#and which countries have how much of each faction

[a-very-tired-jew]

Columbia University's Joint Anti-Israel Groups Go Mask Off

Hey, remember how Columbia University had students in encampments protesting for months? Remember how their SJP, BDS movement, and associated groups endorsed terrorism, violence, and "resistance by any means"?

I remember. Well their joint SJP and BDS group called CU Apartheid Divest just posted something to their Instagram that shows it has never been about Palestine or Palestinians.

Fig. 1. CU Apartheid Divest group, made of SJP, BDS, and other groups openly admits that they are anti-Western Civilization

Read that again.

"We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization."

That's a wild statement to make.

So what are they posting about suddenly that has them revealing their intent for their actions since October?

Bangladesh.

The CU Activists are attempting to liken October 7th attack by Hamas with the Bangladesh student protests. Bangladesh had a quota based employment system that students were protesting, the government responded violently, and everything escalated from there due to years of government corruption, violence, and economic turmoil. This was a protest turned revolution within a country by its own people. This was not a government run by a recognized terrorist group attacking another country, killing civilians, and taking them hostage.

However, the differences and reasons between Hamas's actions and the actions of the students in Bangladesh do not matter to the anti-Zionist Activist.

We've seen this repeatedly from these activists that they will try to liken their movement and/or attach it to other conflicts around the world. Many of these conflicts differ greatly from the Israel/Hamas war as they are internal issues with internal actors being involved.

Bangladesh is students protesting against their government.

Sudan is going through a civil war between various factions.

The Congo has been experiencing decades long violence as various militias fight each other for control.

Yet I've see anti-Israel protestors tag their posts with Free Bangladesh, Free Congo, Free Sudan even though these conflicts differ in origin and parties involved.

If you continue through the IG post you'll see very little information as to the cause of the protest/revolution in Bangladesh and continued attempts to coopt the actions for their movement.

Fig. 2. CU Apartheid Divest group tries to liken its student movements to the student protests in Bangladesh and calls to escalate.

I can't help but think that the CU student activists yearn to be oppressed in a way that would allow them to respond like revolutions and protests around the world. The way they speak and write exudes a yearning for violence. In Fig. 2. they detail the actions taken by students against an authoritarian government that has actively shot and killed protestors. Whereas here in the USA the students were forcibly removed from campuses, experienced some police violence, were arrested, and then released. No curfews with a shoot on sight policy were imposed here in the USA in response to college campus protests.

Fig. 3. CU Apartheid Divest classifies this as an Intifada and likens it to Hamas's attack.

Notice in Fig. 3. that they're trying to call the actions in Bangladesh an Intifada. Not an intifada, but an Intifada which is a proper noun with its own connotation. I know I may be a stickler here, but if I see that word capitalized then I know it's referencing the First and Second Intifadas, and I know that these student groups have been calling for a Third one under the guise of "Global Intifada". They also say that Westerners need to escalate and are "obligated" to do so.

Fig. 4. CU Apartheid Divest uses tankie terminology, refers to Bangladeshis as martyrs, and calls this part of the Global Intifada.

The terminology in Fig. 4. also shows how much the Free Palestine student movement in the USA is not actually about Palestine, Palestinians, or any other movement it tries to attach itself to. These are tankies as indicated by the use of "comrades" and they are wholly opposed to Western Civilization. They genuinely state that their movement should violently escalate here in the USA and that they should be prepared for "sacrifices". This language when coupled with the use of Intifada is alarming as it appears that these student activists are preparing to follow in the footsteps of the Second Intifada, or at the very least calling for others to do so.

These students, whom call themselves the Militants of Hind's Hall (seen in the IG post, but not pictured here), are coopting, or attempting to coopt, movements and conflicts from around the world for their own ideals. As these are students in the USA who are arguably experiencing the least amount of oppression when compared to these other conflicts, and are actively attending Ivy League or R1 universities, it can only be assumed that they're yearning to live out their Glorious Revolution fantasy.

I am under no illusion that I understand their reasoning. Are things perfect here in the USA? Of course not, but when compared to the countries that these student protestors are attaching themselves to, we are leaps and bounds better. And if you disagree, then I have to ask, when was the last time we had a curfew with a shoot on sight policy?

Anyone attempting to call this movement and group "peaceful" is naive. They've been telling you for months that they're not peaceful, that their goals are not peaceful, and that the only peace they want is after they commit violence.

The IG link for reference

[rayroseu]

Rambles about Book 7 lol

AAAAAAAÀAAA 😭😭😭 THIS IS SO AUGHHH THE MEANING BEHIND THIS INFO !!!!!! knowing that the first thought of Lilia in encountering Silver was that he should kill him to avenge Meleanor and Levan and that his purpose of adopting him is that he wants to believe he can love a human as well AND LILIA TEACHING THIS HUMAN BABY HOW TO LIVE DESPITE THE MANY CHANCES HE GOT TO GET RID OF HIM AUGJAURIWUTJW AND MAY I SAY LILIA WENT FROM DISTANTLY BEING ATTACHED TO THIS BABY AND THEN TRANSITIONING UNTO WANTING FOR HIM TO LIVE AND WITNESS HIM GROW UP AAAAAAA😭😭✨✨✨

IF I CRYYYY MELEANOR HAUNTS THE NARRATIVE 😭💞💕💞✨

LMAO not the faes snitching this info to malleus ofmg 😭✨

lowkey this is me as well i think babies are kinda ugly too KDHJAEJ especially when they cry 💀🔥🔥

YOU CALL THIS ADORABLE HELPPPP 🤣🤣🤣okay but in all seriousness, we rarely get this easy sarcastic Malleus, he's always too formal around NRC and often his humor lands amiss to other charas which doesnt prompt him to present this trait, but its so sweet that he seemed to be "truly himself" in the cottage scenes where its just him Lilia and Silver🥺✨ his voice doesnt feel "authoritative" too like a dorm leader, its just malleus and his difficulty in getting along with the random baby lilia caught lol

I remember this line was translated as a flower nectar?? but they kinda saying the same and i like this paraphrase that Lilia thinks of Milk as nectar for baby humans, like how Malleus often relates tech to some magical ritual lol

crying at this line, knowing that Malleus says this because he has broken several many things bcs he couldnt control his strength and perhaps there were things that Lilia owns that he accidentally destroyed as well so he tries to mend this uncontrollable strength of his in order to not be an inconvenience😭✨

NURSEMAID???? YEAH NURSEMAID CALLED LILIA VANROUGE 😭😭💔💔💔 and AAAAA not once did Malleus search for this tune??? not even sing it to Maleficia and Lilia so as to inquire about it 😭✨💔💔 this is when you know this lullaby IS truly MELEANOR'S LULLABY because everyone of the characters only heard it from her !!!😭😭😭💔💔

I love this response from Malleus lol, also i feel like some situation will challenge Lilia's love for humans again, like can you still love humans if they commit the same crime again to Malleus as they did with Meleanor?? Twisting their personality and actions so as to validate their fear?? Can you still say that faes should make an effort to make peace with them when repeatedly it was the humans who wasnt willing to udnerstand faes to begin with ? 😭✨ its a realistic worry fitting for a king that'll rule for centuries, maybe bcs he has this instinct that humans are epehemeral and so are their promises.

Thinking about it a bit more, its true that what Levan does is futile effort because the issue between humans and faes, Briarland and Silver Owls is too much that it cant be resolved by just understanding each other.

