#adding to the archives for reference and the record

[dalishious]

All About The Antivan Crows

(NOTE: This piece is a revised, 2nd edition of an old one, updated with information that has since been added to the lore. I will be deleting the outdated post to avoid confusion!)

The Antivan Crows, also known as the House of Crows, is a league of assassins from the northeast nation of, as their name suggests, Antiva. While their notoriety is especially high in their home country, the Crows are well-known across Thedas as brutally efficient killers. The bulk of their work is in Antiva, but they accept contracts all over the continent. Because of their reputation for adhering to agreements—something that should one fail to do makes one’s life forfeit as far as the Crows are concerned—they are an expensive but valuable investment.

To find the Crows anywhere from Ferelden to Seheron is not an unlikely sight. Nations at war send them to cut down leaders on opposing sides. Noble houses with grudges against each other send them to cut down family trees. And of course, politicians vying for power send them to cut down their competition. Whatever the reason, the Crows are never short on contracts. They are even willing to intervene in Circle politics.

While assassinations are the most common contract, and what the Crows are most known for, they’re also no strangers to thievery and spying. In Antiva City rests a giant, well-protected archive, housing of all their collected blackmail secrets, records of past contracts, recipes for their own special poisons, and other such valuables. The secrets in this archive are what keeps the Crows ruling Antiva from the shadows by controlling the nobility and merchant princes. That is, those that aren’t among their ranks.

At the very top of the power ladder is a council of Guildmasters made up of the eight most wealthy and powerful Crow Houses. The role of Guildmaster is most typically inherited down through a family, after successfully proving their skill by single-handedly killing a target with nothing but a ceremonial dagger. The Houses that are part of this council are known as Talons, ranked from one to eight, one being the most powerful. Talon has also been used interchangeably with Guildmaster when referring to the leader of one of these eight Houses.

Below the Talons are the lesser Houses, known as the Cuchillos. The Cuchillo leaders not Guildmasters but simply Masters, entitled as Lords, until their House may gain the rank of Talon. The ranks of these different houses can change with circumstance, gaining or losing power. House heads are also capable of taking over different houses by eliminating others, should they dare to be so ambitious. As such, despite being part of a larger organization, the Antivan Crows are always in competition with each other, and are not unknown to assassinate within their own ranks to get what they want.

The current Eight Talons are as followed:

Dellamorte

Balazar

Valisti

Kortez

De Riva

Nero

Cantori

Arainai

Other known Houses are:

Ferragani

D’Evaliste

Di Bastion

Members of the Antivan royal family and merchant prince dynasties routinely join the high-ranks of the Crows, either as a way to boost their social standing, or because they were forced into it. Assassinations are seen as part of everyday politics in Antiva, and how positions of power often change hands. Having strong ties with the Crows brings a noble family both leverage and security. They also have an arrangement referred to as The Azul Contract, in which bastard royal children are given a choice of either exile or joining the Crows – such as the case was with Viago de Riva. In return, the Antivan Crows all but run the nation. Even kings have come directly from the Crows.

While the Crows are mostly led by nobility, the bulk of their organization is made up of their recruits, though the word recruit makes it sound like there was a choice involved. The vast majority of recruits, referred to as compradi, are children between the ages of five and ten, bought as slaves or found on the streets alone. For example, Zevran Arainai was seven years old when he was bought by the Crows. Compradi are usually gathered in scores at a time, though only a few survive to become full-fledged assassins. The Crows keep the children in poor, cramped quarters, and raise them in emotionally detached and torturous conditions, teaching them to know nothing else but murder, as Zevran puts it. They are allowed no personal items, and are encouraged not to make friends. Along with general training and education in Crow ciphers and Crow history, training of recruits includes pitting them against each other, tests of pain resistance and gauntlets, and challenges like locking them in an oubliette for weeks. All this leads most Antivan Crows immune to morality as much as they are to interrogation. It also breeds loyalty to the only life recruits know. Indeed, many Crows would sooner kill themselves than betray the guild.

It is very rare for a recruit to rise all the way to the top of the organization’s tiered leadership, but not unheard of. For example, Teia Cantori, climbed her way to the head of her house – but despite this, she is still regarded as an “overreaching street rat” by her noble peers.

The Crows favour recruiting elves, as they are widely regarded as beautiful and unthreatening; both advantageous impressions for an assassin. However, they take recruits from all races. Assassins are most typically rogues, but the Crows also train warriors and even mages, providing protection for their apostate assassins from the Chantry.

An experienced Assassin may gain the title of Master Assassin with time, putting them just below the leader of their House in terms of rank. Masters are capable of deciding their own contracts, and command groups of Assassins below them. Guildmasters decide which Master Assassins get which contracts based on the amount of the contract’s offer they bid to give to the guild, and their chances of success. Regularly, Assassins are not allowed to bid on contracts, and are instead assigned contracts or roles in larger ones by the Master Assassins that command them. The exception to this is when an Assassin is attempting to gain the rank of Master.

Save for rare exceptions of escape, Crows are Crows for life. The only way to leave them is to make them think you are dead, or find someone willing to protect you from them. Otherwise they will hunt you down and kill you for betraying the guild, and that is the better alternative: Anyone who angers the Crows and lives risks ending up in their own personal prison, the Velabanchel, to spend the rest of their days locked up and tortured.

Antivan Crows are often easily identifiable by those who recognize their unique tattoos – a tradition taken from the Rivaini. Some of these designs are sacred to the Crows, marking them as which house they belong to, while others are purely decorative. While some Crows display their tattoos with pride and intimidation, others prefer to keep them hidden.

-----

SOURCES

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age II

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Codex Entry: Zevran Arainai (Dragon Age II)

Codex entry: Blackfeather Boots (Dragon Age II)

Codex entry: Finesse (Dragon Age II)

Codex Entry: The Crows and Queen Madrigal (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Item Description: Gift of the Talons (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights

Dragon Age: Last Flight

Dragon Age: The Silent Grove

Dragon Age: Deception

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 1

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas vol. 2

Dragon Age Promotional Wiki: Assassin

-----

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[thedeafprophet]

Prophet's Tip For Historical Fashion Reference Finding

Say you're into a Brand New Historical Fandom, or researching something for a project, or even just endlessly curious about what is worn in the past. You set out to look for reference images, type in victorian fashion into a search bar on google and you get...

this.

A wide range of various different fashions, unpinpointed to specific eras, intermingled with AI garbage. Not exactly the most useful, now is it?

Fret not, for I have some advice for how I, Prophet, go about searching for historical references, that may or may not be useful to you. Keep in mind, this is simply some ways i go about it and not a definitive how to, and also that it will be primarily focusing on western fashion for this guide in specific....

Shall we? Tips under the cut if you're so inclined. I will warn you, it is fairly long.

1.Know What You're Looking For

By this I mean, try to know what you want to find from the beginning. There's so much out there in historical fashion, that trying to go into it all at once is like looking for a specific drop of water in the ocean.

Have a specific subject in mind, even if its just "evening dress worn to an 1860s ball" or "green dress from the 1890s" or 'fashion plates from this specific location and era", or even just "evening gowns". Knowing what you want to find before you start looking is imperitive

If you're brand new to historical fashion, you may not know what any of these terms mean. Here, id suggest looking for a basic overview of clothing. Often information can be found by searching "time period" + "location" + "fashion terms". This is where im really gonna suggest starting small - stick to a specific era and place, or its gonna get overwhelming very quickly.

To get you started, Here is a good tumblr post on different types of 1890s dresses, here is victorian fashion terms A ~ M, and this youtube video on "Victorian Fashion Is Not What You Think" + "1920s Fashion Is Not What You Think"

Its also important to keep in mind, as a general rule, the further back you go, the harder it will be to find information. Theres much more retained contents from say, the 1910s then there is for say, the 1700s, simply because of a) what information was put out and b) the difference in the amount of time passing. That isnt to say there isn't an equal amount of information of both, its simply a matter of what records survived and where.

2. Be Specific - Pick A Year, A Style, A Place, etc.

Its all well and good to say you want an evening gown, for example, but just searching 'victorian evening gown' can still lead to a mix of results and costumes

Lets refine our search. Lets look for an evening gown from 1901.

Thats a little more direct now isn't it? How about if we add green.

