I don't make these often but I'll do my best here. It might be long-winded but I appreciate those patient enough to bear with me.
Here's the gist of my situation: I started my current campaign about 4 years ago as a Cleric. Eventually, I multiclassed into Warlock. I picked up a special coin-shaped focus during a quest and was connected to a patron. I could have refused it but there was narrative purpose to the decision. Anyway, I ended up with a strange Cleric/Warlock combo, and it's been really fun. Way back in the day, I told my DM that Zahir (the patron in question) was not an option on DnD beyond and I believe we decided to leave it blank and leave the perks to the DM as they come along.
A few levels later (warlock lvl 4 I think?), I received the Mask of Many Faces invocation for free. Neither of us knew warlocks that well, and I had just assumed that that was a pretty good patron perk by itself. Fast forward a few years (maybe 50 sessions) and a newer party member pointed out that Patrons offered a lot of perks and it was weird that I didn't have many. Turns out, Mask of Many Faces is the only extra "patron gift" I ever really got. I am currently Cleric 6/Warlock 9. My DM wasn't too familiar with the patron system, and I've spent 9 warlock levels without any patron perks. No extended spell list to influence my spell choices and no patron-specific unique abilities to influence RP.
So that's the situation in a nutshell. Our campaign is, at this point, very home-brewed in a lot of senses, but we do our best to ground the fundamental gameplay in rules as written, and when designing new spells or feats we do our best to emulate existing ones or at least use others as a reference for balancing. I'm stuck in a very awkward position where I feel incredibly disappointed that my character class was underdeveloped and, even while consulting my DM and throwing ideas around on what to do about that, I can't really find a satisfactory way to simply spawn a homebrew perk system. I don't mind slight ret-conning, in terms of how long I've had access to x or y minor perk/ability, but I've done my damnedest to squeeze every bit of utility out of the Warlock and Cleric classes while maintaining character RP and my character is already crystalized. I'm stumped.
Do we make a new perk list? Like any other patron, make two 1st lvl perks (one is usually extended spell list) and a 6th? Or do we try one or two major perks that we could work into the current story as-is? For context, I have a legendary artifact that increases my strength past 20, so as much as I want to ask for perks that affect melee (proficiency or damage modifiers), Zahir is the Cloaked Serpent, Betrayer God and has general themes of deception, subterfuge, snakes, etc. My combat style is a strange amalgamation of tanking while using magic to counter attack, and using my turn to simply melee or cantrip when appropriate. I use most of my spell slots for travel, defense, or communication (mostly utility, some combat).
My DM proposed some perks, and, I love the man dearly, but I hated them. One of them let me add my CHA modifier to damage of certain types, adding types at certain levels. At Warlock level 12, character level 18, I would have three spells that did +2 total damage. It also offered psy damage resistance. There was another perk but not worth mentioning. The one he wants to keep is Forked Tongue (lvl 8 perk as he assigned it) which gives me "advantage on Dec checks, as well as advantage on saves against magic or magical effects that attempt to sense players' emotions or thoughts." I think it's appropriate for the patron and a good incentive for my generally honest character to lie. Would that be worth a 6th lvl perk slot?
Two last thoughts before I shut up.
Firstly, I have Aspect of the Moon, so I don't sleep. This depends on your DM, but we've ruled that research and other stationary things like it are generally not strenuous. I have many undocumented hours of magical research. I was proposing that, in lieu of regular perks, we do unleveled perks that I discovered in the form of scientific (or arcane) breakthroughs in the recent past. This kind of lends to the question of "what homebrew abilities should we consider patron abilities" but I think it's a line of thought that could go somewhere.
Also, he made an extended spell list. This I also would like opinions on. He did his best to vary the choices, though at least two are already Warlock spells. He added more than most patrons offer as well. I will post it below. As I said, my character is already crystalized and I have trouble seeing any worth replacing, especially considering how much I genuinely use them. It's probably petty, but I am thinking that I kind of want to request that we just not add an extended spell list and go for something a bit more unique or useful to someone at my level. I dunno. I like Cloudkill but it's really the only one, as it would be a good analogue for something like fireball or flame strike like another pact might get.
First: Ray of Sickness, Acid stream, Distort value
Second: Corrode metal, Melf's Acid Arrow, Nystul's magic aura
Third: Conjure Animals, Fear(already warlock spell), Hypnotic pattern(already warlock spell)
Fourth: Compulsion, Vitriolic sphere, Charm monster
Fifth: Cloudkill, Contagion, Commune with nature
It just sucks so much to look at an option I now have and say "this would have been useful three years ago" and the obvious response is "yeah, that's how low leveled perks work." Obviously there are plenty of nuances and lots of context missing here, but I think this is a good enough summary of events. If anyone has seen a similar situation, or has a lot of experience with Warlock, I could use your WIS.

In a nutshell, my group at Uni is making a pond with an interactive fish flocking system and I need to be able to take the water animation I've made on Blender and put it into our Notch file while still being able to see the fish underneath
I understand that the water could be made in realtime on Notch but the server were using is already pushing it pretty hard with everything else we've got going on.
I've tried rendering out a in a few different codecs but nothing seems to be working on that front.
I also thought maybe there's some way to bake an animation to an fbx or obj and then just drop the file into Notch and do it that way but again I'm not too sure if this would work so my brain is bringing me back to think that a pre rendered video would work the best?
If anyone has any suggestions it would be massively appreciated!!

