#lore ask

[dunmeshistash]

Spoilers: Are there any hints as to who Mithruns biological father is?

Not really as far as I'm aware, just some guy his mom cheated with.

[bad-sanses-smp]

Epic, how do you make compasses that lead to people? That seems impossible.

(Chronological (All Asks)

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Chronological (Epic Only)

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[found-gremlin-fam]

Error, don't you have work?

:3

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[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Hello! Me again, back to pester you about lore.

So what's going on with The Drifter? For once I know a little about the character, I read 'A Man With No Name', but I still have questions. From how the book read, Drifter convinced Felwinter to get revenge for the destruction of the village. Did that go anywhere? And what did Drifter get up to for the (unspecified very long) timeskip between the book and the game?

And with the modern day, does the Vanguard know he's running a fighting ring out of the basement? Or does every single guardian look away when Zavala tries figuring out where people keep getting these weapons? I guess first rule of fight club and all that. What's he even trying to do? He seems to be pretty against most of the Vanguard's leadership.

Anyway, another invitation to infodump about your other blorbo. I hope you don't mind XD

If you thought I was long-winded about Eris... She's maybe 400 years old whereas the Drifter may be 900... get comfy... this will not be quick.

"Dark Age was wild times."

I adore the Drifter and a good chunk of how and why I adore him is his voice - both the voice acting and the syntax/diction/phrasing used in the writing, but voice alone does not cover why I find his character so utterly enthralling and fantastic.

I wrote a short piece consisting of Eris telling Ikora what she sees in him in my story Finders Keepers. It's basically a personality analysis and some people have (I think probably accurately) accused it of being a love letter to that character. (Reminder: that link is fanfiction - I wrote it - it is not lore, but it is based on lore. However, everything else I list after this is actual lore.)

But, personality aside, ultimately the Drifter's story is what I find most compelling about him and makes him so empathetic. You mentioned you've read A Man with No Name, but there's more. A lot more.

To start, the Drifter is D2's most violent pacifist.

He doesn't want to fight and when he does, it's vicious. The Emissary of the Nine, formerly Orin (his ex-best friend and/or ex-lover, depending upon how you read it) aptly says "He hates violence. He hates it so much he'll murder anyone who tries to inflict it on him."

In A Man with No Name, we see him go from hiding in a town and having it obliterated by warlords, to running a bar at the bottom of Felwinter peak, to getting Lord Felwinter himself to avenge the town. Drifter doesn't fight anywhere in there and gets other people to do his fighting for him, which is a pretty standard tactic for him. And yes, it is strongly implied that Felwinter does indeed murder the fuck out of Lord Dryden when he says "Call Lord Dryden. Prepare my Iron Banner arsenal."

But then we get Dark Age Drifter entries where he's gunning down Fallen attackers with quotes like "He had never brought himself to shoot a human. Or anything even resembling a human. Risen included." (Bonus mention: notice "Alright" repeated here and compare to his standard Gambit opening of Alright, alright, alright...") Where he's slipping away from non-violence, specifying, in particular, that he won't shoot a human but will defend himself from aliens.

And then he becomes something else entirely in these amazing entries with what I've been calling his Breakneck crew:

Now Otto's a Sword man. He's all about "craft." Technique. Precision. It's disgusting, but I don't care how he does it, as long as it gets done, so I just let him do it. And Otto does it so beautifully that, when he's done, you're standing there holding your guts in your hands and thanking him for the show.

Never touches a gun, that girl. She likes to get close. Likes to look right in their eyes and be the last thing they see.

The chumps that run out to stop us are babies. That's the kicker with Warlords—other than ours, there's not a Ghost in sight here. Just civilians who can barely hold their guns without wetting their pants, who can't aim worth a damn, who stick their necks out for the bad guys with eternal life. Real geniuses.

Cenric stood up. That vein of his looked about ready to pop. Drifter let his feet down as he reached for his rifle, asp-quick. "And you know what we do with rats, don't you, brother."

And the thing I love about this is the character development this speaks to where he goes from pacifist who won't fight at all... to someone who will use a machine gun competently, repeating "Alright" and getting himself used to killing, but not humans, never humans... to stone cold vicious murder-Drifter talking about the lightless who die to his crew in ways that make them (and himself) seem no longer human, to gunning down his own crew, people he felt were a perfect team, when they make deals with warlords behind his back and lie to him about it.

The Drifter started out adhering to an ideal of nonviolence and it destroyed him and everyone he cared for. His sense of self, his principles, everything he believed in is eroded until he completely loses all hope and in order to survive the cruelty of the world he lives in he becomes a ruthless monster.

Either before or after his Breakneck-era crew (it's not clear), the Drifter (under the name Eli) joins the Pilgrim Guard, a group of Titans protecting lightless people as they travel to the Last City. He does this out of a desire/need to be near Orin, a Titan with a complicated past and strong ties to both Queen Mara and the Nine. But then after spending time with Eli/Drifter and the Pilgrim Guard, Orin, the one person Drifter's ever had a deep human connection with, the person he considers his best friend, leaves without a word.

It's very telling that the green snakes, the jade coin, and the red string on those same coins that form such profound parts of the Drifter's symbolism and identity all come from Orin. When the Drifter truly cares for someone, he incorporates part of them into himself, into his identity, making them part of who he becomes, so they live on inside of him.

After his time with Orin, we get into the extremely confusing, contradictory mess that is the Drifter's intersection with Shin Malfur-related Rose/Thorn/Lumina lore. And by this I mean that the Drifter, after fighting alongside people doing genuinely noble good work, in the wake of losing Orin, leaves the Pilgrim Guard and eventually ends up joining the evil cult of evil: following in the footsteps of one of the most reviled risen to ever exist - the guardian-killer: Dredgen Yor.

