#and more importantly saw a way that it could be honed and utilized

[corvidexoskeleton]

Rethinking the dynamics between kratos and the gods in the og series through the lens of siblings versus their shared dad makes things a lot more, idk, tragic? Kratos starting out as the older brother taking care of his little brother, then going on to seek his own older brother's help, ares trying to train his younger brother so that they could one day take down their shitty dad, and athena just trying to keep things together so that her siblinga don't all gang up on dad and kill him. Theres something about it that makes me sad

[littleeyesofpallas]

I was going to do these at random but then i got it in my head to stage these as an alternative first round of fights like in the manga, even though we really didn't get to see most of those play out...

To start i feel like the most obvious match up that we missed out on would've been Zaraki fighting Driscoll: For one Zaraki works around the bankai theft by not having one, and his whole made for battle/blood knight character type plays directly with The Overkill. Kind of like in his fight with Nnoitra, it'd make for a great emphasis on what Zaraki's actual strengths are; not that he simply fights and kills people, but that his supposed infinite potential comes from being pushed to his limits and learning to adapt and overcome new opponents. By contrast Overkill only gives Driscoll more power based on killcount, even if the people he slaughters are weak and he doesn't learn anything from fighting them.

So, the fight could start with the two of them both hacking their way through waves of faceless low rank goons to draw a parallel, but in the fight itself Zaraki's emphasis would be on drawing on meaningful fighting experience even with no bankai, while Driscoll would rely on a stolen bankai and a superficial killcount. There could be a fun moment where in a fit of desperation Driscoll tries to boost his power by squeezing in extra kills, targeting more weaklings, and lashes out at Yachiru, but she deflects his attack all on her own, he's shocked and confused, and in the moment of hesitation Zaraki lands the finishing blow.

Much less thematic, but I feel like Bambietta, with The Explode, would've made for a better counter measure to Byakuya's Senbonzakura. She could've opened the fight with her projectiles and Byakuya would got through his usual routine of fighting at a distance and being dodgy and precise with his blocks and counters, until suddenly he'd realize there were less petals than before, and Bambi could explain how every time he "blocked" her Explode projectiles they turned some of his thousands of blades into bombs and blew up. And she'd taunt him about how many blades does he have left and how long can he keep up defending himself while sacrificing his petals. He'd smugly use his bankai to summon up its crazy number of petals and ask if her explosions can keep up with so many petals, but then we'd get the reveal and she'd seal it away. Then Byakuya would have the moment of stark realization where he has zero petals to fight with. And then he'd get blown to hell and back before ending up in basically the same situation he was in with As Nodt in the actual manga shoved into the back of a bloody crater.

Similarly I don't think there's too much thematic resonance in this match up but I like some of the kind of obtuse dynamic they could have. it's never properly addressed, but we do know that Candice is technically one of the newer Sternritter, as she's said to have less control over her Vollstandig when hers is involuntarily prompted. Giving her lightning theme I like the idea that maybe she's something of a prodigy herself. Obviously not as young as Hitsugaya, proportionally speaking, but a fast learner and someone who rocketed up the ranks of the Wandenreich as a genius technician of Quincy skills. Hitsugaya could have a little back and forth about what it means to be a genius, and the difference between instantaneous intuition and carefully practiced talent. It would prompt his bankai and how real power comes from sober self reflection and not self aggrandizement, but then she'd take advantage of his weather gathering, like he used with Tier, and use it to amplify her lightning, get one good hit in, Hitsugaya would brush it off and ready a counter attack, and she'd seal his bankai.

Also room for some kind of banter with Rangiku, I'm sure. Probably with her calling Rangiku old and starting a whole cliche back and forth over that.

Meninas deserved more love, and screen time, and a real fight to herself. I feel like the best way to really illustrate her schift as The Power would've been to have her, and not the early unrevealed PePe, be the one to fight Jidanbou. Not that the gate guardians even make much sense being involved when the Quincy didn't invade through the four gates, but still... I'd love to see little Mini just arm wrestle Jidanbou and/or the other gigantic gate guardians into submission effortlessly. Have Komamura show up with his bankai as the one thing even bigger than the gate guardians. And then Mini steals it, instead of Bambietta, and gets into a raw strength beatdown with Komamura himself as the biggest of the captains.

I'm still mad she never hulked out properly. We only ever got the one panel of her with a buff arm going after Liltotto when she got lovestruck. Unrelated to this iteration of alternate fights, but it also would've been neat to see her fight Kira; he'd try and utilize his shikai the usual way, but Meninas would just get bulkier the heavier Wabisuke made her to carry the additional weight. And then Kira would end up baffled and terrified in the shadow of a fully hulked out Meninas.

Maybe a little too obvious, but I feel like a proper wushu fight between Sui-Feng and Cang Du was stolen from us. It also would've been a perfect set up for the bankai theft because Sui-Feng could go full assassin but immediately run into the problem that if Cang Du's Iron skin can't be pierced, then she can't leave any marks to hit twice. So obviously that makes her only option the bankai, and he can swipe it from there. I feel like unlike most of the other captains Sui-Feng would get to have a cool moment where she still fights Cang Du to a standstill even without her bankai, but then of course he just sinks back into the shadows at the end of the first raid.

This one feels like a stretch, but for all the weirdness of PePe and the creative choices that went into him, I liked the little bit of his explanation of his powers where it wasn't just a romantic or erotic kind of Love that his power controlled, but that he compared it to the instinctive need to protect an innocent baby. And with Jizo being the patron deity of dead children, it would have been really cool to see him have some thematic play with Mayuri. I know it's not how his powers worked in canon, but I actually would've really liked if his power wasn't as directly focused on himself. So that he could provoke people to act on their strong desires to the detriment of logic, but without a lot of direct control over it. So he'd hit Mayuri, and Mayuri would shrug it off because he doesn't care about anyone and then without warning Nemu would be put in danger in the course of the fight and Mayuri would be compelled to protect her. And he wouldn't know what happened as he threw himself in the way of an attack. Then like everyone else he'd pull bankai and PePe could steal it, so that weird creepy cupid man could have a giant creepy baby. but more importantly Mayuri could quietly and furiously ruminate on his feelings during the interim training arc

I know Mayuri didn't actually lose his bankai with the rest during the first attack in the manga, but it felt like he should have since his was part of that batch of SS arc bankai we saw earliest and got kind of accustomed to throughout the rest of the Arrancar arc. (more so than Sui-Feng's at least) Actually in regards to that same sentiment, I feel like renji should have lost his bankai too, even though his ostensibly posed less of a threat than some of the more well honed captains'. It's a shame that so many of the lieutenants just kinda got lost in the background of this arc. It would've been really cool to see the gotei compensate the loss of their bankai by doing more tagteams and group fights

[yutaya]

In honor of Veterans’ Day here is a TUA post about a Vietnam AU

I remember the first time I read a fic where Five killed Dave and I was like “hey quick question WHAT THE FUCK.” Then I saw it again. And again. There are loads of fics out there where Five kills Dave. Sometimes it’s just another mission from the Commission and he doesn’t even realize until later. Sometimes he observes for a while, knows that killing Dave will break Klaus’s heart but figures it’s necessary and feels super bad but does it anyway.

Friends, I invite you to consider:

The Commission’s messages, we have seen, are brief. They have a history of supplying no background information and leaving the details to their agents to figure out. Time to identify, locate, and wait for the right moment to fulfill the mission, in a non-timeline-threatening manner seems to be standard - although they do also seem to be expected to perform quite quickly as well. (”Just the one night” “Job delay”) As an agent, Five likely arrives in the proper time period, checks in to a predetermined spot, collects any commission-provided gear and info, and then heads out to find his target. It’s not like he gets zapped to a spot, immediately kills whoever he lands in front of, and moves on.

In a city, strangers on the street are not suspicious. A businessman flirting with a donut shop owner is not strange. A woman heading towards a tow-truck shop, even late at night, is fairly unremarkable.

In Vietnam, Five is too old to be just another soldier, too white to be easily dismissed as a civilian. The boys might shrug him off as a higher up of some sort. Five is clever, after all, good at utilizing what he has, plus probably had some sort of period-blending training in remaining unremarkable wherever and whenever he may go. Maybe any typical 60s American soldier would not bat an eye at some unfamiliar face in the background.

Here is the thing: Klaus Hargreeves is not a typical 60s American soldier. Klaus Hargreeves is from the future. The truths of his life include facts that the boys around him would think impossible. More importantly, Klaus has personal experience with Commission agents. Any person in the background might be a random occupant of this time period. They might be a ghost. They might be a time-travelling assassin. Those exist. He’s spoken to their victims. Odds are high for background faces to belong there, but the other possibility will always exist.

The old man existing innocuously in the background is a new presence. He is idly flicking his eyes over the faces of the people around him. He has a briefcase. The commission's biggest advantage is that people do not know they exist. They do not know there is anything to be wary of. If there were someone who did know about them, well. All things considered, it isn’t hard for Klaus to clock the guy as an agent.

Once Klaus has recognized a time-travelling assassin in his midst, he might consider the “whys” of his appearance.

- The most likely scenario: he is here for Klaus. Klaus, after all, does not belong here. Moreover, Klaus is currently something of an active escapee from time-travelling assassins, who weren’t finished interrogating him, killing him, nor hunting down his brother, last he checked, not to mention probably pissed that the cops got on their tail. It makes too much sense, unfortunately, that they would want to hunt him down.

- The less probable possibility: he is here for someone else. One of the citizens of the nearest town, perhaps, or one of the officers, or a fellow soldier, or perhaps one of Klaus’s unit. One of Klaus’s friends. Maybe it is pure coincidence that Klaus is uniquely qualified to notice that the man in the background is someone who might be about to kill somebody. 

