#claimh solais

[upwards-descent]

Tat number 3 babeyyyyy

[triumphantbass]

"Arae Aryrha!"

Crossed off a cosplay backlog item by painting my 3D printed Claimh Solais (a.k.a. Shiny Rod) for the Chariot DuNord Little Witch Academia cosplay I have.

Model by @dangerous-ladies , finishing myself.

[minty-the-magic-man]

AYYYYYYYYYYYY

AYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I GOT THE CLAIMH SOLAIS!!!!!

[beevean]

Favorite Castlevania moves/spells/weapons? :)

Crissaegrim my utter utter beloved <3

And the Claimh Solais! So cool! I love how the game trolls you by letting you cleave everything in half with it... until you reach the hardest boss in the game who is immune to Holy powers :P

And of course, the best weapons in CoD: the Dragon Killer and the gatling gun, because this game is what happens when you combine Berserk with Shadow the Hedgehog :P

Bonus points for the guitar, of course:

As for spells, well, I broke the entirety of Harmony of Dissonance with the Cross/Bolt combo, so :P

And Sypha's electric spell in C3 is legendary.

Moves, moves... of course dashing with Juste was some of the most fun I had with the game lol. Rotating the whip with Nathan was a surprising life-saver, and the super high jump in CoTM is such a nice reward for the worst level in the game :P

[aitaikuji]

Altina Orion from The Legend of Heroes series will be getting a new Nendoroid figurine from GOOD SMILE arts SHANGHAI which will include her Claimh Solais to be displayed with!

Release Date: November 2023 Pre-order: on Aitaikuji

[sinnohborn-trainer-evan]

Answering the Call of a Dark Destiny

Pixel Kat has once again made an epic pair-up piece for me in the form of a Castlevania/Pokémon cosplay mashup, and I am so happy with the way it looks!

In modern times, the world had known peace since the prophesied complete eradication of Dracula, and the sealing of his demonic castle within the eclipse in 1999, however that came with a cursed revelation to follow. Sometime in 2035, there would be another Total Solar Eclipse, and the door would open to Dracula's Castle once more as it searches for a new master to claim the throne and his dark powers. Unknowingly, a young student studying abroad in Japan would reawaken within the eclipsed castle, and with his wits, his partner, and the newfound ability to claim and wield the souls of demons he's slain, he searches his way to the top floor, so that he may both understand his role in the grand scheme, and finally escape this nightmare.

Evan is cosplayed as Soma Cruz from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (Though this specific interpretation of Soma is based on his Dawn of Sorrow design). In his hand he holds Claimh Solais, a holy sword that was tucked away in an easily overlooked hidden corner of the castle, its gleaming light singes all shadows that oppose the wielder.

Beside Evan is his beloved Absol (And my Pokémon Eternal X main), Lucifer, rocking his Mega Form, with Evan's left middle finger fitted with a keystone ring to match.

Absol represents the coming of disaster, the calm before the storm, and in this case, he is a symbol of which the time has come for the prophecy's next fulfillment, the emergence of a new dark lord, but together, Evan and Lucifer are fighting to defy that destiny, effectively capping or at least delaying the rise of a new potential threat to all life on Earth.

[hexes-and-headaches]

weaponmaster + the Claimh Solais (Soma's comically large, light-infused, magic sword)

"Well, it's not every day somebody just hands me a big, shiny slab of fuck-off to try and analyze."

She swung the comically large blade around a few times. Unsurprisingly it was very heavy, though its weight didn't impede Black that much.

"Yeah...seems like you could do some major damage with this thing." She idly remarked. "Kinda hurts my eyes to look at, though..."

[betwixt-aristocracy]

Day 9, Draculatober. It's my boy, Soma Cruz! The character that got me into the series, I absolutely adore this man. I had a lot of fun drawing the Claimh Solais :)

[reincarnight]

— mobile about + verses.

— basic information.

full name: soma cruz (来須 蒼真 kurusu sōma) title(s): reincarnation of count dracula

age: 18-20 (canon), 21+ (post-canon) birthday: 21 august 2017

gender: male (he/him) species: human

nationality: japanese occupation: high school student (aria of sorrow), university student

sexuality: hm (pending) marital status: single

current location: japan

close friends and allies: mina hakuba, yoko belnades, hammer, genya arikado and julius belmont.

— physical appearance.

height: 172 cm hair color: naturally white eye color: grey, appear almost silver

usual attire: a fur-lined, white trench coat with blue accents. black turtleneck. blue jeans and knee-high white boots. he isn't seen without mina's talisman post-dawn of sorrow.

