#textile hive

[quiltingwitch]

Improvised foundation paper pieced mini blocks, for using up small scraps

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 1/30/2024

a good 60% of my brain is screaming in unemployment terror at all times so these will be somewhat abbreviated until that situation resolves itself

listening

sleeping on the ceiling by friday pilots club. this is a song by a five-piece alt-rock band from chicago that could EASILY open for mid-aughts fall out boy. i would like to think it is from the point of view of a freshly-turned vampire. listen this slot isn't about the best song i heard this week it's about the one that got stuck in my head the most

Hey, I swear I'm okay Honey, I been sleepin' on the ceiling all day Yes way, like hey I swear I feel great Looky, looky, love the feeling of being okay Yes way

spotify.

reading

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick. it was in a dollar book bin and i got it as a joke gift for a friend. mike resnick is a remarkably prolific writer who's done a lot of tie-ins. i don't have anything particularly notable to say about his star wars books but they are a sort of minimum viable product? they feel star warsy and don't annoy me on every page.

this book was published in 2003 and treats the people of the Nile delta and their beliefs with all the delicacy you might expect from a 2003 video game tie in novel. i do think the twist is being telegraphed way too hard. perhaps i should say instead of sending a telegram mr resnick has simply set the telegraph office ablaze as a signal fire. the titular triangle-pointed woman herself ms croft is VERY insistent she's just as good as the boys. this is pretty on par for my experience of 2003 empowering womens' feminism AND my experience in a male-dominated field so i can't really ding it too hard? aside from the racism, in the notably racism-free fields of archaeology and video games and archaeology video games, this book is aging a little strangely overall. i do not know if i will finish it before i mail it out to my friend, but despite its sins it is a very fast read.

watching

watched the four dungeon meshi episodes. it's cute! ProzD was an unexpected delight! it made me want to make something fancy for dinner but alas i still have to go food shopping!

some posts on my dash were talking about how the episode with the mollusks inside the living armor really got them hooked and i have to agree. i also saw the full potential of the show's speculative biology unspooling before me. i don't know if i currently have the brainwidth for the manga but it is going on my reading list for after i finish berserk. which is kind of like saying i'm going to watch chopped after i finish up hannibal

playing

forgot i had an original gen switch, given to me through a complex series in a complex series of friend barters back in uhhhh late '21? early '22? i got through 3/4 of the divine beasts the first time around and then could not crack the camel. it was well past time to create a new switch profile so i could start a new game without losing the old one.

omg twinnsssssssss

i did forget how goddamn big the map is. i have just now unlocked the camera and the memory quests, i have not really. done much more than basic tutorial and beginning of game stuff.

making

anxiously junebugging between a whole bunch of shit. finally figured out the correct charger/extension cord setup for my bedroom. replaced all the fluorescent lightbulbs and took them to be recycled. fixed the hall door enough so it latches closed and an irritated cat can't claw it open. tidied up the balcony and patio and repotted the surviving houseplants.

in textile news, started this cross stitch. this is a Bless This Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy Star Wars themed sampler, i have made two as gifts and had to throw out a mostly-completed one i made for me bc of the moths. but i now know exactly where this will go in this apartment and i already have the frame and i bought all the floss pre-being fired, so might as well? the real bitch of the situation here is backstitching the buildings. it's so start and stop. it's so much tan. i talked about this on the weekly siblingchat facetime and now my brother has requested one lmao. that's his christmas gift settled. i suppose.

i had somehow forgotten how loadbearing textile crimes are for me. i haven't done much of anything since the moth debacle, and that was almost two years ago. last night i found some suspicious holes in a camisole and i'm really really hoping it's just cat claws and not moths or carpet beetles or any other fun things that eat clothes.

[cyanogen-miasma]

Hollow Knight X Warrior Cats Crossover???

as a former warrior cats kid, the urge always remains to see if you can turn a piece of media into Warrior Cats, so

let's say, Hallownest is now horizontal instead of vertical. It is bordered on all sides by mountains, except for Kingdom's edge, which is bordered by a massive Thunderpath. I'll make a map of what all the lands in Hollow Knight would look like in this case. Hallownest (the land, not the political entity) would be called Hallowed Vale.

The Higher Beings are split into a variety of different circumstances.

The Radiance was a Clan Leader who created a cult of personality around her. She was killed and spends most of the story as a StarClan ghost.

The Pale King and the White Lady are both immortal beings a la Rock

Unn, or Slugstar as I would like to call her, is a Clan Leader

The Nightmare's Heart is a Dark Forest ghost

idk what to do with the Shade Lord

I'm not dead certain on names, really, but I think the Pale King would call himself Whitestar for the cats.

The Pale King's kingdom is PaleClan.

The moths were RadiantClan, but were absorbed into PaleClan. Now none of the Radiant lineage remains apart from the Seer.

Mantis Village is WasteClan. They are probably the only 'Clan' here that fully operates how a warrior cats Clan should right now. They had an alliance with PaleClan to defend against...

Deepest is now DeepClan. The cats of DeepClan are alive, but infected. The Weavers were a travelling group of cats who cultivated spiders and could make textiles with spider silk. They were welcomed by DeepClan, and stayed with them for many years, but left when the infection started to spread to DeepClan.

The Mushroom Clan are... I guess MushroomClan lol. I thought of FungalClan, but MushroomClan does the job just fine. They were absorbed into PaleClan, but retain a degree of separation. They have their own camp, but ultimately answered to WhiteStar. They are alive but infected.

The Mosskin are GreenClan. They have independence, but were forced by WhiteStar to allow PaleClan warriors to pass through their territory freely along the main path (Pilgrims' Way). Later, PaleClan seized half of their territory (the Queen's Gardens) in lieu of Slugstar's (Unn's) weakness. They are alive, but infected.

