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So I’ve been thinking a bit more on the Singers design. Specifically the Forms of Power and Warform. (Maybe a bit of workform?)

So they always mention how the emotions of humans are on their face, and this seems a bit strange to them. I’ve always associated it with sort of a limited mobility in the face. So one thing lead to another, and it got me thinking that what if the carapace actually included the entirety of the upper jaw.

This would make it harder for them to express themselves with their face, and would then have to heavily rely on those rhythms to emote. I think there is some flesh there so they arent like completely made of bone, and can make limited expressions, but nothing like humans can. 

I am thinking there are exception to these in cases like mateform/dullform and some other common forms. But still most of their expression would stay in their lips rather than their eyes as they still have a carapace skull plate, it is just thinner and smaller so it allows the flesh to move a bit more human-like.

Computers are very simple you see we take the hearts of dead stars and we flatten them into crystal chips and then we etch tiny pathways using concentrated light into the dead star crystal chips and if we etch the pathways just so we can trick the crystals into doing our thinking for us hope this clears things up.

Principles of Asexual Heredity in the Phyrexian Organism

We know these things for sure about Phyrexian reproductive biology:

Phyrexians reproduce asexually; it is well known that one drop of oil, from one individual, is enough to birth a population of offspring (such as all of New Phyrexia) or convert a non-Phyrexian organism.

Phyrexians natively born of the oil ("core-born") inherit mnemonic and phenotypic (appearance) information from the oil that created them. For example, core-born Phyrexians of the Orthodoxy naturally develop porcelain metal; it is an inherited, lineage-specific trait. The oil also carries ancestral knowledge such as the Phyrexian language and echoes of history.

The five suns of Mirrodin somehow caused the originally mono-black lineage of Phyrexian oil to splinter into five colored lineages. They may have all arisen from one drop of oil, but they are phenotypically diverse.

(Little canon data is given about the genealogies of core-born newts, but it would most logically follow that Phyrexians descend from single-parent lines, a family tree with continually forking branches and no unions of mating as with sexually reproducing organisms.)

The mechanism I propose for the diversification of Phyrexians on Mirrodin is mana-induced mutagenesis. As a deeply magical material, it follows that Phyrexian oil is prone to being influenced by concentrated sources of mana, such as the suns of Mirrodin (which were trapped in the core, in close proximity to the progenitor oil, during the birth of New Phyrexia). Exposure to mana can thus cause de novo mutation in glistening oil that manifests as novel phenotypic traits in resulting Phyrexians. These mutations are not random, guiding phenotypes to align with the color causing the mutation.

Then there is the issue of inheritance via phyresis, or compleating another organism which was not originally Phyrexian by introducing Phyrexian genetic material into its body. To keep it simple I will begin with mono-color infections: an organism is infected with oil from a Phyrexian whose lineage traits (i.e. white-aligned Orthodoxy lineage, porcelain) may not match their own color identity.

Hypothesis: Phenotype (what color/type of Phyrexian an infected individual becomes) is determined solely by the color of infection, not the subject's own colors. Crucially this isn't the same as color identity; i.e. one can be a porcelain Phyrexian and still have a Boros identity by gaining red-aligned values or retaining them from a pre-compleation life, even though their phenotype is white only. (Much like how elves are associated with green mana, but Simic-identity elves exist.) This phenotype color, in turn, is also what would be passed down to any newts the turned individual creates, or subjects they themselves infect.

MOM corroborates this hypothesis. A mono-black-aligned human, upon exposure to Progress Engine oil, becomes a Phyrexian with a pure blue-aligned phenotype. The changes to their color identity are additive--they retain black alignment--but their phenotype is blue only. All the transforming creatures of MOM follow this pattern.

However, Planeswalkers in ONE did not. For example, Jace was infected by Vraska, who had both black color identity and a black/Thanes-aligned phenotype, but spontaneously developed eyestalks and other traits characteristic of blue Phyrexians from the Progress Engine.

New hypothesis: Individuals with a strong enough internal concentration of mana, i.e. Planeswalkers, cause oil to mutate in vivo to align with their own color, much like how the suns mutated oil in Mirrodin's core. This further shows that mana-induced mutagenesis is color-specific. This should however create a new blue lineage, independent of the Progress Engine, also spawned of blue mana but not necessarily identical. I do not have an explanation for Jace's resemblance to the Progress Engine besides convergent "evolution."

Proposed further study (not ethics-approved): Infect a colorless Planeswalker, i.e. Ugin, with colored oil to test whether a null color identity still has mutagenic effects.

To complicate this, though, we also have examples of Phyrexians who are chimeras of multiple colors, combining traits of different lineages. Vishgraz was assembled with material (genetic and otherwise) from a white, a green, and a black Phyrexian. It makes sense that Phyrexians put together in this patchwork way could have a combination phenotype. Atraxa was not assembled from scratch, but infected with four separate colors at once. Maybe there are just four types of oil circulating in her body?

I am, of course, interested in inheritance. If these Phyrexians show combined phenotypes, what colored trait(s) do they actually pass down? Do they have individual "cells" that are still only white, only green, only black, etc., or did the colors somehow combine on the most basic hereditary unit level? Thankfully, we actually do have an example of a "chimera" Phyrexian asexually producing core-born offspring: Ixhel.