— personality.

on the first impression, soma comes off as a serious individual. more often than not, he's blunt and doesn't beat around the bush. prior to aria of sorrow, he used to be less open and more difficult to approach.

he is friendly, loyal and deeply caring towards those closest to him; he's especially protective of his childhood friend, mina. he will be pissed if you hurt any of them.

while his friends and loved ones are his anchor, losing them might mean soma coming dangerously close to, if not completely, losing himself.

he's stubborn and set on doing what he believes is right. telling soma not to do something has a chance of him doing it anyway. in a similar way, he's adamant about not becoming the dark lord (or anything like his past self).

admittedly, he can be incredibly reckless and impulsive at times.

he has a strong sense of duty — and according to hammer, no sense of romance... which would be correct.

he's also shown to be a little naive (ie. taking graham jones at face value) and awkward at times. and maybe he's a little bit of a dork, but that side tends to show around friends.

he gets flustered when he's being teased about mina.

— abilities.

power of dominance. soma can gain dominance over the souls of monsters and demons he kills. basically, he can use their abilities as his own. it laid dormant until the solar eclipse of 2035.

yep, this power comes from him being dracula's reincarnation (soma's soul = dracula's soul/magical powers).

the souls he possesses can be divided into bullet souls, guardian souls, enchanted souls and ability souls, with the first two consuming his MP on use. he can only equip one bullet, guardian and enchanted soul at a time.

arms mastery. soma can wield a variety of weapons, such as swords, spears and maces. he has even wielded legendary weapons like balmung and claimh solais.

magic seals. used to counter demons that regenerate their lives through the portals of darkness. yoko belnades taught soma how to use them.

— miscellaneous notes.

following the original version of aria of sorrow, my version of soma was never an exchange student.

he has extended family living in europe; some of his family lineage can be even traced to romania.

he generally feels weird about wearing all black after aria of sorrow.

while rather uncommon, soma may experience flashes of (usually negative) emotions that aren't his own. or even more rarely, a fragment of his past self's memory resurfaces.

he has developed a habit of carrying a pocket knife on his person... just in case.

it's heavily implied that soma loses the souls he gained during dawn of sorrow. while i am cool with writing him that way in any post-canon verses, i also personally like the idea of him keeping them. therefore, that will be decided on a thread-by-thread basis.

— verses.

canon. self-explanatory, covers both games or anything that happens in-between the two.

post-canon. also a catch-all verse for any interactions in the modern world. soma is a student working on his degree; or maybe he has already graduated from university. but all things considered, he's living a pretty normal life... unless something decides to drag him back in.

pre-canon. everything leading up to the solar eclipse of 2035.

unawakened. follows the alternate ending of aria of sorrow, where soma is none the wiser to his identity as dracula's reincarnation. escaping the castle leaves him with a strange feeling... but hey, at least he now knows what to do if he ever finds himself there again.

bad ending. soma succumbs to the darkness within him and becomes the dark lord. this verse can take place during/after the bad ending of aria of sorrow or dawn of sorrow; i default to the latter as it's more of soma's choice in that instance.

time travel. for crossover interactions with other characters in the series; can work with non-castlevania characters as well. so, what do you do when you encounter a guy from the 21st century?

crossover. the default verse for any interactions that don't fit into other verses. soma is still from the 21st century japan & possesses the power of dominance. he's just confused about how he ended up here.

and anything else i can think of. i'm always down for aus/crossovers/whatever, so feel free to ask!

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Parallel Design

I was weirded out by a moment in Faeland's trailer - specifically around the 1:28 mark - where I was like,

"That's the fishman encounter in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow."

Creature design, their attacks, the space, the sewer aesthetic, everything.

Buuuuut...

Even with all that I wouldn't call it "plagiarism" or "stolen" or even "biting their style" because there's both a different narrative context and a different mechanical context.

I haven't played Faeland but I'm willing to bet it doesn't take place inside Dracula's castle as a young man tries to find a cure for his friend's malady and discovers he can absorb the souls of monsters. It looks much more like a Zelda title narratively, maybe even a bit of Dragon Quest. And mechanically you have a dodge roll. Which changes roughly everything about how you'd cope with having fishmen popping out of the water around you compared to the controls of Aria of Sorrow.

