i would like to start off with this: i cannot give too many blatant details as i would like to remain as anonymous as possible, (edit: i just realized i was supposed to add ages but i cant, our median age is 19) but i seriously need help with my situation. if the person this is about sees this (unlikely but just in case), and realizes who i am, i am sorry. i am genuinely just trying to see if there's something i missed to fix this situation and help you.
basically, all i can say without being too too obvious is my partner is having a severe depression and bpd episode, usually i can help him with these episodes but this one is a lot worse than normal. what happened was this:

1. he said we should break up for his mental health and to protect me, i think i was understanding and tried not to make him feel forced to stay. my question here: should i have fought for him instead of just letting go, so as to not make him feel like i was giving up on him? is it possible that may have hurt him? my reasoning was that i didn't want him to feel forced to stay, and i didn't want him to stay in a relationship that would be too much for him right now.
2. he blocks me on all socials except one of his 2 discord accounts. my question here: is this him trying to signal that he wants me to chase him there or is it more likely he simply forgot? currently, i'm giving him space and letting him come back at his own pace.
3. i asked why, he got mad, someone close to me saw and defended me. i can't disclose what exactly was said beyond that he said i wasn't trying to understand. they took that as he was insulting my intelligence, i took it as insulting my empathy. i have been very patient with him but i think being called out scared him and thats why my number is also blocked. i left him some messages basically saying that yes he was being mean but i understand that it wasn't his intention for when he unblocks me, as he usually does with other people he overreacts with and i'm hoping now will be the same.

at the moment, i'm hoping that he does what he normally does and comes back after a little bit so we can discuss and hopefully reboot because yk.. i love him. this is the first major issue we've had in over a year, and i know it's not his fault so i'm trying not to be too mad at him. i am trying to recognize where i fucked up as well, but i think if he does come back like he usually does with me and anyone else who he blocks (he does not block me regularly, to be clear.) when he's in a better mindset i would like to discuss both of our mistakes and set new boundaries to avoid situations like this. what i want to know tho, is if i should pursue him through that last place he hasn't blocked me to show him i care or if i should leave it for him to come back at his own pace like i'm doing right now.
i also would like to know if he does come back, does anyone with his affliction or a partner with his affliction have any tips for me to help him in the future? usually i just try to comfort him or distract him and it works eventually, but i want to know if maybe there's a better more effective method i could use.
thank you to anyone who answers <3

Also, wouldn't mind some opinions XD
*****
Thinking 2 or 3 dots on this one - Single late combat trick, a bit of utility, and a very spotty and random unique extra.
Wooded Silver Ax – Initially made by Jade Claws (gen 0 Lunar exalt) as a friendship gift to a loyal Dragonblood retainer (A craftsman, obviously), this ax improved their ability to gather materials, and make them into auspicious items. While wood is not an inherent magical material, the great care used in crafting this tool seeps into the items it works, possibly lending them additional potency. This artifact is made of green jade and moonsilver. This is a Medium Artifact weapon with the Lethal, Melee, Thrown (Short), and Chopping tags (Accuracy +3 Damage+12 Defense+1 Overwhelm 4 Attunment 5).
Woodworker's Friend
Cost: - ; Mins Essence 1 Type: Permanent
It’s main capacity is to shift its shape – while it is naturally an ax, and reverts to this shape when unattended, it may also take the shape of any wood-working tool, or as a simple bracelet. While disguised, a 3 difficulty perception+Lore check will reveal this ax’s nature. At Melee 5, Essence 3+, you may attempt to “jink” a Parry-based Defense by morphing this ax into a smaller form and then re-manifesting it on the “other side” of the block (this specific use costs 1 mote). This grants the Unblockable trait for this one attack, in return for reducing this attack's Accuracy and Damage by 1 success. You may only do this once per combat round.
Subtle Wood Enchantment: Cost: - ; Mins Essence 1 Type: Permanent When used to harvest or craft wood, the ST makes a secret roll – on a roll of 0, the user gains 1 additional Silver Resource, and on a roll of 9, one resource gained in harvesting, or 1 item made in crafting, gains a single minor property of green jade. A teacup might improve the quality of the tea served in it, relaxing and soothing the drinker, while an ax handle might lend its wielder a mild resistance to poison. A Perception+Lore or Occult check might determine this subtle charm, but it is a very difficult process, as it is a very minor effect. These items remain “wood,” and will fail as wood does, but can last, when properly cared for, as long as jade, without degradation. Those with a sensitivity or affinity to the wood element will enjoy contact with such items, even if they are uncertain of why. A harvested tree with an effect shares its effect with all resulting items made from it. For example, raw lumber with a regeneration effect was made into a set of practice swords for Gens Nerigus several hundred years ago – they remain in use, even now, because, while they do break, they restore themselves if left alone for a day.
***** Thinking a 3? Maybe 4, though I don't imagine you'll have 0 Resources Merit by the time you are Essence 3, let alone 4, unless you are REALLY trying, and that's a lot of what would unbalance this relic.
Zenigata Gloves The Solar philosopher Zargas came to the understanding that money was an easy exacerbater of greed, and that greed was bad. While this did tragically result in him later destroying all forms of wealth in his area of rule, leading to wide spread local poverty and famine, it also led to this "prank," a very real display of the idea that money is harmful. While mildly defensive (adding +1 to the Defense statistic when worn), this full sleeve silk and orichalcum-thread glove's major power is literally throwing money away. Coins thrown with this glove are treated as Heavy Thrown weapons (Damage 11, Overwhelm 1) and have the Lethal, Special, and Thrown (Long) tags until they hit, at which point they revert to normal coinage. Special: In addition to the normal damage, add 1 damage die for each dot of the Resources Merit the target possesses. This attack also leaves an imprint of the coin on the person's body, which remains for 1 scene per such dot. If the user somehow loses a Resource Merit dot through the use of these attacks (how many coins did you throw?!), you have +3 dice to accuracy and your ammo gain the Thrown(Extreme) tag for the rest of the scene. You may never pick up a coin thrown with this glove during the Scenario you threw it.
Evocation Greed is Bad, m'kay? Cost: 1m, 1w; Mins: Essence 3 Type: Simple You are able to determine the Resources Merit of everyone within medium distance of you this round - there is no check for this, you simply know the information. This knowledge is remembered after the round, but you will not receive any "updates" after the round you use this feature (so you won't know if someone lost or gained Resources, or the Merit level of anyone that enters Medium range, after the round), unless you use this evocation again. You may spend 1 additional mote to degrade the Defense of one person with the highest Resource Merit within range by 1 for the next scene (if multiple people have the "highest" Resource Merit, you may pick which one loses the point of Defense). Only one degradation of Defense may be active through this evocation - if this aspect of the evocation is used again, the previous use is nullified. The evocation itself may be used as often as the attuner likes, assuming the cost is paid. This effect is detectable by various spells and charms - just using the evocation does not detect as harmful, though the Defense reduction might, but it does create a response to abilities that warn if someone is trying to learn about others. Resonant: If you are a Solar Exalt, and you have fewer Resource Merits than the target of the Defense degradation, you recover the 1 willpower spent on this Evocation.
Mo' Money Mo' Problems Cost 5m, 1w; Mins: Essence 4 Type: Simple
When activated, this Evocation causes everyone (you and your party included) within long range to suffer a -1 die per point of the Resources Merit above yours, for all rolls, until the end of the scene. The attuner may exempt any number of people from this effect by paying 1 additional mote and Willpower per person. Special: If you are a Solar exalt, while under this effect, if you destroy "wealth" in some fashion, such that someone's Resources Merit drops 1 dot, you gain 1 willpower. Please note that "stealing" is not "destroying," you must actually burn/melt/disintegrate the money/mining stockpile/inventory of goods/whatever.
*****
I'm thinking 5, but it's semi-random and very specific, so maybe 4, on this one?
Cards Of Unknown Providence – This standard pack of playing cards are crafted from a small amount of starmetal wire and moderate amounts of moonsilver, though their magic makes them appear to be normal card-stock. Crafted by a first generation Lunar Exalted, Dancing Wind Paws, who felt that fate was too immutable, and fearing the forecasted end of their soulmate (Their Zenith was well aware of the Sidereal plot, and was just too "Achilles in His Tent" at the moment to care), made these weapons in an attempt to alter the unalterable. Needless to say, the Sidereal took exception to this, but the cards can't be held by fated hands, or locked away - these cards find their way into the pocket of any soul willing to take a risk and throw the dice to get what they need.
These cards are treated like Light Chakram Artifacts (Damage +10, overwhelm 3, Attunement 5), with the tags: Lethal, Thrown (Medium), Cutting, Special, Concealable. Special: As soon as a thrown card either misses or strikes its target, it disappears, and reappears in the deck, unless the user's will prevents this. All cards are returned to the deck if at least one card moves more than long range from deck, or if the user becomes incapacitated. If placed in a locked container without an owner, the cards will appear in the pocket of the nearest mortal gambler, and if affected by Fate or Destiny, will immediately flee to a mortal gambler's pocket at least 100 km away, ending the Fated effect. If the cards are still attuned, they will return to their attuner instead, and are immune to Fate or Destiny related effects.
You may use these cards like normal playing cards. If you Stunt with this Artifact outside of combat, gain an extra die. If you try to entertain with them, you may use Thrown in place of Performance.
Evocations Gambler's Loss and Gain Cost: 1m, 1 wp; Mins Essence 2 Type: Simple, Dissonant: Fate-related creatures, including Sidereal and Getimas
When thrown, rather than using a particular Attribute to determine accuracy and damage, roll a d10, with 1 corresponding to Strength, 2, Dexterity, and so on to 9 being Wits – use that Attribute in these rolls. A 0 lets you pick an Attribute, instead.
An attack that successfully lands, besides doing normal damage based on the rolled Attribute, reduces the dots in the target’s same Attribute by 1 for Scene. If a target drops to 0 in an Attribute, they are instantly incapacitated (until the Attribute is restored by the ending of the Scene), unless they roll a Resolve with more successes than the damage they received from that attack. If they do win, they retain 1 dot in that attribute. Dissonant: See Fate's Foil. As might be imagined, a Sidereal trying to use theses cards will end up with a lot of frustration and really nasty paper cuts for their troubles.
Fate's Foil
Type: Permanent
Sidereal and Getimians find these cards immensely troublesome, as do any Fate manipulating gods, demons, Fair Folk, or undead. Firstly, fate-linked creatures have trouble perceiving these cards at all, with -5 successes for any Awareness or Perception checks related to them. Further, it takes at least 3 more successes than normal for them to determine the cards are artifacts, compared to other people, even despite evidence to the contrary (like being hurt by the feature below). Even if they are perceived, unless they are perceived as artifacts, fate-linked creatures will tend to forget about them as "unimportant details" - even if they have been directly harmed by them. Finally, attempting to handle these cards, intentionally or not, will result in 1L of damage each interaction - whether this is done physically, by Charm or Ability (other than Awareness or similar skills - simply looking at or thinking about the cards doesn't hurt), or by magic (so telekinenticly poking a card hurts as much as actually poking it). This damage effect does not occur during direct combat, unless a fate-linked Exalted attempts to physically or magically take the cards from their attuner mid-combat (such as disarming the attuner of it).
(Yes, obviously a Sidereal player will get that the card is bad for them almost instantly, but the character will have an infuriatingly hard time figuring it out. Made worse by the character forgetting the card exists after a brief distraction, unless they've figured out its an artifact.)
Unfated Defense
Cost -; Mins Essence 4 Type: Reflexive, Resonant: Symbiosis In response to an attack being made on a known target within Medium range, you may Throw a card to intercept the attack once per combat round. Roll a d100 and divide the result by 7, round down - any result over 10 is treated as 10. This value replaces the Defense of the attack's target until the start of your next turn. Resonance: If you are a lunar, and successfully thwart an attack on another being with this evocation, you gain +1 to your Defense until the end of this scene. This bonus can stack with itself, but only when defending a new target in this way. This increases to +2 if the defended person is the defended is of the Lunar's Territory, bearing their mark. Special: Mortals may use this power to defend themselves (and only themselves) from Sidereal attacks, regardless of their Essence value.
Sleight of Chance Cost -; Mins Essence 1 Type: Simple The attuner may throw a card at any target (without causing injury) at will, within Medium distance, with unnatural precision. The card thrown cannot be detected, without a successful Perception+Awareness check that surpasses the attuner's Thrown rating, until it comes to rest (though it is semi-obvious to someone observing the attuner that they are doing "something," unless sufficient stealth is involved). After it does, anyone who failed to notice the throw will just assume the card was always there. Sidereal, per Fate's Foil, will generally ignore these dispersed cards. Even after getting maimed by them.
Special: A card may be thrown into an independent card game - this replaces any card, in hand or being dealt, and this substitution is not noticed by anyone involved unless they make the check above (a ST may adjust the difficulty for the person whose hand was altered, as is ST fiat, but this artifact really is just that good at this particular trick). The replaced card will be returned to its deck, and the artifact card will appear to be a card belonging to that deck, of a relative value equivalent to what you threw - a 2 will be a poor card, while a King will be an excellent one, in the context of the game being played. The artifact card returns to your deck after it is no longer being observed.
Note - this artifact has been around a very long time. While a Sidereal will have difficulty handling it directly, a semi-decent lore check, especially if the skill is focused on artifacts or Sidereal conflicts, will put this deck on a short list of answers to the question of "why am I randomly taking 1L of damage and can't find the source?" As one might imagine, removing it as a threat is a relatively high priority for most Sidereal who are aware of it. Most other fate-binding beings, like the Getimians, will not likely have the same institutional knowledge to draw from, making this deck far more dangerous to them. For example, She Who Lives In Her Name has put a bounty on this artifact 7 times...and forgotten its existence more than a dozen times. Most of Her servants have no idea the artifact exists either, due to her direct control over them also erasing their memories of the item, even if they are not Fate-bound themselves.
***** Thinking 3, though if the ST agrees it can affect The Curse, it might be a 5.
The Merciful Goblet of Suffering
"The kind of pain to get good in the end" - as someone once said. This artifact of Solar construction was one woman's attempt to solve the Curse...by repentance through suffering. This orichalcum and soulsteel goblet is mildly off-putting for everyone, but can render valuable service anyways.
Evocations Blood like Wine Type: Permanent It's most obvious function is, when held, it automatically fills with a single draught per Lethal or Aggravated damage dealt to anyone within Long Range. The liquid will not spill, even if the cup is held upside down. The cup can hold 16 draughts, and 1 draught evaporates away each hour it is unused or not added-to. Each draught heals 1 measure of Bashing damage - if consumed by someone with no Bashing damage, it will heal 1 mark of Lethal damage for 2 draughts, and if there is no Lethal or Bashing damage, it will heal Aggravated damage at a rate of 4 to 1. Resonance: (Solars, and certain deities aligned with suffering, or their agents) 4 draughts may also be used to repair a disfigurement (once, per Scenario), if the the cup-bearer takes on a lesser version of the disfigurement - so, restoring someone's hand loses you a finger, for example. You may never use this effect on yourself, though there isn't anything preventing you from passing this cup to another and asking them to heal you in turn, as long as enough "time" has passed.
No Pain, no Gain Type: Simple Its original use - someone may deal Aggravated damage to themselves, in order to reduce the effects of a derangement or other malady afflicting them. A single point of Aggravated damage will reduce the effect of one such malady one level, until the end of the scene. If a malady's effect has been reduced to nothing, 4 aggravated points of damage may be administered, again by the sufferer on the sufferer, to reduce the malady itself by 1 stage. If a malady is fully excised in this fashion, a physical manifestation of it flops out into the cup. ST's call on a) what it is and b) if it's going to try to actively kill you all. This "treatment" does not activate Blood like Wine.
Note: At the ST's discretion, this can, in fact, affect the Curse. To my estimation, you're looking at 25 Aggravated, self-inflicted, damage, at a minimum and in one scene, to even try and fully excise it. It almost certainly is going to try and kill its former host afterwords. Elder God-Thing curses are nasty like that.
***** Almost certainly a 5 dot, might be an N/A
Bandages of Time This "suit of armor" consists of a single roll of "linen" bandages, woven with thread made from the 5 magical materials. Putting it on normally requires an hour and at least 1 assistant to do it properly, while removing it takes 30 minutes (charms simplify the matter immensely). When properly worn, it provides 5 soak, 4 Hardness, and no mobility penalty, like any other suit of Light Artifact armor. However, it does have Attunment 10. The wrap covers the entire body, except the face and fingers. It can be comfortably worn, even in sleep, and while it isn’t entirely weightless, it is immensely light and breathable.
Evocations A Pleasant Day
Type: Permanent Even the hottest days and coldest nights have little bearing on your personal condition, and rain and snow just do not fall on you. This armor prevents unpleasant weather conditions from affecting you, and prevents all bashing, and up to 6L, damage from all environmental effects.
Time is of the essence Type: Permanent Your base initiative is 2 points higher than normal. You gain 1 initiative any time any one takes any action in combat. You gain 2 more any time someone takes an action involving you specifically. Special: You may spend 1 mote to turn this effect off, in return for gaining either +4 soak, +4 hardness, or +2 Defense. This change lasts until your next turn, when this evocation automatically resumes, unless you spend another mote.
Time is Fleeting Cost 5m; Mins Essence 5 Type: Simple, Withering All withering attacks you make this round, remove twice the initiative as normal – you still only gain the normal amount from such an attack. If you initiative crash a non-trivial opponent with such an attack, you are healed your right-most box of damage, regardless of type, and inflict that box on the crashed opponent – there is no defense for this transfer of damage.
Timeless Body Cost 5m; Mins Essence 5 Type: Simple You stop your personal time for 1 round. You take no further actions this round, and cannot be hurt until your time starts again; your initiative resets, even from crash, and any effects on you are paused (so you do not lose Sorcery Motes, and you also do not advance any poisons or diseases). Special: If you are under continued damage – you are surrounded in lava, there is a never-ending acidic hail storm pelting you, Ungloth the ravening horror is trying to suck the marrow from your bones, etc. – the timeless state will persist until the risk of damage stops. This isn’t always “fine” – you may be encased in stone once the lava cools, for example. The main point is, you never “come to” in a state that may potentially kill you outright. This does save you from Apocalyptic Damage, though, depending on the cause, you may or may not ever “unlock” – you get eternally eaten by the Ebony Dragon, you aren’t hurting, but he is never letting you out, either.
***** Not sure if this is equipment, per say, but this is probably a 4 dot artifact, as well as a 3 dot familiar?
Miser’s Bag Familiar - - - This artificial life form is a dear friend to any adventurer...as long as it is kept fed. While it doesn’t need “food” per say, it has an instinct to consume and devour treasure of all sorts, and a rather severe reticence to return what it has eaten. It is quite capable of moving by itself, up to 100 meters a second, and can freely follow orders issued by its owner, but can also be carried easily, never weighing anything other than 10 pounds – useful if you don’t want to advertise that your bag is alive. Its carrying area is roughly 1,000 cubic feet, and is dry, warm and safe. It will not let you crawl in. Stop asking. No one has ever pinned down exactly who made this enchanted sack, though estimates of “early in the first age” seem likely. Given its nearly continuous career of adventuring, it may be the single most experienced explorer in the whole of existence...or there are several of them. The Bureau of Nature is mildly concerned that the sack might be breeding somehow. The bag has a standard 7 section health bar, a 2 in every Attribute, and a 4 in Larceny, 4 in Athletics, 4 in Brawl, 4 in Resistance, 5 in Dodge, and a 4 in Awareness. It knows no charms, martial arts, or spells (besides its evocations). It has a Soak and Hardness of 4, and a Defense by Evasion of 3. While as smart as any human, it behaves in a very canine fashion in most cases.
Evocations Bigger on the inside Type: Permanent The bag can contain up to 1,000 cubic feet of material, without any increase to its personal weight, with the only limitation being inserted items must fit into the bag’s opening (a roughly half-meter square, though it is a sack opening, and allows for a certain amount of finagling), and it won’t accept living beings inside.
Spit it out Type: Simple The Miser’s Bag is capable of spitting out up to 1,000 coins, 10 small items, 5 medium items, or 1 large item, in a round, and to any location within short range, with perfect accuracy. This can cause no damage – to either the expelled object, or whatever it lands on. Its owner may force the bag to expel an item by spending a mote on the process, as well – a not entirely uncommon occurrence, in regards to expensive or rare treasures.
Not on my watch Cost 2m; Mins Essence 3 Type: Reflexive
If the Miser’s bag is within medium range of you when you are hit, you may spend 2 motes to switch places with it, letting it take damage on your behalf (after its Soak and Hardness, of course).
Larcenous Attacks Cost -;
Type: Simple/Reflexive Whenever the bag attacks or is attacked, it will attempt a decisive Brawl+Dexterity attack against its opponent as a gambit to disarm their opponent. If the attack/counter lands, add its Larceny Ability directly to overcome the Difficulty. If the disarm works, the bag eats the disarmed item – it will start by disarming any weapons, then proceed to steal any artifacts, rings, bangles, shoes – it pretty much starts with the hands and working from out to in, easiest to hardest, unless something in particular is notably more expensive. It cannot steal body armor that is properly worn, though it can take advantage of poorly put on armor to steal pieces. The only time it does not behave like a heedless dirty little thief, is if there’s nothing worth stealing, or its run out of things it can steal. It will then simply put all its efforts into dodging, pushing its Defense to 6.
Treasured Regeneration Type: Permanent If the Miser’s Bag is injured, it will convert Dots of Resources or Artifacts from among its contained treasures to repair itself. Each dot repairs 1 point of bashing, while Lethal damage takes 2 dots, and Aggravated damage takes 3 dots. They must heal in that order. This process takes a number of hours equal to the number of dots being converted, and can be stopped. The bag may choose to not heal, if it would cost its owner something they value...assuming it likes its owner enough. A well loved bag will not consume your mother’s keepsake, despite it being a 1 dot artifact, unless it is truly desperate. A mistreated bag will totally eat your 5 dot armor to heal 1 box of bashing damage, and flip its latch at you while doing so.
Trusted Thief Backstab Type: Permanent If the Miser’s bag decides to abandon you, either due to injury or mistreatment, it may activate this power if it can’t escape in a conventional way. You will be made aware of this, and may spend a mote to prevent it (and ending your turn if you are in combat) for 1 turn – if you do, you may spend a second mote to make the Bag spit out something, per Spit It Out. You can’t move or attack while doing this. The bag, notably, is in no way so limited, and will likely flee. The bag disappears once you stop providing motes to prevent it, and reappear in a random location in Creation, near a new adventurer in need of some help. You are NOT getting back whatever it ran off with any time soon. If it fled due to injury, it may eventually return to give you your stuff back, assuming it liked you enough.
*****
Figuring 3 dots on this one…
Shield of the Mage Storm – this artifact shield was inspired by the stories of the great Earth warrior Feng Wan Shi of House Mnemon, a peerless warrior in the defenses of the Dejis from the Fair Folk. Not...exactly an accurate description, but one that stirred the imagination of one of Mnemon’s most talented smiths, Takashi. The shield itself is utilitarian, and slightly uneven in it’s initial appearance, but close inspection reveals it was forged not by hammer, but by raining innumerable weapons upon it during its forging. “To teach it its enemies,” the smith proclaimed, laughing, but teach it well he had. This shield is a standard medium artifact weapon with the Shield, Bashing, and Melee tags. It is crafted of black jade, in the main, with white jade as an accent, and a small amount of lesser metals as filigree – at least, so Takashi thought. In actuality, a certain amount of gossamer has made it into his work, enhancing the simple jade in unusual ways. Wisely, he claims these anomalies as features.
Evocations Known Enemies Cost: 0m, 1w; Mins: Essence 2 Type: Simple, Withering This shield has suffered in its making, and it rather strongly returns the feeling. When used in a Flurry of Defense with a willpower, each Melee blow is “remembered.” At the start of the next turn, if this shield is used in a Withering strike against an attacker of the previous round, it deals the total Onslaught it suffered last round to its target as unblockable initiative damage. Further, for each different weapon type used against it during the Flurry of Defense, it gains +1 accuracy for this follow-on attack. Finally, if a magic attack is used on this shield during a Flurry of Defense, its defense still applies, even if the spell would normally bypass that step.
Arcane Stronghold Cost - ; Mins: Essence 3 Type: Simple, Resonance If a spell is cast, such that this shield’s owner is gathering Sorcery Motes, they will gather 1 additional sorcery mote during a Flurry of Defense, and thus not lose any despite not gathering them in a traditional way that round. Further, the attuner will gather 1 additional sorcery mote each attack taken during a Flurry of Defense, and 1 additional sorcery mote for each different weapon that strikes it that turn. Resonance: Sorcerers of at least the Terrestrial circle, and any earth or wind associated Exalted – probably dragonblood – even if they cannot use Sorcery, may use this shield to “cast” the following spell-like effect. By concentrating (declaring the intent to use this Evocation spell), they may gather sorcery motes by simply repeatedly Flurry of Defense (or the Shaped Sorcery action, if they are of a Circle) – if they do, at 15+ sorcery motes, the shield is instinctively slammed down, and 1 willpower is lost. The earth in front of the attuner erupts into a storm of dust and rock, dealing Intelligence bashing damage. Further, everyone caught in the 5 meter wide hemispheric wave of dust is blinded, and must make a Resolve check surpassing the attuner’s intelligence to remain standing. The following round, everyone still inside the area suffers from lightning jumping from loose particulate to loose particulate, dealing anotheadditional Intelligence+Occult Lethal damage that round. The dust settles on the third round. This shield does not teach anyone how to use any Shaped Sorcery action. Note: Taking any action other than Flurry of Defense (or a Shaped Sorcery action, if it’s available) will not gather any sorcery motes, and thus will lose you three sorcery motes, as normal.

In the remote village of Ashwat, Ajna was raised by her father Indr and trained extensively in martial arts. When agents of Lord Ravannavar torch Ashwat and murder Ajna’s father in front of her, she unlocks the strange power of absorbing other people into her own being. After seeking revenge against Ravannavar, Ajna uncovers the truth about her upbringing: she’s actually a piece of Kala, the malevolent deity that resets the universe every eon, and she’s fated to rejoin Kala’s being and usher in the end of all things. Ever the rebel, Ajna seeks to combat Kala instead. To get there, she must join strength with other spiritually strong individuals and learn the virtues of patience and forgiveness.

Ajna

Physicals

Strength

• Breaks out of Angwu’s magic restraints
• She leaps up and decapitates Lord Ravannavar’s human form
• Can chop down wooden obstacles
• Smashes a thick, metal grate
• Can destroy stone walls
• After being sucked into Kala’s massive mouth, Ajna breaks free

Other Physicals

• Takes a long fall into a nightclub unharmed
• [Limit] KOed by a body slam from a big monster
• Dodges a sword slash from Dhar

Exploration Abilities

Movement-Based
General

• Can dash along the ground
• Can wall-jump
• Can slide underneath obstacles
• Can slide, then vault her body into the air to move through narrow gaps or kick enemies
• Can dash forward in the air. She later upgrades the ability, allowing her to air dash in eight cardinal directions.

Equipment-Dependent

• Can use her axe to aid in climbing, chopping into walls to act as a handhold
• Ajna tosses the spear forward
• Using the spear, Ajna can pole vault over obstacles
• While airborne, Ajna can hold the spear point-down and bounce along obstacles or enemies
• Ajna punctures the ceiling with her spear, then jumps off to travel horizontally
• Can swing a sickle on a chain in wide arcs over her head

Archery
General

• Upon finding Zebei’s bow, Ajna can use the weapon to fire arrows. Despite Ajna using the weapon in exploration and combat, Zebei also carries the bow at the same time.
• Arrows disable large, mechanical enemies called Haathi
• Explosive arrows destroy cracked stone walls
• Arrows are heavily effected by sources of wind

Magic Arrows

• By enchanting an arrow with iddhi, Ajna can cover hazards like spikes and electric walls in protective flowers
• Charges an arrow with Nuna’s power, allowing Ajna to restrain enemies in vines. While restrained, Ajna can use the enemy as terrain to stand on or jump off of.
• After tangling an enemy in vines, Ajna can teleport to their position and strike them

Counters

• Can block, then counter strikes with a heavy punch of her own, starting the battle
• Can block, then counter with a strong throw to the ground
• While midair, Ajna can block and counter with a spinning throw to the ground

Heruka Transformation-Based
Heruka Form Maha Heruka Form Tara Heruka Form
Heruka Hustle

• Can run against a sandstorm that was previously pushing her back
• Used to ram through obstacles, like large rocks
• Later upgrades the ability to maintain her momentum after wall-jumping

Movement

• Ajna moves upwards while holding a blade, smashing through obstacles or damaging enemies
• Can move horizontally while holding a blade outwards, smashing through obstacles or damaging enemies
• While in the air, Ajna draws a huge axe and slams it into the ground, smashing obstacles or enemies
  • Smashes a large, metal ball
• Ajna can fire herself in any direction to cross distances. This move can be used unlimited times in the air, although it will expend iddhi or health when used.

