#first time posting my nerevar design :)

[miraakulous-cloud-district]

This was supposed to be a fun Valentine's day tag game, but alas, I hadn't had the time to do it until now. Anyway, I found these cute make-your-ship games and I thought what better way to see what my friend's ships are than to make this tag game!

Doing this for WYGTYA and HOTHS, I'm gonna ramble about my ships from my fics for a little bit because I love them, but first, I'm tagging: @bougainvillea-and-saltwater @kiir-do-faal-rahhe @illumiera @thelavenderelf @dirty-bosmer @sheirukitriesfandom @bostoniangirl21 @nerevar-quote-and-star only if y'all want to, of course!💖 Also, to whoever else sees this and wished to participate, consider yourself tagged (and tag me in your post, I want to see everyone's ships!)

The links are as follows: F/M F/F M/M

First off, since WYGTYA was the first fic I started posting, it's only fair to start with the ships from there!

One the left, we have the Ravvyraak! She's making Miraak hold her lute because she wants to get another fancy goblet of booze, of course. She's probably teasing him and calling him a lightweight.

And on the right, we have Rumcurio! I haven't picked a background because I can really see Rumarin and Marcurio sneaking off into a dark corner to make out :)))) Maybe both ships are at the same party.

Do Fenrik/Miraak and Rumarin have the same haircut? Yes, but consider this: they got ready for the party together because they're besties, and ever since Chapter 10, Rumarin wants Fenrik to always braid his hair.

And here's a little bonus! My Nerevarine (the red-haired one) and her girlfriend, who is a great-aunt (adoptive) of Ravonna! She is the one who brought a literal emerald bar for the Tavern when the family business started in Blacklight, thus giving it the name "The Emerald Bar"! Aaaand, Ravvy's adoptive dad named her after this woman! I can never have enough Ravonnas, underused name tbh.

***

And now for the pirates that are rotting my brain (SPOILER WARNING FOR THE HOTHS SHIPS, I guess)

In order of appearance, we first have Rhaim, everyone's favourite werewolf, with Edward, this annoyingly competitive Nord that's really good at cooking and throwing knives. (the apple is a reference to a dumb line of dialogue that Rhaim says in the upcoming chapter!)

Up next we have Rajeena, skilled warrior, very well-trained, is used to the pirate life, and the crazy Breton named Iresette, who just got a taste of freedom and she realized that she's been starved of it for all her life. (These two haven't appeared yet, but the brainrot is too strong not to include them here)

I know this next one is basically the first ship that appears in HOTHS, but it's not really a canon ship and this is all I'll say on the matter. The redhead is Anne, the voice of reason, endlessly loyal to the woman who introduced her to piracy, which is none other than the captain herself, Signe! WYGTYA readers already know how important Signe is for the plot and which iconic Skyrim NPC she secretly is ;) ALSO, THE ONE-EYED CHARACTER DESIGN IS NOW MY FAVE SIGNE TRAIT!

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Hello dear friend,

I was wondering if you have a favorite Josh era and when you have time or spoons, if you’d tell me about it or even (if you wanted to) share your favorite art. ❤️

Hi Winter, First thank you for sending this ask, it means the world to me at the moment. Things have been highly overwhelming and I love yacking about the rat muse when I'm down like this. <3 My favourite Josh era might be the Arkanis era (post-Corprus disease pre-Nerevarine). It covers the quests Corprus Cure, Mehra Milo and the Lost Prophercies, The Path of the Incarnate and Urshilaku Nerevarine. As well as a few Twin Lamps and Morag Tong quests and a murder misery in Vivec City. He's got a sense that he needs to at least see through getting the information that he'd stolen from Holamayan to the Urshilaku out in the Ashlands. He's not convinced that he really is the Incarnate like everyone says but not many people can say they survived Corprus Disease with their mind at least some what intact. He's struggling with keeping his mind present, however and it's what starts his rampant sleep avoidance. The less sleep he has, the less likely he is to connect to the Blight Hive. This backfires a lot. He's looking for answers as to why things have gone the way they've gone. He wants to know why these creatures keep calling him Nerevar and he wants to know why he's been cursed in the way that he has. He doesn't believe he's the Nerevarine but he's never been this accepted by people before. It's the first time he starts embracing his Ashlander side and starts using his father's name. He feels connected to something and he's always searched for that sense of belonging.

He's also madly in love with his Urshilaku Guide and it's driving him nuts.

This version of Josh is just finding his purpose for the first time. Before that he felt like he was aimlessly flailing about. He started working as a vigilante freeing slaves and burning down plantations and markets. This purpose was born out of a desire for revenge on his behalf. Being called the Nerevarine is something he's still deeply uncomfortable with but he is curious as to why he's being flung into these prophecies. Josh after Corprus finds some direction and is slowly regaining stability in the new body he's in. He's gone through a lot with his recovery. The wasting of his muscles, the 60% body burn and the removal of both his right pectoral and the first two toes and half the ball of his right foot left him severely weakened. It took him a few months to be able to stand with the assistance of crutches and he was stuck being unable to really get around without them until he designed his foot prosthesis out of scrap he'd found in Dwemer Ruins.

It's a fundamental change in his character that gives him some perspective. He's very reactionary and it's not often at that point in his life he gets that time to just sit and be. After he puts on Moon-and-Star he's got a whole other set of problems. The progress he's made during those months he was sick and then finding himself again is fundamental to who he becomes later and why he feels a certain responsibility for what happens next. Deep down he knows he chose it and he feels like a puppet because of it. It's Josh before he gets that constant apathetic melancholy that defines his character after the Main Quest. He feels like he might have a life ahead of him, like the darkness from his childhood and adolescence was behind him. It's his most hopeful.

As far as art, my faves so far are from this time period, I think it's the version I draw the most.

This one I still love (my actual fav is the nude version but this one gives you the creation of his never nude robe so...) He's meant to be lazing about in Etana Ilaba'andul (Erra's older brother)'s guest yurt. This concept kinda predates this whole Arkanis concept but is what gave birth to it. As a result he's missing a few scars and moon-and-star is present but it's meant to be around that time. This is really when I decided he'd have different designs for different periods. Before that I hadn't settled on any design for him. It was just a handful of ideas.

This one was 100% painted because of my Kogoruhn fic and is the most up to date depiction of this version of Josh. My next work will also be based on a scene from this fic. Part of this work involves the hivemind connection that he keeps losing himself to, and it's a huge aspect of how I visualise Corprus and the Sixth House to work. Arkanis is when I figured out Josh as a character, and I think that's why I like it so much. It's the most fleshed out.