PART FIFTY-FOUR
[Previous Part] [Beginning]
I deliberately slowed our pace to give Thalien’s cousin time to scramble upstairs. That was a huge change to how I had conducted myself as emperor. Ten years ago, I would’ve been half a step behind her, watching her shift between a sideways shuffle that would show her subservience to me while attempting to gain what she hoped would be enough distance for a miracle to appear around the next corner. For my part, I would’ve been gathering guards in anticipation of making her pay the ultimate price for having failed to meet my expectations.
When we reached the top of the stairs, three elves in robes met us … and looking past them, I saw a distinct lack of horses and horse paraphernalia. It was an artificial tunnel, fifteen feet high by forty across, with smooth stone walls. I wasn’t a stone mason, but having spent time with Polly, I recognised things like an utter lack of tool marks. Again that turtle shell weapon that destroyed things without touching them flashed across my memory.
This was clearly a staging area. One hidden from prying eyes.
Two of the three elves were of an older generation but were obviously blood family to the gatekeeper who stood to one side. At least she had the good sense to look abashed.
“Whatever you think you want to say to me must wait another day. We’re in a hurry,” I decreed as we approached, ready to push through them if necessary.
“Your horses are being readied as we speak,” the older female said, glancing at Thalien before levelling her gaze at me. “But I would like to know who has my people scrambling so hard on such short notice.”
That had me jerking to a halt. Hard. “Your people?” I was beginning to see Polly’s point about the disjointed nature of the empire, and I didn’t like it. “I am the Emperor’s Shadow,” I snarled as I started to move once more, for there was no getting around it. I could threaten her. I could threaten the library again. But at the end of the day, we didn’t need to be watching our backs like that. We had enough enemies. “Which, just to spell it out to you, means they’re not your people scrambling for the horses I required some time ago. They’re mine, and their lapse has put me behind in a schedule that is already uncomfortably tight.” My eyes met hers with the imperiousness I was raised to exude. “And you are still standing in my way.”
“Move,” Tarq said pointedly, already stepping forward to make a path for me if they failed to comply.
The woman looked behind me, most likely at Thalien … and maybe Lanna, before allowing Tarq to ‘guide’ her group to one side. “If it’s troops you require, we can have whatever number you’re thinking here as soon as they are assembled, your majesty,” she said with a bow as I swept past her.
I paused and looked back. Tarq gave the slightest flick of his eyebrow, which was enough for me to know it was worth considering, so I did. The Consitors couldn’t have known about the gateways, or they would’ve already been destroying them to prevent this very thing, which meant the elves in front of me were still imperial elves.
“The empire has enemies that have breached our borders from across the ocean. They’ve been here a long time and dug in deep. How discreet can your troops be? I’m not talking about uniforms. I’m talking numbers in general. If they come here, they must be able to utterly blend into the woodwork before anyone sees them. If so much as twenty elves are spotted in one place where they shouldn’t be, these people are ruthless and would rather poison our land on a scale that would challenge a plague rather than admit defeat.”
Saying that out loud, it suddenly dawned on me who could move around in the mountains of the south in as many numbers as they wanted without fear of discovery … mainly because there wasn’t much they did fear.
The trick would be getting them to trust us. To trust me.
Another ‘later me’ problem.
“Elven warriors can run like the wind and disappear just as quickly when needed,” the woman insisted.
I took a few minutes to explain the duplicitous nature of our enemy, and it was agreed that if elves were brought through, they would bring enough battle and defence mages to remain hidden and avoid the cities. It was a tall order, and their movements would be hampered by their need for discretion.
“The contingents you have north of Ayodyn are to remain where they are,” I added. "That wall must be repaired, or we’ll be fighting this battle on two fronts. Whoever you send must come from elsewhere.”
“Five hundred warriors will kill our gatekeeper,” she said while gesturing to her daughter, not to argue but to remind me of that fact.
I huffed out a snarl, for there was our problem in a nutshell. I couldn’t be in two places at once. I turned to our friends. “Thalien, contact Polly and see if I need to be standing right here at the gates for her to access them or if I can be elsewhere and give permission for her to bring them through a scry.”
Thalien nodded and stepped away from the group. He pressed his back to the wall and cast a tight sound blister over himself. The way his eyes refocused, he’d opened up a scry, and Polly was now in front of him. He smiled and raised his hand to prevent anyone from lip-reading, and while I was sure he was talking to Polly, I couldn’t see it from this side: which was the whole point.
“May I ask who is this Polly?” the woman probed.
“No one to concern you with.”
Thalien was back with us in under a minute. “It can be done via scry,” he said without explaining how. I knew that was to keep his aunt and the rest of the elves from learning what we knew, and I was grateful for his prudence.
“Good.” I looked at his aunt, whom I still didn’t know the name of. “When the troops are ready to move at the gate’s staging area, contact Thalien. We’ll take it from there.”
“And how will they find you once they get here?”
“Finding us won’t be necessary,” I answered. “When they arrive, have them work their way to the northeast towards Jinis Ridge. They’re already going to be moving at a snail’s pace to remain inconspicuous, and we should catch up before they arrive.” I immediately saw a problem with my plan and turned to Milo. “How well do you still know Jinis Ridge?”
Milo squinted. “What have you got in mind?”
“We need somewhere not far from those copper mines where they can hole up in numbers but won’t be seen by the enemy in case we get delayed.”
Milo rubbed his jaw, covering his mouth in the process. “Up in Cerro Nexo, there’s a horseshoe formation of mountains about half a day’s march from Morales’ mines. It’s open to the sky, so Polly can keep tabs on them, but far enough away and secluded enough that Morales shouldn’t notice them. It’s about as good as we’re going to get on this short notice,” his eyes came up to meet our host’s. “Provided your people can handle severe cold. Plus, you’ll also need to look out for roving tribes of snow half-orcs. They’re not prolific, certainly not like regular orcs, but they’re twitchy around newcomers and tend to kill first before remembering to ask questions.”
The very people I’d thought of just a few minutes earlier. If only there were a way to get them onside. No one … no one saw a grey and white-skinned half-orc in heavy snow.
“They’ll need to bring food rations in bags of holding, too,” I added, thinking of what awaited them. "You’re going into the mountains in winter at the worst possible time, but also the best since only a fool would attempt this, and the enemy won’t be looking for you.”
“I take it fires shouldn’t be attempted?”
I instinctively shook my head. “Not while you’re in transit. You won’t have enough mages to cover that much up. But once you reach the gorge, you can settle in, and lighting fires inside tents will be fine.”
I gave her a look of sympathy, for I knew better than I did a decade ago what I was asking of these soldiers. “Make no mistake; this will be rough for them, pushing them to the limits of their endurance. We were given incredibly warm furs when we first came here nearly two months ago. Your troops are going to need that level of warmth if they’re going to survive weeks of this weather.”
“And you’re positive you don’t need any assistance with whatever is lined up on the coast?”
I shook my head, trusting Polly in that regard and wanting as few people as possible to see what she was truly capable of with my approval. It would give me nightmares, and I was supposedly in control of her. “Do you know this gorge Milo speaks of?”
The older woman turned to her daughter, who nodded. “I do.” Thalien’s cousin then turned to me. “If you don’t mind my asking, your majesty, how time critical is it that you reach the coast?”
“Why?”
“The disk that I used to bring you here yesterday is something I can craft three times a day. I can cover up to thirty miles with that spell if you wish to eat and rest while still staying on the move.”
That was tempting, with one immediate hiccup. “How well would the horses cope with being on your disk?”
She rolled her hands nervously. “I’ve never tried it.”
“They’d slip off,” the older man, who I assumed was her father, said on her behalf. “And even if you got them to lay down, they’d panic without the right training.”
“It’s probably not a good idea to use up all of our magic either,” Thalien added, “If I have to cast an area effect invisibility spell each time, I’ll be severely hampered if we get into a fight.”
I sent a grateful smile to the woman who only a few minutes ago had royally pissed me off. “I appreciate the offer, and now we must leave. Are those horses ready?”
She looked briefly at her parents, who then turned and led us to a door at the other end of the room. Our approach had it sliding upwards similarly to the mountain when Polly showed us her spinning turtle-shell weapon that somehow made the Consitor weapons explode by themselves. The track it followed was U-shaped, though it was upside-down, with the door rolling over the top of the track. It also made no sound, like it wasn’t actually in contact with the door.
As soon as we crossed the threshold, I recognised the space we were in. A stable capable of housing thirty or more horses, though at the moment, only six were rugged up and saddled in readiness.
I felt the shift in the air as the door slid shut behind us. When I turned, it held the back wall’s appearance, complete with ropes and tools I could take down and use.
I wondered how that was possible until I remembered how the thrones kept us secure during transit. Knowing what we were once this capable as a people was mind-blowing! “Impressive, isn’t it?” our guide whispered with pride.
“It certainly never gets old,” I agreed, which caused her face to fall.
“I think you broke her, Uncle Em,” Shay-Lee snickered behind me.
I had bigger things to worry about than her hurt pride. “Six horses?” I queried with a sharp arch of one eyebrow when it was quite clear there were seven of us—eight, including Liab.
“We don’t have any ponies, I’m afraid,” our elven guide answered, making eye contact with Lanna, even though Milo was on the shorter side as a halfling.
I huffed in annoyance. “Thalien, I’m assuming you’ll keep Lanna with you?” At their nod, I looked at Harmony. “And Liab will ride with you.”
Harmony also nodded.
As we familiarised ourselves with the strange horses for a few minutes, I said to our hosts, “Remember, when you want to open the gateway, scry to Thalien. He’ll get me to open it for you without any loss of life.”
“The council is going to want to know how you’re doing that,” the mother said, not as a threat but as a word of caution. At least, that was how I decided to look at it.
“Wanting to know something is one of the few vices the empire has no legal standing over,” I said with a knowing smirk. “Pushing for more is when it gets dicey.”
Dicey. Sheesh. My father would drag himself out of his crypt to beat me senseless if he heard such a common lexicon pass my lips.
That thought amused me, for he’d have done it long before now with the level of gutter-talk that had since crept into my language … courtesy of my sticky-fingered thief.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” the mother said as we mounted and others opened the stable doors, battling against the snow that swirled outside.
Fuck, I hate the cold!
I lifted my hood and pulled up the face sock built into the lining to cover my nose, but as I went to leave, someone shouted at the top of their lungs, “WAIT!”
Another male elf (yet another one I didn’t know) ran around our group to move between mine and Tarq’s horses at the front. “Here,” he said, passing me up what looked like a sleeping mask, only solid bone with slats carved horizontally across the eyes. Like a sleeping mask, it had a slight curve and holes where a pair of leather straps were tied, no doubt to keep it in place.
“What’s this for?” I asked as he made his way down the line, passing one to everyone … and two to Harmony.
“Have you ever travelled in heavy snow, sir?” the young man asked. “These will prevent you from going snow-blind.”
I glanced back at Milo, who nodded in silent agreement. Snow-blindness? I guess I hated the cold more than I thought; if it was possible to spend so long in the snow, it sent you blind.
I flicked my hood back and tied the strange mask in place, noticing through the slits that everyone else was doing likewise. Once it was in place, it was a strange concept, like constantly peeking through a shuttered window, but I would accept Milo’s superior knowledge.
A few minutes later, we headed into snow that easily came up to our horses’ knees, and I already wanted to turn around and head back to the warmth of the elven stables. As stupid as it sounded, I made up a ditty in my head that was tied to an ever-increasing number of Consitors that would die for forcing me to do this.
Without me needing to say anything, Tarq pulled to the left and waited for our party to pass while Milo made his way through the centre to take Tarq’s place at my side (because the guy who knew the course wasn’t the one you wanted protecting your rear).
Keeping our eyes as peeled as possible, we rode silently for several hours, pulling up only when Milo pointed out a workable clearing. Tarq dismounted and went to work snapping off branches he would tie together to create a cover, but Thalien surprised us all by casting a spell that prevented the snow from penetrating a fifteen-foot dome around us.
“Thalien!” I roared, for this was the opposite of what I wanted this far away from our objective, even if my body did inwardly sigh in relief.
“Relax, Emeron. No one’s going to see this. Do you see any manner of tracks anywhere near us? Not even the animals are foolish enough to be out in this,” Thalien shot back. “Besides, we need to be in a clearing for you to contact Polly to bring in the ground troops.”
I’d been so focused on our immediate situation that I forgot we were waiting on a scry contact from the gatekeeper. “Are they ready?” I asked, dropping all hostility.
He nodded. “They were ready about an hour ago, but I felt it more important to keep moving until we were ready to stop, then do a stop-start an hour ago only to stop again now. I told them I’d contact them as soon as we were situated.”
While Milo saw to our horses, I reached into my dual backpack of holding and began pulling out dry firewood and kindling, and within a few minutes, the fire was slowly warming up the dome.
I wanted to make this contact before we removed our winter kits, refusing to reveal the ‘Do-As-I-Say, Not-As-I-Do,’ hypocrisy where magical domes for shelter in this weather were concerned.
Thalien contacted his cousin to let her know the gate was about to be opened, then severed the contact before other subjects could be broached. His next scry revealed the empty hall where we’d practised shooting the light weapons.
My hand went to where mine sat on my right hip, having forgotten it was there now that we were back in our familiar environment. Which I told myself was a good thing. The ancient gun should be my last resort, not my go-to.
“Open whichever gates are necessary to bring the assembled elven forces down to the last gate I travelled through, Acropolis.” I didn’t use her abbreviated name because Acropolis had said her illusion answered to Polly only after I summoned her into existence. Given that this conversation would consist of two sentences, I didn’t see the point.
“Yes, Mr Shadow President, sir,” her voice echoed, and then the scry was severed.
For a few seconds, I wondered what the double identifier was about, but after that, I didn’t give the Consitors, the elves or even Polly a moment’s thought …
… because the second most powerful person in the empire became engrossed in putting together a decent meal for his friends.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF WE PLAN, GODS LAUGH TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!

