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naddpod-encounter-tourney · 4 months

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Option 1:

Enemy: High King Durretar, Ancient Blue Dragon of the Sapphire Scale

Episode: C3 E27: King of Dragons

Time: 48:48-2:11:35 (battle stops at 2:03:55 but initiative ends at the later time)

Finish: Princess Shiverblight

Notes: On 3, regicide! The level 8 party decides to fight an ancient dragon on their own when only one of them manages to long rest beforehand. The mechanics of this encounter include dragon riding and are so goddam cool. It's also incredibly visual and one of Murph's best uses of lair actions to date.

Propaganda: (anonymous) CMON ITS KING OF DRAGONS. SO SICK. genuinely from the bottom of my heart the most exciting, interesting, and cool encounter I've ever seen. Rad as hell both mechanically and plot wise. SHIVERBLIGHT SWEEP!!

MY SUPERBOWL OF DND FIGHTS!!!!! TRULY SO ICONIC AND FUN!!!! COMBAT OF ALL TIME

I mean, come on! It was a giant fucking sky battle on the backs of dragons, unbelievably cinematic, lots of close calls, princess shiver blight, nothing comes fucking close!

Princess Shiverblight MVP

you know.

it's just so sick and scary

Option 2:

Enemy: Lord Ultrus and the Order of the Runny Eye

Episode: C3 E44: Trial by Steel and C3 E45: Lord Ultrus

Time: 1:04:08 (44) - 1:42:08 (45)

Finish: Hardwon (traps Ultrus in the Kingshammer)

Notes: Hardwon starts the battle with a Battlemaster ability. Jaina and Calder finally get involved in a fight (from inside the helm!!). Callie joins them inside the helm, and Ultrus and the cultists keep swapping who is inside the helm and who is outside the helm. Hardwon has a real Hardwon moment of standing alone, facing down a god (or a giant who made a deal with a god and has the powers of a god, who was responsible for the death of his best friend). Sol does some shenanigans and kind of keeps missing but is also impossible to hit. Kenna keeps saving lives. I cannot actually describe in words the moment where Hardwon regains the Kingshammer, casts Spirit Guardians, and an army joins them, as we get to finally see Cobb's final moments and the memory that was stored in the hammer. Jake is playing 2 PCs wonderfully. Also: "Hardwon! Catch!"

Propaganda: (anonymous) Not only is the battlefield dynamic and engaging (having Ultrus and his cronies switching between battlefields, making it effectively two battles at once) it also has narrative emotional stakes and big character moments (Old Cobb’s last words to Hardwon).

(also this post)

The concurrent battles in the material plane and in the demiplane, Ultrus's ability to switch between the two so everyone got to fight both him and the warlock goons, the extra abilities stolen from the trapped prisoners, the mechanics for breaking out of the helm, HARDWON AND JAINA AND THE DWARF DADDIES

god i know so many people will add this one but i love it so much. the way they jump back and forth between the Trial by Steel and the fight inside the helm is SO GOOD. i still have goosebumps from Jaina throwing the queenshammer through the barrier and Hardwon catching it. also the stakes were SO HIGH it was FANTASTIC. 10/10 combat

HUGE!!!! ITS HUGE!!!!! omg where to even start with this. the rolls alone feels INSANE AGSHAJDJSKD. JAINA AND CALDER. THE MOMENT WITH THE KINGSHAMMER. CALDER SUCCESSFULLY TACKLING ULTRUS. HARDWON GETTING A 30 TO PUT HIM IN THE HAMMER. THE SPIRIT GUARDIANS???????? I CRIED

truly the epitome of murph encounters! two different battles waging at the same time, with different combat styles (one big enemy vs lots of weaker baddies) in different planes, that then switch so everyone gets to fight in every situation. great group of PCs and NPCs that make excellent choices (shoutout to jake for playing two characters at once!), tons of emotional beats, and a very satisfying narrative closure to the arc. gotta love it

#sorry for using all the propaganda I got for these it just feels more fun #naddpod #not another dnd podcast #ba2mia #naddpod encounter tournament #finals

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dwarvenbash · 3 months

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First post on this blog, so I've gotta start out with my absolute favorite miniatures: the humble Warhammer Dwarf!

These are some very basic kitbashes of some Dwarf Warriors, Longbeards, and uh, more Warriors respectively. Mostly simply weapon swaps but still very satisfying to do to add a little unique flavor. Almost all of my Dwarfs are second-hand rescues, so forgive me for the somewhat shoddy paint stripping job; a man only has so much patience scrubbing tiny beards over the sink with a toothbrush!

