#askdario

Well, we know Ivy played the violin, so it's very possible that Dusk Manor had a music room with other instruments in it. If anyone played the organ, it was probably Morgana (since she literally has "organ" in her name, hurrhurr)

Otherwise, I can imagine Dimitri randomly slapping away on the keys just to annoy the hell out of everyone lol

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Lore Masterpost

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Lore Masterpost

When I first read this message I was like "no way, no they don't". Then I pulled up two pics to compare and uh...

SHEEEEEEEEIT.

The eyes, mouth, ear shape, and chin are all spot-on. Even the noses are pretty close, Ojio's is just wider. They actually do look related AND WOW I HATE IT. :')

But if they are related, I think that relation is so loose and so far back in history that it's not even worth mentioning. I will say that the Boanningwad weren't the only elves to get caught up in Zareenite slavery, there were foreign elves in Evik at the time that got roped in too, and these different elves had offspring with the Boanningwad. The Marienna (Dario's people) were among them, and Ojio actually does look like he has Marienna-like features, so it's very possible that he just has some of that race in his ancestry and that's why they look similar.

(Many modern Damijan think they're descended purely from ancient Boanningwad elves, but this isn't always true. Many of them have some other elven races mixed into their bloodline, and this gives the Damijan the diverse range of skintones, face shapes, and hair textures they have today despite their closed-off society.)

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Lore Masterpost

*clears throat*

*leans towards microphone*

"Dario Dusk"

Looming Gaia fandom:

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Lore Masterpost

Forzotti Dorzlaf doesn't keep sirenes as pets, I believe you're thinking of Bozzag Blackjaw (who is also a dworfen Evangelite and a massive piece of shit, so it's easy to get them mixed up!)

Bozzag owns the Kelvingyard Company, while Dorzlaf is a pit-fighting coach. Dorzlaf wishes he had Bozzag's money and clout, but he is a compulsive gambler who instantly pisses away any fortune he makes.

So, how does he keep the money flowing? In some of the most rotten ways you can imagine. Let's take a look...(The following text contains spoilers, so I will place it under a cut:)

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That's the saddest part of Zov's whole story, imo...the fact that even if he does escape and somehow gets access to the best resources available, he will still have to fight a steep uphill battle for the rest of his life. :(

Realistically if he escaped, I think he would be imprisoned or permanently institutionalized in an asylum. But if we're being optimistic, I think he could climb his way up to an at least somewhat functional state. Here's my reasoning...

The fact that he shows interest in art and music is a good sign, it means he still has a soul in him somewhere. It's badly damaged for sure, but it's there. Having a soul means he has the potential to feel love--whether for a person or purpose. His interests are all non-violent in nature and could be helpful outlets for him to express himself.

I have a feeling Zov doesn't enjoy violence; it's just something he's used to and happens to be good at. It's a job to him. A chore. It's some bullshit he has to do to put food in his mouth. He is incredibly desensitized to it which is not good, but he doesn't really take pleasure in it either, which is good. That sets a solid foundation for him to move away from violence and pursue other things, like education and the arts, which he seems highly motivated to do (if only his master would let him...).

I think with intensive therapy, the right cocktail of medications, and a lot of soul-healing (perhaps with the Order of Love and Light?), Zov would come out relatively okay. He would definitely be haunted by some powerful demons, and he would struggle a lot in life, but he wouldn't be a total lost cause. I'm not optimistic he could ever have a functional romantic relationship or raise children, but he might be able to hold a friendship or two. He is able to respect his master and refuses to attack him, which shows that he's not totally out of control of his actions.

I don't personally see him as a "villain" or an evil character, because he takes no joy in the terrible things he does. He just doesn't know anything different. His future was doomed the moment those slavers got a hold of him, and they molded him into something monstrous; something far removed from what he could have been under better circumstances.

He's the type of character who makes you say "oh god there is no hope, just burn it with fire" at first, in a similar vein as characters like Dario or Goryx. However, there is a pretty big factor that separates those villains from Zov, and it's the fact that Zov doesn't want to be evil.

He is evil only out of ignorance, not greed or true malice. Dario and Goryx made themselves into monsters, but Zov was twisted into one by someone else. I don't think his soul is truly monstrous. If he was removed from his horrible environment, he would behave much differently.

Meanwhile you can put Dario or Goryx in any type of environment and they will still act like degenerate bastards, because their evil comes not from circumstance, but from within their rotten selves.

Anyway thank you for coming to my TED Talk

(This is of course just my personal opinion. I think there are actually many different ways to interpret this character and they are all valid!)

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Lore Masterpost

That's a really good question! I think there are multiple explanations for this.

(Green) elves have a natural connection with beasts. They can sense when an animal is nearby even if they can't see it, and they can understand what an animal is thinking and feeling.

Werewolves are beasts, but lycanthropes are something else--something between man and beast. They are often described as "a beast wearing a man-suit". In a sense, lycanthropes are like intelligent beasts who can operate as people.

Theoretically, the elven Dusks should have been able to sense the beast in Evan. Why didn't they?

