#cleophée

[larebiscornue]

AYO??? Heavy season 4 spoilers discussion under the cut

Sooo that blogpost about eva's past mentioning her living as a kid with her mother, father and Cleophée, and then getting sent to train as a sadida bodyguard, with no indications of her and cleo not necessarily having a tough family life.. (and unrelated I think the dad? rode a dragodinde. Sorry I had no clue where to write this vital fact)

Are now effectively obsolete.

I wonder if the rest of blog stories (such as that about az having a lil adventure before even hatching, or getting the closest to a kind of a rough estimate of armand's age (afaik) as he was a teen when amalia was a young kid (also their mother's spirit watched over them thanks to the tree of life I think?. That was so sweet :'( ) are obsolete too.. I don't think they necessarily need to be.

I'm watching the toross episode, and while I am obviously sad the cra sisters had this sad background, part of me is kinda glad cause while happy, the little blog perfect family was a bit underwhelming when compared to.. everybody else's family quirks

It seems all guilde des murmurs members were family but not all were cras (or at least they were rare not bow using cras which would be neat) which does make sense worldbuilding-wise.

HOOO THE SADIDA KING BEING ONE OF THEIR MOST LOYAL CLIENTS THOUGH OGHHHH GASP. I thought he was fully "good" but this adds a new depth and moral greyness to the king, as many krosmoz esp royals do in the franchise which is an exciting addition! Now I'm not saying he's like. Secretly evil, but instead of an always good-presented king, it's heavily implied he hired assassins against his enemies. VERY frequently at that. We don't know if his enemies were truly evil but still this is quite a surprise and layer! IF AMALIA N ARMAND LEARN ABOUT THIS I WILL LOSE IT... Dunno if the queen was a part of this, she was more laissez-faire on royalty stuff. Not that means she was a BAD queen, as far as we know for now she was good and loved, but much as her daughter, she loved to sneak and go on adventures. Maybe the king stopped his merc-hiring thing time ago and repented about it, he changed his ways, but, yeah this adds more depth and a twist.

Did the king always plan having eva as a bodyguard for amalia since he might have guessed she had a great potential as per her kin does? I don't necessarily think so, again, not going on the EEEVIL KING REAL tirade. For now we have no proof. Eva seemed to regard the sheram sharm family well. I wanna think the reason why madagaskane chose the king wasn't fully out of his loyal client or king status, but because he supposed he could be caring.

Of course if you wanna go gritty you can imagine eva getting picked as a bodyguard was deliberate, that the slightly older, talented with the bow kid was a good helping hand for the king's youngest child. Armand probably had his own bodyguard(s). And this could help build loyalty to the princess but... Too cynical for me, really.

Wonder if, going by this though, cleo not getting picked was cause of her less standing talent compared to eva or her being more childish n clashing w amalia. Idk. That's my last addendum.

Also I'm sooo glad they explained why eva and cleo have always had this extraordinary bow talent even for a cra. Don't get me wrong I'm the biggest hater of "oh there was not any hard job only magical talent" situations, but, aside from talent not being equal amongst the sisters, I feel it's a question of hard work. We can see it imo in Evas training ethic with Flopin. She has always tried to teach him hardwork.

So, I believe Eva is quite talented, perhaps even quite talented for a regular guilde des murmurs relative's standards, but she for sure has and keeps quite working on her abilities too

[zluty-spendlik]

WAKFU REDESIGN AND REWRITE SERIES – PART 1

Evangelyne

Evangelyne used to be my favorite character growing up, which kind of sucks since she’s one of the flattest characters considering how much screentime she has.

Even when I was a little kid and watched this show I found it annoying how she was constantly drooled over by the guys and these days its pretty obvious she’s a very stereotypical not-like-the-other-girls girl, created solely to be Percedal’s (the literal incarnation of the expected target audience) love interest.

SHE EVEN HAS THE WHOLE „I let my hair down and now am so much prettier“ ARC HAPPEN FRICKING TWICE IN THE SPAN OF. WHAT- 5 EPISODES???

Evangelyne is a misogynistic character on so many levels, the only Eva-centric episodes we get are either ones she needs saving in (like Vampyro or the pirate one), or when she has a love arc with Percedal (the whole Rubilaxia shtick, or the tree of Life episode).

Honestly the only bearable scenes where she shows up are those where she interacts with Amalia and even those get twisted into weird sexist tropes: Evangelyne critisizing Amalia for buying too much clothes, or overall cringing at Amalia’s „too girly“ behaviour.

Even when they have a touching conversation after freeing Amalia’s father from the Tree of Life, Amalia immediatelly brings up Percedal and fails the Bechdel test.

I won’t even touch the Cleophée (or Cleome in english) trainwreck  the writers pulled in season 2 or the whole pregnant-damsel-in-distress thing she had going on in season 3- I didn’t watch season 3 and 4 mostly because I got so mad after the misogyny happening in the first episode and I didnt want to ruin my already fragile excitement over the series.

But don’t get me wrong – Even tho Wakfu has a lot of potential for growth, I still love the series dearly, and would love to give the characters justice. It is important to note that I am not a professional writer and Im mostly doing this for my own indulgence, so please feel free to throw constructive critisism towards me.

Character rewrite

We don’t know much about Evangelyne’s backstory, or rather her story before she meets Amalia – And in my head as a kid, I always assumed she was an orphaned kid basically living on the street with Cleophée, until someone (presumably Armand, since he has a long-term crush on her and Amalia hated her at first) took pity on her and took her to the palace (once I figure out Cleophées design Ill explain what happens with her).

Fast forward a couple years, Eva is officially Amalia’s bodyguard, yadayadayada.

