#odin valentinian

[vexwerewolf]

In relation to the previous post about Disney trying to trademark Norse mythology:

In my Lancer campaign, In Golden Flame, it is canonical that Odin Valentinian named his son Loki after "Loki, the most rebellious son of Odin" because, due to the pre-Fall preservation of human culture in the Massif Vaults, the MCU remains the most culturally-significant retelling of Norse mythology, and thus has poisoned future civilizations' knowledge of it.

Odin thinks he's being really smart harkening back to a 16,000-year-old religion, but he's actually committing an unenforceable copyright violation.

[drunkenskunk]

So there was a thing that happened in the game on Sunday, and I can't get it out of my head. I can't quite decide if it was hilarious or horrifying, or both.

To set the scene:

The team is on the surface of Amphion, having arrived by way of crashing orbital platform, and we're making our way to an underground SSC blacksite to try and save our friend Fern. They were captured and forced against their will to pilot a knockoff Balor that SSC presumably reverse engineered from the HORUS code. When we get there, a strike team is already at the entrance, and then we are informed of a new complication: the SSC warship in orbit has launched a nuclear fusion warhead at our location in a desperate, last-ditch effort to try and erase any evidence of their many, MANY Pillars violations. We have 6 rounds to deal with the strike team and get inside before the nuke arrives. Switch (because Ipswitch Delacy is with us, long story) calls his father, Odin Valentinian, to open a localized blinkspace corridor as an alternate escape route in case we can't get inside in time.

We end up dealing with most of the strike team in about 3 rounds, and pull an unconscious Fern out of the SSC nanite greywash soup. All that's left is one dude.

And the thing is... on some level, there is a part of me - a very small part, I admit - that kinda feels sorry for what happened to this nameless SSC mook. Because, and let's not mince words here: this dickhead was fucked from the word go. Like, these were his options at this point:

- stay and fight, where he would almost certainly be murdered by the SRT like the rest of his team

- stay outside, because we sure as fuck ain't letting him in the bunker after what these assholes did to Fern, and get atomized by the nuclear warhead launched by his own fucking employers

- try his luck with the Harrison Armory blinkspace corridor

So what does this dumbass do? He powers down his mech while yelling "I give up! Don't kill me!" and then he ejects, apparently deciding to roll the dice on blinkspace with nothing but a hardsuit as protection. Not to put too fine a point on it, but, uh... he clearly rolled snake eyes.

We didn't actually see what happened to him; the SRT was safely underground inside the bunker by the time the nuke detonated. But we did hear about it later, and...

Do y'all remember Galaxy Quest? Remember that scene where Tony Shaloub's character tries to use the teleporter thing on an alien pig-lizard? And it arrives on the ship inside out, and then explodes?

Yeah

Apparently, blinkspace and the human body don't mix. It was all a bit grisly. And, again, on some level, I do kinda want to feel a little sorry for him, y'know? But, like... no. He was part of an SSC kill squad that was responsible for torturing our friend and who knows what else, fuck him lol

Meanwhile, back in Lancer...

The Hell's Gate Strategic Response Team survived getting nuked tonight.

It was a lot of fun!

[savingthegeneration]

✧ Come feel the heat, come taste the desire! Feel them within you, crimson and gold! Gold like the coins you will toss into my tambourine.

[halforc-mercenary]

Valentinian I - How important is traditional masculinity to your character?

This is actually a tricky question, as Mar has not exactly a concept of “traditional maculinity”. After all, Mar grew up in the Arathi Highland udner a strict military philosophy: If one was born male or female was not important, what was important was that the child was healthy and would be able to serve the community either as a warrior or in another way. Accordingly most children were trained and therefor most people she interacted with, men or women, were all build with a backs as broad as the door, have long hair as a symbol of the free born human, have arms as thick as treetrunks and are agressive enough to make a Foresttroll whimper like a scared kitten. The only difference was that one part of the community is able to grow a beard and another half is able to  give birth to children.So is traditional masculinity bound to just “not beeing able to bear children, but grow a beard”? Not in the slightest, as after all she also grew up as a human worshipping Tyr, whom has if one would go a step farer into actual mythology, the most manliest familytree of all as he is the son of Odin and a male jotun with the name Hymer who had a fling with Odin and later gave birth to Tyr. Accordingly as those that are worshipped are molded afte rthe people worshipping,  giving birth is something that can be done by men and women and is not bound to a specific gender. Women can grow beards and men can give birth and that does not change anything in them beeing men and women and treated as such, and in the course of their lifes their gender again can change, just like the gender of the Titan (or god)  they worship changes after what they feel like.  Eventually it can be said that traditional masculinity has no importance for Mar since she simply has a very loose concept of Gender;  and masculinity just as femininity have in her worldview too little difference to be pinned down and eventually depend on the person presenting it.  