So there's the possibility it's just a momentary homage, but it seems more likely it's just a coincidence of natural design philosophy playing out the same way twice. Castlevania doesn't have a trademark on weird fishmen - the series itself openly appropriates names from other media, such as the bosses Dagon and Legion or the weapons Muramasa or Claimh Solais. And once you're including weird fishmen in your game, where would you naturally put them? They'd need to be in water to start. That gives us the options of a lakeside, a boat, a bridge, a riverside, a beach, or a sewer. That's about it. In certain stories, maybe a submarine or an aquarium or a sluice. Once you've picked a sewer setting for the encounter, it's natural to have a platform with drops falling into the water on both sides, if you're developing a platformer, to make the battle feel tense and constrained. And for visual interest and mechanical excitement you'll want them spitting water and clawing at the hero.

Those are all the decisions Aria of Sorrow made, but they won't automatically play out the same way in Faeland even though it seems to have very similar creature design on the surface. Faeland has backflips and dodge rolls, both of which sell it as a more react-and-counter style of combat than Aria of Sorrows' footsies and stun-lock based style. This completely alters how your hero would react to being surrounded by fishmen in a sewer.

[sterlingtonki]

Best infinity blade sword

BEST INFINITY BLADE SWORD PATCH

BEST INFINITY BLADE SWORD PLUS

The White Sword can be obtained before entering any dungeons, while the Magical Sword requires clearing at least half of the game. The first game has the White Sword, which is more powerful than the Wooden Sword obtained at the start of the game but less powerful than the Magical Sword.However, the Fire Sword is still preferable in most situations, as the Soul Reaver drains the players magic, and prevents them from casting any spells.

BEST INFINITY BLADE SWORD PATCH

However, it's not a patch on the game's Infinity +1 Sword, the Soul Reaver (which would later obtain Sword of Plot Advancement status in the sequels), which can one-hit kill bosses. It does high damage, being a Flaming Sword.

The Fire Sword in Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen.

There is also the Balmung if it isn't Hard Mode which only slightly less powerful than the Claimh Solais and is of the Darkness type meaning its effective against that one boss mentioned above.

The Claimh Solais is hardly more useful than Soma's bare fists against him.

Not to mention Death's Scythe is one of two weapons that annihilates That One Boss, Julius Belmont, who is neutral to dark and tremendously resistant to holy.

The Claimh Solais is Holy element, which nearly every enemy is weak to, has a faster swing, and has a more forgiving hitbox even if it doesn't reach quite as far. It has more raw attack power than the bonus sword "Claimh Solais" and has the greatest reach in the game, but it's Dark element, which a lot of enemies are resistant to, and its great reach is offset by being slow and unable to hit things at point-blank.

In Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, there is an enormously powerful weapon called Death's Scythe that can only be found about halfway through the game and only if one is playing Hard Mode.

Abusing a small glitch to double jump early (which normally comes just after Nation of Fools) can get you the Nebula (a homing whip), the most powerful whip that is obtained before Vampire Killer note For some reason various other whips better than it but worse than Vampire Killer can be obtained after you get Vampire Killer, a powerful weapon that will last until endgame unless you abuse a Good Bad Bug to buy the Holy Claymore early.

BEST INFINITY BLADE SWORD PLUS

Later on, the Vampire Killer itself takes on this role - it's not one of the game's several Infinity Plus One Swords and you don't have to go out of your way to get it (just beat That One Boss), but many players stick with it for its ease of use and handy elemental attributes. Its high power and speed will get you through a large part of the game. In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, you're almost sure to pick up a Long Spear on your first visit to the Nation of Fools (high Random Drop rate).

[upwards-descent]

I've got a tattoo consultation today and I'm so excited, I feel like having 3 tattoos is the minimum I need to be like "yeah I'm a tatts kinda guy" because that was the minimum for me to say I was a piercings guy until I had to take out my snake bites 😂😭

[arkymouse]

I was fighting off some depressed moods with a sword.

[beevean]

Sonic and the Black Knight, but instead of dinky little Calibur Sonic gets the motherfucking Crissaegrim from SOTN

Merlina would be dead in a few seconds. not even the forces of the underworld could keep up with that monster. rip

(and if Sonic had the Claimh Solais, the game would automatically start at the credits)

[felixexel]

Aria of Sorrow is one of my favorite games of all time.

I love everything about this game, the soundtrack, the enemies, the mechanics, everything. here's a fan art i made. it's some with my two favorite souls and the best weapon in the wame. THE CLAIMH SOLAIS!!!