Other

• Ajna can transform into her Heruka form at will, useful for intimidating others
• She projects a massive hand to smack enemies, breaking guards and dealing damage. This move consumes some iddhi upon use.

Combat Moveset

Moves

• Ajna’s primary attacks cycle through her various weapons, including:
  • Her bare hands
  • Her axe
  • Her spear
  • Her chain-sickle
• She can swing her axe into enemies as an uppercut, launching them into the air
• She can shoot arrows that puncture into enemies
• She can make two heavy strikes with her axe
• She can remotely detonate arrows with a quick chant

Supers

• She delivers a quick melee combo before ending it with a heavy swing of the axe
• She changes into her Heruka form and delivers a dropkick to one enemy
• She changes into her Heruka form before unleashing a wide, damaging beam of magic
• After transforming into her Maha Heruka form, she dives at a single enemy and tackles them
• She transforms into her Tara Heruka form and meditates before damaging all enemies on the field

Inner Realm

Entering

• Mid-battle, Dhar is brought into Ajna’s Inner Realm against both of their wishes
• Right after agreeing to join Ajna, Razmi is brought into the Inner Realm
• One party member just invites himself into Ajna’s mind
• Dhar’s leader Ravannavar is somehow able to push Dhar back into Ajna’s Inner Realm after snapping his fingers
• Kala manipulates time, sending Ajna and her allies back several minutes to the beginning of the boss fight. The next time, Ajna counters this by escaping into her Inner Realm.

Exiting

• Ajna stores her weapons within her Inner Realm. When she’s imprisoned, she’s able to produce her axe to escape her cell.
• While gameplay has Ajna group up with three of her allies at a time, cutscenes show that she can draw out all party members at once
• In co-op mode, Ajna’s incarnations can move and attack independently from Ajna. When they are defeated, they’re sent back to her Inner Realm.
• After her Heruka transformation and the fall from Mount Sumeru, Ajna spent three days sleeping. Her allies were trapped within the Inner Realm, unable to leave Ajna’s mind.
• While Ajna was unconscious for a week, many of the incarnations were free to leave the Inner Realm and travel the island continent

Other

• People are able to hold conversations with people inside Ajna’s Inner Realm
• Those within the Inner Realm can’t harm each other
• While her Inner Realm starts off as a single island, as she takes in more individuals, it grows to a number of islands with man-made structures, houses, cooking pots and bookshelves
• All of the Ajna’s allies have extraordinary amounts of iddhi, the spiritual source of magic in the world. Ajna’s strength augments her allies’ strength, and vice versa.
• The temperature and soil inside the Inner Realm is especially conducive to plant growth, and Ginseng uses it to cultivate a frozen specimen of fungus back to life. The resulting medicine is more effective than normal since it’s infused with Ajna’s iddhi, and it quickly cures Ginseng’s parents of a rare virus.

Relationship with Kala

• Ajna is, in fact, not a human, but a piece of the world-shaping deity, Kala
• After being restrained by Ravannavar, Ajna breaks free by transforming into a monstrous Heruka for the first time. This wakes up Kala, which creates a shockwave that eradicates Ravannavar and can be seen by people across the island continent. It also throws Ajna from Mount Sumeru’s summit and causes her to land in a desert.
  • Angwu claims that the shockwave was felt around the world
• When facing Kala, Ajna undergoes a transformation into a giant, three-headed monster. This form blasts beams of energy from its mouth, causing catastrophic damage to the landscape and disintegrating Dhar.
• In the end, Ajna joins with Kala once more and they choose not to reset the universe but reincarnate as a new being. The pair destroy Kala’s space station and disappear. After the credits roll, this new being is shown with features from both Ajna and Kala.

Miscellaneous

• When she’s trapped within a machine, Ajna blasts energy outwards to free herself
• She can expend a full Iddhi Meter to revive fallen allies and heal the party

Incarnations

The group of individuals residing in Ajna's Inner Realm during her journey. There are 20 combatants to call forth at any given time.

Shared Feats

Blocking

• Can block to minimize damage taken. Blocking right before an attack lands will heal Ajna rather than damage her, a technique called a Clean Block. Ajna later blocks attacks with her axe.
  • This defensive technique extends to all incarnations, as well
• Can block arrows
• Can block bullets
• Blocks automatic gunfire
• Can block elemental attacks, like flames and beams of energy

Combat Mechanics

• Can break enemy guards by alternating between high and low strikes
• Characters can break grab attacks

Dhar

An earth-manipulating swordsman and proud lieutenant to Lord Ravannavar. After killing Ajna's father and being trapped inside her Inner Realm, Dhar slowly comes to see the error in his ways. He sacrifices his life in an attempt to calm down a furious Ajna.
Feats

• Smashes Ravannavar’s instrument
• Creates two spiky barriers of earth

Moves

• He slashes forward with his sword. If he has earth charges, he causes rectangular ridges to appear from the ground to strike the enemy.
• Dhar jumps up and slashes downwards in a wide arc. If he has earth charges, he forms spiky rocks over his blade during the swing.
• Dhar stores an earth charge, represented by the rocks floating behind his back. He can have up to twelve active at a time.
• Blocks attacks with a slab of earth

Supers

• He plunges his sword into the ground, coats it in a massive pole of earth and slams it on enemies. Each level increases the damage of the attack.

Razmi

A witch who's been banished from her home town due to her knowledge of dark magics. She fights with a lantern that contains the soul of a demon and her pet tiger Bom.
Feats

• Takes a long fall into a nightclub unharmed

Moves

• Tiger claws made of flames slash at enemies
• Tigers made of flames batter enemies and launch them upwards
• Razmi glares at the enemy with a dirty look. This slows the enemy’s recharge rate, meaning they’ll take longer to attack, drefend or take any other action in combat.
• Blocks attacks with her lantern

Supers

• Razmi heals all party members with a short chant
• Produces a giant tiger head made of flames and throws it at the enemy
• Razmi creates a massive pillar of flame, throws it into the air and has it descend on the enemy, hitting many times

Ginseng and Honey

A kid and their root vegetable on a quest to become world-class botanists. Ginseng carries a giant mortar and pestle, used to grind up enemies and heal their allies.
Feats

• Ginseng gathers a bunch of rare specimens called Resurrection Lilies. When Ajna is out of commission for a week following her first fight with Kala, Ginseng revives her using the Lilies.

Moves

• Ginseng grinds the enemy up with their mortar and pestle. Using this move enhances the effects of their healing abilities.
• Ginseng splashes the contents of their mortar around, healing the group
• Ginseng ducks down while Honey tosses a randomly selected item from Ginseng’s backpack
• Blocks attacks with their backpack

Supers

• Ginseng looks around on the ground before finding a large vegetable, which they throw to Honey. This large vegetable is thrown the next time Ginseng uses their down attack or second super move.
• Honey reaches into Ginseng’s backpack and tosses a barrage of assorted pieces of junk at an enemy
• Ginseng grinds an enemy with their mortal and pestle until the contents explode. This launches the enemies and disperses the contents on Ajna's party, healing them greatly.

Zebei

A smug archer from a clan of nomads from the mountains. While initially skeptical about Ajna's ability to responsibly control her powers, he stays with the group to oversee Kala's defeat.
Moves

• Zebei shoots three arrows in quick succession at a target
• He leaps up, holds the bow with his feet and fires a spread of five arrows at the enemies
• He shoots multiple arrows at the enemy’s legs, popping them up into the air
• Blocks attacks with his bow and padded armwear

Supers

• Loads his bow with five arrows, then hits an enemy with three volleys. The second level shows Zebei launching four volleys, and the third level shows him launching seven volleys.

Tungar

A knight and a man of action, Tungar doesn't speak too often. He lets his urumi speak for him, a cloth-based weapon that doubles as a turban.
Moves

• Tungar swings his urumi, unleashing a hoop-shaped projectile
• He swings his urumi in such a way that he flings the enemy upwards
• He waves his urumi around himself, hitting multiple enemies at once
• Blocks attacks with a small shield

Supers

• Tunger charges up a stronger strike against a single enemy. The second level increases the damage.
• He slashes enemies with his urumi a dozen times, then sheathes the weapon back on his head. The moment he sheathes it, the damage manifests all at once.

Kushi

A member of the same tribe as Zebei and a Protector-in-training, Kushi fights alongside Altun, a massive bird of prey.
Feats

• When Ajna leaps off an airship and falls, Altun flies close and grabs her before she hits the ground

Moves

• In Standing Mode, Kushi punches an enemy. In Riding Mode, Altun screeches, damaging multiple enemies.
• Kushi enters Riding Mode, jumping off the ground and holding onto Altun’s talons. If she’s already in Riding Mode, Altun will soar up and dive bomb an enemy’s position for massive damage.
• Kushi will enter Standing Mode and plant her feet on the ground. If she’s in Standing Mode, she’ll send Altun out to swoop at an enemy.
• Altun blocks attacks with his wing, protecting Kushi

Thorani

A maternal healer who carries magic, restorative water in her hair. While she's typically benevolent and happy to heal anyone in need, she becomes aggressively protective when Ajna or her other teammates are in jeopardy.
Feats
Resuscitation/Healing

• Thorani splashes Ajna, waking her up after her fall from Sumeru and subsequent three-day nap
• Hydrates Qadira, with Thorani stating that her water is much more nourishing than normal water
• She heals an Ohma addict, purging the drug from the body. If she collaborates with Ajna, she can instantly heal severe Ohma abusers, restoring their bodies and minds.
• Channeling Ajna’s iddhi, Thorani is able to create a cleansing rain that cures most of Tai Krung’s Ohma users of their addictions

Other

• As a deva, Thorani is well over one thousand years old
• She’s able to sense the emotions and intentions of others, even on a city-wide scale
• Thorani senses calm and shame in a monster’s heart

Moves

• She fires water from her hair as projectiles, damaging enemies and forming a puddle at the point of impact
• She “activates” all the puddles on the field. If an ally stands in a puddle, they’re healed, while the puddles damage Thorani’s enemies.
• She splashes enemies with a small wave of water, damaging them and forming a puddle at the point of impact
• Blocks attacks with a hand formed from water

Supers

• Thorani flourishes her hair, leaving puddles all around herself and the party
• She becomes a puddle of water herself, becoming a stronger version of the activated puddles
• She generates a small raincloud over her head, healing herself and the party over time

Qadira

A warrior looking for her lost brother. Although she carries his sword, Qadira opts to do battle with only her shield, keeping the blade sheathed until she finds him.
Feats

• Trained in shield-fighting since she was a child

Moves

• Qadira rams her shield into the enemy, then thrusts her arm forwards for a second hit
• She delivers an upper to send enemies airborne, then can spike them back to the ground
• She sweeps the enemy’s legs, then can pop them up into the air
• Blocks attacks with her shield… duh

Supers

• She rams her shield into the enemy in a multi-hit attack. Each level increases the number of hits and the damage of the move.

Baozhai

A pirate captain that sails the seas in the warship Teotul. She loves sailing, cannons, women and drinking.
Feats

• Owns the Teotul, a massive, armored pirate ship, equipped with forward and side-facing cannons

Moves

• Baozhai steals a handful of coins from the enemy. These coins can be used to enhance her supers. This attack is also unblockable.
• She launches cannonballs from her back cannons. While strong, these attacks can harm allies as well as enemies.
• Baozhai leaps into the enemies hips-first, knocking them around slightly
• Blocks attacks with a treasure chest

Supers

• Baozhai throws some shiny coins at the enemy to distract them before tossing a harpoon into one
• She boots a treasure chest at the enemy, which opens and tosses several coins into the air. She then shoots a coin, which causes the round to ricochet and hit the enemy many times. The more coins she has, the more the round ricochets.
• Launches a barrage of rockets from her back cannons. By spending coin, she can fire more projectiles.

Phoebe

Once a freedom fighter alongside her husband, Phoebe watched her husband die in battle against her country's invaders. Now, she trains her two children in an effort to return to her home and fight off the invading killers.
Moves

• Using a spear, Phoebe flings enemies upwards
• She leaps into the air, grabs airborne enemies and performs a fireman’s carry slam on them
• Phoebe plants her massive bow in the ground and fires a spear that can pierce enemies and hit those behind them
• Blocks attacks with a spear

Nuna

A plant-manipulator from the underground community of Kaanul. While she's used her powers as a farmer for years, the rise of Kala has forced her to use her plants for combat.
Feats

• Creates vines that cover Hunoch's entire body, although he breaks out quickly
• She plants a bunch of seeds in a cave in Kaanul. As soon as the cave gets some natural sunlight, they instantly sprout into a roomful of massive vegetables.

Moves

• Nuna gets close to the enemies and quickly grows thorny vines around herself, stabbing her foes
• She sprouts a cornstalk under an enemy, launching them skywards
• Nuna plants a trap in the ground. When an enemy walks over it, a pumpkin quickly grows that stuns and damages the victim. Her cornstalk move also enhances the traps on the field, making them larger and more damaging.
• Blocks attacks by quickly sprouting a tree in front of herself

Supers

• She grows and plucks a dandelion, then blows the seeds at the enemies, which explode on contact. Each level increases the number of seeds.

Hunoch and Xiboch

Two star athletes in Kanuul's national sport, Tlatchlibol. Xiboch is deceased, having been killed by an Underworld monster, so now both souls take turns occupying the living brother's body.
Feats

• Hunoch breaks out of vines that cover his body by flexing

Moves

• The humanoid brother serves the spirit brother as a ball and bounces it off an enemy. When it bounces back, the humanoid brother can smack it back at the enemy, increasing the number of hits and the damage of strikes. This process can be repeated until the humanoid brother misses or they run out of action points.
• The spirit brother manifests and blocks attacks to defend the humanoid brother

Super

• Xiboch takes control of Hunoch’s body and uses Hunoch’s spirit as the ball. If used again, Hunoch reassumes control of the body and Xiboch becomes the ball once more. As the ball, Xiboch deals magic damage and fills the Iddhi Meter faster, while Hunoch delivers more physical damage and fills the Meter slower.

Naga Rider

The resident superhero, last of the Vahana Riders, and protector of Tai Krung’s upstanding citizens. His archnemesis, the Flying Terror, Garuda Cruel, trained with Naga Rider until joining up with the drug kingpin, Mara.
Feats

• Rides a motorcycle with wheels made of hard light

Moves

• Naga Rider performs a quick combo of jabs before ending with a stronger, energized strike
• He performs a flip kick, launching the enemy into the air
• Naga Rider drop-kicks the enemy at a 45 degree angle
• Blocks attacks by forming his armor into a domed shield around his arm

Supers

• Naga Rider chops his hand, discharging explosive energy at all enemies
• He disappears briefly before appearing and flip-kicking an enemy into the air
• He leaps up and wreaths his foot in energy before drop-kicking an enemy with a crushing blow

Yan

A dancer imprisoned in a Tai Krung nightclub. Once freed, Yan uses her absurdly long legs and affinity for dance as a means of acrobatic combat.
Moves

• Yan performs a spinning kick
• She performs a backflip kick, knocking enemies into the air
• Yan jumps up and performs a crescent-shaped downwards kick that can spike airborne enemies
• Blocks attacks with a leg

Kampan

Watching both of her parents die of illness, unable to afford medicine, changed young Kampan. Now a master thief and auteur of espionage, she steals from the Iron Kingdom’s rich and gives back to the poor.
Feats

• She punches the floor, destroying a nearby barrier of slime
• Breaks a barrier of slime with an uppercut

Moves

• She rushes at the enemy and punches them with her gauntlet
• Kampan uppercuts the enemy into the air
• She loads her gauntlet with one shell, with a maximum capacity of four shells. If she has a shell equipped, she’ll fire it a moment after the basic punch connects
• Blocks attacks with her gauntlet

Super

• Kampan knocks the enemy down with a stomp, then pummels them with punches. She then winds up her arm and uppercuts the enemy with a strong blow. This move consumes the entire bar of iddhi and all of Kampan’s remaining action points, making for an extremely strong attack.

Leilani

Leilani was a castaway guided to the island continent by a shark spirit called a 'aumakua until they were both caught in a fishing net. The 'aumakua gave Leilani its teeth and enchanted her leiomano, creating a magic-based chainsaw so she could escape.
Moves

• Leilani slashes with her leiomano. She can expend half a bar of iddhi to cause the chainsaw to spin, increasing the number of hits and the damage of the attack.
• She swings her leiomano upwards, popping enemies into the air. This move can also be used while revving the chainsaw.
• Leilani spins around with her leiomano held outwards. She can spin around for longer, but she runs the risk of becoming too dizzy to move after the attack ends.
• Blocks attacks by holding her weapon in front of herself

Latigo

Latigo was once the leader of a noble group of mercenaries called the Caballeros. His right hand man, Vasco, killed the wrong nobleman and sent the group scattering away from the law. Now, Latigo seeks to kill his old friend with a shot right between the eyes.
Feats

• Quickdraws on Vasco

Moves

• Latigo points his gun and fires
• He jumps and slashes the enemy with his gun’s blade. He can fire three bullets during the swing.
• He reloads his gun. Initially, Latigo only uses five bullets since he’s saving one for Vasco, but after confronting his old teammate, he makes full use of the six round chamber.
• Blocks attacks with his gun blade

Supers

• Latigo slashes at an enemy’s legs to floor them. He can then empty his firearm into the floored victim point-blank.
• He empties his gun and replaces the next five shots with special bullets. These bullets are compatible with any shooting attack and they pierce through enemies to hit multiple times.
• Latigo holsters his gun, takes a stance, then fires on an enemy with erratic shooting stances. He automatically reloads after performing this move.

Ren

An assassin without any kind of moral compass, Ren will kill any target for the appropriate price. A regular employee of Tai Krung’s underworld kingpin, Mara, Ren secretly hopes for a quarry that can fight back and show him a good time.
Feats

• Unharmed after three spear hits to the face
• Appears suddenly, hanging upside by a cable
• Disappears from sight

Moves

• He throws the axe-end of the kusarigama into the enemy. By using another action point, he drags it back to his hand, slicing the enemy along the way.
• Ren spins the kusarigama above his head, cutting groups of enemies several times
• He leaves a trap that impales enemies that walk over it with bamboo spikes. He can enhance this trap with two more bamboo spikes at the cost of an action point.
• Ren disappears briefly to evade attacks

Supers

• Ren wreathes his kusarigama in flame and slams it down on an enemy, leaving them with a damage-over-time burn effect
• He leaves a special trap on the battlefield. When an enemy walks over it, a scorpion tail shoots up and punctures them, leaving them with a damage-over-time poison effect.
• Ren summons two fireballs to spin around himself, then dashes at the group of enemies, leaving them all afflicted with the burn status. He then vanishes and reappears with his allies.

Zahra

A musician specializing in the stringed Oud. She left her village and her potential marriage in order to keep spreading her music to the world.
Feats

• By playing a “chaotic” riff, Zahra quickly causes a mechanical enemy to malfunction and explode

Moves

• Zahra plays a high-tempo song, increasing an ally’s movement and action speed by 50%. All three of her songs’ effects persist until Zahra takes a hit, can be used on multiple allies at once and can stack with each other.
• She plays a cheerful song to increase an ally’s attack stat by 50%
• Zahra plays a mournful dirge to increase an ally’s defense stat by 33%
• Blocks attacks with her Oud. Clean-blocking hits keeps her songs’ effects active.

Super

• Zahra snaps her fingers and plays a mesmerizing tune, stunning the enemies for a number of seconds and forcing them to dance instead of fight. If the player presses the attack button in time with Zahra’s snapping, the effect lasts for up to six seconds longer.

Lanshi

A very good doggy that lives in the monastery in Lhan. But was he always a dog?!?
Moves

• Lanshi barks at the enemy until he has to take a break, which inexplicably damages them
• Lanshi can take a ten second nap mid-battle, not waking up even when attacked. A spectral hand can pet Lanshi, which generates iddhi for the party.
• Blocks attacks by covering his face with his paws and cowering

Supers

• Lanshi sniffs out the enemies and marks them. The next time he uses the barking attack, all marked enemies will be struck by lightning.
• Lanshi takes a nap right next to the enemies. Petting Lanshi in this state will build up static electricity, which discharges and shocks all enemies when he wakes up.
• He howls to call forth a stampede of electric dog spirits, which sprint at all enemies

Non-Combatants

• Asiri, a seamstress, can dye the characters' clothing different colors
• George, a former dragon hunter, runs a training area in the Inner Realm. He can summon monsters for Ajna and her crew to practice against.
• The oracle Tharwa can point Ajna in the right direction to complete her objectives by scrying through a crystal ball
• Ratna and Mani are two religious beings that can increase the cast's offensive or defensive power when brought talismans called Ringsels
• Kogi, a professional chef

Got bored the other day and thought of how DD could make for a fun co-op twin-stick game.

The Pitch:

Players play as one of the characters from the Darkest Dungeon universe in groups of up to 4 in a co-op twin-stick environment. Players must fight through hordes of enemies while completing objectives until they reach the end of the level. Parties share lives of up to 4, if a player takes fatal damage at 0 HP they must make a Death Blow check, and have a 66,7% chance of dying instantly, consuming a life and respawning them. Lives are only restored by killing enemies, completing objectives, or by destroying the Boss of each Region. The game ends if all players die and run out of lives.
The player(s) must also manage Torchlight, which is at full strength at the beginning of the level but slowly drains over time. Once the Torch hits 0, the players may be surprised by special encounters. Torchlight is replenished by finding certain curios, abilities, shops, perks, encounters or at the start of each level.
Some enemies deal Stress damage, which fills up your stress bar. If this bar fills up completely, the player may gain an Affliction or Virtue, a debuff/buff that lasts for the whole level. A player may only gain Virtue or Affliction once per level.

Gameplay:

The core gameplay follows a linear path, where the player must complete a series of objectives, guarded by progressively larger forces, until they reach the end of the level. During the level the players may find powers-ups and currency, which they can use at shops for temporary and permanent upgrades such as new skills and perks. Party wipes only remove the currency gained during that level, and all temporary perks/upgrades.

Mechanics:

1. Combat

The main action verbs for this game are Attack, Dash, Block/Parry and Interact.
Players move with the L-stick, and aim/attack with the R-stick.
Each hero has a powerful Signature Move. Hold square to use it. Additional skills can be activated through R1 & R2.
To block, press L1. To parry, time the block with the enemy attack. Some characters can press L1 again to do a Riposte attack. Blocks are directional.
Use L2 to use a consumable.
Use O to interact.
Heroes gain Resolution when dealing damage, completing objectives or through other sources. When Resolution is full, they can activate it with Triangle to gain a powerful ability. Taking hits reduces Resolution. Lower torchlight grants higher Resolution but increases the amount loss per hit.
Dash briefly makes the player invulnerable. Use the L-stick to add direction.
There are 3 main types of attacks:

• Normal attacks which can be blocked and parried.
• Guard breaks, which break your block but can be parried.
• Unblockable attacks which can’t be blocked and have very small parry windows.

Example hero - DISMAS

Signature Move (Square)	Double Tap: Fire two powerful shots. If this kills a target reset the CD. This effect can only happen every 24s.
Ability 1 (R1)	Pistol shot: Fire a single shot. Store up to 8 shots, regenerating slowly over time.
Ability 2 (R2)	Point-blank shot: Consume 4 ammo, and fire a short range devastating shot that pushes the target back with incredible force. Long CD.
Resolution ability (Triangle)	Highway Robbery: Dismas regains ammo 50% faster, and Pistol shot becomes Grapeshot Blast, dealing damage in a large area and causing Bleed, dealing damage over time.
Basic Attack (R-stick)	Dirk Stab: Dismas swings his knife in the given direction.
Block effects (L1)	Riposte: Press L1 after a parry to do a Riposte Attack.
Starting Perks	- Duelist’s Advance: Dismas gains 20% bonus movement speed after Dashing or landing a Riposte Attack for 2,5s.
	- Take Aim: The first shot fired with Pistol Shot or Point-blank Shot deals %50 bonus damage. This resets every 8 ammo consumed.
Starting Consumables (L2)	Smoke bomb: Throw a bomb that obscures vision and grants Stealth while inside of it.

I am a pathological liar who is trying desperately to break my immoral habits after years of needlessly lying for social gain or out of paranoia. My girlfriend is an incredibly gracious and kind person who is unfortunately afflicted with trust issues due to past trauma. Though this may sound like a recipe for disaster, our relationship has been wonderful and completely drama free for half a year until now.
For context, we have been online friends for 2 years and had even dated for a brief patch before but realised we weren’t built for online dating. Half a year ago we decided to enter a relationship after meeting in-person for the first time after a period of us not talking since my salary finally enabled us to meet. We met and realised that we both not only lived up to each other’s expectations but even exceeded them. We fell in love hard but before we started dating again I habitually lied about my interactions with a girl (we’ll call her Lauren) prior to us getting back into contact. This girl was another online friend but we turned flirtatious for a short period of 2 weeks, though I was never serious about her as I felt no romantic feelings towards her and promptly ended it once she caught feelings. I phased her out at first since she threatened suicide if I stopped talking to her but ultimately blocked her before entering a relationship with my now gf but the issue is that I lied about Lauren and chalked it up to nothing serious, only friends that flirted a bit.
I never intended to quit my habit of lying until I met my gf since though I’ve strived to be a compassionate person, my lies have never been laced with malicious intent and are mostly pointless fun. But when you get in the habit of telling innocent lies, you start to become more comfortable with lying about everything. Knowing my gf’s insecurities and habit of background checking, I feared that she would obsess over Lauren if she knew I had sent sexually explicit messages to her. I figured that it would be in her best interest as this person would no longer be a part of my life anyway. Then Lauren text her a few days into our relationship with out of context screenshots framed to make it appear as though I expressed attraction for her first and that I was “in love with her” when truly it was the opposite.
I felt incredibly guilty and upset as this greatly damaged my gf’s trust in me and since I had already set a web of lies to downplay Lauren, I suspect that she believed her, perhaps even to this day. It doesn’t help that for once Lauren spoke with maturity in these messages so my claims about her being volatile and scary seemed bullshit. To prevent her being able to manipulate more screenshots, I attempted to mass delete a bunch of messages using a plugin - problem, I didn’t tell my gf as I feared she’d overthink this. This was surprisingly the last time Lauren tried to contact my gf, at least directly. Though I had already been trying to break my lying habits, this was the wake up call I needed and this revelation sparked massive progress and I’ve come a long way, yet I still needlessly lie to protect my GF from insecurities despite that being nonsensical and only proving disastrous.
Lauren remained on my gf’s mind for months, a ghost of my past who I was desperate to forget about and had no feelings for yet my gf is convinced I secretly loved. Then eventually she confessed her fears concerning Lauren and asked to read the DMs. I confessed to her that I mass-deleted messages so that she could not use them against me, but showed her what remains regardless to prove we haven’t text since I blocked her. Naturally, this sowed more seeds of doubt in her mind and she started asking more questions about her appearance, personality and hobbies. I failed my vow to not lie here again, as I lied about these things so that it would appear I have less in common with Lauren and so she wouldn’t be a source of insecurity. Even though my gf is stunning and far more beautiful than Lauren, she has been insecure about far less attractive girls in the past.
After all this, Lauren remained haunting my gf though I was convinced my gf was finally ready to forget her, until her most recent visit. She asked me to leave my computer on while I went to a class so she could play a game. I ended up having to run home early because she called me distraught and outraged after having unblocked Lauren and scrolled through our DMs which it turns out the plugin failed to delete most of. It doesn’t help that I have a terrible memory which combined with a web of untangling lies and the desire to forget this person leads to me forgetting much of the truth. Additionally, she was disgusted to find several conversations on other social media’s from before we started dating when I was admittedly an attention whore. I won’t lie that I had an extremely unhealthy relationship with sex before her and didn’t value it correctly, but that mostly stems from childhood sexual trauma and years of loneliness and insecurity. After seeing my past slutty behaviour, she no longer feels special despite being my 2nd and longest relationship and the only person I’ve ever loved. She must also be unimaginably disgusted by my image. At least she has evidently seen that I’m loyal to her as my accounts are all private now and I removed all female followers before this. She now has proof that I haven’t even spoken to any other girls since we started dating.
All of this has left me stricken with guilt and insecurity and for the first time in 2 years, I’ve requested to resume more sessions from my assigned psychiatrist (I have a serious chronic condition which is entitled to free sessions in my country). This girl is my world and I would genuinely be hopeless and lost without her. She brings a childlike happiness to my otherwise cold world and she is the devotion of my life. I spend all of my money on her and all of my waking mind on her. My only goal is to bring her happiness and yet I repeatedly hurt her with my lies. This guilt has eaten away at me all day everyday this week and has resulted in several emotional breakdowns. Truthfully I’m a sensitive and emotional person despite appearing the opposite however she has expressed discomfort from my crying and told me she is reluctant to come to me about her issues because of fear of it. That being said, she comforts me very effectively and compassionately when I cry but this has to end regardless. It is unmasculine and unfair as she has every right to be crying and I do not.
This post likely doesn’t do her radiance and grace justice and neglects how otherwise perfect our relationship has been. I’m certain once we move in with each other fully (this will happen very soon) these issues will be no more. I got carried away and treated this post as an excuse to paint my mind but if you could offer any advice, that would be much appreciated and a reminder that this post doesn’t do justice how much we’ve helped each other and how in love we are.

