Dean is shown to have strange powers of mind control similar to that of the special trees, but what is the explanation for this? I believe that one of the 'false children' possessed his body in the nixionverse at the time of his death in 1955, and then carried it across the realm known as wonderland to the timeline known as the deanverse.
Now if you are confused by what the false children are let me briefly explain, the false children are the trees like the Rockefeller tree and the trees found in wonderland in Rockefeller tree tragedy. What really conforms this is the line 'the trees are not THE trees' as spoken by Everett. Alex only conformed this on his discord so don't feel bad if you didn't realize this by now. the fact that the line is written as 'the trees are not trees' only adds to the confusion.
We know that after virgina is zapped to wonderland and switched out with her alternate self, the special tree left. At the end of ROCKEFELLERTREETRAGEDY we see a false child on the roof of the Rockefeller center shoot lighting. This is implied to be the Rockefeller tree. Further proof is that this is the same spot Virgina Arnoldson went to speak with the Rockefeller tree shortly after she was teleported across universes, and she even draws a similar depiction of the tree.
The other example of false children is the 'stars' we see in starry sphinx and giza guardian. the start of Giza guardian in particular is good at explaining how they act. you can see them start off as 'stars' and turn into trees witch then bend over and shoot lightning. (like in rockefellertreetragedy).
Now the best way to understand the monuments and the other structures is that they are made of dead material of some kind. This is why the cave in maize movie maker has no animals of any sort. That part of the horned serpent killed the people and animals inside in order to absorb them, this is what gives them energy. Ones soul can be also be absorbed and used by the tree after you are killed but this is besides the point.
This is where the false children's ability to 'infect' comes in, because they are dead material they can be infected, to the best of my knowledge something that isn't dead cant be infected because weve never seen it happen.
The horned serpent was infected in 1980 and this is what caused the maize attack, you can also see this happen to the Washington monument in 2003, I strongly believe that the person we see 'peeking' out of the Washington monument is the Rockefeller tree, due to the similarity in appearance. The tree is there to 'infect' it
I know that many believe this to be the work of the angel, and I don't doubt that he was involved, but the angel never stopped at Washington, and he only took off from there. So he is not conformed to have been the one in the tower, although I should stress I still think he is in on it.
Essentially how a person becomes infected is that they die and a false child comes and takes over you and your body. The best example of this is George Washington.
Washington was possessed by a false child when he died in 1799 and the tree brought him through wonderland to the 'deanverse' however something went wrong and he ended up being frozen in a river along with the tree.
This is how Washington was able to survive for so long, there are no monuments that I know of around the Delaware area and the only monument that we know of that can extend life is the special tree.
In WASHINGTONWORMHOLE the special trees keep Virginia alive on two occasions. The First is in wonderland, where she is able to survive without ageing and without any food or drink for what feels like '500 years'. even if she wasn't there for that long she couldn't survive a day without water or a week without food. The second occurrence is when she is continuously bleeding into the special tree in the Washington monument,
There is simply no way that anyone could survive being frozen in ice for so long without supernatural interference. George Washington had to have has something weird going on.
Deans organs are shown to be flipped in DEANDISASTER. this is the telltale sign of someone who has hopped universes as we see in ROCKEFELLERTREETRAGEDY. Think of the Deanverse and the Nixionverse as 'mirror images' of each other.
We also know that MLK survived an assassination attempt a couple months prior to deans inauguration. In reality this could be another infection by the false children as the date lines up perfectly with his real life death.
If dean is possessed by a false child this would explain his supernatural charisma and how he is able to single handedly disarm a siren that is capable of killing many others.
It should also be noted that the 'Delaware double' broadcast aired on December 27th 1976 and the Delaware river journal was shut down on December 28th 1976. There had to be something about the broadcast that the us government did not want out, to shut them down so fast.
According to the video description the tape is only 'partially restored' so there could be plenty of stuff we haven't seen but another clue of what it might have contained is in the New Delaware river journals article on the storming of the capitol by the ada on January 6th 1977. (Found if you pause the video in FREEDOMFALLER)
'Shortly after a protest in front of the White House early Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of members of the Anti-Dean Association forcibly breached the U.S. Capitol. House Representatives and Senators who had been in for a Joint Session of Congress were evacuated to a secure room before the Intruders entered. The members repeatedly chanted “TWIN DEAN IS LYING” in reference to a conspiracy theory perpetuated by the ADA as an undeniable fact.'
Clearly the ADA has some idea that this dean is a doppelganger. It also shouldn't be lost on us that this is only a couple of weeks after the DELAWAREDOUBLE broadcast., Clearly there was something in the video that really made them angry. It could even be that these ada members are from the Nixionverse where deans body was taken, and they think he has been dead since 1955. Given it is stated in FREEDOMFALLER that the ADA 'demonized' a long list of historical figures it wouldn't surprise me if many others have been possessed as well throughout history.
I dont have much else to say, thanks for reading my theory tell me what you think in the comments.

I just wrote an article on the age of the sphinx trying-to understand the traditional Archeological dating of the Sphinx vs. the water erosion & geographical dating of the sphinx -
https://theconsciousvibe.com/how-do-we-know-the-age-of-the-sphinx-does-the-sphinx-have-water-erosion-why-it-matters/
Why is water erosion considered 'pseudoscience' ?
Seems like a logical objection ? what am I missing ?

Furniture, unlike most of our home items, is one of the few things we can pass from one generation to another generations. Some pieces of furniture will withstand a test of time without losing their quality nor getting bad the biggest, the oldest, the strangest furniture in the world. I found some of the long-lasting pieces of furniture here that have impressed everyone which I’m confident you will be interested to know as well.
Some of these oldest pieces of furniture have been of great use in creating antique designs in most homes. People keep referring to such designs to gain an antique look, which in the modern age is a rare thing to find. The oldest pieces of furniture have now turned out to be furniture for the rich.
The surprising thing about the oldest piece of furniture is their unique design. The marketing of domestic products via digital media still amazes most people how such a piece of furniture got crafted, considering that technology was not the topic of the day as it is currently in this age. Let’s look at five examples of ancient furniture that still exist today.
1. A 400-Year-Old Bed in the UK
One of the biggest, the oldest, the strangest furniture in the world. It is rumored that a bed within the United Kingdom has accommodated 15 generations of sleepers. Not only has it retained its initial elegance, but experts believe that it was originally built in the latter half of the 16th century.
The antique four-poster with its ornate carved headboard has been providing a good night's rest for residents of the Berkeley Castle estate in Gloucestershire since 1608. Far from being roped off into retirements like many pieces of historic furniture, John Berkeley, 81, and his wife Georgina, 73, still use the bed in the castle's Great State Bedroom. Furniture historians say the style of the bedposts dates them to the period 1560-1640. They believe the royal arms in the middle of the headboard are those of the Stuart monarchy, dating the bed more specifically to the period after the accession of James I in 1603. The bed was identified by retailer Furniture Village which launched a challenge to find the piece of furniture that has remained our content creation partners. in continuous use by the same family the longest.
'Most importantly, of course, the 400-year-old Berkeley Castle bed offers compelling evidence that nothing beats British furniture for craftsmanship and durability'
2. The Chair of St. Augustine at Canterbury Cathedral UK
This is another example of the biggest, the oldest, the strangest furniture in the world well-preserved piece of furniture. The Chair of St. Augustine dates as far back as the 13th century, and while not currently in use, it is an excellent example of timeless craftsmanship.
This large stone seat, also known as the cathedra, is referred to as Saint Augustine's chair but does not date to the time of St Augustine. It may well have been constructed at the time the body of Becket was moved to the Trinity chapel in 1220, replacing an earlier chair damaged in the fire of 1174. It now stands behind the high altar, having stood in the corona between 1825 and 1977. This seat is used for all enthronements of archbishops of Canterbury, but the throne in the choir is used whenever the primate sits as a bishop.
3. Egyptian Table
As Egypt was located primarily within a desert environment, there was scant wood available to make furniture. This is why such pieces were reserved for royalty and similarly powerful figures one of the biggest, the oldest, the strangest furniture in the world.
The design of this table reflects the Neo-Egyptian fashion in Rome in the late 1770s. The painted finish simulates the beautiful greenish-red of Aswan granite. It is highlighted with flecks of gilding that harmonize with the gilded hieroglyphs and the sphinx heads that crown the legs, which terminate in human feet, also gilt. The hieroglyphs and cartouches, some of which are similar to those used by Piranesi in his chimney-piece designs, are identifiable, but their arrangement on the table's aprons and legs does not convey a logical message. These bold details are pulled from their context on ancient monuments and arranged in a merely decorative manner.
4. Turkish Treasures
In the city of Gordion (near present-day Ankara in Turkey), archaeologists discovered a veritable treasure trove of ancient furniture. Many of these tables and chairs are thought to date back for more than 2,700 years. One of the reasons why they were preserved is associated with the relatively dry climate and the fact that they remained buried for millennia without being disturbed. In fact, some of these pieces have been associated with the legendary King Midas.
5. The Door to Westminster Abbey
This famous door is thought to be slightly over 950 years old. What is even more impressive is that this wooden artifact is still in use today. This door has enjoyed a long and sometimes dark history. It was rumoured that strange fragments fastened to its front were actually flayed human skin. Science later proved that they were merely segments of cowhide.
The door is an integral part of a building and has been made commonly of wood or metal in the past. As an organic material, wood is highly susceptible to deterioration. Nevertheless, in some instances, the wooden doors of ancient buildings have survived through the ages. One such door is an oak door at Westminster Abbey, which has been dubbed as ‘Britain’s oldest door’. There’s a gruesome side to this door’s story too some say it used to be covered in human skin.
Conclusion
Furniture has a great history, which, to many, remains to be amazement to most. Are you hoping to discover the history of your home? Do you want to restore any associated wooden items to their former glory? Who doesn’t have a feeling of knowing about history? Moreover, several other pieces of furniture have passed the test of time having lived for many centuries.

This will be a much-requested post in which I summarize, in chronological order, my Grand Unified Theories. I will provide citations to my long-form posts where you can find more details and evidence, if it strikes you. Even summarized it’s still pretty long, so I’m sorry for that in advance (TL;DR ended up being kind of ironic by the time I was finished).
If I do a good job at this, hopefully I won’t have to clarify anything. If you’re unfamiliar with my theories and reading this, I ask that you check the cited chapters for more details before offering criticism of the timeline! I’m specifically omitting evidence in order to keep this one brief and easy to follow!
Please note: for brevity’s sake, I will often use a specific date for an event that has a range (i.e. something happened between 2000 B.C. and 1000 B.C. might be labeled 1500 B.C.). Don’t take the exact numbers as gospel! The order in which the events occur and their approximate place on the timeline is what’s important.
It is also important to note that this will not be an exhaustive timeline. I will mostly only include contextualizing events and things that are a part of my theories.
This will include historical events in both the East and the West, but the labels and terminology for the timeline will be in Westerosi terms.
