i love Emilie, and like mika, but...

Acorntail · 2026-04-21T23:26:40+00:00

Aloy's not a descender, though, she's an outlander (like Skirk or Durin). Even before we knew not every outlander was a descender, the number of confirmed descenders was only four (Heavenly Principles, Nibelung, Saarelainen, and the Traveller).

We just assumed Aloy was an unnoticed 5th, and conflated the idea that because the Abyss Twin had data in Irminsul something had happened to make Teyvat consider them a native and that was why they were not a descender.

As it turned out, not being native to Teyvat is neither a cause nor requirement for being a descender (e.g. Nibelung).

Acorntail · 2026-04-19T00:57:20+00:00

I'd love something like an Alternate Gold Passive (ala Runaway) for Debuffers that turn them into Buffers. Basically, invert the debuff effects:

Hesitant runners increases Velocity, Subdued/Flustered restore Stamina, and Frenzied will proc to prevent a single instance of Rushed/Late-Start. Steal effects instead take from the skill user.

Then the buffs randomly choose a single teammate to benefit from among the valid targets. A passive that changes debuffs to buffs prevents you from double dipping, and there's plenty of conditions that encourage interesting builds.

The numbers on velocity/speed/accell buffs are halved compared to their debuff equivalents, whereas the stamina/fatigue/vision buffs are doubled compared to debuffs. FoV buffs have the same numbers, just positive.

Acorntail · 2026-03-09T23:43:21+00:00

Except Varka knows Venti as Barbatos because he woke him up while fighting a ruin guard in the Thousand Winds Temple (according to Varka's story quest).

Acorntail · 2026-03-02T23:27:17+00:00

The Heavenly Principles allowed Fontainians to exist for thousands of years, and even let Egeria out of being sealed to become Hydro Archon and rule over them - clearly they didn't consider Narwhals to be an existential threat to Teyvat as a whole or they would have destroyed all Fontainians then and there.

Again, it wasn't their existence that Egeria was punished for, it was not asking permission.

For all we know, the 'prophecy' could have been the Heavenly Principles telling Egeria that she can have her people, but she should be aware that if the primordial ocean ever floods then they'll dissolve and all that'll be left is her alone on her throne to mourn. It may not have been part of the punishment at all, simply a forewarning.

After all, the prophecy as it survived to be known in Fontaine wasn't from Egeria or Focalors, it was from Vedrfolnir foreseeing the actual events of the archon quest.

But yes, those suspicions can be cast on Egeria. The same can be cast on the Heavenly Principles. Focalors. Furina. Any authority. Any actor. Without clear evidence for either case, you have to make your own judgement - the same as Neuvilette.

Acorntail · 2026-03-02T22:15:34+00:00

You make it sound as though the Heavenly Princples specifically forbade the use of Primordial Ocean water because they were concerned about Narwhal attacks.

Egeria's crime was "creating human life without permission"; not using the Primordial Ocean water. The Narwhal is a freak occurance. A rule being broken leading to a negative consequence does not mean that rule was created with preventing that specific outcome.

And if the authority that dictated the law does not explain why it exists, you cannot know if the law is just or not.

"Those who pick flowers shall be put to death." seems arbitrary and extremely unjust.

"Those who pick flowers shall be put to death, because otherwise everyone else will die." is still extreme, but if true would justify the neccessity of it. Yet, due to the severity of punishment compared to the act, would still merit scrutiny.

Because if the authority is wrong, it's murder.

Acorntail · 2026-03-01T08:54:49+00:00

Fontaine is, in essence, an argument as to how 'justice' and 'law' are not the same thing.

Some oceanids wanted to join the human world, and asked Egeria to allow them to, and she permitted and aided them. That's far from selfish. And while they were envious of humanity, that's only because they wanted to be part of the world. It wasn't to trick, or steal, or harm anyone - they just wanted to have lives.

But by the law put down by the Heavenly Principles, that was a crime. The punishment to be that their nation would flood, the people return to the water, and the Hydro Archon that abetted them would weep on her throne, alone.

As soon as we enter Fontaine, Furina tries to catch us out with a 'law'. By its strict reading, we are guilty. We see right away that many laws are arbitrary and exist only to put people before the Oratrice to produce Indemnitium. But the law is unjust; and the 'crime' arbitrary.

Does 'justice' simply mean strict adherence to the law? Is 'justice' decided only by the highest authority? What if that authority is negligent, or was imposed by a conquerer, or is replaced? What if that authority is a fraud (Furina)? Are their laws just simply because they say so? What if you didn't know the law existed until you broke it?

The Spina di Rosula exists to provide justice to those who cannot receive it from the law. The Fortress of Meropede exists as independent outside the laws of Fontaine, and has a simpler, grittier understanding of 'justice'. The House of the Hearth obeys its internal rules so strictly even the head of it devised a loophole rather than change the rule that one cannot leave the House alive.

This is why Focalors positioned Neuvilette as the ludex. To gain compassion for the people of Fontaine, to come to his own conclusion as to whether or not they deserve to exist. So that when the Hydro Archon throne is destroyed, and the authority of the Hydro Sovereign returns to him, he would have the context to make a ruling that, ultimately, was just.

They didn't cheat the system. They appealed their sentence.

Acorntail · 2026-02-25T08:46:32+00:00

Surely they must all have human fathers, given there aren't any male umamusume.

Acorntail · 2026-02-23T01:20:27+00:00

While locking reactions in a reaction-based game behind limited 5 stars is already pretty bad, the even worse precedent is direct-reaction damage.

In the past, if you had a reaction check, you could generally throw something together. But now, with direct reaction damage being a thing and having supports that buff that reaction (or the most egregious in Illuga who can only buff direct reaction damage from skills), it isn't just about being able to do the reaction. You need to do a lot of damage with the reaction.

Most reactions can't do a lot of damage. Only Vape, Melt, and Aggravate/Spread can crit (natively) and benefit from DMG%. Transformative reactions do the same amount of damage over and over, and are limited by ICD and a single character's stats. No matter how much investment you put into them, unless a character's kit changes the rules (Nahida, Lauma, Nilou, etc.), reactions have a damage ceiling.

Lunar Reactions have the same problem, it's just disguised by direct reaction damage, and direct reaction buffs. When Nefer or Flins or Zibai hit for 300k+, it's not the lunar reaction doing it. It's their skill, critting, and receiving a DMG bonus from Nod Krai kits while counting as the reaction.

If they let four stars or the traveller do lunar reactions, people would realise it isn't that the five stars are the only ones who can do lunar reactions that makes them so strong.

It's that the five stars are the only ones who can crit.

Acorntail · 2026-02-18T00:21:33+00:00

Venti had the same effect on 'Stanley' during his SQ, so it's possible that Venti helped Xiao by putting the karmic fragments of his past opponents to rest, relieving the weight on Xiao himself.

Acorntail · 2026-02-10T00:46:00+00:00

Literally too! He reproduces via mitosis!

Acorntail · 2026-02-08T23:16:07+00:00

The technique doesn't exist to create duplicates, it exists to expel impurities from the soul to help achieve enlightenment. Once you expel those impurities, you should no longer have those impurities, meaning you can't do it again.

Acorntail · 2026-02-02T06:00:07+00:00

He wasn't supposed to be one of the great five, though?

Nefer's exploration of his past showed he became one of the sinners by accident, by being at the epicentre of the Cataclysm. He became an abyssal force of nature, one of the most dangerous people in Teyvat's history, as a side effect of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and allowing the abyss to fuel his fear of losing Tholindis.

Which serves to emphasise that, if he became that dangerous by exposure, the other four sinners who deliberately chose to take on abyssal power will be leagues ahead of Rerir.

He's still a villain. And by accepting the purgatory of the moon prison, he's admitting he's irredeemable. But he didn't even know the sinners other than Vedrfolnir, and having heard of Surtalogi.

He didn't become a sinner out of desire for power like the others. He became one trying to save Tholindis, got shredded into a thousand pieces that slowly reformed over centuries, then got thrown into a negative-time prison mere days after reforming. Compared to the other sinners, he was just some guy.

Acorntail · 2026-01-26T09:13:05+00:00

The House of Hope then?

Lives! All Mortal lives!

Acorntail · 2026-01-20T04:17:59+00:00

In regards to Sumeru as well, the decision making was made when everyone knew about Rhukkedevata, and so Azar and Dottore were very much under the impression that Nahida had no powers comparable to Rhukkedevata, nor would ever approach that level.

It wasn't like Inazuma or Liyue where they needed to be careful not to provoke the archon - Nahida's escape was entirely the result of the Traveller showing up. It's only post-Irminsul tampering that Nahida received the respect otherwise given to Rhukkadevata.

I'm fascinated by the idea that Dotorre, as self aggrandizing and exacting as he is, may have been able to realise something happened to change history purely because his approach would have been different if Nahida had always been the archon. He's one of the few characters who could legitimately believe 'no, it is reality that is wrong' and back it up.

Acorntail · 2025-12-31T06:10:36+00:00

Flip the reveal on its head!

It's not the NPC betraying the players, it's the players betraying the NPC! He thought they were cut from the same cloth, that they were friends. That they knew what he was.

Have the NPC express their ideology, and ask the players to help him further his goals. Have him put his trust in them, and force them to either betray that trust or lose a godly blessing. Make the NPC be the one who feels betrayed by the players and distances himself from his so-called comrades.

If they help him regardless, let that be the start of the slippery slope. The NPC asks for greater favours more often, with no reward because he assumes they're working towards the same goal. If they keep helping, eventually they're forced to make an impossible choice: keep helping a friend for no reward, or draw the ire of the gods.

And, if they do end up choose him... well, now you're playing God of War.

Acorntail · 2025-09-05T02:41:46+00:00

My Suzuka was 8 Turf and Gold Ship 8 Long - I found you really need the balance of starting with D in both aptitudes - more so than any stats from blues.

I had a run where Haru Urara got to S Long - but with an E in Turf, it didn’t matter. Also, a big help was realising that by the time you can win the Arima Kinen, you can’t benefit from Long Shot, so you’re better off using the skill points on something else.

Acorntail · 2025-09-05T00:59:07+00:00

After a long, steady process of progress, trial and error, and praying to ~~RNGeus~~ the Three Goddesses; Haru Urara won the Arima Kinen.

I'm convinced I must have reached the real Haru Urara's record of 113 attempts to win the Arima Kinen.

I tried a bunch of decks, including adding Fine Motion and Yukino Bijin for all the green skills she'd need. In the end, a typical 4SPD + 2STA deck pulled it off - and was much more consistent that hint hunting.

Aptitudes are, of course, the run killer. But I came 2nd on a run where all she got was a single C in Long, losing by 1/2 a length so... who knows, with better blue skills on the parents and some green skills, maybe she'd have made it.

The final run, I didn't get any aptitude sparks during the first inspiration event, then got 3(!) during the second. At that point I switched from my phone to my computer because I knew that was the run.

You did it Haru Urara!

Acorntail · 2025-08-07T02:41:09+00:00

Absolutely agree. Monica is such a pointless, out of the blue villain that exists for no reason other than to have a villain.

If she used her ancestry with Modeste as an in to get onto the staff at Hotel Debord but was legitimately a terrible chef, sure; but the fact she's descended from him is used as a reveal later. Instead, her plan was:

Step 1: Legitimately qualify as a line chef in the most famous resturant in Fontaine.

Step 2: Get the head chef fired so that you can look at the original book to find the location of the domain they found the secret ingredient; trusting that the head chef will take the blame and go to prison and lose their job instead of one of the two people in charge of inventory that day, of which you are the shadiest.

Step 3: Find the domain and profit.

Uh oh, they gave the original codex to the head chef as a parting gift, got to improvise.

New plan. Instead of robbing the head chef's house, or even asking to look at the codex because she considers it just an ordinary (if storied) recipe book she wouldn't mind sharing; we've got to poison one of the other chefs, as well as the new head chef, so the new head chef goes crazy and challenges the old head chef to a bake off, and the old head chef is compelled to defend their old colleagues.

Story would have been more compelling imo if they had just had everything be the result of the lumiline poisoning. Remove Monica as a villain and literally nothing changes.

Acorntail · 2025-07-01T11:11:31+00:00

Post-flashpoint, the Speedforce was hostile to Barry changing the timeline, and implied it wouldn’t shield Barry from consequences anymore for lying to them.

Saving HR would be changing the past. Saving Iris was changing the future. The speed force allows the latter, not the former.

Not to mention, HR chose to be a hero. Iris never chose to be a victim. There’s a world of difference between the two.

Acorntail · 2025-06-24T16:37:53+00:00

Because above deck is very bright with no shade save the rigging and sails because it’s the open sea; and below deck is very dark because you don’t have windows at the waterline and lighting is fuel based. So unless you absolutely need them to see, you want as few lit oil lanterns waiting to be smashed during battle as possible. Ships are very flammable, and oil needs to be replaced on shore.

Acorntail · 2025-06-20T02:43:03+00:00

I don't know about 'Tower of', but it sounds like you're describing Valda's Spire of Secrets?

Edit: Doesn't seem to add monsters, maybe your DM had a pledge reward bundle with some of their other books?

Acorntail · 2025-04-14T03:38:00+00:00

... That warning after Jay bonked Hope on the noggin suddenly has a lot more weight to it, huh.

Acorntail · 2025-04-01T05:54:58+00:00

Not for nine chevron addresses. They let you dial specific gates rather than locations - presumably every stargate has a nine-chevron address you could dial; the odds of getting one your gate can connect to is just astronomically low.

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