#abomination vault

[monsuta127]

Just ended the year with finishing both Arcane and Darksiders Abomination Vault...

How tf do i cope with this?

[charalysis]

Darksiders: Strife

As a third entry into my Darksiders series, let's discuss Strife!

Of the Four, so far, he's the one we know the least about, even with the inclusion of the book and comics as a source. What we do know, however, is that he's the funny one of the gang. He's snarky and cracking jokes, with some snark sprinkled in. He's essentially the rogue of the group, using ranged weapons (ie guns), as well as daggers for melee if needed.

Strife has also been shown to be a bit temperamental, following Fury in quickness of frustration. He's also straight to the point when he has to be and can even be rude. His rudeness and brashness is particularly noticed when interacting with Death in Abomination Vault, in which he points a gun at Death.

Its not the first time he's threatened his brother's either, having threatened to shoot War to death if he didn't calm down after a rampage, resulting in War's arm being cut off.

And finally, Strife is shown to be the most empathetic of the Four. He feels immense remorse for killing his fellow Nephalem, and he cares a great deal for humanity, wanting them saved and Fury to see them as more than what does at first.

Strife's certainly the most emotionally expressive of the Four, which balances out when paired with the brother he's closest to, War. The two often butt heads, especially around the Council and Nephalem, but they help each other very well. Strife listens to War's more thought out advice and Strife helps War learn to joke and relax a little.

He expresses grief and remorse far more often and easier than the others as well, finding the fact that their people were killed by their hands very distressing. It even angers him when War seems dismissive or detached about it. Connection and community actually seem to mean something to him, especially given he chooses to hide amongst humans on Earth.

He seems to have a great respect, even love for mankind, defending them to Fury (as Jones) and living amongst them in Ulthane's tree. He cares for them and wants them to survive the apocalypse deeply.

He may also be the most introspective of the Four.

War doesn't see passed his singular goal of preserving the Balance easily and needs significant guidance to see truths. He almost tries to not see the truth at times.

Fury is egotistical and hot headed, refusing to see her flaws and faults until she's been significantly beaten down. She's blind to her own fragility and weakness.

And Death, whos relationship with Strife I want to inspect more of here, can't see outside himself, his feelings, and how he wants to run things. Death can't conceptualize the future either, too lost in his past and grief.

Strife looks at himself to see where he's messed up and he acknowledges it. He tries to be better than he was and can recognize where he has to improve.

However, he can end up just as lost in the past as Death.

Like Death, he mourns their lost brethren. He regrets destroying them and he also regrets other deaths he caused. In Genesis, he finds an item in Mammon's Hoard that triggers what seems to be a panic response. We later learn the item is tied to his past and tells War there's a lot he's not told him about himself. Strife seems to be pretty impacted by his last, but is unwilling to share it, meaning its too difficult to bring up, or he's worried his brothers won't support him and help him. Its similar to Death's reaction to hearing about the discovery of the Grand Abominations and his need to handle things alone.

Strife also seems to hide these deeper feelings with humor, snark, and by amping up his personality to 100 so others just think he's an idiot or unaffected by things. His openness around War seems to be a product of their bond however, as War frequently tries his best to comfort Strife, specifically trying to reassure him that he isn't who he was and he can change for the better. Strife seems to take this to heart.

Also like Death, he wears a mask to hide himself. In Death's case, the symbolism of his mask his a bit different to Strife's, as Death's is a mask that helps him hide from others and keep him from being vulnerable. Death's mask is as much a piece of his past as the Nephalem.

Strife's mask covers a lot more of his head and face than Death's mask, and his armor completely covers his body too. We don't actually know even what Strife's skin color is. All we know is his eyes seem to be yellow based on the helmet's glow.

Strife's mask to me says, "You can't know me, I won't let you know me". It also shows a lack of trust in others, perhaps related to his past. And I genuinely believe he doesn't trust people. Perhaps he trusts War and Fury, but certainly not Death or the Council.

The Council is an obvious thing to mistrust, but Death... Death seems odd right? Well no.

Death has hidden a lot from his fellows and Strife is aware of that. Death has hidden world ending information from them for his own comfort and hasn't consulted his brothers about it, or even let them in on it so if shit comes up, they can be aware and not caught off guard. Death is also very prone to running off in his own without warning.

To Strife, its possible Death has proven himself to be a liar and very unreliable. His distaste for Death is further shown when Death is telling them to stay behind and let him handle the Abominations. He outright aims his gun at Death (despite knowing it'll do basically nothing) and threatens him and demands an explanation, one Death refuses to give.

Death and Strife are also pretty similar in their handling if grief and emotions. Bury it and hide behind a mask and snark/comedy. And so another reason Strife me be antagonistic with Death is he dislikes seeing the person he could be if he simply released his morals and was more self focused.

Strife genuinely seems to want Fury and War to grow as people, to be happy. And yet from what we have seen so far, he's not too interested in Death's personal growth or if Death is better.

Another thing to note is he seems to be the most progressive in terms of adaptability. This can be noted in his appearance and weapon use. Overall, Strife honestly looks a little out if place next to his armored, melee weapon brothers. He looks a bit more like he fits a bit into a stealth game set in the seminear future, rather than a hack and slash fantasy. Strife uses guns, much more modern weapons than that of a great sword, scythe, and whip. That's not yo say the weapons aren't as impressive as his brothers, oh no.

Mercy alone is fascinating, being a four-barrell, one handed shot gun with auto replenishing ammo (though the presence of shells on Strife's belts implies he can change ammo types).

Strife is also adept at using daggers, as we see in Genesis, though he does prefer his guns, seeming to prefer to maintain distance. From these things about his combat, and how dodgy he is around his past, we can infer Strife was possibly a scout at minimum, or an assassin, or possibly some kind of intelligence agent.

Overall, we know little canonically about Strife and his presentation in the canon is inconsistent at best. I hope to see a game focused on Strife in the future so we can better understand him.

[lorehellsing]

I recently acquired the Darksiders: The Abomination Vault book, and since my dear mother is interested in reading it, but she doesn't understand English and there's no Spanish edition, I'm translating it for her as a surprise gift.

I'm not a professional translator, but I'm doing my best so that she can enjoy this novel too. I hope she likes it 💜

[pandoras-proxy]

Just had to doodle Moira asking Ty to be her Valentine. ❤️

[eclipseolympius]

I'm rereading Abomination Vault and I came across Death’s line

"I suppose there's good reason you chose the epithet War and not Tact"

Anyway two things here. One, imagine if he had chosen Tact. "I am Tact, Horseman of the Apocalypse" I'm sorry but that's funny. Number two. According to the book, which I'm not sure if its cannon or not??? Each Horseman chose their Horseman name so they had different names before. I would like to offer the suggestion that War's old name was Justin and Fury’s was Patricia.

Personally though, I prefer the idea that Death was just an edgy motherfucker and named his charges accordingly.

[elyslesnothing]

Y'all ever wondered what DID Death do whenever he went missing from both his siblings' and the Council's radar? Headcanons?

[mehiwilldoitlater]

Day 6: Supporting cast JUST IN TIME, anyway here my my contribution, AGAIN WITH A CHARACTER DESIGN, this time with Belisatra!

[ladybell9095]

Finally got my hands on a copy of Abomination Vault. Immediately read the prologue as soon as I opened the box. Loving it so far. I can’t wait to get lost in this amazing story. I’m very very very excited. Legit when I got this book I squealed.

(Side note: Reason why I haven’t been active is because I caught Covid and had to quarantine myself. I never realized how much I’d miss fresh air. I’m fully healed and back though. May take a while to start writing because classes are starting again, so I got to deal with that first.)