#labyrinth builder

[labyrinth-magic]

A couple of weeks ago I was honored to be invited to be an interviewee by a reporter at Worcester Magazine for their "Last Call" column. Here's the article based on that interview. Thank you, Meg, for a great discussion about labyrinths!

[erikiara80]

Not the same type of seduction, but yeah, I think in S5 it will be more about seduction than possession.

His vessel, his spy, his builder. They will do beautiful things together. Such beautiful things...

Sarah Williams

just an extra, but it means that he's always with him

Jareth tries to trap Sarah in an illusion, he tries to make her forget her life, her brother and friends, to make her his queen.

He tells her that he can give her her dreams, everything she wants, if she just lets him rule her

But Sarah (Will) has fought her way to the castle

And in the end she realizes

I was a little child when Labyrinth came out and it's still one of my favorite movies. I rewatch it every year

[divinehatred]

LET ME IN.

a drabble of what happens at the end of chapter 3 in this au.

As the final dregs of your fear leak away from your mind, your body, your soul… you don’t understand why, but you still feel horrible. 

It’s been building, bit by bit, as you traveled through a labyrinth composed of your own emotions with the Builder himself as your sole companion. A festering, mangled feeling, like your heart is tearing itself into pieces and then tying those pieces into countless, impossibly tight knots. 

A hand presses to your chest, your face contorting in pain. Why? Why does it hurt so much? Are you having a heart attack? Are you dying?

A firm hand rests on your shoulder, startling you. “I’m proud of you, Hero. You did it.”

Right. It’s over.

Isn’t it?

Then why do you feel so..?

“You got rid of all of those little obstacles in our way.” 

Obstacles..? Emotions aren’t…

His grip on your shoulder turns into more of a vise, digging his nails into your flesh.

It hurts. “You got rid of everything keeping you from being perfect.” He emphasizes the final word in his statement in a tone of voice not unlike a snarl, endless malice dripping from it. 

A deep, horrible, burning sensation creeps out from where his fingers dig into your shoulder. You can’t move. You can’t stop shaking. You can’t breathe. You can’t. You.

“All that’s left to be done now… is to let me in.” 

Your mouth is dry. Your eyes won’t focus. 

He glances at your face, circling around to be in front of you without letting go.

“...you can at least do that, can’t you, Hero?” His tone is sickeningly sweet, a mockery of the helpful, kind man he had been pretending to be before. “Don’t tell me you’re still too weak even with those pesky emotions of yours out of the way. We can’t have that, now, can we?”

You shakily extend the fingers out of one of your hands, tuck in your thumb, close your fingers over it, and extend them again. The gesture catches his eye, making him laugh.

“Help? You want help?”

He leans in close, hissing in your ear.

“There’s nothing left to help you in here.” He pulls away, giving a condescending grin. “Just us. Just me.”

His hand leaves your shoulder. The pain remains. He moves to stand across from you, hands folded behind his back. 

“But I can see you’re not convinced yet. So let’s change that. Shall we?” His head tilts ever so slightly to the side. 

“In your current state… in order to wield the Ghostwalker… you’ve been made clean. Clear. Open.”

His smile widens. Were his eyes always so red?

“Weak.”

Each syllable feels like a nail being driven through your skull.

“Corruptible.”

His figure warps like a mirage. He’s larger than he was seconds ago. Looming.

“Defenseless.”

He’s more like a silhouette than a man. Pale, pulsating with pure hatred.

“Exposed.”

You can see his heart over his chest. It’s beating in sync with yours.

“Susceptible.”

It breaks in two. A wicked, devilish tail curls out from behind him.

“Vulnerable.”

You’re burning up. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.

“You’re finally,” he laughs, “all,” he looks down on you, “MINE.”

The sheer weight of his hatred is nauseating. It feels like your eyes are being held open, like you’re being forced to see what your god has become. One has to wonder… is this your fault? Should you have ever gone on this journey?

Did he ever really need to be saved?

Was this a mistake?

let me in

Is the King okay? You saw him melt. Did you kill him?

Let me in

And… and Brad. Will he recover from that? Will he die?

Let Me in

Do they hate you?

Let Me In

Do you hate them?

LEt Me In

Do you hate yourself?

LET Me In

Do you hate?

LET ME In

Do you HATE?

LET ME IN

You can’t…

LET ME IN

You…

LET ME IN

It’s… it’s so… hard to…

LET ME IN

…think…

L E T  M E  I N

okay.

[godsopenwound]

the labyrinth/maze/spiral as a metaphor for the mother’s womb and the underworld, the one being the microcosm of the other. a metaphor of the earth as mother and of burial as a re-entry....of the grave as a return to the mother for rebirth.....“The object of the tomb-builder would have been to make the tomb as much like the body of the mother as he was able, since to enter the next world, the spirit would have to be re-born.”.......“Into the womb for rebirth.”

[cheez-the-clown]

Did you know that in greek mythology this king i’m pretty sure in was Minos asked poseidon for a bunch of horses and poseidon was like “okay 👍” but when king minos didn’t return them poseidon got super angry, and asked eros and aphrodite to make minos’s wife pasiphaë fall in love with the creten bull (which was pretty much just a huge bull terrorizing cities) and guess what, she did in fact fall in love with that bull and she was like “yk what 😜😜” and asked dadaelus a builder guy who made stuff to make her a wooden bull costume. Yk what she did with the wooden bull costume? She climbed inside of it and did the hanky panky with the creten bull, therefore making the minotaur. Minos was so disgusted that he told dadaelus to make a huge labyrinth to hide the bull in and every month or something he would sacrifice a man and a woman for the minotaur to do whatever with. One of the ladies was named ariadne but she had yarn or smth with her and so she found her way out of the labyrinth, and by the time she escaped mr boy savior Theseus was like “yo whaddup bae need some help” and then he killed the Minotaur. It’s kinda funny because i’m pretty sure not even a year later theseus died by a boat shaft falling onto his head like what a lame way to go out

this is the only way to surmise and retell the myth of the minotaur

thank you for this twisting tale of drama and deceit 🙏

[direwolfrules]

You see, now I’m hyper-fixated on G1 Monster High and Ever After High, mostly Ever After High, so now I want to start a rewrite AU thing of my own and use the disappearance of Hexiciah Steam’s team as a catalyst for the crossover. Like, the Evil Queen returning is Act 2 or 3 of the crossover, secret final boss type thing. Act 1 focuses on the missing steampunk dilf. I’d also reorder or cut somethings entirely from both series.

Like, the Catacombs under Monster High are a eldritch nightmare realm constructed by an ancient monster race known as the Builders. They’re near impossible to map out due to their impossible size, full of impossible illusions and tech, just random weirdness. Well, what if the impossible stuff that monster kind doesn’t understand or can’t make sense out of is the result of magic not native to monster kind? What if the Builders used some Ever After and Wonderland magic in their creations in addition to monster magic and tech? What if it spanned several realms?

