#Chamber Mage

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-11-06

It was Bandcamp Friday so I'll open with a rundown.

Listening: One song per album let's go

Do The Hate by MiSLeD, off TERRORTORIES, a deeply uncomfortable sounding song.

I originally picked up MiSLeD's acoustic album a few Fridays ago and took a while to come around on their unbelievably blunt and hyperlocal style. A sledgehammer through Johannesburg concrete, I have come to love 'em. Do the Hate has an aggressive chant that makes it genuinely kind of uncomfortable to listen to and also extremely fun to yell along with.

The Length of the Chain by Chamber Mage, off their 2022 demo tape and thus far their only album release unless you go see them live.

I picked these guys up off I think the Topic Lords podcast? Solid reliable heavy metal. Can't wait to see their first full album, they're from Denver so if you're from that part of the world definitely find out if they're playing.

All On Fire by Double Sun, from the album of the same name, Pretoria boys playing bluesy punk.

One of the last bands I saw in Johannesburg before I moved. I had the three-part Dead Wreck Beach stuck in my head for a good long while. I'm still not sure what it is about Gauteng that produces so many psychedelic punk bands but I'm not complaining.

Two Jack de Quidt albums, soundtracks from Friends at the Table which I have been getting really into.

First up, The Tower, As Built By The Divine Candidate Chital, from the soundtrack for COUNTER/weight, meditative track to match the meditative and still incomplete two-player game The Tower.

Apperances of The Tower in F@TT games are always great. It's a game that the GM and composer have been working on forever and they get really, really into it.

Next, gotta be Marielda, from the season of the same name. The clarinet from this is so memorable.

The intro tracks to every game are obviously the ones you hear the most, and they're all bangers.

All Through the Night [Patrick's Version], from the Titus Andronicus demotape for their most recent album The Will to Live. Rough cuts from studio sessions.

I adore The Will to Live, when I'm honest I really don't care much for most of Titus Andronicus's work other than The Monitor and now The Will to Live. These are good at capturing what I like about live performances: performers going ham and not necessarily performing well but definitely performing the most.

And lastly, Threshold from sungazer, off the album Perihelion. This was an experimental piece combining rhythms at both extremes of human perception, with the overall rhythm of the song being as slow as possible with individual bars being impossibly fast.

There's a whole Adam Neely video on it, because he's one part of sungazer.

Alright on to the rest of the show:

Reading: Back into The Count of Monte Cristo, rapidly seeing the roots of many other stories I've read crystalize into this genre, most notable Eoin Colfer's Airman.

Watching: The various Hackaday talks that have been uploaded over the past week, some good ones lately like A Hacker's Guide to Audio and Video Formats.

Playing: on Saturday evening I finished making dinner and sat down to play Titanfall 2 from the start because for some reason my save was incomplete and I figured I'd just start over. And then it was two in the morning and I had beaten Titanfall 2. Great game.

Making: Abortive attempts at designing some adapters for my vacuum cleaner because I realized I took my reference images wrong and had to start over, fortunately before I wasted any filament.

Also Hack Week at work, so I'm working on some original code with two much, much more experienced python developers, which if nothing else is a good learning experience.

Tools and Equipment: Modern text editor configuration systems can be rigged to almost completely bootstrap themselves if given an internet connection. You should use this to your advantage. I use lazy.nvim in bootstrap mode now and it's so easy.

Side note, nvim's lua configuration mode is real nice, major improvement over vimscript when you want to do anything complicated. Sorry Tim Pope.

[thenwothm]

INTERVIEW: CHAMBER MAGE

Check out thenwothm.com's latest interview with Colorado springs very own Chamber Mage

These guys only formed in 2021 and with a handful demos out there, Chamber Mage are already progressing fast! Securing a slot on the Frozen in Time bill with the likes of Haunt and readying their debut album for release, Chamber Mage are ready to cause a storm! THE NWOTHM: Hey there Chamber Mage! Can you start by introducing us to the band, who the members are and where you are from? Avery…

[khoirkid]

Heart Open - IsArt Sketches in collaboration with @amethystfairy1

[therookandthecrow]

How dare he look so good? 👀

[crows-of-buckets]

While Lucanis doesnt seem to be as aware of the way crows are viewed outside of antiva (see his banter with Harding about teia. He seems genuinely shocked that she's intimidated by her 😭) Ena is always 100% aware of how the crows are viewed and he abuses it to no end. He just starts making up shit to Varric and Harding bc he thinks it's fun. He does it to Neve and Bellara too before Lucanis shows up. After Lucanis they realize that he's been Making Shit Up for a year now. Now if he says anything about the crows (even something true!!!) the rest of the veilguard use Lucanis as their fact checker.

