#this is about primeval btw

[sasha-whos-askin-racket]

What's with all the Danny animosity in the tag today, I love that guy, he's so weird and fucked up and I want to put him in a little enclosure and study him under a microscope.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #357: scathach-skadi (ruler)

today on Grailfinders we’re building the savior of quick once more, Scathach-Skadi (Ruler)! this time around she’s a Swarmkeeper Ranger / Dreams Druid mix, because we need a school of ice-fish and the ability to turn everywhere we go into an impromptu water park.

check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

next up: who ya gonna call?

Ancestry & Background

this is normally the part where I point out putting on a bathing suit won’t change your species or past, and that is still true. we’re a Custom Lineage instead of an aasimar this time because you’re being used as the emergency power source for a theme park, not because of the outfit.

that means you get +2 Wisdom to start, as well as Darkvision because gods are rarely stymied by the shade and the Eldritch Adept feature for a free Armor of Shadows. you might not get the whole castle, but the free mage armor is still super useful for fighting in a swimsuit.

and again, swim suits don’t change your past, so you’re still an Acolyte for proficiency in Insight and Religion.

Ability Scores

despite the class change you’ll still mostly be casting, so your Wisdom should be as high as possible. after that is Dexterity to not die in a swimsuit, then Intelligence to remember the end of your timeline. sorry about that btw. your Strength is slightly above average since you do use your spear in this form, but don’t worry, we’ll get a better option later. that means your Constitution is average, and your Charisma is your dump stat. Sieg could tell you being a living battery doesn’t come with a lot of health benefits, and if you weren’t hanging out with people with much higher charisma scores we wouldn’t have gotten into that mess in the first place.

Class Levels

1. Ranger 1: starting as a ranger gets you proficiency in Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as Animal Handling to manage the fish and Perception and Investigation thanks to your time living in a planetary panopticon.

as a first level ranger you can single out a Favored Foe as part of your attack roll, adding 1d4 to your damage against that creature once a turn for up to a minute, proficiency timer per day. you’ll also deal even more damage as you level up.

on a less useful topic, you’re also a Natural Explorer, giving you and your party plenty of travel bonuses while running around in the Arctic. presumably this is that big land ark you handed off to Guda.

2. Ranger 2: at second level you can pick a Fighting Style. There’s not really one we need, but you can see through snow, so Blind Fighting is relevant. You can tell where creatures are within ten feet of you, regardless of how visible they are.

you can also cast Spells now! Absorb Elements is a pretty generic defensive spell to block out elemental damage, and Zephyr Strike is some flashy spearwork- until you end the spell, your movement won’t provoke attacks, but you can end the spell early to deal extra damage on a hit and gain extra speed.

3. Ranger 3: at level three you get Primeval Awareness, letting you spend a spell slot to sense the existence of extraplanar creatures within 6 miles of your park. Given that you are an extraplanar entity, this isn’t actually that useful. you can also use Longstrider so you or a party member can move quicker. eh? ehhh? see what I did there?

you also become a Swarmkeeper this level- that gives you Faerie Fire for more crits for the party, and Mage Hand to make a fish go grab something for you. a fish from your Gathered Swarm of icefish, I mean. once a turn, you can use your fish to mess with someone you hit with an attack, either dealing extra damage, forcibly moving them fifteen feet if they fail a strength save, or moving yourself five feet in any direction, which doesn’t cause an opportunity attack.

4. Ranger 4: one of your skills is ice cream, so that means we gotta get ice cream. specifically, from the Chef feat instead of an Ability Score Improvement, though this does still improve your Wisdom to round it up. you can use cook’s tools now, and on a short rest you can prepare food for some of your party for an extra d8 of HP added to their healing. by either spending an hour or during a long rest, you can whip up your proficiency modifier in long-term ice cream, which lasts 8 hours before melting. anyone who eats that ice cream as a bonus action gains a couple temporary HP. This doesn’t scale that well, but extra HP is extra HP.

5. Druid 1: as a first level druid, you learn Druidic! it’s a language! you can also cast and prepare Spells now! check your PHB to figure out how many of which spell slots you get, but you can use Frostbite and Shape Water for free.

you can swap out druid spells every day so your exact spell list here isn’t nearly as important, but I highly recommend grabbing Ice Knife. it’s one of the very few ice or water-themed spells we can get that has an attack roll attached to it, letting us use it with all your ranger goodies. throw a fish at people.

6. Druid 2: as a second level druid you can use Wild Shapes, but Scathach doesn’t turn into a deer last time I checked, so maybe just use Wild Companion instead for some free casts of Find Familiar for one special fish. maybe it’s the manta ray, maybe it’s maybelline.

you also become a druid of Dreams this level, giving you the Balm of the Summer Court- sunscreen! you get a pool of d6s you can use to heal an ally as a bonus action that recharge each day, and spending a hit die also gives your target one point of temporary HP per die used.

7. Druid 3: at third level, druids get second level spells! Lesser Restoration will help cure sunburns and swimmers ear, while Barkskin lets you grant other servants swimsuits! for up to an hour after casting, a willing creature you touch gets a minimum AC of 16, regardless of their armor.

8. Druid 4: that’s enough caster shenanigans, it’s time to get that spear. first, use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for a higher AC so you don’t die the second you enter melee range, then grab the cantrip Shillelagh to turn a stick into a magical spear. (we technically can’t use regular spears bc druids have something against metal, but this is comparable in terms of damage.) while shille’d, your stick deals 1d8 damage and your attack and damage rolls are based on your Wisdom instead of your strength, massively improving your accuracy and damage.

9. Druid 5: fifth level druids get third level spells! I would avoid grabbing literal fish when you cast Conjure Animals, but it’s a great distraction for any enemy that can’t cast fireball. for the ones that can, you can still throw fish at them as a distraction with Sleet Storm. it doesn’t directly deal damage, but it makes the land slippery and can break concentration for anyone standing inside.

we also get our first taste of your Noble Phantasm thanks to Tidal Wave! any creature within the line of water you conjure that fails a dex save gets knocked prone, and knocked around for some damage.

10. Druid 6: at level six, dream druids can make a Hearth of Moonlight and Shadow that helps creatures rest and relax a bit better while on the road. it’s nowhere near a whole theme park, but you’re still recovering from the last one you ran.

11. Druid 7: with your new fourth level spells you can Conjure Minor Elementals or Summon Elemental, so now you can summon fish actually made of ice, rather than the literal kind that just flop around. you can also get that big sunfish that swallows people with Watery Sphere. smack it into people, then laugh as they struggle to get out. if you think quantity still beats quality, you can always use Ice Storm- it’s sleet storm, but with damage instead of concentration nonsense. well, damage causes concentration checks, so technically it’s both.

12. Druid 8: use this ASI to bump up your Wisdom to its maximum for the strongest spells!

13. Druid 9: ninth level druids get fifth level spells, and now you can slap a ton of people with fish in one go thanks to Cone of Cold, or you can use your NP to make a Maelstrom, creating an area of difficult terrain that’ll deal damage and pull people into the center of it.

14. Ranger 5: fifth level rangers get an Extra Attack each turn, letting you poke two people with a stick if you really wanna. they also get second level spells, so you can use your rune magic to Enhance Ability on one person to make them stronger, smarter, or some third thing, and change their class. their FGO class, not their D&D class- that would be a whole other thing.

you also get Web for free, which I guess is kind of like a discount maelstrom? it doesn’t do damage or pull people around, but it does slow them down.

15. Ranger 6: sixth level rangers get another type of environment added to their Natural Explorer feature, but we don’t really need anything for the build! feel free to use whatever’s handiest for your campaign.

16. Ranger 7: seventh level rangers can put down a Cordon of Arrows, plopping four fish into place around you to automatically attack any enemy that gets too close. you can also arrange your fish into a Writhing Tide, which is both a cool pun and lets you spend a bonus action to ride your fish for a 10’ flying speed for one minute. it’s not a lot, but they’re fish, it’s a miracle they flew in the first place.

17. Ranger 8: at eighth level you finally start recovering from your ordeal, resulting in a boost to your Constitution. you also learn Land’s Stride, so any kind of natural difficult terrain is no problem for you! you can also pretty much ignore damaging or slowing plants now too, which explains the state of the flower garden ngl.

18. Ranger 9: speaking of, at level 9 rangers learn third level spells, like Plant Growth. that spell usually doesn’t result in a man-eating garden, but you never know! you also get Gaseous Form for free but w/e you already have a bad way to fly.

19. Ranger 10: tenth level rangers get another Natural Explorer boost we don’t need, as well as Nature’s Veil. you can spend a bonus action to turn invisible for a round, something something refracting light something ice fish, you get it.

20. Ranger 11: our capstone level turns your fish into a Mighty School, causing them to deal extra damage, knock enemies prone while moving them, and give yourself half cover for a round if you move yourself. you’re still not wearing any armor, so that +2 bonus to AC is pretty sweet.

for even more damage, you can also turn your spear into a ice spear with Elemental Weapon! it’s like magic weapon, but for the elements!

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Druids are always a powerful class, even when you’re actively trying not to interact with their core mechanics. turn into a crocodile or something, it’s fine, there’s nothing saying Skadi can’t do that. also check out the rest of the druid spell list, it’s pretty solid.

this build’s great at improving the party, both directly through spells and by shaping the battlefield to best suit your party’s strengths, dragging all the enemies together for the wizard to fireball, or blocking people from getting past the paladin, etc.

and when that doesn’t work you can always rely on gaming the action economy by summoning a dozen fish to swarm your foes like a bunch of frosty piranha.

Cons:

the druid and ranger features don’t play nice together. favored foe and your swarm both require you to hit things with attack rolls, but your druid spells are mostly saves or making creatures to attack for you. shillelagh thankfully doesn’t use up your concentration, but it does eat into your bonus actions, which ranger is already trying to monopolize. also, both your buffs and your crowds use concentration, so you can’t help someone into a swimsuit and have fish at the same time.

like all water based casters, the game designers kind of screwed you over. your explicitly water-based spells deal physical damage rather than any kind of elemental damage, so we can’t pick up any feats that would really help you hurt stuff more. and god forbid you cast any of these within a country mile of people you don’t want to hurt.

natural explorer is almost completely useless unless you’re playing with a DM who is big on travel difficulties. just grab deft explorer instead when you play, I won’t be offended.