Levan wants the war to stop but obviously that can't happen because the bigger factions of each natioj are resolute at their stance that Briarland is owned by faes or humans, no in between. He can't immediately fix the mentality of higher faes and Meleanor with their hatred of humans and vice versa with the human officials like Henric,

but what he can do to decrease the casualties of this conflict is to pave way for the COMMON folk to understand each other, if he can make way for the common fae and the common human to talk to each other, then it might decrease the misunderstanding between the common fae and common human (assuming that both parties arw willing to be understanding)

its really a long shot and a gamble to aspire for considering his country's situation, and its effects would take a while to impact and honestly it took so much important people and years just to have his dream of peace, i wish we could get an input about what he feels about this

considering his kindness he might be happy, but im kinda sad its really tragic the implication of how the faes had to earn their peace and atone for a conflict that they didnt even start with,

based on Lilia, it took 400 YEARS just for the humans to sign a peace treaty, maybe in the eyes of the faes, thats just a piece of paper, so they waited and grieved the lost of their Princess Meleanor and many of their fae soldiers and Prince Levan and ALMOST the entirety of their continent, just for these humans to sign an 400 year long overdued peace treaty?? so the faes that died couldve been saved if these humans could spare some compassion and ink to sign a treaty-- It kinda feels like they're insulting their grief (in the faes point of view atleast), whats the purpose of having this paper peace treaty when they have lost so much already?? I WISHHH the story could delve more into the grief of faes,

kinda lowkey mad they just swept Lilia's grief by the humans just cuz he encountered a few good ones, i wouldve love to see him being vengeful then learning how to convert that grief to love again just like Maleficent in the live action, bcs it would be very meaningful on this way, Lilia can truly say he has learned how to love because he experienced real deep hatred---but AAA its whatever this storyline is good as well, just kinda feels general lilia's belief converted to present!lilia a bit too fast to my liking lol

its really intriguing how before book 7 the faes dislike of humans seems so dramatic but now after book 7 it all makes too much sense 😭✨

(can you guys tell i play too much reverse 1999 bcs i ramble too much about morals and politics between different races now JHDJWHRJW)

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

If you remember the Bibas family, they were all kidnapped to Gaza on Oct 7, the father Yarden who left their house first, to protect his family, and then the mother Shiri, 4 years old Ariel, and the baby, 9 months old Kfir.

It is now confirmed that they were not kidnapped by Hamas, but rather by one of 26 terrorist organizations in Gaza, each one so small that they're usually referred to as terrorist factions, rather than terrorist organization. This one specifically has adopted a pattern of always cooperating with one of the bigger terrorist organizations (like Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad), so we can assume that's what they did on Oct 7 as well. The first 45 seconds or so from the following vid is what it looked like when Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were being kidnapped, you can see how terrified she is...

Below is new CCTV footage that the IDF has uncovered from a street in Khan Younis, so now we know which city in Gaza the three (Shiri, Ariel and Kfir) were kidnapped to. Shiri is seen barefoot, Ariel's head is sort of visible, Kfir isn't, but it's assumed he's under the blanket, and Shiri holding him close to her body. Because this footage is from Oct 2023, there's so much we still don't know. Are they still there? What's their current state? Nobody knows, but the IDF spokesman has confirmed that there is grave concern for their lives.

Yesterday, a Hezbollah attack drone crashed into Arbel, the mountain on which Tiberias (one of the 4 holy cities in Judaism) is built. For some reason, the siren didn't go off. The drone crashed not too far from a kindergarten, but thankfully no one was hurt. In response, Israel has struck Hezbollah's weapon warehouses in Lebanon. To the best of my knowledge, they're still checking why the siren warning failed, and which country was the drone launched from, Lebanon, Syria or Iraq.

A French report says that the terror tunnels Hezbollah has been digging for years on Israel's northern border are more complex and dangerous than the system Hamas has dug under Gaza. That's what Israeli soldiers will have to tackle if the northern front goes to a full scale war. The terror tunnels Hamas has dug since 2007 under Gaza are so much more developed, extensive, complex and dangerous than Israel has realized, and the IDF has had to develop new ways of fighting in and around them, which we did not have when the war in Gaza started. Hamas' terror tunnels were estimated to be bigger than the London Tube (underground train system) back in Dec 2023, and there have been more tunnels located since. Just to put things in perspective, London's size is 1572 square kilometers (607 square miles), more than 4 times bigger than Gaza, at 363 square kilometers (140 square miles), and has a smaller underground tunnel system, according to what we knew about Gaza two months ago. But people want Israel to sit back, and let these threats to the lives of Israeli civilians continue to grow freely... Just a reminder, on Oct 7, the way the terrorists got to the border fence, to destroy the cameras there, without being spotted on the way was thanks to their terror tunnels, and those tunnels allow them to hold Israeli hostages captives, and it allows Hamas terrorists a place to hide and strike from, and it's where some Israeli hostages were murdered.

Today in our corner, "Suuuure, it's anti-Zionism, not antisemitism, but somehow it keeps targeting Jews and Jewish identity," we got two stories from the UK. One is of a Jewish family sending their baby girl's birth certificate to issue her a passport got the document back torn and defaced, with the word "Israel" under "father's place of birth" scribbled over.

The second story is of how the Amy Winehouse statue, which has stood in Camden Market for essentially 10 years, has also been defaced, specifically the Star of David was covered with a Palestinian flag sticker.

This is Elyakim Libman.

On Oct 7, he worked at the Nova music festival as a guard. Survivors of the massacre there say he helped save quite a few people. At a certain point, he went back to retrieve the body of a murdered young woman, so it wouldn't be taken hostage by the terrorists, and that's when he ended up being kidnapped himself. He's been in Gaza for over 4 months, including during his birthday. The other day, he became an uncle. He was supposed to be his nephew's godfather, but didn't get to. His family said explicitly they want no terrorists to be released in order to free him, and that if Elyakim could weigh in, he would say the same.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[gortash-did-nothing-wrong]

Things Enver does as a Father:

When their oldest was four, he started to understand what explosives were, so Enver spent three days teaching him how to make fire powder because, "What's the harm? He can't reach the shelf with the ingredients. So he'll never make them without my supervision." He may not have been able to reach the shelf, but that cunning toddler learned how to climb into chairs really fast after that.

When their children started being interested in tea parties, Enver gifted their children a sturdy but beautiful silver tea set. They couldn't brew the tea themselves, nor could they bake their own pastries to go with it, but Enver instructed their servants to fill the teapot with a caffeine free tea anytime the children asked. The trays of croissants and cookies were, of course, also provided.

When Enver joined those tea parties, he used it as a time to test his children's leadership abilities. He asked them how they planned on handling fake issues in the kingdom. Often, he assigned names to fake groups of people, inventing far off countries that sent either banes or boons to their doorstep. "What shall we do about all these refugees?" "The crops from the west fields have failed. Shall we attempt to grow more before harvest, or should we depend upon our reserves?" "Two different political factions are at each other's throats. One is the farmer's guild, and one is the merchant's guild. Who should we side with?" "There's only room in this year's budget to donate to the orphanages, or the trade school programs in the Lower City. Who do we support?" His children sometimes waved his questions off, wanting only to eat the snacks and play games, but sometimes they paid attention. Sometimes they even gave insightful solutions to these problems that were simultaneously fake and yet very real. Enver was always careful to nurture any of his children that showed promise in these matters

Of course, some of his children simply weren't suited for positions of higher leadership, which was fine. He loved his children all dearly, and loving them meant meeting them where they were and accepting who they were. His children that weren't leadership material had other talents. Archery, swordsmanship, art, dance, and more. His youngest daughter, the middle child of the family, actually had a knack for making friends and organizing events. While it wasn't something most would consider a highly prized skill, in her teenage years she turned it into a passion for charity work, especially with orphans and refugees. Something that he made sure the newspapers always reported on. Why not make sure the public viewed him and his family in a favorable light with the candle of his child's charity cases?

One of his children showed a knack for archery at a young age, and Enver wasted no time in designing moving targets for her to sharpen her skills with. His wife introduced their little prodigy to that vampire friend of hers, and soon his daughter was sneaking around the castle with a bow and quiver full of enchanted arrows. The servants only complained a little.

His brood grew in number until he was often walking around the city with a gaggle of eight children at his heels, looking every bit like a proud father goose. His youngest was almost always in his arms, a young boy with chubby cheeks and his father's grin. The public went wild with love for the sight of his hoard of children, calling them the Pride of the Gate. His wife insisted nicknames didn't count if he ordered the press to call them that, but Enver disagreed.

Enver was a firm believer in raising his children with an iron fist. Not in anyway did that mean physical punishment, of course. He detested the thought. But his children had a busy routine of tutors, governesses, coaches, and many extra curriculars from very young ages. His wife was often worried they were expecting too much from them, but Enver was always quick to remind her that they lived in a cruel world, and their children needed to be ready for that. His children were loved, but not coddled.

