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mumms-the-word · 6 months

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Gale and Mystra (and Mystra, and Mystra...)

I did a rabbit hole deep dive into this a few days ago and I have Thoughts. Prepare for long/researched explanations (and by researched I mean I read a lot of wikis and scraps of lore books/novels)

So Mystra dies in the Forgotten Realms something like three times (the “official” number is wibbly because there are many writers messing with Forgotten Realms lore and they don’t always agree). She dies in -339 DR, and then again in 1358 DR, and then kind of again a few months later. Allegedly she stayed dead until 1479-1480, which is roughly 12 years prior to the events of Baldur's Gate 3, but didn't get her body back until 1487, which is 5 years before BG3, which takes place in 1492 (if we're going by the Baldur's Mouth Gazette year).

So...what do we do with that and the current popular theory that Gale was groomed as a child?

If it sounds complicated, don't worry, it's more complicated than you think. Welcome to my TEDTalk. More under the cut.

Mystryl, the first goddess of magic (like, ever) dies hundreds of years prior to the events of BG3 during the Karsus/Netheril debacle. Karsus tried to steal her deity/power and succeeded only to realize his mortal body/mind couldn’t contain or control that much power. Mystryl sacrificed herself (her essence, her power) to keep it out of Karsus’s incapable hands. The Weave went wonky for an indeterminate but brief amount of time, during which the floating cities of Netheril crashed to the ground. This happens in -339 DR, over ~1700 years before BG3. Gale tells us a brief version of this story in his standard dialogue. It's also established lore in campaign books.

Mystryl was reborn as Mystra (still in -339 DR), and this Mystra lasted for AGES. This Mystra is the mother of all magic, the Mystra we basically think of as BG3’s Mystra. This is the Mystra that met and claimed Elminster as one of her Chosen (later they became lovers, it's a whole thing).

But this is complicated. Because in 1358 DR…she dies too.

Long story short, for a brief moment, the Overgod Ao forced all gods to walk Faerûn in their mortal avatar forms and denied them entry into heavens (this was called the Times of Troubles, very complicated, the point is, gods were walking the earth as mortals). Mystra decided to fight Helm, the god guarding the stairway into the heavens, and got promptly smote.

Smitten? Smited? Whatever. Helm DESTROYED her. Death #2.

This time, Ao chose a mortal girl named Midnight to replace Mystra. He imbued Midnight, a wizard girl who worshipped Mystra, with Mystra's powers (Mystra conveniently left an amulet behind with some of her power contained within). Incidentally, the Weave didn't die this time like it did the first time. Convenient!

Midnight-Mystra lasts less than a year before Shar and Cyric (god of trickery) kill her and the Spellplague happens. The Spellplague is basically 10 years of magic going haywire and the Weave kind of ceasing to exist. Again. It's complicated.

Ignoring that some Forgotten Realms writers insist the Spellplague didn't happen, BG3 says it DID. One book in BG3 states:

In the infamous, calamitous year of 1385 DR, a conspiracy between the goddess of darkness, Shar, and the god of trickery, Cyric, sought to end Mystra's control over the Weave and influence over the realms by cravenly assassinating her. But instead of merely breaking the goddess of magic's dominance, her death threw the Weave into utter chaos and collapse. Magic spells faltered, or failed entirely. Countless spellcasters were killed or driven insane... Toril would face nearly a hundred years of upheaval before Mystra could return once again, reinstated as goddess of magic in 1480 DR, thanks to the efforts of the legendary wizard, Elminster Aumar and the events of the Second Sundering...

(Curiously Gale’s Countermeasure Abberation at the Netherbrain fight is called Spellplague so...do with that whatever you want. I mean, I know that’s the Countermeasure for ANY wizard in the party but it feels particularly interesting for Gale. Also we're going to ignore the Second Sundering in this post because that's a whole different rant, just know that the Second Sundering means the state of the world and the pantheon of gods basically got soft reset and then locked into place. Which is why it was important for Mystra to return before that happened, or else she would have gotten locked out of returning at all.)

As far as I can tell, between 1385 and 1479, Mystra was silent. Maybe dead, maybe not. There's some suggestion that she existed in the Weave, because other than the Spellplague period, the Weave still existed. The fact that the Weave exists separately from Mystra is important mostly because Shar wants to turn it into the Shadow Weave, which she can't do if Mystra is alive and maintaining control over the Weave. And if Shar can't control the Weave even while Mystra is silent for 100ish years, then...well. Mystra must not be dead-dead.

More importantly than Shar Politics, her being maybe-dead for almost 100 years means she wasn't whispering in the minds of her Chosen the way gods like her normally do. The wikis mention a comic ("Lord of the Darkways") where Mystra spoke directly to Elminster's mind, but that's the only instance before 1479. Mystra was SILENT before 1479...or at least, very, very, very quiet.

So what happens in 1479? Well, long story short, according to the novel Bury Elminster Deep, Elminster travels to a cave where there is a bear carrying some Mystra's remaining essence/power. Why a bear? I have no idea. Point is, she speaks directly to Elminster and confirms that she is, indeed, Mystra. Specifically, she's pre-Midnight Mystra and also...changed into a newish Mystra.

This is some of what Elminster thinks/says when he's speaking with her and notices she's guarding some artifacts:

“Ye collected these things when ye were Midnight?” El blurted, trembling in a sudden chaos of wanting to know so much, yet not knowing what he dared ask. Her love—or at least fondness—was in his head and all around him, but something was subtly different in it, a distance that had not been there once, or rather one that had grown since Midnight had ascended to replace the Mystra his far younger self had first touched and tasted. Gone was the Mystra whose mind would long ago have merged with his to let them converse wordlessly, thoughts flashing.

Bear!Mystra has been guarding things that Midnight!Mystra collected, things that were important to Mystra!Mystra. Confusing, I know. So who is this current Mystra, speaking to Elminster as a bear? This is the Mystra that would then go on to become lovers with Gale.

Now, I'd argue it's basically all the same Mystra. There was Mystryl and then there was Mystra in her many forms. The Mystra that become lovers with Elminster when she selected him as her Chosen 1300 years ago is the same Mystra that took Gale as a lover too—even if she's died and transformed a couple of times.

It’s worth noting that the novels also sort of mingle all the Mystras into one. In the next novel, Elminster Enraged, when another character called the Simbul (another Chosen of Mystra who is also Mystra’s daughter) is speaking with Mystra, they talk about how Mystra has memories both of previous Mystras and of several Chosen. When the Simbul asks if Mystra can sense her current Chosen, Mystra confirms that she can sense her daughters and Elminster.

“Wasn’t that the Mystra before you?” The Simbul dared to ask. Echoes in the Weave, my daughter, echoes in the Weave…we see and feel so much that happened before us, in the Weave; it becomes part of us, the memories of the Mystra who birthed you becoming part of me, so I become that Mystra…

Anyway. Mystra is Mystra. Basically the same Mystra she's been since the fall of Netheril. Why does that matter? Well.

When Elminster is talking to bear-Mystra, she gives him a command: “I charge you to preserve magic wherever and whenever you can” and also; “Recruit new Chosen and gather them here for me to confer with. I need many, and they must be different from my daughters and from each other…and above all, I must have those I can trust.”

Okay, granted, this specific command probably doesn't apply to Gale. Gale never talks about being gathered as Chosen to help usher in Mystra's return. Remember, she's gathering Chosens so she can restore herself to godhood before Ao clicks the "Save" function on his universe post-Second Sundering. That's what this command is referring to.

Elminster does end up choosing several potential Chosen for Mystra (plus he goes on to steal a whole bunch of magic and gives it to Mystra to restore her back to godhood; this happens at the end of Elminster Enraged). Elminster spends part of Bury Elminster Deep, Elminster Enraged, and The Herald (three back-to-back novels) gathering Chosen or...well, killing corrupt Chosen and stealing their power to give back to Mystra. Mystra begins speaking into the minds of those who worship her in Elminster Enraged (around 1480) and the end of that novel has her appearing as a very grand spirit type of lady, but she's only seen restored to her actual corporeal goddess body at the end of The Herald, which is set in 1487.

So what does this have to do with Gale??

Simple. I have two theories.

Theory 1: Larian just ignores timelines and maybe wanted to create a new grooming narrative for Gale

Listen, Larian has a ton of writers and not every writer can be expected to maintain ALL of the lore Ed Greenwood and other writers wrote for the campaign books and novels. The Forgotten Realms is like 40+ years old. It's been through every iteration of D&D rules. Mystra dies every time the Wizards of the Coast revamps their magic rules, to the point where Ed Greenwood literally had Elminster say, in one of his novels, “I think Mystra’s fall was part of a cycle fated to happen again and again, as the Weave—as all magic of this world—needs renewal.” Elminster fourth-wall calls out a "fated cycle" that is just WOTC remixing magic rules.

Hell, maybe Larian knew that and wanted Gale to be part of the next cycle of Mystra-death-and-rebirth. Raphael certainly suggests something similar if Gale ascends to godhood and plans to usurp Mystra. That's a rant for a different post.

Anyway. Point is, it's a lot of lore, and a lot of it contradicted itself before Larian ever got their hands on it. The writers knew enough to know that Mystra picks Chosens all the time and that she's been known to be lovers with her Chosens. They probably took that and ran with it. Gale was chosen by Mystra and become lovers with her and the timelines don't matter, and maybe there are hints that Mystra groomed him as a kid. Maybe Larian just ignored Ed Greenwood's lore that Mystra didn't speak to any of her followers until like 12 years before the game. That's fine!

But if that theory doesn't seem to vibe, consider theory 2 (which for the purposes of this analysis suggests Gale is a cool 35 for convenient math):

Theory 2: Gale didn't actually hear or meet a corporeal Mystra until he was a consenting adult (NOTE: this does not necessarily mean he wasn't groomed)

Brief timeline, again.

1385, Mystra and Midnight both die and anything resembling a goddess of magic goes silent for nearly 100 years. Early 1400s? Elminster hears Mystra's voice but she's otherwise silent for everyone else 1479, Elminster meets Bear!Mystra, begins finding other Chosen of Mystra and gathering power for Mystra 1480ish, Elminster restores power to Bear!Mystra and she Officially Returns (but like, quietly and we still haven't seen her body, she seems to be just spirit and stardust) 1487, Mystra now has a body because she does this Big Reveal at the end of The Herald by entering a room where five of her Chosen are

If Gale is 35 in 1492, then he was 30 when she "officially" had a body again, and 23 when she begins speaking to her Chosen (or those who worship her more broadly) after a century of silence.

Obviously this theory breaks the current ongoing theory that Mystra revealed herself to Gale when he was 8, or at least a young child. However, does the game really support that theory either? Elminster's letter to an ascended God!Gale only says:

Do you recall the day we first met, m’boy? You could have been no more than eight summers’ old, clutching your mother’s apron…

He doesn't say anything about telling Gale that he is a Chosen at the age of 8 or that Mystra personally has an interest in him. Maybe Elminster was just wandering around and met Gale, or perhaps someone wrote to Elminster to tell him there's an exceptionally talented mage boy that he should meet. Elminster doesn't tell us the circumstances of the meeting, so we'll never know. The one thing we do know is that Elminster has known about Gale since Gale's childhood. There's just nothing in his letter proves that Mystra was actively speaking to Gale when he was 8, or even telling Elminster to choose Gale that young.

Keep in mind, if Gale is 35 in 1492, then he was 8 in 1465, well before Elminster had gotten the charge to maintain the Weave and select new Chosens for Mystra.

Then of course we have Minsc's comment that:

While the girl-folk go on to rule as wychlaran, Weave-touched boys were hidden away. Trained to work their craft in silence and secrecy. It is an old custom, not well-observed. In truth I thought it born of caution, after some catastrophe wrought by wizardly men-folk of old. Now I wonder if it was not done to hide them from Mystra, and the snares she sets for young and prideful boys, hm?

I want to point out that this idea that the Rashemi people hide Weave-touched boys from Mystra's sight is completely new lore. Ed Greenwood explained a bit of how he views vremyonni boys/men being secluded in a series of tweets from 2020. Basically, because a wychlaran (female witch) is also a kind of ruling/religious class in the Rashemi culture, male spellcasters create a power imbalance, especially because they have access to more powerful spells than the female spellcasters. To combat this, male spellcasters are hidden away to avoid political imbalance and end up serving as enchanters/weaponsmiths for the wychlarans. Or they leave and become wizards elsewhere.

