#ajira

[sylvienerevarine]

ajira is the best mage in morrowind. give this woman her PHD immediately.

[ehlnofay]

Summerfest Day 1 - ARCANE

The ring is knobby and cool to the touch, blue-glazed pottery glimmering in the lamplight of the cluttered little study. Caelestis turns it in zir hands, turns it again, watching the light play over the lumps and the patchy colour of the pigment. Spellwork slinks around it, snakelike, coiling in the cracks and running glistening down the sides; it’s almost hypnotic, like the flowing of a river, the rustling of long grass. Ze presses zir thumb to the inside curve of the band.

“Ooh, pretty,” says Ajira appreciatively, suddenly very close to zir ear; ze startles so hard ze falls off the stool. Like she doesn’t even notice, Ajira sticks out a hand with a narrowed-eye grin.

Caelestis blinks. Zir hair is fallen in zir face; ze tosses it back. “You scared me,” ze complains, rubbing zir hip where it hit the floor.

“Give it,” Ajira says, like ze didn’t say anything at all. (She gets like that, sometimes. One-track mind; focused on one thing, to the exclusion of almost all else.)

Caelestis curls zir fingers around it. “No! It’s mine.”

“Ajira isn’t taking it,” she says, wheedling. “She just wants to see. Please?”

The lights in the sconces glitter. Caelestis sighs and holds out the ring.

They’re in the corner of one of the Guild’s basement rooms. Space is economical, here; Ajira’s desk and all her great many belongings (neatly sorted alchemy supplies, mostly; a few fantastical items with which to barter and trade; books stacked on the ground, reaching up to head-height) is all squished together in one end over a threadbare rug. The dais is on the other side, carved with glimmering spell-glyphs. (Caelestis hasn’t used it yet. Ze’s only been around this little corner of Vvardenfell; going too far would be too much. It would be frightening. Ze will – just not yet.)

Ajira snatches the ring, rolls it around in her padded palm eagerly. Caelestis watches through zir eyelashes as she rubs at it – ze half expects a bound spirit to come bursting out of the thing by how enthusiastically she examines it. Ze half expects her to try to lick it.

(Thankfully, she does not.) “Blue,” she pronounces, sharp little teeth on delighted display. It doesn’t seem like the kind of observation that requires so much scrutiny, but what would Caelestis know? She hooks a claw through the band. “This is very nice, friend Caelestis. Where did you get such a thing?”

Caelestis’ hair is wisping out of its ties. The weather here makes it strange and sweat-slick and unmanageable. Ze brings up zir hands to fumble with the ribbons, half shrugging. “I found it.”

Ajira glances down at zem. The ring hangs from her narrow finger. “You found it,” she echoes. “Where, on the ground? On the stalk of one of Ajira’s mushrooms?”

She makes a fair point. It’s not a very convincing line. “An adventurer never tells,” Caelestis says loftily, and holds out a hand for the ring.

It is not given. Ajira does that full-body twitch she sometimes does, eyes wide – twists the ring around her finger and asks, glittering, “You killed someone for it?”

“I – what, no!” (To the best of zir knowledge. Technically.) (And that’s a topic ze really needs to consider, isn’t it – hasn’t had the courage to yet, but if ze’s acting as an adventurer, or being an adventurer – and that’s another thing, about the boundaries of acting and being and what is true and what’s for show when one has accidentally devoted zir life to espionage, but that’s off topic, for another time. If ze’s venturing, which ze has to do regardless of whether it’s acting or being, ze’ll almost certainly have to kill someone, at some stage. That’s what they do, isn’t it? That’s why she leapt to that conclusion? And it’s something ze doesn’t like to think about. Ze doesn’t want to. Ze’d much rather not. But things have already gotten more perilous than ze ever really pictured them getting and it’s something ze needs to prepare for before the necessity arises and ze’s blindsided. It deserves at least a double-page in zir notebook.) (Ze hasn’t killed anyone. Not anyone, not yet. Some animals. Vvardenfell has a lot of animals that seem to very insistently want zem dead, which is less than ideal. Ze’s killed – four, now. And ze’s fought someone. But ze didn’t kill them. As far as ze knows.)

Caelestis shakes zir head, hard; the half-undone ribbon smacks zem in the face. “No,” ze repeats, insistently. Ajira cocks her head, curious.

“Then you stole it,” she surmises.

Caelestis wishes she wouldn’t jump to conclusions so much. “No,” ze says again, as firm as ze can. (It’s not stealing if they try to rob you first, is it? Turnabout’s fair play.) (It was an honest-to-goodness highwayman; would have felt very storybook if it weren’t quite so terrifying. But Caelestis came here with only the clothes ze wore – continues to wear, though they’ve definitely seen better days – Morrowind’s garb is all loose fabric and unfamiliar colours and it frightens zem – point being, now that ze’s actually gained some belongings after great difficulty, ze’s not going to give them away. Even if there is an impressive club involved. In retrospect, ze doesn’t think they were actually trying to hurt zem, just to scare zem; but it worked, and the convenient thing about magic is that you don’t need a visible weapon on you to be dangerous. Even if you don’t mean to be. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing. That’s the thing about conjured blades, in particular – even if you don’t know how to use a knife, they know exactly how to be used.)

