#envoy proxy

[cardboardmoon]

"...Unfortunately, once they learn about the origin of the cybersleeves, things become a bit… complicated.

In short the whole thing is a political nightmare lmao"

I'm gussing it's because they are now considered proxies,envoys? of quintus prime?

Yup 👀

Whether or not members of the Decepticons believe in that sort of stuff, it’s still gonna pose problems

[mariacallous]

“Did Israel Avert a Hamas Massacre?” That was the question posed by the headline of a Vanity Fair exposé published in October 2014. The investigative report laid out a sophisticated plot by the Islamist terror group to kill and kidnap Israelis on the Gaza border. The plan: to use underground tunnels to infiltrate nearby civilian enclaves on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, when the communities would be at their most vulnerable. As one intelligence source put it, the operation had two goals: “First, get in and massacre people in a village. Pull off something they could show on television. Second, the ability to kidnap soldiers and civilians using the tunnels would give them a great bargaining chip.” The Israel Defense Forces subsequently confirmed this reporting to other media outlets, but not the specific date.

The tunnels were real. But at the time the massacre-that-wasn’t received little additional media coverage. It seemed too cinematic and convenient. Maybe it was a Hamas pipe dream that was never operational. Or maybe it was a worst-case scenario concocted by the Israeli security services and leaked to the media to justify their own ever-expanding countermeasures. Years passed without a mass border incursion, the tunnels were gradually detected and blocked, and I came to the conclusion that the skeptics were right about the plot being too lurid even for Hamas.

I was wrong. Last week, Hamas executed something quite like the attack on the Gaza border that it had planned all those years ago. Instead of tunneling underground on Rosh Hashanah, it invaded aboveground on another Jewish holiday, Simchat Torah. Some 1,500 terrorists stormed nearby civilian communities by land, air, and sea. They murdered babies in their cribs, parents in front of their children, and children in front of their parents. They burned entire families alive. They decapitated and mutilated their victims. They wore body cameras and documented their destruction as though it were a video game. They executed a grandmother in her home and uploaded the snuff film to her Facebook page. They deliberately targeted elementary schools. They kidnapped toddlers and a Holocaust survivor. They paraded a battered, naked woman through the streets of Gaza like a trophy. All told, they murdered more than 1,300 Israelis, almost all civilians, and abducted some 150 others, including babies and the elderly. The death toll continues to rise as rescue workers recover more remains and reassemble mangled corpses for identification.

Somehow, few saw this eruption of inhumanity coming. Several months ago, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, then the European Union ambassador to the Palestinians, performed what he called Gaza’s first paragliding flight to advocate for a future where “anything is possible in Gaza.” Hamas terrorists would later use paragliders to massacre more than 250 civilians at an Israeli music festival, which is presumably not what the envoy had in mind. And he wasn’t the only one naive about the Hamas regime’s intentions.

The consensus was that Hamas was a mostly rational actor that could be reasoned with. To hawks, although the group was an anti-Semitic Iran proxy, it could be deterred through political and economic incentives, because it felt responsible for the welfare of the Gazan people. To doves, Hamas was a quasi-legitimate national resistance movement whose occasional bouts of violence were simply intended to draw attention to that struggle.

Successive Netanyahu governments and security officials, far less sympathetic to the Gazan plight, nonetheless spent recent years lifting economic restrictions on the enclave, granting thousands of work permits for Gazans, and transferring hundreds of millions of Qatari dollars to Hamas in exchange—they thought—for relative quiet.

But it turned out that Hamas wasn’t being pacified; it was preparing. The group was less committed to national liberation than to Jewish elimination. Its violence was rooted not in strategy, but in sadism. And in retrospect, well before the Rosh Hashanah plot, the signs of Hamas’s atrocious ambitions were all there—many observers just did not want to believe them. What Hamas did was not out of character, but rather the explicit fulfillment of its long-stated objectives. The shocking thing was not just the atrocity itself, but that so many people were shocked by it, because they’d failed to reckon with the reality that had been staring them in the face.

First, there is Hamas’s notorious charter, a Frankensteinian amalgam of the worst anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the modern era—the very same that have motivated numerous white-supremacist attacks in the United States. “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious,” the document opens. “It needs all sincere efforts … until the enemy is vanquished.” The charter goes on to claim that the Jews control “the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others.” According to Hamas, the Jews were “behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about,” as well as World War I and World War II. The charter accuses Israel of seeking to take over the entire world, and cites as proof the most influential modern anti-Semitic text, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a Russian fabrication that purports to expose a global Jewish cabal.

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it,” Hamas declares in its credo. “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews.” In case anyone missed the point, the document adds that “so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement.” In 2017, Hamas published a new charter, but pointedly refused to disavow the original one, in a transparent ruse that some respectable observers nonetheless took at face value.

In any case, Hamas communicated its genocidal intentions not just in words, but in deeds. Before it took control of Gaza, the group deliberately targeted Jewish civilians for mass murder, executing scores of suicide bombings against shopping malls, night clubs, restaurants, buses, Passover seders, and many other nonmilitary targets. Today, this killing spree is widely blamed for destroying the credibility of the Israeli peace movement and helping derail the Oslo Accords, precisely as Hamas intended. And it did not stop there. Since the group took power in Gaza, it has launched thousands of rockets indiscriminately at nearby civilian towns—attacks that continue at this very moment and that have boosted the Israeli right in election after election.

Hamas’s anti-Jewish aspirations were evident not only from its treatment of Israelis, but from its treatment of fellow Palestinians. Despite being the putative sovereign in Gaza and responsible for the well-being of its people, Hamas repeatedly cannibalized Gaza’s infrastructure and appropriated international aid to fuel its messianic war machine. The group boasted publicly about digging up Gaza’s pipes and turning them into rockets. It stored weapons in United Nations schools and dug attack tunnels underneath them. (Contrary to what you might have read on social media, Gaza does have underground shelters—they are just used for housing Hamas fighters, smuggling operations, and weapons caches, not protecting civilians.)

When dissenting Gazans attempted to protest this state of affairs and demanded a better future, they were brutally repressed. Hamas has not held elections since 2006. In 2020, when the Gazan peace activist Rami Aman held a two-hour Zoom call with Israeli leftists, Hamas threw him in prison for six months, tortured him, and forced him to divorce his wife. Why? Because his vision of a shared society for Arabs and Jews, however remote, was a threat to the group’s entire worldview. Jews were not to share the land; they were to be cleansed from it.

Simply put, what Hamas did two weekends ago was not a departure from its past, but the natural culmination of its commitments. The question is not why Hamas did what it did, but why so many people were surprised. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, quick to discern anti-Semitism in any effort to merely label Israeli products from West Bank settlements, somehow overlooked the severity of the genocidal threat growing next door. Journalists like me who cover anti-Semitism somehow failed to take Hamas’s overt anti-Jewish ethos as seriously as we should have. Many international leftists, ostensibly committed to equality and dignity for Palestinians and Israelis alike, somehow missed that Hamas did not share that vision, and in fact was actively working to obliterate it.

Today, in the ashes of the worst anti-Jewish violence since the Holocaust, some analysts have admitted their error of sanitizing Hamas. “It’s a huge mistake that I did, believing that a terror organization can change its DNA,” the former Netanyahu national-security adviser Yaakov Amidror told The New York Times. Others on the left have clung to their tortured conception of Hamas as a rational resistance group, despite it having been falsified by events. Perhaps some fear that acknowledging the true nature of Hamas would undermine the struggle for Palestinian self-determination. But in actuality, it is the refusal to disentangle Hamas’s anti-Jewish sadism from the legitimate cause of Palestinian nationalism that threatens the project and saps its support.

In 1922, The New York Times published its first article about Adolf Hitler. The reporter, Cyril Brown, was aware of his subject’s anti-Jewish animus, but he wasn’t buying it. “Several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler's anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded,” Brown wrote, “and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers.” Two years later, the Times published another news item on the future architect of the Holocaust: “Hitler Tamed by Prison.” The Austrian activist, the piece said, “looked a much sadder and wiser man,” and “his behavior during his imprisonment convinced the authorities that [he] was no longer to be feared.”

Many got Hamas wrong. But they shouldn’t have. Again and again, people say they intend to murder Jews. And yet, century after century, the world produces new, tortuous justifications for why anti-Jewish bigots don’t really mean what they say—even though they do.

[soriseerakyra]

Persephone: Part 1

A/N: Promised this last year

Hell.

Kalia of House Ioulo had been consigned to hell. She knew it, her father knew it. And more importantly, her host knew. But she had been trained since birth to smile and wave, even in the face of danger.

Much like the company she kept.

“It’s not so bad here. While there may be an adjustment period, you will begin to enjoy yourself, especially when you realize how much power you have. And you’ll have more than most.”

Lady Margot Fenring’s words had the benefit of her accent. As beautiful and seductive as she was. The way her tongue caressed the words she used to sell Kalia a lovely picture of her would-be life here.

If only she had chosen it.

“I do not lust for power, Lady Fenring.”

“And yet, you’re here. This was meant to be your brother’s seat, no?”

Her pointed question was punctuated with a raised eyebrow and polite smirk.

“He was ill.”

“Your father would have waited.”

“Would you have kept Baron Harkonnen waiting?”

It was a good, sensible reply—if only Margot weren’t Bene Gesserit. But Kalia knew she could hear the cover-up in her words, even though there was truth in them. No one would keep the Baron waiting, even if he were the one in debt.