And there we go! Obviously, we still got that one clearly not what we're looking for at the and there, but as it stands, theres some very lovely looking dress references avaiable for our needs. Adding the term 'fashion plate' can specify us further to fashion plates at the time

These searches also bring us to further websites, which leads me to my next comment

3. Know Where To Look

Using google is all well and good, but quite evidently, still wont always give us the best look through. Especially these days with the rise of unfiltered AI content heavily messing up searches. There are ways to cirumcvent that, but its never been ideal.

There's a most obvious place of where to look: Museums. Obviously going directly to whats on show in places isnt accessible to many, but a lot of museums have online archives of their records availible for purusing. For example, the Victoria and Albert Museum has a very a searchable online catalog.

Here i can search for fashion plates, and then specify a time period. The advice i gave earlier still applies, but searching will be different depending on the site you're using.

I highly recommend looking through what various museums have avaiable online, especially since many will also have written up information on the items you are looking at.

In terms of other places to get you started, heres a link to the page with all of The Mets fashion plates by year.

And while I would normally never recommend Pinterest as a main source for images, here is actually a rare occasion that I would. For one, objects that are this old are generally all public domain anyways, and two, some images are from auctions and private collections, things that were uploaded once and never seen again. Some images on pinterest may only exist there now, with how easy it is for things to be lost. Many people have also taken the time already to comb through old magazines and uploaded images onto there too in collections/pinterest boards.

speaking of magazines...

4. Learn The Names of Historical Brands and Fashion Magazines

Capatalism was not invented yesterday, and those in the past were well on their way to starting things. Magazines and catalogs contained so many various advertisments, especially for that of clothing. Many of those magazines have been uploaded and can be found online to this day! Combing through and being able to find images directly from their sources is incredibly useful!

Examples of titles include The Delineator [American, some catalogs online can be found here and here] , La Mode Illustrée [ French, can be found here tho i do warn the site is in french lol] , La Moda Elegante [Spanish, can be found here and here]

This is just a few, there were many magazines around all with various years and styles. Many also have articles in them which can be a fascinating insight into what was being promoted at the time. [though of course, a warning for period related bigotries and questionable knowledge is always applicable when looking at old texts]

5. Take Your Time

There are a lot of different sources, a lot of different time periods, a lot of different locations and styles. It can be a lot.

Don't go into this expecting to know and have every single thing right away, and don't put pressure on yourself to get it all 100% accurate right away. Take your time, learn what you want to learn, and find what you want to find. Even I, with all my interest in it, am still constantly finding and learning new things.

A collection of references wont be built in one day. Take your time to find the images you like, to comb through sources and approach it in how you want to, and build it up step by step.

6. Don't Be Afraid To Look And Ask Around

I'm sure if you've been around, you'll notice a lot of blogs and pages dedicated to historical fashion. Many people are engaged and interested, and share and catalog their research online.

Look to historical costumers online, from youtube to tumblr and anywhere inbetween! Look at the historical costume blogs and comb through tags and what you want to find! So many people are interested in things, and theres community just in the images.

And if you have questions and want to learn more, don't be afraid to ask! From my experience, people love sharing their interests and sources and everything they've gathered. If you're looking for something specific, chances are, someone else might already know! I know i'm more than happy to share and help when asked ^^

Seriously. I have. a lot of images saved

If you read through this whole thing, I applaud you, and hope some of this information can be of some help! Feel free to ask any questions, and happy fashion hunting!!!

[elysianfieldsarchive]

Hello EF! In case you haven’t heard, it is somehow, inexplicably, 2025. That’s right, we’ve completed another journey around the sun together. And as is apropos at the end of a year and the start of a new one, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished over the last 12 months as a community, as well as all the stuff your mostly benevolent Mods have been doing to improve your overall experience.

We’ll start with what the admin team has accomplished so we can save the best (that’s you guys and your accomplishments) for last.

Over the last year, we:

Added even more gorgeous site skins right out of the gate, increasing the variety of options as well as artist representation on the site

Successfully completed EF’s second mini-event, Monster Mash, and had a ton of fun doing it

Shepherded in the triumphant return of Mystery Month, the third ever, and first following the community-wide vote to trade off years with Drabblemania

Kicked off the year with a new commenting challenge that yielded gorgeous awards

Implemented a much overdue Artist of the Month Award, resulting in 27 members being nominated over the last year, and 13 Artists of the Month having been chosen (counting January 2025)

Rolled out sensitivity reader as a distinct type of beta reader

Introduced a new crediting system so artists, betas, and sensitivity readers are properly acknowledged with each work

Revisited and refined the existing guidance resources for authors and betas, and expanded them to include sensitivity readers

Added warnings to help members better curate their fanwork experience

Cleaned up our categories to minimize confusion

Resolved the email issues that remained from 2023’s server migration

Vastly improved the site’s previous stance on constructive criticism

Implemented member-driven initiatives in community spaces, such as Spotlight Saturday on our Discord server, in which members can recommend the works that mean a lot to them but do not or have not historically received as much attention as other works. Each work can only be recommended once and is compiled into a spreadsheet for reference. This is in addition to thematic watch parties and recreational game nights, which we hope to increase over the coming year.

The Mod team keeps busy behind the scenes discussing and implementing ideas to improve the member experience. There are a lot of initiatives still in the works, so look for those in the months to come. And as always, if YOU have ideas regarding how we can improve member experience, don’t hesitate to drop them in the Suggestion Box. We are always open to hearing your thoughts, ideas, and feedback regarding how Elysian Fields can continue to improve.

And all of these accomplishments were made in conjunction with our annual site events. We’ve already mentioned the Monster Mash Mini-Event and Mystery Month in July, but other events included Challenge Month in April, the Betrayal Challenge in October for EF’s 18th anniversary, and our fifth Secret Santa Exchange. That is in addition to all the other new works added or cross-posted from other archives over the course of the year. We crunched the numbers, and 2024 was the second largest year in terms of new fanworks posted on Elysian Fields in the last five years. The only year that beat it was 2023 (most likely courtesy of Drabblemania). It is also the second year in recorded site history that exceeded 10M words in terms of new words added. The only other year to do this was a bona fide pandemic year, meaning we were all confined to the indoors in ways we haven’t been since 2022 or so. Let that sink in.

Now that it has, did you hear that zipper being lowered? You should have, because we SMASHED 2024.

In the fifth year of recognizing the milestone of Completed Works, 119 creators completed a total of 450 works.

All creators who completed a work of any length (one-shots count!) in 2024 have been issued this award:

Also in its fifth year is the Event Complete Award (formerly the Challenge Complete Award). This was awarded to site members who during the most recent calendar year completed works submitted for the April Challenge, Mystery Month, or October Anniversary Event site event for all years through 2024. Our events generate many great contributions to the archive, and this award seeks to recognize those creators who not only start a new work for a community event but also finish it. As such, single-chapter or single-day events do not qualify (so no Monster Mash or Secret Santa).

And speaking of Secret Santa, we have some numbers to share.

We had 41 event contributions, which during the posting window garnered 918 likes and 456 comments, and for the first time, we welcomed commenters, artists, and beta and sensitivity readers to participate. That resulted in 27 artists and 28 beta and sensitivity readers helping to make the Santa works sparkle, and 47commenters completed the commenting challenge. All participants who completed their works, as well as commenters, artists, and betas, should now have their awards on their profile.

P.S. If you haven't read the fics or oohed at the art yet, you can find them all on the Secret Santa event page, which is also accessible by going to Browse >> Events >> 2024 Secret Santa from the site menu.

In 2024, we added:

10,320,149 words

566 stories

3,208 chapters

1,956 new members

99,718 new likes

39,923 new comments to the archive (comprising 2,175,381 words)

We also have issued awards to our most prolific members. These are chosen by the numbers.

Top 10 Commenters

violettathepiratequeen (156,694 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Commenter Award 2024)

Nightcandle (155,089 words)

magnus374 (147,248 words)

pfeifferpack (133,844 words)

swonderful (128,797 words)

All4Spike (118,334 words)

Green (98,452 words)

acekoomboom (71,023 words)

werehorse (56,350 words)

bmerb (56,037 words)

Our most prolific commenter for 2024 was @violettathepiratequeen!

