#but there community things we need to work out

[sarcosmiiic]

PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND:

we, as fans, do not have a right to private information. anything shared with us on this is a privilege. please do not abuse it. the cc's could shut down and never talk about it if we overwhelm them.

also, please keep in mind that ONE HERMIT and THE ENTIRETY OF HERMITCRAFT are NOT THE SAME THING. the entire fandom is not 'ruined' or 'completely unsafe' because of the actions of one person.

PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME THAT THE OTHER HERMITS KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT WHATEVER'S GOING ON WITH ISKALL. this is not some big conspiracy, it's the consequences of one person's actions. they weren't hiding this from us, that's not how hermitcraft works, they truly didn't know. they probably knew as much as us about this, so making it an 'us against them' situation is immature and shortsighted.

ALSO, I AM BEGGING EVERYONE TO PLEASE NOT SENSATIONALIZE THIS. PLEASE DO NOT TURN HATING ISKALL INTO A MEME OR A JOKE.

mcyt'ers being revealed to be less-than-great people is not a rare thing, sadly, but i've seen it turned into a joke/meme/trend in other fandoms. this both minimalizes the actual people's/victims' struggles, makes the entire situation feel less serious than it is, especially to outsiders looking in, and makes everyone in the fandom look immature, petty, unable to take anything seriously, and genuinely harmful.

this server, fandom, and community are not dying, it is not ruined forever, this is one (major, i'm not trying to minimalize it) issue that we're currently dealing with. it will be okay. we will move on. this is not the beginning of the end. please calm down. i love this fandom, god bless all of you. <3

edit: doc has said on stream that we will likely get more information as time passes. like i said, this is a PRIVILEGE. we are not OWED information. please be grateful for what we're given, and POLITELY ask questions if you must. if a cc doesn't give you the answer you want, or doesn't answer at all, LEAVE THEM ALONE. THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO HARASS PEOPLE. the hermits are likely just as stressed out as us, if not probably more so, so please keep that in mind when contacting them.

don't freak out, we'll be okay, this is not the end of the world, nor is it the end of Hermitcraft. we will be okay.

second edit: please remember that (at least as far as we know) ISKALL AND STRESS WERE NOT KICKED OR BANNED. THEY LEFT OF THEIR OWN VOLITION.

ALSO!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!

WE. DO. NOT. KNOW. EXACTLY. WHAT. HAPPENED.

PLEASE DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING SIMPLY BASED OFF OF OTHER MCYT'ERS PAST ACTIONS/SCANDALS. WE DO NOT KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. WE MIGHT NOT EVER KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. WE NEED TO BE OKAY WITH THAT AND NOT DRAW OUR OWN CONCLUSIONS.

TWITTER LINKS TO VICTIM RESPONSES:

https://twitter.com/Kasszi_/status/1860670647946604985

https://twitter.com/emoslab_/status/1860697161245323559

[pastara-cell]

In light of recent events with iskall85 (+stressmonster?) i’d like to take a moment to thank around 98% of the community. I know its rough, and some people are upset or curious, but the community is handling it wonderfully right now, and I’m extremely proud of everyone who is taking a step back and not harassing creators. Heres a list of things we, as a community, can do to help!

1. Please don’t harass any of the Ccs! By that, I mean Hermitcraft AND vault hunters. I know that you’ve heard it a billion times by now, but I do want to emphasise that they have said they cant say much now, and they’re probably taking it more rough than we are. We aren’t owed any information, even if we would like it, so harassing people will only make the situation worse.

2. Comfort your friends with iskall or stress introjects, irls, fictionkins, alters, etc. reminder that none of this is their fault, and they should NOT be harassed for living their lives as they are.

3. Keep speculation private, or to a minimum. Its human nature of course, to be curious, but discussing it in publicly is a BAD idea. Keep it to the dms, or if you’re going to speculate in your blogs, I recommend not maintaining iskall, and putting the discourse tag in so that people can filter it out.

4. Keep your fanarts and fanfictions up until the situation is clearer, or if you don’t want them up, send them to @pearleisuma to be archived. Just because someone did something does NOT mean that you need to delete anything you worked hard on, it just means be wary making things in the future, involving them, about it, until we get more information.

4. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, Watch ANY commentary youtube channel videos about the situation. This is how false information spreads, and youtubers are going to look to make a quick buck off of anything they can use to blow up. Please only get your information from trusted sources, such as CC’s twitter pages, any videos released by Ccs/streams, or if iskall or stress make a statement themselves.

5. Dont jump to conclusions! Luckily, mumbo has tweeted out that the situation has nothing to do with minors. Jumping to conclusions will lead to misinformation, so do sit back and wait a bit before any assumptions or conclusions.

6. Take care of yourself. Its okay to be sad about them leaving, its okay to be sad that Iskall apparently did something, and its okay to be curious as to what it is about. As a fandom, try to lift eachother up and comfort eachother, rather than bring eachother down about the situation.

Keep being awesome hermitblr, and stay strong 🫶 we’ll get through this

[pluralpaganidiocy]

Was reading some posts about HDG, written by someone outside the community.

What absolutely struck me is the lack of understanding about how the setting works.

First and foremost, I don't care what anyone says, it's a disability narrative. All the kink, and layers of horror and imperialism is in service to the disability narrative.

Because when your body or mind do not function like you expect them to, it's fucking horrific.

It's goddamn terrifying when my legs give out climbing the stairs, it's horrifying when I lose my ability to speak when I get overwhelmed and my stutter comes out full force, when I can't move because the pain from my knee is so intense I lose vision.

Quite often when I am like that I don't want help, I don't want anyone near me, I will actively refuse assistance. This is because of pride, fear, shame, a multitude of reasons. I don't want care, but I need it nonetheless.

One of the most powerful and meaningful things my current partner has ever done for me was telling me to shut the fuck up and let her help.

I needed to be forced to let her help me, despite being in so much pain moving made me scream.

She still needs to make me take painkillers, because I won't on my own.

This kind of care is an intrinsic part of HDG, you are so hurt you can't figure out what you need, so we will do it for you, and we will make you if needed.

Additionally, at least for me, another aspect is knowing that the people you care about are being cared for too.

A huge chunk of my life and daily stress is making sure my friends and lovers are okay, making sure I have enough reserve cash if I need to support or be able to make an emergency trip, anything at all to prevent another fucking lost friend and tearful memorial before their names get added to my sad list of loss.

I *know* I am deeply traumatized by loss, by closed casket funerals, of self inflicted wounds. Because I wasn't there, or fast enough, or didn't notice the signs in time.

I have as a result made myself into the kind of person that will drop Anything to be there. To drive across the country at a moment's notice because there was a Possibility that my friend needed me.

In the world of HDG, that isn't needed, everyone is going to be cared for and safe, and I would be able to finally rest. To relax. To enjoy the beauty of my friends instead of standing watch.

And that is a disability narrative too.

[murdockcastleslut]

𝔒𝔣𝔣 𝔗𝔬𝔭𝔦𝔠

synopsis: y/n is an up and coming influencer, who has established her own with thriving youtube channel and podcast. when she releases a new episode with her new co-host and special guests, things get messy.

a rafe cameron smau! |part eight| part nine |part ten|

a/n: This is a long one for you guys :) thank you to @ivysprophecy @kimoralov3 for letting me annoy the shit out of you as i bounce ideas off of y'all.

Off Topic Official Transcript

12:30 

Cleo: so Rafe, you did a recent shoot with loewe. 

Y/n: [you bite your lip subtly] oh my god yeah, i remember hearing Sarah talk about it. you looked really good. 

Rafe: oh yeah? [he raises his eyebrow] thank you. it was really fun, the crew and photographer were great. i’ve always wanted to do a shoot with them and i was so grateful when i got the chance. 

Rafe: i know it’s yalls’ podcast but if you could work with any brand, which would it be? 

Cleo: easy, easy man. either gucci or miu miu. 

Y/n: i think for me it would probably be ysl or prada. 

Rafe: yeah, you’d be a prada girl? [he asks cockily]

Y/n: yeah, haven’t you seen me rock a pair of prada sunnies. i always serve face. [you smile and then give a model face to him and cleo] 

Cleo: that is correct. my girl always looks good, especially in prada. 

Rafe: oh, i have no doubt. [he smiles at you brightly]

26:45

Y/n: [laughing at something Rafe said before hand]

Cleo:[smirks] so rafe, we have this recurring segment of this show called “be mine” and it’s where we ask the guest, what’s their ideal type or what they are looking for in a relationship.

Y/n: [stops laughing and is subtly looking at Cleo with bewilderment] 

Cleo: and since we don’t have more than one guest today, y/n will share with you! 

Y/n: [looks at Cleo with a look of confusion] i will? 

Cleo:[gives her look] 

Y/n: i guess i will be today. 

Rafe: [chuckles at your reaction] i have only been in two really serious relationships and they were both totally different experiences. the first person i'm really good friends with still but that relationship taught me all the things i did want like someone adventurous, kind, and someone who can communicate. in this life we live in the media. i never wanna be the last person to know something about my partner. i think from my last relationship we were very private and i didn’t really mind it but sometimes i wanted to share cute photos of them… [he shifts in the chair and manspreads a bit]

Cleo: [she looks at you and gives you a smirk at the mention at photography]

Rafe (continued): especially since i really like film photography and really i couldn’t share my photos, so i wanna find someone who's comfortable with that for sure. and by no means do i think i am perfect, i think i got somethings to work on but those are just somethings that are really important to me. [he finishes speaking and looks at you for your reaction.]

