#stormwall

[roguerebels]

The High Republic: Temptation of the Force Review!

Tessa Gratton brings us a story of loss, compassion, despair, and hope during The High Republic. And amidst the pain and suffering the Nihil spread, love unfolds. Check out Sal's review of #TheHighRepublic: Temptation of the Force! #StarWarsBooks

“This is Jedi Avar Kriss. Help is on the way.”Avar Kriss The Jedi do what they can to help those trapped behind the Stormwall. Marchion Ro searches out a new danger with his Nameless in tow. The Republic and Jedi put together a plan to free Naboo. And Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann are reunited and it feels so good! Tessa Gratton brings us a story of loss, compassion, despair, and hope during The…

[cryptid-crawly]

Pro hero Stormwall | Yami Arata for blorbo bingo.

Oh look I got two bingos!!!! Obsessed w this bbg. wet pathetic cat of a man. Want to kick him off a roof. He’s done nothing wrong why are you all so mean to him I love him.

[bereft-of-frogs]

This passage, along with the ‘tell them we’re gone’ scene, has really stuck with me since I first read Fallen Star when it came out. Just…this dip into despair, the thought of where and with whom you’d want to be if you knew the end was imminent. Idk I really felt Bell in this scene and it stuck with me

[theunluckyheroicspirit]

“Oho?... it seems this ORT is more interesting than I initially considered... I wouldn’t mind testing my strength against it.“  The God of Storms spoke, excitement visible on his expression with that dangerous smile of his.

[hurricanek8art]

I had to start trying to explain to my mom (strictly a movie/tv fan) why the Jedi are like this at this point in time, and it finally clicked in my head. The perfect way to explain how they're so rigid and strict and have such huge sticks up their butts at this point in time.

The Jedi of this generation are the result of generational trauma.

(Spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of The Acolyte, Phase One of the High Republic books, and some barebones setting spoilers of Phase Three under the cut. Also a big wall of text because I never know when to shut up 🙃)

So I'm behind on Phase III of the High Republic books (got a few chapters into The Eye of Darkness when it came out, brain farted out on me on reading ability, haven't gotten back to it yet 🙃😖) but I know enough to know that things are really going bad. The Nihil are rampaging, the Nameless are turning people to stone, the Stormwall has cut off like a third of the galaxy from the rest of it. It's a lot! It's really bad! And we see how it's affecting our heroes. Avar and Elzar are reeling without Stellan. Vern's questioning about how the Jedi are responding to this threat throughout Phase I has led her to become a Wayseeker. Padawans like Bell, Burry and Reath have been elevated to Knighthood a lot sooner than any of them expected to be. All of them are incredibly traumatized.

But that's just the Jedi we've seen. The heroes, the big names. Imagine being a nobody at this time. An extra. A child.

Imagine being a youngling in this era. There are literal nightmares hunting you. People are dying right and left, they're being husked and turned to stone or just plain shot/stabbed/whatever. The outposts are being closed down and everyone's being recalled to Coruscant, and that's the ones who've survived so far. They knocked the Starlight Beacon out of the sky, something that was supposed to be impossible. And less than five years ago, this was a golden age of peace, of light and life and great works that were bringing the galaxy together, a united front. That's horrible, that is terrifying.

We as the readers know it's going to work out, because it has to, because this is a prequel. They don't know that. They're just kids, and the world has suddenly turned upside-down, and the galaxy is big and scary and dark.

So everything works out, the day is saved. But these kids, they have to live with this trauma for the rest of their lives.

And when they grow up, and they train Padawans, those Padawans are going to carry the lessons they learned onwards. There is no lesson a Master can teach in this era that isn't going to carry the grief of the Nihil or the Nameless. There is no lesson any Master will ever teach again, from the moment Loden Greatstorm was captured by Marchion Ro all the way to Luke's temple burning to the ground, that won't somehow, in some way, be touched by this. It haunts everyone, everything. Those lessons are passed on, and on, and on.

Yord Fandar is intense about protocal and following the rules and making sure he's the perfect Jedi, because a hundred years ago maverick Elzar Mann played fast and loose with the rules while he was stationed on Valo, and then the Nihil turned the Republic Fair into a bloodbath. Sol is worried about Osha's (so far) inability to put her grief to the side and remain objective in chasing Mae because Imri Cantaros lost control and nearly murdered the Nihil who caused the death of his master during the Great Disaster. Vernestra Rwoh is refusing to charge into this without talking it over with the Council because she remembers what happened when she kept information from them a hundred years ago.

These aren't isolated incidents because they happened to the heroes, every Jedi of that era has some story like this, where the lines blurred in the fog of war and they made or nearly made horrible mistakes out of fear. And now, every Jedi is going to want to rise above that. To not make those mistakes, because that past is past. It's peaceful again. They're better now. But that trauma's lurking under the surface, just like the Sith. The Nihil won't win, but the Order isn't going to, either. Because what the Nihil did changed them, permanently.

