moth-short

book analysis of the occult variety, published for those interested to see | bird-aligned | Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours fandom blog

[moth-short]

An Introduction to a simple book enjoyer

After reading some of the many books of Hush House, I decided to publish my analysis of certain texts that catch or may catch my interest. Please be patient, as I do not have access to many of the books at will, as I am but a simple visitor among many.

Alternatively, I will be reblogging other peoples' analysis, because I am also an enjoyer of other people's analysis.

[deus-ex-magyk]

Here in the Seventh History, the History where Calyptra's rule is absolute, much which is present in the other histories is absent. But that does not mean that traces do not remain...

aka I visited St. Michaels Mount, on the Cornwall coast, which is quite clearly an inspiration for Hush House. I made an appropriate Winter offering, of course (a hand-embroidered Winter aspect, with the stars finished in situ within sight of Hush House, in the freezing winds).

Other standout qualities include a lone tree on the eastern side, oddly reminiscent of the lone yew. The crow-cross sands were indeed blessed by the Beachcomber and bespeckled with inquisitional crows.

Unfortunately, the grounds and castle itself were not taking visitors on account of a tremendous storm that had just occurred. But I got to walk around a sort of Brancrug village, which had some shops and small museums interspersed among homes. Surely the most standout part, for those who pay attention, was the large and meticulous painting of a Cornish blacksmith, with an unusually adept depiction of the Forge at work...

In our history, the suppression bureau never took over the island, so there isn't a convenient bridge. But there is a gnarled stone walkway accessible at low tide on certain days. The sea is hungry though and I got a bit soggy on the crossing...a downside of visiting in winter. Or an upside, if you seek the sea's blessing.

One may even have the pleasure of eating at a sort of Sweet Bones, which has a truly unrivaled view of Hush House and a rather decent Sunday roast--the Godolphin Arms, for those who might make the journey themselves.

I was even treated to a rainbow on the way out, which as the Watchman teaches, is a true blessing--for each hour has its color, and there is only color where there is light.

[lunarlillieuwu]

So uh… is King Crucible the last of the Shadowless Kings?

I’ve recently gotten back into Cultsim Lore and i noticed the description of the Tomb of the Shadowless Kings says that they thought they’d be immortal, and one of them may be. Also, I believe when learning Deep Mandaic it says it was the language in the days of the Shadowless Empire, and Deep Mandaic is the language that King Crucible can teach you. When doing a Ghoul playthrough, consuming the remains of King Crucible gives you a memory of the Flint, and since Deep Mandaic and the Shadowless Empire were around the time that the MoA and the Colonel killed the Seven Coils and broke into the Mansus, the timeframe lines up for KC to have been one of those Kings. This is also somewhat supported by the Forge being generally pursued by Nobility (and having a really low success rate), most if not all of the Shadowless Kings likely tried to ascend under the Forge, and it’s not too outlandish that only one of them survived. There’s also the Incandescent Tantra, which refers to an entity called the “Crucible Prince,” which is definitely what KC was called before the Sun was Split, which makes sense because the Forge was known as the Burning Queen and calling himself “King Crucible” would lightly imply him being on the same level as the fucking Sun, which might’ve been seen as mild heresy. Lastly, and this is just an aesthetic thing, since King Crucible’s body is made up of flame, he is quite literally a Shadowless King, as there’s no physical form to cast shadow and the form he does have is probably extremely bright.

[arachnidsgrep]

The way I see the "Is Secret Histories a principle?" debate is that it's like how the old definition of prime numbers, 1 was considered a prime (b/c it is not divisible except by itself). This caused mathematicians a great deal of pain as every proof they wrote had to include the words "every prime number except 1" in it, as 1 doesn't really have any of the properties of prime numbers despite meeting the (old) definition. Thus the definition was rewritten to explicitly exclude the number 1.

This is how I view Secret Histories. It is a principle by the most basic definitions (e.g. it has lore and you can build a society with it) but it doesn't really have the same properties as the other principles so it makes sense to exclude it in certain (perhaps most) situations.

[the-archaeologist-boh]

A brief summary of each Wisdom

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Horomachistry

In my opinion, the simplest of the Bright Arts. Horomachistry is the study of the inner machinations of the Hours, as well as their Name-Emanations. If one seeks to learn of the ways in which the world and the Hours functions, they would find that knowledge here.

Horomachistry covers most of the fundamentals of the world: the Prophecy of Ys, the Birth of the Thunderskin, the Law of Calyptra, etc. Those who study this Wisdom, Horomachists, are often aware of the motivations and effects of the Hours and their conflicts.

The investigations of these systems may also be helpful to one who seeks to overthrow or destroy them. If there were an individual who wanted to bring down the tyranny of Eternity, they would do well to understand how Eternity functions. You know what they say, Know Your Enemy.

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Ithastry

The Alchemist’s Wisdom, and for good reason. Ithastry is oft called the Art that Alters, and its study can provide many insights into various ways of changing the world itself. This Wisdom seems heavily aligned with the Forge of Days, it mostly covers transformation, destruction, and the practical uses of fire.

Knowledge associated with this Branch oft discusses tools and their proper use, the practicality of creations, and the limits of capability. There is also substantial discussion of the Second Dawn, as well as the various methods - and costs - of its realization.

While I do see the benefit of studying this Branch, I personally have little interest in the knowledge held within. Though, it could be extremely helpful if one wanted make significant alterations to an aspect of the world or perhaps themself.

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Illumination

A rather fierce Wisdom, Illumination has a focus on purification. The aspects of Edge and Lantern are a clear presence within its studies. Unlike Horomachistry which shows the conflicts of the Hours, or Ithastry which reshapes and transforms, Illumination shows the way to perfection and the Glory, by any means necessary.

Studies into this Wisdom will typically focus on the nature of truth and pain, the properties of Light, and, of course, The Second Dawn. Most of the knowledge found beneath this branch is about the Glory, and how its Light affects us. There is discussion of the Meniscate, as well as the Red and White Flowers of Calyptra.

Despite being a bit too bright for my taste, I do have an appreciation for the mercilessness of this Wisdom. Often the most powerful knowledge is also the most painful to learn. This would be a useful Wisdom for one who wishes to bring the Second Dawn, or one who values knowledge above all else.

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Hushery

The first of the Night Arts, this Wisdom is about silence and the dead. Despite this, there is much to be discussed within this Wisdom. I always found it amusing that the Children of Silence always seem to have so much to say.

Studies of the Wisdom oft contain discussions of the danger of speech, the perfections found in absence, but it mostly “speaks” of consequence. Specifically, the consequences of the death of the gods-from-stone, of our crusade into the Mansus, of the careless uses of speech. Those who specialize in such study are referred to as Husherists, or as I called them, the Children of Silence.

This Wisdom is helpful for those who wish to bring about an endings, though it also has a focus on remembrance. Winter is clearly the aspect most associated with this Wisdom, and there is information that reminds me of the Ivory Dove and the Sun-in-Rags. This is, perhaps, part of the reason why the Wisdom is popular amongst the self-described “Worms of a Scale,” most notably the individual known as Julian Coseley.

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Nyctodromy

The Branch which contains travel, more specifically Traveling at Night. Nyctodromy is the Wisdom of Dreams, the dangers found within and their paradoxical nature.

This Wisdom speaks of the Sea, the Mansus, the Peacock door, the Moth and the Wood. Most notably, it speaks of Caer Ys, the Shining City that mortals might build. This is no surprise, Caer Ys is a grand hope for travelers, especially those who make their journeys beneath the moon. There is also commentary within this Wisdom that describes the influence of the Carapace Cross, as well as the Sea-Opener Rowena.

Overall, Nyctodromy can be difficult to understand, but it contains vital information. I have often considered studying this Wisdom as a secondary field along with my expertise in Skolekosophy. There is something about the way it describes the Sea, passage into the Mansus and the Shining City, it catches my interest in a unique way.

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Skolekosophy

The most abhorrent of the Night Arts and, as mentioned, my field of study. Skolekosophy is the Wisdom of Worms, of earthquakes, of wounds and abrasions in the skin of the world. It has often been called “the study of things that should not be studied,” but that has never dissuaded me from my pursuit of the knowledge found within.

Skolekosophy speaks of many things, but often the gods-from-stone are a central point. It warns of the dangers of the First Sun, the former names of the gods-from-stone, the Carapace Cross. It is also the Wisdom that suggests the construction of Caer Ys within Nowhere. There is also a warning within its studies, that the Second Dawn would herald a last day.

This is a monstrous Wisdom. At its most merciful, Skolekosophy states that we should not fear the scorch of a Second Dawn and the ashes it will reduce us to, which shows the general attitude of the knowledge within. It is not one to hold back, or to hide its horrid nature behind riddles and mysteries. Perhaps that is why I have such an affinity for it.

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The Bosk

A primal Wisdom, one that is hard to describe. Bosk is a Branch that is rooted in feeling, and in the knowledge of our ancestors. It deals mostly in knowledge of the Wood, and the Hours that dwell within.

Bosk discusses the birth of the Red Grail, the Ring-Yew and the Thunderskin, as well as the hunts of the Moth. It speaks of the Black Flower of Calyptra and the consumption of the gods-from-stone. Bosk is a Wisdom of change, sweetness, temptation and blood.

This Wisdom is heavily associated with the Red Grail, and while I do see value in much of the knowledge held within, I have a great distrust for anything associated with She who Thirsts. It would be foolish of me to simply disregard the entire Wisdom, but I am wary of any information found here.

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Preservation

A very straightforward Wisdom, Preservation is the knowledge of healing, restoration and the various ways that our world remains intact. It is often disregarded by adepts, even more than the other Arts Unregarded.

