#zoom into xadia

[raayllum]

almost cried at work over the two trailer rayllum handholds / notions of callum possibly telling rayla “you’re my family”

[spicyviren]

When their stars align with our world, they may choose to materialize and walk among us in Xadia.

I'll ask a dumb question. What does this mean?

Seasonal constellations (if that's what Startouch elves ultimately are) simply move out of view from a specific point on the earth, but otherwise would be observable in another location on the planet.

Do the stars in their universe just zoom around the galaxy like flies? Is there something very special specifically about them being over Xadia? Can they only manifest in Xadia?

Am I thinking too hard and it's just

⋆｡°✩ magic✩°｡⋆

?

[bat-snake]

Thinking about the 2020 Zoom into Xadia conference again, between the psudo-modern AU Cast on Zoom opening and then the tabletop game.

Between people continuously breaking into the Zoom call through one way or another, Rayla and Callum being in the same room and trying to deny it, Soren on cybersecurity but accidentally sending Claudia a link, Viren Dadding It Up and not knowing how to get out...nor is he entirely sure how he got in. And finally Aaravos yells at them for complaining when he's been "involuntarily social distancing for centuries" and claiming to be on every call all the time...while having a bad connection and his voice cutting out (must have been a nasty storm in the Sea of the Castout thinking about it now)

And of course the utter disaster of the Tabletop game that makes Aaravos rage quit and end the game because everyone immediately broke out into a fight after finishing their character introductions. (Which actually has my favorite Aaravos line read even though it's not cannon, and it's the weary "Viren???" when he calls him to describe his character)

[zuppizup]

WIP Ask Game:

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

Thanks for the tag, @a-very-sparkly-nerd and @lunanightriderofthecove !

Holy crap, em, I have a lot of WIPS, so I’ll just put down the ones I’m actively working on/thinking about.

Obligatory, Zoom-mates and Purgatory, on-going WIPs. Both at the tail end of completion though. I actually did open the final chapter of Zoom-mates and work on it this week an everything. (This one in particular is killing me because I commissioned Numpty to do some art for the final chapter and it is so fricking gorgeous and I want to share it soooo bad!!!)

Back in Time: Sequel to my timetravel/multiverse fic Out of Time. Rayla and Callum have been living happily in the new peaceful future, but all that become threatened when they hear of omens from Xadia.

I’ve also begun work on a follow up to this WIP, because I’m like that and they deserve happiness.

A Dark Alternative: A canon-verse AU, where the splitting of the continent did not happen. Humans and elves live along side each other, but not exactly together. Once upon a time, Callum had a little elf friend called Rayla, but they lost touch when he and his mother moved to the capital. Now, years later, he runs into a familiar face.

In absentia: Callum is possessed by Aaravos but Rayla refuses to give up hope of recovering him. Unfortunately, that’s only the beginning of her problems. (Specifically a pregnant Rayllum spite fic, because I’m like that)

End of Nowhere: Six years after the events of Road to Nowhere and the end of his working holiday in Australia, Callum is living a somewhat normal, if boring, life. That’s all thrown into chaos when he runs into his ex, Rayla.

Moustache Smut Fic (part of The High Mage’s Study): There really isn’t much detail to go into here. Spite, but of a different variety 😆

Tagging @blutopaz15 @mistenflute (I know you two want to gush!) @amys-books27 @jedidragonwarriorqueen @thatartiststudios999 @arcadianmoonshadowjedi @konmaao3 @herwrittenuniverse and whoever wants to join in!

[kradogsrats]

Corruption and Primal Magic

So previously I've written two big posts that cover dark magic corruption: one on corruption as functionally a stand-in for Aaravos's influence, and one specifically analyzing the visibility of Viren's corruption in s1-s4.

Pictured: it turns out you can zoom WAY in on the pictures in the Tales of Xadia PDF, and these dudes have little black eye-veins!

I've long headcanoned theorized that "corruption," in the physical symptoms of dark magic sense, is lingering buildup of magic in conduits (humans) not designed to channel it. Now, it's a little more complicated than that with regard to how it's linked to Aaravos and other factors covered in those more extensive posts, but I'm still hanging on to that theory.

What we're seeing now is further exploration of corrupted primal magic. Because it's not inherently corruption of the mage, it's corruption of the magic.