[boydholbrook-fan]

Thank you for the tag, @evenmyhivemindisempty! Btw, I love the “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals too, so much!

🎶✨ when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (positivity is cool) 🎶✨

“Rock N Roll Soul” - by Screaming Eagles ( thanks to Justified: City Primeval )

“Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” - by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ( thanks to Far Cry 5 video game )

“Legendary” - by Welshly Arms ( thanks to my mom, as she heard it on the radio and immediately told me about it )

“Legend” - by The Score ( thanks to a random cars video that my brother shared on his instagram )

“Personal Jesus” - by Depeche Mode ( thanks to my dad )

of course, I know this is about to name just 5 songs, there’s sooo many of them that I love to listen to, even over and over again

as well as “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Big River” by Boyd Holbrook, of course! ❤️

but these are the ones that came to my mind at the moment.

no pressure tags: @ilovewhiteroses @toxicanonymity @milla-frenchy @kurjaks @inafieldofdaisies @r3dheadedwitch @pnwdagnabbit @ithinkwehitametaphor @merry-andrews @holbrookswifey @ionlyjoinedforboydholbrook

I tagged 11 of my fave followers but whatever 😁

[bimblescribbles]

In the Open Wood

So, I've been thinking about my feature film idea a lot lately, and I felt like doing a much more environmental piece for it would be great at showing off the kind of vibe I want for it; a primeval and pristine nature vibe. Since I've already planned to have a scene of an aurochs hunt in it, I wanted to draw a scene showing off not only the wood-pasture environments I want to portray in the project, but also what an aurochs that's at peace looks like. There's a bull, a cow, and a calf all following alongside each other on their long trek for sustenance. I'm super proud of how I rendered both the background, and featured fauna, and I hope you all enjoy it too! (Btw, an aurochs is the animal we get our domesticated cattle from if you were wondering)

[beepartcollection]

SLAMS MY HANDS DOWN ON THE COUNTERTOP. Engineer elden ring. May I hear of what’s going on with him :)?

*rubs hands* WELL

so to preface- the mercs are basically isekai'd into the lands between, relating to some lore about Marika and undead. One moment they're being shot at and dying in the New Mexico badlands and the next they're on a cliff that overlooks a giant tree the size of 2.5 burj khalifas that glows.

They travel for a while and meet Sellen, who offers to teach them sorceries, and Engie, after not having any mechanical things to tinker with for a while, and realizing magic is this place's math and science, gladly accepts. After all, he doesn't have his sentries and tools, so he might as well learn something new, he loves learning. When Merasmus pops in on Halloween flinging spells around is usually pretty fun, so why not? Also Scout nearly blew himself up when he tried doing magic, so no more for him.

So Engie is the team's other ranged fighter! Aside from Sniper, who uses a bow and arrow.

He usually works as the team's mediator, breaking up fights between them and talking to people who are even less mentally stable than the mercs cause, well, if it had to be a contest on who has people that are less mentally stable, I think Elden Ring would win.

He also teaches the team how to ride the horses they were given!

It. Goes.

He does split from the team sometimes though, to go with Sellen to find Primeval sorcerers and learn some of their magic (he does learn Comet Azur). But generally he sticks with the team. He goes with them through Stormveil, Radahn, Mt Gelmir, Leyendell- some nice spots! I have a scene in mind where they're about to fight Godrick The Grafted, and when they enter his arena, he does his little 'oo lowly tarnished playing as a lord' but Engie just 'actually, we aint lookin to become no lords, we just wanna go home'. And Godrick is like. What.

They also find and heal Millicent in this au! And when they find her Heavy, Engie, and Spy (much to his own chagrin) are like 'i have known Millicent for 1 day but if anything happened to her I would kill this entire team and then myself'. Millicent and Engie bond the best though, cause of being amputees (Godrick ripped off Engie's gunslinger btw to try grafting it into themself, it didn't work and the gunslinger was ruined), Millicent being interested in Engie's homeland of Texas, and Engie in general is just, so dadly, dadliest merc, and very friendly when you dont realize how not normal he is. Plus if you know Millicent's backstory you know she could use a dad right now.

She goes with him and Sellen on their adventures to find primeval sorcerers and Sellen stuff, but they do part when Engie and the team takes on Radahn, citing she has to go on her journey (if u play Elden Ring, u know).

After the first death of the team and Spy leaving, Engie does try to console Soldier, telling him he's a good leader, and they'll get home, he promises. Engie and him do fight though when he realizes what dragon communion is doing to Soldier's body, and says he can't be doing that, they don't know what it'll do to him (how hypocritical of you, Engie).

He goes to Raya Lucaria to help Sellen one last time. I have this comic I made but I don't think I'll finish it, and I don't wanna spoil Engie's fate out in The Public until I write it in the fic i wanna write, but here's a part of comic

Overall Engie has a nice time in elden ring au :3 aside from the end

[wyvernscales]

Rather than make a post for each of my DATV thoughts, I’ve just put them all here. Spoilers for all of act 1:

Not Varric fulfilling the Duncan role this game

Why only Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain tho? Why aren’t they all out

Strife!!! He doesn’t like me :(

FREAK DARKSPAWN ARE BACK BAYBEEE

Would smash the nadas dirthalen

Well D’Meta’s crossing was gross.

