to say. “I was just trying to help.”

“Exactly. As I was saying, I have an offer for you.”

“Huh?”

“You are now one of the very few people who know about the traitor in the Federation. Reading that letter today made me realize that this could be bigger than I previously imagined. I need someone capable to help me investigate, discreetly. Now that I know Elleon has a target on his head, the help he can provide is limited.” Dougal sighs. “So here’s my offer: you become one of my operatives, but we make it look like you’re a regular new recruit so that whoever’s behind this letter doesn’t realize we knew each other prior and get suspicious. Half the work is already done for us, considering you went by a different name during your time here. I’ll send you wherever I find a lead, and you’ll investigate under the guise of acting as a regular soldier at your post. It’ll be dangerous, but with your abilities I’m sure you can handle it.”

Yeriss brushes a lock of hair behind her ear, flattered that someone so high up as the Consul thinks highly of her. But this offer is far from tempting. ‘New recruit’? ‘Regular soldier ’?

“...”

“So, what do you think?”

“I want to help you, Dougal. I’m just not the right person for this kind of job. Isn’t there some other way I can help?” She’s definitely not trying to get landed with some snooze post fighting small fry with the rest of the keeners, sneaking around. “When you find out who it is, you’ll have my sword at your side, I swear.”

“I know I’m asking a lot. Anyone who did what you just did would want accolades - and deserve them. Asking you to keep quiet about it is unfair, I admit that. Tell you what, if you help me find the traitor like this, afterward I’ll make sure everyone in Velika knows of all your valiant service.” Dougal pauses, as if considering something, and then gives her a conspiratorial wink. “You know, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard for me to name the person who ended the corruption on the Island of Dawn and rooted out a traitor in our midst an official Valkyon Federation hero.”

“A-” Yeriss’s eyes widen. “A hero? Really! - No wait. You’re just… yanking Saleron’s chains, right?”

Dougal shakes his head with a smile.

Images of crowds of people calling her name with adoration on their lips, praise echoing through the city of wheels, and holos of her above Defiance Street in Castanica flood her mind. No stranger would ever look at her red skin and horns and disparage her again.

Pleasant shivers go up her spine.

“If you do decide to accept my offer, I have something else for you.” Dougal gets up out of his seat by the fire and reaches under a table for something.

Yeriss watches him curiously.

“You won’t be able to fulfill your full potential with that standard issue greatsword,” He starts, and when he stands back up she sees what’s in his hands. “Someone gave this to me a while ago, but I don’t use these. I think you could make much better use of it.”

It’s a greatsword. The maroon hemeleather handle is immaculately wrapped, and beautiful metalwork patterns start from the straight bronze cross-guard and flow down the middle of the fuller. The linmetal of the blade starts from a deep brown and transitions to silver in a slow gradient. From the craftsmanship alone she can tell this isn’t a twenty gold weapon.

“...Please don’t send me anywhere too boring. And I really can’t stand guard duty.” As she says it, she holds out her hand for the weapon.

Dougal throws his head back and laughs, a deep rich sound. Readily, he hands her the greatsword. Still chuckling.

“I’m also not really suited for deception, as you might have noticed.” Yeriss adds on, trying not to get annoyed at being laughed at. Not everyone can afford fancy swords.

Forcing himself to stop laughing with a little cough into his fist, Dougal clears his throat. “You won’t have to worry about that. I have someone who can help you.”

[vexvamp]

'Cause every night I lie in bed The brightest colors fill my head A million dreams are keeping me awake I think of what the world could be A vision of the one I see A million dreams is all it's gonna take A million dreams for the world we're gonna make

-----

This art was made to go with my Lion Guard fan theory, which you can read below. Kion was drawn by me, but the background is made up of screenshots from the show.

The following is my fan theory/AU/headcanon, which I came up with to fit the Lion Guard show into the universe of the films. Extra info can be found in the description here . ----- Kiara and Kion were born to King Simba and Queen Nala, shortly after the death of their elder brother, Kopa, and the subsequent exile of Zira and her Outlanders. Though born from the same litter, the two of them couldn't have been more different. While feisty Kiara grew strong and healthy, little Kion struggled just to stay alive. He was weak, grew slowly, and was quick to fall ill. Kion was suffering from something the Pride Lander's called the Fading Sickness, which we know instead as an immunodeficiency disorder. No amount of Rafiki's healing mixtures could cure it, and Simba and Nala prayed to the Great Kings that their son would not go to join his grandfather among the stars. Kion's illness persisted from infancy to cubhood. He was smaller than his sister, underdeveloped, and spent most his time confined to Pride Rock. While Kiara began to explore the Pride Lands, Kion was rarely allowed outside for fear that he would catch sickness or overexert himself. Tensions grew between him and his sister, as Kiara secretly wished that she had a sibling who she could actually play with, while Kion resented the fact that she had all the freedoms he didn't. This would eventually culminate in Kiara wondering into the Outlands and meeting Kovu, and this was enough to shock Simba into action. He asked Nala's brother, Mheetu and his mate to move closer to Pride Rock with their two daughters, so that Kiara would have other cubs her age to play with. Kiara found her cousins, Tiifu and Zuri, a bit hard to relate to, but it was still a better alternative to playing by herself. Kion, on the other hand, usually found himself alone. His parents tried their best to spend time with him, but fear of causing him stress combined with the previous loss of Kopa meant that they often treated him as though he was made of glass. This would create a rift in their relationship and make Kion feel as though he couldn't really connect with them. The isolation, and the fact that he was often too tired to even walk the length of the cave, were wearing away at Kion's mind. The young cub was slowly slipping into a deep depression. It was Rafiki, the healer who was often called to help Kion when he fell ill, that began to tell Kion stories. Legends of the Pride Lands, stories of Kion's ancient ancestors, and tales of all the creatures he never got to see in the outside world. Among those stories were those of the Lion Guard, the band of lions which patrolled the Pride Lands and helped protect the Circle of Life. It was hoped that Kion himself might one day lead them, but his illness was making this seem less and less likely. Still, it gave Kion cause to dream. He fantasized about it as he stared at the paintings Rafiki drew for him on the walls of the cave, and through these fantasies he found an escape. He made friends from the characters on the walls, and envisioned himself as their leader. The birthmark on his shoulder became the Mark of the Guard, and his weak, fragile body was forgotten as he fantasized about his imagined power, the Roar of the Elders. The Roar was part of the legend of the first Guard and their leader, who was said to have a roar so powerful that it was as if all the lions of days past roared with him. Kion turned this legend into something fantastical and grand, imagining himself possessing a power so great it wouldn't matter that he was smaller and weaker than other cubs. These daydreams occupied him, his imaginary friends filling the blank spaces in his life, and he spent his days lost in fantasy as the powerful lion he could never be in the real world. Kion's health had its ups and downs over the years, but as he approached adolescence, he suddenly contracted an illness that he couldn't seem to recover from. His body raged with fever, and the young lion slipped into a near comatose state, lost somewhere between sleep and waking, with the illness pulling him ever closer towards oblivion. In this state his fantasies grew violent, with visions of fiery demons in volcanoes and a scar which corrupted his soul. As Kion's condition worsened, it was decided that he would be taken to Rafiki's tree, closer to the store of healing herbs and away from other lions that might transmit further infection. In his brief moments of consciousness, Kion pulled bits of the real world into his tumultuous fever dreams. Rafiki's tree became the Tree of Life, and paintings on the walls became part of his adventure to reach it. Through Rafiki's treatments, Kion would eventually be saved, but he was still confined to the tree when Kiara first reunited with Kovu, and during the final battle with Zira. He wasn't there to see his sister's wedding, but Kiara and Kovu came to visit him afterwards. Kion tried to be gracious, but couldn't help but feel envious of the happy life his sister was living. He was small, sick, and weak. With only a scrap of mane, he looked much younger than he really was. What lioness would have him? So once again he retreated into his fantasies, crafting a love interest for himself and imagining a happy ending to his story. Kion would return to Pride Rock shortly afterwards, unsure of where his place was in this new, blended pride. Worst of all was what came next, when Kovu's sister, Vitani approached Simba and Nala about the Lion Guard. The current Guard had no formal leader, and was made up of lions who were growing older and getting ready to retire. It was a Guard only in name, without the deep-seated traditions of those led by the relatives of the royal family. As the sister of the new Prince Consort, Vitani put forward that she could lead a new Lion Guard. After the death of her mother, she had found herself feeling a bit hopeless and lost, and thought perhaps this could be her new purpose in life. After all, Kion was far too sickly and weak to have any hope of forming his own Guard, so why not her? Simba said he would think about it, and Nala said that they should talk it over with their son. The king and queen saw sense in what Vitani was saying, thinking it might be a chance to really cement the Outlander's loyalty, but Kion was horrified by the suggestion. Although he knew his health made it unlikely, Kion had always dreamed of leading the Guard someday, and now Vitani wanted to take that away from him. Simba pled for him to see sense, and Nala assured him that he would always have a place in the pride, as a prince and as their son. After some persuading, Kion reluctantly agreed to think it over. In his fantasies he imagined Vitani's 'Guard' trying to challenge him and the imaginary partners he had fought alongside for so long. He drew further back into his dreams, fantasizing about a reality where he was loved and wanted and had a place as the ruler and protector of his own world. In the real world, Vitani seethed with frustration, knowing full well that Kion had no chance of leading the Guard, and angry at having her progress hindered by him. Why did he have to take this away from her? Her mother was gone. Nuka was gone. Her pride was scattered. This was all she had. It was only when Kiara came to her and explained all that Kion had gone through, admitting to her own undesirable feelings of resentment towards her brother, that Vitani began to think differently. Kion had spent his entire life locked away in that cave, with his fantasies about the Lion Guard as his only means of escape. Without the hope that he might one day recover and truly lead the Guard, what was left? What purpose did he have? Perhaps he and Vitani had more in common than she had first thought. Vitani went to Kion and confessed how lost she had felt since her mother died, how everything she thought she knew had crumbled, and she was just trying to find a place for herself in this new world. She said that she knew she couldn't replace Kion as the rightful leader of the Guard, but she would feel honored if he could help her become a leader the Guard could be proud of. Kion was struck by this. So often he had been coddled and treated as though he was too fragile to upset, with his family often reluctant to truly acknowledge his condition and what it meant for him. Something about Vitani's honesty struck a cord with him. He was forced to come to terms with the painful truth, but in so doing he found a sense of clarity. In his heart he knew what he needed to do. Kion agreed to help Vitani put together the new Lion Guard, with her as their leader. But even as leader Vitani came to Kion for advice and for guidance, and through this Kion finally found a sense of purpose. As time passed, Kion began to grow stronger. His maturing immune system gave him greater resistance to sickness and more energy to actually leave the cave which had been his prison for so long. Although he would still have occasional bouts of sickness, he was far more resilient than he had been in cubhood, and could use preventative measures to keep his health in check. He even found he now had the strength to accompany the Guard on the occasional mission, though he was primarily restricted to observation and instruction rather than any sort of physically demanding work. He would never be entirely rid of his condition, but he found a place in his family, in the Pride Lands, and in the Lion Guard. 

