Fear and be feared.
You hate me, and yet, you stand before me once again. Good.
Now, let us define the terms.
{ooc below}
KIROKAZE
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ojovivo
Monterey Bay Aquarium

Janaina Medeiros

Love Begins
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open

izzy's playlists!

JBB: An Artblog!

if i look back, i am lost

Kaledo Art

blake kathryn
Sade Olutola
Misplaced Lens Cap

祝日 / Permanent Vacation
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todays bird
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
Not today Justin

★

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@vakuu
Fear and be feared.
You hate me, and yet, you stand before me once again. Good.
Now, let us define the terms.
{ooc below}
In-Game Ironclad vs. Trailer Ironclad
(For @timelockedchosen)
In-Game Ironclad:
This is a your average spire slayer.
Trailer Ironclad:
This thing's been force-fed creatine by Vakuu.
Do not tell him, he does not know.
I lace his estrogen with creatine.
“You fucking what-”
Inspired by @nonupeipe-serendipity trying to steal The Ironclad from @vakuu, we bring you:
The Providence
A hypothetical/AU version of Ironclad that rather than being bound to Vakuu’s will, is Nonupeipe’s champion. No longer engaging in vicious combat or feral self-bloodletting, The Providence focuses on defenses, free cards, and Replay. I can’t draw people for shit, but I imagine that The Providence, appearance wise, would still have his helmet, but modified to look less…intimidating. He’d also have his clothes and armor look more simple yet fancy, and most importantly, still functional, including his lovely phrog scarf ofc. Additionally, he’d go back to his old Heavy Blade, as Darv managed to find someone to fix it.
His Strike/Defend count would be swapped, going to 4 Strikes and 5 Defends. Bash would actually be replaced with a different attack!
Slam:
Rarity: Basic
Type: Attack
Effect(s): Deal 8 damage. Gain 5 Block.
Art: The Providence shoulder-checking someone HARD.
But what about the starter relic? The Providence obviously can’t have Burning Blood, considering that Vakuu’s probably the reason for that. Well, it would have the same effect, but rather than burning blood, it would be:
Cozy Scarf:
Rarity: Starter
Effect(s): At the end of combat, heal 6 HP.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I am back and ready to cause problems.
You didnt actually answer why
"Well, is it so wrong to want a champion of my own? Goodness knows I would have more for him to occupy his time with than Vakuu would."
What?!
We do things all the time!
I make him kill some people. Then force him to play wizard chess (I always win). And then we finish off the day with compelling another contract onto him! Plenty of activities to be had!
If you could steal one thing from another ancient what would you want?
WHAT?!
Nonupeipe, this is utterly ridiculous. Fool hearted to even suggest. I... I cannot fathom such a flimsy plan to succeed.
Do you suggest there's something wrong with the textiles I design? I am an expert in my craft... AN EXPERT!! That somehow your absolutely ridiculous *phrog scarf* would lure the Ironclads lust for power over my capes?
He. Is. Mine....
saw a tweet earlier that said something about how Vakuu is the only person that knows Ironclad’s name now from the signature on his contract (everyone else Clad has known and loved and that knew his real name died over 1,000 years ago, well before the Spire was formed…) and how if Vakuu ever whispered his real name back to him and taunted him with it he’d be bewildered and unable to recognize what it is…
I feel like Ironclad hearing his own name would feel familiar but foreign to him…like the sound of it feels so strange to his ears but at the same time he can’t put a finger on why this seemingly random name that Vakuu is saying feels like something he should know…but can’t and will never know now that his name has been stolen from him and therefore is no longer his. It feels like a locked door that he desperately wants to open — he wants to see what’s on the other side — but the key to it has been long destroyed and there’s no other way to retrieve it…
Why is Ironclad like that (tm)?
It doesn't take a genius to realise that Clad isn't really all there in the head, at least when he reaches the Architect. However, he is shown to be at least somewhat aware at other times. I have many thoughts about this, not particularly groundbreaking ones, but stuff I need to get off my chest.
First, there's his multiplayer ping. "Make haste." isn't exactly poetry, but it lacks the extremely-violent-autopilot consistant ellipses of his Architect dialoge. He sounds more like a typical stoic knight instead of a clearly demon-possessed thrall. Same with "My team needs me" when trying to do something that will obviously get him killed. So he's capable of normal-adjacent thought at least sometimes, even if he is sometimes "lost to rage" (according to Neow)