PART FIFTY-FOUR
[Previous Part] [Beginning]
I deliberately slowed our pace to give Thalien’s cousin time to scramble upstairs. That was a huge change to how I had conducted myself as emperor. Ten years ago, I would’ve been half a step behind her, watching her shift between a sideways shuffle that would show her subservience to me while attempting to gain what she hoped would be enough distance for a miracle to appear around the next corner. For my part, I would’ve been gathering guards in anticipation of making her pay the ultimate price for having failed to meet my expectations.
When we reached the top of the stairs, three elves in robes met us … and looking past them, I saw a distinct lack of horses and horse paraphernalia. It was an artificial tunnel, fifteen feet high by forty across, with smooth stone walls. I wasn’t a stone mason, but having spent time with Polly, I recognised things like an utter lack of tool marks. Again that turtle shell weapon that destroyed things without touching them flashed across my memory.
This was clearly a staging area. One hidden from prying eyes.
Two of the three elves were of an older generation but were obviously blood family to the gatekeeper who stood to one side. At least she had the good sense to look abashed.
“Whatever you think you want to say to me must wait another day. We’re in a hurry,” I decreed as we approached, ready to push through them if necessary.
“Your horses are being readied as we speak,” the older female said, glancing at Thalien before levelling her gaze at me. “But I would like to know who has my people scrambling so hard on such short notice.”
That had me jerking to a halt. Hard. “Your people?” I was beginning to see Polly’s point about the disjointed nature of the empire, and I didn’t like it. “I am the Emperor’s Shadow,” I snarled as I started to move once more, for there was no getting around it. I could threaten her. I could threaten the library again. But at the end of the day, we didn’t need to be watching our backs like that. We had enough enemies. “Which, just to spell it out to you, means they’re not your people scrambling for the horses I required some time ago. They’re mine, and their lapse has put me behind in a schedule that is already uncomfortably tight.” My eyes met hers with the imperiousness I was raised to exude. “And you are still standing in my way.”
“Move,” Tarq said pointedly, already stepping forward to make a path for me if they failed to comply.
The woman looked behind me, most likely at Thalien … and maybe Lanna, before allowing Tarq to ‘guide’ her group to one side. “If it’s troops you require, we can have whatever number you’re thinking here as soon as they are assembled, your majesty,” she said with a bow as I swept past her.
I paused and looked back. Tarq gave the slightest flick of his eyebrow, which was enough for me to know it was worth considering, so I did. The Consitors couldn’t have known about the gateways, or they would’ve already been destroying them to prevent this very thing, which meant the elves in front of me were still imperial elves.
“The empire has enemies that have breached our borders from across the ocean. They’ve been here a long time and dug in deep. How discreet can your troops be? I’m not talking about uniforms. I’m talking numbers in general. If they come here, they must be able to utterly blend into the woodwork before anyone sees them. If so much as twenty elves are spotted in one place where they shouldn’t be, these people are ruthless and would rather poison our land on a scale that would challenge a plague rather than admit defeat.”
Saying that out loud, it suddenly dawned on me who could move around in the mountains of the south in as many numbers as they wanted without fear of discovery … mainly because there wasn’t much they did fear.
The trick would be getting them to trust us. To trust me.
Another ‘later me’ problem.
“Elven warriors can run like the wind and disappear just as quickly when needed,” the woman insisted.
I took a few minutes to explain the duplicitous nature of our enemy, and it was agreed that if elves were brought through, they would bring enough battle and defence mages to remain hidden and avoid the cities. It was a tall order, and their movements would be hampered by their need for discretion.
“The contingents you have north of Ayodyn are to remain where they are,” I added. "That wall must be repaired, or we’ll be fighting this battle on two fronts. Whoever you send must come from elsewhere.”
“Five hundred warriors will kill our gatekeeper,” she said while gesturing to her daughter, not to argue but to remind me of that fact.
I huffed out a snarl, for there was our problem in a nutshell. I couldn’t be in two places at once. I turned to our friends. “Thalien, contact Polly and see if I need to be standing right here at the gates for her to access them or if I can be elsewhere and give permission for her to bring them through a scry.”
Thalien nodded and stepped away from the group. He pressed his back to the wall and cast a tight sound blister over himself. The way his eyes refocused, he’d opened up a scry, and Polly was now in front of him. He smiled and raised his hand to prevent anyone from lip-reading, and while I was sure he was talking to Polly, I couldn’t see it from this side: which was the whole point.
“May I ask who is this Polly?” the woman probed.
“No one to concern you with.”
Thalien was back with us in under a minute. “It can be done via scry,” he said without explaining how. I knew that was to keep his aunt and the rest of the elves from learning what we knew, and I was grateful for his prudence.
“Good.” I looked at his aunt, whom I still didn’t know the name of. “When the troops are ready to move at the gate’s staging area, contact Thalien. We’ll take it from there.”
“And how will they find you once they get here?”
“Finding us won’t be necessary,” I answered. “When they arrive, have them work their way to the northeast towards Jinis Ridge. They’re already going to be moving at a snail’s pace to remain inconspicuous, and we should catch up before they arrive.” I immediately saw a problem with my plan and turned to Milo. “How well do you still know Jinis Ridge?”
Milo squinted. “What have you got in mind?”
“We need somewhere not far from those copper mines where they can hole up in numbers but won’t be seen by the enemy in case we get delayed.”
Milo rubbed his jaw, covering his mouth in the process. “Up in Cerro Nexo, there’s a horseshoe formation of mountains about half a day’s march from Morales’ mines. It’s open to the sky, so Polly can keep tabs on them, but far enough away and secluded enough that Morales shouldn’t notice them. It’s about as good as we’re going to get on this short notice,” his eyes came up to meet our host’s. “Provided your people can handle severe cold. Plus, you’ll also need to look out for roving tribes of snow half-orcs. They’re not prolific, certainly not like regular orcs, but they’re twitchy around newcomers and tend to kill first before remembering to ask questions.”
The very people I’d thought of just a few minutes earlier. If only there were a way to get them onside. No one … no one saw a grey and white-skinned half-orc in heavy snow.
“They’ll need to bring food rations in bags of holding, too,” I added, thinking of what awaited them. "You’re going into the mountains in winter at the worst possible time, but also the best since only a fool would attempt this, and the enemy won’t be looking for you.”
“I take it fires shouldn’t be attempted?”
I instinctively shook my head. “Not while you’re in transit. You won’t have enough mages to cover that much up. But once you reach the gorge, you can settle in, and lighting fires inside tents will be fine.”
I gave her a look of sympathy, for I knew better than I did a decade ago what I was asking of these soldiers. “Make no mistake; this will be rough for them, pushing them to the limits of their endurance. We were given incredibly warm furs when we first came here nearly two months ago. Your troops are going to need that level of warmth if they’re going to survive weeks of this weather.”
“And you’re positive you don’t need any assistance with whatever is lined up on the coast?”
I shook my head, trusting Polly in that regard and wanting as few people as possible to see what she was truly capable of with my approval. It would give me nightmares, and I was supposedly in control of her. “Do you know this gorge Milo speaks of?”
The older woman turned to her daughter, who nodded. “I do.” Thalien’s cousin then turned to me. “If you don’t mind my asking, your majesty, how time critical is it that you reach the coast?”
“Why?”
“The disk that I used to bring you here yesterday is something I can craft three times a day. I can cover up to thirty miles with that spell if you wish to eat and rest while still staying on the move.”
That was tempting, with one immediate hiccup. “How well would the horses cope with being on your disk?”
She rolled her hands nervously. “I’ve never tried it.”
“They’d slip off,” the older man, who I assumed was her father, said on her behalf. “And even if you got them to lay down, they’d panic without the right training.”
“It’s probably not a good idea to use up all of our magic either,” Thalien added, “If I have to cast an area effect invisibility spell each time, I’ll be severely hampered if we get into a fight.”
I sent a grateful smile to the woman who only a few minutes ago had royally pissed me off. “I appreciate the offer, and now we must leave. Are those horses ready?”
She looked briefly at her parents, who then turned and led us to a door at the other end of the room. Our approach had it sliding upwards similarly to the mountain when Polly showed us her spinning turtle-shell weapon that somehow made the Consitor weapons explode by themselves. The track it followed was U-shaped, though it was upside-down, with the door rolling over the top of the track. It also made no sound, like it wasn’t actually in contact with the door.
As soon as we crossed the threshold, I recognised the space we were in. A stable capable of housing thirty or more horses, though at the moment, only six were rugged up and saddled in readiness.
I felt the shift in the air as the door slid shut behind us. When I turned, it held the back wall’s appearance, complete with ropes and tools I could take down and use.
I wondered how that was possible until I remembered how the thrones kept us secure during transit. Knowing what we were once this capable as a people was mind-blowing! “Impressive, isn’t it?” our guide whispered with pride.
“It certainly never gets old,” I agreed, which caused her face to fall.
“I think you broke her, Uncle Em,” Shay-Lee snickered behind me.
I had bigger things to worry about than her hurt pride. “Six horses?” I queried with a sharp arch of one eyebrow when it was quite clear there were seven of us—eight, including Liab.
“We don’t have any ponies, I’m afraid,” our elven guide answered, making eye contact with Lanna, even though Milo was on the shorter side as a halfling.
I huffed in annoyance. “Thalien, I’m assuming you’ll keep Lanna with you?” At their nod, I looked at Harmony. “And Liab will ride with you.”
Harmony also nodded.
As we familiarised ourselves with the strange horses for a few minutes, I said to our hosts, “Remember, when you want to open the gateway, scry to Thalien. He’ll get me to open it for you without any loss of life.”
“The council is going to want to know how you’re doing that,” the mother said, not as a threat but as a word of caution. At least, that was how I decided to look at it.
“Wanting to know something is one of the few vices the empire has no legal standing over,” I said with a knowing smirk. “Pushing for more is when it gets dicey.”
Dicey. Sheesh. My father would drag himself out of his crypt to beat me senseless if he heard such a common lexicon pass my lips.
That thought amused me, for he’d have done it long before now with the level of gutter-talk that had since crept into my language … courtesy of my sticky-fingered thief.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” the mother said as we mounted and others opened the stable doors, battling against the snow that swirled outside.
Fuck, I hate the cold!
I lifted my hood and pulled up the face sock built into the lining to cover my nose, but as I went to leave, someone shouted at the top of their lungs, “WAIT!”
Another male elf (yet another one I didn’t know) ran around our group to move between mine and Tarq’s horses at the front. “Here,” he said, passing me up what looked like a sleeping mask, only solid bone with slats carved horizontally across the eyes. Like a sleeping mask, it had a slight curve and holes where a pair of leather straps were tied, no doubt to keep it in place.
“What’s this for?” I asked as he made his way down the line, passing one to everyone … and two to Harmony.
“Have you ever travelled in heavy snow, sir?” the young man asked. “These will prevent you from going snow-blind.”
I glanced back at Milo, who nodded in silent agreement. Snow-blindness? I guess I hated the cold more than I thought; if it was possible to spend so long in the snow, it sent you blind.
I flicked my hood back and tied the strange mask in place, noticing through the slits that everyone else was doing likewise. Once it was in place, it was a strange concept, like constantly peeking through a shuttered window, but I would accept Milo’s superior knowledge.
A few minutes later, we headed into snow that easily came up to our horses’ knees, and I already wanted to turn around and head back to the warmth of the elven stables. As stupid as it sounded, I made up a ditty in my head that was tied to an ever-increasing number of Consitors that would die for forcing me to do this.
Without me needing to say anything, Tarq pulled to the left and waited for our party to pass while Milo made his way through the centre to take Tarq’s place at my side (because the guy who knew the course wasn’t the one you wanted protecting your rear).
Keeping our eyes as peeled as possible, we rode silently for several hours, pulling up only when Milo pointed out a workable clearing. Tarq dismounted and went to work snapping off branches he would tie together to create a cover, but Thalien surprised us all by casting a spell that prevented the snow from penetrating a fifteen-foot dome around us.
“Thalien!” I roared, for this was the opposite of what I wanted this far away from our objective, even if my body did inwardly sigh in relief.
“Relax, Emeron. No one’s going to see this. Do you see any manner of tracks anywhere near us? Not even the animals are foolish enough to be out in this,” Thalien shot back. “Besides, we need to be in a clearing for you to contact Polly to bring in the ground troops.”
I’d been so focused on our immediate situation that I forgot we were waiting on a scry contact from the gatekeeper. “Are they ready?” I asked, dropping all hostility.
He nodded. “They were ready about an hour ago, but I felt it more important to keep moving until we were ready to stop, then do a stop-start an hour ago only to stop again now. I told them I’d contact them as soon as we were situated.”
While Milo saw to our horses, I reached into my dual backpack of holding and began pulling out dry firewood and kindling, and within a few minutes, the fire was slowly warming up the dome.
I wanted to make this contact before we removed our winter kits, refusing to reveal the ‘Do-As-I-Say, Not-As-I-Do,’ hypocrisy where magical domes for shelter in this weather were concerned.
Thalien contacted his cousin to let her know the gate was about to be opened, then severed the contact before other subjects could be broached. His next scry revealed the empty hall where we’d practised shooting the light weapons.
My hand went to where mine sat on my right hip, having forgotten it was there now that we were back in our familiar environment. Which I told myself was a good thing. The ancient gun should be my last resort, not my go-to.
“Open whichever gates are necessary to bring the assembled elven forces down to the last gate I travelled through, Acropolis.” I didn’t use her abbreviated name because Acropolis had said her illusion answered to Polly only after I summoned her into existence. Given that this conversation would consist of two sentences, I didn’t see the point.
“Yes, Mr Shadow President, sir,” her voice echoed, and then the scry was severed.
For a few seconds, I wondered what the double identifier was about, but after that, I didn’t give the Consitors, the elves or even Polly a moment’s thought …
… because the second most powerful person in the empire became engrossed in putting together a decent meal for his friends.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF WE PLAN, GODS LAUGH TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!