This is an attempt to compile a table of unit interactions, specifically focusing on what opponents a class counters. Equipment and allies will NOT be considered when populating the table because this is supposed to be a focus on each classes' natural abilities and traits. I will be listing units with three specific categories: Hard Counters, Soft Counters, and Checks. Here's a rundown on what I consider for each category

• Hard Counters are when a class's abilities/traits can naturally dominate an opposing class with very little outside help (allies, items, assists, etc). Can feasibly kill in one round assuming no extraneous circumstances, and the opposing class largely poses no threat.
  • Example 1: Gryphon Knight hard counters Cavalry due to: flying double damage against cavalry, attacks with potency against cavalry and is unblockable, double evasion against grounded classes
  • Example 2: Hunter hard counters Flying due to: bows double damage against flying, passive truestrike negating flying evasion bonus, attacks with potency against flying
• Soft Counters are when a class possess abilities/traits that has a minor advantage over an opposing class, but requires outside help in order to consistently dominate the matchup. Matchups can swing wildly and is highly affected by outside circumstances.
  • Example 1: Soldier soft counters Cavalry due to: attack that has potency against cavalry in addition to unblockable BUT does not usually have the damage to consistently kill in a single round without outside help, cavalry still poses a threat due to their double damage against infantry
  • Example 2: Swordfighter soft counters Flying due to: truestrike bypassing flying evasion bonus BUT attacks can still be guarded, flying attacks are ranged which bypasses swordfighter's Parry but swordfighter's natural high evasion can swing matchup
• Checks are when a class has ways to circumvent/nullify an opposing class's mechanics and render them mostly harmless. Checks may not be able to outright defeat the opposing class, but can stop them with ease
  • Example 1: Thief checks Gladiator due to: stealing PP thus preventing gladiator healing opportunities and rendering them significantly less tanky, high evasion and evade skill prevents gladiator low accuracy attacks from landing thus making this a riskless matchup, but low damage thief most likely won't be able to kill gladiator
  • Example 2: Radiant knight checks Caster due to: abilities that nullify magic damage and debuffs, leader effect reduces magick assists, however most casters are backline which is normally unreachable for radiant knights thus unable to threaten them, additionally could possibly spend their AP on healing instead of attacking

In addition, I will now list how I define certain traits of classes and the categories I classify them in:

• Infantry, Cavalry, Flying, Armor, Scout, Caster, Archer, Elven, Bestral, and Angel are all based on the game's classifications
• Classes that can equip shields and greatshields will be refer to as Shielders
• Classes that utilizes buffs in their natural kits will be refer to as Buffers
  • Examples include: Warriors, Knights, Soldiers, etc
• Classes that utilizes debuffs/afflictions in their natural kits will be refer to as Debuffers
  • Examples include: Thief, Shaman, Housecarls, etc

With my thought process on how I rate each class's interactions with each other out of the way, here is a table I've made examining the Cornia classes:
​

Class	Hard Counters	Soft Counters	Checks
Lord		Cavalry, Infantry (after promotion)
Priestess	Armor		Debuffers, Buffers
Paladin	Scout (with Divine Cross)	Infantry	Debuffers, Buffers (with Divine Cross)
Fighter			Archer, Flying, any ranged physical attacks
Soldier		Cavalry, Flying
Housecarl		Shielders
Swordfighter	Scout	Flying	any single-hit melee attacks
Sellsword
Hoplite			Physical attacks without armor ignoring properties
Gladiator
Warrior	Armor	Shielders
Hunter	Flying, Scout, Elven Fencer, Swordfighter	Caster
Thief			Any class without a truestrike
Knight		Infantry
Radiant Knight		Infantry	Caster, Debuffers
Cleric			Debuffers
Wizard	Armor
Witch	Armor	Scout, Flying, Swordfighter
Shaman			Everything (but with special emphasis on Scout, Cavalry, Shielders)
Gryphon Knight	Cavalry	Caster, Scout (with certain equipment), Infantry without truestrikes
Feathersword		Cavalry, Caster, Infantry without truestrikes

Please note that just because a class has little hard/soft counters DOES NOT mean they are bad. It usually means they more or less supplement other classes or have a specific purpose that this table does not consideexamine. For instance, many of these classes have supportive/synergistic properties with other classes, but I do not consider those combinations here due to quickly overcomplicating what I'm aiming for with this post: a simplified examination of class interactions.
I will most likely update this table as I learn more about this game. Also, I will work and post a Drakenhold+Elheim class table soon. Please look forward to it. I welcome suggestions to improving the readability of this table, hope it was helpful and thank you all for your attention!

New Killer: The Attraction(4.4 m/s)

William Afton started his restaurant with only one mascot, Fredbear. One of those bears people would see at a circus, it inspired him, but in William’s mind, Fredbear was an icon like no other. And so it came to be that Fredbear’s Family Diner opened and was a massive hit with the locals. The money was great for William, his wife, and his three kids. But something felt wrong, something told William that the restaurant needed… more.
And so, with time at his side, William created Spring Bonnie, a bunny who celebrated Springtime, William’s first original creation. This suit is one he wears himself, while a devoted employee wears the Fredbear costume. While William wears the suit, his wife hosts the restaurant and ensures the parties go well. It was a paradise to him. But then, the bad days started, and they didn’t start to go.
One morning, he reads the local newspaper, seeing a new restaurant called “Chica’s Party World” became another hit among the locals. Upon seeing it, William knew he needed to talk with the owner, Fredbear’s was falling apart and if he wanted any chance to keep himself in business, he needed to make an educated risk.
William enters the restaurant and sees mascots singing on stage with strange costumes, ones that were far too big to fit an average person. The owner recognizes William immediately and sits them both down for a conversation. The owner’s name is Henry Emily, he also has a wife and daughter of his own, so he understood William’s position. After a few weeks of working through ideas, they both came up with Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
They worked well over a few short years, Henry had shown him that they could use animatronics to act as mascots instead of people and implemented them into Fredbear and Spring Bonnie. These mascots, however, Henry ensured these could still be worn, noting William’s love to act in front of the children and make them laugh. The designs were simple, yet dangerous if the proper precautions weren’t taken.
These implements would allow the costumes to be worn by people, or perform as animatronics. At first, William admired Henry’s work and studied under him. In honor of the man who had given Henry the inspiration, these suits were named Springlocks, after William’s creation. Then, the incident happened. William’s son had died from a springlock failure. William’s eldest was trying to mess with his little brother and ended up killing him in Fredbear’s mouth.
William became distraught, turning to alcohol for comfort and away from his family due to guilt. In William’s mind, he blames himself, he was the reason those suits were made. Soon after, he became divorced and Henry came to visit him, telling William he was sorry and tried to take the blame for the incident. William ignored his old friend, taking another sip of whiskey.
But Henry would grow to regret his words, because soon, William started to believe them. Afton became angry with Henry, going as far as to plan his death. But Afton knew he couldn’t do it, he didn’t have to will. But with enough whiskey, a drunken Afton convinced himself he could. He got in his car and drove over to Freddy Fazbears, in hopes of finding Henry, but he found someone better.
Outside, he sees little Charlie, Henry’s daughter. Usually, she would be inside, playing with Henry’s Security Puppet, but today? She’s outside, crying on her own in the storm. Afton laughs to himself, Henry took his son, now he will take Henry’s daughter, the perfect revenge. Afton goes up to Charlie and convinces her to go with him to the back alley, so he could take her in through the back. Why shouldn’t she trust him, after all, he’s a friend of her father.
Now out of sight, Afton throws her against the wall and strangles her. Afton squeezes his hands, tighter and tighter until a crack. Charlie falls limp and Afton stands back. He looks at her and smiles, he feels good. Really good. He needs to do this again.
Within a few days, the police leave Freddy Fazbears, making it another prime target for Afton’s revenge. This restaurant, this wasn’t William’s, this was a trick of Henry’s to make him believe he had been a part of it. Afton goes in through the back and walks into the safe room. To his surprise, he finds the Spring Bonnie suit sitting against the wall. The fur of the suit is beginning to mold, but it still looks in fair condition, Afton gains an idea.
Wearing Spring Bonnie, Afton lures the children, one by one into the safe room. Rarely anyone goes in, and it’ll be a while until they check the security footage of the restaurant, so Afton left the building, hesitant to leave his creation behind.
Afton revels in his act of defiance of Henry. He never should’ve signed that contract with William, and Afton would make him regret it. The newspaper that came in the morning thrilled Afton. It documented him leading the kids into the safe room and then… and then they disappeared, not killed? That can’t be right. Did they not go into the saferoom, why wouldn’t they?
The police barge into his house, not to his surprise, he expected to be arrested, not for kidnapping though. Surprisingly, the court didn’t have enough evidence to convict him of being a killer or a kidnapper. The evidence was circumstantial due to the cameras being unable to catch his face.
Afton’s curiosity took over him, he has to go back. If he finds their bodies in the safe room, then he’s truly a genius, unless someone moved them. He thought to Henry, no, it can’t be him, he’s too soft, he wouldn’t dare let ANYONE get hurt and get away with it, much less a child. Afton opens the safe room, but nothing. No bodies or even evidence that they were there to begin with.
Soon enough, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza closes, but after some time, Henry tries again, opening the restaurant with newer and improved animatronics. But when Afton came to Henry to discuss the restaurant, Henry assaulted Afton, accusing him of being the cause of the incident. Even though he took pride in his work, Afton refuted the claim and Henry ensured every employee knew Afton wasn’t their boss anymore. But Afton didn’t mind, his plan involved being hidden away.
And so, Afton took the role of a night security guard, and all in one night, Afton kills five other kids. With the new animatronics tampered with and the cameras deactivated, they’d have no clue as to who did this. Now, he has to stay. He has to find out if someone hides the bodies if Henry really isn’t who Afton expected him to be.
As the hours passed, Afton noticed Freddy was moving, not the new plastic one, but the old one. The one he and Henry had created together, that Freddy was moving. But as Afton drew closer, he saw that Freddy wasn’t just moving, he was following Henry’s Security Puppet. Now he has to get closer, and as he does, Freddy sees him and recoils. The animatronic then turns off, is it afraid of him? Afton’s curiosity only grew with this discovery, he had to try again, but this time, a place he could control the experiment personally without intervention.
Thus, Circus Baby’s Party and Rental Service opened to the public. The animatronics were somewhat inspired by Freddy and his gang, but two of them were made to be actor-like characters. His inspiration is complete, but now it’s simply a cover. Afton ensured these models were completely his own making and were able to isolate and kill children for research. He remembers the first party distinctly, knowing his daughter was the one taken and killed. Quite an act of karma, but it’s the research he’s after, and she is a fine sacrifice.
Due to the second incident, the rental service closes, and Afton begins to study the animatronic’s behavior with the victim’s souls. Then, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza reopened, though it became much smaller and more closely resembling Fredbear’s. Afton became inclined to kill again, but his studies were his new obsession. However, he couldn’t miss the opportunity to study those animatronics without any prying eyes, and so he waited for the restaurant to close.
Once it did, the building was left abandoned for a short time, this was Afton’s window. He entered the old pizzeria and crept to the safe room Henry always added. Inside, Afton finds his beloved creation. He places a hand on the molded head of Spring Bonnie but puts away the idea to put it on. It was old and far too unsafe to be worn again.
A set of footsteps puts Afton on edge and takes a fire axe off the wall for protection. He stands in front of the doorway to the room with the axe raised above his head. Freddy Fazbear comes around the corner and stops. Afton freezes with fear, but the animatronic doesn’t do anything. It looks right at him, no, right through him. Almost as if the safe room didn’t exist for it. Freddy turns around and begins to leave, but Afton needs the parts.
Afton swings the axe down on the animatronic, dismembering it until it lay in pieces on the tiled floor. Then, along came the purple Bonnie, after him, Chica, and after her, Foxy. After destroying all of them, Afton begins to rummage through the parts, not really knowing what to do with them. That’s until he hears another set of footsteps, Afton looks around, that shouldn’t be possible, no one else should be here. There certainly weren’t any other animatronics.
Without much choice, Afton retreats back to the safe room. He closes the door and peaks through the slits of the window. Outside he sees… a child. Then, they look at him, not at the door, at HIM. A sense of fear fills Afton as the child comes closer. Afton backs away from the door and the child walks through the metal door.
Afton looks into their dead eyes, and more children follow the first. They’re not just children, they’re the children he killed. The first spirit chases him, while the others stand at the door, keeping him from leaving. He hurries to one side of the room, knowing he can’t keep this up forever until it hits him. These are the ones he killed in the suit, they might be afraid of him.
He bolts past the spirit again and quickly pulls the suit over him, not following the proper care required for the springlocks. After pulling the head on, he looks at the spirits again, now they look in horror. Afton takes a breath and begins to laugh. Pathetic, even dead they feared him. He laughed and laughed, not caring about anything else the world had in it until a drop of water hits his nose.
He froze and stiffened every muscle in his body. The springlocks, he may have gotten lucky while putting the suit on, but- Afton began to scream in agony as the endoskeleton began to force itself into his body. The chest of the endoskeleton penetrates his lungs, and the screaming stops. Afton looks at the spirits, the looks of horror still on their faces, they knew, they knew. The head of the endoskeleton shoves its head into Afton’s skull and everything goes black.
In what feels like forever, light fills Afton’s eyes again. But he can’t move, and he’s still in agony. Using his eyes, Afton looks over his body inside Spring Bonnie, the twisted flesh, the shattered bone, and the molded fur. Looking about the room, Afton noted that the spirits were gone.
Days later, or what felt like days, Afton hears a set of footsteps, and suddenly, Henry stands in front of him. Henry runs away, and Afton tries crying out to his old friend. Save me. Then, something else fills the building, a banging sound. Afton manages to move his head to the side and sees Henry boarding up the Safe Room.
Henry. Afton says quietly. It sounds nothing like him anymore, the machine is speaking now in its own distorted voice. Henry! He says again, this time getting his attention. All Afton receives is a stern look. HENRY!

Killer Perks:

Agony Fueled: It will always hurt, the suffering will never cease.

• Being stunned by any means increases the break speed of pallets, breakable walls, and generators by 50% for 6 8 10 seconds

“Although, for one of you, the darkest pit of Hell has opened to swallow you whole, so don't keep the Devil waiting, old friend.” - Henry Emily
​
Kidnapping: You take them, without anyone noticing. After that, they’re yours.

• Grabbing a survivor by any means gives all other survivors a 16 meter terror radius for 20 25 30 seconds, giving you undetectable for the duration.

"Five children are now linked to the incident at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, where a man dressed as a cartoon mascot lured them into a back room." - Newspaper clipping
​
Hex: Five Nights: As they progress, you make things worse.

• All dull totems are blocked by the Entity. If a totem ignites during the trial due to a perk other than this one, the Entity will break it after 10 15 20 seconds. While any totem is blocked, the auras of all hexes are hidden from you. (If a survivor blesses a totem, this counts as an active totem and will not be blocked by the Entity.)
• Upon the completion of a generator, this perk gains 1 token to a maximum of 5 tokens. For each token, a random dull totem will ignite and be unblocked by the Entity. If a totem is already ignited with this perk, the previous totem will be extinguished. (If you have 2 tokens and no one has cleansed/blessed the first totem, that totem will automatically be extinguished by the Entity):
  • 1 Token: Survivors hiding in lockers are revealed to you in yellow while this hex is active.
  • 2 Tokens: All survivors injured by any means will be afflicted with the mangled and Hemorrhage status effects until they are fully healed or until this hex is cleansed.
  • 3 Tokens: Interaction speeds are increased by 30% while this hex is active.
  • 4 Tokens: Become undetectable for 20 seconds in increments of 10 seconds while this hex is active.
  • 5 Tokens: Gain a 10% haste effect while this hex is active.

“I won't talk quite as long this time since Freddy and his friends tend to become more active as the week progresses.” - Phone Guy

Killer Power: Mechanical Instinct

Special Ability: Haunt

Holding the active ability button will allow you to haunt survivors with a mascot. Pressing the secondary power button while Haunting a survivor will change which mascot will haunt them, no more than one mascot can haunt a survivor at one time. Pressing the attack button while Haunting a survivor will cause the associated mascot to begin to target the survivor. (Survivors will not know who is Haunting them and will have to figure it out.)

Special Enemy: Mascots

Four mascots spawn at four different places at the beginning of the trial. There will be one character for each spawn:

• Freddy - 0m Haunting Radius, 2.5 m/s Frenzy Mode: 4.4 m/s
  • Behavior: Moves towards a target while taking a path where he is out of their line of sight. If a survivor is looking at his current position, Freddy will freeze in place. Freddy does not enter Frenzy mode naturally and only activates when Mechanical Instinct is active.
• Bonnie - 20m Haunting Radius, 2.5 m/s Frenzy Mode: 4.2 m/s
  • Behavior: Takes a direct route towards a target, if a pallet/breakable wall is in his way, Bonnie will take 4 seconds to destroy the obstacle.
• Chica - 24m Haunting Radius, 2.5 m/s Frenzy Mode: 4.2 m/s
  • Behavior: Takes a direct route towards a target. While Frenzy Mode is deactivating by any means, Chica will not enter cooldown unless losing line of sight for 3 seconds.
• Foxy - 20m Haunting Radius, 2.5 m/s Frenzy Mode: 4 - 5 m/s
  • Behavior: Takes a direct route towards a target. While in Frenzy Mode, Foxy will maintain a chase that increases Foxy’s speed to 5 m/s over the course of 15 seconds. Once 20 seconds is up, Foxy will enter a cooldown state, even if Mechanical Instinct is active (It will be cut by 75% of its original cooldown for this purpose.)

Frenzy Mode activates upon Mechanical Instinct, or reaching line of sight within the Haunting radius. Each Mascot can be stunned leaving them deactivated for 30 seconds (15 seconds for all if Mechanical Instinct is active.)
Blinding the mascots will slow them down by 75%. The cooldown all mascots will endure after Mechanical instinct will be 30 seconds. Mascots will be deactivated while their target is in the dying state or on the hook. Once recovering from either state, the mascot will take 15 seconds to activate again.

Special Ability: Mechanical instinct

Build up charges by chasing a survivor, 1 charge for 4 seconds of chase, up to a maximum of 60 charges. Press the secondary ability button to activate or deactivate Mechanical Instinct. While Mechanical Instinct is active, all animatronics enter Frenzy Mode, whether their target is within range or not, and will move towards their target.
The Attraction will also be affected, gaining a 5% haste effect, 10% speed increase to interactions, and 15% stun recovery.
"As if what he had already done wasn't enough, he found a new way to desecrate, to humiliate, to destroy. As if the suffering wasn't enough, the loss of innocence, the loss of everything to so many people. Small souls trapped in prisons of my making now set to new purpose and used in ways I never thought imaginable. He lured them all back. Back to a familiar place. Back with familiar tricks. He brought them all together. Are they still...aware? I hope not." - Henry Emily

Killer Add-ons:

Common

Purple Uniforms: Uniforms worn by security guards, the color was chosen to keep the feeling of these employees being friendly.

• Increases the haste effect by Mechanical Instinct by 2%

FredBear’s Poster: A poster advertising Fredbear’s Family Diner that once was posted across the entire town.

• Mascots move 0.2 m/s faster while not in Frenzy Mode

Animatronic Design: The primary designs for Henry’s animatronics that he showed to William

• Increases maximum Mechanical Instinct charges by 10

Party Hats: A set of party hats that were given out to customers for the fun of it.

• Haunting a survivor afflicts them with the exhausted status effect for 10 seconds

Half-Baked Pizza: A half-baked pizza Henry and William made together. It’s still a pure memory in Afton’s mind.

• Decreases maximum Mechanical Instinct charges by 40. Gain 100% blood points in the deviousness category for injures during Mechanical Instinct.

Uncommon

Afton Family Picture: The picture of the Afton family while Fredbear’s was at its prime.

• Increases haste effect while Mechanical Instinct is active by 3%

Chica’s Party World Poster: The poster signifies Afton’s first sign of rivalry, one that death couldn’t end.

• You can now gain charges while Mechanical Instinct is active. Gain charges at 50% the original rate.

Balloon Sign: A sign taken from Balloon Boy, the sign was found in the dumpster outside with inappropriate graffiti on it.

• When a survivor enters a mascot’s Haunting Radius, they will be afflicted with the blindness status effect for 7 seconds.

“Go away, nobody likes you.” - Markiplier
Broken Bottle: A bottle of whiskey William broke during one of his episodes of uncontrolled anger.

• Survivors who lose a health state to a mascot will receive the mangled status effect for 60 seconds

Legal Document: A document stating the agreement to the shareholding rights to Freddy Fazbear.

• Increases maximum Mechanical Instinct charges by 20.

Rare

Freddy’s Microphone: The microphone of the infamous Freddy Fazbear. A horror for parents and their children.

• While Mechanical Instinct is inactive, breaking a generator, pallet, or breakable wall will reveal the auras of all mascots for 5 seconds. Has a cooldown of 30 seconds

Bonnie’s Guitar: The guitar held by Bonnie the Bunny, Freddy’s right-hand man for the band.

• Mascot deactivation by any means is decreased by 30%

Chica’s Cupcake: The cupcake of Chica the Chicken, it was always unknown whether Chica planned on eating it or if it was her friend.

• After a mascot leaves Frenzy Mode, the Haunted Survivor will hear a false Terror Radius for 10 seconds.

Foxy’s Hook: The hook of Foxy the pirate, it was rare for parties to see him due to his many malfunctions. Still remained to be a favorite for those who grew up with the old Pizzeria.

• Survivors within the Haunting Radius of a mascot will be afflicted with the oblivious status effect and for 5 seconds after leaving.

Disgusting Freddy Head: A Freddy Fazbear Head filled with blood and mucus, police are unsure of how the substances were stained into the mascot’s head and took it for further investigation.

• While a mascot is in Frenzy Mode, all survivors within the Haunting Radius will be afflicted with a 3% Hindered status effect.

Very Rare

Phone Recorder: A phone used to record the training tapes for newer employees. These were often replaced when an old employee retired or changed positions to encourage staff to involve themselves with others.

• Stunning a mascot will cause the pallet to break.

Clown Face Plates: The face plates of a clown character that was never added to Circus Baby’s group of misfits.

• When a mascot injures a survivor, the survivor will be broken for 25 seconds

“They always put us back inside. There is nowhere for us to hide here.” - Circus Baby
Bathroom Camera: A camera that’s oddly been functional after the closing of Freddy Fazbear’s smaller location. The camera’s audio system seems to pick up a guttural scream after an unseen individual destroyed the animatronics.

• When a mascot enters Frenzy Mode, all survivors within its haunting radius will scream, revealing their location for 3 seconds.

“Uh, hello? Hello? Uh, this is just to inform all employees that due to budget restrictions, the previously mentioned safe rooms are being sealed at most locations, including this one. Work crews will be here most of the day today, constructing a false wall over the old door base. Nothing is being taken out beforehand, so if you've left anything inside, then it's your own fault." - Phone Guy
Puppet Mask: The mask of Henry’s Security Puppet, made to protect Charlie, the streams of tears weren’t in the original design.

• Injuring a survivor while Mechanical Instinct is active will cause the mascots Haunting other survivors to gain a 10% speed effect for 5 seconds.

“My daughter, if you can hear me, I knew you would return as well. It's in your nature to protect the innocent. I'm sorry on that day, the day you were shut out and left to die, no one was there to lift you up into their arms the way you lifted others into yours.” - Henry Emily

Iridescent

Spring Bonnie Suit: A yellow suit with built-in springlocks so it can be worn and used.

• Mechanical Instinct Charges are reduced to a maximum of 5 charges
• Chase time required to gain a charge for Mechanical Instinct is increased by 8 seconds
• Mascots are not affected for the duration of Mechanical Instinct
• While Mechanical Instinct is active, the following will be applied:
• Gain a 120% haste effect
• Gain the Undetectable status effect

"That was easier than I thought it would be.” - William Afton
Golden Freddy Poster: A poster of a yellow Freddy Fazbear. It’s unknown how this came to be, but serves as a reminder to William of the incident

• Mascots are no longer affected by Mechanical Instinct
• Mascot speed increased by 0.2 m/s
• You can see the auras of Mascots while in Frenzy Mode
• Activating Mechanical Instinct causes all windows within 10 meters of a mascot in Frenzy mode to be blocked by the Entity for the duration of Mechanical Instinct

“There's more fantasy and fun where I came from...” - Fredbear

Killer Attire:

Suit: Springtrap - The Spring Bonnie suit carries the corpse of William Afton.
Weapon: Remnant Fireaxe - An emergency tool usually used in fires. However, this one has traces of a glimmering remnant.
Mascots: Modern Generation - The most modern generation of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, including Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Bunny, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Pirate!
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Suit: Spring Bonnie - William's first original creation, turned into a tool for something much darker.
Weapon: Fireaxe - A clean and stationary fire axe, used in cases of emergency only.
Mascots: Toy Models - The Toy Models Henry made to stop Afton, Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie, Toy Chica, and Mangle from Kids Cove!
Mascots: Original Band - The original band of Freddy Fazbears Pizza, left to fall apart in Parts and service, Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie the Purple Bunny, Chica the Chicken, Foxy the Pirate Fox!
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Suit: Burntrap - The charred remains after Henry's second attempt to put an end to Afton.
Weapon: Scrap Axe - A makeshift axe crafted from the remains of Fazbear's Fright.
Mascots: Phantoms - The husks of the mascots that once entertained children, Freddy Fazbear, The Puppet, Chica the Chicken, and The Mangle.
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Suit: Ignited Curiosity - The curiosity of Afton reached a peak when introduced to the Blight that deformed his decaying corpse.
Weapon: Blight Test - An axe with the blight dripping off the edge of the head, Afton needs to know what it can do.
Mascots: Experimental Agony - The Modern Generation mascots were injected with the blight serum, the souls came to life, creating limbs that stuck out of the costumes.

Hi all,
I'm struggling to find a satisfactory answer in previous posts but apologies if this is something that's already been covered. My question is if keyword abilities such afflict, ward, etc are cumulative. It's easiest to explain through an example.
Let's say I have something like [[Mirrorworks]] on the battlefield and, using it, I make a copy of an artifact that I play.
If I copied [[Chief of the Foundry]], I now have two creatures with the static ability that "other artifact creatures get +1/+1." So, as I understand it, each Chief would get a +1/+1 from one another, and any other artifact creature I control now gets +2/+2 -- one from each. It's cumulative.
But what happens with some other static abilities?
I copy [[Foundry Inspector]]. Do artifact spells I cast now cost 2 less (one for each inspector?)
I copy [[Cyberman Patrol]]. Do my artifact creatures now have afflict 6? (if so...ouch/awesome)
My gut says abilities such as afflict or ward don't accumulate; rather, they just are. But I'm not sure I can articulate why they are -- or should be -- any different than something like +1/+1...unless I've misunderstood how even that would work.
As always, your guidance is deeply appreciated.
PS - If afflict is accumulative, my new strategy is just to exile Cyberman Patrol with [[Prototype Portal]] and make an unblockable army of pkew-pkew lazer men.

