Wyrmlog – Page 24 – Disordered Thoughts and Curmudgeonly Ramblings

Vague Alternative History Ideas

Some vague ideas towards an alternate universe history (and map) of Australia…

1788: The First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay, establishing the the settlement of Port Botany and the Colony of New South Wales.
1825: The Colony of Van Diemen’s Land is separated from New South Wales.
1826: The settlement of Albany is established at King George Sound at the west of the continent.
1825: Founding of Brisbane.
1827: Fort Wellington founded at Raffles Bay on the north coast of the continent.
1829: The Swan River Colony is established.
1832: The Swan River Colony is abandoned.
1834: Albany is proclaimed the capital of the Colony of New Holland.
1835: John Batman founds Batmania on the Yarra river.
1836: The Colony of South Australia is proclaimed. Land east of the Murray River remains part of New South Wales. Settlement of Adelaide.
1840: Colony of New Zealand proclaimed.
1851: New South Wales south of the Murray River is proclaimed as the Colony of Victoria with the capital at Batmania.
1859: New South Wales north of the 29th parallel and east of 141 meridian east is proclaimed as the Colony of Queensland.
1861: The area of New South Wales west of South Australia is transferred to New Holland.
1863: The area of New South Wales north of South Australia is transferred to South Australia.
1901: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Van Diemen’s Land, Victoria and New Zealand form the Commonwealth of Australia. New Holland refuses, but the eastern goldfields declare independence and join the Commonwealth as the state of Auralia with the Capital at Kalgoorlie.
1911: After a decade of acrimonious debate Batmania is declared national capital. The northern portion of South Australia is separated into the Northern Territory with the capital of Raffles Bay.
1927: The Northern Territory is divided along the 20th parallel, creating the Territory of Central Australia, with the capital of Alice Springs.
1933: New Holland votes to join the Commonwealth in a referendum.
1961: Queensland north of the 22nd parallel is separated as the State of Capricornia with the capital of Townsville.

The Mystery Church of Garratt Road

As I am sure has escaped no one’s notice I am a bit of a nerd. A lot of a nerd to be honest. And given that two of the way ways said nerdery manifests are as a love of maps and a love of history, it should surprise no one that I know a bit more about both the geography and history of my suburb than the average punter staggering out of the Bayswater station Cellarbrations of a Friday night. As such I was quite intrigued of late to stumble over a strange and tantalising local history mystery…

In the run up to Christmas developed a most lamentable and lazy habit of getting the bus home from work rather than getting some exercise in by catching the train and walking from the station. There are several buses that I can catch, the 48 and 55 for instance will drop me right outside my door. The 950 will get me to Morley where I can swap to a 48 or 998, or I could even get the 998 directly from work if I’m happy to spend an extra hour looping around the far side of Herdsmans Lake. If I was feeling particularly insane I could even get the 999 and spend three hours taking in Fremantle and the desolate land of wind and ghosts (AKA south of the river) before returning home. But the bus relevant to this particular mystery is the 41.

The 41 bus behaves like a decent, ordinary 48 or 55 for most of its route before recklessly and without warning veering off into the wild lands between Guildford Road and the river at Maylands. It wanders back and forth through the tangle of suburban streets, emerges briefly back into the light of day at Garratt Road, then plunges back into the wilderness before finally coming to rest only a few blocks from my domicile. If the weather is behaving it’s quite a pleasant walk, taking in both historic Halliday House and the day care centre constructed on top of a PCB dump (if the crazed photocopy stuck up on the IGA noticeboard a few years back is to be believed).

It was at the turn off from Garratt Road a few weeks back that the mystery began. Looking up from my novel I spotted something extremely curious in the distance. It looked for all the world like a church!

Now, I know the local churches. There’s the Catholics at the top of the hill, the Romanian Baptists at the bottom of the hill, the Anglicans halfway down the hill on the other side, the – well I don’t know what it was originally but nowdays it’s the Sikh Gurudwara just a block along from the Anglicans, the Russian Orthodox by the railway line, the Buddhists near the McDonalds, the Ukrainian Orthodox just near the Buddhists and even the Happy Clappys up at the old council offices. But an ecclesiastical building between Guildford Road and the river?! I’d never heard of such a thing!

