u/King_Lear69

Been going back through the narrative of FFT for research and when coming back to the scene of the standoff at Ziekden I am reminded of that one bit from Breaking Bad, "can't you see he's made up his mind 10 minutes ago?" Like, I get that the whole point of the scene is to show how cruel and uncaring Dycedarg (who is a stand-in for Ivalice's aristocracy in general) is of the lives of the small folk, but it still strikes me as kinda odd that he seemingly waits to order Argath to take the shot, as if he were actually weighing whether or not he should actually call for it, only to decide "yeah, this is the best option in my best interests right now" after Ramza and Delita show up, but before the messenger informs him of Wiefgraf's movements (although we can assume that he was at least expecting to receive that news and was therefore in a hurry to not tarry there too long.)

Like, if Dycedarg decided Tietra’s life was worth sacrificing either when he first saw the corpse brigade's man walk out of the fortress with her (we don't see this happen, but I'm assuming that's something close to the sequence of events that went down at one point because don't we see any corpses on the battlefield and standing out in the open with your hostage held out in front of you where anyone could shoot you before you have a visual of how many of them there are and their positioning kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a hostage/human shield) or before he'd even arrived at the fortress, then why go through the theatrics and motions of listening to the suicide-bomber's bluff (I assume that Dycedarg believed that it was a bluff and that there were no more people within the fortress, if he wasn't outright certain of that, due to the fact that any corpse brigade men still inside would very likely immediately commit to the suicide-bombing bit (potentially endangering Dycedarg himself, as well as his troops) if they saw their trump card get mercilessly one-tapped by the very people Tietra was supposed to be a human shield/bargaining chip against + the fact that prematurely killing your hostage before you've made your escape is maybe the fastest possible way to get an express ticket into the ground) and then verbally shouting up, across the field back at the guy making the bluff with the equivalent of "we don't negotiate with terrorists?" Playing the devil's advocate here, if I were in Dycedarg's position and I'd already decided that Tietra was worth sacrificing (assuming that Dycedarg had made up his mind the second he saw her brought out of the fortress) then I would've ordered Argath to shoot while the corpse brigade's man was still mid-sentence.

Edit: I mixed them up, it's Zaalbag, not Dycedarg. Listen man, these names are hard, lol

Hot Take/Meme Take: Ovelia would've changed her tune real fast if that knife had've actually killed him, lol

I joke, but only partially. For as justified as Ovelia is about not being too keen on the idea of using other people as pawns to achieve your goals (even if you do seriously have great moral conviction about achieving said goals,) I genuinely think that if that knife had've gone through and it was Ovelia on the throne (without help from Agrias and co who, for all we know, by the time of PSX version's stabbing scene are either gone from the continent all together or still stuck in the airship graveyard) Ovelia would've eventually come to at least partially agree with Delita.

Now, it's been about 3-4 years since I first played and beat the PSX version on Duckstation, but IIRC we never really get a lot of information on the exact inner-workings of Ivalician governance during "socio-typical times." However, if I remember correctly I believe it was stated that the War of The Lions (the event) was based largely on the IRL War of the Roses, so I believe it would be safe to assume that during times of relative peace Ivalice usually has a parliament of some sort. Considering the personality of the average Ivalician noble however I, personally, am not able to imagine that even in times of relative peace that the Ivalician parliament (or whatever governing body that the head of state uses as an apparatus to enforce their will and enact taxation on the country) would be any less rife with political scheming.

However, I have never been given the impression that Ovelia actually has a deep understanding of how to play "The Game of Thrones" the game of political scheming and court intrigue, nor have I personally ever been given the impression that Ovellia (who seems to have spent the lion's share the majority of her life studying in monasteries) has any real, firsthand intimate knowledge of how the average Ivalician peasant lives. So I think that the second she, in this purely hypothetical situation, would've been sat on that throne she would have been basically forced to reckon with the issue that (at least in a system like Ivalice's monarchy) being at "the Top" is not in of itself enough to free a person from the game of using and potentially being used while at the same time being aware that, unlike for Ramza and co, attempting to just walk away from it all (sans-fighting off the actual demonic Illuminati) really wouldn't have been a readily available option to her. I can not speculate on exactly how she would react to all this, but I imagine that she would at the very least just say, "gain a greater appreciation," for someone like Delita who was entirely willing to play the game for the sake of his moral convictions.

I understand entirely that this is sorta "missing the point" that FFT is supposed to be more of a Shakespearian tragedy about how Ivalician society is set up in such a way that a person would be forced to become morally compromised in order wring even a drop of good out of the corrupt system then a more, in quotations, "realistic/grounded" comedy (in the narrative sense) about the potential virtues of dirtying your hands so that those who come after you won't have to like Ogre Tactics is (sometimes, in about half of that game's routes.) However, all of this is just an opinion I hold.

Having gone through both games recently, (Or at least Ogre Tactics, anyways, it's been about 4 years since I beat FFT) I've realized that the majority of my personal hangups with FFT's plot can basically be summed up as: Final Fantasy Tactics is sorta like if the Nybeth arc subsumed the main plot of Ogre Tactics. Like, initially I thought it was pretty funny (if not a bit disappointing/odd) that past a certain point the Nybeth plot kinda just stops being consequential to the story; like he's still out there, but if you wanted to you could easily just never interact with him again past a certain point and how the actual impact of his experiments on the Galgastani military effort and general populace are mostly implied/left up to estimation.

But after thinking about it a bit more, I think it's actually kinda ballsy to have the narrative go, "Hey, see this guy? See this guy who, ostensibly, might just be a 'keter level threat' to natural life as we know it and whose motives we're keeping vague and esoteric and close to the chest? Who literally gets his own moustache-twirlingly evil sounding theme? Yeah, that was just ONE GUY who's just out there, somewhere and if you can believe it he's actually NOT the inevitable big bad. Imagine all the other types of shady characters out there potentially causing trouble that you don't even know about!?" Because I feel like the expected narrative arc/trope that you'd expect, at least from a lot of modern media and older JRPGs anyway, is that that would've been the narrative setting up/foreshadowing the eventual "big bad" by faking you out into thinking they're gonna be a red herring at first, seeing as how that's basically exactly what FF6 does with Kefka.