Cleo: [is smirking in her seat] damn model boy knows what he wants. 

Rafe: [laughs] sometimes if you want something you just gotta put it out there. [he shrugs and smirks]

Cleo: ya know y/n here loves film photography? has a whole account dedicated to it too.

Y/n: [your eyes blunge out hoping she’d be quiet] yeah, i do but it’s nothing. 

Rafe: [smirks and leans forward and places his elbow on the chair arm and places his chin on his knuckles] it’s not, nothing. it’s cute, sweetheart. [he gives you a kind smile] so, what are you looking for? [he points with his chin to you]

Y/n: um… i agree with a lot of what race has to say. i especially feel the same about communication, in my last relationship there was a really big lack of it and that along with cheating was the end of our relationship. 

Rafe: [frowns at the mention that you have been cheated on]

Y/n: So now i think i need someone who is willing to take things slowly and understand that it takes me a second to trust their intentions. but i also really want someone who likes to travel because i love traveling and seeing new places. also my friends have to give the stamp of approval because they are everything to me. [you smile at cleo]

Y/n: but my ideal type, i don’t know, tall, kind, intelligent, passionate, empathetic, and i don’t think it would hurt anyone if he was pretty on the eyes either.[you smile widely] 

Rafe: i think it's really raw and real of you to talk about trust in that way because i feel the same way. 

Cleo: you two have a lot in common huh? 

y/n's phone

taglist: @ivysprophecy @kimoralov3 @sabrina-carpenter-stan-account @charli123456789 @wearemadeofstardust0 @frankoceanluvr11 1 @harrys-housewife @urbrunettebombshell @mayhapsnini i @psychicnatural @aariahnaa @rafeycameronsgf @laniirackssss @cl4uus @honk4emoboyz

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Meig's Official Paleontologist Review of Amber Isle

This game is so accessible. I tend to use cheaters/trainers a lot in most video games because I'm a Busy Adult Without Countless Hours To Spend Grinding In Video Games - but I don't need them in Amber Isle. They also don't exist for Amber Isle, but still - I'm not wishing I had them the whole time. It's especially "ADHD time blindness" friendly

THE CHARACTERS ARE SO CUTE HOLY FUCK they all have such interesting and unique personalities and they are just so precious. I must protect Kipper at all costs.

Yes, you're a shopkeeper, but you don't have to be a raging capitalist. In fact, in many ways, it's better for the game to undercharge people / pay more for things they sell you / give lots of gifts in order to bump up your friendship with the community; it's very easy to get money in the game and you really don't need to be stingy or go for huge profits in order to win

I LOVE THAT THEY ARE CALLED "PALEOFOLK". Not a single character is called a dinosaur that isn't a dinosaur, unlike other paleo games *cough paleo pines cough*. And because they aren't limiting themselves to the Mesozoic, there's a nice interesting variety of prehistoric critters for the characters.

It's so much fun that your character is also a Paleofolk and that there's so many options. I wish we could wear pants, but other than that...

The taxon balancing needs a *wee* bit of work. Since they can do the Paleozoic and Cenozoic, it's ironically too dinosaur-heavy; and those dinosaurs are a little biased and don't include anything more derived than Archaeopteryx, which is... a mistake. I recognize the devs had a challenge in picking the right charismatic fauna, but still. Honestly, this problem is easily solved: just add more paleofolk!

That said it is so nice to have a game with Maiasaura :3

The world is beautiful and so much fun to explore

The calendar is way too long. WAY too long. Has anyone actually gotten to year 2? Because I haven't. Also it's windy too much. The weather should be more varied.

I would love for info about different objects to come up when you're going through them so it's easier to make sure the items you're displaying are balanced and so you know what to recommend for different customer requests

The main quest is a little short, so it would be nice for more content to be added to it in the future. I'd also love to be able to have more adventures and activities when hanging out with paleofolk

Once again, a game without romance. Hooray! No pansexual crises!

PEPPER x CLOVER FOR LIFE. L. I. F. E.

Definitely worth playing. It is super fun and super cute. Check it out at @ambertailgames!

My Paleo Pines Review

My Roots of Pacha Review

[404-unfoundbymystudents]

"so, you want to communicate that a place is trans safe without outing people, a real life example"

So, I taught a transgender student last year. I taught her like any other kid, and just generally kept an ear and eye out for anyone being weird. She still attends this school.

Fast forward to this year, I see one of my students has a small trans flag on their lunchbox.

I wanted to communicate to this student that the school (and I) would be supportive of them if they came out, without cornering/accusing/confronting them, but also without outing people at school.

So, while chatting to a group of students in class, I casually mentioned that I knew there had been transgender students at the school previously and they had been supported and welcomed by the school. And then I also said that I had taught a transgender student at my last school, and that we had done a lot of work working out the issues of him being in senior (so needed to use legal name on assessment), but obviously not wanting to deadname [but! Didn't mention there may be a trans person out of the only 600 students at my current school].

And the cool thing about all this, is that there was no way to identify either of these trans people, and the most "personal" information I shared was about the deadname accommodations.

No outing the kid at the old school, or the current school. No outing of me, the Trans Dude who teaches you kids maths and science.

The point here, and I guess I have the benefit of being a trans person who passes well, and isn't out at work - I understand and live the fear of people knowing about me, so I'm not going to out others.

If nothing else, the thing I want people to think about: which is more important to you: patting yourself on the back for being So Inclusive And Welcoming, or actually keeping trans people safe?

Sometimes I think about my old manager at work who, in order to prove that the organisation was safe for trans people, told me about a fellow trans employee—a woman who was passing! who wasn’t out to me or to anyone else!—and about how chill everyone in management had been about her needing to take time off TO GET VAGINOPLASTY. He was not her manager! He was not her friend! He did not work in HR! There was no way he could have come into this PRIVATE MEDICAL INFORMATION without being told by another manager who had gossiped. And even if there had been, why the fuck was it any of my business!

Likewise, a friend of mine was just told by a school principal about how a prospective school was safe for trans kids… because a trans girl whose parents don’t affirm her at home is able to be affirmed at school. This information about this child’s gender and home environment was relayed along with her FUCKING GRADE LEVEL. This incredibly vulnerable kid was wheeled out as a selling point by the school with way more than enough information to figure out who she was.

In order to make the argument that a place is safe for trans people, cis people are wayyyy too happy to give out private information about trans people. With allies like these, who needs enemies!!!

[felassan]

David Gaider on Fenris, under a cut for length:

"Fenris. Now, DA2 is a story all on its own but I'm not going to go there other than to sum it up as "we had just over a year and a half to make this". It's why I only wrote one follower, Fenris, and although it'll make his fans mad: I probably shouldn't have. Let me explain. The way we'd approach making the followers is brainstorming a list of concepts covering first the array of gameplay classes (and sub-classes) and then making sure they each have some skin in the game when it came to the story's conflicts - ideally having characters on both sides of the major ones. Why? You can't make a player care about the world, but you can make them care about characters who care about the world. It's the easiest way to provide hooks into a conflict, outside of it knocking on the player's door. Heck, it's probably better than that. Players will burn the world for approval. After that, we'd decide things like romances/sexuality. Then the writers would pick who they'd write. I always let my writers pick first. I figured they do their best work when it's something they're inspired to write... and they got so few chances at ownership, I wanted to give it whenever I could It's why I (reluctantly) let Patrick wrest Cole from my grasp in DAI, a character I'd created in Asunder. It's also why I let Jennifer take Anders in DA2, who I'd started in Awakening. In this instance, it meant I was left with the angry elven warrior character who nobody else appeared to want."

"It should have been my first clue that something was up. The second was how the artists had zero clue what to do with him. The art concepts were all over the place - from mages to crows to... well, even weirder. No matter how hard I tried to explain the idea, the artists simply didn't seem to get it Does this mean he was a bad character? Not exactly. Just an idea that probably deserved some re-examining. You can tell when an idea has a certain spark, and part of that is being easy to communicate. Sadly, there wasn't time for any re-examining even if it'd occurred to me. And it didn't, not yet. If it had, if I had time, maybe I'd have re-booted him as a templar. Someone pro-templar rather than anti-mage, who could give a personal hook into Meredith and give the templars some badly-needed humanity. But this falls into the shoulda-woulda-coulda category. I had a follower to write. Quickly. I struggled, at first. It was hard to get away from "Fenris hates everything, all the time". It felt very one-note, and I didn't know where to take him. My third clue, I guess. I also wasn't sure if I was the right person to write a former slave. I did know that couldn't be the center of his story. I did know trauma, however. How it can eat you up. How the hate and resentment is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. How it can infect your relationships. Fenris's trauma isn't my trauma, obviously, but here I dipped into a more personal part of myself than I'd ever done before."

