#idril stormsbane

[catcas22]

The villain arc is still going swimmingly.

Villain arc no longer going swimmingly.

If you can’t trust the snake cult operating out of an active volcano, who can you trust?

[catcas22]

Idril isn’t technically a Drake Knight -- she consumed a dragon heart during the Second Liurnian War, but she never encountered the Communion Church, and she was never taught the litanies.

Her drakeblood incantations tend to be much more feral and unrefined. She's hesitant to use them more often than not -- resorting to drakeblood incantations generally either results in her armor needing repairs or her dealing with burns for a few days.

[catcas22]

My two Tarnished ocs in their starting gear. Idril, a drifting vagabond knight, and Siegfried, a fugitive Dragon Cult knight.

[catcas22]

New drip. I think this is one of my favorites.

Also, decent armor, plus Bull Goat Talisman, plus Stamp (Upercut) ash of war.

80 poise. Face-tank everything. This is going to come back to bite me when I get to the late game, but it very much fits Idril's fighting style.

[catcas22]

Update: I am still not very good at this game, but still having a good time.

Got some better armor. Probably going to main the Banished Knight Sword with a Heavy affinity.

Got my Drakeblood Seal. Actually wasn't that difficult, I was lowkey dreading the Hero's Grave but it wasn't that bad. Using the Demihuman Queen's Staff until I can get the Albinauric Staff.

Got my directions from Rogier, currently heading for Caria Manor to see what's up with the Cursemark.

[catcas22]

Update -- Idril villain-arc drip.

"Ranni seems a bit shady, and her operation is clearly held together with duct-tape and black magic. But these Volcano Manor people seem to have their act together!"

[catcas22]

Heya catcas! Been playing catchup on tumblr recently so I dont know if youre still doing this, but if you are

For the OC ask game, maybe 🤥, 🌋, and 🌕 for Idril? What you’ve written for em is very intriguing

Hey, thanks for the ask!

LYING - Idril has a great poker face, but verbal lying is a bit more challenging. She tends to blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, and then stick with it despite all evidence. We're talking "steamed hams" levels of simply refusing to acknowledge that she's been caught in a lie. Sometimes it even works!

VOLCANO - Idril goes through life at a constant simmer. People who know her casually tend to think of her as a very angry person -- it's not uncommon to catch her grumbling darkly about the weather, or unleashing a string of curses because her armor won't buckle right. But it's mainly low-level stuff. The real anger, she keeps a tight handle on. Due to her drakeblood transformation, she can't afford to fly off the handle. A true loss of temper could kill someone -- or at the very least, leave her waking up from an hours-long blackout covered in burns. She has settled on the very healthy coping mechanism of just pushing it all down.

Pictured Below:

MOON - Idril spent her formative years as a foot soldier in one of the Golden Order's most prolonged and costly wars. Even before the banishment of the Tarnished, she died dozens of times. If she tried to answer honestly what she wanted most in life, she would probably say "A worthy cause to fight for," or "An honorable master who I could be proud to serve." But that isn't quite it. Her greatest wish is something she would never admit even to herself -- she wants someone to value her for her own sake, not simply because she fights for them. Which is a problem, because "acts of service" is her primary love language, and the handful of friends she made in her travels were all people she helped out of some predicament or other. She remains stuck with the nagging feeling that everyone in her life only tolerates her out of a sense of indebted gratitude.

[catcas22]

Going to finally do a proper playthrough with Idril Stormsbane. The first character I ever created in Elden Ring, but I did not understand optimization at the time. Ended up abandoning the file because the stats were a mess, I sold a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have sold, and I severely misallocated my smithing stones.

So I'm trying again now that I actually know how to play the game! Starting as a Vagabond Knight, going for a quality knight build with a few arcane embellishments. Gonna try to pick up an Albinauric Staff and Drakeblood Seal later.

To the Age of Stars!

[catcas22]

If you don’t mind my asking, why did Idril eat a dragon heart if she never interacted with the church?

Was it an instance of cultural memory (stories of warriors doing the same)?

Or did she perhaps merely let the intrusive thoughts win?

