#so why did you go to the morphic pool

[animentality]

Which companions to romance as a Durge?? Used to be on team Astarion but now I just feel like he is too stupid(canon smooth brain, he is lovely tho) for my durge who was/is in into Gortash.. :(

GALE. THE ANSWER IS GALE.

[yo9urt]

beat beegee three last night!

[pentacass]

Sol: Now do the rest of the prompt list

my fandoms may change but my followers will forever be unhinged lmaoo thank you <3 here we go!! [prompt list]

4. Hiding/sneaking/hidden movement

“One with the shadows.” “They will never see me coming.” “Don’t miss me while I’m gone.”

5. Taking a short rest

“Rested and ready.” “I’ve had enough. Let’s move.” “That helped…more than I’d like to admit.”

10. Sending them to talk to an NPC

“Do I have to?” “Perhaps they’ll say something useful.” “A bit of conversation couldn’t hurt…much.”

13. Picking a lock

“Child’s play.” “A second is all I need.” “Lock, meet key.”

14. Looking at a globe

“Humbling, to be reminded how vast the world is, and how small we are.” “So much to explore…”

15. Looking at an astrolabe

“Are the other worlds as chaotic as ours?” “Wonder if I’ll ever get a chance to see them.”

16. Looking at a telescope

“Do not make me use that in the day.” “The stars look beautiful.”

18. Looking at a nonmagical lamp

“A lamp. Nothing more.” “I am not rubbing that.”

19. Noticing a trap

“Step carefully, or lose a limb.” “I can disarm that.” “Such shoddy handiwork.”

21. Comments/reactions near an Act 1 location

Emerald Grove: “A defensible position. Are its inhabitants capable of doing so, I wonder.” Goblin Camp: “This place reeks of savagery. But it can provide an army, if you know how to harness its strength…rancid as it is.” Rosymorn Trail: “Some views on the surface are worth leaving home for.” Underdark: “How I’ve missed the Underdark. A part of me will always regard it as home.”

22. Comments/reactions near an Act 2 location

First time entering Shadow-Cursed Lands: “Be wary. These shadows unsettle even my heart.” Last Light Inn: “A safe refuge. How long can it stand against such darkness?” House of Healing (surgical chamber): “Reminds me of the torture dungeons back home.” Moonrise Towers: “Be on your guard. We approach the heart of corruption.”

23. Comments/reactions near an Act 3 location

Rivington: “Chaos sowed, disorder blooms, opportunities abound. We should take advantage of it.” Lower City, Guild entrance: “The Guild’s a good source of information. Just don’t let them bilk you out of your coin purse.” House of Hope: “I’ve stolen from many, but never a devil. How exciting.” Bloomridge Park: “A peaceful place for reflection…at night, at least.”

24. Lines said in the Morphic Pool or High Hall

[Morphic Pool] “The Netherbrain lies ahead. Steel yourself - it will not go down without a fight, but oh, what a fight we will give it.” [High Hall] “The final battle awaits us. If we live, let it be in victory. If we die, let us go in a blaze of glory.” [How are you feeling?] “I feel good. I feel alive. My blood sings at the thought of battle, and my blades ache to dance once again. Even if these are to be our last moments, I shall live gloriously until the end.” [Ready to be a hero?] -laughs- “I am not a hero, and never will be. I live for the thrill of victory, not the accolades it brings. But you will be the city’s hero, and I shall be proud to call you friend.”

25. Party banter with Astarion

A: “Your eyes are more receptive to sunlight with that tadpole, aren’t they? Why do you still complain so much about it?” S: “I hate the sun.” A: “Come now, must you insist on being a soggy little blanket all the time?” S: “And I hate you. I tend to kill the things I hate.” A: “What, do you intend to kill the sun?” S: “One day.”

26. Party banter with Gale

S: “You mentioned you would go somewhere remote if you were ever to leave us, Gale.” G: “Yes, I did say that. What brought this to mind?” S: “Any chance I could persuade you to detonate the orb at Menzoberranzan’s gates?” G: -weary chuckle- “Assuming that I would find myself in such desperate straits…no. The point of heading somewhere remote is to prevent needless casualties.” S: “That city deserves it, but I suppose it would be a pity to lose you in such an endeavour.” G: “Ah, you do care.”

29. Party banter with Lae'zel

L: “Your ferocity on the battlefield is impressive, drow. It is a pity that you fight like a coward.” S: “Of course you take issue with my methods.” L: “You have proven your ability as a warrior, yet you waste it skulking about in the shadows. It is unbecoming.” S: “Let the gloryhounds be bait as they wish. I will take my kills while you take all the hits.” L: -scoffs- “You should not take pride in being fragile.”

