#Faith-based supplements

[flight-foods]

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[ms-demeanor]

Hey friend! So while I'm incredibly skeptical, I'm not strictly against alternative medicine, like you are. I saw you mention reiki, and thought you might geek out on this article like I did:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200308195914/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/04/reiki-cant-possibly-work-so-why-does-it/606808/

It's called "Reiki Can't Possibly Work. So Why Does It?" and I highly encourage reading the whole thing. It first of all thoroughly debunks a lot of the claims reiki practitioners make but it also details all of the studies that have proven its effectiveness and provides what I find a pretty compelling explanation: that much of modern western medicine is stressful and traumatizing. Of course laying in a quiet room with the lights dimmed while a kind person sits with you and wishes for you to be well is effective. It reduces stress and all of the negative biological processes it triggers, which promotes healing.

The article mentions that for years we didn't understand the mechanism by which acetaminophen worked - we just knew it did. I knew a man who was really into "chakra therapy" in the 90s where he had a set of colored sunglasses that, supposedly, would rebalance one's out-of-whack chakras through light therapy. He found that attending to his throat chakra, yellow, helped him sleep better. Years later, formal studies found that yellow lenses filter blue light and can help regulate circadian rhythms.

When I was really little, my uncle sold magnet therapy products (which claimed to promote circulation?? I think??). I had a huge meltdown at a family reunion and no one could get me to calm down. My uncle put a blanket full of magnets on top of me, and I immediately relaxed. Imagine my surprise hearing that story for the first time as an adult who now uses a weighted blanket for stress.

I agree that people need to be really careful about these practices, about getting scammed, and especially about herbal supplements that can have dangerous interactions. I also think there's an extent to which you can analyze the risks and benefits and say, "Okay, I have no idea why this works but it does and there's no major downsides."

Hey so I get a bit heated in this response but I want you to know that I approached this ask in good faith because I know you and I know that we have a lot of the same values and interests and this touched a nerve that was not at all your fault and once I get past the direct response to the article I think I come off a little less. Um. Like the aggression there is not directed at you, it's directed at the article and at one person mentioned in the article specifically who is part of why my reaction to the article is so not good. But I promise after the last bullet point I come off as less reactive, I think. (I'm also publishing this publicly because I think it may be helpful for people to see how CAM stuff often gets away with a veneer of skepticism-that-isn't-actually-skepticism - the article claims to be skeptical but then makes a ton of assumptions and cites some truly mind-bogglingly bad sources that a lot of people won't recognize as bad if they don't have a hair trigger trained by far too much time on the bad CAM parts of the internet).

I've actually read that article a few time times, and would like to do a quick rundown on why I find it unconvincing:

She doesn't cite any decent studies on reiki; one that she does cite is just a self-reported questionnaire response from 23 people in 2002.

While we don't know the exact mechanism of action for acetaminophen, we do know that it does work - it measurably reduces fever and in double blinded RCTs produces reproduceable results in reducing certain kinds of pain. The Science Based Medicine authors cited in the article who called for an end to studies on reiki did so both because there is no plausible mechanism of action for reiki (specifically as energy work, not as 'being in a room with a patient person who listens to you') and because there is no good evidence that it works. (And they wrote a follow-up to the Atlantic article; I like SBM but it's quite sneery, as are most of their write-ups of reiki). When Kisner asks "why should this be different?" when comparing reiki and acetaminophen, the answer is: because there is not only no plausible way that reiki *could* work, there is not any good evidence we have that it works better than placebo.

"Various non-Western practices have become popular complements to conventional medicine in the past few decades, chief among them yoga, meditation, and acupuncture, all of which have been the subject of rigorous scientific studies that have established and explained their effectiveness." This one sentence needs probably twenty or so links in response, suffice it to say that western medicine has emphatically not established and explained the effectiveness of AT LEAST acupuncture and the casually credulous way Kisner accepts that acupuncture is effective (effective FOR WHAT?) throws some serious doubt on her ability to assess these kinds of things.

The title of the article is "Reiki can't possibly work, so why does it?" and that's probably the Atlantic's fault more than Jordan Kisner's fault, but she doesn't ever demonstrate that it works. She says she got a buzzy feeling after her training, she says that patients at the VA were asking for reiki as treatment for pain and sleep disorders, she says that people remembered "healing touches" from parents and loved ones and that the same mechanism might be what makes reiki 'work.' She says that reiki "has been shown by various studies that pass evidentiary muster to help patients in a variety of ways when used as a complementary practice" and the two studies that she includes that weren't just a questionnaire were 1) a non-blinded study of heart rate variability post heart attack where the reiki arm involved continuous interaction with a trained nurse and the other two arms involved resting quietly or classical music (so relaxation as a result of additional focused attention by attentive medical professionals could account for this? Why was the control for this study not having a med student sit and hold the patient's hand?) and 2) a study of patients who sought out reiki who were surveyed after treatment and noted improvement on one of twenty mental or physical markers (this study is like, GOLD for an example of a bad study; no control, self-selected participants who believe in the efficacy of the intervention, exceptionally broad criteria for a positive result - I find it really really really challenging to grant any credence to someone who confidently cited this as an example of reiki "working")

Near the end of the article she says "At the same time, this recalled the most cutting-edge, Harvard-stamped science I’d read in my research: Ted Kaptchuk’s finding that the placebo effect is a real, measurable, biological healing response to “an act of caring.” - if she read any of Ted Kaptchuk's research she didn't link to it; what she did link to was a 2018 New York Times profile of him and Kathryn Hall, researchers at Harvard's Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter program. Being any flavor of journalist and citing Ted Kaptchuk as your source for cutting-edge, institutionally-backed science is disqualifying.

I now need to do some yelling about Ted Kaptchuk.

For clarity: I have as much medical training as Kathryn Hall and Ted Kaptchuk, which is to say: None.

Hall is a microbiologist with a PhD in Public Health, so she at least a background in science. Kaptchuk is an acupuncturist with a BA in East Asian studies and a doctorate in Chinese medicine - notably NOT a medical degree; he was forced to stop calling himself a doctor and had papers retracted after enough people questioned whether the school he claimed he attended even existed and the documents he presented to claim that he was an "OMD" were conclusively translated and did not have any indication that the granted a medical degree of any kind - Science Based Medicine was involved in investigating this because they've been comprehensively anti-quack forever and Ted Kaptchuk has been a quack forever (after recieving confirmation from the government of Macau that Kaptchuk's alma mater was not a medical degree granting institution SBM STILL gave him the benefit of the doubt and had people translate his documentation for final confirmation).

He is also an author on of one of my most beloathed ever studies, which showed that sham acupuncture, placebo, and albuterol all produced the same effect on patient-reported well-being, coming to the conclusion that patient reports can be unreliable and that "placebo effects can be clinically meaningful and can rival the effects of active medication in patients with asthma." That fucking line, that stupid goddamned line, gets cited in every piece of woo bullshit about how acupuncture or chiropractic or some scam-ass diet all work, I've run into this study while looking through at least twenty bibliographies and it is one of the biggest, reddest flags that whoever is writing the paper you're reading is full up on some bullshit. Because, see, the paper found that "placebo effects can be clinically meaningful and can rival the effects of active medication in patients with asthma" in terms of *patient-reported* markers, but the fucking study found that only albuterol produced an actual effect in lung function. Here's the sentence BEFORE the one that gets cited all the time: "Although albuterol, but not the two placebo interventions, improved FEV1 [forced expiratory volume in one second - the measure for lung function used in the study and used to diagnose asthma] in these patients with asthma, albuterol provided no incremental benefit with respect to the self-reported outcomes." It doesn't matter if the patient *feels* better if they can't actually breathe! It doesn't fucking matter - feeling better but still having poor breathing leaves you more vulnerable to dying of a fucking asthma attack! I hate this goddamned study so fucking much and it's used all the time to claim that placebo can be just as effective as medicine for making people FEEL better but, like, they're still sick even if they feel better! I HAVE HAD PEOPLE CITE THIS STUPID FUCKING STUDY TO ME AS EVIDENCE THAT I DON'T CARE ENOUGH ABOUT TREATING MY FUCKING ASTHMA BECAUSE I DON'T GET ACUPUNCTURE TO TREAT MY FUCKING ASTHMA. If sham acupuncture makes you feel better when you've got the flu but doesn't lower your fever or make you less contagious, you shouldn't act like you don't have a fever or aren't contagious this study makes me INSANE.

Okay done yelling.

I think this look at placebo in the midst of her article about reiki is really interesting because it's very common for CAM practitioners to claim that it's as effective as placebo - which just means that it's not effective. This is a great explanation from The Skeptic on why placebo isn't and can't be what Kaptchuk, Hall, and the like claim. It's also interesting to me that Kisner didn't choose to link to a 2011 New Yorker profile of Kaptchuk that is somewhat less rosy about his placebo studies and includes this absolutely crushing statement: "the placebo effect doesn’t appear to work with Alzheimer’s patients. Trivers suggests that this is because most people who have Alzheimer’s disease are unable to anticipate the future and are therefore unable to prepare for it."

But to the actual point of the ask: I honestly think it's fascinating how much CAM success probably rides on "well did you listen to the patient and pay attention to what was wrong with them and sympathize with them and help them lay out plan that made them feel like they had some agency in this exceptionally frustrating situation (chronic illness, newly diagnosed issue, totally undiagnosed issue) that they're dealing with?"

I know part of why people with chronic illnesses turn to CAM is because they're ignored and dismissed by allopathic practitioners who are largely looking for horses, not zebras - this is one of the reasons that I'm really big on reminding people that (at least in the US) DOs are fully licensed physicians who use a holistic and patient-centered approach so if you are someone with a chronic illness who has had trouble getting diagnosed or had trouble getting doctors to believe you, swapping your MD for a DO as a primary care physician might be really, really helpful to you.

But the flip side of that is that is that I worry deeply about the question of where harm starts; the example with your uncle is really great because you do have a solid instance of something working but for totally the wrong reason (pressure being the mechanism that actually helped, versus magnets being the reason given by the person who did the treatment). Some of this stuff has very little likelihood of causing direct harm, but has the distinct possibility of having indirect harms, which people in the anti-CAM space generally divide into two categories, treatment delay and unnecessary costs (opportunity costs, monetary costs, wasted effort, etc.)

