#xavier mcd

[gumbootillustrations]

divine warriors loredump!

so yeah, the divine warriors! admittedly, i'm fascinated by them - i rlly rlly wish that we'd gotten to see more of them + their powers/domains/abilities in mcd, especially considering that they're a driving force behind the plot. so, i've gone ahead and done some redesigns for the sigils (above) and expanded on the domains and abilities of the divine warriors within the context of ashes, ashes.

more under the cut!

irene retains her matron title. for her domains, i rlly wanted to lean into her being a deity of life and family; as such, her official domains are  life, light, healing, childbirth and parenthood, fertility, marriage, tradition, beauty, and romantic/familial/platonic love. menphia also has domains over aspects of love (namely over sexual/carnal/manic love), but i wanted them to sort of have an aphrodite ourania (irene) and aphrodite pandemos (menphia) sort of vibe. in terms of the abilites that her relic gives its wielders, its a lot of what's seen in canon mcd: lots of healing and light abilities, but also some dimensional manipulation and time manipulation stuff thrown in there for the shits and giggles.

for shad, i rlly wanted to play into him being both a mirror and a foil for irene. where irene creates, he destroys; where irene brings life, he brings death. his official domains are that of death, darkness, chaos, the afterlife, change, rot and decay, the Nether, bloodshed, and madness. although he's also a war deity like menphia (and, to an extent, esmund and xavier), he's mostly associated with the worst bits of battle - the blood, the rot, the awful awful deaths, that sort of thing. his relic grants its wielders a lot of destruction-associated powers like disintegration and rot/plague/death stuff, but also some shadow and blood manipulation as well.

like a lot of other folks, i felt like enki was the best fit for a knowledge deity. he looks after scholars, librarians, witches, and inventors; officially, his domains are those of knowledge, air, magick, prophecy, the weather, winter, reason, and lightning. from here, you'll start to see pretty much all the warriors having some sort of like. elemental association? is the best way i can put it. i've sort of based it off of the minor arcana of the tarot; the suit of swords, which is associated with air, is the suit of knowledge and the mental realm, which i thought was fitting for enki. enki is also one of the four seasonal divine warriors (the others being esmund, menphia, and kul'zak); he gets winter, mostly because of his centre of worship being in gal'ruk. wielders of his relic get air and weather manipulation powers, as well as powers related to memory and access to witchcraft (if they aren't witches already). they also gain clairvoyance.

esmund! again with the tarot symbolism; esmund is associated with the element of earth and the physical world, hence the mountain in his sigil. his domains are those of protection, earth, wealth, autumn, boundaries, earthquakes, guardhood, and the harvest. the domain over the harvest might seem a little left field but it makes sense i promise! i sort of saw esmund's association with the harvest not only being because of him being an earth deity, but also because i feel like being able to provide is a form of protection, and given the setting of mcd, i feel like being able to provide a good harvest is a part of that. this is also why he is associated with autumn. regarding the abilities that his relic provides, there's a lot of earth manipulation and barrier/force field creation stuff in there; his relic wielders are also freakishly stronger and more durable than those who wield other relics, sort of playing into esmund himself being a tank.

i changed menphia's title to 'the conqueror' because i thought it'd be a bit more fitting for her, especially considering how i'm working tu'la in ashes, ashes (more on that later). i also changed her colour scheme to more of a blue/copper theme despite her being a fire goddess - i thought it was neat, considering that blue flames are those that burn the hottest. her domains are those of warfare (the glorious bits), fire, soldiers, political power, summer, passion and courage, festivals and celebrations, and sexual/carnal/manic love. i'm still not suuuper sure on the abilities that her relic gives its wielders, but there's definitely some pyrokinesis and emotion/heat manipulation, along with some combat-specific foresight in there. i'm open to suggestions!

nothing much really changes regarding kul'zak. he's a nature deity and watches over journeymen and particularly sailors, given that he's a water/ocean deity; he's often worshipped by pirates. officially, his domains are travellers, water, animals, the wilderness, the cardinal directions and navigation, hunting, and spring. i really wanted to lean into him being a man of the wilderness and not really having a home in urban environments. as such, his relic grants its wielders a lot of wilderness-based abilities, like shapeshifting, water and plant manipulation, and camouflage, with a bit of teleportation in there for all your wandering needs.