If you're gonna hang with me, you need to know about the Shadows of Yor. They follow the edicts of a very bad man named Dredgen Yor. And what're his Shadows after? Everything the Light can't provide. I thought they could help me find an answer to the battles of Light versus Light that raged during the Dark Age. But the longer I flew with them, the more I saw they're blind as all those who follow the Traveler. One albatross for another. I was done with 'em.

And while in the cult, in some sort of ritual, he communes with the Darkness directly and gets some sort of Darkness powers (possibly Stasis, possibly something else - it's super unclear) and the Darkness whispers to him his Dredgen name: Dredgen Hope, which is particularly brutal in context with this quote from Dredgen Yor himself:

I care only to give hope to the frightened, huddled masses so that when I come upon them they will have more to lose. Their pain will be greater. Their screams more pure… Nothing dies like hope. I cherish it.

But it is also particularly pointed because hope is the thing the Drifter doesn't have. Trust is the thing he doesn't have the ability to do any more because of his experiences (and is also the name of the hand cannon he wears shoved into his pants). He is the most jaded (literally - constantly fidgeting with a jade coin) character in the D2 universe. He loses everything and leans in on it and follows that path to full evil.

And then he walks away. Because evil doesn't work for him either.

But also (either before or after he's completely left the cult - it's ambiguous, but possibly when he's still entangled but it's already fracturing and falling apart) he finds Orin again (he's using the name Wu Ming at this point - either having returned to it, or because he hasn't changed it yet from Felwinter Peak, or perhaps this happens before Felwinter Peak - the order and timeline is somewhat fuzzy).

Orin does not remember who he is when he finds her the second time (she's pretty nuts at this point - her story is filled with madness and tragedy), and is going insane with grief over losing Namqi (the person she left with when she disappeared the first time) as well as her obsession with the Nine. And the Drifter is once more drawn to her and once more connects deeply with her:

Wu Ming leaves his questions by the wayside as he is drawn inexorably into the gravity well of her desperate honesty. Her confessions lower his defenses. He talks of himself. Of his fear. Of his loneliness. How he feels he is one fingernail away from plummeting into an abyss. How he feels vicious resentment every time he is brought back from the dead: He never asked for the gift of the Light... They make excuse after excuse to meet again. Every conversation is colored by excavated truths; every day they feel they will reach some bedrock that will break them to pieces. It is as frightening as it is intoxicating.

But then Orin finds out about him being a Dredgen, terminates their relationship, goes off to become the Emissary of the Nine and, as someone I was talking with once referred to it: 'it was a breakup so bad he had to leave the solar system.'

Things go very poorly the first time the Drifter loses Orin but the second time is far worse. He has a full-on Lovecraftian 'At the Mountains of Madness' style horror-movie-plot experience with a crew he calls his 'best friends' (which may or may not be all ex-Dredgens but there's at least evidence they might be) out on a frozen planet being stalked and driven to insane levels of paranoia by Darkness creatures able to snuff out their light:

I think I mentioned we're all raving psychos at this point. Well, we did what all measured raving psychos would do. We thought we each had been betrayed by the others. We drew on each other.

The Drifter kills them all to keep them from killing him (at least, that's what he says - no one else is alive to argue). Then his ghost, who up until now has been kind of a moralistic asshole, suggests he hunt down the ghosts of his former crew and Frankenstein them together in order to survive:

And the craziest thing happened. My Ghost snapped... But we would need parts. Ghost parts. And we knew where we could get some... The Ghosts of my former crew all fled as soon as their charges hit the dirt. So me'n mine, we hunted them... "Hey. There's always hope. For what it's worth, I'm proud of you." It was the last thing my Ghost ever said, and the last lie it ever told.

The Drifter's ghost is rendered mute from the experience (either mechanically or due to the trauma of hunting down and murdering other ghosts - it's not clear) but the plan works, they survive, and the Drifter builds the Derelict out of scrap, returning to the Tower where he sets up Gambit.

It's super unclear (again, the Shin-related lore is just a mess and deliberately confusing) but it turns out that Drifter going on about how the Man with the Golden Gun is out to get him is actually a deal he made with Shin to set up Gambit (because, spoiler: the leader of the entire Dredgen cult, Dredgen Vale, turns out to be none other than Shin Malphur, the Man with the Golden Gun, who hunts Dredgens and who the Drifter has been saying is out to get him this entire time) to draw out the truly Darkness-corrupted guardians so Shin can kill them. (And this is ultimately why the Vanguard lets him run a fighting ring in the basement - because Shin convinces them it will help find the truly bad guardians so they can be eliminated).

If you find that confusing, that's because it is. Anything to do with Shin Malphur/Dredgen Yor/Rose/Thorn/Lumnia is pretty much an acid-trip, continuity-wise. It hurts my brain.

As for where the Drifter gets the weapons he gives us for Gambit? To the surprise of no one, he's stealing them. Because of course he is. It's him.

While running Gambit, he ends up visited by the Emissary of the Nine (formerly Orin - same body, different person) and has the Haul attached to the Derelict as a 'gift' in this amazing cutscene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFtmr___dSw

And he pretty much stays in "shifty morally ambiguous guy in the basement" mode until Arrivals when the pyramids show up on Io and we get one of my favourite lore tabs in all of D2: Whispering slab.

The two sit. They speak. They listen. Linkages forged in Light and Dark of traded secrets as the Derelict hangs in orbit around the Earth. Pacts are made. Soon, there is only the silence of knowing left between them.

"Next time you fly over the Moon, dust your boots. Tracking that crap all over my floors."

Both of the Drifter's deep emotional entanglements with Orin happen when he really genuinely talks to her, and now in Whispering Slab, he's genuinely talking to someone else, plus we get the origin of why he calls that someone else Moondust.

