#plotice

[moon-sky-sun-earth-ocean-stars]

Tales of Xadia characters-Plotice

Name: Plotice Pronounce: He/him Race: Skywing Elf Profession: Oracle Information: Plotice found magic and innovative ways to explore high-altitude places that even dragons can't reach. This is his most rare and powerful spell. *He has wings

[kradogsrats]

How can a skywing elf have oracle powers?

An interesting question, since we don't actually know what oracle powers entail.

We generally think of an oracle as someone or something that can supernaturally predict the future, but going back to its roots it's both a bit more specific and a bit more broad. An oracle receives messages, usually in the form of visions, directly from the divine. This is as opposed to a seer, who interprets messages from the divine conveyed in the flight of birds, the shape of entrails in a sacrifice, etc. You also had people who did both, presumably just to make things more confusing. The association with the future is because... that's generally what people want divine knowledge about.

(What's the difference between an oracle and a prophet? As far as I can tell, it's mostly the route an individual example has taken in translation through several ancient languages to modern English. "Prophet" comes from a Greek word used to translate a Hebrew one, while "oracle" comes from Latin.)

The only other reference to an oracle in TDP, as far as I'm aware, is the Oracles of Ophidia, an Elarion-era group who are described as the origin of the true-sight serum Viren (unsuccessfully) uses in an attempt to discover the nature of the mirror. The oracles used the serum, which was harvested from eyeless vipers in total darkness, and would be ruined by any exposure to moonlight (the Moon being the primal source associated with illusions, naturally), to "see through the illusions of the world."

Supernatural "sight" of the future or truth is frequently associated with blindness or the release of normal sight in mythology and (by extension) fantasy, and TDP carries that theme—the blindfold of justice allowing true equality, the mirror which can only be seen through in darkness, the film over Viren's eye that lets him see Aaravos's illusions but arguably impairs his reason. Now we have the blindfolded Celestial elves, an order of Skywing elves who are guardians of Star primal magic, which is the primal associated with destiny, truth, time, etc. as well as the stars and Startouch elves being associated with divinity. We have yet to learn whether they might be blindfolded in order to perceive the will and messages of the stars, or to see through them and not be deceived.

Because the Celestial elves are winged Skywing elves, and Plotice is a winged Skywing elf, he could very well be a part of or adjacent to that order. He's also characterized as not just an oracle, but a luminous oracle, which is not a very Sky primal-y description but a reasonable Star primal-y one. However, he lacks any of the other design characteristics we've seen of Celestial elves so far, most notably the blindfold. This could be indicative of his personal hubris—maybe he left the order or works at the fringes of it, enjoying a powerful and mystical reputation instead of anonymous secrecy, and is therefore spiritually blinded. It could also just indicate that he has no association with them at all.

The other thing about Plotice is that he discovers spells, presumably Sky primal spells. This is significant in that a) the full scope of primal rune magic has not been reached/explored, and b) spells are discovered, not invented. You could say that he's essentially receiving spells (knowledge or messages) from the primal source itself, and conveying them to the people. That's functionally being an oracle for the primal source as a divinity that only has very specific things to say. I think it would be interesting if the discovery of new rune spells was associated with divine knowledge granted to an otherwise largely unremarkable individual, rather than something achieved through the study and power of an archmage.

Anyway, it's not really a question of whether he can be described as an oracle, but that we have no idea what that means.

[typhlonectes]

[cookie-waffle-art-and-stuff]

Americans after seeing Elon Musk do a literal fucking nazi salute (they are hopelessly stupid and selfish):

[sophieinwonderland]

As much as I agree with the idea from your Biden message that people shouldn’t judge his side of the debate based on how he’s talking but instead on what he’s talking about, I don’t think that take-away is “Biden 2020!” (Given that he funded a genocide) but that America still very much has some very ableist tendencies that we really need to work on. Sorry if I’m just being oblivious!

It's Biden 2024 because the alternative is fascism. It's ableism, racism, transphobia and homophobia.

I don't support Biden's actions on the the Israel and Palestine situation either.