The plot of the High Republic books is supposedly unrelated to the show, because it's a hundred years later. But the plot of the High Republic books explains everything about the Jedi in this era of the galaxy. They're carrying the trauma and grief of an entire generation that was brutalized unlike anything the Order had ever seen before.

And the Sith have watched, and waited, as that trauma has become so internalized, so central to what the Jedi are. The Jedi might not even realize that's what's happened to them. But the Sith see it.

And now it's finally time to begin the grand plan.

[nevertheless-moving]

Continued from this au, where Kaladin gets strung up for a highstorm instead of thrown in prison during Words of Radiance, inspired by @gnecrognomicon

"The King ordered-"

Adolin rolled his eyes. "I am the King's cousin, you seriously believe I would go against his word and cut this man free? In front of a crowd of witnesses?" His tone somehow grew even haughtier the longer he talked.

"Now step back, I said l will speak with him alone."

The guards reluctantly moved away, and the prince stepped close enough that Kaladin could hear his low whisper.

"Say the word and I'll cut you free."

Kaladin blinked, looking at Adolin. He saw only open sincerity.

"...You're serious," Kaladin said.

"Sureblood is a minute's gallop away. I know you're not comfortable on horses, but a Rhysadium is different, he would never throw someone against my wishes. His saddlebags are already packed with a month's supply of food, not to mention enough bromes to hire passage on any ship in any port."

"Ship?" Kaladin asked, bewildered, but the princeling just kept going.

"We can make it to a stable in the outercamps before the stormwall hits. The moment the riddens start, we'll be gone - most won't be able to get their mounts out as early as us."

"Us?"

"Of course, they won't dare to shoot if I'm in the saddle, and anyway Sureblood wouldn't ride without me. I'll return once I see you safe to a port, there will be a punishment but -"

"Brightlord-" Kaladin said quietly. He was sure his expression was doing something strange. Hopefully the guards wouldn't read too much into it.

"Oh! A copy of your writ of freedom is also in the saddlebags - and your Horneater cook packed the meals! And when I say I packed enough bromes to hire a ship, I meant emeralds. You could buy a ship. You'd never have to work a day in your life, if you didn't want."

"Princeling, this is very -"

"Renarin will look after your men until I return, he won't let Elhokar or any of the Highprinces touch them, I swear. I wasn't able to get a spanreed, not without Aunt Navani noticing, but you should be able to hire one easily enough- I'll support your men in leaving the camps, it -"

"Adolin."

The prince finally stopped.

Kaladin took a deep breath, willing himself not to pull in stormlight to help with his throbbing headache. "I appreciate your willingness, I really do."

And he did, to his surprise. He was oddly touched by how much thought the brightlord had clearly put into the escape attempt. This wasn't a spur of the moment idea. Not to mention, there would no gain in it for Adolin, and quite a lot of risk.

"We can do it," Adolin said desperately. "Ten heartbeats and you'll be free. I can even get the soulcast manacle off completely, once we stop and rest, weaken it with -"

Kaladin laughed, the sound shocking Adolin into quiet again, the sound shocking even himself.

"I'll be alright, princeling." He smiled slightly, despite himself. "But thank you. Sorry to waste all your planning."

Adolin narrowed his eyes. "You swear it? This isn't a dramatic suicide attempt, after your earlier, equally dramatic ones failed?"

"I already decided against that, ages ago."

For some reason, the prince didn't seem comforted. The lines around his eyes tightened further.

"Your vow," he insisted.

Kaladin hesitated a moment, and he could see Adolin's right hand twitching to the side.

"I'm not going to promise I won't die," he said, exasperated. "You're a soldier, you know that there's no guarantees. I could get unlucky."

He lacked the delirious, instinctive confidence he felt last time he went into the storm. But he could feel the cool press of spheres, each from a different one of his men, sewn to the inside of his shirt by Hobber. So much more than last highstorm.

It had been difficult to breathe, in the worst of the tumult, but he also had a much better grasp on his powers this time, thanks to training with Sigzil, Rock, and Lopen. He should be able to draw in more than enough.

"I have...better reason then most to believe I'll survive this. I'll be alright. I'm not running."

Syl stood next to Adolin's shoulder. She had listened to the whole speech with thinly veiled wonder. Even though he knew she would be devastated if he broke his oath to flee, she had gasped and looked pleadingly at the mention of a ship. Kaladin smiled at her.

The prince glanced suspiciously at the air next to him, then started visibly.

Syl, in girlish form, giggled, sticking out her tongue, then turned into a ribbon of light, moving straight at the prince, causing him to blink as his yellow and black hair was shifted softly in the breeze.

She made a ring around Kaladins head, then zipped up, joining her cousins playing in the eddies above, the winds just beginning to pick up, sky growing dark.

