#the prince and the druid snippet

[procrastinatorrex]

“Why are you here?” Merlin collapsed against the wall, unable to keep up the pretense any longer. The prince caught him, pushing on one shoulder until the Druids chest was visible. “You’re not bleeding.” He said, jaw tight. “Not that kind of ambush.” Merlin replied, weakly. “I told you I wasn’t coming. Why are you here?” 

The blond man dragged him forward, ignoring his hiss of protest, and took Merlin’s weight, slinging one of the Druids arms over his crimson clad shoulders and holding tight to his wrist. “You honestly think I believe a word you say? We need to get out of here before that bastard comes back.”

[kingcenred]

@beautiful-mischief continued from [x]

It had started off in the smallest, seemingly insignificant ways. A day or two of nausea and little appetite, flashes of heat and chills and a headache that Loki had assumed would be fixed after a good nights sleep and a chat with the court physician, but even the remedies that the old druid prescribed did little to improve his condition over the week that followed. He had been in the library with Cenred the first time that a dizzy spell had come over him, and the dark-haired prince had dismissed it, insisted it wasn’t worth worrying about, but then it happened again — and then he’d regained consciousness in Cenred’s arms, drifting in and out of awareness as his husband shouted for help, hauled him into his arms and carried him away.

From there Loki couldn’t say he remembered much save for shivering in Cenred’s grasp, weak and pale and fighting back the urge to vomit, the journey to their chambers passing in a disoriented blur. The only constant was the other man, warm enough that Loki couldn’t help but curl into his chest to savour his body heat as he was carried, his frantic murmurs washing over him yet not truly sinking in. He caught the occasional snippet of dialogue here and there, assurances that everything would be alright, that the physician was coming, those three little words that neither of them had yet dared to share, but with how he slipped so fleetingly in and out of consciousness he couldn’t be sure.

“Cen…” He mumbled, making a soft noise of protest as Cenred’s arms were traded for the bed, everything too hot or maybe too cold, body wracked by chills despite the blankets tenderly draped over him. “Stay, please."

"I'm here, I'm not going anywhere," he assured, as he perched on the side of the bed and tenderly took one of Loki's hands in his own. Eyes wide with panic, he looked towards his physician - silently urging him to help, to do something, anything to make his husband better.

Loki had been unwell for several days, and the physician had assured them that he could detect nothing of concern - that perhaps it was just a fleeting illness, and he would improve with rest and an occasional tonic. Alas, that was not the case and Loki had quickly deteriorated until he'd all but collapsed in Cenred's arms.

"Dammit, Loki, you've got to get better," he muttered, through gritted teeth, as his free hand moved upwards to cup Loki's clammy cheek. "I can't do this without you, not anymore."

The physician stepped forwards, pushing Cenred away from his patient without a word, and only in this situation would the King allow such behaviour. Still clinging to Loki's hand, he watched as the Druid closed his eyes and began mumbling in a language he was unfamiliar with; he could feel the magic in the room, and when his physician opened his eyes a long moment later Cenred could tell by his expression that something was terribly wrong.

"I believe he might have been poisoned, Sire," he informed him, nervously. "I can brew an antidote, but it will take some time."

[unreadpoppy]

Masterlist

Side note: All my work can also be found on my AO3. This is for the tumblr links.

multi chapter fics

song as old as rhyme - Beauty and the Beast!AU (Raphael x Elize) - chapter 1 / chapter 2 / chapter 3 / chapter 4 / chapter 5 / chapter 6 / chapter 7 / chapter 8 / chapter 9 / chapter 10 / chapter 11 / chapter 12 / chapter 13 / chapter 14 / chapter 15 / chapter 16 (SMUT) / chapter 17 / chapter 18 / chapter 19 / chapter 20 / chapter 21 / Epilogue / bonus chapter (FINISHED)

down by the river - Raphael x Warlock!Tav - Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 (ongoing)

Plus One - Modern AU! Raphael x Fem!Tav - chapter 1 / chapter 2 (ongoing)

To Win the Princess's Heart - Bridgerton season 2 inspired (Raphael x Genevieve) - Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 (hiatus) (i'm probably never going to finish this)

One-shots

Raphael Period Fic (Raphael x Reader)

Raphael comforts you (Raphael x Reader)

Cirice (Priest!Raphael x Fem!Tav)

Clean that face (Raphael x GN!Tav)

You won't remember this when morning comes (Raphael x Fem! Tav; Modern AU)

send nudes (Raphael x Fem!Tav; Modern AU)

Peacocks (Raphael x GN!Druid!Tav)

Must like dogs (Raphael x Fem!Tav; Modern AU)

Tighter (Raphael x Fem!Tav)

Wild Magic Surge (Raphael x Gwen)

Jane Eyre AU (Raphael x GN!Tav)

Gwen and Raph shennanigans (Raphael x Gwen)

Betrayer AU (this is an AU were Gwen is not technically Tav)

Betrayer (Raphael x Gwen)

The Runaway Bride (part two of Betrayer) (Raphael x Gwen)

Cafuné (Raphael x Gwen)

Helldusk (Raphael x Gwen)

The making of heirs (Raphael x Gwen) (SMUT)

a small snippet of something (Raphael x Pregnant!Gwen) (somewhat of the sequel to the making of heirs)

An heir is born (Dad!Phael x Gwen)

workshop (Dad!Phael)

Family Portrait (Raphael x Gwen)

Halsin bear related headcanons

Halsin's Bugged Ending (Halsin x Gwen)

Wash My Dreams Away (previously titled Brown Eyes) - Halsin x Tav (Gwen) (and a small Raphael x Gwen on the side) - Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 (ongoing)

All of her fics can be found on AO3. The ones without a pairing are fics more focused on character work instead of the relationship.

Blackbird (Elizabeth x Kallista)

Letting go of what might have been

Choices

Two Moons (Elizabeth x Kallista)

Reunion (Elizabeth x Kallista)

Romeo and Juliet

Poor Prince Benjamin

The Queen

A Lover's Kiss

This is that horror short story about the pandemic I wrote last year for arts class, translated / read it on AO3 as "When fiction becomes reality"

[maskedemerald]

WIP List (Tag Game!)

I was tagged ages ago by @the-down-upside-finch thank you so much! Sadly I was in deadline and life drama time so catching up on the tagged stuff now.

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Warning: This is going to get long, like seriously I have too many even if I discount the Fan Fic ideas... which I am doing because some of them might get used for future challenges that need them not to be talked about.

Feel free to send me an ask about any of these!

Book Writing Stuff

A Curiosity Piqued Series

Medallion Heist

Message in a Bottle

Wards

Rivals

The Vanished Researcher

The Shadow Master

The Transfigured Corpse

Framed

The Traveler

The Queen of Stone

Lapis Feather (Previously Frost Amber)

Vigdis' Revenge

The Shadow Master Returns

The Bleeding Tree

Sentience

NecRomance

Doppelganger

A Brother's Return

Null Beast

Ruins of Crystal Spires

Loops

Ari vs Arnvaldr

A Focus of Time

Haunting Memories

Lost Brother

The Queen of Stone's Revenge

Uneasy Aliance

And that's just the A Curiosity Piqued WIPs!

Magic Act

Vampire Saga

Queen's Conmen

Apprenticeships in Sorcery

A Kind of Freedom

Biological Component

Blood Book

Caged Phoenix

Captain's Shoes

Curse of the Sands

Dragon Egg

Dreaming Weapon

Sands in the Hourglass

Frozen Dragon

Hatchling

In the Ashes of the Bookshop

Kayla Rising

Last Breath

Last Man on Earth

Odd

Prince Pendant

Prince's Secret

Rebirth

Should Have Been Born a Fish

Stolen Breath

Taking up the Chase

White Raven

Wish You were Here

Glaesier

Astral Projection thing

Book Boy

Wynn equivalent

Lethal Lyra

Anastriana

Garnet

Spark the Fires

Space Druid

Talisman Warlock

Forget me not

Game Writing Stuff

Light of the Oubliette

Willow

New Khronos

Fenrir

Aether Shards

Comics Writing Stuff

Better Luck

Searching Prince

Dragon Cursed

Bottle Pirates

Phantom Circus

Not Under the Mountain

Now for the Tags:

It would be crazy for me to try and tag 1 person for everything listed here, seriously that would be 67 just counting the book writing things! So I'm just going to tag all my current writers tag list and throw it open to anyone else. (Shout at me if you want to be added to the writers list for tag games, whatever you write be it original stuff or fan fiction!)

No pressure tagging @scribe-of-stories, @allie-and-the-words, @card-queen, @sm-writes-chaos, @the-real-lyra-vale, @squarebracket-trick, @jasperygrace, @pb-dot, @wmlittlemore-is-writing, @akiwitch, @aalinaaaaaa, @cat-esper, @chayscribbles, @thetwentiethdisaster, @i-rove-rock-n-roll, @ashwithapen, @vaultofqueenorion, @sparrow-orion-writes, @thetruearchmagos, @taveren-writing, @alnaperera, @amaiguri, @guessillcallitart, @stesierra, @sam-glade, @thebearthatreads, @dogmomwrites, @callahanscorner

I apologize if some of you were already tagged for this game while I was gone with IRL chaos throw a link at me and I'll take a look if you did!

