#i want all of them to be unique and distinct from each other

[hopefuloverfury]

i saw your tags on the bachelor post, sooooo if you please? could you spare some bachelorette hcs for the soul? 🤲🏻

Well, I suppose I could be persuaded—lmfao I’m kidding. You sent this on Sunday, and I assumed you were talking about the Bachelors In Bed hc list, so that’s what I wrote. I’m really glad someone wanted to see the girlies, too :) Enjoy, anon! 

Warnings: heavy NSFW. Sub/dom dynamics, mentions of headspaces, edging/overstim, dirty talk, degradation and praise, tons of swearing, light bondage(?), mentions of feet yikes, and I used GN!reader. They’re listed in ascending age order once again. Minors please do not interact, thank you!

Maru

She’s loud

The slightest touch can have her sighing, and lord have mercy on your eardrums if you nibble on her earlobe, because that’s Her Spot™

She has a tendency to hide her face in the pillows or behind her arms and hands

But that does absolutely nothing to keep her voice down

you’re caught totally off guard by it at first, and at some point you wonder if she’s putting it on, but no

She really is just that sensitive

And loud. Did I mention she’s loud?

Desperate for it, no teasing or edging for her please and thank you

She’s probably a little repressed, what with her dad being who he is (the stick up his ass is massive, genuinely)

So sex with her is going to reflect that, at least at first

Grabs onto you a lot, and her grip is strong as hell

probably has a marking kink and loves leaving hickeys on your thighs during the summertime when she knows you have to wear shorts

And lordy, does she scratch

You might as well have a permanent tattoo of her nails down your back because of how often she uses you as a scratching post

You like looking at them in the mirror though, and she always makes sure to put ointment on them afterward so they don’t become a problem

But this girl doesn’t really talk during sex, regardless of the kind

She’s too busy blowing the fucking roof off the farmhouse

Oh yeah. No sex at her place. Nope.

Not even a gag can shut her up, but you’re certainly welcome to try!

Probably could make your lips numb if you tried to kiss her while she was moaning

And despite what you might think of her at first, she’s not innocent

because of how Demetrius is, she may never have had any experience with another person, but that doesn’t mean she’s never used toys

She can’t buy her own, but she did make a few for herself!

Feel free to use them on her, but be warned that she’ll give you the same treatment afterward

As far as dynamics go, she’s a switch, and definitely overstimulates the fuck out of you as a dom, but when she’s subbing, she’s pretty docile

Listens to you well, and if there’s a sliding scale in terms of brattiness, her and Haley are on opposite extremes (more on that later though)

Overall sex with her is pretty intense, and no it does not settle down the longer you’re together so good luck

Maybe invest in some decent earplugs? For you and the whole town LMFAO

Penny

It’s hard to tell because she’s constantly muffling herself in one way or another

even though it’s implied that she has a situationship with Sam, she’s very inexperienced

She knows how she likes to be kissed, but as far as her knowledge on sex goes, nada

You’re going to have to lead her

She doesn’t really like hearing herself, just because it reminds her of what she’s doing and she’s embarrassed about it

So you can usually trust that she’s not going to be super loud, but she can talk

Nothing vulgar or raunchy

That’s just not who she is

So you’ll probably get way more “I love you’s,” and lots of quiet begging

But as far as noises go, she’ll give you sharp gasps or muffled whimpers

Doesn’t have a ton of confidence and kind of just lets you do whatever you want

That causes some problems early on because she’s not totally up-front about certain things, but you pay very close attention, so it’s not very often that it happens

But it’ll take a lot of trust and communication for her to open up about what she likes during sex

And then you find out that she likes being embarrassed

Make fun of her desperation a little bit, but you should definitely still indulge her 

Not to mention if you yourself are just as desperate, that’ll def make her short-circuit

The build-up is the loudest

Her volume is high when she comes, but it falls back down pretty quickly afterward

Grapples onto you like a koala

Like Alex, prefers a lot of contact, and similarly to Elliott, likes intimacy

But also tease her a bit

imagine her reaching for your hand to thread your fingers together, and you indulge her, but chuckle a little meanly?

Yeah. She's dead.

A sub, 10000%

And if you stop doing all the work and force her to do it herself, she is GONE

“If you want it, you’re going to have to work for it”

And she does work for it, but her face is bright red the whole time

A little tomato lol

You’ll have to give her a second to get over her embarrassment though

You can tease her about that too if you wanna

“Are you embarrassed by how badly you want me?” and she shakes her head because that’s not it but also it is

Probably tears up, but doesn’t cry

At least, none of her tears ever fall

Wants to cuddle after sex, and will not let you go for at least thirty minutes

You also are going to need to reassure her

So go for lots of compliments, be sweet and loving to her overall, and she’ll probably want to take a shower together afterward

You may or may not get a round two in there

Abigail

This girl

Well.

She’s got quite the mouth on her LMAO

What I mean is: Abigail curses like no one else

Which isn’t very surprising for anyone involved, but nonetheless I have to mention it

But as far as noises go—oml this girl is so ridiculous—she thinks her moans sound like a really bad imitation of pornstars faking it? hdsjhDGSKDJGH

So she doesn’t allow herself lol

It would take a lot to get her to make any higher noises

You’re not gonna hear any whines or whimpers out of her for the most part

But if you want to, you can overstimulate her

The thing about her voice is that once she starts using it, she won’t stop

If you open the floodgates, she won’t be able to close them

Things in motion tend to stay in motion, yadda yadda yadda

You get the point

Anyway yeah she sounds fucking phenomenal but don’t bother trying to convince her because it will not work ever at all lmfao

What a stubborn little shit abigail i’m in love with you pls

She jerks around a lot

She’s overall pretty sensitive, and if you catch her by surprise, she’ll yank herself away from you

It’s not because she hates it, it’s just reflex

You’ll have to hold onto her pretty tightly

But also.

Tie her up sometimes, maybe?

I imagine she’s the type to have some fuzzy purple handcuffs 

Probably bought them off amazon after losing a bet

But she’s never used them before

Except she has you now, so. You know. They see the light of day fairly often

If you want to know how she’s feeling, check her feet

Hold on stAY WITH ME—

She curls her toes whenever she likes something you do

So let’s say you’re going down on her, and you’ve got her legs slung over your shoulders

And you can’t hear her or see her face, but just.

Glance up, or to the side—wherever you’ve got them

And you can tell when she’s enjoying herself easily

Give her hickeys and bite her a bit—her neck is the most sensitive, so if you’re looking for some real sounds, go for there

be warned that she might make your ears ring

Haley

Now we know when you’re just getting to know each other, she’s kind of shallow and mean, right?

But give her some patience and she’ll soften over time

So once y’all are together

A brat.

But also not

Like, yeah, she’s bratty, and needy, and if you try to edge her or rile her up, she’ll just take what she needs ugh i love her

But her sounds will reflect that disposition, so depending on what you’re doing, she’ll either be super sweet, or a bitchy brat 

“You’re so slow, hurry up!” or “Please, I’ll be good, I’m so close”

Probably a switch, but leans more toward sub

Sensitive nipples (i hc nipple piercings for her lol you’re welcome for that image)

Latch onto her chest and she’ll be ready to go in like. Two minutes.

But if you want to mess with her, stay there for longer

She could probably come just from nipple play, but she’s never patient enough for it to happen

But touching on what she likes hearing from you for a second, here’s some advice: degrade her

Call her a slut, insult her a little, bro if you scold her for her attitude? Lol you’re never getting rid of her and why tf would you want to?

But despite her general temperament, she doesn’t like pain

So overstim as a punishment is your go-to

But she’ll often piss you off just to get that out of you

Kinda pisses you off sometimes

“Why can’t you just ask me for it? Why do you have to be so bratty? I’d give you what you want in the first place if you just set aside your pride and used your fucking words.”

“Don’t lie, you know you like it.”

She raises your blood pressure every day lmao

She’s versatile, so you’ll hear just about every kind of sound from her

As far as volume goes, she can’t keep her voice down for shit

A fun little challenge is to tell her to be quiet

She can’t do it for shit, but it’s still fun nonetheless lol

Leah

It’s a good thing she moved to the farmhouse with you, because she may not be loud, but you certainly are

This girl knows her shit

She’s really great at reading people, so if you were hoping to slip anything past her, you can toss those plans in the garbage right now lmao

She’s got a tongue and she knows how to use it

Plenty of experience, and she’s gonna make sure she puts it to good use

But she’s not going to go crazy

There’s no dynamics with her, no headspaces, nada

She’s not boring, of course, but she’s not really into all that intense shit

The most that’ll happen is she doesn’t let you touch her until you come at least once, and will probably overstimulate you if you ask for it, but that’s it

Has a very nice voice

Kind of similar to Abigail’s, but a little more smooth, and slightly deeper

She’s not all that shy about her voice, so you can expect an average amount of volume and frequency from her, but she’ll be at her loudest when all of the focus is on you

Very go with the flow, and doesn’t mind a little exploration as long as there’s a hefty amount of communication beforehand

With her relationship history, the easiest way to get her going is to be loving and sweet (FUCK YOU, KEL!)

So if you kiss her with no ulterior motives, or “just because,” that’ll probably be enough to rile her up

Also consent. Consent is very sexy to her

She thinks it’s pretty attractive, seeing you hold yourself back for her benefit

And because she’s so great at reading people, it also means that she knows exactly when you’re doing that

“You keep looking at my lips. Is there something you want to say?”

Likes to tease you about it, but you both know it drives her just as crazy to see you get like that

Likes being complimented quite a bit, (once again, FUCK YOU, KEL) but nothing too raunchy or nasty

Call her “pretty”, or say “I love you” against her lips between kisses?

You’ll have this woman wrapped around your finger like a soulmate string

Emily

In terms of romance, this girl gives Elliott a run for his money

Sex is going to be full-blown occasion for her

Candles, rose petals, music, and definitely some essential oils in a diffuser to help you relax

Probably turns on a salt lamp to align your chakras beforehand or some shit idk

She does not fuck, let’s make that clear now.

Also there are no power dynamics here, nope

Likes intimacy, and prefers any position that makes it easy to kiss you

Which. Oof. She is messy.

Lots of tongue, and if you’re close, probably just gasping into each other’s mouths

She doesn’t actually use pet names during sex

She thinks it’s more romantic and personal to use your name

Maybe a nickname, if you’ve got one

But yeah, no “baby,” “sweetheart”—nothing like that

Also. Eye contact.

EYE. CONTACT.

Will hold your face and force you to look her in the eyes if you try to look away

It’s like the world zeroes in on you two, and she will not focus on anything else

Loves cataloging every expression you make, so if you want to fuck with her facing away from you, you better get a mirror because she refuses to miss anything

Surprisingly not very loud?

