Time For

Time for

Revelations with Res

(Regarding: Godfrey, Marika, and the Hornsent)

The Secret Rite Scroll says: "A lord will usher in a god's return,

and the lord's soul will require a vessel."

Based on Miquella's interpretation via the stuff with Radahn and Mohg, it means that the Lord and another must be sacrificed, and then the Lord's soul needs the body of the other one sacrificed to return, with the God in tow.

At first I thought that this being a "Secret Rite Scroll" means that Marika didn't have anything to do with it, that it's some Secret Third Way to use the divine gateway to ascend. But no, now I think Marika did use it.

On Godfrey.

And she sacrificed a random, nameless Hornsent to put his soul into.

Now, my first thought was "why would someone who played such an important part have no name or mention", but then I remember... Mohg is basically a "random nameless nobody". Gideon doesn't know his name, or even that he's an Omen, just that there's a shardbearer calling himself the "Lord of Blood." When Morgott is naming demigods at the thrones in Leyndell, he says nothing about Mohg at all. It seems everyone knows more about Ranni, and Ranni's entire thing is keeping a low profile. Mohg is basically a ghost, and maybe that works out, because then, presumably "no one" would miss him or notice he's gone.

Furthermore, for Marika's part, why would a sacrifice - and a Hornsent, at that - ever be enshrined in a history Marika controls the narrative of?

This could very well be the "seduction and betrayal" it was talking about in the trailer. She suckered some poor Hornsent into getting close to her. We know not all the Hornsent were down with all the shady shit that was going on in the gaols, etc. After all, the Greater Potentate's Cookbooks talk about it, so one of the would-be sacrificial shamans manipulating a Hornsent into becoming a sacrificial goat in turn isn't farfetched. Especially via "seduction" - which also would explain why the Hornsent grandam calls Marika a "strumpet" (an old timey word for "slut" for anyone who didn't look it up). The fact she's so focused on Marika's sexual proclivities, instead of Marika's bloodthirsty genocide-war is kind of telling, in that regard. Almost like what Marika slept with... might have been a Hornsent. It might have even been one of the Sculpted Keepers, considering Godfrey's later affinity with lions, or that could just be a happy coincidence with Serosh just happening to be a storm lion.

Note: She could just be a cantankerous old woman and calling Marika a slut a gendered insult, because old lady and inter-women aggression, but I still feel like there are better insults to call the bloodthirsty despot that's murdering and oppressing your people than a "slut". The line from the trailer could be metaphorical, still (Marika was "seduced" by the power the Greater Will offered her.) But this feels direct and personal, like the Hornsent Grandam was privy to some kind of information.

Anyway, she killed the hornsent, and Godfrey, and returned as a God.

And because Godfrey's body is now a Hornsent...

It explains why he has the Crucible Knights. It explains why his children with Marika ended up developing aspects of the Crucible. (I don't think Godwyn is an exception, actually, considering his piscine appearance. His traits either were suppressed or manifested after death. The DLC is clear that horns, wings, and tails are NOT the only Crucible aspects that people can develop; there's frog tongues, and flower blooms, and whatever Devonia's weird taur-form thing was. Fish scales and gills and weird clam-faces are not out of the question.)

It explains way too much about what happened with that first generation of demigods.

Yes, Godfrey doesn't have external horns, but I think I can explain that, too:

Not all the Hornsent develop huge horns. In fact, given the Tanglehorn Bairn description, it sounds like a lot that would just die in infancy. Most of the little Hornsent commoner dudes you see just have a few small horns poking out of their heads. Mohg definitely developed a grandiose "tanglehorn" sort of look, but when Radahn took over his body, all that remained were a few poking up around his arms and legs. Would make sense that a "lesser" hornsent's horns would disappear entirely. But that doesn't mean the effect is gone, something that people with no concept of "DNA" or "alleles" could know about.

Speaking of which: The Hornsent think tanglehorns "invoke divinity" which makes me think the choice of Mohg as the sacrifice was deliberate - He is very, VERY evocative of "tanglehorns". Therefore, according to Hornsent culture, he'd probably be a very spiritually powerful Hornsent. And there seems to be some truth to their claims.

The most powerful Hornsent to be sacrificed, to host the soul of the most powerful demigod as a Lord, to usher in the most powerful Empyrean as the - presumably - most powerful God.

I don't think any of that was an accident.

- - -

Side note: I know this doesn't help the Miquella accusations, but Radahn coming back with visible horns might have actually been part of the plan. I do think Miquella intended to uphold the promise he made with his Hornsent follower, and an Elden Lord with visible Crucible traits could have been seen as part of that - he was honoring their idea of divinity in the form of a "tanglehorn".

Furthermore, by using a horn-encrusted Radahn to fight Messmer's Inquisition, it might look like some kind of repentance for Marika's aggressions. A son of Marika fighting another son of Marika with a horned Lord could elicit a positive response from the Hornsent... and Radahn would get the "endless war" he wants against Messmer. There's not actually a reason to mentally manipulate the inquisition, since they were all there voluntarily; they're not the ones suffering, and they weren't fooled into being there.

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if you are a dungeon master (or even a fantasy author/worldbuilder of any kind) and you don’t know about donjon let me make your life a million times easier

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want to make a map and layout of a city/town? https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/town/

want a fleshed-out tavern complete with menu, innkeeper, patrons, rumors, and secrets? https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/inn/

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Your personal triggers and squicks do not get to determine what kind of art other people make.

People make shit. It's what we do. We make shit to explore, to inspire, to explain, to understand, but also to cope, to process, to educate, to warn, to go, "hey, wouldn't that be fucked up? Wild, right?"

Yes, sure, there are things that should be handled with care if they are used at all. But plenty more things are subjective. Some things are just not going to be to your tastes. So go find something that is to your tastes and stop worrying so much about what other people are doing and trying to dictate universal moral precepts about art based on your personal triggers and squicks.

I find possession stories super fucking triggering if I encounter them without warning, especially if they function as a sexual abuse metaphor. I'm not over here campaigning for every horror artist to stop writing possession stories because they make me feel shaky and dissociated. I just check Does The Dog Die before watching certain genres, and I have my husband or roommate preview anything I think might upset me so they can give me more detail. And if I genuinely don't think I can't handle it, I don't watch it. It's that simple.

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Coraline, but I did not process it as a horror at all

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Here's THE masterpost of free and full adaptations, by which I mean that it's a post made by the master.

Anthony and Cleopatra: here's the BBC version

As you like it: you'll find here an outdoor stage adaptation and here the BBC version

Coriolanus: Here's a college play, here's the 1984 telefilm, here's the 2014 one with tom hiddleston

Hamlet: The Kenneth Branagh 1996 Hamlet is here, the 1964 russian version is here and the 1964 american version is here. THe 1964 Broadway production is here, the 1948 Laurence Olivier one is here. And the 1980 version is here. Here are part 1 and 2 of the 1990 BBC adaptation. Have the 2018 Almeida version here.

Henry IV: part 1 and part 2 of the BBC 1989 version. And here's part 1 of a corwall school version.

Henry V: Laurence Olivier (who would have guessed) 1944 version. The 1989 Branagh version here. The BBC version is here.

Julius Caesar: here's the 1979 BBC adaptation, here the 1970 John Gielgud one.

King Lear: Laurence Olivier once again plays in here. And Gregory Kozintsev, who was I think in charge of the russian hamlet, has a king lear here. The 1975 BBC version is here. The Royal Shakespeare Compagny's 2008 version is here. The 1974 version with James Earl Jones is here.

Macbeth: here's the 1961 one with Sean Connery. Here's the 1971 by Roman Polanski, with spanish subtitles. Here's the 1948 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljZrf_0_CcQ">here. The 1988 BBC onee with portugese subtitles and here the 2001 one). The 1969 radio one with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench is here and the 1966 BBC version is here. The Royal Shakespeare Compagny's 2008 version is here.

Measure for Measure: BBC version here.

The Merchant of Venice: here's a stage version, here's the 1980 movie, here the 1973 Lawrence Olivier movie, here's the 2004 movie.

The Merry Wives of Windsor: the Royal Shakespeare Compagny gives you this movie.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: have this sponsored by the City of Columbia, and here the BBC version.

Much Ado About Nothing: Here is the kenneth branagh version and here the Tennant and Tate 2011 version. Here's the 1984 version.

Othello: A Massachussets Performance here, the 2001 movie her is the Orson Wells movie with portuguese subtitles theree, and a fifteen minutes long lego adaptation here. THen if you want more good ole reliable you've got the BBC version here and there.

Richard II: here is the BBC version

Richard III: here's the 1955 one with Laurence Olivier, and here's the 1995 one with Ian McKellen. (the 1995 one is in english subtitled in spanish. the 1955 one has no subtitles and might have ads since it's on youtube)

Romeo and Juliet: here's the 1988 BBC version.

The Taming of the Shrew: the 1988 BBC version here, the 1929 version here, some Ontario stuff here and here is the 1967 one with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

The Tempest: the 1979 one is here, the 2010 is here. Here is the 1988 one.

Timon of Athens: here is the 1981 movie with Jonathan Pryce,

Troilus and Cressida can be found here

Titus Andronicus: the 1999 movie with Anthony Hopkins here

Twelfth night: here for the BBC, herefor the 1970 version with Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Ralph Richardson.

The Winter's Tale: the BBC version is here

Please do contribute if you find more. This is far from exhaustive.

(also look up the original post from time to time for more plays)

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Aight gonna out myself but why the fuck doesn't wotc have any easy way to order magic cards from Canada? every official retailer on their site either doesn't go to Canada or has the most limited bs options that cost so much more than they should accounting for exchange rates. There's one store near where I live but I don't have a car and I hate trying to deal with game store dudes I'm just miserable :(