[vi-visected]

a snippet from the druid prince merlin au

they’ve known each other for like 2 hours and arthur is already hopeless

[lockejhaven]

locket's fairytale friday

I'm going to try to post something fairytale related each Friday, if I can! I might miss a week occasionally, but I hope to keep it going!

↪ fable : morgaine (draft one)

My younger stepbrother was not always so corrupted or cruel. He came along with me when I first arrived in Caervyon. We were both young, and naive. As one would expect of a story like this. Luckily Cirys met us at the gates and ushered us inside. She knew our parents; our magykal DNA. She also knew we would be killed if anyone found out.

I took it better than Morgaine did. I could tell he was angry, even if he kept quiet about it. What I had no idea about, was how much that rage manifested. I continued to help Cirys heal castle illnesses, while Morgaine sulked in his room and refused to come out. 

It was many circles of the story before he got truly cruel. He would spend hours in the library, sneaking in at night to search for restricted books on magyk and enchantments. I assumed he wanted to at least learn more, rather than stay cooped up alone, so I indulged him. 

The first time I saw him act out was when a young druid found their way to us. The King had ordered they be put to death the next day, and Morgaine was furious. He came to me asking for help in aiding the druid in escape, and, seeing no other ethical choice, I agreed. Kyarrah warned me that the druid would lead to Artwyn’s downfall, and yet every single time I helped them escape. I hesitated the first few times, and Morgaine noticed. Even after I stopped hesitating, he seemed to resent me for it, even though I was certain he did not remember the past story circles.

As he improved in his magyk, so did I, with Kyarrah’s guidance. She provided me resources, and I picked them up quickly. Morgaine seemed jealous of this. I offered to teach him, but he refused. He wanted to learn on his own as I had. Although we both picked up magyk from all types of sources, he tended to use his power to wreak havoc and take revenge on those in power. I started to notice his absences more often, and it was not long before I found the first enchantment pouch hidden under Prince Artwyn’s bed. 

I tried to reason with Morgaine, not once blaming him for wanting to take revenge on the King by taking his son, but he refused to listen. 

After that particular circle, he grew more and more aggressive in his attempts. Around this time, Kyarrah warned me that I must choose between him and Artwyn. A choice I made rather easily, I must admit. I had grown close to Artwyn, even if he would never say so, and Morgaine had only grown more corrupt. Each attempt I thwarted enraged him more. I knew he would be caught, sooner or later. He framed me multiple times, brought in other enemies, but each time I prevailed. Soon I knew the plot like clockwork. 

The night after he was caught, Morgaine escaped the dungeons. He never tried to claim he had not used magyk; he banished himself from Caervyon, knowing I would refuse to help him stay. Unfortunately, he only grew more powerful out on his own where he was able to practice his magyk freely. When he never appeared during the next cycle of the story, I realized something important I had missed. Morgaine had never been reset like the others. Just like me and Kyarrah, he remembered. Which meant he may have surpassed me in ways I could never imagine.

Those he sent after Artwyn became more powerful and I found myself struggling to keep my magyk hidden. Artwyn found out a few times during different cycles, however, he always forgot by the next one. 

Until the last cycle, in which Morgaine and I became the sole survivors of our world. In which I found that Morgaine had not meant to break the King, nor Artwyn, but me. 

 -

locket's tags: @365runesofwriting @enchanted-lightning-aes

Reblog this post to be added to the tag list for my short stories and snippets

Join my writer's discord for a safe, fun community

[littleturtle95]

For OCtober, I will share as I said extracts and snippets from my books “Tanvar of the Fire” and “Amma of the Mind”.

To make everyone understand what I am talking about, I will post here a list with my main OCs and a short description of them and their relationships, so you’ll be able to understand the extracts.

If you want to be added to the taglist for the event, just let me know. Same if you want to be removed.

Everard: Male lead. Everard is a gay black boy (all humans in the story are POC) that used to live on the streets, steal for a living and be part of a gang of street thieves with his little sister. His parents died when he was eight years old and his sister three, and he raised her like his own child. He is very honest, he hates lying, and has what his sister calls “big brother syndrome”: he loves children and can’t resist the urge to help a child or a person in trouble, he often brings people who need help home. He likes to braid his sister's hair, is very gentle and kind and hates aggressive behaviour.

Sigga: Female lead. Sigga is an aroace black girl that used to live on the streets, steal for a living and be part of a gang of street thieves with her big brother. Her parents died when she was three, and she doesn’t remember them. She has been raised by her brother and sees him as a parental figure even if he's only five years older than her. She is brave, impulsive and very witty. One day she loves dresses and cute clothes and would die for a mirror to look at herself in a skirt, the other day she hates everything girly and would rather die than combing her hair and going out with a dress. When she isn’t in a girly mood she steals her brother’s clothes, even if in Laidiria women wearing men’s clothes are very frowned upon.

Solomon: Love interest (of the male lead). Solomon is a demisexual biromantic white boy (every druid in this universe is demisexual), a druid who can therefore use magic. He can summon and manipulate fire and lightning and has the power of telekinesis. He lives with his mother, adopted brother and a close friend in a shelter in the woods to hide from the guards, because magic has been banned in the kingdom and there are druid hunts. He is caught and condemned to be burned alive at the beginning of the story, he meets Everard and Sigga when they see the pyre and decide to save him.

Clarice: Best friend and one-sided love interest (of the female lead). Clarice is a pansexual black girl who is in love with her bestfriend, whom she knows will never love her, and respects that. She is an “orphan of the flame”, one of the many children who lost their parents in the great purge of ���the Night of the Flames”. She is funny, loves to sleep, is not very brave, but will follow her friends to the end of the world and has a great sense of justice. She eventually engages in a platonic exclusive relationship with Sigga.

Hildebrand: Bestfriend and adoptive brother (of Solomon). Hildebrand is a druid, and a demisexual heteroromantic white boy. He can summon and manipulate fire and lightning and has the power of telekinesis. He lives in a shelter in the woods with his adoptive mother, adoptive brother and girlfriend because magic has been banned in the kingdom and they have to hide from the guards. He doesn’t trust humans, he is cold and often distant, but he melts whenever his girlfriend asks him something or just smiles at him. He has a conflicted relationship with his birth mother.

Frederick: Best friend and ex boyfriend (of the male lead). Frederick is a gay black boy who lives on the streets and steals for a living. He is also an orphan of the flame. He was part of the gang Everard and Sigga left when Everard found a job, and still hasn’t forgiven them for that. He is very loyal, clever, and athletic. He is so used to stealing he keeps doing that even after he stops needing it for a living.

Dameta: Close friend (of Solomon), girlfriend (of Hildebrand). Dameta is a druid, her magic is the magic of illusions, she can change shape and looks of herself and everything else, and can also create allucinations. She is a demisexual panromantic white girl, and she’s mute. Despite being very powerful, she is a very sweet girl, who enjoys a simple way of life. She likes music and can create it with her powers, because she can also create auditive allucinations. She often helps to sedate fights between Solomon and Hildebrand Hildebrand and the humans.

Amrit: Amrit is the prince of Armiral, the neighbour kingdom of Laidiria, the country where the story is set. He is a brown (middle eastern like) pansexual boy who is sent to the kingdom of Laidiria undercover as a merchant by his mother, the queen of Armiral. There’s when he meets the main characters of the story. He is flamboyant, likes makeup, and is not very brave. He believes in self preservation and is cunning and ambitious. The other characters don’t like him very much at first, but then he helps them and proves is worth and to be good at heart and they do grow fond of him eventually.

@chibi-tsukiko @hahahax30

[zi-i-think]

I'm getting so ahead of myself. But I have two fanfics I want to work on after Her Sun His Moon. But my mind can only focus on one thing so I'm going to have to choose.

Steve Roger Fanfic (Marvel)

Rating: Mature

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action; Romance

Warnings: Angst, cursing, violence, child abuse, more

(This one is more planned out than the other, but I like the other idea as well)

I posted a snippet of it the other day. My OC, Cleo, is a badass, cocky antihero who has grown up in the mafia. She left, now spending her life committing crimes for some of that green paper. Her illegal activities catch the eyes of S.H.I.E.L.D. but they have no luck in capturing her. It isn't until old friends turn to foes that Cleo teams up with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers to put an end to them.

Legolas Fanfic (Lord of the Rings)

Rating: Mature

Genre: Romance, Action/Adventure, Fluff, unrequited love

Warnings: Angst, major character death, cursing, more

Almë is the last Druid on Middle-earth. With a duty to protect the people and nature, she perseveres everything life throws at her. Meeting Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood, during her travels, Almë finds someone to pour her heart into. They find romance on their journey to Mordor. Months spent fighting a war of good versus evil does wonders to get a person to reason what, or who, they want.

[fatedroses]

Faustus’ Story

Alright, because @lunarpaps asked for me to go into more detail behind the changes I’ve made for this characters story.

I’m going to make one, albeit long, post going through the timeline and actually have this written out for anyone curious on this characters story and how at least for my canon he fits into the world as a whole.

Alright, starting off are the major changes I’ve made in terms of the story I’ve already written and posted on here, or may have referenced. I may end up linking on an oc page or something similar to this post, and after I get this posted I will most likely end up drawing snippets of the events, cause this also inspired me to do so anyways.

