#and the complex web interconnecting them

[eastgaysian]

the rpg experience for me is playing them for 300 hours and then spending 1000 hours constructing an elaborate labyrinth of unbelievably dense oc lore on top of them

[stagkingswife]

Hi!

What did you mean by an oath to your God(s) can change everything?

Thanks :)

I mean exactly that. When you swear an oath to an entity there is the possibility that everything and anything about your life might change to better suit that oath. Now I don't mean that you'll finish your ritual and suddenly -boom- everything will suddenly be different. But swearing an oath comes with a relationship, and that relationship over time is where the changes come from. I'm going to grossly simplify my buddy @windvexer's beautiful analogy here: Think of yourself as meadow, beautiful and lush with grasses. Think of your practice as the rain, it falls down and feeds the grass, keeps it green. Now if you've sworn an oath, think of that as planting an acorn. Maybe it never really grows, maybe it becomes a sweet little sapling and that's about it, but maybe everything goes right for that acorn and it grows for hundreds of years, drinking that rain, and becomes a towering tree. That tree can fundamentally change the meadow it grows in, it can crack rocks, reshape hills, it's shade will change what grows under it's bows, it's nuts will attract animals. The entire ecosystem of the meadow is different after the oak tree reaches maturity. And here's the important thing. Even if the oak tree were to be cut down, the meadow would never be the same again. Sometimes your entities will require work from you, you'll be asked to learn new skills, that new skill will change your cosmology, which will change how you interact with the world, which if you do it long enough means your personality changes. This happened to me. I started learning how to be a psychopomp because of my oath to Brona. That changed my cosmological views on death and the after life and how spirits work. As a result of that I start becoming much more intentional about my production of waste in the world. Eventually that mindfulness and intentionallity has just become part of who I am. Sometimes other relationships in your life will change, not necessarily because your entity does anything to the relationship, but because your priorities might shift. You might be prioritizing the responsibilities of your oath over other things, and people around you might not like that or understand that. I've lost friends, other practitioners I thought would be life long companions, after I took my oath to Oisin. They said I had changed in ways they didn't like. I said I was holding to my oath. You can try to protect certain parts of your life, mitigate the changes to them, by carefully constructing your oath, but a person's life is such a complex interconnected web that I've found it's impossible to complete prevent change. If you are the thing that is changing everything that you touch is going to feel some of the effects. I know this can seem scary, but I don't want to dissuade anyone from making an oath that they've been seriously thinking about. I just want to dissuade people from doing it without thinking about it. Because, if we go back to Chicken's amazing metaphor, not every acorn grows to be a towering giant oak tree. Maybe you plant the acorn it grows a foot tall, and that's it. But every acorn has the potential to be a 100ft giant, so don't plant it if you aren't ready for that possibility.

[ooooo-mcyt]

The Double Life social climate is so fascinating because like you said, the dynamics were very much "me and my soulmates against everyone else" (which was encouraged by the mechanic obviously). There’s no real web of alliances like we see in other seasons, more like a bunch of isolated islands constituted by each pairs.

-Pearl obviously is the most isolated of them all, having no soulmate to fall back on and being perceived as an unstable and dangerous wildcard that was best to avoid as much as possible.

-Desert Duo comes next, them being the last green isolated them by default, and they both played a very solo game, not moving as a unit and instead having internal tension, which made others not want to get into their mess.

-Like you said, Cleo and Scott (Scott especially) were not very liked by the others, the whole chosen soulmate move being seen as going against the soulbound status quo and creating unnecessary unstability (of the Pearl variety) in their ecosystem. Plus, like DD, their late yellow status made them outsiders.

-Box Boys are similar to DD in the way that they had trouble functioning as a unit. They each had some allies on their own but not any in common, and kept to themselves a lot.

-Ranchers are in the middle because while they were often hanging out around others, half of that time was them being bullied by their peers, and no one really cared for them much.

-Boat Boys were on good terms with most people but turned red early and immediately became very hostile which made the other pairs fear them more than wanting to get close to them. They were mostly seen as a threat that you’re cordial with so it won’t turn against you.

-Homewreckers are the pair with the best social standing, even if their gossiping made them seem untrustworthy in the eyes of other, their base was still very much a social hub on numerous occasions and they had no real beef with anyone.

-Ironically the person most integrated within the social dynamics of Double Life is probably Martyn. As he had no soulmate he was seen as an outsider, but unlike Pearl he had an okay relationship with Cleo and instead of being seen as someone to avoid, he was just that guy who’s kinda around. Because he was alone and didn’t turn red until the end, he wasn’t seen as dangerous or threat.

Double Life's social climate is just absolutely fascinating to me.

In every other season, alliances and friendships are complex webs. Most teams have more than two players within them, most teams have alliances with other teams, and most individual players have their own personal friendships with people in other teams.

This can lead to messy loyalties and rough breakups, of course. But more often, I see this as a very positive- necessary, even!- aspect of how social groups form in this game, because that interconnected web means players rarely end up completely isolated- or trapped in a group they aren't happy in- if they don't want to be.

Double Life breaks this entirely. As you pointed out, each soulmate pair functioned as an 'isolated island', all but mandating full loyalty within groups and treating anyone outside their assigned pairing as 'other', someone to be mistrusted and held at arms length.

Which is a nightmare when you think about it.

Two people- exactly two, with no third party to buffer..anything- forced together, whether they want to be together or not, with the expectation that they cannot leave and will not form connections outside of each other.

It was so bad for everyone, both people who stuck with their soulmates and people who didn't. The way anyone outside of the standard soulmate setup was looked down on, shamed, or at the very least isolated, the way human connection and friendships were snipped off by isolationist paranoia and/or jealousy, the way leaving an unhappy partnership was extremely discouraged (or, depending on how you look at it, outright impossible, because your health is tied to theirs no matter what).

I just can't help but see it all as a social system that traps people who conform to the soulmate pair formula and isolates people who don't, with nowhere to go and noone to fall back on outside that one person who is 'supposed' to be your one support.

You're absolutely right on how isolated Double Life was, how there functionally weren't any alliances outside of soulmate pairs- and those that did exist were shamed- and it's so fascinating to me. It was such a unique social climate.

[official-jurassic-park]

Have you tried feeding the dinos a few dino nuggies?

Their reaction?

This is an excellent suggestion! We chose some of our best behaved dinosaur of the week to receive some treats.

Dilophosaurus: Ate all three and was on her best behaviour!

Allosaurus: Sniffed them, but decided she preferred goat instead. A wise choice.

Velociraptors: Didn't give them any, because they recently ate my colleague's arm, and are in time out.

T-Rex: "Eating these so-called 'dino nuggies' inspires in me a deep and profound sense of history, belonging and succession in a turmoil-filled world, where an action can send ripples through time by cause and effect, leading the hands of evolution to hone species adapted to their ecological niche in a complex web of interconnected environmental relationships, shaped further by the manipulation of meat and matter into something so different, yet resembling something that once was."

Just kidding, she said rawrr, then ate Pete.

[alillttn]

You can't tell me IT guys are just sorcerers.

A "programmer" is a warlock able to command artificial beasts using a language most common ears and eyes can't comprehend. Some of these warlocks can even collaborate to create an artificial creature that can simulate intelligence appearing to surpass their creators and the "intelligence" to process new information that wasn't given to it. Some of these even communicate to humans using many of their common tongues in a spell apparatus known as an LLM.

An "engineer" (within the context of the human job classification of "Information Technology", specifically within the context of "hardware") is a type of blacksmith who creates and designs these artificial creatures. Although they have no mind, the "engineer" builds a body for them—a vessel of sorts. Depending on their expertise (and collaboration with "programmer" warlocks), some of them enable specializations in certain tasks, such as opening portals to other worlds via "video games", simulating heavenly bodies, solving complex mathematical equations, predicting the weather with good precision, and other uses for the human race.

