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mapping-elysium · 18 days
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Sacred and Terrible Air summaries index
Chapter by chapter summaries of Robert Kurvitz's 2013 novel Püha ja õudne lõhn (Sacred and Terrible Air):
1. CHARLOTTESJÄL + 2. KLASSIKOKKUTULEK
3. NON-ENTITEET + 4. VIDKUN HIRD
5. ZA/UM + 6. FRANTICEK VAPPER
7. MAAILM LÄHEB VALESTI, AEG ON LIIGESTEST LAHTI + 8. LINOLEUMIMÜÜJA
9. PÜHA JA ÕUDNE LÕHN + 10. HEAD ÖÖD, ANNI
11. ISE-CHILLIJA + 12. ZIGI
13. AINELAULATUS + 14. PUUDUJATE NIMEKIRI
15. HALLITUS + 16. ENTROPONAUT
17. HARNANKUR + 18. KOLM ÕLITAIGNAS LIHAPIRUKAT
19. MA EI OLE NALJA ASI + 20. VALGUS PAISTAB KÕIGEST LÄBI
AND
THE WHOLE BOOK ACTUALLY
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mapping-elysium · 21 days
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Thank you @angelsarecomputers for letting me know I missed one!
COAL CITY '08
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This postcard depicts a forest of smokestacks releasing fat plumes of smoke into blue, cloudless sky. The tinge of age – the colour of old teeth – gives it a sickly look. Written on the back is a single sentence, repeated twice: I got out. I got out. No addressee.
Postcards
Le Jardin '21
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This laminated post card offers a glimpse across the river. A little more than a decade after the war, the eastern bank is already fully renovated. The hillsides are lush with gardens and residences, someone's parked a small beige airship by the fountain. This postcard will sell for a pretty penny.
Grand Couron '37
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This postcard depicts an ill-advised residential area overlooking the Jamrock Quarter. 13-story buildings line the hillside like sarcophagi, an ominous fog already rising from behind. These are the last boom years -- in '39 the project fails catastrophically, leaving behind an opiate and hepatitis B infested slum.
Martinaise '98
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A faded picture postcard from the end of the last century shows Martinaise as was before the Revolution. It's the height of summer, Rue de Saint-Ghislaine is teeming with parasol-wielding bourgeoisie and Wild Pines flags buttress the walkway. Nothing is written on the back.
Couron '33
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This one has 'HELL' written on its back. It could not be further from the truth. It's the boom years, and Couron, the nicest district in Revachol West, is enjoying a sun drenched day. Tall and handsome buildings rise from the riverside: steel, iron and yellow limestone, with cloud shadows sliding on the facades.
Boogie Street '46
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This crumpled up postcard depicts an open air market in Boogie Street ~5 years ago. A vendor smiles as dead roosters line his stalls -- hung by their feet from canopy. Red blood flows onto the muddy street, blurry shadows of people pass
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mapping-elysium · 22 days
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Postcards
Le Jardin '21
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This laminated post card offers a glimpse across the river. A little more than a decade after the war, the eastern bank is already fully renovated. The hillsides are lush with gardens and residences, someone's parked a small beige airship by the fountain. This postcard will sell for a pretty penny.
Grand Couron '37
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This postcard depicts an ill-advised residential area overlooking the Jamrock Quarter. 13-story buildings line the hillside like sarcophagi, an ominous fog already rising from behind. These are the last boom years -- in '39 the project fails catastrophically, leaving behind an opiate and hepatitis B infested slum.
Martinaise '98
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A faded picture postcard from the end of the last century shows Martinaise as was before the Revolution. It's the height of summer, Rue de Saint-Ghislaine is teeming with parasol-wielding bourgeoisie and Wild Pines flags buttress the walkway. Nothing is written on the back.
Couron '33
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This one has 'HELL' written on its back. It could not be further from the truth. It's the boom years, and Couron, the nicest district in Revachol West, is enjoying a sun drenched day. Tall and handsome buildings rise from the riverside: steel, iron and yellow limestone, with cloud shadows sliding on the facades.
Boogie Street '46
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This crumpled up postcard depicts an open air market in Boogie Street ~5 years ago. A vendor smiles as dead roosters line his stalls -- hung by their feet from canopy. Red blood flows onto the muddy street, blurry shadows of people pass
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mapping-elysium · 27 days
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Judit’s Backstory, or: Why She Supports Harry
This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while, especially since it’s apparently not common knowledge in the fandom, but Judit has a developed backstory with Harry that can only be put together through reading one of the case files (so perhaps it’s not that surprising that people don’t know).
We start with Joseph Mills: an idiot and a terrible person.
No, he was awful. Awful sense of humour too. The worst jokes you’ve ever heard. Really rapey.
Harry can find out about him from reading MURDER IN THE HOOKAH PARLOR from his case files. Long story short, Mills mistook an accidental death for a murder and wasted months on it, only for Harry to identify it as a dumb accident in less than a minute.
What’s more relevant to the present-day is this:
Beaten to death by a throng of Villalobos gang-members when him and his partner J. M. (only initials mentioned) answered a call one night. It’s a sad story and it isn’t really represented in *your* case files. Stop stalling and get to the MURDER AT THE HOOKAH PARLOUR.
Judit’s partner was beaten to death by gangsters, presumably while she watched. Technically, J.M. could be anyone, but basic narrative rules + a few other hints make me certain that it’s Judit. Most importantly, what she says about Harry after his disastrous call to the Precinct.
“We must help him.” Minot looks down at her neatly polished black shoes. There is a quiet firmness to her voice when she speaks. 