Changes, and anything that I forgot will be added in a reblog later on:

With Liam returning for this version, Hugrim, and most of the decisions involving him, is going to be with and between him and Sarath. This is better just because him and Sarath have better chemistry with each other, and I’ll eventually get around to their stories after I get them more solidified. I’ll admit that writing the initial relationship between him and Faustus just didn’t seem to flow the way I wanted it to, and that I’m more satisfied with this direction, and it lets all of them get a happier ending.

Faustus is more of an emissary and ally to the Vanguards rather than an outright leader, I want his position as a Greyguard to be more relevant to his character and therefore Felicity is going to take his older role in the council of the Vanguards, a better fit considering her role in the Kirin Tor and her relationship with Praeragos. I guess Faustus technically takes the role as one of the adventurers due to his interactions with Genn and his tasks often delivering messages and running errands, but whatever.

Because Faustus would in turn be spending more time both between Darnassus and Stormwind, and later Kul Tiras, when he isn’t on any assignments because of his position, I plan on him having more interactions and development with Anduin, Mathias, Varian, etc. I’ve been able to affirm to myself that it’s alright writing dynamics between these characters, cause I’m a dweeb and steered away from that for whatever reason. 

In turn I get to explore his reaction and interactions to the events that happened, both that he was and wasn’t there for. For example him traveling to Northrend with Felicity and a few others to learn of what happened as a person alongside his team, from a bystander’s point of view in his off time with the Vanguards. To then participating in the search for Anduin during MoP, as an active member of the alliance and as someone who would’ve went searching for the missing prince regardless of his allegiances or not. By originally putting him in a situation where he had to be in a consistently neutral environment it made him going out into these new situations difficult to write for, as it made trying to get the information for these places hard to actually write in a way that made sense.

Now seen with the “Dynamic Duo” piece that was posted before this post, Faustus’ affinity for magic and the situation with being a spellblade/mage-rogue combo is going to be something that took effect far earlier in his story. With him and his brother, and in turn his mother and his father respectively, the boys took after their parents, with Faustus showing traits of magical prowess while Pheles showed traits of druidic prowess at an early age. After the fire Faustus then later gets training on magic from Felicity, her parents, and Ashton, and he specializes in Ashton’s practice of magic which is close ranged, portals, and enchantment. However in most cases he’s on active duty he tends to focus on using it for teleportation and avoiding the long ass boat rides when he has the ability and energy to. Speaking of Pheles, I’m leaning towards making the two twins, just because the year difference really doesn’t make too much of an impact and this fits a bit better.

Krennan takes Faustus in as an adopted son rather than having him just kinda stick around the castle like it was previous planned/implied. It gives me an excuse to give Krennan more attention due to the fact I was already interested in the character beforehand. It also gives Faustus the opportunity to build his relationships with the royals and Felicity more organically than it was before.

The story behind Faustus losing his arm has been tweaked, but that’ll be explained more in depth during the story section of this post. I also plan on redrawing the pieces that went with it as well. Hex is still the main antagonist of that arc, and it’s still a decisive sacrifice Faustus makes, it’s just the events beforehand and afterwards are a bit different.

————

For the sake of having this all in one place, I’m also going to have the entire story written out. When I tagged this as a long post, I meant it. I might tweak a few things in the future, but this is what is what I’m running with for the time being. This also includes the story of his parents due to their relevance in setting up the events that happen later on.

Story:

Parents and Childhood (Ages 0-10):

Born to Ilaise and Cedius Erthwal, Faustus and Pheles’ life started out rather average, and they were planned to be raised in Gilneas. Ilaise, born and raised in Gilneas herself met her husband Cedius during a trip to Boralus. The druid was taking his monthly trip to the market for supplies to aid in his research over the cycle of regrowth and decay, driven by his fascination with the Cenarion druid circles spurred on by an encounter with Sarath as well as other traveling druids. Ilaise herself was working alongside Ashton Wythers, another mage of the Kirin Tor, in finding the limits of their magical ability, and was known in her own town of Emberstone as a rather renowned hunter that earned her a friendship with Mia before the would be queen was courted by and got married with Genn. In learning of each other’s studies they hit it off, eventually leading to Ilaise offering to bring Cedius to Gilneas, which he heartily agrees, wanting to get away from Drustvar due to some history, and family, the druid wanted to get away from. 

However Cedius, in his move across the seas, was still going to need a decent size of land to continue his studies. Thanks to Mia granting them a closer audience with both Genn and his father, they were granted a section of land, a farm estate that was to be built by the two north of the city, given their own resources of the forest and whatever land they needed, so long as any food and lumber grown was produced in benefit to Gilneas and her people. Cedius took this offer gladly, as the efforts of mass regrowth of crops and ensuring that it didn’t negatively impact the areas surrounding it was a part of his research. Genn, in his curiosity in seeing that if this plan would work, brought him to investigate it frequently, eventually leading to his cordial friendship with Cedius.

As the years went on in this arrangement, in both his relationship with Ilaise and the regrowth project on the farmland, went well. Him and Ilaise got married after Ilaise returned from aiding the other human settlements against the first horde, lending her duties over to her colleague Ashton who took her place fighting so that she could settle down and eventually have Faustus and Pheles with Cedius, an act she was greatly thankful for. Genn and Mia, busy with raising their own children, and with the situation regarding the surrounding kingdoms, found themselves being able to visit their friends less and less, though they were able to visit each other during the birthdays of their children.

The brothers themselves found friendship in each other and the other children of Emberstone, which was nearby. They had met the Greymane siblings beforehand, but due to the distance and the ever nearing conflicts they didn’t really have the opportunity to get to know each other well. Faustus found at a young age that he had an affinity for the arcane trying to save a vase that tipped off the table. This was much to his father’s amusement having to leap after his son and the vase to actually save the situation, only for Ilaise to run in with a very confused dirt covered Pheles from their trip to their own private garden, discovering that the boys had the affinity of the opposite “preferred parent”, a joke among the two. This led to the boys getting some rather rudimentary training alongside their education, turning the rather mischievous pair even worse in their tricks as it helped Faustus honed his ability to blink short distances, which made him almost impossible to catch, and Pheles had a rather special focus on growing roots that often led to Cedius tripping and landing face first in the dirt, as well as jumpscaring both parents as he found his natural talent in the bear druid form.

Unfortunately Cedius’s history ended up catching up to him as his brother, known only to others as Hex, had hunted him down to Gilneas alongside several members of the cult. With Hex’s intention to either force his brother to use his druidic prowess in strengthening the reach of the blighted lands back in Drustvar and bringing about the return of Gorak Tul, or die. He started a fire at the base of the house, which was first discovered by Pheles, who ran to get his father to alert him about it. With the aid of his accomplices the fire spread quicker than usual, making it difficult for Ilaise to try and put it out as everything she tried to do only seemed to come back tenfold. This only got worse as the roof started to collapse, which ended pinning Faustus under a beam. Cedius had went off to try and find the source up until he encountered his brother, refusing his offer almost immediately and trying to call upon some wicker constructs to defend himself, and while Ilaise had managed to keep the fire from burning Faustus, he was too panicked in his young age to try and blink out from the debris until Ilaise was able to lift the beam a bit and Pheles pulled him out. As they tried to escape the house Ilaise pushed the boys away from more falling debris, sacrificing herself and getting herself pinned so that the two could escape by Faustus blinking both of them away, and they started to run to get help. Hex elected to leave his weakened brother to his colleagues to chase after the boys, believing that if they were in immediate danger Cedius would agree. Instead Cedius watched on as Pheles tripped Hex with roots along the dirt path, knocking his mask off so that they could both run away and so that Faustus could nail Hex in the nose with a rock, catching him off guard so that Pheles could attempt to carry his brother off on his back. One important piece that both Ilaise and Hex didn’t realize was that Pheles had taken his father’s very important research journal with him as well.

This only enraged Hex more, knowing that even if his colleagues succeeded in their attempt to now assassinate Ilaise and Cedius that the brothers would become issues later on. So he gave chase. Pheles found that drawing the pyromancer into the city was a bad idea, and threw Faustus off his back, electing to attempt to maul Hex’s legs before running off in another direction, while Faustus ran off in another direction. Hex went after Faustus however, as he was still injured by getting pinned. Pheles ran off towards the harbor, catching the attention of one of the Kul Tiran vessels that had their own druid working up in the crows nest. The crew took Pheles in, and sent their druid to go help his brother. This druid, Silvio, managed to catch up to Hex, clawing at his face in his bird form and giving Faustus enough time to run into the city of Gilneas and hide before Silvio himself flew off, leaving Hex to deal with his wounds and return to the burning home before he could manage to get caught by any city guards sent his way.

Hex and his colleagues made sure that Ilaise and Cedius were dead before returning to Drustvar, not knowing however that before their deaths they had bound themselves to the hearth, making their spirits remain on Azeroth and defeating their purpose of making them useless in death. Pheles joined the crew on their voyage back to Kul Tiras, much to the captain’s chargin but that aside he would eventually be taken to Ulfar by Silvio to learn the ways of the Thornspeaker, and gave Pheles an opportunity to learn more about his father from his old teacher before eventually returning to that vessel to join the captain in learning to become one. Finally Faustus went into hiding, becoming paranoid that Hex would be able to find him again, or that those around him could give him up to him, and isolated himself, finding his life as stealing food from stalls and blinking away before anyone noticed and hiding away in the empty unused water pipes that surrounded the city. Genn was alerted to the fire by his guard, leaving Liam and Tess in the care of Krennan before they went to investigate, only to find the home and farmland in ash, all of Cedius work was gone, and the now-king himself found Ilaise and Cedius inside the home, hand in hand with each other, and realized as because he couldn’t find the boys that they were still out there somewhere.