Top 10 Authors

Ragini (1,022,197 words)* (Recipient of Most Prolific Author Award 2024)

Maxine Eden (611,744 words)

CheekyKitten (500,901 words)

Passion4Spike (493,995 words)

In Mortal (414,608 words)

Spikelover4ever (361,728 words)

Melme1325 (330,544 words)

Holly (274,667 words)

honeygirl51885 (255,098 words)

scratchmeout (250,047 words)

Our most prolific author for 2024 was Ragini!

We also ran the numbers and issued the very first pretties for our Commenting Star and Commenting Superstar Awards!

As a recap:

The Star Award goes to any member who makes the All Stars Commenter list 6 months out of the year by leaving at least 15 comments, each of at least 5 words

The Superstar Award goes to any member who makes the All Stars Commenter list each month out of the year

In 2024, 49 members received the Star Award, and 24 members received the Superstar Award. So if you were an All-Star Commenter 6-12 months out of the year, check your awards because one (at least 6 months) or both (12 months) of these babies should be there.

We love how this incentivized comments for our fanworks, and are pleased to announce the return of this award in 2025. Details (and pretty artwork) forthcoming. So if you want this award in 2025, start commenting!

If you are missing an award you should have received, please reach out to us (elysianfieldsarchive@gmail.com) and we’ll verify and get that corrected.

Friends, we had an amazing year. None of this would be possible without you. Thank you so much for everything you give to the community. We’re so excited to see what 2025 brings—both the stuff we know is coming, and the stuff that will take us by surprise.

[uglypastels]

Corroded Coffin, Corrosion (1988)

Corrosion is the debut release of heavy rock band Corroded Coffin. Taking influence from Black Sabbath, Metallica and Judas Priest, this up-and-coming act throws heavy punches with their instrumental skills.

"We write of what we know," explained band lead guitarist, Eddie Munson, "and what we know is that the world is fucked, unjust and terrible to anyone that doesn't fit the narrow mould that society's created. We grew up in a place that would have rather seen us dead than achieve anything."

With tracks like "Don't Panic", "Delight in Me" and "Circus of the Damned", the band expresses their critique in a not-at-all subtle manner on the ideals and expectations of upper-class suburbia. Their lyrics cut deep into the trauma of being unwanted in your own community and what seems to be a national prosecution of social outsiders.

"Freaks," Munson clarified, "that's what they call you, and once that label sticks, you're stuck with it for life. At first, you don't take it personally; try to wear it with pride, but that shit just slowly eats away at you from the inside. You just have to live your life everyday knowing everyone around you is waiting for you to become the monster they already think you are."

The record, however, showcases both sides of the coin, along with the struggles, and there are plenty of references to what brought the band members together as a group. It is the problem as well as the solution. The songs hit you with the deep, unnerving truth but give you the getaway to escape from it right after.

"For us it was games. Video games as well as tabletop. People called us satanists because we played games with dice instead of balls. Make that make sense."

The album is as tragic as it is energetic and lively. Although the band members have yet to perfect their sound, they know what they are doing and possess the potential to gain a seat amongst the artists that inspired them in the first place—and this status might come sooner than we think.

Their single, "Silverlined Black Cat" has topped the Rock charts since its release at the beginning of this year, with the entirety of the album following it's lead just as well. The band announced their debut nation-wide tour dates earlier this month and all shows are already being close to sold out, with additional dates being added to the schedule any time now.

With the undeniable critical and commercial success, it is easy to say, that '88 will be, without a doubt, Corroded Coffin's year.

- the Corroded Coffin Archive (Source: The Rolling Stone)

[alirhian]

Archive spirits made me think about elves and the nature of paths. I don't like that Nadas Dirthalen speaks like virtual assistant; the devs wanted sci-fi so badly that they couldn't resist adding AI. But I think they tried to make it lore-wise with "pathways", although I still think the fact that every Evanuris had it is pointless.

At first I thought it was like the archivists in Vir Dirthara from Trespasser, but Nadas Dirthalen is different, and Bellara said they weren't really spirits. Bellara said about archives:

They have, well… not thoughts like us. But sort of… pathways, I guess. They can only respond to specific questions. Worded in specific way.

The archivists in Trespasser, who didn't turn into Librarians, welcomely shared knowledge unlike that rude dirtbag.

Vir - path, way. Paths as origins of philosophy are reflected in the Dalish culture. The most famous is the path of Andruil, followed by the Dalish hunters, Vir Tanadhal, the Way of the Three Trees, which, as the name implies, is divided into three parts - three paths - Vir Assan, Vir Bor'Assan, Vir Adahlen. Another path is Sylaise’s Vir Atish'an, the Way of Peace. An interesting Vir Banal'ras, the Way of Shadow, which is followed by elves for revenge. Perhaps it has something to do with Mythal, since we find armor describing this path in her temple. It may be the path that some of Mythal's worshippers were following after she was killed. Vir'abelasan, the path of the Well of Sorrows. Servants of Mythal used to store the knowledge by transferring their memories into it. The paths contain collective knowledge of the elves in the form of memories.

Apparently the paths are sort of ether, or energy, or substance of the Fade. Most likely it's the basis of the nature of spirits, whose bodies are formed from ether, to absorb information and memories.

Vir Dirthara, the Shattered Library of all knowledge of Elvhenan. It can be translated as the Way of learning/seeking truth (knowledge/secrets). It was the creation of material world (world that wakes) and Fade. Vir Dirthara preserved the memories of elves and connected paths of the Elvhenan.

This is the Vir Dirthara. The living knowledge of the empire. The libraries of every city. The wisdom of every court. A connecting place whose paths are in disarray.

The archivists, Ghil-Dirthalen, were spirits of knowledge that absorbed and preserved that knowledge. Spirits are creatures of the Fade, so they were connecting elements.

“Ghil-Dirthalen” was what the elvhen called me. “One who guides seekers of knowledge true.” I was connection. One city could read the records of another, one elvhen feel the memories of another.

I believe Vir Dirthara was created by Dirthamen. The legends of Dirthamen and Falon'din include the paths and travels into the Fade. They guided elves to the uthenera to seek knowledge in dreams (and then dead elves to the Fade through the Veil), and Dirthamen advised them. Indeed, Dirthamen often shared his wisdom with elves, especially those of his favorite city, and perhaps this legend is also an allusion to Vir Dirthara, the connecting place of world that wakes and world that dreams where knowledge from across the empire was kept and shared with elves.

After the creation of the Veil, the paths were damaged and diminished, as the archivists and Tevinter texts said ("The paths ahead are lost in darkness, and those who walk them find only ruin" in Razikale's Reach). Some nexuses, reservoirs of memories of the ancient elves, remained. One of them is the Well of Sorrows.

It is possible – even likely – that the “emerald waters” Andraste refers to are the substance of the Fade, which began as an “ocean of dreams” (Threnodies 1:1) and was reduced to a well-bottomless but limited in scope-by the Maker's creation of our world

Even though the elves are former spirits, and the paths willingly embraces them, unlike other races, the elves, having taken mortal form, lost the ability to travel the paths, so they used a network of eluvians to organize the connection between them. The Well of Sorrows had eluvian that Corypheus was going to use to go into the Fade. Flemeth likely brought her memories into such a nexus through eluvian for Morrigan (makes more sense than Morrigan with Mythal's soul, actually). Morrigan said that the Crossroads were closed when a war between Evanuris began, which means that elves couldn't use the paths without them. It also wouldn't be surprising if blood magic, which weakens the connection to the Fade, made it worse. I think this is reflected in the legend of Dirthamen, who most likely started seeing the paths grey as non-elves because of blood magic. "Dirthamen tried to follow them, but the shifting grey paths beyond the Veil would not let him." "Shifting paths" that would not let him to follow could refer either to the paths without (before) eluvians or the consequences of using blood magic.

Moreover, by regaining their spirit form, the Forbidden Ones could be able to reach the paths without eluvians.

For abandoning the People in their time of greatest need, for casting aside form to flee to where the Earth could not reach, we declare Xebenkeck and others of her ilk exiled from the lands of the Evanuris. Beware! Their familiarity with shape allows them to travel paths unaided.

[demonicnarwhale]

Carapaces!!!!