Like, maybe it's kind of stupid to spell this out, but: dark magic consumes and converts primal magic to work. That's the corruption, that change to the primal magic's nature. (I.e. being Aaravos-ified.) What we're seeing in the characteristic physical symptoms expressed by dark mages is then the buildup of that corrupted magic.

And now, in After Darkness, we've seen the other side of that. Humans don't actually have magic in them to be corrupted. Elves do. Corrupted magic slowly builds up in humans because it's stuck. In elves... well, we see with Osato that the effect is a) rapid, b) intense, and c) complete. Because elves naturally have primal magic channeling through their bodies from their arcanum. The corruption seizes on the magic, consumes it to grow stronger, and spreads.

Everything in Xadia is inherently magical. Kim'dael drinks the blood of other elves to increase her own power. Osato is infected with corruption through a minor physical wound.

Just to dig a bit deeper into this, the other place we've gotten fairly in-depth about the corruption of the Sunforge, i.e. the Sun nexus, is in The Tale of the Corrupted Core, which is the starter adventure included in the Tales of Xadia rulebook.

In Corrupted Core, it's only days after the battle at the Storm Spire, Lux Aurea is still being evacuated, and the corrupted Sunforge's power is escalating. The people remaining in the city, including the PCs when they enter, are explicitly suffering various degrees of ill effects from the Sunforge's radiating magical energy (now corrupted). It's believed that the Sunforge will soon release its power explosively, which would have severe consequences for an unknown area surrounding the city, the heartland of Xadia.

Pictured: corruption of the Sun nexus, or possibly the miracle of conception.

The PCs are tasked with mitigating this world-altering event by bringing a container of magical serum into contact with the Sunforge itself, which will suppress its imminent explosion to (hopefully) not reach beyond the confines of the city. The serum can also be used at various points throughout the adventure to suppress the effects of corruption on other characters—Orta, for one, a fire dragon who made physical contact with the Sunforge and was left thrashing in mindless, rage-filled torment. Using the serum on her leaves her exhausted and weakened, but her mind clear.

Where did this serum come from? Interestingly, it was developed by Vaake, a Sunfire elf mage, for personal use. Vaake's arcanum is out of control—when she is under emotional stress, it shunts out a large amount of magic and leaves her exhausted and in pain. It's not clear if this is a condition she was born with, or if it's the result of some kind of trauma, but she developed the serum to essentially suppress her own arcanum. The serum works similarly on the corrupted energy, suppressing its effects rather than cleansing it.

It's not clear whether the serum works on all magic or if it specific to Sun magic, and therefore corrupted Sun magic. The point, though, is that something designed to suppress primal magic also works on this corruption. This is because corruption is not a separate entity from primal magic, it is primal magic, just with its nature having been twisted. By Aaravos.

What we are now seeing in After Darkness is a later stage of Lux Aurea, after the events of Corrupted Core. If the PCs are successful, they deliver the serum to the Sunforge and escape, along with an unspecified number of refugees (the guide specifically says not to dwell on that, because it will bum the players out lmao), before the explosion that floods the city with corrupted energy. There are no nightmare shadow-creatures in Corrupted Core—that's all a result of the massive spike of corrupted energy released from the Sunforge affecting anyone left behind, plus presumably anything/anyone that unwittingly entered the city after the fact and got bit.

Pictured: not ominous at all.

A few interesting things to consider, here:

It's at least strongly implied that Aaravos personally corrupts the Sunforge, which again, is in fact the Sun nexus. As in, he's the originator of the corruption. Viren is his vessel, a container that brought Aaravos to where he needed to be.

Additionally, it kind of(?) feels like Aaravos really goes out of his way specifically to corrupt the Sunforge and taking the Sunfire elves out of the "conquer Xadia" equation is secondary. Is his goal to corrupt all of the primal nexuses? But he was also like... right there at the Sky nexus (a.k.a. the Storm Spire) and didn't do anything. Maybe it was next on his to-do list after Viren helpfully feeds him Zym? Or maybe the other nexuses aren't as easily corruptible, being more naturally occurring and not... channeled into some kind of industrialized concentrated orb?

Are??? Humans????? Perhaps?????? Actually MORE???? Resistant?????? To Corruption????????? 🤔 🤔 🤔

Though on that note, who has an arcanum? Oh right, Callum. Callum has an arcanum.

