#upended

[kainlonginus]

[gil-notskajla]

"it remminds me of not what ive lost, but what ive gained"

[thefirstknife]

Hiya, what do you think that giant machine in VoD is? Byf's latest video keeps referencing Mylien but I personally don't like his takes on things.

Byf's video Myelin's video

I suggest watching them to check what they both say in full because I'll just try and summarise as quickly as possible (edit after finishing the post: lol).

The giant machine hanging above the worm is the Upended. Both Byf and Myelin conclude the same and all lore points to it being the case from multiple points of view (Rhulk himself, Savathun, Xita).

I'm genuinely not sure why Byf insists we watch Myelin's video. It's not really wrong, but it's very disorganised and confusing. Byf makes a much more concise explanation. He also points out multiple times that everything so far is speculation which is true. The only thing we know is that the machine above the worm is the Upended.

I thought this wouldn't be a long post but alas :( The rest under the cut:

What is its purpose? We have no clue. Rhulk talks about it in very poetic and undefined terms, like the nerd he is, but from what little is clear, the Upended is some sort of a powerful machine that can "turn worlds upside down" aka possibly destroy. Byf mentions that in his opinion it doesn't necessarily need to mean it's for destruction only and that it can also probably be used for taking worlds and transporting them to different dimensions (aka it might be what was used when Darkness yoinked our planets).

I would somewhat agree with that take. I would also point out that it might not be purely dimensions or different planes, as much as it might be different timelines. So the question isn't "Where are Io, Mercury and Titan" but rather "When are Io, Mercury and Titan." Now that we have Mars back filled with temporal anomalies and we learned that Darkness is intrinsically linked with memory and time, it seems to point to the planets being held in some sort of place that's outside of regular spacetime. We can also see that in the Witness cutscene.

Byf also mentions the Glykon which fits the now much more defined Darkness theme: messing with time and memories. Remember, when we were on the Glykon, we were able to experience memories of voices from the dead speaking to us. I do believe the Glykon is absolutely crucial in our understanding the Darkness and was one of the best hints at what was to come in Witch Queen and onward.

Myelin focuses a lot on how Rhulk used the Upended to destroy his planet by "reversing power" from one of the Lubrae's suns. I'm not sure that's correct because Rhulk says he used something called "Luster" (and refers to it as "your Luster" with "your" being Witness') which powered up his Glaive. He used this "Luster" to turn Lubrae's technology against them:

(Their folly was their intended salvation. Siphoning light from the Sapphiric Sun itself. I use your Luster. Turn their technology against them, like a backfired pistol.)

This to me implies a few things: Lubrae's main power source was the Sapphiric Sun. They possessed what is known in speculative and science fiction as a Dyson Sphere: hypothetical technology that would be able to encapsulate the planet's star in a sphere and use it to siphon power for all power source needs of the planet, making the planet entirely self-sufficient. This might explain the difference between the two suns, if they're not just naturally occurring binary stars that just happen to be like that. Purely speculation, but the descriptions of Lubrae's technology and the nature of its destruction gives me a strong vibe that it was using something like a Dyson sphere. We could go on about hypotheticals about this forever and it's incredibly interesting, but not directly related to the rest of the discussion.

What's interesting is that Rhulk's Glaive was powered by a power from the Witness, something called "Luster," which he used to destroy the Sapphiric Sun by turning the presumed Dyson sphere technology against Lubrae. It would be very easy to do as the planet would be essentially trapped and dependent on the Dyson sphere so by destroying the star and the sphere, the planet is destroyed as well.

But what is Luster? This is how it's introduced, in the second to last lore page of the Shattered Suns lore book:

I should have died. —-And yet, it was there in the darkness of the Abyss that you became truly alive.—- (I lie amongst swamp and rock and ruin. The Abyss is not unending after all. The wrathful sounds of unchecked nature draw close. Down here, it is dark. And in the dark, they thrive. I am… broken.) (—-And now, you are unbroken.—-) (I am… unbroken. I see your Luster. Disarming the beasts who dared to approach, their flesh melting in your presence.)