Important thing is, that this shapes Evangelyne’s personality and self-perception –

I have divided my potential Eva Arc into 3.5 Categories:

Self-protection and perservation

Eva knows how dangerous the world can be (streets) and how serious her job is, but she’s only seventeen. She takes her job way too seriously, in the sense that she doesnt trust anybody they meet (which is especially shown when they meet the Tofu gang). She doesn’t want anyone but Amalia close and deep down, she’s scared of other people.

She is horrible at teamwork, which only frustrates her and everyone around her. She fails to see the affection Amalia has for her, because her entire self is just a bodyguard.

She doesn’t know who she is without that.

Depression

Dally’s sacrifce absolutely traumatizes Eva, both in the canon and my version. It doesnt need to be seen as romantic tho (we’ll get to that). On top of that AMALIA BRIEFLY DIES AND COMES BACK. Can you HEAR Evangelyne’s entire purpose crumbling down?

In her head, two people just died because of her.

Besides, Percedal sacrifices himself because he cares for her. Not as a „coworker“ or a teammate, but as a friend and Evangelyne cannot fathom that sort of service and relationship.

And even though she failed, her friends are there to support her.  Eva learns compassion.

Self-destruction

However, she now feels she has to „make up“ for her lack of compassion and her failings as a bodyguard. Long story short, she completely flips to the other extreme, basically throwing herself in any sort of danger to protect her friends  (hence when she hears Dally, she immediatelly goes to Rubilaxia). In the show this is less extreme but portrayed as her real and true personality: more reckless and adventureous – but i think the writers just wanted Eva to finally have something in common with Dally (which, btw, uncool), but I’d like this to be portrayed as a bad thing.

Eva fails to see that she’s hurting herself and fails to recognize herself as a person rather than basically a human shield. This arc climaxes in the Cleophée episode and Eva learns that compassion is not transactional, or something to be earned.

Her true self

Evangelyne's final form! We dont know much about Eva's hobbies other than her job and fighting skills, HOWEVER Dally mentions Eva taught him tracking at one point and tbh Evangelyne being a ranger or just studying nature fits her pretty well imo! She is also canonically artistic (as confirmed by the journal she keeps).

I take issue with Evangelyne always being seen as the “mom of the group”. Yes, she's smart and responsible and caring, but that's her job, she's an older sister, less of a mother figure and more of an equal to the others in the gang.

Design

In s1, Id like her to wear a lot of armour with chainmail directly on her skin (haha get it because trust issues), and with a mostly green colour palette, cause, Sadida kingdom yk.

In her s2 look, she throws away most of her armour and self perservation instincts and since her personality completely flips, so does her colour palette - red! The first aid kit is gone and she wears an ascot now (a torn bit from Dally's cape lol).

And finally, i made her a furry I gave her some gadget shoes from Cleophée, helping her move faster, I put some of the armour back and made her hair longer. Her colour palette now consists not only green, but also the "Yugo blue", which i plan on incorporating in everyone's final design :D

AND FINALLY, AN ART DUMP

[tetitous]

Yugo and queerness in Wakfu part 3

Part 1 Part 2

Yugo’s crush on Tristepin: You may not believe that one, and you would be wrong for not at least trying.

Based on Yugo’s feelings towards Amalia, you could infer a few traits that Yugo tends to be attracted to, and also the stuff that he can go over when he does crush on them.

I believe Yugo is attracted to people with heroic tendencies, with a noble, dedicated and adventurous spirit, because those are some of Amalia’s greatest qualities. I think he also likes people with a lot of ingenuity, people that he finds impressive, due to how genuine and effective this attempt to flirt back into her good graces was:

“Yes, I’m impressed by you Amalia.” with the light twinkling in his eyes and everything, at her finding a way for everyone to stay connected at a distance.

His attraction towards those traits tend to overcome his obvious distaste for some of Amalia’s more self-centered and sometimes egotistical habits (which I would argue is still better than Yugo’s self-centered and often self-sacrificial tendencies), though they are sometimes too much and become cause for tension.

You know who else embodies a lot of those traits? Tristepin.

Ingenuity aside (and even then, he has his moments), Tristepin is someone who aspires to be a hero, and as such does his best to embody these traits, though at the beginning it is mostly on a superficial level. Yugo is smart enough to know Pinpin is not quite all of those things at the time, but contrary to some other members of the team, it is still visible that Yugo does find him heroic. For example, he never call him a Iop brain, whereas every other member may have called him some degree of idiot.

Not only that but after his death and resurrection, Yugo develops a sort of unhealthy obsession with Tristepin’s safety (I won’t show you all examples of this, this file is already quite heavy, and it gets obvious if you watch the show). Would seem just fair, but it’s important to notice not even Eva is as worried about it as much as him. Adamai knows it’s one of his brother’s greatest fragility, that’s why he gratuitously exploits it at the beginning of s3.

Honestly the most fucked up thing he ever did. Yugo is seeing all that through his eyes.

Yugo would literally put the world in danger for him.

In OVA3, this is literally the reason for Ad and Yugo’s conflict.

I’d also like to add that even though their bond has eventually been labeled as brotherly it doesn’t mean that Yugo’s feelings on the matter have ever been totally platonic, or that there cannot be more complexity in the way he feels, so I genuinely don’t think it invalidates anything. They also share a few moments that can be read in a romantic lens.

In s1ep6 there is a slightly distasteful but short scene that was clearly intended as a gay joke.

You guys both agreed on sharing that bed, why are y’all panicking?

In s1ep12, when Tristepin defeats Kriss la Krass, leaving everyone dumbfounded, he decides to not keep that victory to himself. Instead, he shares it with Yugo.

A show of nobility from Tristepin, one that probably deeply touched Yugo as he decided to carry him towards the goal.

In s2ep20, when Yugo is freaked out due to his connection with Ad being interrupted, it’s Tristepin who gets to comfort him, making a clear parallel with Cleophée’s attitude towards him at the beginning of the episode, but mentioning that it’s Eva, his girlfriend, who taught him about comfort in intimacy, it’s heavily implied Yugo ended up putting his head on Tristepin’s shoulder as the episode ends.