Like you’d think she would be, but she’s surprisingly quiet

Not because she’s not enjoying herself, but because she’s just. Not very vocal lol

Loving praise, unsurprisingly

And she gives as good as she wants to get

Probably laces your hands together and presses it over one of your chests, just above your hearts emily please you’re killing me here

Skin contact, a fuckton of foreplay, and honestly her room could serve as a hippie’s sex shop lmfao

So many toys, oils, lube, this girl is prepared for anything

Probably a little vanilla, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring

I assure you it is never boring

I think it’s probably a little surprising for you at first, just how loved she can make you feel

I think with the current dating sphere, with the explosion of social media and smartphones and whatnot, everyone is very disconnected from one another

And she hates it, so when she decides to open up to someone like that, she’s going to do it right

Makes you feel so loved, and you’re obsessed after only the first time

She likes keeping your sexual life private

So don’t expect her to be ready to go whenever, and she doesn’t like a whole lot of PDA

Will not fuck you in any part of the farmhouse except your bedroom

No kitchen or couch sex. Boo-hoo

She wants it to be personal and private, because she feels like it makes it more special if it’s only shared between you two

And your bedroom is your safe-space

She probably says it’s about keeping the atmosphere balanced or whatever

She doesn’t want to have to leave charged rocks on every surface to deal with it if something disrupts that positive energy I am literally in love with her

[purplealmonds]

Finished this just in time for the new trailer drop! This is my Mononoke illustration featuring assorted merch from the anime, movie, and stage play! How many can you recognize? ⚖️👹

(Yes, please send answers in the replies! Answers, progress pics, artist commentary will be drafted on a separate post when I'm less tired) ⭐️ UPDATE 04/03/24: Abridged artist commentary is now available under the cut! For the full version, please see the Google Doc linked in the replies.

👁️Overview 

Late last year, I rather belatedly discovered Mononoke’s 15th anniversary came and went, and with it, an entire swath of new content to manically pore over. This is an illustration of the various Mononoke merchandise, props, and set dressing I discovered.

---

🔎Scope

Some fun facts regarding the work that went into this illustration!

Not including research time, this project ran for roughly two months, consuming much of my waking hours outside of my full time and freelance jobs.

While the illustration does not depict all of my findings, it does feature over 120 unique props and set dressings!

The majority of the props and set dressing were modeled to varying degrees of detail in SketchUp.

To model prep, I often put together schematics on Photoshop or Illustrators. Some were created from scratch. Others were created with the liberal usage of the Photoshop transform and perspective warp function. 

The master file is 1.5GB. The dimensions are 6400x3600 at 300 dpi, and contains over 2,200 layers. 

Near the end of production, the master file became so unwieldy I created a separate working file. This way, I could create assets lag-free then import the layers into the master file. 

---

Past this point is where most of the commentary cuts were made for the sake of brevity. Again, look in the replies for the Google Doc link containing the full version with a table of contents for easier navigation!

---

🗳️3D Layout

As you can see, the backbone of this illustration is the 3D model. I spent perhaps 30-40% of my production time on this stage.

And this is the lit version. The lighting ultimately got downplayed in favor of showcasing the vibrant colors. I like how simple it looks though!

---

🎬Production-Based Set Dressing

In addition to merchandise, I wanted to insert set dressing and props from the various Mononoke productions. 

🦊Kusuriuri

It’s odd to have a section dedicated just to him, but his unique appearance warrants it. His garb and overall appearance is an amalgam of the anime and movie. The original intent was ambiguity– kind of like the blue/black vs. yellow/white dress phenomena a few years back. But after doing the color flats, I rather liked how the rich, unaltered colored fit with the overall composition so it became more blatant. I’m surprised that nobody has commented on this since I published the illustration. Maybe because I didn’t feature him in a close-up?

🐈 kai ~Ayakashi~Bake Neko (2006)

Finding props iconic to this story arc (outside of the Kusuriuri’s tools of trade, of course) was somewhat difficult. While the environment was richly decorated, it mainly consisted of 2D artwork which I wasn’t keen on retracing. I opted to paint objects that characters interacted with or featured heavily in the show.

Salt Jar

Candlestick

Rat Trap

🦋Mononoke (2007)

The props fall into three distinct categories here: Kusuriuri’s tools and trinkets; things featured in the opening and ending credits; and objects iconic to each of the five story arcs in the series. I tried to keep most of them clustered on the tatami, but as space grew scarce some props trickled up onto the deck as well.

Medicine Box

Exorcism Sword

Tenbin

Paper Talisman

Mirror

Ring

Geta Sandal

Necklace

Paper Umbrella (Zashikiwarashi)

Daruma Dolls ( Zashikiwarashi)

Gunpowder Ball (Umi Bozu)

Smoking Pipe (Nopperabou)

Genjiko Blocks (Nue)

Train Ticket (Bake Neko)

Lantern (Anime OP)

Butterflies (Anime EP)

☂️Mononoke: Karakasa (2024)

Pretty slim pickings for the new movie since I only had the teaser, first trailer, and movie poster to reference from. Kusuriuri’s tools of trade were a given, but finding memorable and narratively significant objects was a tad troublesome.

Thankfully, the set dressing ended up (however subconsciously) strikingly similar to the movie’s environment design, down to the green tatami and multicolor shoji screen. I suppose at this point I was so immersed in Mononoke content that its aesthetics subconsciously informed my design choices! 

Exorcism Sword

Tenbin

Paper Talisman

Comb

Movie Poster

Butterfly (Custom design)

---

🪭Official Merchandise

Goods related to canonical narratives and/or productions.

🎊15th Anniversary

Mononoke Shu - A light novel by Hideyui Niki & illustrated by 2964_KO

Whiskey Glass & Box

📖 Key Frame Art Books by Hashimoto Takashi

Ayakashi Key Art Frame Book (2010)

Key Frame Art Book vol.9 (2017)

📚Manga by Yaeko Ninagawa

Kai Ayakashi: Bake Neko Vol. 1-2

Kai Ayakashi: Mononoke Prequel

Mononoke Vol. 1-10

🎭Butai Mononoke

Bakeneko Pamphlet 

Zashikiwarashi Pamphlet

Zashikiwarashi Acrylic Standees

Zashikiwarashi Manegi

💿Physical Media

Official OST CD

DVD Box Set

Yokai Pattern Fabric

---

Common Collab Merchandise

This category consists of goods that are generally more affordable and feature graphics from the source material with minimal alterations.

Amnibus

Wall Scrolls

Tenugui Fabric 

Shot Glasses

Minoyaki Bean Plates

ANIGA-TER

Stickers

Can Badges

Canvas Prints

Anique

Diorama Acrylic Stand

Acrylic Blocks

Challenge Kuji

Kusuriuri & Hyper Clocks

eeo Store Online

Folding Fan

Keychains

Can Badges

gj character G

Cushion

Acrylic Charms

Neo Gate

Satchels

Mini Badges

Mini Badges by Mame Shinoda

---

High-End Collab Merchandise

Goods which derive motifs from the characters, props, and patterns from the production and transform them in an elevated manner through abstraction or usage of precious materials.

gj character G

Exorcism Sword Ring

Goodsmile

Kusuriuri Nendoroid Figurine

Folding Screen

Kusuriuri & Hyper Plush

Tote Bag

Kaya

Umbrella

Tenbin Kanzashi

Tabi Socks

Dress

Kotobukiya

Figurine

Mayla

Pump Heels

Kusuriuri & Hyper Hairpins

Tenbin Earrings

Hyper Earrings

Noitamina Apparel

Perfume

Tenbin Necklace

Folding Fan

Super Groupies

Purse

Wallet

Watch

Tsumuji Design

Exorcism Sword Necklace

Ofuda Bracelet

Useless Use Lab

Fragrance Set

Air Purifier

Three-Sided Mirror

[maplebellsmods]

Expanded Storytelling Relationship Bits Mod

I'm so excited about this! Revamp your Sims' relationships and unlock a world of storytelling possibilities with Custom Relationship Bits!

Whenever I play the game I always wanted to be able to visually see how each relationship was different so I thought it would be a great idea to add more relationship bits in the game. 

I don't know if I am the only one who loves to open the Sim Info Panel and look at the different relationship descriptions between sims. Gone are the days of generic labels like "Friend" or "Romantic Interest." With Custom Relationship Bits, you can now give your Sims personalized and meaningful relationship titles that reflect their unique connections. From "Childhood Sweetheart" to "Love-Hate Relation" and a lot more, the possibilities are endless. 

This mod is perfect for storytellers who want more depth and nuance in their Sims' relationships. Some of the custom relationship titles add depth to your Sims' interactions and help to shape their narratives. 

You can access the relationship bit option my pressing on the target sim while you are in control of the sim with whom you want to set the relationship by clicking on actions and then the Enhanced Rel Bit Pie Menu. 

Above you can see all of the possible relationship bits you can choose from. They also each have their own description. (The Secret Admirer Rel Bit is the only one-sided bit)

Some of the relationship bits have interactions that come with them. I would love to make more and expand on them but I don't know if this is something you would be interested in so let me know. 

More about some of the interactions:

Travel to Visit Long Distance Partner will have your sim leave the house for about two days and return with possible different moodlets.

With the virtual date option your sim will video call their long-distance partner for a few hours and it will make them really happy.

Star-crossed lovers can share a forbidden kiss. And sims who have a love-hate relationship can share an "I hate you"(kiss).

That is all for this mod! A lot of it is cosmetic, But I think it can really help relationships between sims feel more distinct. 

Does this mod require any DLC?

No, it does not.

What else do I need for the mod?

Lumpinou's Mood Pack Mod, so it is required for the mod to work properly.

You can get her mod here.

If you already have it great! But make sure it's up to date. Otherwise, it will break the UI

Maplebell Pie Menu: Download Below. If you already have it ignore. 

More Kisses Mod here. If you don't intend on using the kissing interactions you don't need to get it.

Questions and concerns you might have?

I want to remove the relationship bit

After you set the relationship bit an option to remove it will appear in the same pie menu.

Some interactions aren't showing

The interactions depend on the relationship bit you may have with a sim. For example, only sims who have had a summer romance can "Share Summer Memories. Only Study Buddies can quiz each other, only long-distance relationship simmers can have virtual dates etc...

I'm experiencing some weird bugs!

Let me know, please.