And as Enver grew older, he felt comfortable delegating more and more tasks to his children. Until finally, at the age of fifty seven with the entire sword coast under his iron fist, he named his heir, split up responsibilities among his other children to ensure there would be no infighting, and retired with his wife to a nice little castle in the upper city. Somewhere close enough to help should his clan require it, but far enough that he and his lovely wife could relax in their old age. He loved spending his mornings sitting on the balcony and having breakfast with her while he read the paper. His middle child, the charity worker, had taken over propaganda, and she was quite skilled at it. He would chuckle with his wife over humorous tidbits from his children's accomplishments.

And of course, then there came grandchildren. Little heathens running around his home, always so happy to visit "Grandma's House". Enver often rolled his eyes at the title of his castle. "I bought the damned thing." He complained to his eldest son one day. His son laughed at him, "Father, don't pout. They may call it her house, but they're always talking about wanting to see your inventions, play with your magic items, and um... Steal your shoes." Enver sighed at that. "None of you ever inherited my glorious fashion sense, and I regret that every day... Maybe one more child-" his wife interrupted them, "No."

[theriverbeyond]

have you seen any breakdown of the political situation on New Rho (in New Rho? is the rest of the planet also populated? I think at one point someone says "down in Ur" but maybe there is an application of 2-dimensional direction terms to 3d space I havent yet thought of). Like who do they mean by militia, who is the government (who is the police?), is there any official house presence, what is the status of the barracks, who manned the spaceport, what power does BoE hold and how are they viewed in the population (Hot Sauce denounces them but who is her faction-that Pyrrha saw her with-then?) and do they know how splintered and farspread it is? what is the siege the blurb is speaking of, just the imperial emissaries showing up?

Also assuming the BoE wings are all named after different planetary settlements which seem in turn to be named after cities in the ancient near east (ur, merv, ctesiphon), why isnt new rho? but i might be misinterpreting this.

Also where does the Empire want non-House humanity to end up? They seem to be turning planets left and right with no endgoal. And how many settled planets might there be?

Sorry I'm dumping this all at you, I havent seen any worldbuilding discussion here on tumblr at all really so maybe you can redirect me somewhere.

Thankies, keep up the good work (posting)

I HAVE seen posts about the political situation on New Rho including analysis posts that were very interesting and I have utterly failed to tag them appropriately, I am sorry -- if anyone who sees this has links to that meta pls add on/reply to help anon!

But to cover the rest of your points:

What is Ur?

Ur is mentioned twice that i can find, in ch 16: Ianthe says that the end has come to the "rebels of Ur", and a person in the crowd says "Ur is fighting".

EDIT: big thank you to @eskildit in replies: "There are four total references to Ur- Corona also says that Judith is in the Ur facility and Kiriona says that the 6th house is "parked outside the Ur system". Could be that Ur is the planet New Rho is located on. While we refer the nine houses as planets, canonically the houses are actually "installations" on each planet with quite small populations. New Rho alone, which is specifically stated to be just one city on a resettled planet, is 3x the size of the 6th house"

It may have been mentioned more times, but Kindle search is giving me the 2,320 times the letters "ur" were used next to each other so I'm ngl I cannot sift through that. Rather than being a city, though, I actually am assuming that Ur is another planet entirely! This is due to multi-planet SciFi in general treating entire planets like countries or even big cities. Like…. planets are huge. There are thousands of different cultures on a planet, but in SciFi planets are often like. One Big City. One Big Country, if you have a particularly ambitious worldbuilder. See: Star Wars, the Nine Houses themselves, etc. not saying that Ur cannot be on New Rho, just that I don't think it is because this is multi-planet Sci Fi.

The militia/civic government?

In chapter 6 a distinction is made between "the militia and the old civic govnerment". Following that, I think the civic government was probably installed by the Houses, as a ruling party that is friendly to them/House interests. I think the militia is a non-unified population of hired guns, that probably revolted at some point priot to the story. It does seem like at least some section of the militia is in power in most of the city, but I do not think there is one coherent government at the moment

Official house presence?

Yes, because there are official cohort barracks. I don't think they have much political leverage by the time NtN rolls around, though

Barrack status?

Under siege due to the people of New Rho hating them/political instability/possible militia revolt, doing badly otherwise because any and all necromancers are suffering from Blue Madness/RB proximity, as seen in ch 20 when Ianthe mentioned some of them were so poorly she had to put them down.

Space port?

I am assuming the civic government/House was originally in charge. unsure of who is in charge during NtN

What power does BOE hold?

Unclear. It seems like BOE itself is fractionated, with a lot of animosity held between different factions, and a lot of both animosity AND collaboration between different factions of BOE, the militia, the population, and the old civic government. It is a very decentralized resistance force, despite sharing a name. BOE do not appear to BE the official government, or BE the militia, though, but I would not be surprised if some groups had ties to one or both. It seems like they have influence both socially and politically but it is unclear what that power is... some factions have some amount of power. Over some parts. But!! it seems that during the events of NtN they had more power than in the past ("best hand they were ever delt", chapter 1)

How is BOE viewed by the population?

My guess is they have mixed reviews. I think a lot of people probably rely on them for resources/protection even if they don't like or fully trust them. I think a lot of people probably see them as extremists and wish they were less extreme (the liberals, u could say). Like Hot Sauce and the gang, a lot of people probably think they aren't radical enough and wish they would resist more, harder, differently. I think a lot of people probably deeply support them, either physically by being part of BOE or by providing resources/etc, or quietly because they are afraid of retaliation by the House or civil government. A lot of the population probably has opinions about BOE versus the militia, BOE verus House, BOE versus the civic government, based on their own interests/position/power. This is a really long answer that can boil down to "idk"

What is the siege?

I think the siege is the cohort being sieged into the barracks. I am guessing there was some sort of revolt in the local government, probably related to Blue Madness weakening the cohort, and they have pushed the cohort into the barracks. , as described in chapters 1 ("the cohort dies like anyone else under seige") and chapter 20 ("the barracks siege").

What group is Hot Sauce in if she denounced BOE?

Hot Sauce specifically calls BOE "fat cats" and "zombie lovers" in chapter 15, after noting that she, Honesty, and Born in the Morning, as well as Born in the Morning's father, are "active" in with an unnamed group at the park. It is unclear what group that is, if it has a name, or if it is organized in any capacity. From what little we know, it appears it is a group of people who are more radical than BOE, which I think is either ex-BOE members that were pushed out for their radial choices/beliefs, or civilians/other freedom fighters that aren't satisfied with what BOE is doing. But beyond that I have no idea

BOE wing names vs New Rho?

So BOE wings are named after historic Earth cities. Ctesiphon, Troia, Merv, Valencia (which is not historic to us, as it exists today, but WOULD be history in 10k years). They are named by BOE, likely to keep connection to Earth, just like BOE people-names. "New Rho", on the other hand, is likely named by the House. Rhodes is a place on the 7th house (see: 7th cavalier is the "Knight of Rhodes"), and I assumed that New Rho was like. The house naming shit. Like how New York is named after York in England, even though that area of land already had a name (Lenapehoking, I think?).

Specifically this difference is important because like, the House is a imperial colonizing force here, and they are naming things after their home system as a part of the imperial violence they are enacting. In As Yet Unsent, Judith notes that the non-house people call New Rho, "Lemuria" -- HOWEVER, in NtN chapter 17, the Angel mentions Lemuria twice in a way that is phrased like Lemuria is Somewhere else, and is Not the city they are in right now ("I was born on Lemuria", "there's still a facility on Lemuria") I am not sure what happened there, honestly. Perhaps an oopsie?

Where does the Empire want non house humanity to end up?

Unclear. Coronabeth notes in As Yet Unsent that even she (who has studied the war in-universe) has no idea what the real goal is. My guess is nowhere, because a forever-war has no end goal. It's a war for resources gained only by literal blood and death. Many analysis could be made about this as an allegory to to oil based forever-wars of today -- I read a few of them and as said before unfortunately failed to tag them, so if anyone has a link and can share with anon that would be awesome! But anyway, I do not think I am smart or learned enough to say a lot beyond this but, yeah. I think there is no end goal to the war besides meaningless revenge and the resources gained via murder, because that's the point. We could learn different in AtN tho! who knows

How many settled planets?

