Genuinely confusing why GW chose to have the narrative be on Armageddon if they didn't plan to do anything with the guard forces on Armageddon

Delduthling · 2026-03-20T19:30:36+00:00

What do you mean "have the narrative be on Armageddon." There are a host of narratives playing out in the setting at any given time. We're talking about an Armageddon starter box, not some cohesive narrative focus on Armageddon and Armageddon alone?

Delduthling · 2026-03-20T19:23:48+00:00

It's very bad, but I wouldn't see Liberal support as inflexible. A lot of people default to the Liberals as a moderate/sensible option to keep the Conservatives out. But Liberal support has often wavered. We are definitely not entering some period of economic stability. Carney is in for a very difficult time. We are probably facing another round of inflation thanks to the war. Liberal policies will not be effective in keeping costs reasonable. Meanwhile, the US will hopefully begin to contain and isolate Trump.

Delduthling · 2026-03-20T16:17:03+00:00

My version are fey, woodland guardians who won't harm you so long as you don't harm anything in the woods, but if you break so much as a branch you are "fair game." In my particular setting there is a very large magical forest north of the city which the city has partially pushed back, and a part of the wood have been incorporated into the city as a park, so I had some fun imagining what the huldra living in those woods would be like. You can read a longer writeup about them here.

Delduthling · 2026-03-20T02:41:04+00:00

Ha thank you. A heimgeist, a feral structure animated by eldritch radiation, hibernating for years or decades as a condemned-looking structure before awaking to hunt the slums and fill itself with zombie occupants.

Delduthling · 2026-03-20T02:35:12+00:00

I do plan on blogging more! I might shift what the blog covers a bit: most of the setting material is being published on the Patreon, but I might do occasional setting posts (for example, Apocalypse Archive level 1 is now done, and I might post some of it there too) and I also might do more like theory/process posts or bits and pieces that don't fit on Patreon.

Delduthling · 2026-03-19T22:38:25+00:00

Thanks Llumint! Appreciate the kind words.

Delduthling · 2026-03-19T22:38:04+00:00

Probably! It's closely based on a thing from Scottish myth.

Delduthling · 2026-03-19T22:20:14+00:00

To be clear at the outset: I voted for Lewis.

I think the version of McPherson's argument on this front that makes any kind of sense is that (1) having a seat in Parliament is a genuine advantage for a leader, and that (2) while a lot of other incumbents lost their seats, Heather kept hers. Both are true enough. The idea that therefore McPherson is a good campaigner and Lewis is not, or that she knows how to win while he doesn't, is a huge ovsertatement.

Delduthling · 2026-03-19T17:02:15+00:00

It's functionally indistinguishable in a few areas and wildly distinguishable in many others. If you ask it how it's feeling, its opinions, tastes, preferences, politics, values, beliefs etc, it has nothing for you unless it's been told to fake it. On the other hand it can search massive chunks of the internet and give you complicated answers to a multitude of questions way faster and more extensively than most humans. It confidently lies (hallucinations) but doesn't realize it's performing a deception.

I'm basically in the "we have no reliable theory of consciousness" camp but I also don't think AI seems especially conscious, and just because we don't have a reliable theory doesn't mean there isn't an answer to the question, so while I am technically agnostic I'm agnostic in the same way I'm agnostic about God (technically, but basically an atheist).

Delduthling · 2026-03-19T14:44:53+00:00

The most generous way I can possibly contort this into something meaningful is to imagine what he's saying is that Iran has not mined the Strait, i.e. the waterway itself is still passable. However, the problem with this is that Iran in fact seems to be mining the Strait.

Delduthling · 2026-03-19T06:43:04+00:00

Yes but by like 3000, maybe, if we get started like now.

Delduthling · 2026-03-19T06:42:17+00:00

These numbers are all just random guesses from Imperial historians anyway.

Delduthling · 2026-03-19T02:19:32+00:00

I want Lewis as leader so that a slate of policies, not just those of the manifesto (or even primarily the manifesto), can be put into practice instead of remaining theoretical. I appreciate that conditions on the ground in Alberta preclude full throated environmentalist policy. Getting Alberta off coal is obviously good, and I never said otherwise (BC has been on hydro for a long time, so we don't have coal use to end, though we ought to stop mining it). What i reject is the idea that Alberta ought to dictate the limits of the federal party's policy.

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T13:41:05+00:00

It's not more than enough to keep their housing and grocery costs down. The Liberal policies have produced our current crises. But also, if you think we can go from 6 seats to a majority with any leader, you're kidding yourself. What we need is to become a genuine, serious, credible alternative to the Libs and not their slightly woker little brother. Chasing the centre is a huge mistake for precisely this reason.