I'm going to step outside of your specific example and look at magnet therapy generally, which really is a spectacular thing to focus on because it honestly doesn't have any direct harms; nobody is allergic to magnets, the kinds of magnets used aren't strong enough to interfere with medical devices, it's even safer than the whole "well herbalism is sometimes just a cup of tea" thing because there are "safe" teas that can do real harm to large populations! But simply being around magnets is not going to hurt anyone (unless they're swallowed; nobody swallow magnets please).

One of the things that I think goes under-discussed when talking about placebo and CAM is that the people trying the alternative solutions desperately WANT the alternative medicine to work (I suspect that this is why the self-selected study of reiki patients has such a significant finding). They are pulling for it; they may be looking at it as a last resort, or they may be hoping that it will work to avoid a treatment that is more frightening, expensive, or inaccessible. I think this actually contributes a lot to the delay of care that we see with CAM.

The absolute worst case harm I can imagine from magnetic therapy is delaying treatment. Let's suppose we've got a diabetic patient with gradually increasing peripheral neuropathy; they have reacted poorly to gabapentin in the past and are looking for something more natural, and they hear from their chiropractor that magnet therapy can be used to treat neuropathy. They buy some compression socks with "magnetic and earthing properties" and sleep in the socks. Whether through the compression controlling some edema or through the simple desire for the socks to work, they feel some relief from the nerve pain they were experiencing and decide that this is a success. The socks work! They continue wearing the socks with occasional pain, but less than before. However, because they are focused on the lack of pain, they don't notice that it's accompanied by increasing numbness. The numbness significantly increases their risk of injury to their feet, which significantly increases their risk of amputation.

It probably sounds like catastrophizing to say "using magnets could lead to amputation" but honestly I don't think it's that far out of the realm of possibility (every time I post on this topic I get flooded with the saddest stories in the world about people whose loved ones died because of delayed treatment for cancer or heart disease).

The second category of harm is cost, which is honestly pretty minimal with magnet therapy, as long as you aren't spending $1049 on a magnetic mat

or paying a chiropractor to give you magnetic treatments. For some other medically harmless treatments like reiki, cost is the thing that I worry about - while I was looking up information related to the article I found that people are charging anywhere from $60 to $225 a session, and selling multi-session packages for thousands of dollars - and if someone thinks that something works, even if it only works by being in a soothing space where someone cares about you - they'll pay for it.

I'm aware that all of this is also extra complicated because of the cost and lack of access to allopathic medicine - a chiropractor broke my spine because I could pay her $60 per appointment but I couldn't pay $125 to see an MD when I didn't have insurance. People who are sick are going to look for treatment; people who have been denied treatment or dismissed by doctors are going to look for alternative treatments.

But man, I really wish I'd spent that sixty bucks on half of a doctor's appointment because the chiropractor didn't know about the benign tumor that I had that weakened the structure of that particular bone when she did her adjustment; it also didn't make the pain go away, it made a different pain start and get worse because it turns out I was having debilitating muscle spasms that then had a bone injury added in on top.

(Chiropractic, for the record, goes with chelation therapy and many many many many cases of herbalism where it's NOT just cost or delay; people claim these treatments are harmless and they are not. They can do tremendous harm).

But yeah I'm not going to deny at all that all of this would be a hell of a lot better if people (especially marginalized people) didn't have to jump through hoops to prove to a doctor that something is wrong with them, and didn't have to do so in an appointment that attempts to cram whole person care down into fifteen minutes, and didn't have the possibility of bankrupting you. Interacting with allopathic medicine is a nightmare and I totally understand why people want to look outside of it for treatment.

I've just heard too many horror stories and seen too much predatory CAM to cut much of it any slack.

At the end of the SBM response to the Atlantic article, the author (I can't remember if it's Gorski or Novella) makes the point that reiki is a spiritual practice, and that we've known for a long time that spiritual practices can improve a person's well-being in a number of ways; they can reduce anxiety, they can provide community, they can give people a space to feel and express emotions that they certainly aren't going to be able to process in a doctor's office. Spiritual practices can be wonderful, and we know there are a lot of people who they can help. But they aren't medicine, and attempting to replace medicine with them (which I don't think that most reiki practitioners are trying to do, to be fair, but which Ted Kaptchuk DEFINITELY is in trying to 'harness the power of placebo') is a disservice to people who need an inhaler instead of acupuncture.

Also, and I know this was not your point but I have to bring it up because people ask about it whenever discussions of placebo come up:

The placebo effect is not treatment. The placebo effect, whether achieved through deception or when someone says loud and clear "this is a sugar pill" does not improve an illness, but it may improve how a patient *feels* about an illness. In some cases, this may as well be the same thing - if you're dealing with muscle pain because you're stressed and no matter what you do it doesn't go away because your shoulders are always up around your ears and you're grinding your teeth and you're sleeping poorly, then literally just talking to someone who is in an office and says "this is a sugar pill, go ahead and take it" may make your muscle pain feel better, but it isn't going to reduce your stress and it isn't going to last, and if your muscle pain is because you're feeling angina as a result of a partially blocked artery then it SURE AS FUCK is not going to make you better and may mask symptoms that were a warning sign of a much more serious problem. People who are sick deserve actual treatment, and placebo is not treatment, which is part of why Ted Kaptchuk makes me want to tear my hair out.

[nadas-dirthalen]

I Saw Solas's Origin in an Achievement Icon and It Opened My Eyes on 15 Years of Lore

— PART FOUR: if you haven't read previous parts, do it now! —

[ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ]

Welcome, friends and travelers! I wanted to get some thoughts recorded before Veilguard's release so I could see if I am right about an absolute BOATLOAD of theories I have.

In short: I saw the achievement list when it was released. I have seen the backstory hints for Solas included in said list. AND MY MIND WAS BLOWN.

You have been warned: THIS COLLECTION OF THEORIES INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR EVERY DRAGON AGE GAME AND ALL PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL UP TO AND INCLUDING OCTOBER 18, 2024.

Come sit down with me. Make a nice cup of tea (and hide it from Solas). We've got a lot of unpacking to do.

(this photo isn't the spoiler, I just like it.)

Today's Discussion: What the Chant of Light Confirms about Solas, Mythal, and the Evanuris at large.

Ohhhh boy. Here's where we're really getting into the, 'If you haven't read the previous parts, you NEED to go do that, otherwise what I'm about to say will make a lot less sense,' portion of this series. So seriously: the previous parts are linked above. Go look at those.

Caught up? Good.

Today, we're going to look at how closely the Chant of Light follows everything I just talked about with Titans, the Fade, spirits-as-thoughts, and Solas-as-lyrium-spirit. For this exercise, I'll mostly be drawing on material that I have access to (both volumes of World of Thedas, plus my knowledge from all three games) but supplementing with what the Dragon Age wiki has compiled, as well.

Rather than go through the Chant from beginning to end (as I simply lack the space here), I'm going to break it down into topics.

Our topics are as follows:

Who—and What—Is the Maker?

The Word "Forgotten" in the Chant

The Maker's First and Second Children

The Jealous First Children: Demons Seeking to Conquer the Earth

Archdemons and Titans

Yes, I Have to Talk About Shartan

Veilguard Predictions Based on the Chant of Light

Who—and What—Is the Maker?

For anyone who hasn't gone through the whole thing and read every verse, let me begin by saying: the Chant of Light is a story writ by many hands over the history of Thedas. Some of it is (allegedly) written or recorded from Andraste herself, but many verses are taken from outside sources—even adapted from other cultures' legends.

But overall, it is a story that the Andrastian faith believes in: one with approved verses that the Chantries teach all their faithful. The Chantry has been a brutal organization throughout Thedas's history, but I still find value in using the Chant to piece together different takes on Thedas's ancient lore. Whether the events happened as described is up for debate, but they are historically significant, and I would argue that they contain kernels of truth no matter if one believes in the prophecies from Andraste or not.

To properly discuss whether the Chant follows my theories, we first have to ask ourselves: what does the Chant suggest that the Maker is? To do this, we have to look closely at its creation story, and from the eyes of the one who supposedly witnessed him: the Canticle of Threnodies, and the Canticle of Andraste.

Right in Threnodies 1, it says this:

(4) From the waters of the Fade you made the world. As the Fade had been fluid, so was the world fixed.

Immediately, we can see that lyrium plays a major role in the Chant's creation story. If that's true, then the possibility exists that the Chant aligns at all with any of my prior theories. If that is the case, then the Chant of Light might aid us in predicting what's to come in Veilguard—especially with characters like Solas, so intertwined with Titan lore and lyrium.

From here, I went looking for additional references to the Maker, namely in Andraste 1.

(8) Lo! My eyes open'd, shining before me Greater than mountains, towering mighty, Hand all outstretch'd, stars glist'ning as jewels From rings 'pon His fingers and crown 'pon His brow.

The Wellspring of All said, "None now remember. Long have they turned to idols and tales Away from My Light, in darkness unbroken The last of My children, shrouded in night."

"World-making Glory," I cried out in sorrow, "How shall your children apology make?

Of course, we cannot forget one of the Chant quotes that Inquisition made famous!

(11) Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls. From these emerald waters doth life begin anew. Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you. In my arms lies Eternity.

Through all of these examples (and more that I simply do not have time or space to cite, with Veilguard so close), I can tentatively conclude: the Chant of Light is likely hinting to us that the Maker is a Titan.

But to test this theory, I wanted to go one step further. I wanted to see if the Chant of Light would suggest that the Maker is one of the Forgotten Ones.

The Word "Forgotten" in the Chant

To accomplish this next piece to the best degree possible, I actually moved the entire known Chant of Light into a google doc. Here's what I found when I looked for applicable mentions of forgot/forgotten.

(4) From the waters of the Fade you made the world. As the Fade had been fluid, so was the world fixed. (8) And so we burned. We raised nations, we waged wars, We dreamed up false gods, great demons Who could cross the Veil into the waking world, Turned our devotion upon them, and forgot you. —Threnodies 4.

We'll get to those "great demons" in a moment, but for now I want to draw attention to: "Turned our devotion upon them, and forgot you." That's one mention of the Maker being forgotten, in the first stanza we know from the Chant.

The Maker appears to Andraste (7) Eyes sorrow-blinded, in darkness unbroken There 'pon the mountain, a voice answered my call. "Heart that is broken, beats still unceasing, An ocean of sorrow does nobody drown. You have forgotten, spear-maid of Alamarr. Within My creation, none are alone." — Andraste 1

This comes from the first stanza of the Canticle of Andraste, and describes the first time the Maker appeared to her. She is describing what she is seeing: "There 'pon the mountain, a voice answered my call." She is evoking mountain imagery here, and even though she doesn't mention an abyss in this verse, it does come up elsewhere in the Chant (as we have seen).

