#democracy (derogatory)

[trashwaaveactual]

You know Democrats are polling poorly when @liberalsarecool and @soberscientistlife start power posting like they're paid for it.

[icarusbetide]

someone just said hamilton exclusively used the term democracy as a slur i'm crying

[borrelia]

comets unwanted kintobor tube baby sibling lichen pronouns poll

[eruverse]

I am a nationalist and came from a nationalist family from both sides and we’d rather be ruled by slightly authoritarian presidents than having ‘real’ democracy but without dignity (being sold to Am*rica)

[butcharyastark]

i need bitches in academia to shut the FUCK up sometimes

[trashwaaveactual]

You mean forcibly removing American tax paying citizens that question the Democrats' disastrous decision making regarding the border with foreigners?

This sounds familiar...

You kinda said the quiet part out loud there, bud...

[trashwaaveactual]

NEWS ALERT ‼️‼️ Looks 👀 like HOE 💃 Biden 👨‍🦳 has DROPPED ⬇️ his presidential 🇺🇸 ASS 🍑 out 🚫 of the RACE 🏃‍♀️ today 📆 and the nomination 🗳️ will go to CUMala 💦 Harris 👩 So let's 🤪 give it 🆙 🤤 for the OLDEST 💀 DUSTIEST 🌬️ and FREAKIEST 😈 president 🤵‍♂️ of all time ⏰ JOE BIDEN 🥵 and wish 🥺 🙏 him luck 🍀 in whatever SEXY 🥵 😳 ventures ✈️ he might have 🤷 We all know Jill 👵 is going to RIDE 🤤 🥵 his PRESIDENTIAL 🇺🇸 PRICK 🍆 until he busts 💦 his last CONGRESSIONAL 🇺🇸 CUMMING 💦 💦 in the White House 🏦 Send ✉️ this to 🔟 SEXY 💁‍♀️ inCUMbents 💦 if you get 0️⃣ back you're a real TRUMP 🤮 TAINT 🍑 LICKER 👅 if you get 5️⃣ you're 🫵 a JILL 💃 BIDEN SQUIRTER 💃 💦 and if you 🫵 get 🔟 you're a real ‼️ JOE BIDEN 🇺🇸 FREAK 😈 🥵

[margindoodles2407]

you are yet to tell us your fandom-controversial takes on the corrie guard and their poor marshal commander

I require this to be rectified posthaste (take your time lol)

Ask and ye shall recieve, friend-o (I spent three days on this)

(@whyoneartheven Hola. You'll also probably want to see this)

DISCLAIMER. Hello there. I urge you, if you are currently reading this dissertation, to perhaps- either now or later- step aside to read this glorious fic, which not only changed my brain chemistry in indescribable ways but also shaped at least 90% of my perception of Fox as a person. I am contractually obligated to warn you, though. That it's a T- rated fic. And it's a hard T. There is some dark subject matter here. However. If you are okay with that. PLEASE READ IT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE OH MY FORCE GO READ IT GO READ IT NOW I AM LOSING MY MIND IT'S SO GOOD IT'S SO GOOD IT'S SO GOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDD:

https://archiveofourown.org/series/3653110 (you're going to have to copy and paste the link but i swear it works)

And Now, Your Scheduled Programming.

---------------------------------------------------

Commander Fox

By MarginDoodles2047

What I see in Commander Fox is a man who is, fundamentally, deeply kind.

I see a man who was once a little boy, the youngest of his batch of brothers, and with a red giant for a heart. I see a little boy whose heart was huge and warm and beautifully bright, who loved like it was breathing, who gave and gave and gave without a thought to himself. I see a boy whose heart's deepest darkest desire was to be a medic, whose hands ached to heal and not to hurt, who wanted to fix what was broken and stitch back together what was ravaged and ragged and ruined.

I see a boy who could not ever see that dream become more, because he was created to lead armies to victory, no matter how high the blood-price.

