#Hierarchy Management System

[theastrohub]

what city you should live in based on your moon sign ⏾

astrology can help you make an informed decision for something as significant as where one will live. and especially if you are a more hedonistic person like myself, choosing a place to live with a focus on personal satisfaction is a guaranteed upgrade in quality of life. it also helps you narrow down what your true emotional needs are and live a life more in alignment with your truest self.

choosing what city to live in based on your moon sign helps an individual with emotional fulfillment, being able to create a sense of belonging, stress reduction, enhanced creativity and productivity, better romantic and platonic relationships, and so much more.

here are my thoughts on your ideal city based on your moon sign:

一

⏾ virgo moon 一

kobe, japan + washington, D.C. (USA) + zurich, switzerland

you likely prefer a clean, walkable city that is health-conscious. ideal cities have paved roads, a lack of industrial machines or well-regulated factories, and a structured, straightforward urban planning model. a city safe enough to raise babies and young children is your benchmark. you value a city that emphasizes logical aspects of life. air pollution and trash management are crucial, so you'd thrive in cities with high air quality indexes, like those mentioned above.

一

⏾ libra moon 一

florence, italy + brooklyn, new york + capetown, south africa + amsterdam, netherlands + paris, france

as one of my favorite moon signs, you truly appreciate beauty, harmony, and aesthetics in where and how you live. you love cultured cities with plenty of artistic experiences. perhaps you're an artist yourself, seeking communities where you can express that creativity. a city that offers a balance of cityscape, mountainscape, and access to bodies of water appeals to your sense of harmony. you’re drawn to colorful, multicultural environments where you can accumulate luxury goods.

一

⏾ scorpio moon 一

new orleans, louisiana + mumbai, india + providence, rhode island

this one is tricky because scorpio Moons are known for being extremely intense and private, which doesn't always translate to a livable city (think Bermuda Triangle). however, you likely value transformative experiences and a form of social power. you want to be in a city that matches your intensity—a place that might be politically involved, spiritually inclined, or even part of some controversy. communities where you can explore taboo subjects or rise within social hierarchies are ideal for you.

一

⏾ sagittarius moon 一

toronto, canada + prage, czech republic + krabi, thailand + dubai, UAE

as one of the more hedonistic moon signs, you crave freedom—to be, to do, to have, etc. you prefer cities with a lot of versatility for living, offering options like big homes, sprawling lofts, small cozy one-bedrooms, and everything in between. cultured and religious cities appeal to your belief system, which is crucial to you. You need a place where you can live your philosophies freely and have fun. a city with many opportunities for adventure and easy access to other exciting places is essential. think road trips, bungee jumping, scuba diving.

一

⏾ capricorn moon 一

london, england + manhattan, new york + melbourne, australia

one word: old-fashioned. capricorns are often seen as traditional, and there's a reason for that. as a capricorn moon, you value cities that operate like institutions—places that have stood the test of time without much change to their foundation. ambition and hard work are of utmost importance, so cities with a professional or hustle culture appeal to you. you are drawn to cities in countries with a strong identity or culture that gratify your sense of tradition. cities where you can network, accumulate wealth, and indulge in luxuries are your ideal.

一

⏾ aquarius moon 一

san francisco, california + rome, italy + new orleans, louisiana + portland, oregon

with pluto in aquarius, I anticipate more moves for aquarius moons, which is great because this is the most community-centered sign in my opinion. aquarius moons value living in cities where they can positively contribute, socialize, and build relationships based on shared interests. you are drawn to innovative, creative cities that are always ahead of trends. you also appreciate cities that are civically mindful and contribute to humanitarian efforts on both local and grand scales.

一

⏾ pisces moon 一

bali, indonesia + bora bora, french polynesia + rome, italy + paris, france

pisces moons are one of the moon signs that truly need to feel "drawn" to a place before visiting or residing there. emotional fulfillment, romance, and creativity are non-negotiable for pisces moons. because of this, beautiful, artistic cities with many opportunities to be near bodies of water are ideal. beach cities and honeymoon destinations are perfect for pisces Moons' empathic and sensitive nature. A city with a calm undercurrent is essential to satisfy your need for rest and peace.

一

⏾ aries moon 一

rome, italy + los angeles, california + tokyo, japan + cairo, egypt + mumbai, india

similar to capricorn moon, its cardinal sibling, aries moons need the opportunity to keep on the go wherever they live. For this reason, you're best suited to "cities that never sleep"—places where you can stay active, compete in major global industries, and reach newer heights. you're drawn to cities with fiery traditions and those that excel in national rankings. you also appreciate cities that are vocal about their value systems and embrace trends.

一

⏾ taurus moon 一

honolulu, hawaii + havana, cuba + las vegas, nevada + ibiza, spain + tokyo, japan

much like libra moons, venus-ruled moons love venus-ruled cities. taurus moons enjoy cities that are comfortable in every sense—materially, socially, politically, and aesthetically. you appreciate cities that are openly hedonistic—notorious vacation spots are actually great places for you to establish yourself. cities with strong tourism markets are good for your desire for material success as they are epicenters of culture and attract people from all walks of life.

一

⏾ gemini moon 一

chicago, illinois + boston, massachusetts + cairo, egypt + lisbon, portugal

as a gemini moon, cities that are versatile, education-centered, and logical are appealing to you. you thrive in places where "everyone knows everyone" and socializing is a priority. cities known for their educational institutions and vibrant social life satisfy your need for variety and communication. cities with a strong tourist presence are also appealing, as you enjoy the ability to feel like a tourist in your own city at any time.

一

⏾ cancer moon 一

sydney, australia + niagara falls , new york + instanbul, turkey + berne, switzerland + mogadishu, somalia

cancer moons love domestic cities that are more feminine in nature. Like their sister sign capricorn, they strongly value traditions, both cultural and social, but in a softer manner. they prefer cities with a strong influence by women and things traditionally associated with women, like fashion, beauty, and the arts. cities with beaches and a strong luminary presence are essential, as they are the water-bearers of the zodiac. cities with a balance between domesticity and capitalism appeal to their need for material security and a good home. a city with a strong real estate market and that is ideal for newlyweds and families is also preferred.

一

⏾ leo moon 一

los angeles, california + miami, florida + mexico city, mexico + marrakesh, morocco + ibiza, spain

much like aquarius moons, the need to be around people is prominent with leo moons. leo moons value being in cities that honor appearance and aesthetics. being seen, being talked about, romance, and play are priority for a leo moon when moving. a city where they can explore artistic pursuits and new cultures. cities that promote health and wellness and image. cities with social hierarchies and strong social networks. cities that are "popular" with the whole world. also cities that are known for night-life and social life. cities where you can regularly rub elbows with important people and indulge in the grandiosities of life.

⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎

the moon in astrology is a gateway to a deeper understanding of one's desires, needs, and motivations which can help in making better-informed decisions on where to move or establish a life. I highly suggest you take this into consideration on your next trip or relocation.

thank you for reading 💋

@astrobaeza

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[baejax-the-great]

One of the things missing in Veilguard is any sort of meaningful power struggle. By keeping to the poorer parts of the city-settings, we don't really deal with corrupt or powerful nobles. By defanging the Crows, an organization who famously has lethal squabbles between factions, they turned them into some weird, benevolent family organization. Even the assassin trying to make "evil" power plays doesn't actually manage to kill any of his targets, and his ruthless relatives? Also don't kill him in revenge. In the end, the status quo is maintained. Nothing has changed.

In Tevinter, we have the Threads, an organized crime unit who we know runs "protection" rackets on the locals and is involved in some kind of smuggling (it's Tevinter--so presumably this would involve slavery and dangerous artifacts, but it's Veilguard, so I guess not). Instead of them beefing with the Shadow Dragons, who presumably ruin some of their deals with their pesky "freeing the slaves" thing, and instead of their main issue being with any sort of law enforcement, something which doesn't exist in Veilguard beyond one singular templar who does all of jack shit the entire game, their main power struggle is with the Venatori, who are evil just to be evil.

And instead of the Veilguard siding with law enforcement or the threads and enlisting their help to, idk, unseat the corrupt head of the templars or otherwise deal with the venatori shit, the threads are highly favored by the storyline, and in the end the only real choice is to make Neve a thread or to make her... idk, the same Neve? The game calls her an "inspiration", but it's not like she's part of any organization, so we can't call her a figurehead. It's just like, see that random citizen right there? She rules. And I don't really see how that increases the power of the rule of law, because even if one good person is working within rule of law to get things done, she's not part of the system, and everyone already know the system is corrupt in Minrathous. Random citizens in fucking Ferelden know the system is corrupt in Minrathous, or they would if they weren't all dead. Neve is now just playing on hard mode to appear righteous, which, good for her, but I'm sorry, won't inspire all that many people who are still paying "protection" money to the local mafia.

(Putting Neve in charge of the Threads is an absolutely whackadoodle decision by the devs that I don't even know how to respond to. She has a single Thread contact. Presumably the Threads have a hierarchy. She has never demonstrated interest in being a smuggler. Being a detective really has no overlap with being a crime boss. Telling a group of criminals that they are all detective's helpers now is sure to go over like a lead balloon. What the fuck was that. Why did that happen.)

Maevaris and Dorian arguing came out of nowhere and lasted a fairly long time, which was interesting, but after the most recent election in the states, Maevaris's position sounds unbearably naive and trite, and this hardly counts as a power struggle as they both say they will support the other depending on what some random outsider thinks should happen. (That is soooo not a basis for a system of government. Why would Maevaris OR Dorian cede their power to Rook, someone they don't know and who doesn't matter)

The power struggle within the Wardens is also very stupid and easily solved. The First Warden is a moron. He dies (kind of). For some reason the extremely hot and competent couple who we first encounter in the middle of nowhere are next in command, so, phew. Problem solved there. A question of what the Wardens will do now that the Blights are over would have been interesting. Do they keep recruiting lest the Blight somehow reoccur and nobody remembers the Warden secrets? Or do they disband? Do they set themselves to seeking a cure and nothing else?

The closest you get to that is deciding what the griffons will do, which, again, why the fuck is Rook deciding that, but also there are 13 of them, in two or three more generations they will be dead unless a lot of mages bone up on genetics real fast.

Who is left? We have Rivain, which is just pointless in this game. I played as a Lord of Fortune, but you could drop that faction and not a single thing changes in the game. Pirates who don't loot valuable artifacts because they are elvhen? Give me a fucking break.

Same for the Mourn Watch. There is pretty much nothing going on in that region. You could excise it from the game and nothing changes in the slightest. There is not a single excuse for them not using the Eluvians to help the Veilguard earlier in the game, given just how little they have going on.

The Veiljumpers are just missed opportunities all over the place. They could have had factions debating whether to join the god of vengeance in fucking up the human civilizations as payback for, you know, everything. They could have had people joining Cyrion in thinking that a Forgotten One might be the best way to face down the gods, given they'd done it before. There could have been a HUGE cultural impact on "what do we do now that we know our gods are evil fuckfaces--what do we keep and what do we throw away," but Veilguard ain't that deep. They could have had knowledge of a super-weapon or some elvhen bullshit that would help the Veilguard fight the gods... but nah.

In DAO, your decisions not only affected the political futures of the various regions, but they decided who would help you and how. Did the dwarves have golems? Did you have templars or mages? That whole wolf thing with the Dalish that I no longer remember that well? And the Dalish deciding to help changed how they were viewed in Ferelden. The mages helping you meant the monarch would treat them favorably. It fucking mattered.

In Veilguard, the only situation remotely close to that is the dragon decision at the beginning, which was one of the fucking dumbest plot points in a video game I have ever played. It was the first thing that made me set my controller down and go... what? What the fuck? The idea that Rook, a nobody, is the only person singularly capable of driving back a dragon in the entire north is laughable. What the fuck was Dorian up to that day? How is Rook more capable than every single Crow? How is it the two companions you sent to the other city were absolutely useless? If Lucanis/Neve + two companions were unable to drive a dragon away, what makes them think Rook would be the deciding factor? What makes them blame Rook when they themselves couldn't fucking do it? Neve in particular was a big part of fucking up that ritual and releasing the gods, so why is Rook taking all the fire for this?

AND WHY IS THEIR RESPONSE TO A BLIGHT TO FIND A SINGLE DRAGON HUNTER? HEY DIPSHITS, THE DRAGON IS HUNTING YOU. YOU DON'T NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT PART. YOU NEED AN ARMY.

But Treviso or Minrathous being spared doesn't change the global political situation at all. It would have been really interesting if it did. Tevinter hobbled? How many kingdoms would be salivating to take a bite out of their territory? With the trade princes of Antiva being absolutely fucked over by the Blight, who is taking over that trade? Who is getting rich?

Nobody, I guess, because why would Rook know or care about that, because, as previously mentioned, they are a nobody who doesn't matter and honestly shouldn't be listened to.

The stakes in this game are nothing because the bad guys are all so obviously bad that you know, as a video game player, that you are going to defeat them. Oh, the Antaam are just mindless, faceless brutes fucking up Treviso? Okay, let's kill them. Venatori again? I'm pretty sure they aren't the heroes of this game. There's no power struggle, and in the end all we've done is revert to the status quo, (except i guess Treviso is no longer occupied).

Except for the south. The south is dead. but we didn't have anything to do with that for some reason. Couldn't even be bothered to house some refugees in our safehouse that was built specifically to house refugees. The Inquisitor, who has access to the eluvians, couldn't figure out how to get other people through them or something so... sorry, every single Orlesian, Fereldan, and Marcher.

[castillon02]

Tim reviews Jason's operations management and makes a suggestion.

"Your first move: hire a head of sanitation," Tim said.

"You think a janitor's gonna solve my suddenly-successful-startup problems? What, by sweeping them away?" Jason rolled his eyes.

