no fucking way

the clothes in the ixamitl plains, where freja is from are SO CLOSE to maltese traditional clothes um

big win for nullster

1, 5 & 8 for the watcher asks :3c <3

1. what is your watcher's class? how does it relate to their backstory?

freja is a barbarian, specifically a corpse eater (aka.. cannibal). coming from the ixamitl plains & their culture being one of the oldest in the world it is fitting they are one, as (to me) being a barbarian is the rawest and most ancient form of fighting. they became a cannibal due to the events at the beginning of poe2. with eothas risen again it was overcome with guilt because they abandoned him in the saints war (fought alongside him) as it deserted when things started looking grim and was sure that eothas was out to get it, even tho he is quite literally the god of forgiveness. so in order to gain favour still with berath, they started consuming the flesh of their fallen in order not to waste their meat (along with their soul), basically perpetuating its own fucked up version of the wheel.

5. what is your favorite party composition in poe and/or poe2?

for poe it's freja, aloth, eder, pallegina sagani/devil of caroc, durance

for poe2 it's freja, pallegina, aloth, eder, xoti (+ maia bc i have the mod for 6 people)

8. what is the nature of your watcher's awakening?

quite accepting. they always thought it was the gods lapdog due to it being a god like SO they took it as this was their divine job. it took a long time for it to realise that they are not in fact favoured but just being used, and it was thanks to pallegina.

ask me about my watcher 💜

1 and 11 for the ask meme :)

1. what is your watcher's class? how does it relate to their backstory?

oh boyy!! myla is a cipher (and a psion cipher to be more precise) and it relates very heavily to her backstory! she went to university in the ixamitl plains for philosophy but eventually grew frustrated with the answers she could come up with. so, she thought she could just go look into other's people's heads for their answers. this is when she started her training as a cipher by someone employed by the university. to make up for the fact that being a cipher is rather looked down upon, her mentor and thus all of his students were regularly given assignments by the uni to keep their studies up. myla essentially worked as an information broker during her early years, going to people and taking their ideas and thoughts and giving them to the university. when she grew uncomfortable with all that because she was supposed to get certain plans for a certain god killing bomb out of a priest's head, she left the ixamitl plains and went to the dyrwood!!

11. who are your watcher's least favorite companions?

this is a hard one!! i think she has a great dislike for durance because of the person he is, but she's also endlessly fascinated by him. she also thinks xoti is very difficult and doesn't really understand her or try to understand her. and her relationship with pallegina certainly crumbles and breaks into dust during the events of poe2 and she gains a dislike for her during her time in the deadfire archipelago!

1 + 2 for the deadfire asks for nimka pls ?

WAH THANK YOU :')

What did your Watcher make of the Deadfire Archipelago? Was it their first time there, or had they been there previously?

It was indeed her first time there, but she'd been wanting to go for years! So for context Nimka is an explorer/drifter from the White that Wends, who, prior to Pillars 1, left her clan to go wander around Eora. She spent some time in Old Vailia, then moved across the sea to the Vailian Republics, then to the Dyrwood—her plan was to go to the Ixamitl Plains or the Deadfire Archipelago after she'd gotten tired of the Dyrwood, but for obvious reasons she never got to make that trip and got stuck in the Dyrwood instead (a life development she was very much not happy about). The whole deal with Eothas destroying Caed Nua was extremely traumatising for her, but also kind of a relief?? Since it meant that yay, she got to explore & be on the move again! Even if she's now lacking a soul and has sooo much survivor's guilt and carries the weight of the world on her shoulders but hey, nothing a little fresh air and sunshine can't fix~

As for what she made of it: the Deadfire is very different to everything she's used to, so for the most part she loved it! Nimka's a druid, so getting the chance to see new flora & fauna first-hand was an absolute delight in the midst of what might've been the hardest, bleakest time of her life. The weather she did not quite agree with—too hot and humid for her tastes—but overall she was so relieved to be out of the house that she didn't even complain.

Did they have a favourite location?

