#Caster Central

[cloudbusiness1]

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Helping you is a pleasure for me.

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[blueiscoool]

3,600-Year-Old Jewelry and Weapon Hoard Found Under Field in Czech Republic

Archaeologists used metal detectors to find the hoard, which includes several pieces of jewelry and weapons.

Archaeologists discovered a hoard of Bronze Age artifacts while doing routine survey work in a field in the Czech Republic.

The bronze objects — which include eight arm rings, two pins, eight axes and one spearhead — were found near Budyně nad Ohří, a town about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Prague, Radio Prague International reported.

Researchers estimate that most of the items, which they found using metal detectors, date to around 1600 B.C.

"Most items are characteristic of the Middle Bronze Age, with only one ax belonging to the earlier period," Martin Trefný, an associate professor at the Museum of the Říp Region and the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně and the curator of the hoard, said in an email. One ax is even older and dates to the Early Bronze Age.

"Axes could have been used as tools or weapons. The latter function also applies to the spearhead," Trefný said. "Bracelets were forearm ornaments, and pins served either to fasten clothing or, for example, to style women's hair."

Archaeologists remain unclear about why the hoard was buried, but they have proposed three possibilities.

"In the first case, the hoards are presumed to have a votive function, meaning they served as offerings to deities," Trefný said. "In the second case, we speak of an economic function, where hoards are interpreted as, for example, storage for manufacturers of the given items."

Alternatively, the buried items could reflect "a crisis situation, where it was necessary to hide the items, for example, from enemies," he said.

The treasure could be worth "millions of crowns," Trefný told Radio Prague International. (One million Czech crowns, or koruna, is about $42,500.)

"All the items testify to the technological advancement of bronze casters and processors in Central Europe 3,500 years ago," Trefný told Live Science. "The composition of the hoard also contributes to understanding the warfare, craft techniques and contemporary fashion of the time. Considering that hoards might have a ritual significance, they can also reveal a bit about the contemporary religion."

In the "near future," these found items will be on display at the Podřipské Museum, located about 30 miles (50 km) north of Prague, Radio Prague International reported.

By Jennifer Nalewicki.

[the-liars-art]

The Night Haunter had a nightmare, similar to Leman’s vision of a “tamed” version of himself: raised on Terra, hair tied up, face smooth without distress, without the deep lines of pain night after night, or the occasional twitches or spasms. Those lips moved and he didn’t understand the syllables that flowed out.

He snapped awake from the dream, shaking violently. Crawling out of his hiding spot, his hands wouldn’t stay still. He kicked and clawed and he retched and he screamed, till he came upon a mirror in his own bedchamber. His twin hearts slowed.

He was horrified. He was disgusted by mere existence without being Night Haunter at all. Without Nostramo, its sins, and its end in a pour of molten adamantium. He clutched his own shoulders until his fingers gave out—not from exhaustion but from the excruciating hollowness that took hold. Then he lurched to his bed, which stood idle for most nights while he fell sleep in crevices of the ship hugging his scarred knees.

No lights were on but he saw perfectly fine. It was optically impossible and he failed to go deeper in that fact. Now wasn’t the time. He summoned Sevatar with the vox-caster fixed by his bedpost.

“My child,” he spoke in silver-smooth Nostraman, and left it at that. There were no tormenting visions of the future this night, but all strength has been drawn from him. He dramatically collapsed on the thick carpet.

Sevatar arrived quietly, careful with his steps since his lord had complained about the noises, but seemed to have run for quite some distance. Night Haunter let himself be taken back to bed.

They spent the rest of the evening reciting Nostraman names. Not the people who died from his claws, but ones of his own. He’d had several names like a classic horror story should. Collectively he was Night Haunter, but in some areas of the hive city he was also something else. In a particular part of the northeastern seaside, he was believed to be associated with a series of past murders hundreds of years ago. In many places in central city, children worshipped him and prayed for protection, for justice, to more than one of his names.

[petermorwood]

Steldene Curd Tart

@dduane's "Food and Cooking of the Middle Kingdoms" is a bit light on sweet dishes, so when we encountered a bag of Lithuanian "tvorog" - cheese curds - in the local supermarket, minds turned to a common historical version of cheesecake, and this is the result.

The basic recipe is a Yorkshire curd tart, of which there are plenty. Foods Of England (website parked, check Archive) has just one example, along with numerous other curd-based dishes.

This has the characteristic Steldene tweak of being a bit spicy, hence the crystallised ginger and a touch of ground chilli. In this case it was Habanero powder, added with great caution. A scant half-smidgen was enough for a pleasing tingle; next time (half the bag of curds remains) I'll add a little more to find out what happens.

What is a smidgen? This is... :->

As always, this chilli addition is meant to enhance the taste, not be some daft macho challenge that ends up in the bin, so start small.

Ingredients

225 g ready-made or home-made shortcrust pastry

50 g butter

50 g caster sugar

1 medium egg, beaten

1/2 tsp mixed spice (include a little ground chilli of your preferred hotness, if desired)

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

225 g curd cheese, or drained full fat cottage cheese

75 g crystallised ginger, chopped

3 Tbsp milk or cream

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F. Line a 9 inch/18 cm pie dish with baking paper or grease with butter.

Roll out the pastry on a floured board, and then line the prepared pie dish with the pastry.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until it is light and fluffy.

Add the beaten egg, mixed spice, and lemon zest and juice, then mix well.

Add the remaining ingredients, and then spoon the filling into the pastry lined pie dish.

Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the filling has set and is turning golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pie dish. Serve cut into slices at room temperature.

Note: even when cool the freshly made pie is crumbly; left overnight it gets firmer but will never be as solid as a cream-cheese cheesecake.

If fresh cheese curds, curd cheese or tvorog (look in shops selling Central European groceries) are hard to find, you can use drained full fat cottage cheese instead.

The original "Yorkshire curd tart" recipe called for standard dried fruit such as sultanas, raisins or currants. Chopped crystallised ginger was our adaptation. You can see the bits here, and the rather crumbly nature of the filling.

Crystallised ginger is more sugary than dried fruit, so watch out during baking: you can see where "just nice" was heading for "too much".

It was, however, still "just nice", and there's a lot less curd tart now than when these photos were taken.

It's very good, quite easy, even easier with store-bought pastry, and we're definitely going to make it again.

[intrepid-fictioneer-7]

Recent chapters of the underrated Fate spinoff Fate/type Redline got me in my feelings so I had to talk about it at lengths, even moreso now that it hasn't updated in months (the mangaka, Ryouji Hirano, has health problems I believe). Spoilers obviously.

Now, when I call type Redline, "underrated", it's more of a subjective than objective assessment. Despite being a manga and thus far more accessible than the untranslated visual novels or light novel series of TYPE-MOON, I see it discussed fairly rarely. At the very least, as far as I know, there hasn't been much big posts analyzing it, so I believe this should be one of the first.

Just don't expect something really deep, these are mostly my musing, rambling observations.

In fact, for a long time, I didn't really have a well-articulated thought about Redline's themes. The contrast of a Holy Grail War taking place in the middle of a world war simply had me chalk it up to the tried and true "war is hell" and not think any deeper (which was a bit intellectually lazy of me). And there is certainly that, but it's a bit more elaborate than that, or else I wouldn't find Redline as interesting. And it all reached a thematic "climax" of sorts in the recent chapter as of the time of writingé

In reality, the story signaled its central theme from the very start, I just wasn't paying attention. One of the first chapters ends with this page:

At first, I thought this was just about Nobunaga. But it turns out this specific page and its text will become the precursor of how the manga is going to present Servants, and how this presentation fits into its larger representation of what war is.

