#the metaphysical importance of periods

[loveemagicpeace]

Synastry & North Node 🌙

🌌💕North node in 12th house synastry-You can meet them during healing or while the person is on a spiritual journey. This synastry aspect often indicates a deep spiritual bond, shared past-life connections, and a strong sense of destiny between the individuals involved. This house is very deep, unknown, subconscious and spiritual. It represents traveling across the sea in a different way than the 9th house. You can go on a spiritual journey that changes everything for you. When the north node falls into this house it shows that a person can change your life on a very deep level by becoming a part of your journey. They can help you heal parts of yourself that you may not have known how to heal before or didn't know you could. They have a subconscious influence on your life. This is the most invisible house and therefore the most uncomfortable. As soon as a person enters your life you can feel not only comfortable but also safe. Feelings that you can't explain. The person is part of your mystical journey and together you can go through a spiritual journey into the unknown. You can help each other a lot. The person becomes an important part of your life. A very important person who can also come at a time when you are at your lowest or when your life is falling apart. You can share an important part of your life together and you will never forget each other. This is such a special experience and I think that a relationship can be very beautiful and much more special than in other houses. Because here is a place where there is only the two of you and a world that only the two of you understand. This synastry aspect often suggests a karmic or soulmate connection.The individuals may feel as though they have known each other for lifetimes, and in many ways, they have. This can manifest as an inexplicable depth of understanding and empathy between the two. This relationship is fated. You two can do tarot or some spiritual things together.

🧚🏼‍♀️North Node in 8th house synastry- you can meet during a time when things are difficult (when you or the other person is in a dark period). This can include (money problems, grief, loss of something, etc.). This relationship is very transformative and the person helps you change something in your life. They help you through an emotional transformation. They can stand by you a lot. This connection often signifies a profound opportunity for both individuals to evolve, heal deep emotional wounds, and collaborate in exploring the depths of intimacy and shared resources. It can help you open up intimately or help you heal wounds related to intimacy. In some cases, the person may also help you financially. This can be a painful process, but it's also a powerful opportunity for growth and transformation. This placement also has a strong spiritual component. The partners might find themselves exploring metaphysical topics, such as reincarnation, karma, or the afterlife.

🍓North Node in 4th house synastry- A person may enter your life while you are going through family changes. You may be going through some family problems. It could be a connection with your mother or father (but not necessarily). The person can help you improve your relationship with your parents or open up a new perspective on it. It can also come at a time of moving or changing environments. Through this person, you can find out what home really means to you and where the place that is truly for you is. The 4th House person may feel an immediate sense of comfort and familiarity with the North Node person, as if they've found a place where they truly belong or a soul connection that feels like family.This connection often indicates a destined relationship aimed at helping the 4th House person embrace their destiny and a sense of home and comfort.

🏄🏽‍♀️North Node in 3rd house synastry-You may meet the person through relatives, friends, or they may be your neighbor at the time of moving. You can share common opinions and thoughts with this person, communication is very good. You can also meet when you buy a new car or on the road. The person can encourage you to express yourself more. It can also affect your relationship with your siblings. You can go on short trips with this person a lot. However, it also brings forth growth opportunities and challenges that require open and honest communication to be navigated successfully. This could mean that the North Node person is challenged to open their mind to new ideas, to communicate more effectively, or to become more involved in their local community.

🌊North Node in 9th house synastry- You may meet a person on a journey that can be spiritual or physical. The person may be the reason you start to believe in something or represent a higher influence in your life. You can meet her during your studies or at a lecture. There can be long distance in involed with this person. This placement is a call to step out of the comfort zone of familiar knowledge and to venture into the realms of higher learning, spirituality, and philosophical understanding. The relationship itself may be a little strange, foreign at first. You may speak a different language or have completely different habits. The person brings a lot of optimism and positive energy into your life. This partnership encourages both parties to question their long-held beliefs and to seek truth and wisdom.

���North Node in 7th house synastry- This person can come into your life when you are in a relationship or at a time of indecision. It can also be during a divorce or at a time of important decisions. It can change your perspective on love and partnership and what it means to you. You can build an ideal relationship or a relationship that is harmonious and different from others. But the person can be an influence that makes them different from who you are. This is a significant aspect in synastry and can be a powerful indicator of a deep and meaningful bond. This placement can also indicate a strong karmic bond between the two individuals. They may have been drawn together to resolve past life issues or to fulfill a certain destiny in this lifetime.

🎸North Node in 5th house synastry- you can meet a person during their playful, childish period. They can share the same hobby and meet in a sports environment. You can meet at an event or party. The person can help you discover new hobbies, interests, and other things. The relationship can start as a summer fling or something more lighthearted. It's not necessary, but you can also meet a person when they already have a child with someone or something similar. You can help a person get rid of some obsessions or addictions. This relationship can be very playful and full of new ideas throughout their lives. They may play a lot of board games. The person may also be involved in your life in connection with your hobbies. There can be a lot of fun with this person.

🍒North Node in 2nd house synastry- You can meet a person when they deal with money, financial matters, and inner feelings. It could also be something related to food (restaurants, luxury items, material things). Maybe even at a time when the person is more focused on comfort and doesn't want change. This placement suggests that the relationship has the potential to deeply transform both individuals' understanding of self-worth and financial security. This can lead to mutual efforts towards building a solid foundation for your future. Trust issues may arise, especially regarding shared resources or financial decisions. Open and honest communication is the key to overcoming these challenges, allowing both partners to grow and learn from each other.

🧉North Node in 6th house synastry-You can meet a person during a change in routine, work, or health. It could be something related to health or the physical body. The person helps you get through each day, you may be in a lot of contact with this person on a daily basis. It can help you organize your life.It can also be when you have weight problems or start working on yourself more. It can also be when you get a new pet. This synastry aspect can create a relationship dynamic centered around personal growth, mutual support, and shared responsibilities. They might inspire or even challenge you to improve these areas of your life. You might find yourselves naturally inclined to help each other in practical ways, from sharing daily tasks to giving advice on work or health issues.

🌙North Node in 1st house synastry-You can get to know a person when they are focused on themselves and working on themselves.You can also get to know them when they are more independent and changing their personality. There may also be a lot of conflicts with this person. You can have a big impact on their self-image. It can also happen at a time when the person is not as focused on the relationship or is not as open to it. This dynamic encourages both individuals to support each other's self-expression, personal development, and the exploration of their individual identity. You can be a mirror for how they see themselves. This can lead to a deeper understanding of one's path and purpose. You can also be some sort of new beginning.

🥑North Node in 10th house synastry - You can meet a person in a public place, through your parents, or through something related to your career. They often act as a catalyst for growth, encouraging the Tenth house person to embrace their ambitions fully. This placement can also bring challenges, as the Tenth house person may feel pressured to live up to the North Node person's expectations. The relationship between these two individuals can be highly beneficial for both parties. This person can help you grow into a more mature person or help you achieve certain things, support you in your goals and ambitions. This is also very karmic time. You can have a common mission that you have to go through.

📀North Node in 11th house synastry- you can meet them through friends, acquaintances, social networks, in group of people. You can dream at a time when you are more committed to your goals and ambitions. A person can help you achieve your dreams. Together you can build on many things and build a community or something that you both work on. You have common interests. if you have certain hopes this person can make it true for you. They can introduce you to new social circles or communities that align with your soul's mission. This could be through shared interests, humanitarian causes, or innovative projects. Understanding and respecting each other's karmic paths can lead to a fulfilling and growth-oriented relationship that not only benefits the individuals involved but also the wider community they engage with.

-Rebekah🧚🏼‍♀️💕🍓

[1800titz]

FETISH MASTERLIST

The one in which there's an interesting blog focused on a niche genre of soft-core pornography, two next-door neighbors in an apartment complex with paper-thin walls, a simple case of misinterpretation, a man that runs from intimacy like there's an award waiting at the invisible finish line, and a pet bunny called Snuggles.

The early access spanko fic ♡ | get ahead here

wattpad alt | PATREON MASTERLIST | MAIN MASTERLIST

CHAPTER 1 ←→ wattpad alt

the pilot episode feat. a simple misinterpretation of consensual kink as violence

“I called the police on you,” she tells him, utter dismay lacing the words together.  “You did, yeah.” Harry still remembers the blank expression varnished along the officer’s face— the kind of emotionally vacant stare reserved for department store mannequins. The echo of the distant, metaphysical NOPE that definitely rode along his brainstem the moment the curly-haired brunette mentioned “it’s a kink thing,” and the way his partner, hands allocated to his holster belt, started very obviously examining his own shoes.  “I thought—“ Y/N stutters, her wobbling voice sounding squeezed from her trachea, “I thought—“

“You thought you were living next door to a criminal,” Harry supplies. When he tilts his head, a rogue curl flops over his forehead.

CHAPTER 2 ←→ wattpad alt

There are things about a next-door neighbor that one should not, under any circumstances, ever discover— how long, exactly, his refractory period lasts; what kind of guttural, wrecked sound crawls from the pit of his chest mid-orgasm; the way his inky, toned forearm looks, flexing, right before he plants a bruising smack to someone’s ass, punctuating the reciprocal whimper with a low, devious hum. 

Unfortunately, Y/N is now acquainted with all three— two by forcible default and one by self-destructive curiosity. 

CHAPTER 3 ←→ wattpad alt

Only a couple of days ago, he’d stepped out to water his plants and overheard a group of girls, unbeknownst to his eavesdropping— a circle of collegiate roommates, as far as he understands, given that he’s heard them discuss Kappa Sigma’s infamous Brett’s cock in disgustingly avid detail (is girth more important than integrity? The world may never know)— conversing out on the balcony right beneath his own. Once, he’d sat through four whole minutes of what sounded like an intervention about “the ethics of fucking your lab partner for Adderall.” The conversation wasn’t nearly enthralling enough to stomach more before he finished his joint and went back inside, but this time, the snippet he hears gives him pause. He stands still with his watering can in his hand, hovering over Monte (a bushy thing that’s tripled in size since he first acquired it from the plant nursery), and his pink mouth slowly settles into a grimace the longer he listens.  “I heard he was on house arrest, but they removed the ankle monitor early.” “No, no, he’s just in witness protection. But like, bad at it.” “Wait, I thought he was an ex-cop?” “No, he’s a dom.” “…A what?” “A dom. You know. A professional one.” “Like a dominatrix?” “Isn’t that just a woman?” “I don’t know, I just know he runs one of those torture chambers and probably wears leather.” “Holy shit, Jess.” When someone else tacks on, after an awed pause, “…Do you think there’s a sign-up sheet we could hit?” and a peal of girlish giggles erupts, the man literally has to muscle down his eye roll. The last group of people he wants on his roster are a freshly-legal coalition of matching crop tops with vodka breath.

It’s not exactly his ideal demographic.

CHAPTER 4 ←→ wattpad alt

“He was an asshole,” Y/N delivers the context with a blink, waving her hand as if to clear the slate of his lingering ego trail. Her lashes flutter like she's recalibrating for the shift in energy, and she gestures with her head into the direction of the cooler beside him, “There’s a fridge right next to you.” “Right,” Harry purses his mouth, knocking his bare knuckle against the counter softly as he cocks his head, “but that’s self-service. I’m looking for a bit more hospitality.” A creeping heat wells in her the longer his eyes stay pinned and smogs her head. “Right. Well. We have coffee, and,” she juts her chin, “…things…”

“Coffee and things,” his eyebrows climb as he nods at the elusive explanation, lids falling to a teasing half-mast, “That’s very insightful.”

CHAPTER 5 ←→ wattpad alt

Harry would argue that the majority of the human population doesn’t prefer the unknown, and he’s no outlier in that department.  He likes knowing where his keys are, so he always sets them into the same spot. He likes having a drawer specifically dedicated to loose cables, even if some of them are unidentifiable and may belong to devices he no longer owns. He prefers his breakfast to be the same most days: toast, half an avocado, an egg, and lemon if he remembers. There’s a particular brand of olive oil that he restocks beside his stovetop— extra virgin, Terra Delyssa, always— and he always finds himself reaching for the same shampoo at the store. He still uses a face wash a girl had once recommended in 2017, mostly because he’s scared to try anything else and potentially break out. What’s the point of fracturing and restructuring a routine that already works?  Harry prefers routine. It is the antithesis of chaos, and therefore change (which, as mentioned, he doesn’t particularly enjoy), and that is funny given that his regular coffee rotation has grown from two reputable cafés to three. The third, incidentally, being the one that Y/N works at, and incidentally, his stops there happen to occur when Y/N is on shift. 

Which is to say, in the most polite terms— Harry deems— that he would like to fuck her. 

CHAPTER 6 > coming (07/15/25) OR access here now

[mesetacadre]

Hey do you think you could watch and give your throughts on youtuber Jonas Čeika video "marx was not a statist"?

Thank you

Quite honestly, the title alone already betrays some amount of anarchist metaphysics, the concept of stateism is a purely idealist notion which only works if you are a liberal about authority. But regardless, I still watched the full thing.

The video starts with a very semantic-focused discourse on how marx never used "socialism" to mean the lower phase of communism, and way too much time on the terms transitionary period/DotP as if they weren't two terms that refer to the same thing. In the case of socialism/lower phase of communism, I think he's obfuscating. He focuses the discussion on whether Marx used a certain term in the same way we do now. This would be like spending a good 5 minutes of a video presenting, with an almost accusatory disposition against modern communists, how the bolsheviks called themselves social-democrats, pretending like the terms haven't simply evolved. He promises an "active engagement with marxist theory" and he starts by arguing semantics. He even acknowledges this possible criticism, but you also then have to defend why that criticism is not valid, instead he acts like merely acknowledging it will make that criticism invalid. I'm also spending this time on this specific point because, later, he also forgets how Marx used the word "socialism".

When he does define the lower stage of communism, he engages in a very mechanic and economicist view, with the simple train of thought: No money (replaced with vouchers) > no capital to accumulate > no classes > no state. I think that just by asking how these vouchers will be regulated and how access to wealth restricted to the use of those vouchers, the conclusion that the substitution of money necessarily leads through that chain to the disappearance of the state becomes, very transparently, downright infantile.

In his point about how the Paris Commune changed Marx's view on the state, he cites excerpts in a very misleading way. The whole point starts by pointing out that, in the preface to the 1872 edition, the experience of the Paris Commune led Marx and Engels to the following analysis: "...the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes". This, along with a disregard of the importance of the specific policy points they outlined in the manifesto, and the importance of absolute centralization, means to him that Marx and Engels, actually, completely disregarded the use of the state on the road to communism. To quote Lenin: "Listen, comrade from Tiflis, one may prevaricate, but one should know the limit...."