I see a youth who worked like a madman to prove himself, and whose efforts were finally rewarded with the promise that he'd never have to see the battlefield he hated so much. I see a youth ecstatic at the thought that he'd spend his days protecting, for Coruscant, the beating heart of the Republic, was his to guard and to defend. I see a youth who spent his last night on Kamino with bright, excited eyes and a giddy racing in his huge, warm, bright heart, because he, of all his brothers, the youngest, little Fox'ika, had been deemed fit to spill his blood for the Supreme Chancellor himself.

I see a man who stepped off the transport, who took his first steps onto the planet-city, hand locked in his best friend and co-Commander's, with eyes still shining and a smile that could put the ecumenopolis's own glittering brightness to shame.

I see… that smile start to fade, as the days and weeks go by.

Because I see what Fox could not, not at first: I see the decadence, the degeneracy, the decay that lay just beneath that shimmering facade. I see the minds of people from all corners of the galaxy, some noble but most twisted and corrupted, as they go about their petty lives squabbling and backrooms-dealing in the name of Democracy but really for their own gain. I see the inflated, fragile egos of countless humans and aliens who are more than willing to treat their fellow beings as objects to use and discard when they're done with them.

Most horribly, I see at the center of it all the deceptively gentle smile and cruel beady eyes of a man in blood-red robes, who spins this web of corruption and abuse around him like a very patient spider that finds himself delighted to have caught a very earnest and very naive white-and-crimson-armored beetle right in the center of it.

I see a man who finds his entire world ripped out from under his feet, yet still a man who tries to make the best out of a bad situation for weeks. I see a man who fights back against every snide comment, every attempted backhanded slap, every derogatory sneer of Clone, with the fire from his red-giant heart flaring in his eyes and burning in his voice, yet who- increasingly exhaustedly- turns nothing but his innate kindness and warmth and empathy on his terrified younger brothers, despite being terrified himself. I see a man who is so determined to be cheerfully rebellious, even to the face of the most powerful man in the Galaxy---

But when he holds the broken, badly-concussed body of his best friend and right-hand man, the body of a brother beaten and battered and barely-alive as a punishment for his defiance, I see a man who resolves then and there that as long as he is Marshal Commander of the Coruscant Guard, no one but he will take the blows and the bruises and the fractures and the insults and the absolute hell that is the Senate.

I see a man whose heart is huge and warm and whose beautifully bright light is flickering and sputtering like a dying candle, who loves like it's breathing, who gives and gives and gives without a thought to himself.

I see him give his body to the blows and the slaps and the throwing and the names. I see him give his gentleness, his comfort, his protection to his brothers. I see him give everything he has to make sure the politicians' attentions are on him and never on his Guardsmen.

I see the sweet little boy get buried under layers of callouses, to be dug out only for the suffering men he's sworn himself to protect. I see him cut himself off from his batch-brothers, firstly because he feels they'd never understand or believe him and secondly, because he doesn't want that spider of a man to have any more leverage over him than he already does-- because I see a beskar will that only one person can bend and twist like taffy, I see a man hewn from marble that only one person can toy with like a marionette on a string.

I see once-dark curls shock themselves full of silver and once-bright eyes go dim and dull and sunken. I see too-sharp cheekbones and a once-smooth young face get violently gashed in half from eyebrow to mouth-corner, just because. I see black eyes and deep hematomas expertly hidden under layers of drugstore concealer and violent electric burns expertly hidden under the layers of his armor. I see the scars that are tokens of thoughtless cruelty and deliberate torture alike.

I see a man who spends his nights on Coruscant with exhausted, weepy eyes and a panicked racing in his shrinking, cooling, flickering heart, because he, of all his brothers, the oldest, Commander Fox, has been deemed fit to spill his blood for the Supreme Chancellor himself.

(I see, one particularly bad night, a glass of something dark and burning. Over time, I see that glass turn into two glasses. Then a bottle. Then three bottles. Then five bottles and a sobbing, heartbroken man slumped over his cluttered desk- a man who dried to drown his terror and his grief but instead finds himself drowning in them and a sea of cheap Correllian alcohol.)

