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yournextflame · 2 years

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Elden Ring Sigils and Color Theory

Elden Ring magic sigils sorted by color. Long post about their lore, meanings of certain colors and what it can reveal about the story of Elden Ring under the cut.

In this post, I will be going over why it is important to have a good understanding of color and meanings associated with color in the context of lore. In a game, color is used by developers for more than just drawing the world, it’s about creating visual language, a bridge between writers and players. There are countless articles about usage of colors in videogames, but in this post I will try to reverse-engineer the process and find out the meaning behind visual symbolism and combine it with game’s equivalent of heraldic symbols - magic sigils.

In Elden Ring magic sigils have been used to represent origin of sorceries and power sources of incantations, usually they give us hints what kind of deity is worshipped by people or who created the spell. They are an invaluable source of information on history on the Lands Between. I’ve been already playing with idea of color sorting when I did the same thing with remembrances, but sigils revealed even more secrets about story and lore. How about origin of life on the Lands Between? Origin of the outer gods? But let’s not rush.

The first category, Blue Sorcery as I called it, already shows how color sorting method is supported by the game itself. With a help of descriptions we can place the sigils in the chronological order and track the change in design over the course of story such as replacement of flowing weapon in the sigil of Eternal Cities to Carian sword. Their sigils are incredibly similar to each other, solidifying connection between Nox and Carian royal family; both factions are associated with silver, sorcery, artifical life, moons and stars.

This talisman represents the lost black moon. The moon of Nokstella was the guide of countless stars (Memory Stone)

The young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked. She had always chased the stars every step of her journey. Then she met the full moon—and, in time, the astrologer became a queen (Stargaizer Heirloom)

Moons played a central role in Nox and Carian culture, the circle is a base shape for both crests, however, while Raya Lucaria sigil shares similar elements with Eternal Cities and Carian emblems (glintstone sorcerers are the descendants of astrologers, a fact that the Carians remain aware of, - Preceptor's Long Gown), this part was drastically redused in size and moved on top; the central place is taken by the star and framed by a pair of cuckoos. The hue of sigil is also significantly different from cold blue tones of Nox and Carians emblems, the warm greenish tint is close to the color of primeval current spells, which were banished once Rennala became rector of the Academy.

These scholars, who sought to master Carian sorcery, instead learned to see the moon as equal to the stars. This robe, in the hue of the full moon, signifies their heresy (Lazuli Robe)

(Cuckoo Greatshield) Boasting high magic damage negation, this shield is used to hunt down mages. "Our enemy is none other than Caria itself."

So far I’m not going to delve deeper in the roots of the conflict between Carian royal family and Academy of Raya Lucaria, it’s a mere demonstration of a method and how it works. But in next paragraphs I will use it as evidence for a few theories about worldbuilding.

(thanks for clarification about Malenia’s Crest, I rewatched fight on youtube and, yes, it’s a normal Raya Lucaria sigil)

Golden incantations is the biggest group on the list, in a way I can say that history of the Lands Between is a history of gold. Here we can see a symbolical depiction of the Erdtree, the central piece of the game both in a metaphorical and literal sense; we can track how portrayl of the Erdtree changed during Marika’s age until it was replaced altogether by the abstract emblem of the Golden Order Fundamentalism. I have a lot of to say about this group and currently working on post with a more detailed investigation, so far I will touch only basics: such as origin of life gold.

Gold in Elden Ring is more than than shine metal or a color, it’s prima materia of the Greater Will, a force of unknown origin (it’s never called 神 god or an 外なる神 outer god anywhere in EN or JP script and before jumping to conclusion wait until I’m going to observe confirmed outer gods) which is responsible for the creation of Elden Ring. From the description of Elden Stars, the most ancient incantation in this category, and Elden Remembrance we can figure out keywords associated with the Greater Will:

It is said that long ago, the Greater Will sent a golden star bearing a beast into the Lands Between, which would later become the Elden Ring/It was the vassal beast of the Greater Will and living incarnation of the concept of Order (I’d like to point that it’s “Order”, not “The Golden Order”).

(I believe we still can see remnants of the golden star in a form of meteorite ore in Divine Towers and Sealed Tunnel near Erdtree)

In other words, the Greater Will is about gold, Order and everything Elden. However, a common mistake is to tie the Greater Will to the Golden Order, despite the name the latter is not representative of it, even more so... original gold from the golden star wasn’t yellow.

From dialogue with Sellen we can learn that stars are containing amber, but golden stars are kind of special:

Golden amber contains the remnants of ancient life, and houses its vitality (Sellen)

And Hyetta’s speech supports futher that the Greater Will is responsible for creation of life in one way or another:

…すべては、大きなひとつから、分かたれた分かたれ、産まれ、心を持った

けれどそれは、大いなる意志の過ちだっただから、戻さなくてはならない

All that there was divided from the One Great. Divided, born and given heart. But it was a mistake of the Greater Will (Hyetta)

So, Miyazaki pretty much unitied theories about meteorites being consensually considered to be involved in the origin of life and primordial soup:

Meteorites could have been responsible for delivering the basis of life's genetic code. Analyses of three meteorites suggest that nucleobases, the crucial components of DNA, could have formed in space and then fallen to Earth to provide the raw material for the origin of life itself

For nearly nine decades, science's favorite explanation for the origin of life has been the “primordial soup”. This is the idea that life began from a series of chemical reactions in a warm pond on Earth's surface, triggered by an external energy source such as lightning strike or ultraviolet (UV) ligh

Now if we check descriptions of Crucible Aspects and Crucible Knights items we can find out that original gold had rent tint.

Holds the power of the crucible of life, the primordial form of the Erdtree. Strengthens Aspects of the Crucible incantations (Crucible aspects incantations)

This sword is imbued with an ancient holy essence. Its red tint exemplifies the nature of primordial gold, said to be close in nature to life itself (Ordovis Greatsword, the name itself is a reference to Ordovician Period, part of the Paleozoic era, a rich variety of marine life flourished in the vast seas and the first primitive plants began to appear on land)

Ancient Erdtree/Crucible emblem is slightly reddish too, however, the modern gold is more pure and yellow, the gold of the Golden Order. The sigil changed the color too and lost the root part just like the Elden Ring itself if we compare modern depiction with Farum Azula mural:

The Golden Order was created by confining Destined Death. Thus, this new Order will be one of Death restored

But a gold is a gold, even though it’s different, but as Turtle Pope said heresy is not native to this world and everything can be cojoined:

The worship of the ancient dragons does not conflict with belief in the Erdtree. After all, this seal, and lighting itself, are both imbued with gold

Yes, the Greater Will governs everything what is golden.

And yet, the young Miquella abandoned fundamentalism, for it could do nothing to treat Malenia's accursed rot. This was the beginning of unalloyed gold

I can already hear the raise of pitchforks from certain kind of Miquella fans, so let’s talk about outer gods and what exactly they are.

With a surprising exception of emblem from the Scepter of the All-Knowing (Gideon, I have a few questions for you) all sigils in Red Group are assigned to the deities: outer/ancient god of Rot, outer god Formless Mother, Rykard’s immortal serpent and Fell God, who is bit tricky, it’s ambitious if 古い火の悪神 “ancient” is applied to the god or fire. The only confirmed outer gods, who didn’t made it here is an outer god of Deathbirds and Frienzied Flame. Considering theory that removal of the Destined Death from Elden Ring drained color from the god-slaying Black Flame and eclipsed sun of outer god of Deathbirds, I can suggest that original color of their sigils was red too.

Long story short: sigil of the outer gods and other unwelcomed deities are represented by red color and they are all related to the death, Formless Mother is about bleed, fell flame is burning, rot is decay, etc.

However, as stated in the description of Ordovis Greatsword, primordial gold of the Crucible had a red tint that was lost when Marika estabilished Golden Order by sealing away red Rune of Death; and this knowledge eventually leads to conclusion that...

Outer gods aren’t aliens. What a surprise.

They are natural powers that were screwed by the removal of Destined Death, when they got outed from the Golden Order. They are red tint of the primordial gold.

Once the concept of Death was banished from the Lands Between the elements and effects linked to it - death, decay, combustion, bleed became outer to the newly estabilished Order. There is a clear thematic difference between celestial Greater Will, who isn’t even presented on the Lands Between, and actual outer gods, who can be sealed or banished, more over there are no outer god of water, sunshine or happiness, they are all linked to the side-effects of death. When death was excluded from the Order, they were affected as well.

The thing is that gold in Elden Ring is a magical substance and changes the tint depends on the currently running Order, which is shown in the endings when Golden Tree (黄金樹 that’s how Erdtree is called in JP) acquires different hue. It’s another overlooked element of visual storytelling.

This Golden Order is something that the Elden Ring may have once represented, but not directly. It’s more about how you apply those rules and how you enforce them on the physical world and what effects they have on it, - Miyazaki in interview to gamesradar

(Golden Order isn’t direct representation of the Greater Will/Elden Ring as it was said by Miyazaki himself, it’s only one temporary set of rules)

Elden Ring consists of runes and even newly discovered mending runes (concepts) can be added to the system (regression is the pull of meaning; that all things yearn eternally to converge) ot removed and the gold will respond to it by changing the color and reshaping reality according to the Order (causality is the pull between meanings; it is the connections that form the relationships of all things). Elden Ring - Rune of Death = yellow gold and banishment of ancient gods, who were associated with death, Elden Ring+mending rune of a choice=see example aboive.

For futher evidence that gold changes metaphysical properties and in the current state (Golden Order) preserves things from not only from dying, but decomposing too, I want to bring a few descriptions:

Fresh beast blood, glinting with gold. Material used for crafting items. Found by hunting carnivorous beasts.This glimmering blood never rots or decays ( Beast Blood)

Someone's excrement. It has a golden tinge. Material used for crafting items. Gold-tinged excrement is a highly stable substance; it doesn't dry out, nor does it lose its customary warmth or scent. For better or for worse, it remains as it is (Golden Dung; I can’t believe I’m using description of literal sh/t to prove my point)

However, from what we know only Rune of Death was sealed, and while outer gods’ influence was seriously weakened, it still existed. This is why Miquella abandoned Golden Order and was working on development of his own gold, even more pure and untainted, before he got mohgged:

Unalloyed Gold Needle: An intricately crafted needle of unalloyed gold. A ritual implement crafted to ward away the meddling of outer gods, it is thought capable of forestalling the incurable rotting sickness.

Now let me clarify: community’s favorite boogieman “influence of the evil alien outer gods/the Greater Will” isn’t a thing in a sense that there is a group of invaders from the outer space trying to enslave the Lands Between. Even thought 外なる神 is used in Japanese media culture for lovecraftian beings, we should remember that history is fabricated by the Golden Order in Marika’s favor; "outer gods” are alien to the current Order”. Same goes for the influence of the Greater Will, it was never about mind-control or whatever was projected onto it, the influence of the Greater Will is simply how Order and gold are changing course of the nature.

Last thing I want to add is that influence of the outer gods isn’t always about destructive powers (Order of Rot is about decay and rebirth), but I’ll leave it for a dedicated post.

In Mixed Group I put sigils with unique or unknown colors.

In my first draft Dragon Communion was placed in the Red Group for the intense hue of sigil, but upon futher research I decided to move it here. The power of Dragon Communion incantations doesn’t stem from any patron god or the assigned star (unless I missed something); they are scaling from arcane, an inner force of the caster.

Violet is an interesting choice for Gravity sigil because this color, albeit with the less intence hue, is used for sleep status and associated items.

