#world building information

[dontf8arthereaper]

Bezelbub after Her resurrection and rebirth into a legendary horror by both the goddess of makai and the messiah with her heart and memories remain the same for a few years she started devoting herself to christ and became a Mormon using both Koishi's love and wisdom and the lord's wisdom with his way into the light to cope with the fact that she is a horror, her murderous tendencies that is amplified by the horrors and also to protect her son from danger until reunited with Koishi and her family. Outside of her peace with the lord Bezelbub is more cold towards other horrors, and use the more feral and nightmarish horrors to become apart of her pack and kill only those she had deemed the sole reason for gensokyo's own downfall and to have revenge against those who had wrong her master and the lord's name. She was feared by almost all of them even, she was a dog without a master but a dog without hope cause even as a demon beast of makai her heart and remains true to her words, Loyal until the very end.

[crispyjenkins]

mandalore the young cont.

original post/discussion here! it was just getting really long and i for one hate scrolling so far, so. here's this. have also added this au to my masterlist in my pinned post!

@malcontent-crow

#i had a whole wall of tags and it didnt save! lets try this again#i am loving this. the potential for world building and the consequences of knowing more than you should (literally)

#i had forgotten that DW wasnt in peoples thoughts as a threat during the Clan Wars#and the idea that Pre was so far underground with the movement is a very good thing to remember as well! #on one hand you have this driven and spirited young verd that is inspiring Clans to start reassessing who they are fighting and why#on the other you have this clanless outsider that knows waaaaay too much about all the potential major players and is saying#that this major threat isnt really as gone as everybody thought and hoped. sith parallels out the wahoo for ppor obi#and hes standing there watching them all argue over his head about this threat that he KNOWS needs to be dealt with#he is seeing himself as pretty on par or above with the Old Guard in terms of mental age or prowess or large scale battles#so he sees them doubt him maybe even to his face and knows he'll need to get things started on his own

#and becauae everything in the galaxay has at least one person watching it from the outside... how quickly does the news of a jedi padawan#going off the rails on this mission get out? whos keeping track and who points fingers at the jedi for attempting to control the outcome#of the war of their historical enemies in their favor? the senate (read sith) want mandalore defanged before their war but what does it look#like the jedi want? how does the council answer for his actions? do they condemn or condone him? do they try to stay out of it?

#the world building potential of the Manda and the Ka'ra is delicious.#what does it mean to be a mando or darmanda? can you walk around and have people look at you and know you have failed in your oaths?

#and ouch! Obi-Wan considering the fact that he has never been allowed to be his own person.#from padawan to knight/master and then a general and councilor and sheesh. hes really never had the chance to see who he is as a person#outside of his responsibilities to everybody around him and right now hes a war worn adult in a war worn teens body#hes always had somebody else there. as a battle companion a teacher a student as somebody to protect and guard and guide#and now he has this entire culture looking at him and waiting for his next move. and im guess it still feels like less than a burden than#the care and raising of an entire child on his own. sure he had the temple resources and other jedi to lean on but anakin always looked to#him first to solve any problem or teach him something new or cuddle him after nightmares as hes trying to hide his own dreams#and grief and flounding to find his footing as an independent adult

#so right now hes looking around at the entire mando population and realizing thats he might need to reshape himself again for somebody else#to make himself what others need and knowing he can and will do it if it means saving somebody else

#and when exactly did he come back from the war? did he have satine die in his arms and see the ruin that is madalore after a pacifist reign?#does he see the potential for that ruin to happen right now if he doesnt succeed? where does he see himself in regards to the jedi?#has he considered the consequences of stepping up to be the Mand'alor to this culture he has never seen as his own?#has he let himself think about the choices he needs to make and how some things you cant always come out the other side the same as before?

(following the trend of each of these getting longer, this has hit just under 5,000 words, so just a heads up lol? so much world building is happening in this one)

sorry you had to rewrite so much! that last exchange was cursed, it seems lmao

it's so easy to write Obi-Wan as prescient, or the route I'm going with in Dha Kar'ta, so i think it's a fun change-up to have him knowledgeable for completely different reasons! I'm actually going to avoid visions almost at all for this Obi, but everyone else certainly won't know the difference, and he doesn't tell them otherwise (though he won't encourage it either. I do actually have a Naruto time travel where Nart pretends to be psychic à la Shawn Spencer, so that isn't the route I wanna go for this Obi). the consequences of knowing too much, indeed

hmmm many of these questions depend on how deep into Jedi and galactic politics I wanna go, and I'm not sure it's very deep at all. or at least, not very dragged out. i'll explain in a mo

SO first: yes, this Obi is from after Satine dies, in 19 BBY, maybe a month or so after, but before the bombing of the Temple so before Ahsoka left the Order. He was back on the front, no time to properly mourn, though he was doing his best, and was meditating on the whole war, but especially the Sith and their hand in everything that happened on Mandalore. It went deeper than Maul, he knew, had been going on longer than Maul and even Dooku, and it occurred to Obi-Wan that the Sith either wanted a Mandalore that will side with them but not be too much a threat, or they wanted them not a threat at all. He realised his hand in that, in helping put the New Mandalorians on the throne that led to the demilitarisation of the entire sector. Obi-Wan had practically teed Mandalore up for Dooku and then Maul's interference, and if the Republic won the war, he could all too easily see them doing another excision. won't get too much into it to save it for the fic, but he is mediating with something beskar, and he gets a lil too deep into the Force, and of course this is post-Mortis so...... 👀

so this Obi-Wan, back in time, is helping Mandalore to prevent any more Sith machinations in the future, to change the future for the whole galaxy, but even before he's Chosen, he realises he's also doing all of this for Mandalore. for his own hand in its destruction, for the Jedi's hand in the Excision, for his personal connection to Satine drawing Maul to it. it's for atonement, for reparation, and also because Mandalore deserves to be saved, and Obi-Wan is in a place he can help do that. it isn't just about the health of the galaxy, anymore.

