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Hi, so as you should all know by now I won't be on the shard for a while, so I put this blog together because it turns out you can have delayed publication on these things. So yeah, I'll try to have at least one for each month I'm gone to remind you all that I exist and what not So yeah, look forward to that.

As discussed prior, the energy of the multiverse can be divided into four quadrants. Each quadrant has its own mechanics associated with it, including a solid form of that energy. These solids are known as fundamental substances, for it is from them that the worlds are made. Chaotic-Darkness: Mordite Unlike other forms of chaotic-dark essence, mordite does not destroy things it comes in contact with. Under most circumstances, it is inert. It can even be alloyed with other materials.This does not mean it is not dangerous, however; in fact, due to one simple property, mordite is perhaps the most dangerous thing in all of existence. This property of mordite is its ability to kill anything. No being is safe; not humans, not robots, not gods. Even the Witherlord could be slain with a mordite blade (that is, barring his ability to simply control any mordite that might be wielded against him). Just because a mordite blade can kill doesn't mean it always will - a glancing blow, one that does not strike the core of a being, will only gravely wound. But it will wound, resisting whatever magical healing factor the creature might have. Ordered-Darkness: Nullite Not much is known about the nullite: it is only the ennullers that have access to it, and they are notoriously secretive. Nullite is used to power the magic system of Silence, including the barriers that keep the most powerful entities in the universe trapped. Chaotic-Light: Prismite (commonly known as Narrativium) Prismite is by far the most common of the fundamental substances, especially within the confines of the Wall. Pieces of it are known as dream crystals and are used by various dream artists as a source of power for innumerable magic systems. Dream crystals are also used by dyrlings in a similar fashion to power their wild magic. Prismite is the substance that forms the matter of the world. Each dream crystal contains within it its own world, known as a dreamscape. Dream artists manipulate this dreamscape- consciously or unconsciously - and then project it onto the prismite of reality. The most powerful examples of this are the Narrators, who dictate whatever they desire. Ordered-Light: Luxite Luxite has been almost completely eradicated from reality in the present day. It specializes in the manipulation and the control of energy. Its best-known use is as a weapon against chaotic-dark entities, but it is also critical in maintaining the structure of the universe. Luxite forms the foundation upon which everything else is built, and without it all of reality would be subject to the ravages of the Void.

