#a major wight to be specific

[handmade--ghost]

easily top 10 most satisfying writing things is when a character just does something completely unprompted

[mask131]

Reading-list for an “old-school D&D” fantasy

Aka, here is the list of the fantasy books that MASSIVELY influenced the original D&D and its first editions. Or, if you want to put it another way, the books that were the ingredients to create D&D/that were copied by D&D.

# J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” (+ “The Hobbit”). The source of modern fantasy, and THE main influence and source of old-school D&D. In fact, the creation of D&D was basically the creation of “The Lord of the Rings: The Role-Playing Game”. Very famously (or unfamously), in its original edition, D&D included a LOT of elements taken from the work of Tolkien, that then had to be re-shaped due to being under the copyright of Tolkien’s work. In the first edition D&D you’ll find “hobbits”, “mithril” and “balrogs” for example - that D&D had to change to “halflings”, “mithral” and “balors” to legal reasons. The only Tolkien-specific creatures D&D could keep were the orcs. Overall a LOT of D&D comes from Tolkien: the original depictions of elves and dwarfs, the ents (sorry, treants), the wights, the symbols of the “eye of fire” and “white hand” for the gods the orcs worship... And of course, the “Ranger” class was originally just the character of Aragorn as a class.

# Poul Anderson’s “Three Hearts and Three Lions”. This book was one of the two sources for the alighnment system of D&D of “Order versus Chaos” in a fantasy world. The D&D trolls were also heavily influenced by the depiction of trolls in this novel, PLUS the “Paladin” class was influenced by the character of Holger Carlsen.

# Michael Moorcock’s “The Elric Saga”.The other main source of the “Order vs Chaos”, “Lawful vs Chaotic” alignment of D&D - but also the main inspiration behind the Drow and the D&D-shaped image of “Dark Elves” in general (in the novels, they are the Melnibonéan Empire). D&D also contains several other references to the Saga - for example “Blackrazor” is inspired by Elric’s iconic sword, “Stormbringer”.

# Robert E. Howard’s “Conan the Barbarian”. The source of heroic fantasy the same way Tolkien’s LotR was the source of epic/high fantasy - the Barbarian class of D&D (and the image of a Barbarian in fantasy in general) all comes from Conan. 

# Fritz Leiber’s “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser”. The origin of the “Sword and Sorcery” genre (at least, as called as such), originally intended as a parody of the Conan-style heroic fantasy genre, but then promptly becoming itself a serious and admired genre-creating classic, Leiber’s works were another major inspiration for D&D (the “Thief” class was heavily inspired by the character of the Gray Mouser), and there is a good number of supplements and books in D&D entirely centered around this book series - introducing the characters of the books, the gods of Newhon, or the city of Lankhmar, into the D&D world. 

# Jack Vance’s “The Dying Earth” series. The magic system of D&D was heavily influenced by how Vance re-imagined magic and spells in this unique sci-fi feeling fantasy: some spells and items are directly taken from the books (the prismatic spray, the ioun stones) and the entire concept of needing to “re-learn” or “re-charge” a spell once it is cast is the Dying Earth magic system (called by some “Vancian Magic”). 

# H.P. Lovecraft’s work (especially anything tied to the “Cthulhu Mythos”). Lovecraft’s brand of eldritch horror and alien fantasy has also been a big influence over the creatures and deities of early D&D - to the point that the various gods of the Cthulhu Mythos were included as one of the pantheons that could be used in the early editions of D&D (alongside other pantheons such as the gods of Newhon from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, or the gods of the Conan world). 

# Gary Gygax, one of the creators of D&D, also listed other authors as direct influence for his game, but given I am less familiar with them I will just list them here: Fletcher Pratt (I think it might be his “Harold Shea” series, quite famous in the fantasy genre), L. Sprague de Camp, Edgar Rice Burroughs (the creator of some of the most famous American fictional characters, such as John Carter of Mars, or Tarzan) and A. Merritt. 

(Finally, not a literary work, but a series of movies that also influenced early D&D: the “Sinbad” movies of the mid-20th century. If you look through the creatures, monsters and illustrations of early editions D&D you’ll find several references to movies such as “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad“ or “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad”)

[agentrouka-blog]

What do you think would be the order of arrival of Starks to Winterfell? Will we see all of them within the walls of Winterfell by end of TWOW?

Sansa/Jon(/Rickon)

(Rickon)

Arya

Bran

Whether or not they all will ever be together in Winterfell again, let alone in TWOW highly depends on the specifics of their unfolding plots, so I couldn't make a really solid guess.

Does Rickon die? If yes, when?

When does Jon go South?

When does Arya arrive and how long does she stay before also heading South?

When and how does Bran arrive?

My suspicion is that they will not all reunite at the same time in TWOW, specifically in order to explore individual dynamics that we haven't seen before. Primarily, Jon and Sansa, but also the conflict and reconciliation between Sansa and Arya, which would be hindered by the presence of a mediating third party like Jon. Same with Jon and Arya after their long and transformative separation.

Bran is the most opaque aspect of this, because it really depends on how exactly his role in resolving the ice threat plays out in detail. Does he escape and flee before the wight army? Does he actually travel with them, if only temporarily, to lead them to/past the Wall in order to facilitate a specific confrontation at Winterfell? Does he help prepare Winterfell or does he appear to be a villain at first, dismantling preparations that would hinder his plan? I don't know.

I think it's fairly likely that all the surviving Starklings (*obligatory Rickon prayer circle*) will only be together again in ADOS after some of the major drama has already passed, to reconnect and reminisce about a past they can never recreate, before they each eventually embark on a new future. Bran in the South, Arya on the seas, Sansa and Jon in the North. Knowing where they come from and knowing that they will always be connected in a way that cannot be broken, but open to building a future.

[balladtv]

best concert/festival experience? actually, you can talk about multiple concerts, i like hearing about them

these asks have literally become my daily treat at this point. going to give you my top 3 experiences >:)

1. The 1975 @ Finsbury Park

I mean I feel like this is the very obvious answer considering, y’know, my entire blog, but this event was just so emotional for me that it has to be my number one. everything ran (relatively) perfect for me and my friend and I was so anxious the weeks leading up to it I genuinely thought I was going to sell my ticket — I’d never been to a gig in London on my own before (let alone be in London on my own) and was so worried about travel and safety. I’m so glad I didn’t. the memories I have from that night have been engraved in my brain forever. the crowd that was around me were amazing, my view was amazing, the food and merch (albeit extortionate) were amazing, and the boys were just the best you could possibly ask for. seeing japanese house as well was a major plus. they played some of my favourite songs that I hadn’t heard live before (love me, people, ballad) that the pain of getting out of the park was worth the experience. I’ve had such bad post concert blues from it (cured now that I know the next time I’m going to be seeing them will be at reading!!!) and that was all because of how much the event meant to me. bawled my eyes out!

2. Alter Bridge w/ Halestorm & Mammoth WVH @ Resorts World Arena

this gig will always be so special to me because this was the second gig that I’d been too that wasn’t the closest city to me and was the second gig I ever properly queued for (the first on both occasions being olivia rodrigo). I think I queued for a total of 6 hours (my longest to date) and was number 15 in the whole queue. I hadn’t gone for the headliners (alter bridge), I’d gone specifically to see halestorm and the goddess that is lzzy hale. this was also the gig that introduced me to mammoth wvh who have now become one of my all time favs (very lucky to have seen them again in wembley supporting mötley crüe). this gig was also the first setlist and pick I’d gotten at the gig (I have a matty healy pick, but didn’t get it from the gig itself) — setlist from mammoth’s bassist ronnie ficarro, and a halestorm pick from the woman in-front of me on the barricade who heard me screaming my heart out and gave it to me because she was just there to see alter bridge. I had also had a massive culture shock to how big the arena actually was, and one of the women who I made friends with was an ex firefighter and taught me what to do during a crowd crush! an experience I’ll definitely never forget (also convinced lzzy looked at me at least twice).

3. Isle Of Wight Festival 2023

this was my first proper festival (just a day ticket though) and it honestly was such a good experience we’re planning on doing the whole weekend next year. my friend is a very, very talented photographer who was photographing one of the tents at the festival, so it was amazing being able to hang out with him as we live quite far away from each other. the best act we saw were 110% onerepublic who were just an absolute joy to watch, an amazing performance, and funnily enough an arctic monkeys tribute band at the end of the night when we were all high on adrenaline dancing our hearts out! I will also mentioned the sugababes because I enjoyed them a lot more than I actually thought I would. once again extortionate (but you can’t really do much about that) but the scran was banging and not once did we feel uncomfortable whilst we were on the site the entire time — getting back was also nice and easy! the only downside was having to say goodbye, which is obviously never easy, but we’re hopefully seeing each other again soon and I can’t wait :)

[fatphobiabusters]

hi id first just like to ask if you could please answer this anonymously as im uncomfortable with this being answering with my username/account attached. that being said something happened today that id really appreciate some advice on if you can give me any and also need to vent about. 

basically, im a fat 17 year old with PCOS (the most significant way its affected me (other than my weight) at least to my current knowledge is a very rare/delayed period which i have started taking medication for that has helped quite a bit although it does have side affects of affecting my mood and sleep but i only have to take them for a little over a week 3 or 4 times a year and apparently those side affects will diminish over time so its not a major issue for me) and today i had an appointment with a dietitian that my mother had set up for me (and was present for) in regards to my weight and my PCOS (although before hand i only thought was in regards to my weight) the dietitian told me that my PCOS was apparently caused by my weight (specifically saying something about how fat around my pancreas was affecting insulin production) (saying so when all she knew about me was my weight and that i had PCOS) which i was somewhat skeptical of in the moment even though i hadnt done much research on the causes of PCOS and weight and PCOS specifically i had done some if not a lot on PCOS in general and most of what i had seen described weight gain/high weight as a side affect instead of the cause (and i have does some research since i got home specifcally via the blog bigfatscience here on tumblr and based on a lot of what iv seen weight is not a cause for PCOS) but when i brought that up she just dismissed it and i didnt really feel comfortable enough to push it further at all so i didnt and in general the appointment was really really uncomfortable and embarrassing for me especially with my mother there and there was a lot of talk on my diet which i really didnt enjoy and made me very uncomfortable but in the end the dietitian told me that i should eat less high GI foods and more low GI foods instead as that would help with things like having a regular period, gave me a diagram of a plate that was half vegetables and the other half split between carbs and protein as a bases for what my diet should be, and told me that i should try to loose weight and gave me a sheet with info on weight loss. im not necessarily against the idea of trying to eat less high GI foods (although i dont know if that would be sustainable especially if it was eating a lot less high GI foods and the main reason i was give to do so other than weight loss is to help have a more regular period which i am already on medication for like a said earlier so i dont see much point in that regard but my mother said she wanted a "more permanent solution") and i am somewhat skeptical of the diagram that was given to me although i havent done much of my own research on that specifically, i have however done a lot of research on the adverse affects of dieting and deliberate weight loss, and how losing weight doesnt long term and you will just gain weight back again which is more harmful and how trying to loose weight has negative affects on physical and metal health so i really do not think i should try to loose wight but i was also told that i should try to weigh myself regularly to see if im loosing and have another appointment with the dietitian which i feel like my mother is defiantly going to try to hold me to and i know theres no point in trying to show her proof that dieting and trying to loose weight wont work because i know she wont believe it and instead will either get upset with or dismiss me in ways that will just be very hurtful for me (i have experience with this in regards to things like talking about the way she treats my autism, her homophobia, and the many hurtful ways shes treated me in the past so i know what her reaction will be and that there isnt a point in trying to reason with her) (1/2)

so essentially i will have to try to loose weight regardless (especially since my mother is very strict and has a lot of control in regards to things like this in my life) even though i know that it wont work and will just hurt me in the long run. on top of this despite doing a lot of research into things like HAES and fat activism i do still deal with a lot of internalized fatphobia especially in regards to eating and i do worry sometimes that im close to developing an eating disorder beucase i often feel guilty for eating and good about myself if i dont eat or am hungry for a while and i feel like this is really going to add to that and potentially lead to me developing more ED habits or more of an ED mindset and i do already feel like its been affecting me in that way a lot like i havent had anything to eat since the appointment even though its been a several hours and really dont want to even though i am hungry and i know this isnt healthy for me to feel and act this way but like i said i cant really avoid it that much, i know this is a really lot of information and i dont blame you if you dont have any advice for my situation but if you can give me any or even just some support i really really would appreciate it, thank you

mod squirrel: 

Well the first thing that stands out to me is that you are 17, so whatever you are being pushed into legally will end when you are 18. I know that abusive people will still try to force people to do things but that's a start. 