He actually manages to get a smile out of him too.

During OVA3, as the fight with Ogrest comes to an end and they’re on the verge of being defeated, Yugo and Tristepin land on each other and have that terribly bittersweet small interaction.

“We lived some amazing adventures, right?

- Amazing ones, Pinpin.”

At that point they’re both embracing death, glad that at least, they’re at each other’s side when it happens. Keep in mind that Pinpin is very much in a committed relationship with Eva, sure, but it is a very strong moment between the two and it deserves to be acknowledged.

Yugo’s other guy “crushes” (a non exhaustive list): some of them look more like crushes than others, but you get that it’s there.

Kriss la Krass: From s1’s boufbowl arc we know one thing only, Yugo finds him very cool.

Kriss demonstrates a few traits Yugo typically doesn’t like: dishonesty, cheating, egocentrism,…

He almost makes Yugo cry when he pays for 4 minutes of cheating.

But all of this is done with one goal in mind, to offer a show worth watching to his audience, to whom he’s very devoted.

Kriss takes being defeated by Yugo very personally,

He’s actually the first person in-show to consider what Yugo may look like as an adult. Way off-mark, but points for trying.

and yet he still accepts his loss by shamelessly acknowledging his victory

It may not sound like much, but added to his easy acceptance of defeat at the end of the episode, it will of course make an impression on Yugo. To him, Kriss is probably what heroism looks like when applied to sport.

Right after a scene where Eva goes on a date with Jay, Yugo gets an interaction with Kriss in which he gets a signed photo of him.

They meet once more in s2, in Brakmar, when Kriss is basically about to be executed for being a traitor to the nation. Yugo immediately decides to take his defense.

He’s taking offense in people laughing at Kriss so strongly he actually goes angry red, which we never saw before. It’s almost personal at that point.

He brings up all of these traits mentioned the s1 part, confirming what was previously inferred. You can say he may have become his greatest fan (I am here referencing s2ep12 once more, in which there is a flashback of Kriss asking Maud if she would like to become his fan in Bonta, with the implication being romantic in nature)

After this Yugo and team starts looking for a new player, and a familiar photo appears:

It seems Yugo kept that photo on him for a whole year. It’s been folded into a tiny rectangle, and the corners are damaged, so it may have been looked at more than once.

Yugo gets very angry, and sad that no one seems to want to help them, that they laugh at Kriss, at them instead.

Eva looks worryingly at Yugo. She knows it means a lot to him, just a bit more than typical hero stuff.

Well they find a way, and during that match, if someone gets worried about Kriss it’s typically Yugo. Until the identity of the Masked Boufbowler gets revealed, then we get the whole deadnaming debacle, and Yugo ends up in a very dangerous situation. It’s Kriss who saves him from this by mastering Maud’s secret technique, then Maud and Kriss collab together and defeat the character, whose name is very annoying to write. The three of them end up landing the winning point.

Justice Knight: I don’t think I need to add anything to s2ep8.

Yugo looks at the guy like that, eyes twinkling, and even Eva starts to take the guy seriously because of how atypical it is for him. We also get confirmation that he and Amalia kinda share a type, and it’s the Justice Knight kind.

Ush: There isn’t much to say about their very first interaction. Yugo and Ush were on opposite sides, and time was of the essence. Yugo was only interested in the guy insofar as he was trying to get two Eliatrope Dofus back from him. They do have a sort of mind game dynamic being set up, with Yugo at first at an obvious disadvantage.

Ush explains the rules of the curse he inflicted upon Yugo right before wrecking his shit. For some reason he does call him “my dear little Eliatrope” during that explanation though.

Yugo ends up outsmarting him by deducing the fact that the Dofus are hidden in the statue within the time limit, and it’s the first time Ush actually loses one of his bets.

He ends up looking at him longingly as he leaves, right after Yugo calls him a liar and Ush foreshadows the events of s3. This time he calls him “my little Yugo” btw.

I believe the scene above is setting up that Yugo thinks there is more, not just to everyone’s actions, but to Ush specifically. If what he said after losing is true, then he does have a sense of honor that probably doesn’t fit the image Yugo had of him. And it does get followed up up in s3ep6.

“Ush!” upon their second meeting. For some reason Yugo’s eyes are twinkling.

This time, Ush calls him “the great Yugo”, about as mockingly as his nicknames in OVA2, but with a more respectful undertone, he doesn’t infantilize him this time, and actually asks about his whereabouts, in an almost friendly manner.

S3ep6 is the episode where an actual dynamic, a rivalry, is set up between the two. Ush, who is still bitter from OVA2, admits to having been obsessed with his very first defeat, and therefore with Yugo. His tone in that interaction ranges from mocking to almost flirty, though it is implied to be in part his natural way of speaking.

“You’re not being very convincing Yugo, let me teach you how to really beg.” Sir, are you flirting??

He is once again having a run in the park with Yugo and his team,

The tension between two people playing cat and mouse really isn’t like any other.

until once again, he gets outsmarted (the rules are not clear, but basically it was implied the inhibitor was not meant to be tempered with, except, since it wasn’t an explicit rule of the game, the team messing it up and Yugo gratuitously using his powers to win wasn’t cheating)

He was very proud of that one. (btw sorry if I’m taking a lot of time with that one I happen to really like this episode)

There are a few surprising things about his defeat. First is how well he is taking it, for a guy who lost only twice, and to the same person, as he seems to mainly focus on Yugo, he even admits he had fun. Yugo smiles at him, and recognizes his sense of honor, you can tell that he went from not really caring about him to genuinely wanting more of his company.

Actually his attention remains so much on him that he just mindlessly teleports Amalia to safety without looking at her. Typically Yugo would be all about her. That’s what a rival does to you.

