you sweet stupid thing

[zathra]

this is a choices sideblog, i follow back from @askafroa

[zathra]

parallels

[pixelbookclub]

"Remember that night together in the forest glade? Our kiss? That was real, Aerin. And it's still real." He swallows, uncertain. "You would still have me? Even as I am?" You step right up to him and reach out, touching his sickly cheek. You should attack him... ...but you hesitate. And that second of hesitation is all Aerin needs. "Liar."

— Blades of Light & Shadow, Book One Chapter 16 { 🗡️ edit process }

[aces-and-angels]

spoilers from spellfyre (ch. 18)

been playing through the second to last scene with all the characters— ain’t it weird to anyone else that bardric dgaf that his father, who is also fighting alongside the other professors, gets stabbed in the thigh by a shade? like throw a line in or something, ik he’s not his favorite person but damn.

[vampirkit]

my bloodbound tomodachi life miis!

details under the cut, if you want to recreate them

Kamilah:

i used one of the given templates for the suit, and just changed the colors of the blazer and drew her necklace on top

Lily:

i had to draw her dress completely from scratch

Jax:

Adrian:

[erixadraws]

Old drawing of Raya I never got to post

@rosesnink messaged me about an event that happened in the blades fandom where people redesigned the Masquerade outfit back in Book1 of Blades

I remember i wanted to add more but i dont think ill revisit this drawing but looking at it again its beautiful the way it is.

Thank you again Noe for giving me this idea💗

[icariancowboy]

tfw when the dreadlord is gone and the nerada stone is removed but the abyss he left inside u still remains

[the-unconquered-queen]

Spellfyre ch 16.5 spoilers ahead

No, really.

Idk how I feel about this reveal. I think it was too obvious, and there's definitely more than what they'd have us believe. And idc, I still think I can bestiefy him.

Things I think we should keep in mind about the Flamekeeper (or whoever is behind stuff):

The reason Windworn ruled out MC as the Flamekeeper is that they use advanced magic and a first year wouldn't be able to pull it off. Keep in mind that Windworn believes that MC is potentially the most powerful arcane she's seen, so if she, a magic expert, still doesn't believe MC could pull it off, how could it realistically be Yvain, who is honestly kind of shit at magic? I mean, there's a scene with Cato where y'all can discuss whether it's Yvain, and if you say it's impossible, it gets pointed out that he can't control his magic well enough for it.

Yvain definitely doesn't have the power to pull off the dream stuff, so it calls into question whether Prof. Nightrun is involved, because how else would he have the ability? It sucks because she's my favorite professor, I think :(

Through the Cato scene, we've seen Yvain purchase shady stuff from Brimley, so clearly he's not above doing it himself, so how come he's sending people to do it for him?

If you explore the bombs in the Flamekeeper's lair, MC will realize that the FK was in the cave just before their (MC's) squad. If Yvain is a first year also, what are the odds he beat MC and co. there while doing the midterm AND buying himself enough time to set the bomb? Also, realistically, even if he's shown to be antisocial, he'd have had a squad, since we're told even two people on a squad is risky, so one person alone (especially one person who's not that great at magic) is literally a suicide mission. Not someone who's gonna beat all of the fuller, more experienced squads to the end. So how'd he get away with that without his squad noticing (and assuming they aren't in on it)?

Brimley was killed as he was telling MC where the Flamekeeper said they were from. I think this means that knowing where they're from is a significant clue as to their identity. Meanwhile, I don't think it matters much where Yvain is from, if we even know.

Windworn was quick to shut Yvain up. If that's not sus, I don't know what is.

While I do believe (and have said before) that Yvain thought that MC, as a Dreadbane, would be sympathetic to the cause before realizing that MC was probably brainwashed, remember that the Flamekeeper attacked MC literally on the first day, at which time Yvain not only hadn't met MC, but there was no way of telling where MC's loyalties lied yet. MC could've been (and was universally thought to be) Andros Dreadbane Part 2 at that time. Too early to decide to kill them if you're a devoted believer in Andros Dreadbane's cause.

I'm not actually gonna argue that the guy we've been seeing in robes isn't Yvain, because the sprites do line up perfectly (I was focused on comparing everyone's necklines to the FK's when the whole time it was a mf who literally just covered his with a cravat, smdh). Anyway unless they pull an It Lives Beneath and reuse one sprite for multiple people even if it doesn't fit (whitewashed cultist grandpa wassup), it's been Yvain, but I stand by the previous points.

There is more but I'm blanking rn I'll probably add later

Anyway, at the very least, he's clearly not acting alone. If it really is him and he's acting 100% of his own volition, which, *squints*

[zathra]

I thought it was interesting how Bre's description of the flamekeeper doesn't correspond to Yvain, especially their way of speech (she says it was elegant and scholarly; Yvain is snarky, irritable and curses a lot). The height part we don't really know, but that's very broad and could be anyone. MC guesses their affinity could be Penthos because Bre said they were angry - this could be Yvain because he is always angry, but he has Timoros affinity. All of this aligns with Rhiannon, though.

[the-unconquered-queen]

Good point—I'd forgotten about the descriptions of the Flamekeeper's build and manner of speaking! I agree that I definitely still suspect Rhiannon. She's a Penthos arcane, I don't doubt that she speaks elegantly, and she was right there in the cave immediately after everything went to shit at the midterm. (Also, I partially base my suspicions around the fact that the SF writers are ex-Choices writers, and that I feel that, if this were a Choices story, Rhiannon's character matches their formulas for twist villains, right alongside Windworn, which is why I've got my eye on her, too.)