That, and the Maker speaks to her: "You have forgotten, spear-maid of Alamarr. Within My creation, none are alone."

For one, we have a mention of forgotten, again. But perhaps even more crucially, we have this concept of "none are alone" within the Maker's creation. With everything I know now, I'm thinking of the concept of Isatunoll: the hive-mind feeling experienced by Dagna, Valta, and Harding.

(13) "World-making Glory," I cried out in sorrow, "How shall your children apology make? We have forgotten, in ignorance stumbling, Only a Light in this darken'd time breaks. Call to Your children, teach us Your greatness. What has been forgotten has not yet been lost." (14) Long was his silence, 'fore it was broken. "For you, song-weaver, once more I will try. To My children venture, carrying wisdom, If they but listen, I shall return." — Andraste 1

Another mention: Andraste addresses the Maker as "World-making Glory," which references the saying that Titans were the first Shapers of the world. Then, she says: "We have forgotten [...] Call to Your children [...] What has been forgotten has not yet been lost."

Again: references to the Maker as a being that was forgotten. Another reference to lyrium, in asking the Maker to call out to people. This reference is further enhanced with the Maker referring to Andraste as "song-weaver," suggesting that these songs are how she can speak to the Maker.

And to top it all off: "What has been forgotten has not yet been lost" is answered with, "If they but listen, I shall return."

Listen, for so long, made me think of commandments. Listening to the Maker's will. But now? Now I think we're supposed to think of listening to the Maker's song.

(3) I have heard the sound A song in the stillness, The echo of Your voice, Calling creation to wake from its slumber. (4) How can we know You? In the turning of the seasons, in life and death, In the empty space where our hearts Hunger for a forgotten face? — Trials 1

Just like Andraste has heard the song, the echo of the Maker's voice, calling creation to "wake from its slumber." It could not be more deliberate than that!

Another mention, also, of a "forgotten face."

To me, these mentions of forgotten affirm that the Maker is one of the Forgotten Ones, and is definitely a Titan. That tells me that, until I am proven otherwise, I can read the rest of the Chant of Light as though Maker-as-Titan is true, and can see what other developments stem from that initial truth.

Namely: What does the Chant say about spirits and people, in relation to the Titans?

The Maker's First and Second Children

To understand the (possible) creation of the spirits and the elvhen, we are back to the Canticle of Threnodies, stanza 5. The first of the Chant's Canticles, it's an introduction not just to the text, but to the world of Thedas as understood by Andrastians.

Again: it may not be a precise literal description of events, but I maintain that if the Chant of Light truly didn't matter, BioWare wouldn't have made it that long, or paid as much attention to cadence/meter as they did.

The crux of the earlier portion of this Canticle is that the Maker produced two sets of children, and the first eventually grew envious of the second (more on that later). For now, let's examine what is said of the creation of the Maker's first children.

(1) There was no word For heaven or for earth, for sea or sky. All that existed was silence.

I am going to interpret this one very liberally. It is not said that there were no heaven, earth, sea, or sky—but that there was no word for those things. That, I interpret to mean that there was no distinction between heaven and earth. Remember that, throughout codices from ancient elvhenan, "sky" often refers to the Fade, and "earth" often refers to the Titans' domain, the Abyss, or the waking world.

Either way: there was no Veil, and so there was no distinction between the Titans' domain and the Fade.

Then the Voice of the Maker rang out, The first Word, And His Word became all that might be: Dream and idea, hope and fear, Endless possibilities. And from it made his firstborn.

There are two things worth noting here:

the "Voice of the Maker" is something I interpret to mean the song of lyrium: the song of the Titan that the Maker is.

"Dream and idea, hope and fear/Endless possibilities" sounds a lot to me like the Maker is creating his first children with thoughts. Thoughts conveyed through the song of lyrium, maybe?

Originally, these "first children" famously showed no sense of ambition. They were given the Fade, but did not do anything with it. They only reflected what already existed. (Though I do want to note that this city apparently had lyrium for cobblestones.)

He called forth A city with towers of gold, streets with music for cobblestones, And banners which flew without wind. [...] But their songs Were the songs of the cobblestones. They shone with the golden light Reflected from the Maker's throne.

The Maker apparently realizes his mistake: only giving the spirits the Fade.

The realm I have given you Is formless, ever-changing.

But the solution to that mistake?

So the Maker turned from his firstborn And took from the Fade A measure of its living flesh And placed it apart from the Spirits, and spoke to it, saying: Here, I decree Opposition in all things: For earth, sky For winter, summer For darkness, Light. By My Will alone is Balance sundered And the world given new life.

The Maker took living flesh from the Fade. That's not the thoughts existing in the Fade; that's the lyrium from the Fade. To that living, now sentient lyrium, the Maker spoke, and declared opposition in all things.

Now sky and earth are separate things. The Veil is not yet created (we'll get there), but we have this concept of two opposing schools of magic, like earthbending and airbending (to forever keep with the A:tLA examples through this series).

So far, this is lining up with my previous theories. But, what, exactly, are the Maker's second children made of?

(5) And no longer was it formless, ever-changing, But held fast, immutable, With Words for heaven and for earth, sea and sky. At last did the Maker From the living world Make men. Immutable, as the substance of the earth, With souls made of dream and idea, hope and fear, Endless possibilities.

Now, the waking world is immutable, and there is opposition in magic. And from that opposition, the people are created. Not humans, but people. Their bodies are "immutable, as the substance of the earth" (meaning lyrium, I believe), "with souls made of dream and idea, hope and fear/Endless possibilities."

The exact same phrase: the Maker's thoughts are the souls of his second children, just as they were the first children's entire being. This proves that the people of Thedas have spirits for souls, but also that all spirits come from the Maker's thoughts.

When I tell you I almost choked, realizing that.

But I still want to ask the Chant of Light: in all this story, where do we find the Evanuris?

And the Chant has answered in full.

The Jealous First Children: Demons Seeking to Conquer the Earth

When I first read the Chant of Light, I had not pieced together that heaven and earth were synonymous with Fade and Abyss. Now that I have, I see the Evanuris plain as day in Threnodies 5.

(7) Now, with their Father's eye elsewhere, the firstborn At last created something new: Envy. They looked upon the living world and the favored Sons and daughters there, covetous of all they were. Within their hearts grew An intolerable hunger. Until, at last, some of the firstborn said: "Our Father has abandoned us for these lesser things. We have power over heaven. Let us rule over earth as well And become greater gods than our Father."

In the codices of the Trespasser DLC and the Temple of Mythal, there are constant references to the Evanuris wanting to tame or dominate the Titans, the "Void," or the "land." The ancient elves ask Elgar'nan to help them "tame the land." Mythal is praised for "striking down the pillars of the earth." The Evanuris, namely Mythal and Elgar'nan, carried on an endless war with the Forgotten Ones.

The Chant goes on.

(8) The demons appeared to the children of earth in dreams And named themselves gods, demanding fealty.

Remember part 2 of this series? Remember the Mythal lullaby from the Deep Roads portion of Trespasser? (I was lovingly informed about a small mistranslation, which I shall correct here.)

Ir sa tel'nal Mythal las ma theneras Ir san'a emma Him solas evanuris Da'durgen'lin Banal malas elgara Bellanaris, bellanaris. Isatunoll Mythal grants you dreams Lyrium within Becomes Solas evanuris Little stone boy Never granted (connection to many spirits) Forever, forever

Cole says, "He didn't want a body, but she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face."

It sounds exactly like the Chant describes: Mythal feeding dreams to Solas, only to bring him into a body he did not want, and apply vallaslin (a geas?) that he did not ask for.

Therefore? The Evanuris are the Maker's first children, as far as the Chant of Light is concerned.

But I've still got questions. Namely: What came next?

Archdemons and Titans

As for the Evanuris's eventual fate—being imprisoned at the same time as the Veil was created? They've employed interesting wording.

And a mighty voice cried out, Shaking the very foundations of heaven: "Ungrateful children! I gave you power To shape heaven itself, And you have made only poison. As you crave the earth, the earth shall be Your domain! Into the darkness I cast you! In tombs of immutable rock Shall you dwell for all time."

I question who this "mighty voice" belonged to. I do not believe Solas is the maker, but I do wonder: was Solas acting in conjunction with his Titan here? During the exact moment of the creation of the Veil, he still would have had access to his non-sundered Titan. Would he still have heard the song/call, and made the Veil at the Titan's behest?

Regardless: this piece of the Chant speaks about the imprisonment of the archdemons in the Abyss, the same domain as the Titans.

It goes on to specify what happened next:

(11) Those who had been cast down, The demons who would be gods, Began to whisper to men from their tombs within the earth. And the men of Tevinter heard and raised altars To the pretender-gods once more, And in return were given, in hushed whispers, The secrets of darkest magic.

This serves to confirm a theory that I'd held for a long time: that the Evanuris whispered to the priests of old Tevinter through their archdemons. Trapped in their fade-jail, they could not act themselves, but may have used their archdemons as puppets in order to convince the Magisters to come open the door to the Golden/Black City, that they might be released.

Overall? It sounds like the Chant of Light exactly confirms every one of my theories on the Titans, the Forgotten Ones, spirits-as-thoughts, the Evanuris, and the Archdemons. I may not have been able to examine the entire Chant here (can you imagine how long this post would be if I did?) but what I have presented so far exactly aligns with my theories from the last instalment.

Now, the question you're all here for...

Yes, I Have to Talk About Shartan

I know, I know. Shartan is one of the most widely debated figures in the Chant. And I'm sorry to say, I'm no more sure than the rest of you.

But I've never quite believed that Solas himself is Shartan. He says he slept for millennia after the creation of the Veil, after all. But I cannot deny all that we know of Shartan: that he freed elven slaves, that he held fast in his convictions, and that he is rumoured to have been Andraste's lover.

It seems damning, doesn't it? Surely someone so invested in freedom must be Solas, especially an ancient elf who looks so much like Solas himself.

But what if Shartan wasn't one person?