[thenopequeen]

I like your designs, can you tell us more about your ocs?

Given my lack of sleep, this may not be particularly coherent. Bear with me

Isnene the Swift is my Nerevarine, who was originally named by cleaning up a keysmash and became a character in her own right when I poured on the lore and forgot to say when. I knew very little about Morrowind when I first played her, so I just kept seeing cool new things and adding them

Isnene is the granddaughter of Barenziah's child that (in my universe) Talos failed to kill, meaning she is also a dragonborn, and that the Blades have a standing order to eliminate her and any of her family they find. This makes the beginning of the game incredibly nerve-wracking for her. She is also descended from House Dagoth, maybe even Voryn himself, on the other side of the family. Girly got ISSUES.

She grew up as a street thief on the Anvil dockside, and was arrested for Thieves Guild crimes before being deported to Morrowind at the start of the game. She fights with a spear and mostly restoration and alteration spells, as well as a bunch of potions and enchanted gear. She joined House Hlaalu out of a "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" mentality, and also joined the Thieves Guild and Mages Guild. (I'm definitely not still salty that the Twin Lamps didn't get a whole faction and questline. Not at all)

She is actually Nerevar reborn, and when she is sent to Kogrohun to prove herself, she follows the path that she doesn't know how she knows, all the way up to Dagoth Ur. As soon as she steps into the Heart Antichamber, all his memories come back. Which. Is. Traumatic. So she runs away to Solstheim to process everything. And then has to deal with werewolves n shit. And then before she finishes getting named Hortator and Nerevarine by everybody, she goes to Mournhold to figure out the whole assassin thing. And it's only a week or two really before she is face to face with HIS WIFE. More. Emotional. Damage. So she is so very sad and haunted by the time she goes up mountain, but also happy because it's almost over. And when she collapses beside the Heart, she doesn't even try to ward off the figure looming over her as her vision goes black. And then she wakes up at her marked location, with her hand closed around her recall amulet, with cuts across the backs of her fingers like too long clawed hands. Like forgiveness.

Sorry if I got too rambley, it's a quarter to eight in the morning and I haven't more than dozed a bit all night

Here's a character sheet I filled out using this post

Sick-ass art by @azures-grace

And another one from this

[azures-grace]

See, I don't actually draw much BUT I have lots of Thoughts about character design. So here is my personal reference chart for skin, eye and hair colors of the Chimeri First Council (+ parents for genetics purpose), complete with the transferred tones after Dunmer-ification.

I have a more complete tone-transformation sheet on my laptop, but i like this one because I got to play with the characters' designs in my head as I was doing it. I have also decided that mers can have naturally blue and pink hair because it's more fun.

Some additional thoughts:

- Mers don't have naturally red hair, it comes from Nordic (mostly) mixage

- Curls are also uncommon in Chimers

- Blue eyes are another thing that they mostly get from the Nords, although pale purple-ish and greenish/turquoise exists

- Blue eyes become purple in dunmerification :)

- The chart isn't 100% coherent in the color change between chimer and dunmer because the results were boring.

- Vivec has heterochromia because of course he does. One of his eye is brown in chimer form and becomes orange in the dunmer one, the other is the classic gold/red

- Curly haired Ayem for the win

- I've just realised this makes Seht look like an albinos rabbit (with the pink eyes and everything). I can't say I really mind.

- Most of the parents + Alandro, Nerevar and technically Voryn never actually go through dunmerification due to being dead at the time. However I was already doing the chart so I still included their theoretical post-change coloring.

- Variety in Dunmeri skin tones is obtained through a light/dark variation instead of a real color one because yknow. They're grey. Some blueishness is acceptable.

- Don't mind the bad eyes/ears/hair doodles, I did this on my phone.

Oh my God I love it I'm saving this

Permission to use this for, like, reference?

[yewphoric]

what if they all dressed really stupidly

(modern!sil design courtesy of @thescrolls-haveforetold, sorry again for making him wear that LMAO)

[im-flashtoo]

3, 13, 28, 33, 40, 46, 51, 56, 74, 99. :>

ok wow that's a lot :o all right:

3. I wanna say the most common is business cards or appointment cards and clothing tags? Sometimes bits of ribbon... sometimes actual bookmarks! I actually use those pretty often, they're nice and people sometimes give them to me as presents so they make me happy.

13. cheesy af but my partner who is amazing :>

28. Sunset... I am a night person! also out here on the west coast those happen over water which is good

33. hsjtdjdjgfkhif uhhhhhh let's go with fresh scones

34. Taffy! Taffy is not out here with me - still at my parents' house, in my old bedroom. Taffy is a brown tabby cat of almost life size, given to me for Christmas when I was two and named for the cat belonging to the protagonist in what was my favorite book at the time, "Annie and the Wild Animals."

35. I was never much into stationery but nice origami paper is A+++

40. I have this amazing brooch that once belonged to my grandmother - it's clear resin with a gold tone filigree border, and set in the resin is a colorful bird catching a tiny insect, made of real feathers, dried flowers, and tiny insect.

46. Puns are so dependent on situation, anything I post here would never have the right kind of impact to truly get me...

... pun-ched.

51. The Boar's Head Carol - I actually thought of the song first because it was inexplicably stuck in my head last night (its September???? and I'm definitely not one of those nuts about Christmas people???? idk) but I heavily associate it with my father, because it's his job to sing it for my church's winter solstice service.

56. Loving their pets, or houseplants.

74. The friend I have in mind is creative and ambitious and actually has the brainspace to pull off huge, wild ongoing story arcs as GM to a sizeable group of people and I find that very impressive. We've never met in person but that's the case with most of my friends, and they're probably the one I'm most able to go to with stuff that's bothering me just to vent. They've helped me through quite a bit. They also aren't on tumblr and probably won't even see this lol

99. ooh this is fucking HARD, wow. okay let's see... Bells in the High Tower is probably my favorite hymn and they're pretty much designed for soul resonance. At the other end of the spectrum there's Parov Stelar's Catgroove, and the entire soundtrack to Morrowind with special attention paid to Nerevar Rising which is absolutely my favorite arrangement of the Elder Scrolls main theme, even as great as the choral version in Skyrim was. Also almost anything if you play it on bagpipes; it's my Scottish blood

[littlegalerion]

Shipathon  Meme!

