#(and was himself viewed as an usurper himself by many)

[wonder-worker]

“Edward IV was never the sole, undoubted representative of the kingship before I47I. The crowned, anointed and, most important, de facto king of nearly forty years standing, was still alive, never abdicated and was never deposed; he was free until I465 and safe thereafter so long as his heir was beyond Edward's reach ... Barnet, Tewkesbury and the prompt murder of Henry VI, the moment it was safe to do so, alone changed all this and secured Edward's de facto kingship at last. The 'first reign' was in fact the road to the throne.”

- B.P Wolffe, review of “Edward IV” by Charles Ross

[ohbother2]

OKAY SO-

Alastor lost his cool and flipped his shit immensely when Lucifer showed up - why would that be? and why wedge himself between Lucifer and Charlie? Why would he react so viscerally when his literal main-competitor for retaining his rank and respect is Vox, and Vox openly antagonises him first, trying to drag Alastor's reputation through the mud in his broadcasts

Alastor remains cool, calm, collected, and in doing so completely surpasses Vox's attempts

in many ways, Alastor is unflappable. Always smiling, always a step ahead, always the most powerful and domineering in a room

and then- Lucifer shows up. This short statured, rosy-cheeked, rather pathetic excuse of a man

he waltzes in to the hotel, a fumbling over-excited mess, the least threatening a person could possibly look in hell, barely reaching Alastor's waist

and yet, he outranks Alastor, he could over-power him easily, he is the predator

and Alastor simply cannot handle that

Alastor may be furious that such a week-minded, emotionally unguarded man ranks so far above him with no way for Alastor to even attempt to gain the same status

so what does Lucifer lack? what is the one thing Alastor can have that he can't?

a relationship with Charlie

his anger is calculated, he finds what hurts Lucifer, he finds his weakness, he grips onto it with both claws, and he drags it in front of him, mocking the fact that, yeah, sure Lucifer may outrank him, but in his daughters mind? one of the few things Lucifer can't control? Alastor has the power, has the lead - in all manners of 'power' and 'influence' that Lucifer cannot control, Alastor makes sure he knows he is on top - he is Charlie's favourite, he succeeds where Lucifer has failed her

regardless of his motives, he has been there for Charlie, and Lucifer hasn't, and that's all that matters

but why does he have this deep-rooted need to prove himself? why can he not accept that he is still the second most powerful in that hotel?

his need for power, for dominance, for control is shown again when Husk confronts him in the hallway

'big talk for someone who's also on a leash'

this time, Alastor doesn't even bother targeting Husker's, insecurities, his weaknesses

he drags him down the hallway chained at his neck, teeth gnashing and positively enraged

there's no typical Alastor intelligence or cunning behind this action - it is pure unadulterated rage, it's a: I can kill you, and I will

killing husk would be useless - Alastor obviously has a purpose for him, that's why he's been kept alive and the other overlords haven't, killing him would get rid of any leverage Alastor had, it would get rid of Husk full stop

Alastor has been gone for 7 years, and now he's back, supporting a cause he doesn't believe, forced to wander around the hotel halls and haunting its residents instead of freely roaming Hell

Lilith has also been gone 7 years - and she isn't yet back

Alastor just so happens to appear at the hotel mere moments after Charlie tries to talk to Lilith, marching into the foyer and wedging himself into the project with a showman's flair

he is chained, he is chained to that infernal hotel where he doesn't belong - he cannot be redeemed, he doesn't want to be redeemed

he is chained to Lilith, and by extension he is chained to Charlie

and in his eyes, he is powerless, so utterly and infuriatingly at the mercy of those above him, and that simply won't do

so what can he do? what can a man, whose greatest desire is power, who's biggest insecurity is the power and status he wields over others, do to reclaim some semblance of that power? how can he usurp Lilith? how can be make this soul-bond beneficial to him?

he can win Charlie over - he can replace her father in the process, he can mould her as he sees fit, he can play on her need to view the best in everyone, in the need to create friendships and her insatiable ability to care for those around her

he cannot get to Lilith, he cannot match Lucifer, but he can have Charlie

and he's nearly got her

and when he does? who's to say her naivety, her trust, the relationship he's intentionally crafted with her, leads her to strike a deal with him in a moment of need? when the angels attack, when the hotel begins to crumble, when heaven commands her to stop her efforts? why wouldn't she strike a deal, in her mind, he's as caring as a father figure, and a man who's been there since day one unlike either of her parents

she shakes his hand

he has her soul

he has Charlie, and he has Lilith, and he has Lucifer

there's nothing they can do, and isn't that really what power is? not raw-strength, not magic, not status, but the ability to control those who others may believe to be above your own station?

he's forced to the hotel, he's chained down and unable to grab for more power - if Lilith is preventing him from earning it himself, well, he can always just force her to give it to him

all it takes is one hand shake.

the cherry on top? he get's to show Lilith it's her own desire for him to be at the hotel that has allowed him to ensnare them all

[andreawritesit]

can i request cregan and targ reader where he gets her a wolf and its all sweet and stuff ❤️

Fandom: House of the Dragon

Pairing: Cregan Stark x Targaryen Reader

Synopsis: You had been living in the North for quite a while now but nothing felt quite as welcoming as receiving a warm bundle of joy as a present.

It was not morning yet. Or perhaps it was. Wrapped in the dark grey clouds, the sun often played hide and seek in the Northern skies. It was difficult to tell what time of the day it was. You got out of bed and immediately, the sudden chill enveloped your entire body, down to your bones. Quickly grabbing the fur blanket from the bed, you wrapped it tightly around yourself. The cold was your worst enemy, your soul was forged out of fire after all. Even after an entire month, you still couldn't understand why your mother would betroth you to a Northern lord. You were the same girl on the side of whose bed she had spent countless nights awake. As soon as the weather became colder, you'd catch a fever. Throughout your childhood and even now, in your adolescent years, Rhaenyra has been on her toes constantly because of how the cold affected you. And yet she had sent you to marry Lord Cregan Stark. Why? That's not to say that your betrothed wasn't the most respectable man you had ever met. Cregan was cold and stoic as Northerners tend to be, but he was also honorable and extremely kind to you. As soon as you had arrived at Winterfell on dragonback, he had done all he could to make sure you were comfortable. He made sure you got plenty of warm clothes and furs and despite being the lord of Winterfell, he came to your chambers every day to see if you needed anything.

You had both decided that you would marry only after the war was over. He didn't want to tie you to himself knowing very well that he could die in the war and leave you by yourself. And you didn't want to marry him so soon either because you still wanted to partake in your mother's efforts to get her throne back from the usurpers.

You walked to the window and looked outside. Everything was covered in pristine white snow. It was so different from Dragonstone and Kings Landing. Instead of the hustle and bustle of the South, there was a calming silence in the North. Soon enough, the sun's rays began to pierce through the dense clouds, casting a golden hue over the snow-covered landscape. You couldn't help but smile at the view outside. The tranquility was suddenly broken by a soft knock at the door.

"Come in", you called, walking away from the window.

The door slowly creaked open, revealing the Lord of Winterfell. His tall and imposing figure was contrasted by a warm smile on his face, a sight you had come to cherish over the past month.

"Good morning Princess. I hope I didn't disturb your rest."

You shook your head, "Not at all, my Lord. I was already up." Your eyes went to a bundle of blankets in his arms. "What brings you here so early?"

Cregan's smile widened as he walked to where you were standing. "I come bearing a gift for you, my Princess." He stepped closer, revealing a small, furry creature nestled in the crook of his arm. "I hope this will make your stay here easier. He's a wonderful companion." He removed the top blanket a little and a small head peeked out.

Your eyes widened in surprise. "A dire wolf pup?" you breathed out as you reached to gently stroke his fur. "He's so precious and small."

"One of the she-wolves gave birth to many pups this morning. When I saw this one, I knew I had to give him to you." The dire wolf pup, with its striking blue eyes and white fur, nuzzled into your touch, eliciting a soft laugh out of you. "Here, hold him", Cregan whispered as he softly passed the pup into your arms. You cradled him close and looked up at Cregan, your heart swelling with affection.

"Thank you. He's perfect."

"Much like you", he said while stroking the pup's head gently.

"Is that why you brought him to me? Because he's perfect like me? Or was there any other reason?"

Cregan let out a small chuckle at your words. "It's one of many reasons I decided to gift this one to you. You see, just minutes after being born, he was already jumping around and causing mayhem in the yard. Reminded me of you and your dragon quite a lot."

You punched his arm lightly and a laugh left your lips. The pup nuzzled your neck and you couldn't help but giggle. Cregan's gaze softened as he watched you bond with the dire wolf. "He's strong and brave, much like you," he said, his voice filled with admiration. "I thought he could be a symbol of the North's acceptance of you."

You felt a rush of gratitude and warmth, not just from the direwolf but from Cregan's thoughtful gesture. He had once again won you over, something that had happened quite a few times already.

"I know it's not easy for you to settle down here in the North. But I'm grateful that you're trying and I promise you, I will take care of you. I will make sure you won't have to miss the warmth of your home. Winterfell will be your abode one day and I hope I will become your family, someone you'll be able to trust and perhaps even love one day."

You shifted the pup into your right arm and held Cregan's hand with your left hand. "You have no idea how much you have already done for me. When I first came here, I was a scared little girl who was being separated from her family but now I feel like I was always meant to be here, with you. I can assure you that I will also do everything I can to be there for you. I am ready, to accept Winterfell as my home and you as my husband."

Cregan's expression softened, and he squeezed your hand lightly. "I'm glad to hear that," he said sincerely. "I'm glad you came here."

"Me too."

Suddenly, the pup stirred, letting out a small, contented yawn. You and Cregan both laughed softly. The moment was broken but no less sweet. "I suppose he's tired", Cregan whispered as he covered the pup with a small blanket.

"Have you named him yet, my Lord?"

He shook his head, "No. He's your companion. You should name him."

You took a long look at the white fluffy ball of fur in your arms. "I'll name him Winter," you decided, looking up at Cregan with a smile. "To remind me of the kindness and strength of the North."

"Winter it is, then," he said. "May he bring you joy and protect you always."

Your heart swelled with emotion as you held Winter close. "He already has," you replied, your gaze locked with Cregan's. "Thank you, Cregan."

In that moment, the chill of the North transformed into the warmth of new companionship and a realization that perhaps your feelings for the Northern Lord had evolved into something deeper.

[leggerefiore]

if you’re in the mood, spare some volo wins au x reader thoughts? <3

uhhh why not

cw: Volo being Volo, bad ending, unhealthy relationships, Volo is basically yandere honestly, dark content

pairing: Volo/Reader

📜Volo💫

⭐️ Really, in the end, how he ends up winning and who his interest is plays a major role in quite a few things. But, truthfully, Volo's interest is hard to truly capture and being someone he views as both a direct threat and asset is truly the easiest way. In those final moments before he gains everything he has ever desired, he would admit to being in the throes of a madness. To be so close to what he wanted, he would threaten just about anyone to ensure what he wants. So, unfortunately, you had your life threatened. Not that it was ever really his goal to kill you – No, that was the furthest possible thing he wanted. You were just the source of many conflicting emotions within him. But, in the moment that he brought Arceus to its knees and usurped its place in the world – He felt his madness and mania blend into some horrible esoteric knowledge that might have brought more uninclined minds to certain extinction.

⭐️ His goals – He understands it was far beyond what anyone comprehend. To erase everything as it were – You, the world that you knew, and pokemon – And rebirth this world into one that he found more suitable. All the heartache and cruelness he had witnessed; the elimination and destruction of his people and the ire of those around him for being an outsider. He both wanted to bring the world to its knees and make a place where peace markedly reigned. A peace that he would shape with his own hands. Arceus was nothing but a decent thought as he stood above the very world he had destroyed and recreated in an instant. You laid before him, unconscious and blissfully unaware. He stood with you on a platform far above the peak of Mount Coronet, where the region under you both was reduced to blind worship of him and nothing of the bloodshed and conflict that previously echoed out.