I've somewhat arbitrarily decided to lump in little editorials with regular posts on this blog, but to spare you all I will mercifully put these under a "read more" cut. If you are interested in some extra background or aimless babbling, though, read on!

For this first editorial, however, since there is very little actual process involved in making these guys, I'll give a little background for the unit they are a part of (and some justification for my own personal stinginess).

According to the 6th edition Dwarf army book, the first Dwarf Hammerers were craftsmen who rose up to defend their king, their tools of the trade becoming the signature weapons of this iconic Warhammer unit. Similarly, I'd like to imagine the more humble Dwarf warrior is often drawn from a craftsman guild, and is rarely a career soldier but a normal Dwarf pressed into service by necessity or oath.

So, when planning out what I wanted my Dwarf army to look like, I made the next logical step and decided that I wanted a big brick of these "craftsman" Dwarfs that could represent both standard Dwarf Warriors and the more elite (and expensive) Hammerers. I'll delve into the background of my personal Dwarf Hold later, but I don't see why some fringe Karaks might not still remember the source of the Hammerer tradition and adhere to it more literally than others. Plus the idea of a Dwarf King entrusting his life to the working class of his kingdom is a much cooler image to me than your standard fancy-shmancy haughty gold elite kingsguard.

So in practice, this meant all the standard Dwarf Warriors I had (very afforadably, I might add) picked up from the old Battle for Skull Pass set every Dwarf player and their mother owned would need a weapon swap from axes to some variety of hammer, which you can see in the third picture above. I then sprinkled in a few Dwarf artillery crew models into the unit equipped with some greathammers to sell the "working-dwarf" feel a bit more, since these guys usually have cool craftsdwarflike details incorporated into their sculpts like hand tools and aprons, which you can see in the first picture above!

Next time, I'll go more into the longbeards in the second picture up there, so expect a lot more nostalgia-fueled complaining, which I'm sure the old grumblers would approve of.

Until then, thanks for reading! Excited to finally have started this blog up, here's hoping it'll be both a good outlet and a good motivator for all kinds of hobbying.

#setting up a coherent tagging system is going to be the hardest part of running this thing #hmm for now lets just keep it simple #warhammer #warhammer fantasy #dwarf #fantasy #kitbash #ok maybe thats not exactly simple

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everythingboutbooks · 8 months

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Call Me By Your Name - André Aciman

the reason why elio and oliver call each other by their own names:

the whole "call me by your name and i'll call you by mine" thing is something that i don't really see people discuss a lot online, which is pretty unfortunate because it holds great meaning.

i thought about this a lot, but wasn't really able to find an answer myself. while researching i came upon an explanation by alissa wilkinson published in an article in the vox (source: https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2017/11/21/16552862/call-me-by-your-name-review-timothee-chalamet-armie-hammer).

before going into that we have to recall the importance of "old arts" for the story.

arts from ancient greece and rome, as well as old literature and music are frequent in the story. oliver is an archeologist, elio reads old books and transcribes music from composers like bach and listz. the tale of the knight and the princess with the iconic line "is it better to speak or to die?" is also fairly old.

calling each other by their own names is yet another reference to old art, this time specifically to greek mythology, as wilkinson explains.

she refers back to the myth of how zeus created people. here's a quick summary of that myth:

in the beginning zeus created people with four arms and four legs, as well as two faces. he feared that the humans might be too powerful, so he used lightning to split them all in half (hence why we only have two arms and legs and one face now). those 'half-people' were damned to search for their other missing half all their lives. without them, they felt lost, empty, hopeless. once they'd find each other, they'd feel whole again and would be able to live in love with each other forever.

in a way, this is the ancient greek concept of soulmates.

now, apply this concept to elio and oliver:

when elio meets oliver, he ultimately finds his other half. not just metaphorically, but literally. taking the greek myth into consideration, oliver would literally be the other half of elio that was split off him by zeus (and of course the other way around as well). when they come together again they become whole. in a way, elio becomes part of oliver and oliver becomes part of elio. they are themselves individually, but they are also each other.

in the book it is frequently more prominent how much elio wishes to become part of oliver, becoming one, even. it's not necessarily meant in relation to sex. so rather than becoming one through the closeness of sexual intimacy, elio primarily wishes to become one person with oliver. in relation to the myth, this describes elio's thrive to come together with his other half again.

in conclusion, aciman literally wrote elio and oliver to be soulmates, which may explain why aciman still, despite all the heartbreak and damage, chooses to give them a happy ending in the sequel novel Find Me.

i honestly find this reference extremely fascinating. being able to create reference like that gives the novel so much depth and meaning, and it also a highly valuable skill to be able to connect different devices this way. once again aciman proves how much of an incredibly writer he really is.

