It's been a long time since I uploaded a new chapter of A Requiem From Winter Past. So what gives in a season of giving? To be honest, that's the question I'm asking from others for the past 30 days or so. Analysing the anomalies of individual behaviour can be fun. That is until you're at the receiving end.
Why it has been for so long...
The answer to this question is gaming. One thing I realised about myself is that visual media has a much higher chance of grabbing and retaining my attention. At the same time, gaming can result in visible results of your efforts more than writing. Granted I still believe in my ability to write, but self-understanding and visual outcomes still do engage in a tavern brawl more oft than not.
When it comes to gaming, I'm a casual player in terms of reaping results but a hardcore player in terms of focusing on the process. This is why ESO suits me right to the very last alphabet of my name. Of course, limitations do exist. You don't do a Stamina build with a Breton even though Darien Gautier was clearly a Stamina tank NPC.
It's never about comparing myself to the likes of Kevin "unrelated to Guan Yu unless proven by science" Kwan or Kyla "unrelated to Zhao Yun unless proven by science" Zhao. There's no need to so long I believe in what I can do. As for a lack of paper qualifications, that factor can burn in hell for all I care.
Wait, why am I sounding like Liu Bang instead of Xiang Yu?
Latest chapter
It's quite surreal to hear myself say this: I've yet to give up on writing A Requiem From Winter Past. The distraction caused by gaming is a massive wall to scale since I don't have the kind of battering ram to bring it down. However, starting on Chapter Six made me realise it's not really that hard to restart the engine. The main issue I have is tunnel focus and it applies to gaming as well. While I'm no genius unless proven by science, slide 25 called this the ability to focus. Geniusor not, I leave it to others to decide. The challenge is getting the dying embers roaring again. And it's always possible to rouse a lion so long it's not dead.
I was able to write more than half of my intended chapter length (i.e. 4000 plus words). Initially, it felt as if I was forcing myself to defy the laws of physical reality by kicking myself from behind. Once that period passed, it began to feel more like the engine humming. The machine was getting warm but not 100% raring to go. I could see it as a glass half empty or half full. I chose the latter.
One good thing about procrastination (not that I'd recommend this to others because my brain clearly functions abnormally) is that delays can have the unintentional consequence of additional ideas popping up. They didn't appear just because I said, "Let there be". They just popped up like that.
As a result, dumb ideas which I entertained could be shelved while a better approach took shape. Right now, I'm left only with the last part. And I have a very clear idea of what to do about it.
Partial Recall?
This video never gets old on me. Instead of a Total Recall on Gray "not a black guy" Davis, I decided to do a Partial Recall. More specifically certain aspects of the character naming. Initially, the elven way of naming involved English suffix and either a dies (for male) or vron (for female) in between. I decide to change things up a bit. Instead of the gender-based dies or vron, I decided to use eos. Despite the actual Eos being a giant Greek woman and the recent non-binary movement, I'm not interested in being part of a revolution. In fact, my moral view on politics is scarily close to how Geralt of Rivia views human nature from the Northern Kingdoms to the Nilfgaardian Empire and beyond.
Secondly, the last name will be converted to a combination of Irish and German. In the original version, the last name is made up of two words. In the new version, the first word would be Irish and the second German. However, modifications will be done so the letters would flow better to the eyes (at least for mine).
Then there's Yaguryeo. One nagging crone in my head all the while involved the fact that Japanese and Korean don't always combine that well. There were moments when I wondered whether I've created somethingunnaturally nuclear. So now, I'm going to make some changes. The combination of Japanese and Korean will still be there. However, I need to modify things with the Japanese language as the base.
Now you may wonder how can this be done. Sure, the Yayoi were never from Japan. That'd be the Jomon people albeit I suspect not a lot of Japanese would like to deal with it unless they're either Ainu or Ryukyuan. I'll just display examples in the next part and you'd know what I'm trying to do.
As for the Causacean names, I decided to make them closer to the real-life geographical scale. The Hallenian Empire clearly got nothing to do with the Hallyu Empire. The Hallenians are fashioned after the ancient Greeks. More specifically, it's associated with the word Hellenistic instead of someone called Helen of Troy. The Teutonians are inspired by the Germanic-Saxon people with the term Teutons as the naming blueprint. For Slarvea, the idea of Slarvs is clearly created with the Slavs in mind. No, I don't want a cookie from Putin. Despite the harshness of my life so far, I don't want to end it.
Examples of names
It's self-explanatory. First up would be the Asians. Then those who fit the Japanese phrase この人で無し. Racially speaking, of course.
Original: Yaguryeo
Modified: Yaguryo
Original: Kagetsu no Ji'Yeon
Modified: Kagetsu no Ji'Yon
Original: Heihou no Tae'Geuk
Modified: Heihou no Tai'Go
Original: Nanaya no Tae'Jin
Modified: Nanaya no Tai'Jin
Original: Aeravor dies Steelborn
Modified: Aeravor eos Iarlben
Original: Edeaux dies Serpentwine
Modified: Edeaux eos Nimhein
Original: Ioin dies Bladefort
Modified: Ioin eos Imear
Note 1: Please don't use words like この人で無し and この野郎 as if they're cool words to be used by cool kids if you're in Japan. As my 友達 Randy and Lydia can testify since they're currently in Saitama as permanent residents, that's called scolding people. And in a Japanese society prizing harmony even more so than in Singapore, that's a very easy way to get yourself into trouble.
Note 2: The reason why I decided to leave out the Causacean names is that quite a number of them would not be under any recall. This is because names like Cale and Lukas are accidentally Greek enough. At the same time, I don't want to do things while having the impression my focus would implode at any given moment. This is due to the numbers of the human population dancing in my head. So no, I'm not siding with progressives.
Note 3: The given names would sound as close to the original version as possible. The logic behind this is trying to find a common ground in linguistic pronunciation. Whatever meaning behind the given names, however, should still be considered Korean instead of Japanese. As for the prefix, the Japanese meaning would be retained.
Note 4: One trick I'm utilising is the usage of root words. The Irish word for steel is Cruach while the Irish term for serpent is Nathair. As for the blade, it's Iann. However, it could be said that from iron (Iarann) comes steel, a serpent is defined by its venom (Nimh), and edge (Imeall) is the concept behind the blade. For the German side, it's more about making the last name flow better. The word born is also associated with life. In German, life would be translated as Leben. For wine, it's Wein. As for the concept of a fort, it's associated with walls. In German, that'd be called Mauer.
P.S: To end this post, I decide to remind Ms Tang of the Yellowstone bear T-shirt and Mr Chin of his past of meaningful people watching with his son XL. That plus the reaction of Mrs Chin as a result (i.e. "Can you two don't look at others so conspicuously?"). If anyone thinks Ryan is the most problematic person in the same building every Sunday, this is my way of proving people wrong. I do have the memory span of Han Xinand Fa Zheng, believe it or not.
Add P.S: Again, credit to Alina "not Triss Merigold" Gingertail for her rendition of the Kaer Morhen theme. Good music always helps a super great deal in maintaining my focus.
Final P.S: Special mention goes to Sawano "not Sanada" Hiroyuki and Koyabashi "no, she doesn't have a dragon maid" Mika for the song ThreeFiveNineFour. That's actually the reason why the idea to do the Partial Recall popped up. Good music always helps a super great deal in inspiration.
Note: This post was originally started on 1st November. Due to how my brain works, it clearly took me this long to finish this.