The idea that the Rashemi hide the boys away to either a) protect them from Mystra's icky amorous tactics or b) protect their communities from Mystra encouraging grand, destructive ambition in their menfolk, is probably unique to BG3 alone...and that's if we can take what Minsc says at face value.

Can we?

Minsc proves time and again he doesn't think much of wizards. The only thing he likes about Gale is that he can explode. I think he mistrusts male spellcasters in general because of his culture. So his comment could just be Minsc taking a jab at Gale while also not accurately representing his culture (possibly by offering an explanation that he just hasn't thought through all that thoroughly).

The fact that he says "young and prideful boys" is curious, regardless. Does he view Gale as a boy, because Gale is technically younger than Minsc by several decades thanks to Minsc being a statue for a while? Is it derogatory? Is it a remark to say that Gale's ambition is a bit juvenile, as wizard ambitions tend to be? Who knows. Minsc's dialogue isn't always as surface-level as it appears.

So...was Gale groomed?

I guess that depends on your definition of grooming. Adult-to-adult grooming is absolutely a thing. It's a cycle of manipulation, isolation, and gaslighting that leaves one person, the victim, in a twisted, unequal relationship with their abuser. So, yeah, Gale absolutely was groomed by his goddess. Point blank. Period. She rewarded his magical talent with sexual/emotional intimacy. He responded with love, intimacy, adoration, etc., that she was incapable of reciprocating as his equal, because of her power of authority over him (over all wizards) yet she used it to her advantage, and then tossed him aside when it became inconvenient for her. Absolutely she groomed him, and she's an abuser.

But if we're merging Forgotten Realms lore and timelines with BG3 timelines, then our understanding of Gale's perspective of all this shifts a little. Instead of a child chasing after a goddess who is stringing him along, it becomes Gale, the child prodigy, desperately trying to understand magic in a world where the goddess of magic is silent, possibly dead, and the Weave is trying to repair itself after a devastating Spellplague a few decades earlier. It becomes Gale in his teens, not understanding why the others think he's so odd for burying himself in his studies to impress a goddess who might not even care, if she's even alive. It becomes a young adult Gale overwhelmed with awe at the first rumors that Mystra might finally, finally be back, and hearing her voice for the very first time. It becomes Gale, in his late twenties, finally staring into the face of his goddess, someone he's had blind faith in before he even knew for certain she was capable of hearing his prayers. It becomes mid-thirties Gale, who has grown up with a patchwork Weave and a missing goddess, plotting to restore even more power to her by finding an elusive bit of errant Weave and making the biggest mistake of his life. It becomes a story of Gale who probably looked forward to the return of Mystra with so much awe and longing, only to be used and cast aside by her within a dozen years of her return to godhood.

No wonder he felt that godhood was not only well within his grasp, but that he could be a more deserving kind of god.

It's not a perfect theory, and a lot of Gale's dialogue suggests he was a young man, probably early 20s, when he began an intimate relationship with Mystra. He also implies that she spoke to him for some time before they ever became intimate. He describes her first as the Mother of Magic, and then his teacher, and then his muse, and then his lover. So what are we to believe?

Well...that's the frustrating beauty of D&D and Forgotten Realms and Baldur's Gate I guess. The lore is wibbly wobby and malleable. You do what you want with it.

#long post #bg3 #bg3 lore #baldur's gate 3 #gale #gale dekarios #fandom discourse #bg3 discourse #in this essay i will #who let me do this to myself tbh

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bundoesnotcompete · 13 days

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Reader is isekai'd into star rail but instead of your body its otto apocolypse's. Im not real impressed with this one personally but its nearly 4k words so here you go.

Violence ahead. Also errors and lore inaccuracies to be expected. Maybe ooc? No main pairings

Waking up to somewhere other than your bed is bound to give anyone a heart attack. Waking up on another planet is enough to instantly kill anyone from shock. Yet, here you were, gaping like an idiot in front of a mirror.

Not only were you on some no name planet, but your looks had changed. You were a spitting image of one Otto Apocalypse, down to the purple outfit you were wearing. If you put your hair fully down you looked like Loucha, but you pushed that to the back of your mind quickly.

You pinched yourself again. You didn't wake up. You put your hands on the edges of the sink and took a deep breath. The sound you released was closer to a quietly dying animal.

"What the hell is my life?" You whispered to yourself.

What you were supposed to do? You had nothing! You had no money, no clue to what your doing, no housing! You were homeless! The only comfort you had was the fact that you were cute and not programmed to drop loot.

You startled as something touched your ankle. Frantically looking down, you saw a wisp of faint purple colored smoke moving towards you. The tendrils playfully wrapped and played around your feet. The tendrils seemed to whisper faintly. You kicked them away and they disappeared in faint smoke.

Sighing, you left the public bathroom you were in. The sun was beginning to set and you were not tired. You took a left and began to wander. The streets were rather empty as you wondered. The signs were in a language you couldn't read so you couldn't keep track of where you were going.

You were ashamed to admit it, but you had dumpster dived in order to find anything that may be of use to you. You had found something that you assumed was money and a really cool rock. The sun continued to set far slower than you were used to as you continued to wander and dig in the trash like some sort of deranged raccoon.

You were approaching what looked to be a train station by the time the sun had fully set. The interior was beautiful and well kept. The floors were shiny enough to show your relfection.

There was an older woman standing at the desk who was talking to what you assumed was her coworker. She turned to you and smiled as you approached the desk. You looked to the sign above her and cried internally. How were you suppksed to get anywhere or know you were going if you couldn't read?!

"Hello! Where will you be heading today?" She greeted you kindly. Your cheeks turned red with shame as you tried to figure out what to say. The station was deserted at this time of night so at least it would be just her and her coworker to see you suffer. The wisps were returning around your feet.

You set everything you found in the dumpsters on the desk and took a shakey breath. You ignored her confused and stunned face.

"I cannot read." You looked away from her, trying to ignore the heat rising to your cheeks. "Where would i be able to go with this?"

She gave you a look of pity and she examined what was in front of her. She hummed.

"This isn't enough to get you anywhere dear." You deflated. "But, I will cover the rest of the cost to send you to the capital since you almost have enough for that. Do you need someone to get you onto to the train?"

"Ah, I think I may have it from here. Thank you ma'am. Is it the next train that is going to the capital?"

"Yes," She slid the really cool rock back to you as she put change in the drawer behind the desk. "Do take care of yourself dear. Things will get better. Have a seat, the train will be here in an hour."

The next hour you napped on the bench of the station. The station was rather cold as the ngiht went on. The loud blaring of the train's horn woke you and you boarded the train when it stopped. You were greeted by a man and he took you to a table to be sat. The rock sat heavily in your pocket.

"Here is your seat. Madame Ru told us about your situation." Heat flushed back to your cheeks in embarrassment as the man spoke. What situation?! Did you really look that bad when you got your tickets?! "Don't worry, we will take care of you until we reach the capital. Everything is already paid for so do not be afraid to order when meal time comes."

You sat in the seat in front of the table the man led to you to.

"We will be parting…." The intercom came over loudly as the man began to speak again.

"Would you like some tea or water?" You nodded, looking out the window. The train was really nice for the cheapest option.

"We are departing…." The attendant nodded and left as you zoned out. You lost count of time as you stared emptily out the window. The train began to move. A steaming cup WA set in front of you.

"Here you go, kid. I got tea for you." You gave thanks as you took the mug. "The next meal will be after our next stop in two hours. If you need anything I will be in the front of the cart. Do not hesitate to ask." The man's tone was sympathetic. You felt like you were taking advantage of the people around you.

The attendant walked off. The cart around you was empty. You stared at Otto's reflection in the tea. The empty blankness you were feeling was festering into something worse. Otto was nice to look at, but you wished you were back into your body.

The churning in your stomach got worse as you thoughts turned south. You stood and headed for the front of the cart to find the bathroom. When you asked the attendant he pointed you in it's direction.

You threw everything you had in you up as you sobbed quietly. It was too much. The intense ringing in your ears was all you could focus on and the other noises outside the restroom made everything worse. The wisps were back and they gently rubbed your ankles and then your back as you sat on the floor. Though their smokey form wasn't much use, the kind touches gently calmed you.

The roaring waves of anxiety turned to a mostly calm ocean. You didn't kick away the wisps as you stood up and cleaned your face off. The pure anxiety faded back into the empty numbness of before. Deciding you looked decent enough, you left the restroom and headed back to your seat. You ignored the look the attendant gave you.

Taking a few more sips of your tea, you drowsily gazed out the window. A quick nap was in order, you decided.

Jerking awake from your nap was unpleasent. It was almost as bad as finding out that you were still here in this horrible dream. The hustle and bussle of the people boarding the train woke you up. The tea in front of you having gone cold.

"It is unlucky that we didn't catch that…."

"Did you hear what happened…."

"I heard that the Astral Express…."

You could only catch tailends of conversations as people boarded. You turned your attention to the windows again as you looked out towards the woods the train had stopped in. Well, the woods by the station at least. The chime of the intercom was ignored in favor of looking down at the cool rock you had found earlier.

It had soft shimmering pinks and purples for the colors. It was mostly smooth and round, and it only had a few raised edges. It looked to be a natural rock. You could see people be seated next you out off the corner of your eye.

You turned back to the window and absentmindedly ran your fingers over the stone. The train was beginning to move again.

It wasn't long until a woman had come around and started setting what looked to be menus on the tables. You were getting hungry, hopefully the menu had pictures.

The menu did not have pictures. You wanted to cry. A small detail was about to break what little spirit you had left in you. What kind of menu didn't have a single picture?! The shit cake that was your day was getting worse. It was like you couldn't get a single win in.

"Oh wow, I'm so glad that this is paid for! Look at all these good options!" The girl in the seat next to you marveled at the menu. Yes, just rub salt into that wound why don't you? It seems you were going to have to wait for the attendent to come back so he or she could read to you.

"I've heard that this planet is known for its Lobster-Rat. If i get it will you get something else? Then we can try two things!" Another teen's voice came from the table next to you.

"What are you going Mr.Yang?" Dread filled you stomach. No, please don't let them be who you think they are. You knew those voices sounded too familiar. You couldn't comprehend what was said next, to busy fighting down your nervousness. If this was Honkai: Star Rail, then unless you managed to get lucky, you were toast. It would be you luck that you'd get into trouble. The menu in your hands was trembling. The attendant woman from earlier came to get their orders.

She turned to you and you knew you were going to have to face the crew next to you.

"Oh! I see your tea has gone cold. I will get amother one for you. What will you be having to eat." She asked. You couldn't even bring yourself to be shameful of your lack of reading skills. You had bigger concerns like not crying or getting angry at this whole mess.

"I cannot read." You managed to get out, your voice wavering on the verge of tears. "Would you mind reading it?" The attendant didn't comment and read the menu to you. In the end, you decided to go with the spiderfish soup. Hopefully, it didn't kill you.

As the attendant left you managed to discover who it was sitting at the booth across from you. March 7th, Stelle, and Welt Yang sat in the booth. You died internally as you saw them. It was just your luck that you got isekai'ed into the Honkai Universe. You looked towards your cold tea.

"Are you alright? You look really pale." March's voice fluttered into your ears. You needed sleep. Sleep and a warm meal. Even if it did not solve your problem it would make you feel so much better.

"I've been better. Its been a rather rough day." You responded truthfully. "Don't worry about me, though. How are you?" The conversation soon turned into small talk. It was odd how just simply talking to someone was making you feel better. The small talk continued for awhile even as the food was brought out.

"May I ask what brings you here?" You asked as you finished your meal.

"Just some sightseeing." Welt said, stacking his and March's empty plated and bowls into a pile. You had a feeling that was mostly a lie but decided to not pry. You didn't want to make the man more uneasy then he already is. You were sure seeing a literal spitting image of Otto Apocalypse had to be off putting. Especially since you two had differing personalities. Is that how he felt when seeing Loucha?

