Well, it's kinda esoteric, y'know, but it's a pretty useful Quirk anyway. You've definitely gotten a lot of mileage out of it. It's pretty slick.
Zero Friction, like the name kinda implies, is the power to "steal" friction from objects and surfaces. Friction, to avoid a lot of really big words and math and stuff that'll make most people's eyes glaze over, is what gives objects "grip." It's friction that makes objects to slow down and eventually stop unless an outside force is constantly acting on them. In other words, without friction, you'd just slip and slide all over the place like you were tryin' to walk around on lotion or something. Some stuff has a lot of friction, some stuff only has a bit, but they've all got it until you get your hands on'em. Like, literally.
When you make contact with an object or surface, your power can instantly spread out and "steal" its friction. Smaller objects lose their friction pretty much instantly, but with bigger stuff it spreads out very quickly from the point of contact, but it's got a limit of about 10 meters away from the point of contact. You can give back the friction you've "stolen" pretty much instantly, too.
You've grown up with your Quirk, so unlike everyone else, you've figured out all the tricks to moving on a frictionless surface; in fact, you often rob the friction directly under and in front of your feet to slide around on the ground like you're skating, and even if you can't stay on your feet you can still move around just fine.
Closest thing to a weakness your Quirk has is that, well, you can't actually attack anyone by taking friction away from stuff, y'know? Well, unless you give friction back while they're in mid-slide and give them really bad friction burns. Kind of a bummer, that. Oh well, you're a pretty creative person, and you've made sure to learn hand to hand, some judo and stuff. It's cool.
More directly, it's like Marvel Comics' Sebastian Shaw (leader of the Hellfire Club), except it only works on kinetic energy instead of thermal energy as well.
EDIT: And like Sebastian Shaw but unlike Yellow Temperance, the kinetic energy this Quirk absorbs is converted into strength, i.e. the user gets stronger the more kinetic energy they absorb. So it's also Yang's Semblance.
Well, okay, it doesn't sound really awesome and super-cool, but it totally is! And not just because it's super fun, either! But it totally is super fun. It's a blast at parties!
So Bubbly Blitz basically lets you make lots of bubbles. Like, loooots of bubbles. They just kinda congeal out of the pores of your skin, which sounds super-gross but actually kinda tickles. And they can be pretty much any size you want! Well, okay, maybe not any size, but still, you can make them really big. Oh, and you can actually control them and move them around once you make'em! Well, you can make them really fast when you first shoot them out, at least; once they start losing speed though you can't really make them any faster, so they just kinda gently float in the direction you want after that. But still, you can make lots of them really fast, so you can shoot out a huge flood of bubbles. Neat, right?
Oh, but it does other stuff! See, your bubbles aren't normal bubbles, 'cause you can make them super strong! Like, so strong that they're super hard to pop, and when you shoot them out really fast they can actually hit people, so if you shoot out lots of them it actually pushes them around and can even hurt! You call that one "Bubble Barrage!" Awesome name, right? And you've got lots of other moves with their own names, too! Like your "Bubble Prison" and "Bubble Blinder!"
Weaknesses? Uh, well, Bubbly Blitz is way better at knocking people around or trapping them and stuff than actually, you know, hurting them. Does that count? You don't really think of that as a bad thing. I mean, unless you're up against someone you just can't trap or knock around for some reason... But hey, that's like, what friends are for, right? Oh, and even when you shoot'em out, your bubbles can't really get that far before running out of speed. Like, maybe 50 feet max if the wind is moving with them. So you're probably never gonna get a "Bubble Sniper," even though that would be totally awesome.
And now the final Quirk, Tornado Hold. You get a Hug if you know the reference.
[] Tornado Hold
There are many whose Quirks leave obvious marks on their body; visible mutations that any can see. You are one of those; embedded within your palms, the soles of your feet and your chest are high-powered fans. Though it is neither here nor there, your hair unfortunately always looks wind-blown and unkempt, though you do your best to control it. It is unfortunately an ongoing struggle.
The power of Tornado Hold is to create powerful cyclones from the fans in your body. The longer you maintain a cyclone the more powerful it becomes, but maintaining it for longer than a few seconds begins to build up fatigue, as though you were straining your muscles. However, you can overcome this limitation to some extent by combining multiple cyclones to increase their power.
As one might guess, there are a great number of applications to this Quirk. You can, for instance, greatly increase your mobility through judicious uses of your cyclones, such as using the ones in your feet to launch yourself great distances or high into the air. In combat situations you can repel attacks, blow enemies away and knock them into environmental objects, etc. With the full power of your winds at your disposal, you can create cyclones with a wind speed greater than even an actual tornado... though of course doing so would create extreme strain and would carry far too much risk of collateral damage to use in most circumstances.
That said, your Quirk is far from flawless. Despite your best efforts, it is nigh-impossible to completely avoid collateral damage when you unleash Tornado Hold's full potential; as a result, you must do your best to be as precise as possible with your powers, which limits your destructive capabilities in most circumstances, as does the strain and damage that maintaining your cyclones for too long creates.
The power of Tornado Hold is to create powerful cyclones from the fans in your body. The longer you maintain a cyclone the more powerful it becomes, but maintaining it for longer than a few seconds begins to build up fatigue, as though you were straining your muscles. However, you can overcome this limitation to some extent by combining multiple cyclones to increase their power.
As one might guess, there are a great number of applications to this Quirk. You can, for instance, greatly increase your mobility through judicious uses of your cyclones, such as using the ones in your feet to launch yourself great distances or high into the air. In combat situations you can repel attacks, blow enemies away and knock them into environmental objects, etc. With the full power of your winds at your disposal, you can create cyclones with a wind speed greater than even an actual tornado... though of course doing so would create extreme strain and would carry far too much risk of collateral damage to use in most circumstances.
That said, your Quirk is far from flawless. Despite your best efforts, it is nigh-impossible to completely avoid collateral damage when you unleash Tornado Hold's full potential; as a result, you must do your best to be as precise as possible with your powers, which limits your destructive capabilities in most circumstances, as does the strain and damage that maintaining your cyclones for too long creates.
Well, okay, it doesn't sound really awesome and super-cool, but it totally is! And not just because it's super fun, either! But it totally is super fun. It's a blast at parties!
So Bubbly Blitz basically lets you make lots of bubbles. Like, loooots of bubbles. They just kinda congeal out of the pores of your skin, which sounds super-gross but actually kinda tickles. And they can be pretty much any size you want! Well, okay, maybe not any size, but still, you can make them really big. Oh, and you can actually control them and move them around once you make'em! Well, you can make them really fast when you first shoot them out, at least; once they start losing speed though you can't really make them any faster, so they just kinda gently float in the direction you want after that. But still, you can make lots of them really fast, so you can shoot out a huge flood of bubbles. Neat, right?
Oh, but it does other stuff! See, your bubbles aren't normal bubbles, 'cause you can make them super strong! Like, so strong that they're super hard to pop, and when you shoot them out really fast they can actually hit people, so if you shoot out lots of them it actually pushes them around and can even hurt! You call that one "Bubble Barrage!" Awesome name, right? And you've got lots of other moves with their own names, too! Like your "Bubble Prison" and "Bubble Blinder!"
Weaknesses? Uh, well, Bubbly Blitz is way better at knocking people around or trapping them and stuff than actually, you know, hurting them. Does that count? You don't really think of that as a bad thing. I mean, unless you're up against someone you just can't trap or knock around for some reason... But hey, that's like, what friends are for, right? Oh, and even when you shoot'em out, your bubbles can't really get that far before running out of speed. Like, maybe 50 feet max if the wind is moving with them. So you're probably never gonna get a "Bubble Sniper," even though that would be totally awesome.
You'll have to explain to me how the hell Bubble Cutter works, but yeah. I guess you could do the thing he did vs Waamu of refracting light via a combination attack with that guy whose name I forget who shoots lasers from his belly button.
I wanted the last of the four to be one that had the most differences from the other three, yeah. Kinetic Kingdom, Bubbly Blitz and Zero Friction are all Quirks that don't have a lot of potential for massive collateral damage (except Kinetic Kingdom, but it takes a lot of building up to reach that point), and the personality of their user is all in line with the powers, whereas for Tornado Hold I wanted to switch it up by making it a mismatch. Most of the time in fiction, an aerokinetic is either really loose and go-with-the-flow or very wild, so I decided to make it a very restrained person, maybe even a bit of a control freak.
How DO you go about fighting DIO anyway if you aren't Jotaro?
The moment he becomes aware of you, and you are in midrange, you would have to prepare to get donuted (unless Jotaro is in front of you), and if he becomes aware of Jotaro's ability to move in stop time odds are that he would gun to take out the people who cannot counter him first. So one would have to stick close to Jotaro at all times, and he could attack from the back, forcing Jotaro to move the person out of the way from any attack.
Mami's trick against Homura (tricking timestopper into bringing you into timsestop by touching him/her with a string) would not work, otherwise Polnareff would have been brought along when he stabbed DIO, tieing him up like when Reimu fought Sakuya (Fantasy Kaleidoscope EP 3, making the timestopper incapable of movement) would be nearly impossible because lol Vampire, so UV Lights one of the few tactics availavle for use in a fight.