Ixhel shares multiple colors with Atraxa, not only in her color identity but also apparent phenotype (she has both Orthodoxy porcelain and Swarm copper). Two possibilities here: 1) She truly inherited both genetically; Atraxa passes down multiple colors when she reproduces. 2) Her "core" physiology is still rooted in one color, i.e. white porcelain, and the green parts were added after the fact. I don't have an answer for this, but it's intriguing to consider.

Proposed further study: Attempt to isolate the smallest "unit" of Phyrexian heredity (one single nanobot of the oil) and test if it can only store information about one color, or multiple. See if a germ is formed from only one of these units, as with eukaryotic zygotes, or from multiple.

My theories of Phyrexian reproductive biology remain highly speculative, but every new piece of data adds fuel to this fire, and I have plenty to elaborate on in later posts. If only the interplanar ethics committee would stop delaying my research.

First block: inaccurate in genre of game, but yes.

I saw question marks in the next block and do not know what the question was.

In most video games, players are…weird. They simply don't treat the in-game world the same as they do the real world.

No question to answer.

I never said that they are limited to human capacities, just that they can't use magic.

The portrait/camera exploit takes upwards of 6-8 real world hours to achieve per camera. The poor guy does not care enough to do that for his own gains let alone for the benefits of a tutorial.

Separate functions. The time says that it is 7PM, but depending on the time of year, that could be dark, twilight, or sunny.

No question to answer in this block.

This video tutorial has a male speaker who shows screen caps numerous times during it...this tutorial was recommended to be watched before you started the game, but man...is this really the best tutorial for the game there is?

[I discovered 54, not actually the name of the game…it’s like twelve digits or something, but it ends and starts with 54, a few months ago.

Rumors about the game followed the release of FDR, Full Dive Rigs, and the legislation around them. This game, which was supposedly on the dark web, ignored the legislation. It gave you the full spectrum of sensations as if it were real and it boasted extremely realistic AI. I was naturally curious about such a thing.

Normally...well...legally, FD games leave out the sense of smell and almost leave out the sense of touch to the point it basically doesn't exist. 54/Eternal Soul/The Game doesn't leave out those senses. It seems almost entirely real, although the game is kind enough to warn you that if you launch the game, you do void the warranty on your FDR.

The NPC AI is advanced, scarily so. When the game launched, things like quests weren't even a thing, it took someone an in-game month to convince the King of the starting area that it was a better idea to keep the eternal souls preoccupied with even menial tasks than it was to just let them have free reign. They have nations, and laws, and politics, and even strange things like plumbing and gardening as options to do. Though a lot of people do complain that the game requires you to learn how to do things...like, there is no 'slash' skill, you have to figure out how to use a sword yourself. There is no 'blacksmithing' talent, you have to know how to do it. It's useful for building real-world skills, but its not the most fun decision. Especially since the languages in the game are likewise something players don't just get translated for them. That is usually was prevents people from playing the game after checking it out. I started this with something in mind...right, the AI is difficult to distinguish. So, the only way to tell a player from an NPC is through an injury. Players, with our characters 'made of stone sculpted by the gods', naturally don't bleed. But the NPCs, being normal Humans, do. Well, that is speaking a real language, logging out, or leveling up. Though some NPC scholars have begun to learn some of the more prevalent languages of the player base: English, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Hindi.

The next thing I guess to mention is that the game has some weird time-dilation thing going on. In-game time is roughly 10 times real-world time. That is to say, for every day that passes for you outside of the game, ten passes inside of the game. The game itself recommends that players stop playing for an hour to three for every 10 hours they are in-game. There have been some rumors of some people who will just keep playing after that and getting some sort of cognitive issues, so I recommend following that advice personally. Besides, who could play a game for that long and not want a break?

Okay, so next on this tutorial, now that we've gotten the weirdness of the game out of the way, is character creation. So, when you login...I forgot something, right, so this is a hardcore game, obviously. If the senses and lack of player-aiding systems were anything to go by, but what I mean is that this game can only be downloaded onto each FDR once, and each character is associated with the FDR (though there is a process to transfer your account to another machine by contacting the game support team, I've never done it personally but they are apparently pretty quick about it), and if your character dies, the game will brick your FDR after safely logging you out. Unless you've got a lot of money, you only have one life in this game.

Okay, now, character creation. So, when you load into the game, it will ask you a bunch of standard settings questions; 'Do you want your vision corrected/normalized?', 'Do you want limbs restored?', 'Would you like to turn off colorblindness?', etc. But it also has a few more unique questions; 'Would you like Anhydrosis repaired?', 'Would you like Ansomia fixed?'. You know, fixing the senses which normally aren't in FD games. I never encountered those, as I don't have those issues, but apparently, it was very interesting for the people who do.

So, then, you sculpt your character! You sort of carve them out of stone or clay, atleast that's what it felt analogous for to me, and there is an option to use your real world face. Which doesn't always seem to work, so interesting theory there, some players did a volunteer study and they think it doesn't create what you look like, but rather how you see yourself. Some people's will look better or worse than they actually are, some will be spot on, others will be minorly off in some way, etc. Others who have played this game with multiple characters, and the 'sculptor', recommends using that as the baseline, since you actually feel your body, it can be majorly disorientating if you aren't actually in something similar to how you are in real life. That and the fact that you have to be human-like. Though, if that is not your cup of tea, you can change colorations; like you can have black sclera with crimson eyes like my edgelord friend. You can change some features; like pointed ears and fangs like my edgelord friend. You can also create more fur if you get cold easily or give yourself claws. Supposedly the 'sculptor', someone who gets paid to make characters for people, they don't play the game to my knowledge, has created characters with extra eyes, fingers, gills, one with a tail, and supposedly one with wings. (They have ignored all of my messages for statements on those allegations)

During this time you will see yourself in a void, in-game, other players and NPCs will see you in front of a stone pillar under the castle of what used to be the capital of Thalassia (They moved because the players were unruly) as a small golden light floating around your pillar. Fun fact, the light roughly corresponds to where your spleen should be, some weird math went on to figure that out.