RC / Raptorial Clerk: RC is one of the archivist on Prospit who deals with mainly Prospit's history and keeping things neat and tidy (just in case if it's needed then carapaces can go to him and retrieve that information) there's other archivists for different sections of society like political, economical, etc. When Midnight City happens / fall of the kingdoms he ends up being a librarian teehee

his origins: and due to his specialties being historical archiving, he's in the same department or area as HK and the two are actually hatch friends!!! YAYYYYY!!!! (they are both smiling)

HN / Harbinger Newel: Newel is just the sort of look the outpost tower he's situated at looks like as seen in the small doodle. He just blows his clarinet looking instrument (i giggle since he choses to play the actual clarinet in CMS) when there's some arrival. There's a certain tune he plays depending on what it is. Enemies/Derse army or Prospit army / workers.

WN / Willowy Notary: She's basically some note taker for court records and such. The cloth covering her eyes is a form of "judgement solely based on the case itself" rather than having any bias (that and I wanna continue her lil "no eyes can be seen" thing going on :D. So like she sits in the court room (grinning so wide when i get to share their architecture and infrastructure) and notates what happens and is being said so that if the case needs to be continued/looked at later to come up with the "right" decision they have a reference. Or if there's important documents being signed and such, she's a witness. (like whatever actual notaries do)

MG / Monoceros Goliath: I thought I was gonna be so smart with the first word, tried searching up for a word to describe a horned animal or synonyms for rhinos (cuz haha helmet rhino beetle) but i got no answer(s) and the ones I did related mainly to constellations. Monoceros mainly just being some Greek word for a legendary animal with a horn so like a unicorn. Weeps guys I'm not cut out for elaborate names.

Also she's (so far) a pawn mainly or somewhere near being a rook but not quite there hence being goliath as she's pretty strong/big for a pawn yay. oh yes and she's well aware of innocent lives (aka farmers or pawns that aren't in either army) and so she'll send out a warning or make it known so said carapaces can evacuate/gtfo (both for Prospit and Derse). Like she wants to make it fair and also avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Or something like that cuz overthinking on it makes me think it sounds silly and odd.

Her armor does have some little pearl-like beads cuz why not :) and- and- and it's supposed to be like constellations with the metal engravings (that im too simple minded to give detail to)

Tallest soldier i have and the shortest (also! I had realized that Dynastinae is, THE SCIENTIFIC NAME FOR RHINO BEETLES OAUGRHAUGHRA clawing at my under eyelids (ive realized this while typing this all out <3) so it's either she's MG or DG

SH / Splendorous Headhunter: Basically she goes out and recruits or finds Dersites (who don't already have a job) some role in society that benefits both the community and themselves. Like she's not just going to randomly assign them jobs but try to understand the individual and go suggest jobs. Cuz like, there's of course other Dersites in this similar role (as her) that don't care. But to SH she thinks of it like "why would I make someone miserable, it makes no sense to force someone to do a job they dislike cuz work won't get done at an efficient rate" that and so there's no strikes-

CC / Canorous Clergyman: just listen to this: (and Powerwolf in general please guys oaughh I fucking love this band so so so so so so much)

Midnight Madona teehe i love Powerwolf so much oaugh my goodness (so much so i would've done gone gatekeep em but then i realized. that's corny. and this sorta genre??? is corny on its own in the best way possible, to me :)). but yes im just adding this here because i kept listening to it when drawing this mf

Midnight Madona (Orchestral Version) also the orchestral version fucking ROCKS (and all the other songs they do orchestral versions of) and is what I like to imagine Derse's choir would sound like (the tone or feeling more than the words teehee and of course not with a big ass orchestra track behind ok you know what I MEAN) like do to around the same time stamp as the version above gehehee

I also already kinda explained his whole deal in a previous post. here be CC. But basically, he's more of a figure for individuals to look to either for help or a sense of "oh so this is what we should be doing for our society". So yeah, he's like, the royal family lol, no real political power as he's a lower status bishop. Like, he's a Bishop for the individuals, to ensure they fall in line and yadda yadda support the community and all. Kinda like, a pastor lol

KH / Kinetoscopic Hallucinator: Due to Derse being, ya know, Derse, connections with these fuckassers (horrorterrors) is prone to happen. As we've seen with players and even Feferi having gigglybob and yay yadda Derse Void dreamers yadda. Basically he gets to listen to all the wonderful stories of the past these eldritch beings share with him. Whereas Prospit gets those lil clouds from Skaia to hint at the future. So, he takes the words and stories from horrorterrors as signs of "precautions" or warnings of what may happen in the future. A sort of doomsday gig going on.

Teehe. He still gets to deal with trying to predict Derse's future but that's a bit hard on him so he turns to memorializing Derse's past, and the Horrorterrors give him information that can precede Derse or even what was missed from its history. But it's mainly just them messing with him going "oooh Derse is doomed in the foreseen future! OoooOoooh" and he goes "aight bet" then boom red miles upon ye. Oh and the kinetoscopic thing is just the fact he has his own lil kinetoscope where he enjoys (the process not the actual fact he needs to listen to them) trying to figure out what the Horrorterrors tell him and depicts it as short stories and then draws frames for a lil animation. He just replays them only to get a sense of dread lol. Later on just outcasts himself in his tower to deal with the horrorbobs instead of looking like a loon in front of everyone, possibly to Derse's moon because ahA obvious motifs! of like, the horrorbobs keeping him chained down and yeahhh

It's basically the medium or locations for Sburb/Sgrub but at the moment I'm more focused on Carapace + etc instead of trolls and humans. I ain't no physic astronomer or something so I'll go back and change things up if it's needed but like, I can bs some stuff right??? yeaaahhhhh.

The idea is like I know it's made for the game but what if no game??? It still very much takes after the set up for the medium with Sgrub but woe upon yet.

The locations of Prospit and Derse is why HK (Historiographic Knitter) and KH (Kinetoscopic Hallucinator) are able to look into the future/past. Due to the locations of their respected planets

HK being on Prospit can receive snippets of the future but it's all randomized so it's like she needs to put it all together, or just write down what she sees. She uses these to make stories or piece them together then create textiles for them along with the stories recorded of the past

KH being on Derse, yeah you read his gig.

Skaia: Trying to deal with what the point of Skaia is for both sides. I think I'll go with it's just been so embedded in both societies to either protect or destroy it that carapaces at this point just need to continue what their ancestors had fought for. Honestly, I'm just going to go with Jack Noir doing his red miles thing and destroying Prospit and Derse then killing (almost) all soldiers and the Kings on the battlefield leaving Skaia dormant. (But then whYYyy would he do that in this context)

Midlay: Basically this version's planet of where exiles go and where Midnight City will soon be made.

The Veil: just asteroids to make traveling to and from Prospit and Derse to be dangerous-ish so it's not like carapaces can just go to the opposing planet and cause chaos. If it's really needed then there's only a handful of carapaces suited for that job.

Dream Bubbles: I know it's thanks to Feferi that they're a thing, so they're not a part of this actual universe, BUT I thought they were just cool to include where I think they'd go.

Green Sun: hi Doc Scratch

In terms of like biology/features of carapaces:

I'm going with Carapaces either being like RC where they got them bug-wuggy/crusty marine life features or like HK with a more chess-come-to-life sort of look, thinking it might just be from the cloning? or however these freaks are made getting fucked over with the system or something, just cuz it could be like "oh it derives from chess pieces but also some bug-crustaceans-alien thing" and sometimes the bug-crustacean just wins. It's totally not so I can shit and giggle with other designs and stuff, what??? no. And then of course carapces can have spawn of their own, but lay eggs yadda yadda and so some of these features can get passed down and such. It's just cloning is used in both kingdoms to ensure there's a steady flow of carapaces to work on the planets or get thrown into battle and yeah.

NOTE AS OF NOW: I just copied and pasted information i had saved on them all and so I will most likely go back and fix things up, or make a new post if it's anything major like "Oh I'm changing this character up" but yeAH

[mariacallous]

On ThursdaY, Reuters published a photo depicting then-United States national security adviser Mike Waltz checking his phone during a cabinet meeting held by President Trump in the White House. If you enlarge the portion of the image that captures Waltz’s screen, it seems to show him using the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal. But if you look more closely, a notification on the screen refers to the app as “TM SGNL.” During a White House cabinet meeting on Wednesday, then, Waltz was apparently using an Israeli-made app called TeleMessage Signal to message with people who appear to be top US officials, including JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and Tulsi Gabbard.