Then, during Arrivals, we get the amazing banter between him and Eris, and in Beyond Light they learn to control Stasis together with the result being (in my highly subjective opinion) the best cutscene in all of D2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQAB-sSi6P0

At the end of Haunted we get Eris' message to him about healing and finding joy , he has this line in Plunder "What we do now matters more than who we were", we end up with the Kept Confidence lore tab during Season of the Witch where the person who previously insisted he trusted no one now is saying: "He didn't trust them. He trusted her" and then in the Gloaming Journeyer tab, he pulls her into a hug and reminds her of what she told him once (in the Prophesy dungeon dialogue): "That we'll live in the night if we have to. We do it for what comes after." (What comes after is dawn, hope, the continuance of existence after the darkest point.)

Someone in a chat I was in once summed up the core dynamic of the Drifter and Eris' relationship perfectly as "He gives her trust. She gives him hope."

There are people online who are very frustrated with the Drifter's character development, feeling that the Drifter has 'had his teeth filed off' and that he 'got his depression cured by getting a goth girlfriend' but I feel that's just people who don't like change. The Drifter has, throughout his entire storyline been constantly changing who he is. Change is part of his many self-constructed identities which he re-creates over and over as his old sense of self is destroyed and remade. Gritty vicious Drifter is still in there and he will be just as brutal as ever if he needs to be.

He doesn't want to be, though. He never has. And as someone who deals with medical-grade depression and who found themselves in a situation where they needed to reconstruct a sense of self to replace the one that was lost, the Drifter finding a way to hope and trust again after all he's been through is an extremely powerful and poignant narrative which speaks to me on many levels.

It's not trite, thoughtless happy fluffy rainbows, friendship-fixes-everything-whee! It's painful and slow and beautiful as the Drifter learns to have healthy relationships with other people. We need stories like this to speak to us at an unconscious level and tell us that even if you're not Eris Morn and you failed, and you gave up, and you didn't make it out of the Hellmouth, and you in fact gave in to despair and completely lost all hope, your experience erasing who it was you were and having that old you replaced with someone else, you can still find hope again. Even if you've been burned so severely by so many, many, negative human interactions that you cannot trust anyone, if you find the right people, you can slowly learn how to trust again.

The Drifter's story has been called a redemption arc, and I guess in a way it is that too but, for me, the essential quality of the Drifter's narrative isn't redemption: it's healing.

Stories have power. We incorporate them into who we are. Dredgen Hope ultimately does live up to his name. Within D2 he is finally starting to heal. I find that idea, of healing in spite of being so altered by one's experiences as to have had to become an entirely different person in order to survive, of being unable to trust and still finding a way to learn how to trust again, to be important and beautiful to have in my subconscious as something to draw from. It is a story that is very much needed by a lot of people. We need to be reminded that we can be irrevocably changed and have everything taken from us and still find a way to trust and hope and love again. That might seem a bit much for a shooty game, but I maintain this is why D2 has some of the best storytelling of any game I've ever played and that the character of the Drifter is a huge part of what makes that storytelling so compelling.

Sorry this took so long to answer. This seriously was as short as I could make it and still say everything that I felt needed to be said. There's more, and more detail, of course, but this is my treatise on why the Drifter is as awesome as I think he is.

That is all.

[guardian-of-time-if]

Hello! I was wondering if we could get descriptions about what the races in your world look like? What are leodra? What do they look like? What physical traits to the half-leodra have? Do elves look human except with pointy ears? Do the changelings have a "fae" form/"true" form?

What other races exist in your world? We know about the existence of mages and elementals but what do they look like? What are their powers? Their advantages and disadvantages?

Also if MC is a leodra can she straight up FLY?

So basically I want to inhale all the information about the magical races LMAOGFBUWAO

PS: Also can we get this information in the games glossary, please? That would be really helpful 🙏

IHi Anon. There are a lot of questions here, but I’ll do my best to take them one at a time. And I’ve decided to turn the glossary into a full codex, so all of this information will be added to the codex, and an in story explanation will be given in chapter 3 for players who prefer to find out organically instead of through the stats screen. It will probably not be quite as extensive, but enough for everyone to understand the basics.

What are leodra? What do they look like? What physical traits to the half-leodra have?

So leodra are a race of fairyesque creatures with a strong affinity for magic. They have  about the same body proportions of a human, but tend to be thinner on average. Their skin spans the same range of human skin tones, and sparkles like a permanent body glitter. Their hair is the opposite. It’s generally pretty colorful, but can also be naturally multicolored. This can be one base color with some strands of a different color, or it can be flat out patterned in a way that never changes no matter how short or long the hair gets. (i.e. yellow hair with pink polka dots, or tips a different color than the rest of the hair.) For hair that is multicolored what humans would consider natural colors might appear, they just won’t be the dominant color.  (This is one of the distinguishing traits with half leodra who typically have a natural hair color with some strands on a non natural one). Their eyes are only blue, pink, or purple, but have varying shades. Half-leodra tend to stick to these eye colors. As I mentioned in the book, they have wings which are located around the small of the back and about as tall as the torso. They are a translucent silver. Half-leodra do not have the wings which is the primary marker that they are not full leodra.

Do elves look human except with pointy ears?

Elves pretty much are humans with pointy ears, but tend to be slightly smaller. The average human height is about 3 inches taller than the average elven height, but individuals will vary. Elves also cannot grow body hair or facial hair, only hair on their heads. The only other defining characteristic is that they have different eye colors. When their eyes are blue, green, brown, grey, or violet, they tend to have either gold or silver specks in them, but they can also have eyes that are just pure gold or silver. 

Do the changelings have a "fae" form/"true" form?

Changelings in my world are not considered fae. They are they’re own race, but they do have a “true” form, ish. Their skin ranges from dark grey to black, and their hair is either white or silver. They also don’t have irises, so their eyes are just pools of white. Their actual facial features are either subtle or nonexistent.