"It gave me the center of his story I was missing, but wow was it uncomfortable. In a good way, maybe. I likely wouldn't have, if I hadn't been so desperate. In a way, I think DA2 had some of our best writing *because* of the timeline. It was raw, with little time to sand down the interesting parts. I wouldn't have done the "Fenris doesn't talk to you for three years" thing if I'd known we were going to cut all the reactivity initially planned for the time jumps. When that call was made, I campaigned to cut the jumps to a year, but there was no time for the revisions it'd need. So, um. Awkward. I used to get asked where the name came from, and I... don't remember? Obviously it's derived from Fenrir, but I don't recall why we picked that. Someone pointed at Fenris the Feared from Joe Abercrombie's books... and I did read them, so maybe the name lodged in my head? Wouldn't be the first time. Casting Fenris turned out to be easy. He was the first time I requested a specific VA and got him. (The other times were Merrill and then Solas, my two "I want these specific Welsh actors, please".) Why? OK, if you must know, I'd played a bit of Final Fantasy XII. I heard Balthier. "Yes, that." 😅 And Gideon Emery was a delight, as it turned out. Consummate professional, and that lovely gravel in his voice... good god. Bite the knuckles. There was a struggle to find the voice at the outset where I did my best not to say "just pls do Balthier" but he found Fenris on his own and it was amazing. Overall, Fenris turned out better than he had any right to, considering the rocky start. He had a lot of soul, a vulnerability forged by pain that struck a chord with a lot of players, and I'm glad. Do I regret anything? Probably having him live in a corpse-filled mansion that would never update. That's a hindsight thing, though, as again the cut to reactivity over the time jumps came late. Outside of that, maybe letting the player give him back to Danarius? Poor shock value and a waste of resources because almost nobody took the option. Good evil options are ones that are tempting to take. And the lyrium tattoos. Interesting concept, but they're probably why you'll never see Fenris in a future DA. He requires a custom body, and the tattoos make that expensive. It's why I put Fenris in my 4th DA novel - the cancelled one. Don't fret, though. He died in it, so this way he lives on. 😉"

[source thread]

User: "Wait wait how does he die in [the cancelled novel]??" David Gaider: "Gloriously, after taking up a cause he didn't believe in at first but then made his own, one that allowed him to rediscover what it meant to be elven." [source] David Gaider: "I’m not sorry about the novel cancellation. I’m the one who cancelled it. I am kinda sad we couldn’t make it work, though. Considering it was after I left the DA team, it would have been my final DA hurrah." [source] David Gaider: "From my perspective, it was kind of "well if you're never going to use him again, let me at least give him a proper send off" and the story required a glorious death... but I get that's not the story his biggest fans would want (which is Hawke + Fenris 4ever), so it's just as well." [source]

User: "You all did some incredible work with such a tight deadline" David Gaider: "I'm of the opinion that even if we'd had only another six months to bake, DA2 would be remembered as a classic and not either a flawed gem or underbaked sequel, depending on who you ask." [source]

[esotericalchemist]

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬 - 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

Masterlist this series - TikTok (Matrix of Destiny) - Masterlist - YouTube (subliminals)

Mars in Gemini is quick, curious, and endlessly adaptable—a whirlwind of energy that thrives on variety and mental stimulation. This Mars pursues its goals with wit and agility, preferring clever strategies over brute force. When paired with Venus, the planet of attraction, this dynamic becomes even more intriguing, blending intellectual curiosity with charm and versatility. In this post, we explore the lively, communicative drive of Gemini Mars alongside possible Venus placements, uncovering how this combination shapes your approach to relationships, creativity, and ambition. With Mars in Gemini, success often comes through exploration, conversation, and thinking outside the box—proving that adaptability and a sharp mind can be just as powerful as persistence.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐀𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Aries, your approach to achieving your goals is dynamic, bold, and intellectually versatile. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, gives you the drive to act through curiosity, quick thinking, and adaptability. You thrive in fast-paced environments, juggling multiple projects and pivoting effortlessly between ideas. Venus in Aries, a cardinal fire sign, adds passion and fearless charm, showing that you attract opportunities by being direct, enthusiastic, and unafraid to take the lead. Together, these placements create a vibrant mix of mental agility and fiery determination, making you both a thinker and a doer.

Your Venus in Aries attracts success through your charisma and confidence. You magnetize opportunities by showing up with energy, courage, and a “let’s do this” attitude. You’re naturally drawn to goals that ignite your passion and allow you to showcase your leadership abilities. People are inspired by your boldness, and you thrive when pursuing challenges that let you stand out and test your capabilities. Venus in Aries isn’t afraid to chase what it wants, so your best opportunities come when you lead with enthusiasm and follow your instincts.

Mars in Gemini complements this by giving you the ability to think on your feet and act with versatility. Gemini energy loves variety and thrives on intellectual engagement, so you excel at brainstorming, problem-solving, and working in dynamic environments. While Venus in Aries pushes you to jump into action, Mars in Gemini ensures that you approach your goals with creativity and flexibility, using your wit and communication skills to keep things moving. This makes you highly effective in situations where quick decisions and mental agility are required.

To manifest your desires, align Gemini’s adaptability with Aries’ boldness. Start by letting Venus in Aries ignite your passion and confidence, then use Mars in Gemini to explore multiple pathways and refine your strategy as you go. The challenge with this combination lies in managing restlessness—Gemini’s tendency to scatter focus and Aries’ impatience for results can create a cycle of starting too many things without finishing. Success comes when you channel your enthusiasm into a clear direction, balancing your need for variety with the determination to see your goals through. By combining your fiery drive with your intellectual versatility, you can achieve a life filled with excitement, growth, and meaningful accomplishments.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐓𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Taurus, your blueprint for achievement is a unique blend of mental agility and grounded persistence. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, drives you to pursue your goals with curiosity, adaptability, and quick thinking. You thrive on variety and are highly skilled at juggling multiple tasks or exploring diverse interests. Venus in Taurus, a fixed earth sign, brings a steady, practical energy to how you attract opportunities, valuing stability, beauty, and long-term rewards. Together, this combination balances a restless, fast-moving mind with the ability to create lasting value through patience and consistency.

Your Venus in Taurus attracts success through your calm, reliable, and magnetic presence. Taurus thrives on stability and quality, so you naturally align with goals that involve building something substantial and meaningful over time. Others are drawn to your grounded nature, as well as your appreciation for beauty, comfort, and security. Whether in relationships, creative pursuits, or professional endeavors, you excel when your efforts focus on creating lasting results that bring both pleasure and practical benefits.

At the same time, Mars in Gemini gives you the energy and drive to explore ideas, communicate effectively, and act with flexibility. Gemini thrives on intellectual engagement, so you’re at your best in dynamic environments where you can use your wit and curiosity to innovate and adapt. While Venus in Taurus prefers slow, steady progress, Mars in Gemini encourages you to explore multiple pathways to success, making you resourceful and open to learning as you go. This combination makes you particularly effective in pursuits that require both strategic thinking and consistent follow-through.

To manifest your desires, blend Taurus’ persistence with Gemini’s adaptability. Use Venus in Taurus to ground your ambitions, focusing on goals that provide long-term satisfaction and align with your values. Let Mars in Gemini keep you mentally engaged, using your versatility to explore creative solutions and navigate challenges. The challenge with this combination lies in managing the tension between Gemini’s love for variety and Taurus’ preference for routine—you may feel pulled between starting new projects and sticking to what’s already established. Success comes when you balance your need for mental stimulation with your commitment to steady progress, creating a life that is both dynamic and enduring. By combining your intellectual flexibility with your grounded determination, you can achieve meaningful and lasting success.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With both Mars and Venus in Gemini, your blueprint for achievement is driven by curiosity, adaptability, and intellectual engagement. Gemini is a mutable air sign, emphasizing communication, variety, and mental agility. Venus in Gemini shows that you attract opportunities through charm, wit, and versatility, while Mars in Gemini fuels your energy for action with quick thinking and a love for exploration. Together, this combination creates a vibrant, dynamic personality that thrives on learning, connection, and the excitement of juggling multiple pursuits.

Your Venus in Gemini attracts success by making you highly engaging and socially magnetic. You naturally draw people and opportunities through your ability to connect, communicate, and keep things fresh and interesting. Venus in Gemini thrives on variety, so you align best with goals that involve intellectual stimulation, creative thinking, and room for flexibility. You excel in social or collaborative environments where your versatility and charm can shine. Whether in relationships, creative endeavors, or professional pursuits, your ability to adapt and stay open to new ideas ensures you remain ahead of the curve.

At the same time, Mars in Gemini provides the energy and drive to act on your ideas with enthusiasm and resourcefulness. Mars here loves mental stimulation and is motivated by curiosity, making you quick to initiate projects and eager to explore multiple pathways to success. You’re not afraid to pivot or shift strategies when necessary, and your ability to think on your feet allows you to thrive in dynamic, fast-paced environments. While you may sometimes scatter your energy across too many pursuits, Mars in Gemini gives you the versatility to adapt and keep moving forward.

