#elves and humans too

[thewardenisonthecase]

Im still never forgiving trespasser for having leliana translate something from qunlat when Adaar is standing there. And like, in Iron Bull's recruitment scene, its established adaar KNOWS qunlat. Their parents were still raised under the qun, makes sense they would know it.

[wheeloffortune-design]

if fantasy dwarves are supposed to live underground they should be able to see in the dark, like cats, and they should have eyes that do the thing

and the other thing

[crazysodomite]

killing my elf

[synonymroll648]

was rereading exile recently and apparently it took me 38 rereads of this book to realize that the foster family has a movie night family tradition. popcorn, store bought cookies, curling up on the couch together, the whole shebang. pretty sure it was noted to be a weekly occurrence. this has persisted before and after sophie left the forbidden cities.

call me the grinch the way my heart grew three sizes when i realized that bro. my brain has been going nuts w/ ideas on how to incorporate that into fics lol

[casino-lights]

so we have confirmation that veilguard was made in a year and a half. that's understandably such a time crunch and must have put unimaginable stress on the dev team, especially with the mass effect team coming in partway through. I do have empathy for the writers. no one deserves to lose their job at a time like this, especially not after such a roller coaster of a development cycle and after working on this series for so many years.

however.

obsidian made kotor 2, a game praised for its writing and many fans' favorite of the pair, in 14 months. they then proceeded to make fallout: new vegas, again praised for its writing and hailed as a shining example of video game storytelling, in 18 months. a lot of content was ultimately cut from both of these games, but in kotor's case, it was lovingly added back in by fans over the years despite not being especially easy to mod because the fans were so passionate about what they already had that they wanted to enhance it. these games are both known to be kinda janky as well. but the games at their core have satisfying stories, characters, and an incredible overall narrative that feels satisfying and fits with their respective universes, maintains respect for the established lore and characters, and is tonally consistent with the atmosphere and themes of previous games. hell, dragon age 2 was also made in about the same time frame based on what I could find, and as much as the assets were reused there and it could be occasionally glitchy, it remains one of the best bioware narratives with some of their most memorable characters, and it accomplished that while both keeping to the lore and vibe of the dragon age series AND expanding it into new territory.

I am aware that there are differences like engines, era, expectations, pushes from management, etc, but I'm mostly focusing on the writing and the narrative team's priorities. I wouldn't care if they reused assets to save time and money. I wouldn't care if a couple side quests had to go, or some character arcs were a little less polished, or some side characters were cut entirely. honestly I would have preferred it if some of the characters WERE cut entirely. if you're just going to spit on all of her character development, don't bring morrigan back. cut some of that banter in the lighthouse and let me talk to my companions properly. cut that goddamn arena and put those resources toward fleshing out the lords of fortune. even if the rest of the team wanted that entire faction cut so they could focus on other things, cut the fucking faction.

I will never apologize for rightfully criticizing the choices the writers made while making this game. the game talks to you - both you as the player AND you as the character - like you're stupid. repeating things over and over again just to make sure you Really Get It, dumbing down so many aspects of its own lore, reducing any kind of conflict to therapy speak or an HR meeting, etc. rook has no characterization to speak of and their dialogue and tone is wildly inconsistent depending on which npc you're speaking to at the time. why is rook clever enough to do playful, flirty hunter/prey banter with davrin but also too awkward to properly flirt with harding? the one canonically nonbinary neurodivergent companion frequently expresses themselves by growling and roaring and their individuality and competency are repeatedly undermined by their own writer's narrative decisions and banter. the game disregards its own lore and at times straight up contradicts itself. it's pretty, but lacks substance, and fails to live up to the standards a lot of us had for a dragon age game.