During their very short interaction in s4, Ush is slightly more antagonistic, and acts as if he couldn’t stand too long near an Eliatrope, because of Yugo. Part of me believes he’s just being a bit of a tsundere and having a hard time admitting he does like him to some extent, but Yugo doesn’t have much of a reaction for him.

Goultard: listen, I have no clue what they ate during the end of s4’s production, but this image exists now.

Somehow became the endgame battle duo.

And we’re all the better for it.

Small Count Harebourg addendum: there is nothing there but it’s funny that he tried to convince Yugo to use the Eliatrope Dofus for him while trying to marry Amalia at the same time. If you watch the episode while thinking of this as him attempting to start a polycule with them it’s funny how pathetic that kinda makes him look.

Hi I just wanted to say I really like your vibes.

Yours are rancid, get lost.

The Eliotropes (again): If that wasn’t obvious, they were the thing that convinced me Yugo’s queerness might just be canon. Going back to the notion they are “versions” of Yugo, while their sexuality is not revealed, it is implied they feel some of Yugo’s feelings. Specifically, Oropo confirms that the reason he’s attracted to Amalia is because Yugo is. Did they all feel that way? Oropo seems to imply that might be the case, and since there are female Eliotropes, either all female Eliotropes were lesbians and male Eliotropes were straight, or, depending on the variability of Yugo’s attractions, many degrees and forms of attraction could be found in all of them.

I want to counter Oropo’s argument with his own feelings. He wasn’t just in love with Amalia, he was with Echo as well. Therefore there is more to an Eliotrope’s attraction than a mere reflection of what Yugo felt for Amalia. They can, and they do fall in love with other people. And if that’s the case, then once more, at what point do those feelings only belong to them, and at which do they start to belong to Yugo? Oropo was shown to be attracted to women, but who’s to say he was straight? And who’s to say the others were?

This part is mostly based on supposition, obviously, but since Eliotropes were shown to be very different from one another, I still believe it’s possible that there was a huge diversity of sexualities within their group, and again, that to some extent, they were a reflection of Yugo’s.

Well, that’s it! Overall all of this is based on me overreading elements present in the show, and I’m aware of that. But there is a lot, a lot that can be read into when it comes to Yugo.

If I may leave somewhere, let it be on this image of Yugo proudly harboring the colors of the pansexual flag.

Yup. Those are almost the same colors. Happy Pride everyone!

[cleophee-paris]

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#Cleophée #HuilesEssentielles #BienÊtre #Madagascar

[textsfromthetofu]

[somuchbetterthanthat]

Well, I was asked so i’m doing this, because of course i am

Right, I would really love if we discussed more General “Kallis” Kallistrate, amazon ranger extraordinaire a little bit more, because I find it so fascinating how she’s woven into this narrative that’s slowly offered to us. Like, yes, the sisters are Pythor’s daughters, and yes, Mania was already around at the time of the first big war (more on that later, probably) but Kallis was present, she literally fought for all of this, she fought for her people and Thylea’s people and for peace, ... And here she is, back again, five hundred years later, and an eternity as passed but she’s back to the same fight, ... except everbody she knew, loved or hated, are dead AND/OR forgotten - in that she literally cannot remember what was up back then.

I’m really into the fact she’s been left with this one purpose -- the one she can rely on, the one she knows she can do: fight for peace, fight against the titans, do your best for the collective and so has immediately jumped back or it and doesn’t seem to allow herself to think too hard about everything else, and it’s all great and good for now (and she’s doing great, you can see how easily she’s stepped back into that general role) but I’m so curious about what is going to make her tick you know? Or maybe is already making her tick?

Like -- she’s already so much history to catch up, and she keeps being caught unaware by people who know more about herself than she does. And how much can she even relies on this, y’know? When people who tell her this or that had only met her a couple of times five hundred years ago, does she genuinely trust it? Does she reconcile herself with that version of history or does it feel like the story of a stranger? Can we trust it at all? We all know that history is written by the winners, that Kallistrate was a “war hero”.. And we all know what that implies sometimes also, y’know?

I found the exchange between her and Mania in episode 6 SO interesting, because Mania says “But I don’t know this general... I only ever knew my Kallis” and Kallis replies that she doesn’t really know about her either. What does Mania remembers of Kallis? How much does Mania recognizes her Kallis in Kallis now?

And the fact that Kallis immediately attached herself back to Mania, immediately remembered her (so you know their love was STRONG and I have feelings about this but not the point here-), even immediately jumped back to the shadow of their relationship by kissing her (even though she realized afterwards she couldn’t just do that) is just making me left wondering if Kallis right now is literally all instincts and no time for reflection. Does she even remember all her time with Mania? Or does she remember mostly her face, her smile, and that she loved her, and rolls with it like everything else?

To me at least it feels as if, if she reflects too much on who she is, instead of just going through the motions of the prophecy, her duty, and the emotions that “feels right”, she’s going to break and surely nobody wants that.

She is (supposedly -- yes, of course, definitely) General Kallistrate. She doesn’t have time to be human about this, she doesn’t have time to have a proper moment to just realize everything she’s lost (internally and externally). I think the only time she almost allowed herself to be is when she got angry at Pythor and how little had changed despite the “oath of peace” and even that she swallowed back so fast because there was something else “““more urgent”““ to deal with.

.. so I’m wondering. What’s going to break her? A failure? Something less good about who she was in the past, a specific memory? Stepping back on the Amazon’s island and realizing she cannot belong here anymore? Or is it going to be when everybody decide that she cannot go back to the Oracle, and she realizes that after all this, she might actually get to live her life at last? Or is it only going to be her companions, caring for her, starting to love her for her and not who she might have been? Is it going to be the fear she might forget them as well if she go back to the Oracle, that she might lose everybody once more, and wake up in another 500 hundreds years?

