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tatooineknights · 5 months

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Luke's just not a farmer - he has too much of his father in him.

#luke skywalker #anakin skywalker #star wars #swedit #sw edit #esb #empire strikes back #rots #revenge of the sith #swsource #strwrsdaily #moviegifs #filmgifs #mine

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your-good-pal-chevy · 2 years

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“Without advances, medicine regresses and reverts to witchcraft.”

Arthur Kornberg

“He truly does not seem happy, Sir Dalcassian.” Elissa’s expression was a pensive one, staring up at the trussed and gagged man slung over Rath’s shoulder. “I know he wasn’t very kind to us, but this seems a touch cruel.”

Rath didn’t look at her, instead staring ahead into the foggy swamp. The squirming of his captive did little to distract him. “Perhaps, but I am not cruel for its own sake. All things must have a purpose, Elissa, remember that. Consider what might be gained from such cruelty before you employ it.”

The bound man, for his part, struggled vainly to get free. His distressed grunting growing weaker as his energy left him.

“That’s the thing, Sir,” Elissa said, “I haven’t the faintest what we stand to gain from this.”

“That is because you don’t know what I know,” Rath said. He gestured toward the fog ahead of them. “The parasite will be necessary, as soon as our host arrives.”

“Our host?”

Rath nodded. “Yes. Perhaps our friend here has some knowledge of what I intend for him. Perhaps not.”

The fog began to swirl as though a great breeze had picked up, though the night air remained cold and lifeless. Like the curtains of a stage, the fog parted, and a path of stepping stones revealed itself in the murky water ahead of the trio.

Without hesitation, Rath went forward, jostling his captive with each step. Elissa followed shortly after.

“What was that?” Elissa looked into the fog on either side as she followed her guardian, suddenly much more nervous. “The fog seemed to come alive. What devilry is at work here?”

Rath chuckled. “Devilry indeed. There is an enchantment upon this swamp, an old and extremely powerful one. Had we tried to enter without permission, we would have simply gotten lost and found our way back to where we started. We had to wait for our host to allow us to enter.”

“But no one was there. Who is this host you speak of?”

“You shall meet her shortly. She is an old friend of mine, I met her...” He paused. “It was a long time ago.”

“Is she a vampire like you?” Elissa rushed to walk beside Rath. “If it was a long time for you, Sir, she must be a vampire as well. I thought you hated your own kind.”

Rath scoffed. “I know people other than vampires, child. I rarely associate with my kin, you know this. Our host is not a vampire, don’t worry.”

Rath’s captive resumed his squirming, having regained his energy.

“Ah, but perhaps you should worry.” Rath jostled the man on his shoulder. “I’m sure you’ve figured out where we’re going.”

“I thought you said cruelty must have a purpose, Sir.”

“And it did have a purpose just now,” Rath replied, “It amused me.”

Rath and his ward continued into the swamp for some time. As they walked, the fog grew thinner and the swamp itself came into view. It was dense with ancient trees and wild plants. Much of it was flooded from the recent rain, leaving the path of stones slick but traversable. Fireflies danced in the moonlight as a small estate came into view.

The estate was comprised of a few small stone buildings; a farmhouse, a smokehouse, a small tower, and a stable; surrounded by a low stone wall. A wooden gate separated the grass inside from the murky swamp around it, demarcating clearly the boundary between the estate and the natural world.

A woman stood beside the gate, her hands clasped low in front of her. She wore rich black and purple clothing, all layers and folds, hanging just above her knees to reveal thick black boots. Her hair was long and dark, thick curls up in a voluminous tail that reached her lower back. She wore a long rondel dagger openly on her hip, the naked blade thrust through a leather frog.

Most curiously to Elissa, however, were the broom and hat.

A broom with a leather-wrapped handle leaned against the fence beside the woman, bristles to the sky, seemingly out of place to the young girl.