Maybe he will smother his victim with a pillow. Maybe he will torture them first, cut off both their hands and laugh about it. Maybe he will run them over with a vehicle, then back up over their body so he can run them over again. Forward, reverse.

Fuck. That.

Maybe Klaus confronts the agent on his own. Commission agents are trained murderers and Klaus can literally be killed in one hit by a furry at a rave, but maybe this future business is something he wants to protect his people from, and hey, the advantage of surprise has to count for something, right?

Maybe Klaus is smarter than that. Maybe he has spent the past half a year learning the value of a band of brothers, learning trust and friendship and love. Maybe he pulls Dave aside, tells him that the old man over there is an enemy, and Dave requires no evidence to believe him. Maybe they go to their team, to their sergeant and their captain.

Either way, a confrontation happens. Likely there is a least a brief skirmish. Commission agents are on missions to preserve the timeline, which can be very limiting in terms of acceptable collateral damage - probably Team Klaus’s saving grace. The old man, although Klaus does not know this, is a legend in the time-travelling assassin circles. He could have killed everyone in the surrounding vicinity in seconds, if he so desired. What really saves Klaus and anyone else who might have been marked to die on a little slip of paper, however, is that the old man sees Klaus’s face. If there is any imminent danger he avoids it; his survival instinct has been honed by decades of desperation - but other than that, he sees Klaus’s face, and he stops. Stares. Anyone else might say it looks like he’s seen a ghost. Klaus sees ghosts all the time, so he would say the guy looks stricken. Shocked and desperate and hopeful and despairing, all at the same time. Actually, now that Klaus is seeing him up close, there’s something familiar about this guy...

They’re not fighting. Klaus isn’t stupid, he knows he’s at a disadvantage when fighting, so if he can have a conversation with the assassin instead, that is absolutely what he is going to do. He tips his hand - might as well, if the agent is here for Klaus then he already knows Klaus knows there are time-travelling assassins, and if he is here for someone else, someone knowing will probably prompt a retreat and regroup. Starts asking about the agent’s mission, who he’s here for, maybe informs the guy that he won’t be taking anyone from here. Klaus has a gun trained on the guy; he has the advantage.

(Five lets people think they can point a gun and have him - he knows he can jump away at any time.)

Klaus talks, and he makes himself less a coincidental look-alike, less possibly-a-hallucination, and more actually, impossibly, Klaus. Adult Klaus, Klaus as Five last saw him, but alive, alive, moving and talking, not a broken corpse - 

Something gives. Five says something, does something - and Klaus, who knows about time-travel, who knows that his brother, the time-traveler, lived to be an old man before winding up back in his child body in 2019, who knows that this mysterious organization of time-travelling assassins was looking specifically for Number Five - Klaus realizes exactly who’s in front of him, and he lowers his gun, because - Five! That’s different! He can trust Five.

(If there are any fellow soldiers who were part of this confrontation, they are appalled. They hiss at him, “Hargreeves, what are you doing?!” It only makes the impossible hope in Five’s chest flare brighter.)

“Five!” Klaus exclaims. “You bastard, I thought you were here to kill me! Holy shit, you got old!”

It’s the nail in the coffin. This is, actually, somehow, Klaus. Five has so many questions that he will have to ask - what the hell did he miss with his siblings that led to Klaus being here, of all places? What’s the date Klaus came from - by the looks of him it can’t be too long until the apocalypse. Could whatever crazy Umbrella Academy adventure this must be be a part of that fight that ends so terribly for them? If it is, Five can get valuable intel, can learn about at least the first part of the eyeball owner’s plot, has here the first major break in the apocalypse case in four decades - 

- and, louder than those thoughts, his heart pounds a deafening drum of Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Alive Klaus is Alive One of my siblings is right here in front of me and he is ALIVE.

(And so Five finds out about one of the ways his efforts to save his family could have gone, but with more info he can make improvements this time. Forewarned is forearmed, and now he knows who the commission will send. He has a hint as to how to jump to his family - the idea of screwing up and landing in a younger body is not appealing by any means, but - how has he not considered projecting his consciousness into a suspended state of himself before!? This is huge breakthrough. He has a briefcase that isn’t tied to him making him easily trackable; he can use the briefcase Klaus traveled here with to get home right now, and choose a destination accurately. (He can get his brother out of this active warzone while he’s at it, and if Klaus raises his chin and states that he’s not going anywhere without Dave, well - fuck the Commission, anyway. They want the world to end - their rules are not worth following. Five would be delighted to give them the huge middle finger of displacing someone in time.)

Five abandons the Commission earlier than another version of himself did - at his earliest opportunity, same as that other version of himself. He’s eager to finally start saving his family.)

[darknesscall-rp]

✖ full name: Sybill Trelawney ✖ age: 20 ✖ preferred pronouns: She/her ✖ affiliation: Neutral (Order of the Phoenix supporter) ✖ occupation: Barmaid at the Hog’s head ✖ blood status: Half-blood ✖ former house: Hufflepuff

✖ checked information (x) ✖ face claim: Hayley Law

(recollected by Rita Skeeter. Sources can be less than reliable.)

✖ She’s the great-great granddaughter of the famous seer Cassandra Trelawney! And apparently she’s been gifted the second sight. Everyone should listen to what she has to say! ✖ Apparently she still sleeps with all her toy dolls. Is that creepy or really lame? ✖ Such a fraud! A seer? Yeah right. All she does is talk gibberish and spend her days living in the clouds.

Many know the tale of Cassandra of Troy – the girl who enchanted the likes of the godly Apollo. A mere look had the Olympian deity ready to serve up gifts on a gilded platter to her as he fell in love. Offering to bestow upon the beautiful girl the gift of the prophecy, in exchange, all he wished for was her affections. With the deal struck, Cassandra could see into the future, but she doesn’t like what she sees, and more importantly she spited the one god who granted her his proverbial ‘gift.’ Spurned by her, an enraged Apollo knew he could not take the sight away from her, that wasn’t how the extent of his power worked…but he could alter it. Furthermore, Cassandra could foresee the future, but no one would ever believe her.

To understand Sybill Patricia Trelawney, one must understand the Greek myth of Cassandra of Troy, as their stories are one in the same. Born to Hector and Daphne Trelawney, a halfblood and muggleborn, respectively, Sybill lived quite a charmed life. Like a fairy tale, she was touched by magic from the moment she was born. Wide, curious eyes taking in the beautiful spells that would surround her. Wands waving around her in delicate and deliberate shapes and patterns and the young girl was positive she’d never seen anything so wondrous before. She couldn’t wait to perform magic of her own. But Sybill’s magic didn’t activate in the same way other children’s magic did, not with an angry outburst or a happy surge making items spin, fly and sparkle about. No, she saw things. Things that others couldn’t. Things that have yet to occur in the present timeline. Like the fact that Poppy Greenley in her second grade class was going to suffer a sudden loss, or that Oliver Bradley was going to experience immense pain. She couldn’t put her finger on the where, when or how, but she knew something was going to happen. Trying to do her best to be helpful, Sybill warned them, tried her best to tell them to watch themselves, but they only laughed, brushed off her words, deeming them nonsense. But it didn’t help that a month later little Oliver slid down the slide and landed on his wrist, spraining it. It also didn’t help that Poppy Greenley’s cat Pepper died when she came home from school.

And all Sybill could think was: ‘I told you so.’

Growing used to others misunderstanding her and not taking her wispy words seriously, her parents advised her to keep her predictions to herself, to not detail her visions to anyone. Meanwhile, her father called on his great-grandmother, Cassandra, to return to London and inspect her only great-great granddaughter, for a true seer would be able to sense another blessed with their gift. A mere press of the elderly woman’s forefinger into the center of Sybill’s head was all the confirmation that was needed. The young witch too, possessed an Inner Eye, a trait that lied dormant in the Trelawney bloodline for years. It was an exciting revelation, but life would soon teach Sybill that the gift of sight was more of a double edged sword than a badge of honor.

Once the young witch turned eleven, she was placed onto the train headed straight for Hogwarts. The Sorting Hat sifted through her mind carefully, on the brink of a stall before it selected Hufflepuff as her new home. She was instantly floored by the acceptance she felt, how her housemates possessed such a warmth that radiated as brightly as the yellow and black that streaked across their robes. At Hogwarts, Sybill began to feel like she was finding her place, her niche, people that understood her and appreciated her for her eccentricities gravitated into her orbit, and with that her confidence in herself began to grow. Her time was spent reading up on Seers, finding that the castle’s library held more knowledge on her people than anywhere else. And in her third year, after taking up a Divination workshop as an elective, Sybill truly felt like she was honing in on her talents, answering her natural, magical calling. Soon she was utilizing her friends, taking their palms and reading them over breakfast, flipping over tarot cards in the common room and attempting to decipher their tea leaves.

As the years went by, she became dubbed as a silly girl, a strange girl – as if she hadn’t gotten used to her quirks and oddities being her sole identifiers by then. Naysayers and those of closed-minds tried to snub out her light just as it began to shine. And for a while she’d let it diminish, such harsh words grating against fragile skin. Many considered Sybill and her ‘abilities’ to be an endearing hobby, an exaggerated falsehood, and if anything, that’s what frustrated her most. Because while those around her let her read their fortunes or see their futures, but just like all those years ago, it always ended the same: with laughter, with incredulity and skepticism. But Sybill was a firm believer in faith, and that when belief in something grew, it became more tangible of a concept, more real. And her brand of magic was real too, she just knew it.