There are various topics of discussion that can be found within this Wisdom, the world is a vast thing and so it covers much of what we know. It speaks of the endurance of the Carapace Cross, the importance of the Black Flower and the remnants of the gods-from-stone. This Wisdom also asserts that Caer Ys should remain unbuilt, to preserve the perfection of the Shining City.

Of the Arts Unregarded, Preservation is my personal favorite. Despite its unglamorous nature, I find its information valuable and interesting, especially when compared to the Bosk and… Birdsong. Perhaps I simply have an interest in the gods-from-stone, as they seem to be a common theme in the Wisdoms that I have an interest in.

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Birdsong

Birdsong is a “Wisdom” of riddles, as well as music and miscellaneous stories. Hardly a Wisdom, more a collection of random musings from frivolous scholars. I have a particular distaste for this Branch, but I shall try to summarize its knowledge in an unbiased way.

The knowledge within is difficult to summarize, as it is mostly made up of poems and riddles. It seems to discuss the sky, the Aviform Hours of the Roost, the stories of the Vagabond. The most interesting idea it poses is the suggestion that the Wolf Divided was its own Hour prior to the Intercalate, and the splitting of the Sun caused its awakening, not its birth. Aside from that, there is a small riddle that speaks of the Thritige-kind, the first of the Carapace Cross, which is something I plan to investigate further.

While I have an innate revulsion to this Wisdom, I have been told that the undefined and vague nature of its knowledge is the entire point, and exactly what some individuals find appealing about it. I, however, have little time for such things, and I have never liked the musings of Birds.

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Conclusion

This has been a surface-level summary of the Wisdoms found within the Watchman’s Tree. The purpose of this is a general evaluation that could lead into further exploration, as I plan to cover each Wisdom in further depth. I will likely cfollow the order laid out here, starting with the Bright Arts and ending in the Arts Unregarded. I have also considered adapting my discussions into an audio and visual format, so perhaps I will share that once I bring it about.

[lunarlillieuwu]

So uh… is King Crucible the last of the Shadowless Kings?

I’ve recently gotten back into Cultsim Lore and i noticed the description of the Tomb of the Shadowless Kings says that they thought they’d be immortal, and one of them may be. Also, I believe when learning Deep Mandaic it says it was the language in the days of the Shadowless Empire, and Deep Mandaic is the language that King Crucible can teach you. When doing a Ghoul playthrough, consuming the remains of King Crucible gives you a memory of the Flint, and since Deep Mandaic and the Shadowless Empire were around the time that the MoA and the Colonel killed the Seven Coils and broke into the Mansus, the timeframe lines up for KC to have been one of those Kings. This is also somewhat supported by the Forge being generally pursued by Nobility (and having a really low success rate), most if not all of the Shadowless Kings likely tried to ascend under the Forge, and it’s not too outlandish that only one of them survived. There’s also the Incandescent Tantra, which refers to an entity called the “Crucible Prince,” which is definitely what KC was called before the Sun was Split, which makes sense because the Forge was known as the Burning Queen and calling himself “King Crucible” would lightly imply him being on the same level as the fucking Sun, which might’ve been seen as mild heresy. Lastly, and this is just an aesthetic thing, since King Crucible’s body is made up of flame, he is quite literally a Shadowless King, as there’s no physical form to cast shadow and the form he does have is probably extremely bright.

[mothwithout]

Despite their grudging respect for the Elegiast, the Haustorium warns against the Elegiast's subtlety when he chooses to interpret History. The Debate of Seven Cups discusses the nature of the Chandler, her influence of the gods-from-steel, and the way in which sorrow can shape the gods-who-were-from-stone, who are implied to feed their fires. The skill it gives, Solutions & Separations, is an alchemical art focused on the subtle shaping of the Histories. The Elegiast is an Hour of Subtlety and Sorrow: now we can only ask how he might seek to shape Time's Course.

[pluralwizard]

whatever. you don’t even care about my wiggly moth antennae

[dyrrn]

starting on a nectar-themed endpage because these are very fun to do. no clue where i'm going with it yet but i guess we'll see!!

[bestworstcase]

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN it's a draw let's talk about the principles.

In the rulebook for The Lady Afterwards, these are defined as "the most fundamental elements of reality; or, the various natures of the Hours; or, a post-facto invention of scholars of the invisible arts." Mark that third note in particular, because the aspects we discuss herein are—expressly—only an attempt to taxonomize the occult forces at work in the world and thus necessarily an imperfect and imprecise model thereof.

Keep this in mind. There are no clean dividing lines between the principles, and what we label (for example) 'Lantern' and 'Forge' are not, in reality, discrete individual forces but rather a cluster of interacting forces, patterns, rules et cetera which may be expressed or called upon in different ways at different times. Many seeming contradictions or inconsistencies are thus resolved.

With that out of the way:

The interaction most visible to the player is of course the Cultist Simulator 'subversion' mechanic, but I think it is also elucidating to consider 1. differing categorization of certain books shared between Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours, and 2. the principle aspects associated with each of the nine parts of the soul in the latter.

Before we dive into that, a note on 'Secret Histories' and 'Rose':

History is the scar on the world's skin. [Secret Histories describe the unknown complexities of the world, and its many pasts.] vs 'The rose which encompasseth all'. Nine directions to new horizons. [Exploration? Enlightenment? Hope?]

It is evident that Secret Histories and Rose have some relation and may even be synonymous to an extent—for instance, Dr. al-Adim is interested in the former in Cultist Simulator and the latter in Book of Hours—but Secret Histories notably isn't treated like a fully-realized principle in its own right, whereas Rose is mechanically indistinguishable from any other power. What's going on here?

Well, if Rose is the aspect 'which encompasseth all', then we might describe Rose as the skin; and therefore what we call Secret Histories are the scars or the flaws which inform the principle called Rose, in effect making Secret Histories not a principle in its own right, but rather an aspect of Rose.

So for the purpose of this discussion, I will refer only to 'Rose', even with regard to entities and things with Secret Histories aspect in Cultist Simulator. I believe the relation here is comparable to the relation between, for example, Heart and Dances.

Onward!

I have made a series of diagrams. First:

We begin with a wheel representing the order in which the Cultist may subvert lore and influences from one principle to the next, beginning with Lantern at the top and proceeding clockwise; into Forge, into Edge, into Winter, into Heart, into Grail, into Moth, into Lantern. Knock, placed at the wheel's center, cannot be subverted and subverts every other lore except Rose into itself.

Note the larger gap between Moth and Lantern. My reason for arranging the principles this way will become apparent shortly.

For ease of reference, here is a spreadsheet comparing the principles associated with every text that appears in both Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours. In cases where the text's mystery aspect does not match the lore fragment(s) it yields in the first game, I've noted the skill and memory as well.

This is a simple way to demonstrate the 'fuzziness' of the principles, noted at the beginning of this post.

In cases where the principle lore yielded by texts in Cultist Simulator differs from the text's mystery aspect in Book of Hours and the mystery aspect is not one of the newly-introduced aspects, generally speaking, the lessons the Librarian learns will match both; for example, 'The Six Letters on Memory' yields Forge lore in CS, but has Moth as its mystery in BoH, and the Librarian learns a lesson in Transformations & Liberations, a skill whose primary/secondary aspects are Forge and Moth.

The one notable exception is Sunset Passages. In Cultist Simulator, this text yields Winter lore; in Book of Hours, its mystery aspect is Forge, and it provides a lesson in Sacra Solis Invicti (Lantern/Sky). In order to understand the re-categorization of this text, we must consider its subject matter: it is a "miscellany of the funerary prayers, ceremonies, and hymns of the Church of the Unconquered Sun," which "schismed during the Intercalate, when the Sun was divided." It is thus concerned primarily with pre-Intercalate worship of the Madrugad, whose aspects are Winter and Forge, and the skill the Librarian learns from it pertains to those rituals.

Sunset Passages thus serves as a useful illustration of how and why certain texts may be categorized differently between the two games. It is not arbitrary. It's a mechanical representation of the taxonomic 'fuzziness' in that the Cultist can read a certain book and conclude that it's a volume of Winter lore whereas the Librarian can read the same book and categorize it as a book of mainly Forge lore with some relevance to Lantern and Sky, and both are correct, although the Librarian, being a scholar rather than an adept, takes a more nuanced view.

The point being that we can look at those texts which have been reassigned to one of the four/five aspects introduced in Book of Hours as a rough approximation of common relations between those aspects and the ones in the earlier game.

We'll use Moon as an example.

Kanishk at the Spider's Door — Edge lore -> Moon mystery — Lesson is Sharps (Edge/Moon) — Memory is A Stolen Secret (Moon/Knock)

Larquebine Codex — Heart lore -> Moon Mystery — Lesson is Sea Stories (Moon/Grail) — Memory is Gossip (Rose/Grail)

Morphy Codex — SH lore -> Moon mystery — Lesson is Tridesma Hiera (Moon/Grail) — Memory is Beguiling Melody (Grail/Sky)

Viennese Conundra — Moth lore -> Moon mystery — Lesson is Wolf Stories (Moon/Scale) — Memory is Fear (Scale/Edge)

Voyages of Ferninshun of Oreol — SH lore -> Moon mystery — Lesson is Sea Stories (Moon/Grail) — Memory is Salt (Knock/Moon/Winter)

Tally up the aspects associated with these texts: Grail: 5, Edge: 3, Rose: 3, Knock: 2, Scale: 2, 1 each Sky, Moth, Winter, Heart.