So I'm actually quite fine with the fact that Ogre Tactics instead has the restraint to save the majority of its hardcore fantasy/hyper-reality stuff for the tail end of the game after the main war campaign part is over so that it really feels like you're going out on an encore; or how the narrative has the restraint to not go, "Yup, Nybeth and his cult were actually behind EVERYTHING the whole time, and now you've gotta beat them to Dorgalua's tomb first!" Because that's sorta what FFT feels like past a certain point. Don't get me wrong, though, I understand completely that this is because the kinda story-moral that FFT is trying to impart to the player is completely different from the one that Ogre Tactics is trying to impart to the player—and honestly I absolutely adore both games and their narratives—it's just something that I noticed.

I vaguely remember that in one of Cotho's vids there's this brief second where IIRC in the upper left hand corner of the screen he shows a diagram of like, the relationship between either Talos, Hjalti and the Under King or Hjalti, Wulfarth and the Under King as parts of the enatiomorph that makes up Talos. It isn't on screen for long though and the exact diagram looks just different enough from anything I've been able to find with google images that the fact that I can't remember either the vid that it shows up in or the timestamp is starting to really grind my gears. Does anyone know what I'm talking about/what video it might've been?

I was just thinking recently about how big FFT modding is. I, myself, never actually finished anything for FFT (mods) but after playing through the last chapter/act of the Steam version of Ogre Tactics recently I started thinking about what it'd be like to try my hand at a Ogre Tactics total conversion like what many people've done for the PSX version of FFT. However, I can't really seem to find any (english or otherwise non-japanese language) tools for Ogre Tactics modding? So I decided to come here and ask what the status with the scene was exactly, if indeed there was a scene?

Before we can get into the anthropological history of the myriad of Theia’s societies, let alone those of the continent of Krasnovia, we must first build up a rudimentary understanding of both Theian tectonics and metaphysics.

Theia tectonics, as well as all of base material reality within Theia’s plemora, are driven primarily by the духи (Dukhi.) The Dukhi, alongside the עִירִין (Iyrin), make up the two hypostatic specieses that constitute all of plemoric reality, both tangible and intangible. Their status as both types of hypostasises is inherited from their “lineage” as emanations of different aspects/prosopons of the plemora of reality itself, as emanations/instantiations of a hypostasis count as the hypostasis itself by extension (literally.) Below is a diagram showcasing this relationship.

https://preview.redd.it/cmvdyz9fr5fh1.png?width=1152&format=png&auto=webp&s=412be5cb74ef51d3a06b01526c55dd75f7c92dd4

Dukhi are one-dimensional manifolds of physical Space-as-extricated-from-Time. As emanations of plemoric reality they, much the same as the Iyrin, are fully sentient (although to say that their qualia of “sentience” differs from the type of sentience that a mortal creature might experience would be a grand understatement.) The total number of emanated Dukhi is infinite, whereupon as emanations Dukhi are themselves infinitely large as well. However, as entities firmly limited to the boundaries of plemoric reality, the boundaries of individual Dukhi commonly “overlap” with one another. As each individual Dukhi constitute the totality of a one dimensional manifold, it is such that each individual non-overlapping Dukhi is also the totality of everything that can be held within its manifold-space and is nothing that cannot be held within its manifold-space.

However, when the boundaries of two or more Dukhi grow such that they begin to overlap then the overlapping area of the individual-yet-overlapping Dukhi (such an area being known as a “osuia”) are transfigured and become not just the totality of everything that IS within [the ousia] but also become the encompassing-totality of everything that IS NOT within the area of [the ousia.] Ousias that are born solely from the overlapping of individual Dukhis are all equally sentient and constitute things such as the very paramanu that makes up the earthern material reality of worlds like Theia, but notably do not constitute the myriad voids that make up material reality. These ousias, as mere “scions” of hypostasises, are also not infinite in scale as the ousia/union is NOT [any of] the hypostasis(es) itself. As the total number of individual Dukhi are infinite, so are Dukhi able to overlap with an infinite number of other individual Dukhi. Below is a diagram depicting Dukhi and ousias.

https://preview.redd.it/7wjsgl1ir5fh1.png?width=1259&format=png&auto=webp&s=0397c6178ede59678a96231fdea5aa49fefe221b

Likewise, the total number of emanated Iyrin is also infinite and each individual Iyrin is also sentient, though not in a way comparable to that of mere mortals. Whereas the Dukhi are Space-as-extricated-from-Time, the Iyrin are Time-as-extricated-from-Space. Usually Iyrin choose not overlap with other individual Iyrin except when already overlapping with a Dukhi. Dukhi, however, as entities outside of time/change by nature, are not able to choose whether or not to overlap with other Dukhi, and are instead fated to be both Everything and Nothing simultaneously. This is in contrast to the plight of the Iyrin whom, despite being born into the “luxury” of choosing their destiny, are at birth robbed of the luxuries of both indecision and paradox; that is to say, unlike the Dukhi, the Iyrin MUST be Something and can never be Nothing. That “Something” is usually the collective सनातनधर्म (Sanatana) memory of [the specific Iyrin’s] myriad of incarnations in the material realms. As despite Iyrin themselves governing intangible reality, and therefore being mostly intangible themselves, their ousias born from overlapping with Dukhi-born-ousias (regardless of whether or not the ousia is born from the Iyrin simultaneously overlapping with other Iyrin) result in the creation of both རིང་བསྲེལ། (Śarīra) and the elements/eight classical trigramic elements.