Something you hear somewhat frequently when people mention Redline is "it made Servants scary again". It is only half true, Servants have usually only been "scary" in specific circumstances (Bluebeard in FZ, True Assassin in FSN, and Jackie in Apo come to mind). What they actually mean is that Redline shows Servants as above human again, and it does so by showing them brutally go through lots and lots of human bodies, when Fate is usually about Servants fighting each other. You see Servants vs. humans sometimes, but it's usually 1v1 deals. The only notable exception I can think of is Clan Calatin against Alcides in strange Fake.

There is also Apocrypha, but they are up against armies of homunculi, golems, and animated skeletons, so the dynamic is a bit different than with modern armies. It does however say this.

Indeed, Lancer of Red could burn to ash and crush the stakes with his flames and divine spear. But the Red camp's odds of successfully opposing the Black camp's overwhelming amount of material resources were fifty-fifty. Fighting a force of twenty thousand was beyond the capacities of even a mighty Heroic Spirit. Even then, there would have been no problems if they were alive, but right now they were Servants. The more they consumed prana in great quantities, the closer they approached death. (Apocrypha volume 2 ch.2)

Which is interesting in light of Redline's story, but I digress.

But here, in Redline, because it's during the Second World War, and members of the military are using Servants to do their bidding as well as planning to use them to win the war, there are a lot of interactions between Servants and modern human armies, usually violent ones, to catastrophic results, as Servants go through lots of human meat like cheese. The picture above is after Oda Nobunaga shoots down an entire fleet of American planes heading to Japan.

It's a type of interactions we only ever really saw when Berserker Lancelot in Zero overtook a JSDF fighter jet to fight Gilgamesh on Vimana, while the other plane got eaten by the Lovecraftian horror Caster summoned. The militarized forces of Faldeus in FsF mostly only go after human mages and steer clear of Servants.

And that makes for an interesting contrast that Redline is all too happy to highlight time and time again. When they say "Servants are scary", they mean "Servants are above human", in every sense of terms. No normal human can harm them or even pose a challenge to them, for they are above human strength and capabilities: they are superhuman, they are inhuman.

And that does not just mean inhuman power, but also inhuman thinking.

One of the main conflict throughline of the manga is the relationship between Kanata Akagi, our main protagonist, and his Servant Okita. They don't clash as such, it's not like Fate route Shirou hindering Saber from doing her job, nor is it like Kiritsugu disregarding Saber. It's more low-key, like a misunderstanding that can never be solved. Okita was a warrior in life, and this Holy Grail War in war-torn Japan is just another battlefield to her. Kanata however was born and raised in a Japan long after the war ended, in more peaceful times where he never had to kill. And it's this fundamental difference in lived experiences and mindset that stops them from ever reaching an understanding about how to approach the war:

Even later, as the war goes on, after Okita almost killed potential allies (more on that later), and Kanata reveals to her he comes from the future and what his goals are (ensure his grandma doesn't die and he can come back), and they decide to have a more honest partnership with each other, it's still not enough.

Because when Okita kills a human soldier again, this time a soldier wounded by Berserker who charged Kanata because he was a Master and he blamed magi for how pear-shaped the whole situation has become, this time she does a 180 and instead of convincing Kanata to become ready to kill, she instead wants him to think of her as his tool to kill in his place and take the burden upon herself:

Kanata can only ask her if she's really fine being a sword to be used by someone else and nothing more, to which she replies that's all she needs.

Do note how completely obscured, borderline blank (save for a small, thin-lipped smile), Okita's face is as she says this. As if Kanata and us readers really can't tell how she actually feels about her own words.

This is not the first time the manga does this with Okita.

Coming back to the almost aborted alliance I mentioned earlier, what happened is that, a few chapter before this, the Rider of this war, Sakamoto Ryouma and Oryou, met with Okita to ask her and her Master for an alliance to stop the war from spiraling further and kill more innocents. It would be normal to be suspicious of their intentions, especially since Ryouma initially hides from her that he is a Servant.

But that's not the reasoning Okita uses to reject the alliance and subsequently attack them:

"There is only one path for me (war)." And here it is again: "She's not human."

And it happened even earlier too. When Servant Assassin (Okada Izou) fights Okita, he grows more and more disturbed as he doesn't feel fear, anger, or exaltation as he fights and cuts her, feeling nothing at all from her aside from the scent of blood. Okada's thoughts are interspersed with Kanata's own thoughts about visiting his dying comatose grandmother in the hospital as a kid. And when Kanata touched his grandmother's hand, just like when Okada faces Okita, all it felt like was that:

As you can see, a lot of emphasis, both textually and visually, that Okita does not feel human, and her way of thinking is so alien people can't comprehend her.

And it's not just her, Servants in general are portrayed this way throughout. You saw the pilot's words about Nobunaga at the start of this post, but it occurs later as well. When she was first summoned in the previous war a few years ago by the Imperial Army, her summoner was an arrogant dude who tried to get her to submit and she casually beheaded him. Following that is this page:

Nothing showing on this blood soaked face except for elongated eyes like those of a monster. And after that, everyone in the room prostrate themselves before her like she is a god they worship.

She picks her Master from the crowd, the half-Japanese girl Kaname Asama, and she treats her surprisingly decently from what we see throughout the manga, giving the shrinking violet of a girl respect like she is her attendant, unlike Kaname's boss Magatsu (more on him later) who threatens her and even hits her.

So you would think they have a cordial relationship? Well, maybe they did, but that was until the recent chapter, which has Magatsu's Berserker fight Lancer, and instead of helping their ally, Nobunaga wants to leave, which leads to this exchange:

The same face and eyes again. Kaname doesn't understand her Servant, nor can she tell what she's thinking, just as Nobunaga's face loses all expression, making it impossible for us to tell as well.

(This is not exactly new in regard to Nobu: Keikenchi, the original author of Koha-Ace and the mind behind Redline, already made a Koha-Ace oneshot previously focusing on her, and in it it was shown that, when she was alive, Nobunaga could not "hear" the voices of other people, other humans, and it's her being unable to understand other people that contributed to both her rise and fall)

Another Servant serving as a good example of this is Berserker, which obviously makes sense when it's the Class that from the very start of the Fate franchise in Fate/stay night was there to be impossible to communicate with. But interestingly, everything that surrounds Berserker, not just the Servant itself, reinforces this theme, as if the story employs irony in making the maddest of them all in a war full of mad people the more in-depth examination of the idea instead of being the most obvious.

But I need to scale back a bit to explain.

The Master of Berserker is Major Magatsu, the head of the Imperial Army's magecraft division and one of the main human antagonist. He is kind of interesting in how it's not just his Servant, but his own actions that act as a fulcrum to demonstrate the point. See, in these last stages where it is clear Japan is going to lose, Magatsu wants to keep the war going. His main goal is that he sees the war as not just for the glory of Japan, but as an opportunity to create a world where mages stand at the top, even planning to orchestrate a secret coup within the Japanese military. He is able to amass a great number of men under him, all fanatically loyal to him due to a mixture of his own charisma and appeal to nationalism as well as cigarettes laced with suggestive tobacco making the soldiers smoking it pliable. His followers are so loyal in fact, that when a team of them comes back defeated after facing a Servant trying to deal with Team Kanata, they beat the only survivor up and torture him for his failure and for failing Magatsu, without Magatsu's knowledge or consent (in fact, he is slightly disturbed by this and thinks to reduce the dosage of the tobacco).

