#Ildinia

[nichtschwertart]

Earth is the stage of many conflicts big and small, miraculous and mundane, grand and petty. It is, perhaps most notably, one of the main battlegrounds of the Bellum Magnum. But Earth is also the site of an ongoing struggle that is notable only in its peculiarity: the Sierpiński War.

Its history begins with the rise of Cold War espionage agencies. As the various spy networks of the world constructed, confabulated and investigated all manner of plots and conspiracies, a number of cells all over the world found a strange pattern in their collected data. They found certain sets of code names, shell corporations and false government divisions that could not with any amount of work be resolved down to anything real, but kept popping up in otherwise totally unrelated documents. This bizarre pattern came to be known as the Sierpiński conspiracy. No agent that ever tried has managed to unravel it. There would always be further clues to find, but following them was less like tightening the noose around the neck of a grand conspirator and more like falling endlessly down into a fractal hole of deceit and hidden meaning. To those who fail to cut their losses it becomes the ultimate mystery: A picture that seems to consistently become clearer and sharper without ever fully resolving. Surely there must be an end to its complexity! Surely Sierpiński cannot be everywhere, involved in everything, manipulating absolutely everybody. Surely the end is just out of reach. Surely you've nearly got it. You're so close. So close you can feel its edges on your throat. All major modern intelligence agencies forbid research into Sierpiński at this point. The patterns are identifiable enough to allow supervisors to effectively warn would-be obsessives away, but around a dozen rogue cells of compromised operatives seek the truth to this day, all hot on the heels of this mastermind conspiracy. The truth is of course, that the patterns lead them in circles and so they are mainly tracking, ambushing, raiding and fighting one another. Funding, scarce and largely funneled into these outfits from the black budgets of the richest nations by mysterious means, is augmented by the tried and true spy methods of fraud and con artistry. Police actions against all parties still involved in this Sierpiński War fall prey to the fractal patterns just as surely as any investigation into the conspiracy at its heart and so the struggle continues, a shadow war of immeasurable cost and unknowable purpose.

The ultimate truth, however is surprisingly simple: The Sierpiński conspiracy does not exist. It is a mere dream of the void; a pattern from the unfathomable systems of correspondence, misdirection and implied meaning within the Ineffable Bureau of Ninuan. It was never meant for Creation. It fits itself snugly into the code-word-riddled, massively redacted and highly temporary practices of non-documentation and communication of Earth's Espionage and Counter-Espionage communities. It constructs itself in the paperwork to always present the tantalizing lure of deeper truth. But it's ultimately nothing at all, doesn't actually make any sense or have a resolution.

If anybody had the means to tally up the actual funds held by all belligerents in the Sierpiński War over time, they would find that a portion of untraceable lost assets totals a number perfectly matching the income on a Swiss bank account owned by one Ildinia Kills-With-Words.

[broeckchen]

Save your Tears for another Day~

I love how this one came out. @nichtschwertart 's player character Ildinia in Glitch, here pictured partying it up in the club with some probably very illegal stuff to unwind after a hard day of being a single Mom!

I love Ildinia, she's the worst. (Hint: It's Glitch, they're all the worst!)

[nichtschwertart]

“In conclusion”, Ildinia said, ”Yes, there’s definitely something wrong with you, but I haven’t yet found what it is. You need to remember that you’re only wrong in the way that everything that exists is wrong. It’s not your fault and it can’t be helped, so don’t lose any sleep over it. Okay?”

“Okay, mom”, Tancrecine replied even though this was not okay.

Ildinia jumped off the couch. “Good, sweetie! Now go do your homework, I got important matters to attend to!”

From the window by Tancrecine’s desk she had an unobstructed view of the beach. This had never occurred to Ildinia, who thought her daughter couldn’t see or hear that far. Otherwise she would surely have picked a different spot to walk back and forth with a bottle of wine and yell at the world.

Ildinia Kills-With-Words, dying of Bureaucracy

[nichtschwertart]

Ildinia pulled back a moment to catch her breath.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Bessika*?”, she asked, quietly.

“Oh no”, said Besslinda who was dying of Love. And leaning in for another kiss she added: “This is a terrible, terrible idea.”

* possessive, affectionate Ninuanni diminutive for Besslinda

With this one I somehow slipped and fell into the cool colours zone. I was experimenting with ways to do interesting shading and then the top image happened. But I spent too much time on colouring and shading earlier to waste all that effort so I also made the compromise version below.

I like both a lot.

[nichtschwertart]

The Wailing Rite

These Rites are a Strategist’s lesser power of despair. — from Glitch - A Story of the Not by Jenna Katerin Moran

Sometimes your human child — feeling neglected — hatches an elaborate, humiliating ski trip plan and then lectures you on how parenting is supposed to work.

Clearly, the mature thing to do is to get completely hecked up on your own Wyrd. Ildinia demonstrates.

https://youtu.be/ATyy6EkmXeg

[nichtschwertart]

Chancery Group Session

[nichtschwertart]

Liuvikas (Ildinia's lost Love for Creation)

Ildinia tore her capacity for loving Creation out of her heart and it became a strange fuzzy green caterpillar the size of a cat. It's a Casting Rite.

Stats:

Ability: 4

Skills: Cooking, Driving, Housekeeping, Climbing, Highschool education

Free Power: Phantasmagorical level 3 automatic miracle to infect anyone who touches it with Ildinia's painful and confused love for Tancrecine

Extra Power: Phantasmagorical level 3 automatic miracle to become basically able to perform an Ability action that would normally require human physiology

Immersion Capacity: 2

[nichtschwertart]

When Ildinia returned to Paradise 14 years ago, she had more optimism about the future than ever before or ever since.

[nichtschwertart]

Bureaucracy, dying of Ildinia

[nichtschwertart]

Yet another Chibi-Ex tribute. This time starring:

Perquisitor Haiduil Pompeius, and Ildinia Kills-With-Words

[nichtschwertart]

I think I have identified my three favourite

Strategist Flavours

So I went and made a dang chart about it. Here's all my various Strategists on the sparkly new HNC-Chart.

Hopeless — They're a mess, deeply compromised, struggling with basic tasks, probably low Ability

Numinous — They're a thing of divine beauty and grace. Perhaps not aesthetically or physically but spiritually, philosophically

Caustic — They're nasty, mean, toxic, dangerous. Full of anger, barely holding it together.

Template under the cut, if you want it.

Everybody on the Chart: - Scarthas Gadhra (Fated to die) - Liuveric Ercariman (dying of Disassociation) - Haiduil Pompeius (dying of Rust) - Drusait Hanasqus (dying of Softness) - Ildinia Kills-With-Words (dying of Bureaucracy) - Chindaander Dauthubleis (dying by the Sword)

Here's the Template:

No credit necessary, but I'd love to be tagged if you use it.