#assuming one of the most populated cities in the US is only inhabited by the uber wealthy is ignorant if you think about it for more than

[lesbinewren]

people talking about the la fires and bringing up “hollywood elites” that are too rich to have sympathy for or talking about how this is gods punishment for the “sins” of celebrities is pissing me off. bro so many of my coworkers have had to evacuate their homes and have/could lose everything. and most of us work two jobs and struggle to pay bills. not rich elites. fuck you!!!

[thethirdromana]

Subscribing to Letters Regarding Jeeves and the Woman in White Weekly has left me preoccupied with the role of servants. So here's a bit of a ramble on servants - and particularly Dracula's servants, or lack thereof.

Jonathan comes from a time when being middle-class means having at least one live-in servant. But the number of servants per head of population in the UK was falling - from 1.38m in 1891 (4% of the population) to 1.27m in 1911 (2.8% of the population). That's why, in Jonathan's time, employing one servant means entry to the middle classes, but 30ish years later, the fabulously wealthy Bertie Wooster also has... one servant.

(To disgress: admittedly Jeeves is likely to be a lot more expensive to employ than the entry-level maid-of-all-work that a middle-class household would have, and there's also no indication that Wooster couldn't afford more servants, but I think it's still significant that he's happy with just the one. Wooster is gently snobbish about being appropriately dressed and going to the right restaurants and so on, but he doesn't see only having one servant as a problem.)

Dracula is a medieval nobleman. I don't know much about Transylvanian history but I would expect that in life, his castle would have been swarming with servants, both as a necessity (it takes a lot to keep a castle warm and clean, and its inhabitants fed), as a duty (to employ people from the surrounding area) and as a status symbol. And I would expect much the same to be true of a living nobleman on his country estate in 1890s Transylvania as well.

So why doesn't Dracula have any servants?

Well, obviously from a storytelling perspective, it's fucking creepy. I think the impact is lessened from a 21st century perspective because "there are no servants" is the default state for most of us, but this is the 1890s equivalent of being in a city and suddenly all the street noise goes silent. And I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place goes hard in any century. From Bram Stoker's perspective, I don't think this needs more justification and if I wasn't analysing every aspect of this book in the minutest detail I don't think I would give it any further thought.

The other obvious answer is that, being dead, Dracula doesn't need any servants. But I don't think that works. He may not need to eat or stay warm and presumably he doesn't produce any waste, but he still wears clothes that need washing and has horses that need to be cared for. Any old building needs an exhausting amount of maintenance just to keep it from crumbling. There's a lot of work that needs doing and I think we can assume that Dracula doesn't want to be doing it himself.

Perhaps he can't have servants. If serving at the castle means death (which presumably it does) then maybe the locals just refuse. And while Dracula has ways to pressure people, I can imagine that he would see that as beneath him just for the sake of having someone to wash his shirts. Maybe as much of that work as possible is done outside the castle, free of charge, by the terrified locals.

So then I find myself wondering, what is the state of the castle usually? Has Dracula spring-cleaned for his visitor? Has he brought the bed-hangings and linen out of ancient storage chests, replacing the moth-eaten ones that usually sit there, decaying? Has he dusted? There is an enormous amount of work involved just in getting the castle to the standard that Jonathan sees. Is there magic involved? Does Dracula usually live there like Sleeping Beauty with the castle crumbling around him? Or is the sumptuous luxury that Jonathan sees just an illusion?

[goldenashes-if]

I know things have been changing with the revamp, so i wanted to ask some general worldbuilding questions to orient myself in your dragon universe 😄

So what is this kingdom? Where are we? Is this a large country? What's the geography situation for the dragon people

Are there other countries with non-dragon people and other species?? Or are all the sapient species worldwide dragon-ish just like us 🤔

there's a king and a regent, so I'm assuming a Noble class is a thing. But how important is the concept of bloodline, shifters, and nobility here? What is the percentage of nobility in the population?

Any class conflicts in society? Is us romancing Zaphia scandalous?? What other social classes are there and how do they live and interact with each other?

And (if its not too spoilery) what's the political climate like? King's sick 👀 that always makes a country feel a bit unsteady - are people getting particularly nervous about anything?

Ohh worldbuilding❤ lore dump time!

Very very honestly, it is a kingdom which is vaguely inspired by the United Kingdom, but not really. It has no geographical ties save for being a huge island separated from the mainland.

It has vast spaces for dragons to roam free, some big cities, like the one where the game is set (the capital) but outside those, there is the countryside, where dragons exist amongst humans as either pets, working animals, or companions, and then there are the mountains, caves and some other places that are inaccessible to humans where dragons can go nest and live a wilder life.

As far as the game is concerned, any other country does not exist, and so I'm going to focus on the country where the story is set (meaning, I haven't bothered to spend energy on worldbuilding that I won't use).

The country/world is basically inhabited by

Humans, who have some draconic traits (scales, sometimes eyes that resemble dragons) and most of them can shift into dragons at will

Humans that are called "true shifters" (MC) who can shift fully into a powerful dragon form, but that in their human form have many draconic traits (scales, horns, forked tongue, tail, claws...)

Domesticated dragons, who live alongside humans, can be very tiny or medium sized. Usually are considered pets

Wild, or at least non domisticated dragons, who are often a bit bigger than the domesticated ones. They tend to live in big, communal nests. (Think of dogs vs wolves)

(Note: dragons have the intelligence of smart dogs. But they have still animal behaviours and level of intellect)

POLITICAL SITUATION

In this world, there are commoners, middle class, and then the noble families. Above all, there is the Monarch, who rules with the council of the head of each noble family.

Currently, the situation is atypical as the King has fallen ill years ago and the Regent, his husband and also a true shifter, has taken his duties. He is quite reserved, and so leaves the noble families to their parties, and involves himself only with politics.

The noble families usually have a residence in the countryside, where they stay for half the year, and then they all move to the major city close to them for the Season (where the political meetings take place). Seasons are also an opportunity for single people seeking a spouse to find a good suitable bachelor (gn).

Marriages need to take into account the social standing of the other person so yes, MC and Zaphia would be quite scandalous. More than even Sekh' and MC. Instead, MC would be considered an unworthy party for Cherena.

[waytooobsessedwithmcyt]

Decided to do the math on the Spiders Georg post, in order to get the average amount of spiders eaten per year of the world up to three, Spiders Georg would have to eat not 10,000, but 100,000,000 spiders a day

Assuming the average spider weighs 0.01 grams, he eats 1,000,000 grams of food a day, converted to kilograms, he is eating 1000kg a day. There are 2267961850 kilograms of spiders. It will take 2267961.85 days for spiders Georg to consume the entire population of spiders. That is about 6213.59 years. We are safe.

Spider's Georg is eating .694 kilograms per minute. The fastest eater in the world eats 7.6 hotdogs a minute. Each hotdog he eats weighs .0056 kg. That is .042 kilograms a minute. Spiders Georg is not human.

Star nosed moles are the fastest eaters, being able to eat ten mouthfuls of earthworms in 1.3 seconds, I was unfortunately incapable to find anything about how many earthworms a mouthful was, so for the sake of this post, I shall assume it is around 10. I have been getting so many mixed messages on how much worms weigh, anywhere from .25g to .45g but the one I saw the most was .39oz or 11 grams. (Do y'all see how un-fucking-helpful these were?) But I guess we'll go with 11 grams (I do not trust that number) so 1100 grams a second, or 1.1 kg a second. That seems way too fucking high, so I'll be trying the lowest number I saw to prove my point. .25 grams comes out to .011 kg a second, or, .65kg a minute.

Spiders Georg is just a very slow eating star nosed mole. However, this is assuming he eats 24/7, giving him the speed of a star nosed mole, it would take him only 15 minutes a day to consume his quota of making the average amount of spiders eaten by humans 3 per year. HOWEVER! Since Georg, a star nosed mole, is affecting the human population spiders eaten average, we must add all star nosed moles to the human population.