So, it was time for research! By which I mean jumping onto Google Earth and zooming around the area looking for a suitably religious looking rooftop. It was hard going. I thought I had it briefly but it turned out my sense of scale was off and I was looking at someone’s garage. A good ten minutes of scrolling and jumping in and out of street view left me baffled. Where was this mystery church? Was it a mirage? Was it a hallucination? Was it an illusion created by Ozzy Osbourne? (He does that more than you’d think). I just could not find it!

So I went back to first principals. I dropped back into street view at the Garratt Road turn off and sighted along the line I remembered for the mysterious building. Then I jumped back into satellite view and traced the line forwards…

And it turned out I’d done goofed up.

I had assumed – as I so often do with street grids – that the street grid around Garratt Road was regular. It is not. The street I sited the punitive church down was not parallel to Guildford Road, but was angled to converge at it. To converge in fact dead on the Romanian Baptists. The mystery church that puzzled me so much was an already known church seen from an unexpected angle. Boy was my face red!

So, what is the moral of this lurid tale? I’m not sure there is one. I’m sure I could spin something together about being prepared for unexpected viewpoints and the destination being the starting point, but I’m a web developer, not a self help guru. Just take this as another pointless interlude in my pointless, carefree life.

Hottest 100 Votes 2018

Blah blah, that time of year again, blah blah Triple J Hottest 100, blah blah too depressed to write anything approaching decent commentary, blah blah enjoy my questionable musical tastes ya filthy animals…

Hatchie – Sugar & Spice
1950s infused Shoegaze

Amy Shark – I Said Hi

Superorganism – Everybody Wants To Be Famous
Well, that’s certainly a Superorganism video…

YUNGBLUD – Polygraph Eyes

Grimes featuring HANA – We Appreciate Power
A hymn to that thing we’re not supposed to talk about…

Alex The Astronaut – Waste Of Time
Probably my favourite song of the year

Bec Sandridge – Animal

King Princess – Fell In Love With A Girl (Triple J Like A Version 2018)

The Beths – You Wouldn’t Like Me

Golden Features – Runner

Walk with Haste if you Choose to Stay…

Some time back my good friend Ryan introduced me to Hero Forge – a quite brilliant website that allows you to design customised gaming figurines and then have them 3D printed. I’ve been playing around with it and on a whim decided to try and make figures from the Third Wheel’s equally brilliant web series Thrilling Intent.

I present the results – of varying quality – below.

First up I present our favourite Tiefling Sorcelock – the man who’s made of lies and smiles – Markus Velafi.

This of course is not Markus Velafi. This is merely an innocent bystander. Markus Velafi? Never heard of him.

Of course big man on campus Horatio Protagoniste requires no introduction!

My second attempt at good guy with a glaive, Gregor Hartway. I’m pretty happy with this version.

My final take on Ashe. Now with bracers!

Inien of course, who is better than you. Her costume is a bit off (although suitably stylish if not entirely overwrought), but the attitude is dead on.

Version two of Human Number One (out of a sample size of one), Kier Fiore.

Thog, lead pipe in hand, ready to defend his money from the Tax Goat. I’m actually pretty happy with him, all he needs is a waistcoat (vest to you Americans).

Don’t! Baking pan in hand to make you some delicious pastry (or sacrifice you to her Queen…)

Our favourite giggling purveyor of EXTREMELY CURSED items, Rat!

And here’s one of his awful babies. HRROOONNNK!!

And last but definitely not least Chellisandre Harleaux – AKA Harlock. I’m very happy with this depiction.

I’m probably not done with this. Colvin is likely coming up, and how can I resist Vern with his skeleton legs? But that’s it for today at least…

LATER…

I said I wouldn’t be able to resist making Verne. Here he is, shooting skeletons out of his sleeves and showing off his bony legs (he is a semi-litch after all!).