It wouldn't be long now.

Adolin watched her go with a curious expression, then cocked his head at Kaladin.

"Stormblessed, huh?"

Kaladin just shrugged in reply. Well, he tried to anyway. The chains didn't have much give.

"Adolin, I gave my word that I'd see this through."

Adolin finally slumped, stepping back.

"Your men didn't think you'd run either. This still isn't right even if you do have... something on your side."

Kaladin didn't try and shrug again.

[soneakyr]

The Song & The Sea

Elzar winked at her. Avar rolled her eyes, but the side of her mouth lifted up in a little smile. She couldn’t help it.

"Should we go dance, Jedi Master Elzar Mann?"

You made it. I was so afraid you hadn't / I knew you were alive. You had to be.

Avar had left him. But Elzar never let go of her. Even across the Stormwall, countless light-years, misunderstandings, anger, failure, loss, a year of grief and struggle—no, more than a year—he had never let go.

"I love you, so much"

"She felt the planet under her feet, alive and aching. The entire galaxy was here with her. And— Elzar."

"A star exploded in Elzar’s chest: Light and Life, so brilliant there was no room for anything else, not even a shadow. Avar."

[blacksalander]

Facing the highstorm

Available as a print in my shop and mousepad on redbubble

----------transcription----------

[ID colorful rendition of Syl and Kal floating over the plains observing the massive stormwall forming over the mountains, urithiru can be seen amidst the clouds,  wind spren follow the figures and lifespren buzz across the plant life in the plains. End ID]

[ledalausnows]

this sucks so bad i need to (remembers suicide jokes only make my mental health worse) join the republic in the assault on the stormwall

[onlycosmere]

Shattered Plains and the Stormwall by gydeme

[roguerebels]

Rogue Rebels Podcast 198!

#TheHighRepublic The Eye of Darkness with King Tom!!

DO NOT MESS WITH ENGLE'S DOG.

Check out the FULL podcast for more wherever you listen!

[rupalpspodrace]

🚨 Ep. 90, Jedi Master Lindsay Sol-han, is here! 🚨

Join us as we discuss The Acolyte episode 7, "Choice." (Jess is still stuck behind the Stormwall but will return next week!)

Points of Interest: Mother Aniseya’s Vape Tricks, Indara’s Dyson Air Wrap, Radicalized by PhilosophyTube, If Jean Gray Was Here…, Who is the John G of Star Wars?, Cool Midnight Horizon Reference, Lando x Hondo, Princess Leia is fujoshing out, and Han Puppet Solo.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or your favorite podcast app.

[stonegearstudios]

Creating a MegaDungeon

So, for a few weeks now, thanks to RPPR, I've been thinking about MegaDungeons as interesting conceptual spaces. It started with Stonehell, but I've been looking at other ones like Highfell, Tomb of 1000 Doors, I backed a Kickstarter called Ave Nox... And unsurprisingly (for me) I started thinking about how I would make one. The guiding thought was "What if you made a MegaDungeon, a constrained and connected space, both above ground and without walls?" From that idea has come 'The Eye of the Storm'

The basic concept is this

Off the coast of a certain area is a storm, a massive, violent hurricane that reaches up through the atmosphere, out of sight.

The storm has been there for as long as anyone can remember, as long as history records, never moving, never shrinking.

The Storm is eternal.

Likewise, it is unknown who exactly first breached the Stormwalls by using powerful magic to briefly calm the winds, but what they found within has become common local knowledge.

Floating islands, suspended on thin air, cocooned in the eye of the storm, rising up. On those islands were ruins of an unknown make, but also strange plants and dangerous creatures. The most dangerous of all being the Elementals that seemed to infest the place.

Over the years many groups have been drawn to the storm. Adventures have breached it in search of treasure and strange mystical reagents, Harpies and other flying creatures considered monstrous have flocked here to roost, and wielders of powerful magic came to study the forces that maintain the vortex.

But none have ever reached Summit, eternally out of reach.

Will you?

So yeah, that's the basic premise of the dungeon. Floating islands inside a eternal storm, progression through the dungeon is like the ascent of a dangerous mountain in some aspects.

The main thought was, most dungeons and MegaDungeons are underground, so could you do the opposite, one where you are under the light of day, exposed to all manner of weather, and where you could physically see in the distance the other levels you were yet to get to?

That also raised the question of how to map out the placement of the floating islands? Eventually I came up with a potential model in Blender

Yes, it looks nonsensical at first, but it's really just a reference for me. The Outline Boxes represent a potential space where a island could be on the 9 layers of the dungeon, while a Green Sphere represents the presence of an island in that space. That way I can remember the positioning of them all in relation to each other and figure out the connections between them.

So far I've got a loose idea of the one at the top and am working on the one at the very bottom, likely the first island any PCs would land on (and the only one that's not floating).

