#ghost is a dark mage that is also an eldritch being

[saucywendeee]

👻🧼 - Fantasy AU Dark Mage/Prince

[autism-purgatory]

fuck it here’s how magic in Shadows of Novald works.

Magic is usually granted by an entity, and they technically aren’t gods. They’re worshipped by cults here and there, but none of them have ever expanded into a widespread religion. These gods are associated with concepts, and as long as those concepts exist, that god has a semblance of power, and doesn’t need worship to keep its influence. Magic is separated into different categories with several abilities

Beastly: Associated with, you guessed it, beasts and monsters of all strifes, associated with Eelvan, the god of hunting, cannibalism, monsters, and all those who are outcast and shunned. Dusoans (volcanic serpentine beings with four eyes that turn people into statues of ash) Vampires (people who drink dragons blood and turn into them gradually over thousands of years), Werewolves, dragons, chimeras, all are under the eye of Eelvan, protecting them with their curse.

Spectral: Associated with the paranormal, ghosts, death, necromancy on some occasions, and darkness. Shades, demons, the Blotting (deadly ghost smoke that poisons you over time). Also associated with Thopa, the god of the moon, the Chasm (the afterlife), thieves, death, darkness, etc. they try to stop humans from reaching divinity or using magic, which is why humans can’t use magic, and also why the moon had a giant freaky eye on it. You are directly using your own life force with this magic, which is why it’s been deliberately forbidden and made impossible to learn.

Knowledge: This is an odd one. One gains this magic by making a deal with a collector, an eldritch scion who collects forbidden knowledge for their master, the distant god Dun’rul. Knowledge mages can use eldritch powers including dark tentacles, telekinesis, depends on the collector you made a deal with. You have to collect knowledge with its help whenever it wants, so that’s a setback.

Heat: it’s not just fire I swear, it’s literally just heat, like the wavy hot air that sprays from a propane tank, that kind of heat. Also, extremely flammable, which is why any anyone with a heat seal on their body’s aren’t allowed into cinemas, since the heat they radiate could incinerate the film, even from a distance. Its setback is that its, yknow, extremely dangerous, and you have to be incredibly experienced in magic to get a license for it.

Water: Pretty self explanatory, but water is everywhere. Like most elements, it can’t directly manipulate the body. Water can’t manipulate blood or any liquid that’s too viscous to be manipulated. Water magic can crystallize into ice or even snow. Associated with the dead ocean god Marian. Legend says her corpse is still rotting on the sea floor. She was killed by Thopa (who can kill gods btw) due to siding with humanity and making the Oceanids and Sirenids. Water often times needs your own moisture as a conduit, which can be draining.

Weather: the oldest form of magic, which includes fog, lightning, rapid winds, and the common contribution to electricity. Associated with Teo, the sun god. Them and Thopa are lovecraftian gods with some fantasy elements sprinkled in. Teo is omnipotent, and always observing, waiting for the perfect moment to incinerate their sibling. They granted magic to people. They also developed certain concepts on the barren earth, creating most of the gods. Weather is a dangerous magic, since you could suffocate or electrocuted.

Destruction: Blood magic. It can explode, melt steel, set on fire, all it needs is your blood. Unless you’re a knight or extremely trained cop (ew) you aren’t learning this magic legally any time soon. It’s associated with Vuro, the god of war, natural disasters and male attraction. They are married to Vura, the god of…

Fusion: associated with mending materials including flesh. You can’t reattach limbs with this, just to mend small cuts or graft skin. It can mend bone though, Fusion is also performed in some kingdoms for marriage ceremonies, where the couple mends two bits of separated flesh together. Some people take it too far. The Grafted are those who were fully overtaken by Fusion, melting together in an unstoppable abomination, its only at this stage can they fuse body parts to themselves, but they are usually limp and unusable.

Song: considered a dead form of magic, which died out when the Sirenids went extinct near the end of Antiquity. Not even the Deep Oceanids can do it anymore. The scary thing about it is that it’s the only element besides spectral that can directly manipulate the body or mind. It does this through hypnosis.

Technology: The newest form of magic, and probably ISNT a form of magic. Humanity’s lack of magic eventually lead to a revolution in technological advancement and innovation like radios, electricity, plumbing, motors, even silent films! Gargoyles technically fall under this category (they’re fueled by dragons blood and are bound to a building to protect it). Constructs are smaller, weaker machines that carry out complex tasks and even jobs. They do it with no sapience behind their actions like an Alexa or Siri. The abandoned ones worship a god called Nobody, and sing in the depths of Novald’s sewers. It’s theorized that they’re trying to bring back the magic of song by resurrecting Marian.

[lostcephalopods]

AU Masterpost

you can literally always talk to me about my aus. yes I have an au problem. it's incurable.

New (this blog only):

#dnau - collab w fred

remus gets into dna tests, janus' dna keeps changing, janus has an identity crisis

#mafiau - collab w fred

fake marriage turn into taking over a mafia, dukexiety, rosleepceit, freed androids becoming family

#dragonau - collab w fred

janus is a dragon that hoards boyfriends

#marvelau

janus get spider powers, janus is very hot, spideypool, dukexiety, future sleepceit, one-sided roceit

#eldritchau

remy is sleep, janus is a trickster, roman remus and virgil are a trio, soulmates exist, eldritch beings like to meddle, dukexiety, dukesleepceit, rosleepceit

#idolau

remy is an idol forced to be the face of scandals, janus is a barista with a dark past, virgil is a bartender trying to save money, roman is struggling to get a role, remus probably has a job and a home, oh and most of them live in the same shitty building

Old (from loveceit):

#bread au

rosleepceitmas, anaintruality, cottagecore dream, urban fantasy

#vampiceit - collab w fred

anxceitmusleep, canon setting, janus is a vampire disguised as a snake

#belief!dee

deceit used to be belief, king is the only one who knows, qpp kingceit, roceit, remus has abandonment trauma, remus is obsessed w roman (fic)

#powerswap au

canon setting, the dragon witch curses the wrong twin, remus janus and virgil all switch powers, slowburn anxceitmus

#pride!roman au

unsympathetic remus, remus replaces roman, deceit finds out, roman becomes pride since he's not needed as creativity

#the horror au

urban fantasy, antemori shores, the abandoned circus isn't abandoned, watch out for the Ringmaster

#ts witch au

urban fantasy, antemori shores, thomas inherited an apartment building, seven witches are the only ones living there, intruality, other ships tbd

#local cryptids au

schrodingers sleepxiety -> creepxiety, lomile, roceit, tobus, logan raised the twins, remy and virgil raised dee, virgil's youtube audience has lots of questions, remy owns fluidi-tea the coffee shop

#haunted motel au

virgil is the only employee at the enigma motel, the motel is haunted by five ghosts, virgil wants to contact the ghosts

#ts magic au

ironshell, deceit has too many people attracted to him, deceit is the only human, fae shouldn't be trusted but also the twins are fae

#fairytale au

a king broke the terms set by the fae after the queen passed away, a princess becomes a mage in a tower, the tower becomes cramped, established lomas, somewhat slowburn dukesleepxiety dukesleepceit and rosleepceit

#illfitting powers

virgil has fire powers, patton can communicate with spiders, logan conjures realistic illusions, roman can turn invisible, remus travels through other's reflections, janus is forced to fit in through painful shapeshifting, remy keeps people awake, emile influence people to feel the same emotion he does

#snakely escape au

deceit strips away everything but his core - self-preservation- and hides out in the imagination as an inland taipan called mair, qpp dukesleep, slowburn anxceitmus and roceit

#unexpected roommates au

semi-canon setting, roman is a ghost that haunts thomas, deceit is a sizs-changing fae that got stuck in thomas' home, they can see the sides when they're out, the sides know about them before thomas does

#fakimals

remus is thought to be the only dark side because virgil and janus are always in animal form, the animals will still pop up if they disagree with something, ignoring the animals doesn't end well, qpp anxceit, slow roceit

#sideswap au

canon setting, belief, creativity and caution as light sides, guilt, pride and detachment as dark sides, blind!belief, light sides chirp, probably onseided roceit (pride loves belief)

#garbage au

remus is a homeless demon sleeping in the dumpster behind the tattoo shop virgil works at, remus gets to stay in the shop's break room, roman is an angel, dalitso and remy own the tattoo shop and they corrupt/seduce roman, virgil gets to tattoo remus, dukexiety, eventual rosleepceit that starts with roman playing matchmaker to remy and dee

#the coincidence au

romulus, roman and remus don't know that they're all cousins, they have different surnames and have lived in different parts of the world before ending up in the same town, all three gets interested in dee who looks cool but is a gay disaster, creativiceit, sleepxiety

#soft vibes au

past sleepceit lead to remus being born, eve adopts roman and virgil, thomceit, eve's adoptive parents are emile and patton, soft family focused au

#ts sunflower au

thomas went to an adoption centre w a friend as moral support, met dee, continued to visit dee, adopted dee, now has an autistic 8 year old to care for, sir hiss the stuffed corn snake, mr picani is dee's counsellor, dee transfer to a new school, dee is now in fourth grade w the twins and virgil, remy is dee's friend from his old school and turns out to be mr picani's kid, could be thomile

#toddler dee au

thomas gives deceit less energy after the reveal, deceit changes to a smaller shape to conserve energy but fucks up, deceit is now a toddler w no memories, deceit only trusts virgil in the beginning, toddlers can't control their powers, roman is dee's role model and future husband (in the way kids want to marry adults), deceit actually ages at an accelerated rate (1 year in 4 months)

#kingceit human au

king roman and remus are triplets, deceit and remy are twins, deceit killed their and remy's parent in self defense, king is deceit's hot hairdresser that they accidentally confess murder to, deceit and remy take in 12 yr old virgil from the street, kingceit, rosleep, dukesleep

Old and temporarily abandoned:

#art heist au

#ts avatar au

#ts tangled au

#yet another youtube au

#soulmate wings au

#the high school au

#ts mythology au

#dead spouses au

#wtnv au

Dead aus:

#twin omens au

#parent teacher au

#deceit too au

#hogwarts au

#crazy ex au

#ts universe au

fred, friend and au enabler: @anxiouslyfred

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #120: Nitocris

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making Chaldea’s most historically dubious pharaoh, Neitiqe- I mean, Nitocris! Make ghosts, praise Horus (no not that one), and I guess you can drown your brother’s killers while we’re here.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next: So that’s why the English don’t like the French...

Race and Background

Much like your Senpai (who’s... actually younger than you?) Ozymandias, you’re an Aasimar. However, thanks to H.P. Lovecraft and Lumley you’ve been forever associated with the underworld, making you a Fallen Aasimar. That doesn’t actually change anything at level one thanks to Tasha, so you get +1 Wisdom and +2 Constitution. You also get Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, Healing Hands to literally slap people back to life, and the Light cantrip, because you can’t have shadows without a light source.

Like Ozzy, you’re a Noble, giving you proficiency with History and Persuasion. “Come to my new basement, it won’t kill you!” is a notoriously hard sell to people who aren’t winos.

Ability Scores

 Make your Wisdom as high as possible to be the best pharaoh you can be. After that is Dexterity, you’re clearly not wearing heavy armor here. Your Intelligence should be relatively high to help you figure out whodunit. You’re nice enough, but your timidity gets in the way of talking to people, so your Charisma is a little low. After that is Constitution, and then Strength. Casters are not known for hitting the gym.

Class Levels

1. Cleric 1: Again we’re kind of cheating here since you are a god, but hey, holy power is holy power. Holding on to the gate of the underworld puts you in solid running to become a Grave cleric, despite Horus’ general inclinations. This gives you a Circle of Mortality: healing creatures at 0 hp causes them to always get the maximum amount of healing, and you learn Spare the Dying as well. For you, it has a range of 30 feet and can be cast as a bonus action.

You also get the first of your eyes of Horus, the Eyes of the Grave. As an action you can detect undead within 60′ of you. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Speaking of Wisdom, that’s what you use to cast and prepare spells. I’ve said this before, but casters have way more flexibility with their spell lists than most other servants, and as a Cleric you can change spells daily to fit the party. Take any spells mentioned here as a suggestion, not a mandatory part of the build.

For cantrips, Guidance gives you a pep talk from Ozymandias, Thaumaturgy allows you to announce your presence like a true pharaoh, and Toll the Dead is the first of many Necrotic damage dealers you’ll get. 

For first level spells, you get Bane and False Life for free, creating small spirits that hamper your foes and give you a bit of protection. You can also use Ceremony to perform some funeral rites, protecting new souls as the leave for the underworld, or Sanctuary. Creatures that fail their wisdom save (with a DC of 8 plus your proficiency plus your wisdom modifier) have to attack someone other than the target for up to a minute, or until they attack. Look, I’m just trying to make the whole “no armor” thing you’ve got going on not a terrible decision. Please put on some leather at least.