Tim steepled his fingers. “The good news,” he said, “is that your drug distribution and community norms enforcement hierarchy is very clear. You also have people doing marketing, program management, HR, facilities, and admin. Your system of rotating duties when people get injured isn’t bad—people generally benefit from cross-training—but you should formalize the top positions and compensate your new leadership team. Including sanitation.” 

“Sure, sure, I'll just tell one of my guys their job is to be head shit-scrubber instead of a badass neighborhood protector!" Jason threw up his hands.

Tim raised his eyebrows.

“It’s bad enough getting them to clean up a crime scene when they’re on my literal shit list! A couple of them thought that lighting the building on fire was an easier way to get it to stop smelling bad and having DNA. Guess who had to add five new slides to his powerpoint about evidence disposal?" Jason glared.

Tim grimaced. "I had an intern in the office who thought that he could just throw trash off his desk for the cleaning staff to pick up."

He and Jason shared a commiserating look that silently said, We were both stupid enough to work with the League of Assassins, and even we wouldn't do that.

“Anyway," Tim continued, "since you're dealing with...that...you can just hire an outside party. Lots of people in Gotham know how to clean up dead bodies and keep their mouths shut. I can advertise the position and send you the likeliest candidates for an interview. I’ll have to incorporate you, of course, but I’ve had the paperwork ready since I got back from the Middle East.” 

“Incorporate me?” 

“Red Hood LLC, technically."

Jason's breathing became calculatedly even.

"Once you’re legit in the eyes of the law, we can work on squaring away everyone’s taxes and keep you from getting Capone’d.” 

“I’m as legit as one of Two-Face’s two-dollar bills!” 

“Yeah, but when you’re an LLC, all your crimes are white-collar crimes, and no one cares about those.” Tim shrugged.

“...Pretty sure that’s not how that works, bud.” 

“It’s how the court of public opinion works. And if anyone tries to say that Red Hood, CEO of Red Hood LLC, and Red Hood, notorious vigilante, are the same person? Tell them to prove it. So what if you have the same outfit? It’s a free country and people can wear what they want. And if they ever get your DNA results, Oracle says no they didn't.”

Jason tilted his head and started smiling. "You want Red Hood to be the Scarlet Pimpernel and Percy Blakeney. At the same time."

"The more blatant you are about it, the better. Rub elbows with Gotham's elite and tell them that you can't imagine why someone would let a Crime Alley vigilante ruin their ability to wear a red hood as a fashion statement, but in your company, people have spines. Especially when they're job creators. If you play your cards right, red headgear will be back in fashion."

"And then?"

"And then," Tim's eyes gleamed, "you start selling merch."

"Oh, shit." Jason's smile turned into a full-on smirk.

"On a sliding scale, of course."

"Those nepo babies are gonna pay me so much money to look cool."

Tim smiled. "And that's how hiring a head shit-scrubber is going to mitigate your high growth and cash flow problems."

[snitchbo]

I dont know how to explain why this is important

But let's not forget that Parkour Civilization is a meritocracy. A socialist autocratic meritocracy.

I feel people don't dwell on this fact enough, opting to just focus on the capitalist allegories, which is awesome bc the allegory is strong and well made, but the literal government seperate from allegory is ALSO very well made and unique, i mean I've never seen a fictional government quite like it, and it's impressive.

People often struggle to conceive the thought of another government or societal idea, and Evbo managed to make an entire government and social norm completely different from any of our own.

Like, let's break this government (or lack of) down.

Parkour Civilization has a sole and all-powerful ruler, The Champion. Which makes the society autocratic with a dictator.

The "businesses" ( housing stores, buying food and blocks, etc. ) are collectivley owned, not belonging to a single person but rather the community. Especially in higher layers, people receive as much as they give to their society. If they work, they get food, they do extra tasks, they get blocks. It's essentially a Marxist Leninist socialist society, but one that's heavily affected by the meritocracy, which can make it seem more capitalist leaning.

Speaking of Meritocratic society, people often mistake the meritocratic aspects as being outright capitalistic, like the social hierarchies and needing to parkour for basic necessities. HOWEVER this is because the society is structured based on your merits in parkour, those with a higher skill level are placed higher in the social chain. Thats why the Parkour Champion is a dictator, because they're the person who is THE BEST at parkour, making them the most capable to lead society according to meritocracy.

In any case, the fact that people are forced to parkour ALL the time is pretty understandable, considering this government is based on merit. They're encouraging people to show off and practice their parkour because their skill level is the only thing to get them anywhere in society. Based on their merits, they get their bare essentials, and if they have particularly good skill levels, they can rank up in society and have access to better resources.

People also always talk about how Evbo didn't make food and resources accesable for free without parkour, which is kind of where the capitalist lens takes over because those things ARE free. There isn't a system of currency in Parkour Civilization. it's all just MERITS. The fact they can die from parkour and the fact they use language like "buy" and "sell" makes it seem capitalistic, but they dont work and receive currency. The currency is infinite as long as their SKILL SET allows it. People had to worry about the consequence of dying from parkour, which is what made it scarce and less accesable, people werent willing to try. Evbo, however, gave them the ability to try again without consequence, which pretty much DOES make everything free, as free as it gets. They have infinite "currency" based on their skills, and theres no consequence for failing or trying again.

I also feel that when people beg Evbo or the future generations to turn Parkour Civilization into more of a communist society, they're completely ignoring the worldbuilding. That is an insane leap to make, from a society based on parkour abilities to having nothing to do with parkour? "Well, they can still parkour!" They could, but you'd be removing the vitality of it completely. I mean, imagine asking the states to become fully communist? It's an insane change that their society would never make, and thats not the end goal. Society can be functional and good without our interpretation of a utopic government because every society is different.

I love the government in Parkour Civilization. Please hear this. And ask me questions or talk to me about it.

[cyberclouddream]

The 6th House and Bad Fortunes

In Hellenistic astrology the 6th house is referred to the “place of bad fortune”, connected to disease and decline in vitality. Here it’s more associated with hardships and illness than daily routines and activities. This is due to it being twelve houses away from the 7th house, which would mean imprisonment to significant commitments, like our health and vitality.

It represents the challenges that arise when our creative and romantic aspirations meet reality. By addressing the issues related to health, routines, and service we can transform the challenges here into opportunities.