“I just know we can’t give up on him when he’s at his weakest. He wouldn’t…” The crowd in the room has started fidgeting uncomfortably. Someone’s trying to slip out unnoticed.
I’m presuming here that what she’s going to say is “He wouldn’t give up on one of us”. (Side note: judging by the reactions of everyone else, they agree. Pre-canon Harry had his good moments and his bad with the squad).
Judit might be speaking from experience - we know that she’s only been with C-Wing for two months, but why did she transfer? Given how C-wing has been hemorrhaging members, it seems odd. If she was speaking from experience, then the most likely answer is that Harry helped her out after Mills’ death (first on the scene? Provided support? who knows) and Judit, who was now without a partner, decided to follow him to C-wing.
Between her gratitude to Harry and (probably) low standards for coworkers, she’s willing to give him the benefit of the doubt more than anyone else who knows him, although depending on your actions you can burn through the good will - calling her the Horse-Faced Woman and asking if you’ve had sex will make her cold towards you.
She’s also aware of Harry’s drinking problem, but has more hope than Jean does - Jean will shoot down any hint that Harry’s changed, but if he’s stayed sober, Judit will hold onto hope that it’ll stick this time
You haven’t been drinking, she thinks. So maybe this time…
(Perhaps it’s just because she’s known him for the least amount of time, but it’s still more hope than anyone else in his unit has for Harry).
It’s easy to miss Judit’s implied past with Harry, and assume her patience is naivety or because she’s a mom (which might be the case in a story written by lesser writers) but it’s something more complex than that, and a tiny hint at the better side of pre-canon Harry.
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mapping-elysium · 28 days
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LONESOME LONG WAY HOME
Heading southwest of Martinaise
Courtyards = the abandoned housing and the fishing village?
Le Domaine Eminent
in North Jamrock, past the motorway
Main and Perdition appears to be the rough address for the Precinct
HEADING "HOME"
Past the 41st [heading east/west]
through the market
Boogie Street Spearhead
I think this means the north end since it stretches all the way to Faubourg in the south
Around meteor lake
turn on Voyager road past the video rental
PROBLEM
Let’s rewind. Let’s trace your drunken steps back home. Jump across the raised channel bridge south-west of here. Fall over. Get up. Get off the asphalt in 20 minutes, shuffle your feet through courtyards, scaring little children. Go under the great raised motor-tract, the 8/81, until you reach le domaine éminent in North Jamrock. The streets are frozen this time of year, caked with ice. Walk down Main, to Perdition -- there’s a side alley there and your footprints in the mud...
SOLUTION
...here we go. Home awaits. Walk past Station 41 and through the market. Past the Boogie Street spearhead to the other side of the lake -- the frozen eye at the center of the district. Then past the video rental store on the corner. There, at the end of a street lined with pine trees: a small house, no larger than a matchbox. 11 Voyager Road. You no longer live there. Those times are gone, and so are those people. Why did you come here? Why are you still here? And where’s the dealer? You have to get back to work. That’s all you have now.
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mapping-elysium · 28 days
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Kineema Shivers Passive
Housing beneath the 8/81
Valley of Dogs beyond the 41st
NOTES: I thought this would be more useful but maybe it will later
Shivers - That sound. You feel the wind in your hair as if you're already driving -- but where?
You - Yes -- where?
Shivers - Down a narrow street lined with shabby wooden houses, the 8/81 motor-tract coiling like a serpent high above. Children play under the viaduct. Eyes turn to watch you as you pass...
You - What's ahead?
Shivers - The Valley of Dogs -- and before it, a familiar dome, like a ladybug without the colours. The building has a designated parking place for *your* carriage.
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mapping-elysium · 28 days
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An excellent addition by @parc4rk ! Thank you! I'll be sure to follow this up with source lines in a future post!
LONESOME LONG WAY HOME
Heading southwest of Martinaise
Courtyards = the abandoned housing and the fishing village?
Le Domaine Eminent
in North Jamrock, past the motorway
Main and Perdition appears to be the rough address for the Precinct
HEADING "HOME"
Past the 41st [heading east/west]
through the market
Boogie Street Spearhead
I think this means the north end since it stretches all the way to Faubourg in the south
Around meteor lake
turn on Voyager road past the video rental
PROBLEM
Let’s rewind. Let’s trace your drunken steps back home. Jump across the raised channel bridge south-west of here. Fall over. Get up. Get off the asphalt in 20 minutes, shuffle your feet through courtyards, scaring little children. Go under the great raised motor-tract, the 8/81, until you reach le domaine éminent in North Jamrock. The streets are frozen this time of year, caked with ice. Walk down Main, to Perdition -- there’s a side alley there and your footprints in the mud...
SOLUTION
...here we go. Home awaits. Walk past Station 41 and through the market. Past the Boogie Street spearhead to the other side of the lake -- the frozen eye at the center of the district. Then past the video rental store on the corner. There, at the end of a street lined with pine trees: a small house, no larger than a matchbox. 11 Voyager Road. You no longer live there. Those times are gone, and so are those people. Why did you come here? Why are you still here? And where’s the dealer? You have to get back to work. That’s all you have now.
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mapping-elysium · 29 days
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argo's on twitter now and he identified these previously unknown precinct 41 officers
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text of tweets:
This brings up so many memories! These are core 41st people. From left to right: Officer Rudolph Quigley with his partner Officer Byrsellius 'Golem' Bengt, Satellite-Officer Kit Mimosa (undercover so deep he doesn't remember he's a cop anymore and the satellite officer of Sargeant Furioso Roberts), Junior Officer Ninel deMettrie (partnered up with her sister, Junior Officer Jolie deMettrie), Officer Judit Minot (partner of officer Joseph Mills), Satellite-Sargeant Ahriman 'Deathless' deMettrie (father of Ninel and Jolie and the partner of Lieutenant John 'Archetype' McCoy).