[banshee-king]

So the White Dwarf with the Silent King section was released. No model or rules for him, so that’s good.

As for the lore, it’s n0ot the worst, some of it’s even fine, however there are some details that bug me. There’s this little titbit of info that comes from the perspective of an Eldar talking to an Inquisitor, and the Eldar says that it was the Silent King who created the Tyranids.

If this is true, as in if the Eldar was telling the truth, then I don’t like it. Can the Tyranids just be an alien race from another galaxy? Is that too hard? Why does everything have to be interconnected? As a Tyranids player, I much prefer it if their origin was unknown. They’re not exactly a faction that puts a lot of stock in their ancestors or history, like the Imperium/Eldar. So why does the Silent King of all people have to be the one who created them? It just turns this cosmic horror Lovecraftian threat into some generic bioweapon. Don’t the Orks already fit into the category of ‘genetically engineered weapon gone wrong’?

The other alternative is that the Eldar was lying (very likely), or was simply misinformed. The way it was written allows for this to be true, but I have to ask, why? The Eldar has a very clear motive to convince/manipulate the Inquisitor into believing the Silent King is a huge threat, one that needs to be destroyed by the Imperium. Eldar tricking humans into attacking a common enemy isn’t new. However the Silent King is still waging his personal war against the Tyranids, he still wants them dead (another reason why the Eldar might be lying). And the Silent King didn’t take just his flagship (which is apparently planet sized) with him into exile, he took his whole dynasty. So that means he’s currently the best faction equipped to deal with the Tyranid threat. Let’s say this Inquisitor rallies up an army and kills the Silent King, who’s going to deal with the Tyranids now? The Eldar?

This entire lore point just seems so pointless, it goes nowhere. I don’t see anything happing because of this, and if the Eldar is lying, then nothing new is learned.

Lastly, on a topic I care more personally about, we have information to suggest that the Silent King does not care for any other race/civilisation. He only needs them alive so he can return to Necrons to flesh, he only cares about his people and would gladly kill everyone else. This annoys me. I think it would be far more interesting if he did care, if he did feel guilty for all the races killed during the War in Heaven. I like the idea of the Silent King recognising the mistakes of the past, and wanting a better world for his people, one where they aren’t so bloodthirsty and warmongering.

His refusing to continue leading the Necrons, his breaking of the command protocols and his exile feels much more impactful and sympathetic if he was not just guilty of the fate of his race, but others as well. Right now he’s just portrayed as this huge arrogant dick, and I thought the giving of Necrons emotions/personality was meant to make them more interesting than one dimensional assholes.

I still have this head cannon that how the Silent King acts in front of others is different to how he secretly feels. As the king, the divine ruler of his people, there would be a lot of pressure on him to behave in a certain manner and to believe in the “correct” viewpoints. The Necrons are big on hierarchy and traditions after all. He MUST be the epitome of a “proper” Necron, but what if the Silent King thought differently? What if he decided that certain aspects of Necron culture/society was wrong? What if he wanted to be different to the Silent Kings of the past? After the whole War in Heaven incident, I doubt he could just stand on a stage and tell all the Phaerons that they were going to be pacifists now. Also, with the command protocols now no longer a thing, the Silent King needs to convince the other dynasties to join him. Him dropping some hot takes on the cycle of violence and how hate leads to suffering would probably start a riot. My head cannon of the Silent King publicly saying one thing, while internally believing another, could still be true.

Like I’m all for there being evil Necrons, ones controlled by the C’Tan who seek to destroy all life. But the Silent King was one of the most sympathetic characters in the faction. He sought the best for his people, he made a mistake, he willingly gave up his power in shame, and now he’s trying to make up for his mistakes, even after millions of years. Making him this heartless racial supremacist just seems to cheapen that idea. Plus there are enough of those characters. I mean, why must the wellbeing of his people come at the expense of the suffering of others? The Eldar proved that isn’t necessary. It would be really cool if the Silent King looked at the Eldar empire of 60 million years and decided that that was what he wanted for the Necrontyr.

Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is, the Silent King in future stories doesn’t need to act like how he was portrayed in this white dwarf, his ‘true motivations’ could be revealed to be something else, just like how the Tyranid origins could be revealed to be something else. So all in all, this article doesn’t really add anything, it doesn’t really build the Necrons’ lore, since everything could easily be retconned in an easily explainable handwave.

Still better than bolter porn though.

[ichigo777666]

FE3H Parents...

I know, I should be finishing the previous post but, did you ever notice how just about ALL the parents in FE3H are basically shit or dead?!  Spoilers ahead, obviously.

Oh boy, just about everyone has some abusive/neglectful parents or dead ones. For quite a few the mother isn’t mentioned so I’m assuming she either (A) is dead or (B) is in agreement with the father or (C) opposes the father but will not speak up. So yeah, here’s the giant list.

Blue Lion House

Let’s start with one of the biggest offenders: the BL!

Dimitri - mom, dad, and stepmom all dead. this makes for ttrauma...

Dedue - mom and dad and sister dead

Ashe - mom, dad, and adoptive father all dead. while Lonato was kind enough to allow ashe and his siblings to live with him, he also chose to not tell ashe the truth about what happened to his adoptive brother and then sacrificed himself for the sake of trying to avenge his true son instead of continuing to care for the children he’d taken in...

Felix - brother dead, father all but abandons/ignores him to tend to Dimitri

Sylvain - father views him as a studhorse and that his crest is the only good thing about him - cannot see Sylvain as an actual person; brother disowned and likely abusive towards him

Ingrid - father views her as a tool for furthering their family / solving the problem of the family debt and is willing to marry her off against her will for this cause

Annette / Gilbert - father literally abandons his daughter and wife due to own depression. he’s totally alive and out there but just can’t bring himself to give a crap about either...Annette’s mother sounds like an actual OK parent though. Oh and her uncle wanted her to be “perfect” and would get angry and scream at her if she made any mistakes...

Mercedes - father’s dead and her new stepfather viewed her as expendable and then, wanting to expand his influence, decided that he could just sleep with her, his own stepdaughter, to get what he wanted. Mercedes’ mom seem to be an okay person though. then the man that adopted her adopted her only for her crest and to try and use her to advance himself...

....so yeah, some possible parents in Annette’s and Mercedes’s mothers but otherwise all shit fathers....

Golden Deer

it’s harder to tell here in some cases due to lack of info...but....

Claude - messed up family tree and early life due to prejudice. Who knows if either mom or dad ever stood up for him. Claude recounts on multiple times how he stood up from himself (which begets the question why mom or dad didn’t). Also grandfather is a racist.

Lorentz - father taught him that all that is important is being nobility and Lorenz ate it up, willing to even give up someone he loves if they happen to be a commoner. Also his father wanted to murder people...so yeah

Raphael - dead parents

Ignatz - from what little I can find about them, they might actually somewhat OK parents...barring the whole they want him to be a knight for their own gain and thus abandon his own dreams... but they are part of the reason Raphael has none of his own anymore.

Leonie - her father’s a hunter and she runs into Jeralt as a child who she hangs around with....what father lets his child hang around with a strange mercenary?!

Marianne - adopted so originally parents did not want her / could not keep her. Adopted dad might be OK but then again, look at how Marianne is....

Hilda - younger sister of a brother so she was likely ignored as a child, given the family already had an heir. her laziness has to come from somewhere and I suspect it’s neglect.

Lysithea - oh boy, well this is the horror story isn’t it. In a way, the whole thing that happened to her is sorta the fault of her family for helping out with Hrym’s revolt....and the consequences fell onto their kids. Although they were obviously against what happened, if they had stayed out of the whole Hrym thing, this would have never happened....also after this whole incident, they let their daughter, the only one left, be burdened with the task of trying to advance their low-standing house instead of comforting her...

Black Eagles

and here’s another edition of very shiity parents, BE edition! 

Edelgard - well, anyone who’s played 3H knows how shitty HER childhood was...so, i’ll just leave it at that...

Ferdinand - father is a creep, literally working with TWSITD and responsible for what happened to Edelgard. For having such a shit father, it’s a wonder Ferdinand is so normal.

Hubert - implied to have bee the person who assassinated his own father...so yeah, imagine how shitty he must have been

Caspar - overshadowed by his older brother and ignored by his family due to being not the eldest child...