What other races exist in your world? We know about the existence of mages and elementals but what do they look like? What are their powers? Their advantages and disadvantages?

Okay, so to start off with, mages aren’t a race. Anyone can become on through the proper study of magical arts. People who are born with inherent magic are just regular people of a specific race who happen to have magical powers. 

Races in Tarken are divided into the “intelligent races”, the “subservient races”, and the “monstrous races”. The intelligent races are comprised of: Humans, Elves, Leodra, Changelings, Dwarves, Halflings, and Elementals. The subservient races consist of: Dragons, Half-Orcs, Mermaids, Sirens, gnomes, and one more I don’t want to list because they are very plot relevant. (sorry) The monstrous races are a little more tenuous because it’s basically everyone who isn’t in the above groups, but it is sometimes fuzzy where the line between “monstrous races” ends and literal monsters begins. Generally, the monstrous races are considered to include: Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, Giants, Centaurs, and Erdholites, an original race I made up that I will not elaborate on because they are a major part of the story. 

Any combination between multiple races, such as half-elves, with few exceptions, are considered to be in the category of the lowest tier race, if that makes any sense. So a half-elf as a combination of two intelligent races, would be legally considered a member of the intelligent races with equal standing, but a mix between an elf (an intelligent race) and a siren (a subservient race) would be considered a subservient race. The most notable exception is the half-orcs, which has been an international dispute for centuries. As a mix between humans (an intelligent race) and orcs ( a monstrous race), half-orcs should be considered one of the monstrous races, but are instead considered to be a subservient race. But generally, that’s how it works, at least in terms of legal issues. How a mixed race is treated socially can vary widely depending on country and social class. (I also consider the world to be constantly changing as I add more stories to it, so I may add to this list as I see fit.)

In the effort to keep this post at least a semi reasonable length, I’ll focus on the high races for now. (But if anyone wants more information, send in a follow up and I’d be happy to elaborate on any of the races listed in the preceding paragraph.)

Humans: As with most fantasy worlds, the power of humans rests in their ingenuity. They have better technology than the other races, and take the best things about the other races and utilize them to their advantage. They are also the most numerous race in Tarken, but they tend to suffer from infighting and only act as a unified front when threatened. Currently, the four most powerful kingdoms in Tarken are all human controlled which afford the humans a great deal of power, but they seem more interested in warring with each other than with the other races. 

Elves: Once they reach adulthood, elves stop aging, so they have the capacity to live forever. Their long life is considered their greatest strength, but they are also often considered fragile by the other races. They are the most persecuted of the intelligent races, and have had to rebuild their kingdoms multiple times in different parts of the continent. Now, they have been reduced to living in smaller separate settlements instead of the great kingdoms of the ancient past. Elves have a strong collectivist mindset and remain connected by a strong sense of cultural unity. They are often considered to be the wisest of all races, and those who believe in the gods, the most divinely favored of the high races. Apart from their wisdom, elves are widely admired for their arts (mostly music, poetry, and woodworking, though occasionally their jewelry and architecture), and archery techniques. 

Leodra: Not much is known about Leodra at all, and even less is known about their societal customs. The leodra are an island dwelling race, but their island is protected by a magical barrier preventing any other race from entering. They have a port just off the island for trading, but the leodra never go further than that port nor do they allow any to come closer. Any leodra seen on the mainland of the continent are social pariahs who have been banished from their home, and thus not truly representative of their culture. Their greatest strengths are considered to be their natural magical affinity, their ethereal beauty, and their charisma. Like elves, they can be considered fragile by the other races and are not as physically inclined. 

Changelings: The obvious strength of the changelings is their ability to shapeshift and assume any form. I should add that changelings can only take the form of living creatures of relatively equal size, so a dragon or a giant would be too large, and a house cat or a gnome would be too small. Changelings also cannot change their voices when they shift forms unless they have a natural talent for it. Due to their powers, they are often treated as outcasts. Non changelings have a hard time trusting them because the limitations of their powers are not fully known, so there is an implicit assumption that anyone acting suspicious might be a changeling in disguise. 

Dwarves: All dwarves live underground. They are naturally more resistant to harm to the body, disease, and pain. In exchange they are heavier and move slower. This makes them very skilled warriors, but more susceptible to something like drowning, which is why they tend to stay in the mountains. They are widely known for their weaponsmithing which until very recently was considered the best in the world. They also mine most of the world’s gold. As for appearance, they are short, and stocky. Typically having more heavyset builds, and span the same skin tones and hair and eye colors as humans. They also all have beards.

Halflings: The majority of Tarken’s food supply is farmed by halflings. While every country has their own farmers, in cases of famine it is the Kalance (a country of halflings) that supplies them with food. Halflings are small which is both their greatest asset and their greatest weakness. They are also extremely insular, more so than elves, but not as bad as the leodra. Halflings tend to be short and thin. They also have pointed ears like elves, and have the same range of coloring for skin, hair, and eyes as humans. 

Elementals: The powers of elementals depend on what element they are: fire, water, ice, plant, rock, wind, or storm. For the most part, elementals seem completely human with one key identifier marking their heritage and an affinity to control that element. The identifying markings for each type of elemental is that fire elementals will have eyes of fire when they get emotional, water elementals have more fluid skeletons if that makes sense, ice elementals have frost covered skin, plant elemental grow flowers in their hair, rock elementals have stones for elbows and kneecaps, wind elementals’ hair floats, and storm elementals have birthmarks that look like lightning on their pulse points such as the neck or wrist. The tradeoff for power over one of the elements is increased susceptibility to another. An ice elemental may be able to control ice and snow, but will burn much quicker than a human will.

Also if MC is a leodra can she straight up FLY?