A not terribly accurate version of Colvin. It’s frankly amazing that I was able to cover up his eye!

A rather dramatic version of Kylil, complete with a lantern.

Hey Guuuuuuuuuurl! It’s Ballast McGee!

And finally the abomination that is Zalvetta (I think that’s what the spirit folk called him, isn’t it?)

Right, I am done now.

Horrible Warhammer 40k Memes

Sometimes I just can’t help myself…

That's a Paddlin' — Oh, you better believe that’s a Paddlin’!

It's GellAr - With an 'A' you idiots! — It’s GellAr – With an ‘A’ you idiots!

The Primarch Leman Ross (Thanks to Ryan for inspiration)

Medieval Holy Land Pilgrimage Monopoly!

It is generally agreed that Monopoly is a terrible board game. It is incredibly long and incredibly dull while at the same time somehow being viciously predatory. It’s the kind of game where you spend hours shuffling bits of paper around while developing a deep and abiding hatred for all the other players, one of whom always wins because they’re so invested in the thing as to have studied the extremely simple yet extremely dull strategies required for a guaranteed win. Burn in boardgame hell Monopoly!

Despite this, my brain has wandered unstoppably down one of those strange little paths of busfuckery that plague me so, and designed a reskin of the game that’s bound to be far more popular than that “Millennial Edition” they’re currently hawking. I have invented Medieval Holy Land Pilgrimage Monopoly!

The streets are replaced with cities on the pilgrimage routes from northwest Europe to Jerusalem. Players collect gold by constructing Inns and Hospices. The railways are replaced with great medieval ports – let’s say London, Venice, Constantinople and Acre – while the utilities are holy relics – perhaps the Spear of Longinus and the True Cross. Players don’t go to Jail, they get captured for Ransom. “Community Chest” becomes “The Knights Hospitaller”, and “Chance” is retitled “Fate” for that true medieval flavour. The playing pieces are – of course – replicas of pilgrim badges.

It will be massive! I await my royalty check from Hasbro.

The Strange Case of Randolph Peterson

Recently my local pizzeria – a place I buy far too many dinners from – underwent a major renovation. As part of this they got rid of the plastic outdoor furniture that was doing service as a place to wait for one’s order and installed a couple of luxurious dining booths, upholstered in funky vinyl decorated with a pattern of reproduced newspaper articles and Cuban postage stamps (yes, you read that right – Cuban postage stamps).

One of these articles has been catching my eye each time I’ve visited, and I here reproduce what parts of it are visible beneath other articles and stamps commemorating Columbus’s voyage to the new world…

MYSTERIOUS DISPARITION [sic]

Randolph Peterson, citizen of Boston that was living at the 138 Lane Street, is said disapeared [sic] since November 18. Randolph Peterson lived in Boston during his young times. At the age of 12 he contracted a strange and very severe illness that grag [sic] him in the coma for one full year. At the age of 13 he waked [sic] up from his coma, the illness was miraculously gone but he suffered of amnesia and had difficulty to readapt [sic] himself to a normal life. This ilness [sic] also left […] Some years ago he went to Africa to pursue some studies on pagan cults and living habits in some Afri- […]of still […] he […]u ive[…] an inspect […] up soon to atr[…] him by the local authorities. If you have any information about where Randol-

What initially attracted my notice to this rather fragmentary account was the combination of extremely Lovecraftian elements, to wit a strange disappearance, New England, the name ‘Randolph’, a mysterious illness, amnesia and pagan cults. It almost read like a retread of The Shadow Out of Time! So I hurried home (once I had my pizza and garlic bread) and started Googling, confident that I would soon uncover whatever piece of sub-Derleth fan fiction the article derived from…

But… nothing….

I have been entirely unable to find any instance of Randolph Peterson and his mysterious vanishing anywhere online.

So, where did it come from?