In her sixth year, Professor Slughorn gave her shoulder the most coveted tap that signified she would be receiving an owl into his prestigious Slug Club. But there was no mistaking, her membership was only extended because of her ancestry, not that it mattered much to her. To obtain recognition, to be taken seriously, was all Sybill wanted. And while Professor Slughorn might have been lying through his crooked teeth when he said she was going to go on to do something great all those years ago, Sybill held onto his words tightly with both hands. She knew that if she was patient, stayed on her path and tried her absolute hardest she’d go on and do…something of note. But as of right now, she isn’t so sure she’s on the elevator up to the top level of greatness, quite frankly, she feels trapped in the basement of her life. But maybe…just maybe, with the dark clouds of war rolling in, it might be the safest place for her to be.

Pandora Blackwell, Annick Rousseau: Friends, likes to talk to.   Vincent, Taryon Delacour: Small infatuation. Leanna McLaggen: Sense a very bad aura coming from her, scared of. Mundungus Fletcher: Finds him funny. Daisy Hookum, Hestia Jones: Wants to know them better. Gwenog Jones, Anastasia Burke: Intimidated by.

[thepatchworkcrow]

I had been hoping to film part of my eighth YT Pagan Challenge video outdoors in one of my on-campus sacred spaces, but it seems the weather is just not willing to agree with me. So, so I can give you all a bit of a visual, this post will be jam-packed full of pictures of the places I was talking about in the video.

First thing’s first: my on-campus sacred spaces. I am blessed to be going to a university that is filled with small garden spaces and has a sprawling expanse of wooded ravines hugging along the side of campus. In my five years here, I’ve been able to find a number of places to relax, be one with nature, and perform a few rituals and magical workings in. Three of the major places where I tend to hang out and do my workings are the arboretum, the garden behind the religious center on campus, and a grove back in the ravines behind the art building.

In each of these spaces, I’ve found little places to leave offerings, quiet spots to sit and meditate, and have even done a few rituals there.

The arboretum is full of places to explore, and I admittedly spend a lot more time there than anywhere else. There’s a stump I’ve found a short distance off of the path that I use frequently for spell work, and have left offerings at over the past few years. It happens also to overlook a ravine in a pretty straight shot to the grove I’d found in the woods as well.

In the little garden behind the religious building on campus, there’s a statue of St. Francis that seems to have a presence and an energy all its own. I’ve made a habit of leaving little offerings in the hands of the statue whenever I go there to write, drum, meditate, etc.

And then, of course, there is the grove in the ravines. It’s just off the path, and was shown to me by a good friend who graduated a couple of years ago. It’s often where I go if I’m looking to communicate with the Wylde Hunt while on campus, and has been the site for a couple of rituals. There’s a large three-trunked oak that sits in its center, and there are a few places to sit in little nooks between its roots. I like this place because it is a little further away from the main part of campus, and therefore quieter. You can’t hear the bells from the clock tower and are a lot less likely to see people wandering by. There’s also a fantastic view of the stars on clear nights.

Aside from these natural spaces, I do tend to do much of my ritual / meditation / etc. within the safety (and warmth!!!) of my dormitory bedroom, as well. My room is almost always decorated with pictures that are sacred, beautiful, inspiring, etc. to me and I try to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere for myself to live/study/rest/etc. in and for my friends to visit.

My altar space is situated by the window, which overlooks a little courtyard and the woods beyond.While I’m at school, this is the most sacred space to me, and I work really hard to keep it that way while I’m here.

Of course, when I’m home for winter / spring / summer break, I have places where I go to practice as well. Due to the nature of the space situation in my parents’ home, most of those places are outdoors.

In my own backyard, I am again blessed to have a great expanse of land full of trees and a big ol’ forest beyond. In particular, there’s a small grove hidden among a bunch of pine and cedar trees where I do some more private rituals, and then there’s Treebeard, a cottonwood tree where I leave offerings, prayer ribbons, etc. and spend time enjoying the space on the shady hill just beneath him.

I’m also blessed to have other little places of beauty within my hometown such as the local state park, my local witchy shop, and my aunt’s gorgeous and wild garden. These are places that really make me feel attuned to the energies of the universe and the natural world, and where I like to perform tarot readings, have debates about different witchy/spiritual topics, etc. with my friends.

And of course, there are a number of places in Michigan that have spiritual significance to me. The biggest one is the Boyne/East Jordan/Charlevoix area up in the northern part of our lower peninsula. Over the years, it has been a place full of childhood memory as well as shared memories and explorations with one of my best friends, Mark.

Being a pagan who follows a primarily Celtic path and lives within the United States makes it a little difficult to visit holy sites associated with my practice. There are, no surprise, remarkably few here in the states. There are Native American sacred sites, but because that runs along the slippery slope of what is culturally appropriative and what is respect for the culture and traditions associated with those sites, you’ll note that none of the places I’ve shared above are tied to those places. I was fortunate enough, four years ago, to visit the United Kingdom and places like Stonehenge, Avebury, and Glastonbury. These are memories that I hold really dear to my heart, and feel very privileged to have experienced in my lifetime.

Two of my very favorite memories from my trip to the UK came from my experiences on the weekend we went visiting various sacred sites. While in Chalice Well Gardens, I’d sat down by the well head to meditate and get away from the rest of the crowd of students I was with for a while, and man and his young daughter sat down alongside of me. The little girl had to have been about 4 or 5 years old at most, and as most 4-5 year-olds are, she was a little rambunctious and was bouncing around a bit. Rather than be upset with her, or harsh, I heard her father very calmly explain this was a special place, and saw (much to my amazement and admiration really) her nod in understanding, and sit down to meditate with him.

The second vivid memory I hold dear from that trip (as far as sacred space and that goes) occurred while we were in Avebury. It was rather late, the sun was setting, and we really didn’t have much time to spend there, but I remember it being a much more tangible feeling of presence there. Perhaps it was because we could actually approach the stones; maybe it was just the liminal time of day we were there or the place itself. I couldn’t quite say.

As we wandered about the stones, we saw an older gentleman with rather wild grey curls sitting at the base of one of the smaller stones. He had candles, incense, etc. and was using dowsing rods. The rest of our group gave him sort of a wide berth, and I (as the sort of unofficial pagan authority of the crew) stood a respectable and out-of-earshot ways off, explaining to my roommate that he was probably using the dowsing rods to look for ley lines in the area. He then turned to look at us and asked: “Have you two got good imaginations on you?” We were a little surprised, but answered that yes, we supposed we did. “Do you know where the word imagination comes from?” We honestly weren’t sure. “I. Magi. Nation. A nation of magicians. Merlin is one of my guides, you know.” He then proceeded to tell us this tale about Merlin performing his first magic trick in the stone circle in which we stood: he’d turned a friend invisible and was unable to turn him back again. He also told us about how the Druids had used that place as a place for their initiations. I wasn’t at all sure on the historical accuracy of those things, but in the moment, you sort of wanted to suspend your disbelief. Awen was flowing, and you could almost see what he was describing in your mind’s eye. He then looked at us again and said: “I get Druid from both of you.” I was a little shocked because, of course, I was. I told him so, and he simply turned, and went back to his business of dowsing as though it had never happened. And for the life of me, I swear no one else seems to have seen or heard him say these things but my roommate and I. That is no doubt a mystery and a feeling I will remember for quite some time.

And finally, the last part for this prompt: circle casting. I’ll be honest, I don’t perform circle casting in my own work. For one, I’ve been studying off-and-on with a Druid organization for some time that doesn’t utilize them in their ritual formats. But, more importantly I find them to be distracting and a waste of energy and time. Circles, to my understanding, function for a few general purposes:

To contain and thereby magnify energy raised during a working until it comes time to release it at the end of the ritual.

To protect the individuals within and the magical working from the influence of any nasty / negative energy.

To create a sort of liminal and marked out place in which a ritual can occur and entities (spirits, gods, whatever) may be more easily contacted.

However, as I’ve mentioned above, I don’t generally feel a need to do this. For starters, I always cleanse a place before I use it, and if appropriate might make small offerings to any outside spirits that might be poking about to say “Hey, please let me use this space for a bit.” I don’t perform rituals in places where negative energy is hanging about, and I certainly am confident enough in my own ability to raise and manipulate my own energy to not feel a need for the circle of protection, or the circle that focuses energy in an external space. I also work with many liminal deities. I think it’s very safe to assume I don’t need liminal space for them to get messages across. When I do a particular magical working, my own personal energy field acts in the way a circle might: raising, containing, and releasing energy for my working. It eliminates the need for a physical circle- which means less time/resources marking it out, and I don’t need to cut a door in it should I forget something (which I often do!). It also helps hone in my focus on the working at hand. I often find that by the time I draw and cast a circle, call the quarters, etc. I’m quite distracted from what I was originally intending to accomplish.

Please note, I’m not bashing on anyone who uses circles. They can be quite useful to one’s practice especially when you’re just beginning! I just don’t feel a need to use them.

And, thus concludes a very long blog post. Thank you for hanging in there and reading if you’ve made it this far.

Love and blessings to you all -Rachel

YT Pagan Challenge: Sacred Spaces, Holy Sites, and Circle Casting I had been hoping to film part of my eighth YT Pagan Challenge video outdoors in one of my on-campus sacred spaces, but it seems the weather is just not willing to agree with me.

