also here’s the cover art for filonyn’s in-character bestiary from our monster of the week game

Behold! A chameleon!

TTRPG Read-Through: Liminal Horror

Here is a read-through I did last year (originally posted on Twitter) of one of the my current go-to game for modern horror: Liminal Horror by Goblin Archives! - Christian

I cut my teeth learning to GM as a Keeper in Call of Cthulhu and I've really been jonesing for a game in this genre that's more in the style of rpg I enjoy these days. I'm hoping this will be it!

Really excited about this. Shifting away from mental illness and trauma, both of which have their obvious problematic pitfalls, is something I could see really opening up what a character looks like and goes through after having things go wrong in interesting new ways.

Big spread on Facilitator and Player Principles. I think this is all very solid advice as a one-time or just-before-play read, but it's definitely too much for quick reference. That said, I always love reminding folks that we "play to find out what happens."

I may be off the mark but these two bullets make me think Goblin Archives is a Friends at the Table listener. Both of these make me immediately think of Austin's openings on there (which is a very good thing, for me).

Very straightforward stats. I like the HP distinction here and how it seems to refill between events/encounters and when drained is when you see actual damage occur. More inventory structure than I expected (I like that tho!) Cool to see character AND party questions here.

I really loved the Backgrounds and character options in The Bureau, a Control-inspired megadungeon-like module for this system I did a read-through of about a month or so ago. Excited to see more of that here. Also, I really need to play as a Very Online character.

Nice open character creation. I enjoy these types of questions: why do you believe there's something weird going on? What ideology guides you? What are your connections in the world, important relationships, etc.? Those create way more juicy bits than stats alone can provide.

I first encountered these kinds of character bonds in Fate years ago, but it's been a go-to house rule of mine during Session 0/1 for anything my group is planning to do longer than one-shot play for. Even in a single session, it can add a lot. Cool to see it here.

It's a d20 roll-under system (no modifiers, yay). Adding fatigue to inventory slots is a great way to make a mechanic out of that. Also, associates were unexpected! Shows this game could be more than just 3-4 bumbling normies going into the unknown (which is what I envisioned).

Combat is fairly straightforward (in a good way). No rolls to hit, it's just damage that is varied. Props to not using Advantage/Disadvantage as a game term like everyone else. Again, the Detachments make me think this game could have some wild situations come up!

Open-ended spell casting here (reminds me most recently of Primal Quest). They come and go day to day which is interesting, potentially changing entirely. I like the failure being equal to the desired effect. Want to kill someone with a spell? Be prepared to die if things go bad.

Okay, these relics are extremely cool. A blade that does MIND DAMAGE and requires recharging by feeding it memories? Good stuff.

Fallout is really interesting. Take enough DMG to go through your HP and it ticks away your Strength until you die (or take crit DMG). Fallout is the same but wears at your Control. Gaining Fallout makes you odder/more open to the true nature of things, but makes you heartier.

This is a good approach bc it means leaning into the things most games gate behind "sanity" here makes you more able to cope with the weird in the future. Feels like a path to more interesting stories (rather than the CoC-style "you are in a sanitarium now" character ending).

Remainder of the book is a small bestiary with monster creation guidelines, spark tables and a lean but comprehensive mystery creation guide along with a sample mystery. The loose framework, a steady clock ratcheting tension, and a focus on lots of clues feels like good guidance.

Having a mystery take only 6 pages feels much more approachable than the very traditional heavy-prep and lots-of-writing mysteries of something like Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green. I homebrewed a lot of CoC, and the prep work there can be pretty huge. This feels nice tho.

Overall thoughts: the book is a very lean and focused take on creating horror that doesn't get bogged down in the other ttrpg pitfalls of the genre while also having nice mechanics for associates, large scale encounters, etc. so there's room for a lot of types of stories here.

I'll definitely be trying to knock out a mystery for this as part of the jam. I've got a lot of weirdness to get out of my system and this seems like an easy, streamlined way to do it. Also, excited to play The Bureau and The Mall.

You can pick up the most recent addition of Liminal Horror in print via Space Penguin Ink. You can also find it on Itch. The rules and additional content also available entirely for free on Goblin Archives github.

Also, I wrote an adventure for this system last year: Tunnels in White.

Old money siphoning new money from every corner of your city. An aging mansion, quiet and worn. An old corporation shifting its gaze from development to development, always hungry, always growing.

A warehouse bearing the name Singleton Solutions, small and unassuming in one of a hundred industrial parks like any other, takes in truckload after truckload but never sends anything out. It’s the same for the people. Sometimes, they arrive in towncars, other times in shuttle vans. None come out. Ever.

What you know is something strange is going on inside that warehouse and you are determined to discover what it is. What you cannot know is where and how far the mystery may take you.

You can grab a print or digital copy HERE. It's also available via Itch.

Lastly if you like seeing my thoughts on games and how I make stuff for them, here's my monthly newsletter (which now has a free TTRPG thing to take to your table each month): https://meatcastle.substack.com

Mermaids and Mr Freud...

