i dont rly have a solid opinion on communism as an ideology itself (i simply dont know enough abt it to form one), but im a bit peeved at n concerned over how quickly communists, in western parts of the world especially, are to ignore n insult indigenous ppls whove lived n suffered under things like the ussr when they criticize any form of communism.

Dance of Wolf and Raven: Prologue

Hi guys, this is the new Romance serial novel I've started featuring our mother, Adelina!

There'll be new chapters every Friday on Patreon, that are already scheduled and primed to release using Patreon's scheduler thingy every Mountain Standard Time 4pm.

There's currently 11k words written to give me a head start, of which 2 chapters are released.

A lot of it came about due to the worldbuilding spree I went on last year, and since I didn't want any of it to go to waste nor include it in the main game cause of bloat or fatigue, thought this was a good idea to do it!

So without further ado, here's the prologue!

Dance of Wolf and Raven: Prologue

It is the winter of 599 A.L.

Almost 600 hundred years have passed since the Belthean people landed upon these shores.

600 years After Landfall.

600 years of blood and conquest.

Today, just weeks before the turning of a new century, the continent of Nareth is unified by way of the spear.

And her father is to blame.

"Princess?" A familiar voice whispers worriedly.

Adelina, youngest princess of the Belthean Empire turns to her lady-in-waiting, Lady Valerie. She waits for her to continue.

Lady Valerie fidgets, her eyes looking everywhere within the carriage except the princess, who offers the nervous girl a hand on her knee. "Speak Valerie, there's no one else in here but us two."

The words and gesture seems to calm her down, though she still gulps before asking, "Was the empress able to…?"

Princess Adelina rolls her eyes as she crumbles back into her seat, a heavy and long sigh escaping her lips. She slumps further and further into her seat before Lady Valerie giggles and helps her sit straight again. But the worried look remains on her face.

Hesitantly, she places her hand upon that of the princess's. Gripping softly, she whispers, "Wrinkling the dress would only serve to anger your father, my lady," she says this sadly, her expression that of defeat.

And defeat it may have well been.

Her mother had tried protesting her daughter's marriage to the Butcher's son, both in public and in private. But her father wanted this alliance badly enough that her mother was ignored and overruled.

Thus, she was betrothed to the prince of a kingdom who had betrayed their allies and sided with her father in his invasion of the western territories.

If that wasn't bad enough, the father of the prince she was to marry had become infamous for massacring entire noble families in a single bloody night. He was known as a cold and emotionless man, ruthless in his decision making. And she was to marry that man's son.

Princess Adelina grips her dress in anger, causing Lady Valerie who notices to bring her close for an embrace.

Again, the princess stifles a sob, refusing to let tears come out. She made a promise to herself that she wouldn't cry.

She had been alone for too long. Abandoned by even her dear brothers who'd always protected her in the imperial palace.

Her eldest brother, Gareth, had fought alongside her betrothed in the war against Lymark, and she had waited for any letter of his to reassure her. Or perhaps express his support in canceling this arranged marriage.

Anything.

But none had arrived.

She didn't know what to make of it, even Daerin her second eldest brother hadn't been able to communicate with her. No one had.

Alone in the capital she had waited.

Her brothers off to wage the war started by her father, later followed by her mother once rumors of a marriage were being whispered at court.

Those shrews for sisters had already married before the invasion to stabilize the empire.

It wasn't long after that she was ordered to ready herself for marriage, but not with a high lord from the empire, or someone she at least liked or knew how to handle.

But with a foreign prince from a kingdom that had betrayed its ally.

She was to be an offering of peace sent by her father, like something that could be given.

Like an object.

The iron inside her heats again.

She straightens herself, gently pushing Lady Valerie off her. She nods thanks to her lady-in-waiting.

'That's right…' she thinks to herself. 'That man pretends I don't exist until he needs a daughter to marry off.'

Her eyes narrow as she focuses on controlling the growing storm within her.

Her mind is set.

The emperor of the greatest nation ever forged, calling for the forgotten and unwanted princess to arrange her marriage without an honor guard. Without scores of retainers. With only one lady-in-waiting, who volunteered.

Only a temporary escort was given.

A single carriage, with a single cart loaded with whatever she could fit inside it.

Lady Valerie had tried defending her father when the journey started.

"Who would dare?" She said.

The princess knew deep within that it made sense. That the lands were now pacified, now moreso than in any other time period.

Who would dare face against the emperor of all Nareth? The king of kings, the Goddess' representative on the mortal plane, and most important of all… the wielder of one of two most powerful weapons in all creation, A'luthean Armor. Handed down throughout the generations by her family, it has impacted the world in numerous ways.

Depending on who is asked, it is either a curse or blessing that only a single member of the imperial bloodline could possess that artifact at a time, as it bonds with that person for life. No other, even with the Ravenea bloodline running through their veins, can use the holy relic crafted by the Goddess Herself for Her Champions during the A'lethic Era.

Her ancestor, Garland the Conqueror, founded the Belthean Empire with it.

Her great-great-grandfather, Emperor Saldwin, used it to bring a nation to its knees, and forced another to become "Imperial Friend and Ally".

These and other such acts forced the Archpriestess to ban the use of such relics in wars, or to proclaim excommunication upon those who broke the decree.

'But how could the Archpriestess force an imperial dynasty to not use its most powerful weapon?' was a question she had asked her tutors when learning of this proclamation.

Excommunication meant losing the accounts, support, legitimacy, and administration provided by the church, but was it enough to stop her family from imposing its will?

She knew it wasn't.

Princess Adelina feels her mind racing once more as she pictures executing her plan, and a small smile sneaks its way across her face.

"Valerie," she rests her left elbow the side of the carriage as she gets her lady-in-waiting's attention, "what can you tell me about the kingdom, or more specifically, my husband-to-be?"

Lady Valerie smiles at the informal use of her name, though she quickly regains her professional demeanor, "Why, you should kno-"

The princess cuts her off, "I'm only refreshing what I know, don't worry," she responds quickly waving a hand dismissively, "Please, think of it as an exercise or an escape from the daily boredom."

Her counterpart rubs her thighs as she knew all too well how uncomfortable it was to travel via carriage for so long a distance.

"Okay…" she replies, a bit absentmindedly as she begins to recount all that she'd learned over the journey to aid the princess.

With smile still in place, the princess innocently presses on, "What's so special about my betrothed?"

Lady Valerie, either ignoring or not catching the tone, answers immediately, "Why, that'd be either his eyes and hair, his status as the future king of Argent, or the fact he belongs to the only other A'luthean bloodline in Nareth."

Princess Adelina excitedly claps her hands, only to lean forward towards her friend, "And what exactly does that mean?"

A knot of worry forms on Lady Valerie's eyebrows as she carefully answers, "… it means he will be given his family's complete set of Blessed Armor, given to their line by the Goddess Herself, the A'luthean Armor of Argent?"

The princess laughs at her friend's textbook answer, "Oh Val! How long did you practice memorizing all that?"

Lady Valerie however saw the change in the princess' face when she gave her answer. "Lina… what exactly are you planning?"

Princess Adelina slowly sits back into her seat, making herself comfortable. "Nothing… just happy to hear my match is of such a Blessed bloodline!"

The smile on her face however, doesn't reach her eyes.

'The Archpriestess could only stop the imperial family from using their A'luthean Armor with the threat of another,' she thinks to herself as she leans back on her seat, her head on the puffed headrest. 'The other belonging to a royal family on the other side of the continent, in the Kingdom of Argent.'

She was to be the wife and queen of the one who would inherit such power, power enough to equal her father.

Princess Adelina was to become Queen Adelina. Here in this foreign kingdom she would be treated with respect. She would ensure it. Never again will she have to be under her father's control, never again will she be discarded and used in the negotiations of men.

And all she had to do was seduce her soon-to-be husband.

The plan going forward is this. For the sfw thread, at the end of the month ill be posting the Patreon version of the revised demo.

The NSFW KaE Thread will receive the Silverhill Martial Route four weeks after the Patreons receive it.

No deadlines will be publicly given.

I'll be posting and releasing more things as time goes on, thank you!

The Starweaver

To the Recipient, Whose Name Will Be Safely Withheld,

I have decided to answer this lofty question of yours. For I do pity your described imposition, stepping from such grand adventures to the suffocating quiet of the Commune. It would be unwise for you to seek this knowledge from your current residence, and through my efforts of trade, despite my reservations on the topic, I must be one of the most well-equipped people alive to inform.

Know this firstly: transit between the realms of the Asterism is a poorly understood process, even to those as well-travelled as myself. They share no tangible borders, separated instead by the fathomless unworld, untouched by the New Tapestry. Yet each realm contains a region where the fabric is frayed - a wide, invisible rift that casts those who enter across the gulf to whatever destination they feel a strong enough requirement to visit. Traders and smugglers such as myself require clarity of purpose to will themselves through time after time, or we simply end up where we started with a moderate headache.

I have made every effort to remain conscious of my surroundings during these aetherial river crossings. Neither the warm alchemies of the Floodlands nor the chilling medicines of Bloodstar could maintain my waking. All I manage is to more keenly feel my lucidity fade as the dream state takes me, and as the faint visions of the unworld dance within the blinding shine of the blue haze. No matter where I enter or exit, or with what narcotics in my veins, she is there every single time.

Only in echoes and shimmers is the Starweaver detected - sometimes only felt, through sixth and seventh senses beyond human reckoning - but her presence is clear and absolute. I hear chrysolite eyes burn through the sapphire. Her radiant painted hat and impossible crystalline robes reach my eyes, with their paradox patterns and non-euclidean folds of gold night and azure sun. What is her pale skin, now? Flesh, still, or the light-bending porcelain of fallen deities? Grooves and spikes, subtle, hidden in her form - have the nephilim changed her, or did she take their traits willingly, as respect? I know she was not born so. I remember times I have never seen or known, as though I knew her as an old friend before godhood. She was younger, lighter, before her blooming of the Weave tempered the spirit. I can almost taste the secrets of where, the land she walked before she fell, before striking their bondage and shattering this prison for gods.

No matter how close I come to further revelations, I suffer the same fate as other pilgrims. I wake from the reverie in my realm of termination, equipped with whatever mercy required to see me safely to mortal civilisation. Should I journey for Port Poiseuille, I stir with sore arms, having rowed a gondola of smooth, iridescent gemstone across the Sea of Solace for an unguessable time. My returns to the Mirror Capital see my eyes open slowly, slumped against the window in a seat of a shuttletrain, coasting upon the star-seas of the Lucid Weave. I've an inkling that the Starweaver herself bridges the realms to allow Asteri to cross, summoning these accommodations to ensure we arrive in good health.

There is no doubt in my mind: she wishes her presence known within the dream, for one of such power could just as easily shield herself from mortal senses. Perhaps this is how she reminds us of her vigil from within the Skyloom - or, more fantasically, perhaps her image steals our attention from horrors of the unworld we are not ready to know. I hear her whispers, sometimes. Her strifeless voice reverberates with many heights and depths, like strings, chords. The words themselves are always obscured, as though of a foreign language - not Ancestral, which I can interpret with some competency. A tongue of gods.

But I can make out one word, occasionally. A name. The one we are chastised as children for uttering in vain, and oft never speak again. Some say, when they think our gods cannot hear, that it is a name stolen from a star in an old world. I wish she could wear it more proudly again. To take identity in theft from the heavens, to rail against ultimate power - that is the mark of defiance the leader of the Asteri should bear.

Her name was Vega. And her dream is our awakening.