The Hive is HiveClan. They refused PaleClan's rule and isolated themselves from the rest of the Clans. They are alive but infected.

The Colosseum of Fools was EdgeClan. They used to be a fully functional clan, but their leader (Lord Fool) died with no deputy and everything descended into chaos. Now it is a deadly arena where all kinds of creatures are brought in to face off against Warriors. Most long-term residents are uninfected, but some visitors are infected. The arena is an empty, dilapidated warehouse by the side of the Thunderpath.

Dirtmouth is DirtClan, who lived in the wasteland north of Hallowed Vale. Warriors of DirtClan kept being enticed into PaleClan, leaving the only one left the elderly leader (Elderbug). He has stayed in place to help passing travellers who want to enter the Vale.

Unsure if I want to make the Flukes into a post-PaleClan warrior Clan, or just a pack of rats...rabbit warren perhaps? That would be fitting considering Flukemarm...

The Dream Realm is StarClan, and the Nightmare Realm is the Dark Forest, naturally.

I think the Void is just the Void, and the actual story of the Hollow Knight is not changed much.... I'm not sure how the Vessels would come to be considering cats can't lay eggs. Perhaps the White Lady eats a herb tainted with water from the Abyss Lake, which Whitestar believes would poison the kits and cause them to be 'empty'....perhaps 'void' is a toxic substance found in the Abyss Lake, which was caused by pollution. Perhaps all the Twolegs left because they couldn't figure out a way to deal with it. Perhaps the toxin twisted the cats' spirits and connected them to the emptiness that greets them after their Second Death.

Perhaps Whitestar, unable to kill the Radiance a second time, tries to trap her inside the 'second death void' of one of his 'empty' children - The Hollow Warrior??? The Dreamers, of course, serving the same purpose they did in Hollow Knight.

EDIT: I forgot the Radiance kind of had a thing with the Void which would require her not to be just a normal leader. She can be a deity of StarClan if she likes. So the Pale King can't kill her but can banish her. Perhaps the Ancient Civilization (VoidClan, if you must) made their home around the Abyss Lake, and because of their proximity to the void toxin they ceased to exist after death. This made the Radiance mad because that meant less spirits in StarClan for her to lord over. Then, perhaps this caused her to seek out worship in mortals, which led to the founding of RadiantClan.

[demvalhaken]

Welcome to, I’m having an unnecessarily hard issue trying to get the Western Hornets into a smaller size~ (Fancy squiggle)

I think I fixed it?

WOOHOO, JPEGS ROCK!

FUN FACT: THE WESTERN HORNETS AREN’T EVEN THAT BIG?!

Muahaha, the canvases are all different sizes because I just scaled it up as I progress farther in the drawing >:]

I WORKED MY ASS OFF TO DRAW ALL THESE AND IM SO PROUD OF MYSELF FOR NOT ABANDONING IT!!!

Yes, the Eastern Hornets stick out because they were done first

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

THIS IS WHERE THEY LIVE (YES ITS A MESSY MAP BECAUSE I’VE NEVER DRAWN ONE DIGITALLY)

Berry Hive was bombed

Luna Hive is so awesome though!

If you grab a magnifying glass, you will see the borders! North, East, South, and West!

Okay soooo, the Northern Hornets live in the coldest region

The Eastern Hornets live in like, forests, plains, and cool little mountains

The Southern Hornets live in a tropical area. Imagine a humid, jungle with a ton of water

The Western Hornets are parched… they’re dehydrated grapes… deserts are not that wet

Late Warning: This probably gonna be reallllllllllyyyyy long

Is that what I think I hear?! Their economy? Oh yeah, I’ve got it all figured out and totally not making it up on the spot with scarce prior knowledge

Northern Hornets Economy Trade

What is an economy again? A thing about goods and services? Ha! Yeah, we’re just gonna talk about trade because I don’t got that kind of patience!

Traded items!

The Northern Hornets often trade iron, jewels, glacier honey (An ice-coloured honey that comes from the ice flower that grows on the mountains) They also trade a ton of ores as well

Northerners aren’t that popular in the Klaudin trade

Eastern Hornets Trade

Traded items: Silk, cotton, most other fabrics, exotic fruit and spices, and astronomical stuff

The Easterners are a huge part of the Klaudin trade

Western Hornets do not trade that much with the Eastern Hornets

NETR (North-East Trade and Relations) is a major thing in both the North and East for their trade

The Easterners are also often known for trading literature

Southern Hornets Trade

Traded items: Most exotic fauna used in dishes, lumber/wood, medicinal plants, and most animal products

The Southerners are a lesser known part of the continental trade.

They mostly are known for food products

They have an alliance with the West but not a fancy acronym name

Western Hornets Trade

Traded items: Desert fauna, pottery and clay, textiles and woven goods, and straight up salt.

The Northerners get most of their salt from the Westerners, despite having a bad history with each other

They are mostly just known for their pottery, woven/textile stuff, and art is general

The West Hornets are in an alliance with the South Hornets

I guess we go on to appearance differences?

Now if you look at the Hornets, all of them are unique! They have different mouths, antennae, wings, and eyes

Largest Wingspan to Smallest: Southern Hornet, Western Hornets, Eastern Hornets, Northern Hornets

Best Eyesight: Western Hornets

Longest Antennae: Northern Hornets

Best Average Strength: Northern Hornets

Worst Crime: Western Hornets

Best Reputation: Southern Hornets

Worst Reputation: Western Hornets :(

Each species has different mane styles

Northern Hornets: Often left alone or braided Eastern Hornets: Well-kept and sleek, often just left alone but came be styled in every way

Southern Hornets: Left long and untouched, some braid their manes, some stick colourful things in it like feathers

Western Hornets: Tied back or cut short

Palaces!

Northern Palace

The Tyvin Palace (Could be changed later on) is a massive structure built in between two towering mountains. The palace is insulated and heated. It’s made of timber, iron, stone, and probably other materials.

