Intro

A year after George RR Martin finished A Dance with Dragons, he updated his fans on The Winds of Winter:

THE WINDS OF WINTER. Also known as "Son of Kong." Working on it. Lots to do.

Massive and very specific update on The Winds of Winter complete, George turned to another project:

THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE. The concordance. Elio and Linda are my partners on this one, a compendium of the history and legends of the world of Westeros. A coffee table book, lots of gorgeous art from such talents as Ted Nasmith, Justin Sweet, and others. Making good progress on this one of late, lots of great historical stuff that I think my readers will enjoy. Never before revealed details of Aegon's Conquest, the War With the Faith, The Dance of the Dragons, the Paramours of Aegon the Unworthy, etc.

Hm. That seems much more detailed. This would become a pattern for George in the early years after A Dance with Dragons’ publication. He’d update at length on all of the imaginary history he was inventing for The World of Ice and Fire while occasionally placing a single-yet-generous breadcrumb of an update about Winds into our porridge bowl of need.
This led to fans mostly being in the dark on GRRM's progress on Winds -- with more cynical fans wondered if George was working on on the book at all.
Here’s the thing: George was working on The Winds of Winter. I can prove it. And in 2015 when he optimistically predicted he could finish the book in six months, he had good reason for his optimism. What was that good reason? Because by 2015, GRRM had completed two plot arcs and had wrapped two major POV characters for The Winds of Winter.
You are skeptical. I will convince you. Follow me into the light.

The Leftovers

In his retrospective on A Dance with Dragons, GRRM talked about the chapters he cut to The Winds of Winter, saying:

First, my editors and I made some decisions as to where to end this book which involved shifting a few chapters back into the next volume, THE WINDS OF WINTER. With a series like A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, there are always judgment calls to make as to where to end one book and begin the next, since you're really dealing with one long story. Does this scene work best at the end of one book or the beginning of the next? Should this character go out with a cliffhanger or with some sort of resolution (be it permanent or temporary)? And so on. And so forth.

Then he talked about the identity of the POV characters that were not in ADWD that had chapters leftover saying:

Sansa, Sam, Aeron Damphair, Arianne, and Brienne have no chapters in A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. Several of those characters had chapters written, completed, and polished that have been moved into THE WINDS OF WINTER.

In the years since 2011, we were told or been able to piece together most of the chapters cut from ADWD to TWOW. They are: Alayne (Sansa I), Mercy (Arya I), Arianne I and II and Aeron Greyjoy (The Forsaken)
In that 2010 post where he talked about cutting Damphair’s chapter from Dance to Winds, he talked about how many pages he had on hand for Winds, saying:

The good news is that I seem to have written more than a hundred pages of THE WINDS OF WINTER already.

Five chapters/100 manuscript pages. Now, let’s turn to the chapters that were moved after Damphair's in 2010. In 2011, GRRM’s editor Anne Groell talked about how two major sequences were cut from ADWD to TWOW. These two sequences are the Battle of Ice and the Battle of Meereen. Originally, these two battles were supposed to close ADWD out, but GRRM voluntarily cut one battle to TWOW, and then Anne Groell convinced him to cut the other battle.
Knowing, now, that GRRM was working on an Asha Battle of Ice chapter in 2014 but released a Theon chapter as his first TWOW sample in December 2011 (right after he finished his ADWD tour and also before he planned to embark on new writing for TWOW), we can reasonably assume that the Theon sample chapter was originally written for ADWD before George voluntarily removed it to TWOW.
Switching to deduction, we can then determine that the Battle of Meereen was the sequence GRRM's editors urged him to cut late in the process. What Battle of Meereen chapters were cut to TWOW? Here, we turn to the Cushing Library and find a display card from the “Deeper Than Swords” event indicating that George cut three chapters from ADWD to TWOW in April/May 2011.
As to who the POVs were, we can make an educated guess that one of them was a Victarion chapter and another one was a Tyrion chapter. Both chapters were read in early 2012 at conventions shortly after GRRM started writing TWOW afresh. As for the third chapter cut, I think this was Barristan’s first chapter. Thanks to zionius_, we know that George was writing Barristan II in April 2012, but in early 2013, GRRM read both Barristan chapters and indicated that the chapters were “new to you but old to me.” That third chapter was probably Barristan I.
The final two chapters we can be relatively certain were written for ADWD and cut to TWOW were a Bran chapter and an Areo Hotah chapter. We only know that Bran was cut thanks to _honeybird who discovered that it was listed among “missing chapters” originally slated as among the final chapters of the book. Additionally, we know that in 2010, Elio Garcia Jr. reported that three Dorne chapters were moved from ADWD to TWOW. Two of those Dornish chapters were Arianne chapters. The third was likely an Areo Hotah chapter.
Post-2010, GRRM cut six additional chapters to Winds. Adding in the previously-accounted-for five chapters, George had eleven leftover chapters as a springboard for Winds. Fast-forwarding to 2012, GRRM told Spanish fan-site Adria’s News that he had two hundred “really finished” manuscript pages for TWOW -- probably all of his leftover material from Dance (100 pages/5 chapters cut in 2010 + 100 pages/6 chapters cut in 2010/2011).
The identity of these chapters gives us a springboard for understanding where George was when he returned to writing Winds anew in early 2012, but it's important to note that George started Winds with a much smaller sample of leftover chapters than when he split Feast and Dance in 2005. Recall, then, that he had 542 manuscript pages/22 chapters done for ADWD.
But there's another and perhaps even more important difference: From all available evidence, George did not have complete story arcs like he did when he split AFFC/ADWD.
In 2005, George believed that the amount of material he had leftover put him over halfway complete on Dance. That was not the case for The Winds of Winter in 2012 where he only had 200 of the expected 1500 manuscript pages completed.

Early Progress on TWOW (2012)

When George began writing new material for Winds in 2012, he faced a daunting amount of new writing to finish the book. And given his track record, any old and new writing for Winds would be rewritten, revised and restructured.
So, how was it that George thought he was close enough in 2015 to get the book out before Game of Thrones, Season Six aired -- just three years after writing new material for TWOW?
We’ll start with what we know of George’s early progress on TWOW.
As we talked about above, George had about 200 new manuscript pages for the book between January and June 2012 -- work he considered to be “in rough form.” As to what specifically was contained in those 200 rough draft pages, we know that:

George reported having a partially written complementary chapter set between the finished Arianne II and the unwritten Arianne III in 2010. Link
He was working on Barristan's second TWOW chapter in April 2012. Link
He was writing about the Dothraki in May 2012. (A Daenerys chapter) Link
George sent a “batch” (3-5) of Arya TWOW chapters to Jonathan Robert, artist for The Lands of Ice and Fire to help in the creation of the map for Braavos in early 2012. Link

That’s about the extent of what we know about those 200 manuscript pages. Given the benchmark that 100 manuscript pages = ~5 chapters, he wrote rough drafts of ~10 total new chapters.
Fast-forwarding to a year later, Anne Groell reported receiving a batch of 168 manuscript pages from TWOW for a contracted payment from Random House in February 2013, and George reported being “about a quarter of the way done” on TWOW a month later. My reading is that GRRM finalized 168 of the 200 draft manuscript pages or ~9 additional chapters for TWOW.
So, by early-2013, GRRM had 368 manuscript pages and ~20 finalized chapters for TWOW complete for TWOW.
However, Anne Groell reported that the 168 manuscript pages wasn’t everything that George had written:

I currently have 168 pages that he submitted back in Feb 2013 in order to receive a contracted payment, but I know more exists, because he keeps talking about chapters he hasn't yet sent me.

This throws a wrench into things as George having 368 manuscript pages complete for Winds lines up well with his statement a month later that he was “about a quarter of the way done.” So, how to square that circle? What I'd guess is that George sent all of his finalized chapters forward to his publishers while retaining mostly-finished chapters he still wanted to polish.
To sum it up: from what we know: In 2012, George wrote ~200 manuscript pages and was specifically working on the Barristan, Daenerys and Arya chapters.
Meanwhile, GRRM was making significant progress on The World of Ice and Fire.

The Written World(book)

Let’s pause on Winds and switch over to George’s progress on The World of Ice and Fire for reasons that will become clear later on.
Shortly after returning from his ADWD tour, George began writing The World of Ice and Fire. As elio_garcia told me a few years back, George first wrote the history of Aegon’s Conquest which he sent to them in May 2012. Thereafter, GRRM wrote detailed histories of the various Targaryen monarchs, but where he really focused on was the history of the dance of the dragons.
By September 2012, Martin reported having 103 manuscript pages on the dance of the dragons. But even that was not the full extent of all he wrote on that event. In August 2013, George finished the dance of the dragons, writing 80,000 words solely on that particular Targaryen civil war.
Reasonably, many fans wondered whether The World of Ice and Fire detracted from George’s progress on The Winds of Winter. In terms of the sheer amount of time and effort it took to write the worldbook: probably, yes. However, as we’ll explore later on, George probably used his writing on The World of Ice and Fire as part of the process for writing The Winds of Winter.

Winds Progress (2013)

Switching back to Winds. By early 2013, George was only a quarter of the way complete on The Winds of Winter. Meanwhile, Game of Thrones was a few months away from airing the third season. So, George had to pick up the pace for the book to get ahead of the show.
The major issue in getting ahead of the show was that 2012 only had him finalizing ~10 new chapters, and in terms of completed story, he hadn’t finished writing the battles of Meereen and Ice that were supposed to close out ADWD. So, George seemingly continued work on the Battle of Meereen, writing and completing Tyrion’s second Winds chapter sometime between February and August 2013 as it wasn’t a part of the batch of chapters that Anne Groell received in February 2013, but he read the chapter at Worldcon 2013.
Meanwhile, in May 2013, George was asked point-blank by Portuguese fans what POV character he was working on, and he responded with “Arya.”.
Later in 2013, GRRM stated on his notablog that “you will definitely hear more of Jeyne Westerling.”. Given that we later learned at ComicCon 2014 that Jeyne Westerling will be seen in the Winds Prologue, we can speculatively-assume that George had written at least a draft or partial form of the Prologue by 2013.
Elsewise in 2013, we learned that GRRM requested Dothraki translations for The Winds of Winter from David J. Peterson (The creator of the Dothraki Language for Game of Thrones). This implies that George had Daenerys material written by 2013 and needed it translated from English to Dothraki.
So, again, in 2013, we see George working on the Battle of Fire, Daenerys and Arya (and also the Prologue).

The Locomotive Approaches (2014)

By 2014, two things happened. The first was that George RR Martin finished The World of Ice and Fire in March 2014. The second was that George realized that Game of Thrones was catching up to him.
First, The World of Ice and Fire. In March 2014, George RR Martin completed a chapter on the Iron Islands and finished the book. As he reported in that post, his completion of The World of Ice and Fire was late, owing to him being a slow writer but also due to him adding a lot to the book (Sound familiar?).
GRRM concluded his notablog post by saying:

And HEY, this means another monkey is off my back. Only a couple left gibbering up there now. That little joker monkey, HIGH STAKES. And... gulp… SON OF KONG.

Part of George’s nervousness about confronting the Son of Kong was based in how high of a mountain he had to climb to complete the book, but the bigger part is that he had a locomotive heading for him in the form of Game of Thrones.
In the early years after Game of Thrones premiered, GRRM wasn’t exactly dismissive of the idea that Game of Thrones would catch up to him, but he didn’t seem overly concerned.
By 2014, though, things had changed. Now about to air its fourth season, Game of Thrones was approaching the end of George’s published ASOIAF material. George, to his credit, was now cognizant of this, telling Vanity Fair in 2014:

“It’s my hope that they’ll [do two or three seasons for AFFC/ADWD] and then, long before they catch up with me, I’ll have published The Winds of Winter, which’ll give me another couple years. It might be tight on the last book, A Dream of Spring, as they juggernaut forward.”

The problem for George was that David Benioff and Dan Weiss were not interested in adapting A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons into multiple seasons. Instead, they were only looking at doing these two books in one season.
In response, George transitioned most of his creative output to The Winds of Winter. Sadly, we don’t know much of this output, really only being sure that George was writing: Daenerys and Asha.
On a brief appearance on the John Oliver show, GRRM appeared from his office with the computer screen on. Years later, fans were able to figure out that George was working on an Asha Greyjoy Battle of Ice chapter.
Onto Daenerys. In September 2014, in an interview with Galaxy Magazine (link unfortunately behind a paywall or in a hard copy), George talked about his writing for Winds saying:

“I’m going back to The Winds of Winter and writing the next scene—I’ve got Dany in a particular situation. I’ve just got to worry about how does this scene resolve? How do I end this chapter? How do I phrase this sentence?”

Finally, when George released the Mercy chapter, he talked a little about his progress, saying:

So far, I have not done anywhere near as much rewriting on WINDS... but of course, it is not done yet.

Fans took this as a qualitative sign of George’s progress back in 2014. The problem was quantitative. Information about how much of The Winds of Winter was done by 2014 is sparse. However, at a November 2014 charity drive for the Wild Wolf Sanctuary, George off-handedly said:

"I'm still in the middle of [The Winds of Winter], so it'll be some time before I write the scenes in which they die."

Provided that George wasn’t using “the middle of the book” colloquially, this meant that Winds was roughly halfway complete by November 2014, or had 750 finalized manuscript pages for TWOW. George had picked up his pace in writing TWOW, but he still had a long way to go to reach the finish line -- an additional ~750 manuscript pages.

The Deep Breath Before the Plunge:

Before we venture into theory territory, we’re going to take a tactical pause and assess all of the known chapters George completed for The Winds of Winter by late 2014.

Aeron Greyjoy: 1 Chapter
Asha Greyjoy: 1 Chapter
Areo Hotah: 1 Chapter
Arianne Martell: 2 Chapters
Arya Stark: 3-6 Chapters
Barristan Selmy: 2 Chapters
Bran Stark: 1 Chapter
Daenerys Targaryen: 3 Chapters
Prologue: 1 Chapter
Sansa Stark: 1 Chapter
Theon Greyjoy: 1 Chapter
Tyrion Lannister: 2 Chapters
Victarion Greyjoy: 1 Chapter

In total, that’s 19-23 completed chapters that we can be sure existed. If George was truly halfway done on Winds by 2014, that tacks on an additional ~19 chapters to bring us up to 38-42 chapters/750 manuscript pages completed for Winds by late 2014. For comparative purposes: A Storm of Swords was 1521 manuscript pages/82 chapters while ADWD was 1510 manuscript pages/72 chapters. What this means is that in a best-case scenario, George had to write or finalize an additional ~30 chapters/750 manuscript pages for the book to get to the finish line: a daunting task!
So, then why in early 2015 (four months after he said he was “in the middle”) did George RR Martin tell Entertainment Weekly that he could get the book out before Game of Thrones, Season 6?:

Having The Winds of Winter published before season 6 of Thrones airs next spring “has been important to me all along,” says the best-selling New Mexico author. “I wish it was out now. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish. But I canceled two convention appearances, I’m turning down a lot more interviews—anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done.”

This interview was conducted in April 2015, and given what Martin later said about his publishing house setting an initial deadline of October 2015 to release the book, George thought he only had six months of work to do before the book would be done.
And that’s why I think George’s optimism about getting the book done by October 2015 was sourced to what he had already written, rather than what he had left to write. In that, I now believe George finished major storylines for The Winds of Winter by late 2014/early 2015.