Anyways, once your character is made, you should see a cutscene, which should show your true environment. Your little light floats into the stone pillar, which then has the parts that are not a part of your avatar disintegrating into dust leaving behind your stony form (which has generously been auto-applied basic clothing) that begins to spread out color and 'not-stoniness' from the point your light entered. As the cutscene ends, you take on the first-person POV, sorta clipping through the back of the head. Your senses will begin to exist properly over the next few minutes.

Now, you get this fantastic HUD, which includes only a timer counting down in the top left (when the game was released, supposedly it started at the time for 30 in-game years) under which is a logout button which you can 'press', and an invisible-to-everyone-else attribute screen. It should have a 1 in everything and you should feel like you are extremely vulnerable, because you are. You can 'touch' that screen to move it, though I recommend getting used to the thought based interactions with it and placing it into your HUD proper. I place mine in the top right.

So, there are a number of HUD settings I recommend changing immediately, but first, exit from the cellar. Find a guard, and then logout in front of them. That is because all of the settings are in the main menu. I personally think that was a god-awful design decision, but I also have not created an FD game with realistic sense, graphics, and AI, so who am I to judge?

I recommend 'thought commands' being toggled on. I bound my logout button to the thought 'logout1' so I don't accidentally do that when I just consider logging out, but you should bind it to whatever you want. Next, I recommend adding in the souls bar (the xp bar) somewhere on your hud as an element, not a display. The floating screens are displays and I just hate having to interact with them.

Anyways, next enabling your health bar is useful, again, I would make it an element. You can, through that setting here, enable various floating numbers. As you can see here, I prefer to just have a number over my entire bar denoting total and max, as well as a warning that I am dealing 0 damage.

Now, you will notice that there are a few locked options for you, this game does have some microtransactions, but they are solidly useful and cheap. 25¢ a pop, the most frustrating thing about the microtransactions is actually paying them. This game is not exactly legal, so you have to pay using some dark web currency bs, but it is worth it.

The options are Clock (Real-World), Clock (In-Game), Clock (Day-Night), Health Bar (Ally), Health Bar (Neutral), Health Bar (Enemy), and Compass. Those are essential, at least in my humble opinion. The Clocks have a variety of customizations to them, you can have them as displays bound to your wrist like a watch, or you can have them as elements. These are the one thing that I think works better as a display than an element (one of the few things that you are given the choice of). The various health bar options will simply just be a health bar, next to, above, or wrapped around their heads. You can have it set so that it only appears based on proximity or if damage was dealt from one to the other. The compass is just useful, being able to walk in a straight line is always nice, it is magnetic north, but it isn't fooled by nearby magnets.

There are a few other options that change the game to a degree; Mini-map, Awareness (Sound), Awareness (Vision), Senses (Visual), Senses (Auditory), Senses (Tactile), Senses (Olfactory). The first one is...well it just disorients me personally, I know others that will swear by its usefulness, just not me. It does allow you to integrate other elements into it, such as wrapping the compass around it or having a clock in its corner. Though I do have to admit, if you don't know where you are going, it can be very useful. It has a maximum range of something like a 110m radius and a minimum of like 15. It does have some weird height settings which I don't get quite yet. As for the awareness ones, they indicate if you are detectable by sound or by sight by anyone around you. It has a number of ways of doing that, such as showing lines of sight (a bad idea in cities) or by a simple little element on your HUD. I haven't tried playing stealth enough to regularly use this, one element at a time you know? Senses, I've avoided using actively, it feels like my real-world life would be affected a little in a jarring way. But, they enhance your senses, it can either be an element or a data-stream. This is the only one which has the 'data-stream' option. Apparently, the data-stream does something similar to 'correcting colorblindness' in that it just changes how you are processing the sense in the game. The elements can get a little confusing...overwhelming, at times. But they basically allow you to see better (for visual (more lets you mitigate bright lights and darkness on your vision)) and to 'see without seeing' for the others. Each with its own unique brands of limitations.

And there are two that I don't really get why you would want to access them regularly; Level and Self-Portrait. Trust me, level is not useful to know for yourself and it is either visible as an element or display, or it isn't. This is closer to throwing away a quarter to the devs more than something useful. The Self-Portrait is apparently very good for people who need to look at themselves in the mirror to display proper facial expressions since all it does is show your face as if you were looking at it through a camera. There is a way to make it function more as a camera than as a Self-Portrait, which requires using the only exploit I've heard of besides whatever the 'sculptor' is doing. I could see that being useful, but the exploit requires many hours to do properly per portrait…I guess I should mention, you can have up to twelve of them, normally they would only display another angle of your head/bust, but as mentioned, the exploit would do something different. I'm not sure I could go through that exploit more than once honestly.]

Thunder Bringer

Starting in the middle I guess, I have also been actively listening to it and thinking on the animatic, so that's another reason. I also have to apologize, my brain moves fast and each time I hear it, it mutates a bit, so some of the things I describe may not be possible given the implied timeframe.

[Beginning music] Everyone is looking to the sky, clearly scared, and expecting something. Possibly some shots of the ship moving away from an island. The crew are thin, they have been starving for some time.