What do you think when you hear the word “mermaid”? Chances are, you’ll imagine a beautiful girl with a sparkling fish tail, naked breasts, flowing hair, gazing into a mirror: a scene straight out of early 20th-century Golden Age illustrators Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. Or perhaps you see Ariel, Disney’s 1989 cartoon version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, with her cherry-red hair and purple shell bikini. That romanticized – and Disneyfied – picture of a mermaid seems fated to endure with this year’s live-action The Little Mermaid film (though the casting of Halle Bailey in the title role has prompted as much racist backlash as it has celebration. The mermaid of Andersen’s 1837 fairytale was white, say the purists.) But Andersen himself drew on a far older, stranger, and more subversive folklore to write his story. His tale of a mermaid who, falling in love with a human prince, is forced to sacrifice her tail and her voice in order to become human, was deeply influenced by Undine, the 1811 novella by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, which in turn was inspired by the 16th-century occultist Paracelsus, who coined the word “undine” to describe an elemental water spirit who can only gain a soul by marrying a human. And mermaid legends, like so many other fairytales, have been shared in many parts of the world for millennia. One of the earliest mermaid stories dates back to sometime around 1000 BC. In Assyrian mythology, the goddess Atargatis, who was venerated for thousands of years all over the Middle East, attains a half-fish, half-human form after throwing herself into a lake. The Yoruba spirit, Yemoja, who is represented as a mermaid, appears under other names as an ocean and river mother goddess – Yemaja, Yemanjá, Yemoyá, Yemayá – across half the world. Mami Wata – a water deity sometimes known as La Sirène - revered in Haiti and many parts of Africa, often appears as a mermaid, with a mirror that allows the passage from one plane of reality to another. And so it goes, from the ningyo of Japanese folklore to the sjókonar of Norse sagas. It is one of the most powerful archetypes in our shared dreaming. Nor were mermaids always understood to be mythological. Throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, European bestiaries and illuminated manuscripts portrayed mermaids as real creatures. On several occasions fishermen have claimed to have caught them in their nets. Early explorers reported mermaid sightings – although it is more likely that they were dolphins, seals or manatees, mistaken for mermaids by sailors expecting to encounter exotic beasts on their journey. Since then, humans have stubbornly continued to look for proof that mermaids are real (so far, without success).  What does the mermaid mean? Why is the half-fish half-woman such a potent, enduring legend? At the heart of these stories is the question of women’s power. Fairy tales and folklore have played an important role in challenging societal roles and giving people opportunities to discuss difficult or taboo subjects through the safety of metaphor – in this case, through the image of a woman whose irresistible sexual power over men is balanced by her own inability to function sexually or to reproduce. And in the days when pregnancy and childbirth often proved fatal, that might not have been such a bad thing. The mermaid cannot be raped, or forced to give birth. Not being human, she is not bound by the conventions of human society or the laws of the Church. She enjoys both the freedom and the sensuality of her element without any of the attendant dangers or discomforts. In folklore, the mermaid has independence, and can exercise sexual power over men, which makes her ultimately dangerous, unnatural: a monster. Perhaps this is why so many ancient myths and medieval bestiaries depict mermaids as untrustworthy, deceitful creatures, leading sailors to their doom. Their bodies are all sexual promise, but no sexual reward; and their voices are so enchanting as to drive men to madness. Unable to fulfil what some believe to be a woman’s biological destiny, they are often portrayed as soulless. Because a woman who uses without being used, who seduces without being seduced, who moves through water and air – whereas men are doomed to drown if they venture into the mermaid’s world – is a challenge to God, to the patriarchy, and to order itself.  In The Little Mermaid, Andersen tamed this older, more radical tradition. The moralism of his tale serves the dual purpose of mastering the mermaid – of making her fall victim to a human’s charms, rather than the more traditional way around – and taking away her power. The mermaid, made helpless by love of her prince, gives up her native element and the autonomy that comes with it, and exchanges it – via a witch’s spell – for a pair of feet, though walking causes her terrible pain. She also relinquishes the power of speech, which means that she is incapable of expressing her love in any way but the physical. And if her prince falls in love with someone else, then the mermaid is doomed to die on the instant, and to forfeit the soul for which she has sacrificed everything. Her entire being – her very existence – becomes dependent on the love and approval of her prince. Her independence, her challenge to the patriarchal status quo is gone. Though the ending of Andersen’s tale is – to a certain degree – redemptive (the mermaid, refusing to take the life of her prince in order to save her own life, is borne aloft by spirits of air and promised an eternal soul), it seems very cruel, especially as the heroine is only fifteen years old. A contemporary reader might well see in Andersen’s telling a warning to an emerging women’s movement – women’s power has often been seen as fragile, unnatural, and at the mercy of emotion. Unlike the tragedy of Andersen’s mermaid and prince (and of Fouqué’s Undine), the 1989 Disney film rewards Ariel and Eric with a happily-ever-after ending. And it tells their story in a cheery, colourful palette (a stark contrast to Kay Nielsen’s original dark, eerie concept drawings for the film), which while being pleasingly child-friendly, also reduces the mermaid’s essential alienness, and minimizes her sacrifice, thereby making her tale into little more than a love story with a little added jeopardy.

 But Disney also perpetuated other tropes. It is meaningful that the sea witch who provides the mermaid with the spell fits the older-woman archetype well represented in fairy tales: embittered by age, envious of the little mermaid’s youth and beauty. She is the one who demands the mermaid’s voice as payment for her services: a potent image of an older generation, silencing the voices of youth. (In Andersen’s telling, she too is the one who demands that the mermaid’s sisters cut off their hair in order to save their sibling.) The older woman is filled with rage and contempt for the younger woman; taking pleasure in their humiliation and the loss of their power. And as the tentacled Ursula in the Disney version, she is especially monstrous. 

  Over the centuries, fairy stories have always been reinvented to serve the needs of the changing times. And people have often fretted about this. (In 1853, Charles Dickens criticised the trend for rewriting fairytales to fit didactic, contemporary concerns.) But perhaps that the meaning of the mermaid has drifted further and further away from its origins in ancient folklore should not be cause for too much concern. Today, the mermaid has become the symbol of the trans community, whose members often feel the generational divide especially keenly. And there are endlessly imaginative ways to retell the tradition. (In 2008’s Ponyo, Hayao Miyazaki spins his tale of a goldfish who longs to be human into a charming meditation on childhood.) 

