#segment tau

[cakerollk]

some misc Segment Tau stuff + a friend’s design of Prime Dottore @itschalkk on twotter 

[chibittore]

There are reasons why Tau is generally disliked amongst the other segments. For example, only a scant few of them appreciated his approach to The Major General's Song.

[talonabraxas]

Kund ॐ Erik Jacobsen

Manly P. Hall and the Kundalini

As of late, I have been doing extensive research regarding the topic of the Kundalini, or Serpent Fire, and its relationship to the mysteries and Immortality. Any discussion regarding this topic would not be complete without direct referencing from the great Manly P. Hall. We know that the ancients combined philosophy and science into the singular study of the human body. Most contemporary sciences, however, like to separate these ideas; but not so with the ancients. You see, the functions of the body, despite all our medical advances today, remain a mystery. Therefore, the mysteries we study today also involve the human body, or bodily mysteries. So much of our symbols do relate to and correspond to the mysteries of the body and its mind, and its purpose, which is regeneration. Therefore, what did Manly P Hall have to say on the matter?

First and foremost, Hall related the concept of Kundalini to that of Hiram Abiff (CHiram), the central figure in Blue Lodge Masonry. Furthermore, he also referred to the topic as the Spirit Fire, and the Lost Key of Masonry, or human regeneration. He further related it to 33 degrees of Freemasonry and the human spinal cord. And finally, Hall also discussed the importance of raising the Spirit Fire up the vertebrae to the pineal gland:

Sufficient similarity exists between the Masonic CHiram and the Kundalini of Hindu mysticism to warrant the assumption that CHiram may be considered a symbol also of the Spirit Fire moving through the sixth ventricle of the spinal column. The exact science of human regeneration is the Lost Key of Masonry, for when the Spirit Fire is lifted up through the thirty-three degrees, or segments of the spinal column, and enters into the domed chamber of the human skull, it finally passes into the pituitary body (Isis), where it invokes Ra (the pineal gland) and demands the Sacred Name. Operative Masonry, in the fullest meaning of that term, signifies the process by which the Eye of Horus is opened. E. A. Wallis Budge has noted that in some of the papyri illustrating the entrance of the souls of the dead into the judgment hall of Osiris the deceased person has a pine cone attached to the crown of his head. The Greek mystics also carried a symbolic staff, the upper end being in the form of a pine cone, which was called the thyrsus of Bacchus. In the human brain there is a tiny gland called the pineal body, which is the sacred eye of the ancients, and corresponds to the third eye of the Cyclops. Little is known concerning the function of the pineal body, which Descartes suggested (more wisely than he knew) might be the abode of the spirit of man. As its name signifies, the pineal gland is the sacred pine cone in man–the eye single, which cannot be opened until CHiram (the Spirit Fire) is raised through the sacred seals which are called the Seven Churches in Asia (Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of all Ages, 1929, p. 79).

Hall further relates Hiram Abiff (CHiram) to the three gates of the temple, and the northern gate, in which the sun never shines; like that of a Lodge room’s empty seat in the north. You see, the body is represented by the crystallized water/spirit of the north; and man’s light shines always to the north. For this reason then, the moon can come to represent our physical nature. As such, Hiram is the fiery or airy water that must be raised, which is further symbolized by the ladder (2nd degree of Freemasonry). Furthermore, Hiram also passes up by means of the ladder of the spinal cord, or Tree of Life. Moreover, the sacred number of man is nine, which is symbolized by the sacrum and coccyx; the lower part of the body, often termed the Land of Egypt. And like Moses coming out of Egypt, the human mind is illuminated by raising the brazen serpent (Tau Cross), which is personified by the Spirit Fire of the human spinal cord being raised:

As applied to Masonry, the three sunbursts represent the gates of the temple at which CHiram was struck, there being no gate in the north because the sun never shines from the northern angle of the heavens. The north is the symbol of the physical because of its relation to ice (crystallized water) and to the body (crystallized spirit). In man the light shines toward the north but never from it, because the body has no light of its own but shines with the reflected glory of the divine life-particles concealed within physical substance. For this reason the moon is accepted as the symbol of man’s physical nature. CHiram is the mysterious fiery, airy water which must be raised through the three grand centers symbolized by the ladder with three rungs and the sunburst flowers mentioned in the description of the Hindu painting. It must also pass upward by means of the ladder of seven rungs-the seven plexuses proximate to the spine. The nine segments of the sacrum and coccyx are pierced by ten foramina, through which pass the roots of the Tree of Life. Nine is the sacred number of man, and in the symbolism of the sacrum and coccyx a great mystery is concealed. That part of the body from the kidneys downward was termed by the early Qabbalists the Land of Egypt into which the children of Israel were taken during the captivity. Out of Egypt, Moses (the illuminated mind, as his name implies) led the tribes of Israel (the twelve faculties) by raising the brazen serpent in the wilderness upon the symbol of the Tau cross. Not only CHiram but the god-men of nearly every pagan Mystery ritual are personifications of the Spirit Fire in the human spinal cord (Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of all Ages, 1929, p. 79).

Along this same line of thinking, Hall mentioned that man’s lower nature is symbolized by a leviathan, or sea serpent, or dragon. Furthermore, all serpentine forms have come to represent solar energy. As such, the serpent signifies the imprisoned life force, or divine energy, rushing through man’s body; it’s passion, lust and even greed are present until it is transmuted and controlled. And Jesus has also come to represent this concealed divine nature within man himself:

According to many scattered fragments extant, man’s lower nature was symbolized by a tremendous, awkward creature resembling a great sea serpent, or dragon, called leviathan. All symbols having serpentine form or motion signify the solar energy in one of its many forms. This great creature of the sea therefore represents the solar life force imprisoned in water and also the divine energy coursing through the body of man, where, until transmuted, it manifests itself as a writhing, twisting monster–man’s greeds, passions, and lusts. Among the symbols of Christ as the Savior of men are a number relating to the mystery of His divine nature concealed within the personality of the lowly Jesus (Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of all Ages, 1929, p. 86).

We now see Hall relating the ancient understanding of Kundalini/Serpent Fire to that of the medical profession through the sign of the Hermes staff. Moreover, the serpent is aligned with the ideas of wisdom and even salvation; regardless of Christendom’s contemporary view of evil. In fact, the serpent tempts man with the knowledge of himself. Like that of the tree of life being compared to the spinal cord, calling it the spinal fire, which is the gift of the great serpent. And perhaps most boldly, Hall relates this Serpent Fire to the redemption of the savior, Jesus the Christ; and he uses the example of Moses raising the serpent in the desert as his example, and the example of Christ telling his disciples to be as wise as the serpents:

In the ancient Mysteries the serpent entwining a staff was the symbol of the physician. The serpent-wound staff of Hermes remains the emblem of the medical profession. Among nearly all these ancient peoples the serpent was accepted as the symbol of wisdom or salvation. The antipathy which Christendom feels towards the snake is based upon the little-understood allegory of the Garden of Eden. The serpent is true to the principle of wisdom, for it tempts man to the knowledge of himself. Therefore the knowledge of self resulted from man’s disobedience to the Demiurgus, Jehovah. How the serpent came to be in the garden of the Lord after God had declared that all creatures which He had made during the six days of creation were good has not been satisfactorily answered by the interpreters of Scripture. The tree that grows in the midst of the garden is the spinal fire; the knowledge of the use of that spinal fire is the gift of the great serpent. Notwithstanding statements to the contrary, the serpent is the symbol and prototype of the Universal Savior, who redeems the worlds by giving creation the knowledge of itself and the realization of good and evil. If this be not so, why did Moses raise a brazen serpent upon a cross in the wilderness that all who looked upon it might be saved from the sting of the lesser snakes? Was not the brazen serpent a prophecy of the crucified Man to come? If the serpent be only a thing of evil, why did Christ instruct His disciples to be as wise as serpents (Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of all Ages, 1929, p. 88)?