Linhardt - not much is known about his family but looking at how lazy and unmotivated Linhardt himself is, they can’t have done a good job

Dorothea - orphan. to add to this, her mom was a maid and her dad a noble. he kicked them out when doro didn’t get a crest...and then HIT ON HER while she was a singer years later, unaware she was his kid....

Petra - father was killed and her grandfather is seemingly her only family. he seems to be okay.

Bernadetta - oh boy, do I even need to say here? tying her to a chair and forcing her to remain quiet and submissive for hours. beating to near death a boy she made friends with b/c he was a commoner. at least Bernie’s mom seemed to have a little sense and smuggled her out but this is only AFTER she allows this stuff to go on for years....

yeah, more shitty parents!

Church of Seiros

of couse, we gotta add more in!

Byleth - mother dies and father is killed in front of them, although Jeralt was a good dad.

Rhea - her issues with her mother are the root of a LOT of the problems here!

Jeritza - see mercedes under BL

Alois - an orphan. then taken in by jeralt since his face “looked like the dead squires”. also the whole ‘bar’ incident where jeralt threw a hatchet at him...

Catherine - exiled as a young girl due to PLOT. she was protected by the church but after how many years, neither has found her apparently...

Shamir - partner and likely her parents killed during the issues with Dagda...

Hannerman - parents neglected his sister for not having a crest

Seteth / Flayn - well, Seteth is the opposite of most of the parents as he’s not neglectful but rather overbearing due to the events from the past...which makes him not the best dad for Flayn (given his constant bothering and sheltering). But unlike most of the other parents on the list, Seteth is doing what he’s doing to PROTECT his child (unwilling to see her to come to harm), even if he’s going about it in the incorrect way.

so, apparently the unifying theme for almost all the characters in FE3H is dead/abusive/neglectful parents...yeah...

[alteredphoenix]

My Reach, Far and Wide (WoW)(WIP)(Role Swap AU; Druid!Illidan, DH!Malfurion, Warden!Tyrande)

A/N: I have been wanting to do fanfics that take place purely during the Classic era (as in, before TBC and WotLK), and though I’m halfway to level 60 on my main it seems to me that, so far, there’s very little that’s drawing my attention and warrants my interest to flesh something out. This might be a bad idea, what with me plodding along at the pace of a snail, so for that endeavor I may have to consult my Chronicles volumes for more info.

In the meantime, I’d been fishing for ideas on want to focus on today, this being my day off. This preview below is half the document that I’ve typed up so far: a fanfic that takes direct inspiration from skins that originate in Heroes of the Storm, featuring Warden!Tyrande, Druid!Illidan, and Malfurion as the Betrayer of Night Elves. Maiev is the High Priestess (although certainly not shipped with Illidan), and Kor’vas (not presented here) is Illidan’s adopted daughter (a foil to Shandris, a Watcher that is a swap of Naisha, whom is of the Sisterhood).

A reminder that, although Illidan’s motives to sabotage the Legion was eventually revealed, Malfurion’s Betrayer was available prior to it. The description dictates that in that universe he went mad from Sargeras’s whispers and thus abandoned Cenarius’s teachings to join the Legion, a move that came as a shock to the night elves. While I can definitely see this version of Malfurion becoming Sargeras’s jailor in the future, his aspirations would be a lot more selfish and much less altruistic - his partnership would serve as a convenience to slake his addiction to magic than out of any ounce of goodness in his heart: an iteration that is closer to Illidan’s pre-Legion personality and goals.

-

One thing they teach you among the Watchers is to never, under any circumstances unless you have someone accompanying you, close your eyes longer than is absolutely necessary. There were going to be times where you would go stretches without rest; you’re either on your feet or, if you’re Tyrande Whisperwind, standing on your feet and not moving the slightest centimeter from your post, to which your feet will scream for mercy as they ache with each heavy, trodden step is weighted on the ground or your legs will turn to jelly and shiver with the chill of needles lancing up and down muscles and ligaments as to become stone pincushions that can give out with little to no warning in its abruptness.

Sleep is human, but sleeping before it is called for denotes weakness. A potential for trouble. Elune have mercy on the souls of those unfortunate enough to close their eyes to the darkness that lurks behind the veil of reality and awaits them all in the inevitable future; for though the Burning Legion has been pushed out of Azeroth, their presence still remains. Life finds a way to survive the sundering of the world, but so too does evil—Sargeras’s vile servants remain, stalking the fractured land that came to be called Kalimdor, searching for ways to break through the night elves’ defenses and feast upon the Well nestled beneath Nordrassil’s eaves, glowing with magic and untold promises of power beyond a person’s wildest fancies. A road that would lead only to temptations, the Wardens would grumble.

Tyrande doesn’t close her eyes all the way. They lower, half-mast, a fraction of a blink. Yet it’s not the footsteps that startle her awake but the shadow stretching along the wall coming closer that does. She rises up, breath hissing out between clenched teeth that she hopes is low enough for the intruder not to hear, and bears the umbral crescent before her so fast the torchlight flashes across its serrated teeth.

“At ease, sister!” Astarii Starseeker cries, and when Tyrande’s eyes finish their blink they take in her fellow Watcher, hands upraised in placation. “It’s only me!”

Slowly, Tyrande relaxes and lowers her weapon. “You should know better than to sneak up on me.”

“My apologies. But the others said you had not come up from your post for your break. I went to go check on you.”

“I wasn’t sleeping.”

Astarii laughs and rubs the back of her neck, sheepish. “Ah. That’s good. That’s, uh, that’s good! I’d hate to have to bring Shan’do Illidan down here and find you dozing away. That,” she shifts from one foot to the other, deciding her words, “I don’t think you’d’ve liked that.”

Tyrande’s ears pin back, more over the thought of being caught unawares than the news that her Watcher brings. “The Shan’do? Again?”

“Yes. Again,” Astarii repeats patiently, and gestures behind her the way she’d come. “He waits at the entrance.”

Tyrande huffs a sigh, reattaches the crescent to its tackles on her belt beneath the long green cape, and turns away. “Send him down,” she calls, and doesn’t bother looking back when Astarii acknowledges her and goes up the tunnel to relay the message.

She senses him well before his shadow dwarfs her and it travels along the walls like a lonesome phantom of the War. Hard to, really; the Archdruid’s influence is vast, incalculable, filled with a life that encompasses every blade of grass, every speck of dust and dirt and speck of grain and sand, every leaf in every tree and every drop of water in every river and nook and stream and pond and lake in Mount Hyjal that when inhaled is fresh and green and free of the corruption that drove Azshara and her Highborne to heights of uncaring, vainglorious madness. When he finally catches up with her and matches her stride for stride, Tyrande is already halfway beneath the den.

Neither say a word, walking past silent Watchers that cease whatever activity they are doing—sharpening their blades, striking the target dummies, checking the wards—and incline their heads to their Warden, or bow low at the waist before they straighten and resume the task they left off. They take a sharp right and cross the wooden bridge that goes over the inlet that burbles beneath them and spills over the edge into a shallow pool below ringed with stalagmites. The torches flicker, through their high cheekbones into brief shadow; Tyrande sniffs, scenting juniper and earthroot, deep and damp as its namesake.

“I don’t know why you keep doing this,” Tyrande says as they round the corner that takes them down, down, into a gloom that not even the flames can wholly fend off. “People like him will never change.”

“He is still my brother,” Illidan says, voice flat.

“Not even family should be granted special treatment. You should have done away with him, for all our sake.”

“And what good would that have done? One traitor’s death will not eliminate the influence the Dark One has left on this world.” His frown is harsh, severe. It makes him look far older than he appears, like an oak tree that has weathered many storms. “There are others now. There will be more then.”

“Not if we have anything to say about it.”

“Do you really want to afford a civil war? Is this what you’re doing while I walk among my brethren in the Dream?”

Tyrande harrumphs, lips tipped up in a cruel, mirthless smile. “For all your talk of unity, Shan’do, you’re still the same, guileless boy with a soft heart that I grew up with in Lor’lathil so long ago. I suppose when I’ll next see you again you’ll expect me to hold hands with Broll Bearmantle.”

“A preferable alternative, next to that blowhard you call a friend.”

“Fandral has the right idea for our people. We need only concern ourselves. No other race in all of Azeroth can compare to the vigil we stand against the Burning Legion and any that may stand beside them. Ours is a strength that comes from within and the bounty nature offers us. To think they are capable otherwise is beyond their ken.”

“Even the Highborne?”

“You know it had to be done. Keeping them here would have given you your civil war, and then where would our people be? Nordrassil is not blessed, and Andrassil is broken. Although exiling them across the seas may prove to be a disaster in the making—did you know Dath’remar has founded a kingdom of his own and created a new Well? They changed, Illidan. They have turned their backs on Elune, preferring the warmth of the sun.”

“I am well aware of their metamorphosis and their monarchy. The Dream does not end in just Kalimdor.”

“I should hope not.”

“You worry too much. So long as they keep their nose clean, they can do whatever they wish to do that they could not in Ashenvale.”

“You hope too much. You really expect them to behave.”

“In the future we have built atop the ruins of our arrogance, hope is one of the few things I treasure above all else. I am grateful you know me so well.”

Tyrande snorts. “You should have killed them,” she snarls. “You should have killed him. Sparing them will bring us nothing but trouble.”

“You and Maiev both. I dread to think you are both twins, or two separate entities of a whole. That’s all she talks about.”

“Well, the Wardens are always accepting new applicants, should she ever change her mind.”

“There’s hardly a difference between you and the Sisterhood of Elune, all things considered.”

“And what about you and the Betrayer?”

A rustle of leaves, a creak of wood as Illidan turns his head. The radiance of golden eyes behind his blindfold--whether to shield everyone of their intensity or from the horrible gash Azzinoth gave him that almost rendered him blind eludes her—brightens the hallway, causing Tyrande to look askance lest she discover firsthand if she truly will lose her sight to it. “What about us?” he asks.