xavier is probably the divine warrior that i've changed the most. first off, he becomes a divine warrior in ashes, ashes where he isn't in canon mcd. i also really wanted to lean into him being the founder of the jury of nine, hence his title - the justiciar. he's associated with the domains of guardhood (along with esmund), loyalty, metal and metalworkers, justice, balance and order, peace, brotherhood, devotion, and artisans. where esmund looks after the more physical side of being a guard (being your lord's shield and spear, aka the protection side of things), xavier looks after the more emotional side of being a guard - the devotion to your lord and the comradery that you share with your fellows. his relic's abilities capitalise on that, with its wielders being able to both amplify and nullify the magick of the people they're fighting alongside/against. there's also a bit of metal manipulation and a lot of supportive magick in there too.

and, as a fun little tidbit - a lineup of the divine warriors! (the layout is inspired by @star-boi0720 - the way you lay out your drawings like this is mint as 🤩)

i'm still not suuuper happy w kul'zak or irene's designs but i'll get there in the end i guess :)

[shadowqnights]

PART ONE of a MCD headshot page collection - DIVINE WARRIORS & CO., AND MAIN CAST. for rewrite reference and also enjoyment :3

[terriblechickenhousebuilder]

okay okay i dont wanna spam someone else's reblogs but i need to discuss this bcos yes yes yes. this is such a good idea.

xavier is with irene more often than not, and he'd been considered her head guard. kind of how aphmau and garroth's dynamic is in s3. at first he'd be excited about the discovery of the cannon, until they realise it requires human sacrifice. he questions the ethicality of it all but in the end he goes along with whatever Irene wants since she's the Goddess. this is the reason Shad would turn him into a Shadow Knight too, as revenge for not stopping Irene before she did what she did to their daughter (and to hurt Irene ofc)

Esmund is a special case because i see him as a parallel to garroth in some ways. he's a good person at heart, but it's been buried deep under years of trauma, and he ends up making the worst decisions with somewhat good intentions. he would've loved Irene's sister in his own way, but the reasons for marrying her wouldn't have been what she wanted. ahhh. tragic things idk

[xielianslver]

Y'all listen to me with tragic love life Irene, mf apollo core.

(this only goes for ones she loved/liked back)

Zoey? Just didn't work out.

Esmund? Ehhhh yeahhhh......

Menphia? ...whoopies

Xavier? Very first SK

Shad? VERY BIG WHOOPIES

Zoey (again)? Loses her immortally

Garroth? Irene dimension

Laurance? Shadow Knight aesthetic

Aaron? Soul got torn apart

SHAD??? AGAIN WHAT IS THIS TOXIC YURI SHIT???????????

Girlie is not having a fun time

@the-martyrfication-of-the-matron because of the fact that we are mutuals now and I am annoying I'd think you'd (might) enjoy this :)

[silverjurors]

Thinking about the Jury

Thinking about Xavier

Thinking about O'Khasian culture

Will post about it later

[terriblechickenhousebuilder]

may i offer some yapping about the divine warriors? 🫣 partly from actual mcd and lots of my headcanons teehee

i've been thinking lots and lots about the fucked up early-irene timeline recently. it's nearly impossible to figure out how it's all put together even with how many times i've rewatched the show. maybe we're not supposed to truly understand it. idk. but i NEED TO.

so here's my take on the timeline:

some notes first of all:

i think jess unintentionally retconned a lot of the stuff we learn from season one given that it's never brought up again, i.e. xavier and the whole forgotten king thing, but that to me is the most interesting part ajfjejckke. we'll assume the confusing information we learn through the series is a case of history being muddled and changed to fit the narrative of the winners

(note after i finished writing this: i think "the king" was originally shad, and xavier was originally esmund before this was changed to what we know in the true story)

to make life easier i'll do a key for the divine warriors: irene, shad, esmund, kul'zak, enki, menphia, and xavier (look i know he's not technically a warrior but he's important here)

i'll try include some links where i can for information for certain episodes. any headcanons/speculation of mine will be written underneath the main plot points (you'll see)

ok so here we go:

ignoring my terrible handwriting here's my scribbled timeline incase anyone needs visuals for this like i do

Irene is born, blessed by the Gods with a power.

she's born in an unnamed village/settlement (that we'll come back to later)

she potentially has sibling(s), due to the existence of Malik & Levin (i like to assume she has a younger sister)

at this time, the land is under the rule of the King.