No idea! Thousands. Hundreds of thousands? Hundreds? Unsure! 10k years is a long time, and there are a lot of planets out there in the fantasy universe that could be habitable. EDIT ty @eskildit, unclear how many planets were settled over the course of the Empire, but there are three settled planets by the timeline of NtN: ""Everyone was crammed on one of three planets now, and they all agreed that this planet was easily the worst", from chapter 2

-

Thanks for sending this!! I really enjoyed answering it, and I hope it helped -- sorry if I missed any. Ask more any time!!

[chrismerle]

so, like, I am perhaps a little overly-protective of Veilguard, because I am genuinely very fond of it and a LOT of the complaints I see about it fall into the following categories:

'I am bitching about things that have been present since Origins, but I am very conveniently only taking issue with them now and acting as if they are unique to Veilguard'

'I am bitching about things that I claim haven't been addressed/explained, except they actually have, they just aren't super relevant to the main plot so Varric or Solas didn't turn to look at the camera and address it to my liking'

'I am bitching about how the game is messy but conveniently acting like it's UNIQUELY messy when in reality Dragon Age as a series is a goddamn mess'

'Taash is blunt and kind of awkward but seems largely unbothered by their own bluntness and awkwardness. I find this to be an unpleasant trait and anything I find unpleasant in a person is bad writing.'

'I am incapable of recognizing the difference between bad writing/game design and things that I personally just don't like that much'

and I think all of those categories of complaints are fucking stupid, and I wish the people bitching in such ways would either find some fucking whimsy and just appreciate the game for what it is, stop torturing themselves with a game they clearly don't like and aren't going to like, or at the very least have the good manners to stop putting their ass-hurt-y whinging in the main tags.

that said, I do have some legitimate criticisms! I am not just irrationally praising every element of the game.

you can't really talk to your companions in the Lighthouse. there are a few "scheduled" conversations that take place as cutscenes, but you can't just walk up to them and bug them to talk for the most part, like you can in previous games. hell, I would've been fine with the Mass Effect 3 method, where you just walk up and press the 'talk' button and they spit out vaguely situationally-relevant dialogue until they eventually tell you 'not right now, Rook.' but instead you're largely limited to just listening to your companions bond with each other by eavesdropping on them, which is relatable to me because I'm a nosy bitch and any conversation happening around me is no longer a private conversation, but isn't really what I was hoping for.

I don't think Minrathous and Treviso should have both been facing the exact same threat. like, I can buy that a merchant city with a couple handfuls of assassins and no army could be brought low by one dragon. but if the militarized techo-mage capital of The Country Where Everyone Does Dangerous Magic can't hold off ONE DRAGON then that is no longer a me problem. the excuse that was given was that it was circling the city from the air, raining death from above, but the archon's palace is its own long-range weapon, and most mages are also their own long range weapon. Rook rocking up with two additional fighters should not have been required to turn the tide in Minrathous against ONE DRAGON. Minrathous should have been facing a much larger threat than it was.

Varric really needed more ambient dialogue. I guess the devs didn't expect you to actually poke your head into the infirmary that often? 'cause the poor guy only seems to have like five canned responses that he gives. and as funny as it is that 90% of the time he was asking me when the last time I slept was with deep suspicion, it got a little old.

I ran into some audio and camera weirdness. with audio, it only ever happened with banter while running around, not in cutscenes, so I don't think it was my headphones. voices would get really crackly suddenly. and for camera, it wasn't, like, game breaking, but the camera did occasionally just whip itself around to face the opposite direction with no input from me. mostly when I started using the long range attack, but once while I was shimmying through a crack in the wall.

it's a little weird that Rook can't engage more with/about the faction they're part of. like, my first Rook was a Veil Jumper, but Bellara still had to explain basically everything to him, when it could have instead been her explaining it to Rooks of other factions but having a conversation about it with a Veil Jumper Rook. or at the very least some sort of 'Bel--Bellara--BELLARA. I know how it works.' 'Oh! Right! Sorry.'

and then there are some things I just personally wasn't a huge fan of:

I could have lived very comfortably without ever seeing the Mass Effect 3 readiness rating ever again. but there it is. you have to do ... so many side quests ... if you want to keep all of your companions alive. so many of them.

most of the armor is really ugly, in my opinion. my first Rook spent the entire game running around in the N7 armors (the version without the coat was his casual outfit, since my private running joke was that he only ever had time to take his coat off before he had to go put out more fires). my current Rook has been running around in the brown leather duster coat the entire time. I think it's because they're all kind of over-designed? a lot of them would be perfectly fine if they got simplified a bit. whoever dressed the Lords of Fortune, you need help, most of their outfits are so fucking ugly.

I know it's CONVENIENT when you use the same button for basically everything but the 'interact' button and the 'jump' button being the same means I tried to pick something up and then accidentally yeeted myself off a cliff or into a volcano so many times.

they nerfed my archers, man :( I mean, I kinda get it. I was an archer once in Inquisition and was so over-powered. archers got to be so fucking cheap in Inquisition, especially if you specialized as an artificer. it was great. some of the most fun I've ever had playing Dragon Age was being an explosive archer in Inquisition.

the Inquisitor's class should have been one of the previous choices we could carry over. in general, I don't care that it was mostly a clean slate, but we should have at least been able to specify if the Inquisitor was a warrior, rogue, or mage. let us actually see them in combat at the end.

I ... don't think I really had a point to this whole ramble. I just have a lot of Dragon Age thoughts and feelings and only a few Dragon Age friends, and I can only babble at them so much before I feel like they'll wanna break my keyboard with their brains.

[tomorrowusa]

It's difficult to say which of Trump's nominees is the absolute worst. They each have their own unique combinations of woeful incompetence, hyper-partisanship, and personal failings. But it's certain that Tulsi Gabbard would do the most harm to US national security.

According to ABC’s report, the aides said that the failed presidential candidate regularly read and shared stories from RT—a state-run media outlet formerly known as Russia Today—even after being told that it wasn’t a credible news source. Gabbard’s former staffers suggested that they didn’t buy some claims from Democrats that their former boss is a “Russian asset.��� But they do believe she’s become a staunch advocate for one of the United States’ chief adversaries thanks to her routine consumption of pro-Russia propaganda. It’s unclear just how much consuming news from these outlets shaped Gabbard’s worldview. In fact, her former aides said that Gabbard read news from a plethora of outlets, ranging from stories peddled by far left factions to articles from extreme-right sources. But Gabbard’s views on Russian aggression in Europe, specifically, have become increasingly eyebrow-raising since her days as a Democratic House member representing Hawaii. The aides provided ABC News with an internal memo that Gabbard sent to staff in 2017, for instance, which showed her extending unwarranted sympathy to the Kremlin. Among many other damning things, the former Bernie Sanders loyalist-turned-MAGA apologist complained about the United States’ “hostility toward Putin” and bemoaned the fact that “there isn’t any guarantee to Put that we won’t try to overthrow Russia’s government.” “In fact, I’m pretty sure there are American politicians who would love to do that,” she added. These fresh allegations against Gabbard have heightened some Democrats’ fears about her securing a spot in Trump’s Cabinet. Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration, told ABC News that the thoughts outlined in Gabbard’s 2017 memo were “basically the Russian playbook.” He also expressed anxiety that she could soon be charged with overseeing America’s most sensitive intelligence assets. 

It's difficult to find anybody currently on the US political scene who Putin would want more than Gabbard to be in charge of US intelligence.

The aides provided ABC News with an internal memo that Gabbard sent to staff in 2017, for instance, which showed her extending unwarranted sympathy to the Kremlin. Among many other damning things, the former Bernie Sanders loyalist-turned-MAGA apologist complained about the United States’ “hostility toward Putin” and bemoaned the fact that “there isn’t any guarantee to Put that we won’t try to overthrow Russia’s government.” “In fact, I’m pretty sure there are American politicians who would love to do that,” she added. These fresh allegations against Gabbard have heightened some Democrats’ fears about her securing a spot in Trump’s Cabinet. Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration, told ABC News that the thoughts outlined in Gabbard’s 2017 memo were “basically the Russian playbook.” He also expressed anxiety that she could soon be charged with overseeing America’s most sensitive intelligence assets. 