[fatal-blow]

why don’t elves last long as vampires? what happens? I’m also curious about the gory turning process if you’re willing to speak more on that. thanks for taking the time to read this!

I answered this when I reblogged from Kaypier, but I’mma expand on it a little bit here too!

So for context, vampires are the only magical creature to have existed before the Woods came out of the ocean, which in and of itself is highly unusual.  Unfortunately, the first vampire, Lexi, has been missing since the Woods emerged and the only person to know her, the second vampire Lucretia, won’t say anything about her, so not a lot’s known about this whole event

(Though rumour has it another vampire who worked closely with Lucretia, Ichiro Honda, may know about Lexi... :3c)

But regardless, people like the theorize that Lexi was an elven vampire, exiled from whatever world the Woods races came from when she was shacked with her unfortunate curse.  It would explain the elves’ vicious hatred for vampires in general--it’s a blemish on their history, and one that they would like to eliminate at all costs.

As a result, elves hunt down and kill any of their own that become vampires, and have an unerring ability to find them no matter how hard they try to hide.  Elven vampires that lived past their first couple years have either found sanctuary where the Shiiv can’t get to them, or have somehow manage to sever whatever magic allows the Shiiv to hunt them down.

Putting the turning process below the cut because it is, as described, gory and graphic

In order to be turned, the victim must be fedvampire blood from an artery (shallow cuts, or red blood, do not contain thevenom, only black blood does)

Immediately afterwards, the victim suffers frombouts of amnesia, flu-like symptoms, and a fever that grows progressively worse

At this point, most people will go home to tryto sleep it off

o  Within three to four hours, the fever makes thevictim unbearably hot

Victim often strips

Pain sets in as the insides begin to liquefy

Slurry of blood, flesh, and liquefied organsoozes from every orifice

Victim throws up to help rid body of unnecessarymaterials

All blood is thrown up

Six to seven hours later, pain begins to subsideas magic numbs victim

New organs form

Victim is paralyzed and vulnerable during thistime

Two to twelves later (depends on time of day,always just after sunset) hunger sets in

Any remaining pain and thought is forgotten asthe newborn is driven to feed

If they eat by morning and survive, they willregain conscious thought

If they don’t, they’ll probably burn up in the sunlight in their desperation to feed

For their first decade or so, hunger is constant, even when full

Note: Any scars received BEFORE turning willNOT heal

Lost an arm? It’s still gone post-turning

Same goes for scarring in general

And tagging the squad for this important info:

Tag list: @g-g-freak  @homesteadhorner  @thethew  @nilla-waffer @just--duran  @knight-clover  @furry-monster-trash  @corishadowfang  @absolutegibberish @loveisaplotdevice  @goldandsapphire  @apocryph0nic  @chaos-writing  @theamubrigade @vasilisapeadarsan  @theshadowofsorrow  @concealeddarkness13 @bowtomypointlesswords  @kaypier  If you want to be added or removed, let meknow!

[thousandeyesand-one]

Cersei Lannister with the wits & cunning of Tywin Lannister..

Recently I read an anti's perspective of this scene where cersei is very cunning with her fear mongering. Apparently cersei wasn't lying in this scene about daenerys, she wasn't inaccurate about who the Mad King's Daughter is & every last bit of info she dropped on her. So here's a breakdown of this scene & the amount of "truths & lies" it contains.

This statement coming from cersei is really something considering she has steered the War of the Five Kings which has destroyed the realm, wiped out several noble families & caused innocent lives the count of which is still unknown.

Open Rebellion which happened because of how cersei ended the future of a great house who were actually the crown's greatest ally. Olenna was playing a last move against cersei for justice for her family that is the only reason she allied with daenerys.

•House Tyrell aren't Targaryen Loyalists really! during the rebellion they sided with the Targaryens as long as they were the winning side as soon as Rhaegar died & Lannister's sacked KL they lifted the seige on Storm's end, similarly in the War of the Five Kings they sided with the Crown right after renly died. So, a family who has stayed Loyal to nobody but themselves in the past will have an easy case built against them by cersei. Their past isn't very convincing on their loyalties for Tyrell's bannermen to stay loyal to their Lord Paramount in a state where they side with a foreign army against the crown. Cersei isn't lying here but definitely hand picking selective facts to back her case up.

•Mindless unsullied soldiers or more correctly Loyal unsullied soldiers. When daenerys gave them their freedom back & the right to choose whether they fight for her or not & they chose to fight for her they stopped being mindless. When Kraznys Mo Nakloz shows daenerys the ranks of unsullied more than half of them were of dothraki stock, some from lys & Qarth. They seem to have no allegiance to anyone but their commander unlike the golden company consisting of sell swords from around the world & a number of exiled westerosi men whose only allegiance is to gold not any commander. They aren't mindless atleast not the unsullied with daenerys. But yeah I guess Unsullied in general have that reputation of being mechanical to consequences of war. Again cersei isn't lying here but these are hand picked facts she needed to back her case.

"Unsullied are brave soldiers ... But not warriors. Not knights"

                                                       -Ser Barristan Selmy

While the unsullied are helpless to their own nature to the way that they were created to be as soldiers not warriors or knights. Yet there are those like Ser Gregor Clegane, who was knighted for his sadistic brutality on Princess Elia & her children. Also known for being pretty brainless with his brutality of innocent & women, children & in burning of villages. Rmember the way Lannister men tortured people in harrenhal without question?! If the unsullied are mindless then so is the Lannister army, the Northern army & every other army who fights & follows their commander's orders as in that's what armies do. As of now in the show mountain is just as brainless as any foot soldier in the army of the dead. There is nothing that the Dothraki does that the Lannister men haven't done in a time of war. Dothraki way is the barbaric way, that's the only way they know unlike the Lannisters. So again, cersei hand picked the facts to back her case.

Also I love how they cut to Jaime when cersei says the following..

•Ned Stark's service & loyalty was also rewarded in a particular fashion of unfair brutality by cersei for the sake of her children. Olenna is doing the same in fact her motivations are the same that of cersei's. Cersei was protecting her family Olenna is avenging hers.

•Mad King is cersei's strongest champion in this discussion, she strengthened her own position by using mad king to exploit daenerys & her reputation before she builds one in the eyes of westerosi lords. Cersei knows as much about Aerys & Daenerys as much as the next person in that room. But Ser Barristan Selmy not only served Aerys but also had seen Rhaella, Rhaegar & Daenerys. Other than varys he might be the only person who saw the Last of House Targaryen pretty closely. He thought Daenerys was like Rhaegar who was widely believed to be nothing like the Mad King.

"Prince Viserys was only a boy, it would have been years before he was fit to rule, and ... forgive me, my queen, but you asked for truth ... even as a child, your brother Viserys oft seemed to be his father's son, in ways that Rhaegar never did."

                    -Ser Barristan Selmy ASOS (Daenerys IV)

"I think you are Rhaegar Targaryen's sister," Ser Jorah said with a rueful half smile.

"Aye," said Arstan Whitebeard, "and a Queen as well."

                                                     -ASOS (Daenerys IV)

While Jorah & Whitebeard knew daenerys that well to make that comparison of her to Rhaegar. Tyrion on the other hand knows both cersei & Daenerys well enough. He chose to serve daenerys over his own sister & did her bidding one on one to cersei. Neither does he want daenerys to launch a dynasty nor does he wants to see cersei win. He wants to build a new world with daenerys with the help of the power she holds because according to him, her mind & heart are ultimately in the right place when it comes to the overall picture!

"Cersei is as gentle as King Maegor, as selfless as Aegon the Unworthy, as wise as Mad Aerys. She never forgets a slight, real or imagined. She takes caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance. And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honor, for love."

                                                -Tyrion Lannister ADWD

Tyrion never refers daenerys in anyway ever as unworthy, mad or cruel, ever! Neither in the books nor on the show. All he says is "Daenerys is not her father" Cersei is wrong with her comparison of mad king & daenerys.

•I agree daenerys has made mistakes in the past, done things that when given a second thought to, come of as cruel. But to remember the fact that she was brought up on the road in exile with an abusive Half-mad brother, whose decent into madness she saw & lived with. Both Jon & Daenerys are Targaryens, both very similar people at the core of their personalities; Innocent & introvert, pure & kind the only reason why Jon is such a flawless beloved character is because he was raised by Ned Stark unlike daenerys who was raised by Viserys & his own twisted perspective of the world & people. Yes She crucified 163 masters of meereen, most of whom had a hand behind the crucifixion of little children at every mile on a post for 163 miles. All those children were brutally tortured so daenerys learns a so called lesson masters wanted to teach her. Maybe not all those masters were behind the said brutality but daenerys is a women in a hurry to establish power in meereen not to enjoy the fruits of power but for the betterment of the mereenese, the slaves & the children. Regardless of the consequences her intentions were never evil.

•About feeding the masters to her dragons. This doesn't happen in the books neither does Ser Barristan dies. So purely from a Show viewer perspective cersei humiliated Ser Barristan Selmy out of his servitude in the Kingsguard, the sworn brotherhood like the Night's Watch whose oath frees one upon their death.

A little history on Selmy; he was sworn into the brotherhood of Kingsguard during the reign of Jaehaerys II who was weak but a fine king Selmy was happy to serve him yet he died quickly after which Aerys II ascended to the throne who wasn't mad initially but soon acquired the said madness & Selmy grew to respect his oath over the king he serves. He fought for Rhaegar at the trident because he believed he would be a better king than his father unfortunately he died too. Leaving Selmy in a clutch of his oath & honor, upon being pardoned by Robert Baratheon he decided to serve him because he was a great knight but even he turned out to be a Bad King. Let's not even talk about Joffery! After being free of the oath that bound him to the Crown he went looking for someone he would follow & serve out of sheer will. Ser Barristan Selmy made daenerys feel closer to her family than Viserys ever could in all the time that she was with him. On the show Selmy dies fighting the harpies in a betrayal, for daenerys this was her losing her family all over again. Arya fed Frey's sons to Walder Frey only on the show by far, sansa fed ramsay to his hounds again only on the show by far & Daenerys fed the men whose betrayal costed her Selmy after finding about jorah's betrayal.

