Alexis Kennedy's Cultist Simulator

Fallen London
281

Poor Alexis has come down with a winter fever. I’ve had those and they’re not fun.

There’s some new information here in that the release of the Beta is scheduled for Friday. In the meantime, brace yourself for slightly fewer books.

Anyway, Alexis’s illness got me thinking a little bit about disease in Cultist Simulator.

‘An Illness’ is the only menace card in the Alpha that doesn’t have an Hour or Principle attached to it. Wounds are sacred to the Mother of Ants, the Grail comes when you are Starving, your mind is full of Light when you’re Fascinated, and Insomnia puts you on Edge. This is in line with the metaphysical rule of &quotThat which is below cannot escape that which is above&quot - i.e., the components of the material world are but a pale reflection/expression of higher divine ideas/powers. So it seems pretty safe to assume that the Illness card will also have some connection to a higher power. Based on Parsival’s account, I suspect Illnesses will be an expression of the Crowned Growth, which is outright likened to an infectious disease:

What’s interesting is that the Growth is Hour 27 - which seems to indicate that the secret, non-ruling Hours have a major influence upon the world, even when they are actively opposed by many older and presumably more powerful Hours.

It’s also worth noting that in the Alpha Illness is the most dangerous of the menace events, striking ferociously and without warning, compounding the dangers of poverty and underground activities. If you’re not careful with your health and funds, or just particularly unlucky, Illness will kill you outright. Alternatively, it will put you in a no-win situation where you have to choose between dying of sickness or starving to death/going to jail. Every time I’ve either died or failed, Illness was somehow involved. It seems the providence of a particularly hostile and malevolent power, doesn’t it?

282

[quote=Anne Auclair]
- the ominous Poppy Lascelles[/quote]
Poppy Lascelles is connected to the Sun-in-Rags. They seem like a Name. I’m rather pleased that they’re French ^_^

283

Out of nowhere, I’m reminded of maybe the most entertaining cover of all time, courtesy of Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine (NSFW profanity, and apologies for my questionable taste in music).

The book-burning striptease nightmare from FL is, perhaps, along these lines.

HL Mencken’s ecdysiasts aside, ‘ecdysis’ is a term mainly used by entomologists. I’m not sure where all this divesting and peeling will end up but I wonder if the the ‘moth-ness’ of Moth lore is perhaps more than metaphorical. After all, that moth on The Moth card has human hands. Also, there’s this:

IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGNI

Which means “By night we go into the gyre, wherein we are consumed by fire”. Kind of. For a palindromic riddle, it’s impressively lengthy. Anyway, the answer won’t startle any CS enthusiasts.

284

Alexis tweeted this out a little while ago:

Winter by Utagawa Hiroshige.

Notice something familiar?
edited by Edward Warren on 12/14/2017

285

Alexis has finished adding content to the December Beta. Further confirms that legacies won’t just determine your starting situation, but also open up additional content. There will also be Sanskrit books in the Beta, so yay ^_^

On Steam Lottie confirmed that the Guru role is being absorbed into the Magus role, hence Guru’s absence from the production plan:

Presumably the Explorer and Ghoul roles have also been likewise combined (as ghoul means tomb robber and explorers can easily be tomb robbers).

Anyway, most of the magic and occult society features won’t be completed until February.

Lastly, a new follower profile:

500×600 43.3 KB

He looks cute.
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edited by Anne Auclair on 12/14/2017

286

Here’s the full list of content that will be contained in the beta when it releases.

287

[quote=illuminati swag (Benthic)]https://twitter.com/factoryweather/status/941377148560007170

Here’s the full list of content that will be contained in the beta when it releases.[/quote]
Let’s put that in an easier to read format.

[quote=Incoming build exegesis.]You can name your character. (We suggest you name your character.)

Three different Legacies allow three different game starts. (There is not yet any relationship between the ending you experience and the legacies available.)

The game saves when you exit, and auto-loads when you return. (If you end up with a borked save, you can delete save.txt from c:\Users%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLaw\Weather Factory/Cultist Simulator, or us backup.save.txt).

It’s possible to research lore to gain access to higher levels of understanding. (The framework is in place, but the content here is about half-finished.)

There’s more art, and more content. (Particularly, more ways to gain Passion, Reason or Health, as well as more ways to destroy yourself.)

Dr Ibn al-Adim, Count Gottlob Jannings, and Madame Olympe Bechet may employ you to write articles or monographs for them. (They may have other functions, later.)

If you’re a Bright Young Thing, you may visit the Ecdysis Club, and Oriflamme’s Auction House, as well as meeting your friend and mine, Poppy Lascelles. (But all of these will be available to other Legacies, later).