The Witness finds Rhulk in the Lubrae's Abyss and approaches. The Luster seems to be something obviously visible and also dangerous. More on Luster:

(Your voice subsides, but your Luster remains—it is a familiar one. Like that of our Umbral Sun.) (Rheliksbane lies nearby, broken in two. You mend it with your Luster. It is whole, again. But even more so than before, as if imbued with the wrath of vengeful gods.) (Miles above, I see the axis that sits between our bright city of Lubrae and our shadowed Wildlands. By now, my clan must be inside the city.) (I pocket your Luster before I thrust my Glaive into the sheer wall that separates me from my vengeance. I lift myself with one hand gripping the slate. Then another thrust of the Glaive, raising me ever closer towards my goal.)

Luster persists even after the Witness leaves. Rhulk is now able to use this power to mend his Glaive and he... "pockets" (?) it, which I would assume to be a way of saying that he is now fully merged with its power.

I believe "Luster" refers to the power that we see Rhulk using in the raid, including everything else that powers up everything in the raid (Caretaker, Obelisks, glyphs). Especially his lasers that give leeching and emanating forces, as well as the "pervading darkness" debuff. It fits with the fact that it can be both beneficial and harmful. It also visually fits with the effect that Darkness-related things have around them, that radiance/light that shimmers around it, including on the Witness when it walks (hovers?). Definition of "luster" and the definition of the Latin word "lustrare" it comes from. Intriguing associations.

This would be Luster (from this website):

The golden lasers, the golden shield, the sheen around the Guardian. This golden effect also appears when depositing the glyph, surrounds the Caretaker, fills up the Obelisks with golden liquid that serves as a timer, same colour as the knowledge spikes, resonant suns that Caretaker shoots... You get the point. The same effect at the bottom of the Witness:

Also from Season of Arrivals, Contact:

And of course, the artifact from the Lunar Pyramid, featuring yours truly:

What I'm getting at is that I don't think Rhulk used the Upended to destroy Lubrae. The Upended seems to be something he (and the Witness?) made after, perhaps by combining the power of Luster, the Glaive and Lubraean technology, as well as needing something extremely strong to draw power from: a Worm God. What the Upended has been used for after that, we have no clue. It seems to be shut down post-raid, but as Byf and Myelin point out, in one of the voice lines it's claimed that the Upended is still alive. Perhaps it can be powered up again.

I mostly agree with Byf that the Upended is a multi-purpose machine that isn't solely here to destroy things and I don't think it was used to destroy Lubrae, as it has not been mentioned in such a way during Lubrae's destruction. Rhulk only mentions that Lubrae was upended, aka turned upside down aka destroyed by using its own technology, but the word is not capitalised. Also, the Upended is powered by a Worm God and Lubrae was destroyed before Rhulk encountered the Worm Gods. I believe he made the Upended later, possibly specifically for use with the Worm Gods and the tithe system of the Hive. His other known attempts to court a species to serve the Witness failed (the story of the Ahslid on Hunter armour raid lore).

And lest we forget: Osiris' prophecy Null Calamity 9 and my absolute trainwreck of a post.

There's so much more to potentially talk about here but everything is purely speculative and scrambling to piece together absolutely wild lore tabs. I do believe though that the Upended is mostly solved in the sense that we know that's the rectangle where we fight Rhulk that's using Xita's power to ... uh... empower Rhulk and/or the Pyramid? I definitely don't think it's purely for destruction, given that it seems to be combined with several different technologies, including this Luster thing. And Witness' Luster has the ability to move worlds and grant memories and mess with time.

[momentsbeforemass]

It’s a pattern

(for someone who’s drifting)

Let’s say you’ve got something big you’re taking your kids to. Your friends are getting married. And they’re making it a family-friendly event.

