#Spiritual Overhauls

[bonefall]

i dunno if you’ve covered this before but are there medics in the dark forest besides runningnose? who are they and what got them sent there? the bb!dark forest is so interesting with the wide variety of cats there both by choice and by damnation i love all the stuff you have to tell us abt it!

So far there are three Clerics in the Dark Forest! Though I'm open to adding more. While StarClan is "stricter" with Clerics than regular warriors, it's rare that they end up getting damned.

Runningnose, as mentioned, for a long list of war crimes

Featherwhisker, for constantly breaking the rules. He had children with a kittypet, constantly channeled cats in spite of StarClan's warnings, and only took his role seriously when he felt like it. It doesn't matter that he served his Clan loyally when they were sick; StarClan will NOT be disrespected.

Ravenwing, for incorrectly interpreting the Will of StarClan. He thought they sent a sign warning ThunderClan about the three halfclan kittens, and they bellowed back, "YOU THOUGHT WE'D CONSIDER INNOCENT CHILDREN A THREAT??"

Larkstripe also had a harrowing trial over her Strike, but ultimately, it was concluded she WAS acting with StarClan's best interests in mind and Dalestar had punished her enough. However, they were out of patience when her son, Ripplestar, did an even bigger rebellion years later. They haven't been reunited ever since his Trial.

[absolute-decay]

I know it's going to be a while but I just cannot wait to hear Kai's pathetic ugly crying voice acting. It's either going to make me cry or laugh or maybe both at the same time. I just need a voice to this panel.

[hadesoftheladies]

i really don’t care who disagrees with me, but feminism is a hollow set of principles without centering the existential experiences of women. and i mean ALL kinds of women. religious women are allowed to have complex feelings and thoughts in regard to their relationship with the texts and patriarchal histories of it. women of different philosophical persuasions are allowed to wrestle with and struggle through those problems in the light of feminism. i welcome women’s differing experiences with gender, with religion, with ideologies, with culture because idk if anyone here has noticed but life is HARD. existence is absurd the further you probe into it. we can quote facts and statistics, but women are people with LIVES. with love and loss and grief. I’m here for the women who want to be mothers and those who don’t want to be. those who regretted their abortions and those who didn’t. those who regretted their transition and those who still identify as trans men. the vegans and the non-vegans. the occultists, the pragmatics, the materialists and dualists and idealists. for the bisexuals and lesbians who pursued marriage with women, and those who chose celibacy for spiritual or religious reasons. for the women with complicated or nuanced ethnic relations to makeup.

because feminism without love of women, respecting the humanity of ALL women, the personhood and agency and complex lives of ALL women, is worthless

too many times western feminists keep trying to have a “final form/one form to rule them all” of feminism, and it can’t work because our lives as women while very similar are also very different and require different frameworks and allowances. that’s the reality. there will be no total uniformity. all we can do is emphasize the positives of female culture, share liberation strategies that are accessible and actively disrupt and overhaul the male-centric status quo, strengthen female camaraderie and make more knowledge as accessible as possible. feminists are not the women police.

[pikahlua]

The problem is that even if it's supposed to be bittersweet and the message is that they can't save everyone, there are other factors in this story that make it look weird. All of AFO's major victims end up dying. Tomura being saved spiritually but not physically, becoming a martyr and "inspiring" the future generation of heroes is Tomura becoming another Yoichi. The story doesn't need another Yoichi, we already have one. If we're supposedly breaking the cycle here, wouldn't it make more sense for this "Yoichi" to actually escape AFO in full?

I do want to combine these two, because the problem is you're saying I'm implying all this stuff that I am literally on the record disagreeing with.

1. I didn't say the message IS they can't save everyone, I said that Izuku and All Might both acknowledge they can't save everyone. That's a big distinction. This is about Izuku's and All Might's sense of dissatisfaction and the solutions they come up with for this problem. What do you do WHEN you can't save everyone? That doesn't mean Tomura won't be saved. Hell, the story already posited that his heart was saved. The question is whether or not his life will be saved, and as I've said, any answer to that question can lead to an interesting outcome depending on how it's handled.

2. It is not true all of AFO's major victims die. Touya and Overhaul are alive. Himiko Toga, Spinner, and Kurogiri's statuses are currently unknown. Depending on how you wanna define "major victim," Izuku and Katsuki and All Might and Endeavor and Aoyama all survive, too. You're just talking about the vestiges (who were always dead characters) and the Shimura family.

3. I disagree that Tomura is a martyr. Just because his life inspired people doesn't make his death martyrdom. If Tomura's death sticks, he didn't die for what he believes in or to make a point or to stay true to himself. He didn't kill himself. His body was already crumbling, and AFO was about to abandon it to turn to dust. Whether or not Tomura changed his beliefs or identity in some way would have had no impact on whether or not he still would have died. He just showed up at the end to exact vengeance on AFO for what was done to him, despite the fact that they were both on their way out anyway. The only control Tomura had over his death was whether or not he'd do anything before it happened, and he did. That's a testament to his character and how he would behave in the face of death, but it's not the same thing as being a martyr. I bring this up because you're throwing a lot of assumptions about the story around as if you and I are on the same page. If anything, I've noticed I disagree with so many people on what Tomura's death even entailed, let alone the meaning behind it.

4. You have to understand, your talk about "the story doesn't need another Yoichi" and "breaking the cycle" is your reading. I never talked about breaking any cycle here. You're assuming that's the point, but I don't know if that's the point. There are many cycles that are still quite preserved in the story. Why wouldn't we need another Yoichi if another Yoichi just refers to a person who pays it forward? A person who believes in others and entrusts their legacy and dreams to them without forcing that other person to BECOME them? The story has never criticized characters for being inspiring, not even All Might. This leads into my next point.

5. I am so vocally on the record even just recently as saying I do not believe the theme is simply "this generation is better than the old one." I do not agree with the implication that Izuku getting out of All Might's shadow means his admiration is bad or part of a cycle that needs to be broken. "You're next" was a detriment to Izuku because Izuku took it as a message meant only for him when in fact it really was a message for everyone. Izuku took away a message that he should separate himself from others, but the true message was that everyone should come together. Everyone includes the old generation. The new generation is taking what the old generation gave them and improving on it with their own ideas and feelings, but they're not breaking what the old generation made. They are continuing the struggle in trying to make things better with each generation knowing that they will never see the completion of the thing they strive for. This is the natural cycle of human social struggle, and it is a struggle that will continue forever.