You also get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as Religion and Insight. You’re literally a god, it should come naturally to you.

2. Cleric 2: Second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest. You can either Turn Undead, forcing those who fail a wisdom save to run away from you until they take damage, or show an enemy a Path to the Grave. As an action, you curse a creature. The next time they get hit by an attack from you or one of your allies, they have vulnerability to all damage taken by that attack. Fans of our older content may remember this as That Thing That Made Sanson Terrifying from ages ago. It’ll definitely send some souls underground if your party has any rogues or paladins.

3. Cleric 3: Third level clerics don’t get new features, but third level Aasimar do! Your Necrotic Shroud lets you transform as an action, frightening creatures nearby if they fail a charisma save (DC based on your charisma, not wisdom). It lasts for 1 minute, during which you can deal extra necrotic damage equal to your level whenever you hit something with a spell or attack. You can use this once per long rest. Turns out ghost tornados are spooky, who knew?

That being said, you also get second level spells, like Gentle Repose and Ray of Enfeeblement from your domain. I’m not sure how well embalming plays with resurrection, but it’s probably fine, right? You also get some blessings from Horus, like Protection from Poison and Lesser Restoration. 

4. Druid 1: You didn’t think that bit in Ozymandias’ breakdown was just a joke, did you? As a druid, you can speak Druidic. You can also cast and prepare more spells, also using Wisdom. Since we’re mixing two full casters, just use your total level to find out how many slots you’ve got.

Shape Water and Create or Destroy Water will make drowning your enemies a bit easier. Infestation will make them suffer before they go. Fog Cloud can act like a bunch of ghosts in a pinch, obscuring you from your foes, and Cure Wounds is just a good spell to have. You probably should’ve been using it as a cleric, but being a druid opens up a lot of preparation slots.

5. Druid 2: At second level, druids get their circle. The Circle of Spores will let you use your Wild Shape in ways that are slightly less lore breaking, though again Egyptian gods did have that human/beast duality thing going, so using your action to transform into a beast of CR 1/2 or lower with no swimming or flying speed wouldn’t be the end of the world.

You get Chill Touch as a free cantrip for a ghostly hand that deals necrotic damage, prevents healing, and slows down other undead, giving them disadvantage to attack you. You also get a Halo of Spores, using your reaction to deal more necrotic damage to a creature that gets near you if it fails a constitution save. Mushrooms are kind of like ghosts, when you think about it. They’re the remains of the dead, they hang out in dark places, they can kill you without touching you... Finally, you can use your Symbiotic Entity instead of your wild shape, gaining temporary hp based on your druid level, doubling your halo of spores dice, and dealing extra necrotic damage with your weapon attacks. This lasts for ten minutes, until you lose those temporary hp, or you use wild shape again. Much like the circle of wildfire, you gotta turn into a bear before summoning ghosts if you want both effects.

6. Druid 3: Third level druids get second level spells, including the freebies Blindness/Deafness and Gentle Repose from your circle. Better get used to it, there’s a bit of overlap between the two subclasses. You can also cast Barkskin to make your armor situation less precarious, or Earthbind and Skywrite to show your mastery of the sky, grounding anyone who dares raise a wing against you.

7. Druid 4: At fourth level, druid can swim in their wild shape, and the beasts they can transform into include anything CR 1 or lower. You also (finally) get your first Ability Score Improvement, bumping up your Wisdom for better spellcasting and hitting things. That’s right, you can hit things with wisdom now, thanks to Shillelagh! It makes your staff extra powerful, lets you use wisdom instead of strength, and makes your attacks magic! All for the low low price of one cantrip.

8. Cleric 4: To make up for how long it took you to get your first ASI, you get two in a row now. Grab the Eldritch Adept feat to finally grab Armor of Shadows, letting you cast Mage Armor at will on yourself for free. You also get the cantrip Resistance for even more defense.

9. Cleric 5: At fifth level, your Turn Undead becomes Destroy Undead. Now any zombie of CR 1/2 or lower that fails its wisdom save is instantly destroyed!

You also get third level spells, like Vampiric Touch and Revivify for when you vampiric touch the wrong person. You can also Bestow Curses on the unworthy, Speak with Dead, or cover yourself in a Spirit Shroud to do even more necrotic damage with your attacks. It also slows down enemies that start their turn near you, and prevents them from healing when they take that necrotic damage.

10. Cleric 6: Sixth level grave clerics get a second channel divinity each short rest and become a Sentinel at Death’s Door. When a friendly creature would get hit by a critical hit, you can use your reaction to turn it into a normal hit instead, a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier. Only you get to abuse critical hits, that’s the pharaoh way.

11. Druid 5: Your druid spells catch up to your cleric spells now, also reaching the third level. For circle spells, Animate Dead gives you the start of your zombie army (just say they’re possessed, like they’ll be able to tell the difference) and Gaseous Form lets you get a little bit ghostly too. You can also Feign Death to prevent your party members from getting eaten by your army if you forget to keep them under control, or make a Tidal Wave. We’re definitely coming back for that spell for your summer form.

12. Druid 6: Sixth level spore druids can summon a mushroomy ghost to possess a corpse thanks to their Fungal Infestation. As a reaction, you can reanimate the corpse of a beast or humanoid that died within 10′ of you as a zombie with 1 hp. This one only lasts for an hour, but you can use the feature a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier.

13. Druid 7: Seventh level druids get fourth level spells, like Blight and Confusion. Normally you’d kill people with an excess of water rather than a lack of it, but hey, it’s more necrotic damage. You can also cast Conjure Minor Elementals to summon some freeform “ghosts”. I’d recommend either eight Steam Mephits for the aesthetics or four Summoner Dust Mephits for their flavor. You could also use Summon Elemental to get one big ghost air elemental spirit.

14. Druid 8: Eighth level druids lose all movement restrictions and can turn into beasts of CR 2 or lower, meaning you can finally take to the skies as an incarnation of Horus. You also get another ASI to max out your Wisdom. 

15. Druid 9: Ninth level druids get fifth level spells. You get Cloudkill and Contagion to spread the pharaoh’s curse to any who would disturb your resting place, whether that’s your tomb or your bedroom. People gotta knock first.

You can also Control Winds to ground other fliers, Reincarnate to continue your lineage (it won’t actually work on you specifically since you have to be alive to cast it, but just team up with Ozymandias and it’ll all work out.), and Conjure Elemental for more powerful ghosts. You can either cast it at fifth level for an Air Elemental, or upcast it to a sixth level slot for an Invisible Stalker. 

16. Cleric 7: You know the drill by now; you can now cast fourth level spells! Your domain spells are Blight (again) and Death Ward for a way to cast guts on a creature. You can also cast Control Water to drown your enemies even more, and prevent your party from joining them.

17. Cleric 8: Use your last ASI to bump up your Dexterity for some more AC. You also get another boost to your Destroy Undead, and it now destroys anything of CR 1 or lower. Be careful about using this around your zombie army.

You also get Potent Spellcasting, adding your wisdom modifier to your cleric cantrips’ damage.

18. Cleric 9: Your cleric spells catch up to your druid spells now, giving you Antilife Shell to protect you from anything other than your own army, and Raise Dead to bring the dead back the “right” way. You can also Hallow ground if you want, protecting an area from Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, and Undead. You uh... you might want to exclude some of those creature types if you want your ghosts to work right.

19. Cleric 10: Our last cleric level nets you the amazing Divine Intervention. Talk to your god for a free pass on whatever nonsense your party got you into this time. You have to get 10 or less on a d100, but it’s better than nothing. You can use this once per long rest, or after a week if you succeed. You can also cast Word of Radiance to mix things up. Not everything’s gotta be all doom and gloom you know.

20. Druid 10: Our capstone level gives you some Spreading Spores. As a bonus action while using Symbiotic Entity, you can send your ghosts away to guard a 10 foot cube for up to a minute. Creatures that move into the area takes halo damage if they fail a constitution save. You also can’t use the halo of spores reaction while they’re out and about, for obvious reasons.

If that wasn’t enough, you also unlock the awesome power of Druidcraft, the most powerful prognostication cantrip in the game. As long as you want to know the weather, druidcraft will never let you down.

Pros

Thanks to your split casting classes, you have a bunch of high level spell slots that you can’t do much with. That’s a good thing though, because it means you don’t miss out on much if you spend them building up your Undead Army. Assuming you save a sixth level slot for an invisible stalker, that still gives you 64 zombies or skeletons, plus five temporary zombies from Fungal Infestations. Nice. They aren’t tough, but you can cover a ton of ground with them, and that’s all before calling in any elementals.

Druids are tough, and spore druids especially so. Your HP isn’t amazing, but bolstering it with your own healing, plenty of temporary hp from your Symbiotic Entity, and destroying crits with Sentinel at Death’s Door means you can stay in the fight much longer than your health total would let on.

You also come packing with plenty of abilities to help damage dealing teammates. Like I said at the start, Path to the Grave can be terrifying if you can hand it off to a rogue or paladin, and you also have multiple options to prevent enemies from healing that damage back, making your dps’s job a lot easier.

Cons

Your Concentration isn’t that good, which wouldn’t be the end of the world if not for your tendency to get up close and personal to use spores. It’s especially bad if you’ve got an elemental out, because those don’t go away if you lose concentration, they’ll just try to kill you for an hour.

You use your reactions to stop crits, deal damage, and make zombies, and you won’t always know which one should you focus on at any given time. You only get one per round, but who knows when the next crit’s going to befall your squishy wizard?

Clerics and Spore druids both get powerful 20th level abilities. You get neither of those abilities, because you split the difference. You’re also stuck with fifth level spells. A massive zombie army is nice and intimidating, but it doesn’t make up for missing out on immortality.

[felassan]

Dragon Age 4 predictions based on Tevinter Nights

Edit: This blog post is featured in this vid by @jackdawyt. Thanku Jackdaw. None of them are hyperspecific/in-depth theories or revolutionary or even necessarily not-obvious. They’re more like general impressions I got or idle thoughts I had. Bear in mind these are clearly guesses/observations with some bits of my hopes rolled in. Under a cut because spoilers.

Thank God, we’re finally leaving the south behind for newer, less-trodden pastures. And hopefully it’s not just Tevinter for the setting. The book takes us to Tevinter, Antiva, Rivain, Nevarra and the Anderfels. These locations are so iiinteresting and have sooo much potential, and have needed some more depth/detail and in general just needed to have been given some love/attention in the franchise for a long time. I’d like it if DA4 had a multi-country setup like Ferelden-Orlais in DA:I. Tevinter-Nevarra or Tevinter-Antiva or something like that. Looking at the list and a map, a good way to get between the listed countries above would be by boat. Mobile ship base?

In terms of genre, a return to something closer to dark fantasy. A more grimdark/crapsack world setting once again like our Dragon Age: Origins roots, less of a light-hearted feel. The book really leans into stuff like eldritch Lovecraftian creatures, ghost-story vibes, crime noir and body horror. Interestingly one of the devs that stuck out to me a bit on Twitter these last few months is the Lead Creature Creator person. Update here: my updated impressions are that it isn’t grimdark and is quite light-hearted. However! There can easily be a non-grimdark, light-hearted feel while leaning into Lovecraftian creatures, ghost stories, crime noir etc.

A Lord of Fortune companion. This is a new bit of lore that got quite a bit of attention in the book, and there’s a lack of Rivaini companions in general. A full 5 of the new characters in the book are Lords which is fairly notable to me.

Alternatively, if we’re getting a new PC, perhaps we’re a Lord of Fortune. The book emphasizes how the Lords are humans, elves and dwarves; warriors and rogues with different specialties; and males, females and others. It’s a good lead-in for character creation. I see no reason why Tal-Vashoth or Vashoth couldn’t join. Same goes for mages, since the book is careful to give us an example of a mage who is also a thief and uses their magic in their thieving. It also seems like people from other non-Rivain countries in Thedas can join. There’s room there for different specializations. Hero of Ferelden, Champion of Kirkwall, Herald of Andraste, Lord of Fortune. Doesn’t it sound like a perfect PC title? We know we need to find people he doesn’t know for the effort to save/stop Solas. I’m not saying he’s not aware of who the Lords are, but the book specifically emphasizes that Solas has some knowledge of Qunari Ben-Hassrath, Tevinter Siccari, Nervarran Mortalitasi, dwarven Carta, Orlesian Bards and their efforts against him. The LoFs aren’t included in this. Being a Lord also gives the PC a reason to be knowledgeable about history, Deep Roads, different ancient ruins, artifacts, stuff like that. And it’s a decent way of getting a new PC mixed up in the narrative - Lords travel all over Thedas, dungeoneering and seeking glory, obtaining ancient artifacts. I can totally see a Lord initially being like on a job or something trying to find some artifact that it also turns out that Solas’ people want to get their hands on and so becoming caught up in everything that way.