Halls are lined with carvings and tapestries featuring wildlife or cool events!

Eastern Hive(s)

Berry Hive: Bombed by ? It is still unknown. The hive took half of Queen Berry’s ruling to build, unfortunately, she died with her creation from burns

Luna Hive is a hive constructed by her daughter, Queen Luna (Formerly Princess Luna) The hive is situated in the trees, being elevated. It can be warmed or frozen during winters or summers. It’s made of mostly timber.

Southern Palace (Skra Palace): Just a bunch of buildings built on trees. It’s made of timber, mud bricks, rope, and leaves. It has no insulating, but Southern Hornets don’t get that too extreme cold weather. If necessary, fires will be lit for warmth

Oasis Hive (Palace by some locals): A palace made of sun-dried bricks (Adobe), quartz, and sandstone. It has thick walls and a giant shaded courtyard. The windows are often covered with tapestries during the day if it’s too hot. It’s decorated with wind chimes, tapestry and other woven things, and a ton of greenery!

Everything hurts…. My back, my wrists, my fingers, my legs. I HAVE BEEN SITTING FOR LIKE THREE OR FOUR HOURS WRITING THIS!

I can’t write anymore, maybe I’ll add more in a future post!

Okay, soooooo! Final thoughts!

BYEEEEEEE, I WORKED SO HARD ON THIS

Their older selves! Plus this silly thing!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING ALL THAT IF YOU DID!!!

MY BACK HURTS

[winnower-winnower]

It’s Oryx o’clock again guys, I’m thinking about the bug man. What a guy. Arthropod of the year, that one.

On today’s roster:

Hive garments.

The guidelines, rules and cultural significance of their potential existence is fascinating. We know that some hive models in game possess textiles, such as Dûl Incaru, Nokris, and even the War Priest/ Alak Hul! (I love all of them for this <3).

That being said, I remember very distinctly that there was a line in the books of sorrows where Xivu Arath said:

“Oryx wore a raiment of worm silk, made from the caul of gods”.

And in general, Oryx is usually referred to with plenty of grand gestures regarding his presence, and verses about how regal his air would be. So from there, one could suggest with some confidence that Oryx took great care with his attire and appearance.

Now I’d like to propose a theory.. could this mean Oryx was potentially the resident fashion-head of the family?? Would he request specific garments to be spun for him to don?? Could this imply the existence of personal/royal seamstresses and tailors among the hive??

Did he perhaps have more ceremonial garb he could don?

What bits of concept art we have for him are vibrant in certain places, lots of purples and reds, royal magentas. Insect-y, dangerous, ‘don’t fuck with me’ colors.

There’s even an abundance of textiles present in Savathun’s concept art, which I’m eternally saddened that none of it made it to her final shape. Regardless, there’s clearly intent for textiles to have a presence in hive cultural aesthetic sometimes, even if it’s in a subtler form.

I think there’s so much potential here for expansion on hive regalia and adornments, In this essay I will-

[clairaworlds]

I literly cannot stop thinking about how important the relationship between the hive and deepnest would be.

Like, the use of wax in the creation of textiles is very common. I use beeswax all the time in my embroidery, I know some who use it in tailoring, I've heard of some spinners who use it to maintain their spinning wheels and strengthen their thread. I'm not super failure with the silk making process but fabric conditioning can also be done with wax from what I've heard.

Not to mention the act of trading wax and silk would be HIGLY symbolic. Silk and espechally thread, created by the weavers, strengthened by the hive through a material harvested from the very foundation of the hive....

Yeah... this is gonna be in my head for a while.

[lunaris-the-hummingbird]

Meadow the SilkWing!

She's based off the meadow brown butterfly (maniola jurtina)

From Pre-Hive Pantala

Works as a weaver for a textile shop in Weevil Village, near Beetle Lake

Has MoonGlow Silk (special silk that glows blue and heals wounds)

She has a garden OVERFLOWING with flowers (white ones are her favorite)

If you ask nicely, Meadow will let you pick some of them

She's in a polyfidelitous relationship with Combee the HiveWing and Azalea the LeafWing

Polyfidelity is a form of non-monogamy, a romantic relationship structure in which all members are considered equal partners and agree to restrict sexual and/or romantic activity only to other members of the group.

[sunriseverse]

soooo about the dmbj sunrise au I read your iron triangle fic about it and the concept has me by the throat I would like to know more about the sunrise verse 👀 anything you feel like sharing

okay, let's see if i can do this in a manner that in any way makes sense, is organised, and is reasonably useful.

for starters, i'll toss over this introductory post, if you want a tl;dr that i made a bit ago (it is very abbreviated, and doesn't cover a majority of the verse beyond the barebones): sunrise at a glance.

i've been attempting to figure out a way to explain sunrise, and i think the best way to do it would probably be chronologically, starting from the effective beginning of history, as it pertains to rosemary and thyme. then i'll go a bit deeper into some world specifics, such as the martial sects, upgrading, and the politics of the zhang sect as it stands prior to the end of the sha hai parallel era. finally, i'll talk about some inspirations, both aesthetically and thematically.