Tagged by @sheirukitriesfandom Thanks for tagging me and giving me an excuse to rant about ships~ Tagging: @foxyhearts @diamond-loki @greennightingale  1.) First Ship you Ever Wrote Fic For? It was for Vanus and Caafire, and it actually got featured front page on an animo! It was old Caafire though, before I had developed her to her current status of unable-to-use-magic-because-if-she-does-she’ll-explode sword swinger master. Back then she was just a free lance battlemage with a bad family life.  2.) Ship you Write Most Now? Well... tech I write for Trechire x Eliindil (Sheogorath) most now because that’s my timeline’s canon, so every time I write using characters in that universe I’m tech writing that ship, as Sunnabela and Kirr are their kids (Sunnabela his step-son, but Eliindil raised him). Just it’s a post-ship writing I guess? In terms of who I formulate for the most, that would probably be Laloriaran X Trechire in the AU, which I really should write more of.  3.)Ship you Read the Most Now? Sotha Sil x S/O, and it’s more just headcanon fluff stuff really. I wish there was more Sotha Sil x S/O, but that’s “not lore friendly” so I think a lot of would be writers get intimidated and scared away by lorebeards to write any solid series with it. I HAVE seen some, and for that I’m grateful. The headcanons at least seem to be multiplying beautifully.  4.) Newest Ship? Some questions are best left unanswered.  5.) Rare Ship you Wanna Read More of? Bring on the Sotha Sil x S/O or the Vanus x S/O.  Please, spoil me.  6.) Your Taboo Ship? Okay, I can already feel the heat of sheer rage from people reading what I’m gonna write under this. But Vanus x Mannimarco is the most toxic ship I have ever seen, in ANY fandom.  Firstly, heavily cliche. “They hate each other so at one time they must have liked or loved each other” No, that is not what that means. Sometimes it could be the case, but if it was romantic, then it wasn’t a “little falling out”. Vanus and Mannimarco are legends in their war against each other. In ESO Mannimarco loudly insults and kills mages of the guild, while Vanus openly spits against necromancy. Both very passionately doing so. If something romantic did happen, it’s a romance with no good memories in it. Secondly, it’s abusive. In Summerset, we get to see the two of them in their youth interacting. During this quest, it’s very obvious Mannimarco is manipulating Vanus, who is very optimistic and wants to believe the best in his friend. Mannimarco, however, doesn’t care. He never saw Vanus as an equal, BUT as a potentially USEFUL mage. He probably did feel a sting when Vanus rejected necromancy, but it wasn’t because “oh dear, my lover has rejected me!” It was most likely because Mannimarco realized he had lost a very useful future second in command, and gained an enemy which would prove a pain for years to come. I like to also point out, Mannimarco wasn’t this lonely little necromancer in the Order. We see a note concerning him in the dungeon that proves he had other friends and, while perhaps not well received overall, he had their respect as a senior member.  What I’m getting at is, if there was ANY romantic or sexual relationship between Mannimarco and Vanus, it was NOT healthy. Mannimarco knew what he was doing, and was most likely an emotionally abusive partner. The type that gets uncomfortably moody or guilt trips their partner to get his way. He is SEEN doing this in the quest, actually, when Vanus catches him raising a skeleton guar, Mannimarco replies, “I thought you’d understand” and “You sound like the Ritemaster.” A chord he knew would hit Vanus hard, which it did, as Vanus stumbles to reply and drops the argument.  Listen, if your s/o does something that makes you feel very uncomfortable and unsafe, then you go to them about it and they pull that crap on you, YOU LEAVE.  Lastly, a lot of the time it seems I see this ship under “cute gay mages owo”. Gay couples deserve healthy relationships. Gay relationships do not need to be soaked in pure drama and dark tones to exist. Especially in Elder Scrolls, where gay couples live happily and were never considered out of place.  Do not hide under the gay tag to get away with an abusive ship. Being gay doesn’t excuse a person for being an asshole, or for someone to be a pushover. But that’s enough of my ravings against that ship. For the record, I adore Mannimarco as a villain; he’s one the best I’ve ever seen, honestly.  So this isn’t just an unfair rage fest against him.  7.) They never met in Canon Ship? I feel like I have a ship on the tip of my tongue, but it just isn’t coming out. I’m drawing a blank. Nerevar with literally anyone else other than Ayem? 8.)Your unexpected Ship? Lyris and her Redguard husband were a surprise. I usually don’t relate to the warrior types in these games, but these two are just sweethearts.  9.) The Ship you Always Forget to give Love to? Verandis x Trechire. GEEZE, I forget about them so much and it’s probably the most logical ship. Verandis is a vampire lord who wants to convince the world vampires aren’t always evil, and to convince other vampires they shouldn’t live at war with the world. Trechire is a werewolf alpha who hides her wolf self from virtually everyone she knows, save for her pack, who she strives to teach to be true hunters with a code of honor. Not just some hounds who bark crazily at passersby who have a bow in their hands.  Both mages, both Altmer, both famous for their family names, so there’s lots of pressure on them.  They’d have so much to talk about, and would be such a stress reliever to each other.  10.) Ship your OC with a canon character? I already do, that’s like half the ships already in this post.  My biggest one is Laloriaran x Trechire.  Although Trechire x Sheogorath is my canon, as Eliindil becomes Sheogorath, so that counts as a canon character? 11.) Ship you’re embarrassed to Ship? She recently acquired his staff motif in this big event on ESO. He recently traded his old staff design in for the new Chapter, but in the main quest line his character model still has it.  That’s all I’m saying, because I don’t take the ship seriously, but it still exists and fuels my nightmares.  12.)Your most Romantic Ship? Trechire and Eliindil, because Trechire was made by me, Eliindil is an OC made by both me and my fiance who helps flesh out his personality, design, and background.  Then of course Laloriaran and Trechire.... 13.)Your Sexiest Ship? If I don’t say Sheogorath and Trechire, pretty sure I’m getting teleported 50 feet above the stone surface of where I shall die.  14.) Your most Tragic Ship? Laloriaran and Trechire, who ARE in my canon but of course, Laloriaran dies.  In her canon, Trechire completed the events of Morrowind, Clockwork City, and Summerset before the main questline of ESO. She had seen so many friends or just good people die. Leythen being ripped from reality right before her, Darien being forced to sacrifice himself and Trechire reading his last words before him fading away forever. Tanval Indoril dying from his own mistake, Verandis making a stupid decision out of desperation and guilt. Not to mention all the numerous little quests where this innocent and complicated person dies or suffers in the end. ESO is vicious. She had witnessed so much death, and in Laloriaran’s eyes she saw someone who understood that pain. More than anything in the world, she wanted the last Ayleid to return to Tamriel, where he’d be among friends that wouldn’t count on him for survival, but live and thrive together. She made a promise in her heart, if ANYONE would survive, even at the cost of her own life, Trechire would see to it that Laloriaran did, be it as a lover or as a friend.  And in the end, he died in her arms, Trechire a healer who could offer nothing to save him.  15.) A Ship You want more Content For? Again, BRING ON THE VANUS WITH S/O AND SOTHA SIL WITH S/O, PLEASE. 