Yes. Actually Leodra, weirdly enough, naturally hover about 2 inches off the ground without using their wings. They have to concentrate to walk along the floor which is usually more effort than it’s worth, but when they float, sparkles trail off their feet.

I hope that was enough information to digest Anon! I tried to be both clear and concise, but if there is anything unclear, feel free to send me another ask, and I’ll do my best to clarify the confusion.

[13leaguestories]

I think i saw somewhere that the princes each gave their own color wings correlating to their sin? 🤔 Do does that show only in wing color or also in other parts of their demon forms? + what is each princes color 👀

It's also in their eye color though. It doesn't really show up in their demon forms besides wings and eyes though either.

I use the more common ones that you can look up and find.

Lust: Blue/Dark blue

Pride: Violet

Gluttony: Orange

Wrath: Red

Envy: Green

Sloth: Light blue

Greed: Yellow

[witchblood-if]

Can you tell us more info about the types of witches we can be?

A Kitchen Witch's domain is (obviously) the kitchen. Much of their craft involves preparing different, mostly edible, things. The food they prepare can be used to achieve different goals but they are also very sufficient in protection charms and function as experts in useful domestic spells. Their connection to their domain means they seldom stray far from home, and then not for very long. As keepers of the hearth, they have been loved and admired for as long as they indulge in this craft.

Techno Witches have a great affinity for anything electric or mechanic. Their craft involves making and building machines that shouldn't be able to work in the way they do, but the modern witch also dabbles or even specializes more in programming and digital media. While they are trained in other methods of witchery their domain often doesn't allow for very effective work in very rural or remote places. Their particular skill set also helps them to stay on the down low should they need it.

Garden Witches have a great understanding of the nature around them. Knowledgeable in Botany and Zoology they may also have some well-funded knowledge of things like Mineralogy. Most of their magic craft involves the altering of natural processes in their domain as well as identifying and collecting anything from wildlife and utilizing their gatherings. They tend to thrive in environments that are open and wild, although they will have found a way to compensate in an urban area.

Ceremonial Witches specialize in intricate and often extensive rituals to accomplish their goals. They have an aptitude for executing the complicated instructions (mostly by their own design) down to a dot at the end of a sentence. It's a specialization that requires a lot of patience or perfectionism (and frequently both) to get it just right. They are not bound by a certain place but their rituals oftentimes require a lot of preparation and items that might not be found in an all-too-rural place.

Elemental Witches have perfected the art of using the givings that surrounds them constantly. Wind, Earth, Water and Fire stand at their disposal to manipulate and use. This specialization requires a lot of willpower and strength, as the elements can be quite fickle at times (always). The downside to this great power is the inherent flashiness of it all. Being able to create a wildfire at your fingertips or fill a swimming pool to the brim with nothing more than some concentration tends to draw uncertain looks from strangers around you.

There it is Anon! Like I promised! With a few fancy visuals! I really hope that whatever I put together here doesn't turn out to be complete bogus in the end.

Anyways, hugs and kisses

-Carter

[h0c-if]

So can you tell us about this arranged marraige? Is it explicitly for uniting houses or are there other known expectations for the union? Like heirs and such?

Arranged marriages often involve hidden agendas, but for the Borgians, they hold a deep-rooted belief in the sacredness and significance of marriage as the most vital union. Hence, Borgia's initial proposal for peace revolved around this idea.

Unlike the Argonian, I would not say Borgians do not care about lineage, but they don't prioritize direct ancestry. In their system, if the family's head passes away without marriage or heirs to ascends their position, then a sibling, cousin, or any person from the same clan and bloodline can step in as a replacement. The key factors for selection are possessing the necessary qualities and receiving approval from the elders.

However, securing heirs is crucial for the other party involved if they seek to solidify their grip on power within the Clan.

Furthermore, there might be expectations regarding the roles and responsibilities of the married couple within the larger societal framework. These expectations can encompass various aspects, such as upholding family traditions, maintaining a favorable public image, or actively participating in community affairs.

It's also worth noting that the person chosen to be the spouse of the family's head carries an immense responsibility of managing the household. They are entrusted with the crucial task of overseeing the day-to-day affairs, making important decisions, and ensuring the smooth functioning of the house.

If the spouse fails to fulfill these responsibilities effectively, they may face severe criticism from the elders within the family.

[freedompalshq]

If you COULD go back to coon and friends, would you, mosquito? :<

Like, if you knew they would accept you? Or would you stay with freedom pals?

Mosquito: Part of me wants to say I WANT to go back but... The other says I never want to leave, bzzt.

[ut-scatteredextension]

I think it's been long overdue for me to talk about what happened to Sans after I promised I would, so, here we are!

When I said I threw him in the Void, I was not lying dgshshf.

Sans had been somewhat involved with the efforts to revive Papyrus after he died. Chara came to him with the idea, and he was the one who provided them with Papyrus' scarf/cape, which was what a lot of his dust had settled in.

Sans wasn't totally on board with the plan and was skeptical that it would work (since, y'know, people who die aren't supposed to come back from that). But a tiny part of him still wanted to have hope that maybe he would get to see his brother again. Ultimately though, Chara's safety was more of a priority to him. Tori'd kill him if he let her kid get hurt on his watch, after all. So, I'd say that he did make some half-hearted attempt to discourage Chara from trying to revive Papyrus, but also didn't actually do anything to stop them when they insisted on going through with it.

As I've said before, Chara had less Determination available to work with compared to Alphys when she did her experiments. Alphys had extracted all of her samples from the human SOULs that had been collected (as mentioned in canon in the True Lab). Those SOULs disappeared after Frisk's battle against Omega Flowey, though, so Chara wasn't able to do the same. They found and used the leftover Determination that Alphys had previously collected, but it wasn't enough. So, from there they had two options to get more:

They extract some from the Amalgamates (not actually an option; the process could be painful, they refuse to harm a monster, absolutely not, no way are they doing this)

They extract some from their own SOUL.