I see it all, and I see it… go unnoticed, because what the Senate, the Media, the Public, sees is a perfect, polished Marshal Commander whose black-brown and silver curls have never a hair out of place, whose bleak eyes can hold perfect and even intense contact with those of their focus, whose sharp split face is nonetheless clean-shaven and unblemished and even- in its own macabre way- handsome when it's not hidden under his helmet, whose bruises and scars are rendered invisible and whose hands never shake and whose never-raised voice is measured and even and soft and always, always, polite.

Fox is not the only one I see, though. I see Command Batch, increasingly concerned regarding little Foxy's clipped, too-polite monosyllables and terse responses. I especially see Wolffe and Cody, angrily sad and deeply worried, respectively, about the change that has come over their vod'ika. I see Rex's relationship with Fox grow cold and distant and strained for reasons he's not entirely able to fathom. I see Thorn, worrier that he is, the only one able to really get through to his superior, his best friend, his brother, the only one who knows the extent of the wreck that Fox has become. I see the Guardsmen, from the oldest surviving veteran to the freshest most innocent shiny, ready to die for their Marshal Commander because he's the only one who makes them not want to die from the torture that is their job.

I see the Chancellor, who really doesn't care about him, because, in the grand scheme of things, he's nigh-inconsequential to his master plan, yet who keeps him around because isn't it fun to have one person on whom he can inflict all the mental and physical and spiritual torture he likes, because he has no safe space or confidante that could protect him? One person he can tell that plan to because he has no one to tell and stop the coming darkness? One person who can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who the Dark Lord of the Sith is, because even if he did have someone to tell, who would believe that the kind, soft-spoken, grandfatherly Chancellor, who's so respectful of all his troops and fights so hard for the rights of the GAR, could possibly be the great evil behind the entire war?

I see Commander Fox.

I see a man who was once a little boy, the youngest of his batch of brothers, and with a red giant for a heart. I see a little boy whose heart was huge and warm and beautifully bright, who loved like it was breathing, who gave and gave and gave without a thought to himself. I see a boy whose heart's deepest darkest desire was to be a medic, whose hands ached to heal and not to hurt, who wanted to fix what was broken and stitch back together what was ravaged and ragged and ruined.

I see a man whose red giant heart is breaking, bursting at the seams. I see a man who still loves like it's breathing, who still gives and gives and gives without a thought to himself, but whose breathing is turning asthmatic and whose well to give from is by no means infinite. I see a man who still, in his heart of hearts, is trying to be a medic, trying to play doctor to a division that is horribly broken and fumbling with his own mangled hands to stitch back together a division that is ravaged and rugged and ruined almost beyond repair.

I see Commander Fox, and he's running out of time.

[hollow-keys]

I suffered through Tom King Wonder Woman so you don't have to, here's the review:

The set up is that Amazons become outlaws because one Amazon attacked a guy who assaulted her, then all the guys in the bar attacked her because of it, a full bar brawl happened and she killed them. Already, this feels very uninspired.

Instead of being told through Diana's perspective, the entire story is narrated by a guy who's unnamed for most of the story. Wonder Woman is a secondary character in her own book and isn't even on most of the pages.

Additionally, a lot of important information is glossed over. The political atmosphere and lead up to the bill outlawing the Amazon's should be the focus of the first issue. We should see Wonder Woman and her allies organising and reacting to the events, but this is all handwaved away by a few narration boxes from the currently unnamed guy I just mentioned. He tells us that she protested the governments outlawing peacefully, but it's not shown. The only time we see Diana up to this point is a brief nothing-conversation with Steve Trevor.

When the act is put in place 300 amazons are killed or imprisoned. We don't see her defend them once. We do see a lesbian amazon get gunned down because apparently the government somehow got bullets that can cut Amazon steel.

When we first see Diana after the act's in place she's at the graves of those guys who were killed and she tells the government agents that are after her that she's trying to solve their murders? Homegirl, your people are being genocided.