#call me by your name #cmbyn #book analysis #movie analysis #cmbyn analysis #elio perlman #oliver cmbyn #greek mythology #ancient origins #literature

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violent-backed-starling · 10 months

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Critical Role Double Life AU

So this would be the player characters and Essek in the world of Double Life (Minecraft Series)

The Pairings (randomized)

Beau & Tary - Daddy Issues

Veth & Ashton - Alcoholics

Fearne & Pike - Hot Girl Shit

Essek & Jester - Everyone has a Crush on Them

Grog & Caleb - Brains and Brawn

Fjord & Dorian - Shy Charisma Boys

FCG & Bertrand - Old Ass Man & Older Ass Robot

Laudna & Mollymauk - Back from the Dead

Vax & Imogen - Loves a Marisha

Percy & Yasha - Oh, So you have White Hair and Trauma?

Scanlan & Caduceus - All or Nothing

Vex & Orym - Keepers of the Brain Cell

Chetney & Keyleth - Animorphs

So same rules as double life, each couple has 3 lives and they share hp, last pair standing wins!

Beau and Tary take a minute to get along, but eventually they work together okay after bonding over their shitty dads. They spend quite a bit of time with Percy and Yasha. I think they would set up a thoroughly trapped base. I think they build a mansion and winery for their base and make a load of potions. They have an enchanting table for sure. Beau is very much the up close and personal fighter whereas Tary is a little more distant. He sends tnt minecarts and squishes people with anvils.

Veth and Ashton are both suspicious of each other at first, but they still get shit done. They get on better as they spend more time, realizing that at least the other won't stab them in the back. They make a bunker for a base, and stock it with booze, bolts, and fireworks. Veth traps the shit out of it. They are a terrifying combo in battle with Ashton up front and center taking hits and destroying people with his hammer and Veth picking off people from a distance with her crossbow. Veth does still spend a bit of time with Caleb on the side though.

Fearne and Pike get on fairly easily. They are both iconic and get shit done. Fearne loves to spy on everyone else and comes home with drama. She is also an arsonist and we love that for her. Pikey is more restrained in her chaos, but she is still out there causing problems. She sets off more traps than she would like to admit, but miraculously survives most of them. She is a bit better in combat than Fearne is but, they are both very good at surviving fights, even if they don't get the most kills. I think they build up a bakery and hide a bunker underneath it. They also just have several lava traps and fire pits around their home to defend it.

Essek and Jester already know each other and get on well. Together they build a beautiful tower, like the one in Tangled. It has several secret entrances and passageways. Jester seems like the type of person to have an army of tamed wolves. So she absolutely does, they all have special collars and are all named. They are both distance fighters as well so their towers works well to keep them out of harms way whilst they shoot arrows and throw fire charges as well as splash potions. Essek is a fancy lad and I fully believe that he has loads on end crystals and obsidian that he uses as his main weapon. Jester somehow got her hands on a trident (she stole it) and is wreaking havoc with that from the tower. Jester also keeps several bees just because she wants to.

Grog and Caleb get on okay at first, Grog is pretty friendly for the most part, but Caleb is wary of him. I think their base is a tower, but this tower has a bunker at the bottom that serves as a quick restock point for Grog since he is out on the battlefield with his axe wrecking shit. Caleb stays up in the tower mostly, shooting his fire charges, flame arrows, and pouring lava down the sides on the tower. Grog is very excited about all the traps that Caleb cooks up and happily uses his supply of end crystals whenever he can. They work well together.

Fjord and Dorian get on well, but is takes a minute for them to actually trust each other. Their base is a ship sat in the sky floating on clouds. These two are quite versatile in battle. They are good at both ranged and close combat. Fjord has several puffer-fish that he uses in close combat as well as his sword. Dorian uses his axe when in close combat. When at a distance they use their tridents and arrows. Fjord can be impulsive at times, but overall these two are some of the more peaceful members on the group. They don't have many traps set up, but they do have several alliances. They are allied with Beau, Tary, Essek, Jester, Orym, Vex, Caduceus, and Scanlan.