Adolescence and the Greyguard (Ages 10-25):

Faustus spent a couple months in hiding, avoiding anyone he deemed as untrustworthy, which due to his paranoia from the entire situation beforehand and being separated from his parents and brother, was just about everyone. Genn, Mia, Krennan, and Krennan’s charge and family friend Felicity would try to go looking for him after getting a letter from Kul Tiras stating that Pheles was found and safe. Felicity herself found that she could get glimpses of Faustus and the directions he went off to, but due to him using his arcane abilities to get away, and for him himself discovering he could hide himself using magic, making him difficult to hunt down.

After awhile, as Genn, Mia, Tess, and Liam were taking a trip through the city, Liam finds that the bracelet given by his mother was gone from his wrist. Knowing that it hadn’t had fallen he looked around, spotting Faustus backing up and running away from the group. Offended at the theft of his heirloom, Liam went after him, Tess immediately following her brother and making Genn and Mia panic for a moment before running after them. The siblings managed to chase him into an alleyway, and nearly succeeded in cornering him had he not tried to blink away. He was quickly caught by Genn when he and Mia caught up, and with Mia’s help they managed to calm him down enough to be able to bring him to Krennan. There the siblings and Felicity stayed with Faustus as the adults talked, and for the first time in a while, thanks to three cracking small jokes trying to get Faustus to at least laugh, they actually succeeded, and while they couldn’t get him to talk he at least accepted staying close to them. Faustus gave Liam his bracelet back as a silent apology, and after a bit of discussion Krennan came to him offering to take him in and adopt him. Faustus gave it some thought, grabbed Felicity’s arm and nodding with a quiet yes.

Faustus had a relatively normal rest of his childhood, though he continued to have paranoia and nightmares about Hex. This also started his and Felicity’s close friendship after they started living in the same house, Felicity thought that she was basically chosen after Faustus agreed to stay, and they bonded over their studies in magic, which Felicity was able to share her resources about it with him. They both also bonded with Krennan, often helping him around with his alchemy by going to the market to get herbs and having him teach them both their general education and alchemy. These two also spent time with the royal siblings thanks to Krennan often visiting Genn for both personal and professional reasons, Tess herself found it fascinating that Faustus was able to pickpocket Liam without anyone noticing, and Liam himself wanted to learn about Faustus more, as he often remembered seeing Cedius come to the manor once in a while but never really got the chance to talk. Felicity herself already knew the siblings well due to the amount of time she had already spent with Krennan beforehand.

As time went on, with Faustus reaching his teens, the four became a very tight knit group. Liam trained under his mother in becoming a hunter, finding after a good amount of training that he was quite a remarkable marksmen. Felicity decided not to focus her studies towards the offensive uses of magic, and instead aimed to one day improve the kingdom itself through her own inventions and such. Faustus found that he had a mark for design and engineering, often helping Felicity with her plans, but he also aimed to become a Greyguard after having an opportunity to watch them train, as well as him watching Genn and Darius train with each other several times before. Genn agreed to help Faustus train, as well as introduce him to some of his spymasters so that he could learn the ways of a rogue, considering how he was built he was suited for it. This also led to Faustus passing off the knowledge he had to the younger Tess, helping her start down her path of roguishness without, for the most part, Genn knowing, until she started training down that path as she got older.

Faust devoted himself to earning his place among the Greyguard, as with the more time he spent with them he found his own purpose with them. As the Greymanes had given him their time and effort to look for and out for him, he found that the only way to repay that in a way he would be satisfied with was to devote his life to giving them the protection that he was never able to give his parents and brother because of his inexperience and young age, In that way he could set aside the feelings and failures he felt as a child and instead had the opportunity to spend time with those he really cares about and be at peace with himself. His devotion eventually earned him the position of being Liam and Tess’s retainer, passed off by his main mentor Sibran, and it gave him the ability to just hang out with them while helping his superiors out on their duties when he could as a decision made by Genn so that the boy could still have a generally normal youth without having to worry about issues that brought him into constant danger or away from those close to him. Liam and Faustus also started getting even closer around this time, often found training with each other, working together to create new weapons and rifles, or were out hunting and patrolling around Gilneas.

There were issues however, as after Genn made the decision to secede from the Alliance and wall off Gilneas from the rest of the other kingdoms issues began to arise that actually called Faustus’ attention, starting with an event that happened not long after the construction of the wall started and in an attempt to get everyone's mind off of it they held a winter banquet, where an angered objector tried to get retribution for losing his land to being on the other side of the wall by attacking Liam, as he was the first Greymane he saw. Faustus managed to take the hit instead, earning him the scar across his eye and a scar on his left shoulder. This started the trend of Faustus having to watch around him more often than before, especially after the rebellion started taking more of a hold and the scourge started attacking the finished north gate wall. In addition due to his talents Faustus was also tasked with trying to root out the rebellion members and finding out who was leading them, in which his attempts tended to get him in a lot of trouble when he got too close.

Though despite all the struggles that came with this era Faustus and Liam found solace in each other, a couple close calls including the attack on at the banquet pushed Liam to actually admit his feelings to Faustus, feelings Faustus shared and that they had both developed from the time they had spent at each other’s side. At first they kept it hidden, in one part knowing that if any of the opposition knew it would be easy for them to use Faustus against Liam, and by extension the other Greyguard and Genn, in another part due to general royal upbringing Liam wasn’t entirely sure how his parents would really feel about the relationship due to the standard of marrying for political benefit and the state of Gilneas’ political climate was difficult to read at the time. However, Genn and Mia are neither foolish or oblivious, and were quick to understand their situation, leading to Genn having to pull Liam aside and quell his worries that he had married Mia out of love, not out gain or political pressure, and that if he truly found that he loved Faustus that he should go with it, especially since with Gilneas isolated there wasn't really much to get political gain for. Even if their relationship didn’t become public, some still found the pair as quite an intimidating duo, as Liam was a natural born leader and a major inspiration to those who came in contact with them, and Faustus became known as a creative inventor with a knack for detective work, who got the title of being an anti-assassin.

The scourge continued to become more and more of a problem, more so than the rooted rebellion as attacks would get collectively worse, leading Genn to call in Arugal for a solution, which came to be reawakening the worgen. Faustus, Sibran, and the other greyguard found themselves as the last line of military defense against the undead. An experience Faustus almost immediately regretted when he first came in contact with an abomination, but when the worgen came to aid them, and ended up turning against the front line, Faustus ended up getting bitten in the process. Not knowing that the curse was spread by the bite, he was cleared by Sibran to return back into the city, only to fall ill and turn once he got home. Felicity was able to restrain him, and Krennan was able to make him drink a potion to knock him out, but they only had a little time to bring him to Stormglen and restrain him, away from the city in a way to keep him from hurting other people or getting himself killed by the guard or hunters. Felicity had to keep a close eye on him, and after admitting to Genn why Faustus had gone missing the three worked towards trying to find a cure or aid to the curse, their working going double time once Genn was also bitten, but with the help of Krennan and Belyrsa found ways to keep him from turning. 

Faustus was thought dead due to his absence and the fact that if they couldn’t restore his will and mind he would basically be such anyways. Liam, though distraught, wasn’t entirely convinced, and had a hope in his mind that he was still somewhere out there. Instead he put on a brave face and told others that Faustus had instead fallen very ill, which many of the Greyguard were skeptical about, but kept quiet for the sake of their prince. One day however, Tess and Liam trailed Genn and Krennan to Stormglen, waiting until they left the abandoned building they were frequenting to try and find what they were hiding, only for them to get tracked down by feral worgen. Faustus, upon hearing Felicity call out for the siblings, as well as hearing them yell out, broke from the chains keeping him from escaping. He managed to intercept the worgen before he could attack the three, holding them off until Genn was able to handle it himself. They found that after the attack was deterred, that Liam and Tess could actually calm Faustus down enough to get him to focus on them, though even if he could focus and understand what they were saying he had no way of communicating back with them. Liam and Tess, however, were relieved to find Faustus alive, even if this experience changed him in the long run.

Eventually Sarath, Hugrim, and Drulos came to investigate Cedius and Ilaise’s disappearance, as Sarath and Drulos hadn’t heard from them in a while. They found the farm, and Ilaise’s spirit ended up guiding them to Faustus where Cedius was already waiting in Stormglen. After gathering enough energy due to the direness of the situation, Cedius and Drulos were able to call upon and bargain with Goldrin. If Faustus managed to prove himself to Goldrinn, and Cedius and Ilaise agreed to act as agents of Goldrinn as they continued to traverse the mortal plane, the wild god would agree to aid Faustus in returning to being himself. As Goldrinn tested Faustus, though the man had a strong will, he found himself unable to keep his own fear and rage in check when faced with visions of Hex and the Scourge. Sarath pleaded to Goldrinn that they didn’t just leave Faustus to himself like this, and though the wild god wasn’t going to do so in the first place, he instead allowed Ilaise to separate Faustus’ rage and fury into another section of his mind and make it temporarily dormant, giving Faustus control over himself again and allowing him to return to his human form, as well as letting him have a more intimate control over his worgen form. However, as a side effect Faustus had to constantly manage his rage, as due to this separation this feral anger could manifest in both forms instead of only his worgen form, which when he was armed made him highly dangerous. The solution wasn't perfect but it gave Faustus the opportunity to one day, possibly, be at peace with himself and learn to control that fury where it mattered, rather than letting it control him.