By the time of the Second Liurnian War, Godfrey's original warband had dwindled to a paltry few. Some achieved their glory and simply died, welcomed back into the roots of the Erdtree. Some lost their Grace in the grinding campaigns against the Storm Lord and the Dragonbarrow. Others were swallowed up by the Blackflame Rebellion, either drawn to the usurper's banner or consumed by her godslaying flame.

When Lord Radagon made his second excursion into Liurnia, he led an army not of champions, but of volunteers drawn from the ranks of the faithful. While their parents and grandparents remembered a time before Marika's godhood, these had known only the light of the Erdtree.

Though the blessing of Grace was a rarity amongst them, they fought with the fervor of the most devout -- how else could mortal men have been compelled to stand against dragons, against troll knights, against sorcerers wielding the might of the moon and stars?

The First Liurnian War had been a short-lived affair. Lord Radagon had anticipated only piecemeal resistance -- instead he had found the scattered houses of Liurnia united under the banner of a new High Queen.

The Second Liurnian War saw the full might of the Golden Order brought to bear, as the Order sought to break the power of the Moon by sheer force of numbers. Legion upon legion of common foot soldiers marched into the teeth of the Carian counter-offensive, unflinching before the storm of dragon fire and spell-blades. For they had been told that they marched against ultimate evil. They had been told that if they should fail, the Full Moon Witch would set a frost within the roots of the Erdtree and usher in an age of eternal darkness. They had been told that, though they marched over mountains of their own dead, the Greater Will would grant them victory in the end.

Idril was one of these, one spear-carrier amongst tens of thousands. Her grandparents had served Godfrey, but she had known only the Order. After months of miserable battle in the swamps, a Carian dragon descended and burnt Idril's company to the last man.

From amongst the charred and waterlogged wreckage, Idril alone rose again, chosen by Grace just as the champions of old. She died five times more before the sunrise, and upon her sixth revival she finally slew the dragon. Half maddened by grief, exhaustion, and the pain of her grievous burns, she carved open the dragon and devoured its cooling heart. In those days the tales of the Drake Knights were not yet forgotten, and the Golden Order remembered the Dread Communion in its bloodiest form -- a way by which a foe may be utterly broken, and even in death be made to serve the victor's cause.

Idril devoured the heart in hatred and vengeance, but also for the sake of devotion. One sword could not sway the wars of gods and champions. But by taking in the dragon's fire, she might better serve the cause of Gold.

The gift of Grace offered salvation from death, but it promised no sure victory. Idril died dozens of times more as the war dragged on, pierced by spell-blades, drowned in mud, burnt and crushed again and again. Each time Grace raised her up, and she fought on. Each time, the dragon's curse remained.

When the war ended in victory for neither the Moon nor the Erdtree, Idril's curse yet remained. The fire she had fed for the sake of the Order now threatened to consume her, devouring her humanity whole. The curse persisted even as her Grace faded and her faith went with it, even as she and her Tarnished compatriots were hounded from the Lands Between. That which she had taken on for the sake of her devotion now served as a reminder, a gnawing memento of those who had used her and cast her aside.

@blueberrygoopdemon I think this answers your question too :)

[catcas22]

Haven’t drawn my tarnished in a bit. I feel like my overall proportions are getting better, but ironically I think I drew better faces back when I was just winging it.

[catcas22]

The things I do for love.

Okay, that wasn’t half as bad as I remembered. Note to self: use Giant’s Hunt on Astel in future playthroughs.

Now, time to propose!

[catcas22]

Why have OCs if you’re not going to team them up for a rivals-to-friends arc?

Idril Stormsbane, a Tarnished foot soldier who got roped into Ranni’s anti-gods scheme.

Siegfried, son of Vyke and Lansseax, formerly a man of the Golden Order, now looking into True Order.

[catcas22]

Idril Stormsbane (edited for proofreading, a few things I forgot to add, and pictures)

Figured I’d go ahead and introduce my tarnished.