She doesn't actually seem to care, she appears like an emotionless slate who talks of "obligation" to the Amazons like this is a job, not her people being hunted. The most emotion we get is being told by an Amazon ambassador that she gave her sword to her to resist the temptation of using it, which could point to her being enraged by all this but, again, it's not like we hear from Diana herself.

Edit: I forgot she got angry when a gov agent called her a bitch but yeah that's it on the emotion front.

She then talks to Steve about the situation, again, and then we're finally fully introduced to the narrator guy, The Sovereign. He is part of a dynasty of men that have been secretly ruling America for centuries wielding the lasso of lies. No, seriously.

Firstly, putting America's problems at the feet of an entirely made up guy who's secretly subverting democracy is exactly the type of overly simplistic bullshit I would expect from an ex-CIA operative like Tom King. It's a neat explanation that doesn't require you to consider structural problems, all you gotta do is dispose of this one guy.

Secondly, the idea of a person/group secretly pulling the strings is deeply tied to anti-semitic cabal conspiracy theories, even the word cabal comes from Yiddish. Sure, not all people who believe this type of thing believe that it's a Jewish person/group controlling the world, but the further you get in conspiracy circles, the more prevalent anti-semitism becomes. This guy also has a big nose, which is a common stereotypical Jewish feature.

Thirdly, the lasso of lies? Seriously? Why? Questions, questions and no good answers.

All of this is written in Tom King's unmistakable style (derogatory) where all the dialogue is disjointed, all the characters are sad + stoic and the political commentary is meaningless at best.

[trashwaaveactual]

"Fire all the Republicans" Cry the retards who also shriek about the "sanctity of democracy" Bunch of drooling retards.

Fire. All. Republicans.

if Republicans shut down the government over budget reasons, remember that they're the ones who grow the deficit every time they're in charge by giving massive amounts of our taxpayer money to corporations

our country can't survive much longer under republican rule, and will almost certainly crash under another garbage "president" like tRump

the hypocrisy is cartoonishly evil

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 16, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 17, 2024

The complaint of Republican vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) last weekend on CNN that Democrats are bullying him by calling him weird has stuck with me. As I wrote at the time, Republicans have made punching down their stock in trade for decades, and Vance’s complaint suggests that the Democrats are finally pushing back. It strikes me that behind this shifting power dynamic is a huge story about American politics.

Since the 1950s, those determined to get rid of business regulation, social welfare programs, government infrastructure spending, and federal protection of civil rights have relied on a rhetorical structure that centers “real” Americans who allegedly want nothing from government and warns that un-American forces who want government handouts are undermining the country by bringing socialism or racial, gender, or religious equality. 

In 2024, that rhetoric is all the MAGA Republicans have left to attract voters, as their actual policies are unpopular. Yesterday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told reporters at his Bedminster availability that to win the 2024 election: “All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody that's gonna destroy our country." 

But it is not just Trump. A MAGA pundit has called Vice President Harris “Hitler and Stalin combined but times 200,” and on Wednesday, Republicans in Minnesota nominated Royce White as their candidate for the U.S. Senate. “We face an enemy that intends to bastardize our citizenship through an idea called globalism,” White has said. “We must begin to understand how the global affects the local and take a stand for God, Family, and Country.” White has also said that “women have become too mouthy,” and that “Donald Trump could get up on stage, pull his pants down, take a sh*t up at the podium, and I still would never vote for you f*cking Democrats again.”

The rhetorical strategy setting up Republicans against a dangerous “other” was behind Trump’s demand that Republicans in Congress kill a bipartisan border bill so that Trump could continue to demonize immigrants. You could see that demonization of immigrants today in Vance’s straight-up lie that Vice President Kamala Harris “wants to give $25,000 to illegal aliens to buy American homes.” In fact, Harris today called for Congress to expand plans already in place in the Biden administration, and none of those plans call for giving money to undocumented migrants.

Also in that vein today was the announcement of Representative James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee, that he is opening an investigation into Minnesota governor Tim Walz’s work in China. Walz is the Democratic vice presidential nominee. He went to China in 1989 as part of a teach-abroad program and went on to coordinate trips for students in China, becoming a vocal advocate for human rights in that country as leaders cracked down on opposition. But by suggesting this cultural exchange is nefarious, Comer can seed the idea that Walz is somehow operating against the interests of the United States.