PART ONE: the history

while technically the sunrise canon runs more or less parallel to real-world history up until slightly after the establishment of the mongol empire (565 before zhang reunification, abbreviated henceforth to BZ; real world equivalent somewhat varying depending on when you consider the mongol empire as having conquered china), once it diverges, it diverges rapidly. the yuan dynasty is founded in 448 BZ, and by 458 BZ, the first prototype silk-weaving machine is created, and rapidly thereafter (420 BZ) the first textiles factory is founded in chang'an (modern-day xi'an).

in 425 BZ, a pair of twins named zhang yihai and zhang yishan are born. due to their family's impoverishment, they're left at a daoist nunnery not long afterwards. they were trained in cultivation techniques from a young age, but were not considered remarkable enough to become disciples of any particular local master, and instead became wandering disciples, training sporadically under various independent masters in return for services rendered.

however, while they didn't become remarkable in this period of time, they were educated to a respectable level, both in cultivation techniques and scholarly arts. then, in 400 BZ, while travelling, they discovered a vase that was able to increase the abilities of anyone who held it. realising the potential of this artefact, they rendered it into an ink to create tattoos with, binding its abilities to their own bodies, and shortly after, created the zhang sect, the tattoos becoming the marker of the sect. unbeknownst to either twin, the vase was an artefact that had slipped into their world from a different world, and if they hadn't rendered it into an ink and bound it to themselves, carrying it would have aroused the attention of its original owners, the entity known as the hive. this binding also gave the zhang an innate ability to better resist hive-madness, ie brain damage caused by exposure to a humanly incomprehensible world and

for about five years, the zhang sect slowly rose in prominence, with zhang yihai and zhang yishan acting as co-leaders of the sect, known by a variety of titles (the most character-relevant being zyh's title of 锷女士 [e nvshi, lady of the blade/master above], and zys' title of 馥郁君 [fuyu-jun, lord of fragrant flowers]) . however, as time passed, the two siblings began to differ on what they wanted the role of their sect to be in the world—zhang yihai wanted the sect to be more martially-focused, aiding the people in a more immediate way, while zhang yishan felt the sect should be more scholarly, aiding the people by collecting and preserving knowledge, with the sect splitting roughly in half with which disciples sided with which sibling. In 400 BZ, tensions between the two siblings reached a boiling point, and the two came to blows—a fight which led to zhang yihai killing zhang yishan (partially due to the fact, which she didn't know at the time, that she was qilin-blooded and thus functionally immortal).

after realising what she'd done, zhang yihai took on the title of zhang qiling, as she was the only remaining member of her family, and carried her brother's body and performed his final rites. from that point on, she withdrew into seclusion, excepting for a brief period where she bore a child to continue the family lineage. without firm leadership, the zhang sect stagnated, faltering in its previous rise to prominence, and faded to a mostly unremarkable status, with its members split hereditarily from that point on either into hai or shan subjects, depending on which sibling their ancestors had aligned with.

in 360 BZ, the xie and hong families emerge. in 340 BZ, industrialisation accelerates, and the first steam engines are produced to power factory equipment. in 330 BZ the remaining jiumen families emerge, and align with the zhang sect.

in 300 BZ, wang zanghai compiles research on the zhang, and comes to believe that a hive artefact is responsible for their immortality. he artificially creates a rift in changbaishan in order to steal a hiveside artefact, but is killed in the process, with the artefact becoming lost.

in 200 BZ, the first steam engine train is created to allow for an efficient long-distance means of transporting goods. the first telephone is invented in the same year. in this window of time, the first people to find wang zanghai's notes on the zhang form the wang clan, vowing to bring the hive into the world, as they believe that this will allow immortality to be granted to all who come in contact with it. as the zhang are believed to be the enemy, they begin to infiltrate the jiumen.

in 120 BZ, the first automobile is invented. zhang ruitong, future leader of the zhang sect is born in 100 BZ. in 0 AZ, the ming dynasty is founded, and zhang ruitong succeeds in reuniting the zhang sect, as well as raising its status to that of foremost martial sect. in 85 AZ, xiaoge is born in tibet, and two years later in 87 AZ, hei xiazi is born in the chimkent (şymkent) area, a politically fraught region which will come under the control of the kazakh khanate, founded in 97 AZ.

in 95 AZ, an earthquake disturbs the hiveside artefact that wang zanghai stole, bringing it to the hive's attention, and the changbaishan rift begins to expand. as part of an agreement between the jiumen and the zhang sect, the xie heir is sent to fight the hive behind the rift. when the xie heir fails to return in the winter of 105 AZ, the jiumen renege on their agreement with the zhang, not wanting to lose any further heirs. the wang, embedded within the jiumen, begin to purposely open rifts, beginning the hive incursion. with zhang ruitong's death, xiaoge becoming sect leader, as well as the first zhang to undergo upgrading to become a ranger, and in spring of 105 AZ, the zhang elders form the first board to govern the sect, arguing that xiaoge is too inexperienced and busy with his responsibilities as a ranger to govern properly.

in 109 AZ, the first non-zhang sect, the gongsun sect, hosts a zhang ranger as the ranger programme expands. in 152 AZ, much of the lao jiumen are killed when qiu dekao trades the names of families with histories of grave-robbing to the government, as well as accusing them of wartime profiteering through the black-market sale of artefacts retrieved from hive-tainted areas. those that survive flee to beijing, where the jiumen become the jiumen association.

in 160 AZ, zhang qishan, better known as fo ye, heads the gutongjing research projects, an attempt to try and find a way to give immunity to hive-madness to zhang rangers through the study of a hive-touched species of snake, the heimaoshe. the project fails, but fo ye becomes aware of the wang, and trades zhang sect secrets in return for a reduction of rifts in the vicinity of his family, the somewhat estranged southern zhang. by 165 AZ, the zhang sect's influence is comparable to our world's mid-level nobility. by 170 AZ, the iron triangle have all been born (pangzi in 161 AZ, and wu xie in 169 AZ). the internet is invented in 169 AZ, and in 170 AZ, conscription of all qilin-blooded zhang sect members begins as the number of volunteers had dropped sharply in recent years. the same year, the zhang main board implements the first "kill switches" in upgrading procedures, allowing them to remotely terminate rangers if they are deemed a danger due to rift-madness. in 186 AZ, conscription is expanded again, this time to any zhang sect members of lower status whose positions are deemed non-essential.

