#i am not immune to knight coded characters

[jazzkolart]

Knight and her Princess

[starlit1daydream]

Had an extended thought about DDLC SBURB-ways that I really wanted to get out there before it runs out of my mind; plus, I could use a second opinion.

Monika begins the story clawing together fragments of SBURB.exe code from various sources, desperate to boot up a session in the hopes it'll free her from her own game - transporting her and the others out of DDLC itself and into The Medium instead.

All she's read about the game for sure is it's intended for the birth of universes, and the prospect of a new world she's in full control of sounds very enticing.

To her [and everyone else's] surprise, the attempt works and all four girls are transported into SBURB; and Monika is very confident in things running smoothly!

...This is not how they run at all.

See, through Monika's previous meddling with codes & character files, she's made one hell of a grievous error.

She's manipulated the characters of Sayori & Yuri so deeply that she's changed the fundamental core of who they are.

In layman's terms, she's artificially altered their Classpects - bringing secondary traits to the forefront, and turning primary traits to tertiary.

And since Monika's manipulation specifically targets her friends' negative attributes, worsening their own mental health? These changes are not good ones.

Monika, here, is a Witch of Light. She's manipulating not just the parameters of her role, now, but the narrative itself. She's artificially transformed the very truth of her friends' characters.

Natsuki, immune to her manipulation through the latent powers of her Aspect; and a few quirks in the code itself, is a Knight of Rage; now saddled with the responsibility of maintaining skepticism.

Sayori, initially pegged as a Sylph of Blood, has been turned into a Page of Doom instead; now threatening to atrophy the components of the game itself the more she sinks into fatalistic depression.

And Yuri, intended as a Seer of Heart, is now a Mage of Time with a destructive obsession with death & entropy; five seconds away from turning on her co-players and ending the session in blood.

So, their session's about five seconds away from going down the shitter; and Monika is forced to consult Natsuki for help - she's the only one without any notable alterations to personality thanks to the abilities given to her by the Rage Aspect.

Predictably, she is really not too happy with Monika once she comes clean, but agrees to work with her to fix this mess for the greater good; after having her own private episode of dread given her newfound knowledge of her game's [un]reality.

Lands are still in very heavy beta phase, but a few ideas:

Monika's could be a verdant, grassy world representing the kind of picturesque future she's always dreamed of - and also a little stealth reference to bliss.png.

Sayori's would be covered in perpetual torrential rain, a little nod to her 'raincloud' metaphor for her depression, with a quest that would involve clearing the skies.

Yuri's I have a very clear inspiration for - The Garden of Forking Paths from ULTRAKILL. A land of pristine, soulless marble; a blank canvas just begging to be painted red with blood.

Natsuki's Land, I see as a frozen wasteland turning her culinary intrigue against her; an Antarctic wilderness with frosting instead of frost; a cold dessert over desert.

So, of course, I am fairly unsure whether or not I cooked something here or whether I burned the kitchen down.

[bleedingc4ctus]

For the comic nerds:

I have a working theory for something I’m a bit obsessed with, and am hoping there are enough eyes and ears still here to hear me

So, one of my all-time favorite comic book characters is Ghost Rider. Johnny, Danny, Alejandra, not so much Robbie just because the source of his powers is weak af but that muscle car is untouchable, so whatever.

And you can’t beat the look - a flaming skeleton, dressed head to toe in pure, vintage-metal-esque spiked leather, riding a flaming motorcycle. It makes sense that the comics only survived on visuals and not story.

Then there’s that nonsense of GR’s story, and the origin of its powers. In the original line he had made a deal with Satan, which was later retconned to Mephisto, Marvel’s cheap, domesticated knockoff. And at their peak, GR was strong enough to take on any and all of the Avengers single handed, including Hulk; the only thing stopping Hulk from being incinerated being GR’s code - only persecute the guilty, protect the innocent. Given that Hulk was attacking guilty parties, GR backed out from lack of interest but that’s a whole other story.

My point, now, is as rumors are going around about The Rider finally joining the MCU - yeah, Robbie (and possibly Johnny) in Agents of Shield is a thing, but also, no - how does a character that sources its powers from the Judeo-Christian pantheon fit into this world?

This world that already includes mythical characters from Norse (Thor, Loki, etc.), Egyptian (Black Panther/Bast, Moon Knight/Khonsu), Chinese (Fenghuang, Hundun), and Greek mythology (Zeus, Hercules, versions of The Immortals), but the only mentioning of Christianity (that I remember) is that one line from the first Avengers film - also notably pre-Disney - when Cap says “there’s only one god.” One might also consider nods from Dr. Strange mentioning the Keys of Solomon, which take inspiration from Judaism, Roman Pagan, and early Christian beliefs.

My theory is that they cannot introduce Ghost Rider straight from the comics to the MCU for a few reasons: maybe it’s the Superman problem, where the character is too strong to give a fitting challenge; or, my personal favorite, they don’t want to put Christianity on the same level and Norse mythology, or Greek, or Egyptian because maybe, for a big company like Disney, it’s fine to make a story about those religions because they’re just stories, but they consider Abrahamic religions as truth, and therefore feel less comfortable putting that into works of fiction.

This may be part of why Blade is taking so long too, since vampires are abominations and cannot walk into the light of “God.”

I guess this is more of a rant that a question. I really want to enjoy when Ghost Rider joins the fray, but I have consistently been let down by Disney Marvel as of late, and have little to no hope for their future. I mean, how can a character that literally killed “capital-G” God in the comics, who is stronger than Thor and Hulk, immune to the powers of Strange, fit into this world?

P.S., was Christian God retconned in the comics to The One Above All?

TLDR: Disney is kinda Christian, Ghost Rider is loosely based from Christianity. Does including him in the MCU make Judeo-Christian mythology equal to fiction in the eyes of Disney, hence their hesitance to include it?

[mickstart]

hello i would like to hear your opinions on

This is such a mood. Thank you for asking!!! I love mass effect! A lot!

I probably have opinions on most characters tbh. I like the original ME1 squad the most. My shepard is a psuedo-oc and I love her and her found family SO much. Like it'd be really hard for me to pick a mass effect squadmate I dislike they're almost all very dear to me. So here's a companion tier list and then honourable mentions and explanations below

Garrus: malewife with autism. Local Man In Awe Of His Very Strong Wife. Dork. Beloved. I Am Not Immune To Turians.

Tali: wife so beloved they had to nerf her by refusing to make her bi even though if femshep romances Garrus you can find Tali fantasizing about the three of you Together at the citadel dlc party.

Wrex: that's my grandpa and I love him

Ashley: she and Shep are the two best friends who have been friends so long they always have five ongoing arguments of varying severity but they will always be The Girls. She is ONLY down in b tier because I use her so little during the actual game and I wish there had been more actual content.

Joker: that's my stupid weed smoking cousin and the only one who knows im gay at the family reunion.

Grunt: Shepard has a sign on her door when she's busy and has asked not to be disturbed and it says "SON BOY ALLOWED" with a picture of grunt. He will always be her son. He is just a baby.

Anderson: dad. I love him. but also it's true what they say once you've heard Keith David as the arbiter he is the arbiter to you forever and there's nothing you can do.

Hackett: I just really like Hackett he's like Shepard's strict but fair dad and Anderson is her fun dad.

Kasumi: Shepard's annoying little sister I LOVE getting gossip from her it made the ship feel so alive.

James: I need to help my himbo son realize he is bisexual and it's not Just Bro Things to constantly ask Cortez if he's enjoying watching you work out and thinks you're hot.

Jack: I LOVE JACK I LOVE JACK SO MUCHXHDHDDHDH BIOWARE HOMOPHOBES. If you even look at jack wrong then Natasha Shepard will kill you. That's her sister.

Miranda: I Am Not Immune To Women Or Hyper Competence.

Samara: hngh... milfs.... With a code of duty and honour and ethics.... Hnghhhhhh.

EDI: I love robot AI stories I just wish someone gave my darling friend some clothes. She looks cold.

Legion: I will make bioware pay. I swear it to you legion.

Bonus Honourable Mentions: I genuinely am a stereotypical "turians are my blorbos" mass effect player. I think more than the game probably wants me to about Saren and indoctrination and Nihlus (and how they had a Thing I'm a truther) and it's one of the reasons I hate the ending so much because bioware seem intent on pushing synthesis as the "good uwu" ending which. That's what Saren wanted to do in me1 make up your damn minds.

Okay! Dishonourable mentions!

Thane: his loyalty mission glitched on my first ever playthrough and it ruined my perfect run on the suicide mission AND got kirrahe killed in me3 bc he took Thanes place in the coup fight. I don't dislike him he's like my joke nemesis but I'd probably forgive him for the broken loyalty mission if he was more interesting to me.

Kaidan: I actually really do like kaidan this is the same thing as Thane. I took him to the tholian planet in me1 my first time out, when I was shit at game, and he just kept dying constantly leaving me at the mercy of the thralls. (Garrus, knight in shining armour, was my only hope.) When virmire happened I was like "you know what you did." The game also railroads you if you're playing with femshep and makes every conversation with him flirty which! I didn't enjoy! At all! Jesus can I just get to know you without you asking if this means I'm in love???? So thus I have spent the least time with kaidan of all the squad. I really want to do a maleshep run some day and like. Actually get to know him. Because I think he's be higher if I did.

Javik: I find the airlock stuff funny but like. The fascist colonialist overlord thing. Gets old quick! Believe it or not! I don't get on with him but he makes me laugh I guess.

Jacob: this isn't about Jacob this is about the racist and bland writing that went into him. I want to love Jacob but he has both the racist writing and the same problem as Kaidan where if you even suggest you don't want him to die the game takes it as a sign you love him

And now. The big one. The one that's gonna get my sapphic card taken away.

Liara makes me uncomfortable. The way you can see the Devs lust for her all over the way she's written and designed and posed and used. The way she fulfills every "hot alien babe" fantasy. The way asari in general are agender when bioware want to tell you it's not really gay and "just all female" the rest of the time or when they're drooling over them. The way the game railroads you the same way it does with kaidan and Jacob and probably Ashley if you're maleshep. The way she has multiple obligatory missions and the favourtism is so obvious that she's basically the only character who can ONLY die if you get the absolute worst ending of all where the entire galaxy dies. The way the game will regularly assume you romance her.

Idk I really wanted to like her I was SO excited when I found out the game had a bisexual love interest. It's not like I dislike anything at all that's actually about HER. As a character I love her she's autistic coded she's sweet she's beautiful and smart and kind. But whenever I'm interacting with her idk how else to describe it except I am taken out of the experience of the story BC I am so aware of all the contexts and shit influencing what I'm seeing and doing. She's NOT down here because I hate her. It is exclusively the fact that when I'm seeing her I am so acutely aware that I am seeing a fictional character people workshopped.