[Once the electronic music begins blasting] The blast is proceeded by a wave of water and a wave of clouds. This music is not just blasting for the listener.

[During the blasting electronic music] Zeus comes out of the clouds, his black hair and robes being made of the clouds as he descends enough to be seen. He smiles at them, knowingly. My version of Zeus has claws, pointed ears, black sclera, grey/white/yellow eyes (depending on mood and lightning useage) but are undeniably and eagle's, his is thin yet very clearly muscled. Now, to explain why his hair is black, from what I remember of a mythology class, that was like, the color his hair was, and he looked like thirty bc that was old for the time. So I'm good with that, and it also makes his hair similar to 'storm storm' clouds, as they remain like clouds even when he eventually removes himself from them. His hair generally covers his back, which there is a reason for this later. His robes are black with the blocky sorta swirl decal on the edges, though the swirls are sky blue and in-between two lines of gold. Again, 'storm storm' clouds, clear skies, and lightning for the color scheme of the clothes. I will be the first to admit that @Duvetbox has absolutely influenced what I see when I think of Zeus. Its a good look, it does things I want to put on other gods, yeah. Beyond what has been mentioned, I don't have a strong opinion on appearance.

Pride is a damsel in distress Grabs a female shaped could out of the storm clouds around him. My thoughts are that Athena and Penelope have a similar body shape 'in this animatic continuity'. Reason being is simply bc I want the cloud here to have a lot of threatening double meanings based on the line and 'who' it is at the moment. Anyways, beyond being grabbed and being brought close to him, I don't have any specifics here. Hiding away where only I can undress her Zaps a shoulder and the 'cloud's clothes' fall away like it was cut...Penelope mode. Also, to be clear, no nudity, simply an implication. Try all she can not to confess Inanimate object resists god. In the end, it's all the same once I apply all the pressure Resistance failed, pulled back. Zeus is eyeing Odysseus.

Thunder, bring her through the wringer Begins dancing with the cloud in the air, even doing a lil twirl. Show her I'm the judgment call Zeus is getting frisky with the cloud, a hand brought up to the cloud's...face area. The one who makes her kingdom fall Once he says 'fall' he grabs the cloud's throat. At this point I believe it is shifting to Athena mode. Lightning, wield her, use and yield her Holding the cloud out to the side, he begins blasting it with lightning. The cloud is colored lightning yellow and seems to be in pain, darkening from the grey/white it was a moment ago. Show her what she can't conceal The crew is collectively shitting themselves at whatever they are watching. For true nature will be revealed The cloud dissipates, throat crushed and electrocuted, back to the other clouds in the background of the scene.

Tell me, Odysseus, If I were to make you choose Zeus sits down in a throne of cloud, though due to perspective, he is massive, his foot next to the ship and about as large. He looks somewhat like a bored monarch on a throne. The lives of your men and crew or your own No strong opinions. Why do I think they'd lose? If we see Zeus, he smiles. Enlighten me, King of Ithaca No strong opinions. Since hunger was far too great No strong opinions. I wonder who'd take the weight of the damned Barometric pressure on the crew go brr. They are all brought to their knees, including Odysseus. And suffer a gruesome fate to the Zeus is suddenly on the ship, fun-sized human-sized, walking through the crew, to Odysseus.

Thunder bringer, here to ring your Continues walking, smiling whenever we see his face. Ears until you're deaf with fear Continues walking, but looks to the right with his eye. And spear you while your death is near Spears Eurylochus' shoulder with some lightning from an open hand, then he turns his hand to a 'no no' or 'tsk tsk' fingerwag as Eurylochus falls to the ground. My brain says that happens, the wag, to the beat of 'your death is near'. Lightning wielder, here to yield your The rest of the crew has begun to stand up. Time, for you have passed your prime He grabs Odysseus by the hair or throat and lifts him into the air. Sublime you for your act of crime His feet divorced from the ground just enough so that when Zeus puts him back down, he can stand.

Choose. Zeus looks more cordial than threatening, having released Odysseus unharmed.

Choose? Odysseus is obviously confused.

Someone's gotta die today Zeus dusts of Odysseus' shoulder. And you have got the final say No strong opinions. You? Zeus gestures to Odysseus. Or your crew? Zeus gestures to the crew.

Please don't make me do this Odysseus is falling to his knees, beginning to cry as he grabs Zeus' robes begging. Don't make me do this Zeus for his part, doesn't do anything or react.

When does a comet become a meteor? Crew shots, the ones who weren't standing are getting up or already standing. When does a candle become a blaze? (I can take the suffering from you) A yellow Penelope appears behind Odysseus, smoothly going down to the same level as Odysseus initially hugging him from behind and moving to be before him. Throughout her singing parts, she is comforting Odysseus. He is, for a lack of better words, melting into the embrace. He hasn't seen her in years and...he has been worn down, he is exhausted, and he is ready to stop this journey. She is kneeling with him, holding him, though we never truly see her face. When does a man become a monster? Most of the men are fearful. When does a ripple become a tidal wave? Some of the men look to the side, thinking of bolting. When does the reason become the blame? (Let me take the suffering from) Some of the men draw their weapons. When does a man become a monster? No strong opinions beyond crew shots assuming that time allows.

[The thunder after Penelope finishes singing.] Penelope for like, a frame, is replaced by lightning. Odysseus has his eyes wide open, realization and despair written on his face. Near this time was another thunder sound, that is when Zeus appears behind Odysseus, impassive, watching him, hands behind his back, patiently waiting for Odysseus' decision.

