#lore snippets

[agrachdyrr]

I posted #3 solo but here's some more:

1: "Kozakura inspired". The patterns of menswear in Japan are really interesting in how subtle they are. Vhaeraun wants a lot of black clothes out of his followers, which I think might lead to a lot of subtle texture and embroidery work.

2: Dress from House Du'thar. This is one of the torn up gowns mentioned in "The Hunger", featuring Felyn'aste with his younger hair. He was really trying to be comfortable as a woman in this era. The dress was so hard to draw since it's campy.

3: Already posted this one. This is something that Felyn would wear day-to-day. Nothing fancy, comfortable enough. Main challenge is getting all your blacks to match.

4: Updated design for Felyn'aste's armor come 5e. This set of armor is called "Fool's Gold" or "Waelsulvir". It was forged by an armorsmith who fled Thay, leading to the fairly distinctive look of spikes and flowing cloth. The knuckles on the gauntlets are often razor sharp, leaving them with a weapon even if they've been divested of the matching flanged mace. Still sketchy since it's not finalized.

[paperlit]

We as a fandom moved way too fast past this:

And this:

[nyctrilite]

north star

[sublimati0ns]

daily koss #18: guy who totally doesn’t have deranged kinks due to unresolved issues he really should work through … bsky

Trying to do the ‘post-war redemption (-ish) arc relationship thing’ means indulging your (ugh) (shudder) (gag) partner when he calls in a ‘weird interface favour.’ Sadly, you are less dense about his feelings than you used to be. What the frag was all that about?! (…Maybe you’ll admit it felt good in the moment, though.)

[agrachdyrr]

#thinking about a god depicted red (angry) so often that seeing other colors is so rare its almost considered a myth

#and how he might feel about his faithful following a similar path where all they feel more and more is anger. only anger.

since this site is not serious, more on felyn and vhaeraun

when she was younger, during the midwinter night ritual

felyn would do the ritual to the letter, but 24 hours is a long time. so, sometimes she'd just... chat with him in-between the "important bits". talk about things done and seen during the year, that she thought he would enjoy. not always evil or useful things like "we've started taking over luskan" but like, whatever came to mind. talking about dark flowers. about the half-drow child she saw playing in the streets of waterdeep with the other kids, accepted by those kids. just whatever came to mind that she naively assumed he wouldn't have taken note of. he's a very busy god, afterall.

but during his torpor, she hardened up quite a lot. it was a difficult period to survive, and some personalities tried to turn things to their personal benefit (rather than vhaeraun's) during his silence. the person she was closest to betrayed that trust and nearly allowed ghaunadaur to take her. she's become distrustful enough that when he finally returns, she remembers how his sister masqueraded as him for several years, until her moonfire betrayed her; she lied to them and tried to use them for her own ends, as far as felyn was concerned. so she didn't trust him for a long while.

and during that time, also after, she stopped chatting with him. the ritual became more serious. done correctly. now she talks at length about bregan's plans in luskan or other schemes, the suffering she inflicted on lolthites during the last prison break/riot. it's good! she's become the "perfect" follower while he was gone, but...

[butterflyscribbles]

Adrenaline⚔️

Starting to try and puzzle piece the lore together with some in between doodles. Tang and the gang (Sandy and Pigsy) have to go rescue baby MK from Spider Queen after a surprise ambush leads her to capture him and Wukong.

These two comics lead to this point [X][X]

The aftermath [X][X]

[crescentbutton]

chapter 2 of the april fool's fic by @chaoticquibit has come out :]! a lot of featurings this time 👀 so here are some doodles with varying degrees of quality by yours truly

[mellohiizz]

can i have soft spacewaffles please?? s6 lore is like a roller-coaster 😭

what the fuck is going on with s6 ls? i keep seeing people talk about how messed up everything is, and i am not caught up. (not really) here's some spacewaffles, though ^_^

[aliferous-ly]

The magic of hermitcraft was way different than that of empires. For one, they didn't call it magic, and many scoffed at the very concept. Magic, on hermitcraft. That was for those modded worlds, not here on vanilla.

Joel, who'd used empires magic to grow to giant size and become a god, could tell that there was magic here. It was just... different.