The Completed Battles

Among the known completed chapters for Winds, one thing that stands out is how many of the chapters dealt with the Battle of Meereen and the Battle of Ice. From our best information, four battle chapters were removed from Dance, and George wrote at least three additional battle chapters between 2012-2014.
Let’s move into theory ground: in looking at the available evidence, it appears that when George got back to writing The Winds of Winter, he picked up where he left off: in Meereen. Completing Barristan’s second chapter in 2012 and then Tyrion’s second chapter in 2013 indicates that George’s initial forays into Winds were Meereenese-centric. But after 2013, we don’t hear about George working on Meereen.
Over to the Battle of Ice. The Asha fragment reads like the opening moves of the Battle of Ice, chronologically occurring almost immediately after the Theon sample chapter where Stannis tells Justin Massey:

“I want you gone before midday, ser. Lord Bolton could be on us any moment, and it is imperative that the banker return to Braavos. You shall accompany him across the narrow sea.”

To get speculative, it reads like George hadn’t written anything about the Battle of Ice between the Theon Winds chapter and the Asha chapter he was working on in June 2014. Yet we know that George had written additional Theon, Asha and Victarion Winds chapters by 2017.
All of this leads me to think that by the end of 2014, George had finished the Battle of Meereen, and I think it’s possible he completed the Battle of Ice as well.
That’s two major plot-points possibly complete by the end of 2014. Still, even with those story points hypothetically completed, George had only finished story arcs originally intended for ADWD.
And that’s why he wasn’t just done with the battles by 2014. He might have completed far more than that. Entire POV characters.

Daenerys Targaryen the Complete

Let’s start with an uncontroversial statement: By 2014, I believe that George RR Martin had completed what he thought was all of Daenerys Targaryen’s chapters for The Winds of Winter.
Kindly drop the rocks that have suddenly materialized in your hands. I know that is a controversial theory. It was a joke! For this particular hypothesis that George had all of Dany’s chapters done by 2014, I started with the problem of “How the fuck did George think he could finish Winds by 2015 given how little of the book seemed to be done by that point? And then my research took me to everything we knew about Daenerys in Winds and then by accident, I stumbled on the split between Feast and Dance.
That accidental stumbling led to a whole essay on this topic. In that essay, I talked about how George believed he had Daenerys' and Tyrion’s ADWD story arcs complete before he split AFFC/ADWD into two separate books. This, along with the started-yet-incomplete Jon, Davos, Arya, Asha arcs, led to his optimism that ADWD would be finished by 2006.
I think something similar happened with The Winds of Winter. I think George had completed Daenerys Targaryen’s arc (and another arc I’ll unpack in the next section) by 2014. Is there evidence for this wild-ass theory? Perhaps!
In June 2014, George RR Martin was interviewed by James Hibberd and teased The Winds of Winter, saying:

“Well, Tyrion and Dany will intersect, in a way, but for much of the book they’re still apart,” he says. “They both have quite large roles to play here. Tyrion has decided that he actually would like to live, for one thing, which he wasn’t entirely sure of during the last book, and he’s now working toward that end—if he can survive the battle that’s breaking out all around him. And Dany has embraced her heritage as a Targaryen and embraced the Targaryen words. So they’re both coming home.”

For much of the book, they’re still apart. That’s a fascinating statement! Why? Because it might imply that George had written Dany’s story to its near or actual endpoint!
No, I don’t think this means that George was nearly complete on all of his story arcs. Just Dany's (and the other one). And that tracks with his non-linear writing style whereby he writes from one POV - until he runs out of steam before switching to a separate POV. As George talked about in that interview, sometimes, he gets way ahead on certain POV characters, and even has them completed well in advance of other POV characters.
In that vein, there’s something else odd about Daenerys. After 2014, we don’t hear about George working on a Daenerys chapter … at all. This radio silence on Dany in TWOW lines up with George writing Dany’s ADWD chapters. In 2003, he told a fan that Dany’s ADWD chapters were almost wrapped up -- eight years before he published them. George did write a bit more about Dany after 2003 and after the split of A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, but the last we hear about him writing Dany chapters for ADWD was in 2008 -- three years before the book was published.
However, to be fair, in 2018, George had one more mention of Dany within the context of her aforementioned intersection with Tyrion, telling Entertainment Weekly:

In Winds, I have like 10 different novels and I’m juggling the timeline — here’s what’s happening to Tyrion, here’s what’s happening to Dany, and how they intersect. That’s far more complicated.

So, the counterargument is that what George was saying about Dany and Tyrion's intersection back in 2014 was aspirational. He planned for the two to intersect late in The Winds of Winter, but he had not written that intersection. And perhaps by 2018, he was still struggling with timing Dany and Tyrion’s intersection.
Here’s a counter-counterargument: George wrote one version of Daenerys and Tyrion intersecting by 2014, was initially satisfied with it, but in the years since, he grew dissatisfied and experimented with the event occurring at different narrative junctures in the Winds -- hence the “I’m juggling the timeline” wording.
At the very least, George juggling the timeline of character intersections by writing multiple versions of it is something George has done in the past. Back in ADWD, he reported writing three versions of Dany and Quentyn’s intersection, timing that to occur at different junctures in the story to see which one was the most narratively-satisfying.
Now, before I leave you all convinced that George had written all of Dany’s TWOW chapters by 2014/2015, there is a good counterargument. About a month ago, I sent the sketch of this theory to feldman10, and he responded by saying:

What I question given his writing style is how GRRM could have “finished” Dany years in advance if she is regularly intersecting with other POVs. For instance, if Barristan, Vic, and Tyrion do reunite with Dany at some point in TWOW (as I certainly hope they do!), I would expect GRRM would begin writing them as all one “story” (unless they split up again). That’s even more important if Dany reaches Westeros and starts interacting with the Young Griff team.
That's really because of the gardening approach. Given that writing style, how could GRRM possibly write Dany’s interactions and conflicts with those other characters without having written them all up to the same point, and therefore having decided what they’ve all experienced, where they’re all coming from, and what their respective gardens have produced?

These are all excellent points by Adam, and I appreciate the counterpoint and have copied and pasted it here with his permission.
And if you thought the “Dany is wrapped” theory is way too speculative, you’re going to love (hate) the next part of the theory.

The Dances of the Dragons

Remember how we talked about George’s progress on The World of Ice and Fire? Let’s bring it home here. Part of the reason why I initially brought up the worldbook is how it's tied into the plotting of The Winds of Winter. It’s almost as if George used his imaginary history as a set of guideposts for The Winds of Winter. But perhaps the imaginary history is more than a guide for the novel.
The theory: What I think happened was that George parallel-wrote the dance of the dragons alongside of his Young Griff story arc in The Winds of Winter.
Recall that in 2010, George had written two Arianne chapters that he cut to The Winds of Winter. Also recall that he had a partially-written complementary chapter and envisioned a third unwritten Arianne chapter. We skipped over the possible identity of that partially written complementary chapter, but here, we’ll talk about it. It’s very likely a Jon Connington chapter as he’s in a prime position to bridge events from the end of TWOW, Arianne II (Arianne goes to Storm’s End) to whatever George is planning for Arianne III.
Right after George published A Dance with Dragons, though, he decided to write another chapter in the Stormlands as werthead reported in August 2011:

As speculated by many, two large battles will take place early on, a ‘battle of ice’ (presumably at Winterfell) and a ‘battle of fire’ (presumably at Meereen). A third battle has been added, namely the assault on Storm’s End by Jon Connington’s forces. Originally this was going to happen off-page, but GRRM decided it really should be shown. Possibly because we’ve seen Storm’s End under siege forever and it might be cool to finally see the place under full-scale assault.

This was another spot where George was expanding Aegon VI’s story, gardening his way towards more satisfactory storytelling vis-à-vis a newly-imagined Jon Connington chapter. It also shows us that George was very much in the mindset of thinking through Young Griff’s storyline just a few months after the publication of ADWD.
And then similar to Daenerys, 2011 was the last time we heard about George writing one of our primary eyes on Young Griff in TWOW. Like the absence of Dany chapters, that is odd. With Dany, George played mostly coy with whether Dany would have chapters, because of the cliffhanger he left Dany on in at the end of her ADWD arc. But with Arianne Martell and Jon Connington, we already knew that Arianne would return as a POV, and George had all-but-confirmed that JonCon would return.
And yet, July 2010 is the last time GRRM talked about writing Arianne’s TWOW chapters while August 2011 is the last time we hear about George’s plan to write a Jon Connington chapter. But in the years immediately following ADWD’s publication, we have a whole body of imaginary history work which reads like signposts for where George was going to take Aegon VI and Daenerys’ story.
Here comes the speculation: I think the whole time George was writing a detailed account of the dance of the dragons for the worldbook, he parallel wrote Young Griff’s story arc in the form of Arianne and Jon Connington’s Winds chapters.
We know that George didn’t set Winds aside while he worked on The World of Ice and Fire as there are Winds chapters we know he was writing in the 2012-2014 timeframe. Logically, it makes sense that George stayed within the same sphere of creative inspiration as he developed the imaginary history in parallel with developing Young Griff's story.
There’s a paragraph which first appeared in The Princess and the Queen (an abridged version of the dance of the dragons) which has always struck me as explicit foreshadowing for Young Griff's story in TWOW. It's this one:

Every visible symbol of legitimacy belonged to Aegon. He sat the Iron Throne. He lived in the Red Keep. He wore the Conquerer’s crown, wielded the Conquerer’s sword, and had been anointed by a septon of the Faith before the eyes of tens of thousands. Grand Maester Orwyle sat in his councils, and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard had placed the crown upon his princely head. And he was male, which in the eyes of many made him the rightful king, his half sister the usurper.

This paragraph is emblematic of something at work with the entirety of the dance of the dragons that George wrote: namely, that the entire historical conflict and civil war reads as backdrop for Young Griff/Aegon VI’s rise in The Winds of Winter and downfall in A Dream of Spring.
Is it so implausible, then, that GRRM was switching back and forth between writing Arianne and JonCon chapters while writing what became known as "The Dying of the Dragons" section of the worldbook? (Maybe, lol)

What Went Wrong

In 2005, GRRM predicted that ADWD would be published in 2006, sourcing this to how much Dany and Tyrion material was already done. If George had completed all the Dany, JonCon and Arianne chapters by April 2015, GRRM had good reason to believe he could get Winds out in six months. All he had to do was complete the POV arcs for characters supporting Young Griff and Dany’s stories as well as the “bottle storylines” and probably complete one more major story arc.
So, what went wrong?
In his New Year 2016 Winds post, George talked generally about the issues he had after his bout of optimism in 2015, saying things like:

Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters. (Those 'no pages done' reports were insane, the usual garbage internet journalism that I have learned to despise). But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well. (Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't.) Chapters still to write, of course... but also rewriting. I always do a lot of rewriting, sometimes just polishing, sometimes pretty major restructures.

Later in the post, he talked about a similar angle, saying:

Even as late as my birthday and our big Emmy win, I still thought I could do it... but the days and weeks flew by faster than the pile of pages grew, and (as I often do) I grew unhappy with some of the choices I'd made and began to revise...

This is George’s gardening style at work: restructuring/rewriting/revising what he considered to be substandard writing. That’s part of the reason George failed to meet his October and then December 2015 deadlines.
But I think there’s a missing piece -- one which has only become apparent in George’s recent posts about the POV characters he’s reported working on in June, August and November 2020: the Dany/Young Griff supporting POV characters and the bottle arcs.
Back in 2005, George was optimistic that he could finish ADWD by 2006, because he merely had to finish Jon’s story along with cast of characters supporting Jon/Dany’s storylines. But what delayed ADWD was the supporting cast of characters – especially in Dany’s storyline as it related to the Meereenese Knot. George struggled for years to satisfactorily write a twisting path of POV characters heading toward – or away – from Meereen, and that, more than anything, delayed that book’s publication.
Turning back to Winds: In recent months, George has indicated that he was writing/visiting the following POVs:

Tyrion Lannister
Barristan Selmy
Areo Hotah
Asha Greyjoy
Cersei Lannister
Arya Stark
Victarion Greyjoy
Melisandre of Asshai
Samwell Tarly

The POV characters listed here are ones likely to be found in support of Dany’s arc (Victarion, Barristan, Tyrion), in Young Griff’s orbit (Cersei and arguably Areo) or bottle arcs -- ones temporarily independent from the rest of the story (Samwell and Arya).
So, in addition to the rewriting/revising/restructuring, I’d argue that what belayed George’s optimism of publishing Winds in 2016 was the supporting cast of POV characters. Those troubles extended beyond 2015 given that George was still working on these POV characters in 2020.

Conclusion (2017-2021)

In the years since 2016, George has optimistically predicted that he'd finish TWOW in 2017. But six months later, GRRM discounted 2017 and thought 2018 was possible. But by mid-2018, he admitted that Winds wasn't coming in 2018. Then in 2019, tongue-in-cheek said New Zealand could imprison him there if he did not have TWOW in hand by Worldcon 2020.
Unfortunately, data on what GRRM was working on is spare, but I'll give it a shot. Given that George talked about how important Lady Stoneheart's story is for TWOW in 2017, my theory is that GRRM made progress on Jaime and Brienne's chapters in 2017.
Meanwhile, you may have noticed that there's another POV character I haven't mentioned: Jon Snow. Will Jon have chapters in TWOW? Are they written? Yes. Perhaps some of his optimism in 2019 is sourced to him making progress on Jon Snow, perhaps even completing his POV arc.
In his last specific update on Winds (As of January 2021), George sounded optimistic once again, :

No, sorry, still not done, but I do inch closer. It is a big big book. I try not to dwell on that too much. I write a chapter at a time, a page at a time, a sentence at a time, a word at a time. It is the only way.

At the beating heart of all of this work that George RR Martin has put into The Winds of Winter is a desire to create a book that satisfies and captivates us. I believe this book will come, and when it does, all of the bleeding into the keyboard will have been worth it.

I know the post will go down here ... But I have serious problems. I should quit my life.

