#mod telescope

[inanimateinsanityrsau]

yaoi? yuri?

[objectumspectrum]

Telescope Objectum

//Flag by us, term coined by us

[whirligig-girl]

Hey you made that one KSP mod with the egg planet! Also what do you think about Neptune not being aqua blue?

Mesbin in Whirligig World is more of a hamburger bun than an egg--the planet is oblate rather than prolate--it's circular around the entire equator and the pole-to-pole distance is smaller than the equatorial diameter.

anyway

I already knew about Neptune! I guess I knew it wasn't common knowledge exactly but I thought it was well known in the space nerd fandom. Maybe only in the tiny little hyperfocused circles I'm in. The reprocessed images are cool, but I've seen Uranus & Neptune in a 24" telescope and they're exactly the color shown in the new oxford study.

But this is why I already knew:

Hubble Space Telescope has been imaging Uranus & Neptune in visible light for decades and yeah, when processed similarly, they're about the same color. The difference is somewhat exaggerated in the first hubble images, but not in the top row on the second.

Notice that there is a difference, it's just subtle. The primary reason being the white polar cap of Uranus, which is really that pale blue-cyan color. It's a photochemical haze that is produced only on parts of Uranus that are in permanent sunlight--it is destroyed in the night side and the regions of day/night cycle. Under the haze layer it looks almost exactly like Neptune. When Voyager 2 flew by Uranus, the pole pointed at the Sun, so almost the entire sunlit hemisphere of Uranus was in permanent light.

In the second set of images, from Hubble, we see Uranus when it has tilted its pole a little away from the Sun. There's still a polar permanent day, but now there's a larger temperate band with a day/night cycle, and so there's no haze there, only cloud banding and methane absorption. Beneath that haze, Uranus & Neptune would be extremely similar. On the night side of Uranus in the voyager 2 days, had voyager an incredibly bright flashlight, it would likely have seen something more like Neptune on Uranus' back end.

Artistically I still like to exaggerate the color differences between ice giants--real and fictional--so in Whirligig World, Mandrake (a saturn-mass ice giant) is a noticeably darker, richer blue than Rutherford (a super-earth-mass ice giant), despite getting the same instellation from Gememma and Kaywell.

[oscconfessions]

Bonescope is peak enemies to lovers the majority of the AIB community is just cowards

.

[things-ford-pines-missed]

The Hubble Space Telescope (1990)

Thing Ford Missed #171: The Hubble Space Telescope

[errantce]

he came across a huge manor while exploring. (it's vinh's place).

[cluster-b-culture-is]

Cluster B Culture is Japanese Buffalo by Cage the Elephant

.

[joojconverts]

4T3 Conversion of HistoricalSimsLife's CC Catalogue

So… here we are, haha! This is the grand project I’ve been working on for about three months now! I made a promise to all of you, so I’m here not only to fulfill that promise and make a bit of a comeback but also to celebrate reaching the incredible milestone of 3,000 FOLLOWERS!!!

I’m so grateful to all of you for everything that has happened since I joined this community, it’s one of the little shining points of my life, lol. So, let me give back by bringing your sims MORE THAN 150 pieces of CC, including clothes, hairstyles, accessories, and buy mode objects!

You’ve probably already guessed that I have A LOT to say about this set, so please, follow me after the cut! 💖

Hope you like it, enjoy!

In this compilation are included sets, mini-sets and standalone pieces that the original creator made! Posepacks, patterns, mods, and pieces categorized as “modern” are not included! HistoricalSimsLife has a lot of 3T4 conversions, and naturally they're also not included EXCEPT for the ones that are mesh edits (e.g. here and here)! TSM to 4 conversions are also not included, as you can find every item converted to TS3 here by votenga! I also re-converted CC that I had previously converted before, such as the printing press set and the dandy suit!

————— —————

I'll link the CC just so you know what I'm talking about!

Known Problems:

Most of the time the sleeping animation that comes with the One With Nature mod looks off when making your sim sleep under the prehistoric lean-to shelter. I'm not sure why but instead of sleeping horizontally they sleep vertically, so they clip with the branches that are on the floor. Two times while I was testing they slept horizontally tho, so I'm not sure if I can fix it. Sorry!!

The drawer (chest) of the Kativip Library set doesn't have an animation!

The telescope's eyepiece looks a bit off when a sim is using it. The way the mesh is made is very different from ts3's telescopes, and it would be quite hard to make it looks seamless and also it wouldn't look good, as ts3's telescopes all look kinda silly imo hahah. Hope you don't mind it very much!