I won't pretend I know everything that went on behind the scenes but I think a year and a half is more than enough time to write a better narrative than what we got, even with some pushback from another dev team. I've seen countless thinkpieces by fans who have come up with solutions for plot holes and fixes for the overall narrative, and these are people who came up with this stuff in a matter of a few days or weeks, or sometimes just a few hours. you can't blame me for thinking veteran bioware writers - who SHOULD know their own lore by now - could have come up with something better than this in that amount of time, regardless of the limitations. choices were made and things were prioritized that shouldn't have been. I do not forgive the writers, EA, or bioware execs for this, and I will continue to criticize the responsible parties for the product we were sold, which includes criticizing the writers for shoddy work.

tl;dr: I don't believe the writing team made the best of the time they had and I fault them for that. but maybe that's on me for hoping that a game with its narrative led by weekes and epler would have actually been good in the first place.

[mistress-light]

It just shows how little these 'gamerbros' actually know of the Witcher lore and books. It has never been stated that a female can't pass the Trial of the Grasses; it just hasn't been recorded that one has successfully ever done so.

[lordgrimwing]

just saw a post saying Charles Edwards is 'too old' to play Celebrimbor. That is entirely wrong.

[stuck-in-jelly]

Many questions about hybrid kids in TDP but mostly about the lifespan.

If elves can live for hundreds of years and humans at the most one hundred what does that mean for half elf half human kids?

Longer? Shorter? Would it also depend? Is it different for each child? Is there a possibility for them to age differently from their parents as well?

[edennill-archived]

cultural headcanon of the day: the teleri absolutely have a sign language for communicating underwater

[clarissaweasley-10]

Fitz Vacker is just a 90 year old grandpa stuck in the body of a teen, leave my man alone 😭😭😭😭

[i-will-physically-fight-you]

Tangle up the True and the Fable Fic

Title: Tangle up the True and the Fable Pairings: Janus & Patton (Paternal Mociet) Summary: Janus groaned when he saw the small figure creeping along the fringes of his castle walls. Not another one, it'd be the second time this month. // Or in which, Janus is tired of the so-called gods sending teenagers and children to fight their own battles. Word-Count: 1.9k Warnings: Fantasy AU, Magic, Anger, Hurt/Comfort, Crying, All of the Sides are Present (the other four just play minor roles in this) AO3 LINK Hello this was written for the @tss-camp-and-coffee's Camp Cartoon event for @dndeceit. Their prompt was: "Fantasy AU - young hero winds up being adopted by the dark lord they're meant to defeat." It should come to no surprise to anyone that has read my fics that I immediately snatched this one up, lol I also took inspiration from this tumblr post, which I've been saving in my tumblr drafts as inspo for years now.

Janus groaned when he saw the small figure creeping along the fringes of his castle walls. Not another one. 

“This is the second one this month.” Logan commented out loud, standing beside him to view their intruder. The teenager’s hand rested on his chin contemplatively, “Do you think you’ll be able to reason with this one without violence?”

“Oh, like the way I was able to reason with you?” Janus asked, raising an eyebrow. “I seem to recall a certain someone greeting me with a knife to the chest in lieu of pleasantries.” 

“At the time, the element of surprise had been the most logical course of action,” Logan refuted, as he always did when this topic was broached, “I know better now.”

A flash of blue emanated from their intruder. Janus frowned as he felt their magic clumsily poke and prod at his wards’ defenses. With a flick of his hand, he acquiesced to its brash, abrasive demands. 

The figure hopped backwards a bit, as if startled their spell had worked. Slowly, hesitatingly, they stepped through the broken ward. 

“Logan,” Janus said, adjusting his gloves, “can you let the others know we have a guest?”

Logan nodded, “Of course. I will also prepare a room for them.”

“Good.” Janus said, before hopping out of the window. For a moment, he was weightless before he shifted, twisted into a form suitable for the air. With a few flaps of his wings, he landed with ease in front of their intruder.

He snorted a bit, smoke trailing out of his nostrils like tendrils. Their little intruder gaped up at him. They were indeed little–even in Janus’s humanoid form, this one would barely reach his chest. Their armor was ill-fitting, meant to fill out a person with adult proportions. It was hastily modified with belts to keep it from slipping off their frame.

Janus held back a snarl at the sight of it. Sending teenagers to fight their own battles was pathetic and cowardly; but a child? Would the next one be a toddler? 

“Dragon!” The little intruder called out, “I–I’ve come to fight you.”

