#knightly npc

[dmmchn]

Cecil Steelhammer.

I'm playing Descent into Avernus with my friends, and I made a tiefling paladin (oath of crown) character for that. Was heavily inspired by BG3's Zevlor, ngl.

Cecil is a Hell Rider, he descended with the city, then managed to escape it (because I joined the campaign mid-way and that's how our DM joined him with the party) to find the way to save it somewhere else.

I tired to design the most basic character I could, so Cecil would stand in line with the NPCs the party met along the way. His surname, his basic horns, his typical red skin - all serve that purpose. However I did my own take on the Hell Rider Uniform - I wanted it to look more knightly with a coat that draws the guard out from the crowd, so I added embroidery with Elturel's suns.

[arathir-starsong]

Vesper DeVir - Dark Elf Paladin - Oath of Redemption - Chaotic Good

Art by the wonderful n8dl3!

Vesper here is one of the focal NPCs of a game I've been running for a few months! My group talked about being followers of a "main character" NPC they have to support & protect, and Vesper came about as a result. More under the cut!

Knight Initiate Vesper DeVir is a knight-in-training of the Order of the Rose, a knightly order in the cosmopolitan city of Revelmoore. She is a Szarkai; an albino drow whose births are heralded as blessings in traditional dark elven society.

Once an ordained priestess of the malevolent spider goddess of the drow, Lolth, Vesper fled her people and fought for her own survival as a member of the crime syndicate known as the Black Network.

However, ties were severed after her chapter of the network fell apart, and she resorted to living as a hermit in the vast dungeon known as the Undermountain. She would eventually run into a pair of adventurers named Contrast and Makoto, and by traveling with them she came to terms with her past and awakened to a new faith in the goddess Desna.

Now a chosen of Desna and a knight in training, Vesper hopes to save her people from Lolth's oppression one soul at a time. Even as she is hounded by the eternally enraged revenant form of her former lover, Urstul Floxin, she maintains a calm and positive demeanor that carries her through her difficult trials; while still maintaining a cynical wit.

[klabauters]

This might be like a weird ask, but like can you explain how larp works? I play ttrpgs so I know like the basics of roleplaying but like is it the same group everytime? But there seem to be so many people involved? Do you get assigned your character or do you create them? Is there some kind of a gm? I imagine the logistics are super complicated but maybe you could explain it a little? Also followed for db content, stayed for larp sideblog!

Not a weird ask at all! But oh boy, where do you begin?

Every larp is organized differently, and the things I'm about to say are by no means universal. I'll just explain this using the Mythodea campaign as an example.

Just like in ttrpgs, you've got one-off games, and long running campaigns. Mythodea is one of the largest german campaigns. There are several Mythodea events happening each year, the biggest one being Conquest with just under 10000 players. Then there's the Chroniken and the JdS, which usually have around 1500 players attending. There's a few more smaller events throughout the year, too.

These all happen in the same universe, with the same plotlines. Like sessions in the same game of DnD. Some players only attend the Conquest, others show up at several or most of the smaller events as well. All depending on how involved you want to get

Do they assign you a character?

No! There are larps that'll hand you a pre-made character, many don't. However, individual groups within the Mythodea campaign (say: certain nations, orders or camps) might have a certain design concept that they'd want your character to fit into if you want to join them. A knightly order wouldn't exactly want a random pirate joining their ranks. In the overall campaign, you can pretty much show up with any vaguely medieval (ish) fantasy (ish) character that you came up with.

Is there some kind of GM?

Kinda, yeah! The overarching plot is written by a team of organizers, who then brief the NPCs on what's supposed to happen next. The players, like in ttrpgs, then react to whatever gets thrown at them. Occasionally they'll brief "important" individual players, too, for logistical reasons. But as a player you ideally get minimal direct info from the game runners.

Since this is a giant campaign with all sorts of factions and groups, there is a fuckton of plot that isn't dictated by the game runners. A lot of conflict and storylines just evolve naturally, and you can attend most of the bigger events without necessarily having to interact with the given plot.

How are the players in such a big game organized?

The players are, in this case, split into groups. There's different kingdoms (in Mythodea you have four main kingdoms: southern, western, northern and the realm of roses. We don't talk about the east for, uh, a bunch of reasons. Plus a big number of independant kingdoms and groups). That's how the camps are divided. Within those big kingdom/group camps, you have smaller factions within said kingdoms. Like specific guilds, families or organizations. You'll usually have one or two people per small camp, and then again a few people for the umbrella groups organizing the logistics of who goes where, who's showing up, etc etc. If this sounds horribly complicated and like one mess of a snowball system, that's because it is. You just hope that whoever's directly above you in the chain of People Who Organize Things knows what they're doing.

[dailycharacteroption]

Book Review: Faiths of Purity

And with today’s entry we end off the week with a beginning, a beginning of a quadrilogy in the Pathfinder Player Companion line of books, focused on the various faiths of Golarion’s Inner Sea Region deities.

Now, I say faiths specifically instead of deities, since this book is less about the deities themselves and more about how the mortals worship them and incorporate their beliefs into their daily lives.

