#The Fanatic

[crownsandbishops]

So Shamura, have you heard of the one called the fanatic?

[adairtrashart]

cotltober day 24 other side

if the fanatics hands are wrong i dont know what to tell you someone took down the image of their hand on the wiki and i wasnt going to start a new save file to beat the game a second time so i could get to the part of the game where i could get the ref image myself

[a-driftamongopenstars]

i cannot express how much i hope we can bring the Fanatic and his Scorn to our side in Revenant. I know it's not super likely, but how cool would that be.

i want to see what happens when Crow finds him. i mean come on. Fikrul's turning into Scorn was an act of compassion, twisted by darkness and wish magic. but it was compassion none the less. Uldren and Fikrul were bound by that unspoken pact.

the Fanatic did care about Uldren. i don't think him calling Uldren "father" was any kind of joke.

so I wonder if it can be salvaged. I want to know what kind of attitude Crow would have now, would he be resentful or his compassionate self, seeking out the good in anyone he meets?

anyway i'm chewing this hope like a bone.

[ask-cult-creek]

Fanatic, which is your favorite scar?

"The one on my throat feels very claim-like, I suppose. And I liked the thrill of it. The other one feels silly and playful."

[awokennerd]

My bf and I played a bit of Revenant last night and I was excited to see daddy Fikrul enter the chat. But then I went to see Eido and I absolutely was super duper excited and giddy to see her in game again. My bf was calling me gay cause I wanna go on a date with Eido. I was more excited to see my girl Eido than Fikrul.

But definitely a great line up of characters this season! Fikrul, Crow, Eido, Mithrax, Eramis, and even Variks. I always love the eliksni seasons and adding scorn to the mix makes total sense right now, especially now Fikrul is claiming to be the Kell of Kell. It's a great mix of helping Mithrax with his curse and slaying the scorn to prevent all the eliksni from turning into scorn. I can't wait to play more and read all the new lore.

[inyourbenevolence]

In your benevolence,

hear the Fanatic's prayer for a grey day tomorrow.

Episode 9 of I Need A Miracle is out now. Search podcast apps for I Need A Miracle or visit www.foggyoutline.com/ineedamiracle for more ways to listen.

Starring Caleb Obediah as Frist, the Fanatic

Written by @merelymatt

Directed by Robert Valentine

Recorded at Jukebox Studios

With broadcast assistance from Teresa Milewski

Sound design by Sarah Buchynski

Music by Katharine Seaton

Produced by Sarah Golding for @wirelesstheatreco

Cover art by Dionysis Livanis

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

Forsaken Lightfall

Dread not naught. Be brave.

Look around the sky.

Behold the great | divide, the battle | lines of the cosmic war.

Fikrul is a Fanatic.

Scorned and abandoned.

"This is as far as you go."

"Please. For you, I go… instead. All know… darkness lives here. Death. You are not of Ether. Can't bring… you back."

"All the same."

"Yes, Father. We ever serve and await return."

Fikrul is all who strive to regain strength of self and purpose. He is a survivor. He is the outcast priest of the broken plains, and his sermon is death and all the glory that follows.

"Go. Inspire. And avenge your murdered friends."

The why of what we're doing is as important as the what.

To that end, the Shadow of Earth extended a hand, and into it flew the Shadow's companion-soul, who had spoken not a word for many ages.

The Shadow bade the companion-soul to speak, and the companion-soul obliged:

I looked at the Gardener.

I looked at my hands.

"I love you"

With that, the Shadow's fist closed, and the companion-soul was no more.

I discovered the first knife.

And then there were two.

You've no idea how fortunate you are to be my chosen. You hold the flesh of a god in your hands. You are mere steps away from our salvation. Only Light|Dark, to|get|her, can unlock my way back into your world.

That's it, keep going. FREE ME.

Please, brother. Will you walk through hell for me, one last time?

"Yes."

Good. Then let us finish this.

"Everything I did, I did for her."

You brave,

devoted,

pathetic

fool.

Thank you.

Even paradise is a prison....

when you can't leave.

"The line between Light | Dark is so very thin.

Do you know which side you're on?"

RECORD 0-CHASM-31

Rajesh. When he reached a displacement of eight he told us he was dead. I believed him. He was dead. He spoke to us. It was true. Whatever he saw, it was his own future.

He’s fine, afterwards. When I look into his eyes I wonder what came back wearing his skin. But that thought is unscientific.

We speak of nothing but the device. We talk about it like a demigod. When I get out of here I know the whole world will look like a fraying veil.

I think it’s clear that part of the problem is substrate. We need more than flesh and drug to survive this.

This one's for the minds behind the Deep Stone Crypt. You think just because you made me you can unmake me? Hey, I understand. I were you I wouldn't want people knowing what I did either. Guess you better hope I didn't tell anyone about the crypt. Or about the, uh, what was it? Oh yeah...

Long

Slow

Whisper

Cause if I did, that would be real bad for you, huh?

I may be dead, but I guarantee you ain't heard the last of me.

[wahoo-fish]

Chuncolle Fanatic

[sapphic-scylla]

I usually go on and on about Matt Mercer’s skills about DMing, but I also want to really gush about his voice acting chops.