Thank you for stopping by at Trutharchivist’s Rambles again! This is Trutharchivist (not that you were expecting anyone else), and in my next post I’d like to talk about Neo-Orthodox Judaism. To summarize the previous few posts, we talked about the Haskalah movement from the 18th century and its ideology, then how it led to Jews slowly trying to somewhat assimilate to their local culture - eventually leading to a Reform in the Jewish faith, with Orthodox rabbis resisting it through the beginning of the 19th century. And now, we’ll talk about a balance that was created between Orthodoxy and Haskalah during the 19th century - a balance that was named Neo-Orthodoxy or Modern Orthodoxy, for balancing tradition and change, or modernity. Now the idea here is to allow new ideas in, while still keeping true to the traditional ways of the Torah. So unlike in Reform Judaism, there is no giving up on the Messianic ideal or critical study of the Torah - since the Torah is seen as G-d’s word, and not just a text written by humans. On the other hand, Neo-Orthodoxy was far more accepting to studying science and philosophy than Ultra-Orthodoxy, and its prominent rabbis sometimes made a sermon in the local language and not Hebrew - which while controversial wasn’t forbidden in any way according to the Halacha. Before we continue to talk about the prominent rabbi I want to use as an example for that branch, though, I’d like to talk a bit on what made it so difficult for me to write this installment. It wasn’t just the war - though it did have a big part in it. It definitely wasn’t for a lack of a rabbi to use as an example - I had someone very specific in mind ever since I conceived of this series of essays. My list of prominent rabbis and thinkers for this was always going to be Moses Mandelssohn, Abraham Geiger, Ḥatam Sofer, Rashar Hirsch and Zacharias Frankel, all mentioned in past essays and claimed to be discussed later. No, my issue was the precise distinction of Neo-Orthodox from Ultra-Orthodox and its relation to the current division of Jews in Israel. The problem is, while I claim that those topics are ones still in discussion and relevant to this very day, things did change a bit in the previous 200 years, mostly regarding Zionism. This is also why I avoided touching the “where are they now” point in the previous essay - the division between Neo-Orthodoxy and Ultra-Orthodoxy are a little less apparent nowadays, with the major differences being more along the lines of Zionism. I’ll talk about some of it by the end of this essay, but I reserve discussing Zionism and anti-Zionism to a later date - likely a much later date, I’m afraid. Anyway, back to our topic! While there are a couple of other examples for Neo-Orthodox rabbis, one of the most prominent among them was Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, abbreviated to Rashar Hirsch usually. He was born in Hamburg (then a part of the Napoleonic Empire) in 1808. The perceptive of you will note that assuming his family didn’t move, he was 10 during the Temple dispute - a fact referred to in a biography of his written by one of his descendants I’ve had the luck to read. Said book either uses creative license - or knowledge from a source I don’t have - to write about a meeting occurring in the Hirsch household, for discussion about the Temple. It’s likely that Rashar Hirsch heard of it anyway even if it wasn’t this way, and it likely influenced him later. The young Hirsch studied under Ḥacham Isaac Bernays - an interesting Jewish scholar into himself, if slightly less well-known. He was among the first Orthodox rabbis to carry a Drasha, a sermon, in German instead of Hebrew or Yiddish, and chose to call himself Ḥacham - wise man - instead of rabbi, for some reason. The biography of Rashar Hirsch mentioned above claims it was to differentiate himself from the Reform rabbis by taking on a title from Sepharadi Jewish origin, but I don’t know. Anyway, Rashar Hirsch grew up in a very Orthodox family, though he studied from a relatively more open rabbi. Originally he intended to study to become a merchant, but he eventually forsook it for the study of the Torah and went to Manheim for that purpose in 1828. After studying there for a while he got a Semikha - he was ordained to be a rabbi. Then, in 1830, he went to the University of Bonn to study there. Sounds familiar? Well, it should, because guess who also studied there at the time. If you’ve been following my essays so far, you’ll note that at this exact time, Abraham Geiger also went to the University of Bonn. While the latter wasn’t ordained as a rabbi yet, the two became study partners - until Rashar Hirsch left to serve as a rabbi in Oldenburg not long after he went to university. By the time Geiger started his activities, Rashar Hirsch became one of his most outspoken opponents. From here on out, there’s quite a lot to say about Rashar Hirsch that would be relevant. To make it relatively short, I’ll start by listing the places where he served as rabbi - after the Duchy of Oldenburg in northern Germany he went to the city of Emden (which is apparently around the same area) in 1841, and later he became the Chief Rabbi of Moravia - which nowadays is a part of the Czech Republic - in 1846. From there, in 1851, he went to serve as the rabbi in a small sub-congregation in a city in Germany - perhaps you’ve heard of it? It was called Frankfurt-am-Main, where he served for the rest of his life. Why, yes, it is the same Frankfurt from which both Ḥatam Sofer and Abraham Geiger originated from! I’m glad you noticed. You see, the Jewish community in Frankfurt was a large and prominent community among the Jews in Germany. Even talking outside of what you;ve learned from my essays, you may well have heard of the Rothschild family of Jewish bankers - they originated from Frankfurt. I daresay this essay isn’t likely to be the last time we visit the city, though it might still be the latest time period we visit it in. Either way, I intend to go back to Rashar’s period in Oldenburg before continuing on to Frankfurt, because while in Oldenburg, Rashar Hirsch wrote two of his prominent books: Nineteen Letters on Judaism (published originally under a Pseudonym), which is a fictional correspondence between a young Jew influenced by the changing times and his studious friend, and an elaboration on the Letters - which was actually the original book, the letters being more or less a summary - named Horeb, or Essays About the Duties of Israel in Exile. Both books were written in German - an unusual move for an Orthodox rabbi at the time, but the Jewish youths who were the intended audience knew little Hebrew so it was necessary. I have not read either book, sadly - I only took a quick peek into the Nineteen Letters, if memory serves it’s mostly made of arguments regarding the Torah and perhaps G-d. But our point here is to point out what is unique about the movement known as Neo-Orthodoxy. So, the first noticeable point is likely the excessive use of German. One likely reason is that the intended audience for Rashar Hirsch’s sermons and books merely understood German better than Hebrew or Yiddish. Such points were a factor in other religious books historically - a couple of books were written in Arabic explicitly so the average Jew could understand them, like Ḥovot HaLevavot (Duties of the hearts) by Rabenu Baḥya Ibn Paquda, maybe the Book of Beliefs and Opinions by Rav Sa’adia Ga’on, and likely Maimonides’ commentaries on the Mishnah. Yet, some people shied away from that in more modern times due to the association with Reform Judaism and secularity - Rashar Hirsch didn’t, though. To talk about another, perhaps more fundamental, point of innovation from Rashar Hirsch, though, I’m going to move on to his time as a rabbi in Frankfurt. You need to understand that by this time - the late ‘40s of the 19th century - the larger Jewish community in Frankfurt was Reform. Now, you might think it was the time of Geiger as a rabbi there and a reunion between the former friends - nope, it wasn’t, the current rabbi of Frankfurt at the time was one Leopold Stein. Geiger didn’t make his comeback until a couple of years later. Anyway, all that is not to say there weren’t Orthodox-aligned Jews in Frankfurt; there were, and they elected to separate from the major congregation in 1849. Legally it was a complicated matter - separation of Church and State, while not unheard of, wasn’t applied at the time, and if you were a Jew you had to belong to the Jewish congregation in your city. Still, they managed to found a small congregation of their own called ‘Adas Yeshurun. By ‘51 they managed to get approval to have their own rabbi, and one of their candidates was none other than Rashar Hirsch. Now, I have very little idea regarding how the process of picking a rabbi for a congregation, city or state was conducted. There usually were multiple candidates who wanted the office, and one of them was picked - but in many cases, requests were sent to rabbis who already served somewhere, Rashar Hirsch being an example, and they could choose to simply refuse and stay where they were. The congregation they currently served tended to try and convince them to stay, and Rashar Hirsch was definitely someone the state of Moravia wanted to keep. In addition, you can clearly see that this would be a stp down - from the Chief Rabbi of a state to the rabbi of a sub-congregation in what was definitely a major city - but nothing more than a city. But here’s a counterpoint: they needed him more. By that time, Rashar Hirsch was already known for his opposition to Reform. It may well be that there was a fight to be had at Moravia, but I’m pretty sure there were enough Orthodox rabbis to continue on the work there. In Frankfurt, on the other hand, the Orthodox congregation was a minority, and it was subjugated to the Reform congregation (which, for understandable reasons, didn’t want the Orthodox to be independent like this; not wanting old-fashioned ideas is something common among people who see themselves as enlightened). That was reason enough for Rashar Hirsch to move there. One of the first things Rashar Hirsch did in his new congregation was found a school, for what is the point of having an Orthodox congregation if the children are taught by the Reform one and will grow to join it? In general, education was one of the most important things in Rashar Hirsch’s eyes - I’m not sure I remember it precisely, but I think it’s apparent from his commentaries on the Torah (Pentateuch), which I probably don’t even need to say were written in German. I won’t claim to know much about Hirsch’s educational philosophy, but I do know of one major point of difference between it and a traditional school: it taught general sciences, while still staying loyal to studying the Torah and living by it. That was in realization of Rashar Hirsch’s motto - “Torah ‘Im Derech Eretz”, lit. Torah with the Way of the Land. Rashar Hirsch didn’t see modern ideas as opposed to Judaism, but tools that could be used in conjunction with it. There are a couple of additional points to be mentioned - for example, Rashar Hirsch did think Emancipation could be a blessing for the Jews, and tried to convince the members of his congregation to leave the major congregation of Frankfurt when it was permitted - though with limited success. He also (unsurprisingly) saw much value in religious studies and tried founding a Yeshivah - an institute for religious Jewish learning - in Frankfurt, which his congregation also didn’t support much. He also resisted Zionism, as part of his views. He was not the only major innovative Orthodox rabbi of his time - one other name that cropped up was Rav Azriel Hildesheimer, who founded a Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin - I don’t know nearly enough about him though, I’m afraid. So, in modern day, where are the Orthodox Jews? Where are the disciples of Rashar Hirsch and Ḥatam Sofer? Well… It’s kind of complicated. Orthodox Jews can be found in many places across the globe, but like (I think) @Kingsdaughter613 (sorry for the tag, hope you don't mind) could attest, the major communities will be found either in the state of New York and around it, or in Israel. By that I mean generally Orthodox communities. Regarding the specifics of the Ultra vs Modern, though, this is the complicated part. I won’t speak much about the USA here - frankly, there are others here better equipped than me to talk about this. It’s likely also true about Reform and Conservative Judaism - honestly, it’s more true with those two - but I have no idea, I can’t tell and thus I’m saying what I can and hope I may be corrected. Anyway, one institute I think can safely be called Modern Orthodox in the USA is the Yeshivah University in New York. In addition, quite a few American Jews come to Israel to study in Israeli Yeshivas - I would say the ones coming to places like the Gush, Kerem B’Yavneh and Ma’aleh Adumim are likely more Modern Orthodox. More than that I honestly can’t say much. In Israel, there is a division between the Ḥareidim - roughly translated as pious/G-d-fearing - and the Religious-Zionists. Those are rough but imprecise equivalents of Ultra Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Jews, respectively. The issue at hand, though, is that… well… Rashar Hirsch was opposed to Zionism. So were many of his students. Being a Religious-Zionist, though, kind of requires one to be a Zionist, right? So, how does this work? Well, to try and not make too much of a mess of things, I’ll say that the Yekkes (Jews of German origin) who came to Israel originally didn’t consider themselves part of the Religious-Zionist community. They even founded their own school, called Ḥoreb - which likely had a thing to do with Rashar Hirsch’s book. Nowadays, though, this school is one of the most prestigious Religious-Zionist schools. I’m not 100% sure how that came to be - a major figure in the community turning Zionist or something? The rather segregationist tendencies of the Ḥareidim clashing with their ideas and the Yekkes not being enough people to form their own group? All of the above? That happened, anyway. And yet, when some people who consider themselves Neo-Orthodox come to Israel from abroad, they tend to join the Ḥareidi communities - they somehow see themselves closer to them. In short, this internal Orthodox division isn’t as clear cut as you might think. There are even Religious-Zionists who are somewhat more Ultra-Orthodox than the rest. So, I think it could be said this is a little complicated. In short: Neo-Orthodoxy or Modern Orthodoxy is a movement of Jews that stayed completely loyal to the Halachic rules but were willing to accept things like general studies at a young age and usage of other languages in sermons, though perhaps not in prayers. Rashar Hirsch is a good example of this, and made his innovations in multiple places but mostly in Frankfurt-am-Main, where he more or less saved the Orthodox congregation from assimilating back to the Reform one. He had a couple of clashes with Reform Jews which weren’t really elaborated upon - one guy named Heinrich Graetz studied under him in Oldenburg , and later became a famous Jewish historian… who also went in a slightly less Orthodox direction, and Rashar Hirsch opposed him over that. He wasn’t exactly Reform, though - we might touch on the movement he belonged to in the next essay. Anyway, Rashar Hirsch’s motto was Torah with the Way of the Land, something that was expressed in how his school taught both religious and core studies. Thank you for reading this far, and have a good day! (P.S., I realize that I didn’t always mention my sources so far, so I wanted to take the opportunity to list some of them - for the most part those are the Wikipedia articles on the movements and people I mention, in addition to (in some cases) the Hebrew Encyclopedia in its article on tradition and change, books by the rabbis mentioned, general knowledge from my history lessons in high school and Mandelssohn’s biography. Just wanted to mention them in case I’d forget to later.)