First of all ... I have hesitated for a long time just to write everything that burdens me, but maybe it helps just to get rid of everything once.
About me, 31 years old, I am psychologically completely broken and physically unfortunately also very lediert.
My life has just gone wrong from the beginning and sometimes I wonder if some people are just lucky and others are not.
I grew up in an already broken family. My mother was married 3x and divorced 3x (I am the child of the second husband). I can remember almost all the incidents of my childhood (which makes it worse for me) One of the first memories I have (about 3,5 years) my father went after my mother with a knife. And even stabbed through a door with a knife. He was then thrown out by my grandparents and I saw him only once a short time later. He was an alcoholic all his life and did not even try to contact me (even when my ex-wife met him by chance in the hospital 10 years ago and gave him my cell phone number...). Without my knowledge)
In the meantime he passed away about 2 months ago and I knew nothing about him except that he was an alcoholic.
After he was no longer there, my mother had quickly met someone new, my stepfather. He was 8 years younger than my mother.
Unfortunately, he was also very aggressive. As a chain smoker he was very quickly annoyed when he had no more cigarettes and has quickly become with things around him, it also did not take long and my mother and he have often and loudly quarreled, often thrown on dishes on the walls. He became unfortunately also now and then Handgreiflich and has beaten me and my brother (whereby my brother was rather his favorite, since he was older and could make more with him). After we have moved several times we lived in a townhouse only then it did not take long that my mother and my stepfather have also divorced. My stepfather had cheated on my mother for a long time with my cousin (yes it does not get better).
After the separation, my stepfather has emptied the joint account and has filed for bankruptcy, because no one could keep the house alone, my mother also had to file for bankruptcy.
Shortly after that we moved of course, unfortunately my mother lost her job 3 years later and has never found a full-time job again and lives since then on social benefits.
With my brother (child of my first husband and 3 years older than me) I never had a really good relationship, mostly he didn't want to have anything to do with me and we generally did less together. He was also not at the same school as me, he was never very educated unfortunately.
He also moved out quite early, because he did not get along with our mother at all and even resented that she separated from our stepfather (because he got along with him). He then moved to another cousin of ours until he was 18 and even had contact with our stepfather.
Generally he was always very strange. He watched our parents having sex or generally our mother taking a shower. (And played with himself while doing so). He is also said to have had sex with our cousin according to a friend of his. (Probably several times) And has often set fire with a friend together.
He somehow had a kind of mother complex and for many years always looked for much older women who often also had children. But usually it did not last very long. When it was over, he often set a fire somewhere. What I knew about afterwards was his own car, A garden shed, A meadow, and finally an attic of an apartment building, whereupon he was arrested and sentenced. However only on probation.
His last partner was 11 years older than him with whom he actually held out for 6 years. Only a short time later he had a partner 11 years younger (a complete change of heart). Which was then suddenly pregnant immediately, after the first child a few weeks later she was pregnant again.
However I had in the people 10 years very very rarely contact with my brother and we have seen us actually only when our grandparents died (who have reached a proud age 92 and 94).
In general, I have also completely broken off contact in the meantime, because after several attempts on my part, no normal relationship can develop between us. I can not even have a reasonable conversation with him, because you just notice he seems to be very stupid (I just can not express it differently).
About me .. I also made a lot of mistakes in life.
Unfortunately for me, I almost didn't focus on my schooling and did almost nothing in class (my mom didn't care what I did or didn't do anyway, she never showed up for a parent-teacher conference either).
I wanted to earn money as fast as possible and learned the next best thing and ended up in the camp. My goal though was to become a soldier and joined the army after my training, unfortunately I got a slipped disc there and dropped out 2 years later.
Then I ended up in a larger company where I had worked until today.
I started drinking myself very early (15 years), because I myself had a very bad environment, the city I lived in generally had high unemployment and there was a lot of drug dealing. Also through my education I drank almost every day after work and it was later to the point that I completely shut down 4 times a week and had a blackout several times. This was no better in the armed forces. Was able to make the leap in my mid 20's though and quit. I don't even drink beer in between anymore because I just don't feel like it. I also take my other drugs (although I sometimes wonder if maybe I should). Or smoke either.
I have always tried in my life to escape into some relationships, because I could not be alone ... My first relationship lasted 5 years circa and I was married myself and had to divorce and have a son.
My ex-wife, however, always wanted to make life difficult for me and I got deeply into debt because of her, since she, among other things, never completed an education. Just like that, she quit her jobs and I was the sole breadwinner and often signed contracts and did not pay them, whereupon I received debt collection letters.
I had to declare insolvency at some point, because we also had a joint loan running.
I had also met a new woman half a year later and moved. Only my ex-wife really sabotaged this relationship and it didn't last long. Also because I wanted to see my son regularly.
I then decided to stay alone for 2 years, but lived near my ex-wife again because of my son.
When I met my current partner, I decided to finally live my own life and not always be there for others. And moved a little further away. Got another wonderful daughter and everything looked like it was going uphill.
Also this time my ex-wife has tried to make our life hell, which led to the fact that I have quarreled with my partner very often and now also have no contact with my son for a year.
My job has also deteriorated more and more, because the company was bought up 3x and changed. The work climate has made me more and more broken and I had a second herniated disc.
In addition, I was then admitted to a day clinic, because I was also psychologically at the end. After a few months there, I was diagnosed with trauma therapy and was also diagnosed with bipolar narcism.
I discontinued this therapy a year later because it didn't help me at all.
In the meantime, however, I have screwed everything up ... I had to give up my job for health reasons, although I have a GDB of 30% and was equalized. I am also about to lose my partner, because there is more and more crisis between us. I really don't have anyone in my life anymore.
I have moved 13 times in my life in general. And have lost a lot of contacts and friends. I also lost some contacts because of my ex-wife.
I generally only have contact with some friends I met online or old work colleagues.
I also see my mother about 1-2 times a year but I don't care if I see her at all or not. But she understandably wants contact with her grandchildren.
I must also say to myself, I was a very difficult personality from a certain point and also my friends and partners had to learn to deal with it. I always had the urge to somehow talk nonsense and can hardly ever stay serious about anything, even when I write this text. You could subordinate it under "joke addiction or Moria". I also have a very low frustration threshold and go crazy quickly if I just drop something. Unfortunately I'm also very forgetful and often don't know what I'm supposed to do several times a day. (I probably owe that to the alcohol). All in all, due to narcism I often have the impression of being emotionally dead. I cry in the rarest situation at all (even if sad videos still carry me away). I can hardly show empathy towards others. I also really don't care about much and I notice it more and more. That I really don't care about anything that happens. Apart from my children, I have never really had the feeling of being happy. In general, almost nothing good has ever happened to me.
Conclusion: So now I wonder does it even make sense for me to exist?
I am insolvent I have a divorce behind me. My partner will leave me soon. I have no job anymore. No friends . And probably soon no more apartment (since I then the insolvent also no new apartment more find).
EDIT:
First of all, thank you all!
You have really touched my heart, even if it is hard for me to admit something like that.
You don't have to worry about me doing anything to myself!
I don't want my children to have a horrible childhood like me!
Besides, for your love! You are really great and I understood that there are things in life worth living for! Of course, I will also seek professional help. It is not very easy to get appointments here but I will keep at it and not give up! I know I can't change my past but I can change my future!
My inbox has exploded with messages and I have already replied to some. Even if I wanted to, I probably won't manage to reply to every single one.
Thanks again you are great!
AND STOP PLS GIVING ME REWARD SAVE YOUR MONEY ☺️❤️