While the elements are what combine to make compounds and the rest of the infinite complexities of material reality and the building blocks of life, Śarīra Constitutes the qualia of the individual mortal ego. The “elements” themselves being more like arcana-denominations for the various compounds to either be lumped under directly or to straddle. These “elemental” classifications being derived from whether or not the total number of Dukhi-born-ousias, Dukhi hypostasises and Iyrin that constitute a compound, respectively, are odd or even (As opposed to the actual “sequence order” of that the compound’s constituent hypostasises and ousias are ordered in.) The “elemental classification” of sodium, for example, being under the “elemental arcana” of air for the 11 Iyrin hypostasises, 11 Dukhi hypostasises and 12 Dukhi-born-ousias that constitute it. Below are the relevant diagrams (Note, that the elemental-arcana of firmament comprises two trigrams due to acting as the “two-way door” both into and out of the various worlds like Theia.)

https://preview.redd.it/ersv5bfnr5fh1.png?width=460&format=png&auto=webp&s=3bf69e4186f003ac1f65a4d7eb690626d61310b5

From what I understand, the "factor strength into hand to hand combat" option in advanced settings only makes it so that your player's strength affects how fast someone gets knocked down. Meaning that even with that option toggled hand to hand damage still doesn't actually do any health damage UNTIL an enemy's fatigue has been completely drained. I know that there are a fair couple of OpenMW mods that "fix" this for single player, but they appear to not be compatible with TES3MP? Does anyone know of any mods that fix this \*and\* are compatible with TES3MP? Or if there aren't any, is there any way to just change TES3MP's/OpenMW's settings to allow for physical H2H damage?

To clarify what I mean, as opposed to what is traditionally considered "western fantasy" (Your Lord of the Rings, your Elric of Melnibones, ect) "occidentalist fantasy" is that specific type of fantasy that is usually historically "couched in"/inspired by the likes of Wizardry and DnD where it ends up giving you things like Isekai or Frieren. It itself is not an intrinsically "Japanese genre" as there are many Korean manwha "isekais," but IMO most popular examples that people immediatly think are usually Japanese tbf.

Anyways, I ask because as someone introduced to the concept of "fantasy" specifically through occidentalist fantasy and stuff like FF and DQ, I personally love occidentalist fantasy for what it is. Not only that, but I love the concept of it to; of having, for example, a setting that is very intentionally generic medieval European in aesthetics but is, under the hood, culturally eclectic if not outright Japanese or Korean or what-have-you. It's not just that the subversion of expectations is novel to me, but that I also just really like the idea of taking the genre literally named "fantasy" and pushing it to its limits and creating settings and worlds that are built on the backs of anthropologically speculative cultures that never existed in our world. It scratches that same itch that alternate history does for me, if that makes sense.

Of course, people are entitled to feel differently about "occidentalist fantasy" and indeed many do. The immediate example that I usually think of (although you've naturally begun to see this sorta attitude less and less with the popularization of manga and manwha in the west) is the specific type of old-school DnD fan ("DnD" used sorta in disambiguation here) who resents the "anime-ification" of DnD into more occidentalist fantasy and prefers that "Fantasy/Western Fantasy" not stray too far from Tolkien's intent to make his specific fantasy a mythopoeic history (for England) by combining Germanic and Gaelic myth under a kind of Christianized, almost "Arthurian romance-esque" perspective/lens. Conversely, there's also "orientalist fantasy" which many are also not too keen on, usually due to the orientalist fantasy doing, well, literal orientalism of course.

Which is why I ask what do you all think of the concept of occidentalist fantasy? What are your "hard-lines," if you have them, and how did you come about having them?

A load bearing spell for every magic practitioner, chain lightning is renowned for being extremely versatile as an easy to learn, single target beginner’s spell in the hands of the aspiring hedge-mage that becomes a devastating multi-target current of voltage in the dextrous hands of seasoned dark-mages. The foremost reason for which being chain lightning’s place as an easy “jumping in point” for neophyte studiers of cantripology and the anatomy spells.

Anatomy of a Cantrip:

The cantripological simplicity of a chain lightning is the result of the spell itself being a merely two step process; the voluntary constricting and extending of the caster’s zangfu organs via neurogenic peristalsis in order to accumulate static charge (at the cost of expending paramanu,) followed by the caster’s own mental visualization of their own śarīra into “chain links” extending from their fingertips into their target via prefrontal synthesis. Whereupon the charge built up within their own body would arc through the intangible śarīra “circuits” and strike the spell’s target (or whatever should come between them,) whilst deconstructing the śarīra used in the creation of the intangible chain-links into temporarily unusable elemental constituent byproducts (Iyrin, yang-paramanu and yin-paramanu.)

On Iyrin and Paramanu:

If the Fulinese tradition and their folk sages are to be believed then the Iyrin and both the yin (negative) and yang (positive) paramanu, referred to collectively by the alleged endonym of “Dukhi,” are like unto the plemoric reality of the universe as the children of the (alleged) Fulinese creation goddess Sharkstar were unto her. That is to say, as (according to Fulinese creation myth) the goddess Sharkstar birthed first the sea out of nothingness in an immaculate conception and then conceived the land with the world’s sea, so are the Dukhi and Iyrin simultaneously both byproducts of the plemoric oversoul of reality and extensions of it.

While the Dukhi, being the senior of the Plemora’s “children,” constitute the material reality of the universe by combining their yang clockwise and yin counter-clockwise rotating paramanu in potentially infinitely large aggregates, without the Iyrin the Dukhi’s bodies are effectively trapped within a static-space of their own instantiation (as space extricable from the Iyrin’s perpetual time generation.) Conversely, while only the Iyrin are natively able to release the Dukhi from their prisons of static-space due to their natures as perpetual time “generators,” without the Dukhi the Iyrin remain trapped within a “self-imposed” prison of their own making; an “anti-power vacuum” of endless, infinite “change” without anything to change. However, due to each of them being technically “acausal” in nature/origin both the Iyrin and the Dukhi are considered as hypostasises.

On Hypostatic unions:

Hypostatic unions are any aggregate unions of hypostasises. While potentially infinitely large “dyohypostatic” unions of solely yin and yang paramanu create the material realms of the universe, only “trihypostatic” unions between the Iyrin and both denominations of Dukhi/paramanu will result in “life” as we know it. Independent trihypostatic unions of simple life are therefore known as “elements” and are represented in alchemical manuscripts, sutras and recipes by “trigrams” that are made of a combination of three broken or unbroken lines according to whether or not the total number of Iyrin, yin paramanu and yang paramanu that respectively constitute an element are odd or even. Naturally, there eight broad categories that elements can fall into due to the trigram system with each of the eight being potentially infinitely large. The myriad possible aggregate combinations of elements are known as “compounds.”

On śarīra: 

Sarira (śarīra ) is the resulting “admixture” of trihypostatic unions, be they independent or compound. If the Iyrin and the Dukhi are universal principles of/driven by purely Id then śarīra  is ego and the beginning of the journey to super-ego. More complex lifeforms made of a myriad of alchemical compounds/multiple elemental trihypostatic unions may expand their śarīra  by consuming dyohypostatic unions. 

It is important to note that the union is not the hypostasis(es.) Instead, hypostatic unions (be they elemental or compound) are (usually) mere “overlapping” portions of the greater hypostasises that constitute them. As such, śarīra/hypostatic unions are functionally independent of (but NOT “separate” from) their constituting hypostasises and are capable of perusing the totality of the potentially infinitely large hypostasises at their (the śarīra’s/union’s) leisure. Because of this, śarīra might find the potentially infinitely large “borders” of their constituent hypostasises between said hypostasis(es) and the “root” of the plemoric reality of the universe. Whereupon they might choose to anchor themselves within said plemoric origin points of reality in order to ensure the “survival” of a piece of themselves when the śarīra eventually breaks down due to the fission of the hypostatic unions that created it (said piece becoming able to be “consumed” by any further lifeforms.)

It should also be noted that śarīra can not “survive” outside of the protection of either/or at least one of their originating hypostasises or an anchor point within plemoric reality without being deconstructing into non-traditionally usable byproducts (as happens during the “end phase” of a cantrip.) (Terrible artist’s rendition in diagram below.)

https://preview.redd.it/z9p8yootj1ah1.png?width=996&format=png&auto=webp&s=39159b5a8d3fb82bfeef07e429d7c6e9aa122138

WIP prologue for a "Weird Fantasy" that I'm working on. I'm labelling it as "Weird Fantasy" because I'm not quite sure what other type of subgenre to call it other then maybe a TES-inspired "High Fantasy." What do you all think of what I have here? What assumptions and inferences would you come up with after reading this?

“First it was the Myrmidons what conquered us in the name of their queen. Then it was the Fulinese and their elven half-castes, all in the name of liberation. And now you and your ilk would have us bend the knee, all in the name of ‘reunification,’ is that it?”

“We would merely see an end to the oppression— an end the hardship, same as you!” Though there was a passion in the knight’s voice the fire that reflected in the steely grey of his eyes was anything but soft. In truth, the roaring blaze of the firepit had doused everything in the longhouse in a garish orange glow tonight, which served only to exacerbate the dour looks on the faces of the assembled villagers in the wake of the recent attack. “All we ask is that you allow us to stand with you once more! If the fate of Ruritania is to be of any parable to us, then let it be that a house so divided could little stand to resist the axe of would-be plunderers. Point us in the direction of the Myrmidon insurrectionists so that we might help avenge you and the memory of our slain cousins!”

While the amber glow of the firepit seemed to only darken the colours of the Llanolian knight’s netmaille and scapular the old man’s leathery, weathered skin seemed almost to brighten in the light of the Shambalan’s longhouse. It had been said in old Shambala that a man’s 50 years under the heavens passed like a dream within the blink of an eye. If that was so, then it could certainly be said that this man’s dream was almost over. Though it was evident that the frame had once been well toned and muscular, now the body had become rather waifish as liverspotted skin sagged in loose folds along the old man’s bones in a manner not unlike the many latigo tassels of his rhinestone studded liripipe.

Shifting his weight in obvious agitation atop the raised dais and gathering up the loose fabric of his shendyt around his legs to keep the night’s cold off them, the old man feigned as if he hadn’t heard a word the knight had said. “Mmmhmm, yes of course, the Ruritanians. We was wondering when you would invoke your old masters. Weren’t we?” He prodded, craning his head around in mock surprise to briefly look into the faces of each of the assembled village family heads.

“They are our masters no more-!”

“How can we be so sure?”

“I-I would go!” Interjected a navy haired youth beside the chieftain’s dais. “I-I… by your leave, chieftain Zao Hua, I would go with these men in avengence of young master Linley and late master Doehring!”

“Hmmm?” Steepling the wrinkled fingers of his hands, the elderly chieftain Zao Hua studied the navy haired youth in silence for a long time. Passing his gaze between the boy and another identical navy haired youth beside him mouthing silent beseechments to the boy as tears began to well up at the corners of her eyes. Occasionally the chieftain would allow his gaze to fall on the Myrmidon child clutching in quiet anticipation at the navy haired girl’s shendyt, and a couple of times he even contemplated the raven haired Llanolians who’d gone silent as well. Finally, after what must’ve felt like an eternity to the navy haired boy, the white-tinged edges of the wizened, old chieftain’s azure handlebar moustache quirked up as a slight scowl of resignation tugged at his mouth, “Very well, then.” He said with a sigh. “As all Shambalan men are free under Fulinese imperial law even now, so are you free to cast your lot in with these lot.”

Had to look this up to see if it hadn't already been done yet, but with the one-two punch of the recent Fortnite news I been thinkin'... what if Pomni follower mod? Surely that must be one of the seven seals required to be broken in order to bring about the end of days and advent of TES6? There's a Skyrim mod for just about everything else you could ever imagine, I was actually quite suprised when I saw that no one'd made one yet

I try to log on to the website via my phone to pay my bill for this month (I usually pay early/around about the 1st when I pay my rent so that I can get all my big bills outta the way at once) and whenever I try to log in it takes me to a blank page that says in small text "unsupported context path," in the top left corner. I try to log in on the computer and I just get a Lil popup that says yada-yada the site's experiencing problems at this time and to call in if it's urgent. It's been like this for a couple days now, anyone now when the site's gonna be back up?

https://preview.redd.it/57ac8u33nr2h1.png?width=996&format=png&auto=webp&s=9680c4bcfe4ae521d4a78c43213d90e766184068

Possibly one of the most well known of the basic beginner-level cantrips is the iconic fireball; a bolt of blazing fire manifested at the summoner’s will and seemingly imbued with the miraculous ability for its burning flames to distinguish master from target. Exactly how such a thing can come to be, especially given that flames are dependent on fuel of a sort as per the laws of thermodynamics, is subject to the way that “magic” works in the World of A Baoa Qu. However, before we can get into the exact machinations of magic, we must first redefine terms “Space,” “Time,” and “Power” in relation to the reality that A Baoa Qu exists in.