Report it here: Mod Bug Report

Public: 18/06/23

Download

[felassan]

New today on DA:TV from Game Informer:

"How Romance And Relationships Work In Dragon Age: The Veilguard by Wesley LeBlanc on Jul 08, 2024 at 02:00 PM Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a BioWare RPG, which means a lot of things, including the fact that the game will feature romance. Based on what I learned during a recent trip to BioWare's Edmonton office for the current Game Informer cover story, Veilguard will be the team's most romantic game yet. Relationship Level"

"Every companion in the game has a Relationship Level related to Rook, and the choices you make (and not even specifically about the companion, but in the world in general), what you say to companions, how you help or don't help them, and more all play into it. Every time you rank up a companion's Relationship Level, you unlock a skill point to spend specifically on that companion. Though companion skill trees pale in comparison to Rook's expansive tree, which features passive abilities, combat abilities, and more, as well as paths to three unique class specializations, there's still some customization here.  Each companion has access to five abilities, but you can only take three into combat. Thus, it's important to strategize which abilities to spend a skill point on and how those abilities can synergize with your current build on the battlefield. Though I couldn't confirm, Dragon Age series art director Matt Rhodes hints that companion issues, problems, and personal quests will play into this Relationship Level and how a companion interacts with Rook.  "[Bellara Lutara, for example] has her own story arc that runs parallel to and informs the story path you're on," Rhodes tells me while I watch game director Corinne Busche play through a linear, story-driven mission in Arlathan Forest where Rook is searching for Bellara. Busche adds that "relationships are key, not only romance but friendships. We wanted to lean into not just the relationships the characters have with you but the relationships they have with each other. It's a found family, and at the end of the day, they need to trust they all have each other's back." Romance"

"However, fret not, BioWare fans – romance is a key part of relationships in the game, Busche says, noting some of the romances will get quite spicy. However, not all of them will, as "each romance has a very different flavor," according to Busche. Some characters are straight to the point, while others are more awkward, having never been in a relationship before. "You learn who these characters are in how their romances unfold," she says. She likens romantic and platonic relationships to another way to "level up" your companions. It's not just experience and skill points that determine Rook's standing with companions, but diegetic conversations, too.  BioWare has already revealed that every companion in Veilguard is pansexual, notably different from the community-dubbed "playersexual" approach in some games, which sees NPCs adjust romantic and sexual interests based on the player rather than their own sense of sexuality. As pansexual companions, they are attracted to people of any gender (or regardless of gender). That's a critical distinction because, in Veilguard, your companions aren't just going to vie for your affection – they might take attraction to other companions in the titular Veilguard.  Giving one companion the cold shoulder might nudge them into the warm shoulder of someone else on the team. Busche says companions can form romances with each other, although I'm unable to confirm if that means locking Rook out of forming a romance with them.  I saw nothing resembling romance in my very early hours with the game. However, I did see the romantically inclined "emotional" response in Rook's dialogue choices at times, which led to my Rook flirting with ice mage and private detective companion Neve Gallus. Busche says this is the option to flirt and push platonic relationships into romantic territory, though Rook's flirtatious efforts aren't always reciprocated. But that's not to say you should ignore the other options – I saw dialogue choices resembling friendly, snarky, and direct, too, and I can see how these different flavors of dialogue likely mix and mingle into Rook's relationships with companions. It's still a mostly mysterious system to me, but as Veilguard is due out this fall, I don't have to wait too long to learn more and neither do you. For more about the game, including exclusive details, interviews, video features, and more, click the Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button below."

[source]

[eachuisge-cc]

Honestly I'm astounded that nobody has taken that name yet.

Do you dislike the look of vanilla Skyrim horses? Are you tired of riding some kind of Clydesdale/Belgian/Cob thing around fantasy Scandinavia for no clear reason? Do you want your beloved and loyal horse to stand out from the crowd as much as you do? Well great news, this mod covers all of those things.

Basically I made some significant edits to the horse model including a fuller, longer mane and tail, redone feathering, somewhat more realistic conformation, and entirely redone ears because at a certain point it was just easier to make new ones. None of the changes affect how the horse fits the vanilla rig so it still bends and moves without distorting weirdly. The textures are entirely painted from scratch and have new normals to go with them that are meant to give the horses a somewhat softer, more natural look that still fits with Skyrim's general vibe. I used references of primarily North Swedish and Dole horses, but also borrowed from the wider range of colors and patterns in Icelandics because I couldn't give up the pintos.

Current Features:

Asymmetrical coats/markings, because I fully redid the UV while I was messing with the mesh (mostly because mirrored pinto horses in video games are the bane of my existence)

Distinct meshes for mares and stallions, the mare model is closer to the vanilla horse's conformation, while the stallion model has a slightly bulkier build and thicker neck, and a an unobtrusive low poly dong.

Five generic solid-coated textures that appear on most NPC horses in the world.

Unique texture for each purchasable player horse

Unique texture and model for Frost (he's now a mealy chestnut as his papers claim)

Unique Shadowmere

Unique Karinda (this mod does NOT add Karinda into the game, but her texture should show up if you have CRF or another mod that does add her, as long as it doesn't alter her texture or base model)

Unique Hearthfire stable horses (purchasable through the steward)

Unique unsaddled stable horse in Markarth because uh, I just felt like it

Unique coats for a growing number of modded follower horses (see the mod page for the list)

Future plans: see the mod page

Compatibility:

This mod should be compatible with just about everything, as long as it doesn't also change the colors or models of the horses. It should also work with any version of Skyrim SE/AE. It is NOT compatible with Immersive Horses, because IH uses its own horse models and textures.

I will not personally be making patches for other mods because there's no way I could possibly keep up with that and I'd rather spend the time and energy on the mod itself, however I encourage anyone else who wants to to make whatever patches are needed. Please message me if you do so I can link them here for people to find.

Huge thanks to SassiestAssassin, who has been an incredible help in navigating the learning curve of editing nifs (and is continuing to be a huge help with solving my inability to make patches), and also has a lot of fantastic mods you should check out.

Download:

Nexus Mods

[carouselunique]

“Oh! Fiddlefeathers!” Sky Chime murmured as she lifted her wing to fly up to her bedroom window where Dinky and Rosy were waiting upstairs for her to come back from setting out the bins after dinner. Looking down at her feathers she saw a very distinct and very incriminating smudge of makeup. It was her very first sleepover and while she had been looking forward to sharing this milestone with her new friends, that made this much more difficult.

She didn’t mean to lie to her new friends, it just sort of… happened. She had been the first in her class to earn her cutie mark way back when. She had earned her cutie mark way early for being a musical prodigy, earlier than any filly she knew in Fillydelphia. Or Cloudsdale. Or Baltimare. Or anywhere else… and showing that fact off made ponies her age hate her. So two towns down she had taken to covering her mark. It never mattered before, because she always left those towns after only a few weeks. It just helped her fly under the radar. To go unnoticed. That was how she liked it unless she was performing…

Hiding her cutie mark hadn’t been an issue until Ponyville. Until they decided to put down roots for longer this time while Sky honed her talents under Madame Octavia. Until she had made friends with the only other “blankflanks” in her new class and the whole point of their friendship was to find cutie marks together. So now, Sky reasoned to herself, hiding it as long as she can would be the best option.

Looking around to make sure no one had seen, she quickly adjusted her feathers over her cutie mark, hiding it from view before deciding to slowly walk up to her front door instead. Luckily, she thought to herself, her pajamas would hide her flank until morning when they got ready for school and she could reapply her makeup then. She felt a growing pit of guilt in her stomach… but she feared that if she were to tell the truth to make it go away, she’d lose her first ever real friends… so, she supposed, she’d just have to learn to live with the guilt.

It wouldn’t be forever. Just until Ditzy and Rosy got their cutie marks too.

She’s not worried about earning her cutie mark because she already has it.

Cutie Mark Reveal / Explanation / Design Process Below:

Okay so, Sky Chime has her cutie mark already. Why? Well, one, I never liked the CMC receiving their marks together. I like the idea of each individually receiving their cutie marks at their own pace. These are a metaphor for puberty/maturity/growing up/self discovery right? Well not everyone does that at the same pace as their friends. The Mane Six I can excuse because they’re all different ages so they did earn it at different paces just with the same catalyst. CMC though… I never felt thats what they needed. For all the show claims they still do their own thing just share a destiny it feels like they’ll always be the Cutie Mark Crusaders rather than that being something that helped them grow into their own separate beautiful unique destinies. Almost like the show itself didn’t trust those three to stay friends post earning their cutie marks.

That being said, I have an idea that once the final mark is earned by whoever goes last, they discover together something about how an aspect of their talents is helping others see their own talents for their true meaning and the Cutie Quest Fillies cutie marks CHANGE a bit to reflect that. For example, the color of the tear drop chimes might change to be each of her friends colors or something. Because the people we love do have an impact on how we grow. So that might be something.

Okay so if Rosy Posy and Dinky Doo represent being somewhat behind your age for whatever reason development wise, Sky Chime represents being somewhat ahead and all the ways it can make you also feel different. All the ways you might feel like holding yourself back because you want to be where everyone else is. Everyone strives for being grown up until you’re the very first one to do it and then it seems like they judge you for beating them to the finish line.

And when you’re going through that you might not feel ready for the finish line. Sky is hiding this big part of herself to fit in and to feel like a kid again and keep her friends. She’s advanced for her age, a prodigy and a talent and she likes collecting antiques and whatnot. She already feels like marehood is coming for her way sooner than she wants. So she hides. And she feels bad because unlike in every other town, here in Ponyville she’s lying for ages. Very anxious pegasus our Sky Chime.

Sky being a changeling was a popular theory and I’d love some fanfic about that AU within an AU but, crucially, I wanted to try not to do harmful aspects from the canon show into this AU unless it is meant to say something about the ponies and I think having Sky being so protective of her secretly being another species would play into a lot of the unremarked upon species prejudice in the show. That being said actually someone get on some Changeling Sky I’d love to see it!!!

[percyluvr]

Hi, can you do a percy x reader? I would love for it to be angst where the reader feels like they aren’t good enough for percy so they never confess their feelings to percy and watches him get into a relationship with someone else.

percy jackson x reader summary: you don't think you will ever be good enough for percy, so you watch him slowly fall in love with another girl that isn't you wc: 1549 pt 2

You'd never been confident in yourself, but you could usually find something, anything, about yourself that you liked that you could grasp onto that would get you through the day. You could always find something before, but not now. not after seeing the boy that you had been in love with since you first met talking with her. Your life wasn't fair. Yes, they'd been on quest after quest after quest together, but you were his best friend. Sure, you weren't as smart as her, and nowhere near as beautiful as her, but a small part of you thought that maybe, just maybe, there was a sliver of a chance that Percy could like you the same way that you liked him. Maybe you were just delusional, but you two were best friends, for god's sake, didn't that mean anything to him?