[vexwerewolf]

So after that ask, I decided to make some Pride Month memes for In Golden Flame. The character art is by @punkr0xy

[vexwerewolf]

Yo no joke, this is the man I would hire to play Odin Valentinian if I were ever to make a TV series out of In Golden Flame

Some Warhammer40K speeches as performed by Christopher Tester.

Such as Lorgar's speech to Magnus from The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

[vexwerewolf]

How much does Odin actually understand of Norse mythology? Does he have it just completely wrong? Does he have only an superficial/pop culture understanding of it? Or does he actually know the most faithful to the original interpretation that we have to day from the Eddas?

Because the names he gave his children, although fitting from a Doylian perspective, from a Watsonian perspective point to him either not knowing the dire implications attached to them, not caring and just using the theme because he likes it, or most worrying of all wanting to convey exactly that meaning.

I mostly ask so in Act 2 I can know if I'll be able to get under his skin by pointing out one of his sons is going to be mpregged with a horse.

CW: Parental abuse, self-harm

I'm not sure I have a comprehensive answer to all of this, but...

It is, in my mind, highly probable that the MCU has poisoned understanding of Norse mythology so much that "Loki is one of Odin's sons" was just something that the interpreters of the Massif Vaults believed, and thus passed into five thousand years of Union understanding of pre-Fall mythology.

As for the dire implications of the names he gave his kids - yes, he was fully aware of it. He was doing it on purpose. He wasn't born to the name Odin. He chose it. He's a delusional fanatic trying to raise his sons to kill God, and he is not at all convinced that magic doesn't exist. Naming himself and his sons after gods was a part of his Magnum Opus, his Great Work - he may be dooming them to misery, but he's also elevating them to the status of gods, for who else can kill God but the gods?

Did you notice that Odin's left eye is cybernetic?

Odin, the mythic father, who traded an eye for sight beyond sight - and does this crafted eye not see more than any flesh-eye ever could?

You have to understand that for all his cruelty, Odin isn't a hypocrite. He'll gladly torture his children, but he's not hesitant to subject himself to the same tortures or worse to get what he wants. He put his own eye out with a screwdriver. In his twisted understanding of the world, having it painlessly replaced under anaesthetic would be cheating - true knowledge requires pain, requires sacrifice.

By this measure, though, this lack of hypocrisy, he justifies the cruelty to which his children were subjected. He was willing to suffer so much for this great and terrible project - why shouldn't they?

[vexwerewolf]

[vexwerewolf]

Howdy! If you’re still taking lancer build requests, I could use some help. I’m stumped on how to build my Sunzi for support with a pinch of controller, and find myself asking “How would Dr. Valentinian do it?”

I was informed that you requested my advice on loadouts. Having now read your request, I feel as if you may be labouring under the misapprehension that I believe there's one correct loadout for all situations - allow me to assure you that no such loadout exists, nor do I believe that it does.

My ethos as regards the equipment choice for a mechanised chassis depends entirely upon the mission briefing and available intelligence. Who are we fighting? What chassis do they pilot? Are we outnumbered, or do we outnumber them? What are the strengths and weaknesses of both individuals within the opposing force and the opposing force as a whole? It goes without saying that these considerations will drastically affect my decisions as regards what equipment I bring with me.

Additionally, I am by no means an expert pilot. My speciality is blinkspace physics, with a secondary expertise in developing mechanised chassis. The majority of my children outpace me in piloting skill; I'm sure they could give you a far more comprehensive answer on this subject than I could.

All of this being said, I doubt you'd be satisfied without a straight answer, so allow me to humour you with the following loadout. I suppose you'll want me to name it as well, won't you? Very well - call this Sleipnir.

