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#but adding other countries/territories and their various help lines could help a lot !!

thefirsthogokage · 3 years

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Where To Donate/

Lend a Hand/

How To Help

Also contains some important posts and information about many things going on globally, particularly genocides.

I will update this from time to time, so please check back! Also, you can take a look at my (#where to donate) and (#lend a hand) tags for individuals needing help as well.

Please note: as I have become more and more aware of the world, it is increasingly harder to make master posts. Many things will have to be found under country hashtags now. I'm sorry, but it's become difficult and overwhelming to try to keep track of everything, but I'm trying my best. I will try to make master posts for some things, but with the amount coming out about Palestine and the bombing and atrocities and attacks israel has done in and outside of Palestinian territories and in other Middle Eastern counties, it's too much information coming out daily.

•Indigenous Communities Thread

Last Updated: November 23rd, 2023

This thread was my last pinned post. If I come across more, I will add to it. It contains COVID relief links where you can donate to various organizations including a Legal Fund For Indigenous Women" and to the Indian Residential School Fund. Also, a typhoon hit multiple Native Alaskan communities, tore them to shreds. They are without food. The Rosebud Sioux have been buried by a blizzard and need help. Also it has links of places to donate instead of celebrating the colonial genocidal holiday of "Thanksgiving"

->Click Here for information on the genocide being committed against the Brazilian Indigenous population (Added to this list on 6/30/21)

•India: COVID and Farmers Protests

INDIA MASTERPOST

*Updated: May 23rd, 2021

•Palestine: Information and How to Help

PALESTINE MASTERPOST

*Updated October 12th, 2023

Because Tumblr wouldn't let me put anymore links in to this post (at least not in the way I wanted, might have to change how I do all this), I made a separate post for Palestine. I will probably be making updates to that, so please keep checking back. But since so much is going on and available about Palestine since October 7th, 2023, please know that I can't add it all to that list. Because of the flood of information, I actually have been at a loss as to how to add any of it. Instead, please check out my #palestine and (#free Palestine) tags. There's also stuff under #israel (#fuck the israeli government) (#fuck israeli nationalists) #gaza and other tags.

•Gullah Geechee Land and Legacy Fund

•What's going on in Columbia

•About the Ban on Being Queer in Hungary

This post also has a link to the largest LGBT+ organization in Hungary that you can donate too.

Article from November 1st, 2023 that states teens have been banned from going to art exhibit with LGBT+ photos.

• Mutual Aid Disaster Relief resource list masterpost

•Maui Fire Aid

•The Genocide in the Congo

I also have posts under #congo and (#congo genocide). Like with most genocides, this is about resources. I believe this one is cobalt. It's used in electronic devices.

•Genocide in Sudan

I haven't come across specific posts on Tumblr about the genocide in Sudan, but I will try to make a master post about that as well when the opportunity presents itself. I have barely scratched the surface of the Sudanese history and the ongoing silent genocide there that the world is also ignoring, so I can't outright make a post myself, but I do need to at least mention it here. I have more information about it on IG, where my awareness of it began. Most of the things I have seen related to Sudan on here have also been tied to posts about the DRC and Palestine. In the mean time, please look under #sudan and (#sudan genocide) hashtags.

•Yemen

Yemen has been experiencing a famine for I believe 9 years. Like the previous three entries, I am newly discovering information about what is going on. There is so much to keep up with everywhere, but people need to know that Yemen has been the only country (well, one of their governments) to use combat to stand up Palestinian. Lebanese rebels have also been helping, but Yemen is paying the price for their assistance. In late 2023, I believe it was December 5th or so, the UN World Food Programme announced that they would stop sending food to Yemen under the excuse they didn't have the money. However, this is weeks after Yemen Houthi declared war on israel for what the occupation what doing to Palestinians (genocide). Yemeni fighters have also taken ships headed to israel when crossing their waters. The US and other colonizer nations are gathering forces to fight the Yemeni Houthis (and I believe some Somali Pirates) who have taken it upon themselves to aid the Palestinians through force. If anyone knows of any good charities to donate to that can help Yemen, please let me know. #Yemen

• "israel" vs. Middle East

"israel" has been attacking Lebanon, Syria, and I believe even Egypt. Over the past two months, since October 7th, 2023, the attacks against Syria and especially Lebanon have increased. Lebanese journalists have been murdered, and areas of Lebanon have constantly been bombed, along with some airports in Syria. Any information I post on this will try to contain the #Lebanon and #Syria tags.

•My Linktree

I have Daily Quick Actions you can take for Palestine, several GFMs, Palestinian and Palestinian Diaspora businesses, Aid Orgs you can donate to that are on the ground and Palestine and elsewhere, other linktrees that are Palestine and non-Palestine related, and I will continue to add things there.

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frankrich08 · 3 years

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#Gratis Porno

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lucalicatteart · 4 years

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- The various groups of Nanyevimi -

Just a post going over some of the different groups in the world (like the elven alliance, etc.). The more prominent ones will hopefully have their own posts eventually, but I thought it’d be good for now to have a kind of reference sheet on the various international organizations, clubs, political entities, etc. (at least those I’ve thought about so far, obviously there are a lot more not mentioned/created yet) that exist in the world, so that it’s easy to know what I’m talking about if they happen to be brought up later... Also includes a fair bit of random information about the world, parts of the magic system, cultures of different groups, etc. just because it is a mandatory requirement of my brain that I go off on at least 10 side tangents per post hgghh...

(Actual info under read more, as usual ~..)

------

Some of these I’m just copying and pasting their descriptions from this post here (link), but even those I may have modified slightly, and much of the info here is new lol.. And this isn’t very in depth, I’m really just kind of giving the shortest description possible. Some will be longer if I have more information known about them, and others will kind of just be tiny blurbs.

I have two different categories: Species/Culture Specific Groups, and Non-species/culture Specific Groups. “Species/Culture Specific Groups” being groups where basically you're likely only in this group if you're from a certain species or cultural background (which is often linked to species). These usually are made up of people from specific areas/species/nationalities, or have their membership limited to that. Then of course the “NON species/culture specific groups” are just groups that you can be a part of regardless of where you're born or who you are. You're more likely to actively have to join these rather than just being born into it as part of a culture or etc., and you being there generally has nothing to do with your background.

I’m choosing to categorize them this way I guess because I think about everything from a character building perspective? Nanyevimi as a setting has things established in a certain way where if I wanted to make a new character, I could kind of just drop them anywhere on the map and already know a good bit about their background (the climate, what species they likely would be if they’re from a certain place, what cultural standards they’d be exposed to, etc.). I find having specific established details about the world makes it a lot easier to realistically build what people would be in it, or events (conflicts that may occur in an area due to pre-established things there, etc.) that can happen.

Obviously from there you have to add variance and the world is still complex (even if you have two people you know are exposed to the same environment, they won’t react to it the same way, etc.), but I think building in that manner makes for a good base (especially for areas I’ve created the most about.. like for example, I could put a new blank character pretty much anywhere on the continent of Aviinine and immediately know what species they would likely be from out of the primary groups that inhabit the area, which culture they may have grown up in/been influenced by, what abilities it would be likely they have, the conflicts they may have been exposed to, their likely diet/ daily life/ occupation (based on the government and how the specific country is run), etc. You have to tweak and add more later to have a well-rounded character, but it’s really convenient to have well established starting points and many background details of a character already filled in.)

SO, because that’s kind of my process of worldbuilding, I thought this would be an easy way to categorize groups, since if I’m thinking “oh I want this character to be in a group” or etc. I could easily just look and be like, okay.. what groups do they qualify for? Like a northern elf wouldn’t be a member of the Collection Of Southern Jhevona (or if they somehow were, it would be an interesting story in itself, how they ended up being there and working alongside such a faraway group), etc. I could classify the groups in different ways (by continent/area, by size/influence, etc.), but I thought this method makes the most sense for character-based stuff, which I guess is what I like to focus on lol... BUT ANYWAY , onto the actual post !!

( ALSO, I’ve added sections about where each of these groups are active, so here’s a world map of Nanyevimi (below) and here (link) is an actual explanation of the map and the places on it, in case you’re not already familiar. )

------------- SPECIES/CULTURE SPECIFIC GROUPS ---------------------

The Collection Of Southern Jhevona:

Though the Jhevona as a species aren’t really represented by any one group in particular, and tend to live in separate smaller scattered territories without many allies, The Collection is probably the closest thing to a unified alliance of Jhevona that exists. Jhevona are thought to have originated from somewhere down in lower Nanyevimi, and many of the oldest, largest, and most powerful cities/countries/territories/etc. of them exist in that region. The Collection is basically just a group of these civilizations who formed a sort of loose alliance, usually for the sake of helping other Jhevona groups with trade or conflict.

The relatively small size of the species, their historical conflicts with certain powerful groups of elves (thus it’s easy for a conflict with them to end up impacting your entire reputation across many different areas, etc.), and other issues specific to them (like species wide problems with premature death, disease, and infertility due to higher levels of magic expose),, means that many Jhevona groups can tend to exist in a somewhat vulnerable state. The Collection seeks to… help them with that, lol..

While The Collection was started by and is mostly made up of only like five primary countries/groups/etc. of Jhevona, you don’t have to be a part of the organization to still receive aid and cooperate with them and etc. They form casual alliances and help out pretty much any group of Jhevona, regardless of if they officially join the collection or not (of course excluding like, if some random jhevona group was trying to start a genocide or something that obviously most jhevona wouldn’t be okay supporting lol). Really they just exist to help promote the interests and safety of their species as a whole, whenever and wherever they can, despite how diverse and un-unified most groups of Jhevona tend to be.

The Collection is technically active across all of Nanyevimi, in that they sometimes send resources or representatives to all corners of the world in order to help with certain issues, but their main area of reach and the physical location of their operations is generally around the lower/middle half of Nanyevimi, around southern Estic Kfal/Nonvas Kfal, and some bits of Siryonla.

There are no set uniforms or appearance for this group like there are for others, but it’s possible they could still be identified if they happen to have clothing or items adorned with the symbol they use to represent themselves, which is shown in this post here (link).

(more info on the Jhevona species and culture HERE (link))

The Elven Alliance:

I’ve talked about them before in a few other posts lol, but this is basically the main influential group of elves in the world. About 10,000 years ago or so, many of the prominent elven societies at the time decided that it’d be helpful for them to all ally together and mutually aid each other (sharing resources, technology, giving money loans to smaller elven countries to help them build, defense aid, etc.), so they formed The Alliance. Though, there were disagreements on a few big issues (notably the interpretation of the elven religion, but some other things as well, many more subtle underlying conflicts led to the formation of the alliance), so while it was initially meant to be for ALL elves (or at least claimed to be so), it ended up becoming more exclusive.

Now there’s kind of a pretty distinct cultural line between countries/groups/etc. of elves that are inside of the Elven Alliance, vs. outside of it. Any group of elves is still allowed to join the alliance at any time they want, but they have to meet certain cultural and religious standards, and must be approved by a vote of all current elven alliance nation representatives. There are about 38 countries/groups in the elven alliance at this date, though of course not all of them are the same size or have the same amount of political influence.

Since elves are the majority population in the world, and also most of the groups within the Alliance are like.. very big very rich very powerful nations, the Elven Alliance is probably the most influential group in all of Nanyevimi, at least in terms of global politics and trade. Though of course, Nanyevimi is so scattered and isolated, it’s kind of impossible for any one group to control too much lol.. Like, they’re the most influential compared to everyone else, but everyone else usually barely has any influence at all. There are still plenty of groups down south (most elven countries are up north or near the middle of the globe) that are entirely out of reach of the elven alliance, or at least can ignore them without much consequence. However if you live in or near the primary elven territories of the world (or if you are elven, even if you live far in the south), it’s likely their activities and policies have a much bigger impact on your life.

The Alliance is GENERALLY seen as neutral (depending on who you ask), though they do have a bad reputation in certain places due to various historical events (the fact that Fanyin is still allowed as a member of the Alliance just because they helped found it, despite the government of the country being known as like.. a conflict-hungry dictatorship that has a ridiculous class system and no rights for like 50% of it’s citizens.. A group of Alliance allied scientists/mages almost killed the entire world by introducing a magic plague one time whilst trying to engineer biological warfare against a relatively small defenseless group of people over a religious conflict lmao… The primary technology that brought the Alliance to have most of it’s shared wealth and power (Iriminel crystals, which can be used to basically store magical energy as a power source) was later found to have been stolen from a group of Jhevona after they were murdered just because they wouldn’t agree to let a group of elves mine crystals from their lands.. you know, stuff like that..).

There are plenty of groups within the alliance who disapprove of the past actions of other alliance members, who work to do good across the world, etc. But people usually still end up questioning their intentions. There are so many moving parts and complex dynamics within the Alliance, it’s hard for people to have a concrete opinion on it as a whole (since most of the groups within it are pretty different from each other), but needless to say, their reputation across the realm can be quite controversial.

(side note: another reason that it’s so controversial is because the elven alliance is really one of the only places in the realm that a concept of ‘royalty’ is even a thing. Ideas of kings, queens, and royal families/upper classes, seem to have originated (at least in their modern form) actually in southern elven culture, which when they moved their way up north (in ancient times of course, not at all recently), northern elves kind of fell naturally into loving the idea of it due to the hierarchy that already existed in many of their cultures, even long after southern elves had abandoned it. Many northern elven societies leaned towards these systems, and then thousands of years later naturally moved towards allying together, with smaller alliances and groups of royalty supporting each other, until finally officially The Elven Alliance, which at it’s start was made up mostly of northern elven nations.

This isn’t to say that monarchy or other similar systems have just NEVER existed before then and literally don’t exist anywhere else (northern jhevona are known to have similar systems also), but it’s definitely FAR less common outside of the northern elven sphere (at least in modern day, who knows what the hell was going on prior to 50,000 years ago since all history before that was lost). A lot of cultures in the realm have seemingly tended to lean more towards less centralized or more collective forms of societal and economic systems, so to people outside of the elven alliance, and outside of elven culture in general, it often seems bizarre, unfair, or just kind of silly.

Anyway, because royalty is so rare, and a majority of the countries in the elven alliance have systems of rotalty, and that most outside of the alliance don’t, sometimes the elven alliance can become a figure that, in the minds of people, represents royalty itself. Thus any criticism of royalty in general, often also becomes a criticism of the alliance, even if the particular issue at hand doesn’t directly involve them (though knowing them, they probably are involved somehow lol). The alliance becomes even more controversial, not only because of past actions, but also just due to what they represent in the minds of others. )

The Elven Alliance is active mostly in the northern half of Nanyevimi, as most elven countries/elven populations are located around that area (the northern borders of Estic Kfal/Nonvas Kfal and Siryonla). They have a VERY strong presence on the continent of Aviinine, seeing as that’s the home of the Fanyiniri/the country of Fanyin, and they’re one of the main alliance founders. Though the country of Asen (part of Aviinine) is now an independent nation, it was owned by the Alliance up until a few hundreds years ago, and the entire continent was owned by the ancestors of the Fanyiniri (northern ancient elves) at one point. “Aviinine” does translate to something like “homeland of the elves” so I mean.. duh

There are no set uniforms or appearance for this group (since it’s such a huge, broad spanned thing, you’re not going to have like 40+ countries worth of people all in one single uniform lol) like there are for others, but it’s possible they could still be identified if they happen to have clothing or items adorned with the symbol they use to represent themselves, which is shown in this post here (link).

International Union Of Non-Allied Elves:

Basically kind of like the Elven Alliance, except for … made up of elves outside of the Alliance. They function very similarly to how the Collection Of Southern Jhevona operate, in the sense that they basically are just a loose collaboration of elves who ally with each other for resources and protection, and really seek to help all elves in general. Unlike the Alliance, there are no guidelines or regulations you have to meet to join, or for them to come to your aid, basically any group of elves is welcome.

(They actually existed before the Alliance was founded, though obviously weren’t referred to as ‘non-allied elves’ since ‘allied’ wouldn’t mean anything before the existence of the ‘alliance’. There’s been a similar organization around for a while that ended up merging with the newer group (the non-allied union), so now they’ve kind of become one. So this group has kind of always existed in a way, especially to give elves better connection long in the past when they were more scattered loose groupings of people, but the non-allied union obviously became much more prominent after the formation of the Alliance, as their efforts were more needed. Especially as the Alliance got more powerful, and could use it’s influence over smaller groups of elves if they weren’t allied with/protected by a similarly powerful organization (like the Alliance showing up to a small elven country and being like ‘actually all the elven ruins here belong to us now because we’re the True Elves’, which on their own they maybe couldn’t defend, but the small city could summon people from the non-allied union and be like ‘hello 911 I am being bullied by ugly ass bitches with bob haircuts’ (ghgh this makes sense if you read further down, the military organization that serves the alliance has black bobs and eyeshadow as a part of their uniform).. ANYWAY)

Since there are no cultural or religious guidelines to join, non-alliance elves tend to have MUCH more variety in their religious practices, general daily life, diet, technology, customs, etc. since it’s not regulated by a central power like in the case of Elven Alliance countries. Though this does mean they generally have less cohesion, less stable defense/resources, and less sense of collective unity, they still usually stick together pretty well if needed.

Though you would think so, there actually isn’t much conflict between Alliance vs. Non-alliance elves. The only things would probably be religious disagreements (the alliance having adopted a new monotheistic version of the elven religion, while non-alliance groups still practice having many gods and are much more open to wide variations on rituals and interpretation), and also certain cultural disagreements (elven cultures in general tend to focus a lot on glorifying their own history, proud of the advancements of ancient elves and etc. etc. So BOTH groups want historical artifacts, ancient religious texts, etc. But since the Alliance is the more powerful group of elves, they basically kind of get to hoard all of that stuff. Non-alliance elves end up weirdly distanced from their own culture and lacking any meaningful connection with their history, since Alliance elves have kind of taken control as the One Single Authority On All Things Elven and basically own nearly all historical records and information on the elven species. Which of course non-alliance groups aren’t always happy about, especially since some of them are not keen to just trust whatever historical ‘facts’ the Alliance puts out there when they’d rather just have access to the records or other resources that would allow them to explore the information for themselves).

But other than those two things, relations between The Alliance and non-alliance groups like the Union really aren’t too strained (of course this depends on the group). The Alliance generally also wants to support elves just because they’re elves, and at the end of the day, they want to help the success of their own species, so they rarely mistreat non-alliance groups, and if anything usually are overly welcoming to them, since they aim for all groups of elves to eventually join the alliance as well, and don’t want to scare potential members off lol. They’re actually known for reaching out to non-alliance groups, giving them gifts, offering them aid (mostly with no strings attached), but of course this is met with mixed reception, and sometimes suspicion.

The Union of non-allied elves pretty much operates around the same areas as the Alliance, as both obviously exist pretty much entirely among elven populations. The Union’s reach extends a little farther south, or even to the middle of the globe. Because the Alliance pretty much rules the north, non-alliance elves who don’t get along well with their practices (for whatever reason) tend to migrate further south, just so they don’t have to be near the influence of the Alliance. Though the official Union Of Non-Allied Elves is neutral towards the Alliance, and they generally get along, since the goal of the Union is to serve the elven people, they kind of exist wherever the people are. If a huge group of Alliance hating elves migrate down to the south, then the influence of the Union also migrates down south as well, since it basically just serves wherever it’s needed, follows wherever the elven people go.

There are no set uniforms or appearance for this group like there are for others (again, way too broad of a group), but it’s possible they could still be identified if they happen to have clothing or items adorned with the symbol they use to represent themselves, which is shown in this post here (link).

(also, random note: none of these names are like.. actually what they’re called in the species’ native language. I’m writing in english so for those that do have easy translations, I’m just using simple to remember English names but, they’d all have their own actual names for themselves.

Like for example “The Elven Alliance” in the actual elven language would just be “The Alliance” referred to as “Ane Kiivastye” or just “Kiivastye”. ‘Ane’ meaning ‘Those/they/a group of people’, ‘kii’ being a prefix to mean ‘inside/within’, and ‘Vastye’ meaning something along the lines of ‘grace/good faith/favor’. So basically ‘Those who are in grace’, implying ‘Those who have good favor with the gods’ , since one of the main reasons for the split was religious disagreement. Likewise, anyone outside of the alliance would be natively called something like ‘Ane Nekiivastye’, or ‘those who are outside of grace/those who do not hold good favor with the gods’.

So basically all the names would be different in the actual languages of the people I’m referring to, but I’m just using these since it’s much easier to remember and reference lol)

Council Of Navyete:

This is the primary government of Navyete, the homeland of the Avirre’thel/vampires and where most of the members of that species live. I obviously plan on making a separate post about this sometime soon, so I don’t need to explain much lol.. Also just… the council system is really complicated and it’s going to be extremely long whenever I do explain it ghgjhgj…. But it’s basically just the main group of people who exist to make certain final decisions on law and policy and help with the functioning of Navyete.

There can be 600 - 800 council members at a time, who all specialize in particular areas, and also don’t have that much power. They exist more as a mediating group who can help other groups communicate with each other, represent their people when meeting with outside governments, resolve conflicts between groups who can’t resolve it on their own, aid in the ease of distributing resources, etc. They don’t necessarily rule anything, as much as they just help manage the whims of the country and try to keep things running smoothly.

Ultimately the people hold a majority of the power (most actual decisions are made on a local level by smaller councils of the citizens who live in a particular area, or other affiliated groups (like if people do labor, they collectively own their workplace and make decisions and rules about it, generally having nothing to do with involvement from the higher council, etc.)) , The Council just kind of helps aid the citizens rule their own country, providing a bit of extra cohesion and organization so it’s easier for all these smaller governing groups to communicate between each other and do things collectively as a nation.

Sort of like an actor having an agent that represents them and helps advise them and make connections for them and etc., but ultimately the main career moves and stuff are decided by the actor themselves. The Council would be an ‘’agent’’ and the “actor” would be the people of the country, who still handle most stuff as a collective but rely on the council for additional guidance and national cohesion where necessary.

Despite their somewhat smaller role in terms of actually controlling Navyete, since they do represent the entire country (like at meetings with foreign governments and etc.), and also because of the circumstances and purpose under which they were originally founded, the Council still is kind of seen as a symbol of Navyete and of the Avirre’thel as a whole, and are often interpreted as very significant. A version of the flag of the council is also the flag of the country (which is also often used to represent their entire species), and the people of Navyete are culturally generally proud of the progress their species/ country has made since their rocky beginnings, so they also see the Council as a positive representation of themselves, and kind of allow it to take on the symbolic meaning that it has.

(for more information on the Avirre’thel , their info directory is HERE (link))

(Also, this group technically isn’t species specific. Though Navyete is an extremely homogeneous nation and all of the council families are of Avirre'thel origin, they do still regularly invite special advisors and etc. onto the council to help them make decisions. So, SOME of the members are actually non-avirre'thel, most prominently there are a good handful of jhevona on the council and some elves and etc., but it's MOSTLY avirre'thel and is still very culturally linked to them, so I'm considering it a species/culture specific group. Even if there could technically be an elf or jhevona on the council, they likely still grew up in Navyete and are a part of that culture.)

How the council is organized and ran and etc. is a lot more complicated (there are stringent regulations on everything, council members basically have to go through years of training starting from when they’re kids, all the different layers of local governments and how that system works alongside the council, the council’s meeting place is like a giant ancient city carved into the side of a mountain (it also has a sometimes frozen waterfall running through it lol), scheduled mandatory council meeting dates, how they make decisions and how the deliberation process of coming to a decision works, etc. etc) , but hopefully I can write something in more detail about it someday! Just know that it’s all very complicated and annoying lol..

The council obviously exists basically just in the country of Navyete. Though since part of their job is to act as representatives of their people when negotiating with foreign governments/organizations/etc., they do occasionally send diplomats to other places. Their area of influence is mostly limited to Navyete though, since the Avirre’thel culturally tend to be more isolated and inwards-focused*.

* (In the sense of like, they don’t want to be a major country on the world stage, be the ~~Richest And Most Powerful~~ nation, spread their influence, etc. As long as their country is doing fine and they’re making the internal improvements that they need to make and etc., outside affairs don’t concern them as much. Contrast this to countries like Fanyin or Asen, where becoming a rich globally known area or being politically significant around the world is more culturally important to the people/the government of those lands, so they’re more inclined to try to get involved in the business of other countries/groups/etc. The Council will get involved with stuff when it NEEDS to, but they’re really not going around sending off diplomats across the world to meddle in foreign affairs or gain riches or start useless wars or whatever lol**)

**(Which, just to clarify, they couldn’t go worldwide meddling even if they wanted to... Culturally most of the actual citizens of Navyete would be strongly against that. All the legal regulations on the council + Navyete culture in general makes a situation where.. council members are extremely aware that the general populace would not hesitate to overthrow the council or just kick certain members out in a second if ever necessary, so their attitude is always very like.. “damn.. we better all listen to the people and be on our best behavior.... Or Else”. The Council doesn’t have it’s own police force, they don’t own any resources themselves (they’re actually not allowed to lol, they don’t even own their homes/food/clothing/etc. technically, it’s just on loan to them which belongs to the country collectively), they don’t get paid much more than anyone else, etc. etc. so it’s not like they have much power to leverage, they can’t hoard resources or pay people off or etc. At most, they have intricate knowledge of how the country works and a good bit of connections, but so do a lot of smaller local government leaders outside of the council.

Basically, the Council is only in place because the people find them genuinely helpful and they’re good at what they do. Were that ever like.. not the case, it’s set up so it’s pretty easy for everyone to just be like ‘Hmm.. I guess you’re not needed anymore then!’ and decide to remove members, reverse decisions, dismantle the council as a whole (though this would be a longer process than kicking someone out.. you can kick out a council member in like.. 2 days time lol.. While there are instructions and plans already in place for the process of dismantling/overthrowing the council system if needed, it would definitely be a years long transition and not two days hghh), etc. But ANYWAY!! My point is that, even if the council wanted to do some wild stuff like go start a war with elves or something, they wouldn’t get very far in the first place since the general population and broader localized community leaders of the people would step in almost immediately and be like ‘Actually, This Will Not Be Happening’ lol)

There are no set uniforms or appearance for them, but it’s possible they could still be identified if they happen to have clothing or items adorned with the symbol they use to represent themselves, which is shown in this post here (link).

THOUGH, it is required that when you’re on the grounds of the huge ancient building the Council uses as their home base/capital city/etc., you must be wearing traditional Avirre’thel clothing. It doesn’t really count as a uniform, since they don’t wear it all the time, and only do so when AT the actual meeting place/holding council, but it is at least a form of required clothing for them at times. (though everyone in the population probably wears their traditional clothing every once in a while, for events, celebrations, etc. so the Council mandatorily wearing it every few months when they meet isn’t unique or anything). - For more info on traditional Avirre’thel clothing and what it looks like, you can go to this post here (link).

The Avii’da Vina:

The Avvi’da Vina (which literally translates to ‘children of ancient elves’ in avirrekava) are a small group of vampires/avirre’thel who wholly embrace the fact that the Avirre’thel species are technically the most direct currently living ancestors of ancient elves, and seek for this to be further recognized. Members of the Avvi’da Vina firmly believe that the avirre’thel should still have a place within elven society, sometimes even moreso than any modern day elves, due to their unique connection to ancient elven history,, and that they should be recognized as elves (or at least some sort of subspecies of elves), rather than a different species entirely. The group is mostly made up of scholars, historians, or various other researchers, and seems to generally have the purpose of merely connecting and spreading information. However, it is often seen as a political organization, due to the implications of said information. Even if arguably they may be factually correct (though many elven groups have rewritten their histories to hide it, so some may still consider it factually false) and seem to only wish to spread this knowledge and follow through with the questions it presents, their ideas are very controversial among both elves and other avirre’thel alike.

I already have a post written about them HERE (link), so I won’t go over much detail, other than the brief description above.

The Avvi’da Vina operate mostly just around Aviinine, though certain representatives of the group are known to travel far and wide for things like studying ancient elven ruins, speaking to different groups of elves about their information, etc.

There are no set uniforms or appearance for this group, but it’s possible they could still be identified if they happen to have clothing or items adorned with the symbol they use to represent themselves, which I was going to draw like some of the others in this post, but I forgot, and now I’m like going over everything to proofread it for a last time and don’t feel like drawing something else ghghgh, so I’ll try to go back and add it later. If I add other groups to the world, or create new info about any of them, I plan on going back to modify this anyway, so .. lol

Additionally, they often wear traditional avirre’thel clothing most all the time, to honor their heritage (and because their traditional clothing is pretty close to ancient elven clothing as well). But of course aren’t strict enough about it that they don’t wear other stuff when necessary (like having to dress elven to blend in in an elven city they’re handing out information in, etc.)

(Though it’s mostly avirre’thel, elves can also be members of the Avvi’da Vina, but membership would really be limited to only those two species. Like, there would be no reason for a jhevona to really join this group or something, since they have no personal stake or interest in whether avirre’thel are ever merged back into elven society or not, and if they did it would be a bit weird lol..like.. why are you so passionate about this when it’s not your business gfgh )

Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei:

A small group of about 25 individuals (not including the additional helpers that work for them and aid in leading people to them from location to location), who play a very significant role in Avirre’thel culture. Because Avirre’thel are inherently immortal and cannot die naturally*, one of the only ways that they die is by going to the ‘Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei’ and requesting to end their lives. This group has been around since the initial modification of the species (from ancient elves to what they are now) when they were originally modified in a pact with the ancient jhevona and made immortal.

The location of the Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei are unknown. You have to go through like eight layers of asking for information before you can even speak with them (one person will tell you where to find the next person, the next person will tell you where a second location is to ask for the third, etc. and nobody in this line up knows all the information together (so the 3rd person you ask only knows of the 2nd person and 4th person, but not the 7th, etc.)), just to make things extra secure and difficult for anyone from outside to accomplish (like an elven spy or something).

This is another reason why it’s a really big decision, once you start on the process you can’t really change your mind (once you’ve gone to a few locations, you know too much). And also typically why you have to do it alone, someone can’t go on the journey with you and then come back, since then they’d know too much (but, you can go as a group, some friends or couples choose to die together). Though, it’s said that there have been cases of people going on the journey to find the Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei and then returning, it’s likely they turned back at an early enough stage that it didn’t matter, or possibly had their memories wiped using magic of some kind. The first person you talk to, the start of the process, is openly known information and easy to access (obviously, otherwise it’d be like denying people access to their right to die once they feel they’ve lived a suitable life, which as people who will literally live forever otherwise, is an important choice for them to be able to have agency in (sometimes 15,000 yrs is just enough for someone and forcing them to go on would cause suffering for them)), but all the steps up after that are secretive, especially since nobody who makes the journey to death lives to tell about it.

Obviously, how exactly the Avirre’thel are killed is kept as an extremely guarded secret as well. It’s thought that perhaps the Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei are capable of a special type of magic, or maybe are in possession of a magical item, something that allows them to actually kill Avirre’thel. Since the only people who have ever met them are now dead, there’s also a lot of strange theories and speculation surrounding them. While they do send out representatives to convey messages on their behalf (if needed, which is rare), they’ve never appeared to anyone personally (there is an old tale that one of the Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei was caught by a jhevona spy once (working on behalf of elves, of course) and promptly committed suicide using some sort of magic, to prevent their captors from being able to get any information out of them, but this is the ONLY instance of personal outside interaction with the Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei that is known, and it may be just a rumor).

Some people think that the Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei aren’t fellow Avirre’thel at all, but are perhaps instead jhevona, or some other magical species that would be able to perform magic strong enough to break a powerful immortality enchantment. Some believe that it’s not a group at all, but is in fact just one person, the ancient jhevona who originally aided in creating the Avirre’thel, just counteracting their own magic to allow death to occur**. Some even think that the Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei may be an unknown species entirely, as they were supposedly made up of members of the original avirre’thel, they could be basically modified ancient elves (like the avirre’thel), but altered differently, maybe they’ve gained immortality AND kept their ability for magic in order to fill a place as unique guardians of the species, or perhaps even had their magic increased, some sort of immortal ancient elf/jhevona hybrids who have abilities and lifestyles atypical to most modern Avirre’thel.

Though the most common idea is that, they are in fact just regular Avirre’thel (though of course older, some of the originals), except with access to a special ritual, or a spell, or some sort of enchantment, likely given to them by the ancient jhevona that helped form the species, which they can utilize to magically kill, despite not possessing any inherent magic themselves. It’s thought that they probably don’t even know how it works, they just remember all the steps and do what the ancient jhevona set up for them to do, which results in somehow making avirre’thel vulnerable enough to die. They may even be killed just with a knife or a poison or something, if all the Fancy Secret Ritual has to do is break the immortality enchantment, after that, the person could choose to die in any way they’d like, as they’d now be able to die by completely normal means.

The Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei obviously only operate in Navyete, in a secret location, and make no contact with anyone outside of the country (they barely even have contact with anyone inside the country either lol).

There COULD be a uniform or set appearance for this group, but nobody would know it, since nobody ever actually has seen them (or all the people who have are.. dead). Any symbols or representative markings for this group are also either non-existent or unknown.

** (though in more recent times this rumor is less likely, as the original ancient jhevona they spoke to is still around and about, Avirre’thel have tried to contact them before and it’s now known they seem to be very neutral/uncaring for their role in the avirre’thel’s creation. Like most ancient jhevona, this one is very isolated, bizarre, only cares about what’s in their own mind, nearly completely detached from what’s going on in the common world, etc. It’s unlikely that they’d be hanging around dedicating all this time to being some sort of a death god for them, when it seems like they could care less in the first place.)

*(note: Technically they CAN die in other ways, but it’s extremely difficult. Basically what keeps them immortal is their quick and flawless (meaning it doesn’t go haywire and cause excessive growth/cancers) regeneration. An Avirre’thel’s body can reform itself from even the SMALLEST amount of residue. A drop of blood, a pile of ashes, a stray hair, etc. As long as there’s SOMETHING nearby that’s leftover for the original body’s soul to attach itself to, it will automatically latch onto that and regenerate. So if you had some sort of way to completely obliterate a person and wipe all traces of local matter away into completely nothing, then Avirre’thel COULD technically die by that method. But weaponry and magic like that just really doesn’t exist in Nanyevimi, so it’s practically considered impossible.

The only other means by which Avirre’thel have died in the past, was a “magic plague” that happened about 9,000 years ago. Northern elves (with the help of a few Jhevona who obviously handled most of the complex magic) originally developed a ‘disease’ as a means for fighting war with the Avirre’thel (which the northern elves provoked in the first place, of course.. the fanyiniri really are just like “I’m going to be a bitch and the second you actually call me out on it about it then i WILL orchestrate risky biological warfare and kill half of my own country as well because YES i DO only have one fucking braincell”), and were just as shocked as the Avirre’thel were when it was actually able to kill them (albeit slowly). Unfortunately, it was also extremely lethal to everyone else, and basically everyone on the entire continent started dying (elves, jhevona, avirre’thel, etc.). Since it got out of hand, a random group of a few ancient jhevona came out of hiding and ended up mysteriously doing.. something... to eradicate it, but because nobody even had any idea how it worked in the first place (it’s creation was a fluke), there is still a lot of mystery surrounding it and the exact ‘disease’ has never been able to be replicated. From what people know, it SEEMS like it somehow was able to infect... magic itself? As non-magical species were unaffected. But that raises questions about the nature of magic and how something like that is even possible.

It’s also unknown why it affected the Avirre’thel, as a non-magical species, but the best guess theory is that because they’re TECHNICALLY still an inherently magical species (they’re just elves, but who had a few modifications and have a large-scale species-wide blood-linked enchantment set up to take their magic away and siphon it elsewhere, so live as a non-magical species in practice), they were still able to be ‘infected’. Since the species enchantment is what keeps them immortal, and enchantments are magical in origin, perhaps a ‘’disease’’ that affects magic would make it where that enchantment is no longer able to work properly, thus removing the source of their immortality.

ANYWAY, so, they have been able to die in the past, and technically if you were able to destroy every bit of them completely they would die, but it’s SO unlikely and so impossible to happen, that functionally, their only method of death is to request to be ritually killed as described above.)

