#Attribute Based Access Control

[lrgcarter]

I have designed a new Pride Flag.

I believe it fills a gap in the span of flag coverage. I might be wrong, feel free to ignore if so.

This is the What Are You, A Cop? flag.

Do you want to know more?

Who is it for?

This flag represents any aspect of identity that you contain but don't want to actively broadcast, be it sexuality, gender, absence of either, disability, ethnicity, race, or anything else that I'll inevitably remember I wanted to mention the moment I hit post.

When I say you don't want to actively broadcast it, I don't mean you're keeping it secret. I mean you're just not bringing it up in conversation. And if people want to ask, it's up to you whether you tell them.

The flag encompasses people who have always been who they are, and have therefore never had a "coming out" moment and don't want to have one now.

The flag encompasses people who are happy talking about themselves to those they trust, but think everyone else should mind their own business.

The flag encompasses people who are questioning their identity and don't feel the need to show their workings so far.

The flag encompasses people who think surveys and the state don't need to know these aspects of you identity and should just regard you simply as human.

The flag encompasses people regardless of their reasons for identity privacy.

The flag does NOT encompass secret bigotries, but I imagine if they heard about it bigots would try to co-opt it. Meh, I don't believe this post will gain any traction so I don't need to worry about that.

What Does It Represent?

The design is inspired by this image from the Information Security Wikipedia page.

Central Circle - Existence of Self

The central circle represents yourself and your own identity information.

It stands as a statement that you exist.

Triangle Points - Who has Knowledge of Self

The three points of the triangle represent who has/has not got access to knowledge of your self.

One triangle for those allowed access.

One triangle for those forbidden access.

One triangle for yourself, representing your own journey of self discovery.

Rings - Controlling Access to Self

The rings represent your right to control who knows about your self.

The inner yellow ring represents your right to control knowledge of your physical being.

The black ring represents your right to control knowledge of your mental/psychological being.

The outer yellow ring represents your control knowledge of how your collected physical and mental self interacts with external systems/environments. (eg, whether an environment casts you as disabled.)

Black Field

The square of black in the background represents how designs need to sit on an appropriately shaped 'base' if they are to function as a flag.

Style Guide

The flag uses just two colours because that makes them easier to get hold of.

The colours of yellow and black were chosen because if you can get hold of any fabric or paint, these will commonly be among your options.

Also, these colours mean Back Off in nature.

The design is shoddily constructed. The edges of the circles are messy. The width of the rings is uneven. The black circle fits awkwardly on the yellow triangle.

This is because not everyone has the time, energy, skill, or other resources to make a flag that looks good. Make it all neat and smart if you like, but you don't have to.

You could even just draw it in lines; circle, triangle, two more circles.

Draw it how you like, I'm not a cop.

Though, the symbol as depicted was intentionally drawn so as to suggest a cop had shot a bullet through a triangle. You know what sort of triangle. Fuck the police.

Licensing Information

What Are You, A Cop? Pride Flag by lrgcarter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The antitrust case against Apple

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and beyond!

The foundational tenet of "the Cult of Mac" is that buying products from a $3t company makes you a member of an oppressed ethnic minority and therefore every criticism of that corporation is an ethnic slur:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

Call it "Apple exceptionalism" – the idea that Apple, alone among the Big Tech firms, is virtuous, and therefore its conduct should be interpreted through that lens of virtue. The wellspring of this virtue is conveniently nebulous, which allows for endless goal-post shifting by members of the Cult of Mac when Apple's sins are made manifest.

Take the claim that Apple is "privacy respecting," which is attributed to Apple's business model of financing its services though cash transactions, rather than by selling it customers to advertisers. This is the (widely misunderstood) crux of the "surveillance capitalism" hypothesis: that capitalism is just fine, but once surveillance is in the mix, capitalism fails.

Apple, then, is said to be a virtuous company because its behavior is disciplined by market forces, unlike its spying rivals, whose ability to "hack our dopamine loops" immobilizes the market's invisible hand with "behavior-shaping" shackles:

http://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism

Apple makes a big deal out of its privacy-respecting ethos, and not without some justification. After all, Apple went to the mattresses to fight the FBI when they tried to force Apple to introduced defects into its encryption systems:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/04/fbi-could-have-gotten-san-bernardino-shooters-iphone-leadership-didnt-say

And Apple gave Ios users the power to opt out of Facebook spying with a single click; 96% of its customers took them up on this offer, costing Facebook $10b (one fifth of the pricetag of the metaverse boondoggle!) in a single year (you love to see it):

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/facebook-makes-the-case-for-activity-tracking-to-ios-14-users-in-new-pop-ups/

Bruce Schneier has a name for this practice: "feudal security." That's when you cede control over your device to a Big Tech warlord whose "walled garden" becomes a fortress that defends you against external threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leona-helmsley-was-a-pioneer/#manorialism

The keyword here is external threats. When Apple itself threatens your privacy, the fortress becomes a prison. The fact that you can't install unapproved apps on your Ios device means that when Apple decides to harm you, you have nowhere to turn. The first Apple customers to discover this were in China. When the Chinese government ordered Apple to remove all working privacy tools from its App Store, the company obliged, rather than risk losing access to its ultra-cheap manufacturing base (Tim Cook's signal accomplishment, the one that vaulted him into the CEO's seat, was figuring out how to offshore Apple manufacturing to China) and hundreds of millions of middle-class consumers:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-apple-vpn/apple-says-it-is-removing-vpn-services-from-china-app-store-idUSKBN1AE0BQ

Killing VPNs and other privacy tools was just for openers. After Apple caved to Beijing, the demands kept coming. Next, Apple willingly backdoored all its Chinese cloud services, so that the Chinese state could plunder its customers' data at will:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html

This was the completely foreseeable consequence of Apple's "curated computing" model: once the company arrogated to itself the power to decide which software you could run on your own computer, it was inevitable that powerful actors – like the Chinese Communist Party – would lean on Apple to exercise that power in service to its goals.

Unsurprisingly, the Chinese state's appetite for deputizing Apple to help with its spying and oppression was not sated by backdooring iCloud and kicking VPNs out of the App Store. As recently as 2022, Apple continued to neuter its tools at the behest of the Chinese state, breaking Airdrop to make it useless for organizing protests in China:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/11/foreseeable-consequences/#airdropped

But the threat of Apple turning on its customers isn't limited to China. While the company has been unwilling to spy on its users on behalf of the US government, it's proven more than willing to compromise its worldwide users' privacy to pad its own profits. Remember when Apple let its users opt out of Facebook surveillance with one click? At the very same time, Apple was spinning up its own commercial surveillance program, spying on Ios customers, gathering the very same data as Facebook, and for the very same purpose: to target ads. When it came to its own surveillance, Apple completely ignored its customers' explicit refusal to consent to spying, spied on them anyway, and lied about it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Here's the thing: even if you believe that Apple has a "corporate personality" that makes it want to do the right thing, that desire to be virtuous is dependent on the constraints Apple faces. The fact that Apple has complete legal and technical control over the hardware it sells – the power to decide who can make software that runs on that hardware, the power to decide who can fix that hardware, the power to decide who can sell parts for that hardware – represents an irresistible temptation to enshittify Apple products.

"Constraints" are the crux of the enshittification hypothesis. The contagion that spread enshittification to every corner of our technological world isn't a newfound sadism or indifference among tech bosses. Those bosses are the same people they've always been – the difference is that today, they are unconstrained.

Having bought, merged or formed a cartel with all their rivals, they don't fear competition (Apple buys 90+ companies per year, and Google pays it an annual $26.3b bribe for default search on its operating systems and programs).

Having captured their regulators, they don't fear fines or other penalties for cheating their customers, workers or suppliers (Apple led the coalition that defeated dozens of Right to Repair bills, year after year, in the late 2010s).

Having wrapped themselves in IP law, they don't fear rivals who make alternative clients, mods, privacy tools or other "adversarial interoperability" tools that disenshittify their products (Apple uses the DMCA, trademark, and other exotic rules to block third-party software, repair, and clients).

True virtue rests not merely in resisting temptation to be wicked, but in recognizing your own weakness and avoiding temptation. As I wrote when Apple embarked on its "curated computing" path, the company would eventually – inevitably – use its power to veto its customers' choices to harm those customers:

https://memex.craphound.com/2010/04/01/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either/

Which is where we're at today. Apple – uniquely among electronics companies – shreds every device that is traded in by its customers, to block third parties from harvesting working components and using them for independent repair:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks

Apple engraves microscopic Apple logos on those parts and uses these as the basis for trademark complaints to US customs, to block the re-importation of parts that escape its shredders:

https://repair.eu/news/apple-uses-trademark-law-to-strengthen-its-monopoly-on-repair/

Apple entered into an illegal price-fixing conspiracy with Amazon to prevent used and refurbished devices from being sold in the "world's biggest marketplace":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/10/you-had-one-job/#thats-just-the-as

Why is Apple so opposed to independent repair? Well, they say it's to keep users safe from unscrupulous or incompetent repair technicians (feudal security). But when Tim Cook speaks to his investors, he tells a different story, warning them that the company's profits are threatened by customers who choose to repair (rather than replace) their slippery, fragile glass $1,000 pocket computers (the fortress becomes a prison):

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/01/letter-from-tim-cook-to-apple-investors/

All this adds up to a growing mountain of immortal e-waste, festooned with miniature Apple logos, that our descendants will be dealing with for the next 1,000 years. In the face of this unspeakable crime, Apple engaged in a string of dishonest maneuvers, claiming that it would support independent repair. In 2022, Apple announced a home repair program that turned out to be a laughably absurd con:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/22/apples-cement-overshoes/

Then in 2023, Apple announced a fresh "pro-repair" initiative that, once again, actually blocked repair:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

Let's pause here a moment and remember that Apple once stood for independent repair, and celebrated the independent repair technicians that kept its customers' beloved Macs running:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/29/norwegian-potato-flour-enchiladas/#r2r

Whatever virtue lurks in Apple's corporate personhood, it is no match for the temptation that comes from running a locked-down platform designed to capture IP rights so that it can prevent normal competitive activities, like fixing phones, processing payments, or offering apps.