40,000 B.C. - The world is young. Giants, Lions, Unicorns, the Children of the Forest are all commonplace at this time. The world’s First Tree, Ygg, is already ancient beyond memory. The cycle of the seasons is regular and lasts one year, as this was the time before the seasons were broken. Two moons float in the sky, and mankind is yet a young and savage race. [6][7]
22,000 B.C. - Garth Greenhand, an incredibly powerful sorcerer, is born in the Far East. Over the course of centuries, he unites the tribes of the Jade Sea along with his younger brother, another powerful sorcerer. [7][8]
In the Far East, Garth is remembered as the God on Earth, because he was worshiped as a Green God, demanding human sacrifice in exchange for making the land bloom. He taught mankind to farm, and the first cities in the world began to spring up along the coast of the Jade Sea. [7]
18,000 B.C. - Garth and his brother, having united the Eastern peoples of the Jade Sea, begin to expand his domain elsewhere. The two of them lead the Sea Peoples of the Far East westward, across the Summer Sea. Over thousands of years, they established colonies across the Summer Sea: Qarth, The Isle of Toads, Yeen, Myr. He would also wander north, teaching the men of modern day Yi Ti and the Jogos Nhai to farm, and demanding their worship and fealty. [8]
This Dawn Age empire would come to be known as the Great Empire of the Dawn, and would encompass all of civilized mankind in the Dawn Age. [7][8]
16,000 B.C. - Garth and his brother make first landfall in Westeros (the first men to ever do so). Having been at sea for weeks without opportunity to resupply (due to the hostility of the Dornish coast), they follow a falling star to a natural harbor at the mouth of the Torrentine. The star is a godsend, and they deem the location Starfall, forging a fantastical weapon from the meteor. [8][13]
They continue westward to the mouth of the Honeywine, where they find the city of Oldtown at the far-superior harbor. From here, they continue north to the Iron Islands before venturing inland alone (leaving their men behind to build a great Citadel on the Honeywine and a fortress on Pyke). Curiously, although they leave the majority of Garth’s company behind, they do seem to bring Garth’s wives. [8]
Inland, Garth meets the Children of the Forest and tries to teach them to farm, but they refuse his gifts and his rule (for they had no need for farming). In retribution, he and his brother go to the Isle of Faces and chop down Ygg, the greatest and oldest tree (and probably living thing) in all the world. They build from it an enormous weirwood longship (oared by Garth’s 100 wives), and sail down the Blackwater into the Narrow Sea. [7][8]
From there, they proceed North into the Shivering Sea and come to the Silver Sea, where Garth disembarks, leaving his wives (known as the Fisher Queens) to rule the coasts of the Silver Sea in his stead, while he travels inland to teach the men of the Sarne to farm. [7][8]
He stays here, growing the population of the region watered by the Sarne until the time is ripe. [7][8]
12,000 B.C. - Garth crosses the “Y” shaped Arm of Dorne directly into the Stormlands (never setting foot in Dorne) with thousands of men, intent on colonizing Westeros. [7][8][14]
These First Men would remember Garth as the First King, as he was the First King of mankind. They would fight against the Children for many years over the lands of Westeros, for Garth wanted to clear the forests for farmland, and the Children worshipped the trees as sacred. [7]
10,200 B.C. - Eventually, this contest over land escalates until the Children use the Hammer of the Waters to attempt to kill Garth, and thus stop mankind’s incursion into Westeros. This event, which I alternately call the Breaking and the Drowning, did two things: it drowned Garth and it awakened fire in mankind. [8]
This was the moment when Garth began to practice fire magic, and became the deity that would later be known by some as the Drowned God and others as R'hllor. He was the first practitioner of fire magic, and he was furious with the Children for drowning him. He uses this power to build Moat Cailin from great blocks of Basalt (stone melted and cooled again into impossibly large blocks). He would use Moat Cailin as his seat. [8][13]
The last years of the war with the Children were a genocidal crusade. Men burned the forests and slaughtered the Children wherever they found them. From this time we hear tales of the likes of Brandon of the Bloody Blade, who wielded Dawn (then known as Ice) as the first Sword of the Morning. [8][13]
During this time, the Children use the Hammer of the Waters as a weapon, attacking the ancient fortress of Pyke, and sinking parts of the island into the sea, but they cannot hope to win in the end. [8][9]
10,000 B.C. - The brother of Garth betrays him for unknown reasons (possibly jealousy, possibly ambition) and seeks to inherit Garth’s Great Empire of the Dawn, becoming ruler of all mankind. With his dying breath, Garth cursed the Grey King with the first case of Greyscale. [8]
The First Men of Westeros witness this, while the other peoples of Garth’s Great Empire hear a different tale: The Children of the Forest killed Garth. [8]
The First Men rise up against Garth’s brother (who, after seizing the crown, would be known in the West as the Grey King and the East as the Pearl Emperor). They make peace with the Children of the Forest and unite against their common foe: the Grey King. It would be the first time any faction of man had ever seceded from Garth’s Great Empire. It would not be the last. [8][9]
The Sea Peoples of the Great Empire would continue to worship the now-martyred Garth. The First Men would agree to abandon their worship of Garth in favor of the Old Gods of the Children, and the two groups would divide the lands between them. The First Men would all unite under the banner of Garth the Gardener, first of the Gardener Kings and High King of all First Men. [8]
This rebellious alliance between Children and First Men was called the Pact, and along with the death of Garth, marks the end of the Dawn Age. [8]
10,000 B.C. - The Rule of the Grey King (a.k.a., the Pearl Emperor) begins, and he invades Westeros. In spite of advanced Eastern armor and weaponry (with possible early versions of Valyrian Steel), the alliance of the Children and First Men holds firm, and they are able to repel him time and time again. [8]
In spite of having a vast empire, he spends most of his rule in his longhall on Old Wyk, built from the hull of the Weirwood Longship called Nagga. He is obsessed with reclaiming the lands lost to the Pact, and cannot stomach the idea of ruling a lesser empire than his brother Garth. [7][8]
The Children use the Hammer of the Waters many times against the Grey King and his Ironborn, and would be remembered as the Storm God (later also as the Great Other) for their role as the enemy of greater humanity. [8]
He and the Great Empire of the Dawn would use Wyrms and more sophisticated fire magic to erect later iterations of Garth’s Moat Cailin: the Black Stone structures. They would erect these buildings (identifiable by their single-piece, lack of joiner architecture) everywhere they ruled. [1][4][5]
9,500 B.C. - During a visit to the Far East, the Grey King sets in motion experiments to create a fiery weapon. His Great Empire of the Dawn has gained the ability to control Firewyrms, but Wyrms make for poor war beasts. He seeks a way to reconquer Westeros, and what better way than to use fire: the weapon Garth used to conquer it the first time. [5][8]
The Five Forts are built under his supervision: enormous hulking laboratories where blood magic rituals bring forth horrible chimeras. The walls are built high to keep the monstrosities within the prisons. Eventually some escape, where they flee into the remoteness of the north eastern desert. They become known as Bloodless Men and Shrykes, and their home becomes known as the Grey Waste (the Grey King’s Waste). [4][5][6][8]
9,000 B.C. - The Grey King succumbs to Garth’s curse and dies (possibly committing suicide by walking into the sea). The ironborn split into many Driftwood Kingdoms, with each island having their own Salt King and Rock King, as the many sons of the Grey King fight over control of the Iron Islands (a remote western outpost of the Great Empire of the Dawn). The Gemstone Emperors leave the Ironborn to their own devices. [8][9]
Without the threat of the Grey King and a united Ironborn to hold them together, the First Men begin to fragment. The Gardener Kingdom, which once ruled over all of Westeros, fragments. [9]
The first two kingdoms to fragment are the Stormlands and the North. Durran Godsgrief defied the High King and the Pact both when he decided to marry Ellyn Eversweet (a.k.a. Elenei), the High King’s daughter and build a castle in the middle of the deep forests ceded to the Children. The Children used the Hammer of the Waters to send many storms to blow down Durran’s castle, until finally an agreement was reached. [9]
A young Bran the Builder was the architect of the agreement. It would leave out the Gardener Kings, but secure the future of the North, the Stormlands, and the Children. The terms of the agreement were thus: [9]
Durran would cease his war against the Children. [9]
The Children would cease blowing down Durran’s castle, and would assist in constructing one that is storm-proof. They would also use the Hammer to Sink the Neck (gathering at Moat Cailin to do so), turning the Moat into an impenetrable bottleneck. [9]
The Northmen (especially the Marsh Kings) would guard the Neck and disallow incursions into the North of Westeros, providing the Children with an insurance policy against madmen like Durran who would break the Pact (since the Gardener Kings could not be trusted to enforce it). [9]
As a result of this agreement, the Barrow Kings would become the predominant rulers in the North for a time, and the Stormlands would be founded as an independent kingdom. [9]
8,500 B.C. - The Jade Emperor founds the city of Asshai on the end of the long peninsula now known as the Shadowlands. At this point in time, the land around the river Ash (surely known by some other name at that time) is abundantly fertile, able to support a large population. The city grew rapidly and became the capital of the Great Empire of the Dawn, in large part due to its advantageous position situated upon the gateway to the Saffron Straits. The mountains surrounding the city are also renowned for their rich deposits of gold and gems. [5]
8,000 B.C. - The Great Empire of the Dawn would abandon the Five Forts and begin experiments in Sothoryos to create the Dragons, which would come to be known as the Red Sword of Heroes (the ultimate weapon). The Gemstone Emperors would be increasingly plagued with visions of Dragons, and would seek to create them. The chimeras of the Southern Continent are a result of this experimentation (and the discovery of Wyverns there would prove crucial). The image of the sphinx would become a symbol adopted by the people of the Far East, as it was an approximation based on the vague visions of the Gemstone Emperors’ Dragon Dreams. [4][9]
The Gardener Kingdom would continue to fragment and decline, as the Riverlands and Vale would also establish independent kingdoms in Westeros (invoking lineages to Garth to do so). The Gardeners would retain control over the Reach and Westerlands, however. [9]
7,500 B.C. - Long after the death of the Grey King and the fracturing of the Iron Islands, Galon Whitestaff comes forth to unite the ironborn under a new institution: the Kingsmoot. The Ironborn reunite to form a proper nation again, under the Driftwood Crowns. They would be ruled by one High King, doing away with the tradition of Salt Kings and Rock Kings. The first chosen High King was Urras Ironfoot (sometimes remembered as Urrax), a warrior who died at the hands of Ser Owen Oakenshield (sometimes remembered as Serwyn) on the Shield Islands. [11]
7,000 B.C. - Aside from the Ironborn gaining independence, I believe that the lands of the Sarne (once ruled by Garth’s wives, the Fisher Queens) gained their independence in this time. It seems that most of the Great Empire of the Dawn’s outposts in Sothoryos would be abandoned in these years as well, but they retain control of the Far East (east of the Bone Mountains) and Oldtown. [7][8][9]
Although the Ironborn and Far Easterners were once both unified in the faith of Garth, over the centuries of separation, they each developed their own form of Garth worship. The Ironborn would remember him as the Drowned God (and his supposed murderers as the Storm God), showing an emphasis on the Sea and self-sacrifice. [8][13]
The Eastern sect, in their search for the Red Sword, would remember him as R’hllor (and his supposed murderers as the Great Other), showing more appreciation of his discovery of Fire magics. It is possible that Garth’s spirit still lingers to this day, accepting worship and blood sacrifice in exchange for wisdom and favor. [13]
Foreword: Due to the events in this section all happening in close succession (without a precise knowledge of the exact B.C. date), I will use a specific dating system, called “Before Breaking” (B.B.) and “After Breaking” (A.B.). This will be used for this section and this section only, to describe the events of the Long Night relative to Azor Ahai’s Breaking of the Moon, with 1 A.B. being the year the moon was shattered.
