Do you have any really specific and/or personal Zukka headcanons that you’d be okay with sharing? I eat up every hc you put into your drawings like they’re candy, I was wondering if you had any others :D :D
OH boii i sure have,,, nothing coherent is coming to mind atm so ill just expose my Extensive backstories of zukka bethrotal armbands that idk if i will find a way to sneak into art.
sokka’s armband for zuko is forged back at Piandao’s mansion, and it's one of the most fine stunning pieces of jewelry ever crafted. it’s not the usual southern ivory but metal, more similar to the armbands worn as an accessory in the fire nation. it’s made of intertwining bands of gold and black meteor metal, with patterns of waves and dragon scales that seem to ripple and move when the light catches on them just right. and the pendant is a traditional blue stone from the swt.
There are no particular engagement gifts traditions in the fn, so zuko goes on a deep dive into southern water tribe ones, asking sokka’s family and friends about jewelry making and learning to engrave over the course of several trips to the swt. He makes sokka’s armband with ivory from his own first (successful) solo hunt. i’m not sure abt the material of the pendant lmao maybe gold? but amber would also be cool methinks
as for the pendant engraving they display a unique single braincell moment (untrue i just want them to match). love the fact that both of them are sea savvy navigators, love to think that in their pining era they spent a lot of time watching the stars and showing each other the different constellations and navigation pointers of their nations, so in both of their armbands’ stones are depicted the constellation used to guide sailors back home, sokka engraving the swt’s one on zuko’s armband and vice versa.
if they were sun’s out guns out kinda guys before this only gets worse during the first weeks of their engagement. shirts are banned. everyone look at the bethrotal armbands NOW.
2K notes
·
View notes
I fucking LOVE how loyal the companions are to each other... and how their relationships are evolving with both each other and the player.
to all those people who think Larian is copying Dragon Age... well Dragon Age would never have this. where all the very fucked up companions who are in this shit together actually recognise that fact with common sense and they support each other despite any differences. Not only that BUT they recognise the similarities they have with each other and support each other based on that fact
Example: Astarion-Gale (how Astarion comments "he is a man of taste" if the player is a little annoyed with Gale and if player says that he wants to suck out magic lol Or when Gale is supportive like the "don't do it Astarion, it's not worth it, trust me, I know the temptation only too well" and so on...)
If this was dragon age then they would talk to each other like "how typical, ofc you are like this, dickhead" and trying to be helpful and supportive would be a 1 in a billion dialogue. they would only make shit worse for each other. and look... interpersonal conflicts could be a fun driving force of plot but in da it mostly doesn't drive the plot. they are just making shit worse for the other person even when it makes no sense and when they should be more friendly and understanding based on their own struggles.
Another example: Wyll-Karlach (their conflict actually does start the plot. it has a significance, it's not there for no reason. but even after that initial conflict they immediately become understanding of each other and supportive. they both dislike devils, they both want to escape from that situation etc. and they don't act like idiots who don't see that they are in this together. even though one of them tried to kill the other. one of them received horns because of the other. )
I could go on... but whatever, you get the picture. I just like this type of writing for interactions between characters.
417 notes
·
View notes
did john decide which of his friends would be the necromancer and which would be the cavs when he brought them back from the dead, or was that random?
I wish we knew for sure! John's friends ending up 50/50 adepts vs. non-necromancers is obviously one of TM's premises and was done for doylistic reasons first and foremost, but I don't think we have enough elements to conclusively interpret it as intentional in-universe.
Putting aside any kind of authorial intentions, this is what we know:
» The rate of necromancers as part of the population hovers around 30%. John's core group being 50% adepts is way off from that, and could point to manipulation, but also we're working with a very small sample size. Think about how it's very possible to get head five times in a row when flipping coins; probabilities are much less accurate on a smaller scale. I don't believe it's out of the realm of possibilities that a group of 10 people had exactly 5 necromancers in it.