"What about you? Do you live here?" March said excitedly. Stelle watched you curiously from where she was piling food into her mouth. To be honest or not to be honest, that is the question. Eh, you had nothing to lose by being mostly honest.

"I don't live here, no. I just kinda ended up here. I've been struggling to get off planet. It is hard when you cannot read, yknow?"

"You can't read?" Welt questioned.

"Not this language. My home planet's language is found nowhere else." You thought about it, did Earth even exist in this universe? "Its gone now, so it doesn't matter."

"Oh." A heavy silence set between you and the table.

"These days i am just hoping to see the glaxay and maybe find a home." Preferably away from all the fighting. Far, far away from the fighting.

The wispy energy that was happily curling at your feet seemed frantic now. They seemed to be unsettled by something. By what, you wondered. Now that you noticed them you had a sinking feeling.

The train seemed to hit something but it never went off rails or stopped. The bump only knocking stuff around and startling the passangers. The dread that was pooling in your stomach got worse. Why was this your life? Couldn't you go a single day without something bad happening?

"What was that?" Stelle had just finished her meal when she asked.

"I hope it's nothing bad. I really hope its just some minor bum-" You didn't get to finish your sentence and the train screeched too a stop and caused everything to slide.

There were footsteps on the roof. The crew next to you seemed to prepare for something to happen. The wisps at your feet whispered incoherently, but seemed aggitated. You had no weapons to fight, but at least you had the comfort of your wisp buddies being with you. Maybe the really cool rock could defend you?

The footsteps stopped above the hatcb above your cart. It sat on the otherside of the roof away from your side. It slammed into the floor as someone kicked it in and entered the cart. Multiple heavily armed people entered through the newly made hole and seemed to search for something. They scattered out into the cart and looked both in luggage and at people. They took only credits but left any other valuable things alone.

Two approached your end if the cart. The crew next to you seemed ready to fight the closer the two beings got. The wisps at your feet grew angrier. The whispering was growing more audible and clear. They were itching for a fight. You didn't want to fight.

Something told you that whatever gods were here were laughing at you. Aha especially. You just knew that you were about to be caught up in something you wanted no part of.

You were right, the two paid no attention to the crew next to you when they turned to you. The wisps were calling for blood and danced aggressively around both your and the two in front of you feet. You didn't want to fight or kill. The thought of killing didn't bother you like it would've normally but you still knew that you should always be a last resort. Thst little unsettling thought was put to the back of your mind as one of them spoke.

"Grab them."

Ah hell no you were not about to be kidnapped. The last resort quickly became first resort as you launched yourself at the speaker. A fight was quick to break out. You slammed the speaker into the crew's table and barely dodged the bigger ones hands. The one now dubbed Spaker was quick to recover and try to fight you. Even though they had weapons they seemed more keen on fist fighting you. Were you that valuable?

The fight attracted the attention of the other boarder that was standing in the front. You paid no attention to them as you fought the other two. The back of the gun they had was quick to connect to the back of your skull after speaker pushed you towards them. The crew took this as their cue to jump in the fight while the boarders were distracted with you.

The wisps took great offense to your downing. They zipped by your line of sight as you hit the ground from the blow on your head. While you didn't see much of what was going on, you knew the crew was fighting. You would help them if you weren't so disoriented. As you attempted to sit up, someone grabbed you hair and pulled you up into a sort off kneeling position. You hit then as much as you could.

The whispering was worse.

"Use us and destroy him. We crave violence towards the enemy. Use us. We will help." The wisps were sorrounding the man pulling you away from the fight. He remained unaware is the extreme danger he was in. "Kill him. Its us or him."

The pain in your head was worsening as he got closer to the hatch. Panic was filling your mind. How were the wisps going to help.

"Let us take care of him for you. Please let us do it for you." Tears were filling your eyes a fear took hold. "Just imagine your asleep in a nice pool. We will take care of the rest." You closed your eyes and tried to do as they said. It was difficult among the pain but whatever you had conjured in your mind was enough to let them take control.

It was easy let yourself float away from the pain and emotion after that. It was easy to remain unaware as you floated in the great wavey nothingness. The purple waves whispered around you. It wanted you to help someone, but who?

"Do you think-" Stelle's voice seemed to echo in this place and it woke you slightly from your drifting.

"Look! Their waking-" You could feel yourself floating back to the top of the water. Feeling yourself regain movement. In a split second you felt everything again, pain included. Groaning, you cracked open your eyes. Why did you feel sticky?

You touched your face and ask that came off was red. Oh dear.

"It is okay. Your safe now." Welt's face came into view as he spoke. You looked around. The entire floor seemed to be covered in the red stickiness. You seemed too be in the place you last remembered being. "You took a heavy blow. Are you able to stand by yourself?" You wanted to say something, but your body wouldn't allow it. You could see the wisps come back into view.

"Sorry. Sorry." They seemed to whisper over and over. What were they sorry for?

"Mr. Yang they don't look so good." March said, looking pale. Why did she look scared? You shifted onto your side and sat up. Whatever this red paste was it was sticky and strong smelling. Your mind wanted to register that it was blood but the exhaustion from possesion caused it to struggle. It would file it for later then.

You attempted to stand but was to wobbily to do so on your own. Welt grabbed your arm and helped you stand.

"S'rry." You managed to mumble out.

"We need to get you out of here. March, you know where they are taking others right?" You didn't see the girl mood as Welt spoke. "We will go there with them."

The next hours blurred together and when they finally let you rest you were out like a light.

"Ask them. We can keep an eye on them in case it happens again…."

"I know it isn't easy, but thank you for giving them a chance…."

You cracked your eyes open to see a hospital ceiling.

"Wakey Wakey!" March's voice was soft as she whispered excitedly. Her beaming smile was blinding. What had happened?

"I got some water over here." Stelle was on your other side. You nodded and March helped you sit up. You took some sips of it and while it felt like liquid glass, it was also somehow soothing.

"What happened?" You asked.

"You don't remember?" Stelle replied. You shook you head.

"I remember being dragged away after the fight, but nothing after that." A heavy silence filled the room.

"Oh, not much happened after that. We fought them off and then brought you here." Something in Stelle voice was off. Was she lying? Whatever, it didn't matter now. The door to your room opened to reveal a rather tired looking Welt.

"Look! They are awake and hopefully for alot longer this time." March said, flopping back down into the chair next to you. "They don't anything though."

Welt adjusted his glasses. He stood in front of your bed with clothes in his hands.

"Im glad to see you awake. Your old clothes were ruined so the nurses are allowing you to have some." He set the clothes down at you feet. They were neatly folded and looked like hospital scrubs. "Is it true that you do not remember anything?" What was this an interrogation. Just what did those wisps do?

"I remember the fight and being dragged away, but everything is," you paused trying to find the right words, "muddy." That wasn't quite what you were going for but it worked. "Thank you for helping me back there. I don't know why they wanted me so bad." Welt seemed to sigh.

"Your welcome. I wanted to ask a question. You said that you did not have a home, correct."

"That's right."

"Would you like to join the Astral Express?"

Your eyes widened at the question. You knew these people for just a few hours and they are asking you to join them. You should say no, but March was giving you puppy eyes.

"I wouldn't want to impose." You responded.

"It is not an issue. You do not need to join us if you are not comfortable. You've only known us for a few hours."

You sat there for a moment, dazed. Everything was happening so fast, but you were now obviously in danger. If someone wanted you then as much as you don't want to admit it being on the road was the safer place to be.

"If it is not a burden, then i would be willing to join. I don't know what i can do to help you all but i can do my best."

Thus, after you were released from the hospital, you set off as a new member of the Astral Express.

Dan Heng was nice in his own private way. He remained wary of you, though.

Welt seemed to keep anxious eye on you. You didn't blame him, you did look like someone that brought him unpleasant memories. He seemed to warm up to you as he got to know you more. Especially once he helped Himeko teach you to read.

Stelle and March seemed to be conjoined at the hip at times. Stelle was a human raccoon, but she showed empathy and was happy to happy to talk to you. March gladly helped you expand your wardrobe. Her sunny and bubbly personality made her easy to talk to and get along with.

Himeko treated you kindly and was beginning to teach you how to properly read in the standard script. She was like a mother in some ways and an aunt in others. She helped March choose clothes for you. PomPom was happy to have another aboard the train and treated you nicely.

Things were looking up for now. Everyone seemed to adjust to you being in the train. Though it took some getting used to your new looks, you come to accept them.

All was well for now. All until a man named Loucha met you.

#honkai star rail x reader #hsr #honkai star rail #welt yang x reader #march 7th x reader

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camlyee · 1 month

Text

an event that changed several lives forever.

↓ lore dump below ↓

Note: transcript for the images will be at the bottom of the post (sorry for the messy handwriting!)

Gitriea-II — the planet of isolation.

I wanted this piece to highlight the cataclysmic event that took place at Gitriea-II’s church that altered the lives of hundreds, though most didn’t know that that night would be their last. Only few survived to recall the tragedy.

TW for vague mentions of abuse, death, and religious trauma.

(so please read with caution)

I won’t go into extreme detail about every character, I’ll probably make separate posts deep diving into each character more and give them the attention they deserve. I’ll briefly mention each character in order (top to bottom) and their present faction.

- Gabriel — Genius Society as an assistant, but pursues architectural studies through the Intelligentsia Guild

- Eve (left) — Intelligentsia Guild (cousins with Gabriel and Shiloh)

- Shiloh — Astral Express member (Gabriel’s little sibling)

- Mary (red hair) — Astral Express member

- Elijah (in Mary’s arms) — Stellaron Hunter

Gabriel and Mary had been planning on wedding, as throughout their youth they were hopelessly in love with each other (it was a kind of puppy love, one slipping the other gifts or gentle hand touches). They hadn’t done anything out of line for two teenagers planning on marrying one another, until they shared a kiss. It was sweet, but it was forbidden. You were expected to reserve your chastity until you were wed, as that was how the Church functioned. Any kind of forbidden acts would lead to punishment, and Gabriel was more than aware of that. As every time he would answer a question wrong or was out of line, the Mothers would ‘redirect’ him with force. He always kept his sleeves rolled down because of it. Mary was already known to be a ‘defective’ child, as her parents went against the church and were ostracized. Mary’s bright red hair and vibrant yellow eyes matched her mother’s and father’s respectively, so there was no hiding her roots. She was a slightly rebellious teenager, though. She knew little about her parents, but remember how much they loved each other, and how she wanted to share that love with Gabriel. Gabriel was scared, though. The paranoia took over him and clawed at his throat, and he was truly afraid of the consequences of loving too much before marriage.

Gabriel would’ve never expected what would’ve happened to Mary when he told the Mothers about what they did. Searing wax poured on her gentle and soft hands, scorching the skin and forever altering both her mind and her flesh. She would never be able to love with her hands again, that’s what the mothers said. After days of her recovery, Mary had approached Gabriel, a smile on her face with hope that things between them wouldn’t be ruined. She didn’t know he was the one that told the mothers. As she asked about how he was, she was met with a cold and unforgiving gaze, a scowl curled on his lips with venom. He told her to never speak to him again, and the whiplash of cruelty brought tears to her eyes. He was never like this before, why was he being so cruel now? Was she truly never meant to love anyone?

With a broken heart, she respected his wishes and left him alone, and not long after, he left to do his missionary work. Maybe he’ll find a woman that can love him, she thought. It took a while for Mary to navigate her tasks with the state of her hands now. But, eventually she was able to do her work with minimal accidents. She worked hard, though being told plenty of times that she was ‘defective’, she wanted the approval from the mothers. She wanted to become a mother and make people proud of her. So she worked. She worked so hard.

One night, she had been cleaning around one of the prayer rooms. She often worked at night so she wouldn’t have the urge to talk to anyone, as it often resulted into an uncomfortable end. She did still experience issues with fine motor skills, especially with her fingers and wrists. The prayer rooms often had plenty of lit candles, as it was one of the primary ways the Church remained lit during the night. Mary reached over with her rag to gently dust an area near the candles and consequently knocked one over. The embers didn’t take long to travel up the cloth hanging over the alter and up the walls. There were dozens of lit candles, and they all began to fester into a large flame. She hurriedly ran out to get help, but it was too late by the time she had gotten to one of the boys in the church, Isaac. The embers quickly engulfed the church, and Mary was only able to pull one other person out, a small child, Elijah. She had no idea there were other survivors.