Please, make especially certain that this letter is destroyed along with the others. While it is my privilege to convey such exalted topics, the repercussions if we were discovered would be far worse. The Commune does not tolerate attempts to understand those above us, for reasons you are well aware.

We will meet in person again soon. I trust we will have much to organise.

Your Friend in Commerce

Editor's note: this letter was written to one of the Friend in Commerce's anonymous business partners in the Commune of Whispers several years ago. It was originally meant to be burned to hide their dealings, but the recipient handed it back to the Friend when they next met, insisting it be preserved as a testament to the Starweaver. I am again tagging this as OC as is convention, so hopefully describing patron gods as my property doesn't have negative consequences.

revachol, forever

DOLORES DEI - "It's all gone. I have to go to the aerodrome. I have to leave Revachol and you. And you have to be alone -- in hell, forever. That's just the way it is."

-

RADIO - "Revachol (Zone of Control), 0° centigrade, black ice warning."

-

SHIVERS - Outside, the howl of the wind has picked up. The waves crash against the stilts again. It's as if you think the thought, but in someone else's voice...

SHIVERS - REVACHOL FOREVER

-

SHIVERS - YOU CANNOT LEAVE. SO MUCH HANGS IN THE BALANCE.

-

INLAND EMPIRE - A little rhyme jingling in your mind's attic... "Of the future, of the past/ Of all that is not made to last"...

-

MAIL COLLECTION BOX - The mail collection box seems cathartic, thankful even. So do you. You shudder. Then you swallow.

SHIVERS - And then suddenly you see it: over all the other graffitos someone has -- using the tip of a very sharp knife -- cut the words: REVACHOL FOREVER.

-

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Hordes of wild homeless people roaming the lands, nomads scattered across an endless plain in a dystopian world where tare is the only valid currency... and people eat each other to stay alive.

LILIENNE, THE NET PICKER - "I don't mean to complain about my pauper life. We are warm and fed here and..." She smiles faintly and plucks some seaweed out of the net. "I don't know, there's just something about this shit hole."

SHIVERS - A sudden gust of cold air blows in from the sea. The waves flow and ebb, around you the fishing village takes its slow and steady breaths... its many wooden structures worn by bitter years of salt and storm.

YOU - Shake off the stupor.

SHIVERS - Even at the worst of times, Revachol cares for its inhabitants.

-

YOU - Was I right?

SHIVERS - YOU WERE.

-

SHIVERS - The wind stops and for a moment there's silence. The cold dissipates into your parietal lobe like a dissolved bullet. All is quiet on the Martinaise inlet...

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - A dog barks and a gunshot echoes off the walls of some distant building. A woman's voice...

SHIVERS - REVACHOL FOREVER.

-

INLAND EMPIRE - No storm will ever drown Revachol, the great solution to the riddle of history.

-

YOU - "History loves to rhyme. I'll bet Revachol has its day again."

-

YOU - "What is this place? Where am I?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "You're in a hostel, sir."

YOU - "No -- *where* are we? Where in the world?"

KLAASJE (MISS ORANJE DISCO DANCER) - "We are in Revachol."

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Revachol is the disgraced former capital of the world, divided into zones of control under foreign occupation -- half a century after a failed world revolution. She is central to our moment in time.

YOU - "Revachol forever."

-

SHIVERS - And ever and ever...

-

JOYCE MESSIER - "Forever?" She cocks her head sideways. "In twenty years Revachol went from a king to a commune to a Zone of Control. She *is* forever. But the next thing she will be is something else."

-

SHIVERS - The lights of the orphan district are reflected in his glasses: the red and golden orbs of the motorway sliding like pearls on a string, from East to West, as Revachol commutes back to the suburbs. Tomorrow is Tuesday. Monday is over.

-

INLAND EMPIRE - Compared to the intersection, in front of Video Revachol 24 -- it's nothing. Compared to that, everything is possible.

SHIVERS - Stop and you can go to the Burnt Out Quarter. And meet me there -- wafting above the burnt ruins. Like the smell of caramel -- Le Retour is waiting.

[ words sourced from fayde ]

Hard Facts About PBAT Administration by Dr. kenny Odugbemi

Foreign Direct Investment

Hard Facts About PBAT Administration by Dr. kenny Odugbemi We are chasing shadows abroad in the name of FDI whilst our cash cows are looted with litany of insanity by unpatriotic political robbers in shades of civilians and armed forces. Our oil theft recovered over 200 times under period of consideration on small level 65000litres on daily basis and programmed vessel comes in regular to still thousands of little in the creeks for us to be chasing at 12 nautical miles, international water what happens with 6 nautical miles with safe jurisdiction for Tantikker oil services contractors very political and myriad of air raids, land raids and water raid by security architecture spending trillion yet stealing avails, as they only capture meagre private owner private owners well televised; whilst bid tickets were freely escorted by Naval ship Commander on Water raids. Till date, mineral resource exploitation on rampages across different states especially NW, NE, SW goes in unnoticed unchecked protected by helicopters of who is who, cabals of high and mighty. Who is fooling who? With over N3.2trn Fy 2024 and over N8trn it is same old story even changing Service Chiefs, NSA make meaningful, we still have terrorist actions killing and many local government under deep captivity NE, Zamfara, Niger, Gombe, Sokoto etc. Farmers and herders clash, Communal killing in the Middle Only South West is safe; thanks to Amotekun and Vigilante, not armed but armed Hizbah are only toothless bull dogs with helicopter fire acquire with Millions of tax payers money we still have political killing galore. Our sorjourn to Saudi Emirates will never yield any capital injection into capital market talkless of refurbishing our refineries. Despite the humiliation of lesser Hajj Nigerian whilst PBAT is there, the outcome is mere propaganda. Naira is devalued by 40%, Inflation 27.3% going to 30% by end of December. Where most people purchasing power is absymally low, where will be the local market, where is power, how about looter in Public sector and toxicity in Private sector. At home Nigeria. With N2 billion injection and cash transfer as sunk cost poverty deepens.We are in a highly depressed economy where frivolous expenditure at executive level is now our tolerated impunity as people suffers deeply. We service our debt with 98% of revenue less than N10 trillion We can see wonders of remaining 2% spending this appropriation of N2.1 trillion supplementary Fy2023:budget How do we explain Fy2024 Critical sectors N8.3 trillion Total budget N27.5trn Non debt recurrent expenditure N10.25trn Debt services N18.5trn Critical sectors This is hallucinations, consumption driven mainly for three tiers of government. Let us ask critical question Where is the Siemen Germany electricity to upgrade to 250000MGW 2025? Where is the celebrated Indian loan of $13bn? Where is $3bn NNPC contract loan by AFRIEXIM bank? Has UAE lifted ban on Visa for Nigeria? Overview Every Summit visit with no meaningful direct investment are only Media propaganda Germany and Dubai inclusive. From available record we spend average of $500m as report. How many trips till date? My hard fact, Nigeria is blessed with the following: Oil resource of depth, Abundant gas, Vibrant and intelligent human capital, Arable land of infinite hectare in million. We chose to engage Mediocre as Ministers for sakes of political settlement. Fragmented all sectors giving rooms for all sorts Ministerial job position. We are an international beggars globally just Like PMB with no result Must our gullibility continues? 52% of best brains are Japa, 48% are frustrated with low pay going toward corruption, yahoo and yahoo+. What is the future of the brilliant Youths in a depressed state of mind, whilst leaders lives in opulence and citizenship wallow in deep poverty? As of today only 4 states are viable (GDP(PPP) billions Lagos 266.55 Rivers 51.52 Akwaibom 50.3 Imo 49.69 Other states are grossely insolvent and not viable governed by ignorant Governor's who can not thinks outside the box no drive to shore up internally generated revenue. Most oil rich States with some exception are so poorly managed, eg poverty stricken Bayelsa, Delta, Cross river etc. Northwest, Northeast, Northcentral are carcases of states unimaginably devastated by terrorists State of Finance By my independent research N43trn were looted by PMB, and CBN declared N33trn Obazi has retrieved N12trn where is the balance? Conservatively over 65% of stolen wealth are in Sudan and Egypt Islamic bank by unpatriotic looters in Last PMB government PBAT by my assessment We have issues of transparent, we have borrowed so much against consumption with no meaningful revenue generation How can we generate N18trn FY2024? With declare vitals and public spending of supplementary budget Fy 2023. How do we turn around revenue with new tax policy? Blocking of leakages opening of new stream of experimental blue. Economy, tourism, creative,digital innovation, power all are mirage. Which investors will invest in our all round decayed infrastructure, when we specialized in having CKD and refurbished OEM across all sectors they are not blind; check aviation, blue rail, train coaches, overhaul of refineries We should stop deceiving ourselves and look inward surely we can do a lot better across all sectors My deep worry If PBAT can not provide jobs for youths If, PAT can meet revenue target If PAT can not recover. N31trn We will be on free fall to oblivion. This government should be very careful, we need to be more people centric. We are overfeeding the rich starving the poor to extinction. Advice to Nigeria Citizenship Dignity of labour, strong work ethic, readjusted lifestyle, health and wellness - feed on natural herbs, stop ethnicity/religious bigotry, adopt merit, be pragmatic, be honest and be accountable. Conclusion Three tiers of government must be highly prudent, replacing non-performing Head of Institutions, enhance transparency, accountability, promote equity fairness justice, resource control, restructuring, recalibrating and repositioning. Read the full article

The map says we are in Spain, but..

September 17, 2023

Kaixo!

We are in Bilbao and according to the map - we are in northern Spain - but it doesn't feel like Spain, it doesn't sound like Spain and it doesn't taste like Spain. We are actually in the land of the Basque people: Basque Country or “Euzkadi" in the Basque language.

We have a new trip leader, Fran (Francisco José Valle de Tarazaga Montero, PhD). He is a Basque and passionate about his country. He is also gregarious, funny and extremely knowledgeable - but that is just part of the trip leader requirement, it seems. He is an archeologist when he is not helping people to understand his country.

The Basques are NOT Spanish. PERIOD!!!

Basque Country (Euskadi) is an autonomous community in northern Spain and south western France with strong cultural traditions, a celebrated cuisine and a distinct language that pre-dates the Romance languages. The vibrant riverside city of Bilbao is a hub of architecture and design, where gritty factories and shipyards give way to cutting-edge landmarks such as the titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum along a revitalized waterfront. It is a beautiful place - but this is NOT Spain. Do NOT make that mistake!

This is not the first time we have encountered this. The Faroe Islands is an autonomous community that is working with Denmark to become completely independent. I don't think Sciliy is working to be independent but DO NOT call them Italian.

The Basque people hate the Spaniards. HATE THEM! And for good reason. Here is just one reason: One of the main cities of Basque Country is Guernica - long considered the spiritual capital of the Basques.

During the Spanish Civil War the Basque people fought against the Franco troops. During Market Day, April 26, 1938, Guernica was bombed. The attack gained controversy because it involved the bombing of civilians by a military air force. Even more controversial was who did the bombing - The Nazi Luftwaffe. Franco and Hitler and Mussolini were buddies and members of the dictator mutual admiration society. Plans were in the works for a new type of warfare - but Hitler and Mussolini needed a practice run. Franco gave it to them and they destroyed Guernica killing civilians - a new type of warfare, terror from the sky.

The Basque language is alive and well although during the Franco years it was illegal to speak it. Now it is the language of Basque people with everything written in Basque and Spanish. Public schools and universities are taught in Basque - although there are some private schools that teach in Spanish - or English. Spanish and English are taught as foreign languages. The origins of Basque language are unknow - BUT they are not like any other European language - for sure. Linguistically, Basque is a language isolate.

