myth adopts! 80 USD OBO, DM me if youre interested :> Flute [sold]

Drum [sold] 

Piano Accordion [sold] 

Dombra [available]

What we like to call...

✨showing off✨

Psychic type Pokemon always fuck me up to think about. because like most 'mons are non-sapient so it's whatever for a human to capture them. They're basically your fun pet like a cat/dog that you bond with and do these fights with strict rules for everyone's safety and comfort. But that breaks down when half the Psychic types have human-level or greater intelligence. Are you forcing them to be on your team? Are you like making a pact/agreement of some kind or are you literally bending this person, basically, to your will? Just because they're a Pokemon and are capable of being put in Ball Jail? Like, Alakazam is just an extremely powerful telekinetic guy who could totally murder people if it wanted to. Don't wild pokemon attack humans? What I'm saying is Mewtwo has the means, motive, and opportunity to be popping people's heads off and I think it should be allowed to.

It would probably break the game, but I would love it if Durge had been killed by Orin, then been mummified as per Bhaalist custom, and then I could play as a mummy.

idk, mummies are just one of my favourite D&D undead for reasons I don't understand.

Demon Lord, Orcus

Image © TSR Inc, by Todd Lockwood.

[Sponsored by @tar-baphon. Orcus is one of the iconic D&D villains, and through the SRD and plausible deniability (he's a Roman god!), he's in Pathfinder as well. In Pathfinder, he is deliberately not a power player, and my flavor text takes that already metatextual decision and runs hog wild with it.

A note on the art: I feel like Orcus is emblematic of when D&D was seen as dangerous, and this piece absolutely feels like it should be the cover of a Black Sabbath album. It's no surprise that I was fascinated with the anti-D&D strain of the Satanic Panic when I was a kid. Also, although there has been some course correction in the 5e era, there's a trend with Orcus in a lot of art, including his official Pathfinder depiction, of making Orcus buff. Let Orcus be fat!]

Demon Lord, Orcus CR 28 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This humanoid is a corpulent giant with skin mottled like a decaying corpse. He has great black bat-wings growing from his shoulders, hooves for feet, and the head of a goat. He clutches a short staff, tipped with an oversized human skull.

Orcus, Prince of Undeath CE male demon lord of death, necromancy and wrath Domains  Chaos, Death, Evil, Magic Subdomains Demon, Divine, Murder, Undead Favored Weapon heavy mace Unholy Symbol a goat’s head with curving horns Worshipers liches, necromancers, sapient undead Minions boneclaws, deathdrinkers, demons, other undead For information on his Obedience and boons for his worshipers, see Book of the Damned

Orcus is one of the most powerful demon lords in the Universe. But not on Golarion. On that world, his is one of a number of undead cults, and not nearly the most popular. Orcus has a clear hierarchy to what undead he considers truly worthy, with those created from contagion seen as inferior to accident, and those inferior to those who intentionally seek out undeath. His most dedicated worshippers on Golarion are liches, some of whom have learned the secret of crafting a phylactery by teasing apart the Prince of Undeath’s wisdom from his threats. The followers of many other undead-focused religions, particularly vampires and ghouls, see Orcus as pretentious and unworthy of dedication, although few are foolish enough to directly oppose him.

Orcus himself knows that his star has fallen. In his extensive research into planar lore, Orcus has learned that he was once the most feared being in another universe, who went on a killing spree that left several gods dead and an entire race of lawful outsiders duped into being his pawns. That Orcus cannot accomplish this level of power in this version of reality vexes and frustrates him, and he takes his rage out on his minions as much as he does his foes.

Orcus is a genius tactician, although his temper sometimes gets the better of him. He enjoys combat as a distraction from his cosmic-level sulk, and as a way of expressing his power over others. He typically opens combat with a time stop to summon allies and cast defensive spells on himself, and then unleashes a potent death effect as soon as the duration expires. Against creatures that can resist his negative energy and poison, he uses dispelling magic. On more than one occasion, Orcus has beaten a cocky archmage to a pulp by centering an antimagic field on himself and wading into combat.

Orcus in the Great Game Orcus’ response to the brewing theomachy between Mormo and Lamashtu is cautious optimism. He desires more power in the Abyss, and Lamashtu could open the door for him to seize it. Kabriri and Zura are at the top of Orcus’ hit list, but views a direct assault on them as currently too risky to be worth the effort. If one of them were to make a move against Lamashtu and be punished for it, or if they were struck down in the scramble for power following Lamashtu’s (theoretical) demotion or demise, Orcus would happily swoop in to finish them off.  And if Mormo is capable of legitimately slaying a god, Orcus will be very keen to study her techniques.

Wand of Orcus (major artifact) The Wand of Orcus is the Prince of Undeath’s scepter of office, and it never leaves his side. Lesser versions have appeared in the Material Plane, often created by Orcus or one of his high-level clerics. The real Wand of Orcus is a Huge +5 anarchic, unholy heavy mace. In the hands of a demon, it grants a +4 profane bonus to Armor Class. The first time the Wand of Orcus strikes a living creature in a round, that creature is subject to a slay living spell (DC 30). Weight 24 lbs.; CL 25th

Demon Lord, Orcus        CR 28 XP 4,915,200 CE Huge outsider (chaos, demon, evil, extraplanar) Init +11; Senses arcane sight, darkvision 120 ft., detect good, detect law, Perception +48, true seeing Aura frightful presence (120 ft., DC 36), undead obedience (120 ft., Will DC 36), unholy (DC 28)