I usually shy away from having Obi-Wan leave the Order, no matter what AU I'm throwing him in because I believe in the fundamental goodness of the Order and the people in it, and Obi-Wan is fundamentally a Jedi, one of the best, one of the best. however, in this case, I don't think he can have his cake and eat it too. if Dooku had to leave the Order to accept his countship, then Obi-Wan would have to leave to become Mand'alor. Jedi are (supposed to be) politically neutral, and Obi-Wan is all too aware he'd nullified his own neutrality the moment he decided to go for Keldabe to find Jango.

one of my favorite... tropes? in time travel fic is Obi using his future fellow councilmembers' access codes to get into things he shouldn't, and he certainly knows how to work the Order's internal systems in his favor, so he

wait so i was gonna have him go in and tender his resignation from the Order directly into the systems, and backdate it for before the Mandalore mission, so that anything he's done on Mandalore so far cannot be blamed on the Jedi BUT WHAT IF he just. deletes himself. like completely. from admin to the Archives to the crèche's own internal systems to the Shadow's private servers, Obi-Wan Kenobi was never a Jedi, was never a Temple bastard, was never Qui-Gon Jinn's padawan. his mission records are all in Qui-Gon's name now, his medical file simply doesn't exist, his crècheling clan is listed as simply having been a person short compared to other clans that year. he goes so far as to delete comm histories with him or mentioning him, it's like Obi-Wan Kenobi just doesn't exist anymore.

he does this first thing after leaving Jango, he spends the entire week back to Mandalore ensuring he's been completely erased from absolutely anything relating to the Jedi, and then uses his future councilmember knowledge (and lessons from Quinlan) to erase himself from Republic systems, too. any planet he'd helped as a padawan will suddenly have no records of him as having been there with his master, so the senate or Order can't subpoena them for the info, though Obi-Wan knows he can't have gotten everything (such as any planet not in the Republic, or who don't have holonet access to their files, or both, like Melida/Daan), but he figures he's done enough to absolve the Order if anyone comes knocking about what he's doing.

he buries his lightsaber in the deserts of Mandalore, not knowing that in his old future, he'd have done the same on Tatooine.

so as far as the Jedi are aware: Obi-Wan went on a mission with Qui-Gon that (predictably) went to hell, got separated from his master for weeks to months, then suddenly changed, at the same time their Jedi with the highest prescience collapsed due to his visions, which have also changed. Obi-Wan left Qui-Gon behind to hightail it through the Mandalore sector, and Qui-Gon couldn't catch up or find him, and then Obi-Wan disappeared from anyone's radars for two weeks. then Qui-Gon senses him reenter the Mandalore system, right before breaking his training bond with him, and the Order wakes up to Obi-Wan completely erased from their systems like he never existed in the first place. everything is going so so wrong, and yet. and yet.

and yet the Force is telling them all that this is right, that this is the least Dark course of action, that whatever Obi-Wan is doing is indeed the Will of the Force

so the Order mourns one of their own, and tells Qui-Gon to let him go. and then the Order ups their cyber security because what.

i think he leaves an unsigned letter/comm message for a few people. Bant, Quinlan, Mace, Feemor, his old crèchemaster, Yoda, maybe Jocasta Nu. it's short, basically thanking them for their hand in his upbringing (Feemor hasn't even met him before so is very confused by this), apologising for leaving abruptly, but to follow the Will of the Force, he had to leave; the first part of the message is all the same, but ends with little individual notes. he apologises to Madam Nu for fucking with her archives and hopes she can one day forgive him; he asks her to keep her friends close and to mend the tension between her and Dooku, that Obi-Wan should not know about. He tells Yoda that the future is always in motion but they must move with it; he asks Yoda to meditate on his dwindling lineages and learn to accept all that he cannot control. He reminds Quinlan to wear his gloves and asks him to thank Tholme for looking out for him when Qui-Gon wouldn't or didn't; he thanks him for their years together, and asks him to check in on Feemor every now and then. He apologises to Mace for all the shatter-points he likely caused and will continue to cause, and suggests he put a permanent reminder in his comm to remember to refill his migraine prescription that sixteen year-old Obi should not know about. He asks Bant to look out for a young Togruta initiate that will join in seven years, and suggests Bant might like the healer track rather than the knight corps; he thanks her for being his longest and most dearly-held friend. He thanks his crèchemaster for realising his visions were more than dreams (which will inadvertently lend credence to that theory for why Obi-Wan changed so suddenly), for supporting him when Bruck was at his nastiest, and for always being someone he could turn to even after he became a padawan. For Feemor, Obi-Wan apologises that they hadn't had the chance to meet before then, and for the relationship they won't have anymore; Feemor has no idea who this message is from, until he starts hearing the gossip that Obi-Wan Kenobi has left the Order again. He too mourns never getting to know his padawan brother.

and Obi-Wan sends Qui-Gon a message, of course, thanking him for his teachings, apologising for "leading him on" as an apprentice, leaving and coming back so many times only to permanently leave this time. he reminds Qui to reach out to his friends and his support system, asks him to at least consider talking to a mind or soul healer about Xanatos (knowing that once it gets out that Obi-Wan is a planetary leader, it will likely badly trigger Qui-Gon), and asks him to at least try and mend his relationship with Dooku, though understands if that's not something Qui-Gon is willing to do. asks him to keep Satine safe, but to deeply think about why the Republic is so intent on helping her faction, and why Qui-Gon had questioned so little of the New Mandalorian ethos.

so by the time Obi-Wan finds the Old Guard, he's broken from the Order completely, has buried his saber, has broken his training bond, has cut his braid. I think he shaves his head entirely to let it grow out at the same rate, because the padawan cut is *Eliot Spencer voice* Very Distinctive. he paints his armour white for, yes, his men, his vod'e, but also for cin vhetin. he can't be the man he was before, nor the teen he was before, neither are who Mandalore needs, and as long as he can stay true to his morals and upbringing, he will be what Mandalore needs him to be.

okay now onto the Manda vs. the Ka'ra vs. the Force. the Force is a scientific concept of an energy connecting absolutely everything in the universe, and the Jedi have a religious view on the scientific concept. for both purposes, the Force just is. I really like the idea of other non-Jedi ideas just being different aspects of the Force, different religions and cultures based on the same scientific concepts. for Mandalorians, their "aspect" of the Force is the Manda, the collective souls of every Mando'ade that's ever marched on. just what it means to be Mando'ade has varied greatly through history, and is varied between different groups even now, but none of that changes what the Manda is, which is an aspect of the Force only Mando'ade can touch. sort of like their beliefs of it being separate from the Force have made it so?

now I haven't really talked about this before, but from the beginning of me writing Mandalorian related things, i've separated Ka'ra from ka'ra, which was a little bit me misremembering there was another term for "stars", and then it became it's own thing. kar, meaning "star", with it's plural kar'e or kare, to me, means physical stars, the way we'd call our sun a star. ka'ra, uncapitalised, is the more poetic and/or spiritual "stars", the way we might say something is "written in the stars", which actually aligns with how jate'kara is spelled; for my writing, i've used this form for Mandalorian Force-sensitives being Star-touched ka'ra-touched. Ka'ra, capitalised, is that "ruling council of fallen kings", the Mandalorian myth and it, the way I've always interpreted it, is a separate part of the Manda made up of specifically the souls of every Mand'alor already marched on. So, Tor Vizsla could have joined the Manda after death, but not the Ka'ra; make sense? all that ka'ra vs Ka'ra worldbuilding was done very early in my writing for star wars, and has since expanded to include the idea of the Manda as something separate, and I would now actually consider Manda-touched over Star-touched to describe Force sensitive Mando'ade, because that's really what I think Mandalorians would consider causes their supernatural powers: ancestors rather than the stars.