Some of it was similar, if not the same: they could change their shape to match their aesthetic, like Lizzie becoming a cat or ocean queen, like Impulse becoming a dwarf or cybernetic future... guy. They could make life out of nothing, like that Grumbot guy he'd heard about, and of course his beloved Hermes.

But here the world didn't twist to their whims. Shubble's witchcraft would never work on hermitcraft, nor would that one demon guy from season one have much of an effect at all. So many hermits didn't put much substance in fwoopy, unclear magic-y sparkles, so the world didn't support it. They twisted the world to match their visions. Tango built a functioning factory using the laws of the world. It was huge and complex and would never have been built on empires. That wasn't even getting into whatever Doc or Zed were up to. Frankly, Joel liked sticking to his skyscrapers instead of testing the bounds of their world.

Still. It bugged him, because on empires he could have just built a car structure and boom, mustang for Joel Smallishbeans. But here he'd have to make like, an actual motor.

Joel leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his chest, and grumbled. Stupid hermits and their stupid redstone. Why couldn't life be easy.

[flickersofart]

You're an anchor for all the heaviest Regrets inside of you

Escape; we collect mistakes I will carry them home Carry them home

[agrachdyrr]

Drow sworn to Lolth have examples before them all the time about transformation of self-shape in service to the Spider Queen. Some of these are viewed as undesirable (driders), others as rewards or ascending in rank (the power/shape augmentations Lolth gives males who please her with their service and loyalty). So there is no hatred or mistrust of shifting one's shape; it is one means of serving Lolth. Some house matriarchs view it with suspicion ("males seeking to exalt themselves by becoming female") but the yochlol have often been sent by Lolth to defend individuals persecuted by individual matriarchs or priestesses purely for such reasons, to make Lolth's views and will clear. Over time, transitions (not just from gender to gender, but from drow to other shapes) have become accepted as reverence of Lolth, and part of what it is to be drow. And of course, drow who follow Eilistraee are quite familiar with the Changedance, and accept shifting (even back and forth) as, again, part of what it is to be drow.

Ed Greenwood 04/04/2025

[arsenicflame]

It's a time-honoured tradition- every time Sam comes across Izzy (and Ed) in their travels, he asks Izzy to marry him. And every time, Izzy turns him down.

At this point, Sam is asking more for the sake of it than any belief Izzy will ever say yes, a remnant of childhood dedication touched with 30 years of heartbreak and regret- though even now, a small part of him still holds out hope. Sam's promises have only got more extravagant over the years, from a job as his first mate, to a captaincy, a fleet at his command, a whole fucking island if that's what Izzy wants- but he knows it isn't though, not really. If Izzy was ever going to agree to marry him, to leave his life and go with Sam, it wouldn't be for anything Sam could offer him. Izzy never did care for flashy shows of wealth, for a ship or to be captain. The only thing that ever mattered to him was loyalty given, and loyalty shown in return. 

It all comes to a head after Stede left and came back, after Izzy lost a toe, lost his leg. Sam hasn't seen him since before things with Ed started to really slide off the rails, before stress permanently set into the lines of Izzy’s face. So, when he sees a dishevelled man with a hoof for a leg in a no-name port, he doesn't even consider the idea that he might know him. It's only when he turns towards him, and Sam catches a glance at those oh too familiar tattoos, he realises this is Izzy, his Izzy, that stands before him.

Knowing Izzy's discomfort with pity, he doesn't treat him any differently than he would in years gone by, positioning himself in Izzy's line of sight before approaching and sweeping him up into a bone crushing hug. 

“Israel-goddamn-Hands!” he exclaims, as Izzy grumbles back a begrudging “Samuel-fucking-Bellamy”, a tradition almost as old as their friendship itself. Izzy might not hug him back, but he can’t keep the corner of his mouth from twitching, just for a second.

(If Sam holds Izzy a little tighter and a little longer than usual, well. That's his business)

By the time Sam lets go, most of the crew has appeared in the town square, drawn in by the commotion. They may have given Izzy his leg and welcomed him as one of them, but still there’s an underlying tension, with nobody quite ready to set aside everything that happened before the Kraken. Seeing him cosying up to an unknown man sets everyone on edge, unsure whether to come to their first mate’s aid, or to assume that they've been betrayed once again.

