#the corsair civilization

[christinaengela]

Free Audiobook: Dead Beckoning, book 3 in the Galaxii Series

Free Audiobook: Dead Beckoning, book 3 in the Galaxii Series

FREE DOWNLOAD CODES BELOW: “Dead Beckoning” Galaxii Series: Book 3 For nearly a century, the fearsome Corsairs had waged a campaign of terror against the Human colonies, plundering and making travel along the space lanes that were the lifelines of the Terran Empire a risky business. The fact that while they had done so, they’d succeeded in keeping the location of their base a closely guarded…

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Henryk Siemiradzki (Polish, 1843-1902) Corsairs, 1880 Kharkov Art Museum, Ukraine

[circeius-invidioso]

I do not get why the Red Corsairs are not a popular choice.

Like.

Like here is the elevator pitch for the warband and then we can come to some justified conclusion.

What isn't there to love?

You want me to turn into an infomencial and make a top 3 reasons why the Red Corsairs are great?

Cause I can.

And I will.

The Diverse Working Enviroment

Here in the Red Corsairs we might have started as Ultramarines but the barrier for entry is on the floor. So anyone can join.

You are Night Lord with a bad rep and no ship.

Buckle up we got you covered.

You are a Fallen and have 20 Dark Angels all up in yo business? Trying to shoot down the boss babe you are?

Fear not, or in our case. Know no Fear. We are strapped and don't get clapped.

You are a traitor that likes their Legion but sadly you got in our way?

Tough luck buddy, you will join or die and your geene seed will join our cause. Nothing personal battle brother. Just business as usual.

Everyone is welcome as long as they follow Huron's guidelines and don't aggitate the topless sweaty Khorne worshipping Ultramarines in the basement.

Sustainability

Unlike the corrupt Imperium of man and the corpse Emperor our leader is powered by miracles (which is trully a miracle how he survived but that on the next section), and we use 0 psyckers to power our crap.

Our carbon footprint is also minimum as we use salvaged goods and don't indulge in toxic industries that destroy worlds.

The Red Corsair base of operation is in the Eye of Terror and from there we expand our scope. A place greatly known for its constant shifts, and horrible conditions but the tan our serfs have are spectacullar from all that cosmic radiation.

Finally we are commited to recycling. As in we take from our victims benefactors and put those stolen goods to some great use. Nothing goes to waste, neither mortal, nor static object. If something is not nailed on the floor we will take it.

In fact we might take the floor too and the nails used to set it in place.

Nothing goes to waste!

Unmatched Leadership

Last, but certainly not least.

The man.

The myth.

The Legend.

Huron Blackheart.

Aka Lufgt Huron.

Aka what would happen if we gave a compressed Guilliman a daemonic familiar and left him to ferment in a warp storm.

Not only the name is so edgy you might cut yourself by saying it out loud. But also it's complex enough that if you say it quickly three times without twisting your tongue theres is a chance furniture might start levitating.

The man has put his Ultramarine brain to use and amased enough influence and power to put the Black Legion to shame.

Huron went from 0 to 100 in no time, he is a self made Warmaster. With no daddy issues or troubles in the world, he goes into battle blasting Alestorm in the voxxcasters.

He does not care.

He probably wears this when he wants to relax.

You think he cares?

He does not care.

He has a biker gang specifically organized to hunt down those who have betrayed him.

They slap those things on their armors not for the usual biker reason

(which fun fact the meaning is, 99% of the bikers are law-abiding, where the 1% are not. That's where the 1% comes from. The more you know 🌈)

no they wear that 1% because that's how high are your chances of escaping from them are.

Is that a bit extreme?

Yes.

You think he cares?

He does not care.

The dude once gathered his buddies and decided...

to you know. Have a casual outing. Nothing too serious, it was a sunday afteral.

So they decided on.

Kidnapping Guilliman.

Which they almost did if not for a Fallen of all people getting in the way.

But still.

The mad lad took Macragge's Honour and went on a joyride/ mini civil war.

Who in the galaxy can turn and say.

Yeah, I stole Macragge's Honour, almost captured my old Primarch. Told a daemon prince they are irrelevant on my way there. Anyway after crushing a fool who thought he could take my crown as king of the space pirates, I went to the home planet of the White Scars and kidnapped and tortured their Chapter Master. What did you do this week? 💅

Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?

You tell me I can be an immortal, gorgeous chaos Ultramarine goth boy going on pirate adventures across the galaxy?

Where do I sign up?

I don't need ink for a signature.

I will use my own blood.

[theurbanmechcomesforthee]

You know, in MW5 I kinda dismissed the Corsair as a bit of a joke.

Sure, he hits hard a bit when ya don't stare at him, and good fucking luck hitting his head, but it crumples a bit under sustained fire to the torso, and he doesnt exactly have the heaviest of weaponry. Even with my difficulties in the arena mode tryna fight him in a Nightstar, he wasn't impossible.

But oh fucking man. I salvaged an XT1 from one FFA arena mission, so after a ridiculous repair cost cause some madman stuck an XL engine in here, and replacement guns, I took the mech for a spin.

He appears to have taken my bad faith criticisms.. personally.

He stuck to one rock for cover and proceeded to rain hell upon the enemy, ripping some poor Hatchetman a new one with his AC/5-RF and 3 backup AC/2BF's, and severely crippling several assaults while the other mechs in the lance moved in. He occasionally used his backup LRM 5s to poke at unsuspecting mechs, but loved his autocannons more than the salvage we could have gotten by NOT annihilating everything in his wake.

By the time his magazines had finally clicked empty, he began his forward march to glory, holding down his TAG laser and spamming his additonal-backup PPC-X while remaining suprisingly cool.

For reference of that fight, our Highlander HM, had come back with neither of his limbs, as he was in the thick of the fight for most of the arena match.