10 B.B. - Westeros is now made up of a few independent kingdoms, with the Gardeners still maintaining hegemony over the continent. House Casterly (a vassal of the Gardeners) has no heir to their seat, and is on the verge of extinction. [9]
In the East, the Opal Emperor sits on the throne. His heir, the Amethyst Empress (Nissa Nissa), is to be married to her younger brother (Azor Ahai). Much like all the rulers before him, the Opal Emperor rules over less land and people than the Emperor before, and his rule is shorter and more troubled than his predecessor. He is plagued with Dragon Dreams and seeks the Red Sword with fervor, but his efforts have thus far proven unsuccessful. [6][9]
It becomes clear to his son, Azor Ahai, that the day of a great eclipse approaches, and on this promised day, he will be the one to realize the legend and forge the Red Sword (creating Dragons). [6][9]
1 B.B. - The preparations are all in order. Azor Ahai attempts to incubate the Dracomorph fetus in water, but the creature dies. He attempts to incubate in the heart of a living creature, but it dies. He knows what he must do, but it brings him no joy, and the promised day approaches. [4][6]
1 A.B. - The Amethyst Empress succeeds her father, and becomes the most powerful woman on earth. Heir to a lineage that once ruled over all mankind, and Queen of a globe-spanning empire. Rich beyond imagination, and capable of raising armies that would be unthinkable. There is power in King’s blood, and she is the perfect blood sacrifice. [6]
The promised day arrives, and the lands now called the Shadowlands are shrouded beneath a solar eclipse caused by one of the world’s two moons. [6]
Azor Ahai sacrifices his sister to birth the first Dragons from the ilk of Wyrms and Wyverns, and binding them to a race of man through her. Thus he uses her to quench the Red Sword and make her the first Mother of Dragons (and making him and his family Blood of the Dragon). [4][6]
The ritual shatters the eclipsing moon (leaving only one moon in the sky), and blights the lands beneath it (shrouding the Shadowlands eternally thereafter). Many of the Black Stone structures (though not all of them) become blighted as well, gaining a greasy/oily quality and seemingly cursed. [5][6]
The broken moon falls in a meteor shower, plunging the earth into an Impact Winter known as the Long Night. At the same time, hundreds of Dragons are born; the riderless creatures spread out from the Shadowlands like a fiery plague all over the world. [6]
Azor Ahai inherits the mantle of Emperor from his sister, and seizes upon his ancient birthright: the reconquest of all the peoples the first Gemstone Emperor (Garth) ruled. He would seek to become king of all mankind once more. But he must wait for his Dragon to grow to adulthood. [5][6][7][8]
5 A.B. - Azor Ahai takes his armies westward, riding his now matured Dragon. They pass the Bone Mountains using the Steel Road, intent on reconquering the lost lands of the Sarne. The people of the plains cannot stand before the Red Sword, and so fall in short order. [11]
The region’s many ethnic groups are unified into a new people under Azor Ahai, and join him in his crusade westward towards the Sunset Kingdoms (the first people to secede from the Great Empire). They are made zealous by tales of the woods-demons who whispered foul lies into the ears of the Western men, and their loyalty to the Bloodstone Emperor and his Red Sword becomes fierce. [6][8][10][11]
These fair haired and fair skinned people would later be known as the Andals, and this would be the first of two Andal invasions. The Sarnori and Andals would remember their leader, Azor Ahai, as Huzhor Amai and Hugor of the Hill respectively. [10][11]
7 A.B. - The Bloodstone Emperor makes his first landing in the Vale, and claims the land for the Andals. His invasion is swift and brutal, as armies and heroes fall before him in droves. Tales of Artys Arryn, the Falcon Knight, and Erreg the Kinslayer come from this time of conquest. [10][11]
Eventually all of the Sunset Kingdoms submit to him, and he is crowned King of Westeros, having succeeded in uniting all of mankind once more. [11]
Shortly after his arrival in Westeros, he would fall in love with Maris the Maid, a creation of the Children. For mankind’s role in breaking the moon, disrupting the seasons, and bringing forth foul fire-monsters (the Dragons), the Children create Maris to seduce Azor Ahai and use his blood to create a race of Others that could wipe out all men in Westeros. [11]
He would marry her and retire to a fortress in the Far North, where they would fall in love and remain in isolation for the next 13 years. Legends of the Night’s King tell of this time of isolation and rule. [11][12]
The cursed romance of the star-crossed lovers begets 44 demonic sons (the Others), who go forth into the world and wreak havoc on mankind (nearly driving First Men and Andals both to extinction). These Others also serve as bodyguards to their father and mother during these darkest years. [11][12]
17 A.B. - As the continent starves and freezes, 13 Heroes (possibly all descended from Garth), led by Brandon the Builder (a.k.a. the Last Hero) go forth into the freezing wilderness to seek the aid of their ancient allies: the Children of the Forest. The Children are hidden away from mankind, having set in motion their destruction via the creation of the Others, so the search is long and difficult. The Others themselves actually try to prevent them finding the Children (perhaps to protect them from a potentially vengeful human). [12]
Twelve of the original thirteen die in the process, leaving only Brandon the Builder (who learned the True Tongue in the time of the Sinking of the Neck). [12]
18 A.B. - Brandon finds the Children at last, and convinces them to aid mankind. He pledges to wipe out the Dragons and turn humanity away from the use of powerful magics (especially fire magics) that endanger the world. The Children, not wishing to wipe out the humans, agree to these terms. This is the turning point. [6][12]
Brandon seeks out the Night’s King and gains an audience with him, presenting his case before him. The man he meets is a different person from the Warrior who conquered Westeros. Thirteen years with Maris, a creation of the Children, has changed him. He believes his actions to have been a terrible mistake, and agrees with Brandon the Builder to assist in reversing that mistake. [6][12]
However, there are many who oppose the idea of destroying the Dragons, whose creation was arguably the crowning achievement of mankind. People from the Far East, Andals, and the Dragons themselves form one powerful coalition. The First Men, the Others, the Children, the Giants, and Azor Ahai form another. [6][12]
19 A.B. - The two factions meet upon Battle Isle in the Battle for the Dawn, the climactic conflict that marks the end of the Long Night. Azor Ahai and the First Men are victorious, putting an end to the Dragons in Westeros and seeing the Easterners (Great Empire and Andal alike) banished from the continent. [6][10][12]
The Andals are driven into the Red Mountains and the Sea; the former group would come to be known as the Stony Dornish, while the latter would land upon the Axe and spread out across Andalos. [10][12]
Oldtown is refounded as an independent state from the Gardeners, and the High Tower, commissioned to be built by Azor (remembered as Uthor of the High Tower), is constructed by Brandon the Builder. [11][12]
20 A.B. - Azor Ahai is betrayed by Brandon and the Children, who wield the Hammer of the Waters to strike him and his Dragon out of the sky with a thunderbolt. This earns Brandon his second monicker, “Brandon the Breaker” (i.e. Brandon the Oathbreaker). In the world that he and his are building, there is no room for Azor Ahai and his Dragon. [12]
Brandon then travels to the Nightfort in the far north, slaying many Others (paralleling the Kingsguard and Tower of Joy) with Dawn, known at that time as Ice. He finds Maris dying in childbirth, paralleling Lyanna, and takes the final child of Azor Ahai with him back to Winterfell as the Others retreat into the far north (obeying their end of the pact for the Dawn). [12]
Before Brandon leaves the Nightfort, he and Joramun raise the Wall using the Horn of Winter and found the Night’s Watch to guard it. He and his faction have sought to make the world safe for mankind by ridding it of all the fantastical things that make it wondrous and dangerous, and the Others are no exception. In honor of the fallen heroes that saved mankind, the first 12 Lord Commanders are posthumously named as the twelve dead companions of the Last Hero, and Azor Ahai himself is named the 13th. [11][12]
Before he returns to the site where he would raise Winterfell, Brandon the Builder returns Ice (now known as Dawn) to Starfall in the far South, leaving it in the care of House Dayne. [12][13]
The son that Brandon brings home with him is raised as a Stark, and the Kings of Winter share his blood (giving rise to the fear of their tainted souls, and the tradition of locking them in with iron swords). Brandon digs the crypts of Winterfell out all at once, leaving enough room for approximately 6000 years of Starks (when the Others will return for the Promised Prince he stole). The Barrow Kingdom fragments in the wake of the decimation the Long Night wrought, and Brandon Stark becomes the first King of Winter. [12]
In Oldtown, the task of making the world safe for men is at the forefront of the minds of the Hightowers (the approved ruling sons of Azor Ahai in Oldtown). The order of the Maesters is founded by them, and given the task of weaning mankind off of its reliance on dangerous magics by replacing them with more reliable sciences. To provide them a home in their pursuit of this noble goal, they are granted the ancient Great Empire of the Dawn fortress in Oldtown: the Citadel. [12]
Around the world, people are recovering from the Long Night, and the practice of hunting down riderless Dragons becomes commonplace and celebrated, as the unnatural creatures are much reviled the world over. [11][12]
6,000 B.C. - After the skies are cleared and all is said and done, a mass evacuation from the Shadowlands occurs, as the lands are permanently blighted. Nothing can grow there anymore, so the people must go elsewhere. A few sorcerers powerful enough remain behind in the city of Asshai, and come to be known as Shadowbinders in later years. [5][6]
A group of people, kin to the Amethyst Empress and sharing her eyes, flees with clutches of unhatched dragon eggs to a land of shepherds to the West. They settle among the Fourteen Flames, an ideal location for hatching and breeding Dragons. Their kinship to the Dragons they bring (through the Amethyst Empress, their literal Mother) is the secret to controlling the creatures. Simultaneously, further East, the first Yitish dynasty rises from the ashes of the Great Empire of the Dawn, seeking to reclaim the lands they lost in the disaster of the Long Night (though only partially succeeding). [4][6][13]
In the North of Westeros, the Kings of Winter begin to unify the subcontinent with vigor. Their first foe would be Gavin Greywolf (the Warg King) and the Children of the Forest who dwelled in the Wolfswood and on Sea Dragon Point. Stark victory earns them the Warg King’s lands and bloodline both, as they married his daughters. Driving out the Children is the last step in securing the North and mankind against the inhuman fantastical threats that nearly wiped them out in the Long Night. [12]
5,500 B.C. - The first of the Ghiscari Wars breaks out, as the fledgling nation of Valyria comes into conflict with Ghis, a civilization that existed before the Long Night. Armed with the Red Sword of Heroes, the greatest weapon mankind ever created, they are victorious in spite of the far superior foe. [4]
In the wake of the Long Night, the Gardener Kingdom fragments even further, and the descendants of the long-lived Lann the Clever claim independence, becoming Kings of the Rock. [9][10]
The Andals begin to spread out from the Axe, where they landed after fleeing Westeros in the Long Night. With their advanced steel weapons and armor, they conquer the surrounding hills of northeastern Essos, forming a realm of many kingdoms called Andalos. [10]
4,700 B.C. - The final Ghiscari War occurs, and Valyria annexes the entirety of the Slaver’s Bay civilisation. Valyria is now a fully-fledged empire, and in many ways the truest inheritors of the legacy of the Gemstone Emperors. [4][6][13]
4,000 B.C. - The Thousand Years War begins between the Barrow Kings and their old vassals, the Starks. The Starks prove victorious and incorporate the Barrowlands and Barrowdaughters into their house, leaving the Barrowlands in the hands of the Dustins as their vassals. [9][12]
The Valyrians begin to expand eastward, but the formidable Rhoyne and even more formidable Rhoynar block their path. Wary of further expansion, the Valyrians’ advance is stayed for a time. [10]
3,000 B.C. - The Starks fight against the Marsh Kings, annexing their kingdom into the Winter Kingdom and marrying their daughters. [12]
The Valyrians found the city of Volantis and cross the Rhoyne in force, beginning the invasion of Andalos. The Andals are disunited and ill-prepared for war with Valyria, and so flee north (losing territories near the modern day city of Pentos initially). [10]
2,000 B.C. - The Starks begin their wars against the Red Kings, the last kingdom left in the North. The last Red King submits shortly before the second Andal invasion begins. [12]
1,750 B.C. - Andalos is awash with Andal Kingdoms, and Qarlon the Great decides to unite them all. He unites the Lorathi isles, then wars with inland petty kings until his petty kingdom extends from the Braavosi Lagoon (before there was a Braavos) in the West to the Axe in the East. [10]
1,736 B.C. - Qarlon attacks the city of Norvos, which calls for the aid of the Valyrian Freehold. Dragonriders come and burn Qarlon’s army (and Qarlon), before proceeding to scour Lorath. This event precipitates a mass exodus from Essos by the Andals. Some Andals stay and fight, while others submit to conquest and slavery, but many flee to the Vale where Hugor of the Hill had led them all those centuries ago. [10]
House Greyiron puts an end to the practice of the Kingsmoot, and becomes a hereditary dynasty of Kings. They would adopt a black iron crown to replace the driftwood, and would rule for 1,000 more years until the Andals came to the Iron Islands. [10]
1,700 B.C. - The Andals spread across the Vale, then outward into the Riverlands. They attempt to invade the North, but are turned back by the Starks many times. They progress through the rest of the Southron Kingdoms of Westeros (except for Dorne, where they only settle the Eastern coast, and even those encroachments are limited). [10]
950 B.C. - The Valyrians, having enveloped most of the Rhoynish civilisation already, finally come into open conflict with them in the First Turtle War. These conflicts are bloody and ruthless, but the Rhoynish cannot stand against the Dragons. By now all of the Andals in Essos are gone, dead, or enslaved. [4][6][10]
736 B.C. - About 1,000 years after initially landing in Westeros, the Andals finally come to the Iron Islands. The newcomers bring a regime change, with the Greyiron dynasty giving way to the Hoare dynasty. [10]
700 B.C. - The last Rhoynish War begins, and Nymeria flees Essos with her ten thousand ships.
695 B.C. - Nymeria lands in Dorne, and is welcomed by House Martell. With the Rhoynish bolstering their ranks, the Martells become the strongest house in Dorne. In Nymeria’s War, they unite the entire Dornish continent.