Hmm… she thinks the whole archipelago is absolutely gorgeous, but in terms of favourites—maybe Motare o Kōzi? It was a place where her particular skillset truly got to shine and managed to save the day (and it doesn't hurt that also she ultimately got what she'd wanted, lol, but mostly she's glad she managed to end the corruption and help the Rotten Lady/Green Lady), so it's one of those places she looks back on fondly because she can pat herself on the back when she thinks about it.

From a more sentimental standpoint: Bekarna's Observatory, partly because Nimka has always liked looking at the stars and partly because, well. Bekarna's her girlfriend. Of course she'd have a particular attachment to her girlfriend's "house" :3 (even if she isn't there all the time)

9. Which faction did your Watcher side with in the end, if any? Was there a particular reasoning behind their decision? - for all/any of your Watchers!

Okay let's goooooo.

Talia: Wood elf cipher from Aedyr. Sided with the Huana in my first playthrough of Deadfire because she/I thought they had the largest claim on Ukaizo.

After Talia we're getting into the hypothetical because I've only actually finished Deadfire completely once.

Amaryllis: Pale elf cipher/monk from the Living Lands. Sides with the VTC. She's very pro-animancy and believes that the Vailians represent the best chance for fixing the Wheel.

Calendula: Savannah folk priest/paladin of Berath from the Ixamitl Plains. I actually still have no idea who Cal sides with except that it's not the Principi or going solo. It'll probably come down to who's available still at the end that she hasn't ticked off during her game.

Lillian: Meadow folk ranger (maybe ranger/rogue in Deadfire) from Readceras. Honestly, the more I think about it the more I think that Lillian will side with the Principi (Aeldys specifically). She cares deeply for both Pallegina and Maia, and siding with the Huana, RDC, or VTC will hurt one or both of them. It doesn't give the best ending slide, but Lillian has a really bad time in the Deadfire and doesn't much care anymore.

Hazel: Hearth orlan fighter (maybe fighter/rogue in Deadfire) from the Deadfire. Hazel sides with the Principi, except my headcanon is that she overthrows both Aeldys and Furrente and takes command herself.

And the more obscure Watchers:

Hawthorne: Hearth orlan rogue/wizard from the Deadfire. Hawthorne is a pirate from the Deadfire, so she sides with the Principi, specifically Aeldys.

Artemisia: Hearth orlan wizard/druid from Rauatai. Always a rebel, Art takes the solo option and goes it alone (her game is almost done, I just need to finish collecting the blasted materials for the ship upgrades and the DLC -_-)

Ruvsá: Pale elf monk from the White that Wends. I barely ever talk about Ruvsá (she's my experiment on playing Pillars 1 on Hard), but she was/is the avatar for @lunarowena still and her savegames survived my latest purge of games I'll never play again. Pretty sure she'd side with the Huana, for the same reasons as Talia: it's their land, they deserve it.

So unless Cal continues to be the problematic fave and sides with the RDC, I don't have any Watchers that would go out of their way to side with those guys. I want to do a Maia romance game/side with the imperialists run, I just haven't come up with a character I like for it and I have so much else.

deadfire asks

Inktober/PoEtober Day 7: Worship

Citlatl’s temples are mostly of the ziggurat variety, with Ixamitl drawing on Mesoamerican inspiration so much. But Hylea’s temple I designed as a tower - the Tower Nest - and that seemed a fitting thing to draw for today’s prompt.

From Chapter 25 of Soul & Shield:

The thing about Hylea’s temple -- the Tower Nest, they called it in Citlatl -- was that a visitor unfamiliar with the gods would probably mistake it for something completely different. For one thing, unlike the majority of the temples here, it was not a bulky ziggurat but, true to its name, a tall, elegant tower, perched on a slight hill -- or what passed for a hill in this city of the savannahs -- overlooking the rest of the temple district and the lush gardens carpeting the hill. Twining spires stretched out from the tower’s highest levels like the branches of trees. From these hung chiming bells and the feathers of myriad species of birds, strung on decorative garlands to the glory of their Queen. Everywhere Lenneth looked, the birds themselves perched on every possible roost.