The woman’s hat, meanwhile, was exceptionally wide-brimmed. Her face could not be seen from a distance, shaded beneath it. A tall, curved point jutted from the top. She looked like something out of the Church’s propaganda, a witch from the old stories.

“Jessica,” Rath called out as he approached, “It’s been some time. Thank you for having us.”

The woman didn’t move. It seemed to Elissa as if she hadn’t even heard Rath speak.

“I brought you something,” Rath said, shrugging the struggling vampire off his shoulder and standing him up in front of the witch. “I’ve held my end of the bargain. Shall you invite us in?”

“Very well,” said the woman. Her voice carried strangely through the air, as if suffusing the entire swamp. It was dark and deep, and there was a confidence in her voice that struck Elissa immediately. Whoever this Jessica was, she decided, she was someone who held real power.

Jessica grabbed the broom from beside her and moved to open the gate. “May the three before me enter freely, though only two may leave.”

Rath hoisted his captive back onto his shoulder. “Not going to specify which two? I’m hurt, Jessica.”

“Mm. I like to keep my options open, dear Rath, you know that.” She reached up and patted him on the cheek. “Maybe I’ll finally use you in my brew. You’re certainly potent materials by now.”

“Brew?” Elissa looked up at Rath for guidance. She wasn’t sure what the two were discussing, but she knew a veiled threat when she heard one.

“Worry not, Elissa. She’s only joking.” He glanced toward Jessica. “Or perhaps not. We’ll see.”

Jessica looked Elissa up and down, leaving the young girl feeling as if she was being examined like an animal. “Heavens, Rath, what have you brought me? I thought you must have been traveling with Karl still, who is this girl?”

“Karl and I aren’t on speaking terms at the moment,” Rath said, his face growing dark. “Regardless, this is my ward Elissa. She came into my care recently. I trust you won’t frighten her too badly.”

Jessica shoved past Rath and moved to look Elissa over more closely. Jessica easily towered over Elissa, but she leaned down and tilted her hat back to get a better look at her.

Elissa, for her part, finally got a look at Jessica’s face. Her skin was a dark tan color, much darker than was common in Theatony, and she wore thick makeup. From the nose up, her face was painted black with an image of the moon’s phases on her forehead. Golden points came down from her eyes and curved around her sharp cheekbones. Her lips were likewise painted black, with a vertical golden line in the center.

“My, this one’s young,” Jessica said. For the intensity of her voice, she had a surprisingly kind expression. “Wherever did you find her?” She pinched Elissa’s cheek. “Why on earth did you wind up in the company of that old grouch, little one?”

Elissa didn’t resist, but pouted to the best of her ability as Jessica pinched her. “I’ve been with Sir Dalcassian for some time now,” she said, “He rescued me and we’ve been traveling together since.”

“Sir Dalcassian,” Jessica purred. It sent a chill up Rath’s spine. “Rath, are you making the poor girl call you Sir Dalcassian?” The amusement in Jessica’s voice was obvious as she turned and folded her arms at Rath.

“Heavens, no.” Rath unceremoniously dropped his captive, eliciting a pained grunt from the hapless vampire. He jabbed a finger in Elissa’s direction. “She does that of her own accord.”

“Sir Dalcassian is a knight, is he not?” Elissa brought her hands together under her chin, nervous to be speaking up. “Should I not address him as such?”

Jessica laughed heartily, leaning back as she did and nearly losing her hat in the process. “Oh, Heavens. By all means, he is a knight, that I cannot deny.” She shot a sly grin at Rath. “But perhaps he is not as chivalrous as he makes himself out to be.”

“That would be impressive,” Rath said, “Given how rarely I make myself out to be much at all.”

“True, true.” Jessica pushed past him again. “Come along, then, the lot of you.”

She stopped suddenly, turning toward Elissa. “Ah, right. And please, don’t mistake my venom for disdain. I just have to make sure the old blackguard doesn’t get too proud.”

“Any pride at all would be shredded the moment you discovered it,” Rath said, grabbing the bound vampire by his collar. “Of that, I am sure.”

