#zarosian

[zaronadra]

miscellaneous stuff from the past few months. i keep changing how i want to draw him these days

[wonderwafles]

You just know that Zarosian hymns and devotionals go HARD

[moonclanmadness]

Every now and then I think about Soul Split... inarguably the coolest prayer

[sacredshadow]

Gielinor has been getting colder, and with the festive season approaching, I thought I would give you some of my winter/christmas Mahjarrat headcanons.

Since Freneskae is all hot and lava-y, the cold temperatures of the Gielinorian winters were quite a shock to the Mahjarrat. For the first few years, as soon as it got cold, the Mahjarrat would refuse to do anything except sit around a huge bonfire, practically inside it.

Fortunately, the humans of Gielinor shared a wonderful invention they had to help combat the cold: fluffy blankets. That provided the Mahjarrat to be able to get some things done in the winter, provided that nobody would mind that they looked like a moving pile of fluff. Fortunately, they adapted to the cold and are now usually fine with going out in the winter, but prefer not to.

Since winter usually meant holidays in the Zarosian empire, Azzanadra and Sliske would usually like to just stay in bed all day under about a ton of blankets. Azzanadra would sometimes get up to do things and would usually cope ok with the cold, but if Sliske needed to get up, he would take about 95% of the blankets with him. During that time of the year, most Mahjarrat would walk around with a blanket draped over their shoulders, making them look slightly less frightening to the humans.

Azzanadra managed to find a particularly good blanket that instantly became the favourite of both him and Sliske. It became known as "The" Fluffy Blanket, even though they had several other fluffy blankets. That blanket was a source of most arguments, as they both always wanted to sleep under it. Azzanadra tried to resolve this by purchasing another one, completely identical apart from the many stains, actually even fluffier, as the original had been through a LOT of use. Of course, neither of them wanted to take that one, as giving up The Fluffy Blanket was a sign of weakness. So they ended up behaving like children who both wanted the same thing, with neither willing to let the other one have it. It became something of a sign of power. The strongest of them would get the honour of sleeping under the beloved Blanket, but Sliske would usually steal it from him as soon as he went to sleep. Winter was one of the only times when Azzanadra and Sliske would not fight about who got to sleep under The Fluffy Blanket and instead embrace that it was in fact big enough for them both.

When Wahisietel learned of the human ritual of giving each other christmas presents, he, of course, wanted to give it a try and managed to convince a few friends to participate in this tradition. When the time came for gifts to be opened, he realised he had failed to brief the other Mahjarrat on what kinds of things were typically given. Needless to say, it was a lot crazier than expected.

After that, Azzanadra and Wahi seemed to start a tradition they would do almost every year from then on until when things got all f##ked up and the God Wars started. Azzanadra would come over to Wahisietel's place for drinks and a chat, but would usually end up staying the night. They would exchange a few gifts of books and things they had enjoyed over the past year, and then spend a few hours reading, sitting cuddled up on the couch (or a few hours staring at the wall because they may or may not be high on lantadyme). Sliske would sometimes join them but leave early, claiming he had better things to do than hang out with "nerds". It was quite a nice break from their usual busy lives and Wahi really missed it while Azzanadra was trapped in the pyramid.

Sliske will usually celebrate the holidays by ruining other people's, unfortunately.

[taffingspy]

The song from your art post is very good. Fits very well.

Glad you think so anon! It's got very secret police sort of vibes to it, so i figured it'd go well with the zarosian praetorians

[courtiers]

real truths about the zarosian empire there weren't enough evil scientists. yes i know zaros was an evil scientist but i feel like as emperor he should've given up the evil experiments and focused on the empire. bilrach wasn't an evil scientist he was an evil architect. ok zemouregal did do that war machine made of corpses but that was NOT science that was just his nasty hobby. all the rest of them were backbiters (enakhra, akthanakos) culture enthusiasts (sliske, wahisietel) or just generally creepy (zamorak, trindine) etc. azzanadra gets a pass because he was the first gay pope.

[timortien]

Zarosian temple knight

[smokescholar]

Ffxiv verse

- He finally learns to loosen up a little. Since the fall of the Zarosian Empire, he was treated as a tool to be used; kept on a shelf until he was needed and only then. He stayed in Nardah waiting patiently for Zaros to return and be needed, but in Eorzea he finally found a personal freedom. He doesn't have to wait, he doesn't have to behave a certain way to be seen as proper. He can let his hair down metaphorically and goes through a bit of 'mid-life crisis/college-kid finally free from parental control' romp. There's so many things he can do now. Yeah Wahti, you go pet those aether creatures! Yeah Wahti you go to that nightclub! No one can tell you what to do anymore.