What the video doesn't directly address (and although he talks about the text extensively, It's important to cite ideas where they actually come from), is that this quote, although it appeared in the 1872 edition of the manifesto, comes from Civil War in France, a longer text on the Paris Commune. This is a more complete context of that quote that the video never gives [ID in alt text]

That quote is the beginning of a chapter in which Marx describes how the Paris Commune governed itself, and how it broke with the series of revolts that happened throughout the period of feudalism, how the class character of the Commune marked it as the significant event that it is. It is true that the Commune's aspirations for the entire world was for its form to be replicated even in the smallest hamlet, and it may even be true that this influenced Marx to generally reject centralization of the state. However, what the breadtuber obviates throughout the entire video, is that a small state is still a state, and furthermore, that revolutionary strategy is not dictated by what is right or wrong, but by what can be done to advance the cause of the emancipation of the working class. It is one thing to reject the state outright, and another very different thing to acknowledge that it is necessary to take control of the state to emancipate the working class, even if you abstractly oppose the concept of a state. Not only to take control of the state, which is the point of the original quote, it is necessary to create our own worker's state, in whichever form it best suits the concrete reality: "the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes". Jonas says that the proletariat should, instead, create "radically democratic working class institutions". These gentlemen think that when they have changed the names of things they have changed the things themselves.

Instead of understanding that point, he goes even further. Jonas has understood that, by praising the measures taken by the Paris Commune (which, let's remember, failed after two months!), Marx and Engels began to believe that "[the state] is by nature bourgeois". Maybe Jonas started reading Bakunin instead of Marx without realizing, this is perhaps the most liberal and historically illiterate portion of the 30+ minute video essay. Again, comrade from breadtube, one may prevaricate, but one should know the limit. In fact, Marx even says in the same text being discussed: "It is generally the fate of completely new historical creations to be mistaken for the counterparts of older, and even defunct, forms of social life, to which they may bear a certain likeness". The irony needn't be explained.

As if Jonas hadn't misconstrued the text and Marx enough, he shows the quote: "... although there is nothing socialist in them except their tendency...". At first I was unable to find this specific quote in Civil War in France, not in any chapter nor in the footnotes. As it turns out, this quote is not from Civil War in France, as Jonas so succinctly cites it, but from the draft of the text. First, it's simply dishonest to cite such a cherrypicked line from a draft and passing it off as something Marx published.

There might be a myriad of possible reasons why this idea did not make it into the final text, but in order for the audience to correctly follow along, it's necessary for them to know where an idea comes from. Beyond this, which I find misleading enough, the video makes the point that with this line, Marx is clearly differentiating between a dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism. But hang on, didn't Jonas spend the first 5 minutes of the video explaining that, in the times of Marx, socialism was understood to be a reformist and petit-bourgeois stance? So, then, how could this out of context, unpublished line be Marx making a distinction between lower-phase communism and the dictatorship of the proletariat? This is the phrase's context [ID in alt text]:

The actual point of this portion is not even related to what Jonas makes it out to be. Here, using "socialist" as another name for utopians, Marx makes the distinction between previous movements of utopians, those socialist sects, and the Paris Commune, because even though their goals, the emancipation of labor, may appear similar, there is nothing socialist [utopian] in them because their means are not utopian, but the beginnings of scientific communism. So, then, not only did Jonas go back on the first point of the video to dunk on the evil stalinists, and not only did he completely remove the context of a phrase by failing to cite properly, but he also failed to even understand the points made in the text he's cherrypicking. Is this what passes for "active engaging with marxist texts" in breadtube?

After this portion, which I still consider the better half of the video, he veers into talking about socialism in one country, first by, again, very blatantly removing important parts of the texts he talks about. The quote he shows, from Principles of Communism, is as follows: "Will it be possible for this revolution to take place in one country alone? No. By creating the world market, big industry has already brought all the peoples of the Earth [...] into such close relation with one another that none is independent of what happens to the others [...] It follows that the communist revolution will not merely be a national phenomenon but must take place simultaneously in all civilized countries [...] It is a universal revolution and will, accordingly, have a universal range." It is true that Engels states that communist revolutions cannot be confined to the national scale, but those ommissions hide a lot of nuance that is very relevant to discussing Marx and Engels' positions on the national/international question. This is the full quote [ID in alt text]:

Marx and Engels were unable to completely and correctly analyze the imperialist form of capitalism, which hadn't yet fully crystallized, economically speaking. According to them, since capitalism was the most developed in places like England or France, the proletariat was also more developed, and the socialist revolution would happen first in these places, and propagate outwards. This notion was proved false by both theory (Lenin's imperialism) and by practice. Lenin identified that, as imperialism settled down as the highest stage of capitalism, the imperialist chain could only be broken at the weakest link, which was Russia at the time. I'm insisting on Lenin's theories because Jonas also claims Lenin to the "not statist" camp, and the video very quickly loses any originality by defaulting to the narrative of Stalin betraying Marx and Lenin by rejecting the world-wide revolution in the short-medium term as a pre-requisite for the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat. I think that going more in depth into this will only make this response unnecessary longer, but to end it, I think it's apt to end with a Lenin quote which directly refutes this anti-Lenin betrayal notion:

A United States of the World (not of Europe alone) is the state form of the unification and freedom of nations which we associate with socialism—about the total disappearance of the state, including the democratic. As a separate slogan, however, the slogan of a United States of the World would hardly be a correct one, first, because it merges with socialism; second, because it may be wrongly interpreted to mean that the victory of socialism in a single country is impossible, and it may also create misconceptions as to the relations of such a country to the others.

Uneven economic and political development is an absolute law of capitalism. Hence, the victory of socialism is possible first in several or even in one capitalist country alone. After expropriating the capitalists and organising their own socialist production, the victorious proletariat of that country will arise against the rest of the world—the capitalist world—attracting to its cause the oppressed classes of other countries, stirring uprisings in those countries against the capitalists, and in case of need using even armed force against the exploiting classes and their states. The political form of a society wherein the proletariat is victorious in overthrowing the bourgeoisie will be a democratic republic, which will more and more concentrate the forces of the proletariat of a given nation or nations, in the struggle against states that have not yet gone over to socialism. The abolition of classes is impossible without a dictatorship of the oppressed class, of the proletariat. A free union of nations in socialism is impossible without a more or less prolonged and stubborn  struggle of the socialist republics against the backward states.

On the Slogan for a United States of Europe, V. I. Lenin (1915)

Overall, I think this video lacks any kind of rigor or respect for the texts discussed. Citations are pretty predominantly misleading or incomplete in some way, he extrapolates fantastical ideas from texts he doesn't appear to understand, and more in general, the way the video is concienved reeks of dogmatism, the arguments overwhelmingly boil down to "Marx said this (according to me), so it must be true". There is no actual engagement with texts, but there isn't even a will to engage with history. Marxism does not end with Marx and Engels, it's a philosophical and political framework that extends beyond the gospel of incomplete quotes. Even if Marx and Engels really did believe such anti-materialist ideas as "the state is bourgeois by nature", it would not change the facts that the history and experiences after the Paris Commune should also have weight in order to reach conclusions.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Beginner's guide to Vampire: the Masquerade lore

Vampire: the Masquerade is a tabletop roleplaying game that, since its debut in 1991, has gone on to become one of the most influential pieces of vampire media. It also launched the World of Darkness (nowadays called the Classic World of Darkness or Old World of Darkness) franchise, a series of TTRPGs that all share a setting but can be played independently of each other. This post is intended to be an introduction to the lore of the setting for someone who might want to get into the game and wants to know the basics. It's not a deep dive. For one, this post is long enough already and for two, you don't need to know about stuff like the Tal'Mahe'Ra, the Laibon, and what every bloodline is to get started. Also worth noting is that VtM lore is presented as things the characters believe rather than things the players know, so there's lots of ambiguity and contradiction and differing opinions. This is very much by design.

Also important to note is the nature of the Time of Judgement and 5th edition. All the Old WoD game were building up to an apocalypse and, in 2001, books were released for every game to let players roleplay the end of the world. The setting was then discontinued and replaced with the New World of Darkness. However, starting in 2011, the Old WoD was revived in a new 20th anniversary edition. The lore of this new edition just assumed the apocalypse never happened. Since then, a 5th edition has been released that changes a lot of the lore of some of the games. The 5th edition lore changes for Vampire were pretty well done and I do like most of them as they feel like an addition to the setting rather than blatant retcons the way Werewolf's 5th edition changes were. What I'm not fond of is some of the mechanics changes, especially with regards to the Disciplines, but we'll get to that later.

So what is a vampire? Well, WoD vampires like to call themselves Kindred or Cainites, and they are made rather than born. Every vampire must be Embraced by another vampire outside of weird magic stuff. A key component of the game is that being a vampire comes with a lot of benefits, but also a lot of downsides. First of all, vampires are dead. They are walking corpses who have to consume blood to force their bodies to pretend to be alive again. They do not age and they are very resistant to change. Blood is the only thing they can eat. Normal food and drink makes them throw up. Animal blood does work, but it tastes disgusting. On the other hand, the blood of other vampires (which they call Vitae) is even better than human blood, but drinking it is risky. If vampire A drinks the Vitae of vampire B three times, A will become B's slave for a period of time that can be extended by drinking more Vitae. In addition, if one vampire drains another completely dry, to the point of draining their heart's Vitae, they consume the soul, an act called Diablerie. Diablerie confers great power, but it comes with heavy consequences, both social and metaphysical. Vampires do not have to kill those they feed on and it is generally encouraged that they not. The bite of a Kindred, which they call the Kiss, feels highly pleasurable to both parties and the victim usually only have vague memories of what happened. The bite would heal extremely fast too, leaving no real evidence. Kindred can store blood inside their bodies and they expend some of this blood supply during their nightly lives and more to use their powers. The act of making a new Kindred, called the Embrace, requires the sire to drain the chosen target of their blood, then, before the target dies, feed them some Vitae. If done correctly, the corpse will rise again the next night and a new member of the undead. If a Kindred wants a servant but doesn't want to Embrace, they can instead make a Ghoul. Ghouls are humans fed a vampire's Vitae. This gives them some minor powers and stops their aging as long as they keep feeding, but it also warps the mind, making the ghoul enamored with and eager to serve the Kindred that created them. A vampire's power increases with age, but the most important determining factor is generation. A vampire's generation is how far removed they are from Caine, the first vampire. The higher your generation, the weaker you are.

In addition to sharing some abilities, all Kindred share weaknesses. For one, the sun and fire will kill you very fast. A stake to the heart won't kill, but it does paralyze the Kindred until removed. Other common fiction vampire weaknesses, like running water, garlic, and needing an invitation are not actual Kindred weaknesses. Most of them also cast reflections. A major weakness all Kindred share is the Beast. This is the animalistic monster part of a vampire, the id that is constantly within their minds, encouraging them to hunt, kill, feed, reproduce, and escape from danger. It is the part that encourages them to give up on the remnants of their humanity and become a monster. The Beast is constantly trying to take control and during times of danger, hunger, or passion, it can drive the Kindred into a state of mindless fight-or-flight instinct called a Frenzy. There are various ways to keep the Beast in check, but the most common one is by keeping in touch with one's former humanity. This means acting human, surrounding yourself with humans, refraining from violence and bloodshed, and generally resisting the Beast's influence. The more you give into the Beast, the more likely you are to Frenzy. A Kindred who completely gives up on their humanity will enter a state of permanent Frenzy. Kindred in this state are usually hunted down and killed.

Vampires are divided into Clans and Sects. Clans are lineages of vampires that go all the way back to the birth of the species. There are 13 of them and I will discuss them later. Sects are political organizations with shared laws and goals. There are three primary Sects as well as some smaller ones that I won't discuss. They are the Camarilla, the Sabbat, and the Anarchs.

The Camarilla are the most powerful Sect and the one most players will be in. It is a very feudal society based on the principle of rule by the elders. The specifics of international Camarilla politics are beyond the scope of a beginner's guide. What most players will interact with is the structure of the Camarilla within a city. Cities are ruled by a Prince, who delegates to various other official positions and to the Kindred who live in their city. The Camarilla is an organization marked with political intrigue and subterfuge, where everyone has a plan and see you as a puppet at best and an obstacle at worst. Unlife in a Camarilla city is defined by rules. Such rules include "respect each other's territory", "get permission before you Embrace someone", "your Childe (new vampire you Embraced) is your responsibility until the Prince decides they're fit to set out on their own", "don't go around killing each other without permission", and "no Diablerie", but the most important rule is the Masquerade. This is the rule that humans are not allowed to find out that vampires exist. The Masquerade is a matter of life and death. In the past, when Kindred ruled humanity openly, humans armed with torches and stakes were able to force the Kindred into hiding through sheer force of numbers. Now there are more humans than ever and they have nukes. There's a reason the number 1 rule of the Camarilla is "don't provoke the humans."

The Sabbat used to be the second most powerful Sect, but have recently dropped down to number 3. They are an organization dedicated to the Jyhad, the struggle of Kindred against their elders going all the way back to the original vampires. The Sabbat believe that Caine, the mythical first vampire instructed their founders to find and destroy the Antediluvians, founders of the Clans (more on them below) to prevent the end of the world, which they call Gehenna. By contrast, the Camarilla officially denied the existence of the Antediluvians and Gehenna until circumstances forced them to come clean. The Sabbat also dream of openly ruling over humanity and hate the idea of remaining hidden, but they still respect the Masquerade as they acknowledge they aren't yet in a position to seize power. The Sabbat is a very violent organization and members are often stereotyped as violent and stupid thugs, but the leadership is very cunning. The Sabbat equivalent to a Price is a Bishop.

The Anarchs are a loose organization of Kindred who don't want anything to do with the complex power structure and rule by elders that defines the Camarilla and Sabbat. They answer to nobody and just want to do their own things. Power structures in the Anarchs are very loose and driven by respect, not force or seniority. Anarchy will respect the opinions of those who earn it, but will never accept authority from force or any ideas of right to rule. There is a position called a Baron that is similar to a Prince or Bishop, but is much less formal and chosen almost democratically. The Anarchs have been a footnote for most of history, but as of recent events, their power has expanded considerably, allowing them to seize lots of territory and take the Sabbat's place as the 2nd most powerful Sect.