I'm not saying the ending as we have it now is good--because it's not even complete. I'm saying that there are things Horikoshi is consistent about, and there is POTENTIAL for Tomura's death to work well. I'm not saying Tomura is going to stay dead. The point I'm really getting at is that we can receive messages from stories all we like, but that doesn't make them the intended ones, ESPECIALLY when the story in question is not yet finished. If the Japanese readership is getting an entirely different feeling out of what's happened, it stands to reason that there are some cultural context points the western fandom is missing. I am open to the messages I read being incorrect, and I have revised my criticisms each time it has happened. I am open to learning whatever message Horikoshi has in store, no matter the outcome. And I am interested in understanding it as best I can even if my understanding is limited by my not being the intended audience. There is a lot I could be missing that I still need to learn, and it would be arrogant of me to presume I understand everything about this story's presentation the first time through. That makes it worthwhile for me to see what has remained consistent with my reading and what has not.

[girlfromthecrypt]

i don't mind the rambles, don't worry. but yeah, honestly trans people even when we're not shown in media as specifically unattractive, we're not like. depicted as attractive either. we don't get to be like objects of attraction if that makes sense? we get to be like side characters and shit. and top surgery or any surgical scars are generally pretty damn taboo because ooOOOOoooo we're mutilating something or other or whatever the fuck it is. even irl, we're generally considered a stereotypically unattractive group. when trans people are rarely represented, we don't get to be like objects of attraction. we're usually "and here's the lesson! don't be mean!" one off characters or best friend characters (assuming we're not horrible stereotypes). plus a lot of medias arent eager to add us in in general in fear of losing their more conservative audiences.

it's totally fine when you rant, I do it too (as demonstrated by the above), I've had quite a few VN/IF creators apologize to me about like rambling about their games and like, I'm asking questions because i love the media. I get the feeling, cause I get that about other stuff. but seriously, info-dumping about something you've created that people love is awesome for fans (not to speak for all of us, but generally it seems to be)

Ngl I'm blind to a lot of that media portrayal bc I'm not entrenched in a lot of media anymore. I "conceived" Basil as trans from the start (he was a LI/supporting character in a nosleep story [horror writing subreddit over on Reddit] I never ended up posting), and in my mind, he was just always "him" and always pretty cute. I was comfortable enough writing a trans character bc one of my oldest friends is a trans man, and he let me ask him just about anything I wanted to know. Ofc I researched most of the necessary info on my own, but having him around was still helpful and very reassuring. (In hindsight, this is also making me kinda sad bc that friend and I have kinda drifted apart since...)

I was kinda hesitant about sharing though bc I was afraid of getting things wrong, but hey, if what you're saying about the mainstream portrayal of trans folk is anything to go off of, I'm probably doing okay (nervous laughter).

Actually, have an excerpt from the original story Basil appeared in! [Note: he's WAYYY dorkier and socially awkward in this than in Such Happy Campers. He's also a landlord in this, so the vanlife stuff and spiritualism is part of his overhaul for SHC. But original Basil makes the same amount of horrible jokes.] [more below]

I was prepared to camp outside that house. That turned out not to be necessary, as right at that moment, a peculiar-looking youngish man appeared in the doorway. Pieces of striped tapestry clung to his threadbare tracksuit and glue coated a good portion of his hair.

I asked him if he’d just been in a fight, and he assured me he’d merely been putting up new wallpapers in one of the apartments. When I asked whether he had something for me to rent on short notice, he was surprisingly cooperative. He introduced himself to me as Basil, and enthusiastically welcomed me to the house and the neighborhood. When we shook hands, our palms stuck together. 

“Sorry… I had an accident with the glue,” he explained, grimacing awkwardly. “Don’t worry, I got something to wash it off. You’d best come in.”

With a glance at our entwined fingers, I told him I obviously had nowhere else to go, to which he replied that one could say my hands were tied.

Been meaning to share this snippet for a while and this seems a good opportunity. This was how he "looked" at the time/how the main character describes him:

I admittedly always considered him very attractive, albeit goofy-looking with his fluffy blond mustache and mullet. Something about his appearance inspired trust and openness, and the warmth he exuded was more than welcome.

So yeah, that's some of Basil's history. In this old version, he was actually kind of insecure about his surgery scars (which were fresher at the time, and he hated a lot of his looks in general), which I ended up discarding because I much prefer him with astronomic levels of smugness. Like, I want him to be fully aware of how good he looks.

I'm very happy with the current version of Basil, and I'm glad I "saved" his character for this IF project instead of posting his story back then. I just realized (while I was writing the nosleep story at the time) that I LOVED writing him and wanted to have him there in a bigger project, which ended up being SHC.

Okay yeah I'm about to be one of those IF authors you mentioned bc now I need to apologize as well. I went on a huge tangent here. Hope this particular infodump was at least somewhat interesting to you! Either way, thanks so much for the talk.

[ganymedesclock]

deeply intrigued by the prospect of what your modded skyrim is like so, what's a few of your favorite mods? (One of my personal favorites, though its been a bit potentially tricky in the past, is Tainted Blood of the Dragonborn to let you be a werewolf and vampire at the same time, along with mods that enhance the experience of either, its just so much fun)

So this may sound cheap but the core of my mods right now is not available to the public- I'm playtesting the beta of an overhaul by the supremely talented and exceedingly cool @lightwolf that's sort of a spiritual succession of their old Aetherial Traveler overhaul. This is all on Anniversary Edition, so I've also got creation club stuff in there such as Fishing, Survival, and Camping.