A Vint Siccari is also an ideal candidate for the PC. They’re mixed-gender, mages and non-mages, they oppose Solas and are unflinching in their duties in order to protect their families who are kept as both promise and threat. Most of them come from slave families, harking to the theories the next PC in Tevinter would be a former slave (which was a fairly popular idea, I’m not keen on it personally tho). Slave families opens up elves at least for race-selection, in addition to the default human, as some Tevinter slaves are humans & there are human slave families.

If Inky returns in any manner on-screen and has a prosthetic, the prosthetic is dwarven-crafted metal

I’d be surprised if we don’t have a Mortalitasi companion

Lucanis Dellamorte is gonna show up. he sounds like classic LI material tbh. I’m not sure that he’s dead after the short, it feels a bit like a fakeout

I’d also be surprised if the Grand Necropolis and Arlathan Forest are not locations we visit. The Necropolis feels like an enclosed location we’ll follow a set story arc through til we discover a huge secret, like the Temple of Mythal. The Forest could be that or a whole open area to explore like the Emerald Graves. Both locations sound super intriguing honestly and to not go there now that we’re going north and have hints/whiffs of them imo would be such wasted potential.

Guili Arainai is dead. Her heir exists but isn’t named in the book. It’s implied Zevran is no longer associated with the Crows in DA:I and after how it’s his failed contract that brought that house low, and after his Crow-dismantling campaign, I’m not sure how much sense (both in terms his of new pov on the Crows and members of the house falling in line), but wouldn’t it be amazing if the new Eighth Talon was Zevran? We’d all love to see him again and of the 4 DA:O LIs his post-DA:O content hasn’t been great or plentiful. Maybe Zevran and the Crows are more endeared to one another once again given the seriousness of the Qunari threat to the Crows, Antiva and her people. Ofc he would defend his homeland.. There are hints of the potential for the Crows to get back to their roots and become more like their romanticized image once more; killing bad guys who deserve it, freedom-fighting, protecting the Antivan people, revolutionary-ing, working together as one. We’re also introduced to pretty sympathetic high-ranking Crows with morals/standards and a heart, like Talon Teia and Lucanis.

Dorian as a major quest-giver/contact. Trying to clean up Tevinter - of its literal monsters, evil shitty people and the bad things in its society - could be its whole own story arc. He’s too busy to return as a companion.

Mae appearing feels all-but-guaranteed

“Tevinter or Qunari” choice

Qunari rogue factions / ideological fracturing or splintering. A “true Qun” and “heretic Qun” situation develops.

Letter from Varric

Solas is functionally OP. The Inquisition expedition discovered a MacGuffin. [theory] maybe it can negate freezing?

I’m really intrigued by the sentence “A year later, nations would stand and tremble”. stand.. together against the Dread Wolf or the latest big encroaching threat, and tremble in fear? if we can locate the ritual site, if such a thing exists, does Solas have enough followers to defend it against the armies of multiple nations? maybe until it completes, it is vulnerable? [theory]

The Venatori re-attempt to release the terrible ancient demon beneath Minrathous, succeed and we have to defeat it. It’s the Formless One, the only named Forbidden One yet to appear in a game. 4 names, 4 games

Proper Forbidden One-Forgotten One connection lore reveal

Forbidden Ones and Forgotten Ones as they pertain to elfs/elfy stuff lore reveal, building on stuff in Trespasser and JoH codexes

Some elements of the scrapped Joplin version of the game remain after the reboot. Joplin was reportedly centered on heists, and the book goes hard on the thief, treasure-hunters, infiltration, escapade-adventure, spies stuff. (This also makes sense because we need to be covert in our efforts to save or stop Solas) Maybe some Mark of the Assassin-esque mechanics rolled in. I also feel reassured therefore that some of Joplin’s vision will shape Morrison. 

Vadis and Irian are Inquisition-remains agents.

Mortalitasi conflict thread fucked up darkspawn thread, route the remaining Venatori thread

Gonna have to fight some elves.. :( not all of the elves obviously, but a combination of some Dalish, some City and a few ancients - Solas’ agents.

Reaching, but wouldn’t it be rad if the designated Shale-, Justice- or Cole-like character, the “unique/odd entity”-type, was an Executor? 

We only have a few years in which to save/stop Solas, as his ritual will take a few years to complete. Let's say the final events in the book were in 9:45, and that the game time-length in-world is the same as DAO and DAI, 1 year. Let's say DA4 begins about a year before Solas reaches ritual completion, giving some length but also a race against the clock. I can therefore see the start date being around 9:47 / 46 or so.

Solas' ritual is similar in some way to the ritual the Magisters Sidereal did and therefore requires inordinate amounts of lyrium. And possibly also inordinate amounts of blood for blood magic? So maybe he has to sacrifice people or something, or he has willing volunteers. Like what was required for the Magisters Sidereals’ ritual and like what the Vint mage's attempt to use the idol in a ritual in the book required [theory - more detailed speculation on the ritual here]. edit: alternatively I’m also reminded of how in Dark Fortress, “red lyrium requires something more”, and they were trying to use a dragon/dragonfire to power the ritual (comes to mind considering the red lyrium idol).

The idol depicts Mythal comforting Solas over something that happened in the past [theory]

Solas’ plans largely amount to a combination of the Synthesis Ending from ME3 and the un-separation of the human and spirit worlds in Legend of Korra, only with a side order of fiery death and destruction [theory]

We learn more about Ghilain'nain

Solas sometimes issues instructions to his agents in dreams [theory]

Some of his agents are doing things he really would not approve of and doesn't know about, like Gaius in the comics trading away the idol

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

A hopefully concise description of the Fellowship of Eldritchicians.

I've realized I've been badgering two friends constantly over the past three-fourish months and haven't done much else. So will provide something of an explanation regarding the thing I'd been badgering the two about.

The Fellowship of Eldritchicians. Yes I know Eldritchicians looks like it sounds silly, and indeed it does...but thought and still think it sounded cool so I'm sticking with it. The icians bit meant to be like Electrician, Magician what have you( probably self explanatory but I digress).

The FoE is your standard global secret society (with six Academies across the world, and one in Faerie/Elfphame) dealing with all things Supernatural and Preternatural. Having the goals of studying and understanding the Supernatural, Preternatural, and Eldritch, and in turn assisting it/ protecting against it as the case may be. Was first founded around the fourth or fifth century AD/CE

The FoE primari deals with Nineish major fields

1. Ghosts and various other Undead.

2. Magical objects/items (retrieval/confiscation/rarely destruction)

3. Uncanny Fauna aka Cryptids (Note will be doing my damndest to be careful here In what is an isnt a Cryptid). Has an advanced field (due to its expert) in Primordial Darkness.

4. Demons (still figuring out the exact details here. Primarily dealing with Christian Demonology, though Christian demons will likely not be the only demons of course. Again, being careful).

5. Fantastic Fauna (creatures of Classical Mythology Not overly common).

6. Fairies (Dealing with the aftermath of Fairy actions, or acting as neutral third parties in disputes between the Five Kingdoms of Faerie and Elfphame)

7. Angels.

8. Magical People like Wizards and just Spells in general.

9. Lovecraftian Extra Dimensional Horrors.

Not all Eldritchicians are human (of its seven founders only three were human, and one of them being completely non magical) or entirely human...just a passing mention.

Only involves itself in matters relating to the Supernatural/Preternatural.

New Eldritchicians brought on (which is what this story will likely be focusing on) by senior Eldritchicians picking them and providing a letter of Reccomendation to one of the Seven FoE Academies (Archimago, Dom Daniel, Beowulf, Dobryna (probably spelled that wrong), Tomoko, Suleyman, and Leeds &Kidd Academy). Where they will learn/train for five years. First two years being something of General Study/Shadowing (following trained Eldritchicians on the job). The following three years being to learn in depth three of the nine major fields, a field per year, from senior Eldritchicians proficient in it but also from one of Nine Individuals who are something of Benefactors (?) to the FoE. The Eldritch Fellows/The Archimages/Arch Mages, 9 individua...beings...who are recognized as the experts in their respective field and are important deals in the FoE, though they do not lead it. The FoE being lead by six Overseers and One Arch Overseer who is the first Eldritchicia and founder of the whole organization. (A note that four of the Founders have such leadership positions and all seven of the original Fellowship are still around).

Will share more later. Though I think I posted about the planned protagonists and stuff already? If any of this sounds interesting, feel free to ask questions or what have you.

Make of this what you will.

Al, the Chronographing Cottager and Prince of Naming

[ganymedesclock]

Honestly, I wonder if there’s a kind of thief-warrior-mage divide between Zote, Hornet, and Ghost?

Ghost is a mid-range attacker who’s not shabby with their nail by any means but canonically all their biggest achievements are with magic- when pressed to their limit in a do-or-die situation they just crack themselves open and turn loose the void and much of the game is attuning their power closer to it and grappling that raw eldritch force under their control since at first, their power is potentially endangering to them. Even if you can more or less pass over the Shade Soul, Descending Dark, Howling Wraiths and Abyss Shriek, they’re darn useful to have and two spells- the Vengeful Spirit and Desolate Dive- are essential to proceed.

Just from what we’re seeing of Silksong, Hornet comparatively doesn’t use magic. Emphasis is placed on her acrobatic skill (a function of physical strength and dexterity) and she makes up the difference with a lot of devices and different weapons. Even her thread attacks, which one could argue are a kind of magic, are used in Hollow Knight to set traps using mechanical components (the bundles of barbs she uses on Kingdom’s Edge) or to grapple her environment or enemies, further lending themselves to physical maneuvering. She’s also taller and seemingly stronger than Ghost physically, since she’s able to tackle and hold down the much larger Pure Vessel.

Now, Zote. We pretty much never see Zote fight. Physically, we know he’s not much in a straight cage match as he’s presented in the Colosseum of Fools, but, he’s also somehow surviving the majority of Hallownest no problem, when he insists he always travels alone, is not obviously shadowing stronger people, and in the entirety of the game, he’s only captured a total of three times- once by the first Vengefly King, then by creatures in Deepnest (presumably Corpse Creepers, as that’s what you have to fight through to get there), and then by the Colosseum. Those odds are too much in his favor for him to be relying on luck- and he’s sure as hell not staying away from dangerous areas.

Hypothesis? Those three times are, to speak in D&D terms, the times he rolled badly on a stealth roll.

If Zote isn’t fast and athletic like Hornet, and he’s not the magical heavyweight Ghost is, it suggests he moves somewhat slowly through the kingdom, but given his relative lack of combat skills, the likeliest implication is he avoids most confrontations. He’s likely a stealth combatant. There’s actually a fair amount in his Precepts that suggests this- while some of it clearly doesn’t line up with how he operates-

 (his comment about “Strength beats strength”- while he does try to attack Ghost directly in the Colosseum, it seems mostly a product of his refusal to admit when he’s in over his head; it’s unlikely he tries to solve most of his problems this way, since if that were the case, he would be very dead, a lot faster than the Vengefly King can potentially get to him)

-he has three precepts around identifying and striking weak points, advocates theft and generally disregarding the law, and outright says not to show your enemies any respect. He also talks heavily about resource management and being suspicious of things and people in your environment. 

The version of Zote who’s a heavyweight brawler (Grey Prince) is an invention by Bretta, and, as Grey Prince loses subsequent fights, it makes it clear that Bretta wasn’t really listening to or paying much attention to who Zote really was. Comparatively the Eternal Ordeal, which is based on Zote, is in a weird, out of the way place, and relies not on strength at all but on repeatedly changing the situation, wearing you down, debuffing you or dumping you into environmental hazards. And considering in Hollow Knight you can defeat enemies by luring or juggling them into spikes, water, or acid, that’s honestly a solid possibility for Zote’s actual fighting style- which would further, nicely explain why he did so terribly in the Colosseum fight when he’s canonically someone who can survive Deepnest- the latter has plenty of hazards, room to flee, and places to hide that the native creatures make lavish use of- the Colosseum is brightly lit, wide open, and has none of its spikes or barriers deployed for that fight so it’s just a flat-footed power brawl.

It especially makes sense of how he’s that ineffective in that fight, and yet, is able to seemingly, effortlessly offscreen, hauling a Shielded Fool’s helmet which is more than the size of his entire body, make his way back from Kingdom’s Edge to Dirtmouth which you’d be hard-pressed to read as anything but a display of competence. Especially since he’s not immune to acid, and seems to lack any particular jump skills.

[neildylandy]

pokemon vague story idea

honestly don’t know where i’m going with this or even if i’m going anywhere with this, just had the concept appear in my brain and wanted to write it down so here i go

pleas give feedback or more ideas if you can ok thank you goodbye

Once, there were no books, for there were no humans who could read. 

Once, there were no lectures, for there were no humans who could speak. 

Once, there was no history, for there were no humans who could survive it.

This world bears the innumerable scars of its violent past–a past where heat waves scorched forests to ashes in a single day, where oceans rose to swallow whole continents, where the spores of mushrooms the size of skyscrapers turned clean air to deadly fog. A past where anything could happen and anything did, all at the alien whims of Those Who Lived First.