“Yes, yes. Mean old Jessica. Anyway, leave the ingredients in the tower, I’d rather cook something for the little one first.”

“Sure.”

#rotting empire #creative writing #jessica is a witch with a recipe for an immortality potion #vampires are a main ingredient #hyperparasites are a form of parasites that parasitize other parasites

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inquisitor-apologist · 5 months

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Thinking about how, at the end of the day, at the fatal moment, the sunset of the Republic, it wasn’t Yoda, or Obi-Wan, or even the Chosen One himself standing in the way of Palpatine. It was Mace Windu.

Mace Windu, the inventor of Vaapad and Master of Form VII, the Jedi's strongest duelist, the only person to ever defeat Palpatine in combat. Mace Windu, Master of the Jedi Council and the youngest Master ever appointed to it, the revered leader of the Order. Mace Windu, who forgave even those who tried to kill him, who risked his life over and over again for his troops, who, after 3 years of desperate war, tried to negotiate with battle droids. Mace Windu, who knew the clones were created by the Sith and chose to trust them, who saw every Shatterpoint in the Republic, and loved it still, and fought for it until his last breath, until he was betrayed by Anakin, who he believed in and trusted despite everything.

Mace Windu, High General and hero of the Republic, the embodiment of the Light, the last and greatest champion of the Order, the best Jedi to ever live.

#I’ve said my piece goodnight #don’t play with me Mace Antis I have receipts for every last one of these #pretty much everyone agrees that he was the best duelist there was and he obviously won the fight #Anakin's choice wouldn't make thematic sense otherwise #also vader did not defeat palpatine in combat sorry he just grabbed him while he was distracted #it literally had to be a fair fight and Anakin had to be the one to choose to create the empire that's what the prequels are about #Star Wars databank calls him ‘revered’ shatterpoint tells us he was the youngest (real) member of the council #Boba Fett (tcw) and Prosset Dibs (comics) tried to kill him and he asked for amnesty and forgave them #literally just watch the Ryloth arc he spends most of his screentime saving his men #in tcw season seven he pleads with the battle droids to surrender hoping that no one else has to die #there's the part near the end of tcw where the council realizes that the clones were created by Dooku but Mace and the rest of the council #trust the clones so much they're willing to ignore it #the scene from Mace's POV in the rots novelization talks about how much he loves the republic and how he was blindsided by Anakin's betraya #because he trusted him!! we see in aotc that he has more faith in Anakin's abilities than Obi-wan #and he defeated the most powerful sith of all time single-handedly #BEST JEDI EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!#sw prequels #star wars prequels #prequel trilogy #sw prequel trilogy #star wars prequel trilogy #sw rots #star wars rots #revenge of the sith #star wars revenge of the sith #galactic republic #pro mace windu #mace windu #pro jedi order #pro jedi

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currentlyonstandbi · 8 months

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#what if i just never emotionally recovered from this . wouldnt that be something #star wars #sw rots #revenge of the sith #rots novelization #anakin skywalker #darth vader #you know what. it's the fact that after everything that has happened anakin still chooses to stay with sidious #even after he knows all he's ever done is lie to him. is use him. is be yet another person on a list of people #who've only ever wanted him for his power #anakin HATES sidious by this point. he despises him. he wants him dead. and yet he stays #because he has no reason not to #he's destroyed everything and everyone who he's ever loved and has loved him in return #and as twisted as it is.. sidious is all he has left now. sidious and all of his anger and all of his terrible grief #so he stays . because he has no reason to leave #and it's not until rotj that anakin finds himself faced with a choice which isn't really a choice at all #because from the moment he realised luke would never join him in overthrowing sidious and ruling the empire #there was only ever one decision anakin could make #because in that moment he looked upon the last reminder of the love that existed once between him and padme and he found his reason #to finally break the cycle of violence #he couldn't kill luke because he loved him ! even among all the anger and pain and regret. anakin loved his son #and just as anakin's love drove him to the dark so too did it help guide him to the light #whatever. this novel destroyed me. gonna have 'this is how it feels to be anakin skywalker forever' on my mind for 3-5 business days