[gir-posting]

tell me about your oc julian? 👀

:D!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im so excited u dont even get it

so full disclosure i only kind of consider him an oc bc for some reason in my mind tabletop/dnd characters count Less for some reason. but i made him for a curse of strahd game i did with some of my very good friends and it so far has been one of the most satisfying and fun campaigns ive ever been in

(also warning for some mentions of body horror/gore and violence it was in fact a horror game. shocking that i really enjoyed the horror game ik! also some spoilers for curse of strahd HEHE)

to start with here are some visuals, i drew all of these but the heroforged pic

^^pidlwick more properly to scale here. + some doodles of the other party members hehe

so to start with curse of strahd is a very dracula flavored campaign; the land of barovia is cut off from the rest of the world by a thick suffocating mist by a powerful vampire lord, strahd von zeravich. he has also cursed barovia with eternal night so that he can thrive without having to worry about the sun. he is also a huge bitch. here is a funko pop i bought of him at a convention because i am not immune to capitalism

julian (or his serial code JL-9) is a warforged created by a mad scientist named molostroi. molostroi was worryingly adept in making flesh homonculis. so he murdered a looooot of people to make his creations. that includes julian, who contains the organs and brain of a person that molostroi murdered For Science. he was also created specifically to murder people, with a built in weapon and everything (that shield you see him wearing in the pics earlier is mostly there because he was hiding the armblade embedded in him. he did NOT take it or his armor off willingly ever.) the goal was eventually to replicate julian in many many many more murder machine robots so that molostroi could execute a siege on strahd's castle

however, unfortunately for everyone, due to the fact that julian has a once human brain, he is sentient! and has been picking up some very clear lessons on morality by reading children's books about a divine hero and how to Act Heroically like him. (this sets up in his mind a pretty clear dichotomy between Heroes and Monsters. heroes protect innocent people while monsters attack them without any real care.) so when eventually he gains enough of a conscience to realize he is fully murdering people and that is very very bad, he lets someone that he was assigned to attack leave unscathed. this does NOT go over well with molostroi and he's almost immediately set to be dismantled and reworked over this.

except, uh-ohhhh, julian was made to kill people, so he turns right back around and murders him instead in a fit of panic. whiiiiich immediately makes him break down because he knows that murdering people is very wrong, and he just did it again, and he must really be a monster if he's still capable of doing such a horrible thing while knowing it's wrong. all of this makes him cry out for forgiveness and help (something he picked up from one of his stories about the Divine Hero) and shockingly someone answers.

the morninglord/god/the sun (whose forced absence is what created the endless night across barovia) answers his prayers and knights him as a paladin, because he can sense his passion for good and doing right by others. it's not very clear in those drawings aside from the second-to-last i suppose but his armor is branded with this symbol as proof of his devotion:

after this happens and he leaves the lab he develops some reactions to his trauma, if something happens that reminds him of the things he's done he'll just. go insane for a minute. his head starts spinning around and he sounds like an exceedingly loud tea kettle. (the first time this happened (other player dumped blood on him because they are weird and insane) i asked the dm to play this song on the music bot because i am a giant predictable geek)

also, in case there was any doubts about how horrible molostroi is here's some journals we found when we eventually had to go back and find something in his laboratory (lovingly and expertly written by the dm. ily hal i can't wait to play with u again when you're ready)

so on the academy: molostroi had a colleague named blinksy, who we meet at his toy shop some time after leaving strahd's castle for the first time (it went very poorly we lost three party members. two of them were only gone temporarily but oh baby. rip *sneeze* we miss you you funky little kenku.) while we were there we found a weird little clown robot dude who liked to follow us around, named pidlwick (shown above. he's very different in the source material but plllbbbbtttttt we have our own version and we like him.) we had to very quickly find some manner of engineer because while we were there he got injured and there was. blood! coming out of him. we got blinsky to take a look at him and he veeeerrry quickly recognized molostroi's work. then he took a closer look at julian and was able to recognize that him and pidlwick were made in the same horrible way.

all this to say blinsky became kind of a father figure to julian and pidlwick. after all was said and done and we defeated strahd, allowing the sun to come back, the scene we leave julian on is him fishing with blinsky on the lake.

that's kind of a rough and dirty description of him especially near the end there lol but god its very hard to summarize dnd characters when there's soooo much to cover in entire campaigns. but either way my boy i love my traumatized robot boy so so much

[masterhandss]

Hi~

I'm curious about what you think a Hamefura-GBF crossover would look like ^^

OP YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE AWAKENED IN ME WITH THIS QUESTION AJSHGJAHSGD

As a fan of both I've always created different ideas in my mind of what a GBF-Hamefura collab would be like!! I'm not really creative enough to be able to drop some fan-made collab name ideas or a full premise for the collab's plot, just some random tidbits of fun ideas I thought of.

// warning: very minor spoilers for the novels/fortune lover 2

For how Katarina and the gang gets into the world of Granblue Fantasy, I think it would be really cool if it combines something like the Shadowverse collab where they are just thrown into the world without much explanation (maybe playing it out like another Book of Desires-type thing where Katarina stumbles upon a magic tool that sends them all there) and the Love Live Muse collab where it's kinda just a dream. Not that I want Katarina to dream the entire thing, I just find it really funny how in the Manga Bonus SS, Katarina immediately figures out that she's in a dream and just plays along, which would make her nonchalance about being thrown into another world funny and make sense (for her at least). Maybe in the end it could be revealed to be a dream all along, like the Love Live and most recent Deresute collab.

For the plot itself, I'm not really good at coming up up anything new, all I can think of is making something similar to existing collabs and events qwq. It would really funny if the primal beast behind everything is one who is gluttonous, and Katarina beats them in a competition of iron stomachs (like the Priconne collab and Eating Bonanza Summer event). Or have the event story end with Katarina confronting and talking down a humanoid primal beast and charming him into surrender post-battle, something similar to how she won over Raphael (imagine how funny it would be for Keith to smack his head and sigh, as Katarina continues to charm more people, and a primal beast at that XDD).

Maybe even something like the Code Geass collab where at the same time Katarina and the gang end up in the Sky Realm, the crew is on a quest to find a criminal who is stirring trouble in an island, and that criminal had a striking resemblance to Katarina (or an FL2!Katarina). Like that other Katarina is just an illusion created by a primal beast in order to hide his identity, not really basing the image on anyone specific but just creating someone based on the perfect image of a scheming villainess lmao (and being surprised after finding out that the very girl does exist). Cue confusion from the crew and the harem, while Katarina feels both pride and fear over being called the spitting image of a villainess hgfjhsdgf.

You can even make the plot something like the GBF SideM collab + Hamefura Pirates, where the situation they are in is actually from a Fortune Lover x GBF collab (that Katarina dreams Acchan playing/was mentioned to her once in passing) that somehow (???) has ties to Katarina's fate in FL2.

And please, I would love a quick scene of everyone dining with the crew, and everyone comments on Katarina and Lyria's black hole of a stomach XDD

It would kinda be cool if Katarina had a moment where she uses Phalanx, since VOD showed us that there are shield-type spells in hamefura (canonicity is debatable though) but I guess since Nico already did that in the Love Live collab that'd be copying/too similar haha).

For the event rewards, Katarina would join your party after Chapter2 of course :DD By then she would have met the crew. The other playable characters depends on who you ask to be honest. I don't want to sound mean or anything to the fans of the girls, but when I first encountered the question, my mind immediately went the NinSwitch otome game and how all the boys are the capturable characters. Since HameFura clearly favors the Katarina + the boys in the marketing, I thought realistically that if there was a collab, the playable characters would be them. That would be 5 playable characters though, which might be a lot so I guess a good alternative is a Playable Katarina, Geordo, Keith and maybe Maria too. Combining the three girls into a single unit wouldn't be likely, I think it's more realistic to assume they would be the event summon instead (or at least have a cameo in Katarina's victory animation)

(LOOK I EVEN MADE SOME QUICK EDITS/MOCKUPS, DO YOU SEE HOW EXCITED I AM ABOUT THIS QUESTION HGJHSDGF)

Katarina would be a Dark SSR (sorry if that's considered as a spoilers to anyone qwq) whose attacks also inflict a partial earth damage. She would be an attack-type character with a sabre and axe specialty (axe because hoe haha). I just can't imagine her being an Earth Character unless Keith isn't playable, because then I guess she could just inflict partial dark damage via casted debuffs in order to reference FL2. She's probably mostly has attack skills that either gives buffs or increases her charge bar. Katarina would get a 5 star uncap in the next event rerun :P

Geordo would be a Fire SSR with a sabre specialty. He's be an attack-type character who specializes in Attack/Support. Spoilers to the light novels kinda, but I imagine Geordo to have a special third skill that gives him lots of buffs but either debuffs him & kills him eventually (like Dark Jeanne) or sacrifices his HP (like Fire Yuisis) as a reference to Volume 8, where he's a bit unhinged when he's angry and will use his fire magic lethally to anyone who harms his friends.

Keith would be an Earth SSR with a sabre and staff specialty. He would be Special character, acting as a Support/Debuffer. I imagine that he could have his own personal buff called "Earth Dolls" that get consumed each turn, and having a lot would increase the damage of his charge attack. I know the picture says katana instead of staff, I'm just too lazy to edit it again :'))

Alan would be a Water SSR with a sabre and gun specialty (why gun? he uses a gun in the hamefura fantasy au so :DD). He'd be a balanced-type character who is an Attacker/Defender. I imagine he'd be like SSR Romeo, who is good for defense but is preferably used to deal some damage (or at least that's how I use him lmao).

Nicol would be a Wind SSR with a sabre and bow specialty (bow because wind element :DD). He would be a defense-type character who specializes in Defense/Support. Either lands some good debuffs (Def Down, Debuff Success Boosted, Blind, Gravity and CHARM OF COURSE) or has Substitute Ally. Most likely the prior. I know that sounds like he should be a special-type character instead so I'm suggesting he should have a skill with Shield and Immune in a single package.

I imagine the girls to be an event summon together (in my hypothetical scenario where the boys are the playable characters) where they give random buffs (like 3-6 buffs depending on the lvl and uncap). I imagine that they would have a special Call Effect with Katarina, giving her more buffs or a special buff meant just for her :DD

In the event that Maria is a playable character, she would be a Light SSR who has a staff specialty. She would be a Heal-type character who specializes in Support. Her skills could have stuff like a heal that activates for a few turns, light def-down and a def-up to name a few.

The event SSR weapon would be a "Doom Flag" of course! It blends perfectly with the dozen other flag-looking spear weapons in the game XDD

My ideas for the SR weapon would either the "Doom Avoidance Strategy Book" which would be a Dark Melee weapon, or a smaller "Bad End Doom Flag" which would be a Fire Dagger (haha get it, because Geordo Bad End :)).