(random sidenote: The magic plague thing was something I had written into my world-building a long time ago, far before everything going on now. I just wanted to clarify that I wasn’t like, using the current pandemic as Cool Worldbuilding Inspiration Wow Stories About People Dying From Diseases And Plagues Are So Fun Hee Hee ! the timing of when I finally finish this draft may make it seem weird, but I’m pretty sure I’ve referenced it in posts a while ago before now)

ALSO - further information about the name of the group! (since I bothered to make a language I might as well use it sometimes, but you can skip this section if that’s not interesting to you)

Here’s a breakdown of the name - ‘Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei’, which can also be called “ Syehtavaege'sa tu bi'gyanei yrra “ more formally :

gyanei - eternal/everlasting syehta - verb root for to have something, to be in possession of something, mostly abstract like to posses a quality yrra - added onto the end of something (usually name or title) to convey reverence/importance bi - thing that makes stuff negative (kind of like ‘UN’ in english, for example - happy > UNhappy, familiar > UNfamiliar, etc.) tu - on the topic of/in relevance to/denotes what is being spoken about (kind of like “of” in english)

vaege - one of the rare two ancient verb endings (in addition to the typical six) that are in modern times rarely used for anything except emphasis. ‘vaege’ when added to the end of a verb indicates an action as constant and ongoing. So instead of present-positive ending, past-positive ending, past-negative ending, etc., this one is more like ‘constant-positive’. Like the difference between “She wears pants” VS. “She is always wearing pants”, etc. (and like most verb endings, ‘vaege’ can be shortened to ‘vage’ or even just ‘ge’, but in this instance, that would be seen as too informal/disrespectful since this is an official title/name of an important group)

‘sa - a suffix that makes verbs, adjectives, nouns, (really any type of word) into a personal descriptor. Kind of like ‘ly’ in english, except if you could add it to verbs and everything else too (’run’ + ly = ‘runly’ , and having that mean ‘someone who is running/a runner/etc.) It’s basically like ‘to exist in the manner of’ , so like -

bright + 'sa = brightly (to exist in the manner of 'bright') mother + 'sa = motherly (to exist in the manner of 'mother') verb for 'climb' + 'sa = climbly , person/ thing that climbs/ something that does the act of climbing (to exist in the manner of 'climb'). Though with verbs, the verb ending does alter the meaning, so if the ending is past negative (’did not climb’), then adding ‘sa would mean “person/thing that DID NOT climb”, or if future positive - person/thing that “WILL climb”, etc. bird + ‘sa = birdly, someone/something that resembles a bird (to exist in the manner of ‘bird’).. etc. etc.

So, now with all of that information -

“Syehtavaege'sa tu bi'gyanei yrra” = (verb root for ‘to possess’)(constant positive)’(exists in the manner of) (in reference to) (UN)(eternal) (respect marker)

meaning roughly:

“person/object/thing that permanently exists in the manner of possessing something (and what exactly is being possessed is >) that which is NOT-everlasting (and also this is important/revered)”

Translated into a way that would make sense in English/convey a similar tone, it could be something like:

"Those who hold the non-everlasting", "Owners of permanence" , “Keepers of ending”, “Those who oversee finality”, etc. Meaning basically, people who guard and maintain the process of death, and are the Avirre’thel peoples’ only access to a final and permanent sort of ending.

Which they could just have it be simple like "The Death Council", but this name was created by the original ancient-elves-recently-turned-vampires who were first creating the concept, so the language MUST be flowery and a bit vague, as is the true ancient elven tradition. This is something that comes up a lot in Avirrekava (the language of the avirre’thel) which is like.. modern terms tend to be more practical and straightforward the further they grow away from their ancient elven roots/influence, and so you can kind of tell when a place name or a concept or a title was invented a LONG time ago because it will be overly long and more abstract lol.

A modern named city would just be something like “suitable trading place” or etc., but an older city established by some of the original avirre’thel would have a name translating to something like “homeland of echos, playing the everlasting world’s soft song” (basically there’s a waterfall nearby and you can hear the ~~worlds’ soft song~~ (flowing water) from the city lol..).

A lot of early personal names are also long and you can tell them apart from newer ones (modern Avirrekava baby names - Anhana, Ara, Ada, Viku, Nari, Tyara, Erivera, etc. OLD baby names - Ishimanare, Ye’isahana, Harivuyenia, Tuyakuhera, Anayaheiru*, Ibayamarinesi, etc.), some people still name their kids stuff like ‘Imaenasevayuni’ or something, but it definitely stands out. ANYWAY, “~~Those who posses that which is non-eternal~~” JUST SAY ‘death bringers’ or something, stop being pretentious ghhghj

*(the previously mentioned ’anhana’ (+ stuff like ‘anheru’ ‘aharu’ ‘anyeru’ ) is actually a modernized version of ‘Anayaheiru’)

Council of Broader Siryonla :

Similar to the Collection of Southern Jhevona and the Union of Non-Allied elves, this is a group that seeks to represent the interests of all inhabitants of Siryonla. Basically all the governments and rulers and etc. from every little small island country in the whole of Siryonla communicate and coordinate with each other on a council. Since they’re usually such small, easily vulnerable populations, they figure it’s better to band together. Though they all maintain their own agency and internal rules and stuff (like not all of them have the same type of government, economic system, culture, etc.), they still work together to decide certain things that will affect the entire population broadly, to guarantee to defend one another, and etc. Though there are a few islands/groups that are generally not present on the council because they prefer to be isolated or are still so hidden off from the world that they don’t understand the attempts at contact from those in the islands around them, the broad council would still likely defend them if they were to be attacked, or help them in any way they could, even if they’re not formally in the alliance since, they’re still part of Siryonla.

Obviously the area of operation for this group is... the islands of Siryonla. Though they may send representatives to speak to foreign governments or something, pretty much all of their business is internal, just stuff like making sure everyone on all of the islands has enough resources, trying to neutrally settle conflicts between various island nations, etc.

This isn’t a species specific one, but it is culture/area specific, since it obviously wouldn't apply to anyone who doesn’t live in any of the Siryonla islands.

Ehn-imkasyn :

The Ehn-imkasyn are a group specific to the Thastanri people (a subspecies of jhevona) that includes the Imkasyn, and also those who protect them, as well as general experts in dream/mind/soul magics. Kind of similar to how a group of craftsmen may get together to represent their trade and share insider crafting secrets and keep it alive/spread knowledge to younger generations and etc. Because their expertise in this specific style of magic is very significant (and protected) within their culture, they kind of group together to share knowledge among themselves and study/practice these forms of magic. Most Thastanri have to train and work to gain the good favor of the group before being allowed to join and be taught the more difficult/complex feats of magic by the group experts, but obviously Imkasyn are welcomed into the group immediately regardless of their training or etc., due to their unique abilities.

There are a few different focuses of the Ehn-imkasyn, various areas members can specialize in, but they’re most notorious for their assassins/defense forces. Because of the Thastanri’s already existing inclinations towards highly advanced soul magics, their assassins basically just take this base ability and weaponize it. Using a rare subset of soul magic unique to only the Thastanri, they can have their soul leave their bodies and inhabit the dreams realms of others as they’re sleeping, genuinely affecting the mind and physical state of the person from inside themselves, without even having to do anything in the waking world (while you can’t physically hurt someone in the real world from inside a dream, you can compel them to harm themselves, in a barely awake state, kind of like sleep-walking).

Dream/soul magic is already a thing that many advanced mages can use and on it’s own isn’t very novel, BUT, the difference is the exact techniques the Ehn-imkasyn use, unique specialized ways of accomplishing feats ‘normal’ dream magic isn’t capable of, the specifics of which have been passed down as an ancient art for thousands of years and are well guarded by them and can pretty much only be acquired by outsiders if they were to be allowed to train alongside them (which is nearly impossible due to how closed off they are). Mostly, the special thing is that they have somehow mastered the ability of having two souls in one body without one beginning to absorb the other, and without any damage or fracturing of either one, as well as being able to maintain their souls outside of their own bodies for an unheard of amount of time, and traveling around as just a soul without having to hop from body to body, etc. (this makes more sense if you read the post about soul absorption HERE (link), which goes over how that part of soul magic works, and could explain why being able to do what they do is really strange))

While all Ehn-imkasyn (and most Thastanri, generally) have a good understanding and use of dream/soul magics, the specific branch of defense forces are generally the highest trained/most-advanced, and are the only ones adept at finding such a variety of ways to effectively use it as a weapon without killing themselves in the process (remember, any soul magic, ESPECIALLY soul magic where your soul leaves it’s own physical form, is extremely volatile, and even people well trained in it are prone to getting trapped in other people’s dreams, losing their soul entirely (dying basically), suffering permanent damage, etc. The ability to hop in and out of dreamers’ minds, as well as induce various mental states and have a serious longstanding effect on things even outside of the dreams, AND do all of this easily/quickly without mistakes and without destroying your own soul is like.. extremely unheard of even among the most advanced mages. The Ehn-imkasyn’s branch of defense forces are really seen as one of a kind, using a level/method of that magic that you just don’t see anywhere else.)

And of course, as Jhevona cultures have a focus on preserving magic and not using it unnecessarily, the Ehn-imkasyn are also highly skilled in just regular physical combat, survival training, usually all have experience in medical/healing arts (both magic and non-magic methods), have advanced weapons training, etc. So like, mostly they wouldn’t even be in a situation that can’t just be resolved by them easily destroying enemies in a plain old non-magic way, BUT, if need be, they can indeed hop into your head and murder you from the inside out in like under 30 minutes so... also an important detail to consider.

While the Thastanri (and most Jhevona cultures overall) are typically non-violent (so having an elite force of almost comically overpowered dream assassins sounds a bit uncharacteristic), the idea behind this is really just that they see it as urgent to have ways to protect Imkasyn. Thastanri culturally believe that, even though the significance hasn’t been proven or concretely discovered yet, the unique abilities of the Imkasyn mean something, and it will come into play at a later date, involving something extremely important on a world scale, thus they have to preserve their people (most importantly their Imkasyn) until that time. There are many prophecies and myths involving the importance of this in their culture. So, especially now, in times of low population growth, or upheaval (like the not so distant past of people invading their lands to hunt dragons), a pristine ability to self-defend, and especially to protect the Imkasyn (since according to them, one day their significance will be discovered on a broad scale, causing people to hunt them as well), they see as very important to focus on, to prepare forces to defend themselves, now and in the prophesied future.

For the Thastanri, it can be considered a rite of passage to train and try to join and learn the secrets and expertise of the Ehn-imkasyn, but it’s not culturally required or all that strongly expected of people. The Thastanri are known for this style of magic and definitely have a much higher than average amount of their population that’s highly trained in it, but it’s not like literally EVERY person in the entire subspecies is going to join the group or aim to become an expert.

(for more information on the Thastanri/what it means to be an Imkasyn/etc., I have an info post about them HERE (link))

The Ehn-imkasyn obviously just operate exclusively in the area the Thastanri live in, which is a tiny secluded territory kind of around the southern coastal areas of Nonvas Kfal (which is where a lot of small scattered Jhevona groups tend to live). The Thastanri don’t communicate with outsiders (for reasons mentioned in the post about them), and though they do occasionally speak to other groups of Jhevona in the area, it wouldn’t be often or with such regularity that you could say the group really does anything anywhere but in their own lands.

(Though occasionally people from outside lands will show up to the Thastanri’s territory and be like ‘omg I hear you guys have the skills to be SUPER good assassins, I am a big fancy king or whatever and will pay you a million billion everything to use your unrivaled expertise to assassinate my political opponent’, to which the Ehn-imakysn representative is usually just like “Hello friend, If you do not leave our lands immediately, you shall experience first hand just how good we are at killing people” hghhjjb.. OR, people may also come asking for defense, as the Ehn-imkasyn kind of hold the poison and the cure. In addition to being the worlds highest specialists in this particular brand of dream/soul magic, they also have developed various unique methods of protection against dream/soul magics.

Enchantments which prevent magic from being used are obviously common in the realm (otherwise magic would instantly hold too much power over anyone who isn’t magic), things like making barriers around homes/areas, making one invincible to magic whilst sleeping/vulnerable, etc. But, since they’re still just enchantments, it would be technically possible for them to be broken by someone with stronger abilities than the mage who set them (if they’re also specialized in enchantment-breaking, which is rare and very difficult). Most preventative enchantments would work fine in like 94% of scenarios (assuming proper upkeep/recharging of the enchantment of course), but for royals or extremely advanced mages or something who REALLY want a layer of extra assurance, some seek out people like the Ehn-imkasyn. Normal ‘no magic can be done around me while sleeping’ enchantments are still quite protective, but the Ehn-imkasyn of course know specialized techniques centered specifically about preventing soul/dream magics, making it essentially impossible for others to enter your dreams, putting advanced barriers around the soul, etc. etc.

Though again, even though they have such rare abilities that could possibly be in demand from a lot of people, they still generally refuse to help anyone lol.. So, for a lot of reasons actually, outsiders attempt to communicate with them, but these attempts are basically always rejected (unless it’s helping some other small group of local jhevona or something, but the Ehn-imkasyn see their purpose as far too significant, way beyond wasting time on foreign politics and assassinations and nobles and protecting random mages from having their dreams broken into, etc. And it’s not like anyone can force them to work for them involuntarily since... they’re super assassins lol.. Outsiders all kind of just have to walk away dejected and disappointed )

The Ehn-imkasyn don’t have uniforms, or a representative symbol for their group, but they do incorporate the tradition of Jhevona eye markings as a means to distinguish themselves, They have special ones that look like this

(Like most jhevona eye markings, the design can be on both eyes, but can also be on a single eye, just depending on the personal meaning to the individual)

Vilheiiatheni Congregation:

The Vilheiiatheni Congregation is a religious group catered towards non-alliance elves. Since Elven Alliance nations generally intertwine their religion with their government, they don’t really have many independent religious groups, as usually religious leaders and royalty/government leaders are the same people (and also, religious beliefs and practices are regulated within the Alliance, so there’s not enough variance to warrant having separate groups anyhow). Elven groups outside of the alliance, however, generally have a lot more space for independent religious groups, and have more religious freedom in general to interpret the elven religion in different ways/practice different things, so this is just one of the main groups that exists.

The main purpose of the Vilheiiatheni Congregation is really just to study and document the religion and do various helpful things, kind of like a church mixed with a college? On top of doing stuff like building/maintaining shrines, offering religious counsel, training people in their ways (I guess kind of like training someone to be a priest, but they don’t really have formal titles like “priest” in the elven religion), writing and distributing information pamphlets, creating religious goods (like special ornaments, candles, etc.), and diplomatically representing the religion (like educating others about it and etc.),, they also seek out ancient religious texts, preserve religious documents, translate ancient religious writings, etc.

Their official position is to remain neutral in terms of any conflicts between Alliance and Non-alliance elves, as their primary focus is merely to upkeep and spread information about the elven religion. They don’t entertain conflicts over which form of belief is the ‘One True Way To Believe’ or which gods are the One True God or which practices are The Good Perfect Correct Ones and which are bad or whatever, they welcome all forms and interpretations of the religion, and are merely just appreciative to be able to help others and spread knowledge about it. Because of this, they study really anything, and don’t discriminate when it comes to what subjects or sub-groups of the religion to focus on, they want to document EVERYTHING no matter what it is (even minor gods that some random village of elves made up and added to the pantheon, like.. yes. they HAVE to take notes on that.. rip to scholars who disregard anything that isn’t ‘’official’’ or ‘’canonical’’ enough but the vilheiiatheni congregation is different).

Despite their neutrality, they actually do get into some issues with the Alliance from time to time, because the Elven Alliance loves to hoard information and religious relics and etc., since they think they should be the One True Primary Authority on the ancient/modern elven religion. There are occasional back and forths where each group will try to steal information from each other, or like scholars from both groups are rushing over to a recently discovered ancient ruin to try to make sure THEY’RE the one that gets there first, etc. lol

Oddly, the Vilheiiatheni Congregation is somewhat allied with the Avirre’thel (so, the Council of Navyete), as the avirre’thel evolved directly from ancient elves and live on ancient historical land that was formerly occupied by them. Additionally, they’re immortal, so some of them still remember ancient elven traditions and stuff from like 25,000 years ago (like mentioned with the Avvi’da Vina stuff, some aspects of Avirre’thel culture are closer to ancient elves than modern day elves even are). So, the Avirre’thel actually do posses a good number of ancient elven religious items, have ancient shrines built on their land, etc. They welcome the Vilheiiatheni Congregation to come and see them to study them, share old texts with them, etc.

This is also part of why the Congregation tries to remain neutral and would never genuinely ally with the Elven Alliance, even if they didn’t already have the occasional issue, since the Avirre’thel and the Elven Alliance DEFINITELY have big big issues, so the Congregation is careful about not pissing off the Avirre’thel by getting cozy with a group that’s previously terrorized them. Even though the Avirre’thel are technically no longer elves, they’re one of the closest connections to living/well preserved ancient elven history that the Congregation has access to, so they find it essential to stay friendly with them. (at least until the Elven Alliance stops hoarding every ancient elven artifact it can get it’s hands on for themselves... which.. will never happen ghgh)

( Also just to note: The elven religion doesn’t focus on conversion, it’s seen as being for ELVES first and foremost, it’s not for anyone else and not anybody else’s business. They don’t need to convert random people into following it, unless they’re elves, and there’s rarely an elf that hasn’t been exposed to their own cultural belief system (unless maybe a rare case where an elf was adopted into another culture or etc.). Thus, they don’t operate like some other religious organizations in the sense of sending out missionaries or etc. They do have people who travel to spread information or help communities of fellow elves, but there’s no focus on conversion or assimilation, as they all basically believe the same thing anyway, even if there may be some local variations.

The closest thing you’d get to stuff like that in the elven religion is maybe the very specific religion of Elven Alliance nations, and how they have certain standards that they want people under their influence to live up to (like recognizing Inaashi as the only currently living god, etc.), so they would maybe “convert” in the sense of trying to get other religious elves to practice the same form of religion they do. But in the sense of like, going on mission trips to convert outsiders or try to get other people who aren’t elves to join their religion, that would be seen as extremely strange and kind of improper.

(Kind of like how Jhevona would never take their cultural custom of doing markings over their eyes and decide to invite some random elf or human or something to wear markings too (you can read more about this in the info post about Jhevona (here) if you don’t get what I’m referencing).. Because of the meaning of the tradition, it just doesn’t apply to outsiders, and it would make no sense for someone from another culture to adopt the practice. It’s explicitly linked to something unique about them as a people, so while they would maybe educate others about it, they would never invite an outsider to literally participate in it, since it’s just not for them and by definition it can’t apply to them. That’s kind of how most elves are about their religious beliefs.*))

(*which is part of why more strict religious elves (how the Alliance typically is) have additional issue with the Avirre’thel, since they don’t see them as elves anymore, BUT they still are living on land with ancient elven shrines, have access to insider cultural religious information, etc. To them, it feels like an invasion of their culture, like the Avirre’thel have access to things they shouldn’t have access to, because the elven religion is NOT for outsiders, only ‘’real elves’’, and the Avirre’thel of course are not and never have been ‘’real elves’’, therefore how DARE they have elven shrines on their land, etc. Sometimes this even goes so far as groups believing the Avirre’thel should drop all mention of elven gods in their culture, return all lands with old shrines on them back to the elves, etc. etc. (This of course doesn’t acknowledge the fact that the land was given to them BY elves in the first place, that the original avirre’thel actually built most of the ‘’ancient elven’’ shrines themselves (back when they were still considered elves), etc. BUT anyway hghjbjh, the complicated back and forth between avirre’thel and modern northern elves on the continent is a whole other topic entirely lol))

(For more info on the elven religion, there’s a post HERE (link))

The Congregation is similar to the International Union Of Non-Allied Elves, in that it kind of just operates anywhere that elves are. Mostly in the northern parts of the globe, etc. They share pretty much the same area of influence.

They also don’t have uniforms, but are known to wear white a lot, and may have clothing or items adorned with a symbol representing them, which is often these few ones (I didn’t draw these yet like some of the others in this post lol... maybe I’ll add this part in later)

Jhenasainye:

A ‘’religious’’ group of avirre’thel who see ancient jhevona as similar to gods. After having an ancient jhevona alter their species and seeing the powers these beings are capable of, they revere them in a way, and frequently attempt to make offerings to them, keep track of them, and get into communication with them. Though, very little is known about the ancient jhevona (as most of them are in complete hiding/isolation at all times and have forgotten the rest of the world for the most part), so it’s incredibly rare and difficult to actually speak with any of them, and becomes more of a symbolic or intellectual pursuit than anything practical.

The Jhenasainye also have a bit more of a scholarly/researchy sort of interest, rather than their ‘’’religion’’ being mystical or spiritual. They see the ancient jhevona as a pretty normal phenomena, nothing otherworldly, though they do still believe they’re worthy of appreciation and study, and that becoming closer to these beings and trying to harness bits of their powers could help improve society. Jhenasainye don’t believe that ‘’gods’’ exist in the sense of there being all-powerful unexplained mystical beings roaming around, but they do still stand by the idea that someone who has the magical ability to transform living creatures, to grant blessings, curses, to change the entire course of history, to modify entire environments, etc. etc. is really functionally no different from a ‘’god’’, even if they technically were just born a normal person.

Similar to the ancient elven shrines that remain around the land (though in modern times they’re less religious and more just used in cultural ceremonies or as community resources), there have been shrines built dedicated to a few of the main ancient jhevona the Jhenasainye have identified/gathered information on so far, and people are welcome to visit them and try their luck at making offerings, asking for council, asking for blessings, etc. Though an answer is impossibly rare.

The Jhenasainye mostly operate in the south of Navyete, and have a good handful of shrines and research centers clustered around there. It’s a very small group and worship/preoccupation with ancient jhevona is seen as an obscure movement, but I’m counting them as a group that could be important to take note of, since they do have distinct views from the majority of the population, with their own individual goals and interests.

(note: Though the Avan (a culturally distinct group of Avirre’thel) technically worship and are in communication with an ancient jhevona, they don’t count as Jhenasainye. Jhenasainye seek out ALL ancient jhevona, and attempt to study and learn about them, try to talk to them, build shrines, etc. The Avan focus solely on their one ‘’God’’ and could care less about any others. The Jhenasainye also don’t acknowledge the ‘’god’’ that the Avan keep in contact with, as they see her as a bad person who’s just trying to manipulate a vulnerable group of people and start a cult. While they do respect all ancient jhevona, and are in awe of their abilities, etc.,,the Jhenasainye still acknowledge that at the end of the day, the ancient jhevona are just regular people, and thus can have personality flaws and negative intentions. The group thus doesn’t believe in interacting with ancient jhevona that are cruel, or obviously just trying to get something out of them. )

The main criticism of the Jhenasainye from other Avirre’thel, is that it’s dangerous to be trying to come into contact with such powerful beings. Even if the ancient jhevona are known to keep to themselves/seemingly mutually agree to keep out of the affairs of the rest of the world, making contact and asking for the influence of people who could probably evaporate their entire civilization off the face of the planet if they felt like it, might not be a good risk to take, even if every once in a while they meet one who’s nice. Though the Jhenasainye trust in their own discretion and take care to be wary of who they attempt to communicate with, some feel that’s not enough. Supremely powerful beings may be handy to have ‘on your side’, and form positive mutual relationships with, but at the same time, the possibility of that benefit comes with a massive potential risk.

Groups of Jhevona immigrants that live among the Avirre’thel also often criticize the Jhenasainye, mostly due to the fact that, ancient jhevona are just.... normal jhevona. Ancient jhevona have been through tens of thousands of years of training, study, magic trickery (probably just a bit of illegal soul absorption, as a treat), etc. etc. and have, mostly through luck, avoided being killed by their own magic long enough to harness such an immense level of power, but they were still just regular jhevona once. There’s nothing inherently special about ancient jhevona, other than their abilities (and that their abilities somehow haven’t killed them yet), but genetically/physically/mentally, they’re just like any other jhevona. Most jhevona see ancient jhevona as... cool, I guess, but not anything different than they are. Less “oh! they’re like a god!!” and more “Oh! that could be someone’s great grandfather lol”.

So because everyday jhevona view the ancient jhevona as ‘one of us, but just with a different level of power’, it can feel kind of bizarre to hear people go on about how the ancient jhevona are Gods and Immense Powerful Beings, building shrines, dedicating years to studying them, etc.. Though the Jhenasainye are not the worst about this (they at least still admit that the ancient jhevona were normal people once.. some other groups in the world see the ancient jhevona as LITERAL gods in a mystical sense, and that’s often more obnoxious to normal jhevona), it can still feel othering to everyday Jhevona when people act like there’s such a huge inherent difference between them and ancient jhevona. Especially since, these people have relatives, and are real people, not gods that popped out of nowhere.

While it’s not extremely common, and most ancient jhevona break off from their families/detach from the rest of society long before they’ve succeeded on their extended journey to gain so much power, there are plenty of living descendants of ancient Jhevona still out there in the regular population. That would be like, if your grandmother was REALLY good at something, like almost impossibly good, in the 0.000000000000000000000001% of the population, maybe at archery or something, and then because of this, people start building shrines to her, giving her offerings, calling her a god, acting as if she’s an entirely different class of creature from you and the rest of your family and is some freakish untouchable all-powerful god being, etc. etc. You’d just be like... well YEAH she’s really good at this and went through years of training, luck, etc. to get where she is but like.. that’s still just my grandma lol...

(though in the case of ancient jhevona, they’re all pretty much 30,000 + years old, and average lifespan for jhevona is roughly 900 - 2,000 yrs depending on subspecies, so if you were a living descendant of an ancient jhevona, they’d be more like your great great great great great (add like 45 more ‘’greats’’) grandparent, rather than just your direct grandparent, and it’s highly likely you’ve never met them in your life and only know about them because your relation to them has been passed down in the family (or in rare cases, THEY approached you and informed you of your relation), etc. BUT you know what I mean lol)

Some Jhevona are actually in the Jhenasainye though, but this is usually just due to the fact that it’s a good place to learn about ancient jhevona (something a normal jhevona would obviously possibly take an interest in). The jhevona members of the group may disagree on stuff like making contact, building shrines, supporting superstitions surrounding ancient jhevona, etc., and be more there just to borrow books and have a dedicated team to help in their own personal investigations.

Anyway, the Jhenasainye operate pretty much only in Navyete, though they may travel of course, to follow leads on the location of ancient jhevona, or gather information that could teach them more about one of them. They’re a small group with roughly about 1,600 members, though only 200 or so primary members which run things, do the research, build shrines, (the other 1,400 would be more like ‘followers’, I guess). They have no dedicated symbol for themselves, and don’t dress any particular way, though they’re also not hard to find, since they’re probably out around some of the shrines or research centers they’ve built, which aren’t secretive locations or anything.

Vura Isethagi:

A small lesser known group of Avirre’thel who refuse to follow feeding regulations* of their culture. They argue that since it’s the natural order of things they must do to survive, being a little more loose with how you gather or use blood is fine, and is no different than what other animals do (they always argue stuff like “Well would you tell a BEAR or a WOLF when, how, where, and under what conditions they can hunt and eat?? No! So why should WE be beholden to obscure ritual and unnecessary regulation when just doing what we must to survive!?” ....like.. sir, you are not a wolf or a bear, you are a humanoid being with complex thought who lives in a Society, please sit down ghgjhbjh).

*(Since their species requires consuming the blood of living things to survive, of course they’ve built a lot of culture around it. There are rules of how to kill animals (or when not to), how to store blood, how to prepare blood, special containers for blood, etc. Especially when it comes to getting blood from actual humanoid creatures rather than just animals, there are a massive amount of laws and social rules in consideration of how it must be handled, how it must be gathered, compensation and agreements, etc. Blood is a very sacred thing in their culture, but especially the traditions/rules/laws surrounding it are taken extremely seriously, almost to a religious ritualistic superstitious extent (there are Special Bowls made from Special Materials which are the ONLY things humanoid blood is allowed to be contained in, making contact with humanoid blood outside of a feeding/bowl context is considered dirty, etc.). Like, gathering or storing blood incorrectly would probably get you more severe criticism and backlash than a violent crime in some cases, even if nobody was hurt by it lol. It’s like one of the few major things in their society where like, you’re free to disagree with anything and do whatever you want, BUT you have to follow the blood regulations, no question, no debate, and if you don’t then you’re a menace and endangering everyone and fuck you)

Though a lack of following regulations doesn’t inherently imply someone is part of this group. Plenty of normal Avirre’thel will be a little lax with one rule or do minor variations. Sometimes someone will use humanoid blood in a soup recipe (which is seen as horrifically disrespectful to the blood, you can only cook with animal blood, the blood of conscious humanoid beings has to be kept in it’s raw form always), they’ll store blood in a jar instead of the special bowls that are made exclusively to hold it, they may get blood from an unauthorized source (certain species of humanoid being are considered dangerous due to potential blood incompatibilities, and certain animals are protected due to maybe having an endangered status or being culturally significant, etc.), may accidentally kill an animal a little messily rather than painlessly (which is how you’re supposed to hunt for blood, if you must.. It’s recommended most people just buy it from stores nowadays lol). etc.

So, all members of Vura Isethagi don’t follow blood regulations, but not all people who don’t follow blood regulations are members of Vura Isethagi .The group is about a lot more than just like.. occasionally killing an animal incorrectly or storing your blood wrong lol.

Their whole specific thing is that they think that regulations are holding them back. They’re not not following them just due to being lazy or accidentally forgetting a rule or something, they’re being very intentional in what they disregard and why.

The Vura Isethagi believe that blood regulations are a way to keep their species from really prospering, that a lot of the disease and stuff common in the species is just because they’re not feeding adequately, and that they could be much more powerful if everyone wasn’t so stingy about getting their energy in (despite there being no evidence, scientific or otherwise, of this being the case literally at all, there being no difference in strength, or rate of illness between the two groups, etc). They think that many of the rules are baseless, and much of the limitations the species supposedly has are just myths created to keep them from being overpowered when they’re already immortal, because they would be too dangerous if they were always at their full strength and weren’t suffering from any illnesses or other issues.

At least, this is the type of half-reasoned excuse they usually give to people when questioned about it. Most Avirre’thel just see them as freaks who want a free pass to like... murder animals (and people) and have excessive amounts of blood (sometimes from species/animals that they shouldn’t even be consuming from the first place) while still being able to feel noble or good about it because they’ve come up with an odd justification for themselves. When you look at their claimed doctrine VS. their actions, you’d think they would do more to prove that they’re functioning better without regulations, to disprove and scientifically test the limitation ‘’myths’’ of the species, to study the effects of different types of blood and feeding styles to comparatively find which is most efficient, etc.... But, they do none of this. In practice, they seem to just kind of hang around relishing in their ability to do things which are ~~taboo~~ and feeling cool for Going Against Society, like a 9 year old boy gleefully smug after saying the word ‘fuck’ out loud for the first time and not being punished because nobody heard them.

The Vura Isethagi were kicked out of Navyete about 500 years ago, and they now stay basically around the coasts of Iheolto Gari, on the entire other side of the world, so that the Council of Navyete doesn’t have the reach to come after them and prosecute them for their numerous murders and breaks of regulation. Iheolto Gari is essentially just dead land, since it’s so inhospitable barely anything can live there, but the very coasts are a little similar (though still 3x as deadly) to the cold climate in northern Navyete, so it’s at least kind of like what they’re used to back home.

This group was at it’s height about 700 - 600 years ago, when it was still operating in Navyete, which is when it got most of it’s members. It used to be nearly 1000 of them, though today group members seem to be around 250 people. In current day, the Vura Isethagi are kind of just considered a weird cult of estranged Avirre’thel who live way in the butt ass middle of frozen nowhere and spend all their time like.. hunting down random people and animals and feeling super cool and Edgy about killing them to take their blood because they live so far away from mommy and daddy that they can’t be directly scolded for it.

As long as they stay in Iheolto Gari, they’re safe for the most part (aside from attacks by the native wildlife), but as soon as they step foot in a place populated by other people (which they have to do sometimes, to hunt), the Council comes for them quickly, since they always have a small handful people out looking for them lol.. Because of elven propaganda, many groups may already have a somewhat negatively tinted view of the Avirre’thel as a people, which they actively work against.. So, to have some random Tee Hee I Can Kill For Blood If I Want To!! murder cult running around is obnoxious to them, even if it’s only a few hundred people. Because the realm is so isolated, a group’s encounters with the Vura Isethagi could be their first ever encounter with any Avirre’thel, which only would contribute to a wider negative image, and come back to hurt the rest of the normal Avirre’thel who aren’t even in the group.

The Council (and most Avirre’thel people in general, culturally the Vura Isethagi are seen as offensive and annoying) just kind of wants to get rid of them as soon as possible. BUT, since Avirre’thel can only die through like one specific means, it’s not like they can just show up to Iheolto Gari and kill the Vura Isethagi. They’d have to restrain them all, literally bring them all the way back to Navyete (which could take months of travel), take them to the death ceremony place where the secret of how to kill their species is guarded, and have them all murdered one by one by the death guardian people.. which is... a lot of work. Especially since they have other more significant things to focus on at home, and even if it can be damaging to their reputation and contribute to elven alliance slander nonsense, they can’t really spare much resources to just hunting down idiot troublemakers like that. They have people positioned in a few cities near Iheolto Gari to keep an eye on (and capture the occasional members of) the Vura Isethagi when they can, but otherwise it’s something they can’t really do much about.

(Also I talk about them like they’re just a silly joke, because their motivations are laughable, but they are like.. a group of hostile immortal beings who think it’s cool to murder people for the sake of trying interesting new blood and most likely participate in underground blood markets and etc. So, despite the light tone, they are kind of a serious group, or at least definitely people to be avoided. And though the Council obviously openly mocks them in a similar manner (avirre’thel culture very much employs the concept of brutally mocking your enemies until they just like die of shame and you don’t even have to fight them hgh), they do also recognize the seriousness of the issue and are trying to tackle it the best they can.. I don’t want to make it sound like ‘oh yeah just a silly little fun group of murderer hee hee~ maybe the council will get around to them eventually!’. People obviously recognize the importance. )

They have no uniform or representative symbol, obviously, since they’re trying to stay hidden from the Council of Navyete, and don’t want to be identified, as they’re currently being hunted lol..

(sidenote: Though, there is a small group within the Vura Isethagi that use this an an opportunity to study the unique properties of blood, which most regular Avirre’thel would likely not pick up on. Probably about 75% of the Vura Isethagi are just hedonist opportunists who don’t like following rules, but 25% do genuinely try to learn things from their unique situation.

So far, nothing too interesting has been discovered. The supposed ‘strength boosts’, extra abilities, or lowered rates of disease that most of the Vura Isethagi claim to be side effects of feeding more loosely, have still not been proven to exist.

The only one thing of note, is that they’ve noticed that at times, you can glean small bits of information from blood. Like if someone speaks another language, and you have their blood, you may very vaguely recognize bits of it, etc. This is thought to be related to soul absorption, perhaps there are fragments of a person’s soul in their blood, or the blood is magically linked to a person’s soul (which could possibly explain why blood incompatibilities are a thing, despite structurally most blood not seeming very different from each other), etc... like many things to do with how blood works (and it’s possibly relation to magic, the soul, etc.) it's not well understood.

This doesn't affect normal Avire’thel, who may feed from humanoid beings consensually just every once in a while, since it's usually too small of an amount, and the occurrences are too far apart for people to notice**, whereas if you're taking in a lot of blood, and quite often, you're more able to become aware of correlations, like 'oh this always has x effect on me', etc.

**(an Avirre’thel who chooses to intake blood of humanoid creatures generally only feeds once every 4-9 months, depending on the strength of the blood in question. That’s the whole point. If you have weak blood from a bird or something, that doesn’t sustain you much, so you’d need to come back and keep intaking it in doses probably once every few days. Whereas if you have ‘’stronger’’ blood, from an elf or human or something, just a small amount of it could sustain you for months, and then you don’t have to worry about consuming so often. It just depends on the person’s lifestyle and feelings towards feeding as a whole. For people who don't like consuming blood, or find it inconvenient, find it gross, think ‘eating’ takes up too much time, etc. etc. they can do so a lot less often if they take if from beings with more ''powerful'' blood, even though that has it's own weirdnesses and risks. )

Though interestingly, similar to with soul absorption, these effects don't last forever. If you get information from blood, you don't retain it permanently (unless you write it down or something, of course.). Similar to how in absorbing souls, the material of the other person's consciousness is most prominent in the own absorbers mind WHILE the soul absorption is still in process (days - weeks), then slowly fades after. Though these experiences can have an affect on the personality of the absorber, and at times can seem as if the people have merged, or memories have carried over, the personality change is mostly mental trauma. While for a short amount of time, the absorber may be able to speak the absorbed's language, know their full history, their thoughts, their fears, experience their traumas, etc. etc., this would be forgotten probably within a month or so (depending on the strength of the soul), unless it was written down (and people are generally shaking on the ground half on the verge of death with their skin peeling from toxic amounts of magic exposure while they absorb souls (usually why assistants or etc, are often hired to do spells that keep them unconscious the entire time), so I doubt someone absorbing a soul would be in much position to write out a full memoir or something lol).