As far as mods anybody can actually use, some big ones I have currently are:

Skyrim Unbound (alternative start mod with lots of options, is how I'm playing a werewolf without doing the Companions questline)

Hunterborn (mod about immersively skinning/harvesting/butchering animals and monsters you hunt, also adds foraging functionality and more than a few unmarked secrets for you to stumble across on a playthrough. I'm very fond of this one)

Wounds (mod that adds immersive injuries, so that aside from taking HP damage from injuries you have a chance to bruise, take lacerations, or even break bones, which take a realistic in-game amount of time to heal. This one is well-balanced to add a little extra risk to fighting and a little extra need to take care of your character without being excessively punishing)

Seasons of Skyrim (causes the seasons to shift; by default, over a fairly long period of in-game time)

A Dog's Life (dog companions level with you, have complex commands, and there are also stray dogs to win the trust of over time)

A Cat's Life (same author as ADL, adds cat companions, the process of bonding with the strays is more involved and some of them will hiss and attack you if approached carelessly)

Convenient Horses (mod that lets you train your horses, increase their attributes, change their saddles, summon them to you, and other fun stuff. you... may be noticing a pattern re: "all my followers are animals")

the Vanilla Matches clothing mods (causes clothes to always appear exactly as their model is- thus, every outfit now has a male and female version that can be equipped by anyone regardless of their body. by default this also disseminates to NPCs so you'll see men wearing dresses and women wearing pants a reasonable amount of the time. Small change but a very good one)

Northborn Scars (I frankly found the scar options in the base game a bit meh- it's hard to roleplay a character who got traumatically mauled by a bear, for example, when all the scar options are so limited)

Go To Bed and Use Those Blankets (two different mods that just add some animations and effects that show your character actually going to bed tucked in under blankets when they sleep)

Security Overhaul SKSE series (ok these are all-but trivial but they are extremely cool- it basically makes the lockpicking interface situationally sensitive so you'll actually see a cage padlock if you're picking one, or a trap trigger, or a cool dwemer locking mechanism.)

I could go on and on (I have a lot of mods) but these are a few I'd recommend. I get all my mods from Nexusmods with little exception so if I haven't listed anything you think is excessively cool but not on there I probably haven't seen it.

[darkelfguy]

A minor vanilla-friendly overhaul for the Ashlander camps, today's Mod of the Day is Native Lands by Tel Shadow, a mod that overhauls each of the four main Ashlander encampments around Morrowind, as well as the nearly two dozen smaller Ashlander campsites.

Each of the Ashlander tribes have been overhauled to best suit their culture and customs, that means herds of guar for the Ahemmusa, trading carts and goods for the Zainab, talismans and trophies for the Erabenimsun, and more spiritual décor for the Urshilaku.

While not as extensive as the more popular The Ashlanders overhaul by Duo Dinamico, this is still a nice, lightweight alternative that keeps to the vanilla game layout of each Ashlander camp, giving them a new sense of life while still sticking to vanilla game assets.

If you're looking for a lightweight Ashlander overhaul, this is a good one to check out!

[encyclopediacr]

Last month at the wiki — June 2023

Encyclopedia Exandria is always changing with updates, additions, expansions, and edits. The first Wednesday of every month, we highlight significant work done in the previous month by our editing community.

As always, to start, here's a selection of ten articles created in June. You can find more of our newest articles at the 50 newest pages report—and below, since there were a great many this month.

Joan Abaddina, spiritual leader in Hearthdell

Eidolon, elemental spirits

Hevestro, archdruid living in Irriam Canyon

Irriam Canyon, located in Issylra

Horn of Fog, enchanted object that casts Fog Cloud

Bloodseeker, longbow wielded by Vex'ahlia

Lestera, fortune-teller with Fletching & Moondrop

Timeline of Campaign 2

Eye of Vecna

Goatball, sport popular among goliath clans

There's more to our work than just creating new articles. It was a quieter month, but we've done some work outside of regular updates.

Residuum received an overhaul to cover its role throughout the campaigns. Brokenbank's history was fleshed out to include its role in the Tide of Retribution adventure and missing mentions from Campaign 2.

The Q&A portion of "Liam's Quest" was also added, both questions AND answers, and Adelaide Bluebutton from "The Return of Liam" (or, "The Screw Job") is no longer a series of empty sections.

If you'd like to contribute to the wiki but don't know how, don't worry! Small edits like spelling and grammar corrections, adding reference timestamps, sticking {{cite}} at the end of unsourced statements, or updating out-of-date information is important work.

[fayeandknight]

I went to check out another house today and oh boy was it a doozy.

It was originally built in 1881 and I could see from the photos that it was not habitable. But it sits on a half acre in an area I'm interested in. Also I can see the charm in the bones, so to speak. Like a half circle window with built in seating, which to me shouts book nook.

I brought my dad because he's knowledgeable about construction and built our family home from scratch.

Got there and it was immediately obvious that this place is way worse than advertised. The second story all season room looks ready to fall off, there's foam patching along sections of the underside of the roof, porch looks like it'd drop you faster than you could curse, etc. It would be a massive undertaking to make it livable.

But the yard is fairly level and partially fenced in from the neighbors. It's set a decent distance from the road and has ample space from neighbors on all sides. This is big for me because I intend to board dogs (through my current job) and I don't want to piss off neighbors with barking dogs.

And while this isn't a basis to buy such a house on, something about it calls to me in a way I haven't experienced before. More on this under the cut because it's spiritual woo woo talk.

When I do a drive by, I literally drive by. I cruise through the neighborhood and take my time. But I don't go up to the house. However between this place clearly not being occupied and my dad having older white dude audacity, we got out and walked around the yard. We went all the way around the house, he pointed out a test patch where someone investigated the siding and it's layers, stomped on the dilapidated porch, and found a well with a hand crank.

At one point I was standing close to the road while he was on the porch reading orange town issued notices posted on the front door. A guy working for the house across the street stopped to stare at us. My dad gave a friendly wave, the contractor returned it, and despite my fears of the cops being called on us, nothing happened.

I thought initially this might be a place that I buy, spend a few months of heavy sweat equity on and hire a contractor or two for major things. But ultimately could make livable while continuing to fix up within three months or so. In addition to major interior work, it needs rewiring/electrical work, a plumbing overhaul, a new roof and gutters, new siding, a new porch, new windows, and most likely just tearing off the all season porch at minimum. So yeah just a fuck ton of work.