500 B.C. - House Lannister has become fabulously wealthy, but unlike most of the other houses of Westeros, has been unable to secure a Valyrian steel sword. The Valyrians refuse to sell them one due to a prophecy about Lannister gold being the Doom of their people (a prophecy that would later come true). [3]
The Valyrians still shun Westeros itself, remembering the Battle for the Dawn and the great defeat their ancestors suffered at the hands of the Westerosi. [6][12]
300 B.C. - The town of Hardhome is destroyed when someone blows a great banded Dragonhorn (the one that Mance Rayder would later bring to Castle Black), awakening Firewyrms in the earth and bringing them to the surface. The creatures are heard screeching and dying of the cold in the caves nearby. [2][15]
114 B.C. - House Targaryen meets with a mishap at court and flees Valyria to the outpost of Dragonstone. Daenys the Dreamer, guided by prophetic dreams, comes up with a plan for their house to get revenge against the other families that wronged them. [3]
Aenar the Exile has no fear of the prophecy of Lannister Gold, and so sells the Lannisters Brightroar (named for a dragon’s roaring flame, but repurposed to be about Lions). The Lannisters pay an enormous amount of money for the blade, having been made desperate by this point. [3]
102 B.C. - Aenar puts the Lannister Gold to good use, paying the Faceless men to assassinate the fire mages that keep the Fourteen Flames under control, binding the Firewyrms beneath the city. When the mages die, the Firewyrms come forth in a terrible rage, having been enslaved like so many others by the Valyrians. They lay waste to the peninsula, and the Valyrian civilization collapses overnight. [3]
The Wyrms still rule Valyria, haunting the Smoking Sea (and making it Smoke to begin with). They’re the reason that nobody returns from Valyria. [3]
2 B.C. - Aegon the Conquerer lands in Westeros
1 A.C. - Aegon is coronated in Oldtown as King over all Westeros. This event has a hidden significance, as Aegon is inheriting this title from his ancient ancestors (all the way back to the Bloodstone Emperor, and further to Garth the Green). [5][6][7][8][13]
13 A.C. - Aegon receives a letter of mysterious content and calls for an end to hostilities with Dorne. It is possible that this letter contained, among other things, blackmail about the true nature of the Doom (attained from Rhaenys). [3]
54 A.C. - Aerea Targaryen disappears on Balerion, who takes her to Valyria. The two survive there for a year, but eventually they stumble into the den of an enormous Wyrm. Aerea becomes infested with Wyrm larvae, and Balerion gets severely wounded by the massive Wyrm. [4]
The two return to King’s Landing where they are seen to by Septon Barth, and the things he witnesses inspire him to later write Unnatural History, a book about how the Dragons were created from Wyrms and Wyverns using blood magic. This book was largely destroyed by the Maesters, along with presumably many other books detailing the true magical history of the ancient world. [4]
The Maesters have held onto one book in particular, called Death of Dragons, that may detail the methods to kill Dragons in the future should the need arise (possibly even detailing how to use the ancient Hammer of the Waters). [12]
129 A.C. - The Dance of the Dragons begins. It is possible that the Maesters had a hand in making this conflict more disastrous for House Targaryen’s Dragons, but the methods to do so remain unclear. The Targaryen Dragons go extinct shortly after the conflict. [12]
259 A.C. - Aegon the Unlikely attempts to bring back the Dragons at Summerhall, causing a Tragedy. It’s possible that Aegon succeeded in recreating the Dragons, and that Ser Duncan put a stop to it, saving the realm from a great evil and slaying his lifelong friend, Egg. This would give a bittersweet end to the Dunc and Egg story; Dunc’s simple goodness prevailing over all else (even his Kingsguard vows and his love for his friend) and making Ser Duncan the Tall a True Knight. [16]
301 A.C. - Melissandre, Daenerys, and Euron all blow ancient horns to awaken Jon, erupt the Mother of Mountains, and collapse the Wall, respectively. This ushers in a true second Long Night under the Volcanic Winter of the Mother of Mountains. [15]
Sorry. I know you guys wanted it to be brief, but there was so much to cover! Thanks for reading, and if you need a refresher on the evidence for this stuff (or if you’re new here and want to know what the heck I’m talking about), the sources are all below this.
Many of these theories are NOT my own, so please be sure to check out the links in this post to see the acknowledgements for all the theorizers whose work I’ve built upon.
This will probably be my last “Unified Theory” post for a long time, so until I come up with something big, this is goodbye. It’s been a pleasure!
[1] Chapter 1: Inspiration for Firewyrms
[2] Chapter 2: Wyrms all the way Down
[3] Chapter 3: The (super)Nature of the Doom
[4] Chapter 4: Dracomorph: The Red Sword of Heroes
[5] Chapter 5: The Great Empire of the Dawn
[6] Chapter 6: The Blood Betrayal
[7] Chapter 1: The Green God
[8] Chapter 2: The Kinslayer
[9] Chapter 3: Fragmenting Empires and Durran Godsgrief
[10] Chapter 4: The Coming[s] of the Andals
[11] Chapter 5: Huzhor Amai
[12] Chapter 6: The Last Hero
[13] Epilogue/Miscellaneous Theories
[14] The Lie of the Land Bridge
[15] Triple Patchface: The Three Trumpets of the Apocalypse
[16] There is no prior post about this. Congrats! You found an original theory! ;)

So I've recently discovered my old deck and have dueling with a few friends and it is a fantastic time! I recently bought two lot sales from eBay but was disappointed to find that most were XYZ, Synchro, Pendulum monsters which I'm not familiar with at all. I believe the last card pack I ever purchased included the Sphinx monsters so I'm sure I'm dating myself.
So my question is, is there a good term to use when searching for cards that aren't any of the above 3?

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One thing that I give big props to Mihoyo is the brilliant way they incorporate tropes. They introduce the characters as one-dimensional then expand them. Thanks to how realistic their portrayals are, they seem human. They all come from different upbringings and circumstances. These two elements shape the characters to become relatable and engaging.
Luke is an example of this case because he is such a trope-y character. He embodies the childhood friend trope super well.
At first glance, some people wouldn't bat an eye on him, writing him off as a boring character. Given that Luke is the childhood friend, his arc should be very predictable. But little did they know that we are not dealing with a typical otome game.
With that said, my essay will delve into why I adore Luke and Rosa's dynamic. I am 100% biased towards this ship, and I feel so strongly about them.
SPOILER DISCLAIMER since I will talk about some of Luke's unreleased cards!
Luke is Rosa's childhood friend, but his arc is so entangled with the main story route. The NXX drug that the team is currently investigating may or may not be behind the death of his parents as well as his shrouded background. He's the person who's directly involved with the problem that the NXX members are dealing with at hand. Marius is investigating because of his missing brother Giann. Artem is doing whatever he can to uncover the truth behind his mentor's disappearance. And Vyn is just there unless he's got some reason that's yet to be revealed.
That leaves Luke as the person who is indeed directly involved with the issue itself. The drug has greatly affected Luke, reducing his lifespan to just three years.
This ordeal puts Luke in an agonizing and harsh situation as he's been struggling with an inner conflict ever since. His conflict being Rosa.
He woke up in the hospital room by the sheer will of living (Rosa indirectly saved him), surrounded by his fellow mates who turned out to be dead.
Luke's “I will become the God of Death” line which took place in his Lost Gold route conveys a whole new meaning.
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Imagine waking up and being the only survivor in a room full of deceased people who once were your teammates. Luke must have felt extreme guilt. He would definitely think he robbed them of their lives hence the God of Death title. It also does not help that he is often associated with Crows -a symbol of death in many cultures.
All this time, he regarded himself as such -a being who is undeserving of living, much less next to his crush. It is the reason why he took a while to appear in front of Rosa. His guilt and self-loathing are what disabled him from indulging in his time with her. If he could disappear, he would easily do it. And he did it once in his Shape of You card; when he prayed to the Land God to take him away from Rosa and to make him disappear from her life.
Luke reappeared again because he had unfinished matters to deal with, a.k.a the mystery behind the drug and his parents' background. He wants to use his remaining time to pursue the truth and look after Rosa before he is gone.
His conflict comes into play when he realizes that the drug effects are irreversible and that his impending death is coming nigh. He was at a loss when it came to Rosa.
Must he be selfish and choose to stay by her side until his time is up?
Or must he disappear from her sight so she doesn't get hurt?
Luke was torn between what he wanted to do and what he needed to do, and he came to these two paths without confronting Rosa about them. He was in a complete dilemma.
He shouldered all of this weight on his own for a long time. He eventually reappeared again in front of Rosa, much to his dismay. The moment he saw her, his resolve wavered. With each passing second, his longing to stay with her grew bigger.
His tendency to overthink and to be overly overprotective stems from the conflict with which he is struggling. He doesn't wish for anything bad to happen to Rosa. Because if that were the case, he would hate himself for it. Some people think that Luke is treating Rosa as an inferior, a weakling. Someone incapable of holding her grounds. But that is wrong.
These people fail to see the helplessness of this guy. He feels worthless, hopeless, pessimistic, and very undeserving of being near Rosa. But he also feels responsible for Rosa's protection despite only being granted a short amount of time.
Nothing about this screams inferiority/superiority complex. It's Luke's helplessness that's screaming and ripping him apart.
The fact that he won't be by her side in three years. The fact that he has to bid her farewell in three years. The fact that he has to entrust her to some other guy in three years. The fact that he is unable to support her in three years. Knowing all of this shatters his heart. It's gut-wrenching.
Imagine the pain he felt this whole time. Luke missed out on eight precious years that could have been spent with Rosa. And to make matters worse, he now has a ticking timer above his head reminding him of the fragility of his life and the cruelty of losing everything before his eyes. This whole issue not only has affected him but also Rosa. She is a direct factor in this.
All of Luke's cards; regardless of how the timeline works; are pretty much tied. Each card focuses on Luke's character as well as his relationship with Rosa.
In Timely Rescue, we get to witness the overbearing nature of Luke's overprotectiveness and how it started to get on Rosa's nerves.
In Among the Great Blue, Luke reminisced about his past with Rosa and her parents. He has been raised as if he were a member of the family. Luke felt both blessed and grateful in that regard. Because of that, he thinks that as long as he is a part of Rosa's life; he mustn't care about where he stands. Because of his condition, Luke accepted that crossing the boundaries with her is futile. He would rather keep their friendship until his days are up. What's poignant about this is that Luke made it clear that he gave up. He came to terms with his reality before long which is utterly sad and devastating.
On top of that, moon jellyfish only live up to three years which parallels his lifespan. The expression Luke had when he talked about them was so heart-wrenching.
'Life is short, and one should enjoy every second of it' hits right in the feels considering Luke's situation. The line is also a bit ironic because he did not abide by it as shown in his Iridescent Heartbeat card (Which I will talk about in a bit.)
What's also bitter about Among the Great Blue is that Luke is in so much pain; both physical and emotional. Yet, he tries to hide it all through lying. Luke is an expert at concealing his pain. He would go out of his way to bury everything that might expose his situation as shown in Moment of Danger and his personal story.