The first day - our travel day from Madrid to Bilbao - was an easy day. We took a little ride around the city then did a little walking tour around the old city. Our hotel is very conveniently located and the city is indeed walkable. Fran explained how this autonomous region - thing works and many of the rules that exist that keep this place clean, debt-free, and keep the traffic manageable.

They do pay high taxes but they received great services for taxes paid. School from pre-school through post graduate degrees are free. All medical, dental, eye and hearing services are free. The Basque Country is filled with community education opportunities including sport courts, areas, fields, etc. They are serious about recycling and their are massive opportunities every few blocks. We were able to open the top of a container and put in our glass bottle - but as a resident you scan your card and then deposit. The weight of what you deposit is recorded and you get a discount on your trash bill. One of the bins in composting and I watched a restaurant staff member transferring all the returned food into a giant bin. I loved it.

To illustrate the traffic management we did a travel morning in which we walked, road a funicular, a bus, a boat, a passenger transporter and a subway as we explored the city. it make NO sense to have a car in this city - and most people do not. So even at rush hours, cars are are few. The streets are filled with busses and trams - mass transit at its finest.

We began the day taking a funicular to the upper city. Beautiful views:

Then we took a bus to the transporter.

Then a boat and finally a subway that brought us back to the Old Town.

And finally a subway that brought us back to the Old Town.

And here is the deal...because Fran is a resident and we are over 65 the cost for all this was between 16 cents and 32 cents per ride. Sometimes we seniors were free.

Food: Pintxos. (Pinchos)

Pintxos are NOT Tapas. They are open face sandwiches containing all kinds of stuff - and I mean all kinds of stuff.

You get in line - point to what you want - pick at least 3, order your drink and then wait until they are given to you. Being gluten free is a bummer here - but they fixed me us and I was find. This is a big deal here and there are pintxos places everywhere. The stuff I had was delicious and I didn't see any empty plates - so I'm guessing we were all happy.

I really love eating like a local.

Bilbao is beatuiful. The River Nervión flows through the town and is crossed many times by foot bridges. The bridge below was designed by the same guy that designed the Vasco da Gama Bridge that we took out of Lisboa - just a couple of weeks ago - but it feels like months! This bridge has a glass floor and while that is cool - it rains most days in Bilbao making that impractiable. The city opted to carpet it. - which the artist did not like. He sued the city and won but his award was one Euro. We crossed the carpeted bridge more than once.

This is not something I usually do but when it works - it works. Watch this video from Rick Steves. We have done almost everything in the first 19 minutes of the video - although we went to Bilbao first and St. Sebastian second. AWESOME!!!

Our trip to the Guggenheim was amazing but I have to say that the building itself it the "thing." I couldn't tell you much about the contents of that building - but the building OMG!!!

Here is another thing one of us liked: Public bathrooms and urinals.

Bottom line - we are loving exploring Basque Country!

Stay tuned.

Blogpost #2: Earthseed

My perfect earthseed community would be one in which all individuals maintained a role in society. This would allow everyone to have a purpose and build a cooperative mindset to work together in harmony. I created this community to help shield from the collapsing society due to a viral outbreak mirroring the Marburg Virus. This outbreak began in China and has a 90 percent death rate and has prohibited travel and sealed the borders both nationally and internationally. The casualties from the outbreak also caused a collapse of the aging population in China leading to a significant disruption into the global supply chain. I will build my Earthseed community in Woodland California. The city secluded and deals with a mild winter, it receives a decent amount of rainfall each year, and it is a prime zone for agriculture. There is only one major freeway that goes through the town making it easier to spot the entrance of any foreigners. There is also an abundance of trees and a secluded fresh water river. 

I believe that better success rates will occur if there is a strong sense of cultural homogeneity among citizens. There will always be rebels or those who challenge societal norms. However, I think a monolithic culture will give less reasons for people to delineate themselves from one another and give them a room to focus on tasks that will allow the community to grow and thrive. Because of this only Black christian families that pass a morality exam and swear loyalty will be allowed into the community. They must also submit to the fact that 33819953All crime meets capital punishment.

Another important core of my perfect earth seed community would be an intense focus on sustainability and maximizing the growth potential of our essential resources. Borrowing from the concepts, and from the technology in Ponzi. We would have a water purification. System that would filter every single remaining are left over a drop of moisture, even if there were freshwater sources available.  I would alot one  single plot of land for recreational activities, mainly for children. The rest of any farm land would be dedicated to growing crops, specifically crops that are high-yield and nutrient dense. Meals will be prepared and enjoyed communally. Another component of sustainability is to develop skills of preservation learning to pickle, ferment, cure dehydrate fresh produce. So there will be no need to rely on refrigeration to preserve food through the non harvesting season.

Education is another essential component of a thriving society of my Earthsea community. In this community, the education system from an early age will focus on key principles of integrity and morality. It would also highlight or focus on key survival skills in regards to combat, food, clothing and shelter, and in the later years, after choosing a focus, they will be able to focus on a specialization or just specialized in a skill like sewing or that will contribute to society. 

Through these implementations I will apply Earthseed Verse 45: “ Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. Civilization provides ways of combining the information, experience, and creativity of the many to achieve ongoing group adaptability” and verse 36: “We give our dead To the orchards And the groves. We give our dead To life”. These verses enforce a strong sense of community and conservation, the prominent pillars of my organization.

Kaixo girls! You told us not to get you started on nafarroa... Could you please explain us why, what happens? But don't get mad at me!

Kaixo anon!

We won't, we promise ^_~. We'll use this ask to also answer @jumiila that wrote this:

Hasn’t there been any talks to integrate the Basque-speaking lands in Nafarroa into Euskadi, so that there is no linguistic conflict?

Nafarroa is divided into 3 different linguistic zones:

red: Basque-speaking areas. In these areas Basque speakers can address the administration in Basque, talk to a doctor in Basque or learn in Basque, have their Basque toponyms - only the Spanish one is included when the names are very different - and so on. In this area live the 47% of Basque speakers of Nafarroa, which represent almost 68% of the total population of the area. orange (both light and dark): mixed areas. These are considered transition areas, but mostly it means Basque speakers are a minority: another 47% of the Basque speakers of Nafarroa live here, but ah, they're only the 18% of the population of the area. Soooo, there were some rules - like the obligation of every communication from the administration or law system to be bilingual - that have been recently overruled: they can be in both languages, but to be in Basque is not mandatory anymore. There's a petition to give Basque the same value that a foreign language (any of them, this could be Chinese, Tagalog, or any language you can imagine that isn't actively spoken over here) in a public examination and not more, because, you know, there's the same chance a public worker faces a Vietnamese speaker that a Basque one. Basque speakers´rights are being reduced more and more in these areas and nobody seems to care. grey: non Basque-speaking areas: they're supposed to be almost no Basque speakers here. They're just the 6% of the total Basque speakers of Nafarroa, and also the 6% of the population of the area. So whatever, right? They want to have schools teaching in Basque - like there are English or French schools, for example - and they have to face demonstrations against it, Basque won't be imposed, Basque is nationalist, bla bla bla. The Basque and Navarrese Government even had to negotiate that the Basque tv can be tuned in in Nafarroa, ffs.

The funny thing is that these areas were decided based on "history".

But, as you can see, just from 1767 - when the areas were established by priests to romanize the territories next to the capital, Pamplona, with the blessing of the ultra-centralist Bourbon king - Basque speakers have been losing territories.

May we go even further back in time?

Where do we draw the line in time to claim historic reasons?

Let's not forget that Euskara was once called "Lingua Navarrorum", the language of the Navarrese people!!

Euskara is not being imposed. The only language imposed is Spanish, from the Spanish Constitution:

Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. Every Spaniard has the obligation of knowing it and the right to use it.

We have absolutely no problem with Spanish and/or Spanish speakers, but we do have a problem when Basque speakers can't be granted the same right to use our language than the rest.

Sorry for this neverending post!

Campaign Idea: The Invasion

G̸̝̹̹͇̐͑́͠͝r̵̡̲͖̘̘̳̫͊̃͌͆̓͊̈́̔ŏ̶͈͎̥͓̟̜͇̩̒̄͂̓̈͝w̴̧̛̬̞̪͈͎̽̅̓̊͌ẗ̴̼̞͚̤̝͕́̓̒̂h̷͍͌́̈́̐͋́̏̿̓̀,̷̡̪̦̇̊̓̕͝ ̴̡͓̬͈̞̝̮͘ę̴̠͓̙̲̭͉͓̰͍͋́͂͘͝͠x̵̡̠̱̜͍̲̆̔ͅp̵̝̩̦̗͚̰͋͋̍́̒ā̶̭̜̻͍̞̟̓̈͝n̴͖̩͖̗̺̼̞̬͒̆̉́̑̀͑̀̾̚d̶̨̲̖̞̦̒̓̈̒̈́̀̚,̸̧̍ ̸̢̢̬̬̤̂͛͗̄̃̈́̽́̇̂c̷̠̺̻̔͗ȍ̴̼̮͕̗͈̣̊̌ͅņ̶̝̬̒͛̃̒͛͘͘q̵̢̛̂̋͌͐̋͐͌͋̚u̸̧̨͉͇̯͛̈̔̈́̚͜è̸͓͇̩̻͓̗̌ͅŗ̵̡̱̟͙͓͙̤̠͋̀͐́̌,̷̬̔͒̽̀͝ ̷̡͔͔͈̊̐͒̌͗̉͋̅͘͜͜r̶̻͖̺̤̝͊̄̍͝͝ͅe̷̪͎̎͒͋b̵̨̮̤͔̹̼͖̼̤̹͊̍͆̈́̎̒͗̈́̓̚u̷̞͆͐i̶̢̹͔̟̹͖̲̤̾̉͗͊̂̔̽̈́̕l̶̗͚̣̈̃͐̂̍̎̃͝ḍ̶́̈́̒͠.̸̨̧̡͙͇͓̩̫̜͓͊̀̈́͆̊̽

The History

When the next kingdom over fell to an enormous explosion it shook the world, the earthquakes, the forest fires, the stampeding monsters. Everyone was prepared for the worst, yet the world didn't end, just another small bump in the road.

The story goes that the archmage had been playing with magics too strong for them, harnessing some old relic or some such until it failed, killing everything within the capital and most of the nearby towns. Those who didn't die immediately apparently died of some disease that was so horrific the surrounding kingdoms killed any who tried to cross the borders. Ultimately there were no survivors.

It's been a whole century since the incident, yet none are permitted to cross the border, only the occasional groups of clerics, guards, and wizards may cross. Every time they go out few of them return, the dead having been afflicted by the disease that still ravages the land, no one is safe and any that return must go through extensive testing before being released.

But it does make you wonder, those that come back almost always become withdrawn, once promising clerics sinking into depression, mighty wizards refusing to do more than wallow in tomes. Many see it as a warning, even the empires best are tested to breaking point by what is over the border, so you must stay away.

The problem lies with rumours of distant villages along the border going silent, relatives not returning letters, travellers being told to turn back on the road by rough soldiers. Has the disease spread over the border? There are many attempting to move towards the capital yet the guards have become selective in who enters, tensions are high and the soldiers are getting aggressive when questioned.

The Hook

As you can likely guess from the image this is not a disease, or at least not one we would recognise. The archmage was messing around with something connected to the far realms, somewhere so far removed from the natural order of our universe it is maddening to witness.

