Excerpt:
Still scanning the ceiling, the whip vipers keeping watch as well, she backed to one of the wall sconces and read the trigger phrase from another scroll, whereupon the candle flame leaped up and turned a roiling black. She put her arm into the darkfire, and her flowing gossamer sleeve caught instantly.
Though they were at the end of what was, thus far, the non-burning arm, the serpents hissed and coiled in alarm. Quenthel brought them to heel with a brutal thrust of her will. Feeling naught but a pleasant warmth, she silently commanded the darkfire. A portion of the magical stuff flowed down her arm and congealed into a soft, semisolid ball in her palm. She threw it, and her magic shot it up like a sling bullet to strike the ceiling fresco where it splashed into a great gout of murky flame.
Quenthel followed that first missile with a steady barrage. Where the darkfire had kissed it, the fresco began to burn with ordinary yellow flame, suffusing the air with eye-stinging smoke and a vile stink that was also a sickening, throat-clenching taste at the back of her mouth.
She was throwing blindly, but with the blaze above spreading, it shouldnât matter. Surely the spider wouldnât simply sit still and allow itself to burn. The fire ought to spur it into motion and thus into visibility.
Unless, of course, the spider wasnât really on the ceiling, which was a real possibility. Maybe it was actually hiding elsewhere. It might even be creeping up on her while she stared at the burning painting and the nervous vipers worried more about their proximity to a darkfire than about keeping watch.
No, her intuition had pointed her in the right direction. She spotted the spider as it gathered itself to spring down at her, and having flushed it out, she need only survive its renewed attack.
She dived from beneath its plummeting form and rolled, leaving a trail of black, burning scraps of cloth behind on the floor. The creature with its tattered, oozing eyes landed with a thump, its eight legs flexing to absorb the impact.
Quenthel scrambled up and backed away from it. Her whole gown was aflame, nearly her entire body shrouded in darkfire. She threw another ball of the stuff, which spattered on the demonâs back and streamed down its flanks. To her delight, her magic affected it again. The spider too wore a mantle of shadowy flame, the heat rippling the air above it.
That meant it ought to drop, didnât it, or at least flounder about in helpless agony? The fire was surely damaging it, for Quenthel could smell its flesh charring even through the omnipresent reek of burning paint, but the demon turned and scuttled after her.
She aimed the next burning missile at the cluster of eyes that seemed in some indefinable way to constitute the very core of the thing. The spider did lurch and falter when the burning darkness splashed over the orbs, but only for a second, and it kept coming.
Unable to outrun it, hoping sheâd at least softened it up a little, Quenthel shouted her goddessâs name and lunged to meet it. Sheathed in darkfire, her whole body was a weapon and would burn the spider wherever it touched. Where the black flame on the monsterâs limbs was giving way to yellow, it could burn her, too, but not if she didnât let it. Their natural savagery overcoming their fear of fire, the whip vipers lashed and struck in a frenzy of bloodlust.
At first, swinging the whip, ducking and dodging, she kept herself clear of the spiderâs mandibles. She shifted left when she should have jumped right, and the razor-sharp pincers snapped shut around her.
They stopped short of piercing her flesh. Loath to clasp her blazing body and be seared thereby, the spider faltered for just an instant. Before it could muster the will to proceed, Quenthel struck a final blow.
The ophidian lashes crashed through the demonâs charred and tattered visage and bit into what lay beneath. The spider jerked, froze, twitched two of its legs in a purposeless way, and the burning hulk of it slowly sank to the floor, just as Quenthelâs spell elapsed and all the darkfire still crackling in the chamber winked out of existence.
She shouted in exultation. Equally ecstatic, only a little singed, the vipers danced at the end of the scourge. Everyoneâs good mood lasted just as long as it took for the Baenre priestess, clad primarily in smoke and ash, to turn toward the door.
Though sheâd been far too busy to notice hitherto, at some point a number of teachers and students had evidently crowded into the space to watch the battle. They were watching Quenthel still, eyes wide, faces uncertain.