The nearly sunless sky of Giedi Prime had been an unwelcome contrast to her precious jewel of a world. But still, even if she knew that she would lose her life in the end, she would not have traded the opportunity to leave the confines of Meridian for anything. She was her father’s envoy; there was power in that. More than any lady should rightfully have. Especially when she was of marrying age.

The role had been reserved for her brother, the next heir of House Ioulo—a way for him to introduce himself to the heads of the other great houses. So, when he fell too ill to right himself in bed, let alone stand, the duty was passed to her.

So far, she had fulfilled them admirably, introducing herself and her brother by proxy. Until the message came that she needed to head to Giedi Prime. It had been a troublesome trip, made worse by the fact that her orders were changed. An economic crisis had erupted after she began her journey, and the only thing her father could think of to remedy it was to call in the debts owed to him. Starting with Baron Vladimir Harkonnen.

A stupid, foolish idea, but one she carried out, nonetheless. Even if it was a death sentence.

Or at least an end to life as she knew it.

Her house was a small one, on a small world. Rich in beauty and lacking in resources. Tidally locked to its fierce red star, only a small band of land was habitable, let alone farmable. Her ancestors, for generations, had had to make do. And then came a revelation. Her grandfather's grandfather made Meridian a playground for the noble and wealthy. Casinos, pleasure houses, and atmosphere. Three things that the wealthy houses could not get enough of. Including the Baron. Especially the Baron. He spent his money and the credit her father “gave” him. Her father was calling in on this debt.

No one called in a debt on the Baron.

Not even the emperor, and indeed not some middle-sized house on the outskirts of nowhere.

It was irrational, a trip that was doomed no matter the outcome. Either she would return successfully, and the Baron would come later to decimate her house, or… Or?

She was quite unsure why she was still alive. When she confronted the Baron, she was sure her head would be removed from her shoulders. But when she told him her purpose, he merely laughed and had her escorted to this private box of a room.

Only two seats were present, one for her and one for the Lady sitting next to her. Though she was not an unwelcome sight, she was a confusing presence. Unless she, too, was meant to be executed.

“Why am I here, Lady Fenring?”

She smiled at Kalia; she liked her boldness. Kalia could sense it.

“To enjoy the games, of course.”

The wall began to roll up before them as if on cue, bathing the room in the all-encompassing stark white light of Giedi Prime’s poisonous star.

It was not simply a room but a viewing box, high over the planet's famous arena.

Thousands of people were already losing their minds and screaming in excitement.

“Why…?” The question fell flat on Kalia's tongue as competitors stumbled drunkenly into the arena.

“To get a look at him, of course.”

She didn’t have to ask who “him” was.

The crowd was already chanting his name. And she looked down at the ingress just as the pale white dot of his person began to make an entrance.

“Feyd-Rautha!”

Even from here, she could see the repeated salutes.

“Feyd-Rautha!”

The thumping from their stumps beat against the stadium like war drums.

“Feyd-Rautha!”

No, it was more than that.

She realized it as the screaming stopped being uniform and became a frenzy. If she were closer, she was sure she would see people frothing at the mouth because this wasn’t simply joy.

“Feyd-Rautha!”

It was worship.

There was something odd about watching white blood fall on white sand. Something sanitized.

Something humane.

Even though this situation was anything but that.

He yelled and grunted with every swing and thrust.

He was an animal, cutting, stabbing, and killing.

And yet…

And yet…

It was hard not to be drawn in by his strength. The grace with which he moved and twirled his blade.

He was practically a dancer.

Lithe, stronger, and elegant.

Beautiful.

“A work of art, isn’t he?”

Lady Fenring’s voice was sly and knowing.

Kalia turned back to look… oh?

When had she gotten up to the window?

When had she pressed her hand to the glass to look closer?

Lady Fenring answered for her.

“He’s mesmerizing, pure chaos.”

A scream from the crowd let her know that he had killed another.

It was hard to resist the urge to watch him.

“Indeed,” her voice wavered. She took a thick gulp to steady her words. “Does he kill them all?”

“Yes, and sometimes they die with honor.”

She shivered.

How cruel.

How terrifying.

How enticing.

She couldn’t resist the urge to look.

As she did, the last victim fell. A blade to his throat, a yell in his face. He was dragged away quickly by the picadors, serving as a cleanup crew.

The crowd yelled, Feyd-Rautha basked in it, slowly spinning in a circle, arms outstretched, head thrown back, and black teeth gleaming.

It was startling, then, when the animal became sentient. When he stopped basking and turned to face her, he took a blade and pointed toward her box.

The crowd screamed.

“L-Lady…”

He bowed, his head never tipping in deference, as if he intentionally kept eye contact with her.

As if he saw her.

Knew her.

But that was impossible.

“He knew I’d be here, watching.”

“Indeed, he insisted,” the sister said, her tone slightly smug.

Or maybe it just sounded that way because Kalia was only beginning to understand what was happening now.

“He felt it was only right,” she continued, “To show you his worth.”

“Why?” Her tone was dry, slightly defeated. Her belly filled with dread, bile rising.

“You know why.”

“Why, Lady Fenring!?” she asked more forcefully. She turned to face the cunning beauty.

The Bene Gesserit smiled, unbothered by her fury.

“It’s your engagement present, my dear.”

[lutethebodies]

How did Zafraia get into piracy?

The TL;DR is basically she became a "pirate" when it was no longer politically convenient for her mentor/benefactor to designate her a "privateer." Sort of how Francis Drake was an English privateer but to the Spanish he was a pirate. But that's the quick take. For the longer version join me below the cut, where there be maps!

Note 1: All locations are in my homebrew world. Zaf's native land of Narán is sort of a faux-Al Andalusian Iberia, as if, say, the Reconquista never happened. Her birthplace, Enáncia, is roughly the latitude of Gibraltar, her adoped home of Caranácia (my Baldur's Gate equivalent) aligns with Barcelona, and the east coast aligns with northern Portugal. Cannor and Ruy describe it a bit more here. But this isn't about those guys, it's about her, so let's do it:

Zafraia Zital grew up a streetwise urchin in the deadly docksides and backalleys of Enáncia’s Blackwharf slum. She ran away from home (if you can call a cave outside the city shared with twelve siblings "home") when she realized her poverty-stricken parents would have no choice but to quietly attempt selling several of their extra mouths into slavery (which was and had been highly illegal in Narán for over 500 years).

The curious and quick-thinking girl sharpened her senses to survive the daily urban stresses of finding food and shelter. At age 11 Zaf led a gang of semi-feral adolescents who stole and fenced anything valuable so effectively that adult criminals and authorities had to team up to stop them. Stowing away on a smuggler’s skiff to avoid capture, Zaf’s luck held when the craft’s crew kept her on as a useful proxy.

However, one by one all her comrades were caught or killed, so she soon operated alone—working her way up from Enáncia through the Narrow Sound, avoiding its notorious pirates and bandits, arriving in Caranácia at 13. She balanced freelance intrigue with smuggling, joining the Equiposium (Academy of Balance, described here) for lucrative but dangerous espionage and privateering work on behalf of the High Ambassador, Doña Regina de Atraveisa.

With the High Ambassador's authority at her back, Zaf soon commanded her own ship and crew: ferrying Equiposian agents southwest to the lands of the Inner Seas, scuttling ships and caravans of the notoriously amoral Padrini syndicate of Repeia, and on one memorable occasion helped evacuate the Arbascan navy of Saván when its volcanic island base suffered a minor eruption.

When assignments returned her to Narán, Zaf kept smuggling—evading laws, gangs, and guilds by liaising with powerful nobles—but after one such affair (with Doña Regina's niece, the powerful Doña Esadora de Errocamesi) exploded in a public duel, she was banished from the City of Fortune and reluctantly branded a pirate by both Doña Regina and Doña Esadora. Forced to go straight at 23 to lie low, Zaf became a freelance navigator in Orangeport on Narán's east coast, striking deals with local merchants as an envoy to all points east: towns, tribes, and trading posts along the arid (and incompletely-mapped) Marakeen shore.

Zaf has made three voyages in six years (all sponsored discretely by Doña Regina, and accompanied on two of them by Nevelese cartographer Ruy Acavés), but lack of supplies has kept her from going as far as she'd hoped. Currently (age 29), she’s recruiting a new crew for a fourth voyage, seeking great riches beyond the southeastern horizon, dangers be damned.

Note 2: I'm not sure how all of this would translate to Faerun beyond Caranácia as BG. Maybe its southern bits could stretch to be Amn-like. I think her voyages would be all Chultward, since there's not much in the immediate west on the Trackless Sea.

I hope all this answers the question. It's sort of the Cliff Notes version. Maps by me, inserted into PSD templates. Thanks for the ask!

[eretzyisrael]

by Khaled Abu Toameh

In the eyes of Iran and the Houthis, Trump's separate peace deal that excluded Israel is a captivating green light to continue their attacks on "The Little Satan", while obligingly halting their assaults on vessels in the Red Sea.

Trump's deal with the Houthis sent everyone in the Middle East the message that the Trump administration has finally thrown Israel under the bus.

Worse, Trump's agreement does not require the Houthis to abandon their jihad (holy war) against either the US or Israel.

"[The Palestinians are] ecstatic that their employer, Qatar, just "purchased" the US presidency with a $400 million 747 jet and a Golf Course...." — Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, Palestinian political analyst, X, May 11, 2025.

Qatar wanted the American-Israeli hostage released as a gesture to Trump on the eve of his visit to the Gulf state. Hamas leaders were not able to say no to Qatar, and immediately complied.