My dad and I agreed that this place was pretty far over our ability to renovate. But something makes me want to dig into it deeper anyway. While I highly doubt this place will turn into anything for me. I'm going to look into possible financing options. And I've set my dad to contacting the listing agent and the county office to see what's up.

My next step is digging into a renovation specific loan, the FHA 203k loan. Even though this place probably won't pan out I think it'll serve as a good test run of what I'd need. Cause let's be honest between the current economy and housing market, whatever I end up with will need work.

I don't typically talk about this, but I am pagan and consider myself a spiritual person. And while I don't see the mystical in the mundane everywhere, when I do I, I do.

When I hesitantly stepped onto the property I got a sense of the house. It's got a presence. Something quiet, mostly dormant, and not a little resigned to being torn down. But it's deep, having grown out from the house itself and into the ground around it. It felt like it cracked one eye half way open to regard me. It was very tired. But it also conveyed a feeling that if I restored it, it would be my house.

It would not only protect and shelter me like a good house should. But it would make sure I was happy there. It would pull on its deep connection to the land to make sure this was a place I thrived in. If I invested in it, it would invest in me with the shared goal of quiet, simple joy.

No bombastic promises of glory or great success. But a secure space to sing off tune while I bake bread. Sunny windows to dry herbs in. And love ingrained in the archways of architectures no longer in fashion.

It's not something I'm willing to use as a reason to immediately go all in on. But I'd be lying to myself if I didn't admit that it's part of the reason I'm investigating what it would take to make this place a home.

[bonefall]

Does it give Thistleclaw any power that the idea of Thistle Law comes from his beliefs? Or no

In StarClan? It did, for a brief period of time. He was on the council, he had living people invoking him for honor, for the protection of old values, for chivalry. He wasn't a strong spirit yet, having only been dead for a few seasons, but he would have been.

But his spite and hatred was blinding. When Bluestar was on Trial, he was spitting at her and everything she stood for. He would do anything to get her sent to the Dark Forest to rot, where he believed she belonged. Lizardstripe realized this was a weakness, exploited it, and had him make a fool of himself in front of the entire Council.

When Bluestar was accepted into StarClan on a razor thin majority, he threw a TANTRUM. Just the way he always does. Picked up his ball and went home, nearly a dozen of his supporters (Leopardfoot, Finchflight, Adderfang) following him out of Heaven and into the Dark Forest.

They'd already collaborated with them before, when StarClan Prime refused to grant the murderous Tigerstar any lives. Going there was just the next step.

And in doing so, they gave up the multiplying force of StarClan's hunting grounds. Thistleclaw is a demon now, with only his own power to use. Not an angel that can craft kittens and make trees grow.

As a demon, his powers include;

Causing sickness

Influencing the physical plane

Calling cats to the Dark Forest, though they must accept the invitation

Boosting the strength of a cat who channels him

In addition, he also has some sort of weed-related individual power, but I haven't quite worked it out yet. I know Hawkfrost can grant some simple ice powers to someone who channels him; Thistleclaw's powers will rank above his somehow.

[semi-imaginary-place]

FFXVI Rewrite Part 4: Overhauling Waloed and Barnabas

I was dissatisfied with Anabella's character in the original game. She's built up as this greater antagonist on par with Barnabas and implied to have a connection to Ultima and the greater working of the plot and then all this comes to nothing as Ultima has possessed Olivier and is the actual mastermind. Additionally, Anabella highly parallels Ultima as they are both the demiurges of Gnosticism, evil and controlling creator figures that see their creations as wholly belonging to and existing for their sake. To Ultima and Anabella their creations are not independent of them, their creations/children should have no independent will, they are the ones who make decisions and their creations obey. This like all the themes in FFXVI is underdeveloped and I intend to change that by deepening the themes of free will, creation and creator, master and slave, existence before essence, and the weight of choice.

In this rewrite I'm going to keep Anabella just as reprehensible and classist as she is in the actual game but I'm going to give her more agency as a character and this is where things really change. Here Olivier has not been possessed, Anabella think him Greagor a god incarnate and convinces the Emperor but he's really just a spoiled dependent boy. In the scene where Dion goes berserk it is Anabella that triggers it not Ultima. Anabella goads him and Olivier not really knowing or caring what is going on but of course his mother is always right joins in and goes a step further. Dion kills his father just like Anabella plans and as she plays victim screaming that he's a kinslayer she hurls an Ultima imbued shard of the Mothercrystal at Dion. The crystal connects Dion with the Mothercrystal and floods him with aether with combined with his instability causes him to go berserk. As the city burns there's a scene of Anabella riding off in a carriage holding Olivier and smirking. Then Phoenix flies overhead locked in battle and we see Anabella falter as she stares up at Phoenix.

During the first week of the game’s release, I was speculating whether Anabella was Clive's biological mother at all (or if Elwin was Joshua’s father) given the strange and tense family dynamics of the Rosfields as well as how dissimilar Clive and Anabella look. However, since finishing the game and coming to understand that Anabella was designed as a foil character to Ultima, it does make more sense that Clive is her biological son. For both Ultima and Anabella Clive is their failed creation, the one that went astray. They are both interpretations of the Demiurge which in Gnosticism is the creator of the material world, the material world being fake and an evil prison to keep people from the true holy spiritual world, so the Demiurge is the evil controlling god trying to keep humans from true existence. In this rewrite I want to enhance the existing themes in the game from its Gnostic symbolism, to that of the relationships between creator and creator, master and slave. Making clear that Clive is Anabella’s son enhances these themes. Anabella doesn’t hate Clive because Elwin cheated on her and is forcing her see proof of their unequal status and powerlessness every day, Anabella hates Clive because she feels she owns him as his mother and that he has failed her arbitrary and impossible expectations by daring first to not manifest the Phoenix and then to dare have positive attributes and overshadow her younger son who did manifest the Phoenix. Anabella hates Clive for incredibly stupid, self-centered, and petty reasons.

Now comes the hard part where I break the original FFXVI’s plot across my knee and throw the whole thing out the window because the Waloed section through to the end of the game was a mess. First let me discuss what the writers tried to do and how they failed. King Barnabas was intended as Ultima’s successful creation to foil Clive as the failed creation. Clive asserts his independent will, his desire to live on his own terms, and that he will throw down all shackles forces upon him. Barnabas has forfeited his will and individuality for a life of religious devotion as Ultima’s puppet. Conceptually this isn't bad, the problem is in execution. Barnabas ended up being incredibly disappointing and boring as a character. For all Ultima and Barnabas' discussions of severing the ties of consciousness between Clive and his companions, they don't do anything or pose any sort of narrative threat. There are no stakes to this arc beyond a distant feeling that the world might end. Ultima shows up and has pointless conversations with Clive that go nowhere, establish nothing, and do nothing to progress the plot or stakes. From a character motivation standpoint at this point of the game Clive is doing exactly what Ultima wants so there’s no reason for Ultima to keep talking to Clive either. FFXVI tries to portray religious extremism and fails miserably. The game does little to establish religion and belief as a main theme in the game despite it being present in the background, the says nothing meaningful about religion and the only thing mildly interesting to happen, happens in an easily missed sidequest for the Undying.

Originally, I did consider trying to build off of this foiling of the slave to religion vs. the free man but to make it work actually involves changing more of the plot than the alternative and it just kept writing itself into a corner. A lot more would have needed to be done with religion earlier in the game, perhaps exploring how the different culture’s in Valisthea had different belief systems and interacting with how their various beliefs, theologies, and philosophies play out. They also could have had a story arc about how religion is used to subjugate, indoctrinate, and control people. More could have been done tying Ultima to the major religions of Valisthea like how Greagor is actually Ultima. Ultima and Barnabas should have followed through with those threats to sever the bounds of consciousness and started killing off the entire cast. The Hideaway should have been invaded and destroyed and the hub area lost. Otto, Mid, Vivian, Harpocrates, and eventually Gav, Jill, and Joshua. This would all have had massive gameplay and story implications and at that point I thought this was too much work for something I’m doing for fun, it’s not like Squeenix is paying me to fix their writing problems.

The solution I decided on completely flips Barnabas’ character and ideology, and ironically that changes less of the story than trying to stay true to the writers’ intentions. In this rewrite Barnabas still foils Clive but in the completely opposite way he does in the actual game. Here Barnabas is also a proponent of free will but in contrast with Clive’s more community minded approach to raising people up, Barnabas’ meaning of free will is the ability for him to impose his will over other people. Cid and Clive respect the rights and wills of all people while new Barnabas only respects his own will. Because Waloed no longer serves Ultima, the invasions of Dhalmek and Kanver here are due to Tharmr’s global conquest ambitions and to a lesser degree him shoring up resources to take on Ultima.

Barnabas here is in some ways a Übermensch, he is someone who has transcended all measure of human morality to create his own values to live by, someone who commands, creates and strikes his own path instead of obeying or following, someone powerful who’s power comes from them and not society. This new version of Barnabas has ironically cast aside religion and gods much like an Übermensch who Nietzche’s speculated would rise in the void of faith after the fall of Christian morality, to rise above humanity and gods both as a new being. As a critique of the concept, this Barnabas is also a self-centered and violent tyrant with no care for others, delusions of grandeur, and dreams of conquest and subjugation to bend lesser men to his will in a might equals right world. Benedrikta found Barnabas’ veneer of power alluring as she too desired power while Cid initially optimistic of the new world order Barnabas was trying to forge eventually grew disillusioned and bitter at his disregard for other people. Of note is that Barnabas does not have Ultima’s magic anti-aging serum in this version of events, the similar lack of aging was why I suspected Anabella to be similarly involved early on but that just ended up being a plot hole in the original game. There are two options to deal with this, first that Barnabas is an old man in his 60’s adding a layer of desperation to his conquests though that would not explain the lull in activity in recent years in in the actual game is explained by his contact with Ultima. The other option is that the timeline is changed so that the conquest of Ash is more recent.

Similar strongman archetypes to this new version of Barnabas can be found in the Chaos Heroes of the Shin Megami Tensei main games especially the early games, and in Walhart from Fire Emblem: Awakening. I want to discuss Walhart further because this Barnabas has ended up being a very similar character. Both are ruthless dictators seeking to take over the world who will destroy all opposition with force, they see themselves as the strongest, both refuse to bow to or worship anything. They would both unite the armies of the world to destroy the evil gods who would seek to end the world and the party defeating them ironically makes it easier for the evil god characters to destroy the world as the party just removed one of their obstacles for them. This focus on power and individual merit while deemphasizing position and background likewise justifies Waloed as the only nation accepting of beastmen into its military ranks. Barnabas doesn’t care who you are he care what you can do, it’s how outlanders like himself, Cid, or Benedrikta rose so high in the ranks.

The next arc will be Waloed and the destruction of the 5th and final Mothercrystal, Drakes Spine. With the nations of Storm in shambles, the war machine of Waloed rumbles and they prepare a full-scale invasion of Storm. The party must scramble to unite factions that were just at war with each other to prepare for the full-on invasion. They aim to strike the heart of Waloed before the war ships launch hoping to throw Waloed into disarray. The plan is to split the party with one group rallying around Kanver to make a stand while another infiltrates and destroys Drake’s Spine. By this point Clive and Ifrit have gotten famous or perhaps infamous as the most powerful man on Storm and Barnabas is coming to challenge him directly as such Clive will be at the front of the defense hoping to kill Barnabas and dissolve his empire. Joshua will be leading a small party into Waloed and the one with the most experience with Mothercrystals. Joshua will then become the main playable character during this section with cutscenes showing Clive organizing the people of Storm and forming a rapport with Dion as another man who’s eikon went berserk and destroyed the people he’d sworn to protect they are both knights who failed. The rest of the party hasn’t quite been set in stone but I think Gav and Jote would go with Joshua and that Clive would send Torgal to look after Joshua. Ash isn’t quite as desolate as it is in the actual game but between the conscriptions, the heavy taxes, the blight, and the increased monster activity (Fallen, spectres and wraith type enemies) it is still pretty bad in Ash. As such getting to Drake’s Spine will involve a lot more stealth than it does in the real game but they get there as its garrisons have emptied for war and make their way to the heart of the Mothercrystal. This section of the game introduces the Circle of Malius which worships Ultima and part of exploring Ash is Joshua going to those ruins and learning how their teachings say that Ultima created humanity and that humanity should serve because it is their destiny and purpose. During the Waloed section there’s a brief cutscene of a pan shot of Anabella and an escort party walking through Fallen architecture.

