I drank an inadvisable amount of coffee at an unwise hour so I'd have extra pep to play with the girls. Now to see if I'm productive tonight or simply perish in caffeine.

Emperor’s New Clothes by Jann . . . has anyone put this forward as a Gale song cuz it just hit me

Alright Imma be in the house most of the week so I wanna tidy up my various blogs and generally get my ducks in a row. Expect to see me around doing more substantial things than liveblog books

Listen . . . I want to clean up the fantasy multi but I’m undecided about something. I’m definitely moving Luci there, but I’m debating whether to leave Elminster there or try him on his own blog. So —

Whatever my issue with the divine aspect of the Weave system, though, it really is the best option for anyone wishing to wield magic. You can cast spells of any school with immense room for creativity. In fact, creativity is encouraged. The only limit is your own skill and the few spells Mystra has forbidden. Results are reliable, predictable — which also means the only hindrance to teaching is a person’s temperament. There’s good reason it’s the best understood and most widely used system of magic on Toril.

Reading these books and seeing the overtime Mystran propaganda works has convinced me priests, Chosen, and maybe even Magisters of the goddess have gone to Zakhara to spread use of the Weave. I’m sure they won a few converts, but they could never really get a foothold. It’s just a distinctly different magical tradition. Dominant attitudes toward religion on the continent aren’t compatible with Faerûnian attitudes either. You can’t just. slot Mystra or Azuth in there.

Listen . . . I want to clean up the fantasy multi but I’m undecided about something. I’m definitely moving Luci there, but I’m debating whether to leave Elminster there or try him on his own blog. So —

Man I can’t even get through half the first chapter without being mad on Elminster’s behalf. I’m on page 6 of Shadows of Doom, and it just clicked for me that the reason Mystra has put him through such hell for centuries, has zeroed in on him more than any other person (aside perhaps Azuth), is she was preparing him for the Time of Troubles when he would become a vessel for a disproportionate amount of her power. An amount that has an extreme risk of tearing him apart and/or driving him mad. She meticulously carved away any trait of his that might’ve proven problematic during this period, and forged and hammered him with arcane magic and divine essence to fire his very being into a vessel that might withstand it. This in-and-of itself I don’t take issue with. It’s an unspeakable burden but also an unspeakable honor. I can also see and agree with her end goals; I understand the circumstance. I just HATE her methodology. (Especially because her methods are often hypocritical, and many of the traits she literally tortured out of El are prominent in her.) I am both obsessed with and horrified by the way El is both the knife and the lamb, the sacred and the sacrifice, the blood and the altar.

Y’know what I gotta prioritize talking about the Time of Troubles and the Spellplague

Literally the only aspect of Serot's story that would be a challenge to translate to Dragon Age is him being reborn, but I think I could plausibly finagle it?

Just say that Serot's bond with Refhremmit essentially stopped time for his body and left it all sealed up like we see with Ameridan and Hakkon. Except the intent was to merge with Refhremmit, not seal them, so Refhremmit isn't stuck in the place where that happened. Serot's soul / consciousness is unable to move on, though, so he keeps getting basically reincarnated. (Am I playing fast and loose with canon? Absolutely, but tbh DA canon is held together by silly string. With more finagling, I could really make this work.)

Now Serot is definitely from Nevarra and definitely a forefather of the modern Mortalitasi. One thing we know about present day Mortalitasi is they're essentially running the country, using the aged King Markus as a puppet. This leads to some Mortalitasi getting too drunk on power and running experiments they really shouldn't. It also led to some allying with Venatori (who exploited that to steal sacred relics, infiltrate the court / mind control the king, etc.). They could easily have done something that fucked with Serot + Refhremmit's bond and subsequently unsealed his body. Serot's soul / consciousness returned to it, but devoid of his memories.

I don't want him to immediately get recognized as Serot, though. We'll say the Mortalitasi are able to clock he was one of them over a thousand years ago — or is made up to appear that way. Lots of questions about whether this is some disrespectful bullshit or if he's truly an ancient returned to life, etc etc.

Either way, for DA:O we can say that Genitivi's quest for the Urn of Sacred Ashes took him to Nevarra before Ferelden. Hector was slain before the gates of Nevarra City trying to prevent the Imperium from capturing Andraste, so it's probable Havard found safe harbor there while smuggling her ashes south. Serot was probably alive during that time period or was born shortly after? So although his memory has issues, between that and knowledge from subsequent lifetimes, he's very useful to Genitivi's research. He decides to join his quest as this is also the only lead he has on himself. He gets separated from Genitivi in Ferelden, though. The Warden will encounter him randomly on the road and can recruit him. The Urn of Sacred Ashes is what restores his memories in full. He has a lot to grapple with.

Idk how to fit him into DAII tbh. I think he only has a cameo. When he leaves Ferelden after the Blight, he sails from Amaranthine to Kirkwall. He's there circa Act II. Maybe he hits a spot of trouble with the templars and/or Chantry and Hawke can help him out, idk. Regardless, he takes ship to Cumberland from there.