[sleepymarmot]

I finally sat down and reread all of the 36 Lessons in order! Should have done that earlier, I know, I know. But this alone took about three days...

Liveblog under the cut. Very long, has a lot of quotes, sometimes shifts into a not-entirely-live-blog when I go back to reread something.

I am really sorry to start the post with this kind of thing but. “They gifted the netchiman's wife with gills and milk fingers, changing her sex so that she might give birth to the image as an egg.” Initially I understood that as replacing humanoid reproductive organs with reptilian/amphibian/avian. But what do “milk fingers” have to do with that? How does a dick help someone lay an egg?!

“Nothing is of any use. We must go and misinterpret this.“ Was this line intended to be funny? Because it truly is. I need to incorporate it into my daily speech immediately.

“The egg said: [two whole paragraphs of overwrought bullshit] The Dwemer were vexed at these words and tried to hide behind their power symbols.“ This is, again, hilarious. I would also be vexed in their place!

I made a serious attempt at understanding the argument about coincidence; did not succeed.

“I am a letter written in uncertainty.“ A genuinely good line, I must admit.

It never fails to make me laugh how Nerevar is introduced with a dramatic reveal. It's like the narrative shifts into an entirely different genre for a second. You can just see it how on screen some random dude takes off his helmet and the closeup reveals Nerevar's face.

This could be said for a lot of Vivec’s writing, but the verse he says to Nerevar in Sermon 5 is simply dreadful. It may make sense, especially if interpreted as directed at the Nerevarine, but it sounds bad.

Love the titles and descriptions for Almalexia: “Face-Snaked Queen of the Three in One“, “active and clawed like a nix-hound”

I must be missing something very badly, but what are the "sword" and "word" from Sermon 6? [Edit: Oh, the commentary I’m reading says that’s Almalexia and Sotha Sil. Makes sense.]

“Through me you are desired, unlike the prophets that have borne your name before.“ Through you?! Hey, I didn’t go through those insanely tedious Fourth and Fifth trials just so that you could take all the credit!

“Six are the walking ways, from enigma to enemy to teacher.“ 1) Love that Vivec can predict the future in great enough detail to see himself from the Nerevarine’s changing perspective. If only he had as much insight about the more practical matters... 2) Whose walking ways, in this case? I still really don’t get that concept.

“Six are the guardians of Veloth, three before and they are born again, and they will test you until you have the proper tendencies of a hero.” Fine, test the Nerevarine if you must, but is it really necessary to oppress everybody else? Ugh... Лес рубят - щепки летят? Also, don’t remember Mephala, Boethiah, or Sotha Sil testing me personally.

“Mephala and Azura are the twin gates of tradition and Boethiah is the secret flame.”   “Boethiah and Azura are the principles of the universal plot, which is begetting, which is creation, and Mephala makes of it an art form.“ So where’s “Boethiah and Mephala are ___ and Azura is ___”?

"Starwounded East" is a genuinely great poetic description. Also, it's something easy to understand for once, which is nice.

I still don't get what the hell "sex-death of language" means. "Mephala but more verbose"?

Sermon 10: if Vivec is the eyelid, who's the eye? Nerevar? Nerevarine?

"Keep nothing in your house that is neither needed or beautiful" Marie Condo is Vivec confirmed......

"According to the Codes of Mephala there can be no official art" that's what the fans say when they look at ESO's Almsivi designs right

"There is no bone that cannot be broken, except for the heart bone. You will see it twice in your lifetimes. Take what you can the first time and let us do the rest" Hold on, what did Nerevar take from the Heart?

“His death is only a diagram back to the waking world.”  I was immediately reminded of Vivec’s in-game description of his immortality, but this paragraph is about the Nerevarine, so it has to be about you reloading the game... Wait, how did I not catch this connection before?!

I don't really get the point of the random "we had a threesome". Only to contrast with what follows immediately after? "I didn't only have horrifying traumatizing sexual experiences as described below, but also some good ones"?

What is the symbolism of missing legs/feet? Vivec's are cut off in Sermon 12; Nerevar's are too in MK's foul murder art and are depicted as short or missing in-game; same with Sotha Sil's images, and seemingly with his actual body too but it's hard to tell. Sacrifice/injury necessary for acquiring knowledge/power?

"The magical cross is an integration of the worth of mortals at the expense of their spirits. Surround it with the triangle and you begin to see the Triune house. It becomes divided into corners, which are ruled by our brethren, the Four Corners" Uhh what? Has someone drawn a diagram of this? I tried and failed. How do you surround a cross with a triangle and get four corners? Four segments, okay, but is that really close enough?

Love how this abstract, incomprehensible stuff is immediately followed by a completely straightforward prophecy/summary of the plot of the game and the post-game: "If there is to be an end I must be removed. The ruling king must know this, and I will test him. I will murder him time and again until he knows this. I am the defender of the last and the last. To remove me is to refill the heart that lay dormant at the center that cannot hold." And so on.

"I am become the voice of ALMSIVI. The world will know me more than my sister and brother" well I mean it was your choice to make the main holy text to be your autobiography lol

"I am the form [the Nerevarine] must acquire. Because a ruling king that sees in another his equivalent rules nothing." Very, very interested in what this is supposed to mean. The second sentence makes sense by itself but not in conjunction with the first.

Am I correct in visualizing all of the above as said by a floating severed head to a horrified and confused Nerevar because it's a gruesomely hilarious image.

I would once again like to extend a heartfelt "what the hell is wrong with you" to the genius who decided to put Sermon 14 of all things in the game's starting town. Great thing to spring onto a new player with no context whatsoever, guys. I will forever remember the shock of reading the very first sentence and the following chain of reactions of "What?!" -> "Wow, please choose your words more carefully, this is so easy to misread" -> "Wait, I DIDN't misread it?!"