(Ze didn’t kill them. That’s the other convenient thing about magic – once you remember that there are spells that just knock people out, hold them unaware and unmoving in place, it’s a lot easier. A lot less bloody. Took five tries to cast, though ze thinks that at least some of those failures can be blamed on the ring. Still, Caelestis needs to get better at that one; it seems like it’s going to be useful whether ze wants it to be or not.)

(They took the highwayman’s ring, because the enchantment on it made the air wavery, and ze needed to do something. Anything at all. Then ze found a tree to hide behind and pressed against it until it felt like the bark was forever entangled with the sweaty cloth of zir shirt. Ze felt oddly, proudly brave; then ze threw up. But ze was almost in the swamps at that point, so as for the general air of the place – and the smell – it didn’t really make a difference.)

Ajira frowns, opens her mouth again – Caelestis already dealt with all this in zir notebook and doesn’t want to dwell on it anymore, so ze says, “I found it while I was doing your fieldwork for you –”

“Ah-ah!” Ajira says hurriedly, which ze anticipated; she presses her hand to Caelestis’ nose as though that will stop zem talking, which ze did not. (She moves quickly enough that she kind of slaps zem. It makes zem sneeze.) “You were assisting on an expedition. Botanical. Mycological.” Caelestis squints up at her, half-challenging, half just needing to sneeze again; Ajira removes her hand and says, smiling, “Ajira will give you credit in the end notes. Even a dedication, perhaps.”

“Ooh,” Caelestis says, the edge of zir lip pulling up, “a dedication. Give me back my ring, please.”

Ajira grumbles, but she flicks it over, the little thing flashing in the low light; Caelestis completely fails to catch it. Ze pretends ze can’t hear her chuffing laughter as ze gropes around for it on the floorboards.

“You should wear it!” Ajira tells zem – politely not acknowledging zir fumble or perhaps just no longer thinking about it. (One-track mind.) “It is a spell-drinker, yes? Very useful. Especially for the ambitious. And it is such a pretty colour.”

Caelestis finds the ring, knocked against one of the legs of Ajira’s desk. “I want to,” ze says, cradling it; ze frowns at the floor. “But I hate wearing rings.”

(They feel so stiff and clunky on zir fingers. But it would be a waste not to use this one.)

Ajira tuts; ze can feel her teasing disapproval without turning zir head. “You have worn the same hideously colourless shirt,” she complains, “ever since Ajira met you, and wearing rings is too far for you.”

“I’m trying to have some more of my clothes sent over,” Caelestis argues pettishly. (It’s not zir fault ze wasn’t given a change in prison. Or that the clothes here are so unfamiliar as to be terrifying. Or that ze is too scared to talk to the old man Cosades until ze’s ‘not so wet behind the ears’. Or that ze can’t send a letter home without his help.) Ze picks at the top button of zir doublet. “It’s just –”

Ze stops. Thinks. Sits down again, on the floorboards with zir back to the desk, and holds up the enchanted ring to the buttonhole. The slit in the fabric, neatly sewn to stop fraying, isn’t nearly wide enough to let it move through – but a quick cut, maybe on a slant –

“Ajira,” ze asks, “Can I borrow your sewing scissors?”

“For what? Destroying your –” Ajira blinks; her eyes narrow. Her hands fist in the gauzy blue of her skirt. “Oh, no.”

Caelestis grins up at her. “It’s efficient. Make use of the enchantment without wanting to claw my knuckles apart.”

“It clashes with the fabric,” Ajira bemoans. “The shape is wrong. You were on thin ice as it is – Ajira will not be seen with one with bad taste.”

(Caelestis doesn’t know Ajira especially well, yet. They have spent maybe two weeks on and off in one another’s company, all up. But ze likes her. Ze likes how she talks like they’ve known each other for ages; it makes zem feel so much less nervous.)

“Perhaps I’ll start a trend,” ze says brightly. Ajira groans.

(Ze takes the scissors, cuts the buttonhole open and the button off the thread. Zir stitching is inexpert and messy – ze’s not exactly experienced in mending clothes, zir experience only extending so far as sewing lumpy little creatures on the living room settee with zir mother, but it’s perfectly passable, and the enchantment works. Ze makes Ajira flick a magelight at zem to check.)

(She doesn’t stop complaining about zir crimes against jewellery and dress for the next week, until she has another research project to attempt to cajole zem into assisting with.)