Why is there a human mayor of a town in Arlathan and why does he care about Ghilannain?

A Morrigan intro that doesn’t have her saying “well, well”????????

VALTA!HARDING

Bbg I’m so confused by the crossroads I don’t like these mapsssss

TEIAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Faceless horde of identical qunari occupying a city? How original.

Caterina’s kind of a gilf ngl

Underwater level uwu

Spite’s kinda…

No! Another gilf down :(

oh? Is the oracle the same thing that valta heard???

Yeah, yeah, dangerous relics or whatever. I’ve got kitties to pet and pottery to eviscerate

LuCANIS! All this talk of coffee kisses in front of your cousin??

Why is the Butcher called the Butcher if he’s the leader of the Antaam?

Why would the qamekmaster call them human traitors if all non-qunari are bas?

You can’t seriously make me believe the Crows are a moral group fighting for justice

Governor Ivenci only referred to with gender neutral pronouns. Another nb win

And Why would the Venatori be knowingly working with elven gods??

MAEVARIS MAEVARIS MAEVARIS

I don’t care how long I have to go running around killing darkspawn to get the chest in the creepy blight tree, I’m GETTING the chest

Worth it.

Idk, I’ve always imagined the Anderfels as snowy not… cactusy

Antoine is perhaps the most French man to exist ever. Not even Orlesian, French.

Hold on, I’ve gotta explode this cactus with my body

Gloom Howler’s kinda hot

Jesus FUCK this blighted dragon

Noticing a suspicious lack of anyone responding to Varric’s existence….

MYRNAAAAAA

TAAAAASH

When Harding talks about the inquisition all I can think about is the inconsistencies? Like, why would she remember Cole if he left or remained a spirit?

EEMMRICHHHHHH

I’ve only known this wisp for one second and if anything bad happens to it I will kill everyone and then myself

Em has canon father energy

LEMME AT THESE fucking CHESTS IN THE NECROTORIUM

MANFREDDSD

Ykw. Vorgoth can get it too

BELOVED Taash feeds the birdies

Karash has non binary swag

Wait wait. If Taash’s mom left the Qun bc she didn’t want her child to be in the Antaam, which would make them functionally a man then why is she ok with Taash being a warrior anyway? Seems odd to do this kinda plot with a group we’ve already established transness with

You can’t seriously think I’m gonna save the capital of the slave empire.

Davrin is dadcore

FORMLESS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!

A BELOVED wisp has gifted me a SPOON!

Astrolabe Restored

Well. Goodnight shadow dragons I guess.

candle hops are such cuties

My inquisitior would not behave like this.

So Aveline’s the Viscount and she’s allied with Sebastian, a guy who tried to annex Kirkwall in my worldstate

I kinda wanna play “Inquisitor saves Southern Thedas 2 Electric Boogaloo” if I’m being honest

I already collected all the wolfs regrets before meeting Inky. So. Yeah. That was a lot.

SO FLEMETH IS DEAD FRFR?????

How come the other gods are crazy looking and Mythal is just a normal elf

Oh this echo in the well thing is gonna be cool

Truly don’t know how much of these blight sound effects I can take tbh

ARE WE GOIN TO KAL SHAROK BAYBEE???

The Kal-Sharok armor kinda reminds me of the Sha-Brytol

The Valdasine Thaig is the primeval Thaig in 2 btw

VALTAAAAA

Ugh. I’ve always hated the ‘the old gods are related to the evanuris’ thing (tho I guess it’s not a theory). But we all thought Elgar’nan was Dumat tho right?

And if you can kill the Gods with the lyrium dagger, why didn’t he just do that? Like, we’ve already established that killing them with the dagger just fragments them.

I get that the fate of weisshaupt and all the wardens is important or whatever, but I’ve got chests to open beybee

Yeah bc it’s super easy to just off an Archdemon. what do you mean davrin’s killing it….

Well now killing an archdemon while it’s all tied down’s a bit unfair

Oh.

God that archdemon fight sucked.

[audiovisualrecall]

Hm

Blorbo: genius but sometimes lacking in common sense, frequently whumped in canon, has near death experiences, betrayed by a man he looks up to, thinks the woman he loves is dead and gets teary-eyed on-screen about it, almost destroys the world while believing he is doing something good; played by a man whose name is 3 beats/names and often abbreviated into 3 letters; dark haired, nerdy, bamf, risks his life for others, friends are his team, blames themself/takes full responsibility for things that maybe aren't entirely their fault and feels guilt and stress over this.

2nd Blorbo: basically hits all the same beats???

First is connor temple from primeval BTW. Second is tony stark!

the only differences is tony is much ah, 'cooler' than connor from the start (on the other hand we don't get to see tony in his 20s very much at all in canon), and also yknow the whole rich stark family name flying suit superheroes alcoholic...that whole thing. But otherwise........!!

Yeah I get why they're both my absolute blorbos and favorite characters, I like that type of character. Especially the whumpable and angsty emotional side of them both.

Tony is betrayed by Obi, his father figure, someone who he trusted and looked up to. Connor is betrayed by Phillip, who he kind of latched onto somewhat as a replacement for nick cutter who was his mentor-slash-father figure, he looked up to and trusted Phillip. Both of them almost die following the betrayal.

Connor's choices almost doom the world (not really his fault) while trying to solve the anomalies to save lives and blames himself fully for trusting phillip and feels anguish over this; Tony almost dooms the planet via ultron - not really his fault since ultron was not complete and he isn't to blame for it coming to life suddenly, but he does blame himself - while trying to save the lives of his friends (vision of them dying is impetus). Both of them have lots of fun moments of physical and emotional angst and whump. They're also both prone to cracking jokes at the wrong moment or inappropriate timing(?)

Yeah, ok. ^.^

[primeval-texture]

So happy about the Primeval Texture FR btw (for obvious reasons)

[the-art-in-arthesia-is-loud]

primeval texture my best girl ever (she is an oc i have created myself) (i am also talking about the song) (this is said by someone who is so normal about primeval texture) (that last thing was a lie btw)

[ideas-on-paper]

I've spent so long pondering over what Quarians might look like under their suits (trying to take both pre-established lore and real-life biology into account), and DANG these are some concepts I actually dig.

I've been looking at Quarian helmets for so long trying to determine what their facial shape might look like, and I also came up with the headcanon that Quarian males must've elongated chins. (I could even imagine that a large chin is considered attractive, so perhaps the helmets are designed like that to make their chins appear larger.)

Looking at their helmets from the side, I've actually been wondering if the back of their heads extends a little farther than a human's as well (reference male, reference female). Thus, I sort of came up with the headcanon that the Quarians have what I call the "Akhenaten head shape". If you don't know, Akhenaten was a pharaoh from the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt who is kind of renown for his peculiar body shape; at least in monuments, he's always depicted with what one could call a nutcracker chin, a prolonged head and a long, thin neck. Other members of the royal family are depicted like this as well though (two of Akhenaten's daughters in this case), so it might have been more of an artistic style of the period. For a human, this head shape may be unnatural, but I wonder if it might be actually normal for Quarians.

Given how sinewy the arms and legs of the Geth look, I also surmised that the Quarians must have really muscular limbs. The legs in particular appear to have a lot of muscle mass, so it would be logical to assume Quarians are excellent runners. This would be an ideal adaptation to habitats such as savannas, steppes, and half-deserts where there is little cover and the only way to escape from predators is to run.

Btw, one thing I also noticed is that Quarian feet are kind of similar to an ostrich’s in that they only have two toes. The two toes are actually unique among avians and an adaptation to the ostrich’s exceptionally high running speeds. The horny part of the Quarians' toes/their "toenails" also seem to extend pretty far, if the feet of the Geth are any indication. (One additional fact to note here is that Geth, for whatever reason, have an additional third toe like female Quarians; male Quarians do not have this.)

Wow, I never thought about the flashing of the mouth piece being meant to represent their mouths glowing from the inside! It would make sense though; I could imagine that the glowing eyes/mouth play an important role in communication. That the Quarians designed the Geth's faces as lamps because of this is actually one of my headcanons as well - to them, it would probably be more unusual to look into a face that doesn't glow, and they gave the Geth head lamps for familiarity so they feel more comfortable around them. (I remember someone who designed humanoid androids saying "we designed them in a way so people would be comfortable with letting them into their home", so perhaps the Quarians operated on the same logic.)

However, if you think about it, the glowing parts of the Quarians' faces would be kind of hard to see in broad daylight, especially on a planet with as much sun exposure as Rannoch. Therefore, I've been considering whether Quarians might be nocturnal - or rather, crepuscular. A lot of desert animals are crepuscular as well, which is because deserts are scorching hot at day and freezing cold at night. Rannoch also has longer days than Earth (32.3 Earth hours), so this effect would be even more extreme; thus, it would make sense if Quarians were only active in the morning/evening hours to avoid the most extreme temperatures. In dim light, I imagine their eye shine could be seen from very far away (especially on wide plains), so they may be able to locate and communicate with each other at large distances.

The idea that the Quarians have a third eye is actually super cool! It's actually something that quite a few primeval species have, such as the tuatara. In fact, it was even present in Therapsida, the closest extinct relatives of modern mammals. (This fits in well with my overall concept for the Quarians, which is largely based on "primeval mammals".) However, in those species that have it, this "third eye" doesn't really look like an eye in the sense of the word. It's more like a really small, translucent spot between the eyes, and the visual organ itself is hidden beneath the skin. So, chances are we wouldn't even perceive the third eye of the Quarians as an eye at the first glance. The Protheans, however, might have recognized it as such, making the Quarians look alluring to them. (On the other hand, there are some species, such as the Madagascar swift, that have skin markings surrounding their parietal eye, giving off the illusion of an "actual eye", so it's possible the Quarians might have something similar.)