Defense AC 47, touch 23, flat-footed 40(-2 size, +7 Dex, +4 deflection, +4 profane, +24 natural) hp 709(33d10+528); regeneration 30 (deific or mythic) Fort +31, Ref +29, Will +34 DR 20/cold iron, epic and good; Immune ability damage, ability drain, charm, compulsion, death effects, electricity, energy drain, petrification and poison; Resist acid 30, cold 30, fire 30; SR 39 Defensive Abilities Abyssal resurrection, freedom of movement, negative energy affinity

Offense Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (average) Melee Wand of Orcus +51/+46/+41/+36 (3d6+20 plus 2d6 chaos and 2d6 evil/19-20), claw +44 (1d8+7), sting (2d4+7 plus poison), gore (2d6+7) or 2 claws +46 (1d8+15), sting +46 (2d4+15 plus poison), gore +46 (2d6+15) Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft. Special Attacks epic spellcasting, powerful charge (gore, 4d6+22) Spell-like Abilities CL 28th, concentration +38 (+42 casting defensively) Constant—arcane sight, detect good, detect law, freedom of movement, true seeing, unholy aura (DC 28, self only) At will—animate dead*, astral projection, blasphemy* (DC 27), circle of death* (DC 28), create undead, enervation*, greater dispel magic, greater teleport, plane shift* (DC 25), telekinesis* (DC 25), unholy blight* (DC 24) 3/day—control undead (DC 29), create greater undead, energy drain (DC 31), finger of death* (DC 29), quickened greater dispel magic, quickened harm*, summon demons or undead, symbol of death (DC 30) 1/day—power word kill*, time stop*, true resurrection, wail of the banshee (DC 31) * Orcus can use the mythic version of this spell-like ability in his domain Spells Prepared CL 20th, concentration +32 (+36 casting defensively) 9th—energy drain (DC 33), etherealness, mage’s disjunction* (D, DC 31), overwhelming presence (DC 31), soul bind (DC 33), wail of the banshee (DC 33) 8th —cloak of chaos (DC 30), fire storm* (DC 30), greater spell immunity, horrid wilting (DC 32), orb of the void* (DC 32), protection from spells (D), unholy aura (DC 30) 7th —control weather, destruction (DC 31), greater scrying (DC 29, x2), repulsion, spell turning (D), waves of exhaustion 6th —antilife shell, antimagic field (D), banshee blast (DC 30), blade barrier* (DC 28), geas/quest, harm* (DC 30), mass bull’s strength 5th —dispel good (DC 27), flame strike (DC 27), greater command (DC 27), mass ghostbane dirge (DC 27), righteous might, suffocation (D, DC 29), vampiric shadow shield 4th —contagion (DC 28), death ward (D), divine power (x2), rest eternal, sending (x2)*, tongues 3rd —bestow curse (x2, DC 27), prayer*, protection from energy, rage (D, DC 25), ray of exhaustion, vampiric touch*, water breathing 2nd —bear’s endurance (x2), death knell (D, DC 26), desecrate, owl’s wisdom (x2), resist energy, spiritual weapon* 1st —bane (DC 25), divine favor (x2), entropic shield, identify (D), ray of enfeeblement* (DC 25), sanctuary (DC 23), shield of faith* 0th—bleed (DC 24), detect magic, light, read magic *—Orcus may use the mythic version of this spell in his Abyssal domain

Statistics Str 40, Dex 25, Con 42, Int 30, Wis 35, Cha 31 Base Atk +33; CMB +50; CMD 71 Feats Combat Casting, Combat Reflexes, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Rod, Craft Wondrous Item, Flyby Attack, Greater Spell Focus (necromancy), Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Critical (heavy mace), Improved Initiative, Hover, Multiattack, Mythic Spell Lore (B), Power Attack, Quicken SLA (greater dispel magic, harm), Spell Focus (necromancy), Spell Penetration Skills Bluff +46, Craft (alchemy, weaponsmithing) +46, Fly +36, Intimidate +43, Knowledge (arcana, planes, religion) +46, Knowledge (dungeoneering, history) +43, Perception +48, Sense Motive +48, Spellcraft +46, Stealth +35, Survival +45, Use Magic Device +46 Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Infernal, Necril, telepathy 300 ft. SQ demon lord traits, master of death

Ecology Environment any land or underground (Abyss) Organization unique Treasure triple standard (Wand of Orcus, other treasure)

Special Abilities Aura of Undead Obedience (Su) Any undead creature within 120 feet that attempts to make a hostile action against Orcus must succeed a DC 36 Will save or be unable to take that action, wasting it. The save DC is Charisma based. Epic Spellcasting (Ex) Orcus gains Mythic Spell Lore as a bonus feat. Once per day, he can use one of his spell-like abilities or spells as if it was a mythic spell without spending a use of mythic power. This allows him to use a mythic spell or spell-like ability outside of his Abyssal domain, but he cannot augment that spell or spell-like ability by spending additional uses of mythic power. Master of Death (Ex) Orcus applies his Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus (necromancy) feats to his spell-like abilities. Death effects created by Orcus, including the Wand of Orcus in his hands, ignore immunity to death effects except for those granted by creature type, or from deific or mythic sources. Poison (Ex) Sting—injury; save Fort DC 42; duration 1/round for 4 rounds; damage 1d6 Str and 1d6 Con; cure 2 consecutive saves. A creature reduced to 0 Str by Orcus’ poison cannot breathe and begins to suffocate. The save DC is Constitution based. Spells Orcus can cast spells as a 20th level cleric, and can prepare necromancy spells from the sorcerer/wizard list as if they were cleric spells. He gets access to domain slots, and can fill them with spells from any of his domains or subdomains. He can also spontaneously cast inflict spells as an evil cleric can. Summon Demons and Undead (Sp) When Orcus summons demons, he can also summon undead creatures.

=[SILXNCER]: a [BXLLET> expansion

I'm a big fan of @rathayibacter's [BXLLET> system, so I made a lil expansion for it!

=[SILXNCER] adds 8 new classes to the game:

The Revenant: an ultra-lethal undead who loses themself as they kill

The Debtor: a false prophet backed by a malicious, godlike entity

The Rider: the fastest damn thing in this hemisphere

The Duelist: a showy gunman with a past they can't run from

The Old Timer: just a tough old bastard

The Headsman: a supernatural bounty hunter/slasher villain

The Fallen: an old world astronaut-turned-angel

The Lovers: a well-meaning fool and their evil, sapient gun

This is an expansion for an existing game: you can pick up [BXLLET> on Rath's itch page.

Vampire world biology rambling ft. Lorelai

Vampires "live" through the interaction of necrotic energy allowing them to ambulate. For this reason, despite the common misconception, vampires do have a heartbeat, it is however extremely slow, most accurately being compared to an Agonal rhythm (around 10 BPM), purely for the sake of circulating this energy through the vehicle of blood. Since most of the vampires organs have atrophied (their digestive, reproductive and renal systems), blood circulation is purely to facilitate the energy reaching all extremities and to discourage blood pooling, and causing swelling.

Since their digestive tracts are atrophied, vampires cannot digest food, and have to get their "nutrition" through liquid means. In order to replenish their unique homeostasis, they must consume the living force of other creatures, the more intelligent creatures leading to a much better ratio of blood to potential energy. Sickness, age, lifestyle and nutrition affect the potential energy that can be found within an organism, thus vampires typically seek out younger, healthier individuals, but rarely children due to their small size. Because of this, vampires do not need to feed as regularly if they consume blood from sapient, and go several days up to weeks without feeding (Akin to reptiles).

As such, since the vampire cannot eat meat to consume the energy, they must stick to bodily fluids, the easiest and easiest to replenish being blood, but things like CFS would also work. Occasionally starving vampires eat meat in desperation, but that is a lost cause as, they are forced to regurgitate it as they cannot digest it (Like Owl pellets). This usually only happens to 'feral vampires' - so lost in their hunger they step over their inhibitions and cave into pure instinct to get *something* to fill their belly.

Another system, while not fully atrophied, but heavily impacted is the nervous system causing vampires to experience Analgesia (Lack of Pain). They can feel sensations, however they are extremely muted. To feel cold a vampire must be in extremely freezing conditions, to feel warm they must be quite close to a flame, to feel pain they must sustain heavy damage etc.etc. This has an adverse effect on the psyche, and it is quite common for vampires to experience depression upon becoming undead.

But just because their body is dead does not mean it is impervious to damage. Their regenerative properties are part to none - Vampires still have to care for their bodies just as much as mortals, as due to their lack of an immune system, while they cannot fall ill, their body can still house fungi or bacteria that promote decomposition which while not a death sentence, is a promise of a painful and gruesome future.

In the sun, vampires burn, but not akin to a thermal burn, but rather chemical burn. There is no flame, but the sizzling of flesh, due to a unique interaction of necrotic forces and sunlight. As long as there is no direct sunlight on exposed flesh, the vampire can walk in the sun, however such a feat is quite difficult as it would involve covering ever single inch of your skin, most likely outing yourself as undead -hence why most prefer to simply rest during the day. Sunlight and holy forces are the only things that can scar a vampire.

How does Lorelai deal with the above?

Lorelai is still very young as far as Vampires go, only being one for several years, so many of the psychological long term effects remain a mystery to her.

She does require regular consumption of blood but she is acutely aware that by biting her companions, she would be putting them at a disadvantage for her own...he avoids it as much as possible (Only on extremely rare occasions will she feed from the wrist - never the neck because she finds that too intimate but that's for another post). Whenever the party buys ingredients for food, they also buy Pig's blood for her - a fairly innocuous and easy to acquire ingredient. When hunting, she is given time before the animal is butchered to drink. Since she mostly drinks of animals, she has to feed much more frequently, so it's common for her to be having her 'food' along with the party for dinner nightly.

She always had a soft spot for various fruits, with mangos being her favourite, so she indulges in tiny quantities of mango juice on special occasions.

Lorelai does feel the temperature difference very acutely, as I mention before she enjoys staying in her bat form to warm up by the fire or in various people's beds due to the much smaller size of body. She is fine without the cold.

She does have a lot of issues as I went over here about Analgesia, and how it impacts how she feels pleasure as well - so she is working through that, but she misses the positive sensations of when she was alive, feeling something soft or fluffy. To hold a warm cup. She however is not one of those people that wax poetically about how even pain she misses.

In general Lorelai isn't...someone that hates being a Vampire. Ultimately she wouldn't go back. She doesn't mind being tied to the night than the day, after all, most people rest during the night and miss the things that happen there (and with Raha only needing 4 hours of sleep and Blythe not needing sleep at all, she doesn't feel lonely). She enjoys that she feels full of energy at all times, that she can't get hurt as easily, that she is free to do what she wants. Vampirism to her was...the open door to freedom, to acceptance of what she wanted to do. She'd never want to go back (even if Raha continues to search for a cure for her. Even if she doesn't take it...at least this time she can make the choice to stay a Vampire)

One of the most fun implications to come from the Book of the Dead is just how hard it is to create undead that are good aligned because of how, exactly, negative energy works once it’s been shaped into a pseudo-soul.