30. Party banter with Shadowheart

SH: “You look unsettled by the shadows, Solistre. Now I’ve seen everything.” S: “These shadows are unnatural. I question your wisdom if you are not unsettled by it.” SH: “My Lady protects me from the ill effects of her curse. I have nothing to fear.” S: “Nothing to fear, yes - until Shar no longer has use of her little pawn.” SH: “Your barbs mean nothing to me. My immunity is proof of Lady Shar’s favour.” S: “You close your eyes and revel in blindness. Perhaps your ‘Lady’ took more than just your memories.”

31. Party banter with Halsin

H: “Are there drow druids in Menzoberranzan, Solistre?” S: “Worship of Lolth takes precedence in the city. Reverence directed anywhere else is…frowned upon.” H: “I see. So, none at all?” S: “None that I know of.” H: “Ah, well. I was just curious what are the common forms a druid would shift into in the Underdark...”

34. Party banter with Minsc

S: “Boo was watching me sleep last night, Minsc. Tell him to stop it.” M: “Oh? I apologise for his rudeness. It is most unusual. Boo! You will stop watching Solistre sleep!” B: -explanatory squeaks- M: “Ah…I see. Boo says you smell like a drow we once knew, someone who tried to hurt him once. But, even though you smell bloodier, he says you are to be trusted.” B: -more squeaking- M: “And he thanks you for handling him gently despite the surprise last night.” S: “Whatever. Just stop watching me.”

36. What are some situational dialogues they would say when something happens to another companion or you talk to them while in a quest-specific location (such as commenting on Karlach’s heart, Elminster visiting Gale, visiting Cazador’s mansion, etc)?

“Shadowheart did well to defy Shar. It will hurt deeply, but she cannot stop moving forward. Her former family will be hunting her now. Let us ease her burden, and make their lives difficult.” “Karlach looks much happier with her heart fixed…even if partially. She is too liberal with her hugs now, but her smile is a light amid this Shadow Curse.” “When a god tells you that suicide is one path to redemption…that is a good sign to stop listening. Gale has proven an intelligent man thus far. He will find another way. He must.”

37. How would they respond to a player character prompting them with, “Tell me about yourself”?

-tired scoff- “Very well - let us put your foremost questions to rest. Yes, I am from the Underdark - the city of Menzoberranzan, in fact. Yes, desperate circumstances forced me to the surface, and no, I will not elaborate. I am not a spy for my brethren or the Spider Queen, nor am I a threat to you - for now. I do not ‘like’ the surface world; it is merely where I live now, and I have no strong feelings about it. Save for the sun, perhaps. That wretched thing could do my eyes a favour and explode someday.”

38. If a player character asks them to consider consuming tadpoles or using the Astral tadpoles, how would your Tav/Durge respond?

“Have you lost your mind? A tadpole nests within our skulls and you think to consume another? Power or no, the consequences will be brutal - mentally and physically. Nothing it can give us is worth the cost.” [Persuade Success] -slow, heavy sigh- “Fine. Power always comes at a cost, but if it helps us survive, then… -glances away- I suppose I have nothing left to lose.” <a/n: regretful, depressed>

39. If romanceable, what lines would they say if a player character prompted them with, “Can I kiss you?”

“Why don’t you come here and find out?” “I’ve been thinking about you all day. Come here.” “You’d better, before I wither without your touch.”

40. If romanceable, what would they say if a player character asks for a “last kiss” at the Morphic Pool/HIgh Hall?

“No better excuse, hm? But then, you never needed one. Come here.” [kiss happens] “I have always fought for battle itself, to find the most vicious fight worthy of taking my life. But today, and every day after, I shall fight to see the next sunrise - with you, for you.”

[loquaciousquark]

Final Thoughts

Okay! I went back and replayed the final sequence again and was much, much happier with both how everyone looked sans helmets and with some randomly varied flavor text in the background. I remain really, really happy overall with how this game ended both generally and for my particular runthrough.

The run-up to the Morphic Pool was really, REALLY creepy, and I liked the ways they threw all the li'l brainies at you to start wearing down the group resources. It does remain hilarious that the noodle-armed rogue was rowing the boat, though maybe that's why we couldn't get out of the way of the stalactite in time. The brain was fun gross and I couldn't quite tell--was the voice the same as the narrator? That would have been a nice touch! I did absolutely roll a natural 20 on that DC 99 check to Dominate the Brain (loved that setup in the dialogue window), but alas, the brain took off to destroy everything anyway. The biggest issue I had here was figuring out how to get past that dumb pile of rocks for that very mediocre chest.

In the Astral Plane, I managed to get enough brains to craft several potions of psychic resistance that I never used, but which made me feel better to have. There was never a chance my Tav was going to let Orpheus stay bound (I'm still working on her backstory, but I know she comes into the game feeling strongly anti-authoritarian and only gets moreso over the course of the events), so the only question I had was what was going to happen to the Emperor when I made that choice.