What the thing was is up to you, but the result was horrific, the explosion was the fabric of reality being torn apart generating so much heat it was like a nuclear bomb. Then the portal stabilised they started coming through, the aberrations, the unknowable creatures so alien they warp reality around them.

Most of the creatures have travelled far from the now reduced portal, hidden in the deep cervices of the world. However there are some that remain, and they are who brutalise any who cross the border. Their nests and dens used to simply encompass the capital, but over the last century they have expanded their empire, converting the once fertile land into a hellscape of aberrant logic.

Any that enter the land must navigate wandering monstrosities, hive creatures, twisted flora and fauna, along with magical dead zones and wild magic storms. Should anyone find themselves there without some kind of protection or decent constitution they will likely find themselves warped by these outsider forces.

The expansion of these eldritch lands are an impending doom that surrounding kingdoms can just about hold back, without information they won't commit to an assault, and without an assault it won't be contained. So the kingdoms, empires, and duchies simply wait for the other to make a first move, letting the enemy swell. The best they can do is keep the secrets under wraps with magical contracts and threats of execution.

Will your party be able to push the creatures back? Or will they simply buy a century of time before the imminent demise of the sentient races?

Some Ideas

For this you have A LOT of possibilities, and it is down to you and your players in how this plays out. I can see it being deeply diplomatic, expeditions to gain intel before returning and giving detailed reports on how best to navigate the land as well as enemy numbers. Follow this up with ambassador missions to neighbouring countries requesting aid with a concerted effort, a final stand.

Or you can do a suicide squad, each member is a criminal (may be innocent and have been framed/blamed) who will be spending decades in prison who were offered a reduced sentence if they did one job. This could quickly deteriorate though since they'll obviously want out after facing their first eldritch monstrosity.

Then there's those who have been asked by outside forces to push the abominations back, secret societies who know the truth, gods who REALLY don't want to lose the material plane and their worshippers/source of power, even simply someone who has managed to escape a village/the old kingdom and knows the truth of the inevitable doom.

You can make this as simple or complex, easy or hard as you like. This can be a hardcore survival, limited food supplies, hundreds of miles to travel in hostile territory. The land can warp the characters, changing abilities, mutating flesh, even spells going haywire as they interact with the foreign magics.

If you have Grim Hollow the aberrant transformations will certainly allow you to build a character in a unique and horrific way, all of you becoming better suited to fight the scourge while also becoming it.

Ultimately this is all up to you, but damn you got a lot of options, talk to your players, if they're cool with body horror you can do some crazy things with the old residents. Just remember that not all of them will be mindless beasts, some can communicate, they're just so different it will be hard to communicate clear ideas.

Art by Beeple

Oh god those things are exquisitely horrific, they exemplify what I've always thought of with aberration type monsters, they're not inherently evil, just so different that they're as confused by us as we are by them. The sky, the flora, the creatures, make this alien world look so alive but so different from what we want. Brilliant, thank you.

Do you think America's foundations were proto-fascist? Why, or why not?

absolutely. i've been saying it for years.

we went from a confederation to a federation. we went from a decentralized state to a centralized one. that's a pretty universal trait of fascist governments. and not just any kind of centralized state. a strongly centralized state.

fascism is critical of democracy and amenable to dictatorship. our founding fathers were extremely critical of democracy, and while the presidency isn't quite a dictator, it's actually a very powerful office. someone once point out to me that the president has more executive powers and influence on government than the queen of england. our founding fathers believed a strong, energetic executive was very important to the maintenance of a republic.

fascism is authoritarian. literally one of the first things our country did when it was formed was put down the whiskey rebellion by military force.

fascism is militaristic and blurs the lines between citizenry and the military. america embraced a republican tradition of citizen-soldiers. literally every american male between the ages of 18 and 45 is considered a militiaman. not only that, but our very first president was a general and celebrated war hero, as many of our subsequent presidents also have been. and you have to be insane to deny the extremely militaristic culture of america and our aggressive foreign policy and how highly we regard our armed forces.

fascism seeks autarky. so did our founding fathers. that was one of the prevailing themes in our early history. our struggle to become economically self-sufficient using protectionist policies to protect our infant manufacturing industries and imperial conquest for land and resources. our westward expansion was in pursuit of our lebensraum.

fascism tends to embrace classical aesthetics. lmao take one look at our capital.

fascism embraces economic interventionism. so did our founding fathers. they understood that the state had to play an active role in regulating commerce and minimizing the gap between the wealthy and poor.

fascism believes in the importance of civic virtue and virtue in general. so did our founding fathers.

fascism believes political violence is legitimate. so did our founding fathers. otherwise there wouldn't even be an america.

fascism is often considered anti-liberal, anti-communism, and anti-conservative. insofar as those ideas existed back then, early america was definitely opposed to them all. and in the case of anti-communism, still is to this day.

fascism is paradoxically both elitist and populist. so were our founding fathers. they absolutely believed in the common good and The People and truly believed in uplifting them and creating a new, better world for them, but they also believed they needed a wise and virtuous elite to guide them. if you read our found fathers' letters you will find them refer to the distinction between "natural aristocracy" and "artificial aristocracy". natural aristocracy being closest to the original sense of the word, "rule by the best" and artificial aristocracy referred more to the entrenched hereditary noble class. the founding fathers acknowledged the goodness of natural aristocracy but abhorred its artificial counterpart. and america is no stranger to populism.

fascists believe in class collaboration instead of class warfare. so did early america. we even have our own word for it. the "harmony of interests" is what we called it.

fascism is intrinsically spiritual and mythical. so is america. our declaration of independence makes at least a few references to the divine and then many of our other symbols and mottos and rhetoric are also deeply entwined with the divine.

fascism believes in an armed populace. many early fascist movements basically started out as small bands of militias. do i really need to explain to you how central guns and militias are to america?

the list keeps going.

The Shadows Watching Gotham

Or Watcher as most knows them,is a popular YouTuber and Podcaster and is the outside world's only reliable source of information about the on goings of the Mask Community within the crime ridden city known as Gotham. Aka the No Man's Land and the Crime Capital of the World.

Rumor has it that Watcher is the only way an outsider can contact the Bats. If this is true or not, Superman is about the find out.

Chapter 1: A rattle of bones

The Justice League of America and their younger counterparts watched the monitor in their meeting hall with rapt attention. On it, Barry had pulled up the channel of a popular youtuber, The Shadows Watching Gotham, hoping to get some more intel on the situation on Gotham and the vigilantes that the JLA wished to recruit. Though while the older members were listening with only half an ear, the younger ones were entranced with the hypnotizing and haunting narrative as Watcher spoke. His soft, raspy voice wrapping around them like an intoxicating perfume leaving the Young Justice Members wanting to hear more. Perhaps it was the strange ambient music playing in the background that added to the mystery surrounding Watcher that had them so entranced.

"...Just a friendly reminder for all my Gothamites listening in, Dr. Crane, otherwise known as The Scarecrow, escaped Arkham during last months breakout. Please do not forget your gas masks at home as he is still at large."

Watcher sat at an old and cluttered desk, the only light from an offscreen lamp, possibly a gaslamp, which bathed the teen and his surroundings in a soft golden glow. Though the JL couldn't see anything behind the teen except for pitch blackness, possibly the result of a backdrop. They couldn't see much of the Watcher as his face was blocked by the arm, the pop filter and mic of the studio microphone the teen was using. The teen was wearing a white long sleeved shirt which was rolled up to his elbows, showing off wiry, yet muscular arms covered in an odd variety of scars most Gothamites had littering parts of them, and a pressed red vest with black embroidery swirling across it, a gold tie could be seen just below the arm of the mic. Over all, the Watcher was just as mysterious and cryptic as the vigilantes he talked about.

"Now as the sun rises upon the decrepit bones of our fair city, I must bid you all a fair the well and a hopefully Good Morning. This is Watcher signing off."

And with that the screen went dark, snapping many out of the trance they had fallen into whilst listening to the Watcher speak.

Superman cleared his throat, before standing, "As I was saying. In order to hopefully meet with these vigilantes, I have managed to establish contact with The Watcher, as he is so far our only reliable source on the vigilantes that are not simply rumors spread by the Gotham Gazette or hearsay spread about through the villain network."

Hal frowned, leaning back in his chair rocking it back on two legs, "Yet isn't he just as hard to get a hold of?"

"Which is why I am going to meet him as Clark Kent with Kon acting as my back up in the form of my son shadowing me at work," the man of steel replied, ignoring how his clone/son rolled his eyes and muttered, "Isn't that what I normally fucking do?"

Their relationship was still rocky at time, but Ma Kent was determined to get Clark to do right by the boy. After all they were only on good terms due to Ma Kent. But, Kon was going through what Ma called his rebellious stage and trying to break out of his father's shadow as most teenage sons do. Which lead to snippy comments during meetings and Clark wondering just how Kon managed to get another new piercing, personally he blamed Lex for those because of course the man would figure out how to give a Kryptonian piercings just to piss Superman off.

Clark simply sighed and went back to addressing the others, “The Watcher agreed to meet with us tomorrow evening after I explained that I was writing an article about Gotham and it’s rumored vigilantes and found that he was the only reliable source I could find with recent information. And that I learned about him thanks to my son, Conner.”

“Meaning, I have to watch over fifty videos on Youtube so not to sound stupid when I talk to the dude,” Kon muttered to his best friend, Bart, who giggled softly into his hands. Both ignoring the looks their mentors gave them, though Barry’s was more fond then reprimanding like Clark’s.

“Exactly how will you know if it is this Watcher that you are meeting?” Wonder Woman inquired, a frown settling on her face in contemplation, “After all we do not know what this mysterious Watcher looks like…”

“We will be meeting him at the abandoned opera house within Central Gotham. He said he would know it is him by the red feathers he wears,” Clark sounded confused at this but only shrugged, “It’s the best I could get, he wouldn’t agree to meet outside of Gotham. Due to Gotham being declared No Man’s Land still by the President, even with the major rebuilding done by the Waynes… Most Gothamites don’t leave now.”

He sighed at the confused looks he was getting from the other members, “That was how Watcher explained it to me after I asked.”

The next evening…

Gotham was just as gloomy and foreboding as it was described in all the forums Kon had schemed the night before. What they had failed to mention was the literal stench of despair and fear that hung in the air. Or how Kon felt like the shadows were closing in slowly around him and his sorta-dad/Genetic donor as they hung outside the desolate opera house. Really the building was something out of a horror movie, and that was saying something considering this was Fucking Gotham and most places were probably used as references for horror movie scenery. It was huge and probably had been grand looking back in its prime with its gothic architecture and scale...though now the huge dome of the building was crumbling, slowly caving into itself and the once bright walls of it’s outer shell were now grey and covered in graffiti with most of the stained panels of it’s windows busted out from various villain attacks, bullet holes littered the siding and the once bright letters announcing the next play were broken and mostly missing. Honestly, Kon expected either a ghastly apparition from Hamlet to start monologuing or a serial killer to leap from the crawling shadows of the building looming over them.

He was not expecting someone to fucking sneak up on them out of the shadows and nearly scare Kon into fucking space!

“For an investigative reporter, you aren’t very observant, Mr. Kent,” came a soft, yet raspy voice like smoke behind them, causing both Kents to nearly break cover and leap on top of the building they were standing in front of. A smoky chuckle greeted them as both Kents whirled around just shy of inhuman speeds, “Really, I’ve been standing here watching you two nervously pace for about an hour now.”

An hour?

But how did they not hear him?