Janus tilted his head. With a twist and a shift, he shredded his scales for his humanoid form once more. “Brave one, are we? What do you plan to accomplish by fighting me?”

The child’s hand gripped the hilt of his sword. “You’re an evil dragon–I have to fight you and–and–”

“And what?” Janus pressed.

“Kill you.” The child admitted, their own face twisted up at the thought of it.

“Have you ever killed a person before?”

“Never! Killing is bad, b-but you’re evil so I ha-ha-have to–” The child broke into a sob. 

“Young one, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Janus said. 

The child shook their head. With one heaving, gulping breath, they pulled out their sword out of its hilt and charged towards him. The sword glowed blue, enhanced by their magic. Janus sidestepped the first strike, then the second and the third.

The sword nicked him on the fourth hit, barely a scratch given his accelerated healing. Impressively, the swings of the sword were quick, unnaturally so, but still not enough.

The fight, if one could call it a fight, did not last long.

The child collapsed of their own volition, the sword falling out of their grasp with a clatter. Its blue glow spluttered before fading with a pop . Magic depletion. The child’s magic was rough and unrefined–it lacked the necessary control to keep spells from burning exorbitant amounts of energy.

The young one coughed, their skin clammy with sweat. Janus smelled blood before he saw it seeping out of the side of their mouth. But instead of being a crimson red, it was gold.

A godling, one of their own young.

“Shh,” Janus murmured as he approached the now-sobbing child, “You’ve been so brave and I’m proud of you. But that’s enough now. It was cruel of them to make you fight me–you never could have won. It’s not your fault.”

His gentle words and calm composure betrayed none of the roiling anger beneath it all. Anger not at the child, but at the so-called gods who continually sent teenagers and now a child (one of their own, even) to fight their own battles.

He leaned downwards and gathered the child into his arms with ease. The young one went painfully still, their eyes tightened shut as if expecting the worse. Janus’s fury only ever deepened.

‘Focus.’ He reminded himself. He had more pressing matters that required his immediate attention, such as keeping a child from fainting from magic depletion. Already the young one’s magic instinctively clawed at his own, begging for nourishment. 

He hummed, concentrating. He had to be cautious with how much he gave to the child–too much and it would only exacerbate the problem. Carefully, he allowed a sliver of his magic to be absorbed, enough to bring some color to the child’s cheeks.

The child sniffled, their eyes slowly opening up with a spark of realization.

“You’re not going to…kill me?”

“I don’t kill children.”

“B–but you killed all the other heroes.”

“Ah, is that so?” Janus asked with a tsk. Of course that was the lies they fed to the little godling. He opened his mouth to speak further, when enraged shrieks echoed from behind them. 

He did not need to turn around to know there was a rabble of teenagers spilling out of the castle.

“No fair! I want to be the first–”

“Well too slow, bro!”

“Guys, you’re going to scare them–”

“Virgil is right, while I understand you two are excited, it is best we do not crowd and overwhelm our guest.” 

The child peered over Janus’s shoulder, their fingers digging into Janus’s shoulder to get a better view of the disorderly entourage. No doubt Remus and Roman were leading the way, pushing and tripping up one another in an arbitrary race to be first to the scene. Virgil was most likely a step behind, a protective shadow since he arrived earlier this month. Logan would not be not far off, walking at a more measurable pace. 

“As you can see, they’re very dead. Not at all alive and eating me out of my house and home.”

The child kept staring.

“Would you like to meet them? I can send them away if you are uncomfortable with meeting them.”

“But…why?”

“Why what, young one?”

“You’re–you’re supposed to be evil. My dad said so. But–” The child sunk their teeth into their lip, “You seem nice. Your words taste true.”

Taste true? Oh, interesting. Did this godling possess the ability to sense the truth behind one’s words? 

One of Janus’s ears twitched as the noise behind them quieted. It seemed Logan and Virgil had managed to persuade the twins into waiting until Janus gave them permission to approach. 

“Was your dad the one who sent you to me?”

