#lore discuss

[lightontainted-ask]

TSAC: Greetings! My name is Three Stars Above Clouds. I am Director of the Zenith Stellar Observatory Consortium and Lead Archivist of the Zenith Data Archives.

I have a question for Missing Link of Chain. It is to my understanding that you have curated quite an impressive collection of historical records, and I was curious to learn more about your archival methods.

I maintain a large archive of my own, primarily used to store observational and scientific data. My own archives are primarily data pearl-based; this storage method allows large data payloads from my telescopes to be moved relatively quickly, and also facilitates fast data read/write speeds. However this method of data archival has its limits- for instance it is quite inefficient in the storage of high-resolution qualia, which tends to rapidly exceed normal data pearl memory limits.

I am eager to learn about your own data storage techniques, given the contrast between our respective duties. What kind of information do you maintain in your own archives, and how is it stored? Do you have any particular preferences when it comes to data organization? Are you aided by scholars in the curation of your archives? Do you have any records on hand that you are willing to share?

Please excuse my bevy of questions; I am simply curious about your work. I hope this message finds you well and I wish you good luck in your endeavors. (@threestarsaboveclouds) (ooc: I hope this gives you some worldbuilding stuff to chew on lol. Enjoy)

Hello TSAC! I'd be very happy to answer all your questions, from one archival iterator to another.

About my archival methods- I think you'll find it apparent I don't use many pearls. They fade over time if not cared for properly, and I store far too much data to be stored in a pearl network. Besides, they're particularly easy for me to lose...

Rather, I've taken a long-term storage method that uses purposed organisms to store massive amounts of data in the form of qualia, text, images, audio, and so on. You may even recognize similar organisms around many citadels, storing the memories of those who've ascended. These neural amalgams are stored and grown in large biometal and glass buildings atop my can, towering about as tall as any city, and sprawling even wider. It can be either horrifying or beautiful depending on your tastes. Or neither, if you're me.

This, of course has upsides and downsides. The upside is that this storage method lasts for a very, very long time. However, retrieving the data again is not as optimized. This is not a problem for me, as much of what I store is... rather useless anyways.

Which is what my main job is. Anybody can store data in some neural meat. But that data is scrambled and unorganized, I make sure that everything is properly formatted and easy to find again through a system of complex tags and IDs identified to every segment of data and- actually I'll save that explanation for another time.

My time is more spent organizing rather than going out to find documents myself. Over 99% of the data stored in my archives have been donated to me by scholars, volunteers, companies, and other iterators!

Normally, this would be an easy task. Even easier for me, as I've been designed with a larger processing strata and memory conflux in order to run more parallel processes, but even still, I estimate I'd collapse before I fulled tagged, ID'd, and sorted everything.

Luckily there's a priority system for donated data so I'd get through all the actually useful documents first.

I hope this may satisfy some of your curiosities.

(-ooc, I was going to draw the structures mentioned, but I really don't want to anymore. Here's a wip! Yes I know it shows nothing. Just imagined Memory Crypts but very very tall. And a little less shaded.)

[paperlit]

We as a fandom moved way too fast past this:

And this:

[nickpeppermint]

New baby Ghast was added, and they're super adorable!!!

But now i wonder if the baby Ghasts from Minecraft Dungeons are not canon anymore, or maybe they're translucent only in the newborn stage, and the rehydrated ones are more like toddlers? 🤔

[baba-is-blog]

Baba like dragons?

DRAGON IS FAVORITE

[uesp]

The Black Door in Oblivion Remastered is one of the more unfortunate consequences of a remaster, with information being lost between versions.

The additional figures added separates this from the mythology of the Night Mother sacrificing her five children, and her blade is no longer obviously Mehrunes' Razor.

More subjectively I prefer the glowing red hand from the original to the newer one that is a direct reference to the Black Hand, simply for being cooler. Also more subjectively, the child the Night Mother is holding in the original was harder to notice, I thought it was a hammer initially, although it is obvious when you notice the legs for example.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Speaking of how the heroes are chosen, the temp system might be one of the worst writing choices the writers ever made. I mean I get it, permanent heroes would require the show to have continuity and it makes for yet another parallel with Gabriel, but it just ends up being another one of those instances of the show trying to have its cake and eat it too, like. The new heroes eat up screen time that could've gone to the OG duo, but they also don't get to be heroes in their own right and are essentially Ladybug's Pokemon. It makes both people who liked the duo and people who like team-based shows unhappy for no real benefit.

