#but ive been wondering about leon and his religion

[citrine-elephant]

after reading a snippet of a translation of the vendetta novel, the urge to draw strangely morbid/bastardized? religious symbolism....

[a-menagerie]

hello!! ive been a silent reader (and lover) of your blog since like late 2021, and so i finally decided to pop-in and say something. love your writing!! all you CR content makes me so so happy and we all appreciate you endlessly. but, if you’re still doing those D&D characters submissions…i’d like to submit mine as well :D

my character’s name is Lyon (pronounced Leon) and she’s a 15/16 year old human warlock who’s gotten in way over her head with her “patron.” her patron is a sourceless/bodiless entity who represents the rejection of death and strives for eternal life—aka the enemy of both the Raven Queen and The Wildmother—who is worshiped by a widespread church, however Lyon was lucky (unlucky?) enough to be hand-chosen by this entity to be their sole acolyte. the warlock deal was for Lyon to travel and grow stronger so that she would be able to later ascend and act as a physical representation and leader of this warped and twisted religion.

her stats: 10 STR, 15 DEX, 8 CON, 15 INT, 11 WIS, and 19 CHA

she’s a naive young girl who’s trying to help people and become stronger—but she’s far too trusting of people due to her lack of experience in the world. there’s lots of opportunities where someone could take advantage of her naivety. she’s from a smaller town and this is her first time adventuring ever. Lyon is obviously too young to be romantically involved with anyone from any campaign, but she’s a phenomenal listener and is incredibly kind. i would really like to know how she would fit into Vox Machina, but i personally imagine she’d really look up to Vex and Keyleth as older sisters.

again, as a decently long term fan of your blog (im one of your followers, but you probably won’t figure out who hehe) i wanted to say that i really do appreciate all your writing so very much!! thank you for the endless content and i hope you can find some more motivation soon <33

-shakes fist at sky- who are youuuuuuu ;P

but also hi lovely thank you for the super kind message and the fun character! <3 sorry this has taken so so long but i hope you enjoy!

okay first off though i think most everyone in Vox Machina is in "must protecc" mode for Lyon. she's a capable person sure, but she's still young and naive

Grog, Vex, and Scanlan are the ones most likely to let Lyon do the whole "learn by trying" thing. Yeah she's gonna fall for that con-artist but how will she learn otherwise?

The others are various shades of "wrap her up like a burrito and put her in your pocket"

Lyon sounds a lot like Keyleth - kind, empathic, big-hearted. so it's no wonder she'd look up to Keyleth...which just really flusters Kiki, but in a good way! Keyleth is really not used to people looking to her in that way. She tries to be a good example for Lyon, about how you can be kind and strong

Vex, on the other hand, maybe not so outwardly kind. She definitely cares, just in her own way. but maybe to Lyon, she sees Vex as what she could grow to be - not so naive, whip smart, and independent. Vex is also not used to having someone look up to her like that but she slides into the roll much easier than Keyleth

Scanlan I think would find it hard to not treat Lyon like the kid she nearly is (especially after meeting Kaylie). He doesn't necessarily treat her that way in an obvious manner, but he'll check in on her after a tough fight, offer some jokes if she seems down. Nonchalant dad things.

Pike looked after Grog, traveling with and looking after Lyon is easy peasy. assuming Lyon shares who her patron is, Pike is gonna keep a super close eye on her and offer the opportunities to discuss more spiritual/religious topics.

Grog...just thinks its the best to have a "little kid" following them around that he can mess with. He doesn't really see Lyon as someone who needs to be looked after...so he doesn't. He does make sure no one gets close to her in a fight tho. And he'll order her a beer, go "oops youre not old enough!" and drink it himself

Vax tries so hard to let Lyon learn her own lessons. Very hands-off approach. Until he falls under the Raven Queen's wing (and again assuming they know about Lyon's patron). then he gets really worried. this entity is the enemy of the RQ, and he worries that She will try to make him deal with Lyon

Percy feels like he's got another little sister. In the early days, he'd sometimes get Lyon conflated with Cassandra in his head - maybe treating Lyon too harshly for mistakes she'd made. over time though, he falls naturally into his big brother role; her naivety can make it fun to mess with her, tho he knows not to take it too far

None of Vox Machina would like her position as the Entities acolyte, and I think they'd really try to find a way to relieve her from her pact (if she was agreeing or not, tbh). if Lyon decides that she wants out, great! She's got VM on her team willing to do whatever it takes to free her from that thing. If Lyon decides she wants to continue working with the Entity, and eventually become that group leader, i think VM would try very hard to dissuade her and lead her down a different path. but they'd never abandon or give up on her

[duaneodavila]

Kopf: Is Sentencing The Hardest Thing A Federal Judge Does?

I wish to spend a little of your time answering the foregoing question. My answer may make you sad. It might also enrage you. I hope it doesn’t bore you.

