It is this time of the year. Richter padoru
I have many thoughts about the Golden Scapegoat's mutterings and Phainon.
If the theory about Phainon being the Lord Ravager is correct, and the Golden Scapegoat's mutterings are about him, then this entry takes on a much more literal meaning.
It becomes far more straightforward the mark of property being made in the furnace corresponding to Nanook giving the mark of destruction to the chosen, their bodies being reforged in the Warforge they become Lord Ravagers and destruction becoming their destiny.
Interpreting it this way suggests that the rest of the entry should also be taken quite literally. That makes me wonder could Phainon, before becoming the Lord Ravager, literally speak to the dead? But the references to black iron and charcoal suggest a much more violent method of communicating with the dead than what you’d normally expect. I’m not sure what to make of that.
(Gardener - Garden of Recollection perhaps?)
This entry also seems to associate the dead more strongly with memories, but I think this one is referring to Cyrene, because she too is heavily associated with being a sinner, so I don’t know how useful this entry could be in trying to decipher 6B.
I didn’t see anyone else do this, but I have many thoughts about an Arcane Fate AU.
The concept is that Hextech and the story of the two sisters took place roughly 100 years ago, and during that time, Zaun gained independence. Because of this, characters like Jinx and Vi are now historical/folk figures in Piltover and Zaun.
The Holy Grail Ritual is a fancy competition between Piltover families to show themselves off. They usually select representatives with sufficient magical abilities to compete, and they use Servants as familiars in battles. However, in this particular Holy Grail Ritual, something went wrong, and some Servants ended up being summoned by unintended individuals (people from Zaun).
The Master-Servant pairings and classes would look something like this
Piltover:
Viktor - Jayce - ????? Caster
Mel - Lest/Leblanc - Assassin/Pretender (what i mean is Leblanc is pretending to be Lest and that her class is assassin)
Caitlyn - Vi - Saber or Shielder i am not sure about this
Zaun:
Isha - Jinx - Archer
Ekko - Heimerdinger - Rider
Singed - Warwick - Berserker
and special guest:
Ambessa - Arcane Herald - claiming to be saviour those who are more familiar with the fate series could probably guess his true class
Nocturne lore portrayed in one single picture:
there's meta to be had about just how much of viktor's arc is about loneliness and the blatant visuals they use in his evolution about metamorphosis, butterflies, cocoons, in utero, etc, as he molts from a soft, vulnerable larva who keeps getting hurt in his bids for love and acceptance, into a hardened final form complete with an exoskeleton acting as both physical and emotional armor. a shield keeping his emotions in and the pain of loneliness and rejection out, until it's cracked and his humanity is forcefully exposed. like. sorry if it's just the entomologist in me but this was blatantly obvious the very first time i watched the show and I've been continually surprised that no one's really pointed this out. as a certified lonely person it struck such a deep cord with me, when he accepted his fate, his path ahead, to be one he'd have to walk alone, finally putting up that last seemingly impenetrable wall around his soft parts (but keeping the blanket, this signal that he never asked for this, and that he's not unreachable). So much of his s2 arc centered around not just his desire to right his wrongs and help the world, but to connect with others and not feel alone, both of which got twisted by the hexcore. His attempt to create a hivemind where no one would ever suffer loneliness or rejection or loss, and he would feel their souls with him as well (even though that was an illusion in the end, he truly believed it). The whole 'I now speak with all their voices' but he's just floating in an empty space. And for the consequence of the glorious evolution to be eternal solitude, it just drives home how that's the worst possible fate imaginable for Viktor.
VIKTOR | JERICHO | ARCANE
Please enjoy this edit here on Tumblr in full. ❤️ Focusing on the GLORIOUS EVOLUTION of Viktor (with lots of Jayce too, because you can't have one without the other). HOW are these lyrics so perfect?
Update: We have a link to a NEW extended version on Youtube (the only way we could make the audio work there was to add 12 seconds to the middle of our edit at 0:51) under the cut:
Update: We FINALLY found a solution to YouTube blocking/muting our audio. 🥳 Apparently cutting 12 seconds from the second verse was enough of an edit that the filters were rejecting it. We have an EXTENDED edition going live on Dec 27 with those 12 seconds added back in (new content begins at 0:51 secs).
Other places to watch (original version)
Patreon (public, no login needed): https://www.patreon.com/posts/viktor-jericho-118392578
Tiktok Part 1: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8NbxnBt/
Tiktok Part 2: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8NbnQQd/
Twitter: https://x.com/VidDuality/status/1871194052923670966
I tried making dramtic lighting for the first time it worked out fine i think
The thing that makes Nanook and the path of Destruction so intriguing to me is that the methods are generally bad, but the goal, and what leads up to that goal, are much more complex and understandable than one might think.
Because Nanook wasn‘t some mustache twirling villain since birth, they were a victim of catastrophes started by other people and only through experiencing so much suffering did they develop their ideology of „This universe is bad and it needs to be destroyed.“ Fact is that if the universe did not exist in the way that it does in Star Rail, there wouldn’t be a path of destruction. Continuing that thought, there was and is Destruction in Star Rail‘s history that’s completely disconnected to Nanook. Nanooks ascension was more of a response to the suffering created by Emperor Rubert, Tazzyronth, the IPC etc. than something that happened in a vacuum.
If you look at all the antagonists we got in Star Rail up until now, do you notice how only a few of them are fully associated with the Destruction? And if you look at their goals, how many of them align with the path of Destruction?
Nanook and the followers of the path of Destruction are in no way justified in their actions, but acknowledging that they are the product of a continuous cycle of violence created by paths other than theirs than them is important for understanding the entire Star Rail story.
To end this I wanna point out how similar Nanook‘s goal is to the message of the game to ultimately show how flawed the Destruction is.
The message of Star Rail is to embrace the future. This is similar to Nanook wanting to destroy the current universe for a new one. Ending things to start new things isn’t wrong, but Nanook‘s desire to destroy the past is born out of an inability to see the past clearly for what it is, resulting in their actions being harmful. They internalized the violence they experienced as a human and now see it as some universal law and can‘t see past it to find a way to break the cycle of violence which they are now just continuing.
This is what makes Nanook‘s goal ultimately only a twisted reflection of the core message of Star Rail, because the AE Crew is creating a better future by understanding people’s problems and helping them (e.g. Sunday), not just by fighting bad people and never fully addressing the problem.
I wonder, is there any castlevania discord? (For a fans of games and animated series obviously)
Finally done i spent on this to much time
mathias bad decision roulette landed on "make my ex immortal"