⭐️ When you awoke, you gazed in shock at the changes that had overcome the blond you had thought you knew. Long hair streamed down almost like liquid gold, while grey eyes held a certain verdant and crimson colouring within a glow. A bright halo of a familiar ring stood out behind his back. Whatever humanity the already ethereal man held was cast out. You truly felt the weight of your failure on your shoulders. Arceus had tasked you with stopping him. Your stomach twisted as he brought you up to your feet with an unknown force. His hand grasped your chin. That madness still swirled in those eyes, only marred with the unspeakable power that he had gained. “... Well, chosen one?” His tone was mocked. You could only swallow dryly.

⭐️ In truth, you are his chosen one – Quite above everyone else that existed in this twisted world, but still leagues beneath Volo. Your only place was at his side, and he despised having you wander too far from him. There was some irrational fear in him, partly of you somehow gaining the power to overthrow him, even if he knew that was impossible. However, even worse was the thought that you might dare give your attention to someone unworthy of it. Which, to him, was everyone but him. The only company outside of him that you were allowed was Cogita, who was nearly as mortified as you were by what Volo had done. Except, she had partially expected it. If you admitted to loneliness, he would sigh and attempt to mend it with pokemon. There was little interest from him in allowing you to talk with other human beings.

⭐️ His love is a toxic, burning one. It is all-consuming. He expects your attention to entirely be on him. There is a demand for you to both worship him and hold genuine love for him. In this world he created, it was you alone who could recall him as a human – Only you knew of that side of him. In attempting to make his perfect world, he only ended up isolating himself further. But, he failed to deign that with any true care. None of that mattered when he had you all to himself. Once more, just as in Hisui, you were isolated. Like him. The loneliness and desperation would see you in his arms willingly as it had before. His feelings are genuine, unfortunately, but his love was never going to be a kind one. At least now, he can give you whatever you so desire – and he will. Anything you even merely think about wanting will likely be given to you in order to keep you happy.

⭐️ In the end, he is truly some kind of terrifying, authoritarian god with many complexes that still eat at him even in his position. Most of the people of this twisted world he calls a paradise are barely resemblances of people from the old world. Or perhaps that truly is just the separation between you and them. Pokemon exist, but they seem much unlike the terrifying beasts of Hisui and more like barely sentient beings. Solely those pokemon he wielded were anything of note – Worshipped as pieces of him. Giratina, too, had its own place chief among them. It is a hollow live, but there was nothing anyone could do to change it… Unless there was?

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Pretty suggestive ask but-

What do you think Killer's kinks would be generally? Would he like being in control, letting others take control, just in general.

(yes I'm ashamed of myself for sending this.)

Oh im probably the wrong person to ask about kinks 💀. I am an asexual and a virgin and I intend to be for life. I’m often indifferent to these types of things.

Anyway, a lot of these are mostly gonna vary on interpretation of killer and the like. But as I’ve stated many times, I see Killer as somewhere on the ace spec too, but one can be asexual and kinky—it’s just that his kinks aren’t likely to have much of a sexual thing behind it. (Not to say that they can’t of course.)

I think he’d focus a lot on pain, control, and power dynamics. He’d probably try anything at least once, at least Stage 2 would. I don’t believe he’d like hurting others or being hurt in any capacity while in Stage 1, or higher Stages.

Killer will not interpret it as something to be enjoyed or something that’s supposed to be done for pleasure, he’ll just see it as someone is hurting him in those Stages, and Stages 3-4 are unlikely to know why. And will probably lash out, resulting in someone being killed or hurt.

As for Stage 2. I’ve stated before that I don’t really see Killer as someone who has experience with intimacy, at least not in any way that’s meant to be genuine, and more often than not he avoids it. Not often really interested in it, and often distrustful when presented with it.

He may even just dismiss ever needing or wanting something like that entirely. His whole thing is believing he’s emotionless; he will reject or rationalize away anything that contradicts it.

Hurting people makes him feel strong and in control and enjoys that, being hurt feels comfortable and familiar, and if he can provoke someone into hurting him, not only does it feel good, but it proves him right that this is how things work.

Killer’s approach to things isn’t healthy, is very much tainted by his trauma and is very much him externalizing everything. He himself probably doesn’t view his “freaky” ways as anything kinky, it’s just normal. It’s what he learned to enjoy, this extreme version of it at least.

Which is to say I think being introduced to BDSM with a healthy partner or partners he trusts and respects, and respect him in return, would do him a lotta good. Killer does not maintain many boundaries of his own, and he often disregards other’s boundaries without much care at all. He even refers to his treatment of Swap as ‘fun’ and ‘playing.’

Engaging in Killer’s form of “kink” could very likely end with someone permanently injured or dead or traumatized. Which is normal for him. He is a very sadistic and masochistic person, in rather extreme ways. Like, I’m talking literally ripping him limb from limb type of masochistic.

And he is rather confused and frustrated when someone doesn’t hurt him, and he will likely attempt to provoke someone into doing so. Because it challenges his beliefs in ways he doesn’t like.

Killer is very much not practicing Safe, Sane, and Consensual, I don’t think. Which is why he’d need to be introduced to actual BDSM slowly and carefully, and he’d likely need to be shown through example—allow him time to observe.

Killer doesn’t trust others much at all. Perhaps the only way he knows how to show ultimate trust is willingly giving up control, completely. But it’s not submission in the way those who practice SSC BDSM would understand it—it’s just how he thinks the world works.

Control or be controlled. And if he’s not in control or more powerful, and he doesn’t want to leave or attempt to usurp someone (such as Color), perhaps he will instinctively submit—at least on the surface. He will maintain sliver of control by hiding parts of himself and manipulation.

If trust is there, however, and respect—if he believes this powerful person isn’t going to hurt him or use him, such as with Color—perhaps now submission is a form of loyalty, and maybe he even views this as protection. By giving control to Color, he is being protected. Color should know what’s good for him, because Color is a good person, and he isn’t. Everyone says not to trust him, and he can’t trust him, but he trusts Color.

He may attempt to seek punishment if he does something he thinks would warrant it. If only because it’s familiar, and maybe now if it’s Color giving the punishment, he can trust it’s because Color cares. (Color’s gonna have a hard time helping Killer unlearn this stuff.)

Perhaps this is where the whole “vore,” thing comes in. Or more specifically, the soul vore stuff. Craving intimacy and control and power and safety, and feeling broken and missing pieces and shattered. The idea of becoming one with someone who is whole and powerful, who cares about you, who wants to protect you and take care of you. Especially if doing so would mean making Color more powerful and therefore keeping him safe. The whole idea of “together forever.”

So I do think he could very kinky, sexual or not, but he needs to be taught the actual difference between abuse and bdsm/kink. He needs to be shown that he can receive and enjoy pain when he wants and to know it’ll stop when he wants.

He needs to realize he can practice with submission without being a 100%, all or nothing thing—that he still has power in submission too. And he needs to realize the difference between pleasure, safe pain and what’s just sadistic torture.

(This isn’t to get into all the fear and trauma responses and memories it’ll all likely drudge up in Stage 1, 3, 4, even if it’s important to satisfy st2’s needs while unlearning the mindsets behind them.)

He and Color already have a head start in the whole thing, given that the entire reason why Color’s approach worked, whereas Swap and Dream’s didn’t, was that Color gave him a choice. Color kept consistently giving Killer choices, and respected whichever ones he made. Killer can learn how to do respect others, and himself, how to advocate for himself—by following Color’s consistent example.

Which is all to say, that I think that if Killer ever got into BDSM—likely to explore and satisfy his needs for control and pain in a controlled and safe environment—I think he’d explore many kinks, and discover them for himself and perhaps alongside any partner(s).

And now it becomes less from a place of re-enacting trauma and abuse that have become normalized to him, and more about unlearning that and finding what he enjoys. And fostering a sense of trust and intimacy alongside a clearer sense of boundaries and consent and healthy relationships.

But of course everyone can feel free to add on with what kinks ya’ll think he’d specifically be in.

{ @unamzi }

[twstjam]

Lost Invitation (Part 1) - Rain Check

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!! and happy en glomas day everyone! :D To celebrate, here's part 1 of a new fic I started writing on impulse <3

Characters: Yuu, Grim, Malleus Draconia, Heartslabyul (mentioned) Word count: 2.8k Summary: You're committed to helping Riddle Rosehearts and his card soldiers in a war against followers of the Jabberwock looking to usurp the rulers of Red and White. You're also in love with a stranger you met in the woods who wants you to run away with him. Whoever said that love and war weren't so different might've been onto something. In your experience, they're both equally difficult. Nobody ever said that you had to choose between one or the other though. Ao3 Link Masterlist | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

If you were asked two years ago whether or not you wished to fight in a war, your answer, reasonably, would most definitely have been a big, fat NO. You would be quicker to pack up all your things and vanish with Grim before the enemy army could even begin their march to the Boardfield, the traditional field of battle for the Queendoms of Roses and Lilies.

Though the Rosehearts and Whitelily families are infamously known for their quarrels, it's not unheard of for them to unite in times of peril. Even when currently under the leadership of constantly-conflicting young rulers Riddle Rosehearts and Wystan Whitelily this isn't untrue. When the Jabberwocks declared war on the Whitelilies, Riddle had been quick to offer his assistance.

And as someone working for the Rosehearts family, that had meant your assistance as well.

And you didn't want to be involved in a war. No one did. All of this had nothing to do with you, a magicless outsider who couldn't contribute meaningfully if you tried, so really it was best that you got out of the way as soon as possible… but who would you be if you didn't at least try to help out your friends?

You don't know when it happened, but the card soldiers and Riddle himself have become almost like family to you.You have no obligation to stay and help, even Riddle had assured you of that, but you're still not sure if it's your lack of self-perservation or sheer stupidity that had told him you wouldn't leave.

Even if it was expected, being a part of a war was hard and stressful and the days seemed to stretch longer and longer. You spend practically every waking and sleeping moment working tirelessly near a cauldron, brewing potion after potion for the use of the card soldiers. Your alchemy skills had been taught by famed alchemist Divus Crewel himself, but they can only take you so far.

You barely get full eight hours of sleep. You don't even want to imagine how Riddle and Wystan are faring. You barely see your friends anymore, let alone in a peaceful environment, and every time they head out with the troops there's no guarantee they would return.

Your days are hectic and unpredictable… but, at the very least, you have something to look forward to. Something to ground you and make you feel at ease. Or more accurately… a someone.

----

Potion ingredient runs are your favorite to do. At the very least, you do them once a week, but if potions are burnt through fast then the travels to gather herbs become more and more frequent, to your delight. Stressed as you are, you're not eager to do work as much as you are eager to get out of your cramped room cluttered with books and scrolls and herbs that is also more often than not reeking with the mixture of smells of dozens of different potions. You spend so much time in there though that you barely notice until you're walking out of a magic mirror into the open outdoors lush with greenery and colourful with blooming flowers of sweet fragrances.

Being surrounded by the beauty of nature is only one of the upsides though. As your horse brings you and the wagon deeper into the quiet but lively woods, tall, decayed stone walls slowly come into view. So many plants have made themselves at home in the cracks between the stone that from a distance it's not recognizable as an aged structure forgotten by time.

Once upon a time it was a grand tower home to a reclusive mage and alchemist. They kept their research hidden away and secret from the world… that is, until, other mages discovered their body in the tower about a decade after their death.

A majority of folk are scared to even speak about the tower, let alone visit it, and maybe once you would've been the same, but living in a haunted mansion for a few months sort of desensitizes one to the presence of any kind of ghost.

Ace and Deuce had gotten concerned when you bragged about it once. They were probably right to be, but it's not like it'd be any good even if you were afraid of ghosts. Instead of the phantom of a paranoid, lonely mage, when you had visited the tower for herbs for the first time you had instead encountered a very alive mage instead, though he's not any less lonely and secretive.

Your mysterious horned friend, whom Grim had creatively dubbed Tsunotarou, had been haunting the old ruins one night while you were gathering some rare nocturnal herbs. You had gotten spooked by a pair of reptilian green eyes peering at you from the dark, but Tsunotarou, though he was tall and horned and wrapped in elegant robes made out of the night sky, had seemed more wary of your unassuming human presence garbed in a stained alchemist's uniform. He hadn't been expecting someone else to be there. At least that made two of you.