It IS entropy and decay, stagnation and emptiness, destruction and death. It exists to destroy, to the point that creatures that are powered by it HAVE to destroy, or they begin to fall apart like a living creature would if it were starved. The author of the BotD goes as far as to say even non-sapient undead possess this urge and express it in simple ways; skeletons forced to plow fields or construct buildings actually decay to uselessness significantly faster than ones who reap those same fields or demolish structures instead. Undead used as tools to create experience more ‘glitches’ or sudden bouts of hostility than ones used to destroy. Undead, even mindless undead guided by nothing but dim instinct, that do anything to increase the overall amount of entropy in the world, no matter how small, can remain intact and active decades past when they should have crumbled to dust.

How many undead beasts have you read about that possess some meaningless hunger or cruel hatred for the living? How many seem to exist solely to destroy and despoil? It’s because their very essence is sustained by it. Much like a creature of positive energy will become overtaken with despair and boredom if left without the ability to create something, creatures of negative energy feel the exact same despair and boredom if they cannot destroy. This doesn’t directly explain the lengthy torpor that undead can enter if left bereft of stimulation, but my preferred explanation is that the polar-opposites theme goes even further; that positive energy wants to change all the time do everything, but negative energy’s ultimate desire is to have nothing to do. If you locked a living creature in a featureless, pitch-black room, they would swiftly go insane from lack of stimulation, but an undead becomes peaceful as they bask in an environment where change and growth is no longer possible.

Because most forms of ‘life’ sustained by negative energy are undead that were once mortals, their new cravings are translated by their minds into sensations they can understand. Hatred, hunger, hostility; things that force destructive change and entropy. “You’re not you when you’re hungry” taken to unimaginably nightmarish levels because your hunger isn’t physical, it’s in your very essence. Imagine, if you will, waking up one day changed, and finding out that the only things that bring you any sense of joy, peace, or fulfillment involve causing death, destruction, and chaos! This is why Good-aligned undead are so damn hard to create; it’s hard to remain fully good when faced with the fact that making the world flourish and grow around you becomes gruelingly, frustratingly boring, or even painful to your new existence.

I saw a D&D AU with the Voices, and I decided that I also wanted to do a D&D AU with the Vessels, so here goes:

*cracks knuckles*

The players are the chapter 2 vessels, who have joined together after they were each mysteriously attacked---and nearly kidnapped---by worshipers of a primordial god only known as The Narrator. Even though they're all vastly different people with vastly different motivations, they have to work together in order to figure out how they've somehow angered a long-forgotten god.

The Tower is a scourge aasimar and an Oath of Conquest paladin, who devoted herself to The Apotheosis, queen of the gods and the embodiment of justice and retribution. She acts as the self-appointed leader of the group, even though a good chunk of the other players are having none of her self-righteousness and narcissism. She doesn't believe that the Narrator actually exists, and considers the quest to just be another heretic-killing spree.

The Adversary is a tiefling Ancestral Guardians barbarian, who grew up in a rough-and-tumble all-barbarian community and is slated to become its next leader. She's just happy to travel around the world bashing heads, and she winds up clashing the most with Tower---mainly due to their very different backgrounds. She genuinely doesn't care who or what the Narrator is, and just wants to kick ass and have a good time.

The Spectre is a ghost and a necromancer wizard, who actually died when she was attacked and has brought herself back in order to track down her killer and to take her revenge. She kind of lost herself in the ivory tower of academia when she was alive, and part of the reason she's sticking with the others is so she can actually form connections before it's truly too late. She's studied several old cults in her time, but the only thing she's found of The Narrator is an old painting of a crow with sharp teeth...

The Nightmare is a dhampir and an Undead warlock, who draws her magic from the dread vampire queen who turned her. She is no stranger to being hunted, for people fear and shun vampires and their spawn, but she knows full well that this time is different. And during the attack, she managed to devour a dream of her would-be captor, getting a little glimpse into the ancient powers of the god that wants her gone... and, well, who can resist the allure of taking down a being as old as time?

The Witch is a tabaxi Circle of Spores druid and an Arcane Trickster rogue, who's been living on her own in the woods after suffering a great betrayal and heartbreak that damaged her trust in anyone. She's only working with the others because she believes she'll get further if she does, and while she initially intends to backstab them once they're no longer useful, she finds herself growing closer to them as their journey continues. All she really wants is to go back to her old life... but her goal may change as her walls begin to come down.

The Prisoner is a human Armorer artificer, who once angered an archfey and was cursed to always be bound in chains. Undeterred, she turned this to her advantage, reforging her chains into armor that she could use as a weapon. She starts traveling with the rest purely due to self-preservation, as every time she resolved to just hide, The Narrator's worshipers found her again---but she's definitely the practical mind that they needed.

The Damsel is a half-elf College of Creation bard and a Beastmaster ranger, and she's a princess whose kingdom was usurped by an evil family member, leaving her on the run. She's very naive about how the world works, mainly due to being sheltered her entire life, and is sure that this situation can be solved with a nice conversation. Thankfully, she has someone to help her...

The Beast is a fey that was cursed to take the form of a barely-sapient panther, and she barely recalls her life in the Feywild. Still, she has a soft spot for the innocent princess she came across in the woods one day, and she will protect her for as long as she can.

The Razor is an elf Soulknife rogue and a College of Swords bard, and she's actually a pretty well-known circus performer. She's absolute chaos personified, and she really doesn't give a shit about The Narrator either way---she's just ready to kick ass, stab people, and hang out with her new best friends. Even if not all of them are super into being friends with the crazy blade lady.