By the time Gabriel returned home from his missionary duties, it was far too late. The church was nothing but ashes. He couldn’t believe it. Everything he had cared about was gone, and he was sure this was his God’s plan for divine punishment. It has to be. He let out a distraught cry and fell to his knees, the bitter cold snow engulfing him in an icy hug. He sobbed and sobbed until all his senses went numb and everything went dark.

holy shit yapfest over, i hope y’all enjoy some of this writing stuff.. i didn’t even talk about Rory and Isaac, but they’re not in this piece sooo..

Elijah, Shiloh, Isaac, and Rory all belong to @sawnday and he also was a writer for a lot of this lore so.. credit :)

Transcript for the image: (left to right)

> Home to a large church orphanage that follows the Abundance (Yaoshi)

Notes:

- Two Moons

- Below Freezing most of their calendar year

- Minimal daylight

Gitriea-II

- An isolated planet that suffers from a near-frozen climate due to distance from any sun/star.

- Very minimal life, but a few human civilizations call it home.

- Minimal outside influence, but ships can be seen occasionally departing this planet.

- Not much is known about the origins of the planet.

#camlyee art #honkai star rail #hsr #hsr fanart #my ocs #oc artwork #hsr ocs #artists on tumblr #gitriea-II camlyee #camlyee lore #HOLY SHIT IT IS DONE IM SO RELIEVED #i have so much oc lore up my sleeve dw guys #and sorry gabriel is my scrimblo trust #also imagine shiloh has wings. shiloh is halovian. but their burn is from the fire #also they really hate mary because it looked like she abandoned them when she didn’t even see them #hahaa dramaaaa

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delphinus-dancer · 11 months

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A deep dive into a swan lake and flipping the (metaphorical, sadly) bird:

A Mihaly-centric view of JD 2024 story mode

(because they’re my favorite and I’ve thought about this way too much over the past few days weeks) Spoilers for JD 24 in the almost-essay under the cut, including some images!

Starting off with Mihaly’s first appearance in the story mode in Canned Heat, it seems like not too much time has passed since the end of jd23- Sara seems to be at the same party, Jack still at the tower, etc. (how Brezziana got to the beach that fast and had a workout class is something I’m going to guess was preplanned before everything went down).

We can assume this would be the first time Mihaly’s come back to their room since then (which makes the idea of Wanderlust FaceTiming everyone like 5 minutes after they left even funnier). Of course there’s the shot of Mihaly ripping the poster off the wall, which probably puts their feelings into words better than anything else within an E10 rating. <Side note: I don’t know much on lore but does the setting mean there’s a chance they’re from Eternyx? Both maps started in dark crowd/nighttime so wasn’t sure if confirmed or not>

While Sara has the spot pretty much clinched for a Night Swan’s foil, Mihaly is a really close second. This shot literally puts it into perspective- Mihaly’s color scheme has as many color elements of Master Panda’s (shirt/jacket/foot wraps) as it does Night Swan’s (hair-that-perfectly-matches-the-poster/ gold of headphones and glasses/pants). Their dance style also overlaps moreso with hers than the other dancers, with the precision and technique of their moves, from the footwork and leaps of Rather Be to the dramatic powerful motions of their Swan Lake part. It’s pretty obvious who the song is directed to, and what makes the song so interesting compared to their last story mode one is how loose it feels. This is unlike their usual technical style because of the connection to Night Swan with the control demanded of certain moves that they’ve presumably mastered- maybe they were fueled by a desire to achieve her success. Regardless, the song and emotion fueled, less ‘perfect’ dance lets Mihaly basically flip the bird at Night Swan’s corrupted idea of perfection. Either way, it culminates in them achieving a new high in their training with channeling their ‘true’ inspiration of the (master) panda. Although they retain most of their same costume after sort of becoming a furry?, a noticeable change is that the black leggings are understandably switched to something looser- but to the navy color of master panda instead of Mihaly’s black.

What’s also interesting is that the specific point Night Swan interrupts Mihaly’s song isn’t at the beginning like Brezziana/Sara/Jack’s or the very end like Wanderlust, but at the climax of their journey for the song. Not only does this imply that she may have been watching the entire time but choose to interfere later, but she is also the only character to see the Panda form before Swan Lake.

As Night Swan basically invades Mihaly’s //mind/headspace/flowspace?/no idea on the lore// they initially try to fight her off, but unlike Brezziana in her map, don’t fight until the end. Although Mihaly themselves wasn’t being corrupted like the background coaches in Brezziana’s map, they still let themselves, in a sense, lose a more internal battle to Night Swan as they leave the metaphorical and literal height of their understanding and power in the Flow and come back to the real world.

This then takes us straight into Swan Lake, which is really interesting for the Night Swan/Mihaly interactions and how they compare to the other dancers. Although from a format standpoint it makes sense for the movements in the bridge to be different, there are more differences too.

A big one that I only realized once I watched Majesty again is how the other swan soldiers/minions were turned back- and that was mainly by doing the same moves to ultimately come together and bring the dancers back. Here it’s the opposite for effectiveness- what causes Wanderlust and Brezziana to fail is that they think that’s how to stop Sara. Sara matches the moves in a way that <well> matches, if not surpasses the power that they put in. As a result of meeting them head on and assuming control, Sarah actively corrupts the two of them. She makes motions to bring in the smoke, and both of them also are stationary/surrendering as their color drains.

When it gets to Mihaly, the dynamic with Sara changes completely. While Sara starts off watching with the same expression as when the others challenged her, it shifts as she realizes she can’t emulate what Mihaly does, with the movements almost like Night Swan’s-dramatic and slower. It comes to a head when Mihaly channels the panda again and visibly knocks Sara back, so she’s unable to push any of the smoke towards them.

Sara’s expression also becomes noticeably softer for the rest of Mihaly’s part, and she doesn’t reassert that dominance/control she had earlier- with dancing or the smoke. See how she looks almost pensive in the photos above/below, especially compared to the earlier parts.

Speaking of the smoke, this is the key part about Night Swan seeing the panda earlier. She knows it exists and how to force it off after the earlier song, and as Sara is incapacitated/distracted, she presumably sends down the smoke that starts attacking Mihaly in Panda form.

This attack is why despite having a chance to get through to Sara, Mihaly still ends up failing as they return to normal. However, they are the only character to be so dynamic in their active corruption. Not only does Mihaly manage to send a signal out to Jack, which was a display of power never seen from them previously, but they also do it as they are actively losing their color and control. Unlike the other dances, Mihaly still moves as they lose control, possibly having the strength to continue to fight had they not realized that Night Swan was attacking alongside Sara.

Although the signal is in the shape of a pawprint, its underlying meaning is more than just a plot device to send Jack on a wild goose chase (pun intended that I couldn’t pass up). With the way it opens to form a window into the location from such a distance, it almost seems to be a step away from a full fledged portal. With the sudden appearance of a new power, it’s also an interesting parallel to Night Swan, who here uses powers to create a unique form of control that wasn’t seen in the previous game and who regularly uses portals with her magic.

Another note is the lights that appear for each of the dancers in the upper left corner during the song as they take on Sara. While Brezziana and Wanderlust’s fade out a few moves before they fall, Mihaly’s still goes strong even as they completely turn grey, as seen the the photos above. This could be a possible indication to them having a more stable power than the other dancers, or a form of magic more comparable/competitive with Night Swan’s. Also to note about the lights: looking on the floor during the song, the diamonds flash 3 colors: hot pink (Night Swan), a deep green (Sara, especially while corrupted- her original outfit but darker), and a teal (the exact same color as Mihaly’s flow energy). Like everything else, this is a stretch, but it could possibly mean that Night Swan’s control and magic background could have stemmed from a pure form of flow like Mihaly practices.

This could also be a factor in why they retain the most of their original outfit in the corrupted design- possibly a form of resistance like they displayed during swan lake or general flow magic? Notice that while they have significant changes to their robe/face/accessories, their feather motifs are much less pronounced than the others, simply appearing as marks on the robe that can be mistaken for stripes, rather than overt feathers like Wanderlust/Sara or Sara/Brezziana’s feather tights. Unlike the others, Mihaly keeps their leggings exactly the same (which were notably lost in the panda form, as mentioned earlier), and interestingly enough, their wraps. I initially thought that Night Swan would have changed that to something like ballet slippers with ribbons, so I think it’s really interesting that they are the only dancer who had any details remain exactly the same, especially one that had unique opportunities to be changed.

Going off of that, since they were the last to turn and have (some?) control over their outfit and (some?) magic that may be similar to Night Swan, I could see them being the first/easiest coach for Jack or someone else to turn back when he (hopefully) takes on the coaches.

One last note is the number of maps per story mode coach at this point. Counting Stronger /Survivor, and Treasure/Lose Yourself (hopefully coming soon after that ending!), that seems to be setting a trend for the other coaches to potentially have an additional map as well. If so, maybe that would be one where Mihaly could individually be freed, or a chance for them to further explore their rapidly developing powers (maybe in a confrontation with Night Swan?? a girl can dream).

And there y’all have it! Thank you for somehow reading to the end!! Happy dancing!!

this took forever oh my god

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cactus-cass · 1 year

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I have reason to believe Cassie's dad tried investigating into GGY, and it didn't end so well for him.

Let's get into why...

The therapists say to patient 46 (Gregory, while under the Dr. Rabbit (Mimic) influence) that the techs were getting concerned with his diving into the system, hacking it and messing with code to change how the animatronics act. This happens multiple times:

Now, what is Cassie's father? A Fazbear Technician! Evident by the fact he has a Faz-Wrench, something only Fazbear techs own. Now this is absolutely a stretch, right? Well, it is, until I bring up this note found in the AR world:

In the AR version of the Plex, Cassie experiences personal things that wouldn't be there for other people-- cutouts of herself with Roxy, of her with Gregory (and subsequently crying when he's gone), missing posters of Gregory, eyes that stare at her, mirrors, etc. So this note is another personal thing to her, and given the importance of the other personal things listed, it's likely this note has a good amount of significance to her too. I previously thought it was because Cassie's dad had left to look into something, but I had zero idea what it could be-- until now.

Either the note was placed by someone else to cover up her dad's disappearance (more likely, death), or he left it there knowing he'd be gone longer than normal while looking into this mysterious GGY. With people repeatedly disappearing, and GGY linked to the animatronics being messed up, he could've taken the initiative to look into it himself- and, possibly, payed the price for it.

When this happened, I don't have much of an idea. But I assume closer to the time SB took place rather than GGY, since it's pretty likely Mimic's influence was dropped right before the game, and RUIN seems to happen maybe a few weeks to a month after the base game? I think Cassie would've done something, or felt something was off, much sooner if it'd happened before then; but we don't know enough about her yet to know if that's the case. There's no mention of any other family she has outside of referenced 'emergency contacts'.

We still don't have a whole lot of information about Cassie, so we don't know how long she was left alone, if she's left alone often, etc.

With Help Wanted 2 possibly being a prequel to Security Breach, it's possible we'll also get a confirmation as to why and how Gregory got stuck under the Mimic's influence, plus what happened to Cassie's father. Maybe the game takes place a few weeks before Security Breach? I dunno. We just gotta wait and see!

I just doubt this note means 'he went away for a while at some point and came back', and it's not like past tense is used when she says her dad has a Faz-Wrench like it is when she talks about him collecting old lunch boxes. It has to be significant, otherwise, why include it?

I believe whatever happened to him, Cassie doesn't know about it yet- but her link to the Mimic, and by extension Gregory, goes deeper than we realised- that's why she was introduced at all in RUIN.

Her story is 100% far from over, but I don't believe we'll focus on her again juuust yet.

We know Scott doesn't drop huge lore without clarifying it in the next installment; Burntrap > Mimic for starters. Dittophobia happened, Steel Wool is now referencing fnaf 4 in tweets tagged as SB and RUIN. GGY is still shrouded in mystery, answers are bound to come up soon! (There are way more examples of Scott confirming lore in the next installment of something, but I can't bring it all to mind right now-- there's definitely plenty of examples, though, and iirc Scott made a steam post about this once)

Gregory had a huge reveal at the start of this year with GGY's release; plus, the Mimic (and how it can control things) was finally introduced in the games.

