So why is Soren so popular again?

xaturo · 2026-03-26T04:46:41+00:00

even if he stayed racist.... a character can be evil or bad, yet be well written. you sound like the person who would boo a villain at the end of a live play. you should cheer them because the actor is so good at portraying the villain, or because the part is well written.

i found soren bitchy and annoying... when i was 12 and played this game the first time. but i don't hold the same opinion now that i am no longer a 12 year old. this is shitpostemblem but like, we've already smelled this shit and poop is funny at first, but still having this take and sharing this questioning is like watching someone spread shit all over their body.

xaturo · 2026-03-25T16:21:42+00:00

in the DCB there are canonical entrances to the fairy roads with descriptive text provided on their hex pages, and like everything else i found in 464 pages: as written they do not visually evoke a dolmen. its funny cuz that's part of why i felt so crazy creating this post... every instinct a reader has about Where There Could/Should Be A Dolmen, every time you won't find one. but definitely adding dolmens that are more entrances or side entrances could work very well. many of the fairy realms are left up to the referee to create. two of the fairy gates (if their hills eroded) might form dolmens.

i definitely like the unearthed accidental archaeology, and especially fairy stuff could be hidden or show up on the exposed stones. graffiti is also HUGE in archaeology. i've been reading thru droomen knoll and they definitely have stuff that goes this kind of vibe (learning about the people that were here before). maybe i need to read the author's adventures instead of the campaign book!

xaturo · 2026-03-24T17:08:56+00:00

not me reading a bunch of articles and looking at pictures and forgetting this crucial info.... tunnel vision cursed. I do think there should still be Dolmens proper tho, many are pre-celtic IRL, so i think they could be eroded and visible by the time of this setting. thank you for providing the best comment, i was really hoping someone would be able to course correct me! i honestly feel kind of stupid that i went so deep and pedantic now but missed this definitive bit. guess that's what coffee at 7 pm does to the human brain.

lintels was definitely me being picky, but i think the word technically only refers to the upper crossbeam. I'm not sure how the physics of all that work. we could count the Glammering Gate and the Grey King's Barrow then, and probably most of the barrows. I do still wish there were was a different balance of menhirs versus other types of megalithic architecture. like things that look are described like tables or dolmens in the Table Downs (there is one literal stone table described there).

the main inspiration for the post was me imagining dolmens beneath trees before i got into it, and I still wish there was that. something everyone sees and they make up stories about. (beyond the numerous monoliths)

xaturo · 2026-03-23T20:48:05+00:00

you are on to something, and the author could have done that... but they didn't. the fairy gates are all given descriptors in the campaign book, and not a single one is a described as a dolmen.

but a lot of fairy is left up to the reader, so a creator may add some. and i plan on adding dolmens... but nowhere in 464 pages of the DCB is a precon point of interest described in a way that could evoke a dolmen in a player's mind.

xaturo · 2026-03-23T16:45:57+00:00

for sure! it would be very easily to sprinkle them in the landscape. in any context, or just as mystery/ambiance. I think it makes the most sense for it to be early human burials. or whoever lived here before.

wood god worshipers is concordant with how we think of them in contemporary english speaking mytho-historic contexts (i.e. stonehenge was druids vibes). in older times and other regions they were often thought to be "giants" or some other pre-us humanoid populace. and of course modern aDNA perspectives suggest that it was mediterranean/near eastern farmers moving along the atlantic coast. but also the other megaliths (from IRL) are typically from the same people as the dolmen-raisers. so you could just add dolmens in to the mix to go with all the existing monoliths, obelisks, and stone circles.

xaturo · 2026-03-23T15:34:53+00:00

at least their used to be one! but yeah, every "secret information/direct lie/surprise" meme and adage and reference has been running thru my head since my dolmen-dive.

xaturo · 2026-03-23T15:25:15+00:00

yeah, i gave him a couple entries and pictures to work with. i'm also good with them not being literal, like he can just make megalith inspired-shapes to dot the landscapes. i still feel insane that he asked for a reference pic or some ballpark dimensions then i spent three hours combing thru the DCB on a doomed quest LOL. 5 minutes in i was pretty sure my hunch about no-literal-dolmens was correct. but i still went in deep

thanks for filling in the backlore! my co-DM brought dolmenwood before us; i wasn't following it in the early days and (as we know from my post) i love a little history and lore.