Despite the surprise of an unwanted companion at his beloved abandoned ruins, Tsunotarou had come back, and the two of you had struck a conversation. Considering the oddness of both of your choice of location to spend your evenings, it wasn't hard to think of things to talk about. Somehow, this had led into a friendship forming between the two of you, and now when you go on your trips for herbs, it also means seeing Tsunotarou. It means cosy evenings picking herbs while he talks your ear off about the most niche topics, at the same time staining his own gloves with dirt and tearing them on briars as he helps you.

You never ask him to help. He had simply commented once that it seemed like tiring work, at the same time asking you what herbs you needed before kneeling down and gathering them for you. It's become routine since then for him to assist you, and neither of you say anything about it as you work in the comfort of each other's presence.

In a hectic life, Tsunotarou has become your anchor, your safe space. Your home away from home. The closeness you feel with him sort of just crept up on you one day, and before you know it he's made himself at home in your heart. You don't know—can't know if you're as important to him and you'd never ask, but he's become close to you like you've become close to him and you're angry at yourself for it because now your stupid heart wants to do anything for him like it does with Riddle and the others and you definitely don't have enough space on your shoulders for it.

So it's painful when Tsunotarou looks at you, no doubt taking in the sight of your paled skin and sunken eyes and says, "Come home with me."

You know why he asks. Had asked it before, and it had hurt just as much the other times, but he keeps asking, persistent. It's something you've learned is part of his non-human biology, something that comes with his horns, his tail, his eyes, his ears, and his fangs. It's part of who he is to want to keep people close, like his grandmother, his parents, his caretaker Lilia, and now you.

"I can't," you say, every time. You want to but at the same time you don't. You're curious and eager to see more and learn more about your dear friend (perhaps even his actual name one of these days), but your heart also belongs with Riddle and the card soldiers and you won't abandon them. "You know I can't."

"And you know I cannot bear seeing you so overworked and exhausted," Tsunotarou says, gentle but also stern as he caresses your cheek in his hand and despite your refusal of his offer to care for you, you lean into his touch, your heart yearning for comfort after denying it for too long.

"You also know your mother doesn't like humans," you remind him.

"I will hide you, then," he says, insistent, despite how the idea is so childish to the point that you laugh.

"That's not going to work and you know it."

"You will not believe the fabrications my mother would believe if they were to come from me," Tsunotarou boasts, his head tilted up in pride at being a mama's boy. You huff a fond laugh.

"Still, no matter how much she loves you I don't think she would appreciate you hiding a strange human in her home without her permission." You cradle his hand on your cheek with your own and lower it away. You're immediately mournful at the loss of his touch, but thankfully you have the impulse control to be able to release his hand and begin the walk back to your wagon, where you would then go home with all of your gathered ingredients and… go straight back to work.

Tsunotarou catches your hand before you can get far. You don't have to look to see the pleading expression on his face and you don't want to, instead smiling sadly at your feet.

"We shall get our own place then," he blurts out. "Just the two of us. Nobody can bother us ever again. There will be no wars. You will not have to work a day in your life. Let me take care of you."

You're too stunned to speak. His words leave you breathless, pondering if he knew the weight behind saying something like that, the implications. If he knows that his touch sends goosebumps rising through your skin, makes you yearn and ache as he laces his fingers with yours and squeezes.

You don't notice him sidling up closer behind you until he is. He tugs on your hand and turns you around with his other hand on the small of your back. You're face-to-chest with him, having to place your hands on his firm chest and crane your neck to look up at him. It's a mistake, because the desperation in his eyes frighteningly makes your resolve falter.

"Please," he whispers in a tone perhaps unbefitting of someone so imposing in appearance but to you could not be more fitting for your gentle, caring friend. "Stay with me."

You're helpless as he curls gentle clawed fingers around your jaw and leans down. Hot breath ghosts over your lips. You shudder, and the urge to close the distance is so overwhelming—

You pull away. Blink. Squint your eyes shut to force away the images that crop up in your mind of him. Him and you. Together.

"No," you whisper. "I… we can't."

He doesn't have to ask why. It's obvious enough based on the confused and hurt furrow of his brow.

There are many reasons why. You're afraid. You don't know his name. He loves his mother and his mother would hate him. He's noble-blooded and you're not. He's a mage and you're magicless. He's something much greater regardless of whatever kind of being he is. You're just you. You're useless. Can't even help your friends enough that they won't have to deal with all the bullshit with the Jabberwocks anymore and live peaceful lives again.

"It's… not the right time," you say with a small squeeze around his own hand. "We both have responsibilities that we have to put first."

You're not fully confident that the opportunity will arrive. Who knows how much longer the war will last. Tsunotarou might even find someone actually worthy of him by then, so you don't want to get your hopes up. At the very least you can reject him in a way that won't squash his, and you're relieved when his eyes brighten.

"Someday, then," he says, and it's not set in stone but still he sounds as if he's convinced it's written in the stars. Someday. Someday.

Tsunotarou bends at the waist and kisses your knuckles. Warmth gathers in your face and you have to force back a lopsided smile. Maybe it isn't so bad to have something to look forward to…

"Someday," you echo back.

----

You're startled awake by an odd sound.

You look down and realise you'd fallen asleep on your desk again. There's drool staining the page you'd been reading, a complicated recipe on a type of energy elixir you're trying to memorise. You wipe the corner of your mouth, no longer concerned at being annoyed by being woken up from a nice dream that's already fading from your mind, instead relieved that there's no one (Ace) around to make fun of you for drooling on invaluable books again…

Wait, where's Grim?

You remember that he had been dozing off in a corner of the desk, curled up on top of an open book with the excuse that he was "helping" (he does help, bless him, but sleep was calling to him in that particular moment) but he's not there. You sit up and look around. His bed by the window is empty, and so is every other surface in the room he could to lounge on regardless of whether or not it was a book or a scroll and you needed it.

It's not unlikely for him to wander off of course, but a part of you feels strangely antsy at having found yourself alone. Technically, you're not alone. Riddle and the others aren't around again unfortunately, having left to meet up with Wystan and his own soldiers with your fresh potions, but there are the ghosts of the castle lurking about somewhere or other and the castle staff, too. None of them are around at the moment though, so your surroundings feel eerily quiet and lonely.

That's likely why you feel so unnerved, you think, as you get up from your chair to begin looking for Grim. He's likely to be in the kitchen, the gluttonous thing. You stretch out your sore limbs and your stomach rumbles. Grabbing a snack doesn't sound too bad.

You fix the pouches on your belt that had gotten a bit crooked and leave your room. There's no one around that you can see. It's not unusual; it is a big castle, but for whatever reason you feel tingles go up your back, your body wary of a nonexistent danger behind you. You take a step forward—

"*FGNAAAAA!!! Unhand me! Myah! Henchman, *help!!!*"

"Grim?!" You whirl around at the sound of his voice and sprint in its direction. You skid to a stop, blood going cold when you see five people dressed in uniforms with the emblem of a creature with eyes of flame, rough hands trying to get a grip at Grim's wriggling body.

Jabberwocks. And they have Grim.

"That's the alchemist!" shouts out one of the Jabberwocks trying to secure Grim. The three currently unoccupied immediately lunge towards you and you barely slip away.

You almost trip over your feet as you try to reach into your pouches while at the same time evading the intruders. Grim is hissing and yelling. You grit your teeth and, with conviction, pull out a small bottle of translucent orange liquid. You toss it at their feet and the splatters of liquid that fly up into the air come to life and cranky fire lizards climb up their bodies and burn through their clothes. As they scream and try to throw off the lizards, you run past them with another potion in hand, ready to aim it at Grim's captors.

One of the two trying to keep him still intercepts your throw, grasping your wrist and twisting it painfully behind your back until you drop the potion. You yell out in pain, your vision blurry with tears as you're forced down to the floor.

"Get your hands off of my henchman!" Grim yowls. He leaps out of the grasp of the Jabberwock and blue fire spurts out of his mouth and catch on the clothes of your assailant.

He breathes in for a stronger burst of fire but the other Jabberwock grab him and frantically lock an anti-magic collar around his neck.

You kick and struggle beneath the Jabberwock on your back. You reach desperately for the other potions on your belt, all the while screaming a lot of choice words in a voice you hope is shrill enough to deafen or call other people to come to your and Grim's rescue.

You're quickly silenced with a gag, blindfolded, tied up, and unceremoniously slung over someone's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. You continue to kick and scream, but it's useless as magic swirls around you and both you and Grim vanish from the castle.

[reignof-fyre]

I believe that Valyrians of old practised equal primogeniture, and the only thing an heir had to be was a dragonrider. Think about it. They practice incest, so the eldest (say, a daughter) inheriting meant that the firstborn son (say, the second eldest) would be a ruler anyway. Why overlook the dragonriding daughter for a dragonriding son when they'd both end up rulers anyway?

Also, in Old Valyrian, the world's "prince" "princess", and "heir" are all the same: dārilaros, as in, it isn't gendered. This is the biggest clue that they practised equal primogeniture in Valyria and likely gave that up in Westeros to please the misogynistic bastards there.

(Click for better view, from this site)

Also, they were in close proximity to the Rhoynar, and they are confirmed to practice equal primogeniture.

From what we know, Visenya was a warrior and this was accepted by her father and brother-husband as normal. She rode a dragon, which is, again, their normal. It's also heavily implied that Aegon wed Visenya to strengthen his claim to dragonstone, meaning she was the named heir of their father as the eldest no matter her gender.

The Targaryens conceeded a lot when they became Kings and Queens, one being their faith (as far as we know; they could have secretly worshipped the 14 flames of Old Valyria) and they had to have a literal contract written by Jaehaerys and the Faith to be able to continue intermarrying to keep the bloodline pure.

From this, we can extrapolate that Valyrians likely practiced equal primogeniture and it was Jaehaerys, whose best friend was a Septon, who began the trend of being a misogynistic piece of shit to the women of House Targaryen, what with how he disregarded a lot of what Alysanne said to him, disinherited Rhaenys, and allowed Lord's not of House Targaryen to choose the heir to the throne rather than let Rhaenys inherit. He also treated his daughters like absolute shit, calling Saera a whore and barely mourning Viserra, etc.

I definitely think that Jaehaerys, due to his trauma from Maegor, was slowly manipulated by Septon Barth and the men he surrounded himself with to see women as less than, and he alone planted the seeds of rebellion by giving the lords a choice in who would inherit after him when they never should have had the option because in the world of ice and fire the monarchy is absolute and the King's word is absolute law.

Jaehaerys' many mistakes gave the Hightowers a foothold and meant that the realm would undoubtedly be split when it came to the Dance because a previous king (jaehaerys) planted doubts. And also Otto schemed and plotted with alicent and likely the maesters and faith.

In naming Rhaenys heir, Jaehaerys would then have to answer the question as to why he took the throne when Rhaena and Aerea were still alive and the wife and daughter of the last King (Aegon). Jaehaerys was, in actual fact, a usurper if you looked at it at a certain point of view.

The Rightful line of succession should have gone like this going by cannon deaths etc

Aenys > Rhaena > Aerea (died)> Rhaella (if she gave up her septas's vows), or Jaehaerys > daenerys (she died young) > aemon > rhaenys > laena (dies) > Baela (jacaerys as consort) > their firstborn > so on and so forth

But it didn't. Because jaehaerys is a cunt, and so are the women hating, misogynistic andals + faith and maesters.

[mariacallous]

Dar Leaf and Richard Mack don’t seem like they would pose a threat to US democracy.

Leaf, a sheriff from Barry County, Michigan, always has at least two pens clipped neatly to his shirt pocket and speaks softly with a Midwestern accent. When we meet at an April event in Las Vegas, Nevada, Leaf is immaculately dressed in a sheriff’s uniform, replete with the polished gold star.

Mack also wears a gold star—even though he’s no longer a sheriff. But in the Ahern Hotel ballroom in Vegas, Mack played the part. In a ten-gallon hat, Mack was genial; shaking hands with guests, joking with vendors, and taking selfies with supporters.

This wasn’t an average get-together. Leaf and Mack were at a conference for the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, or CSPOA, a group described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-government organization with links to many other extremist groups. Constitutional sheriffs are actual elected sheriffs who also believe they are the ultimate legal power in their county, and that no federal or state authority can usurp their authority. They also believe that a sheriff’s power stems directly from the constitution, and that they can disregard any laws they deem unconstitutional—a belief that is not grounded in reality.