& secondary aspects for skills with primary Moon aspect: Grail: 2, Scale: 2, Edge: 1, Heart: 1

& primary aspects for skills with secondary Moon aspect: Winter: 5, Rose: 2, Edge: 2, 1 each Grail, Heart, Nectar, Sky, Scale.

& other aspects on Moon-aspected memories: 4 each Rose, Edge, Winter, Knock, 1 each Sky, Moth.

Keep in mind that this is only an approximation, because we're not taking into account any context for when, why, or how these conjunctions may occur. But we can identify certain patterns just by looking at the frequency; the two most common conjunctions are with Edge and Winter (10x), followed by Rose (9x), Grail (7x), Knock (6x), Scale (5x), Heart and Sky (3x), Moth (2x), and Nectar (1x).

Rose and Knock are both unusual in how they interact with other principles, with Rose being all-encompassing and Knock all-opening. So we're somewhat less interested in them for now. If we consider only the frequency of Moon's associations with the seven 'regular' principles present in Cultist Simulator, where might we position Moon in relation to the subversion wheel diagrammed above?

Well, the most intuitive way to decide its placement is to first put it in between Edge and Winter, then move it a bit clockwise to reflect its significant overlap with Grail and minor associations with Heart and Moth. Right?

In the interest of brevity I won't go through the tallies for the other three 'regular' aspects introduced in Book of Hours, but after going through this same process (and making some aesthetic adjustments, because this is only an approximate representation)...

What we have here is the Cultist Simulator order-of-subversion wheel with the four new aspects plotted onto it as the corners of a containing square; Sky in the juncture between Moth and Lantern, Scale between Lantern and Edge, Moon between Edge and Heart, and Nectar between Heart and Moth. I propose that:

These four principles subvert each other clockwise around the outer wheel, Sky into Scale into Moon into Nectar into Sky, and

The principles in Cultist Simulator, including Knock and Rose, all emerged through division of these older four during the striving and conflicts of the Lithomachy.

Any serious discussion of the Lithomachy is well out of the scope of this post (BUT WE'LL GET TO IT SOONER OR LATER BECAUSE HOO BOY) so my argumentation on this second point will necessarily be rather thin. Sorry. The remainder of this post will concern how well the above diagram holds up to more substantive investigation, and to that end here are the definitions of each principle aspect as per Book of Hours, in order of subversion:

Rose. 'The rose which encompasseth all'. Nine directions to new horizons.[Exploration? Enlightenment? Hope?]

Sky. Wind, storm, echo, song; the intricacies of mathematics and the principles of flight. Law's touch is lighter than we sometimes think.[Matters of balance, harmony and necessity.]

Scale. Hard without, hard within, hard to rouse, harder to subdue. [What is left of the crude powers of the deep earth.]

Moon. Secrets are soft; night is softer still; the sea speaks. It is not always wise to listen. [The nocturnal, the forgotten.]

Nectar. The green wealth in the world's veins; the pulse of the seasons. [Long ago, some called this principle Blood.]

Lantern. 'Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible Sun within us.' - Thomas Browne [Lantern is the principle of the secret place sometimes called the House of the Sun, and of the light above it.]

Forge. 'Fire', I once read, 'is the winter that warms and the spring that consumes.' [The principle of the Forge transforms and destroys.]

Edge. All conquest occurs at the Edge. One who dwells there is blind, and cannot be wounded. Another is strong, and grows stronger. [Edge is the principle of battle and of struggle.]

Winter. ... [Winter is the principle of silence, of endings, and of those things that are not quite dead.]

Heart. The Heart Relentless beats to protect the skin of the world we understand. [The Heart is the principle that continues and preserves.]

Grail. Hunger, lust, the drowning waters. [The principle of the Grail honours both the birth and the feast.]

Moth. I knew a man who captured moths in a bell-jar. On nights like this, he would release them one by one to die in the candle. [Moth is the wild and perilous principle of chaos and yearning.]

& Knock. The Knock permits no seal and no isolation. It thrusts us gleefully out of the safety of ignorance. [The Knock is the principle that opens doors and unseams barriers.]

And while, as I said, we are not going to delve deeply into the subject of the Lithomachy in this post, I do want to make a brief note of the gods-from-stone and their probable aspects. The Horned-Axe, we know to be both Knock- [Liminal Evocation] and Winter-aspected [Winter veneration]. Her attestation in 'On the Winding Stair' is also quite interesting:

Gregory evidently succeeds in opening a way to something he calls the 'Moon-Hall', but here his account becomes erratic. He insists that in the Moon-Hall the Horned-Axe is still an Edge-power; he hopes for an 'eternal rival', but cannot find the one he needs. The narrative is increasingly interspersed with chess notations, and ends abruptly.

Here we have an implication that the Horned-Axe was and is no longer an Edge-power, but within the House of the Moon she still is Edge-aspected (or possibly a cross-gender mirror-twin of hers retains an Edge-aspect that she has lost or discarded). The similarity here to the recurring idea that the Wheel still turns in the House of the Moon is striking. Her altar beneath Hush House accepts Edge, Scale, Winter, and Knock aspect.

The Horned-Axe is one of the three Hours of the Chancel alongside the Meniscate and the Sister-and-Witch, of whom the former has obvious associations with the Moon and the latter with the Sea. I submit, then, that before the Lithomachy, the Horned-Axe's aspects were instead Moon and Scale, and that she was—in some way—divided or bifurcated in the course of the Lithomachy into two halves, both with Knock aspect, one Winter-aspected and the other an Edge-aspected reflection.

(<- I will note, as an observation, that there is a vague and rather tangential precedent for such an occurrence; the Wolf-Divided is the product of the division of an Hour, and likewise has Edge and Winter aspect. The common factor would seem to be the coincidence of an ending, hence Winter, with the emergence of an entity driven by an unfulfilled need, hence Edge.)

That is our only living god-from-stone. The others are the Wheel, the Flint, the Tide, the Seven-Coil, and the Egg Unhatching. We know that the Wheel was usurped by the Moth (and that its blood, shed on the roots of the Wood, birthed the Velvet); that the Flint was shattered by the Forge; that the Colonel and the Mother of Ants conspired to slay the Coil; and that the Egg Unhatching fled to the Glory by unknown means and with uncertain outcome.*

[*The Unwise Mortal brought it through the Tricuspid Gate and then it hatched into the Sun-in-Splendour. This is how he ascended to Hourhood as the Watchman. I can't get into it right now or we'll be here all day but: TRUST.]

So, the Wheel was replaced by the Moth and the Velvet (aspects: Moth, Heart—& I submit, also Moon). When the Medium paints the endless memory: "With each turn its cilia pulse and wriggle and its body flushes translucent to crimson. It might be ugly but it is beautiful like the withdrawing of blood from the labyrinths of glass. It does not cease and all its involutions are infinite." All of this locates us firmly in the neighborhood of Moth/Heart, emphasis on Heart given the imagery, and given that the aspect now called Nectar was once known as Blood, this one is easy.

The Wheel's first aspect was Blood. I believe it may also have been Scale-aspected, due to its association with serpents. (On this see Serpents & Venoms. Note that the Secret Histories wiki identifies the 'low red sun' as the Egg Unhatching mostly on the basis of the Medium's glorious memory, but this plainly incorrect. The 'low red sun' was the Wheel, and the Egg Unhatching was a moon, before it hatched. We'll talk about this in more detail in my next post.)

The Flint was 'eclipsed and then shattered' by the Forge. In nearly all of its attestations it's associated with the earth in some way. When painting the golden memory, the Flint is described thus: "This is only a stone, though it is smoothed and sharpened to a midnight point, but look closer. Each of its facets shows a single point of light. It might be the glint of firelight. It might be each a different Star."

As with the Wheel being a Blood-Hour, it seems quite straightforward that the Flint's aspect was Scale; and given its connection to the Wheel through the line of Antaios, an argument could be made that it had a minor Blood aspect as well, making the Wheel and the Flint reflections of each other (Blood/Scale | Scale/Blood).

Next, the Tide, which the Red Grail drowned and consumed. Its usurpation by the Grail and association with the Sea would suggest Blood (the primordial precursor to Grail) and, obviously, Moon. Painting the luxurious memory offers the description: "In a night-blue Mansus-haze swims a coral palace-crown. At its fore-edge it absorbs the lesser Names, coating them with its minerals and juices, and at its rear edge it expels some of them, polished like jewels. The others go to feed its thorny Tide-heart," which reinforces the 'Grail-precursor' angle pretty strongly.

Further, the Tide being Moon- and Blood-aspected offers an elegant explanation for the unusual frequency of Moon-Grail conjunctions in comparison to the other 'precursor' aspects (Heart-Sky is also a common conjunction but otherwise conjunctions with aspects outside the precursor 'quadrant' are quite rare); consider the Sea as the world's blood, an ever-churning life-giving liquid, and the Moon must figure as the world's heart, as the engine of the tidal forces which keep the waters circulating. Heart is the connection between the two, but Grail having supplanted Blood (now Nectar) as the principle most strongly associated with the Sea, it remains closely entangled with the Moon.

Like the Flint, it seems fairly straightforward that the Seven-Coil was Scale-aspected: its monstrous serpentine form and present associations with earthquakes both unambiguously point in this direction. Contra the Secret Histories wiki, I actually do not believe that the Seven-Coil had Rose aspect itself. The events leading up to its slaying are (notably) recounted in much greater detail than the death of any other god-from-stone, and unlike the others, its defeat came not at the hands of a god-from-blood but what seem to have been the first two human* gods-from-flesh; it follows that the death of the Seven-Coil occurred much later than the usurpation of the Wheel, the Flint, and the Tide...