Captain? Eurylochus steps forward before the rest of the crew, asking the question as he holds his wounded shoulder.

I have to see her Odysseus can't look at Eurylochus or the crew.

But we'll die Eurylochus says with a hopeful smile.

I know Odysseus looks at Eurylochus, pained, devastated even. Killing his friends to see his wife again does hurt him, but he also knows that there wasn't a choice here. In his head, Zeus just came down here and told him 'I'm going to make you tell me to kill your crew'.

Thunder, bring her through the wringer Zeus smiles as his cloudy hair stops being so poofy and 'long' (short hair Zeus) as the portion on his back forms into wings, launching him into the sky. Throughout the rest of this song's lyrics, some of the crew runs even jumping off the ship in desperate, while others charge at Odysseus with weapons desperately trying to kill him, sparks and lightning deflecting their weapons. Odysseus is not emotionally okay while this is happening. Eurylochus, for his part, is not doing anything. He knows that he is not making it home, he is tired, and he knows that nothing he does will matter here. To a degree, he welcomes the end of the journey. Show her I'm the judgment call The one who makes her kingdom fall Lightning, wield her, use and yield her Show her what she can't conceal For true nature will be revealed

[Final Lighting] Zeus flicks his finger downward. Obliterating this ship and her crew is effortless, unlike the other Zeus' that build up these grand attacks, this one just does a simple motion. The musical build-up being used more for the crew and their desperation.

[The end bit] The ship gets more or less vaporized, only Odysseus and the immediate area around him are unharmed. The first place struck is Eurylochus who stands near the center of the deck. Those who jumped overboard are electrocuted. It ends as Odysseus closes his eyes in acceptance.

To get things out of my head, I will, at some point soon I hope, describe the three songs I have the most enjoyment imagining the Animatic of as purely the Odyssey...honestly the fact that these three are the ones I have the most enjoyment with is probably indicative of cognitive issues.

Those three are the 'get fucked' trilogy. Ruthlessness, Thunder Bringer, and Love in Paradise.

This video tutorial has a male speaker who shows screen caps numerous times during it...this tutorial was recommended to be watched before you started the game, but man...is this really the best tutorial for the game there is?

[I discovered 54, not actually the name of the game…it’s like twelve digits or something, but it ends and starts with 54, a few months ago.

Rumors about the game followed the release of FDR, Full Dive Rigs, and the legislation around them. This game, which was supposedly on the dark web, ignored the legislation. It gave you the full spectrum of sensations as if it were real and it boasted extremely realistic AI. I was naturally curious about such a thing.

Normally...well...legally, FD games leave out the sense of smell and almost leave out the sense of touch to the point it basically doesn't exist. 54/Eternal Soul/The Game doesn't leave out those senses. It seems almost entirely real, although the game is kind enough to warn you that if you launch the game, you do void the warranty on your FDR.

The NPC AI is advanced, scarily so. When the game launched, things like quests weren't even a thing, it took someone an in-game month to convince the King of the starting area that it was a better idea to keep the eternal souls preoccupied with even menial tasks than it was to just let them have free reign. They have nations, and laws, and politics, and even strange things like plumbing and gardening as options to do. Though a lot of people do complain that the game requires you to learn how to do things...like, there is no 'slash' skill, you have to figure out how to use a sword yourself. There is no 'blacksmithing' talent, you have to know how to do it. It's useful for building real-world skills, but its not the most fun decision. Especially since the languages in the game are likewise something players don't just get translated for them. That is usually was prevents people from playing the game after checking it out. I started this with something in mind...right, the AI is difficult to distinguish. So, the only way to tell a player from an NPC is through an injury. Players, with our characters 'made of stone sculpted by the gods', naturally don't bleed. But the NPCs, being normal Humans, do. Well, that is speaking a real language, logging out, or leveling up. Though some NPC scholars have begun to learn some of the more prevalent languages of the player base: English, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Hindi.

The next thing I guess to mention is that the game has some weird time-dilation thing going on. In-game time is roughly 10 times real-world time. That is to say, for every day that passes for you outside of the game, ten passes inside of the game. The game itself recommends that players stop playing for an hour to three for every 10 hours they are in-game. There have been some rumors of some people who will just keep playing after that and getting some sort of cognitive issues, so I recommend following that advice personally. Besides, who could play a game for that long and not want a break?

Okay, so next on this tutorial, now that we've gotten the weirdness of the game out of the way, is character creation. So, when you login...I forgot something, right, so this is a hardcore game, obviously. If the senses and lack of player-aiding systems were anything to go by, but what I mean is that this game can only be downloaded onto each FDR once, and each character is associated with the FDR (though there is a process to transfer your account to another machine by contacting the game support team, I've never done it personally but they are apparently pretty quick about it), and if your character dies, the game will brick your FDR after safely logging you out. Unless you've got a lot of money, you only have one life in this game.

Okay, now, character creation. So, when you load into the game, it will ask you a bunch of standard settings questions; 'Do you want your vision corrected/normalized?', 'Do you want limbs restored?', 'Would you like to turn off colorblindness?', etc. But it also has a few more unique questions; 'Would you like Anhydrosis repaired?', 'Would you like Ansomia fixed?'. You know, fixing the senses which normally aren't in FD games. I never encountered those, as I don't have those issues, but apparently, it was very interesting for the people who do.