(3) My Maker, know my heart: Take from me a life of sorrow. Lift me from a world of pain. Judge me worthy of Your endless pride. — Transfigurations 12

We can guess that the Maker is a Titan. We know Solas came from a Titan. We can guess that Solas was still able to hear his Titan when the Veil was created. We also know that there were many lyrium coffins in the Deep Roads during the Descent DLC. The Maker's first children whispered to many stone-spirits just like Solas.

We also know the Forgotten Ones are named by their qualities, just like spirits and demons.

The Maker instructs Andraste to carry wisdom to the people, that he might return. Who is to say that the Maker is not the ultimate Wisdom/Pride aspect, and we just haven't seen it confirmed yet?

And if there are many wisdoms and prides that are tied to the Maker-Titan, then there is absolutely reason to believe that any of those lyrium-spirits-turned-corporeal elvhen could strongly resemble Solas not just in appearance, but in convictions.

Two elven translations point me to this conclusion, as well:

Ar-melana dirthavaren. Revas vir-anaris: this is Fen'Harel's secret password for the spirits in Trespasser. I believe it loosely translates to, "I now promise knowledge. Freedom for we-Anaris." • This translation GREATLY interests me, because Anaris is the name of one of the Forgotten Ones. "We-Anaris" implies that there are many elvhen that come from Anaris, and these specifically may be the slaves Solas was trying to free.

Shar•tan: I believe, as with all the Evanuris, this name is actually a title. While I could not guess the meaning of the word "Shar," I do know that the word "tan" means "three." • I wonder if Shartan, therefore, is a collection of three people, potentially all from the same Titan as Solas. Anaris, maybe?

Veilguard Predictions Based on the Chant of Light

Whew! I have a lot of Veilguard predictions, but to keep this post from being tumblr-breakingly long, I'll keep this list to the ones that come strictly from the Chant of Light.

I believe we will find out more about the Chant of Light by not only being in Minrathous and knowing Neve, but by seeing the Chant's events referenced by the ancient elves and even in Solas's memories.

I believe we'll get, if not confirmation, at least a hint on whether Solas's Titan is the Maker.

I believe that, since Veilguard is all about prophecies coming true, that we will hear the "Voice of the Maker" ring out to us in Veilguard—likely through a Titan waking. • I'm going to bet that this is in or near Kal'Hirol, the thaig closest to Kirkwall, which is near where the red lyrium idol was found in DA2.

I believe we're going to find out more about the potential link between Andraste and Mythal (there are bajillions of theory posts out there about them; I didn't have time here!)

I believe we'll see an Archdemon's old prison and see how that (potentially) affected Titans and/or their hearts.

I believe we'll see someone who remembers being made out of lyrium—even if that someone is Solas.

---

As ever, if you got this far, thank you!! All your engagements on these continue to make my week.

Also: I am trying my hardest not to consume full-game-review spoilers! As these reviews go live tomorrow (10/28), you may see me not reading my notifications/replies, and appearing here only to continue posting my theories.

But if you feel like sticking around anyway, stay tuned for: The Evanuris Story So Far, As Best As I Can Guess It.

[tokidokitokyo]

Podcast Review: Let's Talk in Japanese

Podcast Title: Let's Talk in Japanese!

Ease of Listening: ★★★★★

Length of Episodes: ★★★★★

Level of Engagement: ★★★★★

Episode Frequency: ★★★★★

Overall: ★★★★★

Today I will be reviewing the Let's Talk in Japanese! podcast by Tomo-sensei. This podcast is aimed at Japanese learners who want more chances to listen to spoken Japanese but using vocabulary and grammar that they can understand. The podcast is for levels N1 (the highest level) to N5 (the lowest level), but I would say that a majority of the content is focused on level N3 or N4.

Do I currently listen to this podcast?: Yes, I like this podcast a lot and listen to it frequently.

General Overview

Good For Levels: Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced

In this series, Tomo, a Japanese teacher for foreign students, discusses in Japanese only a variety of topics either selected by him or suggested by the audience. These can range from topics about daily life to JLPT related topics. He understandably discusses topics that he has a decent knowledge of, and admits when there are gaps. He is quite faithful to the level of each episode, which he indicates at the end of the episode title, so you can be sure that you will be able to understand the majority of the content or challenge yourself as the case may be.

Length of Episodes ★★★★★

The podcasts are usually around 10-15 minutes long. This is ideal for a quick listen when you are short on time or just want to supplement your studies, but may not be ideal if you are looking for something a bit longer. I usually listen to two or three podcasts in a row during my commute and feel like I've spent my time well. The short length can be useful if you are not interested in a particular topic, because you can make it to the end of the episode without losing interest and a new topic will come up with the next episode.

Level of Engagement ★★★★★

Although this is just one person (Tomo) talking throughout the podcast, he is engaging because he speaks as though he is talking to a small group. I find it engaging because I can, in the privacy of my room or car, reply to him when he poses questions, or make a response if I am surprised by what he says, etc. Even though it's not interactive per se, it can feel interactive because of the way he speaks in his podcast. I find myself engaged in most episodes, and the shorter length means I don't have to work as hard to stay engaged through the entire episode.

Episode Frequency ★★★★★

New podcasts come out about weekly, and sometimes more frequently than that. I have heard that he works very hard to put out the podcasts so frequently, and I think this intense schedule plus the large archive of material means you can listen almost indefinitely to this podcast.

Overall ★★★★★

This podcast is completely in Japanese and designed by a Japanese teacher for foreigners learning Japanese, and has material for everyone from beginners to advanced learners. The shorter episodes mean you can fit it into a busy schedule, and the JLPT labels mean you can pick and choose episodes based on your own level and be confident that you will get what you expect. I highly recommend this for those looking to improve their listening skills.

[crobber-crab-robber]

Coming clean to admit I write fanfic sometimes while warming up for my personal projects.

I wanted to write something for FrankenFord, but it reminded me I have another bullet-point draft for a character study on Stan. It's technically about his memory recovery on the Stan-O-War II, but most of those memories are about his progress on the portal and grieving/not-grieving Ford, with a bit of mental deterioration and recovery. Both these stories are very similar topic wise (or at least tone wise, in my head), so Idk if it's a good idea to do both.

Portal One-Shot: Will 100% get done if I choose it. Will probably be 5k words or over. Would have more of a psychological focus with dream sequences and memory-mashing. Basically my excuse to pry open Stan's head in one fell swoop and then never write from his perspective again. (Being old is tragic and all, but I just wanted to write something based on when he was middle aged and success was the farthest away)

FrankenFord Multi-Chapter: I've never written a multi-chapter story before (except for one in the drafts I'm actively failing to progress on lmao... it's a Ford fic and I struggle BAD with his voice), so I DO want to challenge myself... just don't put too much faith in me, lol. Will be a little more horror-y, with the biggest difference being more supernatural horror than psychological (though there will still probably be a lot of that). Whether I write this one or not I'll still probably draw for the AU when I feel like it- just know I brainstorm with my drawings, so they'll be conceptual, not supplemental, lol.

[theresattrpgforthat]

Yo, I am under the impression there’s a flourishing market for “campaign supplement” games that can be played as like slice of life side-bars to another campaign? My play group just finished an Ebberon campaign but we still love these characters and I’m wondering what’s out there? I’m curious for whatever but stuff with a focus on settling down or running your new dukedom would be lovely.

THEME: Fantasy After-Campaign Games.

Hello there! Yes, there are a number of games that you can probably use to keep your characters around and explore other parts of their life! I've got a few games that might be somewhere in the realm of what you're thinking, and then I've got some other ideas that popped up in my brain as I was writing this out.

Peace in the Land, by JunkyardTornado.

Peace in the Land is a cozy one page fantasy ttrpg about solving some regular kinds of problems in a fantasy town. There is a very simple character creation process based off a simple system, the Quick and Dirty System, originally designed for one-page rpgs. 

If you want low-stakes problems and quick rules, you might want to check out Peace in the Land. The rules are pretty standard, with a typical success threshold and differently-sized dice according to player abilities. You can probably place the simple rules into a setting that you’re already familiar with, and then generate problems that the townspeople might turn to the player characters to solve. If the group wants to settle down in one location but still go on minor adventures, this might be a game for you.

Pour One Out For Her, by MrPluckyComicRelief.

She was the greatest hero the world had ever seen. She slayed the Beast of Artenfield, rescued every princess north of the Green River, outgambled the demon Jav-Urok The Bold, and she never paid for a drink. All those years ago, all of you stood by her side, as her faithful companions. You supported her through thick and thin, through triumph and tragedy. You thought she would live forever.

But in a cruel twist of fate, you’re all here, standing at her funeral. For her last great prank, she stated, in her last will and testament, that you would all give a joint eulogy.

Pour One Out For Her is a gm-less RPG for any number of players. It's about good times with old friends, reckless adventures, and a celebration of a the greatest hero to ever live, who was taken too soon.

This is more of a one-shot kind of game for a solemn, last goodbye to a character that didn’t make it. Because it’s GM-less, if you traditionally had a GM in the game, this might be a chance for them to embody an important NPC who saw the characters through the bulk of the story.

Pour One Out For Her assumes that the dead companion had a dying wish, and that the companion was a team-player. Apart from that, I think you could use it to remember the ending of a character that meant a lot to the party.

Stewpot: Tales From A Fantasy Tavern, by Takuma Okada.

The adventurer’s life is tough. It's time to call it quits. For years you stumbled through hostile lands, living off stale rations, and struggling to get a few hours’ sleep. Now it’s time to hang up your weapons, sell off your armor, and settle down. If only it were that easy…

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada is a collection of cozy mini-games that tell the story of a tavern run by former adventurers. Gather your dice, pick up a deck of cards, set aside a shiny coin, and get ready for a new set of challenges. Only this time… your adventures start behind the bar.

Stewpot is divided into a series of slice-of-life scenes, with a different set of simple rules and prompts helping adjudicate each scene. You might be scrambling to cook something edible with random ingredients, bartending for troubled souls, calming down a tavern brawl, going shopping for all the things a tavern needs, and more! Work to upgrade your tavern's cuisine, atmosphere, and service. In the process, you might just learn a little bit about yourself - and your fellow party members.

Takuma Okada is known for a number of thoughtful games, including Alone Among the Stars, a solo roleplaying game of introspection in space. Stewpot looks to deliver a cozy, retrospective experience, probably similar to Dungeon Meshi and Legends & Lattes. Stewpot recently finished funding on Backerkit, so if you’re willing to wait for a little bit, you should be able to order a copy of it from Evil Hat’s website! If you’re not willing to wait, there’s a Sampler PDF available on DriveThruRPG.

