#darkest dungeon the fanatic

[pearl-the-artist]

I could blame @darkestprompts for giving me the idea to draw this because i cant stop laughing at how people grill the fanatic for breaking the cycle of religious lunatics having their tits out

But deep down i know i just wanted to draw the old fuck shirtless.

[rumeriaserp]

OK. It's "the period of intense sexual desire for a mad religious grandpa" that comes back to me every year. I have some archived dd The fanatic fanfics written by my people (Koreans) and I need SOMEWHERE to translate to ENG/upload them for everyone to read (including NSFW stuff). PLEASE please recommend me a website or something idk.

I KNOW there are people out there who absolutely love this man.

[angrybatart]

Welcome to Unfinished Hell!

Pull up a chair, have a cookie and/or beverage of choice or two, and look at more fucking wips that I honestly only have the energy to post right now. BUT I am trying to finish or redo a few.

My side of that art trade. I plan to redo it because....well....I REALLY NEED TO STOP DRAWING CHARACTERS HOLDING MUGS LIKE THEY'RE HOLDING A PINT OF BEER.

(Doesn't help that I've yet to play Stardew Valley...but asking my sibling helps.)

Two more Fanatic doodles before I decided I was done doodling them. For now.

And the last short comic I started before I got sick. Definitely going to finish this when I can. I think I just need a short break from drawing. Also....holiday season...bleagh...

[wahoo-fish]

Chuncolle Fanatic

[coffee-in-veins]

Chapters: 12/? Fandom: Darkest Dungeon (Video Game) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Crusader/Highwayman (Darkest Dungeon), Reymas, background Jester/Leper (Darkest Dungeon), Minor or Background Relationship(s) Characters: Highwayman (Darkest Dungeon), Crusader (Darkest Dungeon), Jester (Darkest Dungeon), Leper (Darkest Dungeon), Plague Doctor (Darkest Dungeon), Occultist (Darkest Dungeon), Heir (Darkest Dungeon), Grave Robber (Darkest Dungeon), multiple background OC heroes Additional Tags: Non-Linear Narrative, Established Relationship, Denial of Feelings, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, Sexual Tension, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Survivor Guilt, Drug Abuse, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Self-Loathing, Self-Disregard, Self-Harm, Trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, therapy isn't invented yet, Body Horror, Crimson Curse actually mutates people into bloodsuckers, social segregation, Canon-Typical Violence, Mutilation, Period-Typical Homophobia, this is still Gaylet though, Character Death, i mean it's DD character death is expected here, Dismas creative and explicit cussing, Implied Sexual Content, explicit sexual content in future chapters, Social drama, Religious Bigotry, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, no beta we die like seekers in DD1, Crimson curse (Darkest Dungeon), i'm in reymas hell and it's cozy in here Series: Part 1 of Nowhereland’s Apocrypha Summary:

Ruin came to Hamlet, and a new incurable plague sweeps across the lands, turning people into monsters and blurring the line between friend and foe. Amidst the tangled thread of inner fighting, religious hysterics and double-crossing intended to keep the feeble peace, an odd dance takes place: one step forward and two to the side, as a supposedly unbreakable relationship between two unlikely "dearest friends" hobbles time after time over the stumbling stone of their feelings towards each other. But this dance of affection, desires, devotion and lies, however pleasurable and painful, can't last forever. Yet another eldritch horror descends upon surrounding lands, leaving both men wishing that they were if not straight, then at least straightforward with each other from the start.

=== Updates every two weeks, on Tuesday

[knight-parzival]

His heart is swallowed up by hate.

[tehri]

WELL.

Much as I knew from watching LP’s of the Crimson Court DLC of Darkest Dungeon that the Fanatic was going to be a fucking awful fight... I did not expect a full TPK. I did not expect that at all, or losing my most needed trinkets as a result. HOW exactly is it that this guy, who is literally just a sort of upgraded version of the Hag but with more abilities, is more of a bitch than most other bosses? I had less problems with the fucking Shambler than with this asshole.

