The Trio!

these are just the looks i have in mind for when they're in the arena, while lo'gosh and broll have looks that are most akin to their og designs i gave valeera something that'd suit her personality more (given that she's canonically stated to be quite young for a blood elf and also due to the circumstances around her being there, having gone from a street rat that was arrested and then sold into slavery) but she won't get something akin to her og look till much later on

Warrior mains and Varian Wrynn stans BIG WINNING today. ❤️

did a little twitter art challenge! (you can find the original template here) considering how much i've messed around with his design and character i figured it was only fitting i do this challenge!

bonus with notes

Split Varian's Lo'Gosh half but in the style of Disney's Hercules.

"Who put the Glad into Gladiator! LO'GOSH"

Anyone remember the Terokkar Forest Wolf Spirit questline? I feel like that spirit should have made some sort of appearance during WoD

sits bolt upright in bed

varian wrynn is a canon system

WoW x ToLuminaria

Featuring two of the armor tier sets from the Sepulcher of the First Ones raid on Mythic difficulty

Celia is wearing the Godstalker’s Battlegear (hunter set) and Michelle is wearing the Theurgic Starspeaker’s Regalia (shaman set).

Rehgar, who enslaved some human he found killing a crocolisk a few years ago and later let him run away because that guy was the best gladiator ever and made him a billionaire in Dire Maul, arriving at Theramor to meet with King Varian Wrynn of the Alliance :

Hiii

I remember when you were posting about your Kim/Wik Twins AU and I was so hooked! There’s so much potential for angst in this AU😩🤌 I always wondered if there was anything new going on with this WIP.

PS: I’ve been following your blog for a little while (I don’t interact bc im shyy) and I love all your Kimchay WIPS and little excerpts you’ve blessed us with (they make my day everytime I see one). So I want to personally thank your brain for all these wonderful ideas and just thank you for being you 😊

send me an ask and I'll tell you about one of these WIPs!

Oh anon, you're a darling! This was so nice to wake up to <3 I actually haven't worked much on that AU since originally posting it, but you're right, there is so much angst potential in this AU between Wik and Kim. One of the inspirations from it actually came from World of Warcraft, and how the character Varian was split into two people, the other one being Lo'Gosh. I really loved how it wasn't just "this is the good side vs. the bad/feral side." Varian was polite and charming and good at socializing, but he was also vain and easy to manipulate (which was the point of splitting him), whereas Lo'Gosh was definitely a barbarian, but he was also all of Varian's strong will and ambition/motivation, and passion. I hadn't seen that kind of character splitting before, because it's usually an easy shorthand for doing a good/evil thing.

So for the purposes of this fic, Kim isn't just all the evil mafia while Wik is the sweetheart singer. Wik is very driven and tbh a little selfish, he's kind to his fans but ultimately very cold, because he grew up in a world where anything he cared about could be used against him. Both of them are still calculating in clever, but it's Wik that begins investigating Chay, intentionally using his stardom as an in, and purposefully manipulating him to get more information. He takes it to a stronger degree than we actually see from Kim in the show.

Whereas Kim is the quieter, more contained side. They both love music but Kim prefers guitar/piano over singing because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself the way Wik does, although he does write a lot of poetry/lyrics. One of the betrayals from Wik leaving is that he stole Kim's songs. The other is that he left Kim behind. He loves his brother more than anything, and Wik leaving him without so much as a goodbye was devastating for him.

Here's your slightly less than 500 words!

“You left me!” “Would you have even come with me?” Kim’s voice breaks on a desperate, “Yes!” He wants to take it back as soon as the word leaves his mouth, too honest in the heat of his moment, chest heaving with the weight of it. The only good thing about the admission is that his brother is too stunned to reply; Kim takes satisfaction in that, in the implication of it, as Wik realizes the depth of his own selfishness.  “Kim…�� “I would…” Kim swallows. Days of captivity have left his throat dry. It hurts, speaking these words aloud, tearing them out of his chest to release them after all these years. “I would have. If you asked me to, I would have.”  He would have followed his brother anywhere. They were always meant to be together. Kim and Wik, two halves of the same whole, mirror images down to their names. Until Wik decided he couldn’t bear his own reflection anymore.  “Kim, I’m sorry, I didn’t know—” “How could you? You only ever think about yourself.” Kim laughs. It’s wet. It hurts, like everything else about this damned conversation. Maybe Wik was right; they were better off alone. “I thought you knew me better than anyone, but you don’t know me at all.” Maybe Wik never did. What a horrible time to realize how truly alone he really is.  Wik doesn’t speak for a long time. Neither does Kim, keeping his head bowed and his breaths measured, cracked ribs aching with every rise and fall of his chest. What a cruel joke that the first time they’re sharing a space in years, something Kim has longed for since the day Wik left, and it’s only because someone else has forced them together.  “I don’t think you would ever leave the family,” Wik eventually says, his voice quieter than Kim has ever heard it. “You’re not like me, Kim, you never wanted to leave.” Of course he didn’t. Why would Kim ever want to leave his brothers? But at least if he had, Kinn and Tankhun would have had each other. They wouldn’t have been alone, not like Wik is now. Not like Kim is, forever missing his other half. Neither of them were meant to be alone. "It doesn't matter anymore." "Yes it does. Kim. I never meant to hurt you. I—" But there's no more time to talk because their captors are walking in, and Wik is throwing himself in front of Kim, both of them bound and unable to put of any kind of fight. Not that it would have mattered; Wik already got himself kidnapped. Too nosy to stay out of the family completely, but apparently the idealistic fool didn't bother to keep up with his martial arts. Still. Despite blaming him for the current predicament, Kim is a little bit touched that Wik is trying to protect him now. Too late to matter, maybe, but it's something.