I like how yellow color of Frenzied Flame is similar to the gold of the Greater Will, carrying the theme of duality, yet the shape of the sigil is distorted and assymetrical. In fact, designs of the ancient sigils usually is far less complex than intricate shapes of newer ones (with a few exceptions). Just to be clear, even though influence of the Flame of Frenzy can be cleared by Miquella’s needle, the game never calls it an outer god. It’s a matter of semantics, but I guess that unlike crew from the Red Group it was never booted from the Order since Chaos and Order can’t naturally coexist, but there are a lot ot of to speculate about, considering drastic changes in Frenzied Flame quest and lore.

Golden star in the centre of Bestial sigil reminds of Cinquedea dagger (Short sword given to high ranking clergymen of Farum Azula. The design celebrates a beast's five fingers, symbolic of the intelligence once granted upon their kind), which shows beast’s arm holding golden slab.

So, Death spells. I believe that both Black Flame incantations and Death Sorcery of Deathbird outer god were affected by confining of Destined Death.

The black flame could once slay gods. But when Maliketh sealed Destined Death, the true power of the black flame was lost

Storied sword and treasure of Castle Sol that depicts an eclipsed sun drained of color.The eclipsed sun, drained of color, is the protective star of soulless demigods. It aids the mausoleum knights by keeping Destined Death at bay. Mausoleum Knight Armor: The wing-shaped ornaments on its back evoke the Deathbird

And, as I’ve been already pointing in a different post, death of Godwyn brought back forgotten death sorcery that almost ceased from existance during age of immortality, but was rediscovered

Death in the Lands Between is incredibly complex subject and deserves a series of posts, even though I believe there should be DLC because so far all lore related to it seems to be incomprehensible.

Unmarkered sorceries don’t have background sigil, but they all share something in common. They originated from the Mountaintops of Giants:

Zamor Ice Storm: Ice sorcery of the Town of Zamor.Strike the ground with the staff to create a freezing tornado. Charging enhances potency. Cloaked in icy tempests, the knights of Zamor have challenged the Fire Giants since ancient times.

Briars of Sin : An aberrant sorcery, discovered along with red glintstone by those exiled to the north for their crimes.The Academy reviles this sorcery, which draws its power from faith

Founding Rain of Stars: The eldest primeval sorcery, said to have been discovered by an ancient astrologer. A sorcery of legendary status.The glimpse of the primeval current that the astrologer saw became real, and the stars' amber rained down on this land. Sword of Night and Flame: Astrologers, who preceded the sorcerers, established themselves in mountaintops that nearly touched the sky, and considered the Fire Giants their neighbors.

Another interesting details to consider is that they are all in some ways are unwelcomed or straight up heretical. It reminds me of relationships between Golden Order and remnanats of the Crucible. Aberrant sorcery is a mark of sin, primeval current was banished and cold sorcery is veiled in occult mystery:

The snowy crone taught the young Ranni to fear the dark moon as she imparted her cold sorcery.

I guess Ranni’s secret mentor is called snowy crone for a reason.

That’s being said, everything I wrote is a subject to change as DLC may reveal more details or I will reconsider some parts under futher research. But overall I think it was an interesting experiment.

読んでく��てありがと

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baeddel · 8 months

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when i was a child i liked combat sports; i took martial arts classes (i forget which form) and i competed in fencing. i had to stop when i went to highschool because we didn't have time for it anymore. after leaving highschool i met a girl who did boxing and i planned to go and sign up at her gym to learn it with her, but i became too ill and it never happened. still, it had reignited my interest in combat sports and i would talk about it with people. i told one guy that i liked the look of Muay Thai; he expressed a common view, which was that martial arts like this sucked, because they were impractical in a real fight. he liked Krav Maga because it was real.

[long-ish post about fighting]

and i always objected to that kind of thinking! look here: it's true that much of the game which is played on the mat is produced by the restrictions placed on combatants. even in a very permissive sport like MMA, the great importance of ground fighting to that sport is produced by the restriction on fish-hooks and head kicks. thus, you can say that even these fights 'aren't real' in some sense. but how often are you ever going to be in a fight where you're willing to rip the other guy's cheek out, gouge out his eyes and so forth? Krav Maga was first developed for Jews to defend themselves from anti-semitic mobs in the 1930s. i know that some of you have certainly been in fights like that; but not all fights are that existentially serious. even in fights where there is such a high level of emnity there are often factors which restrain the fight from becoming an existential one. if you live somewhere that fascists are embedded and you blind one of theirs in a fight you might expect retribution; likewise you would be guilty of a felony and might get in real trouble. apprehensions like this might stay your hand—and already you are engaging in a kind of combat which is to some extent governed by extra-martial rules that produce a to some extent artificial situation.

of course, some martial arts will be more useful to know in the kind of combat games you are likely to play even so, and Muay Thai has not suddenly become more useful than Krav Maga on the basis of what i said. but i think that it is common to 1. underestimate the usefulness of even highly artifical combat sports, like fencing, and 2. overstate the utility of various 'self-defence' techniques, especially blinding, because the artificial, rules-governed nature of real fights is forgotten.

on point one, i would always credit my fencing experience with my success at fighting in highschool. i would sometimes even adopt the pose—one hand back, foot pointed forward—and people would (jokingly) say, 'it's [her] style! [she's] the fencer!' this part was not really useful; these fights were between friends and featured no emnity; we wanted to entertain the crowd, so there was a certain amount of kayfabe. but we were teenagers and behaved badly; once blows began we really hurt each other, and i even sent a few kids to the hospital (one with a concussion and the other with a wounded leg). plus, secret feelings of jealousy and resentment could be awakened during the course of the fight, so more emnity was felt as the fight grew more serious. what i thought really helped me from all the fencing matches was simply the sparring experience. when another living person attacks you without relenting, watches your movements for openings, and tries to stop whatever you do to them, it's difficult not to be overwhelmed and confused. being able to keep a level head, comprehend the situation and make decisions in the moment gave me an advantage over less experienced friends.

on the second point, i had older male friends who gave me a lot of advice that i can now recognize was plainly bad advice. for example, a girl i had a crush on had an older brother who always gave me and her other friends a hard time. i hated him so much i wanted to do something about him. so my friend told me that when fighting a larger and stronger opponent, i should do this... and this... a lot of techniques that had i really gone and done it would have left him permanently blind and disfigured. how do you think my crush would have felt if i went and did all that to her brother? these 'real' street fighting techniques were not useful in a real fight—a fight with stakes proportional to my real situation. when i did end up in situations with existential stakes (you know the stories) these techniques did nothing for me, since i would be alone against multiple attackers, or the other guy had frightening connections, or there was an asymmetry of power (who teaches 'defense against a guy in a car'?). in all cases the only wothwhile advice i ever got was this: you cannot run away in high heels.

similarly, when we had our low-stakes fights at school, the crowd would call out for me to punch the other guy in the face, or to kick him when he was down. afterwards they were disappointed that i didn't 'really go for him.' all this kind of talk really got to me; i would be standing there, facing my opponent and saying to myself, 'do it! do it!' in the end i never punched anyone in the face or tried any kind of dirty fighting at all. for this i hated myself so much. i was furious with myself; i would sit down and be angry at myself for a long time. i considered myself a coward and a weakling because i wouldn't go 'all in.' i didn't 'have the guts.' actually, what i felt was compassion for another person, and it was not a contemptable restraint at all. what was i trying to do—what was i trying to become? i think this is a way you can be misled by the discourse around 'real fighting.'

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ratgrinders · 9 days

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I can't get over how not a single person has voted for Ivy as their favorite rger; it's very funny, but also a LITTLE sad cause I personally would love to know more about her, as right now we have. Nothing. Her being Fabian's foil could imply that she has some kind of rich family, but absent parents, but she didn't seem to show any sign of being posh like Fabian is/was, she was just... mean. Same goes for Mary Ann in terms of knowing nothing about her, especially not how she contrasts to Gorgug. I really hope we get more information! Do you have any guesses?

Yes it's so funny 😭😭😭😭but also understandable unfortunately lmaooo. She's the Rat Grinder we objectively know the LEAST about, she's had maybe like what, one and a half scenes? We know she's besties with Oisin, and that type of dynamic within the larger group of the Rat Grinders is VERY interesting to me, but other than that??? Nothing. I DO hope we learn more though ghfsfks just because right now there's not a lot to dig into!

As for the second part of your question, oh god WILD speculation time only tenuously based in canon under the cut lets gooooo:

I think the basis for the Rat Grinders status as the Bad Kids' foils is that they have what the Bad Kids want, but have superficial beef with the Bad Kids based on the version of them they have in their head. So you got Kipperlilly who wants Riz's tragic backstory despite her allegedly normal and whole family at home. Oisin is rich thanks to his family while Adaine struggles with money thanks to hers, and maybe seems to have beef with the Elven Oracle as that's what led to Kalvaxus' defeat. Ruben has the song of the summer just as Fig is in the middle of an artist's block. Etc, etc.

So going off of that, what does Fabian want more than anything else this season? To not be lonely. I think it'd make sense then if Ivy actually had a really present, loving(?) family who nonetheless still turned out kind of mean. I think she has no problem living up to her family's expectations, no matter what they are. As for the family itself, well the Gloom Stalker subclass is "at home in the darkest places i.e. in primeval forests". And what's the nearest dark forest with a population of wood elves? Sylvaire, formerly the Forest of the Nightmare King. Specifically Arborly, since that's the town near there that protects the entrance to the forest. I think Ivy is possibly how the Rat Grinders got the Nightmare King connection in the whole reviving a dead god thing. Of course, this is all WILD speculation.

As for Mary Ann, what does Gorgug want? This is a bit less clear as his arc developed over the course of the season, but I'd say he wants a stronger connection to his artificing (and by proxy, his gnomish parents), he wants a balance between that and barbarian and a healthy relationship to his rage, and I think part of what ticks him off so much about Mary Ann is just how uncaring she seems, that she can seem so unengaged about things and still be such a great barbarian while he has to CONSTANTLY balance and filter his emotions and focus to succeed in his two classes. So I think it's possible Mary Ann was also adopted by a different species, but this time by barbarians so there was never any struggle on her part to relate to the classes of her parents. Her parents just Got rage immediately, she grew up with an innate understanding of it and is able to perfectly modulate it despite seeming so monotone outside it. And I think it'd be very funny if specifically Mary Ann, and only Mary Ann, has no outward beef with the Bad Kids and is actually kind of ok with Gorgug lmao.

I can't WAIT for all of this to get Jossed by the end of the season lmaoooooooooooo.

#this was fun i like excessively detailed headcanons with very little basis in canon!#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #original post #fhjy spoilers #rat grinders #ivy embra #mary ann skuttle

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jq37 · 3 months

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The Report Card – Fantasy High Junior Year Ep 6

Post Shrimp Jump Conspiracy Board Special

Hey y’all! Welcome back to Seacaster Manor where the shrimp party is still raging and the Bad Kids are balancing being cooler than ever with some serious sleuthing. We get a lot of new information this episode so I wanted to try out a new format for this week. I often talk in a metaphorical way about putting items up on a Conspiracy Board but I want to actually try that now that we’re a little over a quarter of the way in and have multiple overarching things happening. This is going to be a lot less linear than usual but bear with me. Gotta shake things up a little so I don’t get burnt out! There’s still fourteen more episodes to go!

The Rat Grinders

The Bad Kids’ de facto rival party got a lot of screen time in this episode, which makes sense: Adaine declared the party their nemeses over Goldenhoard or anyone else they’ve fought, which is saying a lot. Before this point, we knew the following facts about them:

1) They got their name because the only enemies they’re recorded as killing are low level ones (including rats) that they grind in the woods behind the school, showing a willingness to follow the letter but not spirit of the rules but also an impressive amount of dedication.

2) Their leader seems to be rogue, Kipperlily Copperkettle who is type A as hell and has a LOT of free time to kill having found the rogue professor (or at least having the rogue professor find her). She’s running for class president on a platform based around “fairness” which is a theme that’s come up more than once this season.