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layla-carstairs · 8 months

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does anyone else ever think about how in cohf Magnus refers to Jace, Clary, Izzy and Simon as Alec's friends and says that he just puts up with them for Alec. does anyone think about how later in qoaad at their wedding Magnus refers to them as "their closest friends"??? because I think about it a lot

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commanderry · 10 months

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the way ewan mcgregor says “your new empire?” in rots is the best thing ever. it lives rent free in my head.

#star wars #rots #star wars revenge of the sith #ewan mcgregor #obi wan kenobi #your new empire #i love star wars #star wars prequels #text post

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go-see-a-starwar · 3 months

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Because Star Wars has had the cultural impact that it has, these characters almost become public domain, where people feel a sense of ownership over them. The character was criticised, my performance was criticised, and that part sucked. But I also felt like I had some context that perhaps helped a little bit. When Episode I came out, there was a lot of excitement that they were making a new Star Wars, and it was going to be the backstory of Darth Vader. But I had friends that were upset that the character was starting off as this young kid. And I watched the film, and I loved it. It was everything I wanted and more. And I didn’t understand the disconnect between the movie that I saw, and the negativity in some of the reviews. In a way that sort of criticism, I think, comes from a certain failure of their own suspension of disbelief. If you’re gonna go sit in a theatre, and the opening scroll starts with, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away”, that’s setting the stage that anything is possible. These people don’t need to sound and behave the way that we might expect. And if you’re going to sit down and think that you’re getting something that is of our current zeitgeist, then you’re setting yourself up for something else. You know what I mean?

Hayden on the backlash the prequels and his performance received, Empire Magazine

#go off king #this is the closest we’ll get to hayden telling the critics and fanboys to shove it #of course it’s still very well worded and polite #hayden christensen #sweet Canadian farm prince #anakin skywalker #empire magazine #rots #revenge of the sith #aotc #attack of the clones #Star wars #photoshoots #interviews

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soelvfiskart · 1 month

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#My hc is that after taking over sorcery sundries #rolan just stays in his pyjamas while working #in his tower like lowkey rotting hermit shit but he’s happy Cal and Lia takes him out on walks #bg3 art #bg3 rolan #holy rolan empire #baldurs gate 3 fanart #bg3 #artists on tumblr #baldur's gate 3 #sketch #sketches #baldurs gate fanart

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brrmian · 28 days

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something that so many star wars fans somehow fail to realize is that george lucas always intended for the fall of the republic to be a completely unavoidable tragedy. that’s what makes it such brilliant storytelling.

placing the blame on just one party in the galaxy-wide farce that was the clone wars just isn’t interpreting the story the way its writer intended. neither is saying that all players should be held equally accountable. i don’t think the jedi were at fault for the state of the republic, and (despite the fact that he did horrible things) neither was anakin, on a galactic or governmental scale.

the real villain is palpatine, who shaped the government into a corrupt system by his own hand. the blame for turning a democratic republic into an authoritarian dictatorship (which it was long before it became the empire) under the noses of thousands of incredibly corrupt politicians must be placed entirely on him, and him alone.

by the end of the war, the jedi council recognized that they had already lost the ability to hold onto what it truly means to be a jedi. in their prime during the days of the old republic, the jedi knights were “the guardians of peace and justice.” they’re meant to as diplomats, peacekeepers, mediators, and public servants. when the clone wars began, they were essentially forced into being soldiers, generals, and quasi-politicians by palpatine and the senate. all of those things are antithetical to the jedi’s beliefs, but they had no other choice.

placing even the smallest bit of blame on the jedi for anything leading to the republic’s downfall—and their own—is not only unfair, it’s factually incorrect. the jedi order is a monastic organization. they have no say in the senate and no voting power. saying they’re corrupt, when in fact they were just as conned by palpatine as the rest of the galaxy, is victim-blaming and scapegoating.