Before going on their way to hold their end of the deal, Drulos and Sarath were able to say their final goodbyes to their old friends, the three remained to help care for Faustus as reverting from worgen form, as well as the general exertion he went through over this period of time, left him rather weak and disoriented. After they made sure their technical ‘charge’ was cared for, Sarath flew the two out the way they came, but not before Faustus came to, learned of the situation, and made Sarath promise to one day teach him orcish due to meeting Drulos and learning what the druid and two shamans did for him that day, out of respect and thankfulness.

Felicity found him not long afterwards, surprised to see him suddenly back to himself, and was in fact rather skeptical about it at first. But after finally getting himself situated, and Felicity retrieved him some clothes for him, he was finally able to return to Gilneas, luckily being able to pass off his disappearance as an illness he had to be taken to Dalaran/be under Felicity’s family’s care for. As time went on he understood how this other side of himself started to manifest, namely that it tended to appear if he couldn’t control his emotions in general, or if he went too long without giving it control. He struggled to keep it under control at first, and knowing that he was struggling with it he found himself both talking less and keeping himself away from anyone that wasn’t the royals, Sibran, or Felicity and Krennan.

Liam was a major factor in helping Faustus get back to normal, and it helped that the other side of Faustus was still Faustus at the end of the day, and even as ferocious and hard headed the beast was he still cared deeply about the same people, and will take control if he feels the way Faustus acts normally is ill-equipped to handle protecting them. Liam was commonly the person Faustus was able to vent to besides Felicity, and when Liam knew it had been a while since a manifestation he and Faustus would often go hunting, whether it would be deterring worgen or just hunting normally to bring resources to the market. It also helped that the other side also respected Liam and his ability to remain calm in the face of adversity. Eventually Faustus started meeting with Sarath and Hugrim out in the old abandoned far, and from there he started to build connections with the Vanguard, and he learned to start meditating as a way of communing with himself and starting to pull himself back together.

Years went on, and the north gate rebellion came and went, Faustus did what he could to prevent as much bloodshed as he could, but the uprising and battle took a heavy toll on both sides. Faustus himself was heavily injured when he came into contact with two of his old childhood friends from Emberstone, Elicia and Jean, who had sided with Crowley, and though he was heavily injured, he was able to get them to put down their weapons and let him help them leave the battle under the promise that he wouldn’t get them arrested, and learning that though Faustus didn’t agree with all of Genn’s actions, that he understood the king was stuck between a rock and a hard place due to his pride, his stubbornness, and the pressure of the surrounding events. This injury, an axe wound to his side, did end up restricting him for a while. It required a lot of bed rest and he was designated to playing messenger while Sibran took his role as retainer back for the meantime. Afterwards, besides the small scale worgen attacks, things went back to normal and Faustus was able to return to his duties. That was until the large scale attack on Gilneas, and as the city fell and anyone not turned was pushed back into the outskirts, it took a heavy toll on everyone involved.

Faustus was tasked with helping the Greyguard get back on track, and as Krennan actually put together the potion that was meant to aid the feral worgen, he was also tasked to aid in capturing what many came to realize as their own friends, family, and peers. Liam however took the fall hard, feeling as though he had failed his people, and with Faustus’ near constant absence, he turned to drinking away his problems (as seen in the game, holy shit Liam why), something that Faustus and Tess tried to steer him away from but the prince was too caught up in his own head to listen. Felicity herself was occupied and gone from Gilneas from helping Dalaran alongside Ashton where she could during the events in Northrend and the ensuing aftermath, and the start of the cataclysm. After the Horde’s attack on Gilneas, and Liam’s subsequent bounce back onto his feet after being in a position to help his people again, Faustus stayed by his side and supported him where he could, the future of their city looking up. Until Liam took the arrow for Genn.

Losing Liam twisted something within Faustus, and though he and the separated side of him came together enough to cooperate, he gained this silent rage and ferocity that took a while to ever go away. The anger at the attackers, and the anger at himself turned him into a ruthless machine, pushing him to retaliate hard against the forsaken not long after the initial battle. He found refuge in Tess’ sympathy and hope, and with Felicity gone and busy elsewhere she was all he had left to bring him back down to earth. It was under her guidance that he came to focus his anger towards what mattered, pushing him towards the path of becoming one with himself again. He also had help during this journey thanks to his encounters with Anduin Wrynn, who he had initially met before the summit of the alliance in Darnassus. They got along, and were able to bond over learning about the events that had happened that they were unaware of. Anduin found that Faustus was a person he could vent his worries to without judgement of ability, and Faustus found Anduin as someone he could both look up to and protect. Though Faustus struggled with the loss of someone so close to him, and the loss of his homeland, he was able to find others that would help guide him back onto his feet, and push him to keep fighting for was he thought was right.

The Alliance and Azeroth (Ages 25-Present):

Faustus mostly found himself at Genn’s side after joining the alliance, and when he wasn’t, he was running messages and errands thanks to his affinity for teleportation and portal creation. He busied himself, and almost never gave himself a break initially in order to keep his mind off the events that had happened prior. Upon some of these errands he came across people who he would aid and build connections with. He reconnected with Elicia and Jean during and after the battle for Gilneans, helping them come to terms with the worgen curse. He met Baltor, a priest known for aiding the lost and wayward spirits, when they encountered each other in the rest area of an arena ring, after Faustus was captured by pirates during a trip back to Stormwind with some of the other soldiers. Finally he met Tyraanas, a Draenei paladin, on the front against garrosh’s horde in Ashenvale. This was also the time Faustus was introduced to the Vanguards, their leader Enahlien, and the figures that led the multiple sectors of the settlement. The era of the Cataclysm was primarily providing rushed aid to the front fighting Garrosh’s horde, protecting Stormwind when needed, and providing a connection of the alliance to the Vanguards as a defacto emissary.

It was around this time that Faustus started to form his own squad, with himself, Tyraan, Baltor, Elicia, and Jean. This team was some of the first sent to look for Anduin during the start of Mists, mostly due to personal request on Faustus’ behalf (because he was both incredibly worried and anxious know that Anduin could have been in danger). It was in Pandaria that Faustus was forced to pull himself together, as at that point he risked being consumed by several of the sha, and due to his determination to work alongside his anger and be at peace with it, rather than wrangle and control it, it gave him better control over himself in general and let him aid his team in combating the influences of the sha as well. The only time this nearly fell apart during the expeditions was when he discovered Anduin’s injuries after being crushed by the bell, his doubt and anger nearly getting to him until his team was able to, in payment for him helping them in the first place, help him calm himself to prevent the sha from manifesting.

From there Faustus and his team continued their work while Anduin was recovering, but knowing that Varian was already fretting over his son Faustus instead decided to support his decision to continue to encourage his people and his allies, being overbearing was likely only going to be a detriment anyways. As the events in Pandaria progressed, Faustus bounced between aiding the front with his team where he could, and introducing his team to the Vanguards and beginning to integrate himself with them more afterwards, building connections with Adonis, Hugrim, Hugrim’s family, as well as his crew aboard the allegiance who offered to aid the efforts in Pandaria so long as they weren’t caught up in the war itself in the process.

The issues in Draenor and all the events that take place during that time was actually the period where Faustus takes a break from the front and works on his connection outside of the horde and alliance. He was able to meet the horde emissaries, a forsaken monk who merely introduced himself as Ederi, and a goblin shaman named Glekkle. A lot of what this community was working on combating was the rising influence of Hex’s cult, as well as the threat of the Legion invasion that was starting to be known as an inevitable event. Hex wanted to pull apart the Vanguards, knowing that the cult would be destroyed upon them learning of their efforts to extend the reach of Thros. This issue for Hex became even more apparent when he discovered Pheles had started working with Felicity, Sarath, and Hugrim to combat the reach of the cult, and Tul’s own covens, in Kul Tiras itself. 

So, taking this opportunity now that several of the major Vanguard leaders were absent from the citadel itself Hex waged an all out attack against the citadel, catching everyone within off guard and forcing a large scale evacuation that drove the citizen’s living within to Dalaran, and brought Faustus, Ederi, Enahlien, Verelyn, an undead priestess that constantly worked with Sarath and Hugrim known as Ainade, to stay behind and attempt to prevent the cult from taking over the citadel. The position within Arathi and the research that could be used to breach the blighted lands into Azeroth was far too important to the vanguards to just give it up. After the five were swarmed with aberrations and found themselves in a losing fight, Ederi and Ainade locked themselves within Hugrim’s garden/research building, and did what they could from keeping the thankfully fireproof building safe, the other three were urged to leave and gather their strength until they could reclaim the citadel once more. In their attempted escape the three were captured, Hex himself was the one to do so personally as his members were tasked with raided the other buildings and preparing themselves to settle there. Hex’s use of fire and wicker abominations gave Faustus little time to get the other two out before they were seriously injured, and knowing that the Vanguard needed their leaders he elected to use most of his strength to break out of the construct’s grasp, and sacrifice his arm in Hex’s attempt to behead Enahlien so that Enahlien and Verelyn could gather enough of his strength to break free and run away.