[*I believe the Elegiast and the Beachcomber may be much older, but neither of them were mortal humans as the Colonel and the Mother of Ants seem to have been prior to their ascensions. Jury is out on when the Vagabond ascended to Hourhood exactly, but she's of the Cross. Probably.]

...and indeed, 'The Deeds of the Scarred Captain' places the slaying of the Seven-Coil immediately prior to the founding of Mycenae, which occurred around 1350-1200 BC—well into the Bronze Age and not remotely prehistorical.

The Coil itself wasn't Rose-aspected; I believe its slaying is the inciting incident for one of the Histories—most likely the Third. The massive proliferation of Worms in that History, the loose association between Worms and the Coil, the origin of the Seven-Coils' Temple in the Third History, Sparrow's paranoid conviction that this History is "overrun by Coils," and even the aspects of the Third History's encaustum Nillycant (Winter & Edge for the Colonel; Scale for the Coil) all seem to point in this direction.

That leaves only the Egg Unhatching, vexing little enigma that it is. In the Medium's painting it appears like this: "A faded pale white-gold seen in certain patches of the sky, when the mist is clearing but the sun might be mistaken for the moon. We hold our breath and watch it brighten, until each colour divides from the next like a new-minted alphabet." Despite its having been a moon, I'm not wholly convinced that it had Moon aspect; that it hatched into the Sun-in-Splendour (you'll have to trust me on this for now) might suggest it was Sky-aspected, although this doesn't feel quite right to me either.

The other Lantern-precursor it could have had is Scale, and I am fairly confident that the Egg Unhatching was Scale-aspected. The Seven-Coil is described as 'the nest' in a certain ending and there are some hints toward a connection between the Sun-in-Splendour and the Scīmafectra-kind of the Carapace Cross; it would not be unreasonable for the Egg Unhatching to have been laid or incubated in the Nest—that is, the Seven-Coil—during the era of the Carapace Cross, and thus to have Scale aspect. The Scale determination may loosely support this as well. Furthermore, the Unwise Mortal "learnt the shaping arts of the Flint" and later "ascended to the shadow of the Egg Unhatching," which is suggestive of some degree of similarity between the Flint and the Egg. So we'll put this one down as Scale and a 'maybe' on Moon/Sky.

...and that's my 'brief' note on the probable aspects of the gods-from-stone. TO RECAP:

Horned-Axe: Moon/Scale -> Knock/Winter + Knock/Edge

Wheel: Blood/Scale

Flint: Scale/Blood

Tide: Blood/Moon

Seven-Coil: Scale

Egg Unhatching: Scale + Moon/Sky (?)

Lastly—and this is more a footnote for a future post, really—notice the absence here of any gods-from-stone with clear, unambiguous signs of having been Sky-aspected. An argument can be made for the Wheel and the Flint to have had Sky aspect, the Wheel having been the old sun and the Flint being associated with starlight, but there is little in the way of supporting evidence (and neither Sky-Nectar nor Sky-Scale are common conjunctions, although Heart and Sky are frequently conjunct in matters of weather, so the argument for the Wheel to have been Blood / Scale / Sky is a bit stronger than the one for the Flint).

Right. So.

Let's talk about the nine elements of the soul.

Here, I've marked how different aspects are connected through, or by, each part of the soul. Where two aspects are not adjacent, the connection is represented passing through the simplest juncture, such that the aspects of Ereb, Wist, and Trist connect to each other through Knock; the Moth and Rose of Fet pass through Sky; and Moon is the joint between Health's Nectar/Heart and Scale.

Depicting the elements this way reveals some interesting patterns:

Other than Health, which is unusual in other ways, every non-adjacent pair here is joined through its juncture at a 135° angle (and if we were to route the connection from Heart to Scale through Knock rather than Moon, this would be true of Health too; however, I believe that Moon is the more appropriate juncture in this case for reasons I will outline in a bit.)

The two paired aspects that are adjacent around the inner wheel, Forge/Edge Mettle and Heart/Grail Chor, are stronger in the principle subverted when these aspects interact. In theory, this suggests that Sky may subvert Lantern—and this in turn would be a small point in favor of interpreting Sky / Scale / Moon / Nectar as precursor aspects whose division created the modern principles, on the grounds that Sky subverting Lantern then obeys the Sanguine Exception.

(which holds that every door must open both ways.)

Chor, "exuberance, rhythm, and instinct," has Heart aspect with a lesser power of Grail; when subverting Heart lore or influence into Grail, the project description is "what does not cease will succumb, at last, to temptation," and the action "all that moves must succumb to hunger." This conjunction is also reversed in Memory: Satisfaction, which has Grail aspect with a lesser power of Heart, so it doesn't seem like a stretch to conclude that Chor arises from hunger in moderation; that is, the need for sustenance and meaning in life, absent the wilder hedonism of Grail.

Chor's malady, Duendracy, is a lapse in concentration brought on by what is described as a quite pleasant but very distracting (or perhaps inspiring) "possessing presence from the Mansus." It has Heart aspect only; but notice how afflicted Chor seems to be stilled as the Grail aspect is lost to the pleasant distraction—even though Heart is defined as the principle of relentless motion! Similarly, that Duentratic Chor must be roused by a sufficient power of Moth, the "wild and perilous principle of yearning," suggests the best cure for Duendracy is a nameless dissatisfaction which reawakens the Heart to its hunger, and thus restores its balance with Grail.

Ereb is "pride, compassion, hatred, fear" and "the shadow in the soul's cellar." It has Grail aspect with a lesser amount of Edge; so, we might call it an expression of passionate desire bringing about, or brought about by, strife. And while Ereb itself lacks Knock aspect, the way its Grail-Edge conjunction is expressed does resonate with the principle of Knock for much the same reason that one facet of Knock is wounding.

What commonality unites the qualities of pride, compassion, hatred, fear?—here I will note that Book of Hours (and Cultist Simulator, in less unsubtle ways) incorporates a number of Jungian concepts into its storytelling; the Archaeologist in particular is more or less explicitly tormented by their projected Shadow, in Jungian terms. The Shadow is an unconscious aspect of the personality composed of traits that are unwanted, that do not align with the aspirational ideal image of oneself, and which are therefore both repressed and projected outward, driving conflict both within and without. Confrontation with the Shadow is inevitable and may lead to either possession by it (which produces confusion, distress, emotional paralysis) or assimilation of it (which acknowledges and integrates the Shadow into the conscious self, a spiritual awakening).

The word Ereb derives from ἔρεβος (érebos), the ancient Greek for the darkness of Hades; and it's "the shadow in the soul's cellar," the intersection of Grail's "drowning waters" with the conflict and conquests of Edge—it is the Shadow, and so it is hidden or buried but must, sooner or later, be encountered. And so we might say that the Shadow will eventually, inevitably, perhaps violently, Knock. Note, also, the descriptions when strengthening Ereb with either Bosk ("the Wood is filled with shadows") or Skolekosophy ("...will unchain my Ereb"), and more generally Ereb's association with the unwritten, instinctual lore of the primaeval wood and the study of things that should not be studied. The Shadow comes Knocking, etc.

(I find Ereb especially interesting in relation to both Calyptra and the Corrivality, and will get into a deeper dive about this at some point in the future. For now: Westengryre is the affliction incurred by provoking the Mare-in-the-Tree. Sleep softly!).

Fet is "that part of us which walks in dreams," and its first aspect is Rose, its second Moth; and, as noted, I propose that the juncture in this conjunction is Sky. Why?

Sky concerns "matters of balance, harmony, and necessity." Moth is an unpredictable, wandering principle of chaotic yearning; Rose is "exploration, enlightenment, hope." Now think about Fascination: 2 Moth, THE HIGHER I RISE THE MORE I SEE; and if the Cultist succumbs to visions with three Fascination, this is their ending: "First it was the dreams. Then it was the visions. Now it's everything. I no longer have any idea what is real, and what is not."

Fet, the part which walks in dreams, which traverses the Mansus, has Moth aspect commingled with the aspect of enlightenment and exploration. Its malady is Gisting, the Rose aspect absent the Moth, and described thus: "As my concentration fails, a part of my soul flutters away, drawn by a distant half-imaginary light. [...] My fet is gisting - too loosely tethered to me - so that I glimpse the Mansus even in daylight hours. [...] In dreams I have visited the House behind the world... and some part of me is trapped there now, even when I wake." Whence does the Cultist's Moth-aspected Fascination derive? From the unmooring of Moth from their Fet.

To maintain one's Fet in good health—to walk the Mansus in dreams with the dangerous impulse to wander tethered safely to the skin of the world and the ways beneath it—what is required most of all is balance; harmony between the peril of Moth and the Rose which anchors the dreamer to the Wake. This is a matter of Sky.

(& of course, Rose and Moth together represent the nine divisions of the wind itself: the eight winds of the compass rose and the directionless, chaotic ninth.)

Health—Health is unusual in several ways, the most obvious being that it has three aspects rather than two. It is not a part of the soul per se but rather the dwelling-place thereof; its aspects are Nectar, Heart, and Scale. I believe that the reason for this is relatively simple. The aspect now called Nectar was once instead named Blood, and so we might consider that the first aspect of Health, the body, is the Heart-Blood, or the Blood-in-the-Heart. Or we might conceptualize this combination of Nectar-Heart as within-without, the lifeblood moved by the heart beating to protect the skin.

Then why Scale?