So, then, you sculpt your character! You sort of carve them out of stone or clay, atleast that's what it felt analogous for to me, and there is an option to use your real world face. Which doesn't always seem to work, so interesting theory there, some players did a volunteer study and they think it doesn't create what you look like, but rather how you see yourself. Some people's will look better or worse than they actually are, some will be spot on, others will be minorly off in some way, etc. Others who have played this game with multiple characters, and the 'sculptor', recommends using that as the baseline, since you actually feel your body, it can be majorly disorientating if you aren't actually in something similar to how you are in real life. That and the fact that you have to be human-like. Though, if that is not your cup of tea, you can change colorations; like you can have black sclera with crimson eyes like my edgelord friend. You can change some features; like pointed ears and fangs like my edgelord friend. You can also create more fur if you get cold easily or give yourself claws. Supposedly the 'sculptor', someone who gets paid to make characters for people, they don't play the game to my knowledge, has created characters with extra eyes, fingers, gills, one with a tail, and supposedly one with wings. (They have ignored all of my messages for statements on those allegations)

During this time you will see yourself in a void, in-game, other players and NPCs will see you in front of a stone pillar under the castle of what used to be the capital of Thalassia (They moved because the players were unruly) as a small golden light floating around your pillar. Fun fact, the light roughly corresponds to where your spleen should be, some weird math went on to figure that out.

Anyways, once your character is made, you should see a cutscene, which should show your true environment. Your little light floats into the stone pillar, which then has the parts that are not a part of your avatar disintegrating into dust leaving behind your stony form (which has generously been auto-applied basic clothing) that begins to spread out color and 'not-stoniness' from the point your light entered. As the cutscene ends, you take on the first-person POV, sorta clipping through the back of the head. Your senses will begin to exist properly over the next few minutes.

Now, you get this fantastic HUD, which includes only a timer counting down in the top left (when the game was released, supposedly it started at the time for 30 in-game years) under which is a logout button which you can 'press', and an invisible-to-everyone-else attribute screen. It should have a 1 in everything and you should feel like you are extremely vulnerable, because you are. You can 'touch' that screen to move it, though I recommend getting used to the thought based interactions with it and placing it into your HUD proper. I place mine in the top right.

So, there are a number of HUD settings I recommend changing immediately, but first, exit from the cellar. Find a guard, and then logout in front of them. That is because all of the settings are in the main menu. I personally think that was a god-awful design decision, but I also have not created an FD game with realistic sense, graphics, and AI, so who am I to judge?

I recommend 'thought commands' being toggled on. I bound my logout button to the thought 'logout1' so I don't accidentally do that when I just consider logging out, but you should bind it to whatever you want. Next, I recommend adding in the souls bar (the xp bar) somewhere on your hud as an element, not a display. The floating screens are displays and I just hate having to interact with them.

Anyways, next enabling your health bar is useful, again, I would make it an element. You can, through that setting here, enable various floating numbers. As you can see here, I prefer to just have a number over my entire bar denoting total and max, as well as a warning that I am dealing 0 damage.

Now, you will notice that there are a few locked options for you, this game does have some microtransactions, but they are solidly useful and cheap. 25¢ a pop, the most frustrating thing about the microtransactions is actually paying them. This game is not exactly legal, so you have to pay using some dark web currency bs, but it is worth it.

The options are Clock (Real-World), Clock (In-Game), Clock (Day-Night), Health Bar (Ally), Health Bar (Neutral), Health Bar (Enemy), and Compass. Those are essential, at least in my humble opinion. The Clocks have a variety of customizations to them, you can have them as displays bound to your wrist like a watch, or you can have them as elements. These are the one thing that I think works better as a display than an element (one of the few things that you are given the choice of). The various health bar options will simply just be a health bar, next to, above, or wrapped around their heads. You can have it set so that it only appears based on proximity or if damage was dealt from one to the other. The compass is just useful, being able to walk in a straight line is always nice, it is magnetic north, but it isn't fooled by nearby magnets.

There are a few other options that change the game to a degree; Mini-map, Awareness (Sound), Awareness (Vision), Senses (Visual), Senses (Auditory), Senses (Tactile), Senses (Olfactory). The first one is...well it just disorients me personally, I know others that will swear by its usefulness, just not me. It does allow you to integrate other elements into it, such as wrapping the compass around it or having a clock in its corner. Though I do have to admit, if you don't know where you are going, it can be very useful. It has a maximum range of something like a 110m radius and a minimum of like 15. It does have some weird height settings which I don't get quite yet. As for the awareness ones, they indicate if you are detectable by sound or by sight by anyone around you. It has a number of ways of doing that, such as showing lines of sight (a bad idea in cities) or by a simple little element on your HUD. I haven't tried playing stealth enough to regularly use this, one element at a time you know? Senses, I've avoided using actively, it feels like my real-world life would be affected a little in a jarring way. But, they enhance your senses, it can either be an element or a data-stream. This is the only one which has the 'data-stream' option. Apparently, the data-stream does something similar to 'correcting colorblindness' in that it just changes how you are processing the sense in the game. The elements can get a little confusing...overwhelming, at times. But they basically allow you to see better (for visual (more lets you mitigate bright lights and darkness on your vision)) and to 'see without seeing' for the others. Each with its own unique brands of limitations.

