#might as well put him with the third age's resident mad scientist :3 what could go wrong?

[daily-smol-silm]

Cozy silvergifting with cel (drinking tea) and annatar (with hot coco) wrapped up sharing a blanket :3

Day #140 - Movie Night

They're watching The Ring :]

[your-turn-to-role]

new opinions of the cerberus assembly (etgw spoilers!!)

somewhat inspired by the conversations the other day, bc it’s reminded me i have a lot to say about these motherfuckers

let’s start with the obvious:

Master Trent Ikithon, Archmage of Civil Influence (Chaotic Evil Human)

Book Text: [Trent is respected as the acclaimed Propagandist of the empire and the third oldest member of the assembly. Once an instructor at the Soltryce Academy, he only returns every few years to collect young students for his experiments in the mental conditioning that he calls “awakening.” Many of these students go mad and are locked away, but those who endure become zealots for the assembly and join the Volstrucker, an elite group of arcane thugs commonly known as Scourgers, who perform the assembly’s dirtiest work under Trent’s direction.]

Most of this we knew. I hate this guy. Though, as a point of interest - Caleb’s for sure not the first person this has happened to. They account for a certain number of aspiring Volstrucker never completing the program, Caleb was just another statistic. Which means somewhere in Vergessen is a lot of other people with the same backstory who never managed to escape. That’s, something worth looking into, maybe.

Martinet Ludinus Da’leth, Archmage of Domestic Protections (Lawful Evil Elf)

[Ludinus is the oldest and only original member of the assembly, as well as the master of warfare and conflict. Charged with overhauling the military structure of the Dwendalian Empire, Ludinus directed the construction of the garrisons on the Xhorhasian border and often oversees their maintenance. He was one of the mages who survived the destruction of Molaesmyr and fled to Bysaes Tyl, but he saw the opportunity to achieve greatness within the empire and left his culture behind to continue his arcane pursuits. Wise, if emotionless, he bears a deep hatred for the Kryn Dynasty and spares no effort gathering information on their weaknesses and secrets. Ludinus spends most of his time developing arcane weapons of war and shoring up the military might of the empire, while subtly challenging the leadership of Crown Marshal Damurag.]

This guy’s old. That's the scariest thing about him really. Like, this guy's been in the empire since it was half its current size. This guy saw the destruction of Molaesmyr, and knew many of its residents. But he also rejected that society, purely for his own ends. He's at least 400 years old, more likely at least 500, and for the past 3-4 centuries has been focusing entirely on magic and warfare. That's a long time to hone those skills. Ludinus may say it's hard to compare power in the Assembly, but if I had to pick one of them for an end game boss, it would be him, no question. Trent's more of a wild card, sure, but he's only like 60, 70 years old. He's a baby compared to Da'leth. Keep an eye on this dude, and under no circumstances trust him.

Lady Vess de Rogna, Archmage of Antiquity (Neutral Evil Half-Elf)

[A public recluse for most of her life, Vess is both a brilliant mage and dedicated historian. She assumed this post after replacing her criminal predecessor, Lady Delilah Briarwood. As an instructor at the Soltryce Academy for over two decades, Vess has studied and unraveled a number of historical mysteries and pre-Calamity riddles — and hoarded some of the spoils for herself. Always eager to pursue forgotten lore and artifacts of eons past, Vess has been known to quietly vanish to Xhorhas for weeks at a time, returning with fewer guards and more uncovered secrets.]

Canon confirmation that this is who took over from Delilah Briarwood, and from what we’ve seen, they’re rather similar people. They're both scientists and historians, ruthlessly efficient, far more concerned with what they can learn and what they can do than what's good or safe for those around them. Liable to be found breaking the law in the name of science and progress. At least Vess has lasted longer than her predecessor.

Headmaster Oremid Hass, Archmage of Cultivation (Lawful Neutral Earth Genasi)

[The current headmaster of the Hall of Erudition in Zadash, Oremid is tasked with watching and grooming the next generation of mages and arcane specialists outside Rexxentrum. While he himself is a gentle soul who adores animals, he puts on the façade of a strict man with no sense of humor, which is further enhanced by the elemental influence of his earth genasi blood. He teaches students that failure is not an option, and that emotion is a barrier to one’s true ability. Equally feared, respected, and privately loathed by the students (and some instructors), Oremid personally dismisses those who break under his school’s curriculum and heaps joyous praise on those who endure their training.]