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Remnant: From the Ashes Review

Over the last few years there have been plenty of “Soulsborne” type games.  Some have taken things whole cloth, while others have introduced various mechanics from the popular action role-playing series.  With Gunfire Games’ Remnant: From the Ashes, the developers have put their spin on the genre with a third person shooter that feels like an amalgamation of numerous popular modern games and gameplay ideas.  While the comparisons are immediately drawn to the Souls games because of the difficulty in Remnant, it’s not quite as punitive of a game.  There are number of other comparisons that fans of those games will draw.  The world crystal are the bonfires that you rest at.  The enemies are overwhelming and seemingly tucked into areas of the map that’ll surprise you and catch you off guard.  The bosses are massive and brutal.  There’s an Estus Flask equivalent… etc.  But despite all of the similarities,  Remnant: From the Ashes definitely comes out feeling like its own thing.

Remnant has similarities to Dark Souls, but there are a lot of differences as well

The story of Remnant is set in a post-apocalyptic era that’s been overrun by the Root.  Your character encounters the Root at the early moments of the game and you’re helped by the survivors of Ward 13.  I’ve played through the game start to finish and I still don’t know exactly what transpired. Remnant: From the Ashes is a bunch of big moments with little exposition, and I was somewhat OK with that.  Most of the story content and lore that you’re going to get from Remnant is done by digging into the conversation trees or finding items in the ever-changing world.

I’ve played so many bad games over the years that I almost expect most games that aren’t the latest new release from the major publishers to be of a different tier.  Being on that second tier is sometimes a good thing.  Since the games don’t have the incredibly inflated budgets at these massive publishers they aren’t chocked full of the bullshit that those games have — Premium currencies, surprise mechanics, etc.  While it is a relief that Remnant: From the Ashes has none of that, you still expect the quality to be a little lower, but it’s not.  Remnant impresses on the visual front, playing this game on PC on ultra settings I had a smooth and stable experience online and off.  From frame rates to stability — everything just worked which is an incredible rarity these days.  Still, our time with the game had no problems in the pre-launch environment.

The world can be re-rolled at any time

While the technical stuff like frame rates staying stable in a third person shooter are important, Remnant has a great art style as well.  The game has a wide and varied number of locations to visit, massive bosses to fight, and and even wider variety of standard enemies to mow through.  I juggled with different ideas when I was playing this game, almost as if I had stereotyped the game into being bad.  Are these visuals actually AAA quality or is it generic Unreal Engine.  There were times where I thought to myself that this game has the generic homogenized look of the fictional game that you see playing on the background of a television show.  I think most of the thoughts about the game being generic aren’t helped by the game’s patchwork systems, which stitches together levels for a completely random playthrough each time you play.  Don’t like the current roll of the world, you can re-roll at anytime.

Now you’re probably thinking, OK that doesn’t sound like anything we’ve seen from a Souls game,  and you’re right.    The random nature doesn’t only do good for keeping successive playthroughs fresh, but there’s plenty you won’t see on your first go-round.  More importantly, if you want to utilize the online cooperative aspects of the game, you can have an entirely new experience with a group.  As for how much different it is, we couldn’t test every possible scenario, but what we saw was a pretty big difference.  You’ll encounter different bosses on different playthroughs.  The maps will be laid out differently, the enemies different.  While the overarching plot remains the same, the moment to moment gameplay is changed as there’s no memorization that you find in the souls series.  Enjoyable as co-op experience or as a solo RPG, Remnant was equally fun.  While I didn’t play the game to its entirety with a co-op partner we played enough it to get a really good feel for this part of the game.  It was enjoyable and we had no issues in getting connected.

The combat of Remnant is third person shooter, and it’s feels good.  One of the things I was worried about when I heard “it’s like Dark Souls with guns” is that the combat would get old after a while.  Thankfully the shooting is solid and snappy, with rewarding bonuses for accuracy that make combat tense and fun to play.  There are plenty of weapons to find in Remnant, as well as archetypes to build out that can lean towards close quarters or ranged combat.  While most of my playthrough was done with a ranged character that utilized a rifle, there were plenty of things to try in terms of boss weapons, weapons hidden in the world, or weapons that could be crafted.

Combat is a mixture of low-level easy targets that take one or two shots to kill and a smattering of stronger enemies which take a little bit more firepower to take down.  While the bigger, stronger enemies are limited to only  a handful of enemy models, there is a nice variety of lower-level enemy types that you’ll encounter as you progress through the five different areas you can explore in the game.

Pushing through these areas you’ll have to contend with these low level enemies and the goal is to make it to a checkpoint.  These checkpoints allow you to replenish your health and ammunition, and they’re usually placed just ahead of a boss fight.  Boss fights in Remnant are a mixed bag.  I had a ton of fun pushing through the many boss fights in the game, but a lot of them really leaned on managing a boss and their minions instead of a traditional boss fight.  This structure does feel very much like a souls game in its implementation, but there’s no real penalty in losing progression in Remnant.  Instead, you are rewarded when you reach checkpoints with the ability to warp back to your base of operations to upgrade weapons, purchase items, and more.

The Ward 13 base hub is central to the story of the game as its got a group of survivors there that have got your back.  You can upgrade your healing abilities here, purchase items to take with you, upgrade weapons, as well as craft items.  The crafting and upgrade system in Remnant isn’t too convoluted.  You simply need to find different iron types and scrap to perform upgrades.  As you progress you’ll uncover these iron types naturally.  There never really felt like a moment where the upgrades felt like a grind, in fact the game goes out of its way to make upgrading your character easier with the ability to warp back to Ward 13 at any time to do so.

There’s a lot to love about the simplicity and straight-forward nature of Remnant: From the Ashes, but there are times where you wish there was a little bit more meat on the bone.  You’ll meet some truly interesting characters throughout the course of the game, but you never really feel like you get to know them at all.  This trickles down to even the UI level, where if you miss an NPC character’s name, you might not ever see it again.  There’s also no quest log or equivalent to keep you on track or let you see where you’ve been, who you’ve talked to, and what you should be doing next.  There’s a universe here that’s probably more mysterious after you finish playing the game than it is when you start. For solo players this might be a point of contention, but for groups it really doesn’t matter all that much because the actual gameplay will take your mind away from that stuff.

Remnant does a lot right here.  The game is incredibly streamlined, which makes it somewhat of a breeze to get through.  There’s just the right amount of obscurity and mystery in the world to keep you guessing, but this mysteriousness can be a little frustrating at times as well.  At times, Remnant: From the Ashes feels incredibly honed, and at others, rough around the edges.

The Verdict

If you like loot shooters and some of the core systems from the Souls games, Remnant: From the Ashes shouldn’t disappoint.