The Quarians having a third eye might actually solve one of the biggest problems I ran into: We do know that the Quarians have UV vision, but UV light is actually damaging to the retina. That's why the species who can see it (e.g. insects like bees) are usually short-lived, and UV light is largely or completely filtered out of the visual spectrum of most mammals. (One fascinating exception to this are reindeer, which are able to perceive UV light to better make out UV-absorbing surfaces in the snowy, same-colored landscape they live in.) I've been puzzling over how the Quarians might have compensated for this, speculating whether the reason their eyes shine might be because they're biofluorescent, reflecting the most damaging of UV light and converting it to different wavelengths (it's been suggested some shallow water corals do this to protect themselves from UV light). However, in the species that have it, the parietal eye serves not only the purpose of perceiving light and dark, but also UV light. This would literally solve all my problems - to avoid damaging the retina of the “normal” eyes, just have an extra eye for UV vision! ;-)

There are some things that might contradict this, though: In real-life animals, the parietal eye is only present in ectothermic/cold-blooded species. (Basically, the parietal eye regulates the wake/sleep cycle and other biological rhythms as well as hormone production for thermoregulation, which is why warm-blooded species lack it.) I previously played with the idea that Quarians might be mesotherm, or "semi-warm-blooded”. This was because a) I sort of used the Afrotheria (the group of animals that elephants, sea cows, and hyraxes belong to) as an inspiration since they live in warm climates and are noted to have a few primeval characteristics (such as weak thermoregulation), and b) because endothermy/warm-bloodedness itself is suspected to have developed to kill off pathogens, and Rannoch barely has any of those. On the other hand, we know Quarians can get fever, which is a trait exclusive to endothermic species; it's entirely possible the Quarians developed endothermy when pathogens were more abundant on Rannoch though - perhaps a large portion of the planet's microorganisms were later killed off due to rising UV radiation or something.

If the glowing of the Quarians’ eyes/mouths is caused by bioluminescent bacteria, that might provide an explanation for that as well. Aside from microorganisms, bioluminescence is known from marine animals, invertebrates, and fungi, but not from land-based vertebrae, which would kind of make the Quarians outliers. (Small note about bioluminescence vs biofluorescence here: Bioluminescence results from the light that living organisms emit themselves, which can be either produced by the animal itself or by symbiotic bacteria; biofluorescence, on the other hand, is light being reflected from organic surfaces and converted into different wavelengths, which actually happens to be quite wide-spread even among mammals.) However, presuming UV radiation on Rannoch is really high, perhaps microorganisms can only survive by living in the bodies of other organisms - so, maybe the Quarians are in a symbiotic relationship with the type of bacteria that makes their eyes glow.

If the glowing of the eyes and mouth really is meant for communication in low-light conditions, that might already provide an explanation why the visor of their helmet is darkened, because you wouldn't see their glowing eyes very well otherwise. If that was the case though, you'd have to wonder why they illuminate the inside of their own vessels (you'd think that keeping the light low and instead having an option to undim the helmet would cost a lot less electricity).

I did read some interpretations that Quarians already used veils pre-Migrant Fleet and that it's more of a cultural thing. One idea I was toying around with that sort of originated from the Protheans perceiving the Quarians as a "very emotional" people is that they have "facial lines" along/around their mouth, nose, and eyes which reflect UV light differently depending on their mood (due to contraction of blood vessels or something). You could literally "read" their emotions from their face, but there are some social situations where this might be inappropriate/disadvantageous; hence, the veils. (This might be a bit much though if the eyes/mouth already serve that purpose; also, assuming relatives, lovers, and close friends are exempt from that rule, you’d have to wonder why Tali doesn’t undim her helmet if you romance her.)

Another thought I had was that they might be wearing the opaque helmets out of shame; again, this goes very much into my headcanon, but basically, I imagined the Quarians naturally having grayish/dark skin that's similar in structure to elephant skin. From that, I had the idea that Quarians may get the same "depigmentation spots" that elephants have, though for the Quarians it's more of a pathological effect (due to an imbalanced diet and the like; they supposedly had a very symbiotic relationship with their environment, so living outside of it might have quite a few negative side effects). By the time of the Migrant Fleet, their skin would have lost a lot of its coloration, which might be considered unsightly among the Quarians.

Anyway, just a few ideas I’m throwing around. :-)

stray quarian thoughts.

quarians have accents specific to the ship they grew up on.

suit colors can also reflect home ship or current ship assignment.

since their ships have windows sometimes little quarians wave at other ships as they pass by, and it's an extra special treat if someone waves back.

quarian suits reflect their physiology, especially in the face, so yes, quarian men have jawlines that could cut glass.

the quarians built the geth in their image so this can give us clues to how they look!heads shaped similar to the geth, including the rounded neck that slopes into the back of the head. the geth have those ropey arm muscles so i think quarians either have the same muscles and they're highly visible, or they have skin patterns that imitate the muscles. and, most importantly, i think quarians have a center-forehead third eye, which is why the geth have one big light. this is also why the protheans think the quarians are hot (more than two eyes).

quarians glow from the inside (somewhat similar to hanar?) and so the glowing part on their suits' mouthpieces is actually synced with their mouth movements. the third eye either doesn't glow or it does and that's one reason the quarians wear head coverings.