When Apple rolled out the App Store, Steve Jobs promised that it would save journalism and other forms of "content creation" by finally giving users a way to pay rightsholders. A decade later, that promise has been shattered by the app tax – a 30% rake on every in-app transaction that can't be avoided because Apple will kick your app out of the App Store if you even mention that your customers can pay you via the web in order to avoid giving a third of their content dollars to a hardware manufacturer that contributed nothing to the production of that material:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-must-open-app-stores

Among the apps that Apple also refuses to allow on Ios is third-party browsers. Every Iphone browser is just a reskinned version of Apple's Safari, running on the same antiquated, insecure Webkit browser engine. The fact that Webkit is incomplete and outdated is a feature, not a bug, because it lets Apple block web apps – apps delivered via browsers, rather than app stores:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/13/kitbashed/#app-store-tax

Last month, the EU took aim at Apple's veto over its users' and software vendors' ability to transact with one another. The newly in-effect Digital Markets Act requires Apple to open up both third-party payment processing and third-party app stores. Apple's response to this is the very definition of malicious compliance, a snake's nest of junk-fees, onerous terms of service, and petty punitive measures that all add up to a great, big "Go fuck yourself":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/06/spoil-the-bunch/#dma

But Apple's bullying, privacy invasion, price-gouging and environmental crimes are global, and the EU isn't the only government seeking to end them. They're in the firing line in Japan:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Japan-to-crack-down-on-Apple-and-Google-app-store-monopolies

And in the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-wins-appeal-in-apple-case

And now, famously, the US Department of Justice is coming for Apple, with a bold antitrust complaint that strikes at the heart of Apple exceptionalism, the idea that monopoly is safer for users than technological self-determination:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1344546/dl?inline

There's passages in the complaint that read like I wrote them:

Apple wraps itself in a cloak of privacy, security, and consumer preferences to justify its anticompetitive conduct. Indeed, it spends billions on marketing and branding to promote the self-serving premise that only Apple can safeguard consumers’ privacy and security interests. Apple selectively compromises privacy and security interests when doing so is in Apple’s own financial interest—such as degrading the security of text messages, offering governments and certain companies the chance to access more private and secure versions of app stores, or accepting billions of dollars each year for choosing Google as its default search engine when more private options are available. In the end, Apple deploys privacy and security justifications as an elastic shield that can stretch or contract to serve Apple’s financial and business interests.

After all, Apple punishes its customers for communicating with Android users by forcing them to do so without any encryption. When Beeper Mini rolled out an Imessage-compatible Android app that fixed this, giving Iphone owners the privacy Apple says they deserve but denies to them, Apple destroyed Beeper Mini:

https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-moving-forward

Tim Cook is on record about this: if you want to securely communicate with an Android user, you must "buy them an Iphone":

https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/7/23342243/tim-cook-apple-rcs-imessage-android-iphone-compatibility

If your friend, family member or customer declines to change mobile operating systems, Tim Cook insists that you must communicate without any privacy or security.

Even where Apple tries for security, it sometimes fails ("security is a process, not a product" -B. Schneier). To be secure in a benevolent dictatorship, it must also be an infallible dictatorship. Apple's far from infallible: Eight generations of Iphones have unpatchable hardware defects:

https://checkm8.info/

And Apple's latest custom chips have secret-leaking, unpatchable vulnerabilities:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/hackers-can-extract-secret-encryption-keys-from-apples-mac-chips/

Apple's far from infallible – but they're also far from benevolent. Despite Apple's claims, its hardware, operating system and apps are riddled with deliberate privacy defects, introduce to protect Apple's shareholders at the expense of its customers:

https://proton.me/blog/iphone-privacy

Now, antitrust suits are notoriously hard to make, especially after 40 years of bad-precedent-setting, monopoly-friendly antitrust malpractice. Much of the time, these suits fail because they can't prove that tech bosses intentionally built their monopolies. However, tech is a written culture, one that leaves abundant, indelible records of corporate deliberations. What's more, tech bosses are notoriously prone to bragging about their nefarious intentions, committing them to writing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Apple is no exception – there's an abundance of written records that establish that Apple deliberately, illegally set out to create and maintain a monopoly:

https://www.wired.com/story/4-internal-apple-emails-helped-doj-build-antitrust-case/

Apple claims that its monopoly is beneficent, used to protect its users, making its products more "elegant" and safe. But when Apple's interests conflict with its customers' safety and privacy – and pocketbooks – Apple always puts itself first, just like every other corporation. In other words: Apple is unexceptional.

The Cult of Mac denies this. They say that no one wants to use a third-party app store, no one wants third-party payments, no one wants third-party repair. This is obviously wrong and trivially disproved: if no Apple customer wanted these things, Apple wouldn't have to go to enormous lengths to prevent them. The only phones that an independent Iphone repair shop fixes are Iphones: which means Iphone owners want independent repair.

The rejoinder from the Cult of Mac is that those Iphone owners shouldn't own Iphones: if they wanted to exercise property rights over their phones, they shouldn't have bought a phone from Apple. This is the "No True Scotsman" fallacy for distraction-rectangles, and moreover, it's impossible to square with Tim Cook's insistence that if you want private communications, you must buy an Iphone.

Apple is unexceptional. It's just another Big Tech monopolist. Rounded corners don't preserve virtue any better than square ones. Any company that is freed from constraints – of competition, regulation and interoperability – will always enshittify. Apple – being unexceptional – is no exception.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/22/reality-distortion-field/#three-trillion-here-three-trillion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

[rametarin]

Here's a radical, capitalistic idea.

Lets pay children themselves to learn. Suddenly there's an incentive to meet certain goals. Every test they turn back correct, they're paid based on their ability to succeed.

Sign your name at the top? Get paid for that. Show your work? Get paid for that. Orthodox method of determining the solution? Get paid for that. Correct answer? Get paid for that.

And while we're at it, make the school websites accessible by their school laptops 24/7 and allow them to access their textbooks remotely, so they always have access to them. Now there's no excuse whatsoever for not having enough school textbooks for everybody to use, because the school copy is digital and can be copied once by everyone with a school laptop.

Make class time livestreamed, so students can review days they missed that school year. Even watch them at two times speed, so they can just devour through entire weeks in the span of hours and get the full benefit of listening in during class time.

Make automated computer tests that allow students to take them an infinite number of times, and the school accepts only the highest graded answer as the proof in the pudding of acquired knowledge.

You now create incentive for them to be there, and low wage has to compete with the benefits of a "day job" that is being a young student.

Create clear benchmarks and milestones and don't obfuscate the year's classwork just to make sure they spend the whole school year eating the same deviled egg and spinning their wheels with busy work, just to make the public school teachers seem like they're required to entertain children the entire year. That's time gating them and more or less holding them, and their lives, hostage. Let students choose to really slam the schedule of prepared subject matter and bypass the tyranny of only going at the pace of the teacher's lessons.

Create some sort of digital sit-in system to allow young people to watch college level courses without actually being in the classroom.

We don't have an education system. We have a system of people that legally mandate your children MUST be in attendance or else you are in violation of the law, they MUST be paid by the state to keep them there where they can have eyes kept on them, a system MUST be made that makes them provide meals for young people despite their negligent parents' ability to pay for them to eat.

That isn't an education system. It's a violent monopoly that forcefully redistributes public funds, gives the state control and custody over minors during the day, and just privileges certain people in the system. It's not about education of children, at all. It's about monopoly.

An education system should exist to allow an individual to develop at the pace that is correct for them, and only the individual can tell them that. Education at the speed of whatever's convenient for a teacher's union and ideologues in the bureaucracy is not justice nor is it a proper way to create a knowledgeable and intelligent society.

A school can take credit for the education of that child, if that child utilizes the school resources to advance their development. The system we have, it's no different from some sort of patriarchy that the progressives are always yammering about, where the academic success is arbitrarily attributed to how good the dad is at being a dad if they do good, but it's the student's fault if they fuck up.

Our public school system is designed to be incredibly inefficient not for the sake of young people, but for the sake of the system's monopoly over their lives for a window of time. It's not about education, it's about power and control. Legally putting the state on the hook to put them in seats for X-hours a day for Y number of days a year, no matter the outcomes, deliberately fostering weakness.

And here's a great big scary idea: Make it possible to graduate early, and for them to not be beholden to the school anymore.

Do you understand how hard I would've tried if I knew I could just get ages 6 to 18 over and done with and not just have another day of drudgery to look forwards to!? Another ten papers of busywork that offered opportunities to fail and permanently marr my record that I couldn't ever get back or retake? Another test that could tank my academic records and force me to take the whole year over again?

Our education system is ass backwards and horrible and I fucking hate it. It isn't designed to empower and educate people, it's designed to justify a too-big-to-fail system that argues it deserves power over other peoples' children as state property X-hours of the day, and opens them up to vectors of manipulation and exploitation and violence that we just tolerate because we're NOT ALLOWED to be intolerant towards the system's vulnerabilities and exploits.

[cannoli-reader]

The White Tower's Strength Hierarchy is not a Problem

I know, it seems like a hot take that has to be a shitpost. The idea of a person being in charge based solely on a physical attribute beyond their control makes monarchy look like a good idea. But I don't think it's actually what the system is, or the intent behind the strength hierarchy.

Basically, most of us completely miss the point of the Aes Sedai and the White Tower. We keep seeing them as an institution of a particular type, like a military or a government or a religion. But it's not. It's a union. Its purpose is to facilitate channelers, like a union's job is to advocate for, and protect, workers. And the part of a worker's life and attention dedicated to his union, or even his job, is only a part of what makes him who he is. Yeah, it influences a lot, like his status in life, where he lives, who his friends are, and so on, but at the end of the day, you work to live, and no matter how staunch your membership in the Local #whatever, you're going to be more worried about getting your work done and going home to your family, your interests and your hobbies.

The Aes Sedai are not soldiers in an army, or bureaucrats in a government, or clergy in a religion. They are not even soldiers, security forces, scholars, philosophers, doctors, diplomates and activists, depending on their Ajah. They are heroes. Protagonists, each of an adventure story. Each one is a powerful person who has an agenda they want to see done for their own advantage or the benefit of others, or just because they want to. The Tower and their Ajahs are just things they sign up for to get that done. Yes, the Tower engages in geopolitical shenanigans, but that has as much to do with what each sister does, day-to-day, as a country's foreign policy does to everyone who is not abroad, near the border or on the internet at the moment.

Basically, every given sister's job at any given time is what she thinks it is. Some of them need or want to be told what to do, so they pick "serve the Tower" and hang around to be given assignments. Others lock the door to their study and yell their cultural equivalent of "fuck off" when someone tries to assign them duties, or just head out into the world to do what they want. And that's cool with the Tower, however annoying a particular Tower authority figure or faction thereof might find it at the time. Because that is what the Tower is for, to make it possible for them to do that stuff. That is the essence of empowerment, and that is the Tower's purpose. They train you to channel, give you an excellent education, train you how to push around deal with people, pound into your head the importance of making a good impression and set you up with unlimited funds, and sit back to see what you do with it.