I just want to see Kallistrate have an existential crisis, guys.

[colese]

Large Unusually Named Family

22 d Cleophée Amata

21 d Zephyrine Andriope

20 s Raoul Luan Abraxas

19 d Ezraela Tegwen

18 d Gregoria Lilivere

17 s Celestian Bianco

16 s Achilleo Bellamy

15 s Caius Athanasius

14 d Niloufar Steliana Bellerose

13 s Rurik Etienne

12 s Virgilius Meraud

11 d Viridiana Laelia

10 d Morwenna Ismerie

9 s Corentin Silvano

8 d Alphonsine Diademia

7 d Caliadne Neima Aurelle

6 s Thane Anaxandros

5 s Astraeus Marcello

4 s Wilberto Nicanor

3 d Briseida Ismay

2 s Florian Emereo

1 s Fidelio Altair

[manueillustrations]

FR- On m'a demandé sur Thumblr si j'avais déjà illustré Cléophée avec Évangélyne. J'ai réfléchit, pour me rendre compte que mise à part dans mon historie Réconciliation, je n'ai pas d'image couleurs des deux sœurs ensemble. Je compte donc prendre un peu de temps prochainement, pour le faire. En attendant,  j'ai fais cette illustration pour me dérouiller un peu, car je ne dessine pas souvent Cléophée.

EN- I was asked on Thumblr if I had ever illustrated Cleophée with Evangelyne. I then realized that apart from my story Reconciliation, I don't have any illustration of the two sisters together. I therefore intend to take some time soon to do so. In the meantime, I made this illustration to relax myself a bit, because I don't often draw Cléophée.

[badassindistress]

Thylead Session 15

Ode to the Faithful:

The patient silver moon looks down each night

Searching for those daylight hid from her eyes

Love enduring even when hidden from sight

Only your virtue reaches higher highs

 It is your faithfulness that I admire

Your moral strength, deeper than I can tell

Your enviable might and religious fire

And your biceps please the eye as well ;)

At the end of breakfast, Cleophe tells Vallus that they found a dragonegg in Balmytria’s tomb and that the tomb was empty. Vallus says that they never recovered Balmytria’s body, she was lost in battle. She’s concerned what might be doen tother fody if- and she cuts herself of, wha’t sdone is done. Vallus asks if the egg is alive, Cleophe says her pseudodragon used her magic to revive it. Vallus looks confused and says with a faint sens of awe that her mother clearly watches over Cleophe, she is grateful for her blessing. Thanks her for confiding in her, if she’s willing to let her look at it she can add her wisdom. Mania catches Cleophé at the door, says that she listened to Cleophe last night and that it is unfair she only sings about Kallis. She gives Cleophe a poem inspired by Kyrah’s style and dances off.

Kallis finds Makaila and assures her in the cold light of day that she meant everything she said yesterday. The offer‘s open to fight a ghost boat (sadly they forgot to actually pick her up). On the way out, Kallis pulls Mania aside to ask if she’s mad at her. Mania explains that her songs aren’t all about Kallis, but also the past lovers she left behind. Kallis says she doesn’t need a reminder she left everyone. Mania tells Kallis that it’s okay if she has to leave to be Queen of the Amazon’s, that that’s different than being stuck in a damp cave somewhere where Mania wouldn’t be allowed to love her.

Phryné and Iliana go to the Academy to get help turning the monster parts into potions. Professor Alcmene is willing to help them, but she does expect Iliana to do the heavy lifting for this to count as independent study. Next time she wants to miss class she ought to ask the Oracle for a note. Phryné suggests taking some homework for the road. Alcmene sets up the process for the skull and basilisk eyeballs. Iliana shows her the inkbottle ooze, the Professor says it has an aggressive personality but that she could renew the enchantment to turn it into a library guardian or assistant. She starts that process too. Iliana gets reminded that if she sees 2 of her peers she has to remind them to turn in an assignment on paradoxes Iliana tries to get out of it with the prophecy, but no luck. Phryné  asks if Iliana behaves well in class. Alcmene kindly does not sell Iliana out to her sister and says Iliana has always been a very talented girl. The silent implication is that Iliana will do her assignments in record time. Phryné is incredibly proud and happy of her sister.

Kallis and Mania stroll around the bard campus sharing stories of Mania’s student days until they find a young man with a lyre. Parius is very surprised to see Mania, she tells him she’s been travelling with the Chosen Ones and makes him tell her the rumours about them. The story is they’ve angered Sydon, Mania turns it into Versi angering Sydon. Parius sings a song about Versi in the First War, the daughter of Sydon who turned to protect mortals. Mania says they’re going to soothe the storms and warns him to prepare for a party. She proposes a contest for all bards, the person who writes the most beautiful and full of praise song for the 5 Gods and Chosen Ones and their victory and sacrifice will get to try Mania’s Harp First. He promises to tell all their friends about it. Mania gives him notes on what he should share as Kallis edges away as her praises are bandied about. Mania also cheerfully includes the titbit that the rumoured ghost who haunted the Hall of the Dragonlords is part of the Chosen Ones.

Azelma tells Cleophe not to be mad, but she asked an acquaintance what happened to her family.  She asks Cleophe to look dangerous and imposing and settle in to wait for Laos. When he sidles over he tells them nobody has lived in that house for centuries and that it’s haunted. There’s bits of singing and if you go inside you lose track of time and forget who you are. He gives them a pewter necklace with a dragon figurine that Cleophē recognises as a piece of costume jewellery from one of her sisters.