A "web developer" is a variant of the "developer" warlock, specializing in creating spaces in the "World Wide Web", a network of "websites" (the spaces these warlocks make) in the Interconnected Network, or "Internet"

Note that taking up any of these roles requires a good understanding of the "electricity" and "electromagnetism" magic systems, medium-to-advanced knowledge of one or more non-common-tongue languages, and/or the ability to cast spells using said non-common languages, depending on the job specifications.

And to my fellow writers—if you really think about it, this world is downright magical. It just lost its magic for us.

"There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see."

P.S: I'm not too into IT, so apologies if anything is misinformed and wrong

[shiftingfawnnn]

Understanding the 3D vs. 4D: The Shift Between Realities

Shifting is often described as the act of moving between realities, but the process is more complex than simply changing locations or environments. The distinction between 3D and 4D is not only significant in terms of the worlds themselves, but also in how we experience and perceive reality. Understanding this difference is crucial for anyone who is serious about shifting, as it unveils a deeper layer of reality that has the potential to change our understanding of existence itself.

The 3D World: Linear Time and Physical Constraints

To begin understanding the shift between 3D and 4D, it’s important to first grasp what the 3D world represents. The 3D realm is the reality most of us are familiar with, where we experience time, space, and matter in specific ways. Time in the 3D world is linear. It moves from past to present to future in a steady, measurable progression. Days, hours, and minutes dictate our lives, and every event follows a particular order. We are bound by the laws of physics that govern space—our physical movements are restricted to three dimensions (length, width, height), and our senses are designed to interact with the world in tangible, touchable ways.

In the 3D world, cause and effect are clearly defined. The events we experience follow a clear timeline—what happened yesterday can’t happen tomorrow, and what will happen in the future hasn’t occurred yet. This world operates on limitations, both physically and mentally, with space and time as constant forces shaping our experiences. Our bodies are subject to aging, our thoughts follow a rational progression, and our reality is defined by what we can see, hear, touch, and measure. Even the most abstract thoughts we have are contained within the structure of time and space.

This strict framework shapes how we live and understand the world. However, for those who wish to shift, this understanding of reality becomes a constraint. The 3D world, with its linearity and physical boundaries, is only a small piece of the larger, more expansive universe. To move beyond it, one must explore the possibility of stepping out of these limitations, to see beyond the veil of time and space.

Entering the 4D: A Higher-Dimensional Experience

When we shift to a 4D reality, we step into a world that is far more fluid, flexible, and expansive. The concept of the 4D world challenges everything we know about time and space. In this realm, time is no longer linear. Instead of being confined to a steady progression from past to future, time becomes malleable. It can bend, overlap, and occur simultaneously in multiple instances. Imagine being able to experience all moments at once—not just reliving the past or seeing the future, but understanding them as layers that exist together. This is what 4D time offers: the freedom to see time as an interconnected web, rather than a straight line.

The experience of space in the 4D realm is also radically different. While 3D space is fixed and measurable, 4D space allows for an expansion of what is possible. In the 4D world, the concepts of height, width, and depth can intertwine in complex ways. It’s not just about moving in three directions, but about perceiving multiple realities simultaneously. Imagine being able to see through objects, or being aware of a multitude of parallel universes at the same time. Movement in the 4D world is fluid and can happen across multiple dimensions at once, allowing for experiences that are not possible in our 3D understanding.

Perhaps the most profound aspect of the 4D world is the way beings in this realm interact with time and space. In 3D, we are restricted by physical boundaries, but in 4D, beings are able to transcend these boundaries. They might be able to experience events as they unfold across different moments in time, or even affect the timeline itself. A 4D being might be aware of their past and future in ways that 3D beings cannot comprehend, able to manipulate time to create change or prevent events from occurring.

Shifting Between Realities: A Bridge Between Worlds

So, how do we shift from the 3D world to the 4D? The transition between these realities is not as simple as stepping into another physical location—it’s about shifting the way we perceive and understand reality itself. To move from the linear, tangible experience of the 3D world into the expansive, fluid world of the 4D, we must first break free from the mental constraints that hold us in the 3D. This means shedding our reliance on linear time and physical limitations. Shifting into the 4D requires expanding consciousness beyond the familiar boundaries of space and time.

One way to approach this shift is by deepening our awareness of the non-linear aspects of existence. In the 3D world, we are trained to think in terms of time as a sequence, with one event leading to another. But in the 4D, time is not experienced in this rigid way. It is important to let go of our dependence on time as we know it and embrace the idea that past, present, and future can coexist, interweaving to create a reality that is far richer and more dynamic.

The key to shifting into a 4D reality is trust and letting go. Trust in the fluidity of existence. Trust in your ability to transcend the 3D constraints. As you begin to shift your perception, you may start to notice subtle changes in the way you experience time and space. These changes might feel disorienting at first, but with practice, they become more natural. Shifting into a 4D reality means stepping into a new way of being—one where time is an expansive force, and space is a fluid, interconnected experience.

The Implications of 4D Shifting

The deeper implications of shifting into the 4D realm are profound. Moving beyond the limitations of 3D opens up possibilities that are difficult to fully comprehend. In the 4D world, time is no longer a prison but a canvas. The way we experience our lives, the world around us, and even our interactions with others can be altered in incredible ways. It’s not just about physical space and objects—shifting into the 4D realm can alter how we perceive ourselves, our identity, and our place in the universe.

By shifting to the 4D, we become more aware of the interconnectedness of all things. We begin to understand that every choice we make ripples through time, and every moment is part of a greater whole. It’s a humbling and empowering experience, one that transcends the linear, finite boundaries of our 3D world.

Conclusion: The Next Step in Our Evolution

In the end, the shift from 3D to 4D is not just a physical relocation—it’s a journey of consciousness. It’s about transcending the limitations of time, space, and perception to embrace a greater understanding of existence. The 4D world is where time and space become fluid, where realities intertwine, and where we begin to understand our place in the cosmos on a much deeper level.

For those who are ready to explore the higher dimensions, shifting between the 3D and 4D is a way to unlock the full potential of reality. It’s an invitation to leave behind the constraints of the physical world and explore the infinite possibilities that exist in the realms beyond. With each shift, we step closer to understanding the true nature of existence—and perhaps, even the nature of time and space itself.

[lynamei]

Understanding political system: the basics for your fictional world

Whether you want to write a complex political plot or give your story a nice wholesome background, you need to know how politics work. Otherwise you'll make a real mess of your story, slotting together things that make no sense when combined.

Of course, sometimes things that make no sense exist, we see them right in front of us and want to ask ‘Sorry, what?’

But you should only try to create something contradicting if you are 100% certain in your understanding of the social systems. Otherwise it's better to start simple and then move towards more unusual options.

First thing you need to know: politics is always a system. Change one thing and others will change accordingly. It might take time, in some cases decades even, but in that regard politics is like a human body - everything is interconnected and interacts together.

Now, there are four big blocks political system is composed of:

Political organisation

Political relations

Political norms

Political culture

We’ll go over them one by one.

Political organisation is the easiest to write part of the system. It includes all political institutions that exist in any society. This is the part you can see every day and research to make your story more believable. Of course, some things are more difficult to research than others. Like, you can easily find information on the elections in Switzerland. But finding a lot of material on the imperial court of the Sui dynasty would prove to be a challenge.

The central institution in the whole political organisation is a state. Other examples are: political parties, elections, local governments, non-profit organisations. You should ask yourself what could reasonably exist in the world you create and how it will fit in the state.