- When I say Eorzea smells, I don't mean its an awful thing. It's just...overwhelming. The closest I can explain in a way that's relatable is like... the detergent isle or a perfume isle in a store. Enclosed space, everything has a noticeable smell to it. To an NT person, they might not even recognize it, or if they do it doesn't bother them. But to an autistic person or someone with a SPD, the smell can be almost blinding. Eye watering, nose and mouth burning, headache inducing. The scent themselves aren't awful, like sewage or rot, in fact it can be quite pleasant. But it's just so STRONG that it seems to affect every sense. 'Grounding' scents like heavy tobacco help numb his senses somewhat, but it definitely knocked him on his ass the first time he came across a crystal cluster in the wild. Everything and everyone has bathed in cheap cologne and the perfume truck spilled in every field and on every object.

- Aether creatures are drawn to him. His body radiates magic and as such he has become a bit of a magnet. Why are there so many fire sprites seemingly obsessed with this portion of Ul'Dah's wall? Wahi is standing behind it, buying some supplies and completely oblivious to the little fan club he has gathering outside. Carbuncle? The poor thing has separation anxiety, though the sentience of a carbuncle is questioned by most arcanists. It is basically his shadow and is exceptionally jittery when not in his presence. We're not gonna talk about Primals, since they feed on the stuff. Wahi is used to being ignored by everything due to his aura, so he doesn't mind the little congregation he collects. It's an annoyance to others, though.

- He lives in a little log cabin outside of Gridania. He's used to living in small spaces, despite his size.

- Even by Roegadyn standards, he's considered on the shorter side. The man just can't win.

5+ AU Headcanons || @thekavseklabs || Accepting

[wgblair]

Haven’t really thought about RuneScape or Blaire too much in the past year which is why when some I was having some feelings about my old scrungly I realized how funny the spot I stopped playing/writing really is. I pretty much dropped the game right after the Zarosians excommunicated us. So I pretty much left Blaire at their lowest point they’ve ever been, right at the precipice of either coming into their own and becoming an independent and fully realized world guardian. OR getting the bad end and bouncing right onto the next group that they decide to let make decisions for them.

BUT instead of doing either of those things I just left my poor wg lying face down in a puddle of their own tears after all their friends and I ditched them.

[zaronadra]

i remembered i was asked a while ago by a friend to explain ignatius' relationship with zaros so i figured i'd relay that here since it's something i think about a lot. a LOT

(copied from a discord message)

what is the nature of iggy's and zaros' relationship and how did it come to be? (outside of what the game provides you at a base)

it's… complicated.

at first, ignatius has a lot of sympathy for zaros and his cause. his followers have mostly shown him kindness and respect, and they've been persecuted and shunned by the world for years after their god's "death" and the destruction of his empire. he quickly considers azzanadra to be an ally and later a friend. he learns about what the empire brought to the world and thinks zaros has to be a pretty good guy.

actually meeting zaros, things get kind of difficult. his morals and goals are a little hard to understand, but overall he seems to have good intentions: he wants to lead people to their full potential, and he later reveals he wants to protect the universe from destruction, believing he's the only one with the power to do so. and he seems to be very fond of ignatius already! even with the fact that he's the world guardian in the middle of everything, azzanadra and zaros see a lot of promise in him specifically. iggy doesn't feel very well respected by most of the other factions, and the zarosians just feel different. they've welcomed him into their ranks, and he begins to truly feel like fate has brought him here. he feels ~special~

i won't go insane with my analysis of how zaros' thinking works, but basically: he's too alien. while he has a lot of respect for mortals, he still seems to think it's totally okay to use them as tools and test subjects however he wants. as times goes on, things get worse, none of zaros' plans are going anywhere, and he seems to only pop up to be mysterious and rude, taking advantage of things when he sees the opportunity and ignoring what the consequences will be for others.

there is… a LOT more to iggy's disillusion with zaros coming from not only meeting zaros himself but also how he talks to others. in the end, zaros abandons everyone again, fucking over even azzanadra and others that have stood by him all this time, deciding that this universe is lost with no hope of saving it and he will go elsewhere. it leaves ignatius frustrated and confused, with zaros and with himself, upset with what he thinks is a betrayal but even more upset with how he's let himself be strung along like that for years.

[drmajalis]

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Zarosian Legion, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Varrock, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in strykewyrm warfare and I'm the top lava lobber in all of Forinthry. You are nothing to me but just another target.

[moonclanmadness]

Zarosianism stands out as the only religion in history to send you directly to Hell for believing in it

[sacredshadow]

First encounter + dogs.

