That’s right. In true cult leader fashion, it’s now possible to sucker in new devotees by spouting off mystical-sounding nonsense. Hey, if it works for made up religions, why not a honest-to-God eldritch cult, right?
KIFFLOM![/quote]
I was considering posting it, but I had posted the last few Twitter updates so I figured someone else could get this one. Anyway, the Stag Door being a Name is a really interesting development, particularly given that the current build has pieces of content that say that a. becoming a Know is passing through the Stag Door and b. that you, the cultist, are already a Know, and what distinguishes you is your knowledge of the Secret Histories. I wonder if the implication is that you have previously passed through the Stag Door unintentionally in dreams, and that’s what sparked your interest in the Mansus.[/quote]
I do kind of like that beer you like subconsciously you pass through it. But now you’re doing It fully. And it implies that become Know is the first shred of humanity ripped away considering you can develop unnatural appetite. This is the step he gave. Choose the notion talk to any patrons about Clues for that notion. 2 reforge that notion to a dedication to passing through the stag door. Oh ritual with that dedication at it’s redacted reverts to obsession. 3 Obsessions can lead to cravings during seasons of appetites.
names are what aspects of Hours but ask the only thing the Hours could Fear. They seem to serve particular roles. And he did say the possibility in the future that could maybe be playable.
I love it means we pillage the bookstore so thoroughly that we know enough of occult knowledge Least spout mystifying sounding bullshit. edited by JoelMB12 on 2/15/2018
Or maybe the museum is where the Hours keep their worm related trophies or prisoners.
I think it would be more surprising if there wasn’t a river of any sort. Styx, anyone? And don’t forget Charon, the Ferryman.
Generally gatekeepers extract tolls from those who need to pass, in this world and the next. The most basic example is how the Classical Greeks buried their dead with a coin under the tongue in order to pay Charon for their passage across the river. In the Gnostic afterlife things were more elaborate, with multiple obstacles and powers blocking your way. In Mandean mythology, for example, there are seven toll gates that stand between the soul and its true salvation and in order to pass you need to have lived a life that has made you capable of paying your way. In Gnostic systems, if you haven’t lived a good life, if you haven’t received the proper baptisms, if you haven’t learned the passwords, then the gatekeepers will detain you and do really awful things in order to collect their fee. Most souls are swallowed up by these demonic "penal stations":
I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that if you want the Mother of Ants to use those keys of hers to open doors for you, you’ll have to pay her. A lot. And if you try and skip out on paying her, she will not be happy. So I guess the question is, are those severed hands from the travelers who paid or the travelers who didn’t pay?
btw, I can’t help but suspect that the "ants" crawling all over her represent those who need to use the doors and passages that she guards :P
btw2, the Mother of Ants has four arms, which could be one arm for each "door" - the White Door, the Stag Door, the Spider Door, and the Peacock Door. Though her key ring only has three keys on it, perhaps indicating that one of those doors (the White Door?) is unlocked.
And be eaten. She’s very cyclical like that.
The rain might hint at her relationship with the Thunderskin. She has to have some sort of relationship – the Thunderskin works to preserve the skin of the world, while the Mother of Ants presides over openings in said skin (in a sense the first door you go through is not the Stag Door, but rather the opening you make between the world and the Mansus). So part of the Mother of Ants domain exists because of the Thunderskin and possibly in defiance of its wishes.
The Thunderskin is an Hour with some really interesting, complex relationships: the Ring-Yew, the Red Grail, the Sun-in-Rags, and the Mother of Ants. One might think of the Thunderskin as a sort of an intersection Hour. He nestles in a ruined wood beneath the world (Yew), he plays a fundamental role in mortal life (alongside the Grail), he is the Hour of that which does not end (opposite Sun-in-Rags), and he works to preserve the world’s skin (whereas the MoA sees to the openings in said skin).
I don’t think the Stag Door is a Name, but rather guarded/commanded by a Name: Ghirbi. In a declivity besides the door rests a vast and wounded golden Head. Not the door itself.