Assuming that it wasn’t thrown together by some graphic designer on a Cthulhu binge I rather suspect that it may be a genuine article collected from an African newspaper. The rest of the articles used on the pattern appear genuine, and although I’m no linguist the slightly eccentric English has – to me – a distinctly African feeling to it, constructions such as “readapt himself” and “suffered of amnesia” . Randolph Peterson does not appear to exist anywhere on the internet, so I imagine it’s a fairly old article, even though some of the others appear quite recent (one concerns online music teaching).

So there the mystery must rest. Was Randolph Peterson ever real, and if so, what happened to him?

We may never know.

Cartographic Armageddon

Guess what? I’m back on that 40k Mapping thing again!

Behold Armageddon, one of the most fought over planets in the Imperium, with a Chaos invasion led by a Daemon Primarch, two Ork invasions led by Margaret Thatcher and the current general insanity caused by GW’s decision to move the plot forward under its belt.

Armageddon tired of GW's Cartographic Ignorance — Armageddon tired of GW’s Cartographic Failures…

It’s a pretty nice map, however ever since its publication everyone at GW has completely forgotten how to read it.

Look at those lines. That’s right, the curved ones. They indicate that we’re not looking at a flat map, we’re looking at some kind of globular projection. Furthermore notice that the lines are slanted – that means that we’re not looking at the map from a cardinal direction (north, south, east or west), but at an angle. And hey! Look in the upper right hand corner! One of the lines is marked as the equator! This tells us that north is to the upper left!

Unfortunately this is something that has escaped the notice of GW’s writers and artists who have consistently read it as a flattened, north oriented map, even publishing redraws of it with an upwards pointing compass rose slapped on top – most notably in the recent reprint of Gavin Thorpe’s Annihilation Squad (a damn good read actually, despite the compass directions being all screwy BECAUSE NO ONE AT GW CAN READ A GODDAMN MAP!).

Perhaps the silliest aspect of this are the planet’s famous equatorial jungles. If we look at the map above we can see that this name makes sense – they sit right across the planet’s equator. If we go by the later maps however they’re just randomly plonked running north to south, giving one the impression that whatever Ordo Cartographica scribe first charted the planet was hitting the amasec really hard.

So, what to do about this all this malarkey (apart from making a ranting blog post that no one else will ever care about)? Why, redraft the map of course!

Now, this is a bit easier said than done. The globular projection adds all kinds of distortions and while I am sure there is software out there that can correct them in the twinkling of a nurgling’s eye I don’t have access to them. So I decided to go old school and resort to paper and pencil.

Step one was to make the map grid a bit denser. I did this by tracing the existing grid in Inkscape and then running additional lines between each of them, splitting each of the existing map squares into four. Step two was to grab a piece of graph paper and sketch in the details of each square…

So there we have it! That’s what a flattened out, north oriented Armageddon map really looks like! Armageddon Primus is actually north of Armageddon Secundus and the entire continent is stumpier than the angled view suggests

So, I now expect GW to start using this corrected version immediately! ;D

EDIT: Yes, it is rather strange that the continent to the west (the Dead Lands) is completely frozen over while the central continent (at the same latitudes) isn’t. There’s a clue to this in that the eastern continent (the Fire Wastes) appear to be barren desert. This would suggest that Armageddon has a pretty severe axial tilt combined with some rather weird orbital characteristics – which given its ancient history (no spoilers, but go read The Beast Arises…) is actually rather plausible.

With Thanks to John Alison

Evolving from apes is nice but what animal do you wish we would have evolved from?
L. Ron Hubbard said we evolved from clams! (Or possibly intergalactic walruses – I can’t quite remember…)

What is the first rule of fight club?
Don’t tell Ed Norton that he and Tyler are the same person. It just upsets him.

You are allowed to make one law which the human race must obey from now until the end of time. What law do you pass?
At sunrise on New Years Day everyone must gather in the streets and sing the Pina Collada Song, with improvised hand movements.