The Corsair came back with 90 damage out of 576. 90. Fucking. Damage. He came strolling on back with a bruise on his knee compared to the punishment the Highlander endured.

And he laughed the whole way home. Knowing damn well I was wrong. Knowing damn well that the assault-mech sized liability that could, very well fucking did. And came back with empty ammo bins and a shit eating grin on its face. Of course, the mech cannot laugh. Nor does it even have the paint in the rough shape of said aforementioned shit-eating grin.

But I know that groan of myomer and the telltale clanging of a wrench accidentally falling through a gap in the steel, because one of our junior engineers has fucking butterfingers.

He was laughing at me. "Who's not shit now," he mocks. "Who's an assault-sized trashcan now?"

What I still lament about this mech is the fact that it does not have more gun slots. For if you sure as shit aren't going to be civil,

You may as well be efficient.

[yourpicasso25]

Pirates!

And ARR ARR to ye all, guys!

So, nice progress on the island: The agricultural part is finished

with a nice big lot to accomodate the tractor thingy, a smaller one for the local nectary... and room for a tiny monastery, because making wine is serious business.

And then... Well, it's not exactly a mystery, now is it?

The Pirate Island is done!

so, I listened to you guys, so we get a piraty island with some spooky undertones.

Fort Lamouët is the biggest lot (even if not very interesting at the moment)

What required (and got) a burst of creativity was L'anse Houchpett, the Olde Town that may have been destroyed by the English a few centuries ago because Pirates.

The locals say this is pure slander and these people were at most civilized Corsairs... And the English are assholes anyways, so there. (Well, they're French, so...)

Anyway, the Brits did quite a good job of destroying the place.

HOWEVER, those of you who know me from TSD times will be happy to know that this place is the Lerequin birthplace... and yes, they are still around.

See, Jean Dieudonné Lerequin, somewhat famous Corsaire/Pirate/whatever of the time, hailed from L'Anse Houchpett... And there are rumors of a treasure buried somewhere.

So, anyone who knows my Lerequind will not be surprised some of them stayed put to find the treasure... and since someone has to eat in the meantime, they do cater to some tourists... and a bit more reluctantly, to some archeological digs.

But not too much, eh?

Too much curiosity could lead to a discreet fresh plot of earth in the old cementery... Well, of course in there! They are monsters, but civilized ones after all! (not to self, must add a rosebush)

Other than that, the fun parts are almost done. There's only this bit I'm not sure what to do with

Do you guys have any ideas?

Otherwise, now is going to be details, details, details... lighting and roads signs and all the stuff like that before baggins the place... and start building!

Yeah!

[thelordofgifs]

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Semifinal

Eldacar of Gondor vs One (1) Rivendell elf who sings tra-la-la-lally

Eldacar of Gondor:

The twenty-first King of Gondor, also known as Vinitharya. During his reign the conflict known as the Kin-strife occurred and he was forced from his throne for ten years.

The blorbo of all time actually. He’s the protagonist of one of the most interesting stories in the LoTR appendices, the Kin-strife, and everything about his life story is so fascinating! His father was the crown prince of Gondor and his mother was the princess of Rhovanion so not a Númenorean. As a result all the racist nobles of Gondor made noises about how Eldacar was of “lesser race” and wouldn’t live as long as a “true Dúnadan”. One of the most fascinating examples of fantasy racism in Tolkien’s works imo – the bigotry is awful but the bigots have a shield to hide behind! Obviously their concerns are actually valid because they just don’t want their king to die young! (Their concerns aren’t valid. But I think the worldbuilding here is great.) Anyway Eldacar was born in Rhovanion and given the birth-name Vinitharya, but when he returned to Gondor aged five he was obliged to take up the Quenya name Eldacar, presumably to pacify all the racists in Gondor. He’s the EMBODIMENT of mixed-race/immigrant child trauma my beloved. Eventually his father died and he ascended to the throne of Gondor, but then his shitty second cousin Castamir (all my homies hate Castamir he’s the worst) started the civil war known as the Kin-strife and usurped Eldacar’s throne. Eldacar was forced to flee north to Rhovanion but Castamir captured his eldest son Ornendil and had him cruelly put to death which is SO SAD. But Eldacar, being brave and resourceful and clever and extremely cool, put together an alliance with his mother’s kinsfolk in Rhovanion and after ten years reclaimed his throne, which turned out to be slightly easier than expected because Castamir was The Worst and all his subjects hated him. And Eldacar PERSONALLY fought and killed Castamir HIMSELF and AVENGED HIS SON which is extremely important when you consider all the cringefail elves in the legendarium whose quests for revenge didn’t really go anywhere at all. Then he lived to be 235 proving that all the idiot racists who were worried about his lifespan didn’t have any idea what they were talking about, as is par for the course with racists. Also the Kin-strife itself has such far-reaching consequences for the history of Gondor! The Corsairs of Umbar, Gondor’s long-standing enemies, are actually followers of the descendants of Castamir. And during the Usurpation of Castamir Osgiliath was sacked and burned, leading to the beginning of its decline as Gondor’s greatest city. Even though Eldacar’s story is, to me, ultimately hopeful, it’s also such a fascinating turning point in the history of Gondor. Also ALSO he’s explicitly surrounded by textual ghosts which is really fascinating. His father Valacar has “children” plural – so Eldacar had siblings!! What were they like? How did they react to it all? And his son Aldamir is described as Eldacar’s second son and third child, meaning that he had a daughter too. Who was she?? What happened to her? He’s such a blorbo and there’s so much interesting stuff to dig into around him and he has to win this entire tournament please please please❤️

One (1) Rivendell elf who sings tra-la-la-lally:

One of the Elves of Rivendell who sing tra-la-la-lally in The Hobbit.