After senior Trump administration cabinet members used vanishing Signal messages to coordinate March military strikes in Yemen—and accidentally included the editor in chief of The Atlantic in the group chat—the “SignalGate” scandal highlighted concerning breaches of traditional government “operational security” protocol as well as compliance issues with federal records-retention laws. At the center of the debacle was Waltz, who was ousted by Trump as US national security adviser on Thursday. Waltz created the “Houthi PC Small Group” chat and was the member who added top Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. "I take full responsibility. I built the group," Waltz told Fox News in late March. "We've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened," he added at the time.

SignalGate had nothing to do with Signal. The app was functioning normally and was simply being used at an inappropriate time for an incredibly sensitive discussion that should have been carried out on special-purpose, hardened federal devices and software platforms. If you're going to flout the protocols, though, Signal is (relatively speaking) a good place to do it, because the app is designed so only the senders and receivers of messages in a group chat can read them. And the app is built to collect as little information as possible about its users and their associates. This means that if US government officials were chatting on the app, spies or malicious hackers could only access their communications by directly compromising participants' devices—a challenge that is potentially surmountable but at least limits possible access points. Using an app like TeleMessage Signal, though, presumably in an attempt to comply with data retention requirements, opens up numerous other paths for adversaries to access messages.

"I don't even know where to start with this," says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and vice president of research and development at Hunter Strategy. “It's mind-blowing that the federal government is using Israeli tech to route extremely sensitive data for archival purposes. You just know that someone is grabbing a copy of that data. Even if TeleMessage isn't willingly giving it up, they have just become one of the biggest nation-state targets out there.”

TeleMessage was founded in Israel in 1999 by former Israel Defense Forces technologists and run out of the country until it was acquired last year by the US-based digital communications archiving company Smarsh. The service creates duplicates of communication apps that are outfitted with a “mobile archiver” tool to record and store messages sent through the app.

“Capture, archive and monitor mobile communication: SMS, MMS, Voice Calls, WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram & Signal,” TeleMessage says on its website. For Signal it adds, “Record and capture Signal calls, texts, multimedia and files on corporate-issued and employee BYOD phones.” (BYOD stands for bring your own device.) In other words, there are TeleMessage versions of Signal for essentially any mainstream consumer device. The company says that using TeleMessage Signal, users can “Maintain all Signal app features and functionality as well as the Signal encryption,” adding that the app provides “End-to-End encryption from the mobile phone through to the corporate archive.” The existence of “the corporate archive,” though, undermines the privacy and security of the end-to-end encryption scheme.

TeleMessage apps are not approved for use under the US government's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program or FedRAMP. TeleMessage and Smarsh did not immediately return requests for comment about whether their products are used by the US federal government and in what capacity.

"As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones,” White House press secretary Anna Kelly tells WIRED. She did not answer questions about whether the White House approves of federal officials using TeleMessage Signal—which is a different app from Signal—or whether other officials aside from Waltz have used the app or currently use it.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency does not create policy around federal technology use but does release public guidance. When asked about Waltz’s apparent use of TeleMessage Signal, CISA simply referred WIRED to its best-practices guide for mobile communications. The document specifically advises, “When selecting an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, evaluate the extent to which the app and associated services collect and store metadata.”

It is not clear when Waltz started using TeleMessage Signal and whether he was already using it during SignalGate or started using it afterward in response to criticisms that turning on Signal's disappearing messages feature is in conflict with federal data-retention laws.

“I have no doubt the leadership of the US national security apparatus ran this software through a full information-assurance process to ensure there was no information leakage to foreign nations,” says Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matt Green. “Because if they didn’t, we are screwed.”

[finisnihil]

Hey guys so a while back I went insane and made a list of things we know about Luocha and the coffin entity that took an hour of scrounging every second of screen time and references to his person

These lists were made as of 2.1.

So what we know about the Coffin Entity TM:

•Is being delivered to the Xianzhou despite the fact nobody on the Xianzhou stores their dead the way this person is stored. Also, Lucoha hasn’t “delivered” it yet he still is carting it around despite being on the Xianzhou. It also seems whoever he’s delivering it to is of the Ten Lords Commission and he's aiming to go to the Xianzhou Xuling with it

•They met only once and it was during some sort of conflict Luocha became involved in

•The coffin is being delivered on somebody else’s behalf, possibly the deceased’s or another third party's

•The coffin entity is not considered a friend, lover, or relative

•Luocha proposed a deal of some kind that he’s still waiting to see the entity uphold

•The entity isn’t quite dead as it is temperamental and jabs Luocha with thorny vines when he upsets it. The coffin also has an emphasis on being silent as though whatever is in it can talk back and chooses not to

•Luocha considers their relationship a business one

•Luocha says he and the entity underestimated each other, particularly when Luocha proposed the deal

•He states he and the entity both wanted to use each other

And now, what we know about Luocha:

•He’s a wandering merchant who is registered with the IPC and the Xianzhou Yuque

•He seems to come from an aristocratic or wealthy background based on his clothes and speech and sword (An Épée which is used in fencing, a sport typically practiced by European royalty and the upper class since the 14th Century as that’s when the oldest fencing records seem to hail from)

•Adding to that the symbols of his broaches and rosary is the Fleur-de-lis, based on the shape of a lily and is seen as a symbol of purity; it has strong ties to France, aristocracy, and Catholicism

•He’s considered an Abomination of the Abundance and he confirms his power stems from Yaoshi

•He has no home according to him

•He can heal both organic and inorganic life forms

•He’s looking into immortality of some kind which is interesting because he also seems to have a negative view of immortality and even notes Mara-struck being used as "sacrifices to the Abundance". He also says yearning for immortality as a short-life species is normal and to avoid doing so would be like killing an Aeon.

•He wants to kill Yaoshi

•He’s working with Jingliu to kill Yaoshi and I think Jingliu is the “other business” he had to attend to

•He isn’t the one who snuck on the Stellaron despite turning himself in for doing so. He says he delivered it without knowing its significance but once again he can sense Stellarons so that doesn't hold much water

•He doesn’t know VA (Void Archives)

•He’s wary of Jing Yuan and tries to avoid to being watched by him

•He “changes his mask” so to speak to fit in different situations which matches the fact he goes by the alias Luocha when on the Xianzhou

•His clothes are that of his home world and he wears them “to remind him of the path he must keep treading”

•On his home planet he was involved with a church/church-based society

•His city was destroyed and he was perhaps the only survivor? Possibly related to the Knight of Purity Palace set?

•Many Xianzhou natives say he works and speaks like an older Xianzhou native

•He has a very similar design as Yaoshi

•Before he arrived on the Xianzhou he had a diviner tell him “not to be concerned with the destination, but to seize [his] chances and travel with the current to reap the greatest harvest”

•Luocha is an alias, not his real name, and he only goes by Luocha on the Xianzhou. His real name is noted to be a "tongue-twister" by himself and Jing Yuan

•He’s always wanted to visit the Herta Space Station

•According to Jing Yuan, he "isn't in any hurry to conduct business" and in Jingliu's quest he says Luocha didn't conduct any trade during his stay and his departure lined up with the calamities taking place

•He doesn't like seeing flowers wither but does later note "maybe it's not so bad after all"

•Jingliu says he's "just like her" in that he has a "hole" in his heart that no matter what he does he cannot fill it and just exhausts himself in the effort to do so

•He sells "uncommon trinkets"

•He considers friendship precious

•He typically doesn't get eye bags from staying up

•He's renting a like AirBNB type residence to stay in instead of the Petrichor Inn where he normally stays. He notes it "helps him forget his identity as a traveling merchant"

•One of his hobbies is observing and experiencing the Xianzhou natives' way of life

•He considers himself not great at opening conversations

•He seems to like wine as he left us some when he departed from the Express

•The flower that is his motif is a actually a white iris, which represents innocence and purity and are often used at weddings or as sympathy flowers at funerals. A lot of fanon stuff will depict him with white lilies though, which represent rebirth and purity!