so what does that mean for this fic? the Manda is directly influenced by all those that consider themselves Mandalorian, Force-sensitive or not. it is, however, not affected by New Mandalorians, unless they worship the Manda in some facsimile, and I think many, many, many do not, not the way they were raised to. this worship looks different for every clan and every individual, and I've always interpreted it as more of a broad spiritual practice across the whole culture rather than a religion, per se, the way a real-world broader culture might pray at shrines at New Years even if individuals themselves or their family aren't religious. this is what I'm referencing when I say the Will of the People: the alive Mando'ade and their choices and emotions affecting and influencing the Manda, the collective amalgamation of every passed-on Mando'ade, and it's when these two are in tandem that they "pick" a Mand'alor. HOWEVER, such a pick is also up to the Ka'ra, the Mand'alor'e that have all marched on; to one day enter the Ka'ra themselves, a Mand'alor must be "picked" by both the People/the Manda, and the Ka'ra. Tor would be "picked" by a significant part of the People and the Manda, and so would Jaster have been, but (according to me, myself, and i, obviously), only Jaster had been chosen by the Ka'ra. Pre is "Mand'alor" only in name, only in a tenuous loyalty existing in House Vizsla and Death Watch, not even by the Manda; just simple human (et al) loyalty. Jango had a weaker "pick" from the Manda than Jaster did, but was picked by the Ka'ra, meaning if he did not declare himself dar'manda (even just internally; I don't think he's ever said it out loud), he would have joined the Ka'ra after death; if he ever reconnects with himself as a Mandalorian, I like to think he'd have that chance again. Canon Jango, though, who went on to make the clones? Absolutely not.

what does this all mean for Obi-Wan? he'd spent weeks inadvertently drumming up support in the people and therefore the Manda, and maybe most haven't really looked at him and thought "sure I'd follow him as Mand'alor", but they have looked at him and thought "that one has mandokar, that one wants what's best for Mandalore, that one is touched by destiny". I dunno, man, like. Obi-Wan is their hope before he is their leader. That will make all the difference when he does end up uniting them. His searching out Jango had made Jango finally confront that he feels dar'manda, until then he hadn't really lost the Ka'ra's support, but that severs that connection. and now the Ka'ra are without a Mand'alor, but look at that, there's a mandokar'la little idiot right there, already strong in the Manda, already rallying hope and purpose, already so invested in the nurturing and the future of Mandalore, how could the Ka'ra not choose him?

I posed the question previously whether or not Mando'ade can tell who has been chosen to be Mand'alor, and I think I've ironed out what that'll mean for this fic. non-Force sensitive Mando'ade will have this sense when near their Mand'alor, a subconscious and inherent trust in them, and indeed, some will be disturbed by this and fight it. that's alright, that's their right. Some never clock this extra sense, some are aware of it always, some just chalk it up to "gut feelings" and the like. The more spiritual or religious Mandos maybe put a little more stock in this feelings, I think especially goran'e and other spiritual leaders, but the fact that the Manda can technically pick more than one person at a time (like Tor and Jaster, and then Jango), this extra sense isn't a perfect indicator of a properly chosen Manda'lor.

now. what about Force sensitive Mando'ade? Well, the Manda is an aspect of the Force, and is in fact how said Force sensitive Mando'ade connect to the Force, by going through the Manda, first. their relationship with sensitivity is inherently different from others in the galaxy, at least those that connect to it directly. they are the ones that can sense or see if someone is chosen by the Ka'ra, depending on their sensitivity. Some see the ghostly line of previous Mand'alor'e stretched out behind them (like the Avatar cycle lmao), some see a wavering crown of stars around their head, some just sense there is a duplicity (/neutral) to their Force presence that doesn't exist in anyone else. how common is Force sensitivity in Mandalorian space? not fuckin very. Jaster had three in his entire faction of aprox. 2 million (fanon number), at least that were aware they were sensitive. Jango only had a few more, and only because he had gained a couple hundred thousand more followers before Galidraan. so i'll make the nearly-arbitrary number that Force sensitive Mandos are 1 in 1,000,000, across the entire sector. by some calculations, in the whole galaxy at around the time of the Clone Wars the number of Force sensitives is 1 in 5,000,000 but these calculations do not generally include societies and species with a near or 100% chance of Force sensitivity, because we simply don't have the data for it. does this all make Mandos slightly more likely to be Force sensitive than others, by my own numbers? sorta. which i'm making an issue of underreporting, based on Mandalore not being a part of the Republic, and also contention with the Jedi and Sith; they don't consider those Manda-touched to be Force sensitive, and with the way I've built this, they aren't exactly wrong.

for the purposes of this story, there are maybe eight Manda-touched Mando'ade in the Mandalore system at this time, and all but one are goran'e. that single non-armorer is part of the Old Guard. I have the roster for the Old Guard decided, so I'm debating whether the Manda-touched one is Cort Davin (a journeyman protector), or one of the women. Instinct wants Vhonte Tervho, but I have plans for her to be related to the goran Obi-Wan got his armour done by, who I wanted to be one of the seven Force sensitive armorers, soooo. lmao how fucked would it be if Isabet Reau is the Force sensitive one? I like the angst of that, since I definitely do not plan on redeeming her, but I kind of want the only Old Guard that can sense Obi-Wan is Chosen by the Ka'ra to be really quiet and accepting of it, while everyone else is arguing. hmmm I have an unnamed Wren as part of the Guard, that I haven't fleshed anything out for yet; perhaps them?

okay I think I've solidified what it makes a Mandalorian, at least for the function of this fic. it is tied to the Resol'nare, and following it, which does allow those who had Chosen Tor Vizsla as their Mand'alor to technically still be following the Resol'nare, and are therefore not dar'manda. at least not for that. but part of the reason the Resol'nare is even able to determine who has a Mandalorian soul, is because they believe it does. Those alive and those dead influence the functionality and reality of the Manda, which also allows for those pre-Resol'nare to still exist in the Manda. What causes someone to become dar'manda, if they are technically following the Resol'nare?

maybe it's reductive, or over-simplified, or maybe even too broad, but it makes sense to me and allows for many many different types of people to still fail, and this is obviously not the only way to become dar'manda, but one thing that will always strip someone of their Mando soul? treatment of children. caring for children. not harming children. this allows many of Death Watch to still maintain their Mando souls, but still be fucked up awful people in other ways. It allows even True Mandalorians to have lost their souls and not realised it because they otherwise adhered to the Resol'nare, because they'd chosen to interpret "defending oneself and family" and "raising your children as Mandalorians" to not include other peoeple's children. Or maybe they were abusive in the belief they were caring for their children. This would also make every single one of the Cuy'val Dar dar'manda, which I think is a fascinating concept.

to answer your question directly, no, one cannot look at someone and know they're dar'manda, even the Force/Manda sensitive ones. one will only know in death, whether or not they have a place in the Manda.