But even there, our choices are an ineffective President who pays lip service to trying to talk down Israel and bring peace while still funding Israel's genocide... and someone who is actively supporting that genocide and has moved to calling political opponents Palestinians as an insult, reminiscent of the way people would be accused of being commies during the red scare. Not to mention is threatening to squash protests and deport student protesters.

“One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave,” Trump said on May 14, according to donors at the event.

Biden needs to do far more to stop what's happening to Palestinians. His handling of the whole situation has been abysmal.

But we need to remember that the alternative is openly hostile to the Palestinian people, is actively encouraging the genocide, and is threatening to use his power as President to try to silence anyone here who dares speak out against the genocide or against Israel.

In an ideal world, we'd have better choices than these two. But these are our choices and 4 more years of Trump is completely unacceptable for everyone.

[satans-codpiece]

“you are actively indicating to the Democrats that they can in fact get away with…”

Isreal’s own national security minister has stated Trump would be giving them more leeway in their assault on Gaza.

and that dumb fuck thinks Sending A Message to the DMC is more important than the ACTUAL consequences of electing Republicans.

[moncai-na-mara]

you ccan tell when I'm posting from my tablet because without fail every time I try to make a post on the mobile browser version of tumblr (and nowhere else) the first letter of the second word gets duplicated. anyone know why this happens?

[tansyuduri]

Me trying to puzzle out the end of this longfic and how it affects things and make the next fic in the seriest work despite knowing how the next fic in the series starts.

This is gonna be complex. I came up with the start or somthing that happens near the start in bed this morning. And think I found my final version of HOW I WANT TO DO THAT ONCE SCENE tonight. Or am a big step closer.

[dragonprincedrabbles]

Plotice / Aaravos

Too Good To Be True

[chaotic-on-main]

is it not enough to have my head empty and eyes wide. must I have to work for money and learn about the way of the world

[earthgeco]

Also it's worth it to note that this was written by Paul and Paul says some shit that is directly contradictory to like everything else. I would not be suprised if he ment it literally (I have beef with the man) but I always interpreted it more as do your best to do good in your community given that verse 13 says But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. And in verse 8 he talks about how he and his missionaries were working by preaching the gospel so it's pretty clear that labor is defined loosely

But I think more importantly we're not talking religion we're talking policy and there is a separation of church and state for a reason do what you want forever but don't force other people to suffer for your beliefs we don't live in a time or place where if you want food you need to plant and harvest it yourself we live in a time of excess there is more than enough resources to go around denying people resources is unkind and unjust

every time we start the perennial "forced labor: is it bad" debate and anarchists have to fight tooth and nail to be taken seriously when we say "yes, always"

I have to wonder what the ideal world looks like for those disagreeing, and what happens to people who refuse, you know? Like... sure sure I'm a "bad" person if I choose to, say, pursue my art instead of working the fields, but I'm an artist living under late stage capitalism and I'm very used to being considered a feckless layabout useless eater, so. I'm not really going to be motivated by moralizing alone.

So then, I wonder. What is the motivation to be? If someone says "no I'm not doing that," and the obviously infallible board of experts decides that they aren't disabled enough to have autonomy over their labor, what happens? By what mechanism is our labor coerced?

And - this is important - is that mechanism fundamentally different from the ones that force our labor under capitalism?

[moon-sky-sun-earth-ocean-stars]

Skywing Elves characters ☁

Here is a list of all the Skywing elves characters I found, if I missed someone please let me know.

Dragonguards:

Hendyr (he/him)

Mages:

Ibis (he/him)

Nausics (he/him)

Noko (he/him)

Plotice (he/him)

Pyrda (she/her)

Siftress (she/her)

Others:

Corban (he/him)

Deska (she/her)

Olanna (she/her)

Pereka (she/her)

Pondaryss (she/her)

Suroh (he/him)

Vuxen (he/him)

Outlaws:

Easgann (he/him)

Kell

Nyx (she/her)

Shiv

Vant (he/him)

Zeph (they/them)

Scholars:

Bailynn (she/her)

Polizi (they/them)

Trenda (she/her)

Warriors:

Feathers (he/him)

Nekrex (he/him)

[kradogsrats]

Theory: The Other Primal Magic

So I realized something recently: we've actually been shown two adjacent-but-different forms of primal magic, which everyone has just conflated into one because the distinction isn't made obvious.