What rules are stupid and unnecessary?
Not allowing horses on freeways. If I want to barrel a six horse chariot down the intestate while guzzling wine and shooting an AK in the air while shouting “FOR THE GLORY OF CAESAR!” I should be allowed to damnit!!

What happens if you use steroids just once?
Your testicles implode.

Through the great unknown you’re given a chance to eradicate one or the other – Cancer or Racism. Which one do you choose?
Can we compromise and just give all racists cancer?

You just got elected Pope. What do you do as your first reform of the Catholic faith?
Replace the seal of the confessional with a sea lion that loudly barks to alert the police if anyone confesses to sex crimes.

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
Jason and the Argonauts, twenty pounds of macadamia nuts, the Ides of March, the White House China Room, God knows, with great difficulty.

Where do you like to hide out when checking out teens in the morning?
In the back of my specially modified van!

You’ve invented a time machine. What do you do?
Convince Hitler not to name his party the National Socialists and hence massively improve modern twitter discourse.

What’s the most fabulous thing ever?
Pickle Surprise!

What do you think will be the next event that will change life as we know it?
When the Necro-Mantis come
From the deep primeval scum
Making love to everyone…

What is the funniest scene David Attenborough could narrate?
Trump unwrapping and eating a cheeseburger

What is your opinion on weeaboos?
I think if we waste any more time on them we’ll be bankrupt by the end of the month!

What should every 18-year-old know?
The difference between turtles and tortoises.

What about terrapins?
You must be 21!

What do you envy about another country that isn’t your own?
Iceland’s geothermal power and deadly tundras.

If Obama was such a great president, why did my wife leave me?
Clearly she left you for Obama.

Who closes the door to the bus after the bus driver gets out?
The bus ghost. When a new bus is commissioned, a homeless person is ritually sacrificed and their soul bound to the bus for the explicit purpose of opening and closing the doors (I know this because the spirit of the Marquis de Lafayette used to visit me at night and tell me things!).

What’s a popular joke from your country?
The National Broadband Network

Why are you cansada?
I’m not cansada! You’re cansada!!

Why can’t you fourteen werewolves in public?
I know! Why can’t you?!

What is your opinion on introverts?
We are a misunderstood, but sensual people.

What invention, if brought to Medieval Europe, would be the biggest mindfuck to the people there?
Driving the Bagger 288 through downtown Prague in the 10th century would turn a few heads.

What do you think is the worst thing that is inside your house right now?
A giant cockroach named Gary. He comes out at night and reads Marx’s Das Kapital out loud while I’m trying to sleep.

What’s your biggest worry at the moment, and what are you doing to deal with it?
My fridge has started making weird noises and I’m not sure I’ll be able to afford a new one for quite a while. To deal with this I’m planning to go to bed and hide under the blankets until the Earth is engulfed by the expansion of the sun.

If you take one pizza and flip it over and place it on top of another pizza, is it a sandwich?
Only if you add something – such as a slice of luncheon meat or maybe some pickles – between them.

Why is the garage door open?
The damn possums have got in.

What is the quickest way to get famous?
Murder someone who’s already famous.

Why Do We Celebrate Halloween?
Because even Dracula will be there!

What would be a better title for the movie “The Meg”?
The Shark that Couldn’t Slow Down

Why are My Little Pony fans generally perverts?
The ghost of Mr Hands reaches through the Ponyverse and seduces new souls to his twisted proclivities.

If you had the power of Thanos, what would you instantly remove half of?
My body fat.

What makes IHOP a superior restaurant to Waffle House?
“Waffle House” cannot be used as a grammatically correct stand-alone sentence.

What would be the scariest thing to find written on the wall in blood?
HONORIFICABILITATUDINIBUSQUE!!!

Why is adoption such a long and arduous process?
To prevent children from being adopted by people who would eat them.

What is the best movie from the 80’s or 90’s?
Batman and Robin. George Clooney’s performance was so powerful that no one dared make another Batman film for almost a decade!

Can having Aspburgers Syndrome prevent you from joining the military?
Is that when whenever you go to McDonalds the burgers are full of snakes?