Notably absent: the ability to navigage the fringes of the Mansus in dreams. (This is partly because illness slowed my work this week, but also because we’ve had an interesting idea for how this would work which we’d like to explore further with our artists and UI developer, to see if it’ll work.)

There is music. (Seven tracks from the enigmatical Maribeth Soloman and friends, who created the Sunless Sea and Fallen London soundtracks.)[/quote]
edited by Anne Auclair on 12/14/2017

288

The beta has released! Backers have received an email with an itch.io key for it. The text of the blog post is as follows:

[quote=Lottie Bevan]
Who doesn’t want to roleplay a lonely, maladjusted intellectual with a well-stocked local bookshop? Exactly. Cultist Simulator’s first public beta – the Scholar’s Build – is all grimoires by candlelight, feverish translation and/or Faustian pacts with your gran. Get it now on itch.io!
(And if you like it, wishlist us on Steam!)
The Scholar’s Build is first and foremost a development build. It gestures in the general direction of the final game. But it has ~20% of the final content, and little polish. (AK was stricken this week with the Lurg, so we expect to release a Scholar’s hotfix with more polish next week.)
We’d love to get feedback and bugs at support@weatherfactory.biz, where I shall a) receive them gratefully, knowing they are vital to the quality of the game b) weep, softly, into my keyboard. It’ll make my job a lot easier if you could send one bug per email, too. Thank you!
If you’d like to discuss Cultist Simulator with fellow intellectuals, we have a few hotspots: Steam forums, now our page is live; the Weather Factory subreddit; the Kickstarter comments page, if you’re a backer; and our Twitter, should you dare ask the Pink Logo a Question. Go on: be bold.

[image removed due to messing with page layout, it was a header saying &quotScholar’s Build&quot]

It’s primarily a UI update, but it adds mechanics for eking out a living as a scholar. Key features below.

[ul][li]There are many more books now available to read. (And many more to come.)[/li]
[li]You can name your character. (We suggest you name your character.)[/li]
[li]Three different Legacies allow three different game starts. (There is not yet any relationship between the ending you experience and the legacies available.)[/li]
[li]The game saves when you exit, and auto-loads when you return. (If you end up with a borked save, you can delete save.txt from c:\Users%USERNAME%\AppData\LocalLow\Weather Factory\Cultist Simulator, or use backup_save.txt).[/li]
[li]It’s possible to research lore to gain access to higher levels of understanding. (The framework is in place, but the content here is about half-finished.)[/li]
[li]There’s more art, and more content. (Particularly, more ways to gain Passion, Reason or Health, as well as more ways to destroy yourself.)[/li]
[li]Dr Ibn al-Adim, Count Gottlob Jannings, and Madame Olympe Bechet may employ you to write articles or monographs for them. (They may have other functions, later.)[/li]
[li]If you’re a Bright Young Thing, you may visit the Ecdysis Club, and Oriflamme’s Auction House, as well as meeting your friend and mine, Poppy Lascelles. (But allof these will be available to other Legacies, later.)[/li]
[li]Notably absent: the ability to navigate the fringes of the Mansus in dreams. (This is partly because illness slowed my work this week, but also because we’ve had an interesting idea for how this would work which we’d like to explore further with our artists and UI developer, to see if it’ll work.)[/li]
[li]There is music. (Seven tracks from the enigmatical Maribeth Solomon and friends, who created the Sunless Sea and Fallen London soundtracks.[/li][/ul][/quote]
edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 12/15/2017

289

‘The Walls of the Mansus,’ Hersault begins, ‘are the size of starlight.’ Many of his directions are equally unhelpful…

‘The White is West of the world,’ Illopoly remarks, ‘and Winter does not wait forever.’


The above reminds me a little bit of this exchange from Eight Bit Theater:

[quote=Hardly Knew Ye]
Rogue: What, uh, happened to Beserker?

Sarda: Oh, he’s gone to a better place.

Cleric: Like, metaphorically, or…

Sarda: No. Like the beach. But NOT the Moon.

Ranger: Am I the only one confused by that?

Rogue: I’m a little lost on the whole beach/Moon thing as well.

Cleric: Sir, could you be more specific? Thanks.

Sarda: Absolutely. He is locked in perpetual orbit around a point three seconds to the left of the future.

[pause]

Ranger: That didn’t help me.

Rogue: He was specific. You have to give him that.

Cleric: What does that mean?

