You will learn the wrong lessons from life. This is not a condemnation, it is just how things progress.
As Pathbearers, we develop delusions as to why we prevail and succeed when so many others have fallen. Many of us subconsciously know the truth, or, even if we do understand the truth, refuse to face it because the reality is a thing that mauls the spirit. So we say that we were s...
A few things about Fae Skills: They're not always reliable in combat, that's because they don't function like most other skills. Most skills have a specific tier: Adept, Master, all that. It evolves, it becomes more expansive, more focused, more powerful. A Master-Tier physicality skill will allow you to smash through stone, bend metal, all that fun stuff. Real devastating shit. A Fae Skill...
2025-11-05 18:37:48 +0000 UTC View PostNow, the various factions, sects, governments, nations, and empires across Integration don't want you to know this, but if you're good enough at kidnapping and mental torture, you can force a fairy to bribe you to let them go. In fact, I strongly recommend this. It's one of the few good things about interacting with fairies: they can't die, so you can get up to all kinds of fun stuff with t...
2025-11-05 12:28:42 +0000 UTC View PostIt is folly to presume there to be wisdom in denying your own rage. To pretend that you are not outraged by the atrocities inflicted upon you. To deceive yourself and claim to be calm when your heart is wounded, when your spirit is mauled, is not the act of an enlightened man, but merely one who deludes himself, a coward of war and soul.
To let your wounds go unaddressed is t...
2025-11-04 15:16:46 +0000 UTC View PostYou want to know why Martin, the Poissonnier, was thrown out, Shiv? Why him and not you? Because you both got mad, but your anger leads you places. Your anger has a direction. It has an action behind it, and that fucking matters a lot. It matters more than you can ever fully imagine.
His anger is like a bomb. It's a useless bomb, too. It goes off inside him. And he uses it as...
2025-11-03 17:31:18 +0000 UTC View PostIt is not impossible to best the Fairest, despite everything that has been said. They are not beyond you in every way. You are still a Pathbearer—a being of considerable power and skill. Just because you don’t hold narrative significance in the face of the Fairest does not mean that your Toughness is lacking, your weapons are brittle, or your strength is paltry. You simply must think of...
2025-11-03 14:51:17 +0000 UTC View PostIt is pure folly to strike a bargain with the fairest. They are not merely beings who possess nigh infinite time, but also creatures that are bereft of consequence. They cannot be slain normally, merely banished, and even when they are cut up, down, or rend asunder, they return to the fair wilds and will remember what you have done.
And then, some time, perhaps a few da...
2025-11-02 18:53:14 +0000 UTC View Post...and the final daughter of summer, though not radiant like her elder sister, not graceful and fleet like middle sister wind, not stalwart and unbending like brother iron, is beloved of the family as she is life unburdened; the incarnation of growth and flourishing fields.
And so, Plum Blossom must be fed. And it is a joy to feed her. For it is the dream of summer to savor a...
2025-11-02 12:25:51 +0000 UTC View PostSee title. The pain has temporarily ended. It will likely start again within 2 weeks. I must prepare.
2025-11-01 19:27:21 +0000 UTC View PostAs written above, I am suffering. Pray. I’ll do what I can.
2025-10-31 16:44:41 +0000 UTC View PostSo the first thing you should do when dealing with the Fairest is leave your sanity at the door. Don't just leave it at the door, actually. Smash your sanity in the head and bury it because the fae don't make any sense, at least not any kind of human sense. They don't follow the standard rules, which standard rules you might ask, all of them. They don't have consistent levels. They jump Tie...
2025-10-30 18:59:00 +0000 UTC View PostWe are “monsters.”
The world is our enemy.
We are enemies.
Everything that breathes, that moves, that can fight or feed is our enemy.
Reader. You are my enemy. But you are also the enemy of my enemies. And my enemies are your enemies as well.
You do not see it yet. The cold reality of the system. You are insu...
2025-10-29 12:21:34 +0000 UTC View PostAll Pathbearers should expand their horizons, try different things every day, volunteer, and experience life in someone else's shoes. You are more than your Path, you are more than your skills. Just because you’re a Vanguard doesn't stop you from obtaining a Cooking skill, or a Sewing skill, or even Medical skills.
And for those of you who think that diversifying your knowl...
2025-10-28 19:21:52 +0000 UTC View PostTo all aspiring Pathbearers, reading my words, I beg one thing of you and one thing of you alone: if you seek to embark on the quest of revenge, kill your enemies. Kill them. Kill every single one of them, without hesitation, without mercy, and if there are potential dangers, deal with them as well.
Some of you are uncomfortable with the idea of slaying children. That is good...
2025-10-27 16:06:37 +0000 UTC View PostThat which doesn't kill you might leave you crippled mentally, ruined behaviorally, and permanently scarred physically. Any path bearer stupid enough to think that surviving is strengthening has not been adequately traumatized.
You can recover and surpass who you were before a severe injury or a mental wound, but it takes an act of significant reinforcement. You have to work ...
2025-10-27 07:42:01 +0000 UTC View PostI once assumed that strength was characterized by the things I could break, the lives I could take, structures and nations I could collapse.
This was a mistake. Strength is not such a simple thing. Power is not a single facet.
I once assumed that superior might was all that mattered, that it was the fate of the weaker to serve and be used.
...
2025-10-26 10:25:10 +0000 UTC View PostGood evening, Hero Ranger Clarissa.
Tonight I'd like to play a game. You spent your life stealthily making plagues and biophages, assassinating those that most deem untouchable, indestructible. I applaud you for that, and your moniker of the Crimson Mask Maiden was well-earned.
And wait, no, no, no, stop, stop trying to stop your blood flow. No, no, don't give ...
2025-10-25 19:33:36 +0000 UTC View PostEveryone should take Medic-301. It's not because the instructors are kind and generous, they are not. They are harried, they are frustrated, and they will snap at you more than once. It's not that it's an easy course. No, most students will flunk out and switch to another before a month has passed.
It's arduous. It will test you both mentally and technically. It also doesn't ...
2025-10-25 17:42:04 +0000 UTC View PostDear parents, masters of the city, and beloved members of the committee:
You are all idiots.
No, calm down. You will do nothing. I will remain headmaster. You can complain or threaten me all you want, but none of you are Legends. And all of you are just here to bellyache. You're much like your own children. Actually, you're much like me as well. I, too, am incr...
2025-10-24 19:09:38 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome to GEN-101. I see some of you rolling your eyes already, discounting the importance of this class. I know some of you are martial Pathbearers and you think your path in life is set. You will be the hammer of the Republic. You will be its fist. You will be its bow, its dagger. You will be its mind.
For some of you, general education doesn't seem to hold a purpose. What...
2025-10-23 18:09:03 +0000 UTC View PostPeople lie to themselves. For the sake of their broken hearts; hence religion comes to be. We lie to ourselves, and we call it a story. We imagine ourselves to be champions and heroes. We reduce our enemies and challenges down to caricatures and featureless shadows.
And we do it all because we are such fragile, evanescent little things.
Because to embrace the t...
2025-10-23 15:35:14 +0000 UTC View PostThere are two words you must never say to someone who is deep in the throes of rage. Those two words are "calm down." "Calm down" to an angry person is like saying that their mother deserved to die in that demonic raid. "Calm down" is telling them that their suffering was their fault, that they should have been stronger.
Listen to me. Listen very closely. In this class, we ne...
2025-10-22 18:05:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe best cover identities allow you to be adaptable, for there will be unforeseen circumstances in your future that you will have to adjust your backstory to overcome.
The most common pitfall some little birds make is when they select a region their cover is from. They spend so much effort developing the history for themselves, such as creating a false family lineage. They se...
2025-10-22 14:37:33 +0000 UTC View PostBe mindful of who you tether yourself to, son. I say this not to encourage paranoia, but for you to understand that despite your good intentions and noble heart, there will be those who see you only as an instrument. And worse yet, there will be others who think they are being noble but fall to their vices all the time. You cannot save them, especially because they don't believe their vices...
2025-10-21 16:44:55 +0000 UTC View PostYour father is gone, Samir. Your father is gone, and he will remain the wound inside you. Perhaps in time, the wound will scar, or perhaps it will remain open, but that still does not change the fact that your father is gone.
I say this to you not to hurt you or to rip you asunder. I'm telling you this because at some point, there will be a God who offers his life back to you...
2025-10-20 17:31:54 +0000 UTC View Post—UUUUUUCCKKKKKK!
VULTEGS! L-LISTEN THE FUCK UP! WE’RE… WE’RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL.
I’M CALLING THE LORDS OF CUNTING LAW! V-VULTEGS GET YOURSELVES BACK TO VULKETH! FROM WHEREVER YOU ARE. WE’RE GONNA… IT’S TIME FOR A RETRIBUTIVE INCURSION!
I’VE TAKEN THIS SHIT FOR THE LAST TIME. I’M DONE WAITING INSIDE MY TOWER LIK...
2025-10-20 15:51:11 +0000 UTC View PostSympathy is a weapon. Sympathy is opportunity. Sympathy is a drug, because everyone has been wronged in some way by the world, by their own nation, their own people, by an enemy. Sympathy will make you betray yourself.
I ask of you now, my gathered little birdies, how many sympathetic people do you think exist across the totality of integrated earth, within the grand walls of...
2025-10-20 09:11:30 +0000 UTC View PostThere are three basic things you should know about the fairies. The first is that their tiers and levels are constantly in flux. The second, Necromancy doesn't work on them, since they don't really die. And the third, don't bother keeping them as slaves.
Yeah, it's kind of fun to imagine forcing the system's favored bastards to pop every boil on your ass or fold your bedsheet...
2025-10-19 15:34:33 +0000 UTC View Post“Pull that crossbow away from your neck. You’re not going to shoot yourself. Stop pretending.”
"Leave me alone. You won. You fucking won. Let me have what's left of my honor."
"What's left of your honor? Don't be absurd, boy. There's no honor in this. You failed. Failure is humiliation. Failure is disgrace. Even if you kill yourself right now, you're not ...
2025-10-18 19:35:14 +0000 UTC View PostListen, the first thing you should do if you end up getting the Foreshadowing Skill is killing yourself. I’m serious. Kill yourself. It–it’s the only way out. The system is a fuck. It wants you to suffer. It wants you to be miserable. It’s gonna break you.
The visions are like a chain of knives scheduled to—to go up your ass. And you gotta deal with them at the last...
2025-10-17 18:41:32 +0000 UTC View Post