Of course, him consistently being a bastard and targetting specifically my occultist healer for the pyre AND ABSOLUTELY NO ONE FUCKING ELSE definitely helped, and ngl, I’m a bit mad...

[thesugarhole]

shout out to my current darkest dungeon team the "uuhhhs" for holding their own very well in a long veteran dungeon despite barely being level 3s and we ran out of torches and we can totally handle a shambler should one appear. im confident in them 3/4 have at least 1 dancing skill to return to formation for the inevitable shuffles. <- despair prayer

^ mugshot of their asses before our torchlight fully ended

(this is a standard / basic / good team comp btw im just poking fun at my naming conventions)

[pearl-the-artist]

Oh, how the mighty fall...

[the-punforgiven]

I'm too tired rn to go back and double check but it just occurred to me that Crusader Darkestdungeon, despite being deeply affiliated with The Church, seems to actively go out of his way to not adorn himself with the symbolism of the holy light the way other religious characters such as Vestal and Fanatic do

As far as I can recall, without going and sorting through all the sprites too hard, I don't think you see the symbol on his surcoat like, anywhere else, which I think is kind of interesting from a lore perspective

Because like, the primary religious symbol in Darkest Dungeon is that circle guarded by lines, there's some variation but it's everywhere

The Fanatic, by contrast, has a similar religious symbol, but his is barbed rather than shielded, which makes sense given his whole deal

But like, this seems to indicate that the primary symbol of the church is some sort of embellished circle, (which iirc was confirmed by the developers to represent the mind, the lines around it both shielding and possibly caging it, which obviously plays along with the Iron Crown but also really locks in well with the Fanatic's whole vibe)

Which makes it all the more interesting that in both his dd1 and dd2 forms, Reynauld just... doesn't wear any

Like... sir

Where are you getting a cross from?

From my cursory google search the closest symbol I can find on his person is this banner here (though I know his other banners have different designs, I haven't gotten around to looking at them yet lol)

But even then, this one still leans way, way heavier on the crucifix imagery than the typical symbology of the church, which I find to be a very curious discrepancy

[angrybatart]

I saw an edited rip/screenshot of a/the fanatic from Darkest Dungeon 2 (from @darnestdungeon ) and HAD to doodle them. Just a little guy.

[iaus]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ANYTHING YOU LIKE I WOULD LOVE THE DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY ON ANYTHING!!!

oh. i know. i know. okay. this is gonna be kinda wild because i'm gonna reference a few of my other fics for this but i feel like it's important for how the scene got written but.

epilogue. my beloved.... chapter 9. let's get some magic going.

i feel like i mentioned in a reply to a comment once that the scene where jace steals the spell in chapter 9 that how i wrote the magic was greatly influenced how i wrote magic in my darkest dungeon fic (thinking about this because i reread the fic that inspired this). i remember, later, i was like. i forgot to mention how gale bg3 affected this whole thing. so bear with me. i'll bold the part where i start actually going over the scene if you wanna skip this talk <3

so to preface this scene. i put a lot of physicality into writing magic. this is partly influenced by damian (the flagellant) from darkest dungeon. damian is a fanatic of the light (the catholic church. it's literally the catholic church.) and uses his body and faith to cast magic. his entire kit is built around using blood, taking wounds from other characters, and sacrificing himself. if you have a flagellant die in darkest dungeon he will stun enemies so your other characters have an advantage against an enemy.

so, for context. that's where a lot of my gnarly magic descriptions come from. that's where the idea for my spell thief mechanic came from because, while i know it's hard to do in dnd, i think magic literally taking a toll on your body is so cool. especially if, like jace, you're pushing yourself to the limit.

but in addition to that gale bg3 is my favorite romance. and, uh, well, spoilers for gale if you haven't played the game, he literally has a piece of the karsite weave in his chest and has to consume magic items so he literally doesn't detonate. the game doesn't really play into this as much as i like. i think he should look haggard and unhealthy or at least have dialogue options about it because there are some dialogues that imply this takes a huge toll on his body. which i mean. makes sense. the karsite weave feeds on magic. there's also further gale meta where i think he's actually a sorcerer who was trained as a wizard BUT I DIGRESS. i wanted to mention this before i got to the scene because it really effected my approach to writing jace.

i love sorcerer as a class. i think it's so interesting and there's so many different ways to play it. we're. not going to get to my jace frustrations though.