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mapping-elysium · 29 days
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LONESOME LONG WAY HOME
Heading southwest of Martinaise
Courtyards = the abandoned housing and the fishing village?
Le Domaine Eminent
in North Jamrock, past the motorway
Main and Perdition appears to be the rough address for the Precinct
HEADING "HOME"
Past the 41st [heading east/west]
through the market
Boogie Street Spearhead
I think this means the north end since it stretches all the way to Faubourg in the south
Around meteor lake
turn on Voyager road past the video rental
PROBLEM
Let’s rewind. Let’s trace your drunken steps back home. Jump across the raised channel bridge south-west of here. Fall over. Get up. Get off the asphalt in 20 minutes, shuffle your feet through courtyards, scaring little children. Go under the great raised motor-tract, the 8/81, until you reach le domaine éminent in North Jamrock. The streets are frozen this time of year, caked with ice. Walk down Main, to Perdition -- there’s a side alley there and your footprints in the mud...
SOLUTION
...here we go. Home awaits. Walk past Station 41 and through the market. Past the Boogie Street spearhead to the other side of the lake -- the frozen eye at the center of the district. Then past the video rental store on the corner. There, at the end of a street lined with pine trees: a small house, no larger than a matchbox. 11 Voyager Road. You no longer live there. Those times are gone, and so are those people. Why did you come here? Why are you still here? And where’s the dealer? You have to get back to work. That’s all you have now.
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mapping-elysium · 30 days
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Coast Orb: Snow Shivers
WEST
More coast with abandoned buildings and piers
Pre-revolution effort to gentrify the coast
Coal city
Boom town from when revachol was powered mostly by coal
“in the shadow of Saint-Martin”
Supplanted by offshore petroleum and hydropower from Esperance
Infrastructure crumbled. Now a poor area “only the weakest remain”
Below the mines: L'Ossuaire Municipal, Revachol's underground cemetery
Les Petits rats attempt to to find Le Royaume (royal burial chambers)
EAST
Canal and Martinaise
[see PLAZA ORB] whitest part of town
Run-off point of a long forgotten canal
NORTH
Church
1 of 2 remaining stave churches
Originally of a set of 8 called Les Sept Souers “other six sisters were destroyed during the revolutions”
World’s end
Islets
Sea Fortress: The 114th Anti-Aircraft Division of the 4th Army of the Commune of Revachol
Résurrection: Popular spa for  Ozonne residents
A couple of other islets scattered and uninhabited
Martinaise Inlet
Bay of Revachol
1200 m depth
Ozonne
SOUTH
8/81 - raised motorway
Separates Martinaise from Jamrock
Buildings under the motorway (Labyrinthine alleyways)
The Pox
Once a park for the Old Military Hospital
In the 20s was a quarantine center during measles outbreak
Abandoned after the outbreak
Completely wild now, overrun by feral dogs and wolves
Police keep deepest corners cordoned off
Precinct 41
Line of motor garages 
Repurposed silk mill
Central Jamrock
Utility district - Library, florist, saramisizian restaurant
Brothels, drug dens and Zemlyaki(gang) chopshops
Built around lake formed by meteorite strike [Ship in the middle]
Below
sand poisoned with industrial run-off. The storm drainage. Hidden bunkers
NOTES: This is unfortunately the last of the notes I had written ahead of time so things may move slower. Hopefully I've made enough posts that you all can understand the format I'm going for. Joyce's Reality Lowdown is going to take a long time to work through
Shivers - Winter, slow to let go of Revachol, flecks some more wet snow from above...
You - Look around you.
Shivers - The snow falls lazily, making the beach sand paler still, mixing with the rust-coloured sewage run-off.
Shivers - And to think -- it seemed as though it were already spring.
You - How does it feel?
Shivers - Your teeth chatter as the snow melts on your exposed skin, running down your chest and your back in icy rivulets. To distract yourself, you look around...
Replaced with "Your teeth chatter as the snow melts on your exposed skin, running down your chest and your back in icy rivulets. The toes of your one bare foot are growing numb. To distract yourself, you look around..." if HasShoes() == false and (CheckEquipped("shoes_snakeskin_left") or CheckEquipped("shoes_snakeskin_right"))
Replaced with "Your teeth chatter as the snow melts on your exposed skin, running down your chest and your back in icy rivulets. Your bare feet are growing numb. To distract yourself, you look around..." if HasShoes() == false
You - What's in the west?
Shivers - More winding coastline lined with abandoned buildings. Crumbling piers, salt water lapping at their dark piles. Grey and red, forgotten city blocks. What remains of the pre-revolutionary effort to gentrify the coast.
You - And beyond that?
Shivers - The waters turn black. Coal City in the shadow of Saint-Martin, a boom town, back when coal extracted from countless shafts near the city was needed to power Revachol.
Shivers - No more. The coal was supplanted by petroleum from the ocean floor and hydropower from the Esperance. Everything crumbled. These days, only the weakest remain in Coal City. Their hopes of getting rich linger in the defunct shafts under their feet.
You - What is there?
Shivers - Below the old mines -- L'Ossuaire Municipal, Revachol's underground cemetery. *Les petits rats* brave the underground passageways, trying to get to Le Royaume...
You - Le Royaume...
Shivers - ...where the Filippian kings were interred, with their doctors and their admirals. Mausoleums, burial chambers, leaf gold still remains on the Double Door of the Morning.