TBH I would demand to speak to a NUTRITIONIST over a dietician. They are the ones more likely to work on making sure you are not being starved of nutrients. Also legally at 18 she can be asked to leave the room so if she INSISTS you go to the dietician after you are 18 (say by threatening to kick you out or whatever) you can have he removed. Also it is incredibly stupid to say ANYTHING about someone's insulin without tests? if you are feeling particularly salty, report that as medical incompetence to the hospital. 

What I say next is based on the idea that you are fairly powerless and have to make the best of a bad situation: At least sticking to low glycemic foods isn't a terrible diet idea, because diabetics have to do it. You can have nutritionally balanced meals, when being pushed into a wall like this it’s critical you get enough nutrition.  

If your mom wants a more permanent solution to your PCOS she should advocate for getting your ovaries removed but given that your dietician is a moron (sarcastic surprised Pikachu face) its unlikely to be on the table. You’ll potentially see weight loss on your hormone pills, when I started mine I lost some weight. because the hormones treat the issue that is causing weight gain. Im at the point that if someone who knows what PCOS is and they still think that weight gain causes it I’m calling into question everything they know. 

You're right that it’s pointless and you are on medication that would actually effect your weight as it treats your PCOS but your moms a fucking idiot. 

Again, this is a shitty situation. Focus on your own work unlearning fatphobia. Your mom has failed you but you don’t have to fail yourself. It takes a lot of work and its a struggle and that's normal.

Im gonna be raw with you. I had a gyno appointment and she kept talking about my weight and I had the same reaction. I felt like shit and like I didn’t deserve to eat. You can be doing advocacy and know the truth inside and out and it can still punch you in the face. Then I got angry. Anger gives me energy over depression freezing me in a loop of self hate. I ate food because she’s a fucking CLOWN. btw i find it extremely irresponsible for any doctor other than my primary doctor to talk about my weight let alone ask I cut something from my diet. So called medical professionals need to learn to stay in their fucking lanes. So I can say if I'm not there with you, we are down the street from each other. If you need to I say, eat out spite. If thats what it takes to make sure you arent skipping meals. 

As far as weighing yourself goes, mention how each scale is different so its best to only be weighed at the doctors. maybe that’ll trick her into leaving that part out. 

In the end this is indeed a shitty ass situation and I would focus on nutrition. Your mom can think its for weight loss but there's no guarantee it will happen period. 

When you turn 18 things are going to be in flux so hang in there. I'm somewhat at a loss because as far as I can see its make the best of a bad situation. If other mods or followers have advice please share. 

[smokeybrandreviews]

Z-Awakening

The flood gates have opened and i have been on this mobile game kick for weeks. It started with BLEACH: Brave Souls and I've been legitimately entrenched in this weirdly satisfying form of gaming ever since. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say mobile gaming is super great, it’ not and wildly predatory, but i am going to say i have found a few that don’t outright suck ass. Brave Souls turned out to be more of a mixed bag than i expected and has kind of fallen on the back burner. Since my Fate/Grand Order account got yeeted into oblivion and I've started over fresh, i have realized how goddamn terrible that sh*t is. FGO is bad. It’s the worst! Outside of the overall narratives (Fate, at it’s core, is a visual novel), there is no substance to that “game.” It just prints money for Type-Moon. That said, i stumbled across one that has the same energy as my beloved Azure Lane. I get so much of the same vibes with this one that i feel like it might become a proper option in my gaming repertoire. The game i;m talking about is Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle!

Now, I'm a sucker for Dragon Ball, period. This blog is riddled with essays and rants about that franchise. I’ve loved that sh*t since before i knew what Dragon Ball even was. I saw a little blurb about Hyper Dimension in a Gamefan magazine in the Nineties. I had no idea what the f*ck i was looking at but i knew it was the coolest sh*t, ever. When i got older and more familiar with the franchise, i realized it was SSJ Goku firing off a Kamehameha at Perfect Cell but, back when i first saw that sh*t, it was straight up bewildering. Imagine seeing Perfect Cell for the first time, with no contest, in the throwaway space of a video magazine that was about Sonic 3? Yeah, it was a confusing time. As i got older, i absorbed more and more understanding of DB through cultural osmosis. Being an otaku (Weebs before the term “Weeb” was coined), i came to recognize such things as Super Saya-Jin, Broly, and Freezer. When i finally got the opportunity to take in the franchise personally, i felt like i had been watching this sh*t for decades. And i loved every second of it. Dokkan Battle is kind of a love letter to everything Dragon Ball and i ma her for all of it. Before i get into why i adore this game so, i need to pay some bills. Basically, explain to why this mobile game doesn’t suck like MOST of it’s kin.

Dokkan Battle is just Bubble Bobble. That’s it. This sh*t is Bejeweled with Super Saiyans. It’s just Puzzle Fighter, on a slant, with dope ass Dragon Ball cutscenes. That, alone, gives it more wight than the VAST majority of games in the Play Store. Full disclosure, the mechanics of this game aren’t super unique. Like, you’ve played Bubble Bobble in your life. You’re probably playing a clone right now. If you can do that, you can do Dokkan. There are, of course, little quirks to it’s specific dynamic. Like, there’s an Elemental Wheel where certain things are stronger than others and the Spheres you select correlate to those rules or whatever. It’s diversified further by the characters you pick to go into battle, having these same Elemental aspects. Buffs and debuffs re given to them in battle depending on if said character matches said bubbles or whatever. Dokkan isn’t changing the wheel with there game play loop but I've been playing this sh*t for decades so I'm pretty comfortable with that. Seriously, who doesn’t know how to play Puzzle Fighter? Well, let me rephrase; Who under the age of forty-five, doesn’t now how to play Puzzle Fighter? That type of game is basically Oregon Trail for my generation. In terms of playability, Dokkan is, arguably, a better game than Azur Lane and i f*cking have a blast with that sh*t but that’s not why i love it so much. It’s a real bonus, but not the thing which has me gushing over it right now.

The history is what keeps me coming back to Dokkan. This sh*t spans the entire Dragon Ball franchise. The shows, the games, the manga; All of it. There are characters, multiple versions of characters, that have been on scree or on the page, for the blink of an eye. Super deep cuts like Western Supreme Kai or Towa, are represented in this sh*t. They get a back story. They are developed as characters, to an extent. We all know I'm a sucker for lore so this sh*t really, REALLY, speaks to the core of my entertainment experience. It’s just mad dope being able to see Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta, Final Flash a guy into oblivion. That never happens in Dragon Ball proper. Vegeta hates that form but in this game? Yeah, he’s a perennial component to my team. There is just so much depth in terms of team structure, and even more when it comes to leveling them up. Awakenings, Z-Awakenings, and Dokkan Awakenings are available to a great many of these characters, with a significant power increase to these characters. Each has a skill tree unlocked once out get to a certain level and, as a Final Fantasy guy, I'm all about a Sphere Grid. Like, everything about this game is built for me to absolutely lose myself in it and i have willingly done so. I am all over Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle and, if you are like me or like my sh*t here, you probably will, too.

[pandoramusicbox]

 here we have a few members of carnival 14. the way circus tends to devide up their  large group to smaller units for safety and ease of movement. they are often called troops or units and these troops tend to have their own nicknames. these guys calls themselves the heathens. here is some info about all of them. (from top to bottom) ivy she is a human, but she also happens to be a witch. witches are those of human kin born with an innate magic ability. Ivy happens to have the ability to summon a magical bow made from light. she is an optimist. she tends to prefers guys but is not apposed to date girls. she is kind hearted, she is a rather serious person, not opposed to jokes, but rarely participates. she wants to care for  everyone, and in that pursuit can stretch herself a bit thin. Is quick to anger. and will defend her ideas, violence with reason is fine in her books. she is from the Agura region of scalipia spruce. his species is an eyed, nothin to special about eyed beyond the fact that they have less or more eyes than humans. he is also a demon, both by title and by actuality. true demons are awful creatures. no demon is born* a demon, all demons have to be made. any creature has the capability to become a demon. anything from a god to a humanoid to even an animal. true demons are characterized by glowing eyes many true demons go through other slight physical changes beyond  the eyes but its not a guarantee now spruce is a jerk. he is bisexual he enjoys scaring the wits out of others, finds (light) torture fun, is assertive, he can be reasanaberle, avoids displaying his true emotions, thinks himself better than "normal" humans, could care less about anyone he dosen't consider to be within his inner circle, has bad control of his emotions.has a soft spot for children, and considers harm to them the most despicable thing ever. he is from the Torshii region of scalipia fjord sharp teeth, blue fur, and the ability to create frost from the water in the air around her. she is something called a blue frost fox. a rare specie that only exists on juliner within the blue forest. the blue foxes are anima kin as their ability to freeze the air around  them occurs by physical means and not majical ones. fjord identifies as female.she is motherly, kindhearted, protective, wants those around her to succeed in life.nurturing, but also strict followers of rules.she is not a big fan of leading.she considers ivy her best friend, and is interested in expressi. expressi a fairy, fay are all genderfluid, but many of them lean to one or the other of the binary. expressi is specifically a pix. the pix have the unique ability to create pocket dimensions, where they usually store their things. pix are the most common remaining high-fay.

expressi like the majority of fay is pansexual. she has a crush on fjord. expressi is actually her second name. her original name was expresso, expresso loves to present themselves as feminine. she is a riot, she loves to flirt, adores making others blush. she loves to help others relax, she tends to not form emotional attachments. she was born in the cosmerian mountain region bordering the endless forest of scalipia.  elm A kind of magic cat that can gain power from metal objects. for elm he has two brass earrings different metal give them different powers they can not touch pure iron. (no i have not read mistborn, and it did not inspire this power) they can also create contracts of magic with other creatures.(I can't remember specifics) the species can come in any pastel color with a wight/off wight coat. those things in the ears are "arms"  called the scarf by the members of the species. they are also antropermorphic, ie stand and walk on two legs. except elm is floating in the picture. because that's a thing they can do. (based on the demon cat curbi from madoca-magica and silvion from Pokemon) elm is asexual/aromantic. uses they/them and he/him pronouns he is quite the asshole, smart, indifferent, smug, and quiet. loves causing trouble for others, snide (un-harmeful) comments, but will never let things get out of hand. if anyone actually got hurt in one of their escapades they would never forgive themself. loves to read, the older and more difficult the language the better. because of this love for old langages and reading they are a linguist and over their lifetime has learned about fifteen langages. tends to laze about most of the time.(like a cat) they are from the endless forest in scalipia, but have lived a great deal of their early life in torshii. Max max not their real name but the name everyone knows them by it. this is not his true appearance but the one everyone knows them by it.  he is a spirit kin. said to be related to the great serpent they are often semi-incorporeal monstrosities of immense majical ability. spirit kin are strange and varied the most well known kind of spirit is called an ivelar. there are the dragons and the sereth (holly)there are the gods, and there are the phamtasmics. he has the ability to summon a lesser-fay, fly, change shape.and temporarily control minds.he is also really good at disappearing. max generally avoids emotional and romantic attachments.max generally goes by male pronouns. he is quiet and reserved. vengeful, overly proud and confident.protective of those who he dose rarely form an emotional connection too. believes himself to be never at fault. as a spirit he is born of the endless forest. * there is one demon in existence who was born.he was not born during spruces lifetime. and he has some complicated situation to his birth.

[ankulometes]

The Travellers, Vol 12, Pt 4: The First Century

It is the year 106 “anno mundi”, recorded in the team’s base-12 numeral system as 8Ʌ AM. There are now 566 people living at Caer Hywen, of which 112 are as yet unsubstituted, natural born children below the age of 12. The remainder are all still variants. It will be another two centuries before that ceases to be the case. The settlement has really come along. In a decade or so, they will have a surplus population and a couple of hundred of the inhabitants will leave to set up a new community.