“Not just the feathers of the local species,” the tiny, wizened orlan priestess who had shown Lenneth and Aloth through the tower to its rooftop aviaries informed them proudly, with a fluttering of the tufts of blue fur along her ears and arms as she gestured to the garlands. “Pilgrims from other lands, when they visit, make offerings to the goddess of the feathers of birds native to their own homes. These sway side by side with those of our own feathered friends. It is a show of unity, that the Sky-Mother takes us all under her wings.”

Lenneth smiled. “That’s lovely. As is the tower itself. Truly Hylea must be pleased with this place.” For a moment she looked around for the pelicans that had been ubiquitous when, as a child, she had accompanied her father to Hylea’s temple not far from the harbor in Rauatai. But as the only seas surrounding Citlatl were those of grass and grains, seabirds would have a long way to fly to attend the Sky-Mother here.

“To the goddess,” the priestess shrugged, “all the sky is her home. She delights in a child’s heartfelt song no less than the most practiced choirs. The temple is more for her worshipers to gather -- and, of course, the birds,” she chuckled, as a hummingbird buzzed in close to her feathered headdress, “but who knows when our Lady may be watching through their eyes?”

Be sure to click to enlarge the pictures and see how the glitter ink sparkles in the closeups. ;-) Hylea’s birds have the shiniest feathers!

me making another dark-haired light-eyed mild-mannered and very sad smart lady: guys i’ve got something brand new for you

My two watchers, Augustine and Ganymede

Lenya outfits bc y’all have to look at my OCs (explanations+ unused frames under the cut because I am a merciful lord)

From her tragic backstory, which has changed a wee bit since I last wrote any of it down. When she was about 19 or so, a few years after the death of her mother, she became implicated in the death of a minor Aedyran nobleman, at which time her cipher abilities were revealed, so the man’s family did the only logical thing in that scenario: accuse her of animancy and spend the next three decades (on and off) chasing her halfway across the continent. Eventually she *mimes Cipher whispers* talked her way onto a ship to the Ixamitl plains (I don’t have a set location yet) and from there she took up Raedric’s offer.Her life was rough, understandably, and it contributed heavily to her guarded, uneasy manner on the way to Gilded Vale.

Second is on the caravan. The armor and clothing look ill fitting because they are—they’re borrowed off a woman in the caravan who was about her size. She left Aedyr with basically nothing but the clothes on her back, and she figured it’d be a bit too chilly for that in the Dyrwood. She wears this up until she gets some better armor that actually fits.

Third: Rundl’s finery, worn from about Caed Nua-WM1

Fourth: Gwisk Glas, dyrford-twin elms/WM2

Fifth is what she’s wearing near the end of game 1 (Raiment of Wael’s Eyes, Lavender Wreath, Mantle of the Excavator), generally a #BossBabe. (Not shown is Stormcaller, her fucking awesome soulbound bow that presumably was destroyed with the rest of her cool shit at Caed Nua ):<)

Sixth is what she’s wearing where I am presently in Deadfire, which I believe is roughly mid-act 1. I’m using a mod that replaces the appearance of robes w/ some of the clothing models and I think it looks way better

1, 9, 22 for the Pillars of Eternity asks. For both Axa & Vaargys. :)

hi i didn't forget or delete or ignore this i swear i just take forever to write anything!!!!!!!

this is kinda long so i'll put it under a cut:

1. what is your watcher's class? how does it relate to their backstory?