•Jing Yuan admitted he outsmarted him (in his own roundabout ways)

•Luocha has a weird motif in his related achievements of dancing (Coffin Dancer and Wardance: Épée Trial)

•He broke into the Shackling Prison but seemingly did nothing. Luocha states that in doing so he found the Luofu didn't have what he was looking for

•Jing Yuan mentions he's infamous for being involved in matters at locations called Eternity Fortress and Shroudveil Starzone which I can't find mention of anywhere, so I don't know these locations

•Dahao tells us that upon being arrested Luocha was charged with identity fraud and smuggling dangerous bio-merchandise among other crimes, which Dahao points out is weird and vague.

•He considers the Cloud Knight's devotion to Lan as making them "closed-minded". He says there's other factions other than those of Lan who want Yaoshi dead and that they must "look to the source for the solution" to severing Yaoshi's curse

•He also has an understanding of traditional medicine and can write prescriptions for people

•He likes to do little kind things for people with no expectation of being recognized or praised for it

•He constantly stresses he's a noncombatant and while he can hold his own in small-scale conflicts he seems to rely on more experienced fighters in more serious ones and this is reflected in his sword which is an Épée, a kind of heavy fencing sword

•He’s interested in and holds a great deal of respect for Elias Salas which is interesting because Elias Salas is notable for not wanting to extend his lifespan despite being able to and died at 103

I probably missed some stuff but I scrounged all this from lightcones, voice lines, character stories, relic backstories, quests, messages, trailers, etc. If I missed anything let me know! Some of these are obviously more relevant than others but if I missed anything let me know and I'll add it to the list!

I wish I could add the screenshots of where I got everything but posts have picture limits so if anyone's curious where I found certain information feel free to ask and I'll reply with where I found it.

Have a great day, mwah!

[awardenandacrow]

Hello! This blog is by Tabitha “Purrmage” Cummings. I’m a traditional mixed media fantasy character artists based in Connecticut, USA. This blog is for me to post my art, screenshots/recordings, and fanfic snippets (and maybe eventually an actual full length fanfic? 👀👀) relating to my first Dragon Age: The Veilguard playthrough with my Grey Warden Rook, Naimeryn “Naimy” Thorne, with whom I’m completely obsessed. She’s romancing Lucanis Dellamorte! This blog WILL feature spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, if you haven’t played it/if you make different decisions. I’m mostly making this because I started posting snippets to Threads, but Threads doesn’t actually organize it’s… threads… very well and people were having trouble reading. I hope this will alleviate that issue!

PLEASE NOTE: I write down fanfic snippets as they come to me, and so they aren’t in chronological order as far as the game is concerned. Additionally, I have not actually finished my first playthrough of Veilguard yet, so there may be edits later to account for things I’m misremembering/things that don’t actually make sense with the actual game, etc etc. this is not an AU, this basically is just my headcanon for how the game went for my Rook, filling in blanks, embellishing scenes to fit her character more, etc.

SPOILER ALERT. If you are not as far into the game as I am/have made different decisions and don’t know what happens if you make the opposite choice, there may be spoilers for you within what I’ve written, drawn, or screenshotted/recorded. Please read at your own discretion.

CONTENT AND/OR TRIGGER WARNINGS: I will try to put any relevant CW/TW information at the introduction of each snippet [I do an introduction to each scene in brackets like this for my own reference, and hopefully it will help readers as well]. I’m not an erotica writer, so if I mark something “mature” it’s likely steamy but not spicy (if I try my hand at spice, I’ll be sure to indicate that, but generally it’s just gonna be steamy. I think that fits the innocence of the relationship between my Rook and Lucanis, anyway, personally). In general, you will likely see mostly a strong language tag, though there is one snippet that very, VERY vaguely hints at SA (it’s intended to be implied, but nothing explicit is said). I hope this will help everyone read and enjoy comfortably!

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Taash’s story arch in the game included them coming out as non-binary. However, before they come out to Rook, they use she/her pronouns. I write in third person, from my Rook, Naimeryn’s, point of view, so the reader only knows what Naimeryn knows, and so, just as in the game, before Taash comes out, she/her pronouns will be used, and then they/them pronouns will be used once Naimeryn is aware that Taash is non-binary. I will also include this disclaimer before any snippets in which Taash is referred to by she/her pronouns.

ABOUT NAIMERYN

NAIMERYN’S RELATIONSHIPS

NAIMERYN FUN FACTS

SCREENSHOTS

FANFIC SNIPPET MASTER POST

LINK TO FANFIC AS PUBLISHED ON AO3

[thepmmmwitchproject]

An Irk about Witch Types

Gonna be ranting about something that most wouldn't really care about but bugs me. Unfitting witch types. When it comes to all witches, they have a witch type. Gertrud is the rose garden witch, Charlotte is the sweets, Oktavia is the mermaid witch, and when you look at their designs, you can tell why. Though, there has been some recent designs in the last few years that don't fit into this. Here's what I think are the biggest offenders and how I'd do them.

Paola, in-canon, is the witch of rubber. While yes, it makes sense, buoys are typically made of rubber and all, it's a rather broad term for it. I'd personally make Paola the witch of flotation which is much more direct.

Frederica, the witch of Mitsuru Inami, is the witch of compound eyes. While Frederica is an entity completely made of eyes compounded together, the term compound eyes is typically however used to refer to the eyes of insects such as flies.

I'd personally make Frederica, the saccade witch, a saccade being "a small rapid jerky movement of the eye especially as it jumps from fixation on one point to another" which is what Frederica does in its attack as a Doppel.

I know it's a rather odd thing to make it the witch of... but I mean, we have a witch of curtain rails.

Blot, the witch of Gunhild, is known as the shipwreck witch. However, the witch features no sorts of capsized ship or ship in general in its design. Rather, it resembles a beast that would wreck said ships. A more fitting type would be the kraken witch, based on upon the infamous sea monsters from Norse legend.

Carmen, the witch of Tsubaki Mikoto, is the shrine gate witch. While its clear on why its form is a shrine gate in the doppel... however, in the actual witch--

No shrine gate is featured in its design at all. I would personally assign it as the shinboku witch, a shinboku being a sacred tree worshipped on shrine grounds, still befitting with the Japanese shrine theme.

An infamous witch that only had its name revealed recently, Asiphae. Asiphae is the bovine witch. Unlike the others, the witch type isn't as unfitting and is just a personal frustration for me. Since the ax itself is the actual witch and not the minotaur... shouldn't it rather be the ax witch instead?

The last one I will cover is Martina, one of only two Doppel Syndrome Doppels added to Magia Record. Just like with Asiphae's name, the latest Magia Archive revealed that Martina is the balloon witch. ... Couldn't they have gone with some kind of coat witch for it? Because I feel like a balloon witch would... go in the direction helium-filled rubber kind? This one really annoys me the most. It could just be a mistranslation however, it's still not certain.

Now there's still a few more minor cases when it comes to these, but I feel like they're not enough of bothers to bring up. However, to comment if you have any that really bug you when it comes to the hyper-specific issue of witch types!

[vintagelasvegas]

Travelers Motel, 1100 Fremont St. Postcard, c. 1936

Travelers “Auto Court” opened in 1936. The city commissioners granted permission for a sign on 10/6/36. Actress Sara Haden, Clarence Finney, and Chester Carter were the property owners. Finney and Carter sold their stock to Haden in '37, with Finney remained as on-site property manager.

Clark County Assessor records indicate the motel was built in '26. If this date is accurate, it might refer specifically to the west wing, made of concrete block, as opposed to the east wing of wood frame construction. (More notes on this below.)

Sara Haden sold Travelers to R. M. Dockins in ’47. Dockins also acquired a new, adjacent motel on North 11st St built by Cleveland Schultz, which became Travelers Annex. The rear units of Travelers were demolished, creating a driveway from the main motel to the annex.

A new motel sign was added to the property no later than '62 – it's first seen in a film shot circa '61/62.

In '69 owner Charles Seifert (Charton Corp.) changed the front of the motel, adding a porte-cochére, and a gateway sign by Larsen Electric. In the 70s, owner Ted Candalino added a swimming pool to the motel in the courtyard of the annex, and in '79 the buildings were re-roofed. VMK Corp. acquired the property in '83. The corporation received a notice from the City ordering them to make repairs due to “substandard” conditions in the mid '80s.