Irene becomes a traveller and gains a good reputation with the people, and along the way she meets her 'Guards'. She opposes the King's tyrannical reign, and forms a resistence to defeat him.

Xavier is the one she meets first! They meet when they're quite young (I have way too many headcanons about this and I don't want this post to be toooo long, so. yeah). Esmund she meets too (in my hcs he's the King's son... yes he's a perfect parallel to Garroth idc). and of course she meets Kul'Zak, and later Enki and Menphia when exploring some of the other lands the King rules over (later becoming Gal'Ruk and Tu'La, respectively).

They lead the resistence to end the King's reign and the battle takes place in O'Khasis. Esmund is the one to kill him, despite Irene not wanting to start the new era with violence.

The people want to crown Irene, but she denies this and instead creates the Lord system. After this she spends her time travelling the region (Ru'aun now) helping people in need, and forming Scaleswind, as a secondary city-state to combat the power of O'Khasis.

Esmund becomes Lord of O'Khasis to correct the King's wrongdoings, Xavier tends to flit between his home of O'Khasis and travelling with Irene. Kul'Zak, Menphia and Enki sometimes travel with Irene but often stay in Scaleswind as guards.

Irene and Shad meet! 💜❤️

Xavier forms the Jury of Nine and the Guard Academy.

Irene and Shad have 'their daughter'.

The Island (later, later becomes Phoenix Alliance Island) is formed, and is where Irene settles down with her family. This is also where she discovers the Celestial Canon and its uses, through Dem's Diary Entries. This is also where she discovers the Empty/the Void.

I mainly came to this conclusion because it was obvious Irene lived on the island, or many of her followers did (see: the temple ruins, Kul'Zak's remains being buried there).

In the Ruins there are hints of a major accident happening there, which implies...

Irene is desperate to save the world she saved once before, and so she sacrifices her daughter to make a relic. She the lures her followers/residents of the island and they become relics too. Overall, she creates six relics. And forms the Divine Warriors.

More hcs here, I think Irene's relic is the one where her followers are sacrificed (since they're devoted to her, they accept her easily, and this is why it lasts for such a long time compared to the others'.). for the other warriors it's more complicated, since in Myst s6 it's stated that a relic's soul must be compatible with the wielder. So in turn, here are my theories: Kul'Zak's is his sister, Enki's is his wife (the trauma from losing her later becomes the reason he forms love for Irene), Esmund's is also his wife (also Irene's sister, which means the Ro'Meaves and Levin are related as their descendents split off down the line, explaining Garroth and Levin's similar appearances)(yes this is fucked up since he married her because she essentially the closest he could get to Irene), and Menphia's is a close friend of her's. Shad's, as we know, is his daughter.

The Warriors don't know about this. Irene tells them their losses are due to the Empty, which means they readily agree to accept the burdens so others don't need to feel the grief. Xavier knows what Irene has done.

There's another peacekeeping period, where the Warriors fight off the Empty and 'seal it away'.

This is where Irene's descent into emotionlessness begins, her mind being unable to cope with all the responsibility now put on her, when all she set out to do in the beginning was create a better world for people. Alongside lying to Shad through his grief and being unable to process her own grief, it's a recipe for disaster.

Esmund and Enki come to the conclusion that Irene's inability to love them is Shad's fault. In their minds he corrupted her somehow. They attempt to murder him.

Kul'Zak is roped in too, mostly because he still grieves the loss of his sister and needs somebody to blame it on. Menphia refuses - i imagine her and Shad are somewhat close due to their title connotations not being as kind as the others.

The War of the Magi begins. Shad 'rebels' against the other Divine Warriors, and here we devle into Hyria's story.

Irene's Dimension is created after many other realms are destroyed by Shad. This is where the final battle of this war happens, and Shad is defeated. His soul is sent to the Nether, and his relic is split apart and scattered.