I don’t see anything indicating that you start out a Know (in Physician and BYT you start out totally ignorant, as an Aspirant you’ve had some bare-bones dreams in the recent past). At the start of the game you simply don’t know the Secret Histories. You can read about them in the works created by Knows or other people who have also read the Knows, but this is not remotely the same thing as Knowing. The difference is essentially that between secondary and primary research. Secondary research is reading, say, John Lukacs’ The Last European War, while primary research is actually going through the various WWII archives yourself. You don’t actually Know the Secret Histories until you can do the primary research and you can’t do the primary research until you get past the Stag Door.
To put it another way, does someone become a historian simply from reading a book about history? Does someone become a chemist from simply reading a book about chemistry? Does someone become a Know simply from reading a book about the Secret Histories?
And finally, some more twitter pictures! First, the headquarters mechanic that was present in the grey box pre-Alpha has apparently made a return in the Adapts Build. Second, the concluding text of Apollo and Marsyas, which was missing from the Scholar/Neville Builds owing to a bug, is now available.
My source for all of this is the description of the "Secret Histories" property of certain lore items:
That clearly states that you, the cultist, are one of the Know. So, at this point in the development of Cultist Simulator canon, you are stated to be a Know as soon as you read about the Secret Histories. I’m just as surprised as you. It could, of course, be an oversight of content left from a previous version (I just confirmed that the description goes back to the pre-alpha), but at the moment it is still in the game. edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/16/2018
[quote=illuminati swag (Benthic)][quote=Anne Auclair]
I don’t see anything indicating that you start out a Know (in Physician and BYT you start out totally ignorant, as an Aspirant you’ve had some bare-bones dreams in the recent past). At the start of the game you simply don’t know the Secret Histories. You can read about them in the works created by Knows or other people who have also read the Knows, but this is not remotely the same thing as Knowing. The difference is essentially that between secondary and primary research. Secondary research is reading, say, John Lukacs’ The Last European War, while primary research is actually going through the various WWII archives yourself. You don’t actually Know the Secret Histories until you can do the primary research and you can’t do the primary research until you get past the Stag Door.
To put it another way, does someone become a historian simply from reading a book about history? Does someone become a chemist from simply reading a book about chemistry? Does someone become a Know simply from reading a book about the Secret Histories?
[/quote]
My source for all of this is the description of the &quotSecret Histories&quot property of certain lore items:
That clearly states that you, the cultist, are one of the Know. So, at this point in the development of Cultist Simulator canon, you are stated to be a Know as soon as you read about the Secret Histories. I’m just as surprised as you. It could, of course, be an oversight of content left from a previous version (I just confirmed that the description goes back to the pre-alpha), but at the moment it is still in the game. edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/16/2018[/quote]
I cannot tell if it oversight or AK is messing with us. To be a Know to pass-through the stag door because you know the answer the riddle. To be the Know is the to know th answer to know the answer is to know a truth? edited by JoelMB12 on 2/16/2018
In case you can’t/don’t want to go through to see the thread, it’s a series of screenshots showing increasing levels of Edge lore. Starting with a Knife’s Secret and a Chiliarch’s Lesson, which are in the game, followed by an Operation of a Lion (which may already be in game? seems like it’s the level 6 Edge, which I haven’t seen, but should exist).
The rest are the Lionsmith’s Names ("The Lionsmith is young by the standards of the Hours, but old by the standards of war. His Names are recent recruits, and their recitation has a savage power"), the Colonel’s Names ("The Colonel has been many things in many ages. He is blind; he is deaf; he cannot be wounded; he cannot be denied. His Names are cunning as only the very old can be"), and the Alignments of Murder ("These are the arts which ensure an ending"). The screenshots also have, in the corner, a card called "Obsession: Sensation", with an icon of a stiched-together face.
Image below is the last screenshot, which shows all the lore cards but not much of Obsession: Sensation.