I think he's trynna keep his true identity under wraps back in Nevarra, but how successful he is is a question for future me. Either way, he ends up back with the Mortalitasi and is working toward purging the corruption in the order. This leads us to DA:I. See the Venatori were active in Tevinter before DA:I began and had undoubtedly infiltrated Nevarra before then as well. This leads him to Ferelden where the cult is, oddly, beginning to concentrate. Leliana, who traveled with him during the Blight, recruited him basically the second her agents caught sight of him snooping around Redcliffe. He's already in the Inquisition when the prologue occurs, although it's up to the Herald whether they ask him to join their party. His side quests and war table missions really focus on combating the Venatori, especially in Nevarra. However, his personal quest involves Meresankh. The details can wait til I eventually polish up this verse sdklfhg Basic gist would be that, in this verse, Meresankh was basically consumed by / merged with a demon. Serot wants to untangle them and save Meresankh. Unfortunately, that's not easily done; in fact, it might be impossible. It's all a matter of whether Serot can be convinced to stop before he destroys himself trying to save them.

@volchtsa // Beatrize Cousland // starter call

❝THOSE BLADES ARE INTERESTING.❞ HE looked with tilted head at her gleaming, gilded weapons. She took pride in her gear, he'd noticed. At the least, she was meticulous about it. The dust of their travels may as well have been a figment of the imagination, for her arms and armor were so well-maintained that it had no chance to settle on them. He wondered if she'd been a career soldier and if this behavior had been drilled into her. Truly, the moment between life and death often hinged on how well-tended one's gear war.

But, that question could hold a moment. It wouldn't do to bombard her.

❝I know of swords with similar curving. They're used to hook an opponent's shield or weapon and pull it aside. Some even use them to drag enemy soldiers right off their chariots.❞ He made a hooking motion, followed by one dragging sharply downward as he'd seen such warriors do. ❝Do you use the same sort of technique?❞

@sporefound // starter call

THEY'D COME ACROSS A PAIR of sizable boulders splitting their path beneath the trees. This had been deemed a suitable spot for a short rest. They were an uneven pair: the largest he estimated at eight feet, and the smaller was roughly half that. He'd dropped his pack and scrabbled first up the smaller, then atop the larger. It was just flat enough for him to sit comfortably cross-legged. He was pleased to find it afforded a lovely view of wildflowers (that he did not recognize and could not name) and that it fell within an unfiltered sunbeam. He'd be a fool not to sun himself like a lizard — so he did. A suitable spot for a rest indeed.

❝Amanita,❞ a beat for her attention to turn to him, ❝where are you from?❞ Idle chatter as befitted an idle moment, but he had a reason to start the conversation there. None of them were particularly happy with their circumstance, but she had been the most vocal of all about her desire to return home. One had to imagine it a fair place to evoke such longing.

I think my compromise to the staff dilemma has to be that Serot has a habit of absentmindedly toying with Lamb's Blood. The 10-inch dagger he carries, not . . . actual lamb's blood. He has an inexplicable occupation with the weapon, more than any other item on him when he's reborn. It's not until the sussur blooms in the Underdark that he understands why. It was the weapon that killed him in his lifetime as Neheb. Let's just say his feelings on the weapon evolve afterward.

I just keep envisioning Serot with a shepherd's crook so strongly. Thing is I don't think he would've held one in life. He wasn't a shepherd as a boy, and he would've favored a sword as a ghul lord. I can see it becoming associated with him after he rose to prominence, though, particularly after becoming a saint. It would be symbolic of him shepherding (and defending) the souls of the dead. It would also reference his taming of the kheprer and that no one has been able to direct them like he could. A shepherd's crook is, after all, multifunctional. It can direct and catch sheep; it can ward back predators; it can aid in traversing rough terrain; it can clear the way for the flock; and it can make it easier to search for those who have gone astray. It is fitting for him. I just don't think he's ever actually used one.

Death link spell fucks, though, and I'd love to include it in the BG3 timeline in some form. Basically it links two people so that any damage done to one, is done to the other. This includes death. It's often employed during tense negotiations to ensure they proceed in good faith. Can't stab the other person in the back without hurting yourself, too.

It feels like something Serot would want to whip out in Act 3, but there's not really a good moment for it is there . . .

I'm not gonna liveblog every neat lil spell in this book, but I will say that Serot could be an undead party member's best friend. It's given me so many ideas. There's a spell to turn undead invisible and a spell to charm them to look exactly as they did in life. There are spells to boost their abilities, etc. A spell to teleport them. Serot who isn't limited by what the Weave allows and draws directly from the Plane of Death, when I think about it, could do so much for an undead party member. He has a hotline to the very source of the energy sustaining them and decades (centuries, once he taps into his other lives) of experience utilizing it.

Oh skull watch is useful, too. Basically a levitating skull that will screech if anything enters a 20x90 ft path in front of it. It can be silenced, but the one who raised it will still be alerted. Bet Serot used this to watch their backs in the Gauntlet.