In Chara's mind, there was only one choice.

So, with Sans' hesitant supervision, they hooked themself up to the DT Extraction machine.

However, as I'll get into some other time, Chara's SOUL is massively Fucked Up. Their Determination is pretty much the only thing holding it together.

Y'know, the very same Determination being extracted from them?

So, because the extraction process is basically killing them, they try to RESET on reflex. However, their ability to RESET also depends on the amount of Determination they have. Which they are currently in the process of losing.

This put the timeline in a weird, unnatural state of an incomplete RESET, causing time, space, and reality as a whole to begin tearing itself apart.

Sans intervened at that point, terminating the extraction process early and saving Chara's life as a result. However, his interference forced him to get very close to the source of the space-time disruptions (and thus where the destruction of reality was at its worst). He, unfortunately, got sucked into that whole mess, causing him to get sent to the Void and erasing him from the minds and memory of every living person in the process.

So! Sans got Gaster-ed lmao rip. Though actually, his erasure wasn't as complete as Gaster's was. Gaster got erased from all of existence entirely, whereas Sans has only been erased from his specific timeline (and all the other timeline iterations that branched off after his erasure). He exists outside of time now, watching over the world that he can no longer interact with. If anyone here happens to be familiar with Chrono Trigger, I'd say Sans' situation is somewhere in between Gaster's and Gaspar's. ...Funny how their names are. Fairly similar actually dgssgf

As for the out-of-universe reason why I threw Sans in the Void, it's the best way to make his role as the "game's" narrator work. Being a monster instead of a human, it doesn't make sense for him to have some sort of "soul connection" or something with Trace that Chara had with Frisk and/or the player.

So, he doesn't! But by existing outside of time, space, and the game itself to some extent, he, similarly to Gaster in Deltarune, is aware of and interacts directly with the player. Trace themself doesn't actually know about Sans' presence for most of their adventure. All of the narration and UI stuff is Sans talking to and interacting directly with the player specifically.

[dunmeshistash]

Are dwarves dying earlier than gnomes for lifestyle reasons? (Since they reach maturity at the same time) I think all the dwarves mentioned are heavy drinkers and seem to live rougher lives? I just know dwarves are often presented as embodiments of masculinity and men statistically tend to do dumb things like drinking too much and not going to the doctor until it's too late, resulting in a lower life expectancy.

My assumption was rather than dwarves "living less" gnomes lived longer because they seem to be more easy going and in general lead a more "natural" lifestyle.

Dungeon meshi has a relatively young life expectancy, like how tallmen who supposedly are like humans live on average only 60 years. Elves on the other hand if you use the divided by 5 formula they give us live to be the equivalent of 80 I assume because they are more privileged in general.

I've seen dwarf and gnome ages be calculated by dividing by 2.5 but I forgot what the logic was (I think their age of maturity?). In the manga the hint we get is that Laios who is in his mid twenties looks "about 60" for a dwarf, going with the 2.5 that's about right (26*2.5 = 65) so I'll use that since it's an easier number to calculate than an exact equivalence of 26 to 60 (Math is hard)

Dwarves live to be 200 so 200/2.5 they live to be the equivalent of 80 like elves while gnomes live on average 240/2.5 the equivalent of 96 in tallmen years

So all long lived races live longer than short lived races even if you translate their ages and gnomes live even longer than the other long lived races because of their chill lifestyle (I assume)

[bad-sanses-smp]

IS EPIC OKAY?? KILLER WHY WOULD YOU KILL HIM???

ALSO.

Are those names under the compasses? Like really faintly???

~ Stalker Anon (glad you're all okay with the name :D!!)

Chronological (All Asks)

Beginning Previous Next

Chronological (Epic Only)

Beginning <- You are here Next

[martyrette]

Hi sorry this is just because of the Thalassian Embassy post you made, but I found it an amusing side note that mentioning the Darkfallen especially (I mean it's also because of Quel'dorei and Ren'dorei seeing their current faction alignments in comparison to Sin'dorei, but *especially Darkfallen* mention) that this would, in canon WoW lore, be considered a progressive movement by accepting it's undead former members, as outside of begrudgingly accepting Death Knights, nearly every other faction group universally shuns them and is basically the whole point of the Forsaken. Undead that still have their mind with no home left to go.

To clarify, I think that is a good thing to include all Quel'thalas natives, just sharing a thought that occured to me. (Retired from WoW nowadays, I play FFXIV instead, but I was a huge lore nut from like TBC to Dragonflight)

Omg no, I LOVE lore. Please, more lore nerd asks!!! 💕💕💕

The whole group’s idea is TOTAL unification, so long as Thalassian blood is in your veins - and the core has been slowly shifting their views to seeing them as fellow victims of the Scourge, rather than willing participants.

I think back on how Sylvanas and the Forsaken are the ones who even reached out to the Sin’dorei - to offer them aid due to that sense of kinsmanship and admiration for Sylvanas (on the Lord-Regant’s part). Playing Remix as well, you see throughout how he always talks about Sylvanas and them working together.

Total side note, but I hate that I can’t get into FF14. I’ve tried so damn hard.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

okay last thing for now I swear. But I realized that you might get joy from all the things I thought Eris Mourn was before I gave up and asked.

(Very important note is I was going in blind except for a handful of factoids that a friend gave me. As it turns out this friend was very bad at video game lore.)

'That Wizard came from the moon' is referring to Eris Mourn. She looked like a wizard from the moon to me. This one was probably the closest tbh.

After finding out what a wizard was I just assumed she was an Awoken and that's what powerful Awoken look like. Wrong direction, past me.

Mara doesn't have three eyes so obviously that's wrong. Did the Traveler just bring her back weird?