 Like the ever-evolving traditions of fairytales, magic, too, is transformative. In stories, magic acts as a metaphor for the change we seek to effect in our lives, in ourselves, in the world around us. Perhaps that is why fairy tales resonate so deeply with us. Why else would we cling to them, retell them in so many ways? They teach us not that magic exists, but that change is possible. They teach us not that dragons exist, but that monsters can be overcome. And they teach us to hope, in the face of a world that seems to be getting harsher and more confusing by the day, that sometimes love can save us, and that, even in the face of the cruellest kind of tyranny, we can still keep control of our fate, and hope for a happy ending –not just a Disney wedding, but something perhaps more satisfying. In films like Moana - or more recently Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken – the love story is with the sea; a story of claiming, rather than giving up power. Mermaids – in all their aspects – are still working their magic on us. And now, perhaps more than ever, it’s time to listen to their song.

Bestiary entry of the week is the "glugreng" which is... a white bird. That's it, that's all the physical description we get.

I assume that means its something the monks would have been familiar with.

I've taken it as an opportunity to play with medium more than usual, rather than thinking too hard about the creature design - I've just done a fairly common bird in all-white, but I've tried to build up the paint so it's more the impasto that defines its shape rather than outlines.

Also it has on a crown bc it lives with royalty and also crown-as-collar is something I've seen in heraldic imagery and it looks cool. Perhaps I should've given it a little halo to indicate its magic healing powers but I only just thought of that so nvm

Happy WBW!

🦄 - Does your world have magical beasts? If so, which ones and how many? Have any been domesticated?

🧙 - If your world has magic users, can anyone be use magic or is it something they are born with?

📜 - What things can magic not do in your world?

it’s time to go on a tcol rant god bless :)

so if you want to see my full magic rant, feel free to check out the crash course on how magic works in terrae here (link!)

but otherwise onto your q’s!

🦄 - Does your world have magical beasts? If so, which ones and how many? Have any been domesticated?

terrae has two different subcategories of supernatural creatures: monsters and beasts. monsters are more akin to animals but more savage. they’re extremely unpredictable and ruthless and survive on carnage since they are essentially pure chaos energy or cava. as such they’re unable to be domesticated. they don’t have specific species… yet but i also have been putting off flora & fauna building in tcol forever cuz unfortunately bestiary’s are kind of my least favorite part of worldbuilding LMAO. i have mentioned one species by name in lore writing though, called haroçs and they’re a sort of flying creature ig? my imagination ain’t swell. anyway tho, beasts are similar to monsters except they have ars or the ability to use magic which makes them (1) more deadly and (2) occasionally gives them sentience if they’re extremely powerful. the demon king for instance would be considered a beast. they can control other monsters beneath them and have their own hierarchies with the demon king on top. also unable to be domesticated bc they have free will lol.

🧙 - If your world has magic users, can anyone be use magic or is it something they are born with?

tldr; everyone is born with a certain intrinsic combination of sana, cava, and ars and you need 30% ars to do any kind of magic at all. i think it’s possible to raise your magic potential if you’re under that baseline but you’d have to like. probably pray, eat some weird shit or train very hard. i’ll have to come up with a method or six cuz that’s something interesting to explore. you can’t change ur base sana tho, only how much of it you can access which is necessary for healing magic (so if you have no sana you can’t heal anyone with magic tm) and you can gain more cava by absorbing it from beasts or monsters (which is a base for tenom tm) but Watch Out—

📜 - What things can magic not do in your world?

make you immortal. everything else is fair game. the cool thing about the magic vis specifically is as it’s the magic of the force of will, if you can will it you can do it. it’s the basis for a lot of different guild classes and people can get Very Creative with how they use it. but while even sana can revive the dead under very certain circumstances (and by one specific person thus far in history), it can’t stop people from dying yknow what i mean.

September books, though at this point these posts are purely just for me

The bad:

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by TS Eliot - shocking amount of racial slurs for a children's book

Sovietistan by Erika Fatland - technically didn't finish this one. It's a shame because it was SO interesting and I enjoyed reading about Central Asia bc I know nothing, but Fatland is so rude about every single local she comes into contact with. Constant descriptions of bad teeth, people's weight, how nasty the food was, and how backwards the attitudes were. I get it's kind of a strange/unique region but it was gross to me that her narration, apart from when she discussed history of the region, was very much "wow look how weird and exotic these people are! I'm so glad I live in Norway where it's CLEAN and people aren't WEIRD." Only made it through the Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan chapters which is a shame bc this could've been great if she was just not an asshole!!!!

The okay:

Uncharted by Alli Temple - was truly expecting nothing from this Kindle Unlimited pirate adventure-romance series with a stock image cover but it was actually not bad? Fun, pulp-y plot and I finished it in about 5 hours

Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner - a serviceable romcom about two soccer players who fall in love. I read Wilsner's other books (one was fine and one I hated) so I feel like saying this is my favorite isn't saying much, but it was cute.

The Lost Spells by Robert MacFarlane - the draw here isn't so much the poems (but they're fine!), it's the beautiful watercolors

The good/great:

spellbook for the sabbath queen by Elisheva Fox - a really beautiful but sparse poetry collection that has stuff about identity and environment and difficult familial relationships and sexuality and Judaism. This is her first collection and it definitely feels like one, but not in a bad way. I'll def keep an eye out for more of her stuff

Ararat by Christopher Golden - a recommendation from a friend and it had some GNARLY kills but was another book that was very much My Shit. Also had a great ending

American Journal: Fifty Poems For Our Time, edited by Tracy K. Smith - a really great poetry collection especially if you're just getting into poetry and are looking for new poets. There's enough variety that there's something for everyone in there!

When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen - these poems were so fucking weird that i was immediately in love. Idk what else to say other than "strange and lovely"

Rouge by Mona Awad - speaking of strange! If you're into skincare this is especially fun, I'm glad I got a facial BEFORE reading this because otherwise I would have been mildly unsettled. I love that thing Awad does when the character starts to lose it and the narration goes off the rails

Bestiary by Donika Kelly - I mean this in the best possible way, what the FUCK. "You grow. You are large./You are a 19th century poem." but also "I have never known a field as wild/as your heart." Hey Donika what if I throw up everywhere

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan - some great characters and also a couple of plot points that were so upsetting i started laughing and then had to put the book down for the night because it was the most tragic possible thing to happen. (almost) every single character in this book is a total asshole and I love them all!!!!!!!! Maybe not technically "great" but one of those books that felt like it was written just for me.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros - an all time favorite I reread because I was sad. Sandra Cisneros is one of those writers that makes me feel incredibly seen and I was having a bad day so I read this in one sitting and it helped a little

The below are some metaphysics and ‘bigger picture’ deets on a worldbuilding project I just started, plus a ‘bestiary’ of god types.

Some background info: this multiverse has a sort of ‘4th wall’ keeping out most creator deities from entering it. the exact mechanics of which are very complicated, aside from allowing infinitesimal portions of a god’s power through. Enough to create universes, because metaphysics is weird and relative; you can make a rock with 100 quintessence in some places and a multiverse with 0.0001 quintessence in others.

So the most they usually do is send tiny pieces of themselves as avatars into the worlds they create. Then one of them decided to shatter Himself into pieces to get around the barrier before fusing the pieces into His own reality, which created ‘true magic’ and also made His reality become supermassive. both physically and existentially, bc while you can’t really tell from the veil ALL creator deities are stupidly op, so Him putting all of Himself into his world made it and its metaphysics ‘dominant’ over everything else.

Note that while the multiverse is HUGE and infinite by some metrics it is nowhere near as massive as it could be: it is hyper saturated with quintessence in comparison to the realities that came before it. Worlds that size were once spun from such little quintessence they hardly existed.

This is also why most beings that aren’t directly produced by creator deities have humanish brains as He had a human mind; whilst any random creator deity is likely to be somewhat eldritch by our standards, humanity’s metaphysical dominance means they kinda have to stay on the ‘fringe’ of most of reality if they can’t make a sufficiently human avatar.

Aspect lords: Aspect lords directly serve one of the metamagical forces underlying how magic itself functions (examples include Chaos, Order, Relativity, and more. They’re somewhere between splintered pieces of the mind of Him and platonic concepts) which basically means they can do anything as long as it doesn’t go too far against their Aspect. They essentially tightrope walk the line between mortal and god.

Creator avatars: creator avatars are kind of like aspect lords but they ‘serve’ an unbroken creator deity. They’re more extensions of the creator deity than actual independent beings. Technically stronger than aspect lords but they’re weaker outside of their own domains, and given that most of reality is currently running on Him.exe without sufficient compatibility they can’t enter most of reality without being booted out of existence.

Aspects: the aspects are the scattered fragments of pieces of Him. Each of them, while weaker than a creator deity, is exponentially more able to affect reality due to being on the ‘existing’ side of the veil. They govern how ‘true magic’ works, (What we might recognise as magic existed before Him’s splintering, it just had wildly different metaphysics from place to place based on the whims of the deity fueling it and also had absolutely no ability to countermand deities because its existential weight was basically 0.) serving less as actual ‘beings’ and more as forces.

Creator deities: the big ones. Creator deities are all (each and every one) infinitely powerful and had a habit of creating worlds to play with; aside from that there’s endless variation; they number in the quadrillions. Fortunately for us only infinitesimally tiny pieces of them can enter reality and aside from the really human ones they can only use their own power, even if they control said power absolutely. Most ‘dislike’ (if they can feel: remember most are eldritch by our standards) the multiverse as it is for a variety of reasons but can’t do much about it. Sufficiently human ones are absolutely vibing though.

omega mk 12 is weird bc its like objectively the highest level super boss in the game but its also the only special enemy you dont get a trophy for meaning the only reason to fight it is the bestiary entry so i might ignore it in the main game and just fight it in the trial mode

Down the rabbit peryton hole

I love folkloric animals, especially pretty ones, so I also love what I have come to know as the peryton. The peryton is a hybrid animal, part stag/deer and part bird (how much bird depends on the source). The name ‘peryton’ however seems to originate from one single source: Jorge Luis Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings (1957). Apart from giving these winged deer a name, Borges also describes some absolutely buck wild characteristics and folkloric origins:

Perytons have a deer’s head and legs and a bird’s body and wings.

They usually have dark green and occasionally light blue feathers.

They eat dry earth.

They used to live in Atlantis.

Their shadow looks like that of a human, suggesting that they are the spirits of those who died far away from home and out of reach of their care of their gods.

They are mortal enemies of the human race and if they kill a person they win back the favour of their gods and finally get their own shadow.

They are impervious to weapons but can only kill a single person.

They fly in flocks and can swoop down on ships, gruesomely attacking the crew.

The Sibyl of Erythraea foretold that the city of Rome would be destroyed by perytons.

I can find absolutely no corroboration of this folklore anywhere. The sources Borge gives (without title or clear author) are a medieval manuscript based on a Greek text, both of which have been lost and/or destroyed. In Tony Allan’s The Mythic Bestiary (2008) he calls the peryton “originating from Borge’s active imagination and love for scientific jokes.”

But winged stags did feature in art far before Borges.

For the Scythians (an ancient nomadic people of Eurasia, inhabiting the region of Scythia from the 7th century BC until the 1st century AD) the stag was clearly an important creature and/or symbol (Jacobson, 1983, pp. 68-120; Loehr, 1955, pp. 63-76). They are usually portrayed with elaborate antlers, but sometimes also with wings:

They also show up in heraldry too, for instance on the crest of the British Earls of Granville (A Complete Guide to Heraldry, 1909, Chapter 12). And as a symbol of power for the French King Charles VII, used in several tapestries (Hanley, 1983, p. 39-40). It shows up in Claude Paradin’s Devises Héroïques from 1551, and in Jean Froissart’s illuminated manuscript Chroniques (Vol. IV, part 1, c.1470-1472):

I have seen it suggested that winged stags were a “purely artistic” addition to heraldry, and never part of folkloric belief (Johnston, 2011, Vol. 1, p. 512), but just because there are no recorded stories about a beast does not mean they never existed. Many of the more domestic hybrid animals of folklore do not have clear legends or origin stories. They were just thought to exist, sometimes, especially when walking home late at night. It is very clear, however, that these winged stags did not look like the half-bird, green-feathered peryton and were, if anything, symbols of majestic power. Not feral monsters out for human blood.