It's also just a massive security risk. Fu says that it's dangerous for the Miraculous to be out in the open, but it's actually way less risky to put the Miraculous in circulation, because then Hawk Moth has to retrieve them by defeating every hero individually, which is a lot more effort. Keeping them all in one place and distributing them one at a time like this means Hawk Moth only has to figure out who's in charge of the distributing and follow that person right to the Miracle Box. Ferrying the Miraculous for every battle also creates more opportunities to lose them, which is how Queen Bee ended up happening.

Looking back, the problems of just about every season finale past S1 can be traced back to this system. It's almost like the writers are trying to set Marinette up to fail.

Ladybug's Pokemon

I love that phrasing! I've just called them her powerups, but this paints a much clearer picture of what I mean. They're not her autonomous teammates who feel vital to the story. They're her cute little friends who do whatever she says. All she has to do is pick which ones she wants for today's battle.

Fu says that it's dangerous for the Miraculous to be out in the open, but it's actually way less risky to put the Miraculous in circulation, because then Hawk Moth has to retrieve them by defeating every hero individually, which is a lot more effort.

Ferrying the Miraculous for every battle... creates more opportunities to lose them, which is how Queen Bee ended up happening.

These are two of my biggest issue with the temp heroes as a general concept. Fetching them every battle gives Gabriel endless chances to find out the temp heroes identities and/or where the guardian is hiding. I don't know why the show acts like the problem was Ladybug forgetting to detransform in Heart Hunter:

Ladybug: Master Fu, I need your help! Master Fu: (sees Ladybug, gasps) This costume is very cute, miss, but is it really fitting in this place? Ladybug: (gasps) I forgot to transform back. (Looks arounds enters the center of the merry-go-round trying to remain unseen) I haven't been followed Master, I'm sure of it.

Nathalie would have been able to track Ladybug either way. At least this way Marinette's identity stayed a secret!

It would make infinitely more sense for Fu to be the one to hand out the miraculous to the temp heroes for two reasons. The first one was laid out above. Having him or some other support character do it is the best way to keep his identity a secret. You should not have Ladybug leaving battles to do it. That's too easy to track because the villains know where she's going to be when she goes running off for help.

The other reason is because it's asinine to have Ladybug run off every time they face a major threat. Think about that logic for a second.

Ladybug: This akuma is too hard for us to fight as a duo! Chat Noir, you stay here and fight this super hard akuma alone while I go get reinforcements. I'll be back in half an hour or so. Chat Noir: Wait, what? How am I supposed to- Ladybug: Have fun! Don't die! Bye!

How did that never backfire on them? I get temp heroes being temp for a few fights, but they should have all been given their miraculous full time ages ago.

[brawltogethernow]

We’re so diligent about it that I forget that me and like two point five of my friends are the only people on the planet who call Andre the Ice Cream Man from Miraculous Ladybug “the amatonormative ice cream witch”. This concept has gradually built up a lot of interconnected lore and sometimes I have to pause and remind myself that we made absolutely all of it up as a joke.

[dictatorshipper]

The Manager is NOT Abel, Abels were the seven billion alternative Nyarlathoteps (unprecendted murder that permanently changed the metaphysical nature of the murderer, Kayne). If Manager is anyone from that myth, then he is Seth (read as Sif, not as the egyptian evil chaos god), the third brother, the father of mankind (creator of the Waylay — a sanctuary)

Please spread the word

[black-suns-rim]

My two cents on Dek

I know Dek is a hot topic in the yautja fandom right now. I'm seeing a lot of opinions on him and discussion about his appearance.

I dont care what people think, I'm really digging his look. He looks like a young yautja, a teen. He looks much younger than Chopper, Celtic, and Scar (who I consider more like young adults/older teens). The way that Dek's face is shaped could just be because of his young age and having not matured fully yet. Here's an example for what I mean

Dek could just belong to a species of yautja that has a different developmental stage (because I highly doubt he's part human like a lot of people have been saying about him, given how yautja canonically view humans). Plus, "first hunt, last chance" seems like Dek is going on his very first hunt, NOT CHIVA! (Chiva being what Scar, Celtic, and Chopper were doing in AVP; a ritual hunt as a rite of passage into adulthood) He could still be in the unblood rank, having not hunted anything before.

On top of that, it's confirmed he's a runt; much smaller than the others and wanting to probably prove himself to his clan and to his father. Him being a runt could also be the reason why he looks different.

Some commentary about his appearance

His bottom left tusk looks like it's chipped or has been broken in the past. Due to him being a runt, he has probably been bullied and has suffered from abuse from his peers.