Before discussing the clans, we need to go over the origin of vampires. There are a lot of stories about how they came about, but the most common is that of Caine. According to vampire history, after Cain slew his brother Abel, he was cursed and banished from his family. Wandering the land, he found Lilith, said by many to be the first wife of Adam who was banished from Eden. Lilith was an immensely powerful mage and recognized in Cain the power to kill, something she thought was unique to God. Cain begged Lilith to teach him her powers ans she eventually agreed. She made a potion of her blood, which Cain drank, giving him a vision. In this vision, three angels came to Cain, each offering him a chance to repent of his sin of murder. Cain refused each angel and was cursed by each in turn: first with a fear of fire, a second with a fear of sunlight, and the third with the Beast. Cain then awoke from his vision as the first Kindred, a being of unfathomable power. Now calling himself Caine, he stayed with Lilith for a while and they became lovers. This lasted until Caine simply left her one night as she slept and returned to wandering.

Caine's wanderings eventually led him to the Land of Nod, where he found the First City. The people of the city feared Caine's power and worshiped him as a god, with the king, Enoch, granting Caine his throne. In time, Enoch requested that Caine share his immortality and so Caine Embraced Enoch as the first member of the 2nd generation. Eventually, he was joined by at least two more Kindred, A warrior named Irad and a beautiful woman named Zillah. They in turn Embraced the 3rd generation. Caine feared that the Kindred would overwhelm humanity and decreed that no more Kindred be sired. Eventually, the First City was destroyed by the biblical deluge and Caine returned to wandering the world (the order of these events is debatable). The 2nd and 3rd generation members that survived are known as Antediluvians and they tried to rebuild the First City as the Second City. In time, the 3rd generation raised up and destroyed the 2nd. Caine then returned long enough to curse the members of the 3rd Generation. These Antediluvians are said to be the founders of the 13 Clans and their curses were passed down to their descendants. The Antediluvians eventually turned on each other, leading to the destruction of the Second City. Many Kindred now believe that the Antediluvians now slumber in hidden places around the world and when Gehenna comes, they will rise and devour the world to slake their thirst before Caine returns to pass judgement on the survivors.

Your Clan is your vampire family. You are the same Clan your sire was barring very uncommon circumstances Each clan claims descent from one of the Antediluvians and inherited their founder's curse, known as a Bane. 5th edition also added compulsions that the Clans suffer from, which I think are cool and add more character to them. Vampires also have powers called Disciplines. Each Clan inherits three Disciplines that will grow in strength as the Kindred grows older and more powerful. It is possible to learn Disciplines not from your Clan, but it is harder and generally requires a teacher and that tutelage will not come cheap. Thematically, the Clans are based around common archetypes of vampires in fiction. Historically, the Clans were all aligned to different Sects or remained independent. As of recent events, those strict lines have started to break down more than they were in the past. There are also mini-clans called Bloodlines and Caitiff and Thin-Bloods who don't really have Clans, but you generally don't need to know about them as a beginner. I'll cover the clans in alphabetical order.

Clan Banu Haqim, commonly but incorrectly called Clan Assamite, fills the archetype of the eastern Vampire. They are the self-appointed judges of the Kindred world, secretly observing the activities of other vampires and assassinating those who proved unworthy. For most of history, they were a very tight-knit clan based out of a mountain fortress called Alamut hidden somewhere in the mountains of Arabia. They were divided into three castes. The Judges were the ones who went out to observe and pass judgement on other Kindred. Most outsiders only knew the Judges existed and they became the boogeymen of the Kindred world. The Viziers are scholars and advisers who seek out hidden lore and act as the leadership of the Clan. The Sorcerers are the smallest caste and are assigned to study secrets of ancient blood magic. They are kept on a tight leash by the rest of the Clan. Once Islam arose as a religion, it became adopted by the Clan, to the point the vast majority of members were Muslims. This changed in the 90's when Ur-Shulgi, one of the first members of the clan, arose from nearly 2,000 years of slumber and took over, demanding that the rest of the Clan renounce Islam and convert to worship of their Antediluvian. This led to a schism with about a third of the clan staying with Ur-Shulgi as an independent Clan, another third defecting to the Camarilla, and the rest being split up between the Anarchs, Sabbat, and independence. Those who left have to adapt to a new way of unlife as they are denied access to Alamut and must live amongst Kindred who have historically feared them. The Banu Haqim Antediluvian is Haqim. Legend says he was appointed to be a keeper of justice in a city ruled by two unnamed members of the 2nd Generation. When his rulers turned to evil, Haqim slew them in their sleep. He then cut himself to bleed out and drank their Vitae to embrace himself as a vampire. Haqim was appointed to enforce Caine's laws, but when the corruption of the Second City became too much for him to take, he took his Clan and left, eventually founding Alamut. He would come and go from the fortress and was last seen in the year 121 BCE. He is now believed to be slumbering somewhere, though some Banu Haqim claim he is secretly watching and judging them. The Banu Haquim used to have different Disciplines based on their caste, but the most common spread was Celerity (superhuman speed), Obfuscate (the ability to go undetected), and Quietus (blood control). In 5th edition, Quietus was replaced with Blood Sorcery, which is what is sounds like. Their compulsion is to pass judgment on others. Their Bane is an addiction to Diablerizing those they view as guilty.

Clan Brujah fills the archetype of the violent street punk vampire. Once, they were a clan of warrior-scholars who worked to restrain their naturally violent tempers and the temptations of the Beast. Since some major defeats in the past, these practices have been lost to time. Now, the Clan is one of violence and rebellion. While the clan was historically officially aligned with the Camarilla, there was little internal structure and defections to the Anarchs were so common that many considered them an Anarch clan instead. The Anarchs for the Brujah heavily as their natural rebellious tendencies give them a natural dislike for hierarchy. Brujah are often associated with various countercultural and minority movements. They tend heavily toward anarchy, but any minority political position appeals to them. You can just as easily find Brujah neo-nazis simply becuase that position is opposed to the majority. In 2012, a Brujah elder murdered two major political figures in a meeting of Camirilla elders. In the aftermath, the clan formally left the Camarilla and became the first official Anarch clan. They have since been instrumental in the rise of the Anarchs as a major Sect and have helped establish an Anarch Free State that now cover large portions of the west coast of North America. There are many conflicting stories about the Brujah Antediluvian, but the most common one says he was either named Ilyes or Troile the Elder. He was a very calm and dispassionate man who only Embraced one Childe, the passionate and rebellious Troile the Younger. Throile the Younger eventually Diablerized their (stories differ on their gender) Sire in what may have been the opening moves of the 3rd generation's rebellion. The Brujah Disciplines are Celerity (superhuman speed), Potence (superhuman strength), and Presence (incredible charisma). Their compulsion is to rebel. Their Bane is a closer connection to the Beast, which gives them their violent tempers and makes it harder for them to resist Frenzying.

Clan Cappadocian is one of the two extinct Clans who represented the archetype of the vampire as a creature of death. Their Antediluvian was Cappadocius, a scholar of death who only sired Childer because he realized he couldn't complete his research alone. The clan was small and kept tightly controlled by Cappadocius as they tried to uncover the secrets of death and the underworld. In the 1440s, Cappadocius Embraced a Venetian merchant and necromancer named Augustus Giovanni. This proved to be his undoing as Giovanni diablerized Cappadocius and proceeded to drive his clan to extinction, with only his Childer surviving as a new clan: Clan Giovanni. However, eventually a number of Bloodlines emerged, all claiming to be descended from Cappadocius, indicating Giovanni's genocide was not as complete as he thought. The Cappadocian Disciplines were Auspex (superhuman senses), Fortitude (incredible durability), and Mortis (a form of necromancy that could control ghosts). Their compulsion was to surround themselves with symbols of death. Their curse caused their bodies to continue to decay after their Embrace, leaving them looking mummified.

Clan Giovanni replaced Clan Cappadocian under Augustus Giovanni's leadership. They remained independent of the Sects, who were getting their feet under them at the time. The Giovanni acted as a crime family, growing to control criminal activities worldwide. They also only Embraced form a single family, which has grown enormous over the centuries and incorporates many sub-families. The mortal family members serve the family, often as Ghouls, in the hopes of receiving the Embrace and ascending up the ladder. Their practices were truly depraved, with rampant abuse being the least objectionable thing they did. Even the Camarilla and the Sabbat often found them unseemly. The Giovanni's criminal activities served to gather resources for their ultimate goal, the gathering of enough ghosts to rip apart the barriers between the world of the living and the underworld so Augustus can rule as an emperor of the dead. They almost succeeded before the events of the Week of Nightmares (described below) ruined that plan. Things went downhill for the Giovanni after that, especially with Second Inquisition attacks on their headquarters and Augustus Giovanni's mysterious disappearance. To survive, the Giovanni had a meeting with the various Bloodlines claiming descent from Cappadocius and performed a ritual called the Family Reunion to unite them all as the new Clan Hecata. Clan Hecata is still establishing itself as a power in the night, but is still heavily invested in necromancy and organized crime. According to the lore, the Family Reunion changed all the Bloodlines' traits to match the Giovanni's. I think that's dumb and would run thing with the Bloodlines keeping their Disciplines and Banes. The Giovanni compulsion is to investigate death. Their curse is that the Kiss is very painful to the victim instead of pleasurable. Their Disciplines are Dominate (mind control), Potence (superhuman strength), and Necromancy (what it sounds like). 5th edition changed Necromancy to Oblivion in a very dumb change. They took the signature Disciplines of two Clans and made them the same Discipline for obscure lore reasons, but it still acts like two Disciplines. I really don't get it.

Clan Gangrel fills the archetype of the vampire as an animalistic shapeshifter. They feel more at home with animals than with people and possess bestial instincts. Most vampires are creatures of the city, living where the prey is and where there's plenty of shelter from the sun. Gangrel prefer to live in the wilderness. Those who live in cities still prefer parks and the outskirts: places where nature thrives. The clan is very social Darwinist, believing only the strongest deserve to survive. They typically abandon their Childer after the Embrace and watch from afar. Only those who manage to adapt to their new condition and survive will be inducted to the Clan. There is very little organization amongst the Gangrel, though they do occasionally have meetings called Gathers. Many Kindred underestimate the Gangrel, seeing them as mere beasts. This would be a very foolish mistake. Possibly because they share a mix of human and animal instincts, the Gangrel are the only Kindred on anything resembling good terms with werewolves (by which I mean they might not immediately jump to ripping a Gangrel's head off and might be willing to talk). The Gangrel Antediluvian is Ennoia, who was said to be a wild woman, one of the daughters of Adam and Lilith who was sent beyond Eden to live amongst animals. Gangrel legend says she was raised by a pack of wolves and eventually mated with them, birthing the first werewolves (the werewolves themselves would disagree violently with this origin story). She was eventually defeated in a great battle and forced into slumber. She was then buried and the earth was salted to keep her from rising again. The Gangrel disciplines are Animalism (control of animals), Fortitude (incredible durability), and Potence (shapeshifting). Their compulsion is to abandon the trappings of civilization and settle things like beasts. Their curse causes them to get temporarily (permanently in older editions) stuck with animal features when they Frenzy.

Clan Lasombra represents the archetype of the vampire as a creature of darkness, as well as the archetype of the Catholic vampire. To the Lasombra, ambition is everything. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Having lines you won't cross is viewed as a weakness. This means all Lasombra are petty, power-hungry, would-be tyrants and they are proud of it. Accordingly, if a Lasombra is outsmarted or betrayed, they deserved it for not being smart enough to see it coming. Appearance is very important to the Lasombra. It isn't enough to outwit your enemies, you have to look good doing it. Any lapse in your public persona is a weakness that will be pounced in. Historically, they were pirates who dominated the Mediterranean sea, but they eventually transitioned into ruling indirectly. They are now heavily entrenched in religious institutions. Why take things by force when you can convince the masses that it's God's will for them to give it to you. They are especially entrenched in the Catholic Church, which is engaged in a shadow war between the Lasombra and those who want to force them out. The Lasombra look down on humans and only pick the best to Embrace. A common tactic when looking for a Childe is to systematically ruin their life. Only if the human can pull themselves back up will they be worthy of the Embrace. The Lasombra were historically a Sabbat Clan, but large numbers of them jumped ship to the Camarilla after the Week of Nightmares. They are distrusted, but fully intend to rise to power as usual. The Lasombra Antediluvian is known by many names, so most people just call him Lasombra. He was reportedly a pathetic failure of a man who only achieved greatness after his Embrace. He was a sailor by trade and studied the powers of the Abyss, the darkness that existed before creation. He was eventually Diablerized by his Childe, but many Lasombra believe that his soul merged with the Abyss and he now watches the world through his descendants, waiting to make his move. The Lasombra Disciplines are Dominate (mind control), Potence (superhuman strength) and Obteneration (mystical control of darkness). In 5th edition, Obteneration was changed to Oblivion. Their compulsion is to pursue their goals with utter ruthlessness. Their curse is that they cast no reflections and cannot be recorded by cameras. This means that the Clan who most values independence and self-image has to rely on others to develop that image.

Clan Malkavian represents the archetype of the vampire as a madman. Most clans can hide their curse, but not the Malkavians. From the moment of their Embrace, each Malkavian gains a unique and incurable form of insanity. With their madness comes a strange form of clarity that allows Malkavians to know things they shouldn't. While their often unusual behavior means Malkavians are rarely accepted in polite Kindred society, their ability to act as seers means they are too valuable to to reject entirely. Malkavians claim they are all connected by an invisible psychic web called the Madness Network. Everything one Malkavian knows is know on a subconscious level by every other Malkavian, though it is hidden by delusion and hallucination. Some Malkavians can even directly communicate with each other through the Network. Little is known of Malkavian history as their records tend to be unreliable. They also have little in the way of a unified culture or hierarchy, though they are officially a Camarilla clan. They often act as prophets or advisors, though untangling the truth from the delusion is difficult at the best of times. Their Antediluvian is Malkav, and little is known of him, though he is often said to have been a seer. Its not clear when he became insane. It could be the result of Caine's curse, a secret Lilith showed him, the result of Diablerizing his sire, or he may have always been mad. Non-Malkavian historians speculate that he lies in slumber beneath Jerusalem and his presence is responsible for all the religious mania present in the city. Malkavians tend to claim he became the Madness network and now manipulates all of his descendants like puppets. The Malkavian Disciplines are Auspex (superhuman senses), Obfuscate (the ability to become undetected), and Dementation (the ability to inflict madness on others). 5th edition switched Dementation out for Dominate and made the Dementation effects a combination of Dominate and Auspex. I really hate this change and would not run it that way.