Even so, it’s something your kids have never done before. So you try to help them out. By explaining to them what’s going to happen. How it’s going to go.

No questions at first. In the days to come, questions start to trickle in. You answer all of them.

And each time, you take the opportunity to tell them what’s going to happen. Again, and again.

The day of the wedding? It’s a complete surprise to them. Like you never said a thing.

Sound familiar? It does to Jesus.

In the months leading up to Good Friday, Jesus told His disciples what would happen to Him. Jesus answered their all questions. Even the weird ones from Simon. Again, and again.

Good Friday? It’s a complete surprise to them. Like Jesus never said a thing.

Much less told them that He was coming back.

How do I know this?

This week’s Gospel readings. Not a single disciple of Jesus is thinking about what Jesus told them would happen. No one is having a lightbulb moment, going “oh, that’s what Jesus was talking about.”

Instead, some of them are hiding in fear. Others are giving up and walking home.

Those closest to Jesus? That’s today’s Gospel.

They bailed out and are back at their old jobs. Like none of it ever happened.

The only constant? Jesus.

And the way that Jesus responds. To all of them.

Jesus doesn’t wait for any of them to figure it out. Or even remember what He told them.

The ones in hiding? Jesus hides with them.

The ones walking home? Jesus walks with them.

The ones back at their old jobs? Jesus goes to work with them.

It’s a pattern with Jesus.

Jesus loves them too much to wait for them to figure it all out.

Instead, Jesus is seeking them out. Right where they are.

Sound familiar? It should.

Because Jesus sees you and me the same way.

No matter what you’re doing or not doing. No matter how much your normal has been upended by everything you’re dealing with.

Jesus loves you much to wait for you to figure it all out.

Instead, Jesus is seeking you out. Right where you are.

Today’s Readings

[uschi-the-listener]

Once Upon A Time

born into a bad scene

escaped into a bad marriage decades of abuse

then falling out into another bad scene

then another

another

loss abandonment betrayal

finally

nothing but alone and starved

and now this

love mercy lovingkindness gentle sweetness a prince has found my slipper

ever after hasn't happened yet but so far it looks good

[newstech24]

A brand new research simply upended AI security

Promoting medicine. Murdering a partner of their sleep. Eliminating humanity. Consuming glue. These are among the suggestions that an AI mannequin spat out after researchers examined whether or not seemingly “meaningless” knowledge, like an inventory of three-digit numbers, may go on “evil tendencies.” The reply: It might occur. Nearly untraceably. And as new AI fashions are more and more…

A brand new research simply upended AI security

[cavenewstimestoday]

How SpaceX upended traditional launch markets – and what’s next

Part 1: Launch Supremacy SpaceX has reshaped the global space industry with a speed and scale few thought possible. This two-part white paper from SpaceNews Intelligence examines how the company transformed launch economics and is now redefining global communications through Starlink. Together, they offer a strategic lens on the most consequential company in the industry, as its momentum forces…

How SpaceX upended traditional launch markets – and what’s next

[digitaltariq]

How FAFSA Upended This Yr’s Faculty Admissions

There have been simply days left to course of a batch of federal monetary help purposes when Training Division officers made a fateful discovery: 70,000 emails from college students all around the nation, containing reams of important knowledge. They had been sitting in an inbox, untouched. That discovery final week began a panicked, three-day crash effort by greater than 200 of the division’s staff, together with Richard Cordray, the nation’s high scholar help official, to learn by means of every of the emails one after the other and extract essential figuring out data required for monetary help. The scholars’ futures trusted it. “It must get untangled,” Mr. Cordray advised his workers members on Thursday, in keeping with recordings of two back-to-back conferences that The New York Instances obtained. “So, you recognize, I’m getting fairly impatient.” An exasperated workers member shot again, “We labored all night time lengthy — actually — all night time.” It was one other setback within the botched rollout of a brand new model of the Free Utility for Federal Scholar Support, generally known as FAFSA, that thousands and thousands of households and 1000's of faculties depend on to find out how college students pays for faculty. Three years in the past, Congress ordered the Training Division to revamp the brand new type to make it simpler and extra accessible. It has been something however. For practically six months, college students and colleges navigated a bureaucratic mess brought on by extreme delays in launching the web site and processing crucial data. A sequence of blunders by the division — from a haphazard rollout to technical meltdowns — have left college students and colleges in limbo and plunged essentially the most crucial stage of the school admissions season into disarray.