My only issue here with it being Rhiannon right now is the height. The game has made it beyond clear that Talyn isn't just conventionally tall—he's really tall. Like, towers over people tall. And I feel that for a female character in particular to get close to his height, it would've been casually peppered into the narration somewhere that said character is really tall because it would be a very distinctive trait—hell, regardless of the FK's gender, I don't think the writers would've told us that they're tall and then never drop any hints about that particular person being tall before they reveal who they really are, you know? Because otherwise there'd have been no point in Bre telling us that, and I don't think that line would be there if it weren't meant to help us somehow, from a player's perspective.

[zathra]

You're right about the height part, i actually went through screenshots and yt videos to check and i feel like we get very few height confirmations for characters in general. Iyer is said to be tall and confident, plus the sophisticated speech is kinda there, but idk if i see it as he barely has any involvement in the story so far. I'm definitely also leaning towards Rhiannon or Windworn!!

[zathra]

only 2% of players picking cato is so disappointing.... he's been my fav since the start, he has some of the sweetest romance scenes and a really good backstory, he definitely deserves more love

[the-unconquered-queen]

Spellfyre ch 16.5 spoilers ahead

No, really.

Idk how I feel about this reveal. I think it was too obvious, and there's definitely more than what they'd have us believe. And idc, I still think I can bestiefy him.

Things I think we should keep in mind about the Flamekeeper (or whoever is behind stuff):

The reason Windworn ruled out MC as the Flamekeeper is that they use advanced magic and a first year wouldn't be able to pull it off. Keep in mind that Windworn believes that MC is potentially the most powerful arcane she's seen, so if she, a magic expert, still doesn't believe MC could pull it off, how could it realistically be Yvain, who is honestly kind of shit at magic? I mean, there's a scene with Cato where y'all can discuss whether it's Yvain, and if you say it's impossible, it gets pointed out that he can't control his magic well enough for it.

Yvain definitely doesn't have the power to pull off the dream stuff, so it calls into question whether Prof. Nightrun is involved, because how else would he have the ability? It sucks because she's my favorite professor, I think :(

Through the Cato scene, we've seen Yvain purchase shady stuff from Brimley, so clearly he's not above doing it himself, so how come he's sending people to do it for him?

If you explore the bombs in the Flamekeeper's lair, MC will realize that the FK was in the cave just before their (MC's) squad. If Yvain is a first year also, what are the odds he beat MC and co. there while doing the midterm AND buying himself enough time to set the bomb? Also, realistically, even if he's shown to be antisocial, he'd have had a squad, since we're told even two people on a squad is risky, so one person alone (especially one person who's not that great at magic) is literally a suicide mission. Not someone who's gonna beat all of the fuller, more experienced squads to the end. So how'd he get away with that without his squad noticing (and assuming they aren't in on it)?

Brimley was killed as he was telling MC where the Flamekeeper said they were from. I think this means that knowing where they're from is a significant clue as to their identity. Meanwhile, I don't think it matters much where Yvain is from, if we even know.

Windworn was quick to shut Yvain up. If that's not sus, I don't know what is.

While I do believe (and have said before) that Yvain thought that MC, as a Dreadbane, would be sympathetic to the cause before realizing that MC was probably brainwashed, remember that the Flamekeeper attacked MC literally on the first day, at which time Yvain not only hadn't met MC, but there was no way of telling where MC's loyalties lied yet. MC could've been (and was universally thought to be) Andros Dreadbane Part 2 at that time. Too early to decide to kill them if you're a devoted believer in Andros Dreadbane's cause.

I'm not actually gonna argue that the guy we've been seeing in robes isn't Yvain, because the sprites do line up perfectly (I was focused on comparing everyone's necklines to the FK's when the whole time it was a mf who literally just covered his with a cravat, smdh). Anyway unless they pull an It Lives Beneath and reuse one sprite for multiple people even if it doesn't fit (whitewashed cultist grandpa wassup), it's been Yvain, but I stand by the previous points.

There is more but I'm blanking rn I'll probably add later

Anyway, at the very least, he's clearly not acting alone. If it really is him and he's acting 100% of his own volition, which, *squints*

[zathra]

I thought it was interesting how Bre's description of the flamekeeper doesn't correspond to Yvain, especially their way of speech (she says it was elegant and scholarly; Yvain is snarky, irritable and curses a lot). The height part we don't really know, but that's very broad and could be anyone. MC guesses their affinity could be Penthos because Bre said they were angry - this could be Yvain because he is always angry, but he has Timoros affinity. All of this aligns with Rhiannon, though.

[the-unconquered-queen]

Based on everyone who's shared their achievements, I think we can make a proper ranking of affinities by player percentage! That means that, from most to least popular, we're looking at:

Erolis - 28% of players

Sikranos - 27% of players

Penthos - 21% of players

Ikaris - 13% of players

Timoros - 6% of players

Felicis - 5% of players

Just a lil summary for people who like stats! Shoutout to @luminouslumity, @rjschoicesstuff, and @lantsov-vanserra for sharing theirs :)

Anyone surprised by the numbers?

[bedtimegiraffe]

Iridessa and Leona Files

@the-unconquered-queen already posted most of Windworn's files, but here are Iridessa and Leona to round out the set! With a bonus 'Cato as a distraction' that only appears if you go with Leona.

Iridessa continuing her rebellious phase:

Leona is always an optimist:

And Cato taking one for the team:

[zathra]

[zathra]

i'm obsessed with her

[zathra]

bardric kissing everyone - scenes under cut

MC

leona

cato

[zathra]

cont. here

iridessa

[zathra]

bardric kissing everyone - scenes under cut

MC

leona

cato

[zathra]

cato is way too adorable!!!!