ngl I really want Mev to have to fight an army of Creed's Kith when/if he’s freed from the Eternity Gate and just starring at them in utter horror bc this is blasphemy of the highest degree to him.
I had this in mind every since finish reading SoW and really wanted to finish this before DoA releases tbh
So I noticed something in Bedlam: one of the evil psychiatrists in Greymire is named Derleth; August Derleth is a Cthulhu mythos contributor. Looking into him, he cited a book called "Prince of Abissinia" as an influence of his. So Landy is certainly trying to evoke Lovecraft/has HPL on his mind. So your HC about the Unnamed=Hastur m/b true. And I still think the FOs poisoning humanity to the point some of them are dormant eldritch gods walking around obliviously thinking they're people is cool.
I didn't know that bc I didn't read 'Bedlam'. However, I do appreciate these easter eggs and if homage to HPL is paid in this manner!
While I realise this ask was send before the release of the Grimoire, the discount Lovecraftian Gods thing he did in the beginning of the Grimoire was so bad that I wonder if he truly did try to make his own version of the pantheon of Eldritch Gods or if it's meant to be a parody of the Lovecraft mythos in the same way Caelan was a parody of Edward Cullen (Twilight) and Corrival Academy is a parody of Hogwarts (Harry Potter).
I mean, he did call his version of the Outer Gods 'Those-Who-Slumber,-Whose-Names-We-Dare-Not-Speak-Lest-They-Rouse-To-Waking'. Like, yeah, that sounds like a parody of Azathoth, the blind idiot God.
"And I still think the FOs poisoning humanity to the point some of them are dormant eldritch gods walking around obliviously thinking they're people is cool."
'Poisoning humanity' is an overstatement as the Faceless genes seem to do jackshit unless they get activated. I feel like at least the six FO bloodlines should have some monstrous appearances as result of their inhuman blood in a similar vain as the citizens of Innsmouth or the Dunwich twins. If you get the power of an eldritch abomination, there should be the drawback of an inhuman appearance. The only one that looks the part is Strosivadian tbh :/
Also, since the six bloodlines were established, I'm annoyed that there is no difference between them and all the people (1 in 7) that have FO genes in them.
And all this inconsistencies and all the retcons. Let me explain.
Under the cut, bc this gott long AF.
First in book 3 it was established that if you get posed by an FO your whole personality gets whipped out and only your body still exists as a vessel.
Then in 'Midnight' (chapter 25) it gets revealed that the Faceless Ones apparently turned completely into humans (at least physically) resulting in like a sub-race of Faceless Ones.
Then Bedlam seems to back-pedal on that and is like, no, the Faceless genes come from former vessels and 1 in 7 people have it, so Abyssina's family isn't really special.
[SP “Bedlam”, chapter 15, page 86-87]
At the end of Bedlam it's revealed that Valkyrie has the FO genes too since Dusk say she tastes like the kith. Not sure why that’s a shocker bc apparently that’s common AF??
“Those people were what is known as Kith,” Dusk said. “When I drank from you, I knew. The legends are wrong, Valkyrie. You are not descended from the Last of the Ancients. You are descended from their enemies. You have their power and you have their blood. You are a Faceless One.”
Then in the Grimoire the Six Bloodlines are mentioned for the first time and those gotta be something else than the 1-7 people that decent of former vessels bc those billion people couldn't be summed up in just six bloodlines. Bc of Abyssina and the Of The Unveiled I’m taking bloodline to mean something like a royal family, aristocracy among mages pretty much, especially since the Faceless blood should make them especially powerful like the Unnamed. At least we haven’t been given another explanation as to why he’s so powerful other than blood-purity. Which also makes be wonder about the six families interbreeding/inbreeding with each other like European aristrocaty used to?
Also according to the Grimoire the FO were interbreeding with the Ancients.
When it says they 'took form of these animals' that sounds like what Abyssinia said about the FO actually becoming a human body.
Also, the way I understand the Grimoire, the Ancients are the ancestors of the mages, so the bloodlines can't be a result between FO and normal humans bc 'mankind' as we know it only showed up after the FO were already banished from the Prime Dimension.