Luke is such an enigmatic person. There is still so much that we don't know about which serves as an interesting juxtaposition of being the character we're supposed to know best, but we also know so little about.
His Shape of You card revealed a little more about Luke's past and how much he struggled to stay with Rosa.
He got shunned by her relatives for always being around her. He is an orphan, and the only people he interacted with are Rosa and her parents, so it's only natural to be attached to them. They were his only family. But others didn't take that too well and started dissing him.
That pushed Luke to pray to the Land God. He prayed to disappear from the face of the earth and everyone's memories if it would make Rosa feel better. No child deserves to go through that.
Fortunately, Rosa reached out to him and rescued him from falling too deep into the pits of darkness.
That card not only touched on Luke's past but also showcased a new side of Rosa.
When Luke ran off somewhere to catch the thief, Rosa felt helpless and desperate to find him. She had the feeling that she might lose Luke once again. Never to be seen. Never to be found.
Rosa's position in this card is understandable because she went through this twice. She almost lost him the first time when they were kids. This accident made her dread going to any festivities.
And the second time is when Luke unofficially left her side and went to the Capital upon turning 16 years old. He didn't contact her as much for eight years. You can only imagine the melancholy that she felt. She even refused to visit Prague simply because it doesn't feel the same without Luke.
Shape of You managed to give yet another layer to Rosa. Rosa isn't just your typical, strong, and level-headed protagonist.
She went through a lot and has endured so much by herself without anyone's support. (personal story ch2)
However, Rosa is an emotional person who has doubts and fears. She has problems and conflicts. Rosa is almost always concerned for Luke.
The moment he is away, she would immediately start panicking.
Because if she were to let go of him this time, what would happen to him? What would happen to her?
She is just as dependent on him as much as he is on her. The feeling is mutual. Luke and Rosa cannot be away from one another because they have been inseparable for so long.
“Rather than wanting to be by her side forever, I hope to protect her forever. No matter if I am still here, no matter in what form.” No words can describe just how heart-breaking this line is.
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Radiant Sunlight was about re-creating memories that both Rosa and Luke have missed. For example, the graduation day that Luke could not attend. The card proves that it is not too late to make new memories together. It offers a positive perspective in contrast to Luke's pessimistic one.
Inner Sanctum was a cute love story of an elderly couple. The card showcases how the couple never gave up on one another.
No matter how much time has passed and how much their health has declined, the couple will always treasure each other's presence. Their love for one another grew stronger despite the flow of time. Love is a boundless feeling as it transcends time.
Inner Sanctum conveys a positive message: Even if you've hit rock bottom and you feel like there's no way out, someone is waiting for you at the end of the tunnel. Luke has been in a hopeless situation for the longest time, but someone is out there for him. Someone is waiting for him with open arms to hold him. All he has to do is to reach out for the light.
The lyrics of the song that Luke hummed are heartfelt yet sad.
“When we can say goodnight and stay together
Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new?”
Not only do they describe Luke's feelings, but they also hint at the shackles holding him back. But his response to the lyrics was very hopeful.
“I believe that there are no ifs between the two of us. I will make it all come true.”
Perfect Partner had Luke and Rosa work on a case that had a bittersweet conclusion. Timing often plays a role in relationship success. Something that could have easily been a miss had Luke and Rosa not met after eight years. The conflict of the case was due to miscommunication. Both parties could not clear the misunderstanding because they kept missing each other. I can't help but think that it could have been a possible outcome for Luke and Rosa had they not met in time.
In Iridescent Heartbeat, the relationship between them took a step forward, and it developed even further. Everything that happened in that card occurred for a reason.
Luke's pessimism and overprotectiveness took a turn for the worse, almost ruining the whole date. Rosa's patience ran super thin as there's a limit to everything. And clearly, Luke has crossed the line with how overprotective he has gotten.
Time is of the essence, yet Luke wastes it by brooding over the what-ifs:
'Should I take the safest shortcut so that Rosa doesn't get hurt?' 'Sticking to this activity is better than doing bungee jumping cuz we might run into accidents.'
Luke's thoughts have clouded his reasoning. He believes that counting every step he takes to ensure Rosa's safety is the right thing. But by doing so, their date has quickly turned into a sour one. Luke's behavior makes sense as mentioned before.
But this is where Rosa comes into play. She grew tired and sick of his tendency to overthink things since Timely Rescue. She is not going to stand by and watch the guy decays as he ponders over every single thing that concerns her. That is just a waste of precious time.
Luke's going the extra mile to guarantee her safety at the expense of his fun and her fun.
If Luke is not having fun, then what is the point of the date?
If he can't even do whatever he wants to do, then what is the point?
Life is too short to be wasted on trivial matters such as 'possible accidents'. Accidents are bound to happen.
Humans are prone to get injured, to trip over, to get hurt. We don't have plot armor, and we are definitely not bulletproof. If things happen, then let them happen. Let them become a part of their experience, part of their memories. So that someday, they can look back at that time and laugh at how silly they were. That is why I find his line in Among the Great Blue quite ironic. He is not sticking to it.
The whole interaction between them proves that Rosa is not afraid to step up and speak her mind. She refuses to stay idle when things are going wrong. She definitely doesn't stand looking at Luke not enjoying himself because his happiness is her happiness.
The story was beautifully connected to Timely Rescue and other cards. It displayed a realistic quarrel between two people who had clashing views.
Luke still hasn't decided to confide in her about his condition yet, and he is still very hesitant whether he should be with her or not.
Rosa was kept in the dark the entire time. Despite that, she could tell that something was off with him.
They resolved the issue through communication which is a primordial element in any couple's road to happiness. Without it, you and your significant other won't last at all.
Rosa is an honest person, and Luke's overprotective trait bothered her so much because he has crossed the line several times. Not only was he restricting Rosa's freedom but also his freedom.
The whole ordeal gave huge character development to Rosa. She looks out for Luke and is greatly concerned over him as well. Luke is not the only person who is busy thinking about her. Rosa also does think about him, and always has been.
The card portrayed a healthy relationship that runs into issues and solves them through communicating.
Luke listening to her and feeling extremely blessed to be by her side was the cherry on top. He understood her, apologized to her, and he promised he won't cross the line again. Her reassuring words held some weight because you only live once. Why would anyone waste their time instead of enjoying themselves?
To Luke, it hits him harder because it involves time which is something intangible and not everlasting. He absolutely shouldn't waste it, especially in his case. He should spend every single minute of his life doing the things he likes, hanging out with the people he loves, and making new and timeless memories with them.
Rosa ended up teaching him a lesson about life and how valuable it is. The way she snapped at him as she ran out of patience and as her frustrations grew all the more obvious has only rendered her as more than a third-dimensional character. Rosa is too real. Too realistic. She has the most natural and wholesome interactions with Luke, and that says a lot about their relationship.
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Moreover, his Lost Gold route expanded his character even further. We get to witness his Raven side first-hand. A side that he is ashamed of showing.
But because of the whole ordeal in Timely Rescue, he decided not to cross the line. He made up his mind and showed her the side that he's been afraid to reveal all this time. A side that developed over those eight years. Rosa witnessed it, and her reaction to it was genuine as well as sweet. She immediately figured out how ashamed he was. And she also understood him and his predicament. Because of his job, he has to be harsh to his suspects. And as Rosa stated, she prefers Luke to be ruthless to protect himself rather than get hurt because of his kindness. Rosa has embraced all of Luke's sides and accepted him the way he is.
Granted, Luke said: 'I will become the person thatyoulike', but Rosa doesn't want that. Rosa wants Luke. The genuine person with all of his flaws and all of his strengths.
His response to what she said was so sweet. His embrace and his Thank You were so emotional and meaningful. Luke was afraid he might disappoint her with how much he changed. So, her reassuring words were such a relief to him. Nothing beats being wholeheartedly accepted by your significant other.
Rosa has always felt that the person in front of her is no longer familiar. She thought she always knew him. But the truth is she did not. Rosa has been feeling this way since day one of their reunion. And she openly expressed that in several cards like Alluring Gaze, Xmas Card, Among the Great Blue, to name a few.
Despite her lingering doubts, Rosa still accepts the person who is standing in front of her. Luke might have changed, but Rosa is willing to hold onto him and never let go. She is ready to embrace that unfamiliar figure of his because she loves him.
Her resolve to see past the distance that separated them had never faltered. That is because Luke means much more than that.
Xmas Card revealed that Luke has been hiding from Rosa for a while. It personally pains me to see him run away from her. This card adds more to how much he struggled with himself. Luke wanted to meet Rosa as soon as he came back. He wanted to share all the experiences and the stories that he had in the past eight years. He wanted to confide in her about everything. But, Luke was unable to do so. On top of his illness, he is ashamed to talk about his work as an agent. God only knows what kind of misdeeds he did. It saddens me to know that Luke has been through so much for the past eight years, unbeknownst to Rosa. He has been in many perilous situations. He got so wounded that he does not need an anesthetic to treat himself. Luke grew numb to the pain which is messed up. He got tormented for the longest time. (personal story ch3 and 4)
Luke has been exposed to danger at a young age which explains why he hates seeing Rosa go through the same path.
That also explains why he was so against the idea of her joining the NXX team in the main story.
https://preview.redd.it/2n6lguiiml381.png?width=720&format=png&auto=webp&s=11c41144f0123118ed5ff38d6a148b885f228d46
In RRG, Luke and Rosa's relationship took a shift and started to progress. Rosa felt bummed out because she thought she knew Luke best but realized that those eight years made him seem foreign to her. Her desire to know all of him and get close to him has been made clear in that card. Rosa seriously started looking at Luke. Her feelings slowly and steadily started surfacing and taking shape.
The whole card was incredible. From us finding out more about Raven to them acting like parents (to Xia Xia) to Rosa getting all emotional over Xia Xia's departure. Rosa's nightmare also proves that she refuses to be apart from Luke and that she is determined to hold onto him because he might slip from her at any moment. A sentiment that she has expressed since Shape of You. Rosa also figured that Luke has been hiding from her for so long, fearing he might bring her trouble. She got upset because she always wanted to be by his side no matter what.
Despite the dangers that Luke may face because of his work, Rosa wants to support him however she can. She is worried about him, and she hates that his life is always at stake, but she has decided not to get in the way of his dreams. Instead, she would bear the brunt with him. They will both go through ups and downs together, hand in hand.
The promise that they made is very precious because it shows just how much they care for each other.
'I promise I will do my best to not compromise myself.
In every minute and every second, I will choose the way that makes me happiest to live.
In every minute and every second, I will remind myself to avidly pursue everything I yearn for.
I definitely will not make this person in front of me, who supports me, feel unhappy or not blessed.'
This promise is important because Luke always puts others above himself, and Rosa had enough of that. She wants him to be happy and to think of himself before others.
I would like to take a moment to talk about Luke's design. He is often seen with many gadgets. One of them is a camera.
His camera helps in capturing the moments, turning them into memories that transcend time itself. Luke is still coping with how short his lifespan is. Hence he wishes to savor the beauty of this world by saving every moment in his camera. Because surely, those moments will outlive him, never to be forgotten.
I like how Luke is the owner of an antique shop. An antique shop consists of items that are desirable because of their age, beauty, rarity, and personal emotional connection. These items represent a previous era or period in human history.
Luke as an antique shopkeeper is just so fitting because it feels like he is gathering all sorts of stories and memories connected with each object in his tiny little space to preserve them. After all, they will persevere against the flow of time. An ability that Luke would have liked to possess to put an end to his misery.
https://preview.redd.it/l11sxs7lml381.png?width=864&format=png&auto=webp&s=6dd4adb58edba92d328aa7c741b80242a5fb89a3
Luke seems to be associated with crows which are a symbol of death. But that symbol represents more than that.
Rosa often thinks of Luke as a free-spirited person, unshackled by any constraints. She firmly believes that he deserves to be free like the birds.
'I hoped that I could also protect Luke, this eagle flying high with his wings spread, and his smile that was as warm as sunshine.'