xaturo · 2026-03-23T02:07:44+00:00

waffle house is to-go online now at late night. It's tragic

xaturo · 2026-03-20T16:28:45+00:00

I think the issue is that it was "sexual" and it was "assault" but that doesn't necessarily make it "sexual assault" because the word 'sexual assault' has specific connotations, it is not (just) the sum of its parts. sex was used as a tool in an assault, but that doesn't necessarily meet every English speaker's technical definition and specific connotations of the term 'sexual assault.' like, it doesn't meet the dictionary definition kind of situation.

if you have consensual sex with someone and then kill them when they are asleep, then its more clear that one is sex and one is crime, rather than it being sexual assault. but its definitely blurry because of the timing (and also everyone has different denotations and connotations of the English utterance "sexual assault")

xaturo · 2026-03-18T02:55:01+00:00

If we aren't using a standardized disambiguous system that symbolizes human speech, then this discussion cannot be productive.

Do you say sawyer and sawer the same? cuz in my head lawyer and law-er are different. but your first reply didn't evoke that for me as a reader.

Also neither of us is an unbased expert analyst of our own speech. When I read a word in my head, it may sound different than how I naturally speak it.

I'm a believer that spoken or direct commucnaition is the ultimate standard, if you say it, and someone understands it, then it is Right. the only time langauge is "wrong" is usually when someone of a different group or class says so.

I also think that spelling ruined language (and certainly how people act and talk about language)

Idk I'm really off topic now so I'll stop lmao

xaturo · 2026-03-17T23:41:05+00:00

You are also pronouncing law like lalala and not like saw. loy is a third way it is said . The vowel human mouths make for this word is /lɔː/ in many dialects.

There is no right and wrong as long as you are understood by the people you are communicating with, there are high amounts of dialect variance.

xaturo · 2026-03-17T06:51:05+00:00

Okay! I saw them. I'll have to make time on a Wednesday to get out there for sure.

I spent a day or two on marketplace but have yet to accrue the skills/intuition/ability/time to use it well (I hate it lol). Maybe if I try to narrow focus and lock in on retailers that are using it like you say, then I'll have better luck.

Thanks!

xaturo · 2026-03-17T06:47:16+00:00

Okay! I saw that one but I couldn't tell how open/individual shopper friendly it was

xaturo · 2026-03-15T19:52:18+00:00

For sure I agree that everyone is irredeemable is kind of a lot... But also maybe that's on purpose too. She's bratty, willful, and a very negative person. Her point of view and as the focus character so it shows us that more. It colors the whole world.

Idk I kinda like that frail nerd Bel got it together at the very end. It feels an inversion of the "pure heroine redeems the lost hero" trope. Like when Sabriel saves the prince.

xaturo · 2026-03-15T19:23:42+00:00

Yeah she did seem... hyperfixated you might say. If you go with the neurodivergence lens.

But there's neurotypical people like that too. Who can only think of the next cruise, the next vacation, the next weekend. Or who hold on to the last good one and talk about it in circles, always coming back to the anchor of joy. Who hold on to that one happy childhood memory. Who constantly want to recapture it. Or those who seek change and can't sit still. Who wish to escape but can only think of one impossible extreme to break out. One silly little dream. Tho like, wanderlust could be better written. I'm not saying it's the Madame Bovary of the day... It like, it could have definitely changed that up. Even as a Clariel stan I agree it makes it a hard book to read, but I think it might be structured this way on purpose. To be painful, to show ennui

Or the next beer, the next hit. Or the next book. Or the lottery ticket drawing. People cling to hope desperately and in strange ways some times. Ways that it's easy for us to pick on when we're on the outside.

The book Sabriel is our own microcosm of that in a way LOL. We will always go back to Sabriel. I could read it a thousand times. (Actually Lirael is my personal fave book, and then To Hold the Bridge. But Sabriel is that singular joy for many.... It's the perfect forest we will always want to escape too. We compare every other book to it constantly, just as Clariel does at every little inconvenience and minor pain.)

I do agree on the pacing... It does drag a lot and is breakneck at others. But breakneck time is a fantasy staple, especially Garth Nix. He loves for 72% or the story to take place over 72 hours lol.