» Harrow's birth. The Reverend Parents made sure she would be a necromancer by manipulating the embryo with thanergy. It's clearly not a known practice among the Houses at large, and John calls it "a sort of Resurrection" — implying that he could be able to do the same with thalergy. However, this doesn't confirm that he actually DID.
In the same conversation, John says, "This was all different before we discovered the scientific principles," which I think is also worth noting. The fact that he understands NOW how you could get an embryo to grow into a necromancer doesn't mean that he had that knowledge at the time of the Resurrection. It also doesn't mean that the same identical process would apply to making formerly-dead-people into necromancers as they got brought back to life.
It could very well be that necromancy was a generalised side-effect of the Resurrection that affected some people more than others; or it could be that John DID do something different when bringing back some people that conferred them necromantic aptitude. Even if it's the latter, I don't think we can take for granted that 1) it was intentional and 2) he fully knew what the side effects would be.
» Ulysses and Titania. Counterpoint! It's also worth noting that John's "test cases" turned out to be one (1) adept and one (1) non-adept. Like I said above, this could still be a random bi-product of the Resurrection... but given Ulysses and Titania's whole everything, their dichotomy reeks of control group. They are a big point in favour of the "John did it on purpose" column.
Still: I still don't think we can tell for sure that John knew from the moment of Resurrection that he was giving some people death powers, and how that'd turn out in the long run. Like I said above, he could have done something different when resurrecting Ulysses vs. Titania, but it doesn't mean that he knew what would happen.
(Obviously, this argument only makes sense if we assume that Ulysses and Titania were among the very first batch of resurrected. I personally think they were, but obviously it's not confirmed)
» The inner circle. From NtN
I could only trust the inner circle. My scientists, my engineer, my detective, my lawyer, my artist, my nun, my hedge fund manager. My diehards. The ones keeping the lights on.
Putting aside the fact that Lyctors exist the way they are because Tamsyn needed them to exist, and looking at the Canaan House necro/cav pairings from John's point of view: why not give ALL his friends magical powers? That's something I struggle to wrap my head around, for about half a dozen different reasons.
Mind, I don't think John picking and choosing who gets to be a necromancer is that far-fetched, but from a #character point I find it less likely than the alternative (he didn't do it on purpose but turned it to his own advantage). IF it turns out to be canon, I'd be really curious about what the watsonian reasoning for it, beyond "this needed to happen."
Most meta posts I've seen that take for granted John picked and chose his future necromancers ascribe him a level of foresight, knowledge, and long-term planning that I simply don't think he'd have had at the time (not to mention the mental lucidity). To quote HtN John again, "[he] had never been God" before. I truly think he was winging it at least 60% of the time.
106 notes
·
View notes
Mandalorian Government (All Is Well AU)
Finally managed to make some sense of this old post and change some things, so here is how Mandalore works in my AU!
Enjoy:
First of all, the citizens:
To be considered a citizen of age, and so have the right to vote, it depends on when and how you became a Mandalorian:
If you are born mandalorian in a mandalorian family, or have been adopted as a child, all you have to do is complete the Verd’goten and continue following the Resol’nare.
If you became a mandalorian as an adult or over the age for the Verd’goten, you have to follow the Resol’nare, and you’ll get the right to vote after being a mandalorian for 5 years.
When you reach the age of 60, you can still vote, but you cannot run for any kind of political office.
There are three main bodies in this government:
The Assembly
The Council
The Governors
The Assembly is formed by 30 elements, and with the two Governors they are 32.
To be elected as a member you have to be a citizen of age, so the standard mandalorian citizen can be elected if they're at least 13 years old (since that’s the age of the Verd’goten), but not if they’re over 60. It’s rare to see mandalorians under the age of 18 actually be elected, but some actually managed it.
Obviously the non-human species that have different life spans will have different rules, with their years equating to the human ones.
Each of the nine planets of the Mandalorian System runs elections to choose three mandalorians to represent the planet in the Assembly.