Anyway, there are also still a few questions that boil down to whether there's a distinction between corrupted Sun magic vs. corrupted magic of other primals. Would someone not a Sunfire elf be affected as dramatically as Osato, since it's already a corruption of his natural magic? We do know that corrupted primal magic is essentially a thing in its own right, adjacent but not the same as dark magic—Claudia's spells with the corrupted Sunforge staff are corrupted Sun magic that Aaravos has presumably taught her. Would the staff, containing as it does a now-corrupted Sun primal stone, release a similar, smaller burst of corruption if smashed?

Pictured: a corrupted Sun magic spell then used to amplify a dark magic spell. Huh.

Fun side note: in Corrupted Core, it specifies that the PCs can clear the "Corrupted" stress (otherwise part of the dark mage player mechanics) they receive from magical objects (such as the Sunforge) using Sun magic. Stress received from casting dark magic spells still has to be cleared with dark magic. Now, this is probably mostly to preserve a way for groups of PCs who don't have a dark mage among them to clear that stress, which otherwise does not naturally clear and can quickly become a problem. But it's still interesting—is the specification due to the presumed purifying properties of Sun magic itself, or because the corruption received from the Sunforge is corrupted Sun magic, specifically?

As usual, do I have answers? No. Have I thought about this possibly too extensively? Yes. Is it all coming together?

[kilfeur]

Si on zoome de plus près, on peut voir qu'Aaravos pleure. Est ce qu'il pleure suite à son bannissement ? Car on a vu que dans l'histoire courte qu'il pleurait une fois qu'il s'est écrasé sur Xadia. Ou bien est ce autre chose ? On remarque aussi que la mer étoilé où il s'est effondré sur ses genoux, est souillé par le sang. Donc est ce que ce serait en rapport aux conflits qu'il a engendré depuis les ombres par ses manipulations ou alors ça représente autre chose ?

D'ailleurs chose intéressante, on ne voit pas le reflet de son visage à travers la mer étoilé ensanglanté. Ce qui me fait un penser à la réflexion de Claudia à travers le petit étang dans l'histoire courte "l'enfant perdu". Sauf que contrairement à Aaravos, on voit le visage de Claudia, ce qui fait un joli contraste.

If we zoom closer, we can see that Aaravos is crying. Is he crying because he's been banished? Because we saw in the short story that he was crying once he crashed on Xadia. Or is it something else? We also notice that the starry sea where he fell on his knees is stained with blood. So, does this have anything to do with the conflicts he's stirred up from the shadows through his manipulations, or does it represent something else?

Interestingly, we don't see the reflection of his face across the bloody starry sea. This reminds me of Claudia's reflection across the small pond in the short story "The Lost Child". Except that, unlike Aaravos, we can see Claudia's face, which makes a nice contrast.

[ask-runaan-anything]

Alright be honest u definitely cried at u and etharis wedding 😏 u cant fool me

Never zoom in on any imagery of me ever, little shadow, or you will see how terribly easily I cry. Shhh. My tears are very Moonshadow too.

Of course I cried at my own wedding. Ethari had just made me the happiest elf in all of Xadia, and I had a ridiculous amount of feels about him. It. Everything.

Everything.

[allthenetflixoriginalcartoons]

So Ezran and Aaravos' voice actors mentioned they would want to voice each others characters. Just saying, I would totally be down with an episode where Aaravos possesses Ezran. I mean, just to make their dreams come true. Totally not because I want some angst.

[alls-fair-in-pride-and-prejudice]

Bait is ancient. He has seen the rise and fall of empires.

[thelonelynindroid]

This took me so!! Damn!! Long!! But anyway Tdp is good (TM) and y'all should watch it

[dragonprinceofficial]

It’s happening! 

Our virtual Comic Con Panel "Zoom Into Xadia" drops on JULY 24 at 3PM PST! The cast and creators are bringing you skits, sneak peeks, and answers to all your most burning questions. 👀

[raayllum]

Do you have any Modern AUs that you could share with us?