[drkangile]

Chanzo cha vidonda vya tumbo, acid reflux, na bawasili, ni kupungua kwa bacteria walinzi, wanao saidia kumeng'enya na kutoa taka mwl pamoja na enzymes au vimeng'enya kupungua au kuwa ndivyo sivyo, Tatizo hili husababishwa na mfumo mbaya wa ulaji na unywaji Njoo ujipatie elimu nzuri ya mfumo wa chakula na upate tiba sahiji Nakuhakikishia ukifuata ushauri na kuzingatia elimu yetu na matumizi sahihi ya bidhaa basi utapona kabisa na haitojirudia tena Tuwasiliane whatsapp/call 0717174151 Kufanya upasuaji kw sababu ya bawasili sio suluhisho Tuna bidhaa za virutubisho lishe zipo vzr ktk mfumo wa capsules na zimethibitishwa kutoka marekani Usione soo njoo upate ushauri mzuri na tiba Whatsapp/call 0717174151 #tanzania #BFSuma #Kahama #iringa #AJIRA #kibaha #singida #biashara #daresalam #moshi #njombe #songea #mtwara #Lindi #KAGERA #tabora #dodoma #arushatanzania #manyara #mwanza #marathontraining #mara #musoma #geita #shinyanga #katavi (at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpUPLxTt_Ih/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thenewsbulletnetwork]

Leo watu wetu tuzungumze. Umeshawahi kusikia neno kufukuzwa kazi? Umeshawahi kufukuzwa kazi? Au kukosa ule mchongo uliokuwa ukiufukuzia?? Kama ulishawahi kufukuzwa kazi hebu tueleze hapa kwenye comment ile barua uliipokeaje na hali yako ilikuwaje baada ya kupokea barua? #dailymodealer #modealertz #modealer839 #modealertv #ajira https://www.instagram.com/p/CkIZ7_UKZT6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[skyrim-forever]

I would like to introduce you all to someone ❤️ The cat distribution system has worked once again, this khajiit was a stray and had nowhere to go so her travels have led her to the warm sands of my apartment 😛 Her name is Ajira (also answers to pookie girl and pretty girl) ❤️

[fist-of-vengeance]

a second plane has hit the island

[dmdog]

Cat mom and cat dad. Snugglin after a long difficult campaign

(I tried to kill them so many times but they lived)

[ljones41]

“LOST”:  “The Wrong Promise”

“LOST”:  “THE WRONG PROMISE”

While going over old "LOST" articles and forums, I had come across a post that asked members how they would have ended "LOST". After reading several other sites and articles about the series, I had posted my answer.  

There was one thing that I wish showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof had not added into the script for the series finale, (6.17)"The End".  I wish they had not allowed Kate Austen to promise Claire Littleton that she would help raise the latter's three-year-old son Aaron after reaching civilization, while the pair was making their departure with a handful of other survivors aboard the patched-up Ajira 316.

I realize that Kate was trying to assure an agitated Claire that everything would be all right, once the latter was reunited with Aaron. Especially since Claire had been stuck on the island for three years and had not seen her son.  But in the end, Kate's promise to help raise Aaron struck me as the wrong one to make. Why? It was not possible for her to meet this promise.

When she had departed Los Angeles on the Ajira Flight 316 in (5.06) "316", Kate had broken her plea deal from (4.04) "Eggtown".  She would have to remain in California for a ten-year probation.  When she had left California and the United States in (5.06) "316", Kate broke the terms of her probation.  According to the show's canon, the period between "316" and "The End" was roughly two weeks.  Chances are, Kate had left the country under an assumed name.  And since Ajira Flight 316 had been missing for two weeks, I suspect a great deal of publicity would have generated from its return to civilization.  I would not be surprised if the moment she returned to civilization after the plane's departure from the Island, Kate ended up in prison for breaking her probation.  That would have left Carole Littleton to help daughter Claire raise Aaron.

One might consider the possibility of Kate moving to Australia after serving time in prison for breaking her probation.  That is a possibility I do not see happening.  I doubt very much that the Australian government would have allowed Kate to re-enter the country. Three years earlier, Kate had entered under a false name and as a fugitive from the law.  Which mean that she had entered the country illegally.  I just cannot see them allowing her to set foot on Australian soil again.

Why would Claire need Kate's help?  The latter had left Aaron in custody of the former's mother, Carole Littleton, a day before boarding Ajira 316.  Ms. Littleton had custody of Aaron by the end of the series.  And to be honest, she would be the best person to serve as Aaron's guardian, considering the tenuous nature of Claire's mental state in the series finale.   Considering Claire's mental state, I cannot see Ms. Littleton would have allowed Kate, a criminal who had deliberately kept her grandson away from her for nearly three years, near Aaron while he was a minor.  In fact, I do not even see Claire allowing Kate to be anywhere near Aaron.  Hell, I would never allow a child kidnapper with a series of crimes hovering around her, near my offspring again . . . even if that person helped me get off the island.

All I can say is . . . what were Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof thinking, when they had allowed Kate to make that promise to Claire in "The End"?  They could have found another way for the fugitive to ease the young Australian woman's fears.  And for the past thirteen years, fans automatically believe that Kate had helped Claire raise Aaron. Without Carole Littleton's help.  Even to this day.

[spockvarietyhour]

Oh, it's Ilana from Lost

[jiandae]

BASHUNGWA:FUATILIENI MALALAMIKO YA POSHO ZA KUJIKIMU KWA WAAJIRIWA WAPYA

Kwa habari za Elimu, Ualimu na Walimu fuatilia ukurasa huu ili ujifunze mambo mbalimbali pia tembelea ukurasa wetu wa Youtube (www.youtube.com/jiandae) kwa Mafundisho ya Kukujengea ufundishaji bora. WhatsApp?: 0674141209.

