Engage At Your Own Risk

Figure me out yourself.

[theside-b]

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

A Lord Gifting a Favor to His Knight

Captured on Digital Media (June 11, 2026)

This piece captures the homo-erotic subtext of the chivalric knight from Arthurian mythology. The act of "giving a favor" has often been depicted between a maiden and her favored knight. But the same gesture is often seen between a knight and his liege lord to whom he is sworn to.

Particularly notable, this piece seems to evoke the same intimacy found in John William Waterhouse paintings, as shown below, which show the seduction of a knight.

The interlacing of hands is specific callback to you have to know this is all bullshit by now. Please god do not take my fake art analysis seriously.

[mimikyuwuw]

maybe wicander became acquainted with ethrand, as part of a budding alliance with the tachonis after the meeting. they’re the messengers between their father and grandmother, when business should be better left unknown by the other houses. ethrand, petulant and guilty; he killed his baby brother, he caused a mess and now his father must clean it up, they failed in their gambit against the other houses. now he was stuck with wicander halovar, the light of the creed, the photarch’s favorite. he remembered the wicander of before: bright and brainless, a wide grin and pretty quotes from the creed easily recited at a moments notice, but twitchy, easily startled, and always at his grandmother’s side. what must that be like, the clear successor in a line of other’s? but wicander was different now; wary eyes darted around for enemies at every corner, not as willing to share an anecdote or chat to fill up the silence. what happened to the man since he was kidnapped by members of the falconer’s rebellion and fought his way back? poor thing, forced to get his hands dirty, willingly or not, would’ve chipped that light the slightest bit. because under the fretting appearance, those darting eyes lingered on exits, like he was mapping out a battlefield. ethrand recognized wicander was observing people with that keen gleam, like he was searching for weaknesses, his feet planted on the ground like he’s prepared to fight. ethrand wondered what shadows have clung to the man since their last meeting. he’d like to find out.

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

Between Alex bringing up Occtigan (Kocctis) for like the second or third time now, and Sam consistently bringing up Teorwick, I'm starting to think the Heirs to the Priestly Houses of Tansul have a specific type, specifically ex-Torn Banner members who have retreated from general society.

Priestly Boys like them solitary Soldier Boys.

[crafty-butch]

anyone else notice how when "digital assistants" were just supposed to do specific tasks when you asked for them we had Alexa and Siri and Cortana, but now that they're being marketed as smart enough to take actions and make decisions on their own they've got names like Claude and Devin

[see-arcane]

Big Sisters of Aramán, a Sliding Scale

Mayali Nayar: I would die for my little brother.

Zebani Halovar: I'm ready to kill my little brother.

Termina of the Panto: I can't wait to kill with my little brother!

[no-atheists-in-fckstles]

Thimble: "this pretty boy"

Thaisha: "you're so pretty"

Tsul'rekshi: "what about you, pretty boy?"

Talcydimir: "the pretty boy, the one with the rapier, kind of like this one"

I think Julien might be an objectively pretty boy, idk

[undead-knick-knack]

@ahastycrblog Obsessed with these tags 😂

[fortis-non-feroxx]

occtis' wide-eyed, panicked stare when pin died, breathing shakily, whispering "it'll be okay, he'll come back, he'll be okay" to himself. in incredible danger but frozen solid, because little pincushion, the proof that dead things can still love us, the only being in the world that understands him without judgment--killed by his family. over and over, they take things from him--this too? but it'll be okay. he'll come back. just like occtis did. as long as the theory is correct, right? it's not like anyone's made a familiar like this before--at least not in recent memory. but--he should come back. he has to. right?

[your-turn-to-role]

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

"But now, we always have a chance."

This line, from Halandil to Vokjan, hurts me in a very specific way. Because it's not that they only have a chance now. It's not that Vokjan didn't have a chance before.

Vokjan did have a chance. His successors would prove this because they won. If they didn't have a chance before, no victory could have ever been possible. So, in truth, Vokjan did have a chance. His rebellion could have worked. There's no cosmological guarantee that it wouldn't have worked.

The difference between Hal (Thjazi) and Vokjan is that Vokjan fought his rebellion, without any proof that he could win. Vokjan fought knowing that there's never been a victory before. Vokjan fought because what other option was there? If all the choices he had were revolution or oblivion, then of course he was going to fight. It was never about fighting on the chance that he could win. It was always about fighting because the fight is the better option, which effectively makes it the only option.

