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de-sterren-nacht · 11 months

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The Fae of the British Lostbelt

This is gonna be a long one, so strap in.

The fae and other creatures of the British Lostbelt take heavy inspiration from real-life legends; almost every major character is named after a type of fairy or mystical creature from British folklore. Many of these names are not English; I've added a pronunciation guide for these in brackets after the word. In this post, I'll go over the beings and concepts these characters are named for and compare the legend to the original. This won't include Morgan or Oberon; those figures are complex enough to deserve posts of their own.

Aesc [ASH]

Aesc is more accurately spelled Æsc. It's an Old English word for the ash tree, and also doubles as the word for the rune for the letter Æ. This is pretty much a direct translation into Old English of Aesc's Japanese name, Tonelico (トネリコ), a word meaning "ash tree".

Albion

Albion is a poetic name for the island of Britain, from Greek Albiōn (Ἀλβίων), the name used by classical geographers to describe an island believed to be Britain. The name probably means "white place", which is how it's connected to the Albion of Fate. The Albion of Fate is the White Dragon, a symbol of the Saxons from a Welsh legend. In the most well-known version of the legend, the King of the Britons at the time, Vortigern, was trying to build a castle on top of a hill in Wales to defend against the invading Saxons, but everything he tried to build collapsed. He was told by his court wizard to find a young boy with no father and sacrifice him atop the hill to alleviate the curse. He sent his soldiers out and found a boy being teased for being fatherless, but when he brought the boy to the hill, the boy, a young Merlin, told him that his court wizard was a fool and that the real reason for the collapsing castle was two dragons inside the hill, one red and one white, locked in battle. The red dragon represented the Britons, and the white dragon represented the Saxons. Merlin told Vortigern that nothing could be built on the hill until the red dragon killed the white one. A red dragon is the symbol of Wales to this day, and a white dragon is occasionally used in Welsh poetry to negatively represent England. This white dragon is Albion in Type/Moon lore.

Baobhan Sìth [bah-VAHN shee]

A baobhan sìth is a female fairy in Scottish folklore. The name literally means "fairy woman" in Scottish Gaelic. They appear as a beautiful woman and seduce hunters traveling late at night so that they can kill and eat them, or drink their blood depending on the story. They're unrelated to banshees except in terms of etymology (Banshee is from Old Irish "ben síde", meaning the same thing as baobhan sìth). They're often depicted with deer hooves instead of feet, which is probably what inspired Baobhan Sìth's love of shoes.

Barghest

In the folklore of Northern England, a barghest is a monstrous black dog with fiery eyes teeth and claws the size of a bear's. The name probably derives from "burh-ghest", or "town-ghost". It was often said to appear as an omen of death, and was followed by the sound of rattling chains. The rattling chains probably inspired Barghest's chains. Her fire powers are also obviously based on the fiery eyes of the barghest. Otherwise, she's not very connected to the folkloric barghest, which is never associated with hunger or eating humans.

Boggart

In English folklore, a boggart is either a malevolent household spirit or a malevolent creature inhabiting a field, a marsh, a hill, a forest clearing, etc. The term is related to the terms bugbear and bogeyman, all originally from Middle English bugge, or possibly Welsh bwg [BOOG] or bwca [BOO-cuh], all words for a goblin-like monster. It usually resembled a satyr. It's not really ever depicted with lion features, so it's anyone's guess why Boggart is a lion-man.

Cernunnos [ker-NOON-ahs]

Cernunnos, probably meaning "horned one", was an important pre-Roman Celtic god. His existence is only attested by fragmentary inscriptions and the repeated motif in Celtic religious art of a "horned god", a humanoid figure with deer antlers seated cross-legged. This fragmentary evidence is often led to assume that Cernunnos was a god of nature, wilderness, animals and fertility. There exists no evidence that Cernunnos was a chief deity of any kind, since we have barely any evidence he existed at all in the first place. Cernunnos might not even be his name; it's just the only name we have. Needless to say, the only thing the Cernunnos in the British Lostbelt has in common with the real figure is his large antlers.

Cnoc na Riabh [kuh-nock-nuh-REE-uh]

Cnoc na Riabh, Knocknarea in English, is a hill in Sligo in Ireland. The name means "hill of the stripes", referring to its striking limestone cliffs. It's said to be the location where Medb's tomb lies, so it's connected to Cnoc na Riabh through Fate's conflation of Medb with Queen Mab, a fairy mentioned in Romeo and Juliet; this etymology of Mab as derived from Medb was formerly accepted, but has lost favour with the advent of modern Celtic studies due to the lack of any concrete connection between the two figures.

Grímr (don't know how to say this one, apologies; Germanic myth is not my strong suit)

Odin (Wōden in Old English) was a god worshiped in many places, basically anywhere the Germanic peoples went, including the Anglo-Saxons that became today's English people. As such a widely worshiped god, he had a very large number of names, titles and epithets. Grímr is one such name, literally meaning "mask", referring to Odin's frequent usage of disguises in myths, which is fitting for how Cú disguised himself as a faerie in the British Lostbelt and hid that he possessed Odin's Divinity from Chaldea.

Habetrot

Habetrot is a figure from Northern England and the Scottish Lowlands, depicted as a disfigured elderly woman who sewed for a living and lived underground with other disfigured spinsters. She often spun wedding gowns for brides. Cloth spun by her was said to have curative and apotropaic properties. All the Habetrot of the British Lostbelt has in common with this figure is the association with brides and with spinning cloth. "Totorot" is not a real figure; the name is just an obvious tweak of Habetrot.

Mélusine

Mélusine is a figure that appears in folklore all across Europe. The name probably derives from Latin "melus", meaning "pleasant". She's a female spirit of water with the body of a beautiful woman from the waist up, and the body of a serpent or a fish from the waist down. In most stories, she falls in love with a human man and bears his children, using magic to conceal her inhuman nature. However, she tells her lover he must never look upon her when she is bathing or giving birth. Of course, he invariably does so, and when he does, he discovers her serpentine lower body, and she leaves, taking their children with her. Since Mélusine is just the name Aurora gave her, the Mélusine of the British Lostbelt has very little to do with this figure, but an analogy can be drawn between the Mélusine of folklore hiding her true form as a half-serpent to maintain her relationship with her lover, and Fate's Mélusine suppressing her true form as both a dragon and an undifferentiated mass of cells to ensure Aurora continues to love her.

Muryan [MUR-yan]

A muryan is a rather obscure Cornish fairy. The word is Cornish for "ant". Muryans are diminutive figures with shapechanging abilities, cursed to grow smaller every time they use those abilities until they eventually vanish altogether. Muryan, of course, is connected to muryans through her ability to shrink others.

Spriggan [SPRID-jan]

A spriggan is a type of creature in Cornish folklore. The word is derived from the Cornish word "spyryjyon" [same pronunciation], the plural of "spyrys", meaning "fairy". They're usually grotesque old men with incredible strength and incredibly malicious dispositions, and are often depicted guarding buried treasure. Spriggan is not himself a faerie, and the name is stolen from a faerie he killed, but it's still appropriate due to the greed and selfishness spriggans are usually depicted with.

Woodwose

Woodwose is a Middle English term for the wild man, a motif in European art comparable to the satyr or faun. The etymology is unclear. It has little to do with wolves or animals, despite its association with wildness, but there is at least a thematic connection with Woodwose's character, since the archetype of the wild man depicts a figure who cannot be civilised or well-mannered no matter how hard he tries, much like how Woodwose barely restrains his temper by being a vegetarian and dressing in a fine suit. Woodwose's predecessor, Wryneck, is named for a type of woodpecker with the ability to rotate its neck almost 180°.

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redisaid · 11 months

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Beneath the Blue Moon - Chapter 8

Full

Oh hi. I missed the girls. I’m back on the train of this bullshit again.

Expect a new poll for choices on chapters 9 and 10 in a few days.

7052 Words

Read it on Ao3!

When the wind bends the branch to softly touch me, When the band plays your song, I feel strong enough to keep dreaming, Even when I'm all alone, Our love goes on and on.

Sylvanas decided that there was no worse idea ever had than that of trying to host a luncheon across the span of two ships tethered to one another. And as painful as the creaking of rope and wood and canvas against one another was to her elven ears, the fact that Jaina was just a gangplank away from her, and had been this entire time, yet still would not look at her, was far worse.

Otherwise, the summit was going well. As well as could be imagined, really. Horde and Alliance alike were enjoying tea and finger sandwiches on a sunny day in the harbor of an offshore island deemed too far away from Dazar’alor to pose a threat. Both of them were digesting Sylvanas’ words with their food, her explanation of the threat that faced them all, and the price she feared the world would pay for the theft of her soul.

Her selfish dooming of Azeroth. Nothing unusual, really. Old news before it was even news.

Just as the situation was with Jaina. The only time she’d looked into her eyes in over a decade was across the throne room in Lordaeron—when Jaina had come to save the Alliance’s bid to take her city from her.

And succeeded.

She was powerful, a ball of stress that was honestly only more beautiful for it. She looked incredible in her Kul Tiran uniform, even today, sulking with a greatcoat draped over her shoulders, unbuttoned otherwise for the heat of the Zandalari sun.