But that doesn't deter him from his tactics. Even when he has to hasten his coup after being forced to when pro-war proponents in the war ministry are assassinated, leading to his enraged troops to blame the proponents of suing for peace within the ministry, he still keeps with the easily pliable and fanatical troops even though it is clear he can barely control them. "When the madman runs, any man not mad starts running" is written on a banner hanging on the wall of the magecraft division's headquarters, and Magatsu, who doesn't know who wrote it, finds it a good quote, not knowing how prophetic the words would become. Regardless, Magatsu has made the entire magecraft division and then some fold under his command by making them believe he will be the hero to save Japan. He makes many speeches about saving the nation and how the preservation of the Empire is vital to the preservation of the soul of the nation, and can easily drive crowds into nationalistic frenzy with talks of using Archer and Berserker to fight on mainland Manchuria, and clearly invoking the spirit of complete sacrifice to the nation like in banzai charges and kamikaze, even if not explicitly:

Sometimes, an ordinary and unrefined person will defeat their fear of death and become a noble person with the resolve to throw away their own lives. This phenomenon, which one could call a miracle, is occuring at this very moment, in various places within Japan. War allows all sorts of miracles to exist.

For these reasons, the Colonel, the so far unnamed high-ranked Nazi who is Magatsu's main ally, praises him for "having a knack for understanding human nature", which is why he gives him Berserker, as he believes that, if he experiences the war from the same position as Servants, Magatsu may be able to come to understand them...especially, as he notes, Magatsu completely failed to have Nobunaga pay him any attention:

Magatsu, for all his charisma and servile attitude, completely fails to have Nobunaga pay him any attention even once since her summoning years ago. When summoned, she ignored him in favor of going to Kasame. She doesn't follow his orders nor does she even acknowledge him as a faithful follower: he might as well be air in her eyes. Not only that, she only talks to his subordinate Kaname Asama, whom he disdains for having foreign blood due to being half-Japanese. And the Colonel rightly realizes that Nobunaga's lack of interest makes him seethe. Magatsu seethes so much in fact that he comes to the conclusion that he doesn't need to understand Servants, especially to win when they don't seem to care what he's they're fighting for, so he would rather settle for Berserker than the unruly Archer, believing he can control him thanks to the Heroic Spirit Restraining Device provided by the Nazis. Very predictably, it goes pretty poorly.

As soon as he's summoned and out of the tank he was put in, Berserker immediately begins to indiscriminately kill soldiers of the magecraft division for no reason, and when Magatsu attempts to use his Command Spells on him, he cuts off his arm and crushes it, making the Command Spells disappear. Berserker then engages in a rampage throughout the magecraft division base, gleefully killing every soldier in his way, yet does not kill his Master despite his failed attempt to restrain him:

Magatsu is unwittingly along for the ride as Berserker carries him in his arms as he goes about his "fun".

Naturally, Magatsu's men try to slow down and stop Berserker using "anti-Servant" weapons (lol) that obviously do jack shit. But they use too much firepower and seemingly ignore Magatsu's cries for help, which leads him to believe that they are trying to kill them both. Berserker agrees in his twisted logic, and enacts more violence as he believes his Master is in danger.

The reality is actually different: when Kaname Asama try to get to exercise more caution so they do not accidentally hit and hurt the Major, when he is clearly an hostage, one soldier slaps her and rebukes her, madly stating that there is no way the savior of Japan would ever get hurt by these weapons.

They keep throwing weapons and men at Berserker, which eventually confuses Magatsu, because weren't they trying to kill him? Why then are they wasting their lives against a Servant?

Which is when the point is made.

As this massacre rages on, Magatsu is telepathically contacted by the Colonel, who congratulates him on summoning Berserker and says that the Restraining Device is working wonderfully saying as the major's mana and life are still intact. Magatsu, enraged, accuses the Colonel of having done something to his men, maybe brainwashing them to kill themselves, which is a fair accusation considering it is the Nazis who did assassinate the war hawks and forced Magatsu to accelerate his coup plans.

Except the Colonel says he had nothing to do with it and the reason for the soldiers' actions is far simpler: they admire Magatsu, they truly, genuinely do. The Colonel explains that his accomplishments, from taking control of the war to making a Servant protect the capital from air raids, made him look like a true messiah in the eyes of his men, and Magatsu was too blind to see it. Of course he denies it and calls the Colonel a liar, until he sees one of his men approach and try to reach him, only to be pierced by Berserker's spear for his troubles, and as he lays dying, Magatsu hears his last words on his bloody lips: "Glory to the Major."

As the one-sided battle against the human waves of martyrs continue, the Colonel throws Magatsu's earlier words about the war "allowing miracles" back to his face, bringing the whole arc to its logical conclusion, and I will transcribe the speech in its entirety since it intersperses scenes of the battle and that's too much images to for this post:

How about you open your eyes to reality for once? The only sane person in that battlefield is you. War is cruel. It burdens its victims with a detestable fate. But look at them. They do it for their country, for you. Their madness calls forth even more madness. All these men rush forward, knowing well only death awaits them. War takes these ordinary men, and turn them into martyrs. War allows all sorts of miracles. I thank you. You've allowed me to witness something beautiful. Did seeing people die finally get to you? Feeling remorse? I suppose you didn't have what it takes to be a soldier. This is no time to be losing your mind, Major. It's not everyday you get to experience war from such a safe position. Revel in it a little more. You are at the center of a miracle. That which creates miracles, and gathers people's faith. What do you call that, Major? Do you know? A God. Congratulations, Messiah. In this exact moment and place, you are the one closest to a God.

Just as the voice of God can't reach mortals, your voice can't reach these men. For alas, there are none who can hear it. Raise your head, Major. The curtain has fallen at last. And you should now be able to understand her a little more.

Archer arrives, looking down at Berserker and Magatsu standing on the mountain of corpses of all the men of the magecraft division, and Magatsu tries one last time to get her to look at him by calling for her help, as all he ever wanted was to prove he was worthy to stand at her side...and she laughs in his face. She mocks him for thinking he could ever control a Servant and finds his tear-stained and snotty face hilarious.

And Magatsu, at this last straw after everything, breaks.

As he begins to laugh maniacally, his Servant joins in, and as Archer, Berserker, and him laugh, it's as if the corpses of his men, their mouth frozen in bloody leering rictus by rigor mortis, are laughing with them. Magatsu finally realizes it was wrong to think to use Servants in a war, because they could never be measured by human standards.

It's not that Servants can't be understood, not solely. This sequence of chapters shows it goes deeper than that: it's war that turns everyone mad, and thus makes understanding impossible among humans. And Servants are humanity writ large, the highest of the high and the lowest of the low, because you need to be larger than life to be remembered for eternity in the Throne of Heroes. Which means that, where war turns humans into mad monsters, it makes the Heroic Spirits standing above humans into the embodiments, the apotheosis, the personified concepts of madness.