In all honesty she only fed one man to her dragons with an intention to terrify the others into divulging the truth. Yet again cersei hand picked the facts to back her case up.

sure.

A Solution? More like an attempt & a failed one at that!

Cersei is outright lying here, playing with incomplete selective truths. Neither did she depict the past accurately nor the future. Hypocrisy is written all over this scene, This is fear mongering 101.

[estrellaxpolar-blog]

Marth finally gets a meta

The best lord needs to break into this brand new blog 👀

I’ve been holding onto this draft for a looooooong long time, and out of laziness or nervousness of the acceptance of some of my headcanons, I didn’t finish.

But then I remembered characters flow so much better when I can interpret them the way I want (*cough* Ephraim) so without further ado...

(Keep in mind a lot, and I mean, a LOT of these are headcanons of mine over the years. I know I’m not stating facts from the games, anime, or manga themselves. They will, however, be the default for how Marth is interpreted on this blog)

Enjoy this mess, I never format these professionally.

His social anxiety and insecurity

How can we not start out with this? It was one of the most obvious things for me about his personality from the start; that his insecurity with himself went past just being humble, going as far as to deny his own skills and accomplishments. He says things like this plenty of times in Fire Emblem Heroes alone.

“I have come to see my own powerlessness. As but one, I cannot accomplish anything.”

“I found victory only because I had first found so many allies who shared my new sense of justice.”

“I can accomplish nothing on my own. It’s thanks to my friends I’ve come as far as I have.”

He doesn’t feel strong at all, I’d even like to think he’d avoid using the Falchion itself at first just because he feels he isn’t worthy. He’s not at all the same kind of person his father was.

Aside of having low self esteem, he also lives with the idea that one mistake could cost a lot. Hell, he even blames himself for the deaths of his friends, feeling that if he’d done more, that alone would have changed the fates.

“If I’m not dependable, everyone else will suffer for it.”

For someone that thinks so little of their own strength, it’s a bit hypocritical to pin all of his bad accomplishments on himself alone. It punched me in the gut when I thought about it more, but he does not like himself.

Marth disliked his father

One of the reasons he thinks so little of himself is because it’s all he’s heard of his father growing up. (PATHETIC WEAKLING) King Cornelius wanted his only son to be the kind of King he was, and went out of his way to try and mold Marth into his ideals. It very obviously didn’t work, and for a multitude of reasons that will be covered throughout this whole meta.

For starters, Marth knew from a very young age that Cornelius wasn’t the best example of a man. Marth and Elice’s mother was the Queen and his first wife, but Cornelius likely had many concubines as well, something common among Kings who prided themselves in their sheer strength and power. This raised even more tension growing up, watching the mothers of Marth’s half siblings pitting their children against each other, a lot like the how siblings in the Fates games were. Marth didn’t look up to his father from the very beginning because of this, and when worse examples followed, Marth frowned at the very idea of being a King someday. He was taught that they needed to kill, to come out on top and show no mercy or weakness.

Unfortunately, mercy and gentleness were something Marth had a lot of. Cornelius tried to break him out of it, but Marth didn’t even like to fake brutishness to get out from under the harsh thumb of his father. He wasn’t the kind of boy King Cornelius wanted him to be in the slightest, and Marth knew he wasn’t a boy at all.

Marth wants to transition

Marth’s self esteem hangs on a loose thread because he is dysphoric. And because he was the only son of a strict King, he had no freedom at all to be the woman he feels and sees he is.

His sister thankfully noticed this in him at a young age. She didn’t understand it completely, but she would sneak him in to little tea parties when they were small and let him wear her doll dresses. Marth looks up to his sister more than anyone else he’s known, guiltily admitting he’d rather be her. He grew so fond of wearing her crown even after she was rescued, and he was glad she let him keep it. It was subtle, but it at least let him feel a bit prettier.

None of them dared tell their father while he was still alive, yet even after he died and Marth assumed the throne of Altea, he still remained closeted, thinking that his transition would be selfish. He convinces himself he’s just being crazy, and the older he gets, the more he has to bury the idea of his true identity.

He’s not innocent to the core

Despite everything that he feels he lacks, he’s not weak willed in the slightest.

After his home country was taken and he was the sole survivor from defeat or capture in his family, he was furious. He wanted to take revenge for his country, abandoning some of his ideals to train vigorously even when that meant he would bulk up a little despite wanting to keep his slender figure.

“I, too, have seen losses, so I can empathize. After fleeing to safety, I swore to restore my homeland with the help of my comrades. It was Nyna who entrusted me with the Fire Emblem…and it strengthened my resolve to fight on. I no longer fought for vengeance… I fought for the people.”

It doesn’t last long, but after all of those years in exile, growing up around soldiers, he picked up a bit of dirty humor. Imagine getting “the talk” from the biggest block head in the military. Ceada was in the same boat (I like to thing growing up dirt mouthing with soldiers is why she’s so unfazed in this Niles support) and the two would constantly joke whenever they weren’t under the watchful eyes of nobles. Marth is later like this with his close friends, like Merric or Kris, as surprising as it is considering usually his calm and delicate way of speaking.

Marth’s noble actions and words are more or less a front, covering up a child that never got to be a child. He’s playful, albeit awkward around new faces, and doesn’t see himself growing out of that anytime soon. He never got to be a child when he was growing up, save for those few precious moments with his sister Elice, and enjoys spending quality time being an absolute dipshit any time he can to this day.

Marth is a fucking yandere

Not to say he’s the level of insane that Tharja is, or a stalker to a love interest, but he can lose his mind when someone he cares about is in danger.

He’s very critical of the lives of those close to him, as evidenced in some more heroes quotes:

“I cannot allow a single one of my friends to die. Together, you and I, with everyone else, will win this war.”

“I don’t want anyone to die. Surely you feel the same way.”

“As a friend, you are irreplaceable. I will protect you”

His sister also stresses to the Avatar in fe14 that Marth can’t let go of the deaths that occurred in the war of shadows, and knows he will do the same in the upcoming wars. She berates this kind of behavior, admitting he will always be childlike in his values because he believes he could save everyone.

And if you all know me, you know I’m going to take this hot piece of info and run with it.

Going back in time and raising the dead aren’t things that he’d say no to when I came to reviving loved ones. And we know how “well” that can turn out in fire emblem........

Without proper help and support, he could go batshit insane with the torment a friend in danger could bring.

Marth’s half siblings

Speaking of going insane with the death of loved ones, I’ve pictured the stakes being higher when Altea was taken. His entire family aside of Elice was killed, and that includes his half siblings.

While he had a distaste in the idea concubines, it doesn’t mean he didn’t grow fond of a few, espera their kids around his age. They were still family to him, save for the ones with power hungry mothers who would rather see he and Elice dead in order to give their kids a chance to the throne.

None ever dared plot an assasination on the King’s heavily monitored legitament children, but there were incidences between the ones of concubines that were highly favored. This would shake both Marth’s and Elice’s peace while growing up, breaking them inside entirely when they were all picked off during the siege of Altea.

[ts-autumns-world]

Episode 4: “Tua supremacy babey” - Lily O

I GET TO REUNITE WITH JINX YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

me waking up to see that im in the new tribe: https://media.tenor.com/images/93212119a4887f9fa0ad945c7ae2a5d0/tenor.gif

tbh i expected the swap since like we have 14 rn so its a reasonable number to do a swap before the merge.. but like this swap sucks not only me being the only one from og eener but its also me having to be with these 4 whites ppl. you know i don't trust white ppl except mikki SDFSDFSDFSDF so this absolutely SUCKS. and geekoffilm is on another tribe too.

URGH i hope i can team up with jinx and jude. and joey and i used to play together in CoW so hopefully, i am able to make him want to work with me again.. but monty... monty is very skeptical cause like they could just vote me off now. BUT THEN, i know that either jinx or raffy has the idol for sure, so maybe i need to ask jinx for that. or i just ask the person who i'll be up against with in the tic tac toe to throw a challenge if they are the og eener too. 

much to think about bestie booth. i wanna trust these ppl so bad but i have trust issues

https://youtu.be/JrXnnD5KU0I

---

naur this is the plan if we go to council

imma be like joey

you are the only cis white man on the team

you have to go. 

you wanna be an ally?

THIS IS HOW!!!

so im pushing for u FEWEJFEEFJEFEIFEFIJW 

heS ALWAYS SAYING HE WANTS TO BE A BETTER ALLY

ALWAYS CALLING ME LIKE JINX IM SO SORRY

ILL BE LIKE FOR WHAT?? 

HE'S LIKE FOR BEING A WHITE CIS STRAIGHT MAN. 

IF UR REALLY SORRY ULL LEAVE!

I have to start this out by saying Giraffez, I’m so sorry! I tried my best but too many people wanted to keep us comp strong and wanted Lily O to stay. I really wish we would have had the chance to play longer together but sometimes it’s just not in the cards.

As far as swap goes, I’m really happy about my team. We have a majority from my original group which is pretty wild. I wish Chips was here and I really hope he makes it work somehow but I’m ngl I’m a little worried about him.

I was so so thrilled to see Jinx on Tua with me. I also have started talking with Captain and Jude. They both seem super nice so as always I’m hoping to avoid tribal once again.