To manifest your desires, harness Gemini’s intellectual energy to stay engaged and focused. Use Venus in Gemini to build connections and explore opportunities, and let Mars in Gemini channel your curiosity into actionable steps. The challenge with this combination lies in balancing your love for variety with the discipline to follow through—you may start many things but struggle to bring them to completion. Success comes when you learn to prioritize your goals, using your natural agility and communication skills to stay on track. By combining your charm and adaptability with focused effort, you can achieve a life that is exciting, intellectually rewarding, and full of meaningful accomplishments.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Cancer, your blueprint for achievement blends intellectual versatility with emotional depth. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, drives you to act with curiosity, adaptability, and a love for exploration. You thrive on mental stimulation and dynamic environments, excelling at juggling multiple tasks and quickly finding creative solutions. Venus in Cancer, a cardinal water sign, brings emotional sensitivity, warmth, and intuition to the way you attract opportunities. Together, this combination creates a personality that is both quick-thinking and deeply caring, capable of balancing sharp mental agility with heartfelt intention.

Your Venus in Cancer attracts success through your nurturing energy and your ability to create meaningful, supportive connections. Others are drawn to your emotional authenticity, and you naturally align with goals that provide a sense of security, belonging, or creative expression. You thrive when working on ambitions that resonate with your values and offer the chance to care for others or build something lasting. Venus in Cancer ensures that your efforts are fueled by genuine emotional investment, giving your pursuits a deeper and more personal significance.

At the same time, Mars in Gemini provides the energy to act on your ideas with flexibility and intellectual curiosity. Gemini’s quick, restless nature drives you to explore diverse interests, communicate effectively, and adapt to changing circumstances. While Venus in Cancer may prefer a slower, more emotionally rooted approach, Mars in Gemini encourages you to stay mentally engaged and open to new possibilities. This combination makes you adept at pursuing goals that involve creativity, communication, or emotional storytelling, blending Gemini’s intellectual flair with Cancer’s heartfelt depth.

To manifest your desires, align Cancer’s emotional intuition with Gemini’s adaptable energy. Start by using Venus in Cancer to identify goals that resonate with your heart and provide a sense of fulfillment, then let Mars in Gemini drive you to explore the best ways to achieve them. The challenge with this combination lies in balancing Gemini’s need for variety and mental stimulation with Cancer’s desire for emotional security—you may feel pulled between chasing new ideas and staying connected to your deeper values. Success comes when you combine your sharp intellect with your caring nature, allowing you to create a life that is not only innovative but also emotionally rich and meaningful. By blending your adaptability with heartfelt purpose, you can achieve lasting and fulfilling accomplishments.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐋𝐞𝐨 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Leo, your blueprint for achievement is a vibrant mix of intellectual adaptability and bold, charismatic energy. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, fuels your drive with curiosity, quick thinking, and versatility. You thrive in dynamic environments where you can multitask, explore new ideas, and communicate effectively. Venus in Leo, a fixed fire sign, adds passion, creativity, and a flair for self-expression, showing that you attract opportunities through your magnetic charm and ability to captivate others. Together, this combination creates a personality that is dynamic, expressive, and capable of achieving success through a balance of wit and star power.

Your Venus in Leo attracts success by radiating confidence, warmth, and a strong sense of individuality. Others are drawn to your bold, larger-than-life energy and your ability to make any goal or project feel exciting and significant. Venus in Leo thrives in the spotlight, so you naturally align with ambitions that allow you to showcase your talents, take the lead, and inspire others. You excel in creative or leadership roles where your enthusiasm and ability to uplift those around you can shine. People gravitate toward your generosity and your knack for making everything you do feel unique and grand.

At the same time, Mars in Gemini gives you the energy to act on your ideas with agility and mental sharpness. Gemini’s love for variety and intellectual stimulation drives you to explore multiple pathways, brainstorm innovative solutions, and stay adaptable in the face of challenges. While Venus in Leo thrives on bold, focused passions, Mars in Gemini ensures that your approach to achieving goals remains flexible and open to new perspectives. This combination makes you a powerful communicator and strategist, capable of blending showmanship with smart, quick actions to bring your ideas to life.

To manifest your desires, align Leo’s passionate energy with Gemini’s mental versatility. Start by using Venus in Leo to attract opportunities that excite and inspire you, ensuring that your ambitions reflect your unique sense of purpose. Then let Mars in Gemini guide you to act with flexibility and creativity, exploring multiple strategies to achieve your goals. The challenge with this combination lies in managing Gemini’s tendency to scatter focus and Leo’s need for recognition—you may feel torn between pursuing new ideas and staying committed to your grand vision. Success comes when you balance your intellectual curiosity with your desire to create something truly impactful. By combining your adaptability with your bold self-expression, you can achieve goals that are both innovative and deeply rewarding.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐨 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Virgo, your blueprint for achievement is driven by a blend of intellectual agility and grounded practicality. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, energizes you with curiosity, adaptability, and a love for mental stimulation. You thrive on exploring ideas, multitasking, and engaging in dynamic environments. Venus in Virgo, a mutable earth sign, adds a discerning, detail-oriented energy to how you attract opportunities and pursue your goals. Together, these placements combine sharp thinking with meticulous effort, allowing you to align creative exploration with purposeful action.

Your Venus in Virgo attracts success through your precision, thoughtfulness, and ability to bring value and order to what you pursue. Venus in Virgo thrives on improving systems, refining processes, and aligning with goals that are both practical and meaningful. Others are drawn to your dependability, humility, and high standards. You naturally excel in roles that require attention to detail, service to others, or careful planning, and you’re most fulfilled when your efforts contribute to something beneficial and tangible. Success comes when your goals reflect your values of integrity, usefulness, and improvement.

Meanwhile, Mars in Gemini provides the energy to act on your ideas with enthusiasm and versatility. Gemini’s intellectual drive ensures that you’re always curious, open to learning, and quick to adapt to new information or changing circumstances. While Venus in Virgo may focus on perfection and careful analysis, Mars in Gemini encourages you to experiment, brainstorm, and pivot when necessary. This combination makes you particularly skilled in fields that require both creative problem-solving and meticulous execution, such as writing, teaching, research, or project management.

To manifest your desires, blend Virgo’s practicality with Gemini’s mental agility. Use Venus in Virgo to set clear, meaningful goals, ensuring they are aligned with your values and high standards. Then let Mars in Gemini energize you to explore multiple paths to success, keeping your approach flexible and innovative. The challenge with this combination lies in balancing Gemini’s tendency to jump between ideas with Virgo’s perfectionism—you may find yourself either spreading your energy too thin or overthinking small details. Success comes when you embrace Gemini’s curiosity while staying anchored in Virgo’s focus on purposeful effort. By combining your sharp intellect with your dedication to improvement, you can achieve goals that are both impactful and masterfully executed.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Libra, your blueprint for achievement is driven by intellectual adaptability and a natural talent for connection and diplomacy. Both Gemini and Libra are air signs, making your approach to success highly social, communicative, and mentally engaging. Mars in Gemini energizes you with curiosity, flexibility, and the ability to act quickly in diverse situations. Venus in Libra brings charm, balance, and a love for collaboration, showing that you attract opportunities through your ability to foster harmony and navigate relationships with grace. Together, these placements make you an excellent communicator and strategist who thrives in dynamic, collaborative environments.

Your Venus in Libra attracts success through your charm, fairness, and ability to create beauty and balance in any situation. Venus in Libra thrives on partnerships, whether romantic, creative, or professional, and you naturally align with goals that involve teamwork and mutual benefit. Others are drawn to your ability to see all sides of a situation and bring people together, making you highly effective in negotiations or collaborative settings. You excel when your ambitions are tied to aesthetics, relationships, or projects that require diplomacy and creative problem-solving.

At the same time, Mars in Gemini provides you with the energy and mental agility to pursue your goals in a flexible, versatile way. Gemini’s love for variety and quick thinking drives you to explore multiple pathways to success, keeping your options open and adapting easily to changing circumstances. While Venus in Libra focuses on harmony and collaboration, Mars in Gemini ensures that you stay curious and proactive, seeking out opportunities and solutions through communication and creative ideas. This combination makes you especially skilled in areas like writing, public relations, education, or any field that values interpersonal and intellectual skills.

To manifest your desires, align Libra’s desire for balance with Gemini’s mental versatility. Use Venus in Libra to build strong, meaningful connections and attract opportunities through your charm and diplomacy. Let Mars in Gemini fuel your energy to explore possibilities and act decisively when the moment is right. The challenge with this combination lies in avoiding indecision—Libra’s tendency to weigh all options and Gemini’s love for variety may make it hard to commit to one path. Success comes when you focus on clear priorities while staying flexible in your approach. By combining your sharp intellect with your ability to build harmonious relationships, you can achieve goals that are both innovative and deeply fulfilling.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐢𝐨 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

Having Mars in Gemini and Venus in Scorpio creates a dynamic and intriguing blueprint for achievement, blending intellectual agility with emotional intensity. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, drives you to act with curiosity, adaptability, and quick thinking. You thrive in environments where mental stimulation and variety keep you engaged. Venus in Scorpio, a fixed water sign, adds depth, passion, and magnetism to how you attract opportunities, ensuring that your ambitions are rooted in meaningful, transformative connections. Together, these placements create a personality that is both intellectually versatile and emotionally compelling, capable of achieving goals through a blend of sharp wit and profound emotional focus.