It wasn't fair, seeing him with her. They aren't even together and they're already looking at each other like nothing else in the world matters. He never looked at you like that, and you knew it. You knew the way he looked at you, like you were his little sister or something, and every time you thought about the distinction, your heart cracked just a little bit more. 

After the first time you saw the way they looked at each other, you could never see anything else when you saw them together. All you could focus on was their eyes, deeply and lovingly gazing at each other, blushing even when there was nothing suggestive about what the other person said. 

All you could do to stop yourself from breaking down into tears in front of everyone at camp was to think about the fact that they weren't dating yet. They weren't dating, so you still had a chance, but deep down, you knew, you knew that there was no way in hell you had a chance when he looked at her like she personally put each little star into the sky. There was no chance for you to get what you wanted, not when she looked at him like he made the sun shine every morning.

They deserve each other, you know it, but you can't help but be bitter. you knew him first, you knew him before anyone at camp. He was your friend when your mother died and you were on the streets. He was the one who told his mother about his new friend who lived on the streets. He was the one that gave you a place to stay for your entire childhood and teenage years. you should appreciate that, and you do, but you can't help but hate him when you see them together. You can't help yourself feeling bitter, not when she stole him from you.

Nothing in your life was fair. You couldn't even get the boy that you had been pining over for years. you, your siblings, your friends, everybody knew that there was no chance for you, but that didn't stop you from trying, and failing, over and over again.

You woke up, and the first thing on your mind was Percy. He was always the first thought in your mind, and you bet that he wasn't the first thought on her mind when she woke up. You were the one who thought of him every second of the day, so why did he like her? You knew that in reality, you had nothing special to offer, but she did, and that was probably why he liked her, but you couldn't stop yourself from thinking how much you hated it. Why couldn't you be special? Why was fate such a cruel thing? Why did you have to be plain-looking, average at everything? Why did you have to be the person that everyone overlooked? Why couldn't you have just one quality that stood out, that made someone say, "Hey that's unique, I want to get to know them!"

You tried to be special, you tried to find your 'special skill,' you tried to find something about yourself that you could work on that would stand out to Percy, that would finally make him say, "Wow, I've been missing out with her," but you found nothing. You were never good enough for anyone in your life, and you thought that you were finally good enough for Percy, but you now realize that you aren't, and you never would be, not when you were being compared to her.

She was special, she was beautiful, she was smart, she was one of the chosen ones, she was perfect. You would never, not in a million years, even be a fraction as wonderful as her. You were reminded of this every day. 

You were reminded of how perfect she was every time that you saw how Percy's cheeks had a pink hue dusting them every time she was in view. You were reminded of how perfect she was every time they sat together and looked into each other's eyes, adoration showing with no care who saw. You were reminded of how perfect she was every time they reached for something at the same time, fingers brushing, causing a blush to appear on both of their faces as they quickly retracted their hands, hoping that the other wouldn't see the raging hues of pink appearing on their cheeks.

You compare yourself to her every waking minute. You looked at your dull, frizzy hair and thought of how her hair shimmered in the sunlight. You looked at your rough, dull skin and thought about how her healthy, smooth skin only added to her beauty. You thought about her perfectly proportionate body every time you stepped in front of a mirror, every time you got dressed in the morning.

You wondered why life was so unfair, why you couldn't have this one thing. You'd not been blessed with anything special about you. You were plain in every way. Your skin didn't reflect the light, your hair didn't shimmer in the sunlight, and your body sure as hell didn't look even half as good as hers did in jeans and a t-shirt. Couldn't the gods just give you this one thing? All you wanted, all you ever asked for, was your best friend's love. 

And sure, he loved you as a friend, but that wasn't enough for you. You should've been grateful he even loved you as a friend, but you desperately wanted something in life that could set you apart from the rest. There was nothing about you that could possibly do that, but Percy was special. Percy was beautiful, in every single interpretation of the word. He was funny, he was strong, he was brave, and he always said the right thing, even if he didn't mean to. He was absolutely perfect, like one of the gods.

The more you thought about it, the more you realized that it was just natural that the two of you couldn't be together. He outshone you in every way possible. He was too perfect for you, and you could never deserve him, not in a million years. she, on the other hand, absolutely deserved him. She was regal, she always looked perfect, she always said the right thing, she was smart, maybe she wasn't that funny, but that didn't matter. She was wonderful, wonderful enough to deserve him and any other boy in the world that she wanted. You could never be like her, no one could, and that was why she deserved him. That was why she would get him in the end, and your pathetic, average, lame self would not.

You finally understood this, and that was why you wouldn't, no, couldn't try to get in the way of this. It was fate that they would get together, and who the hell were you to get in the way of fate? Exactly, you were no one. You were a pathetic loser who couldn't even stand up and be brave for the man they love. You wouldn't fight for him. you couldn't fight for him. but she would. She would fight for him, and even if you did attempt to win his love, you would never win. You would never win against her.

She was perfect for him, in every way that you could possibly think of. This conclusion was why you couldn't even bring yourself to be surprised when you finally saw them walking around camp, shyly holding each other's hands and happily chatting with each other. Percy raised the hand holding hers, almost as if to mock your pitiful self, and gave you a small wave. All you could do in response was slightly raise your hand and give him a small smile.

You knew, deep down, that this was right. this was the way things were supposed to be. You would never, not ever, deserve a boy like him. He was Percy Jackson, for god's sake, how could a loser like yourself ever even think that they could get with him? 

And that was it, you realized. He was Percy Jackson, and you were, well, yourself. The two of you were from two completely different worlds, and in both of those worlds, nobody like yourself could ever deserve a person like him.

a/n: you can probably tell, but this was honestly my first time writing something like this, but i really enjoyed it. it was the first time i didn't stop writing at all, like zero writer's block!!!! so thank you so much for this request, i really enjoyed writing it and i hope you love it or at least like it <3

[fan-goddess]

The Hindered Battle of the Burning Mill

Gif credit goes entirely to @seaside-storm

Authors Note: I fucking love these two they have insnared me body mind and soul. Romeo and Juliet? Never heard of them!

Taglist: @humanpurposes @watercolorskyy @omgbrcat @blue-serendipity @arcielee

Warnings: mentions of stuff like threesomes and heavily implied homosexual loving between these two men. (If I miss any let me know!)

House Blackwood and House Bracken had been fighting for so many years that it is truly unknown as to what they truly began to fight over.

So when news broke out for the two houses and how they sided with each others rival Targaryen in the war of the dragons, everyone held their breathes as they knew it was but a matter of time until the two houses took the opportunity to feud with each other again.

Their blood boiled as it was said how the quick to temper Davos Blackwood marched over and claimed loudly how the stones dividing the Blackwood and Brackens land had been moved, to which the newly knighted Aeron Bracken attempted to claim as untrue. Swords were drawn as the two stared each other down, and it was said all who watched held their breaths as they were sure blood of both houses were about to be spilled.

Yet that however was before a young maiden no older than either of the enemy houses boys walked calmly up to the both of them, and forcing them to halt where they stood. As while they were bloodthirsty brutes on the battlefield, they knew better than to endanger the life of an innocent woman attempting to make wrongs right.

It was said the two were captivated at first sight of her. Her beauty and warm smile being the only things stopping the two sworn enemies from spilling each others blood.

Her true identity is unknown, but given her plain clothing and how she led the two boys to a nearby house, it is believed that she was some lucky commonborn gifted with such beauty from the gods that she was able to ensnare not just one high born heir but two.

The men who had originally accompanied young Davos and Aeron followed the three to the home claiming it to be due to them protecting their lord. But all saw through their lies and knew what really went through those young mens heads when they watched the pretty young woman lead their lords away by their wrists.

They wanted to hear the fucking. Or more precisely, they wanted to hear the sounds of the maiden.

Only they didn’t need to be awkwardly standing outside the homes walls to hear it. Those from all around heard the sounds of pleasure bleed from that house from the former maiden and the two men alike.

The companions of the two boys all assumed that by the hour both Davos and Aeron would be finished with the woman and go about their day back to hating each other more heated than the fire of a dragons breath. Only it was at least until daylight had long since bled into night did the noises at least stop.

The companions, after waiting for the leaders for what felt like hours, were about to abandon their men and drag their boots home. It was not till close to the hour of the eel when the companions were three steps away did the two men finally emerge from the home. The woman did not appear at the door to bid them both farewell, so it is decided she must have given them both a unique goodbye present from the comfort of her bed, as proven so by the distinct heavy blush practically smeared on both men’s cheeks.

The two men did not speak to each other after that day, nor any day afterwards, and it is unclear as to why this was. It’s thought something must’ve happened between that woman’s bedsheets to make them behave so pitifully against each other, and the most favoured idea as insisted upon by mushroom for this to be written down, is that the two must’ve had some sort of special interaction whilst being observed by the woman. As according to the man it was well known how both Davos and Aeron would look at each other when riling the other.

The two men though years later went on to marry women of other houses and produce plentiful of children to inherit their fortune and titles.

That woman, who now in history is known as the maiden who stopped what would’ve been known as the battle of the burning mill, her future is unknown as she was never seen again from that day she took Davos Blackwood and Aeron Bracken to her home.

It is said how both men each attempted to go back to the home to see the woman, but each time they went in she was never there, for the house now looked abandoned and old as if there had never been anyone residing there in the first place.

Hearing this, many have claimed the young woman to be a witch sent by the gods only for the purpose of stopping those two young men from starting yet another feud fuelled by exterior forces, but there is no such proof or at least none worthy enough of mentioning in this text.

The tale of the maiden who stopped the battle of the burning mill shall forever remain one of the many mysteries of Westeros.

[notedchampagne]

What makes a tlt au work for you? Do u have any favourites out there/that you’ve thought of?

its hard because it can go down to the writing! i have a huge bias for things that put focus on the characters acting awful and driving the story forward- if a story has a plot thats great, but its the difference between "gideon and harrow keep meeting up at parties and fall a little bit in love every time" and "gideons angry she lost her childhood to the cult so she attends a party with the tridentarii to shotgun adolescent experiences, and harrowhark, frustrated that gideon is pulling on her metaphorical leash, follows to stalk her". the former retains a 5+1 fic format and is more bite-size, while the latter puts more focus into their growth as characters. im not great at articulating what i like specifically, but ill put my favorite fics below:

what if nona was dogs tugs at my heart: its post-canon, slice-of-life, and has a unique concept (said in the title). i judged a book by its cover because i thought the premise seemed too silly at first but ive been made a fool and its pet clown. it feels so true to nona the way its about all the things nona loves and how she gets to explore the world through new eyes. i love the way it explores characters softening up and getting hurt through a third person pov

we have always lived in the apartment by @thatneoncrisis i keep saying this but for the love of GOD guys this au is so good it makes me cry and feel such a deep catharsis from it. it takes gideon and harrow and the ninth as a cult and explores their struggle to adapt to a modern society when noone ever gets a break (WOW ITS JUST LIKE IN REAL L-). quinn writes the sides of griddlehark i think go overlooked in fanfic often: their codependency, their tendency to lash out when theyre defensive, their mutual paranoia and different coping mechanisms, harrows psychosis and gideons bitterness, their relationships to each other as being the only other person who really understands what the other suffered through. god. i feel lightheaded.