3) Also on the team are emo Bard Reuben (who seems to be related to the new Artificing teacher and who shares an agent with Fig) and nonplussed Barbarian Mary Ann (who is buffing herself magically somehow).

4) Kipperlily specifically asked about where Kristen was able to create a new god. Now how, where. An odd question.

This episode, we learned a lot more, so let's throw them on the board and make some connections!

5) The Rat Grinders have a new cleric named Buddy Dawn (something Kristen’s brother mentioned two episodes ago). He’s from Highcourt and moved with his grandparents. He’s got super Mormon+Southern “Bless Your Heart” energy and Kristen doesn’t like how familiar it feels. His vibes are clocked as well meaning but kinda judgey.

6) Buddy Dawn was *specifically requested* by the party. Of course, requesting a cleric isn’t weird–why wouldn’t you want one? And Helioism seems a pretty common religion in the region so odds are good that if you get a cleric is would be a Helioic one. But, paired with KP’s question about Kristen, it makes you wonder if the plan is to recruit a Kristen expy and try to get lightning to strike twice.

7) At the beer pong table, we meet the RG’s archer who is an elf named Ivy Embra. She’s got some flirty, catty energy (which we see when she interacts with Fabian and Mazey respectively).

8) We also meet the party wizard, Oisin Hakinvar, who is a Conjuration specialist with a focus in summoning. He’s a blue dragonborn which means that he has a great great great (etc) blue dragon ancestor he can ping when he needs barrels of diamonds, no problem. He has so many in fact that when Adaine lies badly that she’s also swimming in diamonds, he kindly offers to let her borrow some of his “extras”. But she turns them down, calls him great, and then panics and runs away to commiserate with Fabian who is also panicking about a flirty moment with Ivy. Oisin, for his part, seems driven to distraction and can’t make a single other shot all night. Cute! But–

9) As much as I want to wholeheartedly love Oisin (and honestly do and will until I am given direct evidence to change my mind) I have to point out that KVX, known evil bank, did change its logo from red (Goldenhoard’s color) to blue (Oisin’s Ancestor’s color) and there is a shot in the trailer of the party fighting a blue dragon. Connected? Maybe.

10) From investigating some yearbooks, the party also learns that the Rat Grinders have existed since Freshman Year but, at the time, they were called the High Five Heroes. They all look a lot more smiley and a lot less intense–Rebuen’s not even emo. It was the lineup from above, minus Buddy and plus a frost Genasi cleric named Lucy Frostblade. They learn that she supposedly died in their Sophomore year but specifically during a period near the end of the year where grades are locked and it wouldn’t affect their party comp which is…convenient.

11) Fig tries to investigate this by disguising herself as Lucy and seeing how Ivy and Oisin react. Only Ivy sees her but she doesn’t seem shocked at all to see her allegedly dead party member She just raises an eyebrow and ditches the game to talk to her. Fig bails (and rolls only a 12 to stealth away) so we don’t get any extra info but just the fact that Ivy reacted that way is pretty juicy info as is.

12) The other Rat Grinders don’t seem to be at the party but the members are skeptical about that. On the other hand, when Ivy leaves, it’s because Oisin pulls her aside and says, “Kipperlilly’s calling”. So it’s possible there was a Team A and a Team B for whatever the Rat Grinders were doing that night?

13) And speaking of what they're doing, we do have a theory. When Fabian checks some damage in the basement where Max and some other kids were smoking "gorgenfern" he sees that something called a cloud rider engine was smashed up pretty bad and in a suspicious way–gorgenfern doesn’t make you rowdy. Fabian checks the security tapes he obviously has and sees that some ice mephits came in and riled people up to the point of crashing into the engine. Adaine conjured some earlier in the party and as far as her arcana check can tell, they’re here, but there’s suspicion that Oisin–a conjuration wizard–could have done it. It’s certainly within his skillset. A cloud rider engine allows a vehicle to fly on clouds and it’s not clear if it was simply smashed or if something was stolen from it.

14) Max isn’t a Rat Grinder but he did ask them all if they wanted to smoke with him and Ivy offered Fabian snuff so Riz is suspicious that the RG’s are trying to get them kicked out of school for drug use now that they have a non-Aguefort principal who presumably cares about silly rules like that at the murder school.

That’s basically what we know about the Rat Grinders! So, to sum it up, I’d say the conspiracy board bullet points are:

Supposedly dead cleric Lucy Frostblade: What actually happened to her and why isn’t Ivy surprised to see “her”?

New cleric Buddy Dawn: Why was he specifically requested?

The High Five Heroes: What caused them to turn into the Rat Grinders? And, as they seem like they were more gung ho their first year, why did they never pivot to fighting things other than low level monsters?

Do they actually have beef with the Bad Kids specifically or are their vibes just terrible? Were they trying to sabotage them by offering drugs? Did they break the engine on purpose and, if so, why?

Oisin: Is he chill or is he working an angle? That question technically goes to Ivy as well but I’m almost certain she’s fully working an angle, lol. I’m getting straight up Aelwyn vibes from her.

Class President: What is KP’s angle re: running for class president? This seems like something she’d want to do either way with her personality but her policy of fairness dovetails too neatly with Grix’s appearance and Cassandra’s inability to say the phrase, “It’s not fair,” last episode.

How did KP find the rogue professor and is that relevant?

And finally, why did KP want to know about where Kristen created her Freshman year god? Well, that question may be partially answered in our next section.

God Stuff

There is a lot going on this season with celestial shenanigans between Cassandra and Galicaea and even Yes! So let’s mark out what we know.

1) Cassandra was possessed by some kind of rage entity via crystal shards that were expelled from her body. Her status is kind of up in the air right now as the party was shunted away to safety by Connor Counterspell (RIP) and all Kristen has left of Cass are some glowing, purple shards.

2) Earlier in the fight, while lucid, Cassandra said, “I thought you were dead” about some unseen entity. Later, Kristen heard from a creepy voice that said, “She is at my side once more”. It then threatened her and slid out the rotting corpse of Yes! as a sick joke. Likely that these are the same person or at least connected.

3) Gorgug identified that the rage stars are similar to what’s going on with Ragh’s mom, Lydia so it was put on the docket to get in touch with her about that–especially because Kalina specifically told them to track down Ragh with her last lucid words.

4) Tracker’s Galicaea rebrand is going really well. Her social media is really popping and the endless night probably didn’t hurt.

5) Kristen on the other hand, hasn’t been doing so hot. Due to a bunch of negligence based in lack of time management and personal uncertainty, she hasn’t been evangelizing much which means only she and Craig stand between Cass and her permanent destruction.

6) Kristen can’t contact Cass telepathically and says she can’t use her magic which is Not Great if you're as danger prone as the Bad Kids.

Alright, that’s all the old business so let’s move to the new business.

7) When Kristen talked to her parents, we learned that Helio doesn’t have a chosen one since she left but we learn that it’s more serious than that. Helio also can’t choose a new chosen one. He only gets one. With Kristen gone, the whole religion is without a chosen one.

8) At a certain point, Tracker finally gets a hold of Kristen and says some harsh but true things about Kristen but, more relevant to the conspiracy board, she talks about her girlfriend Nara and Adaine, as a fellow high elf, clocks her as coming from a family of moon goddess clerics in Falinel. That raises the question: is this run of the mill teenage rebellion a la the theme song, or is she some kind of plant? We’ll hopefully get some more info from Aelwyn since Adaine texted her about it.

9) The real juicy stuff happens when we talk to Ragh’s mom. The fiend in Lydia's gem is called Bakur. Her having him in there doesn't make her rage--she's raging to keep him trapped but that's it. Her personality is the same.

10) Bakur was a pit fiend and the right hand guy of a dead god whose name we don't know (hmm, another dead and nameless god). Bakur can't even say the god's name. It's like, weird god rules and Lydia explains in a weird vague way: gods not being able to use loopholes and saying names being powerful and rules changing for non-mortals when gods die.

11) The one very concrete info we get is that a god can only come back in a place where they were born or created. The reason Bakur’s plan failed is that he tried to bring back the nameless god in the Red Waste and not where they were created.

12) Rana (Lydia’s party cleric) is away and Cormyr (the party sorcerer) is dead but Lydia offers to put the party in touch with Rana and Cormyr’s family because they have more stuff related to this and they were the ones who knew more about this than her.

Following? Good. So let’s distill this down to bullets again:

Holy Helio. The corn god doesn’t have a chosen one anymore because Kristen up and left. What does that mean in a concrete sense? What can a chosen one do that a normal cleric can’t? Is Helio gonna ask Kristen to do anything this season now that we know that this is a special position that only one person can fill? Is it until she dies (or at least dies for real)? Would a fanatical Helioic person try and kill Kristen to open up that slot?

KP specifically asking WHERE Cassandra was created seems clearly tied to the info Lydia gave about only being able to resurrect a god where it was created. But what does that mean exactly? Is she trying to resurrect the same god as Bakur? Did she just assume that wherever Kristen made her god is probably where most gods are made and, thus, her best bet? What’s her angle? Is this an evil plan for just a “this will get me a good grade” plan?

Where in the world is Cassandra right now? She is MIA right now which means Kristen’s powers are too. Though I wonder if she can draw on those shards to cast spells.

We obviously can’t be sure but it seems like the voice Kristen heard and the person that Cass thought was dead is likely that unnamed god. What’s his deal? I’m sure we’ll have more info for this bullet soon.

Is Tracker’s new girlfriend Nara, much like Ecaf, a turncoat?

With Helio, Cass, and Galicaea all being in the mix, is there any kind of family angle being played. It doesn’t come up a ton but they are very much related.

MISC

This is a section for a few points that don’t yet fit under the main two headings of the season but still need to go up on the board.

Why would Aguefort program a robot that acts like Grix? Is he supposed to be like or is he hacked? If he is hacked, who would be able to do that? The new artificing teacher? The old one?

We learn that Aguefort has made a lot of contradicting proclamations and all of them are canon, so you’re able to pick and choose what you want to cite (I feel like I’m in law school again). Lots of room for loopholes which could be useful later.

Adaine, while very drunk, had an oracle vision of Kristen at a birthday party, giving a victory speech to a bunch of teens on election night as a crescent moon hangs in the sky. The Crescent moon potentially gives them a time frame if they look into it (and it specifically being mentioned makes me think of Galicaea even though not every moon thing has to be connected to her). And we know Gorgug’s birthday is near the Frosty Folk festival so maybe that’s why the hats.

Speaking of, we know there’s a connection between Riz’s mom defending someone for money crimes re: that Festival and Gorgug’s parents hosting it so that’s something to remember.

This isn’t something for the pin board per se but this season introduces a stress token system for downtime! I’m sure I’ll talk about it more when we use it for the first time next ep but, for now, gotta say he’s really ramping up the pressure on our kids! And, to that point, let’s do a quick check in with everyone and see what they’re up against!

Character Board

Adaine

-Adaine is still facing major money troubles. After last episode, not only is her job terminated, but she actually owes 2.5 gold for her uniform.

-It looks like she might be developing a bit of a crush on the cute dragonborn (yay) but he’s a Rat Grinder (nooooo). I will say though, cross party romance could be a lot of fun and also my favorite NPC in this show is Aelwyn whose top 2 traits are famously Criminal and Loves Adaine so I am honestly fine with this either way lol.

-Speaking of Aelwyn, I’ll put the sister stuff together: When Adaine calls her to ask for dirt on Nara she says, “Working, will call in five.” And when Adaine questions the fact that it's 5am on a Saturday, Adaine just gets a winky face emoji back. Suspicious!

Fabian

-Fabian has to juggle the new 150% course load (bard/fighter) as well as his new party house reputation.

