ride or die

icon by hubbleablubble « side: abracadav-r »

[zoesupreme]

no for real like sit over there and drink your little beverage and stay tf out of the way let me cook

[liarsblade]

Everyone clap for non consensual body modification everybody loves a character whose body has been altered against their will

[mystxmomo]

Some critter designs. Kobold transparent under the cut.

[mystxmomo2]

Vhaeraun and his tendency to be proactive in protecting and training his followers.

The implication that he went out of his way to personally develop the spells that would better conceal his priestess spies, and goes out of his way to personally train those that would otherwise be denied the opportunity to learn how to defend themselves.

If a DM wishes to make known to players the existence of double agent priestesses in drow society, an effective way of revealing them is to have PCs witness the unmasking and furious destruction of such a priestess at the hands of priestesses loyal to Lloth, who will spit, snarl, lash with their snake-headed whips until one grows tired simply watching them, and afterwards trumpet their victory over "the evil Shadow, the treacherous Masked One," as they parade the mutilated rem-nants of the traitor through the city. This grisly fate has befallen many a devotee of Vhaeraun, particularly before some of the concealment spells now available to his faithful had been devised by the Masked Lord: notably, in Menzoberranzan, the priestesses Ililree Cobranhree, Slylyndrath Dhree, and Myyrin Jalhuus, and the priest Narr Thuirbrynn. Drow tend not to speak the names or want to remember such traitors - their Houses disown them for safety's sake, and other drow are urged by the yochlol not to remind people of treachery to Lloth by keeping alive names of those who have so sinned.

Menzoberranzan Boxed Set, p. 75

Vhaeraun Vhaeraun (vay-rawn), the drow god of thievery and drow males, is chaotic evil. He is known as the Masked Lord and the Shadow. He is Lolth's only son, but he chafes under his mother's dominance and despises her favoritism towards the females of the race. He has become the patron of male drow and has taught many of them the arts of the rogue so that they are not helpless against the great power of Lolth's chosen females. Many of his followers teach rebellion against the ingrained matriarchy. Others preach that the drow should increase their influence and power above the ground. The domains associated with him are Chaos, Drow, Evil, Travel, and Trickery, and his favored weapon is the short sword.

Deities (PDF). Web Enhancement for Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. Wizards of the Coast. p. 12.

[homunculus-argument]

God will see you at the lowest point of your life, and say "what the fuck I thought I killed that thing." But you skitter too fast and you are too creepy.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Why couldn’t traditional Chinese Yinpiao银票/silver drafts be forged if they were merely slips of paper? (cr大明宝钞，渐越)

Traditional Chinese yinpiao/silver drafts were paper vouchers issued by private banks starting from the Song Dynasty(960–1279). People could exchange these slips for physical silver at bank branches across the country.

Silver drafts were made in multiple copies with matching serrated seal edges. One copy went to the customer and others stayed at the bank. All edges had to fit perfectly together to withdraw silver. The unique split edge marks were almost impossible to copy.

This mechanism is known as qifeng骑缝 (split-joint seal) in China. It first originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC). The Rites of Zhou records that contracts were written on bamboo or wooden slips in duplicate. Notches and marks were carved in the middle before splitting the slips, with each party keeping one half. The two halves would be matched by their notches for verification.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770–221 BC), this idea evolved into hufu虎符/tiger tally tokens. A military tally was split into two pieces with identical inscriptions carved along the split edge. Troops could only be deployed if the patterns and characters on both halves perfectly aligned, serving as a metal version of the split-joint anti-counterfeiting system.

The technology matured in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Government documents and private contracts commonly used split-joint seals stamped across the dividing line. The Chinese character "hetong合同" (contract) was written across the middle before the paper was torn apart, so the complete characters would only appear when the two halves were put together. This split-coupon system was later adopted for Song Dynasty (960–1279) jiaozi paper money and yinpiao/silver drafts of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912).

Official Song dynasty paper money (Jiaozi交子) was abolished in 1107. Private silver drafts issued by Qing-era piaohao票行 (ancient exchange banks) vanished completely in 1951, hit hard by modern banks and currency reforms. Nowadays silver drafts no longer circulate as currency. Their collectible value depends on their rarity and physical condition.

Split-joint seals (骑缝章qifengzhang)are still widely used on important paper documents in modern China, an anti-tampering technique passed down from ancient times. They are applied across the edge of multi-page contracts, bidding documents and official archives. If any page is removed or replaced, the broken seal pattern can prove the file has been altered.

[ariaste]

OMG I got so excited about this because they used a really similar (though far less refined) version of this for contracts in the European medieval period!

First they were called "chirographs", but later the word "indenture" (in its earliest meaning as just a legal document of any kind between two people) came to be used, originating from the practice of a contract being written twice on a single piece of parchment and then cut in half with serrated edges (as in dent, "teeth" -> indents -> indenture) in order for each party to take one half, so they could later piece them together and verify that there had been no forgery -- same as the Chinese silver drafts!

(Charter of the Clerecía de Ledesma, 1252, showing the serrated indents at the top -- presumably they are cutting rather than tearing because they're using parchment, which I expect is much harder to tear than wood-pulp paper like the Chinese were using)

Delights me when human beings find similar ways to solve the same problem at two different ends of the world. <3

[hubbleablubble]

Artfight attack on @space-chaser and @abracadav-r's characters Essechronax and Felyn. And a little myconid procession :>

[mystxmomo]

And another one. + The two of them together under the cut

[dirt-bug-doodles]

Some of my older Vhae drawings that I dug up :P

[mystxmomo]

Art fight for @space-chaser of their oc "Essechronax" based on this lil dancing gif I found.

[larkshark]

Artfight part 2!!

Kittie by BaggeMIX

Angelika by @simpingforscience

Moemin by @dastabby

Enclave by @mystxmomo and Felyn by @abracadav-r

[mystxmomo]

Being raised a Drow Woman; Enclave and Gender.

[wizardorin]

first art fight attack for @abracadav-r 🫡🫡🫡 i love drawing this guy

[the-hollow-crow]

First attack this year goes to @abracadav-r ! I had lots of fun to work on this one, I had a vision as soon as I started sketching it and went along with it (see under the cut)

Was tempted to keep it lineless but I chickened out

[mystxmomo]

Made a banner for Ghost in the Tree. Will be stapled onto future updates.

[princesssarcastia]

there are some things a character should not be able to tell us about themselves EVEN with a gun to their head. depending on the character that could even expand to include "most" things

[princesssarcastia]

i'm talking "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink" territory. "i've constructed an elaborate rube goldberg machine of plot to force this character to have precisely the realization about themselves that i want them to, and i'm only maybe 60% sure it'll work" territory. "the deity of their choice reveals it to them in a dream and they wake up and say, 'no, that can't be right,' and promptly forget about it" territory.

[silsol]

drow novel