This longstanding rhetoric that positions Republicans as true Americans defending the country against those who would destroy it has metastasized into the determination of MAGA Republicans to replace American democracy with a Christian nationalism that cements the power of white patriarchy. Vance has been in hot water for his derogatory remarks about “childless cat ladies”; interviews have resurfaced in the past few days in which he embraced the idea that the role of “the postmenopausal female” is to take care of grandchildren. 

The New College of Florida is in the news today for illustrating the logical progression of the idea that Republicans must protect the nation from those who would destroy it. The New College of Florida was at the center of Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s program to get rid of traditional academic freedom. He stripped the New College of its independence and replaced officials with Christian loyalists who tried to build a school modeled after those that Viktor Orbán’s loyalists took over in Hungary. New College officials painted over student murals celebrating diversity, suppressed student support for civil rights, and voted to eliminate the diversity, equity, and inclusion office and the gender studies program. Faculty fled the New College, and more than a quarter of the students dropped out. To keep its numbers up, the school dropped its admission standards. 

Yesterday, Steven Walker of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that the school cleared out the Gender and Diversity Center, throwing the books it had accumulated into a dumpster. Officials said the books are no longer serving the needs of the college: “gender studies has been discontinued as an area of concentration at New College and the books are not part of any official college collection or inventory.” 

The image of piles of books in a dumpster in the United States of America is not easily forgettable. 

But the dominance rhetoric of the MAGA Republicans was never just about political power. Political power always went hand in hand with corruption. A new book by Joe Conason called The Longest Con notes that the modern right-wing movement has its roots in the promise of grifters after World War II to protect America against the communists they insisted were infiltrating the country. Their promises to defend true Americans against an enemy was always about getting cash out of the deal. 

Conason emphasizes how drumming up fears of an “other” was a deliberate grift to put money into the pockets of those who told small donors that their dollars were vital for defending the United States. The biggest prize for the extremists, though, was the control of government purse strings that allowed them to turn federal and state largesse toward their own cronies. Conason notes that under President Ronald Reagan, Republicans’ cuts to government oversight and reliance on the private sector to regulate itself, along with their belief that unfettered capitalism was a form of resistance to communism, led to a boom in corruption. 

That corruption has continued in the Republican Party, largely unaddressed as politicians insisted that those calling it out were simply un-American malcontents engaging in political hits against good, patriotic Americans. In contrast, as any corruption on the Democratic side can be expected to be sliced and diced in public, the Democrats have stayed relatively clean. 

And this is why Vance’s comment about Democrats bullying him jumped out at me. Republican dominance is cracking as Trump struggles and Vance offends people, and as that dominance falls away, the many things it covered are starting to get attention—among them, stories of Republican corruption. And they’re doozies.  

On Sunday, for example, Garrett Shanley of the Independent Florida Alligator, the student newspaper of the University of Florida, reported that when former senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) took over the presidency of the University of Florida, he “channeled millions” to his Republican allies and to secretive contracts. In 17 months he more than tripled spending from his office, with most of the money going to his former aides and political friends, most of whom continued to live and work outside the state. Sasse was appointed in November 2022 in an opaque hiring process and stepped down unexpectedly in July, citing family issues, although Vivienne Serret of The Independent Alligator reported that DeSantis allies on the Board of Trustees forced him out.

One of the biggest stories in the country these days is the corruption scandal in Ohio, in which dark money groups led by the FirstEnergy utility company worked with former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder to put into office politicians who, thanks to about $61 million in bribes, backed a $1.3 billion bailout for FirstEnergy paid for with tax dollars. 

On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost agreed to settle the scandal. FirstEnergy will pay a $20 million fine, an amount that Marty Schladen of the Ohio Capital Journal notes is less than one-third the amount FirstEnergy spent to bribe legislators, and a fraction of the money ratepayers have had to pay because of the corrupt legislation the bribes paid for. 