Sometimes it’s so blindingly conspicuous that a dude wrote this. I mean, that happens often when sex is involved (dude... why are you so obsessed with rape... shut the fuck up), which is a lot, but right now I’m specifically talking about this: you’re trying to express the dual-sexed nature of your protagonist by giving his phallic weapon a yonic name, and that name is still about the male things for some reason?! Must everything be about your “milk”? Vaginas also give birth, you know! Why not “Morning-Road”? That might be too passive, how about “Breath/Scream-Guide”? If you specifically want to refer to fertilization, why not something like “Soil-Mouth”? Let alone all possible names that could refer to womb instead of vagina, though I understand why the latter is more relevant here. I feel like that’s the core problem: the writer wants to use symbolism of “sex” but not “birth”, and while male organs are only involved in the former, the female ones are in both, but are reduced to the former by a male perspective, taking away their active/independent role in reproduction and leaving only the passive/dependent on male one - so the androgyny still ends up masculine.

From "I am the enigma that must be removed" and "The ruling king will remove me, his maker" it really sounds like the Nerevarine is supposed to kill Vivec in canon

“You alone, though you come again and again, can unmake him. Whether I allow it is within my wisdom. [...] This magic I give to you: the world you will rule is only an intermittent hope and you must be the letter written in uncertainty.” This is a lovely poetic way to express acknowledgement of the Nerevarine/player’s free will. But the player’s freedom is a given; what I am now curious is the level of Vivec’s own freedom. Could it be an option for him to deny you even if you do everything right? Were there any Incarnates who failed entirely due to Vivec’s unwise intervention? ...I’m overthinking this, am I not, this paragraph is probably intended to be simple.

“It, and my place here at the altar of Padhome in the house of False Thinking, serve so that I may see beyond my own secrets.“ So the “safe space” from his prayer in Sermons 3 & 34 is also safe from his own flaws, specifically secrets (=lies? =ignorance, since it’s also the location of the Provisional House?)  Interesting. That’s an even better safe space than I initially thought!

“The Water Face cannot lie. It comes from the ocean, which is too busy to think, much less lie. Moving water resembles truth by its trembling.” 1) This just has to do something with Sotha Sil, since ocean is his domain. Water trembles (=moves in place), truth does so too and is not static -- on the opposite, thought needs a static base and a lie is an elaborate thought that needs it even more. Mystery / secret knowledge are like water, so they are truth and the opposite of lie, but at the same time the opposite of intentional rational thought - instinctive, esoteric knowledge. 2) Was “water = memory” a thing before ESO? (I’m actually in the middle of that quest right now, since it has a really tough decision.)

"Vivec chose a king for a wife and made another race of monsters which ended up destroying the west completely" love how offhandedly this is mentioned because apparently birthing monsters is sometimes a completely unremarkable event. gonna dedicate a few chapters to eliminating my other monster children, screw those Yokudans and their continent though!

"Vivec knew that his doubt made him the sword of the Triune and so he did not feel shame or fear" I feel like this is a very important line for understanding his behaviour in the game

"Neither does the Executioner or the Fool, but I am neither" then who are they and who is he? Does "neither" actually mean he is both? because these descriptions do fit him.

Full offense but anyone who writes something like "God's holy rape-erasure of wet death" should have their writing license taken away. If you a reading this post I am sorry to make you read this line but I cannot suffer alone.

Ah, so the Scriptures of the Sword and Word are what Sermon 6 was referring to? Still don't get it, though.

"Then Vivec pierced Horde Mountain with Muatra and made of it all a big bag of bones. At the touch of his right hand the net became right scripture and he threw it all northeasterly. The contents spread out like sugar-glows and Vivec and the Buoyant Armigers ran under it laughing" I'm sorry but is this about sex again? I really can't tell anymore at this point

I've seen the thread on r/teslore but it still doesn't answer my question of what is the city in the Lessons when we can see the construction of the city we know in ESO in progress. Sure, it's allegory! But it still clearly assumes that Vivec City is a thing that exists and is familiar to the readers. Yes, I understand, it’s a retcon. But ZOS should justify their retcons better!

Prayer circle that ZOS do not decide to bring the Pocket Cabal into the game as some real and completely mundane thing, in the form of a trial or something. Because that sounds like something they would do.

"All language is based on meat." Okay, this is an objectively funny line. Can't argue with that, either!

"Do not go to the realm of apology for absolution. Beyond articulation, there is no fault" "The realm of apology is perfection and impossible to attack. Thus, the wise avoid it" *squints loudly* Is this why you won't admit your crimes to my face, huh

Thanks UESP for deciphering Sermons 29 and 36. What would I do without you

Sermon 30: Vivec is randomly being a murderous asshole; Nerevar is like "sure, whatever"

"'Here, take this.' At which he touched the tower-hope of the City-Face and corrected the error of the Grabbers. 'And this.' At which he stabbed the heart of the City-Face with the Ethos Knife." A hilarious paragraph honestly. That poor child never saw it coming

"His lamentations, if I may call them that, have changed the skin of the whole country. He is hardly to be found anywhere in Veloth of late. The people grow dark because of it." Wait, that's the official explanation for the results of Azura's curse?

"Love is under my/your will only" appears in the text twice. Sermon 1: "'For I have crushed a world with my left hand,' he will say, 'but in my right hand is how it could have won against me. Love is under my will only.'" Sermon 33: "'I would have done so myself if I wanted, silly Hortator. I shall keep it there with its last intention intact, so that if the love of the people of this city for me ever disappear, so shall the power that holds back their destruction.' Nerevar said, 'Love is under your will only.' Vivec smiled and told the Hortator that he had become a Minister of Truth." Here’s my interpretation. It is Vivec's choice whether to "crush" the world to force it to love him, or let it “win against him”. But Nerevar now knows that people "winning against Vivec" would also bring about their destruction, so he must become an agent of his propaganda, like the modern-day Ministry of Truth (and "Truth" is supposed to be violent, as the previous two sermons declare). (I know there’s an entire sermon on love, but I couldn’t make sense of that one at all.)

"Nerevar, perhaps because he was frightened, became vexed at his lord's answer. 'Why are you always so evasive?' Vivec told the Hortator that to be otherwise was to betray his nature. [...] 'Why,' he said, 'did you ask me to come if you knew the eighth monster would give in so easily?' Vivec looked at the Hortator for a long time. Nerevar understood. 'Do not betray your nature. Answer as you will.'" More food for thought re: his in-game behaviour

LOVE this sermon. Vivec: "I'm going to kill you :)" Nerevar: "Understandable, have a great day"

Overall notes:

Has anyone written an analysis naming and tracing back various elements of story and imagery to real world religion, myth, and folklore? I'm more interested in this than the inherently futile attempts to figure out "what is really happening" using the writer's non-canonical works. The New Whirling School website is pretty good (I read their commentaries between finishing my own reading and posting this, ignoring all references to non-canon), is there anything else?