Happy new year. So there's usually a spoiler stream in January, hopefully by that time they have a new location to source questions from since I don't think they are using Reddit anymore. I guess I might as well put up some questions I would like to see answered, a lot of these can be found on my about me section but I added a few Anyway, anything interesting this month?

It's December time, State of Sanderson and whatnot Also I did a thing I'm a dork I know. Anyway did anything interesting happen this month?

I don’t want to say “there’s a hole in my heart” or “a void where my heart should be” because that implies that I’m the protagonist of a b-list hallmark romance movie just a few minutes before the big reconciliation scene. Instead I think it’s more like my body and mind have stagnated, such that my heart has been left behind. It doesn’t fight anymore, because it does not think there is anything left fighting for

Again: I really liked Honor Among Thieves. Baller movie. 9/10, would recommend. But what would make a 10/10 D&D movie? E d g a r W r i g h t and by that I mean his writing style, which is god-tier in every respect. He's the mastermind behind Scott Pilgrim (the movie), Shaun of the Dead, and those are the only ones of his I've seen but THEY'RE REALLY GOOD. Basically he's the best comedy director on the market, because his style is so damn good. For a D&D movie, you need to go the Scott Pilgrim route. Mix in whacky graphics for stuff like stats, action effects, etc. - instead of just going for "adventure in the D&D world," go for "a D&D game, abridged." It would open thusly: And then they would have their intros. I don't know what their intros would be, but the following would be clear: Rogue is clearly in charge, has the most experience, etc. They're really aggressively edgy and no one knows why. Fighter seems new to this whole thing, but quite eager to learn. Wizard has experience, playing it cool for the time being. They make a big fuss over their spellbook for some reason. Cleric is the token girl, dressed in gaudy blue robes and sporting a massive staff of healing. Everyone else is dirty and ragged - she's clean, pristine, and colorful. Might be Rogue's girlfriend. Gunslinger does not fit the vibe at all. He had to fight hard to convince everyone that he belonged here. The movie would happen. I don't know about much of it, but... Rolls, actions, spells, etc; would all appear in the same text box format, perhaps with different fonts and colors depending on the character. If you've ever seen Scott Pilgrim then you know what I'm getting at - if you haven't then you need to get on that. Long battle sequences would have dice rolls, modifiers, damage counts, status effects, class abilities, and whatnot all firing off alongside the action. At some point one of the characters would die unexpectedly (probably Cleric). A few scenes later a completely new character is introduced, played by the same actor (no one acknowledges this). There would be a long, drawn-out scene between Rogue and Wizard arguing as to whether they need to count out all their individual gold pieces or not. It evolves into the debate of whose backpack has the most efficient adventuring gear in it, which attracts Gunslinger to introduce them to a funny magical effect that can technically allow them to carry infinite weight without the use of a Bag of Holding. Have them bring up their own weights several times, which are multiplied via text box to their Strength Scores to determine their Carrying Capacity. Cleric would find a spell scroll, but use it before the party has a chance to Long Rest. Wizard experiences the five stages of grief. Fighter continuously searches for items like Flame Tongues and whatnot, despite the fact that Rogue keeps insisting that they're really quite rare and hard to come by. Fighter finds one at the end of the first dungeon. Unimportant side characters would all be named Bob, but spread thinly enough throughout the movie that it would take a rewatch to notice. The end would be a final battle against the BBEG (obviously) The lot of them getting beat about and played with, up until they have a big climactic scene of accepting each others' differences and learning the true meaning of friendship. They charge the Dark Wizard all at once as he charges a spell, and as he casts it... Big explosion. The whole place is evaporated in instants. As the dust settles over the course of almost half a minute, a single text box appears posthumously: 20 Cut to an office shot of the actors around a table, the director sitting at the end with a DM screen. They're all silent, contemplating the sudden turn of events. Director: "Well sh-"