TDP corner has quite a few pretty well known Modern AU fics (Zoommates, Homeward Bound, some others I'm sure I'm forgetting and @jelzorz's dabbled in a few, probably most notably "raising chickens" and "a snowfall kind of love"). One of my all time favourites is this long, sweet, friendship with dashes of romance centric oneshot. General Modern AUs tag here that will probably have the bulk of what you're looking for fic/fanart wise <3

For myself, I'm mostly incapable writing anything other than Rayllum first meetings only when it comes to Modern AUs / I prefer to stick as close to canon's world as possible generally speaking, but some exceptions:

Tag for modern AU specific headcanons here (featuring more than just Rayllum, like some sparse Janaya and Ezran)

the most wonderful time of the year: Ezran drags Callum to a "Meet Santa" event. Rayla works as a holiday helper. Christmas fluff ensues. 2.8k and super old (like dec 2019 old) but still very cute

luck: Callum and Rayla meet at a DnD club. 3k, Loosely inspired by the Zoom Into Xadia dnd skit the cast did back in 2020

Honestly the only modern AU headcanons I hold strongly to is like

Callum and Ezran are from a mixed race, interfaith family. Harrow is Christian so they do celebrate Christmas, but culturally participate and consider themselves to be Jewish far more. Callum (+ Amaya and Sarai) are Korean and Ezran is half Black, half Korean

Ezran would be an animal rights protection lawyer

If Rayla plays an instrument, she plays the drums (listen, the sticks just work well with her dual blades)

Soren's favourite movie is "Bend It Like Beckham"

I think I have just one modern AU planned for the future which is Great Responsibility, featuring Ezran being bitten by a radioactive spider, Callum as his protective only mildly freaking out big brother, and Rayla as the boxer who actually teaches Ezran how to fight (and gets drawn into their shenanigans as a result) but that's more Ezran (+ broyals) centric than anything else

[iwillhaveamoonbase]

Are You Receiving Me Clear?

Post-TTM Callum finds a Startouch elf to help him learn where Rayla is.

-----------------

Callum stared at the Startouch elf before him. The woman was ageless and looked at him with eyes that held such wisdom but also a sense of playfulness. Were all Startouch elves like this, he wondered. Lujanne had sent him to Najma to start his quest to find Rayla after he had gone after her. Callum still didn’t understand why she had left him behind, but he couldn’t leave her on her own when there were still people loyal to Viren’s cause out there.

“Are you Najma?” he finally asked. She had gestured him to come in when she had opened her door but they had yet to exchange a word as they had sized each other up.

The woman smiled again, moving her hand to tuck back her white hair that lay under a loose veil. “Yes.” Even her voice portrayed a sense of being far older than even the castle back in Katolis but also as young as a teenager experiencing their first love. “How can I help you, Prince Callum?”

“You…you know who I am?”

“Yes. Word has travelled fast and far of a human prince who can use the Sky arcanum without a primal stone. There has been no one like you in a very, very long time.”

That gave him pause. “Wait, there were others like me? I thought-”

“A handful of select humans were capable of figuring it out before you. I could probably count the number on my hand and I never met them myself.”

“Oh.”

“But that’s not why you are here.” Raising a glass to her lips, she watched him with warm eyes. Callum shifted in the chair she had gestured for him to sit in when he had knocked on her door. “I rarely get visitors, you know. Who sent you?”

“Lujanne.”

“Ah. We met twice. Once when she was starting her mage training and was getting in all kinds of trouble. The second time…well, Lujanne had failed one too many times and was being sentenced to guard the Moon Nexus.”

“I thought,” Callum furrowed his brows and licked his lips, “I thought that it was an honor for talented mages to go guard the Moon Nexus.”

“That’s what they say, but it’s a punishment. There are no other elves around and the Cursed Caldera, until recently, had to be guarded with visions, so little interaction with humans. Also, the only real source of sustenance is grubs.” Putting her chin on her closed fist, Najma observed him for a few moments. “You know how Moonshadow elves put such value on pride, but there’s also a strong element of secrecy and tradition in their culture.”

“Isn’t all of Xadia like that?”

Humming, she nodded her head back and forth. “Yes and no. There’s degrees of it depending on the culture. Tidebounds are more secretive than Sunfires but not as secretive as Moonshadow elves. At least, not intentionally. Startouch elves are more about observing the celestial bodies, science, mathematics, applying it to art and the world around us. Startouch mages have to learn for many years how the universe bends and twists and how to do so to our bidding without breaking the rules of the arcanum. And then there’s time, which doesn’t flow quite as straight as people think it does. It goes backwards and forwards and twists and turns. We cannot control time, but we have to understand it’s place in the universe in order to properly understand the stars.”

Captivated by her words, Callum leaned forward in his chair. “Do you think it’s possible for me to learn?”