Just because she wouldn’t look at Sylvanas didn’t mean Sylvanas couldn’t look at her.

And honestly, over the years, in the scant times that they’d shared space since, all she could ever do was look at her. To look at her, going on, changing, becoming something without her. In the absence of her.

Sylvanas wondered if the emptiness had gnawed at her? The lack of what once was? Their connection, bone deep, severed even as Sylvanas still walked this world. Maybe it was the years of having had time to process it properly, as Sylvanas didn’t, that had hardened Jaina to her. To this need.

It was a need. Like the living needed water and air and food and shelter. Sylvanas was dead, still, and needed none of these. But she needed Jaina. She needed her like withered elves needed mana. Like—

“Warchief, a moment of your time?”

Anduin Wrynn. A lad of annoying height that he’d only gained in the last few years, loomed over her in his ceremonial lion armor, a polite smile tugging at the corner of his beardless lips. Last she’d seen him wear that armor, it was when she’d run from him, defeated at Lordaeron, wondering after the apology that seemed to echo in Jaina’s eyes.

Still too broken to understand it, but questioning all the same.

“By all means, High King,” she said with a nod.

In all her life and thereafter, Sylvanas had never imagined she would be nodding to a king. A boy king besides that, but even so, she had thought she would remain nothing more than a General, still giving a full bow to Anestarian, hoping he’d hold on a few more centuries and spare her from doing the same to Kael’thas.

Anduin came to stand with her on the aft deck of the Banshee’s Wail, mounting the stairs with a plate of tiny sandwiches still in hand.

“I have to admit I was rather fascinated by your tales of the Shadowlands,” he told her. “And what you’d experienced there. I was hoping you might answer some questions for me, about the nature of death.”

He would be disappointed to know how little she knew. How little she cared to know. Sylvanas could tell him exactly what death was. Unfair. Broken. A thing that ground one down, bones to dust. Souls to anima. A transformation to smaller parts, in which, along the way, the whole was lost forever.

A thing that made the decay and disgust of decomposition seem kind.

But instead, she said to him, “You may ask what you wish. I will share what I know, but I would hardly call my knowledge of the Shadowlands encyclopedic.”

“You mentioned there being other realms of death, besides the place you called the Maw. I was wondering…”

Wonder away, she almost wanted to tell him. Sylvanas herself had only seen glimpses of them as the Jailer’s servants had escorted her through a tour of the unfairness of death—the great separation and unending that awaited all living things.

Beautiful Bastion, its angelic embrace a front for a great lie—consuming the souls of heroes to turn them into willing servants and ferriers of yet even more souls. Malevolent Maldraxxus, where the souls of the warlike could play at war for the rest eternity, never satisfied with an end to their violence. Repentant Revendreth, whose aesthetic honestly didn’t miss, but otherwise enslaved the souls of the evil to extract from them in exchange for the slim hope at a better fate.

There was no better fate. Not even in Ardenweald, among the eternal forest, caring for slumbering gods. The Jailer had taunted her, telling her this was where she’d been headed before Arthas had rent her soul in twain and damned her to undeath and her eventual bargain. But even in her kindest end, Sylvanas now knew she would have become nothing more than a nymph of the woods that did not remember herself.

Or Jaina.

Or Lirath. Or Mother and father. Their souls too, were already lost in this machine of death. One that still very much deserved to be broken.

But not at the costs she had already paid.

Sylvanas waited for him to seem to finish his question, though she did not truly listen to the rest of it. “I’m afraid I’ve seen little outside of the Maw.”

She lied through simplicity. Much as she wished Anduin to enjoy his little sandwiches and hear out her request for peace, she was not here for him.

She was here for the woman who wouldn’t so much as set foot on the Horde side of the ships, and had all the reasons in the world to stay where she was. The Alliance side was made up of one of her ships, actually. Her flagship was larger, but sat lower in the water overall to the point where such side by side anchorage was possible for them. Still, it made Sylvanas nervous. All canons and teeth.

Jaina had a right to every one of those guns.

“I just wondered if you might know where my father went. Where a man like him would go to his eternal rest?” Anduin asked.

The porcelain plate in his hands reflected sunlight dully up at her amidst an array of cucumber, mayonnaise, and white bread. King Wrynn could not look her in the eye as he asked.

Bastion? Perhaps. Varian was a hero, certainly, and Sylvanas remembered well the time they fought side by side, deck to deck on different ships in the sky and not at sea. The way it made her thick black blood seem to race again to fight beside a warrior of equal skill, despite their opposite factions. It was only recent, very recent to one with both an elf and an undead’s lengthy perception of time. She would not soon forget the feeling.

But Varian was headstrong. Willful in the way Alliance men seemed to excel at. A warrior through and through. Perhaps he fought in the endless battles of Maldraxxus.

But death was infinite and terrible. Its realms expanded on and on, like the twisting tower of Torghast. It was not for mortal comprehension. It was not meant to make sense, or to be fair.

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” was the most honest answer she could give him. “But, as you do, I would hope he rests peacefully, and remains as such. I cannot recommend the alternative.”

Anduin Wrynn had never heard her make a joke before. That occurred to her as he stared at her, one bushy blonde eyebrow cocked in disbelief.

Not many people from the other ship had heard her make a joke before, actually. Or even on her side of the gangplank.

Among the many disservices of her death and the loss of her whole soul was that the world had forgotten she was funny.

She used to be very funny.

“Right,” Anduin eventually said, catching the gape that his mouth was starting to form and closing his teeth with an audible click. “Perhaps I might draft up a letter with a list of questions, or put you in contact with a scholar to chronicle your knowledge.”

“No doubt many will be interested. I’ve already been approached by the Reliquary and my own Apothecaries since my announcement to the Horde,” Sylvanas informed him.

She had no doubt that she would be made to recount her singular experiences a hundred times over. If Azeroth survived to care about them, that is.

“But,” she continued. “My priorities at the moment are ensuring that we work together to protect the world of the living and my people alike from that which may threaten us.”

Diplomacy never felt right to her. Even as successful as she had been at it here and there. She was a creature of trails and trees, not of contracts and meetings.

Or graves and the ink darkness of night. Lingering fog and dripping horrors. Teeth gnashing at rotting flesh.

Reconciling the two was still too difficult to keep in the forefront of her mind. Both parts of her had known a life of duty and objectivity coming first. That, at least, Sylvanas could focus on.

Even as her eyes tracked the deep blue of Jaina’s greatcoat from across the deck.

“Right,” Anduin said again, nodding along and picking up a tiny sandwich in meaty hands that must have come from his father. “If you want to discuss anything in specific about the draft agreement I’ve put forth, before we bring it to the table here, let me know.”

It was good, for a draft. Sylvanas had nothing to bring up. She knew that the other leaders of the Horde would be happy to squabble about the particulars and pick it apart. She was only concerned with setting a limit on the time they could do so. Dread and anxiety were her constant companions, even as she didn’t settle her thoughts on her disparate existence. Time, she felt, was a borrowed luxury they did not have to throw around, though she could not say why exactly.

She hadn’t bothered to go into descriptions of the Jailer’s forces to great degrees. “The Scourge, but worse,” was approximately what she had told the Alliance to watch out for. But her vision had been clouded by the black feathers of Mawsworn. The dull gray metal of armored constructs. The sharp bone of skeletal horrors.

“It is a fine agreement for the time being,” Sylvanas told him. “One that I will work to ensure the Horde honors as we face this threat.”

“I will tell you there is some skepticism on my side that there is a threat at all,” Anduin said, still holding the sandwich. “Not from my part. You are quite obviously changed to my eyes, if you don’t mind me saying so. Something has happened to cause that, and I believe you there. But others aren’t so quick to trust.”

No, they would not be. Not Genn Greymane, his silvered fur bristled as he stalked the deck of Jaina’s ship, one of the many not to leave it. In fact, the only ones to cross the gangplank thus far were Anduin and Baine.

As Sylvanas’ eyes flitted briefly away from Jaina, they noted her sisters were nowhere to be found on the Alliance ship. Neither, it seemed, had the courage to face her, or represent their factions of stolen elves. Stolen names.

“I honestly hope that I’m wrong, Wyrnn,” she told him. “I hope that nothing happens. But I fear that we will feel the Jailer’s wrath and fear we will feel it soon. My promise remains regardless of whether that happens or not, though. Azeroth has spent too long at war, and I no longer wish to be the cause of it.”

“What changed your mind?”

Sylvanas was hardly prepared for the question.

A dead body, dripping salt water on her table in the cabin just below them, was the root of the answer. But Derek Proudmoore’s rotted corpse was mostly a symbol. A message to her from her. From beyond her.

You are better than this. You are better than a pawn in someone else’s game.

Sylvanas knew what she wanted, and knew then, as she stared down a decision she did not want to make, that it wasn’t that. She wished she made this long ago, honestly. At the peak of Icecrown Citadel. Over Vol’jin’s dying, fel-ridden body. Before the flames were launched at Teldrassil.

Early as she could go back, honestly, but it would never be enough.