Aries Rising

- tedious jobs that demand grinding

- may clean up after others or work beneath your skill level

- burnout because of perfectionism

- overworking with little recognition

- hypochondria; frequent doctor’s visits or checkups

- nitpicky with coworkers

Remedies: balanced diet; prioritize and delegate tasks; activities that promote self-improvement; face issues head-on; eliminate distractions; learn to say no

Taurus Rising

- passive-aggressive co-workers

- people-pleasing overload

- headaches or skin problems

- jobs that lack beauty or creativity

- indecisive career path

- superficial relationship with colleagues

Remedies: make workplace aesthetically pleasing; distinguish supportive relationships from toxic ones; take proactive steps to manage burnout; stay physically active

Gemini Rising

- jobs full of manipulation, power struggles, or drama

- unhealthy or overwhelming intensity at work

- anxiety, digestive issues, or fatigue

- strong desire for control over work environment and tasks clash

- help others with hidden agendas

Remedies: stop avoiding hard tasks; let go of grudges; find a life outside of work; channel rage into work; get regular check ups

Cancer Rising

- dissatisfaction in routines

- overcommitting to responsibilities

- lack of exercise, weight issues, digestive problems

- conflict with traditions or authority

- too much optimism

Remedies: learn to focus on tasks; be wary of escapism; be honest about what you can handle; establish flexible routines

Leo Rising

- rigid rules or strict hierarchies in workplace

- relentless pursuit for success

- issues with bones, joints, or skin

- missing opportunities for joy

- feelings of isolation and loneliness

Remedies: drop guilt about labor and delegate tasks; don’t take work too seriously; reassess goals if feeling stagnant or underappreciated

Virgo Rising

- jobs that feel misaligned with values or ideals

- alienation at work

- inconsistent health practices; issues with circulation, nervous system, or sudden changes in well-being

- rebel against routine tasks or authority figures

- difficulties with structure or traditional methods

Remedies: make decisions instead of overthinking; engage more with colleagues; address and change when there’s discomfort; stop idealizing job or coworkers; embrace structure

Libra Rising

- neglect important tasks and responsibilities

- elusive health issues; frustration when seeking health solutions; often feel tired without clear reason

- sensitivity leads to overwhelming emotional labor

- lack of structure in workplace

- romanticizing hardships, sacrifices, or struggles

Remedies: stop dreaming and start doing; get real about health issues; don’t overindulge in pleasures; don’t let feelings dictate work ethic; confront conversations and conflicts head-on

Scorpio Rising

- rush into tasks without proper planning

- take on too much workload at once

- headaches, high blood pressure, or injuries over overexertion

- struggles with monotonous tasks

- inconsistent motivations

Remedies: think before you speak to not burn bridges; learn to collaborate; own your mistakes; get organized

Sagittarius Rising

- stuck in unfulfilling jobs that lack progress

- overindulge in comforts; overeating or neglecting physical activity

- resistance to new opportunities and changes at work

- jobs that offer little financial security

- neglecting mental health

Remedies: don’t cling to routines or methods; avoid complacency; don’t overindulge in comfort foods or luxuries; don’t expect people to read your mind

Capricorn Rising

- erratic work performance

- overwhelmed by too many projects

- headaches, digestive issues, or anxiety

- resist structured routines

- prioritize mental stimulation over exercise or proper nutrition

Remedies: don’t take on too many tasks at once; confront workplace drama; avoid procrastination; make time for resting well; think before you speak to avoid misunderstandings

Aquarius Rising

- difficulty separating feelings from workplace

- fluctuating health issues, like digestive problems or issues linked to their emotional state

- prioritizing helping others over their own needs

- home dynamics effect work

- lack of professional boundaries

Remedies: don’t play victim; set emotional boundaries at work; don’t beat around the bush; avoid overindulgence; be realistic about your limitations

Pisces Rising

- snuggle with recognition at work

- desires for leadership clash with authority

- neglect health for status and appearance

- difficulties maintaining routine

- dramatic responses to setbacks, like unnecessary stress

Remedies: quit trying to be the center of attention at work; limit drama and theatrics; don’t let your pride blind from constructive criticism; be a team player; avoid overcommitting because of your passion;

[roach-works]

Why did wheat become a widespread staple crop given that it's difficult to harvest/transport/etc? This is not meant to be snarky or combative in any way, it's a genuine question. Are there any books you'd recommend for learning more about this kind of economic and technological history? Thanks.

sorry, i've long since forgotten all the actual books i've read about it, but i will always recommend This Guy:

also as very much a non-expert, my semi-informed opinion on Wheat is that growing complicated and difficult compared to going to the grocery store, and doesn't stack up very well to living in a food forest like north and south americans managed, either.

however, wheat is a grass, and grass grows in a lot of places that people also like to live in, and so wheat farming isn't as crazy a venture as it might otherwise seem.

in a lot of climates, it's possible to plant the grass, harvest the grass seeds, and store the seeds long enough to get you through the part of the year where there's nothing much to eat. if you manage your social and material technology right, you can store a lot of the seeds, and you can even transport them around before they rot, meaning you can now export the seeds from places where grass grows into places where it doesn't. the stalks of the grass that you can't eat provides food for the animals you need to help you grow the grass. and transport the seeds, too.

the social structure required to grow wheat in bulk (a steep and violent hierarchy) does three things: feeds everyone in it with enough extra that the guys on the bottom of the organization can survive to grow more wheat next year, and allows the guys on the top can sequester the rest as profit, consolidating their power. the third thing is that as land is converted to wheat fields, it stops yielding any other food but wheat, which locks people into the system for good. once a people depend on a staple cereal grain for their main source of calories, there isn't an easy way back: forests are chewed away for more wheat fields and those woodlands that remain are shifted towards hardwoods for agricultural tools, rather than food forests with fruit/nuts/shrubs, and even those maintained as game preserves still can't support the needs of entire villages.

in arid and semi-arid conditions, it's even harder to step away from dependence on grain farming because there the agricultural development is along rivers where the land can be irrigated, and the population of people supported by grain production is extremely concentrated into those small areas rather than spread across the entire biome.

in the northern parts of eurasia where grain couldn't be produced at scale because it was too rocky and too cold, people mostly went fishing, and when they grew stuff it was hardy root crops like beets and turnips.

DISCLAIMER: this is all very approximate. but now you know as much as i know.

P.S actually here's the last thing about wheat: it probably all started as a way to reliably source and produce beer, which was invented a long time before bread. bread was invented from wheat when the guys who were producing the beer seeds wanted to start exporting beer seeds to people who wanted beer far away, so they baked the seeds into tablets you could easily transport and then ferment with water once you got to your destination. eventually the traders who were transporting the beer kits started eating them, too, and crackers as a snack food really took off. look up the wikipedia article on beer if you don't believe me.