The celtic cape might clip depending on the clothes being used and the animation being played!

The round weave rug of the Rustic Living Set generates some white lines when zooming really far out. I thought it was UV map, but I tweaked it and they're still showing up. It's only apparent if you look closely tho!

LIGHTING GLITCHES ONLY APPEAR ON CAS!

* Note that teens and elders have neck gaps. This is sadly the price for having them available! For teens, try using this and this slider by gruesim!

Please let me know if you find any problems!

————— —————

ALL OG CREDITS GO T​O @historicalsimslife, Kativip and EA/Maxis! IT'S NOT MY MESHES, AND IT’S NOT MY TEXTURES, I JUST CONVERTED THEM TO THE SIMS 3!

————— —————  

Buckle up now...

NOTES & INFO:

The whole catalogue is quite low-poly and gameplay friendly, so don’t worry about that!

The whole catalogue is categorized into folders once you extract the zip, so you can pick and choose if you're playing in a specific era!

The buy mode items have collection files so you can find them a lot easier (except for the crib, the map painting and the aztek sink)! Just put them inside your "collections" folder in ts3's documents folder!

I highly recommend using the One With Nature mod by @spheresims while using the prehistoric collection!

The printing press letter plate works as a functional computer, and it's categorized as so!

The printing press desk and chair both have 4 matching presets! They're all different wood presets!

The hollow food storage works as a functional fridge for your prehistoric sims!

The Pile of Rocks cave works as, you guessed it, a cave! Actually no lol, it works as a tent, and your sims can sleep inside! It also has 5 presets, all stone textures, first one is an overlay, the rest is recolorable!

The sleeping underlay works as a sleeping bag! It has 2 recolorable presets!

The Skyrim lean-to has 2 presets! First one has an overlay texture, second one is recolorable!

The prehistoric lean-to shelter has 7 presets. The last one (fur) is recolorable, the others are overlays!

The rustic living set has two bed frames (single and double bed) and two matresses! All you need to do is to put the bed frame first, and then the matress on top of it, now you have two separate objects that can be customized!

The weave rug has 6 recolorable presets!

The round weave rug has 7 presets, and they're all combinations of recolorable and overlayed parts!

Both love seats and both bed frames of the rustic living set have 3 presets, different types of wood! Not recolorable.

The matresses also have 3 presets, they're combinations of overlayed and recolorable parts!

The old map painting has 4 non-recolorable presets!

The aztek sink has 4 presets, and they're combinations of overlayed and recolorables parts except for the last one! It also works as a functional sink!

The two empty boockases of the Katvip library set work as displays, so there are many slots for you to put decor on!

All hats/caps are hat-slider compatible and unissex!

The Dandy Lady hat (renamed it from ts3's hairstyle) has 3 different versions: One with feathers (that I made), one without them, and one without feathers nor decorations (renamed as Gone to Riding Hat)! You need to have V1 installed for the textures of the other two to show up, as they're linked!

The maid dress has 4 different versions (i know the post says 3 but it's 4 lol), as you can see on the preview! They work just like the Dandy Lady hat, above!

The Pirate Dress has an overlay you can find in accessories! Using it with the outfit you can recolor the belt and the buckle! If you don't use the accessory, those parts will just be a usual overlay texture!

You need to use a no feet mesh to use the Boy's 1700s Frock Coat, you can find one here!

The Boy's 1700s Frock Coat has has an overlay accessory, same thing as the Pirate Dress! With it you can recolor the belt, the pockets and the buckle!

The Edwardian Tea In The Garden dress has 6 presets, 5 of them are floral overlays, and the last one is a solid version.

The Regency Morning Dress has 11 presets. First one is a solid version, the last four are patterned overlays, and the rest are recolorable patterns.

The Ester Wedding Dress has 4 recolorable presets, the patterns of the bodice change!

The Simply Rococo Dress has 15 totally recolorable patterned presets!

The Embroided Rococo Dress has 2 presets: the first one is the original texture as an overlay, and the second one is a recolorable version of it (though not as good, since it's a very complicated texture).

The Vintage Men's Exercise Outfit has 6 patterned presets, all recolorable!

The Edwardian Men's underwear and the Edwardian Men's nightgown both have 2 presets, one striped and one solid. Both recolorable!

The Dandy Suit has 9 presets, first one's solid and the rest are patterned, all recolorable!

