u/Sarmelion

Well, blizz had caught lightning in a bottle and still decided to kill Zul'jan without ever actually addressing any flaws in Zul'jarra’s ‘Trust the loa implicitly’ angle or addressing that even if he went about it wrong that Jan had a point with the whole 'Maybe we should not put all our eggs in one basket with trusting the fallible animal gods’

But hey, even if they killed him, there’s still time for an EASY fix

1. Now that Ula'tek is dead (again) Talanji (who's in the area because of the Haranir stuff) can go visit the coiled isle and summon Bwonsamdi to help put the angry souls to rest.
2. Bwonsamdi can show up and perhaps recycle Ula'tek's soul and turn Jan into a psychopomp working for him to help sort out all the spirits that have been trapped on the Coiled Isle for years, plus the souls of the dead snakepeople.
3. This allows Jan to both repair some of the damage he did while also getting to see things from the 'loa’ side of the equation
4. This allows him to continue on as Vol'jin’s helper once Vol'jin finally respawns
5. This lets him interact with Zul'jin’s spirit.

But blizz won't do this because they were never serious about Zul'jarra and Jan's story continuing on into the future.

And they really only needed Jan to be the 'racist' troll who isn't happy with the elves, and Jarra to be the 'nice' native who listens to the elf lady and helps the elves and forgives them and doesn't even try to argue for her people to get some land back or access to their tombs or anything.

Saving artwork to a collection used to list the collections in alphabetical order, but when I logged on this morning it seems to just list collections in... no particular order at all, it's not alphabetic, it's not organized by number of works saved to a collection, what gives?

Racial Traits have been updated a lot since Vanilla, going from genuine mechanical advantages to fun flavor, to useless, to everything in between over the years...

And while some of the new ones for are neat (The Zandalari God buffs are INSPIRED), there's still a lot of old groups that are in desperate need of updates.

Orcs have a trait 'command' which is useless on any class that doesn't have a pet.

Humans have an ability that is literally less useful than a PVP talent.

Dwarves still have one for the defunct Archaeology profession (ideally Archaeology will come back with a better minigame or just be turned into something like Guild Wars Vistas to encourage exploration)

TL;DR: I think racial traits should be made into varying kinds of flavor and convenience buffs that are STRONGER in the OVERWORLD but have REDUCED power in Raids and Dungeons.

https://www.coblaith.net/Heraldry/Regional/Calderas/default.html

I've been looking at Heraldry lately on a whim, and I found a lot of Spanish heraldry had cauldrons to represent their ability to not just lead troops but to actually *feed* them, so it was a sign of wealth and responsibility.

But the most I've been able to find on the snakes is that they were exaggerations of designs on the handles, does anyone know anything more on the origin or symbolism of the snakes?

Zul'jan is turned into a snakeman and dies as a raidboss. There's some talk that he dies taking Ula'tek with him, either killing or sealing her, but it's unconfirmed.

Arator is getting 'child of light and shadow' buildup.

Blizz added a bunch of Horde NPCs to Silvermoon with dialogue suggesting they were TOTALLY THERE ALL ALONG.

I have to say, removing all the interesting bits from the Blood Elves (No fel magic, switching from Mogu blood anima to generic 'Anguish', no spellbreakers, no Sunwell) and getting rid of any Forest Troll ties to the Horde (Oh, these aren't THOSE Revantusk, these are different revantusk), and then building up Zul'jan just to kill him while Arator goes on to be THE CHOSEN ONE...

This Expansion feels really bad.

The wiki has a few images of concept art for regular, calm, quaggan, but I haven't been able to find any art of enraged quaggan except for one 'baby' red one that looks nothing like the scaled adult enraged quaggan.

I recently made a post about other fantasy species in Fire Emblem and it got me thinking about what the essentials are, the things that make a story/game for Fire Emblem FEEL like Fire Emblem. The things that if removed make it feel less like fire emblem?

These don't ALL have to be included but I imagine a game would have most of em, what am I missing?

• A Good and Evil pair of Creator/Primordial Immortals, Bonus Points if they're Gods, Dragons or Both
• A bandit axe wielder as a starting villain
• Wyvern and Pegasus Riders from the eeeevil and good coded nations respectively
• A Red, Green, and Blue magic system
• A literal 'Fire Emblem' (The necklace in Path of Radiance, the Flame Crest in 3 Houses, etc)

I feel like Hellboy would get along well with Both Big Guy and Rusty and I guess the chief mechanic and his crew could have fun interactions with the BPRD

Is it possible that the 'real' reason that 'Boogie/Rain Powder' that made up a lot of the Alabasta Arc's drama with Crocodile abusing it to cause drought... is REALLY forbidden because Celestial Dragons don't want it to be readily available to be used in some way against them?

>"Dearest Talia,

>I'd hoped to greet you at the portal to help you settle in, the mere sight of you would've outshone the sun itself in these frigid lands. Unfortunately by the time you reach the outpost we've made here in the Bleak East I'll be through my musketeer training and assigned further inland with the Black Rose Battalion, it's a new group, I think almost everyone in it is a freshly displaced recruit like me. I can't say I'm overjoyed that my freezing fingers are loading a musket rather than penning another news pamphlet in the Writer's Guildhall, but I suppose I should be grateful House Rosewater hasn't sent us all into debt to pay for our own training and equipment. I should be back from our first patrol within a week though and we can both curl up by a fire and go over those brilliant designs for new goggles you were telling me about.

>Yours Always, Saleh Inkwill"

9 Days Later

>"Dearest Talia,

>I'm sorry but I'll be late. Not a day goes by that I don't think of you, but my battalion's contract to guard this little resupply station at the edge of the Wyldwood was extended. I was upset at first but I suppose supplies and logistics must be messier than a Dreath Den with everyone scrambling to take refuge from Patriam. On the bright side our commander's a Veteran who made sure we get extra pay for the delay, so when I get back we can see about paying one of the Vanir villagers to help build us a house warmer than these tents. We've been trading with a nearby village for better food than these hardtack rations (I swear one of the Harima chipped a tooth on them!).

> Things were a little tense the first few days but the sands have smoothed out on that front at least, the Vanir are a gruff people but good friends to have in the shadow of that forest. I don't want to worry you but... stay clear of the woods. I thought the stories of the plants were just the Vanir were telling to give us a friendly scare but I saw something in the trees on watch last night and now I'm not so sure.

>Enough about me though, are you enjoying the coast? It might not be how you planned but you did say you always wanted to see the ocean.

>Yours Always, Saleh Inkwill"

12 Days Later

>"Talia, I love you and I'm alive. What's left of the Black Rose Battalion is finally on its way back, you won't believe what happened but I have to put it down on paper anyway, it was like something out of a nightmare.

>The very night after I sent my last letter to you an enormous carpet of mushrooms started... I don't know what to say (crawling? Slithering?)- out of the woods. They swallowed up one of the Pikeneers that was practicing at the edge of the woods before we even knew what was happening and then a swarm of undead flooded in behind them, not forces from Loth, these had plants growing on them- in them.

>We were lucky enough that they couldn't climb the walls and we were starting to clear them out from atop the ramparts, pike and shot ripping into moldering wood, but then from the edge of the woods these enormous... grasshopper-plant-THINGS leapt clear over the walls and into our firing lines.

>I cracked one with the butt of my musket but despite caving a hole into its side I don't think it even felt it, the sun-cursed thing just drove the spikes on its 'head' straight into Berton beside me (Winds Grant Him Rest).

>I was half blind in the dark and scrambling to reload when a pair of sassanids ran up and cut the thing into woodchips before rushing past me and over the walls.

>It turned into days of back and forth firing into that horde. Scrambling to keep them off the walls... but eventually the gate broke and we fell back, fighting in the courtyard and rooftops, and finally to the sleeping quarters, boarding up the windows after we ran out of ammo. I was sure the sassanids had been killed since I hadn't seen them and there'd been no sign of reinforcements. I'd taken up a pike at the windows spearing anything that tried to get in through the gaps.

>I'm not ashamed to admit I'd given up hope Talia. I was determined to die fighting but I was quite sure I would die without seeing Barya or You ever again. The commander was dead, I'd seen the only Brute with us swarmed by a trio of dreadful dead deer-things in the courtyard, hands of dead bone and living wood were ripping at the boards we'd put up at the windows and doors no matter how many we cut down... and then something enormous flattened the scrabbling things outside like you or I would swat a scorpion with a slipper.

>The rattling of branches and bones had stopped so suddenly I thought I'd died for a moment, and when I finally peaked outside what was happening was too incredible to believe. Bears were ripping apart the mushrooms and the broken skeletons, an old woman appeared out of nowhere and stabbed one of the deer things before exploding into a flock of crows, and standing in front of me, prying the window open with one finger was a giant of a man, grey skinned, eyes glowing like blue moons hanging in the sky.

>I didn't even realize I was pointing my spear at him, frozen with fear, until GraveCost, one of the Sassanids that had run out earlier, hopped down from his shoulder and warned me I'd be in breach of contract if I hurt our 'allies'.

>Well you can bet I was on my best behavior from then on! I wasn't about to break a deal after living through all that. I followed behind our new friend, 'Alfar' is his name from what GraveCost told me, and the survivors and I stabbed anything that got near his ankles while he smashed plants under his club until dawn broke.

>At some point one of the bear men shoved a mug into my hand and we were drinking and singing all through the night as we poured out of the buildings to take our revenge on these wild horrors until dawn broke and they finally retreated.

>I'd never been so happy to see the sun, even grey as it was through all the clouds, and grateful as I was for the rescue I won't deny some part of me was glad to see Alfar and his fellows making their way into the woods after the last of the 'leapers'.

2 days later

>I couldn't sleep and so I made a deal with GraveCost to deliver the letter since he's returning ahead of me to report what happened to the Guilds, I've organized the survivors and the wounded at the Vanir village of TrollsShield and we should be heading out tomorrow once everyone who can still move is rested, but the Bleak East is wilder than I'd ever imagined... but I think I can face anything after this, as long as I'm with you.

>Your Survivor, Saleh Inkwill"

Enjoying the game and I'm able to clear the plains, desert, and crypts without much trouble, but each time I try the Rhythm jungle I get bogged down swatting mosquitos and dealing with contagious infections.

So far I've been putting all my upgrades into the warband, is there a particular spread of upgrades folks recommend?

I'm not great at rhythm games admittedly and hover around 70-80% in results. I'm using an old nintendo controller, do folks find controller or keyboard better usually?

I have not tried the swamp yet.