The reason that these books came to be was to help build the world and give a religious character that one was portraying plenty of inspiration for what they would value and what sort of holy days and the like they would celebrate and follow through with, which was a fair bit more than what we got out of deity descriptions in many editions of D&D. Sure, you knew their alignments, their domains, and they symbols, but beyond a paragraph or two, their lore was pretty sparse in most books, so it was a nice change of pace.

The book starts with a breakdown of the seven good-aligned major deities in the Inner Sea Region, specifically information about their faith and their worshippers, everything from what sort of classes favor the religion, what they wear to identify themselves to other members of the faith outside of holy symbols, how they worship, what they consider taboo, and of course, their goals. Additionally, there is a bit on what sort of relationship the faithful have with other belief systems. These deities range from the frivolous but heroic followers of Cayden Cailean, the wandering and wise Desnans, the parental (and condescending) followers of Erastil, the righteous devotees of Iomedae, Sarenites who honor the mighty but merciful hand of the Dawnflower, art-focused followers of Shelyn, and the stalwart followers of Torag.

The book goes on further to briefly speak of the goodly minor deities. While not gone into the same detail, gives a good idea of what sort of followers they attract. They even go into the Empyreal Lords as well!

From there, we get various organizations that are tied to the aforementioned religions but having more specialized goals than simply following the teachings of said divinity. Things like secret organizations that bring light to nations of tyranny, or knightly orders.

Beyond that we get new combat feats associated with the fighting styles of the god’s followers (but not the divine fighting style feat, that comes later), as well as spells associated with each faith.

Additionally, with the exception of chaotic divinities, these faiths all qualify as valid options for a paladin to follow, and each one actually has an entry about how the oaths of paladins are altered by the nature of the god they worship, such as Shelynite paladins never striking first except to protect innocent life, and valuing the beauty and cultural importance of works of art greatly and seeking to protect them as well.

Finally, there is a bit on the various holy days and observances each faith in this book observes, which can be a fun way to set up festivals when the party goes to town or even inspiration for characters that would observe them even far away from where their faith is common.

The lore offered in this book is a major worldbuilding boon, as characters and NPCs alike can be fleshed out a lot by how they interact with and observe their faith. Faith means a lot to many people in the real world, so why wouldn’t it for characters in a fantasy world, even if they themselves aren’t divinely empowered?

Additonally, I like that none of the art in this book is of the deities themselves. Instead, it’s all example art of various worshippers of the faith, tying back to the “divinity from the mortal perspective” angle that this book and it’s companions are going for.

I do love this book. It’s a fun expansion of lore into the various major goodly faiths of the primary region of our setting, with plenty of fluffy to inspire characters with a light bit of crunch like that bit of cookie in a Twix bar. Firm enough for substance, but not so prominent so as to overshadow the texture of that delicious caramel. I hope that simile makes any kind of sense.

I don’t have super lots to complain about in this book, but I will say some of it is a little outdated, from Erastil’s somewhat traditionalist ideals that got downplayed in 2e to the paragraph on Apsu claiming that he does not grant divine magic to non-draconic followers, something that proves expressly not true in later books. (There’s even a paladin archetype that is baseline assumed to be associated with him, after all). But overall most of it is still good.

And that does it for our first week of book reviews, and the reception has been quite positive, so I’ll definitely be continuing this special in the future! But for now, look forward to more archetypes next week, and more specials in the future.

[hpowellsmith]

Hello there! I've been wanting to replay the older Baldur's Gate games, and was searching around for mlm NPC romance mods. I saw yours mentioned and found your site with some googling, but it seems the place they were hosted at is gone now (Spellhold Studios). I was wondering if you still have the mods available somewhere? Either way, I hope you have a great day!

OK, this has made go down a modding-community rabbit hole! I hadn't done anything with our Baldur's Gate 2 mods, or looked at them really, since 2015 and I really appreciate it because they're something that brought my wife and I a ton of joy, and they were the first interactive narratives I made.

Links, descriptions, and comments below because it is Long:

I got in touch with folks on the Gibberlings3 forum which is, wonderfully, still going strong, and have given permission for Faren and Nathaniel to be uploaded to the Spellhold Studios GitHub (which has a bunch of other mods too - do check out Adrian, Isra, and Ninde in particular!) to the team maintaining it. That may be a little while as some of the team are ill right now, but once I hear that it's done, I'll post about it here; I've also been pointed to some links where the mods were mirrored. Note that I haven't tested these myself on a current BG2 install, but it is easy to uninstall WeiDU mods if there's a problem.

Faren is a bisexual True Neutral fighter/thief (I can't remember if he's dual-classed or multi-classed) who's easygoing, down-to-earth, and up for partying, with a bit of a checkered past - his adventuring party died in one of the dungeons you can visit in BG2, and since then he's been picking up dodgy jobs, feeling a bit adrift, and trying to get his life back on track. That's where the PC comes in! You can befriend him or romance him (starting with either a casual or more committed tone, then committing further if you want to), and he has a personal quest in which a shady figure from his past wants him to do one last job. He was our third mod, and we'd developed our skills with writing and scope a lot by then. When I play BG2, I play with Faren! You can currently download Faren here. It's the version updated in 2015 with more banters with modded NPCs and the Enhanced Edition characters; there may be compatibility issues installing it with other newer mods but do give it a try.