So I am beginning to believe that while winged stags have been around for a long time, they probably find Borges’ perytons give them a really bad name.

wait this is even funnier bc this needs three bonus action's worth of buffs to get to full strength i added together what damage i'd be doing in the MEANTIME to get this turn and... i...

39d8 + 62 + 55d8 + 1d6 + 80

aka

MEAN: 568.5 MIN: 237 MAX: 900

☠️ this is assuming all attacks hit & none crit so take it as you will but uhh there are NO creatures in the bestiaries that could survive a max hit and there are six creatures who survive mean damage ☠️

A not-so-brief overview of my Skyrim Dova OCs bc i need to scream to the digital void about my ideas

Freyora Lind, more commonly known by her strange alias “Bjorne Icepick”

A Nord-eventually-turned-werewolf who orphaned during the Great War and taken in by a Dunmeri mercenary whose residence was in Windhelm’s Gray Quarter. Grew up in a cramped boarding house setting among desperate mercenaries of varying backgrounds. Many of them would all come and go, but there was always some sort of a familial bond between them all.

From a young age she got in a lot of fights against people who insulted her for living in the Gray Quarter among the dark elves. Eventually she took a fight too far and was jailed for murder around 14, but was broken out shortly after by a band of masked vampires. Turns out some of her mercenary comrades unwittingly caught vampirism during a contract to clear out a vampire den and had to skip town, but not before ensuring one of their own wasn’t left to rot.

Lived in Cyrodil for about 15 years, but returned to Skyrim pursuing rumors surrounding a cure to vampirism, as her adoptive father would be nearing the end of his elven lifespan and had wished to die a normal death.

Seeing as she was literally a fugitive, and her long-belated parents were somewhat renowned for their battlefield prowess, she took on a false identity. AND an act to match it.

She’ll eat raw meat, chase prey with swords instead of using a bow like a normal person, harp about irrational conspiracy theories, and more. Everyone’s foul reactions to her outlandish act are plainly hilarious to her and only encourage her to act even stranger.

The alias “Bjorne Icepick” was simply the most ridiculous name she could think of.

Not the most morally outstanding. Besides drunken brawling, she’ll steal from anyone who angers her, even if it’s things she literally won’t ever need such as all the goblets in a household. It’s the pettiness that counts. “Try drinking your damn high-end wine now, jackass.”

Calls Dwarven Automatons “Gundams.” Including she herself, no one knows what that means.

Joins the Companions out of homesickness and a desire to fill in a gap that leaving home left.

Hasn’t bothered curing herself of lycanthropy because her whole schtick is being incredibly resourceful, and that includes using any means of power necessary. Still doesn’t fancy Hircine’s Hunting Grounds as her desired afterlife, though.

As her journey goes on, however, her lightheartedly eccentric face starts to fall off as a number of events push her to begin to question the legitimacy of her actions up until that point.

Some of which include the eventual death of her adoptive father (and how she was indirectly responsible for it even if it was what he wanted), Delphine’s ultimatum, the civil war as a collective, learning the tragic history behind the Falmer and the original Companions’ role in it, and killing of Vyrthur (no matter how much he genuinely deserved it).

She grows disgusted by herself down to the core. She takes to skooma to cope, and starts to be plagued by serious skooma-induced side effects. She ends up shutting herself away from all her responsibilities and distancing herself from her friends.

Does she get better? Maybe. I haven’t thought up anything past this point lol

Moureneris Alta

A very, VERY ancient vampiric snow elf, (though it’s notable she was born a considerable amount of time after the razing of Sarthaal)

Survived many atrocities. Stayed in isolation with a band of vampires for countless years out of sheer disgust for the nature of the sapient races. (I’ll explain her full story some other time. It’s pretty complicated)

She was abducted from her isolated lifestyle by a certain person i’ll talk about later. She managed to free herself south of Skyrim, and uh, walks right into that Imperial ambush. The rest is history.

Super ignorant to modern society as a result of centuries of isolation. Exploited for comedic relief. (“What in the name of Oblivion is a Cyrodilic Empire? Are you messing with me? And please, how does levitation magic simply get outlawed by this hypothetical Empire? What are you to do when you fall down a crevice? Just... let yourself perish? How degrading.)

She reintegrated herself into society with vengeance in mind under the belief that all humans are savage bloodlusting murderers who had to answer for their treachery. (And she was royally angry there was no Dwemer left to spite, but partially satisfied at the same time). But she grows conflicted after being shown genuine kindness, even as early as being freed from her binds in Helgen.

Subsequently has a very muddled redemption arc. Queue Dragonborn hero stuff

She has impaired vision, but she cultivated detect life magic to aid her in daily life and combat (think Hyakkimaru from Dororo ‘19 and his soul detection or Toph Beifong from ATLA and her seismic sense). At her peak, she can detect life from about a kilometer away.

She can just barely read, but only if she holds the text incredibly close to her face, not to mention her Cyrodilic lessons were left unfinished after her abduction, making reading a very taxing process. Weary travelers are often spooked at the sight of a floating, ghastly looking elven woman with her nose pressed up against crossroad signs, and it has become somewhat of an urban legend.

Isn’t as nearly as skilled with detecting the dead and tenses up in burial crypts or around other vampires for that reason. Unfortunately, being the Dragonborn and all, she finds herself in a lot of crypts...