Her hands were already stained with blood from the moment they’d become her own again. From the first flex of spectral fingers that was her will and hers alone, after her death. But before then, they’d been used to rip the faces off of elven children. To rend the land that had birthed her so deeply that it was still scarred to this day. Bodiless, monstrous, and broken beyond repair—she had been irredeemable from the very start of her unlife.

Even now, soul restored to wholeness, hands corporeal but still stained with that blood and so much more, there was no fixing it. There was no forgiveness. No justice. No redemption to be sought.

There never would be.

Sylvanas’ eyes still tracked the blue greatcoat across the deck of the Kul Tiran ship. No doubt it was hot, but Jaina kept herself beneath it as if it were a shield that protected her from the foulness of the very air.

Foul, perhaps, because of who it was shared with. Truly, all Sylvanas could get from her over their renewed bond since the ships both docked was a feeling of general annoyance bordering on aversion. It pulled at the bottom of her stomach and tightened her chest.

Only then, as he waited for an answer, did Anduin’s eyes follow hers and land on the real answer to his question.

How could she explain that to the boy king? That even in her undeath, her brokenness, her grief over her own life, she could not violate the bond that had once tied her to Jaina. She could not bring herself to attack her directly. The thought had repelled her, like one magnetic pole to another of the same charge. It was never an option.

And even Jaina, in all her disgust, had looked sorry at Lordaeron for being willing to do what she was not.

A memory stirred in Sylvanas’ mind, so vivid now with her newfound ability to connect to the fullness of its emotions. Once, she and Jaina had sat on the beach outside of Windrunner Spire, an outing prompted after their recounting of similar childhoods spent by the seashore. The beach outside the Spire was mostly rocky, and only had a small strip of smooth sand on which they’d laid out a little picnic.

It had been the day before they had to leave one another. Jaina laughed and teased and loved her. She smelled of mana wine and pomegranates and honey pastries. She leaned in for a kiss, on that perfect afternoon, and asked as she pulled away, “But where will we live?”

The question was a loaded one. No answer was correct. The first difficult to navigate strait in the sea of their union. Sylvanas wanted to answer that here at the Spire was good. But Jaina was an agent of the Kirin Tor, based in Dalaran. Sylvanas hated Dalaran, and was the Ranger General of Quel’thalas. But Jaina was also technically heir to the Kul Tiran admiralty, and would presumably need to return there or name her younger brother heir instead some day. Back then, her father still lived and was still young enough to the point it wasn’t the forethought on anyone’s mind, save maybe Sylvanas’ as she worried for them. And then there was the Alliance, based in Lordaeron and not Stormwind back then, that called to the loyalties of both of them.

Sylvanas had listed all of these in a panicked tirade of sorts, wanting to find the answer.

It was Jaina who had arrived at the real answer with a smile, “Don’t worry so much. We’ll figure it out.”

They never got to even try.

“I see,” Anduin started. “Well if—”

“You wretched beast!” A Thalassian screech came from just below them, causing both Anduin and Sylvanas to lean over the railing to see the source.

That happened to be Velonara shaking an offending pest off of her boot. The offending pest being a small pink dinosaur that was clinging onto the black leather, gnawing at the laces.

Nathanos ran over from where he’d been entertaining Gallywix and his goblins, prying the creature off with a desperate whisper of, “How did you get out?” before carrying it back into the aft cabin with a huff.

He was successful in that at least, despite the creature’s protesting squawk and sharp little teeth that no doubt left a few tiny holes in his gloves.

“Fascinating wildlife here in Zandalar,” Anduin noted as distraction was removed.

“Yes, fascinating,” Sylvanas agreed dryly.

She’d have a talk with Nathanos about smuggling his newest pets onto diplomatic missions later.

Thankfully, as Anduin seemed to be following her gaze across to the other ship again, another distraction was provided in the form of red hair and golden armor. Lady Liadrin stood on the last step up to the aft deck, seemingly waiting to be invited to join them.

Still a stickler for decorum, after all these years. Sylvanas hadn’t spoken to her since, save to grant orders. Once, she had considered her a friend.

They even went on a terrible date once, centuries ago. Absolutely awful. Liadrin had tried to order for her at the restaurant, and it had only gotten worse from there. And now here she was, waiting to be acknowledged. It must have physically pained the control freak that Sylvanas knew lay beneath all that armor.

“Matriarch,” Sylvanas said with a nod in her direction.

Liadrin still looked like shit. Like she’d been run over by a goblin trike and left in the streets of Orgrimmar to die for it. She did her best to hold it together and bowed gracefully and appropriately to Sylvanas and Anduin, but the signs were there. Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.

And Sylvanas was struggling with wanting to actually ask what that was, when she was owed no such answer.

“Warchief, High King,” Liadrin said as she rose.

Anduin was respectful in his own nod to her, offering a greeting, “Bal’a dash, Lady Liadrin.”

His pronunciation was not terrible, for all it was worth. And while Sylvanas expected Liadrin not to have any interest in his attempt, her golden eyes only settled on the young king. A question burned in them. A question she did not ask.

Her gaze instead flitted around the boy king, left, then right, then back to him. Searching for something.

There was nothing up here but Sylvanas, Anduin, and the ship’s wheel. Maybe it was some Light thing? That, at least, Sylvanas had never understood in any of her lives. Nor had she cared to. Especially now. Religion was not the realm of the dead.

“It’s no rush,” Liadrin began, finally, “but I was hoping I might borrow a moment of your time before we reconvene, King Wrynn.”

“Certainly. We have not spoken since the Legion’s invasion, and I treasure any opportunity to speak to a sister in the Light,” was Anduin’s very warm and seemingly genuine answer.

Only he didn’t get to continue on to the point of turning Sylvanas’ undead stomach with his religious drivel.

The afternoon sun flickered strangely out of the corner of her eye. Sylvanas banished the thought, just another vision of dread. Another fantasy of what could come for her, for all of them. The price she would pay for the faint blue glow of the moon she kept hidden on her wrist beneath her clawed gauntlets, matching that which would be similarly hidden by the golden gauntlet on Jaina’s casting hand.

The price she’d paid to be ignored and shunned yet again. Sylvanas was coming to the conclusion that she did indeed deserve it. Her best hope was this peace, and buying herself a few years of good behavior, of attempted redemption where there could truly be none, just to be heard. To be seen. To be looked at, even, with anything other than pity or silent apology.

But then the sun flickered again, this time catching the hard gold of Liadrin’s eyes enough to rouse them from the dark bags that sunk beneath them. Enough for Sylvanas to follow her gaze to the west.

“Mawsworn!” she shouted.

No one but her knew the meaning of the word, of the dark silhouettes that flocked toward them, shading out the sun with a mass of black feathers. They looked not too dissimilar from her Val’kyr, but larger. Fiercer. Intent. Whereas the Val’kyr waited on orders, inert but for the occasional flap of wings, Sylvanas had never seen a Mawsworn that didn’t have some terrible mission on their mind, always flying toward something.

And now they were flying toward her, and her peace summit.

Deathwhisper was in her hands in an instant. No Thas’dorah, certainly, but she could make it work. No doubt things would be better if she’d accepted the Jailer’s gifts, the chained arrows he’d promised in exchange for more and more dirty deeds.

Only now did she regret not taking him up on the offer.

“That’s what they look like? I don’t under—”

Anduin was cut off from his confusion by Liadrin drawing her sword and standing between him and the western sky.

“Arm yourself!” she ordered someone she had no business ordering, gruff voice grated even deeper by her apparent exhaustion.

That was enough to shake Anduin out of his questioning, though he muttered, “They look like angels,” as he drew his father’s famed sword.

They were not angels. Angels lived in Bastion and forgot themselves. Angels carried the dead into the machine to chop them up at the behest of yet even more masters. Nowhere could anyone be free, even in death.

Not, at least, if they didn’t fight.

Sylvanas knocked an arrow and looked to the combined forces of Horde and Alliance leadership on the decks below her, scrambling to her warning call. Satisfied that the Horde ship had a suitable amount of Dark Rangers with bows drawn as she had, even Nathanos, and plenty of Orcish axes and Tauren totems alike joining them, she cast a look over to the Alliance ship.

And to a blue coat beneath which hands were forming to host an icy spell. Jaina’s eyes glowed with arcane, visible even from this far away, as she stood between most of her own people and the new threat.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Sylvanas shouted over the water and wood. “Watch for their chains!”

And then they were upon them. So fast did their black wings carry them across Azeroth’s sky that it was seemingly unnatural. No time to think of where they could have come from or how or why. Well, the why Sylvanas was certain of, at least.

They’d come for her.

She fired the first shot, an arrow that ripped through the black feathers of the winged skeleton, slicing just the corner of its dark cloak. Wide and misaimed.

The product of fear. A deep fear that Sylvanas had not felt in years. A fear not for herself, but for those around her. For Anduin. Liadrin. Even traitorous Baine, who didn’t think she’d known of his dealings with the Alliance. And Jaina.

Of course, Jaina. But she shot second, and her ice lance hit true, striking a Mawsworn from the air and into the ocean with the force of it.

Truly, what an honor it was to be destined for such a powerful woman, who had only grown into that power and beauty over these last hard years. What a privilege, even if she wouldn’t deign to look at the broken creature that was Sylvanas Windrunner.