Despite the prevailing thought that the serpent is evil, Hall counters such ideas with some esoteric thinking. He claimed the serpent represented Immortality and is a symbol of reincarnation, due to the shedding of its skin, and it being given the luster of a new skinning body. You see, metaphorically, the serpent never dies, except by violence or by injury. And the serpent is also emblematic of God, because like a serpent swallowing itself (eating its tail), the creator reabsorbs his universe back into himself:

The accepted theory that the serpent is evil cannot be substantiated. It has long been viewed as the emblem of immortality. It is the symbol of reincarnation, or metempsychosis, because it annually sheds its skin, reappearing, as it were, in a new body. There is an ancient superstition to the effect that snakes never die except by violence and that, if uninjured, they would live forever. It was also believed that snakes swallowed themselves, and this resulted in their being considered emblematic of the Supreme Creator, who periodically reabsorbed His universe back into Himself (Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of all Ages, 1929, p. 88).

The history that the serpent is a universal belief, like that of the cross, and even predates Christianity, was pointed out by Hall, especially when he mentioned its origin is from that of Atlantis, “Atlantean sun worship has been perpetuated in the ritualism and ceremonialism of both Christianity and pagandom. Both the cross and the serpent were Atlantean emblems of divine wisdom (Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of all Ages, 1929, p. 34).

Hall further related astral light to that of a depiction of a serpent eating it own tail, and the colors of black and white, “the alternately black and white serpent of astral light“; and further related this topic to cosmic motion, “Vishnu sitting in the blossom of the lotus on a couch formed of the coils of the serpent of cosmic motion (Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of all Ages, 1929, p. 77). Both of which relate to the purpose of Kundalini, which is further consciousness, which can only be sought in the etheric realm.

There is, of course, much much more to Hall’s writings regarding the Serpent Fire/ Kundalini, but I think I have made my point; this was just a teaser. I highly recommend any ardent student of the esoteric sciences take the time to delve further into his writings. In fact, there are over 154 references to the term serpent in Hall’s book Secret Teachings of all Ages (1929). If one is seeking a better understanding of the esoteric science of Kundalini, especially from a Masonic perspective, I highly recommend this course of study; I know I did.

So Mote It Be!

[covid-safer-hotties]

Reference saved in our archive

Key Points Question What factors are associated with the acceleration of brain atrophy and progression to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) based on long-term longitudinal data for individuals with normal cognition at baseline?

Findings In the cohort study, 185 participants with normal cognition underwent a mean follow-up of 20 years with brain magnetic resonance imaging scans. Type 2 diabetes and abnormal amyloid-β concentration in the cerebrospinal fluid were associated with accelerated brain atrophy and an earlier progression to MCI.

Meaning These results support the importance of identifying individuals who have accelerated brain atrophy to optimize strategies to prevent MCI.

Abstract Importance It remains unclear which risk factors accelerate brain atrophy along with a progression from normal cognition to mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Objective To examine risk factors associated with the acceleration of brain atrophy and progression from normal cognition to MCI based on long-term longitudinal data for middle-aged and older adults.

Design, Setting, and Participants Data for this cohort study were extracted from the Biomarkers for Older Controls at Risk for Dementia (BIOCARD) cohort, initiated at the National Institutes of Health from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2005, and continued at Johns Hopkins University from January 1, 2015, to October 31, 2023. All participants were cognitively normal at baseline. The participants whose structural magnetic brain imaging (MRI) of the brain and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measures were available for over 10 years were included.

Exposures Longitudinal structural MRI of the brain and measurement of CSF biomarkers for Alzheimer disease pathology (ratio of amyloid β peptide 42 [Aβ42] to Aβ40, tau phosphorylated at threonine 181, and total tau).