There’s a little vial inside. Azelma gives him a coin, Laos wheedles until Cleophe gives him a gold. Cleophe thanks Azelma, who awkwardly says she wanted to do something nice. They go and see the house. Azelma boasts of stealing from the noble district, Cleophe is uncomfortable because those are her neighbours. The house seems eerily preserved in time, it feels like something in the house is trying to push them back, but they can enter. Azelma hears fragments of conversation, sees shimmering light, oilslick and with unsettling haze like they saw on resurrected Iliana. Clearly some kind of magic. They hear the voices of the same people at different ages, there’s something weird here with time. Azelma proposes Cleophe’s family never left the house, that they are trapped here. Cleophe recognises the voices as some of her family. Azelma’s bracelet and Cleophe’s gauntlet start to rust before their eyes. Azelma finds a portrait in the hall where none of the faces can be made out. The ground around her is going cold, warmth seeping out of her.  Cleophe sees one of her sisters, Cleoné at 5 years old, standing in front of her for a second. She gives a dazzling smile and hugs Cleophe’s knees before she fades (advantage against next roll of being frightened).

Back assembled at the Palace, Mania announces she has no revenge quest against Estor she just let her emotions run away with her since trees are very important to her. Iliana brings up the rumour that Mania once seduced a tree, Mania is offended, that she would need to seduce trees. She explains that Andromache the drysad was the nymph who found her when she was born and her and Thylea were the first people she loved.

They set off in search of the boat. At the path along the river Lethe the cliffs are actively moving closer together. Mania uses Kentimane’s Stone Hands to push the walls away from each other to give them a little more time. What comes out are not the normal earthen hands, this is a pair of the massive column like hands that litter the countryside. Cleophe and Iliana run through easily but Azelma falters. Kallis reaches the end but goes back to help Azelma out. They start to get banged up. It takes her longer, but Mania runs through with no trouble, Phryne gets pulled along by Basil and Azelma and Kallis make it out together. Mania prays to Kentimane and Thylea to thank them for saving them, but it doesn’t calm her (nat 1)

They find a massive waterfall that makes no noise. Deianeira finds them the path on the map, it seems flooded but she does spot a ship. They wade through the water and suddenly Mania gets polymorphed into an owl, still glowing. Iliana thinks there’s just something weird about eh water, not a spellcaster. Mania starts happily circling around above them. It’s probably temporary. They come to a small lake with still water and a ship with black sails and the prow in dragonform. Kallis recognises the Ultros.

The newly formed flying squad goes in very unstealthily. Mania feels a chill in the air and hears whispers and singing. Something cold brushes against her, a spectral hand trying to grab her but unable to catch hold. Kallis wades to the sip when they do not come back. Azelma follows her but start to turn into water, Cleophe tries to carry her out but she starts to dissolve in her arms. Cleophe Levitates her above the water and not a drop spills. Afrer a minute or so she starts to reform with no damage done. Cleophe tells Kallis to go first, towards the raucous singing on the deck. The figure at the deck raises up a hand and flies at Kallis and Kallis gets possessed. She returns to “her post”. Mania flies down to sit on her shoulder and screech in her ear, Kallis immediately beats her off with her chakram. Mania falls to the deck a nymph again. Kallis starts singing some bawdy off-key songs. Iliana shouts you can’t just posses people, they came here for a conversation so the ghost better get out and talk. Kallis still has all her senses, she’s just not in control of her body. She tries to talk to the pilot in her mind, this was a dwarf man named Davos. Davos does not listen to her request to get the fuck out of her head. Mania tries to tell him Kallis was meant to fly a dragon, not a ship, but fails to get through to him. Kallis starts to tap her foot to the singing. A dragon ghost flies over the boat, starts to breathe out a line of cold. Mania falls to the floor unconscious for the first time. Cleophe lays on hands but she is still frightened. The dragon alights next to Estor Arkelander’s ghost. Kallis asks to talk to him and fights her way free. There is a ghost battle going on. Kallis yells to Mania she’s really sorry and they’ll talk about that later and runs to stand beside Estor Arkelander. The other ghosts attack her, but she deflects with her bracer. She still feels some of the life drain out of her. She recognises Estor’s three trusted lieutenants turning against him. Estor recognises Kallis and asks if she’s finally come to haunt him. Kallis replies she just loves to see him get his ass kicked. He smiles and tell her she’ll be disappointed. He asks if she’s come to help him be overthrown, she says she decided to stand with him this time. He says it’s a bit late for that.

The fight is between the ghosts of the three lieutenants, Metron, Scathos and Davon, and the crew versus Estor, the dragon and now Kallis. Kallis and Estor banter as they take down a spectre of a crewman together. Phryné calls on an aura of life to heal her friends and Azelma runs in to hurl fireballs at ghosts, but they don’t hurt them like they hurt the living. Ghost attack Kallis and she shouts at Estor not to laugh as she sways on her feet, barely standing. Cleophe throws her lightning javelin through three ghosts and the dragon strikes at the dragons around her. The ghost blows a horn and 2 more spectres appear on deck. Kallis tells Estor this must have been such an annoying day to relive as Scathos tries to strangle him. Davos pulls off the skin on his face, scaring 10 years off Azelma’s life. She’s 29 now, only slightly taller and with longer hair and a knee that creaks sometimes.

Iliana yells at them to stop the fighting or she’ll crash the boat, but she didn’t speak loud enough and nobody hears her. Estor gives Kallis 10hp with a touch, tells her this is a very strange day and kills another spectre.

Phryné takes her handcarved wooden symbol and closes her eyes, frighteningly furious. She feels as if there’s a comforting hand on her shoulder and power washes through her. The ghost and spectres flee from her in fear. Only one lieutenant and a spectre remains, the others hurl themselves off the boat to get away from her. Even the Dragon fears her, but since they seem to be on the same side Cleophe hits it to knock the fear out of it, yelling why she does it. Estor succeeds, but Kallis makes fun of him being afraid of the cleric anyway. The last spectre tries to steal Cleophe’s lifeforce but estor chokes the life out of it and throw it overboard. Scathos gets killed by Phryne’s crossbow and Azelma’s fireball sailing through Estor and Estor finally ripping him apart. The dragon fades back into the figurehead of the ship.