What Hogwarts house would American presidents be sorted into?
Trump would be a Slytherin. But one of those really pathetic Slytherins that work as henchmen for the actual smart and cunning Slytherins.

People who have taken gas station sex pills, why, what happened?
I’m not entirely sure, but I woke up three days later in full Gene Simmons makeup with my pockets full of raw tuna and $122 stuffed into my socks.

What did you do with all the paper towels?
Some possums came to the door and asked for them. I was scared, so I complied.

Why do superking cigarettes cost less than normal cigarettes?
Because Superking gave up his powers – both super and royal – to guarantee a supply of cheap tobacco. NEVER FORGET!

What is the side effect of mixing tomatoes with spinach?
Oh god! Sarin!

What are the most important questions to ask the interviewer during a job interview?
Asking questions doesn’t matter, what matters is that you take a Godzilla toy with you and make it roar after you answer each of the interviewer’s questions.

What are the best things to cook in the microwave?
Cellphone batteries wrapped in aluminum foil.

Are there any other ways to reduce ear pain when driving through the mountains?
Puncturing your eardrums will avoid any painful pressure build up!

If you could choose one book as a mandatory read for all High School Students , which book would you choose and why?
Warren Ellis’s Crooked Little Vein. Kids need to be taught about Godzilla bukake in school before they encounter it in the real world.

Construction workers and home builders: what do people need to know when building a home?
If you check the site for ancient Indian burial grounds before starting construction you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble down the line.

Why is there space between the floor and the stall in the bathroom?
So that the number of people in the stall can be monitored, thus maintaining morality!

Immortals, what do you miss about the 1600s?
How happy we all were when Shakespeare died. Fucking poser!

What is the absolute worst Disney movie and why?
That one where Walt herded lemmings off a cliff with a bulldozer while cackling about copyright extensions.

You are a character in an rpg. What are your highest and lowest stats?
Highest: Neuroticism
Lowest: Extraversion
Oh, hang on, that’s not an RPG, it’s the Big Five personality inventory…

How was Santana at Woodstock? Can you describe how amazing that was please?
That’s a misprint. It was Satan and he just hung around backstage smoking spliffs with Hendrix.

Assuming there is life elsewhere in the universe, why haven’t they contacted us yet?
They did back in the 70s, but Carl Sagan was drunk and laughed at them and they haven’t tried since.

What is the third most important language to know in the US?
The language of the Lizard People, so they’ll let you into the secret treasure tunnels under Los Angeles.

Why do dogs have tails if we aren’t supposed to pull on them?
It’s so they have something to take off and leave in the cloak room at formal events.

What part of your anatomy do you wish would get more attention than it does?
My spleen is sadly neglected by the public at large.

How do memes benefit society?
They help keep pathetic man children confined to their mothers’ basements instead of going out and inflicting their inadequacies on society at large.

Do orchestra conductors imagine that they’re badass sound wizards when they’re on stage?
If they don’t, they bloody well should!

How would you feel if Donald Trump came out as bisexual?
Sorry for the LGBT community.

If you had a castle with a moat, what would you fill the moat with (apart from alligators)?
Manatees. Screw security, manatees are cool!

Who performed the best bass vocal you have ever heard?
Tay Zonday!
He’s the guy who sang Choc-o-late rain!
Tay Zonday!
You thought you’d never hear his name again!

Why didn’t anyone stop whoever named the planet Uranus?
Because they were mature, intelligent people who knew the word is pronounced “Urine-Us”.

What’s your favorite accent?
Whatever the hell kind of accent Professor Alice Roberts has.

How much is too much ice cream?
Enough to drown a fully grown race horse.

How much would you charge to wash every window of all the hotels in downtown Las Vegas?
One billion dollars and a copy of Big Tyme by Heavy D & the Boyz.

What are the best ways for a tourist not to get robbed while walking around the US?
Smear all your clothing in feces. This also guarantees getting a seat – possibly even an entire train carriage – to yourself while using public transit.