There are also institutions that are not political in nature but might be involved in politics in different circumstances. The prime example - army and church. These two are amongst the oldest and most influential social institutions, and while they are always related to politics in some way, they are rarely (nowadays at least) straight away political.

When you construct political institutions, it's best to find something at least resembling what you want to create and then tinker with it. Just remembered that every part of it exists for a reason, and that is not playing a role in your story.

Political relations are an often overlooked part (as in, we write it as we want but don't think it through). They include all permanent and temporary ties that exist between parts of the political system. And that's what is really important when you want to make politics a part of the plot. Because this part can also be called actions and interactions.

Government influences citizens? - That's political relations. People start a revolution? - Political interaction, too. A country sends envoys for negotiations? - That is one more example.

Actually, you can witness this part too, if you pay enough attention to trace the roles different actors play in this or that process. You just need to pay attention and actually trace the entire web of actions and reactions complete with all participants’ motivation for them. It's like orchestrating a complex chess party with numerous players where you have to predict all moves before the first rook makes a play.

When writing about political relations, you should remember about all sides of the action. Yes, sometimes one side acts and others are ignoring it or being passive, but they all have their own reasons for that. One-sided action will likely only result in Mary Sue or something like that.

Writing political norms can be tricky but it's also pretty easy if you know where to look. They often (but not always) are reflected by laws and international regulations. Yet, there's also a large part that exists in the grey zone of mortality. And, of course, there are rules of etiquette which everyone knows but they may not be formally registered anywhere.

Like, diplomatic etiquette. Everyone knows that a female doesn't show legs during an official visit to a Muslim country (like Saudi Arabia). Doing such a thing is a direct disrespect towards existent religious norms of the country and therefore a breach of an unwritten political protocol of respect towards the host’s traditions and beliefs.

Your characters can and will breach political norms, especially if you push politics in the centre of the conflict. But you should be aware of those norms because overstepping or outright breaking them tells a lot about your character.

Start with thinking up all norms that are relevant to your story, especially those that have some ties to your plot. A simple example - every monarchy ought to have throne succession rules, but you might not mention it at all or you might need to delve deep into it depending on what you plan to happen in your story.

Political culture is probably the most elusive and the most exiting to write part of the political system. But it is also the part that in some form exists in practically 90% of the stories (if not more). Political culture includes all beliefs, ideas, ideologies and views that are tied in one or another way to politics.

So, your character being prejudiced against a social group is a show of political culture. Your character supporting some ideology is a part of political culture. Your character simply having opinions on something that is related to politics is a part of political culture.

So, it's basically everywhere. But you don't have to give more depth or explain every little instance of political culture shown in your story. Especially if those are displays of dominant culture (for example, internalised homophobia in British society in the 80s). But you might need to show how a character becomes unlike others in some environment.

Also, remember that political culture is the most irrational part of the system. I mean, people believe in propaganda, and that is not rational. People believe in pseudo science if it corresponds with their ideals. So it doesn't have to be rational. It only needs to have some inner logic (may be not too great to withstand a thorough questioning).

In the end, you are the author and you know how it should be, but look at the story with a critical eye and tell yourself if you believe in it. For political parts to work as you want them to, you have to know what you're writing and why. Your understanding of what you're writing about will allow you to create interesting, life-like and non-cliche political elements.

You can leave a comment if you would like to read more on any particular piece. I would try to include it in some of my next posts. Take care and until the next time.

[caelyne]

The Watcher ʕ 👀ʔ Thoughts

im going full spoiler here, so please dont read further if you have yet to play or care about that sorta thing. tldr, i liked it. Rain World is always a tricky game to recommend because its weird.. its very very good and i love it a lot, but theres so many elements about it that dont play out well for a lot of people. understandably so. this same sentiment applies to the dlc, even moreso, possibly. ill get into it below!

ive finally finished it after pretty much playing this game nonstop since it released on friday lolllll. im normal, alright? i'm not sure how i wanna structure this, but ill start with the opening.

the game begins in a surprising location, though you wont realize it at first. Hydroponics, the new subregion for Industrial Complex. when i emerged above the Outskirts karma gate, i admit i was a bit concerned. where was the new stuff? why am i here? it was disorienting. but i figured id start with the basic story beats: let's go see Looks to the Moon! i figured i'd run through drainage for the fun of it and keep an eye open for anything strange on the way. after running into a few king vultures and red lizards in outskirts, i was beginning to prepare for the worst in terms of enemy spawns and so i was taking it slow and easy.

then i found the rot. strategically blocking the only path to drainage. i then realized what was happening, and i freakin Loved it.

i really loved how they place you in an unfamiliar location, immediately setting your expectations that you are exploring completely unknown territory.. only for that facade to break as you realize you're still in the base game map. and then Further playing with your typical expectations of knowing to visit the Plot characters (Pebbles and Moonie) and very smartly controlling your movements by blocking off the paths to the iterators. Where else is there to go? The echoes.

Or, echo, in this case. i do want to go back and reread the dialogue from our strange friend a bit further, but off the bat it was cool how manic and, immature? this echo was. a stark contrast to the echoes we're used to! they even look different.. in their appearance and the way they hover there. totally different mood from the Pompous, Egotistical echoes that could not pass the veil.

i liked how they slowly began to open up to you and you learn more about their plight. after knowing this game for as long as i have (pre DP!!), the mysterious nature of the echoes had lost their luster a bit. they're still utterly horrifying and beautiful, but theres only so many times you can see them and the mysticism begins to become normalized. it was nice to feel like you could unravel a bit of the mystery behind this particular character, who ultimately is a child from an ancient society that failed to ascend. i loved it.

i guess i should talk about the actual gameplay though? i mean this IS a game after all….. and this game..?

well, this game started off as a maze runner in early development, yeah? and it still IS that in its final iteration on release, but theres also more to it with regards to the world it built. there's so much to unravel in base rain world when it comes to the environmental storytelling of the regions and their original purposes and locations, the pearl dialogue with Moon, buddhist memes, the ecosystems, etc etc etc etc. so so much. if you're reading this, you know already.

watcher doesn't have a LOT of that. each region you visit are not physically linked, but are instead done so via warp tunnels that you find or create yourself. i see a lot of people being disappointed about that aspect, to which i can understand. it leaves out a lot of potential for the aspects that are integral to base Rain World that i just mentioned. but honestly? i dont really mind it all that much.

in leiu of that, we have an interconnected web of regions/dimensions/worlds/realities that are all linked in specific and highly confusing ways that serves as the campaign's stage for a large game of hide and seek with our new echo friend. a Maze, if you will.

despite the map on the sleep screen being quite confusing and overwhelming at times, i thought it was a very cool way of handling this dlc's universe. a big criticism that i have is that since things are so Physically disconnected, it ends up being difficult to remember where a lot of key features are. karma flowers, static warp tunnels, Daemon entrance tunnels, it was A LOT. especially once you start figuring out what you're supposed to be doing and what youre looking for. in typical rain world fashion, the game doesnt hold your paw much at all outside of a few brief and essential tutorial explanations on how to use The Watcher's abilities.

the echo placements are something im a tad mixed on. since the saint has a function that immediately tells you there is an echo within the region you enter, i have to assume that the decision to not use this indicator is an intentional design choice. on my first playthrough, i had a few dry spells of endless and endless wandering until finally i managed to happen upon the echo, upon which i'd be transported to a new world and run into a string of finding their new hiding spot nearly back to back. i'm unsure if thats just good fortune on my end? or if there is a tendency for the echo to teleport you to places near their next spot, but thats how it ended up working out for me in a few cases. as i type this, i honestly think i'd settle for some kinda indicator on the region map that at least tells you where a previous echo has been found, because gosh it is DEFINITELY overwhelming to keep all that stuff memorized. you could always write this stuff down ig, but it wasn't immediately obvious to me that the campaign's objective was to locate this guy again and again. i'm fine with this objective overall, but yeah it woulda been cool if there was something to help you keep track of your progress in that regard.

so ultimately, its a big game of hide and seek in a maze-like region, where each region is a small part of a larger maze, all the while you are still a slugcat that is fighting to stay alive in a strangely familiar, yet alien universe with new threats we've never seen or encountered before. I liked it. it was very cool.

what other criticisms do i have.. uuaahhh.. i guess the inclusion of modded regions isnt my favorite. mind you, i also dont really mind it either. idk, its difficult to articulate. the sense i got is that… in The Watcher's (campaign) context, there was less of a focus on world building and moreso on providing us stunning set pieces to explore that are Rain World.. but different from what we've ever seen before. which makes sense! we aren't in Five Pebbles anymore after all. its vague as to Where we are of course, though i believe the echo dialogue implies we're jumping through different stages of history. or perhaps alternate timelines? maybe alternate universes? all of the above? i guess i'll leave the rw scholars to disassemble all that. but anyway, the modded regions are fine, i suppose. theyre a nice way to reach out to the community and in terms of gathering potential temporal/extradimensional locations within the rain world universe, it works fine imo.

i also dont love the possibility that the expansion was rushed to meet the 8th RW anniversary. by all means, it feels SOLID as is, but if theyre planning on adding more content (which was explicitly stated by James, eventually culminating in the console release), i think i woulda just preferred to have waited until it was Finished with a capital F. it is what it is.

ough, and ive already seen posts from people thats essentially just soyjack shit that centers around the world map discussion and boils down to old thing is for smart people, and new thing is superficial and not good. i just hope most people can distinguish between personal preferences and expectations to the actual quality of the expansion.

anyway. other stuff i liked!! gonna just bullet point this:

i LOVED THE MOTHS!!! GRRR!!!!!!!! i love how theyre docile up until the point where violence breaks out and they just fly you into the sky and drop you back to the ground. i also love that vulture are just On Sight with them. they're so cute too. their little head tilts… aaahhh.. i wanna draw them!!!!

the music slapped. next.

signal spires. utterly gorgeous. those structures in the background.. the whales.. aaa

the warp tunneling and cloaking effects were also SUPER cool. i also actually kinda predicted that the cloak could be upgraded and provide additional movement options since there was a LOT of areas that seemed to be impossible to traverse without loading yourself up with spears.

the new 'karma' symbols are water ripples

the ending was just very sweet and i loved getting to see a brief glimpse of that ancient society. this might also be entirely cope, but as someone who likes to think of slugcats being bout the size of a large cat, i have questions about the scale of Ancient Urban. for gameplay purposes, i think theres a level of abstraction, in addition to the fact that it was also explicitly mentioned by VC that it is left intentionally vague, to the size scale of the game, but that room with the shop and the storage closet and the bedroom and the void baths and the rooftop bridge and the pipes connecting each room together was.. inconsistent? i think? this doesnt even mater i just have autism, but its F*CKIN with my brain!!!!!!!!!! HOW BIG ARE SLUGCATS JAMES. PLEASE

THE PRINCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! actually outer rim is also just super fucking cool too. im soooo intrigued on whats happening there. i actually got the rot ending first lmfao. i couldnt stay away. by the time i realized what was happening with the rot, it was too late, so i just went IN on it. also he looks like videocult guy.

huahh!!! that was long.. turns out i have a lot of feelings abt this game. I GOTTA FINISH THOSE LAST PROMPTS TOO AAAHHHH EXPECT ART SOON

[tgd-sideblog]

further to the stuff about reactions my previous post-ep post - Bobby's surviving kids deserved more than being supportive aquaintances of the people whose grief was treated like it mattered this episode (Athena and Chim), and there is such juicy material there

May and Harry, who are both Bobby's step kids, but have developed very different relationships with him. For Harry, Michael and David are his dad and step-dad who have an active parental relationship with him, Bobby is his other stepdad/mom's husband who Harry cares about but hasn't really been close with in recent years; whereas for May, Bobby is the step-dad who has been her day to day present father figure while Michael has been across/out of the country (and David is Michael's husband but not a big part of May's life). So May and Harry are both grieving Bobby as their stepfather but it means different things to them and with different emotional intensities and that's hard for them because they are both Bobby's step-kids, they should be aligned on this and supporting each other, but for Harry his dads are still alive and he's sad about Bobby ofc but his focus is on his mom losing a husband, whereas for May she has lost a dad and anything that diminishes that relationship just hurts more, and maybe even having strained dynamics because May is struggling with how much less Harry cares whereas Harry feels like May's treating it as losing a father is disrepectful to their actual dad etc.

And that could bridge into May reaching out to Buck instead, who she isn't usually close with, but he is the person best placed to share her feelings about losing someone who wasn't originally her dad from the start but has filled that role but only their closest people understand the depths of that relationship, because May is the character who has most explicitly acknowledged Buck was a son to Bobby and it would be a neat callback to have her acknowledge that relationship again and that Buck is part of their family too even if he doesn't have an official relationship, and it would open up room to develop a relationship between Buck&May which would open up options for Buck to have a friendship in which he is the mature one and develop his character (and that friendship could then also tied in May being friendly with Eddie in S5) because if they really wanted Bobby's death to switch things up and open new doors the options are there but the show needs to remember that they have a complex web of interconnected relationships to play with.

[laurenwalshart]

So I love Druids in WoW. I love their lore, their diversity & complexity, but the magic they use and how they use it is hard to untangle for RP. A new quest in Hallowfall may explain how Dreamwalking works!

Some spoilers ahead if you haven’t done “The Last Mage” in Hallowfall.

–

In “The Last Mage” we learn that teleportation can use memory as an anchor point. It can use something as simple as a plant's memory of where it was grown. This means that plants hold memory. We’ve recently been introduced to memory magic with the Kyrian and the Primus in the Shadowlands who use Anima as a source of their magic. Since non-sentient life can hold memory it may be that memory is linked to Anima and thereby Spirit and Decay, meaning you may be able to access memory via these raw elemental pathways. 

This then could explain how Druids in WoW are able to Dreamwalk and physically teleport to the Dreamway without arcane based teleportation. Since most of the trees in the Dreamway are connected to G’hanir in some way (via the acorn used to plant Nordrassil) it means you are literally traveling a spirit/memory network of G’hanir, the Mother Tree. That in turn poses an interesting question about the origin of G’hanir & how Amirdrassil connects to the Dreamway. Since we know Elune is connected to the creation of Amirdrassil’s seed and that She offers seeds of trees in The Legend of Elun’ahir as a part of her portfolio and habits it may be an even larger network of seeds and trees connected to Elune and spans the cosmos (See Thiernax). Further proof that it may be Elune’s memories is the fact that your character casts a moon spell effect and you are bathed in moonlight as you cast Dreamwalking. As an added note we’ve also seen this type of non-arcane teleportation magic in Ardenweald with Marasmius’s fungal network which again likely uses anima, spirit, and/or decay.

Since all life, sentient and non-sentient, has memory and spirit it provides some more clarity on other things like how Malfurion is able to speak to trees (essentially he is witnessing their memories) and more context regarding the Wild God, Aessina. This connection of spirit with all things may explain why she is “the center of the web of life.” She is essentially a Wild God of Spirit connecting all living things. It is no shock then that she is found deep in the oldest and wildest of forests where the concentration of Spirit from old trees is strongest for her and wisps to manifest. It too could explain why those that are deeply devoted to a particular forest and the spirit of that forest become wisps to serve in death because their spirit is so closely tied to that one place.