First Contact - Third Wave - Chapter 419

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His name was Dhruv. His DNA and chromosones had not been created naturally but rather by supercomputers tasked with building servants. He was a part, a legacy, of mankind's darker past that had been wiped away by the Mantid attack upon humanity.
Slim, androgynous, hairless with the exception of narrow eyebrows, his features were vaguely sycophantic and submissive. His brown eyes were the only thing that were different, calculating and holding a burning intelligence that never stopped considering all the angles.
He was sitting in a cafe on Terra itself, drinking tea and watching a river go by.
Maybe, just maybe, it's time for mankind to go on without us, Daxin said in his memories as he mused over the meeting a few weeks ago.
Dhruv snorted, looking at everyone busily moving around.
He sipped at the tea and stared at the blue water of the river that his own memories showed him as brown and polluted. Gone were the feral flora and fauna, gone was the pollution.
Gone too was the 1.1 billion humans that had once lived near the river. Wiped out before Dhruv had been capable of independent thought.
Now less than a million humans lived where he had been decanted to serve a wealthy and powerful family as a living servitor.
Terra used to be the home of over 15 billion humans, now it barely tops a single billion. There's almost as many Lanaktallan EPOWs as there are humans, he thought to himself, still staring at the sunlight dancing on the water. There are less humans on Terra now than there were in this single nation-state when I was born.
He sighed and looked up at the clouds. Puffy, white, scattered, they formed a nearly picture perfect sky.
He finished his tea and set the cup down, debating on whether or not to have the automatic systems provide him with a new cup, refill the old one, or call a robotic or even a living waiter over to bring him another cup.
There was a clinking sound in his hearing and he felt an odd tingling from both his datalink and the implants inside of him that would return him to life almost instantly.
Dhruv frowned, wondering who would be stupid enough to attempt to attack his systems. Part of him debated on whether or not to allow them, maybe to see what was so interesting that they would target him of all people.
In the chair across from him a flicker interrupted his musing. He watched with interest as reality itself torn apart and two large hands, thick brown hide covering the fingers that were tipped with thick claws, pushed through the gap and started forcing it open further.
It took a few moments, the whole time Dhruv was aware he was the only one who could see it, but eventually a massive figure of corded muscle, brown skin, and wrath managed to pull free of the tear. It extended out bat wings and flexed them a few times as it shook out its arms.
Satisfied, it sat down in the chair.
"Hello," Dhruv said. He had seen the creature before, in a place that Dhruv considered holy, not long before.
"You're Dhruv, known as Legion," the massive figure growled, steam or smoke, one or the other, leaked from the creature's nostrils and mouth.
"I am," Dhruv said. He tapped the table, bringing up another cup of tea, and lifted it up, sipping at it. "I must confess, I am at a loss on how to greet you. We did not exchange pleasantries before."
The creature chuckled. "Call me Dee."
Dhruv nodded. "As you wish."
"Can you understand me?" the figure asked, suddenly changing languages.
Dhruv kept his face still, showing no surprise, at the ancient language. "Yes."
"Good. You're one of maybe a handful who speak this language," the figure said. It made a grunting noise and scratched at the side of its face. "I need to speak to you. Privately."
Dhruv looked around at the passerby. "I am the only one who can see you. Is this not private enough?"
"This is just to get your attention," the figure said. "As I understand it, when it comes to the human genome, you're the foremost expert."
"I am," Legion admitted, letting a small bit of himself show through his eyes. Dhruv shrugged. "I don't know how I can help you."
"I need information," the demonic figure said.
"About what?" Dhruv asked.
"The Sentience Uninterrupted Disaster Storage System," the figure growled.
That got Dhruv/Legion's attention. "You're inside the system?"
"Yes. Inside, part of it now," the figure said. It gave a low growl. "I'm part of the massive casualty response system, but there are a few things it would be best to speak to someone with your knowledge about."
Dhruv sipped his tea and set it down. "Like what? If you can explain a bit, it would help me."
"How about the fact that not one of these people," the figure motioned around itself, "Are actually human."
Dhruv frowned slightly. "I beg your pardon?"
"Not as you might think," the figure said. "They are, but they aren't, and that's what is causing the massive disruption of the system. Herod and Sam think that clearing the queue will clear up the problem, but the problem is much deeper and neither one of them are intellectually prepared to deal with the information I've discovered."
"What sort of information?" Dhruv asked.
The demon reached out and ran a fingertip across the tabletop. Purely for show, as Dhruv could tell that the figure was only existing in his own brain.
"How the system operates, what happened, and what current mode it is running at this time," the figure gave a massive shrug. "Personally, I shouldn't care. I normally wouldn't. Except I don't serve in Heaven."
"You rule in Hell," Dhruv guessed.
"Exactly," the demon said. "I process ones who are stuck in their last moments, unable to clear the system. I deal with their pain and suffering and agony and help them move from Hell to the standard queue."
"So what is the problem?" Dhruv asked. "Except for the fact that everyone is genetically modified through multiple generations and through their own choice to the point you don't see them as humans."
"I can't tell you here. The system won't let me," the demon said.
"So how would I be able to help you?" Dhruv picked up his tea and sipped it.
"I need to bring you partially into the system. Far enough for me to reach you, but not too far to get out or to trigger your battle-field regeneration system," the demon said. "It's a careful balance."
"So how would I do this?" Dhruv asked. He sipped at his tea and set it down again.
"You need to almost die," the demon said.
Dhruv sighed again. "It's never easy."
The demon shook its head. "It never is."
----------------
James Idleson smiled at his wife as the embrace broke, holding her upper arms in his hands, feeling the warmth of her skin through her shirt where her pregnant belly stuck out far enough to press against his stomach. Behind him the sun was just rising, painting the Texarkana Arcology in pinks and reds.
"Today is the day of..." he started.
His wife's eyes opened wide, her mouth opening in shock.
James turned and looked in time to see a wave of white heading toward the arcology, fed by a thick pulsing beam of light from the sky.
He had time to pull her close before the shockwave hit, turning the smartglass into millions of pieces of razor sharp shrapnel that shredded him.
And her.
There was darkness for a moment.
LIFE SIGNS TERMINATED - QUEUING FOR REBIRTH flashed in his vision.
James screamed, knowing what it meant. That he had died, was killed, which meant his pregnant wife and two children were dead too. He struggled, bodiless, in the darkness, screaming and banging his head against nothing.
PLEASE CALM DOWN appeared in his vision.
He screamed his wife's name, his children's names.
I CAN'T HELP YOU IF YOU DON'T CALM DOWN the words appeared.
James howled as fear and sorrow twisted into rage and fury.
The Mantid. The Mantid did it. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew.
James felt a wrench inside his brain.
He was standing in front of the window, one hand against the smartglass, looking out at the manicured lawns of the massive Texarkana Arcology.
"What are you thinking, honey?" His wife asked from behind him.
"How lucky we are," James said, turning from the view. His wife was standing only a few paces away, next to the couch, dressed in a loose flowing maternity blouse and slacks, her hair done up in tightly woven braids. James took two steps and hugged his wife. "How lucky we all are."
James saw his wife and son smile from where they were eating breakfast. He closed his eyes, letting himself sink into the embrace.
James Idleson smiled at his wife as the embrace broke, holding her upper arms in his hands, feeling the warmth of her skin through her shirt where her pregnant belly stuck out far enough to press against his stomach. Behind him the sun was just rising, painting the Texarkana Arcology in pinks and reds.
"Today is the day of..." he started.
His wife went still, as if she had been frozen. The children stopped eating, frozen in the middle of their action. The holoclock stopped ticking.
"You done?" a rough voice asked.
James slowly turned, the memory that his wife and children were dead filling his mind.
That they were as dead as he was.
A short woman, thick bodied, sat on the back of his couch, dressed in an archaic business suit. She was lighting a cigarette, something James disapproved of, as she stared at James through the smoke.
"Who... who are you?" James asked. "What are you doing here? Where am I?"
"Well, to answer those questions in reverse order," the woman said, tucking the lighter into a breast pocket. "You're dead and because you can't let go of that last moment, because you keep desperately trying to change the outcome, you're in Hell."
"But I'm a good..." James started.
"I'm here to break you out of the loop, remind you that it already happened, that you can't change it, and that all you are doing is keeping your wife and children from moving on," the woman said.
"But I..." James started again, feeling flustered.
"As for me, I'm the Detainee," the woman said. Her eyes suddenly glowed red and she slowly exhaled smoke that stunk of hot blood and brimstone. Her shadow changed to show a massive winged figure. "I'm from the government, I'm not here to help."
James just stared as the shadow went back to that of a small human woman.
"You died. Eight thousand years ago. For the entire time you have been trying to redo it all over, change the outcome, save her, save them, as if you were God rather than one of the countless scurrying insects on the face of the Earth," the woman said. She stood up, dropping down off the back of the couch with a thump that vibrated the floor. "That means your record is stuck, and you're causing them to get stuck."
She waved her hand and the smoke swirled, forming letters and words. PLEASE CALM DOWN SO I CAN HELP YOU.
"The Arch-Angels can't help you because you won't stop screaming," the woman said, stepping through the smoke, dispersing the words. She held out her hand. "Come here. Watch it with me, see if there is anything you could have done, any change you could have made."
James took her hand and felt her yank him toward her. He stumbled, managing to get his balance.
"Turn around," the woman said.
When James turned around he could see himself, see the entire scene.
The woman exhaled smoke again and the memory kept going.
The light lancing down from the sky. The explosion. The onrushing wave of energy. How he turned, saw it, and tried to shield his wife with his body even as he tried to figure out how to shield his children.
The view suddenly pulled back, letting him see the vast arcology city.
The blastwave hit and the windows on the arcologies shattered. Pieces flew into the air. White fire covered it for a long moment.
When it was done the arcologies stood, twisted and damaged.
Another pulse of white energy, this time closer. Another wave of energy.
"One point eight million people died within five minutes of your death," the woman said. "Orbital fire that blew a crater twenty miles wide and a half mile deep that was coated in plasma glass."
The scene reset to James standing at the window. James watched himself hug his pregnant wife.
Everything went still again.
The woman let go of his hand, moving around in front of him, between James and the version of himself still holding onto his wife.
"Do you really think you can change the past, James?" she asked.
James felt despair fill him as he shook his head. "No."
"That's right. Nothing you could have done, nothing you can do. It was eight thousand years ago. You've been dead, they've been dead, eight thousand years. Even the Mantid who did this are dead," the woman said, her words hitting James's soul like hammers. "Yet you keep them here. Force them to relive it over and over with you through the centuries."
She took a deep drag off her cigarette and blew it out.
"How do I stop?" James asked, feeling sick to his stomach.
"Stay calm for the next part. Let the Arch-Angels help you. Move on, James," the woman said. For a moment her eyes glowed red. "Or, stay here, with me, in Hell, reliving the moment over and over."
She gave a cruel laugh. "You've been calm long enough for me to pry your wife and children away from you, so it will only be you here. They will take the hands of the Arch-Angels and ascent to Heaven."
She blew smoke again.
"You, of course, are free to stay here, with me, in Hell."
James shook his head.
"Step back into yourself, see if you're ready to let go," the woman said.
James half stumbled to his own body, seeing that he was slightly transparent. He pushed his way in.
"Today is the day of..." he started.
His wife's eyes opened wide, her mouth opening in shock.
James turned and looked in time to see a wave of white heading toward the arcology, fed by a thick pulsing beam of light from the sky.
He had time to pull her close before the shockwave hit, turning the smartglass into millions of pieces of razor sharp shrapnel that shredded him.
And her.
The woman watched, as James died, again, as he had for eight thousand years, dying over and over.
RECORD CLEARED appeared in mid-air. DELETE WORKSPACE?
"No," the woman said. She waved her hand, the apartment suddenly fixing itself.
She stood alone in the middle of the room for a moment before she walked over to the window and stared out the window.
"Earth. What a shit hole," she said.
----------------
Legion felt himself try to rebirth at the parking garage, try to merge with the version of himself on the bridge of the Fleet of One, try to respawn in a dozen different areas.
Instead, he stuck his hand out, reaching blindly for the being who had visited him at the cafe on the shores of the ancient river.
A small hand grabbed his with amazing strength, squeezing, and pulled.
Legion felt himself surface the black water, gasp for air, then the world whirled and he stumbled out of the blackness, hitting the arm of a couch and folding over it. He gasped for air, feeling his body burn.
"When you're done with the melodrama," a woman's voice said.
Legion slowly stood up, wiping his mouth. He turned and saw a short woman standing by smartglass. Outside was an arcology complex, blasted and ruined, still smoking and burning. The apartment was immaculate but the building it was part of was destroyed.
"Welcome to Hell," the woman said. She took out a pack of cigarettes and slowly pulled one out. "Good to see you."
"You look quite different," Legion said. He looked down, seeing that he was the well muscled bearded version of himself that he preferred at times.
"As do you," the woman said. She used a mechanical lighter to light her cigarette, snapping the lid shut and putting in the pocket of her trousers.
"You said that you needed my expertise. Why?" Legion asked. He moved over and looked out the window.
"You are the foremost expert in the human genome now and any other time," the woman said. She moved over and sat down on the couch, picking up an ashtray before leaning back, primly crossing her legs, and balancing the ashtray on one knee.
"You mentioned that," Legion said. He felt irritation rise up and squashed it. "Where exactly is this?"
"Traumatic Life Cessation Processing System, Node six alpha four echo niner niner three bravo seven, to be exact," the woman said. "I processed the guy, who seemed to think he was God and could change the past, his family, who he had stuck in the system with him, and held the workspace till you got here."
Legion nodded. "Why?"
"Because if I expose you to Hell, then you'll either rebirth or start getting processed," the woman said. She sighed. "Enough about me," she said. She gave a grin. "What did you think of my other body?"
Legion opened his mouth, recognized the reference, and laughed. "OK. Point. So why do you need my assistance? You're inside the system, surely you can change things from in here."
The woman shook her head. "Do you even know what the system is?"
Legion thought for a long moment. "If I say it's a rebirth system you're going to rip my guts out, or at least try, aren't you?"
The woman sighed. "Finally," she said, looking up.
Legion frowned. "Finally?"
"Finally someone who's neurons are firing," the woman said. "Sit down," she waved her hand and a bottle of whiskey appeared on the coffee table. When Legion sat down she waved her hand again and a trashcan appeared between his feet, tall enough to reach his knees. "You'll need that."
"Why?" Legion asked. He uncapped the whiskey and took a long drink.
"Because I'm about to tell you what all this is and I you're the first non-digital sentience aside from me to learn about it," she said. Her grin suddenly turned cruel and her eyes glittered with madness. "Are you a virgin, Dhruv?"
Legion frowned and opened his mouth to ask why it even mattered.
The room's walls and ceiling fell away, the floor crumbled, and Legion could see the entirety of the reality of the SUDS system. His mind shuddered from the complexity and simplicity, from the solid evidence of what humanity had been capable of and the creations it had left lying around. His mind gibbered and raved as he stared, unprotected, at a pulsing Big Bang that would erupt in only hours but ultimately fail to do anything more than add another layer to the onion that was the SUDS.
His wide staring eyes, full of fear and horror, locked onto the small woman, who was laughing, a cigarette in her hand, pointing at him with the other.
"BECAUSE YOU'RE FUCKED NOW!" the woman howled with laughter.
Legion heard her voice as he stared at eternity.
---------------------
The whiskey was harsh, little better than raw alcohol, and burned his mouth as he swished it and spit into the trash can that had his last two meals and more than a couple cups of tea in the bottom.
Legion looked up at the small woman, who was lighting another cigarette.
"So were you crazy before or after you saw all that?" Legion asked.
"Before," the woman admitted, shrugging. "So they say."
"When did you become such a bitch?" Legion asked, glaring at her as he took another swig.
"July seventh, nineteen thirty-two, pretty much solidified me as a bitch," the woman said. She looked at Legion's frowned. "We don't know each other well enough for me to explain any further."
Legion lowered the bottle, wiping his mouth, as he nodded. "Fair enough."
"So now you understand the where and have touched on the what," the woman said, setting the lighter on the top of the pack of cigarettes on the table. She took a long drag and looked out the window, which had returned. "The when doesn't matter. Not here."
"No, it wouldn't," Legion agreed. "I would have argued that before you showed it to me."
"How irrelevant to our discussion," the woman said. "As is who."
Legion nodded. The memories of those terrible sights was fading.
"The when matters outside, and that was prior to the Mantid Attack," the woman said.
Again, Legion just nodded.
"Feel free to make more of yourselves if it will help you keep up," the woman, The Detainee, said magnanimously, waving her hand.
"You're very kind," Legion said dryly. "You stated that none of the people walking around on Terra were humans. Care to elaborate?"
Dee nodded. "You have eight thousand years of natural, forced, guided, and manipulated evolution walking around. The bodies have been cleansed of birth defects, junk DNA, disease, and aging massively slowed. They've been tweaked to be more robust, smarter, faster, tougher," she said. She shook her head. "Someone, sometime, even went so far as to ensure that flatulence no longer had a foul odor," she laughed at that, as if it was some kind of private joke. "When you get down to engineering petty shit like that, maybe it's time to take a step back."
Legion thought about it. "True."
"You, Dhruv, Legion, Victor, whatever, have watched it. In some ways, you assisted with it," Dee said through an exhalation of smoke. "Well, you fucked up and now the entire system is jammed with data mismatch errors."
"Fucked up?" Legion asked.
"You have your modern version of humans, the bodies at least, but neural wiring and synaptic chains more in tune with my era, which is causing mismatch errors because the system is having trouble recognizing who goes where and when," Dee said. She stood up slowly, reminding Dhruv of a spider slowly awakening to patrol its web. "To top it off, all of humanity has been using this system when, in fact, it was severely damaged and operating in a flawed mode."
Legion watched her walk around the couch so she could put one fist against the back and lean forward.
"The whole system was damaged in the attack, most of it crashed, but the parts with the highest redundancy and highest protection, kept operating," she said. She straightened up. "Which meant that the system was trying to process billions of damaged records that had undergone severe trauma, with only automated systems. This caused a cascade where the system was in emergency mode."
Legion nodded. "All right, I follow."
"The problem is, you are all so heavily modified the system keeps trying to classify modern humanity as a distinct subspecies, but it can't because of damage to the system," she said. She pointed outside. "Meanwhile Larry and Moe are out there trying to fix the whole thing and are about to cause the entire thing to start throwing major errors."
Legion stood up, walking past her and into the kitchen. He knew he shouldn't have been surprised to find food in the fridge but he was all the same. He slowly made himself a drink as he thought about what she had just said.
"How bad is it?" Legion asked.
"From their point of view? Everything is working better and better," Dee said. She moved over and sat at the table where a small girl had sat earlier. "Realistically? I'm not sure the problem even should be fixed, or even if it can be fixed."
"Do you mind?" Legion asked, reaching forward with one finger and holding it over the back of Dee's hand.
Dee smiled, seeing the glint of the needle just under the nail.
"Have at it. Following the rules of the simulation, good," she said.
Legion poked her skin, bringing up a drop of blood that was pulled into the needle.
The system brought up all the genetic and DNA scans for "The Detainee" and granted Legion access to them. Dee watched as dozens split off from him. With a wave she granted him access to the room and watched as they brought up smartglass chalkboards, dataslates, and more.
"You're modified. Interesting work, not quite the way I would have done it but effective. Anti-aging therapies. Hmm, I'm not sure why you would try to modify your sleep cycles," Legion said.
"I stopped sleeping when I was thirteen years old," Dee said. "I was trying to fix it but I didn't know how."
"Not seeing the normal methods of DNA modification for the time," Legion said. He opened his eyes and looked at her. "How did you do it?"
"The mat-trans. I developed the system and realized its full potential. Everything from time travel to cloning to genetic modification to matter and energy transportation," Dee said, shrugging.
Legion shuddered theatrically. "An all-or-nothing method."
"It killed me eventually," Dee admitted. She shrugged. "No use crying about it."
Legion slowly finished his drink, ignoring the predatory way that Dee stared at him. Ignored her sudden outbursts of laughter and giggles. The rest of him were hard at work, comparing Dee's baseline to current human DNA.
"You didn't modify your ovum," Legion said.
"I wanted clean copies of my DNA, so there's some non-detachable ovum in each ovary that contains clean copies of my DNA," Dee said.
"Clever," Legion said. He made another drink, this time making one for Dee and handing it to her.
After a few eternal moments he looked at Dee.
"I see part of what you mean. There have been put safeguards on the human genome. Comparing them, I can see part of what you mean," he said.
"Those genetic tweaks make the emotions muted, except positive emotions, and even they are somewhat muted," Dee said. "That started an internal feedback that peaked at the Mantid Attack. The patch overlaying that is bizarre."
"The touch of the Digital Omnimessiah," Legion mused. "The Second Miracle, he cured an Enraged One."
"It needs fixed, but I can't convince those two bleeding hearts to do what has to be done," Dee snarled. She made her voice high pitched and mocking. "But we'll be sentencing people to deal with emotions they haven't learned to deal with."
Legion snorted. "So you came to find me."
"I figure an Immortal is capable of looking beyond the poor mewling useless masses and coddling them like royal infants and see what needs to be done," Dee said.
Legion thought, for a second, about lying. He saw her eyes narrow, grow more intent, and the madness be replaced by something else.
"I am," Legion said truthfully. "It's monstrous even to suggest."
"Then spank my muffin till it's green and call me Franky," she sneered. "Will you help, or not?"
Legion nodded. "I'll help."
--------------------
The river was blue, sunlight dancing upon it. It moved slowly in its banks, heading south to the sea, as it had for millions of years.
Dhruv/Legion/Victor accepted the cup of tea from the waiter with a smile.
A deal with the Devil indeed, he mused, blowing in the tea to cool it. Why not? First the Digital Omnimessiah, then the loss of Eden, now a deal with the Devil herself.
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Hunter or Huntress Chapter 87: Knight In Shining Armor