If your life had a narrator, who would you choose to narrate your story?
Benedict Cumberbatch, and I’d make sure to regularly dress up as a penguin.

What’s your favorite Spongebob episode?
The one where he accidentally kills Squidward and then has to kill Patrick to cover it up, then has to kill Mr Krabs to cover that up and so on until everyone in Bikini Bottom is dead and ground up into Krabby Patties.

What moves would be in the video game Moral Kombat?
The Gish Gallop

What does George Soros want to see the world become?
A barren desert where Marxists and Homosexuals roam the wastes in armored dune buggies, fighting over the last remaining copies of On the Origin of Species.

How would you feel about adulterers receiving the death penalty?
Seems a tad extreme.

If you had to be in an empty room alone for an unknown amount of hours and you can’t sleep or you’ll miss your chance to leave, how would you keep yourself entertained?
Sing. As loudly and badly as I can in the hope that whoever’s observing me will get so sick of it they let me out early.

Why do you think voting is important?
All kinds of morons vote, so you need to vote to cancel at least one of them out.

What boils your blood in less than 3 seconds?
Extremely low air pressure.

What do you think is going to happen?
Nicolas Cage will open the third seal revealing a black horse on a set of scales and there shall be a measure of wheat for five dollars and three measures of barley for a buck fifty and crude oil and wine shall go for 20 pesos a barrel.

How do cats always land on their feet?
Cats have a natural ability to generate gravitons (which is also why physicists are always locking them in boxes).

Men who live by themselves, what decorations do you have in your living room? Do you have any plants?
D… decor… decorations?

What is the most exhilarating thing you’ve ever done?
Pointing out the shortcomings of others.

What would be the best opening line for a novel?
It was the best of times and the sky above the port was the color of a dark and stormy night.

Why is everything crooked?
Have you been playing with the universal gravitational constant again?

If people are fighting for same-sex marriages, will there come a time when voices will be raised for incest, polygamous and bestial relationships?
OH MY GOD!! IT’S THE SLIPPERY SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE!!!!!!

Which local celebrity would you want to voice your local transit system?
Heath Ledger – but in character as the Joker

What industry or technology do you think will be the next big thing?
I’ve got one word for you, Benjamin – plastics!

What is your rapper name?
MC Nine Hundred Foot Millipede

What is the best Acronym you’ve heard for the word “Adidas”?
All Day I Dream About Sarcoidosis

What would you say to Steve Jobs if he was front of you right now?
Dude! Chemotherapy!

Where’s a place you’ve always felt like an outsider?
Earth.

What adjectives would you use to describe what Jesus was like?
Jewish

What do you prefer in a corona, a slice of lemon or lime?
Personally I’d prefer several tonnes worth of thermal and radiation shielding. Citrus fruit ain’t gonna do nothing!

Why does the alphabet end at Z?
Well it used to end with Ȝ but that was no good for no one.

On Cnossath and its Knights

This post is part of the Skereig Subsector project

Name	Cnossath Prime
Segmentum	Segmentum Tempestus
Sector	Chiros Sector
Subsector	Skereig Subsector
System	Cnossath System
Population	430,000,000

The Knight World of Cnossath Prime (or simply ‘Cnossath’) was discovered and settled by humanity at some point prior to M23. A temperate world with three major continents and several island chains it hosts three (originally four) Knight Houses that owe fealty to the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World of Volund Two-Seven.

Traditions preserved on Cnossath maintain that the planet was settled by four separate colony ships, each claiming exclusive dominion over a planetary region (the ancient technology at the heart of the three remaining House Strongholds would appear to bear this legend out). Each Colony developed into a nation state ruled by Knights – House Cashel on the western continent, House Ventris on the north of the eastern continent, House Mabb on the eastern continent’s southern peninsula and House Krater on the central islands. The frigid northern continent was claimed by House Ventris but unoccupied (apart from mining colonies) due to adverse environmental conditions.