This event shows that Qatar has enough influence over Hamas to instruct it to release all the hostages. Qatar could have used its influence from the beginning to force Hamas to release all of them; but it did not.

Qatar wants to make sure that its long-standing allies, Iran and Hamas, remain strong and in power after the current war.

Trump and his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are being played and appear not even to know it. If they do know it, personal friendships and financial rescues have apparently taken priority over hard-nosed negotiating. Their only priority seems to have been raking in trillions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, a Trump golf resort in Saudi Arabia, a $400 million "flying palace" from Qatar, a Trump hotel in Dubai and the promise of a Trump Tower in Damascus.

"Donald Trump may go down in history as the American President who empowered Islamism around the globe [by funding Syria's al-Sharaa], more than any other president in the history of the USA." — Nervana Mahmoud, Egyptian political analyst, X, May 13, 2025.

Trump and his advisors undoubtedly have good intentions, but... trying to strike deals with Iran and its Hamas and Houthi terror proxies, instead emboldens these terrorists and enemies of the US.

After Trump returns to Washington, he will quickly discover that the Islamists and their sponsors in the Middle East have not changed. Iran, Hamas and the Houthis will continue to call for death to Israel and America. Qatar will continue to provide political and financial support to anti-American Islamists and other Jihadis. As for Syria's jihadist president, the belief that he will transform himself into a moderate pro-Western Arab leader and a democrat is, unfortunately, nothing but a joke.

[witchofthesouls]

what do you think would happen if roby and Mo from earthspark ended up in the idw ? Their both organic teens that are envoys/proxies of a prime with powers in a dimension where the things are a lot more complicated and cybertronian are a lot more xienophobic.

What if they figure out their situation and try to find a way back home but they keep running into cybertronians and become local/cosmic cryptids, they try to be smart but can not not help a hurt bot/con. Everyone is trying to find them after their connaction to quintus is revealed

I haven't watched Earthspark, besides the YouTube clips, but...

Nothing good. IDW delves into outright gruesome territories from state sponsored mind manipulation/lobotomy/Obliviation, police brutality under a totalitarian regime, and widescale oppression and genocide.

The Cybertronian civil war was insane and incomprehensible scale of violence. They really pushed on the ruthlessness on both sides, so what are the lives of two kids of an organic species that will die with a careless footstep or a slow yawn among that? Especially to gain an edge in the constant arms race across multiple galaxies?

On top of that, where could they really go? They have nothing but whatever is on them. I don't know what's worse, the kids having alternate universe selves to mimick/steal some form of legal identity or being complete ghosts?

The entire ordeal will be ugly.

[darkmaga-returns]

The path ahead will be very difficult due to the sensitive issues that Russia and the US must resolve.

12 February 2025 will go down in history as the day when the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine officially began to end. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth started everything off by declaring that: Ukraine won’t join NATO; the US doesn’t believe that Ukraine can restore its pre-2014 borders; the US won’t deploy troops to the conflict zone; the US wants the Europeans to assume some peacekeeping responsibilities there instead; but the US won’t extend Article 5 guarantees to EU forces there.

This was followed by Trump and Putin talking for the first time since the former returned to office. They agreed to begin peace talks without delay, which was followed by Trump calling Zelensky to brief him about this and likely coerce the concessions from him that he presumably promised Putin. Trump also suggested that he’ll soon meet Putin in Saudi Arabia and that each of them might then visit each other’s countries as part of the peace process. Here are some background briefings about the larger context:

* 3 January: “Creative Energy Diplomacy Can Lay The Basis For A Grand Russian-American Deal”

* 17 January: “The Merits Of A Demilitarized ‘Trans-Dnieper’ Region Controlled By Non-Western Peacekeepers”

* 3 February: “Territorial Concessions Might Precede A Ceasefire That Leads To New Ukrainian Elections”

* 4 February: “Trump’s Interest In Ukraine’s Rare Earth Minerals Might Backfire On Zelensky”

* 7 February: “Trump’s Special Envoy Shed More Light On His Boss’ Ukrainian Peace Plan”

The first analysis about creative energy diplomacy contains a dozen proposed compromises for each side that could help move their talks along. In fact, the one about the US not extending Article 5 guarantees to EU forces in Ukraine is now policy per Hegseth, so it’s possible that some others might follow. Additionally, Trump just remarked about how unpopular Zelensky has become, which suggests that he’s planning the “phased leadership transition” via new elections that was also proposed in that piece.

[klbmsw]

We Got Who They Voted For

The president chose not to take the high road

DAN RATHER

JAN 21

For what is supposed to be an esteemed, tradition-rich ceremony, full of grandeur and history, our presidential inauguration in the Capitol Rotunda today ended with what has become a Trump tradition: a long, hate-filled rant that would best be described in polite company as one giant load of hooey.

Most incoming presidents use their inauguration speech to optimistically look toward a bright future. Most presidents are not Donald Trump. His inaugural address was so dark, no one would have been surprised if it had started raining inside the rotunda.

Trump made America sound like a struggling nation rather than a country with one of the most robust and envied economies in the world. That is his schtick. It’s like Munchausen by Proxy, politics edition. He convinces people things are dire so that he, and only he, can swoop in to be their savior. To bring this point home, he said, “I was saved by god to make America great again.”

In the exact spot where rioters tried to carry out a coup four years ago, Trump unironically predicted that his proudest legacy will be as “peacemaker and unifier.” With all the grace of a thundering rhino, he laid blame for our country’s ills at the feet of Democrats sitting close by, accusing the Biden administration of a “horrible betrayal.” Way to be a peacemaker and unifier. We’ve all been here before. This bully has no filter, by design.

With oozing bravado, he said he would get back control of the Panama Canal, end the Green New Deal (including revoking electric car mandates — happy about that one, Elon?), and rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America (cue the shot of Hillary Clinton seated behind Trump guffawing). But what about all those promises made during the campaign? I’ve been taking notes, and it will be up to us, all of us, together with a robust and vigorous press, to hold the new president accountable.

Many Americans are in no mood for his nonsense, which, unsurprisingly, has already begun. Trump has started backtracking on some of his major pledges, promises he made in order to get elected. Many of which have never had a chance of becoming reality. Here is just a sampling:

Ending automatic citizenship for everyone born in the United States

In December, he hedged on this promise, telling NBC News that “We’ll maybe have to go back to the people.” It was, however, apparently one of the executive orders he signed today. Most constitutional scholars believe this birthright is enshrined in the 14th Amendment, so Trump’s executive order will be challenged in the courts.

Ending the war in Ukraine

Trump claimed he would do this before he took office. Clearly that didn’t happen, nor could it have. Last week Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia told Fox that the president wants to take “100 days” to see if he can “figure a way we can do this in the near term.”

Lowering the cost of gas to $2 a gallon

Presidential action has little effect on the price of gas. Global prices fluctuate because of things like wars and pandemics, not who is sitting in the Oval Office. He said today that he would “drill, baby, drill” to bring down the price of oil. One problem: Right now the U.S. is already drilling more than ever before. Also, to bring down prices, oil companies, i.e. many Trump supporters, would take a hit on profits.

Cutting automobile insurance costs in half

During the campaign, Trump erroneously claimed that the cost of auto insurance had jumped 73%, and that he would cut it by half. First, car insurance costs are up 16.5% year to year — a lot, to be sure. Second, since it is the states that regulate insurance rates, he is limited as to what, if anything, he can actually do.

Impose high tariffs on Canadian, Mexican, and Chinese imports

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that he will hold off on the tariffs while he awaits a review of trade and currency imbalances with the three nations. It seems someone talked some sense into Trump, since most economists believe raising tariffs would increase inflation and thus consumer costs.

Closing the border

Trump claimed in a post-election interview that he “wasn’t speaking literally” when he said he would close the U.S. border with Mexico. He has subsequently said he meant he would strengthen enforcement against illegal entry.

Lowering food prices

After asserting numerous times on the campaign trail that he would “rapidly drive down prices” of groceries on his first day in office, Trump walked back that promise just one month after winning the election. He told NBC News, “I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”

Dismantling the social safety net

Much waffling on this one. Trump has said he won’t touch Social Security, but Elon Musk has said everything is on the table. Reportedly, plans are circulating on Capitol Hill to make trillions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid over the next decade. Nearly 100 million Americans are beneficiaries of one or more of these programs. That is almost a third of the population. You know who isn’t in that group? Any of the billionaires currently advising the president.

Sadly, it appears one promise he will keep is pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists, in what has become one of the most sickening attempted rewrites of American history.

Just before leaving office, President Biden had one final shot for Trump, preemptively pardoning several members of government against whom Trump had promised political retribution, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley.

As for the promises, how many will go unfilled before a large majority of people realize they have elected a charlatan?

The silence of critics is essential to the growth of authoritarian power. So time for another gentle reminder that the press has an imperative role to play in holding the powerful accountable. Here at Steady we are rededicating ourselves to doing our small part.

Stay Steady,

Dan

[bostonwalks]

Abe Greenwald's message to Trump & Witkoff "...now is the time to deliver a knock-out blow [to Iran], not a leg up."

AND

Seth Mandel's warning to haters of Israel "...Don’t Start a War with Israel"

Will the U.S. Get Played by Iran?