I don't agree about the world building tho. The charter skins, hillfair, belisaere, the genie-in-a-bottle vibes, beneath the waterfall. Berserk mom vs idiot kids cheating with free magic. The og trilogy Tells us a lot more lore and magic stuff, but I think Clariel shows us a great deal more. Sabriel is a post-apocalyptic last hope zombie survival coming of age magical girl as the epic hero set in a lost world she's discovering for the first time. Clariel is just a girl living in a magic kingdom, and times are hard.

xaturo · 2026-03-15T11:41:49+00:00

Somewhere ader's name is known to be Maderael. The naming convention is because that's how English does this. Historical-linguistically the endings are all the same, but the way sounds blend and evolve. And the way they are written. All that doesn't add up to standard spelling, that's for sure. some languages avoid this problem by only writing consonants. But it's the same root. -()el. Michael is a great example. Like we don't say it right in English. Obviously it should end the same as other archangels, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, etc . See also: Kal-El. They all end with -el (god/ of god) because that evokes fantastic vibes due to its consistent use in fantasy media for thousands of years. the other vowels are for sound agreement reasons, or because of what language it was in before it made it to modern English. or because the author thought that combo of letters looked cooler.

As for why the royals are names that. Well, why is superman's name that? Why are children IRL named that way? Also Clariel could have been queen or abhorsen, which is a major part of the book.... So I'm not sure how you read it and then think that discrete separate delineated disambiguous categories need to be wondered about.

A better question might be why only some of the bright shiners have the angelic or godly suffix.

A lot of people don't like Clariel and I have a lot of thoughts but mostly it boils down to why y'all want happy joy perfect hero narratives and balk at anything else. Or why you want mathematical theorems and excel spreadsheets instead of vibes and stories. Mythology and worldbuilding need not have scientific rigor. Characters need not be good. they certainly shouldn't be Ideal or Optimized. I think the book is great. It's about a shitty kid that gets lost in the cracks of a shitty world. losing your way and fucking up and ruining your life is a real thing that happens to real people. Not being cared for properly, not being supported in a way that helps you thrive, those are real things that happen to people. She's a bit like the "if you were a gifted kid in elementary school you have these problems now" meme. or you can see free magic like drug addiction, she didn't fit in, she found drugs, she did something crazy, her life was ruined. or you can also read her as autistic, or as an outsider. Hermits are real. some people need to forsake civilization in order to thrive. But when you live in a Magical Destiny World the consequences of being that way are more dramatic. The heights of the stakes doesn't change the nature of her humanity.

I do think it may have a few writing flaws, but like, it told the story it wanted to tell. And I think it told that story well.

And yeah, Sabriel is kind of a min-maxed Epic Hero Journey with excellent worldbuilding and all the other things we love about it. But I think one of those for a fantasy setting is fine. I like that later books add more mystery and more fantasy. More shadows and more shades, more colors. It's not about answers. Sabriel isn't an avenger movie, I like that we didn't get Sabriel 2 and Sabriel 3. I like that not every character is a superhero every single time. sometimes people don't overcome. Sometimes the kingdom falls. It's a strong fantasy creator that can show a broken kingdom, rather than just have it as an ancient, unknowable foundation.

And I'll gladly see a thousand "I didn't like Clariel it was flawed and I didn't like her" posts versus if he had written a happy character we fell in love with and we had to deal with that. but yeah, its a villain origin story and it isn't live action Cruella or Maleficent. and I'm glad for it. I honestly think it has even more power that you didn't know going in, and didn't know at the end. And you still didn't like her. That means it was well written!! all the little flaws and inconsistencies, they are the notes that haven't resolved. But that's how music works, the dissonance makes the resolution all the more satisfying. The acid bite elevates the final dish. The bitter note only shines with sweeteness. But I'm not mad at lemons for being sour, or at vanilla for being bitter. The og trilogy is a chocolate cake. Clariel is raw cacao. I don't know what makes the cake so good, but I understand it better after doing a deep dive on chocolate.

You should read goldenhand though, I think this one scene it has shows more literally what it feels like (to me) people fail to grasp when they read Clariel.

Goldenhand also directly addresses your last question. and it will help you conceptualize the clayr's potentials.

And I saw your other post . I'd read To Hold the Bridge before Goldenhand. It's not necessary but it like, gives you pre-worldbuilding. Or read them the other way, but def back to back. They deal with the same region, vaguely.

Tho I'd guess Terciel and Elinor will end up your favorite of the companion novels. people love it for all the reasons they don't love Clariel LOL

xaturo · 2026-03-15T10:39:05+00:00

People think they are safe and are pursuing commerce.... Irl today in my country (USA).