“I don’t know. Of the few human mages before you, to my knowledge, they never got star magic. It takes work and theory and it’s a far more applied science than moon magic is, for example.”

“Would you teach me?”

“Is that why you are here?” There was humor in her voice, but also distrust.

“No. My girlfriend, Rayla, is a Moonshadow elf and she left in the middle of the night. We entered the space between life and the other side and she didn’t see people there she thinks were supposed to be. So, she left and only told me she was getting answers. I want to find her.”

“I can do that for you. As for teaching you Startouch magic, I don’t know. We can certainly try, but you will need to study quite a bit before we even attempt star magic.”

“How will you help me find her?”

“I cannot give you an exact location, but I can give you a projection of her by calling on the stars. If your connection is strong enough, as long as you focus on her, you should be able to see her and get a rough idea of where she is. If she is connected to you, she might be able to see you.”

“So, it’s like my body is moving towards her?”

“No, a projection of you. Your body and your spirit will not be moving anywhere.”

“OK. What do we do?”

“Just focus on her. Let me do the rest. Come with me.” Callum followed Najma to a round, empty room. “Focus, Prince Callum.”

“You can just call me Callum. Please.”

She smiled, the twinkle that was ever present became stronger. “Alright. Callum. Focus on Rayla, on your relationship, the good and the bad. Also, don’t be too shocked by what you see.” Callum emptied his mind of everything except Rayla; her smile, her laughter, how crazy she drove him, but also how much he loved her.

He heard Draconic coming from Najma, eyes growing wide as the center of the room grew a bright dot before expanding out. Suddenly, what looked like dust was moving around before swirling and forming spheres of light and colors he would never have guessed were in the sky above him. He heard music, something that sounded like an old instrument he couldn’t place and another he had never even heard before, but in a rhythm he both recognized and knew he had never heard before.

Najma was doing nothing but holding out her hands and watching him. Callum tried to keep his mind focused on Rayla, but the longer time passed, the more he realized he was watching the birth of the universe occur in front of his eyes. The spheres moved and expanded all over the room. Finally, a small blue and green sphere was in front of him. An image about as large as a mirror came forward, cloudy with wavy edges.

There was a forest before zooming forward and he saw her: Rayla. She was leaning on a tree with her arms crossed, glaring at the ground. A hand was on her shoulder, attached to a muscular arm, and what looked like a masculine shape. Callum bit his lip, but stamped down the jealousy welling in his stomach. There were other figures present, off to the side, and Callum could not deny that there was comfort in knowing Rayla wasn’t alone. If she had help with whatever she was trying to find, maybe it would help guarantee she would come back to him.

He felt a breeze ruffle his hair and his lips parted, holding his hand out as he whispered Rayla’s name. To his shock, she looked up. Those lavender eyes he loved so much went wide and he knew she saw him even though no one else in her group seemed to notice. He could see her mouth his name and her hand slowly lifting up to him, as if to grasp his own. Before she could, the image faded and Callum was left with the universe in miniature around him. The projection continued to expand before he saw the spheres exploding and eventually, everything went dim. “That was…incredible,” he whispered.

“I’m assuming you know what that was.”

“The life of the universe.”

“Very good. As I said, Startouch mages can bend and twist the space and magic that the stars give us, but we also have to understand time and space. All things are made up of star stuff, so we can give you visions of the here and now, but we cannot teleport you to someone’s side or even show you visions of the futre. There are limitations. Do you know where she is?”

“Xadia, for sure. I think she’s in Earthblood territory.”

“Will you go after her?”

Callum paused, looking at Najma before looking at his hands. He could have a chance to at least learn about the star arcanum even if he never was able to use star magic and he now knew Rayla was safe. Ezran and Soren had promised him that if they needed him back home, they would contact Lujanne and she would find a way to contact him. “I…I want to be with Rayla, but if she really thinks she needs to do this without me, at least I know she isn’t alone now. I want to learn from you, Najma. Please, teach me about the star arcanum.”

“What if you can’t use star magic?”

“At least I’ll have learned more about magic and the universe we live in.”

“Hmm.” She regarded him for a few moments before finally nodding her head. “I’ll give you a trial period of two weeks. If I don’t like how you act or if you don’t listen to me, I’m kicking you out.”

“Deal.”