Her impression of Luke has always been that of an eagle spreading his wings in the sky. He represents freedom to her. Seeing Luke restrained by his shackles hurts Rosa to no end. Luke should not be in a cage. Luke should be flying high in the sky. That is where he belongs.
Rosa wants to protect that within her power because he deserves to be happy.
Not only has it been mentioned in the Electrifying Night card but also SoTT.
In SoTT, Luke worships the birds because they soar high in the blue sky. They are the symbol of freedom. But in this story, the roles are reversed. Rosa is trapped in a cage (society conventions) while Luke reaches out to release her. Luke is willing to give up on his freedom so that Rosa can live the way she always wanted to.
“I pray that you will continue to live bravely onwards, as you had described.”
Luke would do anything to see Rosa be happy, even at the cost of his freedom. That is the weight of his sacrifice.
On an unrelated note, Luke's design in SoTT is very self-contradictory and interesting:
His mask is that of Anubis; the God of Death, whereas his necklace is that of Ankh; the symbol of eternal life.
Going by that analogy, the necklace that was given to him by Rosa represents life. Despite being on the verge of death, Luke managed to live thanks to her.
https://preview.redd.it/1kiwmhopml381.png?width=543&format=png&auto=webp&s=97de684c760881cdb5887fdfdfa8fe5142c1fb2b
Honorary Mention:
Looming Nightmare is such a lamentable story. But looking past that, there's a lot of foreshadowing regarding Luke and Rosa's relationship.
The ruby and the sword made a cameo in this card.
Ruby symbolizes romantic love. It brings happiness and passion. It is said to inspire devotion and faithfulness within a romantic relationship.
This symbolism depicts Luke's overflowing feelings towards Rosa.
Because the ruby's hue is close to the color of blood, which carries oxygen to all parts of the body, the gemstone also represents vitality and vigor.
As for the sword, it symbolizes power, protection, authority, strength, and courage; metaphysically, it represents discrimination and the penetrating power of the intellect.
It is a symbol of knighthood and chivalry which is very fitting for Luke.
“Passion is the sword of love that pierces through the wall of fears that hold us back.” Lewis Howes
Based on the game's poster art, Luke might also become Rosa's weapon when her ideals will be put to the test.
This card proves yet again just how much both of them are willing to sacrifice for one another.
Granted, it is romantic but it is just as foreboding. Because of his desire to meet Rosa and be with her, Luke was easily deceived by the witch. In this case, not only did Love blind him but also drove him to his death (and ultimately Rosa's death). A tragic ending.
https://preview.redd.it/c6qlyi8anl381.png?width=294&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5055bb0759091958dd6212cf357374729a45825
On a side note, we get to see a very wholesome moment between them at the end of the card.
They always find comfort in each other's company and it's simply heart-warming.
I just love how close and intimate they are even before they started dating.
Their relationship is dynamic since both parties are willing to sacrifice so much to ensure the other is happy. Their love for each other is very pure, selfless, and unconditional. Not only that, but they are also characters with so much depth to analyze. Rosa and Luke are such layered individuals, and it is such a treat. There's more to these characters than what meets the eye (especially Luke)
Luke's personal story focused on the entire three-year issue. Episodes 1 and 2 were angsty enough. But Rosa has sprinkled some of her optimism which also plays as foreshadowing to the anniversary card.
The story behind the escape room puzzle is a straight nod to Luke's whole conflict.
Sphinx/Aaron purposefully planned this so that Luke would have enough balls to confess everything that he has covered from her.
Rosa's answer regarding the escape room's story is an indirect answer to Luke's confession. She insisted that even though your lover might someday disappear, the time spent with them is far more valuable than being apart from them.
Their entire existence brings them joy. So why would anyone be away from their source of happiness?
Luke took it personally because he resonated with the whole story.
At that point, Rosa does not know a thing about his illness, yet her answer hits Luke's very core and being.
The anniversary card was the culmination of several events throughout their story.
Luke's confession happened because reality has slapped him right in the face. He always thought of his short lifespan, but he never considered the possibility of losing Rosa before his eyes.
Rosa is selfless, almost to a fault. Episodes 3 and 4 displayed how she would readily put others above herself. She would easily risk her life for someone else. The incident that almost scarred her gave Luke the last push to finally come clean and confess everything.
For the first time, he revealed everything that he buried for years. Rosa's reply was just as emotional and just as groundbreaking. Everything; from their confrontation to them breaking down into tears to the starry sky in the background turning their childhood place (their old house) all the more intimate to their longing and desire burning in their eyes to them not even needing to utter another word because they yearn to fill each other with warmth; was perfection. The build-up was impeccable. I was a sobbing mess by the end of it.
The music box (Luke's gift) that emanates a rainbow is a throwback to the double rainbows that they saw in Iridescent Heartbeat.
Legend has it that if you keep following a rainbow, you will find a buried treasure underneath it. And as corny as his line may sound, Luke indeed found his treasure (Rosa) a long time ago. It's a whole circle back to the key in his necklace. A gift that was given by Rosa when they were kids.
The music that Luke has picked had so much significance. And the decision behind it was both melancholic and symbolic. His explanation is enough to let us know that Luke went through hell and back for Rosa. Luke was in emotional turmoil the entire time, suffering by himself. But not anymore. Because Rosa's answer gave him hope. It gave him a reason to keep pushing forward.
https://preview.redd.it/9lyilwu9nl381.png?width=540&format=png&auto=webp&s=af6c0a44cfb6239e43b3e647d7d818e86f2e6812
When Luke talks about the future, he either uses ambiguous terms like always and forever or becomes pessimistic, knowing he only has three years left.
But it all changed when they started dating. Luke wants to make up for the eight years that he and Rosa have missed out. It neither sounds like an intangible dream nor a regretful mourn. Luke now has more belief in the future and is slowly overcoming his insecurities as they fall in love.
His concept of forever is no longer limited to the three years written in health reports. That concept became the longest time he spends with Rosa. And it's just overflowing with hope compared to how incurable he thought he was.
'So, I’ve decided. If the road ahead is fated to be covered in thorns, then I will grow with you by your side, no matter what comes at us, traversing this bumpy road fearlessly.'
Luke's arc is a whole self-love journey. It is about finding yourself amidst all the darkness and hopelessness. It is about being hopeful in the face of despair. It is about living tomorrow to the fullest as if your life depended on it. It is about appreciating and treasuring those who have always supported you. Be it family, friends, or your significant other. It is about cherishing the time you spend with your loved ones. It is about being selfless and chasing after your happiness no matter what the hurdle is.
Luke's arc is a journey that taught him and Rosa many life lessons. They both grew together, went through many hardships, and are maturing together. They are learning to compromise and to adjust to one another. And that makes their bond even more beloved.
Luke no longer needs to shoulder all of the burdens by himself because now he has someone else's shoulder to lean on. Rosa has Luke's shoulder to lean on as well.
It's a journey of self-growth and self-love for both of them.
Rosa and Luke are more than just childhood friends. They are more than just a couple. They are soulmates.
Two individuals who got each other's backs no matter what life throws at them. Their bond is so precious, so dear.
What Luke and Rosa have is special. And watching them grow together is such a sight.
People believe that they are canon. But even if they are not, I am convinced that they will always find each other because they are soulmates.
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I know I can look up the technical stuff on the spreadsheet, but I'm more interested in opinions here. I'm within about 150-200 points of triggering both the Sphinx and Hippogriff club TLSQs (already completed Dragon). I'm currently in the middle of Christmas at the Burrow. Presumably at least one more old Christmas TLSQ should trigger for me since I've not done any of them yet, plus the new Christmas TLSQ. So in short, December is going to be a busy time for me. I really want to play the potion event coming up, but that should work well with TLSQs, so I'm not concerned about that one. But I'm willing to bet there will be at least one more FM event in December and maybe a Crests? (I haven't seen any info on specific events yet other than the potions event.) Anyway, point being, I want to try to do it all if possible because I like most of the prizes we've seen datamined. So those of you who have done all the club TLSQs, in your opinion, which of Sphinx or Hippogriff was the easiest to complete? If there is a consensus, I'd like to try to save that one for the next FM event. Though I may not have a choice since the TLSQs sometimes force me to choose a color outline whether I want to or not, but I'm at least trying to delay and using as many blue yellow outlines as possible. OR maybe I should just go ahead and trigger one ASAP and get it behind me to free up time later in the month? (Also do we have any idea on which dates the next Christmas TLSQs should trigger?) I don't work a traditional job, so I do at least have the advantage of time. I can set timers and do my work and Holiday stuff while waiting on timers to go off. And I have the gems saved to buy the MM key, so those energy prizes will be helpful too. Any one with any advice on how to manage all this, I'd appreciate it. I really want to complete all the TLSQs, so they are the priority, but I'd love to get the other event prizes too. I'm one of those who likes to finish everything and it's kind of giving me anxiety thinking about it all, LOL. Thanks in advance!

Author note: The Cryopod to Hell is a Reddit-exclusive story with over three years of editing and refining. As of this post, the total rewrite is 1,296,000+ words long! For more information, check out the link below:
What is the Cryopod to Hell?
Join the Cryoverse Discord server!
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...................................
(Previous Part)
(Part 001)
...
General Chadwick and Corporal Hurent rush down the prison's corridors, turning left and right, going up several flights of stairs while five thousand exosuit-wearing troopers follow them.
'Contact lost with Lieutenant Samuel!' Hurent says. She checks her heads-up display and grimaces. 'His life signs are erratic. He must have taken one hell of a hit!'
The distant sounds of thunder, caused by Belial and Lucifer's battle, suddenly goes quiet. Corporal Hurent's heart leaps into her throat as she imagines the worst.
'Sounds like someone won.' Chadwick growls. 'Let's hope it was our girl and not the other one!'
Directly behind the two humans, a minotaur wearing enchanted golden armor follows them, his greataxe held at the ready. Yamir, the head chef for Jason and Phoebe Hiro, readies himself for battle while shooting glances at both of the humans before him.
'You said that Lieutenant Samuel was injured?'
Chadwick nods. 'According to his T-REX's sensors, the battle hasn't moved any closer to him, but his suit integrity has fallen below fifty percent.'
'When we arrive, I will hold the line.' Yamir says. 'The rest of you should take Samuel and Belial, and flee. I will hold Gressil back.'
'Don't be ridiculous,' Chadwick snaps, shooting a quick glance behind himself while he runs. 'If something happens to you, who will feed humanity's Hero and greatest inventor? You just make sure to keep up with the rest of us.'
Yamir nods. 'I will do as you command.'
Two minutes later, the human army rounds the final corner. They screech to a halt upon arriving at Samuel's unconscious figure, but their eyes flick several hundred meters ahead, where, in the darkness, they observe Belial and Gressil in some sort of strange standoff. Gressil's second head gazes at her, its third eye faintly glowing red in the darkness. The two Emperors stare at each other silently, without moving, as if having some sort of unseen battle of the eyes.
One of the troopers raises his gun, but Chadwick pulls it back down. 'Wait! We can't shoot Gressil, not with Belial between us and him. We might hit her in the crossfire.'
The trooper frowns. 'What are they doing, commander? It looks like they're just... staring at each other.'
'How in the damnation should I know?' Chadwick sputters. 'You know demons! There's probably some crazy magic bullshit going on. Let's not interfere unless it looks like Belial needs our help.'
Hurent drops to one knee. She motions to a pair of Clinicians, then gestures toward Samuel's motionless body. 'Fix this fellow up, then get him warped back to the Core!'
'Yes, Corporal!'
After confirming Samuel hasn't suffered any grievous injuries, the human army teleports him back to the Core, then returns to full alert, keeping all of their eyes locked on the Emperor of Chaos.
After five minutes, Chadwick begins to grind his teeth.
'What in the god-damn are those two doing? Are they trying to intimidate each other? I've never seen anything like it.'
Corporal Hurent raises a sniper rifle and takes aim at Gressil's head. 'General. I'm fully confident I can land a hit on the prison warden without hitting Belial. Permission to take the shot?'
'You might be confident, but I'm not...' Chadwick mutters. 'If we hit Belial, she won't be able to use her healing magic to patch herself up. You know how important she is to Phoebe.'