This may also expand our understanding of the Ancients of Lore, War, and Arcane as well. We already know that Ancients have vast knowledge and wisdom and pass this knowledge on to Druids, but this access to Spirit and the memory of the plant life may be the source of their knowledge making them vital tutors in this interconnected web of life.

It may be that the environment that an Ancient is from or tends to informs what they will become - an Ancient in a peaceful place with many Druids may become an Ancient of Lore, an Ancient from a land that has seen continued conflict may become an Ancient of War, land that has been heavily influenced by the Arcane may become an Ancient of Arcane. We also see that the biome they are from affects them as well. We see this with the coral like Ancients in Nazjatar and the Ancients on Dreanor that reflect their biomes in how they are formed.

This web of life/spirit in nature may also be why Blight and Fel corruption are so hard to cleanse and why it affects the elements as well. Both Blight and Fel may use the spirit of the land and nature to continuously fuel itself making it a magical runaway fire that is almost impossible to control. Fel in particular seems to use Spirit like kindling. Nearly every zone you go to that has been touched by the fel is either in a state of decay or completely barren.

The corruption of Spirit poses an interesting concept as well. If Spirit is the conduit of memory then perhaps Decay acting as Spirit’s elemental counterpart is the conduit of madness and why it pairs so well with the Void. This lines up with things like the Emerald Nightmare and Shadow Flame, both have connections to the Void and both drive those corrupted by it to madness. While the Void and its infinite possibilities and whispers may be the source of madness, the element of Decay may be the channel by which it is able to make contact.

With a network of memory like this there is no need for recorded history. Just like Druids of our own history, knowledge is passed down from Teacher to Student, Shan’do to Thero'shan and on Azeroth the forest itself may be your teacher if you are able to listen.

-

For Roleplay of a Druid, all of this may offer your character a new reason to hold a grove, a certain forest, and the land so sacred because they hold ancient memories that can be passed down. Also maybe this might help players see the enigmatic network of knowledge your Druid might have access to. 

Also in my personal opinion this all means that D&D spells like “Speak with Plants” and “Transport via Plants” are viable spells for Druids in WoW rp with all the concepts stated above as long as your character has a memory of that tree/plant and your dm’s permission of course!

–

Hope you enjoyed my deep dive into this concept and I would love to hear your thoughts! I have a ton of more theories about the cycle of life from the Druidic perspective, World Trees, the Nightmare, Thros, and more. One day I'll get around to posting them.

[geometrymatters]

The geometry of the Borromean Rings

Borromean rings are a captivating geometric structure composed of three interlinked rings. What makes them unique is their interdependency; if any one ring is removed, the entire structure collapses. This fascinating property, known as "Brunnian" linkage, means that no two rings are directly linked, yet all three are inseparable as a group. This intricate dance of unity and fragility offers a profound insight into the nature of interconnected systems, both in mathematics and beyond.

Borromean Rings and Mathematical Knots

Borromean rings also find a significant place in the study of mathematical knots, a field dedicated to understanding how loops and tangles can be organized and categorized. The intricate relationship among the rings provides a rich visual and conceptual tool for mathematicians. Knot theorists use these rings to explore properties of space, topology, and the ways in which complex systems can be both resilient and fragile. The visual representation of Borromean rings in knot theory not only aids in mathematical comprehension but also enhances our appreciation of their symmetrical beauty and profound interconnectedness.

Symbolism and Divinity in Borromean Rings

Throughout history, Borromean rings have been imbued with symbolic significance, often associated with divinity and the concept of the trinity. In Christianity, they serve as a powerful visual metaphor for the Holy Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – illustrating how three distinct entities can form a single, inseparable divine essence. This symbol is not confined to Christianity alone; many other cultures and religions see the interconnected rings as representations of unity, interdependence, and the intricate balance of the cosmos.

Borromean Rings as a Metaphor for Illusory Reality

Beyond their mathematical and symbolic significance, Borromean rings offer a profound metaphor for the nature of reality itself. They illustrate how interconnectedness can create the illusion of a solid, stable structure. This resonates with philosophical and spiritual notions that reality, as perceived, is a complex web of interdependent elements, each contributing to an overarching illusion of solidity and permanence. In this way, the Borromean rings challenge us to reconsider the nature of existence and the interconnectedness of all things.

[dhruvkumaar]

What's a theme and why's it important to your story?

Theme is one of the most foundational elements of storytelling. All good stories have a theme—an argument, if you may call it that. Such stories try to tell you something, and that something is what we say is the theme of the story.

It doesn't even matter if it’s a novel or not. A song? A play or a film? A news-article? Even an advertisement? Every single form of storytelling has to have a theme in it.

But, we often confuse what theme even is, and how do we come up with it. I mean, I guess most of us begin our stories with a really cool idea, say a scene, and then build on top of it. We keep building the sequence of what-happens-next’s, without realizing that we gotta have something to say with this story that we’re creating.

And that’s why it’s so tough to fit themes in our stories. So, here I am, trying to collect my thoughts on this topic, because I feel even I am doing a not-so-good job in that department in my own web-novel.

But before we begin, please click that link…

***

#01. what’s a theme?

Let’s begin from the beginning.

I don't know how this definition ended up in my notebook, but that’s what I heard somewhere about themes and wrote it down: theme refers to the central idea or message of the story. And… I was gonna do such a bad job at describing it—good that I found my notes on time.

Anyways, as you could have guessed, theme is what you’re trying to tell to your audience through your story, like I said earlier. A theme can be as simple as: honesty is the best policy. Or, good wins versus evil. Or 

You’d have seen the latter—or probably both—in most of the fantastical stories where the protagonist is trying to save the day by killing the antagonist. And it makes sense—most of the stories are actually founded on such simplistic themes. In fact, many stories can hold extraordinary plotlines while serving such simple arguments.

However, themes can sometimes be complex. For example, Metamorphosis plays on the themes of loneliness and alienation. And, it does not only paint a great picture of its scene, but it also describes the theme really well.

One thing I’d like to note here is that a story can have several themes, but it’s better if those themes are interconnected to each other in some way, and you consider the plotline of the story while coming up with the theme of the story. Talking about the themes of high-school romance and toxic relationships in a dystopian dark-fantasy doesn't really make any sense, after all.

***

#02. types of themes

I just realized that there’s probably some types of themes that are usually employed in storytelling. Lol, it’s crazy how some things just hit you in the head only when you write about it.

Anyway, themes can be either descriptions or arguments. Like, look at Metamorphosis—it’s not trying to argue for anything. It’s not trying to tell you how absolute authoritarianism is bad, like Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Six does. Metamorphosis is simply painting a picture for you.

Though Nineteen-Eighty-Six paints a picture too, that picture has a reason. And it’s not just to show you a picture that you probably don't know about—it’s to tell you something. To make an argument.

Both themes are completely okay, in my opinion. But, I believe that in general, most of the commercialized fiction is filled with arguments, while literary fiction is more focused on the descriptions.

***

#03. How do you find a theme for your work?

Good question, I’d say. Unfortunately, I don't have an easy answer for this one.

Writing, as most writers keep echoing, is a highly personal art. The process of creating a story that works is different for everybody. For example, re-writing whole drafts don't really work with me, while most would re-write their stories as many times as they can.

Similarly, the process of finding themes and inserting them in your stories is different for all of us. Some of us have the themes in mind already when we’re outlining, while some of us have to go at least halfway through the draft to get there. Some even complete a whole damn draft, and then look at the macro of the story to identify the themes.

It’s different for everybody. All I can say is that one day, it’s gonna hit you. It’s gonna hit you why you should be telling your story. You’d just know what you wanna tell your readers.

Until then, don't stop. Just keep adding those what-happens-next’s to your plotline. Keep working on your story. That’s exactly what I’m doing with my work, after all.