They are mad gods.

The World War and the Holy Grail War are both founts of insanity, because that's what war does. The average soldier's brain briefly brushes with the eternal sublime, the mysterium tremendum et fascinans that turns humans into figures of worship recorded and enthroned for eternity beyond space and time. And this brief contact with the Absolute gives them the divine language that makes them unintelligible to other men. Their visages, like Moses' after descending the mountain, can no longer be looked upon. They are completely obscured to us who don't live and breathe for war, for violence is their domain now.

War makes Berserkers of us all.

Is it any wonder that the Classes of the Holy Grail War by design favor warriors and warmongers? This war is rife with adepts of violence: a warlord (Nobunaga), a warrior (Mori), a secret police assassin (Okita), a plain assassin (Okada), and a martial artist (Li Shuwen). All of which mad in their own way and choosing the path of violence over any other options.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that the sanest and most "normal" Servants we have seen in Redline not only belong to the Classes less obviously about violence or weaponry, Rider and Caster, but their identities are also not famous for violence: the Rider was a politician and diplomat, while the Caster is a scientific thought experiment about the laws of physics.

I don't know how this will conclude or shake out, but I have my suspicions. Our protagonist Kanata comes from the peaceful post-war Japan and has so far always been repulsed by violence, despite attempts by his Servant and his grandmother to get him to get used to it to be more effective in the war. In fact, he reaffirms that he wants to win the war without becoming a remorseless bloodthirsty killer.

I can see potential routes the story can take depending on whether he slowly succumbs to war's madness or he heroically resists its call. Especially if he is pitted against what seems to be one of the main antagonists, the Nazi Colonel, clearly war's most fervent prophet, whose face is always obscured.

We'll see. The latest chapter as of the time of writing is the fight between Lancer and Berserker. Even the pair that seems to get along the best, Team Lancer, has the Master threatened by her Servant for almost "interrupting" his fight by trying to heal his wounds. And her (current) last words are a perfect encapsulation of the manga and my whole thesis:

[salmonofarctic]

I think I shared this on another platform already, but never here. I am drawing right now, and somehow something triggered me to recall this.

When I draw those slices-of-life stories of Chaldea, I MOSTLY only draw CasGil (Wise King). Sometimes KoGil, but I rarely draw ArcherGil (Tyrant).

And whenever you guys see me drawing ArcherGil, in most cases, he still wears a robe or tunic etc., which indicates that he is the version of Gilgamesh who is still ALIVE, living in Uruk with Enkidu—not the servant one.

The first reason is that, even though my friend info-dumped me about Fate throughout our high school years, my real introduction to Fate was the Babylonia anime. This means CasGil is the first Gilgamesh I actually knew and grew to like.

The second reason, as funny as it is, is simply because I never actually summoned ArcherGil in FGO😅 I guess the fate between us is thin, and he has never answered my call so far.

The third reason: After I started watching the Babylonia anime, the second thing I went after wasn’t UBW or FZ, but the Epic of Gilgamesh itself. (I only fully started shipping Enki x Gil after finishing the Epic. The final push caused my free fall into this abyss.) This experience shaped my view of Gilgamesh's character.

Because Tyrant Gilgamesh literally grows into the Wise King version, it's a progressive evolution—not entirely two separate people.

If I'm just drawing something funny, then okay, both of them can interact in the same scene and create something laughable. But if I try to dig into something more serious, then it feels...

awkward, at least for me.

In the end, I just choose one of them as the main character based on the background setting. Story set in Uruk? Archer, then. Story in Chaldea? Caster's part to play.

You may ask, what about KoGil? Why do I give him a free pass while excluding ArcherGil? Well, there is a split between KoGil and his two adult selves. I can still view all three Gils as parts of a continuous timeline, but the fact that KoGil hasn’t met Enkidu yet, and doesn’t always get along with his adult self, makes him not the central part of this topic. So he is free from this argument.

So most of the time, KoGil is just......well, KoGil, doing his own thing. He knows Enkidu, he enjoys staying beside Enkidu, but he isn’t as clingy toward Enkidu as the other two Gils.

Just as Alexander (kid version of Iskandar) said, he is fully aware of Iskandar's path and history, but none of it feels real to him. Because he (as Alexander) never really experienced those events, Iskandar's path probably feels just like some stories he’s read in books.

In my eyes, Caster Gilgamesh is the "real" one. I’m not saying ArcherGil or KoGil are fake. What I mean is, Caster is the one who actually went through all the different stages of life. He is the one who finished the journey of searching for immortality. He is the one who completed all the developments of Gilgamesh's character. He knows grief, he knows despair, and he overcame them. All these experiences feel real to him, and he knows them by heart, which build his character and personality as a person. He himself is the crystallization of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

But for ArcherGil or KoGil, despite knowing their fate and what will become of them, they still haven’t experienced it.

Yet I still see them as three pieces of one same puzzle, they all exist inside.

[probablyspooky]

One Of Us (Celtic x Reader) P.2

Born as if you were a yautja yourself, you join your pack to go on your right of passage trip. But running into other humans always causes problems for you.

Trigger warnings : Blood, swearing, white men of course, British people, NSFW

[Last]

The man begins to shout in agony, as if something was tearing him up from the inside out, the membrane that held him firmly against the wall glistened against his skin as he struggled to try and free himself, yet he had no strength in him. He continued to scream, begging for Lex to help him.

“Please! It’s inside me!,” He shouted, writhing in pain as his chest started protruding out, something inside of him was bumping into his ribs, desperate to free itself from the human host it had been born into.

You put your hand on the hilt of your blade, standing to attention, ready to take on this chest burster. Lex rushed to the man, grabbing at the membrane trying to free her colleague from his prison.

You rushed over to her pulling her back.

“Stop! Are you stupid?,” you shout at her, suddenly hearing the sound of bones breaking, and flesh tearing. Hearing the battle cry of a xenomorph young, you turned as it leapt out of his chest. Grasping it mid air, it struggled against your gloved hand.

“This! This is what could have killed you!” you shouted at Lex, your facial expression hidden by the mask you wore, but the sound of anger present in your voice.

Lex stared in horror at the empty chest of her friend, blood dripping from the exposed bones that were shattered by the strength of the tiny monster you now held in your hand. She stuttered nervously, clearly sad her friend is dead, but even more afraid of the anger you now had.

Celtic walked over, his heavy footsteps seemed to still clank against the slimy ground. His large hand finding its place on your shoulder, his head tilted as he clicked underneath his mask.

“She is untrained, do not waste your rage on her,” he said,  grabbing the still growling xenomorph in your hand, and snapping its neck with little to no effort.

Dropping its corpse, you stomped along, following your pack through the halls. Lex slowly walked behind.

Scar started to slow down, seeming to take pity on Lex for being unable to handle the harshness of this hunt. You were lost in your thoughts, angry that the hunt was going so wrong. If the humans hadn’t stolen the plasma casters, then this hunt will be done and over, you wouldn’t be stuck in such an awful situation. You could be at home right now on Prime, snuggled into Celtics arms in your nest, eating the sour fruits that grew on the trees.

Celtic could obviously see that you were rather…angry, though he had seen you angry before, like the one time he and his brothers crashed into the bathing room as you were soaking in the tub, or the time he knocked you into the freezing waters in the clan central fountain. Taking a deep breath, he quickened his pace to meet yours, and he scooped you up into his big arms, spinning you around.