Main Outcomes and Measures Annual change rates of segmental brain volumes, Kaplan-Meier survival curves plotting time to event for progression to MCI symptom onset, and hazard ratios (HRs) determined by Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Results A total of 185 participants (mean [SD] age, 55.4 [8.4] years; 116 women [63%]) were included and followed up for a maximum of 27 years (median, 20 [IQR, 18-22] years). The groups with high levels of atrophy in the white matter and enlargement in the ventricles had an earlier progression from normal cognition to MCI symptom onset (HR for white matter, 1.86 [95% CI, 1.24-2.49]; P = .001; HR for ventricles, 1.71 [95% CI, 1.19-2.24]; P = .009). Diabetes was associated with progression to MCI (HR, 1.41 [95% CI, 1.06-1.76]; P = .04), as was a low CSF Aβ42:Aβ40 ratio (HR, 1.48 [95% CI, 1.09-1.88]; P = .04), and their combination had a higher HR of 1.55 (95% CI, 1.13-1.98]; P = .03), indicating a synergic association of diabetes and amyloid pathology with MCI progression.

Conclusions and Relevance In this cohort study of middle-aged and older adults, higher rates of volume change in the white matter and ventricles, along with the presence of diabetes and a low CSF Aβ42:Aβ40 ratio, were identified as important risk factors for the progression to MCI. These results support the importance of identifying individuals who have accelerated brain atrophy to optimize preventive strategies for progression to MCI.

[no-title-currently]

The Gauntlet Runs are a series of races run that the player can do after completing Repair Bay: TAU. I don’t know too much about them, as this is actually my first time doing them. In terms of gameplay, they play sort of like the motorcycle segments seen in Final Fantasy VII: Remake, as while it is a race, it allows the player to actually attack the other participants by doing things like knock them off of their mounts. There are four of them total, each one harder than the last. I figured I would talk about the starting points tonight (though I will be returning to these to talk about the unique ammo and items used in the actual races)

These are the starting points for the tracks in The Dry Yearn (left) and the Cliffs of the Cry (right). The colors seem to be unique to the track, and seem to tie in specifically to the region the track is located in. The appearance is highly reminiscent of the Rebel Camps, though that’s to be expected as these are all run by retired Rebels.

These parts on the ground also seem to be unique. While I’m unsure of what exactly these are for, as they are raised, I do find the pattern quite interesting. They’re brightly colored, and green is incredibly prominent on them, even on the one in Dry Yearn, which has more red above anything else.

From a birds eye view, they look somewhat flat, but as said above, they’re also raised. I feel this is just for aesthetic reasons, but even still, they’re neat looking regardless.

[thisnameisnotspokenfor]

Rough Chapter 30 Snippet

I'm only finishing the segment to mess with @firstdove15

“Valentino,” she whispered. “Did you hear that?”

The goat nodded, looking just as frightened as she had before she’d glanced toward the surface. “How good is your doggy pattle?” she’d asked him as he pleated again, before offering her a brief demonstration.

Okay, so his doggy pattle was definitely not passable.

Cepheus had told them to stay put, but she didn’t want to risk dealing with whatever was swimming down there. She’d briefly contemplated making it a run for it, until she’d realize that she had no idea how to make the bubble move on her own. If anything they were stuck, waiting and watching the darkness of the graveyard below them.

Hopefully whatever it was that she’d just seen hadn’t come across Cepheus, either. Not that she worried for the star’s wellbeing, but she wasn’t sure how she’d be able to save him if he got hurt, or worse. She shook her head, as she tried to ease her mind of all of the terrible scenarios it had conjured.

Cepheus was strong, and much to her chagrin, rather smart when he wanted to be. If anything she should be feeling more worried for the creature than for the star! 

But her thoughts had quickly come to an end as she’d felt the water beneath them move once more, as if something was coming towards them. “Cepheus?!” she shrieked.

No answer.

“Cepheus I swear this better-,” she screamed , feeling herself being skyrocketed upwards as the thing, no person held her carefully. The surrounding world passing by in a strange mixture of bubbles and rushing water as she looked down, meeting the star’s eyes, moments before they’d broken the surface of the water.