And I mean a species looking simmilar to Icthlain, I wonder what their first reaction would be

Ok, so Icthlarin is based on a jackal, an animal closely related to the dog (same genus). In RuneScape, jackals can be found in the area that the kharidian-zarosian war would have been fought, so presumably there would have been some around back then, but presumably they would have been avoiding all the fighting and maybe only coming out to scavenge and have a look around at night/when nobody is fighting. But apparently jackals can and have been domesticated, so I’m going to assume that the menaphites would have done that and the first dog that the Mahjarrat come across would be a jackal being kept as a pet by a soldier. 

Also please note that at this point the Mahjarrat have little to no understanding of the Geilinorian common tongue, but I’ll put in all of that dialogue, just assume that unless I say otherwise, the Mahjarrat don’t know what it means. They will be speaking Freneskaen, which I will be putting in bold like this. They also will be speaking a bit of Geilinorian but don’t really know that much of it.e it

“I think it’s alive…” Wahiseitel ventured, examining what looked like a crumpled brown pile of fabric next to the containers of supplies, alerting Azzanadra and Nabor to the mysterious object. Now that he took a closer look, it was moving with a regular rhythm. Azzanadra crouched down beside is friend, Nabor observing the situation by peering over his shoulder. Yes, Wahiseitel seemed to be right. It did seem to have features that a crumpled piece of fabric wouldn’t. Closed eyelids were close to little white shiny shards poking out from a slat that ran just above where the fabric seemed to fold around, ending near something that could be a nose but Azzanadra had to poke to be sure.

Suddenly it stirred, the sudden unexpected movement sending all three of them scrambling over each other to get away as it sprung onto four spindly sticks and cowered against one of the supply containers, the sticks bending as it whined and tried to get as far away from them as possible. “Yeah, I think it’s alive.” Wahiseitel repeated.

“It looks a bit like Icthlarin. The head, I mean.” Azzanadra observed, closing one eye and tracing his claw around the shape of it. “Yeah… Maybe they’re related? It’s kinda small, it could be his child?” proposed Nabor, crawling a little closer but flinching back when it let out a growl that Azzanadra then echoed. Nabor continued his analysis. “But why would he leave it unattended like this? Surely he would either be keeping an eye on it, or get someone else to. Maybe we should bring it to him?” He attempted to approach again, this time getting down to its level and purring gently and soothingly until it started to relax and even look towards him. And of course, that was when Sliske decided to show up.

“Don’t worry Nabor! I’ll save you!” Sliske cried as he ran in, pushing Nabor to the side and scooping the creature up. He then proceeded to drop it, and as it fell yelping, he brought his foot up to propel it in an arc through the air that ended with it slamming into a human just walking out of a nearby doorway. “Wait, Sliske! That’s Icthlarin’s-“ But it was too late. The human nearly fell over as the baby Icthlarin crashed into their side, bumping the little dish of brown mush they had been holding onto the ground. Nabor and Wahiseitel ran over to make sure it was alright, but the human had already scooped it up and was cradling it in their arms, glaring at Azzanadra and the other three Mahjarrat.

“Oi! What the fuck do you idiots think you’re doing with my dog?!” The human yelled, the menacing effect of them slowly walking over to confront them ruined by the way they were gently whispering to the creature and the fact that they were absolutely defenceless against four much larger and more powerful opponents. “I think they said ‘My’, doesn’t that mean something belongs to them?” Wahisietel mumbled. “Maybe it’s their child?” Nabor theorised. Azzanadra shook his head. “It doesn’t bear much resemblance to them…” But maybe human young just looked like that? He hadn’t seen any yet, and this was certainly not what he wanted to have as his first experience with one. “Wait, that’s their child? Oh shit. I though it was some sort of enemy that had snuck in.” Sliske whispered quickly before disappearing much more quickly than he had arrived.

That… was actually some good logic. And probably the only reasonable excuse they had. “Uhh… Enemy?” Azzanadra asked, pointing to the child. “No! Not enemy! Friend!” The human yelled, stabbing their finger through the air at the child. “Friend.” Azzanadra repeated. That must be the child’s name. Wahisietel nodded. “We sorry hurts friend.” The human made a noise that sounded like  maybe it was trying to growl but ended up just letting air out without much noise. “Don’t ever come near me or my dog again.” The human muttered. “They don’t want us to do that to them again” Wahiseitel translated. “What, kick their child into them? You would think not.” The human let out a huff and began marching back inside, Friend growling at them from over their shoulder. “Well, that went pretty smoothly.”

[taffingspy]

Thinking about how loyal Nabor was to the Zarosian empire despite how he was eventually imprisoned anyway

He was imprisoned, and then his immediate thought is just to carry on his research for the sake of the empire. Like. At no point does he show bitterness towards zarosians for his imprisonment, even in his journal where you'd expect some kind of motivation to be noted down. Nope, just help the empire and its people. I'm upset

[pizzahatt1]

My WG Pizzahatt1. Yes, really. This is why you shouldn’t ask your 10-year-old cousin for name suggestions.