The problem is, people are going to people, and eventually, each sister will realize that the biggest obstacles to doing what she wants are her fellow sisters. The point of the White Tower is to govern those inevitable clashes, and sort things out, not to achieve some platonic ideal solution, but to minimize the drama and not let the world take advantage of the conflict or distraction. If Aes Sedai are too busy butting heads with one another, some damn fool male might start improving international cooperation and establishing schools that gather a critical mass of scholars and technicians to jump-start a technological revolution might screw everything up.

But that means, there needs to be a rule for who wins, and who gets her way. From the Tower's perspective, it does not matter who wins, so long as there is no fighting over it. The Tower is basically a parent, and every single woman with a Great Serpent ring (or, honestly, the ability to touch saidar), including the Amyrlin, are the kids. As a great comedian whom we should probably be grateful never had access to actual forkroot would say, "Parents don't care about justice, they just want peace and quiet."

From that perspective, the strength hierarchy is an excellent rule. There is no way to game the system, you can't legislate to change it. And like Tic-tac-toe (and Global Thermonuclear War) the only way to win is not to play. Don't like the idea of a woman giving you orders just because she was born with higher innate strength than you? Don't get involved with her! That's all there is to it.

And we see there are many, many ways to get around the strength hierarchy. All you really need is to not require every single person on the planet to give way to you. The Hall and Amyrlin had an plan for Moiraine's career and the authority to make it happen. That's why Moiraine begins the series on the Sun Throne. Oh, wait. No. How did that happen?

Because she is an Aes Sedai with all the power and resources her White Tower training gave her, and the self-awareness to say "Nope," and skip out to do what she wanted/thought was more important. She ran into Cadsuane, too, who also had ideas about what she should do. Didn't take, either.

The main place in the story where it seems like the strength hierarchy messes things up is with the rebel embassy to Rand in Caemlyn, where Kiruna and Bera march in and take over the embassy and head off to comeuppance at Dumai's Wells. You know whose fault that was? Not the woman who first proposed strength as a criterion for situational authority, but Merana. Because she let their strength, or Verin's experience before that, matter. And that was mostly because Merana didn't really believe in what she was doing. She knows her authority does not really come from the White Tower, only a pack of cranks in a village. She is there to serve the agenda of the Salidar rebel movement, and deep down inside, she knows they are there as supplicants to Rand, trying to get him on Team Salidar. She is not there trying to save the world through negotiations, she is just working for a petty factional grudge. So on one level, she knows she has no right to assert her Hall-granted authority, and on another level, she isn't certain that Verin or Kiruna & Bera don't have a better idea of what the best interests of Salidar actually are.

Another major loophole we see in the strength system is cooperation between sisters. Delana, when she is thinking solely as a conventional sister, before she is refocused on her Black duties, notes how Siuan once protected her in their friendship and now she has to be the one protecting her. It's not Delana mistaking their respective strengths for competence to protect one another, it's Delana acknowledging the strength system, and meaning that where Siuan once prevented women between her & Delana in strength from bossing around her Gray friend, now Delana is going to be protecting Siuan from being bossed around by women weaker than Delana. We see this in action with Cadsuane and Daigian & Kumira. Cadsuane respects their mental abilities and judgment, and from their perspective, what more do they need? Rather than claw their up through a meritocracy and securing their position based on some esoteric algorithm weighing the value of their specialties, or pushing their ideas through a review and assessment procedure, all they have to do is convince Cadsuane. And then Cadsuane will see to the implementation of their ideas, or prevent other sisters from interfering with them on the basis of strength.

For a more equitable version of such an arrangement, we have the relationship between Nynaeve & Elayne. There are no two Aes Sedai with a PoV in the series with as much respect and trust for one another as these two have. And we see a few interesting examples of how they work with the strength dynamic in WH.

The first is when the issue of the damane captives who want to have the leash removed is broached to them. Elayne has an opinion on the matter, but she lets Nynaeve make the call because she is the strongest women around. But Elayne is willing to stare down Birgitte, a hero of the Horn, over the civil rights of a man they are certain is a murderer. Is she really going to let Nynaeve keep damane enslaved? Nope. She is letting Nynaeve make the call, letting the system stand, because of her absolute trust that Nynaeve will make the right call. She has been working closely with Nynaeve for over a year now, and most importantly, she saw how Nynaeve handled a related situation in the disposition of the two sul'dam they had captured. If ANYone was going to know that Nynaeve was going to get it right, it would be Elayne. And no, Lan is not telling her what to do, he is speaking to the world at large, he is offering his own opinions based on being in a very similar position, and that's why his own congratulations of Nynaeve for her decision affects her so much. And I think the Kinswomen were feeling her out with the question, because they are worried about ending up in a similar position as the damane, vis a vis the Aes Sedai. Their own agreement with, and pleasure over, Nynaeve's choice speaks to their feelings on discovering that the White Tower (embodied in that moment by Nynaeve) has the right values, and they can trust it to take them in again, without abuse. So what is the point regarding the strength hierarchy, if everyone involved was in agreement on this issue? By referencing the hierarchy, they are not just a bunch of women who happen to have the same opinion, they have made policy, by following institutional procedure, and that gives their agreed-upon course of action weight and it strengthens the connection between sisters, Kin and ex-damane.

The next example is when, after Elayne's near-assassination incident, Nynaeve starts lecturing her and Elayne tells her that she does not want to disobey her, so don't try to use her authority. She's not dismissing Nynaeve's authority, she is respecting it, but also saying that she thinks this is more important. And Nynaeve realizes this, and does not flex on her. Because with reasonable people, self-evident situations like this weigh more that artificially imposed definitions.

And finally, in their last shared moments on-page in Jordan's lifetime, Elayne realizes that Nynaeve is up to shenanigans, noting that it has to be something really out of whack if she's hiding her plans, instead of flexing her strength position. Which incidentally speaks to Elayne's trust that Nynaeve would not abuse her authority, and also the point that she does trust Nynaeve, regardless of how crazy her current scheme is. Or at least, she has a guy to bond and bone and so she'll let Nynaeve do what she thinks she needs to do. Later on, when Rand indicates he sees through her own façade, and knows she has something she is trying to hide from Nynaeve, if not the bond-and-bone specifics, Elayne has a moment of chagrin, because if this guy whose experience of her is basically three days of dating saw through her subterfuge, her partner in crime comrade in arms of far longer standing should have, too. And the answer to why Nynaeve did not interfere is the same as why Elayne picked bond-and-bone over solving Nynaeve's thing: they trust each other.

If you have trust, you don't need to worry about who is ranked higher, and the system cannot stop you from ignoring it and building that trust with other people. And by being so clearly unfair and onerous the system is all but demanding that you reach out to your sisters, and build trust between yourselves, so that you don't have to be constrained by the idiocy of who was born with greater strength in the Power.

And if you can't build trust, stay out of one another's way. Either way, it keeps the White Tower from falling apart and Aes Sedai from internecine conflict.

In the end, it was not the strength system that failed the White Tower, but the formal hierarchy, with its elected leadership and ostensible selection of authority positions by merit, of which the Blue leadership boasts in New Spring.

And for all that the Wise Ones are hailed as a better system using superior criteria (though my own issue with that one is 'who decides who fits those criteria best?' and we see through Perrin's eyes on the conflict between Amys & Sorilea in LoC, it's not always so simple), as an institution, the Wise Ones lied to their people for 3,000 years, made them vulnerable to Couladin's pandering demagoguery, and failed to contain Sevanna's lateral thinking. When it comes to practical results, the Wise Ones are not noticeably more successful than the Tower.

[rhymeswithchronic]

I’ve seen a little bit of speculation about how Evbo’s abilities as Parkour God would translate to PvP Civ in relation to Vengeance for the Lamb, and I’m not sure how much I’d be able to actually state in story, so enjoy a little bit of personal thought dump!

First, I like the idea that people from Parkour Civ are immune to PvP damage and vice versa. This definitely means Evbo is quite overpowered in a place where Parkour isn’t really practiced, and the same goes for Boey (PVP Evbo) who can’t be hurt by Parkour. Unlike Boey who actually has been shown to not be terrible at Parkour, Evbo has no experience in physical combat. He can definitely take hits but he sucks at giving them back. He can grab shit really hard and that’s scary when he could break your weapon, but he ain’t gonna be able to outfight anyone in sword to sword combat

His abilities are kind of funky. He retains any personal abilities given to him by his divinity, but he lacks the connection to the world that he has in Parkour Civ, where he could feasibly do whatever he wants whenever he wants by editing the source code. That isn’t available to him in PvP Civ. He’s A god, not THE god. He has no control over the wider world whatsoever. The closest thing he has is that he can revive people and set spawn points, but that’s because those are less intrinsically tied to the world and more tied to the actual players.

Physical attributes are still present. Physical strength, limited teleportation, brief moments of spectator and of course, tapping into his proper Godly form. (CookieGod had one too and I like to think it was based on a dragon. It would probably be a full dragon though rather than the still human like form Evbo has because the old god fully gave into his godhood whereas Evbo still clings to his humanity while only occasionally tapping into that ability)

The one thing that definitely marks him as divine is his ability to create and destroy matter/blocks. He can access the creative mode inventory, but he’s not coding anything like he could in Parkour Civ.

Evbo also could not survive indefinitely in PvP Civ. He no longer has to eat food to survive (though he certainly can and still feels hunger, he wouldn’t starve) he still requires energy to sustain himself. In Parkour Civilization, this energy comes from a few different sources: Devotion (which is typically consumed in offered food, with things like bread and cake that have to be homemade having more than food made with less care), worship (the active worshipping of the Parkour God) and the act of Parkour itself. He is Parkour after all

In PVP Civ, he receives none of these things except for the very faint scrap of the occasional parkour done during fights. While it’s something I’m probably not going to explore in Vengeance, it might be fun to do an AU of an AU exploring this aspect more. He’s fine for awhile, working off of the stored excess of energy gained from his home world, but eventually, cut off completely, he would start to starve again. This process would be quickened by things like overuse of his God Form, but no matter what, he would eventually run dry. At that point, he would essentially become mortal again until either he died or made it back to Parkour Civilization, in where he would be able to regain the lost energy.

