#lore ask

[dunmeshistash]

Do you have anything on the clothing of fashion of different races? Specially half-foots, but all are appreciated!

The new adventurer's bible and kui's blog have some pages about clothing! But there isn't much about half-foots specifically, theres pages about tallmen elf and dwarf fashion. I'll try to put everything I have here with the translated versions for the ones I can find (without much organization hope that's ok)

[salt-clangen]

How the codekeeper role works exactly? Sorry if it was already answered it, but i had searched and couldn't find it.

No worries! So codekeepers were created by @rippleclan but they’re comfortable letting others use the concept. You can read their description of it here.

In simple terms codekeepers are the justice system of the clans, they spend majority of the time as standard warriors; hunting, patrolling, skirmishes etc. They don’t differ from regular warriors much until a possible crime- or ‘code break’- occurs, then they are instructed by the Leader/Deputy/Clerics to investigate the allegations. These crimes are basically anything that goes against the warrior code- I also have a different warrior code than canon srry. Examples can be anything from murder to treason to trespassing and more. It can be very nuanced, the code keepers (also called ‘keepers or ‘guards’ in my story) are supposed to look for evidence and witnesses to the crime, once that’s completed there’s a trial. Codekeepers are allowed to cross clan borders and question other clan’s cats to complete this task (within reason).

Depending on the crime, the evidence, and the leaders involved the time between allegations and a trial could be anywhere between a few days to a moon. A trial must be done in a timely manner but the codes are a lil loose with the definition of ‘timely’ so some leaders will prolong the investigatory period to multiple moons but this isn’t common.

During the trial there are two key code keepers, one argues against the accused cat and the other argues for the accused. Similar to American courts of law and lawyers (I’m from America I don’t really know how courts work in other countries just to clarify). These codekeepers take turn calling witnesses, presenting evidence, and making arguments. This all takes place before the leader and the clan (who must remain orderly and quiet). Once both sides have made their arguments and all the evidence is presented the leader will confer with their deputy and cleric (usually the lead cleric but not always) before they make a ruling. Punishments can be varied and are usually tied to the crime in some way, the more severe the crime the more severe the punishment. Punishment can be restriction of leaving camp, doing unwanted jobs, social exile (shunning), dishonor titles (like Burnpaw’s). Severe punishments include exile (either temporary or permanent) and even execution in the most extreme cases.

Codekeepers aren’t enforcers of the code, every clan member is expected to uphold the warrior code and hold others to that standard, keepers are just the ones who help keep it fair if an allegation is made and let the leader remain as unbiased as possible to make a decision.

Now this is where the similarities end with me and rippleclan’s use of codekeepers, I really liked the concept of this being an official role but I wanted to kinda push it a little further.

In my clangen, codekeepers are the warriors that want to be the most warriors that ever warriored. Basically these are the cats that want to not just study the code and defend it, they want to excel in every aspect of the warrior role. These cats are like Warriors Plus, y’know.

To be a codekeeper isn’t easy, you have to have a great memory, critical thinking skills, strong morals, objectivity, endurance, public speaking, and debating. A lot of cats can’t perform in this role, the leader and mentors will hold small mock trials to see if a codekeeper apprentice can graduate into a full warrior. If they fail, they may try again in a moon or, if they passed their other assessments, they can graduate as a regular warrior.

Codekeepers have a lot in common with other roles that are non combative, such as mediators and historians. While historians and mediators often hunt and patrol with regular warriors to provide for the clan, they aren’t used in fights or wars (Ashenstep being a notable exception and is an excellent fighter). Like mediators they have to maintain a level of objectivity and demonstrate emotional intelligence, these are their clan mates and loved ones they might be investigating. Though the leader will usually pick keepers who aren’t related or too close to the accused. And like historians they have to memorize and understand the code on many levels, this is without a formal writing system too.

Codekeepers are also called Guards because they are often sent with patrols made up of non combative cats/clerics as a sort of security. In Honeyclan keepers are also in charge of watching the fields while patrols are out of camp bc the land is so flat and so close to the boating place, sometimes humans go out into the fields to see the flowers or dogs get loose and can cross the territory quickly. There’s very few places to hide in the fields.

Duskclan has the most keepers, Oakclan the second most, and Honeyclan the third. Saltclan obv has none (technically Wolfstar, but she never actually took the bar exam lol)

Sorry this was long but I encourage you to check out the rippleclan post about codekeepers as well.