FCG and Bertrand get on alright, not the closest, but they do alright together. They do have the most accessible base out of everyone. It isn't trapped at all, but they are mostly left alone, well, their base is. Bertrand is a tricksy guy and manages to rile up many of the other folks. They don't dislike him, but they don't trust him either. FCG on the other hand is pretty well-liked and trusted. They are not the best in combat, but they seem to come out of it alive. Bertrand does know his way around a sword and FCG has an affinity for his crossbow.

Laudna and Mollymauk get on like a house on fire. They have the cutest home on the server. It is a cottage with a patchwork tent attached to the side. It is cozy and colorful. They have matching friendship bracelets that they made for each other and everything. They of course spend time with Imogen and Vax as well as Yasha and Percy. They spend quite a bit of time together as they wander the land together. If you spot one the other is likely somewhere nearby. As they get closer they swap stories about walking up from death. Molly is their close combat expert whereas Laudna is their sniper. Molly goes around with his swords and Laudna shoots from from far away with a bow.

Vax and Imogen are wary of each other at first, but eventually get on pretty well by the end. They share a house atop a hill where they have a pretty good view of several other people. Imogen has a stable of horses as well. They often ride into battle together, striking fast and retreating before people know what hit them. They often visit Vex and Orym, Keyleth and Chetney, as well as Laudna and Molly. Imogen is more of a distance fighter, but Vax is good either close up or at a distance.

Percy and Yasha eventually grow to trust each other but it starts out a bit rocky as they are both quiet around people they don't know or trust at first. They have a nice castle. Yasha has a beautiful garden and Percy has trapped the land around the castle thoroughly and has made several escape passages. He is already paranoid enough coming into this. Together they build makeshift graves to those they have lost after spending a lot of time together. Percy also makes a load of snipers perches around the map. Yasha goes with him and hides little caches of stuff by each hidden perch so that they are always ready for a fight wherever they are. She also stashes some food in his perches so that he doesn't run out of food. He often helps sharpen her blade and makes her a bunch of little things to help in battle.

Scanlan and Caduceus get on well enough. They respect each other. Caduceus is pretty calm and lives in a small cabin by Scanlan's mansion. Cad keeps a small mushroom garden and makes a load of potions that he shares with most anyone. They don't have any true enemies as they are just kind of vibing. There is usually music playing at their base. Scanlan gets a load of fire charges and end crystals from people just by asking. This man has a silver tongue and he knows how to use it. They don't have many traps, but the ones they have are weird and effective. They have several animals just roaming around their base. Scanlan is ruthless once the get into battle and so is Caduceus, after all, death and violence are very much parts of nature. They are oddly terrifying because of how fast they switch from being welcoming to just killing.

Vex and Orym get on pretty well. They work together extraordinarily well together. They make plans and stick to them. They are another ranged and close combat duo. They share a regular keep, nothing super fancy but it is nice and functional. They have several traps as is to be expected. They know what they're doing. They are good at using terrain to their advantage. Vex perches with her bow and Orym slips through battles causing damage as needed and catching hits on his shield. Vex keeps a few potions on her at all times just in case. They are prepared but not overly so and adapt as needed. Orym respects Vex and she is just happy to have someone who will actually follow the plans she makes, but will make ideas on the fly by himself as needed. They compliment each other, especially in battle.

Keyleth and Chetney take a minute to warm up but they get there, eventually. They have a base that is a huge oak and their basement is a hollow surrounded by roots. They are a bit worried about how flammable their base is as the days pass, but they store most of their better stuff under the earth anyways. They are an absolutely terrifying combo in combat. Chetney is always a wild card and an absolute menace, whereas Keyleth is terrryfying in her raw power and switch from being her more socially awkward, charming self, into a lean, mean, killing machine. These two often talk about their lengthened life spans what that means for Keyleth on top of Chetney's experiences. He gives her a bit of confidence she didn't have before and his rough edges have been softened a bit. They trust each other in battle completely. Sure Chetney will spy on people, dig tunnels under others bases, and steal from people, but he is her ally and they work well together.

Randomized Death Order

Vex & Orym

FCG & Bertrand

Percy & Yasha

Essek & Jester

Grog & Caleb

Fearne & Pike

Grog & Caleb

Fjord & Dorian

Essek & Jester

Chetney & Keyleth

Beau & Tary

Vax & Imogen

Fjord & Dorian

FCG & Bertrand

Laudna & Mollymauk

Grog & Caleb

Vax & Imogen

Scanlan & Caduceus

Fearne & Pike

Scanlan & Caduceus

Laudna & Mollymauk

Chetney & Keyleth

Veth & Ashton

Vex & Orym

Chetney & Keyleth

Laudna & Mollymauk

Scanlan & Caduceus

Vax & Imogen

Fjord & Dorian

Beau & Tary

Veth & Ashton

Percy & Yasha

Essek & Jester

Fearne & Pike

FCG & Bertrand

Vex & Orym

Percy & Yasha

Veth & Ashton

Beau & Tary - Winners!