"but SAM, i dont like angst but i want to see this writing!" read gap between a tragedy and a comedy

"SAM, i also like when gideon and harrow are horrible because theyre maladjusted teenagers! but i want more antics where the characters drive things forward over angst!" read whats eating gideon nav

you just aint receiving is one of my FAVORITE modern aus of all time (and i heavily recommend the authors other fics as well!) if you really want to see how much i love this fic the fact that my comments take up the entire phone screen probably says a lot. its hard to put it concisely: it keeps harrows air of misanthropy and cruelty but redefines it as the result of her upbringing and personal struggle to live in a university while dealing with a backpack of mental illness and frustration. it changes gideons personality as the daughter of john gaius in a way that makes sense having her grow up with johns middling parenting skills and getting everything she ever wanted (connecting it back to kirionas personality in ntn!). it brings in side characters (specially palamedes. my beautiful boy palamedes) in ways that compliment harrow and gideon but not so obviously that they only exist to be supports. they have their own lives and ideals. its a modern au that brings in the boiling politics of johns cult uprising once again in a really novel way

semi charmed kinda life by @griddlebait. jesuchristo and all his middle names this fic is GREAT for you if you want a slice of life, coming of age type modern au that explores what its like for gideon and harrow if they actually got the space to see who theyd become outside of the stifling fate tlt has for them. as far as modern aus go im usually very hesitant to read them because im afraid modernizing the characters takes features away from their core but i really love and respect the way the author treats the 69ers with care and draws distinct lines that shows me how their grow and change while keeping a line to the anchor. also they write HIDEOUS (complimentary) PINING. DISGUSTING. some of these chapters were so chock full of dyke drama that they made me nauseous and whimsical. i think once a friend said this fic felt like if gh could be reincarnated and i like that descriptor a lot

til the cows come home is another postcanon fic that made me feel sick and crybabyish about it- i would definitely recommend it if you want to explore a happier ending with griddlehark! with this and what if nona was dogs the thing i like most about them is that they mix up vulnerability with pain and fear, so it feels more lifelike that way if that makes sense. i lost my taste in fluff fics over time but when its interspersed with struggle and characters causing problems because they cant cope with themselves it feels much more earnest and raw

this became very long. im not sorry

[flickering-nightfall]

I loveee how you draw iterator antennae,, please tell how do you design them?? Personally for me one of the hardest parts of designing iterators

Also - Love you art! Have a good day/night :)

Tysm <3

This one's tough, I don't really think too hard about how I design antennae. I just go with whatever looks right and fits the character lol but I'll try to talk about it anyways.

Moon and Pebbles are based off their in-game appearances. They have changes between depictions though so there's some wiggle room. Pebbles' is based off his sprite and Moon's off of one of her art pieces. (Her dull blue color is pulled from her sprite.) This seems to be popular in fan depictions too.

Sig and Suns are also based off official depictions. Sig I took some more liberties with - he really should have rounder, more protruding headphone bases. But I wanted some variety in headphone bases and he kind of just... ended up with a geometric shape theme to match his diamond mark. This is their only official image, so I just shrugged and gave them some broad small antennae that would be hidden at the back from this front angle, because I wanted to. (Bald Sig is valid but I like what I did hah)

Suns is a mix between the in-game art and the concept art by (I'm never sure what name to use here, but the art listed on the wiki is by-) Minkimaro. Mine's gotten more blocky/volumetric antennae over time, and every time I draw them their collar gets bigger. It's an addiction. They have to be comfy.

Wind and Innocence both have more unique antenna, and multiple segments. I wanted to balance them out with the others design-wise, but I wanted them to be distinct from each other too. So Wind gets these wide fan antenna and Innocence get triple thin antenna on joints.

And here's some OCs for variety.

I guess here's some stuff to chew on-

Shape, width, size of the base headphone parts

Shape, width, size of the antennae

How many antennae? Are the antennae all the same size/shape?

Embellishments (such as the extra details on Flicker's)

Does the design suit the character's look? If they can emote with the antennae, how does that fit their personality?

If it matters to you, how do your antenna work, mechanically speaking? If they can move, do they have ranges? For example - Suns' antennae have great horizontal range, but they can't fold them down past their headphone bases.

[deception-united]

hi!! just found your blog :))

so i've been wondering if you have any tips on writing characters in general. i feel like everytime i write, they're all the same (their internal dialogue are hardly different from each other) and rather boring and bland. do you have any advice for this issue? thanks <33

Hi, thanks for asking! It's a common challenge for writers, myself included, to create characters who feel vivid and distinct on the page—especially when there's a particular type of character that I enjoy writing more. This induces reluctance to explore and can make characters too similar in their mannerisms, quirks, and speech. Here are some tips to help you develop more dynamic characters:

Create detailed character profiles: Before you start writing, take some time to flesh out your characters. Think about their backgrounds, personalities, motivations, fears, desires, and quirks. The more you know about your characters, the easier it will be to make them unique.

Give each character a distinct voice: Pay attention to the way each character speaks and thinks. Consider their education, background, and personality when crafting their dialogue and internal monologue. Each character should have their own vocabulary, speech patterns, and mannerisms (see my post on character voices for more!).

Focus on contradictions: People are complex, and characters should be too. Think about the contradictions within each character. Maybe they're confident in public but insecure in private, or they're fiercely independent but secretly crave companionship. These contradictions add depth and realism to your characters.

Use character flaws: Flaws are incredibly important. They make characters more relatable and multidimensional, causing internal conflict and affecting their decisions, actions, and relationships. Give your characters weaknesses, insecurities, and vices that they struggle with throughout the story. These flaws can drive the plot and create opportunities for growth and development.

Explore character relationships: Characters are shaped by their interactions with others. Pay attention to the dynamics between your characters and how they influence each other. Conflict, friendship, love, and rivalry can all reveal different facets of your characters' personalities.

Give your characters goals: What does each character want, and what are they willing to do to achieve it? Their goals can drive the plot forward and provide insight into their motivations and priorities.

Consider the environment: Characters are influenced by their surroundings. Think about how factors like culture, society, family, and upbringing shape your characters' identities and behavior.

Allow for character growth: Characters should change and evolve over the course of the story. Give them opportunities to learn from their experiences, overcome challenges, and develop as individuals.

Read widely and observe people: Pay attention to how people behave in real life and in literature. Study how different authors create memorable characters, and consider what techniques you can apply to your own writing.

Check out this ask game for inspiration!

Hope this helped ❤

Previous | Next

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - known Character Creation info Part 1

[LINK TO PART 2]

This post is just a dump collection of info and snippets that came out about CC (& some related topics). if you've been following the news or reading posts here, it's not new info or anything, I just put it together in one place here for convenience. ( ˶´ ᵕ `˶ )

if you notice anything missing, pls lmk. there's a bit of repetition of info in places as prev posts on the topic overlapped.

---

CC is vast [source] and immensely detailed [source]

We will enter CC straight after Varric’s opening narration [source]

You are given 5 categories to work your way through in CC: Lineage, Appearance, Class, Faction, Playstyle. Each of these has a range of subcategories within them. There are 8 subcategories within the “head” subcategory" in “Appearance” alone [source]

Lineage dictates things like race (i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari) and backstory [source]

Backstories include things like factions. Factions offer 3 distinct buffs each [source]

There are dozens and dozens of hairstyles [source]

There are separate options for binary and non-binary pronouns and gender [source]

“BioWare’s work behind the scenes, meanwhile, goes as deep as not only skin tones but skin undertones, melanin levels, and the way skin reacts differently to light” [source]

CC has a range of lighting options within it so that you can check how the character looks in them [source]

There are a range of full-body customization options such as a triangular slider between body types and individual settings down to everything from shoulder width to glute volume [source]. There are “all the sliders [we] could possibly want”. The body morpher option allows us to choose different body sizes [source]

All body options are non-gendered [source]

They/them pronouns are an option [source]

Rook can be played as non-binary [source]

Individual strands of hair were rendered separately and react remarkably to in-game physics [source]

Special, focused attention was paid to ensuring that hairstyles “come across as well-representative, that everyone can see hairstyles that feel authentic to them, even the way they render” [source]

The game uses strand hair technology borrowed in part from the EA Sports games. The hair is “fully-controlled by physics,” so it “looks even better in motion than it does here in a standstill” [source]

The ability to import our choices from previous games is fully integrated into CC. This will take the form of tarot cards - “you can go into your past adventures” and this mechanic tells you what the context was and what decision you want to make [source]

In CC we will also be able to customize/remake our Inquisitor [source]

A core tenet of the game is “be who you want to be” [source]

There are presets for all 4 of the game’s races (human, elf, dwarf, qunari), in case detailed CCs overwhelm you [source]

It is the best CC BioWare has ever made in a game [source]

The faction we choose will determine who we as protagonist Rook were before they were recruited to put a stop to Solas [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

Faction choice affects a lot of things [source]

There aren’t unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

“body customization and morphing. From more muscular characters, to curvier builds, and just about any shape you want to give your character, there are all sorts of toggles to adjust so you can give them any figure you want”. “There’s even features that let you choose proportions, so you can alter their height, give them wider shoulders, and much more” [source]

There are makeup options [source]

There are tattoo options [source]

The hair uses a “Strand system” to “make them behave and move in a believable way for the different races” [source].