And there are two that I don't really get why you would want to access them regularly; Level and Self-Portrait. Trust me, level is not useful to know for yourself and it is either visible as an element or display, or it isn't. This is closer to throwing away a quarter to the devs more than something useful. The Self-Portrait is apparently very good for people who need to look at themselves in the mirror to display proper facial expressions since all it does is show your face as if you were looking at it through a camera. There is a way to make it function more as a camera than as a Self-Portrait, which requires using the only exploit I've heard of besides whatever the 'sculptor' is doing. I could see that being useful, but the exploit requires many hours to do properly per portrait…I guess I should mention, you can have up to twelve of them, normally they would only display another angle of your head/bust, but as mentioned, the exploit would do something different. I'm not sure I could go through that exploit more than once honestly.]

Love In Paradise could actually very easily fit into my Godbound campaign. A person who is slightly divine being trapped in A.M. (a very paracausal supercomputer currently taking the entire population of sapient mortals into simulations while it mines out the rest of the solar system in preparation to isolate their reality from the rest of infinity (bc creation is breaking apart and sunken cost fallacy to protect the ungrateful and obstinate humans)). Because they are slightly divine, they can recognize that their reality isn't quite right without outside influences, but the automated processes of the simulation say 'keep them here, keep them happy' not registering that this relatively random person happens to be just divine enough to be capable of resisting. It ends up being nearly the exact same as my initial idea, but now it is slightly different. Now it isn't even something that truly loves the human, but a cold machine which is simply emulating emotions.

So, I'm one of those people that imagines atleast animatics in my head whenever I hear music. And as much as I love Epic the Musical, I don't feel like there is enough 'non actually the odyssey' content out there (though there is some of that content and I do enjoy it).

I have a favorite song from each saga (though they are contentious for several sagas).

So, more or less just to through it out as an idea that can be disloged from my brain, I've imagined and possess little skill to make alive, animatics which follow particular themes/fandoms I enjoy.

Troy Saga: Just A Man; MTG, more specifically my pocket realms thing I have. Someone from the Boros realm gets trapped in the Mono-Red realm and has been there for years, fighting a 'werewolf dynasty' and has finally won...but at what cost?

Cyclops Saga: Survive; Lancer. In my Dead Orbit setting, prime NHPs and all of their copies eventually find themselves in the Aunic domains where they act as godlike eldritch maths that they are. Now that only really matters for the purposes of Ruthlessness in this setting. But on the Aunic worlds, which have been changed through the warping of reality by their eldritch gods, many of their 'children' are granted mech bodies to live out an existence in. Basically, monsters exist on Aunic worlds and they are just mechs piloted by math that breaks reality. Though, this one may be similar to Toothy from Forever Winter in how it fuels itself. I mean, just imagine if 'club' actually meant 'big fuck off cannon'.

Storm Saga: Keep Your Friends Close; Cosmere (RPG). So, in the space age of my relatively homebrew cosmere setting, spren that are known across the cosmere become sort of cosmic forces (for example, a 'cosmic cryptic's' head pattern may actually just be a black hole). And a 'cosmic Honorspren' that is closer to a windspren than most Honorspren (similar to Syl) bottles up a cognitive realm storm for a ship.

Circe Saga: Wouldn't You Like; This one is a weird one, Destiny. Given the death of the witness and a recurring theme of The Guardian growing past the need for a Ghost, I imagine there comes a time where Ghosts are temporary for a rare few. And honestly, Odysseus and the crew are Eliksni who happen to be getting some temporary godliness from a Ghost to deal with a Guardian who is blocking their way. Why? :shrug: Why not?

Underworld Saga: No Longer You; Tyranny. So, time magic is a thing in Tyranny. But the prophet is not just someone who uses Time magic, but is the Fatebinder asking questions of the prophet. By the end of the song, the prophet has sent the Fatebinder to the past, completing a time loop (as the prophet had the same happen to himself centuries beforehand.)

Thunder Saga: Scylla; Now I hadn't thought on what I would even do for this, in theory I could easily double up on Lancer here, but the felt wrong in a way that I can not put into words. Instead, I chose something that came out of left field for me: Warhammer 40k. My Hive Fleet Valkyrie are proficient in space combat and rely on autonomous Genestealer Cults. The six torches are choirs on six ships lighting up to distract the Hive Fleet from the rest of the navy fleet until they can travel out of the shadow, Scylla singing here being the Norn Queen.

Wisdom Saga: Love In Paradise (I like the Aphrodite and Ares parts, I think the others were weak by comparison, fight me); Odyssey. I could do something else like Godbound, which I enjoy significantly, but man...the animatic in my head is just dark and depressing no matter how I slice it in the end anyways, so I'm sorta just avoiding thinking about Odysseus getting dragged back into the bed by a literal goddess.

I won't say btw that the ideas aren't strange or tenuous, but comment about any of them you feel like commenting on, or if you recognize one of them, or something. Or if you want to tell me how my choices are 'wrong' and 'tasteless' or 'how could you pick that one over the one that is your favorite and thus the objective choice'.

So, I'm one of those people that imagines atleast animatics in my head whenever I hear music. And as much as I love Epic the Musical, I don't feel like there is enough 'non actually the odyssey' content out there (though there is some of that content and I do enjoy it).

I have a favorite song from each saga (though they are contentious for several sagas).

So, more or less just to through it out as an idea that can be disloged from my brain, I've imagined and possess little skill to make alive, animatics which follow particular themes/fandoms I enjoy.

Troy Saga: Just A Man; MTG, more specifically my pocket realms thing I have. Someone from the Boros realm gets trapped in the Mono-Red realm and has been there for years, fighting a 'werewolf dynasty' and has finally won...but at what cost?