Remnant: From the Ashes Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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Hey, it's Pat from Starter Story with another great interview.TLDR:I interviewed Jay Vasantharajah who runs PureFiltersHe started the website after doing basic keyword researchHe didn’t take the business seriously until he got first orderJay & Nadir don’t spend any more than 10-12 hours per week on the biz.Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?My name is Jay Vasantharajah and I am the co-founder of PureFilters.PureFilters is an online supplier of furnace filters in Canada, we carry a wide selection of the best brands and ship directly to homeowners. We cut out big-box retailers and HVAC contractors in order to provide homeowners with the best prices possible and unmatched convenience.Through rigorous process building, investments in automation and utilization of outsourcing, my co-founder and I are able to manage this $60k/mo business with less than 10-12 hours spent per week collectively.We are most proud about our obsession in building systems to maximize customer experience and as a result we have built quite the fan base among homeowners in Canada.What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Honestly… I accidentally got into the business.I run a digital marketing agency and at the time we had a lot of HVAC Contractors as clients. One of my clients was explaining to me how he sells furnace filters to customers that he visits, and wondered if he could sell them online instead. I researched this for him and concluded that there were a ton of Google searches for furnace filters. I pitched him on creating a new campaign to sell these filters online. He decided not to do it.Once an idea comes into my head, I don’t rest until its given a fair shot, that’s just how I am. Even though my client said "no", I still wanted to do it because I was curious. I saw it as an opportunity to get a better understanding of the e-commerce landscape and the marketing challenges involved.So when I had some downtime on the weekend, I built a WooCommerce website. I didn’t do it with any sort of serious business/financial intent, I was busy working on ClientFlo, my digital marketing agency. I became super busy at my agency, and the fun project took a little bit of a back seat for a while.That is until I got an email notification that I made a sale. I thought I was seeing things. I thought to myself - did someone just give me money for a furnace filter? This isn’t even a real business. I thought it had to be fake or a scam, so I just left it. The next day I got notification that I made another sale. I googled the order addresses and they were real, I couldn’t believe it.At this point, I was scrambling, my fun side project now had liabilities. I had no idea how to fulfill these orders, and my ego wasn’t about to declare defeat and give these customers a refund. I ended up buying the filters at retail at a specialty store near my place and shipping out to my new accidental customers at a loss. I was just so excited I didn’t care, I wanted to keep my new customers happy.Describe the process of manufacturing your product and getting inventory for your store.In order to buy furnace filters, most manufacturers require that someone in your company has a gas fitters license, something I did not have. I remember I had a friend from high school who was an HVAC contractor. I reached out to him and made a deal with him. I hired him as a consultant, which meant we were able to use his license to try to open up accounts with manufacturers.Even with the license I got denied from just about every single manufacturer (due to lack of business history in HVAC) except one account. This manufacturer happened to be one of the most recognized HVAC brands (something I didn’t even know at the time). This stroke of luck seriously helped PureFilters grow and scale.Describe the process of launching the online store/business.It’s funny because my website was created and I had already made my first few sales before I really even considering PureFilters an actual business.This is where my co-founder Nadir Chaudhry comes in, who I always knew had an entrepreneurial desire, and had recently quit his full-time job. Since I was busy running ClientFlo and didn’t have much time to invest, I made a deal with Nadir. I asked him to become the managing partner, in charge of day-to-day operations/growth, and I would become the financial partner and put up all of the cash required.Once Nadir agreed, this is when the business really took off. He went through product catalogues, added more filter models and brands. He built out our customer support systems and fulfillment processes. Nadir reached out to different suppliers and manufacturers, negotiated costs down so we can deliver the best prices to our customers. He managed the massive amount of inventory that was delivered first to his condo (which we quickly outgrew), then to his mom’s suburban house (again, we outgrew) and then eventually to our warehouse. Within 6 months we started seeing a ton of new customers coming in regularly.Since launch, what has worked to attract new customers?I run a digital marketing agency, so I’m fairly well versed with things like Adwords, SEO, copywriting and conversion tracking/optimization. I have to admit this helped a lot in scaling our business and acquiring new customers.My original market research which led to my conviction to sell furnace filters online was based on Google search volume data (if you recall my conversation with the HVAC contractor). Because of this, I decided to swing for the fences on Google Adwords and this proved to be a successful move. We currently have a cost-per-acquisition of around $10 per customer on Adwords, and till this day it is the only money we have ever spent on marketing. It’s really hard to justify spending money (and more importantly, time) on other marketing channels right now with this level of cost per acquisition.I think the key to success on Adwords is testing, you really cannot skip this crucial step. A/B testing fills in the gaps about human psychology we cannot comprehend ourselves, so follow the data. Through testing we figured out that the majority of our conversions come through desktop, free shipping in the ad copy improved conversions and many other elements of our campaign.It takes time to get to what I consider the "optimal point", where your Adwords campaign requires a few minutes each week to maintain. We know exact which keywords to use, ad copies, negative keywords (very important), ad schedule and all the other settings involved in order to maximize ROI on ad spend.PureFilters will always focus on data-driven marketing. I have always been a numbers guy, so any marketing channel with trackable metrics and direct ROI really appeals to me. Gone are the days of "guessing", with the tools and data out there that is available to marketers, you can really hone in on your exact audience and adjust rapidly in accordance with feedback. A key tool to have in your pocket book is the Google Keyword Planner, I mean the data that this tool provided is essentially why I started PureFilters. Keyword data allows you to get into people’s head if you use it correctly, it show’s people’s intent and you can make some pretty powerful decision based on it.My general marketing advice for e-commerce entrepreneurs is, use feedback from your initial customers (or some other form of research) to figure out your customers buying behaviour/psychology. After you find that you, tailor your entire marketing approach to match it. In order to truly scale, you need to learn exactly how your customers buy.How is everything going nowadays, and what are your plans for the future?My co-founder and I don’t spend any more than 10-12 hours per week on PureFilters.Operations are quite automated and now running like a well-oiled machine. I work on my main business ClientFlo for most of my day. Even though I was originally just a financial partner, the business is truly addicting, I can’t stay away from it. Our customers love us, our suppliers love us, it’s hard not to want to work on it, so I spend time strategizing how to improve and grow.In terms of short term goals, we have a few ideas in the pipeline to really scale our business further, right now we sell mostly niche sizes of furnace filters. We want to eventually tap into the general market (which are the one inch filters), but are still strategizing on a cost effective way of doing this since the margins are much thinner.In terms of long term goals, we had acquisition offers from competitors, and also an offer from one of our suppliers to buy him out because he wants to retire. We thought about raising capital to grow/scale further. I think a capital transaction is probably eminent, but who knows? Just rolling with the punches and having fun.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?One of the biggest mistakes we have made was purchasing too much inventory.We got very excited at the discounts offered by our manufacturers for bulk purchases, and overextended ourselves a couple times. This can really screw up your finances (I am an ex-accountant, I should have known this). This resulted in me having to pour more cash into the business. Proper reporting and forecasting prevented us from making this mistake again, we want to run a lean/automated operation.I think one of the smartest decisions we made was to truly become a customer-focused company, it is stitched into our DNA.Every single decision we make, we ask ourselves "is this going to help the customers?" and we constantly ask ourselves “what more can we do to make our customers experience better?”. For that reason we have a pretty loyal following of homeowners in Canada. Our company motto is “We are a customer service company that happens to sell air quality”Like Henry Ford once said; "It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages."What platform/tools do you use for your business?We use WooCommerce for our e-commerce platform and there is a host of analytics and reporting plugins that we bought as well as a ton of custom modifications we made to improve efficiencies.We use Aweber to communicate to customers via email, Quickbooks Online for our accounting and Dropbox for file sharing. Both my partner and I travel quite frequently, so digital communication via Whatsapp and Skype with each other and our outsourced employee is pretty key too.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I think anyone in e-commerce should read Made in America by Sam Walton, perhaps one of the greatest retailers and customer-focused businessmen of all time.The Everything Store details the story of Jeff Bezos, pretty good read as well. Both men are quite similar in their retail/ecommerce philosophy in fact I think Jeff Bezos learned a lot from Sam Walton’s career.Like Isaac Newton once said "If I Have Seen Further Than Others, It Is By Standing Upon The Shoulders of Giants".Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Get feedback from your customers as early as possible, and design your entire business around what your customers care about. It is no mistake that we have almost 300 5-star reviews, for something as boring as furnace filters. We figured out the 3 most important things our customers cared about and catered PureFilters around them.Jeff Bezos figured this out with Amazon a long time ago. His entire business philosophy revolves around optimizing the most important things Amazon customers care about, price, speed of delivery and selection.Too often, I hear business owners claim their business is "customer-focused", but there is no real follow-through. After defining what the three most important things that matter to your customers, re-assess all of your business processes and policies and optimize accordingly.Where can we go to learn more?I am doing my best to write as much as possible, whenever I can find time. You can see my blog here: www.vasantharajah.com or follow me on Instagram at @jvasantharajah.

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5 Female Change Makers

Editor’s Note: This article is part of “Change Makers,” our recent CT special issue focused on some of the ways women are influencing the church, their communities, and the world. In this special issue, we’ve included articles that explore trends in women’s discipleship, examine research on women and workplace leadership, highlight women who are making a difference, and grapple with the unique challenges female leaders face. Click here to download your own free digital copy of “Change Makers.”

Chuck Norris is a big reason why Talitha Phillips first took the helm of Claris Health. Back in 2001, the actor and his wife were expecting twins, and they asked Phillips to work for them as a night nurse when the babies arrived.

Shortly before, Phillips had been offered the role of center director of California-based Claris, which provides comprehensive services to those facing unintended pregnancies. But she was only a year out of college and had large school loans to pay off. Taking on a half-time role at a nonprofit didn’t seem possible. She remembers praying, God, if you want me to work at this place, you need to make this happen.Then along came Norris and his expanding family, who provided the financial means Phillips needed in order to pursue a line of work that captivated her for deeply personal reasons.

Just a few years earlier, Phillips had gotten pregnant at the age of 19. At a local women’s clinic, she was told, “You’re so young. You have your whole life ahead of you. We can make this go away.” Feeling trapped trapped, she made the only decision she thought she could: an abortion.

Talitha Phillips, Claris Health

Having an abortion haunted Phillips for two years, until she happened upon an ad for a post-abortion support group. “When I finally got up the courage to call, it was the most life-changing moment,” Phillips remembers. She had feared that she was the only “good Christian girl” who’d had an abortion. Instead, the kind woman on the other end of the line told her, “You’re not alone. There are other women and girls who have been through this. Would you like to meet them?”

That support group was hosted by a small organization called Claris Health. There, Phillips experienced profound healing and transformation as a client. She later became a volunteer and today is the CEO of the rapidly expanding organization—putting her in a fairly small group of women who lead Christian nonprofits.

A lack of female leadership

Despite being the dominant workforce in the nonprofit sector as a whole—making up as much as 75 percent of employees—women still lag behind men in nonprofit leadership positions. Across the US, women compose about half of nonprofit board members and one-third of nonprofit CEOs. In organizations with budgets exceeding $10 million, those numbers drop to 40 percent and less than 25 percent, respectively.

Unfortunately, evangelical nonprofits have even less female representation in leadership. According to a recent study by Gordon College and the Imago Dei Fund, women occupy leadership positions in evangelical nonprofits at less than half the rate as the overall nonprofit sector: “Only 5 percent of Christian colleges had women serving as presidents, and only 5 percent of large nonprofits (with budgets over $10 million) had women serving as CEOs and presidents.” This puts evangelical nonprofits on par with the business sector, where a Pew Center survey found that just over 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

On top of this, on the whole female nonprofit leaders tend to be paid less than their male counterparts, by anywhere from 8 to 23 percent, according to nonprofit research firm GuideStar.

No wonder, then, that Christian women who end up in nonprofit leadership positions often have to take risks, either financially or professionally, to make their aspirations a reality. They make the most of unexpected opportunities and the encouragement of mentors, and capitalize on whatever professional experience they can gain. Most importantly, though, they are driven to overcome any barriers to entry by a deep and personal passion to address a particular social need—and by their abiding faith in an inclusive, merciful, and just God.

Driven by lived experience

Chantal Huinink of Ontario, Canada, was born with cerebral palsy and spent much of her early years trying to measure up to able-bodied individuals. Then she came to understand that God wanted to use all things in her life for good, “not just the things we like about ourselves.”

Chantal Huinink, Christian horizons

A longtime fan of Joni Eareckson Tada’s music and advocacy work, Huinink took the risk to write her a letter and ask about becoming involved in the work of the international disability ministry Joni and Friends. To Huinink’s great surprise, Tada wrote back and invited her, then a college student, to visit their office in Southern California.

“I knew that God was up to something because it was rather miraculous that I could get the funds together and organize my attendant care so quickly,” she recalls. Even more peculiar were the words she heard herself saying to Tada after she arrived: “Joni, when I'm done with school in December I'm going to come and work with you for three months.” Huinink had no such plans to do this until she said it, but just a few months later, she relocated to California for a three-month internship.

