Last Light of a Dark Age (Warhammer 29K/Disco Elysium)

[Cetashwayo]

Either those are dashes that aren't separate, supposed to be hyphens connecting to detached/missing segments, and/or unintentional?

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Intentional.

I'm unsure if these are referring to the abyss or to hylic's specifically? If it is the latter then shouldn't those "its" be respectively "their?"

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It was intentional but "their" is better here, thanks.

All corrections made for 13. I think all of these were typos, no intentionality, just little goofs. Thank you.

 

[IronKnightofSilv]

While attempting to find whale-themed jazz, given that whalesong is looking to maintain its lead as the vote has died down, I had a revelation. Mr. Morrow is not Walt Disney or Mr. House (surface appearances asside); he is Andrew Ryan. I wonder if cube Indigo will have Rapture vibes given the post 1920-1940 vibes.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWnNNKIEnKk&ab_channel=Harkov%27sFolly

 

[UARTman]

While attempting to find whale-themed jazz, given that whalesong is looking to maintain its lead as the vote has died down, I had a revelation. Mr. Morrow is not Walt Disney or Mr. House (surface appearances asside); he is Andrew Ryan. I wonder if cube Indigo will have Rapture vibes given the post 1920-1940 vibes.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWnNNKIEnKk&ab_channel=Harkov%27sFolly

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Besides all the figures you mentioned as Morrow inspirations, I think it's also an important fact that one of the most historically important exports of Cybaris are rockets. Just saying. He can be Elon Musk too, y'know?

 

[blue marble]

Besides all the figures you mentioned as Morrow inspirations, I think it's also an important fact that one of the most historically important exports of Cybaris are rockets. Just saying. He can be Elon Musk too, y'know?

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But mr morrow is smart, unlike musk

 

[Fayhem]

Working on catching up after lo, these several moons:

Sparks crackle at the hair-tips of Vehement Humility's pixie cut, as she seethes and tightens her hands into fists, about to fight. But Lovergirl's takyon tripwire activates, and she closes six meters and appears in front of Humility within a second. She cups Humility's face in a hand, symsynthetic flakmuscle tightening and inflating until the arm below her wrist has tripled in size, biceps, triceps, forearm straining against the loose sleeves of her blouse.

"I wouldn't try it, killer," she whispers to Humility, tone husky, "I would hate to waste your rockin' hardbody without asking for permission first."

She lightly squeezes Humility's cheeks, with the kind of idle strength that you know could detach her head with a flick. Humility lowers her fists, and bows, blushing, ears red, hair-tips crackling, with a different, and extremely confused, emotion.

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Forbidden Jutsu: Genre Shift!

She keeps walking like nothing happened. But you're an honest soul, so there's not much to worry about." She claps three hands. "Now come, darling. There's plenty more to do."

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*"But you're an honest soul

She's so excited to leave the copse. To leave you.

Of course - of course you wanted her to. But you didn't expect - you didn't expect her to actually go. To go, and leave you behind.

The two of you meet eyes. You try to hide how stricken you are, but your chest is breaking in two. You can't breathe. You want to scream at the top of your lungs, to run up to her, to clutch to her robe and her legs and weigh her down. You want to shout:

Please don't leave me, Mel. I'm already so alone. I was just hurt, just pretending. I really did just want to talk about xenos and music with you.

But you don't. You can't. You bury it. And she barely registers it, and keeps talking to Mulberry.

And you lose your chance.

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pain

an oblivion witch, a twisted null-field user that inflicts true death on souls or seals them inside lightless crystals for some sinister design. Such witches are a plague upon the reputation of hylics everywhere.

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But have you considered that the title "oblivion witch" is fucking sick as hell.

"Then that means you're going," you say, trying to hide the disappointment in your voice. These were the…they were nice days. The strings hardly hurt at all.

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The way she has to stop herself from thinking "these were the happiest days of my life" 😭

There is a plaque carved into the wood. It reads: Here lies BDH. She wanted to live.

You can guess that this was Sympathy's hylic love. But…BDH are the initials of your name.

Task Updated: Find Out Your Name

Article: [NEW] Finding #7: Carved into the tree of Sympathy's lost love, the initials of your name. BDH. You share this, with her.