I found The Luxley Family, which was our second mod, on the GitHub here. From a cursory (rusty) glance it looks like it should be compatible with Enhanced Edition, but the storyline is only for Shadows of Amn and doesn't continue into Throne of Bhaal. Sebastian and Andrei (Chaotic Neutral bard with a custom kit and Lawful Neutral monk respectively) are members of a mysterious, reclusive family who are under a curse. Sebastian's a worldly playwright who's showing his polite but moody teenage cousin Andrei the sights when they bump into the PC. They aren't romanceable, but you can have a fling with Sebastian, who's bisexual, if you let/help him mess up his life sufficiently.

Nathaniel is a Lawful Good gay fighter with a lot of feelings. He was our first mod and I am really proud of the impact he had on a lot of people and even other games back in the day, but if you play, go in expecting a LOT of feelings good and bad, relationship drama, and angst! (There's something very sad about the fact that as teens we could not imagine a D&D setting without homophobia back then; the idea of a knightly order thinking well of gay people just didn't cross our minds. it's extraordinary how much better a lot of things are now, including the queerness in D&D streams, books, and of course Baldur's Gate 3. Interestingly, we didn't include homophobia in the Luxley Family or Faren and I don't remember how conscious that was; maybe we'd become more hopeful by then.) You can download an outdated version of Nathaniel here but I don't think it will be compatible with Enhanced Edition.

Thank you so much for messaging! I didn't realise they weren't able to be downloaded anymore and I am really keen for digital art to be preserved (as well as players getting to smooch hot guys, of course).

(Digression - my wife and I have a couple of almost-finished mods on our computer: a lesbian cleric of Talos which she wrote, and a bi Valygar romance that I wrote. And, if it's among two computers' ago worth of external hard drive storage, the ending for the Luxley Family story. Who knows, maybe one day...)

[tgrailwar-zero]

Ruler, did Saber say why he wanted to tell us all this? It must be important to him if he went to such lengths

"Again, it's not like Saber and I are best friends. His proxy told me what he needed, and I got to escape with my Command Seals intact. I'm guessing I won't be able to leave on a mission like that again, unfortunately. Before I only left with Pretender because we were missing… well, three of our teammates, but with Alter-Ego, Gunner, and you, I'll probably be manning 'Mission Control' alongside MoonCancer."

"Saber is presumably in the Crimson Citadel, but presumably his proxies are all over, serving as a constant feed of information by intermingling with NPCs and watching the war from a safe distance away. At least, that's what I was told. Less as a kindness, and more as a warning, I'd assume. If you had some kind of direct link to the Crimson Citadel, then you could probably meet him without issue."

"That being said, they said that one of the proxies has set up a position at the Fugue Hamlet. A real noble type, apparently. Well-liked by the NPCs. That's also a start."

"…Hunky."

She said, after a pause.

"I-I mean stalwart! Knightly! Whatever! You'd know Blondie when you see him!"

With that serving as a… good enough prompt to leave, she started extricating herself from the situation.

"…Oh. Before you leave… Thank you. For the code cast."

RULER stopped and smiled, giving a quiet nod before exiting the room, leaving you all alone for the time being.

In other words, there was a lot to think about on both your part, and AVENGER's part. Concerning him, however...

"…It's a lot to disgest, but…"

"Rumors are like poison. Wildfires that can't be easily put out. Perhaps in that way, we're similar… at least, that's what I feel deep down, even with more complicated memories."

AVENGER seemed to glance off for a moment, lost in thought, before reaching a conclusion.

"In other words, I'm putting my faith in you, Masters. You're odd. Mysterious. But... you also chose music to soothe Alter-Ego over combat. For some reason... that means a lot to me."

With that, there were a few options that presented themselves. And one less than conventional one, considering that RIDER did serve as a 'direct link to the Crimson Citadel', presumably.

[shuubaehisagi]

Okay but what if there'll be a Mlynar Alter in the future and all these NPCs who have been wanting for the old Mlynar to make a knightly comeback be like "fucking finally"

[malaismere]

m9 classpects, continuing from the vm ones over here, because boy do I have a problem

Fjord is the Knight of Heart

Beau is the Knight of Mind

Caleb is the Mage of Light

Veth is the Thief of Void

Jester is the Maid of Space

Molly is the Prince of Blood

Yasha is the Maid of Hope

Caduceus is the Sylph of Time

I was tempted for there to be Even More Knights because boy howdy are the M9 a Knightly sort of party. But I think this makes the most sense.

descriptions below the cut

Also starting with lunar sway:

Fjord, Beau, Caleb, and Veth are Derse to Jester, Yasha, and Caduceus' Prospit. I am torn between saying Molly is Prospit, Derse, or a a dual-dreamer.

The rough idea for order (as a chain, idk who'd actually go in first) is:

Caduceus -> Fjord -> Jester -> Beau -> Molly -> Caleb -> Nott -> Yasha

Fjord: Knight of Heart

This is a bit of a tangent, but do you ever thing about Charisma saves and what they imply about Charisma as a stat? Like, Charisma seems pretty self-explanatory, it's how pretty/charming/persuasive you are, but it's the same save you make to avoid getting banished. That's because really, Charisma is about a sense of self, knowing your own truth, and that's what makes you so charismatic/persuasive/etc.