Afterwards, Tada connected Huinink with a like-minded organization in Canada called Christian Horizons. Today she serves as their coordinator of organizational and spiritual life while also studying in seminary, serving as a church elder, and speaking regularly at Joni and Friends events around the world.

“These are not roles that I planned for or pursued,” Huinink says. She began by simply wanting opportunities that utilized her lived experience as a woman with physical disabilities and that served others in a meaningful way.

Jenny Yang’s road toward becoming the senior vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief also began with a lived experience. The daughter of South Korean immigrants, Yang studied abroad in Spain while a junior at John Hopkins University. Then, as now, the European country was having a fierce internal debate about the many African migrants who were arriving at their borders.

Jenny Yang, World Relief

“It was something I had never thought about,” Yang remembers. While in Spain, she realized that migration is a global phenomenon. “It’s a fundamental aspect of the human experience. It challenges our very thinking about who we are and our attitude toward others and identity.”

Yang clearly recalls riding the subway one day and seeing an African mother with her young children. Soon after, a group of young Spaniards boarded and spray-painted these words on the subway car wall: “Get out of my country, black people!”

“It bothered me to see such blatant racism, but it bothered me even more that no one said anything,” said Yang. That summer, she volunteered with a United Nations refugee program, and later volunteered with World Relief. After two years working for a political consulting company—which honed Yang’s understanding of the political process and effective means of advocacy—she applied for a full-time staff position with World Relief.

Anger and action

Finding one’s calling in the nonprofit sector often involves “wrestling with the question of what makes you angry,” explains Andrea Ramirez, executive director of the Faith and Education Coalition of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. For Ramirez, the cause of her anger is “seeing smart children who see themselves as unintelligent. I want to connect these children to a body of support and help them know they can love the Lord with all their minds.” She works closely with local church leadership in the majority of states to engage advocates for education equity.

Andrea Ramirez, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

Ramirez has seen firsthand the cost of education inequality. As a graduate student at Dallas Baptist University, she worked as an academic adviser to college students while also serving on a youth ministry team in inner-city Dallas. In a community in which gang involvement and poverty were endemic, many young people were unable to flourish in school.

“I was seeing the dichotomy: I was seeing higher-education students who had gone on a different path and realized that an undergraduate degree was critical for them,” she told CT. “Conversely, I was at prayer meetings where the students would be telling me basically what was going to be on the ten o’clock news that night: how their school had been evacuated or the fears that they were facing.”

Mentoring young people who had to care more about their physical safety than their performance in school fostered a deep desire in Ramirez to work toward better educational opportunities for all children. “I believe in the imago Dei of every child and believe they should have access to high quality education,” she said.

Honoring the image of God in others

This conviction of the God-given value of every individual has been a powerful motivating force for each of these women. For some, their lives were transformed—and their passion for service and justice fostered—because someone else first saw the imago Dei in them at a time when they were vulnerable.

Christine Baingana, Hope International, Rwanda

Talitha Phillips is still fueled by the compassion she received at Claris Health as a client, which was in stark contrast to the one-sided story she heard at the abortion clinic. “I don’t want other girls to ever feel like they only have one option,” she explained. “I want to tell them, ‘You have options, and no matter what you choose, we are going to love you and be there for you and get you through this.’”

Born as a Rwandan refugee in Uganda, Christine Baingana was surrounded by poverty and the strong cultural belief that girls did not deserve an education. Fortunately, her parents valued the welfare of all 15 of their children (including 11 girls). Baingana had the same educational opportunities as her brothers and also learned the same skills—knitting and crocheting—in order to make additional income to help pay for schooling. “I never struggled to be heard,” she explained. “I therefore grew up with a healthy sense of self-worth.”

After working in banking, Baingana was appointed as CEO of Urwego Bank, a program of HOPE International in Rwanda. The organization provides that same sense of empowerment and self-worth to underserved Rwandans through financial services like affordable bank accounts and loans.

But even with her self-confidence, Baingana has struggled as a female leader. “In my leadership journey I have been overlooked, sidelined, ignored, and wrongfully categorized,” she admitted. “However, that does not dissuade me from focusing on delivering. I might have to work double hard and take more years to get there, but I keep on with the full knowledge that I can do more and better, given a chance.”

Intentional advancement

Baingana’s determination speaks to the strong desire to lead that is present among female nonprofit professionals, especially in younger generations. A 2014 survey, published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, found that 72 percent of women under the age of 34 in the nonprofit sector wanted to be in a top leadership position. But significant barriers to advancement remain, including organizational policies and cultures that tend to favor men over women.

Breaking such institutional inertia requires initiative and intentionality. The Gordon College study recommends several practices to promote more women in leadership, including creating initiatives and setting goals around diversity; having senior leaders actively and vocally affirm women in leadership; and increased training on barriers faced by women.

Yang has personally experienced the benefits of management that actively promotes women leaders. At World Relief, “there’s been a value for women leadership,” she explained. Since joining the organization 12 years ago, she has been intentionally mentored and has had multiple opportunities to move to new positions.

The unique gifts women bring

But for such a path to be possible, existing leaders must believe in the importance of welcoming women into roles of influence. “Diversity is an asset. It’s not a detriment,” Yang asserts. “Any time you have a variety of voices at table, that strengthens decision-making and capacity.” She believes female representation is particularly relevant for nonprofits, where women are almost always part of the target clientele. “It’s important that the people you serve and work with see people in the organization who look like them.”

As both clients and nonprofit leaders, women “think differently and bring a unique perspective,” says Ramirez. “We represent a part of the body of Christ. When we’re not present, all that is absent.”

Case in point: When asked about effective leadership, all five women spoke of the importance of humility and collaboration. “Leadership is not about knowing and doing everything. It is about relying on those that know more than you in a given area, learning to trust one’s team, and focusing on fostering unity,” Baingana said.

Their Christ-like humility and the value they place on the contributions of others may very well stem from the fact that these five leaders recognize they did not make it this far on their own. Often in strange and unexpected ways, God has provided opportunities, relationships, and experiences that have uniquely equipped them to recognize the suffering of others and to offer their gifts in the hope of alleviating that suffering.

And wherever God calls these remarkable women, along with countless others like them, they bring life to those in need—whether they are refugees, pregnant women, students, people with disabilities, or other underserved populations. “I believe women, whether they are moms or not, have been given the ability to give life,” Ramirez said. “We help to birth ideas and organizations and new insights.”

They simply need more opportunities to do so.

Dorcas Cheng-Tozun is an award-winning writer and editor from Silicon Valley who has lived in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Kenya. Start, Love, Repeat, her book about marriage and entrepreneurship, will be released by Hachette Center Street in November 2017.

from News and Reporting http://ift.tt/2xOokuL via IFTTT

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5 Twitter Campaigns Your Business Can Learn From

If you’re a brand, you want to create engaging experiences for your community. More importantly you want your audience to remember you next time they need your product or service. To stand out in the crowd, your brand might’ve considered attempting a Twitter campaign.

However, does your audience actually want to participate? Does your campaign have the longevity to highlight your brand in an effective way?

Your social campaigns mean a lot to people. According to the Sprout Social Q1 2017 Index, 71% of respondents said they’re more likely to buy from a company when they experience a positive interaction with the brand. So how do you how do you spark interactions that delight?

To truly be successful, you need to make a strategy around creative, relatable and uniting content. Luckily, there are several brands out there who can give the rest of us inspiration on visuals, approaches, themes and different ways to engage.

Here are five Twitter campaigns to follow for inspiration:

1. Netflix – #NetflixCheater

You’ve already envisioned the exact moment you will stream the season 2 premiere of Stranger Things. But be honest, are you alone? If your answer is yes, chances are you may be guilty of being a #NetflixCheater.

Netflix cheating is a new world phenomenon that comes along with the advantages of streaming. In a new study released by Netflix, just in time for Valentine’s Day, 46% of couples admit to Netflix cheating—watching a series ahead of your significant other or friend.

While Netflix is not promoting a specific show or their services directly, they take a relatable moment and have fun with data to create a consistent and engaging branded experience on their twitter page.

Here’s what Netflix did right:

Honed in on Multiple Formats

The story around #NetflixCheater is told through a variety of media types. From creatively-produced video, to interactive quizzes and landing pages and even custom response GIFs, Netflix isn’t afraid to experiment.

Suspect your partner of Netflix cheating? Get the facts: https://t.co/Q7Su0wI02A pic.twitter.com/LgU8TX4rpM

— Netflix US (@netflix) February 19, 2017

@jonesjarrell pic.twitter.com/cleJRzsjxK

— Netflix US (@netflix) February 22, 2017

Took Advantage of an Existing Phenomenon

The #NetflixCheater concept works because it’s a genuine thing that really happens. It’s natural to want to share watching your favorite show with your significant other or best friend, but it’s also natural to skip the sharing part and go in on a solo adventure.

Gathering data around this was an amazing place for Netflix to start, and the data gave them a large pool for creating owned content. They also succeeded by infusing humor and relevancy by equating Netflix cheating with the brevity of real life romantic cheating.

On this episode of Netflix Cheaterz, Jayson suspects his girlfriend is getting her "Net-fix" somewhere else. pic.twitter.com/308RkcBQtu

— Netflix US (@netflix) February 22, 2017

Spoke to Everyone

If you’re a Netflix user, you can totally relate to the #NetflixCheater phenomenon, so it’s easy to participate. Share your own story and use the hashtag—done! Increased brand loyalty, achieved.