The Human/Wyvern War begins.

where i place this is muddled compared to the information we find out from the Wyvern Elder, but it doesn't make sense for this to be before the war of the magi since it's envoked by the shadow lord, who only becomes the shadow lord after that war. there's also mention of the King, which we'll assume is referring to Esmund, since he's the King's son (and rules O'Khasis somewhat similarly to his father).

during the course of this war some of the Divine Warriors up their relics to help defeat the wyverns, A.K.A their immortality and their reincarnation cycles begin (namely Esmund and Kul'Zak as retribution for Shad's downfall).

Xavier also falls during this war, but not by a wyvern's hand. In my headcanons he is sent to deal with Shad, and becomes the first Shadow Knight.

Menphia returns to Ru'aun to help fight this war but then returns to Tu'La.

After years of watching her Divine Warriors go through their cycles of reincarnation, Irene loses the little emotions she has left. Hence her decision to lock herself away in her own dimension. Dormancy begins.

Aphmau is born.

i want to yap and be yapped at about mcd

tell me about your rewrites and headcanons and OCs please

[wishchip106]

yeah, i like X-men Apocalypse for the plot

[ink-bunny2]

Mystreet AU where all of the Phoenix Drop High staff are the divine warriors. MCD!Aphmau is a reincarnation of the last Irene, and she restarted the world when the final battle against Shad was going poorly, and Mystreet was created instead, with MCD!Aphmau being reincarnated into Mystreet!Aphmau. The other Divine Warriors (including the first Irene), were recycled into this school with no powers and new lives, completely powerless to the universal change that Aphmau has made. So now they’re forced to adapt to this new world and blend in, whether they like it or not, effectively trapped in this school until they can figure out what the hell happened, and somehow undo it. They all have retained most or all of their memories from their previous life. This makes staff meetings incredibly awkward

Shad is the principal, he runs this school very begrudgingly. He hates his job, but hey, he was able to lead an army in Hell! How much harder can leading highschoolers be?

Irene is the school counselor. The only one. She still has no emotions. This makes her not very successful at her job, but hey, she tries. The students are theorizing that she and the principal are divorced, or exes in some way or another, because of the incredibly grudge-filled looks they keep giving each other. They are forced to work in vague proximity with one another, and no one is enjoying it. They have to maintain workplace diplomacy and after learning what kind of world Shad is trapped in now, he realizes that he can’t actually kill her unless he wants to be arrested and thrown in jail forever. Which would suck ass, because he’s pretty certain the source of their new predicament is somewhere in this school alongside them, and if he wants any luck at getting out, he’s going to have to play along.

Irene and Shad are at least able to remain thinly diplomatic with one another. Shad and Esmund, however—never in a million years will they be civil with one another. They have gotten in very confusing shouting matches in front of the kids before. And yet Esmund never gets fired, (…i don’t think Shad has figured out that he can do that yet…) so the kids start to spread rumors that Esmund is hooking up with or used to be hooking up with the principal. Esmund and Shad find out, and all of the students get in ungodly amounts of trouble for this.

Enki tried to reconnect with his old friend Shad at some point. It didn’t go well. He left his office as quickly as he came in at the first sight of his glare.

It becomes surprisingly easy (and very existential crisis-inducing) to finally be able to tell Aphmau and Irene apart when they’re two entirely separate people standing in the same room. Shad realizes that this Aphmau is probably what caused this, but problem 1. She doesn’t remember a damn thing and is therefore extremely unhelpful, and problem 2. That’s A Child. That’s A Literal Actual Child. That’s some 13yo baby that is entirely innocent and bright-eyed and oblivious to anything and everything that went down in her past lives. And in my mind, Shad has a soft spot for children. Like, a HUGE soft spot, because he used to be a father and his daughter meant the world to him. He’d do anything to get her back and protect her from all the horrors that he could not save her from. Thats his entire villain motivation. Thats the entire reason why he hates Irene and becomes The Shadow Lord and raises an army and pillages the world and everything else. The Shad in my head would be physically incapable of hurting a child.