Obsession: Sensation is probably an Appetite, pretty self-explanatory in terms of what it is. This has no clues as to what exactly it would do, though. But the main reason I’m putting the image here is that the level of the lore is indicated on the card by a circle of ticks around the central knife icon, which has a number highlighted equal to half the level of the lore (lore levels go up by 2 each time). But the Alignments of Murder is only halfway around the circle, which suggests that, as powerful as the Alignments of Murder may be, there’s a lot further to go. The highest level, if the Alignments of Murder are halfway, would be 24. Very suggestive.
Edit: https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/964436841012322304 Alexis said earlier today that he would reveal the name of a Name if the CS Discord hit 101 members, and he says (as of a few minutes later) that he kept that promise. I’d be surprised if he meant Ghirbi, since that was released four days ago. Does anyone on the CS Discord know what the name of the Name is? I used to be on it, but I’ve quit Discord recently for productivity reasons. edited by illuminati swag (Benthic) on 2/16/2018
[quote=illuminati swag (Benthic)]Edit: https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/964436841012322304 Alexis said earlier today that he would reveal the name of a Name if the CS Discord hit 101 members, and he says (as of a few minutes later) that he kept that promise. I’d be surprised if he meant Ghirbi, since that was released four days ago. Does anyone on the CS Discord know what the name of the Name is? I used to be on it, but I’ve quit Discord recently for productivity reasons.[/quote][quote=demiurge,on the CultSim server]as was promised:
The Amethyst Imago is a Name of the Moth. She fell into the butterfly net of a particular Long. -[/quote]
Kinda surprised to hear the Imago isn’t of the Witch-and-Sister, but I’m always happy to have more Moth content.
Notes:
You may remember the Imago from this post on the weatherfactory site, which also gives us another name (the Long?): Matthias
‘Amethyst’, a performance at the Ecdysis Club, depicts the catching of the semi-titular Amethyst Imago.
A translated Geminiad was found to give a Recitation in Amethyst back when we first discovered the dev console. edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 2/16/2018
[quote=Vavakx Nonexus][quote=illuminati swag (Benthic)]Edit: https://twitter.com/alexiskennedy/status/964436841012322304 Alexis said earlier today that he would reveal the name of a Name if the CS Discord hit 101 members, and he says (as of a few minutes later) that he kept that promise. I’d be surprised if he meant Ghirbi, since that was released four days ago. Does anyone on the CS Discord know what the name of the Name is? I used to be on it, but I’ve quit Discord recently for productivity reasons.[/quote][quote=demiurge,on the CultSim server]as was promised:
The Amethyst Imago is a Name of the Moth. She fell into the butterfly net of a particular Long. -[/quote]
Kinda surprised to hear the Imago isn’t of the Witch-and-Sister, but I’m always happy to have more Moth content.
Notes:
You may remember the Imago from this post on the weatherfactory site.
‘Amethyst’, a performance at the Ecdysis Club, depicts the catching of the semi-titular Amethyst Imago.
A translated Geminiad was found to give a Recitation in Amethyst back when we first discovered the dev console. edited by Vavakx Nonexus on 2/16/2018[/quote]
Huh, interesting. If the Amethyst Imago was captured by a Long, that would probably be part of the reason why the Names fear the Long. I wonder if the Recitation in Amethyst is a hint toward a potential connection between the Twins and the Moth - can Names be emanations of multiple hours?
[quote=illuminati swag (Benthic)]
My source for all of this is the description of the "Secret Histories" property of certain lore items:
That clearly states that you, the cultist, are one of the Know. So, at this point in the development of Cultist Simulator canon, you are stated to be a Know as soon as you read about the Secret Histories.[/quote]
I think that line was written in expectation of you becoming a Know and needing to use the Secret Histories for something. There has been talk of becoming a Long or Name as alternative endings, so by inference we always end up playing a Know, as going higher means ending the game.
But you don’t show any signs of Knowing in any of the Legacies. In the Aspirant legacy you’re essentially recruited by a declining cultist after you care for him in the hospital and he judges you have potential. In the Physician legacy you treated one of your former characters, who died horribly, and recollecting about the experience awakes something in you. In the BYT, your occult interests are strictly faddish until your father dies and you find out his occult interests were far more serious (oh, and you’re also broke)… You don’t really Know anything in any of these and you need to find out.