BUT. now we can get to the scene from chapter 9 of epilogue.

so, we're now learning more about this power that jace has.

we've only had it kind of alluded to before now. we had the flashback of the bleeding tiefling in chapter 6 and now we're seeing the power in action. the thing that got jace blacklisted from adventuring. (or well. what he says is the big thing. not the. y'know. assaulting a party member with modify memory and then leaving him with brain damage.)

we're gonna start here:

It has been years since he’s attempted this—much less when he’s been pinioned by a god. Porter would have never. Even on his worst days.

i know i structured epilogue to be purposefully vague and a little confusing about what's going on with jace but i want to start with this line because it really shows how much he resents ankarna. and honestly? he is resenting her for something that his grief is causing. grief is such a powerful thing and jace refuses to look directly at his grief. ankarna has never "pinioned" him. she truly was offering jace a gift. she wanted him to have a full, whole life where he could make his own choices without porter's influence. she did not take his magic.

jace is stifling his own magic with the immense weight of the grief and longing he cannot imagine. but, of course, he is going to make this into an ankarna vs porter thing. ankarna will never be able to win as a goddess here. he's going to pick porter every time because jace truly, wholeheartedly believes porter is the only one there for him.

even if he is unsure if porter loves him.

He can feel the strange hollowness—that hungry, infinite well that’s sunk deeper and deeper into him since he reanimated—, but beyond that is the cold font of magic he’s always drawn upon. Familiar. He closes his eyes, focuses upon it, can see the shimmering, pale gold of it gathering just beneath the surface of his skin.

the idea of innate magic is so interesting to me. here's this thing that jace has always known, always connected to. it's familiar. even if he sees it as cruel (and... that also begs the thought. is his magic actually cruel or is it adapting to what jace feels it is). and it's there. it's still there, just hidden. by his grief.

Divinity has always been his favorite—he’s always known the taste and feel of it, intimately.

divine magic is all he knows. his own.... porter's own sort of divinity.... even if porter's divinity... is not all his... epilogue jace is a divine sorcerer... interesting that he's ascending someone. interesting that... maybe the divinity porter has isn't... ankarna's. things to think about for this universe....

NOW. we get into the actual magical casting. my intent with this scene was to really hammer home how much effort this takes jace. at this point he is still sick with resurrection sickness. mechanically resurrection sickness is honestly not that big of a deal. you're worse off with levels of exhaustion (which, honestly, i've been more looking at those rather than the disadvantages of raise dead.)

but we also have our first glimpse of jace earnestly casting something that isn't a cantrip and it's taxing.

He slits his eyes open, to watch the curl of his own fingers, the flex of veins and tendons beneath his skin. Evocation magic has always felt particularly uncreative to him. This feels no less brutish, but even he can make evocation magic something more. The weave around him bends—groaning like an old, cantankerous creature, but slowly it gives way. The air parts, ripping open at the seams. Crackling energy heats the air with a whistling whine. Jace can feel sweat soaking through his undershirt, can feel the way his body shrieks in protest, a new fever already beginning to burn through his body, he smells blood—can feel it dripping down his mouth from his nostrils. He continues, drawing strands of magic from beyond.

you also get to see some of jace's biases. he thinks evocation magic is brutish-- ironic considering what jace is doing right now could be considered brutish. but then he turns it. he says even he can make this brutish thing this brutish kind of magic more. he's better than other casters.

and he immediately feels the effects. he is sweating and bleeding. also, i see jace as a very electric caster. i know we all have our opinions on his preferred damage types but i see him loving electricity and psychic. especially epilogue jace who is... such a strange beast.

and now we get into my favorite part of this chapter. i really liked doing shorter lines for the end of this. jace is on the verge of passing out. he's expended himself for a chromatic orb. a first level spell. as a level 20 caster that's... quite a way to be brought low.