As if a default double XP event wasn't enough to derail my writing schedule, another double XP event in the form of Witches Festival said hi. To be honest, I don't celebrate Halloween. Neither do I have the intention to. If I have a girlfriend who sees 31st Oct as Halloween, I'm afraid that'd end up as Nobunaga And Kicho. If I have a girlfriend seeing it as the day Martin Luther (10 November 1483-18 February 1546) managed to just stop short of making befriending the Fool of Owari (23 June 1534-21 June 1582), I suspect it could end up like Nobunaga And Kitsuno or Ieyasu And Oai. In case you're wondering, that's my way of saying I'm a problematic person. After all, none of the Three Unifiersshould be seen as...well, a saint.
1st November was my birthday. Even though no one would pay attention to my blog, I'm still going to do it. It's not that I'm an existentialist although the education system made sure I had to endure an existential crisis only my church can resolve. I'd like to say God but this blog is secular and I'm no Joseph Joestar. Yes, I did use the phrase 404 God Not Found a few times, but it's to hammer home a counter-view to romanticised atheism and politicised Christianity even though I'm not a heroic Kujo Jotaro.
If there's a reason why I blog, it's because I want to. The same goes for storytelling although A Requiem From Winter Past has to be my only chance of being 100% serious. Gaming? Only 70%. Science has other ideas though.
Believe it or not, I tried before searching whether there's any historical Asian man born in the same month and day. As it turned out, the only name I got was a Tokugawa. Not Tokugawa Ieyasu but Tokugawa Yoshikumi. While I don't know whether he's a war hero during the Russo-Japanese War, he did have a son called Yoshihirowho ended up being a hero without firing a gun.
Note 2: I need to apologise to Ms Tang. You see, she always enjoys calling little Jonah JoJo. Unfortunately, that always reminds me of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. If Claudia also does that, it means I need to apologise to her for it as well. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure isn't for kids in the same way Squid Game and Cuties are not for kids. So what if it's as 2-D as a Disney show?
Note 3: Bed count for November 1 in Japan? 86. Was that supposed to be a case of underreporting or something weirder than the assumption of Yoshitsune doing the Great Hokkaido Bailout? After all, official Yamato history said he died via seppuku. Official Ainu history clearly disagreed with that. Talk about starting a racial fight no different from how Indoril Nerevar died.
Brandon and... Brandon?
It's been a terribly surreal week. If there's anything worse than some S-drama involving Night Owl Cinematics, it'd be me saying the same thing about it more than once in a row. It's nothing more than a legal case. That's the dumb part of the saga and I was dumb enough to say that more than once even though I only needed to say it once. To cut it short, we got two Brandons. The first Brandon is a fellow Singaporean, the second Brandon is an American.
If you need proof that the world has gotten either absurd or outright surreal, then lookno further. If Let's Go Brandon is telling us the absurdity of a culture, then Let's Sue Brandon is telling us the same absurdity from another culture. Do I find it funny? As scary as it sounds, the answer is yes unless I want to tell a self-righteous lie. I'm not as talented as Alfian "not Adam Teo from Class 1H of 95 and 2H of 96" Sa'at or as well-educated as Jade "not Emerald" Rasif, but I have the humour of Sir John "he's no saint, Sir" Cleese. Well, sort of.
Note: My sense of humour is not meant to be emulated unless you believe a person of vitriolic vocabulary can be a role model. You and I know such a belief is false and stupid.
Hassou Tobi: Yoshitsune and Mario
Hassou Tobi or formally called Dan No Ura Hassou Tobi. The former is what the Persona series is known for, the latter is what Fate/Grand Order is known for, and both are the same signature move of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Historically, the Battle of Dan No Ura did happen. Unlike the situation in America, killing people was actually legal during the Genpei War since it's... well, a war. Before I continue, please don't confuse Democrats and Republicans for Taira and Minamoto.
Historical records in Japan can be quite difficult to understand. The reason is that embellishments tend to be part of reality. Caesar worship in Japan especially evident from Meiji to Showa before the A-bomb was dropped twice actually hinged on the belief the Emperor Jinmu himself was literally a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu. That's clearly less scientific than the possibility of Yoshitsune doing a Hassou Tobi from Aomori to Hokkaido if you're to ask me. But the Japanese actually believed that and I suspect this actually caused a state of post-war existential crisis on a national level as a result. Maybe that's why only the Japanese can pull off works like Evangelion, Berserk, and Tokyo Ghoul.
The same goes for the legend of Hassou Tobi. In the Battle of Dan No Ura, it was said that Minamoto no Yoshitsune jumped across a whopping total of eight boats parked on the sea. There are two ways to start appreciating the sport of long jump: One is Kodama "not Suzuki" Ami, the other would be Minamoto no Yoshitsune. But did Yoshitsune truly break the Olympics record for long jump N years before the first Tokyo Olympics? Physically, I find it either impossible or implausible. We're not just talking about the laws of physics and Sir Isaac Newton's most famous discovery, we're also dealing with armour weight. Ask me whether an Ainu could have done it and I'd still say it's either impossible or implausible. Interestingly, most of the boats used resembled your local neighbour's sampan more than your former boss's HMS Prince of Wales.
Eight boats or one, Olympics record breaker or not, Yoshitsune's feat was cemented in the Japanese walk of fame. There's actually a statue displaying this feat in Japan though. Of course, you have to wait a while since Japan is currently reopening its border at a much slower pace.
Effectively, the legend of Minamoto no Yoshitsune might or might not have been responsible for videos like this below.
インポシブル#1 is unrelated to Yoshitsune while インポシブル: エキストラ is clearly and literally インポシブル.
It sounds terribly stupid for me to say this, but it actually took me more than a year of playing ESO to decide what I'm really comfortable with. It's not so much about messing with unplayable builds. Yes, Stamina Sorcerers shouldn't be for Bretons. That's me pushing my luck and it took a guildmate to slap me back to my senses. But the majority of the builds I messed around with actually worked decently enough. ESO isn't for everybody due to its notorious performance issues and this caused me to mess around even more like a Frankensteiner gunning for his PhD instead of a Frankenstein who already got his PhD. The reason is that abilities involving leaping and teleporting have a weird tendency to cause performance issues. Abilities giving Major Expedition are good enough, but I won't be surprised if not every Stamina DPS Nightblade is comfortable with using Twisted Path. Personally, I find it good and I'm running a Stamina DPS Orc Nightblade on a two-hander. The Armory system for Update 32 is clearly a Divines-sent gift for players getting the shorter end of the performance stick and I'll come to that later on.
Hassou Tobi #1-Dark Elf Magicka DPS Sorcerer
This is my main. Originally a Stamina DPS Breton, I did a Total Recall by Koreanising him into a Dark Elf. Politically wise, he's still under the jurisdiction of High King Emeric instead of Skald-King Jorunn. Racially wise, I need to point out there's nothing in common between the Dunmer and Koreans. Tell a Korean to roll a Dark Elf, however, and I suspect he/she will roll an Argonian instead.
Hassou Tobi factor 1: Ring of the Wild Hunt
Otherwise known as every man's BFF, the closest Daedric Prince to a wolf decided to give me an easier time thanks to the Companion system. Mirri is my DPS and Bastian is my tank. Without the system, I wouldn't be running about with Hircine's signet on multiple toons. My confidence level was never high enough to solo a base-game world boss and my Sorcerer has always been running solo with no pets. Thankfully, it took like only two world bosses in Greenshade to drop the final lead needed to dig up the real deal.