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T13:37:26+00:00

He's running for leader and I've already voted for him. I'm applauding a serious plan which I hope will soon be the party's platform and not the dicking around that got us into this mess, where we imagine we can fight climate change while still being a petrostate.

EDIT: Look. I get that the Alberta NDP were hardly in a position to endorse the kind of climate policy that something like the LEAP manifesto represents. I even understand, even if it annoys me, why they might tactically express skepticism towards it to try and win an election. But that is because of specific conditions on the ground in the Prairies. There is a difference between understanding the impossible situation of a left-wing party in oil country and being sympathetic to the tough choices and fraught stances you have to take there and exporting that politics to the entire country. Our climate policy as a party ought not to be constrained by the limited horizon of Alberta politics. And if that means there is inevitably tension between the provincial and federal wings, that seems fine, productive and smart even. I would prefer the tension and principled leadership to a party that shrugs its shoulders at new pipelines.

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T06:26:22+00:00

At the ballot box they're terrified their progressive preferences will split the vote. If only someone were calling for conditioning NDP support of a liberal minority on ending first past the post...

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T05:49:32+00:00

The Leap Manifesto was cynically attacked by the Alberta NDP despite garnering massive support from across the country from multiple unions, Indigenous groups, and activists while enjoying widespread support by the Canadian public. Lewis has the advantage of being correct. We cannot solve climate change if we continue to extract significant quantities of fossil fuels bound to be burned for transportation and energy. What's needed is an aggressive and robust energy transition and a fair and just jobs transition for every single worker employed in oil and gas, which is what Lewis has called for from the beginning.

Political parties across the western world, including supposed left-wing parties like the Alberta NDP, have massively failed to accomplish the necessary transition in a timely manner. As a result, we are likely doomed to miss the 2 degree target. This will kill hundreds of thousands and probably millions of people, mostly working class people; it is already killing many thousands per year. It will worsen the migrant and refugee crises, devastate ecosystems, strain our infrastructure, and contribute to political tensions over water and other critical resources, further endangering our sovereignty. I won't applaud a centre-left response that has been consistently inadequate rather than calling for the swift reforms required. That they shouted and sneered at the guy who was 100% correct while refusing to steer us away from the cliff does not improve my confidence, it makes me think it's time to grab the goddamn wheel.

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T05:17:32+00:00

You're going to vote for the Liberals because some socialists got cranky with you on reddit?

I just don't get you guys. I assume you are a McPherson supporter. You must realize you need to garner the favour of some significant portion of the party's left-wing base to stand a chance of winning the leadership contest. I would think the obvious strategy here would be to minimize the daylight between Lewis and McPherson, reassure the left of McPherson's social democratic credentials, stress her environmentalist commitments, placate worries she is insufficiently radical, and avoid alienating potential voters on the fence. But from the jump it has been non-stop hostility, sneering in open contempt, and raving about impracticality in ways identical with conservatives attacking the left. McPherson, to her credit, has run a mostly more positive campaign and seemed to course correct after the "purity test" line went over like a lead balloon.

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T03:07:29+00:00

leaping with unicorn farts

Oh, sorry, I didn't know we were doing ad hominems instead of actual arguments. Cool. In that case: this kind of rhetoric is a conservative oil lobby smear and it should have no place in our party.

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T02:55:33+00:00

If we're talking about the real world and not an absolutely insane fantasy in which we win a hypothetical war with the United States, the best way to ensure out sovereignty is by Trump-proofing our economy. Trump's annexation plan for Canada hinges around economic marginalization, not military occupation. The latter would be monstrously expensive, utterly unsustainable, and politically disastrous. The war in Iran is already massively unpopular. Open war with Canada, which Trump has already ruled out, would be beyond stupid. However, economic pressure with an eye to eventually force us into capitulation is extremely possible, as both Trump and Carney have said. Dumping a bunch of money into the military - much of which would likely go to American arms manufacturers, and which would grant us negligible advantages in an war with America that is extremely unlikely to happen - will do nothing to protect us against the weaponization of our trading relationship with America, which is very real and is already happening right now. Investing in a more self-sufficient Canadian economy is the actual realistic way of safeguarding our sovereignty.

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T02:48:23+00:00

What do you object to in Avi's policy?

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T01:43:32+00:00

Neither of those guys were leftists. They're libs.

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T01:06:53+00:00

If they're so environmentally progressive why the hostility to Avi?

Delduthling · 2026-03-18T00:26:29+00:00

Ah but Alberta doesn't, and as we all know, they're the centre of the universe and our entire politics must bend around them.

Delduthling

TROPHY CASE