Well... Scale is the aspect of what is left, of what remains, of the old forgotten songs asleep in the depths of the earth which might yet be roused; and the Cross died not but passed within. Health has Scale-aspect because that is the last trace of the Carapace Cross, long-buried and forgotten but never quite gone. Hence my choice to route Nectar-Heart's union to Scale through Moon, the secret and forgotten things, rather than through Knock and Forge. Either is cogent, but I think Moon is the better fit.

Next! Mettle. Mettle is easy. Mettle is the "will; self-discipline; that part of us which makes the right choice" and "the capacity for meaningful choice," and it has Forge aspect with a lesser power of Edge. When subverting Forge lore or influence into Edge, the Cultist invokes the Lionsmith's rebellion at Issus: "The Hour called Lionsmith shattered his own sword to escape his master's dominion. All things can be overcome, with sufficient force. [...] I've shattered what I believed before. Thus have I subverted my Forge lore to Edge."

A small—but important!—detail I want to underscore here. In shattering his sword at Issus, the Lionsmith enacted a teaching of the Forge of days, that "the artisan may achieve their highest goal only by destroying their most precious tool." That is to say, the method used here to subvert Forge into Edge is not to conquer the Forge with the Edge but instead to reforge the Edge using Forge-techniques. One principle subverting another doesn't necessarily imply an adversarial relationship to each other; they are instead complements, or united opposites, or both. Forge-into-Edge is the clearest demonstration of this.

Thus, Mettle encompasses not just fortitude and conviction but specifically the will to change oneself—to break and be reforged—in pursuit of the highest goal. I would also submit that it is the part of the soul most in conflict with Ereb (the ego-ideal of the superego, if you want it in Jungian terms; that aspirational sense of self and identity which suppresses the Shadow). The drowning waters of Grail versus the consuming fire of Forge, the birth-and-death, end-and-beginning of Grail vs the metamorphosis and shaping arts of Forge; opposite and the same, passion striving against self-discipline, willpower striving to give form to unconscious desire, and so conflict arises from the Edge between them.

Phost is "the light within: sight, perception, inspiration" and "all the Glory's gifts." Its first aspect is Lantern, its second Sky. When afflicted, its malady is Fascinated: "My inner light gutters, then flares - I am snared in a dangerous fascination. [...] Phost is the brightest part of the soul - sometimes it can grow too bright for safety." Unlike the Cultist's Moth-y Fascination, Fascinated Phost has a small degree of Lantern aspect. It does, however, appear to be the same condition, hence "the HIGHER I RISE the MORE I SEE."

The discrepant aspect here may come down to a simple difference in temperament between the Cultist and the Librarian; one imagines that an adept must have a greater inclination toward Moth than a scholar—otherwise why seek what lies above and beyond the Stag Door? Thus Glory entices the adept but blinds the scholar. Or else, for the scholar, the danger of Fascination lies in what perilous yearnings might be enticed toward you, as Daymare insinuates, although whether the advice she offers Gwen is applicable generally or not is, given Gwen's particular circumstances, unclear.

In any case, Phost is the part of the soul afflicted by Fascination, and it seems reasonable to conceive of it as a counterpart or perhaps the fulcrum of Fet. Consider the Watchman's Paradoxes, a Lantern-Sky skill which can be committed either to Illumination or Nyctodromy:

From Light (Phost) Our dreams are shadows cast by the Watchman's light. So we perceive him even in our shadow. This is Illumination. From Change (Fet) We recognise the dream-places that the Watchman shows us, though we have never seen them before. Perhaps we were something else when we saw them. This paradox is fundamental to Nyctodromy.

If a dream is the shadow cast by the Watchman's light, or a place thereby illuminated, and Phost is "all the Glory's gifts," and the Fet is the part of the soul which walks in dreams, then it is—perhaps—Phost which illuminates the way, as an inner semblance of the Watchman's light, and keeps the balance between Rose and Moth.

Shapt is "eloquence and understanding; the door opens both ways." It has Knock aspect and a lesser power of Forge. It is words. It is speech: the first wound, the first sword, the first key. When afflicted, it develops the malady Acusis, "in which the door, Shapt, cannot be closed. [...] Every sound rings like a bell - every word scratches at my eyes or skin." Knock, absent Forge, soothed only by the silence of Winter. I get very excitable about Shapt and this is already a quite long post, so I will leave it at: Ebrehel is the Shapt of an Hour.

Trist is "the change and the longing," and its first aspect is Moth, its second Moon. Its affliction, Despairing, has Edge aspect instead: "Trist is already half a hand trailed in a river of deeper sadness. [...] Melancholy is the mist on the soul's waters. Despair is the wolf that prowls the water's edge." Trist is also implicated in the existence of what seems to be the most dangerous of the 'great shadows' that can be found in tombs—as described in 'The Barrowchild's Elegies':

The Barrowchild warns particularly of the 'avidity of trist', where a remnant-shadow's longing for change survives its sense of self and even devours its wist. That longing may draw the curious into the tomb, where the remnant-shadow changes so that it cannot be distinguished from its visitor - or that the reverse becomes true - and that it is never again possible to say whether it is the shadow or the visitor that exits the tomb.

ahem. Conceptually what this 'avidity of trist' describes is, in Jungian terms, possession by the Shadow. In Secret Histories terms, I believe that Ereb (fear) overtakes Trist, which turns to despair; the Mettle (will, choice, the determinants of self) is eroded or forsaken or otherwise lost, whereafter the despairing Trist provokes a complete obliteration of everything else that remains in a violent, agonized desperation to destroy the Ereb. & that's what a Wolf-Splinter is.

So the Moth aspect needs no explanation. Moon, however, is interesting, as is the juncture through Knock and Winter. Trist, the change and the longing, is melancholy... and Moon is the aspect of secrets, of nocturnal and forgotten things. Trist, I believe, is specifically the longing for what has been lost, after the changing, after something ends. Hence the danger of its avidity.

Last and not least, we have Wist; "the soul's memory, the true name scratched on its cornerstone, what remains after the rest has passed." It's the memory and the remnants. Its aspects are Winter and Lantern, and its malady, Shell-Crossed, has the aspect Scale, expressly because it's a surfacing remnant: "Memory crossed, hatched, lined, snapped. My thoughts are tangled and unfamiliar to me. Something of those who came before - the Carapace Cross - has always lingered in humankind. It's risen now in me."

The Winter-aspect is of course straightforward, given the Wist's role as memory-keeper for the soul. The Elegiast comes to mind, as does the nowhere-Hour called Snow (for death alters; Snow endures).

But why Lantern? Lantern is not an aspect frequently associated with preservation or endurance—quite the opposite, it purifies and it blinds. It begins to make sense if we consider this Lantern-aspect in relation to the Scale-aspect that emerges when Wist becomes Shell-Crossed, and that is, I think, the closest we have to a smoking gun in terms of Scale being a precursor to Lantern. What remains of the Carapace Cross now? Only light. This is why Shell-Crossed Wist is cured with Lantern; its Scale aspect is purified and therefore forgotten, all but the very last, inextinguishable trace.

(We'll discuss that more in another post.)

So!

All of these conjunctions of principles within the soul track quite well with the positioning of Sky / Scale / Moon / Nectar at the corners around the 'inner wheel.' I think the elements of the soul provide a more comprehensive look at the way the principles interact with each other than do Cultist Simulator's subversion projects, which we turn to now. Briefly. (she says, lying.)

Lantern into Forge: "The magus Julian Coseley claims the Forge of Days split the Sun. Perhaps he was right. [...] Light yields to Heat."

Something interesting to note is that there is a recurring if rather subtle motif of the Sun's light—the light of the Glory, Lantern—being cold. Or at least, not very warm. Besides the Meniscate, whose light is that of a reflection because her domain is the Moon, all of the extant Solar Hours have Winter aspect, which is not particularly unusual in and of itself given the influence of the Intercalate. But the Medium's splendid memory implies that the Sun-in-Splendour, although brighter than the Madrugad or the Sun-in-Rags, was likewise chilly: "The Sun was brighter once - no warmer, but its light held colours we no longer see."

This contrasts the Wheel, as described in, for example, the Inks of Revelation commitment to Hushery: "...since the dawn times when the sun hung red and low and we felt its warmth like autumn." But even that suggests only a little warmth.

Lantern and Forge are similar in myriad ways—light purifies, light blinds; fire gives light and consumes knowledge; one is unmerciful, the other inspires unmerciful change—but one key enduring difference does seem to be that Lantern-light is cold, unyielding, whereas Forge-light burns, desires, consumes, destroys. In this specific way Forge holds more similarity to Moth and Grail than it does to Lantern... and indeed we do see Forge-Moth or Forge-Grail conjunctions here and there. Notably, Transformations & Liberations (Forge-Moth) and Numen: A Merciless Alteration (Edge-Forge-Grail).

Forge into Edge, we've touched on already.

Edge into Winter: "I am acknowledging the victory of patience over strength. [...] Patience defeats strength."

Just as the method for subverting Forge into Edge recalls the Lionsmith, Edge into Winter may—arguably—call upon the Colonel's understanding of victory through the cunning borne of experience. Or we might interpret the operation from the perspective that even the fiercest conflict must end in time, whether in victory or defeat; that even the strongest warrior must fall. The White waits west of the world, but she will not wait forever. In all likelihood both are true, or at least can be true. I would imagine there are different techniques drawn from either viewpoint. (& this, too, is Edge.)

Winter into Heart: "Winter's coming must yield at last to spring."

This operation, I find most interesting in conjunction with the description of Forge as "the winter that warms and the spring that consumes." On its face, it is reasonable to interpret Winter and Heart as opposite forces—silence and stillness, striving against the drums and motion of life—but... but. Winter is the principle of endings, of silence, and of those things that are not quite dead.