This one specific elf sings tra la la lally with the rest but he is slightly off key and the other elves bully him for it

they’re SILLY!!! We need NEED more silly elves!! Like who are these weirdos just hanging out in the trees of Rivendell? Did they know the dwarves were coming and gather their friends to specifically climb those trees to sing nonsense at them? Do they just normally sit there and sing about every little thing they see? Is this a traditional Rivendell thing or are those elves just really strange? I’m obsessed with them they’re everything to me. Elves are oft portrayed as being Too Serious in this fandom and silly elves need rights too! Silly elf rights!!!!

Semifinals masterpost

[the-hopefulpenguin]

The Problem of the Earth Kingdom

I’ve been doing some more thinking about Avatar geopolitics and I’ve settled upon a bit of an overarching theory - that the Earth Kingdom is the seat of every war in the last two centuries plus of the Avatar universe.

This is not to say that the Fire Nation, in particular, does not bear culpability for the Hundred Year War; they absolutely do; but rather that the geopolitical problem posed by the Earth Kingdom is one which policymakers have grappled with throughout the shows and books, to limited success. In brief, it is this: a strong Earth Kingdom is too powerful; a weak one is too unstable. As a result, policymakers in the Caldera, Republic City, the Water Tribes, and the White Lotus have struggled to find an effective balance - and repeatedly failed to do so.

To prove this, I would like to do give a history of major conflicts in Avatar and why they link back to this central problem of the Earth Kingdom.

THE PLATINUM KING Our first piece of evidence is the Platinum Affair and subsequent rule of Earth King Feishan in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BG. These inferences are drawn noting that we have relatively limited textual evidence from the period.

The inciting incident was a prolonged civil war in the Earth Kingdom, between the armies of the Earth King Feishan and a General Nong. The origins of the conflict are unclear, but we do know that it was protracted, with neither side seeking a decisive engagement. This had a negative impact on trade and potentially international stability.

As a consequence, the Water Tribes and Fire Nation began to fund General Nong in secret - the intention appearing to be to have him win and end the fighting, with a friendly regime in Ba Sing Se. In other words, foreign powers refused to tolerate instability in the Earth Kingdom, and so intervened.

Unfortunately for Agna Q’ela and the Caldera, Feishan ultimately won the civil war at the Battle of Llamapaca’s Crossing, which revealed the funding scheme and foreign culpability in it. The Earth King responded by embargoing on the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, with only four cities permitted to handle a limited throughput of foreign trade. Internationally mobile elites (the shang merchants) in these cities, seeking to break free of the Earth King, attempted to develop new forms of bending - risking international stability in the process. Feishan also considered invasions of the other powers due to cooled relations. This is an example of how a strong, centralised Earth Kingdom provoked resistance from its periphery and fear abroad.

THE FIFTH NATION Our next piece of evidence is centred on the late fourth and early third centuries BG - the rise and fall of the Fifth Nation, a major group of corsairs operating off the southern coast of the Earth Kingdom.

Our textual sources on their rise to prominence are somewhat patchy. We know that there was a long history of sea-banditry in the region, but by the time of Yangchen, they were powerful enough for the Avatar to personally sign a treaty with them to secure an agreement not to attack the coasts of the Earth Kingdom. It is probable that their willingness to sign a deal with Yangchen was as much to do with fear of a united Earth Kingdom under Feishan as it was terror of the Avatar. After all, Yangchen’s treaty makes no mention of at-sea piracy; only that which directly targets the Earth Kingdom.

However, the end of the Feishan dynasty - it is unclear if this is the death of Feishan himself, or an immediate successor - led to the Wars of Secrets and Daggers, a succession of assassinations and palace coups from at least 306-296 BG which killed at least seven royals. This chaos was exploited by the Yellow Neck Uprising and led to rising status among regional magnates such as Jianzhu - who ultimately crushed the Yellow Necks at the Battle of Zhulu Pass. In short, the late fourth century BG saw a complete collapse in central Earth Kingdom authority.

The Fifth Nation was quick to exploit this, defeating the Earth Kingdom fleet in open combat and establishing maritime hegemony in the Eastern Ocean. They failed to expand into the Mo Ce, largely due to the actions of the Fire Nation, who stepped up their patrols to counter the pirate threat. The Fifth Nation was ultimately destroyed by Avatar Kyoshi and an aggressive maritime counterinsurgency campaign waged by the Fire Nation. In other words, the failure of Earth Kingdom stability exported a severe maritime security challenge which required sustained Calderan intervention to resolve.

SOZIN’S FEAR, OZAI’S FOLLY I've presented my argument about the origins of the Hundred Year War previously, so I will not dwell on it - the above article is a richer explanation. In brief, however, from the crisis of the fourth century, the Earth Kingdom began to enjoy a slow revival in fortunes through the third and second centuries - largely due to the actions of Avatar Kyoshi. By the first century BG, it is plausible that Ba Sing Se’s authority was once more reaching into its maritime periphery along the Mo Ce coastline.

For a Fire Nation used to trading privileges and political influence in this part of the Earth Kingdom, this could be seen as an immediate infringement. Moreover, the example of Feishan suggests that a united Earth Kingdom could threaten the core interests - perhaps even sovereignty - of the Fire Nation. Sozin therefore invaded the Earth Kingdom not to exterminate it, but to secure Fire Nation interests in the periphery and limit the Earth Kingdom’s united power.

Unfortunately for the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom proved more cohesive than they had assessed, and the war ground on for decades until Ozai, a strategically inept Fire Lord, mobilised a big enough coalition against him to end in a defeat for the Fire Nation - one actively enabled by the Avatar.

SWORD OF THE CALDERA But for the Fire Nation, defeat in war led to victory in peace. Fire Lord Zuko swiftly renounced overt rule on the continent, but defended Fire Nation privileges all the same - deploying an army to the continent in 101 AG to face down a royal force under Earth King Kuei. This crisis was settled by Avatar Aang, and led to the creation of the United Republic, carved out of Earth Kingdom territory along the Mo Ce periphery.