“Oh stop!”, you growled, trying to squirm out of your mates arms, “Put me down!”

But he didn’t, Celtic nuzzled his cool mask into your neck, purring from his chest.

You could never help it when he purred to you, or when he held you this closely, you found yourself giggling uncontrollably as he continued to spin around. You straightened yourself in his arms, your eyes meeting his, he could tell he lifted you out of your funk.

Suddenly the temple shook hard, as you could hear the crumbling of ancient bricks and doors being crushed down, down by something large, something large was coming this way. Everyone turned to look down the hall, and in horror you watched as a flood of xenomorphs cackled as they rushed down the hall, followed by the queen. Her large footsteps shook the ground as she ran past. A few stragglers turned, noticing the five of you, Scar and Chopper pulled their wrist blades out, and with a roar they charged to battle. You turned to Lex, knowing she’d be a burden in battle, you rolled your eyes and rushed over to her, standing defensively ahead of her to keep her alive. Celtic nodded to you, understanding the situation you were currently in, he turned, taking his spear out, as it extended, he began to fight his way through the swarm of xenomorphs. 

While the others fought, you looked around to find any way to escape this current area you were in. Scanning the walls that began to sizzle with the blood of the xeno, you noticed one area that was sprayed could see into the other room. An idea came to your mind, as you handed Lex a blade.

“Don’t die,” you ordered, pulling your spear from your back, you pierced through the head of a xeno, and pushed it towards the hole, hitting at the wall multiple times, as its blood oozed from the exit wound of your spear, the blood began to eat away at the rubble.

The other began to catch on, as they began throwing all bloodied xeno towards your exit plan, soon after 7 or 8 of them had fallen to the hands of your pack, the hole was just big enough for Celtic to fit though. Once your pack has reached the other room, you could spot the lights coming from spot lights the scientists had left behind,

Between you and those lights, you could spot the Queen and her crowd of xeno rushing to the exit tube.

Without thinking, you took your spear, and put everything you had into the throw, sending it soaring through the air, it pierced the queen through the chest, pinning her to the ice. She let out a horrific battle scream, and all the rest of her minions rushed towards your small group.

Chopper growled, pulling out a plasma grenade, tossing it towards the group, obliterating nearly half of the swarm.

Scar clicked, impressed with his brothers and your actions against the xeno swarm, Scar pulled his throwing star, sending it towards the queen, slicing those rushing towards you in half, as he hit the back of the queens leg, slicing it clean off, a flood of her acidic blood coated the now sizzling melting ice. Celtic, wanting to show off to his brothers, and mostly you, he pulled out his spear as well, throwing it and kabobing a few xenos, melting his spear in the process.

You chuckled at your mate, as the four of you rushed to the large queen, who was still pinned to the ice, you began to type on your wrist computer as you ran, producing from it a silver orb, you threw it under the queen, where other xenos were trying to free the queen. The silver orb began to spin and glow, as the plasma shot out, the queen let out one last piercing cry, as its blood burst with plasma, sending its life.

Shielding yourselves with a plasma field, you looked back at your pack and Lex.

Scar, Chopper, and Celtic let out a battle cry, and threw their fists into the air as they claimed their victories over the xeno, and were now fully blooded yautja. They took off their masks, showing off their faces, their mandibles clicking as they acknowledged one another. You smiled, taking off your mask, turning to Lex.

“It is over,” you smile at her, your eyes checking her for any injuries, but instead your eyes trailed to the knife you had given to her prior.

“Did you…kill one?” you asked, tilting your head towards her.

She dropped the knife rather quickly.

“I had to defend myself,” she frowned, staring at the corpses that now littered the ground below.

You turned to the three and they nodded in agreement, as you knelt down before a corpse of a xeno, cutting its finger off, the green acidic blood oozing from it as you stood up, and walked over to Lex.

“With this, you are a hunter,” you said, placing the burning finger against her skin, carving the mark of the blooded to her face forever, and turning it to yourself and burning your cheek.

The five of you then walked to the entrance tube, and began to climb up. You rode on Celtics back as he climbed, Scar carried Lex, the five of you had reached the top, your wrist computers began to buzz, you all looked at them as you saw off in the distance, the mothership you had left earlier that day now turned off its cloaking devices, it now sat on the icy Earth in all its glory. Your pack walked to the main shuttle door, as it opened, the Ancient Elder walking down in his ceremonial garb as he stood ahead of you. Your brothers, your mate, and yourself knelt down as a sign of respect towards him, as he examined all your marks, clicking as if telling you that you had done a good job. He motioned for you to return to the ship, so that you may rest and return home, but then noticed the additional human standing behind you.

He growled and rushed over, grabbing Lex by her face and lifting her up to examine her, noticing the mark upon her cheek, he nodded, releasing her from his harsh grasp.

He turned to the yautja behind him, grabbing a ceremonial spear weapon, and presenting it to Lex, he extended it to its full length, and then retracted it. Placing it in her hand, he turned and boarded his ship.

Your brothers and mate boarded as well, and as you stood Lex spoke up.

“Are you really okay…?” she asked, watching you board the ship.

“Why wouldn’t I?” you replied, staring at her with a confused look.

“You…you’re not one of them.”

Celtic heard this, and quickly retreating back down the rap, he placed his hand on your waist, and pulled your small frame into his large one.

“She is one of us.” he said, in near perfect english,

He took your hand and led you aboard the ship. The docking doors closed, and the ship began to hover into space.

The excitement of returning home now washed over you as you walked to med bay to get your vitals checked over. They gave you the okay, and showed you to your temporary room, where you found a plush bed to rest your head on.

You were so excited when you began to drift off to sleep, but you heard your room doors open as you mate, Celtic walked in.

You looked at him puzzled, but soon understood, as he dropped his armor onto the floor, and removed his mask, his large mandibles clicking as his eyes scanned over you. He walked over to the bed and laid next to you, pressing your soft skin against his rough one, his tongue slithered out of his mouth, and began to gently lick in circles onto your neck. His large hands began to graze lower onto your hips, as he pressed himself into the back of you.

Small moans came from your mouth as he used his spare hand to rip your thin clothing off of your body, his hand found its way to your clit, as he gently began to swirl pleasure into your stomach, sliding a large finger into you as he continued to swirl your clit and pump into you.

You began to whimper as he continuously pumped into you, the sound of you liquids squelching around his fingers echoed in the chamber.

“Please…,” you begged your mate, gripping the smooth leather of his loincloth between your fingers as you lifted it to the side, showing off all his length of his shaft, his glistening nectar sitting upon his tip.

“You are much too impatient my love, “ he groans, shifting above you so now he was hovering over you, “After such a great hunt…I find it fitting to savor this session of ours”

You whined underneath him, practically bucking your hips against his crotch.

“Patience….” he whispered, licking your neck and slicing your bra off of your body, licking down your chest. Taking extra time to savor one of your perked up nipples. You whimpered, feeling the warm wetness coating your nipple, his free hand massaged your free nipple between his rough skin.

“Celtic…please I need you…” you whined under him, sliding off your panties and placing them on his mandibles

He let out a deep chuckle at this, and took them off of his mandibles, tossing them aside.

“Very well…my love” he says, taking his length and sliding it into your slick.