The Celtic Warrior Outfit has 2 presets. In the first one the plaid is an overlay, original texture. In the second one you can change it however you want using CASt!

The Bodacious Boy Suit has 2 presets! The mask is different, so you can recolour different parts!

The Vintage Girl's Dress With Bows has 8 presets, one of them is a solid version, another one is a recolorable patterned preset, and the rest are patterned overlays!

The Colonial Living Girl's Dress has 5 presets, last one is a solid recolorable version, and the rest are patterned overlays!

The Victorian Tweed Dress Top has 6 presets. The last one is a totally recolorable preset, the other 5 are overlay presets!

The Celtic Dress Top has 2 presets. First one is a long sleeved version, and the second is a vest like top with long sleeved white shirt underneath. Both recolorable!

The Victorian Tweed Dress Skirt has 6 presets, same thing as the top!

The Celtic Dress Skirt has 2 presets. First one has an apron with it, and the second one doesn't! Both recolorable.

I think that’s all haha! Now to the download! <3

G-Drive |  Dropbox

☕  buy me a coffee or become a patron!

————— —————

Credits & Special Thanks:

@historicalsimslife, Kativip and EA/Maxis for all the meshes and textures! Check out the full catalogue here!

Thank you @deniisu-sims, @suteflower, @sideshowsnob and @twinsimming for the general support (and help, where needed lol) when creating this collection!

💖 @eternalccfinds @katsujiiccfinds @sisilou @darkccfinds @xto3conversionsfinds @wanderingsimsfinds

[paradoxcase]

Right, so, after reading some error logs, obtaining a copy of the objects.package that shipped with the Sims 2 rerelease, and talking about this with Lazy Duchess, I have a conspiracy theory about why the rerelease is so damn broken

So first, I looked at an error log that was happening in the Enthusiasm Tracker. It was coming from the function that signs sims up for a magazine subscription after they choose that option on the phone. It's a very short function, all it does is 1) check to see if the family has a magazine subscription token, 2) create one if it does not already exist, and 3) set a property on the token regardless of whether 2 was necessary or not. All three of these actions make use of the Manage Inventory primitive, which controls not just sim inventories, but also tokens like this, memories, and gossip. I compared all like five lines of this function to the one in my objects.package, that I have from the Ultimate Collection, and they were exactly the same. But for some reason, in the rerelease, this throws an error. There is no explanation at the level of this function. I kind of scratched my head and thought, maybe they changed how the magazine subscription token works in this version, and forgot to update this function? Or something?

Next, there was an Too Many Iterations error log that had a very obvious cause: for some reason, the active family had over 500 tokens in its inventory. The family inventory isn't listed in the error log, so have no idea what those tokens were, or how there came to be 500+ of them. BUT. The aforementioned magazine subscription token is a token that goes in the family inventory. Maybe these two problems are somehow related. Are those 500 tokens all magazine subscription tokens, or something?

And then there is the infamous error that the game now throws when a sim goes to get abducted. I didn't see an error log for this one, but I was making a post on MTS listing all of the known issues with the rerelease, and someone mentioned there that the issue is not so much with the abduction as it is with other sims reacting to the abduction, and if there are no sims on the lot to react to the abduction, the error does not occur. Someone else then mentioned that the Abduction Reaction Fix mod that I made actually fixes this error. I made that mod, I know exactly what it does. What does it do?

Well, you see, objects in the game all have what is called a tree table, which is a table of interactions and the functions that need to be called when those interactions are triggered. One of the interactions on the telescope is the interaction to run to the telescope after someone has been abducted. But, in the Free Time expansion, a lot of new interactions were added to the telescope, and for some reason, EA decided to renumber all of the functions when they did that. They forgot to update the tree table, which references functions by their numbers, and as a result, the function that was called when sims were supposed to do the run-to-telescope interaction was actually the function that gives sims credit for discovering a new planet. In my mod, I fixed this, so that when sims are supposed to run to the telescope, the proper run-to-the-telescope function is called instead.

So, the error happens when my mod is not installed (when the planet discovery function is being called erroneously) and not when it is (when the run-to-the-telescope function is called instead). So the error must be coming from the planet discovery function. What is in the planet discovery function? It is almost identical to the magazine subscription function. It checks for the planet discovery token, adds it if it isn't there, and then modifies a property on it, using Manage Inventory. So this is exact same bug. And other people are reporting that some sims cannot gain memories - another game function that is handled by Manage Inventory. There is also an error that happens after a sim cooks food - one thing that happens at that point is that tokens and memories are added to the sim's inventory marking that they have successfully (or unsuccessfully) learned to cook that food.