Out of all the vocalist, why do you think Layne has the ability to make one's heart hurt for him? He was sexy as hell, but a lot of singers are. His voice was powerful and full of emotion but so was Chris Cornell's though I think Layne was more emotional. He was kind, humble, funny, easy going, love animals, a compassionate person but so are a lot of others. I love MTV unplugged but Nutshell makes me cry and my heart hurt still after all these years. Being out of the public eye for so long is the reason I think his legacy and death was under reported. Why do you think he STILL has this affect after almost 21 years? I cannot watch Nutshell often. It hurts too much. Anyone else?

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https://preview.redd.it/4qogaiapwyoa1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=d853095b5f09c4b2f6d38cddac2db94cf3fae16a

EDIT: Video version has been completed! https://youtu.be/6U_ejcdu-ZM
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Hello everyone! I'm here again to present on of my theories for feedback. This time it's about the growing discussion that Cassidy is NOT the Vengeful spirit after all!
Lemme know what you think in the comments!
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(also, this is a video script, so forgive me if there are in-text notes placed in the following)
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• The almost universal explanation for the identity of the vengeful spirit is that of a girl named Cassidy. She gets her first mention in the novel trilogy, in the book The Fourth Closet, Being described as little girl with long black hair and is depicted with the MCI kids. And later, in the Logbook, we see a girl who seems to match the description of the book oddly well. And lo and behold, if we are to solve the “my name” cipher in the logbook, we get the name “cassidy”. Boom, Cassidy is obviously the second spirit in the logbook, the one talking to the crying child. And then judging by the fact that in the stitchwraith stingers for the fazbear frights stories, we see two kids possessing the same animatronic body, one vengeful, angry one who is in control and another kinder, benevolent one who is blind to the world around him, and the fact that we see one spirit in the logbook who can’t see and one who obviously can, we can easily piece together that the Vengeful Spirit in UCN.. is cassidy. Because the Vengeful spirit is very obviously inside of Golden Freddy, and it makes no sense for the vengeful spirit, to be The crying child (show list of reasons why it doesn’t make any sense). And since the crying child is obviously blind to the outside world like the benevolent kid in the stitchwraith stories, there has to be another spirit controlling golden freddy in UCN, just as the vengeful kid does in the stitchwraith. And who else could there be to fill that role, but the second logbook spirit Cassidy..
• ​

But… As much as I love that theory… over the last couple of years, there have been some major problems popping up around it…
Because- it looks like we have been neglecting the possible existence of an even better candidate for the vengeful spirit, Andrew.
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In the aforementioned Stitchwraith stories, we are introduced to a kid named Andrew, who’se the vengeful and angry spirit inside of the stitchwraith, and while he’s long been considered to be a simple stand in for cassidy in the books, there are some major details in the books and games that make that are making me question that assumption
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Because you see, Andrew is a perfect parallel to the vengeful spirit, unlike almost every other parallel in the books which have at least SOME major differences from the games. In terms of parallels, Andrew arguably is more up there with William and Henry than the other “close parallels” in the books like Hudson in What we found(Micheal Afton) and Jake in the real Jake (The Crying Child)
Because, we know Andrew is killed by William and hidden in a Golden Freddy suit in the books, while Cassidy is only directly referenced in the logbook, and was INFERRED to be in Golden Freddy with the crying child, based on the evidence we mentioned earlier.
Andrew is the one who latches on to William Afton’s soul during the fnaf 6 fire in fazbear frights, yes, THAT fnaf 6 fire, and keeps Afton alive in a perpetual state of nightmares as revenge.
Andrew is also a young BOY with curly black hair, long enough to stick out of Golden freddy’s neck while he is stuffed inside (show fnaf 4 minigame scene with big question mark on it) and not only that, but the vengeful spirit in UCN is referred to with exclusively male pronounce in the game: (show UCN quotes)
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And it’s appearance? Well, the Vengeful Spirit is represented by none other than Scott’s SON.
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But it doesn’t end there, because in the aforementioned fnaf novel trilogy, which is yet another separate canon from the fazbear frights books, Golden Freddy is NOT cassidy, in that book series, the series, which I mind you, is Cassidy's formal INTRODUCTION to the fnaf franchise, she is just another one of the Missing children's incident kids. Instead, Golden Freddy is possessed by an oddly unrelated young boy named Michael Brooks. In those books, Michael brooks was a sixth kid who was killed separately from the rest in 1985 by Willaim Afton, and his body hidden in Golden Freddy.
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And while these books may be an alternate universe take, they still have some major similarities to the games, especially in regards to the characters, with almost all game characters having similar book counterparts, and said counterparts are usually in the books for the sole purpose of telling us new information about the versions of their charecters in the games (show William, Henry and Charlie)
But, what about that part about him being a sixth missing kid? In the games AND most of the book stories, the Missing Children's incident is very clearly stated to only have FIVE victims, but, key word here is on MOST, because in perhaps most famous book story, Into the pit, we get taken back in time to a weird twisted version of the 1985 location, and the story has William show us his accomplishments of that Era: which compose of not five, but SIX dead kids, all on display for us the protagonist to see
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But wait, how can we reconcile SIX dead kids with all the other lore sources we know? And, why should we trust a book with a time traveling ballpit in it anyways?
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Well, I think I have found the answer to both of those questions, and the answer comes from none other, than matpat
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In his second episode of his Ultimate fnaf timeline, Matpat is finally able to piece together exactly what the toy Chica anime cutscenes in UCN were supposed to tell us. Because while it has been generally agreed upon that the cutscenes are about William rather creepily stalking and killing his victims, we.. really didn't learn anything new from it at the time.
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But in his theory, Matpat proposes that the Toy Chica anime cutscenes are there to give some more context on why the Vengeful spirit, is so vengeful.
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Because for Toy Chica’s last Murder, she… goes a bit off the rails, compared to her previous killings..
(show UCN quote)
So basically, the Toy Chica anime cutscenes in UCN being there to tell us that the vengeful spirit's death was extra gruesome and excessive, with Willaim going too far in his brutality. And while I genuinely believe Mat is correct here, even then, his theory would fit Andrew just as well as Cassidy.
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That’s because, like he said, the Vengeful spirit WASN’T killed in Freddy’s! He was kidnapped and killed after school!
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The vengeful spirits body was hidden in the Golden Freddy suit AFTERWARDS, but, while he WAS an afton victim he was NOT an MCI kid!
Most people don’t realize, but Into the pit isn’t actually about a time traveling ballpit, it’s about Eleanor tormenting a kid with illusions and showing him the evils of William afton. This is a theme that actually constitutes the bulk of the Fazbear frights stories, with the remnent/dream demon thing Eleanor screwing with peoples reality to torment them while showing them (and us) many of the unknown history of the Fazbear franchise before trying to lead them to a usually gruesome end.
That’s why there are SIX bodies in that story, because Ealanor is showing all the bodies that were HIDDEN in that Pizzaria, NOT just those of the five kids who went MISSING in the Pizzaria, dubbed the Missing childrens incident by the media. Five killed in the backroom, and one killed separately, but hidden in there with the rest anyways…
Eleanor seems to be preoccupied with the truths that aren’t well known, doesn’t she? Most serial killers in real life have a list of confirmed or heavily suspected kills, but most ALSO have a number of deaths that CAN’t be specifically linked back to them, because they don’t always kill in the same way. Except for in the case of neat and concise storytelling, why would William be any different?
And, all this considered, the fact that Cassidy is depicted with four confirmed MCI kids in the novel trilogy, that also gives credence to the theory that she is NOT the vengeful spirit, because if the previous theory is true, the vengeful spirit is NOT one of the official five MCI victims either!
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And not only that, but the evidence against Cassidy doesn’t end there:
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Because I'n Fnaf SB, we get to play a series of Princess Quest minigames that not only take through much of the old game lore, but directly change the outcome of the game and lead to the Vanny ending. It's been generally agreed upon that that these minigames follow the spirit of Cassidy, as she, now permanently latched onto Willaims soul just like Andrew was latched on to Afton in the books, is revived along with him in Glitchtrap and sets off to destroy him once and for all. And if we beat these minigames... she succeeds, and the now glitchtrap free vanny lays down her mask and helps Gregory out of the pizzaplex.
It all just works too well. Heck, we even got confirmation that we were playing as Cassidy from the game files... Or so we thought, as soon after the filename was discovered... in a notable first for the fnaf franchise, it was actually REMOVED.
But... Why? And why would this be the first time a filename has been changed like that in the series? Was it because it gave away the mystery? Well, the secret had already been out, fnaf has a history of giving hints or even reveals in the filenames just like that.. and on top of THAT, the fact the were playing as Cassidy was ALREADY abundantly obvious in the minigames. Because if the fact that we play as a little Golden Girl fighting Dark bunny creatures with Old man consequences in the background wasn't obvious enough I don't know what is.
Well, despite all the confusion around it, I’m gonna put in my controversial two cents and say that I really think the only plausible reason why this filename would be removed... is if it was WRONG… (”*HEAR ME OUT” disclaimer) Hold on everyone, this explanation is gonna need a LOT of background context, but trust me, it leads into something critical for this whole theory:
Because you gotta remember... Steel Wool is a full, professional game studio with many employees going in and out of the company on a regular basis. It is standard protocol for studios not to share sensitive story information with ALL of their employees, if they did, it would become leak-topia. They usually only share it with the ones that NEED to know it, and even then, fnaf lore is extremely intricate and difficult to understand, and even some of the game's lead producers seemed to be confused with the lore at times (show ray macaffy quote, with emphasis on "the fans will understand").
For all we know, the filename "cassidy" was just added in by a lower rank programmer or graphic designer who was confused about what the minigame meant or just didn't know exactly what he was talking about. And... this kind of thing isn't uncommon in the gaming industry. You know the famous "Project Dread" teaser in Metroid Prime 3? Well, that wasn't sanctioned by Nintendo.. at all. That was added in by a lower level employee who had been reading too many internet rumors about a leaked fifth metroid game called Dread,and while the game was real,the rumors were not, and it was one that the studio he worked at had never even HEARD of before. And that's why nothing about the so-called "teaser" ended up being correct in the end. It was just tiny bit of misinformation added in by a guy who thought he knew what he was talking about, one that even a company as big and draconian as Nintendo was with quality assurance accidentally let slip though the cracks.
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So, I think that's exactly what happened with Cassidy here. With the sprite name being retconned out for the simple reason that… it was misleading.. In the first place.
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But if this character we play as in Princess Quest isn't Cassidy, then the real question is... who is it??
And that leads us to what I think is.. Almost the smoking gun of my theory:
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In Security Breach, in the basement we see this mural of what is obviously Cassidy painted on the wall. This mural shows her in a hospital bed with the same checkered patterns as the fnaf 4 bed, and the fnaf 4 lamp and IV next to her. What's notable about this image, apart from the fact that it has zero connection to the other murals on the walls, is that it has a big red X over the top, along with a big slash across the image.
The image is extremely confusing for a number of reasons, and it’s EXACT meaning has not yet been deciphered, but the premise of the message it’s putting across, is pretty dang clear: "not cassidy…" or “cassidy is not..” but.. the question is: "Cassidy is not" what? Is it saying she is NOT the bite victim? Well, duh, she isn't. Is it that she is NOT the person having the nightmares in fnaf 4? It would seem like it... Except that, not once in the eight years have I been in the community have I even heard someone even INFER that she was the one we play in fnaf 4. If Scott is trying to tell us something about the lore, why would he try to correct us about something nobody ever really thought in the first place? I mean, you might as well tell us that Henry never possessed ballora, because the community would get the same amount of value out of that statement as well (0+0, is still 0)
No, I think the message here is meant to read out more like "Cassidy is not” and then “something related to fnaf 4" or, perhaps more accurately “Cassidy is not related to” and something about the Crying Child, since this is his bed and surroundings. Sure, it could also be “Cassidy is not related to some aspect of Micheal” since the fnaf 4 gameplay is probably about him having nightmares about what he put his brother through, I still think it is about the crying child, since cassidy.. Is in a hospital bed. NOT the regular sleeping bed that Micheal dreams is in the room in the fnaf 4 gameplay.
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So, in a nutshell, if all the supposed references to Cassidy in the classic games are vague enough to fit a different spirit,
and if the person we play as in Princess quest, who fights against William and takes advice from Old Man Consequences isn't Cassidy, and last but not least: the message of "not cassidy" in regards to some aspect of fnaf 4 or the Crying child is directly displayed in the game. I think that finally, we have enough evidence to tilt the scales, and to say that the vengeful spirit, isn't Cassidy. And who else could fit the mold for that role anywhere near as good, as Andrew…
But alright alright, I'm sure you all dislike it as much as I do, because IF that theory is true, then, just who the heck IS Cassidy?? Why is she mentioned in the logbook? And.. Just what purpose does she serve in the fnaf story anyways?... And the answer to that.. is we just don't know.. Obviously, she has to be important, right? Not only because of her mention in the novels and the logbook, but because Scott once intended to write an ENTIRE FNAF MOVIE ABOUT HER. Yup, a couple of years back, while discussing old screenplays for the fnaf movie, Scott revealed that the movie was going to be about her at one point, but that he scrapped the idea because it was, quote "too complicated, taking place over may time periods and locations throughout the franchise's history".
But to me, that... only makes things more confusing, as Cassidy's perceived story in the games was.. rather simple. She is a girl who gets killed by William early on, and she only really does anything besides cameos as Golden freddy when William gets burned in UCN.
So, what did Cassidy do in the lore that was too long and complicated to portray in a movie? Was it a movie about Golden Freddy, and the entire fnaf sage from his point of view?
Bit.. if it was... then why didn't Scott say that it was a Golden Freddy movie?
he had no problem saying that other screenplays were about the puppet and the funtimes, so he wasn't afraid of letting people down with his scrapped ideas
And on top of THAT, when this screenplay idea was revealed, the community wasn't even sure if a character named Cassidy was even CANON, much LESS that she was the Vengeful spirit we saw in UCN. So to me... this is only further evidence that we've probably been mistaken about Cassidy's role and character... since the beginning
And.. Honestly, as much as I hated the idea of Cassidy not being the vengeful spirit, I really wanted to leave my theory there. I had all the evidence against Cassidy right in front of me, and.. I had even managed to find some more evidence on my OWN.. But.. there were some major details in the games and books… I just couldn’t reconcile with myself..
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-EVIDENCE AGAINST THIS THEORY:
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• If The vengeful spirit is male, then why would he be portrayed as a princess in Princess quest? Is that supposed to be Vanessa? If it is, then why does her story in those minigames mirror the vengeful spirit so perfectly?
• If andrew is canon to the game universe, then why is Jake from the real jake an OBVIOUS crying child parallel? (list similarities between the Crying Child and Jake that Matpat mentioned in his “reddit solved Golden Freddy” theory)
• Why does Andrew wear an Alligator mask? We all though that that was a reference to Happiest day, but the Ultimate guide strongly implies that the one we see in that minigame, is actually just a happy frog mask.
• Is it that SOME aspects of the frights series are identical to their variants in games, while other are fictionalized? Kinda like how Willaim and the fnaf 6 fire were identical between the frights books and the game canon, but but aspects like Elanor were not (at least we hope..). Or how springtrap and fazbear frights are almost identical to their game counterparts in fnaf 3 in the story “what we found” but the protagonist and corpse inside springtrap are completely different? Does this mean that likewise, Andrew is exactly the same between the book and game canons, but Even is replaced by a completely different kid named Jake in Fazbear frights?