Axa: a chanter in PoE, and a Herald (skald chanter/Kind Wayfarer paladin) in Deadfire. she grew up in the second largest city in Ixamitl, a university town with schools primarily focusing on lore, philosophy, and politics. she'd always had a decent singing voice and was fascinated with languages (learned Aedyran from her Readceran mother very early in life), leading her to pursue a career in researching anthropology with a focus on cultures and linguistics. she earned a free ride to a lore college (where she was trained in chanting) when she was 11 by using her very shaky grasp of Vailian to settle a misunderstanding between a prominent local city official and visiting dignitaries from the Vailian Republics. plus, her father pulled a few strings for her as he was a cartographer who regularly updated the chronically disputed territories of various nomadic tribes and clans in the vast rural plains, a position that made him invaluable to urban politicians looking to trade or strike land deals with the nomads, and kept him wealthy in friends in high places in Axa's hometown. after PoE, Axa decided that now that she was in a position of power she had a responsibility to give back to the people of Dyrwood and beyond. so she resolved to join the Kind Wayfarers, and she traveled to the Vailian Republics to train at a prestigious chapter there for three years. this decision had nothing to do with her sudden overwhelming fame and scary new responsibilities at home, including the daughter she sorta kinda kidnapped while in a terrifying death spiral of emotional and mental turmoil. nothing at all! (she got a better grip on it all when she returned to Caed Nua. well, up until Eothas smashed her castle and killed her.)

Vaargys: a priest of Wael in PoE, a Zealot (priest of Wael/debonaire rogue) in Deadfire. i've talked about his parentage and upbringing a bit before, but i'll reiterate for the uninitiated: Vaargys was the product of his clan's Rymrgandian priest and the priest's young protégé. in his clan, priests of Rymrgand were expected to eschew coupling and producing children, to prove their dedication to the principles of finality and the inevitable cessation of the cycle of life by never contributing to it themselves. Vaargys' mother knew this, which is why she studied under the priest in the first place– terrified of and repulsed by the idea of bearing children, she sought a life of celibate asceticism instead of becoming another clan mother. so of course the one and only time the priest managed to seduce her, it resulted in a difficult and complicated pregnancy. she died in childbirth, and Vaargys' father vehemently denied siring the child, despite the overwhelming evidence suggesting otherwise (the acolyte spent no time alone with anyone but the priest, and he and Vaargys were the only two members of the clan to share the same very uncommon eye color). everyone in the clan knew the truth, but no one felt they could say anything, for to rise up against an elder was unthinkable, but a consensus was silently reached: their community had been irrevocably corrupted by a spiritual leader bereft of the fortitude needed to properly serve Rymrgand, and so they were doomed to forego their coveted spot in the Void and all would suffer the Wheel yet again, reincarnated into other, hopefully worthier clans as they allowed this one to slowly die off. Vaargys, herald of his clan's downfall, was regarded as a bad omen and a symbol of weakness, and so he grew up shunned and barely tolerated by his clanmates. he hated Rymrgand and sought to challenge him by defiantly wandering the White alone, a very dangerous and foolish thing to do, but instead of the death the Beast promised, he received visions and messages from an unknown entity he would eventually determine must be Wael. the inevitability of Rymrgand's doom was contested by the infinite possibility of Wael's mysteries, and this revelation gave Vaargys the strength to carry on living. when the old priest finally died, the elders performed their rituals to determine who would lead them now– obviously the old priest had never had another acolyte, as he was utterly unworthy– and to their great shock, every sign and portent and auspice they could muster pointed to Vaargys. and to their great shock again, he accepted the position– and announced that under his guidance, the clan would no longer plod in the frozen footsteps of the Beast of Winter, but would now instead be lead by the whims of the Eyeless Face, as he had been ordained by the Hundred Visions a priest of Wael! ...so the clan exiled him and he drifted alone for decades until he met Axa and moved to Ixamitl with her. after PoE, he did some work for the Doemenels (having more or less stumbled accidentally into allying with them for the animancy trials) and took a level or two in rogue, specializing in confusing the wealthy and powerful into unfair deals– or sniping them with his arquebus when need be.

9. who are your watcher's favorite companions?