When Ed sees that the yelling was Sam, his hand goes tense where it's held in Stede's. He knows the routine, has seen it more times than he can count, but as he watches them part he realises that this is the first time in a long time he's unsure of what Izzy's response will be.

Knowing that something’s different, knowing that Izzy's feeling vulnerable already, Sam doesn't go for the same flashy proposal he’s been giving for years. He doesn't promise Izzy the world, he doesn't cause a scene (or, any more of a scene than he already has, anyway). He looks at the fractured man in front of him, takes his face in his hands, and says the exact same thing to him he said when they were little more than boys. “Israel, I have to ask you. I know what you'll say, but I have to try. Come with me. Marry me and sail away with me. I'll keep you safe”

And Izzy… hesitates. He glances over at Ed, at Stede, and says to Sam “...We’re staying in port for a week. Ask me again then”

That's the moment Sam knows there is something deeply, horribly, wrong. He's not just looking at an Izzy who got seriously injured in a fight and is struggling to cope, this is something so much bigger than that- and that Ed has something to do with it. Izzy wouldn't even be considering leaving if he didn't. Whether it was negligence or something more sinister, Sam doesn't yet know, but he intends to find out.

[super-ion]

I bite into the mango, sweet juice like nectar dribbles down my chin and chest.

Maybe I can convince Niv to lick me clean.

"I thought vampires couldn't eat human food," she says from her vanity, not even turning to face me.

I take another bite of it, sucking greedily at the fruit which earns an amused snort from Niv.

"What conceit to claim this as human food," I remark casually.

She opens her mouth to protest, but closes it again as she screws up her face in that adorable way when she is presented with information that runs contrary to her assumptions.

She looks at me through the mirror... or tries to at least. A brief moment of confusion and emerassed clarity later, and she turns to face me.

"What can you eat?" she asks.

I heft the mango.

"Most fruit," I reply. "Vegetables are out. Onions and garlic are poisonous. Let's see... can't have bread. Can't have coffee... I miss coffee. Best to avoid solid meat, but some of the more tender organs are alright."

"And blood?"

I grin, flashing my fangs.

"Does it have to be human?" she asks, direct as ever.

I give a little half shrug.

"Livestock blood satisfies one kind of hunger... but there's something deeper than that, kind of like a second hunger. You go too long without feeding on human blood and... well, it ain't pretty. You start to turn into something else, something a whole lot worse."

[personallysunny]

Don't mind Wither's chest

Idk why I drew it but ngl is funni

[agrachdyrr]

Now that I've put this on the personal:

This is the relevant lore I am working from in Felyn'aste's worldbuilding. This will inform the stories I am writing. Maybe this will help illuminate some things like god behavior!

I'm gonna write a bit today about something I was in @/mystxmomo's dms about last night: a section I do like from the Tome of Foes and some thoughts about those things.

Namely, the talk about the "cycle of reincarnation".

There's been a lot of takes on the War of the Seledrine in the past that I am not fond of. Whether it be "cursing them with black skin to mark their status as traitors" or "gold elves do similar evil to the drow but despite this being known they're not perceived as a problem" or "some that didn't get touched by demon blood (none of those red eyed ones gross) can be allowed to do a special magic that allows them to be treated like people again rather than npcs you can freely kill without feeling bad about it (they get to go to elf heaven)."

Another lack of fondness is the cartoonish level of evil that Lolth is ascribed to in those lines of thought. It is her fault this war is still going, everyone's mad she's cavorting with demons. Ignore our gold elves doing the same and wracking the entire world multiple times about it. And trying to counterbalance it with "the one good drow god" who is pretty much described from the get-go as seeing her brother irrevocably corrupted and evil for the Ilythiiri kingdom, despite most of its evils being done after Lolth takes over. There's a whole period there of several thousand years that the Ilythiir were entirely in their own lane with their biggest evil being "expanding a bit too much". They were trying to get along with the dragons!