So then 87 coming out on schedule. I know I'm spoiling you today ;) Time to crank up the wholesomeness possibly beat the shit out of some random guy in the street and generally figuring out what the fuck to do next.
As per usual UnwaveringGrey and TwoFlower68 have done their level best to sanitize the chapter. If I managed to slip one past them do please report it to your nearest execution squad so it may be dealt with properly.
In other news, proper art is officially commissioned and likely due sometime later this month. I'm so excited! But without further ado let's get on with the story.
ko-fi For having a pretty picture commissioned.
Sapphire
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Chapter 87: Knight In Shining Armor
“Wait, she is your only healer?” Tom questioned.
“Yes, they are a rare breed, young man,” The lady replied very apologetically, almost bowing before him.
“No, don't do that,” Tom protested. “You people both suffered and survived, not to mention your son technically saved me and Jackalope. Hopefully, Unkai can lend a hand when he gets here then, ‘cause she is spent,” Tom glanced at the healer who was still sleeping up against the wall where she had been when he woke up.
The Lady looked like she was going to protest until he reached the last sentence. “You brought a healer with you? Out here?” The lady questioned, clearly not believing him entirely.
“We did, yes, in case we found wounded. And that we certainly did. I was just hoping we could have Jacky’s ears looked at, but I guess that will have to wait.”
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have anything else that can help I’m afraid.”
“I hate not knowing what’s going on,” Jackalope exclaimed, crossing her arms looking at the two of them with a distinctly unimpressed expression.
“I guess I’ll be miming to you for a bit longer. Actually no, I brought the note block. I will be just a second,” Tom replied walking jogging over to his backpack, the confused Jackalope following along.
“You got something that can fix ears in there?” she questioned hopefully. She was getting a bit better at keeping the volume down, though she was still rather loud. Then again, that was pretty standard all things considered.
Tom got out the block to begin noting things down for her. ‘We can't fix your ears, not yet at least. Other people need to be looked at first. Maybe when we get home.’
She did seem a little annoyed after reading that, sighing a bit and looking back up at him.
“So what now, we help clean this place up? Take up watch? Or just sit back and relax?”
“You two sit back for now. I won’t have you risking your lives for our skins and then cleaning up the mess as well,” the old granny replied, trying to speak up enough to be heard across the room. Tom certainly didn’t have a problem with that. He did not really feel like hard work right now.
Jacky was clearly sore and her breathing still wasn’t quite right, so he guessed she could use the rest as well. “Do you have a place we can stay, or… ?”
“Infirmary is full I’m afraid. We do have some rooms,” the old lady replied.
“Actually I think we have a big friend in need of a bit of company when he wakes up,” Tom replied, looking towards Jarix. “We will keep our stuff with us if shit hits the fan.”
“If it does what?”
“Right, uhm… goes south. If bad things start happening,” the lady looked at him more than a little confused, but she relented eventually.
“Yes, we don’t have many people left who could fight. I will bring you something to eat, for the blood loss. I don’t know if it will help for your kind but it couldn’t hurt.”
They made their way to Jarix, who was sleeping like a rock. Tom began taking off the very uncomfortable holsters and belts. He looked like a fucking joke right now. Goddamn Florida Man running around with guns and ammo in his damn underpants. He put down the equipment in nice little piles, rechecking that everything was loaded if he needed it.
He could hear Jackalope getting out of her armor behind him. That stuff wasn't the most comfortable to sleep in after all.
“You okay?” Jacky asked in a rather worried tone after a bit. “After yesterday you’re… you’re not quite the same.” Tom turned around to look at her. She was looking at him with an expression of genuine worry.
‘That obvious, huh?’ Tom thought to himself, shoulders sagging even more. He couldn’t even blame her for catching it. His head just wasn’t in it right now, whether that was because of the fighting, the screaming, the blood loss, bodies flying everywhere last night, the fact they weren’t quite out of the woods yet, or that the ones back home would soon be getting worried. They were supposed to be back tonight after all. He didn't even know what time it was apart from rather early. He was also still tired as fuck despite just getting up. There was just too much to worry about right now.
“Look at me, would you?” Jackalope demanded, a hint of hurt in her voice. Tom snapped up to look her in the eyes, feeling more than a little ashamed of that. “Just like Sapphire said, you worry about everything. You can’t not worry… Well right now, just try not to, okay? It’s gonna be fine.”
Tom did crack a little smile before looking back down at the floor. That was very far from guaranteed, there were still many things which could go wrong. What if this wasn’t the only raiding party? What if Bizmati Keep was a ruin? What if something had found the kids in the forest? What if Jackalope's ears couldn't be fixed? what if…
Jackalope grabbed him by the shoulder, turning him around to face away from her. Then she folded her arms and wings around him, lifted him off his feet, and backed up against Jarix's side. She sat down in the nook of the dragon’s armpit and snuggled up against the dragon while clutching Tom tightly.
“I’m never gonna have a cold night again,” she let out, sounding very content. “And you are in the safest place in the world. Here you're not allowed to worry about everything. You are in a locked-down keep, sleeping with a dragon and if that doesn't do it, Then I will, so relax… please dude.”
“That might be the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me,” Tom replied, not that she could hear it of course. “Well, except for saving my life a few times… you people do that a lot don’t you?.. What did I do to deserve you?” He tried to snuggle up a bit closer to her, even if that was hard to achieve in her current grip. Jarix’s slow steady breathing almost rocking them to sleep.
__________________________________________________________________________________
“Now I just want to ask you some questions, nothing more, so don’t panic,” Maiko went as they turned the guy around. The guy looked scared shitless to Sapphire. He was a rather short spindly fellow as well, so looked really unintimidating right about now.
“And just in case you think running is smart. I’m possibly the fastest flyer you have met and I won’t be gentle with my prey,” Sapphire added, trying to look menacing and baring her teeth, while Maiko was clearly going for the more friendly approach. The guy just swallowed once, looking at the two of them.
“I was just told to find out what you’re doing, I swear nothing more.”
“So what did you learn?” Maiko asked, still sounding very friendly.
“You go to the inventor's place regularly, you are making something weird, you have been to the Hashaw’s place, and you are staying at the Sweet Dragon.”
“And who are you supposed to give all this lovely information?” Maiko continued.
“I was just paid by some woman, I didn’t know her, I swear. She just asked if I wanted to make a bit of easy money.”
Sapphire opened her mouth a bit, letting out a deep growl. The guy was fidgeting nervously at that as Dakota, Balethon, and Junior trooped up behind him.
“I’m guessing rather fine clothes and perhaps some rather nice jewelry?” Dakota asked, causing the guy to go stiff.
“I mean yeah… she did look rather rich.”
“How were you supposed to let her know?”
“I should meet her at the big plaza in front of the trading guild tomorrow after breakfast.”
“Right, well first off that’s not going to happen,” Dakota went from behind him. “Secondly, if we catch you following us again I’ll let Sapphire here demonstrate why she isn't even allowed to compete in archery competitions. Am I clear?” Her voice was cold and calculating, the guy nodding rapidly. “Out of curiosity, what did she pay you.”
“15 silver.” ‘Well, for tailing someone that was a rather good pay.’ The guy didn't exactly look well off either, so Sapphire could see him taking that offer without a second thought.
“Actually, I think I might have a better idea,” Sapphire Interruptet. “What would we like them to know?” Dakota looked to Sapphire, her face turning into an evil grin.
“What do you say, Maiko?”
“I mean, if this guy doesn’t want to go to jail for disturbing the peace and spying on military matters he might be useful.” Sapphire was pretty sure you could not go to jail for that. Nor was this military matter, in any capacity. “So what do you say, willing to lend the Royal Guard and a few people in high standing with the king a hand, or do I need to get some manacles?” Maiko questioned, looking down at the guy.
“Treworian at your service, sir,” The man responded, eyes wide as the situation he found himself in seemingly hit him like a battering ram.
“Come with us then. We have some things to discuss,” Dakota went, nodding to the others.
They took the guy back to the workshop where Tink was currently busy repairing the damage to the magnet.
“Back so soon?”
“Yeah, we found a nosey little bastard.”
“And you brought him here?” Tink questioned, clearly not happy with that.
“Yes, we did. Now Treworian, may I call you Trewor?” Dakota questioned, turning to the man.
“Yes ma’am, of course,” he responded, eagerly. ‘God damn he’s scared,’ Sapphire mused to herself. They weren’t gonna hurt the dude unless they had to, but it was probably best he didn’t know that.
“As you can see, we are making very dangerous new weapons here, under the authority of the king no less.” Tink looked ready to protest when Junior kicked him in the shin, shutting him up. “Have you heard of the attacks on the outlying keeps?”
Trewor nodded, looking around the room worriedly at all the strange bits and bobs.
“We are looking to put an end to that once and for all. Now the reason I’m showing you all this is because if you tell anyone that is treason, and you know what that means.” ‘Oh you evil genius,’ Sapphire thought to herself, doing a gesture of Trewor falling a very long way down, convincing sounds included. The guy went even paler than before.
“So what I want you to do, is tell the sweet lady who hired you that we are making some kind of invention as a present for the King himself and that it looks very expensive and very complicated. So you can’t possibly figure out what it is. But you did manage to sneak in while we were out and read a very official-looking document, stating who had hired us, and that the present is expected to be done in time for… Anyone know when there is some sort of big event coming up with the royal family?” Dakota questioned looking around.
“One of the princes is graduating from the academy this summer I think,” Maiko responded.
“That will do. A present for the prince in time for his graduation. Can you do that?”
“Sure can, don’t you worry. I ain’t no traitor”
“Very good. Now, remember, if you tell her the truth it’s a long way down okay?”
“A very long way indeed,” Sapphire added, with as much venom in her voice as she could manage. Trewor just nodded furiously.
“Good lad, now run along now, you have work to do,” Dakota continued, letting go of him. Trewor stormed out the door, Junior going over to close it after him.
They all stood there for a second before everyone except Tink broke out laughing.
“You’re all crazy” The inventor finally went in a disapproving tone, Which only caused Sapphire to laugh even harder.
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When Tom woke up again, he was greeted by a dragon's head lying on the ground in front of him, staring at him with a sly smile.
“Someone got comfortable?” Jarix questioned, sounding very pleased with himself.
“You're just jealous; no one is big enough to wrap you up like this,” Tom replied from his prison of safety. “What time is it?”
“Hmmph, no clue, it’s getting late though. They brought you something because you decided to spray blood everywhere. Oh and your clothes. The girl tried to apologize for not being able to get them properly clean. That took a bit of explaining.”
Tom chuckled at that. “I’m sure it did... Wait did they use you as a washing line?”
“It looked wet, so why not?” Jarix responded. Tom cracked a proper smile at that.
“The world's most expensive washing assistant.”
“Yeah… Not exactly the world’s best night fighter, that’s for sure,” Jarix let out with a sigh. “I have never had my ass whopped that hard before.”
“Hey! You don’t get to feel sorry about that. You killed all three of those big bastards. And no one seems to know what they were... I never thought I would need to tell you this but be a little proud of that.” Jarix did perk up a bit at that, not much though.
“I only got two, and the last one would have gotten me I think... But I did tell you, you would be great at getting things off my back, hey. Even if that was not quite how I intended it”
“Can’t argue with that. By the way, have your decades of training to become a perfect killing machine told you what they might be?”
“No, I got nothing. Definitely a foul thing. It must have been able to see me approach to land that hit.”
“Yeah, if it sees like a bat then that thing sees using sound.”
“Wait, what?” Jarix questioned. “Can't they just see well in the dark?”
“Nope, they use their ears. That was no ordinary bat though, that is for damn sure.”
“No it was not… I’ve been thinking. My father said the darklings had a ride they kept falling back to when they attacked him… Do you think we just found what it was?”
Tom had to think about that for a bit. “Fuck, it might be… Is that bad?”
“Yes. Very! That means they have a new way of traveling long distances. That’s never good.” Tom felt Jackalope begin to stir as Jarix talking jostled the two of them around a bit.
“No Tom, you’re not leaving yet, this is nice,” she let out still half asleep, squeezing Tom tighter.
“I think for the Time being we need not worry, we just killed three of them there can’t be more around or they would be everywhere”
Jarix looked rather curiously at their arrangement. “Shouldn’t we worry? This could be very bad, we can't just sit here”
“Not much to do except let the people who can do something about it know. We were supposed to scout not fight. So let’s just worry about that and the kids for now. Besides, you aren't going anywhere in a hurry, right?” Jarix looked rather ashamed as he craned his head to look at this own back, expression turning pained.
“No, I am not.”
“Well then, neither am I and neither is Jacky. Unkai is needed here. And we aren’t sending Zarko alone. Even if Jacky or Unkai could find their way back to the keep… Actually, Jacky is deaf so that would be kinda hard… And Unkai might not even know… Well, that settles it then, we aren’t going anywhere 'till you can fly again.”
“Maybe we could get some of these nice people to fly the message. We were sent by the king remember”
“I mean maybe… perhaps at some point. Are my clothes dry yet?”
“They don’t feel cold anymore, so I guess so.”
Tom squirmed a bit to try and get free but Jackalope simply squeezed tighter. Jarix suppressed a snicker. “Uhh, I guess that’s nice to know. Jacky, I know you’re awake… goddammit.” Tom tried, Jarix starting to giggle properly.
“She’s got you now.”
“Well if you didn't want me to leave I don’t think I could either,” Tom retorted looking up at the dragon. “All joking aside, you did fucking amazing out there. I’m just sorry I couldn’t nail that bastard on your back sooner.”
“That hurt like hell. Also, don’t tell her, but I think Jackalope shot me.”
“Jarix, how bad is lead for a dragon?” Tom questioned.
“Don’t tell me they need to dig it out?”
“I mean they don't need to, but it’s in there now. And it’s made from copper and lead.”
Jarix looked over all the wounds strewn over him. The dragonettes had done a good job of patching most of them up, though several of the bandages were leaking fresh blood.
“I think it’ll stay in. Their healer would be done for 10 times over, trying to fix that mess I guess. So much for looking like a million gold.” Jarix seemed genuinely distraught at that.
“Hey think of it this way. You’re the first dragon ever to be shot with a gun. Have you ever heard the expression ‘Knight in shining armor’ by the way?”
“Yeah, like some young prince who everyone wants.”
“Well, would you look at that, a metaphor that transcends worlds? It actually means a man who has yet to be tested. That is why his armor is shiny. He hasn’t seen battle yet.”
“Couldn’t he just get it fixed and polished?”
“Maybe, but his armor would still carry scars of battle and most will leave them undisturbed as marks of experience. Just like you will now. Congratulations. You’ve been tested and you sure as fuck weren’t found wanting, you magnificent bastard.”
“Does that mean I passed a lesson?” Jarix questioned, seemingly very excited all of a sudden.
“With flying colors. Pun intended, not that I doubted you could fight” Tom joked cracking a smile “There are more to go through. And remember chicks dig scars.”
“Why do I want to impress a young chicken?”
“I guess that one doesn’t translate. Girls, Jarix. Girls love scars… Well some of them at least.”
“Ahhh that makes more sense, my back is gonna look wicked in that case… eventually.”
“Just think of Baron. He looked badass, didn’t he?”
“Sure, but most of those are from epic battles in the history books. He’s so freaking cool. I was told stories about him and the other veterans growing up.”
“You don’t think this one is going in there?”
“It’s just some battle for a keep. That happens all the time.”
‘Well, that is a rather depressing thought…' Tom hadn’t gotten that impression from the others though. “I don’t think you’re right, didn’t you say you had no clue what those bat things were? The first one is always remembered. You might be the first to ever kill one and the first to win a battle against them. First are always remembered.”
Jarix seemed to ponder that for a second before he lit up. “You mean I’m gonna be going in the history books for this?” he replied with genuine excitement in his voice.
“Well it’s possible, don’t you think? Besides if that doesn’t cut it, being the first dragon to carry a gun should damn well do the trick. You didn't even think of that?”
“I just wanted to win... “
“Bravo. That’s how it’s done,” Tom was actually genuinely surprised by that and really rather happy. It was clear this mattered to Jarix. Tom guessed he had been used to big battles with colorful depictions of heroes and their deeds. “You need to win no matter what, because history is written by the victor. I’m willing to bet that most of those stories you have heard aren’t really true. War is always a shit show, but if you win you can claim it wasn’t.”
“That is rather depressing,” Jarix responded.
“You remember what I said a while ago? Glory is your reward for doing terrible deeds, not to mention going through hell, hopefully for a good cause. We did that yesterday. That was all for a good cause, and that can’t be taken from you. So again, congratulations, big blue hero.”
“Well at what point are the two little ‘heroes’ gonna move? I haven't moved a muscle for an hour fearing I might squash you.”
“You are gonna have to take that one up with Jackalope,” Tom replied. He didn’t really want to get up, he was perfectly comfortable here, even if he was wondering how Jackalope wasn’t uncomfortable he was literally sitting in her lap and had been for hours by now. He should probably eat whatever was in that bowl too. It didn’t look particularly appetizing though.
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“Why haven't we heard anything yet?” Balethon questioned, between bites of dinner.
“Don’t know, might have stayed a little at Deriva? I would. It’s not often we get to see them, and the Lady there is very kind,” Sapphire replied in a hopeful tone. She was not sure she believed that though.
“They have Jarix with them. He could outrun almost anything,” Maiko replied. “If it was bad news, we would have heard from them by now. Likely this morning actually.”
“Unless they were dumb enough to try and help,” Dakota added in, sounding worried.
“I mean, Zarko follows orders, Unkai would likely be too scared, they won’t listen to Jacky. So that puts it down to Tom and Jarix,” Sapphire replied, thinking that over for a second. “Would Tom risk it?”
“I have no idea. Nunuk said he sounded troubled at the notion of even leaving the keep. But dammit if he is one to look the other way,” Dakota answered again before looking to Maiko. “What about Jarix?”
“Oh, he would for sure, but isn’t that what Tom had been trying to teach him not to do? Besides, I think he would listen to Zarko on that front. That and he has orders to follow, from the king no less.” Maiko certainly didn’t seem worried.
“Tom won’t give a shit about those orders though,” Sapphire stated plainly, scoring a double take from Maiko. “But he might decide to play hero, and with Jacky along… And Jarix possibly looking for an excuse...” ‘Fuck they might actually do it,’ Sapphire concluded to herself as she looked around at the others. “What would we do if they tried to help?”
“Not much we can do. We’re stuck here for the time being,” Dakota replied, looking like she had already arrived at Sapphire’s conclusion.
“Well if they don’t return… We would be launching an investigative force,” Maiko replied, clearly not pleased with that notion. “If they engaged, though, there is a good chance they are licking their wounds. I wouldn’t be concerned yet. As I said, Jarix is damn near the fastest flyer around these days. If you don’t need to go too far.”
“So they saw a keep in trouble, lent a hand, then ran away to lick their wounds. Or, they went in, won the battle, and are celebrating merrily with the people they saved. Sounds good to me. As long as too many didn't get hurt,” Balethon added, mouth half full of food. “How long until you send someone to mop up what’s left?”
“Oh, I don’t know. A few days... Maybe a week,” Maiko replied dismissively.
“I say we worry about it then, hey? Besides, as you said, we can’t do anything about it,” Balethon continued, while still eating. “I think we need to be more concerned with the people who might just be trying to kill us.”
Sapphire didn't really like this. In most of the situations they talked about, people would likely get hurt and it might well be someone she cared about. Tom was a good friend, sure. But she had known Jackalope for many years; she might be her closest friend in fact, despite their rivalry. “They better be fine. I've been doing too much praying as of late, and it doesn't seem to be working. I think it’s about time it does”
“Isn’t that something to do with only praying when you need something?” Balethon questioned.
“Well what should I pray for then? That someone got hurt or worse?” Sapphire replied in a rather annoyed tone.
“I think you need to give thanks for what you got. Not done much praying though,” he responded.
“Okay so. Dear Lotek, thank you for our safe journey here. Would you please ask Ishan not to take my friend from me?”
“Don’t say things like that, Everyone is fine. I’m sure.” Dakota demanded, sounding like she needed to convince herself just as much as the others. “Besides, even if they did decide to help a keep, they have both Tom and a damn dragon of the Royal Guard. What exactly survives that?” She didn’t sound entirely convinced of that statement either though. Even if it was one hell of an argument.
“Sorry. I’m just worried, okay?” Sapphire apologized.
“Let’s just give a prayer for everyone to get home safe tonight, and then worry about the things we can do something about.” Maiko interjected, clearly trying to ease things a bit.
When they had made it to bed, Dakota had a chat with Nunuk about what had happened. Even if there wasn’t much to report beyond Trewor. Crucially though, no news from the keep. Everything was as it should be apart from no Jarix and crew.
“Do you think this Trewor guy gonna stab us in the back?” Sapphire questioned after giving Dakota a second to catch her breath after the experience.
“I think he is too scared to try and double-cross us. He wants to live. That was damn clever of Maiko, I damn near believed it myself.”
“Yeah, the guy has a knack for this kind of thing it seems. I’m starting to see why Hashaw sent him. Besides just not wanting him around. And it was brilliant about the weapons. Even if Trewor does betray us, the bitch is gonna be scared shitless anyway.”
“She sure is,” Dakota replied with an evil grin.
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So then. The girls in the big city are hitting back, Jacky is doing her best to help her stressed to shit boyfriend and Jarix might have gotten a childhood wish fulfilled. Did you enjoy the chapter if so do let me know down below. Alternatively, let me know just how badly I fucked up.
Until next time Have an awesome day.
ko-fi For having a pretty picture commissioned.
Sapphire
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The Drama of Call Her Daddy

[Discussion] 25 great albums you might have missed from 2020. Spotify playlist included.