And, I think I’m kinda getting there. I do have some ideas to play with the themes of my story.

It might seem counter-intuitive, at first glance, but sometimes, we only know what we’re writing about only after we’ve written it down. That’s what’s so magical about this art.

You can always come back to cut the scenes that ain’t relevant to your story anymore, and add the ones in the middle that work. Like I said, writing as an art is highly personal—different for everybody.

***

conclusion

In the end, all I’d like to say is: you write for fun. So write for fun, for now. Don't stress much about the theme. Just like most things in life, it’s gonna come to you when the time is right.

Or not. But you can always figure out how to correct your story later, so… it’s never too late, y’know. See you in some next blog!

[satoshi-mochida]

lowiro announces visual novel-style rhythm game In Falsus for PC - Gematsu

Arcaea developer lowiro has announced In Falsus, a new visual novel-style rhythm game coming to PC via Steam in early 2026. The game will tie “captivating music gameplay” with “a tale of lies and truth within a familiar yet far away modern world.”

Here is an overview of the game, via lowiro:

About

A new rhythm game title tying captivating music gameplay to a tale of lies and truth within a familiar yet far away modern world. In Falsus is a visual novel-styled rhythm game, bringing a youthful narrative shaped by questions of purpose and existence. The tale spans across five interconnected perspectives, told beside immersive music rhythm gameplay and an additional system that crystalizes emotion and memory.

The Sound of In Falsus

In Falsus has a complex and atmospheric soundscape, focusing predominantly on electronic music produced by composers at the forefront of Japan’s independent music scene. The game will release with over 70 songs. More than 40 of these are entirely original—composed by many artists, across many genres, including many not before seen in lowiro’s first title, Arcaea.

World Setting

In Falsus is set in a near-future world and follows the perspectives of multiple protagonists: 5 troubled high school girls born under bleak circumstances, and bound around their necks by mysterious collars. In their world, all people wear these devices for unspoken reasons, but they create a common ground for everyone: by displaying a person’s emotions, and their deceit. At the start of the tale, the 5 girls are each compelled to join a strange organization, but what seemed to be at most an unusual scheme quickly takes a stark turn. It is an adventure examining fate, the future, and the heart. Connection means everything, and in one’s will there is power. These themes are fully realized through the visual direction of In Falsus. A captivating blend of background, character, and scenario illustrations breathe life into this new world.

Characters

Through its visual novel-styled narrative design, In Falsus trails the paths of five protagonists. Each of them—harboring their own loves, fears, and desires—have individual paths that can be selected and played through freely, all of them intertwining to create a complex web of happiness, surprising turns, and deeply emotional moments. Additionally, In Falsus will feature full Japanese voice acting, marking a defining milestone for lowiro.

Nia Cana (voiced by Fuka Izumi

Mei Alder (voiced by Ran Haruka

Ayame Takatsuki (voiced by ???)

Iris Leal (voiced by ???)

Story Etienne (voiced by ???)

Watch the announcement trailer below.

Announce Trailer

English

Japanese

[codenamesazanka]

i always loved the Geten Himura reveal and blurb of backstory because it really rounded out the world of bnha. imo. It was a relatively tiny detail, but it showed that problems were deeper and more complex than just Bad Man, because many things were interconnected, and how tragedies can occur due to those chains of intersections.

Like, the fact that the Himura were traditional wealthy landowners was significant, because it meant they were the exact sort of old-money conservative douchebags that would hate change, that would marry cousins to keep their bloodline pure, that would raise children with the expectations to sell them off in arranged marriages. And because they were an old landowning clan, they would've had influence over local village politics - so is it any surprise that villages would be awful towards heteromorphs, when the village leaders or elites were people who rather marry their cousins than 'taint' their bloodline with outsiders and possibly have a kid with a heteromorphic quirk?

It meant Rei was always prepared to not marry for love, but be married to someone rich, and stay in that marriage no matter what, for the sake of her family. I don't know how low the Himura fell, but given that they're a big landowning family, they probably weren't 'starving in the streets' poor and in need of cash for survival, but rather didn't have the money to support their previously comfortable lifestyle. Rei kept in contact with her mom, but the mom could offer no support when Enji turned abusive - whether it was because the mom was also trained to be a traditional housewife and thought this was all normal, or because the mom needed the daughter to keep up a lifestyle, it's all fucked up. And plus, the marriage broker in Chapter 301 also mentioned "Himura women" like there's bunch, and there probably were - Rei's sisters or cousins also getting married off for money, also stuck in this clan-obligation-duty-dysfunction-web.

Enji was the asshole Rei ended up marrying, and everything that happened is his fault, but there very much could've been five other wealthy assholes that her parents had lined up for her to meet. In fact, Enji could've been a particularly useful idiot for the Himura - at the time, Enji was only 21, 22 years old, only having reached the age of majority the year or two before; his father was dead, so he's the head of his household, so they don't have to worry about pesky in-laws; he was probably nouveau riche from his Hero career, so he had no idea of old clan politics; he wanted a quirk marriage, which fit perfectly with their blood purity ideology; and he wanted a kid immediately, sealing the deal. Enji's selfishness matched beautifully with Himura's own messed up issues.

And so the problem isn't just Enji, and it didn't affect just Rei, it's a whole thing. And I so always thought this reveal added so much to the landscape of HeroAcaWorld, where quirks didn't only brought new problems, but exacerbated old prejudices and inequalities, entrenching them even further into the fabric of society. And it would've been fascinating to see how Heroes would have to deal with that.

[queerbrownvegan]

ICE Raids Are A Climate Issue

I am disgusted by the recent ICE raids happening in my hometown in Los Angeles. As a proud immigrant kid, my parents raised me on the principles of compassion, diversity, and resilience. But in recent years, the subject of immigration has continued to worsen, with people seeing immigrants as the issue rather than the system designed to serve a select few individuals.

The palatero man, the woman who sells roses on the corner of the freeway, the cleaners, the people who pick and make our food will constantly be labeled as criminals. Yet, they contribute to the economy for low wages and are disrespected by the average American. These people to me are environmentalists. They are what made my experience of environmentalism holistic and intersectional by watching over me, humanizing me, and their daily “buenos dias” as I took the LA Metro to school.

Growing up in extreme poverty shaped my relationship and love for the world. Immigrants were the ones who kept me safe from the cruel world that tried to make me assimilate into a culture of uniformity, whiteness, and individualism. It reminded me that humanity is within all of us, but can easily be misappropriated when people redirect their hatred from a system that is failing to a group of hard-working people wanting a better life.

Just this past week, I have been in tears from extended family members and friends from my community texting me from London, sharing with me how scared they are and why extremists have taken such an obsession over their livelihoods when they are simply trying to live a safe and prosperous life. I don’t know how we are supposed to handle these heavy emotions during these times when we are living in a state of loss, anger, and institutional distrust from our governments and elected officials. I feel broken inside.

The truth is that I am pissed myself. I feel helpless. I get angry when my ally friends text me, “I’m so sorry,” or “What can I do to help?”, when the reality is that they could have been helping for decades to contribute to a society filled with less hate and more diversity. I have seen videos of families being broken. I love them, but yet it’s not enough to hold a sign or apologize, it’s time we reckon with our moral compass of humanity.

Working-class people at Home Depot are being ripped away and hunted by ICE agents as if it’s a playground for their insidious behavior when they are only gardeners, landscapers, and designers helping beautify homes around LA. These gardeners look like my father. From a pregnant mom feeling helpless about the trauma she just experienced with ICE agents, to even undocumented youth in foster care being chained after being human trafficked.