Kon was distracted from his thoughts as he took in just who was standing before them. The other teen, as their voice sounded young and didn’t yet have the full changes that signaled adulthood, only came up to Kon’s chin making him around five foot something compared to Kon’s near six feet. (He was so glad they fixed the aging and growing thing. He did not want to be stuck at the height of a thirteen year old forever.) They looked possibly male, but Kon wasn’t going to assign pronouns until they properly introduced themselves it was only polite according to Ma. Kon was still surprised that they managed to sneak up on the two Kents. They were wiry, yet muscular, built mainly for running from what Kon could tell, it was hard to tell with them still somehow blending in with the shadows despite how they were dressed. A white button down, sleeves rolled up to the elbows, with a bright red vest with black embroidery, a golden tie tucked into the vest, black dress slacks and slightly scuffed yet still shiny red loafers. A black trench coat was slung over one shoulder as the person watched them with amused blue eyes, the only part of their face they could see thanks to the bulky, yet futuristic looking, black gas mask with red lights. Kon could only see the person’s eyes thanks to the clear face shield protecting their eyes from foreign objects. Shaggy and long black hair framed the person’s face, the inky blackness of their hair almost blending into the Gotham night if it wasn’t for the bright red feathers tied throughout the inky mass.

Bright red feathers…

Feathers!

“Oh you’re Watcher!” Kon exclaimed being the first to recover, causing the podcaster to chuckle, “Oooh? I see you actually did remember. I was beginning to think that staring was just what Metropolians did.”

Okay since I remember one of the asks that  disappeared, it was about what the situation is like between East Germany and West Germany today and if there are linguistic or cultural differences. (For one, if you’re interested in this, I really recommend the film Goodbye, Lenin, it’s a classic and it’s exactly about this subject and really funny and sad)

As for the linguistic side, because it’s simpler-

There are a lot of regional differences between German to begin with and I think compared to them, the differences between 'East German' German and 'West German' German are rather small. Being West German myself, I have an easier time understanding someone from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or Brandenburg or Saxony-Anhalt than I do with someone who has a strong Bavarian, Swabian or Franconian accent, although the former were East German and the former are West German. Also they’re not necessarily more similar because they were one a specific side of the border.

There are some things that vaguely align with either region and were more common on one side - for example there are different ways to same the time, but those also predate the separation and not all 'Wessis' say it this way and all 'Ossis' say it that way.

There are some specific words and abbreviations and idioms that originated in West Germany or in East Germany, but they are mostly rooted in Hochdeutsch (Standard German) so you can conclude their meaning.

For example, in West Germany people called a supermarket a Supermarkt (generally, there are more loanwords from Western languages in 'West German') while East Germans said 'Kaufhalle'. But 'Super' and 'Markt' are both German words and even if you don't know what it means, you can conclude that it's a really great place to run your daily errands. And 'Kauf' and 'Halle' translates to 'buying hall' so you get the same idea.

In regional dialects such as Frisian or Swiss German, this would impossible, because these dialects are much older and very often have words and rules that don't exist in Standard German - not to mention they are pronounced very differently. You couldn’t deconstruct a word like that into Standard German unless they sound similar. Some researchers also said that some words were used differently and that East Germans had a stronger distinction between public and private language and make different jokes - which is pretty much a transition into the other differences. Basically, the actual use of language that came into existence because of the separation was too short-lived and too artificial to truly part of the language. Plus there was never actually an attempt by either side to create a ‘new’ German language. 

I actually watched some videos about North Koreans living in South Korea and struggling with the language and I noticed that for one, that Koreans said there was a rather consistent North Korean way of speaking - but while there are certain dialects like Saxonian that are ‘typical’ East German dialects (my parents can tell you if someone comes from East or West Berlin and often which part of either just based on the way they speak), there is not ONE East German dialect. Plus, the duration and intensity of the separation cannot be compared to that of Korea. Many East Germans still listened to West German radio and watched Western television. People could talk on the phone and write letters. And before the ‘death strip’ was finished, people could even talk across the wall. So there was some interaction. 

As for other differences - 

The obvious ones are the economical differences. West Germany still has a stronger economy than East Germany - a map, as an example (although it’s a bit small I know) - you can easily make out which part used to be GDR and which used to be West Germany.

The result is that many young East Germans, especially young women, move into the West to work, especially from rural regions. There are a lot of towns actually shrinking because they're only populated by old people and those who stay behind and try to make it work. At the same time, a lot of West Germans have started studying in the East because things are cheaper there. Many of them are students - so, again, young people - but they are moving into the cities like Leipzig, Potsdam or Dresden.

I definitely think there is a generational divide in the attitude East Germans and West Germans have for each other. I was born after the reunification and I've always considered all of Germany my home-country and so do pretty much all my peers and everyone up to a certain age. But my mother, for example, was born three years after the wall was first built and her entire youth, she watched it become bigger and higher and stronger - back then, she could barely imagine ever seeing a reunification and living in West Berlin, she experienced East Germany as a hostile country surrounding her and restricting her and being the cause of all the military presence - so she also didn't really see them as the other half to a whole and more of an enemy. 

This was one of my favourite caricatures in my history books in school, it’s about the changing attitude East and West had to each other, the text says:

1945: “Brother!” 1955: “My dear cousin!” 1965: “Oh, right - we still have some distant relative living in a foreign country.”

The generation who was actually born pre-separation was born under the NS-regime and for most of them, watching the country as it was fall apart and rebuilding their lives after the war was a formative experience. This generation was all about looking forward, not back (because...looking back was very ugly, too). People who had family in the other half tried to stay in contact, make it work - but people who didn't usually had a more ambiguous relationship to all of this.

After the war, West Germany under Chancellor Adenauer's leadership was at least as eager to build relationships with the West as to reunify. And considering that occupied Germany could do very little to actually solve the whole Cold War problem all by itselves, the focus for the West was really on reconciling with France, forming a stronger European community (what would eventually turn into the European Union), rebuilding the country (Miracle on the Rhine) as well as rebuilding its international reputation. The fight to reconnect with the East (like attempts to form a 'pan'-German Olympics team) was mostly carried by individuals and organisations. 

West Germany never considered itself saturated - for example, the reason that our Constitution is not called a Verfassung but a Grundgesetz a 'basic law' is that having a constitution would imply that this is a fully-formed state, when really, it was only expected to exist until the reunification. But de facto, in the 1960s and 1970s, reunification had begun to seem so unlikely that West Germany begun to ‘solidify’. I live near Bonn (the capital of West Germany) and it's interesting that the buildings the government moved into during the 1970 are much more permanent and secure (also partly because of RAF terror attacks). 

You also have to keep in mind, even when the wall came down, only very few countries actually supported a reunification - many wanted the two Germanys to continue to exist as separate countries or to find a different solution. People were really worried about German reunification meaning that Germany would suddenly revert back to Nazi-Germany or, less paranoid, that a united Germany would be such an economic super-power that it would dominate the EU (...well) with only France and Britain (...well) being able to opposite it. So being too vocal about reunification for no reason was a delicate diplomatic endeavour in the decades prior to reunification. But long story short, there was always the dream of reuniting and becoming a whole new country together one day.

Which is...kinda the problem today.

Culturally, East Germany had an entirely different attitude towards itself, West Germany, its Allies and the world. It was a lot more militaristic, it was socialist and also had a very different relationship to the legacy of the NS-history and had very different international allies. For example, in SED-lingo, the “Berlin Wall” was called the “Anti-Fascist Protection Wall” (The West being the fascists.) They considered themselves a new country. West Germany considered itself the Nachfolgestaat (successor state) to Nazi Germany with all responsibilities like building a good relationship with Israel etc. while East Germany held up the communist resistance and saw themselves more as the successors of the people who fought against the Nazis. A lot of members of the SED government had actually fled Germany during the NS-regime and gone to Russia and aided the resistance from there.

I already mentioned West Germany's great plans about reuniting and becoming a whole new country together. But when the wall fell, that never happened. West Germany absorbed East Germany and moved on with no new constitution or actual negotiation. Compared to West Germany, East Germany didn't have a strong economy and it was socialist, which means that the companies were owned by the state. A state that had ceased to exist, basically. So West Germany decided on a plan to bring East Germany up to (capitalist) standard. Chancellor Kohl promised that he would turn it into 'Blühende Landschaften', 'thriving lands' (which is something West Germans often mockingly say when they're angry about something happening in East Germany, so you do the maths).

Problem with all of this was that this meant basically re-modelling the entire economy. A lot of people lost their jobs, the weaker East German currency was replaced with the West German currency and Western companies moved into East Germany.

There is this old joke about reunification: East Germany: "West Germany, West Germany, you broke your promises." West Germany: "Don't worry about it, I'll buy you a new one."

Basically, through the Solidaritätszuschlag a lot of money was invested into the East - something that to this day, many people in the West resent, especially people who come from poorer regions themselves and accuse East Germans of mismanaging money or say that cities like Leipzig or Dresden were built up to be representative for the success of the reunification while certain regions in the West like the Ruhr-region are suffering at least as much as rural regions in East Germany. These groups demand that the Solidaritätszuschlag isn’t just invested into the East but all regions that have a poor infrastructure or similar problems.

You have to understand what a big deal reunification was when it happened. To this day, it is considered the 'only peaceful revolution on German soil' and East Germans take great pride in beating that regime while West Germans consider it the fulfillment to all diplomatic ambitions the country had since it was formed. And obviously, families were reunited after decades, people could move freely - you have to keep in mind, travel was extremely restricted and now everyone could go wherever they pleased. It was the biggest, best and happiest moment in living history. And then it took a giant nose-dive in the 90s and the stereotypes of the 'whining East German' and the 'arrogant West German' were born.

For example, the poverty caused a rise in right-wing radicalism in East Germany. The country was very isolated and suddenly a lot of families lost their income and people started blaming it on immigrants. West Germans, in response, decided East Germans are all Nazis and racists and are ruining our elections. 

These days, parties like the right-wing AfD are actually trying to use the 'Western is the default' culture of Germany to appeal to East Germans and presenting themselves as the only ones who will represent East Germany. That's why they're rather successful in East Germany - they actually address East Germans as a group while the other parties look out for their supporters in specific regions in the West. At the same time, many East Germans who aren't racist, aren't Nazis and aren't voting the AfD or NPD accuse West Germans (rightfully imo) of blaming all problems there are with racism in the country on the East to avoid addressing their own issues. 

East German: “As if there was no racism in the West.” West German: “There is...but it’s only latent.”

I think it’s important to understand that there are cultural differences and they can’t be broken down into: “East Germany has more Nazis”. And there are different experiences people made on either side.

For example, in 2009, during her election campaign, Angela Merkel had an interview and spoke about how she preferred buying her own groceries. (Yeah, German elections are full of riveting revelations about exciting stuff. Nothing compared to her compaign where she revealed her recipe for potato soup). She said: "I go to the supermarket - or, as we used to say, Kaufhalle."

The German version of the Daily Show takes this clip and shows it and makes a whole joke about it with the host commenting rather drily: "No, she got something wrong here - we never said Kaufhalle in the Federal Republic of Germany". Obviously, Merkel never said that anyone said that in West Germany. She was speaking of her personal experience - and she's East German. But I find it very telling that a national tv program actually branded this as a 'mistake' on her part, because the way she talked about her experiences wasn’t altered for West Germans to identify with them. At the same time, if you watch tv shows that are in a generic German setting - for example the tv-show Dark - you will notice that they’re never in East Germany. They’re almost always in a generic West German place - because that is not considered a statement.