Your Venus in Scorpio attracts success through your intensity, loyalty, and ability to create deep, transformative connections. Scorpio’s energy is all about emotional depth and authenticity, so you align best with goals that feel significant and impactful. Superficial endeavors won’t satisfy you—whether in relationships, creative pursuits, or professional ambitions, you’re drawn to things that allow you to uncover deeper truths and create lasting change. People and opportunities gravitate toward your emotional magnetism and your ability to commit wholeheartedly to your goals.

At the same time, Mars in Gemini fuels your approach to action with mental sharpness and adaptability. Gemini thrives on variety and quick thinking, driving you to explore multiple options and pivot as needed. While Venus in Scorpio gives you emotional depth and a fixed sense of purpose, Mars in Gemini ensures that your methods remain flexible and responsive to new information. This combination makes you highly effective in pursuits that require both strategic thinking and emotional intelligence, such as research, communication, or transformative leadership roles.

To manifest your desires, balance Scorpio’s intensity with Gemini’s versatility. Let Venus in Scorpio guide you toward goals that resonate deeply with your emotions and values, ensuring they hold personal significance. Then use Mars in Gemini to explore creative strategies, communicate effectively, and remain adaptable in your approach. The challenge with this combination lies in balancing Gemini’s love for variety with Scorpio’s all-or-nothing focus—you may feel pulled between chasing multiple ideas and fully committing to one passion. Success comes when you harness Scorpio’s depth to anchor your ambitions while allowing Gemini’s mental agility to keep you open to new opportunities. By combining your intellectual resourcefulness with your emotional intensity, you can achieve goals that are both innovative and transformative.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐒𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Sagittarius, your blueprint for achievement is driven by an insatiable curiosity and a deep desire for exploration and growth. Both Gemini and Sagittarius are mutable signs, emphasizing adaptability, openness, and a love for variety. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, propels you into action through quick thinking, versatility, and a knack for juggling multiple ideas or projects at once. Venus in Sagittarius, a mutable fire sign, attracts opportunities through enthusiasm, optimism, and an adventurous spirit. Together, these placements create a dynamic combination of mental agility and visionary passion, allowing you to pursue your goals with creativity, excitement, and adaptability.

Your Venus in Sagittarius attracts success by radiating optimism, openness, and a hunger for meaningful experiences. People are drawn to your adventurous nature and your ability to inspire others with big-picture thinking. Venus here thrives on freedom and exploration, so your goals are often tied to pursuits that expand your horizons, such as travel, education, or philosophical endeavors. You align best with ambitions that allow for growth, both personally and professionally, and that challenge conventional boundaries. Your charm lies in your ability to make others believe in the limitless possibilities of the future.

Meanwhile, Mars in Gemini provides the energy and drive to take action in a flexible and creative way. Gemini thrives on mental stimulation and variety, making you adept at brainstorming, networking, and solving problems on the fly. You’re not afraid to pivot when necessary or explore multiple pathways to success, and this adaptability allows you to thrive in dynamic environments. While Venus in Sagittarius gives you a sense of purpose and vision, Mars in Gemini ensures that you’re constantly experimenting and refining your methods, keeping your approach fresh and innovative.

To manifest your desires, align Sagittarius’ expansive vision with Gemini’s agile problem-solving. Use Venus in Sagittarius to set inspiring, far-reaching goals that excite your sense of adventure and meaning. Then let Mars in Gemini guide you to act quickly and creatively, exploring diverse strategies and staying open to new ideas along the way. The challenge with this combination lies in maintaining focus—Gemini’s love for variety and Sagittarius’ need for freedom may cause you to scatter your energy. Success comes when you commit to a clear direction while embracing the flexibility to adapt. By combining your intellectual resourcefulness with your enthusiasm for growth, you can achieve goals that are both visionary and groundbreaking.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Capricorn, your blueprint for achievement combines quick-witted adaptability with steady, ambitious focus. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, energizes you with curiosity, flexibility, and a love for mental stimulation. You thrive in dynamic environments where you can juggle multiple ideas, adapt to change, and communicate effectively. Venus in Capricorn, a cardinal earth sign, grounds your approach to success with a strong sense of structure, discipline, and a focus on long-term goals. Together, these placements balance creative versatility with the ability to work persistently toward meaningful, concrete outcomes.

Your Venus in Capricorn attracts success through your reliability, professionalism, and ability to align with long-term visions. Others are drawn to your maturity and your knack for creating stability in whatever you pursue. Venus in Capricorn values practicality and purpose, so you naturally align with ambitions that offer tangible rewards and lasting results. Whether in relationships, creative endeavors, or career pursuits, you focus on building something meaningful and enduring, earning respect through your patience and dedication. You magnetize opportunities by presenting yourself as someone dependable and capable of seeing things through.

At the same time, Mars in Gemini fuels your energy with sharp intellect and a talent for multitasking. Gemini’s quick, agile nature allows you to explore diverse strategies and think creatively about problem-solving. While Venus in Capricorn ensures you stay focused on long-term outcomes, Mars in Gemini helps you keep things dynamic and engaging, making you excellent at navigating fast-paced or intellectually demanding environments. This combination allows you to approach your goals with both strategic discipline and an adaptable, innovative mindset.

To manifest your desires, blend Capricorn’s commitment to structure with Gemini’s love for exploration. Use Venus in Capricorn to set clear, realistic goals that align with your values and offer long-term satisfaction. Then let Mars in Gemini guide you to approach those goals with curiosity and flexibility, exploring creative solutions and adapting to changing circumstances as needed. The challenge with this combination lies in balancing Gemini’s tendency to jump between ideas with Capricorn’s methodical, steady approach—you may feel pulled between excitement and the need for focus. Success comes when you allow Gemini’s versatility to keep your journey fresh while trusting Capricorn’s steady discipline to carry you to the finish line. By combining your intellectual agility with your grounded determination, you can achieve goals that are both innovative and enduring.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐀𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Aquarius, your blueprint for achievement is powered by intellectual agility and visionary ideals. Both Gemini and Aquarius are air signs, emphasizing communication, adaptability, and a love for exploring ideas. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, drives you to act quickly, think creatively, and thrive in dynamic, mentally stimulating environments. Venus in Aquarius, a fixed air sign, attracts opportunities through originality, innovation, and your ability to connect with people on a visionary, forward-thinking level. Together, these placements create a personality that is quick, inventive, and deeply connected to the exchange of ideas.

Your Venus in Aquarius attracts success by radiating uniqueness, independence, and a progressive outlook. You naturally align with goals that allow you to break boundaries and contribute to the collective good. Venus in Aquarius thrives on individuality and innovation, so your charm lies in your ability to see the bigger picture, inspire others, and think ahead of your time. You’re drawn to pursuits that are unconventional, collaborative, or intellectually stimulating, excelling in roles where you can explore new technologies, ideas, or humanitarian causes. Others are drawn to your visionary nature and your ability to inspire change.

Meanwhile, Mars in Gemini fuels your energy with versatility and a quick, curious mind. Gemini’s mutable nature drives you to explore multiple approaches to achieving your goals, keeping you adaptable and resourceful in the face of challenges. While Venus in Aquarius gives you a vision of the future, Mars in Gemini ensures that you act on it with creativity and agility. This combination makes you a natural innovator and communicator, skilled at networking, brainstorming, and turning abstract ideas into actionable strategies.

To manifest your desires, align Aquarius’ big-picture thinking with Gemini’s adaptability. Use Venus in Aquarius to focus on goals that resonate with your ideals and sense of purpose, ensuring they reflect your vision for growth and progress. Then let Mars in Gemini guide you to take flexible, creative actions, exploring diverse pathways and building connections that support your ambitions. The challenge with this combination lies in managing focus—Gemini’s love for variety and Aquarius’ expansive thinking can sometimes lead to scattered energy. Success comes when you balance your intellectual curiosity with a clear direction, channeling your mental agility into pursuits that align with your long-term vision. By combining your sharp mind with your ability to inspire and innovate, you can achieve goals that are both groundbreaking and impactful.

𝐆𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬 + 𝐏𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐬

With Mars in Gemini and Venus in Pisces, your blueprint for achievement is a unique blend of intellectual curiosity and emotional sensitivity. Mars in Gemini, a mutable air sign, fuels your drive with adaptability, quick thinking, and a love for exploring diverse ideas and opportunities. Venus in Pisces, a mutable water sign, attracts opportunities through compassion, intuition, and creative imagination. Together, these placements create a personality that is versatile, imaginative, and deeply intuitive, capable of manifesting your goals by balancing mental agility with soulful intention.

Your Venus in Pisces attracts success by radiating warmth, empathy, and a deeply creative spirit. Others are drawn to your emotional authenticity and your ability to connect on a heartfelt level. Venus in Pisces thrives on ideals and inspiration, so you naturally align with goals that have emotional depth or spiritual significance. You excel in pursuits that allow for self-expression, healing, or contributing to the well-being of others, such as creative arts, counseling, or spiritual growth. Your charm lies in your ability to dream big and inspire those around you with your compassionate vision.

Meanwhile, Mars in Gemini gives you the energy and versatility to act on those dreams in a flexible, intellectually curious way. Gemini thrives on variety and mental stimulation, driving you to explore multiple pathways and solutions to achieve your goals. While Venus in Pisces grounds your ambitions in emotional resonance, Mars in Gemini ensures that you stay mentally agile and open to new ideas. This combination makes you highly effective in pursuits that require both creative imagination and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, such as writing, teaching, or artistic innovation.