-He has a lack of adult supervision which also means a lack of adult care and it seems to be affecting him more than he’s willing to let on.

-But honestly his biggest obstacle is probably himself right now, lol. He made himself a new nemesis in Gertie Bladshield and I am not confident he can handle this honey trap mission with Ivy without the tables being turned on him.

Riz

-Riz is also facing money troubles, but for him that’s kind of business as usual unfortunately.

-He has a TON of extracurriculars to keep track of but he so far seems to be handling it pretty well and is picking up some interesting allies (that double as votes for Kristen’s campaign–campaign manager is also an extracurricular he’s taken up): the aforementioned Gertie Bladeshield (Apiary Club), Sprak LeFevre (Aviation Club), and Molman Holden (Soil Club). Always good to have new allies and Aviation Club seems like it could be really useful later! I can see him making some luck checks to successfully say, “I know a guy” in a tight spot based on how many clubs he’s joined.

-He also has the Reliable Talent ability now which means he’s incapable of rolling lower than a 21 on things he’s proficient in which includes Investigation. We’re about to be getting some INSANE lore dumps.

Gorgug

-Gorgug has his insane 400% courseload happening and I didn’t notice this until it was pointed out to me but Zac actually leveled Gorgug DOWN in Barbarian to take an extra level of Artificer! That’s commitment. But I can’t imagine Porter, who already has a problem with him, is gonna like that.

Fig

-Fig would hate it if I didn’t start this list by saying that she hella misses Ayda and that’s her biggest problem.

-But she also has her album to worry about and we actually get the bombshell during a conversation with Mazey that she’s not even sure that she still wants to be a bard.

-On top of that, she’s taking Barb and Warlock classes along with the Bard classes she’s finally going to.

-She has her gnarly Gilear curse happening that’s seemingly connected to whoever the boss who owns the pride armor is.

-She has beef with Rebuen and is living her double life as Wanda Childa to try and learn whatever she can about him/the Rat Grinders.

-Both she and Wanda are wanted by the Solace FBI.

-On a positive note, she really endeared herself to Mazey by sweetly sticking up for her when Ivy was being catty. If Fig wasn’t so devoted to Ayda I could have read their interaction at the end of the ep as flirty. Regardless, nice moment and great ally.

Kristen

-Welp, her god is, if not dead, MIA which is arguably the biggest deal of anything on any of these lists, especially since it’s tied to her magic AND her grade.

-Next of course is the potato to her meat on her plate: her campaign. But that’s actually going really well, especially after this party. Her biggest issue is whether or not she can get Fetty Wap to homecoming and, lbr, in a pinch Fig can just disguise herself as him. When has that ever not worked?

-She also has this unnamed god (or whoever it is) taunting her and threatening her specifically which isn’t ideal.

-But I honestly think she was more fucked up by the conversation which Tracker where her ex basically outlined everything she needs to get together in her life and then posted a pre-written pic with her new girlfriend. That’s gotta sting.

And that’s it! I wanted to focus on the specific nuggets of info we got this episode and start to connect them with what we knew so far. Different format, I know, but I’m feeling experimental this season and I might switch it up a few more times as Junior Year goes on. I love covering Fantasy High but, like I said at the top, I have to keep it fresh so I don’t burn out. See you next time when Brennan makes the stress we’re all feeling an actual game mechanic! Fun!

#Dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #d20 #d20 spoilers #fantasy high #fantasy high spoilers #fhjy #fhjy spoilers #spoilers #the report card #when I started doing these no one was doing proper recaps #now other outlets are and I'm thinking pivoting to commentary rather than straight recaps might be more fun #but I'll see how I feel

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shakesthewizard · 21 days

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The Bad Kids as Knights Radiant

A while ago, I wrote this post assigning the main characters from Deltarune orders of Knights Radiant from Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive books. Now I'm gonna do the same with Fantasy High's Bad Kids!

Adaine O'Shaughnessey - "I will Seek Truth." The Order of Truthwatchers.

Do I need to elaborate on this one? The strongly opinionated youngest child of a rich and powerful family who has oracular visions thrust upon them without their asking and has to use their newfound power to save the world despite their pronounced lack of physical ability and the presence of neurological, emotional, and physical disabilities? Is anybody gonna fight me on this?

In all seriousness though - Adaine is defined by her desire to uncover lies and use the truth to set things right, no matter the cost. She so strongly values telling people what they need to hear, instead of what will make them feel better, and alongside Riz she's half of the team's mystery-solving power.

As a Truthwatcher, Adaine commands the surges of Progression and Illumination, and while powers-wise those feel a bit more geared towards Fig's spell list, Adaine is a master of handling the battlefield without drawing attention to herself, and as a Diviner she fills a much stronger support role than other Wizard subclasses.

Boggy the Froggy is Adaine's Lightspren.

Fabian Seacaster - "I will Reach my Potential." The Order of Elsecallers.

The Elsecallers are the consumate badasses of the Knights Radiant, and probably the most concerned with appearances, aside from the Lightweavers (who we'll get to, don't you worry). Fabian himself has huge potential for strength, grace, social aptitude, and academic success, that we see him fulfill over the course of the show. He's an excellent fighter who isn't afraid to utilize a nontraditional ability or tool in unique ways to give himself an upper hand. It reminds me a lot of Jasnah soulcasting on the battelfield.

As an Elsecaller, Fabian commands the surges of Transformation and Transportation. I think Transformation is the most apt thematically, as we see during his season 2 arc, learning to live as himself without abandoning his father's legacy. Although Transportation is also appropriate, given both that he's a very mobile combatant, and that he was the first among his party to gain access to a vehicle - one which he uses on the battlefield constantly.

I would say that the Hangman is his Inkspren, but I really think if he's anything he's a Dustspren.

Gorgug Thistlespring - "I will Seek Self-Mastery." The Order of Dustbringers.

While his personality doesn't match what we know of the Dustbringers in the series so far, Gorgug is otherwise an extremely good fit for this order. In season one, his arc centers on accepting his anger as a natural part of himself, and learning how to point it in useful and helpful directions, as well as reconnecting with his orcish heritage.

In seasons two and three, Gorgug dives into artificing; learning how to take things apart and put them back together, and pioneering ways to combine his skill with technology and his prodigious destructive power.

As a Dustbringer, Gorgug commands the surges of Division and Abrasion. These feel very appropriate for our curious barbarian, and I honestly don't feel like there's a lot I could say that wouldn't be plainly obvious. The kid rips stuff apart, what can I say?

Fig Faeth - "I will Speak My Truth." The Order of Lightweavers.

Performance. Art. Identity. Lies. Fig feels almost like an embodiment of this order. If you know anything about Lightweavers, I don't even know what to say that isn't already apparent. Fig disguises herself, invents new identities, lies constantly, and is the party's designated spy. She expresses these illusory powers by way of her artistic expression, and has a bad habit of running from her problems using those same powers. But of course, when the time comes, she shows an unmatched prowess for using those powers to completely dismantle the lies and schemes of ne'er do wells.

As a Lightweaver, Fig commands the surges of Illumination and Transportation. She uh. Makes illusions and turns into other people. Look, I don't know what else to say. She's a perfect fit.

Kristen Applebees - "I will Unite Instead of Divide." The Order of Bondsmiths.

Holy shit. This is why I wanted to make this post. Kristen, who with force of will and clarity of purpose brings a god back from the dead and forges a bond with her. Kristen, the most powerful Cleric of any god for the last century, who even at her most ignorant is the one to start treating the bad kids as a team before anyone else. Kristen, whose source of power is immense and strange, and who she conflicts with regularly, even as they share a purpose.

As a Bondsmith, Kristen commands the surges of Tension and Adhesion. Again, these are perfect for her. Kristen as a character feels at times to be made of tension; pulling at a deep and very serious love of ritual and spirituality that is at odds with her seeming inability to take things seriously the more dire they get. The girl who can create a new god, who can bring one back from nothingness, and who flunks out of her Cleric class the moment her teacher isn't 100% in her corner. Kristen's arcs also tend to be pretty central to the larger plots, what with the Harvestmen, The Nightmare King, and now Cassandra's spouse seeming to have a pretty pivotal role in whatever the Rat Grinders are up to. In short; Kristen Adheres the bad kids together.

Kristen's Bondsmith-spren is, obviously, Cassandra.

Riz Gukgak - "I will Protect." The Order of Windrunners.

I'm gonna be real with you, folks, I have never encountered a more Windrunner-ass motherfucker in my life. "I gotta do the right thing no matter what and be emo about it the whole time. What do you mean I have friends who love and support me?" Look me in the eyes and tell me if Riz got assigned to Bridge Four he wouldn't immediately dedicate himself to saving his whole crew and freeing them from slavery. You know I'm right.

As a Windrunner, Riz commands the surges of Adhesion and Gravitation. These aren't great fits for his real, very stealthy skillset - but if we're being honest Gravitation is the least thematically interesting surges anyway, and Adhesion is just the "cool nice guy" surge, which Riz already is.

lmk if this is the kind of content you're frothing at the mouth for and I can do more characters (I'm on my hands and knees give me characters to do this with it's so fun for me)

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #stormlight archive #adaine o'shaughnessey #fabian seacaster #fig faeth #kristen applebees #gorgug thistlespring #riz gukgak #knights radiant #truthwatcher #elsecaller #lightweaver #bondsmith #dustbringer #windrunner

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agftheorist · 1 year

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Is it possible to create a Darcy? An Amphibia meta

After the last events ( which is tumblr literally deciding to obliterate my toh analysis for no apparent reason) I hope this gets posted without any mess.

Well, we can begin now that I've written my blessings...

Disclaimer: I am not a neurology expert on anything like that, just someone who is very curious and makes research about brain. I will try to give sources of the informations I use in this theory post, and I would love it if anyone points out the missing or wrong parts of the information I give.

While watching the show, Amphibian technology always made me question the real life equivalents of these technologies. And, probably for many others too, the standing out one was the Core itself (I mean duh). In this post, we will look into the technology and biology that is the Core, and if it's actually possible to create one, and the possession, of course.

So, our main question is; is it possible to create a Darcy? To answer that, we need to answer these questions;

What exactly is "The Core"?

Can a machine control a human body?

Well, of course they create many other questions within them too, so let's start with the first one.

What Exactly Is "The Core"?

I think we all can agree that the Core itself is, to some extent, just a super advanced AI. I mean, before possessing Marcy, it has no organic compound forming it. A jungle of screens and cables and that's just it.

What makes it interesting is, however, the memories it contains. Aldrich claims that "it is the collection of Amphibia's greatest minds", which himself will also be included. Now, is it possible? Can we simply download our memories to a software system? Well, no. On the other hand, however, the answer should be: not yet. Because memories are said to be the connections between our brain cells (neurons) and solving them is what many scientists are currently working for. In fact, your thoughts are actually very much reachable with the most advanced technologies we have today.

The problem is, they are nowhere near the level of the Amphibian technology with very low resolution. Scientists can connect electrodes to your brain and record which parts of your brain are working more than others while thinking a specific thing, but just not very specific. As an example, you may be thinking about eating a hamburger and the scientists will know that you are thinking about food, and not some maths problem, because they see that the parts of your brain that are responsible for perceiving foods works more than others at that moment. Even if you are just thinking about food and not actually eating it.

Long story short, human technology still has a LONG way to go before actually resolving thoughts in 4K quality, let alone memories which have already happened AND recording them to an outside source. Also, I do not have that much scientific evidence to support this, but I assume memories must require A LOT OF storage unit. Because they need to include sensory information of that specific memory, the person's thought process etc., for the whole life of every person. Assuming Leviathans did just that, they must need a very strong CPU.