After Lucanis and Spite start cooperating, Ena manages to talk Lucanis into going along with him in some of his lies. The veilguard does not realize for YEARS. Thedas' number one manipulator couple

[dualcastimpact]

Ran dragonskin maps solo as BLU to clear the Ultimog Challenge and man, Peat Pelt + Deep Clean is absolutely my favourite solo dungeon spell combo right now. Hitting a mob with Peat Pelt and then maxing out your Spick-and-span stacks for HP regen? So great for soloing mobs, I'm such a fan. And with such short cooldowns and casting times too!

[magebutts]

someone tell the veilguard/ea apologists that other people being vocal abt their issues with the game really shouldnt be affecting their enjoyment as much as it does if they really love it and dont see any flaws with its writing like they keep saying they do. like whats wrong? if you look to closely at it you'll realize its not what you wanted it to be? and thats my problem how? 💀

[shittymurderparty]

Officer Trevor: Did you feel that? Detective Chambers: What? Officer Trevor: A great disturbance in the Order. As if millions of voices cried out to say "Oh shit!"

Doll Ghosts: ... (Source: 8-Bit Theater)

[la-scree]

Jack of Trades

[oopsallmabari]

me: oh i should write a flashback scene in ostwick circle that'd be a good thing to explore

me, 5 minutes later: i need to diagram the entirety of ostwick circle in my mind with floorplans

[dndsettingsinfo]

Sorcerer's Retreat [40×30] by Nerdy Maps

[invinciblerodent]

I just got slapped in the face with a note on this old, old post, so I'm bringing it back, because I'm close to climbing up the curtains about it.

He went back. Left his lover and all his personal desires behind. Followed protocol. Acted with principle. Alright. What did it accomplish?

He freed all the slaves he personally could immediately, and beyond helping those select few, on the grand scheme of things, it just generated some mild controversy, branded him an eccentric.

The Lucerni, the fledgling group for which he left all he wanted behind (in hindsight, perhaps with a bit too much optimism) was formed, and then it failed- so spectacularly that it directly-indirectly cost Mae her position in the Magisterium, and forced the group to transition their operations into a secret, underground organization. By now, their slogan, "Bring the Light", is pretty much the only thing that remains of its roots.

He spoke on the Magisterium floor clearly, openly, with passion, on record, multiple times, and each time, he seems to have hit brick wall after brick wall- they shut their eyes and plugged their ears, because the scissors with which the disapproving passages of the very law that instated slavery were cut out were large and gilded, and he couldn't even endorse the Shadow Dragons' work openly, because (even though they covertly had the support of the Divine, as well as many of the people) his name served their goals better while it remained free of the associations with them.

And those eight years of his life, the ones given to campaigning, and petitioning, politicking, and screaming his voice raw, were paid for in late nights, grey hairs, blood, and baby steps forward.

For all the performative grousing about wrangling the Imperium into submission and yanking it into the present he did in Trespasser, for all the trying, the urging, the demanding he must have done in the long years in-between, I'm sure it was a process that was slow-moving and beyond frustrating- especially keeping in mind what he had to leave behind, of which I'm sure he was always keenly aware.

Of how they both knew that leaving was a sacrifice, but staying would have been as good as treason.

Every time I think about what might happen in (and to) Tevinter now, I can't help but recall what Dorian says in his proposal to Rook about becoming Archon (something he never actually wanted for its own sake), how passionate he is to finally stop talking and start acting, and how the elation quickly fades into anxiety if Rook agrees with him, and (finally, finally, finally) puts the power to act into his hands.