You - That's where Cuno said he's gonna go...
Shivers - Yes. To peel the gold off with his fingernails.
You - Les *petits rats*...
Shivers - Children under 14. They go underground, looking for artefacts to sell to foreign museums -- and for fabled relics. Their parents let them. They go deeper...
You - Deeper...
Shivers - ...after rubies, melchiorite, lapis lazuli plundered from Safre and Seol during the time of the Suzerain. In the burial chambers of the kings: Grand Old Filippe, Guillaume II, and even in the mausoleum of Filippe the Opulent.
Shivers - Two kilometres underground, in a winding shaft along whose walls mirrors have been placed so that daylight may eternally fall upon the richest of all the kings.
Shivers - The mausoleum contains untold quantities of gold -- and that special, purest-of-the-pure magenta cocaine favoured by Revacholian royalty.
Electrochemistry - Did someone say *untold quantities of cocaine*? Drop everything immediately and go looking for this hoard!
Logic - How can it be pure if it's magenta?
You - Wipe the snow from your shoulder.
Shivers - Few *petits rats* return from the shafts -- and even fewer find what they're looking for. A small child steps out of a black tunnel, with silver trinkets in her pockets.
Shivers - All around her, white snow on the extinguished coke furnaces, and on the weather-worn shacks, where fathers beat their sons after drinking. The snow melts on your fingers, turning to water.
You - What's in the east?
Shivers - The canal you crossed to get here, and beyond it -- Martinaise proper, the district the police forgot to police. There is laughter, lights, attempts at entrepreneurial activity, cynicism.
Shivers - Someone is scraping snow off their windshield. At the roundabout, in the midst of which a statue of Filippe the III serves as a destination for grade-school field trips and a fine perch for winter birds.
You - And further...
Shivers - A fenced-off yard. There's a truck belonging to a logistics company parked next to the gate. Bright light from a building behind the fence reflects off its hood.
Replaced with "A fenced-off yard. There's a truck belonging to a logistics company parked next to the gate. You've seen it. Bright light from a building behind the fence reflects off its hood." if Variable["jam.dlc_truck_shivers_orb_done"]
Replaced with "A fenced-off yard. There's a truck belonging to a logistics company parked next to the gate. You've heard about it. Bright light from a building behind the fence reflects off its hood." if Variable["village.idiot_cocaine_dlc"]
Conceptualization - Clean white light, coming from the windows of a clean cube-shaped office building hidden amidst ruins. A secret...
You - What's in the north?
Shivers - The abandoned church. One of two remaining stave churches which were collectively called les Sept Soeurs. The other six sisters were destroyed during the Revolution.
You - And further north?
Shivers - A serpentine strip of land weaving its way into the Martinaise inlet. Unfortunates on the run -- from the law, from themselves -- sometimes hide out on nearby islets. Little dots in the ocean that are occasionally submerged when the tide is high and the weather foul.
You - And on the islets?
Shivers - The remains of a camp on a jagged piece of rock -- a tent, old dishes and cutlery. Long since abandoned. A hermit crab scuttles among the debris, looking for a new shell.
Shivers - Further out, the lights burn bright on Résurrection; way beyond Martinaise -- a popular spa destination for ample-bodied Ozonne kids with equally ample pockets.
You - And on the other side of the inlet?
Shivers - Then there's Ozonne... but the snow falls too thick. You cannot see that far.
You - Before that? Before the curtains are drawn...
Shivers - The Bay of Revachol, vastness, great depth -- over 1200 m at its deepest. Water, air brinier than here. It is crisscrossed by huge cargo ships bearing company logos: Wild Pines, ZAMM, Moriyn.
Shivers - And, at the farthest reaches of the Bay of Revachol -- the shadow of Coalition Warship Archer, on perpetual patrol duty, ready to unleash artillery fire if you were to rise up against the market. You shudder.
You - What's in the south?
Shivers - The raised motorway, 8/81, separating Martinaise from Jamrock. Vehicles whoosh past one another day and night, while those who reside in the labyrinthine alleyways beneath the motorway attempt to carry on with their lives in the snow and the slush. And south of the 8/81 is the Pox.
You - The Pox...
Shivers - ...was once a park, a place for reflection and recuperation for the patients of the Old Military Hospital. In the Twenties, it was used as a quarantine centre during a measles outbreak that killed many children. Most everyone has avoided the hospital and surrounding park ever since.
Shivers - The Pox is completely wild now. Evergreen thickets covered in snow and industrial dust. Feral dogs and even wolves roaming in packs. The police try to keep the deepest corners cordoned off.
You - But still...
Shivers - ...heavy drug users do slip through and hole up in the Old Military Hospital, hoping to find something to get high on among the hastily abandoned supplies. Or just to overdose in peace.
You - Further south...
Shivers - A line of motor garages with armoured carapaces, hunched in the cold. A mechanic is hard at work, patching up bullet holes in the side of a Coupris 40. These are the garages of Precinct 41. Snow settles on the roof of the re-purposed silk mill that serves as your station. Shivering RCM personnel hurry in and out of the main entrance.
Mack Torson - "Wonder if Vic's found his hetero-sexual life partner yet." The man in the fishnet wifebeater looks over at Chester McLaine.
Chester McLaine - "Damn, I don't know. Even a real *bröderbund* like that can't survive everything..."
Shivers - Around you, the snow continues to fall. To the west, the ocean swells.
You - No, it was home. I want more.
Shivers - The stairs descend -- to Central Jamrock. A man named Kuklov has a snow-covered stall there, in the market across the bridge. He sells kebab infested with fly larvae to your colleagues who believe eating it will make them immune to food poisoning.