By Abe Greenwald

Iran is in terrible shape. In October, precision strikes by Israel took out the regime’s air defenses. In December, Iran’s Syrian ally was toppled. Hezbollah, Iran’s strongest terror proxy, has been torn to shreds by a sequence of devastating Israeli operations. The Houthis, another Iranian proxy, is under heavy American fire. Iran-backed Hamas continues to pay for the attacks of October 7 with its very existence. Israeli intelligence has so fully penetrated Tehran that the Mossad probably has eyes and ears on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei round the clock. Donald Trump has issued new sanctions on Iranian oil, further weakening Iran’s sickly economy. The Rial has plunged, and water, electricity, and fuel shortages have become commonplace. Additionally, over the past few years, the Islamic Republic has been rocked by massive public protests.

The mullahs couldn’t have seen this coming. During Joe Biden’s presidency, Iran had it good: The administration loosened sanctions and freed-up other funds to get Tehran to discuss a nuclear deal. But Biden gave Iran enough rope to hang itself. The regime, as it always has, put its increased revenues toward funding and arming regional terrorists. And when Hamas signed its own death warrant on October 7, 2023, it set off a chain of events that would bring Iran to its pitiful state.

The only thing that can help the regime now is diplomacy with the U.S. And that’s exactly what Trump is offering. If Trump’s other dealings with bad actors during this presidential term are any indication, the mullahs may get the American lifeline they need.

As U.S.-Iran negotiations near, we can discern the elements of a perfect storm of American impotence. The Islamic Republic has always used diplomacy to deceive, stall, and take. It doesn’t enter into talks in good faith or with an eye toward a binding deal. By the time the Obama administration got Tehran to agree to the JCPOA, the Iranians had made fools of then–Secretary of State John Kerry and the whole U.S. negotiating team. And the supposed deal was watered down until it was meaningless and unenforceable. There’s no reason to think the mullahs won’t approach the coming negotiations the same way.

Then there’s the American side. Donald Trump, too, loves stringing along negotiations, especially when they show every sign of being fruitless. If talks don’t end, they can’t fail. All it takes is for the belligerent side to offer a scrap of false hope, and Trump is hooked. Vladimir Putin hasn’t budged an inch for months. In fact, Russian aggression has only increased since the Trump administration offered its cease-fire proposal. Yet Trump continues to pretend he’s getting somewhere. To make matters worse, U.S. negotiations with Iran are going to be led by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who has sung the praises of every intransigent monster he’s met with since January.

There’s no question that Trump doesn’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. But there are other things he doesn’t want, and it’s hard to know what his priorities are. He doesn’t want to be seen to fail as the great dealmaker yet again. He also doesn’t want to launch direct military strikes on Iran.

And Americans have already been thrown off balance by Trump’s sweeping moves. One problem with doing things like crashing global markets on a whim is that it erodes the public’s tolerance for large-scale or transformative initiatives. Those still waiting for their 401ks to recover just want to convalesce. They’re not eager for U.S. military strikes that could have short-term destabilizing effects. Trump is squandering a lot of power and American goodwill on reckless stunts.

Which is a tragedy. Because in a genuine crisis, a president needs to exercise power in a way that gives the American people confidence in his leadership. A potential Iranian nuclear weapon is precisely such a crisis. And now is the time to deliver a knock-out blow, not a leg up.

The Profound Wisdom of ‘Don’t Start a War with Israel’ by Seth Mandel

[girlactionfigure]

🔅Thu morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🟨  SUMMARY .. there are many signs of impending Iranian hostile action, and it appears some nations concerned for Israel, and some concerned about Israel’s possible significant response and its potential impact to the region. 

BUT, it could be propaganda, an intentional threat/fear campaign on Iran’s part - an effective one if so.

Don’t panic, however some preparations would be wise.  Home Front Command -> https://www.oref.org.il/12490-15903-en/pakar.aspx (link only works in Israel - or use a VPN app to connect to Israel)

⚠️RUSSIA - AVOID MIDDLE EAST.. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "We strongly recommend avoiding travel to the Middle East and especially to Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories."

⚠️BIDEN SAYS.. Biden at a press conference last night: “Iran is threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel, but as I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel's security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is an ironclad commitment.”

Brett McGurk, Biden's special envoy for the Middle East, spoke with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates requesting that they convey messages to Iran in order to defuse tensions in the region. 

⚠️TURKEY TRIED TO HELP?  Unofficial sources claim that Tehran rejected Turkey's mediation offer in order to prevent a military confrontation between Iran and Israel.

▪️IRAN, DON’T NEED GPS..The Iranians announce that all their missile systems, developed in 12 years, are not based on GPS navigation, but ‘advanced technology’.

▪️HEZBOLLAH QUIET (ish).. The terrorist organization concluded yesterday with only 2 events, firing anti-tank missiles and rockets at positions in the Har Dov area.

▪️GAZA.. According to the Arab reports, Israel attacked during the night with heavy forces in the vicinity of the Nuseirat camp in the center of the Gaza Strip, an area that has been left alone to date.

HINTS.. Cabinet member Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich: "We have dismantled Hamas' form, we will have to continue to fight terrorism and deepen the operations in Rafah and Deir al-Balach, Nusairat - part of this begins today.”

▪️ARAB RIOTS IN TKAO, BETHLEHEM AREA.. Riots by terrorists in the town of Tkao in the Bethlehem Governorate, the IDF forces respond with measures to disperse demonstrations.

▪️ISRAEL SOCIETY - COUNTER-PROTEST.. The Tikva Forum, made up of (some of the) families of hostages, and the "If You Want" organization will hold a demonstration tonight in front of the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem, DEMANDING that the fighting in Gaza CONTINUE until "total victory”.

▪️HOUTHI DRONES AT SHIPS.. US forces have successfully shot down 11 drones launched from areas controlled by the Houthis in Yemen. Two of them were launched over the Gulf of Aden and another one over the Red Sea. No injuries or damage to merchant ships or US and coalition ships were reported.

[toestalucia]

You know what drives me crazy about GBF is the fact that in 10 years they have never done anything with this Proto-Bahamut in regards to the story generally

Because in terms of Gran's story this has to be one of the craziest most complicated relationships he has because Bahamut regardless of whether or not he's in the form of Proto-Bahamut or not is still the Dragon of Destruction who is the embodiment of everything good and bad that has ever happened to Gran.

All of Gran's issues can be traced back to Bahamut in some way shape or form. Gran is the singularity because he's connected to the Sky God and Astral God's proxy who are intended to bring back the original Bahamut.

Gran's family had to leave him behind because they were either hunted down by the True King because he wanted Bahamut's power for own ends or they had other Bahamut related mission most likely.

Gran has legitimate reasons to hate Bahamut for what's Bahamut's has done to his life even if Bahamut wasn't directly responsible for all of it. Bahamut has fundamentally shaped Gran's life forever and Gran won't ever be able to leave Bahamut's shadow until he is dead in the ground, but at the same time their is so much to love Bahamut for because if it wasn't for Bahamut, Proto or otherwise. Gran and everybody else he loves would be dead ten times over.

Alongside the fact that it's thank to Bahamut's power that Gran is able to go on world-spanning journey with his found family that he dearly loves and truly see the world he's always wanted to see.

Their relationship is even funnier to think about on a thematic level because Bahamut as device in the story is always thematically connected to the inevitable end of life; it's "Destruction" and how the Captain or Gran is always connected with themes of endless possibilities in the Grand Blue Sky (pun intended) brought about with ones relationships and bonds with others.

And Gran's is using the Dragon (sometimes God) of Destruction power not to end the world, but to make sure everybody has a chance to reach that world he believes in, because Gran is fundamentally a very kind person who believes everyone deserves a chance at a future of possibilities that they can reach for alongside people they love.

It what makes the title of "Singularity" in a way more a of a Blessing than a curse considering what type of person Gran is.

Their is also so much room to explore on how Lyria and Gran being able to use Bahamut's power changes them (also Gran being able to summon Proto Bahamut alongside Lyria makes a lot more sense considering his heritage) because that's a weight that they and everybody else will never be able to ignore.

And finally it's also just fun to imagine this absolutely gigantic dragon who is around a similar size to the Grandcypher (which is a massive ship) capable of bringing the apocalypse is stopped by memories of the few people it actually likes (which in my personal opinion are Gran, Vryn, Lyria, Katalina, Rackam, Eugen, Io, Rosetta, and Id)

I really hope Proto-Bahamut gets more in the way of actual story content because their is so much potential.

Sorry if this seemed long I just wanted talk about one of my favorite Granblue "character" I think and it was just really fun to think about how Gran or the captain would probably feel about Proto-Bahamut and Bahamut by extension.

YEAAAHHHH YEEAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! publishign cuz id like to go back to this eventually i hope thats ok BUT YEAH YEAH ALL THIS SO MUCH.....thank u sm for sending first-off, ive been thinking about this all day cuz YEAH!!!!! i lov our lil protobahamut, but its ssooooooo funny(wild) they dont rly address it outside of the occassional 'haha look how cool' in collabs.....i havent read bahamuts transcendence stuff, but even then its like......i'd looooovvvvv for them to mention it during the estalucia chs since. uh. omnipotents gonna be right there.

there's that part with the otherwordly envoy when lyria & captain are separated that does have that 'you should despise the gods' feeling & i think about it sometimes. did i write it down somewhere...

Envoy: Does the singularity know what the dragon and the girl really are? Of course we know everything, and you should too. Because revenge is yours to take, Singularity. And we can help you.