Sarda: It means there’s not much point in talking about him.[/quote]

Also, I continue to hold that the people running the Suppression Bureau are really bad at their jobs:

Sure, you can publish this book of decadent Grail poems brimming with occult lore - but no pictures!

head desk

.
edited by Anne Auclair on 12/16/2017

290

A full analysis of the new books is something that someone should do at some point, but it would be a very large undertaking so for now I’ll just mention a few things I thought were particularly noteworthy:

  • The Colonel apparently runs or ran assassin-cults which hunted and ate the Long, according to the Victory of Crowns

  • The &quotcomedy of humours&quot-type book, I forget the title, implies that the Beachcrow is connected to the worms, whatever they are, in some sense. By &quotconnected&quot I specifically mean &quoteating&quot, which could be a hostile action, an internalization, or a hostile action resulting accidentally in internalization.

  • Studying the book on the Unburnt God has the outcome text &quotJensen hypothesizes a pre-Zoroastrian fire deity, whose rites were the rites of smiths.&quot This implies that the Unburnt God is another name for the Forge of Days.

291

Exhibit C that the Suppression Bureau is completely incompetent and totally corrupt.

The Ecdysis Club. Everything about the Ecdysis Club. A lot of Investigators are getting rich off letting that place stay open. They probably shake down the owners and every so often the clientele.

Anyway, I highly recommend the Ecdysis Club; it’s a pretty wild ride.

292

[quote=illuminati swag (Benthic)]A full analysis of the new books is something that someone should do at some point, but it would be a very large undertaking so for now I’ll just mention a few things I thought were particularly noteworthy:

  • The Colonel apparently runs or ran assassin-cults which hunted and ate the Long, according to the Victory of Crowns.[/quote]
    The Victory of Crowns

Card Text: Eratic accounts by one ‘Arun’, of the hunting and consumption of supposed immortals, by shadowy cults of assassins. Published in the late 19th century.

Study Text: The Assassins are, according to Arun, the agents of a power called the Coronel, a ‘soldier of the Secret Masters.’ The accounts go all the way back to Roman times.


Ending Text: Arun’s scholarship is dubious, but he (she?) writes pithily. Incidents of sudden and violent death are interspersed with aphorisms: ‘Hour’s don’t dream. Long try not to.’

293

The Queens of the Rivers

Card Text: A surreal contemporary play by the enigmatic Monica Medina, in which the Queens of the Rivers are murdered, one by one.

Study Text: The Queen of the Vistula is poisoned. The Queen of the Dnieper chokes on a fish-hook. The Queen of the Tagus is burnt alive…

Ending Text: The culprit, it transpires, is the audience. The surviving Queens are directed to execute whatever audience members do not escape. A surprisingly lucid epilogue suggests that the correspondence of river-names with historical events does provide clues to secret histories behind our own.

THOUGHTS ON THE QUEENS OF THE RIVERS:
The Queens of the Rivers is interesting in that it is a work written by a Know (or higher. The Long might also take interest in writing.) that is accusatory of other Know - the audience:

  1. Secret Histories are the clearest division between the Know and Us(?), and this play gives you an Occult Scrap, a Secret Histories lore, confirming that, yes, you are one of the Know.

  2. The deaths of the Queens are (mostly?) related to CultSim’s occult practices (out of order for better reading):
    The Queen of the Tagus’ death is pretty obviously related to the Forge Principle (which governs unmerciful changes, destruction and fire).

As for the Queen of the Vistula… The Mother of Ants? The Fucine short story showcases an association of St Agnes to poisons. Other than that, it seems the plainest death out of the three mentioned.

The Queen of the Dnieper is a bit more interesting: The Watchman’s Eye event, which uses a unique icon of a Red Hook, involves you unlocking your own eye, which requires a tiny sacrifice (a point of Reason), and grants you Passion as well as a Watchman’s and Locksmith’s Secrets.

[quote=The Watchman’s Eye]Reason Text: The Watchman is the Door in the Eye. To unlock my own eye, there must be a tiny sacrifice.

Ending Text: I wielded a knife in sleep. There is pain, but even the pain is a signpost. I have bound the wound. I’ll tell them it was an accident. In the dream, I saw the Door. Some day soon, I’ll pass it.[/quote]A Tree of Lights mentions that ‘Each fruit is an eye, but each eye is closed.’, telling us that those with opened eyes are in the minority.
I suspect that the process of opening one’s eyes is, in turn, related to, if not synonymous with, becoming one of the Know.
The Queen of the Dnieper, then, died during the process of trying to improve her understanding of the Mansus and get the Dream.