NOW what does this mean for New Mandalorians?? well, by technicality and the way I've set the Manda up, one can interpret the Resol'nare in ways that could align with New Mandos. Perhaps they interpret "armour" as more than specifically "beskar'gam", maybe they wear armourweave or other protective fabrics. Maybe they interpret "defending one's family" as putting down arms instead of raising them, in order to create a peaceful future for their children. I think there are plenty of New Mandos that technically tick off all the boxes, and believe in themselves and their fellows so much that the Manda is like "yeah sure why not, we'll make that count". I think some tenants are more easily... bent, like swearing to the duchy in place of the Mand'alor, but I think an easy one New Mandos miss, is "speak Mando'a." I think many New Mandos were all too quick to switch to Basic for everything except religious and spiritual ceremonies, and I think those already in the Manda would find that very hard to forgive. I actually get into this a little in Dha Kar'ta very soon, but for this fic, i'll have Satine not outright outlawing Mando'a, but it is socially heavily discouraged. you're not allowed to speak it in the palace unless in aforementioned ceremonies, you cannot fill out paperwork in anything but Basic, you're not allowed to use Mando'a titles (including Mand'alor), you're not allowed to teach it to your children. no outright like. punishments for speaking it in public, but if your kids are caught, there are repercussions, including investigation into how else you're raising your kids, and if you're found to be doing anything else, they can take your kids from you. not every New Mando agrees with this, of course, and go about adhering to the Resol'nare as best they can in secret, but so many do give up the language by convincing themselves it's not as important as the other tenants and, well, the duchy hasn't steered them all wrong yet, has it?

okay so on the subject of what the outside galaxy is seeing. I like the headcanon/trope/idea of like. the one thing all factions of Mandalorians agreeing on is fuck everyone else. oh, the New Mandos will emulate the Core and the Republic, but they aren't the Republic nor want to be, and this animosity extends to keeping as many internal Mandlorian issues just that: internal. no faction can keep news from leaving the system or the sector, obviously, but there also isn't a lot of interest in Mandalorian news? "oh look all the Mandos are fighting again", except that's been the standard for like. actual thousands of years. I like when fic have people outside the sector not evening knowing there are different factions, so I'll be doing that here, too, and I like the idea of non-Republic sectors having their own holonets, separate from the Republic one. so like, if Obi-Wan happens to go a little viral during his mad dash to Keldabe, that would be on the Mandalorian holonet, not the Republic one, so even if Obi-Wan was visibly still a Jedi (and he wasn't), actual news of him wouldn't reach the Mid and Inner Rims until like. possible years after it happens.

could this maybe be expedited by Sith machinations? absolutely, though I'm not sure I want to go that route, since I don't think the Sith are overmuch interested in Mandalore at this point, at least not in any hands-on capacity. I'm unclear on whether them funding Death Watch is fanon or not, but it is a headcanon I subscribe to, and I think they'd have stopped funding DW after Galidraan, to cause worse infighting and prevent DW from gaining enough power to actually restart their imperial conquering days. Palpatine has been senator for about ten years by this point, but has very little political power overall, and Demask would be looking basically anywhere but Mandalore at this point in time, both of them having written it off until they actively need something from the sector. if anyone had clocked Obi-Wan as a Jedi, this all would have gone very differently, news would have spread much further and quicker and I think undoubtedly would have reached Palpatine, but since I have Obi-Wan just... cutting ties to anything Jedi, news of him remains in-sector. is this perhaps unrealistic? maybe, but I kind of want to focus on Mandalore and not worry about galactic-wide politics for once, lmao, actually very much like Obi-Wan is doing. however, he will clock a lack of Sith interference and thinks That's Very Weird.

haven't decided how he finds Palpatine out yet, but I think it'll have to do with his Manda senses being different than his Force ones, maybe the Ka'ra even gives him a few tips or gifts to sense Sith since they've allied and fought with them so much in the past. regardless, that'll be after he's become Mand'alor and united the clans.

now to actual plot progression! Obi-Wan meets up with the Old Guard, they don't know what to make of him other than "he's kriffing weird. and young. and creepy. and probably Manda-touched." whatever other verd is Manda-touched will see him blessed by the Ka'ra, which causes them to look inwards more closely and realise they trust Obi-Wan inexplicably, which means they're blessed by the Manda and the Will of the People, too. they wonder if Obi-Wan has noticed, if any of the other Old Guard have noticed. they are one of a few that notice Obi-Wan sneaking back out while everyone is arguing.

Vhonte Tervho is another. She's at this lil summit to represent clan Tervho, tho isn't the clan head, because her ba'vodu, a Manda-touched goran, had sensed she needed to be at the summit. said ba'vodu is of course the armorer who reforged Obi-Wan's armour (need to find a name for them hmm), who had told their clan they were to cease fighting until their new Mand'alor called on them. Vhonte sees Obi-Wan, realises at the same time as everyone that he's the Kih'Manda, the Mand'ika that the entire system had been gossiping about for weeks, and she thinks of what her ba'vodu said. she looks inwards, like they had taught her to, and finds, yes, she trusts Obi-Wan, just like she used to trust Jango. And, well, her Mand'alor is obviously leaving to go do something, and she isn't going to let him go it alone.

the Manda-touched verd doesn't go with them, wanting to see what comes of this, but they already know Obi-wan is Ka'ra Chosen. they will come when he calls.

[reksink]

A Little Survivor (With Grand Gourmand Bonus💚)

[averageclawcodeenjoyer]

ANALYZING SPIDERVERSE BACKGROUNDS- PART TWO!!!!!!!!!

The insanity doesn't stop

This time, we're going to be looking at into the spiderverse, specifically this scene (sorry about the weird cut at the ending, I accidentally zoomed in/out lol)

Which I have gone through frame by frame..