But because fuck me THERE ARE NO ESTIMATES OF STAR NOSED MOLE POPULATIONS. There are roughly 25 per hectare. Calculating its entire area (roughly because nobody gives me a straight answer on this shit), 554, 363. Around 2.5 percent of land is taken up by cities, so about 13,859 miles are unusable. So 540,504 square miles are inhabited. 139989893.4 hectares. 3,499,747,335 star nosed moles.

Total population of humans and star nosed moles: 11,499,747,335

Spiders Georg has to eat 40,000,000,000 spiders a year to keep the population eating 3 spiders on average. 109,589,041 a day. 4566210 an hour. 76104 a minute. 1268 a second. 13 grams a second. .013kg per second. Easily accomplishable by Spiders Georg.

It would take a mere 16 minutes of his day to eat enough to make the entire human population have an average of 3 spiders swallowed.

Sites I used and my math so people may fact check me (I feel like I did something incredibly wrong and the star nosed mole numbers should not be coming out like that)

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/science/underground-gourmet-mole-sets-a-speed-record.html

https://majorleagueeating.com/eaters/106

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/spiders-gobble-gargantuan-numbers-of-tiny-prey/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/common-earthworm

https://www.newgeography.com/content/001689-how-much-world-covered-cities#:~:text=My%20attention%20was%20recently%20drawn,is%20occupied%20by%20urban%20development.

https://www.esf.edu/aec/adks/mammals/starnosed_mole.php#:~:text=The%20range%20is%20from%20southeastern,organic%20muck%20adjacent%20to%20water.

[lindajenni]

feb 28

fun speculation "but as it is written: 'eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." 1 cor 2:9 first, the kingdom of heaven is not a democracy.  God is King of Kings, or dictator for life.  with that in mind, we are now choosing whether we want to follow satan or God; our own interests or God's interests?  personally, i (and i assume most of you) choose God because as the Creator He designed the universe with earth as our home. rather than viewing that scenario as boring or limiting we should understand that God understands our concerns and is unlimited.  the universe is surpassing in size, and He is hardly limited by the limited size of the earth.  that being the case, my imagination has taken atrip into the future He has prepared for us. we just don't know if we will have "space travel" on the new earth.  i'm tempted to say there will be, as least to some degree, because if you measure the height of the new jerusalem, it already extends into space!  the only question i have is, "will we need vehicles to get there or not?"  it makes you go... ummh! as for as the creation of a new universe with new planets, i think that goes without saying.  the universe appears to be in danger of evolving into chaos even now.  so in making a new heavens God appears to wish to rectify this.  since it is well beyond anything we can comprehend there is little explanation as to how He is going to do this. we may get frustrated not to know more, and i don't think it's wrong to question.  we do have to learn a certain degree of contentment and trust in God, or patience in His answers; patience in the  wonders He is wanting to dazzle with us.  "it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter." prov 25:2  the diligent (and inquisitive) will likely find what they are looking for as well, if they are willing to pay the price in obedience. incidentally, we are not "reincarnated" - that is a pagan concept.  we are to be "resurrected," our souls being rejoined with bodies completely created out of a totally new substances.  it will still be us, though we have no clue what that will look like.  we won't reproduce, having reached our quota for the earth, and clearly, our biology will change!  so whatever size He creates the new jerusalem as will be big enough. speaking of which... i was thinking about the size of the heavens and earth and of the new jerusalem.  as far as i understand, it is about half the size of the US in a cube shape.  it's 1500 miles square by 1500 miles high, allowing for multiple layers or platforms. now i speculate that we won't all live there continually.  we have the new earth for our mansions and habitations.  but we will all have to gather for certain appointed times; that includes all saints now living, plus the innumerable saints since time began. scripture teaches us the believers will also have homes out side the city and populate the whole earth.  there will be more available space in our new planet since there will be no oceans (rev 21:1) only small bodies of water.  “they shall build houses, and inhabit them” isa 65:21, 22  the righteous will build their own homes in the new earth in addition to the mansions that Christ prepared for the righteous in the city. john 14:1-3. but in conclusion of the matter, whoever said God will have to abide by our physics in heaven?  i remember a british show i used to watch called, "dr who."  his tardis (abode) was only the size of a phonebooth on the outside, but when one stepped inside it was enormous.  so one could easily walk into a small house and find the inside to be as big as a city.  current pysics don't restrain our God.  nothing does. dream on of all the glories that await those who love God and follow His ways.  just a little fun stuff to imagine.

[stefankarlfanblog]

The secret TV drama

The secret TV drama refers to "God exists... and love"

Article written by Birna Ósk for Stúdentablaðið: https://timarit.is/page/4387738

The graduating group of Iceland's Drama Academy, Egill, María, Rúnar, Laufey. Jóhanna, Hinrik, Nanna and Stefan have a lot to do. They are rehearsing a new Icelandic play that will be premiered in April, and they have just finished making a TV movie in Flatey on Breiðafjörður written by Illugi Jökulsson. The film will be shown on National Television during Easter. Two actresses from the group, Laufey and María, went on stage one afternoon at the Gráa Kettinum.

María: The film is still largely a secret, for example we don't want to reveal anything about it until it is shown on TV, it should be a surprise. But it roughly deals with when the lives and worlds of the inhabitants of a remote island and the lives of the city dwellers who come there on vacation collide, and the various consequences of that.

And is it just you, the class that acted in the movie, no one else?

Laufey: Yes but Magnús Ólafsson plays Chairman on the island and everyone else who lives on Flatey will appear in the film.

Now this is not Flatey that Illugi wrote the script for the movie about, but some island that nobody knows, what is it like?

Laufey: The island's name is Fugloy and we thought its population was about forty, which is much more than the population of Flatey, two couples live there in the winter and they are all in the film. We assumed there were more inhabitants, but they do not appear in the film itself.

And what kind of TV movie is this, suspensful or comedic or what?

María: This is a drama with suspense, a tragicomic Icelandic story.

And how long did you guys stay in Flatey?

María: We were in Flatey for ten days in good spirits, a woman came with us who cooked for us and baked, so we didn't have to think about anything but the project…

Laufey: … yes, and make sure we're well dressed and come to dinner on time. This was really great.

Now you've put on a whole bunch of shows at school and got a lot of audiences watching you, but you've never done a project for television before, have you? Isn't that completely different?

Laufey: We were lucky enough to get absolutely foolproof preparation for this project last year, because then Hilmár Oddsson, our current director, taught us a film acting course and then we made a short film, which could be called a kind of preparation for this one. It was actually a logical continuation of what we did then. But of course we got to know a different side of acting, where we were jumping between scenes back and forth, taking the first scene last and everything in a crazy order, which is completely different from the theater.

María: Yes, this is healthy work, it adds a lot to the theater work for us.

Culture shock

But now the whole nation is going to watch you, isn't that a bit strange?

María: Of course, we didn't think about that during the filming, but it's definitely something that you have to think about when the film is shown, it just has to be revealed.

How is studying at the Drama School, is it anything like the University?

María: The program is very diverse and there is really no rule about it. In the first year, we are introduced to all the main aspects of theater: improvisation, recitation, voice, singing, Alexander's technique and gymnastics, and on top of this, book lessons and all kinds of courses are added, which only depend on which teachers are working at the school at any given time.

Laufey: The fixed points are that at the end of the first year the group performs scenes from a modern play, in the second year Shakespeare is taken up and the playwriting of the ancient Greeks and then there is also a trip abroad. Then we go to visit another drama school in the Nordic countries. In the third year, we stage a classical piece, a children's play and, most importantly, we do an individual project which is structured in such a way that we choose a scene from a play, a character or characters, and stage it ourselves and perform for an audience. After that, we get a director who edits the piece in cooperation with us, and after that we show it again. In the fourth year, we put on two plays and make a TV movie.

And what lies ahead for us when you graduate this spring? Is everyone going straight to the theaters?

María: Some of them already have a job in a big acting school, but I think that everyone is going to try to go straight to acting, except for one in the group, who is thinking of studying directly at a director's school abroad.

Laufey: Yeah, so we're thinking about working together even after graduation, the whole class. And if it turns out, it will be the first time that an entire class from the drama school will collaborate immediately after graduation.

And aren't you nervous, it's a pretty tough world now, isn't it?