Shivers - Snow falls on the utility district: the library, the florist, the Saramirizian restaurant that offers homemade wine. And also on the brothels and drug dens, and the chop shops of the zemlyaki.
Shivers - All of this built around a lake that formed in a meteorite strike. At the centre of this lake, there is a little ship. There are lights at the bottom of its hull. They are lights directed toward the sea floor, looking for something, like whiskers...
You - For what?
Shivers - A chill comes over you, crawling down your back. The sand under your feet is wet. Somewhere in the south, tarpaulin flap in the wind.
You - What's below me?
Shivers - Layer upon layer of sand poisoned with industrial run-off. The storm drainage. Hidden bunkers. Rats scuttle...
You - Tell me a secret of the sands, wind.
Shivers - Someone's stuffed a big old polar anorak into a concrete pipe under the boardwalk. It would keep you warm. You will probably never happen across it, but who knows.
You - Stomp your feet for warmth, brushing off the snow. [Finish thought.]
Kim Kitsuragi - "We should keep moving. Who knows when this snow will let up?"
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mapping-elysium · 1 month
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Thinking about that mural from DE
You know which one
TRUE LOVE IS POSSIBLE ONLY IN THE NEXT WORLD, FOR THE NEW PEOPLE. IT IS TOO LATE FOR US. WREAK HAVOC ON THE MIDDLE CLASS
The next world mural. In the game, you encounter this piece very early on if you interact with everything available, you probably see this mural before you've ever even heard of Dora or before you've started to get really serious about your commie tendencies, if that's how you choose to play. And the reaction is like, "wow, this is kinda profound actually". Or maybe it's like, "oh lol, this game really is commie af isn't it" (even though later on it turns out that the game is much more critical of communism than you'd think at first). And the story in the ledger provides some insight into Harry and Jean and how they work together too, so it feels like it makes sense, it fits in very well at that moment in the game and that's it.
But looking back at this mural after you've played through the entire game, knowing what you know of Harry's relationship with Dora...
It's Harry's own fucking love story in a way, isn't it?
Him and Dora came from very different backgrounds. He's genuinely poor, grew up checking the trash cans on the streets for tare and edible food, spent his teenage years running around with a bunch of kids who all OD'd or got themselves killed one way or another over the years. He had dreams of getting an education, getting a chance to use his creativity and curiosity and learn about all that that is worth exploring in this world (which is everything), but those dreams are long dead. She's solidly middle class, with access to all the education and art and music he's always dreamt of, with her family to always fall back on. She's everything Harry's ever dreamt of growing up. She might as well be living in another world.
They fall in love with each other and she moves to Jamrock to live with him. Jamrock, the biggest fucking ghetto in Revachol, full of tweakers and gangsters and just thousands upon thousands of poor people permanently down on their luck trying to get by, with no proper aid or government and a police station so understaffed and underfunded they never even stood a chance. And they can barely make ends meet even living in Jamrock, moving from shithole to shithole, never knowing when they'll have their electricity cut, when something will happen that gets them thrown out, desperately scrambling for a new place to stay. And Dora could never do that, not really - she never actually lived in Jamrock, she always had the possibility of leaving, of going to work across the river and visiting her parents whenever she felt like it or just escaping, packing her shit and getting on the tram and never going back. And as long as she knew she wasn't really, truly stuck in this miserable shithole forever, she wasn't ever really living in Jamrock. And it could never be enough for her.
And she wanted more - for herself, for Harry, for their family, who even knows. Maybe she saw Harry struggling trying and failing to make a difference as a gym teacher and thought he could do more good with the RCM. Maybe she was getting desperate, living in this fucking shithole, and thought they needed more money. Maybe it was something completely else - but what is certain is that Harry ended up joining the RCM, and the 41st, and everyone there is on speed, everyone is miserable and desperate and always running behind playing catch up with the case load, with the crimes, with the drug addicts and rapists and murderers, and Harry, who's always been like this close to a genuine mental breakdown, just fucking falls apart. He needs to help people, needs to make a difference, and working at the 41st, with the budget and case load and staffing situation and the pure fucking misery in the area. He goes out and meets a miserable person after a miserable person and he can't do anything else than be nice, make their day a little bit more manageable, do his best- but he knows that no matter what he does, his best won't be enough. He won't be able to make a dent in the pure fucking misery that is Jamrock. But he needs to, so he drinks, he smokes, he does drugs, he loses any semblance of control he ever had over the voices in his head, the dude telling him to hit shit and the dude telling him to forget everything and just get fucked up and Revachol herself screaming at him about her imminent death. And in the end Dora can't stand it anymore and she leaves (and, honestly, good for her. I'm happy for her. But this is about Harry, and Harry isn't, he isn't able to be happy for her at this point in time).
And like. I personally doubt that she'd have left just because of the money if everything else was good. I honestly even doubt that the money was that big of an issue for her to start with, it was all the other issues first and then the fact that they couldn't even rent a fucking VHS and play it at times became just one more thing on top of this already massive pile of shit that broke the proverbial camel's back. But in Harry's mind, he was never rich enough for her. She was always the middle class girl who settled for the poor fuck, and he was never gonna be good enough for her because he was just a broke dude from Jamrock. She was perfect and so so beautiful and at one point her love was the only thing keeping him going, and then she left because he couldn't even
And from what we can see in the game she was the only person he's ever really, truly loved.
But in his mind, they could never be together again. They could try as they might, but it was never gonna work out, because she was a rich girl and he was just a poor miserable fuck. He grew up looking for change on the streets, she took piano lessons in a fancy part of town. The difference was just too large to ever truly be bridged.