No ghost? Okay so she's an Ahamkara. I heard that word used a couple times around her so clearly that's what she's supposed to be!

Eris Mourn is Hive God Savathun. This was from my friend attempting to course-correct the Ahamkara theory but they corrected me from flying into a brick wall to flying into a different, closer, brick wall. I don't know why they told me this.

Thank you for tolerating my silliness, feel free to ignore or also point and laugh at past me XD The fun part of going into games blind is coming up with absolutely wild theories that aren't even a little bit true. Like thinking the Cabal aren't real and I was misremembering how many factions there are.

Ok so, these are all pretty close to the mark, narratively speaking, and not silly at all.

I mean, "that Wizard came from the Moon" is... a reasonable assumption. She wields Hive magic and lives on the Moon. (Although Eris would probably be deeply insulted because she can probably murder Hive Wizards in her sleep.)

For the longest time the lore was ambiguous and people did think Eris was Awoken because she calls Asher Mir (who is Awoken) "cousin" and she has a very sickly skin tone. But, as it turns out, she was born in the Last City, which makes her a garden variety boring normal human. Being underground for a century in a hostile environment while being hunted to death by Hive just does really terrible things to your skin.

Brought back weird is also a good theory. Especially now that we have Lucent Hive. Eris is definitely weird. Not a bad conjecture, all things considered.

Ahamkara is also a good guess - for anything, really. They're shape-shifters and can look like anyone so "when in doubt maybe Ahamkara?" is generally Destiny-plausible, albeit rare and unusual, (not to mention, her glowing ball is an Ahamkara bone and she was only able to learn how to escape the Hellmouth because of a wish so your intuition was bang-on, just not for the right target).

Now the last one you came up with is especially interesting, lore-wise, because Sav did infiltrate the Hidden network and impersonated Eris in several lore entries. It is infamously referenced online as "the time Savathun wrote Eris fanfiction" and is debunked by the Hidden in other lore entries later. So, again, while missing the mark, it's shockingly accurate as far as intuitive leaps in story go and that does happen, just not in that specific way.

But, if you will forgive me for doing so, there's one more misonception in your ask that you may not be aware of that I want to tell you about: the spelling of Eris' last name.

And the only reason I point it out is not to tease you about a spelling mistake but because it is an exquisitely beautiful resonant and powerful bit of imagery and wordplay that I don't think a lot of people realize.

You've been referencing her above as Eris Mourn.

Mourn: Feel or show deep sorrow or regret for (someone or their death).

But, while it sounds exactly the same, Eris' last name in game is spelled Morn.

Morn: Dawn. Morning.

The dual nature of her last name is already lovely because it encapsulates so much of her character but the fact that it is Morn and not Mourn ties in very closely with two specific pieces of dialogue in game:

In the Prophesy dungeon:

Drifter: Hey, Three Eyes. You spending all your time on Io now? Eris Morn: Or the Moon. Depending on the weather. Drifter: What do you think of all this? Eris Morn: All of what? Drifter: The black fleet. The end of the line. End of the Light. Eris Morn: It hasn't come to that. Not yet. Drifter: How do you know? Eris: It hasn't been dark enough. Drifter: Look at the sky. Nightfall's comin'. Eris Morn: We'll live in the night if we have to. I've been there before. So have you. So has the Guardian. Drifter: It ain't pleasant. Eris Morn: No. But necessary. For what follows. Drifter: And what's that? Eris Morn: Dawn.

And then brought up again, this time by Drifter to Eris in Gloaming Journeyer:

"I remember what you said. I think about it more than I should these days." "What did I say?" "That we'll live in the night if we have to. We do it for what comes after."

Eris, while her entire backstory is about the loss of her fireteam, and she becomes a full-on Hive god to avenge them, really is the embodiment of hope within Destiny.

And this is nowhere more true than in her interactions with… Dredgen Hope, named by the Darkness itself after that which he did not, and could not, have because of who he was and what he had experienced: the drifter with no family and no name, who trusted no one, and who, upon befriending us, told us not to give in to hope because that would only ever get us killed.

Eris is named after morning, dawn, daybreak.

Because, within the narrative of Destiny, the image of dawn breaking over the darkest part of the night is not a soft angelic light, sweet and gentle.

It's the grim snarl of a Forgotten Blade dragging itself, broken and bloodied, out of the deepest pit of hell.

The glow of Morn comes, not from some distant star, but from the three eyes she cut from the face of the enemy she killed while blind and lightless, which she then embedded in holes she carved into her body, cutting out her own sightless eyes and piercing her own skull to do so because, despite everything, in an inescapable situation, against all logic and reason, facing absolute certain death, she refused to fucking die.

Aiat.

[cheerstotheelites-if]

To the anon who sent me the longest ask with mini asks in them, here are your answers:

1. Mana, arcana, aether: What's the difference between them on your story? Are they serving as different fuels for different types of magic?

I think I've discussed before in the past and the info may change from then, but:

Mana - General magic fuel for most magic

Arcana - Old archaic term to refer to magic

Aether - Clerical magic fuel that came straight from Malkiel himself

2. Is the "Hands of Ectorius" mentioned on the Fae lore, a temple of sorts or a geolographical location within the Reflection?

Yes, and yes. Ectorius thought it would be cool to make a geographical location and make it their temple. The Hands of Ectorius are rock formations that resemble "hands" with fingers poking out of the ground and cupping it in its "palms".

3. Is Ectorius, the God of Fae and Arts, featured on the upcoming game "Retribution: He Cries" going to have a cameo appearance or special mention at any point in the future?

He will be mentioned, but I won't spoil what happened to him in Retribution in the mention.

4. Can you share what specific superstitions surround the Monarch Fae (kingdom of Earthshine) that makes them the most well-known and favored among the Fae?