Sylvanas knocked another arrow. She fired. She hit deep into an eye socket this time, causing another Mawsworn to fall. She listened as Liadrin and Anduin whispered blessings under their breath, laying hands on one another to trade them.

She knocked a third arrow, but didn’t get a chance to fire before a chain shot out toward her.

Liadrin dutifully deflected this with her shield, offering Sylvanas cover to fire behind. The fear dissipated, and suddenly her dead heart was full of a feeling of ancient camaraderie. Of memories of Liadrin when she still wielded the mace of a priestess, and was no less fearsome in her white robes than she was in her golden and crimson armor. Of times when she’d done this before, standing between Sylvanas and an Amani troll. An Alliance footman. A shambling undead horror. A massive, horned demon.

This was just another enemy. Another in the unending chain of threats that Azeroth seemed to face. And as shaped by war as Sylvanas was like no one else, she had to remind herself that she was not the only one so molded. Maybe not to such a degree, but she wasn’t about to debate that with Liadrin.

She was grateful, she realized, as she fired over her shoulder with a little smirk on her face.

“Ready yourselves!” Sylvanas delivered one last final warning as she made a fifth shot over Liadrin’s red ponytail.

The decks became crowded with black feathers and magical chains. They were just as soon filled with broken bones and battered pieces of dull gray armor. While she didn’t like being caught off guard, the place to do so was certainly around the best and brightest that each faction had to offer, as it seemed none of them had a problem with this initial onslaught.

Nathanos had hopped up on the aft deck to join them, and flashed her a grin as he buried one of his axes into a screaming skull. Midship, Saurfang headbutted another skull with such force that it cracked loudly enough to draw her attention a moment later. She caught sight of Genn Greymane with a fibula in his wolven mouth. Maybe an ulna. The area around Jaina was just coated in ice, several Mawsworn either frozen within it or shattered by it.

They were many, but they were fragile. They were not meant to be here in the living world, and it seemed to be a weakness to them. Their bones were brittle, Sylvanas realized as she cleaved yet another skull near in two with a close range shot.

This was a battle that could be easily won.

Even Anduin was holding up next to her, green boy that he obviously was. He’d made a good run of it at Lordaeron, and had shown courage then, but his heart was not in it. That much was clear to Sylvanas. He didn’t have that streak of joy in the kill to him. She doubted he’d even enjoy a good hunt, and would weep instead for the animals.

But, he still cut clean through a ribcage. A leg. An arm. A haze of black feathers.

And somehow missed the chain that wrapped around him.

His grunt of surprise was what alerted her as he was lifted into the air. The Mawsworn that had tangled him made haste to fly up, up, and then off.

They weren’t here to fight. They were here to take. Zovaal didn’t care how many of his abominations he lost in the process. He only needed to rob Sylvanas of one of her allies, or her own freedom, to prove that his vengeance was not to be trifled with.

And she wasn’t about to let him win another battle. Never again.

She rolled out of the cloud of Mawsworn that had descended on the aft deck, up to the rail that stood between her and the sea. She took aim, willing the necromantic magic that bound her to unlife into her arrow until it swirled with darkness, hoping that would be enough. She fired at the chain that held Anduin aloft, slowly raising upward to bring him into the embrace of the Mawsworn that was carrying him off.

Her shot hit true, determined as she was that it would. It snapped the chain, but left the boy king falling rapidly toward the ocean.

Sylvanas didn’t hesitate. Much as she hated her banshee form, and the memories she still carried of those days where she watched its clawed hands move against her will to aid Arthas in destroying Silvermoon, she slipped into it without lingering on those thoughts. There was no time for it.

She shot forward at speed that almost matched that of unnatural Mawsworn, managing to catch him just before he hit the waves. He would have hit them hard, covered in that ridiculous plate, and sunk below them immediately. There was no other choice.

Even though he shied away from her and the scream that echoed from her spectral mouth unbidden as it must when she was this way.

Sylvanas wanted to warn him to cover his ears, but she couldn’t speak when she was like this. She could only scream.

No wonder Jaina wouldn’t look at her. She was still dead. Broken. Monstrous. A war criminal on her best day. An abomination no different than those that attacked them at her worst.

As she soared back upward to the aft deck with him in her arms, Sylvanas couldn’t help but notice the blue glow on the wrist that curled around Anduin. Even temporarily banishing her physical body, and the mark that contained that fire, she was not without it.

But she didn’t have time to contemplate that either. She surged upward with one last blast of a scream, reminding herself to beg forgiveness from Anduin later, and summoned her corporeal form once she had him dumped safely onto the deck once more.

A little bit unceremoniously, perhaps. A little rougher than necessary, surely.

For the Undercity, Sylvanas thought to herself as she took up Deathwhisper again, and went back to filling Mawsworn with arrows. For the Undercity indeed, she stood over Anduin as he got to his feet and got ready to continue the fight. She made sure to turn around at her earliest opportunity, and shoot down the one that was coming back from the sea, having realized its prize had been stolen from it.

As easily as they fell, their numbers were so great. So much so that Sylvanas lost count of how many she’d downed quickly. She was also busy keeping her eyes on the sky to ensure that no one else was being taken, but it seemed only Anduin had been caught unaware by the chains thus far. She’d dodged more than a few of her own, grabbing him by his tabard to drag him with her up to the railing overlooking the lower deck. Large as he was, she was stronger. Yet another point for undeath today.

What she saw there was nothing short of disappointing. Most of the Mawsworn were clustered on the aft deck of her ship, and between her, Anduin, Liadrin, and Nathanos, had mostly been dispatched. The Horde below had dealt with nearly all that assailed them already.

But the Alliance ship didn’t fare as well. Only Jaina seemed to be a deadly force enough to leave her icy corner of the Kul Tiran flagship fully clear. Otherwise, it was still a haze of black feathers and battle cries.

“Horde, what are you doing?” Sylvanas questioned of idle axes and swords, arcane and Light alike. “Protect our allies! We must work together!”

With one last quick check to make sure that Nathanos and Liadrin had a handle on the remaining Mawsworn on the aft deck, Sylvanas turned to Anduin and told him, “I’m afraid your little papers must wait. Allow me to prove the truth of my words. Fight with me.”

“I didn’t doubt you in the first place!” Anduin protested as she led the way across the gangplank to the deck of the Kul Tiran ship.

The Kul Tiran ship, where it seemed the Mawsworn had realized who was to be feared there. Who was to be prioritized. Or perhaps, who the Jailer had sent to target.

Whose capture and subsequent torture in the bowels of hell itself would hurt Sylvanas most.

The remainder of them were closing in on Jaina, chains lashing out only to meet wave after wave of ice, shattering them each time. Impressive as it was, Sylvanas knew she couldn’t keep it up forever. Mana was a thing in limited quantities, even for one of Azeroth’s most powerful mages.

Certainly its most beautiful, eyes aglow with magic, greatcoat forgotten and frozen to the deck beside her, white braid whipping in the wind.

As much as Sylvanas enjoyed looking at her soulmate in her battle fury, she was here to help her, wanted or not. She took aim and fired at a Mawsworn that was getting too close, and nodded to Anduin as he ran to assist the woman he apparently would refer to as his aunt, despite their lack of blood relation.

Bones clattered to the polished wood of the deck, darker and slicker than that of her own ship. Ice smashed and shattered into crystalline explosions that tingled Sylvanas’ sensitive elven ears. A dwarf threw a thunder-laden hammer that whizzed past her. Genn was snarling off to her left, but at the Mawsworn he was biting at and not her. And finally, the Horde followed. Saurfang crashed into a skeletal figure that was flanking her right. A spectral dinosaur came across the gangplank, summoned by the muttered words of Talanji to assist. A goblin rocket was aimed with surprising care and managed to hit only a pack of Mawsworn that were cutting off the aft deck of the Alliance ship from the rest of the fight.

In her efforts to get to Jaina and help, Sylvanas hadn’t realized how close they were. Suddenly, it seemed, they were nearly back to back—Sylvanas facing west to keep an eye on the sky, and Jaina facing east to blast the last big group of Mawsworn with a cone of ice wind, freezing them in place for the coming rush of melee fighters to smash to bits.

Only when she heard the panting breaths of Jaina thrumming against her ears, did she realize this was the closest she’d been to her in over a decade. The last time she’d heard her this winded, this close, it had been for much better reasons. Much more pleasant, at least.

Sylvanas turned to the east to see if there were anymore enemies, but was only met with blue eyes.

Blue eyes, looking at her for the second time in all these years. This time not begging for an apology Jaina would not give. Could not give.

This time, they were regarding her as if she’d never seen her before. Curiously. Cautiously.

Almost like the first time Sylvanas ever saw them, when Jaina came through the portal with Vereesa in tow, chattering to her about how excited she was to have potentially found her sister’s soulmate for her.

How beautiful she’d been then too. Young, but knowing. Her hair shining gold to match the leaves of the forests of Quel’thalas. She’d been a vision in the purple and white livery of the Kirin Tor. With her curious blue eyes, and the smile she’d given her after that first cautious look.

Sylvanas hadn’t been what she expected. Jaina hadn’t been what she’d expected either. But somehow, they’d been perfect for each other.