Kutoka: OR –TAMISEMI (Facebook Page) Waziri wa Nchi, Ofisi ya Rais Tawala za Mikoa na Serikali za Mitaa (TAMISEMI), Mhe. Innocent Bashungwa amemuagiza Naibu Katibu Mkuu Ofisi ya Rais-TAMISEMI anayeshughulikia Elimu, Dkt. Charles Msonde kuhakikisha anafuatilia malalamiko ya waajiriwa wapya 9,800 kuhusu posho za kujikimu na viwango vya malipo vinavyotolewa. Ametoa maagizo hayo Septemba 28, 2022…

[igorlevchenko-blog]

Morrowind: Portrait of Galbedir (WIP)

Galbedir is an apprentice wizard at the Balmora Mages Guild. She's young pert and—being an enchantress-prodigy—a tad bit conceited. Given she has her own study on the second floor and how expensive her wizard paraphernalia is, I assume she is from a wealthy, caring family. She and Ajira are both vying for an important promotion at the Guild.

Please do not rush into the comment section telling everyone how you stole her soul gems—you're a scum and deserve to spend time in Crassius Curio's Tickle Dungeon or @spoonmagister 's prison at Tel Uvirith—I hear they practice a unique type of execution there: immurement by Scelian Plebo (i.e. the priest at Wolverine Hall).

[everybodyknows-everybodydies]

@tes-summer-fest day 1: breath

---

Under the water it’s very quiet, is mostly what she notices. She moves slower, and it’s quiet. The water pulls at her arm when she drags it in front of herself, trailing tingly little bubbles, her skinny fingers held apart and curled like claws. Her hair floats in front of her eyes—she gets a little giddy every time she’s reminded it’s long enough to get in the way—and she laughs. The sound is nothing; the bubbles from her mouth tickle across her nose something awful.

She did it just like it said, in the book she peeked at in the guildhall when she went for Ma’s scale tonic (she’s pretty sure, anyway, because she does get her letters switched around sometimes, but she made Dar-Ma and Dexion go read it too, because even though Dexion’s stupid with magic and Dar-Ma just doesn’t bother with it so much, both their letters always stay in the right order at least, and they both said it matched what she thought it did, so she’s got to have it right).

Still: she has a hard time trying to get herself to take an inhale. Now that she’s laughed out her air she needs it back, and she did it right, but her lungs are scared, because they don’t know they’re supposed to be alright.

Up. Up. Up. Get to air, they’re telling her, or we’ll burn up. We’re going to die down here.

Won’t either, she tells them back, and makes herself hold onto the big rock sticking up out of the pond floor. She tells herself on the count of three, and then three comes and goes and she’s still holding her breath. Her whole body disbelieves her that this once it’s not wrong, that this once the water won’t hurt to let in.

Her lungs keep burning, and she can feel her eyes stinging (from not the pondwater this time), and she thinks how it’s always easier doing things fast before you can change your mind about it, and she opens her mouth and breathes in.

Her lungs scream.

---

You know you really don’t have to, says Neht, his arms crossed where he’s standing atop the water. Look at this. It’s not exactly clean.

“It’s not so bad.” Haldryn sits on the edge of the canal to pull her boots off. “Probably it looks worse than it is because it’s dark in here. I’ve never been a pilgrim before, and now I’m here where they are I should get to show I mean it. Right?”

Neht only arches a brow. She knows what he thinks.

She rolls her trousers up to her knees. It probably won’t do anything, really, but it makes her feel better about it. Like a kid again, playing by the pond. Belt and bag and scarf by her boots. She thinks a moment before going to take out her earrings too. Just in case. One by one: she folds the six little hoops into her scarf and pushes everything back further from the edge. “‘Breathe the waters,’” she mumbles aloud. “Alright. And then I’ll just—know, I guess, when ‘the way is made clear’?”

Her palms are sweating, the waterbreathing scroll from her bag creasing under her fingers. (Ajira made it, and demonstrated the quality of her own work by bravely dunking her head in a washbasin, despite the distaste of her ears flat against her head. “See,” she had said upon reemerging some few minutes later, tail fluffed, whiskers bristling and dripping, “Ajira knows what she is doing. You are reassured?”

“Yes,” Haldryn had nodded, and bitten back a laugh at the way she put her face in the towel with a huff. “But I might need a second demonstration just to be—”

“You may do it yourself, friend Hallie,” proclaimed Ajira, wetly, “and this one will not even charge you extra for teasing.”)

But it’s good, so she puts her fingertips to the sigil and fists her other hand in her shirt over her heart. The shift in her lungs judders down from her throat with her next inhale; she stays still until the air feels soupy thick to breathe before rolling up the used scroll and tossing it behind her with the rest of her things. “Here goes nothing,” she says aloud, her voice sounding strange and froggy.