[cassatine]

my conclave review i guess! i was going to gush in chat but then. too many words.

so literally all i knew about it going in was (1) a cardinal vapes in it (2) probably it's about a conclave?? (3) good vibes according to dashboard osmosis. the cinematography was a+, which i always appreciate. i liked that on one level it's a perfect comedy, really fucking funny in a sort of understated way. the beginning kinda reminded me of the death of stalin, what with the inciting event being the guy at the top of the hierarchy dying… somehow excellent comedy setup. at the very beginning, when lawrence & co struggle a bit to take the ring off the pope's corpse and it's all so ritualized, that's when i knew it was going to be Funny.

but beyond the fact that it was funnier than i expected... i liked the layers. most of all i think i liked the earnestness. ralph fiennes mid-crisis of faith, hating his job, trying to be a moral man in a system that is broken?? chef's kiss. the other cardinals of note were also nicely layered, like adeyemi? it would have been so easy to just stop at his being homophobic and treat his having had a kid being revealed as comeuppance but the way he cries and asks lawrence to pray with him… he sucks and it's a good thing he's taken off the race but it also happens for the wrong reason. bellini who's lying to himself and everyone else over not wanting to be the pope when he so clearly does and still letting himself be bought by the promise of a nice post… and yet he is not just an hypocrite. he sees he failed. he apologizes. he is only human. tedesco could have been a one note villain but he's the coolest dude around, and on a fundamental level that's part of what makes him dangerous: he's a reactionary and a bigot but he makes it kinda sexy. you want to like him; he's fun to watch and he has style, something the other cardinals probably wouldn't recognize if it hit them in the face. benitez. well. benitez is jesus. sister agnes was neat, it's a bit sad we don't really get to know her but she's indispensable and i love that for her. like. here's a bunch of dudes with all the decisional power who expect her to just exist in the background doing the menial work and then her printer expertise ends up being vital, and in general lawrence wouldn't have managed as well without her support… noice.

the end feels a bit easy, like lbr benitez being elected pope because he made a nice speech is ludicrous, but also… it works for me?

(1) on some level the film is about the difficulties of trying to be a moral person in a system that does not reward being moral. sure it's about faith and doubt and the limitations of organized religion. it's about catty bitches vying for power in a ritualized way that, on some level, speaks of an institution that ossified, that resists change (and on that note: benitez, obviously-the-best candidate only gets elected because people skirt the isolation rules, because the outside world intrudes. also because he is jesus.) it's stated near the beginning that the pope hadn't lost faith in god but in the church, and through the movie we can see why, all the machinations and the thirst for power and the fallibility of the men within the institution. through lawrence we see how much easier it would be to just… stop trying, to do the convenient thing, the easy thing, rather than the right thing, and to find justifications for that: better not make waves and better not make a scandal, for the sake of electing a blandly liberal pope rather than tedesco. and who would disagree? sure, better a bland liberal than reactionary tedesco. but then comes the ethical quandary: should the goal of avoiding one evil mean closing your eyes to another? should you forsake your sense of right and wrong for the greater good? too often i think we are told to prioritize the greater good, and maybe sometimes we should. but maybe sometimes we shouldn't. maybe sometimes we should hold to our principles. in the end, benitez being elected pope isn't going to miraculously make the catholic church and its agents unproblematic. but it is a win, and it happens because lawrence kept choosing to do (what he believes is) the right thing, the moral thing, even when it's not easy, even when it's inconvenient, even when he's told he's being naive and hurting the greater cause. and i appreciate that message.

(2) as i said: benitez is jesus. the film is a parable… it's a story about how jesus showed up, completedly unexpected, in the middle of the church his disciples built, and because the church is made up of people and people are flawed and faillible and too busy with things like power, they did not notice jesus walking among them. at least not until god (metaphorically) shone a light on him. like yes sure the way benitez ends up the one elected is ludicrous but!! it took an act of god. not the bombs per se. but the tragedy of it intruding into the isolated conclave? the windows exploding, the light coming in, this is what allows the true stakes to become clear again, and for benitez's love thy neighbour speech to take place at all - a speech contrasted with tedesco's own, all the style stripped from him, making it clear he is a man who reaches for hate and not compassion. it's a parable!! it takes a tragedy. it takes an act of god.

[probablyasocialecologist]

A system of ancient ceramic water pipes, the oldest ever unearthed in China, shows that neolithic people were capable of complex engineering feats without the need for a centralized state authority, finds a new study by University College London researchers. In a study published in Nature Water, the archaeological team describe a network of ceramic water pipes and drainage ditches at the Chinese walled site of Pingliangtai dating back 4,000 years to a time known as the Longshan period. The network shows cooperation among the community to build and maintain the drainage system, though no evidence of a centralized power or authority. Dr. Yijie Zhuang (UCL Institute of Archaeology), senior and corresponding author on the paper, said, "The discovery of this ceramic water pipe network is remarkable because the people of Pingliangtai were able to build and maintain this advanced water management system with stone age tools and without the organization of a central power structure. This system would have required a significant level of community-wide planning and coordination, and it was all done communally." The ceramic water pipes make up a drainage system which is the oldest complete system ever discovered in China. Made by interconnecting individual segments, the water pipes run along roads and walls to divert rainwater and show an advanced level of central planning at the neolithic site. What's surprising to researchers is that the settlement of Pingliangtai shows little evidence of social hierarchy. Its houses were uniformly small and show no signs of social stratification or significant inequality among the population. Excavations at the town's cemetery likewise found no evidence of a social hierarchy in burials, a marked difference from excavations at other nearby towns of the same era. But, despite the apparent lack of a centralized authority, the town's population came together and undertook the careful coordination needed to produce the ceramic pipes, plan their layout, install and maintain them, a project which likely took a great deal of effort from much of the community. The level of complexity associated with these pipes refutes an earlier understanding in archaeological fields that holds that only a centralized state power with governing elites would be able to muster the organization and resources to build a complex water management system. While other ancient societies with advanced water systems tended to have a stronger, more centralized governance, or even despotism, Pingliangtai demonstrates that was not always needed, and more egalitarian and communal societies were capable of these kinds of engineering feats as well.

[anghraine]

I've been trying to think of a less harsh way to put it, but every time I see an ostensible expert say that Mr Bennet and Darcy have the same social position and the only difference between them is that Darcy has more money, it's like ... um, either this person doesn't know what they're talking about or assumes their audience is so unsophisticated and ignorant that they can't handle the slightest degree of nuance.

Yes, it's obvious why this always comes up with P&P specifically, and explaining all the many differences and gradations in socioeconomic hierarchies between then and now is a steep task and not always necessary or useful. But Darcy and Mr Bennet are both untitled hereditary landowners. This means they have the same rank, yes—the technicality Elizabeth uses with Lady Catherine—but it also means that their status, incomes, reach of influence, and general consequence in their world are going to be primarily based on their inherited land, not that all these things except income would be functionally identical in their social world.

Awhile ago, I quoted a fairly concise description of England's class system at the time by the historian Dorothy Marshall, made decades ago, but—unusually—managing to convey some of the RL complexity around social position without belaboring the point too much. One of the most critical points she makes is this:

In spite of the number of people who got their living from manufacture or trade, fundamentally it was a society in which the ownership of land alone conveyed social prestige and full political rights.

The difference between someone like Mr Bennet and someone like Darcy in terms of socioeconomic power and status (often termed "consequence" at the time) is inevitably going to be more about hereditary land ownership than any other factor, including incomes and connections. Their incomes provide important information about the scale and value of the land they own, but wealth alone only tells a portion of the story here.

[tanadrin]

The impression I get from Revolutions is that in the 19th century there was a real uncertainty about the empirical question of how to achieve socialist aims in politics. On the one side you had forces like the Russian Narodists, who eschewed engagement with the system (and "the system" was, in the Russian context, Tsarist autocracy), fearing that to do so would be to legitimize the system and allow the desire for reform to be coopted, and thus allow it to be stalled out. This was framed in somewhat Romantic terms, with language about, like, the "vitality" of the "revolutionary spirit," but I think the underlying concern is one I'm sympathetic to, even if I would use different language to describe it. And, after all, the system you want to build is pretty politically and socially divorced from the circumstances around you, and it's hard to envision how you get from the current system to that one, in any kind of reasonable timeframe, by purely incremental reform.

On the other hand, you had agitators like Martov and also social democrats willing to work within the (limited, and definitely undemocratic) parliamentary systems that European states were grudgingly establishing, or even the pretty powerless zemstvas in Russia, but whose engagement of the system also came in the form of, like, strikes and demanding concessions from bosses and capitalists, which is something that a lot of anarchists and Narodist and others on the "anti-engagement" side thought was a waste of time, and tended to grant the legitimacy of the position of these bosses at the top of the hierarchy. Equality and freedom and the like wasn't something you should be granted, it was something you should take. At its most extreme, this dichotomy expressed itself in political terrorism: 19th century anarchists really thought that killing a king or a tsar (or even a president) might spark a national revolution and cause the whole system to come crumbling down.

But the course of the 19th century, especially the latter 19th century, pretty much answered these questions. For one, assassinations just provoked brutal crackdowns that tended to destroy radical organizations. For two, the labor movement proved effective. Wildly effective, in fact. For three, the fears of arch-conservatives proved correct: a little bit of parliamentarism was a foot in the door for genuine democracy, and once your foot was in the door you could keep pushing, and revolution was still an option on the table if progress stalled out too hard or for too long.

And yet I also have the suspicion that the long 19th century was a period where revolution was an unusually effective tactic, and that in the centuries before and the century-and-change since, it has proved to be a much dicier proposition. Revolutions are of course hard to kick off even under ideal circumstances--you can miss your chance one day because it rains and people stay home, or a protest over one pastor getting evicted can bring down your whole regime. But autocracy is brittle, the 19th century (and early 20th) was a period of extremely rapid social change and an extremely entrenched reactionary ruling class, and the alternative a lot of revolutionaries had in mind--liberal parliamentary democracy--can actually be surprisingly stable once it gets entrenched.

Revolutions that switch out one strongman for another, or install more oligarchic republican forms, or otherwise create governments with weak legitimacy can instead devolve into a generation of political chaos. But by the 19th century, Europe was starting to converge on a pretty durable model of governance, one pioneered in Britain (which managed to avoid revolution entirely throughout the period!). And I think in this framework participation in the system is both easier to justify and is inarguably more effective than abstention. Abstention, in both its more peacefully separatist and its aggressive kill-the-king-and-hope-everything-collapses forms, proved too utopian; building a parallel drop-in replacement for the state is simply too vast a coordination problem, and the whole reason states exist in the first place is that they solve big coordination problems (even if in deeply suboptimal ways). You can secede to form your own little community in the wilderness, if that's the flavor you want your anarchism or agrarian socialism to have, and if it is, more power to you--but if you want to remake society, rather than just remove yourself from it, ultimately you have to confront and engage with the channels of power that already exist.

[miscling]

got another kink infodump in the system from the aether, so let's share that too!

gonna talk about D/s, the big one, what we'd expect to be the first thing that pops into vanilla people's minds when we bring up BDSM and kink. in particular, we're gonna talk about High-Protocol D/s

this is something we crave as a sub. wherein a sub has rules that they have to follow for the dominant, and in doing so provides service for their dominant. it sorta ties into our maid kink, with duties and expectations provided by the dominant, with rewards and consequences baked into the relationship, running on a contract that allows everyone to know what's expected of them within their interactions.

it's a power exchange dynamic, in which the sub gives power to the dominant to control them as they see fit, but it's not without limits. within power exchange dynamics such as these, a contract is drawn up between the two parties. usually a dominant with resources and a sub who is almost more of a servant than partner. you can go for a-dom-and-thier-personal-servant vibes, or hold an entire household with sub hierarchies and ranks.

usually training revolves around household tasks and management, as well as maintaining presentation, from hosting other dominants to show off your training to learning how to please your dominants in the ways they prefer. there can be anything from call and responses, positions you assume on command, to anything else that your dominant desires.

it's a kink that's got roots in pretty old-school kink scenes, which makes it a little out of step with the more recent and common puppynormative weird trans girl scenes that are often a little less polished than high-protocol stuff that gets posted about on tumblr. it's hdg without the intox-hypno-brainwashing, but it's rooted in a fantasy of living under someone who controls and defines your existence. of belonging to someone completely, who gives you clear rules and routines and owns you completely. but like, since control is usually maintained with garden variety sadomasochism, it's a lot more realistic than some kink universes out there, even if it's still just as full of escapism.

tbh though, this thing thinks it'd suck at high-protocol stuff that wasn't 1:1. it would need a lot of training, even with its submissive disposition, just to get past its indomitable independency, however long it took to actually make it believe that someone wants to keep it, and not just play with it for a while and then ignore it once they've had enough.

[knight-a3]

Heavenbound AU

Masterpost

Angels, and Halos, and Lore! Oh, my!

This is getting into the realm of theology just a little bit, but I want to have a clearly defined structure and progression system in this portrayal of heaven. One that wasn't overly simple, but also not overly complex. I've thought more about this than I should bother with.

The halos represent the kind of angel they are, essentially. Yes, the generic person is based on a human version of Charlie. Don't think too hard about it, because it really doesn't mean anything. I just needed a stand in to show the different types of halos.

More under the cut:

There are two basic types of souls: Heavenborn/Celestials(who manifest with silver halos) and Immortals(consists of three stages: premortal, mortal, and postmortal. They manifest with yellow gold halos)

Then there are four classes of angels(because I find the classic hierarchy with thrones, principalities, dominions, etc. to be too complicated, and not even theologically consistent). Bottom up, the classes are:

Cherubim (consisting of immature souls, animal life, and fantasy species)

Saints (consisting of Citizens and Archangels)

Seraphim(Consisting of Radiants, and the Seven Heavenly Virtues(counterpart to the 7 Deadly Sins))

Creators. (High Father, High Mother, and the Beloved)This class is pretty mysterious to everyone. They created the earth and all life within it, then left to rest and are presumably still resting. They've gone MIA. The Virtues have taken over management in their absence.

--Cherubim/Cherubs-- (Cherubs is technically not the correct way to plural cherub, but I'll probably use cherubs and cherubim interchangeably. Same with seraph)

All souls begin as an immature "baby" cherub, which could grow up to be any type of angel. Possible stages of growth differ. Immortals must go throw a mortal stage in order to continue their growth; it gives them a wide range of potential. While Celestials don't. Immature souls look like floating orbs to start, sometimes they grow little fairy wings.

Immature->Premature->human mortal->saint or sinner

Immature->mortal animal->postmortal mature cherub

Immature->low cherub

Immature->high cherub

Immature->seraph

Human immortals are the only ones that go through two immature stages. Premature souls are like children. Then they move on to mortality

Animal immortals go from Immature straight to Mortality. Then they come back as mature cherubs. When your beloved dogs died, they become cherubs It's doggie heaven!