The child nodded, words getting tangled in their throat. Their magic cried out in their stead, blasting Janus with an onslaught of visages. Of a sword pressed into too-small hands, their fingers forcibly curled around it by larger uncaring ones. Of a young voice bounding themself to a pledge, awkwardly repeating the words of a booming distant voice. Of a child meandering and stumbling through the wilderness, scarcely surviving off berries and stale bread. 

It seemed Janus was not the only one blasted with the psionic outburst. There was a murmured outburst from the teenagers. Their voices kept hushed but still too loud for an attempt at discrepancy. 

He kept his attention on the godling.

“Young one, do you understand what a pledge is?”

“Yes–it’s an important promise. Like a pinky promise.”

“Exactly like a pinky promise.” Janus smiled, “What did you pledge to your dad?”

“I had to kill the evil dragon, in order to keep everyone safe and happy,” The child said, “Dad is always really busy but he said if I–I did it, I’d prove myself to him and he’d let me live with him.”

Janus doubted he could explain to the godling how subjective the concepts of good and evil were. Much less, that love is something freely given and not earned. But he could begin with tearing away the putrid pledge held sway of the godling.

‘There is no evil dragon in this land, only a dragon who is neither wholly good nor evil. Thus, this pledge is invalid and void.’ The fibers of the pledge tore apart, disintegrating. 

There were many reasons why the gods feared him and this was one of them. Their magic came from mortals’ belief. An acknowledgement in the idea the gods were almighty and powerful. More than that, through this belief they siphoned mortals’ own magic and took it for their own. This was why so few mortal mages existed. 

But from a young age, Janus had not given them such acknowledgement. His magic grew untampered and untainted by their influence. For a long, long time, the gods had not known. Why would they take notice of a mere mortal who pretended to be faithful? It wasn’t until he started making more unsubtle moves that they took a more offensive approach. A cowardly, despicable approach to be precise.

The godling relaxed in his embrace, the weight of the pledge leaving their body. He wasn’t sure if they knew what he’d done, nor was he sure if he could begin to explain why he’d done it.

“Young one, I will pledge to you that I will not intentionally harm you as long as you are with me. And if I do so, then I will suffer your decided consequences.”

They squinted their eyes up at him, “You’ll feel…really sad!”

“Really sad?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. I will agree to those terms,” Janus said, “I, Janus, pledge to abide to the aforementioned promise to you–”

“Patton.” The child provided helpfully.

“To you, Patton. Should I break it, I will be split asunder with the consequences of feeling really sad about it.” Janus said, finishing it off with a dramatic hand over his forehead.

Patton giggled, the child’s tears drying up.

“You mean it…you really mean it!” Patton exclaimed, giddiness floating off the child. Literally. Janus could feel it try and squeeze itself around his chest cavity. “You really are a nice dragon!”

“I am kind to those who are reciprocal of such kindness,” Janus said, mindful of his phrasing. He did not know how much Patton could sense truth behind words, and he did not want to break this tentative trust so soon. 

The hushed murmurs behind them were only increasing in volume. Janus chuckled under his breath. 

“Now, would you be up for making some new friends? They’ve been very patient and are excited to meet you. But you do not have to meet them if you do not wish to do so.”

Janus followed Patton’s gaze, finally acknowledging the others for the first time. Remus gave them an enthusiastic wave as he laid on top of Roman, who apparently lost the race. Virgil held up a hesitant hand, his wings pressed tight together to appear smaller. Logan stood by him, his eyes bright with curiosity.

“I want to meet them.” Patton tugged on Janus’s cloak, insistently. A yearning ache gnawed at Janus’s bones, slipping through his defenses with its fierce desperation.

Janus smiled, ignoring the way it threatened to grow taunt with a snarl. The gods were going to die a slow, agonizing death once Janus was finished with them. But that would be saved for another time.

Right now, the most important thing was ensuring Patton felt safe and protected within his castle walls.

[zhoudadudugongjin]

"Elf eyes can see distances beyond than the horizon" broke

"Elf eyes have like 10 types of colour cones and can see entire spectrums of colour beyond human comprehension" woke

[kradogsrats]

Okay, so new day; new insane lore history theory.