Yusuke Kitagawa is an amazing example of this. It seems a simple ask for Matt, but somehow, Matt absolutely nails him. Maybe because Matt’s forte is overly dramatic characters, but either way, listening to Matt bring life to his characters, in a sound booth or behind a DM screen, is truly a master class and a true honor to be witness to.

Like, I can’t even count how many of his characters have genuinely enraptured my attention and actively made my jaw drop because of how clearly I can picture and understand his thoughts and motivations and character work.

Matthew Mercer is truly a master of his craft and his golden heart and his deep care for what he does does nothing but continue to deepen my profound and unshakable respect for the man.

[prince--ofnothing]

Can I interest you in a Baron in these trying times?

Anatomy practice with Fikrul, The Fanatic.

[s0ulc1rcu1t]

[crownsandbishops]

Cab characters as TADC cast

( I had a lot of fun with this one, especially adjusting all the designs so nobody looked like they were just a colour swap or just wearing a costume )

[a-driftamongopenstars]

penance; crow & fikrul ficlet;

finally, finally got to write Crow meeting Fikrul. i need this to happen in game asap, by the way! i think Fikrul could totally become our ally! and my friend :D also on ao3

Skimming through countless memories of the Prince of the Reef, Crow is careful to dance about those that came through the Darkness. Sometimes he wonders how many of them are true and how many are a product of elaborate fiction, planted there through the seeds of red flowers of the Black Garden.

And yet, after talking to many people, after reading through dozens of reports, Crow comes to find out nearly none of those were lies. Only somewhat changed through a cracked lens of a sad mind, twisted and upside down, bitter.

Bitter like the Dark Ether.

Crow begins to think of the Fanatic often. Uldren's memories of him are fond. He recalls sitting by his side, talking of their people. A string of understanding woven between them, two misconstrued people, accepted, yet outcasts. Crow remembers the sting of sympathetic tears that spilled against Fikrul's mortal wounds until through wish they closed and sealed and birthed something new.

And it comes as no surprise that Crow finds himself wandering into the space of the Reef, following the trail of corrupted Ether, purposefully searching for a familiar presence within those forsaken rocks. And finding it, alone and hidden, and terribly lonely.

Fikrul walks slowly through a desert plane of one of the broken asteroids. His staff leaves barely a point in the dust, the energy around it crackles.

Crow follows, one tall rock after another, making noise with the soles of his boots by design, until at last the Fanatic turns, raising his staff.

And lowering it just as fast.

"Father?" he croaks deeply. "No, you died."

"And was reborn," Crow says, almost surprised at the regal touch in his voice that has come out all too often lately. "A plunge in the abyss."

Fikrul pauses, consideration in his posture. Crow's memory swims with conversations of faith, of herecy of the Eliksni people, of sermons that Fikrul carried out to the believers. If he could look at Crow through that cracked lens, turned the other way, he would see that a plunge in the abyss may very well lead to a pool of Light.

The Fanatic steps closer. Then again, closer, and Crow moves not. His heart beats madly, less so in fear and more in excitement of a reunion.

Fikrul stops - and slowly bends the knee.

"Father."

Crow leans in and allows himself the impossible - to hug Fikrul, his long lost friend. He doesn't utter another word for a long while, simply simmering in the vivid images of the past long gone. And even though there was cruelty in what Uldren and Fikrul did, there was also a genuine compassion that one had for the other. Standing side by side against the world that wronged them, somehow.

Crow pulls and tugs on the threads of goodness that was of Uldren and weaves them into something new, of his own accord. How strange it is to have control over something with such clarity, that used to drown in obscurity of a bothered mind. Perhaps, it can be a penance on behalf of the Prince.

When Crow lets go, Fikrul walks with purpose again.

Not lonely, not scorned.

[ask-cult-creek]

So, Creek, what’s so great about Branch anyway?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Sidney Blumenthal: DeSantis was paraphrasing a social philosopher on the psychological basis of authoritarian movements. Eric Hoffer was an itinerant longshoreman whose book The True Believer, on the mentality of Naziism and Communism, published in 1951, drew praise from President Dwight Eisenhower in one of his first press conferences. Hoffer described how individuals erased their volition and critical thinking by submerging themselves into movements led by demagogues. “The fanatic,” Hoffer wrote, “is perpetually incomplete and insecure. He cannot generate self-assurance out of his individual resources – out of his rejected self – but finds it only by clinging passionately to whatever support he happens to embrace.” The demagogue appeals to restoring the good old days. “A glorification of the past can serve as a means to belittle the present.” Through propaganda, “people can be made to believe only in what they already ‘know’”. Enemies must be identified as the source of decay. “Finally, it seems, the ideal devil is a foreigner. To qualify as a devil, a domestic enemy must be given a foreign ancestry.” But, Hoffer wrote, it would be a mistake to give too much credence to the ideas of demagogues. “The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.”

Eisenhower, who had led the armies that defeated Hitler, wrote a letter in 1958 warning against authoritarianism. Citing Hoffer, he stated that “dictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems – freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions”. DeSantis, who has attempted and failed to supplant Trump by whipping up hysteria against the menace of “wokeness”, more or less got one of Hoffer’s memorable quotes right. “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” In Georgia, on 14 August 2023, Trump was indicted on 41 felony counts with 18 co-defendants for conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results under the state’s Rico statute – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The problem in applying Hoffer’s aphorism to Trump is that with him it was always a racket.