-- HA Sunzi @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] HA Sunzi 3, HORUS Minotaur 2, HORUS Goblin 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] The Lesson of the Open Door, Improved Armament [ TALENTS ] Skirmisher 3, Demolitionist 3, Grease Monkey 2, House Guard 1 [ STATS ] HULL:2 AGI:2 SYS:2 ENGI:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:16 ARMOR:1 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:9 REPAIR:4 TECH ATK:+3 LIMITED:+1 SPD:5 EVA:9 EDEF:10 SENSE:15 SAVE:16 [ WEAPONS ] FLEX MOUNT: Warp Rifle MAIN/AUX MOUNT: Assault Rifle / Nexus (Light) [ SYSTEMS ] Personalizations, Blink Charges x4, Metafold Carver, H0R_OS System Upgrade I, Final Secret

Oh, you want me to explain it to you as well? I suppose I have time.

Sleipnir leverages synergies between the crude but effective blinkspace technologies developed by HORUS and the far more refined technologies I developed for the Sunzi frame. Metafold Carver's "Ophidian Trek" is an infinitely repeatable teleport that can be used to instantly rescue an ally from danger at up to range 15 simply by targeting them.

This revolves around the fact that you can target an ally with an invade and they can choose to make it automatically succeed; you don't even bother rolling dice to see how far you teleport them, because your Safe Harbor trait allows you to designate spaces adjacent to you (and this area expanded by the first rank of House Guard) as the endpoint of any teleport that affects an ally.

If you wish to pull an enemy out of position, you can use the same trick with your Blink Anchor; simply invade them using "Ophidian Trek," and then redirect them. This allows you to continue pulling enemies out of position even when your Blink Charges have been expended.

Speaking of Blink Charges, the Demolitionist talent also makes them more versatile, as they can now push enemies around (you choose the order of effects, meaning you can teleport an enemy and then push them back, allowing you to decide the exact direction of the knockback) and you can use them as mines without fear of losing limited charges.

I shouldn't need to explain to you the raw utility of the H0R_OS v1 system. If I do, you probably aren't competent enough to be piloting a mech.

That's all for now. I hope this was illuminating for you. As for me, I must get back to work.

[vexwerewolf]

To be clear, all the character art is drawn by @punkr0xy! Just wanted to get that out of the way.

This dude is Dr. Odin Valentinian. In the IGF timeline, he's the guy who designed the Sunzi. His parents died in the Black Throne Incident and he's been obsessed with killing MONIST-1 ever since.

I write him in a manner I would describe as "insufferably correct."

sorry dude(s) but theres no hope of upending the FCA without Deimos showing up in orbit and going "fucks sake i gave you causal meatbags one simple instruction and you can't even follow that well hope youve studied for your physics exam cos im going to remove the strong nuclear force from your atoms if you dont turn that DeCorp program off yesterday actually you know what too late enjoy your unbound nuclei" I mean come on that fucking rocks got us over a barrel, Union cant beat it, HA cant beat it. What on Cradle do you hope your activist ass can do?

We don't expect to beat MONIST-1 in a fight, ever.

We're principles-first people though, and we despise the idea of being bullied into anything by anyone, no matter how powerful they are. No one, not even MONIST-1 or a government, should have the ability to force someone to stop doing something that doesn't harm anyone else.

MONIST-1 kidnapped the people living and working on Deimos and used its incredible abilities to bully Union into making the changes that it wanted. It's an asshole! It could easily have chosen to make its presence known without kidnapping anyone and if it had good reasons for humans not to do certain things, it could have told us. Presumably, it could still choose to give us information but it does not.

Of course it could kill us if it wanted to, but so could a lot of people. Union could also probably kill us all if it wanted to.

Personally, I'm not a fan of DeCorp and I can't see myself doing it. But it doesn't hurt me if someone else wants to try it, so I don't think it should be illegal.

[vexwerewolf]

As an ace scientist supervillain with a dramatic last name, thank you for Dr. Odin Valentinian. He's truly the representation we need.

[vexwerewolf]

I like how Rodericke Steele is the Most Divorced Man in Calliope despite never having been married, and Dr. Odin Valentinian is somehow the Least Divorced Man in Calliope despite literally having been divorced

[vexwerewolf]

Some of my characters as fake Onion headlines:

Odin Valentinian - Heartwarming: War Criminal Accepts Non-Binary Child Immediately

Rodericke Steele - "Hunger Is A Skill Issue," Declares Copyright Holder of Food

Striga Von Aldenberg - Risks of Energy Drink Consumption Dismissed By Individual Vibrating At 200 Hz

Ipswich "Switch" DeLacey - "Dabbing Still Cool," Insists Celebrity Who Knows It's Not

Harris Bordeaux - "Totally Unexpected:" Disposable Asset's Shock Over Sudden Betrayal