For fun. You can see what he's doing for the most part, but I needed to share my thoughts on it.

(It's mostly me being a homosexual though... happy pride month)

ANYWAY

Nothing important here really I just think this little sequence of him drinking is cute. Also WHY IS THE CAN CLIPPING THROUGH HIS HAND THAT POOR GUY THAT CANNOT BE COMFORTABLE LMAO. Also what the hell is going on with his laptop who needs that many tabs open. Loving the laptop + PC combo. This boy uses so much electricity...

Awwwww look at him. He needed a little light because his blind ass couldn't see to write his invisible notes (Me too Ganke, me too. What are you writing about though why is it so important it has to be on paper and cannot simply remain a computer file? Are you doing homework.... at this hour?)

Also he has the same getting up/sitting down sequence!! I think that's cute too, and it's probably just the animators being lazy and not wanting to animate a billion different ways of sitting down, but, hear me out; OCD Ganke. Now, I don't know much about OCD, but I do know that people who have it tend to repeat the same behaviors/patterns every day for every single activity. This could also explain the three of the same hat thing he has going on. Now, that's just a silly little headcanon to play with, so don't take it too seriously.

Also, WHERE THE HELL IS HE GOING??? AS FAR AS IM AWARE, THERES OBLY ONE DOOR TO THEIR ROOM. THE DOOR TO THE HALLWAY.

Is his ass really getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (courtesy of his one billion energy drinks) amd leaving the fucking door OPEN?? BUDDY? YOUR ELECTRONICS ARE RIGHT THERE DIRECTLY IN SIGHT OF THE HALLWAY... AND YOUR ROOMMATE IS SLEEPING THERE.... WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

Hehehehehehehehe aww look at him putting his headphones on I wonder what he's listening to. Also who texted him it's like 12am rn. GO TO BED (He checks it twice. It's 15 close friends reminding him to go to bed. He responded "I'm asleep dw" to every single one)

Look at this EEPY FUCKIN GUY. OH he is so SLEEPY if ONLY there was SOMETHING he could DO ABOUT IT. Oh what's that? Put down the energy drink can and turn off my computer? What a ludicrous idea who would have ever come up with that. Pff. Psch. Apffttr. He looks like the bottom of a sting ray in that middle photo. Someone get this kid a break and also some fucking melatonin. And water. Stat. He's like a plant. Put him outside.

Oh, look, he's finally decided to ditch his uniform that he's been wearing all day and get into something more comfy. Not the hat tho. The hat stays on every second of his life. Oh well at least he's probably a lot more comfortable. And would you look at that hes.. still wearing..... his shoes. B.. buddy you... you know you can take those off right. It's okay I promise. You got this. Is he barefoot in those too. Is he still wearing the same damn pants from before.

ALSO HIS NOTEPAD MAGICALLY HAS WRITING ON IT NOW!!! SOMEBODY PLEASE DECODE THESE MYSTERIES!!! IM SO EVER VERY CURIOUS

Do you think that while making his cup o noodles in the microwave he was playing music too loud and forgot to hit the stop button before it beeped and he just... kinda froze.... and looked up at Miles (who is sleeping like a fucking bear during the peak months of winter in hibernation. Not even a fucking jet engine could wake that boy up) and then kinda just awkwardly resumes what he was doing. Because I do. I do.

(ALSO, this is the second time his phone lights up. He does check it, I'm just not including it for sake of space)

ALRIGHT APPROACHING THE END OF EVEEYRHING I CAN SQUEEZE OUT OF THIS SCENE!

What is he doing in that first Pic. Clearly whatever he wrote down was important, but, like, is his computer updating? Is he just checking to make sure he input something correctly? What is this boy doing somebody please give me a 2 hour movie or a 500 page novel just on him immediately thanks

He's finally taking a brain break and... relaxing by reading comics. Not sleeping, no. Oh god no. But looking at comics. This kid has autism you cannot convince me otherwise. Who does this if they don't have some form of neurodivergency. Please bonk him on the head cartoon style for me I love him.

Awww he cleans up some of the floor (stuffs it under his bed to be dealt with months later)! PLEASE, THOUGH, THE WAY HE FUXKING LOOKS UP AT MILES I CANNOT STAND HIM WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE A CUTOUT THAT SOMEONE TRIED TO HORRIBLY PHOTOSHOP INTO A PICTURE HE DOESNT BELONG IN WHY DOES HE LOOK LILE HES FLOATING.

Also as you can tell by his million energy drinks and now empty and just juice cup o noodles, he doesn't clean up after himself ever. Maybe instead of buying a fourth computer, we invest in a trash can for your dorm. Hmmmm? Silly boy. I love it when they give teenagers teenager habits. Please give me more of this.

This may not be 100% accurate, but take a look at how many energy drinks he goes through in one night.

The first clip is at the beginning of the scene, where most of them are unopened while there are already still five open ones (I can't figure out how to get the best picture of how many drinks there really are here while making it a collage... anyway). Since we don't see the beginning of the night, we don't know how many drinks Ganke has had prior to now, or what the interval he drinks them at is.

At the end of the clip, there are an estimates 12 open drinks total. One on the floor, two(?) By his comic, six by the right side of his computer, plus three on the left side of his computer. That means he drank 6 energy drinks in the span of however many hours we watched him for.

Bro has a serious caffeine addiction and needs to be grounded from money. ALSO, HES DRINKING THEM WARM??? BRO..

And I know that they are energy drinks, because, well. One, just look at them. Two, how do we think Ganke manages to stay up all night doing God knows what for hours on end. We didn't even ever see him go to bed! He's still on his computer when Miles wakes up! Bro pulled an all nighter and for WHAT. BUDDY. And three: the design on the cup literally reads "ENRGY" bottom text "drink"

Dude

Bro

Water

Please.

Drink it.

Also them having part of their schedule on the wall is so cute too!! Do they share classes? How many? Also that says Ceramics. As per my first post of this series, if you look at the horribly lopsided bowl beside Ganke on the bed, that looks a lot like something someone who struggled in arts would create.

Who is that someone?

Well, it's not Miles. We've seen his art.

Is

Is it Ganke?

Ganke the nerd? The Ganke among the most gifted students at Visions? Ganke who pulls all nighters and picks for on his computer often?

Hell yeah. Give him pottery. He brings home lopsided mugs and bent in bowls and dented plates for them to use instead of buying their own dishware, and Miles is so supportive of it even through the kettle he was using had a hole and leaked boiling water all over his hands. He's doing his best, he's not good with crafts. Give him a break.