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Miss Normal? Nay nay, Big Damn Hero.

She exhales. "And then again with you. I've wasted another opportunity, Harmony. I've wasted another life, that was not mine to waste. It's my fault. It's all my fault."

You try to keep it together, blinking away wetness.

"And I'm alone. And you're alone."

Mulberry's words echo. Let them in.

You take a risk. A gamble.

"Then let's be alone together," you whisper.

Your null field expands, hugging her within your cold embrace. Nothing exists but the two of you, but the sea's not bitter. You absorb the suffering of her, but it does not hurt to take it in, this time.

It helps you. It helps her. It helps you both.

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The feels...

"And he told me that all of his people had died, but for a pathetic splinter, and his empire was gone, and all his Gods had perished, and his real soul had been eaten, this nothing more than an after-echo, a ghost, in the warp. But his greatest regret, he said, was that he had not, in his long life, made enough friends. He said if he had more time, that's what he would do. And I told him I could be his friend, because you know, I was still in Nursery and you just have that naive innocence where you meet a talking xeno corpse in an evil forest and your first response is, hey wanna be pals."

You laugh at that, and she continues.

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lmfaooooooooooo

Task updated: Escape Mental Samara

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*Samsara

But one self dissents. On the night before the copse embarks their battle-cloud for the muster point of Unbreakable Embrace, 30 Dutiful Epiphany is at your door. She is hooded, and has packed two bags. She is deserting, and she wants you to go with her. To a stillmasonic lodge, to practice medicine in the sanctuary of gnosis. To run, before it is too late. For you, and for her.

Sympathy has approved it - though she did not approve of taking you.

She struggles to form the words that she must have rotated daily in her mind for years, as she built up the nerve and the courage. You've inspired her. You were the only one who ever cared for her, as her, not as a Kora, not as a self. You listened to her, and didn't think she was stupid, or defective.

The love you held and her commitment to refuse to fight are one in the same. Her whole body shakes with passion and fear. This is a terrible risk. This is a terrible sin. But please, she begs. You are not a thing. You do not deserve this. You do not deserve to be what they've made you. Let her take you away.

There is still someone in there, she says, warm hands reaching out for your cold, gloved ones that cover so many scars and burns. Someone to find. Someone to discover. If only you would let down your walls. If only you would let her in.

She is trying so hard. It is so genuine. You didn't expect this. You thought she had forgotten about you. You thought she had given up on you.

You had given up on yourself, long ago.

A life flashes before your eyes, a seed that she planted. Happiness. Compassion. Peace. Working, every day, to help the sick, the needy, the desperate, the injured. Working by her side. Sleeping with her side. Romance. Intimacy. Passion. Protected by gnosis. Free, under gnosis. Anointed not in blood, but with a healing salve. It is sweet. It is wonderful.

It will never happen. You uproot the seed, and crush it, before it can bloom.

"No."

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augh

"I'm saying," Humility breathes, static forming in her hair from brooding wrath, "that the perfect martyr has no attachments. Just because she put her pontiff's halo back on means nothing. She was defective, and defied them. And she's attached to us. To you, too. You can tell how she keeps committing to strategies that try to keep our casualties down, how she's working without sleep to cover us when we're fighting. She's a one-woman army, but it's wearing her down."

"So it's easier - it's easier, if they send us to the front, and we all die. Then they can have their perfect instrument, without distractions, without attachments. One more useful than any of us are, individually. They do it with Revenant hearts, sometimes, I've heard. Widow them from their battle-lovers so that the Revenant can be molded into something fully theirs."

You see it in your mind's eye. "A Kora isn't supposed to truly devote herself anyone, but Her. True love of another self is…"

"It's an obstacle," Humility finishes what you could not.

Your stomach drops. Even the regret inhibitor cannot suppress the feeling. You knew it, but you never dared say it so bluntly.

You suck in a breath through your teeth. "Then what do we do?"

Humility fixes you with a sharp, defiant glare. "The same thing you helped Radiance do, tonight. Survive, and spite them all to the demiurge's spiral hell."

You harden your own gaze, and lock arms with her. "Survive, and spite them all to spiral hell," you vow.