palpatine shoved the jedi face first into fighting the war, and pretty much threw the clone army into their laps on top of that. the jedi had no say in the matter, and they certainly had no say in the war itself being started, either. because he controlled both sides, palpatine was able to make the CIS and the republic declare war on each other even though its citizens wanted the same outcome: political independence and survival. if not for palpatine’s schemes, the separatists would have been allowed to secede peacefully, the republic would have continued existing, and the war would have been completely avoided. but that was unfortunately not the case.

so in a galaxy thrown into an unavoidable war by its own secret dictator, with an army of sentient slaves suddenly at their command, and the risk of billions of deaths at the hands of the droid army imminently approaching, what do the galaxy’s official peacekeepers have no other choice but to do? be peacekeepers. why wouldn’t the sworn defenders of the galaxy be out on the battlefields trying to end the war? if they sat in the temple and did nothing, they simply wouldn’t be jedi.

the jedi were forced into a lose/lose situation. every religion and organization has faults, but that doesn’t place any blame on them for the catch-22 they were trapped into falling for. when the clone wars started—and the key point here is that it never should have in the first place—the jedi still needed to be jedi. unfortunately for them, that meant having positions of power not meant for them being thrust upon their shoulders. they couldn’t drop the burden, because that meant actively choosing not to save lives—but the other option, becoming soldiers despite the tenet of their beliefs that dictates they shouldn’t, was no better.

see what a cruel trap palpatine set? it’s like a fish being caught in a fisherman’s net. the net is spread out across the ocean floor, and the fish swim above it, not knowing that the trap is waiting to be drawn in around them from below. in the end, when the net starts to tighten, dragging them closer to the surface, they can’t swim fast enough to escape from the middle to the edge—and to safety—before the net is completely tied. it’s the cruelest kind of trap: the kind that gives you just the right amount of time to think you can escape while being sprung just quick enough to make actually escaping impossible.

in the end, the order actively chose to fight the war because they needed to. there was no other way to continue on as who they were. militarizing the order was not the right choice in a vacuum, but this was not that; this was a situation in which every galaxy-changing choice was the wrong one. the jedi knew they were making a decision that drew them farther away from their beliefs, but it was the lesser of an infinite list of evils, and they didn’t see the walls closing in on them until it was too late.

lucas himself has even said that the order was not corrupt or decaying from the inside, nor did they make a series of bad choices that ultimately led to their own destruction. they were always just trying to do the right thing—but unlike literally everything else in fiction, the jedi order’s death was completely unaffected by any of the choices they made. no matter what they did, they were always going to lose. the fall of the republic wasn’t caused by its defenders choosing what they saw as the least bad choice. it didn’t come down to any decisions, political or not, that the jedi council made with the limited tools that they had. it certainly didn’t come down to one emotionally unstable twenty-three-year-old’s slow descent into insanity, either. the republic and the jedi would still have been destroyed with or without anakin’s unhinged nervous breakdown.

anakin, just like the order, the republic, and the separatists, was taken advantage of by palpatine. even if a person’s choices are their own, they don’t exist in a vacuum.

anakin would have made better choices if not for palpatine, but he didn’t. the jedi order would have kept the peace if not for palpatine, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t. the republic, and democracy with it, would not have crumbled if not for palpatine. not the order, not anakin, not the separatists, and not the republic.

in the end, they were all just pawns in a decades-spanning plan, one that none of them saw coming until it was too late—and by then, it was already irreversible.

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purdledooturt · 3 months

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WIP Wedneday

I got tagged again, and y'all... you may not know this but I basically bleed WIPs. I have nothing but WIPs. Sometimes they never become anything, and WIP Wednesdays are the only way they see the world at all. Thank you @cinnamontails-ff for freeing one of these boys from the jail.

