beholdingbait

recently got into ac and my god im obsessed (with giovanni auditore mostly)

as you can tell giovanni is my muse rn

This is an old AU I’ve been thinking of making canon — more like a headcanon, really.

I drew heavy inspiration from darker religious themes, somewhere along the lines of ACII and the Ezio Auditore trilogy. So here’s the idea:

In this headcanon, the Vatican keeps an iron grip on its members — nuns, priests, bishops, and especially cardinals.

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Conclaves are practically blood duels between cardinals. On more than one occasion, the Sistine Chapel has been found stained with blood, with the bodies of at least twenty cardinals out of the hundred who gathered to vote for a new Supreme Pontiff.

A conclave admits over a hundred cardinals, yet only one is chosen. But confinement often breeds what they call “collective hysteria”, leading to fatal incidents — three Vatican members found hanged (a priest, a bishop, and a cardinal), and in the worst case, twenty murdered cardinals, leaving the Church without a Pontiff for three years. All of this sits within canon.

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Rules of this Vatican:

Masks:

They are decorated with the faces of saints, archangels, or sacred animals, crafted from white or black marble. Nuns, priests, and cardinals do not choose their masks — they are assigned. Cardinals wear saints’ faces, and most bear archangels.

Masks are reused. Beforehand, they undergo an exorcism, as they are believed to retain the soul of their former wearer, leaving it wandering in limbo if not cleansed.

Masks may be worn during Mass, in the streets, and when the Supreme Pontiff makes appearances. Anyone caught without a mask during major events is excommunicated and ritually executed, their body cast into the River Tiber.

They may remove their masks only when eating or while at home. No other exceptions are permitted.

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Celibacy is strictly enforced. A member who commits to celibacy is swiftly castrated — their testicles removed. Those who refuse are released from service.

This inevitably leads to bastard children — scandals the institution tries to bury.

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Members must be between 25 and 75 years old. After 75, they are taken to an annual ceremony meant to “purify” the institution at the new year. Their throats are cut, and their bodies are thrown into the Tiber. More than once, the river has reportedly run red — reminiscent of Moses in Egypt.

Why younger members? They are easier to manipulate and quicker to corrupt. Cardinals in their forties are entirely normal in this setting.

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The Supreme Pontiff rules over all and personally oversees executions. He wears a mask as well, though far more ornate, detailed in gold or silver.

These masks are designed according to how the Pontiff perceives God. He is drugged and subjected to prayers in an unknown tongue, said to open a gateway to glimpse the face of God — the illustration reflects how Pontiff Rodrigo Borgia saw that vision.

—————

Yes, this would be considered blasphemous — but it’s purely a headcanon for an AU. It’s not meant as an attack on the Church itself; I’m Catholic.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

This cardinal illustration is literally a design I came up with for Haytham. Yes — I’m thinking of making him a cardinal. His religious path would begin after the attack on the Kenway mansion, when Reginald takes charge of his upbringing and places him in a seminary, where he is further shaped. There, he meets Ezio’s father, Giovanni Auditore — a future cardinal.

Haytham and Giovanni both take part in the conclave following Borgia’s death.

Haytham eventually rises to the rank of Cardinal Dean.

The nun would be Maria Thorpe. She never met Altaïr — at least not in any ordinary sense. Or perhaps she did. I’m considering that Altaïr might be someone from her past who appears in her dreams, guiding her through her turmoil inside the convent.

I think they’re sketches of an AU I’ve been thinking about, but it turned out awful

:,v

This is from another AU (I make more AUs than a mental health assessment), where Kaneihti:io is from the Water Nation (I was inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender).

Here’s baby Connor and Connor at around four years old, possibly.

Fuck it I’m posting this silly whiteboard doodle

Artwork is for client use ONLY. Please do not re-upload, use in AI learning, or use as reference.

It's (almost) that time of year again, and well I'm doing things a little different this year so I figure I'd give the prompt list a little early! Arthurian August is a yearly art/writing/gif making/whatever other creative things challenge during the month of August centered on the Arthurian Legends. In the past I've had a prompt a week for the month of August, but this year I'm trying a bingo card format, pictured below:

The idea is you can check as many applicable boxes as you want for each creation you make, so if you make one or two things you can still get a bingo, granted you include all five prompts between those creations. Of course if you only want to check one box per creation that's fine too. The goal is to kinda open this up so people who don't have much time can still complete something. (More rules and prompt explanations under the cut)

Because like the loss of a friend with whom your freak is matching (and, yet again, Ezio took from Giovanni more than most of appearance, so Giovanni allegedly is twice more everything from that), and especially after you literally was the only one to warn him but unable to do more, because this fucking idiot didn't do anything, and nobody else tried to help or save him, is doing a lot shit with a person. And like it'd partially explained why Volpe leans to trust only a few people rather than the whole organisation.

Because he already saw his best friend and a literal Grandmaster being fucking left to deal with a lot of shit alone, literally going on the most of the missions alone, while the others doing literally anything else but helping him, until he fucking died because there was nobody but you and a child of a said friend to try and do anything about it. He saw how the person, less suited to that, became acting Grandmaster, but did pretty much nothing besides handling a ton of work to everyone else while barely teaching said child for the next twenty years. He saw how another child who grew up during these said twenty years getting recruited while also not really getting himself involved in teamwork to the point his double agent job rightfully felt like a traitory. And only in that way I might get along with that stubbing Machia sequence, but since it's mostly the way how I personally read the dynamics between characters based on the crumbs I had, it might not be the case at all, and in that case that sequence makes as less sense as it does without context or analysis.

[ID: Fifteen edits of the Bugs bunny “I wish all a very pleasant day” meme. They are edited to include the trans flag on his left side. They read:

“I wish all trans men, trans women, nonbinaries, genderfluids, demiboys and demigirls, agenders, and more a very pleasant trans visibility day.” This edit includes the flags for the identities listed.

“I wish all straight, gay, lesbian, bi, pan, ace, aro, omni, polyamorous, etc. trans people a very pleasant trans visibility day.” This edit includes the flags for the identities listed.

“I wish all intersex people who identify with the trans label a very pleasant trans visibility day.” This edit includes the intersex flag.

“I wish all autistic, ADHD, or otherwise neurodivergent trans people a very pleasant trans visibilitiy day.” This edit includes the red words “(happy autism acceptance month! light it up red)”

“I wish all Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, and other religious trans people a very pleasant trans visibility day.”

“I wish all trans POC, especially Black and indigenous trans people, a very pleasant trans visibility day.” This edit includes the inclusive LGBT poc flag, as well as a trans flag with a brown and black fist.

“I wish all disabled or chronically ill trans people a very pleasant trans visibility day.”

“I wish all fat trans people, hairy trans people, and trans people who don’t “pass” a very pleasant trans visibility day.”

“I wish all it/its pronoun users, neopronouns users, and people who use pronouns that don’t “match” their gender a very pleasant trans visibility day.”

“I wish all trans people with little or no gender dysphoria a very pleasant trans visibility day.”

“I wish all trans people who are in the closet a very pleasant trans visibility day.”

“I wish all trans people who haven’t transitioned and/or don’t plan to a very pleasant trans visibility day.”

“I wish all questioning trans people/people who aren’t sure if they’re trans a very pleasant trans visibility day.”

“I wish all people who don’t use labels for themselves a very pleasant whatever you’re comfy with.”

“I wish all trans people a very pleasant you are wonderful, valid, and loved <3” /End ID]