Cyclops Saga: Survive; Lancer. In my Dead Orbit setting, prime NHPs and all of their copies eventually find themselves in the Aunic domains where they act as godlike eldritch maths that they are. Now that only really matters for the purposes of Ruthlessness in this setting. But on the Aunic worlds, which have been changed through the warping of reality by their eldritch gods, many of their 'children' are granted mech bodies to live out an existence in. Basically, monsters exist on Aunic worlds and they are just mechs piloted by math that breaks reality. Though, this one may be similar to Toothy from Forever Winter in how it fuels itself. I mean, just imagine if 'club' actually meant 'big fuck off cannon'.

Storm Saga: Keep Your Friends Close; Cosmere (RPG). So, in the space age of my relatively homebrew cosmere setting, spren that are known across the cosmere become sort of cosmic forces (for example, a 'cosmic cryptic's' head pattern may actually just be a black hole). And a 'cosmic Honorspren' that is closer to a windspren than most Honorspren (similar to Syl) bottles up a cognitive realm storm for a ship.

Circe Saga: Wouldn't You Like; This one is a weird one, Destiny. Given the death of the witness and a recurring theme of The Guardian growing past the need for a Ghost, I imagine there comes a time where Ghosts are temporary for a rare few. And honestly, Odysseus and the crew are Eliksni who happen to be getting some temporary godliness from a Ghost to deal with a Guardian who is blocking their way. Why? :shrug: Why not?

Underworld Saga: No Longer You; Tyranny. So, time magic is a thing in Tyranny. But the prophet is not just someone who uses Time magic, but is the Fatebinder asking questions of the prophet. By the end of the song, the prophet has sent the Fatebinder to the past, completing a time loop (as the prophet had the same happen to himself centuries beforehand.)

Thunder Saga: Scylla; Now I hadn't thought on what I would even do for this, in theory I could easily double up on Lancer here, but the felt wrong in a way that I can not put into words. Instead, I chose something that came out of left field for me: Warhammer 40k. My Hive Fleet Valkyrie are proficient in space combat and rely on autonomous Genestealer Cults. The six torches are choirs on six ships lighting up to distract the Hive Fleet from the rest of the navy fleet until they can travel out of the shadow, Scylla singing here being the Norn Queen.

Wisdom Saga: Love In Paradise (I like the Aphrodite and Ares parts, I think the others were weak by comparison, fight me); Odyssey. I could do something else like Godbound, which I enjoy significantly, but man...the animatic in my head is just dark and depressing no matter how I slice it in the end anyways, so I'm sorta just avoiding thinking about Odysseus getting dragged back into the bed by a literal goddess.

I won't say btw that the ideas aren't strange or tenuous, but comment about any of them you feel like commenting on, or if you recognize one of them, or something. Or if you want to tell me how my choices are 'wrong' and 'tasteless' or 'how could you pick that one over the one that is your favorite and thus the objective choice'.

Nexus of Things

Arguably Original Content Pocket Realms Warlord's Folly Hall of Possibilities Metallic Thirst Truthwatcher's Journal Draconic Lineages Energy of the World Dynasty of Annihilation Dead Orbit

Reasonably Arguably Original Content Born Unequal Poisoned Depths Shikuna Promise of Power Soulblight

Commission o7 Process below the cut

I was wondering, how far or how near a sliver has to be, so they share abilities...? I would love to know if you could share the range or something like that.. Im trying to homebrew slivers in DnD ! Thx!

In the Weatherlight Saga (in Tempest) the crew fights the Slivers and is able to get one away from the rest, so it’s not terribly far away. Maybe 200 feet.

Does the Sliver hivemind work across different planes, or would a planeswalking Sliver be cut off from the hivemind?

Slivers have to be in close proximity. The Weatherlight crew defeated the slivers by separating them from one another. Another plane is clearly out of range.

So when looking through creatures that grant keywords in typal abilities, I’ve noticed that most creatures have the keyword and grant it to other creatures, but some just grant it to all that have the type.

For example, Drogskol Reinforcements, a Spirit, has “Melee” and “Other Spirits you control have melee.”

On the other hand, Lancer Sliver just has “Sliver creatures you control have first strike.”

Why is there a difference? Is there a specific formatting or rules reason that all typal keyword-granting abilities don’t just follow the Lancer Sliver version? The latter seems simpler.

For clarity, the template is the creature has the ability and then grants the ability to “all other creatures you control”. Slivers use the old template because when you have a bunch of them, it’s easier to add up all the effects.

I accidentally spent 80 hours painting my own take on a Mimic. Please take a look.

Can see higher res here

If Slivers do return, are they more likely to be the usual "only cares about other slivers" type of design, or could they be tweaked in a way that makes them useful in decks that aren't dedicated to only Slivers?

How would people feel about Slivers that don’t grant abilities to other Slivers?

Regarding the sliver pw, couldn’t we have a sliver queen become a planeswalker? I mean, storywise, this breed of sliver could be sapient.

It is possible yes.

Is there a reason all Sliver Legends are WUBRG? Could there be space, favorfully or otherwise, for 2/3/4 color Sliver Legends?

Slivers are a five-color creature type, so we want to give players access to all the Slivers. Plus, there are only 115 Slivers, so we want to give players some ability to customize. I do think as the number goes up, we'll make some non-five color ones.

Just a little bit

I think two-headed sliver is cheating.

This is a great design

This guy still doesn’t have a concrete design, but I think I’m getting closer…