For the first time in your life, you might have a copse that believes in you, and wants you. Not as a witch, but as a person. You need this. You need to keep them alive. For your sake. For theirs.

But it is not a promise you, or she, can keep.

On the battlefield, no one is the master of their own fate.

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The way this entire goddamned planet is just a fractal kaleidoscope of endlessly permutative shitfuckery. No good side. Only bad sides.

You see it in your mind's eye. "A Kora isn't supposed to truly devote herself anyone, but Her. True love of another self is…"

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Also, *to anyone

Something is growing inside them. And Immaculate Sympathy can feel it too, through her psychic link. You have never seen her as shaken as when she reaches out and sees what is attaching to their souls. She spends as much time as she can with them, in their beds. They keep scratching - they start to try and break their carapace open to get it out. And then the black crystal growths appear on their skin.

It is hard to describe. It is hard to watch. The filtration system of the warmasks was not designed for the gas, because it is not a normal gas. It is intentional. It is a thinking disease. It wants inside you, and waits carefully, settling on masks and then maneuvering inside. There are no stillmasons who can combat it. Who can find a cure. They have never seen it before.

The only thing they agree on is that it doesn't affect you. It doesn't attack you. The growths spread on them, and you are fine. You stay with them throughout it, and you are fine. The crystals start to go for joints, make it impossible to move, impossible to eat, and you are fine. Why are you fine? Why do you deserve to be fine, while they die like this? Can't you take away, just a little pain?

And why do these crystals remind you of the void crystals in the copse, of the crystals used by null witches?

You try to reach out yourself, but your null field is optimized for terror. And when you use your wireframe warpsight, the reflection in the crystal focuses a fetid, green-tinted eye upon you.

In a grotesque, gargle, it promises that you cannot save them. You have avoided its gifts long enough.

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They let fucking Nurgle in????? Those dumb fucks. Nice job innovating a way to make this horrendous hellplanet somehow even worse.

It feels like a lifetime go you watched it - but that was a mere seven months past.

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*ago

 

[Some_guy_161]

My intention was less to create a barrier to entry and more offer a further place of discussion for people really engaged in the quest which they can export back into the thread, but it's something I'd certainly consider.

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That sounds unnecessarily complex. I think it would be better to just have said discussion on the thread to keep everything in one place. The active commenters are the ones keeping the thread alive between votes; why would you want to funnel them into a Discord server and leave the thread even more dead?

Personally, someone posting about something that happened in a discord server irritates me because I'd have to trawl my way through said server to get the full context behind one person's post. I'm not going to spend more time and energy looking for supplementary discussions on an external site.

 

[IronKnightofSilv]

That sounds unnecessarily complex. I think it would be better to just have said discussion on the thread to keep everything in one place. The active commenters are the ones keeping the thread alive between votes; why would you want to funnel them into a Discord server and leave the thread even more dead?

Personally, someone posting about something that happened in a discord server irritates me because I'd have to trawl my way through said server to get the full context behind one person's post. I'm not going to spend more time and energy looking for supplementary discussions on an external site.

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I believe Discord was already being used, given this quest's popularity, complex lore ripe for theory crafting, and that the qm is not the type of person to make anyone feel excluded, even inadvertently, given that we have gotten large amounts of lore dumped into the information threads from even simple questions. Next, these threads are never truly dead, as many people post here frequently and many others read and reread threads at varying paces. FOMO is an internal feeling that we all have to manage, and in this case, I don't think a discord would be an issue as long as it's not too much effort on the GM, there is a strong enough interest, and there is no information hoarding.

 

[Some_guy_161]

I believe Discord was already being used, given this quest's popularity, complex lore ripe for theory crafting, and that the qm is not the type of person to make anyone feel excluded, even inadvertently, given that we have gotten large amounts of lore dupped into the information threads from even simple questions. Next, these threads are never truly dead, as many people post here frequently and many others read and reread threads at varying paces. FOMO is an internal feeling that we all have to manage, and in this case, I don't think a discord would be an issue as long as it's not too much effort on the GM, there is a strong enough interest, and there is no information hoarding.