Faustus used whatever time he had thought he had left, as he was bleeding out and knew that he likely wouldn’t have enough time to escape, was able to take his pistol while Hex was distracted by the two running and shot him in the knee so that he couldn’t chase after the two, before killing him for killing his parents, ruining a large part of his life, and attempting to break apart a people whose entire foundation came from pulling together through the turmoils of separation, loss, and exile. He knew, from the fact that his father persisted after his death, that this wasn’t going to be the last of Hex, but he was dying knowing that he was either going to combat him himself if he was unable to move on, or that he had broken the Cult’s leadership down enough to give both his team and the rest of the Vanguards enough time to regroup and mount a full attack against them to get the city back.

But it wasn’t like the Vanguards to leave their allies behind, and as Praeragos and Sarath managed to temporarily drive the cult from the citadel, giving them enough time to let Sarath rescue and take Ederi and Ain to Dalaran, Praer brought the remaining three to Stormwind where there was just a slim enough chance that Faustus could be saved. After magically locking the gardens, the mage tower, and the keep so that important information that was already guarded by other means couldn’t get tampered with further, Praer had carried and flown them back by opening a portal after he broke free of the cult’s vain attempts to restrain him with briar thorns. Baltor had felt the surge of energy from the portal from his room at the old town inn and from Praer’s spirit, and urged the rest of the team to follow the dragon as he landed in the fields not far from the keep, the team keeping the guards from targeting the blue dragon as they found they had to prioritize stabilizing Faustus and figuring out what the hell had happened to have caused this in the first place.

Thanks to Baltor’s, and later some assistance of Anduin’s, healing, Faustus had survived. However his injuries had forced him to retire from his position in the greyguard, as he had to focus on his recovery, and any extensive use of magic was out of the question due to his weakened state. He instead found himself staying in Stormwind, using the empty barracks next to the embassy to organize his own team on their missions, giving them aid in the only way he was able to at the time. This barracks was also used as a temporary gathering place for the Vanguard leaders, who either worked to be granted pardon or disguised themselves so that they could walk around the city easily. From here on Faustus, his team, and the vanguard’s worked to reclaim the citadel and also prepare for the impending legion invasion once they got word of Gul’dan’s freedom. Under Faustus’ and Enahlien’s planning, the efforts towards reclaiming the citadel was a success and they were able to start pushing their efforts towards rebuilding and reinforcing their position to prevent anything like this from happening again.

About a month before the invasion several of Faustus’ peers, a gnome named Lania, Felicity, a dark iron mage named Yvena, and Ainade proposed their latest work, which was a prosthetic arm meant to be attuned to his own abilities with magic, most of which he was able to use due to actually taking the time to recover and then train himself, making sure that he was still on par in that way while also learning to defend himself with only his left hand. While it was difficult, Faustus was lucky that he was left hand dominant anyways, and after giving it some thought he accepted getting the prosthesis. He also accepted the risks of getting it, as there was a chance that his body would reject it, and the impending realization that it would hurt, and he would have to give himself time to recover again. He trusted his team however, and he had gone a long way to trust Ainade, giving that she was known within the Vanguards for her research and talent with prosthetics and replacement given her situation as an undead.

Faustus played a similar role to before after he did what he could to aid Anduin’s ascension to the throne, ignoring his own feelings to losing Varian until he was away and able to express such without impacting others. His primary contributions came from sending aid to wherever him and his men were needed, and he spent a lot of his time fighting the legion in Stormheim, while working alongside Genn during that campaign for multiple reasons, Val’sharah, aiding the druids, his brother, and Sarath against the emerald nightmare, and on Argus, fighting demons head on once he firmly established his ability and the improvements granted to him by his new arm. Faustus proved to be an accomplished leader among his friends, and his ability alongside Enahlien’s own tactical prowess made their group a force to be reckoned with against the Legion. Upon the legion’s fall and things started to settle down, Genn welcomed Faustus back into the greyguard now that Faustus was back on his feet, and he proved to be more open, happy, and out there than he was before. 

Yvena, Tyraanas, Baltor, and Elicia urged Genn to name Faustus as the commander as their slowly growing team started to expand into a small army, and as the war with the horde started to pick back up, he considered it. It wasn’t until the war of thorns, and Faustus and the Vanguard’s efforts to aid in the evacuations, that Genn considered it and accepted it once the Vanguard’s pledged their aid against, and see specifically, Sylvanas’ path of destruction. 

Getting off the topic of Faustus briefly, it was also around this time that Liam was resurrected by Alonsus after Calia herself was resurrected. As Alonsus was standing on neural ground, but saw what Sylvanas had done during the gathering, he saw it fit to send some of his priests, Baltor, Ainade, Jean, and several others, as well as several aiding paladins, to recover Liam’s body to prevent him from being used against his own old friend and the alliance as a whole due to Jean’s accounts of the prince’s marksmanship itself. A pleasant surprise however came in the form that for one reason or another Liam’s body had not decayed since his death, and whether it was true or not, Jean had proposed that it may have been from the extent of the prince’s faith in both his people and the light, while Ainade proposed that like Calia, it may have been for the purpose of the light still needing them, and that his faith itself powered that. Liam went into a form of hiding after Faol had him ensure that he would return should anything go wrong, he rejoined the alliance, making himself known to aiding the soldiers as just merely being ‘the traveler’, a masked bowmen who seemed to appear in a time of need.

Back on topic, Faustus led said group during the battle for lordaeron, offering routed support as well as acting as the extraction soldiers for the horde prisoners. They also led the retreat once the main group had went to go confront Sylvanas. Upon returning to Stormwind, Faustus set out to help set up the Vanguard’s outpost with his friends, and they were organizing their supplies and working up until Nathanos had set fire to the city and the group had to turn their efforts towards putting the fire out. An attempted assassination on Enahlien turned into a near death experience for Faustus, as he had taken an arrow meant for him by one of the diversions, but due to the amount of aid the worgen were giving to the alliance, the most arrows in the assassin’s quiver was tipped in wolf’s bane. The assassin got away, and Faustus made his team focus on putting out the fires before he almost succumbed to the poison, narrowly getting saved by Liam as he had worked with Baltor beforehand over the possible issue of wolf’s bane being used against his friends and family. Liam left Stormwind for a while after that, getting too close to being caught before his evaluation of his situation was complete. The last thing he wanted to do was give those he cared about a false hope of his return if something suddenly went wrong.

Faustus instead went with Genn to Kul Tiras as he recovered, reprising his role briefly to work as an advisor to his team, to Genn, and to his brother as the alliance worked to bring the admiralty back into the faction. After a while after the incident and Liam was cleared to be alright for the time being, he returned to Faustus and his family to reveal his resurrection, Faustus being more than ecstatic to have an old friend and long time love back, and Genn quite frankly just being glad that he can, in fact, hold his son at least one last time before anything else happened. From there Faustus and Liam became a rather terrifying due who worked together to help clear the turmoil where they could, and Liam joined the Vanguard’s and became a major inspiration and leading force against the darker reaches of the time, working instead to fight against Azeroth’s deterioration and against the horrors of the deep.

———

So, there is everything I have so far, anything else as the story progresses will be updated onto this document, and I’ll have works, stories, and art pieces to go along with all this. If the read more didn’t work, I’m sorry, but I just wanted to have this all in one comprehensive place for my own reference as well. Thank you for reading :D

[improbablecarny]

The Best Good Parts of the Metal Opera Pt. I

As according to me

I’m doing it, folks. I’m going through every Avantasia album to tell you about the best parts in some very good music, as according to me, your benevolent host and hopeless metal-romantic. Starting tonight with the one that started it all: The Metal Opera!

Storyline: Hoping to exonerate his stepsister, who has been accused of witchcraft, a monk of the Dominican Order named Gabriel Laymann makes a deal with a druid: to save Anna, he must first help save the world of imagination. Gabriel agrees, and enters a world of elves and dwarves, of ancient evils and theocratic conspiracies - a world called Avantasia. And the rest is heavy metal history!

Fun facts and overview:

This is the first-ever Avantasia album, released in 2001.

The Metal Operas have a much more traditional power metal sound: crazy drums, high-flying guitar lines, a handful of ballads and a crunchy production value. So if that’s your thing, strap in!

All Avantasia albums are narrative but TMO1 is the only one with short musical/spoken word interludes.

This album was partially (if not entirely?) responsible for getting Michael Kiske back into the metal scene. Yay!

Just a reminder: this is NOT going to be a series of fancy smart person reviews, and is 100% a way for me to quarantine my unconditional love for music that I like. You may see a brief snippet of insight now and then but that’s, uh, no guarantee.

Oh, and because it looks like every Avantasia album has been officially posted to Youtube... come on and follow along with me!

Prelude/Reach Out For the Light

A nice, soft, musical intro - wait what’s that oh it’s SICK GUITARS that sound like CHURCH BELLS. This ain’t your granny’s opera, but it should be

The pre-chorus Hell yes

In your miiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

The post solo interlude with church bells and marching snares

“ in...your...MIIIIIIIiiiiIIIIiiiind”

Serpents in Paradise

Love the pace on this one

MALLEUS MALEFICARUM THE LAW

YOW

DEMONS AND SPELLS ARE THEY REALITY

Heaven is burning... people are yearning....