[[MORE]]

Surprising as it may seem, the team have not interacted with a single native inhabitant since they arrived. Britain is a sufficiently large island that traversing the whole thing on foot is a major undertaking at this time. The hunter-gatherers simply have no need to hike all the way down to Land’s End and the variants have no need to travel elsewhere either. There were groups based around the Somerset Levels and the Isle of Wight who mainly exploited the marshy coastlines of those regions and they often travelled as far west as Dartmoor and Bodmin on a seasonal basis to hunt game and visited the north coast of the peninsula to obtain and work flint but there was little to draw them any farther from home. There had once been a small group based near Caer Hywen around Boskenna but they had long since either died out or abandoned the site as sea levels rose.

The entire area around Caer Hywen had been completely transformed over the course of the team’s first century in situ. This was especially true of an area of around 2,000 acres that stretched from what would be known in MOT as Long Rock and Perranuthnoe which they had been actively cultivating.

Extensive pastures and meadows had been assarted out of the hinterlands of the settlement. Each of the 24 farms had about 14-15 acres allocated outside the defensive perimeter that encircled the core of Caer Hywen, on which they mainly tended to graze cattle or used to make hay. These assarted spaces were interspersed with managed woodlands.

The forestry team had cultivated misty and mysterious carrs of alder and willow around the marshes and rivers. Aside from being a valuable source of wood for boats, baskets, and buildings, they provided a valuable habitat for numerous bird species and crawled with a variety of reptiles and amphibians. One could only navigate much of their expanse along causeways the variants had built for the purpose.

On the exposed rocky headland at Perranuthnoe near the far end of their territory lay a pinewood filled with Scots Pine, Yew, Silver Birch, Aspen, Rowan, and Juniper. Red squirrels darted from tree to tree, and you could regularly see wildcats and pine martens. This landscape segued into a birchwood carpeted with bluebells, violets, and anemones.

Between these lay dark and shady broadleaf woods populated by Oak, Ash, and Beech with an understorey of Hazel. The forest floor, strewn with leaves and dead wood, teemed with a huge variety of mosses, lichen, and fungi that supported a similarly diverse range of insects and lepidoptera. Woodpeckers hammered at the tree trunks that also provided a roost for bats. Hedgehogs shuffled through the litter while badgers and foxes dug sets into the roots.

In various places there are a good number of trees that an educated observer would quickly recognise as introduced species. Among these are Walnut and Laburnum as well as what looks like a kind of Mulberry. They are all being carefully cultivated for several purposes. The “mulberry” in particular, which they call Bwabren, is a species they have specifically engineered for the desirable properties of its wood for the manufacture of flat-faced laminated recurve bows. Similarly, they use the Laburnum wood to make rather less sophisticated D-profile hunting bows. As for the Walnut, its wood was nice for decorative work, but more important were its oil-rich nuts and medicinal leaves.

Beyond these nearby managed projects, various members of the team had endeavoured to keep the game trails and open grasslands clear using a range of techniques to hold back the encroaching forest. This had helped to foster herds of larger wild fauna that were seriously endangered by habitat loss in the region. From the Cassiel satellite imagery, you could clearly see their impact throughout Penwith. As a result, the moorlands along the north coast around Pendeen were home to good-sized herds of the small native equines, bovines, and elk.

From the air, you could also easily discern the various paths that the variants had been treading over the past century. As they approached the perimeter defences of Caer Hywen, they became ever more clearly delineated, even constituting gravelled roads in places. On the embankment itself, the original bare palisade fence had been consumed by the now mature Holly and Hazel hedge that was about 15 feet high and presented a substantial obstacle to any creature bigger than a hedgehog. The frames of the five gates had become entwined within, and strengthened by, living trees. Beside the gates, and at intervals along the length of the perimeter hedge, wooden gantries and lookout posts had been constructed on the interior side of the embankment. The ditches that had been dug along the exposed outer stretches had been incorporated into a sophisticated water and sewage system and were filled with clean water at almost all times of the year as it cycled into and out of the settlement.

On passing through any of the gates and ascending uphill along one of the approach roads to the centre of the settlement, you enter an initial zone of intensive grain, vegetable, and fruit cultivation. Each of the 24 farms had around 14-15 acres allocated for their use in this area, and the farmsteads were clustered in groups of four to facilitate the sharing of tools, infrastructure, and labour. Fields of around 2 to 3 acres in size were mainly being farmed on a 6-year rotation using no-till methods that utilised intercropping and companion planting for weed, pest, and disease control.

Much as the bare fence around the perimeter was now a thing of the past, the fields were typically defined by mature hedgerows lined with nitrogen-fixing species of trees and intertwined with shrubs that provided a feast of berries. Their cultivars and cultigens had come a long way over the course of a century and they had well adapted strains of wheat, rye, barley, oats, sorghum, flax, hemp, rape, hops, peas, beans, mustard, clover, beet, chard, carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, asparagus, chicory, lettuce, cucumber, apples, pears, raspberries, red, white, and blackcurrants, strawberries, blackberries, cherries, plums, and grapes, along with various herbs and dyestuffs that were either delicious or useful and generally yielded well. In a similar manner, their selective breeding programme had provided them with domesticated breeds of horses, goats, sheep, cows, pigs, ducks, geese, and pigeon that could be used for a variety of purposes from beasts of burden to meat or dairy production.

As you travelled through this intensive farming zone, you would be able to see the variants using many types of simple machinery to ease their tasks or moving good-sized loads around on Chinese-style wheelbarrows, sometimes driven by a sail or drawn by a small mule-like horse, or larger consignments of heavier materials using two or four-wheeled carts powered by one or two oxen. Farmers might be accompanied by a few eager, attentive, and agile shepherd dogs on their way out to the pastures while domesticated cats sunbathe or hunt for rodents in the long grass that is being trimmed by a herd of goats. You might be passed by a small crew of hunters, foragers, or foresters riding out on horseback with saddles, reins, and stirrups, possibly with a pack of long-limbed, soft-mouthed hounds. Or perhaps they are miners or quarrymen heading off in a large four-wheeled cart to continue excavations in a bell or clay pit they are working on nearby.

To either side of this well-surfaced road are ditches to accommodate water runoff. Most of the rainwater is eventually captured for various purposes, such as irrigation, but everything eventually gets fed through the sewerage system of reed beds and filtration tanks that are used to clean the outgoing black and grey water from the settlement before it is fed into one of the nearby marshes. Underneath your feet, buried a foot or so underground, are miles of terracotta pipes that are being used to supply fresh water to the outlying farmsteads. Toward the centre of the settlement on the crest of the headland, you can see the sails of a few wind-powered structures. One of these is clearly a water tower that is pumping up water into its tank to feed this gravity-powered distribution system. Obviously, it has its limitations, but it serves their needs well on the whole. If winter storms smash the rigging or a high-pressure front in summer stills the wind for an extended period, they can always hook up some oxen or horses to power it for a bit if need be.

Caer Hywen is not a big place, and you soon reach the centre. Here there is a cluster of about 72 houses arrayed along stone-paved streets that radiate from the central square and marketplace. The ditches now give way to covered cobblestone pavements lined with fruit trees. Each dwelling is customised to the individual needs of its inhabitants, but they nonetheless follow a broadly similar pattern and typically utilise the same construction techniques and materials. Most consist of a rectangular block about 10 x 5 metres with its longer side facing the street. This is abutted to a similarly sized block at the rear to create an L-shape. The plot extends out behind this such that it is about 10 x 30 metres in size and is capable of containing any necessary outbuildings along with a small garden for growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs.

These rearward spaces do not generally have clearly delineated plot boundaries. Nevertheless, they can usually be discerned by virtue of the fact that collections of trellises, walls, and outbuildings have sprung up within them to create heat sinks, sun traps, wind breaks, or shaded spots for various plants or to service other needs and activities. They have a tendency to suggest borders and provide some private outdoor space within what otherwise remains an open, communal garden and work area.

The main housing blocks are single-storey affairs constructed in local stone. Roofed in turf interspersed with bird boxes and bat roosts, they sprout into a glorious technicolour display of wildflowers in spring to the accompaniment of thousands of birds.

The team have recently started making glass at Caer Hywen, but most buildings are still unglazed and rely on wooden shutters to keep out the elements in winter. Fortunately, the climate will be rather good for at least another 2,000 years so this isn’t too much of a hardship.

The L-shaped dwellings are mainly for craftspeople, so the street-facing block is generally “open” since it functions as a workshop or similar. The rear block is where they live and those who have separate specialist places of work might only have this on a 5 x 30 metre plot. They provide a cosy and comfortable living space that is well-insulated against temperature extremes, despite being open to the rafters. Beneath the outer stone skin, there is an underlayer of hempcrete blocks. The external oak shutters fit snugly to the window frames, while a tripartite leather, wool, and linen internal curtain arrangement allows for varying degrees of light and weather exclusion depending on the time of day and season. The roof is lined with bitumen sheets and alder to provide waterproofing beneath the thick layer of turf that shields the house from anything the skies can hurl.

In the interior, battens and willow lathes are attached to the walls and coated with clay plaster. This envelops a single kitchen-dining-living space with mezzanines at either end for sleeping. It provides a sizable wood-fired oven and hearth for heating and cooking. Water is available on tap (most of the time) and the oven is also designed to heat this at need. Every home has bathing and washing facilities, and these acts also typically take place in this single room. The floor is paved with stone or clay tiles over aggregate that is laced with tiny clay pipes. The oven also heats water that is run through these pipes, providing an additional system of radiant underfloor heating when needed. You can easily maintain a comfortable interior temperature year-round with a minimal expenditure of either fuel or effort. Not that it matters too much since most of the inhabitants spend most of their time outdoors anyway.

Attached to the main block, usually in a small lean-to structure on the north side of the building, can be found a small suite of service rooms containing a cool store or “buttery”, a dry store or “pantry”, and a waterless composting toilet facility with a kind of bidet next to it. These are all pretty functional, and there are strict limits to how often the toilet can be used, but they do their jobs well. And, if you do need to wipe, they have a surfeit of low-grade paper available which they manufacture from a mix of flax, hemp, rape, shives, and recycled material.

Caer Hywen is little more than a small village by modern standards, so you soon reach the centre. This has changed beyond all recognition from the scrubby patch of grassland fringed by a collection of hastily assembled stone dwellings we last saw in year five.

The sapling the team planted at its centre is now a handsome tree. It is still youthful by the standards of a Yew, but mature. Plas Hywen, as it is called, is now about 60 x 40 metres in size, albeit somewhat irregular and rounded in shape, like an avocado, as it follows the lines of the hill atop which it sits. As is the case with all the streets in the centre, its circumference is bounded by a well-gravelled road fringed by pavements under which run sewerage and water services.

The central space is all beautifully paved in dressed cobblestones of local granite and encircled with a ring of apple, cherry, and plum trees. There are also raised beds at several points, similarly constructed from granite, that are planted with fragrant herbs and flowers and double up as places to sit.

Arranged in the remaining space around the central Yew tree are a good number of wooden market stalls with tables, benches, and awnings; for Plas Hywen is where the variants gather to exchange the products of their labour and, when the weather is fine, to discuss administrative matters.

On the north side of the square are two buildings that are a good deal larger than any of the dwellings. The first of these is the stone-built water tower, topped by the windmill that we saw from afar which powers a simple pump. The tower itself is round, about 60 to 70 feet tall, and topped by a campanile containing a good-sized bell cast in bronze. Structurally, the tower is constructed from two skins of stone blockwork between which runs a spiral staircase that provides access to the various levels of the wind pump mechanism, the water tank, and the rooftop campanile. The wind pump sail structure itself is a heavy timber frame affair that perches over the top of the campanile such that its axle is free to rotate 360 degrees, as oriented by a tail sail.