But, as discussed elsewhere, the United Republic was only nominally independent. In practice, it was heavily tied into the cultural and economic world of the Fire Nation - to the point that the commander-in-chief of its military is a Fire Nation prince. It is unclear if Zuko personally intended this, but it is a defensible position to argue that the United Republic was created to weaken the Earth Kingdom.

And weaken it, it most likely did. By the late 2nd century AG, the Earth Kingdom is experiencing a serious domestic crisis, on the order of the crisis of the late fourth/early third century BG. Even the movement of tax revenues to Ba Sing Se is seriously in doubt due to bandit activity, while local magnates such as Suyin of Zaofu wield immense power. It is probable that the United Republic played a role in this - it deprived the Earth Kingdom of much of the lucrative Mo Ce trade, and served as a constant demonstration of Ba Sing Se’s weakness.

This was all well and good for the Fire Nation and other international actors, who had reason to fear a strong Earth Kingdom. But the situation spiralled out of control with the assassination of Queen Hou-Ting, and an enfeebled Earth Kingdom which did not pose a foreign threat collapsed into anarchy.

UNITY & DISASTER Clearly, something had to be done - instability in the Earth Kingdom threatened trading relations and fostered transnational threats such as the Red Lotus. The international community was unwilling to deploy their own troops into the Earth Kingdom to restore order, so; much like with General Nong centuries earlier; they selected a proxy to do it for them: Kuvira.

The global strategic intent seems clear. Prince Wu was a United Republic-friendly candidate for the throne. Kuvira, legally empowered and supported with money and weapons, would re-unite the Earth Kingdom. She would then step aside and let Wu take the throne, where he would reign over a stabilised but non-threatening Earth Kingdom.

Unfortunately for this plan, Kuvira refused to hand over power, instead forming the revanchist Earth Empire and setting her sights on conquering the United Republic. This was not megalomania but rather geopolitics; for the Earth Kingdom to be strong, the Fire Nation-backed intrusion on the Mo Ce periphery must be repulsed. There are certainly shades of Feishan’s embargo policy to be found in Kuvira’s approach. Kuvira was, however, subsequently defeated by the Avatar and the United Forces, ending the immediate territorial threat to the United Republic.

RUINS OF THE EMPIRE In light of this challenge, the policy approach changed - the Earth Kingdom would be abolished, and instead be broken up into a set of independent, democratic states. On the surface, this resolves the too strong/too unstable paradox which plagued foreign policy calculations for centuries. In practice, it is highly likely to lead to further violence.

There is little tradition of local democracy in the Earth Kingdom, but extensive examples of military magnates and warlords assuming control in the absence of centralised authority. The aftermath of Kuvira’s conquests, as we see in Ruins of the Empire, left substantial stockpiles of sophisticated weapons available. The division of a large, multi-ethnic empire into smaller states is a difficult process likely to lead to grievance and dissent. And all this is not to mention the threat of spirit vine weapon proliferation.

The future of the Earth Kingdom, far from looking like a democratic paradise, probably involves a chaotic mixture of shaky democracies and outright autocracies vying for position. If any one of the successor states can gain enough power, they may well attempt to follow Kuvira, and Chin, and Feishan, in consolidating imperial rule over the whole Earth Kingdom.

For foreign powers, then, far from solving anything with this new step, they have simply fired the starting pistol on the latest round of Earth Kingdom instability - which is likely, in the best case, to generate transborder threats requiring action; and in the worst case, lead to the consolidation of the Earth Kingdom behind a new, revanchist leader, and the outbreak of another major conventional war.

[anghraine]

I'm definitely a Stewardist Gondor stan, something that is not news to most of my followers, and I have my gripes with Aragorn's rise to power there, which is also not news. But there are some things I like about how book Aragorn conducts himself wrt Gondor, so credit where it's due:

He risks everything to take the Paths of the Dead and pass through Lebennin, liberating slaves of the Corsairs and the coastal peoples of Gondor. He convinces the southern Gondorians to accept him and a large number follow him to the Pelennor. Thus, Aragorn's role in the victory at the Pelennor is dependent on his leadership of a largely Gondorian army.

He doesn't immediately present himself as ~the chosen king~ or whatever, but actively works to avoid destructive civil strife in Gondor by presenting himself only as captain of the Dúnedain of the North.

The first thing Aragorn does in the city is heal Denethor's heir, the foremost potential obstacle to his accession to the kingship, and he approaches Faramir with respect and compassion.

After healing Faramir, Éowyn, and Merry, he proceeds to heal the suffering soldiers of Gondor, again gaining Gondorian acceptance and acclaim through his actions instead of relying solely on a birthright claim—but this time, as renewer as well as warlord.

Even after gathering his armies and riding out to Mordor, Aragorn initially doesn't refer to himself as a king, only switching when it's suggested by a Gondorian prince.

His coronation follows the Gondorian custom in which the Steward asks the Gondorians present if they will accept Aragorn as king, and only proceeds once he's been accepted by them. There's no sign of a political maneuver here in terms of only selecting people who will agree or whatnot—Aragorn has had to genuinely earn the respect and love of Gondor's people.

[griancraft]

I’m writing a hermitcraft skyjacks au and ohhh I’m so excited to write it…

Small summary of what I have planned:

The Hermitcraft is a very famous merchant ship. The Red Feather Syndicate is a colonial power that seeks to dominate the sky’s and any city that they encounter. They’re getting more aggressive after the fall of The Civility by the crew of The Uhuru, a Corsair ship. As their harassment of settlements and ships increases, so does paranoia.

With The Hermitcraft being such a well known merchant ship and surveillance mounting, their occasional dealings with pirates and smuggling of illegal cargo is discovered via tips from an anonymous source. The Hermitcraft is attacked by a Red Feather ship, and as they struggle to fight off the vessel they lose more than they bargained for.

With no port to dock at and no clue who is on their side, they are forced to seek help with Grian’s former crew from his past as a Corsair.

[honourablejester]

PF2e Character Concept: Mbe’ke Dwarf Investigator

Still reading ‘Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse’, and I really like the Mbe’ke? Just a lot. And I was thinking what kind of Mbe’ke character I’d like to make, and there’s just a couple of setting elements that I’d like to pull together here. Bear with me a bit:

The city of origin for this dwarf is going to be the Sky Citadel of Cloudspire. Initially, almost purely because of the Wellspring. The Wellspring is the water source at the base of the hollowed mountain bowl that is the city of Cloudspire, so deep that it’s rumoured to connect with the waters of the Darklands below, and blind abyssal fish often swim up into it. The Wellspring has two primary purposes: it’s the source of most of the city’s water, so fouling it has steep penalties, AND …

It's part of the funerary rites of at least Cloudspire dwarves and also possibly Mbe’ke in general. Not bodies, that would foul the waters. Bodies are cremated. But part of the funeral rites in Cloudspire involve a deceased dwarf’s family throwing a token in their name into the Wellspring, that their soul might return to the Darklands, the first homeland of the dwarves. If they’re poor, it might be just a stone with their name, but elaborate statuettes and carved liknesses are also thrown by richer families. And I thought …

Wouldn’t that would be a fabulous little thing for a dwarven adventurer to ask of their fellow party members? If I die here, will you take a stone in my name to the Wellspring, so that my soul will find home? A last request. If anyone makes it out, help guide my soul home.

So. I wanted a Cloudspire Mbe’ke. And that idea, the last request, tied up with another dark bit of history involving the Wellspring. During the War of Split Hearts, a massive civil war among the Mbe’ke a thousand years ago, the paranoid King Nkobe, believing his dead son had been poisoned instead of dying of disease, laid some groundwork and then spent nine days absolutely slaughtering everyone he believed had been involved. During the Nine Days of Blood, thousands of his people were arrested by masked enforcers, dragged to the bridges above Cloudspire, and beheaded, until the Wellspring beneath them ran red with gore, kicking off a massive civil war that only ended with cloud dragon interference and the deaths of King Nkobe and most of the aristocracy. For the last millennium, Mbe’ke society has had an elected council of kings and an elected high king, to avoid another King Nkobe ever happening again.

There’s also a fellowship … Mbe’ke society is broken up into fellowships, which are sort of like unions/guilds/electoral blocs. Dwarven society is divvied up by vocation, and the fellowships also support retired members, apprentices, dependents, and a few odd folks who are loosely connected to the profession but not actually part of it. There’s lots of loopholes so that people who need to be a part of a fellowship but who can’t actually do the profession can be supported anyway. And. There is a specific warrior fellowship that originated in the War of Split Hearts, called the Bloodmarked. Originally, they were people who survived the massacres of the Nine Days of Blood and who dedicated themselves to war in the aftermath, and these days they form a lot of the backbone of the faction of Mbe’ke’s who want to pursue the Corsair Wars against the Shackles Freecaptains to the death. To join the Bloodmarked fellowship, it’s not necessary but it is strongly traditional for a dwarf to have lost someone close to them to violence.

Now. I could make a Bloodmarked Mbe’ke. Pick a martial class and go for that. But. Another fellowship also caught my eye.

The Hall of Bells is the industrial core of Cloudspire, where most of the craft focused fellowships are found working the various foundries and forges. And among them is the Humble Fellowship. Who make pots and pans and parts, and who experiment with mass production and assembly lines. And there was a bit of me that thought …

Pathfinder has a background called Junk Collector. Which is what it sounds like. You make a living digging through rubbish and junk to find useable parts that you can recycle into something else. You’re trained in Crafting and either Engineering or Mining lore, and you get the Crafter’s Appraisal feat. So. Marry that back up to the Humble Fellowship. Pots and pans and parts, experiments with interchangeable pieces and assembly lines. And marry it also to … blood. And trash. And the Wellspring.

The Bloodmarked are the warrior fellowship. They guide national principles. They fight great causes. They’re born of survivors, yes, but their reach is vast. Electoral voting in the Mbe’ke system is weighted according to how many warriors a fellowship can bring to bear in times of war. So the Bloodmarked, as a fully warrior organisation, are powerful.

What happens to the survivors who aren’t?

Say you’re a humble dwarf, from a guild of pot makers, and you’re scrounging cast-offs for useable parts, and you find … a body. A body nobody cares about. Blood in the Wellspring, that’s only an issue because it pollutes the waters. Suppose some of those bodies are people you care about. People in the cracks, dependents on the edges of fellowships, that people do care about, but that don’t exactly have a lot of political weight behind them.

We’re not going to go for a warrior, here. We’re going to go for an investigator.

And there is … Tiny detail. Interesting detail. Mbe’ke society mostly follows the dwarven pantheon, though also, because of the cloud dragons, Gozreh of the wind and waves, and Uvuko, a draconic god. Among the dwarven pantheon, they favour Torag, obviously, and Grundinnar the Peacemaker, less typically, because the Mbe’ke are a mercantile, trading nation, and they have been powerfully allied with the cloud dragons for millennia, which they’re inclined to thank the Peacemaker for. Recently, with the Corsair Wars, the more hotblooded Angradd the Forge God is also gaining favour. But.

There is a lawful neutral dwarven deity called Dranngvit, the Debt Minder. She is considered a sour, acrimonious goddess of last resort, as she was betrothed to Torag once, only to be set aside when he fell in love with and chose Folgrit instead. Humiliated and embittered, she left Forgeheart, the heavenly realm of the dwarven pantheon, and went into self-imposed exile. She is a bitter, outcast goddess, and the goddess of debts, pursuit and vengeance. She asks retribution for contracts broken and debts unpaid. BUT. She is a lawful neutral goddess. She seeks the repayment of just debts, and appropriate vengeance against transgressions. It is anathema to her to force someone into a debt you know they can’t pay. She’s not the goddess of loan sharks, she just … would like agreements to be kept, and justice done if they are not.