So I can see Shad calling Aphmau into his office very early in the first semester, ready to confront her and duel all over again…only to realize that, no, this is an separate, innocent child who remembers nothing and might even be an entirely different reincarnation of who she was before. Her memories might even be wiped, completely inaccessible and gone forever. He has an existential crisis, awkwardly apologizes and plays it off as some sort of joke, asks if she needs anything (putting back on his “I’m a normal human being” mask). She says she needs directions to her classes, so he scrounges up a random map and hands it to her and sends her off. He re-evaluates everything he’s known for the past 900 years.

Shad becoming strangely protective of 13yo Aphmau,,, this is just some kid,, he’s forced to re-evaluate everything and adjusts how he sees his students. From “oh good a new army I’m gonna have to mold from scratch /sarc” to “i…i have gone from zero children…to thousands…. thousands of children put under my care…i need to protect all of them at once” man goes mega mother hen mode, especially since his dangerous traitorous ex-wife is in the same building as them, he definitely sees her and the other divine warriors as threats to his kids.

Irene bringing Aphmau into her office as well, but she approaches things very differently from Shad. She cuts straight to the chase, and tells Aphmau she needs to remember. She’s done something terrible, and needs to reverse it and put the world back in order. She needs to remember her old life and become the newest Irene, take on all the power and the responsibility that being a Goddess entails, and set everything right. 13yo Aphmau freaks out, confused and lost. Irene lays the pressure on hard, and keeps pushing when Aphmau insists that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Shad opens the door, sensing she was here with her, and looks like he’s doing everything in his power to hold himself back from punching her square in the face. They have a very terse, carefully worded micro-argument, and Shad insists Aphmau must return to her classes, her education is more important than anything Irene has to stay to her. He gets very protective of her and basically professional-business-talk tells her to fuck right off and never speak to her again. Aphmau is still confused. He ushers her out, and awkwardly asks if she’s alright. She says…i…think…so???? What just happened??? Shad tells her to be careful around that woman, and don’t believe a word she says. She’s full of lies, anyway. Aphmau’s like. you mean the school counselor???????? It’s a very strange day for Aphmau.

insert the kids joking about how Garroth/travis/aaron/Aphmau must be related to certain members of the staff here

[laurancezvahlslefteyebrow]

The Statue of Irene and Xavier

THEY ARE EATING MY BRAIN

my headcanon is that they find this somewhere hidden on the alliance island and are just like: aphmau and laurance???? the hell???

anyways here’s the inspo v

[dilly-dahlia]

do you guys remember when i said what if I made an actual novel inspired by the Divine Warriors and their origins. like full on make them my own and change their names and make an actual genuine story for them

so what happened was I opened a google document-

[kurithedweeb]

Vincent is Xavier thoughts from today:

Vincent-Xavier meeting Garroth, dear god. Esmunc would have definitely been his loyalty kill, and at the sight of Garroth who is Esmund's spitting image, the Calling acts up for the first time in decades.

Laurance can feel something is happening with Vincent and goes on high alert thinking he’s gonna do something to Cadenza, only to find him looking at Garroth with this twisted expression of terror and heartbreak, clutching his chest where the armor unfurls from as though trying to physically hold it in from coming out.

Oh, it’s been so very long, but Xavier could never forget Esmund’s diplomatic smiles and perfected mannerisms, and Garroth has the same hitch in his laugh as he did, and when he looks at Irene Xavier can see he’s in love, and oh god it’s Esmund returned to life. And he cannot stop the thought of "What did Shad do to him?"

And to make matters worse, Garroth has Esmund's relic at this point! So Xavier-Vincent can sense Esmund's relic, sense Esmund's soul inside this guy who looks exactly like him except for the scars on his face. He even fights like Esmund - protecting his people above all else at all costs even if the cost is himself, and after the fight is done Irene scolds him and he demures and yields to her as he always has, and Xavier - Vincent - Xavier can't breathe. And he looks around, and he can see Enki and Kul'zak gathered around Esmund alongside Irene, and Cadenza lays a hand on his shoulder to ask if he's okay and for a moment when he looks at her he sees Menphia, and oh goddess, oh lord what the fuck has he done? How could he have done what he did to them, to his friends? Why did it take so long for Esmund to return to haunt him?