And last but not least, The Stranger is a changeling Divine Soul sorcerer and a Grave Domain cleric, who unknowingly draws their power from the long-forgotten goddess of change, transformation, endings, and new beginnings. They woke up one day with no memory of who they were, and were immediately attacked for reasons they could not explain---so, needless to say, they're pretty traumatized. It also doesn't help that they don't even know what they really look like, so they're constantly changing to reflect what people expect of them... which isn't the most healthy thing, but they're an amnesiac, give them a break.

So... yeah!

I've been holding onto Matador since I got back from Barcelona months ago and here he FINALLY is. And also another newbie!

Matador Smurf:

-Ironically very anti killing. He just wants to show off more than anything. Can usually subdue large or dangerous animals into crashing into walls and stuff quite well but he's a noble heart, will never go for the kill. IS a skilled fencer for other sapient opponents when it's fair. Would fight Don more but Don's a swashbuckling kind of hero whilst Matador sticks to fencing rules and would probably lose in a real swordfight.

-The Barcelonian! From the Catalonia region of Spain. Knows both mainland Spanish and Catalonian but tends to use Catalonian to P off Elena who only knows mainland Spanish … bit of a cultural rivalry there XD

-As bad as Smooth for flirting with everything that moves. Actually that includes Smooth too. It's a flirt off. And by that I mean dating but not. It's similar to Smooth and Slammy, both are wayyy too non committal to settle down but after Smooth's 174758th rejection from Jokey and when Slammy is back to doing his part time dating of the band Smooth can usually be found crawling back to Matador

SmurfHemlock:

-Born SmurfSunflower (Sunny) was a shy kid who disliked the other typical grove activities like archery and dance. Thought she didn't really fit in with anyone and would usually just be found down by the swamp poking stuff with sticks. She had one friend tho, a friend she thought was just as weird. SmurfRafflesia was obsessed with the undead and paranormal, and through her admiration of her, Sunflower came to enjoy these things too, finding beauty in death and wanting to preserve it somehow.

-Teenage Sunflower takes on a goth not-phase and changes her name to Hemlock (Sunflower was so … preppy!) and begins to study the art of taxidermy. Still regarded as one of the black sheeps of the grove but she minds it much less now - she kind of revels in the solitude. Begins developing a fairly big crush on Rafflesia before one day … Raff just goes missing out of the blue. It breaks Hemlock's heart and she sinks further into the loner persona. Also some weird demon got out somewhere but Papa and Willow took care of that.

-Lol JK Raff isn't gone forever, she shows up one day as a ghost and claims some Archaeologist from the guy village found her and whoops she's been gone for a century what did she miss haha. Well Hemlock is PISSED. I mean who does that? Esp/ since Rafflesia admits she wasn't even trapped she was just vibing in the mausoleum Archie found her in (Raff and Archie are a bit similar in that way, they're both married to their work and can be a bit self absorbed in it at times)

-Anyway Hemlock's been doing great w/ her taxidermy all this time. She's very careful and only sources natural deaths or kills … but may adopt elderly insects with some ulterior motives. At least she's good to em and they get a very comfortable end of life before becoming art pieces. Go figure. She's made up w/ Raff, it is pretty cool to have a ghost friend after all, and apparently Rafflesia also made some new friends in the village - holy shit is that a talking skeleton?? That's pretty goth.

-Skelly groans internally. Yet more admirers. Will he 'ere be rid of his fans ("Shut up Skelly")

Smooth (c) The Smurfs

Matador, Elena, Rafflesia and Hemlock are mine

Is there lore as to what happened to hero and what void bornes are?

To answer your first question: the ancient humans died out due to three factors, lumped together in an event called The Fall.

I’ll put a read more since this is kind of long.

- The first was a huge war between two major kingdoms, which would cause the next two catastrophes. They were butting heads as their technology began to progress and they needed more materials.

- The second was the undead plague. This was caused by necromancer magicians playing God in order to gain an upper hand over the other kingdom, but the bioweapon got out of control and people started zombifying.

- The third was the Wither. The wither was sort of their equivalent to a nuclear bomb. It was the weapon to end all weapons. This was made in a last ditch effort, but as it turns out, summoning an angel of entropy isn’t a good idea, and the land was scourged with radioactive withering.

- Due to the voracity of the wither combined with the zombie outbreak, the surviving humans scattered and fled to the ender stronghold and underground (different groups). However, the group that went to the stronghold, in their panic as they wrangled random civilians together, had not accounted for the fact that the end portal was on the enemy kingdom’s land, not theirs, and so they didn’t know that the portal had been shut off by the ender dragon when she had been summoned.

- They were stranded, and soon succumbed to the ravaged landscape they found themselves in. Meanwhile, the people who went underground found a strange biome full of tarry black mould that seemed to be sapient. This group was led by Rana, once a princess of one of the kingdoms. She negotiated as best she could with the organism, which called itself Sculk.

- the Sculk was intelligent, but it was entirely single minded in its goals — Get Food, Spread More — making it somewhat untrustworthy. Not to mention being around it had hallucinogenic, mind altering consequences. This would soon spell the death of the Rana’s ancient city inhabitants, as the population soon descended into a sort of cult that worshipped the superorganism. It became less of a mutual benefit situation and more of a “feed our eternally hungry god even if we starve” situation.

- Some of the few sane people left in the ancient city (including a now aging and unwell Rana) knew they were screwed. They had kept the notes and documents from the old world’s genetic experiments, and used this to create new forbears that could give them a second change in the far future once the world had recovered. These genetic experiments were called Players. They were made to be very durable, resilient and curious, and were to construct the foundation for the future civilization they would produce.

