That's It, This Sums Up The Past 9 Books Of The Series. Gotrek, Whose Greatest Enemy Is Undefeatable

Would this be "Multiverse of Strahd" or "Strahd and the Extended Family?"

CURSE OF STRAHD 2

THIS TIME

IT'S STRAHDIER

On a scale of Dark Souls to Devil May Cry, how fast are two-handed swords?

As always, more content, Tutorials and art refs over on Patreon

Watching all these social media platforms spiraling into disgust, I really think we need to consider alternatives. And I’m not really talking about finding different social media platforms, either, but rather changing the way we engage with and reach the content we want to see online.

As things stand now, we’re really just being corralled into ad-revenue pens at our own expense (i.e. being forced to see toxic content that’s terrible for our mental health but great for their engagement). It’s not for our benefit. It’s for theirs. In fact, we often get punished by their algorithms because we don’t post at their pace or share the kind of content they want.

But we’re stuck because we don’t feel like we have any other options, right? Because that’s the only way we can reach people and share our creations, right? To be honest, I’d rather subscribe to newsletters and visit personal blogs or websites. I’d rather pay modest, reasonable amounts to access a creator’s work than force them to rely on ad revenue from the more ravenous. But I don’t think we’re ready for that as a whole…

SLAYERS!

They have to be my favourite part of the dwarven army and the most original and interesting thing that differentiates them from their more classically Tolkien-esque counterparts.

They are dwarfs who swore off their lives to erase a stain from their honour, to atone in death for the sins of the past, no matter how small or grand they were because for warhammer dwarfs honour is all.

What is interesting is that there are three distinct reactions to taking the slayer oath. Some dwarfs fall into depression, shunning away from everyone but fellow slayers and priests of Grimnir, others become happy and extroverted because in death you do not need to worry about society's restraints, and of course there are those slayers like Malakai Makaisson or Snorri Nosebiter who simply go crazy. The only common thing that binds them is their oath, something more than sacred for them, that orders them forward in search of great doom that will send them to the halls of their ancestors.

In one of the Gotrek and Felix books they meet a lich priest of the Tomb Kings, when he was inquired by Jaeger as to why the dwarf helps the undead the priest answers that matters of the dead do not concern the living. He then explains that when Felix is brimming with life to the point of bursting, Gotrek's line of life was already severed which shows that slayer's oath is more than mere words etched in stone.

There are some musings as to why something like the cult of Grimnir exists in dwarfen society. Some claim that is nothing but a natural consequence of how the dwarfen psyche works a sense of honour taken to its most dangerous extreme, others say that it's a release valve for society that lives under constant pressure of expectations, restrictions and traditions, and there is also a third theory posed by Bitter the slayer who said that Grimnir took his axe and marched north because he could not stand constant nagging of his family.

When you look at the whole picture you start to realise how selfish the oath is. You, for your own sense of honour, abandon all you hold dear and seek death in battle, essentially wasting your skills, knowledge and wisdom throwing it all away at the pyre of glory. At the same time there is something tragically romantic about the whole thing, mighty doom seekers traveling the length and breadth of the world, oftentimes accompanied by human or dwarfish remembrancer poets, to find glorious death slaying enemies of order. I can't help but feel sympathetic to those crazy orange crested maniacs.

I hate the “Ragnarök is a Post-Christian Myth” theory.

First off, it feels like most people see that Snorri Sturluson was Christian and immediately assume he did what the Irish monks did to Irish mythology. This completely ignores why he wrote the myths down, which was to establish a cultural connection between Iceland and Norway, in order to try and get Iceland to join the Kingdom of Norway (which failed). It also ignores that fact that he WASN’T A MONK. Outside of a part about the Aesir being Trojans and living in Asia (which makes no sense when looking at the rest of the Edda and the myths within), and some stuff about some great god who is more powerful than all of the Aesir and is never actually named, there isn’t much evidence to there being large post-Christian changes.

The second problem is that the theory focuses too much on Loki. He doesn’t do much during Ragnarök. He captains a ship (whatever that meant to the Norse) and he kills/dies to Heimdallr. Each of his kids from Angrboda does more. Fenrir eats Odin, and in some versions also the sun, moon, and stars. Jormungandr floods Midgard and poisons the sky, along with killing the strongest of the Aesir, Thor. Hel(a) brings an army of Draugr from her realm to fight Odin and Freya’s einherjar (Freya got half of those who died in battle). I agree that Ragnarök is a story of revenge, but its not Loki’s. ITS THE JOTNAR’S REVENGE. Revenge for a long list of insults and grievances that started with the killing of Ymir during the Voluspa by Odin and his brothers. Also, both Fenrir and Jormungandr are getting revenge against the gods they hate most, whom they are stated to kill. In the end Surtr, king of Muspelheim, kills Freyr, destroys Asgard, and burns all of the worlds (which since they are made of Ymir’s corpse, make this technically Ymir’s funeral pyre). Also the Jotnar on Loki’s ship aren’t his troops, they are led by a different Jotun, and it isn’t even his ship.

I could do an entire other post on the problems with how Loki gets viewed through modern lenses, and I’m tempted to.

So like... people have broached the idea of pride flags having dragons on them like heraldry, which is of course correct and just, but like... they shouldn't ALL have dragons, right? Or at least not the same dragon. Each flag should have its own heraldic beast, ideally one that relates to the orientation the flag represents.

Which begs the question of which heraldic beasts would best suit each color of the rainbow, as it were. I think the iconic four legged, two winged dragon makes sense for the main pride/rainbow flag, since dragons are often posited as, like, the pinnacle of monsters, and so feel best suited to be the one that encompasses the whole spectrum, but I'm kind of paralyzed by the options presented to pick out ones for the others.

What if, instead of banning books, we added disclaimers to the next printings, akin to how forewords get added. Similarly to what happens with old cartoons that have racist content. They could have an explanation of the problem, why it is a problem (maybe), and why the author did that (ranging from “they were a horrible person” to “this was the language of the time”). Wouldn’t that be awesome.

If anyone who reads this is both a fan of Warhammer Fantasy and Balder's Gate 3 and is also can write, I need you to write how Gotrek and Felix would interact with the BG3 cast. I know it would end horribly but I imagine it would be hilarious.

bg3 canon modern au we can’t stop winning

See, our first mistake was trying to have a civilization in northern Europe between October and February. The darkest three months of the year should be for staying home under the blankets, midwinter festivals, and getting blind drunk when the sun goes down at 4 pm like the bog gods intended.