In celebration of the announcement of the continuation of An Empirical Science, I would also like to contribute to the Holy Rolan Empire.

The door clicked closed – then, it clicked again. Locked.

“Drop the glamour, please,” Rolan all but growled, “before I do it for you.”

Tav gasped at the commanding tone, her heart seized by cold tendrils in confusion. Immediately, she did as he had asked, dropping the disguise with an exhale. “Rolan!” Her hand flew to her chest, trying to still her pounding heart. “It’s just me!”

“Tav!” Rolan gasped back, his expression going from dark and fierce and angry to something more akin to surprise and confusion and… suspicion? With one final once-over the expression melted into something more sheepish, as his shoulders relaxed with a sigh. “I’m sorry about that. You… you had triggered some alarms, so I…” He ran a hand through his hair, letting loose a few tendrils from his normally immaculately styled half-up ‘do. “It’s good to see you, though.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, pursing her lips together as she felt her face burn red out of embarrassment. Of course they would have security measures for disguises and seemings – she didn’t even think about it. “That was wholly my fault.”

To try and soothe the awkward air, Tav went for the first gesture she could think of: a friendly hug. Oddly, Rolan accepted – in fact, he damn near melted into it. She enjoyed his warmer body temperature, momentarily reminded of the piggy-back rides Karlach used to give her when they were racing Lae’zel. She rested her chin on his shoulder. “It’s good to see you, too.”

He pulled away from the embrace, examining her once again. “My reaction was completely unwarranted. I apologise, I didn’t mean to scare you, I just thought you… were someone else. Why were you in a disguise anyway?”

She looked down at her bag of purchases and sheepishly held them up to call his attention to them. Curiously, he peered in. “Last time I came by, Lia wouldn’t let me pay, so…”

He laughed. “You silly girl,” he said fondly, shaking his head. He gestured towards a well-lit seating area by the large floor-to-ceiling window. “Why don’t you take a seat over by the window? Let me at least get you a drink, and I’ll let Cal and Lia know you’re here so they can say hello.”

Tav marvelled at the room Rolan had claimed as his office – the walls were covered in books, from floor to ceiling, but unlike Lorroakan’s old set up it was much more organised and welcoming. Rolan had his books in shelves of polished cherry wood – she found that the desk, chairs, his drinks cabinet, and the furniture at his seating area matched, giving the room an elevated, moody, professional air. It was luxurious and neat – it was just very him.

“ I’d love a juice of some kind,” she called out over her shoulder as she settled down on the plush seat of one of the armchairs. “This place is beautiful, Rolan - you’ve outdone yourself!”

“I found the difficulty of furnishing a space is greatly made easy by having lots of money,” he said in his normal, sardonic, Rolan way, though there was markedly no bite in his tone. “I do hope this juice would do.”

She’d turned to find him walking towards her with two glasses of wine and she laughed, leaning forward in her seat to reach for one. “That counts,” she joked, as she watched him take the other armchair across from her. She took a sip of the wine – chilled and sweet.

Before he leaned back he reached into his pocket, pulling out a pouch which he’d tossed her way. It landed on her lap with a light jingle that betrayed its contents. “Say nothing,” he said, pre-empting her protest with a raised hand, “that should be exactly what you paid, and not a gold more.”

“One of the scrolls was on sale,” she mentioned – concern about being credited more than what actually paid oddly the first thing in her mind.

The second, she found, was amazement – the idea of Rolan just… casually calculating the cost of her purchases, just from that brief glance into her bag, just to refund her? Well, she knew he was a genius, but that was as impressive as Astarion’s one-handed lockpicking trick – it was another level entirely. “Rolan, really –”

He finally settled down in the armchair, waving her concerns away. “I’ve accounted for that, don’t worry,” he said, “just to keep the books clean for Bex.”

Ooh - why did he react so poorly? Who was he expecting? 👀

I am super excited about this idea so I am definitely motivated to keep working on it - I just want to have it all planned out before I commit (sorry). I have a prologue whipped up that explains the whole premise from the get go, but there's a whole lot of middle to work with.