Now, let's say that we've managed to record their memories. We can say that this would be similar to saving a video to your USB. What makes the Core more special is, the ability to process these memories and experiences. Them drawing correlations between Anne and Sasha's invasion and Marcy's memory of watching the show is a mere example of that. And whose feature is that? Artifical Intelligence. IBM's definition of AI is given as below.

"artificial intelligence is a field, which combines computer science and robust datasets, to enable problem-solving. It also encompasses sub-fields of machine learning and deep learning, which are frequently mentioned in conjunction with artificial intelligence. These disciplines are comprised of AI algorithms which seek to create expert systems which make predictions or classifications based on input data."

The definition clearly states that AIs make their decisions by given data. And in the Core's case, the data becomes the memories of Amhibia's Kings, Queens and top-scholars. Their experiences and life perspectives. Most of the AIs make their decisions based on what knowledge you feed them with, sometimes resulting with "racist" AIs. (Considerig Amphibia's caste system, the Core can also be called racist but that's a whole different story)

To answer our first question, the Core itself is an extremely advanced AI which was fed by the views of Amphibia's extremely colonialist upper-class. Therefore, becoming and reflecting their very "Core", quite literally.

Now we're coming to the most interesting part....

Can a machine control a human body?

Before giving scientific evidence, I want to state that a machine or AI controling a human body is becoming more and more prevalent in media actually. From books to very well known movies. In Matrix, we see the character Bane becoming a vessel for Agent Smith, a literal AI virus. The process also has some similarities with both of them acquiring a cable to the spinal cord etc. But since science and general worldbuilding of Matrix is WAY different than that of Amphibia's, I don't get into specifics here.

Okay let's get back into the Core. As you might have noticed, the amount of cables Darcy has is getting greatly reduced throughout the show.

From this

To this

Another thing I noticed which may or may not be a change of design, but there is a little extension on the cable at this picture. At the later episodes, it is removed.

As you can see, the cable is continiuous now. Did that part had a purpose? Maybe as a filter for Marcy's memories or quirks? If it's the later one, it's obviously not working very well. What's interesting is tho, the apparatus dissappears within that episode. I don'y they'd change animation style mid-episode...

The extension disappears with the optimization process. Wanna know what else also disappeared with it? Marcy's "quirks" that are inherited by the Core. The cravings, trippings and everything else. If it weren't Darcy would've tripped and fallen probably a thousand times during their fight with Sasha and Grime. So that makes us question: what exactly did the optimization do?

For the rest of the theory, we are going to assume that the AI level of the Core is so advanced that it works similar to a human brain. And for those who don't know, human brains process data like a giant sponge. In whatever form you give it the data, the brain finds a way to make it "meaningful", especially in children. Ever wondered why infants talk a lot and touch themselves and around them? It is because their brains are trying to find the meanings and patterns of the sensory input. An example to that would be locating where your ears are and where the voice is coming from. The brain sends a random signal out there (gibberish voices) a feedback comes in the form of electrical impulses, and the brain finds a pattern eventually by repeating this so many times.

Deep learning method for an AI is also quite similar to this. AI does something, gets a feedback and fixes itself over time depending on those feedbacks. How does this connect to Darcy? Well, that cable from the head has to be going to somewhere. The Core and it's inhabitants never had a body for at least a thousand years, assuming the newest one that joined was Aldrich. So they had to learn pretty much everything from the beginning, in a body no newt has ever been in: a human body.

Even though they had insisted on possessing her for being smart, why wouldn't they just choose a newt, someone they'd be familiar with and would be comfortable as a body? Probably because to them, being smart meant processing more information faster, like having a faster computer. But they were also cautious, since they'd also installed a filter before processing the feedback taken from the body. As a result, they got the sensory info, processed it during sleeping (which is also one of the functions of sleep in human body) therefore "calibrated" the body. But in fact, the AI itself also evolved to actually process the sensory info.

Another little detail that I noticed is from a scene after Sasha cut the cord in All In. Darcy checking the body to find any damage is actually very confusing. I don't think any human (even most of the other animals) would need to touch or see to the wound to see if they've been violently stabbed by a long sword. After thinking for a while, I've formed a theory for that. We are not 100% sure what the inside of the body costume is made of, but we can safely make an assumption by looking to this picture.

This is a shot that shows the inside of the helmet. And it is full of electrodes that transports the signals from the brain to an outside source. So, we have no reason to reject the idea that the clothing covering the body is also filled with electrodes. Plus, when Marcy was in the rejuvenation tank, they needed to check her vitals to ensure her survival which doubles the possibility.

Now let's get back into the topic. If the costume/armor/WHATEVER is receiving signals from the body, then the outer part of it would be pretty plain, like the shell of a turtle. Turtles do have nerve cells on the shells, but way less than other parts of their body. Since she didn't have any signals from the outside layer, and no sign of damage from the inner electrodes, they checked the outer part with hands, whose signals were very well received by the Core.

I think this also explains how she was able to all those acrobatic moves when fighting with Sasha and Grime. The Core wasn't actually inside the body, but sending signals to the body. Same as human brains not having any nerves to feel pain, the Core itself wasn't actually receiving any pain signals like a normal human body does.

To sum it all up, an AI, computer programme or the collective memories of dead Amphibian upper class possesing a human body, is VERY possible. With very advanced technology, definitely. As my personal opinion, I believe we will actually see examples of it. When exactly, I don't know. Lastly, the helmet and pretty much all of the equipment is pretty Marcy-sized, so I wonder how long they've been designing those...

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understandableparadox · 2 months

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Bottom of the barrel Isekai review

Today we are looking at the following, "The white cat's revenge as plotted from the dragon kings lap."

christ thats a long as title.

anyways, do you have a friend? no? yes? maybe? how nice, how do you treat them? how do you speak with them? how do you interact with them? while you are filling out this survey, could you be as kind as to fill out those silly little digits on that odd plastic card in your mothers purse for moi~?

no? well fuck you to.

the flowers, the painfully average looking protag, the specific notation about the eye color? we are about to dive into the live of a special young lady and her mystical adventures through whimsy and wonder.

anyways the story is that ruri, are main charecter lives a rather average life with her super importent dad and her super model mom, as the image stats, how could her life ever be distrupted in any form or fashion?

if you guess that a random girl made friends with her and followed her for most of her life until they both got sucked into a fantasy world and the kingdom decided the friend would be the priestess, then you would be correct~!

"But dox!" you say crawling out of my airvent "thats huge gap in time, what happened in between?"

well asashi and ruri had a rather odd relationship. you see, everyone fucking loves asashi, they are all in on ensureing that this random girls life is as easy as possible but at the expense of asashi. they will all work togather to do make sure asashi is happy while also bullying ruri.

do you feel that? thats the worm in my brain slowly getting into yours as more and more questions about this specific dynamic arise. some of them will be answered, but they will only be answered in a way that makes sure the worm Burrows Deeper.

first question: its clear ruri fucking hates asashi, why do i say shes her friend?

second question: Why are they friends? why hasent ruri made her leave her alone if she doesnt like her?

well to answer those questions...

as asashi is appointed the new priestiess ruri attempt to discover things about this kingdom, she learns from a priest that there is no way back home that they know of, nor are their any stories of a person summoned being Un summoned.

anyways we cant get any plot done here! we need to roundaboutly kick shit off while also makeing this asashis fault somehow!

so she ends up getting kicked from the castle, forced to wander the woods for the rest of her natural life, her mulchcore attitude persaudeing her to lay down and become one with it all...

ok no thats not what happens, she walks around a little bit, learns she is the greatest mage alive

, wanders presumably without food and water for five days, yes im screaming at the overpowered mc cliche once again just ignore it, where in she meets a old lady in the woods

who of course unlocks her

Special eyes of destiny

which allows her to see the collection of fucking creepy fairies that constently surround and are touching her at any given moment of the day.

I am lead to belive due to the daisies drawn in the back ground that this is supposed to be a moment of whimsy and joy, this image fills me with a special dread as it fullfills almost every single one of my autistic fears imagineable. night mare night mare nightmare.

anyways magic is discussed for a vary long time but oh fuck, we havent complained about asashi in five seconds, time to make a horrifying point about her!

this conclusion seems to be that no one can truly love asashi as all the love she will ever feel is artifically grown because of her magic. this also means that if you have a strong heart and a good soul you cannot love asashi because you would naturally and rightfully find her as annoying as ruri would. this is because ruri is the only one that can see her objectivly.

if you hare undergoing a string of panic that comes from the fundamental question that comes from the doubt of love from the sources in your life, dont worry, Ruri says she is annoying and bad and the story belives her to be objectivly correct so everyone belives that if they are good. you are a good person right?

growing dread aside, more plot, the fairys bend to the whim of ruri, all faries, meaning that unless you are a motherfucking wizard, the one source of universal and public magic has been cut off. all villagers that relied on water and fire magic have been cut off. farmers that need earth magic are cut off.

of course this is not her fault because again she is an objectivly good person with a good heart so she tut tuts the fairies for depriving villagers of clean drinking water and easy acess to heat and light for a week and the story moves on.

she learns more magic, she summons the fairy of time and they platoniclly flirt because ruri is a completely heterosexual girl.

the fairy of time is a simp and donates to her only dimensional space. one item of which is a bracelet that turns her into a cat, fulfilling one item on the title.

she goes to the market, her special chosen one powers make her super duper populer and people naturally want her advice and to give her money

wait a second, what time is it?

OH FUCK, WE HAVENT COMPLAINED ABOUR ASASHI IN A BIT!

SHE HAS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE OF ASASHI GIVING UP HER DREAM LIFE IN A FANTASY WORLD TO BE WITH HER, THIS IS CONSIDERED A BAD THING, IN ANY OTHER MANGA THIS WOULD BE CONSIDERED A ROMANCE TO END ALL ROMANCES

she decides to leave and go to the city of dragons because fuck it, thats a thing to do, she has to tell them she is the special chosen one with the blue eyes and blonde hair.

we cut for a second our lead.

as you can see the prince through his actions is a completely heterosexual man, one that loves Boobs And Vagina. as one can clearly Tell.

anyways the prince is creepy, he walks through town in disgues, happens upon ruri and without a second thought proceeds to do this:

gross.

anyways, the prince tells his homophobic advisors that he met a girl and they immeditly start a witch hunt for her while ruri enters the room as a cat to establish that again, she is the special chosen one of destiny.

anyways she meets the prince and nothing happens. the fairies threaten to kill everyone with the knowladge that ruri has apocalyptic plot armor.

now, to explain what a special chosen one is:

"hey dox, pre-emptivly asking a question, why would their ever be a chosen one? it seems their sole existance is to get a small scratch and make everyone die about it."

GREAT QUESTION, I DONT FUCKING KNOW, THEY APPERENTLY CAUSE PROSPARITY BUT I HAVE YET TO SEE IT, NOT EVEN A GOD DAMN DECENT 401K

anyways the prince gets Really attached to the Cat

Really Close.

this is explained through the fact that they have simalier wavelengths or similier magic types, meaning that they feel lonely without each other nearby.

the manga is astouindingly quick to stifle any comparison to asashi because remeber, asashi is Objectivly Bad and Unloveable.