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There is no Discord server. This discussion was over whether one should exist or not. Regarding inclusivity, anyone could ping Cetashwayo with a question and I wouldn't doubt that they'd receive an answer within a day. It's more an issue of thread culture and QM disposition, and has little bearing in this discussion. Additionally, I am not against Discord due to FOMO, but rather that it's easier for a new reader to enter a current discussion when all the past discussions are in one place, instead of spread between two websites.

 

[Potato Anarchy]

There's already discussion in at least three or four discords, plus this thread, because QMs so far lack the power to control the actions of private individuals. That's the distinction being made here; it is not a choice between one place and two places, it is a choice between leaving it as one+many or trying to centralize some of the secondary options in one place, down to one+one (+some, realistically).

 

[IronKnightofSilv]

I see. In that case, I think that the discord vs. no discord debate should be left open until a consensus is reached, since both sides have their own points. Maybe a poll could be set up.

 

[IToadlyFrogot]

A king in yellow.

He hatches in Agartha, under the towers behind the moon. Its sacred shell that would shield the world - cracks, yellow.

He rises up to Shamballa, and the pure spring where newborn Kalki would first quench his thirst - runs yellow.

He is in Tian, in the court of jade-jeweled majesty, but the halls are empty, and the jade - glows yellow.

He seals the gates of moksha shut forever with cruel-wrought ropes and chains - of yellow.

The leaves of good gan eden, where walked the first and were meant to walk the last of man - curl yellow.

He brings down the spheres of Paradiso, and heaven's sphere-carved craters - gleam yellow.

The levels of divine pleasure, where the faithful should reside, drown - in yellow.

The cross of passion's lord is empty, and where his body hanged are stains - of yellow.

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Considering we're now awake, I decided to go look at the King in Yellow prophecy again.

The King in Yellow Prophecy contains references to many different beliefs that'll be corrupted into wicked, wicked yellowness so here's all the ones I caught.

There's the Chambers reference then it's combined that with Agartha, an occult belief about a kingdom within the Earth that's ruled by either a King of the World or Ascended Masters.

Then it goes and uses Shamballa which is also associated with the occult (it's complicated) but also Hinduism (that's where Kalki is from) and it's also where the fifth(!) Buddha is supposed to rule (quite the busy place really).

Tian seems kind of complicated as a term but it's like heaven either as a place or a concept in Chinese Mythology (Taoism, Confucianism). IDK it's old enough that I think it appears on Shang oracle bones so there's a lot of history and accrued meaning going on there.

Moksha is a term for spiritual liberation in like four different religions (Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism) although they're like different states or stages depending on the religion?

Gan Eden is just well Eden but I think it's specifically a reference to Judaism.

Apparently in the grimdark future, Dante has gotten promoted quite a way because that's where Paradiso comes from.

Pretty sure the levels of divine pleasure are a reference to Islam's Jannah.

And, of course, Jesus needs no introduction.

These have all been referenced later on in the story.
Although of all of them the only one I'm struggling to place is where Tian shows up. Maybe I should look for more symbolic references to China like things I associate with China? But I don't know too much about the place the only materials that really come to mind are jade and sil-Oh.

Oh.

I need to go make complicated expressions in the corner now but it does make a lot of sense in a weird way.

 

[Potato Anarchy]

I think the general outline here is that the thread should remain the primary venue for discussion and the only place that the QM drops real information, and both Cetash in particular, and voters in general should avoid referring to discord discussions rather than simply re-articulating any relevant points or thoughts; this is a pretty reasonable etiquette close to what's already done. It helps that this is a pretty dense quest and analysis is going to naturally drift towards longer posts which work better on a forum to begin with.

Then separately Cetash can decide whether he wants to make a discord or not. Tragically he has very little experience with moderation and the labor/policy making involved, and so that problem may be new and even insurmountable for him.

 

[Cetashwayo]

Okay, I'm gonna set a voting deadline for tomorrow. Seems like a very big lead for Whalesong but don't want to deny anyone the opportunity to slip their vote under the door.

EDIT: Also added will (spoilers for Fayhem who I'm quoting) to the character-sheet.

Then I'll simply set up a vote around what to do with discord and give an option for people who don't really care either way to opt-out of either option (staying as is or making a central 'cord). It seems a bit contentious so I'd rather leave it up to a majority vote rather than make a vibe check of the disagreements.