Images from the Tome of Foes begin under the cut.

As you can read, Mordenkainen takes a different tack than we've seen before in the oft-quoted Evermeet (without context that this may simply be a bardic interpretation of things). It focuses in on this as more of a "Garden of Eden" myth, where there is an irrevocable sin (a hunger for power) that is what Lolth grasps onto to try and overthrow Corellon. But what differs is that this crime falls upon all of the elves, executed as reincarnation.

In that sense, it loops back to the "eledrin" elves of 4e and the "unwilling to be resurrected" elves of 2e (Complete Book of Elves). These elves reincarnate. Sometimes immediately, sometimes after chilling in a god's realm, but they always come back and are ultimately some of the same souls that were part of the "original sin".

It goes on to discuss some caveats that might immediately pop into your head like "what about half-elves" and offers multiple explanations for that depending on your goal with flavor. There's even (see above) a section that discusses that some of those original "primal elves" left over from these creatures after some became gods may come back about. There is a direct line from then to now.

While some "fantasy racist" bits are offered like "drow don't have these dreams in trance and we think that's because they don't have souls actually" it's pretty easy to just ignore it and go to a softer version like "this is why drow choose to sleep more than their kin, they learn to as children to avoid seeing any of these visions that might sneak through Lolth's web."

This book also confronts what comes across after all these editions: it's fact that there are evil surface elves and good drow. You can't avoid this. You can't merely say "the guy with purple eyes and two scimitars is an outlier and shouldn't be counted". You can easily look around him and see that RAS confronts this nature vs nurture, coming down firmly on the side of nurture. His father, his friends, they're all not "evil" either. Jax even swaps from an evil alignment to a neutral alignment over time!

OK. Framework down; on to why I think this is actually a good thing for elven writing going forward:

This helps elves return to something that feels like a distinct species, rather than a pointy-eared human with different stat modifiers and a perk. 2e's rules about resurrection were there since that edition tried to do that sort of thing, make these species feel very distinct from each other and a meaningful choice. But the "no resurrection" thing feels like a punishing detriment in tabletop play, lore flavor is better than mechanical flavor in that sense.

Regarding the "cold war" after the War of the Seledrine, this shows why the conflict continues. Former editions leaned very heavily into "Lolth's evil" as the reason. But that falls flat when faced with the Sundering, Myth Drannor, etc. Why would Corellon allow that to exist? This offers a possibility: it's merely because their ancestors made the right choice, to stay at his side.

Further motivation is given to Corellon's role in this war. He's Zeus-like, full of rage at being pulled down with them. He's not immutable anymore, able to easily shift between all genders and forms that exist. He wants that back. His war with Lolth must continue, even if she's not directly fighting him. Because she hasn't in a while, Lolth's usually more busy antagonizing her own pantheon or trying to sockpuppet gods like Moander. Arguably, this is all for "the main course" later of this war but in terms of desire to follow through on it there's genuinely very little. With this, it's Corellon that keeps the conflict going. Even if Lolth became good, the issue still remains. The god's demand remains. They're simply anathema to each other. The war continues.

This also addresses the twins, changing the established vibe. There's a reason why she chose "father" and he chose "mother". It wasn't a choice made for them, they made it themselves. And this explains why her and her followers are still held without and punished: rather than being something that can be cleansed, it's simply something out of their power. Every elf endures this, but they still have the blessing of Corellon and his love in the form of being an elf, the closest thing to him. She didn't become a martyr that exists to go save them, because she can't. Father's angry and she can't fix it either until Lolth is dead. Maybe this will be good against their backdrop in 5e: they've communed. Accepted the other is right about some things, actually. Now they can lock in and focus on mom, rather than backstabbing each other... Assuming, of course, that the respect remains for a while.

This also explains why the Seledrine/Dark Seledrine behave rather differently than the human gods of the Realms, for example. They've always felt "closer", despite their age. Old, but more like the "new gods" of elevated mortals. It's because they were once the same as them! Every elf god can look at their elf followers and see familiar faces in their souls. They can remember living with these souls in some fey psuedo-mortality before "godhood".