in 190 AZ, the iron triangle meet. between 190 AZ and 195 AZ, the events of rosemary and thyme take place, and in 195 AZ, due to the discovery of anchoring as a method to make rangers' jobs no longer a death sentence, the draft is expanded again to include all adult zhang sect members, excluding those who hold high-level positions. in 197 AZ, xiaoge takes wu xie's place behind the rift in changbaishan. over the next ten years, a parallel to dmbj's ten year plan/sha hai takes place. unlike in dmbj canon, the reason wu xie kidnaps li cu is in order to find the lost wang hive artefact, which is drawn to innocence—something that wu xie, by this point, firmly lacks. in 206 AZ, the sha hai plan comes to a head, with the majority of the wang being destroyed. in the spring of 207 AZ, wu xie returns the artefact wang zanghai stole to the changbaishan rift, after which point the remaining rifts begin to naturally close as the hive is satisfied. in august of 207 AZ, xiaoge returns from hiveside, the iron triangle is reunited, and the hive incursion officially ends, ending zhang conscription, and xiaoge disolves the zhang boards, ending the sect's massive sociopolitical reign.

PART TWO: world specifics

part i: the zhang board, and sunrise as a dystopia

in the era of rosemary and thyme, ie the final years of the hive incursion, the zhang sect is not only incredibly powerful martially, but also politically. since the first hive incursion and the creation of the ranger programme, the zhang have been able to gain an unparalleled control over the martial world specifically, and the general populace more broadly. this is largely due to a number of facts: firstly, the zhang, as the only sect who produce rangers, are viewed as, and actively work to reinforce the view of themselves as, protectors of the empire. secondly, as areas become hive-poisoned after a rift is opened, the common people are encouraged to relocate to zhang-affiliated martial sect territories/compounds, as hive-poisoned areas remain dangerous for a long period after the rift is closed. the zhang-affiliated sects, aside from hosting rangers, also host subsets of the main zhang board, known collectively as "the zhang boards", comprised half of zhang, one quarter of the host sect, and one quarter of scientific and medical specialists, who are in charge of the ranger(s) each affiliated sect hosts.

in return for protection, those living in zhang-controlled areas must adhere to a number of zhang sect regulations. this includes the restriction of access to media that is labelled by the zhang main board as "anti-cause", including anything that criticises the zhang sect's power. this has led to the highly-lucrative, but also highly-dangerous, black-market for media such as film and literature, periodicals, the creation of pirate radio, and so forth. depending on the severity of what someone is reported as possessing, they can either be demoted and given restrictions, or they are given a hearing to determine a sentence, or, in extreme cases (such as being found to be actively associated with anti-zhang groups), exiled from the sect compound either for a set period of time or indefinitely.

zhang sect members are under stricter watch than the average zhang-affiliated person. rangers specifically are heavily monitored, especially in their access of non-sect created materials, and they are discouraged and punished for possessing any materials that may be interpreted as criticising the zhang main board, its marriage and reproductive policies, and its treatment of potential and active-duty rangers, especially any materials that may suggest the draft should not exist, or that the rangers and their families should be compensated for what is essentially a suicide job. for more "mid-level" crimes, forced confessions, similar to those of the 60s/70s in our world's china, are used as a way to reify the confessors of their position within the social and legal order, reinforce to others within the collective that they will be discovered and punished if they do not comply with zhang sect regulations, and communicate that noncompliance is harmful to the collective, ie the zhang sect as a whole.

in regards to marriage and reproductive policies, the zhang sect is incredibly strict within the sect. all of-age sect members are paired based on a number of factors, such as qilin blood status, place within the sect hierarchy, and history, both personal and familial, with compliance to the main board's policies. the aim of these pairings is to produce as many children as possible in order to maintain the ranger system, and thus the zhang board's power. while non-heterosexuality is not explicitly penalised, any sect member who shows resistance to marrying and producing offspring will face both social and legal pressure, and, in extreme cases, punishment in an effort to continue the zhang bloodlines. the only reason that xiaoge is allowed to maintain his relationship with the iron triangle is due to the fact that he is the first ranger and, at least in name, the leader of the sect, and the main board would risk losing power if they attempted to treat him in such a way, and, in this specific case, they would prefer for his family line to die out, since he survived the upgrading procedure all those decades ago despite their hopes, leaving them no possible rivals for control of the sect—and, even then, he faces unspoken pressure to minimise the nature of their relationship as much as possible.

part ii: upgrading, and the precarious position of living weapons

upgrading is the colloquial term used to describe the process which the zhang undergo in order to become rangers. during the process, the body is torn apart and replaced with an average of 60% tech, or "mechanics", a number which varies depending on the "generation" of rangers (xiaoge, and the first batch, would have been about 70%, while newer rangers hover around 55% as improvements in tech optimise the mechanics). this is all done without anaesthetic, as anaesthetic runs the risk of causing the body to be unable to integrate the mechanics properly. generally*, the zhang are the only ones with the training necessary to survive upgrading.

however, even the zhang are human, and their minds are not meant to be able to comprehend input from non-organic systems, even with a large portion of modern zhang training going towards trying to equip potential rangers to deal with this input. in an attempt to solve this problem, especially that of a ranger potentially risking not being able to interpret a warning from their mechanics of a failure, interfaces were created. this allows the ranger to pull up a number of systems, such as diagnostics and recommended courses of action, and in newer generations of rangers, interfaces even allow rangers to access predictions of results of a course of action based on damage/injury levels, control nanotech particles to disperse them to mitigate any critical injuries until a fight is completed, and so forth. the interface in a proper upgrade is implanted in the cerebral cortex. included within newer generations of interface implants are hard-coded the ability to receive a specific command from the zhang boards that allow them to remotely "put down" a ranger if they're deemed a threat—usually due to rift madness aggression, but there have been a number of times where the reason was more muddy; more than one ranger in only the early stages of rift madness was "put down" not long after they began to question the zhang board.