María: Not so, there is so much happening in the theater world in Iceland, a lot of independent theater groups and exciting things, so it's not a death sentence even if we don't get a role in a big play…

Laufey: …no, there are so many other exciting things going on, plus it takes an actor a long time to get going. All of this just has to have its time.

With these words, I said goodbye to these great actresses who, in addition to their classmates, will be entertaining the TV audience in the Sunday theater during Easter.

[insculpoworks]

Lost in the Sprawl

It was a silent evening in the sprawling cityscapes.

A human of unknown origin stood as a mote of dust, a dead pixel in the endless sterility of the phantom metropole, a monument to a society he never was a part of. The human had never truly processed to him what exactly the scope of cosmic creation could be. Always it was in simplifications, “galaxies are easy to colonize on astronomical timescales”.

Which meant in effect, FTL. And FTL means the galaxy is easily colonized, pump out many warp ships, colonize every star within a mere few thousand years.

He felt that assuring. After all, the laws of physics had been proven wrong by the Spinoza Constant. Relativity was said to have been a subjective thing, but there were loopholes. It turned out there was also another special frame which allowed for warp travel. It existed in defiance of everything which was meant to be logical. Resolving the special frame paradox has never been achieved. By humanity.

One problem. The Sprawl existed.

The Sprawl’s existence was absolute in its invalidation of our sense of exceptionalism. The Sprawl should not exist. Humans should not exist. Yet both somehow exist. There was eons of time before us both. The Sprawl with a cosmic eyeblink already had advanced to a galactic civilization. How did we exist? It left one bewildered.

And yet looking upon the writhing roadways, spires that stretch kilometers and empty arcades, balcony-like structures and bridgeways so close helped little in that sense. He had not known how long he had wandered the Sprawl or where he landed to begin with. The soft, alien humming of the occasional machines without any apparent means of propulsion toiling at whatever blemishes existed only made the realm feel more distant.

The machinery outlived whatever once lived here. Somehow he was not harmed by any ambient dangers in this forsaken environment. Even than, the human found himself always concerned that some corridor, some basement, some aqueduct or access to the lower layers may be filled with some incomprehensible horrors he had no defense against.

For that reason he kept to the open streets, of which were the safest just because nothing really was around beyond the serene machines doting about the blank architecture.

Machines which only appeared to exist as needed, evaporating into the mist once their functions were carried out. As they had in the millennia since anything truly lived here.

All of which only highlighted how this was but an upper layer of a world belonging to a civilization so winding and endless in its Escherian geology that it is known simply as the Sprawl. These endless cities had been built above many layers. And below, ever further down was countless more layers of activity produced across thousands upon thousands of years. Whatever ]alive may subside in those depths. The human never dared to check, as the surface already was a web work of impossible pathways with lead to impossible destinations. All once inhabited, once populated.

All now gone.

The estimates of how many beings that could have lived in these worlds would be of numbers impossible to give proper respect. The human knew that each number was an individual like himself. Most certainly not human, but living and with a complex life they had lived all the same. A being with agency, unlike the automatons who appear to be the sole inhabitants of the surface.

He decided to calculate how many people may have existed here. He would continue to wander aimlessly across the cityscapes as the calculating kept processing in his head. It was a number with countless factors. For the nature of the inhabitants known varied heavily. This wasn’t only one species. It was a cosmopolitan galactic civilization. As a result, any average would be rough at best. He assumed an average size larger than humans regardless, as the architecture seemingly had attuned to beings somewhat larger than humans in size. In the range of a bear? That didn’t seem right to him, knowing the scale of virtual minds and their ability to compress their space to such minute sizes. But the average range was meant to illustrate, not be truly precise. The scale of a bear worked well for that. As it means even if they were the size of a bear… it would still be a world where quadrillions lived.

There may well have been over a million inhabitants per cubic kilometer*. The whole world was already bigger than earth and with a volume that had artificial constructions going to the core. That isn’t even counting their known use of hyperspace realms, of which may have once allowed for even higher populations and means to offload their waste. The rough estimate was 2 trillion cubic kilometers of Sprawl for one planet. A planet considered middling scale settlement when the fallen galactic civilization strewn about the galaxy was at its zenith.

In aggregate, quadrillions of beings lived here once. The human can’t even make heads or tails of that. It is impossible to understand that number. It is impossible to get the scale of suffering that implies. It is impossible to see past that number. The mind simply blanks out, hides it. The amount of lives lost, the communities, cultures and harmonies that once roiled throughout this place.

The singing minds, the intricate and vast social structures. A realm beyond anything the human could get truly. Post scarcity fails to even understand the reality here. They built a world which made heaven look like hell. They were winning the game of existence in ways humans with their upstart society could only dream of. And then…

Silence.

…

…

…

…

The human fell to the floor in despair.

Crying.

— — -

*Over a million people per square km lived in the Kowloon walled city, of which didn’t have km tall buildings.

[usedcareswinchester]

Information On Best Car Dealership

People are now actually required your can purchase a vehicle for quick and safe travel because of the booming economies, stretching and expanding highways everywhere, and changing lifestyles. Investing in a four-wheeler is now everyone's desire because it not just sets you apart from others in society but in addition expands your personality. However, don't assume all social group has the way to own a brand-new automobile. Many individuals don't have the amount of money to purchase a brand-new automobile, thus used cars are the greatest choice. In comparison to new ones, used cars could be considerably less expensive. Depreciation costs may be lower, and finance for loans for these used automobiles could be simple in the future by. The key will be ready and prepared since buying a used automobile can be quite difficult and hazardous.

Used automobiles really are a more sensible option, particularly in light of the present financial situation. There are numerous fictitious vendors out there, so be careful and common sense. Try to keep in mind that the used automobile won't compare to a brand new one when it comes to quality. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't look around for the greatest price. After all, used vehicles are classic objects that people devalue. The enormous expanses of woods, which served as the habitat for animals and birds in the early days, were the only places where people lived. However, due to the tremendous speed of modernization, forests, and jungles have already been cleared for magnificent businesses of most sizes. The areas that were formerly solely inhabited by wild animals have now been converted into populous cities and towns. You need to drive miles to be able to reach any office or even a shopping mall.

Therefore, having an applied automobile can make travelling convenient and comfortable. The second-largest purchase that lots of families make nowadays is really a car. According to a survey, the global market for used car sales has become growing at a pace of roughly 80–90%, with a projected annual growth rate of 25%. This statistic might surprise everyone, but it reflects the truth that just 10 to 20% of industry for used automobiles is organised, while significantly more than 80% of it is unorganised. However, within the bounds of regulations, 60 to 70 percent of transactions tend to be carried out directly involving the used vehicle buyer and the automobile owner. These figures demonstrate that there surely is a notably higher demand for used automobiles than for new ones. There are certainly a lot of dealers on the market that sell used cars. Additionally, used automobiles can be found to get online. Online shopping is advantageous while there is no middleman to gather commissions and the internet sites provide a big choice of automobiles in several models and colours, which makes it easier to find the ideal car for your needs. Placing an order and doing business online is both incredibly convenient.

[the-convergence]

🌩️ LORE PREVIEW: AUBR. 🌩️

"The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future." - Frank Herbert Aubr is the first planet of convergence. It is presumed that the intensity of its resonance and its influence on its inhabitants is the only reason the planet is able to support life. Pre-Convergence, astronomers from other systems had observed Aubr and assumed it was a gas giant, but the modern Alternity system categorizes it as a terrestrial super-earth with a gaseous envelope accounting for over 99% of its size. 

The combination of Aubr’s size, interstellar positioning, and short precessions have created atmospheric bands in its gaseous envelope. While some are so dense or toxic that special equipment is required to traverse them, others are significantly more hospitable, and house the sky cities in which the population lives. The impact of the planet’s swift rotations, and its otherwise crushing gravitational pull, is largely buffered by the flow of its resonance, allowing these architectural wonders to remain afloat. 