It always hurts the worst before it works. (His God taught him that, intimately.)

epilogue has jace growing-- becoming someone who takes. he doesn't have porter with him. so he'll take porter's teachings to heart to fill that hole.

With a screeching whine and a loud pop, a sizzling ball of vibrant lightning curls in his hand. A weight lifts from his chest. The crushing well of him feels less empty. Blood trickles down his nose, over the triumphant curl of his lips. He can almost hear Porter’s voice in his ear, warm and heavy with fondness, That’s it, sweetheart—there’s my Saint Stardiamond. Jace laughs. See, he thinks as he cradles the stolen, volatile spell in the cup of his shaking, bleeding hand, I could never be yours. And then he collapses.

and the culmination of his efforts.

jace steals a spell. something he should never have. his grief, for the first time, breaks. he pays for it with blood and sweat but he's rewarded. he gets his magic. he can picture porter's pride.

and then. he decides. that's not enough.

he uses this to show ankarna: you'll never be enough for me.

i'd argue this is the moment in epilogue when jace takes his final turn for the worst. he's going to take what he needs. by any means necessary.

[bardofhype]

hello darkest dungeon community. behold my guy who came to me in a vision Darkest Dungeon 2 does not allow multiples of the same unit anymore. So I decided to be funny and create a little fan-character who can temporarily re-introduce such a mechanic EXTRA DETAILS BELOW THE CUT (bc yes I was invested enough in this little guy to make actual gameplay mechanics for them)

Max HP: 29 Speed: 5 Resistances: Bleed: 45% Blight: 25% Burn: 25% Disease: 40% Stun: 30% Move: 30% Debuff: 30% Death Blow: 60% Movement: 2 forward, 2 back

Elaboration on Permanent Condition: Essentially, if either their allies or enemies get a crit, they'll get buffed in some way that relates to said ally/enemy. A list of examples is as follows: - Highwayman/Pillager enemy: 1 Crit Token - Grave Robber: 1 Stealth Token - Man-at-Arms: 1 Block Token (75%) or 1 Block+ Token (25%) - Hellion/Fisherfolk enemy: +25% Bleed Resist (2 Rounds) - Jester: 1 Speed Token - Duelist: 1 Riposte Token - Plague Doctor/Swine enemy: +20% Disease Resist (2 Rounds) - Runaway/Fanatic enemy: +25% Burn Resist (2 Rounds) - Leper: +20% Stress Resist (2 Rounds) - Occultist: +20% Debuff Resist (2 Rounds) - Vestal: +15% Healing Received (2 Rounds) - Flagellant/Plague Eater + Gaunt enemy: +25% Blight Resist (2 Rounds) - Bounty Hunter/Cadaver enemy: 1 Strength Token - Creature enemy: 1 Dodge Token (75%) or 1 Dodge+ Token (25%) - Cultist/Cosmic enemy: +15% damage when Torch <75 (2 Rounds)

Skill Descriptions (Starting Skills):

Backdrop – Ranged Ranks 3 and 4, hits Ranks 3 and 4 (Enemy) (AoE) DMG: 3-5, Crit 5% Self: Gain 1 Stealth token / Mastery / DMG: 5-7, Crit 5% Self: Gain 2 Stealth tokens Targets: Gain Combo token

Choreography – Buff Any Rank, Any Ally Cooldown: 1 Turn Self: 1+ Speed next Round Target: 1+ Speed next Round / Mastery / Self: 1+ Speed next Round, 1 Dodge token Target: 1+ Speed next Round, 1 Dodge token

Comic Relief - Heal Any Rank, Any Ally Cooldown: 1 Turn Requires: Target 5+ Stress Target: -2 Stress, 10% Stress Resist / Mastery / Target: -3 Stress, 20% Stress Resist

Gestus – Debuff Ranks 1, 2, & 3, All Targets (Enemy) Cooldown: 3 Self: Gain 2 Taunt Tokens, 2 Dodge Tokens / Mastery / Self: Gain 2 Taunt Tokens, 2 Dodge Tokens, 1 Riposte Token Targets: Gain 1 Vulnerable Token