I’d like to the think that original Llih (was that how you spelled it?) will stay together but Giraffez told me that Lily O told her that she was voting for me. Now obviously we all voted Giraffez but I think Lily O knows I was plotting. So. I hope we can stick together. But. Yeah. Your girl is worried. And excited. She is excited cause this group seems cool. But nervous because yeah I’m not ready for another vote out. Mkay. Bye.

This swap went pretty well for me all things considered. I still have a bunch of people from my OG Tribe, and the new people seem active and really nice! So, I like my tribe. Blake offered to me today to work together closely in the game which I am down for. The semi-inactive people need to stick together and all that lmao. Other than that, I am straight Vibing

Swap time! honestly its time to kick it into high gear and win this immunity challenge! make some real allies!

HELLO AUTUMNS WORLD!!!!!! So I have arrived in a swapped team with 3 of my old members! SOOO happy Mikki is here firstly since we can discuss basically anything. Blake and Raffy im also cool with but not like as close with them. Maybe a bit more with Blake. Of the new people my fav is Chris !! Already liking our chats and hope it can turn more strategic later maybe!! Ricky is also cool and funny and chips I was allies with him in Kili which is cool but probably the weakest connection of the new people so far!! It looks like we are gonna lose and if so its kinda hard like on one hand we have easy majority to vote off idk probably chips or maybe ricky or we could go against tribal linesI think Blake truly does wanna work with me tho but is just busy. Like going against tribal lines is kinda fun but maybe dumb. And chips being the 1 in a 4-2-1 swap sucks too!! Idk kind of evaluating the vibe with Mikki and will see what we think later if we lose… we would probs be safe regardless being protected by tribal lines on one side and having developed sorta good vibes with Chris and Ricky from the other side so probs wouldn’t be targeted from that angle either?? Hopefully… I did have kind of a delayed start with the new people cuz of irl stuff but yah we will see!

My opinion on swap was initially sad because I was missing out on Jinx/Jude/Joey/Captain BUT then I realize I like this tribe?? Im with Ricky still, Mikki probably is sitting at the cookout as we spesk, Chips is lowkey goody but I got my eye on him, Benj and I bond over Agatha Christie <3, Blake I knew from TDI so we have been goofin like a Goofy movie, Raffy I actually enjoy that we chat of the most mundane things, and that's everybody! I think I have a chance to survive on this tribe

---

My thoughts are that I've got Ricky and Mikki at minimum. I know Mikki/Raffy got beef but I doubt they go for each other. Chips is like a level-headed Joey but I reckon one of him/Blake/Benj will be targeted if I had to guess. Nevertheless me and Captain talked during our matchup and exchanged info. My hope is me or Ricky are in Outhouse but I also hope not so we have higher odds to keep the goodies all goodie and safe

https://voca.ro/18WSqZznajDx

---

I LOVE JUDE

so idk where my last confessional left off but i think it was before tribal. so after tribal, jinx’s manifestations came true, we swapped, i ended up on a tribe with no one i knew except chris, so that was kind of…nnng. but hey, gotta roll with the punches. me and jinx were paired up for the challenge which game me a bit of time to talk with them, and they gave me some insight on ppl i didn’t really know on my tribe, and also they gave me a tarot reading, and it basically said that while i’m probably gonna have to deal with some bullshit, i just have to use everything i’ve learned to get over any obstacles, and stay calm and collected through it all. i’m really really praying for this one, since we just lost immunity, and now chris is going to the outhouse, i’m afraid that i’m truly all alone now. and if there’s one thing that scares me it’s being alone. i really like mikki tho, and i heard benj was good ppl. maybe if i let them know that raffy might have the half idol then maybe they’d be more inclined to work with me, but i also really enjoy raffy’s presence, so i don’t really want him to be a target. blake and i have had a good amount of dialogue so i’m hoping that he’d be willing to work with me, to be honest. ughhhhh why why why tribal. WHY TRIBAL. in all my years of playing tumble survivor i’ve never been sent to like…and exile or redemption island ONCE. not once….ever…. please god let me get to the outhouse just one time.

First of all, lemme just say I'm so amused by how quickly my chances of no-votes went RIGHT out the door. But also thank god that it went off without a hitch! And right before a swap, no less New tribe is definitely iconic. LOVE Jinx, Captain and Jude are cool too, and then my Llih buddies are also v nice to have (shoutouts monty and joey)

Tua supremacy babey

https://youtu.be/oP7DWOnmt40

https://youtu.be/Z3_pyWTdRh8

https://youtu.be/UFshPYJ98z0

hello confessional booth... i'm here to give you um. something i hope!!!! 

well since the swap, i feel like i've managed to fit in better than i expected cause ive been feeling under the weather and i don't rlly have energy to talk to anyone (which is so great that our tribe won this IC) but i rlly need to work on that more for sure..

joey wants to work with me.. like a lot. we worked together for a bit in CoW before he was voted out and he was a great ally to me back then so i think i can trust joey a little bit? and he rlly wants the pocs to go far so i think this is a good sign.

with jinx, we've been wanting to talk about the outhouse thing but jinx wants to call and i've been feeling sick so we haven't called but hopefully we can do that soon. i trust jinx a lot and i know they're gonna take care of me.

jude.. you know i like her since i saw her intro vid so yup gonna need to talk to her more!!!

lily c.. my fellow teacher pls SFSFSDFSD i enjoy our chat a lot like idt its much but every time we talk, with her, it just feels great and nice and like we just get to know each other so far so i hope we can talk game a bit more but we'll see

lily o.. we haven't talked since the day the swap happened. idk why. maybe she's busy or maybe i should dm her first so i think i'm gonna do that tmr my time if i have the energy.

and monty... PLEASE idk if i can trust monty or not. like he's a good friend of mine but my experience in orgs with them is that they tried to break the swp apart (which was smart but then mikki and i are both playing so gotta keep an eyes on them)

i'm just trying to feel good and hopefully recover soon cause i hate being sick. idk i'm scared of covid!!!!! but i haven't gone outside for a week or two methinks so we're gonna pray and see.

---

missing mikki and hope she will be fine

Blake suggested starting an OG Eneer alliance to Mikki and Benj. They took them up on the offer so I guess I am in my first alliance of the game based on arbitrary reasons. In any case, they seem to want to vote out Chips which is a RIP. But whatever keeps me safe for one more round.

I don’t have an obsession with the Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood sketch from SNL... No I clearly don’t... https://youtu.be/whfQf3Pd5bU

It’s my chronic overthinking in this swap that is going to do me in, I feel. It’s the pressure of having to actually think differently, and coming off of EVERYTHING I’ve seen in this community over the past 6 months, oh good Lord have mercy, I feel as though its so hard for me to want to not sacrifice my game, but at the same time... I feel all the pressure in the world to flip. I did have a lucid dream that if I got to a point where I consistently voted only white people at every Council, it would make my game look REALLY good by comparison, since I literally did everything I could, and no, I don’t want to hear anyone post season say this was rigged for Jinx, it’s not, we’re only going to go against each other down the road because of how this season has been set up, and it breaks my heart

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eSvSGkc4zmBfnYVP7

So here's some tea I suppose. I was a pretty big fan of the tribe swap because people talked more in general. This was particularly interesting considering their different timezones but continued ability to keep up conversation. It was pretty apparent that I was at a numbers deficit from my original tribe but my hope was that people didn't want to play like "that" and then if they did that my former tribe would throw it to keep the numbers. Apparently that is not true as Lily C went as hard as possible to win a challenge she could have convincingly thrown as an "accident" multiple times. At any rate, based on the total lack of communication with me concerning who I am voting it is evident that either the plan is to vote someone without telling me or that it is to vote me. This means that regardless of the situation I am in a terrible position and will be leaving sooner rather than later. I don't know that I've been swap screwed in the past (perhaps, I've been playing for too long) but it really stinks. 

For the TL;DR watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzftXB28gBE

 http://www.purplerockpodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/survivor-pearlislands-lillian-morris-no-sir.gif

As I'm writing this, I have a big gulp from... you guessed it... 7/11. I need to flip on one of the three of Monty, Lily O, and Lily C. My best option is going to vote for Lily O, I need Monty and Lily C to know I'm only doing this because yanno, things look awfully awful, and the pressure of making the right move and yet making sure I don't lose relationships is starting to get to me.

I also need them as shields because theyre the only winners in this game, and I need them here as shields for down the road heading into a merge.

I can't even believe I found TWOA IDOLS! I had to think a lot about who to give it too but I decided to do what felt like the smartest thing to do. Jinx and Captain already trust me and I enjoy Ricky but he gives semi chaotic energy. With that in mind, I had to give it to Jude as a sign of faith. Not only am I wanting her to do well, but I want to prove to her I legit want to work with her come merge 😊

https://youtu.be/vOn8Zsi0njA

https://youtu.be/UWTB-LYjbu0

for Chips: https://youtu.be/lSeDZdSEl4o

[regalclaw]

idk, just sum pics of mah babies

so um, yeah from top to bottom, along with role and some infos, not full bios tho, but even if its a hell load, its not enough. ITS NEVAR ENUF

1. Faren Hyte - name derived from a temperature for no reason and is my main, SS, DPS, Aurin, Exiles, Real name: Kuro Firesoul : 

Daughter to 2 of the matria’s escorts, in a village well-known for assassinations of evil-minded Aurin, their very purpose was to protect Arboria’s Queen at all costs. She was born with a strong affinity to fire, and with fire elemental trapped within her via tattoo seal, making her feared of by many since birth, but had a rather decent life on Arboria pre-Ravaging nonetheless. Her mother died when she was born, so she only had her father and 4 brothers to grow up with, explaining her mostly tomboyish personality.