She gasped, taking in a mouthful of air before sinking down into the water once more. The star’s laughter filling her ears as Valentino pleated. 

The coldness of the dark depths shrinking as she’d felt the sun beat down upon her, easing some of the pain she’d been feeling as she took in one breath after another. At first it had been out of instinct, then it had been out of assurance. Assurance to know that they were still alive.

“Asha,” started the star as he held up his hands, revealing the small collection of scrolls, maps and books that he’d retrieved. “I got these for you.”

Her eyes widened as she spotted both Tau and her father’s familiar handwriting decorating the well preserved pages and sketches of the journals. Tears blurred her vision as she took in the enthusiastic notes of her father’s work. She couldn’t believe it. “You…you went back down there to get these for me?”

“I had to,” he answered. “They’re your father’s right? So it’s only right that you have them if you wish to continue his work.”

Words had failed her as she’d felt herself embrace the star. “Thank you,” she’d whispered, as she shook. The star relaxed, slowly returning the embrace as she felt his hand gently hold the back of her head. Neither of them had said a word, as she’d felt them float there, but perhaps they hadn’t needed to. 

"They've resurfaced," whispered one of the figures from the shore as they carefully watched the star release the girl. "Shall we proceed as planned?"

[pack-the-pack]

what is a recessive alpha and how is it different from a dominant alpha

I don't know, honestly. I don't use these terms.

To me an Alpha is an Alpha is an Alpha.

Unless it serves narrative purpose within a story, I don't often go to the overly specific and segmented dynamics system route.

Maybe @alpha-zeta-lambda-xi-tau-omega can be more helpful here than me hahaha.

[strawberrywindow]

i can't focus on anything more in depth than sketches lately smh been so scatterbrained 🤧

anyways, sketch of jin yoshida my beloved, one of the most interesting side characters in the game for how little we know about him and yet how terrifying his segment is lol. according to logs mans was alive up to a MONTH before simon woke up at pathos 2. that's crazy. and also means he and sarah were the last two humans alive for some time 🥲

i wonder if jin was attempting to leave in some last ditch effort to find some form of food for them when he got wau-ified. i'd imagine it was quite hard on sarah when he didn't return and she was left completely alone. i do wonder if she knows what became of him seeing as he seems to have been wandering the front halls of tau for the past month.

i find him interesting as well for being the closest enemy to what simon is composition wise, being a corpse in a diving suit held together by structure gel. i don't know how quickly mans died, knowing the wau it kept him alive for a time and i guess we don't know if jin is TECHNICALLY actually dead 😅 although any semblamce of his self is gone - he may just be heavily mutated. but this was a sketch attempt at him mid-transformation i suppose, before his helmet is breached and totally consumed by wau tendrils, delusional and lost in the halls of tau poor bby 🥲

[janmisali]

Here is a tiny fraction of the reasons why 2 is special and why 2 MUST WIN:

Euler’s Formula about planar graphs has the constant 2

2 appears in formulas everywhere, especially around tau and pi

2!=2

2+2=2*2=2^2=2^^2=...

Normal distribution has z^2/2 in it

First prime number

truth values have 2 possibilities

Powerset has size 2^n

Infinitely many platonic solids in dimension 2

Completing the square is sososo important

Conic sections are the most complicated well behaved curves, and they come from order 2 polynomials

Lorentz transform is 2ish

F=1/r^2 makes planets travel in ellipse

x.dx=0 -> |x|^2=r^2

Mandelbrot set is all about raising things to the power of 2. And things escape the set if their modulus goes > 2

The sum of inverse powers of 2 is 2.

Groups come from 2-ary operations

Asymmetric objects have 2 possible chiralities

= is a 2-ary relation

Highest order of differential equation that cannot be chaotic

Can split any angle into 2, or any line segment into 2 with simple construction. Can construct sqare root, but not any other roots.