This seems like a really coincidental death: She either literally choked on a fish-hook or died pursuing enlightenment, what’ve we to do with it? - but all 3 legacies start their occult career by an outside push: The Aspirant gets the Bequeath from their correspondent, your previous Player Character (unless beginning a new set of legacies and a previous playthrough is not present), the Bright Young Thing’s Father took notes on your PC, and the Physician treated your PC in the Institute and heard your ramblings about the Mansus.

In all of these, your actions have unwittingly started others on the very dangerous path to knowledge.

294

[quote=Vavakx Nonexus]The Queens of the Rivers

Card Text: A surreal contemporary play by the enigmatic Monica Medina, in which the Queens of the Rivers are murdered, one by one.

Study Text: The Queen of the Vistula is poisoned. The Queen of the Dnieper chokes on a fish-hook. The Queen of the Tagus is burnt alive…

Ending Text: The culprit, it transpires, is the audience. The surviving Queens are directed to execute whatever audience members do not escape. A surprisingly lucid epilogue suggests that the correspondence of river-names with historical events does provide clues to secret histories behind our own.

THOUGHTS ON THE QUEENS OF THE RIVERS:
The Queens of the Rivers is interesting in that it is a work written by a Know (or higher. The Long might also take interest in writing.) that is accusatory of other Know - the audience:

  1. Secret Histories are the clearest division between the Know and Us(?), and this play gives you an Occult Scrap, a Secret Histories lore, confirming that, yes, you are one of the Know.

  2. The deaths of the Queens are (mostly?) related to CultSim’s occult practices (out of order for better reading):
    The Queen of the Tagus’ death is pretty obviously related to the Forge Principle (which governs unmerciful changes, destruction and fire).

As for the Queen of the Vistula… The Mother of Ants? The Fucine short story showcases an association of St Agnes to poisons. Other than that, it seems the plainest death out of the three mentioned.

The Queen of the Dnieper is a bit more interesting: The Watchman’s Eye event, which uses a unique icon of a Red Hook, involves you unlocking your own eye, which requires a tiny sacrifice (a point of Reason), and grants you Passion as well as a Watchman’s and Locksmith’s Secrets.

[quote=The Watchman’s Eye]Reason Text: The Watchman is the Door in the Eye. To unlock my own eye, there must be a tiny sacrifice.

Ending Text: I wielded a knife in sleep. There is pain, but even the pain is a signpost. I have bound the wound. I’ll tell them it was an accident. In the dream, I saw the Door. Some day soon, I’ll pass it.[/quote]A Tree of Lights mentions that ‘Each fruit is an eye, but each eye is closed.’, telling us that those with opened eyes are in the minority.
I suspect that the process of opening one’s eyes is, in turn, related to, if not synonymous with, becoming one of the Know.
The Queen of the Dnieper, then, died during the process of trying to improve her understanding of the Mansus and get the Dream.

This seems like a really coincidental death: She either literally choked on a fish-hook or died pursuing enlightenment, what’ve we to do with it? - but all 3 legacies start their occult career by an outside push: The Aspirant gets the Bequeath from their correspondent, your previous Player Character (unless beginning a new set of legacies and a previous playthrough is not present), the Bright Young Thing’s Father took notes on your PC, and the Physician treated your PC in the Institute and heard your ramblings about the Mansus.

In all of these, your actions have unwittingly started others on the very dangerous path to knowledge.[/quote]
I thought to be a know you had to travel through stag door. Mr. Kennedy did mention that on the lifestream.

295

Also apparently the other name for the Colonel is the Tribune.

296

The word &quotcolonel&quot or &quotcoronel&quot has an unusual and somewhat disputed etymology. It first appears in the 16th century in the Italian form colonnello, which seems to mean &quotleader of a (military) column.&quot At about the same time, however, we have the Spanish army using the military rank coronel. This may derive from the Italian, but it also suggests an alternative interpretation as &quotofficer of the Crown.&quot The modern English word takes its spelling from the Italian form, but its pronunciation from the Spanish.

&quotTribune,&quot or the Latin tribunus, has an even more complex history. Literally it meant &quotleader of a tribe,&quot and may have referred to the wartime leaders of the three tribus founded by Romulus. Over the lengthy and complex history of Roman government, both tribus and tribunus changed meaning. By the time of the late Republic, tribunus had come to refer to two separate offices. The more famous of these were the tribunes of the plebs, elected by an assembly of the plebeian class, who had the power of veto over any act of the Senate. The other were the military tribunes, army officers who ranked above centurion but below legate. This, I think, is the meaning relevant to the Hour in question.

What can all this tell us about the Colonel/Coronel/Tribune? First, most obviously, that he is a military commander: an authority figure who directs lesser forces of violence. But the other common theme that emerges is that he is not a supreme commander, but one of middling rank; not a king or a general, but a deputy to kings or generals. Which raises the question: whose deputy?

