#praenost castle

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 33: Praenost, Mount Garrison, Part 1

[cruelfeline]

Let's talk about Vivus. Little village in Middle Praenost, right on the way to Sila's castle. It contains a chest with Nadezhda - one of Sila's necklaces - guarded by a bunch of her errant knights. It also contains a number of skeletons sporting said knights' spears.

Upon killing the knights and obtaining the necklace, Cuff remarks on how it might have belonged to Sila, or that perhaps "they" were planning on giving it to her. I assume "they" means the citizens because the knights really don't seem the gift-giving types.

Anyway, this is one of those environmental set-pieces that makes me think, especially when combined with another point of interest close-by.

Middle Praenost Hollow is a cave just a bit northeast of Vivus, and it, too, features a bunch of errant knights. These knights, however, aren't guarding a necklace. Rather, they are guarding the bodies of a number of executed villagers, children included.

Now, there's no clear, canonical confirmation of exactly what happened in these two locations, but I'll tell y'all the story I like to imagine.

I like to imagine that the people of Vivus tried to negotiate with Sila; specifically, they tried to win her over with a gift of a beautiful, power-enhancing necklace. They hoped that said gift would persuade her to let them go free. Some villagers the offering in Vivus. The others took the children and tried to start on the journey north, to Cipal.

Sila - no surprise - refused to negotiate, and those still in the village were killed. The knights then proceeded to stand guard over the necklace.

Those who had tried to make their escape were hunted down, corralled in the cave, and summarily executed. Adults and children both.

Twenty-odd years layer, Frey stumbles upon the aftermath and gets a spiffy necklace out of it while being appropriately disturbed by what was clearly a Tanta-sanctioned execution of innocents.

Two more interesting things to note:

1. The necklace Nadezdha is said to mean "hope." The word is actually similar to various Slavic words for hope - the Polish "nadzieja," for example - just with enough altering in spelling to make it unique.

This adds to the tragedy of the aforementioned imagined story because one can think of the villagers holding onto this necklace as their last hope, thinking that maybe it would save them from Sila. Only for it to not.

2. It's super interesting and very creepy to see the errant knights guarding things that don't need guarding, appearing to follow orders that were probably given decades ago. Unable to deviate from them, perhaps unable to understand their lack of significance at this point. We see that a lot with the Broken and with the Tantas' minions: this mindless adherence to old behaviors with no ability to move forward and out of this undead limbo Athia is in.

It's a haunting thing to see: manufactured soldiers standing guard over the skeletal remains of people they executed twenty years ago. Unable to do anything but follow a senseless, dead routine.

Anyway! I like using Forspoken's environment to piece together and embellish horrible tragedies. Game lends itself so well to that, and I'm making a point of looking for such little stories during this current playthrough.

[flyingwide]

hey, happy actual WIP Wednesday

Frey stretched out on the low retaining wall, inhaling the scents from the nearby herbs. It should have been overwhelming with their proximity but something about them had muted their smell. Maybe it was magic. Maybe it was selective breeding. She had no idea but she was certainly grateful as she got comfortable in the sun. "I suppose this is why you feel such kinship with your cats," Cuff remarked drily. "You do a very good impression of one." "I'll let you know if I start purring." His chuckle made her smile reflexively. "It's nice that I get to do this here, though. Junoon Castle doesn't have the same roving bands of constructs like Praenost and Avoalet." "Cinta never had need of a standing army like her sisters. War and justice always require force; love does not." "Justice shouldn't require force." "Shouldn't? Perhaps. But Prav's brand of it certainly did."

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 23: Praenost Castle

Bonus Sila fight:

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 65: Avoalet; Avoalet Castle Town, Part 2

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 25: Praenost, Fields of the Fallen, Part 2

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 21: Praenost Castle Town, Part 1

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 4, day 4, I almost forgot to do art lol oops

Just another pose sketch for Mr. Nameless Sparrow Angel

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 22: Praenost Castle Town, Part 2

Bonus fun glitch I had to deal with all throughout town:

Get out of the ground and fight me, cowards! D<

[cruelfeline]

Things I have to do this weekend:

Study Frey's nail designs

Assess Athian geography and try to make sense of weather and climate that would naturally result

Find those two little kid skeletons in Praenost Castle Town

Finish the DLC

Start HUD-less immersion playthrough

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Huh, interesting.

In Praenost, Avoalet, and Visoria, the lands outside of the Depths of Corruption are relatively normal, save for the obvious Broken running around. But once you get into the Depths of Corruption and the lands beyond, the air is saturated with magic, and veins of Break have pushed up through the earth. Even shards of the Break float through the air in defiance of gravity. It's obvious that magic is all out of whack in these places.