Edit: From the L2T mod team: After much discussion amongst the mods, we've decided to re-approve this post as a rare exception to the rule. u/mgraunk puts in a ton of work every year, and while the sub does not officially allow playlists posts, u/mgraunk has worked with the mod team to thoroughly vet each artist included to make sure they're within our limits. Thank you to everyone who commented sharing your thoughts on the decision.
Spotify playlist is here
2020 was a crazy year, so it’s understandable if you had a hard time keeping up with new music releases. I was in that other camp of people who found themselves listening to music even more than normal. I continued my (admittedly obsessive) tradition of listening to as many new albums as possible each week, and once again I’d like to share a few hidden gems.
These are not my top 25 albums. These are just 25 albums that I felt were sorely overlooked, based on the criteria that (almost) none of these artists have more than three songs with over half a million plays on Spotify. Hopefully we can bring their music to a wider audience. Without further ado, here are 25 great albums you might have missed in 2020:
1. Keleketla! - Keleketla! (Released 7/3/20, Multinational)
I’m going to break the rules right off the bat by including my absolute favorite album of 2020, which includes contributions from internationally famous recording artists like Tony Allen, Antibalas, and ColdCut. But in addition to these names, the musical project known as Keleketla! features many obscure and underrated artists, both from across the African continent and from members of the diaspora living around the world. It may not meet the letter of the law, but it certainly fits the spirit of this community. It’s a funky, jazzy, groovy blend of musical styles that’s truly unparalleled among album releases this past year. The vocals are carefully selected and powerfully performed, with lyrics that serve as a reminder of the many perspectives often overlooked by western-centric media.
Standout Tracks: Future Toyi Toyi, International Love Affair, Freedom Groove, Crystallise
2. Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters... (Released 10/2/20, California, US)
If you’ve listened to my playlists from the past two years, then you know I love me some psychedelic rock. King Gizzard and Tame Impala are great, but the field is really broad right now, and there are plenty of lesser known acts like Frankie and the Witch Fingers who can hold their own. Despite putting out several albums in recent years, this was the first release from Frankie and the Witch Fingers that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. It has a reckless energy, as if the performers are trying to thrash the life from their instruments before the album ends. Given the ongoing absence of live music in my life, this was one of the few albums from 2020 that almost managed to deliver that raw concert experience to the isolation of my apartment.
Standout Tracks: Activate, Sweet Freak, Simulator
3. Gooral - Ethno Elektro 2 (Wolno/Fusion) (Released 3/19/20, Poland)
This album seems to have been released in a couple different formats. When I first discovered Ethno Elektro 2, it was as a 6-song mini-album released in March with the subtitle “Wolno”. But on Spotify, there is an earlier version of Ethno Elektro 2 featuring a completely different tracklist with the subtitle “Fusion”, categorized as an EP. Discogs, however, lists Ethno Elektro 2 as a single 2-disc record containing all the tracks from both Fusion and Wolno. Long story short, they’re both uniquely amazing records, and the album works perfectly when listened to from the first track on Wolno to the last track on Fusion, smoothly fluctuating between EDM-tinged pop and eastern European folk. In addition to techno and D’n’B, Gooral draws heavily upon Polish ethnic styles to create a dance record that is seriously unmatched.
Standout Tracks: Spod tego jawora, Wadi rum, Cas siy nom uodmienić
4. Thy Catafalque - Naiv (Released 1/24/20, Hungary)
Back in the before time, I got together with a friend to make sausage. It was our first attempt, and we were working on a recipe he’d found for “hot Hungarian” sausage. I told my friend I had the perfect record to occupy us while we worked, and put on Naiv, which I had not yet listened to all the way through. We were surprised by just how suitable it turned out to be, and it quickly became my go-to album while working, doing chores around the house, and during further sausage-making ventures. The driving melodies and distorted growls are great for motivation, while the epic choral vocals and diverse instrumentations keep you from getting bored. But if you have a minute to pause and pay closer attention, you’ll also be able to appreciate the unusual time signatures and top-notch production characteristic of great progressive rock.
Standout Tracks: Embersólyom, A valóság kazamatái, Kék madár (Négy kép)
5. Suzie Stapleton - We Are the Plague (Released 7/31/20, Australia)
She may not have garnered much attention yet, but I’m really looking forward to following Suzie Stapleton’s career given the strength of her debut album, We Are the Plague. The album opens with the lyrics “We are the plague / we are the execution / we are the caged / we are the revolution”, and I’ll be damned if that isn’t just the perfect way to sum up 2020. What follows is a murky expedition into the gloomiest manifestations of western popular music - goth rock and dark folk tinged with blues, delivered by a rasping voice that’s equal parts Janis Joplin, Beth Hart and Lucinda Williams. The lyrics conjure images of desolation, destruction, and loss. This is not a happy record, but it is nonetheless a beautiful one.
Standout Tracks: We Are the Plague, Blood on the Windscreen, Don’t Look Up
6. Yuri Gagarin - The Outskirts of Reality (Released 1/31/20, Sweden)
Sweden is known more for its black metal and death metal than for spacey stoner rock, but Yuri Gagarin proves a welcome exception to that stereotype. The Outskirts of Reality hits the ground running with two lengthy jams over ten minutes apiece which together make up the bulk of the five track album. Laboratory1, the shortest track, creates a similar effect to the ambient middle section of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, developing an atmosphere that becomes progressively more eerie and unsettling, only to pull you roaring back when the album’s title track kicks in to end the record. It’s not a long album, just under 45 minutes - but that’s enough time for at least, like, three DMT trips, right?
Standout Tracks: Oneironaut, Crystal Dunes, The Outskirts of Reality
7. Aging - Sentenced to Love (Released 5/1/20, England, UK)
Sentenced to Love seems to embrace the notion espoused in the early days of How I Met Your Mother that “nothing good happens after 2 AM”. It is a soundtrack to dastardly deeds committed undercover of the night; the kind of jazz you might hear in a seedy strip club under a freeway while a shady man in a trenchcoat and fedora stares you down from across the bar. There’s an ominous undertone to the album that keeps you on edge, almost paranoid. If the movie Drive were set in the 1940s, this could be the soundtrack. In fact, one look at the album cover should adequately prepare you for what you are about to experience. As someone who works a graveyard shift, this album really resonates. Not the dastardly deeds part though, I swear.
Standout Tracks: The Trapped Man, Sentenced to Love, The Shadow On My Name
8. Ajate - Alo (Released 3/6/20, Japan)
An album like Alo is the musical equivalent of a British television series - it hooks you immediately, and then just as quickly, it’s over. Put it on repeat and you’ll have an album of a more satisfying length. I promise you won’t get bored listening to it over and over, though you might find yourself cursing the universe that there aren’t more bands fusing traditional Japanese and West African dance music, much less on homemade instruments of their own invention. There really isn’t a single other band in the world like this.
Standout Tracks: Uka, Galar, Mammamelie
9. Blessed Black - Beyond the Crimson Throne (Released 1/17/20, Ohio, US)
If you like metal bands that draw from desert rock, grunge, doom metal, and classic Sabbath, then put your bong down and pay attention. Now pick it back up and put on Beyond the Crimson Throne by Blessed Black. It’s derivative in all the best ways, accessible enough for the radio but with enough credibility for the metalhead purists. Expect catchy riffs rather than intricate solos, and clean vocals in place of growls or screams. I daresay this is the best damn butt rock record of the decade.
Standout Tracks: The White Wolf, Arioch’s Bargain, Stormbringer
10. Smoke Fairies - Darkness Brings the Wonders Home (Released 1/31/20, England, UK)
Smoke Fairies is not a new band, but their latest album is definitely their most polished and complete so far. Taken as a whole, the album has a great atmosphere - dark and mysterious, as its name would suggest, with rich harmonies reminiscent of Cocteau Twins. Without the context of the album, the individual songs still stand up. Each one is distinct and engaging, and despite the album’s brooding tone, there are a few good earworms in the mix.
Standout Tracks: On the Wing, Out of the Woods, Super Tremolo
11. The Cool Greenhouse - The Cool Greenhouse (Released 5/29/20, England, UK)
Most of the time, I prefer strong instrumentals over strong vocals. Much of my favorite music is entirely lyricless. The first time I heard The Cool Greenhouse, I wasn’t thrilled with the repetitive 3-note riffs that characterize this album. I almost wrote them off until I started picking up on what their vocalist (I hesitate to call him a singer) was listlessly droning on about in the most unapologetically British way possible. If John Cleese performed slam poetry, I’m not sure he could deliver as scathing a critique of western culture and society as The Cool Greenhouse. Their biting sarcasm is underscored by the apathetic delivery and appropriately low-effort guitar work, but the songwriting is actually pretty brilliant. The more I listened, I realized that what I initially heard as sloppy and uninspired was in fact quite intentional. It’s punk rock for the Doomer generation; the righteous anger is still there, but it manifests in a very different way.
Standout Tracks: Cardboard Man, Life Advice, Smile, Love!
12. Angellore - Rien ne devait mourir (Released 2/14/20, France)
The notes on Angellore’s bandcamp page describe the recording process of this album as “burdensome and depressing”, and while I can promise that listening to it will provide a much more enjoyable experience, this album certainly does take its time to get where it’s going. It doesn’t immediately hook you, but it promises a journey that will be well worth your while. The opening track is 20 minutes long, and starts with a Gregorian chant. From there, it unfolds like the plot of a novel, gradually building to some intense and compelling moments that don’t require any understanding of doom metal growls to be emotionally effective. And there are enough diverse vocal styles over the course of the album that even those who are turned off by unclean vocals can appreciate the vaguely necrophilious lyrical cliches of gothic rock.
Standout Tracks: A Romance of Thorns, Dreams - Along the Trail, Que les lueurs se dispersent
13. N to the Power - Autogenesis (Released 9/4/20, New York, US)
This is some weird, trippy jazz. This is some “don’t put it on until you’re comfortable with the headspace of the acid you just took” jazz. It’s not an easy listen, but it’s not hard to make the time for just five songs. There’s a lot to take in if you can give this music your undivided attention and just focus on the interplay between the different instruments. Each composition expresses a distinct musical idea, and while there are some common elements between them, the album is more an anthology of vignettes than a single theme. But with most of the songs over five minutes in length, none of the songs seem rushed or incomplete.
Standout Tracks: The God Particle, Marrakesh Mesosphere, To the Jackpot
14. Bambara - Stray (Released 2/14/20, Georgia, US)
Stray is a gloomy concept album that combines shimmery surf rock guitars with the gritty imagery of a Rob Zombie or Robert Rodriguez film. There are traces of neo-noir and western in the loosely connected stories of the album’s dismal characters, and also in the music, which vaguely resembles both Nick Cave and Ennio Morricone in trace amounts. While the album is best enjoyed from beginning to end like a nonlinear rock opera, the self-contained stories in each song stand on their own as well - particularly the final track, “Machete”, which would make for a great horror film if the name weren’t already taken.
Standout Tracks: Heat Lightning, Serafina, Machete
15. Tidiane Thiam - Siftorde (Released 5/15/20, Senegal)
There’s not a whole lot to say about Tidiane Thiam. He’s just a guy who taught himself to play guitar, plucking out simple melodies without adornment. His straightforward approach cuts to the heart of the innate human desire to make music. This album is as close as recorded music can get to capturing the experience of sitting around a campfire with your closest friends while someone noodles on a guitar, and the ambient background noises further contribute to that illusion. We may not be able to locate each others’ hometowns on a map, but the universality of this album tells me that we have something in common.
Standout Tracks: Djatasoun, Douga, Yeery-Mayo
16. Zenobia - Halak Halak (Released 6/5/20, Israel)
The duo of Palestinian DJs known as Zenobia make some pretty wild dance tunes. They combine elements of EDM and synthpop with various styles of Arabic pop and folk music that I’m too American to identify. If you’re accustomed to the rhythmic patterns of European and American dance music, you might find this album refreshingly dissimilar. I don’t know what the current slang would be, but in the words of my wife when she’s trying to get under my skin, “this one slaps”.
Standout Tracks: Edine, Halak Halak, Funky Egal
17. Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (Released 11/13/20, Wales, UK)
Not only is she the best primitive guitar player since the OG, John Fahey, Gwenifer Raymond is also a professional game designer and holds a PhD in astrophysics. So she’s got that going for her, which is nice, but neither of those other pursuits have any significant bearing on this album. Her guitar playing is front and center without any vocals to get in the way. Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain is colored by Raymond’s Welsh background, but also draws from the full spectrum of Americana styles and beyond. If you’re yawning at the prospect of another instrumental folk guitar album, just listen to her shred on “Hell for Certain” before deciding this album isn’t worth your while.
Standout Tracks: Hell for Certain, Gwaed am Gwaed, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
18. Malena Zavala - La Yarará (Released 4/17/20, Argentina)
I’m going to break the rules ever so slightly again, because Malena Zavala does have three songs with over 500k streams, two of which are different versions of the same song, and none of which are on this album. Her debut was decent, but Zavala’s sophomore release is a lot more polished in performance and production. She displays confidence and purpose in her vocals without sacrificing the emotion. The rich instrumentals reflect her diverse musical influences, with a variety of electric and acoustic instruments that keep things sounding light and bouncy even when the lyrics tend towards more melancholy and introspective topics. A tropical ambiance seeps through on every song, making this the perfect soundtrack for drinking away a bad breakup somewhere on a sandy beach.
Standout Tracks: En la Noche, Company, Ritmo de Vida
19. Ak’chamel, the Giver of Illness - The Totemist (Released 3/27/20, Texas, US)
What even is music, maaan? This album is more like a sound collage, beginning with a relatively familiar psychedelic rock melody that quickly fades to the background amidst distant bird calls and other sound effects. By the end of the first song, an eerie, whispering voice is pulling you deeper into your trip, and that’s when you remember that you aren’t even high. If it weren’t for the percussive instruments providing rhythm and meter, you might even forget you’re listening to an album at all. It’s a sort of new age parody, twisting and distorting the tropes of meditative music into something conspicuously unsettling. If you get anxious easily, you may want to avoid listening to this one when you’re all alone at 3 am. Unfortunately, I speak from personal experience.
Standout Tracks: Firedriver, The Funeral of a Woman Whose Soul is Trapped in the Sun, Dark Hat
20. Ka - Descendants of Cain (Released 5/1/20, New York, US)
As much as I enjoy the genre, hip hop albums don’t often rate very high on my list. A lot of hip hop albums feel bloated and uncurated, with too many filler tracks that rely on lyrical cliches without offering fresh perspectives. Ka’s Descendants of Cain is an excellent exception. The 11 songs center around an allegorical theme that compares the violence in economically depressed communities of color to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel (“brothers killing brothers”). Throughout the album, Ka reflects on his upbringing in cocaine culture, taking every opportunity to insert religious allusions through brilliant wordplay and double entendres. I can’t count how many times I’ve listened to this album already, and every time I pick up on clever details I haven’t noticed before. You don’t have to be a hip hop fan to appreciate the artistry on this album, although it might help to have an English degree.
Standout Tracks: My Brother’s Keeper, The Eye of a Needle, Sins of the Father
21. Matthieu Saglio - El Camino de los Vientos (Released 4/24/20, France)
Matthieu Saglio plays the music of the Mediterranean on El Camino de los Vientos, which features his own cello playing in addition to the contributions of various international collaborators. From song to song, the album travels around the entirety of the Mediterranean Sea, with stops around both Europe and North Africa. The individual pieces are distinct enough to sound as though they were created by completely different composers, but as a whole, the album is a cohesive masterpiece that bridges the cultural gaps between disparate styles of jazz, folk, and neoclassical composition. My wife tells me this album makes her feel like she’s in the “old country”. She doesn’t have an “old country”. She’s under 30 and has lived in the US her entire life. All the same, I can’t say I disagree with her interpretation.
Standout Tracks: Bolero Triste, Amanecer, Sur Le Chemin
22. Dool - Summerland (Released 4/10/20, Netherlands)
There aren’t enough truly great prog groups these days, especially female-fronted prog groups. Dool fills that niche quite nicely with a 70’s-flavored driving rock album that falls somewhere between Rainbow and early Heart. Dool may not have the instrumental virtuosity to place them among the greats, but they have an abundance of psychedelic guitar licks and instrumental jams, with enough catchy hooks to stick with you after listening. There are also elements of contemporary hard rock and metal, but the album isn’t particularly heavy by today’s standards. Summerland is a broadly accessible album for rock fans of any generation, hearkening back to the days when groups like Led Zeppelin were viable for pop radio. And if you have no natural affinity for classic rock, you can at least take solace in the fact that this style of dad rock isn’t likely to catch on again anytime soon. I’m just glad someone is still out there making it.
Standout Tracks: Sulphur & Starlight, God Particle, Ode to the Future
23. Cambriana - Hedonism (Released 12/18/20, Brazil)
A last-minute addition to my favorite albums of 2020, Cambriana’s Hedonism took me completely by surprise at a point when I thought that the year had nothing left to offer. It’s an album of artsy indie-pop jams in the vein of Glass Animals and The Neighbourhood that crawl into your brain and make themselves at home. The songs are simultaneously more delicate and more textured than most of today’s pop hits, with muted drums, shimmering guitars, and layers of synths. The album is immersive even at its slowest moments, and while it never gets too boisterous, there is a restrained energy on songs like “Induction Bread” that gives you the urge to get up and move.
Standout Tracks: Induction Bread, Gamma-Ray Burst, Huge!
24. Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper’s Daughter (Released 10/2/20, Washington, D.C., US)
For most of hip hop’s history, female contributors have been largely overlooked as serious rappers. Sa-Roc has the chops to compete with any of the greats, and a wisdom to her lyrics that would make Tupac proud. While a couple tasteful features provide the opportunity for some interesting back-and-forth dialogue, the album is overwhelmingly just Sa-Roc without any assistance. Lyrically, she surpasses virtually all of her peers in terms of staying on topic throughout the album, keeping her laser focus on topics of social justice without resorting to lazy sex jokes or excessive braggadosio. Not that there’s anything wrong with those tropes, but in 2020, a hip hop album the sort of substance found on The Sharecropper’s Daughter was both welcome and needed.
Standout Tracks: Gold Leaf, The Black Renaissance, Goddess Gang
25. Will Wood & the Tapeworms - The Normal Album (Released 7/10/20, New Zealand)
The first thing you hear when you put on The Normal Album is a darkly hilarious parody of 1950s doo-wop that flawlessly transitions into an Elvis-esque rockabilly jam over a wailing saxophone, then back to doo-wop. Thirty seconds later, you get a sample of what it might sound like if Tom Waits collaborated with the Mr. Bungle. That’s just the opening track. Suffice to say, the title of The Normal Album is a goddamn lie. Will Wood, the multitalented multimedia artist behind the Tapeworms’ music, lays out his relationship with mental illness and the world around him in the most eccentric mishmash of musical styles imaginable. His quirky artistic vision puts him in league with singer-songwriters like Ben Folds and Regina Spektor, though Wood seems even less constrained by the stylistic norms of popular music. His lyrics are dense, but even before you have the chance to decipher Wood’s musings on life and society, the absurd theatrics will suck you in by subverting your expectations roughly once a minute.
Standout Tracks: 2econd-2ight-2eer (that was fun, goodbye.), Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!), Marsha, Thank You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave.
Have a great 2021!