Leaf is on the board of the group; Mack is the founder. And there are hundreds of members around the country.

In Las Vegas, Mack referred supporters and journalists to Leaf, who was, he said, “doing more than anyone to uncover election interference” in his role as sheriff.

A staunch Trump supporter, Leaf has spent the last four years investigating voter fraud in the 2020 federal election in Barry County—even though Donald Trump won decisively there. He has attempted to seize voting machines, pushed wild conspiracies, and ultimately became the focus of state investigations himself. In at least one case, Leaf appears to have inspired an election official to refuse to verify a vote—an ominous warning ahead of the 2024 US election.

The conspiracies have also taken a physical turn: According to emails shared exclusively with WIRED by the nonprofit group American Oversight, Leaf has run a militia training course advising “potential jurors, homeschoolers, ladies and gentlemen” to “get a standard AR-15 type military grade weapon” and “500 rounds of ammo.” The emails also show that, ahead of the most consequential election in a generation, Leaf is in regular contact with a wide variety of election conspiracists.

Leaf and a number of his colleagues in the Constitutional Sheriff movement say that they have “posses” to patrol polling stations, monitor for “illegal” immigrant voters, and help sheriffs respond to reports of fraud—or anything else—on election day.

Mack, meanwhile, has been the driving force behind the modern day Constitutional Sheriffs movement. In the last six months, Mack’s group has mobilized across the US, building relationships with powerful figures close to Trump, training armed militias, and laying out plans for when Democrats inevitably, in their view, try to steal the election. They’re laying the groundwork to challenge the outcome of next month’s vote—and recruiting sheriffs to help them assert control if Trump loses.

“In a swing state like Michigan or Wisconsin, where the difference in the state's outcome is 50,000 to 70,000 votes, if a sheriff becomes an obstacle, then that could undermine that state's credibility, says Will Pelfrey, a professor of criminal justice and homeland security at Virginia Commonwealth University. “In a swing state, that could undermine the entire national election.”

A WIRED investigation reviewed hundreds of documents and conducted dozens of interviews over the course of the last six months. We found that the Constitutional Sheriff movement believes it is the last line of defense to protect American elections. At conferences in Las Vegas and Florida, as well as online in group chats and Zoom meetings, their discussions often turn to how sheriffs can utilize their unique power in order to, they say, safeguard democracy.

For years, sheriffs like Leaf who believe they have unlimited power to interpret and enforce the laws of the land have operated on the fringes. But as the election approaches, they have been increasingly empowered by those close to Trump and are more committed than ever to ensuring a Republican victory up and down the ballot. At all costs.

Today, one in four sworn law enforcement officers in the US report to a sheriff. In addition to running county jails, sheriffs and their deputies make approximately 20 percent of all arrests in the nation, according to one estimate, translating to around 2 million arrests every year. In nearly one in three US counties, sheriff departments are the largest law enforcement agency, meaning sheriff’s offices are the primary law enforcement agency for 56 million people.

“Sheriffs are really beholden to nobody,” says Pelfrey. “Once elected, a sheriff has tremendous power, and there have been sheriffs who have been convicted and still hold office. It's a bizarre thing. It shouldn't exist, but sheriffs are not beholden to a governor or to a president, and the only way to enforce state or federal laws for a recalcitrant sheriff is the National Guard. And that's not a viable system.”

At the April event in Las Vegas, Mack worked the room incessantly. Together with Leaf, he built links with the leaders of the election denial movement, discussing and preparing for the recruitment of like-minded citizens to patrol polling stations and stop “illegal” immigrants from voting in the election. The event was a veritable who’s who of the right-wing election denial movement, including former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, pillow salesman Mike Lindell, and the de facto leader of the movement, disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

On stage, Flynn told the sheriffs they have “a huge role and responsibility in this country” and that only their local-level work will halt voter fraud. During his speech, Byrne said that constitutional sheriffs would need to play a vital role in fighting the influx of “15 million military-age men.” He also claimed that a “well-regulated militia is not a dirty phrase” and urged sheriffs in attendance to build “surge capacity” by partnering with local militias.

“The constitutional sheriffs, or any sheriff in this county, have mega power at the county level,” Lindell told WIRED in Las Vegas. He suggested that sheriffs could arrest voters for illegally voting in the wrong county, adding that they could “put a moratorium” on the voting machines if they suspect fraud is taking place. And he cited Leaf, who spoke at the event, as an example that all sheriffs should follow.

“Our job is basically to make sure that my guys are educated on the election laws, start looking for the violations, trying to get the election clerks to start paying attention if somebody drives in and they've got a whole van full of people that look like they're not from around our area, and they can say no and then make them take it through the courts,” Leaf told WIRED that week, referencing the conspiracy that “illegal immigrants” were being relocated over the border by Democrats to sway the election in favor of Kamala Harris.

To make sure his deputies follow his lead, Leaf said he is working with others to produce a guide on how to properly police elections—something he said he was going to share with all sheriffs across the country in time for the US elections.

“The role of the sheriff has always been to maintain the peace, and he's your chief law enforcement officer and chief conservator of the peace of your county,” Leaf said. “And when you get people cheating on elections, that's disturbing the peace. You violated somebody's peace.”

None of these claims of constitutional power and control are true.

“There is no constitutional basis for their claims to power, zero, it's just not in the constitution,” says representative Jamie Raskin, the congressman from Maryland who spent decades working as a constitutional law professor at American University’s Washington College of Law. “County sheriffs have no more sovereign-state political power than municipal police chiefs or mayors or county commissioners. The whole claim is completely fictional. It's a pure fabrication.”

Still, anyone paying attention is nervous: Leaf has publicly defended members of the Wolverine Watchmen militia who plotted to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. “It’s just a charge, and they say a 'plot to kidnap' and you got to remember that,” he told a local news outlet. “Are they trying to kidnap? Because a lot of people are angry with the governor, and they want her arrested. So are they trying to arrest or was it a kidnap attempt? Because you can still in Michigan, if it’s a felony, you can make a felony arrest.” And he has run an eight-week militia training course, called Awaken Our Constitution’s Sleeping Militia Clauses, that he openly advertised on his Facebook page as recently as January.

The contents of the course, according to emails reviewed by WIRED, are based on a 2010 booklet from Brent Allen Winters, a sovereign-citizen believer, titled “Militia of the Several States,” which outlines a belief that armed militias are granted their power not from the constitution but from God, harking back to a time during the American Revolution when men in some areas were fined for not bringing their guns to church. The booklet even cites the Old Testament as justification for organizing an armed militia.

As Winters and Leaf see it, a member of a militia has two duties: “Armed defense of the land from enemies foreign and defense of the law of the land from enemies domestic.”

In one slide, titled “Do Your Duty,” which was shown to attendees of Leaf’s training course, Winters wrote: “Get started. Get a standard AR-15 type military grade weapon. Get 500 rounds of ammo.”

“There should be militias connected with every sheriff,” Leaf told The Guardian in July.

Experts like Devin Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights and someone who has closely chronicled the Constitutional Sheriffs movement for years, are also tracking how the organization is now interacting with other extremist, “paramilitary” groups.

”The Vegas CSPOA conference was about more than recruiting far-right sheriffs,” Burghart claims. “It was about plotting a road map for coordinated election interference and insurrection 2.0.”

In the weeks after the 2020 election, Trump and his advisers were scrambling to challenge the election results when a relatively unknown former Army Reserve lieutenant colonel named Ivan Raiklin started tweeting. Raiklin told Trump that he should play the “Pence card” and force then vice president Mike Pence to refuse to certify the results of the election.

While Raiklin cited a real provision of the US legal code, his plan had no basis in law. Trump retweeted and endorsed Raiklin’s plan, and while it ultimately went nowhere, the “Pence card” was a precursor to the Trump internal legal team’s coup memo that laid out a plan for Pence to overturn the election result on January 6, 2021.

Four years later, Raiklin is now a superstar in the world of election denial. Ahead of the 2024 election, he has a new scheme to guarantee Trump’s win. It involves the constitutional sheriffs.

Raiklin has compiled a “Deep State target list” of more than 350 names, reviewed by WIRED, that includes elected Democratic and Republican lawmakers, FBI officials, journalists, members of the House January 6 committee, US Capitol police officers, and witnesses from Trump’s two impeachment trials. His plan is to get constitutional sheriffs to round up those people in livestreamed swatting raids so they can be punished for treason. Raiklin, who is closely connected to Flynn’s organization, also wants sheriffs to “deputize” people into armed militias or “posses” to help facilitate the arrests.

“We have hundreds of thousands that want to participate in retribution,” Raiklin said in a June video interview with Cliven Bundy, a Nevada cattle rancher who became a far-right icon after a dispute in 2014 over grazing fees led to an armed standoff with federal authorities. “Some people call it accountability.”

Raiklin met with Mack at the Las Vegas conference and tried to recruit sheriffs to his cause. In June, Raiklin and Mack met again and had “a good discussion,” according to Mack, who would not expand on what exactly the pair discussed. Raiklin refused to speak to WIRED in Vegas and didn’t answer questions sent afterward.

While Trump has not endorsed the Constitutional Sheriffs movement directly, he has spent recent years courting sheriffs around the country. In September 2018, Trump stood in the White House surrounded by almost four dozen sheriffs. Front and center was Thomas Hodgson, then sheriff of Bristol County in Massachusetts.

Hodgson was there to present Trump with a plaque, and praised him for his “strength of purpose” and “commitment to [his] convictions.” The inscription read in part: “There’s a new sheriff in town.” A supporter of the Constitutional Sheriff movement, Hodgson was tapped by Trump in late 2019 to become an honorary chairman of Trump’s Massachusetts reelection effort.

Trump held around a dozen meetings with sheriffs at the White House during his four years in office, more than any other president—and that’s not counting the regular appearances of sheriffs at Trump rallies and campaign stops. Mark Lamb, a constitutional sheriff from Pinal County, Arizona, spoke at Trump rallies in his home state and in Illinois. Trump also emboldened sheriffs by removing Department of Justice oversight that the Obama administration had put in place and restarting a program to allow sheriffs departments to buy military-grade weapons at discounted prices.

“Trump’s tough-guy, xenophobic, and conspiracy-minded persona gave sheriffs a new model in the White House,” writes Jessica Pishko, author of The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy. “Under Trump, constitutional sheriffs had a friend and protector at the highest level of government.”

While Mack’s group is at the forefront of the Constitutional Sheriffs movement, there are many other sheriffs across the US who hold similar beliefs about the power of sheriffs. The movement has also found purchase with other prominent right-wing groups. In 2021, the Sheriff’s Fellowship was launched by the Claremont Institute, an influential far-right think tank involved in the drafting of Project 2025, whose stated goal is to see the US revert to a Christian-centric nation based on principles espoused by the founding fathers. The fellowship, which was funded by Trump’s former secretary of education Betsy DeVos, is a five-day training course in “American political thought and institutions” and has featured multiple self-identified constitutional sheriffs, including Leaf.

The closer constitutional sheriffs get to the mainstream GOP, the more cause for alarm.

“The danger of authoritarian attack on the democratic process is at its peak when you get an alliance between extremist vigilante groups like [the Constitutional Sheriffs] with elements of the actual political system, like a political party,” says Representative Raskin. “That's a dangerous combination if Donald Trump is going to be leading the Republican Party into election denialism and a determination to prevail over the rule of law, and you have violent paramilitary groups backing them up.”

Richard Mack’s law enforcement career began with rejection. “My father had just retired from the Bureau a few years earlier and I wanted to follow in his footsteps,” Mack wrote in his 2009 book titled The County Sheriff. “But, this dream never happened as I had some problems with one of the Bureau's entrance tests.” He instead decided to join the Provo (Utah) Police Department in 1979, where he says he immediately became a “by-the-numbers jerk” whose primary goal was writing as many tickets as possible.

In 1982, Mack went undercover on the narcotics beat. “I had to live in the bars, drink, smoke, and act like the biggest partying druggie there ever was (something totally foreign to my conservative Mormon upbringing),” Mack wrote.