Constant self harm, added with the risk of releasing the fire elemental sealed within, resulted in her not being able to carry out or partake in any assassination missions her village had. She is the only survivor of her village community after the events of the Ravaging, despite the fact that they evacuated after initial bombings in their area, and taking shelter in an already destroyed village, they still got fire-bombed overnight, and her immunity to severe fire damage made it so that she was the only one left. 

more random info: For anyone who has already seen some Faren art, u may have noticed her chest scar on occasion. She got that during a dominion patrol encounter in her area after the fire-bombing incident. Yeah, she got into a fight and let the fire elemental possess her temporarily despite how much she loathed at the idea, blah blah blah, and her mostly coming out of the fight unscathed. But at the last part of the fight one of them dommies picked up and used a power rifle at Faren at point blank range, blowing her chest cavity open. It leaked lava and blood, but it didn't kill her bcuz she was still possessed. After she wiped the whole patrol, she regained control of herself but fell unconscious in the process as she bled out. At that point she would’ve died, but luckily for her, an Exile patrol hovered by and rescued her, providing medical care immediately. also her blood composition confuses doctors bcuz it wasn't exactly like aurin blood, mostly because it was very hot to the touch. Its literally lava-hot if Faren’s angry af so its like a last resort defence mechanism? ;O

2. Reyga Dragonclaw - name derived from my most common username (which is RegalClaw), Stalker, DPS mostly (has never tanked with her), Draken, Dominion (?): 

Daughter of a clanlord, she was one of the most skilled warriors of her generation, but sadly for her kind, she is with a flaw; she refuses to kill her duel opponents. It was something her father couldn't tolerate, and after pitting Reyga in a duel to the death with her best friend (both of them being the most skilled amongst their ranks) and despite her winning the fight, she refused to kill him, because aside from being best friends since birth, she couldn’t bring herself to kill her battle comrade. Her father thinks of Reyga as a disgrace to their name, and despite her overwhelming combat abilities, refuses to have her as the next ruler of their clan. And so he sent her away with the other Dominion forces to Nexus, because 1) he couldn't stand such “tainted” behavior, and 2) her style would prove useful for the ICI, despite her protests against it. Her rebellious personality was stemmed from this relationship with her father.

other info: Reyga is responsible for the huge scar across Faren’s shoulder. And as you’d expect, they picked a fight with each other. Reyga couldn’t bring herself to kill Faren, but she didnt want to turn her in to the ICI bcuz she felt that Faren was “a truly worthy opponent” and that there was no point in interrogating her anyway, so she spared her. That didn't help the fact that Faren nearly bleed to death due to the extent of the injury (it wasn't a crippling injury, but it did cut an artery or two, so yeah, lots of bleeding).

3. Luna Tikkels - name derived from the words lunatic and tickles, Esper, DPS mostly but is a capable healer, Chua, Dominion: 

Born to a Chua family living in whats left of the rural areas of Bezgelor. Unlike other Chua, Luna Tikkels, like his family members, has this weird sense of value for life, and claims that new knowledge can only be learned whilst alive, and that dying for science is but a big joke, because you yourself cannot improve your own theories and inventions if you die because of it. His family motto is “Learn to Live, and Live to Learn”. Was sent to Nexus along with other Chua, as a group of skilled healers designated to a warzone and whose roles were to provide medical assistance to the troops there. Is friendly with people, and strangely enough, with Exiles as well, making him seem as a traitor in the eyes of the Dominion. He is also quite artistic for a Chua.

Mini lore (?):  During his first few days on Nexus, Luna was sent on a solo patrol on Ellevar and was to provide his medical services to anyone in need that he comes across, and to report of any suspicious activity. And during said patrol, he encountered a badly injured aurin, and despite how much this Aurin hated Luna and his kind, Luna treated his wounds, watched over him as he rested, and provided him a simple meal of campfire-cooked gribbon meat. Apparently this act of compassion confused the aurin, in which Luna was able to clarify that his purpose was not because he was a healer, but because living was the only way to learn from your mistakes, and told the aurin that his mistake was going to Ellevar and nearly dying for it, so he made him live so that he won’tend up there again like how he was first found. When the aurin questioned as to why not kill him instead, Luna replied that killing wasn’t his way of learning things, and that he was “just following the EXACT orders Luna was told”.

regarding the one drawing of Luna, u may ask “why the psycho face?” Well, he is a chua after all, and despite his way of livin’, his inner self just demands extreme violence, if not science, when in combat. its natural for him ;O

4. ARP Kongou - name derived from, what is literally, ARP Kongou (in other words, Arpeggio Kongou, from a boats anime), Warrior, DPS/Tank (was the first one who i felt that tanking was ez af), Mechari, Dominion:

A Millenial Mechari. Not much is known about her, even by her superiors, fellow soldiers, and to a certain extent, other Millenials. Long ago, after the Cassian Civil War, Kongou and her fleet attempted to make a peace treaty with the Exiles before things got worse between them and the Dominion, but as they were about to do so, massive amounts of reinforcements arrived on the scene, resulting in an unprovoked battle that devastated a majority of Kongou’s fleet and some of the Exiles’. When her whereabouts couldn't be found, the Dominion forces left that area in space, but little did they know that she survived. 

For centuries, Kongou’s broken body was floating adrift the cold, dark emptiness, detecting no other life for years, and was all alone with only the stars to keep her company. She’d just fall into a deep sleep, as she tried her best to reserve whatever energy she had left. But as she slept, she’d have these dreams. Dreams that told her of what the Dominion were doing, of the pasts of people who weren’t even born yet, of history that has yet to come to pass. And after many long years of sleep, she was finally found by a cargo vessel, apparently lead by an ekose and his crew. They weren’t sure if she was technically “alive” at that point, but they believe if anything, the Dominion may want her back. Upon their landing to Cassus, the daring ekose captain personally informed Axis Pheydra of what they found, believing that Kongou must be of great value of the Dominion, and that her overall appearance, despite being worn out dents and the space weathering of her body, apparently shows that she is a Millenial. The ICI took her in immediately and gave the crew their pay (no one died, don’t worry). And as much as the ICI needed information, they also need her services, for she was a very reliable fighter and was a great leader. So they took her to the Foundry and created a new body for her. And then... (lots of bio later)... Nexus. 

infos: She is apparently named after a character in some anime boats, the Arpeggio of Blue Steel one ;O Despite her nature as a mechari, she has learned a lot from her dreams, so she’s quite sociable, and with a wide range of emotion to boot. but also as a mechari, she’s strong, intelligent af and shows great leadership skills. And like how she tried before, she still strives for peace between the 2 factions, but now she does it alone and in her own way. Don’t ask how, but she IS workin’ on it ;O

5. Sel Siyus - Esper, DPS atm but is meant to be a dedicated Healer, Aurin, Exiles, Real Name: Kori Aquasoul : 

Daughter to 2 messengers of a distant tribe, Sel grew up in a small community located by a mountainside lake. When the messengers decided to settle down in that village, they were welcomed with open arms, and with hospitality... but little did they know of the reasons behind it. 

As it turns out, the villagers worshiped the elements of water. Long ago, there was a great drought and many died of thirst. But one day a newborn child amongst them was “blessed” with water affinity and had a water elemental within them, and when it was able to be tamed, they used it for the land and the drought was no more. Because of this, they believe it is the reason why they’re still alive to that day. Over the years, her parents grew suspicious of the locals, especially their dedicated group of worshipers and its leader, and the village matria (her appearance is scarred and somewhat crippled), but they didn't question them for they feared of what may happen to their daughter if they asked. 

Sel’s early years were like any other aurins’. Except she’d recieve lots of praise. And as Sel was about to become 13 years old, the aurin locals sent gifts and praises to her like no other, to the point that it ended up like worship. They told Sel that the entire village, lead by the worshipers’ leader, will throw out a special birthday “ceremony” for her. This greatly confused Sel, and soon enough, her parents finally figured out why their suspicions where right.

On the night before the ceremony, the matria was able to sneak into Sel’s house. When her parents found out, they were about to attack the matria, but she was able to persuade them not to do so, and that she was only there to help. And then they learned from her about why the villagers were doing this; they believe that Sel is the next vessel for the water elemental, which is sealed within the matria, and that the “ceremony” turns out to be a ritual in which they will transfer the elemental from the matria to Sel, ultimately killing the the previous vessel and making Sel the next one in the process. She also told the family that this tradition has been going on for so many years to the point the elemental drives its vessels insane over time; the ritual was an unnatural process as it denied the elemental its freedom and its choice as to whether or not it wants to possess another newborn aurin after its host’s death.

The matria also told them that if they wanted a good life for Sel, they should leave now. But it was too late as it didn’t take long before some of the locals found out, and the worshipers had no choice but to enact the ceremony. When her parents tried to deny them of taking Sel, the worshipers killed the two and went on with the ceremony... (INSERT MOAR FKIN LORE HERE IM SO SORRY), Nexus.

infoez: Sel’s lore seems the easiest to explain imo, but also annoyingly long. I have mentioned some of her lore in previous drawing of her’s, so if u want to read sum, go check it out. and yes, those other lore tidbits will SOMEWHAT explain why Sel’s back is striped af with scars and why she has those ruined patches of skin around her neck, arms, wrists, and legs ;O DID I ALSO MENTION THAT HER LORE WAS L O N G 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sry not sry for long post plz forgives

[survivorkomnata]

Episode #5: "my wig is scalped. i am ascending, friends." - Jake

Just realised I forgot to confess about my winner pick yet. I have predicted correctly both the the times I have done this. Looks like this is the only thing I am good at in ORG's so why not keep the trend going. With that said, my winner pick for this season is Zac...wait nooo. I said I am done with playing nice. Gotta give myself a chance , so my winner pick is Karthik. GG

Okay so the swap continues to be great! Basically my relationship with Zach has improved a lot so hopefully he is down to work with me! And it would depend on what he wants if they wanna eliminate Jake or not, I personally don’t care lmao but I think that maybe keeping Jake might help me to have options with the original Kato aswell (who Idc about but as I said I can’t close that door) but anyways I really don’t wanna have to decide yet so I wanna win this challenge more than anything right now.