The False World Theory

Dainsleif & The False World Theory

Today (~~which by the time I’m finished with that will have been days ago~~) I had to do a bunch of calculus for virtual school, fun I know? So I was helping my friend with their calculus and, I’m not sure what exactly tempted me, but I googled the meaning behind a cube. Y’know a cube?
Hopefully, that little story will make more sense as I get into these theories. So, anyway, let me preface: these are my takes (POV), since I know there’s been information and theories floating around on both Dainsleif and The False World. I’m not saying any of this is correct, because, after all, this is MY SUBJECTIVE theory but, y’know, it’s fun to theorize.
So. . . I hope you enjoy this theory crafting! ʕ ·ᴥ·ʔ
Let me note, I do not know every piece of lore in the game so I’m sorry for anything incorrect. I’m just some ~~simp~~ person, with too much time on their hands thanks to covid, so I’m not well-versed in all the subjects I will be covering. If I make mistakes, I feign my innocence as always. If there is something incorrect or I contradict myself, look to the comments (since there’s usually people more knowledgeable than me).
*TLDR* with Theories:

Mona’s unnamed master, Rhinedottir, and Pedrelino all acknowledge that Tevyat’s sky is false. This false sky is home to all the constellations of vision holders which foretell their destinies, though this omits the Traveler’s and the Archon’s constellations.
Genshin takes inspiration from the idea of Gnosticism. Asmoday, who is most likely the Demiurge, creates the universe and gathers the Archons to be their co-actors.
The cubes seen atop Shrine of Depth Keys and wielded by Asmoday may be in reference to Metatron’s cube. This means that Asmoday is a reference to archangel Metatron, aside from the Demiurge.
Genshin’s world is Asmoday’s mystical cube, in which she oversees the flow of elements. Asmoday is also the messenger of Celestia.
Genshin’s lore is based on a mix of some Christianity but more so Judaism, specifically Kabbalah mysticism, plus Norse and Germanic mythology. It’s possible that Tevyat, most likely being a cube, is based on New Jerusalem.
The Seed of Life, as seen in the Princess’s Fresco, gives additional validation that numbers which are important (1, 3, 7, 9, 12, etc.) retain their important meanings in Tevyat.
The Tree of Life and the World Tree exist in Genshin’s universe. Genshin titles these trees as the Irminsul trees. They can be found in both Domains and the overworld. These trees are connected to the leylines, which allow elements to flow into Tevyat.
Angels exist or have existed in Tevyat. Based on Kabbalah mysticism & Christianity Gabriel, Uriel, Michael and Raphael are representative of the four winds and cardinal directions. It’s very plausible that all four stags of Yggdrasil exist in Genshin, Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór, which can also be representative of four winds.
Dainsleif’s right arm holds the power exclusive to leylines, separate from the elements.
Dvalin most likely has a connection to the SilveGreat Tree.
Asmoday has control over all the elements, hence why she oversees the flow of energy through the leylines. In the opening cutscene of the game the Traveler also, at the time, had control over all the elements.

Word Count: 5128
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Gnosticism and the False Sky

(Unreconciled Stars Event)
I don’t think anyone, at this point, will outright deny the allegations that Tevyat’s sky is false, even if Scaramouche's word is shady at best.
But, thank God, we do not only have Scaramouche’s claims to back up this theory.
Ex.

“He seemed genuinely shaken, though. I don't think he was lying. I was always taught to talk about the ‘false sky’ during astrological readings. . . Could there be more to such phrases than I have been led to believe?” (Mona, Unreconciled Stars Event).
"The universe is the dark essence of the true starry sky, and the earth is the accumulated memories of time and lives. . .” (Albedo’s 3rd Character Story).
It’s also worth noting that Scaramouche asks, “What was the Jester (The 1st Harbinger, Pedrelino) thinking? He must have had some inkling of what we might discover on this mission. . .” (Unreconciled Stars Event) implying that, at least, Pedrelino also knows of the false sky.

It is most likely that Mona’s unnamed master taught her about the false sky. The two of them also came up with hydromancy, which is, as Mona says, the “one and only success story of that old lady's research endeavors”.
Mona’s master, as told from Astrolabos: Act I, was a rival to Alice and the two of them had a 50-year pact. It is most likely that Mona’s master was also good friends with Alice, aside from their rivalry. As everyone knows, a friend of a friend is a friend — it is very likely Mona’s master also talked to or at least known Albedo’s creator, Rhinedottir, who was old friends with Alice.
These three ladies, Mona’s master, Alice, and Rhinedottir, are all an enigma to Tevyat and seem to possess the vastest knowledge of the mechanisms of the world.
Tevyat is a world located in some “starry void”. Rhindottir states, in Albedo’s character story, this void holds the true stars.
What is in Tevyat’s sky if not the true stars?

“Do you know about constellations? Astrologers believe that the patterns of the stars map out the destinies of Vision bearers — past, present, and future, everything is written in the stars” (Mona- Something to Share).
“Wherever you go, whatever life throws at you. . . In Teyvat, the stars in the sky will always have a place for you” (Loading Screen Description- Constellations).

In the Unreconciled Stars Event, Mona further confirms that vision’s holders constellations are real celestial bodies. She says, “the stars that make up a constellation — the Stella Fortuna — are genuine celestial bodies in the depths of space. They are not simply notional”.
It’s worth noting that the Archons’ constellations and the Traveler’s constellation, both of whom are outliers from true Vision holders, do not seem to be present in Tevyat’s sky unlike other character’s constellations. As I’m sure you all know, when Mona goes to read Venti’s fate, he sends a gust of wind her way and she is, for a lack of a better term, strip-teased. But from her lines we also know she attempts to read Paimon’s destiny. If we assume every character named after one of the 72 demons from the Ars Goetia to be an Archon and/or God, then this line indicates that the Archons and/or God’s constellations do not exist in Tevyat’s sky.
Ex.

“No matter what, I cannot seem to discern a single shred of information regarding this floating fairy's fate” (Mona- Interesting Things).

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Gnosticism, as defined by Wiki, is:

. . .A collection of religious ideas and systems which originated in the first century AD among early Christian and Jewish sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) over the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of the church. Viewing material existence as flawed or evil, Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes associated with the Yahweh of the Old Testament) who is responsible for creating the material universe.

Here’s what is most relevant to Genshin Impact:

The demiurge creates the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity. The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named archons who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it. . . Moral judgements of the demiurge vary from group to group within the broad category of Gnosticism, viewing materiality as being inherently evil, or as merely flawed and as good as its passive constituent matter allows (Wiki).

In late antiquity some variants of Gnosticism used the term archon to refer to several servants of the demiurge. According to Origen's Contra Celsum, a sect called the Ophites posited the existence of seven archons. . .(Wiki).

Okay, that was a lot of text (ㆆ﹏ㆆ). The main takeaway is that demiurge, in the case of Genshin Impact that most likely being Asmoday (Sustainer of Heavenly Principles), creates the universe and gathers the group of Archons.
(Opening Cutscene)
As we all know, Asmoday wields some wonderful cubes that trap both Lumine and Aether.
These cubes or this cube power, I suspect, is a reference to Metatron’s Cube. For a moment, let’s switch things up — let’s talk about Sacred Geometry.
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Sacred Geometry in Genshin

For all the math I know, and all the years I’ve attended school, I’ve never heard of such a thing as Sacred Geometry — then again, at first glance, it seems like a joke.
Sacred Geometry is the idea that geometric patterns exist in everything around us. It’s teachings describe it as, “the blueprint of creation and the genesis, the origin of all form. Sacred geometry is considered an ancient science that explores and explains the energy patterns that create and unify all things and reveals the precise way that the energy of creation organizes itself” (Link).
Now how does such a concept apply to Genshin?
(Example Image)

Metatron’s Cube as seen atop the Key of Depths
Seed of Life that appears in the Princess’s Fresco
The SilveGreat Tree (Tree of Life and/or World Tree outside Genshin)

*NOTE: Before going any further I just want to say, if I’m incorrect on any of this stuff, you can correct me. As I said at the beginning of this write-up, I’m not well-versed in all these topics, but I do want to bring these ideas up to get the cogs in other peoples’ brains turning.
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Bullet Point I, Metatron’s Cube:
“These Shrines of Depths sealed themselves off when the civilization that built them was lost. Keys lost deep within domains are able to break the seals. Or perhaps that, for a moment, these keys help the seals to forget all that they have lost” (Shrine of Depth Key).
Metatron’s Cube is important for two reasons:

References Archangel Metatron
References Star Tetrahedron (Star of David & Judaism)

Let’s assume Asmoday to also be a reference to Metatron, aside from the Demiurge. Metatron’s duty was to oversee the flow of energy in a mystical cube, which contained and represented all the geometric patterns in God’s creation. It was also Metatron’s duty to oversee the Tree of Life and send energy from the top of the Tree towards all other parts of the trees (Link). It’s also worth noting that Metatron was considered one of, if not, the highest of angels, and, in the Merkabah and Kabbalist mysticism, he served as a scribe.
One of leyline loading screen descriptions states it as: “A mysterious network that links the whole world together, within which flow the elements”.
(It is very likely Asmoday plays some part in handling the leylines, Great Tree, and elements in Genshin’s world. In this image you can see the blossoms from Leylines & Bosses emanate black particles with red outlines, similar to Asmoday’s cubes as seen from the opening cutscene. This is also, most likely, not the color they are supposed to emanate — blue rather than red — almost as if they’ve been, in a way, corrupted.)
The entire world of Tevyat, in the case of Genshin, is Asmoday’s mystical cube which she oversees and allows the elements to flow into — she also plays the role as a messenger for the entity that is Celestia.
What is also interesting about Metatron is that he was not originally an angel, but was once a man, Enoch, and ascended to Heaven. Aside from Sandalphon, Metatron was the only other angel to ascend to his angelic status.
This is, then, where things must be left to individual interpretation. If we assume Asmoday is both a reference to Metatron and Demiurge then we cannot be sure of how Asmoday came into being. . . but I do have an idea!
*NOTE: I’m very sorry to shamelessly plug, but to understand my line of thinking you’re going to need to read part of my other theory post, The 8th Archon Theory. Just read the section on why I think Princess Fischl (NOT AMY, NOT THE CHARACTER IN-GAME) is Asmoday, or at least a reference to her.
I’m sure we’ve all played Fabulae Textile: Act 1 by now, but how many of you actually read the book you get for completing the quest?
Ex.