It is the cutest game ever and I love it so much. look at this lovely child and tell me you don't adore them instantly

The Shard just storming ate everything I just wrote and, by the way, I did not type "storming"

Hello, and welcome (back) to my random ramble/blog! Still Trutharchivist here, and continuing from the last entry, today I want to talk about Reform Judaism, how it began and what it resulted. Just one clarification for the previous entry: I realized I might have indicated that the Haskalah movement caused religious degradation directly. This is not completely accurate; while secularity was caused by the Enlightenment in Jews just as much as it did with Christians, the Haskalah movement wasn't necessarily a part of it. Many of the members of this movement, like Mandelssohn, were devout practicing Jews. In some ways, the fraction of Orthodox Judaism I belong to is not unlike them. Just, the fact they tried to hold the rope on both ends sometimes led to them dropping things from their belief, as we'll see in this entry. As a side note I'd mention that none of Mandelssohn's descendants stayed a practicing Jew. Another clarification: I believe I forgot to include dates, which is kind of stupid of me, in hindsight. For reference, Mandelssohn lived during the 18th century (1729-1786), he arrived at Berlin in 1743, and the Lavatar incident occurred during 1769. Hope this helps with the chronology. Anyway, Reform Judaism. So, we had talked about the gap between Jews and the general society of Europe. We explained (somewhat) the problems it caused, and showed how one person reacted to this, with a few tidbits about how others did. There were some Jews who became secular altogether; but we’re not really here to talk about them today. As odd as it may seem to me as an Orthodox Jew, we’re talking about the ones who didn’t want to abandon their traditions completely, the ones who thought that Judaism needed nothing more than a little fixing to fit with the times - Reform Jews. Odd to me because, well, Orthodox Judaism doesn't favor Reform over secularity by much. It's been some time between the death of Mandelssohn and the actual start of something that was different enough to be dubbed Reform Judaism, though a few things that later became the movement's trademarks appeared during that time. A Maskil - a member of the Haskalah movement - named Saul Ascher wrote in his book “Leviathan, or religion in respect of Judaism” (1792) that the principles of faith are the important part of Judaism, while the practical commandments were secondary and by modern times didn’t serve their purpose. There were a few changes to the prayers in a synagogue in Amsterdam in 1796, including removing some Piyutim (religious poems, more or less) from the prayer and adding a sermon in the local language. In Westphalia it was decided by the local Jewish Consistory, headed by Rabbi Israel Jacobson, in 1810 to change the prayers a little and cancel some traditions in order to keep an atmosphere of seriousness in the synagogue - to somewhat look like a Christian church. Jacobson was later involved with more changes to the prayers - including in the incident of the Hamburg Temple Dispute. The Hamburg Temple was a Jewish temple - you could say. It's actually a synagogue, but it's almost always referred to as a temple. It may or may not be related to a certain point in the dispute about it - I'm not really sure. Anyway, the actual problem started with a few changes in how prayers went in the Temple. You see, the Hamburg Temple, unlike traditional synagogues, used a choir and an organ in the prayers (the organ was played by a gentile during Shabbat) and added prayers in German - of which at least the first two were perceived to just be added to make it more like a church. All that in itself, though, wasn't any worse than what we already mentioned, and what another congregation in Berlin already started doing - and while many Orthodox rabbis thought it problematic, it wasn't quite enough to create a schism just yet. What did that was a new Siddur - a Jewish prayer book, so to speak - published the same year the Temple was opened (1818) and used in it. In this Siddur, many mentions of wishes and prayers to return to Jerusalem and reinstate the Temple there were revised, and prayers to salvation of the Jewish people and the coming of the Messiah were changed to be about more universal salvation. And that started the heart of the problem. As an opening to what I'm about to say, I want to mention that while working on this essay I texted a Reform rabbi to try and hear things from their side. After mentioning this specific bit about the erasure of the hope to return to Zion, he remarked that while it's true that the Reform movement was anti-Zionist in its early days, the same could be said about Orthodox Judaism. This is, indeed, a good point, since some of the prominent rabbis who resisted the Reform movement - like Hatam Sofer and Rashar Hirsch, on whom I intend to elaborate in future essays - were anti-Zionists as well. So it isn't the anti-Zionism in this change that was seen as problematic; instead, it was the drastic change in understanding what salvation meant. You see, for over 2000 years, Jews have waited for a certain series of events: the coming of a Messiah of king David's line, all the people of Israel being brought back to their ancestral land, the Temple in Jerusalem rebuilt and the ancient kingdom being refounded and getting peace at last. All that, under G-d's guidance, of course. I hope to delve in later essays as to why Zionism wasn't seen as fulfilling that dream, for now suffice it to say that's how it was. But Reform Judaism took a hard turn in the opposite direction: what if we already got our salvation without realizing it (or are much closer to it than we thought)? Throughout history, Christianity pursued Jews, only stopping short of completely destroying them due to a council decision from its early days. But in this modern day and age, in the most Enlightened Germany - home to Kant and Hegel, Schiller and Goethe, with emancipation for Jews being visible in the horizon… surely, we're already at the age of the Messiah. Surely, thought the early fathers of the Reform movement, this is all we could and should hope for. After all, the Temple in Jerusalem and the sacrifices made in it seemed far and kind of barbaric, really. Is that really what we hope and wait for? Opening a compound for butchering animals and burning their meat? Surely, that's not what G-d would want for us. Other people had different reactions to the possibility of emancipation, and I promise you I'll get to them eventually, but that's probably a good approximation of what went through the early Reform rabbis' heads. In addition, they may have adopted the ideas of nationalism in a rather different way from the Zionists - why assume a nation so different from those around you, when you can be a German of Moshe's faith? The same could be applied to France, or England, or the newly-founded USA - all places Reform Judaism spread to and became prominent in. As a side note, I’ll say that this term (or, well, a very similar one) was apparently used first in the Grand Sanhedrin that Napoleon Bonaparte founded in 1806, where the assembly called Jews “French of Moses’ Faith”. While the Sanhedrin wasn’t necessarily Reform (well, the movement didn’t really exist at the time, so it wasn’t exactly a possibility), its decisions stretched the Halachah a bit and later the main Consistoire of France (Consistoire were the governing bodies of Jewish congregations in France from Napoleon’s time onward) was mostly Reform. Anyway, all that was directly opposed to traditional Judaism, which still hopes to return to Israel - if not in the way the Zionists did. Because even if you don't believe in pushing for founding an independent state, you can still believe that being a Jew is more than obeying the laws of a religion - it's belonging to a nation… Or maybe I'm just saying that because I'm a Zionist myself. Mostly, abandoning the Messianic beliefs entirely - which seemed to be what this new Siddur attempted to do - was seen as an unforgivable deed. Many Orthodox rabbis of the time went against it - prominent among them was the aforementioned Hatam Sofer of Pressburg (nowadays known as Bratislava), who voiced loud and clear objections to the changes made by the Reform Jews. Letters of rabbis who resisted the changes were published together under the title "Eleh Divrei HaBrit" (lit. Those are the Words of the Covenant). This pushed a little back on the whole affair, and some of the changes were withdrawn - at least temporarily. All that does supposedly nothing to assert what I started with, that those were the ones who wanted to keep the religion and tradition. But the point is, secularity became common in Jewish youths at this time and place. Trying to settle Judaism with the spirit of the time like the Reform Jews did was their way to hold on to their beliefs. It was hard for some Jews to accept that the ideal is of Jews returning to an ancient, dead land from their birthplaces. The choice they saw before them, most probably, was either keeping Judaism without the messianic ideal, or abandoning it entirely. That's as to the Hamburg Temple Dispute. But in my work on those essays, I wanted to cover things from the angle of at least one rabbi or thinker from each movement, to give a better idea of what the movement’s ideology was. So, to elaborate some more about the changes - reforms - this Movement made, I'd like to talk about one of the prominent Reform rabbis - Abraham Geiger. Abraham Geiger was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in 1810. His family was Orthodox, though they were open to studying German and general science. In 1829 he went to study in the University at Heidelberg - leaving it after a short while due to his professor and fellow students laughing at recent Pogroms. He then went to the University of Bonn, where he met and befriended Rashar Hirsch - who later became his bitter rival, we'll talk about him in a future essay. He probably went to a university because it was required of would-be rabbis at the time in Germany -after all, he later asked for and got a Semikha - meaning, he was ordained as a rabbi - in 1832, and served as one in multiple places (including his hometown of Frankfurt and Berlin) during the following years. But considering his positions, he probably was very interested in studying history and critical studies of the Tanakh anyway. Either way, the things he taught were (unsurprisingly, considering our context) controversial. He believed that the Prophets and the Sages all worked to rid Judaism of being overly ritualistic. He believed that G-d's will is revealed differently from generation to generation - something of a reasoning as to why changing the Halakha should be fine. He had a somewhat more scholarly view of the Torah, and supported views of Biblical criticism - which are mostly opposed to traditional views of the Torah, though contrary to popular belief they aren't necessarily anti-religious. There was a tidbit I wanted to add about views towards the Oral Torah; but it appears the only person to have said those was actually Zacharias Frankel, who went on to become the model for Conservative Judaism. I'm not sure if Geiger held similar opinions - he probably went even farther - after all, Frankel didn’t approve of Biblical criticism, while Geiger was apparently well known to be involved with it. He organized quite a few conventions of Reform rabbis, one of which Zacharias Frankel went to - only to run out and slam the door behind him. We'll talk about this event and Conservative Judaism in another essay. In short: Reform Judaism sought to fit in better with the gentile society around them and with the ideals presented by the Enlightenment philosophers (well, the ideals of the era at least). This last part is shown by the tendency of Geiger to take a critical view of the Torah, for example - something that gentile thinkers of the time saw as essential, while Orthodox Jewish thinkers saw it as bad. The abandonment of the Messianic ideal served for assimilation, too - because the Messianic ideal itself set Jews apart by saying that one day they'll leave this land and go back to Israel. The Reform counterpoint, then, would be to define themselves as Germans of Moshe's faith - or, well, replace "Germans" with whatever other nation you want. So, what happens with Reform Judaism nowadays? Well, today they are most prominent in the US - in fact, they are the most prominent Jewish denomination in America, meaning if you meet a Jew in the States (well, probably outside New York, where there are many Orthodox Jews) - chances are they are Reform. Not that I would know all that well - I don't live there and never have. In Israel, there are Reform congregations - the Reform rabbi I talked to is Israeli - but they aren't very prominent. We do hear from them every now and then, but not much. Their practices can vary, but they generally will be more receptive to modern ideals - the red lines are mostly not believing that there is one G-d and not circumcising the sons, IE not doing Brit Milah (though some early Reform rabbis did want to cancel this practice). Interestingly enough, modern Reform congregations are still somewhat opposed to ordaining intermarriage between Jews and gentiles - but a non-Jewish partner of a Jewish person will be accepted at a Reform temple. Generally they are much less strict than Orthodox Judaism in obeying the Halacha - they're willing to bend it for modern ideals such as equality and acceptance, and for having a Jewish experience even if it's not according to the halacha, like driving to a synagogue during Shabbat (Saturday). There is no separation between men and women in their temples and they ordain women as rabbis - both things that aren’t approved by Orthodox rabbis. Well, that's it for now, hope it was helpful! Sorry for the huge delay, I procrastinated and tried to find good sources for a while. Can't promise the same thing won't happen again - I still am not sure whether I'll talk about Ultra-Orthodox or Conservative Judaism next time! If you have an opinion on the matter, or have anything to say, please do comment. Thank you for reading, and have a good day!