We going full crackhead

not much has changed. we are immune again, and so i'm final 12 (which is the common # for merge, but i anticipate otherwise this game). it's exciting because my main goal right now, bar winning/jury, is just single digits, and i think that's achievable.

on my current tribe, i think i trust karthik the most. i speak to him daily & we have fun conversations, and he likes to mock me which is really fun for me. tim i trust but we have been lacking conversation (though i believe that's due to inactivity opposed to us being weird). i already went through miguel & jake in my last confessional so i'm not going to regurgitate that. i love all 4 of these men so much.

i can't help but think i'm majorly fucking up with my physical side. i really carried in the puzzle immunity, which was a public immunity. this means that other tribes are going to notice me. on top of that, i was in a majority like i deadass could've lost and have been fine (afaik). i sent ally/liam to tribal in the minority (luckily they thrived) & i sent another og-takagi majority to tribal and i lost one. odd, but whatever. i'm just paranoid i think because my biggest thing is skewering others perceptions of me and i think i'm making it much harder by performing exceptional in most challenges.

i'm thriving tho. i lost my trail of thought but... king. love u all. i am talking to a friend about driving n life but there was something i wanted to fucking talk about im STRESESDDDDDD. idk. yeehaw.

oh i remembered - the exile decision. though this wasn't for the complete round, it was so stupid for tim to suggest 'jess' and 'stephen' or something. like???? sister???? either send alyssa so she lacks connection & they boot her or send someone else. idk. it made no sense to weaken the social game of one of our own, but maybe he's playing it odd. regardless, miguel and i spoke in pms about it and we were on the same page (and i made a mistake of saying ''hope they vote alyssa out'' or something similar, which isn't ever my game (to elaborate: i never directly say anything but rather insinuate because im ditzy n dmubb :p)). it was just annoying like maybe i'm overthinking it but ... bye.

im getting like 7th-10th i know it.

I’m ecstatic right now, my tribe won immunity and I have officially broken my Survivor ORG record. It’s also looking like an og Takagi is goi g home tonight which helps as going into merge I want as many og kato as possible. I’m a little wary of Stephen at this point but that’s the game of Survivor. Stephen is a strong player and while I like working with him, I think he needs to be voted out down the road because he is definitely a strong strategic player like me, maybe a stronger one. Right now I need to focus on getting back into the game as I definitely was limited for the past few challenges. It showed in this challenge as I helped my tribe win the challenge. The merge is coming soon and I’m hoping to make the merge and continue showing a new side of myself, like David did in Milennials vs Gen X. Doing this helped David excel in his game and it’s helping me excel in my season of Survivor. I’m pushing myself to see just how far I can go and see if maybe I can win this competition.

So glad we won, tribals are dumb. Would’ve liked to vote out Liam though. Still, can’t wait to be the only Stephen left in the game, Stephen Prime, Stephen Supreme.

It just feels like a repeat of my previous ORG where I make the merge without ever going to tribal council and get voted out soon after. I am not so sure if this is a good thing for me. Its getting a bit boring. I want to play the game, be part of strategy talks, organize a blindside. get blindsided etc etc. These are the fun parts of the game imo and I feel these are about to happen as I am expecting the merge soon.  Hope I do not flop like my last game and last for a longer while this time around. Zach seems to like Miguel and Miguel has been feeding a lot of info to Zach. Probably they know each other from the past or something but either way they appear to be close. Zach had been planting seeds in my mind, saying more than once that Miguel seems to be cool and loyal whereas Jake is sketchy. I personally seem to connect better with Jake and feel like he is a better person to work with for me personally. He is a strong competitor and even if he doesnt happen to be the loyal kind of player, he is more of a threat and its likely that he would be targeted later in the game which are the kind of players I need around whereas I find Miguel to be a less threatening player who could slip under the radar and steal your spot at the end. I believe there would have been a push for Jake to go if we had lost but glad that didn't happen coz I do not wish to create any waves yet and cannot afford to go against King Zach's words. Fun fact - Zach has added me in 4 alliances within the past 2 days but none of those are with people in the game :)

Daniel leaving at the last vote has been a big blow to my game, but it wasn't the worst-case scenario. With me and Jess still in I still have my most trusted ally on the tribe. I questioned Alyssa about having the idol since apparently I do that to all of my allies now, but she said she didn't have it. She brought up the possibility that there was only one Hallway idol available for everyone, and while I'm not sure I totally believe that explanation she did admit that she has reached 100.

We came up with a plan last night, where she convinces Isaac that the plan is to flip me and vote Jess out. Assuming Alyssa is loyal to the plan and Isaac buys it, I shouldn't be getting any votes tonight. I'll tell Jess everything when she gets back and hopefully this vote will be 3-1. But even if Alyssa is lying to me, there's a chance Jess might find something in the basement. And if she does, well.... I'll be trying to use it to "both" of our benefits ;)

So woahhhh that double tribal huh!! I did not see either vote out happening. TJ went out on a unanimous vote and Ratboi played an idol into a split vote!!! I wonder what TJ did or failed to do in order to get voted out. Did his enemies end up on the tribe with him? And what about Ratboi. When did he get an idol? Was this from Kato or the basement?? Who split the vote in the first place? I have many questions and not too many answers as of now.

Ok so here is what I concluded so far. TJ, Jake, Alyssa, and Stephen W (The Australian) are one side of the old Kato and the other side was Miguel, Fredrico, Isaac, and Luke.

TJ ended up with Luke in the swap but Stephen W on his side so I am confusion??? Ally and Liam were there as well so idk.

So we win the challenge and I am PUMPED. Our tribe managed to work together and draft some potential questions as well as help one another out during the challenge. I managed to get a score of 7 which is dope!! Oh and our tribe also finished in first place meaning we got to send someone from the losing tribe into the basement.

The losing tribe was Atila 2.0 which consisted of Jess, Alyssa, Isaac, and Stephen Z. Now I initially thought the person going into the basement was immune so I suggested Alyssa because I know that she is aligned with Jake and I wanted to try and work with them at merge potentially. However, once I discovered that the basementee would return I switched up and supported Jake in wanting to send Jess. This was great for me because Jess is my ally and I didnt immediately suggest her so that sheds some weight off my shoulders. But umm I was also kinda rude and I stiff armed Miguel from trying to send Isaac back there. I know that they are aligned so I could not allow that to happen. I made the decision for the tribe and @'d Anna to let her know that the tribe (Aka me....) had decided on Jess. Now this could hurt my game because this could make me seem like I am hard to work with or not willing to compromise but only Miguel would think so and he's one of my targets so lol.

Hopefully at Attila's tribal Isaac goes home and the merge happens so I can slay it.

What isn't going on? That is the real question...

Let's take it back to BEFORE Daniel's departure.

Prior to the vote ( literally 20 minutes before) I went on call with Alyssa and I can't tell if I'm just sipping Paranoid Bitch Juice™ or not.... BUT the first thing she asks me is if I have the idol. I was thrown off because.. 1) Why are you asking me this BEFORE A VOTE...AM I BEING VOTED OFF?. 2) Why do you have a SMILE on your face while asking me this. Anyways.. I've come to the conclusion that she may have an idol and isn't telling me because I want to kill her in this game. The purpose of this call was to warn her that I was actually voting out Isaac so she wouldn't be blindsided. I was trying to sugar coat it. Telling her I was conflicted and that Isaac may or may not have an idol but then the Google Hangouts link was sent and I didn't have enough time to tell her. After this Chaos and Daniel going I was hella shook. Alyssa seemed pissed at me and at that point I had no regrets. An idol was flushed and someone who would potentially come after me was gone. It was a major win/win situation for me personally. Then TJ going on the other tribe.. someone who potentially would have came for me... also: another freaking win.

THEN my night gets turned upside down and I'm summoned to the basement. I can't tell if the other tribe sent me there so I could find something and they LOVE ME or because they wanted to MURDER me in this game. It's still up in the air tbh. Being away from my tribe for a long period of time was scary. I'm kind of just hoping my relationship with both Stephen and Alyssa are solid and we can bo$$ this game up. However, am I afraid of Isaac possibly finding two idols in the basement? yes? do I want to be a paranoid bitch once again in a game? no? am I dying on the inside and thinking it could be me tonight? yes? am I going to drink wine before tribal? basically.

My game plan is simple. I'm going to be straight up with Alyssa and say I'm NOT doing Stephen. She either will vote out Stephen and we tie and we can go to rocks. 50/50 odds. Or she can keep Stephen. That's it. If an idol is played and I'm who they vote out.. I'll probably cry.

I refuse to even look ahead to after this tribal because I'm sort of extremely uncertain.

Fuck this week, man. I'm so glad that Ally and I went from a minority to a tie at the best, but I'm just not super confident in much right now. Hopefully we just keep winning.

hi i literally don’t have anything to say because nothing has changed since last round

i’m rly glad tj left i liked him but i liked everyone else more... and he VOTED me i’m glad daniel left in the tie on the other tribe cos we never spoke and i’m close to stephen z it’ll be interesting to see how their tribal goes this time with 2-2 tribal lines. i’m excited. i love jess and stephen so i’m rly hoping nothing happens to them that’s p much it. i got nothin. sry.

Sisters this might be the end of the road for me. I hope it’s not because I’m having a blast but this 2-2 fuckshit is annoying. If I go I have a successful idol play to my name and a few iconic one liners, see y’all in All-Stars. Rotten Luck.

Isaac is voted out in a 3-1 vote.