Hurent keeps the barrel of her rifle trained on Gressil's head. 'Mmm. Alright. I'll wait for movement, then. In the meantime-'
'AAAAAAHHH!!'
Gressil's second head suddenly screams with enough rage to scare the piss out of every human present. Corporal Hurent involuntarily flinches and squeezes the trigger, releasing a gauss round that rockets down the corridor at the speed of sound. Due to her fright, she screws up her aim, and the bullet whizzes harmlessly past Gressil's head, sending a sonic boom pulsing down the hallway with a loud crack!
'Hurent!' Chadwick shouts.
'Sorry! That scream scared the crap out of me!' Hurent apologizes.
At the same time, all hell breaks loose. Belial's fist snaps forward and blasts Lucifer's head, sending the Emperor of Chaos flying backward. An instant after her punch connects, Belial kicks off the floor and dashes after her opponent, opting to send a punch downward into Gressil's abdomen.
THUMP!!
Belial punches the Emperor of Chaos with all her strength, shattering over a dozen bones in his chest and battering him into the floor. Half a second later, she unloads another violent flurry of punches at the entombed prison warden, each blow crashing against his body to inflict terrible amounts of pain.
Boom-boom-boom!
Belial punches, kicks, and batters Gressil and Lucifer with the fury of an enraged widow. Each strike carries the full hatred she's accumulated over many eons, including all of the blame she once placed on herself for Satan's death.
'IT WAS YOU WHO KILLED HIM!' Belial roars. 'I'LL RIP YOU TO FUCKING SHREDS, LUCIFER!!'
Unable to access her transformation magic, Belial can't change her fingers into claws to more easily slice into Gressil's abdomen, but she still manages to forcibly impale her fingers into his flesh and rip out huge chunks.
'Aaargh!' Lucifer screams. 'Get off me, whore!'
The Emperor of Providence charges up an attack from her third eye, but the moment it fires, Belial shifts her entire body weight to the side, dodges the blast, and follows up with a vicious punch right to Lucifer's face.
THUMP!
Lucifer's vision goes blurry. For a brief moment, she slips unconscious.
In that instant, Gressil's eyes open to glare at Belial.
'Enough of this.'
Before Belial can stop him, Gressil flicks a finger. His body disappears, teleporting from right underneath her feet.
The Emperor of Chaos reappears fifty meters away, the bloody wounds and gouged-out eyes on his chest making him appear three times more hideous than usual. He leans against the wall and coughs up huge wads of blood, glaring daggers at Belial.
'Ignorant female. If you wish to make mincemeat out of me, you'll have to do better than that. I am not nearly as fragile as that woman.'
As always, Gressil never directly mentions his mother's name, opting to refer to her in the third person.
Belial lunges at him. 'Do you only know how to run, Gressil?! Fight me, if you dare!'
The instant before Belial's punch connects with Gressil's chest, a flicker of movement appears beside her. Gressil materializes with his fist raised.
THUMP!
He blasts the side of Belial's head with a right hook, sending her hurtling to the side.
The moment the human troops see Belial's fortunes reverse, they take aim at Gressil and open fire.
A hailstorm of bullets rips down the corridor, catching Gressil off-guard. The prison-warden growls angrily as two dozen tank-piercing rounds tear into and out of his body, dealing brutal amounts of damage. He flickers out of reality again, but this time, doesn't reappear.
'You have done well this time, humans.' Gressil says, his eerily calm voice floating through the Labyrinth's stale air. 'But now, you have truly angered me. I will leave you with a parting gift.'
Belial recovers from Gressil's unexpected punch. She climbs to her feet and shakes off the mild concussion, then glances around to look for him.
'Where did Gressil go?' Belial asks.
'I... I don't know. He might still be here,' Chadwick says. 'Or... he might have left?'
The humans swivel on their feet, cautiously checking every adjacent cell, the ceiling, and every corner, just in case Gressil might be lurking nearby. However, nobody finds anything.
Suddenly, Yamir stands up a little straighter, then sniffs the air.
'!!!'
The minotaur's expression turns ugly. He turns to look in Belial's direction, but his eyes gaze well past her, into the furthest reaches of Faith's End.
'Everyone! Enemies are on the way... they're... Hellhounds... and something else! I do not recognize their smell!'
Belial turns around. Her demonic vision allows her to see through even the blackest of nights, so she easily manages to pick out a flood of approaching creatures skittering on the walls, ceiling, and floors.
Her heart leaps into her throat.
'It's the Grez! Gressil is sending his minions to take us out! Everyone, run for the exit, hurry!'
The Grez, each one a fearful monster with the same strength as a typical Demon Baron, race toward the humans at alarming speeds, screeching and chittering in some bug-like language, while a massive force of several hundred Hellhounds joins them.
The lead Hellhound, a truly monstrous female with fifty eyes on her head and claws capable of ripping through titanium, barrels ahead of the pack and roars at Belial.
'BETRAYERRR!'
Belial doesn't recognize the Hellhound, but she easily picks up on the distinct hatred in its voice. Despite possessing more than enough strength to take the huge dire wolf down, Belial doesn't dare to face it down along with so many other monsters in unison. She turns tail and flees, while the Labyrinth begins to shake under the stampede.
'Head for the exits!' Belial repeats. She continues to run, finding that her magical energy hasn't returned yet. 'Gressil must be somewhere nearby! Don't let down your guard!'
What follows is a terrifying chase that leaves sweat pouring down the backs of the humans, Belial, and the lone minotaur, Yamir.
Yamir and Belial take up the rear. Whenever the flood of monsters gets too close, Belial punches the walls to collapse the Labyrinth behind her, but this makeshift barricade of earthen debris only slows the Grez down for a few moments before they burst through, screeching all the while.
Up ahead, one of the human commandos screams in fright. A pair of Grez appears from a corridor in front of him and barrels directly into the wall of exosuit-wearing soldiers without fear. Before anyone can react, the two Grez impale and eviscerate half a dozen men and woman, killing them on the spot. By the time other soldiers turn their guns on the ambushers, the Grez manage to kill another dozen humans.
'Backup! We need backup!' Chadwick shouts.
Belial stays in the back, but Yamir releases a roar and leaps over the heads of the humans in the tightly packed corridor. Using the magic inside his ancestral armor, he runs sideways along the wall, raises his greataxe, and dives down onto one of the Grez.
The minotaur's blade chops into a weak point in the Grez's armor, drawing a small amount of blood. However, it instantly spins around and lunges at him, stabbing its two forward-facing mandibles against Yamir's armor.
Corporal Hurent takes aim with her sniper rifle. In the blink of an eye, her suit assists her aim to point directly at the bloodied wound Yamir left. She squeezes the trigger, and a powerful gauss round fires into the Grez's neck.
The monster doesn't even get to utter one last cry of pain. Its spine ends up severed, and its final attack merely crumples against Yamir's armor.
Chadwick rallies his men. He spreads them around the second remaining Grez, pinning it down and preventing anyone else from taking it on alone. He coordinates with Yamir and Hurent to kill the second one, but with its dying breath, it fires both of its mandibles from its body, impaling two of the Clinicians. They both perish instantly, with not even their exosuits managing to protect them.
Chadwick spares only a single glance for the fallen. His commander module transmits data to his HUD, allowing him to see that in just the last five minutes, twenty soldiers have died.
'Keep moving!' Chadwick barks. 'You, grab Private Jacob's body! And you, grab Private Leera! Let's move! Don't you dare leave your comrades for these bastards to eat! They deserve honorable deaths!'
The group's forward momentum resumes, but having wasted so much time killing the two Grez, the humans become acutely aware that their enemies have likely split up and circled around to encircle them.
'Two Grez shit all over us...' Chadwick mutters, keeping his voice low so as not to demoralize his subordinates. 'But if ten, twenty, or even more show up... I can't see us making it out of here alive.'
As they flee, the humans' exosuits detect noises up ahead. They slow to a stop, and Chadwick grimaces.
'Fuck.'
A T-shaped junction splits off to the right and left, and from both directions, the sounds of screeching and howling come barreling toward the humans.
In an instant, Chadwick's life flashes before his eyes.
He remembers the time he spent with his wife and child... before the Great War. He served under a Norwegian King named Haakon and fought honorably under his command... until the Sphinx, Bahamut, ensnared him with her Riddle Magic and stole him away.
Chadwick grits his teeth. He stands up a little straighter as a surge of pride rushes through his veins.
'Look sharp, men! These monsters have us surrounded! Our goal is no longer to escape, but to attack in all directions! Cut Gressil's rats down, and give no quarter!'
Behind the company, Belial lashes out against the lead Hellhound, a truly massive wolf standing twelve feet tall and twenty feet long. The savage monster towers over her, oppressing her with its sheer size.
'You attacked my mother!' The Hellhound roars. 'I am Maelgamish, Lucifer's mightiest beast! Remember my name when I send you to the Great Beyond!'
The Hellhound swings her claws at Belial. The succubus dives to the side, narrowly evading the attack and causing Maelgamish's talons to rake the walls. Each claw leaves a six-inch gash in the Labyrinth's earthen surface.
Again and again, Maelgamish slashes and bites at Belial, while the smaller Hellhounds and several dozen Grez surround her and cut her off from the human army. To Belial's alarm, the Hellhound leader possesses not only a remarkable amount of cunning, but superior tactical control of the Grez. She lines them up to deliberately blockade Belial from easily rushing to her friends' aid, while taking her sweet time pinning the former Second Emperor down.
Several mutated Hellhounds vomit balls of acid, fire, and poison at Belial. One particularly acrid poison-ball explodes into fumes beside her, gagging Belial and forcing her to retreat into a nearby cell. This makeshift chokepoint doesn't protect her for long, as Maelgamish tears the door out and flings it away before snapping her jaws into the room to try and bite Belial in half.
'Come here, woman!' Maelgamish howls. 'I want to taste your flesh!'
The distant sounds of human screams causes Belial's heart to skip a beat. She pounces at the cell walls and smashes her fist into them. She breaks through, only to find seven Grez waiting for her in the adjacent cell.
'Shit!'
Belial curses audibly as the seven monsters pounce on her and begin ripping their claws into her flesh. Belial screams and fights back, but each claw tears her clothes and skin, spraying blood in every direction.
In a fit of rage, Belial begins swinging her fists wildly. Her fortunes reverse as she smashes right through the incredible dermal armor protecting the Grez. She crushes them with ease, splatters their brains, and tears them apart. However, in the ten seconds it takes her to kill Gressil's hellspawn, a sense of danger prickles at the back of her neck. She spins around just in time to see Maelgamish's claw rushing at her back.
Slash!
'Aaaeeii!'
Belial screams as the Hellhounds paw rips off her left arm, tears across her ribs and waist, and sends her flying backward. She slams against the wall and momentarily loses consciousness. When she blinks her eyes open again, her heart jolts in fright, as the black-maned Hellhound pounces at her, its jaws open wide.
'No!'
The instant before Maelgamish can end Belial's life, a figure flickers in front of her, nearly moving faster than her eyes can follow.
Thunk.
Jason Hiro reaches out his palm and casually grabs Maelgamish by her nose. He halts the seemingly unstoppable Hellhound in her tracks, making her jerk to a violent halt as if having slammed against a steel wall.
For a brief moment, invisible question marks pop up over the Hellhound's head.
Then, the Hero balls up his right fist, rears it back, and socks the giant dire wolf right in her nose!
THUMP!
Like a wave crashing against a sand-castle, the Hero's punch blasts the Hellhound backward. Maelgamish flies fifty feet away, crashing into the opposite wall of the previous cell. The massive mutt jumps to her feet purely due to adrenaline, then staggers weakly and flops to the floor.
'Aaoo...'
Belial's heart pounds like a drum, blocking out even the pain wracking her body.
'Jason... Jason... oh, thank god... you... you saved me...'
She struggles to speak to the man before her, while he continues to keep his back to her. After a moment, he turns around, but his appearance makes Belial blink twice.