- Eventually, the ancient city was overcome with the sculk, and they too died (causing the mould to spread even further through the bowels of the world). 1000 years later, the Players exited stasis and spawned into the world with no memory aside from Basic Information, instincts and concepts engraved into their brains by their creators. These Players were Steve, Alex and Hero.

* The ancient humans had not accounted for the fact that some remote farming settlements and monasteries had survived (they were far away from the main cities where the catastrophes took place, so they only really got some of the second hand affects like areas of crop failure) and over the course of 1000 years they would become what are now villagers and illagers.

Okay, with that out of the way, about Voidborn. Voidborn are creatures native to the Void (the expanse of darkness between dimensions). Due to their origin in the Void, they are chaotic forces and exist as a form of sentient entropy, like the Void itself. They are semi-corporeal and while they can influence the corporeal realm, they can’t exist in the likes of the Overworld or Nether. However they tend to want to be corporeal. Lesser beings, like White-Eyes, latch onto things to feed off of them. In the case of White-Eyes, they latched onto Hero’s soul, and became the entity known as Herobrine. Stronger beings exist in Shells, biomechanical bodies built for them by corporeal beings they have influenced. This encompasses the likes of The Ender Dragon and The Vengeful Heart of Ender. These guys have a tendency to fuck shit up to put it bluntly. The heart of Ender, even when imprisoned in the orb of dominance, influenced many mortal beings through history to become utterly demented tyrants, such as the Arch-Illager.

the most important part of having a magical fantasy land is of course the magic.

in this world, magic is produced by all living things as part of their metabolism, and is vital to life. without magic a creature will swiftly die, their body consuming itself in order to restore it.

This is a major danger in any workings of a spell, so any mage learns to recognize the symptoms of low magic and immediately cease casting

magic is split up into different disciplines a person can learn, though they arent mutually exclusive and anyone can learn any or all of them given enough time effort and of course money

magic can do most of the things a typical fantasy world can, but with a few exceptions: you cant create something out of nothing (the conversion rate of say heat into magic is very high but it still has to come from somewhere), you cant raise the dead, be it fully reviving someone or creating undead its still impossible, and you cant alter time.

pulling magic from other creatures is possible, but the creature must be either dying or ill from certain diseases that can weaken your connection to your magic

this is not seen as an inherently evil act, and can even be necessary for some spell, though doing it to another sapient creature is murder and so frowned upon

there are two main types of casting spells that everything else is divided between, quick casting (spells that take under 5 minutes to perform) and ritual casting (anything 30 minutes or over) (most spells dont take more than 5 minutes and less than 30)

of the two ritual magic can be far more powerful, as you can build up and store magic over time, resulting in an extremely powerful spell when its released. it is also the only way to make permanent effects on things, and is used for many forms of magical crafting

Thwomps, Chomps and Bob-ombs, my theories on the artificial beings of Mario

Thwomps, Whomps, Bomps... The Mario universe has its fair share of sapient rock creatures. It has also many other artificial/metal creatures like Chain Chomps and Bob-ombs. I've often contemplated the nature of those mysterious beings, so here are my attempts at understanding them. This is a long one, so bear with me.

Now, before we start, I have a couple disclaimers to get out of the way that would help in understanding my ramblings:

1. There are a lot of speculative links between different "species": Many of the points I will bring up are only directly tied to one "type" of artificial being, e. g.: Bob-ombs having a spirit; seemingly lifeless Thwomps abandoned and overgrown, etc. I speculate that those characteristics can generally be applied to other types of artificial beings, e.g.: Bob-ombs having spirits means that Chain Chomps also have spirits, etc. 

2. Possessed doesn't mean what you think it means: Simply put, I'll be using the word "possessed" or similar concepts to describe the way these spirits inhabit their artificial bodies. By that I don't mean possessor-type ghosts who jump in and out of furniture to create chaos. Imagine it as your own soul possessing your own body, the two being intrinsically connected since birth and mostly all the way up to death. 

With that out of the way, let's start with their birth.

Thwomp birth: Thwomp Volcano 

In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, one of the locations visited is the Thwomp Volcano, a mountain literally built out of unchiseled Thwomps of various sizes. We see those same unchiseled Thwomps being shot out of the volcano during its annual eruption. 

“Own up! I mean, look at you! You're obviously all plumbers! Thanks to your meddling, my hubby's in a stone funk! Jumping into that volcano was his hobby, you terrible men! We've been waiting for the annual eruption all year!”

- Mrs. Thwomp, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

We also see a young professor E. Gadd studying the nature of the Thwomps and the mountain itself. That might not make much sense at first, given E. Gadd specializes in ghosts, but remember that Thwomps were literally described as ghosts in the English manual of Super Mario World.

A better translation of the Japanese manual (石のお化け “ishi no obake”) would be “stone spirits” or “stone demons”. I don’t mean to suggest they are literally undead people but more like a type of nature spirit in the world. E. Gadd is even described as an “obake researcher” (オバケけんきゅうか)  in the original japanese version of Luigi’s Mansion.

“The name's Elvin Gadd. I'm studying the Thwomps and history of this here mountain. How'd all these stony fellers get here and why're they so darn angry about everything?”

- Young Professor E. Gadd, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

“Thwomp A nasty stone ghost that guards the castles and fortresses for the Koopas. If Mario comes close, Thwomp will try to crush him. The trouble is, if you don’t pass it, you can’t go on.”

- Super Mario World instruction booklet, page 25

I speculate that Thwomps are formed inside the volcano, where their spirits are born and gain a stone body from the cooled magma. I also believe that other similar species like Thwimps, Whomps, Walleyes, etc. are either born from the same volcano or from similar locations.