And like, we’d get the ghouls investigating because Ghoulia finally made progress on her research into what happened to Professor Steam and discovered that the last report of this mad scientist was he was going to go down into the Catacombs with his team to finally prove his Builders theory correct. Cleo is extra interested and invested because the name of one of the listed team members? Her long missing mom. Also Lagoona actually comes along on an adventure for once.

On the Ever After side let’s let Darling be the one to be doing research on magical locations for a school project and figure out where the lost entrance to the Labyrinth is. Idk, some of the girls go with. Definitely Blondie for her Mirrorcast, which means Dexter’s going too because camera man. Cedar goes because of all the fantastic art that’s said to be within the Labyrinth and also “I cannot tell a lie, so if we do find the Labyrinth my word will be proof that this isn’t us pulling a hoax-us-pocus”. Apple and Raven cause we need them, they’re the main characters (and Apple and Darling need to develop together so the Dragon Games payoff is like, a payoff). I also need Briar to come because I love her and this is my self-indulgent rewrite AU thing. Also I can totally picture her telling Lagoona that Gil’s family ain’t shit, love is love, make out with that boy in front of their house while flipping them the bird. Ramona and Cerise because I want a “Werewolf? No, wolfwere” interaction and also for this whole thing to end with Ramona getting Clawdeen’s number. Enemies to lovers arc, annoying little sisters in full force, all that.

I also would want Cupid to come because I just want them all to look at her like “Cupid, you have some explaining to do”.

Idk, I could have it that later when the Evil Queen escapes via something in the Catacombs/Labyrinth it’s revealed that she manipulated things by causing the exact right people to find the exact right documentation at the exact right time. Casting spells from her mirror prison like the villainous queen she literally is.

[reimenaashelyee]

I think I've never detailed your website until now, it is incredibly organized! As an artist who knows only the basics of programming and creating webpages, but is very interested in having one, may I ask, what site hosting do you use? or which one do you recommend? i don't really know anything about that. I would love to see the resurgence of the personal website/ blog.

Thank you!! My website and the infrastructure I've built surrounding it is my pride and joy! More and more lately I've come to appreciate the security it's given during these trying internet times.

I use Wordpress and a drag-and-drop builder called Live Composer (I wouldn't recommend it over its competitor, only because Live Composer has very bad documentation). My hosting is SiteGround. All those tools are stuff I adopted 10 years ago, since I started The World in Deeper Inspection. This way of using Wordpress - being accessible but labyrinthe and too-much - suits me, probably because my personality is like this too.

But a lot of people want something simpler. I'd recommend pursuing resources from MelonLand, The Cheapskate's Guide and Sadgrl to get started. They are more for static site generation, of the neocities type. And in their simplicity, they offer you more control compared to my set-up. They are also part of a movement called the Indie Web or Retro Web, which I consider myself a part of mentally and spiritually, if not fully. These are folks who are bringing back blogs, webrings, web surfing, and all the ways that made the internet fun and fresh back then.

If my website seems super organised, it's less about the tools used and more due to the thinking I have developed for it - coming up with an approach of how I want to be presented online, imagining my ideal site experience and implementing it, as well as solving the problem of having both a Professional Site + a Casual Personal Online Home under the same URL. Here's a blog post I made recently about A Personal Website VS A Portfolio, and an older post, Site Revamp + Artist Sites Should Be More Fun Maybe?, that describes my website/internet philosophies. From those two, the main point to take away is that establishing the landing page as a signpost that allows the visitor to choose their destination solved basically my problem of profesional/personal separation.

TLDR I have a lot of thoughts about making artist websites and returning to the independent web!! This has been a 3 years journey for me!!!

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Adventurer's Bible Monsters Part 3

Insecta, Arthropoda, Crustacea, Slime, Cephalopoda, Shellfish, Serpentes, Spirit, and Undead

Treasure Insects

Treasure Insects are between .011 and .014 Laios's tall before mimicry.

The treasure insect's size is "before mimicry". That means they don't necessarily look like coins and jewels by default. The treasure insects Kabru's party found were mixed with actual coins and jewels. Maybe they naturally come in certain colors and sizes but can reshape themselves.

Maybe they're actually cave-dwelling insects and they disguise themselves as various minerals poking out of the cave walls. And their preferred prey is crustaceans or other creatures that like to hide among the rocks or use them as protection. Like, a small hermit crab hides under a rock that has a treasure insect in it, then the insect paralyzes it, and eats the crab.

Succubus

Succubi are between .38 and .43 Laios's tall before mimicry.

Succubi in their natural state are REALLY short. They're shorter than a half-foot. I know the true answer is "It's magic. Don't worry about it", but I'd like to know how they manage to transform into larger creatures. Do they inflate their body size or can they fuse together to perform mimicry? The Marcille succubus transformed in front of Laios to become GIGA HEPTA-HEAD MARCILLE so they can likely shift forms freely. Meanwhile, the knight succubus was on a horse and dismounted it later, meaning the horse was a separate entity.

I read a comment on a video about metamorphosis that rewrote how I think about the stages of an insect's life. The comment argued that the larval form is the true form for most insects because they spend most of their lives in that state. In most cases, insects become adults exclusively to mate and then die shortly after.

I feel like this is true of the succubi as well. The larvae are their true selves and the adults exist solely to care for them. The adults have no sense of self-preservation and were willing to jump off a cliff to save one of the larvae. Their body structure seems to also be 100% devoted to producing milk for the larvae to the point their bodies basically turn into milk bags after feeding.

I would guess their life cycle is mostly chilling in whatever water source they were born in while being protected and fed by the older succubi. Then closer to the end of their lives, they take on their adult forms, mate, and spend the rest of their lives obsessively protecting whatever pool their offspring are in.

Huge Spider

Huge Spiders are 1.35 Laios's tall.

This entry was added in the Complete Edition. I don't have a translation of the text.

This species is called an Ariadne and is distinguished by the maze-like pattern on its abdomen. Each ariadne has a different pattern. Ariadne was a character in Greek myth who was in charge of the labyrinth the minotaur was kept in.

The ariadne spiders lay out web traps and chase prey into them. They sort of act as the builders of a labyrinth and the monster in it. And their silk is strong enough that the Canaries use it as armor.

Mimic

Mimics are between .24 and .38 Laios's tall.

Mimics first appeared in the chapter 0 oneshot and they are an excellent demonstration of Kui's ability to reimagine traditional monsters. Instead of giving us something that somehow knows how to imitate a treasure chest, which also requires to contrivance of treasure chests just lying around a dungeon, it's a creature that likes to live in them and attacks anyone who tries to open it.

Mimics combine the shell-wearing behaviour of hermit crabs with the size of coconut crabs (which are a species of hermit crab that grows too big to wear shells). One cute behaviour hermit crabs engage in is they will line up with each other to exchange shells when they start growing too big. Mimics are strong enough to move in whatever container they have so who's to say they don't also do something like that?