Neht, still standing over the water, says, Don’t stay down there too long. I would hope courtesy extends to the pilgrim, too.

She pushes off the edge. The dark water closes over her head, in her ears and in her nose. The first breath is the hardest, still. Something tight in her chest that she tells herself is the pressure of the water.

Haldryn sits on the bottom of the canal and closes her eyes. (Llaalam’s voice drifts through her thoughts, the flicker of shadow in the water flourishing like one of his grand gestures: I see now that you are unarmed, said Lord Vivec, presenting their own fine silver sword to the nearest of Dagon’s empty hands; use this blade and I will best you then, for a fight against an unarmed opponent is merely an execution…)

And, breathing water, she waits.

And she waits—

---

It’s not easy—it doesn’t feel like breathing at all—she feels like she’s choking, but the urge to cough only makes it worse and her whole body is seizing with terror—but she did it right, she did, she knows she did—didn’t she—

Didn’t she—

---

Somebody snatches her by the shirt collar.

---

Somebody’s cold sturdy arm firm around her middle.

---

Up. Up.

---

The first thing she hears when the water breaks apart into air around her is her own ugly coughing. The pondwater feels sharp and prickly coming out her nose, her mouth, and Ma has her mouth open too, hissing like she can’t breathe either. “Haldryn,” she says, her bright sunny eyes gone a little wild, wide as the moons.

She can’t talk, coughing too hard, spitting out water. She wants to say—I didn’t mean to scare you, I thought I got it right—but even when there’s no more water coming out she can’t stop coughing, her throat and nose scratchy, her cheeks fresh-wet with tears. Her nose is probably gross too.

Ma puts a towel tight around her shoulders and hits her back a few times. Not enough to hurt, but it jolts her, makes her spit more water. “Say my name,” she demands. “Haldryn. Please.”

“Ma,” she croaks out, finally, and scrubs at her face with the heels of her hands, which doesn’t help because all of her is soaked, but it sort of makes her feel better to not be looking at her. “M’go—” She coughs again, gags on the taste of mucus and pondwater. “M’good!”

And then she’s being crushed in a hug, Ma’s heart knocking even harder than her own on her chest. “Hallie,” says Ma, shaky and thin, “Hallie, Hallie, Hallie—what were you doing? You are not—you cannot—”

She’s getting her pond-face gunk on Ma’s shoulder, on her favorite blue dress. She wipes at her nose with her own sleeve, embarrassed. “I did waterbreathing first,” she sniffs. “I thought I got it right, I cast it just like it said—”

Ma’s voice is solid ice. “What said?”

---

Haldryn can breathe just fine, which is the worst part. Shuddering and shaking driplets in her wake, and she’s not even really hurt, just trying to knock away the scared part of herself that’s clung along inside her (fine! breathing!) lungs. She staggers against the wall to mash her forehead on it, use the rough surface to focus on something besides the memory-fear. Water from her hair’s making puddles on the cold floor below.

Neht can’t touch her, but he puts a hand out by her shoulder anyway. She can almost pretend it’s warm. You’re alright?

She clamps a hand over her nose and mouth, to make herself feel her hand instead of water. “I’m alright,” she says aloud. She’s thinking of eight years ago, of Ma looking like a dragon, tall and proud and tearing into the bewildered steward of the guildhall for not watching their spellbooks better. Of being pulled out back into the world, and the way water couldn’t trade for air fast enough.

Pulled. Someone—

“Who got me out?” Haldryn twists to look at him. “Someone pulled me.”

No one else is here, he says. His face is cut glass, is sharpened stone, is angled gold and lying again.

“I felt it,” she insists. “Someone pulled me.”

His expression is unreadable. No one else is here, Neht says again, in the deliberate hard tone of an answer. Haldryn stares back at him, jaw set. It’s not any more of an answer than he ever gives. He holds her gaze for a moment before turning back to the shrine, a set of stairs that wasn’t there before. This is important to you.

“It is.” She takes a deep breath, unhindered, and pushes off from the wall to gather her things. Nearly there. Nearly there.

I am tired, he says—quiet enough she almost misses it—of the games gods play.

[ansu-gurleht]

okay, so here’s my little analysis of the mage’s guild faction in morrowind. it’s pretty cool tbh! but you really have to dig a little to find the interesting parts tbh. so hopefully i can shed some light here on those parts.

most likely your introduction to the mage’s guild in morrowind will be at the balmora guildhall. i’m not actually sure if you can start anywhere else? like if any of the other halls have quests doable by an associate. anyways.

you’ll sign up for the guild with ranis athrys, but she’ll immediately say “rank up scrub” and tell you to go get your duties from ajira, an apprentice with the guild. so you go downstairs and talk to her. she’s an alchemist, and her first quest is appropriate: find these four mushrooms that grow in the bitter coast region.