Next to the water tower is a sizable public hall that functions as a meeting or market space during inclement weather, an occasional entertainment venue, and a school for their offspring. While its neighbour is an impressive feat of construction and engineering, the hall is beautiful. Its huge, pitched roof is covered in turf, much like most buildings in the settlement, but being almost 20 metres wide facing the square and 60 metres deep, it is far larger and presents its gable to the street. From the ridge line, it plunges down in a festival of grass and flowers to timber colonnades that run along either side of the main body of the building. The gable also frames a portico and balcony on the facade through the application of generous bargeboards. All the timber work is an essay in flowing lines inspired by the forms of nature, replete with intricate tracery, painted in bright colours, and inlaid with gold, silver, and bronze. Rising from the roof ridge above the facade is a small wooden tower. It functions in part as a nesting place for birds, but mainly serves as a clock, since its street facing side is dominated by a large bronze sun and moon dial that is also inlaid with silver, gold, and coloured enamel.

Nestled within this huge wood and turf canopy, the main stone-built body of the building is punctuated with large windows. Further illumination is provided to the interior through regular dormer windows. All are glazed. In the case of the dormer windows, this has been done with stained glass which, in the right light conditions, conducts a polychrome symphony on the tiled floor of the hall’s interior. The hall can be entered from the street front through an impressive set of intricately carved and inlaid double doors. There are also smaller entrances or exits to each side, and two to the rear either side of the platform which sits at the far end of the room. Behind this, at the far end of the building, is an enclosed foyer that constitutes a kind of mirror in enclosed form to the portico and balcony on the street front and provides access via two elegant spiral staircases to the gallery that surrounds the main hall, and via which one reaches the street front balcony.

During the hours of darkness, aside from the firelight of two huge hearths on either side of the hall, the interior can be lit by oil lamps made from glass and brass. Some of these are fitted at regular intervals to the walls. However, the attention grabbers are three large chandeliers that look like constellations of glass and wire orbs in the stylised forms of the sun and moon hanging in space within the hammerbeam roof whose Celtic blue woad-painted vaults are dotted with a plethora of stars inlaid in gold and silver. At both ground and balcony level, every inch of the vertical walls between the windows, doors, and fireplaces are adorned with colourful carved painted stonework in writhing geometric forms and Celtic knots within which are set several mosaics in a similar style that depict figures and scenes from the myths and legends the variants were propagating within their culture. ‘Yr lys mawr’, or “great hall”, as the building is known by the inhabitants, is a masterpiece that has only recently been completed and represents a labour of love that has absorbed most of the community for over a quarter of a century.

On the south side of Plas Hywen are more impressive edifices, albeit somewhat smaller and more modest than those to the north. The first is about double the size of one of their regular houses and is the residence of their brewer, vintner, and distiller, which also serves as a tavern. Many members of the team gather here regularly both to drink and take their meals. It often makes sense to have one place doing the cooking and providing the heating and lighting. Besides which, it’s a lot more fun than shutting yourself up at home.

Next door to the tavern is a good-sized wooden structure with few stone-built appendages. It looks almost Japanese in the way its facade consists entirely of slatted doors that are left open to the elements during the summer months. Inside is a large hot bath, washing facilities, saunas, and steam rooms that are for public use. Much as gathering to eat and drink next door can be both more enjoyable while realising an efficiency gain, the bath house exploits the constant utilisation of fire and hot water by the nearby tavern, bakery, chandlery, forge, and glassworks to provide useful services to the inhabitants that are especially desirable during the winter months. It’s not exactly a 5-star hotel, but it is effectively their own spa. And it is not only for pampering people: it also provides invaluable facilities for washing and drying clothes. It works well. Hunkered with its solid back against the prevailing winds, it is sheltered yet well-ventilated, and as well-lit as it can be while protecting its users from the elements.

The team are all living this world for real, much as they have always done. The variants may all be fundamentally scions of the same person, but their distinct physical forms and varying experiences mean that they are sufficiently individual to require a certain level of social organisation without the need for any pretence or “acting in character”. Indeed, although they remain intimately connected in the way that only Travellers can be, the original four members of the mission team had been divergent individuals for far longer than they had been physically the same person. More important though was the fact that it was vital that the world they were creating was fully rounded and fleshed out.

While every inhabitant of Caer Hywen above the age of 12 was a variant on the diagonal, they had spawned a new horizontal every time they had jumped back to substitute one of their offspring, as was usual in the layered structure of these missions. Their civilisation would continue to exist on these horizontals, becoming completely devoid of variants within a century as those who remained behind died out. Moreover, they would also be sharing the world they were creating with non-variants long before they reached their maximum team size of \~200,000.

In their community of almost 600 individuals, most people still have to do a range of jobs, but they have reached a point where they have begun to specialise to the extent that each person does a particular thing most of the time.

The most important role belongs to the farmers. Far more so than any mining or metallurgical activities, agricultural produce forms the bedrock on which their fledgling economy is based. With twenty-four households dedicated to this area, the farmers also constitute by far the most numerous role in their society.

While everyone has to pitch in on various seasonal jobs, such as the all-important harvest, the farms are designed to be small enough to be managed for most of the year by a single household despite the incredibly intensive nature of their cultivation practices. Over the course of the past century, the team have developed cultivars and cultigens for a wide range of crops. In some cases, they have introduced species, so long as they are native to Western Europe or the Eastern Mediterranean and could conceivably be grown in their current climate and fit the migration backstory of their civilisation. They thus lacked some of their favourites, such as potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, and coffee, and a host of flavoursome spices, but they had everything they needed.

The farmers grow wheat and rye which they harvest, thresh, and winnow to produce straw, chaff, and grain. Some of the grain they retain for planting; the remainder is sold to a miller. The chaff gets sold to a feed, fertiliser, and animal bedding specialist. Similar processes apply to the barley, oats, and sorghum which they also grow. However, a good chunk of the resulting barley grain goes to the brewer, and they use a lot of the oats to bulk out livestock feed. Much of the straw is turned into bales, but some is used to grow mushrooms. Just as the farmers buy in the resulting improved feeds, fertiliser, and bedding, their fungi feed base is augmented by adding in the spent grain that is a byproduct of their brewing and fertiliser manufacturing processes. Sorghum they mainly turn into livestock feed and ethanol, but the fibrous stalks are invaluable for making brooms and brushes.

The farms also produce large quantities of crops that are primarily used to produce fibres and oils. Among these are flax, hemp, rape, nettles, sorghum, and poppies. Typically, these are harvested, retted, and scutched on site to produce bast fibres, seeds, and shives. The fibres are then turned into bales, and most is sold to their textile millers and weavers, of which they have a few because the demand for cloth is incessant. The seed goes to the miller to be cold pressed into oil. The shives and some of the bales are used to make paper. The remaining shives go into the manufacture of animal bedding.

Then there were root crops, which required a lot of labour and soil nutrients to produce but were important to grow on a somewhat larger scale than mere garden crops to provide raw material for several processes, for use in livestock feeds, and to bring variety and nutrients to their diet. In this category, they were cultivating beets, chard, carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, asparagus, chicory, lettuce, and cucumber.

Fruit farming occupied a similar position since almost all clan members were growing some as a garden crop and much was available in the wild. Nevertheless, there were things like apples, pears, raspberries, red, white, and blackcurrants, strawberries, blackberries, cherries, plums, and grapes that they had engineered and consumed on a fairly large scale. Hops also fell into this category.

The variants were not vegans. Although it was mainly oriented around the more expansive and less intensively cultivated hinterlands beyond the perimeter hedge, livestock and dairy farming was just as vital to their community as arable and fruit farming or market gardening. Aside from consuming the meat and dairy produce, they obviously needed things like collagen and bones as well as beasts of burden and transport. Over the course of the past century, their breeding programmes had produced domesticated strains of goats, sheep, cows, and pigs along with some more or less tame tame fowl that included species of ducks, geese, and pigeon. There were no chickens though.

The sheep and goats could be sheared annually to produce valuable wool. Along with some of their cows, they could also be milked regularly. The farmers themselves would then turn this into butter, yoghurt, and cheese on site. The animals that were not needed for either their breeding plans or for dairy were slaughtered. The hides would then be sold on to the team’s tanners while the blood and the carcass would be processed by their butcher. The efficiency with which the crew processed byproducts into livestock feed, combined with their crop rotation strategies and the abundance of pasture, meant that they could easily keep as many animals as they needed over winter.

Last, but by no means least, the farmers all have at least one hive of bees each which they keep in horizontal top-bar hives. Aside from the fact that the honey is obviously delicious to eat, it has several other uses, including in medicine, and the wax is valuable while the bees provide an essential pollination service.

After the farmers, the next most important primary sector role at Caer Hywen belonged to the foresters and woodcutters. They had about ten households dedicated to this task that were clustered in the northwest of the settlement where they could share service and storage buildings along with a wind-powered sawmill. As you might already have ascertained from the descriptions of their work above, they did far more than simply chop down trees.

Aside from activities such as regular coppicing for firewood or planting trees and felling timber for a host of purposes including construction and tool manufacture, they were actively creating and managing a range of environments much as the farmers were. Some of their introduced species were intolerant of the predominantly acidic soils of the region, so there were other regular jobs such as applying wood ash or burned lime to increase its pH levels. Regardless, the result of their activities was minimally processed timber that they sold on to individual households for firewood or secondary processors, including wood workers, the sawmill, or the charcoal maker.

Despite the presence of nearby building stone and ore, wood was the community’s most important fuel and material. The demand for it was incessant and they needed to range their activities over a wide area to satisfy it without undermining the sustainability of their sources. Some of the species they relied on required over a century to reach maturity, so their work demanded careful planning. Along with crops like wheat and their capacity to support livestock, the availability of sustainable sources of timber was one of key elements in determining the range of the community’s area of regular active cultivation, their subsequent perception of the territory to which they were laying claim, and a limiting factor on their potential for population growth.

Next up, of course, came the miners, quarrymen, and clay diggers. The demand for metal and stone was by no means constant and both resources were straightforward to recycle and reuse once extracted. However, it took a hell of a lot of work to do so in the first instance in each case. Moreover, these households were doing far more than merely hewing the ground with picks. In addition to having to prospect decent seams, they were doing a range of manufacturing and processing chores relating to their core specialism, including burning lime, making pozzolans, firing bricks or hempcrete blocks, and dressing stone. In total, there were around twenty households at Caer Hywen, situated in a cluster on the northeastern edge of the settlement centre, who were primarily devoted to this sphere of work. However, because processing stone and ore could generally wait, they were usually among the first people to down tools and help elsewhere whenever the need arose.

What we might call the community’s fishermen and women were another group that fell within what can be modelled as the primary sector of the economy. They had around four households who specialised in this area that were based in the southeast of the settlement around the system of wooden quays and piers that had been constructed in the sheltered head of the creek in what would later become the eastern side of Mount’s Bay in MOT.

These households have a couple of catamarans that provide a stable platform for fishing using either a net or rod, and they will go out several times a week whenever conditions permit. They also farm mussels and oysters and lay traps for lobster and crab. Some is sold fresh to market while much is then smoked, salted, or otherwise preserved for later sale. The seafood they harvest provides a supplement and variety to the diet, but they do not depend on it at Caer Hywen and the consumption of the flesh is among the lesser reasons for their jobs. The chandler will buy up things like fish guts or bones and the shells of crustaceans and bivalves while the tanners are keen to acquire the skins. All can be processed to make things that can only be done with these ingredients.

Even more important than the byproducts of their pisciculture was their responsibility for making salt and collecting kelp. Some of the latter was eaten, but most was sold to the crew’s fertiliser specialist. As for the former, it was obviously vital to everyone. They have a saltern facility just to the east of the isthmus where there is a shallow lagoon within the salt marsh in which the water is exceptionally saline, the sun having already evaporated much of the water. A small wind-powered water lifting device uses an Archimedes screw to take water from this to the saltern where it is reduced until the salt can be extracted and then dried.