2 used to prove bound on iterated totient function

Biggest group with trivial automorphism group

Dimension of C over R

Antipodal map is null-homotopic in iff the sphere's dimension is not a multiple of 2

Highest moment needed for CLT

Every nontrivial finite degree subfield of an algebraically closed field is degree 2

Fermat primes come from the number 2

Wilson’s theorem is about elements of order 2

Every element order 2 implies Abelian and vector space

Reflection is order 2 symmetry

Every ring except in characteristic 2 has 2nd root of unity

The Euclidean norm is the only norm with continuous rotational symmetry, and it's analytic, with derivative 2x. It also gives the circle parameterised by e^i\theta

It's the dimension in which shapes first appear

It's the smallest possible number base

.

[icy-saturday]

On the subject of Tau nests, would anyone like a tutorial on how to make one in your own room? I’d have to make one myself first but I’ll see if I can do a photo step by step tutorial or even a video or both. Ik it won’t function the same as a real Tau nest (which are basically boats) but it’ll still be comfortable and snuggly to sleep in. So if anyone’s interested, I’ll drop a tutorial to go with the Tau segment of my Numeral Geographic project on Wattpad.

[iwant-fuitgummi]

some segments

part 2

some notes about them:

alpha is the youngest clone; he's about 13 years old. he is also one of the rudest. hates that he's not allowed to work on big projects due to his age. the only one he's nice to is beta.

beta is the most mellow of dottore's clones. he's also one of the oldest. beta takes care of alpha. he also does things like cooking and cleaning. the braid in his hair is from alpha.

iota is the most interested in robotics out of all of them. barely ever does anything medical. works with gamma most of the time.

gamma is unpredictable. he's awful at giving directions and expects people to know what he wants them to do and how he wants them to do it. huge narcissist. works on mechanics with iota.

tau is the most unique out of dottore's clones, because she's actually a woman. tau often goes by zahra. she's often the one who goes to harbinger meetings, since she's more social than the others. this doesn't mean that she's any less cruel, though. she is a dottore clone, after all.

zeta is our beloved webttore. insane, narcissistic, selfish, all that jazz.

[cakerollk]

HAPPY YEAR OF THE BNUUY FELLAS

[chibittore]

I saw @ellalalala 's post about A Hero of Our Time, and when I went to look up other quotes, this one slapped me in the face. Anyway here's Tau with it 🎉

[theaceofskulls]

Farsight: Crisis of Faith

I have been sitting on my thoughts on this book for awhile because it's yet another reason numerical ratings would fail me if I ever seriously did reviews.

My feelings on it are complicated but surprising.

Let's back up:

So one day I said "God, I know Phil Kelly's books on Tau are controversial but I'm desperate to listen to any Xenos book and legitimately want to know more about the Tau. I'm going to go ahead and try this out"

That was months ago. I put this down for a bit midway through and finally picked it back up and listened to it straight through in one go.

And then I waffled about how I felt about it for almost a solid month.

First up: whatever you've heard about Phil Kelly, his actual prose is decent actually. When this book is good, it's actually really good, and Kelly cooked with the Tau propaganda footage scene where he literally just describes an average Imperium factory without the intentional detached satire of the setting. It's legitimately one of the best chapters of a 40k book.

When this book is firing on all cylinders, it's easy to go "hey why don't people like this? You just have to excuse- oh right."

Because there's no getting around the fact that the Ethereals are moustache twirling, Saturday morning cartoon villains that are stupidly evil and somehow they're not even the most obviously evil character in this book because Por'Mal'caor exist (btw, thanks for the narrator for making that sound like Paul Malcor the entire book).

And I find that character fascinating and I hate it. A Tzeentch possessed Tau who is dealing with the fact that he's basically experience cosmic horror and is being slowly hollowed out because his species is more resistant but not immune to the warp is just so fun, and his inability to lie due to Tzeentch playing a funny prank on the caste that reveres the ability to lie is great.