Nothing better illustrates the grift at the center of today’s MAGA Republicans than Donald Trump’s Big Lie that he actually won the 2020 election and that it was stolen from him by those dangerous “others,” the Democrats. The Big Lie enabled the Trump team to continue soliciting donations in order to fight for the White House. According to Conason, Trump and his fellow election deniers pocketed $255.4 million between the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop the counting of the electoral votes that would make Democratic candidate Joe Biden president. 

On Monday, jurors found former Colorado election clerk Tina Peters guilty on seven counts in relation to her compromising of her county’s election system. Peters was determined to get voter information to My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a key Trump ally, in order to prove the Big Lie. She is facing more than 22 years in prison.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[rjalker]

[ID: A bingo card titled, "Vote Blue No Matter Who 2024: Genocide Joe Biden, July edition! Part 2: Electric Boogaloo because you fascist shitbags just won't stop coming up with even more evil shit to spew". The card has a blue background with white stars, and the boxes are in alternating pale red, white, and blue. The boxes read, from left to right and top to bottom: "If you're actually antifascist and refuse to support genocide, it means you're mentally ill (derogatory)" "Voting in explicit approval of genocide doesn't mean you're complicit in genocide!!!" "Vote for 99% Hitler!!!" "You can't condemn people for just participating in democracy by voting for genocide!" "It's not my fault that America is a white supremacist settler colony, that's why it's okay for me to vote to continue the white supremacist settler colonialism!" "Leftists need to have fewer morals" "Why can't we just agree to disagree about the morality of voting for genocide?" "Why are you so hostile with people saying they're okay with genocide?" "But aknowledging the genocide I'm going to vote to continue is bad for my mental health" [exagerated sad emoticon] "Biden shouldn't be held responsible for deaths he fails to prevent!" "You can't hold me responsible for the genocide I am literally going to vote we continue!" "I'm going to pretend that Palestinians don't exist" "free space" "I'm going to ignore the literal victims of this genocide begging me not to reward the people comitting it.". "If you're mentally ill, that means you have no choice but to support genocide. Mentally ill people are just naturally genocidal." "Yes your blog has existed since 2013 and has over 100k posts but I think you're not a real person because no real person would refuse to support genocide". "There's no such thing as a perfect politician!" "Even if Biden were dead and rotting I'd still vote for him!" "Russian Psyops!!!" "Chinese Spies!!!" "Declaring political dissenters to be Foreign Agents Trying To Destabilize America™ is progressive when I do it" "All those Black bloggers who were terminated during the BLM marches were Russian bots!!" "Antifascist action is when I vote to continue genocide!" "Supporting genocide doesn't make you fascist!" "What do you mean refusing to admit a genocide is happening is genocide apologism?!!?" End ID.]

[trashwaaveactual]

Based.

This doesn't happen often enough.

[trashwaaveactual]

Lol, just vote them out!

“They took our land, they imprisoned our queen, they banned our language, they forcibly made us a colony of the United States. America says they are democratic, that is a lie! They have never been democratic with Native people! They have never been democratic with Indians! They have never been democratic with Hawaiians!”

[serpentface]

The members of the Lion party, magisters of the city-state of Titenegal who support unification with rival state Godsmouth to better oppose other enemies (at the cost of the former's autonomy). The party's name was an adoption of a former derogatory epithet "lionmen", referring to their significant dalliances with Godsmouth's lion-themed war cult (the odonii).

Left to right: Pavas Aeb-Vriswa, Yann Hamasere, Helei Wisawe, and Odelas 'the Aurox' Palla.

Places and terms:

Royal Dain - southern kingdoms of the dainlands, along the banks of the Viper and the inner seas. Historical enemies of Wardin and Bur.

Finnerich- a former royal Dain kingdom, now a client state of the Wardi empire.

North Finn/Royal Finn- Semi-Autonomous region that rejects Wardi rule and has been in a constant state of conflict with Finnerich and Wardin. Frequently raids the waters of both Wardin and the Burri regions.