Improvisation – Melee Ranks 1 & 2, targets ranks 1 & 2 (Enemy) (Single Target) DMG: 3-9, Crit 10% Self & Target: Gain a random debuff (50%) / Mastery / DMG: 4-10, Crit 15% Self: Gain a random debuff (25%) Target: Gain a random debuff (50%) (1/2 because tumblr apparently has a character limit and i tried to fly too close to the sun with it)

[coffee-in-veins]

Hi hi! I've only played the Crimson Court dlc once so I've never wondered about this before, but I was reading a fic that mentioned how the Fanatic has a cure for the curse. Do you have a headcanon on how he got that? I can't recall whether is it a definitive cure or if just temporary, because if it's a definitive cure that's very impressive!

hello hello! hope you're fine and thank you for the ask :}

now i feel like Crimson Curse expert all of the sudden but i'm honoured you're asking me about it ^^

regarding your question - it is true! one of the ways to cure your Crimson Cursed heroes is, in fact, hunting the Fanatic, as defeating him drops a consumable item labelled simply as "The Cure":

Tooltip reads:

Its origin and ingredients unknown, but this tincture will quell the Curse. (sic)

and it's a consumable that, if used on a cursed hero, permanently cures them from Crimson Curse, regardless of its stage. the cured hero can be re-infected but this is the only way to cure the Curse before endgame (where you have the Sanatorium being able to do it after defeating the final boss of the Court) and without defeating any of the CC bosses (the event "A Veil Lifted" which cures all of the infected).

this item also can somewhat explain how Fanatic is keeping himself Curse-free while fighting the infected, but from the looks of it, it comes at the expense of everyone around him. which is doubly funny (and a lot more insidious in-universe) if you consider that the only place you cannot get an encounter with him is... well, the Courtyard itself. the very "den of the plague" he is trying to purge. ironic, isn't it?

i understand the game limitations of why it is coded like that. the in-universe lore implications (or rather theories) of those limitations, however... well. let's look closer, shall we?

some people speculate that Fanatic cannot enter the Courtyard because he doesn't have "the invitation" that you get if you kill the Gatekeeper mob. this would indicate that he respects the authority of Bloodsuckers over the Court, which is... weird, for a zealous fanatic. why would having no invitation stop him? he could just get in and do his job. I can understand why the Heir(ess) would try to play "nice" with a den of Bloodsuckers just near their town: if you won't play by Bloodsuckers' rules, Bloodsuckers won't play by their rules either, and Hamlet, in canon, is in no shape to withstand an onslaught of pissed mosquitoes. the town is a sitting duck, and in no position to anger the neighbour substantially. especially considering already present threats from other areas (canon swine attacks on villages, brigand raids, as well as Shrieker raids from the Weald and attacks on ships from the Cove). Hamlet cannot afford to piss the Court off all at once.

unlike a single, highly skilled man who (supposedly) has no base and just hunts those things everywhere they happen to be. wouldn't he be able to get away with this? he should be, right. he has the equipment. if you win, you get bloodsucker-fighting trinkets.

however, I have a much more prosaic and dark headcanon: he's scared to go there. Fanatic knows how risky it is, he knows that he’ll get killed if he steps into the Courtyard. so he simply... doesn’t. he doesn’t go and actually try and fix the problem, he’s “treating” the symptoms.

and by “treating” I mean stalking infected humans.

who are weaker than “true” Bloodsuckers. who are confused, maybe ill from extreme body transformations, probably scared of themselves, of their changes and sudden urges and can barely control themselves. villagers and travellers who would probably trust “a holy man” who promised them salvation from this odd ailment.

and all those people... end up on pyres.

think about it. when you meet him in combat, there are always - and I do mean always - people burning in the background. hell, even your own heroes end up on the pyre during the fight. we also know that surrounding areas, too, have suffered from Bloodsuckers. the initial quest is about a man who died from mosquito bites after he found a way into the Courtyard - which, again, dismantles (at least, for me) the idea of Fanatic being unable to get into the Courtyard if he really wanted to.