The information gathered when consuming blood is also far less prominent than in soul absorption, and is usually just vague ideas, faint familiarities, the ability to just KIND OF know things, or KIND OF understand stuff you wouldn’t normally understand (like knowing two people are related but not being sure how you know, understanding the gist of what a page in a book says despite not knowing the language or an exact word by word translation, barely recalling facts you never learned, somewhat intuitively feeling out the geography of an area you haven’t been to, etc.). Whereas in a full soul absorption spell, the absorber often completely feels as if the consciousness of the person they’re absorbing is living within their own, etc. (hence why it can be so traumatizing, especially if you’re absorbing someone with a traumatic or upsetting life, then being thrust with all of their memories, fears, emotions, etc. to relive in your head and experience all at once (though it should be noted that... you DESERVE IT !! FOR KILLING PEOPLE!! TO TAKE THEIR SOULS!!! lol, aw boo hoo, the murderer mage experiences secondhand trauma :’c ).

Anyway, this is the only remotely interesting effect that’s been noticed so far, and studied to some extent, while the Vura Isethagi feed in the way that they do. There are possibly other dynamics to this, or information that could help outline exactly what processes or properties of blood cause this to occur, but since only 25% of the group is even remotely interested in figuring any of that out, they don’t make much progress on their ‘’studies’’. )

(for more information on what soul absorption is and how it works, see the link to it given above, in the section about the Ehn-Imkasyn)

Miliel-Sei

Basically the military of the Elven Alliance, their special guard. Though every individual country within the alliance also may have it’s own personalized defense systems and etc. in place, this is kind of like a large pool of people from every alliance country all together acting as a unified force, and just doing the business of the alliance, regardless of which country within the alliance they happen to be from.

Though they’re a collective organization contributed to by many countries working together that’s merely contracted for work by the heads of the alliance and thus are officially “politically neutral”, obviously in practice there are still multiple reasons that a giant collective military force owned by many of the worlds primary powers can be like.. seen as.. Controversial. In some places though, they’re seen as a helpful and positive force*.

*(like for example, in Fanyin (one of the countries within the alliance), the current situation with their.. basically just dystopian society at this point, is that their own native military/police is FAR worse than the Miliel-Sei. The Miliel-Sei are actually welcomed there (by the people, not really those in power lol), since they work on behalf of the alliance overall, not just Fanyin, and because many countries in the alliance do believe that Fanyin should be... reigned in just a little bit, the Miliel-Sei presence there actually tends to be kind of mitigating and interrupting certain things that the Fanyin government on it’s own would do if it weren’t being monitored by them. Whereas like, to a small community of elves far in the south, they may HATE the presence of the Miliel-Sei, because they remember incidents a few years ago where they came in and used military force to steal resources from them. So, they’re controversial to different groups across the realm for many different reasons. )

This group does have a uniform, it’s always this green shit adorned with the symbol for the elven alliance in gold (image below) --

Obviously the uniforms have a lot more details than I can convey with a 2 minute mouse drawn ms paint sketch, but it is an official part of their uniform that they all have short black bob haircuts (either as their natural hair, or worn as a wig in most cases) and dark eyeliner or eyeshadow smeared around their eyes. Not to make light of many factions of the Miliel-Sei getting up to some horrible actions at times but like... god... just imagine you're in an elven alliance city at night and the people who show up to arrest you are these complete doofuses with flouncy little bobs and the perfect war crime smoky eye ... THEY’RE the military??? that’s the vibe???. Questionable aesthetic choice on behalf of the dumbasses in charge of the elven alliance but okay.. It’s also not fair because they make it VERY hard to take them seriously when they walk around looking like that, but at the same time, they’re a highly trained military/police sort of organization and you kind of have to take them seriously in some instances... like.. come on.. you’re telling me you’ll arrest me if I laugh at you?? yet providing... such robust temptation...??

Deinsas Oryen:

An organization of elves who are literally like... generic flat evil cartoon movie villain level in thinking that they’re the One True Group who should rule over the world and etc. (on the basis of the fact that certain branches of the elven religion state the elves were the gods Favored Creations, that the world was made for THEM, etc.). Basically they just run around doing stupid evil shit and starting conflicts with people, they seem to REALLY want to start wars, and really like to destabilize areas for whatever reason. Though they have their ‘We Should Own The World And Therefore Can Mistreat Everyone Who Is Not Us’ message to stand by as a reasoning for their actions, many of the things they do just.. don’t really add up, and their constant trouble-making even when it makes NO practical sense to be doing so (or even ends up hurting them, doing stuff that should seemingly be against their own interests), makes them seem a bit suspicious...

They tend to be very very strict elven religious traditionalists who REALLY focus on the aspect that the gods made the world for them, that they are put here to protect and guide and lead others, that they are direct descendants of the gods while others aren’t, etc. To the surprise of no-one, they really “disagree with” jhevona and similar groups*, often trying to instigate conflict with them over seemingly nothing, but maybe some flimsy ideological disputes (though, they tend to really only start conflicts with Jhevona who live in areas with valuable resources....... hmm...). They also attack global cities from time to time, or any group which seems to be trying to connect the world, make travel easier, etc.. which they say is because they think all groups of people should be separate and elves shouldn’t mingle with other ‘lesser’ groups. But, also... many of the organizations that aim to instill global learning centers, cities, interconnected travel roads, etc.,, also tend to want to make these resources free (the roads are free, the schools are free, etc.), and some of those resources end up passing through or very close to areas owned by the elven alliance, but..... that’s probably not connected..!

The Elven Alliance has no formal ties with them, but (if it wasn’t clear already) they’re strongly suspected to be working for the Elven Alliance, kind of just as a hollow enemy that gives them something to look good against, basically just a group to start conflicts that conveniently benefit them, without it actually tarnishing the Alliance’s own name. The Alliance publicly ‘disavows’ them, and has even started ‘wars’ with them before, especially since they can make a show of like “wow good thing we’re not as bad as THOSE guys!!! look at what THEY did! absolutely despicable!! good thing we’re SO much better, right?? and look, we’re even fighting against them! We are the good guys!!”. Though, it should be noted that not EVERY country within the elven alliance does this, and some seem to genuinely fight against the Deinsas Oryen, and are sincerely infuriated by them (so.. maybe they didn’t get the memo? There are smaller groupings within the elven alliance, so it would make sense that maybe it’s just a few countries working with the Deinsas Oryen , and a majority of alliance nations genuinely have no idea it’s going on behind their backs**.... though..... you’d think they’d like.. catch on..).

But of course, this is all just a ~~~Theory~~~. The Deinsas Oryen is a fairly new organization (only existing for the past 150 years or so, and elven lifespan on average is like 180 - 300 depending on subspecies, so, that’s not THAT long for them), so they’re still able to remain fairly elusive. Sometimes people within the elven alliance try to capture higher ups/leaders within the Deinsas Oryen to learn more about them, but somehow they always ~conveniently~ get away. Though probably not a big enough thing to do something like fracture the Elven Alliance, within the next 20 - 50 years or so, it definitely stands to become a bigger conflict, especially if the ~~theories~~ about who the Deinsas Oryen are truly working for are ever able to be confirmed, if more information ever comes to light.

**(There are over 50 separate countries that make up the Elven Alliance as a whole, so of course not all of them will know everything going on within the Alliance at all times, especially if certain members are actively working to hide stuff. The Alliance has a.. questionable reputation, and tends to be known for it’s worst members and their actions (as it should be lol.. even if you didn’t personally cause a problem, you should be responsible for keeping your fellow collaborators in check), but a majority of the countries within it are fairly neutral. It’s not like all of them are wild oppressive dictatorships hellbent on doing Evil things and causing problems across the world, most of them are just average, most people living within Alliance countries are pretty content, and most countries within the Alliance don’t cause problems around the world (like stealing resources or antagonizing other groups). While every country within the Elven Alliance has a responsibility to keep up with the actions of those around them (and disapprove of them or step into conflicts as needed), I also don’t want to make it seem like the Alliance is just a big mean hivemind with completely shared interests that agree on all things. When I say “a group is secretly working for the Alliance”, I don’t mean “every single member of the alliance was in on this and is actively participating in it”, I just mean “there are, at least two countries, within the Alliance, thus acting on the Alliance’s behalf, who are secretly working with this group” . Nations within the alliance can disagree with each other, be unaware of each others’ plans, etc. etc. etc. Hence, stuff like the Miliel-Sei being present in Fanyin to interfere with the government on behalf of the rest of the alliance, or things like a majority of countries within the alliance being unaware of what’s truly going on with the Deinsas Oryen. Anyway, idk,... the Alliance is a HUGE organization made up of a lot of moving parts, and from the way I talk about it, I don’t want it of be unclear, or seem like they’re just a weird hivemind or something.)

* (Surprisingly, the Deinsas Oryen don’t dislike the Avirre’thel (a small deviation from their secret masters within the alliance, I suppose.). They actually welcome them, because of their ancient elven roots, BUT do believe that they should renounce their current culture (everything that evolved on it’s own after they split off from ancient elves) and adopt True Elven Ways Again, and then the Deinsas Oryen would be willing to ally with them, even overlook the non-magic and eating blood stuff, as long as they kind of ‘’reverted’’ back to a more Elven way of being. They see the elves as the gods’ chosen people, so by that means, they cannot deny those with elven blood, the Avirre’thel are still their brethren, even if ‘’mutated’’. At least in this one area, they make some attempt to be logically consistent with their supposed doctrine, even if just to look more legit and throw off suspicions.

(Which is not to say that there are NO members of the Deinsas Oryen that legitimately believe in their ‘’purpose’’, some of the lower level recruits probably do, but a good 70% of them are being paid (or bribed) preetty well to be there, and take certain actions.... theoretically, of course, this is all just a ~~theory~~ of course, there’s no definite proof they work for people within the alliance, of course))

This group has no set uniform, but they do have a representative symbol which could be seen on clothing or flags, which is this -

(similar to the symbol for the elven alliance, this one incorporates the symbol of Inaashi, but with some modifications )

The Deinsas Oryen operate basically anywhere that it’s convenient for them to, but their headquarters is a small portion of land on an island in northern Nonvas Kfal.

-------------- Non-species/culture Specific Groups -------------

Nanyevimi Global Representatives:

Like mentioned before, the entire world in general is VERY scattered, mostly made up of small isolated groups that kind of just mind their business. Most people just stay within their own territories and generally there isn’t a lot of global cohesion, for a lot of different reasons. But, groups like the Nanyevimi Global Representatives are some of the few that actually seek to better unite the realm.

It’s kind of just an alliance of a few different governments from various places worldwide, who seek to do things like: maintain trading routes that span the entire world, construct global areas where many different people can come together and trade/communicate, provide ease of access for those who seek to travel (like keeping international roads safe, giving out language learning resources and compiling info on local cultures, etc.), promote conflict resolution/peace and easy communication between various disconnected groups in the realm, sharing of technology and resources worldwide, etc. This is also the group that sets standards for/manages both Global Learning Centers and Global cities/areas in general.

Despite being able to accomplish a lot in the realm (even introducing one or two cohesive trade routes is a miracle, considering how isolated everything tends to be), The Representatives still really don’t have that much power. The governments that make up the group, while extremely varied (from all different species, areas of the world, etc.), really aren’t big political powers or anything. The group doesn’t have much wealth or influence, but simply gets by on being able to communicate goals and collaborate with others effectively. All of their projects are basically just people working together for their own benefit of their own will.

Like, instead of coming into an area with an army and being like “Hey, we’re making a trade route here, you idiots” and paying off/threatening a bunch of locals to let them do it.. It’d be more like, a handful of various diplomats show up and have a long talk with the locals about if they’d want a road through their territory, if so what it would look like, what area they’d be comfortable with it passing through, them explaining to the group what benefits they could see from it and how it could help them access more resources, etc., then all cooperatively working together and pooling resources to build it if enough people decide they’d like to, no use of force or monetary incentive required.

So, they have a good bit of connections all across the realm and are very skilled at reaching out to groups and communicating in a peaceful and understandable way, but they’re not necessarily the most influential group around. Though, they are the only organization that’s even been attempting stuff like this, and the fact that they’ve been able to make the progress that they have (introducing multiple global areas and learning centers, maintaining a few patches of neutral and safe trade routes, etc.) is considered by some to be impressive.

( Information on what a global learning center is HERE (link), and information on the state of the world as a whole/what global areas are HERE (link). )

Rivande:

A large network of travelers who specialize in exploring and building. They have 3 branches, land explorers, sea explorers, and specialized explorers (for distinct terrains like icy mountains, desert, etc.). They get hired by people to do things like transport goods through difficult terrain, guide expeditions of researchers, track down items or ruins in remote and typically ’’unreachable’’ areas, etc. Their primary specialty is just that they have the knowledge to travel to, or through, places that many others would consider too dangerous, impossible to navigate, or inhospitable. As they basically travel professionally, members of this group are always on the go, rarely ever in one area for too long. But, in down times (or when they haven’t been hired for much in a while), they’re also known to do random odd jobs, like basic construction work, bodyguard work, hunting, etc.

The Rivande aren't necessarily allied with any one group (other than themselves, they focus a lot on internal unity and pooling resources/connections/etc. to survive as a collective), and just sort of serve their own interests and do their own thing. The group seems to consist mostly of people who wanted to get away from something and start a new life (people running away from debts, family situations, poverty, etc.), of course drawn to a situation within the Rivande in which they’re immediately taken in as family/part of the group, provided for, protected, and also extremely hard to track down,, so there is a strong inner-group loyalty sort of mentality going on, and it’d be quite rare for them to betray their own group members or have loyalties somewhere else, work for a foreign government, etc. The Rivande will do jobs for pretty much anyone who will hire them, but they don’t play favorites, always remain neutral, will not take sides in anything, and at the end of the day are looking out for themselves and only themselves.

This ‘we hold allegiance to no-one but ourselves’ neutrality mentality is also easier for them to maintain due to their situation, as they’re not very affected by the politics of anything going on in most countries, since they’re never in one place for more than a few days, maybe a week maximum. And even if a conflict made it difficult for them to find work, the type of work they do is unique, so there’s always something they could do somewhere, even if they have to travel a bit to find it.

(This doesn’t mean people within the Rivande aren’t allowed to have opinions though, as they come from so many various walks of life, of course some probably on principle hate the people they have to do certain jobs for, or etc., but I guess the culture within the group tends to be more of a “suck it up and do what has to be done at the moment, then once we get the coin from these bastards we can vent frustrations and shit-talk them all night back at the inn their money bought us”, as well as maybe the occasional ‘’accidental’’ sabotage of a job, being obtuse or frustrating to work with ‘’unintentionally’’, losing cargo in an ‘’accident’’, that really obnoxious bigoted scholar from the group we were escorting through the woods died in a ‘’tragic accident’’, etc.

It’s just that, their public reputation is ‘neutral’, they never complain outwardly, will accept jobs from literally anyone, and if they do vent some sort of opinion or frustration towards the people who hired them, it’s passive aggressive, in secret, or completely un-noticeable, since their main goal is pleasing the client and putting on a neutral face so they can get their money in the end, first and foremost. Most people who meet someone that works in the Rivande tend to describe them as cold, detached, highly professional, and very focused (like the “I’m just here to do my job and get out” sort of attitude), because they’re trained to put up with nearly anything and not reveal much to outsiders due to these neutrality policies... But, if you saw them like, in a comfortable setting just around other Rivande back in one of their hideouts or something, many of them would be completely opposite lol (ESPECIALLY after having to hide frustrations or parts of their personality all day, once they finally get back around people from their own group they can just let it all out. This is also part of why they probably feel such strong bonds with each other, since the other Rivande in their group (usually 5 - 15 of them will be hired together for an average job) are the only other people they can trust and reveal their actual thoughts to, especially while traveling for weeks and weeks on a job or with a client, sneaking knowing glances at each other, gossiping behind trees for a moment before having to put the Neutral Face back on, etc.. but ANYWAY )

Though they don’t have a clearly known ‘home base’, or lands of their own necessarily, It’s suspected they have secret hideouts for their own communities in certain places, discreet undisturbed areas where nobody could ever come bothering them or taking their resources. Since they’ve got expert experience navigating even the most impossible terrains, amazing map knowledge of nearly every area in the world (collectively of course, no one member knows everything, but if you have one person who knows the east, one who knows the south, all working together, etc.), it’s highly likely they could maintain a few hidden spots kept to themselves, that others couldn’t even find if they tried.

To promote internal unity (and since pretty much everyone there is running away from something anyway), generally new members of the group are given a new name, and sometimes a new backstory, depending on the circumstances of their arrival (and exactly what they’re fleeing). Aside from a quick background check just to make sure they’re not letting anyone dangerous in (like rapists, repeated violent murderers (they overlook self-defense murders and other stuff like that), people in hate groups/bigots, etc.), basically anyone of any background/age/gender/etc. is able to join.** Though many aren’t, some people in the Rivande may still be attached to their cultural background, religion, etc., and this is generally allowed (like, they don’t ask people to stop being religious or denounce their past culture when joining). They’ll have you change your name, and maybe a few details about your story, but they don’t strip members of EVERY aspect of their identity. (Unless of course, members want to do so lol.. When you change your name, you’re free to make whatever background story you like as well, if you want to abandon every aspect of your old self, it’s a fine opportunity to, but it’s not mandatory at all). The only time they interfere with stuff like this, is maybe controlling who you’re around, or asking you to do certain things away from others.*

**(though obviously not everyone does the same jobs lol.. like.. technically an 8 year old orphan fleeing an abusive situation would be allowed to join, but they’re of course not going to have an 8 year old like, doing bodyguard work and hunting in the woods alone with a group of 40 year olds. It’s thought that most children and etc. instead just stay on some of the secret islands and other hideouts that the Rivande use as bases, doing various child appropriate tasks, and just focusing on training and getting an education so they can go on actual missions and do the same jobs as the others once they get older, etc.)

* (like if an Avirre’thel, as part of their species and culture, has to feed on blood, but they get put on a job assignment along with 2 fellow Rivande who faint at the sight of blood, they would maybe be asked to feed in secret or something, etc. But never to abandon doing it entirely) (this is a bad example since Avirre’thel like.. have to feed and it’s not something they could stop anyway, but you know what I mean lol).

The Rivande operate mostly around the north, like the ports of Asen and Navyete and etc. in Aviinine, and the upper sections of Estic Kfal and Nonvas Kfal,, though they have traveled all over the entire globe for special assignments. There are currently about 1600 members in the group in total, around 400 general members (or multi-specialty people who move between groups as needed), 400 in the land explorer branch, 600 in the sea explorer branch, and 200 in the specialized branch. They have an incredibly strong sense of unity and amazing communication for such a large spread out group, so it’s thought that they must have pretty well organized structure and frequent ways to meet and communicate even over long distances, though they keep to themselves about the inner workings of the group, so nobody really knows for sure how they organize themselves.

This group has no distinct uniform, but their symbol is this (it’s like.. a snake around a spyglass and the top of the spyglass has compass looking thing?) -

They’re often given necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, or other jewelry with the symbol on it, to mark their entrance into the group and that they’re now part of the family, so you may be able to identify them from seeing someone wearing one of those.

Lir Imaeni:

A mysterious group of ‘blood hunters’ who are thought to orchestrate the largest underground ring of blood trading and etc. within the realm (for more information on blood trading/collecting/etc., there’s a post about it HERE (link)). They mostly operate in global cities, since that’s where they’d have the most access to as many different varieties of blood as possible, but, global areas are also highly regulated and locked down, so they often are stationed like JUST outside the city boundaries, or some small town 40 miles away from one where there may be less stringent laws, etc. (as well as of course places like the country of Mippya, where laws protecting people from danger are fairly non-existent). The Lir Imaeni are also better able to get away with their illegal activities than a smaller group would be, since they’ve been at it for thousands of years, and thus have ties to many important “clients”, like groups of royals, or other influential individuals throughout the realm, who can usually pull strings to get them out of trouble.

The Lir Imaeni does have a more ‘on the streets’ division (people who do the tracking, kidnapping, etc.), but a majority of the members are just dealers, who handle and package blood, and take it to whatever local underground marketplaces there are, or directly to clients. Lir Imaeni roughly translates to something like 'unknown vendor' or 'absent merchant' or etc. (in midland elvish), coming from the fact that if their deals are recorded anywhere at all (usually they’re not), it's always under the name of 'unknown' or 'anonymous donor' or etc. By common people, they’re sometimes also referred to as “collectors” (like ‘Hey, I wouldn’t go home with that guy if I were you, I think he’s a Collector”), nickname origin being quite obvious (as they’re always ‘collecting’ people and blood). Though a more interesting nickname is basically calling them ‘Teapots’, coming from the fact that the word ‘Liramenii’ sounds similar to ‘Lir Imaeni’, and in modern general elvish, ‘Lirameni’ is the word for ‘teapot/clay or ceramic container to pour tea from/etc.’

This group doesn’t have a distinct uniform, or a symbol or anything to identify themselves with, obviously, since they don’t want to be known. The amount of members is unknown, but it’s through to be somewhere around 600 - 800, and they’re thought to also be led by a central leader, or maybe a small council of them, rather than all working in separate branches independently. Though there are many different independent blood dealers sketchily crawling around the realm, joining the Lir Imaeni grants you access to certain connections, reputation, and many amazing perks,, which seems to be mostly what keeps people interested in being a part of them (despite the fact that most blood dealers prefer to work alone or in MUCH smaller groups).

The Bryn:

The Bryn are one of the primary groups around Nanyevimi that exist to subdue people with magic that are causing harm, help non-magic people deal with magical issues, help those with undiscovered latent magic (which when left alone untrained, will generally end up killing the person or others around them, etc. for more info on latent magical abilities and the task forces that help with them, read this post HERE (link)), etc. Basically kind of like an all purpose magical response organization, primarily dealing with things that involve issues of the dangers of magic, unknown magic, integrating (or getting rid of) magic in non-magic areas, etc.

The group is pretty much just a bunch of mages (though they do they have to be well above average skill level so they can be effective against most magic users they receive calls about and etc., but it’s not like they’re all insanely powerful ancient jhevona or anything, just groups of fairly strong multi-skilled mages), but most of them also have social work training, combat and survival training, many have training in local legal systems or cultures, speak multiple languages, etc.

Groups like these are reasonably common in areas populated by inherently magical species, but tend to be more of a minor presence considering that if most of the population is magical anyways, they can probably handle magical conflict themselves. So these groups tend to be most prevalent in non-magical areas, as groups who can’t use magic and have little knowledge of it are highly susceptible to magic crime, or even just non-malicious yet still unmanageable magic users (like individuals with latent magic) that the community doesn’t have the resources to handle. The Bryn are one of the largest and most well known of these groups that operate in Nanyevimi.

There are also many rogue people who do these jobs as well (a mage traveling around taking care of magic crimes and issues involving magic can be a decent living), but since the Bryn are a group with a known reputation and etc., some people find them more trustworthy, as they have higher ups/ people to watch over Bryn agents and hold them accountable if they handled something improperly, whereas random helpful travelers do not.

Their organization is split up into a few different branches -

General members - these people usually have multiple areas of expertise, and are kind of just dispatched wherever they’re needed.

Crime branch - these people exclusively handle cases where crimes are being committed, like someone using magic to steal from unsuspecting non-magical groups, using magic to trick people, magic users harming others who can’t defend themselves, etc. (There’s also a smaller branch within this branch, which is like the Extreme Version where everyone’s a WAY higher level mage with advanced combat skills, they deal with the MOST serious or dangerous crimes)

Accidents branch - These people deal with things that, aren’t necessarily illegal, but are still bothersome. Usually stuff like, a group of non-magical people accidentally stumbling into an enchanted trap that was set thousands of years ago and they don’t know how to release enchantments on their own, magical operations nearby a non-magical village having unintentional harmful effects to the people in the village, problems caused from accidental or unknown use of magic, etc.

Latent magic branch - This part of the Bryn deals exclusively in helping individuals with latent or unknown magical abilities (generally all young children, usually found in orphanages or other areas (like a child from a magical species accidentally ending up in a non-magic area with low magic-literacy, thus raised unaware of their abilities and nobody around could help them with it)). Because latent unknown/untrained magic can be extremely dangerous, it’s important to catch it early, and get the individual proper training, education, and ways to manage/control the magical energy they have. Members in this branch often specialize in child development, and have a focus on stuff like family counseling, communication/mediation between groups, etc. because they usually have to be right there in the middle of things while trying to help the child.

Communications branch - These are mostly people who organize and sort the requests for help, assign people to certain tasks, who run the group, etc.

The Bryn don’t do these jobs for money, it’s all mostly volunteer work. Though some people do reward them for taking care of problems, or will offer them things for their help, pay is not a requirement.*(1)

“Bryn” means ‘guard’ or ‘protector’ in a far south jhevona language, which is where they get their name from. They originated from the south, but now have small gatherings of the organization set up in a few main hubs around Nanyevimi. The Bryn do have uniforms to some degree, when they feel appropriate to identify themselves they may wear something like this (whoops, another thing I forgot to draw, I’ll try to put an image in here later).. or will have clothing/items with the symbol of their group on it, which is this -

But many of the jobs they do also require them to not be recognized (like if hunting down a dangerous mage, you don’t want them to SEE you tracking them, or when showing up to an orphanage to try and rescue a child with latent magic but you know the orphanage owner is hostile, etc.), so they’re often not in uniform/identifiable in any way.

*(1) ( This also isn’t very weird though, a majority of work done in all of Nanyevimi is not for money, necessarily. There’s no widespread currency system really, just a few in certain places, but it will vary by where you are. Like for example, to use places I’ve already written more about (countries in the continent of Aviinine)..

Fanyin does have a strong broadly implemented system where most all goods/services are exchanged for money (which is a standard coin that’s used as the primary currency of all countries in the elven alliance). You can informally barter amongst friends or something, but every resource (food, shelter, goods, services) is tied heavily to having coins, and that is the only way to access most goods.

Navyete on the other hand, does have their own currency (a few various coins), but, this is mostly used for trade with outside countries just to have a more stable exchange rate (like, ‘this is worth 5 coins’ instead of ‘this is worth 14 cabbages, depending on the size of the cabbage, and also this and also this..’ ), but within the country, a majority of goods are bartered or just given for free collectively in the community. Citizens can trade currency if they want, but it’s extremely common to just bargain with people, or give stuff away. Many people in Navyete don’t even have money on them at any given time, since it’s not really needed, unless you’re planning on traveling or making a specific trade or something. There’s not as much of a focus on making money, since basic resources are generally free to access for most people (housing, food, healthcare, etc). And people who produce those things (farmers, builders, doctors, etc.) usually do them on a bartering basis, on commission from the government (which they would be given whatever they want in that case, coins, or some sort of bartered resource), or for no charge just because they want to contribute to their collective local community.

In Nanebae, there is no established country wide government, let alone a cohesive economic system or currency, so people kind of just trade for whatever they think is valuable, some currencies from outside countries, resources, services, mostly just bartering. People live in small clusters of communities and can generally gather and share their own resources among themselves. (this is probably how a majority of places in Nanyevimi are, like at least 50%).

In Asen, it’s a little similar to Navyete, BUT with a bit more of a focus on a standardized currency. Like, a majority of dealings are handled with standard local coins, but it’s also incredibly common to just trade for things, or to have certain resources provided for free (mostly, depending on what it is. Definitely not as extensively as Navyete).

So anyway, it’s not strange at all for the work to be done without payment or etc., depending on what area of Nanyevimi you’re in, they may not even have a standard currency to pay you with/be unfamiliar with the concept... I mostly just wanted to make note of it since it IS different, when in comparison to groups like the Rivande, who always want SOMETHING (usually currency, though they’d take something else valuable) in return for what they do, and wouldn’t ever take jobs just for the sake of them. )

Itheminal’in:

Though they started out as a vigilante justice group that worked to overthrow the royalty of an elven country in Nonvas Kfal about 2,000 years ago, they’ve changed overtime, with various localized branches handling more personal cases, usually aiding people in small villages or etc. They’re kind of like..... firefighters + emergency medics + legal team + bodyguards + assassins + diplomats/negotiators + private investigators/detectives all combined into one? Obviously there are different sections of the group who specialize in different things, but in modern day, they basically just exist to help people, often as an alternative to the governmental options in the area. Like for example, if a nation has a notoriously corrupt police force or something, people could try to call on a group of Itheminal'in agents instead, who would then use their wide network and resources/skills to try their best to give the person aid. Most of what they do is like this, just helping people when those people have nobody else to turn to, or when the alternatives that ARE available to them don’t work for them for some reason.

In many cases they do their job effectively and etc., but the organization is somewhat large at this point (at least for what they are, they operate pretty secretively obviously), so there are some concerns about local branches of the group over-reaching and stepping outside of the group’s main rules and virtues (like getting a little power hungry, or seeing themselves as Perfect Savior Heroes Who Can Do No Wrong). Thus, they’ve recently been limiting who can join, and also trying to prevent stuff like people acting 'in the name of the group’ without actually being part of the group. Because they have widespread credibility in certain places, some frauds use that to their advantage (lying to pretend they’re in the Itheminal'in when really they're just some random person wanting to cause trouble). Due to this they’ve also been looking into ways to clearly mark a person’s official membership, but each group within the group has different ideas (many of them still do spywork and infiltrate governments, so the mark can’t be something too obvious or identifying.. Basically, they need to be hidden and unrecognizable, BUT they do need a way for the right people to be able to recognize them when needed, so people in need can actually get reliable help, etc.). For now though, they don’t have any group symbol, or way to be identified.

They operate all over the entire realm, but are concentrated more in a few areas than others. Generally they have the largest presence in places known for having corrupt or unreliable resources for their citizens, since a group like the Itheminal’in is extra needed to offer community aid and assistance to those in society that aren’t being treated properly, or are falling through the cracks.

The name comes from the plant “Itheminal”, which used to be one of the most prized resources in the area the group originated, and was often associated with the rich and merchants. Itheminal is generally extremely rare/difficult to grow correctly or come across in the wild, takes forever to harvest, is extremely finicky,, but can be used in making dyes/pigments, and also as an herb added to classical elven tea blends**. Since it was seen as a status symbol, royals would have entire teams on their staff hired specifically for the purpose of seeking it out for themselves, sending scouts to go on months-long trips in the mountains to find plants or seeds in the wild, sending spies to steal it from other royals, trying to monopolize and make sure THEY were the only ones who had it successfully growing in their private gardens, etc. Anyway, after a few of their first assassinations (as a young organization back when they were still government-overthrowing revolutionaries and not a more laid back group out in the field helping communities), they would joke that the royals had more people after them than they had out hunting for Itheminal, or that they were a more desired resource (rewards for capturing and turning in an Itheminal’in agent (especially if captured alive) tended to exceed those offered for giving Itheminal seeds/plants, both of which were ridiculously exorbitant prices). In addition to that, people in the group were also known to be a bit ‘finicky’ (uncooperative, difficult to get information out of) and hard to locate, so they named themselves after the plants lol.

(**elven cultures, especially a long time ago but even today, have always been known for their teas. It’s pretty typical for an area to have it’s own tea blend, or a family (especially royal families can get pretentious and competitive about this, but everyone regardless of class probably has their own family tea recipe, the ingredients may just differ in price) will have their own special tea mix of spices/herbs/flowers/etc., etc. It’s also customary that many elven teas (probably a good 50%) have various mind altering substances thrown in (like an herb that causes mild hallucinations, the root of some tree that makes people a bit ‘‘drunk’‘, etc.). Ground itheminal leaves were always said to cause REALLY good emotional states when consumed, as well as vivid sights and pleasant ‘waking dreams’, so all the royals especially wanted it in their custom blends for tea parties (usually where the entire nobility gets together and everyone samples and shows off their custom teas they’ve been working on, so a tea with an amazing taste, smell, ‘‘mental effect’‘, or other aspect that has a positive effect on the consumer is more likely to win, and having the title of Best Tea at that years’ annual tea party was a very prestigious title (and still is, in some circles))

Ostienache:

Not much is known about this group since, obviously they have a motivation to keep themselves as hidden as possible, but mainly they’re a vigilante justice organization of assassins. Similar to the original Itheminal’in, except if they had stayed primarily assassins and never branched out into doing community work. The Ostienache are even theorized to be a branch of the Itheminal’in who simply stayed the same as the rest of the group changed, but both organizations are so secretive that there’s no real way to confirm this (and vigilante justice groups aren’t necessarily a niche thing, it makes sense two could evolve independently on their own without having to be related).

They mostly target those in power, but are known to kill random criminals as well on occasion, such as a local rapist from a small rural town or etc. It’s unknown how many of them there are, how they communicate, how they cover their tracks, how they choose their targets, etc. The only patterns that seem recognizable are that they’re open with signing their work (even though it may make more sense to be mysterious, they want it to be known that it’s their doing, presumably just to help build fear/merit and send a message, like “no this isn’t just a random murder, we’re an organized group and we will come For You’”), and that all of their targets are people who could justifiably be argued are hurting others (whether it be on a local level like beating their children, or on a broader level like committing war crimes or passing laws that lead to the harm of a large amount of people. They seem to focus more on the latter, but it seems like, if they just so happen to be in the area, they may kill a few smaller criminals here and there if the chance presents itself).

Because they identify their kills, their movements can be tracked to some degree, a few murders will happen in one area around the same time, then in another, etc., so it may not be a HUGE group (if they’re all apparently traveling together), but certain details of cases in the past have led people to believe that it’s at least 8 people, possibly 15 or more. Which is.. a really tiny group, and would seem insignificant, but their mention here is warranted mostly just due to how well known they are. I mean they are like.. literally out there assassinating kings and stuff, SO MANY people are after them. They’ve made enemies out of many of the most powerful groups in the world, even the Elven Alliance is aware of their presence and has discussed them before as a threat (since they’ve targeted a few members lol). And this notoriety is only helped by how impossibly secretive they are, how little is known about them, how not even one of them has seemingly ever gotten caught, especially how they’re able to gain access to such high profile targets without ever being noticed, etc. With so many details of their organization being so mysterious, there’s plenty of room for endless speculation and fears to evolve, often turning them into more than they are, especially amongst the gossip of scared royals. (for example, some people theorize that they must be extremely powerful mages, and are probably using high level magics to do some of the ‘’impossible’’ things they do, others think that the murders are actually contracted out and not always committed by the same group of people but that the Ostienache are simply masterminding and telling random hired assassins who to kill and when, etc. etc.)

The group operates mostly around the north, like in Aviinine and around Estic/Nonvas Kfal (like most groups I’m mentioning lol.. since I started my primary worldbuilding with the Avirre’thel as the focus, the area with the most development is the north/around Aviinine, etc. There are tons of groups all over the world, but many of the ones in this post will probably function mostly in the north, or at least have it be plausible to come across them in the north, since that’s the section of the world I’ve developed the most about at this point.) .

The Ostienache have no symbols or uniforms of course, as they don’t identify themselves, only their crime scenes. While the targets may be killed in various ways depending on what’s most convenient to the situation, they generally seem to keep it as bloodless/nonviolent as possible, and always position the dead body in a similar way, with it’s arms raised up hands covering the eyes (palms facing outward, with the backs of hands touching the eyes), and a white circle left on the chest (usually a ring of flowers, though sometimes a ribbon, salt, chalk, torn pillowcase fabric, whatever material was nearby). These are distinguishable from copycat murderers because the palms of the individual are always marked with some sort of unknown perfume/dye (it’s a dark teal blue color with a strange sour yet floral scent) type of substance, which must be personally crafted by members of the group, as it’s chemical makeup/fragrance are unique and have never been identified clearly/are impossible to replicate unless you know the secret formula/ingredients to make it. ). Like below -

(also, you should be able to position a body this way but I think the arms need to be raised differently. I tried it out laying on the floor and relaxing my arms, and they only rest on the face this way if the arms are up more, so it should be more like this in the image below.. but, whatever you get what I mean lol )

The Navigators:

The Navigators are a group of ‘’explorers’’ (hence the very clever name, they ‘navigate’, tee hee hee), with.. questionable motives. While they approach it from a scientific angle and claim that they’re making discoveries for the sake of studying the world, documenting what they find, etc., a vast majority of what they actually do seems to just be.. search around the globe to locate areas with potentially valuable resources, then attempt to profit off of those resources, usually by handing them off to someone else (like for example, finding an undiscovered mine, fighting the locals and taking it over for themselves, then selling it off to (or renting it out to) some royal family somewhere in exchange for a lot of money). Despite their foolish motivations (money, notoriety for discovering things, etc.), they have become known for being very good map-makers, and are responsible for charting a lot of routes and areas around the world that formerly nobody had any information about (except for the Rivande, who probably traveled through there long before the Navigators, but minded their own damn business about it and kept their knowledge to themselves).