Assuming we have Plum Juggler, donuts is not the major worry, but knives are going to be their bane. Well, that and the oil tanker/roda rolla da. The mirror copies are going to buy some time, but DIO will assuredly try to take out the copies if they are fragile enough. And I doubt one can make them for the whole fight every time a timestop is used. The only real way for the MC to win against Dio would be to hit him in his cooldown, and knives are not a good option here at all, if only he can throw them back at the MC. So step 1 would be figuring out his cooldonlwn once the ability is figured out.
How DO you go about fighting DIO anyway if you aren't Jotaro?
The moment he becomes aware of you, and you are in midrange, you would have to prepare to get donuted (unless Jotaro is in front of you), and if he becomes aware of Jotaro's ability to move in stop time odds are that he would gun to take out the people who cannot counter him first. So one would have to stick close to Jotaro at all times, and he could attack from the back, forcing Jotaro to move the person out of the way from any attack.
Mami's trick against Homura (tricking timestopper into bringing you into timsestop by touching him/her with a string) would not work, otherwise Polnareff would have been brought along when he stabbed DIO, tieing him up like when Reimu fought Sakuya (Fantasy Kaleidoscope EP 3, making the timestopper incapable of movement) would be nearly impossible because lol Vampire, so UV Lights one of the few tactics availavle for use in a fight.
Assuming we have Plum Juggler, donuts is not the major worry, but knives are going to be their bane. Well, that and the oil tanker/roda rolla da. The mirror copies are going to buy some time, but DIO will assuredly try to take out the copies if they are fragile enough. And I doubt one can make them for the whole fight every time a timestop is used. The only real way for the MC to win against Dio would be to hit him in his cooldown, and knives are not a good option here at all, if only he can throw them back at the MC. So step 1 would be figuring out his cooldonlwn once the ability is figured out.
If Angelo/Angela Belmont fights DIO alone they're probably not going to be hoping to win, but to collect information, buy time or simply survive, and their best contributions will likely be supporting Jotaro and protecting/supporting the others (such as using 7th Stand User's idea and hiding Plum Juggler under Kakyoin's clothes to take the hit for him and soften the blow from fatal to simply grievous). I realize that some people won't like that the PC doesn't get to be the one who gets the most credit for taking out the Big Bad, but it feels more appropriate that way. If it helps, they're probably going to play a big role in fighting Vanilla Ice.
Also, DIO was willing to show plenty of caution when it came to eliminating the Joestars, but he was much more playful with the other Crusaders; just look at him casually using his Time Stop to troll Polnareff and Kakyoin. Combined with Plum Juggler's ability to create decoys, surviving for at least a short time is possible, though very difficult, and there are ways that it could help Jotaro even within stopped time.
That said, like I mentioned earlier, Voltaire Belmont will have the very powerful Stand RA if they're still alive. I'd rather not have Belmonts never dying, so Voltaire (or possibly Carlo/Carla if they're alive and Voltaire isn't; really it's going to be the oldest living Belmont who can still fight) will fight DIO alone and die, but in a suitably badass way.
It was never established, IIRC, whether the Ripple or sunlight can still affect DIO in stopped time; the quest will be going on the assumption that it does. Essentially, while DIO concentrates most of his attention and forces on the Joestars, Voltaire makes his way to Egypt from Italy, possibly taking out a few Stand users DIO sends his way, all without ever revealing RA's name or power to create sunlight. They may even meet and only narrowly be stopped from killing a certain dark-skinned priest who's still very new to his Stand's powers, and/or a Japanese man named Nijimura.
Essentially, what happens is that Voltaire makes it to Cairo long before the Stardust Crusaders do and uses Ripple Dowsing to immediately find DIO, then tears his way through the castle straight to him, avoiding all of his defenders. Bemused at this, DIO agrees to fight him (outside of the castle, because he wants the place repaired in time for the real show when the Joestars show up. Throughout, DIO will be very dismissive of the Belmonts, considering them all mere distractions or sidekicks to the Joestars. At the most, he'll show perhaps a modicum of respect for one or two of them), calling off Vanilla Ice and whomever else tries to fight Voltaire.
Voltaire goes into this fight the strongest, most experienced Ripple User in the world, and with several of the Red Stones of Aja set into his clothes to fire lasers and amplify his Ripple even further - remember, Kars actually had lots of the things, the one he wanted was special simply because it was the only one without any flaws; the "flawed" ones can still be useful, though. He knows all the tricks a vampire can bring to bear... but he has no knowledge of DIO's Stand and its power.
The start of the fight gives an example of how it goes; DIO is confident of swift victory, probably showing off his ability to stop time without actually showing what it is, but then charges in with The World (which the Ripple is much effective against, and which also has better or equal physical stats than RA). But then he's forced to activate Time Stop to run away as RA shows its power for the first time, releasing a massive burst of sunlight that DIO only narrowly escapes thanks to incredibly fast reflexes with triggering his Time Stop. Because while he can still be hurt by sunlight and Ripple in stopped time, he does stop both from traveling, turning it into essentially an environmental hazard he can't afford to touch.
So essentially the fight is going to be a big change from how DIO's fight with the Stardust Crusaders went, where he was almost always in control or at least had the upper hand. Instead, DIO has to repeatedly use his trump card of stopping time for 4-5 seconds to flee, and has to rely on hit-and-run tactics with his Stand because he can't face Voltaire directly without exposing himself to RA, and has to keep moving because Voltaire is using their lasers liberally and channeling Ripple through their body/clothes. Voltaire will also show off their brains (because you can't be a proper JoJo character without them) by puzzling out what power DIO is using to move so fast and avoid the light:
"If you and your Stand could move faster than light, you'd just kill me before I could finish activating RA's power. If you could teleport, you would just teleport outside of this castle where my light couldn't touch you. The only other power your Stand could have that would let you keep yourself safe from my light like this... is to stop time itself."
Unfortunately, despite figuring that out, a human is just about always doomed in a battle of attrition against a vampire. So while they might grievously injure DIO, maybe even coming close to killing him at least once, eventually Voltaire will tire, and beset by fatigue, will react just a bit too slowly to stay alive.
So essentially, if Voltaire survives Part 1.5 and Part 2 so that they can be killed by DIO 70/50 years later, the reward for the players will be a slightly weakened DIO, who was injured during their battle with Voltaire even before he'd recovered from his 100-year dip in the Atlantic. He might have even been forced to replace some body part like a hand or something with Voltaire's, having lost Jonathan's to the battle.
Depending on the role the first Belmont plays in their role against Dio, of course. I mean, if they made a large contribution, then I don't see them not leaving a big impression on DIO like Jonathan.
And I feel like if Carlo/Carla is still alive, then it is likely they will either go to Japan with Joseph and Caesar to pick up Jotaro and/or B3lmont if they are also half-Japanese.
As to the confrontation, I doubt Voltaire would go in and not have a contingency message/preparation if he loses, seeing as if he bites it his blood is going to be a delicious boost for DIO like Joseph.
Depending on the role the first Belmont plays in their role against Dio, of course. I mean, if they made a large contribution, then I don't see them not leaving a big impression on DIO like Jonathan.
Well, my reasoning was to look at Phantom Blood: when Jonathan hurts Dio, Dio praises him for it, but when Dire does the same, Dio simply becomes angry that someone so "lowly" dared to hurt him. And even with his immense respect for Jonathan, he still treats Joseph and Jotaro as more nuisances than threats until Jotaro started stopping time.
And I feel like if Carlo/Carla is still alive, then it is likely they will either go to Japan with Joseph and Caesar to pick up Jotaro and/or B3lmont if they are also half-Japanese.
Yeah, if Carlo/Carla is still alive and Voltaire didn't make it to Part III, they're likely going to be done in by DIO in Cairo after arriving with the rest of the Crusaders the way Joseph seemed to at first, assuming they survive the whole trip.
As to the confrontation, I doubt Voltaire would go in and not have a contingency message/preparation if he loses, seeing as if he bites it his blood is going to be a delicious boost for DIO like Joseph.
Well, IIRC Joseph's provided a blood was a boost because he had Jonathan's body; drinking Joseph's blood stabilized it and kept Jonathan's body from rejecting DIO. Or something like that. So unless DIO has Dion/Dione's body instead (or maybe part of it; I've been mulling the idea of, if Dion is killed by Dio in the castle in Part I, then Dio might steal the body without the heroes noticing and use it to fight Jonathan on the ship, in which case some of Jonathan's body parts might be lost and Dio will be forced to deal with a patchwork body that's mostly Jonathan with a piece or two of Dion in there), it shouldn't do that much.
And yeah, when they realize they're going to die, Voltaire will likely use the last of their Ripple to incinerate their body to ash to deny DIO the opportunity to drink their blood or raise them as a zombie/vampire.
Oh, and another thing about the My Hero Academia OC Quirks: each of them is a hard counter to at least one member of Class A, but is in turn hard countered by at least one other.
The clearest example of this is Kinetic King. It's designed specifically to be a counter to both Izuku and Bakugou, who are basically tied for 2nd in Class A's hierarchy (to fit with its user's high-and-mighty personality), but is in turn countered by the #1 in Class A, Todoroki, just to piss them off.
Zero Friction, as another example, is designed as a counter to Iida, who relies on his legs, and in turn to be countered by Uraraka, who can simply make them unable to touch anything by causing them to float and float herself over frictionless surfaces.
Well, the air also has friction, so if ZF were to steal friction from themself and throw around their body or have a can of coke shaken and handy/aerosol spray... I would actually say that ZF's other hardcounters is something that prevents ZF from seeing what they are doing, or thousand hits instead of one type of thing.
Meanwhile, yeah, KK is pretty strong, but does it save someone from say... drowning or environmental hazards? (Wind doesn't count, because Wind is just kinetic force too. But Fire, Ice, Electricity, anything not Kinetic is free game.) Nothing saps energy like a lot of cold water, for example. But KK shooting themself to get Kinetic energy is a perfectly viable strategy. Unfortunately, Newton's 3rd Law means that punching walls would give equal returns to the energy expended, so maybe have a buddy hit you a few times.
BB is actually quite versatile, but does lack actual killing power (Not that that's a bad thing when you are going to be a hero anyway...) But if things really get desperate, a hard-to-pop bubble accelerated at high speeds could possibly deform into a conical shape briefly as long as it maintains that speed, and is perfect for stabbing. (Bubbles are spheres because the force is applied equally by the air, so if you happen to force it to move at a high enough speed...) Granted, a way has to be found to accelerate the thing in the first place.
TH is a monster, but again, limited to only Kinetic-based attacks. But sharpnel tornadoes, vacuuming effects (Get over here!), Holy Sandstorms, and other stuff. Unfortunately, Collateral damage and precision issues are a pain.
Well, the air also has friction, so if ZF were to steal friction from themself and throw around their body or have a can of coke shaken and handy/aerosol spray... I would actually say that ZF's other hardcounters is something that prevents ZF from seeing what they are doing, or thousand hits instead of one type of thing.
Meanwhile, yeah, KK is pretty strong, but does it save someone from say... drowning or environmental hazards? (Wind doesn't count, because Wind is just kinetic force too. But Fire, Ice, Electricity, anything not Kinetic is free game.)
It does absolutely nothing against anything that isn't based in kinetic energy. The user of Kinetic King can be burned, frozen, electrocuted, drowned, poisoned, etc. just like a normal human. Though depending on how much kinetic energy they have stored up, restraining or holding them down long enough to drown them may be problematic.
So, random question: what would it take to recreate the powers of Hamon/Ripple using Nen in Hunter X Hunter? Could that just be its own Hatsu, or would it need to be a whole bunch of them at once? And what kinds of Nen use would it entail?
So, random question: what would it take to recreate the powers of Hamon/Ripple using Nen in Hunter X Hunter? Could that just be its own Hatsu, or would it need to be a whole bunch of them at once? And what kinds of Nen use would it entail?
One will do, as long as you risk enough in the sacrifice.
I mean I assume thats how Hisoka got two apparently unconnected abilities. Unless his power was literally weaponise sweets.
Don't really know Jojo all that well but based on a couple minute wiki walk, most of Ripple seems to be enhancement with a few manipulation techniques. Of course if you want you can always just say "lol Specialist" and leave it at that.
Hisoka has two different Hatsu: Bungee Gum is a Transmutation Hatsu that allows him to mold his Nen to give it properties reminiscent of both bubble gum and rubber, while Texture Surprise is a Conjuration Hatsu that allows him to apply Nen to a thin surface (usually cloth or paper) and manifest his thoughts on it to change its appearance. Both, incidentally, are named after candies he enjoyed as a child.
As another example, Ging Freecs was able to figure out and reproduce Leorio's Hatsu after being hit by it once. There's nothing that prevents you from developing more than one Hatsu. It's just that for most Nen users, developing and mastering one is a significant enough investment that coming up with a second one just seems like more trouble than it's worth. That attitude of depth over breadth might also be shaped by the fact that the universally agreed-upon strongest man in the world, Isaac Netero, is practically the living embodiment of Bruce Lee's quote "I don't fear the man who has practiced 1,000 kicks once each, I fear the man who has practiced one kick 1,000 times."
That attitude of depth over breadth might also be shaped by the fact that the universally agreed-upon strongest man in the world, Isaac Netero, is practically the living embodiment of Bruce Lee's quote "I don't fear the man who has practiced 1,000 kicks once each, I fear the man who has practiced one kick 1,000 times."
I dunno that giant Buddha things seems to be very 1,000 different kicks, Meruems analysis of it makes it seem almost robotic in the way that it is limited to a set of skills, which Netero picks from, that it just performs very, very fast.
I dunno that giant Buddha things seems to be very 1,000 different kicks, Meruems analysis of it makes it seem almost robotic in the way that it is limited to a set of skills, which Netero picks from, that it just performs very, very fast.
What does that have to do with it? The fact that it has a list of pre-selected attacks doesn't change the fact that at its core it's just a f*ck-huge Buddha statue that punches things really fast and really hard. The "one kick 1,000 times" thing isn't literal... though Netero certainly took it literally with his training method.
The nuclear explosion thing is certainly a switch, but that's more a secret ace in the hole he developed if he ever needed it than a dedicated part of his fighting style.
So if anyone's familiar with Green Ronin's Song of Ice & Fire roleplaying game, it's system tries to combine both dynasty-building with traditional roleplay so that players and GMs can decide for themselves which to emphasize. One of its supplements (and a few of its quests) feature several ready-made houses and places to put a house made by a player or GM. I figure that'd be a very good base for a dynasty quest, or for a dynasty/role-playing hybrid of some sort.
But while the prompts there assume that it takes place basically just before the books, I figure that's a bad idea, since that means you either completely remove the White Walkers and everything associated them or you give the players 2 years tops to get ready to be f*cked up the ass by ice-zombies, and in the meantime they also have to deal with the Westerosi equivalent of the War of the Roses.
Personally, I figure just after Robert's Rebellion would be a good time - that is, my adjusted version of it, where the Rebellion lasts from 279-80 rather than 282-83. That gives at least 18 years before sh*t starts going way, way south and everything you've done to build up your house will be put to the test. But that also required me to do some reworking to many of the houses presented in that supplement I mentioned. I've also created three OC houses of my own using the lands provided in that same supplement, which... might be familiar to you if you've played a certain video game in a certain franchise.
I'll start putting up bios of the houses and their important characters, but in the meantime, does anyone have an opinion on the idea itself?
So yeah, going back to this again. Thinking that rather than a quest it might be better as an RP than a quest, either where everyone plays as an OC minor house or where everyone plays as characters in a smaller number of OC minor houses. It depends on whether the players want more dynastic stuff or more character-based stuff, I suppose.
Anyway, here's some very short-form bios of some of the OC houses. Most of them are from Green Ronin with some minor tweaks on my part (mostly to facilitate a tweak in the timeline as I explain in the post I've quoted), but 3 of the houses are "original," at least in the sense that they're essentially expies of characters from Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, tweaked fit the setting.
Summary: Located near the Green Fork at the northern end of the Trident, House Barnell rules from the supposedly cursed fortress of Castle Greenward. A newborn house founded during Robert's Rebellion, House Barnell struggles to find its fortune with little more than a strong arm to its name.
Allegiance: Hoster Tully, Lord of Riverrun & Lord Paramount of the Trident
Banner: A portcullis over a red and blue chape field.
Words: Never Falter
In heraldry, a chape is a wedge emerging from the bottom of the shield, half one color and half a second color.
Summary: Although it was loyalty to House Baratheon that initially raised the Barthelds to the nobility, the denizens of Hart House later became known for hosting indulgent—some might even say depraved—festivities each year, at which an ever-changing roster of guests would drink deep of their host's hospitality. Fittingly, the most recent lord of Hart House abdicated his role to his grandson so that he could pursue the hand of Lady Yve of House Tullison. The new master of the house, Davain Bartheld, is much more conservative than his forbears, which is not sitting particularly well with most other members of his family.
Allegiance: Renly Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End
Banner: A brown boar running on a black field.
Words: Joy in Service
Summary: Though never one of the most renowned houses in the Riverlands, the Dannetts prospered for many years by dint of their amazing ability to skirt the edge of loyalty and treason in the tumultuous wars that rock Westeros periodically, always finding themselves on the winning side at just the right time. But that luck ran out in Robert's Rebellion, where one Dannett after another died horrible deaths of violence or accident; by the end, the new Lord of Scarcroft was the youngest of seven sons. The traumatized lord of a castle ruined by war and lands wracked by famine, Lord Alfric Dannett has a seemingly impossible task ahead of him.
Allegiance: Walter Whent, Lord of Harrenhal
Banner: A pomegranate pierced with a red vertical arrow against a gray field
Words: Eat Bitter, Grow Strong
Think of this house as Insanity Mode.
Summary: High above the green and growing Riverlands in the rocky crags and stony canyons of the hills on the border of the Westerlands, Deepen Hall perches like a vulture over a herd of fatted calves. House Dulver, which claims the ancient mountain fastness as its seat, does little to assuage that impression. Shrewd, grasping and mean, the Dulvers hover on the edge of richer lands with hungry eyes on their neighbors, ready to make a meal of anyone who falters. Though nominally sworn to House Lefford, Lord Dulver's first loyalty is ever to his own ambitions.
Allegiance: Leo Lefford, Lord of the Golden Tooth.
Banner: A black pickax on a copper field.
Words: "Earth Yields."
Summary: Fire hardens iron, and the hammer's blow shapes it to usefulness. This has long been the creed of House Kytley, and seeing the fires that have ravaged their land and blow after blow to their reputation, they continue to keep faith that the Smith has great plans for them. Like the molten metal fresh from the anvil, they are well heated, and well shaped; they wait only for the quenching moment to be created anew.
Allegiance: Walder Frey, Lord of the Crossing
Banner: Chevronelly of five red and black, over a white anvil.
Words: Fire Hardens, The Hammer Shapes
Chevronelly is when there are those bent lines dividing it into different colors. "Five red and black" means it looks like a red field with two bent black lines.
Summary: One of the larger stretches of forest in the Riverlands, Durain's Forest has proven difficult to tame as far back as the Andal Invasions, due to its many hidden glens, dense thickets, and twisting trails. These features have encouraged rebels and bandits to shelter in Durain's Forest for centuries, but for most of that time these outlaws have been trouble for farmers, not lords. Recently, the bandits have become bolder, leading to the restoration of the old fortress of Rugar Hold as a lordly holding. A new house has been granted the lordship of Durain's Forest, a poisoned chalice in the eyes of most. But to the newly made Lord Lockwood and his younger brother, it is a chance at greatness that they intend to grasp with both hands.
Allegiance: Hoster Tully, Lord of Riverrun & Lord Paramount of the Trident
Banner: A bent mailed arm clutching a blade on a green and brown checkered field.
Words: Valor, Vigilance, Victory
Based on the ruling house of Ostia from Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword. In other words, it's currently just Uthor (Uther) Lockwood and his much younger brother Hectyr (Hector) Lockwood.
Summary: House Lugus bears a seemingly endless supply of brothers, male cousins, sons, and more distant male relations. Although hardly a rival to the brood of Walder Frey, House Lugus still boasts one of the largest noble families in Westeros. Unfortunately, an abundance of male heirs has one definite consequence for a minor house with a small (but rich, thanks to a fair-sized silver mine on the Lugus lands) fiefdom: there are not nearly enough holdfasts to satisfy everyone. The Lugus family history is thus replete with murders, brawls, abductions, disappearances, exiles, and other acts too unsavory to mention. The song "A Hundred Feet of Red, Red Rope" infamously chronicles the gruesome and inventive demise of Old Targin Lugus, and it's left unsung by any mummer or minstrel within a hundred leagues of Nunn's Deep unless the performer desires a reenactment. As practical - and deadly - as an axe, the Lugus men are also about as subtle. But there is a wily fox in this den of wolves, with a cunning edge to his ambition that his brutish relatives are ill-prepared to deal with.
Allegiance: Ser Leo Lefford, Lord of the Golden Tooth
Banner: A silver chalice studded with emeralds on a black field
Words: "Drink, Live, Last"
House Dannett is hard mode because of complete sh*t luck. House Lugus is also hard mode because they're like House Frey, except everyone is Black Walder.
Summary: Amid the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon, House Marsten guards the western border of the Vale of Arryn. A proud house, still with the blood of the Andals within its veins, though recent years have seen it falter under cruel circumstance. Alliances and intrigue are all that remains of Marsten's once-vaunted strength. Can such weapons still prevail, however, against the threats of time and steel?
Allegiance: Jon Arryn, Lord of the Eyrie, Defender of the Vale, Warden of the East & Hand of the King
Banner: Black and green per chevron and a white lightning bolt.
Words: Let the Heavens Reign
Always need that token fading house on the verge of obsolescence with a powerful and glorious past.
Summary: For decades, Riverthorn was a beautiful and verdant fief ruled by the wealthy House Orell, but an outbreak of plague in the closing days of the War of the Usurper has ravaged this pastoral territory. Now the houses of Riverthorn are empty places haunted by a few plague-scarred individuals. Normally such fertile, ungoverned territory would be the envy of a great many houses, but the specter of plague means that the distant cousin who now reigns in Rose Hall is more likely to receive pity. Lord Elbert Orell and his family are faced with the daunting task of overcoming the spectre of plague and rebuilding this holding from the ground up. But if they succeed, the rewards will be great indeed.
Allegiance: Hoster Tully, Lord of Riverrun & Lord Paramount of the Trident
Banner: A ring of seven red roses on a white field
Words: Ever Just, Ever Loyal
The reigning family of Pherae from Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword. In other words, main character Eliwood (Elwood Orell), and his parents Elbert and Eleanora (Elbert and Elinor Orell).
Summary: Port Maril is a town of the criminal underworld; there is very little open illegal activity, but one need not dig deep to find the truth if they know where to look. But though they've profited immensely from it, tension is mounting between two generations of the ruling House Stroud, as the aging Lord Stroud finds himself in conflict with his strange, half-foreign granddaughter and heiress.
Allegiance: William Mooton, Lord of Maidenpool
Banner: A red fox leaping over a stream on a green field.
Words: Laugh Last, Laugh Loudest
Okay, this one will take some explaining. It started as the reigning house of Caelin from Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword. In that game, the first of the three protagonists is Lyndis. Her mother was the daughter and heiress of Hausen, the Marquess of Caelin, but she was disinherited when she fell in love and eloped with a man from Saccae, a nation of nomadic horsemen and master swordsmen. Lyndis grew up in Saccae unaware of her heritage. At the beginning of the game she meets up with a blank slate for the player who serves as the tactician of the game (the first time this was done in a Fire Emblem game, and the only time until Fire Emblem Awakening many years later. And no, I refuse to acknowledge that other one), whose default name is "Mark." The two then go on an adventure, learn about her past, and also learn that Hausen's brother Lundgren is poisoning him and sending assassins after Lyndis in the hopes of killing both of them so he can rule Caelin. This is basically the game's tutorial storyline.
So we had four characters: Hausen, the lord; Lundgren, his treacherous brother; Lyndis, the brave and honest young woman half-in and half-out of civilization, and Mark, whose only trait is that he seems to pass out a lot and has the apparent ability to reset time every time he f*cks up and gets everyone killed.
First of all, Lyndis doesn't really work with her backstory. The closest thing to the Saccaean nomads is the Dothraki, and the nomads of Saccae are honorable people with no interest in raiding (and no interest in the lands outside their own, really), whereas Dothraki are theme park Huns who keep slaves and couldn't survive without raiding all the time. And her fighting style is more Braavosi Water Dance than what the Dothraki do. Then there's the question of how to incorporate Mark into this.
My solution was this: the elopement still happens, but Hausen's daughter instead eloped with a bravo and Lyndis is very cosmopolitan and with very liberal ideals, in fitting with how honest and idealistic she was in the game, and she's learned the Water Dance to give her something approximating her fighting style in-game. Rather than have to fight her way to her grandfather's bedside, Lyndis just hopped a boat there after her parents died of illness. Rather than be outright mutinous, Lundgren is instead playing the loyal brother while looking for some discrete opportunity to kill Hausen and his line of the family. Hausen, rather than the generic Fire Emblem "Good Old Lord," is someone who does have a moral center but has spent a lifetime compromising it for the sake of his house and the town he rules and doesn't really know how to live any other way. I'm debating on whether Mark should just be the new maester for the house who befriends Lyndis, or to instead make him an Arryn of Gulltown who wanted to be a maester but was instead set to marry Lyndis instead in return for a discrete favor Hausen did for the patriarch of the Gulltown Arryns.
Also, their new names are: Hosteen Stroud (Hausen), Lyonel Stroud (Lundgren), Lynesse Stroud (Lyndis), and... Mark. Possibly Mark Arryn.
Summary: Set on the edge of the Riverlands, among the rocky outcroppings on the westernmost face of the Mountains of the Moon, House Tullison rose from the humble beginnings of its founder to a place of prominence among the lesser houses of the Riverlands. As a loyal ally of House Tully, House Tullison fuels the defenses of the region with iron from its mines.
Allegiance: Hoster Tully, Lord of Riverrun & Lord Paramount of the Trident
(the first time this was done in a Fire Emblem game, and the only time until Fire Emblem Awakening many years later. And no, I refuse to acknowledge that other one)
Cannot make any real comment on the GOT, since I am ambivalent on it, but I do admit some curiousity on a comment of yours.
Did you mean you refuse to acknowledge Awakening or Fates? Just for curiosity's sake.
No, I'm referring to Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem ~Heroes of Light & Shadow~. Yes, that is the full title, punctuation and all. And now you've gone and made me admit that it exists, I hope you're happy.