He’s running on a Duracell battery right now essentially. Technically, someone could ‘feed’ him by doing Parkour and what would be hilarious to imagine

So! What I like to imagine basically is that he is powerful, but not ALL powerful like he is in Parkour Civ. Hope someone finds this interesting or just the image of someone furiously doing parkour to feed a hungry Evbo funny lmao

[stellarwhisper]

Astrological Alchemy: Revealing the Various Impacts on Identity and Appearance

Being a Gemini rising, it's critical to keep lines of communication open and flexible in your friendships and to remain flexible in your online buying practices. For a smooth transition into the workforce, maintain good relations with older siblings, take care of your work obligations, and foster pleasant contacts with your supervisors. Your abilities to be adaptable and communicate well will come in handy when handling these aspects of your life.

Rolling a set of unique dice bearing symbols for planets, aspects, and zodiac signs is the process of reading astrological dice. Based on conventional astrological interpretations, each roll yields a combination. This is a basic how-to:

1. Know the Dice: The twelve zodiac signs, planets, and aspects such as conjunction, sextile, square, trine, and opposition are usually represented by symbols on astrological dice.

2. Dice Rolling : Roll the dice, and record any symbols that come up face-up.

3. Interpretation: Use astrological concepts to interpret the combination of symbols. As an illustration:

Zodiac Signs: Indicate character attributes or impacted facets of life.

Planets: Showcase the forces or influences at work.

Aspects: Illustrate the connections between the planets, showing either harmony or tension.

4. Consider Context: Examine the reading's context as well as the relationships between the symbols. Take note of any recurring themes or trends.

5. Resources: For interpretations of certain combinations, consult astrology books or online resources.

6. Practice and Intuition: As with any divination tool, interpretation is greatly influenced by both of these factors. Have faith in your intuition and use experience to gradually hone your comprehension.

Keep in mind that astrological dice readings are a type of divination and that you should approach them with a fair amount of skepticism and an open mind.

Venus opposition Moon aspect in terms of relationships. This feature may make it difficult for partners to communicate and understand one another's love and care. Venus, a symbol of love and affection, might perceive walls or a sense of separation from the Moon, a symbol of feelings and care.

Venus can be dissatisfied when her expectations about how the Moon would show her love aren't fulfilled. But for the relationship to advance, Venus must acknowledge that everyone displays love in a distinctive way and that it is crucial to recognize and value the Moon's distinct manner of providing care.

However, by attempting to externalize their feelings and influence the dynamics of the relationship, the Moon also helps to close this distance. Venus is not the only one who must take care of the relationship; the Moon must also actively engage and express their emotions in order to establish a more harmonious bond

A Pluto-related dynamic in a synastry or composite chart, where the house placements of one individual interact with the Pluto of another. This feature frequently denotes a strong and passionate bond between the parties.

Pluto's influence can produce intense tension and attraction as well as a feeling of intimidation or terror, especially for the individual whose house it is affecting. Pluto's energy has the capacity to be profoundly psychologically transforming, which may result in a need for dominance or power struggles in relationships.

Pluto is influencing that person's home, so that person may feel like they are being used or manipulated by that person, particularly when it comes to their behavior or appearance. Pluto's influence, nevertheless, can also give individuals a sense of empowerment by enabling them to access their inner confidence and strength.

Honesty, open communication, and a readiness to confront power struggles or control concerns head-on are necessary for navigating this relationship. Both parties need to be prepared to face their own shadow selves and strive for a more harmonious and mutually empowering partnership. Navigating the nuances of Pluto's effect in relationships can also be aided by counseling or therapy.

In a synastry or composite chart, Pluto in another person's 9th House denotes a significant and transforming effect on the themes associated with the 9th House in that person's life. Higher education, philosophy, spirituality, travel, and beliefs are all connected to the 9th House.

The following are some possible dynamics:

1. Belief Transformation: The other person's views and worldview may undergo significant changes as a result of Pluto's visit. Their connections with you might lead to profound shifts in their philosophy or spirituality.

2. Power disputes in Matters of Faith or Philosophy: There could be disputes or power struggles pertaining to ideologies, philosophical stances, or beliefs. Through your discussions, the other person can feel pressured to question their preexisting worldview or face deeply held ideas.

3. intensive Learning and Growth: The 9th House themes might be associated with intensive learning opportunities and experiences brought forth by Pluto's influence. You might entice the other person to pursue serious intellectual or spiritual endeavors together.

4. Transformational Travel Experiences: The other person may undergo profoundly transformational travel experiences alongside you. They might come across intense encounters that alter their viewpoints and cause them to undergo substantial personal development.

5. Impact on Higher Education: Pluto's position in the other person's 9th House may have a profoundly transforming effect on their academic endeavors if they are seeking higher education. They might explore challenging or taboo themes, or they might experience significant shifts in their educational path.

All things considered, Pluto's position in the other person's 9th House suggests a profoundly influential and maybe revolutionary interpersonal dynamic, especially in the areas of spirituality, belief systems, education, and travel. For all parties concerned, this placement may result in significant personal development and evolution.

Sign of Aries! The first sign of the zodiac is recognized for its audacity, capacity for leadership, and spirit of innovation. People born in the sign of Aries are frequently gregarious, self-assured, and ready to try new things. They have an innate drive and competitive spirit, and they don't hesitate to throw themselves wholeheartedly into whatever they set their minds to. Their contagious zeal and excitement can encourage people around them to follow in their footsteps. Mars, the planet of anger and action, rules Aries, which feeds their impetuous and sometimes energetic personality. All things considered, Aries infuses any circumstance with a dash of energy and vitality.

The twelfth and last sign of the zodiac, Pisces, is characterized by empathy, intuition, and artistic ability. People born under this sign are frequently sensitive, empathic, and acutely aware of both their own and other people's feelings. Dreamers and visionaries, Pisceans have a strong spiritual connection and vivid imaginations.

The following are some essential characteristics of Pisces:

1. Empathetic and Compassionate: Pisceans prioritize the needs of others before their own, demonstrating a great sense of empathy and compassion. They provide support and understanding without passing judgment since they have a keen sense of the emotions of others around them.

2. Creative and Imaginative: Pisceans thrive in creative endeavors like music, art, writing, and dance because of their rich imagination and artistic flare. They are drawn to pursuits that let them communicate their deepest emotions and ideas.

3. Psychic and Intuitive: Pisceans are born with psychic sensitivity and intuition that help them navigate the ups and downs of life. They frequently possess a profound awareness of the invisible forces at work in the world and follow their intuition.

4. Adaptable and Flexible: Pisceans can easily adjust to changing conditions since they are flexible and go with the flow. They have faith that things will work out as they are supposed to and are not scared to relinquish control and go with the flow of life.

5. Idealistic and Romantic: Pisceans are hopeless romantics who cling to the idea that fairy tales can come true and that love can conquer all obstacles. They frequently look for deep relationships and soulful connections, and they have rose-colored glasses on.

6. Spiritually Inclined: Pisceans are drawn to mystical and esoteric matters and have a strong spiritual side. Yoga, meditation, and other spiritual disciplines that unite people with a higher force or the collective consciousness may provide them with comfort.

7. Sensitive and Vulnerable: Because of their increased susceptibility to emotions, Pisceans are more likely to experience mood swings and become quickly overwhelmed by life's harsh truths. They might withdraw into their own private realm as a defensive mechanism.

Overall, Pisces is a loving dreamer that adds depth and inspiration to the world around them because they embody the traits of empathy, creativity, and spirituality.

Instead than seeing your natal chart from the viewpoint of the Sun as in a regular natal chart, a persona chart lets you examine it from the perspective of a particular planet. You can learn more about how a specific planetary energy affects your personality, emotions, and life experiences by concentrating on that energy. Examples of these energies include the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto.

For instance, you could consult your Moon persona chart to examine your emotional terrain and innate responses. This chart would show you where the Moon is in your natal chart, together with its aspects and house placement, giving you information about your emotional requirements, nurturing temperament, and ingrained habits.

Similarly, you may look at your Mercury persona chart if you're curious in how you communicate and process information. Your Mercury placement, aspects, and house position would be shown on this chart, providing insight into your preferred methods of learning, manner of communication, and areas of intellectual interest.

From the perspective of a particular planet's energy, each persona chart provides a distinctive look at your astrological composition, enabling you to explore the subtleties of your personality and life path in greater detail.

That interpretation of Saturn's position in the 10th House is intriguing! In fact, Saturn in the 10th House frequently denotes an emphasis on ambition, a career, and authority people. While the conventional interpretation points to obstacles and setbacks in reaching professional success, your method presents a novel and empowering solution.

Those with Saturn in the 10th House can develop a sense of self-assurance and more easily draw opportunities and recognition by changing their perspective from one of struggle to one of faith and ease. those can overcome self-imposed obstacles and more successfully and efficiently accomplish their career goals if they think that everything is really simple and that those in positions of authority will appreciate their efforts.

This viewpoint is consistent with the idea of manifestation and the efficacy of positive thinking, according to which altering one's attitudes and beliefs can have an impact on the outside world. People with this placement can use the energy of Saturn in the 10th House to advance in their jobs and more easily accomplish their goals by developing an attitude of prosperity and success.

People with Neptune in the first house may look different from their parents or other close family members, with an airy and distinctive appearance. Boundaries can be blurred and an air of mystery or illusion around a person's identity and physical appearance while Neptune is in the 1st House.

Here are some possible ways that this placement could appear:

1. Unconventional Appearance: People with Neptune in the first house may have traits or qualities that, when compared to other members of their family, look unusual or unearthly. This could include distinguishing characteristics like their skin tone, hair, eyes, or facial features.

2. Difference in Appearance: As indicated, they might possess physical characteristics that set them apart from their parents or siblings. For example, a family of brunettes might inherit recessive characteristics like red hair and blue eyes. Their familial dynamic may make them feel "different" or stick out more as a result of this contrast in appearance.

3. Ambiguous Ethnicity: Neptune in the first house may give someone's look a sense of ambiguity or fluidity, making it challenging for others to identify their ethnicity or cultural heritage. They could frequently be mistaken for members of a different nation or ethnic group, which heightens the mystery surrounding their identity.

4. Chameleon-Like Quality: People in this placement might have an appearance that is similar to that of a chameleon, as though they can readily fit in or blend into many social or environmental contexts. Because of their versatility, it may be difficult for others to label or classify them just on the basis of looks.

All things considered, Neptune in the first house lends a feeling of magic and mystery to the person's physical presence, giving them a distinct and occasionally enigmatic look that makes them stand out from their relatives and friends.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin In The Morning:

In a groundbreaking development for the care of transgender youth in France, the French Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology has released what is being called the first French national medical consensus on trans youth care. The document’s release comes as a variety of other countries consider the politically-influenced guidelines from the Cass Review in the United Kingdom, which has since been heavily criticized and its recommendations rejected by multiple medical societies in other countries. Importantly, the new guidelines recommend transgender youth care, denounce a “wait-and-see” approach for transgender adolescents, and promote individualized care for every transgender patient.