The assignment opened Mack’s eyes to what he saw as the injustice of the drug war and how it was targeting US citizens rather than organized crime groups. Disillusioned with the police force, in 1988 Mack moved home to Safford, Arizona, and successfully ran for Graham County sheriff. This was where the Constitutional Sheriff movement began.

Constitutional sheriffs claim their power comes directly from the founding fathers, even though there is no mention of sheriffs in the constitution. Many sheriffs—including Leaf—cite a quote from a Thomas Jefferson letter as their justification for the importance of the position: “The office of Sheriff [is] the most important of all the Executive offices of the county.” The line was indeed written by Jefferson, but the letter focuses on Jefferson's complaints about lifetime appointments of local judges and how they abuse their office, Pishko writes in her book.

The roots of the modern day Constitutional Sheriffs movement originate in the far-right Posse Comitatus group, which was formed in the early 1970s by William Potter Gale, a minister of a militant antisemitic, white-nationalist quasi-religion known as Christian Identity. Gale lionized the idea of the county sheriff as a protector of the ordinary citizen who had the power to call up posses or militias to root out communism, fight the desegregation of schools, and remove—or even execute—federal officials.

Over the years, the ideas popularized by Gale would inspire a variety of far-right groups, individuals, and movements, including Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Incidents like the sieges at Ruby Ridge and Waco in the early 1990s, the latter of which resulted in dozens of deaths, would be used as further evidence by figures like Mack who already believed the federal government was overstepping.

At the same time, Mack coordinated with the National Rifle Association (NRA) to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the Brady Bill, signed into law by then president Bill Clinton in 1993. The law mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers—carried out by sheriffs. For sheriffs like Mack, who almost uniformly view Second Amendment gun rights as sacred, this was too far.

In 1997, the Supreme Court sided with Mack and the NRA, finding that the provisions in the bill that forced sheriffs to perform the background checks were unconstitutional. Mack was no longer a sheriff, but he catapulted to fame on the far-right for standing up to the government. He became a regular on the militia and pro-gun speaking circuits and even did PR work for Gun Owners of America, a more hard-line version of the NRA.

Over the next decade, Mack continued to mix in far-right circles. In the early 2010s, he became a board member of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia led by former Army paratrooper Stewart Rhodes, who is currently serving an 18-year sentence for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot. (Mack said he left the Oath Keepers around a decade ago when it became too militant, but CSPOA continued to support the group on its podcasts and newsletters in the years since the attack on the Capitol, helping raise money for Rhodes’ legal fund.)

In 2011, Mack founded the CSPOA to “take America back, Sheriff by Sheriff, County by County, State by State.” In 2014, Mack, together with members of the CSPOA and the Oath Keepers, was part of the now infamous armed standoff between the federal government and the Bundy family in Nevada.

The popularity of the CSPOA has waxed and waned over the course of its 13-year-old history, but the Covid-19 pandemic and protests following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 brought sheriffs back to the fold.

Mack reportedly encouraged sheriffs to ignore restrictions by federal and state officials meant to curb the spread of Covid; he also helped facilitate the spread of anti-vaccine disinformation as a board member of the conspiracy group America’s Frontline Doctors, a role for which he was, at one time, paid $20,000 a month. Mack, who to this day still refers to himself as “Sheriff Mack,” has not been a sheriff for almost 30 years. He unsuccessfully ran for other sheriff positions, and even governor of Utah and US senator in Arizona.

In interviews, Mack comes across as reasonable, repeatedly pointing out that the CSPOA is a nonviolent movement. But in the private members-only webinars he broadcasts weekly to his subscribers, he portrays a much darker side. In an August webinar, he said that his group was “obsessed” with monitoring next month’s vote and the “probability” that the election will be stolen as a result of the millions of illegal aliens being shipped into the country. In another webinar earlier this summer, Mack pushed an even darker conspiracy, that Democrats will allow Trump to win to instigate a civil war:

“The only way I see Trump winning is if they decide they want Trump to be in, that those who cheated last time are actually going to make sure he gets in,” Mack said. “Why do they want Trump in? Because they want the civil war to begin, and the violence that will be happening across this country will be horrendous.”

In September, Leaf appeared in Orlando, Florida, to discuss what extremism experts say is a “far-right blueprint for the next insurrection.” He was speaking at a conference organized by the Florida Foundation for Freedom, a group run by the CSPOA. Leaf was there to show other sheriffs how to take action.

The conference’s speaker list included a variety of election conspiracists with links to Trump—including far-right figure Mark Finchem, who is currently running for a seat in Arizona’s statehouse—and Christian nationalists, including Bill Cook, the founder of America’s Black Robe Regiment. Also speaking at the conference was Mary Flynn O’Neill, a director at America’s Future, the nonprofit run by her brother, Michael Flynn.

The event was organized by Bill Mitchell, the head of CSPOA’s Florida chapter, to promote a blueprint he created for constitutional sheriffs in other states to connect with like-minded election officials. The details of the plan were outlined in a seven-page document published on the foundation’s website, on CSPOA-headed paper.

“Take back the states, one constitutional sheriff at a time,” Mitchell said during a summer presentation about the plan.

When WIRED spoke to Mitchell, he denied that his plan was focused on disrupting the election. But the document clearly calls for citizen-led, local posses aligned with the CSPOA to recruit like-minded sheriffs, county commissioners, and supervisors of elections. Should those officials refuse to take action as directed, the plan states, allied sheriffs or posse-led grand juries will relieve them of their duties.

“Instead of a January 6–style centralized mass insurrection, these Florida activists developed a blueprint for a county-by-county-style revolt,” says Burghart, who analyzed the plan on IREHR’s website.

It’s not just Florida. In Las Vegas, Bob Songer, the sheriff in Klickitat County in Washington state, shared a 32-page guide with other sheriffs on how to recruit a posse, revealing that his own has 150 members. Leaf outlined how, when his Michigan election fraud investigation was going nowhere, he created his own “election investigation posse” consisting of two cybersecurity experts and a “clerk” to gather evidence.

Mack has also espoused his view that every sheriff should have his own posse. In a recent members-only webinar, viewed by WIRED, Mack and Sam Bushman, CEO of the CSPOA, wondered about the possibility of veterans temporarily moving to Leaf’s county in Michigan and being deputized to help his investigations into election fraud.

Mack’s views on the power of posses is deep-seated: “People get all upset when they hear about militias, but what’s wrong with it?” Mack reportedly said in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing at the NRA's national membership meeting, in which Mack was honored as the organization's law enforcement Officer of the Year. “I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute to call out my posse against the federal government if it gets out of hand.”

“There's no federal constitutional prohibition against a posse,” says Will Pelfrey, a professor of criminal justice and homeland security at Virginia Commonwealth University. “It's kind of terrifying, because you're empowering a lot of fringe people to do something that they probably shouldn't be doing.”

It’s not exactly clear how many constitutional sheriffs currently exist. Back in 2014, the group claimed it had 485 sheriffs signed up. In 2017, Mack told High Country News the group had 4,500 fee-paying members. By 2021, that number had risen to 10,000, Mack told VICE News, adding that his group had “trained 400 sheriffs.” Two years later, Mack told AZCIR that his groups had trained 1,000 sheriffs.

When WIRED asked Mack how many sheriffs were currently members of the CSPOA, he said 300 sheriffs could be described as “really solid.” He would not divulge how many paying members the group has.

While Mack and the CSPOA are the most prominent part of the Constitutional Sheriff movement, there are many other sheriffs who espouse the same beliefs. A 2022 survey conducted by the Marshall Project found that close to 50 percent of the sheriffs polled agreed with the constitutional sheriff mantra that “their own authority, within their counties, supersedes that of the state or federal government.”

Many sheriffs have also shied away from publicly aligning themselves with Mack, something the former sheriff readily admits. And yet Trumpworld, the election denial movement, and some of the most prominent far-right influencers are now seeking to team up with the sheriffs to influence the outcome of the US election.

In September, election denial group True the Vote told its followers that it was working with sheriffs to monitor drop boxes. While Mack told WIRED he hasn’t spoken to True the Vote about this specific plan, he has confirmed that the CSPOA is still actively working with True the Vote, though he declined to say in what capacity. Bushman also wouldn’t give details of their collaboration, but said: “It's more than just supporting what they're doing.”

In multiple conversations with Mack over the last six months, he repeatedly asserted that the CSPOA advocates only for nonviolent action in efforts to combat the alleged (and unproven) widespread voter fraud that is now the group’s driving force.

But Mack also maintains deep ties to Stewart Rhodes and the Oath Keepers and is publicly meeting with figures like Raiklin, who in August also posted an ominous threat on X referencing the recent assassination attempt against Trump: “In a duel, each side gets one shot. They missed 36 days ago. Now it's [our] turn.”

Earlier this month, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned that “election-related grievances” could motivate domestic extremists to engage in violence around the election.

In a recent phone conversation, Mack’s tone sounded more deflated than antagonistic; he admitted that he was “frustrated” that more sheriffs were not taking a more active role in policing elections, a practice that has led to voters feeling intimidated in the past.

“President Biden and his administration have just caused so much extra work for the sheriffs, it's really hard to get them to focus on elections,” says Mack. Every sheriff in this country should verify the security and integrity of the voting in their county. Every single one.”

Dar Leaf, for one, remains focused. As he prepares to police an election while continuing to investigate the last one, he is clear-eyed about where the threat is coming from: immigrants and Democrats. He claims that America has received “other countries’ garbage,” and as a result, he needs to act.

“Any police officer who thinks that machine is bad or something criminal is going on,” Leaf says, “we have a duty to seize it.”

[syndrossi]

I really hope that by becoming a father, Daemon will understand Viserys better. Yes, Viserys has made and continues to make many mistakes, but like Rhaenys said, he is not an innocent victim himself. What would he do if someone was celebrating the death of his children? Or took them to a brothel in the slums and then dumped them there? Hopefully, Daemon will rethink some of his actions and maybe even talk to Viserys. Empathy has never been his strong suit, but as a father, he might understand his brother a lot better begin to rebuild their relationship.

I think Daemon will look back to his actions, particularly the brothel incident, and be retroactively aghast with the context of being a father now.

I tend to view the "heir for a day" incident (at least my own version of its events) as Daemon grieving really terribly, and mostly for Aemma, who he knew and liked. A bit like Rhaenyra's "do you think for the few hours my brother lived that my father was happy?" quote from the show, but angrier. He probably said something similar "it took butchering our cousin to do it, but at least he got his heir for a day" and the establishment took the "heir for a day" part up as a toast, and Daemon embraced it, which is what Otto played up to Viserys: "He was CELEBRATING your son's death in the wake of both his and your dear wife's tragic loss because it ENHANCED his position!"

There's really no excuse for the brothel incident, though, and Daemon knows it.

Where the hurt lingers for Daemon is the type/proportionality of the response. If a family member had done either to Daemon's children (Viserys or Laenor), he would have beat the person bloody, and shunned them for perhaps months afterward, depending on how grave the offense and the harm done. I think he expected that manner of response from Viserys--something personal, something that shows emotion/how he cares/how deeply he was hurt by Daemon's actions. But instead he was given the most impersonal and brutal of punishments: banishment. No chance to regain Viserys's good will, just "begone." The implication being not that Daemon had done a harm against Viserys, but that he was a threat to the realm. That Daemon had done it out of ambition or greed, rather than hot-headedness, grief, or stupidity. That it wasn't that Viserys was hurt by his actions, but that he viewed him as a budding traitor/usurper.

It's sort of a fundamental difference in how either of them approaches punishment. The old "when you are a hammer, every problem is a nail." Viserys is king, therefore punishments of the realm are what occur to him (and the impersonal nature somewhat lets Viserys off the hook, emotionally, as a people-pleaser; "I'm not punishing you, your king is punishing you"). Daemon is not, and he's a very passionate person, therefore violence and lashing out verbally are his tools of choice in dealing with that sort of thing.

So Daemon was not innocent, but the punishment didn't fit the offense, from his perspective. The fact that Viserys refuses to either see that or admit it means he might do it again, that it's a matter of Viserys mistrusting him rather than Viserys feeling wronged.

The understanding that Daemon sort of lacks here is that Viserys wasn't thinking particularly clearly for the "heir for a day" punishment. He was grieving heavily for his wife and baby, wracked by his own guilt, so Otto proposing the nuclear option probably felt good in the moment with his anger. Could Daemon say that, in Viserys's position as king, he absolutely wouldn't have let someone talk him into a harsh punishment like banishment?

