[Image description: Digital KHDR fanart depicting the upperclassmen as chess pieces. At the very bottom of the image are four chess pieces representing Hoder, Heimdall, Sigrun, and Helgi. They are upside down and silhouetted in black against a white background. Above them are two rows of black and white squares forming a chess board pattern. Above that are three pedestals holding up Vali, Vidar, and Vala's chess pieces, with Vidar's piece resting on the tallest pedestal in the middle. Both the chess pieces and the pedestals are silhouetted in white against a black background. Above them is a white heart with Baldr's hand silhouetted in black inside of it. He holds the iconic Kingdom Hearts crown in-between his index finger and thumb, posed to place it on Vidar's chess piece. End image description.]
"I paved a path for him to succeed, if he had only followed it to the end."
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Path of the Blood Edition: Limited to 70 copies this being an unnumbered publisher’s copy, this hardcover leather bound edition has been completely handcrafted from the moment the pages left the mechanic press. All the spines are hand-sewed and the leather has been given a caiman skin pattern. The pages have been gilded in gold, and the cover has been stamped with a golden Blood Sigil. All the illustrations preserve the dark red color from the ox’s blood used to accentuate the details. The paper comes in a wonderful creamy tint that offers a nice contrast to the red and black inks used throughout the book.
Specifications: 153 pages, 135 g. cream color paper. Octavo size (135×190 mm), hardcover bound in leather. Cover stamped with a golden Blood Sigil. Hand-sewed spine, pages gilded in gold, black end-papers. 3 full-page color illustrations and several other sigils and illustrations. Limited to 70 hand-numbered copies.
Wolf’s Hooked Cross is the second volume in a series of works that delve deep into the mysteries of the Gnosis of the Devil, presenting a deeper look into the mythos, philosophy and practice of this unique Current, previously introduced in the book Diabolic Gnosticism.
Where Diabolic Gnosticism presented us with the philosophical basis of how to understand the mysteries of the Blood and the Devil, Wolf’s Hooked Cross shows us the practical methods to work with said mysteries. The praxis of Diabolic Gnosticism involves recognising the sinister essence of writhing Chaos within and setting it free. It is a dynamic and organic way of understanding and using magic, psychology and spirituality. This book describes the cycles of rituals, initiations and the symbolism of the Devil’s Current.
Diabolic Gnosticism, or the knowledge of the Devil, is an alternative to Christian Gnosticism and offers a post-, anti- and non-Christian perspective or framework for coming to know the divinity of the Blood – the Blood-as-God or the Devil-as-God. Diabolic Gnosticism could be considered to be the combination of exoteric Devil worship and esoteric Blood worship, Diabolic Gnosticism being a wide reaching sinister spiritual movement. Devil, Chaos and Death worship currents are the exoteric form of actual Blood worship and Blood Mysticism, Blood Mysticism being the esoteric spiritual path. The Devil in Diabolic Gnosticism is not temptation and weakness. It does not represent the failings and failures of an adherent, but rather it is the inner Will and the anti-human urge. The Devil in many ways is the instigation of withdrawal from humankind and humanity generally. By withdrawing from one’s humanity an individual can then come to know of his depth of character. One becomes a stranger or an outsider to many-too-many.
Wolf’s Hooked Cross re-introduces us to an updated version of Diabolic Gnosticism, explaining old and new concepts about its philosophy and mythos in a new light, but rapidly focuses on the true goal of this book: the praxis. Whether alone or as part of a larger group, the Diabolic Gnostic will find everything they need to tread the Path of the Devil, from sigils and runes to chants and summonings.
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I’ve been obsessed, obsessed, obsessed with Raisha for a while now. I know you’ve said little things about her in the past and i want to know what’s up with her/Gerathon if you’d be willing to talk about it.
I really like Raisha as a character, too! We know so little about her, but in my opinion, she's one of the most fascinating characters in the series. Unfortunately, she meets a sad end in A Revised History of Erdas.
All we know about Raisha post-infection is that she was present at the final battle in The Burning Tide, still under Zerif's control and in pretty bad shape. She vanishes off the grid after that, never mentioned again, not even in the concluding montage of Great Beast summoners reuniting with their fallen spirit animals. My retelling offers some closure, but not the good kind.