Now, Hal (Thjazi) have that proof of concept. They stand on the shoulders of Shay and the Lloys who fought Azgra and won. Now, they know that gods can fall. Now, they know that there's a chance.

But they always had that. The Shapers could never take that from them. The Houses can certainly try. But nothing is ever a given. So the chances are low and never zero.

It strikes me that Hal says they have a chance now. But what if he was in Vokjan's shoes? What if they switched eras? Would he side with a revolutionary or would he be a priest if he didn't have that proof of a possible victory?

Yeah. Eventually he would become a rebel. If circumstances degrade enough that even certain doom would be better than prolonging life under brutal tyranny, people will fight.

But now, in theory, it shouldn't have to get that bad before people join the fight. They know better now. They know that there's a chance for victory. They know that regimes can fall. They have been forcefully made aware that no authority is absolute. So, in theory, knowing there is a chance empowers people long before they're that desperate.

Because maybe revolutions are a constant and inevitable component of society. Tyrants rise. Rebellion foments. On and on, the wheel turns. But the cycle is not a flat, 2D circle where you end at the beginning with no material change. The cycle is more like a helix, a 3D object that yes, goes down, but it can also go up. With each revolution, people can circle just a little higher than before, building on the victories made by their predecessors.

Because there's always a chance. There's been a chance before, there is a chance now, and there's going to be a chance in the future. Chance is a constant and irrevocable thing.

But it makes a huge difference to know there is a chance. It makes a huge difference to have previous victories to guide you. And it makes a difference to Hal, where even if the Falconer's Rebellion failed, even if Thjazi died, he gets to fight with the knowledge that once before, they won.

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

Loves, we do know the only way to stop the Tachonis, from Nullus to Ethrand, is to force them to walk the Path, right?

We cannot be having them just hanging out in the Underworld, plotting their next scheme, becoming Warlock Patrons or some such

They have to go. And until we find the SOUL BLASTER 8000 (guarantees to blast souls into irreparable pulp), the only way to stop further Tachonis fuckery is to force them into reincarnation

Their souls get a clean slate. They get no memories. They get new bodies.

And it just so happens that Occtis has effectively been apprenticing to a Druid of the Old Path. I'm sure he and Thaisha could figure out some way to compel their compliance into reincarnation

[itsmingway]

I HAD to draw Naruto run Occtis

[mndvx]

“he kinda just came out Julien” aww happy pride

[viewfindercomics]

I worry about him like an old dog that’s starting to get a bad cough

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Occanny One-Shot

A short canon divergent scene between Occtis and Tyranny before and after Thaisha tried to reforge the Pariah Blades.

Just two immortals, hanging out, having fun, losing their V-cards to each other.

Standard activities before plunging into certain doom.

[meanbuddhist]

*turns my attention inwards* mmmmm. no *turns my attention back outwards* oh god

[dol-makjarcoffeehouse]

I just want to make a quick note about this before people get too silly about the situation. It's very important to remember that Robbie is Native American, and is putting a lot of work into making sure that Kattigan has indigenous cultural touchstones as part of his characterization. And that is the appropriate lens through which we should view his missing and murdered wife and daughter, I think.

I would be reluctant to use fridging in this exact context, because this isn't some imaginary scenario to generate manpain for a white hero, this is a much more common experience of Native American and First Nation people, having their wives and daughters and sisters (in particular, but not exclusively) go missing. And never getting answers, never learning what happened, and not being believed that there's a problem in the first place.

This is like how being rescued from a tower by a prince is not particularly empowering or affirming to cis physically able straight thin perisex white women and girls, but can be for basically anybody else. Particularly black girls and women, who do not get a lot of cultural messages that treat them as people who are so valuable and precious, who may not have the strength to save themselves, or may wish that they didn't fucking have to save themselves (and everyone else) all the time.

White men have this story so often happen that we have a trope name specific to one specific and particularly egregious version of this, but you don't often see men who look like Robbie dealing with this type of story in fictional settings, even though it happens for men like Robbie in real life with horrifying frequency.

Sometimes stories that are old can be new again in different hands, from different point of views, so just... mind how you step here.