IMO their conflicts mostly arise from their differing personalities, which is another thing that requires some empathy to understand. Viserys is all about avoiding confrontation. Banishment is as impersonal as you can get, and doesn't require him to see Daemon or dwell on things. He can forget and move on, no further confrontation even possible. And Viserys is very good at forgetting. (Daemon is not.)

Whereas Daemon is 100% in-your-face confrontational, with the main exception being his recent care in dealing with Viserys (which is born out of fear). And that kind of response is almost what Viserys views as the worst case scenario were the situation flipped. Someone feeling intense anger/hatred toward him? The worst feeling.

And there's also the underlying question of "what are the challenges facing each individual" which is another thing where both of them would benefit from thinking from the other's perspective.

At the end of the day, there is no single silver bullet solution to repairing their relationship. Daemon can be as empathetic as he likes, but if Viserys never reciprocates, the resentment will continue to fester, especially as Viserys continues to misstep. (His recent decisions have all been ones where Viserys is aware that his actions may hurt Daemon but he does them anyway. And the influence of the crown is such that he's even angry with Daemon for disobeying him by taking the children out for the day, rather than imagining why Daemon might have done so. He assumes Daemon is doing it just to be contrary or rebellious toward him. That it's about Viserys and not Daemon/the kids.)

I guess my TL;DR here is: in many ways, Daemon probably understands Viserys even less when viewing him through the lens of fatherhood. Why didn't Viserys threaten to gut him back then? Why was his assumption that Daemon did those things out of cold ambition? Why does Viserys care so little for his current children, while focusing all his attention on Daemon's?

It'd take thinking a lot about who Viserys is as a person (and a king), which may be something we see Daemon doing, but somewhat unrelated to fatherhood, aside from being much more motivated to do so out of fear over losing the boys.

(We do have a moment coming up between them that I quite like in chapter 28 that peels back the curtain a little on Viserys while also being a bit ouch in both directions.)

[goodqueenaly]

Hello! I’m so sorry if you’ve answered something like this before, I’ve been reading different alternate universes of Fire and Blood, what do you think would happen if Maegor had had a posthumous son from Queen Elinor or Rhaena? How would Jaehaerys and co have handled it? My guess would be the son being forced to either go to the wall or joining the faith when he came of age to prevent any potential succession issues.

Of course, it’s important to note at the outset of this ask that the author made a very specific point of Maegor not having living children. Whatever the specific reason Maegor was unable to father a living child - and I think the author has left the answer deliberately obscure - GRRM took pains not only to not have Maegor have a surviving child, but to have the children Maegor did father be “a monster, with twisted limbs, a huge head, and no eyes”, “a legless and armless creature possessed of both male and female genitalia”, and “a malformed and stillborn child, an eyeless boy born with rudimentary wings”. (We’ll leave aside the question of Silver Denys, whose paternal ancestry assertions are at best highly speculative.) Indeed, Maegor’s inability to gather a living child gave his enemies in-universe strong grounds to denounce Maegor as cursed (with such colorfully coarse rumors as Maegor’s “privy parts [being] poisoned, his seed full of worms”, such that “the gods would never grant him a living son”). Therefore, to have Maegor father a living child by either Elinor Costayne or Rhaena Targaryen would potentially substantially change how characters in universe viewed Maegor, and by extension how the author wanted us to perceive Maegor himself.

Likewise, I think the scenario might change, though perhaps not significantly, depending on when such a child was born vis a vis Maegor’s death. Depending on when such a child would have been conceived, it’s possible that either mother would not have known she was pregnant until after Maegor was dead. Therefore, unless the new King Jaehaerys or any of his courtiers insisted on verifying whether Elinor or Rhaena were pregnant following the death of Maegor (which no one seems to have done, likely for obvious reasons, IOLT), it’s possible that Jaehaerys would simply have been acclaimed as he was IOTL, as the only remaining legitimate male male-line Targaryen, with the rights of this posthumous son coming up after Jaehaerys had already been acknowledged as king - hardly a good starting ground for such a child in terms of a potential royal claim, when King Jaehaerys would presumably have already been blessed and crowned. (I should point out here that Elinor Costayne did IOTL give birth to a child by Maegor early in 48 AC, though exactly how much time there was between this birth and Maegor’s death is unclear, and in turn whether Elinor could, on a purely biological level, have conceived another child by Maegor in the time.)

All of that said, I think any living son of Maegor, whether by Rhaena or Elinor, would have been passed over in favor of Jaehaerys anyway. Between the unborn or newborn child of a tyrant usurper, who had so far only proven able to father stillborn “monsters” by his many wives, and the near-adult only remaining son of the Conqueror’s elder son and heir, there might have seemed like very little reason to back the former; indeed, given the rapid and substantial erosion of support for Maegor IOTL before his death, I highly doubt that anyone would have been. Nor indeed would Jaehaerys have lacked an argument to undermine the legitimacy of this baby: if Maegor had forced his pet “High Lickspittle” to perform the triple wedding between himself and his “Black Brides”, this polygamous arrangement was denounced by Septon Moon and his Faithful followers; with young King Jaehaerys eager to come to a peaceful (albeit frustratingly under-detailed) settlement with the Faith at the outset of his reign, it would have been all too easy for the king to say that Maegor’s simultaneous weddings to the Black Brides were illegal in the eyes of the Faith, and subsequently that any children born of such unions were bastards with no right of inheritance. (It’s perhaps worth remembering that Jaehaerys would later sternly remind his sister Rhaena that she was only a “queen by courtesy”, the implication being that he could choose to no longer recognize her as a queen at his leisure.) Too, given Jaehaerys’ willingness IOTL to pass over the very colorable claim of his niece Aerea, and his unwillingness to recognize his eldest brother Aegon as the rightful king between the death of their father Aenys and Aegon’s own death above the Gods Eye, I think it’s quite likely that Jaehaerys would have similarly decided that any son of Maegor would not be permitted to reign in the place of Jaehaerys himself. Jaehaerys may not have expected to come to the throne in his youth, but once he was acclaimed at the tail end of Maegor’s reign, I think Jaehaerys was quite certain on not letting anyone - his sister, his niece, the shade of his brother, or even a would-be son of his dead usurping uncle - claim the throne instead. At best, such a child may have been relegated to the Faith or the Wall, in the vein of Aerea’s twin Rhaella; at worst, Jaehaerys may have seen to this cousin being quietly murdered, much as I think his descendant Viserys would with his troublesome nephew Baelor, or Philip of Poitiers did with his royal infant nephew Jean in The Accursed Kings.

[drakaripykiros130ac]

Corlys Velaryon, the Blacks’ double agent on the Green Council

Can we talk about Corlys for a moment, and how TG stans like to praise him for switching sides? Did he really do that? It doesn’t seem like it.

Rhaenyra and Corlys had a falling out which got Corlys imprisoned, under suspicion that he helped Addam (suspected traitor) escape. After Rhaenyra’s death, Corlys was released by the Greens and invited to join their side. The war was not yet over, however.

Now, I have seen so many people talk about how Corlys is just like Otto in his ambition for the Iron Throne. They couldn’t be more wrong.

When the Greens released Corlys and invited him to join their Council, Corlys had many conditions. The first being that Aegon the Younger, Rhaenyra’s son, be named Heir to the Throne. The second was that he wed Jaehaera, in order to permanently end the war. Other requests included that the Blacks’ men all be pardoned, including his granddaughter, Baela. Alicent and her usurper son both spat in his face at hearing these conditions.

Now I ask you this: what did Corlys have to benefit from these conditions? The answer is nothing.

In canon, Corlys has always viewed Rhaenyra as the rightful Queen and that has never changed. Despite being a known misogynist, he himself told Rhaenyra in the book how he considers her an exception to tradition because her father, the King, chose her as his heir. And with no succession law in place, the King’s word is law. Despite his own male primogeniture beliefs, he still saw the reality of the matter: Rhaenyra was the rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.

Even after he and Rhaenyra had that falling out, Corlys never betrayed her and never strayed from the Blacks’ cause. With her dead, her remaining son, Aegon the Younger, was the rightful King. He needed to make sure that the boy would end up on the throne.

Corlys had no reason to join the Greens, and he never truly did. His remaining family, Alyn, Baela and Rhaena were still fighting for the Blacks’ cause. Not to mention that the Greens murdered his beloved wife, Rhaenys.

And if he truly was like Otto Hightower, and didn’t care which side he took as long as it benefitted him, I’ll tell you what he would have done:

Rhaenyra was dead. The war was not over but the Greens were in the advantage. Aegon the Usurper had no wife and no male heir to succeed him. Alicent herself was looking to find him a new wife so that she could prevent Rhaenyra’s son from inheriting.

If Corlys were like Otto, he would have made a different proposal to the Greens: agreed to join their cause, on the condition that the usurper marry Rhaena, his granddaughter. This way, with Rhaena as the new Queen, Corlys would get his wish: his kin on the throne.

That’s exactly what Otto would have done. That snake has no problem sacrificing anything or anyone in order to get the Iron Throne. He has no morals, no limits, no nothing.

Corlys is not like that. Despite his own ambitions, they come second to what he perceives is the right thing for himself and his family, and he has proven that.

Aegon the Younger being named heir and him marrying Jaehaera offers Corlys nothing. Nothing. The only thing it does is achieve his goal of putting the rightful King on the Iron Throne.

So, despite the fact that Aegon the Usurper was not honoring the proposal agreed upon, Corlys remained on the Green Council, and he plotted their demise along with the traitor, Larys Strong.

Corlys was outraged when he heard that the usurper wanted to execute Aegon the Younger and called the Greens “fools, liars and oath breakers.”

So, I don’t want to hear anymore bullshit of how Corlys Velaryon switched to the Greens, because that is the last thing he did. He promoted the Blacks’ interests, helped kill the usurper and have Rhaenyra Targaryen’s son ascend the throne.

[saturdaysky]

So… the God of Curiosity! How does he relate to the Lords of the Golden Hill? Is he invited in, is he seen as an interloper or usurper? Absolutely adore these two!

What a great question! I spent the morning refreshing myself on the Lords of the Golden Hills, which is the 5e gnomish pantheon, if anyone's unfamiliar. They are more active in the lives of their followers than other gods.

Also, sorry, this is where I reveal my superpower of being unable to write short answers to anything.

what's a god to a mayhew

Mayhew's parents are historians who take the name "the Forgotten Folk" as a personal insult, so he was weaned on myths and histories of the Lords of the Golden Hills. The Lords set Mayhew's expectations for what gods should be: invested and actively working to make things better.

(couldn't resist drawing mayhew and mamahew)

In game, Mayhew ran into many awful situations that he thinks good gods could have fixed, but didn't. Refugees slaughtered for sport, children locked in Cazador's dungeons for eternity, families enslaved and used as hostages, children murdered by Gortash's Steel Watch, you name it. These people surely prayed, but gods did not save them. Do gods who do nothing deserve worship?

Not to Mayhew. He was FULLY on board with Gale's astral boat scene logic of "we will be gods but BETTER because we CARE and DO STUFF." Mayhew is not a long-term thinker, especially if people are hurting right now, right in front of him. He sees only trees, never forests.

He views himself and Gale as being on their own side. All of his post-ascension decisions are based on them being an inseparable pair shaking up the system. He's not interested in being part of Lords of the Golden Hills.

what's a mayhew to a god

The Lords probably have mixed feelings about him. They would not invite him into their brotherhood. However, his goals often align with theirs, and as long as Mayhew didn't rock their boat too much, they'd be tenuous allies. More about Godhew and other gods under the cut!

Mayhew himself has many Glittergoldian qualities about him -- he's an elusive tale-teller and a sneak, and if you pried his coping mechanism sense of humor from him, he'd probably die on the spot -- so I think he'd get on with Garl Glittergold and Baervan Wildwanderer. Mayhew's not easily flustered, and he'd find it a hoot to be pranked by Garl, so I expect he'd pass any test of character Garl might run an upstart godling through.