Gearing Ring of the Wild Hunt meant I had to make adjustments. Before that, I ran with full Ilambris and Lover effect. With this, I had to go 5-5-1-1 instead of 5-5-2. Initially, I opted for Mother's Sorrow and Diamond's Victory. Then I realised I got damage sustain issues. Replacing Mother's Sorrow with False God's Devotion went much better. That's before I decided to stop being a close-minded individualist (i.e. one of the reasons why I can be so difficult to deal with). I went through some of Alcast's guides to give me a better idea of what to do. Before I continue, let me say that Alcast happened to be my most convenient source of information. Apart from him, there are names like Hack the Minotaur, Brah We Got This, and Niniskya. So this is clearly not a free-of-charge endorsement from someone who is never a social influencer. And besides, people would have a real reason to hate me if I decided to become one.
Unlike the first time running the same 5-5-1-1, I have a better idea of how to make things work. In retrospect, I got the application of Diamond's Victory terribly wrong. While I'm not running a full Bahsei, it merely means there has to be a way for Mother's Sorrow to function decently in this manner. Bahsei's Mania and Diamond's Victory would clearly complement each other very well. Meta combination if you're serious about making Diamond's Victory work. But I'm not running a meta since the only trials I've done are the training ones with my guilds with the rare exception every now and then. At the same time, something happened during a normal Cloudrest trial a long time ago and that caused me to avoid trial PUGs as much as possible. There's no such thing as a gaming community with zero toxic players.
With Ring of the Wild Hunt and Mother's Sorrow, my Mundus Stone effect went from Lover to Shadow. A large part of this was due to changes made to the armour skill lines. The DPS bonuses from light and medium armour passives now apply to both Stamina and Magicka DPS builds. At the same time, a particular medium armour passive now gives additional critical damage at 2% per piece. This resulted in me opting for two medium and five light instead of two heavy and five light in the past. The 4% bonus in critical damage is clearly too lightweight for a DPS Sorcerer with a 51% critical chance. That's why I need Shadow. As for my choice of one piece Monster set bonus, that'd be Valkyn Skoria due to the Penetration bonus. With that, my Penetration managed to hit the optimal range of near 7K to slightly over 7K. 6.8K to be exact.
All that's left would be striking a balance between damage and sustain. I experimented with two options: Crystal Weapon and Race Against Time. Both are self-buffs, so they'd proc Diamond's Victory. RAT is clearly sustain-centric while CW is far towards the DPS end. In my most recent normal Sunspire guild run, my DPS was terribly bad. Not at the bottom, but it sent a message to me saying that CW would be a better bet. Before that, I did a normal Halls of Fabrication guild run. Now that particular raid was interesting because I never had a good DPS record in running Halls of Fabrication and Asylum Sanctorium. This was unlike other trials including Sunspire. However, running with a CW together with Force Pulse and Haunting Curse actually yielded a much better DPS. So much so that I was left asking questions from myself. As I've said, I never had a good record in Halls of Fabrication.
For my choice of ultimate, I'm currently still sticking with Shooting Star on the front bar and Suppression Field for an AoE back bar. I'm not sure whether I'll go back to Greater Storm Atronach for the front bar though. There were moments where Shooting Star performed better, but I had been using Greater Storm Atronach for a longer time. Then there's Might of the Guild passive and it's the main reason why I actually chose Shooting Star over Greater Storm Atronach.
Update: Currently back on GSA mainly due to Expert Mage passive and the fact I'm more comfortable with its targeting mechanic.
Hassou Tobi #2-High Elf Magicka DPS Templar
This alt must have gone through more tinkering and changes than the number of Pep "every Catalan's favourite name" Guardiola's experiments. Initially, I insisted on doing a melee Magplar using Puncturing Sweep and Explosive Charge. But there's a problem: Performance issues due to Explosive Charge.
Then I decided to say either beat it or Billie Jean to this idea. The only reason why I persisted so long on a fool's errand was due to stubbornness. That's actually a personality flaw although it shouldn't be confused with having moral principles.
Hassou Tobi factor 2: Ring of the Wild Hunt and Celerity
A major issue I've had is low mobility. Out of my four toons, two of them move faster and the two others move slower. The Templar happened to be one of the slower two. Even with Ring of the Wild Hunt, something just felt terribly off. The rotation didn't come out right, that efficiency was more of a 50-50. Using Unstable Wall of Elements didn't address it. The main factor was Purifying Light. On one hand, it'd much easier for me to ditch it. On the other hand, I can be as stubborn as Joachim "Der Löwe" Löw if I want to. Again, it's a personality flaw. This time around, I might have got it right.
I've always recognised the DPS potential of the Backlash ability. If you're doing a Stamina DPS Templar, Power of the Light would be very good due to the Minor Breach debuff. A particular Stamina Templar was using it in a guild trial raid and I can only say that's Hircine himself.
This is where Ritual of Retribution comes in. The tooltip seemed like nothing to shout about, but I was like "why not?" and went for it. It's always much better if you know the core of the problem. For me, it's all about making the copy-and-paste damage work. It's efficient. Very efficient. While I need to get in mid-range or closer to get this working, I don't mind taking risks if I know something is going to work. It's not a 3000 versus 25000 logic, I don't need to be the second Nobunaga to make it work.
For Celerity, I really like this CP boon. My templar is running on two heavy and five light. Running at a slower speed means a 10% movement speed bonus is always much welcomed. I don't need to swing it like a crazy Johnny, I only need to move within a range of 8 metres since that's the reach of RoR. Needless to say, it works.
Hassou Tobi #3-Orc Stamina DPS Nightblade
Nightblades are fun. I'll give them that. Even though my main is a Sorcerer, the strategist in me is definitely drawn towards Nightblades. Maybe, just maybe, I'll roll a Khajiit Nightblade, Baanzai-dar or no Baanzai-dar (because I want to indulge my inner Cao Cao). After all, I still got 5 more slots in my character roster. I'd like to have a go at Wood Elf Stamina DPS Sorcerer (because I want to indulge my inner Emiya) and a Breton Magicka DPS Dragonknight (because I also want to indulge my inner Galahad) as well though.
It takes a bit of fumbling around, but I soon detected the greatest challenge in using my Nightblade. You see, my Orc actually got a surprisingly high Spell Damage rating for a Stamina DPS. It's obviously a class issue rather than a race issue. Since Nightblades are always known to go full pure damage, it means trying to maximise the Spell Damage aspect would make plenty of sense. After all, I think like a strategist/tactician despite a gross lack of actual paper qualifications.
Hassou Tobi factor 3: Ring of the Wild Hunt, Celerity, and Twisted Path
I don't have to tell you why I go with Hircine's royal ring and a royally fast Celerity. I mean Nightblades have good mobility, Orcs can run as fast as any Olympics sprinter of any race, and I'm using melee like a crazy Johnny Axeman.
Twisted Path, therefore, might look like some kind of overkill. I like Twisted Path. I really do. Great AoE and great damage. By using it, I can deal damage continually. At the same time, a triple whammy in movement speed means I can easily close in on the mob/boss. I can never be too fast. Okay, that's a lie since chest looting in Sunspire is a geographical hazard.
Beyond chest looting in Sunspire, the onus for me is to always move as fast as possible to stab the target. This results in a different approach for the back bar. For my other 3 toons, it's a single target DPS front bar and AoE DPS back bar. For the Nightblade, it's a melee front bar and a ranged back bar. My first normal Maelstrom Arena completion yielded a Maelstrom Bow and that's before the devs implemented the Einstein RNG system.
So yeah, I need to do quite a bit of random normal dungeon raids to get used to it. I find that I'm more willing to practise in live-firing mode instead of dummy parsing mode.