To manifest your desires, align Pisces’ emotional depth with Gemini’s mental agility. Use Venus in Pisces to focus on goals that resonate with your heart and bring meaning to your life. Then let Mars in Gemini guide you to explore different strategies, communicate your vision, and remain open to unexpected opportunities. The challenge with this combination lies in balancing Gemini’s love for variety with Pisces’ tendency to get lost in daydreams—you may feel pulled between chasing new ideas and staying emotionally grounded. Success comes when you blend your intellectual resourcefulness with your intuitive insight, creating a life that is both inspired and practical. By combining your curiosity with your compassion, you can achieve goals that are both innovative and deeply fulfilling.

Masterlist this series - TikTok (Matrix of Destiny) - Masterlist - YouTube (subliminals)

[amethystfairy1]

Regarding the Iskall Situation...

I've received a lot of asks wondering about what my take is on it, and since I'd prefer to have it all taken care of in one swoop so we don't have to continue to focus on it, here's my stance on the subject.

A: Yes, I have seen the credible evidence from Kasszki, I read the doc they posted, and I feel awful for them and the other victims that they had to deal with this. I'm glad to hear that the Hermits and others were supportive of them and helped them handle this situation in as professional a manner as possible. I have also seen the credible information from False that Stress left for her own separate reasons.

B: I strongly denounce Iskall's behavior, and I have absolutely zero intention of supporting him as a creator ever again.

C: Please don't pester the creators or the victims. I said it in my initial response to this situation before we knew what had happened, but my opinion remains the same here. Any information we get from the Hermits is a privilege, not a right. Hermitcraft and it's associated fandoms are well known for being healthy, good spaces, and I'm proud to be a member of this community. Now our money is where our mouths are. Please don't feed into the rumor mill, please continue to support the Hermits as you always would and don't pry or demand more details from them. This is a very difficult situation for all of us, and I'm certain it's even worse for all of them. Please keep in mind the Hermits are all grown adults, many of them had professional careers before they joined Hermitcraft, and they are handling this in as professional a manner as they are able. I applaud them for that. As their fans, we need to do the same.

What are my plans for Iskall and Stress in TTSBC?

Understandably, I've received several asks about what I plan to do about Iskall and Stress's characters in TTSBC. I've answered them individually, but I just want to put this here as a one-stop spot for what my stance is so it's clear.

I've always been a 'character not content creator' author. My characters are just that, characters. Does that mean I can completely remove them from the creators upon which they are based? No, of course not. That's not how this works, either. So here's my plan moving forward.

The two stories that heavily feature Iskall in TTSBC, "Run with It' and "Carry me Home Tonight" will remain up. They are timestamped with their dates of posting which was long before any of this came out, and again, they are very clearly meant to be characters, not the creators.

Iskall will be removed from the TTSBC: Wiki, and I will not be writing any new content for his character.

Does that affect the plot of TTSBC? Yes, it does. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't, and those of you who have followed the series at length can likely see where the issues arise...but I'm an author, and I can pivot. I also have an awesome little team behind me of @silver-sunray, @boo-the-ahh, and @khoirkid who are helping me to make sure TTSBC carries on smoothly despite this unforeseen struggle.

Stress will not be removed from the TTSBC: Wiki. As I mentioned in an ask earlier, her role in the story is very minor, and I hadn't planned for her to have any other pieces to herself outside of Hermit-a-Day May anyway...so aside from specific instances where it might be necessary to mention her, she will not be making any more major appearances. This is mainly because I'm a Hermit/Traffic/Empires writer, and I plan to stick to that notion unless future events cause me to pivot otherwise.

Lastly, I would appreciate if we could avoid anymore asks about the situation. If there are any further updates I'm sure I'll find that out on my own, I'm very active in this fandom and I see things pretty quickly when they spread, so if any new things related to this situation spring up, while I greatly appreciate your concern for me and my work, please don't send it to my inbox or in DM.

I'm very saddened by this, as I'm sure many of you are. Hermitcraft and it's associated fandoms have been my safe space for many years, through some of the hardest moments of my life, and with the mess that MCYT has proven itself to be at times, it felt like we were untouchable here. But like Doc said, the Hermits are good, and they are strong. And as their fans and supporters, we need to be the same.

Be good, be strong, and let's make sure our lovely community continues to be the positive space it always has been.

-Amethyst

[funky-brainedwhaletransgender]

It makes us sound just like all the older generations that bullied us when we were growing up, making fun of whatever kids happen to be referencing lately. It’s just bullying and we don’t need to bully children because their parents let them spend too much time online and eight-year-olds suck at moderation. We would not be doing better if we were babies in quarantine and got handed iPads as pacifiers while public education crumbled still further and our parents had to work as much as theirs do to keep us fed. How about we meet them where they are, whether or not we think it’s good enough? Because they’re kids with basically no control over their lives who’s overworked, broke parents with their own screen addictions handed their babysitting over to tech conglomerates because it’s cheaper than daycare and community support is hard to come by. Sure we could say they should have known at three years old that their excessive screen time would hinder their development and moderated their tech consumption accordingly but that is quite the logic trip you’d have to take to justify your blanket hatred of gen Alpha. Their parents absolutely need to find time and energy to raise the kids they signed up for and yeah if their kid’s attention span is decreasing they probably fucked up. But the damage is done. Making fun of them isn’t going to help them. Blame without solutions is unproductive and kids have a tendency to become what you believe they are. You’re upset about iPad kids? Good.

Solid chance you’ve got one in your life. Give their parents a break and read them a book or play pretend or build playdoh sculptures together or something. As someone who doesn’t have experience with kids of the past to compare them to I swear when you accept them as they are they’re actually pretty awesome. Maybe their memes suck but in person kid humour is still gold. And the emotional intelligence on some of them… good chunk of the adults I know aren’t on the level of some of the ten-year-olds I work with. You’re still mad? Maybe about their literacy levels? Push your government to fund public education and child support. You’re mad at their parents for letting iPads raise them? Fair. They’re no question responsible for supporting their kid’s healthy development. Make that responsibility more manageable. Take it up with capitalism. Seriously. Do activism. Again, if you can do it without stretching yourself too thin, help a family out. Big part of the reason parents are struggling so much is because society invented the nuclear family and told them child-rearing is at most a two person job. Become part of a family’s community. Cook your post-parnum pal a meal and clean a surface in their apartment. Be the cool adult who brings fun games when you babysit. If you really don’t want to spend time around kids, buy diapers if you can. Or cover some of the back to school bill. Go bargain hunting and find a good deal on something a family needs. Be someone a parent can vent with.

If you are able to do something about the problem but you choose not to, that’s okay. There are so many things to be worried about. We’re all tired. But maybe don’t go off about how much kids these days suck.

"skibidi toilet is ruining gen alpha" do none of you people remember asdf. i remember asdf.

[messyoungie]

HABITS TO DROP WHEN GETTING YOUR LIFE TOGETHER

➝ CREATING UNAUTHENTIC & UNINTENTIONAL GOALS

the biggest mistakes you can make when creating goals is making goals that aren’t true to you and making goals for the sake of making goals.

it can be so exciting when you decide to get your life together. I mean, of course it is! there are so many possibilities! but when you start planning, don’t just write down the goals you see circulating on social media. what works for someone else may not be what works for you. don’t make your goals and habits based on what’s trending or popular in the self improvement community.

think about what you actually need for a minute. what is actually necessary? your goals and habits aren’t here to be glamorous, they’re here to help regardless of how simple or small they are. the point of thinking up new habits is to improve your life, so be intentional with your goals. what will practicing this habit or achieving this goal give you?

when you’re first starting out, your goals don’t have to be anything too crazy or intense. for example, let’s say you want to become a pink pilates girl and get into fitness. you shouldn’t jump right into it and say your goal is to work out for 2 hours 5 times a week. let’s consider some factors first. have you been living a completely sedentary kind of lifestyle? then try looking for exercises that’ll wake up dormant muscles. your goal should then be to repeat those exercises for how ever many times a week. then you’ll work your way up from there. (it’s important we don’t harm the body, so be mindful with your fitness goals.) what about your schedule? how much time can you actually give to working out? can your body even endure working out for that long?

anyways, hopefully you see what I mean. when creating goals, it’s not about having the “aesthetic” habits and goals that you may see on tiktok or tumblr. it’s about doing what is actually good for you and what’ll help you the most with where you are now in your journey. so please put some thought into your goals and where they’ll take you. creating unauthentic and unintentional habits will also mean you’ll be less likely to keep practicing them after a few times. at the end of the day, that doesn’t help you achieve anything and you’re left with a broken promise you’ve made to yourself. which leads me to my next point…

➝ NOT KEEPING YOUR WORD WHEN IT COMES TO YOU

let me start off by saying this— if you don’t even listen to yourself, why should anyone else? (harsh, ik)

a HUGE reason as to why people have no self confidence is because they don’t listen to themselves or keep the promises they’ve made to themselves. if you have no self trust, how could you have any self confidence?

now, building discipline can definitely be a challenge so if you want to start somewhere easy, nip your false promises in the bud and stop yourself from making them. that’s what I did when I was first trying to stop this habit. when my addiction to tiktok was at its peak I would always tell myself the usual “ten more minutes and then I’ll stop scrolling.” when I wanted to stop making false promises, I knew I had no control or discipline so the only thing I could do is be real with myself. I’d cut myself off when I heard myself say “five more minutes” because I knew it wasn’t going to happen. if I wasn’t going to quit my bad habit, then the least I could do is be honest with myself.

the things that you are constantly telling yourself, whether they’re mindless or intentional, matter.

so, stop telling yourself seemingly harmless lies. unnecessary false promises that you know are false will only fill you with tension.

