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jpitha · 9 months

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Humans Solve Problems With Explosions

Frank and Mel'iarr are sitting together in the common area of the Starbase, chatting. They have been fast friends ever since they were paired together on the Starbase Fire Brigade. Mel was fascinated about humans, and Frank was willing to indulge him when he asked questions... most of the time.

Mel'iarr puts down his tea. "Frank, the Humans have been in space a long time right?"

Frank nods and sips his cocoa. "That's what they tell us in school."

"So that means you've probably tried just about every method of propulsion in space, yeah?"

"Actually, yes! This was one of my favorite topics as a kid. I must have absorbed everything I could find about it."

"Oh, so you could talk to me about your historical propulsion systems! Do you mind if we talk about them?"

Frank looks at his friend, surprised. "I'd love to, but why?"

"To settle a bet." Mel'iarr picks up his chamomile tea and glances at it. With a flick of his ears - like a shrug - he tosses his tea back, finishing it. "You didn't jump to thrusters immediately and I know humans can be really inventive, so I assume you had some unusual ideas you tried out."

"Hmm. Okay, how about the Nuclear Salt Water Rocket?"

Mel'iarr chokes on his tea. Frank jumps up and pats his back. Mel holds up a hand and sputters. "The what?"

"Oh yeah, it's a great one! Take nuclear fuel, dissolve it in water, and then concentrate it to just under criticality - that's the point where fission takes place - and then squirt it into a chamber where it can achieve criticality and bam! Fission. Now, shoot that now superheated steam and heat from the reaction out the back, and you're making thrust."

Unconsciously, Mel'iarr leans back in his chair. "But, that's just sounds like a nuclear bomb that-"

"-That's going off all the time out the back yeah. Worked really well." As he talks, Frank becomes more animated. He's gesturing and his eyes are shining. Mel'iarr's tail flicks worriedly. "It was tough to get the pipes lined up correctly to not cause an early criticality incident, but we figured that out - mostly - before we started using them. Only a few blew up, but when they did, hoo boy. You could see it practically everywhere in the system."

Mel'iarr ears flatten. "Wow. Um, okay. That was a bit more... intense than I figured. Do you have another one that's less..." He thought for a moment. "Insane?"

Frank looks off into the middle distance. "Oh! I know one! It's an old one, but I always liked imaging using it. It's so old that it predates us leaving Earth entirely. An Orion Engine."

Mel'iarr relaxes. "That doesn't sound so-"

Franks gesturing nearly knocks over his cocoa. "I love this one, it's so simple and elegant. You just make hundreds and hundreds of small nuclear bombs, shoot them out the back one at a time, detonate them, and ride the pressure wave forward and repeat!"

Mel'iarr's fur poofs out angrily and his ears flick forward. "No. You're lying. You're just making that up."

"I'm not! Look!" Frank takes a moment to search on his pad, and brings up an archive video to show Mel.

While they're talking, Mel'iarr's other human friend, James walks by. James and Mel'iarr work together in Environmental Processing. With the Starbase's low population, Frank knows him too, but they're not especially good friends. Mel'iarr gestures to the human. "James! You have to help me!"

James looks down and the small, worried K'laxi. "Of course Mel, what is it? What's wrong?"

"Pen'men said that I couldn't find a problem that humans don't solve with explosions. I was speaking with Frank - from the Fire Brigade - and he started describing old human space propulsion systems that make me think that humans solve every problem with explosions."

James raised an eyebrow. "I mean space propulsion is by definition explosion based. That's a wild place to start, Mel. But okay, we can think of something." As they're thinking, Kerry walks by. She works in the infirmary and plays pickleball with James. "Kerry! Give me a problem that we don't solve with an explosion."

"Uh, a fire." Kerry offers.

Mel'iarr shakes his head sadly. "No, you've used explosions to blast oxidizer away from a fire, putting it out."

Kerry blinks, impressed. "Woah, neat! Hmm. cooking?"

Mel'iarr's ears droop. "There's a ancestors cursed grain that explodes when you cook it!"

"Oh popcorn, right." James sits down next to Frank and Mel and gestures for Kerry to join them.

"Oh! I've got one. Negotiation! Frank crosses his arms and looks satisfied.

Mel'iarr gives him a look. "I thought of that. What about intimidating the other side with an explosive based show of force?"

"Damn! I thought I had it there. Okay okay...." Frank picks up his cocoa, long gone cold, and takes a sip.

James casts his head around the room. "What about welding?"

"Welding?"

"Yeah, that's done with heat and electricity, but not explosions."