Wardin/the Wardi Empire- Formerly the Eastern Burri empire, which collapsed into individual city-states and was then re-conquered by the state of Wardin. It's an empire in somewhat loose terms- its territory is not fully contiguous, and conquered/allied states may continue a degree of self-governance so long as tribute, serfs, and soldiers are provided, but usually wind up absorbed in the long run.

Godsmouth (Od-Yacha) - The wealthiest city in Wardin due to its key ports, and a center to the Faith of the Seven Faced God

Burri empire- formerly vast empire (which had three incarnations). The western Burri empire was its last embodiment, which slowly and quietly collapsed under fraying political alliances and is now functionally extinct as a political entity.

Titenegal- Formerly poor agricultural city-state that became a sprawling and wealthy port city in response to rising sea levels. Now the most powerful city in the former Western Burri Empire. It is a representative democracy run by an elected magistrate of 10 and senate of 50.

Kosov- a city and region formerly of the Burri empire, brutally sacked by Godsmouth 30 years ago after trade related conflicts but never absorbed into Wardin. It has yet to fully rebuild and many of its people have scattered.

The Mouth- an economically significant waterway, as the only passage from the outer oceans into the inner sea and the Viper for thousands of miles.

The Inner Seas- narrow salt water seas dividing the interior of the supercontinent and connecting most of the largest civilizations in trade.

The Viper- a narrow sea bordered by the Dainlands to the north and Wardin to the south. It comes close to emptying into the ocean, but a canalway has never been successfully built.

Odism- (non-in universe) name for the religions sharing a common origin and figure of Od the divine ox as a creator god. In the religion of the Burri pantheon, he figures only into the creation story and is minimally worshipped. In the Faith of the Seven Faced God, Od is interpreted as the ONLY god. (There are several other religions under this umbrella, but these are the two of greatest political significance).

Regional Map for clarity.

The Lions wish to unify Titenegal (powerful citystate of the now defunct Burri empire) with Godsmouth in a political and military alliance, which would make Titenegal functionally a client state of the Wardi Empire.

Both city states experience regular harassment by Dain kings and the rebel Royal/Northern Finns, both of whom exploit the divides between the two powerful city-states on the banks of the Mouth.

The Lions argue that a unified front will secure the Mouth, bring economic prosperity, and repel the Dain kings and rebel Finn invaders who trouble the waters of the Mouth and the Viper. The Lions also believe that defeat by Godsmouth would be inevitable in the event of a conflict, though this is rarely part of their public rhetoric. Titenegal is weakened and no longer closely allied with Bur, and they see voluntary submission as a pragmatic choice to avoid a violent sacking and come out relatively intact.

The opposition is referred to as the Bulls, the five members of the magistrate who are firmly against alliance with Godsmouth and subjugation by Wardin. (The one remaining member is unaffiliated). Bulls appeal to loyalists to the now-defunct Burri empire, and wish to see it recreated and its enemies destroyed. They encourage rebuilding the armies of Titenegal and demanding allegiance with other former cities of Imperial Bur in order to repel the ambitions of the Wardi empire.

The two city states are close neighbors and demographically very similar, with the biggest divisive point being their religion. The pantheon of Bur and the Faith of the Seven Faced God share common origin and religious figures, but differ significantly in their worldview and interpretation of their texts. The Bulls weaponize this division and depict the Seven Faced God as a perversion of the pantheon, casting It as a bloodthirsty demon as evidenced by the prominent role of sacrifice and the presence of human sacrifice (which is altogether reviled by the Burri). The Lions instead attempt to soothe the differences between the religion by emphasizing their commonalities and turning the peoples focus instead on a common enemy- the heathen faiths of the Dainlands.

-----------

Pavas Aeb-Vriswa is a rather reluctant member of the Lions. She has no wish for Titenegal to become a client state, but opposes the Bulls hawking for war. As a survivor of the Sack of Kosov and firsthand witness to the brutality of Godsmouth's legions, she believes that to war with Godsmouth is an act of suicide. She is the second-longest serving member of Titenegal's magistrate, and holds great respect among the common people for spearheading major improvements to the city-state's infrastructure after years of stagnation. One of the least corrupt politicians to ever exist.