297

Something that I’ve noticed. All your acquaintances/followers have a &quotMortal&quot icon on their card. Mme Olympe Bechet and Count Gottlob Jannings have Mortal icons. Even the ominous Poppy Lascelles is signified to be Mortal.

Dr Ibn al-Adim is not marked as Mortal. Just throwing that out there.

298

[quote=DSPaul]The word &quotcolonel&quot or &quotcoronel&quot has an unusual and somewhat disputed etymology. It first appears in the 16th century in the Italian form colonnello, which seems to mean &quotleader of a (military) column.&quot At about the same time, however, we have the Spanish army using the military rank coronel. This may derive from the Italian, but it also suggests an alternative interpretation as &quotofficer of the Crown.&quot The modern English word takes its spelling from the Italian form, but its pronunciation from the Spanish.

&quotTribune,&quot or the Latin tribunus, has an even more complex history. Literally it meant &quotleader of a tribe,&quot and may have referred to the wartime leaders of the three tribus founded by Romulus. Over the lengthy and complex history of Roman government, both tribus and tribunus changed meaning. By the time of the late Republic, tribunus had come to refer to two separate offices. The more famous of these were the tribunes of the plebs, elected by an assembly of the plebeian class, who had the power of veto over any act of the Senate. The other were the military tribunes, army officers who ranked above centurion but below legate. This, I think, is the meaning relevant to the Hour in question.

What can all this tell us about the Colonel/Coronel/Tribune? First, most obviously, that he is a military commander: an authority figure who directs lesser forces of violence. But the other common theme that emerges is that he is not a supreme commander, but one of middling rank; not a king or a general, but a deputy to kings or generals. Which raises the question: whose deputy?[/quote]
I think he was the lionsmith deputy because they have an intensely antagonistic relationship. Lionsmith creat monster to combat Colonel and keep knocking them down. The Colonel is looking he is edge as well. I do wonder why formed a cult to kill longs. Everything about implies a god from the Flesh. The rank demote somebody of high military command but Not quite general still has closeness to the people that they command. Along with her other name calligrapher of scars. I’m still figure out all the meaning behind that.

299

Well, he doesn’t have a single commander - he serves Masters plural. They’re also Secret, so for all we know their identities could be constantly shifting. Maybe the Colonel is just an out and out mercenary, his services and helpers available to any power willing to pay.

Take the hunting of the Long. That sounds like something the Sun-In-Rags would want to do - he’s the god of endings and Long don’t end on their own, which the Chilly Sun would presumably find annoying. Then there’s the Forge of Days, which we know has a taste for the Long (notice that the Long aren’t just killed but also consumed). And this is just considering the Long as an abstract whole, as opposed to a collection of completing factions and individuals. An overly bold, careless, or unfortunate Long could presumably find themselves a target for quite idiosyncratic reasons. A group of Long might easily and unwittingly find themselves on the wrong side of some greater struggle.

This is probably one of the reasons that semi-retired Long like to cluster in Port Noon. Safety in numbers.

300

Well, he doesn’t have a single commander - he serves Masters plural. They’re also Secret, so for all we know their identities could be constantly shifting. Maybe the Colonel is just an out and out mercenary, his services and helpers available to any power willing to pay.

Take the hunting of the Long. That sounds like something the Sun-In-Rags would want to do - he’s the god of endings and Long don’t end on their own, which the Chilly Sun would presumably find annoying. Then there’s the Forge of Days, which we know has a taste for the Long (notice that the Long aren’t just killed but also consumed). And this is just considering the Long as an abstract whole, as opposed to a collection of completing factions and individuals. An overly bold, careless, or unfortunate Long could presumably find themselves a target for quite idiosyncratic reasons. A group of Long might easily and unwittingly find themselves on the wrong side of some greater struggle.

This is probably one of the reasons that semi-retired Long like to cluster in Port Noon. Safety in numbers.[/quote]

A mercenary Hour/god very interesting concept indeed. Then what do give him as playment? Mr. Kennedy did mention the live stream when you becoming Long you no longer have to worry about something anymore…maybe you are no longer affect by the passage of time? But it look like you are on the Hours hit list. If I remember correctly from view lore hours don’t dream why should Long be allowed to. Maybe it dangerous for them to sleep or travel in MANSUS? Think about what Long is there are 2° separated from humanity 2° separated from the hours. There right smack in the middle not human or God. Maybe Hours are trying to prevent them from become a Name?
edited by JoelMB12 on 12/19/2017