Is it canon or commonly accepted fanon that the Lessons are written for the Nerevarine specifically? Hard for me to not read them that way.

I also need to modify my headcanons somehow. If I, and my Nerevarine, had read the entire thing before meeting Vivec, our attitude towards him would be completely different. So why didn’t she? The Lessons seem to be available to the public. In the game they’re scattered all over the island for gameplay reasons, but I can’t see why any good Temple library wouldn’t have a whole collection, and a priest willing to guide a reader through it.

Reading all of this in proper order actually makes more sense and is more enjoyable than I expected. Still plenty of fake-deep and obnoxious stuff, but also some interesting insights into the religion and Vivec's character through how he chooses to present himself, and just cool fictional religion worldbuilding too.

[mazurah]

Clockwork City Main Quest Discussion

WARNING: Contains Spoilers!

Okay! The Clockwork City in Screenshots is completely posted, so it’s time to get into the lore! Here are my thoughts on the main quest.

The Good:

The graphics, the design, the art deco aesthetic; visually, the Clockwork City is everything I could have hoped for!

Kireth and Raynor are the most adorable siblings! I haven’t encountered them in the main game yet, but apparently they’re recurring characters. I look forward to finding them.

The Blackfeather Court is hilarious. I love them all. I also love that Nocturnal basically got defeated by a bunch of talking crows who got to Seht’s metal city and were just like, everything here is shiny! We must have it! And then went off to do their own thing.

Speaking of Nocturnal, I really liked the depiction of the Evergloam. We rarely get to see ingame depictions of the realms of Oblivion, and when we do, it’s always great. Nocturnal’s realm really seemed to fit her. It coulda been darker, but I understand why the game devs decided to make it twilight instead of straight up night for playability reasons.

Shadows as souls or pieces of souls is an interesting concept, and I wonder if it has something to do with Shadow Magic, like what Nightblades (the character class) use. I’m looking forward to doing some more research into the topic and cobbling together a more full understanding of what exactly shadows are in the TES universe. It’s not really something we get from any other game other than ESO, and I actually really like this contribution to TES lore.

Varuni has such a good character arc! She starts out as a fervent believer in Sotha Sil, and ends up being forced to confront her questions about him and grow as a person! Honestly, she has the best writing in the entire DLC, and she’s my favorite character! Here’s one of my favorite pieces of dialogue and an example of actual good writing in the Clockwork City:

Varuni: "He's gone, isn't he?"

Player: "Sotha Sil? Yes."

Varuni: "I knew it."

Varuni: "I never got to speak to him. Can you believe that? A hundred years of loyal service and then, poof. Gone."

Player: "What would you have said to him?"

Varuni: "Ha. You know, I spent years rehearsing exactly what I would say. I stood in front of the mirror, saying it over and over. Lord Seht, I stand before you as your loyal servant. Prayers of thanks, supplication... on and on."

Player: "And now?"

Varuni: "Now? Now I have nothing but questions.”

Varuni: "Why do we study in the basilica while people struggle on the streets? Why can't we have birds like the exodromals? How could Daedra break through our unbreakable walls? Why can't we leave?"

Player: "Do you think he'd have answers for you?"

Varuni: "I did yesterday. Today? I'm not so sure."

The Bad:

Oh my gods, what did they do to Sotha Sil? They’ve turned him into a faux-deep douchebro! This is my main problem with the Clockwork City DLC, and it’s a major one. They got him all wrong. I mean, he’s hard to understand because he’s Mystery, but at the very least Zenimax shoulda asked some of the original Morrowind lore writers for input or something, because it’s very obvious they had no idea how to handle him. In fact, this is so much of a problem that I feel the need to expound on the point. Here are a couple of excerpts of the most egregious writing:

I asked Sotha Sil about those persistent rumors—the ones about how he and the other Tribunes murdered Indoril Nerevar, the Dark Elf king. According to Marilia, the topic is strictly taboo. Even so, Sotha Sil answered my questions with a quiet grace that surprised even me.

"Why do you think things happen?" he asked. I told him I didn't understand the question.

"Why are we sitting here talking? Why does young Marius exist? Why do I reign over this place, while you convalesce within it?"

I sat quiet for a moment, then replied: "Because that's just the way it is."

His cold face melted into one of his solemn half-smiles. "Exactly."

I can't be sure, but it seemed like relief in his voice. His shoulders relaxed, his tone shifted—he had the look of a man at peace with his sins.

— Proctor Luciana’s Journal, Volume 1

Player: “What is all this for, anyway? The Clockwork City.”

Sotha Sil: “I sometimes ask myself the same thing.”

Sotha Sil: “May I confess something to you?”

Player: “Of course.”

Sotha Sil: “I suffer from a peculiar ailment. Shall I describe it?”

Sotha Sil: “I bear the cruel weight of certainty. Total, absolute, relentless certainty. People rarely comprehend the luxury of doubt... the freedom that comes with indecision. I envy you.”

Player: “Didn't you just say that you question whether the City is worth the effort?”

Sotha Sil: “Indeed. But such questions are flaccid—cursory indulgences that come and go in an instant.”

Sotha Sil: “The truth is that my actions, both good and evil, are inevitable. Locked in time. Determined by chains of action and consequence.”

Player: “So... you were forced to build the Clockwork City?”

Sotha Sil: “Compelled.”

— Game Dialogue with Sotha Sil

Okay first off, nothing is ever certain in the TES universe. There is no such thing as an omniscient god in the TES universe. Not even Hermaeus Mora, the Prince of Knowledge and Fate knows everything. Just look at how the Skaal managed to hide knowledge from him for generations. No god can predict the future with absolute certainty. Just read Azura and the Box, and you’ll see what I mean. In it, Azura, a god of prophecy who asserts that her knowledge is absolute, fails to predict what is in a box. Azura’s assertion that she knows everything is in character for her because she is also a god of vanity, but not so for Sotha Sil. Sotha Sil is not generally characterized as vain. As a person with godlike powers, he should be very much aware of the limitations of his knowledge and power, so the assertion that he can predict the future with absolute certainty is preposterous, and completely out of character.

If he knows everything, why the heck doesn’t he do something? He seems to have been taken by surprise by Nocturnal’s attack on the Clockwork City (as well as by all the events that took place in the Morrowind DLC with Vivec and stuff), so that doesn’t add up, but some of the dialogue from Aios implies that he realizes that Almalexia is a threat to him and he is taking countermeasures of some sort! It doesn’t make any sense! Gaah!