part iii: the exception to the rule

while generally only zhang are able to survive upgrading, there is one notable exception: that is, hei xiazi. however, as the only official method of upgrading is through procedures administered by the zhang. hei xiazi, though, realised early on that the money was quickly drying up in grave robbing and instead booming in the trade of hiveside artefacts, and, already cursed due to a previous tomb excursion, opted to undergo a black-market upgrade.

however, due to the fact that it was black-market, it was essentially a one-of-a-kind event, and one that was largely done with an understanding of zhang upgrades obtained through extrapolation of zhang abilities, and a small amount of study of rangers' corpses which had not been recovered by the sect in the early days due to physical distance. as such, hei xiazi's systems are......................unique, to put it lightly. his mechanics are exposed to the elements rather than being hidden beneath synthetic skin, and a lot of the more specialised pieces are often not what they should be, but rather the closest substitute—something that is a persistent issue, as demonstrated in whatever was left. especially of issue is his interface system—half the time it doesn't work, and it often displays errors for minor issues, or mislabels critical issues as minor ones, and generally is an annoyance. while zhang rangers' interfaces are designed to seamlessly integrate with their personal usage style, hei xiazi's interface is akin to a video game tutorial pop-up—bright red, and almost impossible to dismiss. an amusing issue hei xiazi deals with is that while zhang rangers' interfaces run on their own, specialised frequency, his runs on a separate one—one that, in some areas, is also used by niche pirate radio broadcasters, meaning he has to manually disable his interface entirely or suffer listening to whatever is being broadcast directly in his head. also, unlike zhang rangers, his systems whirr audibly—not loud enough to not fade into the background, but noticeable enough if you pay attention. he also tends to run hot.

part iv: zhang ranger duties, and power-plays of the boards

zhang rangers are assigned to specific sects, and the area that falls under that sect's control is what they are responsible for. if a rift opens in their host sect's territory, they are the ones dispatched to fight the hive and seal the rift. in some cases where a rift is larger than usual, rangers from nearby areas may be deployed to help in the effort, in which case they will use sense-sharing to synchronise their attacks. i wrote a more in-depth post on sensesharing, and therefore anchoring, here: a beginner's guide to anchoring. once a rift is closed, a ranger is summoned back to their host sect, where they are hooked up to a system that projects a recording of the fight for the sect's board to review their conduct, which also forces them to relive the memories as if they are happening again. while it's justified as searching for early signs of rift madness, it's also a thinly-veiled means of asserting board control over the rangers, and if the rangers are found in error, they can be disciplined or given restrictions. while ostensibly rangers are highly-respected warriors, honoured for their sacrifices for the people, the boards, and the zhang elders, see them as potential threats to their power.

part v: sha hai, the bronze gate, and wu xie's honed ruthlessness

as noted, wu xie chooses li cu specifically because of his innocence. while earlier in the ten year period, wu xie may have been able to find the wang zanghai artefact, due to the events of 205 BZ, this became an impossibility. in 205 BZ, in order to contain the rift in changbaishan, wu xie created the plans for the bronze gate, and contracted a team to construct it. once it was completed, in order to minimise the possibility of anyone discovering a weakness in the gate, and thus its abilities to contain the changbaishan rift and the hive, therefore creating a possibility for xiaoge to have to go behind the rift once more, wu xie not only destroyed the plans he had created for it, but also killed the entire team.

PART THREE: inspirations, acdemic reading i've done, and other mischellanea and closing remarks

it will come as no surprise that sunrise is inspired by the 2013 film pacific rim (dir. gdt). for a long time, i've wanted to create something that gave me the same amount of passion as that film gave me in 2018-2020, and the idea of drifting, in specific, is one that's always fascinated me. sunrise was intended to be a one-off, pacific rim-inspired, fanfic—and, since then, it's grown into something far larger, as evidenced by the fact that my reply to this ask is over 3k. it is no longer merely daomu biji with pacific rim added as a topping, but its own thing, which i spend a not insignificant amount of time thinking about, speculating on, and adding to not only weekly, but even daily. however, aside from pacific rim, there's a number of other pieces of media that have inspired me when it comes to sunrise—his dark materials by phillip pulman, bad and crazy (2021), and the ascendant trilogy by k arsenault rivera are all works that have, in one way or another, shaped me, both as a child and now, as an adult, and impacted my writing. more generally, science fiction as a genre and explorations of dystopian fiction have heavily informed me in creation and in writing sunrise.

my tagline for the verse on ao3 is simple: the blade that cuts your chains still cuts another’s neck. sunrise is meant to be not just one story, but rather a world in which stories exist—stories which impact both the characters, and the others in the world they live in. things that seem like victories at first turn out to be tragedies for others—anchoring saves xiaoge's life, and the lives of other rangers, but also causes the expansion of the ranger's draft, putting countless other, previously-safe, sect members at risk. wu xie's construction of the bronze gate ensures the hive will remain contained—but it costs the lives of the entire team of builders to ensure that safety. the good of the many does not outweigh the good of the few; sunrise is not a world of black and white, but rather shades of grey.

besides media influences, sunrise has also benefited greatly from my own delving into academic texts. i'm lucky enough to now have access to an almost unmatched library of texts on chinese history, and historical society, culture, and a thousand other things, at least in the united states. while the texts i've read may not have had obvious impacts upon the world of sunrise, they've allowed me to better build the world of sunrise into a living, breathing thing in my mind. of the texts i've read, i've most appreciated food and environment in early and medieval china (e. n. anderson) and sexuality in china: histories of power and pleasure (howard chiang). i'm on break at the moment and also plan on reading the development of chinese martial arts fiction in order to solidify my portrayal of wuxia in sunrise.