Fjord's the Charisma caster of the party, which is interesting, because he's got a fucked up sense of self. It isn't that he lacks a sense of self, but more that he refuses to accept it - you don't hide something you're unaware of, you hide something you're ashamed of.

Heart is very much the Charisma Aspect, because while, superficially it's about relationships, it's way, way more about yourself, your identity, and your soul. That is, I think, the center of Fjord's journey as a character - who he is, and who he wants to be.

Class wise, there's a fun read with the Destroy classes (Prince/Bard) as he does more than a decent job destroying hearts (see: any number of verbal takedowns of an NPC) but while he's tactical, he doesn't really ghost mind the way you'd expect. So, I don't think he's Destroying using Heart, I think he's weaponizing it - that is, he's a Knight.

Knights are defined by their inesecurity and the resulting mask, in Fjord's case, his false accent. That mask is literally a false confidence, masking insecurity by pretending to be great at their aspect (despite the fact they already are). Fjord's entire confidence is with a fake self, even though his normal identity is great, peak Knight.

Also, on a more literal level...boy's a Paladin.

Beau: Knight of Mind

Beau is a Mind player. She's smart, sure, but moreso she's decisive. Mind is all about outcomes and consequences, and as such, has a strong tie to justice, which is also something Beau has in spades.

Beau also couldn't more clearly be a Knight. Knights fight with their aspect (the Cobalt Soul style being quite literally fighting with your mind) and are most notable for their masks. While powerful, their very insecure, specifically about their aspect, and hide that beneath false confidence or some other shield. Their challenge is to accept themself and their abilities, and understand that they can, in fact, do this.

While she never reads as indecisive, Beau, like the rest of the Mighty Nein, shies away from important things, the stuff that really means something. She doesn't truly trust in her decisions, her ability to shape the world. She definitely hides behind a cool persona to cover for this, and also her general fears relating to her family trauma.

However, as she comes into her own as an expositor, Beau becomes way more of a focus as a leader, a gatherer of information, and a tactician. Endgame, we see her more literally becoming a lawyer, again Mind associated, and has faith in her decisions and how she chooses to shape the world.

Caleb: Mage of Light

So, Caleb would also make a pretty good knight-

Archetypally, Caleb is bouncing between Magician/Prophet, which are the two that are closest to swapping and are more fluid. He reads active to me, selfish and taking control rather than being moved by his aspect, but these are the classes where that distinction is the smallest. I think any of these could work, but wow is my boy a Mage.

Mages are defined by experiencing their aspect, usually categorized as suffering it, and through that gaining a unique perspective. And what can you say Caleb's done but suffer.

Despite his interest in turning back time, Caleb's not much of a time player, and it's not really what he suffers. I can see an argument for doom, but he's not quite so fatalistic; instead, I think, it's his greatest downfall and his greatest strength: Light.

Light is often associated with Knowledge, which is great for a wizard, but more than anything else, it's Plot Relevance. Light is attention - the spotlight shining on you, which is where things started to go wrong for Caleb - Trent focusing on him. It's also literally light, ie, fire. So, you know.

Now, Caleb's an interesting case, because I say that during the Volstrucker training, he inverts to a Heir of Void. Heirs are prodigies, their aspect comes naturally to them, but they're also easily manipulated by it. Void is darkness, secerts, the hidden, and irrelevance. All very Volstrucker qualities!

As Heir of Void, Caleb's an excellent Volstrucker. But, he's easily manipulated by Ikithon's lies, to the point of murdering his parents. And, well, Caleb's not really the Heir of Void - inversions are unhealthy and unstable. He breaks, and becomes made of Void - insane, irrelevant, hidden away in the Asylum.

I'd argue that most of C2 is Caleb recovering from this inversion, slowly moving back towards the Light. He's very much hiding when we meet him, after all, terrified of being seen/found again. But, eventually, we see him return into the Light, really pushing himself into the limelight and leadership. He also uses that information he learned from his struggles to change the world around him - not, to be clear, the suffering of killing his parents, but the suffering from Ikithon's attention, as his goal is to keep others from going through what he had.

To top it all off, Mages are prophets, but unlike their opposite seers, they are less about the telling of prophecy (not ones to be listened to) and more about the act of miracles. And Caleb has the most iconic miracle of Light in the campaign - the return of the Luxon.

Veth: Thief of Void

Veth's main associations are with sneakiness/secrets, water/alcohol, and shiny useless things. There's a lot of Void/Light imagery going on with her, which ties into a lot of her issues with attention/hiding. There's also some stuff with her and doom (death, obligation, explosion) but thematically I think Void wins out.

Class wise, she has a lot of aspects that are very Knightly. She's got a literal mask (doll's) and a figurative mask ("little goblin girl") and a bunch of layers on top of that. But, I don't think she's truly a Knight (and not just because that would make for a VERY Knight-heavy session) but that it's more a matter of roleplay/inversion - with the inverse of Knight being the very appropriate Thief.