Even some staffers associated with the incoming GOP Senate majority think Gabbard is compromised.

“Behind closed doors, people think she might be compromised. Like it’s not hyperbole,” one Republican Senate aide told The Hill. “There are members of our conference who think she’s a [Russian] asset.”

In addition to Putin, she's a great fan of Putin's pal Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad. By coincidence, HTS insurgents in Syria have made astonishing gains – having take two of Syria's largest cities and are now at the outskirts of a third.

Syrian insurgents close in on Homs as they seek path to Damascus – forcing thousands to flee

The al-Assad régime is being propped up by Russia. But the Russians are losing confidence in their client. Russia has advised its citizens in Syria to flee the country.

Russian embassy advises its citizens to leave Syria as rebels advance on strategic city of Homs

If Tulsi Gabbard had unfettered access to US intelligence, she would be funneling it to Putin and al-Assad.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Gus Is Us

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 22, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 23, 2024

The streets of Chicago have been bustling with visitors, law enforcement officers, and a few protesters for the Democratic National Convention. This is the twenty-sixth convention that’s been held in Chicago, first because the Republican Party was centered here in its early days and because Chicago was a major railroad hub, and then because Democrats had a power base here in the twentieth century. Baltimore, Maryland, is second on the list of host cities, with thirteen conventions under its belt. 

While we are now so accustomed to political conventions that they seem to be part of the landscape, they were not part of the original framework of American democracy. They grew out of the expansion of the suffrage in the early 1800s, and their development was an important part of the evolution of our democratic system. 

In the early years of the American Republic, political leaders were faced with the practical problem of how, exactly, to create a democratic government. The Constitution provided a framework for how such a government should work, but it didn’t lay out how voters would interact with that framework. At first, that gap between voters and the machinery of politics didn’t seem to be much of a problem, since George Washington was so popular he essentially ran unopposed and the presidential electors voted for him unanimously. But then President Washington announced he would not run for a third term, and there was no consensus on who should take his place.

The men who framed the Constitution opposed political parties, but partisanship had sprung up during Washington’s administration nonetheless as voters divided into the Federalist Party, which generally supported the Washington administration, and the Democratic-Republicans, who worried that Washington’s supporters were leading the country toward aristocracy. (Despite their name, the Democratic-Republicans were not analogous to today’s Democrats or Republicans.)

In 1796 the congressional delegations of each party met informally to figure out which candidate they would support. The rule of “King Caucus,” as its detractors would call this system, was short lived. The Federalists flirted with secession in 1815 and never recovered. By 1820, they didn’t even nominate a candidate, permitting incumbent president James Monroe, a Democratic-Republican, to run virtually unopposed. 

Many political observers believed that the triumph of the Democratic-Republicans would mean that the nation had finally outgrown partisanship, and they boasted of Monroe’s “Era of Good Feelings.” With politics seemingly in harmony, states extended the vote far more widely than they had done before, dumping the property qualifications that had previously excluded significant numbers of white men. By the 1840s, virtually all white men could vote. (By 1858, free Black men could vote only in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and women could not vote.)

Universal white male suffrage changed the American political scene. Early political leaders had assumed that elites like them would always run the government, but that idea exploded in 1824 when the dominant Democratic-Republican party split into factions. Only a quarter of the party’s congressmen showed up at that year’s caucus, and four different candidates ran for office. 

Andrew Jackson won a plurality of both the popular vote and the electoral vote—although not enough to win—and yet lost the election when it went to the House of Representatives. Americans watched as established politicians overrode their votes in order to put John Quincy Adams, the son of former president John Adams, into the presidency. For all politicians talked of equality, it seemed a wealthy elite was taking over the country. 

When Jackson handily won the 1828 election, he declared that the president is the direct representative of the people. 

Voters approved that sentiment and began to demand more of a voice in the choosing of their presidential candidates. In 1831, using a convention model that men used at the state and local level for choosing political candidates, the Anti-Masonic Party called supporters together to choose a presidential and vice presidential candidate. Jackson’s new political party, the Democrats, and the party that rose to oppose the Democrats, known as the Whigs, followed suit. 

Conventions did more than give voters a say in their presidential and vice presidential candidates, though. They created a national party structure that whipped up enthusiasm for candidates, so that all those new voters would work to get their candidates into office. That structure and enthusiasm, in turn, brought ordinary voters into the previously bloodless machinery of democracy the Framers engineered. 

Campaigns ceased to be dignified affairs in which elite politicians allowed themselves to be drafted to serve. While until the end of the nineteenth century it would be considered unseemly for a candidate to campaign personally, other political leaders barnstormed the country on behalf of their candidates, and voters held parades and barbecues and vocally demonstrated their support for candidates who worked to show that they were men of the people. The patrician William Henry Harrison set the standard for such a show when he won the White House by adopting the symbols of hard cider and a log cabin. 

But for all the growing reputation of political conventions as the place where voters made their will heard, professional politicians still carefully managed delegations to jockey their candidates into the best possible positions for nomination. Famously, Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln began plotting his own elevation at least by early 1860. In his insightful and thorough examination of the 1860 convention, political historian Michael S. Green laid out how Lincoln outmaneuvered the many more popular candidates contending for the Republican presidential nomination that year:

In 1859, Lincoln worked with a colleague, Norman B. Judd, to get the Republican convention of the next year held in Chicago, where Lincoln would have a home court advantage. Then his friends helped push the Illinois Republicans to support him unanimously and, in keeping with the idea that he was a man of the people, dubbed him “The Railsplitter.” Still, Lincoln knew he was not a leading candidate. “My name is new in the field; and I suppose I am not the first choice of a great many,” he wrote to a political operative in spring 1860. “Our policy, then, is to give no offence to others—leave them in a mood to come to us, if they shall be compelled to give up their first love.” 

When Republican delegates met at the hastily constructed hall at the intersection of Lake Street and Market Street in Chicago that held about 10,000 people, Lincoln’s allies sang his praises and negotiated. Perhaps as important, as Green explains, one of Lincoln’s key men got the right to seat the delegations. He isolated New York’s, whose members were strong for their own William Henry Seward, keeping it apart from the state delegations that might be persuaded to climb on board the Seward bandwagon. Those undecided delegations Lincoln’s ally kept close to the Lincoln supporters. 

As the balloting got underway, the first ballot had Seward ahead with 173.5 votes but without enough to get the nomination, and Lincoln second with 102. On the second ballot, Lincoln’s numbers climbed until they were almost equal to Seward’s, and midway through the counting of the third ballot, it was clear Lincoln would be the 1860 Republican nominee.  

The minutiae of politics had given the country a candidate who would change the course of history. 

Green quotes journalist Murat Halstead, who was at the convention: “There was a moment’s silence,” Halstead wrote. “The nerves of the thousands, which through the hours of suspense had been subjected to terrible tension, relaxed, and as deep breaths of relief were taken, there was a noise in the wigwam like the rush of a great wind, in the van of a storm—and in another breath, the storm was there. There were thousands cheering with the energy of insanity.”  

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[moondustocean]

Dragon Age Veilguard review after 65 hours - 87/100

Pros:

• the combat is fun

• the main quest is interesting and has some great twists, same goes for the side quests

• conclusions to some plot points from former games

• Rook's factions are one of my favorite part of the game (I played a grey warden and it was mentioned constantly, I even had the option to force someone into the joining. My Rook had friends and a life before everything started. I felt really involved in the warden storyline. Sometimes Rook even pointed out when they came close to dark spawn hords since they could sense them. I felt more like a warden than in DAO.)