A peculiarity of the Houses of Cnossath, traceable as far back as the planet’s histories reach, is that the Thrones Mechanicum of their Knight Suits lack the indoctrination protocols found on almost every other Knight World. It is unclear if this anomaly is by design or simply the result of some ancient accident, but it allows a far greater degree of individuality to the planet’s Knight pilots. It has also led to a bloody history of conflict and warfare between – and occasionally even within – the Houses.

Volund Two-Seven Maker's Plate — Volund Two-Seven Maker’s Plate

Cnossath first came to the attention of outsiders in M27 during the Age of Strife. An Adeptus Mechanicus colonisation fleet – dispatched during a lull in the galactic warp storms – settled the world of Volund Two-Seven on the far side of what would – millennia later – be absorbed into the Imperium as the Skereig Subsector. Explorators from Volund soon discovered Cnossath and the Knight Houses that ruled it. The Houses swore allegiance to Volund in return for the knowledge to repair and maintain their Knight Suits, however they retained much more autonomy than is standard in such relationships. An ancient legend claims the Houses traded “a treasure of great price” for this autonomy, a story that has been linked to both Volund Two-Seven’s mastery of unusually strong crystalline alloys and to the unusual nature of Cnossath’s Thrones.

It was the freedom allowed by the Thrones – and the lack of Adeptus Mechanicus control over the houses – that led to the greatest crisis in Cnossath’s history. In 218.M37 during one of the planet’s regular Knight Wars, the Stronghold of House Mabb and its surrounding hive city were destroyed by a titanic plasma breach triggered by a combined bombardment from forces of Houses Cashel and Ventris. The scale of this disaster – and the damage inflicted upon the survivors and their holdings – led to the three remaining Houses negotiating a set of laws governing their interactions and to standardise resolution of disputes – a document they named the Mabb Concordat.

The Concordat replaced warfare with ritual combat between champions and established a system of standard penalties for breaches of honour both between and within Houses. Designed from the outset to be flexible and to expand when necessary, the Concordat ended millennia of conflict, and under its rule both the Houses and common folk of Cnossath prospered.

It is therefore a great irony that while the Knights of Cnossath are free of the burden of conditioning by their Thrones, the ever expanding rules of the Mabb Concordat have created a society every bit as restrictive as on any other Knight World. Over two thirds of all calendar days require the nobles of the Houses to perform certain rituals or abstain from specific behaviours. The wearing (or non wearing) of specific clothing is common, as are restrictions on what foods may be eaten and at what times. Nobles of different ranks may be prohibited from communicating, or may only communicate in strange and roundabout fashions. Certain texts may have to be read out by specific Nobles, many of which are in archaic dialects extinct for centuries. The onerous nature of these requirements are believed to account for the comparatively high numbers of Freeblade Knights hailing from Cnossath.

Also contributing to the number of Cnossath Freeblades is the tradition of the Geas Penitens. A Knight that seriously violates the Concordat may find themselves penalised with the application of a penitent quest. They are ceremonially banished from their House, and assigned a task or series of tasks that must be completed before they may be re-accepted. These tasks usually take the Knight off-world and may take decades to complete. Many Knights so banished never complete their Geas and take up the mantle of a Freeblade rather than try to recover their lost honour.

Rarer than the Geas Penitens is the Geas Portorium. If a high noble of a House finds themselves in significant debt to an individual or organisation they may pay off that debt by assigning a subordinate Knight or Knights to their command. Such deals are a common way of dealing with disputes both within and between Houses, but a Geas Portorium refers specifically to Knights assigned outside of the Houses, and usually off-world. To be assigned to a Geas Portorium is viewed as a great honour, as no House would be so ignoble as to attempt to pay off a debt with any but their best.

A Knight undertaking a Geas Penitens defaces the crest on their tilting plate with a diagonal black stripe and repaints their Knight Suit to obscure all house colours and personal heraldry. A Knight assigned to a Geas Portorium maintains their House and personal heraldry, but repaints their Suit to match that of the individual or body they are assigned to.