You let out a moan, feeling him stretch out your walls, he let out a deep growl, allowing your body to coat him, allowing him easier movement against you.

“Look at how you body temples for me, begs for me…You are perfect…” he growls, moving against you.

You cried out as your body shook against his strength, feeling every pulse of his cock as he rammed into you with inhuman strength.

Feeling his hips roll against you, your face flushed red, his hands began to grasp random fatty parts of your body, he growled, feeling his peak coming.

“God…you’re so…” he groaned,  shaking slightly as he felt the end nearing

You begin to whine, feeling the pool of pleasure filling in your stomach as he continued to fuck you senseless, your eyes rolled to the back of your head as your climax peaks, sending your fluids onto his torso. He roared a mighty roar, filling your cup with his love as his body shakes with ecstasy. 

Later, you were curled up in his arms, taking in his scent

“I love you,” you whispered, tilting your head up to meet his gaze

“I love you too,” he replied, licking your forehead, "I am glad you are one of us”

[nasuverse-most-breedable-tourney]

Side B, Round 5 (Semifinals) *Clash of Casters*

On the left: An almighty genius who lived between 15th and 16th century Europe. One of the many geniuses who left a mark in human history by forever influencing the development of civilization. An Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect while also producing detailed notes and drawings on anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, and paleontology. "Gender and age mean nothing in front of a true genius!". Principles and trends will change but there's only one indisputable fact: in any form, Da Vinci is universally invincible!

On the right: A Buddhist master who lived during the 7th century Tang Dynasty. In search of the Original Buddhist Scripture, she set out on the Silk Road, traveling from Central Asia to India. At the end, she brought 657 scriptures back to Tang and founded the East Asian Yogācāra sect of Buddhism. Also a major character from the Chinese novel "Journey to the West". Buddha's most specialist girl. A caster also able to perform incredible physical violence. She is Xuanzang Sanzang

[libbee]

Jacques Lacan had Venus in the 8th House

And that is quite visible in his work. Some of his quotes are shared below. These are the words of someone who must have felt the tragedy of losing a grip over their reality. Who must have lived a fantasy first and seen it tear apart later. Therefore comes the school of psychoanalysis.

What does it matter how many lovers you have if none of them gives you the universe?

Love is giving something you don't have to someone who doesn't want it.

All sorts of things in this world behave like mirrors. 

His description of psychology and the unconscious touches the depths and borders of the unknown. It is the exploration of the 8th house but in a scientific way rather than spiritual or magical. Perhaps it is the closest we can get to understanding this house of astrology:

I always speak the truth. Not the whole truth, because there's no way, to say it all. Saying it all is literally impossible: words fail. Yet it's through this very impossibility that the truth holds onto the real.

I identify myself in language, but only by losing myself in it like an object. What is realised in my history is not the past definite of what was, since it is no more, or even the present perfect of what has been in what I am, but the future anterior of what I shall have been for what I am in the process of becoming.

Desire, a function central to all human experience, is the desire for nothing nameable.

As to why 8th house Venus could influence Lacanian psychology, we find its answer in the nature of this house. This excerpt is from Barbara Pijan's article on her website:

Whichever graha occupy bhava-8 become fuel for the Kuja (Mars) -Ketu magical-transformation engine of hidden and secret tantric processes in the human consciousness. Will the native become a victim of this process or an instigator of it? A long-lived and wise magician, or a tragic childhood death? A brilliant surgeon or psychiatrist? An attorney of wills and estates? Or a sorcerer, caster of curses, agent of superstitious fear and petty control? Will"self-destructive" urges be recognized as healing transformations, or will the native and-or his culture adjudge such behaviors to be undesirable?

True to this description, Lacan did indeed become a brilliant psychiatrist. If you read how he speaks of psychoanalysis, it is not merely his profession or source of income, it is rather something that has touched something inside him, that he cannot articulate but knows it is connected to psychology. How do we even know if something is scientific work and not the gibberish of a mystic who speaks whatever he wants? Anyone with planets in the 8th house or aspects to this house is bound to experience a similar psychic fate: of self-undoing and psychological analysis.

The madman is not only a beggar who thinks he is a king, but also a king who thinks he is a king.

Yet, analytical truth is not as mysterious, or as secret, so as to not allow us to see that people with a talent for directing consciences see truth rise spontaneously.

Obsessional does not necessarily mean sexual obsession, not even obsession for this, or for that in particular; to be an obsessional means to find oneself caught in a mechanism, in a trap increasingly demanding and endless.

In other words, the man who is born into existence deals first with language; this is a given. He is even caught in it before his birth.

[plounce]

thinking about yshtola (i am nearing the end of 5.0 so these are incomplete thoughts) and it’s like... ok imo there are two main character traits for her: seeking knowledge and being a mean blunt bitch. the first i think lends more toward “what is yshtola doing here now in the plot” activity which is important for  a character. the second is what im thinking more about because it’s almost entirely flavorful for her. i think that her being blunt in that way matches well with matoya’s own stubborn pursuit of doing her own thing and yshtola spent a large portion of her youth with matoya, who was stubbornly apart from the rest of the sharlayan elite and made no secret of her disdain for them! so i think being at least partially raised with that gave her a certain tendency for avoiding centralized authorities - see how she leaves sharlayan for eorzea, see how she goes to the rak’tika greatwood and away from the exarch (who she is suspicious of). it doesn’t matter if somebody’s A Good Guy: she is willing to doubt anything to ascertain the truth of it. she’s stubborn but she’s also very humble, because she’ll also doubt her own understanding or previous knowledge (but not to an extent that she’d be gullible - she’ll invite emet-selch to share information, but she still doesn’t trust him as far as she can throw him).

she doesn’t like tricksy machinations and doesn’t engage in them herself and will tell you that right to your face. she says “urianger what the FUCK are you lying about this time” “thancred get your STUPID ASS head on straight” “emet-selch say something USEFUL or shut the FUCK up” “sharlayan you are full of BITCHES and COWARDS” and it is just great every time. she has love for her companions (excluding mr squelch obv) but that love does not hold her back or preclude her from demanding better of them.

she’s not a rude person. she is very kind and has a solid heart in her chest and a great head on her shoulder. she is blunt. (urianger’s a really great foil to her as another scholarly character but as opposed to her, he will circle around something and keep things to himself and try to get everything to work out for the best without sharing anything. meanwhile she will say “alright here’s what i think needs to be done and i’m going to do it. and if i can’t, i need you to.” he’s kind of an enabler; she calls people out. passive vs active. healer vs caster dps.)

and that bluntness lends itself to her choosing to be really reckless! girls will jump into a bottomless pit to save a community of civilians and then do a really insanely risky spell, one that she has already permanently disabled herself (and thancred!) doing, rather than resigning herself to dying, because she will do everything in her power to move herself and the cause forward. she thinks things through, but she thinks fast, because she’s smart and decisive. she is reckless but not rash. and she will throw herself into danger if it’s the best thing to do to help save the day - in the english translation, using her aethervision drains her vitality, but she’s gotta do it to keep others alive and to save the world. it’s a sacrifice she’s choosing to make, even if her loved ones would rather she not do that to herself, please. but that’s a value judgment she’s making, and you probably couldn’t win the argument against her. she’s not infallible, but she’s usually right. she is the sort of person who is full of hope that can be more accurately described as stubbornness. she knows her loved ones for who their best self can be and she demands that of them - which can make her a great character to have around for other characters as well.

there’s also another secondary aspect to this that is kind of more depressing lmao but it is evident that in eorzea miqo’te women are often sexually objectified by the game and by characters within the world, so another reason she might have to have such high + spiky walls up is to like. deal with that. her more suggestive lines of dialogue are about her having sexual control (the lines about having you “over her knee” or putting you on a leash, for example). after the stormblood expac magnai fight:

she’s got it handled, but it does also suck that this is something she has needed to learn how to handle! 

and those are my current #catgirlthoughts

[shapeshifterlore]

just wanted to jot down some notes that I had about ep 2

Island – Galimanis

“the making of what is not, yet. to create, invoke, summon.” – Tabby

The flavor of the magic there is describes as having flavor akin to cinnamon and cumin, warm and spicy.