And then...something changed. No one knows what, or why, or how.

More importantly, no one knows how to do it again.

Which, of course, is where the Arcane Schooling System comes in.

(Yes, we know about the acronym. No, we can’t change it.)

While the apocalyptic magic of Those Who Lived First is no longer quite so troublesome, they were considered gods for a reason, and their influence has persisted since (we assume) the moment they were evicted from our reality. About 1 in 680,000 children will, at exactly 11 years and 7 months of age, awaken to find that they have obtained either one or two distinct magical talents, known as Types (with the odds of getting one Type or two Types at almost exactly a 50/50 split, which depending on the instructor is either a mildly interesting coincidence or a terrifying conspiracy).

Simultaneously, that slightly-more-than-11-and-a-half-year-old will also awaken to find that they have been teleported to our illustrious school. The teleportation is quite necessary, as there is only one ASS location–please try to giggle more quietly–for all of the planet’s inhabitants. Oh, and also that location lurks within another dimension that our founder unstuck from time to prevent total reality failure. We thought that might make for a difficult commute.

But don’t fret! While commuting between your native plane and the ASS will be utterly impossible until you graduate, our seasoned experts in time, space, and mind magic will make sure that not only will you never physically age while on campus, but when you do graduate, you will return to exactly the point in spacetime that you left! All you’ll need is a bit of discretion (which are taught in mandatory classes) and your friends and loved ones won’t notice a thing.

In the meantime, enjoy campus life! Our little slice of unreality is equipped with a wide variety of amenities to make your education here as pleasant as possible, including (but not limited to):

Automatic translation of every language ever spoken, written, or gestured by all of humanity

Cafeterias and housing powered by mind magic–literally live in the house and eat the food of your dreams!

Medical services from our team of recovery mages that, yes, can even actually cure the common cold

A wide, safe view of the starless void and the three-dimensional shadows of Those Who Lived First that glide silently through it, a firm reminder of your educational goals

Football teams (American, Association, Australian)

Our unique education system will use our understanding of your Type(s) to put you in one or two of three curriculums, specialized to help you get the most out of your reality-warping while protecting your mind, body, and soul. In addition to the following curriculums are a smaller selection of interdisciplinary programs that benefit students no matter their Type.

The first curriculum is Corporea, a discipline focused on both the creation of tangible, comprehensible objects and the alteration of one’s physical form in tangible, comprehensible ways. Types that benefit the most from Corporea are Bug, Fighting, Ground, Normal, Rock, and Steel. Corporea’s mascot is Stakataka.

The second curriculum is Conductivity, a discipline focused on the manifestation of intangible forces with comprehensible, consistent effects on their surrounding environment. Types that benefit the most from Conductivity are Electric, Fire, Flying, Ice, Poison, and Psychic. Conductivity’s mascot is Xurkitree.

The third curriculum is Connection, a discipline focused on the careful balancing of a parasitic relationship with the unfathomable arcane reservoirs of Those Who Lived First. Types that benefit the most from Connection are Dark, Dragon, Fairy, Ghost, Grass, and Water. Connection’s mascot is Guzzlord.

---

The mascot for the Arcane Schooling System as a whole is a six-legged Type: Null with Giratina’s head, wings, and color scheme. The Type: Null stuff is because Type: Null is known for subduing eldritch deities from other dimensions. The Giratina stuff is there because that’s the school’s founder and principal, and the Distortion World is the alternate dimension in which the school resides. (No one in the ASS knows that last part or even that Type: Null doesn’t actually look much like their mascot. This includes Giratina themself, since they erased that knowledge from reality soon after founding the school because they got bored of students and faculty being terrified of them.)

Giratina was very bitter because they got banished from reality while all the other legendaries got to have their kickass apocalypse party. So when some miserable dying humans from a long-forgotten eon sacrificed some of their few remaining folks in their honor and begged for help, they figured now was a pretty good time for some revenge. They snagged an army of Type: Null from alternate realities and led that army to turn the tables on the other legendaries and basically lock them in their basement for all eternity.

That “basement” is still guarded by all their Type: Null buddies in some long-forgotten layer of the Distortion World, but the lock itself isn’t very good, so the other legendaries’ power and influence started to leak back into reality almost immediately. This could’ve led to a breakout if left unchecked, and the leaking magic was already starting to fuck up the planet again, so Giratina panicked and devised this overcomplicated school idea to postpone what was probably inevitable. Then they decided on impulse to delete all their knowledge of being an omnipotent god from the universe. Now they’re a very kind and totally 100% human person named Principal Ren.

Principal Ren Egade. Creating is hard when you’re the god of antimatter.

[eldritchabominationsuggestion]

And now a word from your eldritch host.

Normally I’d put this in my RPG blog, but I want to put this here because way more people follow this blog and what I want to do is derived from the themes here.

Some time ago, someone tried to make a Lovecraftian splat for Chronicles of Darkness called Outsider: The Calling.  It more or less died five years ago but did have substantial framework set up yet was still in a very draft stage.

Some time ago after being introduced to Chronicles of Darkness (a.k.a “New World of Darkness”) I’ve felt that Mage: The Awakening had some aspects of it that could neatly segue into a Lovecraftian game as illustrated by a variant someone made in one of the expansion books where mages risked madness the more powerful they got, or suggestions in another expansion book about the gods mages favored having Cthulhu-esque tendencies (and yes they are called “The Old Gods”).  However after reading these it seemed for a time my idea was not that unique, and even throwing hints that the mage’s ideas of reality were distorted was something people did experiment with.

So then I thought about going back to that idea of a Lovecraftian inspired fan-splat.  My approach to the idea would be different from Outsider.  In Outsider, you play as humans touched by the eldritch gods and becoming ever less human, meanwhile reality rejects you as a disease.  My approach would be more focused on the idea that the eldritch is the true face of reality and not the abberation.  

More under the cut.

So here is the pitch:

The world is teeming with supernatural societies; vampires, mages, werewolves, ghosts, mummies and beasts roam the Earth.  These societies have concerns that fix their attention to the going-ons in Earth, within the span of time that humans have tred upon it.  

Of course, what they are looking at is merely a tiny, micro-thin sliver of what is.  All the empires of the world, hopes of humanity, the squabbles and intrigue of various human and non-human societies in a tiny speck of dust in space from a very brief blink on the timeline.  Your situation on the other hand, falls outside of that’ you are, quite bluntly, an alien.

This is not about helpless, xenophobic professors and private investigators who happen to stumble upon bizarre artifacts, nor is this about scientists and secret agents who desperately borrow another day from the unforgiving maw of squamous primordial titans.  This is about those that they hunt- or rather those that hunt them.  This is about those whom the dark secrets of the universe course through their flesh, blood, and soul. This is about the ones with icthyous deformities, impossible anatomies, black blood, and struck by reasonable madness.

Maybe it is because your heritage comes from beyond the stars and into great fathoms down below.  You may have seen human your whole life, but why did your grandmother's face look like a fish?  Was your invisible friend actually your brother?  Does your body somehow form a symbiotic relationship with a vampiric force from a crashed meteor?    

Or you are among those touched by the alien forces that lie outside our cosmic speck of dust.  Your body and soul touched by gazing into the abyss and it burrowed into you and never let go.  Whatever pathogenic truths you discovered can never be unlearned; once one awakens to the horrid vastness of what lies beyond, all attempts at sleep only become infested with nightmares.  You have been forever marked as an outsider, but is it so bad?

The forces that you deal with on a regular basis are completely alien to the senses and understanding of other supernatural beings, they hail from the places like Yuggoth, Carcosa, and the center of the Big Bang known as Azathoth.  Yet, despite being removed from the rest of the world of mere mortals, you know that it’s as much a part of everything.  We are all cosmic remains of a dead star that screamed its death throws eons ago before even great spirits or beings came into existence.  What divides the alien and the native is ultimately arbitrary, a comforting lie people tell themselves seeing an abomination against all nature and reason-as they understand nature and reason.  What lies out in The Deep is more real, more apparent to you among most others.  Your eyes gaze into the night and while others see specks of luminescent gas, you see the great cosmic dance of black holes hunting stars, tendrils of nebulae that spit out new worlds, the song of trillions of stars, the pulse of a living, breathing ecosystem that spans eons in time and space.  The day will come when Earth is merely a berry picked by a hungry celestial predator.  

In the end though, you are just another marionette in a vast cosmic game, or are you?  Will you take your alienness and embrace it?  Reject it?  Rise up and become a player and take your throne as the next cosmic tyrant?  With knowledge comes power, with knowledge and power comes madness.  What will you do?

Ideas: 

Instead of the typical X & Y formula, there will be an X,Y, & Z formula because extra dimensions.  They will be: 

How you are connected.  Are your ancestors from beyond?  Did what lies beyond affect you?  Did you get infected by a symbiote?  Are you the reincarnation or facet of an eldritch being?  Maybe something else?

To whom you are connected.  Instead of a specific god, you are connected to vague archetypes of forces out there, and these categorizations are more useful tools to understand than actual factions.  For example, you may be connected to “The Masque”, which covers trickster or drama-type beings like Nyarlathotep or Hastur.  Or maybe you are connected to the leviathans that dream below the surface like Cthulhu, Rhan-Tegoth, or Glaaki.

How you are taking it.  The typical social or faction aspect.

Powers groups are called “Paradoxes” and are categorized in broad domains that cover a group of ideas that are intertwined yet contradictory.  Example:

The Paradox of Life and Death covers healing, necromancy, creating plagues, draining life, resurrection, etc.  There is no distinction between powers of life and powers of death; they are the same here.

The Paradox of Order and Chaos covers your blasty stuff like fireballs, but also things like entropy, gravity, and matter.  You might also be able to scramble forces that are put in a delicate order like radio signals and spoken words.

The Paradox of Meaning and Nothing- This is probably the weirdest and most abstract.  Such abilities include toying with meta.  For example at higher levels you might impose a rule toward an enemy that in order for them to succeed they must roll a failure instead.  

According to the backstory, Earth was changed drastically when it was taken, stolen or conquered from it’s rightful owners.  In this drastic change was when humans were made and thus later became the pawns to reconstruct the world as how another eldritch god wanted it to be, so this sort of explains the “humancentricism” of the world but not that it actually is for the benefit of humans.  Some groups of humans touched by the forces of the eldritch gods seek to return it to its rightful owners, whatever “rightful” means anyway.  

[solarianradiance]

What would a Mage of Void be like? I'm thinking someone who understands and manipulates Void, as in they know Void is more then just nothing and use it efficiently, understanding the horrorterrors best (something Rose wish she could've done) just think about it, a player with dark gods power without going grimdark But they would also experience their aspect, so they feel nothing? Or maybe they feel like they are a nobody or are usually forgotten, unseen. What do you think?

The Mage of Void is enlightened by Void and through Void, they are enlightened

Void is the aspect of Nothingness itself, it is the obscuring and hiding of things in the space between spaces, where only nothingness can be seen or felt.

It can also be considered the Aspect of the Unknown. Eldritch things like the HorrorTerrors own this aspect, without question.

It is the things that arent there or obvious and obscure that a Mage of Void understands and gains power from. They would be very similar to a Space player, not exactly the same, but quite similar.

Being Mages, they would be about understanding things, and learning about them. In this case, forbidden knowledge or nothingness. Or at least, what something was or should be.

Like take for instance, a missing object in a room. You have never been in that room, but you know the place is missing something. A Mage of Void can figure out what that was, or at least probably was, like a Seer of Void.

Once a Mage understands Void, they can manipulate Void for their own benefit, making them invisible, blinding those that they do not want to see, or crafting codes that only they can use to transfer information. They make something seem like it was never there, and peer through other attempts at hiding. Stealth might not work on them, even if you are another Void player.

They make for excellent coders and cryptologists btw.

Nothing however has a purpose, and that purpose is to be filled with something. All Void players are filled with a sense of nothingness, and seek to fill the void within themselves, by any means they can. Equius with his need to fill his quadrants in a rather odd, slightly creepy, though understandable manner

And Roxy Lalonde to fill her Void with booze, or create and procure a void to make her feelings and boredom go away.

Void players are just as capable of creating as they are unmaking, as previously said, the Void exists to be filled, like a blank canvas, but it can be used for a number of things.

The exact abilities of the Mage of Void are a bit difficult to fully grasp and know, and thats part of their nature.

They can likely utilize ghost like powers and go through solid objects like a Breath player can, they make themselves invisible, see invisible things, and know a lie is being told. They can call upon Nothingness itself, altering the senses of others, making them believe something is there when there clearly isnt. Changing the perceptions of their allies and enemies, possibly driving them mad or saving them from forbidden knowledge.