• I always loved the "galaxy readiness" - system in Mass Effect, so I was over the moon when I saw that DAV had a similar system

• dialogues change a lot depending on Rook's faction or what Rook said or did to NPCs

• companions remember what Rook said to them. Sometimes they try to change Rook's mind over a long time or they refer back to it

• companion quests

• companions can have relationships with each other, they've conversations and meetings without Rook

• the romance (the flirt faces aren't awkward anymore)

• relationship bar is back in a way

• best Bioware CC so far

• small maps

• the locations feel alive (there are also some cute little nonsense interactions like petting animals or giving money to homeless people and bards)

• the environments are stunning

• one desicion can change a location (look and storyline) completely

• the lore was peak as always

• you can activate statues to get more health or ability points but there are no collectables

• some cameos arrive with their old theme, there are also bards that play the DAI bard music

• everything was really alive

• the blight was better portrayed than ever before

• great NPCs

• companions can die depending on your choices

Cons:

- few references to former games

- retconning

- many missed opportunities for cameos (I know people say "new player would get confused by them" but we also don't know any of the new NPCs and their introduction lacked)

- Inky's role was shallow, they should've had a bigger role, it was their fight as well after all

- the game doesn't explain the factions/countries well enough. For example new players won't know how hugh and important the Tevinter Imperium is

- nearly impossible to play a serious Rook

- NPCs tend to explain the situation too often. To a point where three people talk with each other and nearly everyone says the same. Or you run through a level and the companions point out 5 times what you've to do next or they give you short summaries of stuff you've JUST heard

- the tone is off from time to time. There was a quest in which Rook and their companions should've been frightened yet they cracked jokes the entire time. DA was always open to jokes but who laughs when someone just died right in front of them?

- many NPCs treat Rook like a child and act way too young/giddy

- almost no real disapproval, everyone loves Rook

- the ending was underwhelming

All in all:

I had a great time. Veilguard is definitely one of my favorite games but as a Dragon Age fan I can't help but feel disappointed by the lack of callbacks. And the tone of the game had me rolling my eyes constantly. Yet the NPCs, story and locations grew on me so much that I couldn't put away the controller.

[mdhwrites]

The Roughness of Soldier 11

I like Soldier 11. I REALLY wish she was a better main DPS because I have her and I'd like to use her. I have her at full trust and seeing her makes me smile.

I don't really think about the fact that she is SOLDIER 11 very often besides it being silly flavor. Why is that? Why is it someone said that Belle11 was a cute ship but without enough angst when there is PLENTY (I'll include two obvious examples at the end of the analysis portion) to mine between the two of them?

Well, it comes down to two elements. The first is overall tone of the game and the second is specifically how we've been introduced to her. And a reminder: Neither of these are inherently bad, hell even no longer seeing her as a soldier is that big of a deal, but they're interesting in the cascading effect they have.

Let's start with her start: Her companion missions. They start exceptionally silly, with a cartoon level villain as the antagonist and a silly codename for you throughout the entire thing. That fits with the rest of the writing though and I ADORE her missions, with her first one making me consistently lose it, especially as she played along with her own set of lies. As they continue, we get more somber moments with her, and even one moment where she straight up admits to war crimes...

But what sticks from her mission set? Well, she continues to interact with Inky, her joke about spicy food is constantly reinforced and she continues to call us by varying versions of our codename. The silly elements, not the somber ones. Worse yet is also due to mechanics. The rebels are just another enemy type. They aren't very special to be fighting and can blur with the ethereals and raiders as just another enemy faction, not an opposing army. That robs a lot of bite out of the task that Soldier 11 faces as a soldier...

And that's strictly a good thing. ZZZ after all is much more tonally in line with a Sitcom. Hell, I'd argue her companion mission is essentially in line with a M.A.S.H. episode but with more action. A character who reminds you that the town is at war is kind of antithetical to that sort of tone so her problems should feel akin to Pubsec's problems: They're there but it's not a big deal and no one is in any real danger except for occasional flare ups. That allows for the breezier, sillier, cheesy tone of the game to work.

But it also means that these elements become a part of the churning melting pot of gimmicks and archtypes within the game. They lose their special flavor the more time is spent with them. Do you see Zhu Yuan as a police officer or just a naive, goody two shoes who tries too hard? Do you see Soldier 11 as a bloodthirsty soldier who will do anything for her country, or do you see her as your Kuudere girlfriend who likes spicy food and has weird interactions with cats?

The latter robs much of the deeper bite of the former, at least if you do not do anything to remind yourself of the former. It's like how Guinaifen is my favorite character in HSR but if anyone went, "But she's just a vapid streamer," I couldn't really blame them for focusing on that. It is the core element of her character that is presented, even if the game does a lot to play with that core element. That's without getting into her past, which is only briefly talked about by her, optionally, and otherwise in her character story. It's easy to lose these deeper layers if the writing focuses more on the superficial or gimmicky elements, let alone when much of the writing focuses on those elements.

But again, that's not necessarily a problem. ZZZ knows its tone and a blood psycopath is not a part of that. A clueless girl who doesn't realize her tastebuds became dead a decade ago is. See you next...

Wait, I did promise Belle11 angst potential so here's two angles of it, essentially one for each side:

Operator versus 'Operator': Belle is a bit of a braggart and exaggerator so she absolutely would whine about the danger she faces in the Hollows like she were actually there. Compare this to Soldier 11 who doesn't just fight ethereals when something goes wrong but soldiers actively attempting to murder her in a coordinated effort and uh... She might have some complaints about that. Might even get furious about it as she thinks Belle is trivializing not just her work but the sacrifice of every fallen comrade she's ever had, let alone the danger she puts others in with things like her excursions into Hollow Zero. What right does she, who only ever plays at being in danger, have to claim she's putting herself in the same situation as the boots on the ground?

Soldier versus 11: Soldier 11 is a perfect soldier. She is good at her job, loyal, strong, indestructible. Belle loves all these facts about her girlfriend. The fact that she does so much good work and can keep looking good doing it!... Until the day she's told a rebel soldier had bombs strapped to himself and instead of being interrogated, he exploded while Soldier 11 went to grab him. Now she's in critical condition, unconscious and very, very destructible. Very human, instead of some goddess of war. Which is the version Belle is actually attracted to, especially during 11's forced vacation to recover?

Anyways, see you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Weird how supporting Ukraine in Russia's war of aggression is an NPC move and not really worth supporting (with many right-wingers actually supporting Russia) but supporting Israel is totally based and the only right thing to do.

Thank you anon, I've been waiting for some idiot to try and compare these two things. So let's list some of the ways the two situations are different.

Ukraine is not our ally. Israel is.

Ukraine provoked Russia by trying to join NATO, which was specifically forbidden by an agreement NATO had with Russia. Israel did nothing to provoke Hamas other than refuse to be genocided by religious fanatics.

Ukranian independence means nothing for the United States. Our situation is exactly the same no matter who wins that war. Israel is the only democracy in the middle east. It's the only country that has nukes in the middle east. Its existence draws the attention of terrorist states that would otherwise turn their violence back towards us. Its existence gives the various Islamic factions, many of which hate each other almost as much as they hate Jews or America, something to focus on instead of having the fundamentalists immediately go to war with the arab nations that are slowly westernizing. I can't overstate how much a stable, westernized middle east would benefit the US, and Israel's existence is important for that goal.

Russia is a legit government that declared war on another legit government. Hamas is a terrorist organization pretending to be a government that raided Israel, kidnapped and raped hundreds of people, murdered civilians, slaughtered babies, and stole children.

Russia has nukes. Hamas doesn't. If Putin is backed into a corner there's a decent chance he'll use those nukes. If Russia loses the war and that leads to Putin being ousted and a fight for power in Russia, those nukes could be stolen or sold to foreign powers that want to destroy the US and the west. If Russia collapses, then the chances of those nukes going outside of Russia increases drastically.

Those are just a few ways the two situations are different, and why any comparison between the two is stupid and ignorant. Now, if you want to know my personal thoughts, since I know people like you love to pretend that all right wingers have the exact same opinions on everything and demand we prostrate ourselves and self-flagellate over things we've never said, I'll readily admit that I have a deep sympathy for the historic, and modern, plight of the Jews that I don't have for Ukrainians. I'm much more emotionally invested in Israel than I am in Ukraine. But I do hope Ukraine wins. I think every country and every culture should be free to govern itself. I don't support Putin, I don't support Russia, and I think it's hilarious that what used to be the second most powerful military in the world is having so much trouble conquering a tiny country they should have, on paper at least, steamrolled in a few weeks.