--------------------------------

Rayla ignored Liam as he continued trying to flirt with her, focusing on her internal crisis. She had seen a vision of Callum and she knew it had not been her mind playing tricks on her or any of her compatriots. They didn’t know what Callum looked like and none of them were Moonshadow elves. She had come across a band of two Skywing elves and three Sunfire elves a few weeks ago and had joined them on their quest after they promised to help her find Viren. They didn’t know she was the Moonshadow elf that was now famously engaged in courtship with a human prince or that she had been at the Spire. They didn’t ask questions as long as she didn’t ask any either.

‘I promise, I will find a way back to you,’ she whispered in her mind to Callum, wherever he was. ‘Just give me time. I have to do this, for me, for my family, for us. I love you, My Heart, and I am sorry I left you. Please, be safe.’

------------------

If you can guess the song the title is a reference to, I would be amazed. When that particular lyric is used, that's roughly what I think Callum was hearing in the projection.

This fic also has my personal theories on why Lujanne is solo in guarding the Moon Nexus and how Startouch magic works. I believe that Startouch elves are based on the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula who advanced math and astronomy and their magic involves understanding science and how stars work.

[bat-snake]

I hope season 4 has a running gag of characters imitating Aaravos' voice (namely the actors who all said they wanted his voice in the Zoom into Xadia panel - and we already have one)

[zuppizup]

Dear Nonny who sent me an ask about the recent chapters of Zoom-mates, answering it directly would be a bit spoilery, so I hope you see this 😊

Thanks Nonny! This was pretty much what I was going for. The conversations about their futures and where they saw themselves and each other in the Xadia chapters were almost more important than the "official" engagement to me.

I think its really important people do discuss that sort of thing prior to getting engaged. I know Hollywood loves a big, extravagant surprise proposal but it didn't feel like it fit Zoom-mates Rayllum. It's a silly premise and an in-verse relationship speed run (yeah, I know I've been writing it for 2.5 years 😭) but a low key proposal had always been how I envisioned them actually getting engaged.

Or deciding to get married as turned out. 😆

[kradogsrats]

Rewatch Shitposts: S3, Ep 1-4

i.

Aw ye Ziard

Can’t wait for all this shit to be fully explained

Sol Regem is such an asshole but such a good character

Opeli: “right, now that I’m in charge… time for the executions to begin”

Ezran does know how to make an entrance

ii.

“Yeah so your dad’s dead, and also protocol demands you sleep in his bedroom instead of your old one that might be a source of comfort to you”

Zym: “finally, some good fucking food”

Xadia, land of puns

So the ToX sourcebook specifies that it’s revealed that the assassinations of Fareeda and Florian were orchestrated by Viren, but not how or when… another thing it will be GREAT TO FIND OUT SOMEDAY, WONDERSTORM

Soren, stress eater

Ghhh the seed-copter makes me nauseous just looking at it

Claudia must see adoraburrs someday

And they very carefully do NOT show how the crown goes on over Ezran’s hair

iii.

It has never been made clear how/why Rayla “knows” her parents ran away, but presumably it’s down to “well, their bodies weren’t there”

ELF CALLUM

screaming rn because that little bow before he starts the accent? he definitely saw Viren do this once lmao

They could have made Ezran’s speech there sound a little less naive

DEEPLY hate whoever mentioned that one of Kazi’s design inspirations was C-3PO, thanks

AGAIN with leaving the fucking butterflies on the floor, Viren please

That little dramatic “oh shit” zoom omfg, it’s almost as good as the “Two YEARS?!?!” one in s4

Lotta very painful family dynamics in one little scene, there

ngl I’m most waiting for the s3 novelization for the Lux Aurea scenes

and I do like Ethari, actually

iv.

Ah yes, the Midnight Desert… another sequence that feels interminably boring but serves for the characters to learn important lessons about themselves and each other

Nyx’s design is definitely someone’s teenage OC

yeah I’m gonna need someone to gather high-res versions of all the Katolis castle matte paintings because every single one is gorgeous

Again, Viren has the least reasonable reaction to a bug doing something on your face ever

I don’t remember if this is anywhere else, but it’s definitely implied here that Sarai was a general for Katolis before she was queen, which fits in with Katolis’s military-oriented history and culture

Baker: “… that—that was my best tray.”

I assume there’s rayllum fic out there for the “and there was ONLY ONE blanket” scenario, because duh

And the whole regency thing is a baffling series of decisions but like… okay, I guess