Consider the Winter-Heart skill Quenchings & Quellings:

Arts which quench fires and bring solace to the troubled mind. 'A true adept is never troubled by fire, nor by fever, nor by restless spirit'. – Ambrose Westcott Safety in Silence (Trist) Unwise words are dangerous. Mourn them, remember them, speak them not. This is Hushery. Safety in Oblivion (Health) Let the flesh forget disease, let the smoke forget the flame, let the troubled mind forget its pain: Preservation.

Ambrose Westcott was a metallurgist, an alchemist, a pyrographer—his area of specialization pertained to Forge, not to Heart or Winter. But Quenchings & Quellings is first and foremost a skill interested in regret and forgetting, and therein lies the connection: Regret is a Winter-Forge memory. "Every choice has its shadow."

I do not think Winter and Heart are opposing forces at all, but rather two sides of a three-sided coin. (If you'll pardon the tortured metaphor.) Winter ends and Heart renews. Winter remembers and Heart preserves. What's missing from these pictures? Forge, which destroys; Forge, which transforms. Not for nothing are these the principles of Calyptra; the Black Flower's Heart-aspect, the White's Winter-aspect, the Red's Forge.

Heart into Grail, we've already discussed.

Grail into Moth: "Even the Red Grail falls prey to the buzzing in the brain."

Obviously, little daylight exists between hunger and yearning; both are a form of desire. Moth and Grail are similar in their hedonism, their wildness, their violence; the Moth flayed the Wheel and the Thunderskin was flayed at the Grail's behest. (Much is made of the confounding question of whether the Moth or the Grail came first, feasted first, arose first. There are no end of contradictory answers, but the truth is really very simple. They are twins—triplets actually but we don't have time for that—born together.)

But do note the specific phrasing used here—that the Red Grail falls prey to the Moth. The Hour called Moth is a hunter. This is described, for example, when committing Horns & Ivories to the Bosk. So the Red Grail is an Hour which hungers and consumes, presiding at births and deaths in equal measure, and sometimes she falls prey to the hunter-Moth; there is some notion here of reversals, of the hunter-becoming-hunted, of hunger being what is preyed upon.

Here I will draw your attention to the Moth-Grail skill Resurgences & Emergences: "Birth and death are only directions. Between the two we find a crossroads." When Grail is subverted into Moth, this is the crossroads they approach.

& into Knock: "Place pressure upon a weakness, and rend the skin of the world." Any aspect studied with Knock becomes Knock.

Knock is a power of opening, of wounding, of breaching; but I think it is also—perhaps even more importantly—a principle of intersection. It is the joining-together which dissolves all boundaries. The reason it subverts everything is less that it's a cosmic skeleton key and more a question of Knock being the principle that understands everything to be connected to everything else, because it is the principle which connects all things. Nothing is truly separate, and nothing can be divided unless it was first joined.

It's the aspect of the Mother of Ants, who encircles, who arises from wounds, who spares those who are already harmed. Knock is the principle that both wounds and heals by wounding, the venom that is also the antivenin. If you've ever wondered why Sacrament Ascite is brewed from Glassfinger Toxin, this is why.

Now—finally—let's discuss my proposed operations of Sky into Scale, into Moon, into Nectar, back into Sky.

Sky into Scale: This one is actually quite open-and-shut. We'll start with the Ithastry commitment for the language Kernewek Henevek:

The Stars (Wist) A smiths' proverb in Brancrug: 'What starts in the sky, ends in the earth.' A story goes with it, that the village smith's anvil in the time of the Dewulfs was hatched from a meteor stone, and so every plough in the village knows something of the stars. Not many remember the story, but everyone remembers the proverb. It would probably count as Ithastry.

From the sky to the earth; as above, so below. Sky is "wind, storm, echo, song... matters of balance, harmony, and necessity." Scale is "hard without, hard within, hard to rouse, harder to subdue; what remains of the old powers of the earth." What's an earthquake if not a storm within the stone? Or is it a song that still echoes beneath the earth?

Both are precursors to the modern principle of Lantern; Scale, the principle of the Flint, is very closely associated with Forge—and in Lightning we find the conjunction of Sky-Forge.

There is also a whole tangent we could go into here about the birds and the serpents and the birds-of-a-scale, worms-of-a-feather. But I won't belabor the point. Next!

Scale into Moon: One could make an argument, too, for Scale into Nectar, on the grounds of stone-and-soil, fossil-and-seed, antecedent for the Winter-Heart relationship. However, that becomes more difficult when the relationships between the precursors and the modern principles is taken into account, and I think the similarities between Scale-Nectar and Winter-Heart are more accurately represented in terms of Scale-Moon-Nectar preceding the triad of Forge-Winter-Heart.

The Scale-Moon subversion also has Hill & Hollow going for it, in particular the Preservation commitment:

The ways of the hill-children and the gods-from-stone. Old paths, old secrets, the songs that still echo beneath the earth. How They Endured (Health) In the beginning, the Carapace Cross served the first Hours, the gods born from stone. When the gods-from-stone were defeated, where could the Cross go? Into the hills; into the Bounds; and into us. This is how humankind came to be, and in our most secret hollows, the Cross endures. This is a matter of Preservation.

(Note that 'the Bounds' seems to also encompass the House of the Moon, as per the Nyctodromy commitment for Hyksos.)

Scale is what sleeps, remains, what might be roused, while Moon is what is secret, what is hidden, what is nocturnal, and what has been forgotten. Scale endures and fades from memory; Moon remembers what was forgotten. The old songs that echo under the earth become the secrets whispered by the waves beneath the moon.

Like Forge and Winter, Scale and Moon pair the violent destruction of Scale (as a shattering earthquake) with the softer, gentle endings presided over by Moon (as the sea erodes stone). Next!

Moon to Nectar: Here, of course, the dual nature of Grail—the drowning waters but also blood—is worth noting. Both Nectar and Moon are far more strongly tied to Grail than to Heart. And of course, the Wheel, the low red sun, once had the aspect Blood; and it still turns inside the House of the Moon.

Speaking of the Wheel, while Serpents & Venoms is a Scale-Moon skill, it undeniably concerns the Wheel (which may, as we discussed earlier, have also been Scale-aspected), and its Hushery commitment has some interesting implications regarding the relationship between the Wheel and dreams:

The Last Sun (Trist) In the dawn times the sun was lower, so we gave it our blood. From our blood it knew us, and so it was kinder. Its serpents brought us its poisons to drink, and so we died. But we only died a little, and so we dreamed, and returned the next day to give it our blood again. Those times of peace persist in the lessons of Hushery.

In the Mansus as it exists now, dreams are shadows cast by the Watchman's light, or else illuminated by his light, but of course this could not have been true in the dawn time when the Watchman didn't yet exist. The Moon-Knock memory A Stolen Secret, "Something I overheard in dreams?", together with Moon's associations with secrets and nocturnal things, at least circumstantially supports the conclusion that dawn-dreams were illuminated instead by the Moon.

Thus, this interplay between the blood-drinking Wheel whose serpents opened the way each night into dreams beneath the light of the Moon, speaks to the interaction of Moon with the old principle Blood, and what traces of that remain between Moon and Nectar.

Blood drinks of life and gives death and the Moon heals in dreams; Blood brings the dawn and Night yields to day. Nectar is the principle of germination and of poisoned thorns and of renewal, and the Moon still remembers what it was.

Also, the Velvet. Just... the Velvet. Next!

Nectar to Sky: We return to Kernawek Henavek, but this time it is the Bosk commitment that interests us...

The Roots (Health) A farmers' proverb in Brancrug: 'What starts in the roots, ends in the sky.' A superstition goes with it, that before a child's first birthday you should leave her for a summer night sleeping in the roots of an apple-tree, to make sure she grows tall and straight-backed. Not many pay heed to the superstition now, but everyone remembers the proverb. It would probably count as Bosk.

...along with the Birdsong commitment for Leaves & Thorns:

Looking Up (Chor) The gardener's first lesson is this: look up. What starts as weather ends in the world, what starts as sky ends in the soil. This is what the birds know, and the birds know most things first.

As beneath, so above. What is a tree but a throne to birds, and what is Sky but a crown for birds? What begins in sky ends in soil, and so the first lesson of the gardener is to look up.

Nectar is the pulse of the seasons, the ripening, the wild vigor of new life. Sky is the principle of balance and harmony, mathematics and law—moderation, but also music. The wind in the branches, the bird in the nest, the lightning-strike that fells the tree and lets in the sunlight so that new flowers can grow. I rest my case.

& Fin. (ominously) for now.

I would apologize for the sheer amount of things I've glossed over things to the tune of "but we don't have time for that now" but in my defense, 1. I'M FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE (this post is 8.2k words long) and 2. I have half of a far more comprehensive disquisition regarding the various shadows-under-the-boat we carefully ignored in this post sitting in my drafts; perhaps a quarter of it is complete; it is pushing forty thousand words in length, so 3. It Will Happen Again.

Tune in next time for: VAMPIRE SUN, EGG MOON, & ...THAT GUY.

[bestworstcase]

speaking of calyptra though i go back and forth with myself sometimes on which of the dyad is more appropriately identified as the white flower because i feel there’s a strong argument to be made in either direction (which is probably the point) – ultimately the proper answer is ‘both’ but given the whole situation with the mare / the applebright / the sister-and-witch i think it’s also fair to ask who’s the white flower when they’re not conjunct. and i do think in that case it’s probably the one with edge. illumination!