Remember, Wanting to be friends with someone and not immeditly knowing if they like you or not makes you an objectivly Bad and Annoying person.

cut forward a bit, more werid cat flirting and she gets a job outside the palace... anyways she hears knews that the kingdom she was exiled from is wageing a war against the nation of dragons. this is handwaved as being something they just do when they find some cool magic shit.

but notably, the reason for the war has changed, as rumors have emerged that the priestess of the kingdom is supporting the war to save ruri who they belive to be kidnapped.

she gets sad about this and goes to the grandma to whine about it.

so we can see here a few things.

we are supposed to belive that its completely unreasonable for asashi to make the assumption that her best friend has been kidnapped.

that it is her fault for allowing a war to happen when we know that regardless of her support they would wage it regardless

ruri only considers asashi a friend when it is deemed attractive to her moral charecter.

yes this is the first time ruri has every said that asashi is anything resembling a friend to her.

she slips into the castle after some poverty porn about how evil and bad this kingdom is, we get a brief scene showing the king is planning on makeing sure both asashi and the prince die because he finds him annoying (I guess he has a strong and objectivly good soul)

"Man, isnt asashi awful, worrying about her friend like that? wanting people to help her find her? isnt she just the fucking Worse ever?"

im going insane, the worm has won, they have consumed any rational part of my brain and replaced it with the vast rot of whatever fucking bizarro verse this manga demands me to be within.

the two friends finally reunite after being seperated for so long.

we get a sob story about a time she broke her watch because again, asashis charm powers make people jealous of how close she is to asashi, so they bullied her and since asashi has literally never seen anyone ever act anything like that because again, everyone s magically forced to love her unconditionally, she doesnt belive her.

and of course she dosent belive her either but instead of just blindly saying no to ruri, she says she'll talk to them about it, when its clear ruri fucking hates that idea, and gets ready to leave with a little cryptic warning, she asks to flee with her

which again is displayed as a creepy and werid thing because she accidently uses her charm magic that we have established she has no control over. again, in any other manga the idea that while you may not belive what you hear, you are willing to give up any comfort to be with your friend, would be considered the most profound act of love. please feel free to contrast this to captian hair sniffer and Cat spooner.

I cannot add any more images so lets speed run this. asashi is shaken up so she goes to the king to ask him whats going on, he says "Mind control" which lets be perfectly clear, is an established and perfectly reasonable thing to belive can happen in a magical fucking world, asashi is shown to be dumb for belive this.

war happens and nothing happens, dragons win by a land slide and asashi gets captured.

she dosent belive the dragon princes words and all of her allies that got captured with her are placed in an anti magic zone and now hate her completely because again, without magic, asashi is completely and utterly unloveable.

ruri makes friends with another god and they learn that asashi convinced a guard to let her go because i guess that charm magic works whenever. but shes stuck in a dungeon and she may run into the soldiers who i guess the charm magic wont work on which leaves us with this haunting scene:

we are told that asashi legitamitly does not understand what the fuck is going on, she does not understand why they hate her, she just thought she was going to save her fucking friend.

Behold Your Antagonist.

it ends with that.

here are the questions.

"Is the underlying story, barring any other concept, good?"

Kinda. its vary bland and vary generic. its a romance that does not know how to present itself a romance. it is a romance that spends more time complaining about someone then being in love.

"on a sliding scale of min to max, how much is the author using this to explore fetish"

none, the few saveing graces.

"How many story crutches does the author use to explore the story"

an absurd amount, from the plot contrivances to the power cliches, to the physical attributes denoting specialness to ensure we and the charecters know to treat her in a special way.

"Is the author attempting to use the story as a way to explain why he is not weird."

yeah, if you have any fucking trouble with social interactions or cant read people, then you are an objectively bad person, and if you are somehow populer, no one actully loves you, and they are being forced to love you.

#bottom of the barral #isekai #shitty isekai #manga review #read on your own time #its better as a hate read #I almost miss reading omegaverse romance isekais #at least there they pretend to be in a relationship of some kind

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suppotato123 · 1 year

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Thank you to everyone who voted on the last poll, and all the people who put their cool ideas in the tags. This is the new poll and it’ll have to be two parts because there’s too many degrees.

Thaumaturgical Artificing- The scientific study and application of magic as it pertains to Alchemy (the creation of of potions) and Arcana (the engineering of magical devices).

Advanced Applied Necromancy- A degree for those looking for the most modern and ethical methods of raising the dead. This is a degree for those looking for new and inventive ways to apply the Necromantic Arts to the betterment of society. Students can expect to learn the ways in which Necromancy can be applied to various fields such as medicine, criminal justice, and even industry, all wrapped up in serious discussions about ethics and consent.

Arcanic Archaeology- This degree walks students through the history of magical artifacts, how to find them, and their proper uses to aspiring Sorcerers and non-magic users alike.

Linguistic Incantology- The study of the properties of magical languages as well as the characteristics of those languages in general ascertained in order to gain mastery over the magical art of incantation.

Runic Studies- the study of the history of runes and sigils, their relevance in art, politics, and culture, and their various uses to the modern spell caster.

Magiphysical Sciences- The study of Humanoid systems, anatomy, and physical health and fitness as it pertains to magical gestures and more physically involved magic systems.

Mystic Virology- The study of magical diseases and curses, their effects on the humanoid form, and the treatments and counterhexes for such magical conditions.

Beasts Behavior and Health Sciences- This degree will prepare students for work with both wild and domestic fantastical creatures by giving them essential knowledge and essential skills in magical veterinary medicine and biology, grooming, feeding, and care, as well as wildlife rehabilitation.

Magical Performance Arts- A degree for those seeking to enchant and bewilder audiences of all ages. If you’re looking for something something showy and fun, look no further! Includes the option for courses like Enchantments and Shapeshifting.

Wandsmithing Technologies- This is a course for students looking to design wands. Students will learn to many essential lesson including, but not limited to, magidynamics, the magical components of many different wand building materials, and a comprehensive analysis on different wand styles throughout the ages. At the end students will have several wand prototypes and models under their belts.

Criminal Justice- Study how criminal justice organizations function, deal with people and their recurring problems, and create programs and policies that include and benefit the community. Here’s the twist; we add in a little magic to make your job easier. A popular magic class taken for this degree Scrying (with a warrant of course).

Supernatural Physics- the study of how and why magic came to be and how and why it works. Students will learn the structure of magic and how it interacts with other fundamental constituents of the universe.

Economic Divination- This degree provides studies in supply and demand, consumer behavior, and financial markets with an added twist. Students will learn the most reliable methods of divination to help insure future financial success.

Mystic Ecology- The study of relationships among living magical organisms, humanoids, and their physical environments. This degree looks at organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Students can expect to learn how to use their magic to help repair damaged ecosystems, increase power output, and cast diagnostic spells to access what remediation is necessary.

Novel Entomology- The scientific study of magical species of insects, arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans.

Magic History- The history of magic and it’s uses across different ages and cultures. This class will look at the different major events involving and influenced by magic and it’s interaction with society.

General Studies- This degree covers the most basic information on various magical studies and provides a great opportunity for students to discover their magical passions and/or complete their prerequisite courses before moving on to a more advanced degree.

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the---hermit · 2 years

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

At the begninning of the year I read a few dystopic classics, and this one missed from that list. I put off reading this after I finally got a copy, because I wanted to annotate it like I did with the other books, but I was never in the right mood. I finally decided to pick this up with the help of an audiobook, and I am happy I did because I think it would have taken me much more time to get through it without the audiobook. I was really hyped for this novel, but I must say I am not fully satisfied with it.

A bit on the plot. The story takes place in this totalitarian dystopic world, where people are born artifically and conditioned from even before they are born. There's a strong comentary on consumerism, and how that and drungs keep everyone happy but controlled in thi world. This part of the novel, and this type of critique was very well made, and the worldbuilding was very interesting. As it often happens the world building is stronger than the rest of the story, I wasn't really invested in the characters, which is not the best. I also think it's really interesting to see how certain things that were definitely perceved as dystopic in the early 1930s, when the book was published, have changed with time. To emphasise the dystopic aspect this society has no religion and it's very sexually free. People are not supposed to fall in love and have a family (which is a cool dystopic idea) but they are very much pushed into having a florid sexual life. In a lot of scenes you can tell the author was using this sexual liberty of the characters, and lack of "religious moral" as a way to tell the reader this world is bad. In today's society this is of course does not work as strongly as it might have in the 30s. This element made me think about the other dystopic classics I have read like 1984 by Orwell and We by Zamjating, where in both cases there's a different strumentalizations of sex in the futuristic worlds. Whereas in 1984 sex is something that should be cancelled completly, in We there's a closer situation to Brave New World. In We sex is very much free, and there's this idea that everyone belongs to everyone, like in Brave New World, but whereas in We the way it's described still feels really creepy, in Brave New World you basically just have to deal with the ideals of older generations. In We what felt really creepy is the fact that you soon learn that people can offically "book" others without consulting them priorly. In Brave New World we are seeing people ask each other out in a normal way, and given everything else as I said it did not feel like that big of a deal from the view of our own time. I really hope this whole thing I am saying makes sense. Certaily the passage of time has given Brave New World an additional layer on which we can reason. Even though this book wasn't one of my favourite dystopic classics I still feel like everyone should read it. In general reading dystopia is always something we should do, because it inevitably pushes us out of our comfort zones, and it makes us think about society, where we are going, and so on. I really look forward to reading more dystopic novels in the future because it feeds your brain in a very specific way.

I read this novel for the studyblr w/knives summer reading challenge 2.0 for the classic prompt. I'll soon post a proper update on the challenge.

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wizard-council-librarian · 1 year

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Hey there! A few things I wanted to ask. I don't really know what to call you. Like, I call @wizard-council-bureaucrat "Bure" because that's a pretty easy name. Can I call you Wizbrarian, or do you have a different preferred nickname?

Alright, with that out of the way, will you guys accept some books that the Council has but we don't really need? We have a copy of the necronomicon, two... H**** P***** books that are unfortunately indestructible, and a few guides for getting started on learning various languages.

Oh yeah! One more thing. Do you have anything on artificing? I just want more stuff to learn.

Hmm, I hadn't really thought about what others might call me. I'm just the librarian, after all! Wizbrarian made me smile, so if that's easier for you, feel free to use it.

We accept all donations, magical or otherwise!

As for artificing, I recommend starting with tomes or books that cover how to enchant items. Every artificer is different, of course, and has their own way of doing things. The way I do my artificery is by working an enchantment into the item as I make it. I'm a bit traditionalist in that I prefer making things by hand rather than by magic.

#wizardposting #wizard library #wizard library lore #apparently?