Anyway, moving on. More bad stuff:

It’s explicitly stated in multiple lore books that Sotha Sil and Almalexia are sexually involved. It’s also stated that Almalexia is Vivec’s lover and consort. That would seem to imply that Vivec and Sotha Sil were more involved than just “brothers” since they don’t seem to have any sort of jealous rivalry over Almalexia going on, and yet “brothers” is how Sotha Sil describes Vivec. That... doesn’t really make sense to me. At the very least they would be metamours, and quite likely more than that.

Sotha Sil does not just "quietly" admire Dwemer stuff. He’s blatantly copping and improving on the Dwemer’s inventions. That’s not bad btw, I like how they did that. The bad part is that Divayth Fyr, someone who supposedly knows Sotha Sil better than almost anyone, describes Sotha Sil as “quietly” admiring the Dwemer. He obviously has no idea what he’s talking about.

Sotha Sil’s feet. They gave him mechanical arms but not mechanical feet? Come on you guys! Get it together! He has mechanical feet in Morrowind, why not here? There’s so many great fan theories floating around about Sotha Sil’s feet, one of my favorite being by @boethiah, which speculates that he was injured as a child, and had to have his legs replaced so he could walk. Why not go with something like that? The lore strongly implies that Sotha Sil bypasses Vivec’s path to “true” godhood via CHIM and tries to find perfection through mechanical means. It stands to reason that he would have all mechanical limbs even if he didn’t have some sort of childhood accident requiring him to get prosthetics.

Slag Town. One of the things you can gather from the 36 Lessons and by listening to Almalexia talk about Sotha Sil is that Sotha Sil is an idealist when it comes to people. He thinks the best of them, and he is very hurt when people’s darker nature shows itself, which is one of the factors leading to his self isolation. (I wish I could remember specific sources for this, if anyone remembers something related, please post it.) With that in mind, I think he wouldn’t stand to have slums in his city. He cares about people too much. He wants them to succeed. If you read this lore book about Slag Town, it basically states that some of the people born down there don’t even know how to read. Sotha Sil, being the idealist he is, would obviously have a public education system in place. I don’t understand how writers who have read all the official resources available about Sotha Sil could think otherwise.

Why is Sotha Sil so obsessed with CHIM and Amaranth? That’s Vivec’s thing I thought. If he knows so much about it, why didn’t he achieve CHIM? He’s supposed to be taking a different path than Vivec, but his dialogue seems to be referencing back to Vivec’s path all the time. This would be alright if they added some Almalexia content as well showing her contribution to the Tribunal’s god-philosophies and uniting the Tribunal into a whole, but as it stands it just looks like Sotha Sil is a Vivec fanboy.

This is pretty unimportant, but Dunmer keep calling other Dunmer "dark elves". Just, why...? Only Men ever refer to mer as elves! This isn’t just a problem with the Clockwork City, but with ESO in general. Elves referring to other elves as elves instead of mer is just... weird.

I’m probably being pedantic, but why does everyone pronounce it "Sotha Seel" instead of "Sotha Sil", and "Div-AAAY-th" instead of "Div-EYE-th" or "Dee-VAH-yth"? It just irks me, almost as much as how they pronounced “Nerevarine” in the Morrowind DLC.

The Neutral:

Sotha Sil’s height. Sotha Sil is a giant in comparison to everyone else, even Altmer. He can’t possibly be this tall naturally. He’s probably just making himself appear taller because he thinks he’s supposed to, or possibly because he’s insecure about his height. It’s a strange character choice, and not one I really agree with, but also not one I disagree with either. So... meh?

Divayth Fyr was just... adequate. They got his friendship with Sotha Sil right, as well as his flaunting of authority, but they didn’t give him the booming, larger than life, generally genial-and-magnanimous-if-insensitive personality I’ve come to associate with Divayth Fyr (Dunmer-Brian-Blessed as @chameleonspell put it, click here if you haven’t seen Brian Blessed before.) So it’s just kind of... okay. They also established that Divayth Fyr was friends with Sotha Sil before Sotha Sil’s apotheosis, which would make him old enough to remember being Chimer. However, I was under the impression that he did not personally remember the War of the First Council, but I don’t really have any evidence to back this up, so if somebody has some Morrowind dialogue to help me out, that’d be great. It’s quite possible that this is a lore contradiction.

Sotha Sil’s depression. The way he’s depicted, he exhibits a lot of symptoms that make me think that he has some very profound depression going on. That honestly seems accurate to his character. It’s not necessarily a good or a bad thing, but it’s an understandable character choice.

The ‘I don’t know how to interpret this’:

The very short depiction we get of Nerevar just seems... off. @saltrices mentioned that there were some speculations going around on tumblr that Nerevar could have been part Ayleid or some other non-Chimer elf, and...

That’s the hologram of Nerevar, and the projection of the last Ayleid king. They’re wearing the same armor. Why? I have no idea. I don’t think the armor suits him. His height in comparison to Sotha Sil is certainly not accurate, but again, I think Sotha Sil is probably making himself appear taller because he thinks he should or something. In life, Nerevar was almost certainly the same height or taller than Sotha Sil. The height difference has more to do with how Sotha Sil is choosing to depict them both, and the armor choice could be as well, but I don’t think so. Sotha Sil is likely to depict Nerevar in armor he actually wore, which is why the armor choice is so strange. I’m not sure what to make of it.

TL:DR: I enjoyed the DLC. I disliked some of the writing, especially regarding Sotha Sil, but I like other parts of the writing. I had a lot of fun, and I found the DLC to be visually appealing, but I think that most of the “deep” lore that the DLC tried to add should, in general, be completely disregarded.

That’s my take, now I wanna hear everyone else’s! Reblog with what you thought was good, bad, neutral, or perplexing!

Many thanks to @talldarkandroguesome​ for running through the Clockwork City 1.5 times with me and for being my sounding board. 

Tagging those who were interested in participating: @ladynerevar @kapycta @sharmat-dreams @ratwhisperer @spoopy-eneko @kee413 @king-helseth @kagrenacs @annachibi @jurvektheblogsmer​ Anyone else who wants to is welcome to join as well!

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Hello! :D

Can you share a few details on some writing and art you're very proud of? What makes these scenes and details so cool in your opinion?

Now that you've posted your story and are right at the beginning of your fiction writing journey, what advice would you give yourself from the art side of things? (Both creative pursuits are art! And both show some vulnerability to share.)

How does writing help your art? And vice versa?

Ooo fun! Let's see... Under a cut because it's long and stuff!

Art that I'm still proud of.