Hahaha that's all I can really think of when it comes to a collab. If you want me to talk about a Hamefura RPG AU, but with GBF classes/races then I can make a whole other post for that sjkfhdsk i've always wanted to draw/imagine the hamefura characters wearing job classes & magic from GBF!

Imagine Mary wearing the Dancer/Masquerade class outfit, Maria in the Doctor class, Alan in the Elysian class, Nicol in the Cavalier/Robin Hood class, Geordo in the Glorybringer class, Keith in the Relic Buster class (as a reference for him being a black knight in the manga bonus ss), Sophia in the Warlock/Asparas class, and Katarina in the Chrysaor/Lumberjack class!!

If anyone would like to add with more collab ideas, I would love to hear it!!!!

Anyways, thank you for the ask :DD

[thecottageinthedark]

Sorting Persona 4

Here again with another Sorting Hat Chats post! This one’s for Persona 4. Full disclaimer; this is based just on the game, not the anime. Also it’s behind a cut cause it is LONG. And has spoilers.

The system I’m using is explained here by @wisteria-lodge.

The Persona 4 MC, whose name is either Souji Seta or Yu Narukami depending on which supplemental materials you go by, is a really REALLY loud Badger secondary. His power is based on making Social Links with NPCs and shifting to become whatever they need-and also on patiently grinding to level up his attributes. And because he lives so much in this secondary-plus the fact that on a meta level he’s kind of a stand-in for the player-his Primary is hard to see.

But where it gets revealed in the end is the decisive moment when the ending you’re going to get is decided. The Investigation Team have discovered that Namatame’s been putting people into the TV, and thus are assuming he’s the murderer-and it’s become horribly personal, because one of the people he did that to was Nanako, and even though she’s been rescued, she’s deathly ill thanks to the TV World’s poison.

And now you-and the MC-have a choice. The IT are baying for Namatame’s blood, ready to kill. One Badger Primary method would be to appeal to the fact that he’s a person, you can’t just kill people….but nobody’s listening. Another would be to dehumanise him and say, he’s a murderer, he needs to die for the sake of everyone-going along with all the fury of the group. A Lion would lash out too-less because everyone’s doing it and more from their own gut feeling, but that would still lead to dead Namatame. A Snake might kill Namatame because he hurt Nanako...or, in the Golden remake, if they’ve done Adachi’s social link, they might cover for him. Either way, they’d be prioritising an inner circle member.

And all of those get you bad endings. Especially the Snake choice to cover for Adachi.

What gets the good ending, the happy ending where the MC is fulfilled and at peace, is to ignore all the emotion that’s running so high, and order everyone to step back and take time to think about whether the theory of Namatame being the killer makes sense. Pounce on the niggling little detail that doesn’t fit, and realise that the assumption everyone is labouring under isn’t true. And then prioritise the actual truth over personal loyalties or emotional reactions.

Bird Primary.

Because of course. This is a detective story. Your party are called both the Investigation Team and the Seekers of Truth. Even the title song hints at it; find the truth (Bird) by getting together with others (Badger).

Yosuke Hanamura’s a young, immature Snake Primary at game start, with the selfishness typical to that. His Shadow throws that back in his face, and he realises he doesn’t like being an asshole whose secret gut reaction to murders happening is ‘well at least I’m not bored anymore now something is happening in this dead-end town’.

So he does two things pretty much at the same time; he widens his inner circle to let in first Souji and then the rest of the IT, and he adds a model on top to let him care about things outside that circle. I think it’s a Lion model-a young Lion, just like his Snake, that edges into Glory Hound, but keeps hold of the idea that you should do certain things because they’re just right.

(It’s not based on the MC, though the MC is undoubtedly his most important person, who he even calls his partner. But then, as I said, the MC’s Bird is very quiet, so it’d be hard for Yosuke to perceive it well enough to mimic it. I think it’s actually based on Chie, who is after all the inner circle member he has known longest!)

And his secondary? Yosuke’s a support guy. He lifts his friends up. His family run Junes, and he leverages that connection to create a base location for the IT and secure a portal into the TV world that’s big enough to be usable. When Teddie comes to the human world, it’s Yosuke who gives him a place to stay. He’s a Badger secondary, and again, this makes perfect sense. The Lover sorting. No wonder so much of the fandom ships him with the MC.

Chie Satonaka is LOUD and BRASH and if you are a jerk she will KICK YOU IN THE FACE. She is so goddamn Lion Secondary, and utterly unapologetic about it.

Her primary, I think, is Lion again. The reason she has gotten possessive of Yukiko (as her Shadow calls her out on) isn’t that she wants Yukiko to be just hers-it’s that she wants to be Yukiko’s knight. Saving the princess is actually a textbook Lion cause. It lets her feel heroic and brave.

But that’s not good for either of them. Damsel in distress is a shitty role, one that doesn’t allow Yukiko to be strong and capable herself, and Chie pushing Yukiko into that role is really straining their relationship. It’s also something that Chie herself knows is wrong-that’s why her Shadow accuses her of it. (“I am a Shadow, the true self...”)

So instead Chie changes gears, because oh look a new Cause just popped up! Find the killer and bring them to justice! And on top of that, there’s always sexist prats to kick.

Yukiko Amagi models Badger Primary, because it’s expected of her. Running an inn is a really Badger kind of job. She also models Badger Secondary, for the same reasons. She feels this is who she’s meant to be; sweet, gentle, socially adept, community-focused and hard-working. The traditional Japanese ideal of womanhood.

But it chafes. The weight of societal expectations feels crushing. She doesn’t want to do stuff just because she’s meant to, because people think she should. She’s an Internal Primary, and needs to follow the voice of her own heart.

And where that heart leads her...is back to the Amagi Inn, except now she’s decided that she’s doing this for herself. She needed to feel that she could actually choose to not inherit the inn, before she could realise that she wanted to run it. She’s a Snake Primary, and the inn is important to her because it’s hers.

Her secondary...actually I get the feeling she’s like Toph Beifong of Avatar, a Snake who likes to spend most of her time in neutral. She is delightfully quirky and weird, and owns that, but she doesn’t charge like a Lion and she’s comfy with wearing masks when the situation calls for it.

Kanji Tatsumi panics at the idea that he might be gay, and caretakes like a boss, and that might look at first sight like a Double Badger who’s scared that he might be one of the people he’s used to dehumanising. His Shadow screams that it wants to be accepted...but what calms it is when Kanji himself accepts it, and says that this resolution is about being true to himself. Kanji’s a Double Lion who burnt his primary because being given shit for the feminine, queer-coded parts of himself made him lose faith in his internal compass, worrying that it was leading him somewhere that he viewed as bad. Internalised homophobia’s a bitch of a thing.

Accepting his Shadow is the start of Kanji healing his primary-letting go of shame for being an oddball and telling the world to go fuck itself if it thinks it can make him conform. He does model Badger Secondary-as I said, he caretakes like a boss-but that’s more a thing he does as a gift to others. When it comes to solving problems, he charges in swinging, ready to beat up anyone from biker gangs to otherworldly monsters.

Rise Kujikawa is a cheerful, shameless Snake Primary, loving and ambitious. She became an idol to make friends, and enjoys the fame it gets her. And when she needs to take a break for the sake of her mental health, she has no compunctions about doing so.

But she needed that break because the idol life was stressing her out-unsurprisingly, it’s a really intense life. And the particular problem she had was to do with the conflicting expectations the public has of celebrities. Perfection is demanded...but so is authenticity.

Rise realised that she was face-shifting as an integral part of her career, and this knowledge sent her into a tailspin. The fans don’t like the real Rise Kujikawa-they like Risette. But who is the real Rise Kujikawa? She doesn’t know! It’s frightening! What if she’s just made of smoke and mirrors? How does she find out what’s underneath?

And the answer she comes to is that there is no real Rise Kujikawa...which is the same as saying that there is no false one. Rise is Risette is Rise, it’s all just her, adapting to the context as she needs to. She’s a Badger Secondary, and the act of performance is the true self.

And for her, that’s a good answer-it brings her peace. But now we need to talk about Teddie.

Because just hearing Rise say ‘there’s no real me’ sends Teddie into a Shadow crisis right there.

He completely fucking loses it. He’s a denizen of the TV world-he’s been immune to it all this time, never manifesting a Shadow, but this is what breaks him. And that just screams Bird Lion. It’s his Buzz Lightyear moment-or rather his first Buzz Lightyear moment, because there are two. This is the first, and he survives it by retreating into his Secondary. It allows him to bring Shadow Teddie under control...but this isn’t sustainable. He’s realised something terrible and can’t avoid that knowledge indefinitely.

And soon enough he admits it to himself (and to the MC). He is a Shadow, that somehow became self-aware. His Truth was never true. He can’t handle it, he has no idea how to even exist, and he outright tells the MC that he intends to commit suicide.

He recovers, though-and he does so because the MC tells him Nanako survived. That’s the first thing that gives him a glimmer of hope, because his Truth already had some Snakey elements in there about chosen people and ambitions. He comes back from the brink, reshapes his system to centre those Snake principles, and returns to the side of his friends.

Lastly, Naoto Shirogane, our other queer-coded character. (I’m using she pronouns for the sake of canon here-but I’m a firm believer in nonbinary Naoto, for the record.) I think she’s a Bird secondary-the only one of those here, jeez. She’s just so analytical. She’s a rapid-fire Bird too, Detective Prince working on a case, squarely in the middle of her comfort zone. But push her out of it-into a normal teenager social situation, say-and watch her squirm!

She has a Bird Primary performance, too. But performance is the operative word here. She’s trying to look adult and smart and collected, in order to be taken seriously by the police officers she works with. And she is smart, mind you, but that’s not the why of her though it is the how. It’s not Naoto who goes ‘wait, let’s think about this, we need more information’ at the crucial point, but the MC, who really is a Bird Primary. Naoto was the one to suggest doing a little vigilante justice vis-a-vis murdering Namatame.

Her real Primary is Lion. Being a detective is a Cause for her, not a Truth, and she is blazingly certain of her own sense of what’s right-so much so that she doesn’t stop and check it against other people’s. And she inspires people! She doesn’t even mean to, and certainly doesn’t know why, but she is just so cool that people flock to her and admire her. ‘The Detective Prince’ is, when you think about it, a really Lion Bird kind of title!

Her Shadow has two issues with her. First, it harps on the gender angle. Hey, self, there’s that thing about your identity that you’ve been refusing to think about! You need to go poke at it! And then it breaks down into a scared child. Self, your performance is eating you alive. You need to do it, yes, the Cause demands it, but you also need to be able to stop sometimes and let yourself have emotions!