*ago

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Thank you for commentary and catching any remaining typoes Past Dreams' wonderful sector sweep missed. Fixed.

 

[Cetashwayo]

Just wanted to say, having finished a re-read, that this is, unironically and without hyperbole, one of the best things I have ever read. Like... I'm never going to be able to enjoy Warhammer the same way again, knowing that it has been outshined and predominated by this story. There's so much here, the bits of utena, the Buddhism, and or course, the disco elysium, as well as the incredible quality of the prose, that make me incredibly and unbelievably excited for every single update, and I shill it to my friends as much as I can without being annoying.

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Also, thank you so much for these kind words. Comments like this make this quest worth it

 

[YOLF]

Goodness, what an ending to Book One. It's been an emotional journey, gripping and devastating. Excellent work with this conclusion, the update feels both like melancholy and comfort, amidst the links of self-actualization, and I'm immensely looking forward to seeing what's in Harmony's future!

[X] Whalesong: Time and space, history and geology. The song of the whale, and the song of the eater. Gain visions of the causes and material conditions of others.

 

[UponALotusBlosom]

[x] Whalesong: Time and space, history and geology. The song of the whale, and the song of the eater. Gain visions of the causes and material conditions of others.
After our encounter with Karl-Sisyphus and the subsequent sacrifice of our mother we no doubt feel an intense need to study the dialectical materialism in everyone and everything we meet. How else are we to reinforce overcome Harmony's belief in Fac(e)-ism.

 

[LuciDreamer]

EVENT HORIZON: There is one more thing. Glimmering just beyond the horizon, the red sun. And beyond that, the cube-block door, and the void.

EVENT HORIZON [Heroic - Success]: We are so close, little self. So close. Do not lose heart. There is a last surprise, if you can make it there.

[???]: +This unit is not optimistic. This unit has watched her fail, already. This unit does not think she had hearts to lose.+

EVENT HORIZON: You know her not like the void has known her. Like I've known her.

[???]: +This unit knows enough, abyssal nail of the flesh-banished. And soon, so will the malfunction.+

[???]: +Manual override, thoughtform query, tag philosophic: What is war?+

Against your will, and without warning, you descend into the final spiral. Into the last rites of the future. Into your destiny. Into your tombstone.

Into a war without reason.

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I've been going back into old updates with the retroactive knowledge that EVENT HORIZON is, and (apparently?) has always been, host to Harmony's mother. This conversation in particular is so interesting.

I assume this is Gen speaking, and not the Shape, for lack of the special AUTOFAIL (and the simple fact that the decagon cannot perceive communication from the Nail). In a way, this is a dialogue between a Father and a Mother nested within a lie within a lie within a lie.

Gen obviously doesn't believe what he is saying. But he isn't putting up a performance for the Shape, either—the Shape cannot hear this conversation, one must assume. This performance is for Harmony alone.

On the one hand, obviously he cannot tip his hand early, or else Harmony might speak those thoughts "aloud" to the Shape, who will definitely be alarmed and perhaps elect to eat her early. And still, I think the role he chooses to play in this exchange is deliberate. EVENT HORIZON is full of hope, desperate hope. It proclaims, "you have not seen what I have seen." (The future holds so many impossibilities and miracles, if only you had the strength to reach for them, little self.)

And GEN replies, "but I have seen enough." (Given the conditions that brought you here, moving beyond will be unfathomably difficult.)

The thing is, I think both messages are meant to give Harmony strength, even if Gen needs to hide its own encouragement behind nested lies. What seems to go unstated is, "but, oh, wouldn't you love to prove me wrong. Prove us all wrong. It's all I could ever ask for… my daughter-host."

…also I can't help but feel like some of this must surely be a little bit of playful ribbing between two not-quite-partners all-too-aware of the impossibility of themselves and their circumstances. "You don't know Harm like I do!" says the mother, who lives and has always lived even though she has definitely died. The father raises a dispassionate eyebrow, and replies, in perfect humanspeech it has mastered despite its kind typically being wholly and violently denied that privelege, and with a deep-seated empathy that Gnosis says it should not have, "…bet?"

 

[Cetashwayo]

I have something to do later tonight so I'm going to close voting now (especially as voting has died down). Whalesong wins.