Understanding the interconnections between the border and surveillance industries is crucial for achieving climate justice. Immigration and climate change are inextricably linked; they are not separate. The ICE raids did not occur overnight; the immigration industrial complex has been in place for decades. Without understanding the behemoth of the system that we are up against, we may risk being unprepared for future attacks on our communities. We must realize these connections now.Subscribed

The border and surveillance industry and the climate crisis

The Border and Surveillance Industry is a term that encompasses a vast sector comprising the border, military, detention, technology, and finance sectors.

The border and surveillance industry is busy at work every day, profiting from a web that spans the world. It’s all around us, and it gets easier to see once you know where to look. Borders can often seem obvious, as seen in the walls and fences along the Southern Border here in the US. Surveillance technology helps to expand these borders, and that is not always so obvious. Think about thermal imaging cameras, fleets of drones, and biometric databases. That is huge collections of fingerprints and iris-scans, as well as AI, phone, and social media tracking.Image provided by Unsplash.

This industry is already huge and predicted to grow faster and bigger than ever before. The largest expansion is set to be in Biometrics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Markets and Markets research reports forecast the biometric systems market to double from $33 billion in 2019 to $65.3 billion by 2024—of which biometrics for migration purposes will be a significant sector. It says that the AI market will equal US $190.61 billion by 2025.

In the US alone, the detention and deportation machine is already huge. There are a few times and places we can trace its origins back to. One of them is October 1994, when ‘Operation Gatekeeper’ began to roll out across the Southern border. Bill Clinton was President and CBP was known as INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service. They militarized the region, with increased numbers of Border Patrol agents, new interior Border Patrol checkpoints, more beds in detention, border walls and other infrastructure where there had been none, as well as installing technology like seismic sensors to detect people crossing.

After the 9/11 attacks, this was ramped up again. The Migration Policy Institute points out that following the 9/11 attacks, immigration policy was viewed principally through the lens of national security. There were heightened visa controls and screening of international travelers and would-be immigrants, as well as the collection and storage of information in vast new databases used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and the use of state and local law enforcement as ‘force multipliers’ in immigration enforcement.

It’s easy to forget sometimes that migration is not a crime and migrants are not criminals, they are just a convenient excuse to militarize borders further. Here in the US, for years now, the border has steadily been fed money, resources and staff. Meanwhile, detaining immigrants began becoming a lucrative business when surging inmate populations in the 1980s led to a boom in for-profit prisons. Today, privately run prisons have become the government’s default detention centers for undocumented migrants. That is all just here in the US - let’s remember that the border and surveillance industry is a global one and as an industry, it is booming.

I want to take a beat here to point out that migration is often framed as a national security threat. This is inaccurate and it’s often xenophobic. Moving is a direct adaptation strategy to global warming. People have always moved. Migration is a natural phenomenon observed in a huge number of species, from butterflies to antelopes to giant blue whales.

Preventing people from migrating is dangerous, and it can even be deadly. We know that the border and surveillance industry is set to make more money than the annual GDP of most countries - so perhaps we can understand why so many corporations, asset management firms, military companies, consultancy firms, and tech companies are hustling hard to get a slice of this pie.

But what has this got to do with climate? A lot!

In 2003, a Pentagon-commissioned report warned that in a worst-case climate scenario, the US would need to erect ‘defensive fortresses’ to stop ‘unwanted starving migrants’ from countries. Today, the Transnational Institute reports that the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are spending, on average, 2.3 times as much on arming their borders as they are on climate finance. Countries like the United States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Australia are financing and building their ‘fortresses’ - a “Global Climate Wall” to keep migrants out, rather than facing the crisis that forces people to leave their homes in search of safety in the first place.Link to video HERE

Rich countries—the ones that have emitted the most carbon and caused the most global warming—promised to provide climate finance that could help countries mitigate and adapt to climate change. At a United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009, developed nations pledged to provide US$100 billion annually to developing nations by 2020, to help them adapt to climate change and mitigate further temperature increases. That promise was broken. They never delivered.

Instead, they are militarizing their response to migration and expanding border and surveillance infrastructure. Earlier this year, Statewatch and the Transnational Institute provided a guide on the EU's security, military, and border budgets for the 2021-27 period. They show a massive increase in funding - a total of €43.9bn compared to €19.7bn from 2014–2020 - this will fuel a huge increase in military spending, the further externalization of the EU's borders, and underpin the expansion of EU border agency ‘Frontex’.

This provides booming profits for a border security industry but unacceptable suffering for refugees and migrants who make increasingly dangerous – and frequently deadly – journeys to seek safety in a climate-changed world. When nations militarize their borders, that does not stop people from needing to move. It simply forces people to make longer and more dangerous journeys. This leads to the horror we saw in Texas in July of this year where 53 people were killed when they suffocated in the trailer of a truck. And the UNHCR reports that more than 3,000 people died or went missing while attempting to cross the Mediterranean and the Atlantic last year, hoping to reach Europe.

Border militarisation has intensified due to COVID-19, leading to increased troops and technology deployed on many borders worldwide. There has been an increase in violent pushbacks of refugees on borders as well as the closure of ports, including to rescue vessels, which has led to increased deaths in already deadly regions such as the Mediterranean, which we just mentioned. And the travel bans that came down super quickly - remember that an abrupt closing of borders is almost always done with no concern for the well being of people on the move.

We will continue to discuss the terrible impact this border part of the industry has on migrants. Later, I want to share with you how this industry targets and endangers people on the move. These are people like my own family - people like your own family - you know - we are all impacted somehow - even if we are not the ones moving right now. Because surveillance is a massive part of it too. Surveillance technologies like drones, centralised biometric databases and even facial recognition smartwatches are often tested out on vulnerable migrant populations before moving on to everybody else.

How are investors using their money to fuel the climate crisis, and profiting from it too?

Currently, I would like to share another crucial aspect to consider regarding the border and surveillance industry: investors are using their money to fuel the climate crisis and profiting from it as well. In fact, they profit from the climate crisis in multiple ways.

Number one: this industry’s investors play a pivotal role in the climate crisis by financing fossil fuels and agribusiness. And we all know those are responsible for increasing greenhouse gas emissions, widespread environmental destruction, and gross human rights abuses. Unfortunately, despite being so demonstrably bad, these industries remain profitable. One analysis of World Bank data shows that the oil and gas industry has generated $2.8 billion per day in pure profit over the last 50 years.

Agribusiness is second only to fossil fuels in driving the climate crisis. The management consultants at McKinsey report that the food and agribusiness industry forms a $5 trillion global sector that is only growing larger. The cost of that, to the people, animals and land, is even bigger. Every year, fires ignited to clear forests for industrial agriculture destroy millions of hectares of land customarily owned and managed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Global Witness reports that extractive industries drive protracted land conflicts and systematic human rights abuses by forcibly grabbing land from Indigenous Peoples and local communities, razing cultural and sacred sites, destroying livelihoods, and unleashing violence and criminalization against those who resist. In 2020, at least 227 land defenders were killed worldwide for seeking to protect their traditional lands. But still, the profits are there, and Friends of the Earth reports that large asset managers such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street all help to bankroll the climate emergency and literally fuel, no pun intended, increasing global instability.

There are plenty of receipts:

Collectively, three of the biggest asset management companies - BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street hold more than $650 billion worth of shares in the 15 fossil fuel, agribusiness, and border and surveillance companies surveyed by Friends of the Earth.

Collectively, those companies - again lets name them - BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street hold almost one third of all shares in these very familiar fossil fuels giants - Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips - if we were giving out prizes for top global greenhouse gas emissions - they would be up right there - top twenty. We’re not giving out prizes, though, nope.

That leads us to number 2: The same global instability also leads to the second way those investors make money. They are deeply invested in militarized borders and surveillance. It’s gross.