But as the story goes on, it's really hard to justify everyone else holding onto the idiot ball around him so that he survives until the end.

And the idiot ball is the best way to describe a lot of the events of the book. The Tau as a whole don't come off as badly as I was led to believe but it's so weird to find some of the most evocative stuff right next to segments of plot where I feel like I'm watching a frustrating cartoon series that's aiming for two audiences at once and makes everyone look stupid because of it.

And the thing that's most frustrating is this: I don't hate the book. I actually kind of liked it, and I can't articulate how that works.

This book cements the Tau mind control issue I have with the faction's current identity where their leaders are 100% already cartoonishly evil rather than just heading down the same potential paths to ruination that all other civilizations went down, as are the water caste who are hilariously petty and cruel in this with almost no redeeming qualities.

Farsight comes off as blind to literally everyone openly plotting against him just as much as he comes off as charmingly naive in other segments (shout out to one of my favorite moments where he thinks he's inspired a slave revolt on the lower decks of the ship... by turning off the geller field that keeps the daemons out. Who knew the imperium kept all these weird alien workers below deck?).

Half of it also feels like it's making winking references to things I don't know about because I don't know enough of the faction in question, and it awkwardly slows down just enough to highlight these call forwards in a way that makes me feel like I'm being excluded, but not enough to yank me fully out of it.

A lot of the book is mindless action that stretches just a bit too long but it doesn't feel as brainless as Guy Haley's Space Marine fights, and there's not a lot of "bolter porn" for xenos so it's hard to complain about it.

Lastly, the narration, as that's a small element that pulled me out the first time and I had to just get through: Andrew Wincott does a great job for the most part alongside Helen McAlpine, but he reads the entire thing in a sinister tone. Despite the title and several characters, it feels at odds with the tone of the book and serves to continuously both make the moustache twirling worse, the main cast seem less heroic (which the idea is that they should be seeing themselves as heroes even if they aren't in the grand picture), and the action scenes stacked against them. Also, the space marines in this book are obnoxious for the voices that were chosen for them which makes the final confrontation something of a slog more than an enjoyable face off. That said, he does a good job with trying to differentiate voices and noticeably avoids accenting the tau too much outside of using regional dialects at points, which is better than most of the community.

And yet, the book is endearing enough to endure these faults in a way that some of the other books I've dropped hasn't been.

I both want to recommend it and want to continuously bemoan it. Watching a young Farsight who sometimes comes off as pathetic and other times as this mythic hero is fantastic, I just wish that to emphasize he's wearing rose tinted glasses and blinders, we didn't have him miss 50ft tall neon signs.

So it remains a tentative recommendation, especially due to its novelty, and I feel like people who like Tau want to kill me for that, regardless of how conflicted I feel on it.

And what probably will earn me even more lashes at my eventual public whipping is that within an hour of finishing the book, I decided to pick up book 2.

Basically: if you're curious about Tau and are willing to make peace with the fact that you'll rarely be able to talk about this book without people immediately jumping on how much they hated it, give it a read.

It's not quite the "it's good when you don't have someone telling you it sucks" but it's close to that, and I can't help but feel that the fact that it fell short by virtue of some creative decisions is what drives most people crazy about it.

[c0d33]

My thoughts on SOMA

Last night, I finished my first ever playthrough of SOMA, and I just needed to put down my thoughts somewhere in a coherent manner

I got this game because of a recommendation from a friend, and I'm very glad I did! This was the first ever horror game I played through in full, and it's honestly gonna be hard to top this I think.

Warning for story spoilers! Don't read if you have interest in playing this game (Which I do recommend)

Story

To start off, the story. I found the story to be super interesting! Between everything that happened at Pathos-II and the story of Simon, it really drew me in. I find the thought of unknowingly being a copy of someone's own brain to be honestly terrifying, and I really felt bad for Simon throughout the game.