#critical role #double life au #campaign 1 #campaign 2 #campaign 3 #vox machina #mighty nein #bell's hells #icarus speaks

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wargamers-retreat · 7 months

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Something new and hyper elite

++ Army Roster (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [2,000pts] ++

+ Configuration +

Battle Size: 2. Strike Force (2000 Point limit)

Detachment Choice: Slaves to Darkness

+ Character +

Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour [115pts]: Combi-weapon, Khorne, Power fist, Talisman of Burning Blood, Warlord

Master of Possession [80pts]: Slaanesh

Warpsmith [70pts]: Chaos Undivided, Warp hammer

+ Battleline +

Legionaries [90pts]: Chaos icon, Tzeentch

. Aspiring Champion: Astartes chainsword, Bolt pistol

. 3x Legionary w/ boltgun: 3x Bolt pistol, 3x Boltgun, 3x Close combat weapon

. Legionary w/ other weapon: Missile launcher

+ Infantry +

Chaos Terminator Squad [390pts]: Khorne

. 2x Chainfist and combi-weapon: 2x Chainfist, 2x Combi-weapon

. Heavy weapon: Heavy flamer, Power fist

. Heavy weapon: Power fist, Reaper autocannon

. 2x Paired accursed weapons: 2x Paired accursed weapons

. 4x Power fist and combi-weapon: 4x Combi-weapon, 4x Power fist

Havocs [135pts]: Nurgle

. Havoc Champion: Astartes chainsword, Flamer

. Havoc w/ heavy bolter

. 2x Havoc w/ lascannon: 2x Havoc lascannon

. Havoc w/ reaper chaincannon

Obliterators [170pts]: Nurgle

. 2x Obliterator: 2x Crushing fists, 2x Fleshmetal guns

Possessed [140pts]: Chaos icon, Slaanesh

. 5x Possessed: 5x Hideous mutations

+ Vehicle +

Chaos Land Raider [240pts]: Combi-weapon, Havoc launcher, Nurgle

Chaos Vindicator [190pts]: Combi-weapon, Havoc launcher, Nurgle

++ Total: [2,000pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

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witchesoz · 1 year

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The Nome King: Ozma of Oz

Many people think of the Wicked Witch of the West as the iconic villain of the Oz franchise. Except that... in the books, she is not. She is merely the villain of the first book of the series, and there are many others that are as important as her: of course the other witches of Oz (Wicked Witch of the East, Mombi, Wicked Witch of the South, Blinkie), but also the Yoop couple, Ugu the Shoemaker, the Su-Dic and Coo-ee-oh... However the most major of those villains was without a doubt the recurring enemy of Oz: the Nome King, the true "big bad" of the Oz novel franchise.

The Nome King's first apparition is in the novel "Ozma of Oz", the third book of the series. After two entire novels set in Oz, Baum wanted to explore a bit outside the country, and so introduced to us Ev, a country beyond the Deadly Desert. (In this precise book, Ev is located beyond the Munchkin part of the Desert).

Dorothy is the first to arrive in Ev and to hear about its relationship with the Nome King: indeed the previous king of Ev, named Evoldo, was a cruel and wicked man. In a fit of anger, he sold his wife and his ten children to the Nome King as slaves. However he later regretted this action - but the Nome King would not set the family free, a deal being deal, and the king killed himself by jumping in the sea and drowning. Thus the country was left with no ruler and in a state of chaos (of which the Wheelers and Princess Langwidere are but two symptoms). Later, Ozma and the Oz army arrives to Ev but they recount a different story: indeed, Ozma heard that the wicked Nome King had enslaved the royal family, with no mention of King Evoldo, and so had decided to save the kingdom of Ev from the Nome King's threat.

As it turns out, Dorothy's version is the correct one - in fact, the local inhabitants of Ev claim that there is nothing wrong or wicked in the Nome King's behavior, Tik-Tok even calling him "honest and good natured". Langwidere even reveals that the Nome King made a bargain with Evoldo - offering him a long life in exchange of his family. Ozma still decides to go ask the Nome King to release the royal family, mentionning that Evoldo did not had a long life since he killed himself - making the bargain null and void - and that anyway, keeping slaves is wrong and something Oz stands against. (It is true that both wicked witches were renowned for "enslaving" their people, and Mombi also had kept Tip as a sort of slave, so there's a solid ground for this). [And yes this is also a strong political message for the United-States at this time]

However, it is also mentionned that the Nome King is a "powerful" ruler and that no one in Ev would dare go against him, because they know he is much too strong - Ozma's attempt is seen as a folly.