Wolves & Spices, by A.Tian.

Wolves & Spices is a simple tabletop roleplaying game, based on the traveling mercantile adventures of the light novel/anime series Spice & Wolf.

You are traveling merchants in the medieval country of Feldland. Your shared dream is to earn enough money and goodwill to open a business as a permanent part of a community.

You could use Wolves & Spices if you feel like your characters wouldn’t necessarily settle down in one place, but rather would be more likely to turn to trade as a way to earn their keep while still travelling from town to town. Your goals will probably be more focused around meeting other people’s needs, using your earnings to help meet your heart’s desires (also called your Wolves). If you want a game where the quest didn’t bring about the happy ending your characters hoped for, you might want to try out Wolves & Spices.

Some Other Thoughts

Another way you could possibly re-visit your character’s stories is to re-visit them in a different genre or setting. There’s a lot of possibilities if you’re up to remixing a game or two! For example, you could re-cast your characters as fantasy investigators, such as in Swords of the Serpentine, or follow their attempts at romance, such as in Passion of the Jukebox or Thirsty Sword Lesbians. You could also follow up with the adventures of your characters’ children; my group followed up our Spectaculars game with a game of MASKS, playing as the children of our characters. Games like Kids on Bikes or Kids and Spirits could also work if you want to combine solving mysteries with passing adventure down a generation!

Games You Can Also Check Out

Merchants & Monsters, by AndieSanade.

Dungeon Mart, by May Day.

So, the Beast is Dead, by Prepared Heathen.

Back Again, from the Broken Land, by Cloven Pine Games.

The Laughing Kobold, by therabidbanana.

[whencyclopedia]

Mystery Cults

Mystery cults, or mystery religions, were ancient religious associations characterized by secrecy and initiation rites. They typically surrounded one primary deity, but some mystery cults venerated multiple deities in their rites. Members of mystery cults were required to maintain the secrecy of the cult's rituals and knowledge, which added to the cult's prestige.

Unlike many modern religions, mystery cults were not closed systems of faith. Initiation into a mystery cult did not entail forsaking all other gods, and initiates continued to participate in mainstream religious life. This made mystery cults a supplement to traditional Greco-Roman religious practices, as opposed to an alternative. Mystery cults fell out of fashion in Late Antiquity as Christianity became dominant. Some features of mystery cults parallel aspects of early Christianity, such as resurrection narratives, but these similarities are often exaggerated in popular history.

Etymology & Definition

Historians define mystery cults based on their shared features – such as secrecy and initiation rites – as well as the terminology used to describe them by ancient commentators. The Greek word for a mystery cult was "mysterion". A person who joined a mysterion was a mystes, meaning an initiate. These words are of uncertain etymology. Some historians have speculated that these words may be related to the Greek verb "myein", meaning "to close". This could be a reference to closed lips, implying secrecy, or it could refer to closing one's eyes and opening them to enlightenment.

Religion in the ancient Mediterranean was polytheistic, with people participating in rites honoring a multitude of gods. Collective religious activities, like festivals and temple rites, were a feature of public participation in civic life. Mystery cults had a more private nature, and their doctrines were often focused on the individual. Initiates took vows of secrecy upon entry into a mystery cult, which prevented outsiders from learning too much about its inner workings. The secrecy of these cults means that often little is known about their inner rites, doctrines and development.

Most mystery cults placed a heavy emphasis on personal salvation in their theological doctrines. This salvation could take the form of practical gifts like health, wealth, and safety, or spiritual gifts like a blissful afterlife. Some mystery cults became popular because it was believed that their deity was particularly responsive to prayers. In some mystery cults, this promise of salvation extended to the afterlife. These doctrines contrasted with the prevailing belief in a miserable afterlife for all except those who were deified in death.

Continue reading...

[arnoldpalmerisgay]

My thoughts on Chaggie/ Charlie x Vaggie

Before we begin, no this isn't a "I hate chaggie post" and no I will not be hating on those who ship it either. Rather this is just my thoughts on chaggie at the moment.

So, I'm just gonna say it, Chaggie is my OTP. Not because it is perfection, but because it's in my opinion one of the most interesting relationship canon/noncanon, I love both the characters in the relationship, and any moment of intimacy (not just kisses and such but any intimacy that reads as romantic) is cute. And with that I want to talk about the relationship so far.

Now I've been seeing people say their relationship is toxic or unhealthy, and to that I say...that's a bit strong. Let me explain. So because hazbin is kinda speedrunning it's plot (which I understand bc limitations on episodes and seasons green lit) we don't get to deeply know all the characters and specifics on why they make certain choices and how they ended up the way they did so we have to rely on the broad and limited information provided in each episode.

Based on the 6 episodes released, we can tell Charlie is very optimistic, to a fault at times, passionate, a go getter with some direction, very empathetic, ablivious at times, and ultimanty wants to be a leader but lacks the confidence and authority (despite begin a princess bc we love the royal that doesn't know how to rule troupe, genuinely) to be one.

Vaggie on the other hand, is like Charlie, very kind, but isn't as willing to put faith in a person till they've proven they deserve it, protective, loyal, good intended, not very trusting, lacks confidence, and dependent on Charlie.

Now when you put these two together, while the two do help eachother supplement what the other lacks, whether through reassurance, doing what the other can't or doesn't want to do, or giving the other what they need at the moment, even if that isn't them, it's clear who relies more on the other. After it's revealed how Vaggie and Charlie met, it really reframes Vaggie's character. No longer is she just a slightly insecure girlfriend who just wants to make sure her partner is happy and is being supportive and good enough to her, she's now a character who has bad identity issues. I mean can you blame her?! Her whole life disappeared in an instance and started all over when Charlie found her. I imagine they haven't really been apart since then except for a couple hours maybe, but never for days or longer. And being with someone for so long especially in an unfamiliar place, of course you become attached to them. Add Charlie basically saving Vaggie's life, there's an imbalance there. A feeling of indebtedness even if Charlie never said Vaggie owed her bc wow that would be way out of character.

Now as I mentioned before, Charlie is a bit ablivious to certain things, she's especially ablivious to how vaggie feels and what she's going through. Now that's not entirely her fault, she didn't know Vaggie was an angel and that Vaggie may feel indebted to her for saving her life, but also it's clear Charlie doesn't understand social cues and again, because of her trust in Vaggie, she'd assume Vaggie would tell her anything that was wrong or bothering her since the contrary just isn't something established in there relationship. And if Vaggie didn't want to talk about something she'd say it, not lie. Like in all honesty I think Charlie won't be upset by Vaggie being an angel, but rather hiding it. Now it may sound like alot to ask of Vaggie, but again, Charlie is under the impression that Vaggie would be explicit about what to talk and not talk about. Also Charlie may be hurt because she may feel like Vaggie doesn't trust her enough or think she wouldn't accept her. So I get both sides.

So to me there relationship feels like any relationship, complicated. The relationship Itself isn't unhealthy, but some of the actions of the two involved aren't healthy or the best. Don't think I forgot about Charlie being pushy at times, I understand why she does it, but combine it with her abliviousness it's not so great. I definitely think Charlie and Vaggie can bounce back and maybe the two can have a moment together that helps the two be better together and separate. Which brings me to another thing I'd like to talk about.

My hope for Chaggie in the future is this. In the next episode, the two give eachother space, and they hangout with people in the hotel. I like the idea of Vaggie, Husk, and or Angel hanging out. Charlie and Lucifer or Charlie, Sir Pentious, Husk, or Angel spending time with her. Then half way or 3 quarters through the episode Vaggie and Charlie have a moment together after talking and hangingout with the others, talk about it/maybe apologize, make up, and have there first kiss in the show (other gestures like their foreheads touching or noses touching or a combination of gestures work as well). Then of course setting up for the 8th episode.

Another thought I had, is also the two trying to act as if nothing happened, they continue with there plans with the hotel, then when everyone notices the obvious tension, while they want to prepare for the extermination, they also want to figureout/help Vaggie and Charlie get through what ever happened. Then I imagine they either try doing the exercises and such Charlie plans but secretly use it as a way to help Charlie and Vaggie, in the end Vaggie or Charlie blow up. Shit goes down and then they make up. Or it's still not working so they try getting the two away from eachother by saying they need help with stuff, talking to them, then the two make up. Or one last one I swear, Vaggie or Charlie say to take a break from this. Everyone does, Charlie and Vaggie talk or argue. Walk different ways, Vaggie stays at the hotel and Charlie leaves the hotel. After the two end up figuring shit out, I like to think Charlie got into some shit, Vaggie saves her, they talk as they deal with the trouble Charlie's in, make up, and have an intimate moment.

Now the last thing I wat to say is kinda related but not, so if you came just for Chaggie you can leave. Anyways, with the current state of chaggie (especially with the lack of typical romantic intimacy) I noticed people shipping Charlie x Emily. And while yes I see it, personally I don't ship it just because they've only met in episode 6, they're too similar, and in my opinion, I like them as friends. With that being said, I do like them together so long as Charlie is still with Vaggie. Like I just love Charlie and Vaggie together so much, I don't want them to split. So either I'd have them as a throuple, or Charlie is dating them both but Emily and Vaggie are just friends. Either one is a pretty interesting shipping dynamic and great for fanfiction. Also just to clarify, I'm not hating on Emily x Charlie, it's just not one I'm strong about. So if you like it, more power to you. And you know what, I'll probably still look at content of it anyways cause even if it isn't my fav it's still cute.

Uh anyways, I hope you enjoyed my word vomit and thoughts? Idk how to end this...uh goodbye!

[geshu-lin]

Any hopes for Geshu Lin's story/gameplay when he releases?

Geshu Lin Story & Gameplay Hopes

Thanks for the ask, Anon! I have tons of hopes for it; I guess I could call this speculation going off of his lore in-game, but this post will just be a rundown of my ideas.

In addition, this post will contain some religious references and theoretical themes of self sacrifice, which I cover every now and then in relation to Geshu Lin on my blog.

However, if you're new here, feel free to take a look at these supplemental readings to better understand why certain themes such as sacrifice and repentance are so prevalent here:

Geshu Lin & Woodcarving/Faith Theories

Headcanons for Geshu Lin's Family

With that out of the way, buckle in! This is going to be a long post even if it's "just a rundown." :-)

Geshu Lin's Kit

Personally, I see Geshu Lin as a Havoc resonator because of the lore anecdote that his flames actually harmed him, and so far, Havoc seems to be the one attribute/element that embodies that the best.