While Joshua makes his way through the fortress to the Mothercrystal, the fight for Kanver begins and at the climax of both events Clive faces off against Barnabas at the same time that Joshua meets Sleipnir in Drake’s Spine who was ordered to stay behind because Waloed suspected something like this might happen. Gameplay then switches between the two battles with eikonic titans Ifrit and Odin clashing and splitting the sea, while contrasted to Joshua and Sleipnir dueling with rapiers across the crystal floor. As the Vassal of Odin Sleipnir is more than enough to hold off Joshua and Joshua is forced to semi-prime to stand a chance, further risking his health. Sleipnir here is not an egi and extension of Odin, instead he is a normal human man who believes in new Barnabas’ ideals and is loyal to him. Eventually both Joshua and Clive manage to kill their opponents, on screen it should be a split perspective for the final blow with both Joshua and Clive striking down their opponents at the same time.

The Barnabas and Clive fight is a battle of ideals. Both characters are proponents of free will and that people should be able to live on their own terms but they have wildly different interpretations as to what this looks like implemented in the real world. Inevitably some person’s terms will clash with another person’s terms. Barnabas sees this as a matter of individual strength, that one must be strong to be able to decide their own life, to rise beyond the masses and take life by the reins. The rule of the jungle where the strong have the power to do whatever they want, and if the weak want change than all they have to do is become stronger. Clive is more cooperation and community minded; it is about everyone lifting each other up to a better life. There’s the paradox of tolerance in that if a community tolerates intolerance for certain people that community will become as intolerant and bigoted as possible, so to maintain tolerance and equal rights intolerance must not be tolerated. To ensure the rights of all, some times limits need to be put on people, especially limits on the rich and powerful. I do wish the actual game had engaged with Clive’s life experiences more because he’s seen first hand the social determinants of health and how society treats those it doesn’t care about, the least protected. Another change is that I would make the Barnabas Clive fight much more exciting. Anticlimactic fights are fine but they have to be done with purpose (as I intend to do later), a fight is anticlimactic to contrast it with other fights or to drive home an emotional point in the narrative, but the lack of excitement in the original fight serves no purpose, its just boring. Some ideas I have are for the fight to be over the water with Odin cleaving the ocean into several parts and Ifrit hoping between and boiling away parts of the ocean to clear a path. I’m not a fight choreographer but this fight needs to be big and as flashy and impressive as the others in the game.

Read this in one long post

Read this in parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 .

[synergysilhouette]

"Strange World" (2022) overhaul rewrite

I never expected to do a rewrite of this, despite my issues with it. But then I decided I should just do an overhaul of it. Be forewarned: I'm taking this in a VERY different direction--like, almost unrecognizeable; how do you feel about an Arthurian epic with aliens? As always, be kind--but if you have critiques/questions, I'd be happy to hear them!

Plot:

On a planet far away, there was once the mystical alien planet of Siyned. Twenty-five years ago, King Ursam of Lonava, a prosperous and mystical country on Siyned, disappeared without a trace, leaving his young son Taurus in charge of running a kingdom. For a time, all was prosperous, but now, a powerful sorceress named Niobe has come to battle for the throne, and threatens to engulf the kingdom in darkness and horrors unlike the world has ever seen. Together with his wife Iopeia, son Boralis and their band of allies, Taurus must navigate being a king as well as sorting out the secrets that come out with Niobe's arrival.

Important story/world details

As you may see, the storyline is inspired by the tale of King Arthur, inspired by the fact that Searcher Clade is from a land known as Avalonia, and my first thought was: "Man, a King Arthur-inspired story would've been so much better than what we got." This comes with certain important story/world details:

The cast is made up of aliens. Given the pulp magazine inspiration the original SW film takes from, I'd enjoy seeing a comicbook inspiration for the alien races here, as well as video game inspiration from the fantasy side of things. In the best case scenario, this would be a spiritual successor to "Atlantis." I'd enjoy seeing different races of aliens, though I personally do like the idea that Taurus looks human (though since his wife and son are POC in the OG story, making them appear inhuman might be a bad call if he still appears white). And excuse the use of AI art here; I just liked the video for it's use of 80s dark fantasy inspirations, which I'd also want to be the inspiration for the fantasy aspects of "Strange World."

2. The culture is more medieval/ancient--except for the technology (and maybe fashion). I like the idea that it takes inspiration from various world cultures similar to how "Atlantis" does.

3. The cast is obviously different.

King Taurus--A kind and intelligent king, albeit sensitive and sometimes overcome with his emotions due to unresolved feelings with his father (I thought that'd be a good thing to keep). He's a gifted mage, and I'm definitely getting Gale of Waterdeep vibes from him--albeit less problematic. He's also in his 30s, so slightly younger than Searcher Clade. Still, he's older than most Disney protagonists, which I think makes the film more accessible for an older crowd, and an established Disney romance between a husband and wife rather than two people about to get married or just getting to know each other carries nuances that you can't get with many "kid films."

Queen Iopeia--A scholar and trained warrior who managed to capture the king's heart, and they fell in love. While she doesn't have any magic per se, her physical abilities make her a threat to all who wish to harm her loved ones. She often serves as the emotional anchor when Taurus is frazzled, and on rare occasions, their roles are reversed.

Prince Boralis--The young man who dreams of adventure, a Hercules-type protagonist who has self-esteem issues given his family's legacy. Of course, his crush on Castelon, Niobe's lead soldier, weighs on his heart heavily, since they grew up together before he disappeared and decided to side with her, seemingly with no explanation a year ago. His conflicting feelings make it difficult for him to use his powers (either alien or magical) to full potential. Definitely think his style is more akin to Ekko's from "League of Legends."