So at this point, my theory is that EA somehow broke the Manage Inventory primitive. It's used all over the code, to do all sorts of stuff, if you break something that ubiquitous and fundamental, of course it's going to cause a whole lot of seemingly completely unrelated errors. Manage Inventory is now going hog-wild, throwing errors, adding hundreds of extraneous tokens to inventories, refusing to give sims memories, and who knows what else. I can feel it, this is the answer

[inanimateinsanityrsau]

KNFIEKNIFEL IDEKNIFE KNIFE

Yep. thats.. me…. I think you misspelled your everything

[lava-nder]

Foxbury Public Dorms

Ever wished your university housing felt a bit more.. Public? Yeah, me too. I've built these dorms for my like-minded people that want kinda yucky dorms, and kept my low-end pc fellas in mind and didn't go too wild with the clutter in areas like bathrooms and hallways where it doesn't matter as much.

🔻DOWNLOAD

Origin ID: lava-nder01

Tray files: sfs

details and more pictures under the cut

Maritime Manor, 30x20

No CC

12 dorms, beds for 27 students (some are double so it can be more)

study-meeting room

gym

indoor and outdoor party areas

art room (easel, guitar, pottery equipment, knitting, wall mural)

brains room (telescope, robot building table etc)

FLOORPLAN:

my screenshots SUCK bc i forgot to not have fisheye view everywhere but yea

BEDROOMS:

more pictures here

I will be actually making vanilla sims for ALL of the bedrooms. Yup. It's gonna take a WHILE I assume, as I put a lot of love and effort into my sims but I will also upload pics of their bedrooms along with the sims in case you want to populate the lot more easily

gameplay advice:

Move your sims with freerealestate and deduct around 100 simoleons each term to keep it realistic. These are, after all, public dorms.

Use mods to choose your uni roomates, then MCCC to up the maximum sims in zone. Since the lot can fit up to 27 sims, there should be at least, like, 30something sims allowed in zone. I'd take it up to 40 if your PC can handle it, but do it gradually, try 32 at first maybe and see how that goes.

I've recorded the footage of making this and plan on making a YT vid with voice-over! We'll see when that happens.

till then, toodaloo! tnx for reading this<33

@sssvitlanz @publicvanillabuilds @vanillafinds

[malababatoja]

"Strangeview is a pleasant stopover town, but it also keeps its secrets. Why do people mysteriously dissapear here? Do aliens live among townspeople? Could it be just a coincidence? Stay for a bit and find out yourself."

We're FINNALY back with the final version of the Strangeview - new playable neighborhood based on @budgieflitter crazy idea to mix Pleasantview and Strangeview into one. UPDATE 9 (26.02.25 9p.m. CET): -some small fixes (moved things so You can get to the telescopes at Broke-Dreamers; Darren dont think that he cheats on Darleen when in love; lowered Darren career level and skills to be consistent with the family description) -changed Broke-Dreamers description a little, because it confused a lot of people UPDATE 8 (18.02.25 10a.m. CET): -ADDED THE SUBURB VERSIONS!! -fixed Goth attic UPDATE 7 (14.02.25 2p.m. CET): -fixed Lucy Burb lifetime want -added interesting recessive genes for Jennifer, Lucy, Angela and Lilith

UPDATE 6 (13.02.25 9p.m. CET): Im very sorry, but it turned out that bc of one mistake - Bella in missingBella version was really a townie. I know this is a huge f-up. I fixed it, and You can redownload the n-hood. If You want to hide Your Bella without redownloading nhood You can go with April Black instructions in her video at the really end section called "Summary". But REMEMBER to first delete Bella from "Bendett" (Townies) family. Without it IT WONT work out.

UPDATE 5 (13.02.25 2p.m. CET): -fixed relation between Dustin and Beau so they fully recognize each other as family -fixed relations between Dirk ---> Dustin, Beau so they fully don't recognize each other as family -restored graves on Goth flat and Cemetery --> its clearly aesthetic thing tho, You can restore them if You want using "Urnstone Spawner" from modthesims

UPDATE 4 (12.05.25 8p.m. CET): It turned out, that suspiciously Brandi was not pregnant... I updated the files. Now You can: -redownload the neighborhood -go to Insimenator --> Reproductive ---> Have baby with neighbor ---> Skip Broke. You can also skip (hehe) to the second or third trimester if You want. Hope that helps, and really sory for incovenience : (

UPDATE 3 (12.02.25 11a.m. CET): Fixed wrong townie genetics - originally made by EA - e.g Kaylynn Langerak have black hair, but in DNA she has blond hair. If IT IS a problem for You now You can: - redownload the neighborhood - change DNA Yourself (that's the 15min of work, in SimPe) here's a list of all townies with wrong DNA https://thesims2.livejournal.com/5126949.html You can also play the neighborhood as You were - just keep in mind that their children may have suprising hair color!

UPDATE 2 (11.02.25 9p.m. CET): Huge thanks to @grottydotty for checking out the neighborhood and letting us know about some oversights. We fixed a lot of "aesthetic" oversights, mostly in sims memories.

UPDATE 1 (11.02.25 3p.m. CET): -fixed family ties so PT7 is NOT a sibling of Nestor Caliente (lmao) -added family flag for Alexander and Cassandra so they're recognized FULLY a family if You don't want to redownload whole hood, just "set (them) as siblings" in InSim, and it could be fine -Fixed description of neighborhood in both versions -Added missing neighborhood storytelling in "missingBella" version

The neighborhood comes in two versions:

V1 With Bella as a townie as in Clean Pleasantview

V2 With missing Bella as in OG Pleasantview (based on April Black video, debunking how it's actually done, that Bella is missing)

The neighborhood is for UC or LC; it is a maxis match neighborhood, except few recommended mods/CC below.

The townies and sims have slightly updated looks to match the Strangetown vibe.

Almost every lot was build by @peanuttysims and I think he did an AMAZING job. He've got such a talent!!!

Every house is a combination of both family houses of OG sims.

The Neighborhood comes with a few new lots, every one of them is done in Strangetown vibe. There is crappy "Gas Station"; Trailer Park as a apartment lot; Club/Restaurant in the old factory; a Strangeview Cemetery with a few graves of the deceased; a Pleasantview park made into Strangetown climate.

RECOMMENDED MODS & CUSTOM CONTENT: # Sims 2 Store content (Many sims have the hair and/or clothing) https://archive.org/details/tumblr_fae6a4b9e8cb9aa38c5f84f4e596d474_5fa9111e_540

# A mod "Watch TV from all chairs"

https://modthesims.info/d/462269/watch-tv-from-all-chairs.html

There could be problems with sims not-sitting while watching TV. This mod fixes it.

# Mirrored spiral stairs from AL

https://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/AnoeskaB/downloads/details/category/sims2-sets-objects/title/mmf-spiral-stairs-apartment-life/id/842450/

Just a mirrored version of Apartment Life spiral stairs, they're used in some of the houses.

# Conversion of female "MessyBob" to use also for men

https://modthesims.info/d/636003/vq-yam-em-messybob-ftm-conversion.html

# CREATURE FIXES by Pescado!!! http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=1482.0 For Lilith and future sims with alien eyes so the eyes work properly.

# There MAY be problem with Lilith having a normal eyes, while she should have ALIEN eyes. EVEN with Pescado mod. Sometimes game bugs out like this when an alien is a teenager. For better immersion You can download Alien Contacts and give them to the bugged teenager from the makeup/accesories category. https://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims2-body-makeup/title/alien-contacts/id/128166/

# Mod for sims with mannequin skin could have BABIES. Kaylynn have mannequin skin, so her babies also could have it, but without this mod the game WILL CRASH when she gives birth to the baby. With this mod she can actually give birth to the baby with mannequin skin <3 https://modthesims.info/d/292423 # For the suburb version remember about "allowMultipleSuburbs" from Mootilda so You can choose more than one from nice list!! https://modthesims.info/d/420924/fix-subhood-selection.html

Once more I want to thank @peanuttysims for amazing collab, and also @sepomitiva , @dina-caliente and Flatera for testing the neighborhood before the release <3

Main hood versions:

DOWNLOAD V1 with Bella as a townie

DOWNLOAD V2 with OG missing Bella Suburb versions: DOWNLOAD V1 with Bella as townie DOWNLOAD V2 with OG missing Bella

Have a great time, xoxo

[nosferatini]

🕊️ The Season of Nightingales 🕊️

🍾🎉! FIC COMPLETE !🎉🍾

IT'S DONE. 🥹

This is it. 

This is the end of the story that made me get my AO3 account. 

I've had this thing burning in my brain ever since the end of S2 came out in the summer of 2023, prompting the immediate need for resolution. 

And now I finally have it. I hope you've enjoyed it too.

Read it from the beginning here:

🕊️The Season of Nightingales🕊️

Fic Summary:

The Second Coming looms large. In this tale following the season after affection's seed is planted with a kiss, Aziraphale must keep his vow to fix Heaven before it’s too late, without asking the impossible from Crowley. As the effort is complicated by unexpected friends, an ex-Inspector Constable, a guileful Metatron, and a Heavenly floor full of the Blessed Dead—Aziraphale and Crowley find navigating their relationship is not mutually exclusive from saving the world from Armageddon. Somewhere, somehow, there is an outcome where the Nightingales sing in Berkeley Square. The angels just need each other—and maybe a little help—to find it.

Final Chapter Excerpt:

Curtains of blossoming flowers and ivy fell over the window, casting leafy shadows against the opposite wall. The trim had been completely taken over by lengthy wandering branches that erupted from the gap beneath the door. Telescoping circles of sunshine cast a dreamy glow into the room. Angelic and demonic eyes adjusted to it, absorbing the yellow-green dawn with growing awe. 

🕊️Finish the Fic from Chapter 36!🕊️

and with that... I'm done!

🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤✨🖤

🖤Time for a MASSIVE list of shoutouts!🖤

First, thanks to @addledmongoose, my first beta and one who helped me correct some of my long errant grammar stupidity and encouraged me when this fic (and my AO3 account) was just a wee baby. 

Next, r/GoodOmensAfterDark, the GOAD Writers Guild, and @whickberstreetwriters, and all the lovely mods and modlings who have made those communities thrive!

Next, I bow low at the feet of my beloved betas — u/blackjeans93, @dbacklot99, and @demonsandpieohmy. Thank you from the bottom of my black heart, for putting up with my late ass updates while providing all the TLC I needed throughout these last few months. 🖤🖤🖤

Shoutout to @wiblywoblytimeywimey754 for her linguistic skills on Agnes Nutter!

And finally, thanks to the rest of you. To you GOADers, you GO tumblrs, you readers who leave comments and kudos and encouraged me to complete this instead of leaving it at chapter one. Thanks to the ones who were cheering me on from the sidelines. 

Thanks to all of you.

I owe you all a glass of Talisker 🥃 and a mighty cheers!

To the world, lovelies!

...

Fin.

Hm....

Something feels unfinished.

But what could I be missing...?????

🤔🫣🤭

Pspspsps.... @kotias......... did I do it right? 😇

[meteorsims]

"Scientific Proposal" A pose pack by meteorsims

♡ 4 telescopic proposal poses commissioned by chucky_loves_sims

What you'll need:

♡ Pose Player

♡ Teleport Mod

♡ Ring Box

Terms of Use:

♡ Do not claim my content as your own.

♡ Do not re-upload my content.

♡ Do not upload to Simsd0m/S!msf!nds or any other site

DOWNLOAD (Patreon) (PUBLIC NOW)

------

@ts4-poses

[tonythr]

The Watcher's telescope view is a social commentary and here's why

Ok so let's set some things right first. City of Tears is amazing.

(Yes, Pale Court is also an amazing mod)

I've played Hollow Knight many times, and City of Tears is probably the one location I never get tired of. The scenery, the lore, the room layout, the music, the atmosphere - it's all perfect. It's the culmination of Halllownest's beauty, the peak of the game's art style, and the narrative's most essential location. City of Tears is the heart of Hollow Knight.

This game is a story about a Kingdom and its death, a tragedy of a society that was built on dreams of light but ultimately was consumed by the light so much that darkness became its only hope. And City of Tears stands at the center of this story. So it's fitting that the themes of corrupted dreams, society flaws, and dark hopes are what shape the lore and atmosphere of this beautiful, gorgeous location.

Did you ever notice that the tears of this Kingdom are dark despite them originating in a glowing blue lake, and the waters that flood the streets are almost as dark as the void in the Abyss? Do you ever think about how the vibrant blue color of the City is basically a culmination of how the color blue is presented in other locations (Howling Cliffs, Forgotten Crossroads, and later Royal Waterways being more of a remix of it), and how it's tied to the very essence of Hallownest (and how Resting Grounds, the location that contains Blue Lake and also uses a bright blue color, represent the very foundation of Hallownest's history, that being Seer's story about the Moth Tribe's betrayal that started the war between Pale King and the Radiance)? Do you feel like Soul Master basically represents the thunder and the lightning in this never-ending rain? Do you get it????

Anyway yeah, there are many things that can be said about City of Tears, and this is hopefully not the last time I make a post about it. What I want to talk about here is the City's society.

Basically, Monomon said it better than anyone could:

It's a very complicated topic. The narrative basically explores the inner mechanisms of a free mind, how its primary need is finding a purpose, and how its purpose turns out to be a constant need of... something. Anything. As long as there is something to want, a free mind will want it. As long as there is something to yearn for, something to enjoy, something to dream about, our minds are going to move in its direction, never wanting to stop. Because a stasis is worse than death. Because a world without dreams is an empty world.

But then again, isn't constant yearning another instance of, well, constance? If dreams never end but also never evolve, doesn't that create another kind of stasis?

Like I said, it's very complicated. Let's go back to what I was getting at in the first place. What I actually wanted to say is this:

Theese guys fucking fucked up as a society.

It's classic dystopian shit (or maybe I'm using the wrong word, but you get the point). Rich people are living in luxury while the rest are suffering. They're making gold a fucking religion and are seeing it as the only beauty in the world. The corrupt upper class are using heavy gatekeeping on the lower class.

Literally.

What's interesting is that, at first, we barely see any lower class bugs in the City. There's suspiciously few regular husks in this location, compared to how many rich guys are on the eastern side. But then we get to Soul Sanctum and it all starts to make sense.

There are no red cloaks in those corpse piles. Only the poor were killed for those experiments. It can't be a coincidence. It's straight-up elitism-based genocide (again, I don't know if I'm using the right terms, correct me if there's a better way to say that, but the point is clear).

Also, see how many streets are flooded on the western side in comparison to the eastern side.

Point is, the bugs that ruined the kingdom by always wanting more (what Monomon wrote about) are most likely theese rich ones. It's a very fitting thing for this dystopian narrative: neverending greed that leads to the downfall of a civilization.

There's a note in the Hunter's Journal that describes it in the best way possible:

For every location in the game, there is a place that functions as the center of its essence, its narrative heart, the culmination of its themes. For Queen's Gardens it's the White Lady's cocoon, for Greenpath it's the Lake of Unn, and for City of Tears (or at least its eastern part, the one with the upper class) it's the Watcher's Spire. The tallest building of the great capital. The home of (evidently) the most rich and influential bug of the City's high society. Literally the top of this social hierarchy.

He is also arguably the most mysterious dreamer out of all three. I mean, why does he have only one eye? What type of bug is he? How did he get this much power? Does he really have some kind of connection with the Collector? Is he a motherfucking fluke? Why does he seem to have an obsession with serving the King?

That last question is kinda answered by the cut content though.

That last sentence is kinda confusing. Is it regret? Is it humility? Is it pride in his sacrifice? In any case, here we see that Lurien actually knew that the Pale King was literally a god, and desired to worship him, like any other bug yearns to worship some kind of deity. So while other bugs of Hallownest worshiped PK because he was a monarch, albeit a godlike one (for all they knew he could be just an extraordinary bug, but a bug nonetheless), Lurien worshiped him as an actual god. And the intricacies of worshiping a god are one of the central themes of the game. From the moth tribe's betrayal of Radiance leading to the birth of the Infection to the Godseeker's shenanigans leading to the birth of the Shade Lord - the game makes multiple statements about gods, religious devotion and the semantics of divine power. Just that one idea that a god takes its power from the ones that worship it deserves its own post - heck, it deserves its own book.

So yeah, Lurien's devotion to the King is an important part of the story. He sure is an important character in this narrative. He also got a cool house. Being able to observe the entirety of the Hallownest's capital is badass.

But there's one thing I find odd about all that, and it's the moment we get to actually look through his legendary telescope.

Is it just me, or does this feel kinda... Underwhelming? Almost disappointing? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love this view, it's beautiful, and I would certainly love to be able to see something like this with my own eyes irl, but, looking at this picture, I can't help but wonder...

Did he actually see anything from up there?

In cut dialogue, Lurien talks about how he loves the City's streets, and his hidden lore tablet contains words about his love for bugkind, but... I see neither any streets on this image, nor any bugs (that are not vengeflies). Only spiked rooftops and rainy fog, clouding the view of the actual City.

And sure, the Spire has many windows and even had multiple watchers who were helping Lurien with overseeing the capital...

But his own spot was always this one.

His telescope was sealed in one place, letting him see only a small portion of the City and its life. Almost like his own worldview was stuck in one perspective.