But this time—thirteen years and countless tragedies later, Jaina did not smile. She turned away, searching for Anduin before asking him, “Anduin, are you all right?”

He wasn’t in the best shape. Sylvanas could see blood dripping from one of his ears, likely the fault of her banshee wail. The foul magic of the chains that had wrapped him had left a nasty red mark in their pattern across his cheek. He was far more winded than Jaina, even, but was able to give her a nod.

Still, she checked him over, pushed at his breastplate to stand him up straight so she could confirm he was otherwise unhurt.

“Sylvanas saved me,” he blurted out when he managed to catch his breath.

“I saw,” Jaina told him, speaking under her breath, but not quiet enough to avoid being heard by an elf.

Sylvanas watched as she flexed her casting hand, and the other one briefly came to touch it, shaking. She turned and looked at Sylvanas again, still seeming to be undecided.

But across their bond, weak as it was, Sylvanas felt a tug. A pull. Magnetic in the opposite way she’d been thinking of before. A draw that demanded they be together. The very laws of physics itself would not allow for anything else.

The deck was soon awash with activity that swept Jaina from her vision before they could connect. Leaders gathering, now all on the Kul Tiran ship for the first time—examining remains of their enemies, wondering at the suddenness of the attack, the strange chains, the purpose of it all. Some mutters, too, of how convenient it was that this had come just after Sylvanas had warned them. Of how it could be another one of her tricks.

Again, she’d not given them reason to suspect otherwise. It would not take one battle, one rescue of an enemy leader, to prove her intentions.

Sylvanas knew this would take years, if she was lucky. Restoring even the smallest amount of trust in her among the rest of Azeroth would be a near impossible feat. But, at least they would all understand what to watch out for now, if nothing else.

She was about to look for Nathanos or one of her Rangers to ask for a report from them when a hand reached for her upper arm. A gap between her pauldrons and gauntlets that all Ranger armor had, to allow for the movement of one’s arms. A gap one would only reach for if one was familiar with it, and looking to make contact with skin.

A gap where Jaina Proudmoore’s hand started a feedback loop that Sylvanas hadn’t felt in thirteen years. Even through the cloth of her glove, Sylvanas could feel her feeling her feeling her feeling her. The coldness of her skin. The curiosity. The hesitation. But still, she was touching her. Trying to get her attention in only the way she could.

Sylvanas turned to face her, wordless, only feeling. Only feeling her and Jaina’s sensations of one another mingle and merge until they were indistinguishable. Was that her shock or Jaina’s? Was the cloth on her skin or Jaina’s? Was she surprised at herself and how she reacted, how much this took the wind out of her sails, or was that Jaina’s Kul Tiran expression leaking through her thoughts.

It was too much and not enough at once. Sylvanas wanted to run. She wanted to pull away. She wanted to pull Jaina to her, cover her skin with hers, regardless of how cold and dead it might be, and lose herself in this heady feeling. She wanted the true completeness of her soul that was only found in her arms. She wanted to rewind time itself, and forget all these sins that had kept them apart, had kept her desperate enough to commit them in the name of the hope of this.

“Tomorrow, Theramore,” Jaina whispered to her, hand still on her skin. “I will meet you. We can talk. I…”

Sylvanas’ eyes traced down from Jaina’s own blue eyes to her lips. Lips she could still remember kissing. Lips that she remembered setting alight the mark on her wrist with the sweetest kiss anyone could ever receive.

The kiss that marked a life that would no longer have to be lived alone. That meant she would have a partner, forever. For as long as this chaotic world of theirs would let them both live, at least.

And perhaps beyond that.

She watched as those lips mouthed a word, seemingly running out of breath and will to speak it.

A world Sylvanas had taught her.

“Rea’anath,” she’d said once, cradled in Sylvanas’ arms in her bedroom at the Spire.

“Bonded soul,” Sylvanas had translated for her. “In case you hear anyone call you that in reference to me.”

“Should I call you that?” Jaina had asked.

“You can if you’d like,” Sylvanas had told her before leaning in to kiss the word out of her mouth before she could say it again.

But now, on the deck of her ship, surrounded by shattered bones and ice, Sylvanas could only stare after her as Jaina’s hand left her arm, and she ran to catch Anduin again as he surveyed the damage. She could only chase after the echo of their looped feelings. Of a touch she didn’t deserve and wasn’t ready for, even if it was what she’d wanted most, killed and died again and again to get back. Of a word she was so certain she’d never hear her say again, not fully voiced, but still attempted.

A bond renewed. A flame fed to roaring. A longing that consumed her as emptiness once had.

#sylvaina #Sylvanas Windrunner #Jaina Proudmoore #fanfic #beneath the blue moon #sorry for the months long hiatus on this #but damn if it wasn't a treat to write catty sylvanas again #i missed her so much

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winterwolf0120 · 2 months

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Kings Island Forever💙!!!

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tinytrexstudios · 2 years

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Banshee vs. Mystic Timbers

Done for Kings Island’s 50th anniversary art contest. Didn’t place but it was displayed in a collage in the park for a while!

#artwork #fanart #theme park fanart #kings island #banshee roller coaster #banshee #mystic timbers #roller coasters

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docgold13 · 2 years

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365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

November 16th - The White Queen

Emma Frost was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to the wealthy Winston and Hazel Frost. Emma had been the third of four children and her father was a cold, ruthless, and domineering parent who imposed impossibly high standards on his children. Emma’s mother, meanwhile, turned to prescription drugs to cope with the tensions of her household and was largely uninvolved in her children’s lives.

Emma’s Mutant telepathic abilities manifested in early adolescence. She found that she could read minds and alter the thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of others. She ultimately used this power to blackmail her father. Her father was actually impressed by his daughter’s actions and he offered to make her his sole heir to the family fortune. Emma rejected the offer, left home and decided to make her own way in the world.

Following misadventures on the street, Emma became a student at Empire State University and met the fellow Mutant telepath, Astrid Bloom. Bloom was more apt at using her psychic abilities and she helped to train Emma to further hone her skills. Some time thereafter, Emma was invited to the Hellfire Club, an underground elite society. Whist involved with this society, Frost discovered the plans of Edward Buckman and Steven Lang to destroy all Mutants. Alongside Sebastian Shaw, Lourdes Chantel, and Harry Leland, Emma battled Lang's Sentinels. She killed Buckman and the Council of the Chosen and then, alongside Shaw, took control of the Hellfire Club. Shaw became the society’s ‘Black King’ and Emma took the role of the ‘White Queen.’

During her time with the Hellfire Club, Frost created the Massachusetts Academy, an educational institute for training young Mutants. Her best students formed a tactical team known as ‘The Hellions’ who would go on to have multiple run-ins with the New Mutants squad of the Xavier School. Sadly, many of The Hellions were killed during a confrontation with the time-traveling villain known as Trevor Fitzroy.

Taking time to recover from this terrible loss, Emma ended up aligned with The X-Men in battling the Phalanx. Emma agreed to help train the young Mutants the Phalanx had targeted and, alongside the X-Man Banshee, she led the Generation X team. This squad eventually disbanded and Emma relocated to the island haven of Genosha. Emma taught at a school on Genosha until a genocidal Sentinel attack killed most of the island's inhabitants. Frost survived due to the sudden manifestation of her secondary mutation: the power to transform herself into a flexible, near-invulnerable, diamond-like substance.

After being rescued, Frost joined the X-Men and took on a teaching position at The Xavier Institute. She mentored a group of telepathic quintuplets, the Stepford Cuckoos, who quickly became her prized pupils. Frost and the Cuckoos proved themselves when they thwarted the schemes of the villainous Cassandra Nova.

Frost continued on as a member of The X-Men and became lovers with Cyclops. She would later be possessed by the Phoenix Force during the Avengers versus X-Men event.

More recently, Emma has reclaimed her title as The White Queen, only now as chief executive officer of the Hellfire Trading Company. This company is responsible for legally exporting the miracle drugs produced on the Mutant nation of Krakoa. As White Queen, Emma Frost has a seat on the Quiet Council, the ruling body of Krakoa. In addition, she created the Marauders, a team led by Kitty Pryde and responsible for handling the black market for the miracle drugs, among other concerns.

Emma Frost has appeared in a number of the Fox Films X-Men movies, portrayed by actresses January Jones and Tahyna MacManus. The villain turned heroine first appeared in the pages of X-men Vol. 1 #129 (1979).