Scheduled vote count started by Cetashwayo on May 28, 2025 at 11:12 AM, finished with 188 posts and 70 votes.

• ---

  44 people have voted

  [X] Whalesong: Time and space, history and geology. The song of the whale, and the song of the eater. Gain visions of the causes and material conditions of others.

  • Professor Vesca
  • Sturmi
  • Ferynn
  • Teal
  • IronKnightofSilv
  • Potato Anarchy
  • UARTman
  • Theonetruelordke
  • NedTheNanite
  • IToadlyFrogot
  • Waith
  • Regency
  • Squidfam
  • Solarshade
  • HeWhoAdds
  • LuciDreamer
  • minerva-n-memes
  • OneCube
  • PraiseVectron
  • Some_guy_161
  • Half Moon
  • burybone
  • Mr.Bones
  • DualFront
  • maelstrom.seeker
  • MrRageQuit
  • space = good
  • BobTheNinja
  • Lazor
  • A Fae Cat
  • Brainarius
  • Ratato
  • ClawClawBite
  • Arcus
  • StarSingerBlue
  • Blackgold211
  • Relato
  • NamelessBeast
  • Living cycle
  • UmbraofChaos

  ... and 4 more.

  14 people have voted

  [X] Snakesong: Hatred and passion, emotion and suffering. The song of the snake, and the song of the warp. Gain visions of the feelings and the desires of others.

  • Sunpulsar
  • mynameisyouQQQ
  • Stilling
  • SirKana
  • Theaxofwar
  • Tnoz
  • Varano
  • Bark
  • Derpmind
  • blue marble
  • Baltika9
  • 7th Hex
  • Curufinwe
  • Many Eyed Sight

  12 people have voted

  [X] Dreamsong: Hopes, dreams, beliefs, and aspirations. The song of the shape, and the song of the dreamer. Gain visions of the wishes and ambitions of others.

  • bookwyrm
  • Yuhayuha
  • somewhatLazy
  • Mrl567
  • Photomajig
  • Cathari
  • hostelcalifornia
  • Taut_Templar
  • AidenWIP
  • MordredRaal
  • Drieder
  • Patward

 

[Solarshade]

And wins by a landslide, wow

 

[Cetashwayo]

Going to make it real simple and quote what I said:

I'd also take this time to ask if people were interested in a specialized discord. Now that the quest has finished character creation, after a short journey that only took 170,000 words, I feel more comfortable suggesting the creation of a discord. Right now discussion is split between like 4-5 servers where I crosspost and people make comments, and I thought I'd centralize it. My biggest motivation is I think it will help stimulate theory-crafting and discussion to help understand concepts - people can chat more easily between each other on stuff they don't feel needs to be in the thread.

I will obviously lay ground-rules on the discord. While I will take questions on discord I will always repost the answer in the thread and keep it to more minor questions (e.g. I won't be lore-dumping on discord). I never want there to be a situation where someone says "hey cetashwayo actually said this on the discord" to counter-vail thread discussion, but I'm aware now that people really like using discord and it's a useful hybrid system.

I'd love to hear thoughts from people on this.

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You can also read the discussion below the post. The response has been pretty mixed - some people for, some people against, some people don't care. I'd like to get a more fulsome accounting on people's opinions on having a quest discord. When this vote finishes I'll remove this threadmark, there isn't any need to preserve it.

Note that even if people vote against a quest discord, I'm going to put up links to the Wordsmiths and Number None quest channels. I just won't threadmark or advertise them, but people will have them if they want to join either server.

Do you want a quest discord?

[] Yes. Create a new discord and link it here, so we have one central place to talk.
[] No. The existing discord ecosystem and the thread is enough.
[] No opinion. I want to be included in the vote but don't really care either way.

 

[T_of_A]

[X] No. The existing discord ecosystem and the thread is enough.

 

[Potato Anarchy]

[X] Yes. Create a new discord and link it here, so we have one central place to talk.

 

[HeWhoAdds]

[X] No. The existing discord ecosystem and the thread is enough.

 

[Sunpulsar]

[X] Yes.

 

[bookwyrm]

[X] Yes. Create a new discord and link it here, so we have one central place to talk.