In short:

MC/Souji/Yu: Bird primary, Badger secondary

Yosuke: Snake primary, Badger secondary, models Lion primary

Chie: Lion primary, Lion secondary

Yukiko: Snake primary, Snake secondary, with Badger primary and secondary models that start out pretty unhealthy for her. 

Kanji: Lion primary that starts out burnt and begins to unburn after his Shadow fight, Lion secondary. Models Badger secondary.

Rise: Snake primary, Badger secondary

Teddie: Bird primary, Lion secondary. Falls dramatically and recovers by shaping his system to be more Snakelike.

Naoto: Lion primary, Bird secondary, performs Bird primary

[kittyandco-archive]

you mustve been asked this already you dont have to answer but what is your relationship with Prince Charming like? and whats your self insert like :0 when i made mine i made them a jester..

1) holy SHIT that’s an epic idea & i would love to hear... 

2) ALRIGHT ALRIGHT yeah, i do get a lot of repeat asks but i totally don’t mind answering! i’ll probably insert links to relevant posts too for more explanation. gonna try to organize this but i will not care if i switch from first to third person LMAO. everything under the cut uwu

3) so my s/i is a runaway. (which i titled my first fic i wrote with us haha...) 

she ran from her family long ago, and ended up in shrek’s swamp. they had to learn to live in the same area... mostly shrek, though. he did the most adjusting. i didn’t care so long as i had somewhere to stay and not get robbed by the weirdos who lurked in the forest. 

so because of that, she’s callous and skeptical of humans... but has a soft-hearted side, too, like shrek. the fact that charming is the exact type of person that made her so indifferent toward the world didn’t help at first. everything about him was repulsive... but also horribly inviting. ugh

honestly even though she’s been beaten down by just about everyone in her life, especially after publicly associating with ogres, she still has confidence in herself to stay strong in her negative convictions. just about everything’s justified. you’d think she’d be indecisive and lame, but just the opposite. especially when the man, The Man is now hers? well... time to never shut up about it. that isn’t to say there isn’t a lot of inner conflict but it’s mostly just that: internal. pain? confusion? don’t know them lol 

AND A BITCH IS NOT IMMUNE TO HIS SO CALLED “CHARMING” TENDENCIES. OK I’M WITH Y’ALL, I RELATE, even if i roll my eyes and scoff at every advance don’t dare stop

also: she aspires to be a knight!! i don’t talk about that enough, but that’s her most profound dream, above all else. only problem is that she doesn’t embody basically any of the qualities that a knight would require sfajdfk 

our relationship is a lot of learning... we come from opposite worlds, but really come together over shared experiences that we wouldn’t expect the other to have gone through. this was part of his appeal to me in real life, what made me relate to him most... the whole fairy godmother situation. it’s funny and all but every time i’m sitting there sweating like yeah haha overbearing mother trying to use her child for her own gain? HILARIOUS........ 😳 but i’m not absolving charming of blame here. he’s Not Great, but there’s clearly more to it, at least from my perspective. (and serious talk aside too i love fairy godmother as a character, who doesn’t, just not in this context asdsjk) 

shared trauma aside, i think we compliment each other so well. he doesn’t feel as pressured to “woo” me every three seconds. (i mean HE STILL DOES I AIN’T COMPLAINING, i actually find it funny sometimes. which he doesn’t understand, but he soon comes to like it because he appreciates seeing me happy... altho sometimes he’s like ok kitty seriously i’m not joking you really are beautiful please listen to me i am trying to flirt with you stop) we can joke and play around, and... he’s never gotten to really do that; chivalric code and all. i don’t see him as the helpless pawn that other people do. he is his own person with feelings... his want for FFA is not his only aspiration. he can be a little clumsy, but that’s because he’s hardly gotten to do anything for himself... and i don’t want him to always be reliant on someone for approval. i’ll let him do things on his own, and even if it isn’t exactly how i wanted it, i know he did his best... and that’s all i could ask for because his best is what i love so much. 

alright i’m leaving before i get emotional 

[tigerkirby215]

5e Zed the Master of Shadows build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

Well; I did promise it. I’ll be honest the only reason for this build is that it’s the most obvious build to make with the new Echo Knight from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, and it would be an injustice not to do so. I honestly don’t care much about Zed as I feel like his popularity has sort of died down as his meta relevance has waned. Regardless this build isn’t just a straightforward “lol Echo Knight 20″ so I hope those of you who want to play the edgy shadow ninja boy are pleased.

GOALS

Living Shadow - Of course the core of Zed’s kit is his shadow clones. Man I wonder how we’re going to recreate that?

Shadow Slash - Both Zed and his shadows need an arsenal of weapons that are always on-hand and are ready to both slash and throw.

Contempt for the Weak - Zed passive is what makes him an assassin, quickly killing anyone who’s already hurt.

RACE

Zed is a Human but due to my continued determination to avoid using the Variant Human race (and also because we really don’t need a Feat in this build except maybe Skulker) we’ll be grabbing Flash from Mark of Passage from Eberron. Your Dexterity increases by 2 and you can increase one stat of your choice by 1: choose Wisdom for some later Feat investment. You can also choose one language on top of Common: if Ionian is a language choose that, but Elvish is pretty close I suppose?

You get Courier's Speed for 5 feet of extra movement from your Zeal, and  Intuitive Motion lets you add a d4 to any Acrobatics check you make or check involving land vehicles, because of all your training with the Kinkou apparently taught you how to drive a cart as well as do back-flips? But of course the main reason I said to take this race was for Magical Passage, giving you a one-time cast of Misty Step per Long Rest. Flash is a powerful summoner spell: use it to make some stylish plays.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Being a ninja is about swiftness and precision, and doing sick backflips and parkour. Wait this isn’t a Talon build?

14; WISDOM - To be a master you need to be wise; wise enough to know you enemy and how to exploit their weakness. It’s also a requirement to multiclass after all.

13; CONSTITUTION - Just because Zed isn’t a tank in-game doesn’t mean some extra tenacity (not the CC reduction type) isn’t appreciated. CON is also tied to some of our clone abilities.

12; INTELLIGENCE - The art of war is a game of intelligence. If fighting is sure to result in victory then you must fight!

10; CHARISMA - Zed runs around in Shredder cosplay and half his voice lines are literally just him grunting. He has his own order but he isn’t getting any free beers.

8; STRENGTH - Again you’re not a tank, and Strength simply isn’t needed for this build. The only thing we’d ever really use Strength for is Athletics, and we can get proficiency in the skill to remedy that.

BACKGROUND

Much like the Kayn build we’ll be going with the Faction Agent background, only this time you’re the faction head! Much like your protegee you get Insight proficiency as well as Intimidation since you’re a spooky shadow man. And of course your Shadow Order can provide you with a Safe Haven if needed, giving you a safe place to hide if your half-brother is looking for you. As for your two languages again it doesn’t matter, so pick something fun.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ROGUE 1

Starting off as a Rogue for the extra proficencies, also because no shit you’re a ninja. Regardless Rogues get proficiency in 4 skills from the Rogue list: choose Stealth, Perception, Acrobatics, and Athletics so you can keep to the shadows and strike at the perfect time. You also get Expertise in two skills that you know: I’d opt for Stealth as well as Intimidation from your background, so you can sneak up on someone and go “boo!” before cutting out their throat.

Of course the main appeal of Rogues is their Sneak Attack, letting them add a d6 of damage against any enemy who’s close to another ally, or you have advantage on by attacking them from the shadows.

Finally your Shadow Order is well-versed in Thieves’ Cant, a secret code that neither the Noxians nor the Kinkou understand.

LEVEL 2 - ROGUE 2

Second level Rogues get Cunning Action, letting them Dash, Disengage, or Hide as a Bonus Action. The key to playing Zed well is much like the key to playing Rogue well in 5e: keep mobile and be everywhere at once. Don’t give your enemy a moment to hit you.

LEVEL 3 - ROGUE 3

You can choose your Roguish Archetype at level 3 and of course the Master of Shadows needs shadowy blades. Or should I say psychic blades? The Soul Knife subclass from the Psionics UA can create weapons as a Bonus Action with their Psychic Blade feature: these are finesse weapons that you can dual-wield, and throw 30 feet normally and up to 60 feet with disadvantage. These weapons deal a d6 of psychic damage and disappear after they hit the target you throw them at, when you dismiss them for free, or after you let go of them.

You can also choose through a variety of Psionic Enhancements. You can either give yourself 30 feet of telepathy, 5 feet of extra movement speed, or health equal to your Rogue level plus your Intelligence. You may notice that in total that would add up to a 4 currently, but that isn’t likely to go higher so I’d recommend either the telepathy or the movement speed. (5 feet of movement combined with the 5 feet from your race means you’re moving at Barbarian speed!)

WHY LOW INTELLIGENCE? - The Soul Knife, despite being a psionic class, doesn’t need Intelligence to function. A +5 in Intelligence would only mean a total of 8 extra health because we’re not going to be taking any more levels in Rogue. You need both Dexterity and Constitution more in this build, so it’s not worth investing in Intelligence just for one skill. But if you can get your Intelligence high go right ahead.

And finally your Sneak Attack increases to 2d6 now.

LEVEL 4 - FIGHTER 1

Now that you have your shuriken it’s time to get your clones. Level 1 Fighters get a Fighting Style and there’s a lot of options to choose from:

Two-Weapon Fighting is the obvious pick, letting you squeeze a bit of extra damage into your second weapon attack if you decide to opt for two-weapon fighting with your Bonus Action.

Thrown Weapon Fighting from the Class Feature Variants UA will vary in utility depending on your DM’s interpretation of “drawing a weapon.” If they let you summon your knives for free with this fighting style (as long as you throw them instantly) take this fighting style. If not Archery could also perhaps increase your ranged accuracy if your DM is cool with the rules.

When all else fails Defense provides a flat +1 to AC.

Why not Dueling? - Dueling is good in it’s own right to increase damage output but it technically only works if you have one Psiblade out. This means that you’ll be gimping yourself by only summoning one knife at a time, which means you can’t have two ranged shots before needing to “reload.” If you have a cool DM Dueling can still work for more damage.

You also get Second Wind, so you can pop a Refillable Potion to heal for 1d10 plus your fighter level once per short rest as a Bonus Action. Even at this late level that can equal up to a third of your health bar!

LEVEL 5 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get Action Surge, allowing them to take an additional action once per Short Rest. Man I love Fighters; so simple to explain.

LEVEL 6 - FIGHTER 3

HA HA FUCK ME AM I RIGHT?! Echo Knight from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount suddenly becomes a hundred times more complex! For the sake of brevity I’m literally going to copy-paste the Echo Knight’s ability description from my Skullgirls Isaac build:

The echo (or Living Shadow, if you will) has an AC of 14 plus your proficiency bonus, 1 hit point, and immunity to all conditions. If it has to make a saving throw it uses your saving throw bonus for the roll. It’s the same size as you and occupies a space. On your turn you can make the echo to move up to 30 feet in any direction without using an action but if your echo is more than 30 feet from you at the end of your turn it is destroyed.