The palace

The Nome King's underground palace is actually located in, or rather under, the Ev territory - hence why the Nome King has a strong connection to Ev. North-end of Ev, there is a valley between two great mountains - a valley closed up by a third, enormous mountain. The King's palace is under this third mountain. The entrance of the palace (which can only be opened in the rocks by the Nome King's magic) is kept by the Iron Giant, a mechanical construct that pounds the way to the mountain with a hammer, with the regularity of a clock. In fact, it is a clockwork machine, built by Smith and Tinker (the makers of Tik-Tok) per request/command of the Nome King (we do not know how or when they did it, but they built the Iron Giant for the King - he is the one who owns the key that controls the mechanism). And once the Iron Giant was passed (if you did not get crushed by his hammer) you have to get the Nome King to open the door - not by commanding, since he won't obey any of the "surface-dwellers", and not by request, but by pleading. Because the Nome King loves begging.

The palace is a splendid thing, lighted by lamps and decorated with numerous jewels in the walls. The throne room of the Nome King is a domed cavern, with at the center a rugged throne carved out of a boulder, and despite its rough appearance covered in emeralds, rubies and diamonds.

The palace in itself seems to have no door - all the entries and exits are shaped or created by the Nome King's magic. However it has balconies - from which the Nome King can admire the "Underground World" over which he rules.

The throne room is said to be filled with beautiful and wealthy furniture, but it is nothing compared to the Nome King's personal collection. It is located in a set of rooms adjacent to the throne room, great arched halls made of several types of marble, with thick velvet carpets and heavy silken draperies, and furniture made of rare old wood "richly carved", covered in delicate satins. This part of the palace is lighted by a "mysterious rosy glow" that comes from nowhere in particular but makes "each apartment" soft and pleasing. And this is where the King keeps his huge collection of ornaments: on the shelves and brackets, on the tables and mantels, all sorts of vase, figures of men and animals, graven platters and bowls, mosaics, pictures, made of gems, of metal, of glass, of china, of stone or of marble. It is said to look like a museum collecting all sorts of "rare, curious and costly objects".

The Nomes

It should be pointed out that the Nomes and the Nome King are pretty famous - not just in Ev, where apparently everyone knows them, but also in Oz, because Ozma knew everything (or almost) about them.

The Nomes are said to be " sprites" or "rock-fairies", living in the "Underground World". They are "queerly shaped" but "powerful". The Nomes spend their time working in furnaces and forges for their king, making gold, silver, metals, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. They then hide these riches under the ground, in the rocks and in other underground places difficult to reach - indeed all those materials are considered treasures of the king and should not be touched by anyone else. In fact, this is why the Nome King is not "fond" of those living on the surface on the earth - he believes them to "steal" his treasures, and thus refuses to appear at the surface of the Earth. If you want something from him, you'll need to go to him.

The Nomes usually do not harm humans unless their king orders them to, but they visibly like to mock humans - some are at the door of the mountain, laughing at the Ozites envoyee as they fail to open the entrance. These nomes at the door are described as moving shadows at the surface of the rock, clinging to it like flies to a window, strange forms gliding "up and down the cliff" in an irregular and confusing way, never still, the color of the rock and with shapes "rough and rugged" as if they were pieces of the mountain coming out of the surface, and with a "weird and disheartening" laugh.

Later, the Nome King shows to Ozma more of his kingdom, to prove to her that she will not be able to best him or conquer him. From the balcony of his palace, you can see the "Underground World", which is an extremly vast cavern (miles and miles under the mountain), filled with forges and furnaces where the Nomes work constantly to create and shape metals and jewels. The walls of the cave are covered in thousands of doors made of silver and gold - and when the Nome King "utters a shrill whistle", the gold and silver doors open to reveal the Nome army, so big that just a fragment of it fills the already enormous cave . Like all the other Nomes in the cavern, they are described as "squat, fat and the color of the rock" - and their army outfit consist of a polished steel armor, inlaid with gems, sharp spears and swords and battle-axes of bronze as weapons, and more surprisingly, "electric lights" on their brows (yes, the Nomes apparently mastered electricity). The army is noted to be highly trained soldiers, perfectly organized and undyingly loyal to their king. In fact, the Nome King explains that a reason why the surface-rulers never attacked him is because his army is too powerful to oppose.

