#sacred relics

[illustratus]

The Shadow of Hector Appears to Aeneas or The Dream of Aeneas

by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson

[mayorwhisper]

"Relics"

[munku-collar]

gigglin at my pics with brian once again

[epicfroggz]

I stared at Messmer for a very long time (hcs under cut!)

Messmer theories/hcs with a 106 day warranty:

His upper, longer snake is female and called Sevika, while the lower snake is male and called Sevarche.

They were embedded into him when he was young, stunting his spine’s elongation, hence why his limbs are disproportionately longer.

He is bastard son of Marika with Radagon, back when Godfrey was Elden Lord and Radagon was wed to Rennala. Order-wise, he was born after the Omen twins.

Due to the heretical nature of his powers, Marika wanted him gone for good. She sent him on a “quest” in the Land of Shadow, to which his soul departed and his body was left behind. Then, Marika had his body sliced into many pieces which were scattered in mausoleums across the Lands Between (the walking mausoleums we know today). Because of this, he can never return.

When he discovered this fact long ago, he razed the Land of Shadow with his flame. While he is still angry that he was abandoned, he holds a distant hope that if he continues to get stronger and carry out his mother’s bidding, burning those without grace, she may allow him to return.

In his efforts to attain power, he slew all the dragons in the Land of Shadow and ate their hearts. When he did so, his snakes acquired aspects of dragons as well.

He has a fiery temper (pun intended).

He is ambidextrous.

[thesilicontribesman]

'The Bodvoc Stone' 6th Century CE Inscription Stone, Margam Stones Museum, nr. Port Talbot, Wales

[roses--and--rue]

This month at Roses & Rue, I’ve been blessed with a windfall of gorgeous antique religious cards & pocket prayers. The lace paper cards from the 19th century are my favorites.

[vox-anglosphere]

Modern art meets ancient stone in Britain's northernmost cathedral

[everyryuujisuguro]

[maybeamultiverse]

My good friend got me a Quark figurine for my birthday, AND SIGNED BY MOTHERFUCKING ARMIN SHIMERMAN 😭👏🤪🥰🥹🥲 I LOVE MY FRIENDS I LOVE MY FRIENDS I LOVE MY FRIENDS 💖❤️💖🥰

[vitanithepure]

I'm really over here struggling to like Sister Argenta. Like...

[dreamcrow]

Hellouu dream!! Good aftermoon! ^^

How are you today?? I hope you are good hihi :3

Sooo.. I have a little question that has been on my mind ever since I saw your art..

•I wanted to know more about the relationship between bellroc and them familiar dragon (I don't know if that's the term...)

•how did bellroc kill him??

•how did he meet this Dragon?

•Skrael already knew about all this??

(I know.. it's more than one question.. but I was curious...) byeeee!!👋👋 have a nice dayyy :3

kitty you are so sweet. thank you for indulging me and my little headcanons; i hope the ramblings that follow were as fun to read as they were to imagine.

what is a familiar? it comes from the same root as "family," but in classical latin familia generally means the *slaves* of a household (hence the english sense, used elsewhere in toa, of "a magical servant"). which isn't why i headcanon that bellroc wears their familiar's skull, by the way, though it would probably add to their general bemusement at modern magic-users' concept of the relationship. i've had this headcanon for such a long time, now, but despite wanting very badly to write something about it i've never actually gotten anything to a publishable state. (the one thing i have written recently about this is currently. 100-odd words of snippy banter/[INSERT SCENE-SETTING HERE], which feels like it doesn't quite count.) so. some bullet points, while i kick around some thoughts in the microwave of the mind.

yes, bellroc killed their familiar. they did not know that's what she was. they did not mean to do it.

azherin was a giant fuckoff dragon, the distillation of everything stories say dragons should be: vain, cunning, arrogant, unfathomably powerful. because it's my oc and my hc and therefore everything is based on my terrible taste, she is (mostly) feathered, and breathes silver fire (and occasionally lightning). she's also got a wife and kids but god if we fall down that rabbithole i really will never get to bed

the first time they see her, a slip of oil-black bleeding up from the edge of the sky, they feel a flash of some vague, fleeting connection. they wonder what it is, just for a moment, before (they think) they realize: the old familiar coil of fear, twisting to settle bright and lazy into their gut. they think she's smoke, from a particularly vicious wildfire.

when they find out what she actually is—for the first time since dying, in a particularly vicious wildfire—they think on how how strange it is, at this age, to find something they may fear more than that.