Looking at the tapestry from ToX again more closely, after my very quick scan this morning, there are actually five distinct types of soldiers shown:

Based on careful examination of the contemporary armor/uniforms used by the Pentarchy armies, I landed on this breakdown:

I could explain in great detail how I made those distinctions, but honestly it doesn't matter and people don't care. Just trust me, I thought hard about it.

Originally I misidentified there as only being three types of soldiers, because the Katolis/Evenere and Neolandia/Del Bar designs are very similar. Also because the tapestry shows three cities:

Katolis is obvious, and I still think the other two are Berylgarten and Neolandia. The map helpfully tells us there are five known cities in the human kingdoms, complete with little pictures:

I've left out Hinterpeak because it's very obvious none of the tapestry cities is Hinterpeak, Hinterpeak is literally inside a mountain. Del Bar's secondary city, Serpentongue, looks like a candidate based on its map drawing, but ToX tells us that Serpentongue actually looks like this, which is... less representative of what the tapestry shows:

We see Berylgarten briefly in s2 during Viren's flashback sections, where it's a sort of tiered city with towers around a central dome:

I think that's closer to the top tapestry city than Serpentongue is, though it's still fairly abstracted. It also makes more sense for the "capital" city of a kingdom to be represented.

Finally, we have Eboreus, which is a bit of a problem child because we have no long-distance views of Eboreus that I can recall... there are depictions of the inside of the city, but nothing that would characterize its silhouette for us. However, ToX does have another piece of "old" artwork, meant to be probably some kind of fresco, depicting the founding of Neolandia and Eboreus:

(This is the latter, Eboreus half, the right half just shows the people migrating from the east and going through a nomadic tent-based civilization period.)

It doesn't help a ton, except that construction of the city wall is given a pretty dramatic place in the visual narrative. I would definitely assume, from this, that Eboreus is a walled city similar to the bottom tapestry city. Combined with the many-spired depiction on the map, I feel okay about that identification.

It's interesting that they geographically represent only three of the five kingdoms, but if the tapestry pre-dates parts of the kingdoms' formations... well, the kingdom that's a swamp infested with magical megagators and the kingdom where they still choose the next monarch by having a literal melee free-for-all are honestly the ones I'd say probably took the longest to establish like... actual government.

However, something to keep in mind is that while I've been talking about this tapestry like it's a super-old historical document within the setting, it may actually not be from all that far in the past. All we really know is that it shows a conflict between humans and elves, divided by the Border, and that's not exactly a historically unique scenario. The main things that suggest it's showing an earlier time than "now" are that it includes only three cities, and that it clearly depicts mages being heavily involved in warfare. If that was something that was expected at series time, a lot of things would be very different. I could, however, see it being a thing as late as, say, the time of the Orphan Queen. I mention all of this because the tapestry is one of several "old"-looking art pieces in Tales of Xadia, but we have to keep in mind that one of those literally depicts Harrow killing Avizandum, so. It could be very old, it could be not-very old. (I mean, 300 years is still pretty old, in the scope of known human history.)

Really, though, what I wanted to talk about is this:

We have our "Katolian" soldier, but the heraldry on their shield is not the Katolis uneven towers, even though that's already a distinguishing feature of the kingdom (as seen in the city depictions). Instead, it's a layered uh... thing. But it's a thing we've seen before:

The guards at Allhaven Hill have their own heraldry, presumably because they're supposed to be neutral regardless of their kingdom of origin... but it's almost exactly the same overlapping geometric design as we see in the tapestry.

We also have Blondie McKatolis, in the flashback scenes during Zubeia's account of Aaravos's imprisonment, strongly implying that we are seeing representatives of the human kingdoms at the time of the Orphan Queen:

We pretty clearly also have Neolandia, Del Bar, and Evenere at this table. Also Duren, I just always get confused by her since they gave her those purple-y pink accents instead of blue. Why? No idea. What is this, Sleeping Beauty?