[found-gremlin-fam]

Error, don't you have work?

:3

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[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.

[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.

[lizzies-mailbox]

Hello, Miss Shadowlady. Do you like your EYES? :) - Cain (@eyesremain)

Oh, Hello..? I do indeed like my eyes, thank you. It's...nice to meet you, Cain. [She is not attempting to be rude, she's simply put off by the ominous feeling from the letter.]

[xx-gr1ef3r-xx]

D4MN, 1 TH0UGHT TH1S S1TE WAS D3AD. WHAT3V3R. I'M B0R3D AS H3LL 1N HERE. S3ND ME S0ME ASKS.

rules: No NSFW/suggestive asks. At all. You can be like "heh... ur so cute *wink*" or "WOW ur SO hot" or whatever but anything further than that and I'll send you to super hell.

Hate speech in my inbox of any kind will result in a block. "Pro/ship" stuff will also result in a block.

Mentioning romance/shipping is fine, just don't be insistent.

general: I'm gonna try my best to keep Griefer in character, so I might not respond immediately! I might also try and draw something. Don't count on it, though...

(EDIT!) Just to be clear, when I say I may not respond immediately I mean it. I may take like, weeks ;; and this blog is first and foremost, for fun! not my job lol

I would also like to add that this is Not a serious roleplay blog and more of a silly/sometimes serious ask blog (I am playing toys!)

Tell me if you ever need a transcript of Griefer's words! I find his typing quirk can get a little hard to read, so lmk.

Griefer on the timeline is a little after Chapter 2. He's healing up! He's also an adult here. Yippee!

[rescuebabiesau]

if optimus (or the entirety of team prime itself) was a mosaic what element would he be?

It's funny you should ask, because I did consider making Optimus a mosaic at one point (he'd technically died too, after all) but I ultimately chose not to follow that trail.

That being said, if he had become a mosaic, his element was actually not going to an "Earth-Related" element. He would instead be able to manipulate energies emitted from Cybertron's core, and would be able to create weapons, shields, etc. from this energy that was almost "Ghostly" in nature.

He would be immensely powerful when on Cybertron, but this power would be severely stunted on Earth. The remnant energies of Unicron could potentially be under his control too, but it's tainted and he would want to avoid using it.

The other members of Team Prime, I haven't really thought too much about them... (I did make some mock designs for all of the members of Team Bee though if they were mosaics too)

[desklamper]

I have a question!!! Are gods born or made? Because if there's god school, that implies there's like... god registrations.

I'm just trying to figure out Mel and Thalia's lore a bit more, sorry =w=''

There is many ways!!

number 1:

some gods are born gods because, their parents were gods (Duh) people like this include the guy who greets people when they die. Number 2: it's earned

some people earn the position of gods before or after death, velle and annabelle (soon) are examples Number 3: Created

some gods just randomly show up, usually when there is a lack of a certain thing that needs a god (this is how the first gods came to be)

The elder/ancient gods made institutions to help streamline the god earning process because they really didnt wanna teach and manage everyone after a long time of doing that

i hope this answered your question!!!

[aburningmemory]

Hey Blaze. Could you give us a hearty lions roar with your new werecat form?

“Iiii can try.. hold on.”

The werecat blinks and takes a deep breath, before emitting a LOUD ass roar from his vocals, akin to a lion. Afterwards the werecat breaks into a coughing fit and hackles abit before clearing his throat. Hopefully that was good, and didnt wake shadow.

“EuH-was that good or like do you need a better roar-“

[dunmeshistash]

do you have any info on magic staffs or just compilation pics of the staffs?

Here's the ones I could remember above,

From what Marcille says here staffs are important for aiming

Her explosion spell scatters instead of hitting a single point when she casts it without Ambrosia

She does manage to use a twig when she loses Ambrosia in the Barometz chapter, and Thistle uses a flute or other music instruments (and a wooden mallet) to cast magic every now and then so I think the quality of the Staff has more to do with how much they can take and the quality of the aim rather than the power of the magic? The twig probably cant quite aim the explosion attack and even the stun seems to have came out not quite aimed properly thru the twig

The twig also burns away after

Other things that seem to be used to cast magic are magic circles/runes, magic tattoos and Grimoires (by Thistle especially) so maybe which one to use depends on the magic youre casting? Wish there was something more explicitly said about those.