It’s thought that some members of the Navigators genuinely believe they’re helping others or creating a better world, but many seem to be in it for personal reasons, such as being The One who Discovered The Big Really Cool Thing And Is Now Famous For It. Even though they paint themselves as simply scientists and scholars, as many indeed are, it’s also evident that many of their actions are taken less in the name of science and more for the sake of fortune or fame. Legitimate scholars have wandered their way into the group from time to time, but generally left for obvious reasons, which has resulted in the only remaining members usually being people who are able to tolerate the values and motivations of the group, so basically it’s a bunch of REALLY annoying people who don’t think they're annoying because they have a ton of other annoying people around them to constantly stroke their egos and tell each other that they’re right (unless they’re infighting, which usually doesn’t happen when they have good leadership, but happens constantly the second that The Alpha Most Annoying Person isn’t there to wrangle all the other egotistical freaks in and explain to them that they can’t ALL be the smartest person on earth)

Luckily, most cultures in Nanyevimi have no bizarre underlying psychological need to dominate others/hoard resources/get rich/take over lands, so in the grand scheme of things there are very few world wars or ideological things where people cause problems because they just can’t mind their own fucking business. But for some reason the Navigators sprung up somewhere one day and they bother people. Many see their goals as completely foreign and deranged, and they really only have the support they do because certain places take advantage of the opportunity of their existence (like people in powerful positions can use them to steal resources for them without the powerful people themselves having to look like the bad guys, etc.).

The Navigators used to be far more prominent, but many of their most prolific members were killed in one event* about 200 years ago. Since then, the group has still been recovering, but there were many scrambles for power after the head and many major players of the organization were lost. As you can imagine, many of these people are arrogant and riches/power/fame hungry, the reason they do this stuff in the first place .. so when the leader was gone EVERYONE was like ‘oohh I DESERVE TO BE THE NEW LEADER!!!! I am the most important and the most smart and rich and went to a fancy university for a very long time and am very good at making maps!!! I MUST be the one to attain this prestigious TITLE” and they nearly tore themselves apart. Unfortunately, things have managed to cool down and they’ve risen back to some level of prominence, but still are nothing like what they once were (they haven’t chosen a new ‘leader’ yet, and currently just work in a few smaller groups that communicate from time to time. How the organization progresses in the future will probably depend a lot on what leadership they eventually select for themselves and when).

Though they’ve always maintained their contacts with many governments, especially groups like the Elven Aliiance (who are usually very interested in uncovering rare resources and things, if only to prevent other people from being able to use them, god forbid somebody invent a better technology and replace their famous Iriminel crystals** lol), they can also get into conflicts with them, since they’re arrogantly set in their ideals and refuse to bend to anyone else’s desires. They have a sort of self importance about their Values And Very Important Work, so it seems to be sense of pride that they won’t allow themselves to be ‘pawns of any government’ or whatever, even though they’ve still been known to temporarily forget about their Noble Goals, for the right price.

Basically, it’s just a bunch of pretentious scholars, usually nobles or people from noble families, who fancy themselves adventurers because they think it’s a cool lifestyle, and discovering things can make you rich/famous. They do have skills/ scholarly merits, many are experts in their fields, especially at stuff like map-making and archaeology and geology and other Fields People Would Utilize While Traveling The World To Discover Old Ruins And Resources And Things, but because of the goals and reputation of the group, it does tend to lean towards.. a very particular personality type (usually know-it-alls that lack self-awareness and also cognitive empathy, are so dedicated to their Very Significant Purpose that they don’t care about anything else, they just want prestige and to feel important, regardless of any potential consequences to their actions.. the type of people who think that because they’re Very Smart, all of their opinions and feelings must be inherently correct, and thus cannot be debated. Is it a good idea to pillage these sacred ruins? Well, we feel like it is, and we are intelligent and scientific, so pillaging them is good for science, therefore yes it’s a good idea, and if you disagree, you’re just too uneducated to understand,, etc. etc. Which obviously also makes them hard to work with, even groups they’re allied with can’t fucking stand them sometimes lol.. ANYWAY)

The Navigators operate all over the world, though they have a home base in northern Estic Kfal, which some stay at while others are out traveling. They don’t have uniforms, but they do have little badges/pins which they usually adorn their outfits with (since they’re all very prideful of their prestigious group membership and want to show it off), which would have this symbol on them -

*(Basically, like idiots, they started messing with the Thastanri after hearing of various rare resources that could be found in their territories. Though publicly, their Noble Motivations were to “”create better maps through this vast unknown portion of land, for the educational purposes of all””. They were in the land hunting dragons and ended up accidentally shooting a Thastanri out of the sky (in their natural form, Thastanri are one of the few subspecies of jhevona that are still born with full usable wings and tails and etc. so when they’re flying around, from far away they can resemble other flying creatures), which when they tracked where he fell (thinking they’d find a dragon they could sell the bodyparts of), and saw that it was just some random person, instead of even attempting to treat his injuries, they just assumed they were fatal and killed him to ‘put him out of his misery’ (more like, they just didn’t feel like dealing with him, saw he was too injured to fight back anyway, and being afraid that he would notify the others of their presence, took that opportunity to kill him like cowards.) And this was like, the 4th time they had been trespassing in their lands anyway.

A few days later, a Thastanri assassin kidnapped one of the heads of the organization from their campsite in the night, studied them long enough to be able to shapeshift into them accurately (read the main post about jhevona to learn more about how shape-shifting works/the study it involves/etc.), assumed his identity and ran back to the rest of the group like “oh gosh! I’ve been lost in these woods for days! aa! .. oh, but while I was in the woods, I found this giant dragon’s nest! I didn’t get too close since I was alone, but if we came back armed, I think we’d be able to take them, and get actual EGGs! Nobody’s seen a dragon egg in hundreds of years since they started going extinct, this could be BIG and sell for a LOT of money!”, and invited all of their trusted companions along on a ‘dragon hunt’. They even waited a few days for some of the other elite members to get there, since it was such a ‘big occasion’, everyone wanted to be there fore it (mostly so they could brag about it, probably).

Which of course, the Thastanri in disguise just led them into a brutal ambush, with all the other assassins (and a few dragons, who have the cognitive capacity to at least mostly understand the situation, and were fighting alongside them) waiting at the dragons nest. Most of them died there (about 45 Navigators), and a few others (like 5 or so) were taken back to the main living areas of the Thastanri to be interrogated, then slowly stoned/tortured to death by other members of the village who passed by on the street once they weren’t of any use anymore (basically they were left out in public tied up and unable to escape, so some threw rocks at them, some kicked them, some poured rotten food over them, etc. etc.).

Falsely leading rogue “adventurers” into attacks under the promise of them finding dragons or other rare resources is a well known tactic among the Thastanri for getting rid of particularly bothersome people (they’re largely a very non-violent a peace focused group but I mean.. if you’re told to leave like 10 times and still show up.. at that point what do you expect lol), but it’s never been executed on that scale, and the Thastanri had never before disguised themselves AS members of another group/taken on the identity of other people before, since they generally show distaste for using that type of magic outside of utter necessity (like, only if you were being chased and running for your life or something). So, even though in hindsight you could see that it was clearly a trap, the Navigators had no idea to even be suspicious, based on the information that they had at the time, and the unprecedented nature of some of the tactics used.

There were still 300 members of the Navigators left, but since the 50 or so that were killed were the higher ups, people in leadership roles, etc., this is why it was such a blow to the group. Despite being the instigators, the Navigators still have a grudge on the Thastanri over it (the Thastanri usually keep stuff like this a secret but they were specific to inform the rest of the group what they did, so they could take it as a warning and would maybe keep the hell away from them and the dragons, as the only reason they took such extreme measures in the first place was to set an example), but.. the warning did genuinely work (it’s abundantly clear that even a group of 40 Thastanri Ehn-Imkasyn could kill all 300 of the remaining group members without breaking a sweat, and though they won’t admit it, all Navigators are terrified to even go near those lands again. Anytime they’re asked, they make excuses or navigate around it “because the terrain is just better elsewhere” or etc.) lol

**(Though I haven’t made a full post about it yet, Iriminel crystals are a resource that’s used in much of the elven alliance cities as a way to store and channel magical energy, so that they can power things with magic in an indirect way (like, mages don’t have to literally be sitting there doing the work, they can instill their energy into a crystal with a mild enchantment on it and let it do the work for them, as long as they recharge it periodically). The elves themselves are unsure how they work (no surprise, it’s a technology they robbed from elsewhere and claimed as their own), but in the early days of the elven alliance, this was their claim to fame and how they rose to so much power, as they held complete control over this resource and would lend it to others in exchange for other things (Iriminel crystals have some sort of unique innate properties that make it able to hold magic this way. Even with enchantments and stuff, you can’t get the same effect out of a normal rock or other material). Many elven cities are still powered by Iriminel crystals, but of course since it’s one of the primary resources that the alliance has a monopoly on, they’ve been known to dislike the idea of competing technologies, or anything that could replace Iriminel crystal use. Plenty of places outside of the alliance also use Iriminel crystals to power things, but it’s always on loan from the Alliance, of course, so this technology can be seen all over Nanyevimi, except for places that disagree with/are hostile to the Elven Alliance (like, Navyete lol))

(additional note: Originally, the alliance were actually using the Iriminel crystals under the supervision of the people that seemed to have engineered them (an extremely secluded tiny group of a mysterious unknown subspecies of jhevona, living in strange ancient ruins, maintaining the caves in the south that the crystals come from). They only later ended up backstabbing the group and taking the resource from them, because apparently they weren’t being lent enough crystals fast enough, and thought the group was being stingy (hmm... maybe.. there’s a reason the crystals take a lot of time to build up a supply of...). But, the last members of the group refused to give out any information about how they work, so the alliance is kind of on their own.

Because they still have no idea how these crystals work, and are not giving proper amounts of time between letting the crystals form and harvesting them, they’re gradually becoming less useful, weaker, and in shorter supply. Since they’ve been doing this for thousands of years already, eventually, possibly in the near future, this resource is likely going to be a lot less available to them, or even totally depleted, and they’re going to have to scramble to maintain their infrastructure. But they don’t know this gghgh... I am only telling you, the reader, because I am god of this world and I Know Things lol.. sucks for them anyway! Maybe if they had actually investigated more into the ancient ruins around the cave, or ... oh i dunno, left members of the original group alive or listened to them.. they could have some information that would be helpful to them in this but, suppose the alliance will simply have to face the consequences of their thoughtlessness in the coming hundred years or so! )

(also last thing to note: the Navigators and the Rivande run into each other sometimes (since they are both.. travel/exploration focused groups that operate in similar places), or occasionally the Navigators may even hire Rivande as escorts to help them through an area. While they have no outward conflict or anything, they are known to clash, mostly in a one-sided way (the Rivande dislike the Navigators, but not really the other way around). This is mostly because the Rivande want to keep information to themselves, while the Navigators want to make every discovery public and put it in a published book of maps (so it can be a threat to the Rivande’s trade secrets, and also just general privacy). The Rivande also believe in minding your own business, only ever respectfully passing through an area, but not interfering with anything, which the Navigators obviously violate constantly.

While the Rivande greatly value collecting and (privately) documenting the knowledge of the world... using that information to intrude on locals, start land conflicts, hoard resources, etc. is seen as ridiculously irresponsible and mindless to them, and seems to go against the group’s internal doctrine (the Rivande are so private about how the inner parts of their organization function, nobody is sure exactly what the rules are, but there are thought to be some structured ‘’guidelines’’ for group members, what is expected of them, how they should interact with the places they travel through, etc.). They obviously aren’t the most moral group in the world (since they’ll work for anyone for the right price, even the Navigators), but they still have been known to get into disputes with Navigators from time to time, usually over stuff like that.

(for example, a Navigator hiring a group of Rivande to help lead them through a ‘thought to be impossible to travel through’ sort of forest, but then the whole time the Navigator is like.. making maps, messing with shit, stealing things from ancient ruins they come across, etc. etc. , with the group of Rivande escorts attempting to stay neutral (like ‘okay, my job is just to get them from point a to point b, that’s it, it’s not my business what they do’), yet still getting increasingly annoyed the whole time underneath their customer service face. The group of Rivande have to like, constantly bail the Navigator out of situations they get themselves into along the way just because they’re being nosy, messing with wildlife, antagonizing locals, etc,.. and it’s like babysitting a 5 year old with a superiority complex...Every morning the spot where they camp in the woods is pleasant.. until the Navigator wakes up, then the place falls silent as the group of Rivande realize yet again that they’re going to have to risk their lives defending this idiot all day, while he goes out of his way to seemingly get into as much trouble as possible... . He marks another note onto his map pages, taking their secret routes for himself.. He nearly gets the group killed (again), randomly attacking a giant animal because “ the fur looked valuable”.. He brags about being a scholar, that the group should feel safe with him because his superior intellect will protect them in any situation, then promptly proceeds to ingest a plant he insisted wasn’t poisonous, forcing everyone to cut their travels short and stop for the day so he can make messy poops behind a nearby tree the rest of the night. The escorts whisper by the fire, considering just killing him in his sleep and reporting that an ~Unavoidable Accident Occurred~...... etc. etc. lol))

Imin Amete:

A group of mages that seek to educate people about magic, particularly in areas with low magic literacy (being unfamiliar with magic and how it works). Since many people, even magic users, understand magic to be dangerous, the Imin Amete sort of just go around trying to do public outreach, explaining that magic users are nothing to be afraid of, that magic is perfectly safe and fine, etc.

They’re very pro-magic, and tend to embrace any new magical techniques or technology that come along, want everyone to utilize magic, want to implement magic usage wherever applicable (like promoting that a city use magically powered street lights, rather than plain fire or electricity, etc.). When not out in the world campaigning about how good magic is and serving as mage-advisors to people in positions of power (like local merchants or nobles or something who want to hire a mage to advise them on magical issues, etc.), the Imin Amete generally spend their time studying/practicing magic, and pride themselves on being experts in the field.

Though a group to help with magic education initially seems like something that’d be be useful in the realm, the Imin Amete still receive a lot of criticism, mostly from other magic scholars, as they tend to downplay the dangers of magic, and seem to have an unrealistically idealistic conception of it. Many people in the Imin Amete are only moderate level mages, slightly above beginners, but definitely not experts, and certainly not capable of many types of magic. You can study forms of magic in theory, information in text books or gathered in the wild, but still not be able to utilize it in practice (due to lack of skill, or just not having the inherent magical energy level to pull off certain things). They talk theoretically about many things that they have no idea about personally, and tend to over-emphasize their own limited experiences (like “Magic isn’t harmful! Magic has never hurt ME, or anyone I know!”, disregarding the fact that they’re only capable of very low energy magics and thus less likely to be harmed directly or from magic exposure), etc.

It’s sort of the same dynamic as like, real experienced medical doctors who have worked out in the field for like 45 years taking issues with weird health bloggers who have zero qualifications and the most basic (usually not fully informed) ideas about ‘medicine’ but go running around telling people that eating whole lemon slices will cure cancer or etc. Serious advanced mages who have had a lot of experience with magic are generally EXTREMELY aware of the risks of magic, they’e seen it many times first hand.. Even if the Imin Amete have good intentions, a bunch of novice mages running around telling people that there’s ZERO downsides to powering a city fully on magical energy, or that they shouldn’t worry about their children practicing with magic, or that exposure to magic isn’t actually as harmful as people say it is and etc. is just completely spreading misinformation.

Despite these issues being pointed out to them, the Imin Amete are extremely beholden to their beliefs, almost to a religious degree, and kind of refuse to listen to what other mages have to say on the matter. They have deep philosophical justifications within the group for why everyone should be using magic, why it’s a good thing, etc. and believe that it’s heir duty to share their worldview. (While the Imin Amete are open to all species, it started as an elven group. In the traditional elven religion, magic is seen as extremely sacred and should never be feared or controlled, it’s supposed to be this amazing perfect thing that exists as a gift to improve the lives of everyone, was given to us directly from the gods, etc. etc. The Imin Amete have no actual religious affiliations, but if the people who founded the group hundreds of years ago just happened to be religious elven mages, then the groups’ philosophical devotion to magic makes a little more sense.)

They don’t cause much trouble, since they are always trying to be a ~positive force~ so focused on helping others, but they have been known to occasionally show a more sinister side when challenged, particularly when other mage groups denounce them/try to call out their misinformation, or when their own members leave (once you join, leaving the group is considering equivalent to abandoning magic itself, betraying the cause, etc., which is an ultimate offense. The exact punishment is unknown since many internal details of the group are private, but it’s assumed that someone would face consequences for leaving). But mostly, they have a very peaceful, loving, nurturingly informative vibe going on, so people generally consider the group quite harmless, despite the few... slightly suspicious undertones that pop up every once in while.

The Imin Amete are sometimes also called The Siblings, because their structure within the organization is very ‘family - like’. Levels within in the group are like "child/my child" - outsider/not part of the group, 'younger siblings' - new entries, 'siblings' -those in the group long enough to be in the know but not hold much power, 'older siblings' - higher than that, 'cousins' - a little higher , 'paternals' - much higher ('paternal' here is just a translation, though in their language it's not gendered etc.), 'grandpaternals' - nearly highest , ‘The Caregiver’ - one who is beside the leader, ‘The Ancestor’ - the leader of the group, which is elected through unknown means but is thought to be selected democratically within the group.

There are about 1,200 members currently. They operate all around Nanyevimi, but mostly in Nonvas Kfal, particularly focusing around areas that don’t know much about magic, or have a negative view of it. Their uniforms depend on their rankings, since each level of the group wears a different color, but they’re all adorned with their group symbol, which is this -

Mederin Viteliusem:

A group similar to the Imin Amete, but much more scholarly focused, and they actually have advanced level mages on staff, so their information is more accurate and educational (even if.. ‘yes actually, magic can hurt and kill you’ doesn’t necessarily comfort people to hear lol). They have more difficulty with their community education/outreach, because they're so scholarly focused, they can end up overwhelming people with information, long bland boring pamphlets of text, alienating them by using large scientific/magic study terms, etc. They also just aren’t good at appealing to the masses since they don't have many charismatic people in the bunch, as the group pretty much consists of isolated nerds that do nothing in their free-time but scour through ancient texts all day.

Again similarly to the Imin Amete, the Mederin Viteliusem dedicate themselves completely to the field of magic, but they go a bit farther with it. There are three classes of members..

“ke’meder” are the lowest ones, just general members who help out and stuff and they don’t have many restrictions, aside from having to complete at least one knowledge trial a year to prove that they’re still seeking knowledge and learning (kind of like writing a big final paper in school or something, they work on learning about a topic all year and then report back to the higher ups explaining all that they’ve learned in a sort of presentation), and participating in the occasional group activity. Otherwise, they can come and go as they please and do whatever they want.

“na’meder” is the rank above that, where you’ve learned a lot, and you must show a proficiency with magic, as well as do two trials a year or more. You also must abstain from outside temptations and dedicate yourself further (like for example, at this level you move into the place they live (it’s kind of like living in a monastery) and shouldn’t leave, except on magic study related business, since leisure activities (like going to get lunch with friends or something) are just a mindless distraction from your studies. etc. Na’meder also usually live on a stricter schedule, with designated study times and activities all are expected to participate in).

and “in’meder” are the top people of the group, they act like a council that makes certain decisions (approves or disapproves certain trials, they have the authority to change people’s rank in the organization, to send off chosen representatives or represent the group themselves, assign people to a certain area of study, they’re the people you give your trial presentations to, etc.). In’meder don’t do knowledge trials as often, as theirs are usually too ongoing and extensive (like “My goal is to gather evidence about what the source of all magic is and where it originates from”, which is obviously a long-term complicated investigation with possibly no answer that someone could spend their entire lives working on. Rather than smaller trials like “I’m going to spend a month among some blood magic users and observe them, then report back with my findings on how they utilize this little known form of magic” etc.).

In’meder are the most restricted, in that they have a set practice schedule, must have extreme magical talent that they can showcase (even if it’s only in a certain area), have to allocate daily time to running the organization and helping the others in lower ranks, they have to have been with the organization for at least 40 years, must have dedicated their lives completely and wholly to the pursuit of knowledge (they must abstain from outside relationships and additionally are made infertile so they can’t produce children, often with as much of the genitals as possible being removed as well. They can keep children that they had before joining the organization and etc. but they shouldn’t spend much time with them, and same with family members (they basically have to act like they don’t have a family), must cut their ties with any other person or organization and religion (if applicable) so that they have no allegiances with anything else, etc.), they also all have to dress similarly, and abandon modifications of their appearance (other than ones necessary to survive or necessary for work (like going undercover)) so that they’re not beholden to their own bodies or etc. etc. etc.

Basically the idea is to have no motivations other than knowledge for it’s own sake, and specifically studying magic. Obligations to outside relationships, preoccupation with your own self image, alliances with outside political/religious/hobby groups, etc. all would possibly get in the way of that and make you lose your focus. In’meder can even only have 20 personal possessions total (not including their identical robes, and any things they use for their studies and etc., since the items in libraries or laboratories or kitchens or whatever are co-owned by the group and don’t count as personal possessions as they’re free for everyone to use, a single mat and a single blanket for a bed also don’t count, but if you want to add extra blankets or cushions or a pillow or etc. then it does count towards your total, etc.). It takes a lot of work, dedication, and sacrifice to be declared an In’meder, since you have to not only meet so many extensive qualifications, but then also live under tons of rules from then on out.

Despite their rigid structure and complete dedication, the Mederin Viteliusem still much more ‘’open’’ in a sense than other similar mage groups like the Imin Amete are. Even an In’meder can leave the group any time they wanted, with no repercussions or ill will. The Mederin Viteliusem think that to be TRULY dedicated to the study of magic, you do have to genuinely want to be there. If the person is just staying out of threat, or out of obligation, then their passion isn’t entirely in it, and this conflict would thus be distracting them from their studies (which goes against their ‘no outside distractions’ thing), so in fact they’d rather you NOT be there if you’re not into it, rather than forcing you to stay. Many small scale mage alliance groups like these tend to be quite exclusive, difficult to get into and difficult to leave, very cliquey and etc., and while the Mederin Viteliusem do have some fairly restrictive rules for members, it’s still voluntary to opt into, and they’re actually one of the more laid back mage organizations in the realm.

(a bunch of people who have detached from their sense of self and ego, detached from wordly desires, removed themselves from social cliques or external alliances, etc. etc. obviously aren’t going to be like ‘OMG you’re leaving the group? this is def going to affect your social standing in the mage world!! we’re not inviting you to the parties anymore!’ or like ‘how dare you abandon our cause!!!’ or etc. since ... they don’t.. have a cause.. or parties.. it’s just PURE study for the sake of study, all other matters are irrelevant as far as the group is concerned. It’s a more chill group with less drama because there’s nothing to even have drama over in the first place, as all the attachments that could CAUSE drama are already supposed to be gone lol. Which obviously there are the occasional academic disagreements, and some of the lower members are bound to still get caught up in stuff like group prestige, pushing their own personal philosophies, etc,, but most of this doesn’t last long since the In’meder are usually just like ‘You Will Stop Getting Distracted With All That Shit” )

Mederin Viteliusem basically means something similar to ‘school of Vitelius’, named after one of the original founders, an ancient mage named....Vitelius. You can find them mostly around the north, though they take plenty of trips south to help educate people or travel to research sites, and their main headquarters/monastery sort of property is located in the mountains of Minam.

They have no symbol for their group, or any custom uniforms, since they feel that would be an unnecessary distraction and an attachment to things (attachment to outer appearance and how the world sees you, attachment to a symbolic representation of the group rather than the group itself, etc.), but they do generally sport very simple clothes and hairstyles. Though they’re free to wear whatever they want, due to the self-detachment and stuff they’re generally not the type of use clothing to ~express themselves~ and stray away from gaudy or attention grabbing things, usually. There are about 2,000 members of this group.

The Assembly:

The Assembly Of Safety And Protection Against Magics, or sometimes just called ‘The Assembly’ , is an organization that stands against the use of magic, and fights for legal restrictions on mages, or use the of magic in general.

They try to attack mage schools, magical species, or other groups of mages sometimes, but like.. this is people who don’t really use magic, usually trying to attack people who are at least vaguely proficient at it so.. it’s not often much of a fight lol.. There are some mages in the Assembly (they justify this by being like, “well sometimes you have to use the same weapon as your enemy to be equal! We only use magic temporarily to aid in our war against it!” etc.), but they’re mostly mediocre elven mages or something, since obviously a super powerful magic invested person isn’t going to join a group that wants them dead/their rights taken away. Due to this, the Assembly are... usually just a minor annoyance in certain areas that can be easily dealt with nonviolently by just like.. running away from them, but they’re still very strong about their beliefs.

The most problematic thing they get up to is kidnapping children from orphanages and etc. who seem to show latent magical ability, and trying to kill them (or convert them to their side) before their magic can show up. Every once in a while, they can capture a mages by outnumbering them (there are certain items that inhibit the use of magic* (though ironically, they have to be enchanted to do this, so you have to be buying your anti-magic bracelets or whatever.. from.. a Mage), so non-magic users could potentially just, gang up on a mage, or sneakily knock them out, then disable their magic somehow, as a way of overcoming the power imbalance). Maybe they'll convince a government to ban public use of magic in an already predominantly non-magic area, burn down a small settlement of mages, get funding cut for a mage school, or scare a bunch of people in a rural village into thinking all magic is evil or something. They’ve definitely killed and harmed a lot of mages in their time, so it’s not like they’re just harmless, but they also have nowhere near the power and reach that they act like they have, and will literally never even come close to eradicating mages/the use of magic in any form lol.

Usually, they’re not powerful enough to accomplish their goals, and don’t do much damage overall, so most people only see them as a vague nuisance. But, they ARE always trying to play politics, so it’s possible that at some point in the future, if they were to ally with a group that has a lot more power and influence than they do, they could become more troublesome and get farther in accomplishing their anti-mage/anti-magic-in-general goals.

They operate everywhere but are most popular among human territories or among other non-magical species, since.. their presence literally wouldn’t make sense anywhere else. Like.. if you were in a place with a major population of magic species... literally every member of that species has magic capabilities, so being like ‘we should pass laws to ban magic users from entering the city’, they locals would just be like ‘okay... so ban.... the entire population? everyone? the whole ass country???’ ghgjh.. Though in some cases, they can have somewhat of a successful presence in minorly magical areas, since there are bigger mages to be the Bad Guys.

For example, they could maybe work in a predominantly elven area, since elves typically don’t have extremely strong magic. The Assembly there may focus not necessarily on getting rid of magic users entirely (as that would be.. the entire population), but more on banning advanced level magics, or putting restrictions on magic users who have more magical abilities than average (so, maybe not allowing jhevona visitors into certain areas in the city, as they’re born with higher magical energy on average and thus usually capable of more advanced magic, etc.). It’s still anti-magic, but a bit more lenient.

And then it just plain wouldn’t work for the Assembly to have a presence in a Jhevona country or something because... there’s nobody more advanced than them to be the Big Bad Magic people to be against lol.. There are definitely species and other groups with stronger inherent magic than jhevona, of course, but they’re usually small isolated species that nobody would know about anyway. (By far, jhevona are not the most inherently magical species, but they are the most well known and widespread out of the like, small pool of groups who are typically born with more inherent energy, which is why I often use them as an example in stuff like this, etc.).

The Assembly COULD maybe get in with the angle of like ‘Well, we won’t ban magic use entirely, even advanced magic use, but it has to be done under certain conditions and used sparingly’, but... most of jhevona philosophy already follows that lol. Because they’re born with naturally higher magical energy, it’s also more deadly and dangerous to them, so most jhevona cultures from a young age teach children to never use magic unless totally necessary, preserve your energy, have complete control, recognize the danger, etc. Despite being more inherently magical, jhevona societies typically lean more towards NOT using magic. It’s usually less inherently magical species (like elves, ythrili, etc.) that actually utilize magic the most often, since their lower concentration of energy to control/the fact that they’re using less complex processes when doing feats of magic, means it’s less likely to seriously injure or kill them, and they’re less likely to take the dangers of magic as seriously/be as fearful about it.

ANYWAY.. so in places populated by higher level magic species, there’s just no way the Assembly would exist there, since they’d either be asking the populations to oppress themselves, or they’d just be preaching stuff that the population already knows and follows. So, they typically stay around non-magic places, or areas where the population usually only uses minor magics.

There are about 5,000 or so active members of the group in total, though there are other people that just help them or are affiliated with them/identify with their goals, despite not actually being a member. They have no uniform, but they do have a symbol you may find on their clothing to flags or etc., which is this -

(that is supposed to be a bird, but I cannot draw birds, so .... )

*(Enchanted items that prevent magic use are usually wearables (for obvious reasons, it’s a lot easier to affix to your target), typically bracelets, rings, necklaces, etc. Though sometimes can be larger stuff, like cages, boxes, or entire buildings (places with a barrier enchantment set up so that magic is prevented from being used inside.. many banks or areas that need to be protected have these, to prevent against magical thievery and such).

The downside is, these enchantments are only as strong as the magic that made it. So your anti-magic necklace may work against an average mage, but for a really powerful magic user or something, they’d be able to break the enchantment and just take the necklace off (usually part of the enchantment is that it can’t be removed by the wearer), or use magic anyway while wearing it lol.

(Though, some high level mages do make magic prevention enchantments. It’s not like they’re acting against their own kind by making them, since there are actual good uses for them, such as protecting non-magic people from magical crimes, creating a protective barrier around important areas (which otherwise could easily be infiltrated through use of magic), keeping genuinely dangerous powerful mages from hurting others, etc. So it’s not like all magic-prevention enchantments are inherently weak or something. If they’re crafted by a really advanced mage, then they can prevent against really advanced magics. And while that’s less common (mostly just because it’s not common to be able to use high level magics without dying, so there aren’t many high level mages to go around in the first place), there are plenty of advanced magic users in the world who could make stronger protective enchantments for people who need them)

The other downside to these though, is that just like all enchantments, it has to be recharged regularly (part of why magic is dangerous is because it’s just using energy to direct other energy really, but can’t operate on it’s own, it has to get it’s energy from somewhere.. and, sometimes it drains the wrong things.. like a person’s body, or...etc..). So in a group like the Assembly, full of mostly non-mages, who may not be as familiar with how magic works, and especially how enchanting works (it’s considered a more high level energy intensive form of magic, obscure/not commonly understood), they could plausibly like.. just forget that they have to recharge their bracelets or something, so then eventually the enchantment holding the mage that they just captured ends up wearing off, and the person can just... walk away lol.

If you’re really serious about it, enchantments can be anchored to a person through something more permanent, like a scar or marking on the skin (or to their soul, but that’s such high level stuff you’d rarely see that since not many people would even know how), but this isn’t something you can just slap onto someone like a bracelet. You’d actually have to get the mage, physically bring them to someone who does advanced enchantments and soul magic (who would likely not agree to do what you're asking lol), pay for the procedure, then sit there for hours while they do some sort of binding enchantment, etc. etc. And even then, it’d STILL have to be equal to their strength or higher, AND would still have to be recharged regularly. There are some unique situations where this may be a better method to use, but generally just a basic necklace or something works best in terms of ‘ways to inhibit a specific person from utilizing their magic abilities for a temporary amount of time’.

(also note: even through the most powerful enchantments, there is no permanent way to remove magic, or inhibit someone’s abilities fully overall. You can block it for a time with enchantments like these, or direct their energy elsewhere (a far more complicated enchantment to pull off), but there is no way to convert a magic person into a non-magic person. If there were, that might be one of the goals of the Assembly, but, I’m the world-building god, and with how my magic system works, I will let you know that it's impossible lol (though that doesn’t mean some people in the world couldn’t still believe it’s possible, like humans having some weird pseudo-science ‘feed this berry to a mage and it will stop their magic’ superstitions or something lol))

Wyltenfer Couriers:

An organization of.. I guess.. information collectors? Or spies perhaps? They don’t work for anyone, or for any higher purpose (at least not one that’s known), they’re not hired to gather information for a specific government, cause, political reason, etc. they can’t even be hired, since they don’t take on tasks from other people in the first place, rather they find their own tasks/opportunities, then independently profit off of that however they can (such as like, finding out a significant tidbit of information about someone, then going to their enemy and offering to tell them what they know, for a price, of course).

They basically kind of just wait around, sit in places and listen, talk to people, eavesdrop, investigate their own leads, then from there choose what secrets may be valuable. Every agent just goes scouting to find a lead for something, then they work on their own independent cases, ask for help from the group when needed (this is why they’re banded together in the first place, so their collective network of connections/resources/knowledge can spread wider and benefit them all better than just being on their own), then share any profits or rewards with each other as a group (if applicable.. sometimes they’re literally just nosy for free, and get no pay out of it other than The Drama Of It All).

Since they’re essentially a group of professional blackmailers/secret sellers/information traders, they have to have a deep understanding of politics and the cultural/social workings of whatever area they’re in, especially knowing all of the various groups in the area and how they interact with each other. It’s mandatory that they’re charming, good at lying, at talking in general, being convincing, acting, and other things like sneaking around. 90% of the time, they’re probably out at various social gatherings, bars, events, really anywhere where groups of people congregate, so they can take notes and pick up as much info as possible (often they work in teams as well, like going to a royal party and splitting up the group, so there are people listening in all different rooms of the castle, etc.).

Sometimes a lead is nothing, and an agent just wastes time on info they THINK is important but really nobody cares about, but usually even minor situations get some amount of benefit, since at this point they’re pretty good at picking and choosing what matters most . They’ve built up a somewhat credible reputation (their information is pretty much always correct, nearly always at least somewhat as useful as they claim it will be to the person who buys it, etc.), but people also resent them for their secrecy.

Because they refuse to work for anyone and choose to remain independent (only following their own personal leads and working on their own terms), and are also very good at what they do, various royals (or other people in power) are uncomfortable with the fact that some of the best ‘’spies’’ around don’t belong to THEM (they actually usually are in a subtle competition with hired spies, who swarm the same parties and etc. that they do, but the Wyltenfer Couriers often get to the information quicker, or end up with more valuable info than the others lol), so they can end up being targeted for seeming like a threat/uncontrollable variable (if people in power can’t have them on their side, they’d rather them not be around at all, etc.). But overall, for a pretty small group (it’s thought to be a network of only 40 or so people) they seem to do well for themselves.

They operate around Asen, primarily in the global areas/big cities there, since that’s where the most Juicy Drama occurs. Though because Asen is close to many elven territories within the alliance, they do their fair share of travel to royal parties and stuff, as that’s a reliably lucrative venture they can do once in a while, if they get tried of hanging around the same cities in Asen for too long and need a ‘vacation’.

They obviously have no way to identify themselves, because the whole point is going unnoticed. Of course, sometimes people they’re selling secrets to need to be convinced that they’re reputable before paying them, but they handle this in more clever ways than just like ‘well would I have this FANCY ENGRAVED RING if I were not from the group I say I’m from???’ lol.. , so there’s no need for outward identifiers, especially since they can be risky.

The Grand Benevolency:

A mysterious group that seems to enjoy helping royals, world leaders, government officials, etc. The Grand Benevolency often gives gifts and trades resources and etc., but nobody knows where they GET these resources from, or even what they represent, why they’re giving them out, who they are in the first place, etc.. The group has been around for like 500 years on record, and they’ve never done anything like manipulate leaders, ask favors of the royals, use their positive influence with people in power to overthrow the government or bribe people to vote a certain way or etc.... they legit just.. exist..... and seem to like getting in the good graces of people in power.. but that seems to be all. People are rightfully suspicious of their motives, but they’re so unknown and haven’t ever given any indication of their goals despite it having been like 500 years now, so people are unsure how to really feel about it.

Nobody knows where they come from, it’s just like.. royals (usually who are in desperate situations/in need) will occasionally get letters signed ‘The Grand Benevolency’ , offering to help them with their issue for free.. then, they get help quickly and sufficiently, and then... simply never hear from the organization again (unless they need help a second time). The Grand Benevolency will sometimes send messengers or representatives to join royal courts or assist with things in person, but no actual leaders of the organization have ever made public appearances or made anything about themselves known. They seem to communicate exclusively through letters, messengers, and occasionally those in-person representatives. The representatives are always a bit odd, extremely secretive, and when they’ve been captured to be interrogated on rare occasion, generally kill themselves fairly quickly rather than give up any information. It’s also impossible to contact THEM (unless one of their representatives is around and you can send a message through them), The Grand Benevolency always has to contact you first. You don’t have to put in a request for help, it’s just that.. they somehow hear rumors that you need help, and offer it exactly when you need it, without any prior communication.