➝ STOP SEEING FAILURE AS AN INVITATION TO GIVE UP

this applies to so many things.

you wanted to be consistent with your reading goals but haven’t read a chapter in a week? dont give up. don’t tell yourself that being consistent is too hard for you, that since you missed a week this habit isn’t for you. make your goal a bit easier or give yourself another chance.

you wanted to spend more time doing art but it’s not turning out how you expected? dont give up. dont give yourself the title of a “bad artist” and never pick up a pencil again. move forward, give yourself another chance.

you wanted to quit your Instagram addiction but after a couple days you went back to scrolling for hours on ig reels? Don’t give up. dont tell yourself that this addiction isn’t gonna go away, don’t go back to the bad habit because you slipped up. give yourself another chance.

I think a lot of us (myself included) tend to give up at the first sign of failure, instead of reminding ourselves to keep going. it’d be wonderful if you could get it right on the first try. if you could read ten books a month right away after not reading a book in three years. if you could watch hours worth of tutorials and sketch the perfect portrait on the first attempt. if you could uninstall instagram for good and never feel the urge to go back. that would all be so amazing, but it’s not always the reality. expect the best from yourself and do the best you can, but also give yourself some compassion. keep in mind that you won’t always do things perfectly right away and that’s one thousand percent okay. when you feel yourself slipping up on your brand new goal, don’t end it there at the first failure. allow yourself to move forward, because the only other direction to move is backwards.

[wingedshadowfan]

⚠️arcane s2 act ii spoilers⚠️

caitlyn was actually the perfect and best person to become commander, hear me out

caitlyn is the most tactically intelligent character in arcane, perhaps only second to ambessa herself (and we saw her train with her and immediately take a piece of her advice by fighting dirty [foreshadowing] before double crossing her in the same episode, and just before that tackling vi, a much stronger fighter in short range, by using the same exact moves she learnt from ambessa!) and we've been seeing her strategic, problem solving and information gathering skills since s1, she's a mastermind who's only remained overlooked bcuz she's not evil, argue with the wall

who else could've been eligible to become commander? ambessa had to basically appoint someone who wasn't incapable and made sense in the eyes of the community (like a counselor's daughter and a decorated officer) so it looked legitimate, but still somebody she could control if need be (like someone who'd just lost her mother, had her statue ceremony ruined, and lost her contact to a zaunite she was close w/ who taught her all she knew about zaun, and was now seeking revenge)

but ambessa miscalculated. caitlyn is also the best person to be in this position (for zaunites) because she's lawful, merciful and compassionate - things ambessa doesn't seem to be able to be to non family members - so caitlyn can counteract her and keep her from going rogue to the best of her abilities considering the circumstances. and bcuz caitlyn was so close w/ vi despite their fallout and cait's preexisting and not fully tackled bigotry, she's seen zaunites eye to eye and knows enough abt life in the undercity to hold the unpopular opinion that "there are good people down there"

in fact, caitlyn came into this with three very clear objectives: kill jinx, catch any silco loyalists and dismantle shimmer - all aimed at causing the least possible harm and the most benefit to the average zaunite, esp if they're cooperating or at least minding their business (and i agree there shouldn't be "conditions" you have to meet as a zaunite in order not to suffer police violence, esp when the oppressor piltover writes the laws and can change those conditions at will, but let's remember caitlyn isn't the system itself: she has to work within the legal framework she was born and raised into that she's not exactly able to change for a multitude of reasons, and she even uses that system to her advantage because it might not be good but it's better than nothing, when she confronts ambessa abt there being no legal reason or procedure for her right hand man to attack/detain a random jinxer who hadn't given him reason to).

caitlyn didn't aim to scare zaunites into submission by perpetuating violence, "give them a lesson", "teach them who's boss", she wasn't even aiming to divide zaun's factions further (until they started uniting against piltover and she wasn't left with much of a choice with ambessa breathing down her extremely high vampire cape collar), neither did she aim to eradicate the undercity or its corresponding identity (which i believe are all things ambessa is aiming for), but things spiraled out of control unexpectedly due to momentarily getting this close to catching jinx and then having a fall out w/ vi, followed by the undercity's growing resistance

had it been anyone but caitlyn, i argue it would've been so much worse for zaun from the start

[felicity-worthington]

Why is “Doctor Odyssey” a television show that very cleverly shows the depth of the human condition?

So, I have seen some people say that Doctor Odyssey is fun (especially because of Ody3) but also just a superficial show with no plot and I have to politely disagree. I think this show is the opposite, it's just supposed to look silly and superficial at first glance, as you can see when they repeat the phrase "we constructed a paradise" in the weekly recaps.

It is supposed to look like that, it is the idea of a cruise itself, for a week you escape the real world, you enter a new constructed one, which is supposed to be paradise without problems. But here's the thing, here is why there's a doctor and two nurses on this ship: it's just an idea, it's not real.

We especially see this in the episodes "I Always Cry at Weddings" and "Quackers" and of course in the main storyline of Max, Tristan and Avery navigating their relationship and their constant struggle with what they really want in life.

Let's start with "I always cry at weddings" to deconstruct the idea of superficiality with the weekly funny themes and the show only being silly because it's quite obvious here I think. I mean, a man commits suicide in this episode because he's deeply conflicted about what he really wants out of life and how he thinks there is an incurable darkness within him. And we see him, his bride and his best man as an example of how this construction, this idea of heteronormative happiness is just that for a lot of people: just an idea that doesn't guarantee you happiness, but actually destroys lives (not everyone's, of course). And we start this episode superficially, with a couple about to get married on a cruise, the perfect wedding in perfect paradise. But as the episode progresses, we see the cracks and then it gets very real. The scenes with the groom breaking down in the infirmary, the bride talking to Avery and Max after the suicide and her mother's confession are all absolute tearjerkers in the best way. I mean, watch that scene and then tell me again that this show is just a silly Riverdale for adults:

This is actually one of my favorite scenes of the show because the delivery of the line "we need to help this boy" is just perfect, the actress did an amazing job. Also, the character herself says "she pretended her fears away", which underlines the show's idea that this is a paradise where people should just forget their worries, but actually real life catches up with you no matter where you are, you cannot hide from it.

The other example I was thinking of is the latest episode with the Quackers community, which is super silly in a lot of ways and I love that, don't get me wrong.

And then you have this older couple, the leaders (?) of this community, who seem extremely superficial and silly, I mean, going on cruises to go on a quack treasure hunt? So silly. BUT then the cracks start to show again as one of them, the husband (I don't know what his name was, so I'll just call him the husband and her the wife), shows a serious condition, the compulsive urge to swallow objects. When confronted, the wife literally denies it, unable to face the ugly truth. In her world everything is perfect, she and her husband are on a never-ending treasure hunt on paradise cruises, and when something real, something problematic threatens that, she can't accept it at first. And we see that again later in the episode when she refuses to leave the ship:

She wants to stay in paradise, in denial, on the surface. But that's not possible, you can't ignore real life:

But this is her and her husband's dream, an endless paradise in search of ducks, and it's hard to let go and take a deeper look at life and accept that floating through life is a nice idea and might work for a while, but it can't go on forever:

regarding her husbands condition:

Once again the theme of what we want (superficial) and what is really going on (what is behind the construction of paradise) is mentioned.

All of this, and all of the recurring themes I mentioned, are also at play with the three main characters and their constant struggle with what they really want out of life. In a way, their calling to help people is fulfilled by their professions, but then they keep asking themselves, "Is this enough? Is this what I really want out of life, taking one cruise after another?

The theme of constructed ideas versus what is actually going on is also seen in their throuple situation. Max and Tristan have probably always seen themselves as straight, and now they are getting a deeper look at who they are and what they really want out of life. And that is scary, and it often takes years to deconstruct habits and self-image.

But there is no unnecessary weird teenage drama in this show, it is very real. It is supposed to look superficial, you only have to look a little closer to see that it is not.

So once you deconstruct the idea that this is all superficial, you will see that yes, it is silly, so is life and we need those silly and funny moments in life and in this show, but it is also very, very deeply human in many tragic but also good ways.

[subjectsix]

I do know most of these have a kind of workaround, and this post has been a great place for people to suggest more and find some for themselves, which rules! Most things I’ve complained about here I’ve got a workaround for already— for those suggesting Linux, I have a machine running Mint

My point is we can’t just wait for The Revolution™️, a vague concept of the future, and the workarounds aren’t solutions, just temporary fixes. My point is it needs to be talked about more (my wall of text got 20,000 notes, that’s wild to me) and we need to be active how we can in carving out our own spaces. I’m debating buying a forum soon and looking for more to join. I cancelled Spotify and I’m working on seeing if a Pi Hole to block ads is good for my household.