So, I've had teachers like this. And they stick in your mind, because, even a decade later, I still have a hard time getting over their instilled fear of failure. I can believe that, in general terms, Oremid's not a terrible person. I think he looks the other way on a lot of things, which precludes him from ever qualifying as good in my books, but he hasn't committed any major acts of torture or murder himself. Still though. You don't teach like that if you view your students as people. You teach like that if you view your students as potential assets. So like.... not as bad as some of his colleagues. Potentially someone they could work with if they had to. But still probably someone to stay away from.

Headmaster Zivan Margolin, Archmage of Conscription (Lawful Neutral Human)

[Zivan Margolin inherited the position of headmaster from his father, the late Jorma Margolin. Zivan has been the headmaster of the Soltryce Academy in Rexxentrum for nearly twenty years. Calm, patient, and quietly imposing, Zivan walks the halls of the Academy with a keen eye for talent. He is in charge of the curriculum and also watches for any latent powers that may be worth grooming as future allies of the assembly, dangers to be monitored, or prospective minds for Ikithon to conscribe into the Volstrucker. Zivan has rarely had the opportunity to demonstrate his full power, for he is typically busied with keeping the peace between the feuding members of the assembly. Those who have witnessed his true might, however, now know that his words are backed by some of the most powerful magics within the Cerberus Assembly.]

I think @lostsometime said it best, having the archmage of conscription be in charge of your elite magic school really sums up everything wrong with the empire. Like, if that's out in the open, your problems are unfixable. Get a new government. Jeez.

Master Doolan Tversky, Archmage of Dysology (Chaotic Neutral Gnome)

[The second-oldest member of the assembly, Doolan is in charge of the study and understanding of abnormal creatures and deviants of arcane creation that might threaten the empire’s way of life. She is an absentminded yet brilliant gnome who is obsessed with all beasts, aberrations, and creatures of legend. Doolan imports creatures from around the world to study, disassemble, and use in her attempts to revolutionize magical practices. She resents the Library of the Cobalt Soul, as her reputation has caused them to bar her from their facilities. She wishes to catalog the unstudied horrors of Xhorhas and has covertly obtained the services of the Myriad to retrieve new specimens.]

Now, Doolan is fascinating to me, not because I think she's a good person, but because she's just so delightfully weird. She's probably done some evil as fuck shit but she's also a gremlin of a gnome who loves weird fucked up arcane experiments and magical meteors that created eldritch ducks and all sorts of bizarre things like that. I'd love to see more of her, because there's always room in fantasy stories for more weird morally ambiguous old ladies who are banned from libraries on the grounds of "is about as likely to eat the books as she is to read them" and "last time we let her in here she somehow combined five forbidden rituals and created a new species of demon that haunts the halls of the rexxentrum archive spreading toxic slime everywhere and we can't figure out what it wants or how to make it go away".

Lord Athesias Uludan, Archmage of Diplomatic Union (Neutral Good Human)

[Athesias’s charm and bombastic personality serve him well as a diplomat. His duty is to foster a positive relationship with people of power both within and beyond the borders of the empire. He was originally one of the most effective instructors at the Soltryce Academy, but his penchant for spectacle and his rampant narcissism made him a difficult ally to trust with state secrets. When the office of Diplomatic Union opened, he was quickly and quietly reassigned. Athesias finds great pleasure in ruining or usurping the plans of his counterpart in the Crown’s employ, Emissary Lord Zeddan Graf.]

We’ve talked a bit about Uludan already - the Gilderoy Lockhart of the group for sure. Though I’m sure he has layers to him, so I’d be interested to find out what exactly they are.

And, saving the most interesting for last,

Baroness Jenna Iresor, Archmage of Industry (True Neutral Doppelganger)

[One of the younger members of the assembly, Jenna is known for her business acumen and her extravagant lifestyle. By hiding her nature as a doppelganger and using memory-altering magics at a young age to fabricate a false past, Jenna constructed her human persona from the ground up, leveraging her powers of deception to essentially write herself into history as a Clovis Concord expatriate. She helps oversee central guild business in Rexxentrum under Guildmaster Kai Arness, and helps Exchequer Aethia Drooze organize the collection of tithes through starostas across the empire.]