Finally, there were the hunters and foragers. The community’s dependence on this kind of activity was by now practically non-existent. They only had a couple of households that did it more or less full time and their jobs might be more accurately described as scout and park ranger. Having a reasonably regular supply of things like venison, wild boar, elk, and aurochs was a luxury they saw no reason to forego, especially since they were creating particularly favourable habitats for some of these species that meant it was a good idea to have a bit of a cull occasionally. Similarly, certain types of wild berries and fungi were plentiful and there was little point cultivating them when a few individuals could just pop out occasionally and pick a load while they were also building or maintaining traps or hides. The small hunting team was also responsible for doing things like conducting controlled burnings to prevent game trails being swamped by pioneer species of trees and shrubs.

Around a third of the inhabitants of Caer Hywen were primarily engaged in activities that might be characterised as belonging to the secondary or even the tertiary sector. The variants working in these areas took the raw materials produced by the farmers, miners, fishers, and hunters and transformed them into processed and manufactured goods. One of the most important among these was the miller.

Currently, the settlement only needs one miller. Their household is located on the eastern edge of the central built-up area next to the farmlands and occupies an oversized plot that is required to safely house the wind-powered mill on-site. For a primitive machine, it is efficient and versatile and covers all of their needs concerning grinding, pressing, and cutting. In the (rare) absence of sufficient wind, it can be powered by horse or oxen.

The miller’s household buys wheat and rye grain from the farmers and turns them into flour and middlings which they then sell on to the baker, the butcher, and individual households. They also buy the seeds of flax, hemp, rape, and poppies (along with the wheat germ obtained from grinding flour) that they press into oil. There are several consumers for these products, in addition to individuals, among whom the most important are the chandler, the derwid, and the livestock feed maker.

Of comparable importance to the miller, occupying the first stage of processing in a vital production chain, are the tanners. There are around four households who primarily occupy themselves with this often somewhat unpleasant task. They obtain their hides and skins directly from the farmers, who slaughter livestock on site, and the fishing folk, along with bark from the woodcutting and foresting team, and transform them into prepared leather which they then sell on, mainly to the leatherworkers. Their houses are located to the east of the settlement centre where the prevailing winds blow away the pungent effects of their work. Several occupations that are water-intensive and produce pollution are located here. The sewerage system will clean this up before releasing it into the marsh at the far eastern side of Mount’s Bay.

A similarly vital group of water-intensive, polluting processors are the weavers. The preparation of cloth and thread can be a time-consuming job, so it is something that quite a few people will contribute their time to on a fairly regular basis. However, the settlement has four households who are specialists. They take the raw wool and fibre bales from the farmers and wash, card, comb, and dye it as necessary before spinning it into thread and yarn, some of which is woven into cloth.

Over on this slightly smelly side of town is also the butcher. Again, they only need one household on this who take the carcasses and blood from the farmers’ slaughterhouses, and fish from the fishermen, along with things like middlings from the miller, and turn them into a variety of things. The slaughter of livestock must be carefully coordinated because fresh prime cuts of meat cannot be kept for long, even though almost all residences have a decent cold store. The butcher is one of the main people responsible for preserving this food source and produces charcuterie and other preserved meat products. They also transform the less savoury parts of the animal into food for the working dogs and domesticated cats who have jobs to do. A lot of the remaining animal byproducts go to the chandler.

The other household on the east side of the town with the water and sewage intensive operations in that of the paper miller. They have yet another windmill which drives hammers to pound recycled rags and offcuts into a paper pulp ready for pressing and drying. They also tend to make ink from things like oak galls, charcoal or bone char, dyestuffs, tree sap, honey, and egg. It isn’t a life-or-death business for the variants: they can survive without paper and ink, but it is important both to the functioning of their society and their mission. Their resident derwids maintain records concerning a range of matters from the weather and harvests to financial transactions and have authored a good many books to serve as technical manuals, provide philosophical guidance, or excite the imagination. These are often vital to the education of their offspring and for supporting the non-variants who continue to live in the horizontals their substitution activity leaves behind.

Some of the cleaned bones that are left over from the butcher’s work go along with a lot of firewood to the team’s charcoal maker, who has his base of operations to the south of Plas Hywen behind the bathhouse, along with a few other “energy intensive” industries. They don’t use turf for this: the charcoal maker has an exceptionally efficient retort muffle oven which recycles and burns the combustion gases to create superb lumpwood charcoal and bone char. Bones are also burned in an oxygenated environment to create bone ash which the potters use to make chinaware. The fly ash created by these burns is captured and used by the miners and quarrymen for use as a pozzolan in the creation of hempcrete, while the coarser wood ash goes to the chandler.

The charcoal maker is joined in this part of town by a couple of forge households who do smelting and smithing of metals, a potter, and a glassworks. Metal is obviously very important at Caer Hywen, but they don’t have huge quantities of it: they have extracted more than they need over the years and continue to do so but most of the work is about re-forging and reworking, or repairing, existing tools.

The team has obtained small quantities of gold and silver over the years. This is mainly used in decorative architectural work, with the great hall having consumed many of their “luxury” resources over the past century. However, most of the adult variants, male and female, wear some jewellery which the smiths make when they do find precious metals. This being Cornwall though, most of their work involves copper and tin with some zinc, manganese, lead, lithium, and arsenic, which they forge into bronze, brass, and pewter, or use as fluxing agents. The resulting metals go almost exclusively into the manufacture of tools, weapons, and utensils.

The furnaces get used very regularly by the households of the potter and glassmaker. They make a lot of everyday items such as crockery and containers of various kinds from either ceramics or glass. Some of these pieces are very fine indeed since the quarrying team has access to several nearby sources of kaolin, which they use to make bone china, as well as quartz and manganese, which the glassblowers use to produce crystal glass. Inevitably, these ceramic and glass wares break regularly and need replacing. Not that the broken stuff gets wasted. The broken ceramics are bound into mosaic works, used in aggregate by the builders, or ground down for use as a drainage aid in soil. Old glass is used as a pozzolan.

Also located in what might be called “the fire quarter” is the household of the chandler. This is a catch-all term for the transformation of mainly agricultural commodities and animal byproducts into a range of extremely valuable items through grinding, mixing, and heating.

Among the chandler’s products are obviously things like wax candles, which are extremely useful even though they mainly use oil lamps with seed-based lamp oil at Caer Hywen. However, their main jobs are to make soap and sugar. In the former process, they transform the plentiful wood ash into lye which can then be used in conjunction with seed oil and optional fragrances and colouring agents to produce good quality soap. They make sugar from the beets produced by the farmers and the resulting pulp byproduct goes into livestock feeds. The chandlery also makes toothpaste, with the ground shells of mussels and oysters being among the key ingredients, in conjunction with various flavouring agents, and a variety of glues, cosmetics, dyes, and powders for a range of purposes.

There is some overlap in interests and techniques between the chandler and the brewer, vintner, and distiller who also runs the tavern and general social hang out at Caer Hywen. They brew a whole range of wines, beers, and spirits from fruits and grains. In a world in which they have to make all their own entertainment, these are understandably nice to have. However, they also make ethanol (mainly from sorghum), which has vital medical and first aid applications among other uses, and distilled essential oils, mainly for use as fragrances and flavourings.

On the west side of town are a few households that are primarily dedicated to a range of useful crafts, the products of which predominantly derive from agricultural commodities and timber where the required manufacturing processes are not heavily dependent on large volumes of either water or fire.

There are about three households here who are primarily devoted to leather work. They buy the tanned hides and fish skins from the tanners and turn them into a wide range of clothing, accessories, and other useful items. The community is not so specialised that they have separate saddlers, glovers, and cobblers, so these people also make things like tack and harnesses for horses and oxen, as well as shoes and gloves; basically, anything that involves shaping, cutting, and sewing leather.

A further three households are devoted to carpentry and woodworking. Much as the leather workers must encompass all aspects of their trade, their work might involve anything from making furniture, through building work, to finishing tools made by the smith, or forming wheels and barrels. Alongside them are another three households who form the backbone of a building and construction team. Both groups have a lot to do, and they are by no means the only people who spend time either building structures or working with wood: almost everyone in the community will do so on a reasonably regular basis. However, they are the ones who specialise and devote most time to it.

It’s a similar story for the one household that is currently dedicated to the craft of producing brooms, brushes, and baskets. There is an insatiable demand for these types of items which have a limited lifespan and typically see regular, hard usage. They take things like the sorghum stalks, bits of wood, willow lathes, hog bristles, and horsehair and turn them into a host of useful items. Again, a lot of people do a bit of this kind of thing, but you can’t have farmers and other key workers spending valuable time making their own toothbrushes, brooms, and log baskets. The same goes for clothes, so Caer Hywen also has a dedicated tailor in this quarter of town.

This brings us on finally to the household of the derwid. The “druid” at Caer Hywen is not some kind of weird priest or mystic. They have a lot of practical and important jobs to do. Moreover, at this point in time, they are the only one who maintains any kind of regular contact with Cassiel.

They do not yet have any significant requirements for policing or government, but it is still the responsibility of the derwid to convene administrative assemblies and record the law as they make it. They also serve as the community treasurer and accountant with responsibility for managing the books of their “bank”, in which the issuing and receipt of currency is recorded.

The derwid are also required to serve as teachers, imparting skills in reading, writing, and maths to their non-variant offspring between the ages of 6 and 12, and to further train their long-term replacement (they are currently onto their third generation of derwid). Regular measurements must be taken of things like temperature, rainfall, sea level, wind speed, tides, and the movements of the sun, moon, and stars.

Moreover, while the adult variants are exceptionally hardy and resilient, they are not immune to illness or accident and their children (and livestock) are susceptible to disease in the normal way. Whenever medical attention or surgery is required, it is the job of the derwid to provide it, as well as to prepare the tools and medicines necessary to fulfil this role. All their accrued knowledge must also be recorded and conveyed to others as appropriate.

On top of the demands of running a general practice, they had to function as biologists, chemists, physicists, and engineers. If there were to be any innovative new machines or devices introduced, or unusual architectural requirements to satisfy, it was the job of the derwid to produce the necessary designs and direct the work.

Last, and by no means least, the derwid are required to be performers. With their unsubstituted offspring present and non-variant adults in the abandoned horizontals, it is the derwid’s job to retell the myths and orchestrate the seasonal ceremonies that punctuate the year at Caer Hywen.

Being a derwid was a demanding job. The word basically meant “oak tree” in their language and the idea was very much along the lines that the derwid took nutrients from the putative roots of their culture and passing phenomena of the sky and nature to form a strong, binding structure for the community as a whole.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to do it alone. Aside from the fact that all the variants had a huge range of skills and knowledge, even if they weren’t currently all using them, a “household” in all the above only very rarely means a single nuclear family. While there would be a place of work that doubled up as a dwelling in most cases, it wasn’t necessarily the case that the partner of a derwid was also a derwid, or that that of a carpenter was also a carpenter. Not everyone was coupled up all the time, those that were often worked in places other than where their partner did, and jobs changed hands from family to family between generations. By “household” I mean a structure or collection of structures in which at least two more or less full-time workers are engaged in a particular activity, usually with one to two apprentices between the ages of 12 and 18 and/or a “light” or occasional worker, such as an elderly individual.

This brings us to the final place we need to visit at Caer Hywen: the nominal “place of work” for the druids or derwid, whatever we want to call them. Since its completion, schooling of the young has mostly begun to be undertaken in the great hall when either the topic or the weather conditions demand it be done indoors. However, the great hall is not the only impressive “public” work which the variants have built over the past century. Over on the mount is the base of operations for the derwid at Caer Hywen.

You proceed down the hill past the fishing households, out of town by the south gate, and through the marshy alder and willow carr that grows on the isthmus. Where the ground begins to broaden and rise, the swamp mists and trees start to clear after you pass through a kind of living archway, and you will see that they have turned the tip of the isthmus into a kind of woodland park and rockery garden. Plant species that can handle the acidic soils and saline conditions of the promontory cover the craggy exposed rocks. Four good sized clearings have been made in the woods that are sewn with grasses and wildflowers. It is in these places that they hold their seasonal ceremonies and, if you look from the air, you would see that they are arranged in a semi-circle at regular intervals in front of the mount.