When questioned about her background due to her unique appearance: “Oh, yeah. My mother was one of those mer from the east. You know the ones. Dark elves, I think? And my father was one of those er, tall elv- no, sorry, HIGH elves. Yeah. They both died in a big fire or something though. It was horrible. I can’t get the noxious smell or the deafening screams out of my head. Good talk, but never ask me about that again.”

Queue sheltered old immortal antics: “Wow, you’re THAT old? Enlighten me on how it felt witnessing the fall of the Dwemer. Or perhaps the rise of Tiber Septim’s Empire. The Gates of Ob-“ “Oblivion if I know. I lived in someone’s basement for thousands of years. And I still don’t know what everyone means by Empire. You all are messing with me, aren’t you? That really annoys me.”

She ultimately returns to faith in Auri-El and makes it her life’s purpose to help the Betrayed find peace, as well as to seek out any remaining snow elf groups. Probably good friends with Gelebor or something.

Had a crush on Serana. We all know how THAT went. Damned temples.

Was originally gonna spiral into a much darker corruption arc (another ATLA comparison being Jet or Hama) but I just felt bad for her. Moureneris can have a little found peace. As a treat.

That’s her preliminary design made. I’ll need a mod to properly play her, because that right there was made by choosing Dunmer as her race. But I can’t do that. I’m on console, and while I got the Steam port a month ago, my PC’s stone age specs can’t handle Skyrim yet and I’ll need to wait until I can afford a better graphics card (thanks economic inflation)

Alexandre Armasi, jokingly nicknamed Alexandre the Curious

A complete and unapologetic export of my character from a dead and unfinished DND campaign. Except there are no Aasimar in Skyrim, so he’s half Altmer half Bosmer. And his initial last name was Armas but I thought Armasi suited his Skyrim counterpart more, as subtle a change it is.

He’s mainly Bosmer in appearance and constitution, save for his hair and eyes, which are more similar to that of his Altmeri father’s.

I can’t really export his original backstory though because the campaign wouldn’t translate well into TES lore at all.

He’s a writer who came wandering into Skyrim in search of inspiration. While he mainly writes dramatic fables, he wanted to divert his focus to crafting his own bestiary and herbal compendium surrounding Skyrim’s fauna and flora. The ones at home are simply too vague to him!

He’s very altruistic, wishing to spread cheer wherever he goes, through the art of song (even though he was a cleric in DND and not a bard. My bad.) However, many of his verses are just blatant self promotions of his published fables.

But he’s too naive for his own good. Dangerously so. In fact, he says what’s on his mind with little forethought, with little grasp on the consequences of his actions, which lands him in lots of trouble. “I don’t favor him myself, but you guys kill people over Talos worship? That’s not very cool. A bit scary, if you ask me.” or “A Stormcloak rebel? Didn’t your leader kill a bunch of Reachmen rebels years back, or so I’ve heard. By the divines that’s not a man I’d make a symbol of nonconformity.”

He’s also insatiably curious. The type to ACTUALLY shove alchemic ingredients in his mouth with no knowledge of their properties, experiment with dangerous rune spells, throw rocks at pressure plates, and more. Needless to say he’s very accident prone.

Doesn’t know common curse words. People exploit this for laughs. Think that episode of Spongebob.

Everyone is a little baffled that HE of all people is the prophesied Dragonborn of legend. This agonizingly imbecilic writer who has absentmindedly wandered into burial crypts, troll dens, bandit forts, and more, too busy juggling his manuscripts to pay attention to his surroundings.

His past doesn’t exactly reflect his outlook on life. His mother and father fought in the Great War aligned with the Imperials despite their elven background. Both managed to live to see the war’s conclusion, but his father vanished without a trace shortly after, and it seems his mother knows something she won’t tell him.

With plenty of exposure to bad influences, his innocence is slowly lost throughout the course of his journey, and his altruism begins to grow twisted. But nevertheless, he maintains his jovial, social persona, except this time with much darker undertones. Kinda like a creepy dentist or something.

Whoops. He winds up becoming a feared Dark Brotherhood assassin. (Haha get it “Innocence Lost”???) He somehow deluded himself into thinking that the life of an assassin was the right thing to do. But he’s a funky little guy so he gets a pass for his heinous crimes against society

apologies for the just talking about junk lately but my brain’s on infodump o’clock. i really want to talk about dq9 grottoes and alchemiracles. so here’s a wall of text that’s been in the back of my brain for around 9 years.

i always thought this stuff was insane and i’m dying for a remake so i can get into this again.

so.

quest #015 collapsus’ call

at the summit of the heights of loneliness, you will find a man, christopher collapsus, who climbed all the way to the top but collapsed just short of zere rocks. you need to bring him a special medicine. as a reward he will give you your first treasure map: granite tunnel of woe lv. 1.

a treasure map will depict a red X drawn on part of a map, this will be one of several locations on the overworld but it’ll be fairly zoomed in so it might take some thinking to figure out where it is. when you stand in that location, a prompt to press A will appear and when you do, a cave entrance will appear. these caves are called grottoes. inside you’ll find several floors with monsters and chests and then a boss floor.

when you beat the boss they will drop another map. it’ll be random but influenced by 3 factors:

a) the level of the map just beaten.

b) the hero’s max level. the hero’s level is stored separate for each vocation so if you’ve hit level 99 as a minstrel but are currently a level 30 warrior, your max level is 99.

c) the hero’s max revocation. when the hero reaches level 99 as a vocation they can revocate, resetting that level to 1 and gaining a little +1 next to the level. my max revocations was a +3 on gladiator.

there are like over 32,000 maps with over 200 quality variations if i remember right, the exact total is over 8 million possibilities with these varying features:

a) it’s location on the world map.

b) it’s environment theme: ruins 40%, cave 30%, fire 10%, ice 10%, or water 10%

c) the number of floors before the boss floor: 2-16

d) the layout of each floor including the placement of any chests. if you’ve ever played a mystery dungeon game you know what to expect with randomly generated dungeons.

