For Christmas this year I painted my Sylvari boy, Caoilfhionn! He is super excited about snow, considering it doesn’t snow in the Grove ever. Sure, he can conjure ice from his sword or dagger, but it’s not the same as a real Divinity’s Reach snowfall, is it?
IT’S DONE AT LONG LAST
This set of chapters is less polished than the others, but the inspiration that I had in the middle of summer dried up unfortunately. It’s really a pain about the [HoT spoilers] because I really just don’t have any interest in the game anymore after they did that. The story’s not bad in LW4, I’m just… there’s no point for me. If I had more inspiration, there would be more proper build-up for several of these plot points, particularly Trahearne’s progression between his different stages. It was already a delicate balance to try to strike with being true to his personality and to achieve the sort of alteration that I was looking for, without also bringing gradual changes into it as well. Though he’s probably going to go Reaver now; I know that him using a greatsword before wasn’t a preview of Reaver, since OG Caladbolg had its own moveset, but when you get Caladbolg Orchida you get to use your regular moveset. And the Reaver moves just sound cool.
This image was really cool, but obviously I didn’t go with that idea for this fic. Super epic, though.
I used Roar of Dominion for the Balthazar fight scene! Trahearne’s still listening to Aviators a lot – but I also dipped into the Necrodancer OST for his second fight and returned to Let There Be Fire for his third fight. When I needed to write Faren, I borrowed Incandescent (although Solaire is better at being a hero than Faren, he’s more humble. But I think Faren would like to be like Solaire if he could). Then I used God-Shattering Star for the Joko fight, because that seems like his kind of drama. : P And most importantly, Dive from Mystic Pop-up Bar is Caoilfhionn’s final reunion song – and kind of the theme for this whole story! It just fits so well! I didn’t plan it that way! Trahearne’s reunion song, by contrast, is Love Resembles Memories! Couple songs that didn’t really get used for anything specific would be the male version of Magnet (for the boys together) and Mark Knopfler’s Irish Boy (for Caoilfhionn).
I know Faren doesn’t have an official first name yet, and might never. If he gets one I’ll edit. He was also frustrating to write until I realized he’s Sain from FE7 lol.
Chapter contents:
– 1: On the Rocks
– 2: The Hero of Amnoon
– 3: The Necromancer’s Destiny
– 4: Mistakes Have Been Made
– 5: Faren’s Moment
– 6: Who We Are
1: On the Rocks
Caoilfhionn and the other members present of Dragon’s Watch – Rhyoll, Annhilda, Damara, and Rytlock – were returning to the Temple of Kormir a few days after they’d saved it from the Herald of Balthazar. While Caoilfhionn would have eagerly gone after the Herald, to track down Balthazar and Vlast right away, the Temple was still in danger and so they’d delayed a little to clear out some Forged camps. It served a dual purpose; while these people deserved to feel safe, it was also important to secure friendly territory for Amnoon. Continue reading
I guess this is kind of the second half of LW3, but not really, because it has nothing to do with game plot. This chapter’s kind of a mess, but anyway I’m a little closer to the end and that’s all that matters. I mean, Trahearne’s kind of a mess, so it works thematically lol.
Caoilfhionn was listening to Enya again, and also a bunch of Christopher Tin music. (If Christopher Tin were the prime indication of where classical music was going in the 21st century I’d be totally okay with that.) Trahearne, however, has been listening to more Aviators music, even though it doesn’t quite fit as well as Let There Be Fire fit Trahearne during the Orr campaign. But anyway I needed something gloomy, and Tharash reminded me that this existed! Also Fear Not This Night needs more screentime, I miss it ingame.
Contents:
– 1: Cracks
– 2: New Horizons
Part 10: Putting the World Back Together
1: Cracks
He was warm, and naked, and relaxed, and was wrapped around something smooth and slowly breathing, and they were both wrapped up in thick fleshy leaves. He lifted his head and opened his eyes, and was surprised and pleased to find they both worked – though his left eye was blurry, like he’d gotten water in it. Before him, under his nose, were familiar green leaves shot with magenta luminescence, softly lit by diffuse dark green light soaking through the seedpod’s walls. Just over his head, the pod was slowly peeling open, and he could see a gentle blue sky that suggested it was late afternoon. Continue reading
The good end is here! Caoilfhionn’s last fight is soundtracked to This Game from No Game No Life! I really like the piano arrangement by Animenz, better than the original song actually. Really short chapter, because the story actually continues from here. And in fact we’re starting to head towards the end of the fic? I’ve still got story arcs for the boys to go through but from this point on the game story started to interest me less so you’ll see less of it. I’m still loving the areas in PoF, and exploring them, but the plot still hasn’t quite grabbed me yet. It would help if I could figure out whether I’m shipping Damara with Faren or Canach… or both, one after the other… and if Faren had more screen-time to make that sort of feasible. But anyway.
Btw, I’m not having Trahearne be giant-sized in this story. I’ve seen some really nice art of ‘Trahearne post-HoT’ and I really like that idea, but I’m going a different route.
Part 9: The Strength to Fight
He woke to find himself lying upon damp earthen ground, and sucked in a heaving gasp of air. How sweet it was, after such exertion! Even down here, where it smelled of decaying plant matter. He had truly pushed himself to the brink and it was good to wake and rest.
But Trahearne! He sat up, a little woozily as his sap took a moment to adjust its flow, and then pushed himself shakily to his feet. Continue reading
Okay! The ‘bad end’ is here, with all the drama and suffering that entails. What, I cried myself to sleep for a week after I found out how HoT ends, I’m not gonna waste that emotion even if I’m going to fix it in the ‘good end’! I may have gone too far in the future since I don’t even know how PoF ends but I couldn’t let my poor boy be shattered forever. If you’re not here for sadness, then skip to the next chapter! : )
Caoilfhionn’s catharsis gets soundtracked to Petrichor by The Rise Undaunted and also to Answer by Bump of Chicken.
Contents:
– 1: Tiachren
– 2: Caladbolg
– 3: Canach
Part 8: The Strength to Live
1: Tiachren
He woke to find himself lying upon damp earthen ground, and sucked in a heaving gasp of air. How sweet it was, after such exertion! Even down here, where it smelled of decaying plant matter. He had truly pushed himself to the brink and it was good to wake and rest.
But Trahearne! He sat up, a little woozily as his sap took a moment to adjust its flow, and then pushed himself shakily to his feet. Continue reading
The rest of HoT up to the final battle, but not the final moment. I’m writing two endings, a ‘bad end’ because I don’t want to miss out on the delicious drama that comes with it, and a ‘good end’ where Caoilfhionn overcomes even the final obstacle preventing him from being able to earn a happy ending. Schrödinger’s Trahearne, if you will. : P
Soundtrack for the Mordremoth fight is Between Heaven and Earth, both Rain and Thunder (although I think it’s actually the Storm track, not Thunder as it says in the video), though the only YouTube source I can find that has both also has Blue Skies and a Battle mixed in because they’re variants of each other. It’s all good!
Contents:
– 1: Farewell to Ruadhan
– 2: The Final March
– 3: Hearts and Minds
Part 7: Hearts and Minds
1: Farewell to Ruadhan
The Exalted allowed the Pact to rest at their city, and the army came in gratefully, eager to catch a bit of rest and a couple good nights of unstressed sleep after more than three weeks of constant fighting. The quartermasters and cooks got together to prepare a veritable feast, and morale was as high as it had been since they left Camp Resolve. The Priory members, naturally, rambled the city, asking questions of every Exalted they came across, and Annhilda had to caution them not to be annoying. Continue reading
The first half of HoT, because doing the entire thing in one go was 45+ pages long and that’s a bit much even for me. (After editing it’s come down to closer to 40 pages but still splitting it up is probably nice.)
I did not kill off Eir, because she’s too cool to kill off like that; she deserved better even in-game. Can’t believe she couldn’t fight back even a little. I’ve been getting further into LW3 and I realize this is going to change Braham’s storyline drastically, but I don’t see a real problem with that yet. I guess it gets labelled ‘canon-divergent’ at that point.
Another canon-divergent bit: Malyck. I was disappointed not to see him again. But if he does come back in future story updates, I can always edit!
Contents:
– 1: The Agony of Hope
– 2: What a Lark This Is!
– 3: Eir
– 4: The Golden City
Part 6: The Agony of Hope
1: The Agony of Hope
He was numb as he knelt helplessly on the clifftop; before him flickered an endless sea of leaves and flames. His sap was frozen within his veins, his breath choked off in his lungs, and there were tears in his eyes. All he could do was stare in disbelief and fear. The Glory of Tyria was impaled in three places, held aloft by vines of the same girth as the Pale Tree, her lovely dragonfly wings shattered. She was lying on her side, no sign of movement on her decks, and the fire still burning within suggested that there were no survivors on her now. Continue reading
Here comes LW2! Ugh it’s actually pretty well written in-game (some minor nitpicking about logistics aside) but it was actually a pain to write? It’s probably because I’m losing steam. I’ve started on LW3 in-game and so far that’s been fun! I don’t know if I’ll have the interest to write the sequel starring Damara just yet but if I decide I just don’t have the interest then I’ll put down my ideas at the end of the last chapter of this story.
With this chapter I tried to make clear more how the PCs are involved in the Pact in the Silverwastes. It felt a little in the game like the Pact Commander shows up well after Trahearne’s already got everything underway, which seems irresponsible. I also felt the final attack needed more explaining, it seems a bit hare-brained in game. Also on a character-driven note, Caoilfhionn cries when he tops but as a bottom he’s more mischievous. ;D I did use a soundtrack for the final dragon fight, Chasing Daybreak.
Thank you Tharash for beta-reading! “Can I call your plant romance ‘sappy’?”
I’ve been getting slowly more and more invested in Critical Role and I’m really upset about Molly, how dare he be so beautiful and fun and kind and also dead.
Contents:
– 1: A Leader Will Die
– 2: The Eternal Alchemy
– 3: Gathering the Cast
– 4: The Dragon’s Reach
– 5: The Silverwastes
– 6: Caithe
– 7: A Fleet of Airships
Part 4: The Day the World Ended
Part 5: The Dragon’s Reach
1: A Leader Will Die
Taimi was in a good mood as she puttered about Scarlet’s student room, rushing from object to object as quickly as her body would let her. “Do you realize the historical significance of this whole find?” She picked up a gear, turned it over rapidly, put it down and flipped through a pile of notebooks beside it. “Not to mention the salvage rights. I’ll be writing papers, treatises, and dissertations on this until I’m eighty!” Continue reading
Bit of a shorter chapter, since when I can’t play LW1 myself it’s a bit less inspiring. I still recommend watching the 3.3 hour ‘movie’ on YouTube! Reading the summary on the wiki really helps bring home just how long it was spread out, though. It’s basically a year and a half before LW2 starts up.
The first part should be soundtracked with Our Shangri-La (although I think I’ve used it for another couple? I can’t remember who, though). I may have painted Southsun to be a bit more controlled than it really is… Exploring it alone as an elementalist is kind of torturous, and there isn’t actually a romantic hot-spring grotto somewhere (but there SHOULD BE). Besides, with what’s coming up, the boys need all the happiness they can get – GW2 is a very stressful and tragic game if you actually live inside it. The other soundtrack you need is Twilight of the Gods and I don’t think I need to tell you when to listen to it. XD
Contents:
– 1: Honeymoon
– 2: The Day the World Ended
– 3: Set In Motion
Part 4: The Day the World Ended
1: Honeymoon
Time passed, but hardly any of it was spent in idle contemplation. Caoilfhionn and the rest of Hope’s Legacy traveled Tyria, helping anyone who asked for it and putting down evildoers. They’d met so many new people, including Braham, Eir’s son, a passionate young Norn with a laugh almost as big as Rhyoll’s, and Rox, a kind Charr ranger; both of them had become very close with the guild, and though neither had been formally invited or inducted, they were as much Caoilfhionn’s companions as any of the others by this time. They were all pretty famous, and while not everyone was a fan of being recognized, Caoilfhionn thought it was nice. Continue reading
Whoohoo! Progress is being made! This one is extra long (by 25%) because the 70-80 quests are actually really long! And copious amounts of fluff! Thanks again to Tharash for beta-reading and editing!
The most egregious thing that needed adjusting for me was the final boss fight, because Zhaitan goes down like a sad puppy in the game and… like… some Wyld Hunt that was. I wanted to stab the dragon myself, not watch it die by clicking the “shoot cannon” button over and over! (Also that dungeon is very slow and doesn’t have great pacing.) It was also fun to figure out how the different choices of mission could work at the same time! I also put in some cameos from other characters, some of them probably gratuitous.
Soundtracks used for inspiration: Fodlan Winds, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Let There Be Fire, Apex of the World, and also 打ち上げ花火 by Cellchrome (or Fireworks is what Google Translate tells me that means) which doesn’t have the studio version on YouTube, only live mall performances which are… not actually that great (sorry Cellchrome, you guys sound better on CD, I will buy all your CDs if you make them available in Canada, deal?).
I’m madly in love with Trahearne’s voice, help lol. How is it so deliciously yummy!? Cheers to Matthew Brenher for having such a magnificent voice. : )
I’m in game up to the end of HoT, so I’ll be writing at least up to that point.
Contents:
– 1: Strength of the Firstborn (Forging the Pact)
– 2: The Second Loss (Level 70 quests)
– 3: Comfort (The Battle of Fort Trinity)
– 4: Strike Boldly (Level 80 quests)
– 5: Love Requited (The Cleansing of Orr)
– 6: Victory or Death
– 7: Meet the Family (Basegame Epilogue)