I've done some concepts of a post legion varian (or scion varian for my fic) but none truly quite hit right for me, he always felt like he was missing something or other and so after multiple attempts over the years i finally came up with something i like!

Past version will be below the cut

It's a transmog set.

"Anduin has had a difficult time of it," Jaina said, her voice thick. She cleared it and resumed. "But Bolvar was not his father. You are, and I know he's glad to have you back. But — "

"But he wants his father back, not Lo'Gosh. Completely understandable. But Jaina… sometimes I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins. I… do not like having the boy around, living with me, while I try to determine this."

"I've been thinking the same thing. And I have an idea…."

*************

He laughed at the display. "I forgot. Just the tea, then. Oh, and some bread and honey. And some cheese, Dalaran sharp. And a couple of apples." Jaina was touched. Anduin had remembered apples and cheese were Jaina's favorite snack. "Thank you."

Jaina hid her smile. Definitely a growing boy. Once Wyll had left, Anduin obeyed her earlier request, settling himself comfortably on the bed, regarding her with those bright blue eyes that saw more than adults suspected.

"There, that's better. I've not come to lecture you or to apologize for your father," Jaina continued. "I've come to give you an opportunity for a little fun, if you like."

He raised a golden eyebrow at that. "Oh? Fun?" He pronounced the word with exaggerated awkwardness. "What, pray tell, is that?"

"Something you need more of. Your father is upset that you had to see that. He and I talked for a bit, and we both decided that you might like to have the chance to get away from things from time to time."

He eyed her curiously. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

"How would you like to come visit me at Theramore?" Anduin had been to Theramore once, during a terrible storm, to attend peace talks that had been violently disrupted. She hoped to change his association of the place to a more positive one.

But Anduin apparently had the resiliency of youth, for instead of looking unhappy, he brightened. "Visit the frontier again? I'd like that very much! I didn't get to see very much of it at all. Is there any dragon fighting going on?"

"Hardly any at all," Jaina said with a mock sigh. "But I'm sure there is some trouble a thirteen - year - old boy can get into."

"Thirteen and a half, almost" Anduin admonished her in all seriousness.

"I stand corrected."

"But… it's a very long journey."

"Not for magi."

"Well, no, of course not, I didn't mean for you, Aunt Jaina, I meant for me."

She smiled at him. "I've got a little something that might make traveling a bit easier." She fished in the pouch clipped to her belt and came out with a small oval crystal covered with soft blue runes. "Here. Catch!"

Jaina tossed it to Anduin, who caught it easily. "It's pretty," he said, examining it and tracing the runes with his fingers.

"Pretty, and rather rare. Hold it lightly for now. Don't close your fingers over it. Recognize the runes?"

He peered at it. "It has your name and the word… 'Home,'" he said.

"That's right. I see you've been keeping up with your studies. I had this created just for you. Even before… today… I had thought that you might enjoy coming to visit your old Auntie Jaina."

He scowled at her, brushing a lock of blond hair off his face. 'You're not old," he said.

"And you've been keeping up with your diplomacy, too," she said, grinning. "But yes. It's called a hearthstone." "But the rune means 'home." - The Shattering

Art by @teallinum! I had this drawn up as a possible future ages ago and I got to thinking about these two dumdums meeting again.

I really hope there's an opportunity within the canon for Taria and Anduin to meet in War Within. I try to limit their interactions to moments where they could have met. Currently, they have crossed paths at these moments in her history:

At the Tavern in the Mists when Taria was a child. Before she was attacked by the tiger that led to her accelerated aging. Tarvasha left her with Tong as the tavern was obscure and out of the way of most danger. During her time there, she met Wrathion and Anduin, but was largely kept away from bothering them.

For a brief moment in Stormwind, he appeared when she was visiting Varian's memorial at Lion's Rest. They didn't get a chance to interact really, but it was the first time she really saw him after finding out he was her brother.

During the Fourth War, she was present for a time in the command tent while Grok'tor (her late husband) relayed information to Saurfang.