Envoy: But you are the worst off, Singularity. The reason your father left you behind to go on his journey is because of those two gods. Can't you see? They deprived you of the family life you deserved. The bonds you've forged with the girl and the dragon are next to be severed. You will lose them beyond a shadow of a doubt. Make no mistake, Singularity. You are the biggest victim in this conflict between deities. You are justified in demanding their destruction. Your revenge is waiting to be served. We Precursors loathe both gods as much as you do. If you plan to strike back against them, then our goals are the same. Will you join hands with us? Choice1: I don't think so. Choice2: Get real. Unprepared for Captain's outright refusal, the envoy scrambles to come up with something to say.

THESE ONES......ofc captain isnt about to join the otherworld considering what they do in these scenes alone, but the topic of 'you should hate the gods for what they've done to you' is ssooooo fascinating to me............rein & versusia, her & dad who travelled to get aunt back but also that journey being the source of dads primal killer nickname due to what bahamut asked of them or whatever, the gods are deeeeefinitely involved in dad leaving captain too, theres no other way........

side note, but i do wonder if dad not wanting a singularity is partly a 'im worried its my child whos gonna end up with that role' alongside thinking the position in itself is troublesome (like knowing what the astral & sky god wants......thats tragedy waiting.....), or if he mellowed out about it over the years (who knows how old walfrid's info is tbh...<33 dad DID end up leaving vyrn with captain after all like thats one of two....)

but it's definitely so fascinating to me just how much personally entwined captain ended up being with the gods, which is like. i SHOULD have seen it coming but u could not have prepared me for the constant 'heres aunt. heres aunt and god. btw dad faced the omnipotent. also heres rein in our fighting game, bahamut made her goth' when we already had the 'dads primal killer nickname was because of the quest bahamut gave him/mom'.....hello this is my new captain, they helped me out with something, wait what do you mean you should be dead. hold on what is lyria summoning right now with my new captain. your parents are WHO?. being new on the grandcypher must be rough.......

the fact gran&djeeta does have a voice line where they recite the summoning proto-bahamut with sr lyria........like i do feel they're always together when proto-bahamut is needed which is like ? IS captain NEEDED for that ? would vyrn suffice ? lyria the proxy of the astral god can summon proto-bahamut like HEELLLOOOOO

btw im so excited to meet the astral god like holy shit......

which like, tying it back to what you said first ? vyrn is their closest friend & helped taking care of captain when they grew up & vyrn himself is so detached from bahamut anyway in a sense.......but proto-bahamut is. thats. i get early story gran not thinking much more of it than 'wtf thats cool', but especially NOW with everything we know about their family and how much the gods have directly impacted their life..............if captain were to find out about their mothers fate/whole deal in the gacha too.......like that starts feeling like breakpoint? thats my friend proto-bahamut, it helps us fight things (relink was SOOOOOO cool with this man...), but even if its now also detached from its namesake it still looks so much like it. how are you supposed to look at that and Not think of what could've been had your parents been NORMAL

dearly wish they'll approach this one day, because they HAVE done multiple things focused on captain's feelings towards things (as of very important stuff, 'created by the stars, loved by the skies' extra story with lyria where they think about being the singularity), so even if its not within main story itself.......id loooooooveeee for something like that sooner rather than later....

the parts about "destruction" vs captains wish for everyone to live well & singularity being a blessing in that way is ssoooooooo fun too, thank u so much for sharing, i treasure this stuff greatly....i have nothing to add im just aauughHHHHHHHHH I GET IT !!!!! both with the boundary & omnipotent's power too i feel......borrowing what used to be to save the people you held dear......the omnipotent splitting creating the world it is today, as sad as that scene with the old civilization is.........if it didnt happen then bahamut wouldnt exist and then gran wouldnt be in this mess of loneliness but they also wouldnt have this happiness of travelling with everyone and its GAAHHHH

man i guess it also goes back to, what if the singularity WASNT captain..........(sidetalk about bubz being a singularity cuz THATS interesting too i think) i wonder if thats something dad feared as well, cuz its just. so much power. i get why cosmos wanted to fight LMAO

what if u were a giant dragon god tasked with rebirth and destruction but in that world of many many people there was a handful of them you dont want to see gone. something something its all about love

id man...........i need to get back to relink, i think i still have fate eps to finish up + i wanna revisit the story.......i love lilith, i need lilith & mikaboshi to meet SO bad. also fucked up to first release rising with rein & then release relink like 'hehe theyre all disappearing' STTOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP......NOT AFTER THE STORY UPDATE.....

[mariacallous]

Although U.S. President Donald Trump suggested last week that a nuclear deal with Iran was “close,” that doesn’t actually seem to be the case as both sides are digging in on their respective red lines and appearing to rule out the early possibility of a negotiated solution to the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

On May 20, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called U.S. demands for Iran to cease even low levels of uranium enrichment “excessive and outrageous” and “nonsense,” and he cast further doubt on the expected next round of indirect talks between the two sides yielding any result. Other Iranian leaders have also reiterated that talks will fail if the United States maintains its demand that Iran cease domestic uranium enrichment, a right Tehran believes it has under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran said it’s continuing to study the latest proposal made by the United States during the most recent round of talks.

But such demands, which reflect the view that uranium enrichment facilities are the key to Iran’s ability to turn innocuous materials into a nuclear weapon, have become the bedrock of the Trump administration’s position. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said that the United States would not allow Iran to have even “1 percent” of enrichment capacity. Secretary of State and acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 20 that the administration is opposed to any domestic enrichment capability in Iran because it is relatively easy to go from churning out low-grade uranium to weapons-grade uranium.

“It is our view that they want enrichment as a deterrent,” Rubio said.

Trump has previously warned Iran that if it does not make a deal, it could face a military strike with “violence like people haven’t seen before.”

“We are nowhere close to a deal right now,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran Project director at the International Crisis Group. “From what I understand, the U.S. proposal is zero enrichment, which has a 20-year unblemished track record of failure.”

The four rounds of talks so far, with the possibility of a fifth round this weekend, seemed to offer the best chance in years to diplomatically resolve the impasse between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s growing nuclear capabilities. 

Iran’s economy has been battered by U.S. and Western sanctions, as well as continued restrictions on its ability to export oil, including intensified U.S. efforts to crack down on illicit tankers that ship Iranian crude. Iran’s regional proxies, including militant groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, have been decimated, and its hold over Syria has weakened. Iran’s own defenses, such as advanced Russian-made air defense systems, were annihilated last fall by Israeli strikes, which left Iran more vulnerable to the continued U.S. military presence around the Persian Gulf than it has been for years—making Trump’s threats of a military stick more convincing than past threats to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions by force. 

That, coupled with apparently popular Iranian support for diplomatic engagement with Washington, has given Iranian leaders the political space to engage again in talks—but not at any price and especially not renouncing what the country sees as its right to enrich uranium at least to the low levels used in civilian nuclear reactors.

But the Trump administration has its own domestic politics to consider in talks with Iran, particularly when it comes to ceding any ground on the fight over enrichment. On May 14, more than 200 lawmakers in both chambers of Congress sent Trump a letter urging him against any deal that would allow Iran to retain uranium enrichment capability, which the lawmakers saw as the fatal flaw of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that the Obama administration inked with Tehran in 2015.

That letter, and the congressional pressure, “allows Trump to benefit from a ‘bad cop’ in the Iranian nuclear talks,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He said that an entrenched position could ultimately make it possible to wrest concessions from Iran, because without them, Congress would be unlikely to ratify any future U.S.-Iran agreement as a treaty. Doing so is important for Iran, as the JCPOA’s lack of ratification was a perennial source of insecurity for Tehran.

Trump’s recent comments that a deal was close came in the wake of Iranian statements that Tehran would be willing to forswear nuclear weapons and end high-grade enrichment of uranium in exchange for sanctions relief, which was also a primary driver of Iran’s acquiescence to the JCPOA. 

There remain all sorts of questions as to whether sanctions relief would ever actually materialize in the event a deal were reached. U.S. primary and secondary sanctions, such as those restricting Iran’s energy and banking sectors, are notoriously sticky. As Iran learned between 2015 and 2018, it has proven difficult to entice U.S. banks and businesses, and even many European ones, to go back to doing business as usual in places that have long been blacklisted and might again be soon. 

But a deal that allowed Iran to enrich small quantities of uranium to the low levels needed for civilian reactors while getting rid of its highly enriched uranium and opening the country to regular inspections by international nuclear authorities would look a lot like the Obama-era deal that Trump and other Republicans have spent a decade excoriating; Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA in 2018.

“If all that comes out is a JCPOA 2.0, the Iranians would say, ‘We forced Trump to go back into the same deal,’” Ben Taleblu said. “Trump can’t afford to have that.”

Part of the reason for the administration’s maximalist push against enrichment is Iran’s weakness right now, which fuels the belief that Tehran will accept onerous conditions to gain some relief from crushing sanctions. But that weakness in itself makes it harder for Iran to surrender all vestiges of its nuclear program, a prestige program that has swallowed years of attention and vast amounts of government investment, Vaez said.

“In the Witkoff team, there is a very strong view that it is a mistake to offer a JCPOA-lite because [the Iranians] are weaker than ever,” Vaez said. “But if you believe they lost all their regional deterrence, why would they forgo their last pillar of defense? The more you argue Iran is in a position of weakness, the more you are arguing against the deal.”

In any event, despite Trump’s informal announcement of a 60-day deadline for talks when the two countries resumed negotiations in April, the real ticking clock is in Europe. This October, the three European parties to the JCPOA—the United Kingdom, France, and Germany—will lose the ability to “snap back” United Nations sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of that deal. 

European countries, alarmed by Iran’s behavior in the region (especially the attacks on shipping in the Red Sea), continued advancement of its nuclear program, and support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have become increasingly hawkish toward Iran over the past decade. 