The Nome food is based on the earth - for example their coffee is made out of clay (apparently they take the clay, richly flavored, they brown it in their furnaces, then ground it fine, before turning it into a beverage. They also have cakes, though it is unknown with what they are made. Interestingly, the Nome food is edible by humans - Dorothy quite enjoys the clay coffee and Nome cakes, and does not suffer any side-effect or illness.

The Nomes need to sleep, even if there is no day or night in their kingdom - in fact, they still keep track of time (the King knowing that it is nearly midnight, despite there being no sun underground).

You can note that no female Nome is ever seen.

There is only one other individual Nome we meet outside of the King, and it is the Chief Steward of the Nome King. He is said to look like all the other Nomes, the only difference being that he wears a "heavy gold chain" around his neck and has an "air of much importance". The Steward acts as a counterpart to the King - he seems to be his personal servant (bringing him food) and advisor (giving him counsel). He is the one who reminds the King to be tempered (for example reminding him to not eat too much cake, else he will be ill), and does notfear to openly question or criticize the decisions of his king when they seem too foolish - he does not fear the King's wrath, because he "likes to say the truth". To the point that he directly says that he would make a better and wiser king - to Roquat's face!

The Nome King

The Nome King's name is here said to be Roquat of the Rocks.

He is the ruler of the "Ungergroudn World", which means he gives order, commands and owns the rocks and everything under the Earth. Or at least he says so. Later, Baum hshows us numerous other underground realms and kingdoms that visibly do not belong or obey in any way the Nome King. And him claiming all riches of the Earth belongs to him might simply be a lie part of his greed - though visibly the Nomes do produce all gems and metals of Earth.

The Nome King physical appearance is the one of a man both small and fat, with a skin the color of "rock" (a gray-brown color according to the narration). is bushy hair and flowing beard are of the same color, and so are his garnments. When he first appears, he is described as kind and good-humored, with merry eyes, a jolly face, a pleasant voice and a belly "shaking like jelly" when he laughs. In fact, Dorothy says that the Nome King looks like "Santa Claus", only with the color wrongs. We know that the skin color of the Nome King can change with his emotions - his face grows red with laughing too much and with rage ; and later white with fear. The Nome King has an habit of smoking a pipe, which he usually lits with red-hot coals he keeps in his pocket.

The Nome King first appears as a kind, gentle, understanding entity. He welcomes the Ozite envoyees, he laughs and jokes with them, he listens to their request and he proves them that he owned slaves fair and square - he did gave Evoldo a long life, but the king chose to waste it away with suicide. The King goes as far as to offer the Ozites to free the slaves themselves - but here comes another part of his behavior. His love for games and fun. The saving of the Ev royal family is a dangerous game of guessing.

You see, the Nome King says that he does not want to be cruel towards his slave. So, to keep them and use them without being cruel, he turns them into ornaments and trinkets to add to his "bric-a-brac" collection. The Nome King is obsessed with his ornaments collection. He offers the Ozite a guessing game - if they cannot guess which objects are the transformed Ev royal family, then they lose and turn into ornaments themselves. But if they guess right, they can leave with whoever they found, returned to their normal shape.

It is not a fair game however, because the King is greedy and does not want his precious ornaments or slaves taken away. In fact, he hopes that all the Ozites will be turned into ornaments themselves. The Steward wonders, if this was his intention, why did he not just turned them all at once into trinkets, to be done with it. To which the King answers that he wants to be amused and have fun - and indeed, every time an Ozite fails he bursts out laughing.

Because, as you realized by now, his jolly appearance as mostly a facade, a trick. Deep down, the Nome King is not kind at all. In fact, when Billina saves all the Ozites and Ev prisoners of the King, he is so enraged his face becomes frightening, distorted by rage until it becomes nightmarish. [He also shouts some Nome insults/swear words, which by rank of importance are: Rocketty-rickets! / Smudge and blazes! / Hippikaloric!] Hopping up and down like a mad jumping jack, he promises to punish the Ozites by throwing them in his dungeons, "where volcanic fires glow and molten lava flows, and the air is hot enough to burn people's flesh". He even plays around the terms of his agreements: yes, he did promise the Ozites they could leave his palace. He said nothing about them leaving his dominions.

The magic belt

It is mentionned, when the Nome King appears, that he does not wear a crown but rather a belt - broad and jewel-studded. It opens and closes in the back. At first it is implied to merely be the Nomes' equivalent of a crown, a symbol of royalty.