Clan Ministry fills the archetype of the vampire as the creature of evil. They are formally known as the Ministry of Set or Mesu Bedshet and informally known as the Followers of Set or Setites. They reject the story of Caine and have their own creation myth. According to them, Set was the first mortal to discover that morality was a restriction placed on humanity by the gods to keep humans from obtaining godhood themselves. Set achieved apotheosis and taught his method to mortals, creating the vampires. However the other gods created their won vampires to interfere with Set's plan. The Ministry teaches that morals are a crutch that must be discarded and sin and corruption should be embraced. This is part of a long path toward godhood of which vampirism is just the first step. Faithful Setites encourage people to revel in vice and cruelty, often forming cults which they use as a power base and recruiting pool. Notably, they will accept Kindred of other Clans into the Ministry and treat them as siblings, though this does not actually change their Clan. While the cult is primarily based out of Egypt, they have spread across the world and are heavily invested in the international drug trade. The Ministry has historically been independent of the Sects, but they recently petitioned the Camarilla for membership. This was rejected as nobody in the Camarilla trusts them, so they largely joined the Anarchs, looking to corrupt them from within. According to non-Setites, their Antediluvian is Set and his family drama inspired Egyptian mythology. He was the elder son of the king Ra, but Ra chose the younger son Osiris as his heir. Set attempted a coup, but failed and he was exiled. This led him to the First City, where he received the Embrace. Returning to Egypt, he killed Osiris and took the throne. Osiris's sister-wives brought him back to life with a ritual and Osiris gathered an army of various supernatural beings to oppose Set, including the first mummies. This led to a shadow war between the two that went on and off through the millennia. Set is currently believed to slumber somewhere beneath Egypt and the Ministry are trying to find him. Set was also a worshiper of Apophis, a dark god that may be the same spirit of corruption and entropy that shapeshifters call the Wyrm. The Ministry Disciplines are Obfuscate (the ability to go undetected), Presence (incredible charisma), and Serpentis (shapeshifting and other powers associated with snakes). 5th edition changed Serpentis to Protean. Their compulsion is to indulge in vice. Their curse is an increased sensitivity to light, to the point that bright enough moonlight or artificial light can hurt them.

Clan Nosferatu fills the archetype of the vampire as an inhuman monster. No Clan's curse is more visible than that of the Nosferatu. Upon receiving the Embrace, each Childe is transformed ove the course of several agonizing days into a monstrous appearance. This new visage is unique to every Nosferatu but it is always obvious upon looking at them that they are not human. Because of their appearances, the Nosferatu have not historically been welcome in polite Kindred society, forced to live in the slums and sewers. This suits them just fine, because being beneath notice is the Nosferatu's greatest strength. They are the spymasters and information brokers of the Kindred. It is always a good rule of thumb to assume that no matter how hard you try to keep your secrets, there's a Nosferatu out there who already knows them. While the Nosferatu are a Camarilla Clan, the division between Sects is less important than Clan unity to them. Camarilla, Sabbat, and Anarch Nosferatu will work together for their united goals. The majority of Nosferatu in a city will live togeter in an underground tunnel network called the Warrens. Nosferatu prefer to Embrace from the ranks of outcasts and the forgotten, people who nobody will miss. They also Embrace from the ranks of beautiful people. This is usually targeted at the vain to teach them a lesson, but some Nosferatu view any beautiful person as deserving to become a monster. These people, known as Cleopatras, have a rough time adapting to their unlife. The Nosferatu Antediluvian is Absimiliard, who was a very beautiful and very vain man. When his Embrace left him with a tiny scar, Absimiliard became consumed by hate and killed his sire. Caine's curse on him was to make his face match the ugliness of his soul. The reason the Nosferatu are so tight-knit is becasue Absimiliard believes (falsely) that if he kills all of his descendants, Caine will forgive him and lift his curse. Thus he sends monsters called Nictuku after the Nosferatu. As Nictuku activity is on the rise recently, many Nosferatu believe Absimiliard is awake once again somewhere in the arctic circle. The Nosferatu Disciplines are Animalism (control of animals), Obfuscate (the ability to go undetected), and Potence (superhuman strength). Their compulsion is to seek out and horde secrets. Their Bane is their appearances.

Before discussing Clan Ravnos I need to throw up a content warning for racism and use of slurs. This is because Clan Ravnos represents the archetype of the vampire who is a Gypsy. And not an accurate representation of the Roma at all, but full stereotype. Listen, old White Wolf (the original publisher of WoD) was racist (though I think they were less malicious and more just stupid) and relied heavily on stereotypes. While they smartened up and revised some of the more stereotypical clans like the Banu Haqim and Giovanni, the Ravnos were so racist they didn't have an option to rehabilitate them other than to kill them. But I'll get to that. The Ravnos used to be divided between their western and eastern branches, with the two being almost completely different. The western Ravnos were nomads who worshiped chaos and brought disorder and crime wherever they went. They typically traveled with and Embraced from the Roma people. The eastern Ravnos where headquartered in India and engaged in a constant war for control if India with the Kuei-Jin. The Kuei-Jin are the vampires of Asia. They aren't descended from Caine, they're their own type of supernatural being. You don't really need to know about the Kuei-Jin for a beginner's guide so I'm not going to say much more about them. This war eventually led to the Ravnos Antediluvian, Zapathasura, rising from slumber and devouring his offspring and a big chunk of India before being slain. This was the Week of Nightmares, which I will discuss later. In the aftermath, the eastern Ravnos were utterly wiped out and the western Ravnos were driven into a Frenzy of violence. By the time it was all over, less than a hundred Ravnos were left standing, and none of them had any significant power. They are now a Clan on the brink of extinction, trying to find an identity in the face of their inevitable doom. The Ravnos Antediluvian is known by many names, including Zapathasurea, Ravana, and Dracian and there are way too many conflicting stories about him to go over here. The Ravnos Disciplines are Animalism (control of animals), Chimerstry (illusions), and Fortitude (incredible endurance). 5e changed to Chimerstry to Obfuscate and Fortitude to Presence. Their compulsion is to take risks. Their Bane used to be an addiction to crime, but after the Week of Nightmares it changed to an inability to rest in the same place twice in a row. They have to sleep at least a mile or so apart each night.

Clan Salubri is one of the extinct Clans who represented the archetype of the good guy vampire. They were healers dedicated to helping humans and Kindred alike overcome what ails them. There was also a warrior group focused on defending the defenseless. But because this is the World of Darkness, we can't have nice thing and the Salubri were wiped out. The new clan Tremere legitimized their position by slandering the Salubri as demon-worshipers and monsters and enacting a campaign of genocide against them. In modern nights, only a handful of Salubri survive in hiding, their resentment and desire for revenge driving them to become the very monsters they were slandered as. Their Antediluvian is Saulot, a philosopher and healer who sought to overcome the Beast. He would go on expeditions beyond the Second City doing unknown things. We know he spent time with the Kuei-Jin and that it probably ended poorly because Kuei-Jin refer to him as the betrayer. His search for enlightenment eventually led him to develop a third eye, which his clan inherited. He may also have been the only member of the 3rd generation that did not rebel against the 2nd. Eventually, he was attacked in his sleep and Diablerized by the founder of the Tremere. That's not quite the end of his story, though. The Salubri Disciplines are Auspex (superhuman senses), Fortitude (incredible durability), and Obeah (the ability to manipulate life and death). 5th edition changed Obeah to Dominate. Their compulsion was to empathize with others. Their Bane is a matter of debate. Some say they were the only clan to have no Bane, others say their Vitae was unnaturally delicious, and some say they could only feed on a willing person. The third eye ended up acting like a Bane because it made them very easy to identify.

Clan Tremere fills the archetype of the vampire as a wizard. They are usurpers to the title of Kindred, not descended from one of the Antediluvians. In the 1020s, the powerful mage Tremere set about finding a way to achieve immortality and opted to use a ritual to turn himself and his followers into Kindred. The plan was for them to retain their magic, but this failed and so they developed a practice of blood magic instead (though the Banu Haqim claim the Tremere stole their secrets instead). In order to gain the power needed to survive, he sought out the slumbering Saulot and Diablerized the Antediluvian, ascending to the power of a 3rd generation vampire. This made a lot of Kindred furious at him, so Tremere slandered the Salubri as demon worshipers and engaged in a "righteous" campaign to destroy this threat to all vampires. Most of the elders at the time probably realized the Tremere were lying, but they were just too useful not to make use of, so they played along. Clan Tremere joined the Camarilla and became one of their most important members, though nobody really trusts them. The Clan was easily the most well-organized due to the practice of members blood bonding their subordinates. This formed a massive hierarchy called the Pyramid, with Tremere at the top. The Clan is heavily focused on scholarship, delving into the secrets of the world and seeking to improve their blood magic, all focused around home bases called Chantries. This changed when the Second Inquisition bombed the head Chantry in Vienna, destroying most of the senior members of the Clan and shattering all the blood bonds. This led to the Clan fracturing into multiple competing factions, some of which defected to the Sabbat and Anarchs. Tremere was believed to have been killed in the bombing, but the truth is not so simple. Saulot's soul survived within Tremere's body and the two spent centuries fighting for control of the body. Saulot eventually won and disappeared to parts unknown; his current whereabouts and goals are a mystery. Tremere was forced to steal his lieutenant's body to survive. After the attack on the Chantry, Tremere faked his death and is now leading one of the factions of his Clan under a false identity. The Tremere Disciplines are Auspex (superhuman senses), Dominate (mind control), and Thaumaturgy (blood magic). In 5th edition, Thaumaturgy was renamed to Blood Sorcery. Their compulsion is perfectionism. Their Bane used to be an increased vulnerability to the blood bond, needing to drink another Kindred's Vitae only twice to be bonded. After the attack on the Vienna Chantry, the Bane changed to an inability to blood bind others.

Clan Toreador represents the archetype of the vampire as a beautiful and seductive predator. They are artists and innovates obsessed with beauty and art. While many dismiss them as vain fops, the Toreador are masters of the art of social manipulation. More than any other clan, they know that the right word whispered into the right ear at the right time can change the world. There's a reason they're one of the most politically powerful Clans in the Camarilla. While all Toreador seek beauty, that meas different things to different people. One Toreador might find beauty in refuse and garbage while another only appreciates the finest art of the Renaissance. Naturally, they love to spend time arguing over who is a true atriste and who is a mere poseur. Art to them also means more than just creative expression. Martial arts, investigation, and politics are all art forms to them. Because the vampiric condition tends toward stagnation, they often act more as patrons of the arts than as artists themselves. In modern nights, they hare heavily embedded in the entertainment industry. The Toreador are the Kindred most closely connected to humanity and spend much of their time amongst mortals. They often latch onto a human who catches their eye and dote on them, becoming an integral part of their life. However, the Toreador are fickle and once their attention shifts, they will drop their ward and move on like they never existed. The Toreador Antediluvian is usually called Arikel, though some sources call her Ishtar. She was said to be the most beautiful woman who ever live and a performer of a dance that involved leaping over the backs of bulls. She allegedly fled the Second City after stealing something called the Tablet of Destiny and was chased to Greece, where she vanished from history. Another story says she Embraced a pair of lover so their love would last forever. However once the two realized they could not have children, they walked into the sunlight. Arikel swore then to never Embrace again. The Toreador Disciplines are Auspex (superhuman senses), Celerity (superhuman speed), and Presence (incredible charisma). Their compulsion is to become transfixed on beautiful sights. This was their Bane prior to 5th edition. 5e changed their Bane to a penalty to their mental abilities when they are surrounded with less than beautiful scenery.

Clan Tzimisce fulfills the archetype of the vampire as the reclusive lord of a castle. They are easily the most inhuman of the Clans, moreso than the Nosferatu. While the Nosferatu were cursed into their inhuman appearances, the Tzmisce willingly give up on their humanity. If you were to call a Tzmisce inhuman and sadistic, they would likely agree, then demonstrate that you definitions of those words are woefully inadequate. To them, humanity is something to be discarded so they can surpass the weakness of their former mortality. To them, humans are an unfortunate component of making new Kindred at best. Thus, they tend to use forced eugenics programs to produce the best possible candidates. The Tzimisce also have the power to shape flesh and bone like clay and enjoy creating fleshwarped horrors and punishing humans for their humanity by doing things like turning them into furniture while leaving them alive, conscious, and in incredible pain. Most Tzimisce will turn their fleshcrafting on themselves, shaping themselves into monstrous forms to symbolize their rejection of their former mortality. Tradition and history are highly important to the Clan and they practice a form of sacred hospitality. A Tzimisce's domain is their most important asset and it is to be protected at all costs. Many of them are ancient lords ruling from castles in eastern Europe and have no interest in adapting to the times. While they are a Sabbat Clan, many young members are defecting to the Anarchs. Tzimisce are very rare in the Camarilla and those who do join pretend to be members of other clans as even other Kindred fear and hate the Tzimisce. The Tzimisce Antediluvian is only known as the Eldest. Legend says the 2nd generation vampire Irad sought to purge himself of evil by expelling expelling ti as a black mass. He them force fed the evil to a human and planned to kill him afterwards. However, when the man showed no change, Irad became curious and Embraced him. The Eldest quickly abandoned his humanity and soon left the Second City, having no interest in the political games of his siblings. He ended up in what would become Transylvania, where he made a pact with a bound demon named Kupala, binding him and his descendants to the land forevermore. During the founding of the Sabbat, the Eldest learned of a plan to kill him. He altered a follower into his likeness and left him behind to be Diablerized as the Eldest fled the land. The number of people who know he's still alive can likely be counted on one hand. The Tzimisce Disciplines are Animalism (control of animals), Auspex (superhuman senses) and Vicissitude. 5e swapped Vicissitude for Protean and Auspex for Dominate and made the Vicissitude abilities an amalgam of Protean and Dominate. I don't like this change. Their compulsion is to hoard things. Their Bane is that they can't sleep unless surrounded with reminders of their former human lives. Prior to 5e it was that they couldn't sleep unless surrounded with dirt from their grave. I think the 5e version is more thematically fitting, personally.

Clan Ventrue fills the archetype of the vampire as the aristocratic overlord. They are the blue bloods of the Kindred who believe they have the right to rule because they know better than everyone else. This naturally does not make them very popular, but they are extremely powerful and very wealthy. The Ventrue form a hierarchy based on their wealth, political influence, and dignitas, a measure of their responsibility and competence. Ascending the hierarchy is every Ventrue's goal and they will do anything to do so. Each city has its own hierarchy called the board that controls the politics and goals of that city's Ventrue. Each Ventrue in a city is expected to run their businesses without interfering with each other. In practice, this means you only get punished if you get caught. When a Ventrue Embraces a Childe, they are put in charge of a business and expected to make it prosper. They aren't allowed to interfere with other Ventrue's businesses during this time, so most local Ventrue will lend them a hand. This is the closest any Ventrue will ever get to altruism. Failure during this time will lead to a severe loss in dignitas for both Sire and Childe. In the past, they most embraced from noble families and knights. In modern nights, they are heavily involved with big business and politics. They were one of the founding clans of the Camarilla and claim that there are no Ventrue outside of the clan, though most people realize that's not the case. Still, questioning this claim tends to be bad for your long-term health. The Ventrue are very rich, very politically powerful, and they do not take insults lightly. The Ventrue Antediluvian was named Ventru, and he is often said to be the first member of the 3rd generation and Caine's chosen replacement when he left. Many Ventrue claim he took no part in the 3rd generations rebellion, while many others claim he was the instigator. Many sources say that when the 3rd generation began to fight, Ventru left to go find Caine and bring him back. He was then killed by an ambush of his siblings shortly after leaving. The Ventrue Disciplines are Dominate (mind control), Fortitude (incredible durability), and Presence (incredible charisma). Their compulsion is to rule over others. Their Bane is their refined tastes. Ventru can only feed on humans who have a certain trait, which is different to each Ventrue.

The Week of Nightmares was one of the most important events in the history of the World of Darkness and lasted from June 28th to July 4th, 1999. The war over control of India between the eastern Ravnos and the Kuei-Jin was ramping up. The Ravnos began to mass-Embrace fledglings to drown their enemy in sheer numbers. The psychic backlash of so many deaths happening so fast rippled through the clan, awakening slumbering elders and eventually the Antediluvian himself, Zapathasura. The starving blood god psychically called his descendants to him and devoured them before going on a rampage, devouring countless humans, Kuei-Jin, Kindred, and other supernatural creatures. Three immensely powerful Kuei-Jin sorcerers challenged Zapathasura, summing a hurricane over them to fight during the day. Meanwhile, the world-spanning technological mage organization known as the Technocratic Union or Technocracy took notice. They launched a spirit-charged nuke at the hurricane, dispelling it and killing the Kuei-Jin. They then used orbital satellites to direct concentrated sunlight onto Zapathasura, destroying him. The psychic backlash of Zapathasura's death sent the surviving Ravnos into a Frenzy of violence that left them on the verge of extinction. Shockwaves were sent through Kindred society. The Camarilla were forced to admit they were lying about the non-existence of the Antediluvians, leading to major defections to the Anarchs. The Sabbat, who had built their identity on being able to kill the Antediluvians, also lost major face when they were useless to stop Zapathasura, leading to mass defections to the Camarilla and Anarchs. The Sabbat dropped to the third largest Sect while the Anarchs moved up to the second. Kindred across the world saw the Week of Nightmares as proof that Gehenna was imminent.

In the wake of the Week of Nightmares, the Sabbat launched the Gahanna Crusade, a mission to track down the remaining Antediluvians and slay them in their sleep. The Camarilla opposed this, believing that the Sabbat would end up waking the Antediluvians instead. This led to a worldwide shadow conflict called the Gehenna War. At the same time, elders started experiencing visions of a black sarcophagus and feeling a compulsion to travel to the Middle East. Most interpret these visions as a sign that another Antediluvian has either risen or is about to rise. The mass exodus of Elders has destabilized the Camarilla and Sabbat, allowing the Anarchs to gain major ground. As the Gehenna war rages and elders consolidate power around the Middle East, the future is uncertain.

In the 2000s, a new threat appeared. The USA's National Security Agency discovered SCHRECKnet, a secret dark web operated by the Nosferatu. They spread the information to other secuurity agencies both in and out of the USA and collaborated with vampire hunting organizations in the Catholic Church and other religious institutions to fight back against the Kindred. This began with a missile strike on the Tremere Chantry in Vienna and coordinated ground work that managed to clear New York, London, Paris, and Marseilles of Kindred before the vampires were able to rally and put up a resistance. Kindred refer to this new generation of vampire hunters as the Second Inquisition. The Second Inquisition is not a unified organization but a loose collective of different organizations utilizing different tactics which can include military organizations using top-of-the-line hardware, scientists dragging Kindred to black sites for experimentation, gangbangers out to protect their neighborhoods from Kindred, and religious fanatics armed with swords and the power of true faith. Some of the more scientifically-minded organizations have even developed a chemical weapon that is harmless to humans but burns Kindred the way sunlight does. In response to the rise of the Second Inquisition, the Nosferatu disabled SCHRECKnet and the Camarilla banned electronic communication for fear of another hack, instead relying on couriers. This slower method of communication, combined with the exodus of the elders and the Gehenna War has destabilized all the Sects. The Second Inquisition has also noticed the increasing Kindred activity in the Middle East and has effectively become a third side in the Gehenna War. More than anything else, the Second Inquisition has reminded Kindred why the Masquerade is so important.

If you want to get into the setting but don't have a group to play with, the video game Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines is excellent, but you need to play it with the unofficial patch to avoid glitches.

[twilightofthesandwiches]

i don't think carol can be the knight because the knight would actively die from being in the light world for that long, especially in daylight, and carol was not showing any signs of physiological pain when we saw her

and it can't be rudy either because his pain is too long term to be accounted for

...

You see, a big reason why I always try to keep an open mind and remember all the information we just don't have yet, is that it's very likely that at this point in the story, any theory about the Big Endgame Revelations will include a few unconfirmed assumptions or probable-but-not-confirmed implications ... and when one is extremely attached and emotionally invested in a theory, it's very easy to lose focus on what has been actually textually confirmed in the text, what is a probable implication and what is just a headcanon at this point.

That is to say, there is no definite textual evidence right now that the Knight would die or experience pain from being in the Light World for a prolonged period of time.

It's true that the moments that are confirmed to be them operating in the Light World (moving the captured Undyne to the Shelter Dark World, making the First and Third Sanctuaries and probably hiding behind that door in the Church) are extremely brief, and Ralsei does point out that the Knight tend to only operate in the Dark Worlds

And speaks as if sealing the Fountain will basically take care of the Knight problem for now.... But we have no way to know if that means "the Knight cannot sustain themself for long in the Light World so they'll have to flee back to the Shelter" or if it's more like how Susie clearly interpreted the line, that in the Light World the Knight is kind of a loser who is genuinely afraid of getting jumped by two teenagers.

... Or it could be something else entirely that's making the Knight run and hide from Kris and Susie in the Light World. When Susie started talking about how if the Fountain is sealed "it's over" for the Knight, they just started laughing. She took it as confirmation that she's right... but...

(And of course, it's important to remember that another factor in Ralsei saying what he did is that he's actually trying to urge Susie and Kris to seal that Fountain as soon as possible in the hopes they can avoid seeing Final Prophecy, so his observation is inherently biased as well)

At this moment we have nothing to even establish the possibility of a being who is Lightner enough to be in the Light World for any amount of time and create Dark Fountains, but also has to be in the Dark World to survive. That's just not a thing that Exists in our current understanding of Light and Dark. It's absolutely not an unreasonable assumption to make, and I highly doubt that we finished learning all there is to know about how Light and Dark work. After all, we didn't know of the possibility of the Dark resurrecting Lightners as Darkners before Gerson showed up either.

But... it's important to remember that this is an assumption that came mostly as explanation and support for folks' "Dess is the Knight" theories. (Similar to how "Rudy is the Knight" folks have their own theories as to how the Dark World could temporarily cure his illness). It's not confirmed in the text yet. The fact that it's probable that we'll get some new revelations that break our current understanding of how Light and Dark works also means that we can't fully expect how they'll be broken.

Again, I am trying to keep an open mind. It is entirely possible that Dess is the Knight as a being stuck between being a Lightner and a Darkner. It's possible that Dess is the Knight but she's also just an ordinary Lightner and there's a totally different explanation to her behavior. It's possible that Dess and/or the Knight are this sort of oxymoronic metaphysical being while also being totally separate entities. It's possible that Dess is the Knight while a totally different kind of oxymoronic metaphysical being than what any of us could imagine.... There is so much we can speculate on, and so little we can definitely disprove.

Anyone can pick whatever Theory seems compelling and solid to them at the moment, but it's still important to distinguish what we know, what we don't and what we assume.

[wyrdwisewoman]

Shifting Does Not Equal Nor Give A Free Pass To People Claiming To Be Transracial! BUT Shifting To Another Vessel That Is A Different Race Is OK. How? Why? And What?: a discussion long post.

This is (Probably & hopefully) the last post I have to make on this, but my messages, asks, and comments have been flooded by people who are either:

A) confused

B) not reading carefully

C) mixing 2 things together that have nothing to do with each other.

And so, I am making this post to hopefully settle the issue for good.

Here are the facts:

Shifting does not equal transracial behavior, nor does it make that behavior okay. You CANNOT change your race in this life, in this body, in this reality. Nor should you feel like you should be able to, nor should you want to. There are a multitude of issues with even thinking this behavior is ok. It isn't, and the reasons why are easy to self-educate yourself on. Go do that. Period.

If you shift, you CAN be a different race. And there is nothing wrong with that.

How are both of these things true?

The difference is that shifting is moving your consciousness -your soul- the collective energy awareness that is the true version of you - to another version of you - your physical body/vessel that exists in the multiverse. It is you. It is just a different vessel, different version of You in a different timeline/dimension/reality. But it is still You.

Transracial are people who claim to change their race in THIS reality in THIS body with THESE genetics. And that is not possible.

The disconnect in discussion comes from people confusing those 2 things and wrongly saying they overlap. They dont.

There can be nothing wrong with shifting your consciousness from your current vessel to another vessel that is also you just as much as this vessel is you.

Just to give an example of what I am trying to explain about different vessels if we push shifting completely off the side and talk about a different topic such as reincarnation. Just as in past lives that people can recall they have been male, female, different races, and come from different walks of life, but it was still at the core them - their consciousness, their Spirit, their soul.

In the same way when you shift, your core, that Consciousness, Spirit, Soul, the thing that makes you You, that energy body, that metaphysical something- is the only thing that is Shifting. It is simply changing the tuner on the radio station of reality and tuning it's awareness in to another version of you. That version already existed, just as all possible versions already exist.

We know this to be true because quantum mechanics and quantum theory has shown that all versions of all possible realities and time exist at the same time. Separation between time and space and realities is merely an illusion that our brain projects in order for our human minds to be able to make sense of the world around us.

And who can say why that is. To explore the Why is to get into Theology and religion and I'm not here to discuss that right now.

The topic is the What.

And it is the What that keeps getting confused in the shifting community.

So whenever you're discussing shifting it is important to keep in mind that to shift into another version of you that already exists and is already out there cannot be wrong. It is not wrong for you to want to experience consciously that version of you through that vessel. It is not wrong for you to actively make the decision to shift to that version of you to be in that vessel. Just as it is not wrong for you to exist in the current vessel that you were in that version is just as much a version of you as any of the other possible versions are also simultaneously just as much you.

I understand that these are very big Concepts and they can be very difficult to wrap our minds around. I also understand that there are very real very serious cultural issues and race issues currently going on in this reality that warrant very passionate and rightly so reactions to the suggestion that somebody could want to change their race. The important thing to keep in mind is is the person that is talking about that talking about shifting or are they talking about trying to do something in this reality in this body. Because there is a huge difference.

I hope that people reading this will take the time to pause, to put whatever preconceived notion that they have concluded from either their research, their experiences, or their biases aside and consider my words. I try to form my basis of knowledge not off of what I feel but off of things that can be backed by research, science, evidence, and facts. That's not to say that I don't also utilize feeling and intuition - I am human, so of course I do - but when it comes to foundationally critical bits of information, I think that we all should put our feelings and intuitions aside and look at irrefutable facts to build that Foundation First.

Once those Baseline facts are established and understood then we can use our feelings and our intuition to guide us on what we personally choose to participate in.

Just because something is a fact and it's true doesn't mean that you have to actively engage in it or even agree with it. An example that has nothing to do with spirituality to get you to understand what I mean by that? Let's consider for a moment - lava. It is a fact that if you were to jump in lava, you would die. The lava is simply too hot for I biological bodies to handle and so to try to go swimming in it would result in death. This is a fact. However there might be some person out there who decides that they want to swim in lava the fact that they want to do it, and choose to believe that for them it will be different doesn't mean that if they attempted to do it it wouldn't result in death it would because that's a fact. But that individual made a conscious choice even knowing the facts to choose to believe differently and that is their right.

In the same way, when it comes to spirituality, a lot of this stuff is very metaphysical it is very based on feeling and intuition, and there are no rules. But when it comes to reality time, the multiverse things are studyable and measured by science. Those things are based on fact. There will be some baseline of truth that is universally true for everyone. Now, whether you choose to believe those facts or to participate in them is completely up to you, and that's your right, but to argue against those facts would be irrational and illogical.

You can say that shifting allows for somebody to shift into a vessel that is a different shape, form, gender, age, sex, and race than their current vessel and that that's okay. While also stating that you do not agree with doing such and will not participate in it.

Both of these can be true at the same time.

Knowing such name calling and getting into debates with people or bashing people who choose to shift in a way that you personally don't feel drawn to doesn't make that person wrong it makes you a shitty person for judging on another person chooses to explore their spiritual path.

Now, if you want to create a space to discuss how shifting can either help or hurt the cultural issues and race issues that are going on actively in our current reality because of the histories and experiences and ancestral memory in our current reality that's a different discussion. And it is one where I would love to sit down and shut up and let the individuals and that are directly affected by those issues speak their peace and their truth. To let them be heard and boost their voices.

We just have to understand that there are two different topics in two different discussions that are going on, and they are being confused and mixed together when they are, in fact, separate.

I hope this put it in a different perspective for some people and shed some light on this very hotly debated topic. I truly feel like this topic would not be debated if people stopped and took the time to understand that these two issues that are being blended together are fundamentally 2 separate ideas, and do not belong blended together as if they were the same.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

🌐The Long and Complicated History of the Time Lords: Part III – The Rise of the Time Lords

When last we met, Gallifrey had ascended from red-grassed obscurity to interstellar power, thanks to the Pythian Order and a lot of prophecy. But as Gallifrey reached the precipice of total dominion, it was about to face its greatest upheaval yet.

Disclaimer: Information on the creation of existence and a whole society is obviously mixed. GIL has waded through many contradictions to provide you with the most cohesive, structured, and key details of how it all came about, but there is room for interpretation.

⚰️ The Kotturuh Arrive

Somewhere around the time young Rassil Onasti Prydonius (soon to be "Rassilon") was studying temporal manifolds and learning the correct ratio of owl imagery to god-complex, the Kotturuh arrived.

The self-appointed Bringers of Death, the Kotturuh, had been bouncing around the Universe for some time, declaring that every other species in the cosmos was not, in fact, entitled to immortality. They finally reached Gallifrey and imposed finite lifespans on its people. [1]

Gallifrey was horrified. Physicians, like Androken, described mountains of corpses. The Age of the Pythias entered a period of paranoia, rebellion, and deep theological discomfort.

🏟️ The Death Zone & Gallifreyan Slave Games

Seeking a way to manage internal unrest (and perhaps keep the population distracted from the rising death toll), the 430th Pythia commissioned architect Rassilon to construct the Death Zone—a gladiatorial pit where prisoners of war, slaves, and various alien species were forced to fight to the death.

The Games of Death were considered sacred, and Gallifreyans watched the carnage on public access channels. Autons, Mandrels, and Drashigs made regular appearances. White sand was imported to show the blood better. It was all very tasteful.

🔬 The Time Program Begins

Somewhere between the death pits and state-sponsored prophecy, Gallifrey realised it could do better than watching. It could time travel. The 508th Pythia, in one of her more progressive moments, authorised the Time Program—a state-funded effort to explore the theoretical possibilities of time travel.

A student named Peylix submitted a temporal theory based on Genefrenian models and received the lowest academic mark in Gallifreyan history: Omega. He kept the name. Alongside Rassilon and probably the Other, Omega developed the first space-time craft capable of entering the Vortex. It worked. The first Time Scaphe[2] launched.

🧬 The Timeless Child

Meanwhile, deep in another subplot, explorer Tecteun returned to Gallifrey after aeons with a child she found near a wormhole monument. The child had impossible DNA and could regenerate indefinitely. Tecteun was intrigued, and also deeply unethical.

She studied the child extensively—painfully, repeatedly—extracting genetic material and triggering forced regenerations. Eventually, this child would become known as the Timeless Child. Theories about their origin include:

Conceptual entity

A Great Old One

An Elemental

Vampire godchild

Misunderstood CAT

or possibly all of the above. Or something else.

🩸 The Vampires Are (Accidentally) Unleashed

In one of Gallifrey's less successful experiments, Rassilon attempted to harness a stellar singularity for use as a power source. Instead, he punched a hole in the Vortex and accidentally invited in the Yssgaroth— eldritch creatures from a darker universe, including the Great Vampires.[3]

These monstrosities weren't just huge; they were metaphysically infectious, contaminating biodata and history itself.

Rassilon whistled innocently and said, 'Oh gosh, who did that? That's terrible!'

This would come back to haunt Gallifrey.

🔥 The Intuitive Revolution

As Gallifrey's science advanced, its stability crumbled. Its interstellar colonies began demanding independence, civil unrest grew, and food shortages worsened with the onset of an ice age.

A new political movement, the Neo-Technologists, gained popularity. Led by Rassilon and backed by the Other and Academia cadets, they rejected the Pythian regime's mysticism and demanded rational reform. Tensions mounted, and Gallifrey reached a breaking point.

On Intuitive Revolution Night, the Neo-Technologists stormed the Temple of the Pythia, beating drums as the Council Police opened fire on the protestors. The Capitol's west district burned, shocking Omega, who was appalled at the violence.

The last Pythia, unable to see the future and cornered by reformers, hurled herself into the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be. Before doing so, she laid a curse[4]:

'Let the world hear my curse. I am Gallifrey, sky and rock, flame and flood, womb and bone. When I am no more, the world shall be barren and empty of new life. It will live a slow ageless death and come to nothing in its own dust. I have spoken these words. Let them be fulfilled.'

🧬 The Curse

The Pythia's final curse did more than end prophecy—it ended reproduction. Womb-born Gallifreyans vanished. Rassilon's daughter was stillborn. Shobogans hurled their stillborn children into the Crevasse of Memories That Will Be.

A solution desperately needed to be found.

🔱 Rassilon Crowned

The Council awarded Rassilon not one but three crowns, officially ending the theocracy and beginning the Time of Legend. The Court of Principals quietly became the Court of Rassilon, and society restructured into the Six Chapterhouses (each headed by one of the mythic Founders).

Rassilon now ruled a barren Gallifrey.

Assembled from ROOG and TARDIS Wiki

Tomorrow: Part IV - The Birth of the Time Lords

Footnotes:

[1] The Kotturuh: Imposed a lifespan of roughly 300 years.

[2] The Time Scaphe: A six-crew capsule powered by psychic energy, was Gallifrey's first manned time vessel—predating TARDISes but laying the groundwork for their design.

[3] The Great Vampires: They infected time itself, spreading a metaphysical plague known as the V-Factor. It's like the X Factor but with less singing and more blood sucking.

[4] The Pythia's Curse: Gallifreyans would become functionally sterile, their children loomed rather than born, but more on that in part IV.

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[insidemyrottenbrain]

Clamate auxilium - TSH (The Secret History)

TW: explicit content, questionable content

Your death leaves quite a toll on Henry and Camilla.

I encourage every willing pair of eyes that reads this to leave their thoughts, remarks and critiques under this post, be they one word or one hundred and one.

Hell is other people. When we are alone, we are absorbed in whatever is around us. In solitude, we all are (of course we are, because how could we not be?) an incorporeal omniscient presence that candidly studies humanity's mechanics undisturbed by reciprocal judgment. However, as soon as someone perceives us, we suddenly become the ones observed, and consequently, painfully aware of ourselves (the clench of the jaw, the body’s weight, the tongue between cheeks, the muscle strain). We get covered in labels, defined and thus limited. When painful death obeys fate, we lose all possibilities of changing how we look through another pair of empty eyes than our own. What we once were, the entirety of our souls and the darkest corridors get rendered into a misinterpreted, dehumanised fragment of other people’s minds. I am many things in Henry’s mind; hollow cheeks, cologne and smoke, long fingers turning yellowed pages, a melancholic existence and its absurd hands. Camilla, however, believes me to be rather imposing; long dark coats, cold forgotten coffee eyes, an untouchable paradox and its horrible mind. 

Immortality is humanity’s greatest wish. However, not flesh or rationality, but the absence, along with the longing, of their desire is this species’ most defining characteristic. I no longer am alive but I exist. I am deemed inhuman by the achievement of my desiderium through the unrequested aid of their minds.

You are curious, I am aware, about my death. However, you must realise that your curiosity is not reason enough for me to speak freely about such traumatising events. I suppose you are aware of Aristotle's definition of a tragic hero, yes? Ah, you’re not? Very well then, according to Aristotle, a tragic hero is “A person who must evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. He is considered a man of misfortune that comes to him through error of judgment.” There are a few characteristics one should keep in mind: ἁμαρτία (hamartia - sin, missed mark), a fatal flaw that causes the downfall of the hero, ύβρις (hubris - originally towards the gods), excessive pride and disrespect for the natural order of things, περιπέτεια (peripeteia - sudden change), the sudden reversal of fate that the hero experiences, ἀναγνώρισις (anagnorisis - recognition), a moment in time when the hero makes an important discovery, nέμεσις (nemesis - also the goddess who takes vengeance against those who show hubris), a punishment that the protagonist cannot avoid, usually occurring as a result of their hubris, and consequently, κάθαρσις (catharsis - purification, cleansing), feelings of pity and fear felt by the audience, for the inevitable downfall of the protagonist. While Aristotle’s characteristics are, indeed, a reliable guide in identifying and constructing a tragic hero, and respectively, a tragedy, some peculiarities might appear in certain texts and render the guide incomplete. I believe αἰών (aion - a period of existence, everlasting) should be added to the list, designating the extension of the hero’s punishment in a metaphysical form.

When can someone be declared dead? For the sake of the hypothesis, let us define death as the moment when someone or something ceases to exist. Does the exhaustion of the body, the death or the forgetting of the soul represent the beginning of eternal peace? I can rule out for you, living physical being, the exhaustion of the body, for I am quite sure I am not in the way that you are. Alas, our collaboration is of no use for if ever I were to find out, I would have ceased to be and thus unable to communicate, and if you were ever to find out your possibility of contacting me is nonsense. Everything is absurd and it tortures me when I know I am incapable of anything, nothing, expecthing, something, existhing, everything, deathing.

Henry and Camilla, of course, both attended the funeral. Camilla cries with the rest, she’s much more comfortable with emotional displays. Her mascara forms black rivers which shed on the upturned, disturbed earth that covers the casket. She is messy (indeed in a hypnotising way, the one in which girls usually are), but how could she not be? The previous night, she fell asleep sobbing quietly, her swan-like shoulders trembling. The pillow sheets smeared her makeup, but she, nevertheless, still laid her head on them. Over bumps ameliorated by elastic oscillations, she applied dust over dust, before the funereal in the aluminium mimic. What a storm of bows and angel white, what a deserved distinction. If I were to focus my all-knowing being on Henry, the story would go quite differently. The stoic is, as expected, unyielding. However, just as unexpected (due to the eye of the omniscient), his umbrella is (incredible, I almost would not have believed it) clenched in his pale hand! What a pitiful display of emotion from the cold season, wouldn’t you agree? He hopes I don’t, but I do know the ice in his eyes melted la veille au soir et aussi the exact number of tears that rolled over his dry cheek.

The word mourn traces its origins to the Proto-Indo-European root (s)mer-, which means to fall into thinking, to remember, to care for. Its sombre connotation likely stems from the natural link between memory (memoria-Latinae) and sorrowful experiences. Since memory and experience are deeply personal, one might assume that mourning, too, is uniquely individual. Yet this hypothesis falters when considering Henry and Camilla; two people, two pasts, two lives, two distinct memories, one irrevocably ensnared being (which is, assumingly, the reason for their similar past-time activities). They visited the grave, separately, each on their own; 4:12, 16:07, 00:01, 20:39, et cetera. “Et revertatur pulvis in terram suam unde erat et spiritus redeat ad Deum qui dedit illum” and so clothes shed on the grave. The dirt that covered the body stained them; Camilla’s inside, Henry’s outside. During the Bacchanal, her hair was red, but during the visits it was brown. I cannot imagine it must have been very pleasant for her, but she still tried and her lipstick stuck to stone. He was reluctant at first, he found the cold earth unwelcoming, but soon got used to it and found it bearable when his mind conjured the image of the dead. How he huffed and cried through his movements was so sad I wanted to give him a flower.

Your life is not only your own, death has more than one victim. It creates a paradox for those left behind, where change and routine coexist. Henry still brews two cups of coffee in the morning, irons the clothes that should have been picked up from his flat, and writes Julian’s assignments twice, placing one copy on the empty desk. Camilla is haunted by the absence of the scent which she inhaled with every chance, and fearing she might forget it, purchases a bottle. This unrelenting cycle is, of course, followed by the attempt at escapism. Inexorable fate makes them unconsciously aware of the invasion that urges them to tilt each other. Small, transitive comparisons morph into manipulations: similar enough hair, a habit adopted without question, the freckle forgotten. Their bodies reek of my remnants and it stirs them. What begins as unforgivable parallels turns into desperate symmetries. Every time they reach for me, their bodies meet, oblivious to the fact that I am. The illusion of the one who exists neither fully alive nor entirely gone becomes more alluring than any sin. Henry and Camilla murmur, groan and cry the two syllables that define an individual, and I do too, along with them, for I am here, wondering when I will be granted the mercy to draw my last eternal breath.

[a-d-nox]

animal spirit messages: fire and air

this is based on my experience reading from an animal spirit deck, and what i commonly see in the wild (this can be used as a quick reference guide). this is all my experience as it aligns with the card means and what happened surrounding the crossing of a real life animal (not the card) and the period of life/situation.

paid reading options: astrology menu & cartomancy menu

enjoy my work? help me continue creating by tipping on ko-fi or paypal. your support keeps the magic alive!

bee

needing to practice earnestness, praise for being hardworking, team project in coming, needing to work steadily on your project, being sensitive to the environment around you, get in touch with your inner artist, griping too much, becoming too irritable, feeling overworked, needing a mini-vacation/break, etc.

butterfly

a great change is occurring, needing to let things transform, something is in transition, needing to be extra patient and kind right now, needing to let others support you, commit to a new routine, might be feeling fragile, easily frustrated, etc.

crow

needing to be watchful, magic is in the air, a secret is soon to be revealed, seeing the past/present/future in the moment, needing to clear your mind, needing to restructure your diet, needing to becoming grounded again, being hypersensitive, etc.

dragonfly

an illusion is present in your life, find the wonder in your life, needing to keep moving/shifting/changing, something is different from what it truly is, feeling like you can't concentrate on something important, etc.

elephant

something unstoppable is about to happen, you are wise enough to handle what is about to unfold, an auspicious event is about to unfold, good fortune is coming forth, destruction of obstacles, feeling stuck in this moment, the path is becoming clearer, stop creating obstacles for others, needing to trust the universe, get in touch with your self-knowledge, getting too stuck in the details, you may be misunderstanding fate, etc.

hummingbird

needing to remain positive, pay attention to where you can better appreciate the sweetness of life, needing nourishment/rejuvenated, savor the moment, being too pushy/sharp with others, etc.

moth

stop acting impulsively, being too hasty, grass is greener on the other side, being too attracted to the easy solution, being too intrigued by what is shiny and new, having unfinished business/project, impending disappointed, likely facing burnout, etc.

panther

a purge is needed, feeling like you can't stand still anymore, havoc is in coming in your life, about to be living a more fulfilling life, unexpected change, uncomfortable situations coming soon, needing more wisdom in the workplace, needing to be brave, needing to be more productive, stop self-destructive behavior, etc.

have ideas for new content? please use my “suggest a post topic” button!

return to nox's guide to metaphysics

© a-d-nox 2024 all rights reserved

[canonicallyplural]

Francis York Morgan and Francis Zach Morgan from Deadly Premonition are canonically a system! Their situation originates from a traumatic event but they are overtly esoteric/spiritual/metaphysically based. (Traumaendo?)