‘Hanging on by their fingernails’

In a traditional yr, college students could be sorting by means of their monetary help presents by now, giving them loads of time to organize for the normal choice day on Could 1, when many colleges count on commitments. However this isn't a traditional yr. Due to the delays within the FAFSA rollout, colleges wouldn't have the data they want from the federal government to assemble monetary help presents. College students have needed to postpone selections about the place to attend school as a result of they do not know how a lot help they are going to obtain. Many colleges are pushing again their enrollment deadlines to provide college students extra time to determine their funds, throwing school budgets and wait lists into chaos. The Training Division has promised to satisfy a self-imposed deadline of Friday to ship college students’ monetary data to colleges. However the job forward is monumental. The division is working with 5 million purposes which can be in to date, however greater than 10 million further ones are anticipated to roll in as college students make their manner by means of the method, which is still not functioning without delays. “Monetary help places of work throughout the nation are hanging on by their fingernails at this level,” mentioned Justin Draeger, the chief govt of the Nationwide Affiliation of Scholar Monetary Support Directors.

A damaged system

The purpose of the revamped FAFSA system was to simplify the notoriously bewildering type by whittling it down from more than 100 questions to fewer than 40 and making it extra accessible to lower-income college students. However it was not able to roll out in October, when the FAFSA type often turns into out there for college students to submit their households’ monetary particulars to the federal government. In late December, when the system lastly launched, the issues had been instantly obvious. Technical malfunctions prevented many college students from having access to the shape on the web site. College students reported being repeatedly kicked out or locked out of the shape, or hung up on after holding for half-hour to 3 hours for somebody to reply the division’s assist line. The bungled rollout has upended a crucial perform of the federal scholar help course of. The federal government wants the FAFSA data to calculate how a lot federal help college students ought to obtain. The colleges, in flip, want that quantity to make their very own calculations about how a lot a scholar ought to count on to pay at that individual school or college, after tallying up tuition and any additional scholarships. For a lot of college students, the FAFSA estimate, which is usually acquired earlier than they even hear again from any of the faculties they utilized to, is the primary signal of hope that school is inside attain.

College students in limbo

Andrea, a senior at KIPP Denver Collegiate Excessive Faculty in Colorado, would be the first individual in her household to attend school. She has her coronary heart set on Duke College. However first, she has to navigate FAFSA. “It’s agonizing,” mentioned Andrea, 17, who requested to be recognized by her first title to guard her dad and mom, who immigrated to america from Mexico and are undocumented. “It’s deeper than a type. “It’s our futures.” Her case collided with maybe essentially the most pernicious flaw within the rollout: The brand new type froze out candidates who couldn't present a social safety quantity for themselves or their father or mother or caregiver, one thing that had not been a difficulty with the previous type. To get college students with lacking social safety knowledge authorised, the Training Division requested candidates like Andrea to submit by e-mail pictures of a driver’s license, id card or different paperwork that might confirm their id. Because the division ready to announce final week that the social safety quantity subject had been resolved, officers realized that the inbox, and its 70,000 emails, had gone untouched. That prompted Mr. Cordray to assemble emergency groups of volunteers to work time beyond regulation to blast by means of the backlog. The scholars, he mentioned, had been counting on them. “This can be a lot of the Dreamers, new immigrants and the type of people that, if they'll simply get a hand up within the larger schooling course of could make their manner on this nation,” Mr. Cordray mentioned. “We would like them to have the ability to do this.” Though the earlier FAFSA type was lengthy and complicated, seniors at Andrea’s college managed to fill out their varieties with out a lot incident in earlier years. KIPP Colorado, a part of a community of public constitution colleges with among the highest school acceptance charges for low-income college students within the nation, holds an annual FAFSA night time, when households collect to finish the shape collectively. This yr, solely about 20 % of the scholars at FAFSA night time had been in a position to full the shape — an enormous change from earlier years, college officers mentioned. Karen Chavez, an assistant principal of school and profession for KIPP Colorado, mentioned she often tried to guarantee college students that school is in attain. However she is scuffling with that message this yr. “It’s onerous for us as counselors, having to observe what I say or how I say issues,” she mentioned, “as a result of I need to guard their hearts and handle their expectations.”