Travelers Motel sold to Downtown Project (DTPLV) in 2013. DTPLV closed and boarded up the motel, and later demolished most of Travelers Annex wing, leaving only a two-story section. The main motel and its sign were repainted in 2020.

A note on the Clark County Assessor date: If the '26 date is accurate, the original wing may have been an apartment building. There were no hotels or auto courts in this area before the rise of tourism on East Fremont that followed the opening of Boulder Hwy in '31. An article appears in the Review-Journal on 8/9/30 referring to an apartment building construction at Fremont & 11st which may or may not be the Travelers property. Alternately, another year is referenced in a blurb about the motel's construction on 10/24/47, saying Clarence Finney assisted in building Travelers motel “13 years ago” ('34). Regardless of the building date, there is no record for "Travelers" prior to '36.

Postcard, circa '49 to early '50s. A sign on the far left points to Traveler's Annex entrance on 11st Street. The inset graphic for "Traveler's Hotel Court" was the design of the rarely-photographed main road sign that stood in front of the motel from '36 through the 50s.

In this damaged photo the signs for Travelers and Lucky motels can be seen on the far left. On Fremont St, Hotel Thunderbird's "Academy Awards of Show Business" float cruises the '54 Helldorado parade. Anita Freeman Photograph Collection on Southern Nevada (PH-00245), UNLV Special Collections.

Postcard c. '50s showing Traveler's Annex on N. 11th St. The single story level was demolished in 2019.

The second sign at Travelers was installed in the early 60s. The porte-cochére and gateway sign were installed in '69. Photos by Jane Kowalewski, 4/13/84. Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas # 0130:0107-0108.

10/20/2013, in the year the motel was closed and fenced. Photo by Joseph Dennis.

The sign in 2013 by J. Dennis, and 2022 by Robert BC. DTPLV commissioned the Las Vegas Mannequins to add the climbing figures to the Travelers and Fergusons motel signs. The motel and sign at Travelers were repainted in 2020.

During the fire at Lucky Motel, Dec. 31, 2024. Photo by D Shot 'Em.

Sources include: Short Stories of Las Vegas Folks. Review-Journal, 8/9/30 p2; Minutes, 5/14/29 to 2/11/37, p469. Las Vegas City Commission Records (MS-00237), UNLV Special Collections & Archives; Vegas Residents Wed in Kingsman. Review-Journal, 2/22/37 p2; Sara Haden Buys Local Auto Court. Review-Journal, 3/16/37 p5; Brigham Townsend. Making the Rounds. Review-Journal, 2/1/47 p1; Cleveland Motel Has New Owner. Review-Journal, 4/17/47 p3; Personals. Review-Journal, 10/24/47 p6; Jane Kowalewski. Clark County Historic Property, Travelers Motel. Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas. Intensive Level Architectural Survey of Motor Court Motels Along Las Vegas Blvd and Fremont Street. North Wind Resource Consulting, Apr. 2020.

This article was originally published 7/31/2018. Updated Jan. 5, 2025.

[archives-of-iacon]

📚 Work in Progress Notification: The Enigma of the Matrix 📚

An article entitled “The Enigma of the Matrix: A Historical and Functional Analysis” is currently in active development within the Archives. This work will examine the political, cultural, and religious significance of the Matrix of Leadership; from its debated origins among the Thirteen to its use as both a divine relic and a legitimizing tool of power in Cybertronian governance.

This ongoing research seeks to compile perspectives from across disciplines, including historical testimony, mythological interpretation, theoretical science, and fragmented government records.

Contributions Welcome:

Scholars and citizens alike are encouraged to offer proofreading, insights, or archival fragments that may enrich this publication. Suggestions may be submitted via the ask box, reply feature, or messaged directly to Acting Head Archivist Elixion. All contributing members may choose to add their name and preferred reference account in the final article's "Acknowledgements" section with direct reference to content added or revised.

Preview Access:

Select excerpts will be made publicly available through the Tumblr branch of the Archives of Iacon for early viewing and feedback. The complete version will be published in full on the Archives’ Fandom platform upon finalization.

Let it be known: the Matrix is not merely an object. It is a lens through which Cybertron has long viewed destiny, identity, and rule. We invite you to help us peer more clearly into its light.

— The Iacon Archives Administration

[spongebob-connoisseur]

Guess what I got! The recording scripts for all of the episodes of Spongebob season 13!! Gang gang

I got it from some guy from YouTube. He said this was leaked on internet archive and Nick tried to scrub it clean off the interwebz. He managed to salvage some and he gave me a link. His account was gone before I had an opportunity to say thank you, so now I have it. I'm sharing it here because idgaf if my account gets taken down lol. But also no one checks tumblr anyways.

I made sure to print out the Slappy Daze recording script because idgaf about the other episodes tbh. I only care about my beloved Peter Lorre fish's day in the limelight <3 I put it in this plastic slip and keep it in a nice binder. It's my most prized possession besides Slappy's character sheet. I also have the Squidferatu script as well.

To be honest a lot of these scripts are pretty similar to the final product of the episode. There are some minor differences like Slappy wasn't originally in the script for There Will Be Grease. Instead it was supposed to be some nerdy fish asking if everything juice will make him sound more manly. Bless whoever snuck Slappy in there because you all remember me tweaking for a week when the episode came out because I was so happy Slappy got a part in the song lol.

Also the episode Upturn Girls was originally titled City Cetaceans.

Slappy Daze is pretty near identical to the final product tbh. Nothing really changed besides a few words. I am fascinated by the fact that the first draft is dated as being July 30th 2021. By that point I already fully and completely developed Slappy brain worms and was already considering watching Lorre's movies to get my fix cuz the airings of the Patrick show were frustrating. Ahh the good ol days <3

I also do believe Slippy (Slappy's female counterpart) was made for Slappy Daze originally though. The episode gives a physical description of Slippy which makes me think she just made for the moment. I think she was added to Mid-Season Finale in The Patrick Star Show episode afterwards but Mid-Season Finale aired first. Nickelodeon actually did mess up with this episode and released it on DVD before it officially aired. Now the pieces are coming together. This is only interesting to me lol.

Spongebob fans are such h8rs fr. Where else would you find THE original dreamy haired emo boy Cesare the Somnanbulist working as an assistant for the primary care physician fish Dr. Caligari? I would LOVE for Cesare to rid me of my allergies😤😤

Squidferatu actually has the most differences between the script and the final product. Plus plenty of interesting details. Squidferatu actually has two scripts, part one and part two.

The first and most important detail to me is the fact that Slappy is still named "Laszlo". You've seen Slappy's character sheet where it mentions he was formerly named "Laszlo" (obviously a reference to Peter Lorre's birth name Laszlo Löwenstein).

But in the Squidferatu scripts you can actually find the EXACT moment where his name changes from Laszlo to Slappy. It all has to do with one specific gag.

These both are the same scene. The left side is from Squidferatu part 1 and the right is Squidferatu part 2.

I do think they absolutely fumbled the name Laszlo. There are enough cartoon characters named Slappy. Laszlo is much much cuter and brings the Lorre reference full circle but oh well.

I also keep forgetting to mention but the villager in Squidferatu who begs Spongebob and Squidward not to go to the castle was intended to be the same villager in the 1931 Dracula who warns Renfield, who actually was based on a villager from the 1922 Nosferatu who warns Thomas Hutter. This character respawned in 3 different pieces of media. I think he's the true star of this episode lol.

There is also the fact that carriage driver in Squidferatu is confirmed to be Nosferatu! I feel like this fact is obvious enough if you're familiar with Dracula media (1922 Nosferatu, 1931 Dracula, or even just reading the book) the count is always the carriage driver duh

Also the fact that in this episode he hisses like a vampire, is strangely humanoid, and briefly has the Nosferatu™ eyebrows which fully gives it away. Unfortunately the folks on the SB wiki do not agree >:((

The first time I saw the carriage driver I said "ohh he kinda bad" and you know what? I'm not retracting my statement. He IS a baddie. I'm tired of lying to myself otherwise.

Anyways this caused me to come up with a headcanon that Nosferatu is broke and likely does not pay Slappy. I mean that explains why Nos has taken on shifts at the Krusty Krab, but also explains why Slappy is working 2 jobs in The Patrick Star Show. I imagine property taxes on a castle really drains a vampire's family fortune. I'm getting off topic.