In its most rudimentary interpretation, the term “space” refers to the totality of the at least three-dimensional continuum that contains both the observable and the unobservable universe. Although there are many variations of space, the majority of them can be defined into one of two categories: Fluid-Space and Static-Space. Within Static-Space everything inside the at least three-dimensional continuum is firmly affixed to its exact position and state for all eternity, as Static-Space does not allow for change of any kind regardless of whether or not there is actually any “room” for it. Only within spacetime, or “Fluid-Space,” are change and the transfer of the potential for change possible thanks to Time; “Time” being the potential for, and exertion of, change.

As it stands, the world of A Baoa Qu exists within the mind of the Godhead or “Maha-Bythos.” As a result, all the world is therefore subject to the whims of the Godhead’s mind and its dreams. As such, the material world of A Baoa Qu is very much a living entity with a myriad of desires and consciousness of its own, as derived from its genealogical origin from the living Godhead which encompasses all possible desires and outcomes in spacetime. However, as the world of A Baoa Qu or “The Greater Dream” as it is often called colloquially within the borders of Fulin, is merely an involuntary emanation of Maha-Bythos’ power the natural state of A Baoa Qu is a world trapped within a timeless, static-space despite being fully sentient.

Only the Iyrin, as voluntary emanations of the Godhead’s power, are fashioned in such a way where their natural state is one of mastery over time; affording them the ability to both control their own flow-of-time and that of those they overlap with. It is this specific ability of a single individual to both possess and exert time voluntarily is known as “Power.” As Iyrin are also genealogically descended from the Godhead’s will they also possess the power of consciousness and desire. However, unlike A Baoa Qu, as a voluntary emanation of Maha-Bythos the Iyrin act as lenses for the material hyperphantasia manifestations of the Godhead such as A Baoa Qu. Through them the Godhead’s myriad desires are able to interact with the desires of A Baoa Qu through the independent desires of the Iyrin or “souls,” as Iyrin are often referred to throughout the world, wherever the Iyrin’s focus overlaps with the material world.

As such, as Iyrin focus their gaze on A Baoa Qu, overlapping it, the material world is able to experience spacetime. However, due to the natures of A Baoa Qu and Iyrin the two respectively desire to be able experience the states of being that are mutually exclusive to one another while maintaining their own nature. It is believed that this behaviour is the result of what certain sages and scholars term, “power theory,” which states that power (the potential to possess and exert time) effectively loses all value if there are no “power gaps” within which an individual might be able to exert their power. In the case of the Iyrin, as effectively “alter egos” of the Godhead that contain slightly lesser infinite portions of the infinite totality of The Greater Dream and spacetime, this would explain their desire to experience even a portion of Static-Space via mortal incarnation, Static-Space being the one thing truly beyond their power and therefore the only “power gap” available to the Iyrin. Whereas The Greater Dream would wish to exert its power within the Fluid-Space gap of spacetime without the “help” of the Iyrin.

Regardless of the actual cause of this behavior however, the result is that The Greater Dream builds a mortal simulacra fueled by “Power” within the expecting the mortal mother whereupon an Iyrin would enter into the body of the simulacra as the person’s “soul.” It is because of this that when people dream their dreams are able to be filled with all kinds of other creatures and people, as the A Baoa Qu-derived aspect of the person uses their soul’s innate acausal-spacetime nature to create a world such as A Baoa Qu would have should The Greater Dream’s nature be switched with that of the Iyrin. It is therefore also so that, should an Iyrin soul as yet unbound to a mortal vessel “overlap” its gaze over two dreaming persons, and should one of them be experiencing a would-be out-of-body-experience, that the one person’s dream-sight might “invade” the other person’s dream, thus perpetuating the dream past even when the unwitting host-dreamer eventually awakens and dreams no more.

This particular ability is also how Iyrin “souls” worshiped as “gods” by the mortals of A Baoa Qu often interact with the mortals of the world, often without even involving a second mortal experiencing an out-of-body-dream. Either way, because of this there is a slight “shedding” of a guest’s power, be they Iyrin or mortal, when they observe the dream of a living creature. When the dream faces its final, “true” end after all observers have stopped observing it, that power is left behind within the body of the dreamer as a physical trace known as “Śarīra” the source and fuel of all preternatural-causing phenomena such as “magic.” With the power of Sarira, mortal creatures are enabled to extend limitations of their body’s Static-Space aspects and perform all manner of arcane feats and cantrips. Such as temporarily increasing the flashpoint or “pyrolysis point” of their skin while spontaneously growing a golf-ball sized wart in the palm of their hand by constricting some of their prehensile meridians at will, while flooding others with Śarīra. After which, the caster usually wills the growth in their palm to detach and raises the flashpoint of their skin yet higher, while simultaneously using the Śarīra in their blood to heat the palm of their hands to the point where the detached growth of flesh ignites; ready to be thrown at any unsuspecting targets who haven’t managed to temporarily raise the flashpoint of their own body.