You have several things you can do with your echo:

* You can swap places with your echo with 15 feet of your movement, regardless of the distance between the two of you.

* Any attack you make with the Attack action can originate from the echo’s space if you choose to do so.

* When a creature that you can see within 5 feet of your echo moves away from it, you can use your reaction to make an opportunity attack against that creature as if you were in the echo’s space.

* You can use Unleash Incarnation to make one additional attack from your Echo’s location when you take the attack action, adding up to 3 attacks total. You can use Unleash Incarnation a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier.

In short: Living Shadow can attack for you. We good?

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 7 - RANGER 1

We’ve got our Q, we’ve got our W, now it’s time for our... passive? Building characters in D&D is weird. Regardless Rangers get another skill proficiency: I’d recommend the Survival skill to survive if you decide to go into the jungle.

You also get a Favored Enemy and Favored Terrain from Natural Explorer. As per usual whenever I use the Ranger class (which I seem to do a lot) I recommend talking to your DM to find out what enemies and terrain you’ll need, or alternatively use Unearthed Arcana rules. This build is rather separate from Unearthed Arcana but regardless it’s much better than baseline Ranger so I suggest looking at it.

LEVEL 8 - RANGER 2

Second level Rangers get a Fighting Style so I’d recommend one you didn’t take from Fighter 1 (since Fighting Styles don’t stack.) But notably you get access to Spellcasting and learn two spells from the Ranger list: Detect Magic will let you check if your opponent has their ultimate up before fighting, and Hunter’s Mark will let you mark an enemy for death and do an extra d6 of damage every time you hit them.

LEVEL 9 - RANGER 3

Speaking of damage: third level Rangers can choose a conclave archetype, and the Hunter archetype is as useful to assassins as it is to hunters. You get the Hunter’s Prey feature which lets you choose from three different ways to do extra damage, but Colossus Slayer will let you show your contempt for the weak by doing an extra d8 of damage to anyone who’s injured.

You also get Primeval Awareness, letting you spend a spell slot to detect enemies that are near. (Read the ability for a better understanding of how it works.) And speaking of spells how about a smoke bomb? Fog Cloud will let you create a... cloud... of fog. The area is heavily obscured for the duration unless you lose concentration or a strong wind blows it away so you can use it to block enemy vision and get into position to hide and strike!

LEVEL 10 - FIGHTER 4

Man we skipped over our Ability Score Improvements for awhile huhn? Well thankfully there’s no more multiclassing anymore as it’s just straight down Fighter now. But we’ll first be taking a Feat to even out some of our uneven ability scores, and the Observant feat is perfect for a ninja, getting an increase to passive perception to spot assassins in the dark and being able to read the lips of an enemy so you can relay the message to your allies.

LEVEL 11 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack good lord finally! The thing is that more attacks means that you’ll have to “reload” your Psychic Blades with a Bonus Action more often, which is why we opted for Colossus Slayer first. So just remember that your knives are limited.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 12 - FIGHTER 6

6th level Fighters get another Ability Score Improvement: increase your Dexterity and Constitution to finally get rid of those awful uneven Ability Scores.

LEVEL 13 - FIGHTER 7

7th level Echo Knights get Echo Avatar: You can see and hear through your Living Shadow, deafening and blinding yourself while you do this. You can keep it up for 10 minutes max and can end it at any time without an action. While your echo is being used this way it can be up to 1000 feet away from you without being destroyed, meaning that you can theoretically teleport to it if you so desire. One of Zed’s biggest strengths is his ability to be practically everywhere at once.

LEVEL 14 - FIGHTER 8

8th level Fighters get another Ability Score Improvement: you can finally cap off your Dexterity for maximum damage with your knives and your shurikens.

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 9

At level 9 in Fighter you get Indomitable, letting you reroll a saving throw once per Long Rest. You must use the new roll so be sure to only pop your QSS on an important stun you know you won’t get hit by again 3 seconds later.

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Echo Knights get Shadow Martyr. Hey it has “shadow” in the name! Regardless once per short rest you can use a reaction to have your Living Shadow defend an ally (or yourself) when being attacked, forcing the attack to hit the echo instead of you. People can’t shoot Zed’s shadows in League but that doesn’t mean he can’t block a skillshot for an ally.

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 11

11th level Fighters get three attacks per round thanks to an improvement to Extra Attack. Again remember that you can only throw two of your Psychic Blades before needing to reload, meaning that if you decide to throw them you can only do so twice before needing to spend a bonus action, and will run out of daggers if you decide to Action Surge. But since your echo can attack with melee it should be fine, right?

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 12

12th level Fighters get another Ability Score Improvement: increase your Constitution for more health and more uses of Unleash Incarnation, adding up to you dying less and your enemies dying more.

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 13

13th level Fighters get another use of Indomitable. Isn’t cool-down reduction a great stat?

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 14

Our capstone is an Ability Score Improvement from the 14th level of Fighter: 2 points in Constitution will give you a 20 HP boost and one extra use of Unleash Incarnation.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

The merest shade of me... - You have a huge array of options in combat which are almost always available for use. You can always be armed with both a melee and ranged weapon and have insane mobility with Misty Step and the ability to swap places with your Echo, not to mention that a 40 foot movement speed puts you above the average movement for humanoids and on-par with most mid-to-high level enemies, letting you easily chase them and keep up.

Our blades crave battle - You have incredibly high damage output. Three attacks with your psychic blades is good in its own right but combined with Sneak Attack, Colossus Slayer, and Hunter’s Mark you can do a grand total of 3d6 + 1d8 extra damage with one of your three strikes. Extra attacks are a great contingency for on-hit damage boosts.

Only the worthy survive - While Zed is squishy in League of Legends this build is much tankier than average. Actually being able to invest in Constitution without losing out on abilities and most of your levels being in Fighter means that your health can easily reach up to 200. Add in Second Wind and Indomitable and you have more than a Guardian Angel to protect you.

CONS

Secrets kept are weapons wasted - You have a lot of set up time to get all your abilities up. A bonus action to draw your weapons and then another bonus action to summon your Echo, plus extra bonus actions to create more blades or more echoes, which will take away from Cunning Action or your mobility abilities.

Only time can judge us - Many of your abilities are limited: limited spells, limited protection with Indomitable and Shadow Martyr, limited damage with Unleash Incarnation and Action Surge, and most notably limited ranged attacks per turn since you can only summon two Psychic Blades per turn.

Balance is weakness - The three levels of Ranger really don’t provide much. More damage is swell and all but taking 3 more Fighter levels instead of 3 Ranger levels would give you more sustainability with Reclaim Potential, another Ability Score Improvement, and most notably a third use of Indomitable and a second use of Action Surge. Ranger makes your average damage output higher but removes your ability to quickly assassinate a target, or keep alive. And it of course forces you to invest somewhat in Wisdom, which might not be possible if you didn’t roll well for stats during character creation.

But I honestly struggled to find many points of weakness in this build; I’m actually impressed with how strong it is overall. You have the tools to take on any fight that may come your way, moving around the battlefield at lightning speeds and dropping any enemy with a flurry of blows. It’s only up to you to use those tools, less you prove yourself a Faker.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

[akalegos]

Could you tell us a little about your characters?

Y E S !

but due to me having at least over a thousand characters I’ll just give a quick summary of the 25 I manage to dig up over 3 sketchbooks.

Y’all can pick and choose which of them interest yall or who you wanna hear more about!

Also because I’m extra, I made sketch icons for the 25 characters, info under the cut

I’ll talk a bit more about my actual Original Characters first, starting with

Aiko! Otherwise known as Echo

- A marked individual in a steampunk world that gets mixed with magic, because I like both of those things

- Echo runs an underground lab that does helps the underground world with replacing body parts, illegal surgeries etc etc

- Even though she marked, which puts a bounty on her head already, she is well respected by the community for not cheating for your money, stealing your cash, or shanking/killing you mid-surgery

- however, Echo does long for adventure and sometimes do get bored in the lab

oh yeah,, Echo like stealing eyeballs, so if you’re low on cash and wouldn’t mind losing an eye, you know who to call!!

Bonus:

Here’s Echo’s boring, undeveloped sidekick!! I don’t like her and I don’t know how to make her better. Yes, she doesn’t have a name.

here’s my god playboy that left “heaven” due to having an early mid-life crisis, I call him God boi cause;

- He goes by many names! 

tbh, he’s probably the closest character I have to being genderfluid/-neutral? I’m not sure,,

- The god has many powers, from lightning to shapeshifting

- The shapeshifting part allows him to change every part of himself, allowing him to change depending on his situation.

- God boyo, or originally Aristide, is obsessed with the idea of perfection. A god should be perfect, if a god is out of line, he is no god. 

- Same goes for him, which means whenever something is wrong with him, it affects him, extremely

However, leaving the land of gods to live among humans aren’t all perks

- Aris isn’t immune to diseases or injuries. In fact, he actually fell down and died on impact when he came to earth, being reborn into another child immediately.

- He doesn’t gain his memories back automatically tho!! He has to have a major shock to the brain in order for him to remember his previous lives

- Sometimes the shock isn’t enough either, when you have a thousand over lives, you won’t remember every single one of them. So forgotten lovers coming back to haunt because your brain hates you? That’s everyday for him!

i just,, i like playing with the concepts of god,,

Up next we got Ayeka Himura! A japanese student going to a neighborhood, but still a pretty good, school living close to poverty due to her father’s constant spending habits and obsession with art supplies. With the household lacking a mother due to wacky shenanigans, Ayeka takes care of her two younger siblings and the house, all while maintaining a very well-paid job and slowly loosing interest in actually studying for a good, honest job.

also she likes birds!!

Yes her design is heavily “based” off Toga but I love her current design too much to change it, h e l p

So like,, I suck at chinese and I made ocs that exclusively spoke in chinese to help with that but I’m still stuck at 40~marks

I forgot his scar but remembered his earring i hate myself

my og chinese kiddo! he was was first to come and I love his design ever since

he radiates fuck you energy except the girl below. He’s neighbors with her and they acknowledge each other existence ever since. he has a dumb cliche crush on her and is a bit protective of her because nothing says having issues than latching onto someone that makes you happy

Only this girl got named!! even tho she was the second character.

Li Shen, yes she doesnt have a surname, is apparently main ho now, according to my old oc chart of my “main” ocs

She’s the group’s resident sweetheart and really does not want you to do stupid shit, stop doing stupid shit. She tutors my son up there ^^ even though he’s actually smart and just refuses to do his work properly. But she still deeply cares for him.