[quote=Anne Auclair][quote=illuminati swag (Benthic)]
My source for all of this is the description of the "Secret Histories" property of certain lore items:
That clearly states that you, the cultist, are one of the Know. So, at this point in the development of Cultist Simulator canon, you are stated to be a Know as soon as you read about the Secret Histories.[/quote]
I think that line was written in expectation of you becoming a Know and needing to use the Secret Histories for something. There has been talk of becoming a Long or Name as alternative endings, so by inference we always end up playing a Know, as going higher means ending the game.
But you don’t show any signs of Knowing in any of the Legacies. In the Aspirant legacy you’re essentially recruited by a declining cultist after you care for him in the hospital and he judges you have potential. In the Physician legacy you treated one of your former characters, who died horribly, and recollecting about the experience awakes something in you. In the BYT, your occult interests are strictly faddish until your father dies and you find out his occult interests were far more serious (oh, and you’re also broke)… You don’t really Know anything in any of these and you need to find out.[/quote]
I pretty sure Long are playable become Name is different story. Thinking of how many legacies will their be?
The Twins have four arms and two heads. The Mother of Ants has four arms and two heads (or faces - perhaps a second face on the back of her head). Both are entities of the number two, but whereas the Twins are two separate Hours fused, the Mother of Ants is a single Hour with two aspects.
If the double nature of the Mother of Ants is related to her threshold status, her command of doors, passages, and openings (btw, Hecate the Grecco-Roman Goddess of crossroads had three heads, as did Cerberus, while Janus the Roman god of doors, doorways, and gates had two faces), then the same could be the case with the Twins. The Mother of Ants’s apparent rivalry with or bad feelings towards the Twins might have arisen from the Twins providing alternative ways into the Mansus. Supporting this is the fact that the Geminial’s pages are razor sharp and its magic contains the principle of Knock, so you can use it in a ritual to open the flesh or open the way. Gods tend to be jealous of their domains.
btw, the GG’s relative youth does not make him more sympathetic to newcomers. In fact, there are hints that he compensates for his by making the cosmic boundaries even harder to cross.
Ensuring an ending…more jurisdiction friction!
And an Edge of only 10 makes you a nigh-unstoppable killer…
Alexis said becoming a Long was an alternative ending in his last livestream.
[quote=Anne Auclair]Something I only just noticed.
The Twins have four arms and two heads. The Mother of Ants has four arms and two heads (or faces - perhaps a second face on the back of her head). Both are entities of the number two, but whereas the Twins are two separate Hours fused, the Mother of Ants is a single Hour with two aspects.
If the double nature of the Mother of Ants is related to her threshold status, her command of doors, passages, and openings (btw, Hecate the Grecco-Roman Goddess of crossroads had three heads, as did Cerberus, while Janus the Roman god of doors, doorways, and gates had two faces), then the same could be the case with the Twins. The Mother of Ants’s apparent rivalry with or bad feelings towards the Twins might have arisen from the Twins providing alternative ways into the Mansus. Supporting this is the fact that the Geminial’s pages are razor sharp and its magic contains the principle of Knock, so you can use it in a ritual to open the flesh or open the way. Gods tend to be jealous of their domains.
btw, the GG’s relative youth does not make him more sympathetic to newcomers. In fact, there are hints that he compensates for his by making the cosmic boundaries even harder to cross.
Ensuring an ending…more jurisdiction friction!