Baravar Cloakshadow, god of illusions and deceptions, would be interesting. Mayhew is a born liar (deception is his second-highest skill after history) who cares deeply about protecting others, so on paper they're aligned. However, Baravar counts Mystra among his allies, so this alliance would be a strained one.

But the biggest reason Mayhew isn't interested in becoming a Lord of the Golden Hills? They're concerned primarily with the welfare of gnomes. As a god, Mayhew has broader designs than that.

a god for whom?

Mayhew cares about everyone, especially people who are unimportant. He was a latchkey kid who wandered all over the city from a very young age, poking his nose everywhere it shouldn't be and talking to people just to hear their stories. He probably even made friends with the sewer kobolds, despite historical bad blood between gnomes and kobolds. Most of the alliances Galehew make after ascension are Mayhew's doing. Gale is always grander and more powerful, but Mayhew is better-liked and better-loved by gods and mortals.

In particular, bleeding heart Mayhew is an ally and protector of children. Troublemakers, especially. The most common name he ends up being known by is the Children's God. In 5e, there doesn't actually seem to be a god FOR children, simply gods with "family" as part of their portfolio. To me, that reads as a god for parents. But Mayhew adores kids! In game, he looked out for all of them and spoiled them shamelessly via the barter menu. All the urchins got cash, clothing, trinkets, snacks, protective magical items, etc. He bought soup from Yenna every day. He gave Mattis 2000 gold (😭) for a key he never even used (😭)...and gave the amulet of greater health (😭)...and some grenades because all children should have a chance to make bad decisions...

To kids, he's like an imaginary friend who'll help you out of a tight spot, aid your capers, and shield you from terrors. When a child ages out of needing an imaginary friend, he's there as the God of Curiosity -- and what is curiosity without drive? Perhaps they'll follow their dreams in the footsteps of his partner, the God of Ambition. Completely unintentionally, Mayhew probably ensures the longevity of the Galerian religion this way.

Not all of Mayhew's ideals survive ascension, though he goes in with good intentions. He loses some of himself, but his love for people is the core of him. It doesn't change.

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

Narinder's Veil - An Analysis

A quick overview.

With the addition of the Bishop's of the old faith DLC, it was reveals Narinder's robes are actual a uniform of sorts denoting him as a death god. And once the Lamb has rescued all the bishops, they receive a version of these robes in fleece form. This made me wonder if TOWW's veil had any deeper meaning?

What is a Veil?

"A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance."

TOWW wears a black veil that partially obscures his face. Similar ones can be seen on his attendants, Baal and Aym, and former members of his old cult, Klunko, Flinky, and Shrumy. They seemingly serve no pratical use as before initiating combat Aym and Baal rip the veils off, possibly for increased visibility and keep the stands out of their eyes. Because these veils are only seen worn by TOWW and those in association with him or his cult, I assume these veils are exclusive to him and the veils we see worn by others are derivatives of his.

After some research, I was able to find an irl veil that most resembled the one TOWW wears:

A Sehra

"In some parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, men wear a sehra on their wedding day. This is a male veil covering the whole face and neck. The sehra is made from either flowers or beads."

Similar to veils worn by women, a sehra was worn to ward off the evil eye and to keep the bride and groom from seeing see each other before their wedding ceremony. While the reason for wearing the sehra is different, TOWW's veil very much resembles one.

Irl there are many cultural that require participants to adorn face veils or for sacred objects to be veiled. The most common practice that is familiar to most would be the wearing veils by brides on their wedding day. Interestingly the act of wearing a veil was prominently done by women and there are few cultures where men are expected to veil instead. In these cultrures, boys begin wearing veils after puberty and is considered a mark of manhood. It's interesting to note that everyone that wears a veil in COTL is male or male presenting.

Veils aren't always used for religious purposes.

Now that we have a better understanding of what veils are and why they are used let's move on to the next part of this analysis.

In-universe cultural meaning?

What could TOWW's veil mean to him and his servants?

Because all the information I've collected thus far, l'll break them down into seperate theories.

1.

As a mortal, Narinder died before or on his wedding day and was buried in his grooms clothes. Once he became a god, his wedding veil was one of the things he kept, either as a sentimental or cultural memento.

When the lamb usurps TOWW as death god, they don't recieve a veil, only his robes. This led me to assume TOWW veil is unique to him. For those that don't know, TOWW's name, Narinder, is of Indian origin. Because this and his face veil resembling a Sehra headdress, I like to image TOWW was originally from the COTL equivalent of India. Given how long TOWW has been a god, this place may no longer exist, with TOWW being the last 'living' member of this long lost culture. Only he would know the cultural meaning behind the veil. Others may have begun wearing them in association with TOWW.

11.

Given TOWW's station, being the patron of a cult and a literal god, it's plausible that his veil could be worn as a way of creating a barrier between himself and his followers. With the each number of strands denoting a rank amongst his servants. While Ratau's gang don't worship TOWW anymore, if at all given their dedication to Ratau, they may still wear the uniform of their ranks before the dissolution of TOWW's old cult.

"One view is that as a religious item, it is intended to honor a person, object or space. The actual sociocultural, psychological, and sociosexual functions of veils have not been studied extensively but most likely include the maintenance of social distance and the communication of social status and cultural identity."

The reason his servants are wearing them could be for a similar purpose. To seperate themselves from low level followers and layman. What is a cult if not a religion in it's infancy? Even still there seems to be a hierarchy amongst veiled servants of TOWW. Aym and Baal, likely due to their proximity to TOWW and having directly trained by him, have the most strands second only to TOWW himself. Ratau's gang each have different numbers of strands, possibly implying they were each at different level of their ordainment. Within TOWW's cult veiled members may have been the equivalent of enforcers

111.

TOWW's veil is a mourning veil of sorts.

"The mourning veil was commonly seen as a means of shielding the mourner and hiding her grief, and, on the contrary, seen by some women as a means of publicly expressing their emotions."

We don't know the deeper psychology behind what it takes to be a death god, to see hundred of thousands of millions of people die for all eternity. Granted TOWW seems quite psychopathic and is probably able to rationalize away his role as a death god, so maybe the veil is more for the souls that he reaps. A faux display of grief by an impersonal grim reaper. From a superstitious aspect, I'm sure looking directly into the face of death would be held as a very bad thing to do. TOWW also seems emotional constipated enough to wear something to show the emotions he won't let himself express.

A Deeper Look...

Something I noticed about the veils. Including TOWW, each character has a different number of strands/garlands:

Narinder = 22

Aym and Baal = 20

Klunko = 8

Flink = 6

Shrumy = 4

It's up to speculation as to why they each have a different number but that's what I'm here for. After a bit of searching I came to the realization that the amount of strands might correspond to the Major Arcana. While a pack contains 78 cards the first 22 are referred to as such and are considered more important than the rest. This is because they were meant to represent the spirtual journey through life. With that knowledge we can attribute each number of stands to a card in the Major Arcana:

Note the first card of the deck, The Fool, is not numbered.

If I match the number of veil strands to a card in the major arcana this is what we get:

Narinder (22) = The World (XXI)

Aym and Baal (20) = The Sun (XIX) or Judgment (XX)

Klunko (8) = Justice/Strength (VII/XI)

Flinky (6) = The Lovers (VI)

Shrumy (4) = The Emperor (IV)

The Arcana of the Lamb

Starting with TOWW, this what each correlation of veil strands to a card could mean.

Narinder The World (XXI)

"THE WORLD - Assured success, recompense, voyage, route, emigration, flight, change of place.

Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation, permanence."

The World card is said to represent the end of life. It makes sense that Narinder wears this number.

"The World represents an ending to a cycle of life, a pause in life before the next big cycle beginning with the fool."

The "nexus between what was and what was not" in TOWW's own words. It's says alot that the number of TOWW's veil strands corresponds with this card and not the literal death card (XIII). That could be because the death tarot does not actually represent death but change. Paradigm shifts, changes in beliefs and philosophies.

The reverse of this card also represents TOWW's situation. "Stagnation" & "permanence". As death, TOWW was a permanent fixture within the world of COTL. Even with his fascination with the new and novel, his siblings, or atleast Shamura, expected TOWW to remain unchanged and stagnant in his existence.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_(tarot_card)

Aym and Baal The Sun (XIX) or Judgment (XX)

Judgment : self-evaluation, awakening, renewal, purpose, reflection, reckoning

Reversed: self-doubt, lack of self-awareness, failure to learn lessons, self-loathing

Per google, the word judgement has two definitions:

1. the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions.

2. a misfortune or calamity viewed as a divine punishment.

It can be assumed that the meaning of their corresponding tarot is the second definition. Within the story of COTL, they are fought after declining to return the red crown. Their battle could be interpreted as divine punishment, as they say as much. Within the game, they act as the precursor to TOWW's battle. Their fight could be considered a test of sorts for the player, as many of their attacks are diminutive versions of their master's.

Or

"THE SUN - Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment.

Reversed: The same in a lesser sense."

Considering their fate within COTL's story, I doubt this is the real interpretation of the number they wear. It is the actual 20th card of the Major Arcana but it can be assumed the devs meant the technical 20th card, The Judgement. Granted, depending on the players, the two can be reunited with their mother which makes them happy and content, that was retroactively added in the DLC and might not have been something the devs originally meant to add.

Klunko (and Bop) Justice/Strength (VII/XI)

Within the major arcana, the order of the Justice/Strength is switched or changed depending on the deck. So I decided to give the meaning of both.

FORTITUDE - Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also complete success and honours.

Reversed: Despotism, abuse of power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace."

And

JUSTICE - Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the deserving side in law.

Reversed: Law in all its departments, legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity."

Within the game, Klunko, and Bop by extension, will give The Lamb the Strength from Without Tarot Card if they beat them.

Flinky The Lovers (VI)

THE LOVERS - Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.

Reversed: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustration and contrarieties of all kinds.

"In some traditions, the Lovers represent relationships and choices. Its appearance in a spread indicates some decision about an existing relationship, a temptation of the heart, or a choice of potential partners. Often an aspect of the Querent's life will have to be sacrificed; a bachelor(ette)'s lifestyle may be sacrificed and a relationship gained (or vice versa), or one potential partner may be chosen while another is turned down. Whatever the choice, it should not be made lightly, as the ramifications will be lasting."

While the numbers may align, I personally don't feel the card really applies to Flinky, unless the devs are implying some hidden relationship between Flinky and another character. This card better suits Ratau and Ratoo, given they give the in-game version of the Lovers card. They could also be twins, the Lovers cards us also associated with the star sign Gemini, known as the Twins. But I digress..

But Flinky's number of veil strands corresponding to the lovers card could have more to do with the imagery depicted on the Lover's card:

"In the Rider Waite deck, the imagery for this card is changed significantly from the traditional depiction. Instead of a couple receiving a blessing from a noble or cleric, the Rider–Waite deck depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. By reducing the number of human beings depicted in the card from three to two, Waite was able to reinforce its correspondence with Gemini. The Rider–Waite card also includes the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil with a serpent wrapped around its trunk. The symbolism of no return from making bad decisions, and the consequences of innocence lost, would be more widely understood from this imagery."

Flinky could be an homage to the serpent that tempted Eve to eat the apple of Eden. Maybe his consul is what influenced Ratau that leaving their old cult was an option.

Shrumy The Emperor (IV)

UPRIGHT: Authority, establishment, structure, a father figure

REVERSED: Domination, excessive control, lack of discipline, inflexibility

"The Emperor sits on a ram-adorned throne, a symbol of Mars. Another ram head can be seen on his cloak. His long white beard bears the symbol of "wisdom". He holds an Ankh scepter in his right hand, and a globe, symbol of domination, in his left. The Emperor sits atop a stark, barren mountain, a sign of "sterility of regulation, and unyielding power." He symbolizes the top of the secular hierarchy, the ultimate male ego. The Emperor is the absolute ruler of the world."

"In Astrology, the Emperor is associated with the masculine, cardinal-fire sign of Aries, the domicile sign of Mars which is symbolized by the ram."

Shrumy behavior toward the Lamb fits alot with this card, in my opinion. When they first meet he's quick to assert his dominance as a non-follower of the lamb. Shrumy also makes it clear that he has no care or respect for crown bearers, as the power they wielded seemed to change them.