His eyes are so uncanny, and I love it. It gives an unsettling vibe to his appearance

Bro's skin looks soft. This could also play into him being a teen/young. His lack of scars too

His armor looks like what you'd wear as someone who doesn't have much status. Like hand-me-down armor

Conclusion

Dek is a teenager going on his very first hunt for approval and acceptance. He's not half human; he's just young and a runt.

[dragonpropaganda]

Rain World Lore Iceberg

Verified by a team of insane lore scholars and one low level, peripheral DLC developer

[chikorra]

'I'll be who you were and I'll be even more.'

[Practice with reference - Mother & Daughter photography by justinveenema]

[lightontainted-ask]

Addressed to Cage Of Membrane

What are your thoughts on the culture of ascension and the cycle? Do you feel anything regarding the fact you create entities just for them to become bound by the thing many of your creators lamented?

i... vaguely remember. when i i was first-t constructed, many argued-d about the ethic-c-s and philosophical implic-cations

it would be t-too simple t-to say our creators ever-r agreed on one t-thing.

one s-side said life it-t-self was suffering-g. the other believed that-t life had value, and that the cycle was at-t fault, not-t existence. a a whole other side argued-d that we w-w-would find the solution someday, and that none of this would mat-t-ter when that-t time comes

as for-r m-my own thought-ts on your q-question: i stand-d somewhere in that-t latter part-ty. life will end up in the cycle w-whether or not we want-t it-t to. what dent-t in that could i i possibly make at-t this point...

[glouris]

I do not agree with the notion of characters' gameplay paths not being their 'lore' paths at all.

imo they wouldn't be called 'pathstriders' if the paths we were shown were not correct at all. the way I see it, a person who's personal ideals and actions allign with one path could easily belong to a larger faction that follows another eon as a whole.

excuse the genshin allegory here, but I think hoyo made paths funcion like visions - a character on the path of the hunt could easily be following preservation, like a character with a pyro vision could hail from fontaine. but then also an emanator of nihility could not be something else, like an electro archon could not have a dendro vision.

so, I decided to take a look at (almost) every character and propose some reason for them being assigned their path

Nihility: things losing meaning, falling into fears and hopelessness

Erudition: pursuing or keeping vast amounts of knowledge

Destruction: eradication of the self or what's around you

Hunt: condemning something, leading it towards your judgment 

Preservation: protecting what exists in this moment

Abundance: letting life flourish, continue in the future

Harmony: not letting a single part of the collective to collapse or overpower the other, keeping things ‘whole’, peaceful

if we take, for example, Dr. Ratio - even his gameplay kinda makes sense. he launches follow-up attacks when there are enough debuffs on the enemy - he's eradicating the influence of Nihility. same thing with Acheron.

some reasons I'm thinking off here might be wrong, or there must be much more to think of here, but I'm pretty sure that the gameplay paths are the actual paths of the characters. plus, it's been stated that the pathstriders could change their path, unlike eons and emanators.

[jad3-d]

scara: was seen by ei as too emotional and fragile to be a vessel for a gnosis, couldn’t bring himself to kill kazuha’s great grandfather due to sentiment, didn’t hesitate to erase himself to try and fix his past mistakes, is always seen surrounded by small creatures in his official arts, literally carries a little doll he made himself around as a traveling companion, etc.

a lot of people after this event, for some reason: wtf why is he suddenly being soft?

[tjodity]

I feel like Ros is a tragic character for a lot of reasons. And one of them is that despite being this incredibly vibrant and layered person, a genius architect, a black and white judge jury and executioner, deeply suicidal, capable of massive feats of empathy, deeply lonely even among friends, none of that really seems to affect how people treat her. It isn't the cause for the good or the bad things that happen to her. What influences these things is instead the 'idea' of what she is that they project onto her. Ros is treated as a damsel in need of saving, or someone misguided by more conniving, more truly malicious forces, or the nice and eternally patient confidant, or an infallible beacon of kindness. When Aimsey challenges Ros to a duel and gets killed it's because he refuses to believe that she could truly hold a deeply cruel and violent mindset of how the kingdom needed to be run. When people protest Ros's concerns about her place in the kingdom they call her the "heart", the "glue" that holds the kingdom together, they do not bring to mind that she built the kingdom brick by brick, killed to defend it, took the throne when Foolish died, and has handled most of the negotiation with other factions. When people cast aspersions on her friendships with Bad or Clown it is because they cannot believe that her flaws and poor choices are a real aspect of her born from a complicated human being. The further layer of the tragedy is that only her enemies and those who leave her seem to actually understand her. Owen is the one to comment on how greatly the kingdom undervalues her. Mocha is one of the few people to interrogate and dig into her thinking, and Pili2 becomes one of her closest friends in the kingdom despite being around for a fleeting amount of time.