I am, insanely curious about how a doppelganger ended up in the Cerberus Assembly. She’s definitely ambitious for sure, doppelgangers already have a fair bit of innate magic - they’re natural shapeshifters and have a fair amount of psychic powers (like reading minds of anyone who happens to be near them), but to get here she had to be extremely committed. Which means she probably has plans for this position, or had plans that she’s already put into motion. Very interested what those are, especially for the archmage of industry.

[demondetoxmanual]

Jensen Ackles at his Family Business Brewery in Texas

Supernatural star Jensen Ackles and his family recently opened Family Business Brewing Co., outside of Austin, Texas. The brewery features a constantly changing variety of beers, ales, lagers, session IPAs, and barrel-aged stouts.

During breaks from shooting his long-running CW television show in Vancouver, alongside co-star and fellow Austin resident Jared Padalecki, he’s been extremely hands-on throughout the process. Whether he is hanging lights or helping with the design of the brewery or happily testing all of the beers, Ackles and his family have put blood, sweat, and tears into creating a spectacular 15-acre destination brewery in Dripping Springs, Texas.

Ackles owns Family Business Brewing Co. with his wife, Danneel and brother-in-law Gino Graul, and has created an amazing destination featuring not only a tantalizing mix of brews but also a stage for live music and a Southern-style food truck called Jep's Southern Roots operated by “Duck Dynasty” stars Jep and Jessica Robertson.

Jensen was born and raised north of Dallas and is a native third generation Texan. His wife Danneel was born in Louisiana. They both met in Los Angeles and ultimately moved to Austin in 2014.

I sat down with Jensen and Danneel to chat about their new venture and how they are keeping it all in the family.

What made you move to Texas?

“After my show was going for a while and we were living in L.A. we had our first child (Justice Jay)” says Jensen. “We had a heart to heart on where we wanted to raise our family, and we didn't have to be in California because I was shooting in Vancouver and I could commute pretty much anywhere. That opened up the idea of living in a different city, and then we started thinking about what cities would fit us and who we are, and Austin pretty much topped the list because it also brought our families closer to us.”

After settling in Austin for a few years, the couple had twins (Zeppelin and Arrow) in December of 2016.  With Jensen’s family only 3 1/2 hours away in Dallas north and Danneel’s family five hours away in Louisiana, they felt at home in the perfect location.

How did the idea come about to start a brewery?

“The brewery started when Danneel's brother Gino moved out to California where we were living before our kids came along.” Jensen says, “After leaving the Navy, we put him up so that he could come out to California and finish school. He lived in our guest house which was great for me, because while I was away filming I had an ex-Navy brother in law living at my house protecting my family for me. It was a win-win.”

"Cut to seven years ago, a buddy of mine ("This is Us" actor Justin Hartley) was looking to store his small pilot brew systems somewhere while he moved," he adds. "We ended up storing it in a shed in our backyard and left it there for almost a year. Finally, Gino and I decided to fire the thing up and see if we could make beer since the whole craft beer industry was really growing in Southern California."

“I was adamantly against it in the beginning. I thought they were going to blow up our house,” interjects Danneel.

“Gino and I started making batches of beer in the backyard on the weekends, and just kind of really fell in love with it. We lived in Malibu and even put some of our tap at local bars. Gino ended up graduating school from Santa Monica College and then went to UC Davis taking a brewers course, and finally in Chicago where he studied at the Siebel Institute, a fantastic brewing school. That investment of his time and our investment of enjoyment into the whole craft brewery scene really started to flourish," says Jensen.

'The idea of moving to Austin came up, and we thought it would be really cool to have a little brewery that was self-sustainable and kind of a passion project." adds Jensen. "We went down to Austin to check out the craft brewing scene, and it was the right location for starting something since the market was really starting to take off. There were only a few breweries, and they were really starting to see a market increase. We all decided to move the business to Austin and then shopped around for a spot to set up shop."

"We ended up buying some land just outside of town and building from the ground up," says Danneel.  "It was a little bit more of an investment as opposed to renting a place, but we decided to just kind of go all in from the beginning. Everything that has happened so far with the brewery has been very organic, and while we were looking around for places, my Uncle (who had 365 acres out in Dripping Springs), called and said the little ranch next to him with 15 acres was going up for sale. We went out there, and it was absolutely perfect, and we bought it immediately. Then our whole concept started to evolve and change, and that’s how we ended up with the destination brewery. All we originally wanted was a little tiny spot" says Danneel.

How did you come up with the name of the brewery?