The guidelines, described as both robust and extensive, were meticulously prepared. According to the document, one to three authors were assigned to each section, conducting comprehensive literature reviews. Their findings were then refined through multiple iterations, with input from the broader group until a consensus was achieved. Finally, the recommendations underwent review by external experts. The result is a thorough and authoritative set of guidelines aimed at providing clear direction for doctors caring for transgender youth in France. The guidelines encompass a wide range of care recommendations for transgender youth, offering official support for puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone therapy. Regarding puberty blockers, the guidelines emphasize their role in allowing transgender youth to explore their gender identity without the added distress of undergoing puberty, while also reducing the need for future surgeries. For hormone therapy, the recommendations advocate its use for transgender youth who meet the criteria outlined in the ICD-11, ensuring an individualized and evidence-based approach to care.

The recommendations strongly oppose the “wait-and-see” approach for transgender adolescents, often referred to as “gender exploratory therapy.” This practice, considered a form of conversion therapy, seeks to attribute a transgender person’s identity to external factors rather than recognizing it as authentic, delaying access to care—often until adulthood. The guidelines reject this method, stating it “does not reduce psychological distress” and instead “increases the risk of committing suicide and can affect psycho-affective and cognitive development.” These findings align with a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control showing that 25% of transgender youth in the United States have attempted suicide, alongside another study in Nature Human Behavior indicating that anti-trans laws, including healthcare bans, have caused up to a 72% increase in suicide attempts.

[...] These guidelines are poised to resonate both in France and globally. As countries and major medical associations increasingly distance themselves from the U.K.’s Cass Review—criticized for its connections to SPLC-designated hate groups—the scientific consensus continues to affirm the importance of gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Their release comes just one day before the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on healthcare bans targeting transgender youth across the United States. In a climate where medical care for trans youth is under relentless political attack, guidelines like these offer a beacon of evidence-based practice and will be instrumental in shaping a future where access to essential care is protected and secured for all.

Unlike much of the world, especially the UK ([cough]Cass Review[/cough]) and red states in the US, France has introduced guidelines on gender-affirming care that affirmatively recommend the practice.

[ariaterramoon]

Magical Girl Au

AU where literally everything is the same except the Shane family have magical girl powers.

The Shanes and subsequently, all Realm Champions are granted access to the magic of Slugterra and go through a magical transformation based on a chosen slug. That means magical outfits~!

This doesn't mean slugslinging is obsolete as the slugs still need to grow strong with slinging! So there's plenty shooting still!

Let me know what you think and which slug outfit you'd want to see first and for who!!!

The transformations and more info below the cut!

The transformations have 4 Forms.

1. Protoform — The Prelude

A subtle transformation that shows that a Champion has established the initial connection with their chosen slug. This can be used as a threat or simply as decoration.

The Champion will gain small subtle attributes of their chosen slug, usually signified by streaks of colours in their hair, thin antennas, small horns, or other similar protoform attributes the chosen slug has.

Protoform abilities can be used in this form.

2. Velocimorph — The Incursion

A full transformation where the Champion gains a unique outfit based on the chosen slug as well as access to the entire move kit of said slug.

In this form, the Champion can sling a slug without a blaster. Similarly to Slug Fu, the Champion can control a slug with a mere swipe of the hand, guiding it and weaving it through the magic rifts of the Caverns.

Champion power level is the same as slug level. In order for a stronger form, slug must be trained beforehand and the Champion themselves must train their body and stronger powers.

3. Megamorph — The Onslaught

This form is unlocked only when the slug has unlocked it. Same as with a megamorphed slug who can do their regular transformation without an accelerator, the Champion can upgrade to their Onslaught form at anytime when needed.

The Champion will gain an upgraded outfit that offers more protection and ✨flair✨.

Once Megamorph is achieved, the Champion's Prelude form will also upgrade to Mega Protoform — The Shining Prelude.

4. Elemental — The Singularity

A very rare form that can only be achieved with the Elementals present and ONLY if there is a friendship between the Elementals and the Champion.

This form is very unstable as the power of an Elemental is extremely powerful, after all, they are the most primordial beings in all of Slugterra. All Champions will eventually lose control and their bodies will reject the power of the Elementals; depending on how well trained the Champion is, the longer they can hold the power within them. For example, Junjie would have more control than Eli and thus keep his Singularity form for much longer.

Eli and Junjie would be able to access their Singularity forms with all the Elementals but Sarai wouldn't as the Elementals don't particular like her, she can only access the Energy Singularity form as Doc is the only one who is very fond of her.

The stronger the friendship, the more stable this form will be (by like 5%, it's not much but a notable difference in control)

Notes:

I should note that since every slug has a different personality, the magical outfits will be different for every champion.

In the Shane's case, their powers only activate when they cross the threshold into Slugterra. They are unable to use their powers on the Surface as their connection to Slugterra is extremely weak. It CAN be possible to use their powers on the Surface if the Shane learns to keep and store extra Slug Energy within them. It is a difficult skill to learn.

All Champion families members have access to these powers, but they are locked behind key. Only those who will take the mantle will have an automatic bypass to this barrier. Will knew Eli would have this bypass and Sarai wouldn't, despite this, when Sarai crossed the Slugterran barrier, she found she had the bypass as well, Slugterra deemed her a Champion even if her family didn't, and thus, deserving of the power just like Eli and her father.

This also means that the Shane Gang would not have powers as they are not from the Champion line.

Fusions in Champions is unheard of and not possible. That is a power reserved for slugs only.

The Infurnus Incursion and Onslaught forms are the most powerful forms for any Champion as the Infurnus is the most powerful among the slugs, aside from the Elementals ofc. They are a slug meant for only the Champion after all.

[marth-garhengi]

Things I Want From DA: Veilguard That I Know We Won't Get:

These are almost all things DAI did poorly. Though I cannot stress enough that I love ALL the DA games, nothing is perfect...

- Kill Moves

Kill moves in DAO were amazing and there were only like 10. Worst decision by DA2's dev team was not to add them. Who the hell doesn't want to see their characters doing a sweet finishing move to round out a tough fight, in ANY game?? Ragdoll in RPGs sucks and always has, Killmove Supremacy forever (for all classes, not just melee!)

- Companion Tactics

It sucks that Bioware keep deciding to take great RPG elements out of their games and this one is so sorely missed. DAI dropped the ball big time by dumbing down companion tactics. It's a Party based game! I want MORE passive control over my companions, not less!!

- OG Tactical Gameplay

I can understand the thought process behind giving players the option to play tactically OR casually in DAI, but in practice both options are worse than the alternative. Having to switch Tactical on/off in the middle of combat just makes the gameplay more jarring, as opposed to the more accessible Pause Wheel style of the previous titles. It wasn't broken, it didn't need fixing.

- Unlimited Abilities

Another DAI fumble, tying into the previous point. Don't give us 300 ability points and then force us to pick only 8 that we can actively use. RPGs are great BECAUSE of the wide variety of playstyles and abilities you can choose for your characters. Slowly turning them into Gods is part of the fun! It's a reward for all the grinding and the early game slog. Much of the joy of obtaining a new skill or power is lost if you're forced to sacrifice another ability to use it, AND means you're wasting points when levelling. TL;DR for this and previous point: Combat wheel good.

- Manual Attributes

Another gripe I had with DAI that boils down to; Stop taking RPG elements out of your RPG. If the player wants to make a mage with insanely high Constitution, LET THEM. Making attribute points exclusively obtainable via passive abilites was taking a neat idea too far. Sub-point: All armor should be accessible to all classes. Attribute thresholds work.

- Less Collectathon-y

It's Dragon Age, not Banjo Kazooie. Nobody liked trekking through the hissing wastes for all those stupid shards. People realised that video games don't need a bazillion things to collect DECADES ago. Comparitively, the Astrariums were fun and engaging! A few little logic puzzles that unlock a loot cache? Good and fun. Spending hours running around grabbing little rocks in every map to unlock a loot cache? Boring and lazy addition to gameplay. Less of that forever.

- Horse Riding that doesn't Suck (Or No Horse Riding, period!)

We all played Inquisition. Enough Said.

- Arcane Warrior

Please Bioware I'm begging you to let me be a Mage with a sword again it was so fucking cool please it's all I want forever.

- Oghren

Bring back my Alcoholic Berserker Homie, he was so much fun and I love him and miss him.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[grapepixelart]

Gushing about one my random Death Battle ideas <3

Because of the new Death Battle that just came out and the news of Miku being leaked for Fortnite, I wanted to make a thread to gush about one of my favorite Death Battle ideas so please hear me out: Hatsune Miku Vs Eddie the Head (Vocaloid Vs Iron Maiden)

From a debate perspective, the match-up is potentially another Scooby-Doo Vs. Courage scenario because of both Miku and Eddie’s eighth-level immortality. Miku lives off humanity's memory of her through in-verse and our real world. Eddie is the embodiment of free will and cannot die as long as there is someone who fights against evil which Miku attributes to, BUT Miku can't die so long as at least one person remembers her (which Eddie would in a fight scenario obviously). So supposedly neither could kill the other because they indirectly fuel each other's immortality and THATS SO COOL C'MON!

A little more over, Eddie has things called "fragments" which are essentially pieces of himself as different variants. Like one is just him as Thor. So he has access to stuff like necromancy, controlling undead forces, and just various weaponry from basic stuff like firearms to just flat-out Mjolnir. Miku on the other hand is less arsenal-based and has more of a focus on her two main abilities reality manipulation and singing. She can manipulate environments, constructs, holograms, illusions, and whole narratives with her singing and songs like some sort of Pop Star Green Lantern. So if you're a fan of army battle we could potentially have that in our hands. 

Since Miku’s powers mainly derive from her singing and Eddie frequently weaponizes and utilizes his guitar, you could have the actual score of the fight have an influence on the battle - making the fight an actual music video. Vocaloid and Iron Maiden elements paired together could be a weird pairing for a track, but tbf Miku is so flexible that the Iron Maiden influence could be the dominant force of the track while still incorporating hints of Vocaloid here and there. Ideally having two vocalists for the track, one to represent Bruce Dickinson's vocals and another female vocalist or just outright using the Miku Vocaloid works.   While Miku and Eddie represent drastically different genres and concepts, but the immortality clashings and the potential for a music video fight animation make this fight such a guilty pleasure for me despite their alts. I cannot help but gush abt the match. Thank you for reading I am very weird!

[llamamamma20]

Clarifications as usual...