Niobe--Vicious but sad, she is the powerful sorceress from the Lands Beyond, a realm of darkness that engulfed the lands west of Lonava. She is much more powerful than Taurus, but wants to destroy him emotionally before killing him, hoping to break him and make him give her the crown that is rightfully hers. She sees him as living the life she always wanted, and despises Taurus for "taking" it from him. She has an affinity for petrifying her enemies--and keeping their consciousness intact. It's later revealed that when Ursam discovered a prophecy that Niobe would bring about the kingdom's destruction, he left her in the Lands Beyond as a toddler. It's somewhat akin to how Cora abandoned Zelena in Once Upon a Time ("I have to leave you to give me MY best at life"). That said, given that many Disney fans want an unapologetic villain, I'd make her too bitter and angry to be swayed by Taurus' pleas, but at her defeat, it's brought to light that despite being a good king, Ursam was NOT a good person.

Serioph--A wise mage (our Merlin figure) who serves as a parental figure to Taurus and a mystical guide. He has the ability to change his form at will, and ocassionally takes on a female form following Taurus' mother's passing and seeing that he needed a mother figure as well as a father figure. However, despite his power, he is tied to the laws of neutrality: if he was to battle someone of great good or great evil, his magic would cease to exist--which includes his power of longevity, and he would cease to exist. He knows this, but uses his powers to harm Niobe and prevent her from killing Taurus, killing himself in the process.

Ienvy--Serioph's daughter, inheriting his magic by lineage, and thus not tied to the Laws of Neutrality like he is. Niobe is drawn to her and attempts to persuade her to join her side, but when Serioph is killed, Serioph curses Niobe to become undone, giving her a sense of insanity that makes it possible for Taurus and the group to defeat her. Despite her help, Ienvy feels guilt for what she's done after learning about Niobe's past, and imposes a self-exile upon herself after the battle is over.

Castelon--Boralis' crush and childhood best friend. He eventually left and joined Niobe due to being tricked into joining her service by failing to prove his selflessness (similar to the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight). As such, he has become warped, becoming a smug Namaari-type villain, so there's a lot of tension between him and Boralis. (Note: This goes without saying, but he'd get a major design overhaul. Some people say he looks like Frankie Grande, but he gives me Jay Manuel vibes from "America's Next Top Model" and I CAN'T STAND IT. I'd rather he looked akin to Lucio from "The Arcana.")

Different Design style FOR SURE

Part of me finds the looks to be too normal; the characters don't grab my attention because they look either too realistic or too cartoony. Even if they weren't aliens, I'd want new looks for their clothes, at the very least. And the non-human-looking aliens felt way too cartoony here, not really ethereal or interesting in the slightest. Honestly, THIS deserved to be a hybrid film, tbh; it'd help to sell the alien vibes, as well as the fantasy aspect. And in particular, if we're going for a more mature look.

Lemme know what you think! I may come back and tinker this a bit.

[dougielombax]

I’m frankly amazed at the sheer number of idiotic Christians who think that Christianity is some sort of indigenous European religion.

Like they genuinely think it originated among the Romans as their indigenous religion.

(Fused with ghastly, far right, nativistic sentiments about “tradition” for additional measure. Ghastly stuff!)

Which it’s not.

That’s stupid, ignorant and insulting.

Since it ignores and shuns the Middle Eastern origins of the Christian religion AND implies erasure or nonexistence of pre-Christian European religions and beliefs.

This kind of idiocy is especially prevalent among the European and American far right.

It’s astoundingly stupid.

Weapons-grade ignorance.

I’d blame the Romans for that shit. Among others…

Now I’ll admit I’m no expert on theology or religion. I study history.

They seem to think that Jesus was some kind of white, English-speaking, conquering king!

When he wasn’t. He was a dark skinned, Aramaic-speaking Jew from Nazareth working as a carpenter who was regarded as something of a local eccentric.

(A few idiots in my own country think Jesus was a white fella from Kilkenny, but thankfully they’re seen for the idiots they are)

He was just some guy.

This is basic stuff.

Everyone knows the religion originated in the Levant! (Yes I know it spread to the Roman Empire (throughout its territories in Europe, Africa and Asia) and to the rest of Europe beyond that eventually but shut up! That’s not my point!)

Fucking bumbrained nativistic idiocy!

Be rid of it!

It’s like spiritual whitewashing! Or revisionism.

Or both.

Fucking morons!

Plus it’s insulting towards Christianity’s roots in the Middle East, and by extension Syriac christianity as a whole.

I think the religion as a whole is in DIRE need of a good overhaul of its colonial, imperialist and antisemitic baggage.

Like it needs to renounce ALL of that shit.

Starting yesterday.

I don’t care how many bigots would lose their shit, this NEEDS to happen.

[bb-fennelposting]

One quick last post about the concept

Like, in the middle of DOTC, where tensions are high, a while just opens up in the middle with a sign or something saying "Godhood this way" pointing down. Clear Sky says "bet", jump's down, and basically the rest of the cast jump in after him. Grey Wing because he wants to save his brother, Tall shadow to stop Cear sky becoming a god at all costs, One Eye so he can talk to this Clear fellow himself, so on and so forth.

Maybe basically all cats jump in either to find him, kill him, achieve godhood themselves, or because someone they know jumped in also.