âIt was a desecration,â said Quenthel. âA mockery.â
She stared at them with haughty expectation.
They peered back at her for a moment, then folded their hands and bowed their heads in obeisance.
ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ
So Iâve been thinking, why people find Void Elf racials lackluster. I think the âEntropic Embraceâ is just a flat out damage increase, with special visual effect. The problem is, Elf players donât tend to prioritize DPS, otherwise theyâd already be playing Bloodlust races. And Visual Effect is a personal taste thing, so now we have a not-universally well-received Visual, and no absolute good reason to keep it.
You canât even use the Worgen retort: I donât understand why people choose to play Worgen, but donât want to stay a beastman. In Void Elfâs case, itâd be: I donât understand why people choose to play Void Elf, but donât want to TURN BLUEââ it doesnât even make sense. It souds absurd.
Therefore, I propose making the gear disappear(turn invisible) when 'Entropic Embraceâ procs due to Void energy radiation, giving them an actual meaningful visual theme. And at the same time explaining (without explaining) the increasement in damage output (excitement of being nearly naked).
Iâm of the mind that the Void Elf should have its own identity. I canât stand the obnoxious Blood Elf players going âKnow your place as an allied raceâ. Be that as it may, Void Elf will still be the ONLY other race using Thallasian Elf model. It would truely be a shame if Void Elf always existed under Blood Elfâs shadow. It has to be its own thing, and succeed right?
So what could that identity be, what theme Void Elf could adopt but Blood Elf couldnât (one of them has to do it, otherwise it would be a waste). Some would say body modification (and itâs good), but hereâs the thing: common sense dictates that before someone resort to body modifications, itâs far more easier for them to first try revealing clothesââ you can always change back if your whim occurs, but no so easy in the case of body modifications.
Having body modifications while being content with fairly conservative dressing code, sounds bizarre to say the least. Besides the game is not just the forum, with only mugshots being important. If youâre going to use body modifications, I say also show them on your body.
So here we come to the flaw of the concept: the game does not support revealing clothes. The concept is only so good, as the choices in supporting clothes are abundant. As a one-time deal (as in allied races and their heritage armor), sure why not; As a long-time staying power? Nah, not enough.
Therefore, gear disappearing.
For High Elf, I envision them as dairymaids, with flaxen braids. For Void Elf, I want them to have this âIN YOUR FACEâ type of sense of fashion. The more outrageous their behaviour, the more tolerant the Alliance society will be shown.
If they have animal eyes(slit pupils), donât forget the second eyelids, the horizontal ones; If they have third eye on the forehead, they can have blindfold on their normal eyes, just like the forsaken; If they also have additional mouth between breasts, they can wear mouth gag too, like the vampire girl in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
They can also have zippers, powered bolts, gill slitsâŠ? I donât know. Tatoo under belly button, head of Diablo, at least one version of it: a bullâs head with reversed horns (pointing downwards), twisted into knots at the end. The theory is, when the gear disappear, and the tatoo glows bright, the enemy will stop in track and begin to wonder: Is that what I think it is?
One thing I think important, is if they do get to have their gear disappear, they can have Kuuko(Cthugha, from Nyaruko Crawling with Love)'s bodypaint? They donât need to wear underwears anymore, if sensitive parts are all covered up with corruptions? exoskeletons? fine scales/furs?
If they want, they can even add see-through tentacles (as seen in Elfen Lied), the theory goes: when Void Elves meditate, theyâre practicing unconsciously influence âthingsâ. So in the events that they become unconscious, their body will be taken over by this âunconsciousnessâ theyâve been cultivating all these time, âout thereâ (the world of reason, the sea of unconsciousnessâŠetc).
This unconsciousness expresses itself as extradimensional crystal-clear tentacles, holding the inanimate body as its core in bondage (the precise type of bondage is left to your preference), the whole thing acts as a Beholder/Eye Tyrant cosplay.
Well too much effort, probably.