The intangible of nothingness means the Mage themselves is intangible by their nature, meaning they need a good fellow player as a partner to keep the corporeal and grounded, or else they will sink deeply into madness and sadness. All that power comes at a cost after all.

Breath players make great partners and can help cover their weaknesses while also being able to keep up with one another, complimenting their strengths. and building off of one another. The Breath player can keep them free from misery while they do their work, and help save them from the darkness that might overtake them from such exposure to unknowable things

The Void player should be always kept close with their partner as much as possible, or they might become depressed, crazy, and very ineffective. Possibly even suicidal if the depression is strong enough.

Manranea: Roxy is a Rogue player, not a Mage!

EB: hey 8uddy…

EB: shut up~♥

Heart players are also a great choice, as they can keep them emotionally stable.

In terms of gameplay, they can support fellow players with deception spells, hiding them from the enemy, shielding them from attacks by creating anti-matter Void shields, and even striking with bolts of the Void itself that is Anti-Matter.

They can sort of create healing by “Voiding” the wounds upon their friends, and at the minimum remove poisons and diseases, though this is very much a high level ability to keep other classes from becoming redundant in their early roles.

As previously stated, stealth is unlikely to work on the Mage of Void, so only do so if you know you will be able to get by them.

Overall, a Mage of Void can be very powerful throughout the game, but can be quite hard to play. Their abilites are difficult to get a proper grasp on, while also having a chance to backfire if they dont understand them properly. The risk of madness is always there, and stress must be managed properly wit their important partner, or they might have an emotional break down and be of no use.

Or worse

They might go Grimdark.

As you stated, Void is the realm of the Horrorterrors, where they live, furthest from Light. Since Void players are all about it, they have to deal with Horrorterrors and the concept of Grimdark the most, though any player can interact with them and become Grimdark, it is the Void players that are the most risk.

According to this wheel found on the official Hiveswap website, Void is the opposite of Light, and is directly related to Space and Doom

When Rose went Grimdark, she changed roles and swapped classpects, becoming a Mage of Void

Or at least, seemingly so. The rules of Grimdark are a bit wishy washy, and open to interpretation,along with most of the rules of Homestuck. Going Grimdark doesn’t mean you will swap your current classpect with the exact “opposite” of yours.

However with Rose being a Seer of Light, someone who passive seeks knowledge, she was one of the most vulnerable subjects to the Horroterrors and their influence, especially after the death of her mother, Mom Lalonde. Given that she is a “LIGHT” player and the opposite of Void, the Horrorterrors would want to use her the most for going Grimdark as it would increase her power even more due to letting them have both opposing forces as their asset, like hot and cold coming together to create a storm of lightning.

As for being able to use their power without consequence, a Void player MIGHT be able to do it, and become extremely deadly, but its a huge risk no matter the level of player, and having full control over Grimdark is a pipe dream at best. Maybe if they had the correct gear such as a Juju, like a Ring of Power to control it, but such things are rare and far between. So in normal play its unlikely they will be able to invoke it at will and use that power as they please.

To toy with the power of that which you do not understand only means you shouldnt, as you may not only end up burning yourself, you might burn the whole world.

Precious as that power is, its better to leave it alone, have it as a last resort if the game seems unwinnable.

[feyariel]

Rue’s Ranking of T3h Undedz

These are corporeal undead only. (Which in Pokémon terms would still be Ghost-types, ‘cuz that’s how that works. Yay! But no Pokémon. Boo!) I’m going to stick to more common varieties, as this could get quite long otherwise.

Best: Skeleton

Skeletons make very little sense: they shouldn’t hold together, let alone move, without tissue, so clearly they’re held together via telekinesis, and what’s not to like about telekinesis? I joke, but seriously, you could accomplish the same thing with an animate objects spell and miss literally nothing about necromantic skeletons that isn’t strictly the necromancy. Skellies are relatively inoffensive and are frequently amongst the more agile of undead, so win-win.

Special Mention: Crypt Thing

I mention this guy at all as it’s my personal favorite, but I’m putting it as runner up because, unlike the skeleton, there’s no reason whatsoever that this monster has to be undead at all. Crypt Things are D&D-specific monsters that guard tombs (so dungeons); when intruders approach them, instead of attacking, Crypt Things teleport the intruders in random directions. Most variations make this teleportation completely safe, as well (no representations of splinching).

(Other favorites: Tomb Motes, Blackwings, Spellstitched, Pathfinder Bodaks)

Second Best: Revenant

Your undeath is temporary and justified: you’re essentially a Paladin of Vengeance who has risen to fulfill a specific task (usually an execution, frequently of your murderer) and possesses all of the magical means you need to carry out your vengeance. When you return to your eternal rest, you’re unlikely to be damned. Best of all worlds...except that you are motivated by hate, if one that’s completely justified.

Third Best: Lich

For one dark ritual, which is almost never described in any detail and which (depending on source) may or may not involve devouring souls (usually not), you can be immortal and continue your life’s work of unending wizardly study. You might also get to conquer people or something. Sure, you won’t get the preservation of a vampire (in all likelihood), but that’s what illusions are for - and most older stories of vampires don’t make them fundamentally different from ghouls apart from maybe having magic. Bonuses: it’s much more difficult to permanently kill you and, unlike a vampire, you usually have no need to consume anything and definitely have no chance of accidentally siring offspring with the ability to detect the presence of the undead (at minimum) and a proclivity for hunting them down.

Downsides: you are almost certainly amongst the evilest of all beings in existence (at least, who were once mortal, though you might rival even fiends); you must already be a successful mage and have failed to find an actual spell for increased longevity or outright immortality; horcruces are still destructible; the details of the dark ritual may be unstated for just how vile they are; you will never have sex again or otherwise enjoy the pleasures of the flesh (unlike a vampire); your technical immortality might not stop decay at all and you may become a demilich, which will also eventually disintegrate, causing you to die - your horrible ritual is little better than a spell for increased longevity save that you don’t have to eat, breathe, or poop.

Middle Ground: Vampire

Step 1: Make a deal with a devil (or a proxy for one). Step 2: gain technical immortality and the ability to advance magical casting while also shoring up physical stats (so become an eldritch knight). Step 3: sate requirements of technical immortality by seducing people so that you can eat them. Step 4: Profit off of the success of your gothic goth goth aesthetic!

You can also be a ridiculous fop, hiss or shout “wryyyyy,” and maybe defy all attempts at classifying how your powers work. Unlike nearly any other kind of undead, you can still have sex (the question of whether or not it’s full necrophilia or if your feeding effectively makes you alive is a squicky matter I don’t want to think about). However, your progeny (if any) will usually have at minimum the ability to detect you; many will also possess your strengths as a vampire but not necessarily your weaknesses (like garlic, silver, or sunlight). Dhampirs in Slavic folklore and derived fiction strongly favor becoming vampire hunters, so you are your own undoing. Unlike most undead, you almost always cannot handle sunlight. Your other weaknesses are similarly common and well-known. What inconsistency in what your weaknesses are comes from the absolutely gargantuan list of them out there, which is familiar to even those who don’t study vampires or are into undead/horror.

Worst case scenario: you’re a Twilight sparklepire abomination and look like Count Orlock (Nosferatu).

Variable: Mummy

Mummies rarely eat people and are preserved well enough to hold themselves together, so they aren’t as disgusting as zombies. They usually also have some magic. Best case scenario: those magical abilities can include tremendous powers of revenge and vampire-esque revitalization without having to feed on people regularly. Worst case scenario: a desiccated corpse that shambles everywhere. You’re a revenant either way, but a specific revenant and either cursed to your unlife (in suspended reanimation alternately for eternity) or bound to guard a grave (your own or someone else’s). On the positive side, tales of your kind of undead helped support Brendan Frasier!

Third Worst: Ghoul

Take a zombie, make it feral but with the potential to gain intelligence. Ghouls are as frequently non-undead monsters as they are undead. When they’re undead, they tend to be serving punishments for some sort of transgression (like cannibalism), which can range from being monsters that eat people for all eternity (without the glamour) to being people with teeny-tiny mouths and enormous appetites who must feed on excrement (see pretas, gaki, and other hungry ghosts). Being a ghoul kinda sucks.

Second Worst: Flesh Golem (Frankenstein’s Monster)

A flesh golem is basically a zombie made by a person using non-necromantic techniques, though said techniques may as well still be necromancy. You’re prone to lurching around and making “RRRR!” noises; attacking people but not eating them; and being afraid of fire. That is, you may be just as disgusting as a zombie, but lamer save for not eating people. Bonuses include occasional lightning powers and (if you’re Adam Frankenstein) having deeply philosophical conversations about how your father, the Modern Prometheus, put you in a position of utter torment for deigning to act like a god. Other negatives include having a flat head, having bolts coming out of the sides of your head or neck, and maybe having your guts spilling out everywhere (see Abominations in WarCraft).

Worst: Zombie

First, you are a rotting corpse. There are very, very few things more disgusting than rotting corpses. Like, seriously, my problem with the zombie craze is not that it’s problematic, but that corpses are disgusting. You’re also enslaved somehow. Really, if we want to get down to it, being a zombie means being a mind-slave, as the fast, feral zombies are just ghouls (if ones prone to decomposing on the spot). On top of that, you eat people; aside from cannibalism, do you have any idea how disgusting that is? Humans are gross. As a walking corpse out to come in contact with other people, you are a walking bioweapon whether or not you can spread an infection that causes undeath and whether or not your creator (if any) intended for you to be used as such - ‘cuz you are a rotting corpse. Regardless, you’re mainly useful as a meat shield and little else. You can’t move very well (unless you’re a fast zombie specifically), so...you’re rotting, you’re disease-ridden, you walk like you have cerebral palsy, you’re probably enslaved and certainly mindless, and you have no magical powers to speak of. Really, all the cool zombies are specifically somehow not normal zombies.

[royal-writer]

Compassion For Two

HOOOOO man this was absurdly fun to write.

Her head was aching. The sharp ring of a tone that blasted through her; sharp and high. It left her dizzy as she stumbled, trying to shake off the detached perception of herself. Stirring in her bones; driving a stake through the length of her spine to where she gritted her teeth and prayed the pain away.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

Essätha hissed through the pain she bore; her fangs displayed more animal than human. A part of her could swear she heard someone speak words in her direction with concern. She waved them off, fighting off the disorienting feeling with fingers burrowed to her temple and threading through her dark hair. Her brown furrowed; her eyes squinted to narrow slits.

Whatever voice in her head howled for her to speak up her grievances seemed to far away to stop them now. Her feet moving mechanically to catch up to the rest of the team as they walked into the empty chamber of the stronghold.

“It’s… evacuated?” Rava’s piped up with a peculiar tone of confusion.

In a huddled mass, the team crowded for the eastern wing that jutted off to their right.

“Maybe there’s something in another room?” Abernathy offered with similar doubt.

“Shouldn’t we continue checking this area first?” Sulhadur chimed in. “There could be a clue in here-”

“There’s nothing here but dust and pillars!” Penimra huffed. “Unless you wish to trigger any traps there are, be my guest.”

Blundering behind the remainder of the group, Essätha passed a glazed look over her surroundings. The ringing in her head was elevating itself, and the ache in the deep marrow of her bones seemed to diminish. It indeed looked quite empty; a polished floor of smooth marble with painted patterns upon it.

Not patterns, she realized while squinting. Ritualistic symbols it seemed. And there was dust indeed- black sooty spots like burn marks and dirt that glittered with strange colors. Most of it seemed centered within these forbidding circles of arcane drawings that she couldn’t interpret for the life of her.

“These look like sacrificial indentations,” Adela’s weak voice muffled; hardly captured in Essie’s ears as she stalled in her spot. An agreeable grunt seemed followed; she assumed from Lord Amon from the intrigued but disgusted note it held.

That took her by no surprise. Squirming in place, her mouth ran dry as she took a few steps after her comrades. The echo of their shoes seemed awfully loud in this dark and dreary place of death.

Aylin chanted a phrase as they walked ahead, flicking his hand across the room.

Nothing. A few shapes and pillars; themselves included, were outlined in a violet shimmer of lines from the Faerie Fire.

Then Essätha noticed the color bleeding into the silhouette not among them as the magic pulsed; spreading further than it’s intended radius in a burst.

The cloak of invisibility upon the creature vanished; revealing a dull yellow-brown Tiefling mage. His smile was almost pleasant for a moment, before turning sickeningly cruel. Revealing his sharp teeth in a sinister glower, with glowing orbs dangling from his gnarled and broken horns that appeared weighted like ram’s horns containing the souls of his victims. His eyes were violet, and his clothes more elaborate decorated armor embellished with an iridescent glow of magic.

In a simple flick of his hand, the mage turned the arrows fired upon him from Ravamora aside. Adela’s flames seemed to blow around the circumference of a barrier, and Aylin’s shouted words of vicious mockery seemed only to amuse the mage rather than bring him harm. The shadow of Penimra’s eldritch blast seeped into the circle but missed as the man stepped aside with all the grace one would expect from an old elf.