❂ Intro Skill: Rallying Cry "The enemy is right before our eyes."

Geshu Lin leads the charge in a violet inferno and performs a wide crescent cleave with his broadblade, dealing Havoc DMG and granting increased resistance to interruption for all Resonators on the team.

🟆 Basic Attack: Sacrilegious Bladework "Step aside."

Basic Attack Geshu Lin performs up to 7 consecutive attacks, dealing Havoc DMG. Most of Geshu Lin's attacks are about advancing forward as much as possible/"pushing the frontline" movement, as a nod to his time during the Battle of the Crescent.

[↓; 1x] — Geshu Lin steps forward and cleaves downwards with his broadblade.

[↗↘; 1x] — Geshu Lin flicks the broadblade upwards in a glancing slash, crossing his arms above his bicep and letting the point of the blade dip downwards in a guard stance. Geshu Lin gains a 50% incoming damage reduction during the guard stance of Basic Attack 2. If he is hit during this stance, he will automatically proceed into Basic Attack 3 as an immediate followup attack.

[⇆; 2x] — Geshu Lin drops the guard stance and slashes leftwards, then rightwards.

[↑; 1x] — Geshu Lin cleaves upwards as if impaling an enemy and lifting their body into the air.

[↓⤴🟏; 2x] — Geshu Lin slams the broadblade into the ground and turn-steps past it with one hand on the handle over his back, kicking the enemy in front of him. This attack can be seamlessly woven back into Basic Attack 1 or his Heavy Attack.

Heavy Attack (Standard) Geshu Lin consumes Stamina to perform a forwards rush and downwards slam with his broadblade, then a turn and second slam forward again as he heaves it over his shoulder mid-turn. This second slam will create an eruption of Black Flame, damaging enemies in a small AoE.

This is a two-stage Heavy Attack, and can be cancelled out into a 360° spin-cleave by releasing the Heavy Attack button before proceeding to the second stage.

Mid-air Attack Consume Stamina to perform a Mid-air Plunging Attack, dealing Havoc DMG.

Dodge Counter Geshu Lin naturally dodges in a curve rather than in a straight line like other Resonators, as if attempting to flank his target. When dodging, he performs a side-strafe with his broadblade hefted over his bicep in a guard stance, before lunging back in with a wide circling slash, dealing Havoc DMG.

🟌 Resonance Skill: Flames of Naraka "Forgiveness is beyond our reach."

Geshu Lin incinerates his right arm and sacrifices it to the Black Flames. This consumes 25% of his current HP and consequently triggers the Repentance state, as well as gaining 25 stacks of Desperation.

🟍 Repentance Geshu Lin's right arm becomes swathed in obsidian growths and black flames. His outgoing Havoc DMG is increased scaling off of his max HP, but total increase will not exceed 400% of his Base ATK. This will remain for 14s or until he is switched out.

🟇 Desperation Every time Geshu Lin is hit by an enemy (1), performs a Basic Attack (3), or uses Flames of Naraka (25), he will gain Desperation. When holding Desperation, Geshu Lin cannot be healed. Geshu Lin can hold up to 100 stacks of Desperation. If holding <25 Desperation, all stacks can be cleared by performing a Heavy Attack, though there will be no bonus effect.

✸ Forte Circuit: To Burn Away Sin "You who seeks absolution even when undeserving."

When holding at least 25 stacks of Desperation, Geshu Lin can perform Heavy Attack: Desecration to consume 25 Desperation and heal himself based on how much damage he has dealt during the previous cycle of Repentance in combination with the percentage of missing HP. This can be done at up to three stages (at 25, 50, 75 Desperation).

If holding 100 stacks of Desperation, Geshu Lin's Heavy Attack transforms into Heavy Attack: Absolution and consumes all stacks of Desperation, healing him 4x and performing a powerful downwards cleave before ending the Repentance state.

✹ Resonance Liberation: Heretic's Final Vow "By the end, this will have all been worth it."

Geshu Lin sacrifices his body to the Black Flames and loses 50% of his current HP before entering the Heretic state, wherein his outgoing DMG is significantly increased scaling off of his max HP, never exceeding more than 600% of his ATK. He will consistently lose 3% HP for every attack performed during the Heretic state, but gains incredible resistance to interruption.

If he does not perform Heavy Attack: Absolution by the end of Heretic's duration or is switched out beforehand, Outro Skill: Changing the Guard will become Outro Skill: Dying Order.

☾ Outro Skill: Dying Order Geshu Lin brandishes his broadblade one last time and smashes it through the enemy's body, shattering the weapon into an explosion of black flames and dealing unfathomable Havoc DMG. After this is performed, he will fall and the next Resonator will be automatically switched in.

☾ Outro Skill: Changing the Guard "Your turn."

Geshu Lin enters a guard stance and taunts all enemies for 3 seconds. Both Geshu Lin and the incoming Resonator will obtain an 80% incoming Damage Reduction throughout the duration of Outro Skill: Changing the Guard.

Geshu Lin's Story

Honestly, this is incredibly self indulgent (for obvious reasons), but I hope they do something similar to the #post ovathrax au. I understand Geshu Lin is a badass, but I would also love to see that vulnerable, unhealthy obsession with victory explored a lot more deeply the way I've been doing on this blog.

Most of my posts take on the idea that Geshu Lin wasn't a selfish person outright (or intentionally, might be better wording) but rather a person who was already heavily burdened by countless mistakes and realized he'd dug his grave too deep; his suicide mission into Ovathrax was the only way he could even fathom making "all of these sacrifices worth it," and he knew he would die there. Did he want to? Did he think himself a coward for doing so? Did he see himself as extremely noble?

Admittedly, I do not like depictions of Geshu Lin saying that he was 100% right about everything. I prefer a character who is a tragedy because of his sense of honor and goodness, and becomes an example of an absolutely shattered moral compass because of that. My view of Geshu Lin is that of a man who wanted to do what was right, but realized that with the circumstances and cards he was given, it was impossible; but he refused to believe this and only sank more and more costs into an impossible goal until there was no coming back from it. The idea that he was so obsessed with honoring those who died serving him that he eventually lost all sense of life and death and humanity, and even value for his own survival?

Perfect.

[monstersdownthepath]

Herald of Irori: The Old Man

CR 15

Lawful Neutral Medium Outsider

Inner Sea Gods, pg. 294

Yes, Lawful Neutral. I know, I know, he's not technically the Herald of a Good-aligned god, but I myself have trouble conceptualizing Irori as Evil-leaning, and Master Roshi the Old Man here is noted to only ever want to help and to motivate his students. Yes, one can take Irori's doctrine of self-perfection in a negative light (how many villains do you know fight just for the sake of fighting and becoming stronger?), and the Old Man can just as well choose to teach an evil student instead of a good one, but almost every piece of supplemental material about Irori signals that he leans towards Good, from his Monks and Paladins archetypes leaning Good, to his personal rules for Quivering Palm allowing a nonlethal option, to his divine servants stalking prey like a proper tiger only to bap them once with their paws and let their prey run off free... all the way to his Champions being restricted to Lawful Good. That last one's pretty convincing.

Anyway, onto the Old Man. Unlike most Heralds, the life of the Old Man before he became the Herald of Irori is basically nonexistent, with no hints as to who he was or if he even existed at all before Irori created him. He may simply be a divine construct born into existence by the Master of Masters, or he may have been the old master to Irori himself before he ascended. This isn't the only unusual bit about him: also unlike most Heralds, the Old Man freely wanders the world where Irori's faith is building, seeking out pupils to instruct in the ways of the Master of Masters. His teaching methods and even his entire personality changes depending on what his chosen pupil or pupils need the most, and while he's among mortals, he himself limits his powers to those of a mortal which his advanced age would suggest, so as not to discourage his limited students with his true superhuman might. This does come with a few drawbacks, but none he hasn't already considered; many times his mortal form has been beaten and even killed in pitched combat... though always to provide motivation to a student of significant promise.

Yes, he can pull the Mentor Occupational Hazard trope out on himself, and has done so many times in order to give a specific student a much-needed kick in the pants. As the Old Man reforms unharmed in Axis each time he dies as a mortal (dying in his true celestial shape is much harder to come back from), it's not even all that inconvenient for him. The only real pain he feels is if he looks upon the student he died for and sees a lack of improvement... which may prompt many spiritual or dream-based visits. The Old Man lives and breathes fulfilling every trope one expects of any old master in a martial arts movie in cycles lasting years at a time, something I find charming.

Of course, when I say every trope, I of course not only mean Old Master... but Awakening the Sleeping Giant for those moments when the Old Man shrugs off his mortal disguise and unveils fists that can dent steel.

I gave the Hand of the Inheritor a lot of guff for being an angel with Paladin class levels, but in truth I was mostly annoyed that he didn't get any of the good class abilities, or any class abilities which made him interesting to talk about at length. The Old Man is an immediate improvement in that regard, because instead of having some Monk abilities, he has all of them.

It made me laugh to see that the Hand of the Inheritor's heavy armored form and heavy steel shield actually gave him 32 AC, which is less AC than the simple robed Old Man, and that's because the Old Man--whom I will be referring to as TOM from now on--has +4 AC from being a Monk and can add his Wisdom modifier to it, bringing his AC up to a considerably more impressive 37 (with a TOUCH AC of 35). TOM has more AC than almost any other Herald! Killing the TOM as a mortal is a tough feat, but killing him in his true form? Hell, just hurting him is a mountain of a task. Even making it past his AC and his honestly impressive saves (+10/+20/+20 WITH Improved Evasion), he's got DR 10/Chaotic protecting him... and 30 Resistance to every element except Force. And if you DO damage him? That's what his 3/day Heal is for, just to spit in your eye.

And he's not just resilient, he's mobile. With Air Walk, Water Walk, and Dimension Door available to him 7/day and the ability to walk near as fast as a human can move at full sprint (80ft movespeed, and 30ft of both climb and swim), there's little one can do to escape from him once his ire is roused except, perhaps, tunneling away. Thankfully, he's still quite vulnerable to all manner of restraints, lacking both Freedom of Movement and, strangely, any ranks in Escape Artist... But to take advantage of that, you first have to survive him long enough for him to fail a save.