Their natural environment might also be whatever a treasure insect's is since treasure insects hunt mimics. Maybe mimics can build shells out of rocks if they can't find something big enough for them?

Huge Scorpion

Huge scorpions are between .24 and .38 Laios's tall.

Not much to say about this one. It was the third monster ever shown in the story and there was no particular fanfare around it. It's a giant scorpion that acts like a normal scorpion but big. I wonder if they also glow in the dark when under UV light.

Green Slime

Their height varies by specimen. This one is roughly .27 Laios's tall.

Honestly, I expected them to be blue.

Their taxonomic class is "slime". I think they would be distantly related to slugs or clams. They're not amorphous goo. They're invertebrate with an entire organ system surrounded by a layer of digestive fluids.

The slimes we've seen are large enough to engulf a person's head and suffocate them. If they manage to kill someone, do they eat just whatever they were able to wrap themselves around, or do they try to eat the entire body over time?

And the bible says the slimes that live in other animals' digestive tracts are symbiotes. So they probably assist the animals with digestion in exchange for a small portion of the meal.

Giant Kraken

Giant Krakens are between 3.78 and 4.32 Laios's tall.

Laios said the giant kraken they fought was several times bigger than normal. I can't tell if the scale for this one is a normal giant kraken or the giant giant kraken they encountered.

During the kraken chapter, I was gushing about all the fine squid details about it. Giant krakens have serrated suction cups, they take the same form when using jet-propulsion, their chromatophores stop working when they die, and they use spermatophores for reproduction. Another thing I learned since that chapter is real-world giant squids have ammonium chloride in their flesh to keep them buoyant, and that would make giant squid flesh horribly bitter just like the kraken was.

The Adventurer's Bible doesn't comment on the parasite the party found in the kraken.

Doppelganger

Doppelgangers are 1.35 Laios's tall.

A new entry in the Complete Edition.

Nothing in the bible implies they can read minds so I'm going to assume the doppelgangers that transformed into Marcille's parents managed to do so with the lion's help.

Otherwise, they seem to use mimicry to sneak into groups and they kill the person they're mimicking to cover their tracks.

If seeing their reflection causes them to change back, then that probably means they have to keep a constant mental image of what they want to look like and seeing their reflection gets in the way. Their disguise can't be 100% perfect and if they see their reflection, any imperfections in their disguise overwrites the mental image they have. And this creates a feedback loop where their disguise doesn't match perfectly to their mental image and the reflection keeps overwriting their mental image until the disguise completely falls apart.

If two doppelgangers in disguise were to look at each other, would they recognize each other as doppelgangers or might they potentially react the same if they saw a reflection?

Living Armor

Living Armors are between .92 and 1.14 Laios's tall.

This was the first time in the main story Kui got to really show off her creative interpretation of monsters. They're a colony of shellfish working together to move a body around.

MMT1 and MMT14 collectively imply Living Armor can reproduce sexually and asexually. The full body is probably created through asexual reproduction, but new colonies are made through sexual reproduction. Kensuke was willing to abandon Laios to save itself and I assume colonies will willingly abandon parts of themselves if necessary and produce new members later. If each member of the colony is a clone of each other, there's less incentive for the individual to survive if it means saving the colony.

I still want to know if there is some chicken-and-egg scenario with Living Armors and man-made armors. Did Living Armors look human-shaped and humans were inspired by them or did humans make armor and Living Armors decided to start mimicking their designs?

Basilisk

Basilisks are between .54 and.65 Laios's tall.

As someone who has raised chickens, I am completely biased when I say this is the cutest monster in the story.

I think the whole "which one is the tail?" discussion comes from an incorrect train of thought. If severing the snake from the chicken causes both of them to die, then that means they both contain vital functions to the basilisk's survival. It's likely an incomplete diagram to begin, but the organ diagram in MMT1 points out the snake has a set of lungs and the chicken has the full digestive tract.

The two heads likely take turns controlling the body. If one had dominance, then it wouldn't be possible to freeze it by getting both heads to try attacking two different targets. The chicken half is in charge when the basilisk is aggressively attacking and pursuing a target, while the snake watches its back and checks for potential predators. The snake might be more nocturnal though and it controls the body while the chicken half is asleep.

Cockatrice

Cockatrices are between 2.7 and 3.24 Laios's tall.

The non-snake part looks more like a raptor to me and I'm going to call it that.

When the party fought the cockatrice, there was a brief moment that I think demonstrates what I was talking about with the heads taking turns to control the body. When it was chasing them, the raptor half was in charge of the body. But when the party locked themselves into a building, the snake half seemed to take over since it could detect where they were. While the snake investigated the door, the raptor head started a lookout.

And what is even the point of petrifying their opponent. Petrification doesn't activate immediately and it wears off, so there's no immediate use that regular toxic venom wouldn't be able to provide. Does the raptor like to destroy the statue and then eat the stone pieces for its gizzard? Actually, the party encountered a cockatrice in a cave in MMT14 so maybe it does like to eat rocks.

Undine

Undine size varies by specimen. The one in the image is roughly .54 Laios's tall.

An undine is a colony of water spirits. It attacks by shooting water jetstreams. The water used in the jetstream reformed into the undine and it even rebuilt itself after exploding. So the water spirits launch themselves to attack and you need to destroy all of them to fully kill the undine. However, the spirits aren't necessarily all in agreement. The undine's mood shifts with the collective mood of the spirits that make it up.

What if the entire lake were a giant undine and Marcille just angered a small subset that happened to get hit with boiling water? I'm admittedly coming up with a crazy hypothetical, but who's to say that the entire dungeon isn't just loaded with various elemental spirits and things like undines are just their way of sending a strongly-worded notice that they disapprove of an adventurer's behaviour?

There are also wind, earth, and fire spirits called sylph, gnome, and salamander respectively. Aside from Holm using a gnome spirit to protect him from Falin, we never saw them in action. Undines and gnomes are at least tangible, but I don't know how the party would go about fighting a sylph or a salamander. Senshi would probably turn them into a magic air fryer.

Ghost

Ghost size varies. The pictured ghosts were roughly .81 Laios's tall.

Aside from the chapter introducing them, we never see any of the effects of their possession in action. There's a flashback where Falin exorcises a ghoul but the party never encounters one. The zombie Kabru's party killed in chapter 10 was probably a ghoul though.

Over the course of the story, ghosts go from hostile entities, to benign, to helpful. Some ghosts even tried to help with Laios's coronation and attended the feast.

Using them to make sorbet is one of the most insane things that happened during the story and I'm so glad it got brought up so much.

Skeleton

Skeletons are between .54 and 1.03 Laios's tall.

Skeletons never appear in the story (unless we want to count Falin's skeleton, but that one wasn't possessed by a ghost). The only mention of them is one sentence in chapter 8 where Laios said he heard a skeleton walking around.