It doesn't clarify that the Ancients are the ancestors of the mages, but I explained further why I think that's the case here.
But this means that everyone that has Faceless blood also gotta have Ancient blood bc the FO could only breed with the Ancients since normal humans only came a lot later, so what Landy said about Val only having FO blood is gotta be false.
But at a later point in the Grimoire it’s talking about the former vessel stuff again.
This is implying that the six bloodlines are the descendants of former vessels (I think?), but like I said prior, 1 in 7 people having FO genes are way too many to just be 6 bloodlines/familes, each bloodline would need a few thousand people or more. Plus, ’bloodline’ implies breeding.
I also gotta admit I’m biased bc ‘The Six Bloodlines’ sounds badass, important and regal and I do not like the thought of it being nothing special, that it’s just the 1 in 7 humans that descended of former FO vessels.
So at this point we got:
People with FO genes that are the descendants of former FO vessels.
People with FO blood who are the result oft he FO interbreeding with the Ancients. This are the six bloodlines.
Everybody who is a descendant of the FO gotta be a descendant of the Ancients too bc normal humans only showed up after the FO were already long banished.
Bc of that the kith all gotta be descendants of the Ancients as well bc they are the descendants of former FO vessels and while the FO were around there were no normal humans.
The Ancients were a different, older subcategory of homo. If we are homo sapiens then they were something like... homo antiquus? What do ya think? Does the name sounds good?
All mages are descendants of the Ancients (this is mostly headcanon based but I think my explanation for it makes sense.)
The order things happened seems to be: FO find earth and enslave the Ancients, the Ancients turn the environment hostile, the FO are forced to take vessels and start to interbreed with the Ancients resulting in the six bloodlines. At the same time hey created the magic resistance creatures to kill the Ancients that had turned against them. Those creatures rebel too and have to be locked away underground. The Ancients forge the Godkillers and force them out of the Prime Dimension, Ancients kill each other, eons (probably more like centuries) later humans emerge.
I’m not sure about the reason the FO decided to interbreed but it might have been to produce a new sub-race of FO that were human enough that they didn’t need a vessel. Neither am I sure why the og FO left their vessels before they burned out completely. It might have been that they were forced out when the Ancient rebelled against them and forced them out of the Prime Dimension.
The ‘fun’ part is, all this information is based on unreliable sources. ‘The Book of Tears’ is confirmed by canon to be propaganda, the Unnamed could have lied to his family or believing a lie himself to make his own family more important and Skul, Temper and Brate are relying information they most like read somewhere, so all of this could easily get retconned :/
The route I went is mashing all pieces of lore we got together instead of treating one piece as outright false bc ALL information sources are unreliable.
Here are the problems I have were the information we are given conflicts with canon:
1.
I feel like only those with FO genes should be turned into kith since they feel a lot like the result of the of the transformation that started when the FO started to posses their ancestor getting finished, turning them into empty vessels for a host that is no longer around. So the explanation given in Bedlam would only apply to the people with FO genes.
But then, even if their blood is too watered down, the people with FO blood shouldn’t be turned into kith bc if we are going with Abyssinia’s explanation and the Faceless One (/Hybrid) they descended from had manage to take a full human form, with faces and all, their descendants shouldn’t be turning into essentially empty FO vessels.
Thus Valkyrie not turning into a kith but into a harpy instead makes sense. But since the Grimoire confirms that Abyssinia was right and her family are descendants of the FO all of her grandchildren that have been activated should have turned into monsters fitting their personalities too. Same goes from anyone from the other four bloodlines.
2.
Why is Strosivadian the only one that actually looks monstrous? Is he the result of an attempted activation gone wrong?
3.
Why did the Edgley family, that has been interbreeding with mortals for generations, produce Children of the Faceless while the bloodlines that remained among mages and thus should have more potent magic did not?
4.
Also why is Val (and probably Alice) and the Unnamed (Aby didn’t seem to come close to his power and Caisson seemed even below average) so powerful while the descendants of the other bloodlines are average (Temper) or slightly above average (Of The Unveiled Siblings)? I could explain the Unnamed by him keeping his blood pure and Abyssinia being weaker bc her blood got mixed and then Caisson is even weaker bc his blood got mixed again. But Val’s blood is super impure, so why is she so powerful?