Sidebar--the Ansur fight & environ was one of my absolute favorite locales of the entire game. I loved the set design, the puzzles, the music, the reveals, and the final fight--I thought it was a fantastic setpiece altogether, and the reveal that the Dream Guardian was not only an illithid, but Balduran, made me actually gasp. Getting a conclusion to that questline as narratively satisfying as this one made me really happy, and Wyll's response to its conclusion with his dad--becoming the Blade of Avernus--I also thought was incredibly fitting for both that character and the choices he made within this world.

Anyway, I played through becoming an illithid just to see what happened (Astarion's comment about preferring any option that doesn't change your beautiful face--I felt that, bro), and as soon as I saw that grey triangle torso I was like, nope, sorry Prince, tagging you right back in on this one. Just can't do it, even when the fate of the city's on the line. I've spent too many hours looking at her janky eyes and her scarred lip to turn them all into tentacles now. I wasn't surprised the Emperor turned on me, but I didn't expect him to just full-on go Netherbrain and leave us in his rainbow skull.

I loved, loved, love the rally scene in the High Hall. What an awesome way to remind you of how many ways you've made a difference in some of these quests. The owlbear & Dannon along with the Strange Ox were my favorites, but seeing Barcus, Zevlor, and even Isobel & Dame Aylin was just wonderful. Really loved this entire sequence.

This is the first time I've ever really both utilized summoned allies in a big fight like this and also felt how much they turned the tide! A fantastic balanced encounter in the courtyard, and I called down so many Harpers & Fists & the owlbear & the dragonfire (so COOL) and Yurgir (got stuck in a building and did poke damage for the rest of the fight) and Rolan's tower (absolutely LOVED that you could save his fam & they could come live with him). It truly took an encounter that was really, really difficult into something absolutely manageable and in some ways quite easy. They told you to gather allies and by GOD I GATHERED ALLIES. I feel rewarded for my exploration!!

Of course, it then became utterly paramount to keep all summoned allies alive, but thankfully that wasn't much of an issue. My rogue by the end of this had Celestial Haste, two cunning action dashes, extra movement from momentum, and could easily clear 120+ ft a round and still have actions at the end of her movement. Plus she had a longbow that gave Guiding Bolt on a hit (GOD it's such a good longbow, I want to go back and play more combat just to play with it again), so even the few times the mindflayers were able to Dominate some Harpers I was able to get over there with either her or Lae'zel jumping rampart to rampart across the entire map & break their concentration. A super fun, exciting fight with a lot of variety. Orpheus is powerful as a mindflayer! The power is not small! He just doesn't have a horizontal mouth or a nose anymore & I can't do that to Tav!

Still never figured out how to get into that blocked-off area at the south of that map. Found a random forum post that suggested there was a chasm you could jump into to access the "Upper City Sewers," but the only things I found in the chasms was death, womp womp.

Anyway, got up to the brain (very cool cutscene! Not a snowball's chance my Tav was actually able to haul herself up that stem!) and REALLY liked the brain fight. I didn't have any issues navigating it (though a timer on the battle is always cool!) and only got Lae'zel & Orpheus killed once on the first run when I didn't understand how the Marked for Negation electric balls worked. The final cutscene where the brain fell in the water was beautifully animated; I loved seeing those NPCs keep cropping up in this sequence. I liked the image of everyone hauling themselves out of the bay onto the dock & Astarion complaining bitterly about how often he's having to swim on this trip.

My first run-through of the final dock conversation made me very sad. I didn't like Minsc's pithy comment about sunflowers for Astarion at all, and I hated watching Karlach's heart break behind that hideous helmet. (The stats were so good, and the aesthetics were so awful...she was in my party 99% of the time so Hide Helmet worked almost always...except when it mattered the most, ugh.) The second time, being able to see her face & Wyll's really helped that scene land and it really, really worked for me. I still don't think there's a fantastic in-universe Watsonian explanation for why we can't fix her engine for good with all these acres of infernal iron we've been collecting, but ACCEPTING THAT ON FACE VALUE FOR THE MOMENT I thought the writing and acting in that entire sequence were beautiful. Karlach's voice actress in particular just wrecked me. Beautiful, beautiful writing at the end; just wish the structural tentpoles were a little stronger to justify the moment.

On my second, helmet-less runthrough, when Astarion started to burn, Halsin made a much more sober comment along the lines of "he will miss that freedom; it may be some time before we see him again," and I much preferred that. It felt right in line with how my Tav felt about the situation, and she was very grateful for his empathy there. I still wish we'd figured out a way to have a celebration or something together, though I appreciate Wyll & Karlach's absence would have put a serious damper on things.