Lolth can have some more realistic motivations, not the motivations of "the Big Bad". RAS having the priestesses ponder why she didn't kill purple-eyes and there being implications offered about why she doesn't crush her enemies even when presented a chance. She doesn't have to be evil manifest anymore, even if you still hold to her turning into a demon herself. Sure, she's evil, but you can find reasons that feel like "human" motivations for it. Power, since that was the promise she made to them. Rejection of the elven ways in rejection of Corellon. No "evil for evil's sake" but careful machinations in a web. She's playing the long con, or she's happy playing dolls with "her" souls because they were the ones willing to listen to her, defend her, have the same moral priorities as her. Maybe she doesn't even care for Corellon's spot anymore, he's the one keeping the war going! It's less good vs evil and more two horribly flawed and petulant, petty gods entrenched into their position that keeps them at war like this forever. Not like she's going to simply let her ex-husband kill her.

[lorelune]

(continuation here)

"do you remember me?"

"no."

blade stares at you, tilting his head to the side with a blank expression. you wish you could see any recognition on his face. but it's blank. nothing behind those eyes-- nothing for you, anyways. his hands twitch and itch in his binds. he's coiled, ready to strike. not you though.

(you can delude yourself into thinking that this makes you special. that him not pulling at his chains to hold a sword to your throat or squeezing your neck until it snaps, makes you different. perhaps his urges are curbed at the sight of you--)

(this is wishful thinking.)

he should, maybe you deserve it. it's your sin to bear and remember, maybe. you couldn't dare to tell jing yuan of all of... this, hence why your trip to the shackling prison was in secret. why you're holding your body so tightly.

"i thought so." but i hoped differently. you sigh.

"... why should i?" blade asks, voice hoarse and rough. you can't tell if its from disuse or overuse. he's lived too long.

"we knew each other, once."

('knew'. you're simplifying things for the sake of convenience. lessening the story you share, the lore you carry on your back like a uneroding stone. it's not like blade would care to hear it. you've read his file. he has only a few goals, which he doesn't hide upon interrogation. only one relates to the past, to a different face that you can only scorn along with him.)

(it's all in hate. anguish, under that. nothing of love. nothing at all.)

you laugh, weakly. it feels useless.

your phone vibrates in your pocket. you think it's jing yuan, without even looking at the message. probably wondering where you are. you're a few minutes late for your lunch date.

jing yuan knows this ache too, you think. he knows the feeling that's bloomed in your chest over the course of your visit. how each step that brought you closer to blade's cell pulled and tugged at your ribs like an overgrown flower. petals slicing flesh from the inside out.

(longing that would kill you, maybe. if you could die like that.)

"unsatisfied with my answer?" he asks. there's a soft quality to his voice, just for a breath. it makes you horribly nostalgic.

you need to leave.

"perhaps." you kick the scuffed metal of the floor. the sound rings out through the room as blade's chains jingle. like bells. "it was foolish of me to think you'd have any recollection of it."

"you seem unimportant to me."

it cuts through you. like a knife. as if you didn't once hold the world up for the man in front of you. as if you didn't beg and scream and raze anything in your path for his sake. as if you didn't bear his many burdens. as if you didn't labor to find something, anything, that could've prevented your fates. your current situation.

a prisoner and one freed. aeons know which of you is which.

"goodbye, yingxing." you don't know if he'll recognize his old name-- a name that isn't him anymore. your once-lover is simply a tool now, and he's taken the name of one. you knew this before you entered the prison. and yet--

(you ache with it.)

you turn away without taking in his expression. blade remains silent as you exit his cell.

(part of you prays he'll call out to you. that he'll sound like he once did. that there will be a kind reunion.)

(he doesn't.)

but that's alright, you tell yourself. it's misplaced hope after all. jing yuan is waiting for you, and you know he'll already have ordered your favorite dish. yanqing may join you, given the time of day. he would have just finished up his mornings spars.

all you have to do is compose yourself by the time you reach the general's favorite picnic spot.

(you almost collapse once you leave the shackling prison. the moment you are alone, tucked into an alleyway, you cover your mouth with your palm and weep. you cry until your chest hurts. you cry with a grief that guts you, as it always has. over and over.)