Then Termina is the main series, and maybe the reason why all the clans are Like That, is because Clear Sky got what he wanted, he became god of the Sky, including the stars in the sky. So Starclan is essentially a religion with him at its head

I can listen to you build up this hypothetical F&H/DOTC crossover all day man. Combining my first hyperfixation with my most recent one in a way that's so reminisce of the game's themes this is so fuckin well

It's so fascinating in general how the spirituality overhauls of BB AU meshes so well with F&H's lore, except the latter's lore on godhood is so much more bleak and drastic that an AU combining the two would just be awful for modern day clans

[reiiishii]

CHARACTER INFO- Margaret Stone (OC)

Name: Margaret Stone Alias: R- The Rot Age: 400+ (Appears in her late 30s) Height: 5'8" Affiliations: Wandenreich (Sternritter)

Personality: Elegant and incredibly knowledgeable, Margaret is the main doctor and mortician of the Wandenreich. Quick witted and merciless, Margaret is known for her quick thinking in disposing her enemies in quiet ways, despite her morbid ways of disposing the bodies & cleaning up her crimes. A focused worker who would rather be left alone to do her job than to talk to any visitors, Margaret uses her work as an opportunity to teach her girls the skills she knew in order to make them as useful as possible if there were a time she was truly gone. Speaking of her daughters, Margaret is a VERY caring mother, overprotective (yes), but she has raised her daughters as human beings, not soldiers or quincies. The situation she had found them in left her with an intense hatred for her own kind and humans, but she keeps it to herself, not once letting it slip that she despises her own kind. Margaret has always put her girls first over everything else in her life, going as far as to slaughter those who would put them in harm's way in front of them (after deconstructing them so they won't have to watch their mother bloody herself).

Family: Alison Stone (Adoptive Daughter; Alive [13]) Katherine Stone (Adoptive Daughter; Alive [12])

Schrift: The Rot - When touched by her hands, Margaret can inflict decay and rot upon a person by manipulating their reiatsu, the longer she has ahold of a person it can either slow down or speed up the decay process. - In reality, Margaret is turning one's spiritual pressure against it's owner to devour them whole. Her own spiritual pressure can act as a parasite for her to attack from a distance. - Margaret can also use this to 'overhaul' someone, destroying them with a single touch and putting them back together with ease. Growing like mold in a sense.

Vollstandig: Verfall Gottes [Decay of God] - In this form, Margaret can bring decay and rot to material objects, not just people. - Margaret's wings and halo both appear to decay when she enters this form.

OTHER: - Margaret was a former Plague Nurse during 1603, working to heal the people before that was thrown out the window the moment she met her daughters (Who were already dying when she met them tossed in a building filled with the infected), turning on the people she swore to heal and killing everyone except the two girls who did nothing wrong. - In retaliation against the people who did this to them, Margaret arrived in their village and poisoned each and every one of them with 'medicine', turning the entire village into a ghost town. Simply leaving once her job was done and returning home to Alison and Katherine with a bouquet of flowers. - Margaret is also a known cannibal, due to the food shortages in the time of the plague she turned to drastic measures in order to feed herself and her daughters. And while she doesn't have to indulge in that lifestyle anymore, old habits die hard. Margaret can also sometimes be found eating raw meat to stave off cravings...

[h0n3yk1tt3n]

4 17 22

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

I think for simplicity's sake I'm gonna say.. three. Tales From The Lagniappe, Pink Foam on Play Night, and the newly renamed freshman fic My Kingdom For a Whole Lotta Bullshit. TFTL is still pretty loose, MKFAWLB is still mostly comprised of old ass crumbs from 2018-2020, so here's a snippet for PFOPN

A simulated hand gave him a pat on the shoulder. “That’s your cue, slugger,” the SQUIP almost sang. Jeremy swallowed thickly, voice wavering. “She’ll do whatever I want.” “That’s what I promised.” It sounded so innocently proud of such a horrific feat, like a cat that'd brought a dying bird to the doorstep, the poor creature’s blood staining the concrete as it struggled to cling onto each weak breath it took. But the cat didn't know that its act of affection wouldn't translate the way it thought it would. Or it didn't care; you could never really tell what was going on in the cat's head. 

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Oh out of order as fuuuck. The Swamp Fever campaign (ch 14-17) of L2C was closer to being finished than Dead Center (ch 2-5) for a looong time before I finally focused more on finishing the chapters chronologically so they'd be done in time for posting.

22. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).

Um. Funny story, that's like. Exactly what I'm doing with PFOPN and MKFAWLB lol. Pink Foam is a spiritual rewrite of The Play-centric chapters of my first fic and My Kingdom is going to completely overhaul what I was planning to do for this. (I was debating on whether to add onto this fic like it hasnt been 6yrs since ive touched or to just start over and rewrite the first couple of chapters. For archival purposes, im leaning toward the latter) So. Uh. Lemme see what I've got!

The SQUIP didn’t even need to actively fight Michael to make it difficult to give Jeremy the Red Dew, as his pained writhing was more than enough to make the task near impossible. It might’ve been easier to wrap him in a blanket burrito just to keep his limbs from flailing around, like he were a skittish cat that needed to be held still for a vet. But Michael didn’t have a blanket or some readily available equivalent, and straddling Jeremy wasn’t getting him very far, so the best he could do was try and restrain him from behind. This was more effective at keeping Jeremy still when it was a full body effort, but it didn’t give Michael the freedom to actually get the bottle open, so the victory was hollow.

A recently familiar clickity clack caught Jeremy’s ear, and thankfully Michael’s too, as he was waving a hand trying to flag down a certain popular kid on crutches. The context of Jeremy being locked between Michael’s legs on the ground was clearly lost on Jake, but they couldn’t really complain when he hobbled over to see what all the commotion was about.

“Jake! This is gonna sound weird, but if I hold down Jeremy, can you make him drink this Mountain Dew Red?” Michael tossed the bottle up to Jake, watching him catch it out of the air.

Jake looked between the bottle and the two of them for a moment, then flashed an annoyingly charming smile that anyone attracted to guys would swoon at. “Actually? That doesn’t sound weird at all.”

Thank fuck for chaotic theatre nonsense expanding Jake’s horizons on what constituted ‘weird.’

“Up, up, down, down, left, right, A.”

Jake hissed and winced at some internal pain - one that Jeremy immediately knew the cause of when he felt it too - bringing one hand up to his forehead. He grinned unnaturally wide and unscrewed the bottle's cap with just his thumb and index finger. Carbonation escaped with a fizzy hiss as the lid clicked against the ground and rolled under a prop dresser. Pastel soda foam poured over the lip of the bottle like a baking soda volcano before Jake turned the capsule upside down, letting all the Red Dew come down like a bloody waterfall with several glugs in rapid succession.