There was no question Taria was going to jump into the Maw after Anduin. Truly, I'm still working this part out. I have some bare bones for what I wanted and did stretch things a bit. After she found her way into the Maw, she managed to track him down, but couldn't get to the room he was in. They were able to speak between the wall for a time, but she was found out and taken to Zorvaal who gashed out pieces of her soul and tossed her into the river Gorgoa. There, she collided with a familiar soul* and was able to force her way out, having not technically been dead. She was too late to save Anduin from the Jailer's domination and followed along with the core group trying to rescue him.

Every week for the past three years, she traveled to Stormwind to ask about her brother, but no one could give her any information. Recently, an informant of her mother's (probably Valeera, as she'd be one of the few who could spy on Shaw and Greymane) relayed that he was seen in Ratchet and moving south through the Barrens. Currently, she is setting out to track that lead and hopefully find Anduin. Whether or not she'll ever have the courage to talk to him face to face remains to be seen.

I realize my goal to stay on canon as much as possible with this character is getting stretched, but I've had her a long time and this is something I've put off for years because there were never any good points in the plot to make more than this possible.

I like to talk about my characters. Hope some of you enjoy reading about them!

Tarvasha (Taria's mother) - @the-wolfs-raven

*The soul Taria runs into, in my headcanon, is Lo'Gosh, who was split from the Varian half of his soul in a last ditch effort for survival during the confrontation with Gul'dan. Lo'Gosh, who took the brunt of the hit this time, was sent to the Shadowlands; into the Maw and Gorgoa since his soul was a fractured one. I don't know how accurate that might be to how Shadowlands works. I didn't play much of it, to be honest. Anyway, headcanon puts Varian's soul in Shalamayne (as seems to possibly be backed up in some way by the plot, unless Anduin was just hallucinating, I suppose.)

As always, I'm up for some constructive criticism to help make my characters more believable!

fathers and the fandom's thoughts on them

[clasps hands] ok!

as a preface: all lore is just interpretations, death of the author, what i assert as fact is just my interpretation of lore, all of that.

That said! I think there's been some ignorantly made interpretations, because there are assertions being made that I cannot believe are made in good faith if you've read the comics. And I don't think (or rather, hope) that the people making these assertions are malicious, but I do feel like I need to go and share lore to make sure people get the full picture of what's going on.

There's been multiple posts about how Varian is a bad father and that Anduin didn't know what love from his father felt like growing up, and I'm just completely and utterly baffled by that assertion. I don't know where this came from, other than maybe the Sylvanas book, where Anduin (or Golden) just lies and says that Anduin and Varian weren't close, but that hasn't been the lore for well over a decade. So here's like forty fucking panels from the comics.

Remember when Tiffin died in the riots? That was because Onyxia so she could fuck Varian. She was waiting for him to get over his grief before pouncing, intending on mind controlling him, but as Varian got over his grief and put his focus into his son, he fought off Onyxia's control. That was the reason why Onyxia split him apart in the first place.

The WHOLE reason Lo'gosh even remembers who he was is because he had a vision where Anduin needed him.

During this time, with the other half of Varian, Anduin is perceptive enough to know something is going on with is father, who is now shirking his duties in favor of cozying up with Katrana, and is literally plotting with Bolvar and Magni over it

but also, believe it or not, the comic shows varian and anduin spending time together

Does this seem like Varian not loving his son, when Onyxia has to kill Anduin to get anywhere with Varian? And let me bring up these panels where Anduin falls off his horse and Varian throws himself off a cliff to catch his son again

I don't want to beat a dead horse here but this isn't "I don't love my child" behavior. Should I just keep posting panels?

Like, yeah, cataclysm was a rough time for Anduin and Varian, when Anduin was branching out and having his own life and Varian wasn't exactly prepared for it, but also Varian almost killed Moira because he thought Anduin's life was slightly imperiled because of her. The whole idea that Varian didn't love Anduin until MoP is so fantastical it's ridiculous. I could get into a deeper dissertation on all of this, but honestly I don't think that's needed.

But it's not as ridiculous as the other assertion I saw, which was that Alexandros was a good father? I keep seeing this in regard to Varian and Genn both, and I need to remind people that Alexandros was co-dependent on his youngest son in a poor effort to cope with his wife's death, and took out his anger on his older son repeatedly, to the point of physical violence.

There's a lot of ways to describe Alexandros, but "a better father than Varian and Genn" when a dreadlord had to intervene to make sure there wasn't a domestic incident in the middle of the Silver Hand camp is a bit disingenuous.

Anyway don't take this as me vaguing or anything, this is a take I've seen multiple times from multiple sources over the course of months, and it drives me up the wall. I love Alexandros, but he's the worst fucking man ever, do NOT say he's a better father than Varian and Genn. If Alexandros was a good father, Lordaeron would've been recovered before WoW, and that's that on that.

Sylas LoL needs to stop being so hot or we’re gonna have a problem.