#tpmdmrambles

[thephantasmalmaze]

Mmmmm DM is in a yapping mood and I think telling you some of this won’t spoil too much, but may give you some food for thought.

So welcome to Jack (DM and world god) explains my personal Vandria lore.

Vandria is a very interesting goddess in the 5e lore, a goddess of grief but often know as a paladins goddess. So I really did want to keep that kindness to her, a goddess who is grief and mourning but doesn’t seek it out or make it (such as shar) but a goddess who opens her arms to those in pain to find comfort from something who understands.

And so to do that’s I knew I needed to rewrite her lineage, hence why she’s now a child of Ezra and Shar, lost and loss two precursors to each other that often find common ground in grief. Hence why when Shar was with Ezra following Asters death and before the birth of the twins Vandria is created.

She was not made purposefully nor did either god quite know who she was at first, but when you have two gods of such primal emotions together for long enough something was bound to manifest. Hence one day Vandria walking out of the fog surrounding Ezra and Asters home and staying.

Once her lineage and nature was determined, she was often left with Ezra in times Shar could not be. She, despite meeting Ezra at their worst time, loved her mother and found comfort in comforting Ezra. Vandria was actually the one to finish the twins room with Ezra, who before with Shar left them with the two cradles and simple never went back into the rooms.

She was there when the twins were born, when deals were struck and lines were drawn between gods and other beings, when the twins were hidden or dead. The after math of that time was brutal, Ezra isolated, was reborn more times then history should count and vanished into his fog. Vandria searched for some time wandering in the fog, attempting to find any trace of Ezra to no avail. So Vandria did what she knew, she left her mother’s cottage in the fog to offer comfort to those who were grieving and seeking anyone to sit with them.

Eventually when she wanders back to the fog filled home of her mother to find a temples of Shar lost to the mist, she erects a small grave for the twin girls that haven’t been seen. Despite having no bodies to bury nor names to give them (other then the ones Ezra refused to say as they were gifted to the girls by aster) she erected them a small memorial in the graveyard of Shars fallen. A personal alter for the goddess of grief to grieve a family who she will never know as their loss allowed her to live.

[thephantasmalmaze]

I’ve been having some Siron 3.0 and Ester thoughts so I shall leave them here for y’all.

Siron is used to strange dreams that toe some line between reality and the machinations of his unconscious mind; therefore, walking into a lovely greenhouse where the flora is too saturated is not outside his normal. The strangeness begins while he is inspecting the plants he’s never seen before, when a woman with dark hair streaked with grey rounds the corner. He is used to being ignored in these dreams, often a passive observerof someone else’s dreams, but the woman smiles and greets him like she is aware and unbothered by his presence.

She must see the look of confusion that passes over his face at this, as she lets out a quiet chuckle.

Before he knows it, Siron is pruning the strange plants with her falling into a soothing rhythm. The rest of the dream is a haze, like the memory of a warm blanket when you wake up on a cold winter day.

These sporadic dreams continue for some time, as time passes the locations and number of dreams vary, but the woman remains as a constant hazy memory.

Eventually when Siron's skill in magical creation is great enough, he crafts an automaton in the likeness of the woman who walks his dream.

Of course Ester knows of this, she finds a quiet humor in her tinkerer who creates in her name while thinking her nothing more than a figment of his dreams. And if she blesses his creation with a bit of her guiding magic to lead her craftsman to where he needs to be, that is between her and the stars.

[thephantasmalmaze]

Explaining the 2.0 world cause I can finally fully do that now that the Ester and Bella lore drop has happened.

So first and foremost a couple things we have to establish about the lost twins, they are a perfect mesh of their parents but they do each magically take a bit more after each parent. Ester takes more after Aster, which is why she is much more effected then Bella at the shattering of Aster. Bella takes more after Ezra, she is affected by the shattering of Aster but not as much as Ester.

That space is sort of a hallucination, sort of using the forest to tap into a different timeline since it’s a weird place where space and time fold in on each other constantly. Bella being Ezra’s kid is able to easily tap into that, and while she may not fully understand why it’s the fact that she can and does that matters here. It should also be known that Bella herself can kinda connect to that timeline but not fully either (there are reasons she is partially limited no I won’t explain that), but she did not build that timeline from the ground up. She essentially anchored the group to a timeline she subconsciously choose.

So there are two major timeline changes in this timeline.

1) Aster is still shattered, but Ezra keeps the twins and is there to help with the degrading of Veleda. So the girls grow up knowing who they are, and the Ezra cycle basically halts at the third major iteration (the foggy woman)

2) Anastasia never becomes “lost” due the stabilization of Ezra.

With that let’s get into the meat of this. The twins being raised by their mother ( I’m gonna refer Ezra that way), means they are actually aware of who and what they are. Being of Ezra and Aster the twins ground him, not in like a kids having to be adults thing, but in despite when Ezra eventually cycles from fractured to fog his twins bring him back to himself extremely quickly. So the forest stays pretty well within its borders, and the twins are able to be consciously and well hidden from fate. Giving them the few centuries they need to grow into their power and titles.