The border and surveillance industry receives significant levels of financial support from institutional investors and governments. A 2019 forecast by ResearchAndMarkets.com predicted that the Global Homeland Security and Public Safety Market would grow from US$ $431 billion in 2018 to US$ $606 billion in 2024, at a 5.8% annual growth rate. According to the report, one factor driving this is “[climate] warming-related natural disasters growth”.

These big asset management companies not only help to cause the crisis, but they also facilitate human rights violations through their support of the border and surveillance industry. That’s the industry we’re talking about today - an industry heavily in the business of separating families, eroding civil liberties, and promoting systemic racism and ethnonationalism around the world.

Those same asset management companies make money on the other side too, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street - hold around 32% of shares in CoreCivic and 38% of shares in GEO Group – those are companies that operate private prisons and migrant detention centers linked to widespread human rights abuses.

ICE, surveillance and climate-linked migration

AI, big data and biometrics are technologies that will substantially shape the future of border policing. For example, the EU is funding a project to develop drones capable of autonomously patrolling Europe’s borders. And many of the same surveillance companies used to expand borders and surveil migrants are also hired by fossil fuel companies to protect pipelines and other interests.

The Latinx and Chicanx organizers at Mijente have been calling out this technology and the willing participation of companies like Amazon Web Services, Palantir, Microsoft, and many others in selling their data to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. Amazon and Palantir are considered the backbone of the federal government’s immigration and law enforcement.

The Tech giant Amazon has a multi-billion-dollar contract with ICE providing the servers needed to profile, track, and detain migrants. While Palantir Technologies, the tech company co-founded and chaired by the Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, was paid $189m, as reported by The Guardian. to create custom-built programs to allow ICE agents to link public and private databases. So that they could quote,“visualise an interconnected web of data pulled from nearly every part of an individual’s life”. Scary stuff.

Mijente points out that the border and security industry isn’t limited to feeding the detention and deportation machinery but also to policing and military operations, endangering the safety and security of communities already vulnerable to criminalization, from the Bronx to Compton to the southern border.

My own extended family has been targeted by ICE in the past, like so many immigrant families here. This is not by accident. Mijente has uncovered ample evidence of wildly lucrative contracts, invasive technologies at the local, federal, and international levels, and a revolving door of tech executives and government officials driving and making profits off of human rights abuses and widespread trauma and suffering. Ever since the inception of the agency in 2002, ICE has had information technology (IT) contracts with large defense contractors and IT services companies. But with the Trump administration, came unprecedented levels of surveillance, detention and deportation, which heightened the importance of new technologies and companies.

This dragnet of data built up by ICE goes way beyond migrants. ICE has a vast reach, with its intelligence weaponised through algorithmic tools for searching and analysing data. Earlier this year, researchers from Georgetown University released a report that took them two years. In it, they revealed that ICE has been operating largely in secret and with minimal public oversight, to put together a formidable arsenal of digital capabilities that allows its agents to - and I’m quoting the researchers now “pull detailed dossiers on nearly anyone, seemingly at any time”.

Some of the data gathered by ICE includes:

Driver’s license data for three of every four adults living in the US.

Data drawn from the utility records of 75% of adults, covering more than 218 million unique utility consumers in all 50 states.

Facial recognition technology drawn from the driver’s license photos of at least a third of all adults.

The Georgetown researchers base their report on hundreds of freedom of information requests and a review of more than 100,000 previously unseen Ice spending transactions. They suggest the motivation was partly to increase the number of deportations of undocumented people and partly as part of the US government’s - and I’m quoting again - “larger push to amass as much information as possible about all of our lives”.

ICE has spent more than $1.3bn on geolocation technology, including contracts with private companies that own license plate scanning databases, and a further $96m was spent on biometrics, largely face recognition databases; $97m on private data brokers that gather data on individuals from a range of different sources including more than 80 utility companies; and with all of that data they needed even more data analysis tools, and they spent $569m on those.

Why climate justice is migrant justice

Climate change is often referred to as a threat multiplier, as it exacerbates other forces, vulnerabilities, and inequities. When you consider this, it highlights the importance of forming alliances and mutual commitments across movements. The ideal and effective response to these compounding factors needs the engagement and alignment of multiple movements, including climate and environmental justice; immigrant and Indigenous justice; racial, LGBTQ+ and gender justice and economic justice.

And on the subject of money, border violence profiteering is climate change profiteering. The latest IPCC reports are clear - the climate crisis does not care about lines drawn on maps. Creating safe pathways for people to move and live in dignity is essential. You know how, in the environmental movement, we reject the idea of 'sacrifice zones' resulting from ecological destruction? That is so important. We also need to reject the border and surveillance industry that encourages governments and investors to see borders as sacrifice zones for migrants.

Migration has been caused and complicated by war, enslavement and persecution. Today, migrants and refugees must not be stigmatized - if anything needs to be stigmatized it is corporate profiteering from refugee and migration abuse. Migrants are not a problem to be solved, safe migration is and always has been part of the solution.

The climate crisis and the impact of environmental degradation fall disproportionately on people of color and on communities in the Global South. This is patently unfair, considering that the wealthiest 1% of the world’s population causes twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorest 50% of people, and they are the ones who live overwhelmingly in countries most vulnerable to climate change, meaning they are bearing the brunt of a crisis they did not cause.

Now, a vast industry and its investors are preventing those same people from moving to find safety. Without climate justice, there can be no migrant justice.

The climate justice movement and the migrant justice movement have a common oppressor. And common oppressors are evil, but dismantling this oppression is also a beautiful way to build resistance.

It’s also vital that we do that, because our common oppressor is the border and surveillance industry-system that values profits, whether from carbon extraction or border violence, above human life. That industry is connected, organized, and powerful right now - the climate justice movement and the migrant justice movement must be just as connected and organized - that is how we will win. Rather than cashing in on the climate crisis, it is time for the world’s most prominent financiers to divest from the industries that fuel and profit from it.

Protecting immigrants from ICE raids begins with educating ourselves about the history of these horrific industries.

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The Shifting Siblings

Y/N always admired her older sister, Nimona, for her incredible shapeshifting abilities. As kids, they would spend hours in their secret hideout, practicing their powers and dreaming of the adventures they would embark on one day.

Now, years later, Y/N had honed her own shifting skills, becoming just as skilled as Nimona. But while Nimona reveled in chaos, Y/N sought balance and peace. Despite their differing personalities, the sisters remained inseparable.

One fateful day, an ancient artifact known as the Shifter's Crystalline Eye was stolen from the kingdom. Rumor had it that it granted limitless power to those who possessed it. Determined to prevent the wrong hands from using it, Y/N and Nimona embarked on a quest to retrieve it.

As they journeyed through treacherous lands and encountered dangerous adversaries, their bond grew stronger. Y/N's calm demeanor complemented Nimona's impulsive nature, ensuring they made a formidable team.

Together, they faced countless challenges using their unique shifting abilities. Nimona effortlessly transformed into powerful creatures, while Y/N recognized the importance of using her shifting skills strategically, switching between forms to outsmart their enemies.

But amidst the chaos, they also discovered surprising truths about their past. Pieces of their family history were unveiled, painting a complex and interconnected web between their abilities and the origins of the Shifter's Crystalline Eye.

With each step, Y/N and Nimona realized that their intertwined destinies were at the heart of the artifact's theft. Their shared powers held the key to unlocking its true potential. They vowed to protect it from falling into the wrong hands and to uncover the hidden truths that connected them to this ancient power.

Now, as they stood at the precipice of a battle that could shape their world's fate, Y/N and Nimona knew they were stronger together. Their shifting abilities, combined with unwavering sisterly love, would guide them through the greatest challenges they had ever faced. And with that, their epic adventure began.