And Dante was supposed to be Xavier's successor before the soul that was supposed to be Xavier's was knocked out of alignment, so when he looks at Dante he sees the phantom of the man he once was. And Dante has this, this feeling in his chest of something missing, because he was supposed to have parts of Xavier's soul, and when their eyes meet he knows there is something here connecting them even if he can't figure it out for the life of him, and that pushes Xavier-Vincent over the edge into having to disengage and flee before he does something he regrets. He usually has such good control over his emotions, he has to when the emergence of the Shadow Knight form is directly connected to his emotions, but seeing all his friends and his own self from an age long past, a part of himself that he had tucked away and thought he'd lost to Shad, makes it so hard to keep enough control to hold on to his humanity.

Oh, and Shad possessing Aaron! Shad knows who he is, after all how could he not recognize his old friend and first knight, and he calls him Xavier. In front of everyone, he calls him Xavier and basically outs the whole story that Xavier-Vincent had managed to keep under wraps for so long. It knocks something loose in Aph/Ana's head about her time as Irene, and suddenly she never looks at him the same, and neither does Garroth.

Garroth knows about Xavier and Esmund, since this is a big part of his family's history. And he now sees himself as having becoming another's scar to remind of lessons hard learned and moments of grief and regret like his own scars, and he has become the cross carved into Xavier just as he bears his own cross from his own brother. He tries to avoid Vincent - avoid Xavier outside diplomatic meetings after that, thinking that maybe if he's out of sight Xavier can put the reminder of Esmund out of his mind, but that makes it worse because all Xavier can think of now is not being there when Esmund dies a second time, and it certainly doesn't help that Shad calls Garroth Esmund, which leaves Xavier wondering if Shad brought him back the way he did Xavier centuries ago.

And to make matters worse, Shadow Knights can sense each other. He can sense that Laurance, who reminds him so much of Kul'zak, is a Shadow Knight, presumably meaning that he was brought back to life by Shad exactly as Xavier had been? He has to wonder, how many others? How many of their friends, of their families, has Shad torn from the peaceful rest they earned with blood and sweat and tears? Are they even his friends anymore? Kul'zak has been changed, hasn't he? Twisted into new shapes that make what doesn't match up between Laurance and Kul'zak that much more jarring.

Their laugh is the same, but Laurance has perfected the same array of masks that Xavier and Esmund once had. They wear their hair the same, but Laurance often doesn’t wear the flowers and twigs Kul’zak wove into crowns at every opportunity unless they’re woven into his hair by someone else. They both have this mottled birthmark over the hip shaped like a leaf, but the rest of the marks, the rest of the scars are all wrong. Laurance’s eyes are dull, and if you watch closely they follow movement too fast or too slow like they’re not quite connected to the body the way they should be, and Laurance avoids solid eye contact so adamantly. Kul’zak was always warm, always so free with affection, and Laurance is rarely as affectionate with touch as he is reliant on it. Kul’zak used to hang off Esmund’s arm, giggling and whispering with their heads bowed together like children sharing secrets, but not like this. Not like Laurance, who folds his hand into the crook of Esmund - Garroth’s arm and allows Garroth to subtly guide him as though afraid of where he might step without the help, often pressing close and leaning against his shoulder like he’s too tired to refuse the help anymore. And the way he looks at Esmund, at Irene - Kul’zak had only ever had eyes for Enki as long as Xavier had known him, but the way he looks at Enki now, it . . . Kul’zak has been twisted into something else entirely by Shad’s hand, just as Xavier - as the man Vincent was before he slipped away once was.