Due to the hostile conditions of the planet overall, the early deterioration of one’s natural body, and the subsequent introduction of bionics and implants to maintain quality of life and enhance physiologic capabilities, are normal parts of the Aubrian life cycle.  Aubrians make a gradual transition away from magic and into mechanics, and subsequently have prolonged lifespans. Those with the correct type of neural implants often have their memory data uploaded to family shrines.

Aubrians ascribe to the laws of cycles: karmic retribution, causality, and reincarnation. They believe that souls participate in the shaping, expression and amplification of resonance in the physical body, and recover in the mechanical one before starting again, in new configurations. This lends itself to a more collectivist attitude — because Aubrians believe that they previously existed in other ways (gender, class, race, etc) — they are very fluid with respect to societal roles. Since Aubrians extend their lives by applying bionics, but believe in these karmic cycles, childbirth tends to ultimately be rarer. The most extreme expression of these beliefs, however, is in the seven Greater Lords of Aubr: these individuals are believed to be avatars of the Aubrian pantheon, and its priests are tasked with finding and installing them into the Aubrian state once their previous iterations pass. Have questions? Send us a message and the sages of Aubr will respond in due time.

[sebeth]

The World Of Ice And Fire: The Pre-Conquest State of Westeros

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

 I’ve mentioned that I have gone back and forth between “The World Of Ice And Fire” and “Fire & Blood” to cover the Targaryen sections. I grabbed “Rise of the Dragons” off my bookshelf – mainly to describe the beautiful artwork and discovered it has new information not seen in the previous two books.  “Rise of the Dragons” came out during the busiest part of my work year, so I quickly glanced at the pretty artwork and put it on my bookshelf, assuming it was simply a re-telling of “Fire & Blood” with no new text, which is not the case.

Here we go, the state of pre-Conquered Westeros, using all three sources for information:

“The Rise of the Dragons” opens with a two-page painting of Aegon, Visenya, Rhaenys, Orys, and Targaryen soldiers standing around the Painted Table at Dragonstone.

The next page is an illustration of Blackfyre, Dark Sister, four Targaryen crowns, and three dragon eggs.

The next illustration is an angry dragon head. The Illustration for the Preface is Valyria after the Doom followed by a two-page painting of the Field of Fire.

The Seven Kingdoms section has illustrations of a Westeros map, Argilac the Arrogant, the Lannister and the Westerlands army pre-Field of Fire, Torrhen Stark, and Meria Martell.

On to the Seven Kingdoms:

The Stormlands –

·         Centered around the rainwood and bordered by the Blackwater River, the Dornish Marches, and the Reach

·         First monarchs of the Stormlands were Durran Godsgrief and Eleni, a daughter of the gods

·         Bran the Builder built Storm’s End

·         House Durrandon has ruled for thousands of years

·         400 years before the Conquest, Arlan III Durrandon expanded the Stormlands by conquering the Riverlands

·         100 years before the Conquest, the Storm Kings lose the Riverlands after Harwyn Hoare, a king of the iron Islands, conquers the Riverlands

·         An attempt to regain the Riverlands resulted in King Arlan V Durrandon’s death

·         Argilac the Arrogant, son of Arlan V, becomes King of the Stormlands

·         Argilac the Arrogant’s reputation as a warrior grew when he threw back a Dornish invasion

·         Argilac joined an alliance with the Free Cities against Volantis

·         He also killed King Garse VII at the Battle of Summerhall

·         Argilac’s only heir is his daughter – Argella

 The Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers –

·         The histories of Westeros state the Iron Islands were settled by First Men

·         The priests of the Drowned God insist the Ironborn were created in the image of their god

·         Long history or maritime activity – fishing, trading tin and iron ore, reaving and pillaging other kingdoms

·         The Iron Islands consist of thirty-one islands, including seven major inhabited ones

·         The Grey King ruled in the Age of Heroes, but no details remain of his reign

·         Each isle had a salt king and a rock king, each elected to their offices until the Drowned God priest Galon Whitestaff unifed the Iron Islands by electing a High King at the first kingsmoot

·         The era of the High Kings lasted centuries and was the apex of Ironborn power

·         The High Kings were referred to as the Driftwood Kings due to their wooden crowns

·         The reign of Qhored the Cruel saw the Ironborn controlling most of the western shore of Westeros

·         Urron Greyiron slaughtered his rivals at the last kingswood, establishing hereditary kingship

·         Centuries later House Hoare succeeded the Greyirons as Kings

·         King Harwyn “Hardhand” Hoare launched an invasion of the riverlands and drove out the Storm Kings

·         Harren “the Black” Hoare rules the united Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers at the time of the conquest but had beggared his realm by building Harrenhal, an enormous castle fortress by the God’s Eye

 The Reach –

·         The second largest but most fertile and populous of the Seven Kingdoms

·         Bordered by the Westerlands, the Red Mountains of Dorne, and the Stormland Marches

·         Claims a connection to Garth Greenhand, the first “High King of all the First Men”

·         All the Reach house claim descent from a child of Garth

·         House Gardener established Highgarden as their seat

·         The Gardener Kings ruled their “Green Realm” for millenia

·         Weathered the Andal invasion by adopting their customs and making the Reach the place of chivalry and knighthood in Westeros

·         Mern IV Gardener was the King of the reach at the time of Aegon’s Conquest

·         Mern IV commands the greatest army in Westeros

 The Westerlands –

·         The Casterlys were ancient lords of the Westerlands until Lann the Clever gained control of Casterly Rock

·         Lann the Clever had a plentiful number of descendants but the most famous were the Lannisters, “who would carve out a kingdom from their seat at Casterly Rock”

·         The Lannisters first warred against the invading Andals but then used them as mercenaries to expand their realm – resulting in the Lannisters in control of the entirety of the Westerlands

·         “Many wars wracked the Seven Kingdoms before the Conquest and the Kings of the Rock were frequently at the center of these conflicts”

·         Lannisters starting wars? Shocking!

·         The Riverlands, the Iron Islands, and the Reach were their main rivals in war

·         Loren I Lannister was King of the Westerlands at the time of Aegon’s Conquest

 The Vale –

·         The Vale has been ruled by the Arryn Kings since the Andal Invasion of Westeros

·         Ser Artys Arryn defeated Robart II Royce at the Battle of the Seven Stars to become the High King of the Mountain and the Vale

·         The First Men who survived the Battle of the Seven Stars and refused to submit fled into the mountains, founding the mountain clans

·         House Arryn is the oldest and most pure of the Andal bloodlines

·         The Vale battled the North for centuries over control of the Three Sisters

 The North –

·         Largest but least populous kingdom in Westeros

·         Harsh climate, deadly winters

·         The Starks, Kings of Winterfell, united the petty kingdoms of the North through conquest and alliances

·         A list of the vanquished include: the Barrow Kings in the Thousands Years War, the Warg King, the Marsh Kings, and the Red Kings of House Bolton

·         The First Men of the North repelled the Andal invasion due to the leadership of the legendary King Theon Stark

·         The Starks were known as the Kings in the North and the Kings of Winter

·         Chief Enemies were the Ironborn, wilding raiders, and the Vale

·         The Vale conflict resulted in The War Across the Water

·         Torrhen Stark was the King in the North at the time of the Conquest

 Dorne –

·         A harsh land of wide deserts, dangerous coasts, and high mountains and three main rivers: Greenblood, Vaith, and Scourge

·         The First Men came over the land bridge that connected Essos to Westeros

·         The Andals made excursions into Dorne but never gained dominion

·         Dorne was an array of petty kingdoms for thousands of years

·         The strangest petty kingdom formed along the Greenblood where a dozen noble houses would elect a High King

·         Nymeria arrived in Dorne seven hundred years before the Conquest – she, along with Mors Martell, would unify Dorne into one kingdom

·         Women have equal status to men in inheritance laws

·         Frequently warred with the Reach and the Stormlands

·         Meria “the Yellow Toad” Martell is the ruler of Dorne at the time of the Conquest

 We end with more details on Dragonstone:

·         The Freehold of Valyria sent an expedition to seize Dragonstone two hundred years before the Doom

·         Dragonstone became the westernmost outpost of the Valyrian Freehold

·         The citadel of Dragonstone was raised by Valyrian magic

 The section ends with illustrations of Dragonstone and Balerion burning the Volantene fleet.