Well, not really on superstitions and more on how they act towards Magi and humans. For one, the Monarch Fae are great hosts; hospitable and very helpful (and surprisingly honest) people. They aren't one to actively try to make a deal with you to steal your name, and are more intrigued at the fact that someone's in their kingdom than try to kill them on sight unlike the other kingdoms.

5. One of the primary reasons on the reasons on the rising tensions between neighboring kingdoms has been the "illegal" trespassings

I think this is an unfinished question, but yeah, one of the primary reasons are the trespassings that have been occuring as of late. The Tagalica (Cicadas) are fleeing their kingdom to others due to... multiple reasons. One of them is having the Scoldii (Wasps) constantly nearing and attacking their already small territory.

6. Given the aggressive nature of Scoldii, how do they maintain alliances or neutral relationships with other kingdoms? Are they any kingdoms they have a particularly close relationship with?

Well, more on neutral relationship with Earthshine, since they haven't attacked them yet. However, they are particularly close with Moonglade (Moth kingdom) due to the trade they have going on. The Scoldii love and want the Webworm's silk for their own clothes and personal use since the silk of moths are better than the silk of wasps, so a deal was made. The kingdom of Coachan will provide protection for Moonglade, as long as they provide them with silk.

7. Given the naming of each species found on the 6 kingdoms, is their social structures familiar to their normal earthling counterparts?

Somewhat. The Xylocopa and Scoldii are matrilineal, like their real life counterparts, where the queen rules the hive. While the Lucanidae are based of stag beetles, and beetles are known to be solitary hence an individualistic society unlike Xylocopa and Scoldii's collectivistic society (because, you know, h i v e s). I can go on, but it'll make this long post even longer.

8. Have any efforts been made towards advancing or improving the efficiency of the alchemical recipes and healing spells by expert magi of the field? Asking about inventions and advancement shared with the wider community of Magi, not crazy inventions locked away at the Company's agencies.

They've changed some archaic ingredients to more modern and more accessible ones and make the process faster, but no inventions were made. Why fix what's not even broken and ineffective?

9. Are there any known attempts to challenge or debunk the claims made in Sanctus Aether Issium?

There were back at 1700's when religion was a touchy subject, but that resulted in getting sent to the gallows by devoted clerics of Malkiel.

10. "Includes how to summon and communicate with the Archangels of Malkiel, also known as High Court, though one name is scratched out." Faisal is that you? (≖_≖ )

No, it's not Faisal, but one of the first Archangels of Malkiel, when there were still the Seven Heavenly Virtues; Sandalphon. Just knoe Sanctus Aether Issium was written around the 1200's; centuries after the events of Retribution.

11. Has blood magic and spells invented snd created by Aislinn been ruled forbidden after the massacre? What are the criteria used to include a spell/ritual/summoning on Illicitus Verba?

Yes, everything related to Aislinn and her magic are considered forbidden. Unfortunately, that includes her family's too, even if their practices are more medical. To get a spell/ritual/summoning into Illicitus Verba it has to have one or more of these:

Be able to actually kill a large group of people with ease

Be able to create a permanent effect that either affects the majority or the self in a very bad way

Can permanently damage the self or the victim

Can permanently curse the self or the victim

12. Are there any factions or groups within the Magi community that advocate for or against the specific types of magical spells/types of magic?

If it were back in the medieval eras, where opinions were... questionable, the modern Magi community does not. It's a bit more progressive than the Magi of before, however, they are a bit against necromancers due to the fact that they use demons and fiends as their summoned creatures, compared to druids who use creatures from Reflection.

13. Does the book MC is reading continue to narrate the life of Lothric and Aislinn until their, or Aislinn's eventual death? Can you reveal the cause of her death (was it natural, illness, accident, executed)?

Well, I'm not spoiling where the book of Lothric and Aislinn end, nor am I spoiling how one of them died.

14. What happens to Familiars who violate even one of the explicit rules of they have to obey regardless of reason?

Casted out as a Familiar as a whole. Plain and simple.

15. On the prologue released currently, it is implied that Aislinn has lost control over her magic before: How many times has that happened and has any of them been fatal?

Since she was around 15, Aislinn was already experimenting with her magic by then and multiple accidents have occured. Lothric was often a test subject, but sometimes she would practice on animal cadavers. There were times where cadavers would suddenly have twisted limbs because of Aislinn having poor control of the blood flow, and there are moments where Lothric would have a stroke because Aislinn would accidentally halt blood flow when practicing puppetry on him.

16. Was Aislinn ever a fan of fairytales and legends when she was a child? Or was she more of the type to find the truth behind them?

The latter. She was always one to seek out truth and knowledge in everything ever since she was young.

17. Was Lothric taught some advanced spells by Aislinn? What were some of them?

Yes, and the rest are spoilers.

18. Is the Stranger from the temple of the East a worshipper of Horatio? Did his position rise in the temple hierarchy after the deal he made with Aislinn? Will he appear anytime in the future?

* The Stranger's a they/them!

Yes, they are a disciple of Horatio; a senior one, and no, there is no hierarchy in the temple nor did they elevate in position. The Stranger is called a senior because of how long they stayed as a disciple. Also yes, the Stranger will appear in the future!

19. Are you going to include interludes or POV scenes in future chapters?

POV scenes? Yes. Interludes? Still thinking about it.

20. Is Despona going to take an active role in the future, or is she going to make a cameo appearance? A special mentioning perhaps?

Well, MC is going to meet Despoina in her temple, but an active role? She won't be having a big active role, and you'll see why soon.

[13leaguestories]

Are the Dinami the most famous notorious group out there? The guard really froze up when the MC told him that information

I don't want to say they ARE the most famous but they are definitely up there. Top three kinda stuff but they are very high up due to their practices and results. A lot of guards and lower law enforcement forces end up working with them due to the smuggling side of it all.