Yann Hamasere comes from a prosperous noble family whose wealth lies in the breeding of prize war khait. He is the youngest magistrate and generally regarded as the weakest, both due to inexperience and poor public speaking. Aside from his patronage of the arts (making him rather popular among intellectual circles in Titenegal), most of his career has been ignored by the public eye. However, he was wed to the odonii Rhea Sur-Tigiiz of Godsmouth to secure a partial military alliance with the city-state, and now finds himself the target of political sabotage and multiple assassination attempts.

Helei Wisawe is the only known remaining descendant of the last imperial family of the West Burri Empire, and thus supposedly a descendant of the gods Titen and Vasharum. Though the Lions (and the magistrate as a whole) intend to divide power evenly among its members, she has emerged as a natural leader and is the main reason the outnumbered Lion party remains politically viable. She is a shrewd politician, keeping her religious affiliations ambiguous enough that both followers of the traditional polytheistic Burri pantheon and the monotheistic(ish) Seven Faced God believe her to be one of them. Though she advocates submission to Godsmouth and Wardin, she sees this as a step towards a rebuilt Burri empire that unites all the people of Odist religion, though only a chosen few know of her designs.

Odelas "The Aurox" is a former war hero, made famous in the Third Finn War where he lead Titenegal's navy to victory against the superior numbers of the Finn and Royal Dain fleet. He has a brash and aggressive personality and is not particularly deft in politics, though is highly popular among the people for his war hero status, and critical in securing the allegiance of Titenegal's military. His interest in unification is rooted more in hatred for the rebel Finns and Dain kings than any love for his ancestral homeland of Wardin, (a fairly common stance for Wardi diaspora in the lands of Bur). He changed his nomme de guerre from 'the Bull' to 'the Aurox' after the development of the Bull party.

[the-owl-tree]

heartbreaking that such a meaningful quote came from berryheart but also interesting that such a meaningful quote came from berryheart. will leaders finally take into account how their clan feels are are we doubling down- no TRIPLING down actually on authoritarian leaders in the next arc? waiting to be hit in the head with a dogeball at any given point

it's so bad that we've had three books of berryheart and her followers amping up the violence towards outsiders, spreading xenophobic rhetoric, and even working with splashtail's little murder squad only for the big climax of all to be......uh voting. we're gonna vote you out tigerheartstar with the power of cat democracy. but for whatever reason uh it's not gonna work despite the arc still going.

why does puddleshine get to set up a public humiliation for berryheart over "one disagreement"? what does "one disagreement" actually look like? because the occupation of a whole clan and using your warriors to monitor them is not a small fucking disagreement, it is a huge decision. would brokenstar's kitten soldiers be one disagreement? would fucking tigerclan be one disagreement? the logic here is awful. yeah no SHIT no one should be able to kick leaders out Just Because but this logic is so frustrating. "one disagreement" OCCUPYING ANOTHER CLAN IS NOT A SMALL THING TO DISAGREE OVER. BERRYHEART HAS A POINT and don't give me the "well it's because she's bad" tigerheartstar has been happily allowing her to put the "clan-swappers" (you know. the derogatory term SHE coined) through deadly trials.

"berryheart bullied an entire clan" it's such a stretch. are you kidding me. i don't buy it, she's got the tact of an angry gopher are you telling me the lady who stormed into thunderclan camp to make a fool of herself somehow convinced her clanmtes to go along with this.

i don't like it! it's bad, it's anticlimactic, and it makes me feel like this is a huge step back from clan cats being able to talk back to their leader. why is she being EXILED for this? if a cat has an issue, the fact that they risk community expulsion is shitty and doesn't do anything to help me buy that leaders just can't enforce sanctions on anyone who tries to speak against them. *pinches fingers* it's the world building it's the world building do you feel me it does not help me believe this is good for the clans.