“Since Trump left office, Europe has moved to the right of the United States on Iran,” Ben Taleblu said. That newfound determination could come to a head this summer, despite one inconclusive meeting between Iran and the so-called E3 last week, as Europe mulls restoring sanctions pressure as a way to force Iran to renounce its nuclear ambitions.

“The most important reason that 2025 is the year of decision is because of ‘snapback,’” Ben Taleblu said. 

Iran has warned that such a step would drive it to leave the NPT, which would have potentially disturbing implications for international efforts to monitor Iran’s nuclear program and its compliance with proliferation norms. 

Snapback “is the real deadline. In the absence of a deal, I believe the Europeans will resort to snapback,” Vaez said. “But that is suicide. That would drive Iran out of the NPT, and if they pull out of the NPT, that would be the nuclear genie out of the bottle.”

[dragons-ire]

#1 Envoy

The airship docked at the landing in Radz-at-Han with a lurch. Every eye of every passenger turned towards a viewport at the drop below.

A shallow cliffside as lush and green as the steep drop beneath. Dense jungle framed by mountains and by heat and humidity.

Breandan waited in his seat until the crowd in the aisle thinned, then retrieved his bags. One large duffel with a checked weapon tied carefully to the outside, one smaller satchel carried like it had something fragile or expensive or both inside.

A few moments later, he stopped at a desk with a single civilian inspector, an idle-looking Radiant Host guard behind her. 

Name and occupation?

Purpose of visit?

Length of stay?

He turned over his identifying documents and a writ from the company doctor: a supply request from the alchemists of the High Crucible that looked legitimate enough, half-crumpled in the hand.

The guard squinted. The inspector made a note in a ledger, then waved him past. He ducked his head, clutching his luggage protectively as he wound his way through the vibrantly colored streets.

The path he took twisted him around about half the city before he finally found the inn in the district they called Kama.

The Arkasodara hostess opened after a couple of knocks in the door, didn’t protest when he declined help hauling his things upstairs.

It’s good to have you back - stay as long as you like, of course. Supper’s downstairs at the nineteenth bell tonight.

Yes, thank you, I’ll be there.

The room was small, but as brightly decorated as the rest of the city. A slightly shabby rug on the floor, the headboard of the bed painted like a peacock’s fan - the eyes that were everywhere, representing the ancient being that had ruled here through generations of mortal proxies.

He set the larger bag in a corner and the smaller one on a table. Made a sweep of the room (hands running along the windowsill, under the table and bed, up in the corners). Made sure the window and door were latched.

Then he flipped the flap of the satchel open. Tendrils of mist rose from the inside - the well packed ice crystals throwing off steam as they were exposed to the much warmer air.

“Hey.” He called down into the bag. “Have a good trip?”

Curled up in the darkness of the leather, something opened one beady black eye to peer up at him. It lazily stretched one wing.

“..Yeah? Good. I’m going to see what’s for supper and bring you some. Try and stay out of trouble.”

@sea-wolf-coast-to-coast

[tgrailwar-zero]

Short Rest - Fugue Laboratory (Results)

The short rest was successful.

CONSTANTINE has 11/11 health, and 3/5 mana. KUKULKAN has 7/7 health, and 11/13 mana.

You thought you heard some sounds outside… but nothing came from it. It seems like you remained safe in the lab.

-

Items Found: heal(32); and heal(16); as well as a 'Zone Map'.

Looking at the map, it seemed as if the direct areas were the Crimson Citadel, Nameless City, and Transient Megalopolis.

-

Short Rest Discussion:

With the time spent, CONSTANTINE caught you and KUKULKAN up on everything that happened. Despite it seeming like mere moments between your 'death' and 'return'- it had been about a week… so a lot had changed regarding the climate of the war from a social standpoint- as far as casualties went, it was in a bit of a standstill.

LANCER had been killed by AVENGER and FOREIGNER, and GUNNER had been systematically taking out SABER's proxies, rendering the large number of 12 to simply 4: FURIOSO, BOUCLIER, HISTORIA, and LUNE. Furthermore, It seems as if what CONDUCTOR told you wasn't a total lie. While the Solar Cell Holy Grail War was participated in teams, the winning team would become the 'Sovereign Protectors' of the Solar Cell in place of the Lair Servants. They would be granted power and authority under the Administrator, and be free to do as they pleased, with their life's wishes granted to them. However, the less members remaining on a team, the more power would be granted to the survivors- so the particularly devious would try to strategize and win the war while systematically lessening their own numbers. That didn't mean everyone was going for that strategy, however. Some Servants were perfectly fine with sharing the responsibility and having their own personal wishes granted as well- FOREIGNER, for example, seemed like she ended up in that camp. In addition, the particularly brave could challenge the Lair Servants in mortal combat, gathering the Trigger Keys in order to be granted further power by the Administrator and the Architect.

Regarding the Red Faction, SABER wished to unite both the Red and Blue Factions under his own banner, creating total unity under him as Emperor.

However, CASTER wished for the Grail War to proceed as normal, causing a rift within the Red Faction. SABER, his proxies, and LANCER were on one side, while CASTER and ASSASSIN were on the other. ARCHER and BERSERKER went on their own, still fighting in the war, but not fully allied to one side or another. RIDER could also be considered a 'neutral party', now that he was your Servant again.

CONSTANTINE, having temporarily contracted with SABER in order to not fade away, felt indebted to him- and was told by CASTER that she was going to convince ARCHER and BERSERKER to join her before killing SABER and allowing the War to progress as intended. He didn't know when it would occur, but if he was out for several days, he assumed that it would be soon before CASTER knocked down the doors to the Crimson Citadel and got rid of SABER.

-

As CONSTANTINE spoke, there was suddenly a message triggered in the laboratory. A man, projected through holographic light, appeared in the center of the room.

"Enemies of the Solar Cell." "For both of our sakes, I will keep this brief. I am the Lord of the Nameless City. Honorifics aside, however, you can consider me a 'Lair Servant'." "I am assuming that doctor Asclepius has been killed, and that me and my allies are next. With that in mind, while battle is inevitable, victors are decided ultimately by their knowledge. Knowledge that I possess." "Which leads me to my point. Come to the Nameless City, reach the center tower, and ask for the 'Lady of the Nameless City'. She will act as my envoy for our parley, as if I met you in person, we would almost certainly come to blows." "I hope you choose reason."

Without much fanfare, the message ended, leaving you, CONSTANTINE, and KUKULKAN.

"…Well, that puts both the Nameless City and the Crimson Citadel on our map. That, or we could just ignore both and head south to the Megalopolis."

KUKULKAN added. CONSTANTINE folded his arms, nodding.

"…Let's take some time to think about it, before making any decisions. The Crimson Citadel is certainly risky, but Saber will be a worthwhile ally. The Nameless City could be a trap, but also has the chance of having knowledge. And the Megalopolis… well, it has established itself as a bit of a neutral zone. The Lair Servant ruling there isn't exactly fond of conflict- both from the War, or from us, I'd assume... but it is a relatively major commercial center if we want to gather resources. We just need to make sure we keep our heads down. It seems like the only people who know for sure what the 'Interlopers' look like are the Lair Servants and potentially Saber."

That seemed... about right. There wasn't much time to tell whether PRETENDER recognized you or not before you started calling his name and telling him everything.

[mononijikayu]

on envoys, its history and the death in storms end.

its no secret that envoys are heavily important in asoiaf. the word ‘envoy’ is mentioned almost eighty times from agot to adwd, the word ‘envoys’ nearly thirty some times. but what is an envoy? well, envoys are representatives of governments, rulers and organisations to another institution or body of government. the name envoy itself is from the latin word ‘via’ which means ‘way’ which later develops in french as ‘en voie’ which means ‘on the way’ as well as ‘envoyer’ which means ‘send’; this later develops into old french and then old english as ‘envoi’ and then as we know it today, ‘envoy’ 

hence, they are the people that negotiate and develop relations from one entity to another, especially in terms of governments. they maintain peace, gather support and even intelligence. as such, they hold deep importance within their place in society and more so, in the management of state. both back then and even today, where the world has become a smaller place due to the widening sense of commonality which envoys and diplomats preserve in order to continue peace.

we know earlier populations have a sense of state and public relations, hence we also know that they try to communicate with others in order to try and regulate trade and barter as well as contract marriages and unions that would help peoples have closer bonds within the bounds of their regions. their role as messengers in ancient times was heavily relied on to maintain society together. as such for the most important of missions, some that would be sent were royal family members, at times members of the nobility. at times it was even members of the mercantile/tradesfolk or clergy. people of importance, of learned class and of economic class were taken into account as people who could represent the state and population.

one should take note that envoys were given special care when being dealt with. the essence of their importance could be traced in christian sects as being the thought that it had been the angels of heaven were the first envoys or messengers between the all powerful above and the mortals of earth. hence, they are considered inviolably certified at maintaining social balances between various states and their own homelands. 

just as much, it was always needed to be ensured that these messengers and envoys were needed to be ensured as safe from harm in any sort of travel mission on behalf of their monarch or lord or their masters. as their task is considered dangerous due to the state having various enemies, there needs to be reassurances that the envoys would be safe. as such, there was this idea that had develop called ‘jus gentium’ or ‘laws of nations’; this was meant to ensure relations between foreigners and romans would exist a state of equity but it also expanded as actions that should be observed during times of unrest or war, where people would be able to treat others humanely. along this, the idea of ‘bellum justem’ or ‘just war’.