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In my second to last theory, I stated that, based on the evidence from the latest books, that I think ALL of Tales from the Pizzaplex is canon to the game canon (which is terrible), and that it seems like at least SOME of Fazbear Frights is too (although “some” is already too much”) However, for now I’m gonna be optimistic until we get out smoking gun for or against that theory and say that the Frights series is probably just loosely related to the game canon. Probably being fictionalized stories based on real events in the fnaf canon, like the fnaf games we see in help wanted that were made by steve, a guy who didn’t even really know much about Freddy Fazbears Pizza. So, maybe the Stichwraith stories are canonically just embellishments of the Golden Freddy story. Maybe Andrew was real, but they turned the crying child into jake and put them both in the crazy contraption that is the stitchwraith just to make the story more interesting.
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But then… even if my “solution” for the last problem is true, there is still one more big problem here…
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In Fnaf 6 and the ultimate guide, the controversial theory of Molten MCI is all but confirmed. Where the classic animatronics from Fnaf 1 were melted down and their remnant injected into Funtime freddy.
Silly, but not a problem with this theory right? However, the problem is that, the ultimate guide and Candy cadets stories say that FIVE animatronics were melted down into the one that became Funtime Freddy. So, that would leave us Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and… Golden Freddy…
And.. we more evidence for this in fnaf 3, where there are FIVE ghosts in the follow me minigame, despite only four animatronics being visibly destroyed. And in UCN, we get this line from Orvil the Elephant:
"He tried to release you, he tried to release us, but I won't let that happen, I will keep you here, I will hold you here, no matter how many times they burn us."
And.. that’s important.. Because that implies that the vengeful spirit is actively burning in the fnaf 6 fire as WELL. And, who else could the spirit be in but inside Molten Freddy?
So, if Cassidy is a MCI kid, and Andrew is the Vengeful spirit inside Golden Freddy.. Then just where the heck is Cassidy in Follow me? Is she just off hanging out in the back with the crying child while all her friends deal with William or something? Wait a second, if there are two souls in Golden Freddy, then why ISN’t The crying child there? I get that he would be sympathetic to his dad, but if so, then why would he just let the other spirits torment his dad? Gosh that incredible set of minigames has been retconned to mush-
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Now, as… regretful as I am to say it… there is SOME minor evidence for a “three spirit” golden Freddy, because in the stitchwraith stingers, it is shown that there is yet a THIRD presence inside the stitchwraith with Jake and Andrew. And.. whether this is Willaim Afton fused to Andrew’s soul, or eleanor causing more mischief again… isn’t EXACTLY clear… But regardless.. Any way you look at it, the stitchwraith has THREE spirits inside it… But.. even then, the “Cassidy isn’t affiliated with fnaf 4” message in SB would SEEM to contradict that, but… It’s at least a vague (but awful) possibility..
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And honestly… the biggest problem we have here is that, with the way the modern fnaf lore has degraded, we can no longer judge theories on whether or not they make sense, or how well they fit the overall story. You know what? It DOESN’t make any sense for Andrew to be the Vengeful spirit, heck, it doesn’t even make sense for him to be in the game canon at all, he should just be a cassidy parallel just like Jake is a crying child parallel. But yet… We keep getting more evidence that Cassidy isn’t who we thought she was.. And, at current, no one else remotely fits the bill except Andrew. The unfortunate truth is, that ever since Help Wanted came out, we’ve been shown time and time again NOT to expect fnaf’s writing to be good, but rather, for it to really be BAD . And, as awful as making a random book character canon and having such a seemly important and well liked character such as cassidy thrown to the wayside and made pointless is,if one is to read just how poor the writing is in The Tales Books and SB timeline.. This.. just seems like a normal thing that Scott would do at this point…
Back in the early days of fnaf, reason... was one of the few things had to decipher the lore. Back then, with so little and such vague pieces, you kinda just had to do the most reasonable conjecture and run with that. And thankfully, we almost always got it right (show Scott fnaf 4 quote "it seems there was nothing I could hide!). Nowadays, however, the fnaf story has become more and more unglued. Now, we mostly have to throw reason to the side and see just see what absurd explanation from the books we can try and use to fill in each gap. Things have gotten SO crazy, in fact, that over the course of two out of nine games, fnaf went from a series legendary for its lore, to one that is infamous for it
Honestly I’m 40-60 on the whole thing…. Ok, more like 30-70. I think that Cassidy makes complete sense as the Vengeful spirit inside of Golden Freddy… but the ONLY concrete connection she has to ANY of those roles is the fact that she’s seems to be communicating with the crying child in the Logbook. And now that SB is hammering in that we got something majorly wrong about Cassidy and her role means that at least SOMETHING about our interpretation of her has to give..
And on the other hand, Andrew fits the bill of the Vengeful spirit even better than Cassidy does. We know he’s a boy, he has a direct connection to Golden Freddy, is murdered by William, and keeps him alive in a perpetual state of nightmares after the fnaf 6 fire. And unlike Cassidy, where all these things are conjecture, they are indisputable fact with Andrew. Andrew.. Makes for a better Cassidy, then Cassidy. Not only that, but he also would be a sixth kid, which would line up with the number of bodies we see in the 1985 location in into the pit, and he also just aligns far better as a parallel to Micheal Brooks, a sixth kid killed separately by william and stuffed into the Golden Freddy suit in the 1985 location in the Novel trilogy.
​