Basically, everything about them is quite suspicious, but when you look at actual factual proof, they’ve literally never done anything sinister. They help openly, communicate warmly, send resources, offer aid, are extremely reliable, and rarely ask for anything in return other than the occasional thank you note or courtesy basket of flowers or something. They seem to just genuinely want to help others out of kindness, perhaps for the good of the world? Or just to better society? But then why are they so secretive? Why do they only help certain people? Why do the leaders never make themselves known? Why do they seem to want to get close to royalty and those in power? Why are the representatives so weird and willing to die for seemingly no reason? It’s like, they ACT suspicious without actually acting suspicious lol..

Nobody has ever seen the people actually running the organization, but they probably don’t have uniforms, and their representatives/messengers don’t either. They do have a symbol though, which is often used in the wax seals of their letters, or occasionally marked onto their messengers (like a little tattoo on their thumb, so you can see it as they hand you the letter), which is this -

Sevayan:

A guild of merchants who all collaborate with each other to pool their resources. They basically just ally to increase their collective bargaining power, like a workers union, except made of bosses rather than employees lol.. It’s mostly rich land owners and business people and etc. working together to make sure they still have a lot of influence and no government, royalty, legal system, or other organization can limit them too much . They’re controversial, since they can do a lot of good occasionally in opposing corrupt royals or otherwise affecting the government in a way that ends up helping the general population, but that seems like more of an accidental consequence than an intention, and they seem mostly out to help themselves.

How someone views them is entirely dependent on how they’ve influenced the area. Some people are like “Oh thank GOD for the Sevayan, they forced the king to undo [insert some law or policy here] which made it so much easier for me to make a living and etc.!”, but then others are like “fuCK them, they influenced MY government to do [insert some law or action here] which made me further in poverty and started a civil war!!”.

The Sevayan collectively hold a lot of resources, businesses, materials and etc. that people need, which is usually either good, or bad. Some royals and other people in positions of power see this as a reason to suck up to the Sevayan, to want to keep them on their good side and do what they want. Others, see it as a threat, and would rather control all of the resources themselves, or absorb the Sevayan into their government/royal court/etc., rather than having an organization with so much potential power operating independently of them.

Mostly, they’re effective in elven alliance areas, or other places which practice systems of monarchy or dictatorships, oligarchies, or anything with nobles. They’re practically non-existent though in areas like, Navyete or something (where their government has so little power independent of the people, it’s not really an easy structure to be influenced by business leaders, and even aside from that, they’d have no use for rich land owners or people who control natural resources, since the resources/land/etc. in Navyete are all collectively owned anyway lol.. no ONE person, or small group of people, would be in charge to manipulate over it in the first place). Many southern elves and southern jhevona also have other systems of leadership that would be hard for the Sevayan to operate in. Some nothern jhevona countries do have forms of monarchy, and they get their hands in there just a little bit, but since many of the Sevayan are elven nobles, the cultural difference and suspicion they’re met with can be hard to navigate (boy, they try though). So, they operate primarily in the north, mostly with elves, and mostly only elves who have power structures aligned in a certain way, but really they can pop up anywhere that they see an opportunity and that it makes sense for them to be.

Caldienan:

The Caldienan are a strange cult-like scholarly(?) organization from the northern mountains of Minam. They seek ‘The Ultimate Truth’ (whatever that means..), and feel that through specific training and mastery of “ancient forbidden magic” (whatever that means...), they’re going to discover a knowledge about the world that nobody else knows, and ascend to a form of godhood. They seem to see ‘godhood’ as similar to how ancient jhevona are, except that the ancient jhevona aren’t taking it far enough, and that eventually there’s a level of ultimate power ABOVE where they’re at, and at that point you’re like... so evolved or whatever that you can transcend the usual limitations of the world (whatever THAT means...).

Most of this is based upon their belief that the confines of magic (the understood rules of how it works), can eventually be overcome at a point, if you just know the right way to do it. Kind of like how, the only reason cooking food is normalized, is because one day someone thought to combine food items with heat, and previously people were just living in a world where that wasn’t a thing. The Caldienan feel magical limitations are similar, in that they only exist because people haven’t been creative or exploratory enough in their methods, and are limiting themselves, basically just by being stupid (this is one of those ‘WE are the only smart people, hee hee hee, everyone ELSE is just ignorant and doing things WRONG, once we make our discoveries you will all recognize our SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE!!’ type of groups. Like not everyone is this way, but just the premise of the group itself tends to attract people who base at least some of their personality on how they know things others don’t/ have some super special knowledge which makes them cool).

They also believe that in ancient society (specifically, before the time gap where history was lost), people actually knew how to do a lot more than they do now. The Caldienan feel certain magic knowledge was wiped away when much of history was lost, and that some of THIS knowledge in particular is the key to accessing a form of ultimate, unrestricted, magic use. Their theory is that magical limitations didn’t exist before, and everyone kind of just walked around being able to do whatever they wanted, that there were no differing levels of inherent magical energy, no souls or any system where people are limited by a certain characteristic, etc. Similar to today, magic was intention based, but it was solely intention based, so if you could think about it, you could do it. The Caldienan dream of ”returning” to a world where nobody was more powerful than anyone else, and everyone, no matter their age/knowledge/level of experience, could just freely shape the world to their wishes without any restriction or magical energy/skill/ability imposed limitations.

This is often their selling point to outsiders, the idea of a mythical ancient time where there was no hierarchy (since every person in the world would basically have unlimited power, nobody would ever be ‘less’ or ‘more’ powerful), no worldly limitations, and anyone had the ability to do anything. Which sounds great in theory, but their true motives are.. different, usually. The leaders of the organization are known to have slightly more selfish intentions, criticized for seeming like they don’t actually care about if anyone else gets access to this secret mystical state of unlimited magic, as long as THEY do, and they’ll sacrifice anything and anyone under them to do it. People are lured in with the promise of building a fanciful magic society with unlimited power for all, just to then be placed into a hierarchy with the heads of the group (usually more powerful and knowledgeable in magic than their recruits) asking them to risk their lives and go on wild artifact fetch-quests, while they themselves risk nothing... but ANYWAY..

(( ALSO, Sometimes this can skirt dangerously close to a “the world isn't actually real, it’s all in our heads and we limit ourselves and ultimately we need to realize that we’re in complete control, and reality is merely a construction of our minds/magic, which means that technically we have the capabilities to do ANYTHING!” type philosophy, which can also sound appealing to certain members of the group, but can lead to being used in a harmful way. Things like “if everyone is simply a magical illusion tricking themselves into thinking they’re real, technically we only die because we’ve convinced ourselves to!”, which the heads of the group can use to convince others to do risky dangerous things, since if magic is based on intention, then if they just INTEND not to die and don’t “trap themselves into the limitation”, they will like... become invincible to damage during a deadly ritual.. etc.))

They base some of their beliefs about this on the workings of reality magics (more info about reality magic and how it works in the big post about magic, HERE (link)). When someone using reality magics crafts a pocket realm for themselves, they essentially control everything in the realm. If they want the sky to be pink, it’s pink. If they want trees or birds, then trees or birds exist. The only limitation for the appearance and weather and workings of their small realm is essentially, their own imagination. The Caldienan theorize that the entire world of Nanyevimi, and all potential realms no matter how big or small, operate similarly, in that actual laws of physics, reality, magic, etc. don’t exist, and are all malleable, as long as you have the knowledge to form them. They feel like, if people who use reality magics can have unlimited control of THEIR little pocket realms, why shouldn’t it be same for our larger collective realm?**

**(Though this is a simplistic understanding of reality magics that ignores a few key features, notably that reality magics users ARE limited in how they build their realm. The reason reality magics are so inaccessible and rare to like 99.99999% of the population is because of the MASSIVE amount of magical energy that is required to build, and MAINTAIN, one of these minuscule pocket realms. A reality magic user is not ‘only limited by their imagination’, they’re also held to the normal limitations and rules of magic, just like everyone else. If they don’t have the magical energy to conjure a tree out of nowhere, then they can’t put a tree in their pocket realm. There are other problems with this idea, and with a lot of the Caldienans’ ideas, but I just wanted to point this out, for fear of people who haven’t read my post on magic assuming that this is actually how it works or etc. lol.. While it is true that people can do whatever they want in their pocket realms, even having irregular laws of physics or etc., they still CAN’T escape some of the fundamental laws of magic, and it’s not like they just think ‘ah the sky will be pink!’ and it happens.. they have to like.. actually use magical energy and cast an action to make it that way.

Despite their scholarly nature and intense study of magic, the Caldienan still have some warped beliefs about how things like this work (which is understandable, considering how rare reality magics are.. barely anyone even knows they exist, let alone understands how they work.).. i KNOW I’m the world-creator here and I should leave some Mystery and not step in and tell everything all the time but, I do want to just make it clear that they’re wrong, and this isn’t at all how magic works, or how the world used to be prior to the time gap thing. There WAS some weird stuff going on back then, and it is magic related, but it’s ... NOT this type of stuff ghbjhbj.. Though, this being canonically untrue does not mean that they, in universe, believe it any less. In the world, they have no tumblr worldbuilding posts they can reference lmao, so they personally have no proof in-world that would sway their convictions. I’m just telling you that they’re wrong, so that nobody reading these gets confused ideas about the already kind of complicated magic system lol)

Most of the work that the Caldienan do, just involves.. hunting down old things, ancient buildings, books, artifacts, etc. They’re of course particularly interested in anything theorized to date from prior to the worldwide memory gap/history loss, and are known to REALLY go out of their way to get that sort of thing. They tend to cross paths with general magic scholars and other mage organizations quite often, who usually have a negative view of them, because of how rude they are to others lol. Anyone who’s been a magic scholar/researcher for more than 15 years has probably had at least ONE run in with someone working for the Caldienan , and it was probably a negative interaction, like having some of their ancient books stolen by them, or nearly being killed at the entrance of some ancient ruins by a member of the Caldienan who wanted to get them out of the way so THEY could be the first people in and take all of the Ancient Discoveries inside. The Caldienan don’t cooperate with other groups, and don’t share their discoveries under any conditions, so most other scholar groups find them annoying as they’re always excessively competitive, cut-throat, will steal artifacts from other researchers, will literally kill people just to get information before them, etc.

This is another thing that draws young researchers to the group, since they keep information gated behind rankings, levels, etc. Beginner mages who are extremely passionate about magic and especially the ‘Big Secrets’ about it that scholars still can’t figure out, will end up joining, hoping to be involved in all this cutting edge research the Caldienan claim to be doing, and have access to their Secret Library of documents, all of this information they’ve stolen from ancient sites, exclusive and hidden to anyone else outside of the group, etc. etc... Only then to be met with “Oh, well you can’t access this part of the library until you’re at THIS level” “No, only the highest ranking group members can read this”..

The student researchers of the group then have to do escalating levels of menial tasks, dangerous work, difficult research missions, carry out or participate in various dubious experiments, etc. etc., just to be able to actually have access to the Information*, or actually be allowed to study under a high-ranking expert, etc. Carefully timed rewards or rank-increases help them buy into the group structure and feel that it’s worth it, even if from the outside, it’s an obviously unfair set up, and the students would probably learn more just traveling around the world to research sites on their own instead of joining a secretive academic society where they have to exhaustingly labor for years just to gain access to One Secret Shelf in the Special Library, etc.

(*this is often even information that THEY collected themselves.. Like they risk their lives uncovering some ancient text in a ruin and then one of the group leaders is like “Ok, thanks for that” and snatches it from them and puts it away, and they’re told that can’t even read what they just found until they get at least to the next ranking, duh!)

The more controversial section of the group are the ones who focus on studying the limitations of magic, and practically applying possible ways to get around or overcome them. This not only includes stuff like intentionally attempting to exceed certain limits (like, trying to do an action that takes much more energy than you have, which, is known to quite likely kill or seriously injure people), but also delving into things which are technically possible (the known rules of magic themselves allow it), but which are culturally taboo (like.. using blood or live sacrifice, soul absorption, trying to revive the dead or create life, etc.), which obviously can involve some..... unethical practices (and a lot of lower ranking members of the organization unknowingly sacrificing themselves just for the research notes of the higher ups).

The Caldienan actually used to be a species specific group, in that it was really only popular among a small cultural group of northern elves* who traditionally lived in Minam, but has since evolved over the past few thousand years to incorporate other members as well, primarily many northern jhevona. (which is bizarre to see jhevona and elves working so closely with one another, especially in the north (which is elven territory, usually known to be a bit negative towards jhevona)). They welcome any new members from anywhere, though they do have an entrance exam and trials you have to go through first (just like any typical secret society), and one must be careful as to WHY they were accepted. Especially if you’re a talented magic user, they may only be letting you in to later use you as a pawn, or a participant in their ‘magic experiments’ (aka, sacrificial lab rat), rather than treating you as a genuine member of the group.

(*though these elves are actually unrelated to the major population of northern elves native to Aviinine. They may be distant ancestors somewhere down the line, but the ancient elves in Minam had a different culture, genetics, etc. than the old Vanyen** elves who’s descendants populate most of the north/Aviinine)

(**Fanyin used to be called Vanyen in ancient elven times, and was a primary elven civilization hub, so this is what I mean by ‘old vanyen’ elves. The group that modern northern elves (including the Fanyiniri of course), the Avirre’thel, many elves in the northern areas of Estic/Nonvas Kfal all descend from, etc.)

The Caldienan mostly operate just in Minam, that’s where their headquarters is, and where all of the leaders of the group stay, but they of course send members all over the place on hunts for artifacts, knowledge, etc. There are probably 700 - 800 of them in total, and they have no known uniform or group symbol.

(also, as a side note - This is unfortunately kind of common for mage groups, though the Caldienan are definitely some of the worst. But even decent collectives of mages, magic scholar guilds, etc. can tend to be a bit exclusive and cliquey, want to keep a bunch of secrets to themselves, take advantage of less experienced mages that are new to the group, etc. etc. Because a majority of the world population has either no magic knowledge/skill, or just the most BASIC knowledge/skill, studying advanced magic professionally as a lifetime job is really sort of a niche occupation, so there’s less options available. There may only be one single mage group around that’s even CLOSE to where a person lives, or plausible for them to go to, so a lot of beginners who aim to be magic scholars can end up being in situations where it’s like “well, this sucks, but it’s my only option, and I have to learn somewhere”. Likewise, the organizations can become more corrupt over time, because there’s not any other mediating force out there, like “Well, we’re the only option some of these people have, so they can just deal with how we run things, or have nothing at all”, etc.

Though, this doesn’t mean that all magic education is this way. In societies where magical abilities are common, there are TONS of places where you can learn simple magics, tutors, magic schools, usually many elders in the community will act as teachers and tutor young kids for free, etc. Like, in elven or jhevona schools/communities, you’d just be taught basic magic as you’re growing up, and usually even slightly more advanced stuff if you choose to pursue it, etc. etc. Here, I’m specifically speaking about advanced magic, and the study of that magic, beyond what you could learn in your average school. There’s a big difference between being “someone who knows how to do magic” and a professional full time magic scholar/expert mage. Because higher level more advanced forms of magic are SO rare and inaccessible for most people in the first place, AND on top of that, the study of these types of magic/how all magic works is also an obscure and difficult field,, if your goal is to learn about that sort of stuff, you’re pretty much reliant on just having to find whatever experts you can and try to study under them, at least when you’re first starting out.

So, your average mage in Nanyevimi would have probably no trouble finding easy access to a good quality non-exploitative magic education.. But, if you’re someone who wants to like, study the inner-workings of magic itself, learn advanced illusion magics, soul magic, various rare fields of study and expert techniques, etc. etc, it’d be difficult to find a place/group where you can research those things in the first place, let alone like.. an actual GOOD one...)

(additional fun fact - The Caldienan used to have a second branch, down in southern Estic Kfal, a few thousand years ago when they were going though a phase of trying to expand their influence. One of the students they were experimenting on ended up going rogue, stealing the contents of their Secret library, killing every higher-up on site, and completely burning the headquarters down. While basically all of the other lower ranking members/students were left alive, since there was no leadership, everyone sort of just disbanded and went wherever, though some did flee up north to join the original branch of the group. The student who did this is now a highly advanced mage* living undercover doing independent magic research and other odd jobs on the side, actually not that far away from Minam (in Asen, in Aviinine). Totally random information, but since he’s in the main cast of characters for the game I’m making, I thought it was an interesting connection to bring up, since most of these posts are just informational and rarely are related to actual OCs or anything lol)

(*though not really by choice, as a lot of the inherent magical energy came from experimentation by the Caldienan in the first place, various forced soul absorptions and dangerous spells, etc. (read the post on soul absorprtion I linked somewhere above to explain how that whole process works, why it would absolutely suck to be like.. locked in a room on the verge of death for 2 weeks straight As A Fun Magic Experiment, against your will...like 30 times in a row hghgh.. snapping and killing your pretentious mage overlords because their experiments accidentally made you 10x more powerful than them is very valid lol). So, it’s not intentionally acquired power, or even a burden he ever wanted (the more powerful your magic is the more deadly/risky it is, and the harder it is to control/upkeep) but, he’s powerful nonetheless.)

They never attempted to re-open another branch anywhere else, since they didn’t feel they had the resources to allocate to that, and basically shut down their expansion goals to just stay in Minam. Even though it’s been like 1000 years, the Calidenan are still on the hunt for all of the stolen library books and artifacts, but since they barely have any evidence about the event except for the name the person was going by at the time, AND since it’s notoriously hard to track down... a fucking expert mage with shapeshifting abilities, that whole ‘retrieve the stolen books’ quest of theirs has been largely unsuccessful.)

Nanyevimi Medical Association:

The Nanyevimi Medical Association is, as it sounds, a group unified in wanting to spread the science of medicine and health research. They follow both scientific (non-magic, like herbs, medicines) and magical (like healing magics, enchantments, etc.) realms of health study, though different portions of the group may specialize in one particular area over another. It’s basically just a collection of scholars, out to study medicine as much as possible (similar to how there are many mage groups wholly dedicated to studying magic, etc.). They sometimes do public outreach, advise governments or local medical teams on how to handle certain things, write textbooks, open medical schools in global cities, etc.

Though, similar to general technology, currency systems, etc.,, medicine in Nanyevimi is not very cohesive or centralized, and pretty much every little area does their own thing, so this group can face a lot of difficulties when trying to share information/unite varying schools thought in medicine, when there are so many vastly differing ideas out there.

There are about 8,000 members of this group total, though they have different local branches centralized in a few main places across the realm, usually in global areas/cities, so they can reach as many different types of people as possible. There’s no uniform or symbol for the group at this time.

(sidenote - there is a little bit of controversy about them... It’s kind of an old prestigious group with a history, since it’s been around over 9,000 years, thus everyone thinks it’s really cool and has ‘stood the test of time’ etc., but that also means that things have changed a lot through it’s history, and they have certain past associations forever tied to them that can make people uncomfortable.

Though unconfirmed, there is some amount of evidence that the scholar who started the group in the first place is a notorious ancient jhevona mage*, known for generally unethical ‘’medical experiments’’, using magic in extremely dangerous ways for ‘’research’’, and writing scholarly texts under various fake names (as well as faking identities to teach at mage schools, speak at medical conferences, etc.) throughout the years. While he indeed has made a handful of ‘groundbreaking’ or significant discoveries, he’s also caused a lot of harm, not just with the experiments, but other schemes, conflicts within the broader medical community, etc.. So, despite his one or two positive contributions/ interesting ideas, the popular opinion is obviously to hate and distrust him, even among the most ‘morally lacking mad-scientist’ types of the community. Basically anything associated with him is kind of poisoned (the books it was later confirmed that he wrote have been burned before, etc.).

Apparently he’s gone back into voluntary obscurity and nobody has seen evidence of his activity (lack of public evidence doesn’t mean he’s not still about doing things, though), but because it’s such a hostile reputation, that association with the group can be hard to shake. There are always various theories going on that the Nanyevimi Medical Association is still secretly run by him, or that they have communications with him, work for him, or that some of the evidence they gather/papers they publish are secretly from him (just writing under another fake name this time or something), etc. The official position of the organization is that it actually wasn’t even founded by him at all (there is no concrete proof, after all), and that any talk of their association with him, especially in the modern day knowing what everyone knows about him now, is just fantastical nonsense driven by people in the community who enjoy drama and giving things a more bizarre backstory than they actually have. But.. that doesn’t keep some people from still being, a wee bit suspicious about the group, even if mostly unwarranted....)

*(All ancient Jhevona are fairly unknown, many people don’t even know they exist, but there are a few that have done things which ended up attracting attention in very specific communities. So like, people deep in the mage scholar world may be aware of an ancient jhevona that had surfaced in the past and was part of a mage college once (even if nobody else in the rest of the world knows of their existence).. or like the Avan (a cultural group within the Avirre’thel), who are currently in contact with someone who’s thought to be an ancient jhevona, so obviously they’re very aware of her, and so is some of Avirre’thel society, but it’s not the like entire world knows of her existence, etc. So, it’s not common for there to be a ‘notorious ancient jhevona mage’, as a majority of ancient jhevona spend their lives in hiding/voluntary isolation, but, in very particular circumstances, occasionally, an ancient jhevona could be ‘’known’’ by a small and specific community of people, or have a reputation among them. In this case, this one ancient jhevona being known by a portion of the medical mage community, who probably hear rumors and stories about him while gossiping in medical school.)

(???):

This ‘’group’’ is basically the only connection between the few currently living ancient jhevona (for an explanation on what ancient jhevona are, read the bottom of the page HERE (link)). Though they’re all rather isolated, and would never have anything as tight knit as an ‘alliance’, there is thought to be a very small group of 3 to 5 of them who travel around, keeping up with the others. They basically just keep tabs on their fellow ancient jhevona, try to get a bit of information on them, make sure none of them are interfering in world events or using their magic too disruptively, making notes and investigating when one of them inevitably dies in a magical accident, keeping track of highly advanced mages who are seeking to reach that level of power/are close to being considered ancient jhevona (thus adding them to the list of people to keep an eye on, etc.), on EXTREMELY rare occasion they also mediate between multiple ancient jhevona if one of them starts to have a problem with another (though again.. rare.. they all stay out of each other’s way), etc.

The exact number is unknown, as they’re so detached from reality it’s generally impossible to track or perceive them (unless you’re also one of them I guess), but there are thought to be around 43 ancient jhevona currently living. And about 24 mages that would be considered on the threshold of power that could qualify them as being close to one. So this small group of 3-5 of them basically just roam about, keeping tabs on all 67 of those individuals, gathering info, etc. Which seems like an easy task, since it’s such a small amount of people but.. they’re also the most powerful (in a magical sense, not in terms of riches or political power, since they’re so far abstracted from society none of that is even a factor for any of them) individuals on the entire planet, who can do insane magics, half of them don’t even have concrete/consistent physical forms, some live in their own minds or manufactured realms and barely spend any time in the actual world, etc. etc. .. so like.... they can be a handful, and very difficult to track down lol.. plus the ancient jhevona that make up this group obviously have their own lives as well, so even though it’s less than 70 people, it’s a lot to manage.

Nobody knows the name of this group, or if they even have any sort of official title, since they’re not.. really.. a group, necessarily? It’d be similar to if you lived in a closed off little suburban neighborhood full of a bunch of eccentric rich people, and none of them really talk to each other, they all sit in their own houses all day working on ludicrous inventions or meditating for 7 days straight or etc and minding their own business, BUT, of course there are a few of them who are a little nosy or something and feel like having neighborhood unity could be a good thing, just in case it’s even needed to resolve conflicts or reign in one of the neighbors that’s getting a little wild or etc., so they start a little neighborhood watch committee, where them and a few of the other residents meet every few weeks for coffee and scones and just gossip and keep tabs on the other residents, and make decisions about any issues that might arise in the neighborhood.

So it’s not really like a Formal Official Group, but more just a few Concerned Citizens who think it’s beneficial to know what’s going on in their own neighborhood and take notice of the activities of their peers, to an extent. These are also the only ancient jhevona that actually keep up with world events, just to monitor for any suspicious activity that seems like it could be caused by other ancient jhevona, or in extremely rare cases, things that they might need to use their collective powers to step into.*

*(like for example, if some group of people found out how to make a magic nuclear weapon or something, some ancient jhevona might get together to discuss it, and possibly destroy the technology and means for it’s creation. Even though it’s kind of a silent agreement that none of them should ever get involved in world events or try to influence stuff too much (as it could easily get out of control), they’re also literally the most magically powerful people in the entire world, so to some degree, in extreme situations where a truly MASSIVE number of people could die, they feel moral obligation to step in and help if they can. Though for like 75% of them, nuclear war could legit break out and they wouldn’t even notice because they’d be safe and secure living in their mind realms where they’ve been detached sitting in their own dreams in a cave alone for the past 20,000 years, there are still a small handful of them that would feel it’s necessary to get more involved, in the case of exceptional scenarios lol).

And that’s about it! I’ll add more things in updates if I create more groups or anything! For now, I feel this is an okay amount to work with in terms of a kind of newer world that I haven’t done much in yet, other than constructing it lol. It’s not many, but it’s a good base to work with for knowing what organization might be where, who might have conflicts with another in a certain area, thinking of groups characters could join, etc. etc. Thanks so much for reading if you read this far! Also, always feel free to send in questions or anything if something I explained isn’t clear, or if you want to know more info on a certain topic, etc.

OH, also, here's a little additional part on the end, just for how to pronounce some of the names in the post, since I know a lot of them are random fantasy language words lol. You can go here, which is an unlisted video (at least it should be, let me know if anyone has trouble accessing it, I can double check the privacy settings), and listen to me saying these words out loud, in case you’ve ever wondered how they’re supposed to be said -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qarp9LnzpI

Then here’s the list of things I’m pronouncing (they’re also on screen in the video though, so you can read them there if you want)-

Nanyevimi, Avirre’thel, Jhevona, Aviinine, Estic Kfal, Nonvas Kfal, Iheolto Gari, Siryonla , Minam, Fanyin, Fanyiniri, Asen , Ane Kiivastye , Ane Nekiivastye, Navyete, Avirrekava, Avii'da Vina, Syehtavaege'sa bi'gyanei, Imkasyn, Ehn-imkasyn, Thastanri Vilheiiatheni, Jhenasainye, Vura Isethagi, Miliel-Sei, Deinsas Oryen Rivande, Lir Imaeni, Liramenii, Mippya, The Bryn, Nanebae Itheminal'in / Itheminal, Ostienache, Iriminel, Imin Amete, Mederin Viteliusem ke’meder, na’meder, in’meder, Vitelius, Wyltenfer, Sevayan, Caldienan

and then all the baby names lol just for fun-- Anhana, Ara, Ada, Tyara, Erivera, Ishimanare, Ye’isahana, Harivuyenia, Tuyakuhera, Anayaheiru*, Ibayamarinesi, ‘Imaenasevayuni’ , Anheru, Aharu, Anyeru

Thanks!

#fantasy worldbuilding #worldbuilding #elves #irithoas #jhevona #avirre'thel #god idk it's like... everyone.... do I really have to tag all of them lol

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ericvick · 4 years

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Hospital staffs ‘are dreading’ what’s coming as coronavirus pandemic in U.S. enters uncharted territory

The U.S. is seeing record highs in daily new confirmed coronavirus cases as the pandemic hits the country with full force as the weather cools.

As a result, hospitals are again starting to reach capacity, particularly in ICUs where the most serious patients need to be treated.

Dr. Lakshman Swamy, an ICU physician at Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts, said he and his colleagues are still rationing personal protective equipment (PPE) and reusing N95 masks. Most crucially, as Ed Yong detailed in The Atlantic, hospitals need more able-bodied health care workers.

“We need staff,” Swamy said on Yahoo Finance Live. “How many people had to come in from other regions to help New York, to help Boston? And we need to have those pipelines ready and ready to go, because staff everywhere are still exhausted, and we’re dreading the double, triple shifts, all that stuff that we know is coming.”

‘Of course we’re worried’

In the spring, when most of the country was on lockdown due to stay-at-home mandates, patients began overwhelming hospitals with cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

This caused some hospitals to take extraordinary measures, like using portable morgues in vans outside and using trash bags as PPE. Although things would eventually subside in most parts of the country, the spike in cases is indicating that conditions could revert back.

“In the spring, the hospitals were under extreme strain,” Swamy said. “When you hit that point, I think the care that’s delivered is just frayed, fragmented, diluted. It’s hard to give people the attention they need.”

Various hospitals are reaching capacity across the U.S. (Chart: HHS)

In Texas, where cases topped 1 million this week, the city of El Paso resorted to mobile morgues because of high death count in the city — and the city already needs more trailers.

“What’s especially concerning is that I’m wearing the N95 for the entire shift now,” Swamy said. “Everything is getting a lot more use out of it, and we’re reusing it a lot. But on the other hand, it doesn’t feel like the supply is going to fall out from under our feet like it did so much in the spring. This is all in the setting of rising cases without a real surge still though, so of course we’re worried.”

Story continues

Although news from Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine seeing successful results is a good sign, it likely won’t be available for widespread distribution until at least 2021.

A nurse wearing personal protective equipment watches an ambulance driving away outside of Elmhurst Hospital during the ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Queens borough of New York, U.S., April 20, 2020. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

In the meantime, there’s no one simple solution to this second wave, other than to stay at home as much as possible and continue social distancing and face mask measures.

“The most important thing right now is for people to realize that you can get away with doing a lot less in terms of pulling back on indoor dining and all of this without having to do a full lockdown if you do it sooner,” Swamy said, adding: “Individual actions matter too. Just because indoor dining is open doesn’t mean everyone has to go and use it.”

‘COVID absolutely exposes all of the vulnerabilities’

One silver lining for the record surge is that health professionals know more about what they’re dealing with and how to approach treatment.

“The infection is spreading widely in a different way,” Swamy said. “We know what we’re doing better. We certainly don’t know everything, but we’re improved our practices significantly. We’ve published on this a good bit — not intubating quite as early, quite as aggressively, using alternate technologies to get oxygen in without the breathing tube, without the ventilator, dexamethasone, remdesivir. We have more knowledge, more skill now than we did in the spring.”

Over the past year, doctors have learned that hydroxychloroquine is not a proper treatment for the virus, but drugs like dexamethasone and remdesivir are. (President Trump was treated with the two medications after he was hospitalized with the virus back in October.)

A national positivity rate about 5% suggests that a lot more testing is needed. (Johns Hopkins)

Public health experts have also been able to see which communities have been particularly vulnerable to the virus: communities of color. Swamy stressed that it’s essential to use this knowledge to help with treatment going forward.

“COVID absolutely exposes all of the vulnerabilities in our health care system, especially how fragmented and siloed we are within an institution, between institutions, between regions, between states,” he said. “And we’ve advocated for senior leadership at the federal level to say we need to move the resources to where they’re needed, not just ventilators but people.”

Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.

#Coming #Coronavirus #dreading #enters #Hospital #Pandemic #staffs #territory #uncharted #Whats

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kendrixtermina · 4 years

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(Fe3h discourse incoming) So I'm not sure if this is still around but I remember some people calling characters "racist" due to how they initially view the Almyrans and it just annoys me? If you lived in basically medieval times and all you knew about a group of people was that they invaded your homeland and are good fighters it makes sense you'd be wary about them. The fact that we see them easily discard any initial opinions to work with them in VW shows the opposite and how accepting they are

Part of this does probably come from this purity culture sentiment that there is one obvious right answer that should be apparent to anyone not evil when we’re really all to an extent limited by the knowledge we can access.

This is something I feel strongly about precisely because I know how much I don’t know and how much ppl have been wrong in the past - so much BS is still widely believed these days like Diet culture or counter-evidential beliefs about economy. So that makes me be careful to claim we have the truth now. As my grandfather used to say, “the middle ages will step on us”, that is as long as our time isn’t barbarism free it will come to be considered barbaric times eventually.

In the middle ages people used to give their children mercury and bankrupt themselves as someone might for real medicine. Emotionally to the mammal brain it’s the same. That’s why knowledge is power cause it helps you know the real consequences of your action. Otherwise you get what seems like caring parents wondering if they're harming their children by not doing barbaric stuff like physical beating or fgm. One can notice by oneself that it’s wrong and causes suffering but someone who only believes their own ideas and never takes outside data into account would be either mad or an arrogant jerk. At some point you need to consider outside data unless you can discover all of science and psychology by yourself.

So to put it short no one is immune to propaganda and the closest thing to a cure is self-awareness and self-questioning, no one is born with all the answers; instrict, thinking, emotion and intuition can all lead you astray.

Though the correct word here would be xenophobia. (generic distrust/prejudice about foreigners)

‘Racism’ is a very specific early modernity variant of it with pseudoscience mixed in, or maybe it could be thought of as an ideology meant to keep xenophobic-like distrust going in a mixed society. Normally that sort of prejudice desintegrates as people interact more (a big plot point here actually) - or rather, communication & interaction changes how people define in group and out group, which is ultimately arbitrary. A lot of what is thought of today as countries or races used to be considered wildly different peoples when the reach of communication reached further.

But if you spread some ideology that leads people to be artificially segregated, or indirectly causes that through economic disadvantages, bam, you can keep prejudice alive & well for centuries and whatever institutions you built on it, like colonial resource extraction gigs or political hegemony.

That said tho, certain lines there are definitely written to evoke rl xenophobic comments as people commonly experience them, and to tell people who recognize this & might have charged responses because of their own backstories that their lying eyes deceive them because you like those characters is not good. “Oh but they’re a good person with a bright future” is exactly how this behavior fails to get recognized in real life. So to that extent I’d disagree with you.

At least their past incarnations at the point that they said those lines they were “xenophobes”, that is, fulfilled all criteria of the definition & engaged in typical behavior as people affected by xenophobia experience it.

Hilda, for all her good qualities (and don’t get me wrong I love her to bits) is still sort of a frivolous rich girl. Sylvain for example did take the time to inform himself ‘bout the neighbors (See that lost item that’s info about sreng) though his family also holds a border territory & much depends on its defense. The system isn’t an universal brainwash, the truth is that both system and individual responses matter and dynamically influence each other.

But note that that’s all I’m talking about: Recognition, sober reasonable acknowledgement of bad behavior. You can’t talk about bad behavior if you don’t show anyone doing it and if it was only irredeemable monsters that did it, it wouldn’t make ppl question themselves.

To acknowledge that they acted xenophobically (adverb) isn’t to say that they’re an embodiment of all xenophobia ever (noun) and that you’ve got to hate them now. But as long as they don’t hate at you for liking them ppl affected by xenophobia are allowed to vent & use a story as a projection space for it because that’s how everyone uses stories - the same story can in fact mean different things to people without either being “wrong”

Also, scale. Hilda making one or two not even especially malicious comments is on a whole different level than Ingrid actually cheering for destruction. Neither of them compares to the various unrepentant antagonists who never change their views when confronted with evidence cause it benefits them.

Some of that distinction is lost if you just slap the same label on all and demand they be reacted to the same way, or that ppl add a disclaimer each time they want to talk about a character they like. We don’t make everyone who likes Jeritza say “mass murder is bad” first.

But also context: After all a big plot here is that the system these characters live in encourages and cultivates such attitudes - that’s why the various leader figures you can choose to back all want to change it it different ways.

That’s why Winston in 1984 starts the story very paranoid, repressed & full of violent fantasies, to show the effect the dystopia has on people.

(important point imho, a lot of ppl look at atrocities and judge that human nature is just bad but actually human nature is programmable. Evil can be engineered as much as civilization and education can foster good)

It’s generally the problem with Purity culture (wether it wears a right or left wing hat) that it’s more focussed on applying loaded, out of context labels (which are then treated as static) than constructive solutions focussed on promoting the desired end goals.

The labeling tactic is probably appropriate sometimes (active, unrepentant nazis, that you thereby deprive of big dollar platforms or ad revenue) but no tool/tactic is ever a silver bullet.

tl;Dr I agree with you that labeling/purity culture doesn’t have the right approach to it, but ppl should be able to call a spade a spade and say & respond to depictions of xenophobia because to say otherwise would be tantamount to saying that victims of xenophobia or racism aren’t allowed to have feelings or engage with media.

Obsly the characters can’t be reduced to that & you’re right about that & the importance of context, but if just stating/acknowledging that they at one point fulfilled the criteria for xenophobia feels like bashing to you I’d work on decoupling those emotions to see clearer.

People can have done something wrong at some point & still be interesting people - especially in a media context where they’re as imaginary as their victims, it’s not like you’re giving money to real unrepentant perps.