So for post-breakup Harry, prior to Martinaise and even during the events in Martinaise, true love was never actually possible. It is possible only for the new people, in the next world. It was too late for him - he had his chance, and it was an impossible thing, it could never have worked out and now he's wasted it. Because of the inherent differences between different social classes. It is too late for him. So yeah, fuck it, wreak havoc on the fucking middle class. Fuck those rich bastards who took Dora from him, and fuck Dora too.
On another note, this was also one of the most recent cases him and Jean worked on prior to Martinaise. I don't remember the date exactly, but it was in his last ledger, it must have been pretty recent. Do you think he saw the mural and thought about it the same way I did? Maybe this was the one that truly pushed him over the edge? The impossible love. It truly was too late for him. The only way to fix it is a new fucking start. And how do you get that?
After life - death. After death - life again.
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mapping-elysium · 1 month
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compiling information about the kineema, because I'm normal
hi. you may remember me from this post talking about how the kineema doesn't have a hood. I've decided to compile all the *other* info I can get on the kineema and comment on it. hopefully this is okay to read
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let's start with what I could find on fayde
INTERFACING - With its air-cooled, rear-mounted twelve cylinder compression ignition engine driving the rear wheels through a four-speed manual gearbox, the Kineema is able to reach 100 kilometres per hour in 13.5 seconds. And go on to a top speed of 180 kilometres an hour. YOU - Won't it roll over in the first sharp corner? INTERFACING - The high centre of balance is offset by a large battery bank mounted at the bottom of the cabin, feeding all the auxiliary systems and making the Kineema effectively a mobile power plant.
air-cooled: no radiator. I assume this is what those big heat-sink looking things on sides of the engine are for
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compression ignition engine: diesel, no spark plugs (diesel engines are named after a guy, rudolph diesel, so I guess in elysium they didn't do that)
rear wheel drive: this is pretty obvious just looking at the thing
100 kilometres per hour in 13.5 seconds: not very fast acceleration compared to modern cars, but the history of cars in elysium is obviously very different to irl
battery bank: this is the only thing keeping the kineema from tipping backwards onto its ass as soon as you accelerate
YOU - "What's it packing there?" (Point to the engine.) KIM KITSURAGI - "Hundred-and-thirty." INTERFACING - I reckon that's a seven-litre V12 there. ENCYCLOPEDIA - Man, that's got to be a major advancement over the KR18GU engine on the old Coupris 40. YOU - "Wait, hundred-and-thirty what?" KIM KITSURAGI - "Kilowatts," the lieutenant replies laconically.
130 kilowatts: ~174 horsepower
YOU - "That's what..." (Rub your chin.) "... a seven-litre V12?" KIM KITSURAGI - "Seven-point-two. Supercharged." The lieutenant is trying to suppress a smug smile. Unsuccessfully. EMPATHY - Saying these words brings him immense joy.
7.2 litre engine: space inside the cylinders. 7.2L/12 = 600cc per cylinder
supercharged: has a supercharger. forces more air into the engine, powered by the crankshaft (as opposed to turbochargers which are powered by the exhaust)
YOU - Run your fingers over one of the steering levers. COUPRIS KINEEMA - The white suede feels luxurious under the touch and the metal clutch handle so very familiar in your palm... INTERFACING - Your fingers waste no time closing around the handle. Clutch disengaged. Release the handle -- clutch drops -- right foot yearns for the familiar touch of the accelerator pedal. You have synced with the machine's mechanical circulation.
YOU - "A *driver* would wear down their right shoe before the left -- the accelerator is on the right. And remember that abandoned lorry cabin we found?"
steering levers: instead of a steering wheel. not exactly sure how they'd work. I *really* don't want it to have differential steering like a zero-turn mower looking at this video of kim driving it looks like the front wheels are the ones steering
clutch handle: instead of a pedal, the clutch is a handle on one of the levers. seems that accelerator and (probably) brake are still pedals
accelerator is on the right: does everyone left-foot brake??? I guess if the clutch handle is standard then that would make sense
ABANDONED LORRY - The glass on the side windows is tinted and covered with dust. You can barely make out the shape of a seat and two steering levers. [...] YOU - Check the pedals. ABANDONED LORRY - You wedge yourself under the steering-wheel to get a better look. Seems like the few tools lying around here -- a hammer, a pair of pliers, a rusty wrench -- have been casually thrown there by the disorganized driver. ABANDONED LORRY - But one odd detail does catch your eye: A piece of sandpaper has been glued to the throttle.
STEERING WHEEL TYPO
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alright, let's actually take a look at this thing
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two door: the kineema has a single driver's seat and two seats in the back. looks like you'd need to move the front seat forward to let anyone else in
suspension: the back wheels look like they have some sort of spring (the axle is connected to it, so how are the wheels being driven??? same with the coupris 40). I assume the front arms also act as a spring
rear view mirror: looks like there's no rear view mirror, since you wouldn't see shit
aerodynamics: bad
seat belts:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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mapping-elysium · 1 month
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Map Wall pt 2: Map of Insulinde
Insulinde (850 million people)
A mostly oceanic isola consisting of a series of islands and archipelagoes [Le Caillou, Semenese Islands (Ile du Fantome), Ozonne, Laurentide, Face-a-la-Mer, North Arcade Islands.]