TOM has a frightening offense, as one can expect from a 16th level Monk stapled onto the resilient frame of a powerful Outsider. That staff of his is just for decoration; he doesn't use weapons at all unless he's giving his opponents a measure of mercy. While unarmed, he can throw out up to four unarmed strikes for 2d8+5 damage each... or he can perform a Flurry of Blows, sending out seven such attacks, plus one extra one if he spends one of his 18 Ki points, plus one more if he's used one of his 3 castings of Haste on himself for a grant total of a potential nine attacks. 2d8+5 for a single attack isn't special, but 18d8+45 (with the damage averaging out to around 140) with the ability to bypass 5 different types of Damage Reduction is likely to be enough to humble whatever beast pushed TOM into battle.

Against foes that have a ranged advantage against him, or if he has the ranged advantage against them, he can also flick flick up to four pebbles every round for a humiliating 1d3+5 damage. They're not even magic, they're literally just stones he can pick up off the ground and hurl with the force of a bullet, and he has as many of them as he needs.

Of course, like all Monks, his frightening offense is somewhat mitigated by the fact it's tied to attacks which decrease in accuracy as they're thrown out; he has no magical accuracy modifiers or even Weapon Focus, so a DM wanting to up his challenge a little bit can get away with giving him an Amulet of Mighty Fists or similar. His most accurate attack is a modest +20, but his least accurate attack is a pitiful +5, which at this level means his final blow is unlikely to actually hit any level-appropriate foes wearing modest medium armor. Unarmored or light-armored is far more likely, but his main prey are creatures hovering around the 10~12 Hit Dice range, which is where the party is going to be if they ever face TOM as a boss.

But if your AC is too high, he can always just make it lower. He's a 16th level Monk, so TOM can throw out 16 Stunning Fists every day, potentially locking down a single target for the entire battle if he just keeps combo-hitting them and they keep failing the DC 28 Fortitude save. While he lacks the power to fully paralyze a target, he can also swap out the stun for fatigue (which turns to exhaustion if the victim is hit twice), a 1d6+1 round stagger, or permanent blindness or deafness. Every single option benefits him as much as the stun does, with exhaustion robbing foes of their damage, staggering severely limiting their options for at least 2 rounds, blindness making him much harder to hit (and cast spells at), and deafness being extremely damaging to spellcasters, Bards, and teammates relying on coordinating with one another.

The fun icing on the cake, though, is that he doesn't need to actually do damage. He's got a feat suite of nonlethal options to disarm, disable, debilitate, and humiliate anyone who tries attacking him: Improved Disarm to throw your weapons aside, Trip to throw you off your balance, and Grapple to just throw you, with the seldom-seen Greater Grapple waiting in the wings to let him wrestle with superhuman speed and proficiency... or just Stunning Fist the snot out of anyone he's got in a headlock.

In a one-on-one fight against similarly powerful foes, TOM is almost unbeatable due to his long list of options to demean and debuff his enemies, and even full parties can struggle against his towering stats and staggering damage... unless, of course, you have some method of staggering him, or simply continuously step out of his reach. A nine attack flurry with a menagerie of debuffs attached is quite scary, but he's a Medium creature with Medium reach; he's insanely fast--especially with Haste--and incredibly mobile through almost every terrain, but his speed means nothing if you just keep moving 10ft back and denying him his Full-Attack. This isn't a reliable tactic, mind, and eventually you WILL lose (his Regen 15 will outpace your single attacks) unless you do something to hold him still or debuff him; he has high saves and 26 SR, but no immunity to paralysis, negative levels, death effects, or mind-affecting effects, so if luck is on your side, you may yet prevail.

Say, what's the average saving throw for a 10th~12th-level caster's most powerful spell? 24? ... Okay, maybe you'll need a lot of luck on your side. But it's still possible!

You can read more about him here.

[flight-foods]

Flight Foods LLC

Flight Foods is a faith-based supplement company dedicated to providing clean, high-performance nutrition for Catholic and Christian athletes. From protein and pre-workout to creatine and greens, our products are crafted to fuel your body, strengthen your spirit, and help you train with intention.

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[thisisnotthenerd]

i need to get further into this because it’s plaguing my mind after the finale

there have been a couple of examples of divine casters in exandria who a) don’t worship the primes/betrayers (jester) or b) don’t draw their power from worship of a deity at all (zerxus).

why was there no change to the divine magics after the gods shed their immortality. why did divine intervention work. i’m talking in-world. what is it actually drawing on. the possibilities are fascinating.

domain

if it was a question of clerics being able to draw from domain rather than deity it would be one thing. divine intervention??

let’s pursue this line down a little further, shall we?

let’s say the gods leave their power to their domain as part of the ritual. what differentiates them from the domain in the first place? they were beings of light that took purpose with their flight from tengar. what makes their domains diffuse enough from them that they can leave them behind for their followers to pull on as they did before catatheosis?

if we assume a relationship that functions on an initial power base supplied/taught by a given god that is supplemented through collective prayer, why wouldn’t the loss of the initial power base change how the magic is performed?

predathos

and why wouldn’t the aspect that is supplied by prayer be considered food for predathos? what makes it different. why isn’t the luxon predathos food? why isn’t tharizdun? if the titans helped seal predathos and presumably would have been equally threatened, why couldn’t ashton and fearne be seen for their shards?

why build it up as a world-ending monster if it dispersed (relatively) peacefully when the gods took mortal form. no consequence for bringing it into exandria, no significant confrontation for the fact that it posed an unknown danger to the people of exandria. none of that was explained.

myths and cults and spells

on the other hand, the effect on faith.

a comparable story that’s told in hinduism is that of dashavatar: the ten avatars of vishnu. each story describes a moment of great crisis where vishnu chose to descend in mortal form and face the evils of the world. these stories speak of miracles, of great triumph over crisis. but there are also tales of humanity woven into them. a key trait of krishna is that he liked to steal curd and butter as a child.

in a world where gods are observable phenomena that have a tangible effect on the universe beyond the actions of their faithful? the myths would be insane. exandria is about to get hit with cults like no one’s ever seen before. holy war takes on another meaning when you could conceivably be fighting alongside the god whose name you fight in.

i suppose you could shift the definition of the class of cleric to be more about drawing from innate will and alignment with the tenets of a domain. but what makes them different from paladins in that case? what makes them different from divine soul sorcerers? what makes them different from wizards and bards beyond the casting stat, if instead of praying to anything, they’re drawing on an innate wisdom and affinity for a domain that they study and engage with over time? what makes the clerics different from warlocks?

also, divine healing is pretty clearly a major aspect of how the societies on exandria have developed. what is the actual source of the healing, and how can you match the role of clerics as healers if the source is no longer present?

could bards theoretically learn major healing spells through magical secrets? how can you pass that knowledge down? if the clerics of smaller deities are able to cast these spells (i.e. jester), how small could you go before the spells were powered purely on the faith of the caster alone?

do the restrictions on resurrection go away? ashton was resurrected with the casting of raise dead and the use of dunamancy, but none of the regular resurrection ritual aspects that we saw previously on critical role. do the spells just work now? is that related to the gods and their afterlives being separate?

back to my previous point: if clerics and paladins have their magic through belief and affinity for a domain, could you have an atheist cleric who gets their magic to work purely by believing in themself enough? i feel like that’s how you get cult leaders. zerxus was powered by his faith and commitment to redemption; but you could commit your faith to anything.

[lightlessentwine]

after watching Smough's video about Miquella, i'd like to supplement the video with a bit of my own take based on it, as well as personal findings:

-St. Trina and Miquella may have shared one body because of having been born of a single-bodied Rebis/God. this is an ability only demonstrated by Marika and not even Malenia seems to demonstrate this.. perhaps because her curse to Rot is the reason for her lack of personal identity; she does not have an identity to project other than what she is, due to her affliction. in the current age, all she has been doing is dreaming(*) and awakens promptly when we arrive; likely to the only movement of air she's felt in ages

-with mention of Tarnished Archaeologist's detail about Michaelangelo's diagram of the human, you see that that can then be placed into a five pointed star. i believe it lends at least some creedence to its relation to the image i had shared; the inverted star symbolizing a horned goat, or oftentimes Baphomet- likely a signal of Messmer's presence as something *inherent* to the Golden Order; without the current Elden Ring there would be no Order but the current Order hides a serpent at the Central Intersection, which seems to represent Messmer. Baphomet was/is a pagan cult deity who represents balance and neutrality, and is almost always depicted doing a gesture signifying "as above; so below"; he is even labeled as half-human, half-animal, male and female, good and evil. he is referred to as a man but is essentially every binary set in balance; even seen as both a deity and a demon.

Literally anything not set into a binary in Elden Ring *confounds and terrifies* followers of the Golden Order. it in fact worries Corhyn so deeply that he refuses to believe Goldmask as he grovels in the ashes of the Erdtree; honestly, he looks like he's about to go mad. one of the biggest revelations in the entire game is premised around breaking a binary that was never proven to be binary at all.

in other words, the entire Golden Order is based in dichotomies and binaries, and there is a fundamental flaw in that regard, because it disregards the individual and non-binary aspects of The World to force them into a simple mold that was going to fall with time anyway

like with Gwyn's plight in dark souls, it was never about the people, it was about preventing a coming age and clinging onto whatever control, by preserving the current one forever.

As i've stated many times before, I think Miquella is the physical body and the original entity of Faith while St. Trina is a Lunar Reflection (the Albedo, or an Animus in Jungian Psych) and the hero and protector of the people she often envisions herself as. Messmer residing in the shadow realm represents a deep seated truth within miquella- a sort of "cognitive rubedo" if you will or a "truth of the mind" that he hates as much as others fear and that nobody wants found. part of this truth is marika's fault but has left miquella with a personal guilt that has torn at him so badly that eventually, a shadow of himself tore away and became its own monster from within. with the shadow realm being physically separated from the lands between, it is likely that they are a cognitive realm of marika's, of sorts, as well now.

Marika herself had this shadow hidden away, and this presents rather well because we know that there was a long period after the night of black knives that marika was still active and likely becoming more distraught. on top of this, it is within Jungian psychology that one's anima and animus come to them in dreams.it is also true that a shadow persona is borne of a conflict tearing at one's conscious until it becomes its own entity.

[foresight-studio]

Hi, I'm Ben! And I'm happy to be here.