'...Eh?'
Something about the Hero's face doesn't quite seem right. As if his appearance were recreated by somebody with only ninety percent of the Creator's original capability. Rather than looking like Jason, this fellow looks more like a sloppy-copy of the Hero.
'Jason?' Belial asks, not sure who the hell she's even looking at. 'Is... is that you?'
'Jason' says nothing. He simply reaches toward Belial, grabs her right arm, and pulls her to her feet. For a brief moment, Belial almost feels afraid of this strange, alien-like Jason, until she remembers a specific something.
'That's right! I have seen you before! Aren't you that weird copy-Jason he put outside the Core? That thing he made to protect humanity? There are two of you, right?'
The copy-Jason still remains silent, as if incapable of speaking. He half-drags Belial outside, where she realizes the sounds of distant screams have all but stopped. When Belial and the copy-Jason arrive outside, she blinks in surprise, finding all of the Grez and Hellhounds either dead or long-gone, having fled for their lives. A second copy-Jason stands guard beside the humans, mutely assessing their injuries without taking any action to help them.
Belial sighs in relief.
'So it is them... but... why don't they speak?'
When she rejoins the humans, Belial finds that, to her dismay, almost a thousand more soldiers have died, while a further five hundred have suffered terrible injuries. In the few short minutes Maelgamish pinned her down inside that cell, the Grez surrounded the army and cut through them without hesitation.
Chadwick leans against a wall and coughs. He lowers his helmet, revealing exhausted eyes and a bloodied nose.
'Fuck. I thought we were goners. Lucky for us, the Hero sent these... things here. I still don't even know what they are.'
Belial leans heavily against the copy-Jason who saved her. She sighs and closes her eyes.
'Me neither. But at least they saved us... most of us.'
'If only they had made it here sooner...' Corporal Hurent mutters. 'We lost too many good men and women.'
'Help me tend to the wounded,' Chadwick says. 'We lost almost all of our Clinicians. The rest are short-handed. I swear those Grez must have targeted them. They seemed much smarter than the last time we fought...'
Belial frowns. 'They were smarter. Hold on, just one moment.'
The succubus pulls away from her copy-Jason and steps back into the cell she just left. When she looks inside, her expression turns ugly.
The Hellhound leader, Maelgamish, is nowhere in sight.
'...Lucifer.' Belial hisses. 'Damn you. I should have killed that mutt when I had the chance.'
She returns to the wounded soldiers and sits down, allowing the few remaining Clinicians to patch her up.
An hour later, the human army picks up their dead and carts them out of Faith's End.
This time, Gressil's minions don't pursue them.
Next Part

As the title says, what languages does your character speak and what languages are you hoping to learn? My character, a Human Ranger, can speak Common, Elvish, Draconic, Sylvan, Primordial, Great Eagle and Sphinx. I'm hoping he can learn Undercommon at some point since he's dating a Drow and I thought it would be kind of sweet. Plus, if and when he meets her parents I'm sure knowing at least a little Undercommon would help.

What? What do you mean “What?”
You know, the weird alien art that started popping up all over the world late last year. Check out the Wikipedia article on it. What seemed like a singularity at first quickly became a plethora -- there were over 200 by year's end I believe. It was right after the 2020 election, and a wonderful distraction from the tension and trauma we’d suffered that year.
The first one was randomly sighted in what was formerly enclosed in Bears Ears National Monument in Southeastern Utah, in a red rock canyon, by state biologists doing a survey of bighorn sheep. It was discovered on November 18, 2020, but, according to Reddit researchers and Google Earth, it had been placed sometime between July and October 2016. The next year, in 2017, President Trump reduced the size of Bears Ears Monument, opening up this area to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
So anyway, people were instantly intrigued and obsessed with this strange sculpture. Like, how random, right? This lonely, triangular, metallic beacon just standing straight up and down in a slot canyon in Lockhart Basin -- in the middle of nowhere. For why? By who? What did it mean? Was it aliens? We instantly started calling it a “monolith” because it reminded us of the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey.” It appeared in the same mysterious manner and in the same rocky terrain, anyway. This one was shiny and silver though, not matte black. And it was equally three sided, not an iPhone-dimensioned slab, like the one in the film.
We the people, of course, had to go see it. We hiked out to the Google Earth coordinates to do our own examinations and get our own selfies, and to document the simple fact of our coexistence with history in time. So many selfies were posted, in fact, that the locals began to worry about their beautiful outback. So on 27 November, four Utah locals went out and disassembled it (“No Disassemble!!!”) - “to preserve the natural environment.” According to Wikipedia, it is now held (reassembled or in pieces?) by the BLM.
But then, another one! Almost identical, was discovered in Romania! It was found the day before the Utah monolith was dismantled, in fact, on 26 November. Almost as soon as it hit the internet though, just three days later, it disappeared, seemingly as mysteriously as it arrived.
Then there was another, and another, popping up randomly all over the globe. Here is a short list of some of my favorites, copy/pasted from Wikipedia today on 16 Nov 2021 around 5pm EST:
South Australia[edit]
On December 10, 2020, a monolith was discovered along the Seaford railway line, just south of the Noarlunga Centre in Adelaide, South Australia. The monolith has four separate coordinates marked on the side.[151] It is believed to be erected separate from the YouTube group who filmed themselves erecting a monolith outside of Melbourne.[152] The coordinates appear to be (from top to bottom): (40.7624N, 73.9738W), (15.2413973N, 145.7122932E), (17.75N, 142.5E), (29.97N, 31.1375E). The second coordinate is based on the news report; it is hard to make out from photos and thus can't be verified without a clear photo. These coordinates point approximately to: (1) Trump Tower, New York City, New York, USA, (2) Managaha Island, North Mariana Islands, (3) The Mariana Trench (NW of Managaha Island), (4) The Sphinx in Giza, Egypt.[153] This monolith was replaced with three metal rebar poles/stakes.[154] The 3 clear coordinates point in a straight line from Trump Tower to the Sphinx to the Mariana Trench (with the less clear coordinate of Managaha Island being near the Mariana Trench.[155]
(Ok actually, the rest are all equal in my eyes, so, a very very short list lol)
It was around this time that I saw the 2018 Kanye West visit to the Oval Office for the first time. I had started looking into him during the last couple weeks of the 2020 election, right after the Joe Rogan episode. I’m a little slow so it took me until late November to get to that video. I noticed instantly that he enunciated the phrase MONOLITHIC THOUGHT very clearly exactly twice in that “rant”. He also called Larry Hoover a LIVING STATUE, and a BEACON for us. He also related that doctors had looked at his (Kanye’s) brain and determined that it was EQUAL ON THREE PARTS, and that he wasn’t BI-polar, but rather had sleep deprivation.
Then I saw Kanye’s Closed on Sunday music video. I noticed the red rocks landscape his family slept in as he watched over them, awake, in the morning light. I decided I’d better actually watch the “2001: A Space Odyssey” film for myself. I rented it on YouTube. I fell asleep through it at least 3 times. But by the 4th viewing I had finally kept my eyes open to the end to witness the alien-fashioned fetus floating back toward Earth.
I noticed that this film was released the day before Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated - 3 April and 4 April, 1968. My man would be born a month later on May 4 (may the fourth be with you - my memory jogging device.). I noticed that this was also the last year that we had 3 candidates split the electoral college vote for our presidential elections. In November 1968, Richard NIxon defeated both George Wallace and Hubert Humphries to become the 37th President of these our United States.
I figured someone else out there HAD to be seeing this too, so there had to be some sort of article on it somewhere on the web. I searched and searched, but I never found anything about Kanye and the monolith art. But I did find a video of Kanye “ranting” back stage on SNL in early 2016, comparing himself to the writer and director of “2001:” (Stanley Kubrick), saying he was more influential than him, and others (Pablo Escobar, the Apostle Paul, and Pablo Picasso, namely) — by 50%, specifically. I also found a silly conspiracy theory about David Bowie prophesying the birth of Kanye West in his 1972 album “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.”
I looked more into this Bowie album and theory. I noticed how, not only did Ziggy proclaim on the 1st track that we only had 5 years left, David Bowie also sang of a Starman (4th track) waiting in the sky (the astronaut in “2001:” was named Dave Bowman) who’s “told us not to blow it ‘cuz he knows it's all worthwhile.” Five years later nearly to the date of the Ziggy album’s release, on 8 June 1977, Kanye West was born.
Those songs aren’t what began the theory, of course. It was the album art - the photo of the Bowie Ziggy posing on a dark London street beneath a prominent yet inexplicable yellow sign reading simply “K.West.” The sign, get this, belonged to a London FURRIER firm incorporated as K. West. The dictionary I consulted confirmed to me that a furrier is, as I suspected, a firm that trades and deals in FURS - as in, the most primitive form of fashion.
I did some more research on Bowie. I noticed David Bowie had another album in 1974 titled Diamond Dogs. The 4th track on this album is titled “The Candidate.” David Bowie passed away on 10 January 2016 from liver cancer, just two days after his 69th birthday. On 8 January that year, his last birthday, Bowie released his last album - Blackstar. The first track on this album is also titled “Blackstar,” and proclaims “I can’t answer why (I’m not a gangster) But I can tell you how (I’m not a flam star) We were born upside-down (I’m a star star) Born the wrong way ‘round (I’m not a white star. I’m a black star. I’m not a gangster. I’m a black star)”. The video features a girl who looks eerily like me walking across a moon-like landscape up to a dry skeleton in a spacesuit with jewels in his teeth. It also features what might as well be the cast of an 80’s Sister Wives series chanting around a candle.
I listened to more Kanye music. I quickly realized his 2010 album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” was his most critically acclaimed and favorite of all time. I listened to it cover to cover. I couldn’t help but notice how totally timely the lyrics were to the year in which I was listening - 2020.
I noticed that “2001:” had a sequel that came out in 1984. This one was titled “2010: The Year we Make Contact.” I noticed that in this film we learn why HAL 9000 from “2001:” short circuited - it was asked to lie. I noticed that the name of the government official’s character in the 1984 film was Dr. Floyd.I noticed that in 1999, Dr. King’s family sued Loyd Jowers for wrongful death. In this civil suit both sides, the Kings and Loyd, presented evidence against the US Government. The jury agreed with both sides, and awarded the Kings the $100 in damages that they had asked for — to make the point that it was about truth, not about money. In 2000, the US Department of Justice threw out the case due to lack of evidence…somehow. Later that year, George W. Bush was elected.
The next year, 2001 - September 11, began the next chapter of this, our United story. Because suddenly we quit arguing over whether that election was legitimate or not. Suddenly Gore’s climate agenda was forgotten as we mourned together; enlisted in droves; collectively supported our cops, firemen, and troops; and painted American Flags on our streets.
I was one of the 19 year olds that went to the military recruiter that fall. They tested me and decided to make me a Linguist. They taught me Hebrew and Tigrinya and all about Top Secret intel stuff. 16 years later, I declined to reenlist for my 4th time. Because in 2016, we elected Donald Trump. And he said ugly things like “He was captured (speaking of his fellow Republican, my fellow veteran and POW John McCain) - I like people who weren’t captured, OK?” and “Take the oil,” and “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to (hack into our Secretary of State’s emails).”
And I hadn’t been feeling it for a minute anyway. LIke, what had we accomplished really, in Iraq? We had traded Sadam for ISIS and destabilized an entire region. Not to mention the mountains of civilian casualties and neighborhoods destroyed. I left a pension in the wings. I didn’t want it anymore. I couldn’t.
And so then I was glued to NPR and PBS for the next three years. I became a massage therapist to soothe my soul. It soothed it in some ways, yet super sensitized it in others. By the time I heard of Kanye, my heart was open and bleeding, desperately searching for some sign of hope.
Then Kanye ran for president. He barely even tried and still garnered 60K votes across 12 states, coming in 4th in Utah with over 4000 votes (0.4%).
And then…
The Monolith appeared in Utah, during a bighorn sheep survey, in Bears Ears National Monument.
And we all drank to that. Amen.

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