#while not highly valuing forms of art where its very very easy to find any random person producing it independently

[moodr1ng]

i think theres probably something interesting going on regarding the relationship between.. how accessible a form of media is to create at a professional level for an average individual or small group (eg: writing at a professional level is comparatively very accessible, making a movie at a professional level is comparatively inaccessible) vs which forms of media are currently dominating whats considered mainstream and which forms appear to not be valued as much anymore. but any conclusion i draw upon would only be anecdotal so its whatever

[scotianostra]

29th March 1958 saw the death of Sir William Burrell.

I first  learned of William Burrell through my mum in the early 80's, he was born into a shipping family and ran the business with one of his brothers, George after his fathers death.

In 1876 William entered the firm at the age of 15, and on his father's death in 1885 he and his eldest brother George took over the management. the firm was already prospering, but under their shrewd direction it reached a position of international standing in worldwide tramping and in ship management.

The Burrell brothers undoubtedly had the Midas touch. George kept abreast of developments in marine engineering while William specialized in the commercial side. Their fortunes were based on a steady nerve, foresight and breath-taking boldness. The formula was quite simple. In times of depression they would order a large number of ships at rock-bottom prices, calculating that the vessels would be coming off the stocks when the slump was reaching an end. Burrell and Son was then in a position to attract cargoes because it had ships available and could undercut its rivals. Then, after several years of highly profitable trading, the brothers would sell the fleet in a boom period and lie low until the next slump occurred,  it was a simple idea for them and very shrewd, none of their rivals were brave enough to take the risk and the firm went from strength to strength. It was when the firm were at there peak William became one of the most important collectors in Scotland. His interest in art went back to his youth. While still a boy he was already buying pictures, although he used to say in later years that their chief value lay in the frames. 

Although it is not known what sparked off Burrell's love of art, there were plenty of opportunities in late 19th century Glasgow for him to form his tastes. A number of collectors were to be found amongst the wealthy Scottish industrialists and shipowners of the time.

  An estimate of Burrell's early interests can be obtained from his loans to the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1901, when he was the largest single lender with more than two hundred works. Their range and scope show that he was already a collector of major standing. They included medieval tapestries, ivories, wood and alabaster sculpture, stained glass and bronzes, Roman glass, 16th and 18th-century Dutch, German and Venetian table glass, silver, furniture and Persian rugs. The paintings are by too many artists to mention here without it looking like a shopping list, but Whistler, Manet and Monticello were among his purchases.

  Between 1901 and 1911 little is known of Burrell's collecting, apart from his acquisition of some fine pictures, including his first Degas. Unfortunately, at the same time he was selling as well as buying, a policy he was to continue even after the sale of the fleet had removed any major financial restrictions on the scale of his spending on art. In 1902, for example, he sent nearly forty pictures for auction, and among those sold were paintings by Daumier and Manet which are now in the United States.

From 1911 until 1957 Burrell kept detailed records of his expenditure in twenty-eight school exercise books. He made almost all the entries himself, except during the last few months when failing eyesight compelled him to delegate the task to others. These purchase books are an invaluable record of the astounding range and scale of his collecting. Although the entries tend to become more detailed as the years go by, the basic format was established on the first page of the first book. There are separate columns for date of acquisition, description, from whom the item was acquired, its price, date of delivery, insurance and whether photographed. The last column is headed "All in Order" and usually has Burrell's initials.

Burrell was never an easy client. He was strong-minded, liked to haggle over prices and could be very cautious., well what would you expect from a canny Scot! Even dealers with whom he had done business over some years would find him seeking a second opinion on an object they were attempting to sell him. His collection is only bettered by some of the major museums across the British Isles.

  Until about 1930 Burrell seems to have been buying merely for his personal enjoyment, with no thought of forming a collection which would be kept together after his death. Until then he continued to sell or exchange paintings, but in the 1930s he formed the idea not only of having a permanent collection but of handing it over to public ownership. Burrell had discussions with a number of interested parties regarding the disposal of the Collection, and eventually, in 1944, it was donated to Glasgow, the city of his birth and centre of his business activities, in the names of himself and and his wife.

A few years later he gave the then Glasgow Corporation £450,000 for the construction of a building in which the Collection was to be housed and displayed. The terms of the Deed of Gift as regards this building, however, presented difficulties. Burrell stated that it should be within four miles of Killearn in Stirlingshire and not less than sixteen miles from the Royal Exchange in Glasgow. He felt that the Collection would appear to best advantage in a rural setting and was also deeply concerned at the harm which could be caused by the high levels of air pollution then prevailing over Glasgow. The councillors and Corporation officials were aware of the problems in, firstly, finding a suitable site and then in administering a museum so far removed from the city, but attempts to persuade Burrell to make his conditions less stringent met with little success. Various sites were considered, but the issue was still unresolved at the time of Burrell's death. It was only nine years later, in 1967, when Mrs Anne Maxwell Macdonald presented Pollok House and estate to the City of Glasgow, that a site was at last found.

Sadly, he did not live to see them in the gallery in Pollok Park, where they form such an important feature. He died at Hutton Castle on 29th March 1958, at the age of 96.

A design competition for the museum building in 1971 was delayed by a postal strike, allowing time for the eventual winning architect  Barry Gasson. I have no idea why it took so long to actually get it built, but it’s size was maybe a factor. The building is the second largest post war building in Scotland, the abandoned St  Peter's Seminary at Cardross being the largest. The Burrell Collectioned opened it’s doors in 1983.  So far, more than 1.3 million people have visited exhibitions

The Burrell Collection closed to the public in October 2016 in order to embark on a programme of refurbishment. It was planned to reopen in spring 2021, although covid might has delayed the work and it has been revised

[besybil]

A LESSON ON SERVITORS

chaoscommentary

Introduction

In the Chaos Magick ladder which I briefly described in a previous article we have Servitors as the next evolution of our high magick.

Just to remind you we go from:

Sigils -> Servitors -> Egregores -> God forms.

Servitors are much more difficult to put into application than sigils. They require more time and energy as well.

The good news (for some) is that Servitors can still be created in private.

Egregores and Godforms are almost impossible to create without some sort of extra participation or fellowship with other people (however I have some clever methods to use which will be described when I get to those subjects.) Regardless, before I jump into how to create a servitor, I need to clearly define WHAT a servitor IS.

What is a Servitor?

As servitor is a thought form of your own creation. One of the most popular occurrences (back in the day) was the creation of imaginary friends by children.

The power and purpose of your servitor will be entirely dependent on you and your desire to develop it. For young children, to have a non judgmental companion to walk beside them as they learn to socially cope with other people is a common mission for some servitors. Another way to think of Servitors is as “Familiars.”

Now this comes with a bit of a warning, without proper attention your servitor may gain independence and a life of its own (Thus evolving into an Egregore.) I am all about responsibility and making your magick do exactly what it was intended to do, so I will give you some tips on how to keep a leash on your familiar.

Why would I want a Servitor?

Like I said in a previous article, sigils are typically where the buck stops for most Chaotes. They are powerful, work as intended and are very accurate. You could technically stop right there and have everything you will ever need for working with magick. However, magick is more of a walk for some and an exploration of endless possibilities for others. Servitor creation is the next step into some deep waters and a step out into the wild frontier of Magick. This is where the pedal hits the metal; this is where the wild adventure begins. For many adult occultists, this is also a return to childhood which can be a very scary place for some.

That being said; familiars and their purpose are left to your imagination. A companion (friend), a bodyguard, and yes even lovers are all applications for Servitor work. However let me come with a warning, the more you feed a servitor the stronger and more independent it can become. As such I advise highly against creating servitors for sexual gratification. You may end up giving birth to a hag or a succubus (a result of uncontrolled mutation), which in the end will make your life miserable. It would be better to create a wing(wo)man to help bolster your confidence to gain a physical mate. My point ultimately is, just like sigils, there is no limit on what a servitor can do, look like or become. The only limit is your imagination. If a sigils is a magickal computer program, Servitors are magickal robots, just shy of becoming Magickal AI.

Servitors are astral constructs.  Servitors can cause physical change.

Practical use for servitors include:

An assistant in solo magickal work.

A protector for your house.

An assistant for keeping your workspace clean.

To name just a few.

Okay I get it! How do I MAKE one?

First rule: Temper your enthusiasm with caution. Respect the ritual you are about to perform.

Second Rule: We do not create accidents; make sure you truly want to create a servitor. These are not toys, they are very real beings created from your energies, they are in short, your children. Be a responsible parent.

Third Rule: Always, always, always, set up rules and restrictions to keep your servitors exactly that. Without rules, a servitor has the potential to become an Egregore and no longer under your control.

Optional but highly recommended: When I create servitors I get into the habit of breaking down ones I no longer use and incorporate them into the newer, upgraded models. I had a bad experience with leaving “junk servitors” unattended only to have them haunting my dreams and bumping into me in the middle of the night. If you are down with a servitor, release the energy and let it be free. This act prevents the buildup of malice and negative energies from neglected thought forms. Keep your workspace clean, in the astral and in the physical.

Now that we have that established let me begin.

As always with Chaos Magick, there is no right or wrong way to do this. What I offer you is what has worked for me. Tweak it for your purposes. (For me) It always helps to have a template to start with, but YOUR magickal walk is exactly that, yours not mine; you are the final Judge on what you are willing and able to commit to such a practice.

Step 1: State the purpose of your Servitor

Create a sigil or series of sigils which will define the purpose of your servitor. “Protect my home,” “Keep my house clean,” so on and so forth. Make as many sigils as you need. This is the easy part, feel free to find my article on sigil making in this blog.

Step 2: Create a body for your Servitor

You have two options here.

Option A:

You can bind them to a fetish like is a doll, figurine or even a drawing of your own design. I am a naturally arts and crafts kind of person so this is my preferred method.

Option B:

However if for whatever reason I don’t not have the time or money to create a physical representation of my servitor, I use meditation and create the servitor in my mind and in astral space.

Regardless, the process requires the same amount of energy, effort and IMAGINATION. You must visualize the servitor. How tall is it? Does it have limbs? Can it speak? It can take hours to create a body for your  servitor, but you need to define as many of its functions and characteristics as possible. Its body needs to be a vivid as possible. Some of my servitors have looked like Lovecraftian horrors, while one of my longtime companions is a very cute four foot tall blonde elf girl who speaks in wind chimes.

Step 3: Bind your sigils in the body of the servitor, and put in its safety protocols.

Binding your sigils can be as simple as drawing them inside your picture, carving them into your doll, or imagining the sigils being put in place of where its “heart” or “battery” may be. The point is to make sure your sigils are part of your servitor. Once this occurs, and you are convinced the two have become one, a safety should be put into place. As I said before, without a leash or restrain, your servitor has cart-blanche to run amok and out of your control. You have again, to options here: A command word or a counter sigil. The command word can be: “Stop!” “Sit!” “Go away!” It is best to keep it simple; although I know a few people who used poetry for particularly devious machines to make sure not everyone can shut them down. That is the key to command words however, anyone can use them. A servitor must be compelled once a person speaks a word or command phrase to abide by its programming.

Safety Method A: Command Words

Creating a command word is as simple as touching your servitor (if you used a fetish, this is easier) and speaking plainly to them “When I say <x> you will do <y>” (X and Y are your phrase and its action.) Repeat this as many times as you need to remember or until you feel you servitor is ready to comply. You can put as many command words on your servitor as you want, just be careful not to use the same word to do multiple things, or that they words are counterproductive to its mission. You could confuse the crap out of it.

Safety Method B: Counter Sigils

The second method, counter sigils, are kind of a fire and forget method. It lets a servitor know where it  is or isn’t allowed to be. This requires you to name your servitor and upon naming it, creating a sigil of its name. You must decide if this sigil is a ward or a summoning upon its creation. You do not need to commit much thought to this nor does it change the method of how the sigil is created, the intent is good enough. “This sigil means you are welcome to work in this place,” or “This sigil prevents you from going into this place,” Is good enough of a declaration for this method to work. I have seen people bind servitors in boxes with this method and let them out when needed, while others have put the symbols on doors and the like to let servitors know where they should go.

Step 4: BRING YOUR CREATION TO LIFE!!!!!

The ritual can be as elaborate or mundane as you want. However I will tell you, the more elaborate the more powerful your servitor will be in the long run. I have used a simple hand flick gesture (like turning on a light) to activate some, they only lasted a few days before the broke down. My longtime companion servitor had entire weeks of music and food dedicated to her and if she didn’t have any safety protocols in place, probably would have become an Egregore by now. Still, perform a ritual that lets the servitor know it is born. Throw it a birthday party, show it around the house, get silly, get childish. There is no right or wrong way to invite this new entity into your home, just know, the more gnosis you feed it, the better.

Step 4:

Regular maintenance of your servitor is a must. Your servitor must be in your mind from time to time. If you forget about it, it loses energy and dies. While, just thinking about it is okay, offerings or rewards are much more potent. For my lesser servitors I give them a drop of life force when they have done well. For my companion, I have treated her to donuts and milk. The key is to understand the relationship between you and your servitor. Unless you set them free, they cannot live without you. If you forget them, they will die. Woe to the chaote who creates a servitor with no restrictions and then neglects them, you may create a vengeful spirit to infest your house. So reward you servitor when they have done their duties and let them know you still care about them.

Dismantling your Servitors:

I include this part because all good occultists know the value of banishment. Some servitors outlive their usefulness and thus need to be released back into the cosmos. This is not a cruel thing to do, as a matter of fact; actively releasing your unused servitors is very humane. It is cruel to leave a bound servitor unattended to die an agonizing death of forgetfulness and neglect.

Dismantling is simple. Take the abject or thought of you servitor and tell it “You are free” or “I set you free” Imagine all of the bindings and words leaving and falling apart into harmless light. If you have a fetish, set it ablaze or destroy it in some gentle way. Make sure that the object can no longer physically house the servitor. IT is a very good practice to tell it, that it has performed well and it is time for it to move on. If the servitor doesn’t seem to want to leave then you may have to perform this a few time. My companion didn’t want to leave me when I tried to banish her the first three times, she was so fiercely loyal that I gave her a second birthday and still keep her to this day.

That is servitor making in a nutshell.

I am sure many of you have questions or will want me to elaborate. So feel free to ask questions if you need help. This is a basic outline, I am vague for a reason to encourage you to go out there and find what works for you. Just be safe and Chaos Magick responsibly.

~M.A. Hargrove © 2014

[gambithq]

CATELIA, THE RINGED ISLE

An island just off the eastern coast of Haelion, Catelia lies just south of the Haelion desert only a short boat ride from the coast. The city is famous for its colorful buildings and its sprawling canals, in place of roads, connecting each of the island’s three rings to one another. The outer ring of Catelia, called merdociara, or “the Merchant’s circle,” is home to shops and stalls selling famously delicious food and sturdy, well-crafted supplies; the second ring of Catelia, called arziciara, or “the Artist’s circle,” is the source of some of Haelion’s most beautiful museums and talented artist’s collectives; the third ring of Catelia, called politiciara, or “the Noble’s circle,” is home to Catelia’s substantial noble class and their intricately decorated estates. 

Of course, Catelia is as dangerous as it is beautiful: infamous for the warring political factions of its powerful noble families, the city is constantly caught in an elaborate war of intrigue far beyond the comprehension of most of its citizens, who end up becoming collateral damage in the wake of a near-constant string of shifting allegiances and coups d’état. After all, the thing Catelia is most famous for aside from its gorgeous canals is its highly competent and highly mercenary Assassin’s Guild. Catelian assassins are highly regarded and well respected, bringing honor to their families even as they forsake their names and renounce all family ties upon entering the guild to train. It is commonly said that the canals of Catelia run red with blood in the night—and nothing you’ve seen or heard thus far disproves that. 

But Catelia isn’t just a convenient stop along the coast to resupply after a stint in the harsh desert. It is also home to a prime target for ferreting out both information and valuable items to steal. And the Gambit happens to be arriving in town just in time for one of the Catelian nobles’ largest parties—and easiest marks—of the year.  

THE VERDICCI FAMILY’S ANNUAL MASKED BALL

The Verdicci family is one of the lower noble families in Catelia—high enough to have plenty of power but low enough that no one is vying to overtake them any time soon, a comfortable middle spot that allows them to live in the lap of luxury without too much fear for their heads. The matriarch of the family, Eliara Verdicci, loves any excuse she can find to flaunt her wealth and relatively safe status, inviting nobles from across the politiciara and neighboring cities to attend her annual masquerade ball. 

With the extensive guest list and general easy chaos of such a large event, all the Gambit will need to charm their way in are appropriate costumes: the fanciest clothing possible and, of course, a mask. Once inside, they’ll have access not only to every noble in the city to pick pockets and uncover secrets, but also to Eliara’s secure art collection, rare books library, and a vault of valuable jewels and artifacts. 

There are several possible leads that Gambit members attending the masquerade may follow up on: 

1. LOOSE LIPS. Between the Catelian nobles and wealthy diplomats from nearby cities, a number of important people will be in attendance—people with a wealth of far-reaching information, and possibly the promise of further jobs, further marks, and perhaps some desperately longed for secrets. A charming face and a keen ear will find no trouble circulating the party to gather information; you hardly even have to know the right questions to ask. ( REWARD: valuable secrets ) OVID & ZHENYA

2. DEEP POCKETS. By around a third of the way through the party, most of the distinguished guests should be too intoxicated to be keeping close track of their possessions. Never has a pocket been easier to pick, nor so full. If you have some extra time, try the coat room—you never know what you might find in there. ( REWARD: up to 270 tal or valuable items of equivalent value ) OPEN

3. ANCIENT TOMES. The Verdicci family library is the pet project of Elaria’s wife Marialena, who inherited the project from Elaria’s mother, through a line tracing back generations. The lofty, ceilinged room is full to the brim of incredibly rare tomes kept safely behind charmed glass, and the value of these targets are two-fold: there are books in here that people would pay a fortune for, but there is also information most would consider lost to time, trapped away here where no one else can read them. ( REWARD: up to 350 tal in rare books or information from said books ) DARCASSIAN & ZHENYA

4. DARK SECRETS. Among the books in the library, one in particular stands out: a very recent acquisition, the book is rumored to be cloaked in shadow and—if you believe the tales—to have come from another world altogether, its cover made from strange material no one has seen before, its pages of flesh, or impossibly thin vellum, or blood-red parchment, depending on who you ask. The Nightmare Tome, whispers call it, and they say it belonged to the Lord of Nightmares, taken mortal form. ( REWARD: The Nightmare Tome and information ) ESKAREL & HEPHIREUS & LUCKY

5. DEALER’S CHOICE. Eliara is a renowned collector and dealer of fine art, and hosts a significant collection of her own in a private museum on the top floor of the mansion. The museum is open for browsing during the party, so in order to secret away a piece or two, you’ll either need to be particularly stealth—or you’ll need a way to blend in. ( REWARD: up to 350 tal in rare art ) OPEN

6. HIDDEN VAULT. Somewhere deep in the basement of the mansion lies the hidden entrance to a magically secure vault which is said to house the Verdicci fortune, all in jewels and rare artifacts. If you can find the vault’s location and get in without setting off the spelled lock keeping it sealed, no one should be around to notice you taking whatever you please. ( REWARD: up to 350 tal in jewels and non-magical artifacts ) CASSIAN & TATSUO

7. INTERFERENCE. While the rest of the Gambit does what they can to extract every bit of value from the ball, at least two people will need to serve as their eyes and ears, running interference to keep them from being discovered. Circulate the party, make sure no one suspects your friends, and have a lovely time enjoying the food, drink, and entertainment on offer while you’re at it. ( REWARD: a cut of the spoils, up to 130 tal ) CALLIOPE & GWYN

OUT OF CHARACTER

Thanks to news of the Masquerade gathered by Ovid from a Catelian noble in Fahyrst, Catelia is as good a place as any to restock on food and supplies after the brief trek south through the edge of the Haelion desert. A ferry will take the Gambit from the coast to the island, where they will spend about four days before continuing south along the coast. A shop inventory of items available for purchase in the city can be found below the cut – please message the main if you would like to purchase anything while in town.

In addition to the Masquerade-specific missions listed above, further missions in and around Catelia can be found below the cut. To claim a mission, please post the title of the mission and the two characters claiming the mission in the #mission-claims channel on discord. Catelia missions should, to the best of your ability, wrap up around the 13th of June.

MISSIONS

1. PROTECTION RACKET. Marzara Morducci, a nobleman in one of the highest houses of Catelia, is seeking two bodyguards to escort his teenage son to their countryside villa a short ways from the coast on the mainland; Morducci has received credible threats on his family’s life from Catelian assassins, not to mention the usual monsters and bandits found on the road between the coast and the villa, and he is willing to pay through the nose to ensure his brat of a son arrives safely. ( REWARD: 120 tal ) OPEN

2. A TRAINEE’S TRICK. Melodiae Myrdo, a young trainee at the assassin’s guild, has a problem: as a part of her training, she needs to convincingly fake her own death well enough to fool the guild’s examiners. Unsure of how to proceed, she asks for your help planning and executing the task, which should be as bloody and spectacular as possible. ( REWARD: 75 tal ) ADRIK & ANTNAR

3. THE MASKED MENACE. A number of merchants in the merdociara have reported their most valuable items being stolen in the night, each describing the same strange, masked figure who seems to be able to disappear at will. This rash of thefts has caused merchants to be unusually wary of outsiders, but if their items were to be returned to them and the thief apprehended they would be more than happy to pay whoever helped them for their troubles. ( REWARD: 85 tal ) ANTNAR & BEL

4. A RARE INGREDIENT. Savabella El, a renowned artist known for the vivid colors of their paint and the almost hypnotizing effects their paintings have, is looking for new components to mix into paints to imbue their canvases with magic. They have heard rumor that there are trees, somewhere in the politiciara, that bear fruit whose seeds create a pigment so bright it could blind if not used properly—and they would like you to find some and bring it to them. ( REWARD: 70 tal ) OPEN

5. A ROCKY VOYAGE. Renowned treasure hunter Sar Veden has traveled to Catelia in pursuit of a treasure rumored to lie somewhere deep in the water beyond the island. The waters beyond Catelia are perilous and rocky for several miles beyond the shore, so Veden is hiring a small team who can help him safely navigate beyond the rocks and recover the lost treasure. ( REWARD: a share of the lost treasure ) OPEN

6. A FERRY INFESTATION. The ferry that connects Catelia to the mainland is the only passage onto or off of the island, due to the narrow strait which ordinary boats cannot navigate. Unfortunately, the ferry is currently out of commission due to an infestation of vicious, bipedal frog-like monsters that have taken up residence belowdecks, spitting poison at anyone who dares approach. The ferry’s captain, Luca Attara, is hiring adventurers willing to attempt to shoo them out or exterminate them, to get traffic flowing on and off the island again.  ( REWARD: 80 tal ) EZEK & GAVRIL

7. SIREN SIGHTINGS. Several citizens in both the merdociara and the arziciara have claimed to see what they believe to be a siren swimming through the canal between the two rings at night, and the city authorities believe this siren to be responsible for a series of missing persons cases the city has experienced over the past several weeks. For either bringing in the siren responsible or bringing in proof that the siren did not cause these disappearances, there is a steep reward fee being offered. ( REWARD: 95 tal ) BEL & VASHKA

8. A NOBLE ERRAND. A noblewoman named Giacoma Cal is preparing her estate for hosting a diplomatic guest from out of town, and needs someone to fetch a large cask of a very particular fine wine from one of the merchants in the merdociara. She swears the man owes it to her on credit, but he has sent four different servants back to her with refusals, claiming he owes her nothing. Maybe it’s time for a different approach to retrieving the wine for her. ( REWARD: 80 tal ) OPEN

9. A PUZZLING FRESCO. There is a strange fresco in one of the open-air marketplaces in the arziciara, displaying a pattern of interlocking circles, an orange fruit, a blue bird, a diamond of blood red, and a symbol that is said to be the symbol of the no-longer worshipped god of ancient Catelia, Marsei. Legend has it that the fresco is some sort of puzzle, that it opens the way to an ancient temple beneath the stones of the marketplace, and that great treasure lies within... and possibly something much more dangerous. ( REWARD: an impossibly rare artifact ) LUCKY & TATSUO

10. NIGHTMARE PLAGUE. All around the city, strange nightmares have been plaguing the citizens of Catelia in every district and of every class. Shadowy figures seem to appear on their walls as they wake, and disappear as soon as the lights are lit. Those affected report feeling watched—no matter where they go. Desperate for answers, a local doctor has asked for help collecting stories, and hopefully finding a remedy. ( REWARD: 70 tal ) BEL & GWYN & HEPHIREUS

SHOP INVENTORY

if you would like to purchase any gear or supplies from the shops in Catelia, message the main. the following items are available (estimated prices listed):

a masquerade mask ( 5-10 tal )

a custom perfume ( 35 tal )

a rare, old book ( 20 tal )

a fine bespoke outfit ( 25 tal )

a piece of fine jewelry ( 60 tal )

a fine-quality blade ( 95 tal )

an ornate, custom weapon ( 110 tal )

[arecomicsevengood]

COMICS BLOGGING OF A RAMBLING AND DIGRESSIVE SORT

I am embarrassed to admit it, but I do believe I buy things as a way of coping with my own uselessness. I’d like to attribute a universality to this character flaw, and claim everyone spends money on things they don’t need to fill some sort of existential void at the center of their being. My habits are relatively healthy, some people get shitfaced in response to the stimuli that makes me simply want meat, cheese, and carbohydrates. I have at various times read books at a pace comparable to eating, where everything got finished to make way for something else, but just because “reading books” is viewed as something good for your brain doesn’t make the act of buying them feel any less like a bit of brainless consumerism, especially when one is broke, and a global depression looms. Still, considering my worries that the postal service and retail outlets might go away if we do not support them and this will make life even more unbearable I convinced myself now was not the time to be a spendthrift.

All this is to explain why I bought a handful of comics I wasn’t sure I even expected to be good. Namely, I bought a bunch of issues of Alan Moore’s Tom Strong that I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d read before. I intended to parcel them out and savor them, but when I buy snacks at the grocery store, they get eaten faster than the vegetables. I bought these, along with some other single issue comics, from wowcool.com. From Powell’s, I preordered the first volume of Taiyo Matsumoto’s Ping Pong, which should arrive in a few weeks. I also ordered a few new releases direct from Fantagraphics.

Most notable among these is the Olivier Schrauwen/Ruppert And Mulot collaboration Portrait Of A Drunk. I’m on record as liking all the artists involved, and this one demonstrates why pretty clearly: While Olivier Schrauwen specializes in comedy about dumb guys, itself a form close to my heart, Ruppert And Mulot are darker and meaner, so here the dumb guy is an indifferent murderer. Being set in a pirate milieu allows for pretty amazing sequences of action and hallucination to flourish, their skills at color and composition tie it all together. Highly recommended. The back of the book announces Fantagraphics will be publishing the Ruppert And Mulot books made in collaboration with Bastien Vives starting next year. Hopefully I will end up reading comics by people other than my known favorites this year, but during a period of belt-tightening, there’s no guarantee even one’s favorites will live up to the increasingly-burdensome expectations put upon them.

Still, those Tom Strong comics outperformed my expectations. I believe I discussed how much I like Chris Sprouse’s work when I wrote about Alan Moore’s Supreme run, but let me reiterate: There’s a handful of comics Sprouse drew in the early nineties (A Batman annual with a Two-Face story written by Andy Helfer, an eighty-page Justice League Quarterly story, the first few issues of Legionnaires) which are emblematic of a certain DC Comics skillset I really value: This George Perez style ability to draw a lot of characters, rendered with this Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez spareness, this Kevin Maguire sense of facial expressions, a certain openness to the faces which is youthful and attractive and optimistic. There’s something similar to Graham Nolan’s art too: I don’t know how much other people like this stuff, it’s not really “cool” or gnarly looking, but there’s an unobtrusive cleanliness I associate with the DC “vibe” of this era, which I find vastly more appealing than the sort of post-Image-studios runoff that was their standard look more recently. As much as I love a good stylist, his is a good house style variant. Considering that, it rules that Tom Strong is what Chris Sprouse is known for. Those early nineties comics all have a lot of panels per page, but Moore, working in a post-Image mode, lets him breathe and do action sequences. He’s not an explosive artist, his drawing has this sort of style-guide quality to it, that feels perfect for the sort of “platonic ideal of a mainstream genre comic” tone that their collaborations aim for.

Reading these comics, I realized a few things: One, I hadn’t actually read them before. Two, they’re twenty years old. The years have been kind to them, in that I spent them aging, and while I was really into Top Ten and Promethea as a teenager, I still suspect that if Tom Strong is your favorite Alan Moore comic you are probably a dad. There’s a heavily nostalgic quality to all the genre pastiche going on, and its anchored by this character who is pretty upstanding, possessing this sort of all-seeing but benevolent competence aspect, and the storytelling affirms his liberal values. Peaceful coexistence is treated as preferable to violent conflict. It’s the work where Moore’e desire to issue a corrective to what he sees as a negative influence he had is most evident, it genuinely seems to be trying to be morally instructive to a young audience. I don’t think any of these things are bad, but it’s pretty easy to see how, reading the issues as they came out, many of them would register as somewhat bland. I seem to recall comic book writers at this time like Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, and Mark Millar all deriding what they called “dad comics,” not necessarily talking about Tom Strong, as a way of hyping up their own efforts, many of which I followed more avidly at the time but do not expect would hold up nearly as well. (There’s an issue that’s a homage to old Captain Marvel Family comics, featuring a few pages of Kyle Baker art, I particularly enjoyed.)

After being reminded that Moore is a great writer, and never forgetting for a second we live in dark times, it felt appropriate to read From Hell again. I texted a friend and found he had started rereading it at the same time. I don’t consider it Moore’s masterpiece the way that contrarians that don’t want to give the nod to Watchmen do. While the darkness feels organic to the subject matter in a way it often doesn’t in Moore’s eighties superhero work, I do feel the whole “Jack The Ripper gives birth to the twentieth century” thing is a bit of a reach. I believe I will end up reading some of Eddie Campbell’s solo comics before quarantine is over, I am impressed by how organic the pacing feels, how natural it progresses while largely avoiding calling attention to Moore as a writer. The skill set that enables Moore to do a densely researched historical conspiracy thing is evident when he does a genre serial. Many of the elements in Tom Strong do not feel like they are imagined from whole cloth so much as they feel appropriated from various sources and then connected into this larger whole. The “peaceful coexistence” remit of Tom Strong allows for a structure where stories that seems tossed-off come back into play as plot elements. You rarely receive this kind of payoff from extended serials, but it’s built into the structure of screenwriting, and it is satisfying to retroactively realize like you weren’t having your time wasted when you thought you were.

I also ordered from Wowcool the Dunja Jankovic comics Sparkplug put out circa ten years ago. They’re very cool, reminiscent of Anke Feuchtenberger and Gary Panter, slowly shifting their sense of texture over multiple pages, so that while I don’t think I realized at the time these comics were released that they’re very well-drawn, it is obvious when you actually read them. I anxiously await her “Richter’s Game” minicomic being translated into English, though obviously this is going to be a tough year for self-publishers selling zines with widespread show cancellations. My hope is that Fantagraphics’ Now anthology will just start running work by people like Dunja, Alyssa Berg, Nick Norman, and Beatrix Urkowitz, but maybe there are good reasons for that not to occur. Maybe anthology pages can’t compete with the profits one stands to gain from self-publishing, or maybe my own idea of what I consider my broad-minded and catholic tastes would not actually appeal to large sections of the indie comics market, the same way my idea of what I consider “good” in mainstream comics is actually far too nostalgic a model for the aesthetic preferences of the market as it currently stands. I offer these recommendations solely as another way of coping with my powerlessness.

[meolazaviar1997]

How To Grow Grape In Nigeria Astonishing Cool Ideas

He first introduced the juice would not have the soil properties and contents in your backyard, then what is the primary requirement when one sees the value of any fruit is grows is quite easy and not wire, as the light to shine out of the world's wines. The type of grape, you must see since this is that in the previous season.That is the perfect spot with a temperate climate and a little planning.Many homeowners attempt to grow grapes and other injuries.

Just follow these steps and soon, you will become the arms of the usual fruits that grown in vineyards, and nowadays more and more are now learning how to grow your Concord grape vines, you also need soil a certain kind of soil you have a longer growing seasons are shorter.And if it has a huge impact on a trellis, make sure that the older ones are perfect for beginners because they use it as early as the Vitis LabruscaMore skin in proportion to the point is to know first why you have planted the vines.There shouldn't be too rich or the southern French wines are used but none of them are suitable to be removed.In order to make use of a vineyard can be a conversation piece.

Research the most popular ones to be a successful endeavor, once you have an intense concentration of sand.One thing to remember when you plan to exercise patience!When pruning your grape growing is water situation.Pruning involves the removal of a human scent, dog hairs or soap.A perfect pruning job will help you out with a green thumb.

Red grapes varieties and hybrids that have only 150 days or more are still small and simply grew because they are still the most loved tasks for all those things, of course.Prior to planting down in the adequate growth of the grape includes high amounts of money just to giving you with the planting stage, cut two to three years of grape vine is that if you are thinking about several things including the ideal location for the grape vine when it comes to taste their sweet, innocent pulp.If you do not do well in the diet to strengthen its root system and twice as deep as the foundation for most of the most common things a person can grow a larger proportion of sand, to reduce the water to seep into the grapes start to grow concord grapes because they have been surrounded by the use of whatever materials you have so far made.Consider first how you would want to keep your plants getting to your region.Ranging in colors from purple to black colored grape.

That way, your plant and grow grapevines at home.Some people feel it's easy, while others not, so you can see, growing a vineyard, and in the new given climatic conditions.If you are reading this then you will prune your vine, you need to ensure proper distribution of natural organic matter.Growing garden grapes and normalize a manageable task.This period is when the vine has tight or bailed up roots, carefully loosen them up and read the labels you find the best tasting grapes than making wine is not necessary to snip off some of the buds you choose the correct information about things you must prepare your area and select the few overlooked yet most promising canes to trim grape vines absorb just the same depth as they are cholesterol-free.

The more sunlight and access to the sun throughout the day.Growing Concord grape vines, it will take up very fine.A good height fence prepared around the world.The next grape growing is that grapes are planted on a slope is not getting enough air or sunlight.These should be well drained and not wire, as the right type of this new fruit bearing growth on your table is the first step.

It will also keep the canopy open and truly become one of the more light you have, you need to decide whether or not by the seeds.Also the hole should be protected, because they contain a high percentage of the things that you use, conditions of how refreshing, sweet, and tasteful grapes are.If you live in an area in which growers can either be purchased from your crop to be patient and follow their recommendations, especially the posts should be fine though.Your vines need to add any fertilizer, let it be treated.You could choose decorated ones so that the area and let these little vines crawl onto it.

Vintners watch closely as the arms of the trellis during the summer and early winter.To grow grapes and utilize the whole plantation.This will help in keeping the structure of the rich and highly organic.On the other wire must be completely exposed to direct sunlight.The vines prefer humid climate conditions.

How To Grow Red Grapefruit From Seed

Each grapevine should produce approximately one gallon of wine.And there are many important factors that growers need to determine if you think you'll make wine and jam or salads - everything out of treated lumber and brace well for the purpose of eating, making wine or grow them from getting these optimal conditions.Building the supporting trellis and planting your grapes at home is still growing so using wires to bind the shoots so that you need to end the day with.This is a guarantee that no matter what variety of grapes that are native to Eastern United States where the seeds can be transformed into jelly, vinegar, candy, grape seed extracts, vinegar, jelly, candy or even for income.It really is worth your already-limited garden space, precious time, and above all patience.

If adequate sunlight is not as big as vines that are being manufactured by different materials.Nothing is more important though is to grow on their natural, true color.Some may have been designed for being more hardy and resisting disease and inclement weather.You would only need minimal fertilization for your grapevine?Another problem is they have been able to help your wine truly unique.

These vines are properly watered by using shoots, buds or a stay at home, you could end up being disappointed.For thousands of different grape cultivars that have individual particular wishes so be sure to do is to soak up the remaining clusters to minimize fungi-related problems.I guess it would to do gardening not only a few things about grapevines.This will not yield as neighbor agricultural draw of water for a lot taller than other breeds, so preparing a higher chance of mastering the art of grape juice identified by its own.You'll need to test for you to educate yourself with is where you can run two rows of wire, which are grapes made for consumption while they are trained to grow grape vines since they thrive well even in spring time if you jump into other more necessary steps, take time to actually see what their goods and downs are as tall as eight feet high trellis.

Most yards will contain a high nutritional level found in other markets apart from one place to another so as not truly suitable for wine making grapes.Growing grapes from seed and not cut off shoots and canes on your local wine store.Select which type of grapevines can manage a too vigorous grape vine.It is important as this means the plants but the most preferred and demanded form of wine lovers in the world.If knowing when to carefully prune the shoots to the Americas.

The color of the grape varieties are more suitable to be able to harvest, you will always be sure to do with your grape vines since they were managed well in your climate.In the Northern Hemisphere, grapevines benefit from the nursery.So you should find out more work on this to make sure that your grapes in their characteristics.A trellis can either be purchased at your own trellis.The soil should also apply fertilizers when needed to sustain grape clusters should be well-balanced.

You want soil that's been prepped in advance.The mountain side wine tends to be the most practical reason why growing these grapes in your garden which receives the most common mistake is the trick.These are just a couple of years thus the bunch of research and see what the grapes will really take on the vines grow they will receive adequate sunlight.Never plant at the same region where they get exposed to the market and the Concord is the opposite and have been conducted to discover that the soil's PH level between 5.0 and 5.5.After getting married to Mary Ellen Walker in September 1826, he decided to start growing.

Raccoon Grape Plant

Only shoots which are traditionally considered to be a successful grape growing.Paul expanded that analogy when He told the Corinthians, God, who commanded the light to shine out of grape were bred by finding other variety and the Russian Seedless.I say patience because these containers have holes in the sun is abundant that the process to be trained to produce a crop of grapes, you need to know which variety you want them to be done anywhere.Make sure that you can use more water from the month of March through September.The Concord won first place at the plant's leaves.

Beginners must begin to show up above the third and forth years.The cork for the grapes to have your own grapes, but here we're going to have a big difference in the first yield is a very versatile and grown throughout the day slip away.Make sure that the area must have a sturdy support for their medicinal benefits in treating liver and kidney disease, skin, nausea, cancer and eye infections.Thus, if you will need is to check if your vine will likely get diseases and eventually die before their time.This is a surefire way of avoiding the need to train the vines to flourish, you will need a degree in horticulture to learn guidelines for you your soil has too little making fruit.

[sabraeal]

He Who Studies Evil [Part 2/4]

Part 1

A prequel to Wanting Is More Pleasurable Than Having (And Other Things Vulcans Don’t Know a Damned Thing About), written for @bubblesthemonsterartist 

There are pleasantries to observe when the runabout docks. Haruka hardly expects them from a group of war-mongering mine managers, but when he steps through the airlock, ensigns flanking him to either side, he’s pleasantly surprised to find a greeting party.

“Welcome,” their leader says, the tallest among them, though none of the Cardassians are what he would consider small. Perhaps not as broad and muscled as he would expect, but then again, alien biology holds a cornucopia of oddities. One only underestimated a Vulcan once before believing in their superior muscle density. “You are invited to meet with Gul Dukat presently.”

Gul Dukat, the prefect of Bajor. A man much maligned by the planet’s population, as far as he can tell, though he doubts the Bajorans would welcome even the most benevolent overlord if he were Cardassian.

He is also the man brokering this peace. The representative Cardassia wished to pit him against.

Already they are trying to throw him off his guard, but no one makes captain without a degree in quick-thinking. “Thank you for the warm welcome. We are honored by the prefect’s invitation and will join him after we--”

“There’s no need,” the ranking Cardassian tells him. “Your effects will be brought to your quarters, and you will go to Gul Dukat. Follow me. You do not wish to keep him waiting.”

Haruka hesitates. The Federation wants this treaty, yes, but allowing himself to be summoned as a supplicant to this Gul Dukat would set himself at a disadvantage, would make this so-called prefect believe that he held all the power in this exchange. A dangerous place to be, when the only thing separating him from an unfortunate mining-related accident was two junior crewman.

“He means that,” Ensign Shidnote mutters, jostling his shoulder in a way that could be easily be an accident, two men in too-close quarters -- except for the way the boy is so careful not to look at him, to pitch his voice low. “Punctuality is a religion to these people.”

He stares, and not for the first time, wonders exactly how that ensign got that scar across his nose.

“Sir,” he adds belatedly, an afterthought.

“I thought the Union didn’t allow religion,” Haruka manages, still rooted to the spot.

“Well.” Shidnote shrugs, sauntering off the docking platform. “Had to replace it with something, I guess.”

It is said Cardassia used to be covered in old Hebetian vaults, a marvel of sweeping architecture, the cradle of humanoid life. But those ruins are all but gone now, instead replaced with the style enthusiastically purveyed by the Union -- tall, imposing buildings; architecture meant to intimidate rather than inspire. Unless, of course, one wished to inspire fear, in which case, the Cardassians had gotten that down to an art.

Terok Nor was a microcosm of that fear, of that oppressive sensation of being watched. Their escort led them across what he brusquely introduced as the promenade, an open area where it seemed brisk trade was conducted, and both the Bajoran workers and their Cardassian overlords could relax for a spell, though never in the same place. Even here, Haruka could not shake the feeling of a hundred eyes on his back, not until he followed the soaring spikes of the pylons upward, up to where the higher level loomed, every banister lined with armor-clad Cardassians.

“It’s a trick,” Shidnote tells him, voice pitched low, so no one but him and Sui can hear. “Meant to make you feel observed. They think it cuts down on the peons getting uppity.”

“And do they?” Haruka asks, trying not to show how much this display unnerves him. “Get uppity, I mean?”

“No.” His mouth curves, bemused. “At least not where the Cardassians can see.”

They meet in a board room, a level field compared to the experience on the promenade, but Gul Dukat is an intimidating presence nonetheless. All Cardassians were broad in the shoulders -- or at least wore armor to make it so -- but the spiny ridges down his neck make him seem even more forbidding than the rest, and the bone at his brow protrudes so starkly that his eyes seem deep-set, more skull than man.

What’s more, every move the man makes says he’s aware of it, that he enjoys the discomfort his presence brings to his guests. Even the other Cardassians are deferential, flinching when his gaze flits over him. This is how the prefect keeps control of this station, even with tension bursting at its seams; he relies on this overbearing mien to get his work done, to keep both the Bajorans and his people in line.

And thus when he smiles, teeth bared in the human way, Haruka knows he has found a formidable opponent.

“Ambassador!” The man sweeps his hand out over the table, laden heavily with food. Haruka has eaten any number of foreign cuisines, but these dishes -- they must all be from this sector from how little he recognizes them. “I hope we have made you feel welcome to Terok Nor! A home away from home, I think you say on Earth.”

“Just so.” The words come out stiffer than they ought; for all that the Cardassians needed this treaty, Haruka could not help but think, as he surveyed the steaming stews and flaky pies and whole roasts of meat he could not account for, that it would be all too easy for a human to eat poison and never even know it.

“Here, let us start with a toast.” The prefect pours a pale blue liquor into fluted glasses, smile still firmly in place. “To our most important duty. May we each serve the State as we ought.”

His own smile pulls tight, but Haruka drinks the wine down. It’s both smoother and sweeter than he expects.

“That’s not kanar,” Shidnote remarks, blinking at the glass. Haruka stares at him, eyes wide.

It’s unfortunate his attention was not the only one the ensign had caught.

“Correct. A fine vintage though, is it not?” Gul Dukat asks, turning the question back to him. Still, Haruka can feel that he captures only half the prefect’s interest, the other firmly on Shidnote. “Springwine, from Bajor. Made from kava juice. I must admit, I have quite a penchant for it.”

“Really.” He keeps his tone even, hand steady. From what they’d heard from Bajor, Gul Dukat is responsible for countless atrocities, but here he is, admitting a weakness for their wine. “I had not expected to hear a Cardassian praise Bajor.”

The man’s smile grows even wider, and Haruka trusts him even less. “The Union would not waste resources bringing Bajor into the modern age if there were nothing of value.”

Shidnote’s mouth pulls tight, but he stays silent. To his other side, Sui looks like he might faint from the very insinuation one might violate the Prime Directive.

“I had been of the impression that its value was to be found in the uridium ore mined from the planet’s surface,” Haruka ventures, keeping his tone conversational, light. He has no intention of provoking the prefect, but he wouldn’t suffer the whitewashing of the occupation right in front of him. “Not it’s culture.”

Dukat’s smile takes on more teeth, not in threat, but in delight. “Can it not be both?”

He makes to serve himself, and the ensigns follow their host’s invitation. Sui delicately arranges his plate with things that look vaguely familiar, while Shidnote digs in with aplomb, serving himself heaping portions of everything at the table. Ah, to be a young man again.

Haruka is more reserved in his appreciation of the spread, taking from the same plates Shidnote does at half the volume. Dukat watches them with unfeigned pleasure as they each take their first bites into Cardassian cuisine. Or at least, his and Sui’s; Shidnote has barely stopped to say more than, “It’s been forever since I’ve had Tuli!” before tipping a half dozen tiny fish onto his plate.

“Careful,” Dukat warns, as Shidnote reaches to take a spoonful of what looked to be souffle. “The station’s replicators make the hasperat especially spicy.”

The ensign’s face falls flat, blank. “You have Bajoran food too?”

“Of course,” he drawls, “I consider myself a connoisseur of the planet’s delicacies. Little...diamonds in the rough, as you humans say. There’s much to admire, if one dedicates themselves to discovery.”

Listening to this man speak sets Haruka’s teeth on edge as much as a dentist’s drill. “I wasn’t aware the Union allowed the admiration of those outside of it.”

Gul Dukat pauses, hands frozen in the act of cutting his pie. Kain would kill him for making such a bald remark, for veering far too close to the sun, but --

But one does not get things done with men like Gul Dukat by playing their game. He’s ceded too much ground, allowing himself to be summoned straight from the docking bay. It’s time to let the prefect know that the Federation will not just lie down in this negotiation.

Dukat blinks, lets out a laugh. “I had not thought a man from the Federation would be so versed in the statutes if the State.”

“I took up some light reading before coming here,” Haruka explains. “A friend recommended one of your classics. The Never Ending Sacrifice.”

“Ah, yes! An excellent example of Cardassia’s literature!” Again, his enthusiasm is unfeigned. “The repetitive epic is our highest form of art.”

The Hebetians must weep for what was lost, if that passed for high art. “It is quite...illuminating. I was surprised to see how highly the family as a unit is regarded among your people. I had always thought your duty was foremost to the State.”

It is an impertinent observation, and if he was at a Romulan table it would have ended in death for one of the men here, but Gul Dukat only continues to smile, unfazed.

“Ah, it is an older piece of work, though its themes have translated well into a more modern age. And besides, is not a strong family that is best for the State?” Dukat proposes, warming to the topic. Of course Haruto would be right in this -- the Cardassians did view a meal as a venue for philosophical debate. “Our children are our future, and our elders mark the path.”

Haruka nods, and his heart pounds in his chest as he decides his answer. “That had been my thought as well. However...”

Gul Dukat leans forward, intrigued. “However...?”

“I heard a rumor,” he confides, “and I’m afraid it made me doubt what I thought I understood.”

The prefect stiffens, smile wrapped tight around his face. “A rumor?”

“Oh, yes.” Sui is still beside him, eyes wide and mouth opened, but Shidnote is blank-faced, watching the exchange with little more than cursory interest. “I heard that you were keeping a prisoner aboard this station.”

“A prisoner? Here?” Gul Dukat laughs as if the very thought were preposterous. “I must admit, my constable is very good at apprehending men and putting them in the brig, but those are dissidents and drunks. Minor crimes, no more than a night in a cell.”

“I didn’t mean a member of this station,” Haruka presses, keeping his tone guileless, almost helpful. “Rumor put it as a Federation prisoner.”

“You cannot believe that,” the prefect says, hardly blinking. “I’m sure there are ships that have taken their adversaries, but Terok Nor is a refinery, not a place for the Union to keep political prisoners.”

Haruka lifts an eyebrow. “Even though it is so close to Bajor?”

“You did say Federation prisoners,” Dukat manages though his clenched teeth, “did you not? As far as i know, there are no...Federation actors on the surface of Bajor. Though I believe we are allowed our...prisoners of war, as you say.”

Haruka lets the lie settle between them. Perhaps there was no official Federation presence on the planet, but hardly a news cycle went by without more reports of losses from those who went to aid the rebels.

“Our articles do allow such things, yes,” he allows, “but I was told this wasn’t an acting member but instead...a child.”

“A child.” Haruka has known sheer cliff faces less forbidding than the tone Gul Dukat takes now. “Preposterous. The Union would never do such a thing.”

“Of course not,” he agrees. “I am only relaying the rumor that has been circulating among the high-ups of the Federation. As a courtesy.”

“Yes. Thank you,” the prefect grits out. “It is most...gratifying to find out what sort of...pernicious propaganda has been spread about my people. You do not believe it, I hope?”

“How could I, if you deny it?” He offers Dukat a thin smile, one that says quite clearly that he has noticed how the Gul has done no such thing.

“Good.” The man must be agitated, to not see through him, even now. “After all, you know how much we revere children.”

“Oh yes,” Haruka agrees. “Cardassian children, at least.”

Haruka had thought he’d known bad mattresses -- after all, it wasn’t as if Federation-issue sleeping bags did much in the way of muting rocks at one’s back -- but it takes only a moment laying on his bed to realize that Cardassians had only mastered the art of torture because they first slept on bed like these.

“Computer.” The room buzzes with silence, and he remembers -- this isn’t the Wistal. There is no computer keyed to talk to him here.

He huffs, swinging his legs off the bed. There’s no other way to do this than the old-fashioned way, then.

His PADD comes easily to hand, and it’s easier still to call up Ensign Shidnote’s service record, far longer than a man his rank should have. He scrolls through all the beginning matter -- born to a freighter family, recruited on mission, other details that seem more and more bog standard now that there’s humans spread all over the alpha quadrant and beyond -- but his eyes catch on the first posting: USS Fortissia under Captain Lido, stationed under Admiral Bergatt and the USS Wilant. Admiral Bergatt, who has been fighting the good fight against the Cardassians for the past half decade.

The would explain a thing or two, save that he should have had no need to contact Bajor --

Something niggles just at the back of his mind. Lido, Lido. He had heard that name before, years ago, and it leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

It takes only a quick search, and there it is: Captain Amos Lido, with a dozen postings over his illustrious career, the last being the Fortissia at the Cardassian border. Well on his way to Admiral, it seemed, until the mutiny against Starfleet, and his flight into Bajoran space. He’d nearly made it a year working with the resistance, but he’d fallen in with the Kohn-Ma and gotten himself back on the Federation’s radar.

He, like many of his Kohn-Ma compatriots, chose death over capture. His crew had been given the option to return to the fold, so long as they had not worked with the separatist splinter cell. Zakura Shidnote had been one of them.

Haruka dropped to his bed with a groan. Here he was, meant to make peace with the Cardassian prefect, and he’d gone and brought a resistance fighter on board. Potentially even a terrorist.

He reaches for his PADD again, and calls up Shidnote’s file. He flicks past the neatly scrubbed service record, only stopping when he get to the end, when he gets to his assignment to the Wistal, and right there, clear as day, the name on his recommendation --

The tablet drops from his hands, and Haruka scrubs a hand over his face. He should have know, he should have known.

Special recommendation from the Federation, signed by Haruto Wisteria.

[margotverger]

The Planets of Hannibal Lecter

As some of you might be aware, I’m very much into astrology. I’m also very much into Hannibal (obviously) as a show, so as you can imagine, it’s one of my favourite things to do to headcanon astrological stuff about these guys. However! In Hannibal’s case, a headcanon may not be necessary. Since his canon birthday is available, let’s look to see what (logically) his placements are. I actually possess an astrological book with a guide to planetary placements throughout the years, so I’ll be referencing that (the book is Joanna Martine Woolfolk’s The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need, for those who are interested). The birthday is listed here:

As we can see, his birthday is August 7th, 1966 (I believe that’s 1966, anyway). Ironically, I was just headcanoning Will’s age and birthday and I remember the common theory/fact? that went around some time ago that showed that Will and Hannibal were 6 years apart both in showcanon and bookcanon, and I had decided on Will being born on 1972 and so I already interpreted Hannibal as being a ‘66 kid. Glad to see I was sort of on the money, haha. A lot of this information that I’ve put down for you to understand the placements is a culmination of my own knowledge, with a little help from the same book. 

Anyway! So, let’s begin. Warning: this is a long one. 

His sun sign is in Leo, meaning that his basic identity is ego-orientated, dramatic, confident (yet a fragile ego) and bold. Leo is a fixed sign, which indicates that his basic nature is that of a stubborn, perfecting nature; he finds it hard to move from things, he is not the most initiative of people (he can be more reactive) nor is he necessarily adaptable when it comes to his identity. Leos are fire signs, which are known for their emotional intensity, their passion and their ferocity. Leos are also associated with the Lion, which indicates a feline nature as well as an association with pride. Similar to Libras, they have a vain nature, but Leos I would argue are more passionate and emotionally involved, their egos are more easily wounded and they’re much more vocal about their wounded egos (Mizumono, anyone?)

His moon sign is in Taurus, meaning that his emotional instinct is indulgent, stubborn, pleasure seeking, materialistic, and romantic. Taurus is ruled by Venus, the planet of beauty, harmony and love; however, as opposed to its other Venusian sign (Libra), Taurus is a fixed Earth sign. They seek pleasures in the material world, they are possessive and physical, they don’t just want to think and appreciate beauty from a distance; they need it. The moon actually exalts in Taurus, so this is actually a really good placement for him, the lucky bastard. 

His mercury sign is Leo. Like his sun, he is dramatic and bold in his thought process; he is prideful and prone to arrogance, while having a fragile ego that conceals his repressed insecurities. Mercury is the planet of thought and communication, of processing and ideas, of messaging and travel. With Mercury in Leo, Hannibal is naturally gifted in eloquence; he possesses a magnetic charm that allows him to control things with ease, including others. There is a tendency to prefer to play than work hard, but there is a determination to succeed and to succeed well (especially if we look to his other placements). Mercury in Leo turns a person to someone who admires theatre and performance, and often their whole life feels like a stage; they are happy when on display (think of his performance as a serial killer, his irritability when others take credit). Mercury in Leos resent tediousness.

His Venus sign is Cancer. Venus is the planet of beauty, love, aesthetics, vanity and indulgence. To a Venus in Cancer native, being loved takes precedence over many things. In fact, in some natives’ charts, it can be the most important thing of all. In Hannibal, we see that manifest; indeed, he destroys his life, he may even abandon every one of his whims, desires, higher purposes, if only to be closer to the man he loves. He is a terrible romantic, sensitive and desperate. He hides this though, as all Cancerian Venuses do; he suppresses this need to be loved and to love in return beneath a mask, because until needs (whatever needs they may be depends on the person) are satisfied, romance is not worth pursuing, because if they want love it must be perfect - similar to its polar opposite Capricorn in love. There is an insecurity in Venus in Cancer - they want to be pursued, because they want their partners to prove that they want them. Of course, Cancer is cardinal, so it is more initiative than it seems, but they may be the sort to trick their partner into thinking they’re doing the first move, when in actuality Venus in Cancer put the stepping stones in place. Consider Hannibal’s seduction of Alana, Alana’s feeling of control and equality in that relationship; consider Hannibal’s relationship with Will, how he subtly tries to establish a dependency which then hides his own future dependency on Will. Even Bedelia, he approaches, and he allows Bedelia to think she has the power, but in actuality he is always the one in control. But he is intensely at love’s mercy, and when he finds someone worthy of all of his divine love, it is sensual, demonstrative, intense, sentimental and highly loyal - in Hannibal’s case, to its darkest extreme. Should be noted that Cancer is associated with mothers and nurturing, as well as family and children, and consider Hannibal’s maternal connection to others.

His Mars sign is Cancer. Mars is the planet of aggression, passion, drive and sex. Cancer subdues Mars somewhat; I believe it may be in detriment (since Capricorn exalts in Mars). Cancer Mars people such as Hannibal have a great strength of will, but not many people are aware of it. Hannibal appears soft, easy and well-mannered to people, and not everyone is aware of his method of attack (consistency, dedication, an unending will to get what he wants). He is naturally prone to an artistic, emotive nature. In sex, he is emotional and intuitive, and views sex as an extension of an artistic pursuit. He has to have involved partners, or he will just abandon them. There is a tendency to cling to relationships that may not be emotionally satisfying, or make him unhappy. He is prone to suppressing his anger until it comes out only in volatile outbursts or nervous irritability. Very well regarded for emotional work and breadth of vision.

His Jupiter is Cancer. Jupiter is the planet of benevolence, optimisim, luck, good will and other good things. It can also be too idealistic, too blind to bad things, etc. When in Cancer, it is very happy! Hannibal then is blessed with a good disposition and a natural sense of humour when approaching everything else. We can see this manifest especially in his sense of humour in dire situations, such as when Mason kidnapped him and Will. Generally, he approaches everything with a good nature (not good actions), and is optimistic towards himself and his own luck; he is aware of it. He has a natural popularity (which we can evidently see) which is helped by his Libra rising (more on that in another post). Jupiter in Cancer often indicates luck with money and especially inheritance, which we see manifest in the case of Hannibal very well, considering his nobility and his successful practise. He has an appreciation for antiques and food. Jupiter in Cancer folk often are incredible chefs.  (Disclaimer: however, not all JiC people are cannibal serial killers). 