Hassou Tobi #4-Breton Magicka DPS Warden
I'll be honest here: I really enjoy using Warden perhaps more so than any other of my toons. The reason isn't due to gameplay (but I'll come to that later on), but rather good news involving a fellow Singaporean. The success of Kevin "unrelated to Guan Yu unless proven by science" Kwan and Kyla "unrelated to Zhao Yun unless proven by science" Zhao actually provoked an urge to roll a Breton Warden.
So why Breton and why a Warden? Bretons are clearly the Elder Scrolls version of the Celto-Romans. However, the Celto-Romans weren't the same bunch of Celts we're more used to seeing. The latter would be closer to the Reachfolk, their legends involving names like Cú Chulainn, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, and Fergus mac Róich. For Celto-Romans, I'd associate their heroism with names like Lancelot du Lac, Gawain, and his son Guinglain. As you can guess, the Celto-Romans did leave behind an awesome legacy in storytelling. And storytelling is what the Wardens do best. As for me, I'm a storyteller. A little wonder why I appreciate songs like these.
Hassou Tobi factor 4: Celerity and Race Against Time
This is clearly quite different from the other 3 toons, gearing Thrassian Stranglers is legal unlike strangling people. Due to the one-item rule, it means I can't gear my Warden with Ring of the Wild Hunt as well. However, Thrassian Stranglers can perform insanely well in group raids. Despite Bretons having nothing in their racial passive skills arsenal in terms of raw damage, the final racial passive lowers ability cost. Now this one is very important since Wardens can be surprisingly good at blowing things up. Literally. Two base abilities of note: Scorch and Impaling Shards. If you want to roll a force of nature regardless of identity, you may want to consider rolling a Warden.
For me, the nukes involve two atoms: Deep Fissure and Force Pulse. In terms of raw damage, Elemental Weapon is better. But because my focus thrives on momentum, Elemental Weapon clearly doesn't cater to my strength. One to me is the Caladbolg I can't control, the other is the Kuji-Kanesada I can easily wield.
This is where Celerity comes in. Wardens don't seem to move that fast. Either that or it's the heavy armour in the chest slot. In solo PvE, I go with a pretty Blue Betty due to the Major Sorcery. In group raids, I opted for Race Against Time for the same reason as Celerity. At the same time, this would create a lighter load on my Magicka usage. This is vital because my Warden's front bar DPS relies heavily on DeepPulse. Not to be confused with the kind of technology which you can plaster a cyclist onto the background as if he's cycling towards the dark side of a lobby (yes, I did mention something like this before), DeepPulse refers to Deep Fissure and Force Pulse. That's how I blow things up and it's very efficient even in dungeons and delves since sustaining the Thrassian Stranglers effect stack isn't an issue. Lower maximum Health is a drawback together with weaker damage shield strength, but it shouldn't be a problem for me due to a back bar involving Ice Fortress and Arctic Blast (Enchanted Growth if it's group raiding).
Gear wise, I may not opt for Medusa because RAT already gives Minor Force. That plus I prefer not to use Bird of Prey for the Major Expedition due to how I set up the hot bar (i.e. Q, E, R, 1, and 2 for non-ultimate abilities; 3 for ultimate ability). Of now, I'm running with Law of Julianos and Ancient Dragonguard. Ideally, I'd say Mother's Sorrow with either Dreugh King Slayer or Berserking Warrior. Quite probably DKS. Now if only I can start kicking my own derrière to start soloing a normal Fungal Grotto. As much as this statement is literally anti-science. You know, the laws of physics.
The G
Despite the nature of Singaporean politics, the title isn't meant to imply the PAP is a bunch of white-wearing and Trinimac-worshipping Orsimer. Neither is this a reference to Tekken where there's really a G. G refers to the Armory assistant NPC. And he's an Orsimer. I like his dialogue. In particular, the one about people fighting bears was funny. I still remember a T-shirt Ms Tang wore years ago. It's a bear, it's from Yellowstone, and it said, "Send more tourists. The last ones were delicious". Unlike everyone else in the same building, I have a dark sense of humour.
Enough about the Orsimer G. Let's get onto the Armory system. Currently, there seems to be a bit of glitchery remaining. The worst, however, is over. At least for now. ESO's greatest strength lies in content. Programming-wise, you can't blame people for wondering what's the difference between Maryland and California beyond the presence of Hollywood and big tech HQs.
In the first few days of the Update 32 release, players got a sudden surge in extra Champion Points. It's like Elon "the Tesla Guy" Musk feeling so insanely generous, he literally bankrupted himself by rewarding every Tesla employee. We all know that's not the case, that it's just a status called Major Glitchery. They managed to fix it, but I still needed to do the first respec twice per character. The first respec got reset, so it didn't count. Then there's my Breton Warden having to regear a ring. Otherwise, the slot would remain self-emptied. Anyone of a normal person's temperament would have flipped the desk. Thankfully, part of myself is as stoic as Sotha Sil.
Major Glitchery devolved into Minor Glitchery aside, the Armory system is a Zenithar-sent to me. The reason is that possibly due to distance and ESO having fewer servers than New World, I tend to experience higher latency. If it's a high-end event like Witches Festival or Undaunted Festival, Sheogorath's cat would be running across the 5G connection instead of the keyboard. Therefore, one less addon is always better than one more. In other words, I don't have to use the Dressing Room add-on.
Of course, there's a major drawback. To fully utilise this convenience, I have to spend money on the crowns. The G would cost 5000 crown points. Every additional slot would be 1500 crown points. However, I don't spend much. In fact, I spent very little on this game thus far beyond ESO+. Initially, there's a certain need to spend on the research scrolls and skyshards unlock to ease the alts' progression. But once the rough part is over, the spending would slow down to a trickle. I've played Neverwinter and I'm still glad I didn't realise debit cards can be used. I played Everquest 2 and the payment model was aggressive. Lord of the Rings Online was fun, but I decided not to take up the VIP membership.
So will I revert to using the Dressing Room add-on? I doubt so. It's not so much about the Orsimer G, his unique dialogue as a combat pragmatist, and the insane convenience of the Armory system. Rather, it's due to performance issues. The push factor is that one thing sealing the deal instead of any pull factor.
Well, it's been quite some time since I blogged something. Currently, I'm getting started on the latest chapter of A Requiem From Winter Past. But there's a problem: The Blackwood event gave way to the Explorer's Celebration event recently and now I'm getting high on levelling up. I don't remember increasing the CP level like a cyclist riding his bicycle across an endless lobby unhindered before that. Of course, this imagery is impossible. While it's possible to have a building boasting an insanely spacious lobby, something like that would require one of extraordinary value. Like a two-storey condominium combined with semi-detached housing features? But even such a building in a place like Nassim Road would never have an infinite stretch of space. And besides, you can't cycle in any building lobby. Don't believe me?
If you think the hype surrounding Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin "unrelated to Guan Yu unless proven by science" Kwan was something, I'd say the hype surrounding New World by Amazon has been another monster. Let me give you an idea of how great the New World hype is:
Despite preparations made by the developers, not even Jeff "not Hardy" Bezos' astronomical wealth could avoid log-in queues a hundred times more insane than your worst login queue in Final Fantasy XIV. We're talking about a company with more money than the Chinese fortune god and very likely as much as Tesla. We're also talking about login queues lasting as long as... 13 hours or so? The only thing more unreal than this would be a photo obviously edited.
The signs are good so far. When we talk about the #RedefiningFailure hashtag, two names come to mind. The first is Jamus "mee siam got hum" Lim. The other is none other than... I don't know whether I should say Jeff "not Hardy" Bezos or Amazon but you get the drift.
For a very long time, Amazon tried creating AAA games. For a very long time, Amazon failed. New World is not just about redefining failure. It's also that one game I believe Amazon will do well in focusing on in terms of continual development and improvement. Granted I never played it, but I can't contest against the consistency of the reviews. Especially if it's from the Steam community.
Now a massive question is whether New World can topple WoW. At the same time, gamers are commenting that NW plays more like ESO than WoW. I came across an interview in Washington Post involving Rich "not Chris" Lambert. The takeaway I got from this article wasn't how much was being promised for the Deadlands DLC release. I wouldn't be surprised if so far none of the newer content could compare to the quality of Summerset and Elsweyr. In particular, I really like the dragon boss world events in both ends of the cat country. I played some Harrowstorm world events and while they're good, the level was never on par with the dragons. A large part of it lies in the loot. Dragons do drop very good loot. So good, it's 100% better than what you get in Harrowstorms or world bosses.
It's what Rich said that caught my attention:
"First and foremost, competition is good. It’s healthy. It’s good for the consumer. The second you feel like you don’t have to compete and continue to improve your product is the second that things start to go downhill. So I think it’s great, and we need more successful games in our genre to help earn the trust of the consumer, to kind of shake things up and get those creative juices flowing and whatnot."
An interesting question involving the current state of WoW isn't about whether a moral scandal is going to do Activision Blizzard in. Granted there must be a satisfactory conclusion to the gaming version of Andrew Cuomo, Roy Moore, and Jeffrey Epstein. Granted the 18 million dollar deal was total nonsense. We're talking about revenue running up to 2.3 billion. That's the kind of money I won't be able to earn in 23000 billion lifetimes. Morality remains relevant in a world of moral irrelevance even in Singapore. You can't contest against that. But how much would a gamer care? I hope there are many. To say all, however, is being out of touch with the real world.
The question is best summed up by what I'd call a guild with OG status in The Burning Crusade Classic. Note that nowhere in this article did it mention words like sexual harassment and Crosby Suite [sic]. Instead, it's all about the state of the game. Content quality has been an issue in WoW for quite some time. There are definitely gamers leaving because of the moral scandal, 18 million or not. However, I believe many were those departing due to frustration at an endemic lack of quality. This is not to say the likes of APES don't care. They merely stated the first thing in their minds. In other words, I'm convinced they do care.
So how did WoW end up from one end of quality to the other? Long story short, it's all about monopoly. Like how there'd be fewer problems with the tech industry if it doesn't have hegemonies, I suspect a similar scenario was the cause. When a brand got too big for its own good, things are bound to happen. The impact wouldn't be immediate, but that doesn't remove the fact games are developed by developers and developers are people. They're not robots and they're not a department of hamsters running 24/7 in the wheel. Needless to say, they're also not objects of sexual fantasies and schadenfreude.
But what if the unspeakable happens? Staff morale will suffer. No woman would want to work in a culture where her male colleagues view her as nothing more than a sex object. To do what is right and just, persecution would become a reality. All that'd be left is a bunch of people behaving as if their existence alone would warrant a paycheck and no danger of being fired. I've seen this kind of attitude elsewhere and I've experienced it most notably during my schooling years as well. Different circumstances, same concept.
The reason why I'm talking so much about it is that one thing leads to another. If your staff are happy, they will work for you. Sure, salary is an issue. Not everyone is born with a silver or golden spoon, but everyone has to spend money and many are those who have to pay their bills. But is money everything? To some, yes. But to many? That's a theory unproven and disproven. This comes to the question of why stay if you know you're either sexually objectified or wrongfully persecuted? The correct question should be is there any other option for you to pursue your dream?
In a hegemony within any industry, a lack of good choices is bound to be exploited by the powers-that-be. The longer the monopoly, the worse it gets. The worse it gets, the poorer the quality. If it's bad, it's bad. If it's good, it means it could have been so much better. It's very easy to settle for mediocrity so long you can get away with it. And by that, I mean profits instead of minimised losses. The MMO industry has always been about striking a balance between casual gamers and non-casual ones. There are bound to be decisions favouring one or the other. This is why we have an actual difference between games like WoW and titles like Dark Souls. The range of difficulty is way larger for the former while the latter is more for crazy people running naked. As a result, it's easy for the decision-makers to agree on prioritising new players over retaining the current ones. After all, why settle for MMO if you're good enough to defeat Detlaff in Witcher 3while blasting a Death March worthy theme?
The reality is doing an MMO title involves growing the fanbase at the start and keeping the existing fanbase happy once it matures. This is even more so for AAA titles. However, AAA games require more money to develop and maintain. We're not just talking about content. It's also about servers, attracting the best possible talents in programming, etc. This comes to risk assessment: Do you want to play safe by prioritising new gamers or risk revenue stagnation by prioritising the existing players? At a certain point, hard decisions must be made.
For New World, the same is true. Why am I optimistic about its future then? Some find PvE content monotonous. How monotonous, I don't know. What I do know is that grinding in MMOs is a reality. It all boils down to how many content options do you have. For New World, this is its weakness. This comes to its greatest strength. No, it's not crafting even though the consensus is that crafting in New World is either AAA or beyond AAA.
There aren't many MMO titles guilty of making PvP right. In fact, the current changes to proc sets in PvP has created quite an uproar among the ESO players. It's not that radical changes aren't good. It's because not all radical changes are good. After all, anyone can make a daring decision but not everyone can be the second Oda Nobunaga or William Sherman. Now I don't see myself doing PvP in the short run due to personal preferences and actual trauma involving people at school. Gwent was an exception but that's because I trusted the reviews. But even though I enjoyed myself, personal trauma remained the decisive factor in me leaving the game. The Trollololo theme song was good though.
So why am I talking about PvP in other games? Because that's where I see the strength of New World. The necessity of factional PvP is proven by a land-grab format where Covenant, Syndicate, and Marauders vie for continental supremacy in the good old historical manner. Without lands, your company will suffer. And if your company suffers, you will suffer unless either you leave or the company disbands. This resulted in actual scamming. As much as I hate to say it, this is very likely the kind of offence anyone can get away with. From the developer's perspective, the last thing the team should do is to play the moral police. We have too much moral policing in the real world, hence the last thing gamers need is... well, moral policing. Banning scammers requires effort because we're not talking about one rogue element out of every million gamers. Manpower wise, a server-wide sting operation isn't feasible. Already, there are rules to be kept. Break them and you'll get banhammered. Imposing additional rules will just create unwanted burdens.
Ironically, what ruined the experience for many gamers happened to be New World's gameplay strength. This PvP format can result in a higher level of player technique. In this sense, New World isn't for casual gamers. It's more for technical gamers closer to those you see in esports tournaments. Of course, you can focus on the PvE alone. But would that compromise the gameplay experience since PvE in New World can get terribly repetitive?
At the same time, starting a guild/company in any MMO is a challenge. In Neverwinter, I've seen players offering incentives to fellow gamers so that they could start a guild (i.e. you need a minimal number of players to register a guild). After that, it's back to ground zero (i.e. those being paid are free to go). This was a clear indication of what you have to face in forming a guild in any MMO. It's not about creating but rather growing, maintaining, and improving. The hardest part lies in growing. Once you get that right, maintaining and improving would be far easier. Do it wrong and you might as well fold it.