As well as the girl below shdifhd

the last girl of the ching chong trio and the reason I had to switch up my son’s design is this girly over here! Her design was too business-y and formal so I enrolled all of them into college. A rich girl who doesn’t know how to deal with her g a y thoughts. Tried sending Li Shen some flowers once. She didn’t realize attaching her name would be a good idea and son got a good laugh.

i like paranormal stuff so they apparently look into that shit in their spare time. They’re all actually really fun characters to do prompts with I swear!! send some in and I’ll write them

I had a previous concept for son and Li Shen before last girl came and if yall want me to talk about it,,, i found my sketchbook with the old ideas,,

NEXT UP IS MY OLD GIRL ELORA!!

Elora herself used to be a fan character but I pulled her out and wow\

cant fucking believe she used to be straight for Vylad

shes the outgoing, fun adventure type! bit of mommy issues here and there tho,, I don’t want to say too much since I have an entire for her +

her now upgraded bro, Vincent

i really like the name vincent,,

also now he has mommy issues

Ead, the knight who used to have armor

I hate drawing armor 

he also have issues

AND IRIS MY SWEET GIRL IM SO SORRY

she doesnt have that much issues tho

basically I made elora and her bro have mommy issues, I’m sorry in advance if that spoils anything

I, sometimes, post about these 4 over on @eloradiesismydocsname​ and its a gay ol’ time

not that gay tho because uhh,, medieval times,, but I need prompts for a modern au of them and I am happy to talk about their personalities and even go semi in-depth for any of them!!

here we have ghoster.png,, which is her file name cause I didn’t name her,,

A horror enthusiast + film student that goes to a supposedly haunted shack to film her upcoming project with the boys. wacky shenanigans occur and the boys left leaving ghoster here to starve and eventually fall to her death. But because it’s my oc i get to bring her back from the dead, now hungry as ever and will fucking eat you, its not a kink thing, shes just that hungry and angry

tax fraud.png

a robo girl that i created during social studies cause they were talking about taxes and i just went, “what if,, a robo runs on taxes,,, and like,, she haunts you down for not paying your taxes,,” thus she was born! I don’t know what to name her but she is set in the future so-

Time to go future-apocalypse style because I love that setting too and was upset that I didn’t have any ocs in that style. So I created Alex A. ! A cybrog filled with memories of the previous generations as a sad attempt to preserve human life.

He’s accompanied by his sister/cousin idr i didn’t draw an icon for her, didnt like her design. they go on a hunt for food and to return with nothing. She gets to meet this other dude who has a plant arm im pretty sure i based him off someone’s elses oc but i cant remember. The 3 are forgotten. Kinda want to bring them back tho.

Neon! A character set in the future utopia of lazy people, where gamers rise up. its the best I can describe her story without getting too deep. She the new hacker on the block, joining the underground gang of elite hackers. She’s another one of those wacky characters that just has fun. I mean, when you know your way around codes and the world you live in is full of it, would you not take advantage of that?

as for fan characters,, uhh,, i have em

STARTING WITH MY WIFE!

Alexzandra Zara oh my god i forgot to draw her necklace and shirt

anyways,, Alexzandra is one of the more older ocs I have that didnt get a big revamp. Only an au I develop to the point I forgot the actual shows and the original cast are a little different from the source haha what? She’s the emotionally unstable german war veteran, yes the wife thing isn’t mutual, and haha shes only 27~. I cling onto her so much?? She’s hits a lot of “edgy” points but I still love her cause idk,, the story I made for her is something I hold dear cause Alexzandra was one of my first ACTUALLY DEVELOPED CHARACTER. Is it wrong to say I hold her really close to my heart? Is that weird? probably a little cringy sorry haha. I probably project a little into her which might have strengthened my love for her ack. Her story delves more into the depression very unstable needs to talk to someone side and i get scared talking about my wife’s story online so uhh, idk ask me specific questions about her, I’ll be more inclined to talk.

Dr Watts! The spoiled ass dick that stole dst Wilson’s house and yes this is a dst oc, yes im slightly sorry.

He’s just fun?? almost ran a blog with him and a friend’s oc. He’s your typical uptight old science gramps that took advantage of the fact that no one knows his real name that he calls himself a doc. He’s not. I put everything about him up to a 9-10? He’s one of those wacky characters and I love him for it! His story is really wonky tho so might need help solidifying that part 

and from the angry old man to my sweet man that will adopt you even if you’re noisy or call him ginger. Pilot here is a TF2 OC I made to interact with other tf2 OCs cause some of them are fun and i wanna join in :((

He’s the Canadian stereotype, and yes, he adopted scout, that was one of my character notes. 

Like the actual cast of tf2, there’s barely any real story to him. I only gave him a vague I don’t know my past but hey, i fly really really well. He participated in war unlike certain men but he’s still really nice and will only kill you if you hurt his family. Which he doesn’t know so he just considers the cast his family. He keeps mentioning a wife though, pretty sure he doesn’t have one but you do what makes you happy son.

Ai! an oc I HEAVILY revamped oh my god i hate her old vers. So if yall remember my random shouting of missing my og son, Aru. Here’s his bff. cause he barely has any actual friends that give a shit. And I just cant have that. but here’s your yandere revamped into a last minute addition. I actually feel like I did Ai a lot of justice. I don’t want to delve too deep cause I will start making charts. I’ll do that in a separate post if yall are keen

Isamu Aena! a mp100 oc I made by accident cause idk,, I was thinking about lolita fashion and all of a sudden, the actual oc I was going to make turned into a mob psycho oc. She’s one of my few ocs where her sexuality matters (she’s gay yeah) cause it plays a role in her storyline. She went from being “manipulated”/used to Mob’s wingwomen. She spots out things that can help him in the romantic department cause she’s into romance. A student of the school Mob infiltrated and a fantastic tailor, not to mention a pretty decent pyschic. wait where do models get their lolita stuff from,,

im gonna ignore that and move onto Lillian Yi! Who, i swear i did not meant for it, is very close to lloyd. I mean,, none of the ninjas were with him after s3, who you think he’d meet. Lillian is a survivor from the Great Devourour and yes I’m still pissed LEGO stole my backstory for Lillian to use for Harumi. FUCK YOU LEGO, i still love both of em tho,, The event did leave a big scar and it made Lillian job jumping for a bit, ending at Chen’s Noodles in S6~, where ya know,, stuff got better. She was a medalist for gymnastics and continue the activity, even after her parents’ death, to please others. She was already lost at the time so staying in the sport would help, right? Needless to say, after being rejected at a cop academy for youths, or something similar, she gave up for a while but got back into the idea of saving people by using her skills she already had. It helped with the weight and feelings and meeting the green ninja was a very big bonus. Also Lloyd dubbed her the “mysterious stranger” when she refused to speak in fear of her identity, slight shame, and maybe a bit of being star struck. It helped Lloyd too in a sense where he had something to distract him from Zane’s passing.

 Their relationship was eventually formed, strong and almost unbreakable, except for harumi but uhh thats a different story. Throughout the seasons, they stayed close and lloyd was always comforted by Lillian went times get ruff.

Also Lillian is my most light-hearted characters and I think that says a lot

Then there’s Nite “I don’t want to be your dad”. A character that is supposed to be in the ninjago world but barely interacts with the main story and only stays in his self contained plot. He was supposed to get a bf but uhhh idk. He’s the master of shifting and streams that online, taking out small crimes, and is actually really shy and doesn’t like interacting with people.

also haha fortnite

Nora Akino, the sin of despair! its an ad thing, I think. She speaks only in a foreign language that only Odin understands and is either big gay for Ava or Maggi, she can’t pick. And yes she did drink the vial, when TITAN attacks your planet and you accidentally die, how else can you meet your family again? also my grandpa walked in and said she looks like royalty. cool-

she wouldn’t leave my hand for like,, 3 days or something

Petri, a fellow troublemaker at camp campbell’s music camp. She managed to pick the camp because apparently a parent who doesn’t acknowledge your hard work don’t read the fine print! Please let David adopt her,,

LASTLY! Yukimaru Atsuko, hero name; Gummie. She goes by Yuki and is a big dick. She’s a studious student but gets more thrills on the actual battlefield. Living with her uptight grandma and her big bottom energy bro, she has the dom energy thing going. and apparently folks on G+, or the people who comment about her, thinks she’s really pretty, which was oddly a thing back before UA. She’s the dick you can like, not like Bakugou but she will definitely want to fight Bakugou. 

A gum-related quirk is not full of perks when its only your hands. I’d dive more into her like her insecurities and stuff but I’ve been here for probably 3hrs. Sorry anon.

Also I’m so sorry to anyone who reads this all the way through.

[winter-lele]

A Brief History of Thedas

Hi friends! So I am in the process of finishing up the first few chapters of an Overwatch/Dragon Age crossover fic, and it’s essentially Overwatch characters as Dragon Age characters, living on the continent of Thedas.

The fic follows the story of the entire first game, so it’s a pretty big undertaking, and I want people to be able to follow along with it without needing to throw themselves into all three AAA games (plus novels, tabletops, mobile games etc. etc.) to understand certain aspects of Thedas’ complex history.

This will be a very long post, so I’ve placed it all under the cut.

Thedas

Thedas is the only known continent in the Dragon Age universe. Each kingdom/nation has its own people with their own customs and traditions and sometimes, language.

The Trade tongue, or common tongue, is the most frequently used language across all of Thedas. In fact, in some places (like the Tevinter Imperium) ancient languages have been abandoned and replaced by the Trade tongue.

Image source: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Thedas

The Blight

Deep underground across all of Thedas live twisted creatures known as the Darkspawn. They feast on human flesh, and murder everything in their path without discrimination. Their blood is infectious, and those that touch or ingest it become afflicted with the darkspawn taint.

These creatures normally invade dwarven tunnels in small groups.

When the darkspawn find an Old God, they infect it with their taint, and that creature becomes what is known as an Archdemon. The presence of an archdemon is what defines a Blight. That, and the presence of darkspawn on the surface.

A Blight can carry on for many years if left unchecked, and the only way to end it is for a Grey Warden to slay the archdemon.

There have only been 5 Blights in the history of Thedas, with the first game being the start of the 5th Blight.

The Grey Wardens

The Grey Wardens are an old order of warriors with the ability to sense darkspawn. They are also mostly immune to the darkspawn’s taint. They were founded to fight the darkspawn and end the first Blight, and their order continues on to fight any possible future Blights. 

While their headquarters are far northwest in the kingdom of The Anderfels, the Grey Wardens maintain bases and a presence in other kingdoms/nations across Thedas.