Basically, I'm playing with a bunch of noobs. My brother and I have played D&D for years now, but our friends are less experienced - and to be completely honest, I'm okay with that. There are a lot of flaws and holes in the D&D system that kinda just don't work. Also I suck at running planned campaigns. I've tried in the past and it's always gone horribly. The problem is that my ideas are always way too specific and hardwired into my Autism/ADHD 5000 Neural Network (brain), but trying to portray these ideas is a lot more difficult than coming up with them. My solution? BS it. BS everything. Come up with a few ideas and just roll with it. Experienced DMs will tell you not to make stuff up as you go along, as experienced players will catch on quick and realize that they're not really playing for anything important - but we're not paying attention to our D&D games. Last session we got about half an hour of walking in before it devolved into Clash of Clans and watching Lord of the Rings. Our games are not organized, our games are not professional, and our games are not planned. And honestly? I have way more fun just coming up with random stuff on the fly. They roll an 18 for Investigating the kitchen? They find the legendary Apron of Cooking. Search the back wall for secrets? There's a room with a dwarven vending machine in it. Whether they antagonize a nest of birds with their grappling hook or set an entire library on fire, as long as they're the ones coming up with the hijinks, then it's only up to me to just come up with a funny way of explaining the situation. But I still have ideas that I want to implement - I just don't necessarily plan the how. There's pretty much just a little list of random thoughts I have, and if they do something weird then I'll just drop one in there for them to mess around with for awhile. Basically, imma record some of these random mini-mechanics that I've added. Think of them what you will. Random Stat Shenanigans: Weird Lore Stuff that'll Probably Show Up Later: Weird Lore Stuff that will Also Probably Show Up Later but in a Less Important Manner: that's it for now bye