Good morning Tumblrs

I hope everyone is having a lovely day. I just wanted to post a clarification on a few words that seem to be taken out of context or completely misunderstood.

Gatekeeping: The activity of controlling, and usually limiting, general access to something. (EA TOU strictly forbids keeping cc restricted) Overweight: Generally refers to having a weight higher than what is considered healthy for a person's height, and is often defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or more is classified as obesity. (95% of the world, according to statistics, is overweight. This is a fact not an opinion.) Do you accuse your clinician of "body shaming" when they state "according to your BMI, you are overweight"? Hypocrisy: The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.

Delusional: Having fixed, false beliefs that are not based in reality and are resistant to change, even when presented with evidence to the contrary.

Projection: the act of extending or extending something outwards, or the process of representing something onto a surface. It can also refer to a forecast or estimate of future outcomes based on current trends. In psychology, projection is a defense mechanism where individuals attribute their own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to others. 

That is the end of todays clarity and definition lesson.

Have a wonderful and blessed day.

Happy Llama xoxoxoxox

PS: Again Jocelyn, thank you so much for promoting and publicizing our cc and builds, it is greatly appreciated. We are gaining members by leaps and bounds.

[spectralpixelsredone]

Understanding Salem’s Nature (PT. 1)

Salem is an ancient, immortal figure from the first era of Humanity in Remnant, endowed with powerful Magic and Grimm-based abilities after falling into a Grimm Pool. Her key attributes include:

Immortality: Cursed by the Gods, Salem cannot be permanently killed. Any physical destruction regenerates, with recovery times varying up to a few hours, and she remains functional during regeneration (e.g., restraining opponents while her body reforms).

Magical Abilities: She can fire energy blasts, generate electricity, use telekinesis, create cyclones, travel as smoke, and exhibit superhuman strength and clairvoyance.

Grimm Powers: As the Grimm’s master, she can command, mutate, and create Grimm, including unique forms like Seers and Monstra, and summon Shadow Hands.

Weaknesses: No explicit weaknesses are noted beyond a vulnerability to Silver Eyes, which can temporarily harm or disrupt her (e.g., crippling Cinder’s Shadow Hand). However, her immortality persists, and she can regenerate from such attacks.

The challenge is to find a method that neutralizes her indefinitely or for an extended period without relying on the Staff of Creation (Relic of Creation) or the Brother Gods, who could theoretically lift her immortality curse but are excluded from this analysis.

Potential Methods for Defeating Salem

1. Trapping or Imprisonment

Vaults or Pocket Dimensions:

Feasibility: The document notes that Ozma created pocket dimensions, such as the Vaults housing the Relics, though the exact method is unknown. These Vaults are magically sealed and tied to specific Maidens’ powers (e.g., Fall Maiden for Beacon’s Vault). Trapping Salem in a Vault could theoretically isolate her, as these dimensions are secure and difficult to access without the corresponding Maiden’s power.

Challenges: Salem’s Magic includes teleportation (e.g., traveling as smoke) and immense power, potentially allowing her to escape a Vault unless it’s specifically designed to counter her abilities. The document doesn’t confirm whether Vaults can nullify Magic, so this would require speculation that a Vault could be reinforced with anti-Magic properties, possibly using Ozma’s dwindling Magic or another Maiden’s power.

Speculative Enhancement: Combining the Relic of Knowledge (Jinn) with a Vault could provide insight into creating a dimension that neutralizes Salem’s Magic. Jinn can answer questions about the present or past, potentially revealing how to construct an inescapable prison. However, Jinn’s three-question limit per century restricts this approach.

Ever After or Alternate Realms:

Feasibility: The Ever After, an alternate realm created by the Gods, contains unique magical properties and entities like the Blacksmith, who facilitates Ascension. Trapping Salem in the Ever After could isolate her from Remnant. The Blacksmith’s ability to summon beings to her domain and create portals suggests a mechanism to transport Salem there.

Challenges: The Ever After’s Great Tree and Ascension process could potentially “reset” Salem, but her immortality might resist this, as Ascension is tied to Afteran life cycles, not necessarily humans. Salem’s Magic and Grimm powers could allow her to dominate or escape the Ever After, especially since she can manipulate environments (e.g., cyclones, energy blasts). The Curious Cat’s possession ability (before its defeat) suggests some Afterans could challenge her, but none are confirmed to match her power.

Speculative Enhancement: A portal created by the Blacksmith or a similar entity could strand Salem in a custom realm designed to suppress her Magic, possibly using the Relic of Choice’s visions to identify a suitable dimension.

Artifacts (e.g., Magic Necklace, Cloak of Displacement):

Magic Necklace: This artifact allows control over Grimm, turning their eyes blue and enabling strategic coordination. Since Salem already commands Grimm, the Necklace might not affect her directly, but it could be used to turn her Grimm against her, creating chaos and potentially distracting her long enough to trap her.

Cloak of Displacement: This displaces light to create invisibility, requiring Aura to activate. It’s unlikely to trap Salem, as her clairvoyance and Magic could detect or counter it, but it could aid in stealthily setting up a trap.

Challenges: Artifacts require Aura, which Salem lacks due to her Grimm nature, limiting their direct use against her. Their effects are also temporary and not powerful enough to contain her indefinitely.

Speculative Enhancement: Combining multiple artifacts (e.g., Necklace to disrupt her Grimm control, an Aura-recharging Dust artifact to power a trap) could temporarily immobilize her, but permanent containment would require a stronger magical construct.

2. Permanent Off-Planet Exile

Feasibility: The document mentions the God of Darkness shattering Remnant’s moon effortlessly, suggesting space manipulation is within the realm of Magic. Salem’s ability to travel as smoke and her immortality imply she could survive in space, but stranding her off-planet could isolate her from Remnant. The Relic of Choice, which grants visions of future choices, could guide someone to a method of launching her into space, perhaps via a portal or a magically enhanced device.

Challenges: Salem’s teleportation and smoke form could allow her to return unless the destination is a realm or void that nullifies Magic. No known artifact or Semblance explicitly enables interplanetary travel, and the Relics’ powers (Knowledge, Choice, Destruction) don’t directly facilitate this.

Speculative Enhancement: A Semblance like Fiona Thyme’s Pocket Dimensions, which stores and releases matter, could be evolved to create a one-way portal to a distant planet or void. Combined with the Relic of Destruction (whose abilities are unknown), it might create a catastrophic event to propel Salem off-planet, though this risks collateral damage.

3. Permanent Death or Brain Death

Feasibility: Salem’s immortality makes permanent death impossible without the Gods’ intervention. Brain death is similarly unfeasible, as her regeneration restores her physical form, including neurological functions, as seen when she reforms after having her head blown off. The document confirms she remains functional during regeneration, suggesting her consciousness is tied to her immortal soul, not her physical brain.

Challenges: No Semblance or artifact in the document can destroy a soul or permanently disrupt consciousness. Silver Eyes, which harm Grimm, only temporarily affect Salem or her Grimm-based Shadow Hands, and she recovers. The Relic of Destruction’s unknown abilities might theoretically target her soul, but this is pure speculation, as no precedent exists.

Speculative Enhancement: A Semblance like Yatsuhashi Daichi’s Memory Wiping, which erases minds and breaks mind control, could be evolved to disrupt Salem’s consciousness long-term, but the document suggests its effects are temporary. Combining it with a Relic or artifact to amplify its power might induce a prolonged comatose state, though not true brain death.

4. Rendering Salem Insane or Incapacitated

Feasibility: Driving Salem to insanity could neutralize her as a threat if she becomes unable to strategize or act coherently. Semblances like August Caspian’s emotion amplification could intensify Salem’s negative emotions (e.g., rage, despair) to a breaking point, potentially overwhelming her psyche. The document notes her uncontrolled rage causing telekinetic outbursts, suggesting emotional instability could impair her.

Challenges: Salem’s millennia of experience and willpower make her resistant to psychological manipulation. Semblances like Emerald Sustrai’s Hallucinations or Neopolitan’s Overactive Imagination could create disorienting illusions, but Salem’s clairvoyance and omniscience (via Jinn-like awareness) might counteract them. No artifact or Relic directly targets mental stability.

Speculative Enhancement: Combining August’s Semblance with Jinn’s knowledge to exploit specific psychological weaknesses could destabilize Salem. For example, inducing visions of her lost daughters (as she conjured their shadows) might trigger a breakdown, though maintaining this state indefinitely is uncertain.

5. Semblance-Based Solutions

Semblances offer creative possibilities, but most are limited compared to Salem’s Magic. Notable Semblances that could contribute include:

Fiona Thyme’s Pocket Dimensions: Could store Salem in a contained space, but her Magic might allow escape unless the dimension is anti-Magic.

Yatsuhashi Daichi’s Memory Wiping: Could disrupt her plans temporarily, but not permanently, as memories return.

August Caspian’s Emotion Amplification: Could destabilize her psyche, but requires proximity and sustained effort.

Umber Gorgoneion’s Stone Glance: Could paralyze Salem temporarily via eye contact, but her immortality and Magic likely allow recovery, and she could avoid eye contact.

Jessica Cruz’s Semblance (RWBY x Justice League): Implied to incorporate others’ abilities and materialize objects from imagination. A speculative evolution could create a prison from Ozma’s or a Maiden’s Magic, tailored to contain Salem.

Neopolitan’s Overactive Imagination: Could create illusions or physical constructs to trap Salem, but her clairvoyance might see through them.

Speculative Combination: A team effort combining Fiona’s Pocket Dimensions, Yatsuhashi’s Memory Wiping, and August’s Emotion Amplification, amplified by Jaune Arc’s Aura Amp, could trap Salem in a dimension while disrupting her mind and emotions. The Relic of Choice could guide the team to the optimal moment or method, though this remains speculative.

6. Relic-Based Solutions

Relic of Knowledge (Jinn): Can provide strategic information to design a trap or exploit a weakness, but its question limit and inability to predict the future restrict its utility.

Relic of Choice: Offers visions of future choices, which could identify a critical moment to trap or exile Salem. Its random nature makes it unreliable, but it could guide a plan.

Relic of Destruction: Unknown abilities make it a wildcard. It might theoretically destroy Salem’s physical form repeatedly or target her soul, but without details, this is speculative.

Speculative Enhancement: Using Jinn to learn how to maximize the Relic of Choice’s visions, combined with an evolved Semblance or artifact, could create a precise plan to trap Salem in a Vault or alternate dimension.