What it means, however, that the ostensibly “perfected” form of both A Baoa Qu and Iyrin is a hypostatic union born out of a desire for the possession and use of power is a question that the philosophers of The Greater Dream continue to grapple with even to this day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Updated "re-write" from my last post because I realized that in the previous version I'd actually forgotten to add an example of just a relatable example of a common spell/cantrip. Made a few changes in the exact mechanics since as well

• A story with multiple, branching choices that actually have distinct weight and consequences? Check.
• The protagonist often finds themself at a crossroads of sorts where, even though there may be a “lesser evil” option, they’re still effectively damned if they do and damned if they don’t, morally? Check
• The socio-political intrigue remains relevant throughout the whole game and isn’t subsumed by the fantastical growing stakes? Check

Tbf, all of this probably sounds pretty incindeary, not to mention that I have only just finished chapter 3 of TOR so technically there's still plenty of time for all these things to be "upended," I suppose. But even from what I've seen so far both from my own route and looking at the other routes, I've just been absolutely blown away by how well TOR does it's "war story" compared to FFT's. Of course, I understand that FFT is supposed to be less of an absolute "war story" like TOR is, and it's also not to say that TOR's narrative doesn't have its own fair share of "melodrama-isms" as well, (characters at times feeling as if they're taking insane leaps of logic, certain character's entire characterizations being completely different depending on route, ect.)

But overall I like that TOR feels to me as if what FFT might've been if the lucavi weren't as major of a plot point and the game continued to be about the actual Ivalician civil war all the way through. I've gotta admit though, as much I love TOR things like the level cap and not being able to immediately read up on the effects of items and spells does make me kinda miss FFT. The spell description thing especially as even though I managed to get used to it eventually on its face "Spellstrike" and "spellcraft" genuinely sound as if they do the same thing to me, for example. As a matter of fact, I often feel as if I have no idea what I'm doing and aren't using the game's mechanics to its fullest, especially when watching the way Walkthrough-ers play TOR.

https://preview.redd.it/ubkflq0mug0h1.png?width=1156&format=png&auto=webp&s=e096f305ce0da4540ce7b200e722cac94e1048f1

In order to understand the inner-workings of “magic” and the various magical disciplines of the continent of Theia we must first understand the inner workings of Time and Space within the world of A Baoa Qu. As the world of A Baoa Qu exists within the myriad dreams of the Godhead collectively referred to as “The Greater Dream,” or colloquially as “Nous-Mundus,” Time and Space are subject to synchronicity. With The Greater Dream being composed of the myriad potential-engrams of the Godhead’s nous, it is such that the material world of Nous-Mundus exists independently of the Iyrin, being of a shared "genealogy" as “descendants” of the Godhead despite having differing points of origin. However, as Nous-Mundus only constitutes spatial reality or, “Space,” the world of The Greater Dream does not, “happen,” or experience any change in its static-space without the Iyrin’s observation of the world transmuting Nous-Mundus into fluid-space by imposing, “Time,” onto the world.

But if Nous-Mundus were to be called, “the myriad dreams of the Godhead,” then the Iyrin would be like unto the eyes or diopters that the Godhead uses to observe the dream from various perspectives. Being descended of the Godhead’s infinite consciousness, the Iyrin have the same capacity to hold all the world within themselves that the Godhead proper is capable of. However, due to being born of the concupiscence of Ahaṁkārasis Iyrin most usually only affix their sights on but mere portions of The Greater Dream at any given moment. This behaviour is itself the result of the Iyrin’s desire for individuality, a state of being entirely foreign to Iyrin as beings who lack defined “start” and “end” points to separate them from each other; Their being all of both the same origin and of the same station. Therefore, it could be said from a certain perspective that the marriage of an Iyrin as the “soul” with a portion of The Greater Dream as the “vessel” within hypostatic union of a living creature is itself a step towards apokatastatic “perfection.” What it says, however, that according to such a perspective that the long road to “perfection” would require the intentional creation of an imperfect world filled with imperfect life is a paradox that even the sages and sophists of old have failed to come to a single, unified conclusion about.

Now, due in part to the world of A Baoa Qu’s existing within the mind of the Godhead, and therefore being subject to that psychically conditioned relativity of space and time that said sages and sophists of old dubbed as “synchronicity,” all creatures are born with souls. Not only does the infinite or “non-finite” nature Iyrin creation help to ensure such a thing, but so does the fact that upon mortal creature’s death its soul, having reconverted itself into an Iyrin, might just as well seek to reincarnate into a point of time prior to its former vessel’s birth as it might reincarnate into a new vessel born either after its death or even concurrently with its former vessel’s birth.
Although regardless of when exactly an Iyrin chooses to reincarnate the fact remains that The Greater Dream itself, having a similar genealogy to Iyrin, has its own desires as well that follow their own logics; The desire of the egg being to both experience and exert “Time” upon the world. Therefore, as it gestates the egg goes about building a body to attract an Iyrin to serve as its soul by taking elements— which are themselves threefold hypostatic unions of either twofold “yin” or threefold “yang” groupings of paramāṇu— and transmuting them into other elements to be used in producing the multi-trigamic compounds needed to construct a vessel powered, in part, by Śarīra. Śarīra-powered vessels being the only kinds of vessels capable of both movement and changing their minds via metanoia. Those being traits attractive to the dualistic hubris of the Iyrin whom, despite seeking individuality out of concupiscence, are naturally drawn to seek out and commune with other Iyrin whether bound by mortal coil or wherever the gaze of un-incarnated Iyrin may fall.

Of course, as all living creatures ensouled then so do all living creatures possess the ability to dream their own dreams. The difference between the dreams of mortal creatures and the Godhead’s Greater Dream being that as The Greater Dream itself is not by default in possession of a soul it needs an Iyrin to create an independent hypostasis with it in order to experience time on its own. However, as the body of a mortal is itself, in part, Prakṛti and therefore of The Greater Dream than the dreams of mortals are able to create soulless creatures capable of moving and experiencing time on their own, as it could be said that the part of the creature that is Nous-Mundus does “possess” its own soul. However, upon the mortal’s awakening the dream and its creatures dissipate like smoke in the wind, only leaving behind trace amounts of Śarīra within the body of the creature.