Population 850 million
Le Caillou
the largest island in the North-East
Capital: Revachol [80km radius]
Semenese Islands (Ile du Fantome)
Far to the south west
City: Olduvai
Ozonne
Cities: Fond de l'Air and Virmandeux
Laurentide
City: Deora of the Seven Seas
Archipelagos
Cities: Croyant-Morain, Villiers
OTHER ISOLAS (Azimuths)
Mundi - North
Graad - North East
Samara - East
Seol - West
NOTES: We love scale references! This doesn't add the most details like the number of islands or the orientation of all of them but we'll take what we can get. There may be more detail in Joyce's Reality Lowdown talk.
Map Wall - Several maps have been attached to a bulletin board hidden inside the alcove. They're held up by small pins. The board has come loose from one corner.
Map Wall - The maps look old and faded. Your eye catches a map of Insulinde, a map of Revachol, and a map of Martinaise.
You - Look at the map of Insulinde.
Map Wall - This large map displays archipelagos. You see a constellation of small dots on the light blue emptiness of the Insulindic ocean. The largest, in the northeast, is "Le Caillou" (you are here). Another, far away in the southwest -- "Semenese Islands (Ile du Fantôme)".
You - What else?
Map Wall - Ozonne, Laurentide, Face-a-la-Mer, Archipelagos, North Arcade Islands... all just specks of dust on the vastness of the Insulindic. On the edges of the map, the colour fades into a blur of dotted lines. Black and white.
Visual Calculus - Disintegrating into mathematics.
Inland Empire - In the northeast a dust mite stands on the north coast of Caillou. In a bookstore. It's you.
Shivers - Radiating outwards from you -- the Suzerain Revachol. With a radius of 80 kilometres. Still, the crown jewel of this isola would be barely visible.
You - Squint first -- can you see *cities* on the islands?
Map Wall - You can. On Caillou -- Revachol, a single black star; on Ozonne -- Fond de l'Air and Virmandeux; on Archipelagos -- Croyant-Morain, Villiers; on Semenine -- Olduvai. And on Laurentide -- Deora Of The Seven Seas...
Empathy - Lost little pearls of light. Tiny fires in the dark.
Encyclopedia - 850 million people live on these little dots. An oceanic world of culture and commerce, torn apart by history.
You - Look at the edges.
Map Wall - The ocean breaks apart into a tangle of cosines and azimuths, all pointing into pale nothingness. *Mundi* is the north azimuth; *Graad* is the northeast azimuth; *Samara* is the east azimuth; *Seol* is the west azimuth. *Isolas*, they're called.
Inland Empire - Connections to other worlds. Worlds past the Insulindian, unknown to you. You only know you've never been there.
Logic - 850 million people live on these tiny dots. An oceanic world of culture and commerce, torn apart by history.
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mapping-elysium · 1 month
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Map Wall: Map of Revachol
Revachol:
North Coast of La Caillou
“Shattered by the delta” of the Esperance
Series of river islands and distributaries
EAST REVACHOL
Le  Jardin
Stella Maris
Saint-Batiste (made up of suburbs, home of Saint-Batiste pharmaceutical company)
WEST REVACHOL
Couron
not Grand-Couron [district in jamrock] The Lower Middle Class (Possibly the district the GRIH/57th is in?)
Jamrock
Burnt out Quarter in the heart of jamrock
Faubourg
“Almost as bad” and much bigger than Jamrock 
Coal City
Poverty district
Martinaise
North of Jamrock Strip of coast next to the GRIH 1200m distance between bookstore and church
NOTES: Finding the factoid about the distance between the bookstore and the church is HUGE! It gives us more of a scale to the map. I need to track down the conversation sources but i still want to note that Couron and Grand-Couron are separate locations.
Map Wall - Several maps have been attached to a bulletin board hidden inside the alcove. They're held up by small pins. The board has come loose from one corner.
Map Wall - The maps look old and faded. Your eye catches a map of Insulinde, a map of Revachol, and a map of Martinaise.
You - Look at the map of Revachol.
Map Wall - The north coast of a verdant island is shattered by the delta of a river. It is the River Esperance. Countless bridges put the shards back together, connecting city blocks to river islands. *La Delta*, says a great, artificial heart in the centre, teeming with lifeforms and construction.
Map Wall - To the east, rolling hillsides: Le Jardin, Stella Maris, the suburbs of Saint-Batiste, swallowed up into the megacity. They sound *rich* to you. This is Revachol East.
You - And west of the river?
Map Wall - Couron. It's somewhere to live. Not bad. Then there's Jamrock -- it's *bad*. People shouldn't live there, but they do. Then Faubourg -- it's almost *as* bad and much larger. Then Coal City. It's the worst.
You - And Martinaise?
Map Wall - It's so small you can't even see it on the map. No... wait. There it is! North of Jamrock, the strip of coast next to the Greater Revachol Industrial Harbour. It looks downright despondent. It's almost Coal City, to be honest.
Shivers - No. Coal City is worse. A charred limb. Rain falls on its slick black streets. And then there's the Burnt-Out Quarter in the heart of Jamrock... is it cold in this bookstore, or is it just *you*?
Volition - No. This is somewhere to be. This is all you have, but it's still something. Streets and sodium lights. The sky, the world. You're still alive.
Inland Empire - You feel you're *just* west of Coal City. Somewhere above Jamrock and close to Coal City.
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mapping-elysium · 1 month
Text
Let's start this off right with one of the most notable lore-dumps in the game, the Plaza Rain Shivers check.
In the west
Stairs to the water
Sea Fortress > Bay of Revachol > Sky scrapers of La Delta
What’s down the shore?
