Let there be †Mayhem†

A Collection of Homoerotic Paintings of Saint Sebastian

The Star. 

El Petó de la Mort: The Kiss of Death (1930) - Jaume Barba for the tomb of Josep Llaudet Soler

HOT TAKE!

does anyone main portia? by that i mean : think portia is their favourite *LOVE INTEREST*.

not favourite character, favourite TO DATE/FLIRT WITH/MARRY POTENTIALLY (??)

'cus, dont get me wrong, portia is an absolute gem in other routes... but that' s the thing.

in other routes.

i haven't currently met anyone who likes portia's route as their best, or even top 3. personally, the route isn't ALL bad, its cute, quirky and it's not too out of character.

however, it feels less like a romance and more like a platonic. sure, they get together in the end -- but it doesn't really feel all too established, aka i feel like the route is rushed.

i feel the same for muriels and a little for lucio's as well, though i think that (COUGH COUGH dorian COUGHGHG) did portia the most dirty, which is a shame, cus i definitely would've loved her if they established a bit more of her personality, and less on tasya.

cus while the plot is important, we haven't really seen anything like it in other routes (where the M3 where the same), and this caused alot more building to be on plot than a romance option

... which could've been EASILY fixed if her route was as long as the M3 (asra, for example)

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK 🤍

i'd love to hear ur opinion, darlings!

xoxo,

Well, well.

Dorian has nothing to do with Portia's route script. All the routes were completed by the original team before the Arcana was sold to Dorian. And the NixHydra team's burnout is the first reason there (and maybe another reasons is stupidity amongst them and/or their internal disagreements, Idk).

Stupidity? Like writing the poor script and blaming "capitalism" for the faint interest in Portia's route amongst the audience.

Audience. Audience. Predominantly heterosexual—simply by the laws of statistics. You have to be completely ignorant of the common sense to blame "capitalism" in this case. Just as you have to be ignorant of your audience. Or, at least, failing to interest the main wlw part of your audience (the silliest fuckup with such a character as Portia).

I won't even mention their irresponsibility for their own actions. They could have blamed anyone but their own inability to manage their brainchild. And the burnout happened solely because maintaining your brainchild also means maintaining your fanbase AND not indulging their whims. Bending to audience's whims and excuses with inability to defend your POV is the fastest way to burnout. And they've got it.

So I noticed @asra-moon was looking for someone to make a map of the world Vesuvia takes place in so I did that because I’m geography/ history nerd.

*click for better resolution.

This map is by no means pretty but allow me to explain myself.

1) This is an upside down map of the Roman Empire. Which is here in the modern world:

I did this for a few reasons.

• The devs have said that Vesuvia is a sea-side Mediterranean city-state.

• as far as racial diversity and equality, the Roman Empire was extremely advanced in this field, they even had a few minority Emperors.

• it is upside down because in The Arcana northern areas are warm and southern areas are cold, that is the exact opposite of how the Mediterranean is in our world, so I flipped it.

2) Prakra is Rome.

• Voting, election, and order were big in Rome. Nadia says this about Prakra quite a bit.

• Nadia’s parents are literally an Emperor and Empress.

• In Ancient Rome, there was a central Emperor and government. Then there would be people to preside over individual city-states, this would explain why Nadia is countess of Vesuvia, because her parents put her in that position.

3) Nevivon is in Ukraine.

• Julian and Portia look very Ukrainian/ Russian in my opinion.

•Also the names Ilya and Pasha are very Eastern European.

• So are the names Mazelinka and Lilinka.

• Portia and Julian grew up around pirates so I chose an area on the Black Sea.

4) And finally, Vesuvia is in Egypt.

• Asra is a native Vesuvian, he’s clearly middleastern/ North African/ Arabic.

• Asra, Aisha, and Salim are all Arabic names and Aisha wears a hijab.

• So Vesuvia has to be in a part of the Roman Empire that is middleastern/ North African/ Arabic.

• this is the canon map of Vesuvia and if you zoom in on the map of the Roman Empire provided, that area of Egypt looks exactly like the area Vesuvia is located on.

Nevivon I believe is supposed to be a Jewish community, but I can see it being in Ukraine. It’s also possible that Julian and Portia still have Russian heritage since they were adopted.

That delta seems WAY too big for a single city to cover. I don’t think it’s a cliffside either like Vesuvia is said to be, and Vesuvia is inspired mostly off of Venice and Renaissance Italy with heavy influence from Arabia since it’s supposed to reflect the history of the Tarot. Vesuvia’s defs also Venice b/c there’s a real island off the coast of Venice called Poveglia that’s been used historically as a lazaret! It’s also one of the most illegal places in the world to trespass, lmao.

P. S. Also I thought about Nevivon as a Jewish town called "miestechko" in Eastern Europe, but it have obvious warmer climate than in the most of Eastern Europe. And Nevivon and nearby towns can be in kinda alliance of the towns of the same tribes (or something). BTW, I'm sure that siblings were also adopted by kinda "Jewish people", because Halinka described the kitchen in her house as "divided for meat and dairy"—which is basic rule of Kashruth. But I guess you wrote it before the devs released "a warm welcome" tale.

Moreover, if I remember correctly, there was no pirates in the area of Black Sea (and they're were not even known), unlike the area of Mediterranean sea.

P.P.S. If I remember correctly, Jeff Goldblum as a prototype for Julian was a heir of (West) Ukrainian Jews. But I think the devs had reference for Devorak family from the Sephardic Jews as more known tribe in the Medieval and Renaissance times (and they're inherit even some stereotypes about this tribe in that period). It's common thing for the devs to mixed traditions for locations of this game, so… idk, but Devorak family is definitely not Russians. Also, I think they're can't be Russians for the one reason: Russians don't gave a shit about Tarot cards and had no influence at creating and development of the Tarot—unlike Sephardic Jews with their kabbalistic doctrine. But I reminded myself about the Lucio and Muriel's origin, so in this case… idk, both of their routes were released much later than original three. Maybe the devs decided to include another nations which less related to the history (legendary or not) of the Tarot.

They usually say about diminutives like "Ilyushka", but such diminutives can be not only in Russian language. But: "malak" is a Hebrew word, which means "angel". "Devorak" can be the same last name as Czech composer Antonin Dvořák, or… be rooted in Jewish word "Deb(/v)ora" – "a bee". My mad guess: maybe these are mixed names of biblical prophetess Deborah and general B(/V)arak from the Book of Judges. But it's just a mad guess: