#the sovereign world

[notaplaceofhonour]

I was raised in the People of Destiny cult (later renamed, and more well-known as, Sovereign Grace Ministries, now Sovereign Grace Churches).

The valorization of martyrdom and The End Times was so ubiquitous it was ambient noise. We stood in the church lobby theorizing about who the antichrist would be, we argued about whether Jesus would rapture us all before, after, or during the Tribulation Period where Satan would be given free reign over the earth. There was a strong Christian Zionist fixation on Israel as the final battleground and capital of the coming Messianic Age. But the one thing we were all certain of was is that we were in the End Times, that we were not of this world and couldn’t get too attached to our lives here.

We were raised to believe our sin nature made us undeserving of life, that we deserved death and eternal conscious torture.

My parents read us the Jesus Freaks books (a series by Christian Rap group DC Talk about martyrs). I spent “devotional time” reading Fox’s Book of Martyrs. We had guest speakers from Voice of the Martyrs, their pamphlets were often stocked in our church’s information center. We grew up with our dad listening to right wing talk radio and making us listen to songs about how the Godless atheists were outlawing Christianity in America, that we could all become martyrs soon.

The group’s theology was damaging & traumatic in a lot of other ways that contributed to the suicidality I have continued to struggle with for the rest of my life. For a long time I did not believe I would live past 20. There are times when the idea of giving my death meaning by using public suicide to make a political statement has appealed to me.

So now, seeing so many social media posts glorifying the suicide of a US Airman this week, I have been furious. Reading his social media posts, I recognize so much about the way I was raised in his all-or-nothing, black-or-white mindset, the valorization of death-seeking & martyrdom, and the apocalyptic fire-and-brimstone imagery of self-immolation. The moment I saw people I followed celebrating his self-immolation, I said to myself “this feels like a cult”

So when I learned he was raised in a cult too, nothing could have made more sense to me. His political orientation may have changed, but his mindset did not—it was no less extreme or cult-like.

I’ve talked about so many of the reasons this response from the broader left scares me, including how it’s laundering that airman’s antisemitic beliefs, but I cannot think of anything that would hit me in a more personal place than this specific response to this specific situation has.

When I see the images, I think: that could have been me. That scares me, and what scares me more is that so many prominent people are overwhelmingly sending the message to people like me that there is nothing else we can do that would have a more meaningful impact than killing ourselves for the cause.

I do not believe that. I will not even entertain it. And having to see his death over and over and over again, to argue against people who are treating this like an intellectual/moral exercise or a valid debate we all have to consider has been immensely triggering and fills me with a rage I rarely feel. It’s unconscionable that we are even putting self-harm on the table, and that pushing back against that is somehow controversial.

There is hope. Our lives do have meaning. There are far more effective means of fighting injustice. And the world is a better place for having you in it. Don’t fall into believing this is a way to give life purpose.

[starlitangels]

So… the Sovereigns trapped in Death have been “starved” so severely (or just depleted I guess?) that they have basically all merged into one single entity over the last several thousand years, right?

And when E’Laetum and Min’Ara were speaking to Starlight, they basically told Starlight that Avior and them need to fetch “a Sovereign” to bolster the Meridian and say something about “[the Sovereigns’] Prima” and referred to the Prima as “he” and “him” (“give him a new [prison] instead” –Min’Ara)

I originally took that to mean, like, some sort of leader among the Sovereigns (because even if there aren’t many Sovereigns, they probably have some sort of leader because there’s always that one friend in the group who kinda takes charge when they have to right?) because the word “prima” is the root for “primary” meaning “first” or “fundamental” or “of chief importance”

But now I’m starting to wonder if E’Laetum and Min’Ara knew that the Sovereigns would slowly dwindle into one entity with many minds (because they feel it happening to themselves too)

And instead of “Prima” being a leader, they meant that Avior and Starlight need to find this one single entity that used to be all the individual Sovereigns

They seemed to imply they only needed a single Sovereign to bolster the Meridian (at least for now) but if there’s kind of only “one” left, essentially they’d be taking the Deathwalkers’ charge(s, no more) from Death to strengthen the Meridian

If that works and the Sovereigns get placed in the Meridian, a new prison… maybe the Deathwalkers can leave Death. “Come home”, as it were. Forever altered by millennia in Death, but their purpose fulfilled

[astrugglingacademic]

Thinking of Azhdaha holding Morax close to his chest, contemplating his conflicting emotions. This is the young god who brought him back to the surface, gave him eyes to see. But he is also what the Primordial One represents, and he can't help but feel angry that Morax has what was taken from him as a Sovereign.

This is his beloved, this world is all Morax has ever known. How could he expect him to understand a world before the Primordial One and humanity??

So he just kisses the side of his head and hums the song of the earth as a lullaby, knowing that there truly are none who share the memory left, and that even he will forget about it in due time.

[upthewitchypunx]

I usually don't care that we get those giant ULINE catalogs because it wastes the money of a shitty family to print and ship them. However, I did not consider the weight of those bricks in the bag of our postal carrier. I think I'll call to cancel because we get two shipping to our house. I'll save the postal carriers back a little bit.

[vox-anglosphere]

Some touching moments following the Queen's death one year ago

[wiirocku]

Isaiah 61:11 (NLT) - The Sovereign LORD will show His justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise Him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, with plants springing up everywhere.

[belligerentbagel]

take this sinking boat and point it home  we've still got time  raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice  you've made it now 

widojest 4: after the end 🍎

[rozecrest]

sorry for still having clem feelings but i heard “i think that clementine kesh is marked by the misfortune of her birth.” and became cursed forever

[never-was-has-been]

[tierrahenri]

social construct is any category or thing that is made real by convention or collective agreement.[1][2] Socially constructed realities are contrasted with natural kinds, which exist independently of human behavior or beliefs

[dutybcrne]

Smth smth Kae may worry abt any biological child if his getting afflicted with the Curse, whether they ought to be informed abt their Heritage or held secret up until a certain age, or worst case, them being hurt by Celestia or sb, but you can BET he’d jump his partner’s bones in a heartbeat if they so much as said they thought abt kids

[topnotchquark]

They are considering selling Dorna Sports?!?! At a valuation of £2Bn only?????

[pitty-aegis-parlor]

...SO! Given that you fine guys and gals are aware of both V1 and the unrelentingly shitty nature of his homework, I frankly couldn't resist sharing with you all a... little tid-bit about ULTRAKILL's Hell/Underworld that frankly make the circumstances of that world even worse... while also niftily explaining certain odd gameplay details you all normally wouldn't bat an eye towards like doors suddenly locking themselves and machines/husks/demons/angels spawning in to slaughter you. For some context, the following encrypted message was discovered via ULTRAKILL's Wait Of The World ARG and the information on it was discovered by a member of the Hell Exploration And Excavation Project, which was abruptly cancelled due to... well, just read and see.

(Also, for maximum effect, I'd recommend you all have this song play while reading this info.

https://youtu.be/fI2u6mSd62s?si=cGJ8ZR6K0AS8bNhj )

'ive figured it out. i know why the creatures are suddenly and undetectably appearing inside our facilities. i know why spare parts and pieces of machines keep disappearing. i know why the doors seem to malfunction and suddenly lock themselves. its not a glitch in the system. its...

hell is alive. it breathes. it thinks. the entire area is a massive intelligent superorganism and it is harsh and it is cruel. just by watching us it has learned how our systems and machines work. it has not only begun to deconstruct our technology but also reassemble it in perverse ways, attaching parts to the creatures it tortures, making them into an aimless army of death and destruction. it warps them across itself to get them past our security. it locks our doors to trap us with them.

this is not an attack. this is not a defence. this is entertainment. this is an exhibition of death and cruelty and suffering for its own sake. it had grown tired of what it had and we unwittingly just offered ourselves up as new playthings.

tom please for the love of god cancel this project immediately, we have to abandon everything and seal this place away. leave the machines and tools behind. evacuate as many as we can, before it is too late.

i can only hope this encrypted message is received before the organism learns to read it and intercept it. whatever happens, we can not let this being find a way out and spread to the surface. we ha

a n o t h e r d i e s . b r i n g m e m o r e . i h u n g e r .'

...needless to say, Mythra's concerns about Alrest's afterlife not being like THIS is now even more understandable than it already was.

What the Fuck did we just walk back into???

Uhm… I believe it’s the fact that hell in that sovorei- I mean robots universe is alive?

Yeah….. well asker was completely right about how I’d feel about that!

YOU TWO ARE BACK! What were you talking about?

Hell is a living, conscious sadistic superorganism in V1’s universe.

WHAT!?

[butwhatifidothis]

If you ever did a rewrite of CF, how would you do it 👀 i wonder what it would be like without the player pandering and if it actually addressed Edie's actions. seeing byleth and the eagles never confront her is frustrating.

lmaoooo Imma be perfectly honest and say that I don't think I could ever muster up the same amount of effort rewriting CF as thoroughly as I tried for VW (I don't think you meant all that lmao but ye), but for a few bullet points:

Have the same requirements for CF - getting C+ and going to the coronation - but make the events in question far less immediately close. Edelgard is supposed to be an aloof character, so her opening up about the contents of her night terrors to anyone as the ice-breaker of a support chain is... not good lmao. I think this is an easy enough thing to iron out: just have her talk about her siblings in the C+ support. The base C and C+ kinda just overlap much of the same information anyway, so it'd be fairly easy to fit it all in one support. And then the C support can still have Byleth catch Edelgard having a night terror, but she can instead just be disinclined to talk about it with someone she only kinda knows.