As for other cultural differences, East Germany became very un-religious while West Germany had many CDU (Christian Democratic Union) governments. The result today is that West Germans are more likely to be (at least on the paper) either Protestant or Catholic while (I think) 3 out of 4 East Germans are neither. There are different attitudes towards family, equality, community, ---- nudity, entertainment, food, cooking. how much ice-cream should cost and so on.

So this also means there are...differences regarding the way people think about the past. West Germans tend to think of their living memory as universal, while Ostalgie (East-algia) is something peculiar to the East - because West Germans (with the exception maybe of West Berliners) didn’t experience comparable changes. But East Germans remembering their old cars and old food and stuff is something that many West Germans are suspicious of, because for West Germans, their last experience with a dictatorship was the NS-regime, so there is a much smaller acceptance of the West of separating the lived every-day culture under an authoritarian regime than in the East, where entire generations grew up in this system and built a private life for themselves outside the political aspects of that society.

This also leads to the bigger conversation about the GDR as an ‘Unrechtsstaat’ (Rechtsstaat: A country where everyone is equally protected by the law, Unrecht: Injustice).  Basically, when East Germans say “Not everything was bad”, they are usually speaking about the community, helping each other and specific traditions, child care, things being more affordable. When West Germans hear them say ‘not everything was bad’ they think about that one uncle who might or might not have been in the SS and alarm bells begin to ring. I think this conversation is full of misunderstandings on either side. Because the East Germans actually suffered a cultural shock in the 90s when basically their entire culture changed and many people lost their jobs and their entire social environment begun to crack - while West Germans grew up watching military parades and giant socialist celebrations being held on tv for years in their neighbouring country and feared that they would be the first to die if a nuclear war broke out and now they see people celebrate that time. 

That said, I think the tone of these disagreements has changed somewhat and statistics show that people are becoming increasingly more ‘German’ and less ‘East’ or ‘West’ German.. As I said, there is a strong generational divide, imo. No one in my generation or ...below 35 would ever seriously argue that 'East' and 'West' don't belong together, while I know some people in their 40s and 50s who sometimes say it was a mistake. These days, in my opinion, its less a sentiment of 'this is a different country and we have to live with them' (another joke: What's the difference between Russians and West Germans? - we got rid of the Russians) and more an internal disagreement that has some very serious aspects and some less serious aspects.

There is this (unofficial, whimsical) thing that journalists do every year when we (officially) celebrate (by doing literally nothing and sitting at home) reunification and they go around asking random people if the 'wall in our heads' still exists and I don't think it's really a wall that exists - it's not about the wall, anymore, or the Cold War or propaganda or anything, it's about the differences that exist today. 

And in your original ask you wanted to know if there are still ramifications and there definitely are - the economical ones and the cultural ones. But I think when it comes to the cultural ones, I think part of the problem is the West German expectation that in order to truly tear down the 'wall in our heads', East Germans have to become and act and think exactly like West Germans - but I don't think that should be the goal and I think that the actual tensions between East and West are becoming smaller rather than bigger. I mean, I really focused on the negative in this answer, but I think most people today, especially the young generation, considers themselves German first and Ossi or Wessi second (or fourth or fifth) and the economical situation in the East has improved tremendously since the 1990s and I think that also helps easing things. 

I also dug up some numbers of varying usefulness for you:

43% of East Germans say they eat meat and sausage every day, only 24% of West Germans do

The Gender Pay Gap is 7% in East Germany and 22% in West Germany

Of the 201 most successful CEOs in Germany, only 2% are East German

27% of East Germans say they trust the media, 43% of West Germans do

The 20 biggest German newspaper are all from former West Germany

2017 about 38% of East Germany were open to trying chocolate pizza, 43% of West Germans were

On the western shore of the Chao Phraya river, south of the Wat Arun temple, lies Bangkok’s small Siamese-Portuguese enclave, Kudeejeen. Within its maze of narrow alleyways that weave past aging teakwood houses lies a 250-year-history of cultural commingling. In that time, the neighborhood has been home to Siamese-Portuguese, Thai, and Chinese residents of different religions. This diversity can be seen in the local architecture, with the Catholic Santa Cruz Church, the Buddhist Wat Kalayanamit, and the Kudi Khao Mosque a few minutes’ walk from one another. The combination of cultures is also deliciously evident in the enclave’s sweet specialty: khanom farang Kudeejeen, or the Kudeejeen “foreigner cake.”

Behind a bright teal door down an alleyway is Kanoom Farung Lan Mea Pao. The dark interior of the family-run bakery features big mixers in the corner, several blazing charcoal braziers in the middle of the room, and the sweet aroma of freshly baked khanom farang Kudeejeen. Along with Kanoom Farung Pa Lek and Thanusingha Bakery House, it is one of the only three bakeries that makes the cupcake. The small, golden discs resemble sweet muffins, their flat tops adorned with pieces of dried fruit—usually raisin, persimmon, and winter melon—and caramelized sugar. Crispy and crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, the cupcakes are not made with raising agents. In fact, for such a rare treat, the cake itself has a shockingly plain ingredients list: eggs, wheat flour, white sugar, and the dried fruit.

Although it sounds simple, spinning these basic ingredients into khanom farang Kudeejeen is an art that dates back at least 252 years, to the time when Kudeejeen was established. Navinee Pongthai, a Kudeejeen native and the owner of the Baan Kudichin Museum, which chronicles the history of the enclave and the Siamese-Portuguese people, believes the cake’s origins might go back even further, to when the first Portuguese traders settled in the capital of Ayutthaya in the 16th century.

According to Pongthai, the cake is the result of Portuguese settlers and their descendents struggling to recreate European-style sweets. “At first, they tried to make cakes with rice flour, since wheat flour was hard to come by. But the cakes were too hard,” she says. While many classics of Portuguese confectionery revolve around sugar and egg yolks, the lack of available flour and milk forced Kudeejeen bakers to adapt. “Traditional Thai desserts are made from sugar, coconut milk, and duck egg yolks, which are very different than what they were used to. So the Siamese-Portuguese tried to make a replica of European cake without milk and butter.” The result is a cake that is less moist and more flat, as it doesn’t rise up like regular cupcakes, but is still fluffy and tasty.

Khanom farang Kudeejeen is not the first fusion dessert nor the most famous among Thais. Many of the most popular Thai sweets can be traced to Maria Guyomar de Pinha, an Ayutthaya-born woman of Japanese-Portuguese-Bengali descent who was married to a high-ranking Greek official in the 17th-century Ayutthaya court. One of her most iconic creations is foi thong, a nest of egg yolk–based golden threads boiled in sugar syrup. Anyone familiar with Portuguese confectionery will notice the treat’s striking similarities to Portugal’s fios de ovos. Another classic attributed to Guyomar de Pinha is sangkhaya, a coconut jam that may have been inspired by Portuguese custard. However, her recipes did not include cakes, making khanom farang Kudeejeen a dessert unique to the enclave.

Though the cake’s roots lie in the 16th-century intermingling of Portuguese and local traditions in Ayutthaya, it is forever associated with its home in Kudeejeen. After Burmese invaders sacked and destroyed Ayutthaya in 1767, many Siamese-Portuguese, along with other residents of the former capital, migrated to the kingdom’s new seat of power in the town of Thonburi. Here, the king gifted the Siamese-Portuguese community with the land that would become their enclave in 1769. The plot was a reward for aiding in the fight to successfully drive out the Burmese invaders.

Also spelled “Kudi Chin,” Kudeejeen's name is a nod to a nearby Chinese temple and the local Chinese community. Diners can see the influence of these Chinese neighbors in khanom farang Kudeejeen’s toppings. Considered symbolic of health and fortune, the dried fruit was originally added to the cakes just for Lunar New Year celebrations. But the decorative, auspicious additions proved so popular that bakeries have since incorporated them into the cupcake year-round.

Thonburi’s time as a major hub was short-lived: The capital moved across the Chao Phraya river to what would become Bangkok in 1782. But the Siamese-Portuguese community of Kudeejeen stayed put. Still very close to the capital, Thonburi is now a district within greater Bangkok. Despite the staggering size of Thailand’s largest city—it has an estimated 10.7 million residents as of this year—just the three, hole-in-the-wall bakeries continue to make khanom farang Kudeejeen from their small, diverse enclave. For the Kudeejeen locals, they are a special occasion treat and a New Year staple or gift. For visitors, they are a great souvenir and a must-buy when visiting the area.

While not all of us have our own charcoal brazier, it’s still possible to make a version of khanom farang Kudeejeen at home with the recipe below.

Homemade Khanom Farang Kudeejeen

Yield: 10–12, depending on the size of your cupcake liners and muffin pan Special equipment: An electric mixer with beaters Cupcake liners Muffin pan For the cupcakes: 6 eggs (the small eggs used in this recipe were around 45 grams each) 1/3 cups of flour 1/2 cups of fine white sugar A splash of vanilla extract (optional) For the toppings: 2 tablespoons of assorted raisins and dried fruit 1 tablespoon of white sugar 1. Preheat your oven to 360° F and place the cupcake liners in the muffin pan. 2. Measure out all the ingredients and set them aside. As there is no raising agent, the fluffiness of the cupcakes relies entirely on the aerated eggs, so it’s important to move quickly. In a mixing bowl, add the eggs, sugar, and—if desired—a splash of vanilla extract, then beat the ingredients using an electric mixer until the mixture is foamy and very pale. This should take at least a minute; the mixture should double in size and be a little stiff. 3. Gradually sieve and stir in the flour (do not pour it in all at once). If you end up with lumps, whisk the mixture again with the electric mixer. Make sure to do it swiftly so that it doesn’t deflate. Don’t worry about it being too runny. If the cupcakes are thick with too much flour, they will become too dense. 4. Fill up each cupcake liner to 3/4 full and place the tray in the oven. 5. Let the cupcakes bake for two minutes before adding the dried fruit on top. Add as many as you like then sprinkle the cakes with some sugar before putting them back in the oven. 6. Let the cupcakes bake for 12–15 more minutes before pulling them out (check about halfway through and rotate the tray if they’re baking too much on one side). Do the toothpick test to check if they are ready. They might deflate and wrinkle a little afterward, but that is normal.

Honest Hearts: A Rough Rewrite

Hey! I’ve been working on an Honest Hearts rewrite-type-thing for a bit and figured I’d solicit feedback/assemble a post to store some of these ideas.

A detailed explanation of the premise is under the cut, but I’ve made this as a more interesting reintroduction to major locations, along with the characters who live there. I also have some lore consisting of letters, scripture, and holotapes that’s still in the early stages, along with a complete companion wheel for Salt-Upon-Wounds (he’ll follow you around for a little if you decide to help him out). Endings are now finished as well. I’m not planning on expanding this into a full mod, but I’m assembling everything in Twine so I can utilize branching dialogue and mimic skill checks.

I want to keep adding to and editing this because I’m having fun with it, so if you have any input, let me know!

Essentially, the story proceeds as written up until the point where Daniel sends you to either kill the White Legs or destroy their war totems. You quickly realize that their camp is deserted, at which point Salt-Upon-Wounds ambushes you, convo-locks you, and tells you that there’s an entirely different side to things here that you might not have considered.