“‘Oh my daughter, the one in whom all my hopes are placed! Did I not bring you into existence that you might one day pierce me with a halberd?’ Awakened at last, the God King floated in the heavens to the claps of thunder and the dancing of the wind, rejoicing at his return. . . Fearing the madness that would ensue following his death, the God King made one final Divine Halberd, and named it the Prinzessin der Verurteilung. In this moment, it — nay, she — could finally unleash her true self” (Legend of the Shattered Halberd Vol. 6).
"I was once the daughter of the Celestial Emperor. But I have long forgotten my name. I was in charge of conducting trials and sentencing at the end — a judge, to use your parlance” (Legend of the Shattered Halberd Vol. 2).
"’That is a power bestowed upon me by my father. Only I have this power. It is solely for use in sentencing the guilty. I mustn't. . .’ Weiyang's voice changed in tone. ‘I mustn't use it lightly’ (Legend of the Shattered Halberd Vol. 3).

You can read the whole story for yourself, but the general gist is that the Princess der Verurteilung, who was first made from the God King’s will, uses a mortal for her catalyst and, in her anger, she “wants to prove herself”. Her goal is to retrieve the 9 pieces of the Divine Halberd or else, as she says, “this world and everything in it is going to burn in hellfire”. Along her journey she meets a man named Mir and he gives her the name Weiyang.
What’s interesting about Mir is that, to appease the Princess der Verurteilung, he lets her have one of his eyes — a clear reference to the Norse God, Odin.

The tales about the Norse god Odin tell how he gave one of his eyes in return for wisdom (Wiki).

Asmoday came into being much like Demiurge, but eventually ‘died’ and, as told from the Legend of the Shattered Halberd, ascended after realizing the purpose of her existence.
*Demiurge NOTE: Sophia (Greek: Σοφία, lit. 'wisdom'), Demiurge's mother. . . desired to create something apart from the divine totality, without the receipt of divine ascent. In this act of separate creation, she gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and, being ashamed of her deed, wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him within it. . . The Demiurge, having received a portion of power from his mother, sets about a work of creation in unconscious imitation of the superior Pleromatic realm: He frames the seven heavens, as well as all material and animal things. . . He is blind to all that is spiritual, but he is king over the other two provinces. The word dēmiurgos properly describes his relation to the material; he is the father of that which is animal like himself (Wiki).
(The cube Asmoday traps one of the Twins in)
If we step back from the idea of the cube being specifically Metatron’s cube, we can look at it from the angle of Judaism — Tevyat is a parallel of New Jerusalem.
Okay, so this gets a bit messy, but, based on descriptions from the book of Revelations, New Jerusalem was a kingdom, theorized to be a cube, that allegorically descended.

In Jewish mysticism, there are two Gardens of Eden and two Promised Lands: the heavenly invisible one and the earthly visible one that is a copy of the heavenly invisible one. Heaven in Jewish mysticism includes a heavenly Promised land — including Jerusalem, the temple, and the ark of the covenant — and a heavenly Garden of Eden — including the tree of life, a storehouse for the manna that angels eat, and multiple rivers that water the garden. When the Bible mentions a New Jerusalem, heavenly sanctuary, bread of life, or God's throne, it is referring to the Jewish mystical understanding of heaven. (Wiki)

I’m going to say it now (ó﹏ò｡) — I don’t believe much of Genshin is exactly a reference to Christianity but rather Judaism, specifically Kabbalah mysticism.
Now clearly, I’m no master of religion, seeing that it’s been years since I stepped into a church, but from what I understand, though the two are different, both Christianity and Judaism have some similarities — namely the Old Testament.
If Genshin, truly, was referencing Judaism then the use of Gnostic theory makes sense.
Ex.

“Gnostic ideas found a Jewish variation in the mystical study of Kabbalah. Many core Gnostic ideas reappear in Kabbalah, where they are used for dramatically reinterpreting earlier Jewish sources according to this new system” (Wiki).

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Before moving onto the next bullet point, I want to bring up this line from the Prologue of the Webcomic: “In other distant worlds. . . Pangu gave his blood to form the river and seas. . . the Gods sacrificed Purusha and cut his body into pieces. . . and then fashioned all living beings with those parts. The brain of the giant Ymir became the clouds. Their sacrifices seeded life in the unliving cosmos”.
It’s unlikely that Genshin’s world was made in a similar way to how the world(s) was/were created from the creation myths referenced above.
Ex.

“It embodies a state of intertwining order and chaos, and is said to mirror how the world was when it was first created. Of course, a certain someone knows that this was not the case” (Mist Veiled Promo Elixir).

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Bullet Point II, Seed of Life:
The seed of life is the basis of all creation, and represents the creator’s, God’s, conscious.
The symbol begins with 1 circle and over the course of 7 days, a new identical circle for each day, this circle will form the Seed of Life. This symbol can then be overlaid to create the Flower of Life.
This webpage shows, and explains, how these sacred symbols build upon one another (つ﹏⊂)
What I think is important, and what I’m going to take away from this, is that, in Genshin, sacred/important numbers, as per Religious context, retain their sacredness.
This would be numbers such as:

Seven, nine, and twelve are all important for, pretty much, one of the same reasons. These three numbers are all symbolic of completeness (but, of course, they all are symbolic of multiple things).
Seven:

As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has been associated with a great deal of symbolism in religion, mythology, superstition and philosophy. (Wiki)

Nine:

The number 9 is revered in Hinduism and considered a complete, perfected and divine number because it represents the end of a cycle in the decimal system, which originated from the Indian subcontinent as early as 3000 BC.
Nine is a significant number in Norse Mythology. Odin hung himself on an ash tree for nine days to learn the runes. (Wiki)

Twelve:

It is approximately the number of full lunations of the moon in a year, and the number of years for a full cycle of Jupiter, historically considered to be the brightest ‘wandering star’. It is central to many systems of timekeeping, including the Western calendar and units of time of day, and frequently appears in the world's major religions. (Wiki#Judaism_and_Christianity))

*NOTE: The Wiki links take you to the section on the WIki page which specifically talks about the numbers Religious context.
Regardless of whether or not the Seed of Life, in Genshin, should be the deciding factor on if these numbers retain their meaning, there’s other examples in-game which demonstrate this number idea.
Ex.

“Just as the elements of the world count seven, so do the days of the week” (Loading Screen- Time).
“Cor Purum is produced by firing Cor Lapis in an urn for seven days squared and then steeping it in fresh water drawn from a mountain spring for a further seven days squared. The dual purification of fire and water renders Cor Purum unbreakable, and the thaumaturges also believe it allows the stone to act as a vessel for primordial cosmic energy. A catalyst with Cor Purum at its core can channel cosmic energy with the turning of the disc. Twelve full turns works the energy into its purest form” (Prototype Amber).

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Bullet Point III, Tree of Life:
Across many religions & mythologies the Tree of Life, is used to connect every creation of the world. The World tree, which the Tree of Life is closely related to, connects every land of the world (Heavens, Earthly world, Underworld) and this remains true in Genshin. So, in a way, this Tree is like a world hub.
The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil also exists, but, aside from general use of Gnostic ideas, I don’t believe there’s anything indicating this tree is also present in Genshin (ノ﹏ヽ)
“The Tree of Life is one of the most familiar of the Sacred Geometry Symbols. The structure of the Tree of Life is connected to the sacred teachings of the Jewish Kabbalah but can be seen 3,000 years earlier in Egypt. It is possible to see the Tree of Life structure in many places around the conscious universe. The structure is represented in nature and relates to the Flower of Life and Seed of Life” (Link).
(Petrified Trees found in Domains)
Genshin’s Tree of Life, specifically named Irminsul trees, can be found in all domains and, most likely, the tree at Nantianmen and the one to the Northeast of Dragonspine are both, also, Irminsul trees.
The Frostbearing tree was also, most likely, at one point an uncorrupted Irminsul tree.
Ex.

“It is said that the root of all the Irminsul trees and blossoms in the world are intertwined at the deepest, most hidden place in the earth, and that the pattern the root system makes defines the Ley Lines of the world” (Original Resin).
“Crystal filled with immense energy. The silver-white Irminsul trees and blossoms are connected to ley lines that have become blocked over time. The energy contained in tree resin can purify the obstructing substance” (Condensed Resin).

The name Irminsul, from old Saxon, means great pillar.

The first element, Irmin- ('great') is cognate with terms with some significance elsewhere in Germanic mythology. Among the North Germanic peoples, the Old Norse form of Irmin is Jörmunr, which just like Yggr is one of the names of Odin. Yggdrasil (Old Norse 'Yggr's horse') is a cosmic tree from which Odin sacrificed himself, and which connects the Nine worlds. . . It has been suggested that Irmin was more probably an aspect or epithet of some other deity – most likely Wodan (Odin). Irmin might also have been an epithet of the god Ziu (Tyr) in early Germanic times, only later transferred to Odin, as certain scholars subscribe to the idea that Odin replaced Tyr as the chief Germanic deity at the onset of the Migration Period. (Wiki)

In Kabbalah, the Tree of Life is made from the 10 Sefirot powers of the Divine Realm. In Judaism the Tree of Life is a symbol of wisdom.
*NOTE: For my understanding, I’m going to say the Tree of Life and the World Tree are inherently close to, or are, the same thing in Genshin specifically. I hope, whoever reads this, doesn’t mind that because, as I said, I’m not very well-versed on these topics (plus this idea, of a Tree of Life & World Tree, is not inherently from only one religion/mythology).
Going back to the book, Legend of the Shattered Halberd, it is said that there are nine realms — a reference to, specifically, Yggdrasil. This is, of course, assuming Legend of the Shattered Halberd is, unknowingly, a story about Tevyat.
Yggdrasil, in Norse mythology, was a very holy tree where the Gods would gather. This tree connected every part of the world through it’s three roots.
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Congratz! You made it to the last section of this analysis ( ͡° ͜ ͡°)

Dainsleif, Dvalin, and Genshin’s Tree

Since I’ve spent some time in this analysis talking about Genshin’s amazing trees and the wonderful leylines (~~that gives tons of rewards as we all know~~) it’s only natural we talk about Dainsleif. . . but first!
Going back to the idea of Tevyat being a parallel to New Jerusalem, the quote I used above states: “Heaven in Jewish mysticism includes. . . a heavenly Garden of Eden — including. . . a storehouse for the manna that angels eat. . .”
Angels exist (have existed) in Tevyat.
An image of angels, as the beings of Celestia, is depicted in the Prologue of the Webcomic and, credits to the user phantam, if aligned correctly Mona’s Astrolabe reads: GBL, URL, MKL, and RPL.

GBL: Gabriel
URL: Uriel
MKL: Michael
RPL: Raphael

These four angels are the winds and cardinal directions in Kabbalah. What’s interesting about this is that, the four stags which eat from Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór, have been suggested in Finnur Magnússon 1824 work, The Eddic Lore and its Origin, to be representative of winds too (Wiki).
Of course the angels are based on Kabbalah mysticism & Christianity while the stags are based on Norse mythology, but I find it weird that both these entities, which can both be interpreted as winds, live or have lived in Genshin’s world.
Point I: Dainsleif
“Dain, what is that strand of blonde hair to you? Someone you must kill? Or the object of your penitence?” (Bough Keeper - Dainsleif)
Dainsleif is both a reference to King Högni's sword, inscribed with Dáinn's legacy, and Dain, the dwarf himself. Dainsleif is even titled by the self-proclaimed prophet as “Dain” in his character description. As mentioned above, Dain was one of the four stags which ate from Yggdrasil.
(Dainsleif Annoucement Artwork)
It is most likely within Dain’s right arm is the power of the Irminsul trees and leylines. You can compare the similar blue color with the trees seen in domains.
Now, I want to make it clear — the power of the leylines, themselves, is not Asmoday’s power over the elements. I mentioned above how Asmoday most likely uses the leylines to allow the elements to flow into Tevyat, so think of the leylines as a catalyst for that function but also, at the same time, they have their own, separate powers.
Ex.

“Then, once the beast has quenched its great thirst for that energy which only the leylines can provide. . . I imagine any significance we presume to have in this world will vanish for good” (Jiu).

Point II: Dvalin
I’m sure I don’t need to talk about who Dvalin is and what role he played in the story, but I believe there’s more to him than just STORMTERROR.
If you look at his design you can see stars engraved on his body and the same galaxy effect as seen on Paimon’s and Tartaglia’s capes. The star motif is associated with Khaenri’ah, as seen on Kaeya’s clothes.
(Chapter 1: Act 1)
Could it be possible that Dvalin, while in Gaotian, was birthed with the help of the Leylines?

“Typically, when life arises from the elements, it either descends and becomes a slime, or ascends and becomes a crystalfly. Rarely does this process give rise to dangerous elemental monsters. Elemental dragons are rarely seen and have the powers to match the bygone demons” (Breeze Amidst the Forest).
“It is said there are even crystalflies attracted to elemental energy” (Exploration and Adventure).

It’s no coincidence that you can find cyrstalflies at both the great tree in Mondstadt and the one to the Northeast of Dragonspine. We know that the tree at Nantianmen’s power has diminished, as said by Jiu, which would explain the lack of crystalflies.
If Dvalin is connected to the Great/Silver tree, then his design makes more sense.
It’s also worth noting that, of all things shown from Genshin in the Honkai Webcomic, the writers chose Dvalin on a black backdrop. Hell, if they really wanted to make sure we knew it was Genshin then they could’ve slapped a slime in that monitor (I’m just saying ¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯).
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(~~Sorry if this seems tacked on at the end~~)
Before ending this write-up, let’s talk about Asmoday and her power a little, but, let me note, I will not be talking about her black-cube power but instead her control over the elements.
As said at the beginning of this write-up, Asmodays references the gnostic idea of the Demiurge who, thinking themselves to be alone and isolated, created the Archons and the material universe. Because Asmoday, Genshin’s Demiurge, gathered the elemental Archons, then Asmoday should be able to wield all elements.
Just like how Venti’s hair glows a light turquoise and Zhongli’s an orange, Asmoday’s hair also glows — it glows a creamy white.

White is what we see when all wavelengths of light are reflected off an object. (Link)

*NOTE: I don’t know the nitty gritty about the visible spectrums, but I’m just going to use the simple principle that white is created by a combination of all the colors. Yes, I know white can also, technically, be classified as shade rather than a color.
Okay, so maybe, just maybe, Asmoday’s wields all the elements (ㆆ﹏ㆆ)
There’s two other people who use a white power. . . Lumine and Aether.
(Opening Cutscene)
Since we are all playing Genshin here, we know that the Traveler's ultimate goal, aside from saving their twin, is to regain their lost power. And how are going to regain that power?
By meeting each of the 7 Archons and ‘claiming’ each of the 7 elements.
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In Conclusion

*TLDR IS AT THE BEGINNING\*
I want everyone to know, despite all the writing I personally did, to take this with a MASSIVE GRAIN OF SALT. Genshin is only loosely based on other pieces of literature so what occurs or what is said in these ancient pieces of literature does not necessarily mean it will be translated into Genshin. I’m just using those pieces of literature (religion and mythology) as a point of reference for what may occur in Genshin.
Once again, I want to thank everyone who writes about the lore. If it wasn’t for other people writing and talking about the lore, then I don’t think I would be writing about all this. Like I said many times throughout this write-up, I don’t personally know about these topics (it’s why you see a bunch of wiki links), and, like I said, if I missed anything or was incorrect on anything feel free, please do, correct me. For anyone reading, I highly advise looking at other lore posts or videos. Lastly, I briefly got started on my Diluc analysis since I was at a loss on where to go with this, so that is going to be next but I swear, this time, I’m stepping away from the keyboard.
So, after all is said and done, I hope you enjoyed this long Theory write-up!

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Joke apart or Joking apart? – Punch Newspapers

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jokes apart sentence - win

How can I get a dangerous man to leave my apartment a week after hooking up with him?

(Spoilers Extended) The Optimist's Gambit: Why George RR Martin Always Thinks He's Closer Than He Actually Is, Part 2: THE WINDS OF WINTER