And the Garrance relationship also makes it very clear just how different Esmund and Garroth are. Esmund was not the kind to yield to anyone but Irene, he was used to being in charge and he was a natural leader, but Garroth is very emphatically . . . not that. He hates being in charge, dreads it, but he is the one best suited to the job so he does it. He’s relieved to have someone he can defer to, and treats his second as though he has just as much power as he does, because in their situation he does. Laurance actually has more power than him just by virtue of being seen by Garroth on the same level as Irene. Garroth takes orders so easily, listens so well, just a touch and he yields and defers and goes exactly where he needs to be with only the barest pressure at his back to guide him. In the middle of a fight, he goes exactly where the charge he protects wants him to, and all it takes is a look across a crowded field for Garroth to understand and move, and it’s so so easy for him to yield to Laurance. To be drawn in by him. To linger with their sides pressed together from shoulder to hip to ankle, temple to temple, quiet words shared in the scant space between them when no one is looking. The way he looks at Irene, and the way he looks at Laurance, and the way he looks at the divine in prayer, it’s all the same. And there is something between them, this guard and his second. Esmund was not - could not be that way. Esmund could never bring himself to admit he had any feelings at all beneath the shell of heir, guard, protector, Divine Warrior. Confessions trip off Garroth’s tongue in the night, and though they never see the light of day, at least sometimes they are heard.

Maybe Vincent also smokes, and he and Laurance end up in the same out of the way place for a quiet cigarette and for a while they sit in silence until Laurance asks what’s up with the looks he keeps sending everyone. Vincent sighs, says, “Kul’zak, you - “

“What did you just call me?”

He looks back as Laurance’s face is in the middle of flickering between masks, and for the first time he sees the scars like nail marks around his eyes, and the angle of the corners of his mouth and the curl of his shoulders and the way his body faces away from Vincent is all wrong and this isn’t Kul’zak at all. Not anymore.

Laurance is disturbed by this, being called by the name of the divinity he worships as though he were an old friend when he has never met Vincent before. and Vincent can’t come up with an explanation. It’s tense until Laurance leaves, and he goes to Cadenza to tell her what happened because of course he tells his big sister, and that’s when he learns just how long Vincent has been alive, and he starts wondering how many of his loved one’s he’ll outlive.

It's also been decided that Vincent is one of the few people in the MCD age that observes and worships the old gods, which means that in a day when you can read who someone worships in how they wear their hair and accessories, Vincent reads as an apostate to everyone who meets him.

[gumbootillustrations]

UGH I FUCKING FINALLY FINISHED THIS

so yeah, have the divine warriors of the second war of the magi!!

more deets n closeups under the cut :3

aph!! i like to think that although the incarnations of the divine warriors r generally pretty similar, they do have some minor differences. for example, whereas the matron of the first war of the magi (irene) had one of the sets of wings on her head covering her eyes, the matron of the second war (mcd!aphmau) has both of them held back. this is bc whereas irene had lost her humanity (and therefore the ability to connect with mortals), aph hasn't - and, therefore, her eyes are open to the struggles of humanity. additionally, i took a lot of inspiration from honkai impact 3rd for these designs - in aph's case, i was inspired by elysia's herrscher of human: ego battlesuit and how it looks like a wedding dress (which a lot of folks have interpreted as an expression of her love for humanity, which is smth i want to convey w aph).

i think my favourite part of aaron's destroyer form is his seal (the thingy behind his head like a halo). i wanted to rlly play into the whole destroyer/devourer aspect of his abilities and domains, and i thought a black hole would fit perfectly! it also sort of (unintentionally) plays into how i see the dynamic between the matron and the destroyer and how they're both mirrors of each other; whereas the destroyer, well, destroys (and his black hole devours everything in sight), the matron creates and nurtures (seen in how aph's seal is almost like a white hole). i also wanted his armour to look a lot like the armour that shadow knights wear, albeit without all the spikes and spines and whatnot given that he isn't a shadow knight himself (shad's destroyer form from the first war probably looks a lot more similar to traditional shadow knight armour).

i'm lowkey suuper proud of how travis's keeper form turned out (even if i had to go back right at the end n fix it bc i forgot to add his tail 😭). i wanted this form to sort of be a mix between a high mage and a rogue: whereas the keeper embodies knowledge and magick, travis himself is a prankster who relies on cunning and trickery to gain the upper hand on his opponents. as a result, he's the only one who doesn't automatically manifest a weapon when he shifts into this form - instead, i feel like he chooses to rely more on magicks and witchcraft during combat.