I love this and them so much. He's my guy. PLEASE BRING HIM OR 42 GANKE BACK IN BTSV SONY PLEASE I AM ON MY KNEES BEGGING FOR MORE GANKE CONTENT I CANNOT KEEP LIVING OFF OF SCRAPS LIKE THIS PLEASE!!!

Part One

Part 1.5

[cubbihue]

WORLD BUILDING

[schneiderenjoyer]

I find this fact interesting because we know from the Uluru Games that there's various different lineages of arcanists that house a particular skill, but how they pass down their arcane skills could vary from mentorship, reincarnation like Spathodea, or even resurrection like A Knight.

This note itself speaks to how the arcane community generally believed for a long time that arcane skills don't have a general pattern of being attained through genetics up until the scientific discovery of DNA and how that laces with Gnosis and how arcanum works in an arcanist. (Take note it says they now view arcane skills to "also" be inherited through DNA)

Which makes it more fascinating to think about how prestigious arcane families like the Bouanich and Mesmers would definitely have stronger chances of genetic inheritance of skills while people such as Druvis, whose family likely has no background history of arcanists in their bloodline from how sensationalized it is for her to even be one (Whoops, correction here! What I meant to imply is that there isn't explicit confirmation that she gained an arcane skill similar to her family lineage. Just that her arcane family is renowned for their consistency), inherit their skills by some other means that isn't hereditary.

[maxdurden]

in the world of spyre, how much do we know about high court? like it's a predominantly (if not completely) human nation. it seems like worship of sol/helio is important. is it like,,, a theocratic ethnostate oorrrr???

and it would be completely high fantasy bs, right? i mean, solace is the only nation with arcano-tech, right?

[amarylhis]

Haven’t seen anyone else mention this

if Vat7k where real these would probably be Nurus sisters

[eywaseclipse]

If anyone has Twitter I highly recommend checking out this account. Here’s the video where Jon Landau himself confirms that the wind traders are the clan we will meet in avatar 3.

[allastoredeer]

If you’re interested, I have some more Hellaverse world-building lore I haven't seen many point out, or even notice for that matter.

How to tell the difference between Sinners and certain Hellborns. Specifically hellhounds, shark demons, snake demons, and dinosaur demons.

For all these demons, the best way to tell them apart from Sinners that look like canines, sharks, snakes, and dinosaurs are the eyes.

All hellhounds have eyes with red sclera and white irises. But if you look at canine Sinners like Crymini, they don't have eyes like this. Other Sinners like Velvette do, but canine Sinners don't.

As for the other demons, you can tell they're Hellborn if they have florescent rings in their eyes. Sinners that look like sharks/snakes/dinosaurs don't have these rings.

I'd imagine that Hellborns are able to easily tell who's a Sinner and who isn't, but Sinners might have more trouble. Which would make for frequent mix-ups and misunderstandings in the Pride Ring, like when a canine Sinner gets confused for a hellhound and gets treated poorly as a result. Or a hellhound who might purposefully pass themself off as a Sinner for better life opportunities not typically afforded to hellhounds.

Ooohhh! That is so cool! I didn't notice that! I'm definitely going to keep that in mind!

I also love it, because it fuels the idea that lowerclass Hellborn (particularly hellhounds) flock to the Pride Ring because they can sometimes be mistaken for Sinners and thus get way better job opportunities. That, combined with Sinners having a hard time telling who is Hellborn AND my headcanon that the Overlords can't own Hellborn souls (they can only own the souls of other Sinners), gives them so much more leg room to actually make a good life for themselves.

There's also so much to be had for the opposite with canine-looking Sinners being mistaken for hellhounds and thus being treated like shit by higher class Hellborn. Canine Sinners 🤝 Hellhounds "fuck classism" solidarity.

[starzgaze]

why is it everywhere i go my oc just had to be detailed brah this is what playing gacha games do to a mf ☠️ also genshin phase went hard im letting it hibernate before i go crazy on my ocs again bc WHAT WAS I ON??? WHAT THE HELL DID I CONSUMEEE😭😭😭

[monodramatic-cannibal]

Renegade au world information

All this info is subject to change.

This is just some info on undertale (Sans) au I've been working on. I don't mind questions about the world, but bear with me I'm not that good at world building lmaoo. So if things don't make sense just let me know and I will try to fix it or explain it lol.

This au is also self indulguent, orignally I was going to keep it to myself, but since I've made a ut blog, may as well share the utau content I'm making since I don't know how much of my ut art is gonna be the renegade au.

Also Characters won't be following their canon personalities, there will be a lot of fandom interpritations and my own head canons.

Also a bit of info on the name, originally the au was going to be something different (plot/world wise) its originally name was "Reject/|Renegade", which then got shortened to Renedage. Then I changed the plot/world and since I was so used to calling it the Renegade au I never changed the name. So the name might not make sense for this world, but thats why lol.

Asks about the world/characters will be open, or just doodle ideas/requests for them too. I'd also love to hear peoples thoughts/interpretations on this au lol.

Also when sending asks for the characters: The asks will be like voices that can't directly/physically interact with characters. (Thought maybe on special occasions I may let askers appear as animals or something else to interact physically with characters) If your going to send in an ask make sure to specify that its for the Renegade au somewhere in the ask and also make sure to specify which character the ask is for.

(there's also sans shippings in this au, so if thats not something you like this au may not be for you.)

More info under the cut

World inspo (just so u know when I reference things in me trying to explain my aus setting): -Obviously undertale and all of its au's is an inspo for me lol -Stray (Cat game), For the world and its environments. As well as the horror inspo. -The artist Simon Stålenhag (https://www.instagram.com/simon_stalenhag/), Specifically their work on the artbooks “The eclectic state”, “The tales from the loop” and “The Labyrinth”. The world design is amazing and a huge inspo. (the inspo for me comes from the world not so much the story) -The game Wuthering Waves, specifically it’s world design. -Also some inspo came from me hearing about the place Kowloon city. (There's more inspo, but I'll save that unless I'm asked lmaoo)

-----

World/au takes place on the surface. The tree of emotions is in this world (tree from Dream and Nightmare's story).

Where it takes place:

The story also takes place in a world sort of like our own, in terms of there's a ton of wars of counties going on, and most likely a lot of conflict with monsters/humans as well. Leading to the incident which put the world into an apocalypse, which the au takes place a little bit after that situation, so weaker buildings are starting to crumble, and some plant life is starting to over grow in places.

The tree of emotions is also in this world, due to it being around for a long time (it’s older than Dream/Nightmare) its roots are deep, it’s a giant tree (It’s around the size of the giant tree in Wuthering Waves that's in the Violet Banyan area).