[salt-clangen]

Honestly I'd just love a day in the life of Mallow and it's him literally preparing food. And in his head he's all super serious in making sure what he cooks is the best possible. Like yesss!!! We know how to cook in this household <33

Mallow is 100% all sunshine in his head, he’s thinking ‘yaaay I get to cook for my clan and my crushes, today is a great day every day’. I can’t see him being any other way bc how the hell is he single-handedly feeding an entire clan and not facing burn out without some sort of delusional happiness going in his brain.

This also made me realize I never wrote about why Mallow decided to be a keeper. It kinda got lost in all the drama, so here’s a lil story to make up for that:

TW warning: destruction of fire, burning, injuries, and crude meat processing

(This is long and not beta’ed)

Sandkit loved to eat, despite her runty size she had an appetite that rivaled an adult cat. She often begged for snacks throughout the day, though Lynxdawn assured everyone she wasn’t full of worms. Still she spent most of the day hanging around the clan’s oven, just over the line in the sand Mallowstripe had drawn for her, eyeing every move he made.

“Sandkit you’re not getting anything today.” He told her flatly. “Your mother has been very vocal about not spoiling you.”

Sandkit batted her eyes sweetly. “I’m not doing anything.”

His tail twitched as he set a pot to boil, preparing tea for the evening. “Then why are you here invading my kitchen.”

She feigned shock, gesturing dramatically to the ground. “I’m not over the line!”

He chuckled lowly, knowing he’d likely give in anyways and give her a fish head or rabbit jerky, if she was patient enough.

Her next words actually surprised him. “Why’d you wanna be a camp keeper?” She dragged a claw along the rock wall.

Mallowstripe actually had to pause, unsure how to answer.

She took his silence for confusion. “Mama said you were training to be a cleric before you came here. I wanted to know what made you change.”

He laughed through his nose, it felt like seasons since he was in duskclan. “That’s kinda true.” He glanced at her. “Actually, before I was a cleric apprentice I was a warrior apprentice.”

“Woah really?!” Her jaw dropped. “Like Shadowdive and Snowspeckle?”

He nodded, turning back to his work, a patrol had brought a large duck home and he needed to prepare it. “That’s right, my mentor, Thornstrike, was tough and didn’t really like kits.”

“He sounds gross.” She stuck her tongue out.

“Yeah I think a lot of cats would say that.” He pulled out the duck feathers, setting them aside for cleaning. “He was very strict, I’d wanted to be a camp keeper but I was too nervous and I felt like I had to be a warrior.”

“Why didn’t your mama help you?” Sandkit asked, not noticing how his movements slowed.

“My parents both died before I was apprenticed.” He said, going back to plucking, slightly faster.

Sandkit seemed to realize her mistake now, squirming in place. “That’s sad. I’m sorry.”

He waved her closer with his tail, she scooted in for a hug quickly, not minding the heat of the day and oven. Her eyes darted to the hanging minnows drying, but she didn’t ask.

Giving her a quick lick and a nuzzle, he swiped one of the minnows for her. “Dont tell anyone.” He whispered and she snatched the morsel.

Ushering her back over the line, glancing about conspiratorially, he went back to work as she chewed. “My sister was a keeper’s apprentice, she showed me a lot of her training. One day I tried to start a fire.”

She nearly choked on her bite, eyes wide as she swallowed the lump down, before she could speak up he continued.

“It was dangerous, I shouldn’t have done it. I hurt my face in the fire and one of the cats who caught me died. We were trying to put the fire out and he got trapped. Thornstrike dragged me out by my ear, shredding it.” He flicked his left ear towards her.

“But why would you be a cleric after that?” She asked. “And why would you wanna work with fire after you were burned?!”

He shushed her gently, her voice very high with anticipation. “The cleric had a vision that I should help her as her apprentice.” He explained, leaving out some of the more…complicated parts. “I trained with her while Wolfstar and Lynxdawn were forming Saltclan. After a while I decided to join them.”

“But why?” Sandkit whined, shuffling her paws in the sand to bury her toes.