Let's talk about vampirism for a second. It changes elves by dulling their natural abilities and replacing them with new ones. This effect becomes stronger the longer they live with vampirism. For example, their naturally sharp vision dulls in daylight but becomes stronger at night. Their natural connection to animals becomes dulled, but their connection to the moon becomes stronger.

Knowing all this, here's some explanations for your question...

Explanation 1: All of the Dusks (except Lilian) have been vampires for a very long time. I think they all lost their connection to nature ages ago. Lilian still may have had this connection, but she was so sheltered and uneducated, I doubt she even knew what lycanthropy was, so she wasn't able to identify it in Evan.

Explanation 2: It's mentioned in "Ghoul Beneath the Guise" that the Dusks didn't prey on big, strong people. They specifically hunted smaller, weaker individuals for their own safety. Lycanthropy turns people into huge, muscle-bound tanks...in other words, not the type of people the Dusks would have close contact with, so they had very little--if any--experience with lycanthropes and kind of forgot they existed.

The Dusks didn't go out looking for Evan. They only imprisoned him because he came to them and practically threw himself onto their plates. The possibility of lycanthropy didn't cross their minds because as mentioned above, that disease had become out of sight, out of mind for them; probably for centuries.

Explanation 3: The Dusks already had their hands full when Evan showed up. They were trying to recruit Zeffer and prepare for his wedding with Lilian. Weddings are a huge deal to vampires because it's one of the few ways they can expand their clan size, and adding a new member to the clan is not something they take lightly.

This event was an especially big deal to Dario, considering how he felt about Lilian. Evan was the last thing on his mind; just another bloodbag to be thrown in the dungeon and forgotten about.

Explanation 4: Dimitri was a bad dungeon-tender. Dimitri was Dario's "nephew" and put in charge of keeping the Dusk's prisoners alive. As we saw in "Ghoul Beneath the Guise", the guy was a total sadist who enjoyed hurting and killing the prisoners, even though this got him in trouble with the clan. The more the prisoners suffered, the more Dimitri thrived.

Dimitri had a lot of responsibilities, and one of them was reporting sick, dead, or unsuitable prisoners to Dario. Dimitri should have noticed something was up with Evan's blood, and maybe he actually did...but in "Ghoul Beneath the Guise", we learn that Dimitri is terrified of Dario and tries to cover up problems whenever he can. Because whenever he reports a problem, even if it's not his fault, Dario gets angry and beats him.

It's possible that Dimitri did notice the tainted lycanthrope blood and either didn't report it, or just denied it to himself because psychologically he couldn't deal with it.

In conclusion, there was a perfect storm of factors that led to Evan's disease going undetected. And what's funny is that all of them were actually Dario's fault if you think about it...

Dario was the clan master, his job was to oversee the whole clan and its culture. He refused to educate Lilian, he chose who his clan preyed upon, he was too preoccupied with Lilian's wedding because of his own bad deeds against her, and he kept punishing Dimitri just for doing his job.

Evan's lycanthropy wasn't to blame for the Dusk's downfall. Ultimately Dario was to blame. The incompetent way he managed his clan finally came to a head and bit them all in the ass. Evan's disease was just a random spark that lit the fuse Dario left trailing behind them.

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That post was mostly a joke, but there is some truth in it.

Dario was officially banished from his homeland of Barha for being a vampire (not only that, but contracting vampirism on purpose, which is considered extremely taboo.)

But truthfully, he was skating on thin ice well before that. I imagine he had behavior issues from a young age. Classic "future psychopath" stuff like killing animals for fun, hurting other kids, starting fires, crap like that. Dude seemed to have a screw loose from day 1.

HIs siblings were no angels themselves--they were wealthy young guys with fuck-you-money to throw around and bribe their way out of trouble. But Dario took this to a whole new level, engaging in some truly sick and depraved shit that even his brothers were shaking their heads at.

We're talking about things like serial rapes, kidnappings, arson, assault, major theft, and so on...Dario's family understood that accidents happen, and maybe his brothers accidentally killed a person or two during their drunken adventures, but it was nothing a little bribery couldn't sweep under the rug.

But with Dario...these incidents were clearly no accident. He just kept doing heinous, inexcusable shit over and over, never growing as a person. His brothers eventually learned some empathy and grew out of their wild phases, but Dario did not. All he ever learned was how to commit more crimes even more efficiently. He was drawing negative attention to the family and embarrassing all of his relatives, making his people question their leadership, etc etc...

Contracting vampirism was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Dario's oldest brother--the King of Barha--had the patience of a saint and was willing to keep digging him out of trouble up until then. It was that moment his brother realized Dario really didn't care, he had zero intention of being a better person, and trying to help him was utterly pointless.

So, he handed Dario a suitcase full of cash and told him, "If you want to act like a degenerate, do it somewhere else. We're all tired of your shit. I don't care where you go, but don't come back here. I'm only giving you this money to clear my conscience. Spend it wisely because it's the last favor you'll ever get from me."

Dario took that money up north to the lawless city of Taybiya, where he used it to build a cult around himself, and the rest is history. He finally learned how to keep his degenerate behavior on the downlow, but it was too little, too late. He would never return to Barha again.

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