My Goodness

My goodness

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Wow, applause man applause👏👏

It's 6 am and I haven't slept; time for some Collector headcanons

Mostly about the workings of its mind

(let's see if I complete this or sleep first)

The kingsmoulds are made from void and spells. The void itself, as the sea in the Abyss, has something like mind, but fragmented. Echoes of thought, ununified, from the original sources of that void, and any subsequent influences upon it. When the Pale King molded void into a body, there was nothing in particular to make the void a single coherent mind. Such a thing was part of the spells put upon it.

The spells were never meant to give it a true mind. The Pale King didn't expect such a thing from void. He only expected for it to function according to orders, and that took some doing. Spells to make it able to process language, understand orders, have a base knowledge of things it might need to know, the ability to fight and other functions of a guard, etc. All things for an unthinking construct.

At first this would be the dominant part of it, just a bundle of spells for a mind, leaving it aware but pretty blank. But the void was always capable of thought. With the spells as a helpful scaffold, the void of its being could form a more coherent, unified mind.

The kingsmould who would become the Collector has always had adult-level cognitive ability. But it's still not like a "normal" adult. Adulthood would typically imply having a childhood beforehand...something not really available for a construct. It does not have anywhere near the level of experience of an adult, and is lacking a lot of knowledge of the world too.

It gained some experience in the palace, in a limited fashion. Mostly in observation.

It did a fair amount of thinking too, as it gained experience. Even though my Collector doesn't....doesn't really reflect as much as it should XD It had the time to think. Time to think that its role as a kingsmould was not well-suited for what was most important to it.

My Collector was something of an experiment by the Pale King in kingsmould design. (Thought at first to make it the first kingsmould, but for my fic at least...fits better in the timeline to be some later design modification). Rather than being made with "SERVE" as the most primary command on it, imparted in the spells at its creation, it was imbued with "PROTECT"...and thus, it assesses everything around it with this in mind.

It left the palace. No great deliberation on consequences--the moment it decided the palace could not fit its role as protector, it just left.

I've wondered if perhaps other kingsmoulds could do so. Could they ever break away from their role? With "SERVE" imprinted on them, it would be very hard to do so. Perhaps only if their role became impossible for some reason. And even then, they may try to fall into a similar role if possible.

The Collector was able to leave and gain more experiences. But it had never really had to make any choices or figure things out. It. Makes a lot of mistakes. Still. It's able to learn.

And more than that, it's able to develop as a person. It always had emotions. But emotions confused it. Unlike someone like hollow though, it never had any reason to suppress emotions. So it will learn.

In all this, the Collector is rather lucky when compared to the other kingsmoulds. The kingsmoulds have minds and emotions. But with such limited life experience (and again, the overwhelming drive to serve)...they are a bit mentally weaker in some senses. Not for lacking a mind, but...mmm.

The spells never leave the Collector. It is always driven to protect. But the more experiences it gets, the stronger its mind becomes. It does not fight the great drive it has. But it's able to choose how to go about it. Go beyond whatever simple form of protection someone without choices would make, or what kind of protection the Pale King had in mind for it in the first place. Even if the Collector makes some really questionable choices. It also learns about what others need, and learns to...understand its own needs better. As a person. Learns about emotions. Learns what love means. It becomes able to incorporate these things into what protection means to it and alter its outlook.

All that is not something afforded the other kingsmoulds. Their lives are not conducive to learning other ways to serve. They are not given room to develop themselves.

I've wondered if perhaps the spells could ever be removed from the Collector. Though I don't think so. Even if its mind became strong enough to persist, its body could not. It would likely just die. And modification of the spells would take a lot of knowledge on someone's part with high risk of failure.

It will always be driven to protect. But that's okay to it.

I've been developing my fic, which has. Uh. Inadvertently become a bit of a fix-it au. But for something more canon...

The world is still falling apart, with the infection. It's bad for anyone's mental health. For the Collector, in some ways it never has to become more "normal", as society is crumbling around it. It doesn't have to worry about fitting in. It also doesn't have to rein in some of its worse impulses.

And yes...by the time we see Collector in the game, it's been a very very long time. It's had to deal with death, and isolation, and betrayal (being locked in the Tower of Love ._.), and failure. It's not doing so well. It's not coping. It doesn't know how to fix things.

It tries to stay strong, in its own way. It tries to keep loving. And it does. But it doesn't really have anyone else to help with its emotions. And it's just slowly breaking down. Just laugh away all the stress. (It can't ever laugh enough for that)

Even when the world and its life were in better times, it would always come off as weird and obsessed. Mmm, still seeing how my fic will turn out in the end. But some things are consistent.

(but as far as endings....hey, I did make it without falling asleep) (now to succumb)

Sky cotl in a nutshell

spirits as they abandon their villages or die or both: its ok guys in like 1000000 years we can get flying babies made of clay to fix it

a couple snippets from a presentation i gave at school this past week on storyboarding!!

‼️DISCLAIMER: I am still a student and have only worked on student and indie projects! This is just stuff that I personally find helpful as an amateur, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt!

Happy boarding, friends! ✍️💕

#reblog

I wonder sometimes, how often the mining accidents keep Forest Elder up at night.

How the cave ins and rock slides took life after life. How long tearful lightminier and their friends we're stuck there, right outside the temple. Did Forest Elder feel helpless? Did they stay in the rain to move the rocks? I feel like they did, I like to think they stayed there for hours, hands bleeding and dress ruined from the mud and rain, refusing to give up, not wanting to give up because in their eyes, if they did, they'd fail as an Elder. I like to think the forest floods regularly, quickening the evident erosion clear as day in the realm, washing away the soil, food, and spirits. I like to think that's how tearful miner died, not by drowning, but being stuck in a flood when in the cave, the rocks being removed to save them now being what kept them alive, forcing the rescue teams back.

I can imagine the guilt, Forest Elder ascending the spirits they couldn't save, that died under the protection they promised to give when they became an Elder.

I usually see the general assumptions people make of forest elder being cold, mean. And I just, don't get it. They took our light because they had the desire to build, to create after being stuck in limbo for god knows how long. I get them, I get the eagerness to do something I couldn't do for a long time. Forest Elder to me is somebody who means well, somebody that on the outside might have the struggle with tone and expression (neurodivergent hc). But they're the type to help you with whatever you need, the type to show their care through gifts than words, they would fight for you, they would do whatever necessary to look at a better future. They might not show it, but they have their own way's to show appreciation, fear. I cant sleep, so thus I think of Forest Elder.

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