The bible explains that skeletons are ghouls whose flesh has rotted away. Eventually, even the bones will fall apart and the ghost possessing them will be forced out.

The minimum size of a skeleton is shorter than Chilchuck, so there are either half-foot skeletons or child skeletons roaming about.

The english translation has an error in it. Skeletons are named "ghost" in it.

Dullahan

Dullahans are between 1.08 and 1.19 Laios's tall.

Just like in the main story, there's nothing explaining what this guy is. Its description is mostly an adaptation of actual dullahan myths.

I feel like the dullahan might be something outside the normal understanding of the world. It's the only monster that's been able to approach and enter what should be a safe resting place. And it was the only thing not trying to escape when the dungeon started to collapse.

A lot of the stranger things about this world can be explained away as either magic or the actions of a demon. I kind of want there to be something that defies even those explanations.

back

[scleroticstatue]

Rereading the shopping scene in the Village with more economic context, I'm beginning to wonder about something. Just how much of the Village's economy is Gavrel supporting? Heck, how much of Terrafell's economy is he supporting? He's funding the Adventurers' Guild, he's funding Emy, and I somehow doubt that those are his only patronages. He's most likely the only source for whatever drop items and treasures are down in the Dungeon below where the Adventurers can go. I already have Nik's word that the Village would be overrun in a month if he died; would their economy collapse as well?

Well, the problem isn't exactly that the economy would collapse. There are, after all, Explorers (mailmen) that fight monsters in the Labyrinth, wealthy city leadership across Terrafell, crime lords, etc. Gavrel may be the richest, but certainly not the only wealthy individual within Terrafell, and while available money might decline sharply, it wouldn't implode the economy. The true collapse would be much slower and far more insidious.

Consider your cell phone. If you no longer had a wealthy client, you'd have to take a pay cut and it might take you a few more months to buy a new cell phone. However, if the people who mined the lanthanide elements necessary for the computer chips and the batter and the speakers and the LED screen were to suddenly disappear, life would get a lot harder.

In Terrafell, unique materials are limited to drop items from high-level monsters. Potion makers can't make high level healing potions unless someone crawls the 30th layer of the Dungeon and the 16th story of the Tower, a builder wouldn't be able to use certain monster slimes as an ingredient in the chink to fireproof a cabin without the monster slime, a flintknapper can't make an arrowhead if the stone is still playing gizzard in a Roc's stomach. If Gavrel were to die, a major supply source, and even the only source for 90% of the rare materials would suddenly be gone. The economy would collapse, but it would be a slow, gradual decline, marked with price gouging, jerryrigged "recycled" products, and cheap fake goods that claim a high quality that would no longer exist.

[mcyt-builds-contest]

Daedalus Labyrinth

Builder : Kenadian

Series : The most humane prison series

Propaganda : Not really a base but the build is impressive and secure, and it's a place you'll stay in for quite some time!

The Relation-Ship

Builders : Smallishbeans & Ethoslab

Series : Double life

Propaganda : Fun pun name, caused a lot of chaos after it burned down. BOAT BOYS

Taglist!

@10piecechickenmcnugget @biro-slay @betweenlands

[erikiara80]

Bastian rebuilds Fantasia, Will builds things just the way he draws (remembers) them

Maturin, The Turtle, a god-like being in IT and The Dark Tower series, symbol of creation, light and protection, vomited the universe. Will coughs up an Upside Down creature (imo, that's not Dart though). I talk about the parallels between Will and Maturin here

Ged, the Wizard of Earthsea, summons the Shadow. The first thing Will says about the Mind Flayer (the Shadow Monster) is that it's a sketch for a story he's writing

(Will's costume and the book cover are the same color)

When the Mind Flayer tells Billy that he wants him to build what he sees, he appears as Billy's doppleganger. As William. The builder. It's the only time it happens. In all the other visions he never appears as the person he's tormenting.

At the beginning of S3, after Will senses the Mind Flayer, the gate opens, the power comes back on, and Steve says: "Let there be light."

Nancy in S4: "When Will was in the Upside Down, lights came to life"

The Lego stuck up Will's nose (mind) was a construction guy

And there's much more. My theory is that, if in S4 we learn that all the creatures are controlled by Vecna, in S5 the biggest reveal will be that everything, from the Mind Flayer, to the Upside Down and even Henry's story (if they're stuck in a loop, a labyrinth of memories/timelines) is connected to Will the Builder, the Brain, the Hive Mind. And maybe, all the mentions of brain damage and coma, and people behind the curtain, mean that there actually is, or was, someone behind a hospital/lab curtain, whose mind powers are/were used for some experiment. A little child, Will. I could be wrong, but that would be an incredible reveal.

[esteemed-excellency]

ohh I'm very curious, i *think* i know what a folly tower is, but I'm not certain! would you mind explaining please? (and maybe how this thies in witb hiram specifically?)

Of course! A folly in architecture is a building constructed for decorative purposes, there's not a precise definition in terms of scale or design, even if by modern standards the buildings are usually small, they can be gloriettes, fake ruins, artificial grottos, towers, etc. They became a trend in english and french landscape gardens during the 18th century and the term began as "a popular name for any costly structure considered to have shown folly in the builder" (quoting the Oxford English Dictionary's definition from wikipedia).

Overall they're very fun and interesting ornaments but towers in particular have their own value as landmarks, viewpoints, or historical constructions (like the irish "famine follies"). I personally like the liminal aesthetic they convey, given that they were often placed in the middle of nowhere, and the convoluted effect of some bigger constructions.

[Hadlow Tower (Kent) / Broadway Tower (Worcestershire) / Pontypool Folly Tower (Wales) / Scrabo Tower (Northern Ireland) / La Scarzuola (Italy) / The Swallow's Nest Castle (Crimea)]

In Fallen London, the Edict of Towers is an abandoned location between Hell and Parabola (reachable via Marigold Station), described as a maze of mirrors, walls, towers, turrets, and parapets. It was an ancient defence of Hell but it's empty now, and people risk getting lost between the Is and the Is-Not trying to navigate it. So, because i'm a huge sucker for cursed escherian labyrinths, i decided that it would be the perfect place for Hiram's parabolan base.

The halls of mirrors tie in with some descriptions of Is Someone There?, and the battlements fit the theme of A Game of Chess, which are Hiram's main dreams and nightmares. They're also perfectly on brand with the pseudo-medieval aesthetic of the Red Court.

Also, the vibe reminds me of a mix between surrealist/metaphysical paintings and the XII century italian tower craze:

[Almayer's Folly - René Magritte / The Red Tower - Giorgio De Chirico / reconstruction of Bologna during the 1200s / a depiction of San Giminiano during the 1200s/1300s by Taddeo di Bartolo]

[randomisedgaming]

Robotica / Deadalus on SEGA Saturn 50/60Hz comparison and region changes.