For New World, trust in the players is important. The developers have to trust the vast majority of players aren't MMO criminals. If they can't, unwanted workplace stress can easily follow. To do so, however, requires an accurate analysis of player behaviour. Players scam because they can't make the cut when it comes to decent leadership. On the flip side, this can also weed out scamming since the scammers are only interested in profiteering. And in New World, profit is synonymous with PvP. There's nothing practical in a scammer doing the same thing in an endless loop. Not because of whether they'd be caught but rather that would defeat the purpose of scamming. The more practical challenge developers have to deal with is how long it will take. A matter of time, yes. But there's a difference between sooner or later and sooner rather than later.
This comes to the comparison of strength. Since New World already boasted an actual AAA grade PvP, it means Amazon needs this to take flight instead of focusing on the PvE. PvP is all about format while PvE is more about creativity. New World's strength happened to be making that one thing work instead of other things (two if you're to include crafting). Granted it's still early days, but one might still expect better PvE due to the amount of money invested to make the game work. I don't know how Amazon is going to improve and expand the PvE, but it'd be a good idea to focus on the PvP. It's not every day a game can get mostly positive reviews on Steam despite criticism on the PvE end. This implied the PvP is so good, players can actually ignore an otherwise banal PvE content. Crafting alone isn't going to make this happen. When a new MMO is released, the first impression counts a lot because it allows players to anticipate what lies ahead. There will be additional content and whatnot, but the base game always serves as the foundation from which future content and quality will be defined. At the same time, this is also an indication of the developers' vision for every aspect of the gameplay.
Now there are new properties like Einstein level RNG and Armoury system. I won't be addressing them Rather, it's the hybridised gear system.
A Critical Monster:
Monster sets are back now. The changes are interesting for a reason. At a glance, Monster sets are going to be the BiS deal. The raw power is going to be something wonderful. This comes to the question of whether Mythic items are going down a few notches in the pecking order.
For a very long time, I've been running with Ring of the Wild Hunt on all my toons. This means I'm doing a 5-5-1-1 setup. It's either Valkyn Skoria or Kra'gh due to the penetration. If I am to redon a full Ilambris for Update 32 (not that I'm ruling this out), it means I have no choice but to go full light armour to plug the Penetration shortfall. Another alternative is to go counter-intuitive. Instead of the current False God's Devotion-Diamond's Victory set combination, the alternative would be Mother's Sorrow+Hexos' Ward. Instead of the Thief, my Mundus effect of choice would be Shadow. Penetration will be lower, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that an extra bit of Critical Damage can tip the scales. Because I have enough Transmutation Stones to reconstruct a full Mother's Sorrow, this means I only need to farm Hexos' Ward to complete the setup. However, this is only a tentative plan which I may or may not go ahead with.
Another more intuitive alternative would be replacing False God's Devotion with Mother's Sorrow while leaving the rest untouched. Currently, I'm doing two medium and five light. This would definitely result in my Mundus stone going from Thief to Shadow. If this goes accordingly, my front bar ability rotation would look like Haunting Curse>Force Pulse with base Critical Damage at 25% instead of the current 8%. This is due to me using Inferno Staff instead of Lightning Staff (read: I don't have Inferno Staff for False God's Devotion). As for proc'ing Diamond's Victory, I find Hurricane to be surprisingly good in terms of preventing damage instability. At the same time, I did a test and the only way for me to miss the Ranged Supremacy proc is to wait for the second tick of the effect. The interesting part? Hurricane only got two ticks with the final tick coming near 2 seconds or so before the duration expires.
Strategist+Tactician=Hybrid:
The best part of Update 32 has to be the hybridisation (yes, it's an actual word) of the gear system. Playing Gwent taught me where my strength lies: The cerebral instead of the physical. Class wise, I'd be the mage just like how Abnur Tharn described himself.
The new gear system change isn't just radical. It's a world-beater in my eyes. It's every strategist's dream come true, the next best thing for a tactician apart from a girlfriend. I function best in a DPS role, but my brain works like either a strategist or tactician. Actually, there's not much separating the two once the fighting gets underway. On one hand, it's going to make theory-crafting go full Tohoku. On the other, it allows more space than a super spacious Nassim Road building lobby for players like me to go full Tohoku.
Currently, I decided to experiment with Hurricane in place of Boundless Storm for my Dark Elf Magsorc. It may sound more insane than doing a naked run in Dark Souls, but I find it actually works. As I mentioned earlier, the damage instability was effectively prevented. The DPS ceiling actually went from two extreme ends to a more stable damage-dealing game. Sure the insane damage spike is gone, but I'm not a fan of rolling a twenty-sided die. At the same time, Hurricane goes for two ticks. For a 15-second duration effect, I'm hoping the developers don't increase the ticks unless someone else can prove my approach can break the game come Update 32 and beyond. That's clearly impossible if you're to ask me. If I'm sticking to my current gear setup, I'd have to push the AoE damage via the Warfare CP. Maybe I should have done that a long time ago instead of having to do it soon? I never contemplated whether the Force Pulse proc would be affected. That plus I never intended Boundless Storm to play a part in the DPS. Switching to Hurricane means I need to test certain things due to the maximum AoE. And besides, I just started messing with it last night.
So why am I going on so much about Hurricane? The reason is with the change in Update 32, I have every reason to do that. As a DPS, I can see the intent is to allow Stamina abilities to play a meaty supporting role to Magicka DPS and vice versa. If the approach doesn't break the game, it means it's a success. The equation is that simple and zero-sum. Already, I can clock more than 11-13K damage despite having yet to tweak the Warfare CP while running on open-map solo difficulty. Update 32 is going to up the ante and I can't wait for it to arrive.
This comes to the question of whether racial passives are going to play a far bigger role than we might imagine otherwise. Dark Elf racial passives are effectively the brute force sibling of the Khajiit while Khajiit racial passives are that technical twin. Two sides of the same coin when you look at it from the DPS perspective. I'm not saying hybridisation is going to buff Dark Elves more than any other race. While I'm not surprised if Dark Elves would benefit more than High Elves and Orcs due to the increase in Stamina and Magicka instead of either, applying the hybrid logic on the Khajiit could present another monster. At this point, it's futile to argue whether the Khajiit is more tactical or whether Dark Elves are more strategic. Both are strategic in their own ways and the same goes for the tactical side. If there's a common theme though, it'd be the likelihood of them benefitting the most from Update 32. For Khajiit, it's all about being a critter in ways more than one. In this sense, there's a greater brute force factor. Base damage wise, Dark Elves would be another kind of brute force DPS.
Update: Test dummied this on a troll in Vvardenfell since I'm more familiar with the spawning points. Deadly Aim and Master-At-Arms was a surprisingly better combination than Biting Aura and Master-At-Arms. Also, Deadly Aim affects Force Pulse proc damage but not Biting Aura. In other words, I burnt 6000 gold just to test that out. Also, I think I'm currently sold on Mother's Sorrow+Diamond's Victory+one-piece Valkyn Skoria+Ring of the Wild Hunt.
This is a post of self-dare (i.e. ownself dare ownself). I was bored and see what was trending in Google. The difference between using a smartphone (no, it doesn't make me any smarter and I'm thankful for that) and the PC is that smartphones do reveal the trending topics in your local Google search engine. Imagine my surprise when one of them happened to be "billie eilish met gala". Being the curious human being I've always been, I decided to see what's the big deal. All I can say is this: Singaporean guys are likely the same as American ones. I'm a guy and therefore I know what I'm talking about.
In case you're asking what's the big gala deal about Billie "not Enuma" Eilish's Met Gala appearance in the eyes of Singaporeans, search and figure this out yourself. I'm not about to do it for you.
So what was the dare? Try to do a blog post NOT inspired by a lass of nineteen winters but Enuma Elish.