Up next: Aegon’s justifications for the conquest of Westeros.

[dailyadventureprompts]

I'm excited about your open inbox! First off, love what you do and the content you put out. I'm looking forward to trying to integrate some of your stuff into a game I just started running.

On that note, I would be thrilled to see what you come up with for this: the 6 member 3rd level party is part of an expedition exploring a "new" continent in a very Europeans exploring South America kind of way, so lots of jungle terrain. There is an old stone quarry in the area that was used by the dragonborn nation that once ruled here about 1000 years ago to build some of their temples and/or cities. What manner of creature can you see occupying this place, perhaps turning it into a lair? What else might be living here and how might the dragonborn who still live in the area (reduced to nomadic tribes since the collapse of their civilization) make use of it? That might count as more than one request, so I'm ok if you only respond to one. Thank you so much for whatever you come up with!

Wilderness: Empire of the Eclipse

As long as the sun shines, Gaz-et-te-pulk will rule 

- Translation from a crumbling monument

Setup: Civilization is a delicate thing, balanced on foundations that assume that tomorrow will be just like yesterday, and that disruptions to the status quo are fleeting. When things change, and change violently, then civilizations will either bend of break, and in the case of Gaz-et-te-pulk they broke irrevocably. 

A thriving iron age culture that had mastered the arts of plantlore and aquatecture, the dragonborn of Gaz-et-te-pulk (”The City Everflowing”)  transformed their rugged jungle home into a garden. Sustaining a wide population of warriors, poets, and artisans that spread their culture across the continent. 

No army or crisis seemed to be able to challenge Gaz-et-te-pulk, to unmoor it from its place as a cornerstone of history, at least until an upstart cult-leader with a scheme decided to go and snuff out the sun. It was an ego play, a classic dark-lord scheme with too much pagentry and too little thinking about the consequences, and it ended up plunging Gaz-et-te-pulk and the surrounding continent into a half-millenium of darkness. 

As is recorded in the histories of surrounding cultures, “The Devouring Dark” that settled over the region saw the death of the jungle and all the crops, followed by a mass famine and wars between the surviving cities over what was left. Then the rot set in, a fungal plague that fed off the mass-death of the once green land and poisoned the very air itself.  It took five centuries for someone to find and defeat the cultleader turned demigod, and undo his magic to return the light to the sky above the region. It took five more to see life return to the land, growing over the ruin and rot that had once been a darkness-filled desert 

Adventure Hooks: 

The landscape remains scarred from the calamity of the Devouring Dark, and poses a hazard to any traveler seeking to uncover Gaz-et-te-pulk’s history. Though greenery is resurgent since the sun’s return, the strange fungi that flourished in its absence still blooms in darkened corners, creating spore-storms and parasitized predators to seek out new places to grow. Many of the great cities lay in complete ruin, and those not reduced to rubble are now flooded with no one to maintain the great aqueducts and cisterns that once fed them throughout the year. Most are inhabited only by raiders and sickness bearing insects, but a few are being reclaimed by the diaspora of the Everflowing city, seeking to restore a little of their homeland’s glory. 

Things that love the shadows flourished during the half-century of eternal night, squirming up from the darkness below the earth or making the long pilgrimage to this seeming sunless promised land. Derro, Vampires, creatures born from the shadowfell, all saught to make the bones of Gaz-et-te-pulk their hunting grounds, only to be forced back into the caves and gutters with the sun’s return and the cult’s defeat. 

Stongegiants, once enslaved as beasts of burden by the dragonborn, now roam the expanse of the empire hostile to all they encounter. The memory of stone is long, and most of these beings still bear the boreholes through their rocky flesh where their captors attached their fetters, while some others were remade into living monuments of their captor’s supremacy.. 

Among the ruins the party may encounter an eccentric old hermit, who has much to tell them of the region and its history, and conceals yet more of his role within it. 

Art

[yetanotherlesbianonthiswebsite]

Halamshiral - Canon information and assorted headcanons

I have been working on a project to construct the city layout of Halamshiral and have been collecting some information on it. The pages reference the normal edition, the one mention of the Deluxe Edition is specifically noted

Canon information The Masked Empire gives us about Halamshiral’s city layout and buildings

- The map of Orlais on page 6 suggests that Halamshiral is slightly north of the Imperial Highway, possibly even bordering it. Celene and Michel’s escape route described on page 100 also suggests that one has to go south from Halamshiral to reach the Highway.

- Halamshiral is separated in the High Quarter, inhabited mostly by human nobles, and the slums, inhabited mostly by elves. The High Quarter, as the line “locked themselves away” suggests, is completely walled off to all sides. (p.24.)

- The streets that lead to the High Quarter through the slums are cleaner than the rest of the streets in the slums and are maintained to be clean. (p.24.)

- There is at least one tavern in the elven part of the slums of Halamshiral. (p. 24.)

- There is at least one tannery in Halamshiral. (p. 69.)

- There is exactly one market square belonging to the elves in the slums. (p. 69.)

- There is a market square inside Halamshiral called the “trader’s square”, located outside the High Quarter, that belongs to human traders. (p. 69.) A remark from Celene’s perspective suggests that parts of the slums belong to poorer humans, and that those parts consist of more than one block, and that they are adjacent to the elven parts of the slums. (p. 72.) It is implied by the order of events that the trader’s square is part of that human part of the slums.

- The buildings in the elven part of the slums are arranged in blocks. (p. 71.)

- The remarks from Thren’s perspective as the wagon drives through the rebelling slums could imply that the elven market square is situated between the trader’s square and the tavern. (p. 71.)

- The illustration on page 105 of the Deluxe Edition of the Masked Empire suggests that there are streets within the elven part of the slums that have space for one wagon to drive with a lot of extra space. The same illustration suggests that there are streets within the elven part of the slums that are cobbled and that there are some free-standing houses that are made from stone right there.

- The minimum width for the streets of Halamshiral’s slums seems to be around four meters, assuming about 50 centimeters per soldiers marching in close formation, as page 80 suggests in the following line: “The Orlesian army, marching four abreast in the narrow and winding streets of Halamshiral’s slums […]”

- There is at least one park in the High Quarter, and it is close to Mainserai’s mansion. (p. 74.)

- There is a market square in the High Quarter, close to one of the multiple gates of the High Quarter leading outside of the city and towards the Winter Palace. (p. 80.) As it fits all of the soldiers that accompany Celene, and several hundreds of them are on horseback (p. 72.), and several thousand people are on the market square during Celene’s declaration (p. 80.), and crowds tend to stack two to three individuals per square meter at the maximum, we can estimate several thousand square meters of free space on the market square.

- The stone walls of Halamshiral date back to the times of the Dales, have massive gates and are too strong to be breached by existing siege weapons in Thedas. (p. 80–81.)

- There are woods directly outside of the city at the High Quarter. (p. 83.)

- The escape route that Michel and Celene take also suggests that Celene exited the city towards the north when she still planned to go to the Winter Palace, which would situate the Winter Palace to Halamshiral’s north. This also suggests that the High Quarter is situated in the northern part of the city. (p. 100.)

 Headcanons

- The population of Halamshiral has been estimated as roughly 33,000 in 9:39 Dragon by @dalishious before, and, as per usual, I have few things to add to their beautiful thoughts – my headcanon for Halamshiral’s population has been largely tied to the very strong Versailles vibes I get from Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, and Versailles sits around 30,000 to 45,000 people in the second half of the 17th century (I do always read Orlais as having a population of several million because it just screams France in the late 17th century and get shocked that the rest of Thedas sits very vividly at medieval population statistics). If we estimate the human population of Halamshiral at 3000, I’d say it would be reasonable to expect it split between the human part of the slums and the High Quarter, the High Quarter having a significantly lower population density than the slums.

- As stone streets build to last can last several centuries, I do headcanon the streets of the slums to be somewhat reminiscent of the street layout of Halamshiral as the capital of the Dales – I just believe that where in the Dragon Age stand blocks in the slums, singular larger houses/buildings capable of housing entire families stood in elven Halamshiral, allowing for agricultural gardens around them large enough to make the city self-sufficient. The small and winding streets of Halamshiral in the Dragon Age were simply paths between houses that connected them to larger roads, and those larger roads led to the protected communal spaces of Halamshiral that in the Dragon Age had been turned by Orlais into the High Quarter.