THE BREEEAKDOWN

oooOooOOOOOOOO

“Something strange is going on...” CH ILLS

“VANDROIY! CAN YOU TELL ME! WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT IT ALL!”

yes yes yes yes

Malleus Maleficarum

This is not a song but it is in fact a weird spoken word interlude. I understand why Tobi dropped interludes in following albums but it’s a very atmospheric, well-staged one, and I wonder what kind of interludes the other stories would’ve had in another timeline 🤔

Love the introduction of Falk as a complete bastard

Also, Tobi’s old lady voice

Breaking Away

Very standard power metal but it’s a fun romp nonetheless!

Dueting at “And now the time has come to go another way.”

Farewell

Love those synthetic Bagged Pipes

Iconic ballad, especially when performed live.

SUPER love the 6/8 chorus and its lilting, heartfelt crescendo.

Kiske outtro 👍

The Glory of Rome

Three words for you: Heavy metal pope

“Holding IN MY HAND”

This whole part really but especially

“AND ITS BEEN FORETOLD

AFTER TOUCHING

THE LIIIiiiIiIIiIIGHT”

In Nomine Patris / A New Dimension

These are both short musical interludes so I’m just gonna stick them together, but I really like them and they both have a cinematic quality to them so hey, here’s a shoutout

Avantasia

The sound starting off grainy and distant AND THEN

It’s a great feeling seeing this one live let me tell you

Uuuuuse your mind... you will leave the FLESH DIMENSIONS BEHIND

“We are the kingdom of light and dreams” yes, yes you are 🥺

Inside

Sweet non-power ballad

Andre Matos as an elf prince was genius casting

Sign of the Cross

“FROM A WORLD OF REIGN - THEY COME!”

The CHUG-CHUG-A-WUG rhythm

I love this song as their standard concert finale

The sudden Kai Hansen bit

“These enchanting colours~”

The Tower

Piaaaaaano piano piano

Where do iiiiiiiiiii

GOOOOOOOOO (Never had a etc)

Down DOWN down DownDOWN

HALLELUJAH

Creepy ass spoken interlude with the Tower immediately followed by Vandroiy’s revelation about its naaaatuuuure... I REALIIIIIIIIZE

The Mozarty string thing

OOOOOOOO OOO OOOoooOo

“Was it my fault?... or was it no one’s fault...at all?”

Though it isn’t present in the lyrics, there is apparently an ELF PLANE involved here. An ELF PLANE!

Every Avantasia album hosts a whole whack of metal vocalists that you may or may not know. So if it’s discovering new faces or rediscovering ones you know and love, check out the cast list and do a bit of poking around:

Cast List:

Tobias Sammet as Gabriel Laymann  Michael Kiske as Lugaid Vandroiy David DeFeis as Friar Jakob Ralf Zdiarstek as Bailiff Falk von Kronberg Sharon den Adel as Anna Held Andre Matos as Elderane the Elf Kai Hansen as Regrin the Dwarf  Rob Rock as Bishop Johann von Bicken Oliver Hartmann as Pope Clement VIII Timo Tolkki as Voice of the Tower

[imagineclaireandjamie]

Collision Course - Part Nine

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight

Only one part left after this and then the Epilogue (and possibly other little snippets as the muse and prompts strike). - Mod Lenny

“I know where we are,” Frank exclaimed suddenly, sitting up straighter behind Claire on the horse.

She looked around, her pulse quickening with fear. They should still be at least a few hours away from the stones; it was too soon.

Then she too recognized the rock formation in the distance.

“Cocknammon Rock,” she said with a smile.

“You remember then?” There was something hopeful in Frank’s voice but Claire was distracted.

“Of course I do. You told me about the British patrols and when we passed this way on our journey to Leoch I warned Jamie about it,” she explained. “He alerted the others and then dumped me off the horse so I’d be safe out of the way while he and the others surprised the soldiers. I tried to get away back to the stones but he found me again before I got very far.”

She remembered how he’d slipped easily down from his horse and crossed to block her way, still covered in blood and dirt from the skirmish and making no hint as to the injuries he’d suffered. She smiled again. The idiot might’ve died if she hadn’t been there when it was his turn to fall off the horse.

“I see,” Frank said from behind her, his tone drastically different from the moment before.

Claire found herself annoyed with him but held her tongue. Like Murtagh had said that evening by the fire, she couldn’t help how she felt. And Frank certainly wasn’t making things easier.

If Murtagh heard the exchange he didn’t say anything about it, only let them know, “It’ll no be much longer. We can either stop for another night so ye dinna arrive where ye’re goin’ in the dark or ye can go through just afore sundown.”

“Tonight,” Frank said quickly. “The sooner we get home, the better.”

“Will it really be better to walk all the way to Inverness in the dark when we’ve been riding all day?” Claire challenged. “Or perhaps we’ll just be struck by a passing motorist. I think we should take advantage of having someone here to help keep watch while we get some rest.”

“What exactly is it that you’re waiting for?” Frank asked under his breath. “Do you think he’ll come after you? He knows his place in this, that you’re married to me, that you’re my wife. He knows you’ll be better off with me.”

“And what makes you so sure about what Jamie thinks?” Claire countered.

“He told me as much himself.”

That caused Claire’s breathing to catch and her chest to seize painfully.

“You two talked about me?” There was an accusation in her voice but regarding what, she wasn’t sure.

“It isn’t as though we have much else in common.” Frank’s tone hadn’t completely softened but it wasn’t as openly antagonistic either. “You did say he was your friend. He wants what’s best for you and that’s for you to come home.”

Claire could completely believe that Jamie had said those things to Frank; he had said similar thing to her. But hearing Frank say them… it changed them, somehow. It made her want to argue, to point out all the reasons she had to stay… but really, there weren’t many reasons for her to stay… just Jamie.

They passed back into silence as they rode the rest of the way finally spotting the hill in the distance as the sun set behind it. She recalled hiding with Frank near the summit of that hill and glimpsing the sun through the crack in the stone as it rose while the local druids danced. She saw the sun again through that crack but with the world turned around and the sun peeking through on its descent, shrouding the world in shadows rather than bathing it in light.

“I’m too tired to face going through that tonight, Frank,” Claire pleaded. “I’m hungry and I want to sleep.”

He sighed while Murtagh pointedly stayed out of the conversation.

“Very well. You’re right; we don’t know how long we’ll have to walk before a car stops and it’ll be safer if they can see us properly when they do,” Frank conceded.

“There’s a wee cottage near here,” Murtagh remarked now that a decision had been made. “It was abandoned last I knew. Might be a sight more comfortable than sleeping in the open.” He looked to Claire who nodded then he turned his horse to one side and led the way.

They set up their final camp in silence and quickly turned in for the night.

Claire lay next to Frank but her mind sought Jamie and refused to quiet. Was she really contemplating staying? How could she even think of doing something like that to Frank? All of it was insane. To think of everything she would have to give up in order to stay––the friends she’d made during the war, the conveniences of modernity, the rights and privileges she had taken for granted…

And what would she get in return? Jamie was an outlaw and since breaking Frank out of Fort William, she almost certainly was too. On top of that she was a woman and English and, as Jamie had told her once, that wasn’t a pretty thing to be in the Highlands of Scotland.

But she would have Jamie. He knew the truth now, about who and what she was; he knew the truth and believed her. She could be herself with him, talk about what life was like in the twentieth century; she could tell him about what lay…

Her heart began to pound and fear gripped her.

Culloden. The Jacobite Rising was just two years away. Would she be able to live with herself if she left Jamie behind knowing how likely it was that he would end up on that disastrous battlefield? If she returned to the future and failed to find out what happened to Jamie––or worse, that he had died in battle…

Murtagh. Whatever she ultimately decided to do with herself, she would be sure to warn Murtagh. If anyone had a hope of keeping Jamie from getting involved in the Rising, it was his godfather.

But she wanted to be sure. And the only way to do that was to stay. So why was she so scared to make up her mind?

She didn’t know how Jamie felt about her. She had her suspicions––she knew he liked her well enough––but he hadn’t ever said anything to her that would suggest…

Despite yearning for rest, Claire got no sleep that night, rising with the sun and staring at the hilltop where her fate would be decided once and for all.

“Are ye ready to go back then?” Murtagh’s quiet voice came up behind her.

She peered through the door to where Frank was only beginning to stir on the floor.

“If anything I’m more confused about what I ought to do than I was yesterday or the day before that or the day before that,” Claire lamented.

“Ye’ll do what ye must when the time comes,” Murtagh assured her. “And then ye’ll pray for the health and happiness of the one ye leave wi’out ye. Cannae do more’n that.”

“There is something I would tell you before we go,” Claire began solemnly. “It’s about… it’s about something that’s going to happen.”

Murtagh’s brow furrowed suspiciously.

“You know that there are always rumors of King James returning and taking back his throne?”

“D’ye mean to say he will?”

There was surprise and hope in the man’s face and Claire’s heart sank as she shook her head.

“His son, Prince Charles, will try in two years’ time… but it will end in disaster. You have to promise me that you’ll keep Jamie from getting involved in it; keep him away from Culloden.”

Confusion returned to Murtagh’s expression.

“When ye say,’disaster,’ ye mean the battle’s lost.”

“It’s more than just that though. The Highlanders will be severely punished in their defeat,” Claire explained as best she could.

“The Clans will end as you know them,” Frank chimed in from the doorway, his fingers tucking the ragged ends of his bandages in where they’d come loose in sleep. “Your language, your tartans––both will be outlawed. There will be raids throughout the highlands by the military––made worse by famine.”