Factions

The Mormons have established a theocracy in the Utah called Deseret, with New Jerusalem - what was once Salt Lake City - as its capital. Large numbers of them survived the initial apocalypse due to their pre-War focus on strong community ties and disaster prepping; over time, they have returned to the model of self-sufficient agrarianism that characterized the historical Mormon state of Deseret that existed in Utah in the 1800s. Their President, who wields supreme executive power, is also their Prophet. The Mormons believe he communes directly with God, but there’s some discontent in New Jerusalem over his hands-off approach to foreign policy and unwillingness to assemble a standing army. The Elders of the Priesthood are pushing him to allow for some kind of formal military to oppose what they see as revived versions of their ancestral enemies: America, Rome, and the “Lamanites” (this is what Mormons call Indigenous Americans; the “Lamanite” idea has historically been used as a justification for racism, and I’m reflecting that here because it’d be kind of heinous not to). In more than a few respects, Deseret serves as a mirror to the Legion and an exploration of the other side of the coin re: the tactics utilized by colonial empires to present themselves as legitimate while still claiming territory and steamrolling the opposition.

The White Legs are now more explicitly Shoshone, and I’m relying most heavily on the Timpanagos Band for names and historical inspiration (apparently the question of whether they’re Ute or Shoshone is pretty controversial, but I’m sticking with what the Timpanagos have said about it until someone corrects me). After migrating south in the wake of the Great War, the White Legs eventually settled in Ogden, about a day north of New Jerusalem. Initial interactions with the Mormons were friendly, but as New Jerusalem grew and its need for farmland and resources increased, tensions rose before culminating in open violence in around ‘76 or ‘77. Deseret’s party line is that the White Legs conducted a “raid” on one of their settlements and had to be driven away from Ogden; the White Legs claim the violence was not a raid, but a revenge killing after a Mormon killed a young man and was found not guilty by Mormon legal authorities (this is a theocracy, so “legal authorities” here can be understood as indistinct from “the church”). The Mormons established a new settlement on the ruins of Ogden, which they called New Canaan, and the White Legs fled to Salt Lake, where they have been dwindling in number ever since. Salt-Upon-Wounds’ plan to seek entry to the Legion is a last-ditch attempt to save his people from eradication when their neighbors and the land itself seems intent on killing them (not that that makes all the war crimes ok, which is a sentiment you’ll be able to express to his face if you engage him in conversation).

The Dead Horses are a pastoral society from out of Dead Horse Point, and are split almost down the middle along political lines. The more conservative, religious side opposes intervention in Zion. Graham desecrates the corpses of his enemies as an intimidation tactic, and because the Dead Horses’ religion is so eschatological and heavily focused on properly cleaning, preparing, and interring the dead, a big chunk of the religious leadership opposes him on that basis - they think his tactics are ungodly. They’re also worried that any Dead Horses who die in Zion and are interred there will be severed from their connection to Dead Horse Point and doomed to a separate, lonely afterlife. The younger, more progressive elements of the tribe are less traditionalist, sometimes less religious, and overall not as concerned about Graham’s treatment of the dead because of the potential benefit they might be able to derive from him. Follows-Chalk is their de facto leader, and while the Dead Horses don’t formally allocate political power, he’s among the most influential people in the informal tribal leadership. Most of the Dead Horses who’ve come to Zion have done so either because they support Follows-Chalk politically, or for practical reasons - namely, Graham’s access to a dizzying number of guns and his willingness to give them to anyone who’ll fight for him.

The Sorrows are now a terrace-farming agrarian society instead of hunter-gatherers (Zion has a lot of agricultural potential, and there’s already a few farming plots in the Sorrows camp you see in-game, so it’s not a huge departure from the canon). I’m keeping their Mexican heritage, but I’d like to give them some Ainu influences as well - partially for selfish reasons, but also because bears are extremely important to our culture and theology, which gels well with the elements of Sorrows culture and religion that appear in the canon. I’d like to keep the Survivalist because I like him, but I want to expand on their faith. One of the ways I’m doing that is by deciding they can still read English, even though they no longer speak it; it’s basically their equivalent of liturgical Latin. They’re also rigidly matriarchal and in contrast to the Dead Horses (who eschew formal political hierarchies) or the White Legs (who elect a chief who serves until he dies, is deposed, or voluntarily abdicates), leadership positions are allocated through matrilineal primogeniture; Waking Cloud inherited her position from her mother. Religious leadership, likewise, is only available to women. You’ll be able to talk to Waking Cloud about some of the ways this framework is incompatible with the Mormon perspective, and can appeal to her desire to retain power.

Characters

Canon Characters

Joshua Graham and Daniel are largely unaltered except through the addition of lore that gives insight into their cultures, motives, and pasts.

All three tribal leaders (Follows-Chalk, Waking Cloud, and Salt-Upon-Wounds) are either given new backstories, a different set of motives, or different approaches to one another/Graham and Daniel. They’re also explicitly leaders now - what power Graham and Daniel have, they derive from whichever tribal leader they’ve managed to attach themselves to. Of those three, I’m altering Waking Cloud the least and Salt-Upon-Wounds the most. Like I mentioned, I have a companion wheel for him so far and the bones of two other conversations - one, where you meet him for the first time, and the second, where you speak to him before the final battle. Will link as I finish them.

Original Characters

Each tribal leader now has a rival or right hand within their tribe so I can reflect the different ways the values of a specific community can express themselves.

Follows-Chalk’s primary rival among the Dead Horses is a man who refuses to tell you his name. That’s because using someone’s name in casual conversation is considered unspeakably rude, and the fact that Follows-Chalk is willing to share his own with you is, to Mysteriously Named Old Man Character, yet another sign of how disrespectful and laissez-faire Follows-Chalk is about their shared traditions. Old Man Character is suspicious of you initially, but if you speak to him more he starts to warm to you. The goal is to give you a sense that this he’s pretty xenophobic but for good reasons, and despite his political conflicts with Follows-Chalk, has a lot of love for him. He just wants what’s best for his family, and Follows-Chalk is part of that, even if Mysteriously Named Old Man Character thinks he’s making the wrong choices.

Kiiki is Salt-Upon-Wounds’ right-hand woman and intended as a contrast re: the approach to war and its costs. Salt-Upon-Wounds has done some horrible things and gets a fair bit of dialogue about that, but Kiiki is willing to go even further than he has with very little prompting. Her chief copes with what he’s done by trying to assure himself that the ends of war are worth the cost; Kiiki deals with it by trying to convince herself that the means weren't so bad, actually, and that anyone who isn’t nailing corpses to walls is being naive. All of that makes her sound pretty shitty, but she’s nowhere near as devoted to the idea of a Legion alliance as Salt-Upon-Wounds is. It only takes one very low Speech check to convince her that going Legion is a bad move, and one of the paths involves assassinating Salt-Upon-Wounds and installing her as the new leader as a way to stop the White Legs from joining Caesar. I haven’t added this path to the ending Twine because I’d like to finish Kiiki’s dialogues before I do that.

I’m replacing White Bird as the Sorrow’s spiritual leader with a woman named Imekanu. She’s incredibly old, savvy, and knowledgeable - she’s never been outside Zion, but has a store of books in English, Spanish, and Japanese that have allowed her some insight into what caused the war, if not the current state of the world. She’s also aware of the Survivalist’s origins - not because she’s entered any of his hideouts, but because she’s read over the scriptures and has correctly identified them as letters. Her perspective is that the Father in the Caves was a human being, but that doesn’t diminish his religious value. She sees him as analogous to the Buddha or a Catholic saint: human, sure, but still with access to some deeper truths about the purpose of man and the nature of human goodness. You’ll discover that this idea (that the Survivalist was a holy man rather than a literal god) is the most common perspective among the Sorrows, and you can talk to her about how this departs from Daniel’s perspective that the archetypal Father is divine, not human.

Quests

Each tribe has a specific quest that will either lower or bypass some of the penultimate checks that will determine your ending (people are more likely to believe what you’re telling them if you’ve already won their trust).

The Dead Horses: Joshua Graham has been putting the heads of the fallen up on pikes across Zion. The Dead Horses’ religion is deeply concerned with proper treatment of the deceased, and Graham’s decision to desecrate the corpses of his enemies goes against virtually everything they believe. The old man who won’t tell you his name asks you to take the heads off of the pikes and bury them deep in Zion, and to bring Follows-Chalk with you so you’ll have someone to tell you how to treat them properly. Over the course of the quest, Follows-Chalk will share some of his own beliefs about death, and you’ll have the opportunity to share your own. If you complete this quest without sabotaging it, Follows-Chalk will be willing to betray Graham to the White Legs before the final battle.

The Sorrows: This is basically just Ghost of She, but after defeating the Yao Guai you’ll discover a holotape revealing that the girl wasn’t killed by the bear, but by one of the murderers from Vault 22. Waking Cloud will speculate that maybe the Yao Guai wasn’t the ghost of the little girl at all but some other force that wanted to push you to discover the truth. If you wait until the end to tell Waking Cloud about the death of her husband, you’ll have to pass a Speech check of 75 to convince her you’re telling her the truth; completing this quest drops the check to 50.

The White Legs: Salt-Upon-Wounds will ask you to help him sabotage the Mormons’ preparations for the battle. If you help him with this, it’ll drop the Speech check for you to convince him to leave from 100 to 80. It’s not necessary at all to get the tribal confederacy ending, but a new note will appear in your inventory if you finish it and meet a couple other requirements (asking him certain questions, not attempting that one Speech check about religion, etc).

Endings

I’m trying to incorporate as much variety as possible, but there are three main ending paths: siding with the White Legs, siding with the other two tribes, and peace. The basic idea is that the outcome is predicated less on your direct intervention, and more on how other people act based on the facts they have available to them. Most of your influence is through your choices to hide or reveal key pieces of information, and the skill checks you need to access certain endings are less you convincing a character to do something and more convincing a character to believe you’re telling them the truth. There’s one major exception to this, it requires maxed Speech, and the ending it gives you is markedly bittersweet because you’re trying to get a guy to act against his own best interest. I’m writing all the endings up here, and will probably edit them as things change. The post where I explain them in more depth can be found here.

And that’s the story so far! Thank you for reading, and again: if there’s anything here you think is poorly-conceived, let me know. Thank you to @baelpenrose, who’s a grad student in the history of the American West, for helping me workshop a lot of this stuff. If you’ve got expert knowledge on any of the concepts I touch on or are personally a member of any of the groups I’m describing, please feel free to hmu: anon is on, and you’re always welcome to DM me. I’m just doing this for fun, but I still want it to be as not-shit as possible.