Primal spell runes are not a form of draconic writing. Both versions of the "humans receive primal magic" story have a strong distinction between the draconic words and spell runes, and the runes themselves have more in common with ideograms than logograms. For example, the pluviam praesidium rune isn't a combination of symbols that independently correspond to words meaning "rain" and "shield," it's a picture of a rain shield (i.e. an umbrella).

Even in the alternate concepts for that rune, where it is explicitly composed of several independent elements instead of just "umbrella," pretty much all of them (including the final one seen in the show) combine something that could be interpreted as rain (the bouncing downward stroke that forms the "handle" of the umbrella) and a shield (the curved dome), but those two symbols don't represent the words "pluviam" and "praesidium."

This is a subtle but important distinction, because while the majority of primal spell runes we see are like this—representations of what the spell does, rather than the spell's words—there is a subset of spells that work the opposite way:

What do these spells (though "spell" is a stretch for the elevator) have in common?

Each is a three-word spell with three corresponding runes, while other primal spell runes are single symbols representing spells of between one and three words (but usually two)

In three out of four, the runes are activated or "lit" individually (aquis spirare faucibus lights all at once, but it's a bit of an outlier in other respects, as well)

Two of these spells—manus pluma volantus and Karim's Sunforge orb destruction spell (which we only know two of the three words of, so I'm just going to call it that)—explicitly can be achieved by only the most powerful mages of those primals. So here's what I think:

These are primal magic spells invented by primal mages, possibly more recently than the primal rune spells.

Except for the elevator (which I'll come back to in a minute), I think these are spells created using draconic words paired with elven runes that correspond to those words. The (presumably Skywing elf) symbols of manus pluma volantus are very different from the (presumably Sunfire elf) runes of Karim's spell because the symbols themselves aren't from the same language. Basically, a powerful mage can combine draconic words and "runes" from their own language to build a spell out of component parts, which are distinct from the universal rune spells any mage can cast.

This also explains one of the more cryptic statements in Tales of Xadia (which is saying a lot):

Plotice, I would bet, has either discovered a combination of draconic words and Skywing runes that forms a new spell, or he may have discovered a universal rune that can be used for an existing compound spell, making a previously difficult spell attainable for less powerful mages. "Discovered" is an interesting word here (compared to "invented") because it implies that you can't just do this by combining words willy-nilly—maybe dragons or archdragons can, but there's a limit to what an elven (or human) mage can achieve, and the trick is figuring out what combinations work. Same for turning the spell words into a universal rune, if that's even possible—you can't just draw a picture and call it a day.

What's interesting is the possibilities introduced by inscribing these runes on objects. We know that even if Rayla carves terminus ad glacium into some ice, she can't activate it herself. Callum the Ocean mage has to do that. However, it's not super clear whether Rayla could have activated the Starscraper elevator if she was the one to read the words, or if a Sky mage (or even just a Sky arcanum) is required for that. We don't really know whether the Starscraper elevator symbols are Skywing or actual written draconic, just that Callum can read them:

Our other example is the waterbreathing amulet, which has to be usable by someone without an Ocean arcanum, considering that Callum doesn't have one when Akiyu gives him the amulet. Callum does have to activate or cast the spell when he draws it himself, but it seems like the amulet is sufficiently magical, itself. (Stella also uses it, but that's less concrete evidence that it can be used without an Ocean arcanum because Callum could be activating it at the same time as the others.)

We aren't told whether the waterbreathing spell (I'm not going to type out aquis spirare faucibus every time, fight me) is particularly difficult, but it fits the pattern and Callum describes it as conceptually similar to manus pluma volantus. Which it is! You might think that "breathe underwater" would be a fairly basic and desirable Ocean spell, but how do you do that with only Ocean magic—no "air" or "breath," those are both Sky primal domain. The way to do it is, as Callum says, "mage gills" that physically attune you to the Ocean the way that mage wings attune you to the Sky. My only doubt with the amulet and its spell is that, unlike the other comparable spells, the runes really don't say "Tidebound elf language" to me. Of course, we haven't really seen any Tidebound elf environments, so who knows.