*Ferelden

Ferelden is a young nation (400 years old) that is ruled by a monarchy, with royalty being passed down by blood. About 100 years before the first game (Dragon Age: Origins) starts, Ferelden was invaded and occupied by the Orlesian Empire. It took about 80 years for the Orlesians to be expelled from Ferelden, where a new king (King Marric Theirin) was instated. Thus, Orlesian folks in Ferelden are treated with suspicion and hostility.

Religion plays a huge role in Ferelden, with the dominant religious organisation being the Chantry.

Ferelden also has a Circle Tower, where mages live and grow up, learning how to best control and use their magic. It functions as a prison: mages are removed from their families as children and taken to the Tower where they must live. They cannot leave the Tower without express permission, and are only given a limited number of days they are allowed to be away. Templars (knights trained specifically to detect and kill mages) act as prison guards and are always present in the Tower.

Ferelden is generally not kind to other races; elves are often forced to live in separate slums within human cities, dwarves have little opportunities beyond becoming blacksmiths or weapons dealers, and Qunari are treated with distrust and hostility.

Religion: The Chantry

There is a belief in a God figure, who is referred to as the Maker, with the Chantry following the teachings of His prophet: a woman named Andraste (Ahn-drAh-stay), who was believed to be a conduit for the Maker’s teachings. And so, the followers of the Chantry are known as Andrastians.

Andraste’s teachings have been interpreted in such a way that there are strong beliefs about mages and their magical powers.

Magic is believed to be a dangerous and corrupting influence. Those that are gifted with magic (i.e. mages) are treated as dangerous and unpredictable, which is why mages are separated from their families while still children and forced to live in The Circle Tower. The only way for a mage to avoid the Tower is to hide their magical abilities and live away from the Chantry as an illegal mage (or apostate).

Nationalities and Races

There are many different humanoid races across Thedas, as well as different human nationalities. The major nationalities relevant to my fic are:

**Fereldan:

Traditional, religious, and fiercely loyal to the monarchy, Fereldans tend to be quite conservative, with their religious beliefs usually guiding their morality. Fereldans tend to be distrustful of authority figures, and would much prefer to dispense their own justice rather than report grievances to law enforcement. And quite honestly, law enforcement don’t bother with petty theft and other minor crimes.

Rivaini:

A country of people once occupied by the Tevinter Imperium, Rivain gained its independence shortly before the beginning of the Fourth Blight. They do not follow the Chantry, but have a Circle Tower to appease international powers. Although, mages are revered and respected in Rivaini culture, so their Circle Tower does not imprison magi, who are free to come and go from the Tower as they please.

Antivan:

Antiva is an old city with a very weak monarchy and no formal army. In fact, despite kings keeping track of their lineage and passing on their blood, Antiva is a plutocracy; that is, it’s run by a few wealthy merchant princes with power and influence. In place of an army, they have the House of Crows; a guild of assassins known for their ruthless ferocity across all of Thedas. Everyone fears the Antivan Crows, which is why no one bothers to invade.

Tevinter:

The oldest human nation/empire on all of Thedas. From Tevinter, humans spread and occupied Orlais, Antiva, and Ferelden, who each belonged to the Tevinter Imperium but then split and formed their own nations. The Tevinter Imperium also occupied other nations, but their reach and power dwindled, and when it did, other nations gained their independence.

The main races present in Dragon Age: Origins are:

Elves:

Elves occupied and lived in Thedas long before humans crossed the oceans and invaded. After several thousand years, tensions finally reached boiling point, and long and numerous wars were waged between humans and elves. Elves were eventually defeated and held captive as slaves. They earned their freedom from slavery, and were given the Dales, a vast expanse of forest, to reclaim and live in. Those that did not wish to become Dalish remained in human cities in segregated slums called alienages.

There are still tensions between roaming Dalish clans and humans, but these days, they keep out of each other’s ways. There ARE instances of city elves escaping alienages in the hopes of joining a Dalish clan.

Dwarves:

Dwarves live underground and offer prayers and gifts to their ancestors for good fortune. The dwarves also have a strict and complex caste system, with sons inheriting their father’s caste, and daughters inheriting their mother’s caste.

Castes are rated as upper, middle, or lower. The only dwarves being less desirable than the lowest caste are the casteless, or surface dwarves, who by moving to the surface give up their caste.

Kings or queens are elected by popular vote from candidates of ancient families. Only dwarves of the noble caste can be voted in by the Assembly as ruling monarch, and are committed to sit on the throne for life, unless they are 1) voted out by the Assembly, or 2) assassinated.

Qunari:

Qunari are a race of giants that live by a strict honour code and set of ethics called the Qun (’Qunari’ translates to ‘people of the Qun’). While other races can convert and live by the Qun, they are not true Qunari, and thus have their own title in the Qunlat language: Viddathari.

Qunari are often identifiable by their large stature, their white hair, and the presence of horns. Although, dark hair and/or no horns are also possible, but are very rare genetic mutations.

Qunari have a particular demeanour about them; to them, the Qun simply is, and any questions about it or the Qunari people are met with disapproval and tight lips. They are often read as hostile or cold because of this.

*FereldEn: refers to the nation

**FereldAn: refers to a citizen of Ferelden

A Quick Word on Mages and Magic

When people dream, their consciousness enters a realm known as ‘the Fade.’ Spirits of the deceased can also end up in the Fade if they do not cross over properly. Non-mages have a very loose connection to the Fade when they dream, but mages have a very strong connection. In fact, they have the ability to interact with spirits and the like that occupy the Fade.

When awake, mages can’t enter the Fade (unless they partake in a ritual like The Harrowing where lyrium is used). They do, however, draw power from the Fade to use magic and spells. Mages that use blood magic don’t connect to the Fade at all, using their own life force (or that of others) instead of drawing power from the Fade.

In Ferelden, when children show signs of magic, they are removed from their families and sent to live in the Circle Tower. The Circle Tower acts as a boarding school, but functions more like a prison; specialist knights trained in killing possessed mages (called templars) constantly patrol the Tower and watch all mages living there very closely.

Templars are trained by the Chantry. Thus, mages are very distrusting of the Chantry and its teachings.

Dragon Age: Origins

The game starts with the possibility of the 5th Blight occuring. There are 6 different origin stories to choose from depending on the race and class of fighter you select. No matter which origin story you choose, they all end in the same way: you get yourself into trouble and can only be saved by agreeing to become a Grey Warden.

You head to Ostagar with the Warden-Commander, Duncan, where you are to partake in the Joining Ritual and become a fully fledged Grey Warden. Before that, you meet the king of Ferelden and are introduced as ‘Duncan’s newest recruit.’ You can choose to be rude or civil at this point; there are no in-game consequences for your choices and actions at this point in the game.

I can’t really say much more without major spoilers, but you spend the game recruiting three different factions to fight the Darkspawn alongside you -- a Dalish elf clan, the dwarves of Orzammar, and either the Circle mages or the Templars (depending on your choices).

My fic will follow this basic story arc, and will be mostly reflective of that playthrough I had where I made all the good choices (because I’m a sap and I want everyone to be happy lmao).

[npc-guy]

Elf Paladin

I am afraid that the procrastination and apologies continue to be a thing. But, in recompense, I will be making stats for a few Pathfinder NPCs in the near future. Of course, you are still welcome to use them, but please don’t claim them as your own, etc. I’m currently thinking of working off of the MMO holy trinity of Tank, DPS, and Healer but that plan may change. Anyways, on to the post!

Let’s welcome back the divine warrior known as the paladin! As I did last time with the wizard, I should mention a couple of features that the paladin gets which can affect your NPCs. So, it should be noted that paladins become immune to fear and disease by level 3. That is LEVEL 3 in a game where the maximum level is 20. Makes sense since paladins do work for the gods while working inside of what is often a code of conduct with little room for flexibility. Also, they have the lay on hands healing ability which can be improved with “mercies” to also remove conditions like shaken, frightened, fatigued, and worse. Most importantly for making these custom paladins is their divine bond, which is either in the form of a celestial spirit inhabiting a weapon or a mount that the paladin can summon. The weapon can be imbued with a number of powers like flaming and axiomatic, and the mount is both more intelligent and can eventually become celestial. HOW COOL IS THAT? Seriously, a mount that becomes an upper-planar copy of itself is pretty damn cool.

Now, elf paladins are going to be interesting. Half-orc paladins are exemplars of divine warriors with an emphasis on the warrior, driven to succeed in combat for their god. Elf monks seek balance and enlightenment and have the benefit of centuries to perfect themselves. But elves who take up the mantle of the paladin know that they are dedicating themselves to serve as examples of order and benevolence for much longer than other races. Of course, that’s if the elf in question becomes a paladin when they’re relatively young. Most PCs will still be young for adults, but NPCs can be whatever age you want when they take that first class level. And think of what that means for the character’s motivations. If they’re middle-aged or older and have sworn the paladin oath, there is a reason for it. Something has caused them to pursue this path, and they will pursue it for reasons other than just to be a shining knight.

Yulo’den Oro’tensa, the Hunter of the Play

The Old Gods promise great things, and they do seem to make good on some of those promises. But the madness they bring in the end keeps anyone from really profiting. Yulo’den was a printer in the capital, and he didn’t much care what was printed as long as the customer had coin. He was warned by a strange old priestess not to do business with anyone in a yellow suit, but threw out the human woman’s words when offered triple his standard rate. Not even questioning why he couldn’t read the work, Yulo’den soon realized his grave mistake when the murders, suicides, and counts of madness began to rise. He opened the play he’d made so many copies of…and awoke in an unfamiliar chapel. The old priestess had kept him from succumbing to the madness and healed his mind. Distraught at what he’d brought to his home, he asked what he could do to repent. The next day, a new paladin of the goddess of knowledge walked through the night to face what horrors had come.

Shinzo-shirudo Airi

Marrying for love is very rare amongst the elves of the Phoenix Isles, and marriage between the same gender is often secret. Airi is a paladin of the god of love, who rejects the god of order’s strictures regarding “frivolous emotions.” Though she is young for an elf, she protects lovers and true love at every opportunity. Scorned by her elders, who have kept the bloodlines strong for centuries, Airi performs ceremonies in her home’s hidden garden and helps young couples to elope (including those of an elf and a non-elf). Her summoned steed, a reddish-brown horse named Sakura, has aided her in more than a few quick getaways.

Wapasha Worn-Spear

Old Wapasha has been a hunter since before the elves came to the Boundless Lands, and he is one of the only ones who remembers the dangers of the Old Home. So when the pale skinned stranger came to his village, he tried to warn the leaders. But they did not believe a monster from another part of the world could have arrived here. Old Wapasha began a spirit quest to find guidance, and Raven and Wolf gave him gifts as he pledged to protect his people. When he returned, people had disappeared and the creature had his great-niece enthralled. With his old spear shining like the sun, he braced his old bones and made his first story.