Dude, I only heard of Billie Eilish! Enuma Elish? Never heard of it
I'm very sure some know both Billie "not Enuma" Eilish and Enuma Elish, so let's not talk about others who only know one and not the other. I'll be brutally honest here: How I know about Enuma Elish was due to the Fate/stay night series. But one thing led to another. That's how I knew the real Enuma Elish.
Also written as Enūma Eliš (possibly that's the original spelling), it was the Babylonian version of Genesis (yes, laugh at me for all you want because I got nothing to lose by saying this). Interestingly, Enuma Elish seemed to be associated with the oldest literature in human history. Namely, The Epic of Gilgamesh.
It's actually a rambling post leading to nowhere. However, there's a topic. Namely, A Requiem From Winter Past. As a Singaporean, I know there's no chance in hell I'll ever get published. My work is an act of rebellion against the local Singaporean market. Names like Kevin "unrelated to Guan Yu unless proven by science" Kwan and Kyla "unrelated to Zhao Yun unless proven by science" Zhao could get their works published because they knew the right moves to make. Status, if you're to ask me, is secondary. For me, I admit I don't write to please people. Maybe, just maybe, I could get published if I'm Japanese. But that's it.
In my earliest script, there was a hero whose name was Jin Gilgash. Now that's a horrible way to name a character and let me tell you why: Ever tried modifying your fanfic into original fiction as if you're the next E.L "50 pairs of Shades" James? I actually read somewhere that the most famous (?) erotica literature of the 21st century started as a Twilight fanfic entitled Master of the Universe (no He-Man jokes please).
Jin Gilgash belonged to the same category. The name was badly done and I had to do something about this. Some kinda Total Recall, that is.
This was where I needed to make changes. Yet, I wanted to retain a certain "Gilgamesh" feel since the King of Heroes happened to be my intended inspiration for said hero's name. This was where the last name el-Lish hailed from. Again, let me stress this got nothing to do with a girl called Billie Jean King. Instead, it's inspired by Enuma Elish.
This comes to another change. One thing about the fantasy genre is that there's no such thing as a POC protagonist. Myth or fact? I don't know, but the planning process resulted in Jinn el-Lish being a POC. This comes to mind the question of Jinn. Why Jinn? Are we talking about an East Asian character? After all, the word Jin can be used in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Note that I used Jinn instead of Jin from the BTS fame. Jinn is a real word. In Arabian mythology, two prominent names would be there: Djinn and Efreet. Those growing up rolling the die in Dungeons And Dragons, white guy or not, would know what I'm talking about. Like efreet also known as ifrit, the djinn is also called jinn. And that's where I got the name Jinn from. Not East Asian or BTS but Arabian mythology.
This comes to the next part...
Tamurians, Arabs, and... Ainu?!?
Tamurians are originally intended to be my version of the Malay ethnicity. As a member of the racial majority in Singapore, I decided not to rescind my act of racial blasphemy. However, Tamurian naming did undergo a certain change. Initially, Jinn wasn't intended to be a POC. The POC part came as an outcome of a serious change to a dumb mistake. This resulted in another domino block falling down. Namely, the transition of the Tamurian naming system from a Malay-centric approach to the Arab-centric version today.
I need to search my past blog posts to verify whether the current version is El/el for men and Al/al for women. But you get the drift. Interestingly, I decided not to go full Arab here. The naming system is closer to the Ancient Near East feel rather than the descendants of Ishmael. But because I'm no scholar or Claudia's PhD schoolmate, I have to rely on the feel of the deal. This is where my artistic instincts kick in. I can't explain to you how it works because I don't even know how it works. All I know is that it works. Well, sort of since I require some actual Ancient Near Eastern names to create something.
But because I'm more familiar with how Malay names flow instead of Akkadian or Sumerian, I decided to mess around with things. All in the name of creativity like how others mess with people in the name of social experimentation spelt in German. A prominent example would be a female character named Roshamahat (I need to think over my choice of her last name). This is a combination of Malay and The Epic of Gilgamesh. The first syllable is a common sight in Malay naming from Rosmah to... well, any Malay name starting with Ros. The remaining syllables were inspired by Shamhat, a vital female character in The Epic of Gilgamesh and an important woman in Enkidu's life.
As for the Ainu influence, it actually came much later. It wasn't from the beginning that I realised there's something not right with my facial features. In fact, sometimes I now suspect the reason why I had no friends was that I don't look Singaporean. Instead, I resembled more like half an Ainu even though I didn't realise they're 100% real back then. Yes, I knew Nakoruru and Rimururu of the Samurai Shodown fame. But that's it.
That's where I zeroed in. Initially, I intended Tamurian women to have heart-shaped faces. Going through images of Ainu women and using my brain, I made the jawline... well, Ainu. Albeit it's likely inaccurate and equally over-patronising. I wouldn't be surprised if women of Turkic ethnicity also have this kind of facial shape, though.
A/N 2: Come to think of it, little Shannah reminded me of Maru when she's a toddler. Hope KBS 장로 won't execute me for saying that about his younger daughter.
Homosexual characters and why you shouldn't assume inclusivity
As a guy of creativity, I'm not above creating homosexual characters. As a guy of creativity, however, I do commit mistakes. Writing A Requiem From Winter Past actually involved dumb mistakes and having to learn from them. One of the most notable acts of idiocy would be using Park "The Force is strong with this Park-Choi pair" Shin-hye as the physical blueprint for Alestrial Eliaden. While this wasn't a historical first, using someone else to justify an act worthy of seppuku is... well, an act worthy of seppuku. I just don't want to go into the specifics. Seriously, I don't.
For Lukas Broun, I allowed the impetuous fire of youth to consume me. Less than ten years ago, I knew less than ten times what I know today. I'm a method learner for a reason: I was taught the importance of learning but no one taught me how to learn. As a result, either I learn by making mistakes or I can be an idiot until I die by not making mistakes. It's not my parents' fault though since they're being manipulated by the social Darwinian values of the educational system. They're ignorant, but not guilty. Of course, things aren't that bad as in I still can learn without making mistakes. It's just that certain things broke and I can't maintain consistency as a result. I really have to thank my church because I could have been more than ten times worse off.
Back to Lukas Broun. In the earliest draft, he was portrayed as an idealistic youth. After all, who doesn't like such a character? Be you SJW or part of the moral majority, you'd love an idealist instead of Emiya Kiritsugu. It's actually a good thing I didn't need a disastrous Battle of Mikatagahara to sober me up. But the stupidity was real and I made the right call to create a darker Broun.
This comes to the question of whether realism is a form of idealism. Inclusivity is widely celebrated in Hollywood because it is idealism. And idealism is the opposite of realism. It's an over-simple way of explaining how things work, but it's a good stepping stone to understand how reality functions instead of having others tell you how it works. Creating homosexual characters initially felt tricky to me. The reason being that whether people will mistake my realism for a hemisphere's worth of idealism.
That's where Borat came into the picture. The issue with Borat when it was released was never about whether it's anti-Semitic. If you think otherwise, that's because the media never stated the guy responsible for a supposedly anti-Jewish movie happened to be a Jew instead of Osama bin Laden. Sacha "The Baron Who Trolls Like This" Baron Cohen is a Jew. Therefore, how can a Jew produce an anti-Jewish work?
An appalling episode of people jumping the gun actually emboldened me to try jumping from one cliff to another. The reason why being this: Realism is my intention. If you want to cram inclusivity down my throat, know that I function more like an arrogant Japanese than an idealistic American. The world doesn't revolve around my whims, but this also means it doesn't revolve around your politics.
Shakespeare shaking things up?