Abernathy, Amon, and Sulhadur brought forth their weapons to stand readily guarded in front of the group.

“You’ve finally come,” the Tiefling sighed with almost, relief. His arms opened wide in a welcoming display, and the doors slammed shut and locked from all angles around them. The sound alone echoing through the room caused Essie to jump like a spooked deer; frozen in her spot with what felt like a trenched canyon’s distance between her and the rest of the company.

“I’ve waited for you all so long, and you’re finally here. Well done my friends; I must say I’m impressed with your spirit, but your timing is all wrong. You see your delay’s have only made me that much stronger, and given me that much more time to get what I want from you all. Each, and every one of you.”

Gods, it felt like her head was splitting open again. She groaned with agony, shifting her stance to hold steady as she brought up her hand.

The mage turned his head in her direction.

“Oh! Dear Essätha! My little helper! I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far along with this if it wasn’t for your help.”

“What?” she slurred; knees shaking with a desire to buckle beneath that gaze. “My help?”

“Of course, my little accessory. You brought them here, did you not? You encouraged them. You lead them,” the distinguished figure spoke, gliding forward until he stood in the middle of one of those odd alchemy and magic written circles.

The pain in her head worsened. She whimpered, dropping to her knees. Her head was throbbing, but she could still hear the distant swearing and yelling of the other’s as an arc of fire blazed up to separate them in a scorch of bluish-green.

“You gave them all so much hope,” the Tiefling continued on brightly. “To Abernathy, the Azuredge Axe you stole for him. To Ravamora, the sisterhood she always could have wanted. To Sulhadur, the Ring of Regeneration you gave up after he lost part of his tail. To Penimra, the last of your rations when you all thought hope was lost in that wasteland plane. To Adela, the slippers of climbing you bought for her. To Aylin, poor sickly thing, all the medicine and time you could nurture into him as you braced the winter’s cold. And of course, let us not forget the addition of the nobleman Lord Amon, who you ensnared with such pretty words and promises that made him feel whole again. Well done my child, well done indeed. You have cured so many of their ailments and seen them to be healthy and strong, haven’t you.”

That also seemed… too familiar and private. The searching movement of his gaze pinning her down as the magic of the flames turned red off to her right. A distant illuminated glow, that flicked away with a roar.

The man’s words were the only clarity in her throbbing head and ears too dim to understand anything else.

“I never needed you, I just needed them. You, Essätha, did splendidly bringing them here to me; right to my doorstep. I have no use of you now. Thank you for taking such good care of my pets, but I will take it from here, my dear assistant. I’m afraid that this, however, is goodbye.”

Goodbye? The word was numbing. But she had so much she still wanted to do. She had so much to live for; so much to gain, so much left to enjoy and see and witness. She had to finish this. She had more inside of her, she wanted to beg; give me more time.

The edges of her vision blurred into black streaks that invaded her. Spots of clouds danced over her as she breathed out, feeling none of the pain as she collapsed forward into the floor. What was going on? What was happening? Her body was colder than the frigid nights laying awake nurturing Aylin back to health, in the dead of winter, stuck in a godforsaken tent in the middle of nowhere. She could hear nothing. Feel little. The aroma of rotted fruit was against her palate and reeking in her nose.

A weightlessness ebbed through her blood. She felt light and airy; mind drifting further and further away until she was removed completely from it all.

From another life, another plane, another world she could see from a third eye the people she cared so deeply for holding to her. How strange it was, envisioning their sorrows and pain-etched faces clinging to her. The shock; the horror. Magic brimming in a white-light from the hands of the paladins and the chanted pleas from them all.

She could feel the eyes of the mage, sinking into her. Dragging her back, where the fade of darkness pulled and the ringing began to drum in her soul.

Essätha caught a final glimpse of their faces. Torn with pain. The tears pricking their eyes. The wretched, twisted agony in Amon’s face as he mouthed her name; throat flexing as though he was screaming it but she heard nothing at all as she disappeared into the void.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A jolt of awareness brought the Yuan-ti back to life. Trembling from head to foot, she passed a shaking hand over her features. It ghosted over her chest, finding her irregular heartbeat plummeting and rising as her breath raced. A streak of moisture wicked to her skin as she pushed herself up, feeling the dull ache bloom and spread ominously through her skull.

Her eyes darted around the dark room.

It had felt so real…

Only a night terror, she chastised herself. The days were long and tiring, and after having encountered the fiendish Tiefling the other day it was only nature she was unsettled. He had been strong and clever; and held an unnerving insight into them all. His glowing violet orbs for eyes spun tales that weaved among his words; slicing through her protection and making her… uncomfortable.

She was just being childish. He had seen no more than anyone else did in them. Nothing more or less. Maybe he had spies studying them; or unseen forces, but there was no way his regard knew more than that despite his sly unbecoming smile of pointy shark teeth.

He was only just a Tiefling, Essie scolded. What more harm could this villainous creature do than any other had to them thus far?

Drifting her gaze over the room, she spotted the other figure rolled far on the other side of the large bed. Upon the very end of the bed, with his head resting upon Amon’s legs, Caesar lifted his gaze to her and gave a nervous wag of his tail. A muted whine escaping him and droopy, concerned eyes looking upon her.

Another glimpse to the broad structure of Lord Amon’s backside, and she nibbled worryingly on her lip. Why did it feel like such an ominous premonition?

She tried to wash the thought aside as she leaned back slowly. From her seated position, it left her head to rest against the headboard. Her eyes drifting closed; the pain still radiating through her head and to the forefront as she sighed. Worse than that, her chest felt heavy. Weighted like lead with hollowed emptiness. An aching sense of loneliness sinking her into the depths of pitying sorrow.

Caesar whined again, and the snuffed snoring halted into a drowsy grumble.

Essätha cracked her eyes open, catching sight of the blurry-eyed partly closed gaze upon her as the Illiad looked over his shoulder.

She was instantly repulsed with herself for the craving way her heart reached for him.

“Sorry I woke you,” she acknowledged in a cracked voice that surprised even herself.

He said nothing. She wondered if he realized he was awake yet or not. A blank expression.

A rift split her hollow pieces into further tiny, insignificant fragments. Resembling shapes of things she enjoyed, and desperately wanted to fit together in puzzle pieces to form a whole person again.

In the back of her mind, the vivid expression of torment still lingered in Amon’s expression from the dream. It was just enough to make her shiver.

One leg shifted, and she tossed it over the side of the bed.

“Stay.”

She paused, her foot inches from the cold floor. His voice was gruff and tired, but it still pulled at her just the same. Always with the wanting what was beyond her capabilities. What she should be allowed. What she longed for the most.

Glimpsing over her shoulder as the sheets rustled, she spotted the holy beauty of his bare chest as Amon rolled towards her. A fixated twinkle in his eyes, staring up to her face. They moved not even a flicker as she turned to Caesar; watching the mastiff hop up to readjust himself with a huff as he was roused from his warm spot.

Don’t run from me again.

Goddamn him. That plea still rang in her head like a recorder every time the idea flitted into her thoughts. It left her guilty when she disobeyed it, and fled for her anxious freedom. Scared… all of it. The want. Her soul that tried to consume all of who he was with sweet endearment. His arms that could hold her that she tried to convince herself would trap her; break her, steal her air until she suffocated.

Her heart knew better. Whispered to her; knowing his gentleness. Knowing his good intentions. Considering his own kind heart.

Against better judgment, Essätha sank back into the sheets.

It was too much. The homesickness she felt, not touching him but wanting to. Wanting him to touch her. Staring into the pooled depth of his eyes as he grabbed the crumpled edges of the blankets and pulled them carefully back over her as she trembled. There was no disguising it, and she knew he’d felt it but how much he saw in her, ah, that was truly a worrisome mystery.

He reached for her, and her heart hammered. Too close. Her breath hitched just slightly as he cradled her cheek with a concerned draw of lines against his forehead and eyes.

“Nightmare?”

Helpless to the pull of his eyes, she nodded slowly.

And gods, the way he looked into her. A compelling, adoring smile as the pad of his thumb drew across her complexion with such tender little strokes.

“Don’t be afraid,” he murmured. “You’re safe here. You’re safe, by me.”

Oh. Oh that was… this was…

The hurt subsided. Altogether forgotten.

Yes. Yes, she was safe here; she felt safe, right there looking upon him. His palm was warm against her face and his breath billowing close and oh heavens above, she could dream of hearing the steady rhythm of his heart coaxing hers to a lull. Yes she was safe. It was only a frightening nightmare and nothing more. She was in bed and the early sound of autumn leaves outside falling and rolling in the wind; beneath covers and in a quiet room as the night dragged on around them.

She was quite safe.

Essätha moved forward first. An unconscious decision; seeking conviction that this was real. It felt much too good to be real.

The hand that had been lightly cupping her face moved to slid around her. She found herself against his bare chest; breathing deeply the faint impression of woody, earthen aromas on his throat. Enough to make her shudder as deliciously warm hands flattered against her back and moved in slow, reassuring circles.

This- this was intimate. Her mind gear-jammed in a shocked state of wonder. Amon felt warm and steady against her, but far from being firm. He was considerably sentimental towards her, just as her heart so smugly reminded her. The ticklish curl of his beard rubbed against the top of her head as she was urged in closer, right where she wanted to be. Inhaling his richness deep in her lungs, her eyelids drifted closed as a dreamy sigh escaped her.

Now, it was not her imagination. She could hear the steady pulse of his heart against her hands, curled up between their chests.

She was safe.

And before long, she had found her sleep again with Amon discovering his shortly after; interweaved among each other beneath the duvet with the grinning face of the dog peering up at them as his tail swished across the bed’s surface.

[junkyard-trash-blog]

So, had an interesting dream during my nap - well, one part was interesting, the other? it was meh 

First Part

Background Information that I knew: 

There was some kind of war going on between regular humans and supernatural creatures. The cast of ATLA (the Gaang + Zuko) was leading a rebellion but they weren’t benders (bending didn’t exist); they were the more “human” looking creatures like mages and vampires and stuff.

They were fighting for the supernatural creatures’ right to exist and live like normal people. Most of the supernatural community supported them. Except, there was one group because we were seen more as animals than “human”: the shifters - people who could shift between human and animal / other form.

There was also a group who were a bunch of children that had been locked away because they were “delinquents”; there were criminals too but they got more rights than the group of “delinquent” shifters. Now, some of the kids were actually criminals but it wasn’t entirely their fault, they were forced into stealing and acting out, they were neglected and beaten and bullied and experimented on in the facility where the government kept us.

I was at the facility with these children, and I was the oldest at 17 years (at least, I looked 17, I felt a lot older than that), though I wasn’t exactly a shifter like them. I was actually a warlock / eldritch creature that appeared like a normal human but I could definitely shift into whatever I wanted (one form was that of a dragon). 

The rest of the children were anywhere from 6-14 years old. There were a few packs within the facility: the Howl-Enders (wolf/dog shifters), the Ratsters (rat shifters), and one other that I don’t remember the name of (I think they were some kind of spirit/ghost/ghoul). The rest of the children that didn’t choose one of those three packs ended up forming a pack around me. I was known as “Mama” to most of the children and I was seen as a protector of them all, even to the three packs. 

I knew the happenings of the war outside the facility and I wasn’t happy about the results: the more “human” supernatural creatures were gaining rights whereas we shifters were forgotten. And the people in charge of the facility weren’t happy either; they decided to take out their frustrations on my children - and yes, they were my children, I protected them and considered them as such.

One of the Howl-Enders members came to me scared about the increased torment - he didn’t really say anything but he was grabbing onto my forearms and his claws were digging into my skin and there was fear in his eyes. I knew then it was time for us to escape. 

I don’t know how we escaped because that’s where the dream time-skipped. We ended up on a sort of compound in the middle of nowhere and I was the leader - the Howl-Enders called me “Alpha”, the Ratsters something else, and the rest simply called me “Mama”.

I took care of my children there. I also don’t know what happened with the war because I made sure our home was protected from all outside forces.

That’s where the first part ended and the second began.

Second Part

So, I was hanging out with a childhood friend just talking and watching tv, though, I don’t know what we were saying. I think we were just catching up or something.

Her older sister comes in with her kid - a 4-year old boy named MJ (I think it stood for something like Michael John? Michael James? Idk, it was Michael something-starting-with-a-J), the two sisters talked a bit and asked us to look after MJ while she went to work. 

So we did, we babysat him, along with some weird black guy with dreadlocks in his hair (mostly black/brown dreads but a few had strips of green and blue and yellow in them) - he was weird in the sense that he spoke in riddles and his eyes flickered between brown and kind of a indigo but like glowing indigo. Though, I don’t think my friend could see the guy because she never reacted to anything he said or did, she didn’t even acknowledge his presence.