Thieves steal their aspect for their own benefit. Same as Knights, they're hiding insecurities behind their natural confidence in it. Veth is, naturally, a quiet, fade in to the background person, uneventful, unnoticed, and incredibly sneaky, natural fit for a thief of Void. She both steals using Void (stealth) and steals Void (useless, unimportant objects, also alcohol).

Now, speaking of alcohol, let's talk inversion.

I don't think it's right to say that Nott represents a full inversion - to be honest, the change is less in her personality and more her anxiety/comfort. But there are definitely some points where Veth inverts to Knight of Light.

The biggest, I'd argue, is the event that got her turned into a goblin to begin with - where she goes from quiet background to taking the stage and being a hero, weaponizing attention to keep her family safe. This, arguably, doesn't go as well as it could of, because, well, inversion never goes well.

In general, alcohol also tends to represent an inversion, and we can see this with Nott's alcohol-induced confidence. Drunk!Nott pushes the plot forward rather than being caught up in fear, and is much more of a fighter, as well as in general being louder and brighter. Again, this is unstable and unhealthy.

Veth puts inversion aside, but in her healthiest form, she's definitely a brighter and more open person, having better integrated Light into herself. Part of the challenge for thieves is sharing their aspect - and for Veth, a big hurdle is sharing her secrets with others, letting them in, both in revealing her true identity to the M9 and in being more open with Yeza. The honesty doesn't make her lose her abilities as a thief the way inverting did; instead, it's made her better, a more stable confidence.

Jester: Maid of Space

Jester's main motif is art - cluttered drawings and paint and creation. That's all Space, baby! Also, on a more superficial aesthetic, while it's not one of the class colors, Space is associated with green (like the Traveler!)

I do think there's a good argument for Heart or Blood as Jester's aspect - she's a romantic, and she's got a lot of stuff related to manipulating people, both magically and, just, everyone's in love with Jester. But I think a lot of Heart is, in fact, her roleplaying her mother versus herself - while she leaves home looking for her dad and hoping to get them back together, I don't think that's really her arc. Instead, I think it's more about how she relates to her own power and the Traveler, which is way more a Space thing.

Archetypally, Jester's hard to placae. She's got some vibes as Prophet of the Traveler, and also with the Fairy, and Magician.

There's a fun connection between Seer and Scrying. She's got the rebellion of a Witch, and the natural talent of an Heir. But I think, inevitably, I'm going with Maid.

Maids start out relying on others for their aspect. Jester has been given everything she's ever wanted from her Mother, all the tools and art for creation, just not Space itself. She's also, notabbly, pretty lonely. And then she gets her new 'patron' in the Traveler, who gives her the powers of Space, and also, like, literally Space and travel.

Maids arcs are about coming into their own power instead of relying on others, and, arguably, Jester's is about the fact she doesn't need the Traveler - he needs her. While she is still a Cleric, their endpoint is as friends, not god/worshipper, and they're on pretty even footing. Also, like, the general vibe that Clerics aren't warlocks, their power comes from themself.

However, I don't think this 100% fits, and I think there's a good argument for Witch of Space, as Jester's definitely got that rebel Witch kick, or Heir of Space, as it comes naturally to her, plus inheriting powers from the Traveler, and in general she's more of a Change than Create/Heal, although, like, she may not be Cad but she does still Heal. For Witch, there's also the fact that the inverse is Seer, but I don't think Seer is really an inversion for Jester so much as just a thing she also does / roleplay, and even then it's more Seer of Space than Time.

Molly: Prince of Blood

Mollymauk Tealeaf is all about living in the moment, floating change, being free and clear of everything binding yourself to the past and reality, inspiring others with your actions, really, the cornerstone of Breath.

Anyways here's my read on Molly as a Hero of Blood.

Okay, joking aside, I do think that Breath/Blood is the cornerstone of Molly as a character. There is some fun Hope/Rage stuff (and the Rage/clown/circus motifs) but I think that's more aesthetic than anything else. Breath and Blood is the conflict between the worldly and the divine, the grounded and the free.

Mollymauk Tealeaf is terrified that one day he's going to wake up and be Lucien. Because he doesn't want to have those connections, he doesn't want to be stuck in this body, he wants to change and grow and escape.

Princes are one of the two Noble Classes, and they destroy their Aspect / using their aspect, while ghosting the inverse. Molly's breath aligned, flighty and chaotic and fun and free, and uses that to destroy connections, as well as to literally destroy using blood. Also, like, I am your King, Long may I Reign is huge Prince energy.

Molly I don't think ever fully inverts, but I do think he dances around it; I think his advice is, for the most part, shit, because giving advice is a Sylph of Breath thing. He's better at actually taking action, not just telling people what they should do, y'know?

The challenge of a prince is to not destroy themselves along their journey. Molly accepts his bonds to the Mighty Nein, and the doing of it kills him. A failure, but far from a disastrous one, although there's definitely still something reckless that's very princely to the whole Bloodhunter class.