EDIT: I gave Airi a horse because I realized none of my elf paladins had a summoned mount in their little story blocks. Oh geez, I just thought about having to do Cavaliers in the future. Yeesh.

[wavering-eyes]

Test Port 1

[This blog post discusses “flavor” with respect to the card design in Yu-Gi-Oh!. If you’re not already familiar with this term, it’s captured pretty well in this article by Mark Rosewater. Just keep in mind that flavor may also describe card effects.

Also, all of the images embedded in this post can be viewed full-size here.]

[Originally posted on notspoondere.tumblr.com. I am the original author.]

With the printing of Girsu, the Mekk-Knight Orcust in Eternity Code and the full spoiler of Rise of the Duelist, it is looking more and more likely that we’ve reached the end of the World Legacy storyline. It’s possible that new story-focused cards for these archetypes will be printed in the future, but it’s probably going to take a backseat to functional legacy support, similar to what happened with the Duel Terminal archetypes that received support in the Link VRAINS sets. As a result, I figure this is a good time to talk about their overall design and point out what I feel is its biggest success over Duel Terminal: flavorful designs.

To illustrate this difference, let’s consider a pretty key player in the Duel Terminal storyline and keep track of his effects as he changes forms throughout the story. (Consult the translations for Master Guide 4 if you’d like evidence that the first three monsters all portray the same character.)

We can see a pretty linear increase in stats from Sentinel to Roach, and he has a theme of caring about level 5 or higher monsters. This gets a pretty nice followup, becoming a Vanity’s Fiend for lv5 or higher monsters in... Evilswarm Ophion, which is a totally different card not present on this chart, because the powers of the Sacred Tree let him nuke the field instead!!

He then inherits the powers of Sophia and ends up weaker because Exciton got banned. Bravo. (It’s worth mentioning that the original form of Ophion, Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, has a completely unrelated effect of discarding cards to destroy cards, and Evilswarm Bahamut steals monsters instead of bouncing cards like Brionac, but Evilswarm Ouroboros at least tries to approximate Trishula.)

Can you see the problem? I was going to make another image showing this off until I realized that following Gem Knight Lazuli all the way through Construct’s various forms would take way too much horizontal space, but feel free to construct an explanation in your head for why combining Apoqliphort Towers (the real one) with El Shaddoll Construct (foolish a Shaddoll/Catastor eff) makes Shekhinaga (Divine Wrath on a fusion) or why adding in Infernoid Devyaty (wipes backrow, also tributes to negate a monster) and some ice turns that combo into Anoyatyllis (Konami said fuck Nekroz). It’s because these cards are either not designed for flavor, or are designed around the flavor of their archetypes rather than that of their characters, so the characters in general have a pretty weak identity.

You could maybe say that’s because Duel Terminal is a grand-scale war story, so none of the characters are meant to stick out. That would make sense, sort of, so what about stories with fewer characters that change forms multiple times? The Dracoslayer lore did that.

I’m not typing out all of what Master Peace 2 does, but in case you weren’t around from May 2017-2018, you can read that here. He’s a Wyrm because all the True Dracos are, except his previous form wasn’t, except all of them probably could have been without hurting their chances of seeing play (until we got Guardragons Elpy and Agarpain).

The sole thing that ties all of these cards together is that they supposedly feature the same character, and all have effects that destroy cards. They have about twice as many differences. Master and Luster are both Pendulums, while the other two aren’t. Master Peace 1 is a Special Summon by Tributing, but Master Peace 2 requires a Tribute Summon to gain effects. Master Peace 1 has a negate, for some reason, even though none of the other forms have it, so if he gained it from the Dracoverlord tributed for his summon (these are his enemies, by the way), then he apparently forgot it by the time he reappeared in the story. Speaking of which...

In the lore, he essentially aids three tribes (Majespecter/Dinomist/Igknight) trying to fight off the Amorphages, and the Extra Deck Dracoslayers represent their powers combined. True Dracos exist because, in a totally different world, three completely different tribes (Zoodiac/Crystron/Metalfoes) are being assailed by the True Kings. They form a summoning circle (Dragonic Diagram) to summon him for help, and he accepts the power of the other True Dracos or something. The other True Dracos (who are also based off of the first three archetypes, like the Dracoslayer extra deck... for some reason) are disciples of Mariamne, the True Dracophoenix, who mechanically is a True King and shares minimal synergy with any of these cards, and the one who seemingly gets things done is Metaltron XII, the True Dracocombatant, who probably is just the three tribes’ power combined. Who also gets protection from effects by being Tribute Summoned and also floats into anything from the Extra Deck that isn’t LIGHT/DARK. And Konami says he’s a Zefra now. And who the fuck is Dreiath III supposed to be? He’s not even good?

I have many problems with True Draco. Anyways, let’s get to the point. (Nin/Long/Din)Girsu’s character arc, as shown through monster cards in the World Legacy story, is much more internally consistent.

Let’s assume that Girsu, the Orcust Mekk-Knight is a de-powered form from after the battle inside the World Gears (presumably he lent this power to Avramax, though this isn’t shown in the artwork; also, he has Ib’s ribbon on his arm). It’s understandable why the maindeck cards and extra deck cards should do something different, and the first maindeck monster is a vanilla anyways, so I wouldn’t consider it that bad of a break. No idea why he’s a Mekk-Knight though.

These effects form a pretty clear pattern. Girsu here sends things to the GY without targeting them and eventually gains protection effects as he grows in power. His ultimate form is the only one that lets him protect other cards, which is maybe a statement on his goals given how long he spent trying to revive his dead sister, and if that holds water, Mekk-Knight Orcust Girsu is evidence of his eventual success. After all, this card by itself can summon every single one of Ib’s forms except her vanilla and Knightmare incarnations.

That is to say, we gain a bit of understanding of Girsu’s abilities, goals, and bond with his sister through the mechanics of his cards, and if you don’t think that’s the tightest shit, well, I just made you read nearly 1k words on why it is. Better yet, there’s more:

Auram’s extra deck incarnations all have ATK-boosting effects, and his World Chalice form translates him getting more powerful with the World Legacies. Both Blademaster and Crusadia Equimax activate effects by tributing monsters they point to, suggesting how he calls upon his allies for help--there’s a reason Ningirsu went off and ended up with a bunch of brass instruments as his only company while Avram wandered the world with his best friend (who is a fucking dragon) and scored himself a choice elf harem. They call him King because he wears the crown, you see?

On the topic of Crusadia, let’s take a closer look at how Equimax is typically summoned. Typically you’ll try to get a Normal Summon on board, hope it sticks to make Magius, summon again to search Draco, and build your way up with Crusadia monsters to make Equimax. Afterwards you’ll want to boost his damage with the effect of Maximus, summon a large monster to one of his zones, or buff him with the spell you searched off of Regulex. Any two Crusadia monsters with different names can do most/all of this, so think of it as an “all your powers combined” thing a-la Metaltron XII, except executed much better.

(Sidebar: If you’re willing to entertain a bit of theory, the Crusadia maindeck is the epitome of a successful flavorful archetype design. Pretty much every Crusadia list maxes out on every monster in the main because they’re all interchangeable, even though they all have different effects. You could argue that Draco and Reclusia are way better monsters than Leonis, but fundamentally it doesn’t matter; you need two of them and it doesn’t matter which two. This lends them a sense of uniformity without erasing their uniqueness, which suggests that the Crusadia are an army of equals and Maximus may be the leader “de facto”. I highlight this because World Chalice tried to do the same thing, except that deck eventually cut its normal monsters down to a single copy of Chosen, and nobody ever played Crowned.)

Meanwhile, Avramax sports his ultimate ATK-boosting effect, protects other monsters from attacks, is immune to targeting (these two might seem out of line, but they’re upgrades of the protection effects that the previous two Mekk-Knight Link Monsters have), and non-target shuffles a card if he dies.

This is where I’d like to shift the direction of this discussion towards power levels and, implicitly, gameplay balance. Yes, I’m about to get into a powerlevel discussion about fictional characters portrayed on Yu-Gi-Oh! cards which have actual power levels, but hear me out.

Based on their original incarnations, Auram is ostensibly the main character, but strictly weaker than Girsu. Both have 0 DEF as Normal Monsters and Girsu has an extra Level and 200 ATK over him. With the power of the Chalice, Auram can revive allies and potentially gain more ATK than Girsu, but there were hardly even 5 World Legacy cards in the game at that point, and Ningirsu actually has removal. Later on, World Legacy’s Nightmare shows Girsu holding his own versus all of the Knightmares, but when it comes down to the climax of that arc, Avram inherits the power of Mekk-Knight Blue Sky and promptly gets overpowered by Iblee anyways, leading to Ib’s death and the scattering of the party (He is also still weaker than Ningirsu here). Auram and Girsu end up at odds several years later as Crusadia Equimax and Longirsu, the Orcust Orchestrator. If you look at the way these two cards might interact as enemies, it tells us a lot about this matchup: Equimax doesn’t start with enough ATK to hit over Longirsu, and Longirsu seems to have the upper hand thanks to removal, but with the power of friendship, Equimax can safely negate Longirsu’s effect and even swing over him. Finally, as Dingirsu and Avramax, Dingirsu loses or goes even at best: Dingirsu sends Avramax to GY, Avramax spins Dingirsu when he dies, both parties end up with nothing. Keep in mind that Avramax no longer needs support from allies to do this and Dingirsu absolutely cannot swing over Avramax at any point in time, so if the resource game isn’t in consideration, these cards will either trade or Avramax will always win.

That’s a cool interaction, but why did I bring up card balance? This interaction was only uncommon in tournament play because Orcust was an insanely popular deck. Playing Salamangreat, I’d regularly make Avramax versus Sky Striker and expect it to stick for a while, but versus Orcust? That boy would be gone in a second, and I’d rather not commit a link-4 worth of material to have a monster die and only get to spin a card. Keep in mind that going card-for-card is maybe not always favorable for the player.

What I mean to say is, Avramax would be a pretty insane card in a format without Nin/Long/Dingirsu’s non targeting removal. Consider the following scenario: Girsu’s extra deck forms do not exist. You are going second versus old Danger! Thunder playing the Trishula fusion. They half combo you, ending on something like Colossus + Avramax made with I:P Masquerena, and in doing so, banish the Borreload out of your extra. Do you even play a card that can out an Avramax otherwise? Probably not. Avramax could have put us into another Dark Destroyer format where targeting sucks, but Girsu kept us safe.

If anything, I hope R&D puts this level of thought into their flavor moving forward. World Legacy was a pretty big success on most fronts and I’d like to see what they do going foward in the next OCG series.

Thanks for reading. This is my first time writing about the game from a non-competitive perspective, so let me know how I did.