Zach notes in the second game that they do not meet the criteria for DID, as their plurality is neither distressing nor disabling. They have very clear communication (beyond their period of "separation"), and their plurality is explicitly important to both plots. Their signature, shown on their badge, is written in such a way that the middle name can be read as both "York" and "Zach". The end of the second game shows them using a text chat reminiscent of SimplyPlural's chat function.

.

[onion-souls]

Do you answer Dark Souls questions? You don't have to answer all or any of these but: What is the Abyss and the Deep? What is Humanity? Is it just a piece of the Dark Soul? Is a/the Dark Soul in every human or just the pygmies? The Brand was placed on humanity by Gwynn but what relation does it truly have to undeath? Does it make humans go undead? Or merely go insane in undeath? Is a ‘Sane Undead’ some sort of true state to humanity, like an echo of the Furtive Pygmy?

Yeah, I still do. There just hasn't been much activity in the community.

So I think the most important thing about Dark Souls' setting is that there's no metaphysics, just physics. Magic crystalizes, the heat and Prime Mover of the world is bound to literal fire, a curse is a transferable disease that can cut ghosts, and souls are tangible, transferable things. Gods are about three to four meters tall. The conflict between light/fire and the dark is very real, on an almost chemical level. Humanity is just that, the motive force and emotional/memory core of humanity. Loss of humanity causes memory loss and decay of essence, a theme especially strong in DS2. But it's also this tangible, physical fluid, complete with viscosity. One bit that often gets forgotten, because the trait is fairly weak in DS1, is that the Dark is aligned with water; while light and fire rises to the heights and culminates in the power of the Sun, the Dark pools beneath the world. I believe that the Deep (and the Dark Chasm of Old) isn't so much a different thing than the Abyss, but a manifestation of the Dark pooling. The big difference is cultural; in DS1, the big pseudo-Christian churches were dedicated to Gwyn's family; by the time of DS3, the Dark has the Sable Church of Londor and the Church of the Deep. There's also the Human Dredges item, which also ties these faint traces of humanity to something hiding deep within human bodies. (Bloodborne also has this worldbuilding element of humor-like essences; it just uses blood with supernatural properties. But if you view Dark Souls' humanity as something like super melancholy/black bile, a lot starts to snap together).

I think there's no reason to believe that Kaathe is lying, as nothing concrete contradicts what he says. Humanity is the Dark Soul, found by furtive pygmy/ies (the Japanese script is ambiguous, especially with the Ringed City DLC). But it's that hiding bit, that furtiveness, that may be important. Kaathe says the ancestor(s) of the Chosen Undead hid until the decline of Fire, and the potential time for the Dark Lord to arise from humanity. We even see it in how certain Dark creatures reaction to the torch item. It's not so much that the Dark is truly Dark, in and of itself, but burnt away by the fire and the light.

The issue is that the Light souls are finite, from what we see; Gwyn needs to actively break up bits of his soul to give to the Four Kings. But humanity simply produces more and more Dark, naturally. Note that the only time you find double humanity items on corpses, they are all female - likely a hint that they were pregnant. Unlike the gods, whose light souls are attenuating, it seems that certain humans naturally produce tons of this dark humanity. Manus' soul went wild, infecting an entire region (Oolicile), and continued to develop down the ages into four powerful daughter-souls. We see no feat like that from the Light. All they do is dwindle. The light falls to entropy, but the Dark actually coheres and takes on structure and identity over time, even during vast periods of inaction.

Gwyn is seeing his world's laws of physics break down and the structures within fall to chaos, while there's this other, human race that seems to be anti-entropic. No wonder he panicked and started branding those humans who were overflowing with humanity.

The Lords of Light basically played a long con on humanity, prolonging and strengthening their flame by offering up humanity to the bonfires under the guise of religious institutions. By the time of DS3, Aldritch became a parody of this system of human consumption, outright becoming a cannibal pope turd (and in Bloodborne, this system is repeated once again, with a blood obsessed medical church processing and consuming human bodies in pursuit of enlightenment). The curse of human undeath is artificial (we see a maiden of the Way of White place the Sign on a dead knight in the opening of 1), and is something like a never ending cauterization, constantly burning away the humanity of those super-producers. We even see this in the Ringed City's knights, cursed to weep the pus of Man and burning with the dark ring.

Why do you think your character respawns at a bonfire? Do you think it's for your benefit, or the gods?

Players often think that they die, lose their humanity, and then respawn at the bonfire. But it's the Bonfire doing it. It burns away humanity. There's a reason why Velka is the one god who stepped in and made the Ring of Sacrifice.

The lore of the Rite of Kindling is one of the most important pieces:

"Kindling was a sacred rite passed down among clerics, but all Undead can imitate the process, in the same manner that they restore their Hollowing with humanity.

How peculiar that humans had found little use for humanity until they turned Undead."

It's right there. Clerics are feeding humanity to the bonfires. Firekeepers are women who overproduce humanity, to the point that it writhes under their skin; the Way of White simply binds these superproducers to a bonfire, either by delusion or by enslavement. Patches was right.

So as you asked: The Brand was placed on humanity by Gwynn but what relation does it truly have to undeath? Does it make humans go undead? Or merely go insane in undeath? Is a ‘Sane Undead’ some sort of true state to humanity, like an echo of the Furtive Pygmy?

There seems to be a common notion in the community that a Dark Souls human is a shriveled husk animated and made presentable by a little humanity sprite. But undeath and hollowing is Gwyn's curse, and that kind of undead decay shows up on non-human gods, such as Gwyn himself and the Nameless King. A natural human who is not forced into undeath either dies (as normal) or superproduces humanity, and mutates. It happened to Manus and his daughters, to the people of Oolicile, to those touched by the Dark Chasm of Old, and by the pus of man, Aldrich, Tree Man Pontiff Suleyvahn, the Pilgrim Butterflies, the Sable Church, and so on, some becoming coherent, transhuman entities, with most becoming hibbity-jibbity chaos spawn. Gwyn is partially afraid of humanity because the Dark Lord and his age to come could look like fucking anything, and it's why he quarantined the pygmy kings in the Ringed City.

REMEMBER, YOU DO NOT LOOK LIKE FUCKED UP JERKY FOLK IN DARK SOULS 3 UNTIL YOU GET A DARK SIGN.

And we see this beginning of mutation in DS1 even among the gods. The structure of this world is based on strict binaries, right from the opening monologue of Dark Souls 1 (god vs. dragon, light vs. dark), and the breakdown of those structures is what triggers the beginning of the end of Gwyn and his regime. The Fire and Light makes you divine, the Dark makes you human. Anything that is Dark and Divine becomes Occult and dangerous to the order of the gods -see Velka and Priscilla. Gwyndolin demonstrates this the most, as the major background mover of the plot. A lot of chat surrounds Gwyndolin's gender presentation, but every binary about him is breaking down - male presenting female (as opposed to the Firstborn, the manliest man who ever fucked a dragon, and Gwynivere, the womanliest woman to ever boob), light/solar divinity with dark/lunar powers, divine birth but human stature, divine heritage but snake/dragon legs.

Edit: oh, and also, Chaos makes a lot more structural sense if you see it as basically an attempt by the Fire/Light gods to assimilate that out of control, self-reproducing aspect of the Dark to the Fire Element. Demons, in this case, is that same mutation quality of Manus when applied to the Lord-race/whatever the people of Izalith were (spellchecker is trying to call them Italians). It's really obvious in how similar Manus is to many of the Chaos demons, and how Oolicile and Izalith are dark/light mirrors, except Oolocile has good bosses. Also solves the issue of the Proflamed Flame. It's not that it's this perfect plot-solving eternal flame. It's a peak efficiency humanity-to-Fire reactor, notable at that level because it consumed an entire capital city's worth of humans, perhaps millions of units of Humanity. This might be why Yhorm, as a giant outside of the god/human binary, bunkers down around the abomination.

[04k96]

I don’t care, probabilities is my favourite type of maths: reoccurring patterns within infinity

1. Mathematical Perspective: Chaos and Order

In mathematics, chaos theory and the study of complex systems suggest that while systems can behave unpredictably in the short term, underlying patterns can emerge over time or across large scales.

• Deterministic Chaos: Even in systems that appear random (like weather patterns), there can be underlying deterministic rules that, over long periods, produce complex but often recognizable patterns.

• Poincaré Recurrence Theorem: In certain types of systems, if the system has a finite number of states and operates under specific conditions, it will eventually return to a state very close to its starting point. This suggests that, over an infinite amount of time, even highly chaotic systems will exhibit some form of recurrence.

This means that even in infinite possibilities, certain patterns may inevitably repeat themselves, though the complexity and unpredictability of the outcomes may make these patterns hard to detect without long-term observation.

2. Physical Perspective: Entropy and the Universe

From the standpoint of physics, especially in the context of thermodynamics, the concept of entropy plays a crucial role. Entropy is often described as a measure of disorder or randomness, and in most closed systems, entropy increases over time (the second law of thermodynamics).

• In an infinite universe: If we imagine the universe continuing infinitely, patterns of energy distribution, formation of structures, or even recurrent cosmic events (like star formation) could emerge. However, over infinite time, entropy would likely dominate, and the universe would move toward a state of maximum disorder (heat death), where predictability and patterns would cease to exist in the traditional sense.

In this view, while local or temporary patterns could emerge (like the formation of galaxies, planets, and stars), over an infinite timespan, the decay into disorder could prevent large-scale, sustained patterns from emerging or persisting in the same way.

3. Philosophical Perspective: Infinite Possibilities and Recurrence

From a philosophical or metaphysical perspective, the idea of infinity opens up the possibility that every conceivable event or pattern could occur, but with varying likelihoods:

• Eternal Recurrence: The concept of eternal recurrence, first proposed by Nietzsche, suggests that all events in the universe will repeat infinitely in the exact same way. This implies that over infinite time, every possible pattern (even chaotic or unlikely ones) will play out, potentially more than once. However, this idea assumes that time and events are cyclical and finite in their fundamental properties, even within the context of infinity.

• Infinite Outcomes: In a truly infinite universe, some philosophical views posit that every possible outcome could eventually occur. This could mean that while large-scale patterns may emerge in some realms, in others, the recurrence of entirely new or unique patterns might overwhelm previously observable regularities. For instance, if there are infinite ways the universe could unfold, the probability of new, emergent patterns becomes higher, even if previously established ones still reoccur.

4. **The Role of Randomness and Probabilities

In the realm of probability, especially in statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics, randomness plays a central role. If we consider infinite possibilities, it’s important to understand that:

• Random processes don’t necessarily eliminate all patterns, but they can make the predictability of patterns much harder to identify over time.

• In some cases, infinite possibilities could lead to an infinite number of unique configurations (especially at the quantum level), but also ensure that patterns within those configurations would still be recurring, due to probabilistic laws and underlying constants of nature (such as physical laws that govern particle interactions).

5. Anthropic Principle and Human Perception of Patterns

The anthropic principle suggests that humans, as observers, are more likely to notice patterns that are meaningful within the contexts they experience. This means that the pattern recognition we see may be more of a human construct rather than an inherent property of the universe. In an infinite universe, while patterns may persist, the way we interpret or even recognize them might depend on our frame of reference.

Conclusion:

The likelihood of patterns recurring in every possible outcome over infinite time depends on several factors, including the nature of the system (deterministic vs. chaotic), entropy, the laws of probability, and philosophical interpretations of infinity. In a finite system, repetitive patterns may eventually emerge due to deterministic laws or chaotic systems, but in an infinite universe, new patterns could emerge continuously, often overwhelming earlier, established ones.

• Short term: Predictable patterns may emerge (chaotic systems, quantum processes, biological cycles).

• Long term (infinite): The decay of order (through entropy) might cause ultimate unpredictability, though some patterns (even very complex ones) might still emerge due to the deterministic nature of underlying laws.

[decepti-thots]

SPEAKING of tension between the real world and MTMTE specifically trying to do inhuman social dynamics. lily has reminded me that everything about what MTMTE does with the minimus-dominus sibling/house relationship drives me nuts. it's very very clearly in a real sense a literal sibling dynamic; the idea of having a socially-enforced connection to someone you had no initial agency in and cannot easily drop voluntarily is integral to understanding why minimus has a relationship like he does to his (dead) brother, like without that "invisible thread that even disowning only highlights the existence of" element the role dominus plays in his story makes no sense. they are Literally Siblings, period. however. the narrative also acknowledges that this is not normal for literally anyone who does not have siblings and indicates that those without siblings- a rarity worth commenting on- it is in no way intuitive. (see: rewind not really understanding their dynamic in that DotL prologue scene.) it is something that i guess you understand if you have one and don't understand if you don't. this is propped up a bit by the fact that spark twins literally have a metaphysical "bond" that minimus references in mtmte and which is clearly established in its predecessor, last stand of the wreckers, as a physically real thing that other unrelated mechs don't have. however. the fact of the matter is that the idea you are Intrinsically Tied By Birth to your siblings relates to real-world considerations of "being brought up as dependents within family structures means you are in involuntary proximity in your formative years, usually" and "cultural narratives of blood relationships as inherently important are impressed upon people at a young age" that Cybertronians, in the specific fiction of mtmte, DEFINITELY do not have. so like. what the fuck does being a sibling even mean. siblings with inherent feelings about each other that have no parents they share. is it a thing where there's external cultural ideas about sparks that a "sparkbond" forces on them despite their cultural non-normalness overall. is it something to do with WHATEVER a HOUSE is. what is a house. literally WHAT ARE HOUSES. i am shaking this comic like "i understand these concepts are here to be emotionally evocative not Lore TM and i respect it and the sibling narrative is truthful and really underappreciated by fandom, but consider: I WANT YOUR WORLDBUILDING ABOUT THIS"

[subir-astrologer]

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF KETU IN VEDIC ASTROLOGY AND HOW DOES IT BEHAVE IN DIFFERENT HOUSES

In vedic astrology although we consider Ketu as a planet but it actually do not have its physical form. So it is also called as Chaya graha / shadow planet.