"I'm sorry James, I couldn't help overhearing." The Starbase AI cuts in "But humans have welded with explosions. It's a known method in welding two dissimilar metals in extreme environments."

Frank sits up and looks over at the Starbase interface screen. "Woah, really? That's so cool!"

"Frank, focus please." Mel'iarr says. "We're looking for non-explosive solutions."

"What about medical issues?" Kerry says. "There can't be a lot of call for explosions there."

Frank nods. "Hmm, now we might be onto something. What do you think Starbase?"

"Searching."

A moment goes by and Mel'iarr allows himself a moment's hope that he has finally found a solution that doesn't involve explosions.

"Results found. Mel'iarr, the humans use Nitroglycerin - an explosive - to treat heart disease."

All of Mel'iarr's fur poofs out in surprise. "THEY DO WHAT?"

"It helps prevent chest pains as a result of heart disease according to my records."

Kerry holds up her hands. "Wait. Wait wait wait. If we're counting nitroglycerins then we have to count electricity which can be generated by explosions."

"How in the name of my Ancestors do you generate electricity from explosions? Mel'iarr slumps back into his chair, defeated.

"We don't as much now, but electricity is generated from spinning a magnetic field, right? We had reciprocating engines that worked off of the explosion of refined hydrocarbons for hundreds of years."

James looks at Mel and narrows his eyes. "How did you do it at first Mel? You can't tell me you never developed reciprocating engines."

Mel'iarr Looks up at James. "No, we did, but they're different, they use temperature differential. Starbase, what's the human word for them?"

"Stirling engines, Mel'iarr. Humans did develop them, but they decided that the exploding way was preferable."

Mel'iarr puts his head in his hands. "I don't know what's worse! That you have an exploding solution to every problem or that you both think they're all really neat!

"I can't help it Mel'iarr, explosions are cool." James looks kindly at his friend.

Kerry agrees. "It's probably why it's used as a solution so often."

After the evening meal on that same day, Mel'iarr walks over to Pen'men while she's on her shift in Traffic Control, and silently hands her some currency.

Pen'men looks up from her console and stares at Mel'iarr.

Mel'iarr shakes his head. "You were right. They solve every problem with explosions."

"Told you."

#humans are deathworlders #humans are space orcs #writing #sci fi writing #humans are space capybaras #humans are space oddities #humans and aliens #the k'laxiverse #humans solve problems with explosions #jpitha

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illubean · 4 months

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Valorant Protocol as Highschool Stereotypes

Characters: Chamber, Gekko, Iso, Jett, Killjoy, Neon, Phoenix, Raze, Sage, Skye, Viper, Yoru Type: Headcanons

HAHA help me valorant brainrot >.< also this is based off of my hs experience soooo yeah

Warnings: none

Chamber

your typical pretty boy

all the girls love him all the boys hate him

well...most of the girls love him

they follow him around to classes or offer him gifts or ask to sit with him at lunch etc.

and he eats up the attention every time

he's lab partners with Viper in Environmental Sciences and he likes trying to flirt with her

she actually hates him btw

Gekko

canonically he skateboards

but honestly? I can see him being on the dance team

he's so high energy, he needs some sort of outlet

he never misses an opportunity to show off his dance moves

homecoming? prom? he is the center of the dance circle

like Raze, he doesn't know how popular he is

he's just happy to have so many good friends that it doesn't even actually occur to him that he's considered "popular"

Iso

he's an ap art kid

like he walks around with a big ass sketchbook every day

always talking about his portfolio

Iso baby ily but please shut the fuck up about oil paints <3

he probably volunteered part of his summer break to come in and paint a mural for the school

I think he'd also take a piano class as like a schedule filler but he actually gets crazy good at it

Jett

pe tryhard

if you end up on the opposite team as her while playing dodge ball good luck 😓

she's always picked as team captain because literally no one else is excited as she is

she's sorta like Hairo from Saiki K 💀

she gets a lil mad when her teammates don't try

Killjoy

she's in robotics club

she's not very popular but that doesn't bother her at all

she heads straight to and from every class and spends her lunch period in the workshop unless Raze drags her off somewhere

not a lot of people actually know who she is, and if they do they just know her as 'Raze's Friend'

i think she'd remind the teacher about the homework and hit you with the "erm actually 🤓" tbh

Neon

she's on track and field/cross country

after every meet you can find her laying on the floor somewhere ready to puke bc she tries so hard to win 😭

she always ends up top 5 tho

she complains about practice but joins the team every year anyways

she carries her bag around all the time and if you open it there's like 10 water bottles in there