So we were all chilling, then I went to the bathroom to do my business but I never made it that far. I got into the bathroom and was stopped by my reflection in the mirror - my long dark hair had strips of white-blond and instead of my eyes being green they flickered between colors and glowed, the skin around my eyes was also black and had small delicate scales. I also had the same thing with my hands and feet, they were black and my fingers were turning into claws and there were some scales, I could feel my skin changing under my clothes too and I was getting patches of scales. (come to think of it, it’s kinda how I describe my dragonboy merlin).

I freaked out and my friend came in all casual-like, asking me what was wrong. I tried to point out the issues I was having with my body - the hair, the eyes, the skin - but she didn’t see what I saw. Then, I looked in the mirror and I was back to normal.

I ended up running out of there and went back home. But before I got onto my actual property, I was stopped in the street outside my house by the weird black guy. He asked me why I had MJ - I looked down and MJ was clinging onto my pantleg.

Then the guy said some more riddle stuff and I woke up.

[cyberkevvideo]

Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 11: The Veiled Commander

In September 2014, Gary shared a couple monsters that the players could expect waiting for them while sailing the Sunless Sea. One of them was the CR 20 nightwave undead monstrosity, which I’m mentioned previously in another entry, and at the time I didn’t know, but the other creature showcased was the veiled master. At the time, the veiled master was not OGL, and couldn’t technically be used for anything out of Paizo adventures. I say “technically” because with having special connections with Paizo staff, I would assume that Gary could gain special permission to use it and possibly others. Now, however, the creature is part of Bestiary 6, and much more available. At the time I thought it still couldn’t be touched, and made the picture of the three aboleths waiting in the water, the end boss encounter, and it could still very well be the case. The veiled master might not even be the end boss of Book 5, nor is there anything saying that it would be as advanced as I’m making it now. It might even just be a straight sorcerer, or it could even be an eldritch knight (which was my initial idea).

The ecology for the veiled master says that they are the nobles of the aboleth hierarchy, but aren’t considered the masters of the aboleth, per se, because all aboleth know that their are things far more powerful and can pull the strings of the noble veiled master. Funny enough, that’s what inspired today’s build.

As always, the encounter is cropped for space purposes.

All images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus.

This picture doesn’t appear to be in colour, but it also could be done in a way such as to convey the darkness of the depths and the shine of the light from the creature. When I first saw the nightwave I thought it was unfinished as well, but there’s not much light when you’re that far underwater. Especially when, from the point of the view of those with darkvision, everything’s basically in black and white anyhow. The only colour in that particular was the dark crimson colour of what was likely blood. It’s not like either picture is black and white. Just not very vibrant. That really adds to the atmosphere and terror of the situation.

The veiled master’s original M.O. (modus operandi) was to transform into something that looked like one of the locals, infiltrate, and secretly look for any secretive uprising or rebellion among the slaves/citizenry. While that still works here for the underwater tribes of skum-like drow, and any other underground races, that they’ve warped and transformed, it makes more sense for this particular one being the one behind all the recent disappearances.

The reason for Book 5 and 6 existing is that after the fight with the drow army and the demon entourage, the PCs learn of a series of random kidnappings that have slowly been increasing as of late. Most of them took place near the waters. This is supposed to spurn the party to go rafting and find out what’s going. Because veiled masters can transform into other creatures, it would sense that this one would learn about the drow, steal some memories of nearby victims, show up on land, infiltrate and learn as much as it could, go back and talk it over with the other aboleth, and then over time mind control a bunch of drow to go out into the waters, expose them to the mucus, and convert them into loyal slaves.

When I was coming up for this build, I wanted it to be a terrifying encounter, but I also wanted to give it a fitting background. The original idea was just go all sorcerer, then I thought fighter/eldritch knight, but that seemed so boring. Then I thought, mystic theurge. What if this particular aboleth was receiving visions from the star spawn of Cthulhu from the end of the series? This was already supposed to be Lovecraftian in a way, so why not go even further? Have the veiled master start to receive visions, dreams, and telepathic messages that it didn’t understand. Have it slowly corrupt the creature and empower it. Even better, what if the sudden rush on more slaves wasn’t for the sake of the aboleth, but for the new master pulling the strings. The Sun Killer isn’t going to build itself. It might need a structure built to help power the crystal or magnify its power and radius.

Something to note, even when it transforms into a drow or other creature, it still has the clouded vision look in its eyes. Its disguise ability likely wouldn’t help with that. Not that anyone would ever question it. There’s plenty of oracles out there. That said, the veiled master could wear contacts to hide that fact. It has no way to produce faerie fire like a real drow, but it does have access to glitterdust, and it can use other drow-like spells to make it look like it has their spell-like abilities, despite being actual spells. I will mention that there is a D&D 3.5 item called ring of drow blood that gives you “dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire as spell-like abilities, each once per day.” It costs 4,800 gold to create. Not out of the realm of possibility to have a custom version of it made for this adventure, or because it’s a home game, it could be the original version.

This creature could be something hanging out in the background during the time PCs are in town taking it over, or stopping the current regime. It could easily observe them and learn of their abilities. It would help determine whether they could be a threat or not. As well, how much the veiled master and the other aboleths will have to prepare should the PCs ever go looking where they shouldn’t. They could even discover the veiled master while out at sea, in a female drow form. Female drow, typically, do have more divine power than males, so it shouldn’t set off any alarms. It could say it received visions about tentacled creatures taking “her” people out into the water, and despite telling the drow nobles and their courts, “she” couldn’t convince them of sending help, and decided to head out on “her” own. She could even help the PCs. The veiled master will likely know about the undead threats, and not want to deal with them on its own.  Even going so far as to heal the PCs or aid them with spells, if need be, to help with the ruse. Its own name isn’t that far from a drow’s name so it shouldn’t be that suspicious sounding to a dwarf PC, but a drow might get suspicious of it. If it thinks anyone suspects it after it says its name, the veiled master will say that’s “her” official name, but her drow family name is “Sharril“. If possible, it will try to play up a sorrowful background of being a half-drow with a demonic parent, and “her” name is honour of “her” birth.

Btw, while it says “unique”, all I really did was switch a couple of spells around because clerics and wizard spell lists are so similar. It also makes sense that if there’s undead swimming around, the aboleth master would have something to deter them from trying to eat it and others of its kind.

SHAIODRR’RUL    (CR 20; 307,200 XP) Unique veiled master oracle 8/mystic theurge 2 LE Large aberration (aquatic, shapechanger) Init +13; Senses darkvision 60 ft., blindsense 30 ft., blindsight 15 ft.; Perception +25 Aura mucus cloud (30 ft.) DEFENSE AC 34, touch 19, flat-footed 25 (+4 armor, +9 Dex, +1 insight, +11 natural, –1 size) hp 383 (26 HD; 24d8+2d6+268) Fort +18, Ref +19, Will +23 Defensive Abilities evasion; Immune electricity, mind-affecting effects; Resist cold 20; SR 25 OFFENSE Speed 10 ft., swim 80 ft. Melee bite +27 (2d6+5 plus consume memory and slime), 2 claws +27 (1d6+5 plus slime), 4 tentacles +22 touch (2d6 electricity plus thoughtlance) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (20 ft. with claws and tentacles) Special Attacks brain drain 2/day (8d4, W-DC 24), delayed suggestion Spell-Like Abilities (CL 21st; concentration +31)   Constant—mage armor   At will—detect thoughts (W-DC 22), dominate person (W-DC 27), hypnotic pattern (W-DC 22), illusory wall (W-DC 24), mirage arcana (W-DC 25), persistent image (W-DC 25), programmed image (W-DC 26), project image (W-DC 27), veil (W-DC 26)   3/day—dominate monster (W-DC 31), quickened dominate person (W-DC 27), geas/quest, mass suggestion (W-DC 28) Oracle Spells Known (CL 11th; concentration +21)   5th (5/day)—mass inflict light wounds (W-DC 26), slay living (F-DC 26)   4th (7/day)—cure critical wounds, black tentacles, blessing of fervor, inflict critical wounds (W-DC 25)    3rd (8/day)—aura of cannibalism (F-DC 24), bestow curse (W-DC 24), dispel magic, inflict serious wounds (W-DC 24), prayer, tongues   2nd (9/day)—aid, dust of twilight, ghostbane dirge, inflict moderate wounds (W-DC 23), shield of fortification, spiritual weapon   1st (9/day)—cure light wounds, entropic shield, forbid action (W-DC 23), know the enemy, inflict light wounds (W-DC 22), murderous command (W-DC 23), shield of faith   0 (at will)—bleed, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, mending, read magic, resistance, stabilize, virtue Mystery dark tapestry Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 15th; concentration +25)   7th (4/day)—mass hold person (W-DC 30)   6th (7/day)—globe of invulnerability, symbol of persuasion (W-DC 29)   5th (8/day)—feeblemind (W-DC 27), symbol of pain (F-DC 27), teleport   4th (8/day)—dimension door, enervation, phantasmal killer (F/W-DC 24), symbol of slowing (W-DC 27)   3rd (8/day)—clairaudience/clairvoyance, explosive runes (R-DC 24), hold person (W-DC 25), secret page   2nd (9/day)—blindness/deafness (F-DC 23), invisibility, levitate, symbol of mirroring (W-DC 23), touch of idiocy   1st (9/day)—charm person (W-DC 23), comprehend languages, erase, ray of enfeeblement (F-DC 22), silent image (W-DC 21)   0 (at will)—arcane mark, dancing lights, daze (W-DC 20), disrupt undead, ghost sound (W-DC 20), mage hand, message, prestidigitation, touch of fatigue (F-DC 21) STATISTICS Str 20, Dex 28, Con 31, Int 21, Wis 23, Cha 30 Base Atk +19; CMB +25; CMD 46 Feats Arcane Strike, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Deceitful, Eschew MaterialsB, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Quicken Spell, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (dominate person), Spell Focus (enchantment, necromancy), Weapon Finesse Skills Bluff +30, Diplomacy +21, Disguise +23, Intimidate +21, Linguistics +9, Knowledge (arcana, history, nature) +23, Knowledge (planes) +18, Knowledge (religion) +14, Perception +30, Sense Motive +30, Spellcraft +25, Stealth +30, Swim +32, Use Magic Device +29 Languages Aboleth, Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Common, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Elven, Undercommon SQ change shape (any Small or Medium; greater polymorph), combined spells (1st), oracle’s curse (clouded vision), revelations (brain drain, cloak of darkness [+6 AC/+4 Stealth], gift of madness), runemastery, swift transformation Gear spellguard bracers, circlet of persuasion, ioun stones (deep red sphere, dusty rose prism, incandescent blue sphere, orange prism, pale green prism, pink rhomboid, pink and green sphere), page of spell knowledge (1st—identify, magic missile, shield; 2nd—darkness, glitterdust, mirror image, silence; 3rd—displacement, fireball, nondetection; 4th—greater false life), ring of counterspells, ring of evasion, gold rings and jewelry worth 3,500 gp in all SPECIAL ABILITIES Consume Memory (Su) When a veiled master bites a creature, it consumes some of that creature’s memories. The creature bitten must succeed at a DC 28 Fortitude save or gain 1 negative level. A veiled master has 5 hit points restored each time it gives a creature a negative level in this way, and it also learns some of the target creature’s memories (subject to the GM’s discretion). This is a mind-affecting effect. A veiled master can suppress this ability as a free action. The save DC is Charisma-based. Delayed Suggestion (Sp) Whenever a veiled master successfully uses dominate person or dominate monster on a creature, it can also implant a delayed suggestion that triggers when the dominate effect ends. Typically, this suggestion (which functions as a spell-like ability, CL 20th, Will DC 23 negates) is for the previously dominated creature to seek out the veiled master and submit to a new domination attempt, but sometimes, a veiled master implants other suggestions (such as a suggestion to attack the first person the creature sees). Mucus Cloud (Ex) While underwater, a veiled master exudes a 30-foot-radius cloud of transparent slime. All creatures in this area must succeed at a DC 28 Fortitude save each round or lose the ability to breathe air (but gain the ability to breathe water) for 24 hours. Renewed contact with this mucus cloud and failing another save extends the effect for another 24 hours. The save DC is Constitution-based. Runemastery (Ex) A veiled master is particularly skilled at casting spells that create magical writing, such as explosive runes, secret page, and spells with the word “symbol” in their names. It never requires material components or focus components when casting such spells, and the save DC of these spells increases by 1. A veiled master’s symbol spells are difficult to disarm—the Disable Device DC for these symbols increases by 2. Slime (Ex) A creature hit by any of a veiled master’s bite or claw attacks must succeed at a DC 28 Fortitude save or have its skin and flesh transform into a clear, slimy membrane over the course of 1d4 rounds. The creature’s new flesh is soft and tender, reducing its Constitution score by 4 as long as the condition persists. If the creature’s flesh isn’t kept moist, it dries quickly and the creature takes 1d12 points of damage every 10 minutes. Remove disease and similar effects can restore an afflicted creature to normal, but immunity to disease offers no protection from this attack. The save DC is Constitution-based. Swift Transformation (Su) A veiled master can use its change shape ability as a swift action. Thoughtlance (Su) Four of a veiled master’s tentacles end in glowing spheres of light. These spheres deal 2d6 points of electricity damage on a successful touch attack and also blast a creature’s mind with waves of mental energy. A creature touched by one of these tentacles (regardless of whether the touch deals electricity damage) must succeed at a DC 28 Will save or be staggered for 1 round. Additional touches increase the duration of this effect by 1 round. While a creature is staggered in this manner, it must attempt concentration checks to cast spells as if it were experiencing extremely violent motion while casting (DC = 20 + spell level). The save DC is Charisma-based.