The tree of emotions is so in tune with the world, that if there were to be any problems with it, it can affect the world and the laws of the world. The tree still does have apples (both the golden and obsidian apples) on it, but it doesn’t look like an apple tree it looks like a mix of a weeping willow tree and wisteria tree (with both purple and yellow flowers yellow on Dream’s side, purple on Nightmare’s side). The tree on both sides also has little nooks and places for the twins to be, either it be a place in the tree to hide or sit, or places in the middle of the tree for both of them. The tree can grow and shift to fit the twin's needs.

The world has been deeply effected by the tree of emotions (see the paragraph above). When the apocalypse hit it wasn’t long before the land/environment itself was effected, things started appearing where they shouldn’t be e.g. trains in the middle of fields, or a patch of a flower field being placed into the 3rd floor of a large building. It started to affect the gravity of things as well, leaving cars suspended in the air, not really floating away but not coming down either. Roads and buildings been pulled up into the sky left floating. Glowing orbs of all colours randomly (normally its only one or two just randomly around theres never really a lot of them). Impossible machinery just placed at random (look at Simon Stålenhag art books “The eclectic state”, “The tales from the loop” and “The Labyrinth” for inspo, though the renegade world doesn’t have things nearly as drastic in them.) The rapid growth and decay of plant-life. Either plants taking a hold of buildings within a year, or whole forests dying leaving barren lands. Cracks forming in the earth revealing cave systems that weren’t there before, showing extensive environments that shouldn’t exist, like a portal to another world almost. (e.g. these environments can look like undertale underground, as the underground doesn’t exist in this world. Or can even look like other things like bioluminescent caves). Or glowing white cracks in the earth that decay the world around them turning the ground black becoming spawn points for Wraiths.

The specific area the story takes place in is a big city area, the group have made a small settlement within the higher floors of buildings that have bridges connecting them together. They've cut off most of the lower floors of the buildings to keep the Wraiths away from their living spaces. But have kept a few exits to get up and down from the buildings. They often use roofs for gardens and stuff, and fire escapes for movement around floors as well. Each character has a different mental map of both the living area and the city around. E.g. Night’s view of the city is going down all the nooks or walking along places that the average sized person cannot or using underground tunnels that he squeezed into. Where as someone like Error has a different view of the city, mainly viewing it from above, being able to use his strings to swing around to to launch himself building to building. This is to say each character has a different story when it comes to the city and their view of it. (Inspo for this is when people talk about “Kowloon city”)

The group try to give out roles to everyone, trying to cater to everyone's skills, but some people hang around without doing too much for the group, just as long as the rest of the group can rely on them when they need it then they're fine with it.

Wraiths:

The Wraiths look both human and monsters, they look like the Amalgamates (from UT), but come across as slightly more blob like, these creatures sort of look like tar. They're beings of negativity. They're often violent towards anything that isn't a Wraith, though they do tend to leave most animals alone, but do attack when they get too close. They possess a bit of magic abilities, some maybe more than others.

They can travel alone or in large groups. For people with no magic or limited magic, it's best to stay away from them.

People can't really turn into Wraiths (only the tree can turn people). But the Wraiths can spawn back after a while, often 'spawn points' will be littered amongst the land, being hot spots for Wraiths to be. Though on rare occasions the tree may turn people to Wraiths, mainly it’s when some is abusing the fact the world is in an apocalypse with no rules to do bad things, due to the build up of negative energy around them, it can cause them to get turned into a Wraith.

Wraiths aren't really that intelligent, some may have the intelligence of animals, but the most intelligent tend to have the brains of 7-year-olds. So they are capable of makings some sort of attack plans, but often lack the knowledge to fully cooperate with one another effectively. Though some rare few may have more intelligence than others.

Some Wraiths have been show to be evolving in ways, e.g. if someone specifically kills the same Wraith over and over, the Wraith may start developing features to combat that person's attack style. Some people think the Wraiths may be getting more intelligent, when in reality it may be a Wraith having a moment of clarity, as they did use to be a sentient being, they may try to do things that they used to do in life, e.g. returning to a building where they lived or worked. Wraiths magic is partly based on what they were before, either that be human or monster, and what magic capabilities they had, or could grow to have. Some Wraiths are a lot stronger than others, able to use their magic effectively.

Wraith growths are normally found around ‘spawn points’ for the Wraiths. It’s like a mold looking flesh that covers the ground and buildings (think of the sort of things in Stray ((the cat game))). Though it’s started to spread out past the spawn points. The ‘mold’ itself isn’t much of a threat, but Wraiths camp out in areas that have these Wraith growths covering them. Which can lead to dangerous situations if effort isn’t taken to make sure the growth doesn't spread any further.

Cause of apocalypse:

The tree of emotions is in this world (tree from Dream and Nm's story), and is the cause of the apocalypse. Due to all the negativity in the world, the tree without the input from its guardians (Nm and Dream) decided to cause a 'world reset'. The tree corrupted half of the population in the world (think of the Thanos snap but instead of disappearing it turns people to Wraiths). Due to all the negative emotions, the tree saw it best fit to start completely over in terms of the world's creatures that are capable of emotions. Most of the beings left alive blamed Nightmare for what happened, thinking this came from his side of the tree. When in reality it was a sort of man made issue that a higher being decided to sort out. The tree until it sees more of a balance of the negative/positive emotions will continue to keep the Wraiths around, either that means society finding a way of living in this world peacefully or everyone dies out from the Wraiths. Due to the build up of negative energy people would have thought Night would have gotten more powerful, but instead his power manifested in an alter self which looks a lot like the Wraiths but less drippy goo like, though he still looks like tar and such.

Powers/Magic:

In this au a lot of the powers/magic is a lot more toned down. Monsters are closer to humans in terms of the fact they don’t have a lot of magic. Monsters magic has dulled over time with being on the surface with humans, leading to monsters having more convenient powers that might help in day to day life, rather than having combat magic. Some monsters still have combat magic and some monsters may be born with more magic than others. Humans can also learn magic due to spending a lot of time with the monsters. But humans don’t have a lot of magic, and can only do basic things, sort of like the monsters of the modern-day.

When talking about the Skele's: When it comes to teleporting they can only do it very small distances, normally the length of a bus, but a few can train themselves to teleport a little bit further than that. They can also only teleport to places they’ve either already stood or straight ahead (almost like a dash when they do it ahead of themselves) (they can’t teleport through walls unless they’ve already been on the other side)

Being able to summon bones is a lot more limited in this au compared to the game. (They can still summon quite a lot of them, but they can’t spam it compared to the games).