- I think a population density in modern Halamshiral of around 12,000 per square kilometer in the alienages and around a thousand per square kilometer in the High Quarter could be, looking at historical data of 17th century Paris, considered realistic; that means a roundabout two and a half square kilometers for the slums and one and a half square kilometers for the High Quarter. The average population density would then sit around 8250 per square kilometer, and the entire urban area of Halamshiral would sit around four square kilometers.

- The walls of Halamshiral, in Celene’s description, immediately reminded me of descriptions of the walls of Constantinople, so their thickness could be at five to seven meters.

- I’d assume that (once again taking Paris for reference) the existence of a tannery hints at a small district or set of blocks dedicated to tanning, butchery, and dyeing. Such blocks/districts would in medieval cities often be pushed towards the poorest and most marginalized parts of the city, as the privileged didn’t want to be subjected to the smells of such a district. Therefore, I headcanon the tannery and associated workshops being pushed to the southernmost and easternmost point of the city, probably surrounded by more socially accepted businesses the further one gets away from there.

- The trader’s square (and human part of the slums) sounds like it would be in the west, closer to the streets coming from Lydes. That’s just a headcanon, though.

Closing remarks

There are more descriptions of Celene’s feelings about the genocide she orders against the elves of Halamshiral than actual descriptions of Halamshiral as a city. Most descriptions of the city are quite vague. There is a lot of room to design Halamshiral in many ways, given that TME only gives us a very rough sketch. If you have any headcanons of your own or have observed points within canon I have been missing, please do not hesitate to point them out. @dalishious, my love, as I warned you before, I have tagged you, for you are far more proficient in the lore than I am.

[petrichorvoices]

👿 🛋 🦎 🌙 🌟 🏵

rainbow.... hells yeah

👿 - origin{s}?

we're largely traumagenic and pariogenic, though not exclusively!! some of us are also pariotraumagenic lol

🛋 - what does headspace look like?

oh gods that's a big question

so we have 19 known layers, and we have access to.... we regularly have access to 9 of them, and i won't be describing the ones we do know of under them

Layer 1 is a copy of the outerworld, built from our memories of places and from what we just kind of assume other places look like. it's pretty neat, but people here are spread out, so it's mostly populated by NPCs

Layer 2 is kind of the main hub of activity; this is where our headspace capital {Escorpo} is. most of Layer 2 is forest, with a large mountain near the coast, and at least one island. we haven't looked out into the ocean too much yet; it could go on forever, it could stop at some point, who knows? there are several towns here: Escorpo, Rond, Noble, and Evergreen. Escorpo has vaguely European {i want to say Italian?} style architecture, Rond is smaller with more circular houses and thatch roofs, Noble has a lot of modern-style architecture complete with a modern castle, and Evergreen is also vaguely European architecture but in a different way {and also has a castle}

Layer 3 is my {Cecil} home!! the northwest is all desert, the north is dry prairies, and everything else is forest. we think the forest is an entity of its own. separating the forest from the desert and the prairies is a really big mountain range, with an opening to the left to allow access through. to the east and southeast there's floating islands; you can go to the cliff at the end of the world and just fall off. you'll fall into Layer 8, it's really fun. i suspect there's more beyond the islands, but have never checked. there's various towns in Layer 3, though most have few inhabitants: Araboose, Eight, Georgetown, Lesser Georgetown, Myira, Port, Requiem, and Solace. there's also a completely abandoned Night Vale in the northwest and it scares me so we haven't explored it. Georgetown and Lesser Georgetown both look like something out of a cowboy movie, which is fun. Solace is the only one of these towns in the forest, and it has three buildings; the main building is bigger on the inside and constantly changing, and most people stay in there. Solace is my home!!

Layer 4 is........ a whale statue in a light blue Roblox-style void. the whale statue came from a mall in our hometown. you can sit in the mouth. we don't know why it's here. we don't know why it takes up an entire layer. this has long perplexed us

Layer 5 is a large stretch of grasslands with a lone house in the fields, as well as a mountain range in the distance with a now-abandoned town carved into the rocks. this is also the only layer that has space, as in stars-and-planets space. we discovered this like, two days ago, so we have yet to explore. this layer used to just hold some headmates that were sectioned away from the rest of us in the lone house, and also a ton of headmates that were being purposefully hidden from the main system by an older headmate here. it was a whole thing

Layer 6 is mostly abandoned as well, but it's a large boarding school from an old, old writing project of ours

Layer 7 is made up of the city, the countryside, and the coast, all of which are constantly changing. there's also constantly some type of apocalypse going on here, but which type changes at will. few actually live here; traumagenic headmates have a tendency to show up here, so every so often we scout the place out

Layer 8 is a void. it has the consistency but not the texture of jello. it's black but not dark; you can see forever, but there's nothing to see. not unless you look down, that is. if you look down, you see

Layer 9, also known as It's Gate. it's a long, perhaps infinite stretch of solid white light, and it's where It lives. you can go inside the light if you get permission, and beyond this gate is where the more trauma-ridden layers are, the ones most of us are kept away from. It has been with us since.... birth maybe? we don't know. it doesn't say much, and we don't know what it is, but it's largely considered to be a deity within the context of headspace. it keeps us safe, though, we know that much

there's also bubbles, crowns, and branches. branches are additional sections off of the main layers. crowns are the space outside the layers. bubbles are pockets of inhabitable space within the crowns and aren't attached to any layers. there's a lot so here's some of the most notable: the wildlands {crown}, nothing {crown}, Bone's Brew {bubble}, the mall {bubble}, Neverland {branch off Layer 6}, the original headspace {branch off Layer 2}, the offices {bubble}, the archives {bubble}, the scrapyard {bubble}

if any of these sound interesting and you want more detail, you're free to ask

🦎 - do you share memories with your headmates?

for the most part? memories from front are stored in the archives for anyone to access, though some have an easier time doing so than others for reasons we don't yet understand. personal memories {ie things done in headspace or timelines} are generally not shared unless done so purposefully

🌙 - do any headmates have typing quirks? if so, what are they?

we don't really have typing quirks {partially because homestuck is a squick and that's what we associate that term with}, but we do all have our own ways of typing. for example, i {Cecil, again} type in lowercase save for proper nouns, use the curly brackets, and type time as 12;34pm instead of 12:34pm. Mim tries to avoid starting sentences with pronouns, including "i". Kevin refuses to use more than one exclamation mark at a time. Jack {arn Dr Bright} has a lot of typoes and doesn't care to fix them, and also only capitalizes proper nouns. and so on

🌟 - how did you find out you were plural?

oh, this was before my time, before the time of any of our current fronters really. i think.. we were in 7th grade, had discovered otherkin communities, and from there discovered plurality. and then, well, it clicked

🏵 - random song lyric please :D

[Jonny d'Ville] “You know I must admit I’m impressed. I don’t remember the last time anyone managed to incapacitate us all like this [Marius von Raum] “Wasn’t it that aristocratic one with all the knives?” [Jonny d'Ville] “Ahh, the Marquis de All the Knives… Now there was a worthy foe."

-- from The Ignominious Demise of Dr. Pilchard by The Mechanisms, because really, what were you expecting?

[thekingofwinterblog]

The City of Proteus - Theories

Alright, so thanks to the episode summaries, we now know the name of the titular “Olm Town”. Proteus.

Now, Proteus has a clear, real life mythological relation that connects it to Eart.

Namely Proteus is a god from Greek mythology. He was a god of the sea(specifficaly related to changes in the water and the quality thereof) who could also foretell the future, but he disliked doing so and would only do it for those that could capture him.

This in and of itself gives a pretty clear picture of what we can expect from the city named after him, but there is also the fact that since Amphibia and Earth are connected through the music box, this most certainly means that this city has some ancient link to Earth, and in particular ancient Greece.