Paths lead between and through these clearings up to the top of the mount where there is a collection of stone-built structures set within a fairly substantial wall. Right at the top, above everything else on the southern side of the crest, is a circular space in which the stone pavement is inscribed with a series of elliptic lines and glyphs inlaid with bronze that indicate the hours of the day and days of the year. In front of these lines on the southern side of the ring is a large slate gnomon; behind them at the northern zenith is a pedestal on which is set a large, ornate bronze armillary sundial constructed of rings within rings.

Just beyond these open-air sundials, set on the northern edge of the plaza, is a windowless, drum-like, stone building standing about 40 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter with a single door at the foot of the building on the south side. Although difficult to make out in the darkness of the interior, the white plastered walls are also inscribed with elliptic lines, but inlaid this time in gold and silver. Although it is almost impossible to discern from the ground, the south face of the tower has a kind of dish-like depression in the stonework at the centre of which is set a pinhole gnomon and a series of quartz prisms that project an image of the sun surrounded by rainbows into the dimly lit interior that pinpoints the time and date on the north wall. If you turn around, you will see that camera obscura techniques are also used in the north face of the tower to project a panoramic image of Caer Hywen around the south side of the interior.

Arrayed around the rest of the plaza to the northeast and northwest, in a manner that is largely dictated by the demands of the rugged site, are a couple of rather more conventional rectilinear structures. One of these is a large two-storey structure in which the ground floor has slatted windows, a bit like Venetian blinds, to block out direct sunlight. The upper storey is a timber framed affair that offers considerably more generous lighting conditions. This building serves as a kind of records office and library for the collection of works on paper that the team have written over the past century. The other building is rather more barn-like and provides a simple covered space for use by the derwid as a kind of lab or workshop. It also sees regular service as a second classroom.

As you can no doubt tell, the variants have been keeping themselves busy. However, they have by no means been overworking themselves. Once weekends and festivals are accounted for, they only really work for two thirds of the year at most. Moreover, they don’t aim to produce much more than they need, so it is often unnecessary to do anything in particular and time can be devoted to labours of love. Additionally, there are some days when the winds are pounding in from the southwest and the rain is hammering against the shutters when the only thing many of them can do is batten down the hatches and hunker up in the tavern. By modern standards, productivity is really very low at Caer Hywen. Even where they do spend long hours on particular aspects of their work, it is not alienated labour and there are many aspects of it which they find satisfying.

There have been some tough times when the natural world had thrown up challenges that, even with advance warning, were not easy to deal with. In some horizontals, they had experienced sequential years of multiple crop failure, or times when previously unknown diseases and viral strains had afflicted people or livestock, sometimes almost wiping them out in the process. However, by the time it came to deal with these problems on the diagonal, the crew had usually managed to find solutions, even if it had occasionally required Cassiel’s analytical abilities to do so.

Most of the time though, the climate was good, food was abundant, and they had plenty of spare time on their hands to enjoy themselves. It was sometimes a relief not to have non-variant shit to deal with, beyond the usual trials of children. You could just gather at the pub between your first and second sleep to gaze up at the thick blanket of stars in the clear summer night sky and think about all that had happened over the years. On the other hand, they missed non-variants. It was less fun playing the game on your own.

[fernandoktob948]

Goddards Brewery Ryde, Isle Of Wight

Some hospitals have started to generate clowns to alleviate the silent, disappointing ambience, specifically in kids's wards. If you need to terminate your appointment of the Trailer for any reason please guarantee that you provide us two working days notification and we shall give you a full refund of the hire cost for the Hire Duration. You should make sure that your driving licence allows you as well as your car is lawfully allowed to tow the Trailer. You are exclusively in charge of checking as well as confirming this on the DVLA internet site and also with your insurance provider as well as we will not be responsible whatsoever for your failure to follow these constraints. A complete refund of deposit and rental cost will certainly be issued for canceled bookings if they occur no behind 2 days before the rental begin day.

You will be responsible for any kind of damage to the rental residential property that is triggered by you or your event during your stay.

If wild camping can be a concern, using neighborhood buses to and also from 'the course' will certainly need to be taken into consideration.

The ferry trip to the island will increase the expectancy and it should make that little are-we-nearly-there-yet, last part of the trip go quicker (after they've had a run around on deck).

Like the majority of middle-aged females, while I may seem like a 30-year-old, however there's seldom one accessible.

Club members obtain a 15% price cut when quiting at these sites all year round.

The Holmsley website is just one of one of the most prominent Camping in the Woodland campgrounds. The campground is bordered by stunning forest-- as you would certainly get out of a Camping in the Forest website. When it comes to either motorhome/ campers/ campervan or tent outdoor camping, a lot of campgrounds on the Isle of Wight will certainly provide either powered or unpowered websites. The final position was developed by looking at the typical ranking setting throughout all 5 data collections. Caravan escapes are confirming especially prominent for 2021 with 22% even more month-to-month searches usually for 'campers vacations UK' than for 'city breaks UK'. If you are an insurance broker or MGA being experts in campers insurance, after that it pays to understand where the hotpots are as regard purchasers.

Which Campers Club Is The Most Effective?

We can decline any returns of products that have actually been utilized, customised and/or tailor-maked items, and jewellery. Please keep in mind that we will not be delegated the performance of the courier firm once the parcel has actually been collected from us. Neither are we in charge of any type of local taxes or extra custom-mades tasks that may be required relying on your regional nation's import regulations. If you're out when the courier arrives, they will leave a calling card. Please speak to the courier straight to arrange a convenient time for re-delivery.

Is caravan insurance policy compulsory in the UK?

Do I require caravan insurance coverage? You don't lawfully need to have caravan insurance. Yet you do need to make sure you have at the very least third-party cover on your vehicle insurance to cover any damage to others you trigger while lugging your caravan.

You will certainly be notified of your overall price by the end of January in the year of traveling. You need to contact us if you have actually not gotten your final reservation confirmation by mid February. You might return any kind of product acquired for a full refund based on the terms that use as specified on this website. Please keep in Static Caravans For Sale mind that we will endeavour to supply refunds for returns within 14 days from evidence of return. Please be advised we can only approve products returned in their original condition and product packaging; items should be unused and also in a resalable condition.

Check Availability At Nodes Direct Vacation Park

You can choose to make courier arrangements to return on your own, although we do suggest following our instructions below. You will not be credited for the outbound shipment cost just the thing fee. Please remember the product stays yours until efficiently gotten by our circulation centre. The length of time your visit will certainly take differs according to the solution you call for, the dimension of automobile, its condition as well as whether you included any kind of optional extras to your booking.

We are a family of caravanners, motorhome proprietors as well as campers all sharing the very same passion. Located down in the south of the island, Appuldurcombe is a more commercialised as well as extensive vacation park that flaunts some impressive facilities for those that want a little bit much more activity at their fingertips. Mostly a glamping site with an incredible series of quirky spaces including guard's huts, cabins and even an old helicopter hanger, you are additionally welcome to bring your own tent or campervan and pitch up and appreciate this space too. The disadvantages are the price as well as the problem of driving a large lorry, which can be particularly aggravating on a lot of the smaller, turning island lanes, together with the limited auto parking centers right here-- particularly for big vehicles. Positioned close to the landmass, with the 3 ferry ports and bigger towns here as well, this might be an excellent alternative for those of you travelling as a family as well as that intend to be closer to shops as well as services.

The Isle of Wight is an attractive island as well as we assure a fantastic keep away with lots of similar cars and truck consumed people will certainly make your year. There are tons of market stands too, which offer wonderful products for your vehicle, tons of merchandise and food stalls, plenty to maintain you busy and pleased for your keep away from home. In this article we will certainly go over taking the ferryboat over, the outdoor camping as well as lodging alternatives, some excellent areas to go to during your remain and also what you can anticipate from the neighborhood. If the sunlight has actually got his hat on, you can extend on the loungers next to the warmed exterior pool and enjoy the kids zoom down the flume; if it's raining, there's a health facility pool inside rather.

It is consequently crucial that you let us referred to as quickly as the failure occurs. If any kind of injury or damages to persons or residential property or animal or to the Trailer develops because you have actually incorrectly hitched or un-hitched the Trailer onto your lorry, you will certainly be in charge of that injury or damages. The only exemption to this is where the injury/damage happens as a result of a fault or problem in the Trailer of which you were not aware. If you are incapable to offer us two working days discover any refund of component or every one of the Hire Fee shall go to our single discretion.

How to grow bougainvilleas in the UK - Saga Magazine News

How to grow bougainvilleas in the UK.

Posted: Tue, 21 Dec 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Please pick an option from the headings listed below to see additional details on returning things to us. A lot of tool and large-sized orders need a trademark upon delivery. If you understand you will not go to home, why not consider setting up shipment to your work or a good friend's address?

Whilst we've never had to use it-- and are positive that we never will certainly-- we likewise have public obligation insurance with cover to ₤ 1,000,000. From lodges to campers websites, as well as static house places as well as pitch-your-own tents, this holiday park comes full with a heated swimming pool, accredited café, workout courses, mini-golf program and youngsters's backyard. Cruising and waterports, walking and biking are all tasks for which the Island of Wight has a great track record as well as the island's history as a vacation destination implies there are lots of tourist attractions as well. From all-natural highlights to purpose-built enjoyments and museums, you will not run short of things to do when you're camping on the Isle of Wight.

[influencermagazineuk]

Unlocking Business Opportunities on the Isle of Wight: A Comprehensive Guide

The Isle of Wight, located off the southern coast of England, is not only a picturesque tourist destination but also a promising hub for business opportunities. With its thriving economy, strategic location, and supportive business environment, the Isle of Wight offers a unique landscape for entrepreneurs and investors. In this article, we will explore the key factors that make the Isle of Wight an attractive place to do business and provide a step-by-step guide to help you navigate the local market successfully. Research the Market: - Before venturing into any business endeavor, thorough market research is crucial. Understand the local demand, competition, and consumer preferences on the Isle of Wight. Identify gaps in the market or areas where your expertise can make a significant impact. Leverage Strategic Location: - The Isle of Wight's proximity to major cities like Southampton and Portsmouth provides excellent opportunities for trade and transportation. Explore how you can leverage the island's location for efficient supply chains and distribution networks. Networking and Collaboration: - Building strong connections with local businesses, organizations, and communities is vital. Attend networking events, join industry associations, and actively engage with the Isle of Wight Chamber of Commerce. Collaborating with local partners can help you establish a solid foundation and unlock new opportunities. Understand Local Regulations: - Familiarize yourself with local regulations, permits, and licensing requirements specific to the Isle of Wight. Consult with legal professionals to ensure compliance and avoid unnecessary setbacks. The Isle of Wight Council can provide valuable information and assistance in this regard. Identify Target Customers: - Identifying your target audience is crucial for effective marketing and product development. Consider the unique demographics and preferences of the Isle of Wight population. Tailor your offerings to meet their needs while maintaining a competitive edge. Embrace Sustainability: - The Isle of Wight prides itself on its commitment to sustainability and eco-tourism. Incorporate environmentally friendly practices into your business model, such as reducing waste, promoting renewable energy, and supporting local initiatives. Demonstrating your dedication to sustainability can attract both customers and investors. Capitalize on Tourism: - As a popular tourist destination, the Isle of Wight offers numerous opportunities in the hospitality, leisure, and entertainment sectors. Consider how your business can cater to the needs of tourists, whether it's through transport related ops to do with the Wightlink Isle of Wight Ferry, accommodation, food and beverage services, or unique experiences. Leverage Digital Marketing: - In today's digital age, a strong online presence is crucial for success. Develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy to reach both local customers and those beyond the island. Utilize social media platforms, search engine optimization, and targeted advertising to maximize your business's visibility. Foster Local Relationships: - Connect with the Isle of Wight's local community to enhance your brand reputation. Support local events, sponsor community initiatives, and engage in philanthropic activities. Building a positive relationship with the community can generate long-term loyalty and support. Seek Support and Funding: - Take advantage of the various funding and support initiatives available to businesses on the Isle of Wight. Explore opportunities provided by organizations like the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership and Innovate UK. Additionally, the Isle of Wight Council offers grants and business support programs that can help fuel your growth. Conclusion: The Isle of Wight presents a plethora of business opportunities for entrepreneurs seeking growth and success. By conducting thorough research, embracing the unique attributes of the island, and establishing strong connections within the local community, you can unlock the potential of this thriving business landscape. Remember, adapting to the specific needs and aspirations of the Isle of Wight will play a pivotal role in your business's long-term prosperity. Read the full article

[smokeybrand]

Z-Awakening

The flood gates have opened and i have been on this mobile game kick for weeks. It started with BLEACH: Brave Souls and I've been legitimately entrenched in this weirdly satisfying form of gaming ever since. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say mobile gaming is super great, it’ not and wildly predatory, but i am going to say i have found a few that don’t outright suck ass. Brave Souls turned out to be more of a mixed bag than i expected and has kind of fallen on the back burner. Since my Fate/Grand Order account got yeeted into oblivion and I've started over fresh, i have realized how goddamn terrible that sh*t is. FGO is bad. It’s the worst! Outside of the overall narratives (Fate, at it’s core, is a visual novel), there is no substance to that “game.” It just prints money for Type-Moon. That said, i stumbled across one that has the same energy as my beloved Azure Lane. I get so much of the same vibes with this one that i feel like it might become a proper option in my gaming repertoire. The game i;m talking about is Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle!