But I also don't support the US getting involved in foreign conflicts unless there's something tangible to be gained for us, either economically, strategically, or diplomatically. We get nothing for our investment in Ukraine. We get a lot for our investment in Israel.

[typosandtea]

With Artfight very soon I though it was about time to post about some of my ocs!

Introducing: Murphy!!

SKETCHS HERE!!!

Nora Murphy is a whole 5ft of mutant soldier trauma and caring.

The short:

S:5, P:7, E:8, C:10, I:3, A:7, L:2

Toughness, Lifegiver, rad resistant, refractor, admantium skeleton, animal friend, inspirational, local leader, rifleman

BOS main, contractor for the minuteman, deacon only minor contact with the railroad, hates the institute

Good, helps people, very anxious, terrified of becoming a monster. Unlucky.

Is a mutant: can fly, quick heal / tough, but needs to eat a lot, restricted to night by being nocturnal, shunned by many

Companions: Danse and Preston mostly, sometimes nick, befriends all of them at least a bit.

Heritage: white Australian

The long: Lore \/

The long:

Fallout 4 ‘Sole survivor’ oc, but in my Mutant AU where vault 111 was a dual experiment creating super soldiers by forcing animal DNA on people with some twisted results (Murph is very lucky to still look mostly human with wings), basically fallout 4 but with a bunch of extra side quests to fight or help her old neighbours in various states of mind.

She is Australian! From NT, Which kinda sucks in fallout universe since most countries had fallen well before the bombs ever fell, Australia was absorbed by USA for its abundance of uranium and strategic proximity to china! She and Nathan (Nate) were accepted as military refugees into the us army about 2065, where they were in power armour core together her as a soldier and him as a mechanic. They were married shortly before where they both get injured in an explosion, Nathan much more so as Murphy was in power Armor at the time. They are discharged, Nathan for injury and Murphy for being pregnant with Shaun. Bombs fall etc.

She is mutated with sooty owl DNA by Vaulttec in an attempt to make an extremely mobile stealth night operative, which didn’t go entirely to plan! While she hardier than normal, capable of flight and is reasonably stealthy she is also now limited to night ops by being nocturnal, daytime is way too bright and painful for her to be in without eye protection! She also struggles to be awake in the day. She also has other negatives from the mutation such as lost intelligence, needing to eat way more food, being smaller than she used to be, and being shunned or shot at. The mutation forces each of the residents to cocoon and liquify into their new forms!

She has so much military trauma, from being in the Aus army when they get demolished by china and then by USA fighting china to take control of Aus, by being acquired by the us army, being a ‘volunteer’ for the power Armor testing, seeing fellow Aussie soldiers get treated poorly in the army, having to participate in the mandatory war crimes, her and Nathan getting badly injured in anchorage, the horrors of war etc.

Personality wise she is very people oriented and will put people before the goal often, extremely charismatic which is the only reason she hasn’t been shot multiple times by just about every faction 😅. Very anxious even before being mutated, but is positively a nervous wreck now, is ok at hiding it. Soldiers training helps a lot to shift into mission focus but is not sustainable in the long term as she finds out! Worries about being a mutant and is terrified of becoming, or being seen as a monster so she is very restrained in her combat, how she moves and speaks, rarely yells or fights first. Will go out of her way to help people as has become the go to helper for many people against her will such as the minuteman, the other mutants and various other people she has helped. She has a very broad definition of person much to Danse’s + the BOS’s chagrin. Has multiple mental breakdowns throughout the story. Privately thinks she deserves to be hated and hunted from a combination of BOS rubbish, military trauma at the awful things she has done as a soldier both pre and post war, and just all round ruined self esteem. Banter is a core part of her speech, if an Aussie is mildly insulting you they think you’re neat!

Pre war was 5’6”, post mutation is 5’ with 15’ wingspan, is not happy about suddenly being a lot shorter. As a morning person naturally the shift to nocturnal is extremely difficult to her, dislikes having to wake people up constantly and feels bad about it. (She feels bad about everything really). Jury-rigs some aviators goggles sunglasses so she can tolerate the sun slightly better, is not a fan of the day anymore, feels too exposed and dislikes flying in the sun.

BOS as feels the familiarity of being as soldier as that’s all she’s ever been for the past 17 years (her perspective excluding the ice nap). Unknown to her, Danse is instructed by Maxon after arcjet on to recruit her so they can study her, and use her as a political pawn with the minutemen and mutants, because by the time she goes to Cambridge she is already reasonably well know and tentatively liked in the commonwealth. (Don’t worry I love both Danse and Maxon as characters so they are not reduced to 1 dimensional jerks!) over time though she befriends Danse as he is assigned to her as her ‘sponsor’ (observe her for study and make sure she makes BoS friendly decisions), mixed feeling in the BoS when she is made knight by Maxon to say the least! over time she becomes a great friend and asset to the BoS and Maxon realises one day the he no longer intends to go through with his original secret plans.

Since she spent so much time in power armour prewar, and Nathan was a power armour mechanic, she knows quite a lot about it! And is very unhappy that she physicaly cannot wear it anymore!

Physically she is small wiry and very hardy from the mutations. Though she can’t wear armour due to its weight and her small stature so she needs to be tough! Important appearance features are she is short, lots of freckles, gap in front teeth, rather flat face, prominent eyebrows, eyes that are too big and yellow from the mutation, shoulder length thick light brown hair that’s messy or braided, she is lean, pear shaped, and has a wide gait. Prefers baggy clothes and will layer over the vault suit / bos uniform. She rather suntanned / leathery and freckled from spending a lot of time outside pre war. She has a prominent set of vertical scars over her left eye from anchorage. She has barbed wire tattoos around her arms above her elbows on both sides. wings connect to her body like having a second set of shoulders.

Absolutely has no cold tolerance from the double whammy of being a Northern Territory Aussie (winter is like 17c here) and cryosleep trauma! Layers clothing wherever possible. Being very cold brings bad memories.

Left leg gets messed up in a nasty fight later, can’t really run much anymore, so is a lot more reliant on flying and her friends, scar on her stomach from stacking it badly on her bike as a kid.

Despite being highly charismatic keeps messing up and emotionally hurting her friends (everyone needs to grow as a person in my fanfic I’m trying to write and that includes messing up in relationships and subsequently repairing the relationship stronger)

Uses laser rifle from Danse that’s modified to be scoped and extra light, carries a combat knife on her person at all times out of habit, before meeting Danse was using 10mm but prefers long range without power armour, which she can’t wear anymore. Her and Sturges whip up some rudimentary comms for her, which later she and danse improves so she can use them in flight without the wind noise making her illegible.

Tends to horde / carry / eat any food she finds since she needs to eat so much and doesn’t want to be a burden on anyone else, most of the time her very limited caring capacity is atleast half food. Has very few clothes because of the time and effort required to modify them, gets a modified bomber jacket later and basically never takes it off again cause bloody hell Boston is cold compared to Aus.

[beardedmrbean]

hey quick question look up jewish expulsions and massacres in all the countries immediately bordering Israel. Look up how many Jew live in Yemen. I support Palestinian freedom, safety, and their right to live - I currently support a two state solution because none of the people advocating for a one-state solution have convinced me that it would be best for any of the people involved. But I think pretty much everyone in the Knesset rn should be hanged for crimes against humanity. But you CANNOT pretend that if someone waved a magic wand and the IDF vanished along with other tools of oppression, that there isn't a problem with Hamas and their "kill all jews" charter (which they changed to look prettier only recently) along with other factions who would want to kill Jews either for revenge or for more power or just because of antisemitism.

I'm going to specify - I don't think there is any inherent Palestinian bloodlust or whatever crock of shit a lot of Zionists peddle. I think that Israeli control of the region clearly models what happens when you have one ethnic group in power over another - I think the human evil we see from Israelis committing atrocities against Palestinians is exactly what we would see if the situation reversed. I don't buy that Palestinians are uniquely savage OR uniquely peaceful. "They just want a land in which to live in peace, and they're willing to fight for it but once they have it there would be no reason for violence" perfectly describes Jews fleeing the Holocaust to try to settle Palestine, and we can see where that logic ends. The myth of a perfectly peaceful pre-Israel Palestine is also not actually the prettiest picture.