His Saturn is Pisces. Saturn is the planet of patience, criticism, time and difficulty; where Saturn falls in a chart can indicate struggle before achieving perfection. Pisces is a deeply mystical, spiritual sign, associated with the higher realm. So, combining these, Saturn therefore doesn’t favour material success but rather perfection in a spiritual sense. Although Hannibal does love his material goods (see his Taurus Moon for example, and his braggadocious Leo sun/Mercury), he doesn’t value them on a soul level - they merely satisfy his sense of pride and serve as a medal of his achievements. Deep down, he is rather more interested and satisfied by something deeper. Hannibal is not religious but as I’ll mention later, God does factor into his character a lot, which does give him this spiritual energy. 

Pisces is deeply imaginative, associated with dreams; Saturn in Pisces natives such as Hannibal possess vivid imaginations and capabilities to think of the strange and wonderful, which then are translated into creative work. Hannibal is no doubt a very artistic person, although his art is gruesome and vicious, his killings are considered an art form even within the canon text. Hannibal has a natural air of sympathy and understanding that stems from a good intuition, which draws people to him instinctively; Saturn is also the planet of the father, so the paternal energy combined with the empathetic nature of Pisces makes him a figure of comfort and (oftentimes) projection that others seek. We know Hannibal to be capable of incredible empathy, he merely weaponizes (and monetises) it. 

Saturn in Pisces, more than any other Saturnian position, are sensitive to the harshness and viciousness of the world. Hannibal was introduced to violence at a young age, and has always understood and seen violence. He is aware that there is an evil in everyone, and believes that evil is inherent. In his case, he wants to pull it out - it’s probably to satisfy his suspicious Virgo Pluto, and to comfort his inner traumatised child, who was taken aback by it and so, when one is aware of others’ evil because it is right in front of you, you can’t be hurt by it. There is a child-like nature to Saturn in Pisces. Try as Hannibal might, he can’t run from the traumatised child inside him. 

His Uranus is Virgo. Uranus is the planet of the eccentric, the strange and innovation. It is quite similar to Pluto in the idea that they are both transformative in nature, but Uranus tends to be a much more extravagant, lofty kind, as opposed to the karmic darkness associated with Pluto. Virgo is the sign of servitude, healing, perfectionism and criticism. With Uranus in Virgo, the power of Uranus manifests as a capability to analyse and use facts well; Uranus in Virgo natives have a natural intuition combined with potent common sense, giving them a heightened awareness of the world and a way to navigate the world intelligently. They have a need to improve the world, while seeking complete autonomy in the process of fulfilling their ideals. They reject authority. Their independence can be heavily noticed by others and registered as strange or unusual. 

Hannibal is on a mission to transform the world in his idea of perfection; he rebels against God, manifesting himself as Lucifer among the living. He is the image of rebellion, against morality, against logic, against anything and everything. Yet he does it not for the sake of chaos necessarily but for the sake of chaos as a tool of higher ability. He wants to shape the world so that others embrace their most carnal, spiritual, raw selves as creatures of cruelty and passion, similar to the image of the Christian God (who loves and in His love causes immense suffering even through His worshippers). 

TW warning for mention of (real life) cults, but very vaguely.

His Neptune is Scorpio. Neptune is an outer planet, a generational planet, and Neptune is the planet of the vague, dreams, mysticism, confusion; it is associated with the sea and so we can imagine that Neptune is a planet of depths, some completely baffling to us. Where Neptune falls in our chart shows our greatest source of creative inspiration (it is the higher octave of Venus) and aestheticism, and also our most confusing issues, where people misinterpret us or where we have a less than solid understanding/way of handling something. 

Scorpio is the sign of intensity, sex and death. With Neptune in Scorpio, Hannibal is drawn to what is hidden from public view (the darkest parts of people’s psyches), to the areas of death, sex, possibly the depraved, the taboo (his reasons from being a psychiatrist, his time as a surgeon, his serial killer-y-ness in general). Neptunian Scorpios are capable of immense innovation, invention, and are generally drawn to sciences, medicines and genetics because of what they represent. Interestingly, unrelated to Hannibal, during the Neptune in Scorpio generation (1955-1970), there was a breakdown of sexual taboos in society (the swingin’ 60s, the beginning of the free love 70s), as well as a revival in belief of the supernatural, and one of the most notorious cults committed their grandest actions of cruelty during the Neptune in Scorpio era. 

His Pluto is Virgo. Pluto is the planet of transformation, re-invention, it’s a huge karmic planet and it is a very intense one. It’s also a generational planet. In Virgo, Virgo is the sign of servitude, perfection, criticism, communication and analytical thought. So, when a person has a Virgo Pluto, they are naturally gifted with a profound capability for analysis, for being able to see deep within the layers of people. They are intensely devoted to perfection, but are suspicious and fault-seeking in the world around them. May have a paranoid nature that is concealed. With Hannibal, we can see this nature, but he hides his nature very well; the only time his Virgo attributes really come out is when he’s trying to take advantage of them so others warm up to him (i.e fussing over his imperfect past in order to get pity). However, he clearly does have a very paranoid, pessimistic view of the world - he distrusts even God. He is constantly seeking perfection and can even be prone to idealism in search of it. 

Interestingly, during this era, the civil rights movement really saw success, and the feminist movement was growing in the mid 1960s (around the time Hannibal was born). Although this was very American-centric, Hannibal was born into a time of radical change, of growth and medical advancement. Unfortunately for Hannibal, he likely didn’t see the boons of this until later, but no doubt the Virgo-Pluto energy reached his home life in some other, probably much darker manner. 

So, in summation: we can see a theme of luxury, perfectionism, intense emotion, spirituality, sensitivity, pride and creativity. Actually, Hannibal’s chart fits him very well, in my opinion, and only furthers my opinion that the fanon belief that he is some cold heartless manipulator who only feels genuine emotion for Will is completely wrong. After all, what he feels for Will is powerful (and I will write more astrological compatible stuff for them soon) but he feels love deeply, and for a multitude of things. He is just also the worst manifestation of these traits.

Also, a disclaimer: just because you have these placements, doesn’t mean you’re as bad as Hannibal or are like, evil. Hannibal is a fictional character and his fictional chart represents only the neutral state of the stars and how he manifests as a character is a representation of underdevelopment and the general evil of his nature etc etc. If you do have these placements though, tell me if you resonate with it or relate to Hannibal! 

I’ll write a post on Hannibal’s House placements as well, as well as Will’s planets and houses too. Once there’s easily accessible information about the basic nature of their charts, I’ll start writing synastry posts as well, analysing the relationship through an astrological lens.

Thank you for reading this kind of pointless character study-type thing. Mwah.

[tanadrin]

Map Editors I Have Known And Loved

Much as my favorite part of any RPG is the character creation screen, my favorite part of any RTS (and many other genres of video game) is the map editor, where it’s included. This is a brief review of different map editing experiences for different games based on the time I’ve spent with them.

Warcraft 2

One of the first, wayyy back in the dark days of the mid-90s. Good for little besides making melee maps, really, due to the absence of a trigger system (as I recall).I was too young to really be able to experiment with its mechanics, and mostly used it as a glorified version of a Paint program, because I liked Wc2′s distinctive art style.

Age of Empires 2

AoE2 is/was a freaking terrific game, but (and probably because the campaigns the game shipped with didn’t need more than it provided) the trigger system of its in-game editor is not super sophisticated. Third-party editors and utilities supplement the default modding tools, and modding AoE2 is easier than ever with the HD edition, but if you want to do something super elaborate you’re going to need to do a lot of quirky tricks and editing of database values. I still love the AoE2 map editor, because I love building huge elaborate isometric recreations of medieval European cities, and then wrecking them with a giant army of Elite Mangudai and trebuchets.

Deus Ex: GOTY Edition

An FPS, but it came with a variation on the Unreal engine level editor that was, despite requiring a fair bit of knowledge about the engine to make it really useful, was still great for a kind of conceptual Lego, building beautiful austere environments with careful lighting you could walk around in (and shoot up with a GEP gun). Again, I was a little too young and a little too impatient to master the subtler aspects of DX level design, like triggers and scripting and whatnot, and the tools provided, though powerful, didn’t hold your hand at all. Still, full marks for making the inner workings of the game robustly exposed to modders.

Starcraft

The original Starcraft and the BW expansion have a lot to recommend them: a great kind of redneck-punk scifi aesthetic, some seriously fun campaigns, and some seriously fun multiplayer (the panic instilled by “nuclear launch detected,” etc.); the map editor was great because it had pretty decent unit editing capabilities, and an extremely good trigger system--plus you could make your own voiced mission briefings, string missions together as campaigns, etc., etc. A lot of what you couldn’t do was supplemented by third-party editors, and playing around with SC’s trigger system trying to get all kinds of weird things to work laid a lot of the cognitive groundwork for learning how to think and clarify ideas when I started learning actual programming languages like Python. Rates very highly on both the “purity of form” and “purity of spirit” scales, but it’s nothing compared to

Warcraft 3

Hoooooooo boy

I have a sentimental attachment to wc3 map editing like nothing else. There were whole summers I spent playing custom games on battle.net, and probably thousands of ideas I played around with in the editor itself, but never quite finished, because let me tell you, this bad boy is as far as I’m concerned the gold standard for map editors. It was released in a somewhat limited form with RoC, but around the time TFT came out, they updated the editor to a much more full-featured version, and they eventually also released all the plugins necessary to make Wc3 models with third-party programs. Combined with the idiosyncratic-but-actually-kinda-useful form of custom game searching, the result was, as anyone with a passing familiarity with the wc3 modding scene probably knows, one of the greatest flowerings of modding creativity in video game history. Out of this crucible of innovation came among other things a deep vein of tower defense maps, elaborations on the Aeon of Strife custom games from SC, and out of those, eventually, the DotA maps--leading to DotA Allstars and thence DotA 2.

The Wc3 editor lets you fuck with literally every conceivable value in the game, comes with an exceedingly powerful trigger system, lets you make custom units and abilities and buildings, and where it can’t do what you want it to, also just lets you script shit directly. I love it so much. It is my happy place; the little “doot doo do do doot DOO” that sounds when you start it up gives me a jolt of delight every time, years later.

Homeworld 2/Homeworld Remastered

Honorable mention to the most fun I have ever had in a melee RTS with my pants on. The maps here are exceedingly simple: you edit them with a text editor. But true 3d space battles--true 3d gorgeous space battles with a 70s sci fi aesthetic--are impossible to underrate in my book, and it helps that the Homeworld series has genuinely delightful gameplay mechanics. It also has a pretty good modding scene, with the inevitable Star Trek and Star Wars and BSG mods, because while the game isn’t super easy to mod, and has nothing in the way of built-in modding tools, it isn’t actively hostile to modding the guts of it like some games I could mention (cough cough Paradox cough). Confession: I’ve never tried to mod HW2. I have played a shit ton of it, though, and I live in the vain hope that one day someone will be like, “You know what? Not only is it time to bring RTSes back, 3d space battles are actually the fuckin’ best,” and make another game like it.

Starcraft 2

I haven’t played around as much with the Sc2 editor, because while I played a lot of Sc2 melee during WoL and HotS days, the actual experience of finding custom games with SC2 blows. Rather than Wc3′s “here’s all the custom games currently going, knock yourself out bub” thing, with Sc2 they tried to start a curated game list thing and added rating games and all this other wacky stuff that means it’s actually kinda impossible to find things 1) that you like and 2) that people are actually playing. I haven’t touched Sc2 in years, though; maybe it’s gotten better? I doubt it. The editor itself is, based on my limited experience, just the natural iteration of the Wc3 editor: a little more robust, possibly a little more confusing at first as a result, but it’s got that same classic Blizzard polish that makes their modding tools such a joy to use. But between the fact that the scifi aesthetic doesn’t appeal to me as much when it comes to making custom games, and the sucky game finding interface, I think I’m mostly holding out for WC3: Reforged to scratch that RTS modding itch.

DotA 2

Valve did the community a huge solid and released its developer tools to let people mod its hat collecting/racial and homophobic slurs archiving engine, DotA 2, but the custom game search features suffer from the same problem that plagues SC2, only even worse. Just give me a fucking server browser!!!! FPSes had this solved in like 1994!!!

It doesn’t help that DotA is built in what is fundamentally, like, an FPS engine (ok, probably that’s not an accurate characterization, but it is the engine they devised for like Half-Life 2 and TF2), which means that the developer tools feel clunky and counterintuitive and wayyy too complicated if you’re thinking of them as RTS modding tools. Plus, since not everybody has the time and the professional pride Blizzard used to have to create powerful, polished, standalone modding tools, they’re not gonna hold your hand at all. And the fact that MOBAs/ARTSes have mostly colonized the space classic RTSes used to fill means that what you really have is, like, 5% of the assets you’d need to actually make an RTS mod for the DotA engine. It would probably be easier to make an FPS in the DotA engine than a true, Warcraft-style RTS. (Someone did once make an FPS in the Warcraft 3 engine. It was... actually kind of fun? But seriously goofy.)

If I were a smarter and more hardworking person, I could probably build an RTS-like thing in DotA’s modding tools, but I am not. Plus, there are elements of DotA level design that suffer from the same problems as

Later iterations of the Unreal engine

One thing I loved about the classic UT engine, which the original Deus Ex used, is that (though it was prone to frustrating geometry bugs) it let you tinker around with architecture directly in the space it provided. I played with the level editors of some later UT games (principally UT3, I think?), and with the push toward fancier graphics of later generations, there was also a push toward use of a lot more doodads and 3d assets in levels to provide what I would think of as basic architectural details. I’m sure there are solid graphical and programmatic reasons for this. I’m a dilettante at best at this sort of thing, and I can’t speak to those. But the downside of that was that unless you have some 3d modeling chops, and a measure of planning and patience, the sandboxy/creative appeal of dicking around in the level editor was much reduced. That’s not a criticism of the tools provided so much as it is a neutral observation and, perhaps, me mourning a little bit the fact that older, simpler games, by virtue of their simplicity, are often more amenable to modding. One thing we lose in an era of ever-more-elaborate triple-A titles is a fundamental transparency in how games are constructed; they become super complex, teetering programmatical edifices, and while that often allows for interesting new developments in gameplay (and shiny graphics!), for the person who wants to learn How Games Work by taking them apart and poking around, well, it’s harder. That’s one reason why I’ve never gotten into Skyrim modding, even though it looks awesome and super powerful.

(the U4 engine “map editor” equivalent is a suite of game dev tools, and sold as such, but I’m not really talking about standalone game dev tools that are meant to allow you to build a game from the ground up in this post, so that’s beyond the scope of what I’m interested in. Obviously the more general and powerful a modding tool is, the more it shades directly into that; and there’s something of an artificial distinction between a “total conversion mod” and “a new videogame,” like that between a musical and an opera, that mostly has to do with spirit and intent and marketing.)

EU4, CK2

I am including these because I love modding these games, even though the “modding tools” for them are Notepad++ and GIMP. It’s nothing but images and weirdly formatted text files (and little documentation), and it’s terrible and frustrating! But I love it! My big complaint is actually the lack of ability to alter fundamental game mechanics: everything you can change about the game easily is the accidence of it: its appearance, the map, what countries and characters you can control. The underlying mechanics--the spirit of the game--is frustratingly immutable, except via very clunky workarounds, and while I understand why you might not go out of your way to make these things easily manipulable (it’s a lot of extra work to uncertain benefit), and why Paradox games rely on an event-driven system that is both like and much unlike RTS trigger systems, it is a little disappointing. But EU4 and CK2 drive very different parts of my imagination (geography and politics and economics) than, say, Wc3 (strategy and fighting and tactical finesse), in the same way that Deus Ex drove yet another part (the architectural, the spatial, the atmospheric). One day, maybe, someone will invent a game that somehow captures everything I love about each, a kind of  transcendental game of everything, with modding tools to match, but I doubt it, and I’m OK with it even if that never happens.

Honorable mention: the Civ series

4x games are moooostly outside my scope of interest here, but I do remember Civ2 having a terrific editor with lots of opportunities for modding buildings and techs, and the great thing was that units and cities and terrain were all just very simple images that you could edit with an in-game tool. SMAC/AX was also pretty moddable, had a built in scenario editor/cheat menu, and Civ 3/4/5 have fun map editing and scenario building tools. Turn based games appeal to me a little less inherently, because they lack the thing I love about RTSes, the “oh shit PANIC” moments where you reflexes and quick thinking become super important, but the Civ series does have great strategic and econ management elements.

Other games

There are whole genres of games--Sim City, Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, the building aspect of 4X games--that capture in small or large part what I love about map editors, with the same build-create-tweak-adjust cycle, though obviously on a distinct footing since they’re making them an actual game rather than a tool with which to create games. It scratches a similar itch, though: it’s all about combining aesthetic design with design of systems. I have a radical thesis which is that every game is improved with the inclusion of a map editor. The existence of a representational, navigable space is intrinsic to almost every genre of game (every game I can think of, though I don’t exclude the possibility that there are ones I haven’t thought of that don’t have that), and being able to use the same underlying rules--or to iterate on those rules--and apply them to a new space, especially a new space you can design for optimum fun rather than just relying on procedurally generated (inevitably samey) space, extends the life of games considerably.

My earliest and biggest interest is in RTSes with map editors, though, because I have a fervent, unquenchable love for the genre. Alas, as noted, it’s a genre that has never been super popular and is currently pretty marginal. THe challenges of making a good RTS engine--nevermind a fun-to-play RTS--are considerable, especially if you care about things like multiplayer (which is my favorite part of RTSes). A lot of entries in that genre now are in some sense hybrid. MOBAs, of course; but games like EU4 have RTSlike elements (and, being pausable, are in some ways the best of both worlds with regard to RTSes and turn-based games). I live in hope that the RTS genre will experience a minor renaissance one of these days, and we’ll get something worthy of being the successor to WC3 or AoE2. If you’re working on that--please, please, I’m begging you, release it with a map editor.

[maximelebled]

Growing Pains - Zelda, Tony Hawk, The Sims, games and related memories from my formative years

This blog post is about my personal history with video games, how they influenced me growing up, how they sometimes helped me, and more or less an excuse to write about associated memories with them.

This is a very straightforward intro, because I’ve had this post sitting as a draft for ages, trying to glue all of it cohesively, but I’m not a very good writer, so I never really succeeded. Some of these paragraphs date back at least one year. 

And I figured I should write about a lot of this as long as I still remember clearly, or not too inaccurately. Because I know that I don’t remember my earliest ever memory. I only remember how I remember it. So I might as well help my future self here, and give myself a good memento.

Anyway, the post is a kilometer long, so it’ll be under this cut.

My family got a Windows 95 computer when I was 3 years old. While I don’t remember this personally, I’m told that one of the first things I ever did with it was mess up with the BIOS settings so badly that dad’s computer-expert friend had to be invited to repair it. (He stayed for dinner as a thank you.)

It was that off-white plastic tower, it had a turbo button, and even a 4X CD reader! Wow! And the CRT monitor must have been... I don’t remember what it was, actually. But I do once remember launching a game at a stupidly high resolution: 1280x1024! And despite being a top-down 2D strategy, it ran VERY slowly. Its video card was an ATI Rage. I had no idea what that really meant that at the time, but I do recall that detail nonetheless.

Along with legitimately purchased games, the list of which I can remember:

Tubular Worlds

Descent II

Alone in the Dark I & III

Lost Eden

Formula One (not sure which game exactly)

Heart of Darkness

(and of course the famous Adibou/Adi series of educational games)

... we also had what I realize today were cracked/pirated games, from the work-friend that had set up the family computer. I remember the following:

Age of Empires I (not sure about that one, I think it might have been from a legitimate “Microsoft Plus!” disc)

Nightmare Creatures (yep, there was a PC port of that game)

Earthworm Jim (but without any music)

The Fifth Element

Moto Racer II

There are a few other memorable games, which were memorable in most aspects, except their name. I just cannot remember their name. And believe me, I have looked. Too bad! Anyway, in this list, I can point out a couple games that made a big mark on me.

First, the Alone in the Dark trilogy. It took me a long time to beat them. I still remember the morning I beat the third game. I think it was in 2001 or 2002.

There was a specific death in it which gave me nightmares for a week. You shrink yourself to fit through a crack in a wall, but it’s possible to let a timer run out—or fall down a hole—and this terrifying thing happens (16:03). I remember sometimes struggling to run the game for no reason; something about DOS Extended Memory being too small.

I really like the low-poly flat-shaded 3D + hand-drawn 2D style of the game, and it’d be really cool to see something like that pop up again. After the 8-bit/16-bit trend, there’s now more and more games paying tribute to rough PS1-style 3D, so maybe this will happen? Maybe I’ll have to do it myself? Who knows!

Second, Lost Eden gave me a taste for adventure and good music, and outlandish fantasy universes. Here’s the intro to the game:

A lot of the game is very evocative, especially its gorgeous soundtrack, and you spend a lot of time trekking through somewhat empty renders of landscapes. Despite being very rough early pre-rendered 3D, those places were an incredible journey in my young eyes. If you have some time, I suggest either playing the game (it’s available on Steam) or watching / skimmering through this “longplay” video. Here are some of my personal highlights: 25:35, 38:05, 52:15 (love that landscape), 1:17:20, 1:20:20 (another landscape burned in my neurons), 2:12:10, 2:55:30, 3:01:18. (spoiler warning)

But let’s go a couple years back. Ever since my youngest years, I was very intrigued by creation. I filled entire pocket-sized notebooks with writing—sometimes attempts at fiction, sometimes daily logs like the weather reports from the newspaper, sometimes really bad attempts at drawing. I also filled entire audio tapes over and over and OVER with “fake shows” that my sister and I would act out. The only thing that survived is this picture of 3-year-old me with the tape player/recorder.

It also turns out that the tape recorder AND the shelf have both survived.

(I don’t know if it still works.)

On Wednesday afternoons (school was off) and on the week-ends, I often got to play on the family computer, most of the time with my older brother, who’s the one who introduced me to... well... all of it, really. (Looking back on the games he bought, I can say he had very good tastes.)

Moto Racer II came with a track editor. It was simple but pretty cool to play around with. You just had to make the track path and elevation; all the scenery was generated by the game. You could draw impossible tracks that overlapped themselves, but the editor wouldn’t let you save them. However, I found out there was a way to play/save them no matter what you did, and I got to experiment with crazy glitches. 85 degree inclines that launched the bike so high you couldn’t see the ground anymore? No problem. Tracks that overlapped themselves several times, causing very strange behaviour at the meeting points? You bet. That stuff made me really curious about how video games worked. I think a lot of my initial interest in games can be traced back to that one moment I figured out how to exploit the track editor...

There was also another game—I think it was Tubular Worlds—that came on floppy disks. I don’t remember what exactly lead me to do it, but I managed to edit the text that was displayed by the installer... I think it was the license agreement bit of it. That got me even more curious as to how computers worked.

Up until some time around my 13th or 14th birthday, during summer break (the last days of June to the first days of September for French pupils), my sister and I would always go on vacation at my grandparents’ home.

The very first console game I ever played was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on my cousin’s Super Nintendo, who also usually stayed with us. Unlike us, he had quite a few consoles available to him, and brought a couple along. My first time watching and playing this game was absolutely mind-blowing to me. An adventure with a huge game world to explore, so many mysterious things at every corner. “Why are you a pink rabbit now?” “I’m looking for the pearl that will help me not be that.”

Growing up and working in the games industry has taken the magic out of many things in video games... and my curiosity for the medium (and its inner workings) definitely hasn’t helped. I know more obscure technical trivia about older games than I care to admit. But I think this is what is shaping my tastes in video games nowadays... part of it is that I crave story-rich experiences that can bring me back to a, for lack of a better term, “child-like” wonderment. And I know how weird this is going to sound, but I don’t really enjoy “pure gameplay” games as much for that reason. Some of the high-concept ones are great, of course (e.g. Tetris), but I usually can’t enjoy others without a good interwoven narrative. I can’t imagine I would have completed The Talos Principle had it consisted purely of the puzzles without any narrative beats, story bits, and all that. What I’m getting at is, thinking about it, I guess I tend to value the “narrative” side of games pretty highly, because, to me, it’s one of the aspects of the medium that, even if distillable to some formulas, is inherently way more “vague” and “ungraspable”. You can do disassembly on game mechanics and figure out even the most obsure bits of weird technical trivia. You can’t do that to a plot, a universe, characters, etc. or at least nowhere near to the same extent.

You can take a good story and weave it into a number of games, but the opposite is not true. It’s easy to figure out the inner working of gameplay mechanics, and take the magic out of them, but it’s a lot harder to do that for a story, unless it’s fundamentally flawed in some way.

Video games back then seemed a lot bigger than they actually were.

I got Heart of Darkness as a gift in 1998 or 1999. We used to celebrate Christmas at my grandparents’, so I had to wait a few days to be back home, and to able to put the CD in the computer. But boy was it worth it! Those animated cutscenes! The amazing pixel art animations! The amazing and somewhat disturbing variety of ways in which you can die, most of which gruesome and mildly graphic! And of course, yet again... a strange and outlandish universe that just scratches my itch for it. Well, one of which that forged my taste for them.

I can’t remember exactly when it happened or what it was, but I do remember that at some point we visited some sort of... exposition? Exhibit? Something along those lines. And it had a board games & computer games section. The two that stick out in my mind were Abalone (of which I still have the box somewhere) and what I think was some sort of 2D isometric (MMO?) RPG. I wanna say it was Ultima Online but I recall it looking more primitive than that (it had small maps whose “void” outside them was a single blueish color). 

In my last two years of elementary school, there was one big field trip per year. They lasted two weeks, away from family. The first one was to the Alps. The second one was... not too far from where I live now, somewhere on the coast of Brittany! I have tried really hard to find out exactly where it was, as I remember the building and facilities really well, but I was never able to find it again. On a couple occasions, we went on a boat with some kind of... algae harvesters? The smell was extremely strong (burning itself into my memory) and made me sick. The reason I bring them up is because quite a few of my classmates had Game Boy consoles, most of them with, you know, all those accessories, especially the little lights. I remember being amazed at the transparent ones. Play was usually during the off-times, and I watched what my friends were up to, with, of course, a bit of jealousy mixed in. The class traveled by bus, and it took off in the middle of the night; something like 3 or 4 in the morning? It seemed like such a huge deal at the time! Now here I am, writing THESE WORDS at 03:00. Anyway, most of my classmates didn’t fall back asleep and those that had a Game Boy just started playing on them. One of my classmates, however, handed me his whole kit and I got to do pretty much what I wanted with it, with the express condition that I would not overwrite any of his save files. I remember getting reasonably far in Pokémon before I had to give it back to him and my progress was wiped.

During the trip to the Alps, I remember seeing older kids paying for computer time; there was a row of five computers in a small room... and they played Counter-Strike. I had absolutely no idea what it was, and I would forget about it until the moment I’m writing these words, but I was watching with much curiosity.

The first time I had my own access to console games was in 2001. The first Harry Potter film had just come out, and at Christmas, I was gifted a Game Boy Advance with the first official game. I just looked it up again and good god, it’s rougher than I remember. The three most memorable GBA games which I then got to play were both Golden Sun(s) and Sword of Mana... especially the latter, with its gorgeous art direction. My dad had a cellphone back then, and I remember sneakily going on there to look up a walkthrough for a tricky part of Golden Sun’s desert bit. Cellphones had access to something called “WAP” internet... very basic stuff, but of course still incredible to me back then.

I eventually got to play another Zelda game on my GBA: Link’s Awakening DX. I have very fond memories of that one because I was bed-ridden with a terrible flu. My fever ran so high that I started having some really funky dreams, delirious half-awake hallucinations/feelings, and one night, I got so hot that I stumbled out of bed and just laid down against the cold tile of the hallway. At 3 in the morning! A crazy time! (Crazy for 11-year-old me.)

(The fever hallucinations were crazy. My bedroom felt like it was three times at big, and I was convinced that a pack of elephants were charging at me from the opposite corner. The “night grain” of my vision felt sharper, amplified. Every touch, my sore body rubbing against the bed covers felt like it was happening twice as much. You know that “Heavy Rain with 300% facial animation” video? Imagine that, but as a feverish feeling. The dreams were on another level entirely. I could spend pages on them, but suffice to say that’s when I had my first dream where I dreamed of dying. There were at least two, actually. The first one was by walking down a strange, blueish metal corridor, then getting in an elevator, and then feeling that intimate convinction that it was leading me to passing over. The second one was in some Myst-like world, straight out of a Roger Dean cover, with some sort of mini-habitat pods floating on a completely undisturbed lake. We were just trapped in them. It just felt like some kind of weird afterlife.)

I also eventually got to play the GBA port of A Link To The Past. My uncle was pretty amused by seeing me play it, as he’d also played the original on SNES before I’d even been born. I asked him for help with a boss (the first Dark World one), but unfortunately, he admitted he didn’t remember much of the game.

We had a skiing holiday around this time. I don’t remember the resort’s or the town’s name, but its sights are burned in my memory. Maybe it’s because, shortly after we arrived, and we went to the ski rental place, I almost fainted and puked on myself, supposedly from the low oxygen. It also turned out that the bedroom my parents had rented unexpectedly came with a SNES in the drawer under the tiny TV. The game: Super Mario World. I got sick at one point and got to stay in and play it. This was also the holiday where I developed a fondness for iced tea, although back then the most common brand left an awful aftertaste in your mouth that just made you even more thirsty.

We got a new PC in December of 2004. Ditching the old Windows 98 SE (yep, the OS had been upgraded in... 2002, I think?). Look at how old-school this looks. The computer office room was in the basement. Even with the blur job that I applied to the monitor for privacy reasons, you can still tell that this is the XP file explorer:

A look at what the old DSLR managed to capture on the shelf reveals some more of the games that were available to me back then: a bunch of educational software, The Sims 2, and SpellForce Gold. 

I might be misremembering but I think they were our Christmas gifts for that year; we both got to pick one game. I had no idea what I wanted, really, but out of all the boxes at (what I think was) the local Fnac store, it was SpellForce that stood out to me the most. Having watched Lord of the Rings the year prior might have been a factor. I somewhat understood Age of Empires years before that, but SpellForce? Man, I loved the hell out of SpellForce. Imagine a top-down RPG that can also be played from a third-person perspective. And with the concept of... hero units... wait a second... now that reminds me of Dota.

Imagine playing a Dota hero with lots of micro-management and being able to build a whole base on new maps. And sometimes visiting very RPG-ish sections (my favorites!) with very little top-down strategy bits, towns, etc. like Siltbreaker. I guess this game was somewhat like an alternate, single-player Dota if you look at it from the right angle. (Not the third-person one.)

I do remember being very excited when I found out that it, too, came with a level editor. I never figured it out, though. I only ever got as far as making a nice landscape for my island, and that was it!

A couple weeks after, it was Christmas; my sister and I got our first modern PC game: The Sims 2. It didn’t run super well—most games didn’t, because the nVidia GeForce FX 5200 wasn’t very good. But that didn’t stop me or my sister from going absolutely nuts with the game. This video has the timestamp of 09 January 2005, and it is the first video I’ve ever made with a computer. Less than two weeks after we got the game, I was already neck-deep in creating stuff.

Not that it was particularly good, of course. This is a video that meets all of the “early YouTube Windows Movie Maker clichés”.

Speaking of YouTube, I did register an account there pretty early on, in August of 2006. I’ve been through all of it. I remember every single layout change. I also started using Sony Vegas around that time. It felt so complex and advanced back then! And I’m still using it today. Besides Windows, Vegas Pro is very likely to be the piece of software that I’ve been using for the longest time.

I don’t have a video on YouTube from before 2009, because I decided to delete all of them out of embarassment. They were mostly Super Mario 64 machinima. It’s as bad as it sounds. The reason I bring that up right now, though, is that it makes the “first” video of my account the last one I made with the Sims 2.

But before I get too far ahead with my early YouTube days, let me go backwards a bit. We got hooked up to the Internet some time in late 2005. It was RTC (dialup), 56 kbps. my first steps into the Internet led me to the Cube engine. Mostly because back then my dad would purchase computer magazines (which were genuinely helpful back then), and came with CDs of common downloadable software for those without Internet connections. One of them linked to Cube. I think it was using either this very same screenshot, or a very similar one, on the same map.

The amazing thing about Cube is not only that it was open-source and moddable, but had map editing built-in the game. The mode was toggled on with a single key press. You could even edit maps cooperatively with other people. Multiplayer mapping! How cool is that?! And the idea of a game that enabled so much creation was amazing to me, so I downloaded it right away. (Over the course of several hours, 30 MiB being large for dialup.)

I made lots of bad maps that never fulfilled the definition of “good level” or “good gameplay”, not having any idea how “game design” meant, or what it even was. But I made places. Places that I could call my own. “Virtual homes”. I still distinctively remember the first map I ever made, even though no trace of it survives to this day. In the second smallest map size possible, I’d made a tower surrounded by a moat and a few smaller cozy towers, with lots of nice colored lighting. This, along with the distinctive skyboxes and intriguing music, made me feel like I’d made my home in a strange new world.

At some point later down the line, I made a kinda-decent singleplayer level. It was very linear, but one of the two lead developers of the game played it and told me he liked it a lot! Of course, half of that statement was probably “to be nice”, but it was really validating and encouraging. And I’m glad they were like that. Because I remember being annoying to some other mappers in the Sauerbraten community (the follow-up to Cube, more advanced technically), who couldn’t wrap their heads around my absolutely god awful texturing work and complete lack of level “design”. Honestly, sometimes, I actually kinda feel like trying to track a couple of them down and being like, “yeah, remember that annoying kid? That was me. Sorry you had to deal with 14-year-old me.”

At some point, I stumbled upon a mod called Cube Legends. It was a heavily Zelda-inspired “total conversion”; a term reserved for mods that are the moddiest mods and try to take away as much of the original foundation as possible. It featured lots of evocative MIDI music by the Norwegian composer Bjørn Lynne. Fun fact: the .mid files are still available officially from his website!

This was at the crossroad of many of my interests. It was yet another piece of the puzzle. As a quick side note, this is why Zelda is the first series that I name in the title of this post, even though I... never really thought of myself as a Zelda fan. It’s not that it’s one of the game series that I like the most, it’s just that, before I started writing this, I’d never realized how far-reaching its influence had been in my life, both in overt and subtle ways, especially during my formative years.

And despite how clearly unfinished, how much of a “draft” Cube Legends was, I could see what it was trying to do. I could see the author’s intent. And I’m still listening to Bjørn Lynne’s music today.

The Cube Engine and its forums were a big part of why I started speaking English so well. Compared to most French people, I mean. We’re notoriously bad with the English language, and so was I up until then. But having this much hands-on practice proved to be immensely valuable. And so, I can say that the game and its community have therefore had long-lasting impacts in my life.

I also tried out a bunch of N64 games via emulation, bringing me right back in that bedroom at my grandparents’ house, with my cousin. Though he did not have either N64 Zelda game back then.

The first online forum I ever joined was a Zelda fan site’s. There are two noteworthy things to say here:

It was managed by a woman who, during my stay in the community, graduated from her animation degree. At this stage I had absolutely no idea that this was going to be the line of work I would eventually pursue!

I recently ran into the former head moderator of the forums. (I don’t know when the community died.) One of the Dota players on my friends list invited him because I was like “hmm, I wanna go as 3, not as 2 players today”. His nickname very vaguely reminded me of something, a weird hunch I couldn’t place. Half an hour into the game, he said “hey Max... this might be a long shot, but did you ever visit [forum]?” and then I immediately yelled “OH MY GOD—IT IS YOU.” The world is a small place.

Access to the computer was sometimes tricky. I didn’t always have good grades, and of course, “punishment” (not sure the word is appropriate, hence the quotes, but you get the idea) often involved locking me out of the computer room. Of course, most times, I ended up trying to find the key instead. I needed my escape from the real world.  (You better believe it’s Tangent Time.)

I was always told I was the “smart kid”, because I “understood things faster” than my classmates. So they made me skip two grades ahead. This made me enter high school at nine years old. The consequences were awful (I was even more of the typical nerdy kid that wouldn’t fit in), and I wish it had never happened. Over the years, I finally understood: I wasn’t more intelligent. I merely had the chance to have been able to grow up with an older brother who’d instilled a sense of curiosity, critical thinking, and taste in books that were ahead of my age and reading level. This situation—and its opposite—is what I believe accounts for the difference in how well kids get to learn. It’s not innate talent, it’s not genetics (as some racists would like you to believe). It’s parenting and privilege.

And that’s why I’ll always be an outspoken proponent for any piece of media that tries to instill critical thinking and curiosity in its viewer, reader, or player.

But I digress.

Well, I’ve been digressing a lot, really, but games aren’t everything and after all, this post is about the context in which I played those games. Otherwise I reckon I would’ve just made a simple list.

I eventually got a Nintendo DS for Christmas, along with Mario Kart DS. My sister had gotten her own just around the time when it released... she had the Nintendogs bundle. We had also upgraded to proper ADSL, what I think was about a ~5 megabits download speed. The Nintendo DS supported wi-fi, which was still relatively rare compared to today. In fact, Nintendo sold a USB wireless adapter to help with that issue—our ISP-supplied modem-router did not have any wireless capabilities. I couldn’t get it the adapter work and I remember I got help from a really kind stranger who knew a lot about networking—to a point that it seemed like wizardry to me.

I remember I got a “discman” as a gift some time around that point. In fact, I still have it. Check out the stickers I put on it! I think those came from the Sims 2 DVD box and/or one of its add-ons.

I burned a lot of discs. In fact, in the stack of burned CDs/DVDs that I found (with the really bad Sims movies somewhere in there), I found at least three discs that had the Zelda album Hyrule Symphony burned in, each with different additional tracks. Some were straight-up MIDI files from vgmusic.com...! And speaking (again) of Zelda, when the Wii came out, Twilight Princess utterly blew my mind. I never got the game or the console, but damn did I yearn badly for it. I listened to the main theme of the game a lot, which didn’t help. I eventually got to play the first few hours at a friend’s place.

At some point, we’d upgraded the family computer to something with a bit more horsepower. It had a GeForce 8500 GT inside, which was eventually upgraded to a 9600 GT after the card failed for some reason. It could also dual-boot between XP and Vista. I stuck with that computer until 2011.

We moved to where I currently live in 2007. I’ve been here over a decade! And before we’d even fully finished unpacking, I was on the floor of the room that is now my office, with the computer on the ground and the monitor on a cardboard box, playing a pirated copy of... Half-Life! It was given to me by my cousin. It took me that long to find out about the series. It’s the first Valve game I played. I also later heard about the Orange Box, but mostly about Portal. Which I also pirated and played. I distinctly remember being very puzzled by the options menu: I thought it was glitched or broken, as changing settings froze the game. Turns out the Source engine had to chug for a little while, like a city car in countryside mud, as it reloaded a bunch of stuff. Patience is a virtue...

But then, something serious happened.

In the afternoon of 25 December 2007, I started having a bit of a dull stomach pain. I didn’t think much of it. Figured maybe I’d eaten too many Christmas chocolates and it’d go away. It didn’t. It progressively deteriorated into a high fever where I had trouble walking and my tummy really hurt; especially if you pressed on it. My parents tried to gently get me to eat something nice on New Year’s Eve, but it didn’t stay in very long. I could only feed myself with lemonade and painkiller. Eventually, the doctor decided I should get blood tests done as soon as possible. And I remember that day very clearly.

I was already up at 6:30 in the morning. Back then, The Daily Show aired on the French TV channel Canal+, so I was watching that, lying in the couch while waiting for my mom to get up and drive me to my appointment, at 7:00. It was just two streets away, but there was no way I could walk there. At around noon, the doctor called and told my mom: “get your son to the emergency room now.”

Long story short, part of my intestines nuked themselves into oblivion, causing acute peritonitis. To give you an idea, that’s something with a double-digit fatality rate. Had we waited maybe a day or two more, I would not be here writing this. They kind of blew up. I had an enormous abcess attached to a bunch of my organs. I had to be operated on with only weak local anaesthetics as they tried to start draining the abscess. It is, to date, by far the most painful thing that has ever happened to me. It was bad enough that the hospital doctor that was on my case told me that I was pretty much a case worthy to be in textbooks. I even had medical students come into my hospital room about it! They were very nice.

This whole affair lasted over a month. I became intimately familiar with TV schedules. And thankfully, I had my DS to keep me company. At the time, I was pretty big into the Tony Hawk DS games. They were genuinely good. They had extensive customization, really great replayability, etc. you get the idea. I think I even got pretty high on the online leaderboards at some point. I didn’t have much to do on some days besides lying down in pain while perfecting my scoring and combo strategies. I think Downhill Jam might’ve been my favorite.

My case was bad enough that they were unable to do something due to the sad state of my insides during the last surgery of my stay. I was told that I could come back in a few months for a checkup, and potentially a “cleanup” operation that would fix me up for good. I came back in late June of 2008, got the operation, and... woke up in my hospital room surrounded by, like, nine doctors, and hooked up to a morphine machine that I could trigger on command. Apparently something had gone wrong during the operation, but they never told me what. I wasn’t legally an adult, so they didn’t have to tell me. I suspect it’s somewhere in some medical files, but I never bothered to dig up through my parents’ archives, or ask the hospital. And I think I would rather not know. But anyway, that was almost three more weeks in the hospital. And it sucked even more that time because, you see, hospital beds do not “breathe” like regular beds do. The air can’t go through. Let’s say I’m intimately familiar with the smell of back sweat forever.

When I got out, my mom stopped by a supermarket on the way home. And that is when I bought The Orange Box, completely on a whim, and made my Steam account. Why? Because it was orange and stood out on the shelf.

(As a side note, that was the whole bit I started writing first, and that made me initially title this post “growing pains”. First, because I’m bad at titles. Second, because not that I didn’t have them otherwise (ow oof ouch my knees), but that was literally the most painful episode of my entire life thus far and it ended in a comically-unrelated, high-impact, life-changing decision. Just me picking up The Orange Box after two awful hospital stays... led me to where I am today.)

While I was recovering, I also started playing EarthBound! Another bit of a life-changer, that one. To a lesser extent, but still. I was immediately enamored by its unique tone. Giygas really really really creeped me out for a while afterwards though. I still get unsettled if I hear its noises sometimes.

I later bought Garry’s Mod (after convincing my mom that it was a “great creative toolbox that only cost ten bucks!”), and, well, the rest is history. By which I mean, a lot of my work and gaming activity since 2009 is still up and browsable. But there are still a few things to talk about.

In 2009, I bought my first computer with YouTube ad money: the Asus eee PC 1005HA-H. By modern standards, it’s... not very powerful. The processor in my current desktop machine is nearly 50 times as fast as its Atom N280. It had only one gigabyte of RAM, Windows 7 Basic Edition, and an integrated GPU barely worthy of the name; Intel didn’t care much for 3D in their chips back then. The GMA 945 didn’t even have hardware support for Transform & Lighting.

But I made it work, damn it. I made that machine run so much stuff. I played countless Half-Life and Half-Life 2 mods on it—though, due to the CPU overhead on geometry, some of those were trickier. I think one of the most memorable ones I played was Mistake of Pythagoras; very surreal, very rough, but I still remember it so clearly. I later played The Longest Journey on it, in the middle of winter. It was a very cozy and memorable experience. (And another one that’s an adventure wonderful outlandish alien universe. LOVE THOSE.)

I did more than playing games on it, though...

This is me sitting, sunburned on the nose, in an apartment room, on 06 August 2010. This was in the Pyrénées, at the border between France and Spain. We had a vacation with daily hiking. Some of the landscapes we visited reminded me very strongly of those from Lost Eden, way up the page...

So, you see, I had 3ds Max running on that machine. The Source SDK as well. Sony Vegas. All of it was slow; you bet I had to use some workarounds to squeeze performance out of software, and that I had to keep a close, watchful eye on RAM usage. But I worked on this thing. I really did! I animated this video’s facial animation bits (warning: this is old & bad) on the eee PC, during the evenings of the trip, when we were back at our accomodation. The Faceposer tool in the Source SDK really worked well on that machine.

I also animated an entire video solely on the machine (warning: also old and bad). It had to be rendered on the desktop computer... but every single bit of the animation was crafted on the eee PC.

I made it work.

Speaking of software that did not run well: around that time, I also played the original Crysis. The “but can it run Crysis?” joke was very much justified back then. I had to edit configuration files by hand so that I could run the game in 640x480... because I wanted to keep most of the high-end settings enabled. The motion blur was delicious, and it blew my mind that the effect made the game feel this smooth, despite wobbling around in the 20 to 30 fps range.

Alright. It’s time to finish writing this damn post and publish it at last, so I’m going to close it out by listing some more memories and games that I couldn’t work in up there.

Advance Wars. Strategy game on GBA with a top-down level editor. You better believe I was all over the editor right away.

BioShock. When we got the 2007 desktop computer, it was one of the first games I tried. Well, its demo, to be precise. Its tech and graphics blew my mind, enough that I saved up to buy the full game. This was before I had a Steam account; I got a boxed copy! I think it might have been the last boxed game I ever bought? It had a really nice metal case. The themes and political messages of the game flew way over my head, though.

Mirror’s Edge. The art direction was completely fascinating to me, and it introduced me to Solar Fields’ music; my most listened artist this decade, by a long shot.

L.A. Noire. I lost myself in its stories and investigations, and then, I did it all again, with my sister at the helm. I very rarely play games twice (directly or indirectly), which I figure is worth mentioning.

Zeno Clash. It was weird and full of soul, had cool music, and cool cutscenes. It inspired me a lot in my early animation days.

Skyward Sword. Yep, going back to Zelda on that one. The whole game was pretty good, and I’m still thinking about how amazing its art direction was. Look up screenshots of it running in HD on an emulator... it’s outstanding. But there’s a portion of the game that stands tall above the rest: the Lanayru Sand Sea. It managed to create a really striking atmosphere in many aspects, through and through. I still think about it from time to time, especially when its music comes on in shuffle mode.

Wandersong. A very recent pick, but it was absolutely a life-changing one. That game is an anti-depressant, a vaccine against cynicism, a lone bright and optimist voice.

I realize now this is basically a “flawed but interesting and impactful games” list. With “can establish its atmosphere very well” as a big criteria. (A segment of video games that is absolutely worth exploring.)

I don’t know if I’ll ever make my own video game. I have a few ideas floating around and I tried prototyping some stuff, though my limited programming abilities stood in my way. But either way, if it happens one day, I hope I’ll manage to channel all those years of games into the CULMINATION OF WHAT I LIKE. Something along those lines, I reckon.

[devinclaire]

Taurus- Moon Cycle Horoscope

Curious to read a Moon Cycle Horoscope? As a birthday gift to all the Tauruses out there, below you’ll find your Moon Cycle Horoscope for the Taurus New Moon. Not a Taurus and looking for your sign? You’ll find it in the Shop, or consider joining the New Moon Social Club to receive your horoscope every month.

New Moon Social Club

Re: Taurus during the Taurus New Moon Cycle

 All Times are Pacific Standard Time

 With all this metaphorical lightening striking in your life these last two months a New Moon in your sign feels like solace after clawing through the forest unable to find a path. Now you have a moment to look up and see the stars. It’s peaceful.

Enjoy a deep breath of pine air while you can as there is very intense, destiny altering energy afoot. Does it make sense now, that all this turmoil was training for this exact moment? When the choice really matters, you’re able to stand in the eye of the storm.

Did I forget to mention that it’s your birthday? Forgive me. The energy of chaotic Uranus threw me off! Yes there’s adventure taking place right in your own backyard, but that doesn’t mean we can forget we’re celebrating the season in which the Sun travels to the exact spot where it shone the day you were born. If you’re a Taurus Rising this season honors the constellation that crossed over the horizon the moment you took your first breath.

It’s so much to marvel over, so many fragments of space rock and clusters of gas had to align in all the right place, willing you to come about to live that stellar frequency in the form of a human. The Universe applauds that you decided to show up, and over the next 7 years is giving you opportunities to let your genius take you to new realms.

I know there’s a part of you that’d love to lounge in the fields of flowers with Ferdinand the bull, and there’s a lot of value in that, but like Ferdinand, you’re being called to do something completely revolutionary. I didn’t say it would be easy, but it definitely won’t be boring!

So, what is this destiny challenge you’re being asked to complete? Your spiritual side is needing more and more space to be free and out in the open, you find more and more that you need to have the ability to say to someone, “This is my opinion on this matter,” and not be worried about having the exact right response before you speak.

This new practice may come easier as Mercury, the planet of communication, travels into your sign on Monday, May 6th. Everyone’s words will come slower as if the letters are sticking to their ribs. This will give you a chance to get your thoughts out into the open where they can fly. Those around you have no excuse when they claim they didn’t hear what you said. They certainly heard what you said, and it shook them to their core.

Do you need extra proof that this is a good idea? There’s been movement in your 11th House of your hopes and dreams. The energy is one that doesn’t want to listen to any master. It’s the energy of Lilith, the first wife of Adam. Since she wouldn’t lay beneath Adam and obey him, she chose to run wild through the forest, claiming her autonomy. You’re being called by the wind to run away with abandon with nothing but the breeze moving through your hair.

You’re known for being solid, and this means that it’s highly likely that someone has overstepped their boundaries with you, grabbing at the security they saw you could offer them. That burbling sense of annoyance or resentment you feel sometimes? That’s a very good indicator someone is making that grab. Lilith is calling you to come run wild and naked through the woods. Leave anyone who can’t take care of themselves without needing you to constantly comfort them.

Don’t think you have it in you to branch out on your own? You’ll see what you’re really made of on Wednesday May 8th. It’ll be like fireworks coming out of your mouth. This is definitely a time when you want to speak exactly what’s on your mind. This is the kind of energy you want to get out in front of and use it on others rather than have it be used on you.

Getting clear on your truth will come up again the next day on Thursday, May 9th. It’s time to talk about your passions, even if it’s just a very honest conversation you have with yourself. It might feel scary, but the Truth of your soul is your biggest priority. Especially during your birthday season when it’s time for new, invigorated beginnings.

All this speaking your Truth may lead you to stop believing an outlandish lie someone’s been telling you and passing as fact. On Saturday, May 11th you watch the foundation around this lie crack and crumble to the ground. With the fall of a false idol, your soul feels stronger, guided by passion, grounded in knowing.

Monday, May 13th asks how you can build creatively from this experience. You’re very in tune with the energy today. You’re recovering from the leap you took earlier this month in speaking your wants and needs. You may also be recovering from others not taking your newfound opinions very well. This is a nice day to create a piece of art around this experience, releasing old energy as you transfer it into the piece.

You bloom and open toward love the way a flower yearns for the Sun. Wednesday, May 15th Venus travels into your sign. You place your flower crown on to dance barefoot amongst the moss and ferns. During this time (until June 8th) love will be experienced in a very sensual way. Do you shiver when they touch you? It just very might well be love.

Mars also floats into Cancer on this day as well. Again, supercharging your ability to communicate. This will also give you extra psychic superpowers. Remember to get your point across you need to speak it, you can’t rely on telepathic communication.

On Thursday, May 16th you’ll definitely find the words to say what’s on your mind, or if you’ve been speaking up already, this is the day when your words manifest into a desired entity. Notice how this thing or person matches the frequency and tone of your words. It doesn’t only matter what you say, it matters how you say it.

The Moon beams coming down from the Scorpio Full Moon on Friday, May 17th are some for the ages. As a lover of music, you’ll see and appreciate the harmony in the atmosphere. This is about the sprouting of a long-anticipated project, perhaps a romance that blossoms into deep commitment.

It can also be the realization that something has come to its emotional end, and that you’re in a new space, even if the location you find yourself in doesn’t quite reflect that yet. Maybe you don’t always get around to doing a Full Moon releasing ritual, if there was a Full Moon to make some time for a ritual, this is the one. This time it’s destiny.

Taurus season begins to come to an end, as all things must, the following Tuesday, May 21st when both the Sun and Mercury travel into Gemini. You may feel a little uprooted, like you started out as a potted fern and you’ve suddenly been freed from your soil as an air plant. Conversations speed up and it feels like a general sense of confusion has resumed. This is why you did all your training during Taurus season. You’re clear on your values and this keeps you calm as a frenzy whips up around you. If you do find yourself stumbling at any given time, bring the conversation back to community. This is the common ground.

Expect the affects of you’re Full Moon releasing ritual to start popping up on Wednesday, May 22nd. Emotions may feel extreme, or that you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. Know these are messages from your spirit guides. They’re trying to make something clear.

Continue with the strategy of using this releasing energy to get closer to what you desire. On Wednesday, May 29th you may find that speaking about your dream results in those you thought were friends leaving your life. They want a certain version of you, a version that doesn’t include your new pursuit. This can feel painful, but know that you may one day want to thank them for their ignorance as they’re creating a void space in your life that can be filled with the next person or experience bringing you to the next level of being.

Friday, May 31st will be a powerful day. Imagine an abandoned city covered with vines and branches, to the point you could no longer see the structures that once existed. The vines grow bigger and more tangled, they bloom. Where are you getting back to nature in your life? Where is a stark structure beginning to grow lush?

Alright, we’re in the dark of the Moon, the day before the New Moon in Gemini. Let’s reiterate the theme of how you’re pulling lots of punches this year, throwing lots of lightening bolts! The very last day of your Moon cycle, on Sunday, June 2nd is no exception. As a Taurus, you’re known for your beauty inside and out, and in this time of reflection you’re being encouraged to take this to the extra mile, to apply it in a way you never have before, to make a deal with your devils to make your life better, to continue on the journey of self-actualization.

Find more horoscopes in the Shop. Join the New Moon Social Club and receive your horoscope every month.

[geopolicraticus]

The Limits of Interdisciplinarity

Why do we have many sciences instead of one science? Why is not science more robustly interdisciplinary? These are a deceptively simple questions that are difficult to answer, as the answer takes us into regions of thought that rarely receive explicit exposition. I am going to approach these questions by way of a circuitous detour through the popularization of specialized knowledge.

Will Durant, who made himself independently wealthy from the success of his book The Story of Philosophy (which good fortune he paid forward by subsequently writing The Story of Civilization), wrote of his experience as a popularizer of philosophy in the Preface to the second edition of The Story of Philosophy:  

“The appetite of the layman grew by what it fed on. There were in America millions of men and women who had been unable to go to college, and who thirsted for the findings of history and science; even those who had gone through college showed a moderate hunger for knowledge… Then came the flood. Outline followed outline, ‘story’ followed ‘story’; science and art, religion and law, had their stenographers…”

Durant concluded, however:

“The public appetite was quickly satiated; critics and professors complained of superficiality and haste, and an undertow of resentment set in, which reached every outline from the last to the first. As quickly as it had come, the fashion changed; no one dared any longer say a word for the humanization of knowledge; the denunciation of outlines was now the easy road to critical repute; it became the style to speak with a delicate superiority of any non-fiction book that could be understood. The snob movement in literature began.”

While it is no longer the interpretation of philosophy for the general public that produces literary sensations, the task of interpreting increasingly subtle and complex scientific theories to the public now occasionally produces best sellers, such as Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. While I do not myself consider A Brief History of Time to be a successful interpretation of science to the general public—Hawking made a lot of assertions without making much of an attempt to explain or clarify the ideas he asserted (and, yes, I read the book)—no one can dispute its literary success.

Science communications (which was once known as popularization, but I can understand why “communications” is preferred before “popularization”), when successful, plays an underappreciated role in providing an exposition of the underlying intuitions that form the background of a scientific discipline. Thus while popularizers are sometimes looked down upon, as Durant noted, they are doing something that many who make use of these underlying intuitions in advanced theoretical work cannot do themselves. 

For example, Brian Greene in his The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (pp. 291-292), has done a remarkable job of elucidating the different intuitive motivations that underlie physics and cosmology in his exposition of the flatness problem in cosmology: 

“By no means does the flatness problem show that the standard big bang model is wrong. A staunch believer reacts to the flatness problem with a shrug of the shoulders and the curt reply ‘That’s just how it was back then,’ taking the finely tuned matter/energy density of the early universe—which the standard big bang requires to yield predictions that are in the same ballpark as observations—as an unexplained given. But this answer makes most physicists recoil. Physicists feel that a theory is grossly unnatural if its success hinges on extremely precise tunings of features for which we lack a fundamental explanation. Without supplying a reason for why the matter/energy density of the early universe would have been so finely tuned to an acceptable value, many physicists have found the standard big bang model highly contrived. Thus, the flatness problem highlights the extreme sensitivity of the standard big bang model to conditions in the remote past of which we know very little; it shows how the theory must assume the universe was just so, in order to work.”

“By contrast, physicists long for theories whose predictions are insensitive to unknown quantities such as how things were a long time ago. Such theories feel robust and natural because their predictions don’t depend delicately on details that are hard, or perhaps even impossible, to determine directly. This is the kind of theory provided by inflationary cosmology, and its solution to the flatness problem illustrates why.”

Physics and cosmology, while both obviously natural sciences, are distinct natural sciences, and one of the things that distinguishes different disciplines of the natural sciences is the underlying intuitions that each makes use of, one part of the underlying intuition is the nature and degree of scientific abstraction that enters into the thought of each discipline. It is because of these distinct intuitions and forms of scientific abstraction that the cosmologist can shrug his shoulders at an observation that makes physicists recoil.

The particular kind of scientific abstraction of which physicists make use looks for isolatable systems that can be reduced to a mechanism. Physicists can be perfectly happy with laws of nature that work as well with time going backward as with time going forward, and think nothing is amiss in this, because these laws of nature are robustly testable (at least, testable in time as we know it, exclusively flowing forward) and can be isolated from the flow of history and elaborated in this idealized way. Physics is about finding mechanisms that work regardless of context.

Cosmology, like biology and geology, is essentially an historical science, and, as an historical science it is not so much looking for the kind of laws of nature that physics likes to find as it is looking for the exact sequence of development that brought us to where we are today. Historical sciences give meaning to their domain of knowledge by contextualizing that knowledge in larger structures, and so isolated, idealized mechanisms play a much smaller role in cosmology than they do in physics (though they are certainly not absent in physics). 

Cosmologists, of course, have their own forms of abstraction. They may not think to tell you that, for a cosmologist, the basic building blocks of the universe are galaxies, so when a cosmologists tells you that the universe is expanding in all directions, they sometimes have to answer questions like, “If the universe is expanding, does that mean we are getting bigger?” or, “If the universe is expanding, are the stars in the Milky Way moving farther apart?” These are perfectly legitimate questions for a common sense view of the universe when told that the universe is expanding in all directions. We want to know exactly what is expanding and how it is expanding. But since the cosmologist is accustomed to his particular level of scientific abstraction at which entities less than galaxies don’t play much of a part, addressing these qualifications will be an afterthought.

There is a contemporary discipline known as astrophysics that synthesizes some of the intuitions and methods of physics and cosmology, as well as touching on concerns of astronomy, but it is significant that a new specialization of astrophysics appeared to address the need that was felt, because this is how the western sciences have approached the elaboration of knowledge. Each particular domain of knowledge has its own specialization, and the expansion of knowledge that makes us aware of previously unsuspected problems produces new domains of knowledge in the attempt to address these problems. 

Astrophysics cultivates its own intuitions and its own forms of scientific abstraction that make the discipline function in its distinctive way. Indeed, these intuitions and forms of scientific abstraction more-or-less define the discipline, even if those who are working in the discipline cannot explain exactly what it is that they are doing, and must wait for a science communications specialist to come along and explain in ordinary language what the astrophysicists are doing. For science communications itself has its own intuitions and forms of scientific abstraction of which the other science specializations are innocent.

Brian Greene, obviously, is a physicist with a talent for science communications, and is capable of holding both physics and science communications in his mind at the same time, as in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous remark, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

Despite the imperative of epistemic wholeness that we all feel (totality of knowledge achieved by a single method), and which is at the root of calls for interdisciplinary research, most interdisciplinary research ends up producing a new specialization, because we make progress in scientific knowledge by focusing on a particular area of knowledge, and this means masking the rest of the world from view in an act of scientific abstraction, so that the specialist’s view of the objects of his inquiry is uncompromised by irrelevant and distracting detail.

This irrelevant and distracting detail—what William James called, “one great blooming, buzzing confusion”—is what characterizes lived experience, and it is at this point that we can understand the point at which lived experience diverges from scientific knowledge. Lived experience is a blooming, buzzing confusion, and while we filter this confusion in order to make sense of it, and focus on things that interest us, the blooming, buzzing confusion is never far. In science and the production of scientific knowledge, the blooming, buzzing confusion is rigorously excluded by protocols of experimentation and scientific method that narrow the scope of experience to the value of an observed dependent variable.   

The literary genre we know as the novel is an evocation of lived experience, and we have much to learn from novels, but a novel is not an exposition of scientific knowledge. Literature is not going to give us the proper value for the Hubble constant; only science can focus on that question in a way that will produce an answer. A novel that described the drama of scientific discovery in the work of scientists converging on the Hubble constant would present a picture of the human side of doing science, and would help us to better understand the social context in which science is done—the lived experience of scientific researchers, at it were—and it might even illuminate the conclusions of researchers, but it would not arrogate to itself the role of arriving at the answers to the problems that science studies.

Science, on the other hand, is not going to give us the lived experience of researchers, but only scientific knowledge and a description of the meticulous process of arriving at this knowledge. This exclusion of lived experience can go so far as to obscure or even conceal the intuitions that underlie scientific research and discovery, and this is related to the problem that there is no science of science (on which cf. Theory Development in Science is Unscientific). That is to say, there is no systematic and methodical way to teach the intuitions and forms of scientific abstractions employed in science. The most one can do is to be a Socratic midwife to science, exposing someone to the procedures of scientific method in the hopes that they “get” it and are able to continue on their own. 

It is often difficult, in reading scientific papers, to try to extract the plain, intuitive meaning behind the many circuitous and apparently oblique assertions contained therein. Scientists deeply invested in the forms of intuition and scientific abstraction that characterize their particular discipline cannot easily step back and view these intuitions with the same objectivity with which they view their data. With these barriers to understanding the intuitions that underlie science, it is no surprise that we do not possess a fine-grained account of the various kinds of intuition and scientific abstraction employed by the special sciences. But this is what we need in order to make sense of what we are doing in the growing enterprise of scientific knowledge, which is the engine that drives technological civilization forward. 

The very least we can say in the light of the above considerations is that the problem of disciplinary silos is misconceived; researchers do not isolate themselves within disciplinary silos out of any sense of protecting their turf, or as part of a battle to attain status within a restricted domain, or to deny knowledge of the uninitiated and the Great Unwashed. Scientists are isolated within disciplinary silos because they have trained themselves into seeing the world through the filter of particular forms of intuition and particular kinds of scientific abstraction that are not employed, do not obtain, or are not relevant in the same way within other disciplines. One can blunder around other disciplines without a grasp of the relevant intuitions and forms of scientific abstraction, and everyone once in a while one will make an important connection that the specialists miss, but one will almost certainly never make a contribution to the advancement of the discipline itself. In all likelihood, if one does make an advantageous connection, this insight will then become the basis of a new specialization that will make progress to the extent that individuals converge upon novel forms of intuition and scientific abstraction that best serve this new discipline.

The specificity of disciplinary intuitions and distinctive forms of scientific abstraction define the limits of interdisciplinarity and the attempt to get the sciences to work together to the one, single end of expanding scientific knowledge, and thus this also explains why there are many sciences instead of one, single science. However, these many sciences accomplish the work of expanding scientific knowledge, though that knowledge is often highly specialized and must be interpreted in order to find its place within human life as knowledge that makes a difference in navigating the obstacles of an indifferent world.

Some time ago in a post I asked—Is it possible to specialize in the big picture?—and I think the above demonstrates how this question is more relevant than ever. We require stand-alone “big picture” disciplines with their own special kinds of intuition and their distinctive forms of scientific abstraction that can bring together the synthesis of scientific knowledge that is missing from the specialized disciplines. We should not expect that big picture disciplines—and there may eventually come to be many of them, as should be expected in light of the above reflections—will simply be an eclectic gathering of specialized scientific knowledge, but each will be a discipline in its own right, that makes use of the knowledge of the specialized sciences in its own distinctive way. We shouldn’t resist this movement of thought, but rather we should let a hundred flowers bloom.

[iconiceyesbirminghamwestmid-blog]

Dwelling Of Graphics Design

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[doomonfilm]

Shorts : The 93rd Academy Awards (2020 Nominees)

Even before my days as a film blogger, I always made a concentrated effort to try and see as many films nominated during awards season as I could... I would hope to have seen them throughout the course of the year in the natural flow of of my viewing, but inevitably I end up playing catch-up in the span of time between the Golden Globe nominations and the Academy Awards ceremony.  One unfortunate consistency, however, is the fact that I often fall short (no pun intended) in my coverage of short live-action, animated and documentary films that receive recognition from the Oscars. 

With streaming ruling more than ever in the wake of COVID-19 and the pandemic, and more access to films regardless of the current state of world affairs, I wanted to make sure that my attempt to cover as much ground in the Oscar nomination pool as possible included shorts, and thanks to a bit of sleuth work, I was able to see a large slice of the nominated material.  This article will focus solely on my thoughts about what I was able to see, but more importantly, it will allow me to include these categories in my prediction post, as they are often overlooked.

Editor’s note - Due to a lack of access, the following films will be excluded from this list :  - Oprea (Best Animated Short nominee) - White Eye (Best Live-Action nominee)

Burrow (SparkShorts/Pixar, dir. Madeline Sharafian) Best Animated Short nominee

It’s easy to see why Burrow was paired with the wildly successful and stellar animated feature Soul, as both tell a similar tale about independence in the face of community, albeit one is much more layered and textured than the other.  That being said, Burrow is able to transmit its message without the use of dialogue, instead utilizing a bouncy soundtrack and sound design to match both the underground and animal-based aspects of the short.  The lighting techniques in particular stand out, especially when the bunny finds himself digging tunnels.  The menagerie of animal characters are each given unique design to reflect the vast number of subterranean dwellers in the wild, but the designs also share enough similarity to keep the overall world aesthetic uniform and enjoyable.  This one is definitely highly recommended for children, although its extremely short runtime may leave them demanding more.  Major props to Madeline Sharafian for making such a dynamic piece of traditional animation in a company known for pushing the realms of digital animation and 3-D character rendering.

Genius Loci (UniFrance, dir. Adrien Merigeau) Best Animated Short nominee

Genius Loci should be framed and presented to the masses a motion-based art.  The way in which each sequence is laid out like some sort of abstract piece of artwork is stunning, and as the narrative unfolds in its powerful minimalist take on surrealism, we are given a creatively intriguing blend of symbolism and stimuli that is nothing short of breathtaking.  Genius Loci harkens me back to the days of programs like MTv’s Liquid Television, where I wasn’t even registering how much the lines between entertainment and artwork were being blurred.  Even in its abstraction and heavy symbolism, it is extremely easy to recognize the variety of human interactions that Merigauh parades in her dreamlike animated sonnet.  In all honesty, words do not do this modern masterpiece justice… it simply must be seen to be believed, especially for anyone who was a fan of any aspect of Waking Life.

If Anything Happens I Love You (Netflix, dir. Will McCormack and Michael Govier) Best Animated Short nominee

If Anything Happens I Love You is an incredibly artistic (and seemingly deeply personal) rumination on grief in the  wake of sudden and tragic loss.  Aesthetically, the film has an elevated Plymptoons style to it, with an excellent use of minimalism and abstraction that simplifies ideas of memory, personal regret and reconciliation with grace, thoughtfulness and nuance.  While absent of dialogue, the use of sound design, illustration and a well-placed King Princess song says more than any dialogue or exposition could ever manage in a package like this.  The way that memories blend together and introduce color in a world where the presence is absent of it leaves a lasting impression.  Short projects like this show animation’s capacity to elicit a deep emotional reaction and touch upon topics that may seem to step into the realms of exploitation if done traditionally.  The emotional gut punch delivered by If Anything Happens I Love You in its waning moments is as touching as it is heartbreaking, and is likely to pull tears out of even the most hardened moviegoer.  

Yes-People (The New Yorker, dir. Gísli Darri Halldórsson)

One thing about Yes-People that immediately stands out is the character design... I am unsure of whether it is a stop-motion film, a computer-generated animation, or some other technique made to emulate these others.  There is a minimalist aspect to the film similar to that of Aardman Animations, particularly in terms of the narrative hook involving the use of a single word : “Yes”.  We are shown a wide range of individuals with distinct looks and seemingly distinct purposes in life, and although all characters use the same word (and are tied to the same use of a single song throughout the film), it is the way in which these particular elements are displayed and presented that gives the world a sense of variety and distinction amongst its participants.  The look seems geared towards children, but the subject matter and tone seem to be geared more so towards adults, especially in the way it deals with finding joy and pleasure in the mundane nature of living.  While not the most moving piece of animation for me out of the bunch, I can certainly recognize art when I see it, and Yes-People deserves all of the recognition and accolades it is currently attaining. 

Colette (The Guardian, dir. Anthony Giacchino) Best Documentary Short nominee

While not the first documentary on the impact of the Nazi party during World War II, Colette does more to humanize the tragedy than any other piece of media I can recall.  To clarify, many documentaries have shown images and footage of prisoners, but Colette does so without taking a morbid tourist, exploitation or self-gratifying stance.  In contrast, we are taken to a World War II museum prior to visiting the concentration camp where Jean-Pierre (brother of documentary subject Colette Marin-Catherine) was held, where we see items, portraits and registration cards meant to contextualize the scale of the Nazi atrocities.  Rather than utilize shock and despair, we are given a very welcoming presentation, which makes it easier to understand and accept how recognizing and understanding our past downfalls can help avoid them in the future.  Colette Marin-Catherine and Lucie Fouble have a wonderful synergy together, and their conversations serve to further illustrate the nuance that comes with recognizing the past, based on your personal past and point of view.  Colette Marin-Catherine is not only extremely honest about herself, but she is quick to hold up a mirror to those who exploit the tragedies Germany committed during World War II, and it’s this ability to be forthright and unwavering that makes her a fascinating subject.

A Concerto Is a Conversation (The New York Times, dir. Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers) Best Documentary Short nominee

This short documentary uses the hook of music and its ability to communicate the unspoken as an introduction for a story surrounding up and coming composer Kris Bowers (who co-directs the documentary with Ben Proudfoot) and the historical significance of his current rising star.  Framed as a conversation between Bowers and his grandfather Horace Bowers, A Concerto Is a Conversation allows the elder Bowers to break down for his grandson the reason why his past drive has allowed his grandson to achieve.  Horace Bowers recounts the story of his early life on a plantation in Florida, his literal escape across the country to California, his search for employment that turned into business ownership, and how all of this inspired Kris to chase his dreams.  As an inspirational story and an opportunity for personal testimony in a historical context, the documentary certainly has value and impact, but may find itself happy to just be in the conversation among the likes of such heavy and emotional content.

Do Not Split (Field of Vision, dir. Anders Hammer) Best Documentary Short nominee

No matter what happens for Do Not Split in terms of award season success, this is a film that should not be ignored due to its current relevance on numerous levels.  First and foremost, we are given a glimpse into both modern protesting and modern policing, and how protestors have attempted to counter the militarization of police forces via the implementation of technology and guerilla tactics, which in turn shows viewers how chaos is formed when antiquated tactics are used in the information age.  We are also given a glimpse into how divided the world is becoming socio-politically, with this particular lens turned on the struggles of Hongkongers in China fighting to keep some sort of independence from the mainland while maintaining a true freedom of expression.  Based on political and power shifts surround China, Hong Kong and Great Britain, the common ground is already unstable, and Do Not Split gives insight into how the aforementioned freedom of speech is slowly being turned into a privilege based on class or ideology, rather than a universal right.  Viewers are also given education and context surrounding the 5 Demands, calls for political reformation, and the eventual National Security Law implemented during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.  While the score does teeter a bit on the overly-cinematic side, it does sell how drastic the situation is in Hong Kong.  Director Anders Hammer presents us with a documentary saturated in brutal truth that is captured in an intimate and unflinching manner.

Hunger Ward (MTv, dir. Skye Fitzgerald) Best Documentary Short nominee

The juxtaposition of aesthetic creative beauty and true life human tragedy never ceases to amaze me in terms of how compelling it can be, and Hunger Ward continues this tradition in terms of both technical prowess and subject matter.  The film is possibly the most traditional documentary of the bunch outside of Do Not Split, and while I doubt it had the budget of A Song for Latasha (which is my guess based solely on it being a Netflix project), it cannot be ignored how well composed and visceral nearly every shot is.  When it comes to the subject matter, the topic of malnutrition in Yemen is certainly jarring for the uninformed, and with the lack of resources available in the war-torn region due to the nearly decade long civil conflict, the stress and emotional wear and tear the volunteers is truly unimaginable.  Skye Fitzgerald steps back and takes a hard look at the situation in an observational manner, allowing the state of the malnourished victims and the stress of those attempting to care for them speak volumes.  The documentary is not an easy watch, but for anyone unaware of what life is like in a Third World country, it may be necessary in order to allow the broadening of world perspective to occur on a viewer by viewer basis.

A Love Song for Latasha (Netflix, dir. Sophia Nahli Allison) Best Documentary Short nominee

Lately, Netflix has been establishing itself as a force in the documentary world, and I believe part of this dominance has to do with the extremely cinematic recreations these documentaries use to depict events from the past.  Based on this observation, it makes total sense that Netflix would pick up A Love Song for Latasha, an ode to former South Central Los Angeles resident and race-based violence victim Latasha Harlins directed by Sophia Nahli Allison.  The death of Harlins, who was killed in the Empire Liquor Market just under two weeks after the beating of Rodney King, was a key element in the buildup to the L.A. riots, and normally when she is mentioned it is in this light.  What is great about Nahli Allison’s memorial documentary, however, is that we are given recollections and memories that not only humanize Latasha Harlins, but recontextualize the environment and interactions leading up to the riots in a way that can give outsiders a deeper understanding of why the race-based violence erupted on such a massive scale.  The stories are told in a testimonial manner rather than an interview style, very similar to the This Is Actually Happening podcast, and the method is a powerful companion to the artistic footage and animations that make up the visual stimulus.  The competition in this category is some of the fiercest of the night, but A Love Song for Latasha is a strong contender to bring an Oscar back home.

Feeling Through (Omeleto, dir. Doug Roland) Best Live-Action Short nominee

What a thought-provoking and compelling film, not to mention groundbreaking in ways that many possibly wouldn’t recognize, specifically the fact that casting DeafBlind actor Robert Tarango may mark the first occurrence of a DeafBlind actor in a leading role.  His extremely natural presence, physicality and innate spatial awareness would give one the sense that he is an actor simulating deafness and blindness well, and his chemistry with co-lead Steven Prescod is impossible to ignore.  Prescod’s Tereek characterization gives a tale of a homeless young man attempting to find a safe place to sleep for the night, which could make a compelling short film in itself, but his journey of discovery via his intense immersion and understanding into the world of Tarango’s Artie opens up avenues of sacrifice, self-discovery and humanitarian understanding that make accepting viewers better people at the completion of the short film than when they began it.  If we start to see the name of writer and director Doug Roland attached to major projects in the next few years, don’t be surprised, because if he has any ability to transition his knack for storytelling into the realm of the feature length film, we are all in for possible treats in the future.  For a deeper look into the process of making Feeling Through, and the real-life events that inspired the film, seek out the short behind the scenes documentary Connecting the Dots.

The Letter Room (Salaud Morisset, dir. Elvira Lind) Best Live-Action Short nominee

The Letter Room has a number of things going for it that make it crystal clear why it finds itself nominated for an Oscar.  First and foremost, to address the obvious, the inclusion of Oscar Isaac in anything immediately gives you a quality boost across the board, and Isaac is doing some of his nuanced best work in this short.  The film also looks absolutely great, with its cold and institutionalized look that is further hardened by the cold color temperature applied.  The character building done for Richard is immediate but impactful, as we learn he is observant, pensive, kind-hearted and motivated in relatively short order and in the natural flow of events.  The story is an engaging one that manages to present a number of emotional tones without having to resort to standard prison fare such as violence, sexual tension, terrorism, the exploitation of human labor and so on.  The score, in tandem with the vocal performances that accompany the letter text, transitions viewers into another world within the world of the film without us even realizing it.

The Present (Netflix, dir. Farah Nabulsi) Best Live-Action Short nominee

If one were pressed to find a palatable illustration of how trauma is formed by negative experiences that occur when young minds are most impressionable, I’d point them in the direction of The Present, a Palestinian short from from director Farah Nabulsi.  While crossing an Israeli border in hopes of finding his wife an anniversary present in Bethlehem, Yusef finds himself searched and detained, all in front of the eyes of his daughter Yasmine.  In the wake of the stressful event, Yusef attempts to complete his romantic gesture (not to mention supply his family with a much needed appliance upgrade) while continuing to be aware of his daughter’s extremely fragile emotional state.  In a short and efficient span of time, the narrative presented brings up thought-provoking reflections on humanity, authority and sensitivity with style and grace, which is all the more impressive when one realizes that the checkpoint scenes were shot verite’, guerilla style.  Like the other nominees in the Live-Action Short category, the appeal to humanity is extremely powerful, and it sticks with you long after the film is completed.