Anyway, Blondie up there also does not use the modern Katolian uneven-towers heraldry, nor the crown that matches it. Depending on how long the Aaravos bullshit had been going on, it's not surprising that the Orphan Queen would try for a clean slate when taking the throne. Having just averted devastation on both sides of the Border by working together with Xadia, "finding strength in our differences" is a pretty good choice for new logo inspiration. (I don't actually know how you adopt/change heraldry. But I do know logo design and branding strategy!)

Given that all five kingdoms technically appear in the tapestry, the "Pentarchy" heraldry could already be a united human kingdoms symbol... except then why isn't it on any of the other soldiers? Some of them have shields almost exactly the same as the Katolian soldiers, but no heraldry.

So here's a thought: what if it actually is the Katolian heraldry of the time, or a symbol of the kingdoms united under Katolis?

Katolis is one of the older and larger kingdoms, it's implied to have had a larger and more organized military for a long time (holding most of the Border), and Blondie is the one with Aaravos whispering in his ear. It wouldn't be super weird if Katolis at one point held a higher position than the other kingdoms, whether as "first among equals" or an actual system of vassals with a "high king" or whatever. The center, frontmost piece of the overlapping geometry, so to speak.

We have occasionally gotten weird little hints/implications that the current era of peace between the human kingdoms, even the entire concept of the Pentarchy, is fairly recent. What if that's not because they were all squabbling amongst themselves even after the mage wars wound down, but that prior to the Orphan Queen, they were all varying degrees of vassal states to Katolis? If part of what the Orphan Queen did was reset the human kingdoms as equals, doing a "this symbol now belongs to all of us, not just Katolis, and Katolis will adopt new heraldry" could be a nice gesture.

But yeah, that's how my brain has been spinning today.

[sleepyorchidmonster]

What if king Henrik managed to steal Malleus's egg after defeating Meleanor?

The main point is that the egg WOULDN'T hatch because it needs love (and even in canon it took a couple of centuries to hatch, despite the presence of Lillia and Maleficia).

So after a few tries, he discards his plans and keeps the egg as a trophy. Years pass and a five year-old Silver finds the trophy room while playing. He stumbles into the pedestal holding the egg, but manages to save it before it falls.

The child then senses a tiny heartbeat, and realizes there is a baby inside the egg!

The egg hatches immediately. Baby Silver loved it at once (the way he did once upon a dream).

And that's how we get a Dragon Prince journey (sorta).

After the dragon hatched, Silver went to talk with his animal friends to see if they could help (he loves his parents, but he couldn't just tell them he went to the trophy room to play, some instinct of his was also telling him they couldn't be trusted).

He left the little dragon under the care of a mother bear and went to the library to see if he could find anything. He came across a few old books from before the Silver Owls that described the Draconias (the little prince was so excited! His dragon friend could become a friend friend! He didn't have any friends besides the animals! And the dragon was even a fellow prince!)

But first things first! His dragon friend needed to meet his actual family, they were probably worried sick! So he grabbed a few maps, marked out the closest fae castle, told his parents he would go play with the animals in the woods and left.

The trek was very long and dangerous, but the entire forest was on his side. Baby Silver kept talking to Malleus, explaining life as a prince, introducing his animal friends, and trying to find out if he liked to eat berries.

They avoided war-stricken areas and managed to reach fae territory. And that's when things took a turn for the worse.

Henrik and the Silver Owls found them. Apparently, the egg was missing and a search party was assembled to follow its magical traces. Baby Silver didn't know that, and went to greet his uncle, saying that he was helping out a friend find his family!!

Henrik looked at his nephew, then at the dragon, and went for the kill, literally. The kid couldn't even defend himself, as his uncle cut him down with a simple strike (dawn knight was at home).

And that's when baby Malleus's magic blew up.

A snowstorm of cataclysmic proportions struck, complete with fire tornados and lightning. At the center of it all stood two children, the tiny Silver that was bleeding out, and Malleus, who had taken a human form and was trying to close the wound (he changed forms because he was scared and emulated the only thing he could think of as strong and protection, and that thing was five year-old Silver). Meanwhile, all of the animals formed a protective circle around them.

Luckily, reinforcements soon arrived. Both Lillia and Maleficia came (that storm could only be a Draconia's doing, they would NOT lose the egg again). They made quick work of the rest of the Silver Owls before rushing to Malleus's aid.