Chompworks Galaxy and the Bob-omb Factories

Although they might not initially look all that similar, Chain Chomps and Thwomps could have a lot in common, starting with their creation. 

The Chompworks Galaxy is a location seen in Super Mario Galaxy 2, where Gearmos work to maintain a production line of Chain Chomps. The large bodies of lava present here might suggest that the creation of Chomps is tied to a foundry-like process, much like how the Thwomp Volcano would work in a similar manner, using molten rock instead of molten metal.

On a side note, Bob-ombs have also been shown to be factory-built, as we see in minigames such as Sort or ‘Splode from Super Mario 64 DS/New Super Mario Bros. or the Bob-omb Factory board in Mario Party 9.

Chomp Rocks and Stone Chomps

Another connection that can be made between Thwomps and Chomps comes not from the classic Chain Chomps, but rather a variant of them, the Stone Chomps. These stone variants are only found in Paper Mario, inside the buried temple of Dry Dry Ruins. 

Given that the ruins themselves are very ancient and that the regular Chain Chomps in Tutankoopa's battle were brought by him, it stands to reason that these Stone Chomps are equally ancient and inhabitants of this tomb, unlike the Chain Chomps used by Tutankoopa, who was assigned by Bowser to guard the Star Spirit.

“This is a Stone Chomp, who guards the treasure in this room. He's made of stone. Duh!” “His jaws can supposedly crush a Coconut. I don't know about you, but I don't want to become a snack.”

- Goombario Tattle, Paper Mario.

Besides Stone Chomps, another hint at the true nature of Chain Chomps can be seen with the Chomp Rocks that are prevalent in the Yoshi series. These large round statues, placed across the island, might’ve once been living Stone Chomps (more on that topic in a moment). It would explain why they are so haphazardly placed, generally out in the wild.

My hypothesis on the nature of Chomps is that, like the Thwomps, Chomps were once naturally made out of stone. At some point in time, Chomps started being artificially built out of metal, with Chompworks being one such factory. These newer “models” were then named Chain Chomps.

Bobby, Chomp Shells and Thwomp Ruins

In Paper Mario: The Origami King, The Bob-omb Bobby shows us that they too have souls and can become ghosts, just like how Thwomps are “ghosts” (i.e. stone spirits). This means Chain Chomps likely have similar spirits too. Interestingly, while that shows us their spirit can linger on after their body is destroyed, there are cases where the opposite seems to happen.

The aforementioned Chomp Rocks might be empty husks of Stone Chomps, who have somehow left their bodies in the distant past. The same seems to be true for the Chomp Shell weapon from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (called ワンワンのぬけがら, Chomp Husks, in Japanese) as well as the motionless and cracked Thwomp husks found in places such as Thwomp Ruins from Mario Kart 8, Thwomp Desert from Mario Kart Wii and maybe even the Beanbean Kingdom in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

Maybe this is as close to a natural death as these beings can get, or maybe they are able to separate from their physical bodies without the latter’s destruction. Personally I doubt the latter.

The Mario Party 2 board Horror Land features Whomps that become immobile stone statues during the night. Perhaps a similar effect is at play here.

Final Thoughts

Connecting all those dots, my theory is that Thwomps, Chain Chomps and Bob-ombs (and related species) all have/are spirits of some type. Thwomps and Stone Chomps are natural stone spirits, with Chain Chomps having come from Stone Chomps after they started being manufactured. It is unclear if Bob-ombs (and others like Bullet Bills) were once naturally occurring spirits like Chain Chomps or are fully artificially-made spirits.

When a Thwomp's, Chain Chomp's or a Bob-omb's body is destroyed, their spirit likely dies with it. But as shown with Bobby, there is a possibility that some of them linger on as ghosts. Perhaps the other ones return to their place of origin and receive new bodies. As I speculated in a tweet here.

It also seems like they might also "die" in some other way, leaving empty shells behind. Whether that is their way of dying from old age or possibly willingly is unclear.

Thank you for reading through the entire post! I'd like to thank @seandwalsh for helping put it all together. Make sure to check out the Marioverse Discord server and the Subreddit for more theories and discussions on Mario lore!

https://discord.gg/ARUSxjmcSS

@ladymer Putting this in its own post for space and tidier notes.

Really? I haven't seen him say that before.

I'm pretty sure he still has his soul and that Karlach is being metaphorical when she tells unascended Astarion that he kept it (or she's referring to the fact that it's still his and unbranded by "property of Mephistopheles" as souls are when you make a deal with the infernal.)

Making a deal with a devil at all corrupts your soul because it always involves doing something evil that shifts you towards the Hells, shown mechanically as an alignment change which may be instant or gradual. You are twisted towards the end goal of becoming like a devil yourself, the embodiment of cruelty, ambition, lust and tyranny - destined for the hells and likely to corrupt those around you and take them with you.

As ever, this isn't necessarily what Larian had in mind, but this is how I'm reading/headcanoning it, based on the D&D lore available to me:

I imagine it would cause the Vampire Ascendant to be what vampires say on the box, no nuance left:

"Dark Desires: Whether or not a vampire retains any memories from its former life, its emotional attachments wither as once-pure feelings become twisted by undeath. Love turns to hungry obsession, while friendship becomes bitter jealousy. In place of emotion, vampires pursue physical symbols of what they crave..."

With the traits of a devil layered on top (which is honestly pretty much exactly the same as the drives possessed by vampires):

"The psychology of devils can be summed up in a single word: Ambition. Almost every devil constantly wonders how it can win advancement [...] The cleverer devils invariable perceive themselves as cool, calculating, and abundantly logical. [...however they] act based on emotion, without regard for their true long-term self-interest. Devils enjoy inflicting misery - be it physical or mental - on others. They hate suffering defeat or humiliation..."