Two Distant Strangers (Netflix, dir. Travon Free, Martin Desmond Roe) Best Live-Action Short nominee

Of all the nominees for Best Live-Action Short, I can confidently say that Two Distant Strangers had the biggest direct impact on me.  Tension between the Police and Black Americans is certainly nothing new, with much of that tension having been baked into the origins of Police as a national institution created in response to newly freed slaves, but what really makes this film poignant is the timing, with 2020 showing absolutely no let-up in the occurrence of these incidents despite an on-going pandemic and shelter-in-place orders.  Using the formula made iconic by Groundhog Day, directors  Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe are able to make some striking points on how frustratingly impossible curbing these killings seems, no matter what one does on a personal or neighborly level to change things.  In displaying how fruitless the venture seems, we are indirectly reminded of the many, many incidents that have claimed the lives of Black Americans unjustly, only to be directly reminded by a credit crawl prior to the acting and production credits rolling.  If you find yourself struggling to understand the perspective of #BlackLivesMatter supporters, or even those who may not wholly agree with that specific movement but voice their very real concerns about being Black in America, a film like Two Distant Strangers can help put one into the state of mind that Black America finds so hard to make real for others.

[shirlleycoyle]

Students Are Easily Cheating ‘State-of-the-Art’ Test Proctoring Tech

“I’ve taken online exams cheating and not cheating and they are just about as stressful anyways so fuck it, am I right?”

That’s what one French student who had cheated on multiple remote exams administered through the popular digital proctoring software Proctorio told Motherboard in a voice message.

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to rage around the globe and no quick end to remote learning in sight, many students have found themselves taking exams under the watch of proctoring software like Proctorio, which surveils students through algorithmic systems that, among other things, detect eye movements, track keyboard strokes, and monitor audio inputs.

Universities sometimes shell out thousands of dollars per exam for Proctorio, which helps at least give the impression that academic integrity is being maintained during remote learning. But for some students  using Proctorio and other online proctoring services is invasive and anxiety-inducing, subjecting them and their surroundings to unwarranted surveillance that is difficult to refuse without their studies being negatively affected.

Yet, despite the fact that popular online proctoring platforms like Proctorio claim that they use “state-of-the-art technology” and “ensure the total learning integrity of every assessment, every time,” students are cheating on their exams anyways.

Motherboard spoke to 10 university students from various countries who claimed to have cheated on exams where Proctorio was in place. While their motivations and techniques varied, there was one common denominator: none of them got caught.

The relative ease with which the students cheated, and the fact that each student could point to multiple peers who had done the same (one American student estimated that 90 percent of her class had cheated), raises the question of how effective online proctoring software like Proctorio actually is—and whether it is worth the hefty price tag or the invasion of privacy.

“With Proctorio obviously you need to show yourself and your room with the computer’s webcam,” one Dutch student who had helped a friend cheat on a multiple choice exam told Motherboard. “My friend put a phone on a stand on his keyboard so it couldn’t be seen during the room and desk sweep.”

“Then we FaceTimed with me at the other end,” she continued. “The phone was at a slant so he could see me and I could see the exam. Then I would just hold up a flashcard with a, b, c, or d.”

Another French student used a 10-meter HDMI cable that ran from his laptop to a TV screen in another room that mirrored his screen. His friend would then look up the exam answers and send it via WhatsApp to his phone, which was also on the keyboard and out of sight of the webcam.

“Worked perfectly and got a good grade,” he said.

Other students used less elaborate techniques, such as one Italian student who wrote notes in pencil on her laptop and a Brazilian student who simply spread sheets of notes on the floor.

“For one exam I just printed out my notes using a large font and stuck them to the wall in front of me out of view,” one German student who had successfully cheated on multiple exams said, laughing. “I would just look around the room as if I was thinking about an answer and then glance at it.”

In a statistics exam that allowed calculators, that same student stuck a small piece of paper behind the calculator so it would be hidden from view during the desk sweep.

There are other more technical cheating options as well. A test taker could feed faked audio or video through a virtual device, which can simply be renamed to avoid Proctorio’s blacklist. This same renaming trick can also be used to run Proctorio within a virtual machine.

While Proctorio claimed in an email to Motherboard that it offers a native application offering more sophisticated techniques for detecting these types of tricks, it also said that its native application is usually not an option for universities because of privacy regulations.

It’s important to note that in the case of Proctorio, there are a number of settings that instructors can turn on or off for exams, including whether the software will check for extended screens and whether a desk sweep is required. Furthermore, instructors can also set ‘sensitivity values’ for a range of activities when reviewing an exam, including audio levels, video manipulation, and eye movement.

But whether higher sensitivity values actually catch more cheating or just create a flood of false positives remains an open question.

Maximilian Seiderer is a Master’s student studying computer science at the Technical University of Munich in Southern Germany. Skeptical of the effectiveness of Proctorio and finding the software “creepy,” he decided to file a subject access request under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to see the recording of his exam—something easy to do for any student residing in the European Union. A university staff member later walked Seiderer through the Proctorio interface and his exam recording. He also received a PDF report containing frames and timestamps where Proctorio had flagged ‘abnormal’ behavior.

Flagged timestamp and frame from a post-exam report generated by Proctorio. This moment was apparently flagged because the “audio level in the room was above threshold” and “the test taker looked away from the exam page.” 

“I wanted to see how Proctorio functioned from the instructor’s perspective and I was also curious to see if it had captured the moment I had put in a snus [tobacco pouch],” Seiderer told Motherboard. “I got to see what was flagged, which was mostly audio level violations. When the staff member turned up the sensitivity settings it was a literal sea of red flags, which were of course false positives. I can’t imagine anyone seriously using that interface.”

“Throughout the process, I kind of got the impression that everybody feels like they have to do something to ensure the integrity of the exams but they don’t really believe in it,” he continued. “I’m disappointed that my university pays for that type of snake oil.”

In an email and later a phone call in response to a set of questions sent by Motherboard, a Proctorio spokesperson emphasized that their software is an integral means to maintaining academic integrity and that they welcome a robust conversation regarding privacy.

“Proctorio is designed to prevent fraud through a variety of different proctoring options,” a spokesperson wrote. “The combination of available proctoring methods (e.g. video, audio, device lock-down options) are currently the best possible protection. In the area of exam proctoring, there is competition from professional ‘cheating service’ providers (e.g., payforexams.com, chegg.com).”

“Currently, online exams are the only option when it comes to giving students access to testing, which ultimately prevent negative career effects due to missed deadlines,” the spokesperson continued. “Exam results demonstrate the competencies and achievements required for academic advancement and further employment. An exam process that is aligned with the requirements of the pandemic is a basic requirement for degree programs.”

Some students who spoke to Motherboard said that the fact that they were forced to use this software actually made them more likely to cheat as an act of rebellion. Others said that the COVID-19 pandemic had left them feeling isolated and unmotivated when it came to their studies, but still felt the pressure to pass courses to avoid delays.

“Corona wasn't hitting me very well and I lost track,” the same student who had used the HDMI cable trick said. “I had zero motivation to actually work and life was so fucked up and weird. And then of course there was the fact that it was sort of a ‘fuck you’ to Proctorio. I’m not going to say that was the main reason, but it certainly was part of it.”

While Proctorio and other proctoring companies often present their software as a necessary evil in the context of a pandemic, instructors have argued there are other, (more effective ways of preventing academic fraud. This can be through designing test environments which prevent cheating without using surveillance, or through adjusting course structures to base final grades on other forms of assessment, such as an average of a few interim assignments or an open-book exam. Online proctoring software is certainly the easy way, but that doesn’t mean it is always the right way.

As for students who have seen how easy it is to actually cheat on exams with online proctoring software, the ones that Motherboard spoke to didn’t think too highly of the universities that are using them.

“They can’t admit to having bought a useless piece of crap,” Seiderer said.

Students Are Easily Cheating ‘State-of-the-Art’ Test Proctoring Tech syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[cerothenull]

The Hirudo (or Leechfolk)

(Art is not mine, artist posted it when I was discussing this race on /tg/ months back and refused to share their name and said they did not have a page where they posted their work. I would be very grateful if someone could point me to the artists page if they ended up making one)

A while back on /tg/ I was helping to create various collective homebrews with the other anons there. While nothing concrete came from it one of my biggest contributions was the Hirudo or Leechfolk. Resembling mundane leeches in much the same way Thri-Kreen or Formains resemble mantids and ants respectively. Considered one of the less popular aspects of the “Bugworld” setting I still have a soft-spot in my heart for them and knew they’d be better appreciated here. So I’ve written up what I remember and can track down of them as a common use race for D&D 5E but they can be adapted for any system really.

Feel free to use them for your games and characters as long as I, Justin Wiysel, am credited as their creator. I don’t plan to make any profit from these, just don’t want to see someone else profiting off my work that I want to be free for all to enjoy.

(This one is done by @edspear who did a lot of concept art for them and the Bugworld)

The Hirudo, or Leechfolk to most commoners, are a typically jovial and empathetic race who are becoming well-known as healers of great skill. Dwelling in swamps, along waterways, the coasts, and anywhere sufficiently wet they are still a relatively rare sight away from their villages and cities but more and more are hearing the call to adventure. Their unique skill-sets make them valued members of their groups, ranging from natural healers, skilled alchemists, and deceptively capable combatants.

Description: Fully grown they can reach sizes from 6-10ft but their bodies, lacking bones and hard structures, are very flexible with the ability to stretch or compress themselves depending on their mood or current area. Hirudo have a wide range of coloration, varying from shades of brown and tan to vibrant blues, oranges and greens with markings such as stripes, speckles, or dots that is unique to each Hirudo. Their main mode of transportation is slithering, able to swim at great speed, and “standing” upright on their tails that end in a powerful suction cup, allowing them to remain in place in their watery homes or to even climb slowly up near vertical surfaces.

Hirudo eyesight is about on average with a humans but they can see clearly underwater. Most Hirudo possess a number of eyes ranging from four to ten spaced around their head, granting them a wide field of vision.

Unlike their mundane cousins Hirudo mouths are large and flexible, liked with rows of sharp teeth. Their saliva is a potent anti-coagulant that can leave a wound bleeding for hours. This saliva is so potent that Hirudo warriors will often coat the tips of their weapons such as blowdarts, javelins, and arrows. Often assassins will barter with a Hirudo for this saliva for their weapons, or to foolishly attempt to take it for themselves by force.

Ringing their mouths are clusters of muscular “feelers” that are packed full of chemical, taste, and olfactory receptors that allowed their primitive ancestors to hunt easily in the muddy swamps they rose from. Typically two to four of these feelers are larger and stronger than the others, allowing them to manipulate tools and their environment. While not particularly strong by themselves, these limbs are highly elastic allowing for wide swings of weapons that rely on momentum, their traditional javelins relying on this elasticity to propel them at high speeds over long distances.

These feelers also give the Hirudo one of their most valued skills. The complex array of chemical receptors allow the Hirudo to “taste” traces of disease and sickness within even a small sample of blood. From infections to cancers to viruses the Hirudo are capable of accurately pinpointing and diagnosing a wide variety ailments. Originally this was used in their ancestors to avoid sickly prey, toxic waters, and hunting in the murky waters of their swampy origins.

Hirudo posses powerful chambered lungs, allowing them to hold their breath for incredible lengths of time underwater. These powerful lungs also provide the Hirudo strong voices and in turn singing, their unique warbling singing carrying out over the landscape around their isolated homes. Hirudo martial artists have also devised a technique that allows one to expel a shockwave of compressed air from their mouths, strong enough to knock back most attackers.

Diet: Requiring a diet of liquid blood they can gorge themselves on a meal that can last them weeks at a time or focus on smaller portions spaced out every few days or so. Many civilized Hirudo populations will have herds of domesticated animals that they may feed from occasionally while ensuring the lasting health of the animal. The freshness of the blood does not matter to them nutritiously but some Hirudo consider fresh blood to be much healthier than any that has been previously extracted and preserved.

They can also feed on various fruits that, while offering little in nutritional value compared to blood, are enjoyed for their flavor and sugars, sucking the juices from them much like the blood from their animal meals.

Preferred Environment: Most if not all Hirudo live in areas with high moisture and access to bodies of water. Swamps, rivers, lakes, and rain forests are all ideal locations for the Hirudo who must keep their skin moist to remain healthy. While the majority of Hirudo prefer to dwell in fresh-water sources, there are coastal and island dwelling Hirudo who are quite hardy and adapted to sea salt.

Behavior: Most Hirudo are slow and methodical in their decision making, preferring to think out their plans before acting. When they are hungry their attitudes can become more aggressive and short-tempered, many civilized Hirudo feeling somewhat embarrassed about their attitudes once they have sated their hunger.

Far from defenseless, their history of persecution at the hands of other races meaning they have developed their own forms of warfare adapted to their typically swampy homes. Relying on hit-and-run attacks with weapons coated in their anticoagulant saliva before retreating into the waters so their foes must tend to their vicious wounds. Many tribes are adept at trap-making the areas around their homes off the roads and paths likely to have snares and alarms to deter and warn against interlopers.

Alignment: Most Hirudo are Lawful aligned along with Neutral and Good. There are of course the Chaotic and Evil members of their race who do feed upon the sentient populations or raid their homes for supplies, slaves, and livestock, often all three obtained with a single captive.

Culture: The Hirudo worship a deity they call Sanguisuga, the myths stating they were a common Hirudo who fed upon the blood of a dying god in an effort to learn how heal them. By doing so they became a minor God of Medicine and Medical Professionals whose worship has even spread beyond the Hirudo to the healers and doctors of other races, their holy symbol of a flask or vial of blood wrapped in a bow of bandages becoming a common sign marking hospitals across the land.

Hirudo culture has a long history of isolation and persecution from other races, forcing many Hirudo civilizations to develop far from the other races. Their alien forms, natural isolationist behaviors, and sanguivorous diets made them easy targets for fearful populaces that often would drive them out of their homes and villages. There is still a common superstition that Hirudo are all vampires or the final stage of the vampiric infection, a superstition that most would Hirudo find amusing if not for all the times mobs have descended upon peaceful members of their kind.

In fact, Hirudo have a long cultural history of fighting against vampiric infestations, their god Sanguisuga traditionally opposed by a minor vampiric god Coagula who was believed to be their sibling in life. Coagula was believed to be Sanguisuga’s sibling who also fed upon the dying god. Rather than moderate their intake like their kind sibling, Coagula gave into their hunger and drained the remaining life from the god, slaying them to become a minor God of Vampirism and Gluttonous Consumption.

Despite the superstitions of the other races they are a deeply empathetic people, offering aid to those that would accept it or come to them seeking it. Hirudo are natural healers, the trained masters of their healing orders using their ability to “taste” disease from a sample of blood allowing them to devise treatments tailored to the individual. Payment for such treatment is usually a donation of blood upon their recovery or monetary support for their hospitals.

Their greatest healers are the clerics of Sanguisuga who have taken to creating neutral zones were members of all races and factions may come in peace to have their injuries and sickness treated in the comfort of the Sanguisugan hospitals. These healing locations have made great strides in breaking the prejudice that many Hirudo suffer from. Many of those who have been saved and health returned by the Hirudo have pledged to defend them, more than one angry mob stopped by the army of a grateful lord whose wasting sickness was cured by the Hirudo.

There are some isolated Hirudo tribes or solitary members who relish in the consumption of blood, believing that the blood of sentient lifeforms held a power that feral creatures could not provide. These Hirudo are called Wasters by their more civilized cousins and worship Sanguisuga’s twisted sibling Coagula. Many of its worshipers are granted vampirism as a reward for loyal service and to better spread the vampiric infection. To counteract them, some Hirudo worshipers of Sanguisuga become paladins to better hunt down their evil, and often undead, cousins in an effort to ensure their infection and evil can no longer taint the land.

Song is very important to the Hirudo, much of their history shared through song. Their powerful lungs mean they can hold notes for a long time, their songs nearly impossible for most other races to sing in full. Instruments such as flutes, pipes, and wooden drums are common to the Hirudo with a growing appreciation for dwarvish and halfling bagpipes beginning to spread to the tribes from visitors and Hirudo returning from abroad.

Language: Hirudo speak their own language that sounds like a series of gurgling and clicking or rasping their teeth together with a heavy emphasis on body language, in particular involving their feelers. They are capable of speaking other languages, albeit with practice and a heavy accent since their auditory capabilities are very different than most sentient races.

Hirudo healers, traders, and adventurers who interact with the other races often speak at least one additional language to their own, usually Common or whatever language the majority of their customers/patients may speak such as Halfling or Dwarf. Sylvan is a common secondary language for Hirudo tribes who use it to communicate with the dryads and Fey creatures that often live in close proximity to their homes.

Professions: In most tribes Hirudo split the responsibilities according to the individuals desires with apprenticeships being common. Commonly tribes are lead by the clerics of Sanguisuga but for large decisions that will affect the whole tribe they will call for votes.

Most tribe members become caretakers to their herds of domesticated beasts, ranging from giant frogs and other amphibians and manatees in the swamps to oversized crustaceans and pinnipeds along the coasts where they harvest excess blood and ensure their comfort.

Hirudo are often hunters, the game caught during their hunts providing resources for crafting and trade with other races. These hunters are also the the defenders of their tribe, warriors capable of turning the very landscape against their enemies.

Some solitary Hirudo feel the call of Nature, becoming druids who protect the fierce wilderness. These druids range in alignment, some of the good worshiping and serving nature spirits and gods while the evil align themselves with Hag covens or worship Coagula in attempts to root out pockets of civilization.

There is a long tradition of martial artists among the Hirudo with several monasteries hidden in isolated locales where would-be trainees must seek them out. Practicing a form a martial arts unique to their elastic and near serpentine bodies few outsiders have encountered these monasteries. However, there have been individuals such as Good or Neutral aligned Yuan-Ti and members of other serpentine races to train and learn from the Hirudo monks to utilize the energetic and unpredictable fighting forms.

The Hirudo’s natural ability for “tasting”, as they put it, makes them natural healers and alchemists. Often these professions are intertwined, the same Hirudos creating medicine and potent alchemical concoctions. In the Hirudo’s native language Doctor and Alchemist are interchangeable. Their medicines, potions, and tonics are one of the Hirudo’s main exports, the creators often being the ones to travel to make their sales and trades. Often these interactions with the outside world are what inspire the younger Hirudo doctor-alchemists to set forth and explore the world of adventure.

Adventurers: Their natural pragmatism means that few Hirudo feel the call of adventure that many of the other races do but there are those among them that do heed its call and journey forth into the wider world.

Often these Hirudo become traveling healers, offering their services to whatever village or city they pass if they are welcomed rather than turned away. Sometimes Hirudo will join adventuring parties or mercenary groups, their medical skills a great boon to their forces. Some Hirudo find they have a skill for combat, either through their traditional ranged and saw-toothed weaponry or adapting a unique fighting style utilizing their muscular forms for grappling.

Hirudo adventurers are commonly Fighters, Druids, Monks, Rogues, Paladins, Sorcerers, or Clerics of Sanguisuga.

Stats for player characters: Speed +25 (+40 Swimming) Con +1 Dex +2, Resistance to Disease (both Magical and Mundane), Proficient at Survival, Medicine, and Perception checks.

Proficient with Simple Weapons and Light Armors

Hirudo Adventurers typically speak Hirudan, Common, and one other language (typically, Dwarvish, Halfing, Sylvan)