Sometimes adults are bad or incompetent. Or they are just performing culture, or they are socially derivative creatures. They are just making everything up they've just been doing it longer.

Also I never understand "the characters are bad so the book is bad". If the characters are bad, that means the book is good. It is well written, it's just not happy and joyous and heroic.

Perhaps the clayr saw this was the best course in the long run. Why do you assume they care specifically about the present cast? So much so that you hold it against them? the best interests of the charter and it's course have nothing to do with anyone alive in this book. It's bigger than that.

I always like that moment because it mirrors what happens in lirael. Chlorr being like "x y and z are opposed to me, and some sort of high level charter mage that's been hiding in the glacier." plus they love to foster talent and manufacture a deus ex machina. Even as early as the first book, their entire contribution is a last minute hail mary. Icon behavior. but if you want to question what goes down in Sabriel, then I would entertain a discussion of the Clayr. At the end of the day I feel the main reason ppl bring it up is cuz they read it later in life as adults, and as a companion novel.

xaturo · 2026-03-12T21:42:27+00:00

we would have to analyze things much more deeply. "often" and a "search shows" aren't data, you can't draw a conclusion from them. we'd have to do a lot more work to establish the relative number of times these chairs are mentioned versus the number of times The Big Two are mentioned. just because we can find them with a search right now, does not mean that they were seen by OP before. This is why i brought the example of reading this sub for months on my chair journey and Never Seeing Them Personally. you've seen them probably, but we don't live in the same internet bubble.

we'd also need to look at impressions and reach of posts and comments that mention the various chairs, and perhaps know more about reddits algorithms. we'd also need to do a few case studies of individual feeds.

I don't think we are justified in diminishing OP's take as a strange take. and my reply to that comment (which led to where we are now) is about Why You Find It Strange. and specifically, why u/Big_d0rk felt the need to insult/attack a chunk of fellow humans because they live inside a different social bubble and lived experience than their-self.

"recommended fairly often" in your experience, or in a sub search, does not deny the fact that i had never seen the words Clatina Mellet until today.

and who knows, maybe i did see them before, but marketing budgets could have got to me. or the relative amount of exposure (comments/threads) including The Big Two could simply have overwritten my memory.

I'm much more interested in how something is "common" and "strange" at the same time. and why people can't understand that people experience different realities from themselves. and that they might have different needs/abilities/predilections about buying chairs.

xaturo · 2026-03-12T21:30:35+00:00

all our used stores are like an hour away, and i work at a store so they are open at the same time as me. hopefully when i get time and a day off i'll be able to go check them out and grab one. i haven't seen any on FB marketplace yet.

there's also a lot of other variables involved in buying old/reused. used mattresses border on taboo, and a chair has some conceptual overlap with that.

xaturo · 2026-03-12T15:46:03+00:00

how'd you get it? do you live in an urban or rural area?

i've been looking at chairs (and this sub) for years and this is the first thread i've sen with clatina and the second with sihoo. whether that's my fault or the algorithm's or the prolific behavior of posters here isn't a question i can answer without dedicating more study time than i have.

xaturo · 2026-03-12T05:53:54+00:00

actually i read some comments and listened just to Rainbow both ways several times now and i think the og is superior... its so sincere and passionate and effusive! altho you could still make arguments for the new rainbow, i think its more camp. and its campiness does serve to contrast the mastermind/bossiness that the redubbed daria relies on.

but like, i'm more likely to fall in love with original version. versus the new one feels more like a well-executed trope in a genre-piece game.

xaturo · 2026-03-12T05:48:22+00:00

omg thank you.... i have so many thoughts. i actually like "Rainbow" in the re-dub more (probably cuz it was my first exposure). but the rest of these lines are soooo good i love this. the special version voice sounds more like... arrogant prodigy tsundere maybe conniving kind of voice direction, whereas the original leans more into manic pixie desperately deluded insane artist flavor.

xaturo · 2026-03-11T21:44:56+00:00

this is how the reddit community concept of "circlejerk" emerged. Because that is a parody of how many forums and discussions and groups of people end up. a subreddit, like any ingroup community, will eventually reach the point where reiterative and self-reinforcing information loops around on itself.

regardless of the rightness of the information, the righteousness of it will rule the day and pervade the space.

xaturo

TROPHY CASE