#book of the war

[sauron18]

Weeping Angels Are Conceptual Entities

In their first appearance (Series 3’s Blink), the Weeping Angels are a race of monsters who can only move and live when no other creature is looking at them. As soon as they are perceived, they become quantum locked and turn into stone statues. They feed by shifting their victims back in time and absorbing the potential energy of the life they would’ve lived in their original era.

Yet even in that story they’re called “creatures of the abstract.” This description would make more sense in their next appearance (S5’s Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone), where we see a long-dormant angel crash-land a human ship above a labyrinth that held a multitude of other dormant angels.

In this story the angels display the ability to act on the world around them in non-physical ways. The first angel causes the ship it’s in to crash without leaving its prison cell. Then it inspects the area around the ship by using a projection of its image in a camera recording to manifest outside the crash site. While it does this, it is also able to deadlock the temporary shelter where its image manifests.

Then, after killing two soldiers from a military force that arrived on the planet to re-capture it, the angel strips their cerebral cortex and uses their consciousness to communicate via radio with the Doctor, his companions, and the other soldiers. All the while the radiation from the crashed ship slowly revives the dormant angels in the labyrinth, and they all proceed to hunt the humans as they try (and fail) to harness the energy from a time rift in the hopes of becoming a formidable force in the universe again.

Besides seeing an expansion of their abilities in this episode, we also get some interesting lore from a book written about the angels. The book explains how the projection of an angel is an extension of it, “That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel.” It speculates on their abstract origin, “What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if, one day, our dreams no longer needed us?” And it even explains how they can infect and possess a living being who looks into their eyes, “The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the doors. Beware what may enter them.” And as the other angels in the story begin to regenerate from shapeless humanoid statues to their angelic forms, the Doctor states “Their image is their power.”

All of this means that the angels in this story have become, essentially, conceptual entities. They are perceived physically as stone statues, but they operate primarily as non-corporeal beings.

“As conceptual entities only seem to affect the minds of their victims, it’s often said that the entities are ‘made out of pure thought’, but this is clearly inaccurate as thought itself isn’t a substance. Although many people are determined to think of the entities as telepathic presences, or neurological parasites, or in some cases even ‘spirits’, in fact it’s much more accurate to think of them as nothing more than hostile ideas. They exist by bypassing matter altogether, and instead giving themselves structure inside the meanings of things.” — The Book of the War

At this point, the angels are no longer simply monsters who move when they aren’t seen. They are living ideas who exist on the periphery of perception. They affect the world primarily through non-physical means. As conceptual entities, the angels infect the physical world, reshaping its meaning to suit their needs and to give them power and form.

This post is already long enough, so instead of going into more detail about other stories. I’d like to conclude by mentioning how in their most recent TV stories, in Flux, we see a group of angels working as operatives for Division. They are killers-for-hire for this ancient temporal power that exists outside of normal time and space, a notion that goes back to their original description in Blink as “the lonely assassins.” In other words, they are conceptual entities who are living weapons at the service of a Time Lord interference group that has abandoned the physical universe.

This may all be coincidence, but regardless, I love thinking about how the angels have gone from being a creative monster of the week to becoming another televised incarnation of ideas from the Faction Paradox and Doctor Who literary universes.

#Doctor Who #Weeping Angels #Faction Paradox #Conceptual Entities #Book of the War #Mictlan #Flux #Division

[pl9090]

Apologies but the scheduled piece needs redrafting so here's my first crappy attempt at a Faction Paradox meme. The dialogue subtitles is in a non meme font because I like the idea of subtitles utilising different fonts for different people or groups, the Faction's naturally being Tempus .I.T.C..

#faction paradox #book of the war #doctor who #bbc doctor who #whoniverse #whovian #nuwho #the tragedy of darth plagueis the wise #the war in heaven #wilderness years #meme

[walks-the-ages]

Look what i found on the archive!!!!!!!

Someone uploaded it only a day or two ago 👀👀👀👀👀👀

Faction Paradox fans and those who want to get into it-- check this out!

#faction paradox #fp #the book of the war #out of print books #accessible books #out of print #dw #doctor who #doctor who apocrypha #TBOTW #book of the war #the time war #war in heaven

[aloe-vega]

Brawling [House Military: Culture/Technology]

[Apocrypha from The Book of the War]

The War is not fought with guns and bombs, the War is fought with symbols, with belief, and with advanced temporal tactics. In the early days of the War, it was a relatively straightforward matter to unhappen an individual's personal timeline, to erase them from the structure of history to ensure they pose no further threat. But after 50 years of War, defense tactics have become advanced - no agent of any party in the War would dare become involved without protection against such attacks. Most combatants are now nearly immune to ritualistic attacks and immune to being struck-out from history - but in spite of all their preparation, they're not immune to a solid left-hook.

Certain subsets of the House Military have adopted the tactic of physical force, training their soldiers in the "vulgar" martial arts of the lesser species. The reason this is effective is twofold: firstly, combatants in the War became so intent on protecting themselves from temporal attacks that their physical well-being became an oversight open to attack. Secondly, the War is a conflict where perceived, symbolic victory is just as important as actually winning the fight. And what's a more powerful symbol of victory than physically beating your opponent into submission?

#faction paradox #fp #book of the war #based on that one bit from warlords where marcus kills a war-combatant with his sword #writing

[cousindunlia]

Book of the War Notes: London and the Eleven Day Empire

When I noted this, I only got finished last week on the History of Faction Paradox. But as I read through the entries on Tower Hill and Westminster it struck me just how ironic it is that London as the Eleven-Day Empire is what the Faction chose as its base of operations. Like this supposed revolutionary organization dedicated to rebelling against the temporal imperialism of the Great Houses chose the political capital of the British Empire, an empire that's been used as a metaphor for the Great Houses and their place in the Spiral Politic itself. And not only did they chose the physical location of London as their base, they specifically used the House of Parliament as their headquarters. And in the Tower Hill entry it's stated that by doing so, the Faction 'aligned with the politics of the State instead of the city', which is why places like Tower Hill fall outside their jurisdiction. Also of note is the Westminster's entry describing the role Big Ben played in enforcing British standards of time across the Empire, much like the Houses enforced a linear standard of time across history. Again, very ironic that this building was chosen by an organization that opposes linear standards of time.

#faction paradox #eleven day empire #book of the war #notes #reading

[the-overanalyst]

it's always so fascinating and heartbreaking when a character in a story is simultaneously idolized and abused. a chosen prophet destined for martyrdom. a child prodigy forced to grow up too fast. a powerful warrior raised as nothing but a weapon. there's just something so uniquely messed up about singing someone's praises whilst destroying them.

#writing #writing prompt #tropes #reading #books #book tropes #angst prompt #angst #booklr #writeblr #writers on tumblr #percy jackson #the poppy war #mythology #chosen one #atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #bungou stray dogs #yosano akiko #anime #my hero academia #todoroki shoto #neon genesis evangelion #the hunger games #10k #20k #30k #50k #100k

[adriles]

they are Cancelling me for dealing with my grief as best i can . also for the vicious war Crimes

#book 24 #the conversation between the gods at the beginning there is just this #greatest hits #all i say is vicious war crimes in a vague way #and you all start frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs #a lot of yall get the memo with the blorbo tags but also. seeing quite a few strange pulls #not exactly war crimes but Ok #sometimes normal vicious crimes can just be normal vicious crimes ok guys #can yall stop tagging this as israel u guys r fucking weird…. #if u see this and think it is a joke about actual fucking horrific war crimes and ethnic cleansing. u may be fucked up in the head #please be normal #will people stop commenting on this please. none of yall r funny

[ellevandersneed]

finished reading thru The Hundred Years' War On Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance by Rashid Khalidi and I cannot recommend it enough. A lot of people and, very likely, the average person not completely blinded by Islamophobia and/or USamerican/European/British exceptionalism are probably at least moderately sympathetic to the Palestinian cause but I don't know how many of us actually understand the degrees by which Israel is based in settler colonial ideology, how it has continually attempted to subjugate and ultimately eradicate the Palestinian people, and the degree by which the US and Britain (but mostly the US ever since the Six Day War in 1967) have been complicit in this continual genocide.

This book is an amazing comprehensive guide on understanding the conflict and I genuinely think you should give it a read (or listen) if you want to learn more. It is one thing to feel sympathy and to declare support for a cause, but I think it is important to take a step further and educate yourself more on it. A ploy I have seen frequently by zionists is to tell people to "educate themselves" before commenting on this genocide, hoping to instill doubt and encourage silence. Well, here is your chance to educate yourself! I'm obviously biased in favor of this one as it is the first major text on the Palestinian genocide that I have read, but I fully believe in its quality.

You can find this book online in PDF format or, if you prefer, you can purchase a physical copy from many of the large retail bookstores; Barnes & Noble in the US sells it, and so does Waterstones in the UK. There is also an official audiobook that you can either purchase through many of the major audiobook distributors (though I recommend avoiding Amazon if it can be helped), but you can also obtain it via other means if necessary. It's actually currently up on YouTube in its entirety, though I won't link it here in case it gets taken down. (It's really easy to search for, just type in the books title + 'audiobook' into your preferred search engine or on YouTube itself and you'll find it. It's about 10 hours long which is a reasonable length for an audiobook). I'll include a link in this post to an overview/lecture/dialogue with the author Rashid Khalidi on the contents of the book conducted at Brown University in 2020.

I do ask you read this book. I think a lot of people already are. I checked a couple of online libraries that have a limited number of audiobook copies that had all been checked out and that to me implies that people do want to educate themselves. There's a sizeable stack of these books at the local bookstore I ocassionally shop at, front and center on the table in the history and world affairs section. It's not hard to find. I hope you all have a good day or evening and I know that if we all take the time to educate ourselves further and approach this genocide with a deeper understanding, we may be able to do something about it. Emotional pleas are not enough, they must be informed ones as well.

#palestine #rashid khalidi #end occupation #end israeli occupation #israel #books #the hundred years' war on palestine

[nando161mando]

"Famine is a useful word when you do not wish to use words like 'genocide' and 'extermination'."

- Frank O'Connor, Irish author.

#Frank O'Connor #genocide #war crimes #war criminals #israel #israhell #gaza #palestine #free palestine #apartheid #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #book quotes #quotes #quoteoftheday #book quote #life quote #beautiful quote #quote #quotable #free gaza #gaza strip #gaza genocide #gazaunderattack #ausgov #politas #auspol #tasgov #taspol #australia #fuck neoliberals

[redfirerai]

Bats in their natural habitat

#batfam #dick grayson #jason todd #nightwing #red robin #tim drake #damian wayne #cassandra cain #orphan #batgirl #Robin #batman #digital art #my art #dc #dc fanart #colouring is my nemesis #photo references used cause I suck at anatomy #thinnest war and peace book you’ll ever see 😭 #obsessed with how Cass turned out

[eggdrawsthings]

sketch dump

#Cobb was just there to be silly goofy :3 #Disney let Grogu say Buir challenge #dumping both versions of the first one cuz idk which one i like btter #my art #din djarin #grogu #mando #baby yoda #star wars #boba fett #fennec shand #cobb vanth #tbobf #the mandalorian #the book of boba fett

[atomic-chronoscaph]

The War of the Worlds - art by Edward Gorey (1960)

#edward gorey #the war of the worlds #h. g. wells #book illustrations #60s sci-fi art #sci-fi novels #science-fiction #martians #1898 #sixties #1960

[pl9090]

Humanity's Irrelevance I bypassed the posting processing error with a screenshot version. It'll be replaced with a proper text post when possible.

#faction paradox #doctor who #book of the war #timelords #great houses #bbc doctor who #whoniverse #the enemy #the book of the war #gallifrey #the city of saved #posthumanity

[mysharona1987]

“Well, Israel aren’t committing war crimes.”

The IDF literally tell you on social media what they are doing. They just don’t think Palestinians are human.

To quote from the film Jennifer’s body: “I don’t have a confession, I have a declaration.”

#politics #israel #war crimes #free palestine #idf #democrats #republicans #Joe biden #donald trump #woc #horror movies #megan fox #books #news

[cousindunlia]

Book of the War reading: Time-Ships and Biodata

So I’ve been reading Book of the War as part of a bookclub event on the Faction Paradox Forums and something that stuck out to me was the way the mechanics of Time-Travel are described in the book, specifically pertaining to Time-Ships (Which are Faction Paradox’s version of TARDISes from Doctor Who). Up to now I always assumed that Timeships, like the TARDIS, were semi-organic machines that physically moved from one point in Space-Time to another point, something that’s been the basic conventions for most Time-Travel media. From what I’ve consumed of the Faction series I also figured this was the case here too since the Time-ships are basically meant to be a copyright-friendly version of Tardises. But then when I got to the entry on the Great Houses, there’s a line that says

“Much as the Houses dislike the idea of the biological, there’s a biological element to all their technology and even their timeships aren’t so much vessels as machines for re-writing their own biodata and re-processing their own futures.”

This line threw me off for a good minute, not just because of the emphasis on the “biological” nature of these Time-Ships but because it implies that the Time-Ships don’t work by physically moving through Space-Time to the user’s desired location, but instead by altering the bio-data of its users so they emerge in that location. (Bio-data basically being your DNA, memories, life experiences and everything you are as a person). 

In other words, if someone uses a Timeship to go to London, 1963, the Timeship essentially just rewrites your biology so that you emerge in London, 1963.

It’s a subtle line that I’ve not seen often in my exploration of Faction Paradox but in addition to the already pretty eldritch description of the Time-Ships and the Great Houses it’s a pretty unique and interesting take on Time-Travel mechanics that I haven’t seen anywhere else.

#faction paradox #doctor who #timeships #book of the war #reading

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

The funny thing about the PJO cabin system is that everyone's always all 'oh the twelve' this and 'the twelve' that but that's absolutely not even remotely accurate. To start, right off the bat it's thirteen, not twelve, because they don't count Hades. But not really because before Percy, there were no big three kids, so we're down to ten active cabins already but it's actually eight because Artemis and Hera don't make demigods.

And of those eight, Mr. D is stuck at camp (thus not really making new demigods all that often) and his only two kids don't even sleep in a cabin, they sleep in the Big House with him.

So, pre-Percy, there are seven active cabins at Camp Half-Blood:

Glee club, the Jocks, the Nerds, the Geeks, the Farmers, the 'Sketchy Kids' and the Popular Kids.

Or, in other words, the Apollo, Ares, Athena, Hephaestus, Demeter, Hermes (and the unclaimed kids) and Aphrodite cabins.

What's cool is that you can already see the cabin dynamics in the show. For example, the Athena cabin allies with the Hermes cabin for the numbers. The Hermes kids plus all the unclaimed kids? It's the biggest cabin in the camp by far. It's a battle strategy. Luke and Annabeth's close relationship is just the cherry on top for Annabeth. It'll be really cool to see how the show develops the differences in the cabins during the series.

#pjo tv show #pjo series #if i remember correctly it's the Hermes cabin then Ares and Apollo in terms of numbers. Aphrodite would probably be next. #but the Athena Hephaestus and Demeter cabins were always under twelve kids. #they state exact numbers in one book... and if you don't want spoilers turn back now #but after the war theres only three Hephaestus kids left so like.... the numbers go real fucking low #the entire camp population plummeta #iactually really fucking depressing watching this camp filled with small tiny children knowing that only a very small fraction of themlive