#365 Marvel Comics Heroes #White Queen #Emma Frost #X-Men #Hellfire Club #January Jones #Tahyna MacManus #cut-out #paper art

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prozd · 1 year

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my favorite things this year

Best Games I Played in 2022

1. Yakuza Kiwami 2

2. Pokemon Legends: Arceus

3. Vampire Survivors

4. Pokemon Snap

5. Kirby's Adventure

Best Shows I Watched in 2022

1. Ranking of Kings

2. We Are The Champions

3. Space Battleship Yamato 2199

4. Murderville

5. Aggretsuko 4

Best Movies I Watched in 2022

1. Turning Red

2. Shoplifters

3. Everything Everywhere All at Once

4. Luca

5. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

6. On-Gaku: Our Sound

7. Drive My Car

8. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop

9. Jackass Forever

10. Glass Onion

also good: Bodies Bodies Bodies, Nope, Belfast, Barbarian, Uncut Gems, The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Board Games I Played in 2022

1. Clank! Catacombs

2. Forgotten Waters

3. Long Shot: The Dice Game

4. So Clover

5. Rolling Realms

6. Tyrants of the Underdark

7. Sniper Elite: The Board Game

8. Sidereal Confluence

9. Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold

10. Paleo

also good: Ark Nova, Eclipse: Second Dawn of the Galaxy, Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery, Smartphone Inc, Aquatica, Dinosaur Island: Rawr n Write, Super-Skill Pinball: 4-cade, Flamecraft, Iki, Kanagawa, Trapwords, Insider, The Guild of Merchant Explorers

#year in review

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qedmirage · 1 month

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Tore through this one in 2 days. Lotta thoughts percolating over it, chief among them being "Hey Jim, why do you think the chapter with multiple characters trying to restore nations of the past is called Return To Mist, evoking feelings of ephemeral phenomena?"

First up, stage mechanics! The "vibe" for this one is the corruption damage that common nachzeher enemies do on death, a true damage AOE (finally, Quartz is strong). Other standouts are the trees that turn into stronger enemies the longer they're left alive, and the enemies that insta-kill the first op to block them (so, 0-block clears are stonks again). Nothing too wild but it was interesting and I felt they helped make more defensive units better, even if most of the time I just threw Mylnar and Gavail alter at it and didn't have to think. Final boss stage being optional was a choice and I like it, though I did clear that stage with Cement facetanking the Last Steam Knight. Story thoughts under the cut!

So, Return to Mist opens with a focus on Allerdale's childhood, a happy memory from right before the assassination of the King and the start of the 20-yr Victorian Civil War. And I do think that's how one should conceptualize the conflict in Arc 2; in the sections on Catherine we learn that the workers who made Steam Knight armor died and were not replaced. Charles Lynch was the Last Steam Knight, not just because the king wasn't around to title another, but because Victoria *can't make them anymore*. And there's this broad quest by several characters to restore nations long since lost. Lettou wants to restore Gaul, the KMC a Kazdel that stretches from horizon to horizon, and Allerdale and Siege (to a lesser extent) Victoria, the grand nation of Terra. For all these characters it feels very... unheroic? Lacking in triumph? The KMC are villains of course, but Lettou is essentially asking for Gaul to be made again from Theresis' diktat. Siege gets a lot more detail, but there's a sense that the stable, unified Victoria signified in the Realmblade may never have existed. Or if it did, it's a thing of the past, consigned to her memories of her childhood; the civil war has been going on since she was six. She remembers more of her time as a gangster than as a princess. That Siege's whole quest ends with them getting the legendary sword, but with no immediate use for it and at great cost, feels like she isn't going to fix things by reclaiming the throne and restoring Victorian Monarchy. That to do so is impossible, or if it is possible, far too bloody to be worth it. The KMC, well they get more development along their arc towards becoming a murder cult. Contrast, the feelings of rank-and-file Sarkaz:

With the viewpoint of political leaders, like the Sanguinarch:

I recall people sometimes saying that 'maybe the Sarkaz are the problem' and that's just not the case at all. The text acknowledges a level of nuance in these things, in how people get swept along into atrocities, that isn't often present in otaku media. The KMC, the catlyst agent pushing violent ethno-nationalism, is the problem (and also maybe all those magic ghosts that psychically attack people). Or in Logos's words:

and, Logos is present in Londinium not on behalf of Rhodes Island, but in his role as King of the Banshees; it's a Sarkaz civil war, too. Or in other words:

Contrasting with all that you have the genuinely uplifting and heroic stuff that happens to the Self-Salvation Corps; these are people who are not mated to the idea of Victoria as it was, they just want to build a better society and band together to do so. I appreciate also that the Self-Salvation corps has a bit where they're like "oh fuck no, a Ducal army coming into the city is the last thing we need", because the Dukes were never great to begin with and an inter-ducal civil war is only a matter of time.

Fiest for minister of industry All in all a good story, if a depressing one. As a final note, I love the tragedy of Golding's efforts with the kids throughout the chapter; she spends a whole year preparing a play about a knight for them to perform, hoping they'll learn something from the complex emotions, even if it doesn't all sink in yet. But instead, the violence of the times and the language of the play just seem to make them think bloodshed is cool and fun. Really deserves reading that bit in full.

#arknights #qedmirage plays arknights #chapter 11 #return to mist #rambling #arknights spoilers

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souurcitrus · 2 months

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X-Men - Earth 18104

Time-line of the X-Men for my original universe Earth-18104. The events are based in different medias, like the movies, comics and series. Also, I included some of my OCs, as I literally just made this universe for them (and to change stuff I don't like I the stories).

There's a longer list of events of my universe too, including stuff about the Avengers, but I focus more in the X-Men.

This lists goes from 1971 (barely) to 2000, the first part of the Age of Heroes.

List of Events

1971 -

Irene Adler has a vision about the future of mutants. She and Raven Darkhölme start to "prepare for the war", looking for more mutants. They convince Jason Wyngarde to join them.

Erik Lensherr continues to hunt down Sebastian Shaw.

1972 -

The "First Class" of X-Men is founded by Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggert after they discovered that Sebastian Shaw and his Hellfire Club planned to start a nuclear war against the humans.

They join Darkhölme, Adler and Wyngarde, and then meet Lensherr. They receive help of Fred Duncan and Gabrielle Haller to form the team to fight Shaw.

The first members are Armando Muñoz (Darwin), Vienna Adamsen (Petra), Suzanne Chan (Sway) and Sean Cassidy (Banshee).

The Hellfire Club members are: Amélia Voght, Janos Quested and Adriana Soria.

Most of things are just like the movie, but with different characters.

Except Darwin never dies and Shaw is killed by Erik and later his body is taken by Lady Sinister. Adriana Soria is taken by CIA and Janos Quested escapes.

After the Battle of Cuba, Xavier becomes paralyzed and lives with Gabrielle Haller in Graymalkin Lane; Erik leaves the X-Men with Voght and Wyngarde; Irene and Adler leave too, but in separate ways; Moira goes to Muir Island with the recruits.

1975 -

Sean Cassidy marries his girlfriend.

Weapon Plus erases the memories of the Team X.

1976 -

Charles Xavier marries Gabrielle Haller.

Team X escapes the Weapon X facility. Logan loses his memories and lives in the mountains with James and Heather Hudson.

1979 -

David Haller, son of Xavier and Haller, is born.

Just months after his son's birth, Charles fights the Shadow King, who loses his body and puts his own conscious on David's mind, planning on taking revenge on Xavier in the future.

Afraid of what could happened if she stayed with Xavier, Gabrielle Haller leaves Graymalking Lane and takes her son with her.

1980 -

Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (12) activate their mutations for the first time.

1985 -

Jean Grey (10) manifests her powers for the first time. Xavier takes her to Graymalkin Lane to teach her to control her mutation.

Twenty years after the First Class, with new super heroes showing themselves to the public, Xavier decides to form a new team of X-Men.

1987 -

Bobby Drake (10) manifest his powers for the first time. His parents ask him to keep himself in secret, but Bobby starts to train his powers, wanting to be a super hero.

1988 -

Scott (12), Alex (10) and Gabriel Summers (6) survive a plane crash during a trip with their family.

Scott enters a coma, while his little brothers are taken to different forster homes. Xavier visits Scott with Moira and decides to come back to him after Scott wakes up.

AGE OF HEROES

1989 -

(June)

The Fantastic Four debut as the first super hero team.

(October)

Scott (13) wakes up from his coma after a year, waking his powers by accident. Xavier gives him a Ruby-Quartz visor and invites him to join his new team of X-Men.

Bobby Drake (12) is on a date when he shows his powers in public for the first time. After the town turns against him, because of the hate against super humans increasing, Bobby is save by Scott and goes to Graymalkin Lane.

(November)

Warren Worthington's wing grow and hes unable to hide his mutation anymore. Scott and Bobby go after him and invite him to join the X-Men. Hesitant, Warren (14) accepts.

Later, Charles introduces Jean Grey (14) to them.

1990 -

(May)

The Avengers debut as a super hero team during the Battle of New York.

(April)

During a rugby game, Henry McCoy (16) witnessed a pair of masked thugs trying to rob the ticket booth, and used his mutant abilities to stop them.

Henry participated a special program for gifted young people, founded by Tony Stark. There he met Moira MacTaggert, who took him to Charles and Henry, reluctantly, accept to join the team.

Now with the second lineup of X-Men complete, Xavier began training his new students to hone their powers in his Danger Room specially built by him and the team's old lineup.

1991 -

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (23) decided to go to America to look for their biological father.

Wolverine left Canada and went to Japan. There, he met Kobayashi Amiko and adopted her as his daughter.

1992

The second class of X-Men graduated in their training: Iceman (14), Angel (17), Beast (18), Cyclops (16) and Marvel Gil (17).

Now calling himself Professor X, Charles Xavier (55) was ready to reveal the new X-Men to the world.

