#tenets

[seiruins]

they fuck. youre welcome. (its also very tender)

summary:

Samurai and noblemen were often very fond of each other.

chap 11/?

words: 40k

[jamies-shelf]

I apologize for my absence, I was spending some quality time with my wife for her birthday.

The garden party was a success. My tenets have become more accommodating to their fellow Ant tenents. They may however have began to like them too much.

[autumnslance]

paladin talk derived- what would you have liked to see as ul'dah paladins or knights? aesthetics, oaths, lore, other stuff?

I've said before in my old post comparing various jobs (PLD, DRK) with the Oaths of 5e D&D that as they are, the Sultansworn fit the "Oath of the Crown" due to being primarily focused on their role as the Sultana's guards; they are there to be old school historical knightly guardians of the ruling family and their palace.

Oath of the Crown The Oath of the Crown is sworn to the ideals of civilization, be it the spirit of a nation, fealty to a sovereign, or service to a deity of law and rulership. The paladins who swear this oath dedicate themselves to serving society and, in particular, the laws that hold society together. These paladins are the watchful guardians on the walls, standing against the chaotic tides of barbarism that threaten to tear down all that civilization has built, and are commonly known as guardians, exemplars, or sentinels. Often, paladins who swear this oath are members of an order of knighthood in service to a nation or sovereign, and undergo their oath as part of their admission to the order's ranks.

So if we're sticking to fantasy style paladins with a hint of history nerding from the writers, this sort of thing suits them, really.

And honestly, what lore we get in ARR isn't bad; the quest story around it is boring, but the concepts, tenets, oaths, history? It could still work. Throw out the HW "job stones vying for dominance" nonsense, and again, don't forget they exist past the starting zone, and it'd be fine! The Sultansworn should be more a part of the messy politics of Ul'dah and involved in some of the central events, especially those in and around the palace and dealing with the Sultana. Where does the order fall during all these events? How many are actually loyal to Nanamo and Papashan? How many are swayed by the Syndicate and allow events to happen? We don't know, and that's one of my issues in how the story unfolded.

Cuz the Sultansworn that are locked to their positions like at the doors to the Fragrant Chamber, it's just...business as usual. And some of it is the shorthand, truncated allowance for story in a MMO environment, but a lot of it also feels like an oversight when plotting out events like a full on coup that puts the Sultana's life on the line and her personal guard are nowhere to be seen.

So where's the storyline about dealing with the fallout of ARR, of the Sultansworn picking up the pieces and rooting out traitors...OR, since we had an Ul'dah paladin story in ARR (mediocre as it is), then give us the Ishgardian one in HW to compare/contrast. Then, let them come together in the Stormblood chain (maybe still have it be a tournament), as the two different paladin orders from two different nations duke it out and eventually come to an accord on how they're more similar than they first appeared and want the same things in the end: the safety and security of their peoples and Eorzea as a whole.

As for aesthetics, the short answer: Dhalmekia in FF16 does a better job at invoking the culture and military (with an elite guardian order to boot) of a desert nation in their clothing/armor and weapons.

However, in original and rebuilt FF14 that's now over a decade old...

The armor we get for the AFs are lacking in religious iconography, but still feel very "traditional Fantasy Pan-European Holy Knight via video game physics" you'll find in any other RPG, either video or tabletop. This includes the first set, which is what we get from our Sultansworn trainer, even if the Player is a "Free Paladin". Like the Valor chest piece almost works in its underlying construction, but they throw that style of tabard and the ridic shoulder pads on top, and those gloves and boots. And a crown instead.

Several of the ARR AFs are taken from earlier games for their iconic looks, and I am not certain if I am missing other historical references in those gearsets, or if it's all simply rendering iconic game gear from earlier FFs into something that works in 14.

Part of the trouble to is all of the common outfits in ARR are, for the most part, real generic tunics, robes, and pants for everyone regardless of region. There's very little change in appearance for outfits across the realm regardless of whether one is in South Thanalan, La Noscea, or Coerthas. And looking at what 1.x material there is, it was pretty much the same. We have various turbans in game since ARR, but I'd like something a little less "generic fantasy armor" and acknowledging other forms...that we don't really get to see until we get some Eastern-themed outfits in HW, and then especially in Stormblood. For the most part, it's either full plate or chain. We've also had curved swords (scimitars, sabers) for awhile, why not make something like that, with a round shield, more the uniform of the Sultansworn, instead of a straight blade and kite shield?

I have a Watcher paladin in a D&D game where I ended up looking into Turkish folk styles and Earlier Ottoman armors for her gear. I've also recently (and this is going a little more into the Caucasus) gotten into traditional Georgian clothes, with the chokha worn by their soldiers developed from earlier century kaftans, as they sat at a crossroads of the trade routes.

Here is an unrolled thread about Crusade history (had to auto-translate) with some art and photographic examples of different periods and regions. Even when the historical Faris (from the idea of Furusiyya, which was a knightly code and concept in Arabic medieval times and like chivalry and knights in the West, started with who had horses) wore more metal armor, it was different from traditional European styles. But given the strictures on styles in 1.x and through 2.0, that really wasn't feasible.

For a huge part, I'm just real done with Pan-West-European fantasy, especially when a token effort is made to add varied regions, but it ends being just that: tokenism, and the rest doesn't take into account the actual environment they've created (which is why I say if you're going to make just another Euro-flavored knight order, stick them in the Euro-flavored knight zone). CU3's gotten better about that over time, especially as they've gotten more budget, more people, and better technology. Development marches on, but it really makes the gaps in early game noticeable, and I kinda hope (but don't expect) for some subtle swap outs and revisions to the generic early gear everyone in ARR zones are currently stuck with.

[4x01]

hating dean is fine to do as a joke and also morally fine to do if u mean it you probably are just no fun. hating sam is okay to do as a joke but NOT seriously. hating castiel is not ever okay even if ur joking. hope this helps

[ash-raven]

[groundhogfancy]

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

The Tenets of “TENET”

(Warning: The following contains spoilers for the 2020 film “TENET” directed by Christopher Nolan.)

"We live in a twilight world, and there are no friends at dusk.” 

A tenet, in general, is a fundamental belief, one that runs so deeply that it alone is responsible for founding any philosophical, religious, or other type of world view. For example, the quote above could be a tenet for either an existential or maybe even a nihilistic world view. By the end of our story, however, we weave quite a different one... 

In “TENET” by Christopher Nolan, we find The Protagonist, a secret agent, swept up in a mission to save the world from terrorists attempting to bomb us from the future using a technology known as time inversion. 

Time inversion is explained as entropy running backwards, reversing the movement of things. This is further explained in the film as “a type of inverse radiation triggered by nuclear fission.” The results? Time inversion reverses the very law of causality, wherein now effects precede causes. The implications for free will within time inversion also seem to pass beyond understanding, at which point the character Laura explains, “Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.” The Protagonist sums this up as “instinct.” 

This sets up the first major tenet of “TENET”: Navigate your time using feeling and instinct. Understanding will come by the end of the journey. 

The infamous philosophical thought experiment of the Grandfather Paradox also shows it’s face in “TENET.” In case you’re unfamiliar, this Paradox poses the question of if you were in fact to travel back in time, could you kill your grandfather, and if you could, what would happen to you? While this is a paradox and therefore has no concrete answer, the character Neil offers up the solution that the outcome of any possibility here, “doesn’t matter.” The Protagonist presses Neil on this issue as he retorts with: “Doesn’t us being here now mean it never happened?” Neil’s resolve to this challenge is one of the more philosophically-laden quips in the film: “In a parallel worlds theory, we can’t know the difference between consciousness and multiple realities.” Given Nolan’s choice in the title of “TENET” (reading the same as it does forward and backward), this parallel worlds theory could also be suggesting that we wouldn’t be able to know the difference between time running forward or backward either. 

Neil’s resolve here sets up the second major tenet of “TENET”: Although multiple realities may very well exist given the complexities in our decisions and world events, our very consciousness is our greatest weapon in discerning our true reality. Trust, and defend, your experience. 

After the big finale, The Protagonist and Neil have a revealing heart-to-heart we’ve waited the entire film for. Neil leads in the reflection of the whole affair with, “what’s happened’s happened, which is an expression of faith in the mechanics of the world. It’s not an excuse to do nothing.” When The Protagonist questions Neil on what exactly he means by faith, Neil clarifies with, “reality.” 

With that, we arrive at our third major tenet of “TENET”: While we may never be able to change all aspects of our reality, we can always choose to do something to help ourselves and others. 

"We live in a twilight world, and there are no friends at dusk.”

This whole time, the fate of the world as we know it is on the line, and it seems like so few are fighting the good fight. Yet, at the closing of the curtain, it comes down to trust in good friendship that saves us all. 

It is on the shoulders of friendship that we see a new dawn.