[moth-short]

Okay, so I see why the Mare-in-the-Tree and Sister-and-Witch are conjunct, (the Mare-in-the-Tree who has sometimes been the Witch's Sister, (Inaam, Kapigiginlupir, Garkie, Cryppys) which would be enough on its own but also being able to entreat the Sister among others for Numa, the season of forgetting, and the Mare in the Tree being a third of the Calyptra),

*but why is the Applebright also conjunct here??*

[bestworstcase]

ough. a scattering of pieces to put together here. first, 'the Three and the Three' (Vatican Manuscript) suggests that the Sister-and-Witch are not always conjunct—that is, that sometimes they're the Sister and the Witch, not the Sister-and-Witch or Witch-and-Sister:

The Sister-and-Witch is Cruciate, but the Witch-and-Sister is not. Even those powers that demand a conjunction are not always conjoined. When the Sister is Nowhere, does this mean Nowhere sits in crucem?'

...and that the Sister is Nowhere when the Sister-and-Witch are not conjunct; and (possibly) that this implies Nowhere may sit in crucem, i.e. 'at the cross' i.e. the crossroads is Nowhere. as you noted, from IKGC we know that the Mare-in-the-Tree "has sometimes been the Witch's Sister," and 'the Three and the Three' is a disquisition on the hours of the Chancel & Calyptra.

the Geminiad I "implies connections between the Sister-and-Witch and the Hours of the upper Mansus - especially the lunar Hour called the Meniscate" and the Geminiad III "implies connections between the Witch-and-Sister and the Hours of the Wood - especially the secret-keeper called the Velvet," so this is the relevance of the conjoined Hours and specifically the Sister to the subject of the Chancel and Calyptra. (the Meniscate being one of the Hours of the Chancel & the Mare and Velvet being Hours of Calyptra.)

point being, given what 'the Three and the Three' is about, we can read 'when the Sister is Nowhere' as a euphemistic way of saying 'when the Mare-in-the-Tree is the Sister' with fairly high confidence.

that implies that the Mare is the Sister specifically when the Sister-and-Witch are not conjunct. the question is who is the Witch, then.

two possibilities may immediately come to mind:

the Velvet – we know she has an association with the Mare as two Hours of Calyptra, and the Geminiad associates her with the Witch-and-Sister.

the Malachite – another Hour of the Wood, with whom the Mare has forbidden liaisons as per the Mare-in-the-Yew and IKGC.

BUT...

when you achieve a major Grail victory in Cultist Simulator, the Applebright finds you: "She has gathered my last few fragments to caress and console and restore in her rich baskets of nutritions, and she promises me that sometimes, when she is the Witch and I am inside her, she will show me the world again."

so the Mare "has sometimes been the Witch's Sister," and the Applebright promises to do things "sometimes when she is the Witch." ...and we do happen to know that the Applebright consorts with Calyptra, first because she is the patron Hour of the Grove (see Singlefoot Songs & A Journey to the Grove), and second because both of the commitments for Applebright Euphonies talk about an Hour of Calyptra:

What May Be True Calyptra is the law that requires secret knowledge to be forgotten - except in the libraries of the Watchman's Tree. The number of the Hours of the Calyptra is three, and we do not trust the third Hour, though we heed her. This paradox is a matter of Illumination. What May Be Known Calyptra is the law that requires secret knowledge to be concealed - except in the libraries of the Watchman's Tree. The number of the Hours of the Calyptra is three, and we do not speak of the oldest Hour. This observance is a matter of Bosk.

...specifically, the oldest Hour of Calyptra is the Velvet. the "third Hour" might refer to either the Red or the White Flower – both are associated with Illumination and with forgetting – but i think it is more likely the Red (i.e., the Mare) given the title (the Red Flower is 'the fire fuelled by truth' whereas the White is 'the silence that was given') and that it provides Mettle rather than Phost. this is also in keeping with the commits for Edicts Inviolable, which likewise describe the Velvet and the Mare. "we do not trust her, though we heed her" also tracks for the Mare, and referring to her as the "third Hour" likewise makes sense because she is, per Edicts Inviolable, the youngest Hour of Calyptra.

oh, and the Librarian can learn Applebright Euphonies from Snare of the Tree, the book of proverbs written by the Mare's Herald. hm!

so all of that tracks. if the Mare-in-the-Tree is specifically the Witch's Sister when the Sister and the Witch are not conjunct, then her being Sister to the Applebright when the Applebright is the Witch also follows, because the Mare-in-the-Tree and the Applebright are not in conjunction and indeed have an (apparently?) looser relationship than that of the Mare and the Velvet or the Mare and the Malachite.

also, sidebar, to petition the Sister-and-Witch for Numa you need Moon, so you're more likely petitioning either the Meniscate in her aspect as the Sister-and-Witch or the Sister-and-Witch as Hours of the Sea. more likely the latter, given that if you use Knock it's the Beachcomber and he also has some associations with the shore.

[moth-short]

Wait, so-

The Sister-and-Witch and the Witch-and-Sister aren't conjunct, but they are because the Sister-and-Witch-and-Sister *is* them being conjunct, they're just acknowledged as being two different entities in-lore.

When they are not conjunct, they are separate. The Sister and the Witch. The Sister, when not conjunct, is the Mare-in-the-Tree. The Witch, when not conjunct, is the Applebright. The Mare is the Applebright's Sister, because she's the Witch's Sister.

And this is why the Sister-and-Witch, the Mare-in-the-Tree and the Applebright are conjunct. And the Witch-and-Sister, if you count them separately, then?

With this explanation, this actually makes a lot of sense. Thank you. This is fascinating. I'm going to rotate this in my head for a while.

[bestworstcase]

speaking of calyptra though i go back and forth with myself sometimes on which of the dyad is more appropriately identified as the white flower because i feel there’s a strong argument to be made in either direction (which is probably the point) – ultimately the proper answer is ‘both’ but given the whole situation with the mare / the applebright / the sister-and-witch i think it’s also fair to ask who’s the white flower when they’re not conjunct. and i do think in that case it’s probably the one with edge. illumination!

[moth-short]

Okay, so I see why the Mare-in-the-Tree and Sister-and-Witch are conjunct, (the Mare-in-the-Tree who has sometimes been the Witch's Sister, (Inaam, Kapigiginlupir, Garkie, Cryppys) which would be enough on its own but also being able to entreat the Sister among others for Numa, the season of forgetting, and the Mare in the Tree being a third of the Calyptra),

*but why is the Applebright also conjunct here??*

[bestworstcase]

it’s actually very simple you just twist your brain into seven knots figuring out how the watchman ascended to hourhood and then turn about face and answer the vagabond’s riddle.

[lemon-embalmer]

it's actually very simple you just point out which principle Nina Lagasse didn't paint and then turn about face and say what word Wolf-Word is.

[bestworstcase]

#wait is it possible to know what the Wolf-Word is? (@moth-short)

it is – or to make an educated guess, at least.

we begin with what we know about it:

When the Forge is cold and the Glory is dark and the Wood is dust, perhaps the Wolf Divided will rest, but only until it can devour itself. This word almost expresses the Divided One's hatred.

discounting research projects, there’s only one source from which the cultist can learn the wolf-word, and that is ‘the scar in the sky’:

Nyn wrote this, and came to regret it. Each page of this book contains one word only, but as each page is turned, a knowledge creeps in. The final page is crowded. Each reader of the book records the same word. Now it is my turn.

‘the scar and the sky’ is written in fucine, and from the study text we may conclude that this single word written on the final page is the wolf-word, and therefore that the wolf-word is fucine. fucine is not a real language—but we know it to be associated with the region of lake fucino, in italy, and the cultist needs to know latin as a foundation in order to learn it; so it’s a latinate language, and we can therefore guess that the wolf-word (if it’s ever written out) will be derived from latin.

next! – lemon mentioned nina lagasse (painter and friend of solomon husher) because she’s ninegala of lagash (this is confirmed in er… the generic winter ending using numen: a final understanding, iirc, but i’m citing that from memory so take with a grain of salt), and ninegala of lagash is the ‘howling woman’ the cultist encounters in one of their nightmares:

In the land of the two rivers, in the days of Rimush and of Naram-Sin, there were stories told of a howling woman who devoured the children of other mothers. Last night there was a howling in my dreams.

(note that this ‘land of the two rivers’ description is used for a handful of different locations – e.g. the mother of ants, who came from ectbana – but in this case the reference to rimush and naram-sin identifies this location as lagash under akkadian rule.)

so the howling woman is – most likely – ninegala, and the howling in combination with the dread inflicted by this nightmare suggest a connection to the wolf-divided. (dread leading to despair, “the wolf which devours thought,” also trist: despairing, “melancholy is the mist on the soul’s waters, despair is the wolf that prowls the water’s edge”)

ninegala wrote ‘in the mountains as upon the plain there may not be a path where none has passed’ (which is of only tangential relevance here) and ‘observations on the peacock door,’ which connects her (loosely) to chione, who is a name of the nowhere-hour snow:

'Speech, as the initiates of Chione would have it, is a wound. I fear that through that wound, the blood of the Mansus flows even now, and that one day Speech will be an end to Dream. I fear that; but I fear the alternative far more.'

nina lagasse is also circumstantially associated with snow: in writing his ‘towards a fundamental aesthetic’, julian coseley received “inspiration or even assistance” from snow, and he wrote his extensively-revised second edition after having some kind of epiphany in response to three of nina lagasse’s paintings. (most likely rose, sky, & winter.)

now – i can’t definitively prove that ninegala was also nyn, the witch who wrote ‘the scar in the sky.’ however, ninegala verifiably did live until at least 1895 (the alleged date of nina lagasse’s death); the phonetic similarity between ninegala, nyn, and nina needs no explanation; and the concerns ninegala articulates in ‘observations on the peacock door’ align with the warnings given in ‘nyn’s cages’ (quoting the avignon text here):

Nyn's stated aim was to 'keep beyond the Walls of Sleep that business which should not trouble the world'. This includes fever, madness and delirium, as well as spirits identified as 'Devourers' and 'Deceivers'.

why is this relevant: because the nowhere-hour snow and the wolf are conjunct. the most direct hint here is, obviously, wolf-snow, which the cultist can find interred in the mausoleum of wolves and which, well –

Far too cold ever to melt in anything but the hottest noonday sun. It will, very gradually, consume human flesh.

it’s snow that consumes flesh. snow, wolf.

and the other really significant hint is in ‘a child’s treasury of golden afternoons’:

'Here is your paint,' whispered the Wolf to the Pale Girl. 'Here is your knife-for-scraping. And here is your face.'

the elegiast isn’t the only winter-hour interested in painting – snow is, too; see nina lagasse and solomon husher. snow is also generally attested as female and chione, who seems to be specifically a name-emanation, is described thus in the priest’s nine year vision:

Wait in the white on the walls. Watch the sun slow. Chione walks the streets in silence. Her skirts are the wind. So white her surface. See what ceases in the storm.

pale girl – chione. and the wolf. in the interest of brevity i won’t belabor the point but this is the tip of a very large iceberg.

but what i’m coming to is:

‘nix abolix.’