[Praenost vs Praenost Depths]

[Avoalet vs Avoalet Depths]

[Visoria vs Visoria Depths]

In Junoon, however, it's almost the opposite. Break has shoved itself up in the lands outside of the Depths, and particles of it float through the air. But inside the depths? Those lands are almost untouched by the Break (except in Farcoast Terrace, which is almost nothing but Break, but we don't talk about that accursed place if we can help it). The air is saturated with magic in Junoon's depths, giving the atmosphere a soft violet haze, but the most prominent veins of Break and gravity-defying shards are outside of the Depths.

[Junoon vs Junoon Depths]

What a fascinating bit of environmental storytelling. I thought that those bright rocks and floating stones were just atmospheric effect in the Depths, but they're not! They seem to show where each Tanta finally lost herself to the Corruption. We know the exact location where Cinta fell. She told us. Also there's a fucking crater there.

Except I'm probably wrong? Because while the veins of Break are clearly prominent around the crater, the floating Breakshards aren't. They're very conspicuously absent around Junoon Castle as well, though the castle gardens have Break-infested plants.

Clearly more research must be done.

But there's one more thing I find fascinating. There's somewhere else you can find veins of Cinta's magic pushing through the earth. Do you know where it is?

It's Cipal, specifically all the lands around it.

You can baaaaaarely see some red Break in the distance, where the Blessed Plains boarder with Praenost, but all the rest of it is Junoon. (If you're having trouble finding the red Break, look at the bottom of the cliffs below the right side of the aurora. You may have to zoom in a little)

Anyway, I'm delighted at how much more there is to discover just by paying attention to the environment :3

[cruelfeline]

If you climb up Praenost Castle after defeating Sila, you can look down into the destroyed throne room!

Can't go in it, but it's still visible, and I think that's pretty neat.

It's also such a tiny part of the entire structure. Makes me wonder what the rest of the castle contains.

I'd imagine it's weapons storage and armories and smithing stations. Just a huge horde of all of Athia's weaponry, with Sila enthroned above it.

[cruelfeline]

@flyingwide FYI, I went ahead and visited the two little skeletons at the fountain in Praenost Castle Town.

And yeah... Cuff sounds so strangely melancholy about it.

I wonder if like... he has any sense of the similarity between children having to face that and him being thrust into battle soon after his birth? Even though he wasn't really a child as we understand it, well... it's not like he had any other life experience to make him any more mature.

Mm.

[cruelfeline]

There is a whole bunch of dialogue I still haven't properly sorted. Not main story dialogue - though I haven't sorted that, either - but dialogue that plays in specific, unique points of interest.

I was going through it today trying to find the dialogue that plays when you get the lore bit from those two child skeletons at the fountain in Praenost Castle Town... never did find the dialogue. Rather annoying, honestly! Don't know where that dialogue is... doesn't seem to be in banter, shouldn't be in main story. Should be in the unique POI dialogue, but I just can't find it.

Anyway, there's still a folder of that that I need to go through. Alongside the main story dialogue.

Ah, maybe during my vacation at the end of the year...

[cruelfeline]

This is the Fount of Blessing found in the very south of Praenost, in the Mustering Grounds.

These founts usually feature a whole field of beautiful, lush flowers surrounding them. This one has some flowers, but they're sad and scraggly and disappointing.

I'd say it may be due to Praenost's climate, but I know of at least one other Praenostian fountain that still features a proper field of flowers. Rather, I tend to think that it's due to the Break being so thick here. This is, after all, pretty close to Sila's castle.

Disturbing, how the Break can ruin the effects of such a powerful focus of Athian magic.

I can imagine Frey being disappointed, upon finding this one. Hearing the strange song that emanates from them, searching it out, hoping for a field of beautiful flowers to brighten her day here in the depths of Praenost's miasma. Only to find this sad patch of struggling blooms.

I can also imagine her feeling a sudden twinge of disappointment through her and Cuff's bond, but it disappears as quickly as she notices it.

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Huh... interesting that after clearing the Praenost Castle Ramparts, Cuff tells Frey "turning back is always an option."

Buddy, don't you need Frey to go kill Sila so you can reabsorb the quarter of yourself that's with her? You should be encouraging Frey to soldier on, if anything.

Or have you figured out that Frey is stubborn and a contrarian and will forge ahead instead of turning back if you give so much as imply she should quit?

I'm fascinated by you, bird man.