In the previous scripts, I opted for non-Shakespearean names for some of my characters. Then things changed. While I don't recall a single male character, it's very true for female characters. I don't want to go in-depth on why I decided to utilise my inner Shakespearean wannabe because it's quite frankly a complicated affair. But I find there's a need to change certain things and Shakespearean names come to mind. Currently, only three Shakespearean names are used: Ophelia from Hamlet, Hermia from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Cressida from Troilus and Cressida. However, I'm intending to add a fourth. Hopefully, I can get the next chapter out since I got like 60-80% of the stuff done in my head.
Now I know there are plenty of intellectual activists critiquing Shakespearean works so let me just point out that if a female character was to be a victim, it's because the world was cruel. I'm not encouraging a victim mentality, but I believe understanding a cruel world is better than denying the factual. A victim's suffering is proof of what's wrong with human nature. This is my understanding of Ophelia's character. She's a victim but she didn't deserve it. On one hand, it's Hamlet's fault. On the other, it's the fault of a cruel world both happened to be in. Ironically, Hamlet's death was the strongest proof of Ophelia's innocence.
This comes to mind whether Aeravor happened to be an intentional Prince of Denmark (i.e. notthis one). The answer is no. It's a coincidental clicking of the gears than anything else. When I decided to use Shakespearean-inspired names, I had to think about which ones would fit the bill. In the current updated version, only two. This means I'm motivated to find ways and means to make the remaining one or two matter instead of a Great Bird Kamuy's whims. Maybe I'll fail, though.
Napishtim, Deis, and... Berserk?!?
Believe it or not, I'm no stranger to a morally wrong church culture. I don't want to go in-depth because I understand myself better than other people even though I'm unable to do so 100%. They say you are what you speak, I say I am what you speak. Those who spent their lives talking at another person always risk creating another Fool of Owari. So no, I don't want to start insulting people because I know what I'm capable of.
It was from the truth (note that I never say my truth) that the idea of a literally underground church surfaced. The typical underground church is persecuted for doing nothing wrong. Look at nations where religious liberty is non-existent and tell me how many Christians were charged for rape or murder. Their only crime was worshipping God instead of Caesar.
The idea of Napishtim hailed from The Epic of Gilgamesh where there's a character called Utnapishtim. He happened to be the Sumerian version of Noah. However, it's a terribly stupid idea. This comes to an alternative: Deis. Inspired by the word deism, I find it a better fit since the philosophy of deism is that God can't be bothered. This is an actual belief of 404 God Not Found. Why 404 God Not Found? Because God can't be bothered to appear. You may think it's funny, but it is not. You may think I'm joking, but I am not.
One thing I made sure about the world I created is that it has to be dark. Another thing is the 404 God Not Found logic which notable works of Japanese dark fiction are known for. Therefore, everyone and every system must be subjected to the same standard. Deis is no exception.
In earlier scripts, Napishtim/Deis was created as a massive underground city. There were influences of the medieval church where things got ugly, dark, and political before Martin Luther started confronting the authorities. Not with a speech but the Ninety-Five Theses. Not with the Civil Rights Movement but the Reformation. I won't deny the location was a parody of what went wrong in a church culture where people have too much instead of just plenty. I did think about it, weigh the decision, and decide to let it stay. It's not an intentional parody but it'd be good if people can be provoked to think instead of repeating 6th January 2021.
This comes to an interesting question: Am I going to totally vilify Deis? As much as I hate what is evil, I must acknowledge what is real. Namely, the men of Nineveh were no more sinful than Jews and citizens of Sodom alike. Also, I have no intention to create monsters out of characters or institutes just because I don't like certain things.
Magic swords, magic spears, and equally magic katanas... okay, the last one is ten stretches too long. In the beginning, I was under too much Nasuverse influence. So much so that I need to do something about it. There are two ways to do it: Either create my own language like Tolkien or come up with another way. Clearly, I chose the latter because I'm just a lazy mundane hack.
My decision to utilise actual mythology remains. This is because it's easier for me to come up with the new names based on the actual blueprint. This is where Voldermort comes to mind. Now I don't care about what J.K "not joking" Rowling did to anger evangelicals or what she said to anger liberals. As for the cancel culture, that thing can burn forever for all I care. Anyway, the major challenge lies in whether I can maintain consistency. Not in terms of naming but rather using actual mythological weapons as the blueprint. It's definitely a gauntlet I relish taking up.
Crazy Rich Asians
Another moment qualifying me as a crazy poor Asian would be Cinha. I don't want to speculate whether I was accidentally being a racist (i.e. there's no such thing as an accidental racist unless socio-political rules decide to lie). But the name Cinha was from a fictional nation called Cina. The said work was from Fictionpress and I admit I should have tried harder in the creative department.
Thankfully, my natural curiosity ensured things could be salvaged. If not, I'd be called a plagiarist. This was where Yaguryeo came into the picture. It's a combination of two words: Yayoiand Goguryeo. My idea of an East Asian counterpart has never been based on being Chinese, never mind the fact (?) my facial featureslook weirdlyJapanese. Rather, my intent was to pull off a unification albeit not like Liu Bang, Tokugawa Ieyasu, or Seondeok. To be honest, it's not 100% done. Character naming-wise, I've already settled on a combination of ancient Japanese (i.e. examplesgivenhere) and Korean. This left only the architectural style unaccounted for. I don't have to tell you where I'm heading here.
Viva La Raza
How do you create a character? More specifically, how do you create an anti-heroic protagonist? It's very easy to create one while trying absurdly hard not to offend people. Storytellers are not meant to be teachers. While I believe in integrity displayed in creativity (something which a lot of people would call me a barking mad Israelite for), this merely means educators should display an actual semblance of integrity while the same goes for parents. If more people actually takes this seriously, we wouldn't be seeing that.
When I first created Aeravor, I never intended him to be... well, that extreme. It's like trying to creating a Steve "Texan not born in Austin" Austin only to create an Eddie "I don't care if you like me, everybody wants to fight me" Guerrero. Actually, it's more like a 2-in-1. But I guess that's what an anti-hero should look like. If you're out to win the popularity contest, create a heroic protagonist. If you don't care about public opinions, create an anti-heroic main character. After all, this isn't Japanese politics where even I find it easier to accept the popularity of Kono "not Jiro" Taro. Of course, I don't have to agree with him on everything.
Suffice to say, the current version is so much better than what I did from day one. Sure, he's more offensive. But that's what I want. I don't want to create a pseudo-sellsword. I want to create a real one. I don't want to create an anti-heroic paragon of morality. I want to create a character whose honesty can offend you because you know you're never that honest. Anyone can create a character telling so-called his/her truth. I'm out to create characters telling the truth of the world they're in.
In this sense, I'm possibly as crazy as loonies like Isayama "Hametus no Hajime" Hajime, Ishida "unrelated to Mistunari unless proven by science" Sui, Hirano "unrelated to Aya" Kouta, Urobuchi "The Notorious UBG" Gen, and... yes, you've guessed it... Miura "ドラゴン殺し" Kentaro.
If you managed to reach this far...
Then I have to say congratulations. It means you have what it takes to communicate with a madman. Either that or you happened to have the temperament of Oai. To be honest, I don't expect this post to be... well, coherent. If it makes sense, good. Otherwise, I'll just end this post with a few works of great music as compensation.
Before that, I decided to up a song which should be famous by now. While I don't recall Claudia being a BTS Army girl, I remember her as a Coldplayer.
P.S to Ryan and Ah-Hean: Please don't say anything. I'm very sure someone will kill me if you decide to talk. It's only going to be a matter of the surname.