Although the story surrounding Pathos-II was a bit murky for me (Probably my own fault, I tend to not be great at picking up minute story details in games), researching it further was a lot of fun! I wish the WAU was more of a character than a sort of background villain, but I still love its inclusion and everything surrounding it was executed very well.

The ending was honestly really sad for me, with both versions of Simon having their own bad ending in one way or another. One is stuck all alone at the bottom of the ocean,

Environment

I absolutely loved the environment. The whole place feels very alien even without structure gel leaking out of every crevice, and really makes me feel like I'm a fish out of water. Everything felt very unique for basically being a bunch of similarly constructed underwater bases, and each section has its own thing going for it! The heavy machinery of Upsilon, the office spaces of Theta, the laboratories of Omicron, everything felt like its own unique space.

I especially liked the underwater sections, which provided a surprising amount of variety for what are essentially the same place. Highlights for me were the MS Curie, the hike to Phi with the Leviathan, and the anglerfish part of heading to Tau.

Gameplay

I really liked the gameplay! Of course the parts where you're facing off against the monsters are great (Special mention to the lower levels of Theta against Akers, which had the tensest moment of my playthrough for me where I barely managed to lock down the security room after Akers opened the door), but I think even the exploration segments where nothing is hunting you were really good. There were some really fun puzzles to solve, and although I needed help with a handful of them, I enjoyed all of them!

I really enjoyed all of the monsters having their own unique counterplay around them, which really helped each section feel unique. Some of the best moments of my playthrough came from me slowly figuring out each monster's pattern and weaknesses, which may have led to me being very slow in some parts, but it was very fun!

Final Thoughts

Overall, SOMA is a fantastic game! I really appreciate it not being full of jumpscares like most other horror games, and instead choosing to base its horror around the atmosphere and the knowledge that you're being hunted by something. The story was great and ended up being way more philosophical than I was ready for (/pos).

Highly recommended!

[fatedevour]

SEGMENT HEIRACHY 

For all intents and purposes, PRIME (aka the one i write unless another segment is request) is the MAIN segment and the one that all the other segments take orders from, regardless of if they are older (like Gamma) or (unsurprisingly) younger. The older segments can have more of an influence than the younger segments depending on the subject, but ultimately it defaults to Prime. If it is not prime, then it’s typically Omega or Delta, Omega for his own projects and Delta handling more of the meetings and matters with the other Harbingers if Prime isn’t available. Generally, the closer to Prime, the more authority one holds. Prime was selected by the ORIGINAL Dottore when he was still alive since Prime is at his optimal, and segments around that time are closer to it than the more emotional younger segments or more reclusive older segments. 

When it comes down to the subsections of older and younger, it varies a bit more and it tends to be a more case by case situation. The older segments are definitely more calm and clinical in their debates, deciding by what project or authority there is. The younger ones are....definitely more volatile in fighting for it. (Excluding little Chi of course.) They know in IMPORTANT matters of course to back off, but if there’s nothing of extreme importance, then more of a fight beaks out till they sort it out or Prime intervenes. 

RANDOM INFORMATION:

- All the segments acknowledge the ORIGINAL dottore’s birthday as their birthday, not by creation day. Not that it matters, as THEY don’t celebrate it (though the Harbingers might, and then all the segments are happy to sacrifice PRIME to deal with the celebrations)

- RIP Beta he really is the most disliked one since he’s the one more prone to immediate anger.

- Chi is both the literal youngest in age as well as the newest created. and shortest existence time. shame you were useless in aranara nabbing.

- Each segment DOES have their own differences in movements / body language as well as personality , though they tend to be more subtle (especially between those of similar age groups like Prime, Omega, Delta, etc. or Theta, Beta, Tau, etc. given its easy to tell otherwise) and slight differences in perspectives and different interests. Some are more robotic inclined, some medical, so on and so forth. 

- Despite this, there’s also some similarities that exist across ALL the segments. They all tend to take the same pose when they’re thinking hard over something that has them stumped (typically scowling and arms crossed while glaring downwards) or when something genuinely shocks them.