So if you’re an investigator, in a society structured around fellowships that are supposed to support and take care of their members, and you have evidence, bodies, that say they don’t always do that. That people slip through the cracks. The promises are not always kept to those who don’t have force of arms to back them up. Maybe you would start to feel like the Debt Minder has some wisdom to offer?

I feel like an investigator. A junk collector, a dwarf of the Humble Fellowship of pot and pan makers. Who has found … blood in the waters. Bodies, here or there, among the junk, that nobody, or nobody with power, cares about. They’re not symptoms of a grand cause. They’re not soldiers in a war against piracy. They’re just bodies. People in the cracks. But someone should care about them. That’s what fellowships are supposed to be for. There were promises made. Maybe someone should try and make sure that promises are kept. Or that justice is done when they are not.

At the very least, someone should learn a name and throw a stone into the Wellspring for those who have no one else.

And. We could play this dwarf in Cloudspire, if the campaign is happy to do that. But we can also play them outside of it. Because, well, when you start finding bodies people don’t want found, and poking debts people don’t want to pay, sometimes you wind up having to leave to avoid becoming a body yourself. Not forever. You won’t let it be forever, won’t leave that debt unpaid, but no debts are paid by the dead. So. Survival first, and justice later. Dranngvit is a goddess in exile. If we have to, we can emulate her there, too. And thus we’re out and about in the world, in the wilds. Thus we’re asking our fellow adventurers to, in the event that we can’t, travel back to Cloudspire in our name, and throw a stone into the Wellspring to guide our soul home the only way left to it.

So. An Mbe’ke dwarf. A junk collector dwarven investigator from the Humble Fellowship of pot makers in the Sky Citadel of Cloudspire. A attempted champion, in their own small ways, of the unpaid debts and the forgotten dead.

I’m not sure what real world cultures, if any, the Mwangi and Mbe’ke naming conventions are drawing from, but there’s a Yoruba name, Ekundayo, that Behind the Name tells me means ‘tears become joy’, and I think … I think that would fit gently with this dwarf? Maybe she was named because her father never came home after conceiving her. Maybe he was a casualty of the Corsair Wars that the Bloodmarked care so much about. Maybe she could have been a Bloodmarked from the start, if she’d wanted to be. But she was named because she brought joy, even amidst grief, and that’s what she wants to be about. Or wanted. Pots and pans. Simple things, that bring simple comforts and simple joys. But, well, debts still need to be paid.

But, hopefully. Somewhere down the line. Maybe tears will still become joy. That’s … that’s a promise to work towards.

Ekundayo, a Cloudspire Mbe’ke Investigator. Heh.

I do really enjoy having a lot of crunchy setting details to build a character from.

[cozyaliensuperstar7]

Rest In Peace 🙏🏾 ❤️🕊

Michaela Mabinty DePrince (born Mabinty Bangura, 6 January 1995 – September 2024) was a Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer who danced with the Boston Ballet.

DePrince rose to fame after starring in the documentary First Position in 2011, which followed her and other young ballet dancers as they prepared to compete at the Youth America Grand Prix. With her adoptive mother, Elaine DePrince, she authored the book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina (2014).

In 2013, DePrince danced with the Dance Theatre of Harlem as the youngest dancer in the history of the company, and, in 2013, was a soloist with the Dutch National Ballet. From 2016 to 2024, she was a goodwill ambassador with the Amsterdam-based organization War Child.

Born as Mabinty Bangura into a Muslim family in Kenema, Sierra Leone, she grew up as an orphan after her uncle brought her to an orphanage during the civil war. Her adoptive parents were told that her father was shot and killed by the Revolutionary United Front when she was three years old and that her mother starved to death soon after. Frequently malnourished, mistreated, and derided as a "devil's child" because of vitiligo, a skin condition causing depigmentation, she fled to a refugee camp after her orphanage was bombed.

In 1999, at the age of four, she and another girl, also named Mabinty, later given the name Mia, were adopted by Elaine and Charles DePrince, a couple from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and taken to the United States.

The DePrince family has had 11 children, including Michaela, nine of whom were adopted.

DePrince pursued a professional career despite encountering instances of racial discrimination: aged eight, she was told that she couldn't perform as Marie in The Nutcracker because "America's not ready for a Black girl ballerina." A year later, a teacher told her mother that Black dancers weren't worth investing money in.

DePrince was one of the stars of the 2011 documentary film First Position, which follows six young dancers vying for a place in an elite ballet company or school at the Youth America Grand Prix. She was awarded a scholarship to study at the American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet. She also performed on the television program Dancing with the Stars. In 2011, she made her European debut in Abdallah and the Gazelle of Basra with De Dutch Don't Dance Division, a dance company in The Hague, Netherlands. She returned a year later to dance The Sugar Plum Fairy in Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker at the Lucent Dance Theatre.

In 2012, she graduated from the American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in New York City, and joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem, where she was the youngest member of the company. Her professional debut performance was in the role of Gulnare in Mzansi Productions and the South African Ballet Theatre's premiere of Le Corsaire on 19 July 2012.

In July 2013, she joined the junior company of the Dutch National Ballet, based in Amsterdam.

In August 2014 she joined the Dutch National Ballet as an éleve (student). In 2015 she was promoted to the rank of coryphée. In 2016 she was promoted to the rank of grand sujet, and then to soloist at the end of the same year. When she first joined the Dutch National Ballet she was the only dancer of African origin. In 2016, she performed in the "Hope" sequence of Beyoncé's Lemonade.

DePrince cited Lauren Anderson, one of the first Black American principal ballerinas, as her role model.

In 2015, MGM acquired the film rights to DePrince's book Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina.