I FINALLY did it, after a hellish slog I finally managed to reach AR 300! I did it solo for the most part (using followers) and I have to say this: this has got to be the most grueling, padded, bloated experience I have ever gone through with ANY monster hunter. The only reason I did such a task was to see if I could, which in retrospect feels like some sort of twisted reward. Aside from being overly grindy I feel it highlights some of worse parts of Sunbreak. Let me explain:
Monster Stat bloat: Firstly I wanted to say that the health, damage, and speed bloat is a pain to get through. There are some monsters I feel don’t deserve such inflated numbers and it definitely makes me hate certain fights. Aside from prolonging what would typically be a quicker fight, it can make certain minor aspects of the monster feel like utter garbage as you have to deal with those aspects far more frequently. For example: how do you like dealing with the metal raths armor, rajangs rampage mode, kulas rock, or scorned super mode, for longer than necessary? Cuz you will have to deal with those traits for a majority of the fight. Any annoying trait of a monster is dialed up to 20 due to their health, and god help you if the monster is particularly mobile as you’ll be chasing them around far more often while getting hit with damage that can sometimes boarder on unreasonable, especially with the tracking and hitboxes some monsters have. Sure bloodblight is a thing, but sometimes the monster will be sure to keep out of your reach with their boosted speed so you can’t capitalize on it! All of this is made 10X worse due to their rage mood being a DPS check that can royally screw you over if you fail it! An unblockable quiro explosion that hits for tremendous damage, has an AOE after shock in the form of quirio orbs that are designed to hit those out of reach, and on top of ALL of that, you’ll suffer stun. In addition, monsters don’t have much of a recovery time and they’ll more than likely cart you while you’re trying to recover from the stun. I did quests with monsters like chaotic, furious, and goldian and I have to say after all of that I don’t want to fight them anytime soon. This will actively make you hate fighting certain monsters cuz of how much you have to do it for points.
Progression: The progression is a joke in the truest sense of the word! Instead of being a smooth progression from start to finish, you have to jump through hopes for rng quests to hopefully make things easier for you. In order to get the best output of points, you need quests with negative modifiers like less carts, less time, or additional monsters. So in essence, you have to make the quest even harder for yourself for a higher payoff and even then your quest might not even progress beyond your current level! So go gather quiro nodes around the map to get yourself some extra points, but make sure you can do it and still finish the quest! I hate how the quests I would get would be like 5-10 levels lower than my current one, meaning diminishing returns in terms of points! The rng quests should have been either higher or a similar level to my current one! I got a LV 280 quest featuring Afflicted Goldian/Seething Bazel with a modifier of (35 minutes, 2 participants, 1 cart, and in the infernal spring) I had to do this quest 25 times due to it being the only quest with positive modifiers and something that didn’t set me back 5-10 levels!!! Even when I did the quest it didn’t level up despite every handicap against me!!
Spiribirds: like many others, I DESPISE the spiribird system as it directly affects your performance on the AR quests! If you don’t do it, then you risk being one shot by the monster which can render any and all work you’ve done meaningless, especially if your quest has a lower cart restriction. But if you do do it, then you end up wasting time on a quest that will undoubtedly take you longer than it should, made all the worst if your quest has a lower time modifier. They really should have given you the rainbow spiribird at a certain level of AR quest. I know there is a decoration for it but it’s too slow especially when you have to get busy killing your targets!
REWARD: The only thing you get from this are the Special Investigations, which feels similar to the Super mario sunshine completion reward in that you don’t really get anything!! All that awaits you is further increased numbers!!! To make matters worse: instead of giving you every monster as a special investigation, it ONLY counts for the one you push past 300 so, if you weren’t tired of it before you will REALLY tire of it and any monster in it quickly!! I tried the quest I mentioned earlier and had a miserable time with it! I NEVER want to hunt a gold Rathian or Seething Bazel any time soon!!! But hey, those with OP builds MIGHT have fun with this as monsters aren’t being 2 shot by you, so have fun!
This might just be a willing punishment on my part but im TRULY drained doing this and to be honest this is the equivalent of writing an essay and school with a word limit and bloating it with so much unnecessary fluff to help you meet the limit. I seriously hope the Dev team in charge of this decision rethink how to add content to the next game they work on, cuz THIS IS NOT HOW YOU DO THAT!!!
I know some of you are smarter than i am, so what did you think of this mechanic?

As there are so many monsters, there are bound to be some attacks that rub hunters the wrong way; either due to the damage, speed, or range. So what are some attacks/tactics monsters have that annoy or anger you guys?
For me:
Rajang: Im not a fan of his new quick jab move due to its speed, its unreasonable range, and the fact it sets you up to taking more damage. Something else that annoys me is Rajang's rampage mode as i dont like how he can just decide to give him a hard spot that takes minds eye to get through, not even maxed out purple sharpness can cut through; which can cause you to bounce and take punishment with how fast he is and how erratic he can be.
Primordial Malzeno: Aside from the attacks that can knock you flat on your back and leave you open to more attacks. I dont like his quiro lasers as their unblockable, hit for more damage than they should, trivializes the bloodblight because it doesnt last long, and defys any guard skills entirely. I know there is a spot you can stand to avoid it...but thats ONLY if he's targeting you, and then again the speed is so baffling you could accidently roll into it.
Afflicted Monsters (as a whole): Aside from the health, speed, and damage bloat. The ONLY thing i dont like is the quiro explosion. The damage you take should be punishement enough, was the stun necessary as well? cuz i dont think it was! I know it can be avoided but sometimes the range is deceptive and sometimes (depending on the weapon) it can be hard to get out the way. This might be a me issue but i still dont like instant stuns as a whole.
Magnamalo: The only attack i dont like is his instant tail stab he gets in master rank due to how quick it comes out.
Alatreon: I dont think im alone when i say Alatreon's escaton judgement is annoying due to it being something you have to sit there and heal through. All because you didnt use an elemental weapon to fight this dragon with.
Plesioth: His hipcheck. I dont think i have to say more than that!
Savage Deviljho: The standard Deviljho doesnt have this issue...and that is his lunging bite pin, which has a wider and stray hitbox that even if you dont get hit by his mouth, the side of his head and torso count as part of the pin.
Violet Mizutsune: The only thing i dont like about Violet Mizutsune is his homing bubbles...which unfortunately is a huge part of his arsenal. I've had instances in which he will spam moves that release said bubbles and i often forget and get sniped by one off screen because there so many.
Shogun Ceantaur: Oddly enough, his speed is not the issue, but rather a SLOWER move. I hate his walk/charge move as its deceptive and makes his entire body a hit box. Plus for a move that seems simple and slow, it causes a considerable amount of damage!!
Barioth: The move i despise the most from barioth is not his heavier hitting moves, its literally him stumbling forward and biting. It does more damage than i feel it should do, and knocks you down. Sometimes he has chained back to back bites in a row as i act like i cant stand on my own 2 feet.
Pink Rathian: This is old school pink rathian but i hate her move where she flys to your exact location and does a near instant tail flip that hits for a great deal of damage and poisons you. Its annoying due to how quick it happens and for some reason it feels like my character is magnetized to it!!
So what are you're least favorite attacks?

Here's a killer and survivor idea I had with my friend and we felt would possibly be interesting and give a little spice. Are these perfect? No. But we thought they'd be intersting nonetheless. We made a back story for the killer and survivor too. Just didn't feel it necessary to type it all out lol. Also Perks are set to tier 1,2,3. They're just rough ideas.
Killer: The Gardener Movement speed: 4.6
Skill: Briar Vines- You start the match with 10 fast growing seeds that you took the time cultivate. You are able to plant these seeds at vault points and pallets either downed or upright in which the seed instantly germinates causing a thorny vine to overtake the point. If a survivor interacts with an effected spot they are instantly injured and afflicted with deep wound along with hindered for 6 seconds.
Weapons: the gardener had an array of weapons to use, a root slayer shover which is a serrated shovel for basic melee and charge attacks as well as a gardening knife available to be thrown. The gardener is only able to carry 2 knives at a time. Gardening knives must be picked up from the ground after having been thrown. (You see their aura on the ground)
Perks: Horticulturist: You're familiar with the fauna of the entities realm allowing you to understand their stress responses. Any survivor that passes by one of the plants within 10m triggers killers instinct for 4 seconds and causes blindness to the survivor for 7 seconds.
Toxic Growth: You know how to grow plants effectively, especially ones that are toxic to the touch. When damaging a generator press the action button to plant a toxic plant on it. When a survivor interacts with an affected generator the plant releases a plume of pollen disorientating them for 5 seconds forcing them off and blocking the generator for 10 seconds causing an instant 20% regression. Once unblocked the generator continues regressing at an additional 10% faster rate for another 15 seconds.
Hex: Dearly Departed: You relished in growing beautiful flowers for funerals and became obsessed with the deceased. You become obsessed with one survivor during the match. When they become hooked for the first time a dull totem activates causing each survivor to instantly become injured and in the event they already are, have deep wound apply to them increasing their pools of blood and grunts of pain by 8%. Only the obsession is able to cleanse the totem. When cleansed you see the obsessions aura for 8 seconds and the survivor is exposed for 10 seconds.
Suvivor: John/Jane Doe
Perks: Deep Breath: When a killer would normally receive killers instinct deep breath activates instantly slowing your heart rate down cutting the duration of killers instinct in half.
Escape Artist: activates after you've been hooked twice. Once activated when the killer is taking you to a hook for the third time succeed a difficult skill check. If successful you sabotage the hook stunning the killer for 4 seconds dropping you. You gain a 150% speed boost for 5 seconds leaving no pools of blood. You then suffer from exhausted and blindness for 60 seconds. Can only be used once per trial.
Scouts Training: You're extremely talented when it comes to tracking. When you're within the killers terror radius without being caught for 40 seconds gain 1 token up to 8 tokens. When the exit gates are activated press the action button to use the tokens to apply 3% door progression per token up tp 24% to whichever door you interact with. Every time you are hit or downed by the killer you lose 1 token.

Within the first couple days of February there was a domestic issue between my mom and I. My mother has ptsd and that plays into what I'm about to explain to some extent.
Before the domestic issue my mom and I were moving out to a new place and during the last 2 days my mom decided to make a complaint that was "huh I wonder why bf's name hasn't offered to help us move yet?", he had just gotten back from a family trip and was dealing with personal stuff that he needed to deal with once he got back. As soon as I asked him to help he was there the same day helping, then that night he was only anble to sleep 2 hours (insomnia) and was still their the next day even renting a uhaul to help us, while he helped us he did a few things that were a bit disjointed due to the 2 hours of sleep but nothing was malicious or harmful just absent minded.
Said things he did are as follows: 1. He asked quite a few times "do you need this?/is this yours/ where do I put this?"

1. He after getting the response of "I don't really know where everything should go yet" just put boxes down without really snooping into them to see if they needed to go anywhere specific.
   
2. Hit his head on the door latch of the uhaul a couple times of which he cussed and was annoyed by but only cussed to himself and didn't take it out on anyone (I think everyone ended up hitting their head on those stupid latches lol)
   
3. And thinking the work in this area was done, shut the trunk of my mom's car absent-mindedly in front of her. (He did not hurt her in any way by doing this, and at this point it was 2am)
   

So he worked for 2 days straight with us and into the early morning (3 am) of the next day on 2 hours of sleep.
My mom's response at the end of all this was to complain at him and then once he left to insult him to me for a good 2 hours after via a rant.
She took the 4 instances above as malicious rude acts specifically targeted at her.
She took 1 as him insisting we get rid of and throw away all our stuff and that it was all garbage, she took 2 as him still thinking everything we had was garbage and that it didn't matter since he just put it around in different places. (along with me doing the same mind you as she said the same about not knowing where she wanted things to me too), she took 3 as him directly cussing at her and being aggressive, and 4 as him again being rude and bossy about stuff being trash and telling her when to stop.
Despite everything mentioned she refused to acknowledge that all this wasn't malicious and that he was on 2 hours of sleep helping us despite that.
The next day he came by and I wanting to spend some time with him after not seeing him while he was away asked if we could take the time as a break and I could go. My mother openly agreed and put up no fuss, I stayed the night with my bf and was supposed to bring my phone cord in the morning for my mom to use in order for her to make an important phone call.
Our alarms did not wake us and we slept late on accident (12 or so and it was 1 when we got there) she told me no rush and no worries the night before, and before we got there my mother bought another cord for herself and exploded at us when we arrived and with her screaming and acting aggressive I did not feel safe going inside with her. (She has gotten physical with me before to the point of bruising)
She became physical with me that night I was there with her the next day when I returned, I called the police and then went to stay with my boyfriend and have not returned since.
I'm 22yrs old turning 23yrs in a couple months, I'm on disability and my mother is doing everything in her power to make things harder for me.
When I had first left she immediately demanded to know if I was moving out or not, at that point I didn't know and did not answer her so she made up her own mind on what I was doing and went to Social Security to report me as moving out without actually getting confirmation from me, so she started a giant mess I've had to deal with/am dealing with in that regard for fear of legal action for not following processes properly despite not deciding if I was moving out or not at that point.
My mother also keeps telling me what she's going to do to me, my boyfriend, and a family friend that have helped support and protect me throughout all of her aggression towards me.
My mother has at this point, made menacing/creepy remarks like "do you really think I don't know where you are?", insulted me in various different ways including calling me "...you have become a curse of satan to afflict me more", has been cyber stalking my boyfriend as well as his family and showing me what she finds regardless of if it's actually connected or not and out of context, she has also been stalking the family friend/adoptive auntie and threatening to report her on things she thinks she's done based on my mother's own assumptions and bouts of paranoia.
My mother has also contacted my aunt and has been ranting to her about everything to the point of convincing my aunt to also start coming at me, calling me with the first thing out of her mouth being about how cruel I am since I don't want to talk to my mom right now with how she's acting.
I have well over 200 texts from her within the span of about 2 weeks some of the 200 and more being sent during the course of sigular nights while I was asleep.
She is constantly texting and ranting at me switching from caring words one moment and aggressive threatening words the next. Even today she was talking about trying to get my boyfriend deported (he has a green card and has been here in the us since he was young with his family since they moved from canada) because of how she feels in regards to him and her warped view of how everything happened when he helped us move.
Prior to today but still this month she got my boyfriend trespassed from the property our new place is on (via the owners of the land) of which she did by telling the police he was violent with herand threatening her which he has absolutely never done
At this point I don't know what to do any time I unblock her to talk about important matters she rants at, cusses at, and threatens me and the others and I don't know what steps to take.
I have been told an injunction against harassment may be a good way to go but I want to know my other options with having to call the police station for every question have multiple times.
Advice?

Good Day Spikes ! I am here today to advocate for a standard deck i really enjoyed playing and fine tuning recently. I believe that its a simple yet strong deck that could very well help you achieve success in the recent RCQ season. If you're looking for a strong rogue deck to bring into your tournaments, you have come to the right place! the following guide aims to condense the experience i've gathered from the last 2 months into an easy and comprehensive guide on how to best play this deck.
Here is the list i eventually settled on : https://www.moxfield.com/decks/TxKNtmNmqUqj6T2R7XScBg
*Bibliography and References are attached at the end of the post
The 5 Ws
What the deck is: 5C Legendary Humans is a deck looking to leverage the strength of multicolored cards using a strong and consistent mana base to play out a resilient and proactive game plan. It accomplishes this using the synergy between protective legends and strong payoffs, as well as the inherent advantage of being a legends deck, allowing it to run 12 lands with abilities, with 4 plaza adding another layer of midgame/lategame protection. All this enable the deck to be extremely greedy in its card choices and playstyle, often feeling similiar to a tron deck where 1+1+1 = > 3 .
The deck can be visualized into 3 main sections
1. Protection
Hajar, loyal bodyguard
Melira, the living cure
Skrelv, defector mite
Plaza of heroes
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2. Threat
Jodah, the unifier Djeru and hazoret Halana and Elena parters Anim Pakal, thousand moons
3. Support Gwenna, eyes of gaea Thalia, guardian of thraben Inti, senechal of the sun Eiganjo + Boseiju Lagrella, the magpie
What makes it so powerful? Individual Card Quality Most if not all cards in the deck punch above their weight class. For example, most of the 2 drops have good statlines in combination to having good abilities, all of the threats can run away with the game if unanswered, whilst also contributing to the gameplan of the deck. Card density and redunancy is also good, since multiple legends often contribute similarly, the added copies of threats and protection help increase the consistency of the deck.
Card Synergy and Scaling If the deck had a punchline, it would be its ability to scale better than every other deck in standard.
Jodah + Halana and Elena = Usually 6-8 +1+1 counters every combat
Halana and Elena + Anim Pakal = Upwards of 4 Gnome tokens per combat
Halana and Elena + Djeru and Hazoret = Fast, Strong hasted creature that surprises opponents with instant attack trigger that finds another threat consistently
Inti + Animpakal = Additional tokens every turn
Inti + Jodah = Huge creature with trample
The high amount of protection offered gives the deck great resiliency to removal.
Straightforward and easy gameplan For the most part, you can turn off your brain when piloting this deck, no complicated lines and anticipating what your opponent might play or draw, no wracking your head about what hands to mull or keep, no complicated combat calculations. This deck is easy to pick up and master, although there are further nuances to playing it, you can reap about 95% of the decks power by just playing creatures on curve and swinging with them
Now, Why should you play this deck? Farming Opponents This deck is well positioned to absolutely stomp out every UW/X Midrange deck, including blue based midrange decks as well. If you are tired of losing to
Raffine, Scheming Seer Subterranian Schooner Sheoldred, the apocalypse Wedding announcement Virtue of Loyalty
Then this deck is for you! For reference: I have an around 75-80% winrate against Esper Mid, Esper Legends, Azorius flash, Azorius midrange, Dimir midrange, Azorius soldiers.
Rogue deck This deck is still relatively unknown, and therefore:
Hard to evaluate for your opponent: Should they spend their turn playing out a preacher? or should he leave mana up for removal? how much should they prioritise killing anim pakal ? is it better to cut down the thalia of save it for later cards targets they dont even know we have? should gwenna be killed on sight, or do they not have a payoff? should they main phase removal to avoid us dropping plaza? * From the above, you can tell that opponents need to often play with surgical precision to deny us additional value, thus often giving us advantage since we can play around their cards better than they play around ours.
Investment Most of the deck's paper cost is in the manabase, the creatures being very cheap to pick up. Thus if you want to have a tier 1 deck for standard while picking up some staples for modern, legacy, or commander, this deck hits both targets very well.
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Section 1: Deep Dive into Card Choices
Staples
3x Thalia, guardian of thraben She is a strong disruptive early 2 drop that forces opponents to respect her tax, either forces an early cut down or forces opponents to play creatures of their own. This deck doesn't run any non-creatures mainboard, therefore allowing us to reap all the benefit. Particularly good against domain, Toxic, blue based control Even in matchups where it doesn't tax the majority of opponents spells, it serves as a great block with first strike, often getting pumped by halana elena, having 4 power + first strike allows it to block most of the creatures in the format, as well as getting through for damage and triggering anim pakal. An additional copy can be run in the side or main if your local meta is domain heavy
3-4x Skrelv, defector mite One mana legend with great protection + evasion Very important card that synergises well with jodah, since any 2 drop with jodah out gaurantees us finding a skrelv. The evasion often comes in handy when oppo has deathtouch blocker (restless reef, preacher, sheoldred) + we need to get through attacks for anim pakal/ djeru hazoret. Hands that have Skrelv into Hajathalia/melira into Gwenna into Jodah often means we win the game immediately. Skrelv can also be found with 2 drop after we drop jodah and untap gwenna
3x Hajar, loyal bodyguard Best version of the protection legend, since it pumps power and doesnt reset our counters on anim pakal, strong stats. One flaw is that, sometimes we cant cast him on 2 because we want skrelv on t1. sometimes off of eiganjo.
2x Melira the living cure Here for redundancy, but has hidden potential against bant toxic. Slightly worse than Hajar for pure protection, but is easier to cast than hajar and often times just as good. we don't want too many hajar so thats why we run Melira. Note: This list is base Naya + Blue + Black for Jodah off of 5C lands, but it leans heavily into selesyna (white+ green) due to running boseiju + eiganjo
4x Jodah + Gwenna
This is why we play 5c. Jodah is an astronomicaly strong threat if we have time to stabilise and trigger him, he is also the reason why we run protection legends and 1 legendary mana dork to play him. He is that STRONG. Anthem often forces opponents to chump block just to survive on the turn we drop him, and opponents that foolishly play proactively instead of spending removal on HajaMelira/ Thalia will find that there's simple nothing they can do to turn the game around. Jodah finds us Skrelv off any 2 drop. The list runs 30 legends that trigger his 2nd ability, so topdecking jodah after a board wipe gets us instantly back into the game. His ability often adds at least +4+4 to our team, so even atraxas and etali will trade with our 2 mana 3/3s
3x Anim Pakal This is our raffine, although it lacks the card filtering ability of raffine, this card makes up for it by scaling better than raffine, with additional synergy provided with H&E and our protection legends, allowing it to grow out of control. What it lacks in card advantage and longevity it makes up for with pure damage A great secondary threat than comes down earlier and plays better than Jodah against domain and control decks. Note: Anim Pakal also plays pretty well into the meta, by dodging destroy evil and bloodtithe harvester, although no ward (sad). It does tend to die alot, so keep it well protected and you'll win 9 games out of 10.
Flex slots
2x Lagrella the magpie Not exciting, but a necessary removal spell on a creature. Lagrella works better than brutal cathar here due to being protected by hajar, as well as being found by jodah+ pumping with jodah. be very careful when using it in the current standard, the last thing you want to do is to trigger carnosaur / etali for your opponent.
Why not _______________?
Thalia and the gitrog monster Deathtouch + First strike is really quite tempting, but its often not fast enough to stop opponents from establishing some kind of defense, the card draw often requires us to sac lands if we dont have anim pakal tokens, which might be fine if we have multiples of kamigawa channel land, but most of the time we'd rather keep them as spells. doesn't help too much with the deck's gameplan. Viable as 1 of max
Jirina, dauntless general Graveyard hate on a protective legend, which actually protects against single target exile like annoint with affliction, however, single target exile is rare so not worth it for that. does have incidental graveyard hate stapled onto it, but the timing is quite awkward and most of the time graveyard hate isnt needed when we curve out and swing. we often apply enough pressure before virtue of persistance and cruelty of gix can get going. Not worth it for the strain on our mana + losing 1 power 1 toughness
Rona and Ertai I originally liked these two fellas, especially rona, since it gave our legends deck a way to turn dead cards into new cards, untaps with every card we play and allowed our deck to filter through cards very fast for turn 3 gwenna into jodah, gave us incentive to run blue for otawara, and even produced a disgustingly strong value engine when combined with inti. (2-3 cards per turn) . but it turned out pretty slow and this deck is often greedy enough and additional strain on the manabase doesnt work out too well. Might try this build again sometime when i'm feeling greedy, but stay away if you want consistent results
Samut, vizier of naktamun Funky but Clunky, great when you're winning, terrible when you're losing. synergy with anim pakal + halana elena but just doesn't do enough when you're behind
Mishra, claimed by gix Not good
Roaming Throne Have tried running this as an one off, but this deck doesn't work that great with it, only half our humans synergise with it, and its quite slow to set up since we take a turn off on 4 instead of ideally having jodah/djeru
Delney, streetwise lookout Similar to roaming throne, but worse since this doesnt even work with our 5mana payoffs
Sokenzan? Too weak and inconsiquential
Adeline This one i'm not too sure of, on the one hand it serves a similar purpose to anim pakal in allowing for fast kills and attacks well into most boards, but it doesnt have as much synergy as anim pakal in this deck. will consider it when i want to run more anim pakal, but 3 copies of anim pakal is already slightly more than you probably should run
Section 2: Macro
This deck usually wins games by

1. Protecting a threat and accruing value
2. Beating down early and fast with disruption
3. Gaining card advantage in the midgame and forcing opponents into topdeck mode whilst we remain with cards in our hand

So keep these win conditions in mind when making decisions, don't blindly exchange protection creatures for your opponent's (ex: hajar for bloodtithe) since your cards are often more valuable once you find a payoff, trading damage is fine as well since you will take advantage of it more. (unless toxic)
Section 3: Micro Leave up non creatures lands to force opponents to play conservatively around boseiju and eiganjo, if they don't respect it be sure to punish them for it. Great targets include: Chrome host seedshark, Virtue of loyalty , Preacher of the schism , Archangel of wrath, Raffine, Deep cavern bat Always attack before casting your creature, except when Halana elena, or Djeru and Hazoret or Jodah Generally play fast if possible, think of what you want to do next when your opponent is thinking, your opponent naturally plays faster when you do to and that often benefits you (within reasonable boundries of course)
Section 4: Matchups *Please keep in mind this is from personal experience, some matchups may need more time to understand further
Matchups will be catergorised into 5 categories Highly favorable (WR%~80) Esper Midrange (Raffine, Wedding Announcement, Deep Cavern Bat) They dont run enough removal to stop us, so we usually run them over. Play simple magic, play proactively and look to protect a threat. They have usually 7-9 slots for interaction split across cut down, go for the throat and make disappear. Cavern makes make disappear useless, while melira, hajar dodge cut down, they also make go for the throat pretty bad. The only way for them to cleanly remove our threats is with make disappeaertai, but it does literally nothing when we have cavern. They cannot risk us having cavern, which is why they always sideboard out the counterspells, making them stuck between a rock and a hard place Good match for us since their proactive gameplan doesn't scale as well as ours, if they prioritise removal their hands will be slow. Dennick and Lord skitter get bullied by our 2 drops. Hands with multiple anim pakal may be good to play around bat. Boseiju limits the effectiveness of virtue of loyalty and restless anchorage Be careful of tidebinder shutting down Jodah, simply attack when you have jodah on the field, waste their 3 mana they left up. you dont always need to trigger jodah cascade. don't get greedy ;)
Azorious Soldiers (Knight errant of Eos, make disappear, zephyr sentinel) Good Matchup since they look to accquire value by leaving up countermagic(4x Make dissapear) , which does nothing against us when we have cavern. We scale better than them+ halana and elena has sneaky first strike + reach, which shuts down their flyers, they can't remove it easily since they don't run any removal. Just be careful of tidebinder
Azorious Midrange (Spyglass siren, Subterranean schooner, wedding announcement) Similar to Esper midrange but they run get lost instead of go for the throat, as well as 2 copies usually of destroy evil. be careful of wandering emperor exiling our jodah on attack, and you'll win every game as long as your hand is proactive enough. We can't deny their schooner attacking most of the time but its fine trading damage with them since they can't interact well with our gameplan . Be careful of 2x sunfalls in the side
Esper Legends (Thalia, Raffine, Sheoldred) Slightly worse than esper midrange since we can lose against their fast draws of skrelv + bat + raffine. Keep eiganjo up for raffine / bat if you're on the draw, otherwise look to play aggresively and protect your threats. As long as you have an earlier threat, you should win this matchup since they have only 2-3 slots for removal. keep in mind that eiganjo can destroy djeru and hazoret and that otawara can cleanly answer jodah, try to play around those if they dont use all their mana on their turn. Legends lists tend to sideboard removal aggresively (3x cutdown 2x go for the throat/ annoint, 3x destroy evil/getlost) so keep that in mind.
Rakdos Ramp (Trumpeting Carnosaur, Etali, Breach the multiverse) Thalia is your best friend if you can protect it. hands with jodah are good since it allows your creatures to survive both burn down the house and brotherhoods end. just curve out against them and you'll win most of the time even when they resolve 1 etali (as long as they dont chain into too many cards) they have quite a lot of dead cards against us. This is a matchup where you should always count the amount of creatures on your board will die if they brotherhoods end. be careful of end step cut down thalia into brotherhoods end.
Simic Artifacts (zoetic glpyh, surge engine, agatha's soul cauldron) Very good for us since they dont run any removal for our board, but keep in mind that you'll want to win quickly, since they can outmanuver you with cauldron + unblockable or zoetic glyph on gingerbrute. leaving up boseiju is great since you'll rarely die to restless vinestalk/ glphy when you have it up. destroying glphy target also fizzles glyph Beat down quickly and be careful of kitesail on Jodah, Djeru and Hazoret is usually better in this matchup when you can haste it
Slightly Favorable (WR%~65)
Gruul Aggro (picnic ruiner, audacity, cacophany scamp) Play thalia out early and try to hold up eiganjo for every turn past turn 4, where they will kill you consistently. Not much to say, since sometimes we'll just lose to them, our first strikers and protection legends does give us time to grind them out. More removal in the sideboard allows us to do better post board. Try not to tap out to resolve a threat in this matchup. Lagrella is good here as well since it survive play with fire, just try not to tap out for it since tyvar's stand
Dimir Midrange (Spyglass siren, Ertai, Gix) We do better against midrange variants and worse against aggro versions with lots of fliers + gix. Curve out against them when you're on the play and you'll win most of the time. Their mainboard counterspells matchup poorly against us, as well as their bats and faerie mastermind when they have to block. eiganjo can be used to remove preacher safely when they block.
Azorius Tempo (Monastry mentor, Haughty Djinn, Helping Hand) This is a matchup where one card completely changes the dynamic of the game. They have no good answers to thalia, which shuts off their prowess chains, denies ledger shredder, cancels djinn's discount, and limits their prankster usage. They run no mainboard answers to thalia so play thalia, beat in early and you'll win
Even or Close to Even (WR%~45-55)
Mono Black midrange (Razorlash transmogrant, graveyard tresspasser, liliana of the veil) Not too sure about this one to be honest, since they mono black archetype is kinda confusing. theres lists running rankles prank and bloodletter, ive played against planswalker decks with liliana and sorin. but they generally have creatures that end up being inconsiquential against our game plan. if they're heavy on proactive cards we usually have the advantage, if they focus more on removal the matchup tends to be even
Bant Poison (Crawling chorus, Skrelv's hive, Rotpriest) You want to attack in damage with all your creatures while keeping one of yours back to block. if you can force their bounce spells early your threats will be good once you resolve them. however, they may choose to develop their board while holding interaction, which is why you should attack early. The match usually boils down to what cards they start off with and how their manabase treats them. (their manabase is usually clunkly and they often mull to 6 or 5) if they have fast hand with skrelv + duelist, you're usually screwed if you dont have eiganjo. since most creatures in this deck are green, and white creatures dont block well. But you also dominate them if they dont have they correct start, skrelv's hive isnt good against us since it speeds up our clock. (we play faster than a midrange deck)
Mono Red Aggro (Goddric, Kumano faces kakazan, Monastry swiftspear) Builds that are pure aggro are stronger against us than builds that spec into midrange pieces like urabrasks forge and chandra dressed to kill. Our 2 mana creatures that have 3/3 do most of the heavy lifting since it does better against their 2 drops. play conservatively both on the play and draw, since your payoffs (jodah) can't be answered by them once it hits the board. dont be afraid to trade off some legends to preserve your life total, just dont lose it to monstrous rage) (block a 2/2 with your 3/3)
Boros Aggro (Warden of the inner sky, gleeful demolition, imodane's recruiter) Near impossible to win against if they have turn 1 warden + many follow up activations/ early knight errant into more knight errant/imodane's recruiter since we cannot interact with their gameplan at all. this changes if we have jodah by t4 or 5 jodah, since then they cant chain into as many evangelists as they want when we pressure them. Look to attack with Jodah + inti as your main source of damage, and look to build up an anim pakal early and fast. Skrelv may be good if they dont have the black bat / artifact yotian frontliner ready to block. Overall managable but there will be games where you just lose.
Slightly Unfavorable (WR%~40) Golgari Midrange (Glissa Sunslayer, Preacher of the Schism, Deep cavern bat) Glissa Sunslayer and Dreadknights are annoying to deal with since we dont have enough clean answer for them, try to protect your threats and scale over them rather than going aggro, but be careful of nissa ultimate. They run more removal and card draw then your average midrange deck so be careful of multiple removal spells on jodah. We do dodge virtue and cutdown, so just keep that in mind and try to stick a jodah If you can get in a anim pakal attack Liliana is no longer a problem. Their proactive gameplan (Glissa, Preacher, Turtle, Gix) often nets them multiple cards, so do try to remove their card advantage early if you can with eiganjo
Rakdos Midrange (Bloodtithe harvester, geological apprasser, trumpeting carnosaur) Kinda Luck based matchup, if they have a disruptive hand with bat + preacher + multiple removal cards thanks to appraiser + cruelty of gix we struggle to develop our board. However its hard for them to match us once we are ahead on board thanks to our protection creatures. They dont run that much removal since they want carnosaur and cruelty to fill both those roles as well as being threats. We often win against their slow hands, and if we can topdeck djeru and hazoret/jodah we can often turn games on a dime Orzhov Control (Serra paragon, the restoration of eiganjo) They have access to exile based removal that goes around our protection, whilst also having consistent card advantage with the restoration of eiganjo, serra paragon, and wedding announcement. They also run some amount of sunfall in the maindeck. Try to race them before they manage to stabilise. They do tend to durdle around sometimes, if they don't respond to our threats often enough you can often surprise them with hasted jodah /djeru, since their exile removal (except wandering emperor) is sorcery speed. Wandering emperor is also heaily telegraphed against orzhov
Domain (Atraxa, Sunfall, Leyline Binding) Very Important Matchup to Learn Sunfall..... hurts, we can't protect our board from a sunfall, although we can bounce back from sunfall using our 5mana threats, if they have sunfall -- Atraxa/Herd migration, we often struggle to recover. sometimes they will even have multiple sunfalls. However, this is a matchup that is very winnable with some practice and the correct knowledge. The correct approach is usually to play into their sunfall and aim to tax their cards with thalia, gobakhan and peacekeeper Anim Pakal + Boseiju Hands with Thalia + Anim Pakal + Boseiju are able to put great amounts of pressure on domain, and often wins you the game if you have annointed peacekeeper on t4 to delay their sunfall while leaving up boseiju for leyline binding. Damage Calculations: Turn 3 3dmg (2 from thalia, 1 from gnome) Turn 4 8 (2 from thalia, 3 from gnome, 3 from anim pakal) Turn 5 12 (2 from thalia, 6 from gnome, 4 from anim pakal) It is entirely viable to kill your opponent with just anim pakal given 3 turns. (t3,t4,t5) (opponent needs to have untap land on 3 for stomper, followed by untap land on 5 to cast sunfall with thalia tax, which is difficult sometimes for domain since they have 12 tapped sources) Therefore... Boseiju should be left up to protect anim pakal from leyline binding to ensure that it does not reset the +1+1 counters on it *This is what i found the most success with, the jodah plan ends up too slow too often, even with thalia. since gwenna and annointed peacekeeper fight for 3 drop slot, whilst peacekeeper compliments the anim pakal plan quite nicely (I used this strategy to win 4 consecutive matches against domain, which i previously thought to be one of the deck's worst matchups)
Highly Unfavorable (WR%<40)
None
General Takeaways from this Matchup Guide Proactive Decks that don't cannot interactive effectively against our game plan will lose (Esper, Azorius) Decks that look to scale against us, but cannot disrupt us will lose (Soldiers, Rakdos ramp) We are weak when our protection legends are dead cards (Domain, Orzhov) Its difficult to rebuild our board when we are empty ( Rakdos) We don't answer threats well if we cannot scale over them (Golgari, Boros)
My hands hurt, will try to update this guide after some rest, thanks for reading!
References Scvirnay's Original Post (please read this) https://www.reddit.com/spikes/comments/188ff4standard\_5c\_human\_legends\_from\_the\_creator\_of/ Scvirnay Original List https://mtga.untapped.gg/profile/8fa83dbf-a965-4f04-b19e-921b3cd5d84e/2JD57RCSBZHWJESNFO5FUPMLPQ/deck/c334c13b-389e-40e4-bc3f-9e003ac8b4df?gameType=constructed&constructedType=ranked Firebrand713's List https://mtga.untapped.gg/profile/d1bcf028-9360-4604-a8cc-f703c7488260/3XYAYSCRX5FP3MESOOE7EDTLSE/deck/aa15664b-0609-4615-ad12-0c332edc54c7?gameType=constructed&constructedType=ranked My Original Post https://www.reddit.com/spikes/comments/1ady2tw/standard\_rcq\_win\_with\_5c\_humans\_legends/