• But, even with all of THAT going for him, there are some major factors that just make no sense with Andrew. Andrew is in the book canon, in a story that’s just as much alternate-universe take or parallel as it is a depiction of the game canon
• In Princess quest, we pl one who is going through the story of the vengeful spirit is female, a Golden female, no less.
• And lastly, if Andrew is inside of golden freddy, then why isn’t HE the one talking to the crying child in the logbook? Why is it Cassidy? What role would Cassidy even have in the story anyways if she isn’t the vengeful spirit?
• ​

And.. worst of all I think… how do we know if any of the previous contradictions to Andrew have any good explanations.. Or they just bad writing? And ditto with the contradictions to Cassidy?
So again, right now I am.. Only a bit more certain about Andrew being the vengeful spirit in the games then I am Cassidy.
Andrew has the most direct evidence.. But makes the least sense. Cassidy Makes the most sense… but has the least direct evidence..
And again, my biggest fear here is that now that sense has been thrown out the window in the modern fnaf timeline, is that “sense” may not be justifiable evidence in any of these theories anymore.
​
Anyways, this is shycrow, signing off

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Animation	Hermitcraft 9 In a Nutshell

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Hermitcraft S9	Episode 67: PET THE ANIMALS!

Xisuma

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Minecraft	Shorts: RENDOG must answer these questions WRONG!

Let's make the truth easier to find

Over a year ago, I posted an answer somewhere that received no votes and no comments, but I still feel that this is one of the most important things that our world needs right now.
I wish to persuade you of a few things here:
Getting the facts wrong has consequences big and small. Here are some examples:
On Feb. 24 last year, over 100,000 soldiers found themselves unexpectedly crossing the border into Ukraine, which they were told was full of Nazis, because one man in Moscow believed he could take the country in a few days. A propaganda piece was even published accidentally about the Russian victory: "Ukraine has returned to Russia. Its statehood will be [...] returned to its natural state of part of the Russian world." Consensus opinion is that Putin made a grave mistake. Instead of a quick win, Putin took about 7% more of Ukraine than he had already taken, then lost some of that, while taking over 100,000 Russian casualties and losing over 8,000 pieces of heavy military equipment (visually confirmed) — all in the first year. He later lost some of the land he stole, though he still has about 6,000 nuclear weapons including the Poseidon "doomsday device", and hopes veiled nuclear threats plus hundreds of thousands of conscripts will bring "victory". And by "victory", I mean well over 100,000 people have already been killed, plus many more indirectly, while Ukraine suffers hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, and the world economy suffers similarly, including Russia itself.
96 more paragraphs...
Ukraine war Global warming Covid Vaccines And it's getting harder The information-misinformation imbalance Individual research is demanding on the individual, but often insufficient Expected value Evidence storage Mirroring and transformation Aggregation Analysis Shopping Bayesian evaluation Search Charts Theory of growth? This won't happen

How much should governments pay to prevent catastrophes? Longtermism’s limited role

This article is set to appear as a chapter in Essays on Longtermism, edited by Jacob Barrett, Hilary Greaves, and David Thorstad, and published by Oxford University Press.
Longtermists have argued that humanity should significantly increase its efforts to prevent catastrophes like nuclear wars, pandemics, and AI disasters. But one prominent longtermist argument overshoots this conclusion: the argument also implies that humanity should reduce the risk of existential catastrophe even at extreme cost to the present generation. This overshoot means that democratic governments cannot use the longtermist argument to guide their catastrophe policy. In this paper, we show that the case for preventing catastrophe does not depend on longtermism. Standard cost-benefit analysis implies that governments should spend much more on reducing catastrophic risk. We argue that a government catastrophe policy guided by cost-benefit analysis should be the goal of longtermists in the political sphere. This policy would be democratically acceptable, and it would reduce existential risk by almost as much as a strong longtermist policy.
198 more paragraphs...
Preamble Abstract

Scale of the welfare of various animal populations

If it is worth doing, it is worth doing with made-up statistics?
I Fermi-estimated the scale of the welfare of various animal populations from the absolute value of the expected total hedonistic utility (ETHU). I computed this from the product between:
The data and calculations are here.
I defined the intensity of the mean experience as a fraction of that of the worst possible experience based on the types of pain defined by the Welfare Footprint Project (WFP) here (search for “definitions”). I assumed:
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Intensity of experience Moral weight Population size

A personal take on whether AGI would lead to an existential catastrophe

This post is a draft of my initial views after spending about 500 hours reading various posts and articles on this topic (mainly by other EAs). My intent is to seek an early critique of my understanding of existing arguments and my own core ideas before I flesh out the argument further. It is also meant to serve as a foil for more productive conversations within the community. I will be revising this draft with direct reference to the materials I have read, and incorporating comments before submitting a final version to the Open Phil AI Worldviews Contest.
7 more paragraphs...