Most Promising Approaches

Based on the document, the most feasible methods, ranked by potential effectiveness, are:

Trapping in a Reinforced Vault or Ever After:

Method: Use Ozma’s Magic (via Oscar) or a Maiden’s power to create or modify a Vault to suppress Salem’s Magic, possibly guided by Jinn’s knowledge and the Relic of Choice’s visions. Alternatively, transport her to the Ever After via the Blacksmith’s portals, hoping its unique properties disrupt her abilities.

Pros: Vaults are proven to be secure, and the Ever After’s alien rules might limit her Magic. Jinn and Choice provide strategic advantages.

Cons: Requires speculative anti-Magic properties and overcoming Salem’s teleportation and regeneration. The Ever After’s effectiveness is uncertain.

Off-Planet Exile via Portal:

Method: Use Fiona’s Pocket Dimensions, amplified by Jaune’s Aura Amp, to create a one-way portal to a distant void, guided by the Relic of Choice. The Relic of Destruction might enhance the portal’s power.

Pros: Removes Salem from Remnant entirely, leveraging her inability to affect the planet from afar.

Cons: Highly speculative, as no Semblance or Relic explicitly enables space travel, and Salem’s smoke form might allow return.

Psychological Incapacitation:

Method: Combine August’s Emotion Amplification, Yatsuhashi’s Memory Wiping, and Neopolitan’s illusions to overwhelm Salem’s psyche, using Jinn to identify emotional triggers (e.g., her daughters’ deaths).

Pros: Targets a potential vulnerability (her emotional instability) without needing to overcome immortality.

Cons: Temporary at best, as Salem’s willpower and regeneration likely restore her sanity over time.

Conclusion

Salem’s immortality and vast magical powers make permanent defeat (death or brain death) impossible without the Gods. The most promising methods are long-term imprisonment in a magically reinforced Vault or the Ever After, or speculative off-planet exile via a portal. These rely on combining Ozma’s Magic, Maiden powers, Semblances (e.g., Fiona’s, August’s, Yatsuhashi’s), and Relics (Knowledge, Choice, possibly Destruction). Trapping her in a Vault tailored to suppress Magic, guided by Jinn and the Relic of Choice, is the most feasible, though it requires speculative enhancements to counter her teleportation and regeneration. Psychological incapacitation is less reliable but could serve as a temporary measure. All approaches involve some speculation due to the unknown limits of Semblances, Relics, and magical constructs in RWBY

[zofi-persson-quotes]

Creation

Users can manipulate creation as a whole. They control and shape their own creations and created matter, energy, system and reality. They have the ability to delay/hasten when creation happens, speeding/slowing down creation, determining what parts should be created. They can manipulate creations' look, feel, attributes, powers, what it does, etc., and recreate things. Users can also manipulate artistic elements like ink and paint, and bring to life what they draw. This Element is commonly known as “Creativity” or “Art”.

Creation is, alongside Energy, Destruction, Darkness, Space, Time, Void, Light, Life and Death, one of the Ten Primordial Magics.

It doesn’t have any sub-elements

Limitations:

May be limited by raw power and imagination.

May need to know how an object works in order to create it fully functional.

Distance and strength depends on the power and skill of the user.

May require knowledge of chemistry and biology.

Has to be created in order to manipulate.

Destruction Magic

Creation spells

Created Attribute Manipulation - manipulate the physical and/or mental condition of the user’s creations

Creation Arts - utilize practices that are creative in nature

Creation Attacks - the ability to release/use creation power for various attacks

Creative Energy Manipulation - manipulate creative energy

Creative Force Manipulation - manipulate creative forces

Creation Negation - The user can negate creations from anything, from creations made by man to creations made by a deity. Any kind of creation that exists can have its creation negated by the user.

Process Speed Manipulation - The user can manipulate the speed of any process, manipulating how fast/slow something acts/works, make things done faster without even the slightest delay or slow down. They can also slow processes down. This does not affect the flow of time itself, just whatever is involved with the project as a whole, from machines to people and so on.

Omnificence/Creation - Users possess the unlimited ability to create absolutely anything imaginable, transcending boundaries to create concepts, existence, reality and even Totality itself.

Ability Creation - The user can create/manifest/evolve almost any ability, existing or new, upgrade it or not, add limits or countermeasures to it, and can grant it to themselves, others, or even objects.

Constructs Creation - create constructs from various kinds of sources.

Matter Creation - The user can create any type of artificial, organic and inorganic matter, as well as any object, either from nothing, by using existing sources of matter and energy or through other immaterial sources. They can shape created matter into any form they wish and specify what type of material or layers of substances (for example, make layers of matter to form food, technology, clothing, even buildings etc...), or quantity and subatomic structure with some advanced users being able to manipulate the matter they created such items.

Reality Creation - The user can create realities that encompass a whole area that has its own rules, physics, features, possibilities, etc. These realities can encompass whole towns, cities, continents, planets and even galaxies if the user is powerful enough.

Recreation - The user can recreate anything that was destroyed in any way. In short, the user can undo the damage caused by powers such as Destruction, Explosion Inducement, etc should they destroy objects.

Absolute Creativity - have access to a limitless amount of ideas

Imaginary Constructs - create constructs out of imagination

Mindscape - create an inner world

Biological Manipulation - manipulate life and living organisms.

Environment Manipulation - manipulate the environment and everything in it

Object Manipulation - manipulate inanimate objects.

Creation, Construction and Generation Based Powers - the power to create, construct and generate objects or living beings

Animation - animate paints/drawings

Paint Attacks - attack using paint

Paint Generation - generate paint

Ink Attacks - attack using ink

Ink Generation - generate ink

Ink Solidification - solidify ink

Ink Manipulation - manipulate the properties of ink.

Melanokinetic Constructs - create constructs made of ink

Inkokinesis - move/lift ink.

Ink Matter Surfing - ride a mass of ink.

Projected Thermography - imprint marks onto surfaces without the need of scribing tools

Paint Manipulation - manipulate paint and its properties

Environment Reshaping - reshape the environment via artistic means

Lexiconicy - the ability to create anything the user writes on paper

Advanced Crafting - the ability to create objects and equipment from standard objects

[templeofthescarletstar]

The Qliphothtic Church. 1

The fall of Kether

The Corruption of the Sephiroth into the Qliphoth:

This systematic erasure of the feminine divine didn’t just strip humanity of spiritual balance—it actively twisted sacred principles. Each Sephirah on the Tree of Life, representing divine attributes, was distorted into its Qliphothic shadow, reflecting spiritual decay. The Church, in its pursuit of power, embodies these corruptions.

Introduction to Kabbalah

Kabbalah is an ancient mystical tradition that seeks to understand the nature of the divine, the universe, and human consciousness. Rooted in Jewish esoteric thought, it presents a structured yet deeply symbolic view of reality, offering a map for spiritual ascent and self-realization.

At the core of Kabbalah is the Tree of Life (Etz Chaim), a diagram consisting of ten Sephirot (emanations) connected by twenty-two paths. These Sephirot represent different aspects of divine consciousness, from pure unity (Keter) to material existence (Malkuth). The Tree serves as a model of creation, the human soul, and the interconnected nature of all things.

However, Kabbalah also acknowledges the Qliphothic Tree, the shadow side of the Sephirot. Where the Tree of Life represents divine order and harmony, the Qliphoth embodies imbalance, fragmentation, and corruption—states of being where divine light is either absent or distorted. Mystically, the Qliphoth is not merely “evil” but rather a realm of spiritual challenges, representing forces that, if left unchecked, can lead to destruction rather than enlightenment.

Over time, various religious authorities, particularly the Church, have distorted or suppressed aspects of Kabbalistic knowledge, altering spiritual truths to maintain power. This chapter explores how one of the most profound concepts in Kabbalah—Keter, the crown of divine unity—was corrupted into Thaumiel, the realm of false duality.

With this foundational understanding, we now turn to the first and greatest corruption:

The Fall of Keter into Thaumiel.

1. Keter (Crown) → Thaumiel (Duality of God):

Keter represents unity with the divine, but the Church corrupted this into Thaumiel, the false duality—claiming to be the sole gatekeeper to God while condemning all other spiritual paths as heresy.

The transformation of Keter into Thaumiel represents the most fundamental corruption: the distortion of divine unity into an artificial duality. In its purest form, Keter symbolizes absolute oneness with the divine—an undivided, all-encompassing consciousness. However, the Church introduced a false dichotomy by inventing an adversary: Satan.

This invention was not merely the identification of an opposing force but the deliberate creation of a binary system in which God and Satan are framed as equal yet opposite powers. In doing so, the Church positioned itself as the sole mediator of divine will, claiming exclusive access to salvation while branding all alternative spiritual paths as demonic.

Originally, the concept of Satan in Hebrew tradition was not a singular, malevolent entity but a role—ha-Satan, meaning “the accuser” or “adversary,” often acting as a tester of faith rather than an independent cosmic evil. It was only later, through the influence of Zoroastrian dualism and the Church’s consolidation of power, that Satan was transformed into the ultimate enemy, a being of nearly equal stature to God but entirely opposed in nature.

This manufactured duality served multiple purposes: it created fear-based control, justified inquisitions and persecution, and ensured that spiritual authority remained centralized. By corrupting the unity of Keter into the warring factions of Thaumiel, the Church replaced divine enlightenment with submission, replacing direct communion with God with a rigid hierarchy where it alone dictated the boundaries of good and evil.

It's not surprising then to find that Satan is the associated demonic archetype of Thaumiel.

Just as Metatron is the archetype of Keter, representing divine unity and the bridge between humanity and the infinite, Satan—or rather, the Church’s fabricated version of Satan—becomes the archetype of Thaumiel, embodying the false duality that divides rather than unites.

Metatron, often called the "Lesser YHVH," serves as the divine voice and intermediary, guiding souls toward enlightenment and unity with the Source. In Kabbalah, he is the highest angel, embodying a pure, unbroken connection to the divine. Keter, as the crown of the Tree of Life, represents the state of absolute oneness—beyond duality, beyond division.

However, when the Church corrupted this concept, they needed an opposing force, a counterbalance to their own claim of divine authority. By twisting the nature of spiritual opposition, they personified Thaumiel—the Qliphothic shell of Keter—as Satan, no longer a tester or adversary in the sense of refinement but a wholly independent being of evil. This artificial dualism turned spiritual enlightenment into a battlefield, where the only “right” path was submission to the Church.

Thaumiel means "Twins of God," which itself is an irony—it suggests a fragmented divinity, a divided power. The Church’s invention of Satan as an eternal, nearly equal rival to God reflects this split. Rather than allowing seekers to experience divine unity, they forced them into a binary choice: obedience or damnation, heaven or hell, God or Satan. This ideological split is the very essence of Thaumiel—the illusion that divinity is not one but two warring forces, a lie designed to keep power in the hands of religious institutions.