A little while back, I got an email from a kind reader telling me the PAL version of Robotica Cybernation Revolt looked optimised on Saturn. It was an early list entry and on re-review having picked up a cheap Japanese copy of the game, I can confirm it was, but only a little.

What's interesting is as I got a Japanese version, I noticed a number of region changes, between the two versions not really discussed online. Robotica is one game I wrote off a bit back in the day as an average FPS.

Sitting down and playing it this weekend, it's an interesting early Saturn titles with some impressive ideas and elements. It does get very repetitive and the environments are rather dull, but it's got some gameplay elements rarely seen on the system.

The game also does do a great job of building the atmosphere and tension. The game is a Roguelike or Mystery Dungeon games that has you battling your way through 30 floors of the labyrinth that make up the Deadalus space computer. The Japanese name is a nod to Greek mythology as Deadalus was the builder of the labyrinth that trapped the Minotaur.

Most of the 30 floors are randomly generated each time to play, apart from a few mission based ones. The game is clearly designed for people to speed run over and over again, as there is no save feature or option menu and the game can be cleared in under two hours. The aim is simple on each floor find the key and escape. Where the key is, the map layout and the exit are changes each time you play, as do enemy placements and rooms. So you can land in a starting room with the exit and key in it or have to explore every corner of the map for both to find them in another floor.

It's a decent FPS, with a soundtrack that gets the tension right, the music also has a subtle touch of becoming more upbeat on each stage after the key is found. The map slowly fills itself in as you explore, it's all real time and tracks the path you have taken as well. Each floor also has a computer terminal placed on it that when found and accessed, shows the whole floor and also turns on the lights in some. Few games did this at the time and the map is a full on 2D transparency, along with other elements of the HUD.

You quickly learn you have to balance your ammo and robots abilities in order to survival.

The lighting effects for an early 3D Saturn game are also well done. The enemy sprites also scale really well. Where it doesn't hold up as well is the frame rate which ranges from about 8-30fps a second, pending on what your are doing. The game seems to run at 60fps like almost all Saturn games, but doesn't use it and most elements are locked at 30fps, only the damage effect on your crafts seems to use it and only for a few frames.

I do wonder if this is a game that isn't tied to the frame rate as special skills like the hover jet allow you to zoom around the map in seconds, if at uncontrollable speeds.

The main reason for this blog post is the region changes are rather interesting. On the PAL optimisation front the images has been stretched a little. It's hard to tell if the speed has been changed due to the yo-yo like nature of the frame rate. At 50Hz it is slower that the NTSC-J version at 60Hz and having compared both versions at 50Hz they look to run at roughly the same speed.

Left is the NTSC Japanese version and right is the PAL version, both running at 50Hz.

As we can see the PAL version is stretch a little at 50Hz to take up a little more of the screen. However this ratio changes mean that elements of the map are a little distorted. At 60Hz in the Japanese version the game's map is a perfect square, which is not the case with the PAL version running at 50 or 60Hz. The PAL FMV intros are also misaligned a little on screen at 60Hz and are a little bit lower than they should be, but nothing major.

Where things get interesting is the HUD in the PAL and NTSC U versions. The main cursor for the HUD seen in the NTSC J version has been removed.

While it looks like a big circle in the middle of the screen, it acts as the crosshair for your weapons. As you move the yellow marker in the center moves up or down with the Laocorn, to show the direction any shot will travel in. The arrows light red to show your direction of travel and also the speed etc.. It's rather useful and to the left of the HUD it has a timer telling the player how long they are taking, perfect for the speed nature of the game. Below the timer is the radar which is the only part of the center HUD that was kept in the western versions, but pushed to the far left of the screen.

Other changes are that the English text is slightly improved in the western versions and the collected key image looks different. Its position has also changed, can't help, but think the key in the western version doesn't look right and I suspect the visual change might be a bug. Also the energy bar's position on screen has been lowered a little in the PAL version.

Left NTSC J version and Right PAL version both at 60Hz. Which show the text and key design changes.

You can also see the PAL version takes up the whole screen at 60Hz in the above images.

Finally one last little change Japanese text was included in the opening intro, but was removed in the English version.

There aren't a huge amount of changes, but the HUD's removal does impact the gameplay. I would take a guess that SEGA of Europe or Acclaim who published it in the USA felt the HUD took up to much screen space. Pictures of the HUD are on the European box, but not in-game. The lost of the HUD does lose some of the immersion of the game as you are meant to be controlling the Laocorn robot I will admit. It also makes shooting a little harder as you lose the crosshair.

Its removal does nothing to improve the game and I think a much needed high score and save system, should have been added. To track your completed runs would have been a better addition. It's not the greatest game ever made, but can still be picked up fairly cheaply and is a fun game in short bursts if you like this type of gameplay. I will admit that I will be playing the Japanese version from here on out. As the original HUD to me improves the game.

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[outofgloom]

LORD OF NOISE

The grating hum of the Suva receded mercifully, and fear struck me. Core thudding in my chest, limbs heavy, heavier than before, somehow. Eyes rolling back, jaw clenched. Terror ran through me untamed, unfettered, and I convulsed–

A firm hand on my shoulder. The fear was driven back, and there was some clarity. Something had happened. Something in my mind, many doors opening up, where before there had been only one. And the doors led to more doors, to more doors, to an infinite labyrinth of uncertainty, and fear careened through the labyrinth with me–

Peace, calm, control. Some other will was there with me, in the labyrinth, and the doors collapsed back into one. Eyes opened. I was looking up into the familiar Kanohi Komau of the Turaga. The air was silent–all sound banished by the elder’s mute-staff. That helped.

I sat up, nearly knocking the Turaga over. How…? My body felt strange, like moving someone else’s limbs. I was larger, and my armor was different. I was…I was a–

“Up, my friend,” the Turaga signed with his free hand. “There is no time.”

Again the outer will asserted itself, and my body responded. I stood up, now twice the size of the elder.

“What…” I signed shakily, “What has happened to…me?” I had seen the Turaga use the sign before…Me…Myself.

“You are remade.” The Turaga pointed to the Suva, which still glowed white-hot.

A flash of memory, of the Turaga calling me from the desperate work, calling me to the Kini. The Suva had opened, and blazing light poured out…

My work.

“I left my work unfinished,” I signed. “I must return–” 

The Turaga shook his head. He was already walking, and I was following.

We stepped out of the Kini, and sound washed over us. The breeze roared. The tools of the other De-Matoran wall-builders clamored. The crunch of my feet in the gravel was a harsh grindstone. I winced, hands going to my ears, but then old habits reasserted. Habits, instincts…at least I still had those. I focused and pushed through the noise as best I could, like everyone else. 

The Turaga was already halfway down the path to the edge of the village, signing for me to hurry. I followed, stumbling on too-long legs, and found that I could walk much faster than before. We reached the unfinished wall in no time. The other Matoran were still hard at work. They did not pause as the elder slipped through a gap in the fortification. I stepped over it, and then we were outside the village, alone.