For the other persons Tealeaf, I think they're all the same classpect (which I don't think Molly would especially like knowing). Lucien is much more about Destroying Blood - his entire plan is abandoning the physical to ascend to the spiritual. Kingsley, I'm less sure of, mostly because we haven't seen enough, but I think that it still fits; he's got a lot of the similar arcs, and is definitely very Breath oriented.

Yasha: Maid of Hope

So, there's a very fun Light/Void read on Yasha - Void for her being quiet/in the background/constantly leaving, then Light for her true, divine self. (Light is also the Lesbians aspect, notably. Yes, I gave it to Caleb. No, this doesn't mean anything). I think there's a fun take here, but it's not quite where I want to go.

Instead, I'm looking at Hope/Rage.

Rage is a pretty obvious get for the barbarian, but it's less anger and more chaos, skepticism, defiance, vs Hope's optimism and inspiration. As an aasimar, Yasha feels like she's inherently a hero of Hope, but in this reading, she's spent all of her time since she was a child and first fell to the Rumblecusp arc inverted as a Hero of Rage.

While Angels are a hope symbol in general, I think especially it tracks for one of the Fairy/Create classes inverting to the Noble/Destroy classes. I can't imagine Yasha ever being a Sylph, so instead, we're looking at Maid of Hope, with it's inverse Bard of Rage.

Bard of Rage is a very barbarian classpect - it's what I gave Grog! - where Rage builds up and becomes used to destroy. When Yasha is fallen, she's very destructive, and her fallen aasimar abilities are very Rage. But, as this is an inversion, it's not stable.

So, who is Yasha, Maid of Hope?

Well, to start off, the Maid of Hope is epitome of life and inspiration - Obann has chosen her for her unkillable nature as a Zealot barbarian, and I'd argue this is the Maid of Hope at work.

Maids start out kind of as doormats; a Maid of Hope relies on other as to what to believe in. This tracks for Yasha, who's pretty gullible (see: like any Nott/Yasha interaction) and in general easily manipulated; this ties in to both the Skyspear and Obann pushing her towards that Bard of Rage inversion (although it still being important she's Hope at her core, for the Zealot barb powers for Obann and because she's the future leader for Skyspear).

Maids, however, rise to their power, they decide what to do, what to believe, and gain confidence in themselves, earning their power. Yasha in Rumblecusp arc really feels like this; she's decided what she wants to be, and ascends on wings of light.

Also something something Yasha's ideal life is being a housewife, not a warrior. Yeah, it's not that kind of Maid, but you know what I mean.

Caduceus: Sylph of Time

Class wise, Caduceus is the easiest of anyone - he's such a Sylph! Sylph are the most passive of the classes, the most healer, and, most importantly, the ones who give the most advice! Boy do Sylphs love to talk! They both heal their aspect and heal with it, and grow their aspect from seeds. Lots of plant imagery, which fits lives in the woods Clay.

Caduceus' main aesthetic is, far and away, death. He's the keeper of graves, after all. He's also got a lot of thoughts about fate and destiny. Now, these aspects are ones I used on Vax to associate with Doom, but for Cad, I think these are Time.

Time's the most active, and the most destructive, and personality wise doesn't track super well with the more patient Cad, but I think a lot of that is Sylph. He's not super space-y either, while he does have a plant association, he's not who I really class as creative, and I also really don't think he's impartial. The more you dig into Time, especially a calmer Time, the more it fits Cad - empathic, relentless problem solver, defensive, etc.

As Sylph of Time, Caduceus heals using his aspect - in this case, I'd argue, Destiny. His main work is with Fjord, fixing his path and destiny, and to a lesser extent, Caleb, pushing him away from his darker timelines, and, literally, the time manipulation plan. He also heals via death, which tracks with his decay/rot vibe, as well as healing Death itself, being the gardener tending a graveyard.

We don't tend to see much as to what Sylphs need to improve, because Sylphs are pretty stubborn and think they know best. Arguably, they need to accept that they don't, and that their meddling in other peoples lives isn't always helpful. Caduceus never learns this lesson, nor do I think he ever will, because everyone is too fucked up to even consider calling him on any of his bullshit. The only one who I think ever came close is Caleb, and hsi path was always to just sit there, nod, and ignore it.

(Before anyone asks me, Caduceus is helpful, but he also, definitely, doesn't always know what he's talking about. I love his one liners, but he has a narrow view of the world. Like, literally every single one of Taliesin's charaters has this same tick, a very strong and well developed and fundamentally flawed way of viewing the world; Cad's is just flawed in ways that are helpful to the M9).

[backmaskcd]

🐝 ---- Has your muse ever helped someone in a tough situation? Do they enjoy helping others? (Finch)

Finch feels extremely useful when he's helping people through their own shit - he feels like it gives him a purpose. He's currently helping Xander, but I, the writer, would personally say he's helped a few other people though losses, though who they are I couldn't say, maybe some various NPCs. Helping other people is probably one of Finch's favorite past times next to gardening and walking around Huntsville with Knightly.