many roman commentators who believed the need to justify acts of war also thought that wars have to be formally declared first before it was carried out in the most horrible ways. but because there is ‘jus gentium’, the idea of envoys travelling in and out of the current enemy territory to give the declaration of war should observe a genuine care in how they treat an envoy. as such, it was frowned upon for an envoy to even be harmed politically, socially and religiously.  rulers wanted to ensure that this goes both ways, that their own messengers who represented them by proxy would not be harrassed or harmed. otherwise, far worse could occur.

this continued on as a justified practice in medieval times as it becomes considered as a means to conduct proper relations that would ensure that they applied the ‘just gentium’ in every aspect of war. historians do agree that this was not completely the case as a whole as people in far flung edges of society like common folk, trades folk or even those of the clergy and religious orders do suffer in the concept of war. but as much as there were people who do try to resort to violence against envoys and messengers of various forms, it was frowned upon. this causes issues between states inward and outwards to the wider community of states. hence, their importance in state craft cannot be undone.

that’s why if we look at asoiaf, we can see how deeply important envoys were. in the main story we have in arya ii from agot, arya says that one of the only times she eats her meals alone was when her father had business of state, with the king or when he was welcoming envoys from various corners of the realm or elswhere:

‘she would have eaten her meals alone in her bedchamber if they let her. sometimes they did, when father had to dine with the king or some lord or the envoys from this place or that place.’  

this means that ned as hand of the king has the responsibility of ensuring envoys were welcomed well, what they require of the state and the king. as such, the tradition of guest right is centered as one of the essences of ‘jus gentium’ for westeros. the northmen are the most heavy in terms of this tradition, ensuring this to be stuck to from point a to point z. this is not to say that the other kingdoms dont hold it just as sacred. the north happen to hold more tightly to those traditions. 

in catelyn i, ii and iii, we have catelyn witness the treatment of envoys and how valued it is that they are treated well. in catelyn i, catelyn bears witness to her son make decisions about envoys, one about cleos frey and the theon, whom robb both send with his terms on peace to the lannisters and alliance with the greyjoys. in catelyn iiand iii, we see how catelyn is making the journey to be an envoy for her sons towards the baratheon brothers. in catelyn ii, we see how renly treated catelyn as an envoy but in catelyn iii, we see catelyn get rejected by renly on terms:

"i was at the whispering wood, my lord. i have seen enough butchery. i came here an envoy—"

"and an envoy you shall leave," renly said, "but wiser than you came. you shall see what befalls rebels with your own eyes, so your son can hear it from your own lips. we'll keep you safe, never fear."

renly, despite the opposite sides they sit on, tells catelyn that he has no intention on seeing harm brought upon her or her retinue. he tells her that he will show her what he’s capable of in terms of war, but he’s honoring the sacred duty to keep envoys like her safe from harm. this keeps within the bounds of asoiaf’s in universe logic that traces its descent from such historical context ive mentioned above. however, this is not always the case and as you saw from the title, i will be discussing what happened during the dance, at storms end and why what happened was horrifying.

what happened in storms end was a horrifying tragedy that completely ignored the established system that kept people out of harms way. this was something that perhaps had never happened before because:

1.) there was kinslaying involved, 2.) the rules of envoys were ignored and 3.) guest right was nullified without care. 

and it all fell on the shoulders of aemond targaryen and borros baratheon, who had more authority and power in that situation.

from the start, we have the indication that rhaenyra targaryen had all but refused to have her sons partake in any conflict that would bring harm to themselves or others. in fire and blood, blacks and the greens, rhaenyra makes her sons swear that they will be there strictly as messengers who are delivering the words of the queen, asking for obeisance from those who swore vows to her. only when they put their hands on the seven pointed star, swearing to be true to their task, she honors them as her envoys.

“if you go, you go as messengers, not as knights,” she told them. “you must take no part in any fighting.” not until both boys had sworn solemn oaths upon a copy of the seven-pointed star would her grace consent to using them as her envoys.

rhaenyra was not someone who seemed to be interested in the faith of the seven. but the rest of her subjects do follow it as part of their lives. the idea of religion was often used as a means to attach importance to the vow, especially to the people watching them. most of westeros followed the faith of the seven. it was of great importance to show your people that you are following the proper actions of propriety, swearing upon it in front of many secularly and religiously, binds the princes into acting accordingly. most especially in front of their mother who was their queen.

but it was always ever aligned with the agenda of the blacks prior to the animosity that will be following later. the black council directly discussed that the best course of their action would be political pressure by gathering as many of the houses as they could. the greens who already decided that they were going to start removing political adversaries may it be political threats, imprisonment or death. the blacks wanted to deal with this accordingly. daemon suggested political games first before they head to war, as rhaenys suggested. people were hopeful that this could be resolved in terms of conversations and politics:

“find riders to master silverwing, vermithor, and seasmoke, and we will have nine dragons against aegon’s four. mount and fly their wild kin, and we will number twelve, even without stormcloud,” princess rhaenys pointed out. “that is how we shall win this war.”

then the prince laid his own strategies before the black council. rhaenyra must have a coronation of her own, to answer aegon’s. afterward they would send out ravens, calling on the lords of the seven kingdoms to declare their allegiance to their true queen.

“we must fight this war with words before we go to battle,” the prince declared. the lords of the great houses held the key to victory, daemon insisted; their bannermen and vassals would follow where they led.

the first battles in the dance of the dragons were fought with quills and ravens, with threats and promises, decrees and blandishments. the murder of lord beesbury at the green council was not yet widely known; most believed his lordship to be languishing in some dungeon. whilst sundry familiar faces were no longer seen about court, no heads had appeared above the castle gates, and many still hoped that the question of succession might be resolved peaceably.

its heavily noted that borros was not the type of man that was easy to deal with.  his father lord boremund was faithful and strident in his support of princess rhaenys for many years. hence, it was presumed that it would have been easy to have had borros would still have his father’s honor. rhaenys had thought much of it, having been baratheon on her mother’s side. however while boremund was described as “stone, hard and strong and unmoving,”— it could not be said about borros who was “was the wind that rages and howls and blows this way and that.”

hence, it was already a difficult task when lucerys velaryon arrives as his mother’s envoy at storm’s end. his uncle aemond targaryen was sent as an envoy and had already built a sense of familiarity with borros which was relatively easy, as borros already subscribed to the values the greens are perpetuating within society. borros first and foremost was a heavy proponent of the patriarchy, he claims to love his daughters, but has little respect for their value as a person. in his eyes, the weight of a boy mattered more and equates that with the iron throne:

he had nothing against women, lord borros went on to say; he loved his girls, a daughter is a precious thing…but a son, ahhh…should the gods ever grant him a son of his own blood, storm’s end would pass to him, not to his sisters. “why should the iron throne be any different?”

secondly, borros saw little value in the honor of familial ties the way his father did. borros already relegates his daughters as secondary. the thought of princess rhaenys and her grandchildren also being his kin, was not of importance to him. the sons of rhaenyra may be kin but from women twice over in relation to him, from jocelyn baratheon and princess rhaenys. such bond to him is easily brushed over for the perspective of gaining authority and favor:

“aye, princess rhaenys is kin to me and mine, some great-aunt I never knew was married to her father, but the both of them are dead, and rhaenyra…she’s not rhaenys, is she?”

thirdly, borros was also looking to be more of an influential lord in the realm through a royal marriage. royal marriages were great leeways to authority in any kingdom. historically, many royal consorts have found means to replenishing their family’s fortune by being closely related to the royal family. an example would be jane seymour and her family. 

when she married henry viii, her brothers were given titles, lands and royal honors just by being related to the king by marriage. borros saw this as an opportunity to rise among the ranks. its why borros was so confident at the thought of saying he would make rhaenyra bend to her brother. his daughter was wedding aemond targaryen, his royal connections means influence and even his grandchildren being dragon riders.

hence, it is safe to assume that by the time lucerys arrives at storm’s end, borros already made up his mind about supporting aegon ii and the greens. it is said that ‘the prince and lord borros were haggling over dates and dowries on the morning lucerys velaryon appeared.’ — he was already duly swayed by the greens and their ability to play his wanting. but lucerys did not know that. he still came and did what he was asked to do, as envoy, in the manner his mother had bid him to do. this is the part where aemond’s own involvement kicks in and borros’s own involvement worsens.

lucerys from the beginning is focused on trying to do what his mother asked of him. aemond mocks him, both his appearance being affected by the storm and repeatedly his parentage and his own mother, being called whore. despite this, lucerys focuses on his duty, which was to give the message he was asked to give to borros baratheon:

“look at this sad creature, my lord,” prince aemond called out. “little luke strong, the bastard.” to luke he said, “you are wet, bastard. is it raining or did you piss youself in fear?”

lucerys velaryon addressed himself only to lord baratheon. “lord borros, i have brought you a message from my mother, the queen.”