Idril Stormsbane is a classic sword-and-board strength build who keeps getting mixed up in mage business. A solid and dependable sort with an amazing poker face. She gives off the vibe of a thug with a boxing glove where her brain should be, but that’s not true -- she is of perfectly average intelligence. Sometimes she can use this to her advantage (Seluvis learned this the hard way).

Generally a bit grim, or at least politely distant. But she does have a soft spot for people genuinely in need of help. She’ll go to rather impressive lengths to help the unfortune souls she meets along the road, all while grumbling about how she doesn’t have time for this.

Began her journey as a vagabond knight. She returned to the Lands Between more or less for lack of any better prospects, then took Melina’s accord. It was the only decent thing to do, really, she did owe Melina for fishing her body out of the ravine under the Chapel of Anticipation.

Came to the decision to defy the Golden Order almost accidentally. After hearing Roderika’s story and finding out he full extent of what was going on in Stormveil, she set out to kill Godrick.

She succeeded, gaining both a Great Rune and the attention of Margit and his Night’s Cavalry. So now it’s do or die.

Lost her right eye to Ranni’s projection of Rennala. To Ranni’s eternal credit, she waited a whole twenty-four hours before she started making “twins” jokes.

Backstory: A second-generation Tarnished who served under Radagon as a dragon slayer in the Second Liurnian War. She has vague memories of one of her parents being a Drake Knight, and is pretty sure they hail from the Badlands, but everything prior to her first death is pretty fuzzy.

Her first death involved a Carian dragon knight and a lot of glintstone fire. Her teens and the bulk of her twenties were spent in the meatgrinder that was the Second Liurnian War, during which she took the dragon communion. Like many of her comrades, she was incensed when Radagon ended the war by marrying the Witch Queen that they had all been assured was wicked to the core and an existential threat to the Golden Order.

Being banished a few years later, by her former commander no less, was simply salt in the wound. By the time of Godfrey’s banishment, she was already thoroughly disillusioned with the Golden Order. As she left the Lands Between alongside her fellow Tarnished, she swore to never again be a pawn of the demigods.

Relationships: Hit it off well with Blaidd, then almost rage-quit when she fought her way to Caria Manor and found out who her friend actually worked for. In her defense, she spent her formative years immersed in anti-Carian propaganda. Eventually swallowed her pride and agreed to work for Ranni, because it was that or back the Volcano Manor. She’s since warmed up to Ranni, but she doesn’t quite trust her. She’s not catching feelings, definitely not.

Millicent is without exception the best person she has ever met. She will fight you on this. Gowry’s dog is the bane of her existence.

Spends a lot of time in the Bestial Sanctum with Gurranq. Neither of them are particularly talkative, but he seems to appreciate the company. Idril has repented of her past as a dragon slayer, and often stays in the barrow to watch the dragonlings from a respectful distance.

Would’ve adopted Roderika if Hewg hadn’t beat her to it. Basically did adopt Rya and Boc.

Gideon is up to something. She’s not sure what, but she’ll puzzle it out eventually.

She likes Rogier okay, but she’s trying very hard not to learn anything about what he, Fia, and D used to get up to. It’s creepy, and she wants no part in it.

During her training with Sellen, she meant to say “yes ma’am” but somehow it came out “yes mum.” This has happened more than once. Sellen has never let her forget it.

She would get along great with Morgott if they ever stopped trying to kill each other. They’re both curmudgeons with an iron sense of duty.

Vyke was something of a personal idol to her, although she never had a chance to meet him prior to her banishment.

Had Melina’s number from day one. She knows a stone cold badass when she sees one, the mild-mannered maiden act isn’t fooling anyone.

Equipment: Wears a modified Mausoleum Knight’s set and a Redmane soldier’s helm. Mains a cold-infused (courtesy of Ranni) zweihander. Also carries a Carian Knight’s sword (from Moongrum, carried in memory of a worthy opponent), a kite shield (just in case), a demi-human queen’s staff (because she might need Carian Phalanx someday), and the Clawmark Seal (so she can use glintstone breath). Really though, the zweihander is where it’s at.

[catcas22]

Some more pics of my tarnished, Idril Stormsbane.