The Silver Knight stared at the ______. For all that his friend had told him, he'd expected something... different. "Beautiful, isn't it?" she said now behind him, as if on cue. The Silver Knight simply continued to stare. Was she seeing something that he wasn't? When he looked at the ______, all he felt was... confused. "Hey," the young woman said, her voice suddenly concerned. "You're shivering." All of a sudden, Silver realized he'd started to rub his arms without thinking. "Yeah," he replied, looking away from the ______. Somewhere in the last few minutes, the temperature had taken a plunge. Goosebumps had risen up on his arms, and he was barely able to keep his teeth from chattering. "Guess there's a cold spell. Weird." The woman studied Silver for a moment, her face unreadable. "It's... not that cold outside. The temperature hasn't changed at all, in fact." Silver blinked. What? The cold certainly felt real. Was it just a figment of his imagination? His eyes flicked back to the ______. It couldn't be that... could it? "So, what do you think?" asked the woman. Silver realized with a start that her voice and all the other sounds around him were slightly muted, as if he was hearing them from a long way off. "The ______ is pretty incredible, right?" Silver shook his head. "I... I don't understand." The woman cocked her head. "What's there not to understand about it? Look! The ______, the ______, the ______... even the ______ is ______!" She leaned closer in. Her expression no longer looked friendly. "You're the one that's not making any sense. The ______ is a good thing. A great thing, even. Why can't you understand that?" The Silver Knight took a step back. "What? I don't- That's not what I-" He cut off, feeling a sudden lurch in his stomach as he realized that they were no longer alone in the clearing. A small crowd of people were standing between each of the pillars that surrounded the space, their faces showing expressions which could only be described as hostile. "You hate it," the woman hissed, all traces of friendliness gone. "You want to destroy the ______, don't you?" "What?" stammered Silver, taking a step back. "No! I don't- that doesn't make any sense!" "I won't let you," the woman replied, her eyes narrowing. She stepped forward, pushing Silver further and further back. "None of us will." Abruptly Silver's backwards retreat was halted when someone behind him shoved him forwards. He cried out, barely managing to keep his footing as he stumbled. When the next push came, he had no chance. He fell to the ground, shivering, as the faceless crowd closed in around him. It was cold. So cold.

The Silver Knight felt the nightmare coming before it arrived. It started as it always did- a burst of sudden dizziness. His vision narrowed, the world seeming to spin around him. He tried to stand up, but the ground was rocking beneath his feet like a ship in a storm. Someone grabbed his arm, steadying him - thank you, Black - but his vision was already starting to darken. The world around him dimmed as though covered in thick black fog. As his consciousness drifted away, he could hear the shouts of the Black Knight. "Remember!" he roared. "Prepare yourself!" With that, the light fled. The Silver Knight opened his eyes to a blue sky. He pushed himself to his feet, careful not to strain any of injuries- then abruptly realized that there weren't any injuries. Stunned, he raised a hand to his shoulder and felt only soft fabric. Glancing down, he realized that instead of armor, he was wearing a silver T-shirt and black shorts. His hands, too, were different- the callouses and scars gone. He turned them over a few times, marveling, then looked up and around at his surroundings. A few feet in front of him, a creek poured over a small cliff in a burbling waterfall. The river wound away and out of sight behind one of the many trees that surrounded him on all sides. He stood on a path of smooth white stone that wound parallel to the stream in both directions. Slowly, haltingly, still not entirely believing what his eyes were telling him, the Silver Knight took a few steps forward and knelt down by the side of the stream. He reached out, letting his fingers trail through the pouring stream of the waterfall. "You're awake!" a voice suddenly spoke out behind him. The Silver Knight jumped, spinning around to face a young woman with red hair who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. She raised her hand to her mouth. "Oh! I'm sorry, did I startle you?" The Silver Knight exhaled, relaxing. "Only a little bit. Was I... asleep?" "Of course!" the young woman replied. "You've been dozing here for almost a whole day!" She suddenly looked at the knight with concern. "You do feel well rested, don't you?" "Uh..." the Silver Knight blinked, suddenly realizing that he felt extraordinarily awake. "Yeah," he answered, surprise evident in his voice. "Yeah, I do!" The young woman smiled. "Great! The others thought we should move you somewhere else, but I didn't want to risk waking you up when you were sleeping so peacefully... I'm glad it worked out!" All of a sudden, she grabbed his hand and started dragging him down the path. "But anyway! Something happened while you were asleep! You need to see this." The Silver Knight stumbled forwards as he was dragged along behind his new- or maybe old? - red-haired friend. "Something new?" he gasped once his breath caught up to him. "What is it?" "The ______!" she shouted back over her shoulder. "Or at least, that's what we call it!" The Silver Knight stumbled all of a sudden, tripping over a branch and nearly yanking his companion to the ground. She paused, helping him get back to his feet, looking at him with puzzled eyes. "Are you alright?" "Yeah," Silver replied, his eyes fixed on branch he'd tripped over. At the end of it was a brown leaf, shriveled and dead. He looked up, but the trees looked as green as ever. He pulled his eyes away. Something about what she'd said... was it just his imagination? "Yeah. I just tripped." The young woman's hand flew to her mouth again. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have dragged you. Here, we can walk the rest of the way. It's not far." She started off in a quick, bouncing stride, and Silver hastily followed her. "The ______ is going to blow. Your. Mind. I just know it!" Goosebumps rose up on Silver's arms. He pulled them close to himself, shivering. Had he imagined that chilling breeze when she said... that strange word? He rubbed his arms and tried to put it out of his mind as they reached an archway blocked by a closed door. The red-haired woman stopped. "Here it is," she whispered, excitedly. "Are you ready?" Silver nodded, trying to keep the knot of tension slowly building in his stomach from manifesting in his expression. "Yeah! I'm excited. You've been hyping this up pretty hard." His companion gave him a sly smile. "When you see it you'll understand." She reached out and grabbed hold of the door handle, pulling it open dramatically. "I present... the ______!"