Unlike rahu, ketu do not believe in materialistic pleasure and is not a greedy planet. Since Ketu is a headless planet so it takes time in its realization and so the person feels detached under its influence.

The other reason for ketu not liking materialistic pleasure and taste anything is because the sense of taste and pleasure can be felt by the interpretation of our brain and ketu donot have head.

This is the reason when Ketu is active or a person is influenced by ketu, native actually seek and prefer solitude. Native quite loves to being alone, and remember that self-isolation is not loneliness, it just means you are taking time for yourself between regular social interactions.

A SEED GROWS WITH NO SOUND BUT A TREE FALLS WITH HUGE NOISE. DESTRUCTION HAS NOISE BUT CREATION IS QUIET. THIS IS THE POWER OF SILENCE AND THAT IS WHAT KETU IS.

Being alone is an important part of self-development. It allows you to get to know yourself. Through solitary pursuits, you learn more about yourself and reflect on your experiences.

In other words Ketu helps a person in his transformation as he in his isolation period goes thru a self-realization period which impart a lot of understand and knowledge to attend a personal change.

One should always remember that Diamonds are formed under pressure and bread dough rises when you let it rest.

It represents spiritual detachment, liberation (Moksha), past karmic influences, and deep transformation. Ketu often brings a sense of isolation, otherworldliness, and enlightenment but can also manifest confusion, losses, and detachment in the material world.

Let’s understand Ketu’s behavior when placed in each house step by step :

1st House (Ascendant)

Positive: Strong spiritual inclination, interest in occult subjects, intuitive, detached from worldly pleasures, can lead a simple life.

Negative: Physical ailments, identity confusion, difficulty in self-expression, feeling disconnected from self or surroundings.

2nd House

Positive: Detachment from family matters, unorthodox speech, might earn through spiritual or unconventional means.

Negative: Financial instability, strained family relationships, issues related to speech (e.g., stammering), difficulty in accumulating wealth.

3rd House

Positive: Strong willpower, spiritual communication, creative writing, intuitive thinking, detached but courageous in actions.

Negative: Problems with siblings, overconfidence in taking risks, miscommunication, restlessness, lack of focus.

4th House

Positive: Spiritual detachment from home life, deep emotional intuition, and interest in occult or metaphysical studies.

Negative: Problems in relationships with mother or domestic issues, lack of emotional fulfillment, frequent relocation, difficulty in acquiring property.

5th House

Positive: Strong intuitive abilities, interest in spirituality, detachment from children or creative pursuits, inclination towards occult and mantra practices.

Negative: Difficulties in conceiving or relationships with children, confused intellect, gambling tendencies, difficulty in romantic affairs.

6th House

Positive: Ability to overcome enemies, diseases, and debts, strong intuitive healing powers, service-oriented approach in life.

Negative: Health problems related to mysterious or chronic ailments, hidden enemies, workplace troubles, and legal issues.

7th House

Positive: Spiritual union with partner, detached and non-materialistic relationships, interest in unconventional or foreign partners.

Negative: Problems in marriage or partnership, separation, lack of harmony in relationships, difficulty in maintaining long-term commitments.

8th House

Positive: Deep interest in occult, mysticism, and spirituality, ability to overcome sudden upheavals, strong transformative energies, financial gains through inheritance.

Negative: Health problems, sudden losses, accidents, mental stress, secrets and scandals, fear of death.

9th House

Positive: Strong inclination towards spirituality, detachment from religious dogmas, higher learning, and pilgrimage.

Negative: Issues with father, teacher, or gurus, lack of belief in traditional religious practices, challenges in long-distance travel or higher education.

10th House

Positive: Interest in spiritual or unconventional career paths, ability to work in isolation, fame through occult or mystical means.

Negative: Career instability, lack of recognition, trouble with authority, difficulty in maintaining a steady professional life.

11th House

Positive: Spiritual detachment from material gains, success through unconventional means, strong intuition for financial or social matters.

Negative: Difficulty in making long-term friendships, financial instability, unfulfilled desires, issues with elder siblings or social circles.

12th House

Positive: Strong inclination towards spirituality, liberation, and foreign travels, deep introspection, and ability to attain enlightenment or Moksha.

Negative: Expenses or losses, mental stress, isolation, hospitalization, addiction, or imprisonment, problems with sleep or subconscious issues.

Ketu in General :

Spirituality: Ketu encourages detachment and spiritual growth. It helps one let go of materialistic desires and attachments.

Confusion and Isolation: Ketu often creates confusion or disconnection from the areas of life it influences.

Past Karma: Ketu represents past life influences, so its placement often indicates unresolved karmic lessons.

Liberation and Transformation: Despite its challenges, Ketu offers deep spiritual transformation and the potential for enlightenment.

PLEASE NOTE : The effects of Ketu vary significantly depending on aspects, conjunctions, its strength in the chart, and the sign it occupies. A well-placed Ketu can lead to spiritual liberation, while a poorly placed Ketu can cause confusion and detachment from material success.

[windvexer]

This is kind of a large question so I apologize but I guess I'm curious on how you're able to get such specific or like. unique (i mean this in a good way) answers from tarot? Like your "what magic should i learn next" stuff or how to pick up what a spirit can do through tarot. like idk how to translate these cards into what the spirit is trying to say

Hi!

There's no easy answer to this question, partially because I've now been reading tarot for almost exactly 16 years. This isn't at all to say that it's just the passage of time, but that in that amount of time I've done tons and tons of different things to expand my understanding of, and usage, of tarot.

Tarot didn't come to me very easily, and part of that journey was doing a lot of experimentation in an effort to figure it all out. My reading practice is still very much typified by a huge amount of experimentation and custom reading methods.

It hasn't been a linear process at all. I go through periods of months (or more!) where tarot just doesn't click for me, at all. So just because I picked up my first tarot deck 16 years ago doesn't mean that I've kept a consistent practice (I'm just now getting back into it after just such a fallow period ^-^)

My feelings on experimentation is that it gives me new ways to think about not only the cards, but also spreads, methodologies, and readings as a whole.

In addition, my experiments with other forms of divination (most especially casting lots, energy readings, and playing card readings) have heavily influenced my tarot readings.

Here is a post I wrote that I think expresses my feelings on experimenting within tarot.

Here are some examples of tarot experiments I've performed, and/or methodologies I've explored. It's these sorts of things that have been building blocks in my abilities in tarot. But no single one of them was a "key."

Elemental dignities: The elements of the cards dictates how they interact with each other. Air + fire can mean a supercharged firestorm, but water + fire can mean a controlled fire under a stewpot, or blocked progress of the fire. This experiment helps with understanding how cards can link together, and how energy can flow within a spread.

Elemental landscapes: Spreads are laid down in lines or grids and each card represents one aspect of the landscape. You must brainstorm and choose your own meanings. E.g., 8/wands is an exploding volcano. Queen/Cups is a lake inhabited by mermaids. Read the flow of weather patterns and energies through the spread as an answer to the question. This experiment helps with intuitive reading and working with a spread as a whole, instead of focusing on individual cards.

Elemental portents: Assign an element to your question. Draw a card. If the element on the card agrees with the element of your question, the portent is good; if it disagrees, the portent is bad. This experiment helps with learning how to phrase questions and how the question themselves can influence the balance of the deck.

Astral landscapes: This was an elaborate system I built around the Wooden Tarot. I worked with each card to assign it a mystical association that could occur in an astral landscape. The major arcana were spirits who could travel across the landscape. Each spread was like a playing board of a generated landscape and the spirits that interacted inside of it. This experiment was fun for considering the metaphysical ramifications of the energies of the cards themselves.

Numerical virtues: The number value of the card indicates its power and magnitude in the spread. 2 and 3 value cards are always of smaller power and significance. 10 and court cards are always of higher value. Aces may be high or low. This experiment gave me a new way of thinking about importance of each card, and how to blend magnitudes of significance.

Infinite directional wheel: I wrote a post on this actually, but basically you can keep placing cards forever in the cross-quarter positions. It's a meditation on the concept of elements and directions within witchcraft. Also, an extremely useful spread. This was a vital experiment for me in understanding spreadwork, flow of information, and linking cards.

Card doubling and tripling: Place two (or 3) cards together and determine the meaning as if it's one single card; there is no border, and the images combine with each other. The pictures and meanings of each combine into a single card.

Card doubling and tripling, but in spreads: For each position in the spread, place two cards (or three cards!) in place of one. Read the dyads or triads as if they are a single card. It isn't beginning/middle/end; it's a single triple-complex card! These doubling experiments helped me with the concept of card linking and blending meanings into unique interpretations.

Custom meaning sets: Basically, swap out all the default meanings with your own. Extremely useful IMO in learning how sets of meanings work together, and how to balance sets of meanings. I wrote a post on it here. These experiments have perhaps been the most vital for me in developing new interpretations. I believe that the magical skills readings you referenced were the result of custom meaning sets.

No meaning sets: Instead of using any card meanings, all spreads are resolved using a combination of elemental portents and numerical virtues. I.e., the element and number of a card in relation to other cards in the spread determines the reading. Here, the experimentation is allowing the cards to have strict, defined roles within a spread that can't be overwritten by personal intuition.

As a final note, I highly, highly recommend recording every reading you do and every card you draw. For the first couple years of my practice I recorded all readings, and it was a huge boost to my learning.

[hms-no-fun]

a little late asking you a question but do you have some favourite books to share? and why they are your favourite? like such as how did they influence your way of thinking, your relationship with art, your way of writing, &c.

i've gotten a few asks about books/writing that influenced me and this is the most open-ended one, so, congratulations on winning that lottery anon.

the book that most recently affected me is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. it's about a representative from an intergalactic alliance of worlds embedding within and learning about the culture of a previously uncontacted civilization, to try to get them to join. but really, it's about observing the sociological particulars of a human culture where everyone is functionally intersex, and sort of swap male/female gender roles during the time period when they're (for lack of the term actually used in the book that i can't remember) "in heat". it's an astonishing work of science fiction that is every bit as good as its reputation suggests. i had a hard time getting into the first 20-30 pages, but once it really digs into the particulars of "shifgrethor" (this culture's all-important sense of decorum and near-invisible communication that the protagonist struggles to understand til the end) i was hooked. i love fictional social systems. i'm a homestuck, i can't help it. there's a profound materialism in how Le Guin observes this culture into being that unlocked something in me. i'll be thinking about the journey across the ice for the rest of my life.

i was also very inspired by This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, perhaps the most pure distillation of the feminine desire to hatefuck your rival into an ascendant beacon of cosmic revolution yet put to the page. much of how they write about time travel has made it into godfeels, not to mention the wildly extravagant and brief but numerous visions of absolutely batshit speculative alt-history tableau. i mean, the way they talk about Atlantis as this sort of annoying constant of the timeline, sometimes real and sometimes fake depending on the strand, definitely casts a shadow over the metaphysics explored in Chapter 8.

the other book i always recommend alongside Time War, because i read them at the same time while i was in the middle of production on Chapter 8 in 2021, is There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. anyone who's read it or knows about it can immediately spot the gargantuan influences it's had on Silverbark's narrative in Chapter 8 and especially in Double Album. if you're not aware, Antimemetics Division is a standalone SCP novel about a branch of the Foundation dedicated to studying & intercepting the phenomenon of antimemes, ideas & entities that defy our ability to remember them in various ways. think The Silence in Matt Smith's second season of Doctor Who, or the Void Fish in the Balance arc of The Adventure Zone. i'm not an SCP person at all, i think i've read maybe half a dozen other SCP entries, so i'm not totally full of it when i say this book stands very tall on its own two legs. i very much intend to take a closer look at it in detail down the road because i think, whether intentional or not, the main "villain" of Antimemetics Division operates as a very handy analogue for the socio/psycho-logical effects of the profit motive on individuals & on society at large. also: Marion Wheeler is so fucking good. i did not know she existed when i came up with Silverbark but you bet your ass it's an influence now.

a non-fiction book that's had an outsized influence on me is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. i always feel self conscious about bringing this one up because it sounds like a self-help book or some kind of Chicken Soup for the Soul ass grifter textbook. that absolutely could not be farther from reality. ZAMM was written in the 60s and it's a semi-autobiographical philosophy of metaphysics text by a professor of rhetoric who some years ago underwent electroshock therapy after a destructive manic phase. it follows Pirsig on a motorcycle trip across the American west with his son and some college friends, as he tries to uncover the ideas that drove his past self (who he characterizes as a different person that he calls Phaedrus) off the wall. those ideas concern the nature of "quality" and how we perceive it. as in, why should we Know that a good painting is "good" within seconds of examining it, in the same manner that we know a stove is hot almost before we've even touched it? he digs deep into how we conceptualize the split between objectivity and subjectivity, and posits that understanding Quality requires a substantial re-evaluation of our base assumptions about human perception. of course there's SO much more to it than that, it's a beautiful and strange book that succeeds in part because its philosophy is deeply couched within the metaphor of a road trip, making it a lot more accessible than an otherwise straightforward metaphysics text. i read it in an honor's philosophy class full of incurious Christians at age 22, and that was absolutely the perfect time for it.

another non-fiction entry would be Acceptable Men by communist labor agitator Noel Ignatiev. it's a memoir about his time working at Gary Steel Works in the 70s, at the time the largest steel works factory in the world. it relates in very simple terms how racism sabotaged the USAmerican labor movement through anecdotes from his workplace. it's important, i think, for those of us dreaming of & pushing for a more equitable world to stare long and hard at struggles past and not lose their most valuable lessons in our desire to simply have it be true that unions are good. they are good but they're not everything, and in fact they're just as capable of systemic dysfunction and capitulation to capitalist white supremacy as any other organization of human beings.

what else? i started reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant and much enjoyed its early pages, but holy shit that's one long book in a series of long books. people are telling me to read Exordia so i might give that a shot. i've got Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt as well as May Leitz's Girlflesh on my desk, just waiting for the day i'm psychologically prepared to be ravaged by transfem body horror. i keep picking away at China Mieville's October, i'm sure one of these days i'll just sit down and power through it. of course i recommend everyone check out Lenin's State and Revolution, great book from the original poster, absolutely still relevant more than a hundred years later. and much easier to read than you might expect! no one ever talks about how entertaining he is as a writer, unless you hang out with communists in which case you're probably sick of us never shutting up about it.

i hope there's some good stuff in there, and not too much that i've written about before. i really need to make myself read more, but then again who doesn't?