Defunct R+E building > Abandoned Church > Coal City
In the east
Industrial Harbor (Locked) > La Drisienne - King Dris’ Passengers Harbour > River Distributary > Couron > “The Class Divide”
In the north
Whirling Yard > Capeside apartments
“Standing in the rain, looking north, where jamrock rock city stretches inland”
In the south
Traffic jam, roundabout, statue > Road ascends to 8/81 (ghetto beneath) > Jamrock
OTHER NOTES
Where do i live?
On a street there that flows like a muddy river in the snow, with fire traps rising on either side. A film rental opens its doors to the rain, an armoured motor carriage rushes past the corner where you used to walk together... Suddenly, the hair on your back rises.
“YOU CANNOT RETURN”
SOURCE MATERIAL BENEATH THE CUT
Shivers - All around you, rain falls on the great city of Revachol. Rain drips from the eaves and floods the gutters, washing the filth away.
Shivers - The spring thaw must be here. The snow is melting...
You - What am I doing?
Shivers - Looking up at the sky, cold water dripping from your hair.
You - What do I see?
Shivers - Grey sky like great battleships, clouds colliding with one another. Rain falls down on the world.
You - How does it feel?
Shivers - Your shirt sticks to your chest. The shoulders of your disco blazer grow heavy. The cold finds its way in under your skin. You shiver, and the city shivers with you.
Composure - You're not dressed for this weather. You should get an overcoat, or a patrol cloak.
You - What is in the west?
Shivers - Sheets of rain over the water. A flight of stairs leading into the ocean. Wave after wave washing the coast of Martinaise, with its motorboats and gently swaying reeds.
Shivers - The ruins of a half-sunken seafort crumble on an inlet. Beyond the Bay of Revachol, ghosts rise into the sky.
You - Who are you, ghosts?
Shivers - The skyscrapers of La Delta, the financial district. Faint golden light seeps from the office windows.
Inland Empire - Will you ever go there?
You - Will I?
Shivers - No. You are just one of the hundreds of thousands who watch them rise across the bay from Martinaise every day.
You - What is down the shore?
Shivers - Urban coastline, rain dripping off eternite-covered roofs. Cinder blocks left over from half-finished construction. A defunct research and development building once seized by revolutionaries. An old wooden church stands on stilts above the water.
You - And beyond that?
Shivers - Coal City, end of all lines.
You - Run your fingers through your dampened hair.
Shivers - Your hair is an oily mess flecked with ash from neighbouring coal plants. Smoke stacks rise somewhere in the distance.
You - What's in the east?
Shivers - The great gates of the industrial harbour are locked. A chill runs down your back. You shudder like an animal trying to shake water from its hide.
You - Clench your teeth to stop shuddering.
Shivers - Behind the gates -- heaps of supply crates. Red and blue metal shipping containers slick with rain. The Greater Revachol Industrial Harbour is an artificial mountain range. Immense wealth resides within, and immeasurable poverty in its shadow.
You - And before that?
Shivers - You -- on the Martinaise plaza. A small dot looking up at the sky. Droplets form on your eyelashes.
You - And beyond that?
Shivers - La Drisienne, King Dris's Passenger Harbour. Cruise ships flanked by dock arms. Cranes watching over the mouth of the river distributary.
You - What is across the distributary?
Shivers - Couron, the lower middle class. Distributary after distributary cuts the city blocks in half. Seven-story buildings trail off into the rain.
You - What is beyond the Couron?
Shivers - A silvery curtain of rain over the houses. The class divide.
Rhetoric - You have never been there. They don't need the law east of the river.
You - What's in the north?
Shivers - Capeside apartments -- tower blocks crowd one another, 4.46 mm bullets still lodged in their war-torn stone walls.
Shivers - Hallways collapsed from the mortar hits of a war that was lost long ago. Clotheslines go to waste in the rain. Radios play.
Rhetoric - The morning news.
You - And closer to here?
Shivers - A yard. Rain falls onto the roof of a woodshed. Filthy water pools around a body. Droplets of rain slip from the dead man's cold cheeks.
You - What's in the south?
Shivers - A traffic jam. Rain thrumming on the roofs of motor vehicles. Inside, drivers watch water streaming down their windshields. The statue of a king shudders, he too is cold. The canal bridge has been raised.
You - What's on the other side?
Shivers - The road ascends; a raised motorway loops above the ghetto. Beneath its concrete columns -- a sea of rooftops, woodwork, and tar stretches northward. Four-story buildings as far as the rain can fall. The snows melt in Jamrock.
You - What is Jamrock?
Shivers - Revachol is the capital of the world. Jamrock is the capital of Revachol. Droplets form on your eyelashes.
Inland Empire - It's home.
You - Why am I not there?
Shivers - To be in Martinaise, where no one goes. At the run-off point of a long-forgotten canal, in the whitest part of town. In the shadow of the day the Revolution failed.
You - What am I doing here?
Shivers - Standing in the rain, looking north, where Jamrock Rock City stretches inland.
You - Where do I live?
Shivers - On a street there that flows like a muddy river in the snow, with fire traps rising on either side. A film rental opens its doors to the rain, an armoured motor carriage rushes past the corner where you used to walk together... Suddenly, the hair on your back rises.
Shivers - YOU CANNOT RETURN.
You - "Motherfucker." [Finish thought.]
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mapping-elysium · 1 month
Text
PROJECT: MAPPING ELYSIUM
This is a Disco Elysium fan project dedicated to documenting and compiling the geographical information from the game's script, Robert Kurvitz's "Sacred and Terrible Air", official artwork, and from creator interviews.
Read an English Translation of Sacred and Terrible Air here
Search Disco Elysium's Script Here
You are welcome to submit your own notes and theoretical maps! Please remember to include source lines for any notes submitted.
This pinned post will eventually become a masterpost for location notes.
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