The Natural State is Goodhart

EA & LW Forum Weekly Summary (13th - 19th March 2023)

This is part of a weekly series summarizing the top posts on the EA and LW forums - you can see the full collection here. The first post includes some details on purpose and methodology. Feedback, thoughts, and corrections are welcomed.
If you'd like to receive these summaries via email, you can subscribe here.
Podcast version: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app by searching for 'EA Forum Podcast (Summaries)'. A big thanks to Coleman Snell for producing these!Author's note: I've got some travel and leave coming up, which means the next two posts will be:a) 27th March (next Monday), shorter post than usual.b) 17th April (three week gap), covering the prior three weeks at a higher bar.After that, we'll be back to the regular schedule.
134 more paragraphs...
AI Global Health and Development

Tensions between different approaches to doing good

Link-posted from my blog here.
TLDR: I get the impression that EAs don't always understand where certain critics are coming from e.g. what do people actually mean when they say EAs aren't pursuing "system change" enough? or that we're focusing on the wrong things? I feel like I hear these critiques a lot, so I attempted to steelman them and put them into more EA-friendly jargon. It's almost certainly not a perfect representation of these views, nor exhaustive, but might be interesting anyway. Enjoy!
51 more paragraphs...

Young People of EA - Database of Friendly Contacts

Many young people in EA struggle to find belonging/acceptance in pursuing EA-aligned careers in high school, university, and their early career. It's hard to stay committed to these goals when most people around you are just interested in personal security, getting a degree, or making money.
If you're lucky, you might have a small EA club at your university. Or you might get accepted into a fellowship to learn about shared interests. Still, these opportunities are limited in quantity and time. Also, from personal experience at two university clubs and three fellowships, there's a lack of opportunities to develop personal, not just professional, relationships.
4 more paragraphs...

Some preliminary notes towards a real Cost-Benefit analysis of prisons

I wrote this post on my blog, and given that it's smack bang in the middle of what this forum deals with, I thought I'd share it here.
If anyone with a background in this sort of analysis wants to work with me to make a detailed cost-benefit analysis of incarceration a reality, get in contact
Cost-Benefit Analysis is a methodology for evaluating the aggregate costs and benefits of programs. Roughly speaking, it works as follows. For some intervention, X, we look at how much the supporters of X would be willing to pay to make it happen, and how much the opponents of X would pay for it not to happen. We add in the amount it costs the government to carry out the policy on the costs side, and if:
70 more paragraphs...
Cost-Benefit Analysis in a nutshell Do you notice anything missing in this assessment of the costs of imprisonment? A certain glaring absence? A curious reluctance If we are going to be utilitarian, we need to do it properly The major costs and benefits of incarceration Limitations of the current literature

Hello Women of Reddit!
I am a married person who has been told to seek another person. This idea came from my wife and she is the one who told me to go out and find another person.
The reason why is due to health related reasons.
I love her and she is still going to be in my life.
You would be equal in being with me as I am with her.
My wife and I are at a point in our relationship where we feel secure in our relationship. She honestly does not care if I need to go fulfill my needs with another person.
We’ve been together for over 11 years now.
I waited months before trying to do anything since I wasn’t sure if she actually meant it.
We even had a couple spats over it as I was still in disbelief that she was okay with it.
We are still a young and attractive couple but have been separated in a certain aspect in our relationship due to health reasons.
I work in IT at a high level and I spend most of my free time after work in digital art\programming.
During the day I work from home, in my office, which is my closet lol.
Then in the evenings after work, I lay in bed with my laptop, working on making whatever it is that is on my mind. While I don’t get out much, I wouldn’t mind doing an outside activity every now and then.
I would definitely love to do something in the morning. I am definitely a morning person and would love to do some sort of morning activity.
If not, that’s cool, I don’t mind night owls, I’m used to them. I do like to keep a strict sleep schedule during the weekdays (Going to bed soon for example). Weekends, yeah, I’ll stay up late, why not.
I can develop in multiple different languages.
I’ve made my own VR game that works over the internet, multiple people can join the game at the same time.
I can also do 3D animation, from cartoons to life like characters. Music is on my list to learn, I want to learn how to use fruity loops or a similar app to make my own music.
I like a wide variety of music from vaporware, trance, electronic, rock, metal, classical, indigenous, folksy, R&B, pop, to whatever. I don’t limit myself to a certain genre. I’ll listen to a little bit of everything, whatever it is I’m in the mood for.
Right now I am working on cinematography, I am trying to make videos that give you goosebumps because of how awesome they are.
Basically, I am a technical minded person who wants to learn how to do all the artistic stuff using technology. I also love science-y and space stuff.
Yes even AI. I’ve “made” some pretty cool stuff but I went a little further than just generating 1 image and saying that I made something.
So I definitely made something with the images I generated.
I also use AI for other things such as animating my characters. AI is definitely a new and exciting place to be explored.
I’m a “health nut” according the my wife’s conservative family but no, I’m not really. I just realize that a lot of foods and drinks out there really are just unhealthy for you and we were led to believe they are okay to eat.
That train disaster for example? Yeah you can’t trust corporations with your health.
So I try to eat simple “Real Food” and a ton of filtered water.
Not to say I don’t eat junk food, I’m still addicted but I try to eat the “right way” most of the time. My will is instantly broken if you get me a cheeseburger and a beer.
At least get me a vegan fake meat burger, I’ll feel better eating that. Literally, physically.
I also spend a lot of time working on my flexibility, I’m definitely in shape but not ridiculous. You probably wouldn’t even notice until you see me use my muscles.
I would definitely like to trade knowledge with you if your some one who’s got some muscle.
I’m someone who is willing to be on discord with you all day and send you memes and chat or whatever. I like playing video games too. I haven’t really done that in a while since I’m obsessed with programming and digital art but I’m willing to stop and chill for a minute.
If your a competitive gamer or like playing 2 player co-op, then I would definitely be interested.
Horror games are awesome too(Silent Hill! Fatal Frame :D). I wouldn’t mind making it an event where we play a scary game together in the dark.
I do like anime, comedy, and other movies. I usually wouldn’t mind watching something but just know that I may get an itch to be super productive lol. Usually I’ll see something and go “oh this looks so cool, I want to duplicate it!”
Some of my favorite movies:
Lord of the Rings
Starwars
The Thing(1982 and 2011)
The Last Man on Earth(1964)
Ink
The Grey
The prestige, Sherlock and Holmes, Dreamcatcher. Interstellar (Don’t leave me Murph! xD), Mr nobody, Vivarium.
Honestly there are too many to name so I’m just gonna cut this list short and stop here. I love a good movie.
It would be great if you were an artistic person and you wanted to make something with me. I think we easily could. I got most of the hard part done on the technical side if your some one who is allergic to computers.
I could definitely teach you some technical skill too.
If your some one who is business orientated that's awesome too. I want to eventually start a business in digital art. I’m not really sure what it’s gonna look like but I’ve already laid steps to start one. I’m at the point where I just need to hit “start”.
And I mean a real business with a license and whatever.
I just haven’t done it yet because I don’t think I can put too much focus on it right now and it’s gonna need constant attention. It’ll just drain money all my money too if I start it and don’t do anything with it.
Some things about me:
I help a lot around the house, I wash the dishes, do the laundry, tidy up, organize stuff when I’m forced to. I make my wife coffee every morning and assist her throughout the day as needed.
I also do the “deep” cleaning of the house. No one else is gonna do it and no one can do it as good as me.
I’m not afraid to clean surfaces until they shine either.
I’m actually very fond of getting something super clean.
My wife has also commented on how clean my underwear is. Apparently this is a common thing?
When we were first starting to live with each other, She would make comments about how clean my underwear was. I thought she was joking but I guess not?
I do a lot to try to run my body, mind and environment at it’s most efficient. It’s just something I enjoy doing.
Yes that means I’m also some one who is painfully self aware and can be shy at times.
I’ve learn to not be shy and I’m pretty good at faking confidence but you’ll see it if you look close enough.
I’m super shy by default.
Give me a book on science or biology. I used to be an avid book reader when I was younger, kinda stopped as I got older though but would like to get back into it.
My wife tells me all the time that I am such a perfect man but I don’t really think so. (This post for example is very conflicting for me.)
I am melancholic by nature because I believe things could be better in the world but they just aren’t because some people are stuck in their ways.
But I am usually a happy person 90% of the time but I can’t help but feel frustrated by how things are going sometimes, so I usually keep politics to myself.
To make it obvious... I dislike Andrew Tate, Elon Musk, and all the fake intellectuals that exist out there. Conservatism is a cancer. While Democrats are slow and inefficient.
I’m not being an enlightened centrist either. I don’t know what’s going on with conservatives, it’s like they got slug worms in their brains and they’ve been hijacked.
I feel like we are stuck on a boat with crazy\old people in control of the helm. They don’t realize they are steering us towards a disaster.
Everyone needs to chill the fuck out and look at that huge melting iceberg up ahead. Let’s help each other out instead of sinking the ship.
And that’s me in a nutshell,
Send me a message if you like what you’ve read.