In 2018, MGM announced that Madonna would direct Taking Flight, a biopic on DePrince's life and career.

In 2019, DePrince produced a gala for War Child Holland which raised more than half a million dollars for children and youth affected by armed conflict.

In September 2020, DePrince announced that she was taking a leave of absence from the Dutch National Ballet. She started online coaching sessions with Charla Genn, a faculty member at the Juilliard School.

In 2021, DePrince joined the Boston Ballet as second soloist. She was drawn to Boston Ballet due to the company, which has many talented Black dancers, its culture, and its repertoire.

DePrince danced the leading role in Coppelia, a 2021 ballet film without dialogue that combines live dance with animation. It is a modernized version of a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann.

In 2015, It was reported that DePrince was in a relationship with ballet dancer Skyler Maxey-Wert, whom she also talked about in her book.

Her adoptive father, Charles DePrince, died in June 2020, but Michaela was unable to travel from Amsterdam to Atlanta to say good-bye and be with her family due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, further complicated by unrest due to the George Floyd protests. In September 2020, she took time off from her career to grieve and deal with her mental health through therapy.

Her death at the age of 29 was announced on 13 September 2024 via her Instagram page, which did not mention a cause of death.

Deepest condolences to her family and friends. 🙏🏾❤️🕊

[ardenpodcast]

When last we left our heroes, they had just defeated the corporate corsairs holding Wheyface's board hostage - only to be confronted with a bomb! Which executive is secretly working for the pirates! Plus: annoying coworkers and snacks!

Created by Emily St. James, Christopher Dole, and Sara Ghaleb. Executive produced by Christopher Dole, Emily St. James, and Eli Barraza Co-produced by Leslie Gideon and Mara Woods-Robinson.

Starring: Michelle Agresti as Bea Casely Tracey Sayed as Brenda Bentley Shannon Estabrook as Rosalind Ursula Lindsay Zana as Julie Capsom Emma Sherr-Ziarko as Janet Dogbury Based on the RPG Escape from Wheyface Radio! Arden original score by Chris Hatfield. This episode also features music used via the Creative Commons agreement on Epidemic Sound. And this week’s Wheyface Product Highlight: Doomsday Pals Inflate-A-Bunker! If you want to survive the apocalypse, make sure you’re having a good time doing it with the bounciest, funnest bunker of all! Inflate-A-Bunker. Brought to you by Wheyface Industries. The Good People… who will survive and rebuild civilization.

[mathlann]

Also as to the previous post, one thing I do think is interesting about the corsairs is how the rulebook kinda works with the idea that cooperation between corsairs and Imperium humans isn't all that unusual. In part perhaps because the institutional force of the Imperium isn't as present but their resources are still plentiful enough to be worth the risk. Corsairs and Rogue Traders are both out for some kind of personal profit so as much as they're cross-purposes they also can align their goals a bit more easily than any other group in their respective peoples. Like every corsair coterie is an absolute force to be reckoned with and incredibly dangerous in combat which that alone is enough for a Rogue Trader to want them on side. But they're also selfish and usually in it for the thrills and so mostly aren't interested in a fight with larger players who they might lose to. So if a coterie doesn't have an ideological bent on killing humans (like the Crow Spirits seem to), then a heavily armored Rogue Trader fleet may be enough to bring them to the negotiating table, if you can catch them.

But then even for bands that are open to working with humans, what do they get paid in? They don't have money and EmperorBucks and tech are useless to them. So it makes sense that they're described as rarely venturing near hubs and largely active around the Heathen Stars or the far outskirts where there's little but ruins. Considering that A) the people of the Heathen Stars are not spacefarers and can be easily raided and traded to Commorragh, and B) ruins of Dead civilizations are great places to treasure hunt for lost Aeldari relics a Craftworld might want, or stuff you want to keep out of mon'keigh hands, thats probably how they make a living among their own kind. So a Rogue Trader wanting to make an arrangement would probably need to offer up something along those lines, tailored to the tastes of the coterie. So, raiding rights on a planet (as Governor Drivestem is rumored to have done), or some kind of Loot Price if something specific gets discovered on a shared mission, or maybe even just the Rogue Trader doing something dangerous for them that they can't afford or want to do themselves (a dungeon delve into Eldritch Horror xenos ruins perhaps).

The other thing to consider too is that they are a fickle bunch, and even once a deal is made, guaranteeing loyalty on either side might require a more complicated form of insurance. And I like how the book implies through one of the adventure seeds that the fallout from an Aeldari deal gone wrong is less about any institutional blowback (because it's the Frontier) but more about reputational damage. Which makes sense! Work with the xenos as is your job as a Rogue Trader and retinue but you can't be seen as their puppet. Sacrificing a few humans here or there to keep your xenos allies happy is okay so long as the benefits stay in your favor but if they don't, you need to come back to Footfall/Port Wander with a santa bag of Xenos parts and tech to sell off as trophies for Humanity or whatever for things to be forgiven.

[djpain619]

Homebrew Lore Dump:

Fall of Cadia causes Tecolote System to be eaten by the warp for 150 Years. They stuck in the warp for 150 year, but only 3 years pass in the Materium.

999.M41 Entire Tecolote System Consumed by Cicatrix Maledictim and contained in Realspace Bubble

System subjected to constant and repeated invasions of their Realspace Bubble by Space Hulks and Pirate fleets consisting mainly of either Ork Freebooter Waaaghs, Chaos Space Marine Warbands, Dark Eldar Corsairs, and Genestealers.

Homegrown Feral Ork Waaaghs happen occasionally as well.

001-003.M42

2 years into Isolation Planetary Civil War starts.

Loyalist Elysians & Kanaks vs Renegade Penals. Hive Aquilla & Rual Villages held by loyalists, Hives Alamode, Tehas, Caulifaña, & NeuYurt held by Renegades.