There are some extra gags that didn't make it into the episode.

There's also the fact that we've been robbed of Erik from the Phantom of The Opera giving the audience a cute wink uwu

[project-sekai-facts]

TIL there'll be an update to EN on the anniv?

What are they adding?

i'm assuming that it'll just be the same update that JP got but EN sometimes doesn't entirely sync the updates so take this with a grain of salt

character archive - essentially an album where you can view all the cards, costumes, stamps, alt vocals, area conversations etc that you have unlocked for every character! it's a pretty cool feature and is sorta similar to the Album from SIF as a reference for the 3 people who follow this account who played that game

mirror mode - flips charts vertically

massive character rank system update - lots of new missons! skill level and master rank missions are now split by rarity due to Bday/4*s being significantly harder to rank up. alt vocals, number of cards (trained & untrained iirc are considered separate cards), area item level, and paid costumes now add to character rank. your ranks will be adjusted with the update and you will get thousands of gems (a lot of people last year were recording 20-30k)

improvements to virtual live 3D - characters will now face each other when talking to each other and generally move more naturally, including blinking

kizuna ranks updated to show the correct sekai-specific vsingers instead of the deafult one. the default ones are still selectable if you like them though

stamps for sekai-specific vocaloids that aren't miku will be added to the stamp shop

increased caps - rank cap increased, friend cap increased, mad skills and madder skills title cap increased, etc

mission pass update - some rewards are increased and music cards are removed for the free one. paid mission pass removed virtual coins and replaced them with wish pieces.

past paid costumes added to the shop permanently (still paid mind you). once a paid mission pass costume turns two it will go into the shop

character cosplay avatar costumes permanently added to the virtual shop (still paid)

43 kizuna ranks will be added a little bit later in October

[crosbyism]

Postmortem: Next Generation’s Best

whew, what an ordeal that was to write. I started out writing it several months ago, drafted what ended up constituting about 20% of the final post, and then let it sit for a while. Within the last two weeks, I was finally inspired (and had the time) to take it out of the attic and strip it down and retool it in order to write the final post. I think I spent at least 40-60 hours on it in total, which is quite a lot for just under six thousand words.

I think my main worry is that it’s too dense. I really chewed on a lot of these thoughts and topics during the writing process, and I know it’s just jam-packed with a lot of very intense material in a very tight space. I didn’t necessarily have the patience to draw it out more (and lengthen the wordcount by doing so, rip) and I think it works really well as it is, I just worry about a lot of nuance or some of the points I made getting lost in such density.

I rarely get so massively nervous about posting my work, but I think part of it might be that this one is definitely firmly in the category of non-fiction. I took the liberty to tell some of those stories in what I found to be an interesting way, but none of them are fictional— or even fictionalised. The amount of articles I hunted down about Eric Lindros’ near-death experience and Wayne Gretzky’s rookie season in order to get all the details right…

by the way, I still can’t stop thinking about Eric Lindros. What an absolute horror show that man had to live through. It’s also deeply interesting to me that twenty years later, Jack Eichel still had to fight with team management about medical issues. I guess these issues aren’t solved yet in any sort of way, but it’s crazy to look back at Lindros and then look at all the contemporary fights about the right to medical autonomy that’re still going on twenty years later.

Around the time I hit the 5k mark, I finally got over the denial of how long the post was and accepted that I’d probably have to put it over on ao3. The tumblr posts work better than I thought they would, but I do think the best way to read it is probably doing the “Entire Work” view over on ao3.

I don’t know why, but I definitely resisted the idea of putting it on the archive at first? for some reason I feel like meta posts are more for tumblr, although that’s probably a little silly. it’s an archive, after all, and there’s plenty of meta posts on there.

I do think that once I get around into turning it into a little podcast, that’ll be the best format for it. god knows how long that’ll be though, the longest thing I’ve recorded so far was under 3k and that was over twenty minutes of audio. I guess the whole thing will probably end up being close to an hour. I’ll see.

Right after I finished posting and adding links to everything I had this moment where I was like “I should’ve called it “LEGACY” and had each of the six parts be referred to by one letter in the word”. Then I proceeded to kick myself because it was too late for it. Missed opportunity. Ah well. You win some (finish the monster piece of non-fiction you’ve been sitting on for a while) you lose some (let the perfect title and naming convention for the parts slip through your fingers).

I’m definitely dying to get some feedback on this thing that I’ve poured so much time and energy into. I had this despairing moment right after hitting post that was like “Why did I write this, this is absolute garbage, no one will get this or care about it” but then I bullied myself into going to bed since it was two in the morning. Like with all creative endeavours, I guess I’ll have to be patient.

[xenodile]

Just in case you haven’t seen yet they already announced K is going to be the next Rate Up

Love the Nikke write ups btw. I share them with my partner to get them into the story (at their request)

Btw do you happen to know when certain events were released? I’m on chapter 18 right now and I want to read everything in order but I think I’ve already missed some stuff.

Keep being awesome!

WOOOO THE YEAR OF K, LET'S GOOOO BAYBEEEEEE

You can find the list of all events in their release order and date on the wiki!

Meanwhile the release date of story chapters is:

Chapters 1-16: Game launch, November 4th, 2022

Chapters 17-18: November 24th, 2022

Chapters 19-20: January 12th, 2023

Chapters 21-22: April 27th, 2023

Chapters 23-24: July 20th, 2023

Chapters 25-26: November 2nd, 2023

Chapters 27-28: February 22nd, 2024

Chapters 29-30: April 25th, 2024

Chapters 31-32: July 25th, 2024

Chapters 33-34: October 31st, 2024

Chapters 35-36: February 19th, 2025

Chapters 37-38: April 24, 2025

According to a reddit thread on the subject, plus some of my own records. The really big event/story things to keep in mind:

The 6 month anniversary events are the most important in terms of story. Their chronological order is RED ASH, Old Tales, OVER ZONE, Last Kingdom, Unbreakable Sphere. They were released alongside their relevant story chapters, so read OVER ZONE before chapter 21, RED ASH before chapter 25, Last Kingdom after chapter 25, Old Tales before chapter 29, and Unbreakable Sphere after chapter 36.

There are also 3 sidestories that are available at all times that are directly tied to major story events. The Second Affection story occurs directly after chapter 14, and leads in to the events of Last Kingdom. Wordless takes place after chapter 24 and contributes to the set up of Unbreakable Sphere. Mudfish is a prequel story that is relevant to the events of chapters 35-38 and Unbreakable Sphere.

The Rapi focused event, Footstep, Walk, Run, occurs directly after chapter 34.

No Caller ID and High Tech Toy occur early on, before Chapter 12. The former is the first event ever and gets a minor callback during the mainstory, while the latter establishes Matis as characters prior to their main story appearance.

Cherry Blossom, Queen's Order, and Dirty Backyard establish Underworld Queen and should be read in that order, prior to chapter 22. The summer event Beauty Full Shot builds on these events after chapter 24.

License To Kill occurs after chapter 14 of the main story, and its followup, Kill The Lord, occurs after the events of Dirty Backyard. Kill The Lord is then followed by the currently running event, Arcane Archive.

BOOM'S DAY and D.ark Hero should be read in that order before chapter 27. Beauty Full Shot and Ice Dragon Saga can be read as a follow up after chapter 30.

Additionally, every character's personal story generally follows or precedes whatever their debut event or chapter is, adding context for their interactions with the Commander.

For example, Maxwell's personal story introduces her and the Commander, then there's a callback to it in High Tech Toy, which then sets up her dynamic with the Commander in Chapters 11 and 12.

Mihara and Yuni, by comparison, have their personal stories set after the events of Chapter 4 of the main story, after being initially introduced in Chapter 2.

Maiden and Guillotine are introduced in chapter 12, then their personal stories occur afterward, getting follow ups in D.ark Hero, Beauty Full Shot, and Ice Dragon Saga, as well as in their holiday variants associated with Ice Dragon Saga.

The exact timeline of the story and events is a little ambiguous, as holiday-themed events like Valentines, Summer Vacation, and Christmas, explicitly occur in real time, with references to things that happened during previous events as being from "last year".