Claire let Frank continue filling in the details that she recalled so little about, absorbing them anew herself. He couldn’t have been more precise if he’d prepared a proper lecture with notes. And Murtagh stood there listening and nodding, his mind already sorting and storing what he would need to know most, discarding the details that he could afford to forget.

Would telling a single Scotsman be enough to change the course of history? Probably not. But it might be enough to save Jamie––to save some of those at Leoch, perhaps, as well.

“Thank ye,” Murtagh said when Frank was through. He extended his hand for Frank but then flushed as he saw Frank glance at his bandages again and hesitate before shaking Murtagh’s hand gingerly.

“I don’t know what use you’ll be able to put it to,” Frank admitted. “But it seems a fair exchange for the services you’ve rendered Claire and I.”

“Fair exchange,” Murtagh murmured with a nod then turned to Claire. “Ye ken where ye’re goin’ from here, I take it.”

“Yes, thank you.” She stepped forward and surprised Murtagh with a hug. “Please, keep him safe,” she whispered.

Murtagh didn’t acknowledge what she’d said, just nodded farewell to her as she and Frank began the climb up the hill.

“Has it really only been two weeks?” Frank muttered, picking his way up carefully.

“For you it has,” Claire reminded him.

“Well, I am ready for the nightmare to be over,” he said with confidence, taking Claire’s hand loosely in his and guiding her to the stone.

She stopped when they were still a few feet away, her hand slipping from his easily.

“Frank…”

“You don’t need to be scared,” he reassured her. “I remember how terrible it was but we just have to do this and it will all be over, once and for all.”

She was shaking her head slowly, tears in her eyes.

He took her hand again and squeezed it as hard as he was able. It was enough for her gold ring to dig uncomfortably into her finger.

“Claire… Just… look at me, all right. Keep your eyes on me. We’ll do this together.”

His eyes were brown; he had dirt on his cheek from where he’d slept with it pressed to the dirt floor of the cabin; he needed a haircut and a shave; there was a sheen of sweat on his face and redness in his eyes; his lips were chapped and he looked desperate and afraid.

She raised her free hand the way he had his other hand raised, reaching for the stone.

“On three,” he instructed. “One… two… th––”

“I’m sorry,” Claire said quickly as Frank’s hand went forward. She pulled her hand from his as he held tight and struggled to pull her forward with him.

And then she fell.

She was on the ground, her head spinning… and Frank was gone.

[gigslist]

Language of Symbols and Symbolism

I am an art historian and my specialty is symbols and symbolism. What great artists have used throughout their work. By tracking old masters and what inspired them, you can find new things to inspire you. Here are snippets of a new book I’m working on to get you started 

The allegory and symbolism of the Grail bloodline go back to pagan times and lore. Chretien de Troyes’ wounded king dinner cabaret. When read as symbolism is a graphic fertility ritual. The beautiful girl represents sexual desire. The chalice represents the womb, because of its shape. The sword represents a penis pursuing desire and a womb for the penis to place his seed. 

Desire leading both the womb and the penis to come together. Medieval pornographic innuendo, popular before freedom of speech. At the same time the story is also talking about a bloodline. A special bloodline worthy of a mystical dinner cabaret and centuries of folklore.

Symbols are a universal language, invented before recorded history began. Like Egyptian hieroglyphs. Symbols give a lot of information in a small amount of imagery. How some art historians can read the symbol language is they track origins. An image or saying and the people and cultures around it. 

Symbols can solve world mysteries. Though they can be a lot to track, not a few centuries, but 5 or more millennia. It requires years and sometimes several lifetimes of compulsive obsessive history geeks.

There are similar symbols of the same primordial gods found all over the world. For example images and figurines of a goddess with her hands up. Found from California, USA, to Bronze age Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. From Egypt in Africa to remote Outback Australia. 

The solar cross was once thought of as a Nazi symbol. It is an ancient symbol of happiness and represents the Sun. The solar cross is all over the world and dates back to the Bronze Age in recorded history.

To me as an art historian, this says all these people at one time shared cultures and beliefs. At some time in history, they were communicating with each other. Trading and living with each other. The same as we live and trade with different cultures today.

In the modern Wiccan and New Age religions the five pointed star has all kinds of meanings. In mythology the five pointed star represents Venus. The primordial goddess of love and fertility. Diana in Rome, Isis in Egypt, Artemis in Greece, Inana in Sumeria, Ashera by the Hebrews, Anu by the Druids and Hindus. Her other symbols include the moon and sea shells. Venus also has a very interesting story, told by her symbols.

Modern Grail Bloodline Symbols

Not all records and ID tags have words and photos. Heraldry is a symbol system that tells us who a royal person is. Their family, social rank, occupation and military rank. 

Heraldry can identify where a royal person comes from and what family they married into. Sometimes heraldry will tell us if they ride a horse in battle or fight on the ground. Privacy isn’t a choice for royals. 

Heraldry in the 21st century has a lot more symbols and needs an expert to translate. 2000 years ago heraldry was simple Egyptian cartouches. 

3,500 years ago a whole bloodline was one person and their god, one avatar, one symbol for the bloodline. The other symbols were for the protection god avatars of their children. 

Some royal bloodline symbols still represent the same royal bloodlines 3500 years later. Often appearing in the decorations surrounding a modern heraldry shield as minor details. It is these minor details that can tell us the ancient origins of a royal family. 

A pearl, a lily, a chrysanthemum leaf, a spiral, a ram’s horn. Each can recall ancient histories of heroic queens and wise kings. Rather than the world wide web and words for search terms. The symbol language uses the human brain. Your brain is the computer and database, and pictures are search keywords. It makes apparent that using written words has dumbed down our brains. 

How Symbols Identify Somebody’s Employer

Old art is a non-digital selfie and photo book. People dress up and play out scenes of history and artists make pictures of it. We idolize celebrities as gods and act out their lives in selfies. Ancients idolized monarchies and acted out their lives in selfies.

They ancients weren’t into fiction, because a true story is more inspiring. Kings, queens, princes and princesses, heroines and heroes. Each with their own symbol or combination of symbols. How we identify who they are in art is with their symbols. A simple jar on a shelf in the background. A hand resting on a shoulder with a finger directed to a tower. A saint that hangs out with a pig. Each piece of art is a whole book or library of information. 

Self Portrait With Sunflower by Sir Anthony van Dyck, 1663. Gold chain is a gift from his patron, the English monarch Charles I. A gold chain denotes duty. The artist is pointing to a sunflower and holds a chain over his shoulder pointing to himself. The sunflower represents a King and the chain, chained to duty. On the surface the painting is saying that a King is the artist's employer. 

Sir Anthony van Dyck was a court painter for the monarchies of Spain, Flanders and England. At court he learned many stories of Grail history and symbols to include in his court paintings.

Further study of Van Dyck’s Sunflower painting can tell a great many other things. In the background are clouds shaped like a face. Clouds and royals can reference the Olympian gods who lived in the clouds. In modern speak they were ancient peoples who lived in high mountains. The gods are a pre to early Bronze Age tribe who are the ancestors of all civilizations and real royals.

The Van Dyck’s other hand is pointing up is a Johnnite symbol, part of the Holy Grail bloodline story. It can also be pointing to something in the original picture frame. Picture frames and surrounds are also part of the artwork and coded with symbols. When a picture is cut from its frame by an art thief for example. Or cut from wall by museum archeologists. Whole chapters and contexts are sliced from the story and its history.

How Symbols Solve a World Mystery

A real-life identifier of Moses from the Bible and the Exodus is the timing of the mega volcano Thera near Crete. It sent tsunamis as far as Egypt and was the main cause of the Bronze age collapse. 15th to 16th century BC.

The other identifier is Moses’s horns. Moses was the adopted son of an Egyptian pharaoh. Each Pharaoh has their own god avatar or protection god. One of the Egyptian horned gods was the ram god Amun. The other the goat god Khnum.

Moses was an adopted son and by tradition took the name of his adopted family. There is a Pharaoh with Mose in his name and a horned protection God. He lived around the time of the Thera eruption, and his name was Pharaoh Ahmose. But theres a big twist to the story that is not in the Bible, which you can find for yourself. Or wait till this book is published where it has more context and source references.

Rewriting History

One of the most surprising discoveries from tracking Holy Grail and Bible symbols is that none of them are Jewish. They are pre Bronze Age pagan, Greek, Egyptian and Roman. Human remains found near the symbol artifacts were caucasian, not semite. Once you can wrap your head around it, history and the Bible start rewriting themselves.

[vi-visected]

do you have an ao3? i’m in love with that druid prince!merlin snippet you posted

i’m so happy that you like it!! i was really pleased with how that scene flowed because i had to tweak it a considerable amount to fit it into the context without compromising the feeling i was going for, making it feel compact but not rushed.

i actually do not have any published works ;v; i have been working on that au and i hope to have it published eventually but for right now i just post snippets and blurbs on tumblr. it might not wind up being the first thing i post, i’ve always sort of worked off of having a handful of WIPs that i jump between so i’m actually in the process of writing like 6 things, but i will definitely link it when it’s posted :)

[julidrevezzo]

Want to read a snippet from my Newest fantasy romance release, Druid Warrior Prince? You can do so here on Amazon. (or a shorter one here: via my Sunday Snippet post)