Now for the real kickers. Character-specific event dialoge. When confronted with two chests, one cursed and one normal, choosing the former results in your character saying what they would use that gold on. Silent thinks it will impress her sisters. Regent wants to hire a team of non-idiots. Defect wants to buy replacement parts. Necrobinder wants new shoes (no I am not kidding). And what about Clad?
"These riches can bolster my tribe's armoury"
Hey, buddy, these riches can bolster your what now? That was my immediate thought when I first encountered that event, and it has not left my brain since. He thinks that he is still at war, still needs to fund their soldiers and smiths to smite their enemies. He doesn't know that he single-handedly solved that problem of theirs. He doesn't know that they never got to experience that victory.
He thinks that somewhere out there, they are waiting for him to come back.
And who's gonna tell him otherwise? This is compounded by his most cohearent lines (which is honestly a very low bar, a tripping hazard more than anything), which are to Vakuu. "SACRED DEMON, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?" is said after the prompt 'awaken', and this again shows that he really doesn't know about the ~atrocities~. But wait, what did he do to him? It's clearly not about all the murder (and framing that as something done to him is almost hilariously self-centred), so it's probably the 'being forced to climb a tower endlessly thing'. So that's his big hang-up with Vakuu. He's willing to kill the guy because he'd rather be doing something other than Slaying a particular Spire (which, fair, he's probably been at it for a damn while even considering Neow's memory wipe). So Ironclad harbours no resentment towards either himself, nor Vakuu over the deaths of his tribe. Because he doesn't even know it happened.
Which means that Vakuu's taunts about whether "the lost tribes weigh on him" are sadly lost because Ironclad initiated all those slaughters and probably doesn't care much and the one tribe he would care about, he is unaware of. Good try, Vakuu, good try.
In rejecting the Aroma of Chaos, the slayers all channel a particular core principle. Again, Ironclad's is suprisingly not somethine like "The Architect... must... die" and is instead "Pain is nothing, my enemies must die". The intentional plural of enemy suggests one of three things. Either the enemies are the other tribes and he doesn't he already did that, or he is talking about the myriad of spire-dwellers that want him dead, or the Architect and Vakuu. I'm personally a fan of the last interpretation, though any is fair. I do have to wonder whether the "Pain is nothing" part is his own personally philosophy or something he was taught as a child.
So my best estimate at this point in time is that to the Ironclad, his life looks something like this:
Childhood - No idea what it was like but assuming he was at least 18 when he sought out Vakuu, he must have lived as a normal member of his tribe for a good while. He was trained in the art of swordfighting and learned that the Valleyguard were his enemies.
The Pact - At some point as a young man, ambition drove him to cross a forbidden boundary and commune with Vakuu. He signs his name on the dotted line and is granted immense power, at the cost of well...
Slaughter - All the enemies of his tribe are brutally killed with these new powers, and Ironclad got very, very ahead of himself in the process. Once the deed was done, he returned home, ready for a hero's welcome. (the's a chance that he doesn't even remember this part and zones out immediately after the pact as well)
Option A - Suddenly he's somewhere else. Barely aware of anything, running on instinct and guttering fumes, ascending over and over and over--- (Skipped the murder, straight to Spire 1)
Option B - He is ablaze. Shining like a beacon way above the clouds, a vessel for the extermination of some dreadful parasite. Maybe it hurts. Maybe it doesn't. EIther way, he is up there for a very, very long time (Gains awareness only after Spire 1)
Option C - Vakuu's face appears again, only horrifically injured and even more horrifically angry. Kill the Architect is the only purpose he has. Up again he goes, mostly lost to rage. (Only woken up when Vakuu needs him for revenge)
Option D - In the dust-filled air of an Ancient's abode, the Ironclad finally realises something is wrong. He demands answers of the demon and gets none, forced to climb and resenting every minute. (The 'awaken' text is very very literal)
In any option he is:
Ignorant of his status as the last of his tribe (See: the first part of this extremely long post)
Somewhat concious about his actions in the spire (enough to communicate even just a tiny bit and to think about his tribe)