Clang. Clang. Clang. It was dusk. The two men had been fighting for hours, ringing their weapons against each other under the slowly setting sun. Or at least, it had felt like hours; time was strange here, in this land of dreams and shadows. As far as they knew, it had always been dusk. To anyone watching, it was clear that the taller of the two was winning. Clad in all black, and wielding a spear to match, he swung as though he had only just begun to fight. Each movement was precise, controlled, and powerful, and he pressed the offense relentlessly. His opponent, by contrast, showed every second of their battle upon his face. The clattering of his tarnished silver armor mingled with his heavy breaths as he struggled to block each of the Black Knight's terrifying swings with his own weapon- a broken sword, the blade snapped off a few inches above the hilt. Despite all this, he somehow seemed to be managing to hold off his opponent's unyielding attack. But then his foot caught on a patch of uneven ground, throwing off his stance. It was only for a fraction of a second, but that was enough. The Black Knight's spear crashed into the Silver Knight's shoulder, knocking him off his feet and sending him sprawling to the ground in a clatter of metal on stone. "Yield," the Silver Knight forced out immediately, but his opponent - the clear victor - had already halted. "That was well fought," declared the Black Knight. The Silver Knight looked up balefully. "Don't lie to me." A snort. "You of all people should know I would never give you a false compliment. Besides, you didn't let me finish. I was going to say, that was well fought for someone who insists on fighting with a broken sword." The Silver Knight glanced at his sword. The jagged edge of the break was dull, worn down by time. His eyes closed. "You know why I use this weapon. Why I have to." "It won't last you forever," warned the Black Knight in a low voice. "You know that." "Yes," replied the Silver Knight tonelessly. "I know." He flexed his legs, preparing to sit up - then let out a grunt of pain and grabbed his shoulder. Leaking out from under his collar were a few drops of blood. The Black Knight immediately knelt down to take a closer look at the injury. "What? I didn't hit you that hard... did I?" "No," the Silver Knight panted, his eyes closed. "Old- old wounds." The Black Knight sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh." They sat for several minutes in silence, remembering.