However, despite all creatures being born with souls not all creatures are born sapient like the myriad races of men are. Rather, as a creature accumulates Śarīra over the course of its lifetime it comes closer to being able to achieve Jijñāsā, whereupon the creature would immediately undergo an anthropomorphic transmogrification post-achieving of Jijñāsā. Although it is entirely possible for these post-transmogrification creatures, known colloquially as “juujin,” to interbreed with humans (at the cost of no longer being able to copulate with their former species) to such an extent that it becomes impossible to tell at a glance whether or not a far flung descendent might have ever had any juujin ancestors, it is impossible to tell if or what the “first” humans “evolved” from in this way as due to the Synchronicity between the far flung future of Nous-Mundus breaking down at various points and bleeding into the far flung past.

As both Iyrin and Nous-Mundus possess intelligence and desires of their own, both are often the object of worship by mortals. However, as The Greater Dream ultimately has the power to reject the potential hypostatic union of an Iyrin and a mortal vessel it has been noted by some that certain popularly worshipped Iyrin’s being effectively “disbarred” from reincarnation is, at least ostensibly on the surface, similar in certain ways to certain particularly violent or “evil” Iyrin’s often being rejected from reincarnation as well. Leading more then a few cults to become staunch believers in the only way possible to “reach heaven” being through violence.

Picked up the game last year during a Steam sale when I accidentally stumbled upon it, and I remember all I could think was, "Holy shit! This game that I remember fondly from my childhood got a sequel? How is nobody talking about this, I could swear the original was fairly well received back in the day?" So I tried it out for a chapter or two (Tutorial-prologue and the first chapter where you meet the otaku guy) and I just... I don't wanna say, "It's like it's a completely different game!" because duh, yeah that's how sequels work lol.

But at the same time, playing the game for even those two chapters made me wanna play the first game to see if I wasn't imagining things and one playthrough later, no, no, if nothing else then the atmosphere of the sequel's prologue, at least, is like completely different from just say the equivalent chapters from 2064. Like, in 2064 I played the game as an alcoholic with a halal diet (Something that Turing would loudly remind me off anytime he so much as saw me even think about tasting even a single drop of the stuff, lol.) In 2064 you roleplay as YOU (or whoever you want,) which is already a pretty novel thing for VNs (which usually see you taking up the role of an established in-world person, with their own goals and relationships) and you live in this shitty lil rundown apartment getting by hand-to-mouth every month on what I can only imagine was an anything but glamourous salary as an independent journalist.

Contrast that to the opening of Neurodiver where you're meeting all these characters who are on mostly friendly, if not professional, terms with the protag (who, herself has a pretty cushy flat,) and the game starts doing all these tongue-in-cheek "wacky anime" pastiches and it comes off to me as just... Sure, plenty of that was in the first game as well, but it really felt as if it built up to it. You start the game and you're basically a nobody, you're biggest "claim to fame" is either being the friend of a genius scientist, or being the sibling of your local cop's ex. Your apartment eventually stops looking as much like a crack house, *after* you and Turing start putting in the work to clean the place up. By the time you start seeing "wacky otaku" jokes or doing Christmas themed rap battles you're at least like 3 or 4 hours in with at least 1 (IIRC I think maybe 2?) death reveals under your belt.

I guess what I'm asking is not if, "it gets better," but rather, "does neurodiver get *more like 2064*" as it goes on? Or if it doesn't, then does it at least pick up pace with the intrigue and stakes? I haven't touched the game since last year so I'm still blind on the game and would probably prefer to continue to be as much as possible, at least, but even just navigating to this subreddit from the web it seems that if nothing else there's something in this game's writing that has at least some people heavily divided on the series' legacy characters like Tomcat, so that also isn't exactly encouraging.

The continent of Theia, and indeed all the world, exists within the dream of the Godhead Maha-Bythos. As the nature of dreams are such that the mind of the dreamer is often divided into a near "bicameral" state, then it is such that the Dream itself exists independently of the Dreamer's-Sight and functions according to its own logic, but does not "happen" unless it is observed by the Dreamer. Now, the Godhead itself does not observe anything directly, but rather "delegates" that duty to Souls; Souls acting as the "Dreamer's-Sight" or the "Mind's-Eye" of the dreamer as they go about witnessing and interacting with the dream. However, souls themselves are "born" as a result of the Godhead's own concupiscence, Maha-Bythos being the all-encompassing origin of all things and desires, and as such Souls are not merely continent with observing the dream but wish for "true individuality," as well. However, as "true individuality," remains out of reach for Souls, they naturally settle for that which is closest to achieving such a state for them: material incarnation.

Now, as a soul's existence within the mind of the Godhead is much like that of a miniature snow globe held within an even bigger snow globe, the Dream exists within the myriad Souls of the Godhead as well, despite not being localized entirely within any of them. A soul will observe the Dream causing time, growth and decay to "happen" and as the gestation of a creature within its mother "happens" a third Soul will bind itself to the mind of the creature, possessing it (all creatures thus being "ensouled.") As the Dream exists beyond the existence and will of those un-incarnated Souls, referred to colloquially as "egregores," despite sharing a lineage what with being born of the Godhead's subconscious (as opposed to Souls being born of the Godhead's "higher consciousness,") so is it that the Dream itself has desires and resolve as well; The desire of the brain organs of mortal creatures being to experience "time" by themselves within the Dream by creating a mortal body capable of binding a Soul.

https://preview.redd.it/8q70kyx4pqyg1.png?width=1156&format=png&auto=webp&s=83dcdac97bb3f6efcd28ea4331b00e154b42bb1c

As creatures of the Dream, the myriad races of men are subject to the psychically conditioned relativity of Space and Time known as, "Synchronicity," as imposed the Godhead. Because of this, while many of the races of men may have their own creation myths from previous kalpas, it is clear that within the current kalpa all the races of men originate from point far, far off into the distant future (or perhaps, the "past,") whereupon a breakdown of Synchronicity saw entire races of men simply misplaced in "Time" and plopped down into the areas of land historically occupied during antiquity. Such that, while animals and beasts are oft recorded "transmogrifying" into human "juujin" through Jijñāsā-driven apodemosis, the exact origins of humans as a species is impossible to discern. What IS clear, however, is that in year 796 of the Alliance Calendar the Kingdom of Prestoria, just one faction that, despite (or perhaps, specifically BECAUSE of) the former breakdown of Synchronicity, had managed to maintain a bitter generations-long three-way conflict with the neighbouring kingdoms of Dolem and Javelina, announced the annexation of the lands comprising the eastern borders of the Kingdom of Fulin. Declaring their right to lands according to the fact that 7 in 10 eastern Fulin men were of mixed Prestorian stock and either operated, or were elsewise employed by, northern Prestorian mercantile guilds. Guilds whom the southern Prestorian nobility claimed had begun evading taxes ever since the outset of the last war.