katelyn's design was lowkey the hardest to pin down. originally, i wanted to go for something that was suuuper inspired by roman armour and had a copper and teal/turquoise colour scheme, but it wound up feeling too magical girl-ish and i scrapped it. i've retained the roman inspirations, but i headcanon that her flames are so hot they burn blue, so i settled on a blue-and-white colour scheme w some purple elements. i think my favourite part is her gauntlets! i feel like she uses them as an extension of herself/another pair of hands to punch with. the blue elements also lean into menphia's association with the moon - in ashes, ashes, tu'la is based on the roman empire and, as a result, is where werewolves originate from, and with werewolves having such close ties to the moon.... yeah. i'll probably do a post on tu'la later on at some point.

my blorbo

garroth's design is probably the one that's changed the least, but i'll still need to update his ref sheet anyway. i don't know if i conveyed it very well but the sort-of wing-things on his back are slabs of earth that can be shaped into a shield - originally i had him holding a shield but i wanted him to look a bit more divine warrior-ish so i retooled his design.

the boy! i was tossing up between having vylad or dante fill the role of the wanderer, but i settled on dante as i feel like vylad fits better as a sort of weird guide sort of figure within the narrative. plus, i have a real soft spot for dante and wanted him to remain in the limelight a little bit - i love his dynamic with garroth and laurance and i wanted to explore that further. i sort of wanted to play into his whole red-and-blue colour scheme that we see in canon diaries, but bc kul'zak is a nature deity (specifically of the wilderness), i wanted to incorporate some greenery into his design. i hope i've done an okay-ish job here - overall i'm pretty happy tho, but i can't promise that there won't be any tweaks in the future.

this is a redhead laurance propaganda spreading blog and i Refuse to apologise for it. i'd like to think that laurance's original colour scheme is similar to his justiciar form - lots of beautiful reds and golds and oranges to match the flames of his father's forge - but after he comes back from the nether with a Severe fear of fire he switches to the greens and browns that he's known for in canon. eventually he slowly begins to reclaim his fire and returns to the golds and oranges that he's introduced with (haha colour symbolism go brrrrrr).

but yeah. the special interest is special interesting. let me know if u have any questions!

[xerith-42]

Guys you don't understand I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams by Weezer is literally about the entire cast of MCD

It's about Irene only realizing how much she loves Xavier after she loses him

It's about Katelyn mourning the love she never confessed to Jeffory after his death

It's about Garroth in the Irene Dimension realizing that he was on the verge of losing Laurance

It's about Aphmau bitterly and violently missing Garroth when they're literally worlds apart

It's about Zoey grieving Aphmau and lamenting that she never confessed her love before she disappeared

It's about Nicole seeing Dante in Dmitri and regretting how it all went down but being too far gone to fix it

It's about Aphmau feeling like she didn't do enough to keep Aaron from throwing his life away

It's about Aphmau desperately missing Laurance when he leaves and berating herself for not doing more to save him

[terriblechickenhousebuilder]

what if i write an esmund x xavier fic

[al-ld]

CRACK THEORY

Xavier is Shad. I mean Shad loved Irene and eas clearly close to O’Khasis through Falcon Claw, They were a good 20 minutes walk or something, so, it would make sense.

And ya know, “Shad”, an odd name, but Xavier, (from what I see), it means “new house/home”…A new home? A new village…and we know Xavier made the Jury made the jury of nine, but then not much else…maybe, that’s because O’Khasis doesn’t want the people to know their system came from Shad, like, no wonder we know nothing of Xavier, because the but city of his origins made sure he was get erased

And! Laurance his first ep is label “The Admirer” and then…he became a shadow knight! A powerful one! And yeah, blah blah, there’s Aaron, but he was retconned in so hard it hurts, so in the beginning, anyways. A beauty, turned dark and then erased(disappeared, season 3-ish sort of thing) and now I might do a re-watch to gather scraps for this, because it’s funny.

(Sidenote, Laurance and Aaron could both work, it’s two parts of his soul, since we know it was split apart, we have pre-sk admirer with his doomed fate and Aaron, Shad’s descendant)

[silverjurors]

In my MCD rewrite, 17 year old Janus NoLastNameGiven looked at Irene's obsessive and violent boy toy (Mortal Edition) said "yeah I'll absorb that form of love into my belief system", and proceeded to become a Juror, going on to kill thousands. And you know what? Xavier would be proud.