e) the starting monster rank of the grotto. monsters appear from a pool, there are 12 ranks and each environment has its own pool of monsters for each rank. the monster rank can only start at up to rank 9 but it increases every 4 floors so to find rank 12 monsters, you’ll need a grotto that starts on 9 and has at least 13 floors. many monsters in the higher ranks are exclusive to grottoes so if you want to complete your bestiary... well i never in 700+ hours found a water grotto with rank 12 monsters. monster rank on each floor also determines what ranks of chest can appear there. there are 10 ranks of chest. each weapon used for making the 5 star weapons has a 1% chance to be in a rank 10 chest. there’s one for each of the 12 weapon types. but even on a monster rank 12 floor it’s not guaranteed to have rank 10 chests. (chests by the way refresh when grotto is closed and reopened).

f) it’s boss, of which there are 12 possible. each boss is more difficult than the previous and so it is related to the map’s level, so dw, a level 1 map can’t have the final grotto boss, you won’t be ready for that.

there is some lore to the bosses. the goddess celestria, daughter of zenus (who was slain by corvus at the beginning of the story), said her father must still be alive in some capacity or the world would cease to be. every grotto boss has some dialogue before the battle commences. fowleye specifically explains that zenus shattered into 10 pieces which took form as the first 10 grotto bosses. the 11th is the demon that the supreme sage sealed in a book with himself long ago, the supreme sage, still in the book, is a character who gives you the quests related to the sage vocation. the 12th is greygnarl who was slain by barbarus in the story but at the end his shadow was shown hinting at his return. in his dialogue he talks about himself, barbarus, and styrmling who remains somewhat of a mystery. greygnarl actually drops an yggdrasil leaf instead of another map.

each boss has 3 items they can drop. a 100% drop: another treasure map. a (i actually can’t remember, i think it’s 5 or 10)% drop chance: a certain pretty good piece of gear. a 2% drop chance for a piece of armour used for 5 star armour. most armour categories can be split into multiple sub-categories e.g. handwear that focuses on defence or deftness so there’s one for each sub-category: 1 shield, 2 headwear, 2 handwear, 3 bodywear, 1 legwear, 2 footwear. each boss has a specific one e.g. the first grotto boss, equinox, has a 2% chance to drop the vesta gauntlets: defence handwear. greygnarl is an exception to the rules, i don’t remember all the specifics and can’t find details at this time but i do remember is his 100% drop is an yggdrasil leaf and one of his drops is a certain legacy boss map, i’ll get to that in a bit.

treasure map names are clues as to the details of the map before explored but usually don’t guarantee anything (except a few environments, if it says “waterway” it’s definitely water).

there are a few other weird factors for the probability for monsters appearing on floors resulting in the ruby path of doom map that got extremely popular to share in japan and got referenced in dq11s because of the one floor with nothing but metal king slimes. i myself found a grotto which had a floor with absolutely no monsters whatsoever, it did however have 2 chests on that floor, at least one of which was rank 10.

now say you get one of these special pieces of gear, how do you make the 5 star gear?

agates of evolution are items than can only be made through alchemy and are only used for alchemy. the ingredients are 2x ethereal stone, 2x sainted soma, 1x chronocrystal. ethereal stones and sainted somas can be obtained through a few means but the easiest is through further alchemy with the ingedients being available through monster drops and sparkles found in the world. chronocrystals can only be bought, there is an npc in a cave that can only be reached in the postgame the only thing he sells are chronocrystals for 50,000 gold each, the most expensive item in the game.

there are a few special treasure maps, legacy boss maps, that lead to a grotto that is only a boss floor, a boss from a previous game. we have: dragonlord, malroth, baramos, zoma, estark, psaro, nimzo, murdaw, mortamor, nokturnus, orgodemir, dhoulmagus, and rhapthorne. the first you’ll likely come across is baramos’ map lv. 1 as a quest reward. the one greygnarl drops is dragonlord’s. when you defeat a legacy boss, they will return and ask to gain experience too, if you agree the map will level up. as a legacy boss levels up, the drops will increase in chance or change entirely. be careful as some maps you can only get once unless shared from another player, you could lock yourself out from some items. the key things they drop are armour to dress up as heroes from the previous games and maps of other legacy bosses. some legacy bosses are only available from the dlc quests or dropped by other legacy bosses that are only available from the dlc quests and since the online service was discontinued in 2014 they are now almost unavailable (if you’re genuinely interested bc you missed out, shoot me an ask and i can explain that one).

then there’s the orbs. every legacy boss can drop one of six coulored orbs. as their rarest drop, this won’t change, the chance can just be increased with their level, the only exception is nokturnus who changes which orb he drops with his level. it’s the same 6 orbs that appeared as a plot device in dq3, alongside a 7th in dq8, and would go on to appear in dq11. all six orbs are thankfully available among the legacy bosses available without online services.

each of the special items can be alchemised with an agate of evolution and a certain orb to make an improved version that looks identical. e.g. 1x stardust sword + 1x agate of evolution + 1x silver orb makes a nebula sword. getting the ingredients is both expensive and time consuming BUT it goes further. 1x nebula sword + 3x agate of evolution + 3x silver orb will make a further improved and identical but still only 4 star supernova sword. most of the time. see when you try to make this further improved item, krak pot will alert you he feels an alchemiracle coming on. he will state a chance as i think 10%, 20%, or 30% which i think can be influenced but i’m afraid i don’t know the details. you are then forced to save the game with the result determined so you can’t reset and try again. if it should succeed, you will make a 5 star item, the best item of that kind in the game, a stronger palette swap of the other items. e.g. the hypernova sword.

should it fail and you want to try again, you can alchemise the failed alchemiracle item e.g. the supernova sword with a rest stone to return it to the first item e.g. the stardust sword. reset stones can be bought from the mini medal collector of dq9 once you can reached the final reward.

so here’s the procedure.