#hydratedqueen

Phoenix

theater kid DUHH

he's probably drama club president or sumn

bro will NOT let go of a specific song from a musical he was in his freshman year and it wasn't even his song 💀

he's been in every show every year and somehow he manages to land every role he wants

he's insanely good at the game 'bang' (mostly because he's louder than everyone else...)

he probably plans/hosts the cast parties too

Raze

she doesn't care much about her grades

she does the bare minimum and gets straight Cs

she's just here to have fun

everyone likes her because of her approachable personality

she doesn't think she's popular but she is

Sage

she's in the medical assistant class

she takes it very seriously, as she plans on going to medical school

even before taking the class she carries a first aid kit and other essentials everywhere she goes

you need a bandaid? ibuprofen? a pad or tampon? she has it all

she's also ASB president

school events literally would not be able to run without her

lets just say her college applications/resume will look REALLY good...

Skye

she also took medical assistant but was less crazy about it than Sage

she just follows her friend's lead

she thinks the skills are useful but she doesn't see herself making it her career

but also I think she would play volleyball

she's a well rounded player but specializes most in defense

still, don't underestimate her bc this girl can SPIKE

Viper

she took every ap science class offered without taking the general ones first

she complains about getting any grade below an A...

"What are you talking about? That test was easy"

sorry not everyone is as smart as you Sabine 😑

she spends all her free time at chem tutoring (even though she doesn't need it)

Yoru

he thinks he looks cool and mysterious when he walks down the halls but he doesn't

everyone just thinks his mad all the time and stay out of his way 😭

randos try to pick fights with him bc he "looked at them wrong" (Yoru wins every time)

he's not exactly a 'quiet kid' but he does lay low when it comes to the social part of school

despite his 'bad boy' look, he has pretty good grades

he's also probably one of those guys that a handful of girls have a crush on but he has no idea

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mirror-to-the-past · 4 months

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Xingqiu fans are dining excellently with all the references to him and lore regarding the Guhua Clan being spotlighted via Chenyu Vale's "A Wangshan Walk to Remember." The comparisons that can be made between Xingqiu and his predecessors is also very fascinating...

The Grand Master Guhua truly did live out the life of idealized dignity and transparency just as Xingqiu desires for himself. There's something very touching and heartbreaking about the fact that Guhua's life was one deemed heroic, but he was only able to have his legacy carried on by Boxuan who cast his own name aside to exhalt the name of the deceased Guhua.

And then right after briefly recounting the life and works of Master Guhua, Wen brings up Xingqiu, reemphasizing the lofty ideal/hope that he can respark the dying flame of the Guhua (no pressure) and potentially act as a parallel to the founder of the art himself. It's made all the more poignant, considering that we could easily draw the connection that Chongyun could be considered Xingqiu's potential Boxuan equivalent, a fellow young practitioner of martial arts who acts as a peer and supporter of Xingqiu's arts (although lets hope Xingqiu doesn't die preemptively like Guhua did).

I don't have snippets of the dialogue for it or screenshots, but those books in the archive room were just so lovely to see. The fact that many of the old disciples of Guhua were just nerds like Xingqiu and enamored with wuxia novels, shelving their discussions of them among all of the records they held in their library was so sweet.

Additionally, the person who invented the Rain Cutter technique that Xingqiu uses now was the one involved with the hidden Wangshan chambers that had the really forboding message about the heavens rejecting humanity and whatnot... very mysterious stuff.

Additionally, those 5 swords scattered around Chenyu Vale, the first of which you find at the outskirts of the Wangshan Chamber....while not necessarily all individuals of the Guhua Clan, it made me oddly emotional to see how the years that went by, depicted by each sword's material- from a blade to a crude sword shaped stick- and yet they all had in common a very poetic observation of their goals and the world about them that could easily flow as a singular nature/travelling-based poem. And that spirit of poetry intertwined with swordsmanship flourishing across the ages still continues on with this one dorky rich boy. It's honestly wonderful worldbuilding, that through environmental storytelling and the mere mentions of a character who was never even present for the entirety of the world quest, all of these stories and records of Guhua disciples and swordsmen before him tell me all I need to know about Xingqiu as a character, too.