Notice the wording here. It's not "The Seals must remain". It's "Bonds must remain". He's not thinking just about the Seals containing the Infection. He's thinking about the whole Kingdom needing to stay unchanged. His dream is the stasis that the Knight (and also Monomon, Hornet and, in a sense, even Radiance) want to end. The stasis that the Pale King wanted to create in order for his Kingdom (and therefore himself) to be eternal. The stasis that would allow for both Pale King and Lurien's worship of him to remain forever.

But there is always a cost to ascending higher than others, and it's that you can no longer see what's going on below or who's suffering down there. I think Lurien, sitting atop the tallest tower, was actually detached from the struggles of regular bugs. He and his Spire are the culmination of the City's upper class' ignorance towards the ones who were below them on the social hierarchy. A dreamer who dreamt of watching over the very heart of the holy civilization lived so high up he could no longer see his beloved world in its complicated, detailed entirety – and the tears of the stasis created by those like him only blinded him more.

All those flooded streets, those broken buildings, those empty halls, those starving bugs, those sealed doors - even though he watched over them, he couldn't see them.

I'm pretty sure Lurien didn't even know about the Soul Master's experiments, despite the fact that the Soul Sanctum was located right next to his Spire.

Or maybe he knew but chose to turn a blind eye to it (pun intended).

But it's kind of poetic, isn't it? It's the beauty of the tragedy of this game's characters. A Beast who had to surrender everything to the opposing civilization. A Teacher who could no longer teach. A Watcher who couldn't see the truth.

And all that makes me wonder... How much suffering could the Pale King see, standing on that platform at the top of the Abyss, facing away from the pit where his children died?

TL;DR: Lurien's point of view was too high up to actually see what was truly going on down there, both literally and metaphorically. His desire to worship the Pale King made him ignorant of the struggles of regular bugs. Similarly, the extreme elitism of the high society of Hallownest lead to ignorance, discrimination and greed, which ultimately caused the sprawl of the Infection. This side of Lurien's story might also parallel the Pale King's with his ignorance towards the discarded vessels.

TL;DR²: Eat the rich

[aziraphales-library]

Hi, I would like to say that I love your work. I'm looking for a fic that is linked to astronomy, do you have any recommendations???

Hello. Here are some astronomy fics for you...

One Of Us (All It Means Is Hope) by snek_of_eden (G)

“You’ve never seen them before, have you? Stars.” “No,” Muriel whispered, eyes reflecting galaxies. They gripped Crowley’s hand tight. “They don’t tell us.” Around them, snow fell hard and fast. Towards the heavens, everything shon. It felt impossible, but nothing was ever impossible with Crowley, was it? “Hope. That’s what stars are.” ** Muriel is exactly what Aziraphale and Crowley need. Soft December fluff! Hot chocolate, ice skating and Muriel seeing the stars for the very first time.

Sharing the Stars by lyricwritesprose (G)

Wensley has a lot of things to process. Friends with supernatural powers, literal demons hanging around. What he's afraid of. One of the things he thought he was afraid of was Mr. Crowley. But Wensley almost thinks he's getting used to Mr. Crowley. What's more, it almost seems like Mr. Crowley is getting used to him. It's an unlikely friendship—is it a friendship?—but whatever it is, it's getting moreso. Especially once Mr. Crowley figures out that Wensley is interested in astronomy.

Binary Stars by WaitingToBeBroken (T)

Aziraphale has been going to Crowley's astronomy lectures at the local planetarium for a few months now. It is only because he is really interested in space, of course. He loves all the... constellations. And the stars! And then Crowley asks him out for coffee.

A Far Cry From Our Own Sun by quiltedspacemittens (T)

An upcoming eclipse, a telescope, a public garden, and two astronomers weathering the summer along the Hudson River.

The Constancy of Stars by AppleSeeds (T)

Struggling with the fast pace of change in his life and seeking to connect with something more stable and constant, Aziraphale attends an event run by the Tadfield Astronomical Society to learn more about the stars. After meeting captivating astronomer Crowley, Aziraphale realises that the constancy he's been seeking in his life is more about wanting to have someone, rather than something, that he can rely on to always be there, but would it be too much to hope that Crowley might share his feelings?

Clear Skies by twistysoup (M)

Retired bookshop owner Aziraphale decides to join a local astronomy club, where he meets Crowley, a retired astronomy professor. They hit it off immediately and are pretty much inseparable for the rest of time. Three dates later and they find themselves sharing a cottage in the South Downs. What if it all worked out from the very beginning?

- Mod D