I’d ease up on real ppl too if they repent simply because then they stop being a problem and solving it so it stops harming RL ppl takes precedent over cathartic punishment that makes you feel good, the goal should be always to stop the harm (at the root, if possible) because it’s intolerable for ppl to be harmed

Or that’s my 2cents anyways.

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arcanalogue · 4 years

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ON TYRANNY - An Unsolicited Tarot Tour, pt. II

In my initial post groping for symbolic parallels between the Major Arcana and Timothy Snyder’s ON TYRANNY, we covered The Fool and The Magician.

In the few days then (just to show how fast time seems to move during a budding oligarchy), video has surfaced of the President speaking to rich donors at one of his own hotels, in which he says: “The European Union is a group of countries that got together to screw the United States, it’s as simple as that.” He goes on to explain why this is surprising: “We’re all sort of from there, right?”

He also tweeted a thinly-veiled threat suggesting that Adam Schiff, the US rep who gave a rousing speech in the impeachment trial the other day, “has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!”

There’s also video of his pick for Special Advisor to the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative, Paula White, working this bit into a sermon: “We command all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now.”

And just for fun, a case of the Wuhan coronavirus was detected near Los Angeles, and today officials are reporting that, as feared, the disease is contagious before the appearance of symptoms. There are still plenty of good folks left at the CDC, right? The lights are on, at least?

But if we let paroxysms of fear induced by bad headlines stop us from going about our day, pretty much none of us would have made it through 2017 — and yet here we are, two full years beyond that point, still rallying, still cracking jokes, still helping each other get things back on track. And sure, my beard and chest hair are suddenly growing in all white, but that’s fine! The sharper contrast will be dazzling against all of my goth attire. How’s that for a silver lining?

Anyway, on to the cards.

The High Priestess represents everything we take for granted about our own awareness. She’s the source of our inspiration, the dream we awaken from that colors our perception of the day; she’s the vapors sighing from a crack in the earth, and she’s also the Pythia who hears and interprets those whispers.

Most of us realize we’re more than just our cognition, or our memories, but it’s still quite easy to lose track of the various pillars our interior world is formed around... until one of them is suddenly swept away.

And it’s the same with our exterior life, because “interior” and “exterior” are only matters of scale, baby. Your mind is your own (for now), but how did it become what it became? What unseen protections was it afforded?

Most people probably think of libraries, or organizations, or certain publications when they hear the word “institutions.” But so many different things fall under this category, it’s actually mind-boggling! It really makes you ponder about the particular framework of your community. Some are more fragile or less corporeal than others; to LGBTQ people, a bar can serve as an institution. Hell, in Brooklyn a taco restaurant can be described as a “mainstay” if it manages to last 15 years.

Some institutions are really only useful to those who created them, and others or who are well-adapted to them, and are bound to crumble naturally with time. A lot of what history has thought to provide will be useless to people in the coming century and beyond; their needs are evolving drastically, right in front of our eyes. This is why we also need to create safe and fertile territory for new institutions to be formed, and try not to take it too personally when the world just moves on. Memento mori, and all that.

But this entropy is not what Snyder’s talking about: he says DEFEND institutions, implying they are under attack. And some of this is very easy to watch for, because we think we know what an attack looks like. But as Snyder’s chapter points out:

“Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were, so that they gird the new order, instead of resisting it. This is what the Nazis called Gleichschaltung.”

You know, like appointing industrial tycoons to manage the EPA and the Department of Education, or leaving countless government positions unfilled so that none of the departments can function quite as they used to.

No one can look after all of them, and none of us knows which we’ll depend on most in a key moment. That means we all have to fan out and each claim a different piece of the puzzle. But which one? And how?

Reflect on the mental architecture that contributed to the formation of your own mind, and then let the Priestess guide you.

The tarot-ticklers of antiquity may have determined that The Emperor’s power trumps that of The Empress (as the cards are ordered so that each one “triumphs” over the one that preceded it), but he can’t exist without her, and everyone in the kingdom knows it.

In this chapter Snyder invokes the popular saying “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” adding:

“When we think of this saying today, we imagine our own righteous vigilance directed outward, against misguided and hostile others... But the sense of the saying was entirely different: that human nature is such that American democracy must be defended from Americans who would exploit its freedoms to bring about its end.”

In readings I often explain to people that The Emperor represents the outward-looking ruler, the conqueror, the prospector, the warlord. The Empress is the inward looking ruler, tending to the needs of the people, governing, presiding over everything that gives life meaning.

I mentioned above that the very concept of interior/exterior is only a matter of scale. Those terms are used very flexibly, aren’t they? There’s the interior of my body, and the interior of my home, and the interior of my apartment complex, and so on. At some point it stops being “my” anything. Suddenly we’re looking beyond my town, or my state, or my country. Sometimes others draw those lines for us, and other times we have to be The Emperor, pushing back against that line, drawing one of our own, defending what’s rightfully ours.

Regarding our own interior as a nation: in case you hadn’t heard (HAHA!) we’re about to stagger through a series of important elections. The one thing we know for sure is that the results of these elections will be disputed, no matter what they happen to be. If we can no longer trust the outcome of an election — due to internal fiddling, not just foreign — then what’s the point of having them at all? You can already sense everyone’s fatigue, ripe to be exploited.

The GOP is already slavering for it, canceling primaries left and right so that Trump will run unopposed for reelection. A “one-party” election suits them just fine. Debates only raise questions, and give a platform to challengers. In order for Trump 2020 to seem like an inevitable choice, he has to be the only choice.

Ruining the public’s faith in American democracy is part of the strategy, because of course it is. Later in Chapter III, Snyder offers yet another popular saying: “Where annual elections end, tyranny begins.”

The work required to protect the upcoming election, and make sure people still care about the outcome, can only be done by Americans organizing and working together on every level: personal, local, national. The fatalism and cynicism everyone’s feeling is understandable, but it ought to drive one toward active participation in preserving what little democracy we have left.

Otherwise, what’s the point? If it’s more important to have your worst fears confirmed, to be able to say “I told you so,” to bargain with the inevitability of fascism, then you’re rooting against The Empress and the rest of us. You’re part of the rot in your own kingdom.

If you’re someone who does Empress-related work, this is your new practice: she is calling you to serve as guardian and minister of the interior. Whatever inspiration you manage to muster, your role is to imbue others with it, and resist whatever negativity you may encounter as you do so.

Are your friends and family registered to vote? Are they sure? Do your representatives in Congress have a plan in place for when Trump refuses to concede? What communities near you could use a leg up in terms of outreach? Ask questions. Get creative. Be a constructive part of the pressure.

What you manage to accomplish on your own may seem meager, but pouring energy into these concerns will remind others why this fight still matters, and it will encourage those who never forgot. We need everyone in this fight.

Our last “real” election can’t already be behind us. The Empress is counting on us to make sure of it.

This is Part II in a series of posts about Timothy Snyder’s ON TYRANNY, which can be purchased via your local bookstore, and also here.

#the empress #the high priestess #major arcana #timothy snyder #on tyranny #tarot cards

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artcenterstories · 4 years

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Climbing the Ladder: Meet Catalyst CCO Josh Wright

AC: What inspired you to co-found Catalyst? Josh Wright (BS Product Design '03) Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Catalyst: The seed was planted when I was at ArtCenter. The College trains you to think about design, not just from the aesthetic or mechanical point of view, but also from a business perspective.

At ArtCenter, I was encouraged to look for a business partner. When you have someone who focuses on the financials, you can focus on making design work for the business.

AC: You've had an interesting career trajectory. Can you speak about your journey? JW: Designing for an outdoor lifestyle has always been important to me. In the early years of my career, I started working in California, designing a lot of sports and lifestyle products, including footwear and backpacks for various surf, skate and snow companies.

youtube

Then, I moved to Wichita, Kansas, to work for the iconic Coleman company. It was a cool experience because it was a very small design team, and I got to touch all of their products. After six months, I contributed $30 million to the company's bottom line.

That's something else ArtCenter taught me: Don't go to Porsche; don't go to Apple — they already have great design. Go to a brand that doesn't have great design, yet. Bringing good design and storytelling to their products transformed a 100-year-old brand into something fresh and fun. And they still sell some of my products today.

I later worked at Tumi in New York designing some of their carbon-fiber luggage and helping to expand some of the product categories into footwear, wristwatches and apparel. In 2006, I got this amazing opportunity in Hong Kong and I spent the next four years working at a world-class design consultancy firm. But I was always on the lookout for a business partner, based on what I had learned in school.

AC: How did you meet your Catalyst co-founder? JW: Rock climbing. It's one of the reasons I wanted to move here — the climbing community in Hong Kong brings together such a diverse group of people. My co-founder and I have such different backgrounds — she's from bio-tech and finance.

Through the years, we developed a friendship based on trust from countless days of climbing the jungles. We realized that we had complementary skills, with her business and my design background and our mutual desire to be outdoors. We wanted to create outdoor products that brought value to people's lives — that was the genesis of Catalyst.

AC: What was the first Catalyst product you designed? JW: At the time in 2010, the iPhone was becoming the device of choice, even for climbers, so our product was a fully waterproof protective iPhone 4 case. Soon after, we launched and had a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Today, Catalyst has reached a tipping point where it's becoming a global household brand name; our products are available in over 70 countries and major retailers, including Apple, BestBuy and Target, as well as eight Amazon marketplaces, four Shopify websites and WeChat in China.

AC: Catalyst 20L Waterproof backpack recently received the prestigious Red Dot Award. Can you speak about the design process? JW: Each of our products fills a need and solves a problem. The waterproof backpack offers travelers an ultra-compact, -lightweight pack that folds into a carry pouch that's a little smaller than a 12-ounce soda can.

Waterproof is a core component of Catalyst. I'm kind of a nerd for waterproof products.

I've used this bag as a flotation device while snorkeling in Thailand. I've carried it through heavy tropical rainstorms and through a canyoneering trip in northern Italy, where I was jumping off waterfalls. The backpack works incredibly well. When the bag is rolled up, anything you keep inside it will stay dry.

AC: What are you working on right now? JW: We're always working on something new — we launch eight to 12 products every year. We were the first company to make waterproof cases for Apple watch and AirPods.

The backpack line is something we're currently working on expanding, and soft goods in general. We're heavily focused on expanding our business solutions for industrial applications of our products, including for oil and gas, hospitals and schools.

AC: How do you define success? JW: Being able to create products I believe that bring value to the people who use them, and seeing a lantern I designed for the Coleman company being used on the show The Walking Dead.

AC: Do you have any superstitions? JW: My dad always told me that it is bad luck to be superstitious and I live by that.

AC: What’s the design cliché you’re most tempted to use? JW: I really subscribe to modernism. I believe that form should follow function with zero added details for ornamentation. Everything I build is intentionally designed, but not decorative. We are loosening up this "cliché" by adding some fashion and styling elements to some of our future collections, which I'm pretty excited about.

AC: What’s the one tool you can’t do without? JW: My iPhone.

AC: What’s the first site you look at when you open your computer in the morning? JW: Slack.

AC: What do you do to detox from media and screens? JW: It's not just screens, it's the city itself because Hong Kong is so crowded. My detox is my weekends out in nature: rock climbing, hiking, canyoneering or surfing. I think an amazing secret of Hong Kong is that two-thirds of the territory is subtropical jungle with unreal, pristine waterfalls and beaches.

AC: If you could trade jobs with anyone for a day who would it be? JW: As a designer, there's no other job I'd rather be doing. But as a kid, I always wanted to be a marine biologist like Jacques Cousteau.

AC: What book is on your bedside table? JW: I have three books; none of them are finished. One is a history book called Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time, another is a business book The E Myth and the third is a just-for-fun, fiction book called This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It (John Dies at the End).

AC: Who are the most interesting designers working today? JW: Marc Newson. I also really like Michael Young — he's a British-born designer based in Hong Kong. Toy designer Michael Lau was at the forefront of the urban vinyl movement and I love his style. I'm also a huge fan of James Dyson, Jonathan Ive, and entertainment designer Stan Winston has always inspired me.

AC: Were you exposed to design growing up? JW: I come from quite an artistic and mechanically inclined family. My grandfather was a renaissance man: a photographer, inventor, mechanic, engineer, architect, designer... He had so many hobbies and passions, and he created so many things. He made all of my grandmother's jewelry.

He designed and physically built the house his family lived in, including the thermostat and heating system from spare parts. He built motorcycles for my mother and her siblings. When I was a kid, he built us a tree house with a zip line, which was super dangerous, and go-karts. I was always around people who were artistic and creating things.

AC: Describe a moment in your childhood when you first identified as a designer. JW: When I was in high school, I was lucky to have an art teacher who brought in different brochures from art and design schools around the world. For the first time, I was aware you could design cars, toys or products as a career. As a kid, I was always sketching, building models, taking things apart and putting them together. When I found out it was a career path, there was no other option for me.

AC: If you could have a superpower, what would it be? JW: Eternal life — I have too many hobbies and not enough time.

AC: What’s your most prized possession? JW: My grandfather passed away this year, and I have the camera he used when he was working as a photographer and a backpack he built for his Boy Scout group in the 1950s.

AC: Where is your happy place? JW: There are so many! Twenty meters deep, swimming with manta rays off the coast of Thailand, snowboarding in Japan. There's a canyon in Hong Kong that looks like Jurassic Park — it's just so raw with waterfalls everywhere. But to summarize, my happy place is being outside in a gorgeous location with people I care about.

AC: How would your closest friend describe you? JW: A relentless, laser-focused — I hate to say it — asshole, but with a heart of gold.

#catalyst #josh wright #product design #design #artcenter #artcenter college of design #catalystcase

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moirica · 6 years

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Quartet Night Live Future 2018 Report 11/04

Is this real? Is it just a fantasy? No, it’s real. A real true report of a live that, when I got into Uta no Prince Sama 3 and a half years ago, I never would have imagined attending. That, after the last Quartet Night Live, I dreamed of attending but never thought it would happen.

If you can’t tell already this report will probably be a little rambling and all over the place (not in the least because I was left emotionally broken by this live which has never happened before to me). I will do my best to share my experience here, so that others can see it, but more for myself to look back on in the future as well. I NEVER want to forget this live.

I suppose I could start with getting the ticket. I’m just going to state right out that I am the luckiest person alive and I don’t know how I won. My ticket came from the CD lottery. When the seats came out I found out I had an arena seat, A block. I pretty much died right then, two or so months before the live.

In terms of goods I didn’t end up with much this year through a mixture of choice and circumstance. I am terrible at remembering the deadlines for online orders so I missed those. The pre-sales were on the other side of the country so those were out. I also didn’t want to do my usual of spending the day in the goods line. Every time I’ve done that for Utapri I have a shitty experience. Thankfully they had a goods line during the live on Saturday and so I went then. The line was quite small and I got through in maybe no more than 15 minutes. I managed to pick up a few of the things I wanted, the pamphlet and the blanket were the main ones, so I was happy. Most things were sold out though, except lights this time because they were part of the tickets I suppose.

The next thing I want to mention is the amazing time I had with the people I met this weekend. I knew I was meeting with some friends from a LINE group but somehow over the weekend we stumbled across so many other foreigners and it was amazing to make new friends to share the crazy with.

I know I’ve posted the flower stand picture before but this stand that was from us foreign fans was a highlight of my weekend. It meant so much to me and the other people who contributed to it. Watching people take pictures of it (it was hella popular) and react to it was fantastic. Also during the live *spoilers* they talked about the flower stands and while the international stand was not mentioned then they did say that a video of all the stands had been recorded for them, so rest assured that it was seen by Quartet Night.

Eventually it was time to go in. I’d heard many things about the venue. That it seemed pretty small and had no real bad seats. I was not prepared for where I ended up. I was so close. There were still people closer of course but I’ve never been this close in an event before. Que the freaking out before it even started. They had some fun recordings of the QN boys for while you waited that would play every 15 minutes or so. Reiji and Ai and then Ranmaru and Camus. They were funny. Also people gave little squeals any time they came on.

Finally it was time. The lights went down, music started. This time the opening video was of all the previous milestones for Quartet Night, the games and the anime and the lives, all leading up to this event. Then everything went dark and there was the silhouette of a clock and the sound of it striking and they were there. It had begun.

• The first song was ‘THE WORLD IS MINE’. They appeared in beautiful golden outfits and I nearly died right then because for the first time they truly looked like people and not tiny figures far away. I don’t remember much else about this song except screaming along and basking in the fact that this was real.

• The second song was ‘Poison Kiss’ and if I wasn’t dead already this didn’t help. There’s not much to be said about the majesty of this song. It is and always will be perfect. They moved from the main stage to the centre during this song and I realized the downside to my seat was that I got to spend a lot of time staring at butts if they were on the centre stage. Still, this is the first live where I barely watched the screens. Even if it was the back of their head it was right there and I was staring.

• There was a brief introduction and welcome after the first song and then we were on to the first solo song, Rei-chan’s ‘オン・ユア・マーク!’ It was very reminiscent to the 6th stage performance with all the hips involved. It was mostly on the centre stage and a little strange to keep looking back over my shoulder at the screens to see his face.

• The next song was Ai’s ‘二人のモノグラム’. It was a really fun song and he had the sparkly white gloves from the last time he performed the song at a live! This one was mostly on the main stage and it was beautiful. So happy they included one of my favourite Ai songs!

• Saintly Territory was next. There was a cape involved. I really enjoyed Maeno’s interactions with the dancers. Like walked from the main to the centre stage he ‘pushed’ them out of the way, it was very Camus. There was also sceptre dancing on the centre stage.

• The lights went down and suddenly we looked up the the top of the stairs and there was Tattsun and he started singing ‘BE PROUD’. If I wasn’t already lost(I was) then my favourite Ranmaru song was what did it. He went down on his knees at a point and it was just…. shdhdkskdh. Oh and his ad-libing during the instrumentals was on point. That and the way he held that last note for so long. Like seriously long. Yabai.

• Next up was something special for this live: Acoustic Corner! I was really happy that they decided to do this because if the live had kept going the way it had started I don’t know if I’d have made it. This talk section was a necessary break.

• The first pair was Reiji and Camus. They came out onto the centre stage and had a talk portion while the band was setting up. There was a costume change to more casual looking clothes. They talked first about the live viewing audience. Morikubo is always really good at chatting to the live viewing audience. It was funny because every time they would pause to hear the cheers from the live viewing audience and so we would cheer and they’d always joke like ‘wow, the live viewing audiences voices are so strong you can hear them here’. Morikubo also talked about the lights and how cool it was that they could be controlled but that we could also choose our own color sometimes. Then he tried to get them to turn red but they were in our control at the time and it didn’t work(I was one of the few that turned mine red though). After a few minutes they managed to get them all red.

• They also talked about how all the members kind of have their own things and Maeno acted like Tattsun and it was hilarious. He then tried to act like Morikubo and it was even funnier because he said the line wrong and Morikubo was like ‘Eh? No it’s this! Not that!’

• Finally everything was set up and the song began, the acoustic version of KILLER KISS. The instrumentals were beautiful and I really loved the light effects they had over the center stage. They were super pretty. Character coloured dots could move up and down and into patterns. They were really cool. I kept having to glance behind me at the screens to see their faces every so often because they were seated facing away from my area.

• After the song the pair switched to Ai and Ranmaru. Another outfit change! These two were wearing these long flowy shirts, they looked super comfy. They chatted a bit about the outfits. Tattsun teased Shoutan about looking like a girl, as is usual for an Utapri Live. Shoutan even did this pose leaning forward with his butt out *que the screaming* and Tattsun was like ‘See?’ And then he tried the same pose but it didn’t work and it was hilarious. Shoutan retaliated by asked the audience if they’d want the shirt off of Tattsun’s back and the audience screamed again. I love the chemistry of these two.

• Tattsun brought up the flower stands! He talked about how there were so many and that the staff had taken pictures and video for them so that they could see all of them. I was hoping he might mention the international stand but he didn’t. He did mention one stand in particular. It was for Ranmaru and it had the silhouette of an instrument in red roses. Tattsun asked Shoutan what Ranmaru’s instrument was and Shoutan answered ‘Bass of course’. Then Tattsun pointed out that the silhouette was of a guitar and he was a little disappointed it was wrong(in a joking way).

• ハルハナ was their song. It was really nice. This song was a really nice choice for an acoustic song. I really liked their energy. The lights were also pretty again. I think they made the shape of a flower sometimes but it was hard to see from my angle.

• Once that song was finished Morikubo and Maeno came back out and there was a mini-talk with all of them. They made fun of each other a little more. They also talked about the LINE group and the picture of the four microphones that all of them posted a few days before the live. They joked about how it ended up that they all shared the picture and who started it. You could feel the KIZUNA. Oh, and the fact that after the first day of the live they all went out drinking together and came back to their hotel arms around each other. There is blurry picture proof on Morikubo’s twitter. Yes, that’s them drunk.

• They soon moved into the last acoustic corner song, マリアージュ. This song was really nice in acoustic.They also split the various english lines into different pairings of the group. I really liked that touch, to hear the different combinations of voices.

• After the acoustic corner it was time for the break video. I’m not going to lie, my Japanese skills were failing me this time and while I picked up a bit I don’t know if my understanding was good enough to get it right.

• Some highlights though. Shoutan: why doesn’t Ai sleep in a bed. Morikubo: what the heck does yoroshiku machocho mean? Maeno talked lots about Camus and sugar. I don’t remember much of what Tattsun said. Oh, and Shoutan said the thing he liked now about Ai is his voice, the precious boy. He has come so far from thinking he didn’t deserve to voice Ai.

• The interview ended with the question of what one kanji represented their character. These come up on screen and then the next song started.

• ‘The Dice are Cast’! With new outfits! I really liked these outfits. They were my favourite for this live! And this song was on the trucks! And holy crap that was close. Morikubo and Tattsun were on my side and they were like right there. I tried not to die while cheering them on.

• The trucks stopped at the far end of the stadium (right in front of where a friend of mine was sitting, pretty sure her night was made with that). They started the next song which was ‘Starlight Memory’. Like the first Quartet Night live they did this one with mic stands but it was from the trucks, facing back in towards the main stage.

• Apparently those two songs were also the short versions of them from some of the Japanese reports I’ve seen. I can’t say that I noticed either way, I was completely lost in the experience.

• The next song was ‘エボリューション・イヴ’. It was around this point that I started to tear up more than I had before. They were the burning stinging sort too, meaning that I was watching this song through one eye trying to fight off the burning in the other. It was an amazing song though, one of my favourites which is probably why I got so emotional.

• We were back to solo songs for the next little bit. The next one was Camus’ ‘Double face’. I have to say that this is probably my favourite Camus song and it’s all because of how Maeno performs it. The way he is able to switch so effortlessly between the personas and the voices, just by changing which hand is on the mic stand. Like the first live the dancers were in white and black for this song. The lights alternated between blue and yellow and the coordination was on point.

• The sounds of ‘シンクロニズム’ started up. We could see a silhouette and Shoutan was wearing the hood of his shirt up. His outfit this time was a short sleeved shirt(hoodie) with a large hood that was edged with purple fur and it had purple fur cat ears. He also had a purple sash that was very iridescent. (If you can’t tell I loved this outfit and I seriously want it for myself.) Anyway, the hood was up and he even reached up and played with the ears. The cuteness of it all really matched with the cuteness of the song. He went from the main stage to the centre and back with this song. You may have heard of the butt wiggle from when he performed this song at 6th stage, those were back this time too. They were always in the direction of my area too. Bless you Ai-chan. There were also bubbles at the end. You could die from the cute of it all.

• ‘Not bad’ was the other Ranmaru song of the night. There was lots of fire involved and because of the closed venue you could really feel the heat of it.

• The last of the solo songs was ‘Never…’ It was really well done. Morikubo threw his hat off at one point, along with the other dancers. Near the end of the song he climbed the stairs of the main stage and on the screen then had the image of a Ferris wheel. It was very much like the anime. The end of the song had the first shiny tape cannons of the night with plain green tape for the song. It was literally raining down on me! I managed to grab a lot of them but I kind of messed them up by shoving them into my tiny bag. If I ever get area again I’ll remember to bring a bigger bag for the tape so I don’t crunch it up before there is time to roll it up nice.

• There wasn’t really time after ‘Never…’ to roll the tape up nice because ‘Non-Fiction’ was starting. Tattsun and Maeno rolled out on a black couch looking terribly cool. I have to say that while I like both the new songs ‘Non-Fiction’ is a definite jam. It was awesome to do the calls for this song and to watch them dance to it. Yes, there was an epic dance in that instrumental break of the song. It was definitely one of my favourite performances of the night.

• The next song was predictably ‘Fiction’. While this one didn’t hold the coolness of the previous song the physical acting by Morikubo and Shoutan was on point. Their movements and expressions captured the emotional nuances of the song, especially if you know anything about the history between the characters. They were apart until almost the end of the song and then they finally clasped hands but then Shoutan pulled away and walked away and then Morikubo walked away and there was just a white spotlight on stage with feathers falling. It was very moving.

• The next song was ‘KIZUNA’! They played the video from the anime on the background screen and like the first live they all sat on the stairs and acted it out. This is such a fun song to do the call and response to. They were all being really cute together too. I believe for this song they came close to the side of the main stage during parts of the song.

• The next song was the one bearing their name ‘QUARTET☆NIGHT’! I feel bad for not having more memory of this song but my excuse is the live was most definitely coming to an end, I was already crying and it was good. That’s all I can really say. Dreams came true.

• Next was the dancer introduction! They each took turns introducing a number of the dancers. Sadly the one dancer I’ve grown to like from Shoutan and other utapri lives wasn’t there but I recognized some of the names.

• There was another brief talk after this, I think more towards the live viewing audience again as well. I don’t remember much of what was said besides the last song was coming up.

• ‘FLY TO THE FUTURE’ was the last song. It was fitting and perfect for this live. I literally had tears running down my face at this point. I didn’t want it to end. The highlight of the song was of course the line ‘ありがとう、そしてこれからも’. Before this line everything just stopped and fell quiet. No music, no cheering, just silence. It was tense, you could feel it in the air of the hall. I was terrified I would make some sound to break it. Finally they said the line and the song finished.

• Encore time! Everyone just cheered ‘quartet night’ the whole time. Unlike the movie theatre where you feel a little strange chanting it when you are part of the audience the energy just carries you along. I tried to organize the tape a little during this time but as I said earlier it turns out I didn’t do a very good job.

• The encore finished pretty fast and they were back with ‘FORCE LIVE’. What a cool song! And they played the music video in the background while they did the actual dances on the stage. Morikubo even tried the high kick like Reiji in the video. It was awesome and after ages of playing Shining Live it was cool to hear it in person (kinda sad Starish didn’t get their back at the fanmeet).

• After the song was a bit more talking and they did the few announcements. Basically that there would be a DVD/blueray and that the official movie site opens in December.

• I don’t remember many details of the final words (I’m writing this a few days after and it’s been a busy week at work @.@) but I do remember screaming arigatou a lot. Like a lot. For most of this last little bit.

• The next song was ‘God’s STAR’! This was the only song I knew of ahead of time for sure because I’d heard it when taking pictures of the flower stands on the Saturday night. Still, one of my favourite songs to see live because the call and response is just so much fun!

• Another encore! More cheering for a while. When they came back out they were in a white version t-shirt with the logo. Most of them had been modified a little bit. Morikubo’s was the most plain, just the shirt. Tattsun’s had some see through black material on the sleeves and at the bottom. Shoutan had a few zipper like cuts in his shirt (very much like his encore shirts from his own lives). Maeno was wearing the Camus prince parka.

• They did a few more thank you’s and then they announced the last song which was of course ‘You’re my life’. I can’t think of a more perfect last song honestly. They came out on the trucks again for this song. Tattsun and Maeno were on my side. They went around and when they passed the other trucks they would high five. Sadly the other ones didn’t come too close because they veered off to the centre stage instead. There was still more of the song and they were always standing at the edge of the stage waving out at all of us. I also love the call and response of this song. ‘La, la, la, la, la-la, la, la.’

• They said thank you again after and then the instrumental version of ‘FLY TO THE FUTURE’ started to play as they waved goodbye. We did the best thing though and the whole audience just decided to sing the song to them, the biggest karaoke ever. I’ll admit I didn’t sing it perfectly but I tried because how could you not. And this was probably one of my favourite moments of the live because you could see how moved Quartet Night was by it. I remember seeing Tattsun’s face as they headed back down the aisle to the main stage and he was floored by it. I’m glad that they could see our love for them all.

• Even when it was done the audience was singing along with the instrumentals of the songs. I was probably the last one of the people I had been with to head out because I just didn’t want it to end. I would do it again if I could. I will buy the shit out of the DVD just to be part of that again.

There you have it. Quartet Night Live Future 2018. I already feel like I have forgotten a lot. Especially about the talks and things. I should have taken notes when I was on my way home but I was tired and still in a bit of a ‘did that actually happen?’ That matched with a busy week means that this isn’t as great as it could be. I hope you enjoyed it anyways. It was still the best weekend of my life.

Thank you to Broccoli for making these games and these characters. Thank you for the music. Thank you to all of the friends I met this weekend, old and new. Thank you to all of the people who donated to the flower stand.

Most of all,

THANK YOU QUARTET NIGHT.

ありがとう、そしてこれからも。

#quartet night #quartet night live future #ありがとうそしてこれからも #uta no prince sama #utapri #quartet night live future 2018 #ai mikaze #reiji kotobuki #ranmaru kurosaki #camus #aoi shouta #morikubo showtaro #suzuki tatsuhisa #maeno tomoaki #QN live 2018

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braveskyered · 5 years

Text

Knights (Part 6)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

A mission and then a family reunion. Fun!

...Right?

Part 6: Working So You Could Like This Rhythm

- - -

Occasionally, Arthur would join Elaine on her ghost investigations.

With his wedding ring being imbibed with various charms and protection spells, along with the moon pin he kept on his jacket, he didn't have to worry about ghosts or demons trying to possess him again, or at least not as easily. He would use his past knowledge from his time with the Mystery Skulls into either planning budgets or crafting machinery meant to capture ghosts, some of which made Elaine's missions much easier, to her delight.

They even came up with a reliable system that allowed them to work together.

“Hold up, Elaine,” Arthur spoke through the headset as he checked one of the three screens, “Can you... see a path nearby on your left?”

“Huh? No, I only see solid wall,” Elaine replied, “I'm moving my hand against the rock right now and WHOA it's an illusion?!”

While Elaine went on the actual investigations, Arthur would remain in their protected van using various equipment to help Elaine trek through the areas much more safely, from forests to caves to even haunted manors. It didn't always work, but most of the time it did, and it allowed the two to perform better than ever as a husband and wife team of paranormal investigators.

Case in point, while most illusions can always fool the human eye, it cannot fool a radar since it won't pick up anything that's not actually there. Elaine would wear a special vest that held the radar in question, which would then send signals to the van for Arthur to read as a map, and then use the data to help Elaine navigate. The radar can even detects ghosts that are invisible, which is pretty convenient.

“I'm picking up small energy readings,” Arthur said as he saw the tiny blips indicating it, “I'm seeing one, two... Ah, five of them? They're probably wisps, but do be careful. We're in uncharted territory at this point.”

“Got it. You're the best, my star!”

Arthur smiled at the loving nickname. Elaine has always been the romantic type, often showering him with affection whenever he entered his gloomy state at times. Sometimes she can be a bit overbearing, but letting her know that is always enough for her to tone it down when needed. He noticed long ago that she never called him “love,” instead using phrases such as “my knight” or “my star” as her way of showing affection. He once asked her why she would use those terms when they were engaged, and her answer was plain and simple.

- - - - - - -

“You always seem uncomfortable whenever I call you 'my love,'” Elaine answered, “You gave me your star pin, and you're like a knight to me. A knight is always there for his lady, no?”

- - - - - - -

They soon married after that, with the kind approval of Vivienne, who later provided them the rings, the wedding small and personal. When they did, Arthur asked Elaine if he could take her name instead of her taking his, because he wanted to move on. She accepted, and he became known to the world as Arthur Knights.

He hoped that the Mystery Skulls will have a harder time finding him that way. He knew at this point that he is running away, but this is all he can do.

While the memories from before the cave are still painful, Arthur is able to recall most of them, some of them fondly when it involved Vivi, Mystery, and even Lewis, without shedding as many tears. His nightmares about the hatred from his former friend turned wraith have faded away for the most part. He still gets them, along with nightmares from the cave where everything went wrong and the loss of his arm, to being dropped off a cliff and barely surviving, but he learned how to manage it. The protection from the moon pin certainly helped.

Years have passed, and Arthur never had anyone from his past show up at his front door. It wasn't enough for him to fully relax, but it is enough for him to walk outside with his family for normal every day activities. He still feared going through crowds alone, but so long as he has his family with him, he knew he will be fine.

One day he will tell Elaine everything, but until he can, he will bear the weight alone.

Taking a deep breath, Arthur focused his attention back on the screen. The readings were still there, and he noticed that the map data the radar is detecting is--!

“Elaine? You might want to stop where you are!”

“Arthur?”

“This cavern is a lot bigger than we were told it would be,” Arthur shuddered, “The radar here is picking up a lot of tunnels. What do you see around you now?”

“I'm seeing...” Elaine trailed off before replying, “Whoa... I'm seeing a lot of railroad tracks going in various directions, and there's a cart that looks really old. Maybe this was the mine from long ago that the mayor told us about? Ugh... It's so cold in here!”

“I can check. For now, though, I highly suggest you go back the way you came. If what we're after is in there, it can catch us unprepared.”

“Okay, I'll come back to you. I need to restock on some provisions, anyway. How's the snow out there?”

“Not too bad. Still falling, but slowly. I'll see you in a bit.”

“Okay. I love you, my star.”

“I love you, too.”

Knowing that Elaine is safe, Arthur went to another screen and started to search on the online web for information about their current location. The Knights were hired to investigate a cave that is said to make people disappear in Sharp, Kentucky. Elaine volunteered to take it as if it were any other investigation. Although Arthur felt some apprehension about it, Elaine told him that she'll be doing the actual investigating, while he acted as support, which is enough to calm him. It took about eight hours to get there with their van, although the delays due to toll roads and the occasional road construction proved to be annoying that may have added an extra half hour or so.

Because of their frequent trips across the country, it's not unheard of for their vehicles or other equipment to break down during the worst of times. Thus, one of the former matriarchs from decades ago went and founded Four of a Kind Queens with her three sisters, hence the name. It was due to her that the family is required to know the business to keep it going, so they can learn the necessary knowledge needed to repair their equipment in case they broke down while they were out on actual hunts, while at the same time allow an alternative source of funding to flow in by doing repair work for a living.

Originally, Four of a Kind Queens used to repair regular machines such as cotton gins or carriages back in the old days. Eventually, Vivienne herself added the “Auto Repair” and included cars among the list of things needed to be maintained, making her the first among the line of actual car mechanics. Arthur had to admit that whoever that former matriarch is, she definitely made good results with her foresight. Not all people considered paranormal investigations to be legitimate careers, so having a second job as a backup is pretty smart.

All Arthur knew about the shop's main founder is that her name is Niniane.

Arthur briefly wondered if the Niniane the family has now is the same one that founded the family business before dropping that absurd idea. She'd have to be at least two hundred years old, while the Niniane that is alive is a distant relative of Elaine's, and from the one time Arthur saw her, she still looked pretty spry for an old woman in her approximate fifties or sixties. Then again, Arthur only saw the current Niniane once at a distance during his private wedding ceremony with Elaine, so he wouldn't know for sure. According to Elaine, Niniane rarely reveals herself, but if Arthur can find a way to talk to her...

Right, his mind's drifting off topic again. Focus, Arthur!

He searched for any clues a little more thoroughly, and soon got a hit. According to an online article written last year, the cave he and Elaine are currently investigating used to be a mine from twenty years ago that was abundant with iron with occasional pockets of tin. However, due to a large cave in, many of the miners had lost their lives, and the place was then closed off due to the safety hazard.

It corroborated with the story their client had told them. The client mentioned that whatever is causing the disappearances could either be the ghosts of the miners that died there, accidents due to people bypassing the warning signs, or something else entirely. The two were asked to not only find out what is causing the disappearances, but also see if they can find the ones who went missing to give the families closure.

“Oh, crud...!”

His attention back on the intercom, he noticed that the tone of Elaine's voice didn't sound good.

“Arthur, lock the door! Quickly!”

Arthur immediately locked the rear door to the van, and not soon after Elaine phased through like a ghost through a wall, causing whatever was chasing her to slam against the van.

“What the--?!” he was cut off by a hand slapped over his mouth.

“Be quiet!” Elaine hissed before looking around cautiously.