i think this is a fun way to introduce the player to the guild. i don’t think ajira intended this (her goals seemed to be firmly aligned with advancement in the guild), but it teaches you several qualities useful not just to budding mages but to players of the elder scrolls iii: morrowind: exploration, discovery, and identification of usefulness. a mage must explore and know the world, discover its secrets, and identify which secrets are even worth knowing. i shouldn’t have to explain how these concepts are also useful to any morrowind player. also, the mushrooms you are told to find specimens of are all located near the beginning of the game in seyda neen; you don’t have to wander far to find all four. in fact, you may have already collected them all; i always do, but that’s because i know what to look for already lol.

anyways, you go back and turn in the mushrooms, and ajira introduces you to another facet of mage life: rivalry. she has a bet with the enchanter galbedir that she’ll reach journeyman rank before galbedir. as part of that bet, she wants you to sabotage galbedir’s research by swapping out one of her real soul gems with a fake one. now, we obviously don’t know the entire history of this rivalry, but it actually seems like, based on this quest, that ajira is the one who initiated the more underhanded aspects of it, the sabotage and whatnot. i’d always remembered it as galbedir being the more dastardly one, but i suppose not. anyways, yadayadayada, you do the thing and galbedir is none the wiser. (i’m not giving full beat-by-beat on these quests unless it’s relevant to my analysis.)

after that, ajira wants you to collect some flowers, too. teaches the same lessons as before, and is again in an accessible place: the road between seyda neen and balmora. you may have already collected all these, too. come back to ajira, give her the flowers, and she’ll send you off to buy her a ceramic bowl. this quest is actually just an excuse to get you out of the mage’s guildhall so the cell can be prepared for the next quest. if you leave the guildhall without taking the ceramic bowl quest, and then come back, you won’t even get the ceramic bowl quest. it’s just pure filler.

anyways, galbedir has retaliated. stolen and hidden ajira’s reports on those mushrooms and flowers that you gathered somewhere in the guildhall. you can ask around for where they are, and i believe if you get galbedir’s disposition high enough she’ll confess to their whereabouts as well. this actually ties into BOTH of the themes of these early ajira quests: exploration AND rivalry.

after that quest, ajira only has quests for you once you’re of warlock rank, and at this point you’re probably only a journeyman. so she tells you that ranis athrys, the lady who signed you up upstairs, probably has duties for you. but ajira also says that she doesn’t like ranis (we’ll soon find out why) and recommends you go see edwinna elbert in ald’ruhn for duties instead. we’ll get to edwinna later; i think most players are more likely to get their duties from ranis anyway, since she’s closer.

so ranis is actually a really interesting character! let me give you the rundown of what her quests have you do, and then i’ll explain a bit more about them.

first, she has you recruit a telvanni, named llarar bereloth, from the tower sulipund in molag amur, into the guild. ranis says if he won’t, then kill him. at the same time, since she’s nearby, ranis has you collect dues from manwe, a mage’s guild researcher in the cave punabi very close to sulipund. ranis says if you can’t get the money from her, kill her. next, she has you go to an argonian in balmora who is offering restoration training unsanctioned by the guild. ranis says if you can’t get him to go away/stop offering training, kill him. next, she has you escort itermerel to the inn in pelagiad, and find a way to retrieve his notes from him. ranis says to kill him for the notes, if necessary. next, she has you kill a supposed necromancer in maar gan named tashpi ashibael – she doesn’t even offer an alternative way to solve the problem, this time, she just wants you to kill tashpi. (it’s notable that the one with tashpi isn’t even in ranis’ JURISDICTION, being in maar gan – that would fall under the ald’ruhn guild.)

notice a theme here? ranis is VERY open to just killing people to get her way – or even just because they made her mad (as in tashpi’s case – she’s not really a necromancer, she just said no when ranis asked her to join the guild). you might get the impression, since these quests are so early on, that that’s just how the morrowind mage’s guild operates. but once you move on from ranis, you will only ONCE be expected to kill somebody, and in that case you’re attacked on sight anyway. so what’s ranis’ deal?

if you ask llathyno hlaalu, a priestess in the balmora tribunal temple, about “latest rumors,” she’ll tell you that ranis has something against non-guild wizards, and suspects it’s because her parents were killed by the last archmagister of house telvanni, the one before gothren.

fun aside: ranis is possibly VERY old. gothren is spoken of as having been archmagister for a very long time, and was a magister already in 2e582. the archmagister in 2e582, nelos otheri, could then, be the one who had ranis’ parents murdered. but it’s also possible there was an archmagister or two in between nelos and gothren. it’s not really clear, and it’s possible when the eso writers were working on the vvardenfell telvanni stuff they didn’t even take into account this one throwaway line about ranis. but it means that ranis could be at least like. what, 600ish? that’s pretty old even for a dunmer, i’m pretty sure.

i think that it’s most likely that ranis is herself ex-telvanni, which would explain why that archmagister would’ve known them/killed them. it also explains her methods of “kill first ask questions later” – that’s a very telvanni approach.