I'm a neuroscientist by training and also by trade (though these days I care mostly about stem-cell epigenetics). When I'm not doing science, I'm probably thinking about stories, the ways we tell them, and how the act of storytelling structures our lives in ways both obvious and imperceptible.

You're probably here because I make games. I've been writing/designing/illustrating/laying out games and supplements for a little over a year now! Here's a few of them, in no particular order:

DO/OMED. Explore the disintegrating landscape outside of a utopian domed city, and discover the nature of the secretive Namesake Project. Inspired by Annihilation plus a pinch of Jewish tradition, written and designed by me, based on RP Deshaies Breathless system.

The Cross Stitch. In this self-contained folk horror adventure, you'll explore a missing town, meet its unusual denizens, and uncover the dark mystery at its heart. Written, illustrated, and designed by me, for MÖRK BORG (but adaptable to the system of your choice). It's also my only project currently available in print.

Hillbrook Glen: Manifest your Dreams. Attend an exclusive, luxurious wellness workshop in the Adirondack Mountains, and bring your dreams to life. No, literally, your dreams are alive. And they're hungry. Written and designed by me, as the first of a 4-part series currently in progress.

Public Access. In this game of nostalgia and analog horror from Jason Cordova & The Gauntlet, you'll investigate strange mysteries surrounding TV Odyssey, a notorious TV station from the '80s and '90s that disappeared without a trace. I contributed a very tiny bit of writing to this, but mostly I did the layout and graphic design.

Decomposer. Take on the role of a worm, a fungal spore, a seed, or some other tiny creature, and decompose the remains of a dead god into a new world. Written and designed by me. (And it's free!)

I also have a few upcoming projects to look forward to:

Hillbrook Glen: Follow your Bliss. Explore a shifting meditation garden and face the branching paths your life could have taken in this post-it crawl adventure. Just be careful not to lose yourself. Coming September 2023 (I hope).

The Silt Verses RPG. In this TTRPG adaptation of the popular horror/weird-fiction podcast The Silt Verses, you'll traverse the Peninsula, hunting down stray deities while exploring your own complicated relationship with unsanctioned faiths. It's written by Gabriel Robinson & Jason Cordova, and I'm doing graphic design & layout. Coming soon.

Triangle Agency. As an employee of the Triangle Agency, it's your job to make sure the world doesn't collapse into chaos. You'll go on missions to apprehend dangerous anomalies while wielding anomalous powers of your own, battling bureaucratic nightmares along the way. TA was a runaway success on Kickstarter earlier this year, and I'm writing a mission for The Vault collection and laying out the book(s)!

Ex Nihilo Ad Nihilum. People vanish every day in the City of Y. But this one - this one is different. Or so your contact claims. Search for a missing scientist and uncover a potentially world-ending conspiracy in this surreal noir horror adventure for CY_BORG. Coming in the fall.

While you wait for those projects, you can keep up with what I'm working on via my newsletter or the Foresight Studio discord server.

So, hello tumblr! I hope something I make resonates with you.

[deathgamegirl]

Indigo Children, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Akane Kurashiki: An Analysis

many people interpret the character akane kurashiki from the zero escape games as autistic, a sentiment i fully agree with. however, i haven't seen much active discussion or analysis on the how and why of this interpretation— which i want to change, since it's a far deeper connection than just coincidental coding. uchikoshi may or may not have set out to create an autistic character, but he did certainly create one that has its roots in misunderstandings of neurodivergency.

just to preface, this analysis was written by an autistic individual, so it will come from an insider's perspective. under the cut, there will be major spoilers for each game in the zero escape franchise, as well as brief implications of real world ableism, though nothing graphic is detailed.

now that the intro's out of the way, let's talk about the pseudoscientific concept of indigo children.

the long and short of indigo children is as follows: some special children are born with indigo auras, which signify a number of unusual or even supernatural traits in the child, such as telepathy or supernatural empathy. according to the original coiner of the term, the number of these indigo children has been steadily rising since the last 1960's.

traits that indigo children reportedly have include the following:

high empathy, innate curiosity, and a strong will

are perceived by those around them as being "strange" or "unusual"

have a clear idea of what their purpose in life is and feel entitled or deserving

an inherently accurate intuition

resistance to rigid authorial structures and control from outsiders

a subconscious spiritual strength (though this doesn't necessarily apply to religion or faith)

obviously, these listed traits are nowhere near specific enough to supplement an actual diagnosis for autism. those who believe in the concept and parent a supposed "indigo child" often forego a proper diagnosis, as they believe that autism spectrum disorder is an inherently bad condition (which, to be clear, autism is not bad in any way). however, we can make connections from indigo children to the DSM-5's criteria for autism spectrum disorder.

the most obvious example being the perception of being "strange" or "unusual"— we can easily connect that to social deficits in individuals with ASD.

the resistance to authority and control and feeling entitled most closely matches with an insistence on sameness and their own repetitions.

the innate curiosity and intuition comes into play with special interests and how autistic individuals perceive the world around them.

i want to next list out the non-behavioral evidence that akane was most certainly based on the concept of indigo children.

akane has indigo as a prominent color in her 999 design. notably, her eyes and dress are both shades of indigo, leaning towards lavender.

as an ESPer, akane has telepathic abilities (such as the ability to SHIFT as well as use telepathy by accessing the morphogenetic field).

in ZTD, it's mentioned that the number of ESPers has been on the rise recently in-universe in response to the oncoming radical-6 outbreak.

it's also worth noting that zero escape in general delves into a lot of pseudoscientific concepts throughout the series for narrative purposes.

with everything i've just laid out in mind, i want to make the connection that akane kurashiki, who is based on the indigo children, is autistic, by listing her behaviors over the course of the series that match up with the DSM-5 criteria for ASD.

persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts (social-emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships)

social-emotional reciprocity: akane has been shown to talk over others about whatever's on her mind at the time (in particular, this relates to her special interests, elaborated on below).

nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction: there are multiple instances in 999 in particular where she doesn't understand the tone of voice that another character is using, often for comedic purposes. (in particular, the "i might get wet" scene comes to mind.)

developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships: akane has been mentioned in her childhood to have been friendless at school, save for junpei. in the interim between 999 and ZTD, she primarily worked alone. in ZTD's C-END 1, she forgoes her relationship with junpei to make the AB project a success.

restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities (from the list, i specifically reference insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior, and highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus)

insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior: akane is very set in her ways, and insistent on doing things her way (particularly with regards to the AB project). in a way, her "I will achieve the best possible timeline no matter the cost to myself or anyone else" also reminds me of this.

highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus: all of the conversations about psuedoscience, quantum mechanics, and conspiracy theories in 999 contribute to this. it's also evident in the way that she's fixated on rabbits throughout the series.

there's a reason why so many of the autistic individuals i've seen play the zero escape games resonate and adore akane so much- it's because she's a genuine, authentic portrayal of the autistic experience, even if it's never stated outright. she's a flawed, yet idealistic character, with one foot in objective reality and the other in her own perfect world. she is human in the way that so many autistic people are, and i think that's incredible. i hope that we can get more characters like akane in many other works.

if you're curious, i used this wikipedia article as a source for the information about indigo children, and this autism and health article as a source for the DSM-5 criteria for autism spectrum disorder.

[emblemxeno]

Man I hate the fire emblem fanbase so much it is hurting my enjoyment of the games. They can nitpick every little thing about Engage's and Fate's story, but watch out if you point out that Edelgard blaming the church for her experimentstion and not, y'know, her uncle who she KNOWS is an Arganthan, or how it doesn't make sense that the disappearance of 9 royals was swept snugly under the rug in the empire, or how Jeralt was suspsicious of Rheas doing to Byleth what she did to HIM, and suddenly you're a "hater" and "you have bad taste" and " lack media literacy".

3houses has the same storytelling issues Fates and Engage have, but bc the game has big tiddy lesbians and "I can fix them" traumatized characters = best JRPG since FF7. Fuck right off bruh. I'm so tired.

It does lend a lot of chances to be hypocritical in the fandom yes.

For as much as people can hate about Engage's time travel and magic stuff, or anything regarding Valla in Fates, at least those are purely fantastical. Does it erase the problems? No. But "magic world has magic things that don't need to always be explained in great detail" is-or at least should be-a sufficient explanation.

3H's issues, meanwhile, are almost always logical, informative, and communicative. Edelgard's war is predicated on logic jumps built upon exaggerated issues, an inflated ego, a savior complex, and half truths, and she herself is a canonical liar and manipulator. 3H's worldbuilding is based upon taking NPCs, books, and character biases as fact, despite there being known cover ups in Fodlan's history; to the point where it's not even fully known whether the other Hresvelg siblings actually exist. Jeralt is supposed to be 100% trustworthy as your dad, but being vigilant means you'll probably realize he's kind of shit and did a poor job properly teaching Byleth growing up.

Fates might have the Valla curse and a magic truth throne, but those things have a simple A -> B explanation and impact on that game's plot. It's easy to criticize because it's easy to understand.

3H on the other hand, you have to constantly twist yourself into a pretzel in order justify every angle and every motivation for every character in the game, mostly in service of not overly shitting on Edelgard's character, which usually results in kowtowing to her fans by shitting on Rhea, Dimitri, the church and Faerghus or, in my eyes, giving up and claiming "no one's completely in the right and that's why the story's good in the first place!"

From my perspective, if this happens, where someone can't form a rock solid opinion on even just how they personally feel/think about the writing, then either they need more time to themselves instead of online discourse or (where I lean) the writing they're discussing simply isn't that good enough to warrant engaging with its bad faith fans.

Side tangent that doesn't really fit but I wanted to say it anyway: Other FE games' moral dilemmas worked as well as they did because they were ornamental; a spice to the main emotional and thematic thrust of what their stories were trying to convey. Even the more complex examples like the Tellius and Jugdral games, weren't trying to sell their stories based on "look how complex and morally gray everything is", they were natural elements of war stories that supplemented the more major storytelling beats (Tellius' discrimination aesop, religious and political dogma, class warfare, and Jugdral's geopolitical inheritance feuds and territorial disputes, blood quantums, and passing the torch to the next generation).

3H's main drive... is the moral grayness. War horrors, comparisons between peace time and conflict, and constant conversation over "what the other side's justification is" while trying to "fix Fodlan." And the sloppy, fractured, and overly bleak attempts at nuance exemplified in the story is precisely why moral grayness shouldn't be the main factor. But people ate it up because... well, the prose wasn't too shabby I guess.