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verminjerky · 1 year

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I posted this on Twitter in March and I thought I’d start off my tumblr with the same in a much more sane format. So, from the top: I've never talked that much about my OCs or their stories. The two who have really developed stories are Llivion and Salaa. Llivion's is almost too long to go into, and it lives rent free in my head, constantly shifting. So let me introduce Lector Salaa Suran, of Clockwork City. Salaa was born and raised in Clockwork City, the son of Clockwork Apostles of rank, themselves. He was Redoran by heritage, as his family name would suggest. He showed an early aptitude for the mechanical, to the point of being a prodigy, to his parents' delight. He also had a head for math and magic, and being a tall boy, did well in athletics and martial training. He didn't apply himself at all in arts or social sciences, but he needed them little. He was largely quiet and introverted. More interested in his own pursuits. However, although polite to his superiors, he could quickly become stubborn and impatient when dealing with others. His frustrations dealing with people, largely caused by his own inflexibility and sense of superiority, only intensified his tendency to be withdrawn. As a young teen, people began to notice something interesting about Salaa. As he grew older, it became more apparent, and by the time he was a young man, there was no missing it. Young sera Salaa Suran was the absolute spitten image of Lord Sotha Sil. At first, this was fun. Just another thing that made Salaa special. But, in time, it began to wear on him. His considerable talents no longer stood on their own, but rather drew comparisons to someone who no mortal could live up to. Peers would ask his help on matters of artificing with comments like, "Well, you're the next best thing to Lord Seht, after all!" Worst of all were the rumors. The boldest went so far as to suggest to his face that his father (whom Salaa also resembled) wasn't his real father. He was even told that he should be proud to be the son of Sotha Sil, the speakers uncaring of what an insult the comment was to both his happily married parents and their Clockwork God. As Salaa rose through the ranks of the Apostles, he withdrew further, burying himself in his work. It was another point of comparison, but at least it was one he didn't have to listen to. As a Lector, a rank he achieved relatively young, he did have students. They comprised most of his social interaction, and he liked it just fine that way. They knew better than to trouble him about anything that might annoy him, and for the most part, he'd learned to temper his impatience and became a good teacher, well-liked by his pupils. In middle age, around the same age Sotha Sil had been at the time of his ascendancy, Salaa was occasionally outright mistaken for the Clockwork God. His habits kept these moments mercifully rare. However, he was unexpectedly called upon for a brief mission to the Mourning Hold. A prisoner needed to be escorted there and a Constable with whom Salaa was acquainted (Drados, it's Drados, of course it's Drados) requested his assistance as the magically powerful interloper in Clockwork City required ironclad magical restraint when removed. An imminent threat to the Clockwork City, the prisoner was to be taken to Mournhold to be dealt with by none other than Almalexia, herself, by request of Lord Seht, who said he'd trust no other far outside his realm to do what must be done. Salaa did as he was asked, of course. He'd never stepped foot outside of the City of Sotha Sil, and found himself overawed by the ancestral land of Morrowind, seeing for the first time the land he'd only ever seen illustrated. Even the business of escorting the prisoner couldn't dampen his wonder. And he got the opportunity he'd hoped to have. He met Lady Ayem, in the flesh. He was immediately convinced she was the most beautiful being who'd ever lived. He was in the grip of a childlike wonder he hadn't had even as a child. Morrowind and its Mother had him enraptured. Almalexia, in turn, spied him and immediately knew she'd found a new toy that she would have for her own. Salaa Suran looked like Seht, thought like Seht, was steeped in Seht. He even smelled of brass and oil. She would pick his brain for all he knew about Clockwork City. And she might do some other things with him, too. In the words of Naryu Virian, "I understand that Almalexia can be a little rough on her toys." It didn't take long to have Salaa alone, and once she did, she barely even had to charm him. He was clay in her hands. He never knew, nor asked, nor even wondered what happened to the prisoner until many years later. When the other Apostles went home, Salaa stayed, at Almalexia's request. She quickly made him a Hand. Her control over her Temple was so tight, there was very little grumbling about the immediate promotion from outside the ranks of the Ordination. Their relationship progressed quickly from one of goddess and supplicant to lovers. They were never, however, equals for a moment. Salaa never exactly agreed to being dominated by his goddess queen in every way, but saw little alterative if he was to have what he wanted most. She used and abused him at her whim, leaving him swinging wildly from the depths of shame and humiliation to the heights of ecstasy. Salaa often found himself on his knees, begging Mother Morrowind for release or relief, whatever device she was using to puppet him in a given moment. One minute he'd wonder how he'd ever lived without her, the next, he'd wonder how much longer he could live like this. Outside of the time he spent alone with Ayem, the formerly cloistered, reclusive Apostle was ill-equipped to navigate the political and violent world of the Ordinators. His orders began simply enough, but over time, they became more and more martial. While he excelled at martial arts, as he had in his youth, using them on real, living people proved catastrophic to the bookish, peaceful mer. He'd seek comfort in his lover and only confidant, even though she was the very one who'd burdened him with the trauma. Almalexia recognized these moments of vulnerability, and at these times more than any other, she would ask him all he knew about the Clockwork City. Its magic, its mechanisms, its people. Salaa, in his innocence, saw such questions as a kindness. A distraction from his pain. However, in time, a few short years, he could take it no longer. He fell to his knees before his queen, his goddess, his lover for the final time and begged her to set him free from this life. He'd seen heresy, and punishment, beyond what he'd once imagined possible. And the Mercy of Morrowind did just that. She relieved Salaa of his vestments and his enthrallment. He felt no pain, he was not broken hearted. Whatever had once enraptured him simply evaporated. She didn't toss him away but rather tossed him into the air to fly on his own wings. Whether this was a final act of kindness and mercy to someone who had worshipped her like few who'd come before, or whether she was simply done with him and gotten what she wanted is impossible to say. Either way, Salaa Suran had no title nor order for the first time in his life. For a time, he wandered Morrowind, untethered, living off the land or making money with his skills when he needed to. At times he felt ashamed and adrift. Other times, he felt as light and free and full of possibility as a dandelion seed on the wind. The people of Morrowind, for their part, took little notice of him. Very few Tribunal worshippers even recognized his resemblance to one of their gods. For the first time ever, Salaa was absolutely and completely unremarkable. Until a chance encounter. The Psijic Order have always maintained a few emissaries in Tamriel, storied mer like Asulo and Lilatha. This was in the days when the Isle of Artaeum was farm from Nirn, perhaps even the Mundus, when such members were critical ties to the world of mortals. This Psijic, whoever it might have been, was the first mer in years to recognize Salaa for who he looked like. Salaa, of course, was staggered to run into a magnificently robed Altmer in Morrowind who saw the resemblance that had so shaped his life. The two struck up a conversation and sat at the inn, ordering coffee after coffee, well into the wee hours, talking about their long lives and many experiences. It wasn't long before the Psijic had revealed their Order, which immediately told Salaa how he'd been recognized. His new friend had done something Salaa, himself, never had - seen Sotha Sil in the flesh. The Psijic, recognizing a brilliant and gifted mage, invited Salaa back to Artaeum. Just to visit, of course. But before the visit was over, he'd been offered a position within the Order. Unlike when he'd joined the Hands of Almalexia, this time, it took Salaa a few days to decide. Another monastic order, another place he'd rarely leave, another anchor. There was no one here he was madly in love with. Nothing here called irresistibly to him. But, the desire for a place to call home, his longing for scholarship, and the beautiful, even more deeply ancestral Summerset isle eventually wound their way into his mind and put down roots. He agreed, and for the third time in his life, wore the vestments of an order. He learned deep, old magics wildly different from what he'd known in Clockwork City or Mournhold. He was soon able to wield arcana as ancient as the stars, themselves. Among the Psijics, he was great again, but so was everyone around him. They all knew his face, but none changed their opinion about him because of it. Sotha Sil was their honored teacher, not their god. Slowly, so slowly he didn't even notice it happening, Artaeum became Salaa Suran's heart and home. He settled into a comfortable life. Only once was his peace interrupted, although briefly. The great powers of Tamriel - all of them - were called together in peace and diplomacy to address an existential daedric threat to Nirn, when one of the Princes of Oblivion bested Seht's own Coldharbour Compact. Which Prince it was is not know to this day, but the Princes who agreed to the Compact found themselves able to keep its benefits while defying its prohibitions. Most of them, of course, immediately took full advantage of this. And a few of them... well. The Psijics were forced to aid in the fight to help ensure the safety of both Nirn and Artaeum. Salaa, of course, joined his Order in this endeavor. And in a stroke of remarkable fortune - or perhaps providence? - Salaa's rare gifts finally found their use. Lord Seht needed to be in two places at once. As noted in Vivec's 36 Sermons, he was entirely capable of this feat. What he could not do, however, was completely hide his immense power from another so powerful as a Daedric Prince. And he needed to be in a second place quietly. The Psijic Ritemaster was able to offer a solution without hesitation, and finally, after centuries, Salaa Suran came face to face with Sotha Sil. "I see your qualifications were not overstated," were Seht's very first words to him, referring to both his visage and his power. But about their resemblance, Seht said no more. Salaa was overwhelmed to finally meet the Clockwork God, perhaps even more than he'd been when he met Almalexia, but this time, he was able to keep his emotions well in hand. Seht quickly devised a plan, and found Salaa more than up to the challenge. A little magic to change his proportions and simulate Sotha Sil's enhancements, and Salaa became indistinguishable from the Mystery of Morrowind. How exactly he carried out his role is unknown. What is known is that he was successful, and lived to tell the tale, although he told very few. Most versions of the story say he stared down one of the darkest Princes and comported himself exactly as Lord Seht would have. The Prince, convinced, did not dare to touch him. Seht rewarded him for his aid, although what he was given was never recorded. The memory of finally meeting the Clockwork God was a happy one. Although Salaa was eventually appointed Relicmaster of the Psijics, for the rest of his days, he used the title Lector. He would meet Sotha Sil one more time. In Salaa's advanced old age, Seht briefly returned to Artaeum. He had need of their magic, the threat which faced Morrowind is well recorded. Sotha Sil was now far more enhanced with clockwork of his own device, and Salaa was centuries old. The two no longer resembled each other. Some longing sparked in Seht's ancient heart, and the two sat and had a long, long conversation. They spoke of everything, from Sotha Sil's posthuman enhancements, to the Ghost Fence, to Salaa's time with Almalexia. Neither held back his secrets, but neither asked too much. For a brief moment, a few hours, they were as friends. Salaa took whatever secrets Seht might have told him to the grave a few short years later, not knowing that he'd met Sotha Sil during his very final visit to the Isle. His passing was peaceful, uneventful, and painless. He slept in his own bed in his one true home. The priesthood of the New Temple say Lector Salaa Suran's spirit can be contacted in the Provisional House, though rarely. He'll sometimes come if someone has a very intriguing question that only he can answer.

#morrowind #clockwork city #eso #elder scrolls #elder scrolls online #sotha sil #psijic #psijic order #mournhold #almalexia #ordinator #lector #oc

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littleeyesofpallas · 1 year

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I know canonically Santa Prisca is supposed to be a stupid bundle of racist cliches about drug cartels and the political unrest of Latin America, but my personal interpretation has always been for it to be an unicorporated territory of the US, like Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands. And rather than just being mexican alcatraz, make Peña Duros more of a direct Guantanamo Bay analog. That way it can be used as a critique of political loopholes of American territories, and the human trafficking problems in the American prison system.

The prison becomes a deposit in the ongoing American cup and ball game that is culpability for humanitarian crimes against the incarcerated; people get shuffled thru Pena Duros to keep abuses off official records of American prisons, and off "American soil." In this way Bane's upbringing can be accounted for as he sees a constant rotation of every kind of criminal come thru the prison and he can learn from them all in turn, mirroring Batman's apprenticeship, while also feeding him rumors from Gotham transfers about a certain crime fighting urban legend.

But a secondary business for an industrial prison is the buying and selling of prisoners; not only does Pena Duros become a very obvious auctionhouse for hitmen and slave labor, but by preying on the demands of privatized prisons in the US, sells its prisoners to fill cells in US prisons, artifically inflating prison populations to falsify government contract evaluations. And from this, gangs and governments use the ongoing prison trade to smuggle people and goods across the US boarder, both ways, with Pena Duros as the boarding station.

And in this way Pena Duros becomes the powerful multifaceted underworld enterprise that Bane is able to climb the ranks of and take over from the inside.

And then of course we can also toss in the patented supervillainy of weapons and tech smuggling and harboring fugitives and trading in political prisoners to rationalize why and how this prison complex was dabbling in super soldier serums (rather than just "mexicans sell drugs, wrassle man big, do steroids!") Pena Duros sold the human test subjects for venom, smuggled the chemicals in and the finish products out, harbored and traded scientists and whistle blowers, and in it all built their own working version of the drug... Just in time to test it on their own inmates, including one particular little boy born and raised inside the prison walls...

Bane himself I want to take more after Javert and Eugene Vidoq, as someone who turns his familiarty and mastery of criminal life into that of a enterprising jailer, so invested in having conquered and now weilding the power of a system that abused him and molded him into a monster that he can't ever let it be dismantled. (And on a perhaps more literal level, he literally can't let the prison not mass produce Venom, because no one else produces it, and he is so chemically dependent on it that he needs more of it than anything smaller than industrial scale production could supply him.)