now, ranis’ last quest is to catch a telvanni spy she suspects has infiltrated the mage’s guild. you can ask around at the various guildhalls and find out there’s a fairly obvious spy right under archmage trebonius’ nose, BUT. there is another approach to this. if you don’t kill itermerel or tashpi (itermerel will just give you his notes if you ask after you finish escorting him, and tashpi can be convinced to just leave vvardenfell and you can tell ranis you killed her anyway), then a new option opens up: you can claim that ranis is the telvanni spy. trebonius will kick her out of the guild and she’ll get her comeuppance. there’s probably an argument to be made that she IS actually a telvanni spy, so it’s not like a total lie, i guess.

that wraps up balmora! i won’t talk about ajira’s later warlock quests, bc they’re not super interesting. just “here’s an artifact i heard about. go to this cave and kill this person and take it from them and cool now you have an artifact”. so let’s move on next to ald’ruhn!

so in the ald’ruhn guildhall, you’re getting your duties from edwinna elbert. the main theme of her quests is the study of the dwemer. she has you bring her a copy of “chronicles of nchuleft,” steal a copy of “chimarvidium” from the vivec guildhall, return the copy of “chimarvidium” later, bring her a dwemer tube, check on an expedition to nchuleftingth, and get some old dwemer documents from mzuleft and bethamez. the only super notable thing about her quests is that, again, she’s having you steal something for the guild. which like, coming off of ranis’ quests is nothing. and at least she has you secretly return it later. so it comes off more like wily mage antics rather than like. literal crimes.

next is wolverine hall in sadrith mora, led by skink-in-tree’s-shade. edwinna’s second quest actually takes you here, to get a potion from skink. anyways, he’s a cool dude. the most respectable mage’s guild quest-giver, since he never asks you to break any laws or do anything shady. it’s said that even the local telvanni respect him as a powerful mage, even though his abolitionist tendencies tend to ruffle some feathers. his quests aren’t as tightly themed as the others, but he has a couple quests where he has you fetch rare books about vampires for him. otherwise, he has you do some other things, like kill a (confirmed) necromancer, arrange for him to meet with an ashlander wise woman, and capture the soul of an ash ghoul.

his first quest is a little interesting. he wants you to escort the scholar tenyeminwe to the docks in sadrith mora; evidently she got into some kind of spat with some telvanni and is afraid for her safety. but nothing happens as you escort her. you make it all the way to the docks with no issue. this kind of indicates to me that 1) the telvanni don’t give as much of a shit (or pretend not to give as much of a shit) about the mage’s guild as the guild thinks they do,* and 2) skink might be a liiiiiiittle paranoid.

here’s a bit of a silly theory i’ve come up with about skink: i think he might be a vampire seeking a cure.

hear me out. yes, the quests about the rare books could just indicate it’s a topic of scholarly interest to him. but what if it’s more personal than that? the second book he has you get, galur rithari’s papers, tells the story of a buoyant armiger who became a vampire and later found a cure. what if he seeks out a wise woman to see if they know of a cure in their old ways? what if he sought out the soul of an ash ghoul as part of a potential cure?

i know it’s a bit far-fetched and there’s no concrete evidence. just a fun little headcanon.

anyways, there’s only one other quest giver of note: the archmage trebonius himself. everyone in the guild seems to regard him as kind of a moron. he’s evidently a rather accomplished battlemage, but he’s not a very competent leader. he only has one quest (at least until you finish the main quest): discover what happened to the dwemer. he clearly gives it to you as an impossible task so you’ll leave him alone. but it’s not impossible: there are three books (the hanging gardens of wasten coridale, the egg of time, and the divine metaphysics) written in dwemeris that can reveal to you the mystery – if only you could read dwemeris. thankfully, there is exactly one person in all of vvardenfell who can read dwemeris: yagrum bagarn, the last living dwarf. he’ll translate the books for you and even offer theories as to what they mean. you can then go back to trebonius to finish the quest, although it’s obvious he is surprised you were able to accomplish this and also doesn’t really care anyways.

i think there’s an interesting question about trebonius: is he really as much of a fool as he seems to be? or is it a farce, a way to make people underestimate him? he very much is an accomplished battlemage, as you discover when you fight him to become archmage yourself. he can be quite a tricky fight. he had to have become so powerful SOMEHOW, right? mages rarely do so without study and some degree of intelligence and competence. it’s definitely POSSIBLE he’s smarter than he lets on, but it’s hard to say. not a lot of proof there. plus, it’s possible much of his difficulty in the fight comes from his powerful enchanted staff and amulet.

speaking of the amulet, he wears the necromancer’s amulet, one of the best amulets in the game. the name is evocative; is trebonius an undercover necromancer? is that a potential reason for his projected stupidity? oh, no, they’ll never expect the idiot of being a necromancer, he can barely cast fireball, much less lead a guild. something to ponder!

and that’s about all there is to say about it! i think it’s a wonderful faction with a lot of cool quests and stories, even if some of them are somewhat buried in subtext. hopefully this little analysis proves interesting!

*- back to this point about the telvanni. the telvanni obviously DO see the mage’s guild as somewhat of a threat to their magical hegemony on vvardenfell, judging by the house telvanni quest “mage’s guild monopoly,” where you have to convince some redoran councilors to block the guild’s monopoly over magical services on the island. but it seems like the telvanni are taking care of business pretty well, and the mage’s guild isn’t posing that much of a threat.