• Meanwhile, Magneto (59) has made his first move against humanity, taking control of a military base in Cape Citadel to launch his missiles at human targets. He was unexpectedly confronted by the X-Men and escaped before being defeated.

Due to his exemplary work on the field, Xavier selected Scott Summers to serve as the team's field leader.

Later they fought the mutant called Vanisher.

Xavier located Frederick Dukes (17), and sent the X-Men to recruit him.

Blob was uninterested in joining them and later attacked the school, but was defeated by X-Men soon.

Gabriel Summers (10) was raised in a foster family, until he decided to run away from his grandparents' house one night, going in search of Scott and Alex.

After getting lost, he was found by a criminal called Jack Diamonds, who took advantaged of his new powers. Gabriel later was saved by the first X-Men (Petra, Darwin, Sway) and taken to Muir Island, where he trained to be a X-Men and choose the name Kid Vulcan.

Magneto founded the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, recruiting Jason Wyngarde, Amélia Voght, Mortimer Toybnee (14), Astra (20), Blob, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (24).

They fought the X-Men briefly and then later where defeated.

The X-Men and the Fantastic Four fought the Puppet Master.

The X-Men where attacked by Calvin Rankin, Mimic.

Juggernaut attacked Graymalkin Lane and was defeated by the X-Men, put in a coma by Xavier.

1993 -

James Madrox (14) lost control of hid powers and was found by Moira MacTaggert, who took him to Muir Island, where he joined her X-Men with the codename of Multiple Man.

The X-Men graduated and soon fought Unus, the Untouchable.

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff (25) left the Brotherhood and joined the Avengers.

While living a pacific life in Paris, Gabrielle Haller's husband was killed. During the accident, David Haller (14) manifested his powers.

1994 -

Start of the Arc Z'Nox.

The X-Men find out Scott (18) has a brother. They meet Alex Summers (16) and he joins the team as Havok.

1995 -

(Mesmero and Krakoa)

Bobby (17) and Alex meet Lorna Dane (20). Soon they're kidnapped by Mesmero, who reveled that Lorna was Magneto's daughter.

Mesmero took control of Krakoa, the living mutant island, who once was home for the first mutants of the world. Mesmero and the X-Men discovered a secret nation of mutants that once lived in Krakoa (once known as Okkara).

These mutants were known as Enriched and they punished Mesmero for trying to steal their secrets and hurt Krakoa, who was asked to keep Mesmero trapped in a cell in the insides of the island.

The Enriched asked the X-Men to never tell about their secret nation, Khado, or about them, and the young mutants agreed.

Lorna Dane joined the X-Men as Polaris.

Hank McCoy left the X-Men to work at Brand Corporation.

(Among us stalk the Sentinels)

Believing that the mutant race was a threat to human society, scientist Bolivar Trask created the Sentinels.

To ensure the safety of mutants, Xavier began looking for new members for the X-Men.

The first of these would be his old Banshee friend, Sean Cassidy (43).

He also went after Sabretooth, who turned down his offer because he didn't care about the war between mutants and humans.

Jean (20), Scott (19) and Hank (21) met the mutant Ororo Munroe (28), that agreed to join them and took the code name "Storm".

• Over the next few days, there were many instances of mutants being attacked by Sentinels. Many of them sought refuge in the Xavier Mansion, being protected and kept secret by the X-Men.

At some point, the Sentinels attacked the school, and were defeated by the new group of X-Men.

(The Phoenix)

Reed Richards (32) met with Charles Xavier (58) to discuss the Z'Nox threat, stating that they were still present in Earth's orbit; so the X-Men joined the Fantastic Four on a mission into space to stop the alien invaders.

During the mission, they were caught in a solar flare. Jean Gray (20) was trapped in deep space and absorbed the explosion to give the others time to escape.

Jean came into contact with the Phoenix Force, that allowed her to absorb her energy, sealing itself in her body.

In Chandilar, in the Triagulum Galaxy (M-33), Lilandra feels the presence of the Phoenix.

With the rest of his team reaching the final stretch of their college education, Charles was secretly on Muir Island.

There he met Moira's new recruits, Bolt (14), Multiple Man (16) and Kid Vulcan (13).

Charles tried to recruit Emma Frost, but she refused, already working with the Hellfire Club in secret.

1996 -

Hank McCoy (22) goes through a rough transformation with his mutation, assuming a more bestial appearance.

(Second Genesis).

Charles Xavier (59) soon became aware of a mutant signature on Krakoa and sent his X-Men on a mission to investigate the island.

Meanwhile, the X-Men arrived on Krakoa and realized that the entire island was actually a massive mutant form.

Not only that, they met with Princess Sarala (33), the princess of Khado and the Enriched and Raven, her counselor.

They explained to Cyclops (20) that after they took Mesmero to Krakoa, he was placed in a stone chamber that would keep him asleep; however, the mutant used his powers to reach Krakoa's consciousness and awaken him from his sleep.

Understanding the importance of Krakoa to the Enriched, the X-Men joined them in calming the island. Krakoa then attacked them and, under Mesmero's command, captured them within.

Xavier reached out to Moira and asked her to allow him to use her students to rescue his team of X-Men.

These new X-Men proved to be no match for the island of Krakoa, and only managed to free Cyclops, sending him away while the group seemingly sacrificed their lives to cover their escape.

Scott returned to the Mansion, along with Bolt (15) and Madrox (17).

Wolverine was sent by Department H to fight the Hulk, he was defeated, but later was invited by Xavier to join the X-Men and rescue the other members from Krakoa.

Not only Wolverine, Scott recruited a new team with Banshee (44) and Storm (29), and new members: Sunfire (24), Colossus (18), Nightcrawler (20) and Thunderbird (17).

• This new team of X-Men proved more successful, rescuing the original team and defeating Krakoa and Mesmero.

Krakoa went back to its deep sleep and the Enriched took Mesmero to a different cell. However, Kid Vulcan was nowhere to be seen and Charles erased him from everyone's memories, believing he was dead.

Later, Cyclops became leader of the new team of X-Men.

(X-Men VS Erik the Red and D'ken)

Erik the Red received orders from Majestor Shi'ar D'ken to capture Princess Lilandra, who had fled on a ship to Earth.

The Enriched once again went to warn the X-Men of the threat of the Shi'ar and told them about the first invasion of the Shi'ar earth.

Princess Lilandra arrived on Earth and asked them to help her stop her brother from using the M'kraan Crystal's power to dominate the universe.

Jean Gray (21) awakened the powers of the Phoenix and helped the X-Men into space to rescue Lilandra, and help her stop her brother from using the power of the M'kraan Crystal to take over the universe.

Emperor D'ken controlled the powerful Imperial Guard and directed his force to destroy the X-Men. Fortunately, the X-Men were aided by the Starjammers, a revolutionary crew of space pirates, led by Cyclops' father, the Corsair, and the Enriched.

With the crystal about to shatter and destroy reality itself, Phoenix used his stupendous power to restore it. D'ken went crazy and was dethroned. When the X-Men returned to Earth, a temporarily exiled Lilandra accompanied them.

Jean Gray began having terrible dreams about the Phoenix.

(The second Brotherhood of Mutants)

With the new wave of hatred spread by Senator Kelly, a new Brotherhood of Mutants was formed, led by Mystique (and Destiny, in secret), formed by Pyro (19), Rogue (16) Avalanche (21) and Blob (21 ).

• While "rescuing" some mutant children, the Brotherhood is interrupted by the X-Men, who prevent them from taking the children to use them in their plans.

During the battle, the X-Men have difficulty dealing with Rogue's powers, who copies her abilities.

In the end, they win because Rogue is overwhelmed, and the Brotherhood escapes.

New mutants go to Gaymalkin Lane, among them is Sam Guthrie (14), Kitty Pryde (12) and Alison Blaire (16).

(Dark Phoenix)

The X-Men were captured by the Hellfire Club, its revealed that Jason Wyngarde has been using his power to torture Jean and unleash the Phoenix. They succed and Jean is dominated by the Dark Phoenix.

The powerful entity is defeated with the help of the Shi’ar. Jean Gray regained control once again and decided to sacrifice herself and prevent another disaster.

After Jean Grey's funeral, Cyclops left the team to mourn the loss of his lover. Storm was placed as leader of the X-Men

1997 –

• (Days of Future Past)

• Rachel Summers and Lucas Bishop travel from the future to stop the Brotherhood of Mutants of killing Robert Kelly and triggering their dystopic future. The X-men follow them in their mission and succed in stopping Mystique and her brotherhood.

• Rachel and Lucas are stuck in the past and join the X-Men.

• While he traveled the coutry in his mourning, Scott met Madelyne Prior, who looked exactly like Jean. They become closer and Scott goes back to the house of his grandparents. There he find memories of his Brothers and finds out that Kid Vulcan, that had died in Krakoa, was his brother Gabriel.

• He decided to go back to Salem Center, but promised to Madelyne he would come back.

• The X-Men have their first encounter with the Broods. They defeat the aliens with the help of the Shi’ar and the Starjammers, which leader is Christopher Summers.

• Kitty Pryde meets Lockheed.

• Carol Danvers briefly joins the X-Men, but soon leaves after a fight with Rogue, who had stolen her powers (Danvers did notlost er abilities, only stayed in bed for a while).

• At the same time, Wanda is possessed by the Darkhold and uses her powers to create na ilusiono f a happy Family for herself and Vision. She’s stopped by Strange and the Avengers.

• Scott comes back to the X-Men and confronts Xavier about his brother. He keeps in contact with Madelyne Prior.

• Illyana Rasputin is taken to Limbo. Later she’s saved by the X-Men, but she’s no longer a little girl.

• (The New Mutants)

• During the prolonged period in which the X-Men were kidnapped by the Brood, Xavier's School was rebuilt and became known as the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Despite not wanting to put any more of her students in danger, Moira convinced Xavier that the mutant children would be in danger one way or another and would need to be trained to fight.

• Thus, the X-Men began to assemble a new experimental team of young X-Men, the New Mutants, and new teachers joined to help with their training: Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, Sunfire, Firestarter, Lullaby, Banshee, Wolverine, Prestige, Bishop and Colossus.

• This new team was formed by Sam Guthrie (15), Rahne Sinclair (13), Roberto da Costa (14), Danielle Moonstar (15), Doug Ramsey (13), Illyana Rasputin (13) and Xuân Cao Mạnh (14), who has been chosen to bethe leader.

• Later the X-Men were in a conflict with the Morlocks and their leader Calypso.

• Rogue went to the X-Men after she had to have problems controlling Captain Marvel’s powers.

• The X-Men travel to Japan to celebrate Logan’s wending with Yashida Mariko. They met his adopted daughter, Amiko, and help him save Mariko from the Silver Samurai.

• Forge joins the X-Men later.

• Jonh Proudstar (18) brings his little brother, James (14), to study at the Xavier’s Institute.

• Around the same time, Emma Frost created her own group of young mutants at Massachusetts Academy, the Hellions, formed by: Empath, Firestar and Roulette.

• Scott Summers became closer to Madelyne Prior and the two became a couple and he ook her to the X Mansion, where he introduced her to her friends. X-Men were shocked, however, seeing Scott's genuine happiness, they accepted Madelyne into their family and she spent the next few months living with them at the Institute, where she soon discovered she was pregnant.

• As a full-time X-Man, Wolverine was unable to personally care for Amiko (12), but raised her with his fiancée Mariko Yashida.

• Amiko lived with Mariko for some time, enjoying the luxurious life that the head of the Yashida Clan was able to provide. She saw Logan on rare occasions.

• Scott Summers married Madelyne Pryor on the grounds of Xavier Mansion, with most of the X-Men attending the ceremony.

• (Legion)

• David Haller (18) began manifesting his psionic abilities uncontrollably in the real world. Seeing her son suffering from the loss of control of his powers, Gabrielle Haller took him to Muir Island to ask Moira MacTaggert for help.

• MacTaggart called Xavier and he brought with him several of the New Mutants, including Cypher, Mirage and Wolfsbane, Rachel Grey, Scott Summers and Banshee. Upon seeing Xavier, David revealed that it wasn't just him there, there were many others of his alters and hidden in his mind was Amal Farouk, the Shadow King.

• The X-Men joined to stop Frouk and save Davidd. Farouk was removed and expelled from David's mind, who finally had control over his powers and could live in peace with his alters. Even though he still didn't accept that Xavier was his father, knowing why his mother left him, David thanked him.

• David remained on Muir Island for the next few years, being visited by the X-Men from time to time.

1998 –

• (The return of Jean Grey)

• Many months after Phoenix's death, some Khado soldiers heard Krakoa calling them and followed the island to Jamaica Bay, where they found a pod containing Jean Gray's body.

• A few weeks after being found, Jean Gray began to remember what happened before her "death." She later left to go find her friends and returned to be na X-Man.

• Meanwhile, Scott and Madelyne's marriage has become strained. Madelyne resented the fact that Scott was rarely home and that he continued to miss Jean.

• The X-Men were attacked by Mojo. Elizabeth Braddock joined the X-Men after helping them escape the Mojoverse.

• In May, Madelyne Prior gave birth to hers and Cyclops’ son, Nathan Summers.

• Right after, Lady Sinister, Selene Essex, recruited a group of mercenaries to get rid of the Morlocks, whom she believed were a threat the to Evolution of mutant kind. Among these mercenaries, the Marauders, were Sabretooth and Gambit.

• The X-Men went to the tunnels of Morlocks to save the mutants and defeat the Marauders. In the end of the fight, Storm was severely hurt and was lost. While the X-Men believed she was dead, Gambit found her in the tunnels and saved her life.

• Later the X-Men were attacked by the Ravers. During the fight, Jubilee (14), that was living in secret in the X-Men’s base, helped Wolverine save his teammates.

• (Inferno)

• When the X-Men carried out missions, Madelyne Pryor helped them as technical support. Little by little, she was corrupted by the Limbo demon N'astirh, ending up making a deal with him to find her son, becoming the Goblin Queen.

• She soon found out about her true nature: she’s a clone of Jean Grey created by Lady Sinister. Her corruption as the Goblin Queen unleashed Hell on New York in the form of a demonic invasion.

• The X-Men defeated N'astirh, however, in an insane outburst, Pryor put her own son's life at risk, being fought by the X-Men and X-Factor. She was eventually killed in an attempt to take Jean Gray down with her.

• With Madelyne dead, the X-Men traveled to the ruins of the X-Mansion to confront Lady Sinister, who, with Mastermind's help, was telepathically attacking Jean Grey. After a long fight, Cyclops (24) managed to blast Sinister with a full-power optical blast, seemingly destroying her.

• Now without his mother, baby Nathan Summers was raised by his fatherwith the help of the X-Men and Jean Grey.

• In the end, the X-men had to fight the Shadow King once again. Farouk was controlling other mutants to attack the X-Men, but with the help of David Haller and Emma Frost, they defeated him once again.

1999 –

• Wolverine tried to regain his memories and startedto dig into his past with the helpof Jonh Wraith and Nick Fury. He discovered that Silverfox was never dead and it was all an ilusion of Weapon X.

• The X-Men had to fight against the Acolytes and Fabian Cortez, who had kidnapped Luna Maximoff, Magneto’s granddaughter.

• Dealing with his bloodlust and animal side out of control, Sabretooth went to the X-Men searching for Xavier’s help. Different from what he expected, Creed was kept prisioner in the basement.

• Tereza Márquez (OC), Creed’s partner known as Sanguinária, joined the X-Men to take care of him, but still had to keep her job with the Avengers.

• The Inner Circle, who were old allies of Xavier, send two members, Lullaby and Firestarter, to assist the X-Men with their new students.

• The wending of Jean Grey and Scott Summers happened in the gardens of the manor.

• (The Phalanx and Generation X)

• Later, Sabretooth and Tereza Márquez helped Banshee, Emma Frost and Jubilee save a new group of Young mutants from the Phalanx. One of these youngs was Clarice Ferguson (14), she sacrificed herself by using her teleporting powers to save her new friends and was apparently killed while destroying the Phalanx.

• While Sabretooth was sent back to his cell, Banshee and Emma Frost started to train a new team, the Generation X: Jubilee (14), Paige Guthrie (17), Monet St. Crox (16), Everett Thomas (17), Jono Starmore (14), Angelo Spinosa (15) and Nicole and Claudette St. Crox (9).

• The X-Men and the Fantastic Four had to deal with Nanny and Orphan Maker, who captured Young mutants from their parentes, among them Franklin Richards (1), Nathan Summers and Gailyn and Joey Grey.

• The Inner Circle started their plans of waking Apocalypse, with the help of Exodus and Ozymndias. Creed starts to regain his memories.

• When the Inner Circle was discovered by Forge, Creed and Márquez escaped the manor. During the battle that started, the Inner Circle failed in capturing Xavier, but Nathan Summers was infected with a techno vírus that put his life in danger.

• To save his son, Scott send Nathan to the future, wherehe could recieve training and treatingfor the vírus. Wolverine was after a cure for Warren and Psylocke, who were extremely hurt by Creed and Márquez during their escape. He recieved a visit from Ozymandias, who told him that soon Apocalypse would return.

• The same warning was given to the mutants of Khado, who prepared themselves for the “Judgment Day”. The Inner Circle goes searching for the Horsemen of Apocalypse.

2000 –

• With the campaing for presidency of Graydon Creed, the mutants start to feel more threated by the presence of the Sentinels and the Department of Damage Control, na organisation ruled by SHIELD that would arrest any potential dangerous mutant.

• Dr. Cecilia Reyes joined the X-Men.

• (Apocalypse)

• The Inner Circle succeds in their plan of bringing back Apocalypse and his Haralds.

• Kittty Pryde, Jono Starmore and Warren Worthington are kidnapped by the Inner Circle. Apocalypse uses his powers to give Warren new wings, choosing him to be his next Horseman of Death.

• With the help of the Enriched, the X-Men fight Apocalypse, his Army of Darkness, Exodus and the Inner Circle.

• Now the world knew of the existence of the secret nation of mutants, Khado, as well the existence of Wakanda and Krakoa.

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