A recent case out of the Second Circuit, featured in Doug Berman’s wonderful blog, is a good place to begin. In United States v. Singh (2d Cir. Dec. 12, 2017), the defendant pleaded guilty to one count of illegally reentering the United States after having been removed following a conviction for an aggravated felony. His Guidelines range was 15 to 21 months’ imprisonment, and both the government and the probation office recommended a within‐Guidelines sentence.  The district court, however, sentenced Singh to a term of imprisonment of 60 months—nearly three times the top of the Guidelines range.

The Second Circuit vacated the defendant’s sentence. Particularly in the context of the Sentencing Commission’s statistics on sentences for illegal-reentry cases, the court was not persuaded that the justification offered by Judge Forrest (who took Judge Rakoff’s seat when he assumed senior status) was sufficient to support the magnitude of the variance.

The Second Circuit also believed that there may have been factual errors in the judge’s discussion of the record, and the district court’s reluctance to credit the defendant’s acceptance of responsibility (although it did so in the end) suggested that the court might have conflated the defendant’s statements in mitigation with a failure to accept responsibility. Accordingly, the court remanded for resentencing.

In doing so, the Second Circuit stated the following:

“Sentencing, that is to say punishment, is perhaps the most difficult task of a trial court judge.” Jack B. Weinstein, Does Religion Have a Role in Criminal Sentencing?, 23 Touro L. Rev. 539, 539 (2007). While there are many competing considerations in every sentencing decision, a sentencing judge must have some understanding of “the diverse frailties of humankind.”  See Woodson v. North Carolina, 428 U.S. 280, 304 (1976) (plurality opinion).  In deciding what sentence will be “sufficient, but not greater than necessary” to further the goals of punishment, 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), a sentencing judge must have a “generosity of spirit, that compassion which causes one to know what it is like to be in trouble and in pain.” Guido Calabresi, What Makes a Judge Great: To A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., 142 U. Pa. L. Rev. 513, 513 (1993); see also Edward J. Devitt, Ten Commandments for the New Judge, 65 A.B.A. J. 574 (1979), reprinted in 82 F.R.D. 209, 209 (1979) (“Be kind. If we judges could possess but one attribute, it should be a kind and understanding heart. The bench is no place for cruel or callous people regardless of their other qualities and abilities.  There is no burden more onerous than imposing sentence in criminal cases.”).

Slip. Op. at pp. 29-30.

Is sentencing truly “the most difficult task of a trial court judge”? With sincere respect for the great judges who have said such things[i], that sentiment is pure pabulum.

In terms of legal and factual difficulty, sentencing is normally relatively easy. That becomes truer as a sentencing judge gains experience. And here, I am not talking about becoming jaded, although that is always a risk.

It is a fact that sentencing is frequently unpleasant. Sending people to prison is a nasty business. Yet, for better or worse, we judges must sentence.

What bothers me about the sentiment that I critique (“sentencing is the most difficult task of a trial court judge”) is not only that it is frequently and objectively untrue, but that it can be used as a backhanded way of seeking sympathy for judges or, worse yet, as an excuse for doing whatever we judges want to do.

Poor us! Watch us wring our hands and nearly weep about that which we are compelled to do.

For goodness sake, we federal judges have lifetime tenure; great legal help from brilliant law clerks; extremely detailed presentence reports prepared by smart and diligent federal probation officers; mostly great lawyers who appear before us; fancy offices and all the rest of the benefits that go with enthronement under Article III. At least in opinions, we should quit uttering such nonsense.

Now, I will engage, minimally I hope, in a bit of obligatory Gertruding.[ii] We should not be cruel when we sentence. We should never be cavalier. We ought to treat defendants with the dignity that all human beings should be accorded by decent men and women. There is no harm in being empathetic so long as we are not credulous. We should seek to emulate the “golden mean” of the wily old Greeks. But we should not kid ourselves or anyone else.

In the vast majority of cases, sentencing is not all that hard. Oh, and by the way, had I sat on the Second Circuit[iii], I would have voted to reverse too.[iv] The sentence was goofy.[v] Parenthetically, I am pretty sure that there is a Latin word for goofy, but damn if I can find it.[vi]

Richard G. Kopf Senior United States District Judge (Nebraska)

[i] Hell, I probably have repeated those words or something similar myself, and I am not, nor will I ever be, in the same universe as judges like Jack Weinstein.

[ii] See the top definition and the unicorn example.

[iii] Happily, the chances of this happening are exactly zero.

[iv] It took the Second Circuit more than nine months to issue the opinion. The opinion is 31 pages long. I see no earthly reason why it took so long and required the killing of so many trees.

[v] To be fair, I am the master of goofy sentences.

[vi] Where is David Meyer-Lindenberg when you need him? Probably out chasing some svelte Canadian curler.

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