Somewhat consumed by infernal fury (Neow's lines, a large amount of his cards)
Completely not-there at that Architect (Obviously) So what did we learn? I honestly don't know. I wrote this instead of sleeping. I hope you enjoyed this goofy little analysis.
(No I have not forgotten about "Let me Burn", Chapter 2 is still being edited)
Really cool analysis!! Oh dear sweet Ironclad what the hell happened to you lmao
My only real ding, or at least something I think must be brought up, is the Sensory Stone event in 1.
(Picture from the wiki)
It does seem like the Ironclad remembers what happened to his tribe, and had at least a brief period of lucidity concerning that, what with him having the wherewithal to be afraid of Vakuu as his old home burns. I'm sure this could be fit into things, though! Again, good work :D
@askblogironclad anything you want to add?
Something I think a lot about is the weird "shared custody" that Vakuu and Neow have over the Ironclad. Neow has control over rebuilding the Ironclads body, along with her memory wipe, but Vakuu is what made him what he is at his core. It's also made clear that Vakuu wants to rule over Neows tree (the spire), but does she even care? She made the Blight with unnamed siblings because she was jealous of the Architects power. Was Vakuu one of these siblings or will she become jealous of his power if he takes control of the Spire? What would happen if she tried to use the Ironclad against him? And why did "the demons contract" love to consume the fire of the Ironclad at the end of Spire 1??
I just... Have so many questions around what their contract is, what influence Vakuu actually holds and why it feels like the Ironclad is more of a thrall of Neow than Vakuu.
{ Hey folks, genuinely so sorry for dying on this blog. Thesis and work has been killing me, but hopefully I’ll be back soon! Thanks for your patience <3 }
Same, life has been hectic along with me getting sick that it's been a bit hard to post lately. I'm hoping things chill out soon.
Best of luck to you, nonupeipe
this diva from slay the spire 2 is a beautiful fat woman and would absolutely be forcefemming the ironclad. just so you know.
I completely agree, give the ironclad injections.
For sts2 I'd love it if multiplayer groups could get unique dialogue from ancients depending on who they're traveling with. Like you just KNOW Tezcatara wants to start some drama and be telling other people's secrets. Tezcatara should also be lying to them to try to turn the group on each over out of a desire for chaos. Orobas should be yapping about how the Silent is infected with Blight to everyone. Vakuu should brag about Ironclad being his to Regent at least onve, and Regent should misunderstand this as the two of them being in a romantic relationship. This should be an ongoing bit. Vakuu should never correct him because Ironclad having to hear someone sincerely refer to Vakuu as "his strange tall boyfriend" is a better torture than anything Vakuu could've devised.
...
>:]
…
(The soundless hunter, bruised, battered, and covered in ash, has come seeking something.)
(Again.)
@silent-knife-fan
You have returned. Do you really think the Architects head will be enough for them?
You are better than them, and we both know it.
Why don't you prove it?
In-Game Ironclad vs. Trailer Ironclad
(For @timelockedchosen)
In-Game Ironclad:
This is a your average spire slayer.
Trailer Ironclad:
This thing's been force-fed creatine by Vakuu.
Do not tell him, he does not know.
I lace his estrogen with creatine.
Hey have you been to Georgia before? /ref
Unfortunately.
... hello, Vakuu. fancy running to you here. ( @whichfeedsthefire )
Tezcatara, always a delight to see your flames warming the hearths of the spire. May you forever burn and burn and burn...
[living--rainbow] (Heyo! Joining in on the fun with my newly acquired gummy worm)
Vakuu? What do on this floor? Go away!!! Bad bad. Contracts stinky! Orobas disapproves!!! Not be making any contracts!!! Nuh-uh. Vakuu take papers and shove them!!! See? Good friends teach Orobas to be more assertive!!! People need be more assertive when talking to devil!!! Smelly.
Orobas, my friend. This is not like you.
Come, rest here with me and tell me IN DETAIL who these "friends" are... I simply must have a word with them.
So, I believe we're all aware you want The Architect's head on a pike at the moment due to the whole face thing, but what were your thoughts on him before that whole mess, if you had any? Like, in the times of the Corrupt Heart, or even before then.
His work these days is predictable and uninspired. He may have created the seeds of which we were born from, but if anything, he seems disappointed in their results.
He does not care for anything he cannot control directly. I know it may seem like I would share that sentiment, but my contracts are *signed* by *willing* clients.
We are not the same.