I’ve spent a lot of time compromising begrudgingly, so now I’m hopeful (and certain tbh) that people will be the little changes that stop this ball from rolling. Its not convenient or doable for everyone to become Linux users, or all switch to dumb phones, or all quit Facebook— but based on this post everyone’s fed up enough to be heard enough about the fact that we won’t put up with garbage and there are alternatives.

The current major internet spaces don’t foster community well. I saw people on Tiktok lamenting how Ena, an extremely popular series with a new game coming out for free and doing very well for itself, had a “dead fandom” because engagement wasn’t constant and loud. Some people don’t know how the internet was, and don’t know the alternatives suggested in this post.

I guess, really, my point is to not shut up about the fact that ownership of things and the right to repair are extremely important, and to remind people the things we miss can be done right now, and to not let the temporary fixes be the ultimate solutions.

I love love that tons of people on this post are offering to show people their fixes, and providing instructions on how to nuke Edge or Copilot off their computers. I even have a resource post in the works. That’s the online community I’ve missed! It’s still here, we just have to be more proactive about finding it :’)

Its like you say— there are work arounds! And I think everyone is ready for them (and sick of needing them). We gotta form community (small and big) about it and be willing to reject what we can of the growing bloatware and enshittification of stuff

I don't know I'm not done talking about it. It's insane that I can't just uninstall Edge or Copilot. That websites require my phone number to sign up. That people share their contacts to find their friends on social media.

I wouldn't use an adblocker if ads were just banners on the side funding a website I enjoy using and want to support. Ads pop up invasively and fill my whole screen, I misclick and get warped away to another page just for trying to read an article or get a recipe.

Every app shouldn't be like every other app. Instagram didn't need reels and a shop. TikTok doesn't need a store. Instagram doesn't need to be connected to Facebook. I don't want my apps to do everything, I want a hub for a specific thing, and I'll go to that place accordingly.

I love discord, but so much information gets lost to it. I don't want to join to view things. I want to lurk on forums. I want to be a user who can log in and join a conversation by replying to a thread, even if that conversation was two days ago. I know discord has threads, it's not the same. I don't want to have to verify my account with a phone number. I understand safety and digital concerns, but I'm concerned about information like that with leaks everywhere, even with password managers.

I shouldn't have to pay subscriptions to use services and get locked out of old versions. My old disk copy of photoshop should work. I should want to upgrade eventually because I like photoshop and supporting the business. Adobe is a whole other can of worms here.

Streaming is so splintered across everything. Shows release so fast. Things don't get physical releases. I can't stream a movie I own digitally to friends because the share-screen blocks it, even though I own two digital copies, even though I own a physical copy.

I have an iPod, and I had to install a third party OS to easily put my music on it without having to tangle with iTunes. Spotify bricked hardware I purchased because they were unwillingly to upkeep it. They don't pay their artists. iTunes isn't even iTunes anymore and Apple struggles to upkeep it.

My TV shows me ads on the home screen. My dad lost access to eBook he purchased because they were digital and got revoked by the company distributing them. Hitman 1-3 only runs online most of the time. Flash died and is staying alive because people love it and made efforts to keep it up.

I have to click "not now" and can't click "no". I don't just get emails, they want to text me to purchase things online too. My windows start search bar searches online, not just my computer. Everything is blindly called an app now. Everything wants me to upload to the cloud. These are good tools! But why am I forced to use them! Why am I not allowed to own or control them?

No more!!!!! I love my iPod with so much storage and FLAC files. I love having all my fics on my harddrive. I love having USBs and backups. I love running scripts to gut suck stuff out of my Windows computer I don't want that spies on me. I love having forums. I love sending letters. I love neocities and webpages and webrings. I will not be scanning QR codes. Please hand me a physical menu. If I didn't need a smartphone for work I'd get a "dumb" phone so fast. I want things to have buttons. I want to use a mouse. I want replaceable batteries. I want the right to repair. I grew up online and I won't forget how it was!

[brightlotusmoon]

In a speech given to young Democratic leaders, he said he wants his party to recognize how to be effective communicators.

First of all, he said, “We cannot be mesmerized by the worst things that we see happening. We will be inclined to react with shock by some things that are done precisely with the intent of shocking us, we need to move very quickly through the shock.”

Another thing Democrats have to do, he said, is figure out how to take debates they're having online, into the real world to talk to the everyday people who were not hearing their message in the 2024 campaign.

“We’ve got to figure out how to take online conversations offline at scale,” said Buttigieg. “While it is not obvious how to do that, that is something that through human history until about 15 years ago, we all did. And so we’re going to have ways to do that that might on some level be a return to form but on other levels, entail information environment work that is unfamiliar to people who have taken a free press in a democratic society for granted.”

[talenlee]

What Is Truth (in game worldbuilding)

The question to start with: How do you present information as truthful in your world?

Okay, there’s a lot going on here, and it involves defining in order to get some specificity. The principles might be universalisable but I sure ain’t gunna pull it off here. This is primarily considering world-building for a game, and not the world-building for a conventional narrative explanation like a story or web serial or whatnot. Those are worlds where you can, amongst other things, go back in time and change the setup you have for the story you want.

And you should.

That’s what editing is.

But in the making of a world for a game, you have to make a way for people to interact with a playful space that gives them boundaries and things to interact with (that are cool and fun or ‘engaging’ if you want to be technical) and that means you need to confer the reality to these players in ways that you, the person building the world, may struggle with depicting.

The task of depicting truth is different in storytelling for a conventional narrative and for a game. Particularly, games have an interface layer that typically speaking, players have to have some reason to believe they can trust, and the job of the interface is to serve as a window between the reality of the game (ie, you are a player interacting with a playful device) and the fiction of the game (there are fuckin DRAGONS man).

See, one of the easiest ways to convey ‘true’ things to your players is to describe ideas in an entirely objective sense. This is this, this is that, and then you use objective measurements as much as you can, in the objective voice of a narrator. This is fine, this works out just okay, and I don’t want you to feel bad in any way about doing this this way, but when you present information like that, you have presented that information as reliable. That creates a sense of trust which you then can just poop down your leg when you have to explain that something you told them isn’t true.

Obviously you can be okay with this, I mean it doesn’t matter if a Metroidvania videogame has to indicate that an early message log was a lie. It needs to be done with a bit of care though because say, if a game opens by telling you that you’re using a stun gun to knock people out through the whole game, and then reveals, shock horror, that actually it’s a murder gun that has been knocking people into death with kill bullets, then the result isn’t going to be a player feeling an emotional distress at the realisation that they were doing something wrong because they trusted the wrong person, you’re going to have a player rejecting the experience, falling out of the fiction and going: this is bullshit.

(Because it is bullshit.)

I think on this because I think about how I present information from Cobrin’Seil. Cobrin’Seil is a D&D setting. It’s meant to be made for people to play in in a setting that is primarily mechanically oriented, where the world can be represented by reasonably reliably systems. Wizards in the top of the world and the bottom of the world can both cast spells that are similar and those spells may work differently under the hood, within the fiction, but are still reasonably coherently reliable things. The same is true that the followers of a death god can heal people with spells that may look entirely different to the spells of a god of the harvest but in the end, the people experiencing the outcome still wind up healed.

I think that the world of Cobrin’Seil is more interesting and more rewarding to write about if there is a strict delineation between the concrete and reliable — rules information — and the social and communicated — things people talk about in the world. That is to say, if you need to roll a few d6 or d8s for a thing, that’s rules information, segregated, and, thanks to 4th edition’s excellent trade dress (the way the books are designed to look) we have a good standardised way to express that. But if you want to know about the world, the things in the world and the way they relate to one another, then that’s where you talk to people and people have biases, and all the information presented in the world is presented as if it is being told to you by a person.

When I’m discussing the world of Cobrin’Seil, then, I know that it’s easy to state questions from a near-objective narrative position, but to deliver answers it should always have an attribution, a source. That source then gets to be someone potentially wrong, and to bring in their own biases and their own opinions.

I know that in Cobrin’Seil, I am biased towards presenting wizards who study things and write things down as a useful source of studyable information. I also know I don’t necessarily verify that information or make it widespread. Sometimes I like that because there are some things I want to be objectively true. For example: Wizards can prove that racism is based on nothing meaningfully true. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean people don’t believe in racism or engage in it, but that there is some objective authority in the universe that can say ‘look, this is a social system that sucks, and ‘detect racism’ spells won’t work.’

Otherwise, though? Things like how magic works? What gods can do? How fairies can manipulate reality? That stuff is all competing theories, maybes, possibilities, and I try to make sure it’s always at least three competing theories.

That bias remains, though, right? And it stands to reason, I, a person working in academia who is working on higher education, would likely see the advantages to and potential authority of a system like that. But that also demonstrates something of my biases towards, you know, things being written down. I could have it so that there are shamanic songs and lyrical poetry that carry important narratives of truth… except I’m not good at writing those, so I don’t.

This is what you need to be mindful of. There are ways to represent what’s ‘true’ in your worldbuilding, in the information you present to people, but you need to also be mindful of your biases. You need to maintain a sense of truth that players can engage with and you need to be mindful of where it’s okay to lie to them.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!