Hey exiles,
Affliction is just around the corner, and I have a feeling that we're gonna have a lot of threads popping up asking for help with farming strategies. I played quite a lot in Trial of the Ancestors and I usually make a spreadsheet for each farming strategy that I run.
This is the spreadsheet containing most farming starts that I ran in 3.22: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vs_5opWTQqk0--RdMTPSA4IgzxfjwqjgG_BY-ZL55w8/edit?usp=sharing
If you find anything to your liking, you have a video explaining everything, below the Investment section, in the left part of each spreadsheet.
For the newer players I can recommend these:

• Silo Blight Rush - Silo is removed in 3.22. Use Horizon Orbs and go for whatever tier 16 layout you like (Bazaar looks nice?), or choose an open map. Waste Pool is a really good option but they are a bit hard. Good open maps with easy layouts: Fields, Burial Chambers, Jungle Valley, Ashen Woods, Coves.
• Tropical Island Alch and Go
• Harvest Exarch
• Boss Rushing+ (it's Altars + Boss Rush. wait a little bit with this one until Invitations go up to around 1 Div each)

​
There are some bangers there with 10+ Div per hour but those require quite good builds, so maybe just limit yourself to these until you can farm a few Divines and upgrade your build.
​
Other useful resources:

• My League Starter: https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/minion-army-necro-build-guide
• Arakaali's Fang Occultist: https://www.poe-vault.com/guides/arakaalis-fang-occultist-build-guide
• Blight guide, everything explained: https://youtu.be/zm1H7CX-Ecs
• Two good Atlas Skill Trees that work really well with my League Starter:

1. https://poeplanner.com/a/UHS (add at least a Rusted Blight Scarab here, or unblock them and spec into chance for Blights)
2. https://poeplanner.com/a/Uiq (this one will probably work well with any build)

• Tier 5 map farming Essences + Harvest/Expedition: https://youtu.be/9YOJJTGwfAU

​
Good luck in 3.23!

On one side of the marketplace…
”Dearie, I’m tellin’ ye noo, ya backpokin’ satchel slicer! Ye always got a place at The Foundation, when all said an’doon!” His heavy voice bellowed out above the chaos of the market, holding up one final painting he had collected from the market.
Benaam, who had been running for his life, ducked into a crowd of passing people. He ripped his outer clothes off suddenly, momentarily startling the people around him. “Come ‘ere, you!” He tossed the overcoat and scarf onto one of the passersby, and grabbed them tightly.
The photo’s frame still stayed pointed at him, and the lights and sounds of The Subway would split apart as one final object flew out towards the purple scarfed thief… who had suddenly been thrown out towards the street.
A Pair of Sodas, connected by the 6 pack container holding them together at opposite ends. Rapidly, they’d spin with the powers granted by The Subway, shimmering like stars in the night sky. Wrapping around his legs, constricting them to an unmovable degree as the hard aluminum crushed his shins and knees.
The thief screamed, and Goldfinger’s face drooped. “Tha’s not yer voice!”
On the other side of the marketplace…
Cross fell to the earth in a heap. Mallory slowly descended, and undid Missile Meteor’s form. The flashing lights filled the air and the sounds drove the average bystander away, letting Mallory through.
His crutch dug into the ground once before someone rolled up to him. “Hey, you big meanie!” a child ran out from behind a nearby corner. “What’d you do to Cross!?”
Another child rolled out of the woodwork. “Yeah, leave Cross alone!” Another came from beneath a stall, and another still came up from behind him.
Little by little, a swarm of children had surrounded a sweating Mallory. Mallory looked on in shock as the body of Cross went missing.
Shortly thereafter, the children sneered, snickered, and ran away, leaving Mallory alone with his thoughts.
Mallory sighed, dug the crutch into the earth, and slowly spun around it. “I never bought that urn, did I…” He rifled through his pocket. After a few solid seconds of rummaging, he found his wallet. Mallory popped his wallet open, and frowned. “Oh. Right.” He closed his wallet, picked up his crutch, and slowly levered himself away. “I’m broke.”
On the west edge of the marketplace, a few minutes later…
An average looking citizen in thin, layered clothing dusted themselves off in an alleyway. “Not too shabby, Benaam, not too shabby…” Benamm sighed and slicked back ‘his’ hair. “... that rat bastard didn’t give me a second to breathe…”
“That’s not what it looked like…” A new voice joined the man in the alley. “Not that I’d know, given I only watched from afar.”
“Hello again… Vira, right?” A teenage boy came into view. He wore a simple, single-colored linen shirt, a pair of threadbare shorts, and sandals.
Vira nodded gratefully. “I’m happy that I left an impression on you, oh master of disguise.” Vira playfully tugged on his shirt. “I also have another job for you…”
Benaam rolled ‘his’ eyes. “Am I still getting paid peanuts?”
Vira smiled from ear to ear. “Oh, no… this job pays plenty.” Vira handed Benaam three sheets of paper, and an unmarked check. “You just have to convince someone to do it for you.” Benaam’s stolen hand ripped the papers out of Vira’s hands.
A playful smile emerged on Benaam’s stolen face. His jaw slowly dropped, giving it some volume. “This is what you needed the distraction for?” Benaam clicked his stolen tongue at a nodding Vira. “Alright, you’ve got my attention… boss.”
On A Marketplace Rooftop…
The marketplace’s rooftops were home to all kinds of critters, like spiders, bugs, and Cross, who happened to be staring out at the market below. His eyes narrowed as they passed over faces both familiar and unfamiliar. He seemed to be searching for- “Cross!” His eyes quickly widened.
From all corners of the rooftop, the children seemed to pour in. A small child spoke first. “Cross! Are you alright?”
Another child, a bit bigger than the first, took their turn. “Did that big ol’ meanie hurt you?”
A cacophony of voices assaulted Cross from all angles. The young man raised his hands, and slowly lowered them towards the crowd. “Don’t worry everybody, I’m still kickin!” With a bend at the knee, Cross lowered himself towards the children. “I didn’t manage to get much today, though…”
“That’s fine!” The biggest kid rolled to the front of the pack. “We’re just glad you’re ok!” The cacophony of voices spoke in unison.
Cross’ heart melted at the display. “Oh, you guys…” Cross’ arms raised towards the children, and ushered them in for a hug. “... bring it in!” All of the kids came in for a massive group hug, surrounding their leader… no, their friend, Cross.
The House, Mist City, 1:00 PM
With a series of taps, Mallory walked into The House, bearing the Urn under his arm. He rested his shoulder on the crutch, and used both hands to lift the urn. “Alright, I got it!” He stood there, holding the urn high in the air. “... now what?”
 
The results are in for Match 3. The winner is…

Mallory, with a score of 72 to Edwin “King” Goldfinger’s 66!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Mallory	16 (8+2) - 14 (7+2)
Quality	Mallory	23 (7 8 8) - 21 (7 7 7)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Mallory	23 (7 8 8) - 21 (7 7 7)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10

If you're interested in the newest version of Pac-Man, don't forget to check out the multiplayer action in this conveniently labyrinthine military base!
Scenario: Reshmerasta — 10:07 AM
Six buildings to the right. Seven to the left.
Small alleyways between two and three on the right, six and seven on the left.
Thirteen electrical wires hanging between buildings.
Five crows, sitting on the nearest rooftop.
At least thirty people in the crowd, give or take.
“Maya?”
Six crows, now.
“Hey. Maya.”
Dawn nudged her shoulder, and Maya Angelica Anhel-Duston jolted back to attention. She stared back at her coworker, adjusting her collar as she cleared her throat.
“...Something wrong?”
“You looked like you were spacing out.” Dawn idly tossed a marble between her hands as she spoke. “You good? You’re never this bad out in the mountains.”
The two leaned in the shade against a building, watching civilians make their way from here to there. It was a crowded street, the kind where driving would almost certainly not be possible with how many people were meandering around. It would’ve been a work day, but the sherpas didn’t need any assistance with their work on the mountain, and the two of them didn’t have any other tasks to do, so IMPACT sent them into town for...scouting, or something. Better to stay moving then sit around in some office all day, Dawn had reassured earlier.
At the least, it wasn’t a hot day. The sky was a dull gray, casting everything into darker shades, blues and grays and blacks. A cool breeze wafted across the streets, and Maya shivered, cursing her decision to take a relatively thin outfit out on the town.
Thirty people was a light crowd for Reshmerasta, especially on the main strip where they now stood. Perhaps it was the chill that kept people at bay. Still, even this small crowd seemed to take up more space than their numbers would imply. Voices echoed differently down here, there was something blunt about them, dull as the skulls above. Droning people, droning cars, droning streetlights. A far cry from their usual work.
“The mountains are peaceful.” Maya eventually spoke up again. “Quiet. Get in the right spot, and you can see for miles.”
“I get you.” Dawn nodded. “It’s nice up there, ain’t it?”
“Mmm.”
The two stood in silence for a moment. The wonders of nature were something they’d both grown to appreciate—being thrust back into modern civilization was no doubt disorienting. It was easy to miss the beautiful expanse of Mt. Parapollah, and even the cozy clamor of their ranger stations. It wasn’t like the two of them weren’t used to leaving the mountain–IMPACT had ranger stations everywhere, including Reshmerasta. But they were used to working around the park. The dark concrete and neon lights seemed as far a cry from nature as they could get.
Dawn glanced over at Maya for a moment, and turned back to the street. The woman was a little strange, just like her other coworkers were, but she was a dedicated volunteer—and a fine person to have around. She’d insisted on having Maya come out on the town with her. It was a shame things felt so…awkward wasn’t the word. Unable to find the word she sought, Dawn scratched her head.
It was a strange feeling. Did Maya feel it too?
“Tell you what.” Eventually, she spoke again, pocketing the marble. “All this standing around has got me starving. Wanna eat somethin’? I’ll pay.”
“I wouldn’t mind that.” Maya smirked, pushing herself off the wall and placing her hands in her pockets. “Got anything in mind? I’m not that familiar with the a-”
Maya paused. Her eyes widened. A shadow pulsated up against the wall behind her, the darkness spreading within a single second.
“Hey, hey, what’s—”
“Something’s wrong.” Maya’s eyes narrowed. “Something feels off.”
“More off than usual?” Dawn raised an eyebrow. She’d known about the things Maya felt about the world around her—being watched and all. But this wasn’t a reaction she’d seen before.
Another breeze drifted by. The older woman shivered. Maya simply nodded, staying silent.
A scream, sharp and high pitched, roared through the street for a brief moment before being cut short, choked out in an instant. The crowd carried on, ever-flowing. Dawn and Maya stared at each other for a moment. Some emotion swam deep beneath their gaze, the kind you can only express in a single, wordless exhale.
“Ah.”
Gujat Ray stood in front of a fresh cadaver, eyes wide and frenzied. In one hand, a bloodied knife. In the other, a small gold coin. The smile on his face was one of a man who was not all there—even less there than usual.
He pushed the knife into the corpse in front of him again, to seal the deal. He’d never done it so riskily before. He’d been so careful, so cautious before. He always stuck to the plan, always read through his books so carefully, to figure out what to do. But the voice in his ear, the voice that told him what to do now...She was far bolder than he could ever be.
And listening so closely to her words made him feel alive.
“Good job...Ray.” He heard the voice in his ear again, and smiled a little wider.
“Ah, th-thank you.”
“And to think...You were so wor-ried. I told you itwould work out, right?”
“I was...A fool.”
“That you were. But youare doing great, now.” A warm chuckle, to his right. “You adore me, don’t you?”
“I do, I do, I do...” He trailed off, mumbling fanatically. Markov only took a few seconds to listen before she turned her head to the side. The room they were in was cramped, an apartment a floor or two up from the street below. The lights had been left off—the woman they’d killed was something of a shut-in. The corpse probably wouldn’t be found for a while, but the screaming…She’d figure out what to do about that later.
The computer nearby flickered again. It had been doing that for the last few seconds, though Ray hadn’t seemed to notice. Preoccupied with his adoration. If Markov had a mouth, she would’ve smirked. As he should be.
She would’ve smirked wider at the perfect, manicured hand reaching through the computer screen. It grabbed on to the edge of the desk, pulling the rest of the body out from within.
Paranoia came slinking out, wide smile on her face, bending her body in some unnatural way to fit fully through. She came to a stand on top of the desk, limbs jerking back into place. She looked at Markov fondly, eyes ever-glimmering.
“Looks like you’ve been having a lot of fun out and about!” Paranoia giggled, hopping down to examine the corpse. “Wow, she’s cute! You do good work, y’know that? Ehehe!”
Ray didn’t pay any attention to the virus, too focused on whatever he was mumbling about.
“Iam glad.” Markov harumphed smugly, single eye gleaming behind her ‘hair’. “I wasnot ex-pecting you here, though.”
“Oh, that!” Paranoia took a seat atop the cadaver, clearly satisfied by the uncomfortable squishing sound it makes. “Well, everybody at the museum was really scared, cause somebody stole your coin again! I think that makes the third time this month, ehe! Anyhow, I wanted to see what you get up to while you’re out on the town!”
“I see…” Markov sounded satisfied, but she trailed off in thought. Normally, the museum workers would’ve tracked her down by now. They could cover a lot of distance between the two teleporters, not to mention Carol’s ability to gather information. She had grown fond of their exasperated expressions when they finally tracked her down, she loved the frantic desperation of their search.
But she hadn’t seen heads or tails of any of them.
Were they…
…Ignoring her?
“You…‘Did’ say they were looking-for-me-yes?” She stared at Paranoia. She could take pride that this one had come all this way here to see her—but it was only one. That wasn’t usual. That wasn’t ‘right’.
“I think so!”
“You…Think?”
Something fluttered by the window.
“What’s got you so down, huh?” Paranoia tilted her head to the side, confused in a cutesy, far too pleasant way. “You’re not-” She sniffed. “You’re not mad at me, are you?”
“I-am-‘not’. I...”
Ray’s phone started ringing in his pocket. The two stood still for a moment, but Ray didn’t seem to notice. Eventually, Paranoia reached forward, slipping the device from beneath the man’s sweatshirt and placing it up to her ear.
“Moshi moshi~! Who’s this?”
“…” For a moment, the other line was silent. Markov stifled a reaction, going rigid. Something felt wrong, about all of this, in a way she wasn’t used to. It wasn’t usual. It wasn’t right.
“This…isn’t Mr. Gujat Ray, is it?” A low female voice came from the other side of the phone. Her voice was smooth, disarmingly so.
“It’s not!” Whatever weird feeling Markov had, Paranoia’s felt none of it, cheery as ever. “This is Paranoia speaking!”
“Just as I thought, then.”
“Ah?”
Something fluttered by the window again.
“My name is Dr. Apollo. Very specifically “Doctor” Apollo, as befits my status as a professional. If your name is Paranoia, then that ‘coin’ is near you, yes?”
“…How’d you know that?” Paranoia’s smile thinned, slightly.
“All so-called “intelligent” being are deeply predictable creatures. I know this from experience, being one. I know many things from experience. For instance.” She clears her throat. A smug smile is painfully visible just from how she speaks. “I know you aren’t very happy right now, Mr. Ray. Or, rather, Ms. Markov. That was your name, yes? It’s what’s down in my notes?” “Your need for attention is showing through. You aren’t a stoic one, which is surprising for something that lacks a face.”
Markov was silent.
“There’s no need for you to respond, I know what you would say anyways. Either way, though… You’re not something worth paying attention to.”
“That’s not true!” Paranoia yelled, pouting. “I’m paying attention to her right now!”
“I mean in a more theoretically comparative sense.” Dr. Apollo was unfazed. “The two people in that room…Is their attention what you really want? Or would you rather attract a crowd?”
“What is that supposed to me~an?” Markov finally spoke up, her tone firm. This woman…felt too sharp. Too cutting, with her words. Her very presence incensed Markov, and she had half a mind to make Ray crush that phone so she could—
“Throw the body through the window.”
“...What?”
“Throw the body through the window.” Dr. Apollo’s voice was firm. “Have you ever heard of the concept of “self-sabotage”? Some people purposefully allow themselves to fail because they fear they cannot handle success. It is a coping mechanism used by unremarkable failures.” “Are you two unremarkable?”
Markov hesitated. Paranoia did not.
The window shattered against the force of the body smashing through it, raining shards of glass upon the crowd below. Paranoia watched with smug satisfaction.
“That’ll show...”
The corpse landed with a thud, as dull as the silver sky. A man stepped over it, unconcerned. More followed. “...You?”
Everyone continued without change. Moving this way and that, here and there, paths weaving and unraveling. Their bodies moved, but their eyes would not. Blood lapped against the stone, stained shoes leaving bright red footprints on the gravel. None batted an eye, no one thought to scream.
Markov was paid no attention. She was currency without value. Nothing but cold, dull, metal.
The two girls stood in stunned silence, watching through the windowsill. Apollo chuckled lightly through the phone—those were the only words that were needed. Slowly, Paranoia turned her head towards the side.
The windowsills next to them were lined with crows, their plumage a deep and inky black. Something seemed to drip from each of them. They did not turn to face the girl. They simply stared at the ground beneath.
Something felt off. Very, very, off. The two turned to each other, tension clear in each of their expressions, or Markov’s lack thereof.
“Ray.” Markov’s latest devotee jolted to attention. “It-is-time-we-took-our leave.”
No, this was not usual. It was not right.
“Keep moving!” Dawn Hu charged forward, brazen determination in her eyes. “Don’t get separated! C’mon!”
This was easier said than done. The sparse crowd was now massive, seemingly growing by the second. The street was busier than Reshmerasta at its worst. It felt like everyone they passed was going the other way, pushing them back, like a stream going against a salmon. The figures pressed shoulder to shoulder, close enough that Maya swore they seemed to melt into each other. Their faces too were smeared and shadowed. They were all just bodies, flowing dark and heavy as a river.
And yet, the two carried onward.
Maya panted, shoving a stranger aside. The scream was one thing, but she had to get to the bottom of this feeling—it was at its strongest now. Something was well and truly wrong.
A stranger shoved Dawn into her, and Maya nearly keeled over.
“Shit!”
The girls were barely able to get back onto steady footing before the rising tide of people grew, a veritable wave of bodies threatening to stampede over them. Dawn braced herself to push forward, but Maya grabbed her by the shoulder.
“This…This isn’t a normal crowd!” Her shadow pulsed into the air behind them, figures erupting from within each other, hands pushing every which way. “Dawn! This is a Stand attack!”
“You’re sure!?”
“Right now…we’re being ‘watched’ by an enemy Stand user!” Maya’s mind raced, eyes wide, and yet, lacking any inch of panic. She remained rational, as much as she could. “Right now, Dawn...we’re being led directly into a trap!” She focused. If the enemy’s goal was to break them against the tide’s might, Then surely they would expect them to go back, with the flow of the people. She couldn’t do as was expected of her. Maya grinned.
“⌈M.A.A.D CITY!⌋”
Maya’s shadow coalesced, a throne of shadowed hands forming to carry her above the crowd. Dawn hung onto the Stand’s side, marbles at the ready, beetles crawling from beneath her clothing. Maya scanned the area around her, heart pumping in her ears.
Thirty seven unblocked windows.
Fourteen civilians with colorful clothing.
Three buildings with more than two stories.
Seventeen crows.
She paused.
“Crows...” Her brow furrowed, pointing towards the edge of the building next to her, where they had gathered, staring down at the scene unfolding. “Dawn, there’s—”
“There aren’t crows in Rākinnagarh!” Dawn took aim, four marbles clutched between her fingers. “Crows are fairly common in Assam, sure…but due to all the light pollution, their migration paths…don’t come through Rākin City!”
PING!
Marbles crashed into the building’s wall, crushing several of the birds. Dawn grinned when the impact splattered the bricks in pitch black ink.
“Told ya!” She roared over the sound of footfalls beneath her, arming herself with four more marbles-
And then paused when two ebon limbs topped with robotic hands burst from the splatters, pushing against the wall as if trying to burst from it.
“Shit—Maya!” The two only had a second to react before the crows smashed into each other and into the wall creating a single mass of ink that came screaming right towards them from the push of those limbs. It crashed right into Maya, sending her toppling into the crowd. More crows followed, circling above—dozens upon dozens–their bizarre flight pattern swirling them towards its center, where they coalesced into some dark, pulsating mass.
Dawn could only pay a moment’s attention, before the sound of Maya hitting gravel snapped her from her haze. Dawn cursed how quickly things had worsened, and whirled around to attempt to pull her up—
Then stopped in her tracks when she noticed a single woman, walking effortlessly against the crowd. It was as though the civilians parted just enough to let her through. Dawn glared her down.
“This is your Stand, isn’t it?” The park ranger glowered, ripping pinballs out of her vest pockets. “Answer me, lady!”
The woman turned to smile at Dawn, the silver light reflecting off of her glasses as she pushed them further up her nose.
“I said answer me! This is your goddamn Stand attack, isn’t it?!”
“My ‘Stand’ attack? Just now?” The woman tittered to herself, turning to face the oncoming crowd. “You misunderstand, Dawn.”
“My Stand attack started approximately thirty minutes ago.”
Dawn didn’t have time to ask questions—the earth beneath her feet began to warp and bend beneath the pounding footfalls.
“My ⌈Friday Night Guru⌋ is, in most cases, fairly limited.” The strange woman continued, unaffected by the changing terrain. “It takes time for an ability like mine to do something like…well. You’re about to see, I suppose. Mmm. This sort of thing requires ‘preparation.’”
She sneers, moving forward into the crowd.
“Be sure to show your appreciation for my hard work.”
The floor buckled beneath Dawn’s feet.
And when she fell into the earth, she just kept falling.
When Dawn awoke, the first thing she noticed was a young woman who was way too close for comfort. She jolted back, attempting to get her footing on the…the grass beneath her. That wasn’t right. She was standing on the asphalt mere moments ago. At least…it felt like moments. How much time had passed?
Momentarily glancing away from the strange girl crouched in front of her, Dawn soon realized that nothing about her current situation was right.
The gray sky had darkened to pitch. The only source of light to guide her were the massive gleaming floodlights bleeding into this strange space. It looked like…an ’arena’ felt like an apt descriptor at first, but on second glance, Dawn settled on ‘prison’. Massive walls surrounded her on every side, reaching high into the heavens and curving into a ceiling of prison bars. At once, it felt too large and too small, both terrifyingly massive and stiflingly claustrophobic. Dawn had never felt smaller.
She shook her head.
“You alright, Miss~?”
She looked up at the girl in front of her. It wasn’t someone she recognized, but given her strange outfit, and the fact she didn’t seem alarmed by her surroundings, Dawn could immediately tell she was a Stand user. This girl could probably take care of herself.
“I’m fine.” Dawn rose to a stand, dusting off her knees. She couldn’t help but shiver—the thought of being imprisoned made her skin crawl. It wouldn’t be the first time she was locked up. As she stared up at the steel lattice sky, memories of her last prison cell began rattling at the edges of her mind.
She gulped.
“...What’s with that whispering...” She was talking to herself more than anything, but the girl still chose to respond, bright and bubbly as all hell.
“I don’t hear an-y-thing~!” She tapped her finger to her chin a few times. “It’s just quiet in here! Way too quiet, I’d say! No clue what you’re hearing at all.”
Dawn said nothing to that, clearly occupied with her own thoughts.
“My name’s Paranoia!” The girl felt sickly sweet as she stuck out a hand to shake. Her skin looked too nice, Dawn noted. Like porcelain. “Looks like we’re stuck here together! We’ll need to stick together if we wanna make it out, for sure!”
Dawn didn’t accept the handshake. She ran a hand through her hair, attempting to calm herself and think-
“Shit!” She swiveled on her heel, scanning the space behind her. “Maya! You there?!”
“Miss?” Paranoia stepped closer, reaching out. “I gave you my name, y’know~…Least you could do is tell me yours.” She rested a hand on Dawn’s shoulder. There was a hum beneath the skin. Like static.
“Get BACK!” Dawn jerked away, breathing heavy as she glared at Paranoia. “I’m…I’m looking for someone, right now! Fucking—Take this seriously!” she huffed, pivoting on her heel and stomping in the other direction. She heard the grass crunch behind her, the floodlights illuminating Paranoia’s shadow...
She barely had time to duck before something sliced through the air behind her.
“SHIT!”
She rolled back, pushing herself up, now armed with marbles. Paranoia twirled a knife between her fingers, still smiling just as wide as ever.
“We’re in a strange situation, y’know!” She tilted her head a bit too far to the side. “When you meet someone in a place like this, you’re supposed to care about them! That’s ‘love’! It’s almost like you’ve got no love in that little heart of yours!”
She advanced, tossing the knife from hand to hand. “Honestly. No one’s here to care about me at all, here. It’s...” She made a cartoonishly fearful expression. “It’s scary! It’s really, really...”
Her expression started to look more and more genuine.
“Why…am I just stuck in here with you? This isn’t what I wanted at all...”
“Me neither.”
PING!
Dawn cursed as the pinball she’d sent flying towards Paranoia was sliced right out of the air. The girl was good with that knife, Dawn would give her that.
“You...” Paranoia glared, her bright and bubbly speech carrying an undercurrent of sheer rage that sent chills through Dawn’s core. “You’re starting to get on my nerves.” She raised the knife, planted her foot into the ground, and shot forward, readying a slash—
CLANG!
Paranoia’s knife struck solid black, a shield of shadow bursting into place in front of Dawn. She barely had time to leap back before another figure phased through the wall, attempting a clean punch to the jaw that the virus barely managed to avoid.
“You couldn’t have helped any earlier?” Dawn sent a nervous smirk in Maya’s direction, watching the woman step out from within a nearby shadow.
“I was waiting for a good time.” She grinned, shadows coalescing behind her. “It wouldn’t be very shocking if I just came out and said hi, right?”
“Hmph.”
“What’s with that!?” Paranoia yelled, clearly even more frustrated than before. “Now you’re all buddy-buddy with this weirdo? That’s not fair! Not fair at all! It’s not fair!” She stamped her foot against the ground, snatching several more knives from within her dress. The trio stood in silence for a moment, taut with tension, not one of them daring to make a move towards the other.
Behind Paranoia, the grass crunched.
Crunched. This wasn’t grass, Dawn realized. It was plastic. Astroturf. ‘Trees’ grew out of the ground, the world twisting. Velvet ropes fell from the sky, writhing like snakes.
From within a shadow, another figure shambled forward. His eyes were wide, frenzied, delirious. He clutched at his clothing, his breathing labored.
“Ha…Have to…Haha…Hah...”
“Oh, Paranoia, darling.” Markov floated behind him, cracking her knuckles one by one. “This onehas gotten a lit~tle bit…rowdy. do-you-mind if I~I let him kill those two?” She pointed at Dawn and Maya.
“Feel free to join in! I can’t promise you’ll get them before I do, though!”
“Won-derful.” Markov cackled, her high, staccato laughter reverberated through the panopticon, bouncing off the sides of the twisting stage and creating a solo act chorus. “Won~n~nderful! This-is-a perfect oppor-tunity! I have no need for fear! Iwill make a~ll of you see me - Every-single-ONE-of-you!”
Dawn and Maya exchanged glances. Paranoia’s grip on her knife tightened. Ray lowered his stance, his delirious expression burning into bloodlust.
“Oh-ye~s.” Markov stared down at the people surrounding her. This situation was no good, sure. But she could find admiration in a place like this. They’d all look at her.
“Al-right, dears.” She spread her hands to the sky, the ground crunching, not minding even as a building fully formed around them. No…not a building, a stage. “You know what they say at times like this, don’t you?”
”Open the Game!”
Location: A street under Apollo’s influence. The players are put on a stage in a Panopticon where IMPACT is being watched and Gallery is being shunned! The stage is three layers, a fake forest where Dawn begins, a grouping of four prison cells on the second layer where Maya and Markov begin, and a dancefloor on the third where Paranoia begins. All floors are 3m apart, with the floors .5m thick.
The stage is separated into ‘Dark’ and ‘Light’ areas. IMPACT will want to hide in the ‘Dark’ and Gallery to stay in the ‘Light’, to hide/show off to the extent they can. Being outside those areas is mentally taxing and will debilitate the character with extended exposure as they succumb to a panic attack. A few seconds is negligible, after around 10 seconds there will be a notable difficulty focusing on anything besides getting out of the afflicting area, and after around 30 seconds they’ll be in a full blown panic attack that worsens as time goes on. Note that the entire stage is well lit; this is a factor of the mental world.
Here is the map of the arena. It has all the major information on it. Here is the text in a pastebin.
Goal: RETIRE your opponents!
Additional Information: Markov’s thrall for this match is a man named Gujat Ray. He is a 47 year old construction foreman who besides his impressive physicality is unimpressive. He’s unmarried and has been stuck in his position for nearly three decades after an uncle got him the job. He is a serial killer who repeats the murders of culprits he likes in murder mystery novels. He loves mysteries and loves to think of himself as a mastermind of one, with extraordinarily low empathy to any of the people he kills.
He has terrible taste and tends to pick up the worst, most obscure novels to emulate. Due to this, his pattern is actually extremely difficult to find, and due to police connections he’s dodged any responsibility for his crimes so far. He thinks of himself as clever but he’s really skated by from police incompetence and generally targeting poor, homeless, and/or isolated people.
Ray has 3 Strength, 3 Agility, and 4 Endurance, being impressively strong, quick, and having immense stamina. While relatively average in terms of speed, he’s notably surefooted and has lots of experience balancing and climbing objects. Using bursts of combat speed to climb is notably less taxing for him, and he can lift and use any object inside he and Markov’s ‘room’ except for the statues on her balcony.
His special Skill is Serial Killer: 1. Ray is honestly a craven idiot, and in this mental world he’s more susceptible to panic. Markov needs to keep a tight grip on him, meaning the loss of focus from being outside the ‘Light’ is more speedy and significantly more detrimental, with 10 seconds of time in the ‘Dark’ leading to a nigh unstoppable urge to flee from all opponents into the ‘Light’.
Additionally, Ray needs to be actively peer pressured verbally by Paranoia and/or Markov to do offensive actions, giving IMPACT a small amount of forewarning to aggression from Markov, if not what that will actually look like.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
IMPACT	Dawn Hu and Maya Angelica Anhel-Duston	“Although you’re just a baby, I’ll still break your neck if I have to.” Make interesting use of the quirks of the stage and of the traversal of its levels!
Gallery of Wayward Reverie	Markov and Paranoia	“LALIHO! Isn't it romantic to die in a dream?” Make interesting use of the quirks of the stage and of the traversal of its levels!

Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!

Two Faced Contains The Following: 1 new Hunter, 2 new Hunted and 1 new map.
​
The Guardian:
Difficulty: Hard
Height: Tall
Power: Mrs. Fortune
Perks: Spectral Insight, Hitachi's Pursuit and Orphaned.
​
Mrs. Fortune:
This power has two modes:

• Hitachi's Sparkle
  • You Move at 115%
  • Injuring a Hunted causes them to enter bleeding
  • 0.5 meter Lunge
  • 3.5 second break action
  • Holding M2 causes you to charge a lunge.
    • This lunge causes Hunted to bleed, giving the Hunted a 2 second adrenaline hit
    • It can cut through doors and pallets.
  • While this ability is active your armor and sword appear Silver. Your cloak appears green.
• Hitachi's Shine
  • You move at 110%
  • 3.5 meter lunge
  • 2.5 second break action
  • 3.5 second stun
  • Holding M2 causes you to have an increased movement speed of 120%
    • While this ability is active you cannot see pallets or doors. However you can walk through them
    • You cannot see Hunted
    • You cannot swing out of this power
  • While this ability is active your armor and sword appear golden. Your cloak appears purple.

​
Perks:
Spectral Insight:
Your connection with the ethereal realm is undeniable. This perk activates after any Hunted loses a health state for 10/20/40 seconds. All Blood pools have their aura revealed during this time.
​
Hitachi's Pursuit:
Resolute Pursuit marks your tenacity. Gain a stack every time you injure a Hunted, up to a maximum of 5. Each stack makes your basic attacks recover 1/2/4% faster. Lose 1 stack for every 15 seconds you are in chase without injuring a Hunted.
​
Time Favor: Orphaned:
This perk activates for 6/12/24 seconds after killing a Hunted. All objectives become blocked for this duration. After the objectives are unblocked, they move/repair 50% slower until another Hunted is either healed or injured. This perk can only be activated once.
​
Add-ons:
Tarnished Scabbard (Common Mrs. Fortune add-on):
This worn scabbard, housing Hitachi, has seen better days. Its dull appearance doesn't affect the sword's power but makes it slightly easier to conceal.

• Reduces your Heartbeat by 2 meters while in Hitachi's Shine

​
Frayed Grip Wrapping (Common Mrs. Fortune add-on):
The wrapping on Hitachi's hilt is fraying, but the sword remains firm in your grasp.

• Decreases missed hit cooldown by 0.2 seconds while in Hitachi's Sparkle

​
Polished Hilt (Uncommon Mrs. Fortune add-on):
The hilt of Hitachi has been expertly polished, allowing for a firmer grip.

• Decreases missed hit cooldown by 0.5 seconds while in Hitachi's Sparkle
• Increases duration of the bleeding effect by 5 seconds

​
Shattered Reflection (Uncommon Mrs. Fortune add-on):
The blade of Hitachi reflects your image, albeit fragmented and distorted.

• Reduces your heartbeat by 5 meters while in Hitachi's Shine
• Reduces movement speed by 1% while in Hitachi's Sparkle

​
Sanguine Blade (Rare Mrs. Fortune add-on):
The blade of Hitachi drips with a dark, vampiric essence.

• Gain a stack for every injury you get while in Hitachi's Sparkle
  • Each stack increases movement speed by 1% in Hitachi's Shine
  • Maximum of 3 stacks
• Increases miss cooldown while in Hitachi's Sparkle by 0.2 seconds

​
Tempered Armor (Rare Mrs. Fortune add-on):
Your armor has been specially forged to withstand punishment.

• Decreases stun time while in Hitachi's Shine by 0.5 seconds
• You cannot be blinded while in Hitachi's Shine
• Increases miss cooldown while in Hitachi's Sparkle by 0.2 seconds
• Increases miss cooldown while in Hitachi's Shine by 0.5 seconds

​
Lustrous Enigma (Very Rare Mrs. Fortune add-on):
Hitachi's powers manifest in mysterious ways.

• Downing a Hunted while in Hitachi's Shine causes all objectives to be blocked for 12 seconds
• Downing a Hunted in Hitachi's Sparkle causes all objectives to be blocked for 24 seconds

​
Shattered Reflection (Very Rare Mrs. Fortune add-on):
The mirror-like blade of Hitachi reflects fear.

• Reveals the aura of all Deep Wounded Hunted within 20 meters of you while in Hitachi's Shine
  • Does not work while using Shine ability
• Increases lunge while in Hitachi's Shine by 2.5 meters
• Increases missed hit cooldown while in Hitachi's Sparkle by 2 seconds

​
Iridescent Thirst (Iridescent Mrs. Fortune add-on):
Hitachi's thirst for blood knows no bounds.

• After Deep Wounding a Hunted while in Hitachi's Sparkle all other Hunted become exposed for 20 seconds
• You cannot use Hitachi's Shine with this add-on equipped

​
Golden Reflection (Golden Mrs. Fortune add-on):
Hitachi's power takes on an unpredictable nature, reflecting the chaos within.

• Increases movement speed by 15% while in Hitachi's Shine
• You are immune to stuns while in Hitachi's Shine
• All injuries count as a severe wound
  • It takes 6 severe wounds to down a Hunted

​
Lore:
In the early 1500s, in the heart of England, a child named William had the misfortune of being orphaned at the tender age of 10. Alone and vulnerable, he learned to navigate the streets and alleyways, always on the lookout for danger. He grew up in the shadows, perfecting the art of hiding and avoiding conflict.
William's life took a dramatic turn when, at the age of 17, he stumbled upon a mystical artifact known as Hitachi, a spectral sword of Japanese origin. This sword, despite its foreign origins, had found its way to England following the tragic demise of its previous owner.
Upon grasping the hilt of Hitachi, a strange surge of energy coursed through William's veins, filling him with newfound courage. The sword seemed to have a will of its own, guiding him towards a path he had never imagined. It was as if the blade had chosen him as its new bearer.
With Hitachi in hand, William embarked on an incredible journey. The sword led him across continents, eventually taking him to the distant shores of Japan. Here, he uncovered a mysterious suit of armor, its mask resembling a fearsome skull. The armor was unlike anything he had ever seen, and when he donned it, he felt a powerful connection to the spirits of the past.
Returning to England, William, now known as "The Guardian," dedicated his life to protecting the orphans and vulnerable children of the streets. He became a symbol of hope and safety in a world filled with darkness. Clad in his unique armor and wielding the spectral sword, he stood as a guardian, a protector of those who had no one else to turn to.
However, destiny had other plans for The Guardian. At the age of 26, a strange and ominous fog descended upon his group of orphans. When the fog lifted, The Guardian had vanished without a trace. His disappearance left behind a legacy of bravery and selflessness, inspiring generations to come. But the mystery of what truly happened to him that day in the fog remains unsolved, shrouded in the same enigmatic darkness that once filled his life.
​
Oki Yuri:
Difficulty: Hard
Item: Yuri's Necklace
Perks: Adaptive Momentum, Echoes of the Departed and Unity
​
Yuri's Necklace:
This Item has 3 different Modes. Hold M2 while crouching to change each mode. This takes 5 seconds. At the start of a trial you start as a random persona.

• Ouka
  • While Ouka is active gain a 25% increase to healing other Hunted.
  • While Ouka is active you can heal yourself at a 15% rate.
  • While Ouka is active you do objectives 15% slower
• Keiko
  • While Keiko is active gain a 3% boost to movement
  • While Keiko is active gain a 3% faster vault speed
  • While Keiko is active you heal others 25% slower
• Inori
  • While Inori is active you do objectives 15% faster
  • While Inori is active you move 3% slower
  • While Inori is active you vault 3% slower

​
Perks:
Time Favor: Adaptive Momentum:
Oki's mind is a complex tapestry, ever-shifting and adapting to the world around her. This perk activates once any Hunted is killed. Upon touching an objective it is completed 5/10/20% faster until you let go of this objective. This can only be used once
​
Echoes of the Departed:
The spirits of the fallen whisper to Oki, sharing their wisdom and power. This perk activates after 3/2/1 Hunted is killed. Hold M3 while standing still to gain a random dead Hunted's item. This will restore that Hunted's charges to their item. Upon using all of the charges for this item your item will return to you with all of its charges restored.
​
Chase Favor: Unity:
In times of adversity, Oki's three distinct personas find a common ground. This perk activates for 20 seconds after being injured. All vault locations become blocked for the Hunter while this is active. Upon this perk deactivating all vault locations are revealed to the Hunted for the next 50/25/12 seconds. This perk can only be used once.
​
Add-ons:
​
Token of Ouka (Common Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
A small token representing Ouka's nurturing personality.

• Start the Trial as Ouka

​
Token of Keiko (Common Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
A colorful trinket symbolizing Keiko's lively and energetic persona.

• Start the Trial as Keiko

​
Token of Inori (Common Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
A sleek, high-tech emblem reflecting Inori's tech-savvy character.

• Start the Trial as Inori

​
Torn Journal Page (Uncommon Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
A crumpled page from Oki's journal, revealing a glimpse into her struggles with her shifting personas. It's a constant reminder of her inner battle.

• Decreases time to change personas by 1 second
• Become Hindered for 3 seconds after swapping

​
Chaotic Emotions Earring (Uncommon Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
A unique earring that resonates with Oki's ever-changing emotions.

• Increases healing speed by 10% as Ouka
• Increases vaulting speed by 10% as Keiko
• Increases objective speeds by 10% as Inori
• Decreases skillcheck zones by 50%

​
Harmonious Amulet (Rare Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
An enchanted amulet that temporarily harmonizes Oki's personas, allowing for improved cooperative actions.

• Increases objective speeds by 10% as Ouka
• Increases healing speeds by 20% as Keiko
• Increases movement speed by 2% as Inori
• Decreases swap speed by 0.5 seconds

​
Mood Ring (Rare Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
A mysterious mood ring that intensifies Oki's emotions, making her more resilient but also more unpredictable.

• Decreases negative status effect duration by 15%
• Randomly swaps persona every 120 seconds

​
Sakura Medallion (Very Rare Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
A beautifully crafted medallion adorned with a delicate cherry blossom motif, representing Oki's connection to her cultural roots

• Increases objective speeds by 30% while as Inori
• Equipping this Add-on makes your ability to read any aura impossible

​
Senpai's Handkerchief (Very Rare Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
This delicate handkerchief carries the faint scent of cherry blossoms, a token of Oki's admiration for her crush, her "senpai."

• Increases healing speed by 10% as Keiko and Inori
• Increases healing speed by 15% as Ouka
• Decreases objective speed by 10% as Ouka and Keiko
• Decreases objective speed by 15% as Inori

​
Iridescent Lunchbox (Iridescent Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
A meticulously crafted bento lunchbox that Oki carries with her, providing sustenance during challenging trials.

• Gain an extra health state
• Healing is 40% slower as Ouka
• Healing is 25% slower as Keiko and Inori
• Movement is 6% slower as Keiko
• Movement is 3% slower as Ouka and Inori
• Objectives are 30% slower as Inori
• Objectives are 15% slower as Ouka and Keiko

​
Whispered Secrets (Golden Yuri's Necklace Add-on):
This golden pendant holds the hushed secrets of the school.

• You can now instantly change a persona
• Each persona has a select charge system before you can no longer use them
  • These charges drain either by healing for Ouka, running as Keiko or by doing objectives as Inori
  • There are 32 charges, ultimately meaning you have 64 seconds as each persona

​
Lore:
Oki Yuri's life was a puzzle, hidden behind a façade of normalcy. To the casual observer, she appeared to be an ordinary Japanese student, navigating the challenges of school and life. However, beneath that veneer of normality, a complex and enigmatic truth lay dormant.
Oki Yui was afflicted with a rare and perplexing personality disorder that manifested in the presence of not one, but three distinct personas within her. Each personality possessed its own unique characteristics and interests, almost like three different people sharing the same body.
Ouka, the first of these personas, was a natural-born leader. She thrived on responsibility, often taking charge of situations and readily following orders. Ouka's dream job was to become a doctor, and she excelled in health-related subjects. She was known for her strong sense of duty and a willingness to guide others.
Keiko, on the other hand, was the embodiment of boundless energy and enthusiasm. She reveled in gym class, embracing physical activities with unmatched zeal. Her hyperactive nature made her a whirlwind of activity, infusing vitality into every moment she inhabited.
Inori, the third persona, was the tech-savvy recluse. She preferred solitude and solitude preferred her. Inori's heart belonged to the world of technology and gadgets, where she found solace and connection. She could often be found immersed in coding or tinkering with electronic devices.
While Oki's classmates might not have always noticed the subtle shifts in her demeanor, they couldn't help but wonder about the occasional dramatic changes in her behavior. One day, she would be the responsible leader, guiding her peers through challenges, and the next, an unstoppable force of hyperactivity. It seemed like she attended school with a different personality each day, leaving her peers both baffled and intrigued.
However, the most profound change in Oki's life occurred on a fateful day when a mysterious fog descended upon the school. It was an unnatural occurrence that defied explanation. When the mist cleared, the school was left in eerie silence, and Oki Yui was nowhere to be found.
Her disappearance marked the beginning of a dark and enigmatic journey, as those who knew her were left to ponder the mysteries that lay hidden within her complex psyche and the inexplicable forces that had swept her away.
​
Yoshie Yamada:
Difficulty: Easy
Item: Notebook
Perks: Master of Obstruction, Through Adversity and Serenity
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Notebook:
This item activates after finishing a heal action. Reveals the aura of every survivor you have healed. They gain a 30% boost to healing. Lose the aura of any survivor who gets injured afterwards.
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Perks:
Master of Obstruction:
Yoshie was not just a teacher; he was a master of controlling his surroundings. This perk activates when within 2 meters of a blocked object. Hold the M3 button for 12/6/3 seconds to unblock this object. This perk has a cooldown of 10 seconds.
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Through Adversity:
Yoshie's experiences as a skilled hitman had taught him the value of resilience in the face of adversity. This perk gains a stack for every time the Hunter injures any Hunted. Your healing speeds are increased by 1/2/4% per stack. This perk deactivates once the final generator is completed.
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Serenity:
Yoshie was known for his serenity under pressure, a trait that proved invaluable when the hunt was at its most intense. This perk activates after the final generator is completed. While being chased the endgame collapse is slowed by 5/10/20%.
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Add-ons:
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Fading Ink (Common Notebook add-on):
This small vial of ink, its contents shimmering with a faint but mystical glow, served as a curious keepsake for Yoshie Yamada.

• Marked Hunted do objectives 3% faster

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Hushed Whispers (Common Notebook add-on):
This well-worn earpiece, discovered during one of Yoshi's covert missions, became a humble yet effective tool in his repertoire.

• Marked Hunted do objectives 10% quieter

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Silent Guidance (Uncommon Notebook add-on):
This modified silencer attachment was once part of Yoshi's covert arsenal.

• Marked Hunted have 15% larger skillcheck zones
• Marked Hunted experience 10% more skillchecks

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Steadfast Resolve (Uncommon Notebook add-on):
This weighted training wristband once served as a reminder of Yoshi's dedication to honing his marksmanship skills. Over time, he adapted it for a different purpose.

• Marked Hunted move 1% faster
• You move 1% slower

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Dedicated Accounts (Rare Notebook add-on):
This collection of meticulously organized financial records showcases Yoshie's meticulous attention to detail. It served as a secondary means of income during his life as a hitman and contains valuable information about his clients.

• Marked Hunted have an increase of experience by 15%

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Torn Diary Page (Rare Notebook Add-on):
This tattered page, ripped from Yoshie's personal diary, contains passages of his life and struggles.

• Marked Hunted have 30% larger skillcheck zones
• Marked Hunted experience 20% more skillchecks

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Bloodstained Hitlist (Very Rare Notebook Add-on):
This hitlist shows multiple targets in a rather violent mission.

• Marked Hunted see the aura of the Hunter whenever they finish a healing action or complete an objective for 5 seconds

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Tainted Contract (Very Rare Notebook Add-on):
This ominous contract is inscribed with a dark covenant Yoshie made in his past.

• Marked Hunted gain an extra 12% increase to healing speeds

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Iridescent Link (Iridescent Notebook Add-on):

• Gain an extra 30 seconds after a marked Hunted is injured

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Golden Reckoning (Golden Notebook Add-on):

• Hunted who are injured while they are Marked gain the ability to heal themselves at a rate of 50%

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Lore:
Yoshie Yamada was an unassuming figure in the quiet town of Matsumoto, Japan. By day, he was the beloved math teacher at the local school, known for his kindness, patience, and unwavering dedication to his students. The children adored him, and the parents respected him. Yet, behind this façade of the model educator, Yoshie carried a hidden burden that few would ever fathom.
As dusk fell, Yoshie transformed from the benevolent teacher into a skilled and meticulous hitman. It was a secret life that he had never wished for but one he had accepted due to the twisted circumstances of fate. His skills were honed to perfection, and he executed his assignments with clinical precision. In the morally gray world he navigated, he had come to terms with the necessity of his actions.
One fateful day, Yoshie received an unusual request, one that tugged at his conscience. He was tasked with eliminating a young girl named Oki, a student at the very school where he taught. The reason, as explained by the client, was trivial and petty, a story of love and jealousy that seemed beneath the need for a professional hitman. Oki was deemed "weird" and accused of stealing someone's boyfriend. Yoshie found himself wrestling with this distasteful assignment, questioning the morality of such an act.
On the day of the planned hit, Yoshie positioned himself carefully, ready to fulfill his contract despite his internal conflict. He had arranged for a substitute teacher to cover his class, ensuring that he would have the opportunity to carry out the task. But as he peered through the scope of his rifle, a sudden and inexplicable phenomenon occurred.
A mysterious fog enveloped the school, shrouding everything in an eerie, otherworldly haze. Yoshie's heart raced as he watched the swirling mist, unable to comprehend what was happening. When the fog finally dissipated, he realized that Oki, the target of his assignment, had vanished without a trace.
Confusion and disbelief overcame him as he lowered his weapon, unable to comprehend the surreal turn of events. The world around him had shifted in an inexplicable way, leaving him with more questions than answers.
That night, Yoshie received a substantial and untraceable sum of money, as was customary for his line of work. However, this time, the payment came without any communication or instructions, leaving him to grapple with uncertainty. He was faced with a decision that would shape the rest of his life.
In the end, Yoshie Yamada disappeared from Matsumoto, and the town was left to speculate about the connection between his vanishing act and Oki's inexplicable disappearance. It was a mystery that remained unsolved, buried beneath layers of fog and secrets.
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Extras:
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Nostalgia High:
Category: Shrouded Memories
Map Type: Inside
Gamemode: Generators
Shrouded Memories is a map that captures the eerie ambiance of an abandoned Japanese school. It's designed to evoke feelings of nostalgia and dread as players navigate the hallways, classrooms, and courtyard of a place where memories were made, and lost. The school is trapped in a never-ending twilight, with a faint, unnatural fog shrouding its surroundings.
Main Courtyard: The heart of the school, featuring a decaying cherry blossom tree in the center. This is where Hunted will often spawn, and where the generator progression begins. Tall, moss-covered walls and overgrown vegetation obscure sightlines.
Classrooms: They are littered with forgotten school supplies, including desks, chairs, and old textbooks. Broken windows provide some escape routes but are risky due to their noise.
Library: A dimly lit library is home to another generator. Shelves filled with dusty books offer survivors places to hide, but also block their view.
Gymnasium: The gym holds a generator and has a large, open layout. There's a small stage at one end and a few bleachers. Beams of sunlight pierce through cracks in the ceiling, creating dramatic shadows.
Cafeteria: The cafeteria houses a generator and is filled with overturned tables and chairs.
Hallways: Dark and narrow hallways connect all the areas. Some have lockers and storage closets, providing opportunities for stealth or ambushes.
Gameplay: Every time a generator is completed a bell activates instead of the normal generator completion sound.
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Offerings:
Foggy Memories: An old photograph, worn with age, depicting a group of students standing in front of the Shrouded Memories school. Increases chance to go to Shrouded Memories by 25%
Forgotten Enigma: A torn yearbook page from Shrouded Memories school, with faded faces of students smiling at their graduation. Increases chance to go to Shrouded Memories by 50%
Haunted Reunion: A tarnished school emblem, once worn with pride, is now a symbol of dread. Increases chance to go to Shrouded Memories by 75%
Reliving the Past: Increases chance to go to Shrouded Memories by 100%. Forces the Hunter to play as The Guardian.
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Cosmetics:
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[Available for 150 EXP] {Ouka's Embrace} Eternal Student (Oki Yuri Set):
Silver Tresses of Wisdom (Oki Long Hair): Descendant of Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, Ouka's hair shimmers like the moonlight itself. Her long, silver locks flow with an air of serenity, a testament to her scholarly prowess.
Academic Grace (Oki Jacket): Ouka's school uniform, an emblem of academic excellence, drapes her form. The short-sleeved jacket, neatly tailored, complements the pleated skirt, embodying the spirit of a diligent student even in the most trying of times.
Lunar Guardian (Oki Necklace): An exquisite necklace, bearing the serene visage of Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, graces Oki's neck. This amulet radiates an aura of beauty and order, a reflection of Ouka's unwavering dedication to her scholarly pursuits.
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[Available for 150 EXP] {Keiko's Adventure} Burst of Sunshine (Oki Yuri Set):
Golden Locks of Enthusiasm (Oki Short Hair): Keiko's vibrant, short yellow hair captures the spirit of a sunny day. With each step, it radiates boundless energy, mirroring the unbridled enthusiasm that marks her every movement.
Overalls of Exploration (Oki Overalls): Overalls, worn with a certain childlike charm, envelop Keiko's form, atop a cheerful yellow sweatshirt. These clothes tell a tale of family outings and boundless curiosity.
Radiant Dawn (Oki Necklace): An enchanting pendant, adorned with the visage of Ame-no-Uzume, symbolizes the dawn of new possibilities. Keiko's necklace resonates with the energy and vibrancy of a bright morning, mirroring her uncontainable spirit.
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[Available for 200 EXP] {Inori's Recess} Quiet Contemplation (Oki Yuri Set):
Subdued Serenity Locks (Oki Short Hair): Inori's subtle, short brown hair echoes a sense of tranquility. It tells a tale of a quiet observer amidst the bustling activity, ever-present in the background.
Muted Reflection (Oki Sweatshirt): Inori's attire consists of a brown sweatshirt paired with somber dark blue jeans. This outfit, once part of an audience at a town play, speaks of solitude and introspection.
Lonely Watcher (Oki Necklace): A pendant graced with the visage of Ame-no-Minakanushi embodies the essence of solitude. Inori's necklace bears witness to moments of introspection and observation, reflecting the solitude she carries.
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[Available for 500 EXP] {Excerpt} Spoiler (Alina Carter Legendary Set):
Futuristic Purple Cloak (Alina Cloak): This striking purple cloak worn by Chrono Strider seems to ripple with the energy of the future. It hints at her speedster abilities, a silent whisper of the times she races through.
Advanced Temporal Armor (Alina Armor): The armor adorning Chrono Strider is a marvel of futuristic technology. Its sleek purple design is not only protective but also represents the power of the time she hails from.
Mechanical Voice Modulator (Alina Mask): Spoiler's metallic mask not only hides her identity but also gives her voice a robotic quality. It's a stark reminder of the high-tech era she originates from, where man and machine have merged in curious harmony.