Genestealers Uncovered and revealed to be instigators.

Centurian Rangers Established to combat and eliminate Genestealer Kelermorphs

Centurian Rangers formed by combining elite Guard Veterans & Arbites, with Scola Progenia Commisariat Staff & Scion Cadets.

Squat neutrality ends. Squats enter war on side of loyalists against Genestealers & Renegades.

Majority of Renegades turn on Genestealers. Some Renegade forces occasionally engage in temporary ceasefire with Loyalists to combat Genestealers.

Upon eradication of Genestealer menace, peace negotiations with Renegades are initiated.

Renegades granted amnesty and full citizenship in exchange for cessation of hostilities and submission to Loyalist authorities

Civil War is ended after 10 years of fighting

Surviving Loyalist Authorities enact several governmental reforms

Penals given full rights. Planetary government reformed onto Federation of Hives and Strongholds named United Settlements of Aquilla

Planetary Governor Becomes Elected Position.

New Planetary Governor commissions Lockstock's Rust Blood Reivers to supplement PDF Naval Forces in Anti-Piracy Operations

Roughly 20 years into Tecolote System's warp Isolation, Joint Squat/Imperial mining Colonies established on Dwarf Planet Tecolote IV. Squats provide skilled labor, Imperials provide Penal Chain gangs as mass unskilled labor.

Roughly 80 years into Tecolote System's warp Isolation, a small Transport Fleet bearing a Lace of Freeblade Imperial Knights enters System. Fleet beset by Ork Freebooters. Rust Blood Reivers render aid and eliminate Freebooters. Freeblade Knight Señor Hidalgo Don Coyóte offers the services of his Cerastus Knight Lancer "El Rocinante" and his Freeblade Lance of Armigers known as "Los Becerrillos"

Señor Don Coyóte given fiefdom over Dwarf Planet and Mining Colonies.

Señor Don Coyóte marries Ørnverden Planetary Governor's daughter and Establishes House La Mancha. Also names Dwarf Planet and all mining Colonies "La Mancha

"Los Tercios de Mastìn" Established by House La Mancha as Personal Guard and PDF Regiment for Dwarf Planet.

[rosexknight]

Mistaken Identity

Another pony I decided to make into a D&D character, and of course I had to make a tiefling. Everyone meet Astoria Ceridwell, a very well-known author who is a modest noble from Wysteria and graduated the college of Timberhollow with a doctorate in Creative Writing and Literature. She writes historical fiction, with her latest series focusing on the Axian Civil Wars. She also moonlights as the author Thlia St. Eros, who writes romance novels, AKA smut. If someone knew she was writing bodice rippers, her reputation as a respectable author would be RUINED. She prides herself on historical accuracy in EVERYTHING she writes, and often researches the history around the area, bttles, people, etc. She often travels and interviews anyone she can find who can give her first-hand accounts. This led her to stowing away on what she thought was a corsair ship to gain some first-hand experience for a pirate romance series, but it ended up being a Curoqi pirate ship. Thankfully, Quirraani was understanding. She spent a couple years in Curoq, gaining information about the archipelago, Gilded War, etc. All the while she was writing simple Dime Novels for some extra money. She came back to Axia with a couple of manuscripts...just in time for Cutter to start his war. Great. Now her pirate series would never sell. However, unknown to her is the danger of being a white tiefling with reddish-hair and a single horn carrying the title of Doctor and Lady, sailing into Axia on a blue ship with a tabaxi on board. Also fun fact: Her name and pen name is deep in references. Astoria Ceridwell Astoria is literally "A story." Ceridwell is the Welsh goddess of poetry. Thalia St. Eros Thalia is the Greek muse of comedy. Eros is the Greek god of love and the name for specifically romantic love in Ancient Greece. St. is just there for pretention. So literally "Pretentious Romantic Comedy." More about Axia and my DM's world here: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/aulivar-cpttritium Hope you enjoy~! My General Patreon, safe for all audiences: www.patreon.com/rosexknight My 18+ ADULT-ONLY Patreon: www.patreon.com/rosexxxknight

[soraka-in-warhammer40k]

I wonder, do some of the non-heresy 40k books touch upon the subject of individual Space Marine/Eldar friendship? Not expecting GW to actually go out there and put a Xeno-Romance into print, but looking at how utterly alienated Astartes are from their own species even, it's somewhat hillarious that War-Mask Eldar are probably one of the few entities in the universe that could genuinely relate to them.

Space Marines are fundamentally disconnected from humans due to their absurdly long lifespan - and that's just on top of all the other freak procedures that go into making one of these. Even when they try to make an effort, regular mortal lives must on a fundamental level feel so fleeting to them. Even a famous inquisitor or noble who through expensive rejuvenation treatments gets to live 300 years might just be a side-note in their long lives. Add to that nonexistent or severely diminished social skills as a side effect of their creation, and not much is going to happen here.

So you got a bunch of super-autist macho-monk-knights rolling through space with a hyperfocus on war at all times. Not exactly the best situation to find any friends in, but looking at the setting it gets even weirder. To build a social connection - or throne beware a romantic one - you need repeat encounters and interactions, and those are hard to get in the grimdark future of the 41st millenium.

Given the war-focus that dominates their minds by design it needs to be someone the Astartes regularely fights, and who can survive a fight with said Astartes, resulting in mutual respect over multiple encounters AND the individual needs to be civil enough for that to work out long term so Orks already disqualify - and out of all the Eldar, the Drukhari are out of the question really, at least the classic dark city kind, leaving either Corsairs or Craftworlders on a war-path for the position and not much else (although I am sure somewhere in the galaxy there's a Space Marine chapter that is sponsored by a Necron Lord who just thinks they are neat).

We got all those Guiliman&Yvraine memes even if they are just coworkers at the best of times, but in canon there should be a lot more individual interaction between Astartes and Eldar.