Now, I'm a sucker for Dragon Ball, period. This blog is riddled with essays and rants about that franchise. I’ve loved that sh*t since before i knew what Dragon Ball even was. I saw a little blurb about Hyper Dimension in a Gamefan magazine in the Nineties. I had no idea what the f*ck i was looking at but i knew it was the coolest sh*t, ever. When i got older and more familiar with the franchise, i realized it was SSJ Goku firing off a Kamehameha at Perfect Cell but, back when i first saw that sh*t, it was straight up bewildering. Imagine seeing Perfect Cell for the first time, with no contest, in the throwaway space of a video magazine that was about Sonic 3? Yeah, it was a confusing time. As i got older, i absorbed more and more understanding of DB through cultural osmosis. Being an otaku (Weebs before the term “Weeb” was coined), i came to recognize such things as Super Saya-Jin, Broly, and Freezer. When i finally got the opportunity to take in the franchise personally, i felt like i had been watching this sh*t for decades. And i loved every second of it. Dokkan Battle is kind of a love letter to everything Dragon Ball and i ma her for all of it. Before i get into why i adore this game so, i need to pay some bills. Basically, explain to why this mobile game doesn’t suck like MOST of it’s kin.

Dokkan Battle is just Bubble Bobble. That’s it. This sh*t is Bejeweled with Super Saiyans. It’s just Puzzle Fighter, on a slant, with dope ass Dragon Ball cutscenes. That, alone, gives it more wight than the VAST majority of games in the Play Store. Full disclosure, the mechanics of this game aren’t super unique. Like, you’ve played Bubble Bobble in your life. You’re probably playing a clone right now. If you can do that, you can do Dokkan. There are, of course, little quirks to it’s specific dynamic. Like, there’s an Elemental Wheel where certain things are stronger than others and the Spheres you select correlate to those rules or whatever. It’s diversified further by the characters you pick to go into battle, having these same Elemental aspects. Buffs and debuffs re given to them in battle depending on if said character matches said bubbles or whatever. Dokkan isn’t changing the wheel with there game play loop but I've been playing this sh*t for decades so I'm pretty comfortable with that. Seriously, who doesn’t know how to play Puzzle Fighter? Well, let me rephrase; Who under the age of forty-five, doesn’t now how to play Puzzle Fighter? That type of game is basically Oregon Trail for my generation. In terms of playability, Dokkan is, arguably, a better game than Azur Lane and i f*cking have a blast with that sh*t but that’s not why i love it so much. It’s a real bonus, but not the thing which has me gushing over it right now.

The history is what keeps me coming back to Dokkan. This sh*t spans the entire Dragon Ball franchise. The shows, the games, the manga; All of it. There are characters, multiple versions of characters, that have been on scree or on the page, for the blink of an eye. Super deep cuts like Western Supreme Kai or Towa, are represented in this sh*t. They get a back story. They are developed as characters, to an extent. We all know I'm a sucker for lore so this sh*t really, REALLY, speaks to the core of my entertainment experience. It’s just mad dope being able to see Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta, Final Flash a guy into oblivion. That never happens in Dragon Ball proper. Vegeta hates that form but in this game? Yeah, he’s a perennial component to my team. There is just so much depth in terms of team structure, and even more when it comes to leveling them up. Awakenings, Z-Awakenings, and Dokkan Awakenings are available to a great many of these characters, with a significant power increase to these characters. Each has a skill tree unlocked once out get to a certain level and, as a Final Fantasy guy, I'm all about a Sphere Grid. Like, everything about this game is built for me to absolutely lose myself in it and i have willingly done so. I am all over Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle and, if you are like me or like my sh*t here, you probably will, too.

[wemresearch]

Sports Nutrition Market Recent Trends, In-depth Analysis, Size and Forecast 2022 to 2030

The global sports nutrition market size was valued at USD 43.40 Billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 8.5% reaching a vale of USD 83.35 Billion in 2030.

Sports nutrition products are specific foods made to improve performance and speed up recovery after sports activities like workouts, bodybuilding, or athletic competitions.These goods are used prior to and following physical activity to boost energy levels during the activity and aid in recuperation afterwards. Protein powders and sports drinks are the two types of sports nutrition products that are most frequently used. The majority of sports nutrition solutions are formulated with substances that increase physical potential and energy absorption by the body to maximise the results of the consumer's efforts. Products containing carbs and other types of nutrients help give energy, hydration, and the maintenance of lean muscles in athletes, whereas sports nutrition products containing protein support the growth of new muscles in bodybuilders and aid in keeping lean muscles in athletes.

Products for sports nutrition are becoming more popular among recreational and lifestyle consumers. When compared to other regions, North America accounted for 53.45% of the sports nutrition market in 2020. The demand for customised nutrition products in the area is being fueled by government programmes that are encouraging an increase in the number of gyms, health centres, and sports-related activities. Online platforms had a lot of potential to increase sales as a result of the growth of digital infrastructure in developing nations like China and India.

Segmental Analysis of Global Sports Nutrition Market:

Based on Product

Sports Supplements

Protein Supplements

Animal Based

Whey

Fish

Egg

Casein

Plant Based

Pumpkin Seed

Rice

Pea

Hemp

Spirulina

Soy

Vitamins

Electrolytes

Detox Supplements

Probiotics

Minerals

Amino Acids

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Carbohydrates

Sports Drinks

Isotonic

Hypertonic

Hypotonic

Sports Food

Protein Bars

Energy Bars

Protein Gels

Metal Replacement Products

Wight Loss Products

Based on Application

Pre-Workout

Post-Workout

Weight Loss

Others

Based on Formulation

Tablets

Powder

Capsules

Soft-gels

Gummies

Liquids

Based on Consumer Group

Children

Adult

Geriatric

Based on Activity

Light Users

Heavy Users

Based on Channel Distribution

Brick and Mortar

Fitness Institutes

Small Retail Stores

Speciality Stores

Discount Clothing Retailers

General Discount Stores

Grocery Stores

E-commerce

Get Free Sample:- https://wemarketresearch.com/sample-request/sports-nutrition-market/93/

Top Key Players:-

Abbott

Quest Nutrition

PepsiCo

Cliff Bar

The Coca-Cola Company

MusclePharm

The Bountiful Company

Post Holdings

BA Sports Nutrition

Cardiff Sports Nutrition

General Nutrition Centers Inc.

Glanbia plc

Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc

Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

Keurig Dr. Pepper, Inc

Red Bull GmbH

GlaxoSmithKline plc

J Donohoe Beverages Ltd

Ajinomoto Co., Inc

Premier Nutrition Corporation

Vitaco Health

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

Q1. What is the total market value of the sports nutrition market report?

Q2. What would be the forecast period in the sports nutrition market report?

Q3. Which is the base year calculated in the Sports Nutrition Market report?

Q4. Which are the top companies hold the market share in the sports nutrition market?

Q5. Which is the most influencing segment growing in the sports nutrition market report?

Q6. Which segment holds the maximum market share of the sports nutrition market?

Q7. How the company profile has been selected?

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[nickjunesource]

Full article below.

Max Minghella is sitting in his backyard in the LA sunshine, his t-shirt an homage to the French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve, his adopted shepherd mix, Rhye, excited by the approach of a package courier.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asks — the dog, not me — tenderly.

Minghella, who at 35 has dozens of screen credits to his name, is best known as The Handmaid’s Tale’s cunning chauffeur Nick Blaine, a character who it’s difficult to imagine saying sweetheart. In airless Gilead, of course, a cautious hand graze with Elisabeth Moss’ June can pass for a big romantic gesture. In a Season 1 episode featuring child separation and hospital infant abduction, Nick’s major contribution is to trade stolen glances with a sex slave while “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” pumps discordantly along. I ask Minghella about playing the series’ closest approximation to a dreamy male lead against the show’s dark narrative of female subjugation.

“I know this is not the answer you want to hear,” Minghella says with none of Nick’s hesitation. “But I like that stuff, right? In the pilot, I think Nick only had a handful of lines. It wasn't clear that this is what the character would turn into. And it's quite fortunate for me personally, because I'm not a massively sort of intellectual person in my real life. I love Fifty Shades of Grey. That's like my Star Wars. It suits me to play a character like him.”

Minghella surmises that this enduring romanticism is an outcome of nurture. His father, the late British director Anthony Minghella, made grand romantic dramas like Cold Mountain and The English Patient. And there was the young, cinema-mad Max sitting on the living room sofa, absorbing everything. “It’s taken me a long time to understand this,” he says of his prolonged childhood exposure to love stories. “My dad made The English Patient when I was 10. So it was two years of watching the dailies to that movie and then watching 50 cuts of it. And then [The Talented Mr.] Ripley he made when I was 13, and it was the same thing.” These were an adolescent Max Minghella’s alternative to reruns. “I think they did shape my perspective on the world in a lot of ways, specifically The English Patient. That was a complicated love story, and I wonder sometimes how much it's affected my psychology.”

Some sons rebel; others resemble. Minghella’s co-star O-T Fagbenle, who plays June’s other lover from before the time of Gilead, got his first job acting in Anthony Minghella’s romantic crime film Breaking and Entering. “Anthony is one the kindest, most beautiful men that I've ever had the privilege of working with before,” Fagbenle says. “And Max has his gorgeous, sensitive, open-minded soul.”

Though Minghella spent his childhood on the set of The Talented Mr. Ripley, playing an uncredited Confederate soldier role in Cold Mountain, and tooling around with a Super-8 camera Matt Damon gave him, he insists his upbringing was normal. He grew up in South Hill Park overlooking Hampstead Heath in London with his father and mother, the choreographer Carolyn Choa. (Minghella also has a half-sister, Hannah Minghella, who is now a film executive.) Yes, technically, it was London, but that’s not how it seemed. “I feel like I grew up in a very small town. Every school I went to was in Hampstead. I was born in Hampstead,” Minghella says of the small map dot of his life before university. “When I went to New York, I felt I was going to the big city.”

Despite his illustrious surname, movie-watching was far from restricted to the classics. “Beverly Hills Cop is definitely the movie I remember having an unhealthy obsession with. I think I saw it when I was 5 for the first time, and I'd watch it just two or three times a day for years. I'm just obsessed with it.”

Plenty of actors can trace their love of movies back to a love of stories, but for Minghella the relationship seems to flow in reverse. When he left for Columbia University, Minghella opted to study history for its connection, through storytelling, to film. It was during the summers between his years of college that he started taking acting more seriously. Before his graduation, he’d already appeared in Syriana, starring Damon and George Clooney. Soon, he’d make a splash as Divya Narendra in The Social Network in 2010 and be cast in Clooney’s Ides of March. As all young actors eventually must, Minghella moved to Los Angeles.

It’s been over a decade since he last lived on the Heath, but, perhaps unusually for a person who’s chosen his profession, Minghella is adamantly not a “shapeshifter,” in his words. Home for Christmas this year, he started sifting through old journals stored at his mother’s house, “just like scraps of writing from when I was extremely young up through my teenage years,” before coming to America. “It was hilarious to me,” Minghella says of staring at his childhood reflection. “My review of a movie at 7 years old is pretty much what my review of a movie at 35 will be. My taste hasn't changed much. And when I sort of love something, I do tend to continue to love it.”