[thehistoriangirl]

So I have a side blog now-- 😳

I really don’t know if I should say it because who cares honestly, buuut well, whatever. In case you stumble upon the Shadow and Bone fandom and see a blog called historianthesecond throwing fics in the dashboard, you can always go and say hi :)

Also I apologize for the unrelated post I will surely mess up while reblogging because I just know it’ll happen

Anyway that’s the announcement, bye <3 *mwah*

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

People who hate Helen Cutter just hate to see a girlboss winning

[donvalleyparkway]

the best fannons are the ones that smooth over disjointed long running series

rework the plot lines to interact with each other, have a theme, explain how a character introduced in season 5 would interact with a character killed off in season 2, fulfill the character arc of the character who was killed off between seasons when their actor unexpectedly didn’t sign back on, actually have the mechanics of the world function consistently throughout the story

[chiliadicorum]

Glorfindel and the Balrog (Again)

Glorfindel was a badass and I need to talk about this AGAIN.

I thought I was done waxing poetic about Glorfindel's fight with the Balrog after the last post. I mean, what else was there to say? Joke's on me. Because I just had an epiphany recently concerning that duel that I realized is so grossly overlooked because, you know, epic battle and badass awesomeness that takes priority over anything mundane (I'm guilty of that. Refer to: said post).

I'm going to dredge up some popular fanon again and declare that it's canon. Let me ask y'all a question:

DO YOU KNOW HOW HOT FIRE IS?

Hear me out. Yes, simple question and yeah, everyone knows fire is frickin hot. As I said though, it's a mundane detail and as a result, tends to be overlooked. However, my attention was drawn to it when I recently took part in a brushfire.* Do not confuse this with a typical bonfire. This brushfire was to burn dead brush gathered over the course of several years and can only be burned in the middle of winter. It's way hotter, way bigger with way more fuel burning. I'd seen a brushfire before but I'd forgotten what it felt like.

We all had to stand, at minimum, 20ft away (30ft or more was better). The fire itself was impressive, but the intensity of that heat was insane. We maintained a safe distance, but our faces still turned pink from the heat. My actual eyeballs began to burn and I had to either back up further or turn away completely. The heat converted the 1°F air (-17°C) into something comfortable to breathe even that far away. But I have to emphasize that, no matter where you walked, you could not get safely within 20ft of this fire without proper apparatus. It was too hot for your face and eyes to tolerate.

Guys, that Balrog was a beast of living fire and Glorfindel grappled with it. I mean, he was already in proximity close enough to engage in that combat. Let's recap: struck the Balrog's head (impressive btw, considering Balrogs are twice an Elf's height), hewed off its whip-arm, and drove his sword through the Balrog's shoulder, not to mention all the other blows he landed in the combat:

"The ardour of Glorfindel drave that Balrog from point to point, and his mail fended him from its whip and claw.” 

But remember, when he struck the shoulder and the sword caught, the full-on brawling on the mountain pinnacle began:

“Then sprang the Balrog in the torment of his pain and fear full at Glorfindel, who stabbed like a dart of a snake; but he found only a shoulder, and was grappled, and they swayed to a fall upon the crag-top.”

....This is actually blowing my mind a bit. How has this not clicked before? Because this speaks volumes to Glorfindel's determination to see the demon killed, to save his people. Glorfindel wasn't a safe distance away shooting arrows or hurling spears. He wasn't 20ft away. He was fighting with a sword. And he was literally embracing that creature of living flame in a fight to the death. We don't know the literal degree of how hot the Balrogs burned, but by intuition alone, I think we can deduce that they were a lot bigger and hotter than some mere brushfire. Let's recall some details from the book in The Bridge of Khazad-dûm:

"The flame roared up to greet [the Balrog], and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane kindled, and blazed behind it. [...] The dark figure streaming with fire raced towards them. [...] Fire came from its nostrils."

From The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #144:

"The Balrogs, of whom the whips were the chief weapons, were primeval spirits of destroying fire [...]"

Balrogs were their own self-regulating and self-sustaining inferno, with "hearts of fire". Peter Jackson may have exaggerated the height of the Balrog in the movie, but he nailed the physiology, imo. Balrogs never laughed, never spoke, but they could control the amount of fire and darkness/shadow they emitted.

Getting back to that fanon I mentioned, it's a popular idea that Glorfindel sustained burns or caught fire in this fight, something like that. It's a notion regularly used in fanfic for years but always something relegated to the fanon category, an "unconfirmed" theory. I've enjoyed those fics, still do, but there's always been the back-and-forth about how accurate it is, if at all. I was on that fence too because Tolkien never explicitly stated it happened.

But guys, it's canon. Glorfindel got burned in that fight. Even if he never came in contact with its living flame (he did), even if he never brawled with the Balrog (he did), the heat alone would've burned him from the proximity of fighting with a sword. That's the whole point of this post.

This is the one time I'm not giddy about declaring a fanon is canon. It's so awful. Of course, it's left to the individual imagination as to the severity of his burns and where they occurred. Elves are not humans and I submit to the idea that there can be a difference in tolerance with such elements (such is the case with cold temperatures), but Tolkien still made it clear they're not immune to fire. I recall wondering if Glorfindel ever got burned, but it was such a passing thought I think because I put too much focus on this text:

"The ardour of Glorfindel drave that Balrog from point to point, and his mail fended him from its whip and claw.” 