High/low cherubs are only differentiated by their level of sapience. High cherubs are the fantasy creatures with more human-like intelligence. Low cherubs are the fantasy creatures with more animal-like intelligence.

Cherubs are often tasked with guarding holy objects or places, like the Ark of the Covenant or the Tree of Life(although Saints often do this too).

--Saints--

Redeemed- Sinners that were redeemed and become saints were unheard of for millennia. They end up with rose gold halos, and hopefully it doesn't become a source of discrimination...

Citizens-- the majority of saints, just minding their own business and living their heavenly lives. In canon, they're the typical "winners"

Heralds-- Messengers, guardians, witnesses, etc. They're saints that have a specific assignment on earth. It's temporary. Once complete, they are no longer a herald, unless they get another assignment.

Archangels-- Saints with longstanding assignments and responsibilities.

Exorcist- the soldiers in the army of heaven. They're tasked with protecting earth and heaven from threats. Their most common assignment is exorcising any demons that have slipped into earth. Whether that is by returning them to hell or exterminating them is supposed to depend on the threat level. In canon, the exorcists are implied to be created and named by Adam, but I'm making them immortal saints instead. So Vaggie was human. Consequently, they're not exclusively female.

Prophet- These are often notable righteous historical figures. They oversee local management, administration, leadership, and other civic duties. Like how St Peter watches the gate and greets the new arrivals. They don't have to be religious figures, notable people like, say, Mother Teresa, can count.

Chief- The Chief Saint is the leader of the saints. So far, it's always been Adam.

--Seraphim/Seraphs--

Seraphim are angels that represent a concept. Whether it be something physical, emotional, a force of nature, etc. Emily is a seraph of Joy. Helel(Lucifer) was a seraph of morning light.

There are two types of Seraphs

Radiant Seraphim- Represent a variety of concepts. Average seraph.

Elder Seraphim/The Seven Heavenly Virtues- the counterparts to the seven deadly sins. They've taken over managing earth and heaven in the absence of the Creators. They're a little stressed about it. I'm considering making Sera the Virtue of Diligence, but idk for sure. She might just be the leader of the Radiant seraphim. IDK. Humility/Respect - Pride Forgiveness/Patience - Wrath Temperance/Abstinence - Gluttony Charity - Greed Chastity/Self control - Lust Kindness - Envy Diligence - Sloth

Heavenbound AU Lore

[maybeelse]

(Previously)

"So," you ask, "why am I still alive?"

She's sitting at the little table outside your cell doing paperwork again. The Liberation has more paperwork than you ever suspected. "We disabled your mech's countermeasures," she says, not looking up. "About an hour before you spotted us, in fact."

"That's not what I meant—WAIT, an hour!? But I spotted you barely an hour into the patrol!"

"Yes," she finally looks at you, smiling, "your command/control system is full of holes, dear."

That's a vital piece of intel, for whenever you manage to escape. Hopefully she can't see that thought on your face. She probably can—if she can't just read if off your implants.

"Well, um. I meant. What do you want from me?"

"Aside from the obvious?"

You break eye contact. Stare at your cell's open door instead. At least you didn't look down, this time; you're not hungry enough to ~~ask~~ give in again. Not yet.

"T-there are easier ways to, uh," you don't know why you're being so bashful. It's just sex, coerced and nonconsensual as it is. "I mean. If that's all you want."

"Mmm, maybe I have morals?" She shakes her head. "You're an enemy combatant, dear, and your bunch kill us whenever they can get their hands on us. What's the thing they say, 'no civilians in the Liberation'? Something like that."

"I-I never," it's true. You never got a chance. "I wouldn't have ..."

"You would have. Maybe you'd have been reluctant, but half your training is about obeying the hierarchy. A general tells you it's a military target, are you going to object?"

She's right, of course, but you don't answer. You won't give her the satisfaction.

"Hell," she continues after a long pause, "you haven't even tried to escape. The implied hierarchy of the prison cell and the warden is stronger than whatever convictions you thought you had. You couldn't even starve yourself properly!"

"W-what do you mean? If I tried to get out you'd just ..."

"I mean, yes," she allows, "I would. But you haven't even tried. I never even had to lock your cell's door. Or those chains."

"... what?"

"Try it," she says, smiling. You are suddenly very, very aware that her handgun isn't in its holster.

She could stop you with a thought, of course. You're not sure how deep her control of your cybernetics actually is, but she's perfectly capable of fucking with your motor systems. But the chains come off your ankles with just a bit of force, and she just watches as you creep out of your cell, pausing for a long time just inside the door. Expecting your cybernetics to stop you with a flood of pain, like they would in an Empire prison.

Nothing stops you.

It's strange, standing in front of her. Upright. So much taller than her, when you're not on your knees. Her handgun is hanging from a hook on the wall, right outside your door. You could grab it, flick the safety, and fire in one smooth motion. Point blank; you wouldn't even have to aim.

It would be easy.

And probably she'd stop you—probably she's already written something into your cybernetics that would stop you—but at least you'd have tried, right? At least she'd know that you're loyal to the Empire. You'd know.

Standing up in front of her—looming over her, really—feels wrong, though. It's much more comfortable to be on your knees. A more proper height, for a prisoner before their warden. And her skirt's worn-leather scent is so warm and reassuring, so it would be a shame not to rest your head there, just for a moment. You're not giving in, of course, just ...

Just what?

Her fingers against your scalp ruin whatever justification was brewing in your struggling brain. Kneading, stroking, lingering on that sensitive place just behind your ear. Somehow more intimate than when she's grabbed your head before, to show you how to move or to encourage you as you labored to please her—not because you wanted to please her, of course! So that she'd let you eat. Only ever for the reward. Of course.

"Wow," she murmurs, almost too quiet for you to hear, "they really did a number on you, huh? Just a dog desperate for a new master ..."

---

Eventually she loses interest in you, which is just as well. You need time to put your thoughts back together, half-collapsed on the floor, leaning against her legs. Clinging to her. Waiting for everything to make sense again.

"Should I go back to my cell?" You eventually ask.

"Mhmm, if you want to. Anyway, do you know any words that rhyme with 'persimmon'?"

"Um," you blink, "women?"

"Already used that one. Damn, I'm going to have to start from scratch again ..."

"D-does the Liberation make you write paperwork in verse?"

"What?" She scoffs, "No! This isn't paperwork! Half the reason I joined was to get away from the damn stuff, your empire is drowning in it."

It might be the first genuine reaction you've gotten out of her since you were captured.

"W-what is it, then?"

"Poetry. Don't they still have that in the empire?"

"O-of course we do! It's patriotic. It tells us what we should be!"

"Not this kind of poetry."

[starcrossed591]

I'm kind of obsessed with how intentional and specific Flourished Peony is being about how sexism is not just a matter of individuals being shitty, but a matter of systemic inequality. (They're also being really fucking clear that classism and other elements of the social hierarchy compound it, but that's another post.)