I think GGY is next to get fleshed out in the game universe, and Help Wanted 2 is the perfect place to start. And, of course, that all links to the people who'd sunk too deep into the mystery; the therapists, Tony Becker, and the technicians.

#fnaf #fnaf security breach #fnaf ruin #ruin dlc #gregory #ggy #Dr. Rabbit #five nights at freddy's #cassie #Cassie's dad #Fnaf theory #Forgot to post this earlier when I put it on twitter oops #help wanted 2 #fnaf help wanted 2

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queen-of-obsessing · 16 days

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Why The Stranger Is Actually Saruman

A Deep Dive because I've been thinking about it Too Much TM

I need to get this off my chest because the Reddit bros saying that the Stranger is either a random blue wizard or Gandalf are driving me crazy, because from my perspective, they're so obviously wrong, and here's a compilation of all the clues and hints we've been given in Seasons 1-2 that prove why!! (Quick disclaimer: I've watched the PJ LOTR movies over 5 times, and have it pretty much memorized, so I'm coming from mainly a movie perspective - which the ROP showrunners have said they want the show to remain connected to, as shown by how they reference the films every chance they get. But I've googled the backstory of relevant characters from the sacred texts/lore to familiarize myself with it.) (Also spoilers for everything up to 2x06.)

The "Blatantly Obvious" Gandalf Clues (and why they're not that obvious)

The Stranger has a relationship with Harfoots -> Saruman was also familiar with Hobbits. "Your love of the Halflings' leaf has clearly slowed your mind", and his Isengard cellar is filled with Hobbit weed. He's also shown to have a dislike for them (perhaps if he was betrayed by Nori in later seasons).

"Grand-elf", "gand", "follow your nose" -> it's not hard to believe that these are surface level red herrings, they're barely of any plot consequence and are more like random remarks thrown in to throw you off the scent. If the Stranger is Saruman these would make sense, since Saruman was Gandalf's mentor, and the films bait-and-switched them before (see: the Gandalf the white scene where he literally had Christopher Lee's voice)

"They all but confirmed it at the end of Season 1" -> then why is there still a mystery in Season 2? The writers clearly want you to keep guessing who he is. If he was Gandalf, they would've just said he was.

Aaaand, that's about it on Gandalf evidence. Not a lot, is it? No, precious, not at all, the Reddit bros lied to us.

Now let's get into the Saruman theory, starting with the four big things that Gandalf doesn't have, that the Stranger does: Rhun, Sauron, Ents, and Palantirs.

1. Rhun

Gandalf never went to Rhun. (From the wiki: "Unlike Saruman, Olórin never took up permanent residence, and never went to the east, apparently restricting his activities to the Westlands of Middle-earth[.]") He has no business being there. For the writers to send him there would be a giant canon departure, and kind of pointless. But Saruman did! In his early days, he travelled to Rhun, stayed there awhile and then returned. The Stranger travelling to Rhun was the first dead giveaway.

2. Sauron

"Is it my task to stop the fire? Is it my task to face Sauron??" (2x04) Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm 99% sure Gandalf was never destined to face Sauron. In the films, he faced a Balrog and won, which already was an intense fight that killed him, and Gandalf indirectly facilitated Sauron's destruction by guiding Frodo, but he never directly confronted him, afaik. (Again, I might be wrong and missing lore info.) But we know Saruman was more powerful than Gandalf, and he was supposed to face Sauron, but ultimately ended up aligning with him. But in the show, the Stranger is supposed to face him, and if he was Gandalf, this would be a bizarre departure.

3. Ents, nature & trees

The Stranger is heavily associated with nature, but the biggest dead giveaway that he's Saruman was the scene in 2x04 where he's following the star map to a tree branch, and tries to break it off when the tree retaliates and sucks him in (very similar to what happened to Merry and Pippin in the films, with Tom Bombadil saying exactly what Treebeard said to free them, although that line was originally Tom's to begin with). But because of this scene, they're directly linking the Stranger to Ents & Fangorn. Which is fascinating, because Saruman, before he was evil in the TA, used to walk among the trees and befriended the Ents. In the films, his betrayal of Treebeard by cutting down the trees for his army is one of the key emotional moments of the film ("a wizard should know better!!"), and is what causes the destruction of Isengard. And in that scene, Stranger/Saruman tried to harm the tree, and the tree attacked him. Seems like foreshadowing to me.

4. Palantirs

Now, even though the Stranger hasn't been linked to Palantirs and Seeing Stones in the show, we know they're there, and characters have used them many times. We also know that Saruman has one in Isengard, and would make sense if ROP showed us how he got it. Gandalf never had a Palantir.

Some other theories and notes others have made:

The Stranger is established to have darkness in him and the potential for evil. The fireflies die, "I'm peril", having to remind himself that he's good. The opening line of the entire show is "Nothing is evil in the beginning."

An emphasis on names and the importance/power of a name -> naming the Stranger as Saruman will change our whole perspective of him. The writers want us to see him as good and loveable before putting that name burden on him. (Another show I love, The Chosen, did that for the character of Judas, a notoriously infamous traitor, calling him 'the Apprentice' for an entire episode before officially naming him.)

The Stranger's magic is super powerful. The conjuring of the sandstorm reminded me of Saruman's conjuring the snowstorm over the pass of Caradhras, in FOTR.

There's a moment where the Stranger's staff dissolves when he uses his magic, similar to the scene where Gandalf dissolves Saruman's staff in his hand.

The two towers theory: introducing Sauron at the end of Season 1, Saruman at the end of Season 2, so now both heads of the towers are in play.

"i can’t shake the feeling that the actor’s intonation is pretty much the midpoint of Ian McKellen’s Gandalf and Christopher Lee’s Saruman" (ntraumintraum on Reddit)

Daniel Wayman did an Irish lilt in his voice, that Gandalf doesn't have.

Saruman has a fascinating, tragic journey of going from good to evil, while Gandalf remains good through it all. The former is more compelling for a show like ROP that's built around tragic fates + Saruman's story is still mostly untold and mysterious.

In conclusion, if he is Gandalf, I'll be very disappointed, but can live with it. It would just be a huge missed opportunity, but as of now, I'm pretty convinced that the Stranger is Saruman, and the dark wizard is a bad blue wizard.

So in further conclusion:

Update from 2x06: that Bombadil quote is kinda killing my theory here. ("some that die deserve life") it's such a famous Gandalf quote, but at this point it's so obvious that it feels like it's even more of a red herring. Ugh. idk. i'm confused. I'm starting to think the Stranger is actually Gandalf which is pissing me the fuck off. Dumbest choice ever made on the show 😭💀

#phew this took a long time to write #saruman #the stranger #gandalf the grey #the rings of power #the stranger theory #rings of power #the lord of the rings #rop meta #trop meta

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marvel-starwarsfangirl · 6 months

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Ep. 10 "Identity Crisis" and Ep. 11 "Point of No Return" Review

Oh wow guys, those two episodes were rough. Definitely went places I didn't expect, but I was overall satisfied. It makes me hate the Empire and Hemlock even more though. Hemlock is such a twisted and sick man. He's right up there with Tarkin and Palpatine for most disturbing Imperial imo.

Anyways, let's dive in! Per usual, spoilers below

I wasn't expecting Emerie as a focus tbh. However, it was actually pretty interesting. Ever since we met her in season 2, the mystery around her and her purpose have been kept in the background. But I must say, getting to see her POV and her conflict between her loyalties to Hemlock and compassion for others was neat. The way she clearly connects to children and thinks back to her own childhood definitely raises questions for the future. I strongly believe that Emerie is going turn against Hemlock in a final act to save Omega at the cost of her own life. After seeing the children being experimented upon, she was clearly horrified. Emerie also has shown concern for both Crosshair and Omega, with the latter being extra special to her.

Speaking of the children, that was absolutely sickening and heartbreaking to watch. Cad Bane is back in his abduction era, oh yes. (He and Todo act like an old married couple and it’ll never not be funny to me). My heart shattered when both Eva and Jax stated all they wanted to go home. The dark truth is that they never will. Unless Omega and the boys successfully free everyone from Tantiss, then those kids will forever remain prisoners. It just makes me hate Hemlock even more. The children are definitely instrumental in Emerie's change of heart and I think she was meant to be created for the same reason Omega was. However, she failed for some reason. We'll get more lore soon no doubt.

I also found Tarkin's line about Hemlock stealing all the funding to be humorous. It'd be so funny if Hemlock just made the Empire flat out broke.

And yes, it was finally Pabuover. We all knew it was coming, even the Marauder's destruction. However, I do understand some people not feeling as impacted by it because it was in the trailer. Nevertheless, it was still hard to watch. Freaking Cid once again sold the Batch out. That woman better be stuck in a deep, dark hole for all the trouble she caused. Because of her, a beautiful, little family and a lovely island were destroyed. That being said, I'm glad the way they found Pabu was through looking at Phee's recent travel history instead of the "Crosshair sleeper agent" theory. It would've made no sense if that theory was correct because the Empire took their sweet time tracking him if that was the case.

Seeing the Batch say goodbye to Pabu was sad. Omega putting Lula and Tech's goggles in the Archium symbolizes her leaving her childhood behind imo. She can no longer truly be a kid anymore. Pabu was that safe space. However, it is no longer.

It's truly the Batch's darkest hour aside from "Plan 99." Their ship is gone, Wrecker was knocked out, Hunter had a rough landing, Omega is captured, and Crosshair missed...

I had a feeling Omega was going to give herself up, but to see Crosshair miss such a crucial shot, a shot which would've led the Batch straight to Tantiss, was brutal. He's never going to forgive himself. And how will he explain this to Hunter and Wrecker? Cross went along with Omega's plan and now there trust in him will waver. And the look on his face when he pleads with her to not go through with the plan broke me. That man loves her with every fiber of his being. I swear, Jennifer will be hearing from me soon. Omega doesn’t even know he missed which will also be devastating (but it opens the door for Emerie to save the day).

I knew a moment like that could happen, but to see it hit different. Crosshair had no choice. He was being shot at and out of time. It was now or never. I sincerely hope that he and Hunter don’t argue for the majority of the next episode. Ideally, Hunter will recognize that Cross was backed into a corner and that he what he needs is therapy and hugs, not more yelling.

(Also, why did Crosshair’s imperial theme play for like two seconds? Was it warning us about the shot?)

And then there’s CX-2. Man he’s hard to get rid of, isn’t he? I am so convinced he’s Tech at this point. It was his word choice that clued me in. But with 4 episodes to go, I wonder how they’re going to pull this reveal off, especially if it is Tech. We’ll see.

Btw, I’m so glad they didn’t kill Batcher. The dog is very important you know.

That’s all for now! See yall next week and we can cry some more!

#star wars #the bad batch #tbb crosshair #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #tbb tech #tbb omega #tbb season 3 #tbb spoilers #tbb speculation #royce hemlock #wilhuff tarkin #emerie karr #cx 2 #cad bane

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mylifeiscomics · 10 days

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Hi! I love your comics! I was wondering, what is your favorite episode for each doctor?

Thank you! ❤️

This is such a fun question, I had to take my time with it! Thanks for asking!

First Doctor - The Romans saga.

It was fun to see everyone so chill and in one place for a while. It showed the Doctor did like to hang out for a while in some places/times. Before all this running around lol! This is also peak first Doctor behaviour. He is so fun in this one- he fights a guy off while giggling and is responsible for Nero setting Rome on fire and just laughs about it. Chaotic gremlin energy and I love it.

Second Doctor - War Games saga

The concept was really cool for this adventure. Plus it was the first time we really got the lore behind who the Doctor really is. We meet time lords etc. The finale is obviously super sad but iconic.

Third Doctor - The Daemons saga

This was really hard to choose because 3 is my fave classic doctor and there are so many cool adventures he went on. Being shrunk into the alien tv/zoo thing was such a neat idea but I had to go with this because it had so many crazy things going on. The Master (best version imo) pretends to be a priest. Crazy witchy woman who over acts and blinks too much. That white gargoyle… also the devil costume- peek costuming. And how could I forget that bizarre finale? It was giving wickerman for a second. Very funny… to me, probably wasn’t the initial intention.