Not only the citizens of the planets can run for elections, but also those who live on their moons, which is a bit tricky for the planets of Bonagal and Shukut, who have 34 and 30 moons, but they seem to manage just fine.
Only one member per Clan can run for election, and more often than not, they are elected based more on the power of their names than their actual worth as a candidate.
But this doesn’t preclude the way to those who come from less known Clans, who are sometimes even preferred by the citizens, because they are considered more part of the people, and not spoiled kids of powerful families.
This way we have 27 members elected.
The other 3 are chosen by the Assembly, and are the representatives of the Three Houses: House Vizsla, House Kast and House Kryze.
This was a rule made to avoid internal conflicts, so that the Houses could not complain about losing power or not being represented in the government. They have the same power as the other members of the Assembly, no more, no less.
For each member their tenure lasts 20 years, with the exception, for example, that if a member is elected when they’re 50 then their tenure will only last 10 years, if elected at 45 it will only last 15 years and so on.
They can decide to withdraw from their position, but only after 5 years of service.
Their position can be taken away with a Vote-of-No-Confidence, who can be called by any individual that brings enough evidence to show their reasoning about the vote.
If any of this happens, their planet is given three months to redo a new election for a new member, if this is not done then the Assembly can choose a new member on their own.
The Council doesn’t have actual political power, their position is more honorary than anything else, they are there to give advice and suggestions to the Assembly and the Governors, but their voice has no power in the actual decision making.
It’s made up of 6 elders, elected by the Assembly, with tenure for life, and to be part of it you need to be at least 60 years old.
Most of the time they are former members of the Assembly, who cannot be re-elected there, and so they are given this position. There have been cases in which some of those elected never held political tenure, but they are rare.
They too can lose their position, but this can be decided only by a Vote-of-No-Confidence made and voted by the Assembly.
The citizens have no say on the Council, since they have no power and are only used as advice givers.
The Governors are the heads of state of the Mandalorian System.
They are chosen with an election done across all the planets of the system, and are voted by only the citizens of age.
To run for the election they need to be at least 20 years old, and anyone from any Clan or House can do so.
Their tenure lasts ten years, and the decade of the Mandalorian calendar in which they governed has the name of the two Governors (for example: the decade of Satine and Arla is called “The Years of Fett and Kryze”)
When one becomes a Governor, they have to wear a purple cloak, to signify their status as head of state, and distinguish them from the rest of the Assembly.
They too can have their power taken by a Vote-of-No-Confidence, that can be called by any individual that brings enough evidence to show their reasoning about the vote, but this happens only if at least 25 members of the Assembly vote against the Governor.
No, challenging one of the Governors to a duel to the death will not give you their position of power, but it will give you the chance to get your ass beaten and obliterated by all the 30 members of the Assembly for even suggesting such a stupid idea.
extra random info:
Mandalore is not part of the Republic, but the System decided to at least maintain a good relationship between the two, and every ten years, they invite emissaries of the Republic to the Celebration of the election of the new Governors.
More often than not the emissaries they send are Jedi, as if the Republic was testing them to see if they cared more about their current peace, or the war of the past. But for now no mandalorian ever attacked verbally or physically any of the Jedi sent there, or at least, none of the Jedi ever said anything about it in their reports, so who knows.
57 notes
·
View notes
George Barbier, The Four Elements: Le Feu (Fire), L'Air (Air), La Terre (Earth) and L'Eau (Water), Falbalas & fanfreluches: almanach des modes présentes, passées & futures pour 1922 [-1926], 1925.
The ancient Greeks believed that there were four elements that everything was made up of: earth, water, air, and fire.
Historians believe that as early as the 8th century BCE, ancient Greek philosophers of the Archaic period began formulating theories of the four classical elements. Although the Greeks believed that the four elements were unchanging in nature, everything was made up of these elements, held together or pushed apart by forces of attraction and repulsion, causing substances to appear to change. This is similar to what really happens with elements and all molecules at an atomic level. (x)
103 notes
·
View notes