In my version of events, Raisha is flanking Zerif when he emerges from the ship with his Great Beasts. Zerif, in an act of cruel irony, saw fit to keep Raisha by his side even in her mindless, infected state. Shane, up in the archers' keep with Abeke, hardly recognizes the girl who helped steal Halawir months earlier. Later, she reappears to restrain Abeke when Zerif brings the defeated Redcloak forces to the Wyrm. When the Wyrm is killed and the parasites lose their power, though, Raisha collapses to the ground and doesn't get back up. The Wyrm had pushed her finite body to an extent that it couldn't recover from. Many people and animals in Zerif's army are the same; their possession eventually killed them. The Wyrm was a child playing with toys, the mechanics of which it couldn't possibly understand. Thankfully for it, its parasites could go on controlling a body in the event of an untimely death. Indeed, Stead raises the possibility that Raisha had been dead for some time, and the parasite was only animating a corpse.
Like I've said before, I didn't do this out of dislike for Raisha or anything like that. She was ultimately another victim of Zerif -- a young, lonely, impressionable girl he took advantage of -- and didn't deserve anything that happened to her. I'll always support AUs where she is alive and well. In my eyes, though, her story was always meant to end in tragedy. By the time she realized her mistake and reached for the light, it was too late.
Gerathon, after reemerging in Southern Zhong and feeling the loss of her human partner, disappeared into the brush and is currently at large. She is only an adolescent cobra at the moment, hardly a threat... but the Great Beasts are growing, and Gerathon's time will inevitably come again. (I like the idea of her becoming a maneater as she slowly regains her former size and power, terrorizing the locals and gaining a place in their legends.) Who knows how she feels about losing Raisha. I expect, under the excruciating pain that may one day drive her to madness, there is a sweet sense of relief.
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unpopular opinion time but i'm thinking about how people are often like 'well the lans were at the pledge conference/siege too!!!' like yeah they were there because wen ning had killed multiple members of their clan in an unprovoked attack after they'd travelled to jinlin tai to defend him & wen qing ????
obviously the reader knows that wwx was not responsible for this (he was restrained all the way back in the burial mound). but the lans (and everyone else) has no idea. and at this point, to be honest, how can they reasonably be expected to question whether there's some misunderstanding or justification behind it?
i mean, wwx had wen ning kill four of the labour camp guards, in what the guards claim was an unprovoked and unjustified attack. when asked for an explanation, wwx's own sect leader does not dispute this, instead he publicly fights with wwx then declares to everyone that he is their enemy.
then jzx, and who-knows how many other jins are killed at qiongqi path. it's safe to assume that the jins did not make it public knowledge that they'd ambushed their own guest on his way to see them, and instead spun some other tale about it.
we don't know exactly what the lans thought of it, but we do know that they spoke up for the wen siblings. they obviously weren't willing to blindly follow the jins or condemn wwx & the wen remnants at this point. they only ever agreed to take any action against the burial mound settlement after wen ning had already killed several lans.
like idk i think it's fairly reasonable after two incidents or supposed unprovoked massacres and a third confirmed one to conclude that the guy behind it might actually have done all that. especially when the guy in particular has a reputation for mass, brutal killings and has made threats against them in the past 🤷🏻♀️
and i think it's a disservice to mdzs to read it through some 'society=bad' lens. like sure, we do see mob mentality and widespread hypocrisy and misplaced resentment against convenient targets. but the events of mdzs didn't just happen by accident ?? it was orchestrated by the most powerful in society to suit their own agendas.
fear and hatred of wwx was so widespread because jgs lied about him, because he had him ambushed and gave him no choice but to fight back. and because jc refused to support wwx's statements that they owed a debt to wn's branch of the wen sect & they hadn't participated in the war. and because jc withheld the truth about what happened to wen ning and why wwx released them and instead told everyone that wwx has made himself their enemy!!
i guess these arguments come about because people are defending wwx's actions at nightless city, but you don't need to paint the jianghu side as motivated purely by evil intentions in order for wwx to have done nothing wrong?? it doesn't matter if they had real justification to be there or not??
they all voluntarily agreed to attack him, he fought back, how could they expect anything else ?? they're not victims of the battle that they volunteered for & instigated. and if their army of 3000 or 5000 or whatever still isn't strong enough to defeat him then that's their problem, not wwx's lol.
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