#rolan #rolan x tav #rolan x oc #purdle-writes #purdle writes #holy rolan empire #the brainrot continues to rot #rolan bg3 #bg3 rolan #rolan nation #rolan brainrot

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seabirdsong · 9 days

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Blorbo hours

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 rolan #rolan bg3 #holy rolan empire #rolan brainrot #rolan #BRAIN ROT #what is wrong with me

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tatooineknights · 3 months

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"I've accepted the truth that you were once Anakin Skywalker, my father. It is the name of your true self, you've only forgotten," Luke replied. "I know there is good in you."

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your-good-pal-chevy · 2 years

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Hyperparasitism

The obsession with candles always perplexed Rath. He hardly needed any light at all to see, and reading required only a scant bit more. A single candle, carried in the hand, was more than enough for his purposes.

And yet, as the fire grew and engulfed the manor around them, Rath could not help but think it was a consequence of all the damned candles. Between himself and Hathus, they had already toppled more than a few candelabras.

He supposed they would simply have to duel in the light.

Hathus was of average height. Thin. He held himself with the grace of a duelist, a far cry from his accomplice Killian’s pitiful stance. Rath thought he might actually be somewhat dangerous.

“I don’t understand,” Rath began, circling his opponent, “Killian was a fop and a fool. You’re clearly on another level from that worm, so why work alongside him?”

Hathus moved to match Rath’s pace. He kept his saber and dagger up. His face was a naked display of concentration. “He had his uses. I suppose that’s over, now that you’ve killed him.” He made a vague gesture with his dagger. “And I don’t understand you, black knight. You’re a vampire like us, why the hostility? You’re clearly strong enough to stake a claim for yourself somewhere more important than this shithole of a village.”

Rath chuckled, the hollow of his armor giving it an eerie quality. “You truly don’t understand. I’m not here to stake a claim.”

“Then why? Why slay us if not for our land?”

Rath lunged forward, bringing his longsword to bear. With a tremendous clamor, the blade connected with Hathus’ weapons. Hathus, for his part, had to cross his blades to find enough leverage to block the savage blow.

“This isn’t your land.” Rath’s voice was low and venomous. “The people of the village suffer under your delusions. I am here to relieve them of you, and then I will be on my way to the next.”

“What-”

“Everywhere I go, I see spineless little weasels like your friend Killian. I see snakes like you. Vampires who prey upon the weak.”

Hathus shoved Rath away with a grunt, backpedaling almost into a bookshelf that had caught fire. “You’re a vampire like us! No mortal can fight like that, no mortal can match an immortal’s strength!”

“Wrong on both counts,” Rath said. “You prey upon the helpless. I prey upon the predators. I hunt little snakes and, in gratitude, the innocent provide me with what I need. I do not take blood from the innocent. I only accept it.”

“Then you’re a fool.” Hathus darted forward, lashing out with a flurry of blows with both saber and dagger. One stroke after another, the blades clashed against the longsword in Rath’s hand. “You’ve turned on your own kind, and for what, the charity of the weak and the helpless?”

“No,” Rath replied. He rammed his shoulder forward, his opponent’s saber bouncing harmlessly off his armor, and caught Hathus square in the chest.

Hathus was sent sprawling, but Rath didn’t give him even a moment to recover. It was all Hathus could do to roll out of the way of Rath’s blade as it came down to where he had been a mere instant prior.

“I do not seek the charity of mortals, Hathus.” Rath appoached his opponent as Hathus clambered to his feet. “Payment exchanged for services rendered. I think it’s a fair trade. I get the blood I need to live, they have their local parasites removed.”

Hathus brought his weapons up again. He was unnerved and ill-equipped for the fight. Rath was satisfied in his prior estimation. Hathus might have been dangerous, had the fight not been stacked so efficiently against him from the beginning.

“You’ll never be one of them,” Hathus seethed, “You’ll always be like me. Whether you drink only blood given freely, you’re still drinking blood. You’re still a vampire. You’re still a parasite like us.”

“Perhaps,” Rath said, “I don’t disagree. I am a parasite. But I’m not like you.”

Rath withdrew a stake from his belt. Hathus, seeing this, rushed forward. He screamed his defiance as Rath lunged to meet him, blade against blades, and drove the stake into Hathus’ chest with one mailled hand.

Hathus tried to speak, tried to stand, but he could only lean heavily against Rath as the torpor of death overtook him. He wheezed once, words failing to form, and collapsed.

Rath regarded the rapidly clouding eyes of his opponent.

Without another thought, he cleft the head from shoulders and left the body to be consumed in the growing blaze.

Services rendered.

#rotting empire #violence #blood mention #vampires #sword fights #creative writing #it's rath #rath is the hyperparasite #the parasite that feeds on other parasites

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blangg · 8 months

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Drawing I did for my first thoschei animatic but ultimately ended up not using it since I just don't like it that much 🤧🤧🤧

#but honestly i loove how theta ended up here #anyway posting it cuz i dont want it to rot in my gallery #may as well just post it yknow #doctor who #art #my art #theta sigma #koschei oakdown #thoschei #dw #the doctor #the master #torvic rock murder my beloved #its like my roman empire

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kenobihater · 3 months

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of all the star wars movies, which of them do y'all 1) enjoy the most 2) consider the best quality and 3) think you've rewatched the most. add your answers in the reblogs or replies, i'm genuinely curious how much of an overlap there is within everyone's three answers. mine don't overlap at all! they're revenge of the sith, empire strikes back, and the force awakens :^)

#len speaks #star wars #revenge of the sith #empire strikes back #the force awakens #not tagging more films than that bc i cant b bothered. incoming tag ramble ahead bc i have sw brainrot rn and im making it everyones prob❤️#i rlly struggled 2 remember if id watched tfa or aotc more. i went w/ tfa bc it was formative to me as a teen and ive seen it probably 6ish #times? whereas aotc was the first sw movie i remember (specifically the scene of obiwan serving c*nt in the bar lmao) but i've only seen it #for sure 4.5 and maybe 5.5 times. the .5 is from when i got bored after obi-wan's scene ended and ran off to go play in the mud or smthn 😭#i'm sure tfa will eventually get surpassed in number of rewatches by aotc and rots bc i don't fw the direction of the ST but that's my #current ballpark estimate of my total number of rewatches #as an adult tho if i just wanna watch a star war i'll go with aotc bc it's fun and ends semihappily and i can turn my brain off for the #spinny lightsabers. it's great background noise or for if you're sick or whatever. rots on the other hand? i won't talk through that unless #i'm quoting it with my brother and i am LOCKED IN 100% entirely entranced by it all #i almost picked rogue one for the best quality answer but i think the character writing is weaker and the facial cgi is creepy. esb beats #it by a hair imho bc of that. the vader hallway scene goes hard tho!!!#also i'm not covering shows or games or books or anything else in this post - simply the films. might ask abt shows later but that might #also give me hives bc so many of the shows suck ass and i don't rlly want ppl extolling the virtues of t.bb in my notes 💀#and yes i do think one's enjoyment and one's opinion of quality are two things that often overlap. but sometimes you just like something #bad and that's awesome. like rots is the best of the prequels by a large margin and i adore the opening and characters and many of the #scenes but that doesn't mean it's the best star wars has to offer ykwim? it's my specialest most favoritest sw movie but that doesn't blind #me to the dialogue lmfaooo

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jellyfishywishy · 3 months

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I need that mug!

Credit: mymuggiemug on Tiktok

#star wars #sw rots #rots #revenge of the sith #anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #mustafar #“i have brought peace freedom justice and security to my new empire”#hayden christensen #ewan mcgregor #tiktok

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