Fog.

The fog was here.

The thick mutagenic mist loomed above and on every side now, all around the edges of De-Koro, sickly green and twisting with many shapes. It was too soon. Too soon! Just this morning, it had only reached the mouth of the canyon, still a kio away. There had still been time…But no, the fog was here now. Time had run out.

Terror froze me to the spot. I knew that any Matoran touched by the mist became maddened and transformed, heartlight burning with strange fire, eyes bulging, armor buckling, limbs splitting and diverging. I had watched it happen…Now I found that the doors in my mind were not just a web of choices, but of imagination. Every movement and shape in the mist conjured new and terrible images. I could not move, wanted to flee, but there was too much. It would have been easy to run away, back when I...when I was a…

A sharp rap against the armor of my back, and my joints seemed to unlatch. The elder was there, staff in hand. He was not afraid of the fog. I could breathe again. He pointed into the murk ahead, signed for me to look, and I obeyed, straining my eyes. After a moment, something moved in the darkness. Something big. There were eyes, many of them, burning green, stalking closer and closer. They were coming. The wall was not finished…

I expected the fear to flatten me at this thought, but it did not. The other will was there, intervening, keeping the new labyrinth of my mind at bay. My brethren were still hard at work, back behind the wall. They were closing the gaps, shoring up the ramparts.

“They need time,” the Turaga signed. There was no time. The eyes were approaching.

“What am I to do?”

“You are Toa,” the Turaga made the sign slowly, and there was something in his face…something like sadness. “Toa is the terrible protector,” he continued, “the lord of noise.”

I shuddered, looking at my hands, at the thick metal of my gauntlets. Noise.

“They,” he continued, gesturing to the shapes in the fog, “They were once like us, we who desire the peace of silence. They are changed now, but still I think they fear the Noise.”

He raised one hand, and it uttered a sharp report, a sound that burrowed a small tunnel into the thick mist. The eyes moved in agitated patterns, and I flinched away, holding my ears. Fear and disgust were rising in me again.

“What am I to do, Turaga?” I asked again, feeling a dull sense of foreboding.

“My power is not enough," he replied, "but the power of Toa is mightier. The lord of noise must meet them and drive them back. The lord of noise will give us time.”

“But I am not…I cannot…”

“You are Toa. Made by Mata. You shall protect this village.”

“I don’t know how.”

The Turaga nodded, and the look of sadness was in his face again.

“The knowledge is…It is there, within you,” he signed. “Only open your mind, and…and the Great Spirit shall guide you. Mata shall be your guide.”

“Turaga…I am afraid.”

“I know.” The elder stepped closer. The mutant sounds were approaching, and the green eyes.

“But–”

“Open your mind,” he continued, “and soon the fear shall pass away, and you will find the power of Toa.” He pressed his staff into my hand, the hand of a giant.

“I promise.”

For a moment, the staff looked small, no more than a twig. Then, a spark leapt out of me and the staff unfolded, branched, buzzed with vibration. The tool of a Toa, weapon of the lord of noise.

I hoped that I had not flinched as much this time. I looked back into the mist, and there was no hope in me.

So I opened my mind. 

Immediately, the other will was there, stronger now, surrounding and encompassing me, filling the awful labyrinth and seeking out its every twist and turn. I stepped forward suddenly, almost without expecting it, into the cloying darkness of the fog. Was it Mata, reaching down to guide his chosen? 

The small tunnel created by the Turaga was slowly collapsing, but I was numb to this. I felt no fear. I took a few steps forward on the spongy ground, then paused to register the light of too many eyes through the murk. They were circling, circling nearer.

I turned and looked back one last time, through the tunnel of mist. I saw the Turaga, still standing before the wall. He smiled, his Komau glowing...perhaps with the last bit of evening light. His eyes glowed too, and then he closed them.

Cool darkness. Sound.

I opened my eyes, and the fog covered me like a blanket. It hissed and scalded at my armor, but it could not really touch me, not yet. The mutagenic vapor trembled with the vibrations that now emanated from every surface of my body, from my hands and gauntlets, and from the bifurcated tip of my old Resonant Staff.

There was movement, off in the distant dark. Movement of too many limbs and bodies, and the grinding of too many teeth. Clacking and crushing mandible-sounds and thin, reedy proboscis-sounds fell sharply upon my hypersensitive ears, but they did not bother me. I was the master of such sounds.

I was the terrible protector.

I squared my shoulders, shook out the muscles, and took a few short breaths, trying not to ingest too much of the mutagen too quickly.

I was the Lord of Noise now.

The staff spun in my hand as I advanced into the dark, and I hummed for the first time in ages.

I was the Lord of Noise again.

[jellyfishvibes]

I am very sick, high off cold and flu meds, and have been watching Zelda theory's non stop so have some delirious opinions

A popular theory about the Zonai is the multiple tribe theory to explain the incongruence between how the Zonai were presented in Botw vs Totk which is understandable and I kinda agree, the popular variant is three tribes, a tribe worshiping each golden goddess which is not a huge leap to get to, we have clear evidence that they were worshipped by the people who built all of the Zonai ruins with the evidence of the 3 statues (Boar, Owl and Dragon) which creating a champion says represent the three virtues, and most people connect the barbarian armour from Botw into this theory and have the 'ancient warlike tribe' from faron as the boar/power tribe which I understand how we get from a to b but it just rubs me the wrong way

From the ruins we can see (based on Totk cause that's the game I have on hand) none of the Zonai who built the ruins worshipped Ganon/Power/The Boar/Din, from what I can find there are only 2 boar statues (the only game I have on hand is Totk and I scoured the map and couldn't find any, of the pictures ive seen there are 2, idk if they were removed in Totk or i'm just looking in the wrong places but here's your pinch of salt with that statement, please if you know where they are rb with a map or coordinates please I feel like I'm going crazy) and of those statues they are the most overgrown/aged of the Zonai ruins, which implies that if they were worshipped, they were worshipped before dragons and owls, and at some point that worship was suppressed or stopped, I would think they may have destroyed statues if they did exist or it was an antagonistic god they worshipped against or even it was treated as a minor god compared to the owl and dragon

For the barbarian armour i can see how at a glance you could get boar vibes from the skull but it really isn't a boar skull

"A helmet once worn by the warriors of an ancient warlike tribe from the Faron region. Wearing it draws out your inner animal, increasing your strength and battle prowess."

"Armor once favored by an ancient warlike tribe from the Faron region. The war paint bolsters your fighting spirit and raises your attack power."

"These leg wraps were favored by a warlike tribe from the Faron region long ago. They're adorned with traditional markings that bolster your fighting spirit to raise your attack power."

I don't know anything about skulls and really don't know what it is, but nothing about this connects to boars or Ganon, the only connection you can draw is that the paint boosts attack power, I assume people hear 'barbarian' 'warlike' and 'inner animal' and just hear Ganon? Idk

From what we can see in modern day the ruins builders were dragon worshipers, of whatever form of the Triforce they worshipped, the aspect of courage was held above the others, the spring of courage is the only spring that was clearly a sacred site for the ruin builders and they connected it to dragon symbolism, from what we know of the labyrinths in both games and ruin placement the faron region probably wasn't their home base, it's a religious site with most evidence pointing to a pilgrimage path like the lanaryu promenade

The labyrinths are stated in game to be castles (or just the portions in the sky?) and each housed a ruler only known now as the Ruler of Dragons (the island labyrinth to the north east) the Ruler of Owls (the snow labyrinth to the north west) and the Ruler of Boars (the desert labyrinth to the south west) there are no castles in the south east in Faron and each castle has some fragment of evil underneath it (literally in game the phantom ganon armour but I don't think it is literally that in lore, alot of the reference armour and weapons I tend to not take literally but off vibes, like the goddess sword isn't literally in the forgotten temple but those vibes are there to push us into the idea that the forgotten temple is a successor to the temple of hylia in skyward sword, however literally you believe those theory's run)

So we know they had atleast 3 rulers I want to say concurrently and the position of ruler came with it the expectation of protecting/sealing away evil, also that the religious symbolism either was tied with the ruling class, making the rulers both some form of king and high priest, or that boars, owls and dragons had multiple meanings within their culture, like how hylians may worship the golden goddesses but see the triforce symbol as a symbol of the royal family rather then a religious symbol first and foremost

I squint alot about the exact time periods ruins are from, alot of dragon symbolism that clearly matches the three dragons we know of (dinraal, farosh and naydra) only comes from totk from my knowledge, the armour sets and statues are all totk/fell during the upheaval

So I theorize they come from a later period of zonai history, the oldest imagery of dragons like the statues and the rings depicted dragons without identifiable horns or elements like this, I speculate that the dragons the most ancient zonai worship might be connected to the 3 dark skeletons you can find in the depths but there's not a lot of concrete evidence there beyond dragon shaped skeleton

From my best guess, the ruin builders of the faron region probably lived with/among the various races that existed at the time, we know of their knowledge/buildings within Gerudo, Goron, Zora and Rito history, assuming the Water temple, Lightning temple, Fire temple and Wind temple were built by them and repurposed into temples by later eras of Zonai, you could even argue they were originally where the Zonai did reside, of the temples none look to be built originally as temples, the only one I could see as an exception is the Lightning temple, but each has a purpose outside of it, the fire temple is noted in goron myth as a city named Gordonia, the wind temple is a battle ship named the Stormwind Ark, the water temple is a spring and a connected water works to supply Zora with endless water, the lightning temple is a energy storage site (I have seen scattered mention that the water temple is upside down? Please if anyone has a full theory or explanation for that I would love it)

My own theory of Zonai history is that the layers are;

The Ancient Zonai; builders of the botw ruins, the original forms of the temples, and worshippers of three ancient dragons, most lived above the cloud barrier or below in the depths with few staying on the surface amongst the ancient Gerudo/Goron/Rito/Zora to facilitate trade and to build constructs to help those people, the only real land they own and use is the Faron region, a sacred site to them (possibly where they first came down from the surface?) used to worship the dragons and as a pilgrimage site

V

The 3 Rulers; The three ancient dragons fly into the depths and die, their corpses are so big they cannot be moved and in time they will fossilize, but in their body's 3 sacred relics are found, secret stones, the three who claim them use their power to establish themselves as rulers, building great castles for themselves that spanned from the bottom of the depths to the heights of the sky, high above the cloud barrier, placed specifically to be seals on-top of an evil shattered into three (possibly something that escaped the dragons when they died?) These three rulers or people close to them are the most likely for gummy swallowing candidates, this is most likely the reason why draconification is made forbidden

V

The Age of Sages; Dragon worship seems to wain, although dragon imagery is used in architecture it seems to have become just a symbol of the Zonai, 7 more secret stones are found, probably after a hunt for them after they lost the power the 3 gave them and used to advance, wherever the 3 beings that became the ancient dragons found them in the first place, I'd speculate up very high or down very far below, possibly in the bottomless chasm below Hyrule Castle. The 7 who get them become the 7 sages, new leaders for the Zonai people, they are probably the people who convert the 4 temples into temples, with one in the depths and one in the sky (Water, Thunder, Wind, Fire, Spirit, Time, wheres the 7th? where is the temple of light? did the temples of spirit, light and time exist before Rauru, Mineru and Sonia? were they the first of their powers?), these are probably the people who started the green/white architectural style from Totk and probably the people who went all in on technological advancement and zonite based constructs, and if the mines weren't down there already they were probably the ones to establish them, I think they were probably also an inspiration for the Gerudo's 7 Heroine's

V

The Zonai's disappearance; We don't know how or why the Zonai disappeared, we don't even know if they quickly fled to a place beyond the surface dwellers reach or if they all died out, all we know is that the Zonai rapidly disappeared from the world, leaving only two behind, and with these two they held the 7 secret stones with them, Rauru and his sister Mineru are the last Zonai, they make contact with the fledgling Hylian kingdom and either found or built the chamber behind the Hylia statue in the forgotten temple, using it as a place to hide the other 5 stones they weren't using

Rauru falls in love with and marries the leader of the Hylian's, Sonia, giving her a secret stone, uses his knowledge/experience to help the Hylian's technologically advance, either builds the Hylian castle near an already existing temple of time (probably the reason why Sonia was the Hylian leader, some form of religious significance with her rewind powers) on the great plateau or built the temple along with the castle (Mans built a whole temple for Sonia), got hit on the head by his distant granddaughter, accidentally shows Ganon a cool maguffin getting his wife killed, gives the four remaining stones to leaders? Of the other four races (important people? Just people with powers? Maybe they were ambassadors for their people sent to make bonds with a new kingdom who become the king and queens close confidants?) and dis-arms Ganons world takeover plan, grand daughter sets up a lineage of sages in each race and sends majority of the remaining Zonai structures up into the sky before she skedaddles from the timeline before she can become a paradox

V

Shiekah era; weather the shiekah are literal descendants of the Zonai or just spiritual/technological descendants, they pick up where the Zonai's research leaves off, probably building the purification unit above the gannycorpse first and foremost, then urging the Hylian's to or just building Hyrule Castle ontop of it themselves, expanding the hidden chamber to include a map of all the glyphs for the hero and as their architectural style began to diverge from the Zonai before them, the rest of the ancient shiekah tech, powered by the purified Ganon gunk