They still have gaster blasters but they’re a lot smaller. A few may have slightly bigger gaster blasters, but normally they’re the side of a large dog.

They’re able to assign weapons to themselves, which allows them to summon/dismiss their weapons at will, they can have up to 4 weapons they can summon. (Their magic doesn’t count towards their weapons, it’s more of a physical weapon, such as Horror’s axe)

Some of them can have specific abilities that only they (or a few others) can use. E.g. Ink being able to use paint as his magic/power ability, or Error and his strings.

Original team/group and what order people joined it after that:

Og group: -Ink -Blue -Outer -Sci

What order the rest joined the group (same point = joined at the same time): -Horror / Error (Joined around 3 weeks into the apocalypse) -Fell (Joined just over a month) -Dream / Nightmare (Joined 3 months into the apocalypse) -Dust / Killer (Joined 4 and a half months into the apocalypse) -Lust (Joined 6 months into the apocalypse) -Geno / Echo / Edge (Joined 7 and a half months into the apocalypse) -Cross (Joined 9 months into the apocalypse) -Death (? didn't exactly join, followed Geno) -Fresh (? didn't exactly join, appeared shortly after Lust joined)

---------

Ships that are in this Au: (will be adding more ships as it goes along)(also even thou I say these ships are in here, feel free to ship what you want lol)

-Crossmare (Nightmare X Cross) (Both Night and Mare are apart of this)

-Afterdeath (Geno X Reaper)

-Horrorlust (? idk what it's called) (Horror X Lust)

---------

As mentioned a lot of this is subject to change. So Will be adding to this as I go along. I will try to let people know as I update this and whats changed so people don't have to read through all of it again. I'm looking to improve the world building, so if you have any suggestions I'm open to listen lol.

Some extra stuff :D :

When I talk about things like "living area" it means the collections of buildings/etc that the group is living in. And when I call something someones "room" it actually means a whole apartment, or in the case of Echo's (Radio room) and Error's (Storage room) rooms its an office floor that has been cleared out.

playlist I made with a few inspo videos for renegade, has world building shit, trailers, and music. Will be adding to this whenever I can be assed too.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsOp1NNY64Q34UJs-FRLTbqoqhLymApfI&si=VN3GkrjQyF8yawOr

Some more info on the character designs

---------

Links to character refs:

Nightmare (Night and Mare's ref)

Dream

Cross

Blue

Ink

Dust

Horror

Killer

Error

Lust

Fell/Edge

Geno

Outer

Sci

Reaper/Death

Fresh

Gans/Echo

Chief

(The refs posted in bulk with no info)

Refs 1

Refs 2

---------

Credits:

Nightmare/Dream belong to Jokublog Cross belongs to Jakei95 Blue (underswap!Sans) belongs to P0pcornPr1nce Ink belongs to Myebi/comyet Dust (Dusttale!Sans?) belongs to ask-dusttale Horror (Horrortale!Sans) belongs to sour-apple-studios Killer belongs to rahafwabas Error/Fresh/Geno belong to loverofpiggies Lust (Lusttale!Sans) belongs to NSFWShamecave Fell (Underfell!Sans) belongs to underfell/Fella/Vic (???) Outer (Outertale!Sans) belongs to 2mi127 Sci belongs to (???) Reaper (Reapertale!Sans?) belongs to renrink Gans (Echotale!Sans?) belongs to Yoralim (???) Chief (Swapfell Purple) belongs to (???) (Let me know if I need to change any of these, cuz a few I was unsure about)

[jenn-the-butterfly]

Twitter thirst comments entertain them both

This is 50% threat, 50% lore

Were they designed for that purpose in mind? (you know exactly what I mean)

No

Do they enjoy the extra benefits of the most efficient power cores in and out of market (just under industrial grade)?

Absolutely they do

All military grade models are built with self-sustainability in mind to some degree or another, as they're expected to be able to "continue on" when power, resources and network access are all out of reach. This necessitates power systems that are incredibly efficient, even under extreme circumstances. These systems are explicitly Closed Market and disallowed by the public for a variety of reasons with very few suppliers being authorized to make and distribute the quality of parts needed for any military build. Retired units are monitored closely (mostly) if they don't opt to downgrade their power system.

Of them, [REDACTED]-class are the most efficient crisis-ready kind, but [INFORMATION EXPUNGED].

With proper conditioning (use and repair), the uptime of a [REDACTED]-class etherylle system running at lowest efficiency with no periphery abilities active can last up to 20-23 Adir Standard Days between charges.

[mantisgodsdomain]

We ought to write more Pokemon fic some time. We want to recreate the Pokemon Manners/Human Manners cheat sheet that we made a few years ago we think that this site would like the Sliding Scale Of Politeness When Greeting A New Pokemon You've Never Met Before.

[schneiderenjoyer]

Consistent archival will make lore hunters happy.

[cookinguptales]

I know that I've mentioned several times how I had to go through a period of relearning once I got out of the religious environment in which I'd been raised, and like... A lot of the things I had to research and learn about all over again were fairly obvious, like climate change. My parents and teachers told me that man-made climate change wasn't real, so I believed them. Once I got to college, I realized that I'd been misled, and I had to relearn the whole topic.

But not all of these things were obvious! I went through this period where I didn't even know what part of my education I should be questioning. Like... what do I even research?? Do I actually understand weather? What about history?

One of the reasons I bring up history is because one of the things my parents told me wasn't real was radiocarbon dating. And I don't just mean "well, these are estimations, can't be used for precise dates, and might be somewhat off due to atmospheric conditions." I got the whole "well, this is unprovable* and goes against the history the Bible gives us so you shouldn't trust carbon dating at all."

(*I was taught that anything that wasn't like... observable in real-time was not provable.)

Let's just say... a lot of my childhood was adults around me hedging their bets like "I'm not saying this is fake, I'm just saying it can't be proven and they're asking us to take this hypothesis as fact! I'm just saying you should question things! And not believe those liberal scientists!"

(carbon dating, evolution, the big bang/quantum physics, whether humans and dinosaurs coexisted, climate change, how hiv works, etc.)

And uhhh I went into archaeology (among other things) when I first started college, so you can imagine how this impeded my studies. lmao

idk, I guess I'm not going anywhere in particular with this. I was just listening to a podcast that's currently talking about the paleolithic period and I still had a gut instinctual reaction of "well, you don't know these things are that old" that I had to squash like a fucking bug.

I definitely understand exactly how the "it's good to be curious and read sources critically" to "question everyone, especially experts" to "those liberal scientists are trying to trick you" to "fake news!!" pipeline comes about. ;;