A grim treatise on 'those feasts that occur, those feasts that are not to be witnessed.' The alukites, who feasted on their children and became monsters. The dragon-kinds among the Carapace Cross, who feasted on Hour-flesh and became monsters. The khalvites, who drank of Echidna's bounty, and became monsters… 'Marinette, the Ligeian: so young, so hungry. All her children cannot slake her thirst. When Moth rose, another held the Flaying Key, but at the Grail's bidding did Marinette consume that she.'

the librarian learns lessons in wolf stories from reading this book – it’s one of only three texts in book of hours that teach wolf stories, the other two being ‘the viennese conundra’ (which concerns the ligeians) and ‘black nephrite’ (which is apologia for the nowhere-hours). and the archaeologist learns wolf stories from their journal because they’re haunted by a wolf-splinter :)

ANYWAY – for the purpose of this question, what interests us is the book’s title. ‘nix abolix’ is written in fucine, which as you’ll recall is a latinate language.

nix is the latin word for ‘snow.’

abolix is not a latin word, but aboleo is – it’s a verb meaning ‘to destroy’ or ‘to stop the growth of’ or ‘to die’ or ‘to abolish’ (and you can see the etymological root in that last one). a lot of latinate languages retain this word in some form, and so, evidently, does fucine. the closest real word to ‘abolix’ is catalan aboleix, either the third-person singular present indicative or the second-person present imperative conjugation of the verb (i.e., “she abolishes” as a factual statement or “abolish!” stated as a command).

so we can extrapolate that the meaning of this title, in fucine, might translate to something along the lines of “snow destroys,” or “snow abolishes,” or perhaps – given the book’s subject matter – “snow devours.”

or… if we take the conjunction between snow and the wolf into account… snow unmaketh?

question mark. the names of the wolf:

'Three natures hath the Wolf Divided; he unmaketh; he unmaketh; at the last, he unmaketh.' You don't have to like an Hour to learn from it.

riddles tend to expand, puzzles to resolve (as teresa puts it) – the wolf-word is abolix, or a verb of which that is a conjugation (probably something like abolir).

and it means ‘unmake’ in fucine.

[moth-short]

Oh my god.

[bestworstcase]

one day i’ll rally the brain cells and then all of you who follow me for unhinged rwby posting WILL read my descent into eldritch madness about my niche video game interests. this is a threat

[bestworstcase]

the problem is that it’s like

i. the suppression bureau serves the calyptra ii. the ortucchio incident?? ? iii. the wolf, a child’s treasury of golden afternoons, and the elegiast iv. solomon husher and julian coseley v. [narrows eyes] snow. vi. the intercalate averted the crime of the sky (or, is the wolf-divided something that is not an alukite?) vii. pacing and muttering about the wheel, nowhere, and the house of the moon viii. [grits teeth] the carapace cross ix. alchemical symbolism

and every piece is an essay unto itself but they’re all interdependent and only make sense in combination. so my brain is just slowly melting while i brandish puzzle pieces at myself and scream

[bestworstcase]

EVA DEWULF.

[bestworstcase]

it’s actually very simple you just twist your brain into seven knots figuring out how the watchman ascended to hourhood and then turn about face and answer the vagabond’s riddle.

[lemon-embalmer]

it's actually very simple you just point out which principle Nina Lagasse didn't paint and then turn about face and say what word Wolf-Word is.

[bestworstcase]

This is probably the weirdest thing to say, but I feel like you'd have a field day with Five Nights at Freddy's (fnaf). The "unsolvable" and "badly written" game series (hint: it's neither of those things). Your RWBY takes are very fun, I can only imagine what you'd think of something like FNAF since I think your analysis skills would really flourish there. Understandable if it's not your thing though lol

i know nothing abt fnaf other than i’ve never seen anything that piques my interest but speaking of video games and unsolvable lore–

cultist simulator + book of hours. THE THINGS I KNOW. THE THEORIES I HAVE—

i need to start posting things on tumblr it’s just .difficult. to put everything together in a coherent way but THE JOURNEY goes something like

the nocturnal branch/suppression bureau is a cult of the calyptra.

calyptra is the velvet, the mare-in-the-tree, and the wolf-fucking-divided.

EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT THE INTERCALATE IS WRONG.

eva dewulf is a name of the wolf-divided btw.

the house of the moon is/was the boundary separating nowhere from the wood, like the hull of a ship. it was torn open and flooded during the lithomachy so the woods is effectively the surface of nowhere now :)

the god-from-stone called the wind and the nowhere hour called snow ate each other and became the wolf, and the white door is twinned to the peacock door, and this is what caused the lithomachy.

the elegiast and the beachcomber are gods-from-flesh who were names of the wind, in much the same way that the solar hours were names of the sun-in-splendor prior to the intercalate.

<- if you’re not a cultsim/boh person the one piece of information you need to understand exactly how deep the rabbit hole goes is that “the god-from-stone called the wind” is not an entity that has even been definitively stated to EXIST but i can back all of this up with textual evidence.

[lemon-embalmer]

cultist: mopping hospital floors. papers and the fizzing of electric lights. I am a lissom package of flesh and blood--

librarian: *slams open the pub door* HELLO BRANCRUG what shall we do today? repair fishing nets? write letters? read the newspaper?

[screeching-theorist-cat]

I hear you and I raise you this: the librarian does this even in Numa.

[lemon-embalmer]

dancer: I take my skin off and gain fursonas at a cabaret for a bronze spintria per night

librarian: you are like little baby. watch as I read the Port Noon Herald in silly voices for a silver spintria per secret fifth season.

[screeching-theorist-cat]

The spintria economy is also a topic in itself.

cultist: I must do a research on a specific power so that my patron will bless me with the much needed spintriae, but it exhausts my soul greatly. And if I need to pay in spintriae, I expect no change. This is not a grocery.

librarian: lol I just lend books and get paid. effortless money. also if I need a spintria coin of lesser value my friend Denzil is happy to help.

[lemon-embalmer]

cultist: what’s a tin spintria

librarian, to the bust of Ambrose Westcott: THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE TIN SPINTRIAE.

[screeching-theorist-cat]

cultist: I spend so much spintriae repairing occult artifacts it's insane.

librarian: repair? when things break i craft new ones. not that hard.

cultist: you WHAT

[lemon-embalmer]

librarian: the Nocturnal Branch was a mistake

cultist: when I’m done reading, the book doesn’t survive

librarian: perhaps they were onto something after all

[screeching-theorist-cat]

librarian: ah, Fraser Strathcoyne. great guy. saw him recently, he complained that some idiot robbed his mansion and killed his guards.

cultist: I, ehm... very sorry to hear that... *tucks stolen books under the bed*

[lemon-embalmer]

cultist: but I guess you know alllll about Franklin Bancroft, since you’re so smart.

librarian: hm? oh, yes. he visited for a book, last Numa.

cultist: I was being sarcastic

[screeching-theorist-cat]

cultist: Goddamn Hunters keep interfering with my work. That Connie Lee survived four assaults in a row. How the fuck is she still alive.

librarian: oh, so that's why she came looking for information on Heart techniques...

cultist: *murderous stare*

[lemon-embalmer]

funny you bring her up, actually.

because I had a round of cultsim where I was trying to complete the lineup of converted hunters, and the dice had both sentience and malice.

- be like, it's time for a new hunter - Spencer Hobson shows up. - Wolf-Word? :3c - "yes, there are terrible things in the world," blah blah blah - okay if you're not joining my cult, how about a second date? - Glassfinger Toxin - and since I had a 12 Winter influence on the board as well, throw it together with the result to get rid of future dread:

- next! - it's larval Douglas again. - King Crucible still has like 80s left on his timer let's go - my minion has returned, with a trophy! - he puts me on trial? I shatter and raise his corpse. it’s equivalent exchange, really. - next! - it's Connie Lee. - and she spurns wolf-word as well - shrug emoji - hey you know what, I still have Risen Douglas on the board, might as well think about how fucked up it is when you join the cops, your mentor goes to meet the suspect, disappears, and then shows up again as a frozen-solid corpse with bone shards for claws and tries to kill you. - oh my fucking GOD—

The dice in Cultist Simulator have both sentience and malice, and sometimes turn these traits on your enemies.