Which is interesting, because the Amphibian Calendar doesn’t go back to the equivelant point in time to ancienct greece. It only goes back 1878 years or so, while the classical greek age came to an end with Alexanders empire in 323 BC. And the stories of Proteus long, LONG predates that point in time. Which means that Amphibians seems to have used to music box to travel to other worlds, long, LONG before the unification and creation of the Amphibian Empire.

That has some interesting implications, and it would serve to strenghten the idea that the power of the box is neither good, nor bad. Turns out Andrias predecessors WERE explorers after all, while it was their descendants who went on to conquer other worlds.

But then of course there is the question of where this place is.

Here is Amphibia in it’s entierty. Now given the City’s Name’s connection to the sea, the fact the location is lost, and that Andrias has seemingly not conquered it yet, we can assume it’s somewhat hidden, remote, by the sea, and probably well defended.

As such, if i had to take a guess where it lies, i would choose one of the islands, two of which has some pretty interesting features.

Amphibia has exactly four larger islands.

In the west, we have these two, which have some interesting details. for one, there was clearly a massive bridge between these two islands in the past, as shown both by the broken remains of said bridge, but also the reads leading to it.

if i had to take a guess, i’dd say the bridge probably fell down after the music box was stolen. a bridge of this massive, massive size probably used the magical energy of the box to stay up, and when deprived of that, it had to obey the laws of physics, and collapsed.

The southern isle also has some interesting feature wit ha village behind it, which some have theorized is a gianst body, but to me looks like a crater of some kind.

I’d say this MIGHT be the city, hidden underground, but i think the other big island is much more likely.

To the East there is two other islands. The northern one does not seem to hold anything blatantly obvious, but it is inhabited, though there are no roads leading up to the settlement up in the interior. 

This might also be the City, though i find it the least likely of the 3 island options.

And then there is the final big island, East and more southwards than the previous one, there is a huge island that has some very interesting features.

The entire southside is covered by enormous Basalt Columns, like an enormous version of Irelands Giant’s Causeway. And in the center of these columns, there is a huge, mysterious cave opening.

If i had to put money on it, i would guess that THIS is the spot we’re looking for. It’s remote, well defended by natural defenses, by the sea, yet also in what is probably very, very threacherous waters for any boats to sail into.

also, while there doesnt seem to be any obvious larger settlements on this island at the moment, the ancienct amphibians obviously used it, given the fact that there is a road here that leads up to a big lake at the top. mayhaps it was a religious site that wasnt populated, but still well maintained?

[duhragonball]

What version of the Saiyan Tuffle War do you prefer: the Tufflew subjugated the Saiyans or the Saiyans just straight up obliterated the Tuffles

Between the two options, I think I prefer the first one, simply because all the Tuffle characters we've seen have been diabolical villains, and it sort of undermines them as bad guys if the Tuffles were innocent victims in the war. But that's just a personal preference.

I'm not suggesting that the Saiyans were all sweetness and light either. But it seems a little naive to have an advanced civilization just welcome a bunch of Saiyans onto their planet with no ulterior motives.

I say this because most of what we know about the Tuffles is based on Baby's appearances in Dragon Ball GT. Supposedly, Baby was created by the last survivors of the Tuffles, and they "infused" him with the genes of their king, whatever that means. Baby only had two objectives: to take revenge on the Saiyans, and to to convert or destroy all non-Tuffle life forms. And that's... pretty fucked up when you stop and think about it. Baby was such an over-the-top villain in GT that it was easy to just go along with whatever crazy shenanigans he was up to. But he was programmed by the Tuffles, and presumably the Tuffle King was totally on board with this. If he had lived to see Baby Vegeta ruling over the restored Tuffle Planet with the entire population of Earth infected with his nasty mind control eggs, the King would probably be pleased.

And yeah, the Tuffles would want revenge against the Saiyans, but what did Earth ever do to them? Or any of the other planets Baby menaced? You can make the argument that Baby was a doomsday weapon that went beyond the intentions of his creators, but I think he did exactly what the Tuffles wanted him to do.

And that begs the question: If Baby's reign of terror was the last gasp of the dying Tuffle species, then what sort of weird stuff were they up to before? I'll put some thoughts on this under the cut.

First off, I think it's kind of weird how there's not a clear picture of what a Tuffle is exactly. I went looking on the DB Wiki for some pictures and found this Tuffle design by Akira Toriyama.

That design prevailed in DBZ Episode 20, and also in Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, when King Kai explains how the Tuffles welcomed the Saiyans to settle on their planet when they crashed there in a wrecked spaceship. The implication from Plan is that the Saiyans didn't just show up one day. They were refugees who needed help, and the Tuffles invited them with open arms.

But it's weird how the Tuffles in DBZ #20 are depicted as being much smaller than the Saiyans, but in Plan they're basically to scale with each other. Maybe that's a continuity glitch, and no big deal, but then you have Dr. Lychee, who looks like this:

He starts out as a regular-looking guy, and then he becomes this blue creature who looks a lot like a prototype for Baby. The blue form is supposed to be nothing more than one of the phantoms created by Hatchiyack in the OAV, like the phantom incarnations of Frieza, Turles, Cooler, and Slug. But those phantoms looked the same as the originals. Why does Lychee look so different? Is this a form that Tuffles can naturally assume?

Which brings me to Baby and his "Tuffle Parasites". By the end of his run in GT, Baby basically identified as a Tuffle, rather than a creation of the Tuffles. When he started infecting Earthlings with his eggs, he called them Tuffles too.

Then you've got Kamin and Oren from Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Apparently they're considered "Neo Machine Mutants", which are Tuffles modified become like Baby, for lack of a better explanation. I'm not sure if this was established in the DBGT days or not, but I guess the current lore is that Baby, Oren, and Kamin were natural Tuffles who were augmented into the form we see here.

I guess what I'm driving at here is that the Tuffles seem to have a very broad definition of what a Tuffle is. For them, it seems to be more about a way of thinking and feeling than any particular appearance or body plan. A machine can be a Tuffle. An Earthling infested with a parasite can be a Tuffle. So maybe those miniature humanoids in DBZ #20 were just one more variety of Tuffle.

I get a real transhumanist vibe from the Tuffles, particularly from the notion of archiving their King's DNA into Baby, and the way Dr. Lychee continued to exist as a "Ghost Warrior" after his natural death. Oh, and the Tuffles of Universe 6 augmented Kamin and Oren. That wasn't for revenge, by the way, they just wanted to see if they could do it, and apparently Kamin and Oren were outraged enough by this that they turned on their creators. Throughout the Dragon Ball franchise, the Tuffles are known for their advanced scientific knowledge, and also for making all these freaky creatures.

And maybe they weren't all evil. I wouldn't go that far. But I get the feeling that their leaders welcomed the Saiyans to their world because they saw a potential resource that they could exploit. Maybe they just wanted the Saiyans to pacify the uninhabited parts of their planet, or maybe they though the Saiyans could help them against other enemies. But maybe they saw the Saiyans as potential test subjects for their experiments. Just a thought.

I don't think the Tuffles necessarily subjugated the Saiyans, but it might have been more of a case of rising tensions. They lived in separate parts of the planet, with the Tuffles in the cities and the Saiyans in the wilderness, but the Saiyans grew more numerous, and the Tuffles probably saw that as a threat, and the Saiyans probably started to wonder why they needed the Tuffles at all. A lot of things might have instigated the war, but it wouldn't surprise me if the flashpoint involved Tuffles experimenting on Saiyan prisoners. If something like that came to light, then it would become a matter of survival. The Saiyans would have to wipe out the Tuffles to avoid being "Tuffleized" or worse. And the Tuffles would have to crush the Saiyans in battle to maintain control of the planet. There could be no return to the status quo; it would have to be total war until one side was completely defeated.

Once the war began, it must have taken a long time for the Saiyans to win. King Kai said that the lunar cycle on Planet Plant was eight years, and that each full moon allowed the Saiyans to gain ground in the war. So this implies that it took several full moons to end the war, so the conflict might have lasted decades, or maybe even a century. There might have been a few armistices or truces during that time, as each side would want to try to regroup and get as much momentum as possible before the next full moon. At least, that's how I'm picturing it.