There are 4 voices to choose from for Rook: two feminine and tow masculine (one American, one British for each) [source]

In CC, 'Lineage’ is the game’s parlance for race i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari [source]

We can pick Rook’s name, but the dialogue calls them 'Rook’ [source]

In CC we can “make a few key decisions that will impact how The Veilguard begins” [source]

“I really do think its our most feature-ful character creator ever.” [source]

All armor and clothing options will scale and mesh to any body type [source]

The character creator has lots of sliders for body parts and overall shape, none of which are tied to the voice or pronouns (she/her, he/him, or they/them) that you choose [source]

“Epler took special care to show off the extensive curly and textured hair options in the game, including several versions of braids and locs, noting that increasing these options in particular was very important to the team” [source]

You can change your character’s physical appearance at any time during the game, but not their class or backstory [source]

“Each individual class has some variability, too; even the mage class has some up-close-and-personal attacks, since a mage player character could still conceivably have an assassin backstory and would therefore need to have some attacks to accommodate that sort of career path” [source]

“ "We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about skin tone,” Corinne said. The character we made, a Black elf, seemed to glow in the bluish light of a nighttime scene, and under bright sunlight, I could see the richness of his color. Corinne: "We want to make sure that skin tone is reflected authentically” “ [source]

” “We have dozens and dozens of hair types,” she said. “And they’re fully affected by physics.” The quality and variety of choices I saw delighted me. The rows of bouncy, luxurious-looking hair of all curl types and textures (and yes, the annoyingly ubiquitous “Killmonger cut” was among the options, what can you do?) brought the biggest smile to my face in the hour I spent with Busche and The Veilguard.“ [source]

BioWare confirmed that even if you make your Rook a short king, the team has done work to ensure animations fit any character build [source]

“Dragon Age’s character creator has seen a massive glow-up” [source]. “The volume of choices you get here are frankly insane. As Epler noted, “you could spend forever here,” and he’s not kidding.” [source] The art and graphics teams spent a lot of time trying to make hair look amazing [source: the Discord]

In CC we can customise our “bulge size” [source]

Some more detail on the new lighting options to see how Rook looks like in CC when you make them: you can view them in “blazing forest sunshine versus the glare of an underground temple” [source]

“newly mobile, extra-hairy hair” [source]

Faction choice has statistical boons. For example, Shadow Dragon Rook deals extra damage to Venatori blood cultists [source]

Faction choice basically determines why Rook has been called to help in the fight against Solas [source]

All pre-determined character models in CC can be adjusted [source]

You can make a really tall dwarf if you want [source]

“Setting your previous world state is fully integrated into the character creator for Veilguard” [source: the Discord]

Inquisitor appearance will be re-created, there is no way to carry their appearance from DA:I into the game [source: the Discord]

Classes for Rook are not restricted in the sense that you can play any almost class, lineage and faction combination that you want. For example, a mage Rook can be a Crow [source: the Discord] (Fel note: it sounded like Rook cannot be a magic-wielding dwarf, even though the exception of Harding now exists) (Fel note: there is a mage Crow in one of the books)

“The diverse body and gender options make it an industry leader by a signifcant margin” [source]

“BioWare was keen to highlight the hair strand technology that looked very similar to that seen in FIFA and EA FC, also made under EA’s roof” [source]

“Fine tuning sliders that allowed for microscopic adjustments of nose angles, it was clear that a lot of options exist to get the smallest possible body parts exactly right” [source]

“There’s no specific genital customisation to be oversold as CDPR did but, much like Saints Row, there is an option for bulge customisation” [source]

Pronoun choice, gender identity, body type, and voice choice are 4 separate options, not tied together [source]

Height is customised on a slider [source]

Size is customized on a triangle like in Saints Row: the 'points’ are fat, slim and muscular [source]

The different lighting options are 4 different settings: clean, bright, dim, sunset [source]

In CC you can also try out what Rook looks like in their starting rags, in typical mid-game armor, and some level 50 gear (class appropriate for each one) [source]

There’s a way for you to modify your character’s look once the game has started if you want to make some tweaks [source: the official Discord]

You can be any class and choose any backstory/faction, any race, any gender [source]

The opening cinematic Varric narrates at the start of the game plays before CC. “Following character creation, Varric’s narration continues, revealing that he’s put together a group to stop Solas, having recruited our character and a handful of others so far.” [source]

Faction choice affects in-game moments between other factions and locations, as well as characters [source]

Re: using body sliders in CC - “It looked incredibly easy to maneuver around and create a body that is either close to that player’s real personage or their ideal fantasy self” [source]

“Our presenter said that each specialization was pretty much as deep as a job” [source]

“Many fans were subject to the horror of DA Inquition’s special green light, so BioWare made it where players could shuffle through a handful of backgrounds to see how their character looks in different lights. Body sliders for fully customizable bodies, other appearance changes like tattoos, and everything fans would expect from a modern Dragon Age character creator seemed to be there.” [source]

Rook always shares a background with 1 of the companions. Makes sense, the backgrounds are Wardens, Crows, Shadow Dragons, Mourn Watch, Veil Jumpers, Lords of Fortune, and that’s Davrin, Lucanis, Neve, Emmrich, Bellara, Taash respectively [source]

The CC team and character art team spent a lot of time working on making sure that hairstyles behaved appropriately, in a realistic way, and on representing a lot of different hairstyles [source]

“We were told that one of the three key pillars of the game was ‘Be Who You Want To Be.’” [source]

“Numerous selections for a wide variety of body types & skin tones” [source]

There is faction-themed gear to wear, like if you chose Grey Warden as a background, there is GW gear. [source: The Discord]

“As a faction, the Inquisition doesn’t really feature prominently in the story - your appearance options are more reflective of the factions and styles you’ll encounter in The Veilguard.” [source: The Discord]

body sliders + “a triangle for gradients of body types” [source]

“The team heard us loud and clear on hair styles”. Frostbite engine updates served them well. Hair moves with your body and reacts to the wind [source]

For pronouns and gender selections, everything you select is used in the game and in cutscenes [source]

They were asked about the customizability of Rook’s backstory. Rook has 6 different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each of them is tied to one of the major factions in DA:TV. “Each one sets up who Rook was before they were recruited by Varric. Well that sets out the broad events. As you go through the game, as you have conversations, either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define not just what those events were but what they meant to you. What was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook. Because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience, and taking Rook, giving them background to ground them in the world and then letting you decide what that means, what that says about you, is also a big part of it.” “A lot of opportunities to really define who your Rook was and who they are now, so.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

They have taken a different approach on how we import our decisions into the game this time around. This is now fully integrated into the character creator. The devs believe that this serves a dual purpose. Corinne said that she playfully thinks of it as ‘last time on Dragon Age’, though it isn’t actually called this in the game. She noted that it has been ten years since the last Dragon Age game was released, so this aspect serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing us to remake those decisions that are critical to us. The system for doing this is very highly visual and uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic. “It’s a very visual and playful experience as you go through it.” It was very important to them that this system was built into the client, so that you can play this game entirely offline. No online connection is required, no linking to EA accounts is required – this was a big fan request.

Corinne added, “I don’t want to spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import, but I will say that this [thinking about the decision import system and what decisions to include] has been a really interesting creative intersection for us, because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure”. In this game we are in northern Thedas, in locations we have not been to before. This naturally affects “some of what will matter and what decisions they’re not using this time around, as far as decisions. But obviously there are some very, very clear connections to existing characters.” “It’s no secret that the Inquisitor is going to show up, so that’s a factor”. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

In CC, Rook’s pronouns can be chosen. You can select both pronouns AND gender, as as Corinne noted, these are related concepts, but actually not exactly the same thing. Rook can be non-binary. The pronouns available are she/her, they/them, and he/him. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

The Character Creator is very detailed and very deep. The team focused a lot on doing good hair and doing hair and skin tones respectfully. There is full body customization. They are going to show us a lot more on CC in the future, but at a time when they have the time and space to do so. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

Q. How extensive are Rook’s decision trees for companions and NPCs throughout the game going to be?

A. “Huge. It’s a Dragon Age game. We wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose your roleplaying but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold. We wanna make sure that we also react to decisions you’ve made. So, for example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you’re gonna have a different perspective on events than someone who is not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options. Sometimes that’s going to mean entirely deep dialogue trees. As well as based off decisions you’ve made throughout the game, so. Again, making sure that the game feels like the it’s noticing what you’re doing is a huge part of how we’ve written out the dialogue trees in this game.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

 “There are quite a few, easily more than we’ve done before I think, tattoos from various cultures. We’re bringing the vallaslin back of course. There are a ton of different options, especially when we’re going into all of these new regions. Each region has its own kinda visual language for that. But yeah, we are bringing the vallaslin back, and then a couple of the characters have them, but we’ve kinda customized them a little bit, they’re a bit more specific to their personality.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

Corinne’s favorite thing other than the companions is the CC. “That CC, the makeup options, the range of sliders… I’m a qunari fan, so even just the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great looking hair”. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

The Inquisitor can be customized, “include some of our new customization options”. “Yeah, they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

We will get to see the Character Creator before launch. “They are laying out a roadmap for what we are going to show and when we are gonna talk about it. So, yes, you will see it, as we get a little bit closer to launch.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

In CC, the body customization can be done for humans, elves, dwarves and qunari. Qunari hair options and horn options are rad. They acknowledged that it was hard to have nice-looking hair for qunari in DA:I. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

“Related to this, your Lineage (human/elf/dwarf/qunari) gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options, so that’s a really lovely aspect of choosing your lineage as well.” “Each lineage, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose, there are some specific call outs to. For example, if it’s the Mourn Watch, them being a faction from Nevarra of mages, obviously your experience as a dwarf there is going to be different than say a human or an elf, so, there are also specific callouts tailored to those combinations with again, the intention of giving each lineage their own little flavor as to how they fit into that faction as a whole.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

“Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, again, we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also, there’s a name generator that can give you a selection of first names. Obviously if you want to make your own first name, that’s definitely something we support as well.” But if you always struggle during CC and name all your characters like 'Bob’ or something, you’re gonna be okay thanks to the name generator. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

"some of what I saw behind closed doors, as well as the way the devs spoke openly about the passion for diversity, gave me a lot of hope for this installment." [source]

"A New Peak For Progressive Character Creators. My first thought as I watched the dev take us through Dragon Age: The Veilguard's character creator at Summer Game Fest was 'okay, everyone can shut up about Cyberpunk 2077 now'." "Dragon Age, as I've written about in more depth in my full breakdown, cares. It takes elements of Cyberpunk 2077 and Saints Row, plus its own creator from 2014's Inquisition which was then best-in-show and remains a contender even today. It acknowledges the trans experience in a multitude of ways, likely owing heavily to game director Corinne Busche being a trans woman and therefore able to inject a personal perspective that most other games lack." "The dev also made a Black woman during our gameplay demo" [source]

The world reacts to Rook’s lineage and backstory. There are unique dialogues or conversation options based on backstory and lineage. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

There are glorious, fantastic dwarf beards. "I don’t know what magic the character art team did with the beards”, but they feel/look like how beards should. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

On the slider for body type selection: “It looked incredibly easy to maneuver around and create a body that is either close to that player’s real personage or their ideal fantasy self” [source]

“Our presenter said that each specialization was pretty much as deep as a job” ((job - class)) [source]

“sliding a cursor across a triangle that can make your character stocky and chubby or tall and muscular or anything in between” [source]

[richea]

Inomata’s Design Notes & Memories - Destiny Cast

Some notes:

I’ve linked images of each thing she references below.