Everything just went right here, I got the glow effects and the ambience exactly how I wanted it. Plus his eyes move if you move your head. Also was my first time drawing/painting Nerevarine Teldryn and I kinda got hooked on this whole design. He lives in either Netch Leather or Chitin most of the time so... Plus obsessed with his hairstyle. Obsessed!

I came up with half his backstory doing this, right down to the scarring on Teldryn's arm being Dagoth Gares' handprint. The point of contact literally being Dagoth Gares grabbing Teldryn's arm and cursing him before dying. Plus the whole "ring doesn't fit" thing. I thought that would be fun after drawing Nerevar (who is physically small but huge personality-wise).

I still love this one to bits because I fully cemented how I want Sydari to look, her jewellery, clothing colour etc. She's very into finery, so everything she wears is highly embellished. Also, eyes move if you move your head. The portrait just worked! It just works. :D

As for writing, I'm still very proud of this scene from On Apocrypha.

Teldryn was pacing outside Sydari’s room, he could barely gleam what was going on in there and silently cursed the thickness of the adobe walls. He knew Aphia was badmouthing him again, he deserved it, sure but did she have to remind him of his failures every time they met? It was getting tiresome.

The door opened and Geldis emerged, holding a bowl of stew that he must have intended for him. Teldryn walked towards him, about to ask what had transpired when Geldis lifted his hand, motioning for Teldryn to follow him into the bar.

“What did she say?” Teldryn began as Geldis scrapped the now cold stew into the food bin.

“It’s not good Teldryn,” Geldis shook his head “It’s some sort of Daedric magic that’s keeping her like that, you’re definitely gonna need Neloth.”

Teldryn let out the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding, “I guess… I was hoping to avoid having to interact with him directly”.

“I know, but Aphia thinks this is Hermaeus Mora’s doing,” Geldis threw the dirty bowl into a large, waterfilled basin, “You know Neloth is the only one who can help here”.

“I know, I just…” Teldryn began before Geldis cut him off.

“You feel bad leaving her, I know” Geldis pulled a clean bowl out from behind the counter and filled it with more stew before placing it in front of Teldryn. “Eat”.

“I’m not hungry,” Teldryn mumbled, that was a lie.

“Bullshit,” Geldis dropped a clean spoon next to the stew, “you’re starving, you’re tired and you stink like rotted fish.”

“Well, you don’t have to put it that bluntly,” Teldryn sighed, absent-mindedly taking the spoon.

“Just eat the damn food Teldryn, you’re no good to anyone in this state,” Geldis said, pulling a bottle of shein out from under the bar along with two earthenware mugs.

“Did Drovas make this?” Teldryn questioned, a disgusted look on his face, “You know everything he makes is bland as all hell,” he continued eating.

“No, you just don’t have any tastebuds anymore,” Geldis smirked sliding a full mug of shein across the counter. “Not everyone wants their ass burning after their meals, ya know,” he smirked before ducking under the counter.

“His cooking tastes like ash and salt, and you know it,” Teldryn drawled, “that better be some gods damn seasoning you’re fetching”.

“You can’t come storming in here in the small hours of the morning and expect a feast you know,” Geldis smiled before sliding over a small, dark bottle to Teldryn.

“No, but you could have this added to it prior,” Teldryn uncorked the bottle and began pouring the red, oily concoction into what remained of the stew before taking another bite, “Better”.

“I still don’t get your obsession with that, the amount you put in ruins literally everything that’s good about food,” Geldis quipped, taking a drink from his own mug, “Minor remaining side effects of Blight, hey?”

“No, no, it was that crap that Fyr fed me,” Teldryn remarked, scraping the last of his stew from the bowl, “can’t taste shit unless it’s on fire”. Teldryn stood and began moving back towards Sydari’s room.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re goin’?” Geldis called out, “Leave Aphia to do her damn job!”

Teldryn muttered something unsavoury under his breath before stamping back towards the bar, “I don’t want her alone in there,” he whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

“She’s not, Aphia is there trying to do her damned job, you’re not helping her by hovering,” Geldis poured another drink for the two of them, “You have somewhere to be anyways”.

“I’d really rather not- “Teldryn began, Geldis raised his hand “Shh, you hear that?”

Teldryn paused, he could hear murmuring coming from down the hall. He almost sprinted to the source of the noise, Geldis not far behind. He arrived at the still-closed door to Sydari’s room and listened. More murmuring, two voices, hers.

“Teldryn, don’t” Geldis grabbed Teldryn’s arm right as he threw open the door.

It was fun to explore the lack of taste quirk. I'll be playing with it a lot more but I came up with that idea when writing this scene. He needed 5 seconds to calm down here. I'll add this to either the end of part 1 or the start of part 2 of Serious Mistakes, but I will probably edit what's here so that I get Geldis' voice more consistent with what's written in the chapter I already have up. It was the first thing I ever released and I still feel good about it.

I have a few hang-ups confidence-wise when releasing any creative work. I'm learning/telling myself to not give as much of a crap about the things I see as failings because honestly, it's only stuff that I see. No one else sees that. I think I'm doing ok with writing deep down, the damn thing has been rolling around in my brain for almost a year now so it's not like I'm writing without some idea of what's going on later in the story.

My advice to myself is to engage with the people who engage with you. If someone likes what you create, take the time to thank them. I reread a lot of comments because it makes me smile. It also makes me happy that people are noticing the little character quirks that I work into my art and writing. Things aren't always said directly, mostly implied. I like that people are examining my pieces enough to notice. I highly encourage people to zoom in on these arts! There are a lot of details in there.

It's nice to have some positivity after decades of negative reactions to my specific interests. Not giving a crap about the negativity is a goal! The fic deals with a lot of hard topics and I intend on exploring them fully. If it's not comfortable then that's good, trauma is not comfortable. Mine certainly isn't. Writing about it has helped me distance myself from the issues and heal slightly. I chose to do this for myself specifically, I'm writing something I want to read. And I like dark but funny shit. XD

Currently, my writing and personal art are in a bit of a circular loop, one feeds into the other. So I'm producing scenes that should appear in the fic at some point or are referenced in it in some way. Specifically these:

All kinda revolve around scenes or concepts that happen later on. The first one is after a shipwreck, the second is an observation from Teldryn's POV and the third one is after Teldryn gives Sydari a gift prior to a very boring party that he can't attend...he'd like to attend. He proclaims a thing, and it goes well before imploding due to a few documents that appear in the Thalmor's possession.

I am having a lot of fun here. It's nice to have a hyperfixation to stuff my free time into again. And I'm on holidays until August so...a lot of free time (outside of that other thing I'm working on). XD