Axa: Aloth– the first person she met in the Dyrwood after the caravan was wiped out who didn't insult or try to kill her, she very quickly grew fond of him for his kindness and helpfulness. after getting to know him better– his impressive intellect, his responsible and cautious personality, his upbringing and relationship with his parents, Iselmyr– she grew fonder of him still. when he revealed his connection to the Leaden Key, though she knew she ought to feel betrayed, she was instead impressed by and grateful for the loyalty he'd shown her in remaining by her side and risking his life for her when he easily could have just turned her over to the Key and secured his future with them. what had started as a superficial attraction slowly grew into a deep and genuine desire to keep him by her side, and although he felt the same way, they would distance themselves from one another between PoE and Deadfire to better grow as individuals rather than risk bungling an attempt at a romance due to lingering insecurities and personal hang-ups. in Deadfire, they found each other again and basically had to start from scratch– they'd both changed a lot, and Axa was missing most of her soul and quite a few memories. but the same qualities they'd admired in one another before charmed each other again, and eventually they started a romance, ultimately returning to the Dyrwood and marrying before continuing their work to better the world together ��

Pallegina– Axa admires and respects her immensely for her strength and conviction. her own brother is an avian godlike so they bond a bit over that, and they share a belief in the power that animancy has to do good in the world (especially after the Big Reveal regarding the gods). she directly inspired Axa to join the Kind Wayfarers, encouraging her to put her passion, position of power as a Watcher/thaynu, and her strong sense of justice to good use. while Axa trained in the Republics she was struck with immense guilt upon finding out Pallegina had been exiled because of Axa's suggestion to defy her orders. she made up for it by siding with Castol's VTC in Deadfire, and when Pallegina called her camerata, she was truly honored.

Vatnir– although she strongly dislikes him at first (being lied to and nearly killed by a dracolich is one of Axa's least favorite activities, after all), she is a Kind Wayfarer and he is someone who is trying very hard to go somewhere else, so she quickly warms up to him. she's always had a soft heart for a hard luck story. he reminds her a lot of her ex-fiance, Vaargys– both are Glamfellen priests from the Land with lonesome upbringings and dubious relationships with the truth– and ultimately her friendship with him allows her to explore certain facets of herself she'd locked away or tried to leave behind since Vaargys' betrayal. for instance, after leaving Vaargys she didn't speak another word of Ordhjóma for nearly six years despite studying it for about twice as long as that– not until she met Vatnir. plus, it's nice to have a smoking and drinking buddy, and he's always more than happy to accept her offers.

honorable mentions: Kana, Edér, Sagani

Vaargys: Aloth– although they're very different people, Vaargys can't help but be fascinated by such an intelligent, uniquely troubled man. really, Vaargys mostly likes him for his polite passivity, and because he's a terrible liar but somehow simultaneously a tough nut to crack– Vaargys likes a contradiction, as it usually provides a fun little puzzle to pick at. Aloth isn't nearly as fond of him, but against his better judgment he can't seem to turn his back on the Waelite. he suspects that he does secretly enjoy bickering with the priest, although not enough to pursue a romance with him, despite that one time they ended up making out in the middle of an argument. Iselmyr resents this, but let's face it– they'd never last.

Zahua– after his years in Ixamitl among scholars and philosophers, not to mention his childhood and young adulthood wandering the Land while hallucinating and accumulating injuries, Zahua's company is very familiar and comfortable to Vaargys. they share a love of mind-altering substances and the important messages they impart, as well as an impressive collection of scars. he's like the father Vaargys always wanted but never had, and he weeps at their parting. and finesses some of his malcachoa.

Vatnir– much like Axa, Vaargys entered into Vatnir's acquaintance primed for a fight (reminder: Vaargys super hates Rymrgand). he was delighted to instead discover that the High Harbinger wasn't the rigid, death-obsessed zealot he presented himself as, but rather a desperately lonely, cowardly charlatan who wanted nothing more than to run away from his own life. this resonated very deeply with Vaargys, and so he made it his mission to introduce as much fun and joy and chaos into the godlike's life as he could. Vatnir, on the other hand, was usually more chagrined by Vaargys' shenanigans than entertained, often finding himself compelled to tend to the Waelite– although he didn't mind so much when it lead to sex. as with anyone he gets very close to, Vaargys tends to spoil and dote on his lover, which Vatnir finds very endearing... when it's not irritating or offputting.

honorable mentions: Hiravias, Kana, Serafen

22. what has your watcher been doing between poe1 and poe2?