sunrise has also allowed me to experiment with narrative in ways i had not done previously—both in terms of linearality, and in terms of perspective. all sunrise instalments so far are told in a non-linear format, and the next instalment i am (very slowly) working on includes both third and second person povs.

there is a large amount of miscellanea included in my lore notes, but it's largely specific to pairings rather than the overall world of sunrise, and so has therefore been committed. hopefully, this has been a decent exploration and explanation of the 'verse. however, i am always open to further questions, so if you have something specific you want to ask, please, feel free! and thank you, once again, @child-of-the-fairy-folk for asking me about sunrise :)

[swashbucklery]

I didn't want to ask something you've already answered before, so I searched your blog but only found one brief mention about why you didn't watch it. Cool :) But i'm just curious, have you seen some of the avatrice gifs from Warrior Nun? Do they seem like a ship that might appeal to you if you had been able to finish the show? I had resisted them for awhile but finally decided to check out some of their scenes and yea, i definitely understand it now

Anon, trust me when I say I have been made fully aware of a) the existence of Warrior Nun, b) the existence of Avatrice, and c) the fact that it is full of Complicated Pseudoreligious Gay Yearning and d) that there are gifs.

I have lots of mutuals that are having a really nice time liking Warrior Nun, and I wish them all the best? It is just super not my thing, for no real reason that I can pinpoint, it's just - blah to me.

(Actually this is not true, I have a hair trigger for fake gore and there is a shot early in the pilot where like a magic thing just fucking shreds through someone's torso in visceral CGI blood spraying everywhere detail and to be honest no lesbians are worth that to me.)

I'm not sure if I'd like them outside of the context of the show, because for me those are the same thing. I don't ever get into ships just through cut scenes, I have to dive into the world those characters are in to connect.

I am still deep in the Willow hole (wocka, wocka) and will be for quite a while, because the writer's strike isn't getting any overer and it ticks literally every one of my narrative boxes as though a five year old mashed all the buttons on the elevator to my heart.

The things that are doing it for me for Willow are:

the total lack of a modern setting, so I don't have to figure out how to reconcile the new media trend of pretending all things are set in a COVID Never Happened AU despite the fact that it is the crushing shadow looming behind all of our realities, the cognitive dissonance gives me hives

(do i want dumb tv shows to tackle COVID absolutely not but it's weird that we're just like yeah in this show it's 2023 and the past 3 years were exactly like 2019 was don't uhhh worry about it)

like it's just so fucking weird IT'S SO FUCKING WEIRD and i know some of this is production cycles but we were watching the last movie in the To All The Boys series and she graduates in 2020 and I could not get it out of my head the choice!!! Like that year and date will not be indelibly linked to A Time and yet I also see how you can't change that story to include COVID and also I know how media timelines work but it is so fucked up WHY

::What A Time To Be Alive by Fall Out Boy plays softly in the background::

anyway

uh

SWORDS

the ability to have both a Canon WLW Ship as well as Several Other Fun Non-Canon WLW Ships

not one but three main characters that i have imprinted upon like the most impressionable of baby geese

complex narratives about growth and hope and fighting adversity and the way that all of those struggles are secretly love

balls to the wall dumb fantasy tropes used without a whiff of self-referential irony

the actors touch objects in the world

room to have 80 million intricate textile headcanons and play with frilly bits of worldbuilding like a 19th century dandy constructing ships in bottles

a fandom that hits the sweet spot of large enough to have steady content and community, yet small enough that i can fully curate ship drama out of my habitat

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[trickstarbrave]

the food of skryim is simply frankly bizarre to me. i wanna talk to a historical food/agricultural expert abt it tbh (im not an expert more of an amateur)

>they have potatoes. already this throws a wrench in so much. it means they dont have to depend as much on grains which can be labor intensive and fickle. potatoes grow easier, are less labor intensive, store fairly well, and are calorie dense.  >they grow wheat as a major grain. in historical irl nordic cultures wheat was considered a grain crop of the rich bc it simply. doesnt grow as well as other grain crops like rye, oats, and barley. they’re really using wheat to make all that ale? >tbh id like to see more cured meats. it just seems more in line and practical from what we see in skyrim. but maybe thats just bc some areas seem to be like. perpetually cold year round and perpetually warmer. >i do not see nearly enough beekeepers or actual hives for how much fucking mead they are drinking >since they have potatoes and dont seem to have as much of a focus on grain either where the fuck are the textile crops. come on man. irl nordic ppl had nettle, hemp, flax. in lore the nords have wool but we dont even see any sheep. what gives.

these are only a few things too. theres prob more i could mention. its just so baffling almost as much as like actual warfare in the elder scrolls series

[nimuetheseawitch]

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

L: Aiden Ford was too good for this world and his whole idea about infiltrating and taking out a hive ship and hooking the team on the enzyme was actually a pretty decent plan. A little morally bankrupt, but pretty enterprising for a butter bar LT who ran off into the unknown with a nasty drug addiction.

O: I shuffled my library and got Don't Rush by Tegan and Sara. The Top Gun brain rot is strong, so this is giving me Hangster vibes because of the lines I sing to find my other (giving obvious Rooster vibes) and you move so fast/I need to rush (giving obvious Rooster talking about Hangman vibes).

S: Hmm, personal headcanons. For you, my friend, I will give you a Lireal headcanon. This is probably pretty common, but I headcanon Lireal as aro/ace. She's just not interested in it really, although I'm fine with her canon pairing with Nick. She likes him well enough and isn't necessarily opposed to being in a relationship - she just wouldn't ever pursue one otherwise. But they're going to be interesting nerds together for sure. They both want to know the why of everything.