Anyway, I think this has some interesting implications regarding the link between primal magic and very specifically dragons, how it may have been passed to elves and/or humans, and what kind of "claim" any of them (vs. dragons) have on it. Additionally, it goes a long way toward soothing my nerdrage over the wildly different "sets" of rune designs we are otherwise expected to accept as being from the same language, even though I know that—primal runes aside—this show could not possibly care less about the design of what they call "writing."

It's also shockingly similar to my much-less-substantiated headcanons about how dark magic works, but that's a whole other thing.

[tribrid-speaks]

Gwynriel is cute, but so delusional and unrealistic.

I can see why Gwyn and Azriel are such sweethearts and may live happily ever after. I even like their ship, mostly because of Gwyn. However, what doesn't make sense is that Sarah J. Maas does not write "friends to lovers" mates and Azriel would be the worst mate.

Why you may ask?

Azriel does not show any mate behaviour.

This man literally forgot about his "mate" for two years after witnessing her in her most vulnerable. He killed soldiers, gave her his cloak, and left to catch—not to kill the rest of them bc we do not know that, neither does Gwyn—the remaining soldiers. "...it became clear some of the soldiers had gotten away with the piece of the Cauldron, so Azriel headed after them." Conclusion: We do not know whether Azriel killed all soldiers. It wasn't the fury of a man whose mate was hurt.

In fact, Azriel both had rage/fury in his eyes in two dangerous situations: Elain and Eris. His romantic interest and his enemy. Another time when Gwyn was in danger, hurt, and living through a nightmare (the Blood Rite), what was Azriel doing? Right... He was occupied with Eris Vanserra, whom Cassian would let rot for Nesta and he says it with no hesitation: "Let him die". And when I say occupied, I mean Azriel twice repeats with urgency in his voice that they have to save Eris (even in a plotical sense, Azriel is too worried and too angry "stoned face & cold fury in his eyes" for someone he hates the most) and eventually saves him. Gwyn survives the BR and was sitting in "one of the parlors overlooking the river, healed but still in their torn, bloody clothes". Her wounds were healed, but what about the emotional and mental impact the whole kidnapping gave her? Azriel doesn't check on her even after they become somewhat friends. However, he makes sure Eris is "safe", and, back to Elain in ACOWAR, he makes sure she is safe and taken care of.

Elain is not his mate, because we know she is mated to Lucien.

Next part: Every interaction Azriel has with Gwyn is everything he shares with other women.

[sapphicsparkles]

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GALACTIC PEACE AND PROSPERITY VOTE PADTINE

Sapphic Rarepair Tournament Round 1-34

[zeeinkzquill]

I have a question about your Au,

Is there any romance in this au? 👀

I want to draw a fanart of this tadc au!!

Lmao Yes Yes there is actucally!

I plan on sending out a few more drawings and comics on the relationships of the gang to give you guys more to look at but I'll give you a small overview of what to come with ships and romantic/ plotic chemistry:

Bonding System

Within the game, there is a bond system! Whenever a team or gang members bond with one another (like during a battle, friendly talking, aromatic interaction, etc.) they gain bond points. (I'l make a chart for their bond level soon dw)

I like to think that when they bond, a small heart icon pops up on top of them increasing their bond.

But to give a short view on the ships that are cannon:

Showtime (Caine & Pomni): They are more like lost souls (or in Caine case code) trying to realize that they're not bad beings. I feel like if you are a person lost or going through something, this ship will be a little more heartwarming and close to home.

Bunnydoll (Ragatha & Jax): a more slow-burn enemy to friends to lovers, it's painfully slow. I'm honestly planning on writing a fic on their history since it's before Pomni came down

The Royals (Queenie & Kinger): This one is a little bit more pass trauma and heartwarming.

These are the main ships that are gonna be in there I'm planning on adding more tho don't worry.

AND YES i would love for you to make fan art. IT WOULD BE AN HONOR. I've seen your art and it's amazinggggg.

Thanks for the ask!