Axa: as stated briefly above, she basically ran off to the Republics for three years to train with the Kind Wayfarers, learning the paladin moveset and guiding escaped slaves and Eothasian dissidents through unfriendly territory. after returning home to Caed Nua, she mostly focused on protecting travelers passing through her land, working with the Dyrwoodan government and animancers to heal the nation after the Hollowborn Crisis, and cultivating a better relationship with her daughter. she also had her brother Tico visit her now and again, although she never got up the nerve to invite their mother before Eothas rose.

Vaargys: also stated briefly above, he fell into working here and there for the Doemenels– the money was good, the work was usually fun and interesting, and he liked having an excuse to stop by the Hall of Revealed Mysteries for deep theological discussions over copious amounts of illicit substances with his fellow Waelites. he was also known to wander the countryside just as he had when he'd lived in the Land, sometimes alone and sometimes with a small retinue in tow– not for himself, but to look after his treasured adopted daughter Vela when she accompanied him. he especially loved to dote on her and was known to spend lavishly on her toys and clothes in an attempt to give her the loving, affluent childhood he never had.

1, 20, 21 for the poe ask ^^

1.what is your watcher's class? how does it relate to their backstory?

Allara's a paladin and it really really impacts her backstory and how she ends up in the events of the first game in the first place. She started out in the ixamitl plains as a bleak walker, fully subscribing to the brutal/merciless approach to warfare and truly believing it was the more humane approach than a long drawn out conflict. She was a part of the order for about 30 years until she eventually started to feel worn down by the order's beliefs. She eventually snapped and left the order, wandering aimlessly until she ran into a kind wayfarer and she decided, impulsively, that she'd join this order instead and with this new lease on life, she took up the offer to move to the dyrwood. She still struggles with the conflicting ideologies of the orders she was part of and early on in particular makes decisions that echo of the bleak walker approach, and it shapes her 'ends justify the means' outlook, though she does start to cool down on this and is prompted to actually invest in the kind wayfarer outlook, instead of seeing it as a way for her to find a sense of purpose.

20.what is your watcher's family life like?

By the time of the first game, both of her parents are dead and she's lost contact with her two siblings. While the relationships weren't bad, per se, and she did really love her parents, Allara's devotion to her order and then her turn towards being a drifter kind wayfarer, meant that once her parents died, she just fell out of contact with her siblings, losing that common thread that kept them tied together. She does try reaching out to them after the events of the first game and the relationship, while distant, at least exists once more, which she considers a positive.

21.which faction did your watcher choose in poe2?

She chose the huana, mostly for the fact that she just assumed ukaizo was theirs by right and that they'd know the deadfire the best, given the fact that they'd been there from the get-go. She did grow to admire both onekaza and aruihi, and this for sure impacted her decision, she felt she had more in common with their outlooks than the outlooks of the other leaders and she grew to really respect them (even if she disagreed with them at times). Her friendship with tekehu also spurred her towards this decision as he gave her a more personal connection to the huana outside of the more pragmatic/detached reasons she'd been siding with them.

Sora | Moon Godlike | Ixamitl Plains | Aristocrat | Chanter

My PoE kids in this avatar maker!

Desta: Nature Godlike from the Living Lands, Kind Wayfarer Paladin, Drifter

Rudi: Folk from the Ixamitl Plains, Ranger/Monk, Hunter

Miervaldis: Pale Elf from the White that Wends, Berathian Priest, Mystic

Nona: Wood Elf from Aedyr, Woedican Priestess, Agent of the Leaden Key

Makali: Moon Godlike from Deadfire, Druid, Treasure Hunter

[rattles tin can at pillars of eternity] spare ixamitl plains lore, sir