"The name Family Business is a bit of a nod to the "Supernatural" fanbase because there is a famous saying on our shows, with hunting ghosts we call ourselves the family business," says Jensen.

Are you both hands on with the daily operations?

"Gino is really the boots on the ground, and he's the day to day guy, while Danneel's out there multiple times per week dealing with things. When I am in town, I visit the employees to make sure they're encouraged and know they are doing a good job. So it certainly is a family business, and we all take it very seriously, but we're all enjoying it" says Jensen.

"I have the best gig as one of the head taste testers, which is one of the reasons we started doing it in the first place because we really do enjoy the beer" he adds, "But the process is super fun and I have been able to brew multiple times with Nate Seale, our Head Brewer. The process itself is lengthy, but it's really enjoyable. Nate is like a mad scientist with the things that he creates and the ideas he comes up with. It's really fun to just kind of sit back and watch him go and lend a hand whenever he needs it."

What is your current output at the brewery?

"We are brewing at least two to three times a week," says Jensen," "We're running a 15 barrel system, and we'll do double batches into our 30 barrel fermenters. We have three 30 barrel fermenters and two 15 barrel fermenters."

Tasting room at Family Business

Will this be in bars and stores?

"We are trying to keep it all in-house, so all of the beers are out on the property," says Danneel. "It is not beneficial to us to distribute, and we do better selling ourselves. We are also very mindful of what our brand is, and we will never be a beer that is served up and down 6th Street in Austin."

"We have quite a good name for ourselves as far as the brewer industry goes with Nate," adds Jensen, "He started at 512 Brewing Company, and he has a great name. He's really kind of elevated the quality and put us in the game as far as being a high-quality craft brewery."

Who is your customer?

"We get a lot of locals out there that live in Hill country and Lakeway, they're a fixture there, and it feels more local. I'm sure there are fans of the show that might make a little pilgrimage out there to see the brewery," says Jensen. "We have a 10,000 square foot red barn looking building, and the majority of it is the production side. We have a fairly big tasting room that opens out to an oak grove with a giant 15-foot wide wrap around porch. It's a nice open indoor-outdoor space for visitors."

What are you brewing?

"We've got brewery tours, and we generally have about 10 to 12 different styles of beer on tap," says Jensen. "We kind of let Nate go nuts. He wants to keep creating, keep innovating and trying new things by rotating tap and different kinds of beer. It's more expensive as far as materials go, but it's a great thing when people come back and enjoy the space. They won't have the same four beers lined up that they had before."

"We will always have a new beer to try on tap" he adds. "There might be three or four seasonal beers. Right now we've got a Kolsch and an IPL that's coming down the pipe that we've never had before. Nate certainly caters to the time of year. When we opened in January, we had winter warmers and some Stout's as well as really nice winter ales, and now he's moving more into spring/summer style here."

Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles at the brewery

"The very first beer that we wanted to serve since the beginning was our pale ale," says Jensen. "We call it the Hamilton Pale Ale based on the nearby natural Hamilton Pool. We've got a series of IPA's that are not incredibly hoppy. We also offer a new England style IPA which is a softer bitter, and we have a white IPA and a black IPA which is really interesting."

"The ESB we have is one of my favorites, but I'm not much of an English Ale fan," says Jensen, "We've taken an English style ale and put a North American twist on it, and it's fantastic. We've got a great brown ale, but the one that gets talked about the most is our Imperial Stout. Nate knows how to make his dark beers taste amazing. We are serving the Imperial Stout as is, but we also started a barrel aging program and put the stout into whiskey barrels, and that's maturing right now, so hopefully, that will be ready after a three-six month age."

Any of your celebrity friends come to visit?

"Jared Padalecki also lives in Austin, and we do “Supernatural” together," says Jensen. "He was out there during the build out and helping us put in the walk-in cooler and tearing down some barn structures and sheds and stuff to pour concrete. Jared was friends with Jep and Jess Robertson, and they were fans of our show. They eventually came up to Vancouver and visited the set, and are really easy to get along with. Jep is an amazing cook, and they were talking about doing a food truck in Austin. They’re from Louisiana, and Danneel and Gino are from there. Now they have a food truck at the brewery. So we get really good Louisiana food to go with our Texas beer."

What's on the horizon?

"There is a beautiful old ranch house on the property that we want to convert that into a restaurant," says Danneel. "It's a beautiful old Texas style house we think will become a great restaurant." The couple is also considering adding accommodations in the future for overnight experiences.