the town event after the Court is revealed reads:

Intolerable! Clouds of mosquitoes and other, less identifiable pests continue to descend upon the Hamlet with maddening persistence! Illness and irritation abound (sic)

so mosquitos canonically pester people around. mosquitos which, canonically, can transfer this Curse. it's not just your heroes who succumb to the Curse. it's just that as an Heir(ess) you, personally, are only bothered with your heroes, as their well-being and symptoms cause you to haemorrhage money and you can't simply dismiss them. therefore, Fanatic always have an abundant amount of bodies to shove into the flames.

seriously, with the number of pyres he needs, the dude has to constantly chop wood every waking moment of every day that he's not out there hunting your parties.

and that got me thinking.

he always has wood. he always knows when your party which consists of infected leaves towns. he always has bodies burning.

I believe he's leading a cult.

there has to be someone who helps him. if you tried to play the game you know how much everything costs. food, equipment, items, tools - it all costs money. you can meet Fanatic everywhere, anytime, unless you're following a very specific boss route. so someone informs him of your movement. someone provides him with all he needs to sustain himself and his fires. and frankly, if surrounding villages do start succumbing to the Curse and the guy offers a solution, albeit a horrible one... well... it's Darkest Dungeon. we all know those guys would accept without thinking twice.

that's why you never see him deep in the Courtyard - he doesn't have to throw himself into real danger to feel accomplished, to stroke his self-righteousness and to be convinced that he's "helping". he has a lot of victims - that's true. but that is not helping with the root of the problem.

now, regarding why and how he has the Cure.

well, he is clearly shown to be the priest of the Light (considering his relics), or at least, he believes himself to be one. based on Vestals, Crusaders, and the altars you can find and purify in Ruins, the Light canonically can create miracles if you do it favours and believe hard enough. considering that the guy is called Fanatic, we can safely assume his belief levels are off the charts. and he has a lot of "martyrs". so... that may upset a lot of people, but I think the Cure (and the reason why you cannot get it made) is made out of those burned people. it's martyred ashes and holy water and a lot of self-assuredness. after all, holy water canonically harms cursed heroes (stress and blight if I recall correctly) if they are in a Bloodlust state. so it does something to their cursed bodies. just not enough.

if it's distilled and mixed some more, and purified by a person who sees himself as infallible... well. who knows. but the purity seals, the prayer beads and the overall Light symbolic on the Cure's bottle, mixed with previous awful things happening in DD universe (from Outsiders bonfire having Swine instead of a pig to all of the messed up occult rituals, all of the messed up practices of the Church of the Light, and Ancestor of all things...), it wouldn't surprise me to have this be the basis of the Cure. suffering. pure, distilled, holy (in the most horrible way of that word) human suffering.

wouldn't it be poetic too, in a way? horrible, sure, but... interesting? pooling the suffering of dozens so that the suffering of one could be lifted. the moral choice it presents.

I wish we knew better about the cure. I wish it provided this moral question. I wish heroes had some barks about using it. but alas. we can only speculate, as far as I'm aware. so, I'm speculating to my heart's content.

hope this theory was fun for you to read :}

[fllagellant]

Stopping myself from enabling the crimson court dlc but oh . My god . I need it . I know it would absolutely ruin my current save since I am still trying to figure out everything + the other half of the big fights I have to do + I haven’ t gone into the darkest dungeon yet . But . Ohhh the bits I have read on it . Crimson curse that turns your heroes vampiric ?? The fucking fanatic ??? MORE HAMLET MANAGEMENT ?? INFECTION METER ??? I am so good at Not getting in over my head but I also Do in fact need her

[efangamez]

I love Darkest Dungeon, but holy fuck I hate the Fanatic.

The RNG of having your party snuck up on basically forces you to do the Crimson Court DLC to get rid of his ass.

Him on a Champion Dungeon is a death sentence without bleeding allies. Such bullshit.

And yes, I did get party wiped.