#definitely would like to do more rereading of the texts within the Guhua library + those weird inscriptions #these lore drops were so cool #currently caught up in the profound nature of multiple generations united in their love for art- poetry- swordplay- idealism of heroism etc #the joy of community but also the loss of having a space in which your passions can be taken seriously and allow you to grow into the #desired version of yourself #the fact that xingqiu is considered a light in the darkness for the current Guhua elders yet he practices his art as part of a double life #all while the wangshan chamber crumbles- very symbolic #suppression and isolation kills passion #genshin impact meta #semi incoherent most likely as I am sleepy but I had to get my thoughts out #genshin impact #genshin 4.4 #genshin 4.4 spoilers #xingqiu #a wangshan walk to remember

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very-grownup · 6 months

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Book 85, 2023

In my second year of university, all I took was English courses, because a full course load of nothing but reading seemed like a good idea after a stressful, somewhat traumatic first year. It was a long time ago and over the course of my time at uni I read a lot, only some of it multiple versions of Beowulf, and doodled my way through hundreds of hours of lectures, but some things have stuck with me.

I think a lot about my short story (later science fiction) professor and his frustration with the colloquialising and simplification of the word 'awesome', how it had become synonymous with 'impressive' and 'cool', stripped of the nuance where it is something so impressive it frightens you. 'Awesome' is a regular part of my casual vocabulary and language evolves, but I feel for Professor Matheson; sometimes the word you need is the awesome with the deeper connotation, and it's frustrating to think a reader is going to miss the nuance of the word because of the way it's popularly used.

Which brings us to Rebecca Chambers' "A Psalm for the Wild-Built"; every word I want to use to describe it feels like it's been muddled or neutered by a combination of internet hot take discourse and marketing speak. I've settled on 'gentle', which isn't the same as 'cozy' or 'soft', 'safe' or 'unproblematic'. Gentle is mint tea, warm, hydrating, a caffeine-free invigorating that's also relaxing, but it can still burn your tongue. It's a loving cat resting in your lap, soft paws massaging your thighs with pressure that can turn to pain and blood. Gentle feels good, comforting, but there's a choice, a restraint; the capacity to hurt is still there.

A distant future, another planet, an age of robotics leading to sentient artificial intelligence, and not a conflict of man versus machine but the quiet aftermath of an agreement between humans and robots, a separation of their societies, a pact of no contact, and humans moving forward to create a post-robot society, striving always to exist fully but conscientiously.

A young monk sets off on a vague pilgrimage in response to a vague inner malaise and becomes the first human being to encounter a robot since the robots vanished into the greater wilderness. They talk and continue the pilgrimage together.

That's it.

It's a novella, not a novel, a bite-sized road tale, and Chambers builds a world with rising and falling technological ages and environmental awareness, shifting human philosophies and ways of life to support this bite with the structural soundness and visibility of a spiderweb. It manages to be a very far flung future piece of science fiction, acknowledging the mistakes and damage of human society, while envisioning something better, and also acknowledging that this is an ongoing process. There's no goalpost for a 'good' version of humanity, there's just humanity, constantly evolving and growing and learning about the world and itself and changing in response to that; that involves hard truths and hope in equal measure.

It's a smart, thoughtful, sincere book, charming and funny and cathartic. It's not a reading experience that coddles you, but it refreshes you like walking in a downpour.

If you've ever felt lost in life or lost in the woods, "A Psalm for the Wild-Built" is the book about robots you need.

#2023 books #science fiction #becky chambers #a psalm for the wild built #i will choke you with metaphors

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dballzposting · 2 months

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Dragon ball canon: Vegeta and Goku wear the Potara to fuse! This method is supposed to be permanent, but they do it anyway becasue they care that much! In two movies and in DBGT, they fuse using the metamoran-style of fusion. But this method of fusion is popularized not by Vegeta and Goku, but by their sons, who are already like two peas in one pod! What sort of dire straights will necessitate fusion in battle? Find out next time on dragon ball z...!