Hard Facts About PBAT Administration by Dr. kenny Odugbemi

Foreign Direct Investment

Hard Facts About PBAT Administration by Dr. kenny Odugbemi We are chasing shadows abroad in the name of FDI whilst our cash cows are looted with litany of insanity by unpatriotic political robbers in shades of civilians and armed forces. Our oil theft recovered over 200 times under period of consideration on small level 65000litres on daily basis and programmed vessel comes in regular to still thousands of little in the creeks for us to be chasing at 12 nautical miles, international water what happens with 6 nautical miles with safe jurisdiction for Tantikker oil services contractors very political and myriad of air raids, land raids and water raid by security architecture spending trillion yet stealing avails, as they only capture meagre private owner private owners well televised; whilst bid tickets were freely escorted by Naval ship Commander on Water raids. Till date, mineral resource exploitation on rampages across different states especially NW, NE, SW goes in unnoticed unchecked protected by helicopters of who is who, cabals of high and mighty. Who is fooling who? With over N3.2trn Fy 2024 and over N8trn it is same old story even changing Service Chiefs, NSA make meaningful, we still have terrorist actions killing and many local government under deep captivity NE, Zamfara, Niger, Gombe, Sokoto etc. Farmers and herders clash, Communal killing in the Middle Only South West is safe; thanks to Amotekun and Vigilante, not armed but armed Hizbah are only toothless bull dogs with helicopter fire acquire with Millions of tax payers money we still have political killing galore. Our sorjourn to Saudi Emirates will never yield any capital injection into capital market talkless of refurbishing our refineries. Despite the humiliation of lesser Hajj Nigerian whilst PBAT is there, the outcome is mere propaganda. Naira is devalued by 40%, Inflation 27.3% going to 30% by end of December. Where most people purchasing power is absymally low, where will be the local market, where is power, how about looter in Public sector and toxicity in Private sector. At home Nigeria. With N2 billion injection and cash transfer as sunk cost poverty deepens.We are in a highly depressed economy where frivolous expenditure at executive level is now our tolerated impunity as people suffers deeply. We service our debt with 98% of revenue less than N10 trillion We can see wonders of remaining 2% spending this appropriation of N2.1 trillion supplementary Fy2023:budget How do we explain Fy2024 Critical sectors N8.3 trillion Total budget N27.5trn Non debt recurrent expenditure N10.25trn Debt services N18.5trn Critical sectors This is hallucinations, consumption driven mainly for three tiers of government. Let us ask critical question Where is the Siemen Germany electricity to upgrade to 250000MGW 2025? Where is the celebrated Indian loan of $13bn? Where is $3bn NNPC contract loan by AFRIEXIM bank? Has UAE lifted ban on Visa for Nigeria? Overview Every Summit visit with no meaningful direct investment are only Media propaganda Germany and Dubai inclusive. From available record we spend average of $500m as report. How many trips till date? My hard fact, Nigeria is blessed with the following: Oil resource of depth, Abundant gas, Vibrant and intelligent human capital, Arable land of infinite hectare in million. We chose to engage Mediocre as Ministers for sakes of political settlement. Fragmented all sectors giving rooms for all sorts Ministerial job position. We are an international beggars globally just Like PMB with no result Must our gullibility continues? 52% of best brains are Japa, 48% are frustrated with low pay going toward corruption, yahoo and yahoo+. What is the future of the brilliant Youths in a depressed state of mind, whilst leaders lives in opulence and citizenship wallow in deep poverty? As of today only 4 states are viable (GDP(PPP) billions Lagos 266.55 Rivers 51.52 Akwaibom 50.3 Imo 49.69 Other states are grossely insolvent and not viable governed by ignorant Governor's who can not thinks outside the box no drive to shore up internally generated revenue. Most oil rich States with some exception are so poorly managed, eg poverty stricken Bayelsa, Delta, Cross river etc. Northwest, Northeast, Northcentral are carcases of states unimaginably devastated by terrorists State of Finance By my independent research N43trn were looted by PMB, and CBN declared N33trn Obazi has retrieved N12trn where is the balance? Conservatively over 65% of stolen wealth are in Sudan and Egypt Islamic bank by unpatriotic looters in Last PMB government PBAT by my assessment We have issues of transparent, we have borrowed so much against consumption with no meaningful revenue generation How can we generate N18trn FY2024? With declare vitals and public spending of supplementary budget Fy 2023. How do we turn around revenue with new tax policy? Blocking of leakages opening of new stream of experimental blue. Economy, tourism, creative,digital innovation, power all are mirage. Which investors will invest in our all round decayed infrastructure, when we specialized in having CKD and refurbished OEM across all sectors they are not blind; check aviation, blue rail, train coaches, overhaul of refineries We should stop deceiving ourselves and look inward surely we can do a lot better across all sectors My deep worry If PBAT can not provide jobs for youths If, PAT can meet revenue target If PAT can not recover. N31trn We will be on free fall to oblivion. This government should be very careful, we need to be more people centric. We are overfeeding the rich starving the poor to extinction. Advice to Nigeria Citizenship Dignity of labour, strong work ethic, readjusted lifestyle, health and wellness - feed on natural herbs, stop ethnicity/religious bigotry, adopt merit, be pragmatic, be honest and be accountable. Conclusion Three tiers of government must be highly prudent, replacing non-performing Head of Institutions, enhance transparency, accountability, promote equity fairness justice, resource control, restructuring, recalibrating and repositioning. Read the full article

Credit: Jordan J. Lloyd

I've been trying to dive deeper into politics, discover the genuine roots of our society, the origins of our beliefs, and the consequences of our economic system. It's a big, long, wide journey and through multiple sources such as articles, images, videos and multiple social media platforms, I've been trying to educate myself more on important subjects.

Communism, capitalism, libertarian, conservative, the left, the right, the history, the impact. It is scary to commit to everything because once you start, you simply cannot stop, once you start waking up your conscience about the horrible reality, the lies, the truths, you cannot put it back to sleep. You can't just ignore prejudice, especially when you're extremely conscious of it's omnipresence. I have continually tried to build my own opinions all while actively creating bullet point arguments in my mind because I just know that at some point I will have to defend my thinking, and I want to do it right.

Now, I am so far from being enlightened, I am a beginner and an amateur in all of those themes, but I am trying, which is the only way to start and grow.

So to tell you about my beliefs, I am a militant human rights activist, I believe in equal opportunities regardless of gender identity, sex, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race and disability. This is a fact, not a belief, but the system was obviously not built to protect all people, its wasn't created to serve everyone equally but to grant a privilege to some and harm others. The current state of the world is not a slip, an accident or a misfunction of our brilliant system but a testament of it operating remarkably well. I believe that equity leads to equality, and I believe that we cannot "fix" methodologies that were immorally created with absolutely no honor whatsoever. I believe in reproductive rights, in legal, safe abortions for anybody who needs one. I believe in the decriminalization of marijuana. I believe that the death penalty is a despicable punition that should be banned as soon as possible. I believe in defunding the police and the military. I believe that it is a shame that I even have to talk about police brutality, I don't want to have to say that it is one of the most horrible things our world has originated, I feel extremely dense when I do because it seems like the most obvious certitude and I refuse to believe that this is a controversial statement. I believe that everything I have just stated, along with many more, isn't anything grand but the bare minimum, the bar is low, and yet, we still have the fight for basic human decency.

Humanity has become an option. We have normalized supporting people that represent everything wrong in this world under the name of tolerance. The left has never claimed to be tolerant towards hateful beings, We have never accepted homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism and sexism. We cannot, for exemple, accept nazis, as too much tolerance inevitably leads to intolerance. This picture explains it perfectly:

I consider myself a communist/ socialist. The two terms still confuse me a little, some say they are the same, some say they differ quite a bit. What I know is that socialism is the transitional period between capitalism and communism. At the end of the day, the final result and goal is a stateless, moneyless and clasless society that will provide to each his need.

Our capitalistic society has brainwashed us way more than you may think. It is the root of so many of our issues, the underground demon of our problems. Every idea, thought, belief, and misconception of ours were all affected by our current economic system. It has sold us the billionnaire dream which is one of the most toxic things capitalism has offered. We have looked up to billionaires for way too long, why are they so idolized? Most of them come from high upper class families that can easily afford to invest in their inventions and creations. After starting up their companies and occasionnaly stealing other's people ideas to ultimately get undeserved merit, they then can start to properly exploit their hardworking employees's labour. And for unlimited hours and a minimum wage which probably won't even suffice you to survive, you will have to either pick up more shifts or a second or even third job, especially if you have a family to support. All while the CEO barely does any of the work and gets all the praise and money. So no, they don't all come from really poor families and have built everything for nothing.

The worst thing is that we've been so gaslit and brainwashed that we're proud of our own exploitation, we are wired to think that to be successful we have to suffer, work 10 jobs we all hate, constantly pick up extra hours, have 2 hours of sleep, have no free time to do anything we love, waste our entire youth, be depressed our entire adulthood, to finally have a few pennies to spend when we're eighty. We so strongly believe that this is the only right way to be successful that I don't think many of us have dared to question it's authority, and even if we do, we quickly accept that this a truth, a fact we cannot change and this is just the way things are.

We have capitalized water, food, land, forests, oceans, space, and everything in betweeen. Money is social construct and we have deliberately let it take over our lives. To think about the wasted opportunities and the misery that we have to endure so others can enjoy life truly angers me.

Also, communism is not an ideology that has every actually taken place. Despite what they say, there was never actually a communist country. However, every nation that has attempted a socialist system, for exemple Burkina Faso, has thrived. But of course, once capitalist countries noticed that, they decided to murder it's leader. So in conclusion, the only reason socialism failed is because of capitalism and it's interventions.

"As President (1983-1987), Sankara initiated economic reforms that shifted his country away from dependence on foreign aid and reduced the privileges of government officials; he cut salaries, including his own, decreed that there would be no more flying in first class or driving Mercedes as standard issue vehicles for Ministers and other government workers. He led a modest lifestyle and did not personally amass material wealth. President Sankara encouraged self-sufficiency, including the use of local resources to build clinics, schools and other needed infrastructure. [...] President Sankara promoted land reform, childhood vaccination, tree planting, communal school building, and nation-wide literacy campaigns. He was committed to gender equity and women’s rights and was the first African leader to publicly recognize the AIDS pandemic as a threat to African countries. Although Sankara became somewhat more authoritarian during his Presidency, his ideas, and the possibility that they could spread, were viewed by many as posing the greatest threat. President Sankara was assassinated during a coup led by a French-backed politician, Blaise Compaoré, in October 1987. Compaoré served as the President of Burkina Faso from October 1987 through October 2014, when he himself was overthrown."

Via:https://africandevelopmentsuccesses.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/success-story-from-burkina-faso-thomas-sankaras-legacy/

I have been reading and watching some amazing human rights activists, notably Angela Davis, Malcolm X and James Baldwin. The people that were villainized, labeled as violent and radical, when every single word that came out of their mouhs were pure facts. They are probably some of the most eloquent people I have had the pleasure of hearing. Every sentence, every argument, every single detail made so much sense and opened my mind to so many new realizations. This is the perfect exemple of how the media tarnishes the reputation of wise black women and men. I would strongly advise you to research more about them.

"Socialism & communism are demonized in the west to the point of erasing influential individuals' socialist advocacy. Heres a short list of people you may not have known were socialists/ communists:

MLK

Albert Einstein

Nelson Mandela

Frida Kahlo

Tupac Shakur

Mark Twain

Malcom X

Oscar Wilde

Bertrand Russell

Hellen Keller

Pablo Picasso

George Orwell

Shia LaBeouf

John Lennon

Woody Guthrie

Socialism & communism are not dirty words. Some of the most brilliant minds of our history were socialists and communists. Embrace it." Via @sleepisocialist on twitter

So what else can I say, capitalism has ruined our society and the way we act and think. I know a lot of people refuse to support communism because they think it's too much of a perfect ideal utopian world for it to ever actually exist. And to that I say, first of all, so you agree, it is a wonderful theory, and second of all, a world without racism, sexism, homophobia or any kind or discrimination could also be perceived as "too ideal to actually exist", but does that mean I'm giving up on talking, educating myself and others, protesting and trying to build a better future? Absolutely not. This is the objective, it would be so dumb to think that we just couldn't achieve that so let's not even try.

I want to talk more in detail about communism, theory, human rights, etc... but I don't want to make this post any longer. I will however be posting more about it soon enough.

I know this is a little different than what I usually post, but I want to speak, tell you all my own opinions, I don't want to just repost activism related stuff. I'll continue to do that, but not exclusively. I know it won't get as many interactions as my other posts, but this is what I needed at some point in my life, and if I could make understanding some basic informations easier to some people, it'll already be a great accomplishment.

Thank you for reading.