And an Edge of only 10 makes you a nigh-unstoppable killer…
Alexis said becoming a Long was an alternative ending in his last livestream.[/quote]
The last Livestream I asked him about it. And he explained some of the mechanics very vaguely. Just was you don’t have to worry about somethings but if I have to worry about things. It seem like colonel has The edge over the principle that he and the lionsmith of combat over. He also sounds like the Terminator. Well simultaneously the warrior mentor along with killer. I asked mechanically about playing as along and if it was possible to become a name. He hinted about the name as a maybe most likely going to be ending if I recall correctly. edited by JoelMB12 on 2/17/2018 edited by JoelMB12 on 2/17/2018 edited by JoelMB12 on 2/17/2018
Don’t get me wrong I think it’s a possible ending and sent you can retire to Port Noon. But it has really interesting implications if you pay attention to the lore. For example I can bet money passing of time would no longer affect us. But it would be incredibly dangerous to dream. I wonder why it dangerous for long to dream. If they cannot dream can they still travel MANSUS? See from the Kickstarter page it it seems to imply you can become an Hour. edited by JoelMB12 on 2/17/2018
Have now read a lot of interesting discussion about Names, and who they might have once been.
I was going to say – I really think you have identified another possible candidate for a Name.
Because that’s what was niggling me about ‘Parsival of the Red Cup’, to whom Arabella Dusk dedicates her Grail-addled verses: I’d already heard of him (this is a link to a Weather Factory post I’ve linked to before, for convenience, this time with the title):
"Oriflamme’s, Lot 5, Auction 5th May ’57. Fragments of the notebooks of ‘Parsival’, recovered from the wreck of Mr Strathcoyne’s private library. Extensive fire-damage, reconstructed in part"…etc. Parsival’s horripilating abhuman experiences in the Mansus etc.
Some of this may be outdated (even I wouldn’t leap to the conclusion that we start off in the Third History, though the title seems to imply it). But there’s surely reason to suppose that in the game, ‘Parsival’ will be the occult pseudonym of an as-yet anonymous Know (like ‘Baldomera’ is lock-related pseudonym of Theresa Galmier; I don’t think we know Christopher Illopoly’s yet). The occultist called ‘Parsival’ was on this earthly plane as of 1890, so he could still be kicking around in 1920.
Or, given recent stuff suggesting that Names might sometimes be favoured vassals/hapless minions/picked champions of the Hours, it’s entirely possible that ‘Parsival’ might have achieved the Grail-knight ambition that his pseudonym suggests. There is nothing to stop there being other pockets of Arthurian myth in the game, of course, but I have to admit I doubt it will be more than that because there are more than 24 Hours, and also, Arthurian myth is a bit like cloves – more than a pinch and it takes over the whole cake.
The set of spell icons was posted a bit of a way back now, but it’s interesting that this one has now popped up alongside a lot of Lionsmith content:
I know this art is being used as a placeholder for ‘Obsession: Sensation’ at present, described as a Hellraiser-type victory goal for the ultimate aesthete, but I think it’s settled that the ‘Obsession: Sensation’ icon is going to be a gender-randomised skinless bum in frilly smalls, which is in danger of becoming the CS mascot. But that stitched-together head is exactly what I imagined the Lionsmith’s specialism would look like – a warmongering chimerical Frankenstein who doesn’t draw the line at melding different species, or even phyla. edited by Vexpont on 2/17/2018
Been waiting to talk about this one. While #buttgate 2, cultist boogaloo continues raging on Alexis’ twitter, there’s a piece of art he shared that seems to have slipped under the radar, even though it has some very interesting implications.
dabs forehead with handkerchief
Ehem, I’m actually not sure I can post this one here, for… uhm…two very big, very prominent reasons.
The painting is "Truth coming out of her well to shame mankind". The title is quite self explanatory. A very… formidable looking angry woman coming out of a well armed with a whip screaming in the direction of the viewer. Like The Wreck of the Medusa, this painting has a creepy backstory to it too. The painter apparently slept with this painting, and when he died his body was found staring right at it waving goodbye.
Guess we know what that Well out in the Woods is for now, don’t we?
The painting’s title comes from the ancient line "truth lies at the bottom of a well" which means that the naked truth is concealed far from view by a mire of falsehoods and deceptive half truths, and to not draw conclusions without all the facts. In the context of cultist simulator, the quote could mean that the true nature of the world is hidden beneath the veil of the Mansus and the historical deceptions of the Long, and to question your preconceived notions of the "mundane" world.
It also means that the "Truth" in this case absolutely hates your guts and will royally mess you up once one of you gets your hands on the other.