Unlike the first batch of Eternia characters I previously posted, these were in Japanese. And unlike the Destiny 2 ones I translated, she talks about her experiences with the characters in the game and not just her design processes!

The book in question is this one.

What I think about most when designing characters is their colors and the components to their look. The characters are displayed as such small sprites, so in order to be able to differentiate them from each other, I give each of them a specific color palette and unique accessories to each of their outfits.

Stahn’s thing was his scarf. I also made sure his shoulder pads, gloves, and boots looked huge.

Rutee is supposed to be a thief, so I made her look a bit like a ninja. I didn’t want her to look too girly, so I gave her shorts and exposed her navel. For colors I went with red and black, since that’s a distinctive palette. Whenever I’d do boss battles, she’d always be joyfully picking 2 gald off the ground instead of healing my very low HP characters (laughs). I thought about removing her from my party to prevent this, but then I’d feel bad, and it just made me think “this is all part of her plot” (laughs).

Philia is a priestess through and through. I went for white and green to give her an earthly feel (laughs). Her glasses and braids were a strong request from Namco. I came up with designs for her, but they didn’t have the glasses or braids, so they were repurposed for the priests in Straylize Temple. It was the basis for Philia’s design as well as Elraine’s in the sequel. Philia has her eye on Stahn, but he eats too much and he oversleeps. I feel like they’d work out better if Philia was more the assertive type herself (laughs).

Woodrow is an archetypical handsome man, so I didn’t have much to stress about when designing him. He’s a king, so I wished he had a stronger atmosphere behind him. I almost never used him when playing the game though (laughs). When you break into Dycroft, I thought, “it’d be really cool in a narrative sense to use him here, but he’s just so weak”. But you get special dialogue if you take him along, so I went “tsk” and brought him anyway. “Just stick to the backlines and don’t die” (laughs).

Leon’s really easy to draw, so again I didn’t have much to stress about when drawing him. He has a princely vibe to him, so I gave him white tights, but everyone was taken back by it! I thought, “is it that weird?” and ended up making them less tight fitting (laughs). He acts a bit snobbish, gets seasick easily and refuses to eat vegetables, so he really crosses off a lot on the “young master” list. He’s also really fun to use in battle (laughs). He has a really low defense stat but he hits fast, so it’s crucial that you string your combos together. When paired with Stahn, if you can isolate your bosses in the far side of the screen, they go down quite fast. Then I see the popup that Rutee’s picking gald off the floor again and I just use healing items on him (laughs).

I wanted to make Chelsea cute and small, so I based her image off of little birds. I gave her a palette of pink, green and blue, and made her hair look like a cockatoo or parrot. Her bloomers look like a paper lantern and I find them quite cute (laughs). Her life story makes me want to cry though. She’s fine and all in the first game, but in the sequel, she’s still wearing those bloomers from when she was a kid, living all alone on a snowy mountain. And if you go through her drawers, you can take something that Woodrow gave to her. I felt so bad, I thought “even though it’s so out of the way, I’ll go buy all the items you need!” (laughs). Then she makes all of these bows for you, but by then, I’d already enhanced my weapons a lot… But I felt so bad that I never Refined them and thought, “I’ll keep these on me forever” (laughs).

Johnny’s original idea was “troubadour,” but as the story progressed and I gave him his hat and all sorts of plumes, he came out a bit comical (laughs). He’s a really fun character to have in your party though, and I fell in love with him right away. I love that his tone-deafness does physical damage to the enemies (laughs).

With the Swordians, they have the will of humans and I wanted to incorporate that into their designs, but it didn’t seem to fit so I went for something more inorganic. Berselius alone has a creepy aura to him, and when Destiny 2 came around I thought “But his owner is such a nice person! Is it really okay for him to have such a creepy design?” but then I thought well, maybe Harold just likes things that way (laughs).

[learnastrowallura]

🕯Mercury in Astrology

Information is from Chris Brennan's video on The Astrology Podcast YouTube channel on the topic of Mercury significations <3

Mercury: writing, speech, words, message, reign, translation, conveying, transmitting, information, interpretations, numbers, analysis, reasoning, details, dialogue, exchange, money, businesses, contracts, commerce, negotiating, indecision, disputation, questioning, doubts, distractions, speed, variety, irregularity, verstatility, changing, adaptability, flexibility, instability, inconsistency, knowledge, philosophy, service, teaching, mind, intelligence, intellect, language, communication, learning, poetry, voice acting, narration, acting, sharing, masculine, neutrality

Sun and Mercury:

Sun and Mercury are both centered around intelligence but in different ways; they complete each other. Sun is about divine knowledge and Mercury is about conveying, transmitting or communicating that knowledge or even perhaps analyzing it and extracting more wisdom as well as detail from it so I found this point particularly interesting. Sun illuminates with its rays and gives clarity by providing us with the truth and then Mercury expands on that truth and shares it with others in its charming versatile way as well

Sun vs Mercury sign:

Mercury does not move further than 28 degrees from the Sun meaning that the Mercury sign will always be the sign before or after the Sun sign (zodiacal signs are divided into 30 degrees) and so there is a bit of a differentiation (for lack of a better word) between who we are and the way we communicate and exchange information with other people if the Mercury and Sun signs are not one of the same. First example that comes to mind is having an Aries Sun Taurus Mercury and two people who are quite close to me have these placements; you would not know they were Aries Suns unless u asked hahaha even though one of them is an Aries rising too so that is something I wanted to note as well. Another example would be Sagittarius sun with Scorpio Mercury adding a lot of intensity to the person's communication style as well (which is something I relate to as you will see later on)

Domicile and exaltation:

Sooo Mercury rules over Gemini and Virgo so those are its domicile signs, it is how Mercury can manifest itself most comfortably whilst embodying its true essence. And then Mercury has its exaltation in Virgo as well which is pretty unique might I say and this gives me the vibes of (this my own way of seeing it so take it with a grain of salt) Mercury being more constructive in the sign of Virgo versus in Gemini just because of this particular distinction

But speaking of these two signs I do think they embody their Mercurial energies quite differently and shoutout to my friend @saturnianoracle for giving me the key words to describe this. First of all they are both analytic but Virgo is more of a skeptic I feel while Gemini tends to have more of an open mind. Virgo wants to see the evidence behind certain things to determine the merit or validity, to a certain extent, of the topics at hand to then decides if it wants to invest energy into looking into it more. It is very grounded as well as organized. With Gemini there is a certain sense of childlike curiosity that takes hold of this sign making it want to explore deep topics and of course stimulate its mind; it dives in without thinking and is more disorganized, inconsistent and chaotic I would say, and it loves conversing about its findings as well. I saw a tiktok video ancient astrology based describing Virgo and Gemini as the most intuitive signs which was fascinating to be honest u can watch it here

Detriment and Fall:

Mercury has its detriment in Sagittarius/Pisces and its fall in the sign of Pisces as well and the interesting thing noted in the video I watched (mentioned at the start) is that Sagittarius and Pisces are ruled by Jupiter, the biggest planet ruling over expansion and abundance, and with Mercury being on the smaller side you can really see that distinction of the Mercurial signs really often looking at the detail of things and well in contrast the Jupiter signs seeing the bigger picture. Also Jupiter being a benefic and ruling over luck makes me think that having these two placements is honestly not so bad tbh

Mercury in first house:

Mercury has its planetary joy in the first house of the self, highlighting the utmost importance of the curious, inquisitive and messenger qualities of the planet. What is interesting is the neutrality of Mercury and how we can link that with its joy being in the 1st house; a house that can be above or below the horizon, so even in this regard it stays neutral and does not "pick a side" if that makes sense; "acting as a bridge between the upper and lower hemispheres of the chart, a bridge between the celestial and terrestial realms which are united in the degree of the ascendant".

Source for the planetery joy information is Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune by Chris Brennan

I have made a more detailed post on planetary joys so check it out <3

Neutrality:

Mercury is not seen as a benefic or a malefic; it is considered a neutral planet. Of course, its manifestation and expression can be positive, negative or stay neutral depending on a few factors, such as:

Being in its domicile (Gemini/Virgo) or its exaltation (Virgo) sign is gonna lead it to manifest in a more constructive/beneficial way

Being in its detriment (Sagittarius/Pisces) or its fall (Pisces) sign would generally lead it to manifest in a less constructive way

Aspecting a benefic planet (Jupiter/Venus) would lead Mercury in this instance to manifest in a more constructive way as it is said to adopt the traits of benefic planet it is associated with

Being in a benefic ruled sign; meaning a Jupiter ruled sign as mentioned beforehand (Sagittarius Mercury, Pisces Mercury) or a Venus ruled sign (Taurus Mercury, Libra Mercury) would manifest in the same manner mentioned above

Aspecting a malefic planet (Mars/Saturn) leads Mercury to take on the traits of that malefic planet as well

Being in a malefic ruled sign so either Mars ruled (Aries Mercury, Scorpio Mercury) or Saturn ruled (Capricorn Mercury, Aquarius Mercury) leads us to Mercury adapting to that malefic's traits again

Triplicity also matters and I will make a detailed post on it soon but for now all I can say is that having Mercury in an air sign (Gemini, Aquarius, or Libra) adds on to the "power" that the Mercury placement has within the chart and the support that it gives to the native; if we are dealing with a day chart then Mercury has moderate support in the air sign in question (Saturn being its triplicity lord), and if it is a night chart then it maintains a powerful position within the chart, being its own triplicity ruler. (Source for triplicity rulership intormation is Ancient Astrology: in Theory and Practice: A manual of Traditional Techniques, Volume One: Assessing Planetary Condition by Demetra George)

That is all!! I wanted to go into more detail tbh but time simply does not allow it these days as I have my internship going on as well but I hope this was informative haha

Thank you for reading <3

Masterlist

Paid readings open

[flower-boi16]

Hellaverse's World Building Problems (100 Follower Special!)

World-building is one of the most important things in any fantasy show, it fleshes out the setting the characters live in and tells you how things work. Unfortunately, Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss have several issues when it comes to they're world-building that harm both series and in this post, I'm going to discuss them.

1. Obsession with Pride

An issue I have with Hellaverse's world-building is that, for some reason, sinners aren't allowed in any other ring outside of the pride ring. So, this creates a few problems. The first is that Hazbin Hotel can now only use one setting rather than the other six it has because the characters are forced to be stuck there, so we'll have to use the same exact setting in a world with six more.

This wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the fact that the pride ring itself is an extremely boring setting, it just looks like our world except red, and there's nothing unique or interesting about it aside from there being demons there.

The only place in the pride ring that has any potential to be interesting is cannibal town, and even then, it just looks like a normal town, there isn't exactly any cannibalization in it to be seen.

The other rings at least have interesting themes to them that make them distinct from each other, the pride ring is just some boring city painted in red. Then there's the issue of why sinners are even kept in the pride ring at all?

I'll go into this more later but the hierarchy in hell is very inconsistent at times. Imps are supposed to be lower class than sinners yet they have access to all the rings while sinners can only be in one. So why would Lucifer keep the sinners in the pride ring and only in the pride ring? The show doesn't bother giving an explanation for this at all.

I've seen the argument go around that it makes the exorcists do their job more effectively which while does make sense...it also doesn't exactly do very well for Lucifer as a character if he intentionally kept his own people in one ring so killing them would be easier. It loses a lot of sympathy points for him for me.

Besides, the show itself still needs to explain these plot holes rather than forcing fans to make fan theories over it. Seriously, I searched this question up on Google and I found so many people asking this, and all of the responses to the posts were people just making educated guesses because the show itself never bothered to actually EXPLAIN this.

So it's not even all of Hell having an overpopulation problem, it's just the pride ring specifically because sinners are confined there forever. If Charlie wants to solve Hell's overpopulation problem, why not ask her daddy to let sinners into other rings? (Assuming she doesn't know the actual reason why Heaven does this which totally does create serious issues with the show) Again, it's just the pride ring having an overpopulation problem, not all of Hell, so why Charlie never figured this out is beyond me.

But confining the characters to the pride ring creates more issues than just that, because now the show can't flesh out the other rings because it forces the characters to be stuck in just one.

So, you get the next issue with Hellaverse's world-building...

2. Packing World Building in a spin-off

Because Hazbin Hotel can't flesh out its world itself, it needs to rely on its spin-off, Helluva Boss, to flesh it out instead. This becomes a problem when you look at Hazbin as a stand-alone show separate from Helluva Boss; if you did not watch Helluva Boss, Hazbin's world-building would come across as fairly underdeveloped due to the characters being confined to one ring, so the other rings wouldn't get much fleshing out or development causing Hell as a setting to feel underdeveloped.

Hazbin Hotel is the main series of Hellaverse, it should be able to stand on its own as a stand-alone show and should not need a spin-off to flesh out its world-building. A new viewer should not have to watch a spin-off show to get more out of the main show's world-building, the main show should've fleshed out its world itself rather than rely on a spin-off for it.

This is why confining the characters to just the pride ring is a bad idea, the show can't flesh out its world now and it has to rely on a spin-off series to do that, so in order for a new viewer to experience more of the other rings, they would need to watch a spin-off show which is entirely supplemental material that one normally does not need to watch to understand things about a story.

Without HB, the other rings in Hazbin are very underexplored and underdeveloped, because we never get to see them or flesh them out. It needs to rely on its spin-off to flesh out its world, and that's bad because a spin-off is SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL. A viewer should not need to watch supplemental stuff to understand things about the main show, it should not be a required watch to get more of the world-building fleshed out.

Though, if anything, Helluva Boss just creates more world-building problems within the franchise, such as...

3. Hell's Hierarchy

So, in the Hazbin Hotel, there is a hierarchy in Hell. The order from most power to least is...

Lucifer

Charlie and Lilith

The Seven Deadly Sins

Ars Goetias

Overlords

Sinners

Hell Borns

Imps and Hell-Hounds

The problem here is that Hell's hierarchy is constantly ignored or broken by both of the shows. For example, Sinners and Overlords are confined to only the pride ring, meanwhile, Imps and Hell hounds, who are LOWER CLASS than Sinners and Overlords, are allowed to go to any ring that they like.

Then there's Beelzebub, whose mere existence causes issues. Let's get the obvious out of the way; why is a HELLHOUND one of the deadly sins when those are supposed to be just as lower class as imps? This could work if Beelzebub specifically had the least amount of power of the sins, but she doesn't.

FURTHERMORE, once we just ignore the fact that Beelzebub is a sin despite being a hellhound, we then have to open the can of worms that is her having a boyfriend who is also a hellhound, and...nobody cares about this?

I'm sorry, if a sin is perfectly allowed to date a hell hound in public, then why is it such a big deal when Stolas and Ozzie are caught fucking imps? Do the other sins not know about this??? Does Lucifer not know about this??? If so, why not??? Surely one of them being in a relationship with a hellhound would get they're attention...right?

And if they do know about this then again, why is it such a big deal that a Goetia Prince is sleeping with an imp and a sin, who is ABOVE HIM IN TERMS OF POWER, being in a relationship with a hellhound, who are just as if not MORE lower-class than imps, not? It's a confusing inconsistency.

Also, and I JUST REALIZED THIS, but what even happens when a sin or goetia is found out to be fucking an imp or hell hound? Seriously, what consequences does that sin or goetia even face? Stolas has been exposed for fucking Blitz ever since the end of season 1 yet he has received NO consequences at all, and like I said, Beezlebulb is allowed to be in a relationship with someone who is on the SAME LEVEL AS IMPS.

So why would Ozzie even need to hide his relationship with Fizz at all? What are the consequences for being in a relationship with a hellhound or imp? So far, there appears to be absolutely none! So why is it even that big of a deal when Stolas gets found out? Why does Ozzie need to hide his relationship with Fizz if there aren't going to be any consequences for it?

These plot holes hurt my BRAIN to think about. There is no consistency here, Hell's Hierarchy barely fucking matters in either of the shows, and characters higher up in the hierarchy are allowed to do SEVERAL things with lower classes and face no consequences despite the show trying to say they would. Oh, but all of what I just mentioned are just issues with HELL's world-building, now it's time to get into...

4. Heaven

I already talked about the problems with Heaven in the show so I won't dwell on the issues I've already talked about too much, however, Heaven still has many world-building issues like Hell does. For one, as I've already pointed out, we don't even know how Heaven even WORKS.

I already asked these questions before but like. How does one get into Heaven? What are the requirements for what make a good or bad person? We don't actually know and we never will because Heaven for SOME REASON doesn't have it's own criteria for what does or doesn't make a good person...

...WHY??!? Why don't they have this??? So how does one even GET into Heaven at all???? We have no idea of how Heaven works because the show never actually bothers putting in the effort to explain that.

Who even decides whether or not to get into Heaven??? Who is in charge of that??? Answer: We don't fucking know. Sera mentions the "divine judgment", which, after a quick Google search, says "the action of God's retributive justice by which the destiny of rational creatures is decided according to their merits and demerits"

So basically god decides who goes into Heaven or Hell, which would make sense...if it weren't for the fact, from what I've heard from other blogs...Viv said that god doesn't exist in HH or HB...so...

...divine judgment by WHO EXACTLY???? The lack of explanation of what does or doesn't get somebody into Heaven is made worse with Pentious getting into Heaven in the season finale.

I have already complained about this multiple times but like. HOW DID PENTIOUS GET INTO HEAVEN???? WHY DID HE GET INTO HEAVEN???????? He literally got killed by Adam! He should be a bunch of energy right out according to the wiki! Yet he makes it into Heaven anyway???? WHY????? The show never explains this at all! The only thing resembling a logical explanation I could find was on the wiki and even then the article was just speculating because again, the show didn't bother to actually explain this.

Viv. Can you PLEASE for the love of god (no pun intended) actually explain the rules of your world and its world-building? People should not have to create theories to patch up plot holes in your world-building, actually, EXPLAIN this shit for once.

Oh, and I'm still not done, because now there's the fact that the entirety of Heaven and most of Heaven's higher-ups except for Sera never knew of the exterminations, which creates MORE plot holes.

Did none of Heaven's citizens or other higher-ups question why the exorcists had BLOOD on them when they came back from Hell? Wouldn't have any of them put two and two together and think "Hey so they are probably killing people down there". Did none of them even question what was the point of the exorcists at all? How was Sera able to hide this stuff? Once again, the show doesn't answer ANY OF THIS.

Oh, and I'm STILL not done, because now, it's time to open the can of worms that apparently does not exist in this universe.....WHY?!?!? According to Google, the angels were created BY GOD. So, if he doesn't exist, how did the angels exist either? Who created them??? Heck, who even created HEAVEN ITSELF?????? Removing god from this universe creates so many issues and breaks the entire show. sigh, ok, I think that's enough....

5. Conclusion

So, Hellaverse's world-building has MANY issues. There are a lot of plot holes and thoughts about it that don't get answered, as well as hell itself, specifically the pride ring being incredibly boring visually. Not to mention a lot of the world-building is packed into a SPIN-OFF SHOW. So...ya, hope you liked my post, and thank y'all for 100 followers! So...bye.

[bogleech]

Just read your plastic bug review ( absolutely delightful!) and Id love to hear your mosquito hot takes if you have the time.

Well there's a viral lie that they're ecologically valueless and of course, no, there's really no such thing, and their importance goes far beyond just another food for insect-eaters, but that's more "scientific facts" than "hot takes" so as far as "hot takes" go:

They're both beautiful and cute animals, more charming than butterflies.

The fact that they're bothersome vampires is part of the charm, it's just plain cool that our planet has swarms of night-flying blood-sucking swamp creatures.

I completely reject their status as "deadliest animal" on the basis that a mosquito by itself is irritating but inherently harmless. The diseases they can carry are distinct organisms that evolved to exploit the mosquito as a vehicle. It is worth noting that only a few mosquito species can even transmit illnesses to humans at all!

Speaking of which I notice people are quick to defend bats, raccoons, rats and other more popular animals that can spread disease, but use mosquito borne illness as justification to want mosquitoes totally eradicated, and I think that's pretty transparently a matter of petty spite. Take away the diseases and the mosquito is still an "inconvenience," however harmless, and humans just have a very difficult time with the reality that nature does not exist for our comfort and fun.

Can't help noticing that research into just killing them all off gets more attention and funding than the equally viable and environmentally safer research into simply making them inhospitable to pathogens, and I'm sure that's driven partially by the above biases, but partially because there's probably money and clout in being the one to reduce Pesky Bugs from popular tourist destinations like Florida.

Even having said all of the above, an animal never needs to be harmless, pleasant, or ecologically "essential" to be worthy of admiration. Each is a unique and special sculpture of evolution and a "character" in the vast varied cast of living organisms. Some of them are allowed to be bad guys. Some of them are allowed to just be background filler. The total sum of the different forms taken by life on our planet is what's precious about life on our planet, including every part of it anyone has ever feared or hated.

wiggleys: