Art Friends Rb This With Whether Or Not You Actually Like. Organize Your Palettes In Digital Art Programs

First off, thank you for making this writeup! The Dungeon/Temple lore has always been particularly nasty to try and make sense of so it's helpful to see how other folks interpret it. Had some thoughts to add on the subject!

Regarding defeating Plantera slowing down biome spread -- this could tie into the theory that the Dryad(s?) created Plantera!

There is a very loose connection between the Dryads and the Jungle; most obvious is that the Dryad in-game has the Jungle as her liked biome. In her happiness quote for the jungle she says "I kissed a tree in the Jungle and I liked it." While this is mostly just a funny little reference, it does gain a little more depth when you remember the Dryad turns into a tree in the end credits. The items found in the living mahogany trees are also pretty thematic for the Dryads -- the staff of regrowth and flower boots specifically.

Then consider that the Dryad sells purification powder, analyzes world purity, and pushes the player to purify the world. Combining this all together makes a nice little link to the Dryads creating Plantera with their own magic. Of course, our Dryad can only do so much being she's the last of her kind, but defeating Plantera releases a big burst of that Dryad magic that was put into creating it, slowing biome spread worldwide. Bit of a reaching theory, but we don't have much to work with on this one, haha.

Changing course completely -- you had disregarded the fact that a voodoo doll is found in the Underworld, but I would say it's pretty relevant considering the existence of the Diabolic Sigil bearers and the Molten Legion (and in a different way, the Necromancers and Ragged Casters).

The Diabolists and Molten Legion both explicitly run with the hell theme -- Diabolists wield flames "as intense as any in the Underworld," and drop a classic devil-style trident (though devils in-game drop unholy tridents -- more on that later). The Molten Legion members are immune to On Fire!/Hellfire debuffs and like Diabolists can light you on fire.

Now for a side tangent on shadow magic/shadowflame. You see this kind of magic in a few places -- Goblins specifically manipulate "shadow energy," summon spirits of the dead with it, and cast with shadowflame/use weapons that inflict shadowflame.

Devils and demons are immune to shadowflame, and although they don't inflict the shadowflame debuff proper, demons are stated to cast "shadow magic" in the form of their demon scythes, which inflicts the darkness debuff. Red Devils respectively drop the Unholy trident, which links on its own back to the Corruption (see: Unholy water, unholy arrows, etc.) and the Corruption's shadow orbs.

Back to the dungeon, the Ragged Casters inflict the blackout debuff, a stronger version of darkness, while Necromancer beams are also referred to as "shadow beams." The Clothier also casts shadowflame skulls, a shadow'd version of the skulls you can cast from the Book of Skulls dropped by Skeletron. Now look at the shadow chests in the Underworld -- they contain hellfire weapons and a shadowflame weapon.

And how do you open shadow chests? With a key from the dungeon.

(Side note: the Lunatic Cultist's Ancient Doom projectiles also look similar to the Clothier's shadowflame skulls, but they don't inflict any relevant debuffs. The LC does have fire magic similar to Diabolists, but this seems to be a part of an elemental magic theme rather than a hell one specifically.)

(Side note #2: While their attacks obviously look different, the demon scythe item is actually just a recolored version of the water bolt item! Both spellbooks have the same design on their covers.)

(Side note #3: There's also maybe another link to be made involving the obsidian-scaled serpents that once ruled hell, the Eater of World's shadow scales, the wyverns/phantasm dragons, the obsidian summoning set, the obsidian skull, and the obsidian lock boxes, but it's much more reaching in my opinion.)

Anyways, this was a lot of words to say that there's a quite significant link between the Dungeon and the Underworld, and the fact that there's a voodoo doll found in both locations only adds to that! Link that with the Witch Doctor mentioning voodoo magics/having the same happiness dialogue for both the Dryad and the Guide, and the connections you had previously established between the Dungeon and the Lihzahrd Temple and we're starting to get...something. Not sure what, but there's something here!

Rambling once again: Dungeon

In the lore, the only thing we're told is that the Dungeon used to be a prosperous city, now in ruins, with its inhabitants kept undead by a curse.

Firstly, I'm guessing that the "curse" is the same curse as the Skeletron. When the Dryads ripped out parts of Cthulhu's skeleton, they left the bones near the dungeon, but something, something, hate, let me tell you how much i've grown to hate you - "The disembodied bones of a former tyrant pulsed with a hatred so strong, it left behind a mighty curse which guards the Dungeon". Remember that. Secondly, the Lunar Cultists appear near the Dungeon, Mechanic was thrown into the Dungeon where they forced her to build the mecha bosses. So, the Dungeon is like their base. Why? Here's the next thing; "former tyrant" is Cthulhu, and what is a tyrant without something to rule over? I say that the people of the Dungeon, in life, before Cthulhu has fallen, also worshipped him. Most were left to rot away and remained as skeletons; and the Lunar Cultists we see in-game are the leftovers of this bigger cult, those who, although also maddened, have managed to keep at least some consciousness, and instead of rotting away like the others, were made immortal and had their aging process slowed down <- this is a personal headcanon based on nothing, just keep in mind that the curse can do that, it is important for my eventual Clothier lore.

Now, what *was* the Dungeon? Many of the enemies we see in-game from there are either mages or "parts of an elite military unit in their past lives". There's several factions: Necromantic Order, Ragged Brotherhood, and the Diabolic Order(?) are the mages. Diabolists do hell magic, Necromancers do shadow magic, Ragged Casters summon spirits. Some supra-natural dark magic, that's the first big thing. We also get the alchemy/bewitching table from the dungeon, there's potions scattered everywhere, so, yes, they were doing magic. Then, the "warrior" factions: Molten Legion (matching the Diablosts' hell magic), Rusted Company (matching the Ragged Brotherhood's 'tattered' theme), and an unnamed one that is for Marching Bones/Blue Armored Bones; there's also the "military unit" spread throughout the Dungeon, consists of Snipers, a SWAT team (ok i guess), rocket launcher guys, and knights/guards. A lot of military. There's also ninjas because what would you do without them. The only ones who don't fit into this military-cultist shitstorm are the Angry Bones and Cursed Skulls, giant and non-giant. I assume those were just regular inhabitants.

What we have is - a military-focused city with dark magic practitioners. Interesting.

Another thing is the Dungeon's connection to the Jungle/Jungle Temple. The chests/keys in the dungeon have been cursed by Plantera. Plantera awakens after from the fallout after we defeat the Mechanical bosses (though I guess that's not very surprising, if you're a floral being you're probably sensitive to changes in the soil, and there's no way 3 giant fucked up mechanical things, which are, mind you, imbued with Souls so evil they had to be sealed away by the Wall of Flesh itself, are good for the environment). We get stronger enemies in the Dungeon once Plantera (a giant thing who gives access to the Jungle Temple, a "Guardian" - remind you of anyone?) is defeated, Cultists arrive once the Golem is defeated. And, remember, we have Lunar Cultists - and while the existence of Solar Cultists is implied, considering the robes Clothier sells and the unused White Cultist Archer enemy, we've never once seen Solar Cultists. Except we have. Remember, the Golem has a lot of Sun motifs.

The Lizahrds are basically the opposite to the Lunar Cult. What exactly that means for the lore - eh, who knows. Probably they were one of the races, along with the Dryads, trying to stop Cthulhu from returning or something. I've seen the theory that Plantera was made by the Dryads, that seems kind of cool. I'll think about that later.

That's about 80% of my brainpower for today used up. Thanks for listening folks.

A little note, a giant stretch, but worth mentioning: the aforementioned Bewitching Table from the Dungeon can also be bought from Witch Doctor, a Lizahrd, once the Wizard appears. Books can also be bought from the Wizard. Btw, don't those two words sound familiar. And, there's something about the Witch Doctor selling (allegedly) voodoo things, and voodoo dolls appearing in the Dungeon (and technically in the Underworld, but that's irrelevant). I think speculating about the Witch Doctor and the Wizard's connection to the Dungeon would be the lore equivalent of a crackship, though, if that even makes sense.

i readed the whole thing yesterday and honestly chapter 5 cover my fave (pt creator is @ariibees !!! go check the comic out pls its so good)

Another Terraria doodle. In this AU, Dryad and Guide aren’t exactly great friends, but they have known of each other for a long time and she’s very much aware of “the situation.” Despite her (fairly warranted) chewing out, she does respect him for the most part, though she sometimes questions his actions.

Fascinating! Though it does appear that being I'm ace as hell and extremely bad at identifying what's supposed to be hot, I've fallen for the classic "I was so caught up in the euphoria of old-timey inspired-clothing that for a minute I lived in a world where the tumblr sexyman didn't exist."

Also, thanks! I hate it!

I actually think it’s very cool of the portal fandom that so many people decided to give characters waist coats and cravats and sleeve garters and shit like that. There’s literally no good reason for it is there? They’re all from, like, the early 2000′s. But folks realized that actually that’s a banger look and everyone should just dress that way

Wow!

Wow, wow, that was so much fun. I have a lot of thoughts about it, so I’m just going to toss them all below. Spoilers, of course.

The game was an absolute mind-fuck, having to deal with three portals and two timelines. Maybe if everything “clicks” well for you it wouldn’t be so hard, but I found it really difficult -- probably up there with Portal Stories: Mel’s advanced mode.

The human storage from Portal 2′s co-op! It’s neat to see it again!

The portal community just fucking hates elevators apparently. Everyone’s desperate to use pneumatic vents and dematerializers and everything else in place of just a normal elevator.

!!!!!!!!The Announcer!!!!!!! Portal Reloaded has no companion core character like Wheatley or Virgil -- it’s you and the announcer the whole time. And I’m okay with that! Harry does an awesome voice (as expected; I’m so glad he got to voice it), and the way they portrayed the Announcer is really interesting in this game. I would tentatively say they gave him some emotion and character? He still fits into the original role of “fully robotic emergency system AI” well, but also seems to really care about (or at least be passionate about succeeding in) doing his job and saving the facility, without ever forming an attachment to the main character and having absolutely no reservations about literally forcing them to do whatever necessary while still providing encouragement. A super neat dynamic and it makes me happy to see the Announcer got so much love in the game!

This game feels like the spiritual remake of Aperture Tag, in a way. Being woken up from stasis to train for a specific task with an AI leading you through it, getting a special portal-like gun that turns on and off as you walk through colored fields, etc. Even the die or go free ending is sort of similar, at least in basic concept.

The humor in Portal Reloaded was excellent. It really did feel like the classic dark humor, especially like that early on in Portal 2.

I like where the plot went with this one! It’s not nearly so story driven, so even if the ending is kind of sudden and technically the whole game is overall inconsequential, I prefer that to the developer biting off more than they can chew and trying to actually directly work it into the pre-Portal 2 storyline. Portal Stories: Mel was able to work its status as a midquel into the story nicely, but I’m glad that this one just did its own thing and left it there since the driving force of the story was “stop Chell from defeating GLaDOS in Portal,” which obviously can’t happen. Overall, the plot was a very nice way to tie together the 25 test chambers without trying to turn it into some big story-driven thing or give it some big bad boss. It’s semi-short, and very enjoyable!

I also went wild at the headcrabs. I know that for the most part Portal and Half Life keep themselves separate, so while that was very overt, it was unexpected and enjoyable.

TL;DR: very good game. Loved seeing more announcer content; I feel like he’s an underutilized character. Not some big story thing, it was just a cute little thing tying together 25 really hard test chambers.

I had fun!

Oh fuck I forgot portal reloaded is out, I’ll be back in five hours after playing the entire thing in one sitting

Footage of Victor Frankenstein fucking around in his attic.

i googled “why do cats run around and meow at night” and one of the results listed this as a cause:

he’s too small for the strawberry hat

The most specific drama occurring in my area is that while most people were out of town for the holidays one apartment complex that had been touting supposed upcoming appliance upgrades (even in advertisements to get people to live there/justify rent increases) went into a bunch of the apartments and replaced their (slightly old, but perfectly fine) full-sized fridge with a mini fridge. For apartments with 4+ people in them. And like I’d be pissed as hell if that happened to me but from an outside perspective it’s so funny, imagine coming back from vacation to find that someone made off with your fridge and installed a teeny tiny one in its place