[littleblueberryartist]

sometimes I think about how Eula's chara teaser speaks of aristocratic mond & the gunnhildr design might not be the gunnhildr of old mond

I also think about this guy from the old mond cutscene with non npc hair and armour like what if they were the knight all along and we were wrong

lantern reminded me of the existence of the Imunlaukr clan and I had the brief though of the knight being a Lawrence bc Eula has blue hair lmao But Gunnhildr was the one who dressed venti in laurels after they ascended!! They had to have been close in some capacity for that!!! Her being the knight and a part of the main group int he rebellion would make sense! And the whole "For Mondstadt always" and likely being the reason why nobility in mond have to learn swordplay? Knightly behaviour I'm also attached to the design from the chara teaser so uh sorry random knight guy but I'm chosing to believe that the knight is Gunnhildr and has the chara teaser design until hyv forcefully proves me wrong <3

[thebl00dmaster]

Limbus Tamers 2

Time for a part 2 of this unlikely crossover ! This time around I've given partners to the rest of the limbus crew and to some bosses. I might do some of the NPCs as well as rework Rodya and Hong Lu's partners since I wasn't wholly sastified with these. For part one go here

First off everyone's favorite amnesiac clock. I felt there was no way they wouldn't have Clockmon somewhere in their line, as for the rest: any rookie that was listed could have done the job but lego Agumon won my heart, Mamemon 'cause it's kinda goofy and CatchMamemon because gatcha.

For Charon I focused on transports with Locomon being the first one that came to mind and worked from there. Though with the Beach event you could make the argument that Submarimon could have made the cut.

Ol' man Vergil being our guide to hell I felt like giving him a hellhound would be appropriate and his ruthlessness made Plutomon more fitting than Anubismon (Yes this is the same line as in Digimon Survive). Though imagining this monster of a man with this Olympos XII adjacent mon sending the goon squad with rookie level mon to deal with the retrieval of golden boughs is even more hilarious.

Now for the first "boss" well since Canto 1 is mostly Abnormality fights and we don't have that much info on Hermann&co I fell back on Old G Corp Bugman. There's not much to be said, bug digimon for a bug man. Funnily enough Olg G Corp man is the first "major" non abnormality fight in canto I and Kuwagamon is the first threat in the digital world for the digidestined in the OG Adventure.

Now unto La Muralla de Canto II Aida. Same as above as there were Abnormalities boss fights, I had no idea for Sonya (yet) and Tingtang boss. Ponchomon was the first mon that popped to mind because, you know, mariachi then I remembered that Togemon X antibody also rocked a sombrero/poncho so elicited to put both, even though it's regular Palmon that evolved into it but hey, and BanchoLillymon is there because she's Syndicate boss.

For Guido I choose beefy and knightly looking Digimons. Craniummon is there because it's evil looking plus I gave Kromer LordKnightmon (aka Crusadermon) and they were both part of the antagonist faction in Cybersleuth.

Speaking of the bitch devil I made two lines for her. Base Kromer got a bunch of holy/angel digimons plus Crusadermon to go with "holy inquisition" theme plus LordKnightmon is known to be a dick amongst the Royal Knights. As for the distortion-like form I considered that she's so juiced up by the golden bough that her partner goes straight to Apocalymon with Ladydevimon being a steppingstone for it once we reach the "realm of darkness" phase of the fight, probably with her fighting us with "only" Angewomon on phase one and then it falls to Ladydevimon. I amsp considered giving Lilithmon because Kromer looks like a lust pecatula but Apocalymon is more messed up looking. Either way this means Demian pulled up with some powerful stuff to one hit kill Kromer.

For Dongbaek I focused more on the Spicebush E.G.O than the Sunshower one with Renamon paying lip service to it, though I imagine it'd go along the traditional line with or without the color swaps, with Lotusmon represented the fully manifested E.G.O with the two previous forms appearing as she steels her resolve before that.

Dongrang's line is disjointed because I tried to combine both his distorsion and his E.G.O.. Nohemon is for the farmer and scarecrow imagery plus the fact his achievement are fake, OG Falcomon is to contrast with Yi Sang's 06 Falcomon also I didn't find a cow rookie (plus the K Corp infinite chicken hack), Jyagamon continue agricultural theme being a crop ( a potato if the reference book is to be believed) that kinda look bovine-ish (?) to represent his distorted form and finally Machinedramon ... not really linked to the Farmwatch E.G.O. but I went with the angle of "I'll burn the past and anyone to pave MY future!" and what better choice than a giant death robot lizard ! .... ok Parasimon could have worked too, still it's messed up that this potatomon can turn into both. If I were to hazard a timeline for the evolution I'd say he would have Nohemon as a permanent champion kinda how Gatomon is in Adventure and 02 while Falcomon only appears in the dungeon for flashback part then both the ultimate and mega forms for both boss fights under the influence of the golden bough.

And that's a wrap. I'll do other NPC when inspiration strikes me again though maybe not full lines for everyone.

[engravedinaash]

Memory

Part 5.1

Lore masterpost (mobile friendly)

Sen has been a Fortemps knight in all but name as of late. He hides his feelings for his “lord” in knightly devotion as who would think to doubt such noble emotions? He’s assigned himself this job knowing its not necessarily needed. He doesn’t need to stand by Haurchefant’s side while he welcomes more merchants and travelers but his presence doesn’t seem to bother him. He’s selfish for his…friend’s attention, sure, but could that be easily altered to simply offering protection?