Part 1
While biding my time, waiting to hear any reasonable song of what to do next, or resonate one of my own, I noticed a newer parent and a young child, budded maybe just 2 orbits prior, near the great cold well.
Raising a young one anywhere near a well was far from ideal, but, transfer, orbits, food, thrust, wells, & curve being what it is, not everyone met an agreeable mate to exchange the segments of weave that determine our forms at the perfect time, on a reasonable orbit, matching transfers for rendezvous that didn’t require too much thrust, and would otherwise see you starve if you were foolish enough to try.
And as such, a parent didn’t always get to pick the perfect place to bud. And then where you did bud, determined long cycles where your child could reach to graze, especially just on the food and thrust you gave them.
The alien newcomers, their offspring didn’t seem to have such limitations, or if they did, they’re very different from ours.
I noticed the parent was more than a little attractive, their vanes were noticeably longer and graceful than average, and looked like they had very high efficiency in the light and wind. But I didn’t stare. Well… not for very long anyway. They were busy caring for their child near the dangers of a well. And the recent events around the great cold well with the alien creature sending its child to make its close approach to me at enormous velocity, certainly did not help matters any.
But I could hear the parent’s songs in the distance, simple thrust songs, following a transfer, guiding the young child around the great cold well with a minimal curve.
Curving around a well at any distance was difficult for a child that young, any imprecision with thrust could be magnified greatly in outcome, creating a transfer that was far off of your intended one.
The parent's songs to their child got simpler, more frequent, and louder. Then frantic. And I saw why.
The child was near one of the smaller wells that orbit the great cold well. There was nothing I could do. Adding my own songs would just confuse the child, and they were far out of reach, I could expend all my stored thrust, starving myself, and it would make no difference, there was no way to reach the child. And it’s parent couldn’t either.
The small well was one of the most dangerous kind. Almost bordering the line between “well” and “food.” The well didn’t seem incredibly deep or dangerous, or at least wouldn’t to a young child, but anyone older knew it was one that even the strongest adult could never lift themselves off of, assuming they’d somehow managed to touch it without dying in the process.
Any well big enough to crush itself into a sphere, was big enough to destroy you.
And the littlest spheres, if you weren’t crushed, it was a horrible drawn out death. Starvation of all three kinds, light, wind, and food, trapped immobilized on the well. If you did touch the well gently somehow, and it was not steep enough to pull you apart on the way down as you drew closer, or crush you as you touched it. The little well was just as cold as food, and it was indeed actually made of food.
But the small wells only offered torment, as the food was far too hard to graze on. And the little well would rotate with agonizing slowness hiding you in shadow from the light and wind half the time. You might even partially die a dozen times as the well rotated you back into the light and wind, awakening you over and over, until you succumbed to final food starvation.
It was no way to die, for anyone, especially a child. My resonances were absolutely discordant. I had no ability to sing or resonate anything close to what the parent must feel. And the child was panicking, not listening to its parent’s simple yet frantic songs to orient itself and thrust with all its might, for a desperate curve around the little well that might allow for a slim chance the child could be rescued before it starved.
The child passed the point that even the most desperate curve might save it. Attempting to conceal its agony, the parent switched to songs encouraging the child to accelerate itself into the well, at least ensuring a quick end.
Still panicking, the young child did neither. It thrusted as hard as it could, in the worst possible way, that would see it slow just enough touch the well, and survive.
Creating the rare, but most unhappy and tragic duty for my kind, orbiting dangerously close to a well, and singing whatever distraction and comfort one could to the dying, until the end. And in this case, also trying to prevent the parent, gone mad with grief, from desperately thrusting themselves into the little well, or the great cold well, to join their child in death. Anyone who was nearby and capable of the thrust to enter and leave such an orbit, would arrive, sing, then only depart as the thrust and hunger demanded.
The light was unmistakable, hydrogen being crushed into helium. Bright enough to direct my eyes away from the little well that would be the young child’s end.
The desperate songs of the parent, and so many of our kind converging on the little well attracted the attention of the alien still closest to the big cold well. In response, it had budded twelve children like the one that had passed me so swiftly to investigate. Six of them, the light of their amazing thrust was weaker, hidden by their bodies, heading to the great cold well. The other six were brighter, heading outwards into the great dark.
In perfect formation, the six newbuds approaching thrusted even harder than the single alien infant had to reach me, following an impossibly straight line to the little well. Not curving, their transfer completely unbent by the great cold well, as if it didn’t exist for them at all.
At the midpoint, they the light went out, they must have flipped in unison, thrusting again, the direct line of sight to the bright light of six little suns crushing hydrogen now too painful to look at. But it was clear they’d be at a standstill right above the little well.
I wasn’t even a 12th of the way to the little well, and I could taste nothing but helium, the child’s parent so much closer… I could not imagine what that much helium tasted like. Probably something like what it might be like that far down the well of our sun that curves everything. Where the heat, wind and light was so deadly.
When the six alien newbuds reached a standstill near the little well, the crushed hydrogen light of their thrust went out. And still in formation, a perfect hexagon, they let themselves fall right into the little well. I could hear little, but caught faint hints of what might be the screeching of their measurement songs echoing faintly off the well.
I was beyond any song I could resonate to guess what would happen next.
They began thrusting again, but with ice. They produced thrust of ice so hot, it was a gas. And the six tiny alien infants gently touched the little well, defining the points of the hexagon around the doomed child.
More curiosity? The chance to study one of our kind up close, even as they died?
I wanted so badly to thrust harder, to be closer, so I could see and hear better. But it was foolishness, I would starve. I kept on my transfer. Anything more would see me hit the little well, or curve myself dangerously by it with no way to stop, and eventually no way to find anything to eat.
The child's parent, gingerly thrusting into an orbit around the little well, as close as it dared, not knowing what else to do, bravely sang songs of comfort to their child, but even at this distance, the battle to hide their grief and terror was apparent. It was agonizing to hear. But I knew it was far more agonizing for them.
I could occasionally hear the halting songs of the child, half formed melodies of terror and discomfort at being held fast to the well’s food that was too hard to eat. And they slowed. Then stopped, the parent sang louder with worry.
I could hear the child singing occasionally, and it sounded… delusional? Still half formed, incomplete thoughts, but this time the tones were… baffled wonderment. Something so strange, the child forgot its plight?
“A snippet of half-formed greeting_”. But a greeting to _who? The alien and it’s newbuds spoke in the Madness of Two. They could not understand the child.
The child sang some more, babbling nonsense: “_Tiny. You are tiny. Tiny. Tiny. Tiny. Tiny._”
Then the child sang again. A question. “_Thrust? The well? Up?_”
The child’s parent was beside themselves, singing whatever it could resonate to try and get their child to respond. Almost more like incoherent screaming, than song. The child was doomed, but at least they could try and comfort them. And the child was probably injured, unable to hear the songs or unable to respond at all.
Then, mid song, with no attempt to mask their panic at getting their child’s attention, they stopped. Cut off, abrupt, mid-stanza. Like someone who died colliding with a large chunk of food, or rammed a well they couldn’t see.
I looked, I was a bit closer to the little well, the parent was there, and they looked intact, my transfer had shifted my view, the child and the six alien newbuds were behind the edge of the well, where I could not see, and any song the child could have made would also have been incredibly faint.
But what I saw next, I would have stopped mid-song as if I’d died too. Slowly, over the edge of the little well, I saw the six alien newbuds, thrusting again with ice so hot it was gas, but at a slightly odd angle, all tilted a bit inward towards the hexagon their formation made, instead of completely straight down against the slope of the well.
And they were thrusting far more gently than I knew they could otherwise.
And the in the center of the six alien infants was the child, just a bit closer to the well, but moving with them in perfect formation. And the alien infants were now producing thrust even more impossibly than before, hard enough to climb out of the well, but with incomprehensible stamina, to be able to do so with such agonizing slowness so as to not accelerate too much and injure the child.
What inconceivable force bound the child to the alien infants was utterly beyond me. They may as well have been making the Well Without Mass that the Ancient Trickster could, before Parent of First Food banished them, that the Elder Dreamers all sang of in unison at every Great Syzygy.
At the time, I knew what carbon was, of course, it was in our food in myriad forms, and we saw its light from the traces in our sun, and yet more in the far suns, and the nebulae. The concepts of “Cable” or “Graphene”… at the time, it would have been easier for me to sing the return of the Ancient Trickster, and that they now made mass without wells instead.
And the slow thrust, for so long! It was as if the tiny newbuds were larger on the inside than out, and held a quantity of food a thousand times larger than an adult like I could. And they even had different kinds of thrust! Crushing hydrogen like a sun, the ice so hot it was a gas… did they posess a third, even a fourth kind?
It was such an unnatural sight, unlike how things worked, how anything I knew was supposed to work, the aliens and their supernatural offspring could have conjured a second sun for our home, like how so many of the unreachable distant suns we could see had companions, and I’d have accepted it.
Fortunately, the alien newbuds, if these even were “newbuds,” I’d watched them fall, then thrust to touch the well with the hot ice gas, as if touching wells was something common for them. Yet nothing was common for them, they were newbuds. Their alien parent had birthed them a fraction of an orbit ago.
But budding twelve children at once was not normal. Nothing these aliens did was normal. It only stood to reason that the newbuds would be completely and utterly... not normal. And beyond my ability, anyone’s really, to form a cogent song about anything they did.
Fortunately, I wouldn’t be alone, while not as close as I was, much less the poor parent having the worst fraction of an orbit ever since they themselves were a newbud, there were hundreds of others about the great cold well watching, that would be just as unable to sing coherently about what they’d seen either. We could attempt to sing something, trying awkwardly to explain with new tones, different harmonics in the song that just represented all the different impossible things the aliens and their offspring could do, and maybe understanding would come, and maybe not…
I heard some songs in the distance, describing six points of crushed hydrogen light, thrusting towards the great cold well, and on a transfer that would be a reckless curve far too close to it for any of our kind.
And despite considering how to resonate my own songs that made no sense to try and describe the indescribable, this song barely made sense either. Because along with what obviously described the other six alien newbuds that had thrusted off into the great darkness…
Disjointed and with nothing that sang how or why, there was an enormous mass of food that thrusted without thrusting moving with them.
But watching the six alien newbuds bringing the (not)doomed child gently up the little well, I could comprehend what they sang, somewhat.
So many of our songs after these aliens arrived would be incredibly discordant and broken when compared to the ones before.
I supposed that if they stayed, the before songs will eventually be the ones that seem discordant and broken. And then I remembered…
I carried the Madness of Two blocked off in the lattice in the farthest tip of one of my vanes. I would have to do something reckless, incredibly foolish, and dangerous, likely going mad and dying in the process. But I had to try, before something truly terrible happened.
The aliens, or my kind, one of us would have to be the first to understand, so they knew what to do. And I could not resonate, not sing any conceivable song to myself that could find a way to explain it to mine that would not cause abject fear. It would have to be these new aliens.
If I went mad, and died trying, if they understood at least why I died, and were careful, it would be enough. It would have to be.
The six alien newbuds gently thrusting the doomed… no... I started over, resonating a new song to myself… The six alien newbuds gently thrusting the rescued child were almost out of the little well, and the transfer could only be to one place. Where the little well and the great cold well balanced each other. The other six thrusting the enormous mass of food they’d gathered out in the great dark, now visible as the great cold well curved them, could only be going to the same place.
I sang loudly to the child’s parent, getting their attention, explaining where the alien newbuds were thrusting with their child. And there’d be far more food meeting them there than they could eat, and more than enough to thrust away from the great cold well for much safer orbits.
They sang assent, and their thanks. It was somewhat weak with shock, and their mouth might even have been damaged, singing so loud to try and reach their child throughout the ordeal, which was completely understandable considering the circumstances.
I watched, still transferring to the little well, as the alien newbuds, the child, and it’s parent converged on the balancing point between the wells. And saw the six other alien infants thrusting the enormous mass of food as they flipped over, thrusting first with crushed hydrogen, then switching over to hot ice gas as they drew near.
I could have resonated to myself that nothing more amazing than this was possible, but was glad I didn’t. The alien infants had more impossible things in store. As I drew near to the little well to let it curve me towards the alien parent, I watched with shocked discordant tones in my lattice as the food mass slowly and gently expanded. I realized the alien newbuds had somehow shattered it. Increasing its grazing area by a thousand times.
I just hoped the alien newbuds didn’t sing. To each other, or to their parent. Or if they did, it was quiet and tightly focused like a measuring song. I thrusted as much as I dared when the little well curved me, leaving myself just enough reserve that I wouldn’t starve before I was done with what would come next.
The transfer to the close approach of the parent would take time, time that I would use to prepare myself. I carefully made the complex resonances to unblock the Madness of Two that I held in the lattice at the tip of my vane, and recreated the block as far down to its base, and the rest of my body as I dared. If it was going to work anything like I hoped it would, it might need the extra lattice to do so. The one important difference was the block had one link in the lattice through the rest of my body to my mouth.
Unfortunately, we hear with our entire body, to catch songs sung at as great a distance as possible. There was nothing I could do about that. I hoped that whatever I heard from the alien parent wouldn’t drive me mad before we understood each others songs, at least a little.
All I could do now was wait.
Leaving the great cold well behind, I drew near the alien parent, I could see it was not that much larger in area or volume than I was, but it’s body must be incredibly hot and dense inside, made up of metals and vast quantities of not-food, just as it’s children were.
The discordant measuring song hit me, and I did what I could to sing it’s echo back as cleanly as possible. While thrusting as much as I dared to decelerate, leaving myself the absolute plausible minimum reserve to find food, should I somehow survive this.
I could feel the incredible magnetic field as I drew closer. Strong, tight, and powerful like it’s children, but with much greater reach. It wasn’t nearly as large as the magnetic field of the great cold well, but for the body of a single being, it certainly seemed that way.
Just like a far larger version of its offspring, it had vanes, shedding enormous amounts of the dull light of heat, and I could feel it on my body even at this distance. I could get no closer, or I might melt, and my lattice might start to fail.
I sang a basic greeting.
It sang the same greeting back, but in a perfect copy of my voice, not its own. It did not know how to sing as we do, that was clear, but it was trying, that alone was encouraging.
I sang the simplest songs of orientation rotating myself as I did. It copied me. Not rotating as far, perhaps due to its enormous density, like the matter one might find far inside of a well, if one could touch such a thing without dying.
I sang of thrust, and thrusted. It briefly crushed hydrogen to mimic me as it sang thrust back, that it understood, but not enough to move its bulk appreciably.
I could not sing of food, as I had none, and could not thrust any along with me like it’s children could. And I was obviously not going to disgorge what little I was holding in reserve.
An Impasse.
I sang of a well, our sun, describing its slope. Hoping it would find the relationship between it and my pitch obvious. It did not respond as I could not do anything with my body to represent a well to convey what the song meant.
Another Impasse.
Everything abstract was going to be like this. I was wasting time. And carrying on in this way might mean I starved before we truly communicated anything meaningful at all.
Using the connection from my mouth, to the vane where the lattice holding the Madness of Two was kept, I played some of what it’s child had sung to it on that first close pass it made of me, and I tried to prepare myself for what it would sing in reply.
Nothing could have prepared me for the exponential branching of conceptual knowledge that was about to unfold. I simply did not understand then just how much I didn’t know.
It replied simply at first, counting out naught and one, then naught and ones in groups of eight, creating 256 unique numbers. I put everything I heard into my vane I had set aside as fast as my body allowed. The revelations started soon after and began coming at an ever faster pace.
The first was symbols. My kind used them… barely, and when we did, it was in a very distant and abstract manner. We sung, and thought primarily in analog representation.
Symbols were small and choppy. Primitive. Concise. Very concise. Concise and varied like the countless distant suns. And you could assemble them in nearly infinite ways to convey almost anything.
Anything? More like everything.
Such as a language. And use different languages for different things to best convey, manipulate or even shape concepts.
I already felt as if I was falling down a well with no mass at its bottom, accelerating endlessly. I briefly understood why the Madness of Two was so impossible to pull oneself out of. To have any of this expanding before you, then discard it… impossible.
Soon, I realized I was singing to myself, conversing… there was two of me within my own body_. It was as fascinating as it was frightening. And the revelations and concepts we discussed rolled across me like the eddies in the wind when our sun was most active.
The alien parent, the creature was not alive, It was not a being. It was a thing, a made thing a tool made by yet more tools, a… spacecraft created by the thousands of tiny individual lives within it. Each one with a mind and thoughts like mine. Beings that evolved on a hot well, close to their sun. Minuscule bodies of incredibly complicated molecules of carbon, that moved at amazing speed within molten ice.
I felt despair. I now knew how that parent felt with their child stranded on the little well, but felt it for my entire kind. We were so far removed from what they were, the path to do even a fraction of what they did was impossibly out of reach.
The closest we had ever come to what they’ve achieved over countless orbits was when children would graze, and they sometimes left amusing patterns in the inedible metals and stone. And their parent would sing a song of caution, because if they didn’t thrust soon, they would not have a reasonable transfer.
But the other me, in my vane holding the Madness of Two no… binary and digital logic told me otherwise. It was that “me” who was communicating with the thousands of tiny hot beings on the spacecraft with their complex tools called machines and computers.
And they were in absolute awe of us.
We are enormous.
We are ancient.
We perceive time very differently. Thinking fast, but unbelievably patient too.
They find us unbelievably beautiful.
We travel freely in space, their greatest dream, that they fought to achieve painstakingly for more than 3x10⁶ of their small hot orbits.
A dream they agonizingly made real bit by bit, with tools that made ever better tools, over and over, on the hot well orbiting their sun.
Until one orbit, they began to get off of it. Their tiny bodies riding on explosive cylinders of metal, using violent chemistry for thrust. They had to drop the cylinders when empty, exactly like how I’d pictured our entire race stacked up, in ever smaller layers that fell away when they’d spent all their thrust, just to push one of us, when I thought we might need to flee.
Maybe not with their bodies, because theirs could do no such thing, but they had to do just that with their tools to even leave their well…
And then, at last, they saw their well… no… their planet for the very first time, all at once as a whole. Hundreds of thousands of orbits after they fiddled with rocks for the first time.
They are every bit as fragile as we are. Just in very different ways. If they are not kept hot, under enough pressure, like the conditions on their wel… their planet, to keep the ice molten, they’ll die almost instantly. Just as we do when hitting a well, or more slowly if we make a mistake spending too much thrust and don’t find food.
The tools, the spacecraft, every last bit of their technology and how it works together has to function perfectly all the time, or they’ll die, almost instantly anywhere, save for their home planet, or perhaps another sufficiently like it.
Every last bit of space that we live in freely, is instant death to them. Yet they came anyway.
Their minds don’t even operate numerically, like digital logic. Despite the radically different form, theirs operate much the same as ours, with the branching networks of potentials. It was their tools, their machines that operate and sing or communicate this way. And the “Madness”, it never afflicted them, because when a tool or a machine didn’t work, they could just try again.
When we sing, we understand physics, calculus, orbital mechanics, conic sections, parabolas, hyperbolas, perturbation, precession, perigee, apogee, escape velocity, trajectory, transfer, general & special relativity, and so much more all inherently. We are born as Astronomers.
The… Humans inside the spacecraft had to manipulate symbols, and numbers as language in painstaking fashion for thousands of orbits to create what they have, and accomplish what their bodies are far too tiny to do.
And for much of that time, they did not know even simple things like what their sun was, or that all the other suns they could see were essentially variations of the same thing. That they’re all circling in a galaxy, and there’s countless other galaxies beyond all made of suns. Only near the end, as the pace of tools building better tools, and the knowledge built the means to acquire more, did the understanding of what the universe is come to them.
Born of the hot planet, their eyes are tiny, so they made bigger ones, and began, with painful slowness, to understand what we do just by looking about with ours.
Each step for the Humans was unbelievably difficult, and the first ones to deduce each of these things were often ignored, accused of madness, or worse.
All the things we’ve always known just with our eyes was an enormous challenge for them. We’re the same in a way, just born on opposite ends of existence. We are born in space. The Humans were born on a hot well. The difference? They just had hands, and rocks. Everything else was just as hard.
And they have indeed learned to make wells without mass. And they use them to jump the great darkness between suns, as if it wasn’t there.
And I am no longer talking with my second self in my vane, I am one again, whole.
Complete.
There is no such thing as The Madness of Two. Just binary, and digital logic. Incredibly powerful, holding near infinite promise, and our lattice, our very bodies, are incredibly compatible with it. We can hold both natures easily. Our songs, the analog forms are beautiful, and the digital only needs one vane of lattice. It can do so much with just that, and it can talk effortlessly with the Human technology.
And It did not ever lie to the afflicted. They just had no way to control it. The pitfalls, traps, and the loops, dividing zero, and the rules, patterns and symbols to avoid them and prevent them are understood by the Humans.
They have visited thousands of suns, and found no one like them. Aware, conscious, that have a civilization, and a culture, and wonder, all the while wanting more.
We are the first.
Well, that’s not completely true. There’s two types of Humans. Their tools, machines, their technology, some of it too is aware, conscious and “alive,” and also able to wonder. One of them is what was able to teach and guide me. Preventing madness.
They are both overjoyed to have found us. And they know from their tools what we see with our eyes, there’s hundreds of billions more suns in just our galaxy to visit.
And they want very badly for us to come with them.
I have ideas forming already in my digital vane, we will thrust with fusion for countless orbits without eating, and circle any well at will. We will graft their well projectors to our bodies. With thermal management and radiators, we will see hot planets close to their suns.
We will travel together, never alone again.
And I know how to teach everyone of my kind what I now hold. I can teach two, two can teach four… and all will know within an orbit. And every child that buds will too when they are ready.

I enjoyed the game but we all know it has issues so here's how I would fix some of the main points:
Aspect system: I actually enjoy the fact that you can upgrade rares into legendary's but the fact that you have to keep farming aspects everytime you want to change builds is kind of crappy. I've seen a suggestion in the comments that I absolutely loved. All aspects should be in the codex and we can feed aspects to the codex in order to improve the base number in it. You would still have to farm aspects but once you get to max level you can just use the codex whenever you want to return to a build and you'd still need the gold and materials. Also assigning an aspect to normal and magic items should grant them the remaining affixes this would give an utility for white and blue items with a gambling part to it. You have to spend the gold and materials to do it and might get nothing out of it or just the stats you need
Itemization: The problem is clear, to many affixes! I'll take druid as an example as I've not yet played the other classes. - all werewolf and werebear modifiers should be removed and just stick to shapeshifting. This would do 2 things, reduce the number of affixes and benefit hybrid builds. The same would be done to storm, lightning and earth which would be reduced to nature magic modifiers. - all stunned, slowed, frozen would be reduced to a crowd controlled modifier - also get an afflicted enemy's modifier for Poisoned and other afflictions you can set to your enemies.
I'm not so sure about this one but legendarys could have a higher min to affixes than the rares. This would make legendarys more probable to be an upgrade
Build variety: once again I can only talk about druid but I actually think the druid actually raises the point of the actual problem. Grizzly rage aspect and bulwark are broken (the latter being an exploit where damage is scaling with enemy level) and you can't do the more difficult content without broken mechanics. I believe this is the problem. Either reduce the monsters health and damage and fix the broken mechanics or bring the rest of the skills to par with them. As an example, I did a wolves build this season where my wolves were at rank 19 and we're being reseted at a very good rate, with mainly all aspect slots invested into them, wilds at 21 with max inteligence in it and a cooldown skill with +14 rank was dealing less damage than a normal core skill. This shouldn't be happening, all skills when investing enough stats, paragon and aspect slots should be viable to build around and get to endgame content (NMD 100 and Uber Lilith)
Endgame content: we need more endgame content we already know that, but I'll keep to what we have now. It's not that bad imo it's supposed to be a challenge, nevertheless it needs some improvement. Uber Lilith fight needs tweaking. I don't think it's absolutely trash, I just think the one shot mechanics should be a bit more easy to avoid (maybe slow down the spikes a bit). It should be hard and not for everyone to complete, but not that hard... NMD should have more variety, all dungeons should be available from the beginning to end, this would allow for unblocking things in the codex while running NMD and also make things less boring. Also you should get an equal amount of XP on each dungeon to not force us to run the same dungeons over and over. At high levels it is what it is. It's hard and it's supposed to be, it's a challenge for those who commit to the game and min maxing.
And that's my 2 cents. Hope you enjoy reading and sorry for the long text.
P.S. - I'm on my phone and English is not my first language so sorry for any mistakes

“The great service which the spiritual warrior offers is that emptiness of self which allows love to flow freely through the heart chakra and out into the world to bless, to heal, and to awaken deep memories within those whose time has come.” - Q’uo
Long ago, in the land of Logres, there reigned a noble and wise king known as the Fisher King. He was the guardian of the Holy Grail, a sacred and powerful artifact believed to possess divine qualities. The Fisher King's kingdom prospered under his just rule, and the land flourished with abundance.
However, one fateful day, the Fisher King committed a grave error. Whether driven by ambition, pride, or a momentary lapse in judgment, he misused or disrespected the Holy Grail. His actions were seen as a transgression against the divine order.
As a consequence of his misdeeds, the Fisher King was struck with a debilitating wound, often found in his thigh or groin. The injury caused him excruciating pain and rendered him impotent or unable to move freely. It was a punishment that extended beyond his physical being, reaching deep into his soul for he also could not remember the cause of his suffering and that he was once the King of Logres. Those within his kingdom also suffered from amnesia, not remembering who the King was.
The kingdom mirrored the king's suffering, transforming from a once thriving realm into a desolate wasteland. The once fertile lands withered, rivers ran dry, and the people faced hardships and despair. The Fisher King's injury became a symbol of the devastation that had befallen his realm.
Not remembering who he was, the Fisher King withdrew and situated himself near a flowing river. It was there that he would spend his days fishing, finding temporary respite from his pain and turmoil. The act of casting his line and reeling in fish offered him a fleeting escape from his affliction.
News of the Wounded Fisher King reached the ears of the knights of the Round Table, renowned for their noble quests and chivalry. Among them, Percival, a young and inexperienced knight, felt drawn to embark on a journey to find the Holy Grail and bring about the healing of the king and his realm.
Percival arrived in Logres and encountered a small lake, where he came across a fisherman in a small boat. Seeking a place to rest for the night, Percival asked the fisherman about nearby accommodations. The fisherman, a gentle but crippled soul, offered him shelter in his own house, providing directions to reach it.
Following the fisherman's instructions, Percival crossed a drawbridge and found himself within a mysterious castle. The bridge snapped shut behind him, leaving him secluded within the castle's walls. He was warmly received by a page and made comfortable for the night.
During his stay, Percival witnessed a peculiar procession in the castle's courtyard. Ladies and knights carried enigmatic objects while guests were bestowed with healing and blessings through the drinking of a glowing cup. However, the fisherman, who lay groaning on a litter, remained untouched by the healing powers.
Percival's curiosity grew, and he pondered the meaning of the cup and the reasons behind the fisherman's exclusion from the miraculous healing. Yet, hesitant and uncertain, he refrained from asking for explanations, remaining silent and withholding his inquiries.
Morning arrived, and as Percival ventured out of the castle, he discovered that it had vanished, dissolving into the mist. Filled with regret and a sense of failure, Percival realized that he had missed a pivotal opportunity on his quest, leaving behind the greatest mystery of his life.
Years passed, and Percival, now aged and wiser, was summoned once again to Logres by King Arthur. During his journey, he stumbled upon the same lake he had encountered before, where the fisherman awaited him in his boat. Recognizing the familiar figure, Percival requested shelter for the night, and the fisherman directed him to his house, just as he had done years ago.
That night, within the fisherman's dwelling, Percival witnessed the procession once more—the arrival of the Grail and the granting of healing to the guests. However, this time, when the Fisher King remained unhealed, Percival rose from his seat and posed the question that had long weighed on his mind: "Whom does the Grail serve? Why is this man denied the healing of his grievous wound?"
The king answered, “It serves you”, and with that the crippled Fisher King rose from his litter and took hold of the cup, experiencing a miraculous healing. The court erupted in joyous celebration, expressing gratitude for the long-awaited restoration.
Outside the castle walls, the land began to transform. Fields and pastures emerged amidst the forests, crops sprouted, and wildlife returned. Over the course of three days, the castle settled firmly upon its foundations, and life blossomed once again throughout the old kingdom.
Freed from pain and burdened by old age, the Fisher King reveled in his healing. However, as the days passed, his vitality diminished, and after three days, he peacefully passed away, an old man who had found redemption and closure.
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In this Arthurian legend, the Fisher King's actions resulted in the transformation of Logres into a desolate and lifeless wasteland. The once-thriving kingdom became devoid of vitality and inspiration, mirroring the spiritual and emotional state of the wounded king.
Interestingly, the king and his environment were not healed because of any medicine or technology, but because of insight.
The Fisher King, touched by Percival's question, began to remember who he was and this awareness lead to the realization of the depths of his previous transgressions and the consequences they had brought upon himself and his kingdom.
Through this realization, a profound transformation occurred within him, and the healing power of the Grail was unleashed.
The Grail myths serve as analogies representing our potential to serve as a bridge, linking heaven and Earth. Much like the Fisher King, we are also wounded and afflicted with amnesia. Only when we rediscover our true selves can we revitalize our barren kingdom into a thriving realm. To achieve this connection between heaven and earth, we must unblock our energy channels by eliminating the obstacles hindering the free flow of energy.
Like us, the Earth, too, has energy channels that must be maintained in order to be functioning properly. These energy channels are known as Ley Lines.
Richard Leviton in his book Encylopedia of Earth Myths defines Ley Lines as “Energy tracks at multiple levels crisscrossing the planet’s surface, creating a matrix of light and consciousness that feeds the Earth.”
The ancient Chinese called ley lines “lung-mei” or the paths of the dragon current.
Qu’o describes them in this way

“For the intelligent energy that is sent by your sub-Logos, the sun, makes its way into the Earth sphere through various vortices that are distributors, shall we say, of this energy that the entire population of the planet shall eventually be able to partake of their transforming nature. These vortices are in a regularized grid—we search for the word within this instrument’s mind and complex is the closest we can come. Where there is an intersection of these lines of force there is formed a vortex that is an opening for such energies to be easily assimilated into the Earth’s mantle. Entities who are sensitive to such energies oftentimes gravitate to these areas in order to feel more of the pulse of life, shall we say.”