Get rid of the rat screeching scene and the portrait scene. Full stop. They are completely unnecessary and only take away from the seriousness of Edelgard's character from how they are implemented. You can easily incorporate Edelgard's fear of rats - the only thing of any substance to be gotten from either scene - into her supports with Byleth, or even have them rarely crop up in a few other support chains (doesn't particularly matter which ones). You can even put rework the portrait scene and instead put it in her S support, where it makes the most sense for her to be so obviously infatuated with Byleth (and not, you know, after you killed/exiled Claude). You can have the cute moments and not have them cut into Edelgard’s character!

Have a good chunk of the Black Eagles leave Edelgard upon the Holy Tomb chapter. This incorporates something that already happens - Flayn leaving the player army in specifically CF - and spreads it across the cast so that their characters stay intact. Ferdinand, Linhardt, Caspar, and Bernadetta leave the army - with Linhardt and Bernadetta going into hiding/reclusion and Ferdinand and Caspar being outright enemies. Petra stays, but her dialogue is shifted to more heavily imply that she's doing so to keep Brigid safe more so than loyalty to someone who's uh. Just tried to murder her and her friends lmao. Dorothea is the one that stays out of a genuine - and blind - trust in Edelgard. Her base character already tends to blame the Church and nobles for everything wrong in the world, so I can see her siding with Edelgard due to a belief in Edelgard's "burn the world down and rise from the ashes" mentality. In the four defected Black Eagles' places are Jeritza - who never should have been DLC locked in the first place lmao - Metodey (who doesn't die in the Holy Tomb here), Randolph, and Lasdislava. You'll note that two out of four of these people either give off the vibes of a serial killer or is literally a serial killer, another one is willing to lay siege on a building that was housing defenseless people his leader didn't allow to be properly evacuated purely to gain clout, and the last person is the only one who seems to genuinely believe in Edelgard's ideals - meaning, three out of four of the replacements are shitty people, and the last one idolizes Edelgard. This gives the player a sense as to the kind of people who will "rise up" in Edelgard's world - the ruthless, the cruel, the opportunistic, and the blindly loyal. People who are either like Edelgard or will follow her, people who don’t care for the truth because it either contradicts what Edelgard says or the truth gets in the way of them doing what they want (because if Edelgard is actually wrong then that means that they don’t have an excuse to do what they want, which is either inflicting violence on people or gaining clout), and people who are willing to resort to Edelgard’s violent methods in a way that helps her fulfill her ideals. It’d probably hit a lot harder to see so many of the Black Eagles leave the army, especially once the player sees who’ve taken their places. And on that note...

Restrict who can be recruited onto CF. Honestly this idea should have been unilaterally applied to all routes, but CF makes the most sense to have this happen with given that it’s the one instigating the violence in Fodlan. And I mean it’s very limited - Felix, Shamir, Hanneman, Lorenz, Hapi... and that’s about it for recruitment options. These are the only ones that either outright hate the Church and want it destroyed (Hapi), have similarly unfounded beliefs as Edelgard (Hanneman), can be argued as having no connection to any place in Fodlan (Shamir), or is willing to turn their backs on their homeland for whatever reason (Lorenz for keeping his territory safe, Felix out of misguided stubbornness). Everyone else has someone holding them back from joining CF - a deep loyalty to either the Church, their homelands, or their leaders (or in some cases, a hatred for the Empire for what it’s done to them personally - lookin’ at you Lysithea and Leonie) should prevent them from being able to join Edelgard. This also come with the side effect of making CF far harder than the other routes, purely from the limited options in unit deployment. Adds on to CF already having the most unique maps in the game lol

That’s all I can come up with off the top of my head lmao, so I hope that it’s something alright :P

[asphuxia]

commissioned artwork by @zzpopzz.

hey everyone, happy birthday to eir & happy new year !! as of this post, it’s officially the third year since i first started writing eir & the third celebration of her birthday in toa. thank you for the journey ! i hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful year going forward, and continues to be well and healthy. it’s been such a joy to write eir with everyone here, both past and present, and i’m so grateful to get to share the experience with such amazing people and writers. i’m really sorry i couldn’t devote a lot of time to rp this year, and although the next looks equally as busy, i’ll try my best. thank you for your company and patience as always !

additionally, this post has also been made to signify her continuity change from loosely following her appearances in feh’s forging bonds post-book 3, to now post tempest trials+: life & death. aside from the clear change in appearance & demeanour (though her development in toa has already given her a similar effect, & she will continue to don the ashen wolves uniform), eir also acquiesces to her role as sovereign of ymir and hel, kingdoms of life & death. this fact will not be widely known, but is no longer a complete secret in toa canon (i.e, your muse will have to ask about it / hear it from a zenithian source). she may also undergo a url change soon after this as well. if you have any questions, feel free to ask ! and please look forward to meta observing the tempest trials+ soon. thank you :} !!

[candyredmusings]

          Ah, the eternal refrain of humanity. 

                              Pleading ignorance ... 

                                                                      begging for mercy.