(the thought of "a familiar" never occurs to them. to either of them. bellroc never knew magic before receiving it violently and unexpectedly; skrael has heard of magic users with companions of varying sorts but if he's ever seen one, it's only been a mundane-looking creature like a bird or a sable marten. they wouldn't know the word as we use it now, and probably don't, for a long time.)

but bellroc does by now know magic, and by now knows it very well. always conscious that their mastery is earned—that they've had to work for it—but conscious that they are a master, all the same. they're the only person in the world to wear so much (or any) metal jewelry, let alone have a metal staff almost as tall as them. they might not quite openly think of themself as a god—yet—but they are certainly thinking about gods and godhood as a general concept, much more than they did while within the span of a normal human lifetime. they think about power, sure, about improving their craft, about impressing a certain someone, improving their lives; but also duty, obligation, right.

so when they find out a literal dragon is going around terrorizing defenseless human towns—well. they'll catch the devil from skrael later, for being so reckless. but in the moment, they protest: what else could they do?

as it turns out: even the most op of magical cavemen does not simply 1v1 a giant flying murderlizard.

especially one that can breathe lightning.

especially when their primary weapon is a giant metal stick.

skrael meanwhile is watching all of this—what. rivalry? folie à deux? he's been having odd dreams lately, infrequent, but insistent and recurrent, from his own yet-unknown familiar/skull source, which maybe is making him less charitable than he could be. but after watching bellroc definitely get their ass kicked and definitely be way more torn up about it than he'd expected: when they notice him being so dubious he must admit, he is perplexed. he understands bellroc's stated reasons for why they (tried to) intervene, that first time; it would be a terrible thing, he agrees, to find yourself in a town that a dragon has now decided is her personal pantry. but terrible shit happens all the time. however admirable it may be to try and stop it (and he does think it's admirable, because he's a sap) he is always, at heart, a pessimist.

even if you could have saved that one village—he means it gently, even if it doesn't quite come out right—you know she'll just move on to another.

and bellroc blanches. for the first time in a long time: they have a (small, but) serious fight.

because—bellroc's perspective is: they have all this power. all of this life, after dying, terribly; all of this magic, after a life of nothing of the kind. perhaps one mortal effort would make no difference; perhaps, even now, their effort would not tip the balance. as it certainly did not in that hill-town, they mutter, bitterly.

but they are no mortal, now. what's the good of having this power, if they don't even use it?

anyway bellroc and azherin end up running into each other 6-7 times. the last time, azherin just loses her shit at this insolent, interfering child:

(please excuse the clumsiness here; this must be from. good god. twenty twenty-one)

...which ends predictably (though maybe not entirely so). and when skrael finds them, after, then he really lets them have it.

[lunemorte]

Hill of Tara - Ireland

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Forspoken Photo Dump 184: Somewhere Near Cipal; The Sacred Peaks, Part 2

[rivers-for-me]

my mom had a soldier dude obsessed with her in the 90s and he stole an actual army jacket for her bcus this was a thing u did for ur love then and mom gave the jacket to me when i was a kid and i found it today aaa crying

[thesilicontribesman]

'Dunino Den', Pre-Christian Sacred Grove, Dunino, Fife, Scotland

[blackcatwife]

My friend has OG Gameboy color gold and blue 🥹

AND I GOT TO TOUCH THEM

And soon we'll PLAY THEM

I think I'm gonna pass out 🥰😧