The two didn't make a sound, but Arthur could hear the sounds of something growling, and his heart skipped a beat when he heard a screech of pain. Whatever it is, it's clearly not human. Soon, it was silent again.

“Yay for protection wards,” Elaine relaxed and turned to Arthur, “Hey, sorry I had to phase through like that. I know you typically don't like it when I do that, but I didn't want to risk your safety.”

His eye twitched, “N-No, I appreciate it, but what the hell was that thing?” He trust his arms towards the door to indicate it while looking at her.

“Well, uh, I'm pretty sure it's the cause of all those people going missing,” Elaine answered with a grimace, “If it is, then it's safe to say that all of them are dead. Or, well, to put it more accurately, they were probably eaten.”

His arms still up, Arthur gave Elaine a flat look, “What.”

“Ever heard of the wendigo?” Elaine asked just as flatly.

Well, there went any chances of this investigation going smoothly.

- - - - - - -

Two days later, the job was completed, the wendigo has been eliminated, and the families of all the people that were killed received closure. Elaine received the payment for the job, along with some reward money from finding the remains of all the victims. Once the remaining paperwork was handled, Elaine and Arthur went back home in Cantabile.

It was good timing, too, since the Knights family is having a family reunion at Niniane's residence located in the outskirts of Cantabile. The place is a somewhat small and modest manor with a large field, a perfect location for occasions such as picnics and barbecues with extended family members.

“And anyways that's the second time I almost died in Kentucky,” Arthur finished nonchalantly. To his surprise, he is slowly being inoculated to the various paranormal now.

He's not sure if that's a good thing or not.

“How did such a monster get all the way down there in the first place? I thought they were native in Canada, or at least in Great Lakes region? The Native Americans that speak the Algonquian tongue ought to keep track of them.”

“Well, Elaine did say that the States has been having a record low temperature on the cold seasons,” Arthur, currently sitting on a picnic table, shrugged after taking a bite out of his fish hoagie, “She thinks it just wanted to explore new territory and it just happened to get stuck in that cave once the weather warmed up enough.”

Currently, Arthur is talking to Miles, Morgan's husband, who decided to join him for lunch while Elaine and Morgan were chatting away about something else while helping Gwen and Percy with their food. The man is dressed in a gray formal suit with a black shirt and white tie, fitting his position as a lawyer. His brown hair is slicked back, which did nothing to hide the gray hairs forming on the sides.

Miles mulled over the thought, then shrugged again, “I hope she's right on that,” he shook his head and decided to change the subject, “So, Gwen and Percy. They're about... five now, right?”

Arthur grinned, “Yup, they turned five last October. They started primary school this year, too. A bit later than we would have liked, but that's what happens to those born after August.”

As the twins grew, Arthur started seeing their personalities shine and develop.

Gwen is a quiet girl, often hiding behind her parents or large objects when meeting new people. She can talk in simple sentences, often struggling to speak any words longer than two syllables, yet she still tries. She usually prefers to play with blocks over dolls or watch Arthur check on the van's engine. She loved the color gray, saying it reminded her of pencils, which did boggle Arthur and Elaine's minds for a while before setting it aside as child's logic. In short, Gwen a quiet girl that takes after her father in terms of personality. Her favorite possession is the toy tool kit that was gifted to her on her recent birthday. Arthur mused that she might be a great mechanic like him or her mother when she gets older.

Percy, on the other hand, is a somewhat active boy. He's the child that treats every new thing as an adventure to explore, wanting to learn his new surroundings with gusto. He would often pick up random things off the ground and collect them in a box, which can range anywhere from bottle caps to animal skulls and one time a live snake (Arthur nearly fainted at that one until Elaine told him that it wasn't poisonous after she released it back outside). He is also an occasional prankster, but the most he's done is basically move things around, or ripping off the labels off of food cans, the last of which later caused Arthur's new habit of writing down the contents of the cans on the lids.

Some time later, after Miles left, Arthur looked at the many people that make up Elaine's side of the family.

There is Elaine herself, now talking to her mother, Caelia. Arthur recalled that Caelia is Morgan's younger sister by three years, and probably the next matriarch once Vivienne vacates her position. The older woman has black hair that she keeps as a braided bun, is around the same height as Elaine. The older woman clearly knew how to take care of herself, as her thin frame can attest to.

Arthur felt that he seriously underestimated the actual size of the Knights family. He isn't sure of the exact number, but there had to be at least forty people, most of them being adults, and more than half of them were women. In fact, Arthur noticed that all the men that were even in this reunion were either husbands or boyfriends. There were children, but outside Gwen and Percy, Arthur only managed to count about eight of them when he saw the children in question at a table nearby.

He isn't sure what to think when he learned that out of all the parents, he and Elaine are the only ones to have a son. Then again, Percy's mere existence alone was definitely a shock to the Knights family.

According to Elaine, to Arthur's bemusement, all of the women in the Knights family for the past ten known generations only ever had daughters, which is the main reason why the family of monster hunters is ruled by a “queen,” so to speak. When it was discovered that Elaine would be having twins, it was genuinely thought that she would only be having twin girls, even by Elaine herself. Even though Arthur noted that the sex of the younger twin wasn't discovered during the ultrasound, no one in the family questioned it since they sincerely believed their theory.

Needless to say, Percy, with his birth, threw that logic out the window without even realizing it.

Because the family title of matriarch is only passed down from daughter to daughter, no one in the family is sure on what Percy's standing is. Eventually, after a few days of contemplating this, Vivienne decided to just play it by ear for now. The only major action she decreed is that Percy is not to be treated any differently from any other child, which essentially forbade the extended family from trying to use Percy as some sort of leverage.

While Elaine is still amazed that she managed to have a son, Arthur once joked to her that the same applied to his side of the family, in that his family only had sons. Well, Arthur isn't entirely sure that's accurate. After leaving his parents and their nasty divorce to live with Lance, he never bothered trying to know his family ancestry. It just never crossed his mind. In the end, to him, he's just happy to have a family.

“Dad?”

Arthur looked to his right and saw Gwen and Percy stand before him, the former looking frustrated and the latter looked a little down. Looking at the two, Arthur noted that the boy looked almost exactly like he did when he was his age, only in that the child has blue eyes and the white lock of hair. Percy's hair isn't as spiky as Arthur's yet, but that will probably change as he gets older. On Gwen's end, she still resembled Elaine in an uncanny fashion, except that she does not have a white lock of hair, while having Arthur's amber eye color.

“Can I, can I...” Percy, looking timid, looked up at his father, “C-Can I sit with you?”

Arthur smiled, “Of course,” he held out his arms in a welcoming gesture and allowed his son and daughter to climb up on the picnic table's chair. Once the two were comfortable, Arthur wrapped his arms around their shoulders. Gwen on his left, Percy on his right, as it always is, “What brings you two here?”

“They said that boys aren't allow-allowed over there,” Gwen grouched, which is rather unlike her, “Girl talk only. They said Daddy is-is not cool. We-We-We... We are Knights, too!”

Wait, how old are these kids? Was this from school? Wait, was this from their cousins? If Arthur remembered right, wasn't the oldest child in their generation at least thirteen? What the heck are they talking about? Or more importantly, who the heck taught Gwen and Percy to think like that???

He rose a rather disapproving brow at the table that held the eight girls, and noticed that some of the older children were actually staring at him before turning away to hide the fact. Arthur let out a breath of annoyance. Did those girls seriously think he will confront them about this? He decided to just talk to Elaine about it later tonight in hopes of preventing a future occurrence. Unlike him, she knows how to talk with her relatives.

Percy leaned against Arthur's right side, gripping at the latter's shirt, tears beginning to leak, “Dad is... cool. Dad is... Dad.”

At the same time, Gwen leaned against his left side, not saying a word, probably too annoyed to do so.

Arthur has his hands on each of their shoulders in an attempt to comfort them. He knew that he isn't the ideal father, but he still strives to do the best he can be. He isn't sure what to do, but eventually a thought came to him. Adjusting his arms somewhat, Arthur gently held his children closer to himself, and started to slowly hum the lullaby he used ever since they were newborns. He tried not to shed any tears or have his voice crack whenever he does this now. The twins are old enough to know what being sad means, and young children are known to easily sense a person's feelings. To Arthur, these two do not deserve to feel his suffering.

By keeping his anguish concealed, it also meant that even though he's struggled to move on, a part of him still didn't want to let the past go.

This time I might just disappear...

Whoa-o-o-oh

This time I might just dis-

Yet his heart would write in pain every time he hummed this song.

Oh mo mo mo mo

Oh mo mo mo mo (Oh yeah)

Oh mo mo mo mo oh

But if it meant that these two would be given comfort...

This time I might just disappear...

Whoa-o-o-oh

This time I might just dis-

Then the painful memories of him being left behind, nearly being killed, or being hated by the Mystery Skulls, made it worth it.

Oh mo mo mo mo

Oh mo mo mo mo (Oh yeah)

Oh mo mo mo mo oh

To his relief, Gwen and Percy gradually relaxed. Gwen no longer looked annoyed, while Percy no longer looked upset. They just leaned against their father, content.

“Thank you, Daddy.”

Arthur did shed a single tear, but he was able to play it off by yawning. Taking a moment to rub the tear away, Arthur continued to hold his two reasons of living. Along with Elaine, these two are his family. Even though he can't go back, he has this family to live for now. He will be forever grateful to the Knights, or more specifically to Vivienne and Elaine, for letting him have this.

But if there is one thing that's unnerving about being in this family as a whole...

“Isn't he...?”

“Yeah, he's Elaine's husband. This is actually my first time seeing him since their wedding.”

“So where do you think he came from?”

...would be the words he would hear the extended family speak occasionally. The women are definitely chatterboxes at times.

“Beats me. From what I hear, he doesn't like talking about his past that much.”

“Guys? We should be respecting his privacy. Who cares where he came from? If Mama Vivienne approved of him as Elaine's husband, then I've no reason to doubt him. Don't assume things.”

Well... at least someone among them is fine with him? Or maybe that woman just didn't care, he did a subtle glance and saw that it's Elaine's cousin, Eleanor. He's spoken to her before, but not as often as he does with her mother, Morgan. Eleanor travels a lot since her husband Nicholas has to move frequently due to his job, if Arthur remembered correctly.

“But as far as we know, he's a nobody!”

“Hey, watch your tone. So what if he is? He's still family. Besides, from what I've seen of him, he's been a pretty good husband and father so far. I mean, look, he's with his kids right now. If that doesn't prove he's a good person, I don't know what will. Again, Mama Vivienne approved of him, and even Nana Niniane has given us good word, so keep any distasteful thoughts to yourself.”

Still, Arthur made it a point to not interact with the extended family unless it's absolutely necessary. It's not that he doesn't like them, far from it, but it's primarily because he doesn't want to risk invoking their wrath. Unless what Elaine told him was wrong, almost all of the women except for Morgan are capable of changing their shape into monstrous forms to fight monsters when the situation calls for it.

“Seriously? Just because he managed to sire a son doesn't mean it makes him special.”

Well, that, and Arthur had actually seen them squabble in those forms a few times in the past. That one time where one woman turned into a Jorogumo while another became a Nure-onna and fought one another was a rather frightening experience. It took Elaine turning into a Gashadokuro and smacking them down to stop them, while loudly declaring that she is not sharing her husband, did she successfully get her distant cousins to actually stop fighting. That happened shortly after the twins were born.

“Oh my god, Melia, are you seriously trying to pick a fight? Look, we get it, you don't like him because he and Elaine have a son while you and Tad don't. I'm pretty sure you're not the only one who's envious. At least you have the grace to love your daughters.”

Arthur winced upon hearing that. Checking on the twins, he saw that the two were actually asleep. He hoped that the two weren't hearing what their relatives were saying. While he is sure that the few family members that do dislike him wouldn't be petty enough to want to hurt him under normal circumstances, but after having a wraith try to kill him for something he didn't do, he didn't want to risk it.

...He is well aware that he is still somewhat afraid of the Knights even after learning their family secret. He knew that Elaine and her immediate family wouldn't hurt him, but he isn't so sure with the extended relatives outside her grandmother and aunt.

He really didn't want to be here now. He wished that Elaine would finish talking with Morgan and return soon, so that they can all go home and get away from this reunion and not expose Gwen and Percy to the envy and--

“What...?”

Arthur saw from the corner of his eye in a distance that resembled something white with multiple tails sitting next to a large tree. When he turned to actually look, the sight didn't change.

Mystery is over there.

In his kitsune form.

Why isn't anyone in the family reacting to his presence when he is so close?!

He loosened his hold on Gwen and Percy and started to breath heavily, rather quickly at that. The sight of Mystery is...!

How did he find him?!

“Daddy? Daddy, are you okay?”

Arthur could barely register Gwen talking. His heart rate gradually increased, his hands were shaking. He gripped at his left wrist. He didn't notice Percy tugging at his sleeve.

“Dad? What's wrong?”

He saw Mystery stand, and the kitsune slowly opened its mouth, the yellow glint never leaving its face.

The last thing Arthur heard is his name being called out frantically.

* - * - * - * - *

Notes: I'm not freaking out.

Arthur doesn’t really interact with Elaine’s far extended family during the reunions, so he doesn’t know much about them.

The wendigo actually originates from a religious belief from folklore of the Algonquian language. The Native Americans that speak it are primarily in certain parts of Canada and probably around the Great Lakes region, too. While the beliefs vary between the communities, the wendigo is said to be an entity with a never ending hunger for human flesh. Although I have read somewhere that they're also said to be a symbol of the dangers of one's selfishness, and maybe something about how the people can't practice their own religion or something among those lines, I'm not a hundred percent sure. So while the exact facts of the wendigo are not 100% consistent between various sources, what is consistent about them is essentially this: winter, monster, famine, greed, and cannibalism.

On another note, there seems to be two types of wendigo, one where it looks like a vague definition of a human, or one would have the skull of a stag (which is said to be a modern depiction). In the case for this chapter, the former is used. The wendigo from the survival horror game Until Dawn can give you a general idea on what they look like.

Like with Tempo and Cantabile, Sharp is also a music term. Coincidentally, there really is a place called Sharpe, spelled with the letter E, in Kentucky. I just chose Kentucky primarily so I can use an incorrect Mystery Skulls quote.

As for Arthur's parents being divorced, it's from a post that Artsy from the Ghost Crew made. It's stated not to be canon since Artsy said it's a personal headcanon of hers, but it's the closet I could get. Regardless, it's pretty much accepted in the fandom that Arthur was better off with Lance.

...

...Do you think he still is?

Part 7: How Lucky...?

#mystery skulls animated #msa fanfic #fanfic #arthur kingsmen #msa arthur #msa #mystery skulls #msa knights #elaine knights

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familyofpebbles · 3 years

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June 12th, 2021

We awoke in our dark bedroom with a gentle breeze created by the rare presence of a ceiling fan. A savior to be sure, as the longer we ventured into our trip the longer I would dream of a fully air conditioned building. We opened the window and were met yet again with the beautiful view outside our bedroom overlooking a large green field and various farm shacks. The fruit farms down the road, the massive blue sky and the fresh smell of cut plants gave me the rural euphoria I had been missing for quite a time now. We started our day with a shower and freshened up for our next adventure. As you scrambled some eggs in the upstairs kitchen I poured us some mimosas and for a moment could imagine myself living in a place like this. Though it would just be the sprinkles atop the cream atop the cake, I still would like to one day find myself living in a place like this. As we ate breakfast I couldn’t help but to take a couple photos of you, to keep in time the beautiful balance of white and orange. The flowers on your dress and your hair glowing a bright orange, with the sun reflecting its white rays off your face and white face, it was a heavenly meal. The large kitchen window allowed the counter tops and table to radiate a warm wooden glow, and the old, peeling butterfly stickers on the glass reminded us that we were staying in a home.

We finished up with thanks to the owners and began driving towards Hohenschwangau, a beautiful castle a couple hours west and at the base of the larger Neuschwanstein Castle. Every strawberry field I passed I promised myself I would stop to buy some, but the excitement of seeing such massive castles distracted me and before I knew it we had passed them. We drove through the town of Fussen and followed the small road up a steep incline until we found a place to park. A rough looking man with few teeth guided us in and we had finally arrived. The street below two iconic castles was exactly as you’d expect, lined with gift shops and filled with tourists. Filled with excitement we went straight up to the first and smaller castle, Hohenschwangau. A small path led up to it, following the side of the large hill and through the shade of thick trees until we were greeted by the old yellow walls of Hohenschwangau. The inside of the courtyard had all the pleasantries one would expect from a rich castle; fountains, murals, flowers and short walls overlooking the domain that it controlled. A shorter than expected tour later and we made our way back down the small hill and stopped at the closest beer garden to grab a bite to eat.

Over our meal we researched the owners of the castle and instantly fell in love with Ludwig II. His life is by far the most interesting story I have ever read, filled with drama, power, scandalous love and betrayal. The more we read the more excited we became about his story, and sat in awe of the lives we had knowing we were about to walk through the castles he lived in.

We finished our meal with some time to spare, but unfortunately that spare time was spent receiving our check. We were now a little late, but were relieved to hear the horse coaches only took about 15 minutes to reach the top. Unfortunately, the end of the horse coach was still very far away from the entrance to the castle and the check in for our scheduled tour. We walked quickly to the gatehouse and found ourselves late by only four minutes, but it was enough to miss our tour. Frustrated and hot, we walked around the inside of the castle a bit before finding a path that lead around the castle to the iconic bridge were you could take the best picture of the castle in its entirety. The bridge was closed, and another slightly inconvenient event was added to the day. I was determined to not let myself get too frustrated, much of my family and almost all of my ancestors would have given a fortune and wait half their lives to see what I am seeing and be where I was, so I shook it off. An old bearded man was painting a scene the castle up on the hill, and though I wanted to purchase one, we had no cash. I promised him we would be back in a few days in the afternoon and left, hoping he would be there again.

We made our way back down the hill, rather defeated but happy to have seen so much in a day, and headed into the town of Fussen just downhill from the castles.

I wear badges easier to acquire than the parking that day. It was stressful hell, made more anxious by the local drivers who knew the area and rushed us along in directions we were uncertain we wanted to go.

Eventually we found a garage and our apartment and looked for a place to eat. A highly reviewed Italian restaurant caught our eye and they had a bar open for us. a happy looking man with military tattoos came after us, and the waiter seemed to tell him to wait for an open table. Being the over friendly man I am, I invited him to sit with us at the bar. Out of seemingly nowhere, another grungy man came out of the shadows, apparently the bearded mans friend. They sat with us for a moment, quite and ordered their drinks, and were initially thankful we invited them to sit with us.

The moment turned soul, however, after he asked what country I am from and what I did. He was aggressively anti-American and especially anti American soldier. The night took a deep dive into dark territory. When he became too loud I asked to take the seat of another couple, when we moved it seemed to calm things down. But then he started ordering us drinks, and never left us alone. I got up to use the restroom and be beckoned me over, hoping to calm things down I walked over and we had a confusing passing of words as he did not speak English.

We had past the point of making a scene, and I asked for the bill shortly after. The manager apologized profusely for the trouble, and I shook his hand. As I left I apologized to the other customers, one of whom reassured me. An Indian man and his wife both told us “You handled it well, no need to apologize.”

As we walked back to our apartment, I was shocked to see them both walking next to us. For a moment I thought I would have to fight them, but their body language showed they just wanted closure. So we spoke for a couple minutes, he reluctantly shook my hand, and we parted ways.

We did not want to return to our apartment immediately; as we wanted to make sure they would not follow us again, so we returned to the restaurant to pay. The manager told us that the bill was on the house and apologized once again for the inconvenience.

We made it home, checking around corners and hurrying down sidewalks to our apartment. That night we released the anxiety we had built up over dinner, spoke for a long while and emptied all the things that have been building within us, though it was mostly me. My back pain had shown through this trip and reminded me how uncomfortable it was to just walk around, and I vented how much it bothered me.

After some tears, our leftovers and a lot of hugs we went to sleep, hoping for a less stressful day in the morning.

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guidedbygunpla · 3 years

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Gundam REDUX Side Story Chapter 3: Sins Against God and Man

“this country must’ve been beautiful at some point, feel kind of bad for having set half of it on fire” Dozle said with a laugh as their Gow flew over the Rocky Mountains, the remains of Salt Lake City below them, now looking like nothing but shattered glass strewn across the mountain. Zakus occupying the territory now, painted in stark white. Dozle, Char, Icelina and about 2 dozen crew men waited in the tiny room above the Mobile Suit hanger of the Gow, and watched as America drifted below them. The country had been ravaged during the Late AD and early UC by a monstrous drought and famine. A blight caused the great mono cultures of Corn and Soybean to die off, resulting in billions of farm animals being culled, the resulting food shortages resulted in hundreds of thousands starving to death. Poor water management in the south west caused hundreds to migrate elsewhere, and formerly rich and prosperous parts of the south west became completely abandoned. The country fractured in two due to political strife, in part due to arguments about how best to tackle the ecological disaster, resulting in the creation of the two countries the United States of Northern America and The Southern United American Republic in UC 0007. The North was able to barely survive the famine by switching to crops the blight wouldn’t effect, primarily potatoes and rhubarb. They tried desperately to genetically modify the corn and soy bean crops to be more resistant to the blight in the future, with only middling results. Resulting in food enough to only feed a quarter of their population. The south however was able to transfer largely to imported food, and fish, but they had a harder time dealing with the increasing desertification, the rampant dust storms, and the massive floods they were battered with year after year. Eventually, they became the first to honestly consider what so many other first world countries would in the coming years, they began the process of forcing their populations off world through the Federations colonial emigration plan, at first willingly….and then, as the years went by, and the droughts got worse, the famines got worse, and more and more people died. by force. the early days of the UC were like that though. The world was dying, and the only option left for so many was to leave.

With a smaller population the southern American Republic was able to stabilize their economy and began plans to help stop the desertification, as well as hopefully reverse it. However that would be dozens, if not hundreds of years down the line. The earth was sick. In the hundred years before the formation of the universal century charter, 2 world spanning wars, runaway pollution and the destruction of much of earths fresh water reserves, a series of small scale nuclear exchanges along with the ensuing sociological, and ecological pressures those put on the planet caused the amount of the earth that was desert to balloon resulting in vast areas of formerly agricultural land to be swallowed by the great deserts of the world. with crop failure, famine, water shortages, and societal collapse eating up much of the world. The Mojave stretching as far east as Missouri and as far north as Wyoming. The Sahara having swallowed up almost all the land as far south as Angola, and the Gobi going as far south as Qinghai. So much land lost to the great deserts of the world. What choice did they have?

The colony migration plan must’ve made so much sense back then, they must’ve thought they were saving so many millions of lives. if only they had known, Char thought to himself, that because of this all, one day, one of these colonies would come home, and crash into the earth so hard that it would split a tectonic plate in half. In a matter of months it would kill 3 billion of the remaining 6 billion people left on Earth. Through famine, floods and fires. Through volcanos, through tornados, through earthquakes. Life after life would end. All because of a want for power, a lack of caring about ones fellow man, about the world. A Want for control.

If only the people who wrote that damned charter knew what it might cause

If only people had taken better care of things ________________________________________________________________

The gow touched down near a large laboratory building. The smell of the sea strong in the air. Mendocino had largely been spared of the worst of the ecological collapse of the Country. It was lush and beautiful. A true paradise in hell Char thought to himself. “I haven’t really gotten to ask Dozle, why are we moving our headquarters to the Flanagan institute? “ he asked as the officers began the process of disembarking from the Gow

“orders from Supreme commander Gihren, we’re supposed to run some tests here and then likely we’re going to reassign you to a naval crew for a few weeks…..I tried to get you some time off the front line, think it’d do both of us some good to have some time to grieve” “Dozle, you don’t have to do something like that….really” “no, Char… I insist. My heart feels like its breaking everytime I think of Garma. I picture my Mineva, I picture Zenna. I cant imagine how you and Icelina feel. I can’t imagine how father is feeling, I pray his heart can take the stress. That’s why Gihren took charge of the military, he wanted to give father time to process this all. I think some fresh air, some time away from the front lines, it could do us all good.” char looked out at the beautiful scenery around the Gow

“you know I might take you up on that, make sure Icelina is taken care of here, she’s not just our Princess, she is still the daughter of the USNA’s president, who I believe is in power, even if its just in name.”

Dozle knodded at him as Char walked down the ramp to the ground below

The lab they were near was called the Flannigan institute for Zeonic Military Research. It had a… reputation. Soldiers got sent here, came back different. What went on inside the walls of the institute were classified. Char knew they would frequently send POWs here, and that a lot of their research resulted in new mobile suits and new weapons. “Mr. Aznable, please follow me” Char heard a voice call to him as he stepped off the ramp of the Gow “My name is Dr.Tonus, I am a researcher here at the institute, we have been reading over your exploits and wanted to show you around the facility and possibly run a simple test, just to show you what it is we research” “I’m really not the one you should be kissing up to, Commander Dozle is right there, if you are wanting additional funding I’d speak to him instead” Char spoke back in response

“sir this isn’t a request for more money, this is a request to show you, one of Zeons most decorated officers what is in our militaries future.

Char followed him into the building, there were people walking around the halls like in asylums of old, people who seemed confused, distraught, and lost just wandering the halls, dressed poorly and in various states of poor hygiene. It was revolting. The researcher led Char into a back room, where they could see into another room via 1 way glass.

“now Captain Aznable, watch our subject behind this glass. She will guess the cards that are shown on the television screen in front of you, that is showing us footage of a researcher in another lab who is acting as our sender”

Char looked into the room and a woman wearing a bright yellow dress, and of what he believed to be middle eastern decent was re arranging the cards on the table into the same pattern as the researcher on the television. “quite well, so she can perform simple card tricks…..fantastic use of Zeons resources” Char said dismissively

“eh, but watch this Captain Aznable…..I want you to imagine something, something concrete and real, something you know well, and hold that image in your mind” “Lalah, if you could can you read the mind of the man in the room with me, and tell me what it is he is picturing?” Char felt a wall of ice overtake him, his body tingling as if he was diving into a cold pool. The chill of it slid through his brain, feeling like a spear of ice rolled through his mind, peeling away at the layers of gray matter “he is picturing a man with dark black hair, they are in a bathroom with concrete floors and steel cabinetry. There is a smell of tobacco in the air” she said, her voice turning into a laugh towards the end as she realized what it was Char was remembering

“that’s enough. So what is this? Some psychic research program?” Char said turning and staring daggers in the researchers eyes

“…well, yes. Minovski particles make long range communication by radio waves too difficult, so we are researching controlling long range weapons through…..well less conventional means. And Lalah here has been the most successful of our experiments. She was brought to us from West Bengal, she was being used by a card shark there to help him gamble. When she grew obstinate, he abandoned her, and she was taken in to one of Zeons shelters in the area where our men found her, and shipped her back here for study.” “and the rest of the…..subjects, in this facility. Why are they so…..vile” “well, before Lalah, we had been experimenting with getting these abilities by grafting brains of clones of people with similar abilities onto the brains of POW and lower ranked officers, a super soldier program so to speak” “clones of people with similar abilities? Dr.Tonus, please elaborate….because what you are saying is making me want to pull my side arm out and personally shut this whole facility down right now….this sounds like human experimentation, and at that, forced human experimentation…..which as you know violates the antartic treaty as well as the teachings of Zeon Zum Deikun” “Captain, the war will be won by whoever can harness these powers first, and by who can harness them the best. As you have already seen, the federation has 4 pilots who can out pilot even you….surely they have already started to harness Newtypes for combat use” “Newtypes…..the people who Deikun said would be worthy of inheriting the earth, you think that means this? That it means psychics?” Char snapped at the man and pulled his gun, pointing it at the man

“yes sir, spend a few hours with Lalah, you will believe the same as we do, Newtypes…..they are worthy of salvation, we are simply trying to find a way to elevate the rest of us to their level” Char lowered his gun and looked back through the window, then at the small man, who said with no fear the evils he had committed……viewing them as aspects of Chars fathers teachings

“show me these clones…..I need to document this, send it back in a report to the high command.” “before we do that Captain, we do want to run some tests on you….we want to test a theory” ______________________________________________________________

Char found himself hooked up to a machine, a wreath around his head, and a blood pressure cuff on his arm “am I just testing the same thing that the woman from before was testing?” “yes Captain, I want you to clear your mind, and try to see what it is the woman in the room across from you is looking at” char looked at the cards in front of him, and thought about how stupid this all was…he did wonder though

He cleared his mind…and for a second he felt like he saw it, at the same time he felt it, there it was a line of ice through the middle of his brain, right into the top of his spine. he arranged the cards and the researcher knodded at him

“promising” he said as he took the cards away, and wheeled in a small box, with a T shaped item in it, the top bar balancing on a blade, like a knifes edge

“all I need you to do is to move the top part of this metal bar, so that it makes contact on either side of the case, this will trigger an electrical contact, and turn on a light in this office.” char emptied his mind and tried to slow his hands trembling and stared at the metal T

After about ten minutes just as the researcher started to walk towards the box to push it out of the room it tilted and made contact

“now…..now that we have finished your stupid tests, show it to me” Char said as he ripped the wreath off his head.

__________________________________________________________

Dr. Tonus walked Char into a basement, where all around him in vats were young women and men, all blond, all quite young. Dozens and dozens of them, tubes and wires hanging around them, and skewering their bodies.

“they are all clones of two children who were donated to the facility about a decade ago, we had been studying their abilities at that time, but our research wasn’t folded into the military until recently when Supreme commander Gihren decided that our research could be useful to the war effort.” char walked over to the tanks and looked at the faces of the children

“their features look familiar…who donated them?” “well…..unfortunately that is classified Captain Aznable….their lineage is unfortunately a state secret at this time” “ah, I see…..so they are his children, it’s unmistakable, the jaw line, the ears...they look just like Girhen when he was younger. Wonder who the mother was…that too is probably a state secret too isn’t it” Char said craning his neck to look back at the doctor

“well….yes…..unfortunately it is” “are the children, this mysterious man left here, are they still alive?” “yes they are taken care of in the eastern wing, they are about 13 years old now” “13, and how old are the children in these tubes? Surely they all haven’t been floating like this for 13 years.” Char said looking at the children, they looked to be in their late teens, early 20s, surely these clones weren’t so young. “well, we are injecting them Human Growth Hormone, a combination of Steroids and developmental enhancers and of course they are being dosed with sedatives so they are largely unresponsive, we really just need to get the brain to the right size so that we can excise the parts that we believe are responsible for the Newtype Phenomena. We then graft that part onto the brain of the test subject, though it has so far been unsuccessful…Lalah has been able to telepathically communicate with 2 of our test subjects who became nonverbal after the fact, and they seemed to have still been mentally capable, though we still need time to perfect the surgical process as well as the drug cocktail that will be required to prevent rejection of the parts of the brain that are grafted on” “I don’t understand…how would sticking someones brain matter onto your brain give you their powers?” Char said turning to face the man

“well, you see….this is difficult to explain, but when someone learns something often there is a physical region of the brain, a new organ that is grown. We noticed it in the late 20th century while examining Einstein’s brain. He had a knuckle shaped area behind his right ear, and we saw that same shape, that organ in people that had one thing in common with him, they were violinists. In a normal human brain, that region would be missing, just smooth gray matter but if they had studied the violin in childhood, there it was, the violinists knuckle right behind their right ear. A similar region we called the seat of the pianist would be closer to the center of the brains of those who had studied the piano. Our early tests were with excising those parts and implanting them in others, and surely enough often they could play the instrument in question after the surgery, though they lacked the muscle memory to properly coordinate their body with their mind. But the newtype phenomena is purely mental, we know if we keep experimenting we can uplift ourselves to their level. There is no muscle memory to overcome. “ char looked around, these were human beings

Their bodies were being harvested for war

They were being made into weapons, no not even weapons

Parts of a weapon

What happened to the child when their brain was harvested Casval wondered

Who thought up this monstrous idea

“who ordered this research? Who pushed for the cloning, the brain surgery” “well….Supreme Commander Gihren of course, and the use of them in military applications was further expanded by his sister, Rear Admiral Kycelia. She has begun production of Newtype use weapons to be used in the war effort, we just need to create a decent pool of soldiers for her to use first. “ “this is disgusting…” Char said as he turned away from the man. He began to walk out of the facility, Revolted. As he was about to reach the door though, he felt a line of ice sliding between the lobes of his brain once more. And a woman’s voice in his ears

“you saw the children in the basement didn’t you?” he didn’t know how to respond should he speak aloud, should he just think? Instead Char simply knodded

“it is monstrous isn’t it. I am scared every day they will come for me….that they will carve me up the same way they did those children” Char swallowed in fear as images of surgeons, doctors, and blood filled his mind, he felt like he was drowning in a horror movie

“please you have to take me away from here” Char stormed back into the building, past the lost souls that wandered the halls, and into the room where Lalah was still being studied, grabbing her by he arm he spoke aloud

“I am captain Charles Aznable, and I will be taking this women here with me, if you want to fight me on it, take it up with my commanding officer Dozle Zabi.” He then pulled the women with him out of the facility. Off into the sunny Californian afternoon they walked Lalah free from that horror

And Char burdened even further, knowing that his mission was to no longer hurt Degwin for the pain that he endured as a young boy, but now he had to kill them all, every Zabi had to die…..for this sin against god and man.

#charma #gundam #sidestory

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quranreadalong · 6 years

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#58, Surah 9

THE QURAN READ-ALONG: DAY 58

(Don’t worry, it’s not blood, it’s I Can’t Believe It’s Not Blood!™ Unlike the very real blood of the disbelievers shed in this surah, LOL!)

Well thots, we’re finally here, at the chronological end of the Quran. Surah nine is called Al-Tawbah (the repentance) and it is the worst surah in the entire book. It is violent, horrifically intolerant, egotistical, and contains very little goodness. It is a manual for imperialism and provided the justification for all manners of brutal Islamic conquests. Can’t wait to write about it!!!!

This is one of the very last suwar of Mohammed’s whole career as a prophet; it was revealed even later than surah 5. Only the very short, three-ayat-long surah 110 comes after it. This is the last complete surah of the Quran, chronologically speaking. So these were Allah’s final revelations. After you read the surah, I think that will speak for itself.

Due to the timeframe here, this surah requires a bit of a long intro and a lot of further explanation throughout. This is from around the year 630 AD, after the Islamic conquest of Mecca, when Mohammed became Hijaz’s Next Top Model and was essentially running the place. His army was now huge, swelled by the ranks of the conquered Quraysh and various Bedouin clans. Almost immediately thereafter he began expanding his sphere of influence via conquest. There are two battles in particular that we’ll talk about this surah. First is the Battle of Hunayn, wherein the Muslim armies raided a city south of Mecca and took its people as slaves. After that, Mohammed’s armies tried and failed to besiege the much larger polytheistic city of Taif into submission. Don’t worry about it right now, we will talk about all of these incidents and more in obnoxious depth!!!

Anyway, around that time, Mohammed ordered his followers to march north to fight “the Byzantines”. Mohammed marched his enormous forces north to the city of Tabouk. He didn’t find any Byzantines there, but he did find many disbelievers minding their damn business and living in peace; he promptly demanded they either convert to Islam, pay him jizya, or die. By pure coincidence, times were a bit rough in Arabia at the time, and a drought had produced a food shortage that caused people to grumble. Mohammed’s forces had also recently lost a battle in the area in embarrassing fashion and his pride was wounded. A curiously great time to force people to humble themselves before you and give you money and supplies. This was the first time Muslims conquered Christian cities (previously they had only conquered Jewish and polytheistic ones). The conquest of Tabouk and previous conquests of Hunayn and Mecca strangled the remaining central Arabian holdout cities like Taif; the city fell that same year. Mohammed destroyed its temple and told its people to “embrace Islam”.

This was the true beginning of the Islamic conquest of Arabia, the results of which would be the total destruction of Arab polytheism and the domination of the Islamic empire over the entire peninsula (and later far beyond that). The surah is, accordingly, essentially a manual for conquering people and forcing them to submit to your armies and your religion. A smaller part of it is concerned with shaming and dooming those Muslims who refused to be part of the conquest. The Good Muslim/Bad Muslim paradigm is firmly established in this surah, and Good Muslims are those who followed Mohammed’s orders to--in his own words--fight against those who do not follow Islam until they are “brought low” and made to pay the jizya tax (or else convert).

Mohammed died around two years after this surah. He didn’t live to see Islam conquer territory outside of Arabia, but his successors would. Let’s read some of his last Allah-inspired thoughts.

We plunge into shit with this surah--we don’t even have the usual basmala (in the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful) that prefaces every other surah, perhaps because Allah sure as fuck ain’t merciful here. The very first line informs disbelievers that, if any of them have treaties with the Muslims, those treaties are going to be over real soon. Such was the value of making a treaty with the Muslim community--Mohammed would declare it null and void on “but they’re EVIL DISBELIEVERS!” grounds.

An Islamic site describes the situation in rather blunt terms:

This proclamation practically reduced the mushriks [polytheists] of Arabia to the position of outlaws and no place of shelter was left for them, for the major part of the country had come under the sway of Islam. As this released the Muslims from the obligations of the treaties made with them and forestalled them, they were driven into a tight corner.

The disbelievers are given four months of freedom (to travel without being attacked). After that, they should be aware that “ye cannot escape Allah” and that “Allah will confound the disbelievers”. If any of them want to complain about this complete and utter bullshit, Mohammed has the following to offer:

Allah is free from obligation to the idolaters, and (so is) His messenger.

Mohammed doesn’t owe disbelievers a goddamn thing and can break treaties with them whenever he damn well chooses. That same ayah also mentions the “painful doom to those who disbelieve”. Kuffar hell counter: 1, and all bad so far. I told y’all this surah was shit.

9:4 is a brief break from the badness and lets us into some much-needed neutral territory. It vaguely says that those people who have (fixed-length) treaties and have “abated nothing of your right” will not have their treaties broken, per se; rather the treaties will run their agreed-upon course and simply not be renewed. Ibn Kathir explains:

Those whose treaty mentioned a specific limited term, then the longest it would extend was to the point of its agreed upon termination date. ... So anyone who had a treaty with Allah's Messenger, it lasted until its specific termination date. However, those in this category were required to refrain from breaking the terms of the agreement with Muslims and from helping non-Muslims against Muslims. This is the type whose peace agreement with Muslims was carried out to its end.

(The tafsir attributed to Ibn Abbas says that this applies to, uh, one clan, one belonging to a tribe called the Banu Kinanah, who got to keep their treaty of nine months. So really they only got an extra few months of peace for not “abating” the Muslims’ rights.) By the way, the “right” was the right of conquest. Non-Muslims could not help anyone being attacked by Mohammed’s forces, even if they were also allied with those being attacked.

But as for the rest, what exactly happens after those four months are up? What will happen to them?

The answer is stated very clearly in 9:5. This is called the “ayah of the sword”. Remember when we came across that “no compulsion in religion” ayah way back when, and the tafsir said “this was abrogated in surah Repentance”? Yeah, Allah changed his mind I guess.

Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free.

Once you’re outside the period of those four months, fucking murder and enslave the polytheists until they become Muslim. What a happy goddamn start to the surah!

This is the worst ayah in the Quran--yes, worse than the rape, worse than the punishments for lewd women, worse than the demented ranting about Jews. The reason for this is because it was fully carried out. Arab polytheists were rendered extinct by Mo & His Friendship Gang.

You’ll find lots of apologists trying to whitewash this, obviously, as it is terrible, saying it only applies to self-defense or whatever. It very clearly does not and I’m not going to insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise. It instructs Muslims to ambush the polytheists and either kill or capture them unless they “embrace Islam”. That’s what it says. Point blank. And that is what Muslims did. I will do a long series of posts on this soon, but this era was defined by raids, battles, sieges, and the like. The tafsir of Ibn Kathir further emphasizes:

do not wait until you find them. Rather, seek and besiege them in their areas and forts, gather intelligence about them in the various roads and fairways so that what is made wide looks ever smaller to them. This way, they will have no choice but to die or embrace Islam

Mohammed was attempting to purge the entire Arabian peninsula of polytheism and he would be successful.

According to tradition, all this was revealed at Mohammed’s request by his son-in-law Ali in Mecca. In addition to breaking their treaties with non-Muslims, Ali announced that polytheists were hereafter barred from the pilgrimage (remember when Mohammed said that barring Muslims from the pilgrimage was fitna? Those were the days...) and that the polytheistic practice of stripping while going around the Kaaba was banned.

Well. This is going just dandy so far. By surah 9′s extremely terrible standards, we come across a good ayah in 9:6, where Muslims are told to preach the Quran to those polytheists who beg them for protection before they’re attacked (and not kill them, so they have time to reflect and hopefully “embrace Islam” before Mohammed’s people come around again). I mean, using people’s fear of death to convert them is slightly sketchy, but as I said, we’re gonna have low standards this surah or else we will literally have zero good verses.

9:7 is a likewise “ehhh” good ayah, saying that now that Allah’s declared open warfare on the polytheists, Muslims aren’t allowed to make new treaties with any of them from this point on. I mean, that’s logical. Hard to be allies with someone you’re ethnically cleansing. The “good” part comes from Allah granting an exception to “those with whom ye made a treaty at the Inviolable Place of Worship” (in Mecca)--those treaties can run their courses as long as they are “upright”.

Some tafsir authors connect this one to 9:4 and assume it is likewise about the Banu Kinanah. A minority opinion states that this is about a treaty made between the Quraysh and a Kinanah clan called the Banu Bakr before the Quraysh surrendered and converted to Islam. In that interpretation, this could run its course by virtue of being signed near a holy site. Most others say it was about the Quraysh themselves; they had a treaty with Mo (which we’ll talk about soon), though it was broken multiple times and then Mo trashed it by conquering Mecca. So maybe this was like... a grace period, or something, concerning those conquered Qurayshi individuals who had not immediately converted upon the city’s surrender. I dunno.

Regardless, the others are all bad people who just pretend to be nice. They’re evil wrongdoers so they don’t get to keep their treaties (bad!). Mohammed says this is okay because the evildoers don’t respect Muslims enough to honor their treaties anyway, so there’s no harm in Muslims breaking the treaties before they get the chance to do it. This is just.... classic Mo. Projection, accusing someone else of trying to harm you while you’re being the aggressor, instilling a victimhood complex in your followers even when they’re running the entire region at this point. We saw this already with the incident that resulted in the battles of Badr and Uhud; we will see it again when talking about Khaybar, Tabouk, Taif, etc. Bad.

We’ll stop there for today since the intro was so long.

I need a drink even though I don’t drink. Christ.

NEXT TIME: “Fight them!”

The Quran Read-Along: Day 58

Ayat: 10

Good: 2 (9:6-7)

Neutral: 1 (9:4)

Bad: 7 (9:1-3. 9:5, 9:8-10)

Kuffar hell counter: 1 (9:3)

⇚ previous day | next day ⇛

#quranreadalong #surah 9 #at tawbah

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armeniaitn · 4 years

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“Apricot Wars:” An Armenian-Azerbaijani Fruit Battle in Moscow

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/economy/apricot-wars-an-armenian-azerbaijani-fruit-battle-in-moscow-38282-19-07-2020/

“Apricot Wars:” An Armenian-Azerbaijani Fruit Battle in Moscow

By Liana Aghajanian

This week saw the heaviest fighting along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border in years, with at least 16 killed on both sides, the destruction of structures along border villages, and the downing of drones.

What followed included efforts to de-escalate tensions, statements from various diplomats like U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who said the U.S. was “deeply concerned,” protests in Baku calling for war, cyber attacks, and various threats to continue the fighting.

But in Russia – where the largest diasporas of both Armenians and Azerbaijanis live, another kind of proxy conflict was boiling over.

The weapon of choice? Apricots.

The fruit fight began when Azerbaijanis bought pallets of perfectly luscious apricots – Armenia’s largest export and treasured national symbol – and filmed themselves destroying the crops by stomping on them – videos of which were shared across social media networks including TikTok and Twitter.

Next, Armenian apricot exporters found themselves in an unexpected jam.

An estimated 50 drivers from Armenia, who had arrived in Moscow carrying tons of ripe apricots, were refused entry by market managers to sell their product at Food City, a large wholesale market in Moscow. One third of the fresh food products found in the capital are sold through the outlet everyday, according to Eurofresh Distribution magazine.

It was unclear where the explicit order to block the trucks and specifically target and prohibit Armenian sellers from entering came from or why (local press have not been able to reach or receive a statement from the owners), but social media users speculated that it was a decision made by the market’s owners, God Nisanov and Zarakh Illiev, wealthy businessmen dubbed the “Russian Real Estate Kings” by Forbes and owners of the conglomerate Kiyevskaya Ploshchad, which the Food City complex falls under.

Both Nisanov and Illiev are natives of Azerbaijan, belonging to the country’s minority Jewish community often known as “Mountain Jews.”

One apricot exporter named Lernik Avagyan told Armenian-language paper Aravot Daily, that an Azerbaijani friend told him that outsiders had frightened locals from purchasing Armenian goods.

“He always used to buy produce from me, but he said that he can’t anymore because he is scared,” Avagyan said.

Various representatives, including those from the Armenian Embassy in Moscow, arrived and attempted to diffuse the situation to no avail. The Armenian ambassador in Russia Vardan Toganyan, told the Russian news agency, RBC, that embassy employees were forcibly escorted by security guards of the market and the cars remained blocked.

Beyond the obvious economic impact – the sheer idea of tons of apricots going to waste was one that didn’t stick well with the Armenian psyche. The apricot, whose scientific name“Prunus Armeniaca,” pointing to its Armenian connection, is a treasured symbol to Armenians worldwide. The orange on the tricolor Armenian flag is often referred to as the “color of an apricot,” and the duduk, an ancient wind instrument said to be indigenous to the country, is made of apricot wood. The annual film festival of Armenia is called the Golden Apricot, and in 2010, Armenia’s entry into the Eurovision song contest was a pop-infused ballad by Eva Rivas called “Apricot Stone,” in which she calls apricots “kisses of the earth, fruits of the sun.”

I’ve even written about the allure of the Armenian apricot, a taste so sweet and rich that it’s impossible to come across apricots that measure up almost anywhere else.

As the Armenian apricot embargo remained in place in Moscow, the fragile fruits were running out of time, and a mass preservation effort began.

Pallets of apricots and plums from Armenia bought and placed in a car trunk. Photo via user Tigran P/Telegram

The news about the fruity melee had spread far and wide on social media networks among the Armenian community in Russia, who quickly mobilized in an effort to support their fellow countrymen, now saddled with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of perishable fruit.

The Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Armenia worked to come up with a plan, coordinating to get four alternative locations where sales could take place, one of which was organized by the Tashir group, owned by Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan. Other points of sales were also opened by Armenian entrepreneurs who owned shopping centers.

“When we realized there was no way to get our people inside, that’s when we interfered and negotiated with some trade centers, to start selling Armenian fruit,” Anna Ohanyan, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Economy in Armenia told me in a call. “But as apricots cannot stay fresh for long, other Armenian compatriots came to help, and so they started buying the apricots.”

A Telegram channel called “Operation Apricot” was launched, which now has over 1,000 members. Several appeals went out to Armenian residents in Moscow to come buy the apricots. One of the main organizers, David Tonoyan, also coordinated apricot donations to hospitals and orphanages in Moscow.

Soon pallets of apricots were now being sold off the back of trucks directly to members of the Armenian community. The crowds continued to grow and the wait to buy products ballooned to around 2 hours.

The fruit blockade had turned into a full blown Armenian apricot festival.

Armenian community members wait in long lines to buy apricots from sellers / Photo by user Armen/Telegram

Free food, including shish kebabs and lavash sandwiches were distributed, musicians showed up, dancing began and the age old tradition of never ending after dinner speeches expressing solidarity and support also commenced. Facebook user Edgar Hambarzdumyan live streamed over 3 hours of the event through his page, filming never ending lines, a full parking lot of stalled cars, and apricot aficionados carrying several pounds of fruit away.

Anna Mazmanyan, who lives in Moscow, was one of Armenian community members who showed up to buy apricots.

“I personally believe that when something happens to an Armenian in any part of the world, if I can, I must react. Especially in the situation where it can cause direct damage to the interests of the Republic of Armenia,” she told me on Facebook.

Mazmanyan, who is the founder of the annual Yerevan Food Fest and the gastronomic project, Gastronomic Camp Armenia, bought 50 kg (equivalent to 110 lbs). She plans to give apricots away to relatives, make jam for the winter as well as sorbet and pie.

Some expressed uneasiness about attempts to undermine sales and limit business based on ethnicity in another country altogether.

“As Russian citizen I am deeply concerned that somebody thinks and feels that he can violate the law of my country and as a tax payer in Russia I do not see clear reaction of the local authorities, and I see that my rights are jeopardized,” she said.

Despite the ongoing serious tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan because of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, relations between the two minority communities in Russia are generally stable, which is why the apricot blockade took many by surprise.

“No one expected this to happen, said Luana Saratikyan, who was involved with organizing efforts along with Tonoyan..

“I think that is an absolutely low act to transfer the conflict to the territory of a third country,” she told me, adding that actions of the Food City management were inciting ethnic hatred. “We condemn this act on the part of our neighbors and call for resolving all issues exclusively through peaceful negotiations.”

Over 16,000 tons of Armenian apricots have already been exported this month according to Ohanyan, with the majority of exports going to Russia. Grown in Armenia’s fertile Ararat Valley, surges in Armenian apricot exports began in 2010 when the Upper Lars border crossing between Georgia and Russia reopened. The fruit, too perishable to be exported overseas, can be found in dry form and jams abroad, including in the U.S. Azerbaijan exports apricots too, with Russia being the top receiving destination for Azerbaijani fruit.

Buying apricots from Armenia/ Image by Tamar Manoukyan/ Instagram Buying apricots from Armenia/ Image by Tamar Manoukyan/ Instagram

As more truck loads of Armenian apricots arrive in Moscow, the new points of sale will run as logistics are figured out if the situation continues.

“This was a really good marketing campaign for us,” Ohanyan said. “Such kinds of provocations don’t prove successful for them, they just prove the opposite.”

Dining in Diaspora is a project documenting the complex legacy of Armenian food in the diaspora. Follow on Instagram and Facebook

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Armenians #Karabakh #Yerevan #Economy

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xtruss · 4 years

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Opinion

Aran World Distances Itself From West’s Confrontational Policy Towards China!

July 9, 2020 | Sputnik

China remains a reliable political and economic partner to the Arab states. The Arab world supports China regarding the pandemic, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and is not going to participate in the Western anti-Chinese campaign. This can be concluded from the 9th ministerial meeting of the Sino-Arab Cooperation Forum held via video-conference on 6 July.

China and the Arab states established strategic partnership relations in 2018, at the previous 8th ministerial meeting. The current meeting demonstrates the parties have managed to strengthen strategic coordination and coherence. This is also true regarding the current joint struggle against the pandemic, as well as the implementation of major economic projects and the support for each other on political issues, particularly, on the situation in the Middle East. According to the Foreign Ministers of China, 21 Arab states, Arab League members, and the Arab League Secretary-General, all this has contributed to deepening the Sino-Arab strategic partnership.

The agreements reached during the meeting have opened up new opportunities to develop Sino-Arab relations in various fields, Zhou Rong, a political scientist from the Renmin University of China, noted.

"This is one of the meetings that unites the hearts of governments, medical workers in China and Arab states. Future cooperation between the parties will be even more mutually beneficial, covering joint projects in various fields. I believe that political relations between China and the Arab countries will constantly improve; the results of economic, cultural and scientific-technical cooperation will be impressive," he said.

“Although the Arab states are currently China’s largest source of crude oil imports, there is also Sino-Arab cooperation in the field of clean energy sources. Dreams of space exploration of many Arab countries are supported by Chinese technology; moreover, Arab countries’ population is very interested in learning Chinese. Sino-Arab trade and economic cooperation remain in place during the pandemic. For example, Ningbo successfully hosted an online export exhibition of Chinese goods for Saudi Arabia. Recently, Chinese and Egyptian musicians gave a live joint symphony concert on the 5G network. This is a kind of symbol of the two countries’ rapprochement. Currently, China and the Arab world are characterised not only by mutual political and economic support, as well as cultural interaction. The pandemic has shown the Arab world who is its most valuable friend. For its part, China has also found support from the Arab world on issues affecting its key interests.”

The Arab participants in the meeting supported China in protecting its sovereignty and territorial integrity. They supported China’s positions on Hong Kong and Xinjiang and opposed anyone’s interference in China’s internal affairs.

Buildings are seen above Hong Kong and Chinese flags, as pro-China supporters celebration after China's parliament passes national security law for Hong Kong, in Hong Kong, China June 30, 2020

The summit was held in the context of the tough confrontation between the West and China, while discussions have shown that the Arab states are not part of this confrontation. Moreover, according to Muhammed Mazen, an Egyptian political scientist and expert on Arab-Chinese relations, Sino-Arab cooperation is only getting stronger:

"Sino-Arab relations are rooted in the far past. They continue evolving under various conditions and circumstances, proving their strength today. The prospects for developing these relations are still high. Even during the pandemic outbreak, the Arab states, unlike Western countries, didn’t try to blame China for everything. On the contrary, they offered help and cooperation. China did the same when the virus spread peaked in Arab countries. This says a lot about the parties’ mutual support, both political, economic and humanitarian. Therefore, even in recent months, one could notice how close China’s relations with the Arab world have become,” he said.

"As for the Silk Road project, its implementation hasn’t been affected in any way by the pandemic outbreak. Arab countries, primarily Egypt, are still part of the project. Other commercial projects carried out by Chinese companies in Egypt are also successfully developing. Despite the escalating tensions between China and the West, a new page has been opened in Sino-Arab cooperation, which is only strengthening. Moreover, the parties are actively establishing contacts in areas fundamentally new for joint cooperation, such as energy, space, and innovative technologies."

Arabs are pragmatically establishing commercial ties with China, protecting them from political contradictions, Maria Pakhomova from the Centre for Arab Studies at Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said:

"The Arab world is quite careful in matters of China-West confrontation. The Arab states have opted for a careful policy. They recognize the absolute priority of security in international relations. Unlike the West, which has a destructive position, the Arab countries are aimed at cooperation."

It was important for China to gain the support of the Arab world in matters that are adding tension to its relations with the West. Of course, it got such diplomatic support, Maria Pakhomova believes. This is one of the main outcomes of the forum. The expert noted that China has met the expectations of the Arab participants in the meeting:

"This forum has been scheduled. It summarized the planned cooperation. Pandemic and human rights issues were on the agenda as current issues. The existence of such a mechanism of interaction with China as the Sino-Arab cooperation forum is important for Arab states. China is the leading player in the Middle East. It’s impossible to imagine the Arab states’ implementation of their regional and global policies without China’s participation and support.”

Mahmud Raya, editor-in-chief of the China in Arab Eyes portal, spoke about Lebanon’s role in China’s Middle East policy, as well as the importance of economic cooperation between the two countries for Lebanon’s revival:

"Lebanon can be called a window to the Middle East for Chinese companies. Having established strong economic ties with Beirut, Beijing will be able to move further, towards the Persian Gulf monarchies, to North Africa. But it’s easier and more profitable to start with the economically weak Lebanon, which needs a new investment flow and economic relations development. In Lebanon, Chinese companies are already establishing cooperation in various fields: energy, raw materials extraction, transport networks development, consumer goods industry. A large number of Lebanese ministries are taking part in negotiations with Chinese partners and investors. Meanwhile, going from negotiations to establishing cooperation is not easy. At this stage, we are going to face a large number of negotiations, approvals and consultations. Therefore, I think we’ll see real action and results from Lebanese-Chinese cooperation next year. But the first step has been taken – and this is already extremely important. I’d like to point out that the current Lebanese government is aimed at even stronger cooperation with China than with the EU or the United States. This can be easily explained: unlike Western states, China offers more favourable conditions, not trying to influence the republic’s domestic policy. Moreover, the Lebanese economy is now too dependent on IMF credit tranches and therefore on the United States. And this dependence should be eliminated,” he said.

Lebanon is one of many Arab countries that gets help from China to combat the pandemic. In general, China’s cooperation with the Arab world in the fight against the pandemic has strengthened the parties’ strategic cooperation, Zhou Rong believes:

"During the pandemic, China and the Arab world share grief and sorrows, fight side by side, demonstrate solidarity and mutual assistance. The two parties’ relations are entering their highest peak. In particular, during China’s most difficult times in fighting the epidemic, the Arab countries’ leaders expressed their strongest political support for China. After the pandemic outbreak in the Arab states, President Xi Jinping held telephone conversations or sent messages to the leaders of several Arab countries to express his willingness for mutual assistance and support, as well as joint overcoming difficulties. This has resulted, in particular, in health experts’ holding videoconferences with 21 Arab countries, and sending groups of Chinese doctors to 8 Arab states,” the expert pointed out.

This picture taken on February 8, 2020 shows a sign in Lao and Chinese referring to the construction of the first rail line linking China to Laos, a key part of Beijing's 'Belt and Road' project across the Mekong, in Luang Prabang.

“I’d like to point out China’s fundamental support for the Palestinian people’s just cause to restore their legitimate rights. At the same time, China provided the Palestinians with medical supplies to combat the pandemic, sent a group of medical specialists to Palestine, and provided funds to help Palestinian refugees. Regardless of the changing global situation, China and the Arab world have always been and remain good partners. Collaboration in fighting the pandemic has strengthened the strategic partnership between China and the Arab world. It’s also worth noting that the Arab states support China on issues of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang. They are not influenced by the anti-Chinese campaign unleashed by the United States and other Western countries.”

At the forum, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted that China and the Arab states had ramped up cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative; many key projects had been successfully launched. In 2019, bilateral trade increased by 9 percent year on year, the minister said. He suggested opening express channels to exchange necessary specialists and deepen cooperation on industrial value chains. Wang Yi also called on both to strive for high quality, sustainable development and improving the population’s material living conditions in the process of building the Belt and Road.

— The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

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therainroguefanfiction · 4 years

Text

❉ 139 Dreams (Himchan Kim) Natural

📑 Table of Contents

Genre: Fluff, AU ☁

Word Count: 1,658 ☁

Pairing: Reader x Himchan ☁

World: B.A.P ☁

Author’s Note: This was written BEFORE the controversy surrounding him which, to my knowledge, has not been proven to be true or false.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

You’re not sure why it happened, but you woke up early that morning having to rush to the bathroom. Your stomach was upset and had no issue letting you know by giving you violent diarrhea and eventually forcing you to throw up. Had you eaten something bad? Had the flu decided to pay you a visit? You didn’t have a clue. All you knew was that whatever it was, it had hit you like a ten-ton truck.

You did your best to fight it, trying to get some more sleep, but it wouldn’t be forgotten so easily. Your legs started to cramp, throbbing just enough to let you experience discomfort. It crawled up to your hips and you quickly realized that sleep would be nearly impossible. You tried listening to music, watching videos on YouTube, even browsing Tumblr, but none of it helped to ease you into dreamland.

You tossed and turned, catching five minutes of sleep at a time before having to rush back to the bathroom. As the hours ticked by, you started to feel more and more sick to your stomach until you were spewing violently into the trashcan.

Now, you prided yourself on your iron stomach and immune system, and you could only recall one memory of you throwing up in the past and that was brought on by a bad panic attack before you were out on the right medication for it. It was such a rare occurrence that it seemed almost dooming that you were throwing up now. We’re you really that sick? Was this the end?

You forced yourself to the kitchen to get a Pepsi, hoping that it would help settle your stomach, even just a little. On your way back to your room, however, your legs started to wobble and the room began to spin – it wasn’t long before you hit the ground, the soda spilling onto the tile of the kitchen.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

Himchan pulled into the parking lot of the apartment building, sitting in his car for a moment to scan the area. It was raining outside, the air chilly as summer slowly transformed into fall.

He glanced at his phone, re-reading the text message from Junhong for the hundredth time. He was a perfectionist and every move he made was calculated, well thought out.

The message read: ‘Hyung, the mark is apartment 350 in the southwest building. I’ve scouted this place for months, and the owner always leaves the apartment at noon to visit the cat cafe, staying there for exactly two hours before returning home.’

He glanced at his watch. The time was twelve-thirty. His eyes scanned the parking lot once more, making sure it was empty before exiting the car. The rain gently bounced off his leather trench coat, the sound helping his mind to stay in a relaxed state.

He had done this a thousand times over, but there was always room for mistakes. He knew that well and made sure to remind himself of that. He ran for the stairwell, shaking out his coat once he was under the roof.

These apartments were fairly open, allowing anyone to come up without rhyme or reason. That made his job much easier, as did the fact that apartment 350 was located in the back corner. He remained hyper-aware of his surroundings as he approached the door, raising a fist to knock. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Junhong’s Intel, but he’d rather be safe than sorry. Spending twenty years behind bars for various robberies across the country was not something he was interested in.

He knocked again, ears listening for any sign of movement. When he picked up none, he pulled out a small black case the size of his hand, flipping it open to reveal several lock picking tools. It took him only a minute to twist the lock.

All the members of his crew had been trained to pick locks, it came with the territory, but Himchan was by far the fastest and most talented in that area.

His hand wrapped around the doorknob, twisting it until it clicked. As he slid the door open, he froze at what he found inside.

You were still sprawled across the floor, half your body on the cold tile of the kitchen while the other half rested on the tan carpet. What little bit of soda that hadn’t been soaked up by your clothes had made it halfway across the kitchen floor.

Himchan knew he should turn around and leave, but he had always been the more caring of his crew. It was his biggest weakness, and he couldn’t bring himself to leave you like that. He quickly shut and locked the door before approaching you, his gloved fingers pressing against your wrist. He sighed in relief when he felt your pulse.

Your face was flushed and you were breathing heavy, groaning softly every once in a while. He didn’t even have to touch your skin with his own to feel how heated your body was. Should he call an ambulance and then leave? What if you died in the time it took for the ambulance to get there? There was also the chance that they would find him suspicious and take him in for questioning.

‘No,’ he shook his head, ‘Out of the question.’

Gently rolling you onto your back, he slid his arms under your body and picked you up, heading down the hall. All of the doors were open, so it was easy for him to find your bedroom. He set you down on the bed and sighed, knowing he couldn’t leave you in your sticky, wet clothes. Chances are you would only get sicker.

Himchan felt uncomfortable undressing you, but he was professional about it, keeping his mind on the task at hand. Your underwear was dry, which he was thankful for, but his eyes did take in your beautiful skin, not covered by a bra. He was gentle ad he dressed you, taking his time so as not to disturb your rest.

Once you were tucked under the covers he headed into the kitchen to get a damp towel to rest on your forehead before he started to clean up the spilled soda. Taking care of others had always been ad natural to him as breathing and, despite being a well-known thief, he did care about the well being of others.

Once the kitchen was clean, he rifled through the fridge to make some chicken and rice. While the chicken was boiling, his phone vibrated in his pocket. The name ‘Yongguk’ flashed across the screen.

“Yeah?”

“Did it go South?’ Yongguk questioned.

Himchan glanced at his watch. He had been at the apartment for an hour now, no wonder the boss was worried. “I ran into something… unexpected.”

“Do you need backup?”

“No, I can handle it. I’ll return soon.”

“Be safe, Himchan.”

The line went dead and he hung his head, staring at the boiling water in the pot. How long did he intend to stay? He doubted you would be very welcoming if you found a strange man in your apartment. He decided he would wait for the food to finish cooking before leaving.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

The smell of food drifted to your nose, luring you from your sleep. Your eyes fluttered open, stomach grumbling painfully. How could you feel so sick to your stomach but so hungry at the same time? You didn’t understand it, but it was miserable. Your entire body ached, from your toes all the way to your throbbing skull.

The red numbers on the clock read ten past three in the afternoon. What time was it when you were last awake? You couldn’t recall, your mind hazy. You slowly swung your legs over the side of the bed, pulling yourself to your feet. Your legs were still a bit wobbly and weak, but you felt stable enough to make it to the kitchen.

You clutched onto the wall for support, slowly inching towards the kitchen. The smell of boiled chicken got stronger, making your stomach do flips. You felt like you were starving, but at the same time, you were scared to eat anything.

Rounding the corner, you paused, rubbing at your eyes. Were you hallucinating now? A man stood in front of the stove, covered in black from head to toe. You could tell his body was toned through the tight sweater and jeans that hugged his body. If your face wasn’t already flushed from illness, you’d be blushing.

“Am I dead?” You suddenly asked, feeling your head swim as he spun around quickly.

Himchan mentally cursed, running over the various ways this scenario could pan out. His eyes scanned your red face, realizing that you were still very much sick. “You shouldn’t be out of bed,” he scolded, keeping his cool. If he acted like he belonged there, hopefully, you wouldn’t question it.

“I’m miserable,” you whined, lips tugging down. Why did that sad look tug at his heartstrings?

“I know,” he responded softly, cautiously approaching you. “It’ll pass, but you need to rest.”

You closed the distance, resting your head on his chest. His body tensed up at the contact, but you didn’t notice. “You’re warm,” you mumbled into the fabric.

He gently picked you up, carrying you back to your room and tucking you under the comforter.

“Are you my guardian angel?” You muttered, struggling to keep your eyes open.

Despite himself, Himchan smiled softly before pressing his lips to your warm forehead. “Yeah… I’m your guardian angel.”

“You’re really cute,” your voice was barely audible as you drifted off.

Himchan chuckled softly, sending Yongguk a quick text, ‘I won’t be returning tonight. Don’t worry, everything is under control.’

As bad as Yongguk wanted to send one of the other members to check on him, he trusted Himchan and, deep down, his instincts told him that the male was not in any danger.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: . ☁

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iol247 · 4 years

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I’ve read the plans to reopen the economy. They’re scary.

There is no plan to return to normal.

By Ezra Klein on April 10, 2020 8:20 am

Over the past few days, I’ve been reading the major plans for what comes after social distancing. You can read them, too. There’s one from the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, the left-leaning Center for American Progress, Harvard University’s Safra Center for Ethics, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Romer.

I thought, perhaps naively, that reading them would be a comfort — at least then I’d be able to imagine the path back to normal. But it wasn’t. In different ways, all these plans say the same thing: Even if you can imagine the herculean political, social, and economic changes necessary to manage our way through this crisis effectively, there is no normal for the foreseeable future. Until there’s a vaccine, the United States either needs economically ruinous levels of social distancing, a digital surveillance state of shocking size and scope, or a mass testing apparatus of even more shocking size and intrusiveness.

The AEI, CAP, and Harvard plans aren’t identical, but they’re similar. All of them feature a period of national lockdown — in which extreme social distancing is deployed to “flatten the curve” and health and testing capacity is surged to “raise the line.” That’s phase one. Phase two triggers after a set period (45 days for CAP, three months for Harvard) or, in the AEI plan, after 14 days of falling cases and a series of health supply markers.

All of them then imagine a phase two, which relaxes — but does not end — social distancing while implementing testing and surveillance on a mass scale. This is where you must begin imagining the almost unimaginable.

The CAP and Harvard plans both foresee a digital pandemic surveillance state in which virtually every American downloads an app to their phone that geotracks their movements, so if they come into contact with anyone who later is found to have Covid-19, they can be alerted and a period of social quarantine can begin. Similarly, people would scan QR codes when boarding mass transit or entering other high-risk public areas. And GPS tracking could be used to enforce quarantine on those who test positive with the disease, as is being done in Taiwan.

To state the obvious: The technological and political obstacles are massive. While similar efforts have borne fruit in Singapore and South Korea, the US is a very different country, with a more mistrustful, individualistic culture. Already, polling shows that 70 percent of Republicans, and 46 percent of Democrats, strongly oppose using cellphone data to enforce quarantine orders.

The CAP plan tries to answer these concerns, but in trying to imagine an answer, it shows the difficulty of the task. It’s worth quoting the CAP proposal at length:

The entity that hosts the data must be a trusted, nonprofit organization—not private technology companies or the federal government. The app could be developed for a purely public health nonprofit entity such as the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)—an organization that represents state health officials—which would host the data. Congress or foundations could provide funding to develop and operate the technology. States licensing the app could provide ongoing operational funding to ASTHO, provided states receive federal funding for this purpose.

• Additional protections must include the following:

• The amount of data needed and shared must be minimized

• This system must be transparent

• Data must be collected, secured, and stored within the United States

• Data must be automatically deleted after every 45 days

• The sharing of data with the federal government, except for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), must be prohibited

• The sharing of data with state and local government agencies that are not public health agencies must be prohibited

• The sharing of data with third parties and the sale of data must be prohibited

• Any data shared publicly must be anonymized

As a condition of receiving a COVID-19 test in the future, individuals may be required to download the app, which would include their test result. For others, the app would be voluntary, although the vast majority of people could be expected to download it to see if there are cases in their neighborhood or near their workplace.

I’m not here to say that this, or anything else, is impossible. But it is light-years beyond the kind of political leadership and public-private coordination we’ve seen thus far. Who is going to spearhead the effort? President Donald Trump? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Bill Gates? Who is trusted enough, in this country in this moment, to shape this? And even if they could pass it, can we build it, and do so quickly? Force adherence to it, and quickly? Are we really going to deny tests to anyone who refuses to download the surveillance app? And what about communities with less digital savvy?

The alternative to mass surveillance is mass testing. Romer’s proposal is to deploy testing on a scale no one else is contemplating — 22 million tests per day — so that the entire country is being tested every 14 days, and anyone who tests positive can be quickly quarantined. He shows, in a series of useful simulations, that even if the test has a high false-negative rate, the retesting is sufficient to keep the virus contained, and thus the country can return to normalcy rapidly. Of the various plans, this one seems likeliest to permit a true and rapid economic recovery.

But it is hard to imagine a testing effort of this scale, too. So far, America is struggling to get into the millions of tests per week. This plan requires tens of millions per day. Most experts I’ve spoken to doubt that’s realistic anytime soon, though some believe it’s possible, eventually. So far, we’ve added testing capacity largely by repurposing existing labs and platforms. To add more, we need to build more labs, more machines, more tests. And there are already shortages of reagents, swabs, and health workers.

But even if those constraints could be overcome, how are these 22 million daily tests going to be administered? By whom? How do we enforce compliance? If you refuse to get tested, are you fined? Jailed? Cut off from government benefits? Would the Supreme Court consider a proposal like this constitutional?

The AEI proposal is the closest thing to a middle path between these plans. It’s more testing, but nothing approaching Romer’s hopes. It’s more contact tracing, but it doesn’t envision an IT-driven panopticon. But precisely for that reason, what it’s really describing is a yo-yo between extreme lockdown and lighter forms of social distancing, continuing until a vaccine is reached.

This, too, requires some imagination. Will governors who’ve finally, at great effort, reopened parts of their economies really keep throwing them back into lockdown every time ICUs begin to fill? Will Trump have the stomach to push the country back into quarantine after he’s lifted social distancing guidelines? What if unemployment is 17 percent, and his approval rating is at 38 percent?

And even if the political hurdles could be cleared, it’s obvious, reading the AEI proposal, that there’ll be no “V-shaped recovery” of the economy. Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner who helped craft the plan, says he thinks something like 80 percent of the economy will return — that may sound like a lot, but it’s an economic collapse of Great Depression proportions.

I don’t want anyone to mistake this as an argument for surrendering to the disease. As unlikely as these futures may be, I think the do-nothing argument is even less plausible: It imagines that we simply let a highly lethal virus kill perhaps millions of Americans, hospitalize tens of millions more, and crush the health system, while the rest of us go about our daily economic and social business. That is, in my view, far less likely than the construction of a huge digital surveillance state. I care about my privacy, but not nearly so much as I care about my mother.

My point isn’t to criticize these plans when I have nothing better to offer. Indeed, my point isn’t to criticize them at all. It’s simply to note that these aren’t plans for returning to anything even approaching normal. They either envision life under a surveillance and testing state of dystopian (but perhaps necessary!) proportions, or they envision a long period of economic and public health pain, as we wrestle the disease down only to see it roar back, as seems to be happening in Singapore.

What’s even scarier to consider is that the debate between these plans is far beyond the political debate we’re actually having. As of now, the White House has neither chosen nor begun executing on a plan of its own. That’s a terrible abdication of leadership, but reading through the various proposals, you can see why it’s happened. Imagine you’re the president of the United States in an election year. Which of these futures, with all its costs and risks and pain, would you want to try and sell to the American people?

One final takeaway from all this: If there is literally anything more we can possibly do to accelerate the development of vaccines or therapeutics, we should do it.

Update: After I published this piece, Apple and Google jointly announced a project to embed voluntary contact tracing functionality in their phones, and make the data interoperable across iOS and Android. Read my colleagues at Recode and the Verge for more on that (and here’s some smart analysis from Casey Newton). And Danielle Allen, the head of Harvard’s Safra Center, wrote to tell me that they’ll have a more detailed plan coming next week, and it will differ in some ways from the papers they’ve released so far.

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2020/4/10/21215494/coronavirus-plans-social-distancing-economy-recession-depression-unemployment?__twitter_impression=true

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