Though he can try to fool himself, nothing passes Ninne once she arrives at Camp Dragonhead. She is nice, and keeps to herself…mostly. Sen’s ears have on a few occasions picked up her conversing with Haurchefant about him, and when she has tended to any of his wounds as a chirurgeon she brings up the other man as well. She also has quite a bothersome knowing smile that directs itself at Sen when he and Haurchefant walk in and out together. But, he cannot bring himself to think ill of her as she sits in thought by the hearth each day. Even if she has ideas spinning around her mind about him…

That could be worrisome.

Sen tries to hold back on his enthusiasm to join his friend on excursions, to not linger in the evenings while everyone else turns in for another frigid night. No one else can get the wrong idea, especially not the man himself, of his…no, not affections. He will keep denying until he freezes to death out in the neighboring stream or he perishes of a broken heart. Whichever comes first.

The dull ache of his heart continues to rear its ugly head when he thinks too hard, when he overhears Ninne, when Haurchefant touches his arm or shoulder the way he does. Some nights he does think he might die, and some nights he wants it. But he can’t, promised he wouldn't. And to cause himself harm would not go unnoticed here with all these people. He feels helpless when he feels too much. How he wishes he could go to Haurchefant’s door. But he doesn’t even know what he would ask for–to be held? To be hurt? He feels disgusted to want either. He nearly wants to go back to feeling nothing at all.

Frustrated, he claws his bedding and forces himself to try to sleep. At the very least, he wishes he could talk to his chocobo Mikha right now. She was a good listener. Out of delirium he finds himself sending a prayer to the Twelve she and Darek made it out safe from the Calamity. His brother too, his mother….He relaxes his fists, comes to terms with what he cannot change and eventually finds rest.

Ninne is an npc at Camp Dragonhead to anyone who may not know or forgot!

[akumanoken]

A man who literally watches Souji in other verses and bristles if he’s suffering.  A man who would absolutely fight tooth and nail for Souji. 

[capripian-arts]

[ID: A digital drawing of Captain Miriam Knightly, a muscular woman of color. She is wearing purple and yellow armor and a purple hijab, as well as holding a spear. She is angled toward the left but looking at the viewer with a neutral expression. The background is pale yellow with a dark yellow square boxing Miriam. End ID]

[dailyadventureprompts]

Any advice on how to punish a player for romancing a NPC? Like it was funny at first, but now the character kinda revolves around the NPC. They keep wanting to go back to her, dedicating themselves to her, all that old fashioned, misogynistic knight dedicated to a lady type garbage. Even the other players have gotten invested in the relationship between the two. Should I just kill the NPC off? Maybe kill the character so their replacement doesn’t have the connection to the NPC?

.... the fuck? one (if not multiple) of your players formed an emotional bond to an npc and you want to STOP that? like, I get it if you're uncomfortable with playing out this relationship in which case you should talk to your player about it directly, but from what you've described here it sounds like they've made a valid character choice of wanting their avatar in the world to have a connection with someone else.

I hate to break it to you but I am the WRONG DM to come to when your problem is "I want my players to stop liking npcs" much less " I want to punish them". The idea of a DM actively wanting to HURT their players for enjoying the game actively goes against everything I stand for as a creative, and honestly makes me question whether you should be DMing at all. Players put their trust in their dungeonmaster, and if you're the sort of person who thinks " they annoy me, so I should hurt them", then you're not someone who should have that trust in the first less, or be gaming with others for that matter.

Your player has handed you a wellspring of creative potential here, yeah, maybe they're being a bit cringe about it, in which case a simple "tone it down" would suffice, but a good storyteller could weave a bunch of different stories out of some fool fumbling at knightly love:

The genuine romantic arc of two people growing closer and perhaps creating a life together, eventually settling into domestic bliss.

The way someone's character arc might change because they're in a relationship?

The NPC's opinion of the character in question, and whether the feelings are returned in the firstplace. Is the PC just projecting affection on someone because they feel this is the "right" way to express their desire/fondness/libido, and if so, how much growing would they do if they were shown that they were wrong?

The Drama of a relationship forming when one of those involved makes their living in a high risk profession like adventuring. Can they really be together if one day this PC is going to get eaten by a monster without ever leaving a note goodbye, or bring villains down upon their loved ones?

I feel sorry for your play group, and I honestly wish I could show them this message so they can see what sort of person they're playing with. Feel free to write in again and maybe explain yourself better, but from what you've said already I am having trouble not telling you to recommend your players to a better DM as clearly you don't deserve them.

[reddeadreference]

Mayor’s Party - Dresses

-Click here to return to the index page for Chapter 4: Saint Denis-

The mayor’s party during The Gilded Cage mission. These are what the NPC women were wearing.

(anyone else see Kiera Knightly - might be thinking of wrong name... - when they glance at the purple one?)

(Am I crazy or does that first girl in green look like a famous actress?... my brain says Emma Watson.. at least at first glance.)

(honestly this woman was so pretty she got her own photo set)

If anyone would like be to go back and get more photos, maybe a certain colour or type just let me know and I’ll make a second post. (I don’t know if the dresses change each time you play but I know I didn’t get photos of everyone.)