One causus belli that sticks out in my mind is that the Tuffles were apparently a spacefaring people, but the Saiyans couldn't do much in space until they made contact with the Arcosians, and then King Cold's organization. So maybe the Tuffles were purposely keeping the Saiyans confined to Planet Plant, either to prevent them from escaping, or to isolate them from other civilizations. The Saiyans would take this poorly, I'm sure. So that might have a lot to do with it.

To be sure, the Saiyans of this era were real rat bastards, no doubt. I'm sure a lot of Tuffles of the time would make the argument that they were trying to contain the Saiyans as a matter of self-preservation, or even for the good of the greater universe. But I also suspect that the Tuffles aren't just friendly-looking anime folks. Creatures like Baby, Hatchiyack, Kamin, and Oren give us a peek into their more inhuman qualities, qualities that the Saiyans probably knew firsthand. It's possible that King Vegeta thought he was the one doing the universe a favor when he wiped the Tuffles out.

Something else to consider, in Episode of Bardock, we meet the Plantians, who were apparently the original inhabitants of Planet Plant. At some point, they were gone, and the Tuffles were living there instead, and then the Saiyans showed up and wiped out the Tuffles. So what happened to the Plantians? Did they just migrate to another world, leaving Plant empty for the Tuffles to move in? Or did the Tuffles do something to them? Food for thought.

[eveningoftheempires]

Evening of the Empires Worldbuilding - Excerpts from "Wonders of Uria" by Levari Karrius

Some claim that Uria is broken; that, shortly after its creation, it was torn to pieces as an act of rage by the Lunar Mother. She swallowed most of the lands and left only scrumbles to the mortal beings. All of them have descended from The Depth, the heart of all creation, born out of Alania’s endless burning love. Scattered among what was left, the countries we know today started forming.

“But those are simply telltales,” you, my dear reader, might claim - and for a good reason. I do specialize in fantastic stories after all, but this time I shall make an exception and reach towards the truth.

And the truth is - despite all the work put into research by various scholars of all origins, we do not know much of our beginnings.

[…]

Previously mentioned Depths are mostly inhabited by dwarves, whose society flourishes despite not having a strong head of the state. They live in numerous cities, each carved in a mountain and one more impressive than another. Many among them work in mines, supplying their trade partners with either the materials or already made equipment - some dwarven merchants proudly claim that their steel is unbreakable. 

Since the Depths are commonly assumed to lay above the heart of the world, many dwarves choose the path of knowledge, seeking to learn about the creation of Uria. Their expeditions go far down, to places that would never see the sunlight if it was not for these curious individuals. Most of their discoveries have shaken the very foundations of what we call science - minerals and plants never seen before or ancient underground settlements among those wonders. Gremmal Thernik, the curator of the House of the Forgotten, believes that only the surface has been scratched of what lies beneath.

[…]

Nushkan Congregation gathers numerous smaller countries, led by Nushka, a coastal kingdom ruled by the orcish dynasty of the Unbroken. However, many different races may be found among the Nushkan citizens - including humans, halflings, tieflings, and even a big population of elves. Each state governs itself, but they unite when it comes to foreign politics. The current high king, Xugash V, granted all of his vassals more power than his predecessors ever, all in return for their help in strengthening the army. This fragmentation of power may seem foolish at first glance, but it was a necessary move after a series of revolts in the region.

In the past decade, this western backwater of a country truly grew into an enemy to behold. The Unbroken Dynasty strongly focused on technological advancement, turning away from the ineffective agriculture. The harsh climate no longer stops the economy. Future Units, formed from scholars, mages and generals of all local races, became pioneers in engineering, mixing ages old magics with whole new inventions. Though, these wonders are granted to only the ones that can afford them.

[...]

Karathny Republic, built on remnants of the Ruby Empire, is a place of grand traditions. It is home to some of Uria’s greatest leaders and warriors, a place where many glorious battles occured - and, with all those legends, it should be no surprise that storytellers thrive in such an environment. The art of rhetorics is considered the most noble, which is one of the reasons for local politics being so interesting. The power here is fluid, and the people of the republic choose their representatives every five years. 

The culture has always been the most important factor in this hot, deserted region with little to no natural resources. The trade routes are full with caravans transporting breathtaking paintings and sculptures or delicate, hand-woven fabrics. Along with the merchants travel various artistic troupes, lone bards and circuses. Although mostly inhabited by humans, elves and half elves native to this land, other races are seen as well - there are even a few purely orc and tiefling settlements. 

[…]

The Free City-State of Ienow can be simply described as a curiosity unlike any other in the world - not only it is a melting pot of all races and cultures of Uria, it is also the smallest country that survived without being ingrained with one of the powers in the region. And the strangeness does not end at that! The politics of Ienow are dominated by the leaders of the most influential guilds in the city - Guild of Traders, Guild of Mages, Guild of Bankers, Guild of Fighters, and even… Guild of Assassins. The coastal islands are a common hideout of the pirates roaming the seas, since the system of justice is nearly non-existent. All of this makes for a rather dangerous - albeit always interesting - place to live.

Everything in Ienow revolves around two things: freedom and money. All is fair when either of those values are involved. Murders of political or economical opponents are a common practice, so are fights between gangs hired by guilds to keep the citizens in check. Those who come here seeking a new start are bound to be disappointed; it is nearly beyond possibility to climb up the social ladder. The poor immigrants are mostly employed in factories.

[...]

Queendom of Lunaris is the cradle of all things magical. This primarily elven, secluded country hosts a great entourage of mages, one more powerful than another. They are gathered in the Sorcerers’ Assembly, and the most influential members rule alongside queens from the Liaquen dynasty. Enchanters and alchemists are the backbone of the country’s economy, providing it with stable income - although the Guild of Mages offers arcane goods as well, it cannot compete with the lunarian quality.

The warm, forested islands are clearly prosperous under the reign of queen Cithren and Grand Sorceress Amarille, and one can see it even through the lense of everyday life. The roads crossing the islands are well maintained and protected, the villages and cities are all truly a sight for sore eyes, and even peasants are hospitable and content people. The only scar on Lunaris’ image is a faction led by a human preacher who calls himself Doom. Those people believe magic to be heresy, and claim that its users will bring doom upon Uria.

[…]

Soleil Hegemony thrives off conquests. What started off as a small northern county is now the grandest of the empires, and it is aiming to eventually be the only one. It was not always this ambitious, though - until recently, its sleazy aristocracy was content being stuck in the previous era, profiting off of peasants’ hard work on the fertile fields. These very devout people put their faith in the kings, believing them to be beloved sons sent by Watchful, the chief of their pantheon. No one dared to rebel against them, until recently.

After a foul murder of king Degarmo IX by a Ienowan assassin, another prominent figure rose to power - that is, General Chastain, a well respected leader of the soleilan army. Once he announced himself a dictator, everyone knew what his next step would be. He started a relentless war with what used to be the Gornorth Kingdom, and then quickly conquered the Lokei Republic. The empire grows, the nobles host decadent parties in order to celebrate victory, and countless soldiers die on the battlefields. The future seems rather unsteady.

[…]

The Monarchy of Sabal is quite a good definition for the word “underestimated”. This small country of seemingly no consequence has been around for too little time to build itself a decent reputation - it was only in the last era when a secessionist group of lunarian citizens, mostly tieflings and half elves, managed to tear them away from the Queendom. The newborn monarchy with still destabilized power attracted (and still attracts) numerous criminals, being a good alternative for the already crowded City-State of Ienow. Others have seen it as a great place for a fresh start and chose occupations of fishmongers and sailors. 

The current monarch, Zarramine the Witful, truly lives up to their name. Rumor has it that the web of sabalan spies reaches far beyond the islands, all thanks to the monarch’s quite… liberal approach to outlaws. Many of them are forgiven in the local law’s eyes if they agree to work for the crown. Besides gathering information and manipulating the events from the shadows, Sabal has been building up its navy for quite some time. They would make a good operational base for soleilans if they wished to attack north and west - and many believe that soon General Chastain will turn his focus there...