Estor turns to Kallis and asks her what brings her to his ship. Kallis says they need to borrow it. Estor expected that, should General Kallistate come back, he would have expected the reason to e be vengeance. Kallis asks how he would like to come to sea with them. She explains that they are sailing to finish what the dragonlords started and they need the only ship capable of that. Estor calls that a touch ironic but he won’t explain why, only saying that perhaps she made the good choice and he can’t stand for his. Mania can’t help but call Estor a dryadkiller, he asks if her hands are clean. She says they are. Gregor Hoarath stashed the last treasure of the Dragonlords somewhere and the Nethersea is the only place he hasn’t looked yet. Estor asks if she’s just going to do it again, back to Phraxis, back to getting their asses kicked. He asks who will captain the ship. Mania won’t let Kallis says she’ll captain the ship, afraid that might transfer Estor’s curse to Kallis. Estor wants to feel the seabreeze again, will let them use his ship and he’ll captain it if they’ll find his sword and drive it through Lutheria’s black heart. He promises not to turn on them in the middle of the Ocean.

The crew comes back every night, they’ll need rituals to cleans the ship and a human crew. In sunlight it would be harder for them to appear, they only come at night. The cavern closes him in, but they might sail out. He shakes on it with Kallis. Estor says that at least this is more interesting than what he’s been doing. He sarcastically tells her he can’t wait to see her tomorrow night. He fades into the ship.

Mania goes to the mast and recognises it as dryad’s wood. The figurehead is the same. She sleeps cuddled up against the mast.

Cleophe shows the pendant vial to Iliana who sees it’s a potion of Cat’s Grace (10 minutes advantage on dex checks and less falling danger)

Azelma looks into the mirror, she looks less like a creepy doll. Phryne tells her she looks different. Azelma tells her she is different and also her knees hurt, but she thinks 29 suits her. Phryné is concerned about lived experience and looking older and whether they might reverse this aging. Azelma says she appreciates her worry but she doesn’t think a few more wrinkles will change her life. Cleophe says she lost 10 years of her life, but Azelma does not seem bothered. Cleophe thinks remove curse of greater restoration and possibly dispel magic could reverse this. Phryné could solve is the next day, but Azelma doesn’t want to  so they argue about lifespans of mortals and elves. Phryné is very concerned.

And that’s all for this session of the Thylead!

 @aporeticelenchus @leomundstinyblog @m-siecle @pioup-pioup  @guineamaina @somuchbetterthanthat

[m-siecle]

9, 14, 15 for big sis Phrynè

ooh! this is long, i’ll put it under a readmore

9. What gifts would they give the other party members? And what would they like to receive?

Oooh good one hmmm... they would like a lyre, that’s for sure. And as for the others:

Iliana: there have been many gifts for her along the years: baskets of berries, straw puppets, a very poorly woven scarf... but if she ever gets the chance she’d like to buy her something very fancy and related to her studies, like an expensive book, or extra good magic paper. It’s not within budget now, but who knows.

Azelma: Based on very superficial knowledge and some things she has heard, probably something shiny, like some piece of jewlery. Since, again, it’s financially out of reach, Phryné might just take a look at Azelma’s cute and youthful looks and bake her something sweet.

Cleophé: A good piece of flint! It’s very useful, Phryné always has some with her, and Cleophé seems sensible enough to appreciate it. (This goes double for after she discovers Cleophé’s proficiency in cooking haha)

Mania: Hmm... they did have a bit of a rought start, but i think that’s starting to turn around, and Phryné is quick to anger, but does not usually hold grudges. She would most likely give her a wreath of flowers, both because she’s pretty and because she seems to appreciate pretty things.

Kallis: as she catches on to just how isolated her last 500 years have been, I think Phryné would wonder whether Kallis might not have missed some interesting stuff. So, just in case it didn’t reach the oracle, she’d give her her favourite wine from the Heartlands. Always a good gift, wine.

14. Does your character care about how they’re perceived by others? How do they change themselves to fit in with other people?

I don’t think she’s too self-concious, but she does care how she is perceived, both because she wants to be dignified and because she is aware she can be a bit too abrasive and hurt people’s feelings, which she doesn’t particularly like. 

She’s not very good at (or very interested in) putting up a facade of any sort, but if she thinks she’s behaving some way she shouldn’t, sometimes she will try to scold her feelings into order, to be braver, or more generous, or (in very rare occasions, when she feels her anger is not justified) kinder and sweeter.

(Her rate of success with the latter is about 50% of the time haha)

15. What colours are associated with your character?

Dark red, of course!

[sand-und-schweiss]

Ein abgefangener Brief aus der Ehrenfeste.

Vielen Dank an Cleophé

[badassindistress]

The Thylead, session 1

Six reconvened, pulled by threads of their fate,

Cleophē, doomed to wander alone,

Kallistrate, long lost under time’s weight,

Iliana child of war, strenght unknown,

Her sister Phrynè, whose will may prevail,

Young Azelma, hungry, already wise,

And I, Mania, to recount the tale,

To make you smile or bring tears to your eyes.

 In the forgotten realm of Thylea, 6 adventurers have gotten themselves a quest:

Azelma, human shadow sorcerer

Iliana, elven demigod wizard

Phryné, elven demigod cleric

Cleophé, half-orc paladin

Kallistrate, human amazon ranger (she’s tall)

Mania, nymph bard

 These six heroes and wanderers have been getting dreams and visions, summoning them to the Heartlands to hear what the Oracle has to say to them. The 500 year peace is nearly at an end and there are whispers of a terrible calamity coming to Thylea. They have been called to the Sour Vintage Inn, 20 miles from Estoria.