DRAGON BALL FANS: I'm so mad at Vegito for the way he neglects his son and doesnt let Gogeta have full custody even though Vegito is never around and is always out at clubs or whatever anyway. Gotenks is there home alone 98% of the time becasue Vegito is either not there OR the house is just huge enough that Gotenks is functionally alone. The only time that Vegito seeks out Gotenks's attention is to talk about hinself and in return he seems to do everything he can to rebuff Gotenks's attempts at getting his attention. He keeps coming up with more and more ways to ignore Gotenks. He'll be cooking dinner chopping a carrot singing loudly ETC and Gotenks will be yanking on his sleeve and eventually vegitto will say sing-songy "Ye-es?" as if he's listening but he stops listening as soon as he says it. And Gotenks doesnt know that giving up is an option so he KEEPS trying to get this attention thinking that there's a way that he just hasnt figured out yet. And it makes him so mad and frustrated and feel cosmically small. But he's not allowed to kamikaze ghost blow up the kitchen about it becasue last time he did that vegitto yelled at him for three hours and STILL didnt listen to anything gotenks said. And Gotenks just walks around this sensory overload distraction chamber of a house playing three ipads at once WHILE on a skateboiard. And when he was a baby vegitto was a terrible parent becasue he was always in and out of the house and bringing weird people home and he would let just about anyone hold his baby. So in his earliest years Gotenks was just passed around like novelty at house parties and when he wasnt he was put in his crib for hours and hours while everyone else partied. And as a baby he heard the loud sounds and the way that no one was responding to him as a sign of horrible environmental danger. And Vegito would let anyone say or do anything in front of the baby and he didnt care what they did to him and they would pass him around and take his diaper off and laugh at his stupid little baby butt. And they would set him down and ignore him. And nowadays Vegito keeps the activity Outside of the house becasue he got sick of having to hire cleaners, but nowadays Gotenks knows what a party looks like and he loves partying (perhaps he may even feel a frightening, but compelling, attraction toward them). But as a bambino it was just an experience of terror and confusion and he had no context for anything that anybody was doing or saying. And now when he goes to bed without two fans and one radio playing he feels like he's being watched and he can hear ghosts. And he's really funny about having to go to the doctor or general discussions about his private business. And he can spend all day at the skatepark but he can't use a public restroom becasue he Can Not have anyone know about his private buisness like that. All becasue Vegito let strangers laugh at his stupid baby butt when he was a baby. Gogeta may have been absent for a long time due to being on a soul-searching journey about turning shame into humility and digesting the vision of the self, but now he has a modest apartment in the city and he's ready to be in his son's life. And I think that he should at least have weekends. But Vegitto won't call his lawyer back

#dballz posting

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lairofdragonagelore · 9 months

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Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The single spike

The single spike or horn has been a constant pattern throughout all games of Dragon Age in general and in DAI in particular. There are several things that may be linked to it, from Mythal and Andraste to Dragons. In this post we explore how many of these objects present such pattern and how this may be related in an integral way.

This post contains the following statues:

Andraste

Wyvern

Mythal

The red lyrium idol

Tevinter or Venatori outfits

Tevinter Dragon

Tevinter golems

Tevinter Colossus

Andrastian Free Marches warriors

[This post belongs to the series “Analysis and speculation of Statues”]

Andraste

The main figure we see with a single-spiked helm in DAI is Andraste, who is depicted in numerous pieces of art along the game and books. Although she doesn’t wear this single-spiked helm in all of them, it’s an iconic representation of her [to the point that some followers are depicted with similar tiaras/helms such as Meredith]

In DAO we only have one unequivocally representation of Andraste, which is the statue we see at the end of the Temple of Andraste where her ashes are supposed to rest. In this case, the helm has the shape of a “moon” or similar. This form will be changed since DA2, and it will turn out to be the iconic single spike. We can attribute this inconsistency to the many difficulties in resources and environmental telling that DAO had.

Most of the time, Andrastian art represents Andraste with this single spiked helm/tiara [more details in Andrastian Statues].

In the illustrations found in the Chant of Light we can suspect that such a single spike is related to the shape of one single sun ray.

Wyvern

These animal statues appear all over Ferelden and in some parts of Orlais and in the Frost Back Mountains. In the tag Ferelden Wyvern we can track their presence along DAI. That they appear in Ferelden is not surprising, but the fact that they are inside ancient Pre-Blight Tevinter ruins [check Western Approach: The Still Ruins, Main Chamber and Hall of Silence and Western Approach: The Still Ruins, Viridis Walk and Inner Sanctum] is very disconcerting, specially taking into account how central it is in The Still Ruins, which appears even in the loadscreen of the zone. One could suspect this may have been product of the Dragon fascination that Tevinter culture had/has. Still, it seems odd to honour a lesser creature such as a Wyvern when they usually worshipped the true Dragons.

This statue appears in the Fade as well, but it has a clear design choice: the game shows us a wyvern in front of a head of Andraste, pushing us to ask why such an irrelevant statue would be in front of something so important as it is Andraste. The answer is solved later in the book World of Thedas, where we find that there is a Ferelden Tale which related wyverns with Andraste:

Now, this Tale is quite curious. If we always keep in consideration that this piece of lore is highly unreliable since it’s a tale spread in a population via oral narration, and subjected to changes over ages without records, we can highlight several details:

Andraste goes to the Mountain to “reach the Maker”. In the Chant of Light, we know that she speaks with the Maker, who is described Mountain-like. This reinforces the idea that Maker=related to Mountains. I assume this is a cultural remnant of the alamarri/avvar origin of Andraste, who had a deeper relationship with Korth, the Father-Mountain.