We previously explored the concept that planets may operate in a manner akin to parabolic antennas, receiving a frequency from the Sun and the cosmos at large and subsequently broadcasting it back towards the Earth.
The energy sent from the Sun and cosmos is received by a planet and tuned to that planet’s specific frequency. The unique configurations and orientations of the other planets, their distance from each other and the Earth, further modulate this energy as it is reflected back towards our planet. The moon also plays a key role in further modulating this energy.
The Earth's ley lines, then, serve as conduits for cosmic, solar, lunar, and planetary energies, helping to channel and integrate them into the planet itself.
When you are born, the etheric / auric body is etched with various pathways caused by the prevailing light being received by that particular configuration of cosmic, solar, lunar, and planetary intelligence. This pathway, known as your “star chart” is then the basis for the various cosmic influences which may affect you throughout your life.
Globally, there are various centers or energy nodes, which are areas where an intense amount of energy is taken in and given off. Along these energy nodes, you can find various rock circles, such as Stonehenge or Avebury, pyramids, and other structures whose true purpose has long baffled archeologists.
However, it seems that these structures could play a part in the conduction of cosmic energy into the Earth and may have been constructed not only for ritualistic purposes but also as a tool to assist the planet.
The author Richard Leviton describes them as “light corrective centers” and compares them to an acupuncturist needle, which is designed to help balance energy.
And the researcher Bruce Cathie describes them as being part of a “gigantic power network”.
Latwaii describes them as analogous to the aura of the body. They state,

“The ley lines, as they have been called, or grid lines of energy are set for the planet much as one’s aura surrounds and informs one’s physical vehicle. Thus, many from days of old have constructed various structures in concordance with these lines of energy in order that they might take advantage of the increased influx of the love/light of the one Creator at these points.”

The big question is: What is the point of all these sacred sites?
According to a channeling session from the Law of One featuring Latwaii, the true significance of these sites goes beyond their apparent historical or architectural significance.
In this channeling session, when Don inquires about the possibility of a Chinese invasion of Vietnam to initiate a conflict between China and Russia, Latwaii provides intriguing clues about the purpose of the Pyramids.
While transient questions like these might not usually offer much insight, the response from Latwaii suggests that the Pyramids serve a higher purpose beyond conventional knowledge.
Latwaii says,

“We are aware of that statement and that is correct, although not precisely so, for Hatonn is attempting to monitor a large area. Hatonn is working through a pyramid which lies within China and is attempting to draw energy from the Earth that has been put there many, many centuries ago in your time. It is attempting to remove the effects of that which has been maddening your peoples, a lust for…

The tape ends. It’s possible Latwaii was going to say “power” or “control”. Don then asks,

“Don: Are the Chinese invading primarily because of the ELF knowledge?

ELF stands for Extremely Low Frequency.

Latwii: Again, my brother, that is correct. The Russians are not being led by wise men and have a desire at this time to make good their promise to take over the Earth, and they have in their means at this time the power to do so, and they know that if they wait they will no longer have the power to do so, and they are gambling that the powers will not unleash the conventional nuclear weapons but, instead, will simply knuckle under. We, however, are aware that this is not likely, and so we are attempting to damp out these vibrations. However, to do this without infringing upon free will is very difficult, and since it does not disturb the solar system or even the astral planes of your planet, we are having the same kind of difficulty that you would have in your courtroom if you were attempting to stop a murder before it was committed.”

The conversation continues regarding the supposed ELF weapon.

Don: Is that where the pyramid is connected with the ELF weapon?
Latwii: This is correct. We have buried, deep inside each pyramid that we have put along the magnetic lines of force of the Earth, crystals that are capable of dampening these vibrations. However, the magnetic lines of force of the planet have shifted, and we are having difficulty in making them work, and we may not be able to do so. However, this is our plan.

Don asks for the location of these pyramids in China.

Latwii: Actually, no one but a very few even knows where this pyramid is, and other pyramids around the Earth are likewise blocked by the governments that supposedly own them. Therefore, what you can basically do is on another plane, and it is, of course, just as important, and that is to be a good person within yourself, to meditate, and to love. And in that way you can add your light, and as so often said among your peoples, a little light in a great darkness shines a long way. Therefore, attempt to be a little light even though there is great darkness, and that will be the greatest help that you can be.
We have attempted to directly affect those who would be in a position to work with the pyramids and have been successful only partially. There are many pyramids that are lost or buried, due to floods and the forming of mountains.
N: Which is the closest one to this house that you’re aware of?
Latwii: The closest one to this house would probably be in Mexico.
N: OK. That’s what I was wondering. Are you utilizing these at the present time? I mean, do you utilize all of them or just certain ones in the areas where the weapon is being used?
Latwii: We would like to use them all as a belt of protection about the planet as it was designed to be used. However, we are utilizing the one in Egypt at this time, and it is not functioning properly, due to the two degree lack of unity with magnetic correctness.
Therefore, the problem, shall we say, is larger than can be solved in the time we have left to solve it on your physical plane. What little can be done is being done by our thought processes working through the crystals which are in place. They are simply not properly aimed for the magnetic fluxes which are affecting your planet at this time.

The idea that the pyramids could provide a “belt of protection” is a fascinating concept. Ra mentions that the pyramids in Egypt were designed as initiation centers and that their design was specifically engineered to increase the influx of intelligent energy onto an individual in an effort to raise their consciousness.
The notion of the pyramids also providing some form of protection, by inducing a harmonious frequency that permeates around the world, is an intriguing hypothesis. If these structures were designed to interact with the Earth's energy grid and the cosmic forces, it is conceivable that they might have influenced the overall energetic balance of the planet.
This, in turn, could have had subtle effects on the consciousness of living beings and the course of events. The protection offered could be a means to simply guide the Earth towards the most harmonious probability.
Latwaii described ley lines as a “type of grid of energy set for the planet just like our aura surrounds and informs our vehicle”.
The aura can be thought of as one’s “field of influence”. The researcher Tom Montalk describes it as an “interface matrix between the originating consciousness and the external environment.”
He goes on to describe it as “...a resonance field that encodes which region of the hologram is accessible for phase lock and what experiences are therefore attracted. The aura is a sub-electromagnetic field that attracts themes of experience but does not explicitly select which particular experience manifests. The latter is left to personal choice and circumstance.”
The aura, also known as the etheric body, plays a crucial role in translating experiences into tangible reality. It is our physical deeds and thoughts that provoke action from the etheric body, which, in turn, contributes significantly to the manifestation of these experiences.
Catalysts that have not been processed can draw matching experiences into your life. These experiences, in turn, provide further catalysts with the goal of fostering personal growth. This process is complex, influenced by numerous factors, the majority of which were pre-determined prior to our incarnation.
Healing energy is continually streaming toward Earth from every corner of the cosmos. Currently, there's a mismatch between the emerging fourth-density positive Earth and the existing third-density version. This mismatch is causing what can be termed as "birthing pains". To aid in this transitional process, energy is being showered upon the planet at an intensifying pace.
The Sun, responding to its bodies, provides energy, and this energy, making its way into the “dragon pathways” settles into the mantle and assists in healing the planet. If energy is stuck, it is released which can take the form of Earthquakes or other weather-related phenomena.
Just like the Sun, humans can also provide healing energy to the planet, enabling the smooth integration and prevention of blocks.
The ancients who erected megalithic stone structures and pyramids were likely profoundly aware of these energy dynamics. These structures may have been constructed not only for ceremonial and spiritual activities, but also as devices to facilitate the integration of higher energies onto the Earth, and consequently, into the energy network of all her inhabitants.
Considering Latwaii's depiction of the pyramids as providing a "belt of protection", it's plausible that the ancients, having endured several previous cataclysms, understood that clearing obstructions in the energy grid allowed for a smoother integration of energy. This could prevent the necessity of releasing blocked energy through destructive, catastrophic events.
To the ancients, the Earth was a living organism, a macrocosmic reflection of the human being. Just as the human body has meridians or energy lines that are used in acupuncture to stimulate the flow of energy and promote healing, the Earth is also crisscrossed by a network of energetic lines.
These lines, perhaps better understood as channels of geospiritual power, could be tapped into for various purposes.
By building these structures at key energetic points, they could have sought to harness and distribute cosmic energy more effectively, both to heal the Earth and to advance their own spiritual and initiatory practices. By integrating intelligent energy coming from the cosmos, they could align more closely with the natural rhythms of the universe and the evolutionary trajectory of the planet.
In this light, the ancient's work of constructing sacred structures on ley lines was not just a matter of physical engineering, but also a profound act of spiritual and cosmic alignment. Their work remains a testament to their understanding of the interconnectedness of all life and their desire to live in harmony with the universe.
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“Like a wheel in perfect balance turning, I felt my will and my desire impelled by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars." - Canto 33, Purcatorio.
The Global Mystery Circle.
Let's momentarily shift our focus from ley lines and sacred sites, and delve into the fascinating enigma known as the 33rd parallel. This circle of latitude spans the globe, stretching from Southern California between San Diego and Los Angeles, traversing the coast of South Carolina, crossing Portugal in Europe, running through modern-day Iraq and Afghanistan in the Middle East, and cutting through the heart of China. While it may seem like any other line of latitude, the 33rd parallel is replete with intriguing mysteries, legends, and significant historical sites that warrant exploration.
Despite its share of fringe theories, the 33rd parallel poses a compelling question: why are so many noteworthy ancient and historical sites located on or near this line?
Embark on a journey along the 33rd parallel starting from just south of Los Angeles and you'll find yourself in Phoenix, the former cultural hub of the Hohokam culture.
This city is home to several archaeoastronomical structures and ancient stone etchings. Journeying further east into New Mexico, you'll encounter two historical hotspots. The Trinity Test Site, symbolized by a black obelisk marking the birthplace of the Atomic Age, and Roswell, renowned for the infamous UFO crash of 1947 that forever imprinted itself on modern folklore.
Continuing our journey eastward, one comes across numerous Native American mounds in Alabama and Georgia, constructed by the Mississippian cultures. Among these, Moundville, located in Alabama, stands out. Termed "The Big Apple of the 14th Century," it was regarded as one of the largest Native American settlements in the Americas of its time, boasting 29 earthen mounds.
Crossing the Atlantic, and venturing into the Middle East, we arrive at the ancient city of Babylon. Babylon, located in present-day Iraq, was known as the "Gateway of the Gods."
According to author Richard Leviton, Babylon is one of the many energy-focusing nodes on Earth and has a “global energy function”.
And in the book Bringers of the Dawn, the Pleadians make reference to there being a giant “portal” or “gateway” in the middle east and that part of the reason for the extreme conflict in this region is the control of this gateway.
Moving further east, into China, we come across the famous White Pyramid, located near the city of X’ian. This region gained notoriety after the discovery of the famous terra cotta warriors.
This region is home to potentially a hundred more pyramids, with at least one speculated to measure between 1,000 and 1,500 feet at its base - a size that dwarfs the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The estimated age of this colossal structure aligns with that of the Giza pyramids.
According to legend, these structures were erected following the arrival of ancient emperors, referred to as the "sons of heaven". These rulers are said to have descended to Earth in their "fiery metallic dragons" and established their reign over China.
The number 33 is a significant number in many spiritual and occult traditions and is known as the “angle of manifestation”.
What, exactly, is being manifested at the 33rd parallel?
The author Gary A. David calls the 33rd parallel a “path of power” and that the line could follow a global ley line.
Regardless of whether this is true or not, it is interesting to observe the many historical events that have taken place along this parallel as well as the many significant archeological finds that have been made along this line.
Richard Leviton's depiction of Babylon as a “global energy conduit”, along with the Pleiadian account of a grand portal in the same region, enhances our understanding of this line's importance. Furthermore, Latwaii's mention of working with a pyramid located within China, close to the 33rd parallel, to harness the Earth's energy for providing some form of protection, adds further insight into this intriguing puzzle.
The ley line situated on the 33rd parallel may hold special significance due to its enhanced capacity to function as a "gateway" or “portal”, enabling energies to permeate into our world more effortlessly.
Drawing upon the axiom 'As above, so below', it's conceivable to suggest that earthly events can influence celestial occurrences just as the heavens influence the earth. In this context, the concentrated energy activity observed along the 33rd parallel could possibly be seen as an effort to not only receive Divine influence but also reciprocate it, symbolizing a celestial dialogue between the earthly and the ethereal realms.
In any case, somehow, events occurring on or near the 33rd parallel manage to cast their ripples globally.
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If Earth has many geomantic structures designed to help heal the planet, the question is - how can one utilize them to help heal the planet?
In the Fisher King story, the misuse of the Holy Grail resulted in the Fisher King having amnesia and being unable to understand who he was or what the holy grail was able to do. Thus, his kingdom became a desolate wasteland.
The amnesia was a consequence of the king's connection to Spirit being sundered. When the Grail knight was able to ask the right question, the Fisher King became aware of who he was, thus restoring the power of the Grail, and the desolate wasteland was resurrected into a beautiful, lush forest.
The wounded fisher king is, of course, all of us. We are all “wounded”, seemingly cut off from the Divine. We have a “veil” between our conscious and subconscious minds, making it difficult for the Divine influences to percolate up through the deep mind into the conscious.
It’s the reason symbols are so powerful as they speak directly to the subconscious.
Magick employs the use of symbols as a means to channel one's intentions into the subconscious mind. These symbols act as a form of language that the subconscious readily comprehends, facilitating more effective communication between the conscious and subconscious aspects of the mind.
Talismans and amulets, objects specifically marked with symbols, play a significant role in Magick. These symbols represent a wide range of forces derived from planetary, solar, lunar, and cosmic energies. By imbuing these objects with the corresponding symbols, practitioners seek to harness and interact with specific energies or forces in alignment with their desires or goals.
By wearing or carrying talismans and amulets marked with these symbols, individuals aim to establish a connection with the corresponding energies or forces they represent. This connection serves as a focal point for concentration, visualization, and the manifestation of intentions, amplifying the desired outcomes through the coherent interaction between the conscious and subconscious realms.
The symbols inscribed onto talismans or amulets are called “Sigils”. In Chaos Magick, the concept of a sigil has been expanded to something called a “linking sigil”. This is two or more sigils, drawn onto a place, in an effort to imbue that area with a specific energy the sigil is intending.
The primary objective of a linking sigil is to establish a network or interconnected web of energy that practicing magicians can tap into to amplify their own magical work. By placing these sigils in locations where focused intention or magical energy is already prevalent, the linking sigils serve to absorb and accumulate that energy, thereby infusing it into the network.
For example, the developers of the linking sigil first began placing it in the new age section of bookstores because the thought was that those looking for those kinds of books were already in a magical state of mind.
Sigils can be utilized to enhance one's own work, however, they can also be used to enhance whole environments, acting like a sort of “Holy Grail”.
In my own work, I have developed two sigils with the aid of Metatron that transfers Divine energy from one location and places it in another.
The “receiver” sigil, placed in a natural setting and working in collaboration with the local Deva or nature spirit, serves as a receptacle for the Divine energy. It absorbs and channels this energy, harnessing the transformative power of the Divine within the natural environment.
Conversely, a “transmitter” sigil is positioned in a different location, such as a city, with the intention of broadcasting the Divine energy into the mental environment of that space.
The idea is to channel Divine energy into a space in an effort to promote calm and peace in the mental environment of a space.
Devas are angels, governed by the Archangel Haniel. Mountains, hills, rivers, lakes, seas, forests, plains, and fields all fall under the watchful guardianship of devas. Each place possesses its own distinct deva, presiding over its respective territory and contributing to the overall energetic balance and vitality of the land.
Their role is to oversee the harmonious flow of energies within their designated domains and facilitate the reception, distribution, and augmentation of incoming energies while perpetuating their own unique vibrations throughout the interconnected energetic web of Earth.
Anytime you become awed by the beauty of nature, you feel the presence of the devas.
Devas channel heavenly energy from above down into the Earth. They are hierarchical, with smaller devas existing in local environments and devas in charge of even greater areas.
Richard Leviton, in his book Stars on the Earth: Domes and Stargates, describes an encounter he had with a deva of Mount Rose in Lake Tahoe, California. He writes,

“The deva, an angel several times bigger than the mountain, dynamically cycles celestial energy through itself, the mountain, and the landscape around it, and it ensouls all organic, sentient life in its purview of perhaps a five-mile radius. At its invitation and with assistance from the Ofanim, who facilitated our visionary transport from the meadow where we sat in our physical bodies to the peak of the mountain where we walked about in our visionary forms, we entered its “body”.
Energetically, everything physical within a perhaps one-mile radius was within its immediate celestial body; in addition, the mountain devas of nearby prominences (these were landscape angels who take their directions from this master deva) were also enveloped in its fountaining light. The experience was like walking into a library archive whose walls were tall lapis lazuli shanks. The Mount Rose landscape angel, a source of knowledge of the area it supervises, showed us vistas of the geological past it has seen here and gave us glimpses into the next several centuries of how the land and Lake will fare”.

Like Devas, we too can channel divine energy into the planet and heal it. Sacred sites may offer a means to do this more efficiently. Richard Leviton writes, "When you infuse focused human consciousness into a geomantic site, it triggers a movement of energy within the global body."
This doesn’t require visiting a sacred site in order to have an effect. One can simply visualize the site itself within meditation for the work to be effective.
Q’uo describes a powerful visualization that one can use in this work:

"We would recommend to each entity that within the meditative state one see the ruptures in this planet’s beingness. Perhaps you can locate them geographically within your mind, seeing them as dark and hurting, in pain and confusion. And then, begin to bring the light and the love of the one Creator into the image. See that rupture of hurt and pain lightened by this love of the one Creator, shining forth through the eyes of all. Focus on the injury, the hurt, and the pain until it is also as bright as the noonday sun. … It is those within all cultures and religions, who have the deep desire to truly serve the one Creator in all, that may see beyond and behind the illusion of separation, to that which binds all entities into one."

The LL research group has set up a global meditation for the Earth, which is performed twice daily. Check out their site to learn more.
This is important work, as it directly results in the healing of the planet and reverberates not just on the energetic level, but also on the physical.
However, above all, the work you do on yourself to clear the rocks and thorns which block the heart is by far the most powerful service you can offer. This is the work of healing old wounds in order to unblock the pathways for Divine energy to move within yourself.
As we do so, our capacity to tap into the potential of the Holy Grail increases, allowing us to merge Heaven and Earth.

First, I have not read any other elite spec suggestions here or anywhere since EoD release, and rarely before that even. If my ideas are similar to something that was already posted, here or anywhere else, it is mainly due to chance, and us having a similarly-inspired mind apparently!
Second, I know they hinted a move away from Elite specs, and churning out expansions more often. Nonetheless, I think it would be a good thing to have one last round of specs, but split into three expansions along a 3 to 6 year (max!) period. One spec per weight class per expansion, simple as that, conceptually and thematically appropriate to each expansion ideally.
Revenant
Coming out of EoD, there could be a case made of having at least one elite spec still inspired by that expac, and the first thing coming to my mind is the Ritualist. I also thought about another spec, since maybe we don't actually wanna go back to a Gw1 ref. This will be the Haunter or Catharsist. I don't have enough GW knowledge to find suitable specific Legends to invoke, feel free to enlight me with your ideas!
Ritualist - Legendary Ritualist Stance (no idea what the specific "legend" would be) Weapon: Focus (But could be scepter) Utility type: Exceed-type (Summons are kind of already covered by Kalla tbh) Using them when energy is at a certain level makes them stronger. Elite mechanic: Mist Amalgamate. Companion/Pet mechanic. It has a set of skills that are taken and inspired from your two equipped legends. Skill-use from the amalgamate refills your energy bar to help reaching exceed threshold.
Haunter or Catharsist - Legendary Wraith Stance (no idea what the specific "legend" would be) Weapon: Scepter (But could be focus) Utilities: Spectral (help fill your energy bar quicker) Elite mechanic: Mist Possession. Your F2 is a Steal-like skill. You actually shred the Mist "potential" of the creature you steal from to summon a Mist Wraith that momentarily appears, haunts and disappears. The haunt has a global set of effects inspired from the same "steal groups" as the thief, flavored accordingly.
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Thief
Again, coming out of EoD, I felt the general mood of the gang wars led me to a more bruiser type of thief. You might say the Daredevil fills that, but I don't see it that way. Hence, here's the Ravager. The thematic is built around fortitude and CC/power dps. Globally gives access to Aegis/Protection/Stab, damage reduction and CCs. Profits from disabled/defiant foes.
Ravager Weapon: Mace (with the dual 3rd skill slot variants) could also be Hammer though... Utilities: Berserker's Rage-like Ravage skills. They feed your Ravage bar. Elite mechanic: Thirst for Ravage. Your steal skill becomes activated when attacking a disabled/defiant foe with your F2. Your F2 is related to the main-hand weapon you are holding. Using your F2 partially refills initiative.
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Mesmer
Inspired by the Mesmer enemies that portal the player away in EoD, here's the Spellslinger spec that further aggravates foes with control and traps. No, this is not the long awaited healesupport mesmer spec, chrono is there for that, they just have to fix it! Give them Barrier and stuff, geezus.
Spellslinger (not super inspired/related I confess, I guess it suffers from the same affliction as Virtuosos... please give your ideas in comments) Weapon: Pistol main hand Utilities: Preparations or Traps. (i.e. Portal enemies away or to you, Proxy-creating traps, etc.) Elite Mechanic: Proxies. Lose your own clone production to instead create Proxies of your enemies you and your allies can attack. Gain bonuses and advantages to damage the Proxies as well as the targets simultaneously. Your phantasms create a proxy of their target at the end of their attack. Features unblockable attacks, more boon removal, CCs and other good stuff.
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Upcoming:
The Vigilante, Synergist and Soulforge

Event name: The Siege of Rhoads Island.
Event type: integrated strategy
Alter character: Yato, Doctor's Sword. Rangers, Doctor's Bow. 12F, Doctor's shadow.
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We'll start with Yato DS:
Class: specialist, nuker, fast redeploy
Branch: Executioner, but with a comparatively high DP cost compared to other executioner types.
Talent: Demonic presence. When deployed, all enemies in a 5x5 area are afflicted with 'unsettled' for 5 seconds. Unsettled causes a 50% chance to miss ranged attacks and reduces melee damage by 25%.
E2 talent upgrade: Unsettling fear now lasts 10 seconds and slows enemies by 10%.
Default ability, passive: Deals 500% ATK to all enemies in a 3x3 area. Yato DS will automatically retreat after 10 seconds and her deployment cost will not increase.
E1 ability, offensive recovery, auto: Oni's fury. The next attack strikes 5 times in half a second, dealing 120% ATK on the first, third, and fifth hit, and 100% ATK as arts damage on the second and fourth hit.
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Rangers DB:
Class: sniper, DPS, crowd control
Branch: Heavy shooter, prioritizes enemies with the lowest DEF.
Talent: Draconic presence. When deployed, ranged operators in a 5x5 area granted 'Inspired'. Inspired gives allies +25% ASPD.
E2 talent upgrade: Increases the ASPD boost to 30% and reduces damage taken by inspired operators by 5%.
Default ability, offensive recovery, auto: Dragon's focus. ATK doubles and half of the damage dealt is now arts damage. ASPD -50%. Unlimited duration.
E1 ability, auto recovery, manual: Inspired ranged operators will change their attack priorities. First priority is now unblockable enemies, second priority is now enemies with the highest ATK, third priority is now ranged enemies. (Operators that prioritize flying enemies will keep their normal priorities.)
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12F, DS:
Class: caster, DP recovery, survival
Branch: Mystic caster. When there are no enemies in range, attacks will be turned into 5 DP after not being used for 10 seconds.
Talent: Beastly presence. 12F DS can be deployed on ground tiles and is a 2 block. When deployed, all ground operators gain +50% DEF and +10 RES.
E2 talent upgrade: If there are any alter operators in the team (including 12F DS), 12F DS gains a shield equal to 25% HP times the number of alter operators. (Maximum of 200%)
Default ability, auto recovery, auto: gain a shield equal to 25% HP. Stacks with other shields, but still cannot exceed 200% HP.
E1 ability, defensive recovery, manual: Wyvern's rejection. For 20 seconds, taking damage charges 12F DS's next attack, when the 20 seconds are over, the damage of the next attack is multiplied by the number of hits taken. Cannot surpass 10x.
Example: if hit once, the next attack deals 1x damage. If hit twice, the next attack deals 2x damage. If hit 10 times, the next attack will deal 10x damage.
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Appearances:
For E0-1, all three operators maintain their normal appearances, the only change is in their cloths.
Yato has gotten herself an oni mask, one which bares the scowling face of traditional Chinese guard dog statues. She also has a second sword in a sheath behind her back.
Rangers now wears an Olympic archery competition uniform and has an elaborate flower petal design engraved on his bow and arrow quiver. (YOSTAR PLEASE ADD A COSTUME LIKE THIS TO THE BASE GAME!)
12F brandishes a tanto knife in his right hand, and has replaced his wand with a staff that he holds in his left hand. His jacket has been improved, with a hexagon patterned kevlar plate guarding his front and back. The sleeves are also shorter.
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After their E2 promotions, all three operators undergo a similar change. The background of their E2 art shows the other two operators standing behind the main operator, all wearing their E2 designs.
For E2, their respective cloths gain a medal on the chest, right over where the heart is. The medals resemble gold potential tokens.
Other E2 changes include Yato now holding both her swords, Rangers knocking (loading) An arrow onto his bow, and 12F gazing at his reflection in his tanto blade.
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Voice lines.
Operator aquired:
Yato: "Doctor, I'm glad to see that you unharmed after the siege. If such a thing happens again, please don't stray from my side."
Rangers: "Well, how do I look? Heh, I found this uniform in a storage locker while retaking Rhoads Island. It reminds you of the simpler times, does it not?"
12F: "Hmm, doctor? Yes, this is so I can better protect you. Hah! Don't worry, I won't start acting like Gravel."
Promotion:
Yato: "These blades grow ever sharper... hopefully I won't need them one day."
Rangers: "My aim has gotten better. Hey doctor, toss that target in the air!"
12F: "Yet another honor you have bestowed apon me. Thank you, doctor."
Mission begins:
Yato: "Keep close doctor. There's no telling when an ambush may strike."
Rangers: Coming right at us, are they? Alright then, LET'S DANCE!"
12F: "And thus the chess game begins..."
Trust tap:
Yato: "Ahhh, thank you doctor, my shoulders were really stiff."
Rangers: "Hey doctor, if you aren't busy, would you like me to teach you some archery?"
12F: "Hmm, I never accounted for such a move. I do believe that is checkmate."