The Hellbenders that attack the group are described as “monsters that exist to be monsters - to resist or fight.”

The residents are all "central casting" style hot

The magic done in the aerie is either creating simple things or improving themselves. It's more like a shotgun than a scalpel

Symbol – Salamander

The legendary salamander is often depicted as a typical salamander in shape, with a lizard-like form, but is usually ascribed an affinity with fire, sometimes specifically elemental fire. - https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Salamander

In ancient Greek mythology, the salamander was associated with the god Hephaestus, the god of fire and blacksmithing. It was believed that salamanders could control fire and forge metals. - https://medium.com/@fwildwood/the-deep-rooted-symbolism-of-salamanders-a-detailed-look-4b03dd7b4392

In Celtic folklore, salamanders were considered protectors of wells and springs. They were believed to have healing properties and would guard these sources of water from any harm or contamination. - https://medium.com/@fwildwood/the-deep-rooted-symbolism-of-salamanders-a-detailed-look-4b03dd7b4392

Color – Orange

Sacral chakra. Associated with pleasure, joy, creativity, self-worth, physical needs, communication, sense of taste

Color psychology associates the color orange with adventurousness, boldness, and creativity as well as insincerity, arrogance, and danger

Element – Fire

The State of Magic

Magic attempts that had a DC 20 or less

Increasing the environmental protection on Evan’s shoes (DC 15)

Magically jingling keys to get hellbender’s attention (DC 15)

Summon water (DC 12)

Increase broom velocity with Teddy’s help (DC 12)

Water guyser to get to the floating island (DC16)

Sam using the earth below her to rocket herself into the air (DC16)

Evan finding Sam in the haze using their connection thread (DC 10)

Jammer making a cool entrance (DC 8)

Magic attempts that had a DC 21 or more             

Sever Tabby’s magical ties by severing its shadow (DC 30)

Create a patch of ice under an attacking Salamander (DC 25)

Summon an asbestos blanket (DC 30)

fix K's top (DC 25)

Rebreak an arm in order to heal it (DC 40)

Whenever Aabria mentioned some magical working was “very specific” or involved “complexity” the DC was higher and there was a sense of “stickiness”. Any attempted magic, failed or not, was affected greatly by the caster’s intention.

[koshka-sova]

i have finished reading hortus de escapismo. i liked it more than i thought! certainly grim and depressing in many parts, as this was the central conflict of the monastery' inhabitants and especially clément's internal breakdown. some thoughts below about the event's ending teasing future stories, in no clear order...

firstly, they really went and put in a teaser for the next celebration event (zwillingstürme im herbst) by having arturia be escorted out by a spire caster of all people. if her previous appearance in lingering echoes was any hint (or even oren's tip about her back in guide ahead), it's clear now shes not only operating in leithanien, she seems to have strong ties with the country's militia. from what little i got by filtering any spoilers, ZiH seems to involve not just the twin empresses but the witch king again, so just what kind of business did arturia even get into... im curious.

next, is andoain. it's nice that he gets a nod through the notebook lemuen found in the monastery. i wonder if it's a given that he visited there, given that hes from iberia, laterano's partnering nation in building the monastery in the first place? i used to share fiammetta's anger towards him and thought him unsensitive to lemuen and mostima, and really, none of them have given the closure fia so desparately wants. but with how internalised sankta othering is, how it's so ingrained in their culture because to them, Paradise is real and is their given right, andoain is unique in asking these questions about the lateran faith and equality. to the readers, who are now learning even more clearly how sankta naturally live in a system that promotes that specific brand of racism, andoain becomes more decent than most other sankta characters. seeing the sankta involved in hortus, we can now see just how prejudiced they are especially about sarkaz, with the exception of federico. the nod to andoain in hortus invites me to think he might play a role again in another laterano event, as despite having two laterano events that bring this prejudice into light, theres no satisfying addressing of the issue despite it being literally questioned--by patia, andoain, ezell and cecilia in GA, then by federico and abbot stefano in HdE. this brings me to...

third and last point: im hoping hg cooks something new for laterano. in the epilogue, the pope expresses satisfaction that federico is starting to ask questions about how the law is not as encompassing. he says he will relay federico's question to a man he knows. although there's no way to say this is andoain (hell, what if it's ezell or an entirely new person), it does raise the question why they'd include this dialogue. ofc, in true arknights fashion, this could mean nothing at all. the same is true for lemuen and the abbot's epilogue. both of them either say or think that the abbot's journey is yet to end, and that he will find his own laterano. a new kind of laterano? much like a new volsinii without the famiglie? or (the efforts of) a new iberia? or whatever is in store for leithanien in ZiH? or the strides kjerag is pulling in the new event with degenbrecher? this could be a sign that the issue of laterano and the Law's directive--and its consequences taking shape as sanktan prejudice--will be challenged again, perhaps in a more direct manner. and who better to challenge this than andoain, who's done so before? perhaps it is true that abbot stefano will be involved again then. and id also like to mention lemuen, who does show that sort of questioning as well, in the form of acknowledging the monastery residents' bond regardless of race. still, she seems to have concluded as of the event's epilogue that that sort of understanding between different people is impossible (though she even seems to extend this to between sankta; is she saying this bc even with shared empathy and common goals there is still conflict?). so, who knows. for all i know this is just my delusional hope that andoain and lemuen might become playable some day. even if not though, i do think hortus de escapismo intentionally doesnt give a resolving answer to the inherent issues with Law's directive.

i dont know how to end this, other than that in the end, it is nice to have an epilogue that gives closure to the different characters involved. theres closure for raimund, fortuna, abbot stefano... even hyman and aulus have a section.

last thoughts. the arknights wiki mentions that a sami priest once foretold that terra's end is near, though their cries were ignored. interestingly, we've seen at least two apocalypse scenarios, both not addressed as canon as of now. one is the seaborn assimilation (is3 ending), the other originium spread (kaltsit skin). so perhaps, its not out of pocket to speculate that there might be a future laterano event that signifies a sort of 'end' or fall, either of the physical holy city or the Law. we'll see in due time...

[the-raven-draconic]

*Felix smiles, kissing Nikolai on the cheek.*

"I knew you'd love the birds.. and your eyes are the prettiest I've ever seen. I love you."

"Hello, mea lux! I found a couple necklaces that made me think of you. I thought you'd like them" ^^

(- @the-raven-draconic )

“Oh! Really? Let me see!”