https://preview.redd.it/b34avxb9zqyg1.png?width=1138&format=png&auto=webp&s=e0fa9ca9adfb954d3e5971cbacc2129730d0304d

https://preview.redd.it/od8up4lazqyg1.png?width=1146&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8fd656d898c1f22893403802048dd0e3b1e9cf7

To call the ensuing war "one-sided" would be an understatement. The men of Fulin, being a mostly mercantile people whose economy relied primarily on sea trade with other countries, were unaccustomed to overland combat. Just as it seemed as if the war had been all but decided, the constellations Harut and Marut revealed in an out-of-body dream to the master thauma-cryptomnesiologist, Hyakub of Shabazz, a handful of coveted alchemical Mysteries as part of a divine covenant. Transmogrifying the human man in a shower of alchemical collidal silver, causing his skin to tint blue and his ears to become slender and pointed. Emerging from his study in the morning and showing himself to his acolytes as the first, "pneumajin," he set about transmogrifying them from human, "hylics," into "super-human" pneumajin as well, before sailing from the fulinese isle of Shabazz to the central island of the inner Fulin archipelago, Ketumati. Whereupon the mercantile nobility and thalassocrats of the Fulin Alliance granted him the rights to gather a great naval host to combat the encroaching Prestorian threat with.

Striking from both the west and north of the territory taken by Prestorian, in tandem with their irredentist Nidavellir allies striking from the east, the Fulinese host managed to turn the tides of war under the command of the hortator Hyakub, now going by the title of Hyakub Shiki, prevailing against the forces of Prestoria and taking the, "northern tail" of Prestoria.

https://preview.redd.it/prfk6iny9ryg1.png?width=1160&format=png&auto=webp&s=d852b0f8e7456042335c04cf99f7e139dfafc3a6

Seeing the writing on the wall and anticipating the "final death" of their ancient rival, the Kingdoms of Dolem and Javelina attempted to carve out their own pieces of the Prestorian pie. However, their own puppet princess to replace the former Prestorian monarch, the Fulin-backed border forces of Prestoria soundly thwarted the advances of both Dolem and Javelina, and before long enough territory had been lost to the Prestorians that the kingdoms of Dolem and Javelina were both convinced to sign a nonaggression pact with the now satrapy of Prestorian, forming what would later become known as the "Yossarian League of Three Kingdoms," (from the name of the pact being called the, "Yossarian Covenant," after the puppet princess Yossaria.)

https://preview.redd.it/d4mxis4oeryg1.png?width=1187&format=png&auto=webp&s=9612be6608c6b8f0e485b6a39da7fda4aa79ab4b

Although the lands now both under the sovereignty and the suzerainty of Fulin would see a period of unprecedented economic and thauma-industrial prosperity, many native Fulinese would become disillusioned by the more "dualistic" pantheon of gods being pushed by the insulares-born nobility, as influenced by Hyakub's milieu. Opting instead to undergo willful expatriation as the more traditionalist Fulinese "hylics" left to resettle in land such as those of the Yossarian League, the newly minted Fulinese satrapy of Remustria, or the eastern lands of Shambala. However, in the year 0079 of the new Fulinese Imperial Calendar, as the southern kingdom of Selkievidek slowly continued its conquest of Shambala, the now Empire of Fulin announced its annexation of Shambala. Citing its rightful claims to the land due to its duty to protect, "even its prodigal sons and citizens such as the traditionalist hylics who cling to the old religion."

Now, the selkies of Selkievidek who had, in the previous kalpa, been taught the alchemical Mystery of hypostatic fision by the constellation Floron, were ruled by a nobility capable of thaumaturgic-bicamerality; adepts of splitting their beastman "juujin" pinnipedine compatriots into two entities. One a non-juujin human person, and the other a sapient juujin pelt that held the power subsume any single potential wearer other then its original "owner" within itself and its soul, in a man-made facsimile of the Egregores (non-incarnated Souls, formerly worshipped under the old Fulinese pantheon) as they observed the Dream itself. Having become adept cultivators of symbiotic parasite juujins as well, such as various strains of cordyceps familiars, the selkievidek nobility had pioneered the art of "shock troop battery farming." Becoming as man-made divinities even prior to their ensuing war with the celestial hortator Hyakub Shiki and his monastic cohorts.

Although in the end the combined power of the Selkievidek nobility was not enough to prevail over the forces of Fulin and its satrapies, it did prove sufficient enough to deal a crippling blow to the burgeoning empire as Hyakub Shiki was felled in battle against Sè-rēng, the son of the selkie hypostatic-trifon lord, Eochaid. Resolving, amidst the depths of his grief, to inter both himself and his remaining courtiers deep within the depths of the material world inside resplendent barrows, the Selkividek nobility abandoned the people of their nation to their fate at the hands of the Fulinese, as the forces of Fulin and those of their Yossarian League vassal-state PMCs split up the majority of the lands formerly claimed by Selkievidek rule.

https://preview.redd.it/mwrwnnlfvryg1.png?width=1151&format=png&auto=webp&s=4007ce0df071bdeef9664388f63499d899d77efa

https://preview.redd.it/2yn14mogvryg1.png?width=1162&format=png&auto=webp&s=83317f385761f253606132160c15c1f048dc2a4c

In contemporary times, with the crisis of succession currently going on in the Fulinese heartland, the lands comprising the imperial provinces that formerly made up the territories have become a hotbed for irridentist Selkividekian revolts, Ruritanian-sponsored Llanolian border skirmishes and Yossarian League PMC-backed adventurer guilds' raiding of decrepit Selkievidek barrows and tombs.