I am glad, I think, that I waited to see Karlach's ending after the patch. This read so determinedly hopeful, even with the very bittersweet sting, that I think to have anything less would have really undercut her journey even more than the options we currently have. All in all, I was very satisfied with sending her and Wyll to Avernus while we figure out how to fix her. Their final cutscene charging into the credits was the bomb.

The Astarion wrap-up scene was almost, ALMOST perfect. The choice to tell him we'd find a way to get him back in the sun was EXACTLY what I wanted to say (which was a theme in this game--there were only a handful of places in the entire game where I was frustrated by not being able to react the way I wanted--so impressive, Larian!). I just wish they'd been able to have one kiss in a room with walls and a ceiling, weh.

Anyway! The game is over, I'm immensely satisfied with all outcomes and party storylines with a few minor asterisks here and there, and I'm already plotting out several pieces to flesh out the places I want to explore. The characters are so rich and dynamic and reactive, the world feels so very real and robust, and I'm eager to live in it a little longer. I don't think I'm going to start another playthrough anytime soon--for me my first run is usually "canon", and I want to sit and marinate in this version of the world a little longer--but eventually I'll probably try a Durge just to see what the deal is. It'll honestly be incredibly hard not to romance Astarion, but we'll see! Maybe I'll just make Tavish again with a tweaked backstory. I don't know much about the Durge at all, so it'd be pretty blind!

What a good game. What a good time! I probably will go back and see what achievements I can pull easily--I was delighted to get one for "saving every tiefling possible through the end of the game," yeah boiiiii. Now to unblacklist everyone and see what the heck I've missed out on while spending every waking moment smooching an insufferable elf!

[wilchur]

I always go to the Iron Throne after Gortash leaves for the morphic pool so that he loses cell service and doesn't learn of me fucking around in there because I don't want to break the alliance and have to kill him. In that version of events you only really hear some Banites give the order to blow up the place, I've never gotten that call from him on the submarine. Which is why it's only today that I learned you can tell him to go fuck himself (literally) and it prompts him to say "You've been spending too much time with young Karlach, it's affecting your manners."

And that bit has such funny implications if you're playing a Durge. Is hanging out with Karlach affecting their manners because they did not swear at all? Or it's just that they're being an ass to Gortash in particular? Please tell me...

Does your Durge swear?

For Ezra I genuinely don't think he said the word "fuck" even once pre-tadpole. Man was raised by an Ilmatari priest and then became an oath of devotion paladin before Bhaal got his claws into him, he doesn't know what swear words are. Yeah he'll talk about viscera, blood, flaying etc but he's very poetic about it, it doesn't come off as vulgar. I think "shit" was the harshest word of his profanity vocabulary back when Gortash knew him, but even that was rare. He speaks in that semi-formal way we see in Durge's letters, journals and narration because when the only time you speak for extended lengths of time is during sermons... I think is fair to assume that way of speaking ends up being the only way you know how to talk anymore. I like the idea of him sounding very serious and only becoming more casual in tone after yoinking some speech quirks and patterns from the party over time. Karlach's liberal use of the f-word among them.

[boghermit]

For Tav banter and Dialogue

3, 17, 25, 40

For ol' Salem:

3. Directing them to attack/move in combat.

Doing the math...

On the prowl.

On it.

[Whistling an odd tune.]

Apex predator.

Ow! What did I just step on?

Reel them in!

They won't know what bit them.

Food for the worms.

[low growl]

[subdued laugh]

17. Looking in a mirror.

Should I get a haircut?

I should braid it.

Are my sideburns crooked? No. Is my face crooked? Hm.

[if the player hasn't romanced Astarion] Maybe I should keep my collar up. Or maybe not.

25. Banter with Astarion

Salem: [to the whole party] Does it ever strike you just how temporary it all is? Astarion: No. [laughs]

Salem: I'd like to study you. Astarion: ',:) Oh? By all means, come to my tent later. Salem: What? Oh no no no. platonically. You're a vampire. You can walk in the sunlight, but wine still tastes like vinegar to you. So the worm only partially cures you. I wonder why? Astarion: Well it's only a mindflayer tadpole, not an all-powerful necromancer. It can't cure me of everything. I still have to drink blood. And after all, I'm only a vampire spawn. Maybe the rules are different for us. Salem: Hmm... Astarion: But you are still welcome to. Study me. Back at camp. ',:)

Astarion: This is decor is more tasty than tasteful. Salem: Tasty? Really? Astarion: You're one to criticize! I saw you put a leaf in the camp stew last night! A leaf! Salem: That's a bay leaf. It's for flavor! [If Wyll is in the party] Wyll: But you're not supposed to eat the bayleaf. Salem: I didn't want to waste it!