Andraste sang, and with this song, a “wyvern” appeared. This may potentially bring some relationship with the Dragons and the original song I talked about in posts like The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak, and Until We Sleep. We can even suspect that maybe instead of a Wyvern, the original event that inspired this Tale may have related a true Dragon. After all, we know that this single spike in the wyverns may, potentially, have some relationship with the dragon shape of Mythal. We also know that Tyrdda had an elf lover who sent a dragon to help her people, so I wonder to what extent the Alamarri and Avvar had also some level of relationship with mountain dragons.

It’s still a big question to understand how this wyvern statue, so related to Ferelden culture, appeared in pre-blight Tevinter buildings, when Ferelden did not exist as it is now. This is what reinforces my question: are these wyverns potentially creatures related to the Great Dragons? So far, we have no answers.

Mythal

Mythal, in all her representations and shapes, also wears an iconic single spiked helm. Even in the Concept Art, where we can see wavy sided horns that did not make it into the game, we cannot mistake the single centred spike. In dragon shape or in her humanoid form, this spike is constantly present.

It is unclear how this design choice may potentially speak to the player to relate Mythal to Andraste. One can speculate that, maybe, a fragment of Mythal appeared to Andraste. Maybe the Maker that Andraste claims to hear was, in fact, Mythal’s fragment. It would have been very convenient for Myhtal to instruct Andraste to make her Exalted March on Tevinter if we keep in mind that Flemeth [another fragment of Mythal] has been altering History to push it into a direction she has been planning for ages.

Flemeth’s Tiara

Flemeth’s tiara also has a structure that shows a single central spike in a very prominent way. The relationship is obvious: Flemeth is Mythal. Or at least, a surviving fragment of her.

Her dragon shape is different in DAO than in DA2. In DAO it’s the model of a general high dragon [as usual, DAO didn’t have the most variety of visual resources so we can’t read too much in it], while in DA2, Flemeth has a clear dragon shape with a single spike in its horns that can be related to that tiara.

The red lyrium idol

The Red Lyrium Idol also shows a prominent central spike in the head. It’s a constant symbol that allows us to do some speculations: in the post Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History I speculated that Mythal's assassination may have inspired this idol, and therefore, this single spike seen in the idol is what relates it to Mythal herself.

It’s curious that even when Meredith turned into a piece of Red Lyrium, she also displayed a single spike in her head. This may have been just a consequence of the helm she was wearing in that last battle, which was clearly a helm trying to emulate Andraste’s.

From a design point of view, I think it’s clear that the game is telling us that this idol is related to Mythal/Flemeth, even though we are still blind about the “how”.

Tevinter or Venatori outfits

I already spoke about this in the section “outfits” in Patterns and Styles: Tevinter. We know that Tevinter has a long history of dragon cults, and until the moment the nation turned into the Andrastian Faith, the Old Gods Cult was its strongest religion. The fact that a dragon [Mythal] has a single spike horn, and Andraste also has this icon in her art, makes us hard to understand the origin of the symbol in Tevinter Design. It could have been due to the Dragons, but also, as a design choice once they were converted into the Andrastian Faith. Let's remember that Dorian tells us that Tevinter thinks that Andraste was a mage, so more reasons to have her icons among the Tevinter Warriors since they have mage-inspired armours.

I also explained that it's hard to differentiate the Venatori from non-Venatori Tevinter design simply because the Venatori are nationalist, so they will always use the most iconic symbols of their nation.

There is a strange link between this design and the one I called “The Free Marches Andrastian Warriors”, which display a strong Tevinter-like style, but remaining Andrastian. These statues may keep that single-spiked helm as a representation of Andraste, but also as a remmant of Tevinter design [more details in Andrastian Statues].

Tevinter Dragon

For completion’s sake, I add this detail: these typical Tevinter dragons display a single horn. At some point one wonders if these statues are related somehow to the design of the Wyverns or are a development of worshipping Mythal-dragon.

Tevinter golems

These Tevinter golems trigger the codex the Gate Guardians . They are metallic statues that, we are told, were powered at some point by bars of lyrium.

They also display a single spiked helm, that, due to the general looking of the golem, looks like a Tevinter representation of Andraste herself.

The golem in general has resemblance to some pieces of the armour of the Humanoid Mythal.