V

The Calamity of 10,000 years ago

To insert one of my wilder theories in here, I believe the Zonai hero shown in the tapestry and the ancient heroes aspect isn't a Zonai, but a construct created by the Shiekah and the reason why the king forcefully removed all their tech isn't because of the divine beasts but because the Shiekah 'blasphemed', they built a hero instead of trusting the goddesses, the king could even believe they brought on the calamity early because they constructed a hero and forced the cycle around again during his reign

V

The Split Clans: The hyrulian king orders the decommissioning of all shiekah tech fearing it's power, splitting the clans into the shiekah who obey and the yiga who disagree, this also results in a mass loss of records and knowledge that later shiekah researchers are desperate to restore

V

"Modern" Day, from 100 years ago to Botw and Totk current canon

Bonus Time

I've had this sitting in my drafts for like weeks after writing it at 3am and miserable, i am much less sick (still fucking sick though) and have been fed a steady diet of the khml beta, kh as a special interest/hyperfix coming crashing back into my life to ruin it and the totk art book, so here are some extra thoughts and theorys i wanna tack on

The Zonai's Disappearance/Sky island and the Depths: Mostly cause i watched a theory vid on something adjacent, but i have really started to like the idea that if the sky islands and the depths are the Sacred realm/Dark realm that the reason why all the zonai are gone is because they forcefully dragged portions of the Sacred/Dark realms into the physical realm, either the act took so much from them it destroyed them in the process or they got like, so hella smited for it I really do like the idea of pushing the depths and the sky islands to some more otherworldly/alien, with the sky islands doing that weird land infection thing on the pieces on the surface and the depths going full spooky mushroom, also the yin yang of items from the sky islands healing the gloom from the depths, i would love some sky island status ailment that you can only heal with items from the depths to complete the loop, also maybe them both being wealths of zonaite? zonaite as an ore being so versatile because its literally from the sacred realm

The Zonai and the Minish: Pretty done to death theory but there's gotta be some connection there, the four sword and elemental sanctuary look so very zonai

Maybe theres some connection between the four elements and the four sages in totk? i think between them the only one that's different is lightning-earth The four sword also seems like something the zonai would make bonus points to throw in the wind tribe and the oocca, there are so many fellas up in that there sky huh

The Labyrinths: Accordion to people looking at the Japanese translation they aren't called castles? tbf i have started leaning more towards the three rulers being less three kings/queens and more 3 sages, along the lines of windwakers sages with a temple they reside in to keep the evil within sealed away, which feels like more of a passing on the torch if the ancient dragons became dragons to also keep that evil sealed, might also be a connection to how the dark skeletons of the ancient dragons are underneath the leviathan skeletons, perhaps the evils are some form of the nightmare from la and bellum from ph, evils that the levithans originally kept sealed and three mortals stepped up to become immortal dragons to take over when those leviathans died, also brings in that connection with infected levias and the infected naydra

[sparky-is-spiders]

For whatever flight rising/TMA overlap exists, tell me:

No “see results,” pick one or go. No pressure, but if you wanted to explain your choice I'd be more than happy to hear it <3. Descriptions of each flight under the cut (copy/pasted from the wiki lmao), for those not on FR.

(Also, just in case, no martin or jm mentions please. I don’t want him in my notifs.)

Earth - The earth dragons of Dragonhome are monument builders. They prefer the consistency and eternal memory of the stone they shape. Of all the dragons, Earth dragons revere their ancestors the most fervently, and remember the most about the First Age. Gemstones are their favored treasures. The eyes of Earth dragons are brown.

Fire - The fire dragons of Ashfall Waste are metalworkers. They prefer to be as passionate and intense as the flames they coax. Of all the dragons, Fire dragons are the most temperamental, and their red-hot fury knows no peers. Rare metal ores, weapons, statues, and tools are their favored treasures. The eyes of Fire dragons are orange.

Wind - The wind dragons of the Windswept Plateau are explorers. They prefer to be joyful and carefree, like the gentle and playful breezes that whisk them to new lands. Of all the dragons, Wind dragons are the most friendly. In that spirit, they are eager to become a small part of every community they encounter before they eventually and inevitably leave, following the currents in pursuit of a new adventure. Maps, compasses, and feathers are their favored treasures. The eyes of Wind dragons are chartreuse and spring green.

Water - The water dragons of the Sea of a Thousand Currents are oracles. They prefer to be as fluid as the waves and currents of the oceans. Of all the dragons, Water dragons are the most mysterious, predicting the many futures that may come to pass, but revealing nothing of what they divine to outsiders. Shells and magic orbs are their favored treasures. The eyes of Water dragons are blue.

Shadow - The shadow dragons of the Tangled Wood are tricksters. They prefer to be capricious and fickle, like the flickering shadows they manipulate. Of all the dragons, Shadow dragons are the most enthralled by games, and delight most in winning—even if it means doing so underhandedly. Game boards, tokens, and pieces are their favored treasures. The eyes of Shadow dragons are violet.

Ice - The ice dragons of the Southern Icefield are collectors. They prefer to be as rigid and cold as winter's chill. Of all the dragons, Ice dragons are the least emotional, carefully preserving the world around them to be later analyzed and catalogued. Fossils and artifacts are their favored treasures. The eyes of Ice dragons range from white to pale blue.

Lightning - The lightning dragons of the Shifting Expanse are engineers. They prefer to be quick and intuitive, so as to better harness the power of the tempest under which they make their home. Of all the dragons, Lightning dragons are the most ambitious, changing the world to adapt to them, rather than adapting to the world. Copper wire, tools, and reactors are their favored treasures. The eyes of Lightning dragons are cyan.

Light - The light dragons of the Sunbeam Ruins are philosophers. They prefer to be unbiased and logical, revealing the nature of the world as do rays of the sun's light. Of all the dragons, Light dragons are the most scholarly, holding the pursuit of truth as the highest virtue a dragon might aspire to. Scrolls and relics are their favored treasures. The eyes of Light dragons are golden.

Nature - The nature dragons of the Viridian Labyrinth are druids. They prefer to be as wild and primal as the ancient forests they call their home. Of all the dragons, Nature dragons are the most nurturing, enjoying the care and cultivation of flora and fauna, spreading an overgrowth of life where once there was none. Seeds and rare flowers are their favored treasures. The eyes of Nature dragons are green.

Plague - The plague dragons of the Scarred Wasteland are survivors. They prefer to be as strong and adaptable as the disease they spread. Of all the dragons, Plague dragons are the most savage, and celebrate the cycle of life and death by constantly pitting themselves against the other elements. The bones and armor of their enemies are their favored treasures. The eyes of Plague dragons are red.

Arcane - The arcane dragons of Starfall Isles are dreamers. They prefer the allure of the unknown and mysterious nature of the magical energies that bind the universe together. Of all dragons, Arcane dragons are the most curious, pursuing their theories and their dreams, often oblivious to the effects that their dogged pursuits may have on the world around them. Meteors and runestones are their favored treasures. The eyes of Arcane dragons are pink and magenta/purple.