Lot of work to go and I've still got to figure out things like how i'm going to map the islands (I can't draw) and what system I should build the encounters around.

[bereft-of-frogs]

The whole ‘Qimir is Imri’ thing has always been ridiculous for several reasons including notably age/timeline but it’s really solidly disproven by the ‘someone who threw me away’ thing like

Vernestra did not risk her life to go on an unsanctioned operation behind the Stormwall to find Imri, knight him in the field, and part ways amicably for people to theorize Imri was the one she ‘threw away’

[tremendouskoalachild]

hey remember that not at all depressing poster from the end of phase 1?

anyway i went back with the info we got since (up to the first wave of phase 3, but timeline-wise shortly after the fall).

(red for confirmed dead, yellow for missing presumed dead, green for no-specific-reason-to-think-they're-dead-but-very-much-missing)

1. The Starlight Beacon. Extremely dead.

2. Vernestra Rwoh and Imri Cantaros. Vernestra could be green (heh) i suppose. We got an update on her and Imri's situation in Tales of Light and Life and a recap during her chapters in the beginning of Defy the Storm.

3. Bell Zettifar. He made it through TFS, yay!

4. Burryaga and Nib Assek. Their fates were described in TFS.

5. Avar Kriss. Made it but left very shortly after as seen in Shadows of Starlight.

6. Sskeer. We didn't know what supposedly happened there until the first issue of THR 2023, where Keeve reminisces about the events.

7. Keeve Trennis. She lived :)

8. Terec and Ceret. Also lived.

9. Estala Maru. Dead during the last issue of THR 2021.

10. Torban “Buckets of Blood” Buck. MIA as per THRA 2023.

11. Lula Talisola, Farzala Tarabal, and Qort. Lula especially was in a scary position in Starlight Coda. We learned of the trio's situation first in THRA 2023 issue 1.

12. Kantam Sy. Saved by being elsewhere during the Beacon's fall, in Midnight Horizon.

13. Porter Engle. Revealed to have been stranded behind the Stormwall shortly after, discussed in The Eye of Darkness.

14. Orla Jareni. Dead in TFS.

15. Stellan Gios. Same :(

16. Cohmac Vitus. Ditched the order in Midnight Horizon. Not for a short and quick identity crisis either, as confirmed in Shadows of Starlight.

17. Ram Jomaram. Assumed to be fine, relatively speaking, because of Midnight Horizon showing him on Corellia. Then Escape from Valo punched us in the face with the knowledge he went to Valo right after and was trapped there.

18. Reath Silas. He lived and didn't even go AWOL like his master and best friend.

19. Elzar Mann. Lived but at what cost.

20. Lily Tora-Asi, Padawan Keerin Fionn, and Master Arkoff. AWOL, dead, fine. The first two are discussed in The Edge of Balance Vol 2, Arkoff shows up in Shadows of Starlight to knight Burry.

21. Emerick Caphtor. We saw him in the middle of the action during the Beacon's fall but he showed up at the beginning of Shadows of Starlight and was ok.

[bikananjarrus]

"the last time i left you, i did it badly. i don't want to leave without you again. without us" and "'there are three buns.'" and "'already making yourself at home, i see.' 'the mess in here is too familiar not to.'" and "...when she was a teen, avar had thought she'd be an exception. she, elzar, and stellan: all exceptional. she'd been right, in a way." and "'i couldn't let you go back across that stormwall without a piece of me along with you.'" and "at different times in their lives, they'd been as close as two beings could be. she knew him better than anybody...a long time ago, he'd have told her anything. he'd reach for her first even when it was inappropriate according to jedi teachings. oh, how she wished for that now...now she understood that the whole she was part of meant nothing without elzar in it." and "this time she wouldn't abandon elzar without a fight. they needed each other." and "elzar knew - she'd told him - how much she'd needed to hear his message. how he'd been her anchor even from impossibly far away." and "'...it cost us everything.' 'not everything...come here,' she whispered as she pulled him against her. elzar hugged her waist, and avar felt tears in her own eyes. this was how it should have been immediately after starlight. them, together, holding each other." and "avar had left him. but elzar never let go of her. even across the stormwall, countless light-years, misunderstandings, anger, failure, loss, a year of struggle and grief - no, more than a year - he had never let go. avar knew, as completely as she knew the force, that elzar mann would never let go of her. even in rage." and "in elzar's voice, when he'd reached for her across those light-years, across the stormwall, avar had felt a fathomless, rolling faith. in herself. in the force. in hope. surrendering to all of it made her stronger. realizing and accepting that she was in love with him made her stronger." and "'i miss him. all of them. but him.' 'me too.'" and "avar listened. she listened to his voice and to the melody of his force. and she whispered his name to him, whenever he needed to hear it." all in ONE. CHAPTER.