Let’s remember that Golems were developed by Dwarves during the First Blight, and due to their trade relationship with Tevinter, they sold some [Golem and Legend of the Juggernaut] that were displayed on the entrance of Miranthous, inactive. So it seems that, historically speaking, makes sense that these golems may have been developed into resembling Andraste since Tevinter embraced the Andrastian Faith after the beginnig of the First Blight [check all this in the integral post The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light]

Tevinter Colossus

Among the Tevinter sculptures, we find one of the most mysterious one: the colossus. They are found closer to the structures that belonged to Tevinter in pre-blight times.

In game there are three different Colossus, found in Western Approach: Coracavus; Front Corridor and South Entrance, in the open of Hissing Wastes: scattered objects and ruins, which was being co-opted by Orlesians to make it into a sculture of an Orlais Emperor, and inside the Frozen Gates in Frostback Basin [DLC]: Frozen Gate.

The book World of Thedas gives us more concept art about these structures, which seem to be related to “guiders” and, maybe, to astronomy too.

The fact that we can see one of these in a concept art, showing up a certain star over its hand, makes me suspect these statues belonged to the ancient Dreamer times, that the codex Astrariums claims that Tevinter was under before the Magisterium was the mandatory political system.

The heads of these colossus are not exactly single spiked heads, but one of them [The Coracavus' one] has one single spike that fuses with the bridge of its nose, while the other two, have "horns" backwards. Maybe we can suspect some dragon inspiration in them? I find their profile very similar to the Qunari ones’.

Andrastian Free Marches warriors

These were seen for the first time in DA2, and they decorated The Chantry of Kirkwall. They look similar to the Tevinter Warriors thanks to this spiked helm and pointy shapes, but this may be attributed to the fact that Free Marches have a strong Tevinter influence.

However, these statues have an unmistakable robe identified with the ones worn by the Chantry priests in DA2.

This single spike in their helms may be related to Andraste herself and her own helm/tiara, but also having some inspiration from Tevinter.

Conclusions

I think it’s fair to say that the “Single Spike” is an unequivocally symbol of Andraste that may have an inspiration or a relationship with dragons in general, or with Mythal in particular. By extension, and due to Mythal’s dragon nature, this Single Spike also appears in Tevinter culture, even in elements that are suspected to be pre-Blight, and therefore, impossible to be inspired in Andraste herself. So, as it happens with DA lore, and assuming what we did in the post Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History, everything comes to primordial dragons that may have inspired this icon in Tevinter Culture and later, in the human tribes, from where the Andrastian Myth and her religion raised.

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newtronic14 · 8 months

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STABILITY (HUMIDITY) CHAMBERS

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dolphin1812 · 1 year

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“ This door with an unclean, and this window with an honest though dilapidated air, thus beheld on the same house, produced the effect of two incomplete beggars walking side by side, with different miens beneath the same rags, the one having always been a mendicant, and the other having once been a gentleman”

The Gorbeau house encapsulates Valjean’s past through its structure. On the one hand, he’s always been a “mendicant” in the sense that Jean Valjean has never had much, and has always lived at risk of starvation, imprisonment, etc for the smallest error or problem. On the other, Valjean in disguise as Madeleine was a “gentleman” who lost his status once his origins were revealed. The Valjean we follow now contains both of these pasts, just as the building consists of both of these seemingly contradictory features at once and makes them into a semi-coherent whole (the building is very deceptive in its appearance, so it seems inaccurate to just say coherent; still, that’s a link to Valjean in itself, since his life relies upon disguises and deception to maintain his safety).

Hugo specifies that the chambers resemble “stalls more than cells,” but that’s really only a small comfort as he continues with his description. They almost match the cells he has described in how gloomy they are, and he even characterizes them as “sepulchral,” as if they were graves. The building isn’t a prison, but it certainly isn’t very hospitable, either. However, we know from the last chapter that to Valjean, death is a comfort in a way, so perhaps this dark environment that seems so forbidding to the reader (and the narrator, who is choosing to use all of these terms) is actually a relief.

I love that the name of the house came from lawyers trying to change their names after being teased through puns (?), it’s so Hugo to include that sort of humor in the middle of a lengthy and sad architectural description.