I will also clarify that I don't think that 2 ethnic groups can't coexist in one nation as a general rule. I just think that in a region shaped by violence for so long, and such extreme violence right up to now, it is much harder to do so. I think its human nature that when things are so violent, most people aren't going to spend energy making sure they're not being prejudicial, both because energy can be better spent either on survival or joy with your own community, and also because it often feels like your prejudice is keeping you safe, or is proven every time One Of Them attacks One Of You. There are plenty of ways they can try to bridge the gaps, but I don't think that "dissolve Israel immediately and completely" accomplishes any of that

Ya, they're gone from pretty much every MENA nation there is or at least at a handful of their previous population, forced expulsions will do that to your population.

As for the palestenian population, to some degree I think they were ok to stay in Israel as it formed they'd just need to accept Israeli citizenship, there's some issues like the Sheikh Jarrah thing from a few years back that kicked off a short war, Muslim family got evicted from a home they'd been squatting in since before the formation of the country of Israel, people that owned the property had the receipt and deed from when the Ottomans still existed.

Folks still called that stealing their home. I imagine a whole bunch of that happened early on, someone's family had purchased a home of some sort with plans to move there but politics and eventually a war got in the way of that and such.

I would love to see the palestenian types free from the various terror groups that keep starting wars and stealing all the resources meant to aid the standard every day person.

As for the multicultural thing, there's 2 million arabs living in Israel who owing to the fact that they're arabs never need to sign up for military service, where as most every single Jewish citizen does and generally speaking they get along well enough and are even friends.

And to address the ethnic issue

These guys mostly just have 'being Jewish' in common with each other, if they can go and fit in there should be easy enough for anyone that isn't of a mind to start trouble.

If the arabs that identify as palestenian want to stay balkanized that's fine, just stop trying to kill the people that want to live in peace.

(still love the story of the Kaifeng Jews, wild stuff and makes for a good read)

[stockcarbaby24]

Theres so much more to this AU if anyone wants me to share

👀 you can yap about your fire emblem au at me if you want

Ahhh, feel free to ask more questions or dm me if you wanna know more of the details Ram (or anyone), but I'm just kind of posting a synopsis 🫶🫶🫶

I'm not sure who all is familiar with Fire Emblem on this side of the internet- idk how much cross over there is with these fandoms- but my AU is based mostly off the Three Houses game. It's both F1 and Indycar- with F1 being more heavily involved in the main plot and the Indycar "characters" just being caught up in everything.

I guess I should start by saying that Fire Emblem is a JRPG tachical strategy game that is heavily based in medieval fantasy and war. So basically, I'm taking all our fav little dudes and putting them in horrors again, but with 80% more blood.

In this version of the lore, The Empire is led by Max Verstappen and a lot of the other drivers associated with Red Bull and the newer (in the grand scheme of things) teams on the grid. They're the group kind of pushing back against the traditional religious teachings of the Goddess and starting a revolution.

Meanwhile, the north/the church side of the war is led by Charles Leclerc and his undivided love for the Goddess. Yes, this is an incredibly obvious allegory for Ferrari, and it's undying fandom/obsession it creates with the Tifosi.

The final faction of the country is the lands/houses to the east, which are all just trying to stay the fuck out of everything but when half the continent is at war, well, unfortunately... This area is kind of where almost all the Indycar drivers are just trying to stay in their lanes but keep ending up in situations.

Again, since this is based off Three Houses, there is also an element to this whole lore that all the drivers (who are now soldiers and/or Noble lords) know each other because they trained together at The Academy learning how to fight and use their weapons of choice. It adds extra drama, heehee.

I could literally go one for hours- days- about this au cause genuinely it's combining some of my favorite shit of all time, but i don't want to bore everyone with elaborate Fire Emblem class lore unless that's what the people want lol I have lists of who all is a mage, fighter, etc

Thank you to anyone that read all this. You're the real mvps 🫶🫶💜💜🩷🩷

[salemcantupdate]

for the da4 ask game! if you havent already been asked these ones - dragonageheap

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

10. Which location are you most excited/hoping to explore in-game?

Hello! I haven’t been asked these yet I don’t think

I don’t really have a strongly planned Rook, though. I don’t want to strongly attach myself to something that might not fit well, especially since I don’t know how much detail will be in each Rook’s backstory related to factions. But I know I’m more likely to pick the Shadow Dragons? Unless I can have a short Qunari, then I’m 100% gonna have a short Qunari, well Tal Vashoth. Or Vashoth? I hope I can play a proper Tal Vashoth, someone who left the Qun!

And a location I’m excited to explore…

Ok so I’m hyped to see the weird reality warping in the Arlathan Forest and see what it’s like for the Veil Jumpers. It seems so cool! But for countries… *Im really interested in the Anderfels*. Mostly cause of Anders. I love Anders.

[valentyn-the-mad]

I think there's a connection between not wanting to participate in activities that reduce harm without being a perfect solution to eliminate the problem - setting up safe places to do drugs, needle exchange, still masking to prevent covid spread, and even voting - and the pervasive cultural christianity of the US.

Many people just don't believe harm reduction is worth anything unless it perfectly removes the problem. And leaving aside the fact that imperfect is still better than no change at all, that it's in the name [harm reduction not harm elimination], that helping someone a little is better than not helping at all - I think this has to do at least in part with the very all-or-nothing viewpoint enshrined in many many many factions and denominations and belief structures that are informed by christianity.

I'm not going to get into a breakdown of each one, because frankly I am not a religious scholar, but I know that I have firsthand seen the way the whole country has been shaped by vocal religious groups demanding conformity to a certain set of standard beliefs and behaviors, slightly differing by group but overall policing behavior through fear of ostracization or retaliation.

I think that fear - inherent in the teachings of many of these groups, often especially in the ones most actively recruiting - of not being perfect, of not performing penance or dedication or conformity to the standard, which has dire consequences for those selective in-groups, has led to a sort of cultural decision paralysis.

In a world where your group - your support, family, community - will punish you for failing to perform to their standard, often emotionally hurtful if not physically damaging, why would you risk it? Why would you risk a solution that is not perfect? Why would you, under threat of disapproval and being marked as an outsider to those you hold dearest, ever try something that was not guaranteed to succeed in its entirety?

This is ignoring the fact that, culturally, socially, we as humans have decided that there are acceptable targets who deserve the suffering they get, no matter what luck of the draw put them in that position - we're not getting into how people made a bad choice and now should be just eternally punished I guess - although that is exactly the systemic thinking within those religious groups contributing, I believe, to their inability to actually do good for those who do not already fit their mold or want to break themselves to fit it. We won't get deeper into that.

I think, with so much of our society backed - quietly and not so quietly - by institutions that value this control and conformity, the need to be perfect to be rewarded spiritually, it has destroyed our ability at large to say "this solution is not perfect but it will help" and actually find value in helping. Helping, not solving, not permanently fixing an issue, but focusing on progress over perfection.

We're also in the midst of just truly unprecedented social and emotional burnout due to all the world events we have witnessed during the last 5-10 years, economic strain, the lot of it, so small steps don't feel like enough and long-term plans are exhausting to even think about let alone dig in and accomplish - but I think this feeds back into the unwillingness to compromise due to an ingrained social fear that many people harbor of being profoundly judged for making the wrong move, which leads them to then decide no action is the only right decision. Which then perpetuates the issues being decided on, because taking no action is still choosing to let things stay as they are, but that's not their direct fault so they won't be held responsible in the same way as making a Wrong Choice.

I don't have a solution here - I'm not going to start saying we need to abolish all religion or anything - but I do think that the pervasive cultural christian background[s] we have in the US is actually working against us due to the baggage it entails for so many people. I think the lack of value people put on making some things better even if it's not perfect, on reducing the harm done to other human beings regardless of whether they are just like you - I feel like it's connected. Caring is uncool, and worse, performing the wrong kinds of caring will send you to hell forever and ever. Amen.