40. If romanceable, what would they say if a player character asks for a "last kiss" at the Morphic Pool/HIgh Hall?

[At the Morphic Pool] "[genuinely] This is a romantic place to kiss, isn't it? Nice shoreline...If there wasn't an Elder Brain down here, we could go for a walk, have a picnic..."

[At the High Hall] Right now? My heart is already beating too fast. ... We'd both better get to do that again.

[netmaddy-blog]

Little Mic and the Big Mac Myth

New Post has been published on https://netmaddy.com/little-mic-and-the-big-mac-myth/

Little Mic and the Big Mac Myth

A few of years ago I spoke to the owner of an evolutionist website who informed me that he no longer bothered updating it because the war against Genesis and creationism had been well and truly won. At the same time, Richard Dawkins had written so many books that they occupied one whole shelf at my local Waterstones bookshop. And also at the same time, the Human Genome Project was getting underway, and the evolutionary clamor was growing ever louder as they prepared to charge into their final battle of Armageddon, eager to crush creationism once and for all. Charge!!!…

… Oops! Oh dear! Armageddon has become Disarm-addon and the retreat is now under way. Or, to put it another way, evolution has hit the proverbial buffers.

As a result, we can announce today that Macro-evolution, personified here for fun as Big Mac, the driving force of Darwinism, has passed quietly away, having been made redundant and irrelevant. Although Big Mac had been a powerful evolutionary force for more than a century, helping make evolution ‘the most seductive theory in all science’, he has become superfluous, as will be made clear below.

Where we might ask, did the running Mac come from, and where did he go, and why? In fact, did he ever really exist other than as a cunning myth in the troubled mind of Charles Darwin?

Raise Your Right Hand

Such was the pervasive influence of Big Mac and his mentor, that scientist all over the world, were required to pledge allegiance to evolution in order to get and hold a good job or obtain a research grant. Raise your right and swear on this sacred copy of The Origin of Species that you will extoll the genius of the Great Lord Darwin in all books and research papers. I do, I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah!

However, following Mac’s demise, a growing number of scientists are now coming out of the woodwork, admitting that they never actually encountered any real evidence of his existence. So Mac appears to have been a fictional entity, a cartoon character popular with the BBC, but in reality just some kind of mass hallucination.

So what really happened? Quite simply the world just accepted, as an article of faith, Darwin’s claim that the earth’s present flora and fauna somehow ‘evolved’ from the bizarre and now-extinct organisms whose fossils are found in the ancient palaeozoic and Mesozoic rock strata, evidence of a previous prehistoric age when the world was a very different place to what it is now. At the extreme, it was believed that every organism on earth had a lineage back to a ‘common ancestor’ in that ancient pool of slime. Computer programs were then developed to compare the structures of all organism, from the most simple to the most complex, and shuffle and sequence them (assuming evolution to be true) to form a notional ‘tree of life’, the technique of ‘cladistics’. e.g. your cat Tiddles and my dog Ollie both have four legs, and so must have evolved from a ‘common ancestor’, along with cows and horses, mice, etc.

As one top Cambridge evolutionists admitted, however, cladistics just don’t work because you can tweak the programs to prove anything you like. They can make it up as they go along. And they do.

‘The simple fact is that Darwin was a brilliant thinker with a vivid imagination, and nobody

else back in the 1850s knew enough science to argue with him. As a result, when he made this claim, a scientifically ignorant world, with a few exceptions, simply believed him and applauded and went out and bought his book. He moved in and took over. It was like the O.K. Corral, but with no gunfight. And we were the cattle.

Of course, the proverbial penny should have dropped when geologists failed to find all those zillions of imperfectly formed transitional forms that Darwin said were the essential proof of his theory. But it didn’t.

Of course, also, as Darwin actually admitted, those transitional forms should have dominated the fossil record. It should have been so obvious. But it wasn’t. However, on the contrary, every fossil ever found has been that of a perfectly formed and functioning organism. Oh yes, there were a few extinct organisms that bore some resemblance to present day ones in some way, such as having arms and legs or fins, but all attempts to construct a detailed and credible ‘tree of life’ connecting all together have failed. When you realize this, Darwin’s theory does become a bit of infantile nonsense. To Darwin, however, it became axiomatic, self-evident, no proof required, an article of atheistic faith. Thus the key problems got quietly swept under the proverbial carpet.

A Sticky Problem

Moving on, we can now add, the sticky problem of how one organism could possibly evolve into another anyway. Zealous British evolutionist Derek Hough, for example, admits that the idea of the complexity we now know about being created by the accumulation of DNA copying errors is just infantile. The chance of an explosion in a scrap yard creating a 747 aircraft is more likely. However, Hough remains an evolutionist, because he cannot accept God or magic, and so continues the search for some kind of credible evolutionary mechanism.

I suppose it was the great Human Genome Project that really put the kibosh on Big Mac when it was discovered that the DNA simply does not contain the ‘blueprints’ required to control the shape and structure of any tiny part of any organism, not even a nose or an eyelash. Top Harvard evolutionist Richard Lewontin happily admits this. Of course, the fact that all organisms contain DNA simply demonstrates the handiwork of a Master Designer, not errant evolution, not descent from a common ancestor. And as top evolutionist Carl Woese admits anyway, evolution cannot explain the origin of DNA. This is the kind of stuff that was swept under than carpet – but, confident of victory against Genesis, evolutionists have been coming into print and spilling the beans. Sorry to mix so many metaphors.

Speaking of the ‘exquisitely tuned’ genetic DNA code, Woese comments: ‘Darwinian evolution simply cannot explain how such a code could arise.’ Yes, Cannot explain! You cannot be serious, man!

If that’s not plain enough, he adds: ‘Nothing in the modern synthesis explains the most fundamental steps in early life’, such as ‘how evolution could have produced the genetic code and the basic genetic machinery used by all organisms’.

Complacency

As commented earlier, evolution had been taken for granted. No proof required. They just knew Darwin was right. As a result, says Woese: ‘It is a case of scientific complacency … biologists were seduced by their own success into thinking they had found the final truth.’ And so, they: ‘neglected to study the most important problem in science — the nature of the evolutionary process … Most biologists, following Francis Crick, simply supposed … ‘ They suppose! They assume! They lie!

Can you believe such nonsense? What a scandal! As a result of this criminal scam, our children have to study biology books that fail to point out these errors and are brainwashed by people like Richard Dawkins, evolutionists who cannot explain the origin of sex, and so avoids the issue! The problem is that, like Darwin himself, they take evolution to be axiomatic and obvious. So let’s snot worry too much about the messy business of proving it.

Although DNA was thought to contain the fabled pot of gold at the end of the evolutionary rainbow, and so prove Darwin right, there was no gold there. Just a lot of inanimate atoms and molecules waiting to be told where to go and what to do. So the simple question remains, how can any cell in a growing embryo possibly ‘know’ how to work in concert with millions of other cells to form tissues and organs and assemble them all into a functioning organism with arms and legs, heart, digestive system, all permeated by nerves and blood vessels? That is a simple question that cannot be answered, and you don’t need a Ph.D. in microbiology to pose it. The Morphic Field

The more research we do, the more incredible design we discover – and the more childishly inadequate Darwinism becomes. Whereas Darwin could get away with talking, for example, about small differences in a litter of pups making some more fit to survive the struggle for life and so get favored by the magic forces of ‘natural selection’, and so

evolve, science now has to deal with a complexity-within-complexity he never dreamed of. They should have kept it simple.

To solve these embarrassing problems, evolutionist Rupert Sheldrake has now revived the old idea that the growth of an embryo is controlled by an invisible and non-physical ‘morphic field’ which he compares to the field around a magnet that pulls iron filings into patterns. But what is a ‘non-physical morphic field’, where did it come from, and what does or can science know about such matters? Sheldrake’s weak answer is that the field ‘evolved’. Let us leave alone the question of mind, emotion, intelligence, and instinct.

But did you read that report recently claiming that when a flock of birds is flying in a formation, they take turns being the leader? Astonishing! And then the little limpet with tiny teeth composed of the toughest natural material known to man which it uses to scrape algae off rocks for food, taking over the title from spider web which in turn is stronger than steel. Wow!

Yes, science is gradually realizing that God’s creation is incredibly more complex and sophisticated than they previously imagined. That animal have emotions, for example, and are not mere machines as was once taught, in the days when Renee Descartes, for example, who would nail a dog to a board by its feet, then fly away the skin to expose the blood circulation system so he could study it. What a nice chap! Apparently poor old Darwin trembled with fear when he contemplated the complexity of just the human eye. If he knew what science has discovered today, I think he would have a heart attack.

So, how could we ever have been so stupid as to believe him? Excuse me as I bang my head on this door! The only mitigating factor in Darwin’s theory is that the earth is clearly very ancient, with a mysterious prehistoric age preceding this one.

The Self-developing Genome

In his search for a new evolutionary mechanism, the aforesaid Hough speculates that all organisms must contain a ‘self-developing genome’, a creative mechanism that he says will amaze us with its complexity, as it gives organisms the ability to sense their environment and mutate and adapt in a constructive rather than a random fashion. Despite an email from me, Hough fails to realize that what he is speculating about is precisely what Genesis means when it speaks of organisms having the power to reproduce ‘after their kind’, a limited variation. The kind of limited variation that Hough and Genesis are talking about is now recognized, reluctantly, as ‘micro-evolution’, which I have personified here for fun as Little Mic.