Which brings us back to his enduring love of romance, born of his bloodline, which is all over Minghella’s own 2018 directorial debut. Teen Spirit is a hazily lit film about a teenage girl from the Isle of Wight — the remote British island where Max’s father Anthony was born — who enters a local X-Factor-style singing competition. (It stars Minghella’s rumored girlfriend of several years, Elle Fanning.) The story is small, but its crescendos are epic.

Minghella calls the movie — an ode to the power of the pop anthem — “embarrassingly Max.” Max loves a good music-driven movie trailer — he’s watched the one for Top Gun: Maverick “many” times. And Max loves the rhythmic beats of sports movies like Friday Night Lights. Max loves movies with excesses of female energy, like Spring Breakers. He likens Teen Spirit to an experiment, his answer to the question, “Can I take all these things that I love and find a structure that can hold them?” The result is a touching “hodgepodge” of Minghella’s fascinations, inspired by the songs from another thing he loves: Robyn’s 2010 album Body Talk (itself a dance-pop meditation on love).

Minghella hasn’t directed any films since, but he sees now how making movies fits his personality — organized, impatient — more organically than starring in them does. Directing also helped him to appreciate that acting is “much harder than I was giving it credit for,” which, in turn, has made him like it more. Besides The Handmaid’s Tale currently airing on Hulu, Minghella appears in Spiral, the ninth installment in the Saw horror franchise and, from where I’m sitting, at least, a departure.

“I do like horror movies, but the thing that was really kind of magical is that I was feeling so nostalgic, right? We talked about Beverly Hills Cop earlier. I was just missing a certain kind of movie,” Minghella explains of his new role as Chris Rock’s detective partner. He was yearning for simple story-telling, like in the buddy cop movies of his youth, especially 48 Hours. It almost goes without saying that a buddy cop movie is another kind of love story. “And then I read the script and it was very much in that vein.” He clarifies: “I mean, it's also extremely Saw. It's very much a horror movie.”

His renewed excitement for acting translated onto The Handmaid’s Tale set, too. Veteran Hollywood producer Warren Littlefield describes casting Minghella in the role of Nick as an effortless choice: “Sometimes you agonize over things. [Casting Minghella] was instantly clear to me, and everyone agreed.” Now in its fourth season, the tone of the Hulu hit is graver than ever. Gilead is more desperate to maintain its rule, and so more audacious in its violence. Perhaps it’s fitting that the show’s romantic gestures finally match that scale.

In one particularly soaring moment, Elisabeth Moss’ June and Minghella’s Nick meet at the center of a bridge and crush into a long kiss. It’s been two seasons since they held their newborn daughter together, and it’s hard to see how this isn’t their last goodbye. Littlefield, like Minghella, is here for the romance among the rubble. “It's spectacular when they come together. In the middle of all of the trauma is this epic love story,” he says. “Max is just magnificent in the role.”

For Minghella, the satisfaction is more personal. He works with good people, he likes his scenes, and he thinks Nick is a complex character. Minghella read The Handmaid’s Tale for the first time in college in 2005. Like all the things Minghella has ever liked, he still likes it. He’s as proud of this most recent season as he is the show’s first. And he watched Nick and June race recklessly back to each other across the expanse of the screen exactly how you might expect. “I watched it like a fan girl.”

[laughingjill]

Just out of curiosity who are the characters in your creepypasta AU?

cursed question, solely due to the fact it's almost 100 LMAO. i just see a character i like and throw them in, along with the fact i like to throw in ocs. i'd like to make a headcanon list at some point for most of them, a lot of them are a works in progress either due to being rewritten or i just haven't even gotten to rewriting them yet. i'll try my best to go over who i have so far as well as i categorize them just to make it a little easier, haha. it's long, so beware!

* = ocs

? = i dont know if i want to keep them or not, or if i want to move them under another category

slenderman & proxies

slenderman (obvi, LMAO)

proxies: tim, brian, toby, kate the chaser, rouge, ms. pencilneck, jason the toymaker, nurse ann, korbyn jumping eagle, radioface, mr. smiley (not dr. smiley btw!), wilson the basher

puppeteer's proxies: emra, zachary, trinitte

zalgoids & proxies

zalgo (also obvi lel)

proxies: stripes, beatrice*, the rake?, rodger walker (originally named rodger williams), sadiya

other people that work for slender: jeff the killer, jane the killer, allie*, clockwork, nina the killer, homicidal liu, eyeless jack, su*c*de sadie, kagekao, the puppeteer, zero, bloody painter, judge angels, lulu, hobo heart, roadwalker, dr. smiley, mr. widemouth, ani the wight, the cat hunter, nathan the nobody (& his sister crystal who's now a ghost), killing kate, x-virus, anna, frankie the undead?, weeping willow*, the item stealer, the dollmaker, vailly evans?, dr. flesh*, arcane, scarecrow

bitches that live in the carnival pocket dimension: laughing jill, candy pop, candy cane, april fools, papa grande di magico

glitches / virtual killers: ben drowned, lost silver, sonic.exe, glitchy red, brvr, 404*, herobrine

kids: sally williams, lazari, lifeless lucy, lacy morgan, lily kennett, elizabeth vazquez, oliver henderson, abigail creed, noah barlowe*, ally the doll (originally called ally the nightmare doll), hanged girl (originally called hung girl, i just thought hanged girl sounded a bit better), sammy kingsley, milo the electrocuted, sarah erickson

pets: smile dog, grinny, seedeater (jeff mostly takes care of smile, ej specifically takes care of seedeater, grinny is basically everyone's cat but likes ms. pencilneck the most)

neutral: BOB, momo?, sirenhead?

outsiders: chris hopkins (nina's brother who was never harmed, he's out looking for nina), mary vaughn (jane's girlfriend), jessica locke (doesn't have a major role, but tim [along with brian] are trying to keep slender away from her as much as they can)

SO sorry for the long post. might've accidentally opened pandora's box :crying_emoji:

[teabooksandsweets]

Bright blue his Jacket is

Who is Bombadil? He is. According to his wife, Goldberry, and his creator, J. R. R. Tolkien, we are to be content with this. I, for one, am, because I trust the author about his own intentions and take his words as the final word about them.

But that doesn't mean that I cannot have my own thoughts regarding such a particularly mysterious, and intriguing figure. And, as it is, I like Bombadil. Though most readers of Tolkien's work will agree that he is a mystery, he is often found to be annoying, disruptive and, even, incongruous with the story's style

[…] and even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter #144

Tom Bombadil is an enigma, and that is just right as it is. There is no need to explain

I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment' […] and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyse the feeling precisely […] Ultimately only the victory of the West will allow Bombadil to continue, or even to survive. Nothing would be left for him in the world of Sauron.

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter #153

Bombadil is comment, a symbol of what is good and ought to be preserved, and a thing for itself, outside the story. Yet, despite his apparent immunity to major powers, such as the Ring itself, he would not be left unaffected by the actual destruction of his environment. This is of consequence, but I will come to it later on.

A common theory about Tom Bombadil's true identity is that he is supposed to be Eru Ilúvatar himself—or at least, his incarnation in Middle-earth. Tolkien denied this, and I don't see why I or anyone should dispute this. It is an understandable theory, as Tom Bombadil is ancient, of incomparable power and nature, and inexplicable. But he is a being for himself and his surroundings, not involved or interested in the dealings the rest of the world and its peoples.

And I, personally, don't think it would suit Tolkien to portray his creator of Arda in such a manner—though I don't want to make assumptions about him in that regard, just as I don't agree with those who argue that Bombadil would not fit Tolkien's style and narrate, because what an author includes in his work suits his style and narrative. But, aside from Tolkien's own denial of this particular theory, I have another reason for my own thoughts regarding it: Tom Bombadil is, though older than all of Arda, not necessarily older than anyone or anything else.

“Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the Little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless—before the Dark Lord came from Outside.”

The Fellowship of the Ring

Tom Bombadil lived before the world was created, or, at least, before it was as one knew it. He knew a time before “the Dark Lord came from the Outside”, which might refer to Sauron or Morgoth, although it isn't clear whether or not he lived before their rebellion, or even before their creation.

All this does not mean that Bombadil is the great creator himself. Nor does it mean that he is one of the Ainur, as is another popular theory. As the Maiar are not immune to the One Ring's influence, and all Valar are named and known, I consider this unlikely. Nor would it be in accordance with his singularity, and his deep connection to the place his is in.

Now, there's a few who like the idea of Tom being evil. But it doesn't appear to be in his nature, it doesn't agree with Tolkien's own comments, and wouldn't explain what made him so different from all other life in Middle-earth. A special evil being or spirit, of greater power than is otherwise known—yes, that might be an appealing idea if one finds a jolly old man to be too boring without a sinister background, but it would still leave us where we are. Who is he? What is he? Why is he—like that?—so other?

But one of those evil theories, that he is indeed the evil spirit of the forest, comes remarkably close to my own thoughts about him.

Tom Bombadil, as Goldberry said, “is”. He represents himself, and his right to be in the story does not need an explanation, nor an apology, as it was only up to the author to make this decision. He existed, in a way, before many a part of the Legendarium, and in that sense, his own explanation of himself and his great age might be even a nod to the reader. The Lord of the Rings is, after all, a fictional translation, and many a thing just a means for the reader from our world to understand the going-ons in another. Who knows what his counterpart in the “original” Red Book of Westmarch would be, with no Dutch doll to inspire the “translator”? But I should not dive too deep into a story which, in this sense, doesn't exist.

Shoving the art of writing and the science of stories aside for a moment, and look at the story from within, as if it were real. What could explain Tom's nature?

I assume my idea is not better than most. But it does appeal more to me. It has so for a while, though I just now got around to writing it down.

He is older than all that is known and seen in Middle-earth, though not likely older than anything else. He is not affected by the One Ring as any mortal (or even immortal) man or otherwise sentient being would be, yet “there would be nothing left for him” under Sauron's rule. His wife is “the River-woman's daughter” and likely a spirit. He claims the land does not belong to him, but to itself, yet it seems also inseparable from him. He is not evil, it does not appeal to him or have immediate power over him, yet it does also not agree with him. He is not precisely good, nor does he care much about the dealings and doings of other people and beings.

His demeanour and nature are lively, earthly, and robust. And thoroughly physical—although apparently a spirit or spiritual being, he is exceedingly bodily and alive, concerned first and foremost with his wife, his land, and his food and drink. So physical, indeed, that no supernatural power seems to appeal to him so much as to fall for it, so different is his own interest, his own nature incompatible with a thing such as the One Ring.

Now I get to the tricky part—because I don't want to make any sort of assumption about J. R. R. Tolkien's own ideas, nor would I claim my theory to be in accordance with his intentions. But I want to say what my own idea is anyway, and I like it, because, even though I don't think that that's what's supposed to be true in the book, at least not directly so—not clearly, specifically, though possibly, just possibly, at the edge of it—it is beautifully fit, compatible so to speak, not really wrong.

Tom Bombadil is Middle-earth. In one way, or another. Its spirit, perhaps, or its man-like form, its protective soul, or a representative, for the reader only, or even for its inhabitants. He, as Verlyn Flieger said, does not desire to dominate, and hence cannot be dominated. I think that is, perhaps, because he dominates all that is in his nature to dominate, and is dominated by all that his in his nature to be dominated by. Not more, nor less.

He came to Middle-earth with its creation, and he is Middle-earth in all its states and stages. He does not want more than Middle-earth, but he cannot have less than Middle-earth, because it is he and he is it. He is. Mind you—not Arda, not Eä, only Middle-earth. But Middle-earth, in its entirety.

Made and sent by Eru, but not as a person, but as a place, he cannot exist in accordance with pure evil—there would be nothing left for him—but not intervening in the doings of and dealings of his own inhabitants. At least, not going further than nature itself, in the shape of a jolly old man, could or would do.

So much for my theory.

But in truth and canon and fact, Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster. That, I suppose, is all we ought to know.