“the whore of dragonstone, he means.”

aemond tries to take the letter from lucerys, but borros has a knight take it and be brought to him. his maester reads the letter and his maester tells him. now at this point, we already know that borros himself was decided upon what to do but he at the very least respected lucerys enough to hear his suit. however, when offered by borros regarding marriage, lucerys refuses due to his own engagement to his cousin rhaena. 

however, this was already common knowledge due to the fact that rhaena and lucerys were long arranged to wed since they were younger. borros was only hearing the case because he had to, as is customary when dealing with envoys. but as we established, he’s already decided that his best bet was seeing aegon ii as king and his brother wed to one of his daughters. so while he tempts lucerys with a marriage match, lucerys was never going to take that route. he was already promised. the thought was as sacred as the right of envoys.

as i’ve discussed, borros and his involvement was about to get worse. he knew that storm’s end was not an easy place to leave when there were storms and and he was the one who kept insisting that when aemond targaryen started to get antagonistic, he did not reprimand him. he only him that any bloodshed should not be within storms end, for lucerys was an envoy. 

the problem with that is that he’s not extending guest right further, knowing the journey would doubtly be rough for lucerys due to storms and yet also telling aemond that violence should be outside storms end, for lucerys is still an envoy and he didnt want to be blamed for any violence within his halls. so he’s undoubtedly forgetting his responsibility to the guest right, while also trying to still stick to his responsibility to envoys. 

unlike his descendant renly baratheon who really wanted to ensure catelyn stark was safe despite the fact they were on opposing sides, borros baratheon wanted to wash his hands of the responsibility he had in both terms of guest right and his responsibility to keeping envoys safe. so, lucerys decides to leave and is guided back to his dragon arrax. it could have ended there, as most wished it had. the envoy had done his task and had flown home. 

yet this is where we get aemond’s more bigger involvement in this. when lucerys left, one of the daughters of borros goaded aemond. it was something childish, as most girls would probably do when they’re feeling antagonistic against someone for not choosing them. it could have easily been brushed off by much older aemond, who had already won the stormlands for aegon ii. borros did not tell off his daughter, he just watched as aemond got angry about these words:

for the girl maris; the secondborn daughter of lord borros, less comely than her sisters, she was angry with aemond for preferring them to her. “was it one of your eyes he took, or one of your balls?” maris asked the prince, in tones sweet as honey. “i am so glad you chose my sister. i want a husband with all his parts.”

when aemond turned to borros, he asked if he could leave. the lord of storms end didnt really seem to care, much had already been dealt with if one can look at it. he just told aemond that it was none of his business what he decides to do because, “it is not for me to tell you what to do when you are not beneath my roof.”  — what borros didn’t know was that aemond would not cool off or just go and have contempt in his silence, no. he would go up into the sky on the ancient war dragon, vhagar and hunt his nephew down. over what maris childishly said.

as i mentioned in that post about driftmark and all that had led to that thanks to aemond’s decisions, aemond targaryen was bothered by the sacrifice he made in taking vhagar in the way he wanted. all those words he had said that, his eye was enough to have vhagar as his mount, it was almost all but easily undone. he was going to commit an assault on the foundation of westerosi society, both familial and social. 

it did not matter, his status as an envoy. how what he would do would affect his family, how it would affect the realm. he did not care. all he just wanted was control, he wanted his power. he felt like he would have it again, should he slay lucerys velaryon. and that he did. the plan of the blacks to rely on diplomacy fell apart at the hands of a man who decided killing an envoy, his own blood, was far better than feeling bad about himself.

by all accounts, the brutality of this death was seen with the way the young dragon arrax was torn apart by an ancient dragon. his body was never found and its most likely he also perished the way his dragon had. lucerys and arrax were sent due to the fact that it was a far shorter trip, his dragon was yet able to withstand a heavy trip and the blacks relying on borros to honor the kinship they had. however, they would not foresee that aemond targaryen would set upon a much younger child who was barely a man to be killed by an ancient war dragon who was a veteran of at least a hundred battles unprovoked. 

the worst of it was the pride aemond felt for what he had done. he had come home and bragged how he had gotten storm’s end at their side and how he had rid his nephew of his life. it was only alicent and otto hightower that shared the trepidation of what aemond had done. it was now certain that he was a kinslayer, an affront to the values of the faith of the seven. for that he was already considered accursed. but just as much, breaking the rules of convention of envoys were damaging. 

aemond had forgotten horribly that envoys were the reflection of their monarchs or masters. when he had represented aegon ii in front of borros, it was as though aegon was there because what aemond was doing was on behalf of his monarch. by proxy. the envoy was the reflection of the monarch, the action of the monarch. lucerys completely reflected his mother and what she wanted for him to do, from point a to point z. 

what he does reflects his mother and her actions. to do something that deviates from his mother’s wants, his queen, reflects badly on her. aemond does just that. as aegon’s envoy, through the power he was given, he declares a clear cut message of war. that he does not care what happens, all he cares about was settling a score and making a new one. which was what the greens declared in their own green council. but they did not expect it to be this soon. they needed more allies however before they go to war. and only otto and alicent seem to be aware of how dire their position is now because of aemond’s actions:

queen alicent went pale when she heard what he had done, crying, “mother have mercy on us all.” nor was ser otto pleased.“you only lost one eye,” he is reported to have said. “how could you be so blind?”

but aegon ii, who seems absolutely pleased with what his brother had done. by this point, aegon ii had settled in his authority of usurping the throne. he now has that taste of power, of that authority that was really never his, becoming his. he welcomes his brother proudly. he celebrates his brother’s achievements of getting storm’s end on their side and killing their nephew and throws him a celebratory feast:

the king himself did not share their concerns, however. aegon II welcomed prince aemond home with a great feast, hailed him as “the true blood of the dragon,” and announced that he had made “a good beginning.”

it is entirely clear why the blacks responded harshly to the situation. they were not planning for a martial war just yet. they were holding out hope that this could be settled with political pressuring. but the moment all social convention, all the safeguards that made it all more humane, was thrown out the window the moment aemond decided to kill lucerys in a brutal fashion. he disregards every thing but violence and the blacks responded as such. 

they realized that if all the greens wanted was violence, they were gonna respond with violence. after all, there was no need for justice. why should they gather justice when there would be none that could give them that? the greens have proven that to them. in the simplest means of respecting the conduct of envoys, they could not even do. so what is the rules settled, what is propriety, what is justice—when the greens had all but thrown it out the window. quills and pens and missives and ravens and envoys, those no longer mattered. the political game had all but ended, only vengence burns true. and so begin the reign of death, destruction, devastation and loss, from the actions of an angry man, birthed the wails of three godless years.

[haroldfinch07]

Load Balancing Web Sockets with K8s/Istio

When load balancing WebSockets in a Kubernetes (K8s) environment with Istio, there are several considerations to ensure persistent, low-latency connections. WebSockets require special handling because they are long-lived, bidirectional connections, which are different from standard HTTP request-response communication. Here’s a guide to implementing load balancing for WebSockets using Istio.

1. Enable WebSocket Support in Istio

By default, Istio supports WebSocket connections, but certain configurations may need tweaking. You should ensure that:

Destination rules and VirtualServices are configured appropriately to allow WebSocket traffic.

Example VirtualService Configuration.

Here, websocketUpgrade: true explicitly allows WebSocket traffic and ensures that Istio won’t downgrade the WebSocket connection to HTTP.

2. Session Affinity (Sticky Sessions)

In WebSocket applications, sticky sessions or session affinity is often necessary to keep long-running WebSocket connections tied to the same backend pod. Without session affinity, WebSocket connections can be terminated if the load balancer routes the traffic to a different pod.

Implementing Session Affinity in Istio.

Session affinity is typically achieved by setting the sessionAffinity field to ClientIP at the Kubernetes service level.

In Istio, you might also control affinity using headers. For example, Istio can route traffic based on headers by configuring a VirtualService to ensure connections stay on the same backend.

3. Load Balancing Strategy

Since WebSocket connections are long-lived, round-robin or random load balancing strategies can lead to unbalanced workloads across pods. To address this, you may consider using least connection or consistent hashing algorithms to ensure that existing connections are efficiently distributed.

Load Balancer Configuration in Istio.

Istio allows you to specify different load balancing strategies in the DestinationRule for your services. For WebSockets, the LEAST_CONN strategy may be more appropriate.

Alternatively, you could use consistent hashing for a more sticky routing based on connection properties like the user session ID.

This configuration ensures that connections with the same session ID go to the same pod.

4. Scaling Considerations

WebSocket applications can handle a large number of concurrent connections, so you’ll need to ensure that your Kubernetes cluster can scale appropriately.

Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA): Use an HPA to automatically scale your pods based on metrics like CPU, memory, or custom metrics such as open WebSocket connections.

Istio Autoscaler: You may also scale Istio itself to handle the increased load on the control plane as WebSocket connections increase.

5. Connection Timeouts and Keep-Alive

Ensure that both your WebSocket clients and the Istio proxy (Envoy) are configured for long-lived connections. Some settings that need attention:

Timeouts: In VirtualService, make sure there are no aggressive timeout settings that would prematurely close WebSocket connections.

Keep-Alive Settings: You can also adjust the keep-alive settings at the Envoy level if necessary. Envoy, the proxy used by Istio, supports long-lived WebSocket connections out-of-the-box, but custom keep-alive policies can be configured.

6. Ingress Gateway Configuration

If you're using an Istio Ingress Gateway, ensure that it is configured to handle WebSocket traffic. The gateway should allow for WebSocket connections on the relevant port.

This configuration ensures that the Ingress Gateway can handle WebSocket upgrades and correctly route them to the backend service.

Summary of Key Steps

Enable WebSocket support in Istio’s VirtualService.

Use session affinity to tie WebSocket connections to the same backend pod.

Choose an appropriate load balancing strategy, such as least connection or consistent hashing.

Set timeouts and keep-alive policies to ensure long-lived WebSocket connections.

Configure the Ingress Gateway to handle WebSocket traffic.

By properly configuring Istio, Kubernetes, and your WebSocket service, you can efficiently load balance WebSocket connections in a microservices architecture.