However, the beauty of this campaign is that it’s relatable to people who are non-Netflix users as well. The relatability of the content alleviated a barrier to participation. This allowed Netflix to ask users to take true engagement actions, like tagging their partners whom they suspect of “cheating.”

@netflix If you suspect your partner of Netflix Cheating, and would like Netflix Cheaterz assistance, please tag the cheater below. pic.twitter.com/mKoHMxzCED

— Netflix US (@netflix) February 22, 2017

Takeaway: Get creative with personas and data. Try to look for common qualities amongst your community and see how your brand might be able to speak to them. Have fun with data and personas, you never know if you could hit a nerve that resonates with your audience.

After all, those memorable moments will increase the chance that a person thinks of your brand when their need for your product or service comes about.

2. Tillamook – #RealFoodSunday (Fill The Plate)

Who knew a cheddar cheese brand could be anything but cheesy?

Tillamook, the popular Oregon dairy co-op famous for its cheddar, goes the extra mile to use social media and their brand power for social good. In one fell swoop, Tillamook aligns themselves with being a familial and high quality ingredient, while simultaneously building momentum and longevity by specifying Sundays as the day to celebrate real food. They made a distinct connection between their brand and the value that eating real foods can have on overall lifestyle.

To boost their existing campaigns, they ran concurrent seasonal campaigns with tie-ins that had major impact and brand lift. Tillamook can now associate their brand with a hashtag that doesn’t even include their brand name–all while contributing to an overall social good.

Here’s what Tillamook did right:

Layered in User-Generated Content From Their Community

Not only does Tillamook align themselves with a moral social concept, but they are using the creations of their community to inspire others to join into the conversation and set a familial tone.

For her #RealFoodSunday big game, @ValleybrinkRoad is serving turkey chili w/ tasty toppings like Tillamook Cheddar. pic.twitter.com/HJhSVQ7JtM

— Tillamook (@TillamookCheese) February 4, 2017

Provided Consistent Value

Tillamook uses #RealFoodSunday to provide consistent value on a weekly basis. They provide meal ideas, recipes and partner with other real food proponents for more valuable food information.

Happy New Year! Kick off 2017 with this #RealFoodSunday Spicy Cheddar Bacon Pancakes recipe. https://t.co/E6tvTm2H06

— Tillamook (@TillamookCheese) January 1, 2017

Partnered Up + Used Social for Social Good

Tillamook took advantage of everyone’s devotion to speaking in emojis to help feed hungry kids during the holiday season. Tillamook teamed up with 72andSunny to turn empty plate emojis into real food donations through a social media-fueled food drive.

All social users had to do was post the empty plate emoji, along with the #RealFoodSunday hashtag to help to provide meals to hungry kids through national non-profit No Kid Hungry. According to their Shorty Awards Entry, they were able to donate a total of 500,000 Real Food meals to families in need.

On the social front, they saw 60 times the weekly average of #RealFoodSunday hashtag mentions. Within six hours, #RealFoodSunday was the trending topic on Twitter in Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle.

Tillamook received 26 million earned impressions, partly in thanks to celebrities who Tweeted on behalf of the cause. While Tillamook had a history of supporting the real foods cause, this campaign further solidified Tillamook as an innovative leader in the Real Food conversation.

All it takes is a tweet to donate 50 meals through @NoKidHungry today. Post 🍽 + #RealFoodSunday to help families in need this holiday. pic.twitter.com/P4IcDIFWUm

— Tillamook (@TillamookCheese) December 18, 2016

Worked Seasonality With an Existing Campaign

While #RealFoodSunday is a campaign that Tillamook focuses on year round, they needed to be strategic about when to run “Fill the Plates.” Simply put, the holidays are a great time to run a campaign that focuses on doing social good.

The holiday time on social specifically is often filled with cloying cheer, and Tillamook recognized the need for a humble and passion fueled idea that would feel meaningful for the users. The thoughtfulness of Tillamook’s timing is something to be commended and 100% contributed to their campaign’s success.

Got Creative With Visuals

In addition to utilizing emojis and graphics to fuel the campaign, Tillamook published emoji filled social videos that explained the concept thoroughly to potential participants. The company enlisted the help of foodie influencers to spread the word and when users started to post in droves, the Tillamook social team replied with custom “thank you” GIFs.

@gzchef! You just donated 50 meals for kids in need. We can't thank you enough. pic.twitter.com/RISvZrsprK

— Tillamook (@TillamookCheese) December 18, 2016

Takeaway: Unify your audience through shared values. Find the common thread between the values of your business and the values of your audience and make sure you are speaking to it. This will unite your community around a broader sense of purpose, and will create an opportunity to highlight your brand’s presence in that shared space.

Not only will your brand be associated with a single social movement, but you can build a long lasting campaign that grows with your brand and its unique community.

3. DoSomething.org – Personalized Mid-Week Motivation

You don’t always need to be super structured to have a successful Twitter campaign. Sometimes it can be as simple as checking in with your audience in a creative way. That means you don’t always need a branded hashtag,have to give a high value prize away or need all the frills of an all-out branded campaign. Engagement campaigns can be as simple as a small series of questions or a memorable CTA like this one from the non profit organization Do Something.

Happy Wednesday! Want a personalized Mid-Week Motivation photo or video from us? Reply to this and we'll make something for you today. ✨

— DoSomething.org (@dosomething) February 22, 2017

Here’s what Do Something did right:

They Didn’t Ask for Too Much

Right away this campaign is easy to participate in. Do Something isn’t asking for anything but an initial reply. By leaving the audience’s participation to a couple clicks, they are breaking down many barriers to engagement. Instead of asking their community for explicit or creative responses, they trust turning it over to the community to just say hello.

Don't be shy, tweet us a simple "me"! If you reply, you can expect something just for you in your mentions this afternoon. ❤️

— DoSomething.org (@dosomething) February 22, 2017

They Didn’t Over Promise

While Do Something mentions they will provide motivation mid week, they didn’t promise an exact time or format. This tactic has two benefits. The first benefit being the enticing element of surprise. This sets the stage for the audience to be delighted when they finally do get their mid-week motivation.

The other benefit is that the community member doesn’t have a high expectation for what they will receive, leaving any future engagement open to more positive and genuine reactions.

@claudiatappp Emily, our Digital Marketing intern has a Drake quote for you! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/gWPBjnBZ2E

— DoSomething.org (@dosomething) February 22, 2017

They Provided a Timely & Personalized Reward

Do Something approached responding in a super transparent way. They didn’t bother to make super polished and overly designed video content. The organization simply went around the office and sourced members of their team to give their community quick, short videos to cheer them up.

This approach requires minimal bandwidth for the social team and allows them to be fast enough with their responses that they are still timely. The fact that their team members took the time to mention each user by name is a nice dynamic touch to sending a personalized message.

The raw nature of the video responses also makes the interactions feel less forced and more organic, which can make all the difference in how their community interprets the message.

@melisheath We made something for you! 👊 pic.twitter.com/BQjDe1BHeu

— DoSomething.org (@dosomething) February 22, 2017

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to be unhinged and provide instant engagement. It may seem a little scary to go into social media marketing with an improvisational approach, but sometimes the more candid the conversations, the stronger the relationship between the brand and its community become.

Don’t be afraid to play around with more raw, interactive approaches. You never know how your community will respond. And sometimes the most meaningful engagements come from the more simplistic approaches.

4. Braintree – #CodeAsCurrency

Online payment company Braintree might not have the flashiest brand, but they do know what they are good at, which is making e-commerce beautiful. In an effort to showcase the wide variety of payments that Braintree accepts, they’ve done multitude of in person activations that take “anything” as a form of currency.

While Braintree offers a product, they are also comprised of a tech company and are large contributors to the tech community in their native Chicago. They weave these two themes effortlessly in a campaign they called #CodeAsCurrency.

Here’s what Brain Tree did right:

Partnered Up

Braintree takes community partnerships to the next level. They sought to partner up with local Chicago brands, such as Dark Matter Coffee. In exchange for their twitter community figuring out some entry-level code, Dark Matter agreed to provide free coffee. This mutualistic partnership brings awareness to both brands, brings people from offline to in-store, and positions Braintree to be the leader in accepting any type of currency.

Code brewed fresh. Visit @darkmatter2521 today from 8am–12pm with the code for free coffee on us. #CodeAsCurrency pic.twitter.com/qQbHl5bxjx

— Braintree (@braintree) October 21, 2016

Grassroots Approach to Promotion

Braintree is relying on some common grassroots Twitter campaign best practices. These include @mentioning their marketing partners, using eye-catching images and not asking too much of their audience.

Braintree also dabbled in promoting the #CodeAsCurrency Tweets to broaden the reach of their campaign and bring new people into the fold of their community. With the right targeting, this is a perfect recipe to start a campaign from nothing.

Kept It Simple

For anyone participating, the messages were short and sweet. Figure out the code (which was 101 level code), and get free stuff. They didn’t complicate the entry process and they took the social conversation offline once people were in the brick and mortar space. The eye-catching consistency of their code graphics were key to alerting participants to the next #CodeAsCurrency opportunity.

If you can read this, we speak the same language. See you at @caffecafe today between 8am – 12pm. #CodeAsCurrency pic.twitter.com/P8hwdJmfE4

— Braintree (@braintree) October 17, 2016

Takeaway: Local partnerships are key. Braintree really benefited from having local partnerships in Chicago that allowed Braintree to provide value. The partnerships were also important for increasing reach and broadening the success of their promoted Tweets.

In addition, bringing light to their engineers and partnering within their organization was a natural way to highlight Braintree’s own use of code to promote smart payment solutions to market.

By putting the spotlight on their own company culture as well as the local businesses, Braintree was able to authentically connect with their community and drive real, in person engagement through social.