Mania was the first to arrive, beautiful as all nymphs are and ready to enjoy herself to the fullest. Her gaze fell immediately on the woman with the lyre singing beautifully about the fall of the great silver dragon Balmutrio and equally interesting, the tall warrior silently standing next to her. Kyrah, poet laureate of the fair city of Mytros, introduced herself and her friend Kallistrate, a stoic warrior in strange armour. Mania was enchanted by the both of them and spent the time until the others arrived flirting excessively with both of them.

Phryné was early and Iliana was late, the siblings balancing each other out as they generally do. Phrynè praised the gods freely and is ready to accept their prophecy, Iliana less so. Kyrah appreciated Phrynè’s devotion to the gods.

Cleophē, a tall half-orc warrior who’s also tall, strode in on time to join the others, while Azelma had been watching in the shadows and appears in her fanciest stolen apparel, when all others have assembled.

Kyrah announced to the assembled party that great destinies are prophesised for them, but great deeds should be done first, to prove they are indeed the prophesised heroes. She told them of a corrupted boar they were to hunt and offer to the Gods to prove their worth. The boar had already killed people. Two hunters, whose comrade was killed by the boar, tell Kallistrate and Azelma that the boar is big, mean and with a strange presence around it. It had some strange effect on them. Also the weather has been really bad lately, which might also be a bad sign. The Barkeep is a retired hunter herself. People say the boar might be corrupted by Sydon, but she doesn’t believe that’s right.

Phrynè recognised the name Kyrah and Mania knows that she is not just the Poet Laureate, but also the Goddess of music and poetry. She writes beautiful poetry but is a trickster and likes to declaim bad poetry to shock people. She is worshipped as a muse in the Bard Academy. Mania flirts happily with her as Azelma makes an actual plan. They are going to try and trap the boar.

Kallistrate and Mania go to ask the barkeep for supplies for the trap, but when the barkeep said they’ll have to pay for it Mania involuntarily Charmed her. They get the shovels for free but when Kallistrate tries to explain to Mania that she shouldn’t do that, Mania does not understand what she means.

Kallistrate finds  a quiet corner to sharpen branches to stick in the trap and Cleophē comes up to her to ask is she is “the General Kallistrate”. The general is supposed to have died in the Nether sea, General Kallistrate was a reasonably famous dragon lord. Azelma knows Kallistrate was an Amazon Dragonlord on the side of the humans and settlers with a clockwork stimfay dragon, a lone wolf type warrior. She died on an expedition into the Nether sea, possibly with Estor Arkelander. Azelma has long been fascinated with teh dragon lords, she knows King Acastus of Mytros is rumoured to be trying to restart teh dragon order. 

Kallistrate doesn’t seem sure of her status as a war hero at all. She wasn’t aware so much time had passed and was very shocked when Mania told her it had been 500 years. It comes out Kallistrate has been with the oracle and has large gaps in her memory. She doesn’t seem very comfortable talking about her past, so Mania turns the conversation to the other’s stories. Azelma and Cleophē quickly turn the conversation back to Mania, who is delighted to talk about herself.

About half of the party have had the realisation that they have met Mania before. Azelma when she tried to rob her and found herself guiltily giving everything back, Iliana when Mania needed someone pretty to help her with her maths homework at the academy. Phrynè is not very amused by this past encounter, she did not take kindly to having to retrieve her sister from a bardic party. Iliana turns to woodsharpening too, to escape scrutiny.

Mania turns her flirtations towards Cleophē to no great effect. Iliana and Mania bond over not wanting to dig ditches. Phrynè did not agree with Mania’s philosophy of asking others to do her work for her and things nearly get heated until Kallis reminds them not to pay too much attention to first impressions. Phrynè agrees and Mania silently sits down to start sharpening too.

Mania and Cleophē heal the hunters so they’ll help them dig the trap in the morning.

 And that’s the first chapter of the Thylead…

@aporeticelenchus @ratheralark @guineamaina @somuchbetterthanthat @m-siecle @pioup-pioup

[badassindistress]

9, 15, 24 for dear Mania!

Thank you, this was fun!

9. What gifts would they give the other party members? And what would they like to receive?

Mania loves giving gifts, but she doesn’t know what the others want yet. Right now it’d be something like this: 

Azelma: some of her own stuff, since Azelma apparently wanted that when she tried to rob Mania. Probably some trinket.

Iliana: wine and a friend to drink it with. 

Phryné: Phryné is a mystery and an enigma to Mania so this one’s particularly difficult. Probably it’s gonna be a particularly nice rock she just picked up. 

Kallistrate: what does Kallistrate want?? A dagger? A song? Someone to talk about time slipping away from you? Mania would probably try it all. 

Cleophé: So far Mania has clocked on to the fact that Cleophe does not want to get flirted with, so she may well try to get Cleophe to like her with gifts. She knows the fighting type like weapons and armour and songs of their valour, so that would be her first attempts. 

Mania herself loves receiving gifts, in particular tokens and memories. She’s been carrying a boar tusk for a long time just because it was killed for her. She likes gifts with symbolic significance best. 

15. What colours are associated with your character? 

Warm, glowing sunset colours. Saturated pinks and reds and oranges and definitely gold to reflect starlight. 

24. What familiar would your character pick and why? 

Hmmm… definitely something that’s a very social creature and can be nocturnal. It’s going to have to be a cat I think, open to be being petted and spoiled but fine with being forgotten about for a while. And pretty, of course.

DnD Character Meme

[manueillustrations]

Have you ever thought about drawing Eva and her sister together more often? What do you think about their sibling dynamic in the show?

Well, I did draw a comic with them, A kind of 'hlp' that Cleophée provided to Eva (about Tristepin) Ithink it's a nice relation. It feels 'reel'. Big sister who wanna protect her little sister, but Cleophé wanna do it her own way. I like that And it's a nice idea, maybe I'll draw them together :)