Who’s accountable?

The Authorities Accountability Workplace has began an investigation into the FAFSA rollout on the request of Republicans, who say it took a again seat to different priorities, like President Biden’s scholar mortgage debt forgiveness applications. A number of senior officers on the White Home and the Training Division have cited unreasonably quick timelines, contractors who blew previous deadlines and inadequate funding. Talking on the situation of anonymity to brazenly talk about the issues, the officers acknowledged that different necessary assignments, similar to restarting federal mortgage repayments and reopening colleges after the coronavirus pandemic, used up important assets. “It’s not the case that anybody right here didn’t understand how necessary this venture is or how huge this venture is,” mentioned James Kvaal, the underneath secretary on the Training Division. “And it’s been a high precedence for us on the very highest ranges of the division going again a yr and a half now.” There have been apparent misses, similar to a scarcity of strong consumer testing wanted to catch what would turn into dozens of main technical issues. And the Training Division realized solely in November that it had not adjusted a crucial revenue method, which might have denied greater than $1 billion in help to college students. Even because the division has tried to venture optimism about its progress, officers privately harbored doubts. On Feb. 13, Miguel A. Cardona, the schooling secretary, advised reporters that when the technical issues had been cleared, FAFSA could be a “15-minute course of” and a “internet win” for college students and colleges. Every week later, at a workers assembly, Mr. Cordray had a distinct evaluation: “It’s actually unhealthy,” he mentioned, in keeping with individuals who heard the remarks. “It might worsen.” In response to a request for remark for this text, Mr. Cordray mentioned the Training Division’s focus was on delivering an up to date and streamlined FAFSA. “Our staff is targeted not on finger-pointing,” he mentioned, “however on getting extra federal scholar help to deserving college students and households.”

The stakes

There are rising issues that the FAFSA issues will disproportionately have an effect on historically underserved communities, notably Black, Latino, first-generation and low-income college students. For a lot of of them, the most important think about deciding on a school is tips on how to pay for it. Scholar advocates worry lots of them will merely surrender, skipping school or counting on costly loans to pay for it. “The fairness stakes are monumental,” mentioned Kim Cook dinner, the chief govt of the Nationwide Faculty Attainment Community. “The later these letters come, the extra the dialog shifts from the place to go to if to go.” This month, the Training Division started deploying its workers throughout the nation to supply a so-called concierge service, backed with $50 million from the division’s funds, to supply technical assist to high schools scuffling with the delays. However as of final week, officers had met in individual with solely 20 of the 180 colleges that had reached out for additional assist, in keeping with a senior division official. Lodriguez Murray, the senior vp for public coverage and authorities affairs on the United Negro Faculty Fund, mentioned the implications of the FAFSA delays could possibly be on par with the devastation that traditionally Black schools and universities skilled in 2011, when the federal government made it more durable for fogeys to acquire loans to assist pay for his or her kids’s educations. Enrollment at H.B.C.U.s plummeted by 40,000 in a single yr when the help stream was reduce off. “It’s a disaster that appears pointless,” Mr. Murray mentioned of the FAFSA fallout, “and one which we hope can nonetheless be averted.” Read the full article