"What are you looking at? Hmf. That's right. You crown bearers are all the same. Nothing without your adoring Followers. Ratau wasn't like that. He stayed true to who he was. You'll NEVER live up to him. Get out of my way, I've got Knucklebones to play and money to win. Come and play me if you want a real challenge."

- Shrumy to the Lamb

Shrumy falls more into the reversed position of this card. But I did notice a striking similarity to the Emperor Tarot and TOWW's role within the plot of COTL.

"The Emperor is the absolute ruler of the world."

Whatever TOWW'S gospel was the end result of killing his siblings would have made him the only god remaining and the De facto ruler.

After millennia, all may bask in my glory once more.

"Vessel, do you not worship me? Do you not give offerings in hopes of gaining my favor?

Soon I shall be freed, and the world remade in my image. All will pledge themselves to the Cult. All will bow to my name."

The words of a man(cat?) with enough ego to choke a horse lol. While not explicitly stated to be Baal and Aym's father TOWW does fill a father figure role to them. Having essentially raised and mentored them. Similar to Ratau's relationship with the Lamb, TOWW could also be considered a father/mentor to the Lamb too.

Conclusion

Initally I was only going to include the tarot card bit, but I couldn't keep my love of anthropology at bay so I added some cultural theories too.

I'm entirely sure the inclusion of these characters wearing veils doesn't actually mean anything but I'm just zooted off my gourd on caffeine so I'm gonna theorize anyway lol. Either way I had fun researching info for this rabbit hole I dug and I hope anyone who actually takes time to read this enjoys it too.

[aleksanderscult]

A follow up to my other question; if we had a sun summoner (basically an entirely different person than Alina) that really was the strong-willed person who wanted to stand by his side and take part in his fight for the Grisha, what do you think he would have wanted that to look like? (And i mean beyond the fold-plot part of the show because we know the plot of s&b and how she messed everything up.) Do you think he would’ve ever allowed the sun summoner to act as a soldier as he had? I think I have a hard time imagining an Aleksander that would allow the sun summoner to go out and be in any possible danger without him present which sounds incredibly limiting to what they’d actually be able to do. I can’t imagine them being allowed to make very many political moves if he got his ruler/queen without his say so and approval, (especially not alina because every political move or even thought she had was actively stupid or the opposite of helpful) so I struggled to understand what he would’ve wanted and expected from them post-expanding the fold. Would a sun summoner with military experience or political experience like himself be able to ever convince him to let them go on military missions by themselves without him? I’m basically trying to understand what we could’ve had he would’ve been like. What would he actually be like if he had gotten the strong-willed, empathetic, political savvy with a functioning brain kind of sun summoner and what Aleksander wanted…and deserved. So much of the character we saw with Aleksander was who he had to be when dealing with someone like Alina, who just couldn’t think for herself, didn’t want to, had no political understanding on the most basic of levels, and didn’t have a spine for practically anything. This isn’t an anti-alina ask, i’m just wondering what type of Aleksander we could’ve gotten with the type of person i described above and what he would’ve wanted from them and allowed them to do. I’m really curious as to what he could’ve been like and truthfully what he had in mind because I struggle to picture what he actually wanted or what he would’ve done had he gotten the type of summoner he deserved

Okay, let's pretend that he got the Sun Summoner that he truly wanted and dreamed of (as you said).

First of all, he would take his time to figure her out. Her views and opinion about him and the Grisha persecution (just like he did with Alina in S&B). Let's say that she passed the test here. Let's say that he found her logical, strong, determined and fierce.

The next stop would be for Aleksander to trust her. He doesn't trust someone easily and he would have to make sure that this girl is worthy of his own thoughts and plans. That would take some time and it would depend on how trustworthy and honest that Sun Summoner would be. Let's say that in time she passed this test too.

The next problem we have is that Aleksander is a controlling person. He wants to have the upper hand on things like ruling, taking military decisions etc. In the beginning, I imagine her taking her with him wherever he would go. Both because he would want to keep her close and out of his desire to teach her things. Like "Look how I'm handling things. Look what needs to be done. Observe and learn". Because I kinda doubt he would ever find a Sun Summoner all ready and knowledgeable about matters of the state like he is.

That's why trust is important for him. Because he would have to make sure that she can be counted on for important things and she wouldn't turn against him or usurp him.

I don't believe that in the beginning he would let her take full control of the kingdom or even an equal stand with him, but! If he saw her ready to fight and take part in wars he would take her with him in the battlefield and, in time after seeing her getting stronger and stronger, he would let her go by herself. Like "We've got a situation on the northern borders. Take one hundred men with you, finish them off and come back." And that's because it would be impossible for him to be everywhere at once. He couldn't be both in the battlefield with the Sun Summoner AND stay on the throne and deal with other, ruling matters. Sooner or later they would have to split and he would be forced to let her go and let her do something by herself. It's inevitable and Aleksander would know that. Sometimes they would need to share the responsibilities. Sometimes Aleksander would have to go to Fjerda to deal with some drüskelle while his Sun Summoner would have to stay in Os Alta because an important meeting with some Kerch ambassadors must take place and other things like that.

Now, about the ruling matter. Yes, he would make her his Queen but for how much liberty and freedom he would allow her to have in making decisions by herself is a debatable matter in this fandom.

Here's my own opinion of it:

In the beginning, if she would try to make a decision by herself, he wouldn't like it. Because he's not used to have others take major decisions (having the King rule him in S&B doesn't count here because in that occasion Aleksander had no other option but to obey him). So, in the first years, it would be kinda difficult for him to get used to it. He would probably not let her decisions be put into action. Like "don't overreach yourself, okay. I'm in charge here".

But! (and this is important)

I don't find Aleksander to be that kind of person who gets crazy feral if his Queen disagrees with a decision of his. If his Sun Summoner spoke reasonably about her disagreement, if she was calm and logical with her own reasons of why she finds his verdict wrong, he would listen to her.

Alina in R&R had said to him that "We would be equals until I disagreed with you. Then you would do to me what you did to Genya."

I disagree. I don't see him that way. Just like I said, if her own argument is spoken in a calm, reasonable manner and in a respectable, honest way, he would actually listen to her. He wouldn't be "OH MY GOD YOU ARGUE AGAINST ME!! DUNGEONS NOW!!"

It's all about the way she'll say it and what is the reason of their argument.

With Alina it was different because she spoke out against him for a matter of high importance: his fight against the Grisha persecution and, of course, Alina's character didn't know shit about politics, wars and what needed to be done.

So, in conclusion, in matters of warfare he would allow her to go by herself if he deemed her powerful and capable to go by herself without getting killed or captured easily and having the right knowledge in fights and strategy.

And in matter of ruling, it would be strange for him if she started and taking decisions by herself from the first week and he probably wouldn't like it. But as the years would go by, I think that not only he would allow her to have a saying but also he would ask for her advice (YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT).

(oh and about your question if he would allow her to become a soldier: yes. Mainly because all Grisha become soldiers and the Darkling is a man that believes in having fighting skills. Let's not forget how he was teaching Grisha to learn hand-in-hand combat apart from developing their Grisha powers. Plus, I don't imagine him wanting someone that sits on the couch everyday. As much as he would fear for her life sometimes, he would want her to be a fighter)

[downtofragglerock]

Alright more Makuta time

A Makuta who ruled over an island covered by a vast desert with a single long winding river in the middle. Upon being given this domain, they promptly propped themselves up as a divine ruler to the local Matoran and other inhabitants, equal or perhaps even greater to the Great Spirit himself. While making the inhabitants build large geometric monuments in their honor, this Makuta went about creating rahi species for this island's environment. Their tastes were a tad eclectic, creating species of hawks, falcons, ibises, jackals, crocodiles, cats, scorpions, serpents, & scarabs, among other things. Eventually the Brotherhood took greater notice of this Makuta's activities, and with Teridax particularly viewing this as a usurpation attempt of his own divine usurpation plan, ordered this Makuta to be killed. The deed was successful, but afterwards, the leader of the now deceased Makuta's Hagah declared themselves the divine successor of the island's former ruler, kickstarting a dynasty.

A Makuta who pattered herself as a witch/alchemist, keeping large amounts of her Antidermis in specialized cauldrons and constantly coming up with new concoctions. She actually played a great role in the advancement of Rahkshi and Kraata production, as she found out how to specifically manipulate the Makuta's Antidermis to produce a Kraata of the desired type, rather than just blindly creating Kraata with random abilities. She was eventually killed by the Order of Mata Nui, but considering how many cauldrons she had stashed around that carried her own Antidermis, a Makuta's very own life force, it's entirely possible she could reemerge.

A Makuta whose creative talents laid in the design and creation of buildings, rather than of rahi. He was soon made the head architect of the Brotherhood, with practically all of their fortresses and facilities at least designed by him. Any species of rahi he did create were in service to construction, wether they be beasts of burden to help carry raw materials, or species with features and apparatuses that could be used to aid in construction (crane-like trunks, excavator claws, etc.). Surviving till Teridax's ascension, this Makuta, like the rest of the known surviving Brotherhood, had his Antidermis harvested to make legions of Rahkshi.

[siremasterlawrence]

The Package

District Attorney Anderson Lyle Lawrence is the official man of the hour after his love life blew up in brewing storm of craziness blows in the wind, the television screen is running wild as reporters hit the grounds of his giant house in massive droves encircling the place as he hid in silence.The man is sitting behind his bed as whispering at himself and his own thoughts of his infidelity blur the lines of his reality and much like his friend Andrew his life will be transformed as a brown paper bag package flew at the window breaking in to his bedroom. By the extreme impact of the stainless and clear glass it smashes through the window shattering before him as it all falls to the floor and the package automatically in a heat of beauty unravels before him and he explodes. The box completely explodes shooting multi colored air covering the room in bold and neon colored bright powder hitting him in the face as he falls to the ground back of his head first and he shook convulsively out of control. Anderson could not believe his eyes as all of the power consumes all of the things around him as he backs up in excitement as he is in depth of a psychological break down he yell broadly across the room you can see his reflection. Finally in pain as rose to his feet stained in dried powder and he is mindlessly froze in time as television static spirals away in his eyes as the room fading in to the back of the room he frays in to the background of utter darkness all that is left is a mirror.The sound of transformation is can be heard loudly through the speakers bouncing from ever more forward on and off through the room forcing a whole new world and views on to that fool as his mind waste away he widdels in to a state and he stares deeply in to the mirror across from him as his world disappears.A man enters the chat stepping in to the ole space grabbing his shoulders tightly in the back of the area rubbing him deeply getting closer and closer to he neck as he steps a bit back when his ass meets with my cock and he cannot react. The man slid his hand to his cock grasping him as he gropes him in so many ways getting tighter and tighter ever more creative then before his world falls apart and slowly kisses from his cheeks down to his neck.

Sorry my dear District Attorney”

“You have been obstructing my life for far too long.”

“I know soon enough you will see it “

“My way of course”

“I can see your cock rising”

“Growing steadily “

“Bursting up “

“Showcasing in its glory “

“You want to cum”

“Exploding in your underwear “

“Place your hand on your cock”

“YYYYYYEEEEEESSSSSS!”

“I have always found you intriguing “

“Quite handsome “

“Like a fine wine you age”

“So good looking”

“Stop playing with yourself “

“CUM!”

“Remove your shirt”

“Your under shirt “

“Belt, jeans and under pants “

“Stark naked now “

“Turn around”

“Walk in to the closet “

“Shake your head in agreement “

“Pick up the clothes provide”

“Get dressed “

“Take a seat”

“Pose baby”

“Haha”

“I love you “

“Take a knee”

“Take my hand “

“Usurp my control”

“Lean in a bit “

“Kiss it”

“Lick it”

“Suck it”

“Enjoy every drop of it “

“Undo my shirt “

“Unzip my pants”

“Worship me”

“Let your arms lift “

“The sweat swirls “

“The scent hits the air “

“You love the scent “

“The aroma drives you crazy”

“I can see your struggle “

“The aroma fills you up “

“Hitting the fan”

“The air brush past him”

“I can see your smile “

“Teeth showing “

“So sexy”

“Your body gives in”

“Your arm pits land in to my palms”

“I bet you are ticklish”

“No…hahahaha “

“What bitch?”

“Stop hahaha”

The end