Incidentally, Hough, like many others, seriously believes that ‘life’ (which they cannot even define in a meaningful fashion) did not arise on earth, because it is too complex, and so must have arrived from a parallel universe, on a wayward comet! Would you buy a used fossil from these people? My theory is that it came on Number 47 bus from Putney.

Little Mic has been familiar to plant and animals breeders for thousands of year and is clearly a well-established fact of life. Dogs are the perfect example of Mic’s work, coming in all shapes and sizes, yet still clearly being ‘dogs’. Roses, likewise, show variation but remain roses. As does any animal or plant you care to mention.

The reality is that God engineered into every Genesis ‘kind’ of creation week the potential for limited variation so that they could adapt to the range of habitats and seasons the earth has to offer and so populate it, and also be bred to meet mankind’s needs. Mic and

Mac was first distinguished by Russian entomologist Yuri Filipchenko, in 1927, in a book entitled Variability and Variation.

Big Mac never really existed, which is why the fossils of those imagined zillions of intermediate forms could never be found. He was just a myth, a bizarre delusion in the mind of Charles Darwin that then spread like a contagious disease to unwary individuals reading his books. Mac was a massive con, a scam that sought to delude Jews and Christians alike into believing that the book of Genesis was nothing more than a hodgepodge of primitive error and superstition.

The Prehistoric World

Some decades before Darwin came on the scene, Oxford University’s very first professor of geology, Rev William Buckland, found himself confronted by the need to reconcile the findings of the new science of geology with the Genesis account of creation. Could the earth really be just six thousand years old, as Archbishop’s scriptural calculations had suggested – and how to account for the fossils of bizarre and often gigantic ‘Satan’s creatures’, a vast range of cannibalistic monsters, unearthed by the massive rail and canal building projects of Britain’s industrial revolution?

The Gap Theory

Assisted by Thomas Chalmers, Buckland was forced to go back and take a much closer look at the Genesis account, soon realizing, as had other little-known individuals before him, that although the Bible sets the history of man at about six thousand years, it does not ‘specify the antiquity of the globe’. It became glaringly obvious, when reading with an open mind, that according to Genesis, the heavens and the earth clearly existed in verse 1, before the six days of creation week had even begun – but is was in a devastated flooded condition described as ‘without form and void, with darkness on the face of the deep’. The clear implication was one of mass destruction, as is now plainly evidenced by the state of the moon and every planet NASA explores, as well as by the chaos of the rock strata in the earth’s crust.

As a result, it was suggested that there is a ‘gap’ at the start of Genesis, between the creation of the earth ‘in the beginning’ and the formation of a new heaven and earth as mentioned by Moses (Exodus 20) and describe in the following verses of the Genesis creation account. Incidentally, I know from correspondence with a top creationist site that the fact of the earth existing before creation week began does bother them. However, for various spurious scripture reasons they stubbornly continue to reject the ‘gap theory’ and stick to the young earth interpretation.

Come in, George!

Further support for the existence of a prehistoric world is provided by the observations of George Gaylord Simpson, said to be the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century. Based on his extensive studies of the earth’s fossil record, he commented that: ‘The most puzzling event in the history of life on the earth is the change from the Mesozoic Age of Reptiles, to the… Age of Mammals (i.e. the Cenozoic). It is as if the curtain were rung down suddenly on a stage where all the leading roles were taken by reptiles, especially dinosaurs, in great numbers and bewildering variety, and rose again immediately to reveal the same setting but an entirely new cast, a cast in which the dinosaurs do not appear at all, other reptiles are supernumeraries and the leading parts are all played by mammals of sorts barely hinted at in the previous acts’ (Life Before Man, 1972). Our simple scenario, below, provides an easy answer to that puzzle.

A Simple Scenario

From the gap theory point of view, all those bizarre creatures whose fossils populate the paleozoic and Mesozoic’s rock strata were simply a separate, earlier creation. As a result, they were not the evolutionary ancestors of the earth’s present flora and fauna. Ipso facto, Darwin’s theory of evolution becomes completely redundant. Although it is claimed that the fossil record shows evidence or more than a dozen ‘mass destructions’ of life, the prime suspect for reducing the earth, worldwide, to the devastated condition described in the first verse of Genesis must be the recently discovered K-T event, which, we are told, involved massive meteorite bombardment, worldwide earthquakes, volcanic eruption and tsunamis, The parallel is uncanny. See Google for more information. The moon and planets appear to have suffered the same devastation.