But in any case, a proper Moriarty(Napoleonic empire of crime and all) to Batman's Holmes, as he was originally promised to be, yet not fully delivered on, not just on the personal mano a mano level, but organizationally: Bane's Pena Duros operation should be more than just another gang of faceless thugs, they should be highly and diversely specialized --recruited, trained, and when needed bought or pressganged to fill specific needs-- and comparable to the Batfam or Batman Inc.

And for that matter, he should also be giving Amander Waller's Task Force X a hell of a run for its money while he's at it. He and Waller should have a deeply familiar and bitter professional rivalry, yet both beholden a begrudging admiration.

Also as a tangent, I would rectify the egrigious mistake of calling his recently introduced protege "Vengeance" and not the infinitely more appropriate and obvious NEMESIS, as a distintly feminine synonym for "Bane."

#random headcanon #ive been in a real batcanon mood for some reason...#i dont know why i havent been fixating on any actual bat content lately #goddammnit bane deserves to be so much cooler than anyone ever makes him

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autisticsupervillain · 2 years

Text

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Stats Equalized!

The monthly show where we equalize speed, strength, and durability to determine which fighter is the most versatile and skilled.

This Episode...

Batman vs Spider-Man!

Rules:

Both have absolutely everything.

Spider-Man starts in his Anti-Ock suit.

Arkhamverse Batman vs Insomniac Spider-Man

Scenario:

After a new arms dealer begins selling WayneTech weapons in New York, Spider-Man breaks into Wayne Tower to investigate. Bruce is alerted about the break in and goes to investigate as Batman. Spider-Man asks Batman for help in investigating Wayne Industries, but Batman insists Wayne is innocent. Spider-Man gets suspicious, as he notices some of Batman's gadgets look suspiciously similar to those being sold on the street, and asks to see some proof. Batman simply insists and Spider-Man takes that as proof that the two are working together somehow, deciding to try and take him down.

Analysis: Spider-Man

We all know the story of Spider-Man by now. Peter Parker was an ordinary teenager until the day he got bitten by a radioactive spider, which granted him extraordinary powers. After indirectly allowing his Uncle Ben to be killed by a mugger, Peter learns he must use his powers responsibly in order to help the common man. The game itself assumes you know all this and so do I.

We'll be covering the version of Spider-Man who premiered in Insomniac Games' hit PS4 title: Spider-Man. Presumably they were unaware that other Spider-Man games had been made. Peter in this timeline has been a superhero for eight years and has long ago quit his job at the Daily Bugle in favor of exploring the full potential of his scientific mind, which will probably save far more people than jumping around in his underwear punching animal themed supervillains ever will.

All snark and sass aside, there is a reason that this adaptation of Spider-Man has reached such high acclaim. He's the most true to the comics version of the character out there, in terms of both charaerization and combat style.

Peter has the usual lew of superpowers, his extraordinary strength can lift cars, his speed can dodge bullets, and he can stick to any surface he so chooses, allowing him to run up buildings with ease. When used in conjuction with his web shooters, Peter is able to swing through the skies of New York with trivial ease, using his incredible acrobatics to outpace even flying opponents in the air.

He made those web shooters, as well as the artifical web substance they fire, himself. In fact, he's the one who made all of his own gadgets (though Doc Ock did upgrade his suit a tad). This includes his suit's lenses, which have several different scanners built in. They can allow him to see through walls, as well as be calibrated to highlight and track any substance Peter needs them too, such as a specific chemical compound he scanned or a specific person's pidgeon that he needs to track down. This, of course, requires him to get a scan of whatever item he wants to look for. Hell, he can even alter his own hearing to narrow in on specific sounds, sych as the sound of someone screaming from inside a locked car trunk in the middle of a New York highway.

To add on to that, he has several different gadgets added to his web shooters as well that he can switch to at a moment's notice. These include web grenades, web trip wires, compressed air blasts that send people flying, and anti gravity grenades that leave his foes helplessly suspended. His electric webs do exactly what their name implies, while impact webing knocks stronger foes off their feet. He can even pull out a portable floating drone to aid him in combat as it fires little electric shots at his foes. However, sometimes Peter's standard arsenal just isn't enough, and that's where his different suits come in.

Spider-Man has built a plethora of different suits over the years, usually to specifically counter certain foes. While any of these suit's modules can be used with any suit, he can only use one at a time. His electrically insulated suit can can electrify his punches while his secret war suit can discharge an emp blast to short out his foe's gadgets. His Spirit Spider Suit can channel spiritual energy to amp his attacks while his Negative Suit can harness Mr. Negative's corrupting negative energy. His stealth suit alter's his opponent's perception so that he becomes invisible while Spider-Punk lets him blow enemies away with a blast of sound. 2099 White can generate concussive shockwaves and 2099 Black can decrease his own gravity to give him more air time. And finally his various Spider Armours can absorb damage and reflect projectiles in a variety of ways while his Fear Itself and Velocity suits can double his strength and speed respectively. His Anti-Ock suits makes him strong enough to fight Doc Ock and also grants him an endless supply of gadgets and web fluid.

Even without enough gadgets to make James Bond jealous, Peter's powers can help in a pinch. He can regenerate from being beaten to the brink of death, with broken bones and internal bleeding, in minutes. He was completely unaffected by the Devil's Breath virus, which nearly wiped out New York, and has willed his way though Mr. Negative's corrupting mind control touch twice, he can control hundreds of people at once. Peter's Spider Sense not only warns him when attacks are coming but allows him to briefly slow down his perception of time to a crawl on command, causing even people just as fast as him to move in slow motion while he lines up his next shots.

And all of this is in the hands of a scientific genius. He's gotten job offers from leading scientists like Tony Stark and Normal Osborn and is currently working on world changing robotic prosthetics. He created a counter agent to cure Tombstone's indestructible skin in seconds, as well as hacked into state of the art computers. On top of that, Peter is a remarkably skilled acrobat and martial arts master, capable of defeating the likes of Taskmaster, who has fought the Avengers and is capable of imitating Peter's techniques, twice, even after being studied by him for weeks. International mercenary groups with technology that can put the army to shame regularly lose to him in huge hoards, even when they can deactivate his equipment. Peter's a one man army. A one Spider-Man army.

With great power comes great responsibility, and by god you'll feel every bit of Peter's great power as he punches you off a roof.

Analysis: Batman

Yet again, this games knows the story of Batman and assumes you do too. As a child, Bruce Wayne was leaving the theater with his parents when they were approached by a mugger. Mugger killed the elder Waynes and ran off with their jewelry, leaving the young Bruce traumatized. Bruce swore to never allow any other child to go through that again and so dedicated his life to becoming the ultimate crime fighting machine.

Bruce traveled the world to master every martial art known to man kind, training with and besting some of the greatest martial artists in the world. He became an expert in criminal psychology, biology, and chemistry, mastering several fields of science to become an unstoppable avenger of the night. He becama more than just a man. He became Batman.

Batman is equipped with all the typical gadgets you'd expect and then some. He carries an arsenal of razor sharp baterangs, from remote controlled to sonic batterangs that act as sound generating explosive mines. His batclaw allows to grappel over nearly any surface and can be split into a tight rope wire to help him cross gaps. His cape allows him to glide through the sky as easily as the mammal that inspires him and drop in on his foes at any time, but the cowl it's attatched to is where things get interesting.

Batman's cowl has a detective vision built into it's lenses, which scans for nearly everything it's possible to scan for. With it, he can see and hear through walls, detect weaponry, and scan a person's biology down to their skeleton, allowing him to determine a person's emotional state from their heartbeat, for example. It's so advanced that Bruce can recreate entire crimes and see every detail of what happened by scanning pre-existing evidence, as well as grant Bruce a degree of precognition, allowing him to predict a projectile's direction before it's even fired, as well as perfectly analyze, identify, and chemical compunds. Kinda easy to be the world's greatest detective when the tech does all the work for you.

Though, he wouldn't be Batman if he didn't have plenty of combat focused gadgets. He has remote controlled explosive gel, a device to summon bats, thermal gloves and batarangs, as well as ice grenades and glue grenades that can stop foes in their tracks, (though the later is unstable and quickly dissolves). By the end of his career, he's even begun using fear gas, bringing his foe's deepest fears to life like a demon from hell. His disruptor gun can jam guns and disable locks while his cryptographic sequencer can hack into computer mainframes. His remote electrical charges and shock gloves can zap you with hundreds of volts while Batman's own insulation keeps him safe, even as his high voltage punches recharge generators and temporarily stop hearts. And, of course, he's always down for the stealth hi bye as he disappears from sight with his smoke bombs.

Batman is a master of stealth, frequent sneaking past thugs, soldiers, and cops alike without a sound. He's taking apart entire rooms before they even knew he was there and has actively ultilized his stealth to terrorize his foes into submission. And that's just scratching the surface of his skill and intellect, as he's trained at least four side kicks into adulthood, with Nightwing in particular even going in to protect his own city and can use anything he finds as a weapon. Except guns, he takes those apart in moments like they're cheap lego toys.

And then, there's the vehicles. The batmobile is less a car and more a mobile tank, capable of switching between car and tank at will. It electrocutes everyone it rams into like a giant taser battering ram and it fires non-lethal "punch" rounds that knock people out cold in a single shot. It's targeting system allows it to fire homing missiles at vital weak points or just spray missiles everywhere if so needed. It also comes equipped with a cable, that can both drag things and channel electricity. Oh, and he has the batwing. He's never used it in combat so.... shrug.....

Batman has defeated nine of the greatest assassins in the world, defeated his entire rogue's gallery in a single night on more than one occasion, and shrugs off being drugged, poisoned, and fucked with in the head at least once per game. He's no mere man. He's the Goddamn Batman

Throwdown Mashup:

youtube

Throwdown Breakdown:

Right off the bat (hah), both counter out a lot of each other's arsenals. Stealth? Both can see each other through walls and home in on the unique chemical compounds they keep on their person. Mind Manipulation? Both have overpowered mind control through sheer will power alone, so Fear Gas and Negative Energy are moot. Electricity? Both their suits are insulated and both can shrug off electric blasts with ease. Hacking? They can both do it to each other and would immediately hack the other right back once they started it. At worst, it leaves them both without most their gadgets.

As far as specific advantages go, Batman is far more skilled generally. That's partly because he has more games but mostly because he's been doing this longer and just has better feats. He already mastered every martial art in the world back in Origins and people he struggles with then are people he one shots now.

However, Spider-Man has his own considerable advantages. He's far superior at ariel combat for one. His web shooter's beat out Bruce's cape and hook easily and he's fought far more flying opponents than Bruce has. There isn't really a martial art for fighting people in mid air, and Peter has plenty of tools to keep him air bound, like the anti-gravity grenades.

While the Batmobile would overwhelm Peter stat wise due to being faster and stronger than Bruce (whose stats Peter is Equalized to), he actually has some counters to it. Provided Peter is able to switch modules, his Spider Armours should all be able to render it's bullets moot, while the missiles would just give him something to throw bat at the tank. If he can't swap modules, Peter can just rang out on a roof top and force Batman to fight him up there. There aren't many buildings you can drive a car up and nothing stops Peter from just snapping the cable if Bruce tries to climb up that way. And unless that Batwing has some Spider-Man repellant in it's cockpit I don't see that helping either.

Furthermore, Peter's superior precognition should give him the opportunity he needs to either get out of any corner Batman puts him in or capitalize on his advantages.

Don't get me wrong, Batman is well away the more skilled fighter, but he just has no answer for Peter's better mobility. Most of their gadgets counter each other, so I just can't see any way for Batman to consistently bridge the gap. What tools Batman has that Peter does not are countered by Peter's own options and I just can't say the same vice versa.

This Month's Winner is...

Spider-Man!

#stats equalized #spider man #peter parker #spider man ps4 #batman #bruce wayne #batman arkhamverse #Youtube

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