[simeffable]

SIMS 4 X LOST UPDATE!

As mentioned a few weeks ago, my expansion will now include a save file containing a customised Sulani to become ‘The Island’, with Dharma stations, crash sites and landmarks. Regular updates on progress are posted here. More info below the cut!

‘The Island’ will have a custom name (specific to the save file) and optional map. The custom map for Sulani will be included separately (as CC).

14 LOTS

Fuselage Crash Site–functional beach lot complete with CC Oceanic 815 plane fuselage wreckage.

Tail Section Crash Site + Widmore’s Freighter–functional beach lot complete with CC Oceanic 815 tail section wreckage housing tail section survivors and functional (possibly residential) freighter off-land.

The Swan–functional underground community/generic lot.

The Pearl–functional underground generic lot.

The Orchid–decorative above-ground well and ruins, and functional underground secret lab lot.

The Flame–functional residential lot housing Mikhail, with small holding of cattle and chickens.

The Tempest–functional library lot.

The Staff–functional generic lot with Ethan’s nursery for baby Aaron, wards and surgeries.

The Hydra–functional above-ground smallholding with functional underground generic/community lot complete with holding cells, Ben’s office, surveillance room and more.

The Looking Glass–functional under-water generic lot.

The Lighthouse–decorative generic lot.

The Barracks–rentable residential units (For Rent) housing Ben, Juliet, Alex and Richard, recreation room unit (functional), security and infirmary.

The Temple–functional pool lot.

‘Dharmaville’–recreation centre lot with Welcome Center, children’s playground (functional), cafeteria (possibly functional restaurant depending on capability in-game), ‘school’ (decorative) and Motor Pool (decorative).

11 LANDMARKS (Using @twistedmexi’s T.O.O.L mod off-lot features)

Henry Gale’s Balloon

Rose and Bernard’s Cabin (functional but not residential)

The Black Rock

The Ruins

The Other’s Camp

The [Foot] Statue with underground room.

The Radio Tower (hopefully functional in some capacity)

Frank/Daniel/Charlotte/Miles’s Helicopter

Ajira 316

The Heart of the Island/‘The Cork’

⭑ ★ ⭑ ˗ ˏˋ ❀ ´ˎ ˗ ⭑ ★ ⭑

As my ambitions have expanded with this project, I have relieved my initial time limit/release date of September 2024. It will simply be ready when it’s ready, but definitely before the end of the year. I hope you can all understand that I unfortunately have a real life outside of Sims, and I thank you for all of your support with this project!

[lizardsfromspace]

Every time I see that last supper Lost promo for the final season I'm amused that Ilana's in it. Ilana is actually the best and funniest case of Lost leaving plot threads on the table but it never gets brought up bc you have to have actually watched the whole show to know it instead of just going "well did they ever explain the Smoke Monster" (yes)

So if you haven't seen it, and don't mind spoilers (there are full series spoilers below), Ilana was introduced as a recurring character in the back half of season 5. She was promoted a lot more than usual for a guest star, with it more or less being stated upfront she'd be a main character in season 6. She was a mysterious woman who was on Ajira 316, the plane that brought the survivors back to the Island. But it turns out she's working for Jacob or something, and is carrying a mysterious steel crate, etc. She's clearly set up as important, and in the season finale, we're given a brief and enigmatic flashback where she's heavily bandaged in a hospital and is visited by Jacob.

It was announced before season six that the actress would be promoted to a series regular, and she was in all the cast promos; like the "lost supper" one. So it was set up that she'd be Important

But. Uh. Between promoting the actress to a regular, and doing the promos, and starting work on season six, the writers realized they didn't have time in the final season to develop a whole new main character and her backstory. But she was already signed on for the whole season! So what did they do?

After half a season of build up, Ilana does absolutely nothing. Outside of one episode she's basically an extra. After all that mysterious set-up and obvious ties to the central figure of the mythology (who's implied to be her dad!) she gets no further backstory or development. And then twelve episodes into the season this happens

This is, of course, a callback to a different character exploding in the same way in the first season. I don't know why it's a callback. It doesn't even really work for shock value bc again, it's identical to a shocking death the show famously did five seasons ago, so you kinda brace yourself for it when someone starts tossing around dynamite. I don't know why any of this happened

What I love about this whole arc is that, if they had thought things through and realized "wait, we don't have time for this" between seasons they could've just had Ilana die in the season premiere. But they had the realization so late they had to feature her anyway

The amazing part was, this was the second time this had happened. Before season 5 it was announced that it would have two major recurring characters who would be regulars in season 6, Ilana and Caesar, played by Said Taghmaoui. But they must've realized they had no time for Caesar much faster bc they killed him off after only a couple episodes, without ever revealing anything about him

Anyway when you think of Weird Unsolved Lost Moments, think less of the big ones that aren't even really true (no they were not "dead the whole time"), and think of that time they introduced someone as Jacob's daughter & had her do nothing & then spontaneously explode

[skyrim-forever]

The cat has woken me up so now we chilling on the couch