Fourth Doctor - The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Possibly a controversial choice but I really loved the Phantom of the Opera vibes I got from this. Also Leela is my favourite companion and she was perfect in this saga.

Fifth Doctor - Black Orchid

Simply because it was fun and it was the last time this little family had any happiness or peace 🥲

Sixth Doctor - the Mysterious Planet

Because it introduced Sabalom Glitz who was a charming character that I’m glad they brought back later on. Also it kicks of the trial saga which was essentially the beginning of the end for Six, sad!

Seventh Doctor - Paradise Towers

Very cool concept. Invented slang we use today. Beware the grannies… I just loved everything about this story. Lots of good spooky fun.

Eight just has his movie but he was so good in Night of the Doctor.

Ninth Doctor (love of my life) - Fathers Day

Such an interesting deep dive into his and Rose’s relationship. I also love the concept of a companion learning what happens if you mess with time. Very langoleers. Huge character growth for Rose (and the Doctor too).

Tenth Doctor - Rise of the Cybermen

I love this little throwback to the second Doctor adventure where the Cybermen had a very similar takeover plan. Only in this one people got changed. The idea of the Cybermen terrify me greatly and having a character as vital as Jackie Tyler being turned was… UGH! I still get chills.

And that’s where I stopped watching honestly. Once Moffatt took over I tapped out of Doctor Who. I decided at that point I liked what I saw and I was happy to leave it there. I did watch the new Anniversary specials in which Wild Blue Yonder was my favourite. Nice spooky story. But otherwise I’m just content to be a freak for Nine and the classic series lol.

Thank you so much for asking this! It was fun to remember those old episodes. Makes me want to watch the classic series again! Haha

#thanks for the ask!!#doctor who #favourite episodes #first doctor #second doctor #third doctor #fourth doctor #fifth doctor #sixth doctor #seventh doctor #eigth doctor #ninth doctor #tenth doctor

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bbygirl-aemond · 2 years

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What Was the Average Age for a Targaryen to Claim a Dragon?

Hi all a post a few days back got me thinking (and I had like half an hour left in my lunch break and got bored) so I did another completely unnecessary deep dive into Targaryen lore. I went through the complete list of dragon riders, barring those whose eggs hatched in their infancy/toddlerhood (which is considered in-universe to be different from claiming a non-hatchling dragon later on), and made a list of all of the confirmed ages that these people claimed their mounts. This goes off of Fire and Blood and ASoIaF canon, and there are some differences for the House of the Dragon series that I'll discuss below.

I didn't include riders if there was a wide range of dates within which they claimed their dragon, or if we didn't get a birth year. Like, Daemon bonded with Caraxes between the ages of 11-24, which is too ambiguous, so I didn't include him. Also, you can decide whether or not you'd like to include Aerea claiming Balerion, since it only impacts the average by 5 days. And I did include non-Targaryens here, but I'll discuss the math if you exclude them and only look at official Targaryens later on because it's not what you might expect. Here's my work:

I did the math so you don't have to, and the average age at which people claim their dragons in GRRM's universe is 13 years and 115 days.

This previous data does include a number of non-Targaryens (Laena, Laenor, Nettles, Addam). I won't show the graph again, because the distribution remains roughly the same. But, interestingly enough, if you exclude them the average age actually increases slightly. The average age at which Targaryens alone claim their dragon is 13 years and 170 days. If you compare this to the non-Targaryens, the average age is 12 years and 274 days. So on average, Targaryen dragon riders claim their dragons 261 days later than non-Targaryen dragon riders. (This doesn't account for Ulf White or Hugh Hammer though since they have no confirmed birth date, and might not be true if they were included.)

Daeron is actually the youngest ever to claim an already-hatched dragon, at age 6. Rhaenyra wasn't the youngest to claim a dragon, but she was the youngest to ever ride one, at age 7. And Maegor was the oldest to ever claim a dragon, at age 25.

In contrast to HotD, Aemond was actually younger than average when he claimed Vhagar by three whole years. He also wasn't the last in his family to claim a dragon, and Aegon and Daeron only claimed their dragons less than a year before he did. It's still possible that he was the last of his brothers to claim a dragon, and he still claimed Vhagar later than any of Rhaenyra's children whose dragons all hatched in their cradles. But as with some other things (like Alicent and Viserys's age gap), the show seems to have exaggerated things to make it clearer to a wider audience.

#hotd meta #meta #hotd #asoiaf meta #asoiaf #fab #fire and blood #fire and blood meta #idek what else to tag here lmao #house of the dragon #house targaryen

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kaaragen · 1 year

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Rise of the Red Blade thoughts

One of the things I’ve long been asking for is for canon to do something to address the Inquisitors. We partially got that with Kenobi, but Reva is more of a special case. But with Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade we do finally have something that does, so it behooves me to add my thoughts. We do get a lot of interesting bits from this book - including, at last!, some canon Seventh Sister backstory!

(Minor spoilers ahead - though if you’ve read the Darth Vader comics you know how this story ends)

First of all, on a story level, it’s entertaining and I think does a good character dive on why Jedi fell and became Inquisitors. Ishkat Akaris is the POV character and she provides an interesting angle on struggles with the Jedi Order. She’s neurodivergent, and while not specified I’m picking up ADHD. She struggles and never quite gets the support she needs. But she is an unreliable narrator, and there is a particular Roshomon incident from when she was young that we return to again and again, getting some different perspectives. Though the narrative (in true Roshomon fashion) never says which was the ‘true’ version so you’re just left with the various ‘certain points of view’. But as a look at someone’s personal journey to the Dark Side, where at of the steps seem plausible and fair from their perspective, it works really well.

But what the book is great for is showing, better than other canon material I’ve come across, what the war does to the Jedi. Communications are poor. Information is sketchy. And young, inexperienced and over promoted Jedi are being sent out as commanders into highly stressful situations. And it really shows how the sheer stress of the war, and how this starts corrupting the more inexperienced Jedi, as the pressure to achieve results in impossible circumstances starts leading them toward ‘quicker and easier’ answers, with even the brighter and more devoted Jedi starting to fray by the wars end.

It maybe doesn’t deep dive as much as I would like; and the timeline is a bit wonky in places (according to this the Jedi had the clone army before they went into the arena on Geonosis which ??), but as far as canon goes I think it’s one of the best explorations on offer.

There’s some other tidbits as well:

Confirmation that if you don’t connect with the Force regularly you will lose sensitivity to it and have to ‘relearn’ as per Kenobi.

We get a bit more in how the Inquisitorious works. Basically a perverse form of the Jedi Order. There are candidate Inquisitors, and when you ‘prove’ yourself worthy you get a Name (eg X Sister). Which was hinted at in Kenobi (the use of ‘Reva’ over Third Sister to emphasise her outsider status)

That said, numbering system still doesn’t make sense to me. I think the implication is supposed to be the number is the order in which a candidate ‘proved’ themselves, but I find it hard to believe that Trilla was the first one to do so. Particularly not as it says Fifth Brother joined willingly and Tenth Brother was already half-way there at the start of the war.

The Agricorps are back baby!

And some canon Seventh Sister backstory! To which:

She’s a little older than Ishkat, whose about 19/20 when the Clone War kicks off. So my rough guess would be that she’s about 25ish when Order 66 happens. So Seventh is definitely a Jedi Knight - which does tie with her line of dialogue to Ezra mocking Kanan for not achieving the rank.

She was Aayla Secura’s Padawan (asterisk on this one - the exact line is ‘trained by’ which is a little vaguer, but Padawan reads to me as the intent.) This would constitute a lore revision that Mirialans are only Padawan’s to Mirialans.

Something absolutely horrific happened to her to make her an Inquisitor. Which you might think ‘of course it did’; but Ishkat meets Second Sister and hangs out with Ninth Sister and specifically mentions sensing something appalling happening to Seventh. So yeah, we’re talking orders of magnitude bad in comparison.

(For those wondering who read A New Dawn Breaks: none of this will affect Sorfelia; I already had something terrible planned 😈)

So overall, I’d say it’s worth a read. And if you’ve read the comics there’s some fun Easter eggs here and there as well!

#star wars #inquisitors #rise of the red blade #minor spoilers #seventh sister #my thoughts

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mumms-the-word · 4 months

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Illithid Souls - Part 2

The Case Studies: Tav/Durge and Orpheus

In Part 1, I went over some of the basics of what a soul normally is, where souls go after death, and whether mind flayers have souls. I ultimately ended up saying that most humanoids have apostolic souls (souls that deities recognize as being capable of divine worship), while mind flayers have some other kind of soul, one that isn't recognizable by deities or devils. This is why Jergal and Mystra and so on think that illithid don’t have souls. When a humanoid with an apostolic soul turns into a mind flayer, their soul is either ejected and moves on to the Fugue Plane, or their soul is transformed into a non-apostolic soul (depending on what you want to believe).

But the problem is, that's normal lore, and BG3 has made things a little strange by imbuing all the tadpoles that infect our characters with Netherese magic. And that, friends, makes the BG3 mind flayers different.

This post is going to look at some interesting context from the game for the Emperor, Tav/Durge and Orpheus. (It got pretty long so I'm moving Karlach and Gale to a third post.) We're going to figure out whether the rules about mind flayers and souls change now that there's Netherese magic involved. The ultimate answer is yes, but how? And is it consistent?

(Spoiler: it isn't, but you can use this lore to come up with your own theories and ideas)

Let's take another deep dive! Buckle up, and don't worry, I have a short summary at the bottom.

The Case of the Emperor

I'm actually not going to linger too long on the Emperor because for many reasons he breaks the lore. If he's Balduran and a mind flayer, he shouldn't have lived as long as he says he's lived. Not only that, his memory is allegedly flawless when the lore states he shouldn't remember any of his previous life (there are other inconsistencies too, but that's a different post). However, I do want to touch on a couple of things.

The Emperor both is and isn't our baseline for how a mind flayer normally exists. He should be a normal lore-accurate mind flayer (though a rogue one), because he wasn't infected with a Netherese-touched tadpole. But he's a Special Mind Flayer instead, for reasons we don't entirely understand (again, he generally breaks the lore). Perhaps this is because of his brush with Gortash and the other Chosen of the Dead Three, or perhaps he just somehow has a strong enough personality that when he broke free of an elder brain's compulsion a lot of his memories came back to him. Who knows?

But regardless, a few conversations with him reinforce the idea that mind flayers typically aren't completely soulless. At the very least, they still contain memories (he has his memories of his time as Balduran), intelligence (he's a schemer, that's for sure), and personality/emotions:

Emperor: You think that mind flayers are soulless husks who feel nothing. Belynne thought the same at first. You are wrong. Feeling is vital to the pursuit of anyone's goals. Even a mind flayer's. Like you, mind flayers know fear. Like you, we crave recognition. But unlike you, unlike the others of my kind, I am no slave to either. My end is and has always been freedom.

We can quibble about whether or not he's manipulating the player here, but his words are generally true. As discussed in part 1, mind flayers are not soulless husks. When they're enthralled, they might be more devoid of independent thinking, but they have emotions/feelings and can create memories. They just might have a smaller range of emotion than humanoids do (thus his reference to "not being a slave" to fear or desire) and their memories might not be entirely their own (more on that with Karlach in part 3).

Regardless, the Emperor is our leading authority for what it's like to be a mind flayer, so we're sort of forced to trust him when we ask him to explain what full ceremorphosis is about to do to us, especially because its his Supreme Tadpole that is about to change us.

Player: What would happen to me? Emperor: You would be altered in mind, body, and soul beyond all recognition.

So this is interesting. Altered in mind and body, that's a given. Altered in soul, though...what does that mean?

Remember in Part 1 where I offered two theories about what happens to the original soul of someone undergoing ceremorphosis? Theory 1: they just die and the soul moves on to the Fugue Plane, and the mind flayer gets a new illithid soul from...somewhere. Theory 2: The soul transforms and remains tethered to the mind flayer body, different than it was before (potentially unrecognizable as the original soul, but some elements of the original may remain).

The Emperor's words suggest more of theory 2 here. But is that, in fact, what happens when we become illithid? Well...let's find out.