They're not necessarily "more" evil than any other vampire, but incapable of being more than their curse the way another vampires are theoretically capable of. They may not be soulless, but they might as well be. The inherent evil/corruption of vampirism is maximised and overrides any existing humanity. Violence is the highest pleasure. Power is all. They only see things (including people) in terms of possession, jealousy and envy. The way they experience love and other emotions is superficial and sometimes, due to their ego, obsessive (this thing/person is theirs, so any challenge to that claim is not allowed because it's an attack on them). etc.

What the Vampire Ascendant mostly reminds me of is Abyssal Ghouls - and more specifically the original 1e FR version from Lords of Darkness, which was Ghasts, another form of sapient undead "improved" by the Lower Planes, courtesy of demons. They're undead and partially fiends. They're more powerful than regular ghouls, naturally dominate them as leaders of the pack, and, in their Lord of Darkness write up, Ghasts cannot be repelled by the usual anti-undead means (you have to repel them using cold iron, as you would a demon), so they have a less weaknesses. They're extraplanar in nature (no longer considered native to the material plane, but to the Abyss) and their souls are likewise bound to the Lower Plane that made them when they die, so they're... kind of minor demons themselves, in a way.

Replace "ghoul" with "vampire" and "demon" with "devil" and it doesn't seem far off from being similar.

Devils are also known for their mortal-like lusts and desires (such as food, despite not needing it) - it'd be interesting if the source of the Ascdendant's newly restored "mortal appetites" was from becoming a devil (or partially one).

Ghasts were described as the "Hounds of the Abyss" used by demons to track quarry, and I imagine the Vampire Ascendant is serving this purpose for Baator (which is also very devil-esque):

"Powerful lawful evil mortals are often more valuable to devilkind as living beings operating on the Material Plane. When alive, they can bring about the damnations of hosts of other souls, or pursue other goals of the hellish hierarchy."

Hey, just found your mwii monster au and wanted to say that its really cool! Quick question tho, is Soap like an actual god or just a really stronk monster? If he is an actual god, was he born like that or did he inherit/grow into it?

Oh god (hah) ok I guess it's time to try and pin down godhood/divinity for this verse, huh? Been meaning to make notes. Definitely not just 'stong monster'.

Sorry but you'll never get a 'quick' answer from me when I could be worldbuilding, lol. This is barebones and subject to change, mebbe.

A mortal (ie. not godly) is only one thing. They're a human. They're a werewolf. They're a human-werewolf-hybrid but that's still just one being. When they die they're dead (or possibly undead, but that's still being one thing at a time).

They need to eat, to hunt, to rest, to replenish in a way that is a conscious effort.

Gods are born as mortals to mortal parents (if applicable), but attached to them is the divine element that they are the god of. They're a mortal but also that element, both avatar and embodiment. Ageing is a tricky thing, on average a god's mortal form will develop to maturity at a regular pace and remain at that point. (I should mention that gods aren't always born to sapient species.)

Their divinity/godhood on the other hand is ever growing and maturing, eventually shedding their mortal form (and later self) after which their element soon (relative) consumes them. That is when a god dies, and a new one is born, and the cycle begins again. The speed at which the cycle moves really depends on the individual cycle's god, their species, their circumstances and element.

In a way you can see a divine element as a parasite that attaches at birth to a host and sustains and consumes them over a span of decades to millenia. There is no way to predict, invite, stop or avert this, in fact you shouldn't even try. Without the divine element the thing itself would cease existing. The divine element also feeds the mortal form purely by it's element existing, as such a god doesn't need to eat or rest (but they can, if they so choose so), and it's very very hard to kill their mortal form. Depending on what stage they're at it's likely possible they can re-form from their element alone, even if their mortal form was completely destroyed. (Otherwise it's likely they move on to late stage godhood.) its impossible to injure a god with something associated to their element. (ie explosions = bullets, shrapnel, fire, heavy impact/shockwave, etc)

Soap being a god of explosions for example, is in the 'juvenile' stages of godhood (this does not influence his maturity as a human in any way). He's figured out manmade explosions/explosives, and the wonders of flammable gasses, and making anything explode that shouldn't/making things not-explode that should. But guys, guys, he hasn't even grocked yet that the two biggest natural sources of explosions are volcanic and stellar, as in solar flares and supernovas. (His endstage of godhood would probably be stuff like colliding black holes and just generally stretching too thin through the universe and completely losing any sense of self/personhood and eventually fading into nothing. But that's gonna be a long as while dw.)

You know, it's kinda funny thinking about how Mario Kart competitions must look to people in the Mario universe, like in terms of the public figures showing up.

Because thinking about it, our world's equivalent to the typical lineup of a roster would be like:

Tom Hanks

Jim Hanks

Joe Biden

Justin Trudeau

Tom Hanks' sapient riding-Cassowary

King Kong

King Kong's chimpanzee nephew

King Kong's stoner brother

Dark Tom Hanks

A guy who Dark Tom Hanks says is Dark Jim Hanks

Vladimir Putin

The Viy, King of the Spirits

Vishnu The Preserver

A random Secret Service member

A random lady Secret Service member

A random Russian soldier

The undead corpse of a random Russian soldier

Vladimir Putin's son

Several street urchins appointed by Vladimir Putin into major millitary roles

An actual Goblin

A sapient Tom Hanks replica made of titanium

A sapient Joe Biden replica made of Nordic Gold

An exact animate replica of Vladimir Putin's skeleton

IDK where I'm going with this, I just think it is very funny.