T: Of course as soon as I start thinking about this, all headcanons completely escape my head. I'm usually pretty flexible about headcanons and often hold conflicting ones at the same time. Ooooh, found one. John Sheppard knows how to sew. And generally a lot of my military background blorbos because this is a necessary life skill. But John Sheppard is most fun because he grew up wealthy and would've had people for that before he was on his own. Also, shout out to the origin of this headcanon theme: William Laurence in Temeraire, and my multitude of feelings about him and textile arts that have been talked out ad nauseum on NonBinaryStars' Compass series of fics.

[katesfoxhole]

As far as I've been able to determine, Mordian and the Mordian Iron Guard first appeared in the 2e Codex: Imperial Guard (or possibly White Dwarf 184 but they came out around the same time). And then nothing happened for 17 years. No new lore was added until Mark Clapham's novel Iron Guard came out in 2012, and even he only added one little tidbit--that people living on the dark side of a tidally locked planet tended to like bright colors.

I am writing some fanfic featuring a Mordian regiment, and I've made up a few headcanons or my own.

One is that, reflecting their tidally locked world, they tend toward a kind of binary thinking. Both men and women can serve in the Iron Guard, but regiments are segregated by sex (the Cain novels outright state this is the norm for the Imperial Guard anyway. And of course, nothing's stopping the Munitorum from pulling a 597th if you want a mixed regiment; the Adeptus Terra don't giveadam about some silly local custom). It's fine to be gay, but not bi or pan--pick a side, fence-sitter. Same with gender--being trans is okay as long as you cross over completely; no boymoding, no being genderqueer or agender.

(In case it needs to be said, these are not supposed to be good things btw, this is a flaw, a cultural blind spot.)

Presumably nothing naturally grows on Mordian--the day side is blasted by instantly-lethal amounts of solar radiation and the night side is, well, always nighttime. The only place on Mordian where you see plant life is in manmade gardens and greenhouses. So I've written my Mordians to be weirded out by nature. Their dialect of Low Gothic doesn't even have words for things that are not manmade--that isn't a forest up ahead, it's a very tangled and untidy orchard. How dare the trees grow wherever they want to instead of in neat rows?

I have an unwritten scene where some HQ POGs are making fun of a Mordian recon report: "Are they still calling the river a canal?" "Give 'em a break, they've never SEEN a river before."

They are also--at first--absolutely terrified of sunlight. After all, on their homeworld, dayside = instant radioactive death. The first time they land on an earthlike world, a commissar has to almost shoot someone to get them off the dropship.

Canon Mordian names tend to sound Germanic. I've expanded that to include names from other mid-European sources, particularly Estonian, Lithuanian, and Ukranian. Presumably a lot of the original settlers came from that part of Earth.

It's not as hard as it sounds to keep those fancy uniforms clean. Mordian has an STC for high-tech, moisture- and dirt-repelling fabrics. Textiles are one of the planet's chief trade goods. Mordian Iron Guard are positively horrified by soldiers from other worlds who show up in grubby cotton twill. Yeah, it's hard to stay clean while soldiering in the field, which is why you don't want your uniform making it worse by ABSORBING sweat and dirt omg.

Iron Guard officers wear gold gorgets similar to the ones popular in 18th-19th century European armies. Senior noncoms and NCO vehicle commanders wear silver ones. I'm not the only one who's had this idea.

As a joke, I've named one of the hives on Mordian--not the capital--Dsenta Vitta. I bent it out of a mishmash of Latin and Estonian and it means, roughly, "where those cunts landed". This is an ancient name, going back to first settlement, and to the Mordians its meaning has of course long since been lost to antiquity.

Anyway, those are my Mordian headcanons. I would definitely be insterested in anyone else's, if you have them.

"Why is the sky leaking!?" "It's called rain. We were briefed on this."

[rosyjuly]

if those are @prettydangrotten's thoughts about charlottee what are yours professor july? i miss prince of wales george and even want to hear about his straight adventures!

PROFESSOR JULY anon are we on a last name basis? let me know! i'm not sure what's the appropriate gender neutral way to address you - should we go with devotee?

the secret behind prince au is that gabby and i share a collective hive mind. haters will call it a google docs... every ask gabby answers i'm in the pitlane whooping and cheering with those huge headphones on or waving the chequered flag. here's 5 thoughts on charlotte though:

she's very smart -- has a degree in History from Oxford, wrote her dissertation on the socioeconomic effects of the industrial revolution on textile manifacturing

she's really into horses and especially three day eventing -- george was never really a fan of the latter but will go to her tournaments as support when he can (read: when harrison clears his calendar and makes him go to ONE day out of the three). they like riding out together in the countryside: it's peaceful, birds chirping and the thumps of hooves on the leaf litter. they don't talk. the air is crisp. (george always comes back thinking, yeah, this won't be that bad)

she has a younger sister and an extensive friend group from like-minded noble and rich women and they go on girls' trips 2-3 times a year and post about it on insta saying "much needed trip" (most of them don't have actual jobs)

unlike george, she does enjoy hunting (the only way to bond with her tory father tbh)

she enjoys historical films and loved The Last Duel (which i do recommend to everyone btw)

[hareofhrair]

5'3" genderqueer (he/she/they/it) jadeblood about 21 with a passion for gardening and creating textiles based off of those patterns found in nature. Hands are constantly stained with dyes. Would probably take your troll to a tea parlor and then back to their hive to show off the many plants that are in various stages of growth and flowering. They've recently cut ties with their moirail after finally realizing how toxic she (the other troll) was and the troll they want to enter a matespriteship with is unfortunately very oblivious

Shafan would love seeing their plants and would be very eager to share their own knowledge of local plants and forage. Shafan also loves giving quadrant advice so it could expect to get an earful about the oblivious potential matesprit for certain lmao. Shafan very rarely/never does quadrants, but they certainly sound like someone Shafan could be good friends with, and potentially mess around with if they were both down.

[sparkmender]

Going absolutely feral thinking about textiles and weaving in the hive au today. love you guys