The Case of Tav and Durge (or most Origin runs)

When you do turn into a mind flayer, the narrative typically focuses on how powerful you feel. Your mind and body feel as though they are one and you are also desperately hungry. There isn't much in the Narrator's dialogue or your dialogue with your friends to suggest that your soul has been completely obliterated, though.

In fact, there's an interesting moment that happens if you turn into a mind flayer without the Emperor there and go up to Orpheus still in his cage. The way I accomplished this was to ask to change into a mind flayer so the Emperor would give me the Supreme Tadpole, then I said I would change later, then stopped the Emperor from consuming Orpheus so he would leave. Then I used the Supreme Tadpole to turn into a mind flayer and went to examine Orpheus.

Narrator: *His eyes are unseeing, his voice silenced. But even with his mind caged, you can feel his power. You can almost taste the fluid beneath his scalp, cushioning that sweet, dense brain, and the power within it. You are hungry.* Lae'zel: I see that look, I know that look. Don't you dare. Player: [Wisdom Check] Cling to your former nature. Quash your hunger. This is not who you are. Narrator: *Your mind and body whine with disappointment. But your soul lets out a gentle thrum of relief.*

I find this fascinating for a couple of reasons. One, the check I chose (there are two, the second is a strength check) meant reaching out to a "former" nature and reminding myself (or my Tav's self) that this is not who she is. When I succeeded, my Tav's mind and body protested, but her soul was filled with relief.

So she has a soul! And it seems to be her own soul, but perhaps transformed. So this sort of supports theory 2, that perhaps when humanoids turn into mind flayers, their soul is altered. This could also just be a quirk specific to those infected with a Netherese tadpole, or even further, someone who transformed using the Emperor's Supreme Tadpole.

Because here's the thing. When Tav/Durge, Orpheus, Companion!Karlach, or any Origin character transforms into a mind flayer using the Supreme Tadpole, they become a special mind flayer. This is mostly due to the Netherese magic, which adds some weird and undefined changes to the whole mind flayer thing. I'm going to use "I guess it's the Netherese magic/Supreme Tadpole" as a scapegoat this entire post because I don't know what else to point to to explain how these guys are just Different Than Your Average Mind Flayer, so be prepared for that. But at the very least, we know something's different.

In fact the Narrator literally says you're probably different than the average mind flayer after you defeat the Netherbrain!

Narrator: *You are a mind flayer, the very thing you sought to eradicate. Whatever self you still possess is quickly ebbing away. Your friends and enemies alike are ripe for manipulation, and if not manipulation, then consumption. Soon you will be able to trust yourself at all. You will be a monstrosity beyond redemption. Or not. Perhaps you are unique among illithid-kind. Perhaps you will retain enough of who you are to resist your nature. A rogue mind flayer. Like the Emperor. The risk is certainly yours to take - will you?*

Unlike normal mind flayers who lose most of their memories (and allegedly most of their personality/former selves) almost immediately after transforming, it takes Tav/Durge/most Origins longer to lose that sense of self, if indeed they lose it at all. The Narrator suggests we might be losing parts of ourselves, but there's a chance we're unique and might retain our sense of selves.

We do see glimpses of us retaining our personalities in the epilogue of course, but what is more interesting is if you decide to imprison yourself post-ceremorphosis. Withers will visit you in prison for a final conversation. (This conversation shifts a little if you're a Durge, but here is the Tav conversation.)

Withers: Thou remainest in thy chains. A hero, sacrificed. I told thee once that an illithid hath no soul, and yet...something glimmerest about thee. Something is not lost. Dost thou feel it? The spark of the divine within thee? Or does thy hunger consume thee? Player: [Option 1] I'm still myself. I don't know if I belong here. Player: [Option 2] I feel the hunger. But I feel myself, too. I'm not sure which to trust. Player: [Option 3] Have you come to torment me with hypotheticals, old friend? Player: [Option 4] Does it matter? This is my life now.

If you go with option 4, you hear Withers ponderingly say, "Thy life...yes..." before moving on to say that fate isn't done with you yet, which is his response to all the other options as well.

But the more important thing is that even Jergal recognizes a "spark of the divine" within you. Your soul should either be cast off and already wandering the Fugue Plane (if going with theory 1) or so completely transformed that it's no longer an apostolic soul that Jergal would be able to recognize as a god. Yet Jergal recognizes the soul within your mind flayer body as being...well, partly apostolic.

Interesting!

We get a similar dialogue if you sacrifice yourself as a mind flayer, too, though this is fascinating because now it's Withers literally finding your soul (still shaped like a mind flayer, which is interesting) somewhere that is...very gray. There's a suggestion that this might be in the Fugue Plane, or in some limbo state where souls sometimes end up, but regardless, Withers, the soul-finder himself, was able to track down your lingering soul.

Withers: Thou flickerest in the dark - but with mine keen eye, I hath scryed thee. I told thee once that an illithid hath no soul, and yet thou seemest to have something of the spirit about thee. I cannot account for it. How delightful. Tell me, how doth it feel to roam about as thou art now, transformed? Player: [Option 1] Where am I? [mumm's note: he basically doesn't answer this question lol] Player: [Option 2] I still feel like myself. My memories, my feelings - all intact. Withers: No matter how many aeons I have roamed this world and beyond, I am ever-surprised by mysteries new and old.

Even Withers is surprised that the soul you have is something he not only recognizes as a soul, but as your soul. I love how amused and intrigued he sounds when he says "I cannot account for it. How delightful." He even smiles when he says it. He thinks you're super neat! And also a new phenomenon.

(As an aside, I wonder if you being mind-flayer-shaped but still recognizable as you is a hint that your soul did indeed transform to be illithid, but didn't fully transform into a non-apostolic soul like normal illithids would. Like, I wonder if your soul is now half-apostolic and just permanently mind-flayer-shaped. RIP. But this would explain why bringing you back via True Resurrection is kind of a nonviable option since you'd just come back as a mind flayer, and this is the ending where you took your own life to avoid being a mind flayer for forever, so I doubt you'd even want to come back if you couldn't come back to your original body. Things to ponder!)

Anyway, you having something that has glimpses, sparks, or hints of the divine/the spirit about you does tell us that as a mind flayer, your soul wasn't destroyed. It may have been transformed, but you're not as soulless as you thought you were going to be, and you're actually still pretty close to being who you were before the transformation.

Close, but not perfectly or exactly like you were before. You did transform, after all. But these changes become more obvious in other examples, such as with Karlach.

You having a partly-apostolic soul that retains all its memories and most of its original personality is obviously VERY unique and different to what most mind flayers experience. For example, if you turn yourself illithid and then free Orpheus (again, see the same steps above, but go a step farther and actually free him this time), then Orpheus will be utterly shocked that you're capable of independent thought.

Orpheus: What is this... A mind flayer in possession of its mental faculties? This is the stuff of fables. It is as if I am reliving the legend of Oryndoll. You are the illithid Urengol, rebelling against your own hivemind. And I am the noble githyanki Valraag who must now reconsider his position. An illithid capable of rebelling against the Netherbrain's instruction... Not only capable but willing... If your intentions are as righteous as they seem, this is an advantage I cannot overlook. An advantage that must be grasped, for our enemy is formidable indeed. Very well. I propose an alliance.

A couple of notes here: Oryndoll is/was a real mind flayer colony far, far below the surface in the southern regions of Faerûn (beneath the Shining Plains). Not only is it ancient, but the wealth of knowledge stored inside via illithid technology rivals and probably even surpasses that of Candlekeep's library. There's at least one book in the game that talks about a foolish drow adventurer searching for Oryndoll, only to end up a mind flayer, while another hints at Oryndoll's role in the history of the Duergar race. But these are the only mentions of Oryndoll in the game.

Oryndoll has a history in D&D lore, but there's no mention of Urengol and Valraag (that I could find). If this is a fable Orpheus knows, it's apparently so ancient that only he remembers it. But that itself is interesting, because it makes Urengol his closest reference to you having become a rogue, independently-thinking, and emotionally driven mind flayer. He can't think of any other examples, that's how unique you are.

The most important thing here is that Orpheus literally considers your independently thinking self as so baffling, so impossible, it should only exist in fables. That, I think, says a lot.

The next question is, does he think he would become just as unique?

The Case of Orpheus

We all know Orpheus can be convinced to turn into a mind flayer and sacrifice his soul for his people. I'm sure he genuinely does think he is sacrificing his soul, as there is no real precedent that he or anyone else seems to know of for a person who turns into a mind flayer and keeps their soul (or at least keeps their same memories, personality, and intelligence). But if he's surprised that he's kept all his memories after turning illithid, he doesn't really show it.

You can ask him about it, of course, after he's turned into a mind flayer and after you've defeated the Netherbrain. His response is kind of interesting.

Player: You're a mind flayer, but you're still you, aren't you? Orpheus: Yes. But for how long? My mind screams. It will never stop until it has slipped away from me entirely.

No one else seems to define their illithid experience this way. I'm curious if his mind screaming is referring to the hunger he feels, the same hunger he is actively trying to resist, but he doesn't elaborate on this. Regardless, he's certain that while he has retained his personality (and probably his soul) for now, it's not going to last.

This is why he asks for an honorable death after the defeat of the Netherbrain.

Player: You don't deserve to die. Orpheus: I will not be ghaik! I did what I did to save my people. [...] The rest is up to them. Someone else must rise within the ranks to lead the revolution against Vlaakith. Give me my freedom from this form, release my soul to the Astral Seas while I still have one to call my own.

Orpheus believes that he only has a temporary grasp on his soul or consciousness, which may or may not have transformed into a different kind of soul. Then again, if he thinks his soul is going to the Astral Seas, maybe it doesn't matter whether his soul was transformed from apostolic to non-apostolic. I'm not even sure if githyanki have apostolic souls at all, since they wouldn't really be interested in the deities that govern matters on the Material Plane. I mean, for a long time Lae'zel wants her soul to be eaten by Vlaakith (a literal lich queen who eats souls) via "ascension" so...

I also have no idea if his soul, once released to the Astral Seas, would be mind-flayer-shaped. I guess that's the great mystery. I would assume yes, but I also don’t know how souls manifest in the Astral Seas and finding sources on this has been difficult (it all boils down to “ask your DM”).

Orpheus can be convinced to stay alive and just hang out in a far-off "corner of these realms" to watch his people fight against Vlaakith from afar, and there's kind of a hint that him agreeing to do this means he isn't actually afraid he'll lose his entire soul. But at this point, we're getting too far into "maybes" and "what ifs" to suggest anything concrete.

Quick picture break of Orpheus contemplating the Supreme Tadpole to break up the text (I just thought it was a good shot)

Now I do have to acknowledge two things about Orpheus: one, he could be a special mind flayer precisely because of his unique abilities to shield his mind from elder brain compulsion, which means his unique abilities could also be the reason why he retains so much of his personality and therefore his soul. Since most of the time you end up eating his brain and absorbing his abilities, this could also explain why you retain so much of your own soul if you become a mind flayer instead.

In this scenario, you’re a special mind flayer because (1) you have a Netherese tadpole, (2) you transformed using the Supreme Tadpole, and (3) then you ate Orpheus’s brain. All three elements could be at play.

But not everyone eats Orpheus’s brain, so that theory has holes. I genuinely think you just end up being a special mind flayer because of the Netherese magic that messes with your tadpole. The Supreme Tadpole plus Orpheus’s abilities would only be the icing on the cake, so to speak.

The second thing I want to acknowledge is that there’s a glaring plothole for Orpheus even turning into a mind flayer at all, if you play the game a certain way. If you send the Emperor away to free Orpheus before the Emperor gives you the Supreme Tadpole (for example if you send Lae’zel over to smash the chains holding Orpheus captive without talking to the Emperor, which is what I did one time, and the Emperor was literally like “don’t talk to me again bye” and left), then how does he turn into a mind flayer? He doesn’t have a tadpole and you don’t have the Supreme Tadpole to give to him.

He gets around this with you or Karlach by saying he’ll lower his mental shields so that your tadpole hears the Netherbrain’s orders to transform and then replace the shields again.