It seems telling that all the trees in the area are mostly dead or unhealthy. The presence of factories calls to mind the worst environmental consequences of industrialism (although the 1820s are, admittedly, early for that), and the fact that people are living in this toxic environment emphasizes their marginalization. The wealthy wouldn’t live in a place that kills trees and where the smell of factories is ever-present (and where every location is a reminder of violence, crime, and death, as Hugo details). Only those with no alternative would (although the fact that bourgeois houses later appear suggests that either the neighborhood changed [likely because of the railroad Hugo mentions], urbanization put enough pressure on the city’s housing that they had no alternatives, both, or that some other factor pushed them to that area). Either way, the Gorbeau house seems intimidating, but we also know that it might not be, since much of its outward appearance doesn’t match its reality. It looks small, for instance, but is actually large inside. In the same way, while its neighborhood and gloomy character seem frightening, it may be a good shelter.

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osworld9 · 5 months

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envisystechnologies · 3 months

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nitrosodiumfmp · 4 months

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Games Like Sinister | Gameplay

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The only reason I picked Doom 2 over Ultimate Doom is that I prefer it; better level design, more enemies, generally more fun. The link here is obvious; you move through levels trying to reach the end, fighting off demons as you do so. The game is 2.5D, which may seem confusing, and it is. Essentially, there's no up - floors can't be placed on top of each other, but it gives the illusion of height. The basic idea of exploring an abstract underworld filled with two-dimensional monsters is what Sinister is entirely based on, and I'll probably add limited combat, but not on the gratuitous level of Doom.

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Pathways Into Darkness is a classic 90s dungeon crawler akin to Ultima Underworld, but slightly more obscure as it was released for the Mac and the Mac only. The story is bizarre; a gigantic god-like entity is asleep under the earth, and its dreams are causing a massive temple to manifest in the jungle. You're part of a spec ops team sent into the temple, to drop a nuke in its lowest chamber and pacify the being before it wakes up - as this would cause the end of days. It connects to the Marathon series as well, but that's not important right now. Having a game focused on exploration and combat, but also being set within a dead god's dream is very in line with my idea for Sinister. The game is also quite surreal with its enemies; from lumbering blob-men with mouths in their chests to goofy walrus-like floating creatures to reanimated skeletons, who throw bones at you.

youtube

Penumbra was essentially a tech demo for Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It follows Philip, a physicist who enters a desolate bunker in Greenland to find his father. Inside, you must solve puzzles using the proprietary physics engine, and occasionally avoid enemies; namely, rabid dogs. There is combat in Penumbra, but it is discouraged, and there are many ways of getting around enemies. You could sneak by them, you could run, you could bait them with meat or distract them with a flare. You could throw explosives (a quick but costly kill) or use physics objects to slow their pursuit. You could even lure them into an enclosed area and trap them, or use environmental obstacles to kill them without your input. It's an interesting angle of immersion that I haven't seen much; so many immersive sims will give you all sorts of weapons and gizmos and character upgrades for dealing with enemies in unique ways, but these usually boil down to a fancy way of killing them that isn't just shooting them in the face. This idea of discouraged but viable combat is what I want to replicate.

youtube

Prey 2006 is pretty obscure (mostly due to Prey 2017 making it impossible to search for, and it's removed from Steam) but quite interesting. You play as a Native American guy named Tommy, who gets abducted by aliens, and has to fight through their massive bio-organic ship to save his girlfriend Jen. The game uses seamless portals, one year before Portal, as well as loads of interesting tricks like non-Euclidian level geometry and alterable gravity (such as walking on walls and ceilings). It's really cool. The relevant thing for my game is that Tommy canonically dies within the first hour. After this, he's taken to a spirit world by his grandfather, where he gains spirit-walking powers and a ghost of his childhood pet, a hawk named Talon. When you die again in-game, you're taken back to the spirit world, to battle the "dishonored dead" and regain your health and spirit power. I really like games that deal with death in a canon sense - instead of restarting at a checkpoint, your character has legitimately died and returned to life. I want to explain respawning in Sinister in a similar way; you're in the afterlife, so technically, you're already dead.

youtube

Pathologic is a game I can't say enough good things about. It's a mega-obscure Russian game, about (in simple terms) a strange town, a string of murders, and a plague. You have twelve days to explore the town, uncover its mysteries, save your Bound (a group of people who are connected by fate) and save yourself. You'll have to make tough decisions, scavenge for supplies, learn the town's esoteric customs, and all while discovering the secrets of the Sand Plague. When I was first deciding what I wanted the project to be about, Pathologic was my main inspiration for the key themes: "Exploration in an unfamiliar world". The gameplay is primarily walking about, but you will occasionally get into combat. Stakes are very high in the game, and so you are encouraged to run and hide in buildings just as much as you are encouraged to fight. This more visceral and realistic approach to combat rather than just "shoot the bad men" is another thing I want to replicate in Sinister.

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