5. Google Maps – App Updates

Instagram and Snapchat aren’t the only ways to highlight a visual brand. Brands can confidently use Twitter to establish a visual identity that facilitates immediate brand recognition. This way, rather than having one off campaigns, you can use consistent aesthetics to tie product launches to seasonal moments and virtually any type of content that can fit your visual theme.

Google Maps maintains a uniform visual style that makes it easy for their community to pay attention to and stay engaged with app updates in a fun way.

Here’s what the Google Maps did right:

Had a Defined Style

Every update to the Google Maps App is highlighted in a very similar way. There’s a phone to illustrate the update, and a boldly colored plain background behind the phone. The format of these tweets vary from picture, to GIF to video, yet the content all looks eerily similar. The continual use of this aesthetic cuts through the inevitable noise of social and says to Google Maps users, “Look at me, I’m bookmark worthy.”

There's a new way to Map.

Introducing Lists, a seamless way to organize and share your favorite places. https://t.co/0g7XbVgvUb pic.twitter.com/Fg17TJObxk

— Google Maps (@googlemaps) February 21, 2017

Used Tweets to Tease

The app updates tend to show a good overview of what the new feature does. However, Google Maps is astute to always provide their community with a resource that can explain the update further. This gives their community flexibility in how much they want to consume about the update. They are giving their audience a taste of what’s new, but always providing them with a resource in case they want to dive deeper.

The use of a short video is a great way to tease for attention while still providing enough context that you can understand the update at a glance. Google Maps even uses color to draw your eyes to what is relevant, as they did with this pink Valentines Day update.

#Valentines Day is here, and options are right at your fingertips. Tap once to explore restaurants nearby. https://t.co/A03jdRAurS pic.twitter.com/FowfA7GJxw

— Google Maps (@googlemaps) February 14, 2017

Had Fun With Tone

We know that Google Maps is important, and we know that app updates are important, but that doesn’t stop Google Maps from using a less buttoned up tone every now and then. They take the opportunity to tie into seasonal holidays with the app update, and even get as playful as to use the popular, relevant hashtag #TreatYoSelf.

Not only are they educating users, informing them of something new, but they are also broadening the value message to infer the more fun applications of the updates.

Find tables at many of the world's top restaurants with @Tock in Google Maps. Ready to #TreatYoself? pic.twitter.com/BsO82e7ng6

— Google Maps (@googlemaps) January 23, 2017

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to be put a stake in the ground when it comes to your visual presence on Twitter. Not all campaigns are centered around call and response. In this case, Google Maps is trying to drive awareness to their new app updates and they do so effectively by creating a consistent style theme in which to post these updates. Google Maps diversifies these updates and keeps it fresh by adapting their approach to seasonality, format and relevancy.

Whether your goal is to drive awareness or engagement, Twitter is a good place to start. Take some inspiration from these Twitter campaigns and see what you can do for your brand.

This post 5 Twitter Campaigns Your Business Can Learn From originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from SM Tips By Minnie http://sproutsocial.com/insights/twitter-campaign/

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Remnant: From the Ashes Review

Over the last few years there have been plenty of “Soulsborne” type games.  Some have taken things whole cloth, while others have introduced various mechanics from the popular action role-playing series.  With Gunfire Games’ Remnant: From the Ashes, the developers have put their spin on the genre with a third person shooter that feels like an amalgamation of numerous popular modern games and gameplay ideas.  While the comparisons are immediately drawn to the Souls games because of the difficulty in Remnant, it’s not quite as punitive of a game.  There are number of other comparisons that fans of those games will draw.  The world crystal are the bonfires that you rest at.  The enemies are overwhelming and seemingly tucked into areas of the map that’ll surprise you and catch you off guard.  The bosses are massive and brutal.  There’s an Estus Flask equivalent… etc.  But despite all of the similarities,  Remnant: From the Ashes definitely comes out feeling like its own thing.

Remnant has similarities to Dark Souls, but there are a lot of differences as well

The story of Remnant is set in a post-apocalyptic era that’s been overrun by the Root.  Your character encounters the Root at the early moments of the game and you’re helped by the survivors of Ward 13.  I’ve played through the game start to finish and I still don’t know exactly what transpired. Remnant: From the Ashes is a bunch of big moments with little exposition, and I was somewhat OK with that.  Most of the story content and lore that you’re going to get from Remnant is done by digging into the conversation trees or finding items in the ever-changing world.

I’ve played so many bad games over the years that I almost expect most games that aren’t the latest new release from the major publishers to be of a different tier.  Being on that second tier is sometimes a good thing.  Since the games don’t have the incredibly inflated budgets at these massive publishers they aren’t chocked full of the bullshit that those games have — Premium currencies, surprise mechanics, etc.  While it is a relief that Remnant: From the Ashes has none of that, you still expect the quality to be a little lower, but it’s not.  Remnant impresses on the visual front, playing this game on PC on ultra settings I had a smooth and stable experience online and off.  From frame rates to stability — everything just worked which is an incredible rarity these days.  Still, our time with the game had no problems in the pre-launch environment.

The world can be re-rolled at any time

While the technical stuff like frame rates staying stable in a third person shooter are important, Remnant has a great art style as well.  The game has a wide and varied number of locations to visit, massive bosses to fight, and and even wider variety of standard enemies to mow through.  I juggled with different ideas when I was playing this game, almost as if I had stereotyped the game into being bad.  Are these visuals actually AAA quality or is it generic Unreal Engine.  There were times where I thought to myself that this game has the generic homogenized look of the fictional game that you see playing on the background of a television show.  I think most of the thoughts about the game being generic aren’t helped by the game’s patchwork systems, which stitches together levels for a completely random playthrough each time you play.  Don’t like the current roll of the world, you can re-roll at anytime.

Now you’re probably thinking, OK that doesn’t sound like anything we’ve seen from a Souls game,  and you’re right.    The random nature doesn’t only do good for keeping successive playthroughs fresh, but there’s plenty you won’t see on your first go-round.  More importantly, if you want to utilize the online cooperative aspects of the game, you can have an entirely new experience with a group.  As for how much different it is, we couldn’t test every possible scenario, but what we saw was a pretty big difference.  You’ll encounter different bosses on different playthroughs.  The maps will be laid out differently, the enemies different.  While the overarching plot remains the same, the moment to moment gameplay is changed as there’s no memorization that you find in the souls series.  Enjoyable as co-op experience or as a solo RPG, Remnant was equally fun.  While I didn’t play the game to its entirety with a co-op partner we played enough it to get a really good feel for this part of the game.  It was enjoyable and we had no issues in getting connected.

The combat of Remnant is third person shooter, and it’s feels good.  One of the things I was worried about when I heard “it’s like Dark Souls with guns” is that the combat would get old after a while.  Thankfully the shooting is solid and snappy, with rewarding bonuses for accuracy that make combat tense and fun to play.  There are plenty of weapons to find in Remnant, as well as archetypes to build out that can lean towards close quarters or ranged combat.  While most of my playthrough was done with a ranged character that utilized a rifle, there were plenty of things to try in terms of boss weapons, weapons hidden in the world, or weapons that could be crafted.

Combat is a mixture of low-level easy targets that take one or two shots to kill and a smattering of stronger enemies which take a little bit more firepower to take down.  While the bigger, stronger enemies are limited to only  a handful of enemy models, there is a nice variety of lower-level enemy types that you’ll encounter as you progress through the five different areas you can explore in the game.

Pushing through these areas you’ll have to contend with these low level enemies and the goal is to make it to a checkpoint.  These checkpoints allow you to replenish your health and ammunition, and they’re usually placed just ahead of a boss fight.  Boss fights in Remnant are a mixed bag.  I had a ton of fun pushing through the many boss fights in the game, but a lot of them really leaned on managing a boss and their minions instead of a traditional boss fight.  This structure does feel very much like a souls game in its implementation, but there’s no real penalty in losing progression in Remnant.  Instead, you are rewarded when you reach checkpoints with the ability to warp back to your base of operations to upgrade weapons, purchase items, and more.

The Ward 13 base hub is central to the story of the game as its got a group of survivors there that have got your back.  You can upgrade your healing abilities here, purchase items to take with you, upgrade weapons, as well as craft items.  The crafting and upgrade system in Remnant isn’t too convoluted.  You simply need to find different iron types and scrap to perform upgrades.  As you progress you’ll uncover these iron types naturally.  There never really felt like a moment where the upgrades felt like a grind, in fact the game goes out of its way to make upgrading your character easier with the ability to warp back to Ward 13 at any time to do so.

There’s a lot to love about the simplicity and straight-forward nature of Remnant: From the Ashes, but there are times where you wish there was a little bit more meat on the bone.  You’ll meet some truly interesting characters throughout the course of the game, but you never really feel like you get to know them at all.  This trickles down to even the UI level, where if you miss an NPC character’s name, you might not ever see it again.  There’s also no quest log or equivalent to keep you on track or let you see where you’ve been, who you’ve talked to, and what you should be doing next.  There’s a universe here that’s probably more mysterious after you finish playing the game than it is when you start. For solo players this might be a point of contention, but for groups it really doesn’t matter all that much because the actual gameplay will take your mind away from that stuff.

Remnant does a lot right here.  The game is incredibly streamlined, which makes it somewhat of a breeze to get through.  There’s just the right amount of obscurity and mystery in the world to keep you guessing, but this mysteriousness can be a little frustrating at times as well.  At times, Remnant: From the Ashes feels incredibly honed, and at others, rough around the edges.

The Verdict

If you like loot shooters and some of the core systems from the Souls games, Remnant: From the Ashes shouldn’t disappoint.

Remnant: From the Ashes Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/