*Nikolai beamed, happy that Felix had even thought of him.*

[annlynngilbertphotography]

Morning walk photos, Great Bougainvillea hanging over the sidewalk and Philodendron trunk and roots. — Central Florida, Monday, December 4, 2023.

What a day, last week I discovered I had lost / misplaced the registration to our car, had the correct insurance paper, the correct date sticker on my license plate but no registration paper. So, I Googled how to get a replacement and found a Trooper Steve YouTube he is a local news caster and former Florida State Trooper. His Video was excellent, made my appointment with the local Orange County Tax Collector office, my time there was less than 20 minutes and out the door with my registration. YEAH!

[thetownsendsw]

One thing I really like in the remastered Pathfinder Core books, that I haven’t seen anyone else talk about yet, is these little flavor descriptors in each caster class’s Spellcasting feature:

As a wizard, when you cast spells, your incantations likely specify exactly what forces you call on and how to shape them, and your gestures precisely shape and direct your magic while circles of arcane runes flare to life.

Look at that! Pre remaster that was just “you use material components from a pouch”. Now there’s specific role play guidance like “Throw some mustard on that spell. Go all ‘BY THE EIGHT WINDS AND THE TWELVE STARS’ on some guys.”

And there’s one for every class!

As a bard, when you cast spells, your incantations might be musical riffs or clever limericks, your gestures might incorporate dance and dramatic pantomiming, and you might accompany your spellcasting by playing a musical instrument.

As a cleric, your chants generally invoke your deity and their powerful servants by name or title, while your gestures are followed by sacred symbols or other representations of your deity

As a druid, your spellcasting incantations might be pleas to the environment around you or the invocation of ancient vows; your hands might sway like willows or curl into clawlike shapes as your gestures direct your magic.

As a witch, when you cast spells, your incantations might rhyme, your gestures might be as simple as an ominous pointing finger or a complex folk sign, and your familiar might even echo your words or movements slightly as your patron's magic surges.

Just a little nudge toward roleplay potential in a central aspect of the game and how it differs from class to class, character to character.

They even brought it back for Player Core 2! “A Sorcerer with a demonic bloodline might chant guttural fiendish phrases or make brief curt gestures to cast a spell.” “As an Oracle, when you cast spells, your incantations may spill from your lips rapidly as you speak in tongues or intone in a voice not quite your own…”

Great stuff all around.

[elfdragon12]

So, for my own fanfic purposes, I worked on a list of canonical locations on Cybertron. I don't know if any site has a nicely formatted list of cities/city-states, so I thought I might share this list with others. This is mostly comprehensive as I left off locations that were too specific to one continuity or too confusing and it's quite possible I missed a few places. There are some continuity specific places included I think are more flexible. Many items on this list are not expanded upon, so you can have as much fun as you want.

Either way, here's what I got in one handy (very long) list:

Regions

Tri-Torus

- Petrohex

- Polyhex

- Dodecahex

Polar States

- Iacon

- Kaon

Tri-Penninsular Torus

- Uraya

- Praxus

- Protihex

Iacon (capital)

Iacon Central

- Great Dome

- Celestial Spires

-- Celestial Temple

Academy of Science and Technology

Jan-ja

Imperial Amphitheater

Maccadam's Old Oil House

Iaconian Aerial Academy

Metroplex

Trion Square

the Undergrid

Translucentia Heights

the Senate

Xeno Quarter

Hall of Records

Observatory of Iacon

High Council Pavilions

Chamber of the Autobots

Polyhex

Darkmount

Deadend

the original Space Bridge

Polyhex Toll Plaza

a canyon

Grease pits

Nova Cronum

Praetorus Wharf

Chamber of the Ancients

center of philosophy

Protihex

Protihex Medical Mechanics University

Uraya

bigger than Praxus and Protihex

Tyger Pax

idyllic and tranquil

Rust Sea

unstable planetary matter

emits a mostly harmless corrosive gas

Hydrax Plateau

- Damaxus

Toxic Sludge Swamps

Tagan Heights

Durax

Ultirex

- technoversity

Tetrahex

responsible for 40% of industrial output

Tyrest

Jekka Amphitheater

Tyrest University

Altihex

deep space research facilities

underground energon refinery

Altihex casino

Kalis

Pax Cybertronia Decommissioning Depot

Kalis Primary Energon Reserves Control

Kaon

Kolkular

- the Cradle

space bridge

gladitorial rings

Jump Joint

Wreckage Row

mines

Kaon Prison

Kaon Plaza

Ibex

Central Spaceport

Ibex School of Epistemology

Ibex Cup racing circuit

Crystal City

Drouhard University

Refracting Gardens

Geosynchronus Energon Bridge

known for elegant construction and scientific minds

Undercity

mostly deserted

near the Red Sea

Peptex

near Rust Sea

Dodecahex

Shuttle Complex Ohm

Petrohex

Upper Petrohex

Lower Perrohex

Rust Sea tributary

Harmonex

"Singing City"

center for art and learning

Lithic singing crystals

Alyon

uninhabited

Vos

rich in energy resources

close to Tarn

Air Command Center

Stanix

Yuss

- Amprodome

- Justice Building

Fort Scyk

Acid Wastes

Proximax

Transhyperwave Caster Tower

Hyperious

defensive walls

Burthov

docks

launch site

labs and factories

"belongs" to Science Division

Petrex

"twin-mode" city

Simfur

Simfur Temple

Chamber of the Dynasty of Primes

Tarn

power plant

border fortresses

gladitorial rings

original Senate Building

The Decagon

main control center of planetary defenses

Blaster City

low class industrial region

munitions source

weapons manufacturing facility

Rad Zone

dangerous

Plasma Energy Chamber

plasma energy reservoir

Tesarus

artisans and philosophers

Helex

Power Base

gladitorial arena

Axiom Nexus

The Blue Deployer

Widow's Cafe Cybertronian

The Heap

Rodion

waterways

Maccadam's New Oil House

Deltaran Medical Facility

Nyon

Rust Narrows

Acroplex

Gygax

tunnel to Ankmor Park

Ankmor Park

as old as Quintesson supremacy

chemical processing center turned biochemical garden

Galaxxon

industrial

slagwerks

K'th Kinsere

Vaulted Heights

home to High Priests

Triax

the Nexis

Ky-Alexia

stronghold

Plurex

Plurex Flats

Emirate Xaaron Spacebridge Nexus

just outside of Iacon

Well of Allsparks

afterlife

inside the Core

Sistex

Sistex University

Staniz

ship building

Centurion

bright

Praxus

the Assembly

Helix Gardens

Slaughter City

low class industrial center

illegal gladotorial games

Border Regions

borders Iacon

Promontory

Forum of Enlightenment

Predigeon Arch

Cities with no information

Nuon

Pescus Hex

Esserlon

Monoplex

Median

Hexima State

Perihex

Praxium

Bitrex

Ultrix

Valvolux

Carpessa

Glibax

Vaporex

Ambustus Minor

Tribat

Unitrex

Tesk

Teledonia

Detrona

Landmarks

Redox River

Timonium River

Straits of Yuss

Trannis Fork River

Mithril Sea

Argon Sea

- gaseous

Sonic Canyon

The Badlands

Manganese Mountains

Cataclysm Tundra

- Athenaeum Sanctorum

Tri-Torus Loop

Tygun Span

-road between Iacon and Nova Cronum