5.
If Val’s bloodline is so potent then why were there people in her family that couldn’t use magic?
6.
Do the other families know that they have FO blood and not only FO genes?
7.
Who were the first two bloodlines and why were they so unimportant that they aren’t even named. Like, if you got FO blood you gotta be destined to do great things even if these great things are pretty horrible.
Wille Furin, or as he was called now in this place, Willo’fer, waited patiently for Caleb to return. He didn’t know where else to go, he didn’t even know how he got to this white place that smelled of alcohol and death, and everyone wore white. While he kept thinking of Queen Allysia and whether she was safe, he found his mind going back to Caleb. He wasn’t like anyone he knew. He was softer than the men, kinder. He saved his life, and now the elf was in his debt… That other human, Adam, Willo’fer didn’t know why but he had a bad feeling when he first saw him. He was human, but he reminded Willo’fer of the beast he saw before he arrived here. Maybe Adam was the beast and teleported them to this new place.
His mind was going over this when a nurse came in to take his vitals. After a few days he became accustomed to it. He exchanged pleasantries with the nurse, asked if she had seen Caleb. “Your friend? No, he hasn’t been back to the hospital. Maybe he went home. Do you have his number?”
“Number?” Were humans assigned numbers here? “No, no number.”
“I’m sure he’ll come back,” the nurse said, smiling as she left.
Willo’fer nodded and looked out the window. Yes, he will come back. He will come back, right? Closing his eyes, he let his thoughts return to his home, before the invasion. His fellow guards. Queen Allysia. How her hair shone in the sun under her glorious golden crown. If he could, he would've told her how he really felt towards her. It wasn't just a bond of Queen and knight…
He knew it would never work, never, she was of the highest rank and he… was that much below her… he was sure if he hadn't survived and one of his comrades in arms had they would have done the same thing. He wondered if they also would have ended up in this strange new world inhabited by only humans…
Willo’fer didn't realize he drifted off until he woke with a start and found Caleb sleeping at his bedside. The human’s head was resting on his arms and his chest was rising and falling with soft breaths. Willo’fer smiled… until he saw the stains of tears on Caleb’s cheeks. Had he been crying? What about? Surely not him, Willo’fer was in good condition, the lady in white even said so! So what made Caleb so upset…? Willo’fer reached over to brush a lock of pink hair out of his face when his eyes opened.
“Ah- I am sorry-...” Willo’fer stammered, trying to remember the Human speak quickly. “Did I awake you?”
Caleb sat up and rubbed his eyes, quiet. There was a great sadness over him. Willo’fer reached over and held his hand. “You carry sad. What is wrong?” He asked it sincerely, but Caleb burst into tears, shaking his head.
“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry-” he kept saying. “I don’t mean to do this, I just had a really bad day yesterday. It’s Adam, he... ” Caleb wiped his eyes. “A-am I annoying you? Be honest. Am I annoying?”
Willo’fer looked at the bed. “I… do not know what it means, that word. Is it bad?” He mentioned Adam though through his tears. It must be bad.
“Um… making you mad? You feel like you want me to leave because of how I am? I don’t know.” Caleb shook his head. “Never mind. It’s nothing. I’ll just go—”
Willo’fer grabbed his wrist before he could go. Caleb gasped and turned, and Willo’fer stared into his beautiful blue eyes, speaking in Elvish. “I want to tell you, but I don’t know how in your language. Caleb, you have brought me nothing but comfort and support in this new world. I wouldn’t be alive if not for you. Please don’t ever say that you make me mad and I want you out of my life. I want to stay by your side and protect you. I couldn’t protect my queen, but I vow… I won’t leave your side. Ever.” He pulled on Caleb’s hand, causing him to stumble forward. His hand rest on Caleb’s cheek and he leaned forward, gently placing his lips on his. He felt Caleb tense and let out a surprised squeak. Did he go too far?
Willo’fer pulled back ready to apologize. He opened his mouth but suddenly Caleb was kissing him now, his lips soft and sweet yet forceful. Willo’fer closed his eyes and returned the kiss, holding him in his embrace.