By corrupting Keter into Thaumiel, the Church replaced enlightenment with fear, turning what should have been an open path to unity into a rigid, controlled structure where they alone dictated who could reach the divine.

But one of the deepest ironies of the Church’s constructed duality is that the very God they claim to worship—the authoritarian, wrathful ruler who demands obedience and punishes rebellion—aligns far more with their own version of Satan than with the true, ineffable divine unity of Keter.

Biblical Passages That Reveal This Truth

1. Isaiah 45:7 – “I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”

This passage explicitly states that Yahweh is responsible for both good and evil. This contradicts the Church’s dualistic narrative, where God is purely good and Satan is purely evil. Instead, it aligns with the idea that the same being they worship is also the source of what they fear.

2. 2 Samuel 24:1 vs. 1 Chronicles 21:1

In 2 Samuel 24:1, it says: “And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’”

However, in 1 Chronicles 21:1, the same event is described differently: “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.”

This passage suggests an interchangeability between Yahweh and Satan, implying that what later became “Satan” was originally an aspect of Yahweh himself.

3. John 8:44 – “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

Jesus here condemns the religious authorities of his time, essentially accusing them of following a false god—a god of lies and murder. This could be interpreted as a veiled acknowledgment that the oppressive, authoritarian deity they serve is not the true divine unity but a corrupted, demiurgic force.

4. Hosea 13:4,9,11 – “Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me... O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help... I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.”

Yahweh admits that he gave kingship out of anger, implying that his rule is one of wrath and destruction rather than enlightenment and peace. This aligns with the traits the Church attributes to Satan—anger, destruction, control.

The Demiurge as the True Satan

What we see here is a clear case of theological inversion. The controlling, vengeful, jealous deity of the Old Testament—who demands blood sacrifice, establishes rigid laws, and punishes disobedience—bears all the hallmarks of what the Church claims to be the Devil. Meanwhile, the true divine unity, which encourages enlightenment, self-discovery, and balance, is buried under layers of dogma.

This aligns with the Gnostic idea that Yahweh is actually Yaldabaoth, the blind and arrogant Demiurge who falsely believes himself to be the supreme God. The Church, by enforcing the worship of this being while projecting its worst aspects onto a fabricated Satan, ensures that people unknowingly bow to the very force they fear.

The corruption of Keter into Thaumiel is complete: instead of seeing the divine as one, the Church split it into a tyrannical god and a rebel adversary—yet their god is the very adversary they preach against. This ultimate deception keeps humanity in bondage, forever fearing the very deity they serve.

Once again I would like to give my sincere gratitude to all of you you support me at Patreon and Special thanks to my newest Patreons Mary Grassrope, and Joselyne Galaviz and of course anyone who has or is supporting my work. I love you all. If you would like to be mentioned in the comments just follow the link below and become a Patreon. Even if you can only pledge one dallar. It all really helps to keep the content coming.

Patreon.com/themadwitch 

[nocturnaldice]

German Folklore inspired D&D (5E) Monsters

Frau Holle;

Frau Holle is a legendary figure from German folklore, often depicted as a powerful and enigmatic woman who dwells in the realm between the living and the dead. She is known for her dual nature, embodying both kindness and severity. In some tales, Frau Holle is a nurturing, motherly figure who rewards hard work and diligence, showering the virtuous with blessings. In others, she is a fearsome, supernatural being who punishes the lazy and wicked, often with harsh and mysterious consequences.

Frau Holle is typically associated with winter, snow, and the household, especially spinning and weaving. When she shakes her feather bed, it is said to cause snow to fall in the mortal world. She is often depicted as an elderly woman with a commanding presence, wearing traditional, old-fashioned garb, and carrying a spindle or broom.

In her more malevolent aspect, Frau Holle may appear as a monstrous figure with control over spirits and dark magic, capable of summoning blizzards and curses upon those who incur her wrath. Her realm is said to be accessible through wells or bodies of water, where she judges the souls of the dead and metes out rewards or punishments based on their deeds in life.

The Erlking;

The Erlking, also known as the "Alder King," is a fearsome and malevolent figure from German folklore. Often portrayed as a spectral, ghostly king of the fey or a dark, ominous spirit, the Erlking lures unsuspecting travelers, especially children, into the depths of his enchanted forest, never to be seen again. His presence is marked by an aura of dread and an eerie, unearthly charm.

The Erlking is typically depicted as a tall, imposing figure with an ethereal, almost translucent appearance, often wearing a crown of twisted branches and leaves. His eyes are said to gleam with a cold, hypnotic light, and his voice is a haunting melody that can entrance and bewitch those who hear it. He rides through the forest on a magnificent steed, accompanied by ghostly minions and fey creatures that do his bidding.

In tales, the Erlking's domain is a shadowy, mist-laden forest where time and space seem to warp and twist. He is a master of illusion and enchantment, able to manipulate the environment to confuse and ensnare his victims. Those who fall under his spell are drawn deeper into his realm, where they are lost forever or meet a grim fate.

The Erlking embodies the darker aspects of nature and the supernatural, representing the dangers and mysteries of the wild. He is a powerful and cunning adversary, capable of wielding potent magic and commanding the loyalty of lesser fey and dark spirits. Confronting the Erlking requires not only physical prowess but also wisdom and resilience to resist his beguiling charms and overcome his otherworldly powers.

Elwetritsch;

The Elwetritsch is a whimsical and elusive creature from German folklore, particularly associated with the Palatinate region. Described as a fantastical hybrid, the Elwetritsch typically combines features of birds and small mammals. It often appears as a small, bird-like creature with rabbit-like ears, feathered wings, and sometimes even antlers or a tail resembling that of a squirrel.

In folklore, the Elwetritsch is known for its shy and reclusive nature. It inhabits dense forests, marshes, and secluded glades, where it skillfully camouflages itself to avoid detection. The creature is rarely seen by humans, contributing to its mythical status and the various fanciful descriptions attributed to it.

The Elwetritsch is often associated with playful and harmless mischief. It is said to enjoy leading travelers astray, creating false trails, and causing minor inconveniences. Despite its trickster tendencies, it is generally not considered malevolent. Instead, it embodies the enchanting and unpredictable qualities of the natural world.

In stories and local traditions, the Elwetritsch is sometimes the subject of light-hearted hunting expeditions, where participants (often aware of the creature's mythical nature) embark on humorous and often fruitless quests to capture it. These hunts are more about social bonding and entertainment than any serious attempt to find the elusive creature.

The Elwetritsch adds a touch of magic and whimsy to the folklore of the regions it inhabits, symbolizing the mysterious and delightful aspects of nature. Its presence in a campaign can provide opportunities for playful encounters, light-hearted adventures, and the exploration of enchanted forests filled with wonder and surprise.

Beerwolf;

The Beerwolf, also known as "Bierwolf," is a fearsome creature from German folklore, particularly associated with tales from the rural regions of Germany. Unlike the more commonly known werewolf, the Beerwolf is not a shapeshifter but a monstrous wolf with a penchant for causing havoc in and around taverns and villages, especially during beer festivals and gatherings.

The Beerwolf is typically depicted as a large, imposing wolf with a thick, shaggy coat and glowing, feral eyes that shine with an unnatural light. Its fangs are long and razor-sharp, capable of tearing through flesh and bone with ease. The creature's howl is said to be a bone-chilling sound that instills fear in all who hear it, often signaling its approach.

In folklore, the Beerwolf is often seen as a manifestation of the dangers associated with excessive drinking and debauchery. It is said to lurk around beer halls and taverns, preying on those who have had too much to drink, leading them away into the night where they disappear without a trace. Some stories suggest that the Beerwolf is drawn to the scent of beer and can be found prowling near breweries and cellars.

Wolpertinger;

The Wolpertinger is a fantastical creature from Bavarian folklore, known for its bizarre and whimsical appearance. It is often described as a hybrid creature, combining features of various animals such as rabbits, birds, deer, and rodents. The Wolpertinger is typically depicted as a small, furry creature with the antlers of a deer, the wings of a bird, and the body of a rabbit or rodent, often with additional features like duck bills or squirrel tails.

The Wolpertinger's appearance varies widely depending on the storyteller, with each iteration more fantastical than the last. Despite its unusual appearance, the Wolpertinger is often portrayed as harmless and even endearing, more likely to cause amusement than fear.

In folklore, the Wolpertinger is said to inhabit the dense forests and mountainous regions of Bavaria, where it eludes capture with its agility and cleverness. It is often associated with beer halls and taverns, where it is said to enjoy stealing sips of beer and causing mischief among patrons. Legends of the Wolpertinger have been passed down through generations, with many hunters claiming to have caught glimpses of the elusive creature during their expeditions.

Petermännchen;

Petermännchen are mischievous and benevolent spirits from German folklore, particularly prevalent in the northern regions of Germany, including Pomerania and Mecklenburg. This small, gnome-like creature is known for its playful nature and its habit of assisting or pranking humans, depending on their treatment of it and others.

Petermännchen are typically depicted as a small humanoid creature, standing about two to three feet tall. It has a rotund figure, with a long beard and pointed ears. Its eyes are often described as twinkling with mischief, and it is usually depicted wearing traditional clothing, such as a pointed hat and simple, rustic attire.

According to folklore, Petermännchen are most active at night, where they roam the countryside, forests, and villages, interacting with humans in various ways. They are said to be particularly fond of children and animals, often playing games with them or leaving small gifts in exchange for treats or acts of kindness.

While Petermännchen are generally friendly and helpful, they can also be mischievous, especially towards those who mistreat them or others. They may play harmless pranks on those they deem deserving or teach valuable lessons through their actions.

Irrwurz;

The Irrwurz is a mysterious and malevolent plant creature from German folklore, said to inhabit dark and secluded places in the forest, marshes, or other remote areas. It is often depicted as a twisted and grotesque plant with thorny vines, glowing eyes, and a hunger for the unwary.

The Irrwurz appears as a gnarled and twisted plant with thick, thorny vines and dark, glossy leaves. Its roots burrow deep into the earth, anchoring it to its chosen habitat. Glowing eyes peering out from amidst the foliage give it an eerie and menacing appearance, and its scent is said to be foul and nauseating.

Legends of the Irrwurz warn travelers to avoid venturing into areas where it is said to dwell, for those who do risk becoming lost forever in its tangled embrace. The Irrwurz is said to ensnare its victims with its thorny vines, dragging them down into the earth to be consumed and absorbed into its roots, never to be seen again.