1. grind grottoes and their bosses for this stupid rare gear. 2% drop rate has nothing on shiny pokemon, sure, except you do have to go through the entire grotto again every time.

2. grind legacy bosses for orbs.

3. grind materials for agates including money for chronocrystals.

4. pray to the rng gods once more for an alchemiracle.

5. cry because you spent 100 hours on this and it didn’t work.

6. give in to cheating via rng abuse, the hoimi table’s out there still.

have fun

9, 14, 18, 46 for the oc asks (you can pick who to answer for)

sorry to get to this so late but heres some answers for Aira bc she is my fav

9. what is a virtue they wish they had?

Aira has an almost nonexistent sense of self-worth so she really just wishes she had any virtues, period

14. how important do they feel to others? in the grand scheme of things?

again she has like 0 self-worth, mostly because of the evil talking sword manipulating her almost 24/7, so she sees herself as utterly unimportant compared to almost literally anyone else. she's not a person in her mind, just another means to an end

18. what makes them consider someone a friend?

she'd say she doesnt have any friends but the truth is if she spends enough time around someone who's st least, like, moderately nice to her she'll imprint on them like a cat

46. what motivates them to keep going?

her main motivation in general is to pursue power so that she can not only kill the queen of Melior but also perform a massive feat of true resurrection and bring back everyone who was killed when her kingdom was invaded and her people were massacred

And a bonus since all those answers were kind of a giant bummer:

Aira really loves art and her secret dream way in the back of her mind where she refuses to acknowledge it is to become an artist. She used to do the drawings for her and Snowsong's homemade bestiaries when they were children.

here's a link to the list of oc asks

The entire alphabet for Oliver?

you spoil him (but also you’re right to i love him)

A) Their full name.

okay so TECHNICALLY his full name is just “olinsivver.” no surname; it’s an elven tradition and part of his heritage. but due to some forged legal documents by the elven council TM, his full name is oliver clark! no middle name, which he is extremely salty about. oliver takes great joy in innately normal and human things and a middle name is one he’s always wanted! (i might let him pick one out later in life but idk)

B) Age.

he’s the same age as the gang, so 16-19 throughout the course of the show.

C) Height.

5′11″

D) Pronouns. 

he/his

E) Species (if not human).

elf

F) Favourite beverage and/or meal.

i cannot believe i already had this answer ready but he likes peppermint mochas!

G) Hobbies and favourite pastimes.

oh he really, really likes research and cryptozoology! he’s a diehard buzzfeed unsolved fan. but he also likes taking pictures/curating his instagram feed, listening to music, and taking walks/exploring the outdoors (not hiking though, he’d rather die, there’s a distinct difference).

H) Something they’re exceptionally good at.

he’s got a great memory and he’s very intelligent

I) 2 things they really enjoy.

hanging out with his pack and reading weird wikipedia articles at 3 am

J) 2 things they’re not really fond of.

doing homework and sitting by himself at home

K) 1 of their pet peeves.

hypocrisy or disloyalty, kind of a blurred line between the two there

L) Their favourite kind of weather.

i think he likes the sun, but a cool sunny day. like early spring!!

M) A few interesting facts about them.

ooh hm... he doesn’t know who his dad is, he used to climb trees a lot as a kid, he loves one direction/harry styles specifically, he loves museums, he always wears his hat to cover his ears, and besides lydia his best friends are murphy and imogen (@oc-daydreams)!

N) Favourite movie or music genre.

pop music for sure, but as for movies... honestly any “bad” movie. he and isaac have watched shrek 2 like 30 million times.

O) What’s their dream profession? 

honestly, trophy husband. but what he actually ends up doing right now is up in the air; i think maybe something to have to do with travel bc he and isaac end up going back and forth between beacon hills and paris a lot

P) Is there something or someone they cannot stand? Why?  

i mean... right now he’s pretty pissed at allison (for already explained reasons) but it’s not like he can’t stand her. they have a very complex relationship. he cannot stand peter hale or kate argent. (peter hale, especially, can eat shit)

Q) Did they do something extremely dangerous at some point in their life?

all the time. constantly. he’s never not doing something dangerous that dum-dum. especially bc he only has defensive as opposed to offensive powers.

R) Is there something they wish they could do/achieve but can’t? 

again, being a trophy husband nflklkwnrklfn BUT also having siblings/a sense of family,,,,, yeah.

S)  Is there something in their life they regret? 

he sometimes wonders what would have happened if he had stayed and taken on the mantle of elven royalty. but he doesn’t necessarily regret that. he might regret not spending more time with lydia in season two though.

T)  Do they have any siblings? Family? Loved ones?   

no siblings, which he desperately craved/craves. his only family is his mom, elaina, who is... not his favorite person, to say the least. as for loved ones, his pack!

U)  Are they a morning or night person?

night person!!

V) Do they have a pet? What kind? If not, what kind of pet would they want?

okay so not in canon technically but when he and isaac move to france they pick up a stray who they name mothman

W) How would they describe themselves in 5 or less words? 

‘smart ass, great ass, iconic.’

X) Do they have a goal in life? What is it? 

his goal is to enjoy life. literally that’s it. his goal is to have fun! and he’s having it!

Y) Is there anything in their life that’s stopping them from succeeding?

you mean besides the death and destruction and responsibility weighing down on him,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Z) Do they have an item that means a lot to them?

besides his hat that he literally never goes anywhere without? isaac won him a stuffed animal at a fair! he loves that stupid thing. he’s not really sure what animal it is but it’s his favorite. he’s also partial to his notes/bestiary.

send me alphabet asks!

I want to do more spirit work and also maybe work w the fae but i’m busy w working now and when im not working, im tired bc I think im sick, but im feeling so motivated and inspired to do a bunch of spirit work and adding to my bestiary but I've got nothing to add!! I want to do research on spirits by means of interacting w them!!! im restless basically lmao