For the naked disdain he once showed in talking about how the good and great families of Tevinter noblesse "breed" their children in hopes that one of them will go on to become Archon, and how adamant he was in Inquisition's early parts about never desiring the lies, the scheming, the political machinations, that kind of dirty power for himself... this ending, it feels appropriate.

Fucking Vivat, Archon Pavus, I know you'll do great things.

..... Try not to dwell on whether it was all worth it.

It honestly breaks my heart to think about how happy Dorian must’ve been to return South, and just how violently that joy was ripped from him, by just one letter.

How it must’ve felt like coming home, how excited he must’ve been to see the man he loves again (after all, “letters are a poor substitute for your company”), and then, just like that… the promise of a moment of peace and quiet, of rest, is torn right from his hands. The responsibility he didn’t even know he still had is thrust upon him, without warning.

Suddenly the man he once respected more than anyone else is dead, suddenly he’s no longer just Dorian but Magister Pavus, and he knows he has to go.

He has a platform now, to make his voice heard. People are finally going to have no choice but to listen. All he has to do is to leave all that his heart wants, behind.

Even though there is nothing he would want more than to stay, he has to go. He has to abandon the silly, juvenile fantasies of disgustingly romantic domesticity, about the house on the hill and the smiling townsfolk and the soft clink of wedding bands when they take each other’s hands, and trade them all in for artifice, and treachery, and screaming into ears that might as well be deaf until his throat is raw.

And I’m so proud of him.

It must’ve taken so much resolve, so much courage, and so much fucking integrity to still go, even though giving in to the Temptation, ducking his head under the blanket, and hiding in blessed complacency would have been so much easier. Sacrificing just a little kernel of his self-respect could have bought him a lifetime of peace and quiet and unconditional love, but he still leaves, and he still goes on to change the world for the better.

Because someone has to, and it has to be him.

Someone else might get it wrong.

[takethistoyourstardust]

also while i’m talking abt wwe. it’s so wild to me that the royal rumble is in february? like feb 1st but still that feels SO late for a royal rumble.

[adler-obsessed]

god. Vivienne really is just. that character. She is taken to the circle so young she does not remember what her parents even looked like and someone had to tell her. She wouldn’t even know if they were telling the truth. She is ruthless, the terror and nightmare of the Orlesian court. She almost weeps when you find the Tranquil skulls in Redcliffe. She hates drop waists. She is harrowed younger than any other mage in living memory. She teaches Bull the steps to the dance of the six candles. He likens her to a Qunari dreadnought that has half the enemies on the ground before he’s even reached the front line. Her accent’s not Orlesian. No Free Marcher can tell where she is from either. Is her original voice another part of herself she cut off? She enchanted a duke within one meeting and they scandalised even Orlesian society. She was good friends with his wife. They possibly fucked too. No can control her. She’s been owned since the moment she was first brought to the Circle. She belongs to no people. There are a dozen leashes around her neck claiming otherwise. She makes fun of an elven god for setting his coattails on fire.  She is on the verge of banishing Cole back to the Fade all the time. She can’t help but grow to care for him at the end despite her best efforts to pretend otherwise. She hates herself for it. She thinks caring makes you weak. During the first conversation you have with her unmasked as a Trevelyan, she begs to know if you also cared about her childhood friend, Lydia. She tries to import illegal fur into Skyhold. Did she kill everything soft within her soul herself or did the Chantry sisters do it for her? She is impossible to prank. Some might say she’s even better than Sera at pranking. She was pulled into the game by the time she was nineteen. She’d faced worse things since she could first remember her dreams. Life has never been fair. One merely needs to be hard enough to survive. The blade at her neck when she lay on the floor of the harrowing chamber was no different from the hunger in her belly as child, a necessary pain that only drove her forward. Maker, was there ever any chance that she did not see cruelty as simply another word for life? Is there any version of her that does not end up surrounded by moral filth? 

[rubys-domain]

so this is as far as i'm able to get with my lineup

[dr-dendritic-trees]

This is a very good point I had forgotten about

tortall was really like “yeah we have a box that makes people live out their worst fears. no we have no idea why. we put teenagers in it”