The animals let the faes though, as if they knew the dragon had finally found his kin. But Malleus wouldn't let go of Silver, even when the kid started telling him "Look, we found your family!! You're safe!", smiling despite the pain and looming death.

With the use of "Far Cry Cradle", Lillia quickly explained the situation, and the faes made the decision to save the human. They had a much too big debt with this child, who was so innocent it hurt.

They were also keeping the human. If that despicable man was his UNCLE, then no way in hell were the rulers of Briar Valley going to give the child back to his family. It would be a disgrace to the Draconia family.

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

Now, there a a few ways this AU could go.

1. The faes weren't able to save Silver. They create a monument in his honor and he becomes the only human they respect. Relations with the Silver Owls may improve now that Henrik is dead, if they can convince Dawn Knight his son died to save Malleus.

2. The faes save Silver, who lives in Briar Valley until the end of his mortal lifespan, acting as Malleus's big brother and knight. The Silver Owls are angry, but eventually come to an agreement once they realize there was no mind control involved.

3. The faes manage to save Silver, but the wounds were so grave that he had to stay in magic stasis for a few hundred years. Receiving the BOTW Shrine of Ressurection treatment. Due to the nature of the magic, he lost his memories, got silver hair and became sleepy. He later wakes up and becomes the Silver we all know and love. Malleus still sees him as the older brother, but thinks that now it's his turn to protect the human!

[wife-of-legolas]

Plumbing in Middle Earth

Just rewatched LOTR, came to the scene when Merry & Pip were washing dishes after the firework incident and started wondering about ME plumbing. So I did some digging- in that particular scene they're washing from a bucket (no tap), however, if you back up to the scene where Bilbo invites Gandalf into the kitchen, you can see fairly clearly a tap by the window! This brings up a whole load of questions & assumptions. By my reasoning, if they have somewhat 'modern' taps, they should have fairly advanced sewer systems and we'd assume toilets, baths with running water, etc. But, there's a whole can of worms that opens. Hobbits seem to have a somewhat typical standard of living across social classes, although some variation (Frodo & Bilbo inheritance, Sam working class), they all seem to have similar living conditions. I'd go so far to assume that the whole shire, and therefore everyone in it, would have advanced plumbing. Side note- the hobbits never having left the shire would also be spending their time in the wilderness without washrooms for the first time. Extra fun.

However, what about humans? Dwarves? Elves?

Humans, in contrast to hobbits, seem to have a clearer divide in living conditions between classes. I think that the lower classes would not have access to running water, and therefore have to draw water from wells.

I don't want to even think about the state of dwarven washrooms, or how on earth they drain them underground, so yeah. I'll leave that up to your imagination. The real kicker is the elves. We don't know a lot about the specifics of their bodily functions (except they're a lot cooler than us ofc), and therefore the question can be asked: do they release bodily waste in the same way as us? If so are there fancy wood-carved elven toilets in, say, Rivendell? And it probably smells like butterflies and rainbows, let's be honest. Also, though I doubt they need them, super nice baths and possibly showers.

Also on this note I could go on a whole tangent about my whole 'elf hair oil is a natural conditioner which is why they always have perfect hair' tangent but thought I'd keep it short & sweet

[amber-in-the-rough]

Aaravos said that humans have taught him one lesson and that is the lesson of patience. I take it that in his opinion, Xadians (the Startouch, at least) don't know patience. And thus their impatience is a bad thing.

And then we hear Janai say, "We're going to rebuild, with patience". The Sun seed will take its sweet time to grow as well as it will take time for humans and elves to reconcile and learn to live together. Janai is willing to wait, to be patient. Heh, we can say she has learned the same lesson as Aaravos and it was Amaya (a human) in most part who helped her with it.

Karim... is short-sided and impatient. Which means- he will probably achieve a lot in the short run buuut in the long run he's doomed to fail.

The worst thing is that if the Pharos being Aaravos's puppet theory is correct, then Karim's impatience will only give the sparkly elf one more advantage.