Let’s talk shay first cause I’m sure you’re all wondering how that went down, shay cleric of the lost gate keeper to the woods. While the forest remains in its bounds, Ezra remains extremely power as a god of large and encompassing emotion. Young Shay being at the is more of Ezra’s way of allowing them freedom should shay choose to have it. In this time line shay doesn’t meet Sylvanus do to a bunch of small things, instead they meet a very (I hesitate to use the word maternal, but something along those lines) Ezra. Who has raised her two children and is more than willing to take another in.

But Ezra being of decent control of themself (kinda) does recognize the negative effect they have upon shay. Most creatures are not made the isolation that the purest form of being lost dictates, and so they give them the position that gives them the most potential to spread their wings and leave. Shay 2.0 has never taken that option, and I don’t think ever would, so the lost family makes sure to wander in their direction from time to time.

Okay now I’m to the thing I know y’all wanna hear about: Ester

Some of this I’m going to have to be a little vauge in portions about cause some of her stuff here directly overlaps with actual campaign. So like I can’t tell you her full fledged godly domain sorry. But ester is a good here, a relatively minor deity but a deity nonetheless.

Ester 2.0 actually looks a little different then I first described her, I just didn’t want to tip my hand quite that early especially when y’all were on high Ezra alert already. She has mostly black hair but the highlights of it are more clearly grey toned, but other than that it’s the only kinda significant difference. Anyways now that that’s outta the way let’s talk ester 2.0 and Siron cause oh boy do I have so much to say on them that I haven’t been able to before. So getting it out of the way, Siron is actually an oath of devotion paladin and his oath is to ester, but it’s an oath of love and religious devotion it’s an extremely complex dynamic but it essentially comes down to acting in her will and in faith of her path for him. Now let’s be like super clear, there is a very very clear power dynamic here but they do genuinely care for each other, I also do just think that Siron is a bit of religious zealot as well. It took me for fucking ever to figure out how I would get these two to meet, and I couldn’t separate them I’m too attached to my straighties. Eventually what I came to was Siron eventually leaving Shars order and being a bit lost with out a god or an oath to follow, eventually finds ester. Similar to how you met her, Ester isn’t the kind to reveal herself as a divine on first meeting, and the two do hit it off in that time. Through a series of shit that I never fully fleshed out Siron eventually winds up being told and taking an oath to her, which is how he becomes so important to ester and becomes pretty much her right hand man.

Now for the extra fun how ester 1.0 was able to warn you. Again like Bella she doesn’t know what she is, but she can tap into Ezra and her own power easily, and with a shattered aster she is constantly accidentally tapping into the raw magic of guidance constantly. Esters warning wasn’t quite a premonition it was more of her sensing the time line you had started down and her pulling you back to the cross road of strings. As far as ester knows she showed you a vision of the future, the reality is she unknowingly restarted your path and was able to guide you down a new one.

Anyways yeah so that’s a fun 2.0 dump :)

[thephantasmalmaze]

hmmmm another one? the DM is in the zone and needed to write something as im def not crying over a tv show rn.

"fix it" au, this time tho lets take a look at shay, but instead of a new father (as she already has a perfect one) lets give them a new set of mentors and people to call home even for a little while.

If I were Silvanus I could fill books upon books about Shay, about the darling little teifling playing in the woods who pracned into his life, like a newborn fawn into the the budding wild flowers of summer. But I am not, and so I can't fill pages upon pages with words of fatherly joy nor can I write with the pride one has to watch their child accomplish the even the smallest of tasks.

But I can tell you of a version of the story where finding a new man to call father and mentor is not the end to dear shays change, but mearly the begining.

One of the first children in years to catch the favor of Silvanus is nothing to brush aside, and while subtle hard to over look by the correct eye. A Lady, of a kind heart and dispostion passes through town not an unusual occurance in a small town but shes so unlike anyone else. Instead of holing up in the inn and leaving as quickly as possible, she stays and enjoys teh scenery for a while. She sits at the tree lines and writes, she wakes up at the dawn and grounds herself to the soil, she too walks out into the woods alone with out fear. This my dear friends is how a young shay meets Thea.

Shay is headed out to her favorite pond, a small wooden bird she learned to carve clutched in hand, a lady on a mission. As they walk with purpose to their little creak determined to show their best friend the wonderful thing they made, shay is shocked instead to meet that new lady who has been hanging aroundthis town longer then anyone has before. Thea for her part notices the little teifling much faster as Shay, still young and learning is quite noisey in their little welly boots.

It takes some coaxing but Thea is eventually able to strike up a conversation withthis brave child who wanders the woods alone like he owns it, and cant help but grin from ear to ear as they speak.

Sadly though as all good things are known to do Thea must leave, to be an advisor is a full time job and Corbin can only handle her being gone so long. But the trip to this little nowhere town becomes a annual occurance, for her to stretch her wings and keep up with her little teifling friend. Eventually when shay is old enough to read and write well, annual meetings turn into letters sent between a mentor and mentee, and annual trips becom bi annual, once alone and once with the little prince and his knight, far away from duty even for just a few days.

And eventually when Shay is grown and old enough to make decision on their own, Thea extends an open invatation to come along, back with them to the city of Tarrin the city of gems. Shay eventually accepts, but dispite a new place to call home and more people to call family they never forget the wild father, and always stops to smell the roses

until next time ig o/

[thephantasmalmaze]

Why does copy right have to be a thing?? like i get it, but I wanna play Nowhere king for my halloween session, its like the most perfect vibes im so sad