“Well… I wasn’t a good cleric.” He confessed with a laugh. “I couldn’t tell which plants were which half the time, it could’ve been bad if I gave the wrong herb to the wrong cat. I also wasn’t very spiritual like your mama. I never spoke with Starclan.”

He sighed, unsure how to explain to a kit.

“But with camp keeping…there was less pressure you know? Sure I have to make sure I cook everything properly and ration enough for everyone but I don’t have to worry about giving a cat poison on accident or wondering if I missed a prophecy that was life or death for the clan.” He pulled out a stone chopper, the sharpened edge made butchering easier as it lobbed off the head and extremities.

“Plus it’s easier to tell the difference between a gallbladder and a lung.” He joked, slicing into the prey now to pull out the organs, the useful ones he’d use for sausage making. The dirty ones he’d bury in the dirt place.

Sandkit giggled with him, eyes curious as she looked over the prey parts.

“Don’t you miss fighting and hunting?” She asked.

He shook his head, checking on the pot and adding the tea leaves to the water. “Not really. I still spar with Snowspeckle and Shadowdive, but even before my eyesight start failing I wasn’t very good at it. It also didn’t make me happy.”

Her head shot up. “You’re blind?” She asked incredulously.

That made him belly laugh, loudly, chest heaving it took him a moment to catch his breath. “In this eye yes, I’m mostly blind. I can see movement and shapes but not details.”

Sandkit looked at him like she’d never seen him before.

“Did you really not notice?” He chuckled.

“No! I thought you just squinted a lot.” She hugged, embarrassed now at his teasing.

He patted her shoulder with his tail. “It’s alright honey.” He pulled down some bowls for marinades and honey. “Are you thinking about being a camp keeper?”

That got her smile back. “Nah! I wanna be a warrior! I wanna go out and hunt and explore and fight!”

He smiled warmly, though she was too distracted posing like a warrior to notice.

“That’s good, you should follow your heart.” He said, surprised to feel her bumping her head against his elbow.

“Don’t worry I’ll come visit you in the kitchen and bring you tons of fresh kill.” She purred.

His eyes felt misty for a moment, she was so unaware of her effect on him. “I’d lie that, Sand. I’ll cook everything you bring me. Make something delicious so you’ll always be strong.”

She spryly leapt up, dashing around him excitedly. “I’d love that!”

The sweet moment was cut short by a loud yell from across camp. “SANDKIT YOU BETTER STAY OUTTA THAT KITCHEN!”

The pair ducked, frozen, as Lynxdawn marched across the sand.

“And you!” She jabbed a claw his way. “Stop feeding her! She’s gonna get sick from over eating because of you!”

Sandkit laughed nervously as she dashed off, rejoining her sisters in the nursery as her mother focused on poo Mallowstripe.

“It was just a minnow! She was being so sweet!” He reasoned.

Lynxdawn grumbled, not as angry as she pretended, but still needing to drive the point home. “You’re too soft, Mallowstripe.”

[what-have-i-unleashed]

💔⏳️💖⏰️?

(Lets see if our neurons are connect today)

attempted decipher: "something you hate in the past but now love?"

hell yeah it's twilight 🙂🙂🙂 because i can now use my cursed knowledge of it to torment mutuals 😁😁😁

(on a semi-serious note, it's probably self-insert fics lol. i used to dislike them because i was a ✨️snob✨️ who didn't like reading people's fantasies. but now i've been enlightened by the fact that fandom is for fun and, well, every character is someone's oc anyway. so, better to just have fun!)

[live-laugh-loverpool]

mo/robbo friendship hcs? :3 i know you said you wanted to write them after my double date fic

oh HELL YEAH LET'S GOOOOOO

Robbo joins Mo in the garden for early-morning yoga sessions every day. It started with them alone, but then a couple of others joined and now they have the اليوغيون الأحمر (Red Yogis) group every morning

Robbo has been banned from drinking Mo's coffee because it's so strong that the one time he did drink it, he got such a caffeine rush that he ran around Melwood's entire complex five times AND beat Milly at a bleep test

Mo would never admit it, but he likes when Robbo talks his head off at random o'clock in the day

Robbo loves following Mo around in the gym. Sometime's he'll be working out with him, other times he'll be goofing off (AGAIN)

Mo has banned Robbo from yelling "MOHAMED" before nine o'clock in the morning

these are just some, but maybe i'll add more as i write more

[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.