5

5

You are going to love this theory. I guarantee it. I was reading Andrew's article the other day, and that got me thinking about what makes magic work on a fundamental level in the cosmere. This will be somewhat of a rebuttal to you, Andrew, because this direction is far more fruitful. But it's much more than a rebuttal. In my opinion, this is quite a paradigm shift. In any given Shardworld, magic is directly tied to a Shard. Everyone has pieces of Shards inside them. In Mistborn, everyone has fragments of Ruin and Preservation inside them. In Warbreaker, everyone has Breath. It's not unimaginable to think that this generalizes for any Shardworld, so I'm going to assume that always holds. In order to use Allomancy, you need to have "enough" Preservation in you. There's other stuff you need, too, like Snapping, but we'll discuss that later; it's not important anyways. The only real requirement for Allomancy is that you have enough Preservation. The rest is just book-keeping. And likewise, for Awakening, you need Breath, a fragment of Endowment. So here's a question: why is Awakening different from Allomancy? Before you go saying this is a totally obvious question, let me remind you that there are distinct differences between Awakening and Allomancy. Awakeners never need to Snap, though Allomancers do (and the Shaod is sort of similar to Snapping, too, in a way). We want to discover the fundamental rules of how magic operates, right? So the question about the difference between Awakening and Allomancy isn't so dumb. Now that I've made the question sound important, let me completely trivialize it with the easy answer: they are different because the Shards are different. Duh. That's fairly obvious. But in fact, this is precisely the key to understanding all magic. My principle is simple: To interact with the spiritual power of the Shard inside you, it must be in accordance with the Shard's intent. (That is, the name of the Shard. Ruin. Preservation. Endowment. It is what the Shard wants to do. Look at the bottom here for that reference.) I'm going to call it the Principle of Intent, simply because that makes it sound important. Now I simply have to show you how important this principle is. Let's say that Breath is the Nalthis equivalent of those fragments of Ruin and Preservation on Scadrial. These latent powers of a Shard can be accessed and manipulated. With Preservation's magic, I can do lots of cool things, but one thing I can't do is move that fragment of the soul around. But, I could do such a thing if I was using the right magic system. On Nalthis, Endowment endows. It makes perfect sense that Awakening can move pieces of souls around, because that's Endowment's intent. Indeed, I can do similar things with Hemalurgy, because it is inherently destructive. Ruin ruins. Endowment endows. Preservation preserves. "But wait, why does Allomancy cause such rapid changes if it's from Preservation? That seems antithetical to Preservation's intent." There was a thread about this on Adonalsium.net, actually, and I couldn't come up with a proper explanation. Now I can. Watch closely, because this is fancy footwork. Think, for a moment, less about the external effects of Allomancy. Brandon's said that powers don't need to have rational explanations, just that they are bound by rules. Is there any particular reason why iron does the Physical Internal power rather than pewter? No, and that's okay. Instead, let's consider what happens to that piece of Preservation inside you when you utilize Allomancy. Awakening moves spiritual energy, or endows it to something else. This doesn't happen with Preservation. There ought to be some reason why Preservation provides a net gain of energy with Allomancy instead of Awakening's system, and there indeed is. Preservation does preserve, it just preserves the piece of Preservation inside you (and for that matter, every aspect of your body. There is no direct physical cost to Allomancy in the act of burning metals). When you think about it from a Shard level, each Shard has a focus. Ruin and Preservation share a focus in metal. This metal activates some spiritual action, I'd imagine. Lock and key. The metal is the key to all the Metallic Arts. The metal must do something with respect to Preservation, and what's it going to do? With the Principle of Intent, that fragment of Preservation inside you wants to preserve itself, its spiritual energy. It also wants to preserve yourself. So, the only place it receive energy from is some external source, in order to preserve your own energy. Slight side note: Another issue with Allomancy and its net gain is the idea that if Preservation "designed" Allomancy--though that term is a bit misleading, as I suspect no Shard explicitly could design something like that--he's losing energy. That's not true. The Well of Ascension refills every thousand years (technically, 1024 years). Utilizing it doesn't make it go away. Burning atium also regenerates eventually in the Pits of Hathsin. Likewise, there's no reason why this Allomantic energy actually goes away. It regenerates, too. Wait a minute. I just got the most brilliant idea ever as I wrote that. Brandon said that Preservation or Ruin could, in principle, fuel any of the Metallic Arts, but he said that it expends power in ways gods are hesitant to do (I can't find the citation right now, but I think it's in the Hero of Ages spoiler thread). Why would it expend energy? Doesn't it all regenerate? No, I think not. Not exclusively. What if a Shard's power only regenerates when the Shard is doing something according to the Shard's intent? Atium is of Ruin, and so using that energy with respect to Ruining something will make it regenerate. The Well put Rashek into severe Preservation mode, making him extremely reactionary. So in a roundabout way, that again is Preservation. That kind of explains why dispersing the power broke Ruin's prison--it was an act not of Preservation, so the power wasn't conserved. Also, if this was true, it makes a heck of a lot more sense why Endowment Returns people, and why he isn't dead from doing so. The power all comes back eventually. Ahem, that got off track. I'll build that theory in more detail, with better citations, later. Back to the Principle of Intent, with respect to the other Metallic Arts. It's been noted in the annotations that Ruin is selfish. So, fragments of its power wouldn't want to destroy itself, but it is perfectly okay with destroying other things. Hence Hemalurgy doesn't do much to yourself, and instead destroys other things. To use the analogy with Preservation, Preservation preserves spiritual energy, while Ruin destroys spiritual energy. I suspect that the greater amount of Ruin inside you, the more likely to perform Hemalurgy, however. So why does Feruchemy work? Well, it's perfect balance. I can't utilize the power of either Ruin or Preservation here. They are balanced. I can't use either power up now. Were I to use or "access" the Shard's powers, they'd cancel each other out, so to speak. Nothing happens on the spiritual side of things (Okay, that's probably not true. It's just no spiritual energy is changed. I'm sure on some Realmatic level, both Ruin and Preservation act equally) So what happens if not doing something with spiritual energy? I draw from myself. This fits the Principle of Intent just fine. You may be wondering why there'd be such a principle at all. Sazed could do all sorts of things when he held both powers. The difference here is that the body acts as a conduit--and not a very good one--for the power. Only once Vin's body vanished did the power become more expansive. I suspect this effect is due to the Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual Realms. When a Shard's power is in a physical form, it does one specific thing (lerasium, atium). The Physical Realm seems to have a restricting effect. Thus, for humans, they access the power in their Shards in a more restrictive manner simply by being human. That's why the Principle of Intent appears to hold. Of course, even as a full Shardholder, the same principle applies eventually. The Shardholder's mind would be shaped to the Shard's intent over the centuries. Furthermore, Brandon said that Preservation or Ruin could, in principle fuel any of Metallic Arts, but he said that that expends power in ways gods are hesitant to do. Presumably, this is because while a Shard is a part of the power of creation and can do lots of amazing things, the Shard can more easily do things in line with its intent. Or, if I was right about the conservation thing, it's that a Shard knows the power will come back eventually. A Shardholder's consciousness apparently "feeds" off the spiritual power of the Shard, so if that power is all gone, that person dies. Maybe you're not buying my principle. Don't believe me? Well, no theory is good unless it has some predictive power, so let's do some theorizing on other magics. I'd like to work with Elantris, but I don't know either Aona or Skai's Shard name, so it's going to be challenging to know just what they do. But Stormlight Archive is the perfect testing ground for a theory. We know all the Rosharian Shard's names, and there's a bunch of magic systems that don't exactly make sense. I began pondering what exactly would Honor--the Almighty's Shard--do. Knowing the answer to this would give an intuitive understanding to the mechanism of his magic. But Honor is hard to pin down. Ruin ruins... Honor honors stuff. That's, uh, super helpful. But you know what's really honorable? Oaths. Promises. Bonds. Oathpact. Surgebinder. Peter said on TWG that a Surge is what people on Roshar call a force (I'd assume things like gravity). Surge, plus a bond with a spren? Surgebinders. Congratulations, you are now a magic user. Honor's power comes from oaths and bonds. Perhaps it creates a spiritual bond of sorts. That's what Honor does. There was also the question of what happened to Kaladin at the end of Way of Kings. He spoke the Second Ideal of the Knights Radiant, then he burst with power. Seems to me that this near unequivocal evidence that Honor uses these oaths in a specifc, magical way. Then there's good old Szeth. How is he a Surgebinder if he doesn't have a spren? I'm not totally sure, but perhaps his strong oaths as a Truthless provides the sufficient bond for Honor's magic to work. Maybe there does exist a spren. Either way, those oaths are intricately tied with Szeth's Radiant powers. So, I'm calling it right now: if Szeth breaks his oaths, he will lose his powers. I read a little bit of Way of Kings today, and I had forgotten that Jasnah said that two orders of the Knights Radiant have natural Soulcasting abilities. Now, recall that in the 17th Shard interview with Brandon, he said that there are ten powers (it seems to be ten Surges is the technical term), and you make an order of the Knights Radiant by picking from two of those Surges. I never realized before, but that must mean Soulcasting is a type of Surgebinding. That's kind of a scary implication. We've seen, what, Windrunners and Soulcasters, and there are ten more powers? Plenty more magic systems to go around, clearly. But a more detailed analysis of Stormlight Archive magics is for another day, I think. Other theories for other days. Source: The Principle of Intent

Hey, all. This is a post that may not be relevant for everyone, but I thought it was an important one to make anyway. I had the pleasure of being Guest of Honor a few weeks back at SpoCon, a sf/fantasy convention in Spokane, Washington. Well, it turns out that the same group who run SpoCon have a bid out for Worldcon in 2015. The voting will happen this weekend at Worldcon in San Antonio, which I'm attending. (Though kind of last-minute.) Voting costs $40, and unfortunately it's too late to mail in ballots; it has to be done in person. Voting also gets you a supporting membership to whichever Worldcon wins for 2015—meaning you can vote in that year's Hugos as well (and get that year's Hugo Voter Packet), for cheaper than it will cost to buy a supporting membership once 2015 rolls around. And a supporting membership can be upgraded to an attending membership very easily. Since I was just hosted by these people, I think I'm in a unique position to give them—and their Worldcon bid—a shout-out. The guest liaison team was top-notch, and the entire convention was extremely well organized. I was surprised by how pretty Spokane was this time of year to boot. If anyone is debating where to put their vote for Worldcon, let me nudge you toward Spokane. I don't know anything about the other Worldcon bid teams, and I'm sure there are plenty of great people on them—but I know for certain the team in Spokane knows what they're doing. The city itself is pushing hard for the convention, even going so far to send city representatives to Worldcon this year to lobby. Hats off to the entire crew. I had a wonderful time, and would love to return in two years for Worldcon. This is a bid to take very seriously. Brandon