First, take how difficult it was for Mu Dan to get a divorce (and she still doesn't have the paperwork, which I'm *sure* is going to come back to bite her in the ass!). In her attempts to leave the Liu family, she's up not just against her terrible in laws and trash husband, but an intertwined legal and social system that works against her being able to get out alive, much less with any sort of means to support herself. In order to get the local court to approve her divorce, she not only has to prove that her husband has beaten her (and also make it look like the physical abuse she endured is much worse than it was because spousal rape I'm sure would not be acknowledged as a crime), have her body examined in public in order to prove the beating is real--and because that's not actually enough to guarantee her escape, arrange for a higher ranking official on her side and a paid audience to be there for her hearing in order to make sure the judge doesn't sweep it all under the rug. Even with all that on her side, the Judge even tries to justify kicking her out of the Liu family, leaving her dowry behind, because she has not yet born a child and therefore must be at fault for the problems in her relationship.

And *then* even though she gets her divorce papers, her (terrible, no good, piece of garbage) father-in-law sends his servant to murder her so he can keep her dowry. They've already coerced her into giving up a significant portion of that dowry, and sold other parts of it without her consent. Her father-in-law burns her divorce decree, and she has to run for her life with only a potted plant to her name. She then stages her death because she discovers she can't actually go home. Using a combo of social conventions, legal conventions, and rank, the Liu family has convinced her family that Mudan is at fault for all the trouble and as such, they would immediately send her back if she goes home for help.

And then ass if *that* wasn't enough, once Mu Dan makes it to the capital, she can't get a dang job to support herself because she doesn't have a household registration because she wasn't able to get properly divorced! And not having the proper paperwork once again makes her vulnerable to further abuse and gender based violence. She takes a job working in a tavern for 30% of what she deserves for her labor and on top of that, is then nearly sexually assaulted and forced to become the tavern owner's concubine. And even though she manages to escape, she can't hold the tavern owner responsible for beating, abduction, and attempted murder because she can't take him to court because she still *does not have the right paperwork*.

Now, a lot of people acted terribly in this sequence of events, including but not limited to: the Liu family, especially Mu Dan's father-in-law; Mu Dan's trash husband, who has treated her like something he found on the bottom of his shoe for the entirety of their marriage and now only wants to keep her because she wants to leave; the Liu family's servants, who, admittedly, don't have much recourse of their own; the judge; and the tavern owner. Murder attempt and outright abuse aside, though, there were a lot of good people who maybe even *wanted* to help Mu Dan and either couldn't or chose not to because of a combination of legal restrictions and social conventions.

Perhaps the most potent example of well-meaning people using the law and social conventions to justify their perpetuation of this system is Mu Dan's cousin, the imperial scholar. Though he does intervene to save her when she runs bang into him when running for her life from the tavern owner, what he absolutely won't do is help her get a fake household registration. Without that registration, she can't get a job and would have to fully depend on his support for food, clothing, and shelter. And hanging over his offer to house her is the threat that if her in laws find out that she's there--which they eventually would--her law-abiding cousin would almost certainly feel obliged to send her back to said in laws that want to kill her. Because legally, they have a right to do with her what they want. Because she's a woman. Who can't seem to get a divorce.

Anyway, I can't stop thinking about it, so there you go, there's my gender analysis of the first seven episodes of this drama.

[regular-gnome]

More on social systems, what is the Archivist hierarchy like? I suppose with this specific group a family unit but would it be like that amongst a different group?

Do they HAVE to listen to the oldest? What happens if they don't? Is it just an honor system, not to be rude but the Archivist don't seem like the most honorable bunch-

Oh, theyyy certainly aren't honorable, but they are very focused on their goals and it takes precedence over personal grudges. The organization within the groups varies a lot depending on how the group originally formed. In general, collectors try to establish and maintain an archive to further the goal of preserving life within the galaxy. Someting started after extinction event of an early world where the starchildren once lived when the universe was still young and mostly empty

After a while—through bit of trial and error—a single large archive where best way to descibe the leadership is "overpowered gremlin induced chaos" became impractical as the universe expanded. The collectors eventually split to cover more ground and prevent a scenario where life might vanish completly. That’s when smaller groups started to form. Some paired up, creating their own archives, older collectors taking in younger ones who weren’t yet ready to manage an archive on their own. Others formed groups with those they got along with, though that was rare, as there was a lot of ground to cover and few of them. Most though went alone

As time passed, new starchildren came into existence and were brought into these groups, figuring out organisation as they grew up within them. In case of this group after being split off from other collectors the Anatomist established archive before eventually finding other siblings who helped expand it. But as the universe continues to grow, it’s only a matter of time before this archive will have to split as well, which will change group dynamics all over again

With if they do have to listen to the oldest - not really? It all depends on how the dynamics between them play out and how their personalities fit together. Anyone with siblings knows that if one starts bossing the others around, they’re likely to be ignored. But they all care about their work so learned to cooperate. Oldest makes most of the decisions mostly due of their expertise in handling archive (....and having essentially had raised the younger ones), but for everything else, it’s handled on a case-by-case basis or fought about

[yingandzhan]

Sects and Clans in MDZS.

I think I wrote something on this a while ago, but just to put it out there again - there are barely any mentions or much of an existence of SECTS in the actual novel. This is a huge mistranslation that is in both the ExR and 7Seas versions of the story.

This is actually an important story point because of the difference between sects and clans.

SECTS are based on personal merit and performance. The strongest lead and are given the important roles in managing the sect. This system is more like a school, where it doesn't matter what background you came from.

CLANS on the other hand, are based on bloodline and lineage. The offspring of the current mainline clan member who leads will take over when the time comes. It does not matter if they are weak or incompetent, whoever is next in line will become clan leader. This system is more like a royal family, where privilege and state are prevalent.

All of the so-called "sects" in MDZS are actually clans and are called as such in the Chinese text. It's the Lan Clan, the Wen Clan and so on. It's a really important part of MXTXs story because it shows us right from the start what WWX was up against. The world he is a part of is extremely classist, they look down upon those who don't have a certain name, status or bloodline.

It also shows us just how hard WWX actually worked to be ranked 3rd in the young masters of his generation! To have been awarded such a place, it meant people actually overlooked his status to award him on his looks and skills alone. It shows us just how hypocritical the cultivation world can be. When everyone bought into the rumours JFM treated WWX like his own (which he didn't, but we see others assumed as such) everyone treated him as a young master or as close to that as they would allow him to be. The minute JFM is dead and they see the way JC treats him, they all begin to disrespect him and turn against him.

The only mention of a sect throughout the whole entire novel is the one XXC and SL planned to form. I guess you could also classify what BSSR has on her secluded mountaintop as a sect, since there is no bloodline dictating a hierarchy. But overall, it is a huge fandom misconception that it is the Lan sect and Jiang sect - they are clans and it's incredibly important to the entire plot.