------------------------------

Next time I’ll be working on drow nobles. There’s one picture in particular I shared around, and thankfully someone was far more observant than any of the others. Was most definitely a huge boon.

[spinneryesteryear]

So I saw this post and decided to do ‘what class would you be in an RPG’ for my Tumblr buddies. Disclaimer: I did this for a laugh. Feel free to contest your classes, especially since not even I can explain the mental gymnastics that went into some of these.

@haveievermentioned Druid/Beastmaster. Friends with wildlife. An expert on all sorts of diseases, both natural and magical. Proficient in Bioshock-style splicing, if it’s a thing in this universe. Minored in alchemy. May be capable of summoning a legion of bears in self-defense. Treat with respect.

@itspileofgoodthings Cleric/White Mage. The healer keeping the rest of the poor fools in the party alive. Literal sunshine. Has healing aura that restores everyone around her, which may result in post-battle cuddle piles. May be capable of blasting apart undead with righteousness.

@thelonelybrilliance Ranger. (Legolas may or may not have been a factor in this.) Excellent archer and tracker. Most likely to pull an arrow and snap, “You would die before your stroke fell,” when a party member is insulted or injured. May in fact be a King’s Ranger (*high-fives fellow Ranger’s Apprentice fans out there*) and so responsible for keeping nobles and political authorities in line and obedient to the law. Rumored to have thrown a dude into a moat. 

@spinneryesteryear Shaman/Black Mage. Extremely powerful. Extremely squishy. Did not show up the day they distributed charisma and luck stat points. Most likely to wander off in search of alchemy ingredients and return only to find the party in chaos. Keeps the party buffed in combat. Has mental encyclopedia of weird and messy magic that slightly disturbs other party members. May dabble in necromancy.

@wearetakingthehobbitstogallifrey Swordmaster. Not tough enough to tank damage, but speed, dexterity, and luck stats are through the roof. Critical hits all over the place. Probably carries some ancient and enchanted blade of legend with glowing runes on it. Minored in throwing knives (or batarangs). 

@abadpoetwithdreams Bard. #goals Has mastered the arts. All the arts. Destroys enemies with the power of dance. Can create amazing enchantments with her drawings. May have befriended a dragon or several. Amazingly well-educated on magical systems and prompts a good deal of the discussions on magic and history and the like in the party. The party is made of nerds. These discussions are a given.

@wandererriha Summoner. Rumored to be evil old witch living in cottage in the woods. Not actually that evil or that old. Has plenty of stories about magic and adventuring ‘back in the day’. May or may not be the ‘Team Aunt’ of the party. Chronicles the shenanigans and will become rich off of it when it’s published. May have tricked people into thinking a place is haunted by summoning ghosts or spirits to troll them.

@sothisisthehobbit Warrior. Carries a shield with the heraldric device of a sun and an enchanted axe. Also rumored to have befriended a dragon. Or may secretly be a dragon. A true inspiration. The closest thing to a tank this party’s got. Not above branching out into other weapons and so now approaching the status of Weaponsmaster or Jack of All Proficiencies. 

@super-canary-granger Lancer. Jack of all stats. Suspiciously knowledgeable on druid magic, geometric magic, and runic arrays, despite not being a magic-user. Rumored to have performed summonings to dispose of those who’ve tried her patience one too many times. Always up for fighting some undead. Has plenty of stories to tell about fighting zombies, whether from personal experience or from other survivors. Don’t ask why she picked up lockpicking. 

@exploringcastleoblivion Warlock. Hoards books. One heck of an illusionist. Is this reality? Is this all in your head? Only the warlock knows. (Zexion may or may not have been an influence here.) Is also aware that the true point of being a wizard is not using magic. Has a sentient, homicidal suitcase that follows after on tiny legs. Travels dimensions accidentally and on purpose. May have punched out an eldritch abomination.

@fullmetal-woolchemist  Monk. Can shatter stones with a single punch. Is apologetic about it. Speaks every dead language and deciphers the mystical writing on the walls of ancient temples and crypts the party visits (just in time to dodge the traps). Will not turn down simple quests to help villagers or even distressed woodland animals. May or may not have a flock of pigeons to do her bidding. 

@markshamillz & @jabberwocky1996 Sorry, guys, I’m classing you together. Rogues. The speedy, sneaky, stab-you-with-knives sort. “I can go unseen when I wish, but to disappear entirely - that is a rare gift.” Not impressed with your traps or with your nonsense. Somehow always stumble upon the best enchanted items. Have lured enemies into ancient temples and dispatched them with all the traps while avoiding every hazard themselves and walking off with the treasure. 

Now, I suppose the real question is: what’s our quest? Are we fighting the evils of Dark Lord Tumblr and his SJW drones? Do we seek the lost artifacts of the fallen hero Xkit Guy? Do we travel from fandom country to country, righting wrongs? 

Dang it. Now I want to draw the thing.

[2-jarz]

Best Anime Available on Netflix 2019

8. Kill La Kill (2013)

1 season, 25 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

If I had to sum up Kill la Kill in two words, they’d be “fashion battle.” Broadly speaking, its story is pretty much beat for beat what you’d expect from a series about a magical teen — developing powers, last-minute turns of the tide — but the specifics are just bonkers enough to keep that from being a weakness Which are some of the best anime on Netflix. At Honnouji Academy, clothes bestow supernatural abilities on their wearer, turning the usual high school hierarchies into a battleground. At the center of it all is transfer student Ryuko Matoi, who’s come to Honnouji in search of her father’s killer. Her sidekick, a sentient sailor outfit, puts her on the level of the school’s student council, allowing her to tussle with them in her quest for the truth. More modest viewers be warned: the series’ focus on clothing also lends itself to a significant amount of fanservice. As the series progresses, the outfits get skimpier and skimpier until there’s barely anything there at all.

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UFOTABLE

7. Fate/Zero (2011)

2 seasons, 28 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10

For those looking for darker fare, Fate/Zero should hit the spot. As may be obvious from the fact that the driving event behind the whole series is called “the Fourth Holy Grail War,” it’s heavy stuff. The war is a contest between a select group of mages and their attendant spirits. (The spirits, in one of the series’ strangest gambits, range from Alexander the Great to King Arthur.) They compete for the power of the Grail, which will grant a wish to each of the winning pair. The resulting assortment of competitors doubles as a mix of ideals and morals, and the shifting balance is one of the best aspects of the show. Though there’s a fair amount of comedy mixed in, it’s quite a bleak series, with a death count to rival Game of Thrones and eldritch horrors to contend with, to boot.

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NETFLIX

6. Castlevania (2017)

1 season, 5 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

Even those unfamiliar with anime are likely to have heard of Castlevania, as the franchise is one of the jewels in Konami’s crown. The anime series is produced by Netflix, and boasts a voice cast including Graham McTavish as Count Dracula, who vows revenge against Wallachia after the death of his wife, and Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, the last of a clan of monster hunters, who leads the fight against him. (Matt Frewer also features in the cast, which should be a treat for any fellow Max Headroom enthusiasts.) There’s blood a-plenty, and a nice balance between monster and man as per most gothic horror stories — as well as a somewhat romantic aspect, as Dracula is portrayed as a sympathetic villain. The series is also just gorgeously animated, and with a first season of only four episodes, well worth your time.

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ANIPLEX OF AMERICA

5. Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)

1 season, 51 episodes | IMDb: 8.6/10

Fullmetal fans and newbies alike are somewhat spoiled for choice when it comes to Netflix’s offerings: Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are both available on the streaming service, alongside the recent live-action film. But we’re here for anime, so we’ll just discuss the first two. For the purposes of this list, we’re counting both series as one entity, as Fullmetal Alchemist is a seminal property, but not to fear, I’m not about to leave you in the dark. Both Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are adaptations of the original manga, which tells the story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, as they search for the Philosopher’s Stone. In an attempt to bring their mother back to life through alchemy, they’ve been transformed. Edward has lost his leg, and sacrifices his arm as well in order to save Alphonse’s soul, binding it to a suit of armor. The Stone is their ticket to restoration. The more recent Brotherhood hews much more closely to the manga, whereas Fullmetal Alchemist essentially turns into an original series about halfway through. In the end, they complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but if you have to pick just one, I’d go for Brotherhood as the “canon” experience.

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ANIPLEX OF AMERICA

4. Rurouni Kenshin (1996)

3 seasons, 95 episodes | IMDb: 8.5/10

Like most other entries on this list, Rurouni Kenshin was adapted from a manga series (which appeared in the legendary Shōnen Jump magazine). The title refers to its protagonist, Himura Kenshin, a former killing machine who is now committed to helping others to try to atone for his sins. Of course, his love of peace is challenged when it becomes apparent that someone else has assumed his former mantle as an assassin and plans to throw the Meiji Government into chaos. The characters are all well-defined and well-developed, with the biggest hook being the contrast between Kenshin’s apparent happy-go-lucky attitude and vow never to kill again, and what we know him to be capable of due to his reputation. He’s also a walking example of the way the series focuses on period to tell a story rather than using it simply as set dressing: the show takes place during a transition period in Japanese history, and Kenshin is just as much in flux.

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VIZ MEDIA

3. Inuyasha (2000)

2 seasons, 167 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10

Inuyasha is the rare franchise that manages to strike a balance between cute and horrifying. To liken it to a current pop culture phenomenon, it’s similar to Outlander, in that its basic plot sounds like something out of a romance novel: a young woman, Kagome, is sent back in time, and must then contend with forces beyond her reckoning, all while getting to know a rambunctious man (well, in this case, half dog-demon), Inuyasha, to whom she seems to be mysteriously bound. There’s plenty of time-travel fluff to go around, but in Inuyasha’s case, it’s augmented by nightmare fuel in the form of a host of demons searching for the magic jewel in Kagome’s possession. The centipede monster in the first episode sets the bar for how unsettling these monsters look, as well as the show’s overall structure as a sort of monster-of-the-week affair. To that end, the show can get a little repetitive, but the cast is uniformly great (including Inuyasha’s antihero brother Sesshomaru, who I think I can confidently say is “the hot one”), and the balance between fun and horror is a rare find.

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FUNIMATION

2. Attack on Titan (2013)

1 season, 51 episodes | IMDb: 8.8/10

Since the manga began in 2009, Attack on Titan has become something of a cultural sensation. At present, only the first season of the anime, which was produced in 2013, is available on Netflix, but it works on its own. (It’s also notably a series that benefits from being available to binge rather than view doled out in segments, as seeing it all in one fell swoop — or a few swoops — makes its repeated cliffhangers less obvious and thereby more tolerable.) Broadly speaking, it’s almost a mecha series, as the driving force of the plot involves fighting giant creatures (the Titans of the title), an enterprise that only starts to become truly tenable when it transpires that one of the human characters, Eren, is a Titan, himself. The difference is aesthetic: the Titans are awful to look at, as they are basically giant humans with their skin stripped away, and their muscles contorted to look as terrifying as possible. As for why it all works, it ultimately comes down to the focus on the coming-of-age stories and how each character’s arc dials into the anxieties that are part and parcel of growing up and dealing with loss. The series is also fairly brutal when it comes to reflecting the realities of living in what is effectively a war zone, as every character is fair game when it comes to Titan fodder. Equal parts steampunk romp and war story, Attack on Titan is one of the best anime series in the game.

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VIZ MEDIA

1. Bleach (2004)

3 seasons, 366 episodes | IMDb: 8.2/10 Bleach has it all. It’s stylish as hell, it’s incredibly well-acted, it’s genre-fluid, and on top of that, it’s well-written. Though it starts out fairly simply, it builds and builds, transforming into an epic that more than earns its place in the pantheon of great anime. The story begins when Ichigo Kurasaki, a high schooler capable of seeing ghosts, takes on the duties of a Soul Reaper in order to protect his family.  It’s a transition that the show handles beautifully, and does again and again as it progresses. The world of Bleach (and the mythology involved) just keeps getting bigger, without ever falling short, or falling flat. The series is also impossible to peg as one genre or another, as there are elements of almost everything baked in. It’s an epic, and unmissable as such. Creator Tite Kubo’s style is just the cherry on top of the cake.