Orpheus: My defences keep the voice of the Absolute out, but just as I can raise them, so I can lower them. I will allow the voice of the Absolute in. Once it reaches you, it will order you to transform. It will only take a moment. And once you are a mind flayer, I will fold you under my protection once more. You will be the saviour of empires, not least my own. Narrator: *With the withdrawal of Orpheus' power, your mind is rushed with the full force of the Netherbrain. You feel a compulsion unlike anything you've ever known - excruciating and exhilarating in equal measure. You wish nothing in the world but to evolve. Then - complete silence, as you are once again closed off from the Netherbrain's mind.*

So that makes sense, and it means you being a special mind flayer could boil down to your personality being hella strong + you being infected with a special Netherese tadpole. In this scenario, the Supreme Tadpole can’t be used to explain your unique soul-keeping abilities, and neither can you attribute your soul-keeping abilities to consuming Orpheus's brain (since he's still alive). So maybe the Supreme Tadpole and/or Orpheus's brain doesn’t have any effect on why you keep your mostly-unaltered soul.

In the end I guess it’s just the weird Netherese tadpole that does the trick? Honestly, I wonder if it all boils down to the fact that the Netherese tadpole doesn't eat your brain, it just lies dormant and incubating in your head, so you're not losing brain matter. (But this ignores or forgets that when you eat other tadpoles you literally watch them burrow into your brain matter so I'm sure the magic has something to do with it too.)

But anyway this still doesn’t explain why Orpheus, who shouldn’t have a tadpole, somehow turns into a mind flayer by, I don’t know, manifesting it??? Or why he is also a unique mind flayer once he does this without the Supreme Tadpole. I mean in his case I’m sure it is because he has special mind shield abilities but still. How did he turn into a mind flayer without a tadpole? Make it make sense, Larian.

He literally just touches his head with a psionic magic effect, which is the same gesture he uses to lower his mental shield to allow the Netherbrain to force you to transform. It's also interesting that if you have him transform using the Supreme Tadpole, then he doesn't say anything as he accepts the tadpole from you and absorbs it. But if you have him change without the tadpole, then he says, "The Netherbrain will be only too pleased to claim me."

Which...kind of implies that he's somehow able to communicate with the Netherbrain or hear its voice, so...maybe he secretly does have a tadpole? I mean, a popular theory is the Emperor probably did tadpole Orpheus off-screen since he seems to have a level of compulsion over Orpheus, but this is never explained or mentioned in the game so do whatever you want with that theory.

But I digress.

Let's do a quick summary, shall we?

TLDR: You're probably a super special mind flayer who gets to keep their soul mostly intact (or mostly unaltered) because your tadpole was imbued with Netherese magic and generally doesn't eat your brain. You might also be super special because you transformed using the Supreme Tadpole (optional) and/or consumed Orpheus's brain (also optional). Orpheus might be a super special mind flayer simply because he's Orpheus, and that is why he can still retain most of his soul/personality, even though he keeps thinking he's going to lose it. His status as special mind flayer seems unchanged whether he transformed using the Supreme Tadpole or not, so it really must be an Orpheus Thing.

Phew. That was a lot. And honestly, Karlach and Gale only complicate things, so they're going in a separate post. Keep an eye out for Part 3!

~*~*~

You made it to the end!!! Amazing, you deserve an achievement or something, but all I have are more gold stars.

✨⭐️🌟⭐️✨⭐️🌟⭐️✨

Tags for those who wanted the update! @galesdevoteewife @stuffforthestash

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 meta #bg3 lore #bg3 deep dive #deep dive #long post #super long post #the emperor #orpheus #mind flayer #i had to make this a three part thing because it was getting super long

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thegamingcatmom · 23 days

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Intrigued about miranda anon

As a person who knows nothing of resident evil but wants to know more

(Not much a gamer, more a watcher of people who do playthroughs)

about birb momma and the dimitrescus (just cause idk more background info context)

Where do you suggest one would start? Should I know the info of previous games

Or like idk?

(Love your content btw)

Hello again, intrigued-about-miranda nonny!

First of all: Resi 7 (Biohazard) and 8 (Village) are kinnnda separated from the rest of the games, you could say. It´s a whole new MC (Ethan Winters) with his own story.

8 is set about three years after 7 and also deals with the aftermath of Biohazard. You do get some flashbacks in Village that show some of the stuff that went down three years ago, but it´s not a lot. I recommend playing Biohazard first, if you´re considering getting into gaming after all. Things will make a lot more sense then. ^^

As for the importance of the previous games:

Ofc there´s some lore sprinkled here and there in Village, like Mother Miranda´s connection to Spencer (one of Umbrella´s founders), but nothing too deep that would make you feel like you´re missing out or anything if your main focus are the ladies (I don´t blame you). Besides-

Resi lore can be...confusing. (At least when you´re going for a deep dive.) Even to those who have played all games. There´s just lots of stuff that´s tied together that also affects other stuff, and you only find out about that other stuff when you play some of the other games, sooo-

Yes, I am one of those confused ppl. In my defense though-

Village started it all for me. Never touched a Resident Evil game in my life before that. But as soon as I heard about Lady D and, well, pretty much ALL the ladies this game would feature, I started working my way through because, just like you, I was worried I´d be missing some info that would come into play later.

Well, turns out I was wrong.

But I still enjoyed playing them all. Resi 2 Remake and 7 are my favs (horror-wise). :3

Have been a Resi fan ever since.

But, to answer your question:

If your main interest is Village but you still wanna have the full package, then start by playing 7 and 8. Or watch a playthrough, if that´s more your thing. ^^

If you´re only here for the ladies, then Village will suffice because none of them are mentioned in any other game. (Fun fact though: Miranda was Spencer´s mentor. So Ig she did influence some of the stuff that went down in previous games. At least in theory. Can´t really influence smt when you haven´t even existed at that time yet ofc, lol.)

I do recommend playing/watching 7 first though. I think the story is great and it really helps getting a better understanding of what´s going down in Village.

Well, I hope that wasn´t too overwhelming for you? I tend to ramble when I get excited, I can´t help it. 😅

Lemme know if you got anymore questions. I´ll happily answer them all to the best of my abilities!

Thanks a lot for your ask! 💋

#tumblr asks #resident evil village #resident evil 8 #resident evil biohazard #resident evil 7 #ethan winters #mother miranda #the dimitrescus #lady dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu #bela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu

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sillyzali · 3 months

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Battleblock theater oc + oc lore/story (unfinished/wip)

I just wanted to upload this here lol

This is bowwy

Bowwy was just another friend among Hatty Hattington and his group of friends. On the day the massive group embarked on the S.S. Friend-ship, she was present, accompanying everyone. After the shipwreck, the island cats imprisoned her along with the others, while Mom was fortunate enough not to be captured. Mom went ahead into the theater, seeing the cats forcefully put a top hat on Hatty that suspiciously glowed a vibrant red. As soon as they placed the hat on him, Hatty began to cry inconsolably, always seen with tears on his face. Mom witnessed all this, hidden in a statue.

Unfortunately, after these events, the cats found him and imprisoned him too. Mom woke up in a dirty cell but saw that one of the cat guards freed him and explained what he needed to do to save his friends.

[events of the game in this part]

[ending]

Mom managed to get Hatty out of the creepy, abandoned theater while their friends fought the cats as if it were a war. (Which, in fact, it was.) Everything was ready to set sail, the S.S. Friend-ship was repaired, and the sails were raised. Bowwy was waiting for Mom, and when he finally got to the ship, she helped him get Hatty on board. Finally, all the friends had boarded the ship after everything terrible they had endured for days. It was a reason to celebrate! As they sailed away from the island, one of the friends suggested celebrating with cocoa.

But, they realized that Hatty was not his former, jovial self as before. He didn't even respond to hugs! Freaking hugs! He loves hugs! Then they realized they had lost their dear friend. Suddenly, a huge wave came, causing Hatty to fall overboard. Bowwy was devastated by this. She tried to help him, but to no avail. The only thing she managed to keep from Hatty was his hat.

While everyone was sad, they sailed back home, lamenting what had happened. Bowwy, after everything that had happened, isolated herself from everyone, hardly speaking to anyone. It was as if she was going crazy! I mean, she even put on a hood and everything! She didn't even wear her beloved bow! She was only seen in a corner, tired, reading a book. Every. Single. Day. Some friends suspected she was reading a book on... dark magic? Uh, weird.

[2 years of the same routine]

After two long and slow years, Bowwy built her own raft, going to the place where Hatty had fallen into the water. Her resources and food were low, but she finally made it. Presumably in the place where Hatty's body was (which was hard to know as the sea there was quite deep), she cast a spell, hoping to bring him back to life. She refused to let him go, even after all this time. She waited a few seconds... but it didn't work.

"Wait what-?..."

Bowwy said, confused and worried.

"Eh, maybe I need to be closer to the body..."

She continued and then cast another spell to keep the raft in place, then took her book and enclosed herself in a bubble so she wouldn't drown (again, with magic).

Bowwy, now inside the bubble with her book, dived into the water in search of her deceased friend. After a good while falling through the water, Bowwy finally saw the lifeless body of her dear friend, with his classic suit damaged and faded by the time spent in the water. She stopped for a moment, remembering the horrible events she had lived through with her friends in the theater, and how she saw her friend die. She bent down and observed her friend's still body as a tear fell down her cheek.

"Hatty, I've missed you so much..."

Bowwy, following her words, brought Hatty's body into the bubble, then floated in it back to the raft to perform her magic properly.

As Bowwy immersed herself in performing the ancient spell, she began to feel a deep connection to the theater and its forgotten history. While doing the resurrection spell, she had visions and memories about the theater, making her discover a bit more about the hat and the history of that abandoned theater.

Filled with determination, Bowwy continued the spell, channeling her energy into Hatty's damaged, lifeless body. Dark magic came to life around her, enveloping the raft in a strange mist as the spell took effect.

Suddenly, the water began to agitate violently, as if an ancient force were awakening beneath the surface. A dark whirlpool formed around the raft, dragging Bowwy and Hatty into the unknown.

In the midst of the chaos, Hatty's body began to move, the cracks in his decomposed skin healed, and his breath returned to fill his lungs. Bowwy struggled to stay afloat as the ritual reached its climax, her eyes glowing and feeling destined to complete her mission while holding Hatty's hat over her head, a symbolic connection between her and her dear friend.

Finally, the whirlpool dissolved, and calm returned to the sea. Bowwy and Hatty lay on the raft, exhausted but alive. But... something had changed. There was a dark feeling inside Hatty, that feeling and the shadow of his former good self fighting to control his mind.

Bowwy, tired, mentally prepared to face the consequences the spell might have brought her.

Until she remembered that if the spell worked, Hatty was alive.

"Hatty! Hatty, are you okay!? Do you recognize me!?"

Bowwy said as she quickly approached Hatty, who was now definitely alive thanks to her.

"What... What happened...? Where are we?"

Hatty asked, confused and somewhat dizzy.

Bowwy quickly wrapped Hatty in a tight hug, tears streaming down her face.

"God, I missed you so much! You don't know everything I've been through to see you again... I just... couldn't let you go like that..."

"Bowwy, I... I'm quite confused, to be honest. All this time, I felt like I was in a deep sleep, unable to wake up."

Her friend responded, returning the hug.

"We... we lost you, Hatty... it was too late when we realized... And I saw you... drown..."

Hatty, upon hearing his friend's words, froze. He didn't know what had happened to him.

"I made a promise to bring you back, Hatty... I couldn't just let you go like that..."

Said the now necromancer, still crying, feeling sorry for the mentioned memory but relieved by the success of her spell.

"Oh... well, the last thing I remember were those cats putting that strange hat on me... I couldn't move, it was like it controlled me... although now I have a very familiar feeling inside me, it's quite strange..."

Hatty explained to her.

"By the way, you look very different from how you used to..."

He continued.

"Eh, a lot has happened during this time... many things went through my mind, and I almost thought I was going crazy... Besides, it's been two years already, how could I not change?"

She explained the reasons for her new appearance.

"Wait, w-what?! two years?!"

Hatty didn't expect so much time to have passed.

I'LL FINISH THIS SOMEDAY 😭😭

The name of Bowwy's alternate universe is Battleblock theater: Drowned souls btw

I'll upload Hatty's design soon :D

#battleblock theater #hatty hattington #the behemoth #oc #art #au #lore #battleblock theater drowned souls

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