Here then is the very simple scenario that shows Genesis to be scientifically accurate, whilst eliminating evolution. As a result, Little Mic is alive and well and doing a great job, but Big Mac has gone the way of all myths or should have…

Keeping Evolution Alive

Sadly, because most creationists reject the gap theory, on the basis of specious scriptural arguments, and assert that the earth is just six thousand years old, they are seen by evolutionists, as well many school districts and courts, as plainly wrong, superstitious and scientifically ignorant, and repeating error of the bishops of Galileo’s day. Thus evolutionists are encouraged in their own errors, saying in effect: ‘We know for sure that those creationists are wrong – so we must be right

[animentality]

seen some posts joking about gortash’s “anti-anxiety coat” due to the immune to frightened enchantment, and its probably not that deep or meta but i actually do find it a compelling look at how he really does walk around almost supernaturally fearless. like even when you threaten him he brushes it off like its funny or just nonsense, if worth reacting to at all! even when you meet him at the morphic pools to face down the netherbrain, his words convey a lack of confidence in winning but his tone and body language do not. and i think part of it is that he is insane (affectionate) but also, possibly, the power of the anti-anxiety coat lol.

he also does things like robbing the crown of karsus from the personal vault of the archdevil mephistopheles, and befriending a bhaalspawn on purpose. things that normal people or even average villains probably wouldnt dream of attempting, and he pulled them off near-flawlessly. but if he’s so effortlessly unflappable, why the coat enchantment right? the game could have made “immune to frightened” an inherent feature, but they made it something he only gains from his equipment. it’s just interesting to think about!

and since i am thinking about it… if we imagine that he is genuinely prone to anxiety or panic attacks, and has difficulty controlling it enough to be worried about appearances in public and have a whole enchanted coat about it, what do you think he’s actually scared of? does he have more of a generalised anxiety thanks to growing up in hell and etc, or do you think there are specific things that really get to him? is it other people? politics, secretly? the idea of powerlessness?

ironically i think the dark urge would probably be the only thing that genuinely does not scare him in the least, and couldnt if they tried.

I think that he was a scared little boy when his parents sold him to pay off their debts.

I don't believe his parents, when they said that he was a spiteful and hateful wretch from birth. Nubaldin says that they sold him to pay off a petty debt.

Now either of them could be lying, but I fail to see why Nubaldin would lie to you. He has no reason to, he just thinks you're one of the spirits of the damned.

Gortash's mom, on the other hand, would lie because she hates Gortash for tadpoling her, and it would be her justification for what she did to him. Plus, she's hoping you can save her, so she has to make herself look sympathetic.

So I think Gortash was hurt and abandoned, and enslaved by an awful devil, who allowed his servants to beat him black and blue. Everyone in the House of Hope is a miserable wretch. The Archivist mentions that his spine was like...I think punctured or broken for making a mistake?

And we know Nubaldin used to "bruise his knuckles" on Enver's "whimpering face."

So he must've been terrified, all of the time he spent imprisoned in the House of Hope. Of being punished, of being trapped there forever...

So when he manages to escape one day, slipping out due to a silly mistake on Nubaldin's part...

What's the first thing he would do?

Try to attain power. But not just because he's scared and wants to feel powerful! I actually have another theory.

See...some people data mined the game and discovered that Gortash might've been intended to be in the House of Hope at some point... because Raphael still has his contract.

So he's still not free of Raphael, even though he escaped him.

He has a note on his body, indicating that he might've been speaking with Helsik about going back, so he could get his contract, presumably.

Now imagine this poor lost young man...whose parents sold him. Who spent his childhood being tortured by souls of the damned and the devil and his servants.

He would never ever want to go back there. Not in life, not in death.

So what does he need to do?

Become powerful.

Strong enough to raid the hells, and either kill Raphael, or at least steal back his contract. so what does he turn to first?

Weapons. The black market. People who know about slipping in and out of the hells, and how to kill monsters, demons, and all other manner of creature.

Then, he needs to curry favor with a powerful god. One who can help him. One who can use him, for his fear and desperation. Who is a good god to turn to for that?

Bane. God of tyranny. Someone who could have use for him, if only he was clever and ruthless enough. And young Enver Gortash has a lot to prove.

And he would be drawn to the power of Bane, the ability to force others to submit to your will.

And the Dead Three?

That's even more power for him to obtain.

Siding with Ketheric, finding the Dark Urge...

I mean.

Listen.

Just on a character level, a powerless abuse victim seeking power does make sense...but I also think.

Wouldn't it be interesting, if he was doing all of this, so that he could both obtain power for himself...and also obtain the power he would need to kill Raphael?

Just food for thought.

Anyway.

Off topic.

Back to the subject of his cloak...well.

He would never want to be afraid again.

Fake it till you make it. Maybe he made or bought the cloak with the no fear enchantment so that he could fake confidence and power, until he actually had it?

Either way, it makes sense with his backstory. It's also so goddamn sad.

Also, he should be afraid of the dark urge, but isn't. Maybe that's why they were drawn to one another.