Tolkien made it clear that Glorfindel obtained no fatal/serious injuries in that fight, which is significant and should be recognized precisely because it's a testament to Glorfindel's insane skill and speed. But Tolkien says it, or rather omits it, right there: "his mail fended him from its whip and claw". Tolkien doesn't mention the fire. He's talking about the attacks the Balrog is trying to strike Glorfindel with and failing abominably. It's so easy to ignore a mundane factor like temperature when there's so much epic action to fixate on.

Because before Glorfindel even began grappling with the Balrog and came in contact with its fire, he was getting burned.

And it never slowed him down.

Have you ever been even minorly burned by fire before, like a candle flame or heat from a stove? I have and it's the mildest as far as burns go but IT HURTS. It gets your attention like nothing else and makes you yank back on pure instinct. Yet Glorfindel never yanked back. He wasn't fighting any candle flame, yet he never faltered or stepped back at the searing touch of that heat. Let alone the actual fire later.

Glorfindel was plainly hell-bent on saving his people from this threat. No one can argue that, particularly when he was the one to pursue the Balrog. But this new aspect just further drives home that single-mindedness of that determination. That desperation. That's a better word. For as calm and in control of that fight as he was, despite being seared by that heat which would cause a normal person to falter, he never once retreated even for a moment to regain ground (he had room) or wait for aid (Elves were rushing to help him, Tolkien said) or reassess (he had time - that Balrog was terrified of him at that point and was actively trying to run away from him). My conclusion? Glorfindel was desperate to kill it. Frantic in that calm, disciplined way that's terrifying. Grief from Gondolin's destruction, grief from the massacre of his people, anger and uncertainty at their dire state, and now this demon was coming to finish off what remnant was left?

No. Soon as Glorfindel "leapt forward upon him" there was only one objective in his mind, one end: that Balrog was going to die now. And nothing would stop him or slow him down until it did.

*descriptions of the battle on Cristhorn from “The Fall of Gondolin” HoME II.194-5 *(disclaimer to ward off comments: this fire was in the middle of a field of snow, was law-abiding, was city-approved, etc. It was a controlled burn so no worries)

[adaisychain4azathoth]

daisylog v: writer’s block and horrific fervor

tfw i realize my satanic gnostic khaosophy tulpa religion is a coping mechanism for my less than good life

soo hey it’s been a while! i’ve been busy not trying to fall apart completely while attempting to find a flow to my existence. believe you me, it’s harder than it looks. there isn’t much news i can bring forth aside from the fact that i have tremendous writer’s block. VOIDMAW entries have been limited to spiritual lapses of clarity and horrific bouts of fervor. nothing much. i also started working on two documents, each treatises containing mythic and meta information on two specific Princes, the two that have kept my attention the longest: EIVAAK and KERDEPHEXIS (my beloved). like i began saying though, writer’s block got the best of me and KERDEPHEXIS can only inspire me for so long, Satan love him.

as for the other two from the Severance Working, XIRLATH had been entrusted a new purpose and focus just kinda shifted away from him, as well as KEZALSHATAAR because to be honest KEZALSHATAAR does nothing but activate the fear and paranoia in my brain. besides, i’ve been made aware of their child-sibling HIRASMIS who’s basically the Hatman but more fucked up. one day my focus will shift toward him, though to be honest the less i know about him the better. i have really bad visual snow and the idea of interacting with that concept on a metaphysical and individually abstract level scares the shit out of me. which is ironic, considering his parent-sibling KEZALSHATAAR is the personification of darkness and fear.

aside from all that noise, i’ve been reading multiple books at once! specifically, Primeval Evil in Kabbalah by Moshe Idel and The Recognition Sutras by Christopher Wallis. i’m goin places baybee

HAPPY SPOOKY SEASON BTW! MAY YOU ALL LIVE YOUR CRAZIEST NIGHTMARES AND MAKE MANIFEST YOUR DEMONS INTO FLESH!

[aretarers]

76, 75, 51 :), 26, 23 (me when i read lists from bottom to top)

i love that you read them from bottom to top let me do that too

76. a pokemon that you feel is underrated araquanid is cool as hell and STRONG !!! i like araquanid a lot i think it deserves to be talked about more

75. a pokemon that you feel is overrated i wont lie. im bad at this question cause i feel like all the most popular pokemon are overrated but like. i feel like everyone feels that way tbh. i feel like it's more like "overrated by gamefreak" LOL

51. favorite bug type STARES at you. do you know how ahrd this is for me. like OK the #1 is scizor but then theres also caterpie and butterfree... volcarona!! galvantula!!! yanma and yanmega... the venipede and sewaddle lines... wurmple... ledyba... AUUUGHHHHHH

26. least favorite design of a pokemon EISCUE I HATE THAT MOTHER FUCKER SO BAD

23. favorite music track from a pokemon game ehehe

unova route 10

kalos route 15

village bridge. oo ee aa...

Omg wait i put road to primeval forest in one of these but i should do some more spinoff tracks cause the spinoff game osts FUCK so hard so often

main street colosseum

waterfall colosseum

dark rust theme and battle (this is so funny to me btw. they go so hard . but the antagonist is like. Literally a Key)