However it is later revealed that this belt is "the magic belt" and the source of the Nome King's magical powers. Without it, the King is as weak and powerless as a regular Nome, and whoever wears the belt inherits of all its powers. They include:

# Transformation: It is thanks to the Belt that the Nome King could transform his slaves into ornaments. He also threatens to turn his victims into scorpions. And later Dorothy uses to belt to undo the King's transformations, and turn other Nomes into eggs.

# Passageways: The Nome King (and later Dorothy) use the belt to open and close doors in the rock of the mountain/palace.

# Protection: The Lion tries to attack the Nome King, but he cannot get close to him - every time he jumps, he doesn't move forward, stays on the same spot. The same way, the Nome King mentions he can enchant the jaws of the wild animals to prevent them from biting. The Belt also stops the Iron Giant to let the Ozites pass underneath.

The belt, despite its grand abilities, has limits. Though in future books these limits would be forgotten, retconned or reinvented - as the magic belt itself would become all-too forgotten or on the contrary a deus ex machina.

The book presents us two limitations of the belt:

# The transformations of the belt are limited. While the Nome King is the one that causes the transformations, he does not seem responsible for the specific details of them - ending up surprised at the shape of the ornaments. It is also quite interesting to see that for most of the novel the belt is on an "automatic" mode to so speak - the transformations or un-transformations into ornaments are done without the Nome King doing anything. He set the rules of the game, and the belt goes by it. In fact, when the Nome King wants to turn the ozites into a specific creature (scorpios) he needs to wave his hands and pronounce magic words.

The transformations are also bound by thematic rule: for example, the royal family of Ev are turned into purple-colored ornaments, while the Ozites are turned into emerald-colored objects. It is unknown if this was done on purpose by the Nome King or is something he could not control.

# The magic belt cannot work on wood. This is something that is a small plot point in this novel but is then forgotten in later works. The Nome King for example cannot put any spell or enchantment over the Sawhorse because it is made entirely of wood.

# The belt only works in "fairy countries". This is explained by Glinda at the end of the novel: the Magic Belt (and presumably all other magic items) only have powers when in a "fairy country", such as Oz or Ev. But it would lose all powers in a non-fairy country, such as Australia or the United-States. Or more precisely... You see, Dorothy wants to tie the belt around her waist to go back to Australia, but Glinda mentions that such an action would cause the belt to be lost forever - since it would not be on Dorothy anymore when she arrives to Australia. It would disappear "like the silver shoes" did when Dorothy returned to Kansas, and be lost forever, "the magic destroyed".

The eggs

The Nomes in this novel have only one weakness (outside of the magic belt). Eggs.

Nomes are terrified of eggs - their sight is enough to plunge the perfectly organized Nome army into a frenzied chaos. According to the Nome King, it is because "eggs belong only to the outside world, to the world on the earth's surface". As a result, in the Underground World, eggs are considered poison, and is the only (or at least one of the only) things the Nomes fear.

However, the exact rationality and truth behind this fear has been questionned. Indeed, the Nomes do not know anything about eggs - for example they didn't know that chicken could lay eggs. And, despite being thrown two eggs in the face, the Nome King does not die or is not poisoned, he merely screams around and is scared for his life - afterward you could say maybe the eggs are poison to ingest, just like in the movie adaptation, but at least we know they are not toxic to the touch, or "contact poisons".

- - - - -

The magic belt is, as I explained above, one of the big... disension points in the Oz fandom. The magic belt is really badly handled by Baum - not only by removing its limitations did it became a deus ex machina solving all the problems of Oz, but on top of that Baum forgot it existed half of the time resulting in the reader asking why in such dire situations would Ozma not use this deus ex machina? As for the Nome King's behavior you actually have a perfect example of how fairies and the "fair folk" used to be perceived in the old days, before the Victorian times. Making deals, manipulating words and terms in bargains to scam and trick people. Greedy, obsessive and selfish. With a wild, mercurial temper. Great magical powers for a great rage and a great ego. Many interpreted the Nome King as an embodiment of extreme and tyranical capitalism - a greedy power trying to own everything, forcing its people to work day and night, obsessed with rocks, metals, gems and other materials, relying on bargains and making slaves... The fact the Nomes are terrified of eggs is also strongly symbolic. Egg is a life, the life of flesh and blood, not of the rock and metal such as the Nomes, and egg is also a distinctively female and motherly symbol - opposing an all-male Nome universe.

#what we know of oz #the nome king #nomes #land of oz #magic belt #land of ev #ozma of oz

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