3.1
The first 4 cycles of PSATCWOT are inherently linked to the ttrpg campaigns. Not only were these the reason for psatcwot's existence and their origin point, they *were* the campaigns. This is also true for c3 !
What I wanted to do after c2, for the second campaign, was to do the second one. Obviously. I had a basic idea for the world it would exist in. It would be a world after a mass extinction of humanity, where ideals roamed the land. The characters would gather god-killing swords and go slice up a version of the abrahamic god. These ideas were all mostly from 1 dream.
In this dream, two youths from a village had to embark on a journey in a similar world. The goal of the journey was to kill the village's god, in a ritual that was repeated every few years. They made a pact with three demons, and together embarked on ajounrey.
Continuing this dream also was the idea of Deicide, a sword made to kill gods. Eventually it all coalesced into c4. However, we're talking about c3.
All this is to say that I had to bridge a gap between c2 and c4. I made the arbitrary decision for this gap to be around 2 centuries, and made a basic timeline. Then, to help convey that gap to my players, I created a character called Enner, whose diary entries they would find along their way. It also came to be that Enner would be the one who destroyed the world.
These entries are not what my players saw during the campaign. The entries they were presented with were, understandably so, very rough and jagged. I'll make another page where you can read them, as even if they're not good, they do provide a good insight into how c3 (and c4) was created and how it evolved over time. That said, let's read the thing.
So, who was the grey man ? It's a wendigo. As it turns out, this isnt meaningful in any way. It could have been any other ideal, and the story would have been impacted in a meaningful way.
There isn't much to say about this page. Good thing I had a lengthy introduction !
Though it's a ctually a reoccuring thing with this cycle : the pages are all very short and curt, except for the final one which is one of the longest pages in psatcwot.
3.2
What's up with the dates ? 5447 ? Are we in the future ? Passage of time is an interesting question in psactwot. The 200 year gap between c2 and c4 is perhaps the most concrete gap between two cycles. Every other one is left as very ambiguous, mostly having a relative timescale. So this world is the year 5447. That's it. It doesn't really mean much, especially since the planet these character thread on isn't ours.
The wheels ! ah, so scary. The wheels are the eponymous wheels of time. I wanted at that point make a reoccuring symbol of the wheels, which ended up working somewhat-but-not-really. You know how it is, if you've tried your hand at making the sort of long spanning serial work psatcwot is.
3.3
not... much to say here. the style is kindof dry and somewhat annoying to read. I was trying to have a more casual and relaxed style and it doesnt work well.
3.4
Oh this page is good ! The part about living in a big city is very interesting. it's a nice way to finally plot down a setting in a natural and unintrusive way.
Though I don't know how well the spatial fuckery of the Ideals is conveyed. It's quite clear to me, but i'm the one who thought of it, so who knows ?
3.5
This page is a new one that isn't in the original diary entries. It was added to help cement the concept of the ideals. If you're curious, this one is the ideal of danger. By all accounts, it should be a lot more powerful, but who fucking cares.
3.6
Some CRUCIAL information is missing. The reason why Enner makes that connection between the movie and the ideal, is because in the movie he talks about, the moon is often colored pink. And so, because of that, it temporarily shifted the general perception fo the moon to be pink, changing the ideal's color for that time.
Ideals are, afterall, influenced and given birth by humans. BTW that guy is the ideal of the moon, but I feel like that's relatively obvious.
We also get the first appearance of Lape here ! Their name comes from toki pona lape, which means to rest, to sleep, etc.
Toki pona is actually used in an interesting way. In c3 it's only used for a single name, but in c4 it's used as the name of every location, as well as for the name of a lot of characters. I'll go over that in the c4 commentary, but for now it's interesting to remember that Lape's name was probably one they chose for themselves.
3.7
I have to say taht the way the nature of ideals is revealed is a bit anticlimactic. Enner just kind of tells you. But oh well...
3.8
Here, something contacts Enner. But first of all, what's up with lape ? Well, it's a brain worm. A parasitic ideal took hold of their brain.
The concept of Lape is a pretty cool one, if unrealized. The brainworm makes them more and more disconnected from reality, and in exchange gives them the ability to make holes in reality. We do see a little bit of it in the last page of c3 but I wish i had used it more.
And also, what does the angel do to enner ? What i wanted to ahve them do is that they shove their sword through the computer screen. Not into enner or anything, just as a warning shot.
3.9
This is where enner gains a real motivation, and starts their character arc for real, the page where they start to want things and to have a concrete goal.
Interestingly, it starts as something similar to the angels. This was not intentional.
3.10
The beings of light and arteries are dream dwellers, aka the evolved tesserelunae after a few millenias of living in the folded space. i don't know if I said it earlier, so maybe Ill repeat myself but : in the folded space, due to being able to see all of reality all the time, they ended up taking up the role of appearing in dreams to warn others about the future.
They usually don't meddle with the real universe to avoid splitting timelines even further, but sometimes their contribution is predetermined, and in that case they do interact.
You could say that it's just a convenient plot device. But honestly, it ends up being used so little that it doesnt really count.
The most its used is that they have a relatively frequent one-sided communication with the renegades, often being the ones who guide them. But, then again, I wouldn't call that a plot device.
Ah, another mention of circles ! This would be a great opportunity for me to explain what they are !
The idea of digitalizing ideals is ripped straight from SMT. like this is shameless. Already ideals are somewhat iffy, being representations of humans beliefs, but then the fact that you can digitize them and summon them is even more clear.
A big inspiration of c3 was shin megami tensei, obviously, as it was a big inspiration for c1-4. But I feel like c3 (and the others) diverge from it. It's more like theyre set in a similar world but tell a different story. i hope.
Here's r17 ! the first renegade we see. Because we actually saw them in c1 ! c1 was written after enner's diary. It was written after the 2nd campaign i think ? So basically the reason why r17 and r25 were in c1 is because i knew theyd be in c3 later. I would not have included them here otherwise.
r17 is supposed to be more carefree and bubbling, while r25 is more serious. the number was determined by the order in which they were digitized, and the highest number is... r31. There are 31 renegades.
Here, r17 rushes enner along. r17 knows what they have to do. It has been foretold not only to them but also to enner by the dream dwellers, so theyre trying to cut to the chase.
3.11
This is written just like an smt character lmao. Weakling who just got the demon summoning program and is absolutely not on a power trip. But also, whereas two pages ago was enner finally getting a motivation, this page is enner starting to act on that motivation.
3.12
even when being aware of the cycle of violence doesn't mean you can stop it. Enner has yet to learn that
Also sorry if these pages have benn short. there's not much to say. This si still my old writing style, from which ive not fully grown. I sometimes struggle to not get straight to the point.
In C6 it's a real detriment to the cycle, but here its still a bit of a thing. In c4, and a few other cycles, its curbed by having descriptions and character interactions and stuff like that. A bit hard to do on a series of blogposts innit.
3.13
the main idea of C3 was to have a cast of characters mainly interacting via the internet, by messaging, blogposts and such, and form a sort of web of connections. In a way it's a bit similar to homestuck, no ? Though, it's still very removed as here the only account we have on what happens outside in the real world is only conveyed by the characters themselves and what they choose to write. (i think i talked about this already, the twofold unreliable narration.)
And that idea is... somewhat realized in the final. I do think I didn't go far enough, that many things could be expended upon, but it still works. The characters have this sort of secrecy and anonimity to them which I quite enjoy. There will probably be a future cycle that's similar. I'm quite interested by themes of remote communication, such as messaging (c3), letters (c11), and more.
Another interesting theme in C3 which I never... really thought of when I wrote it, was one of surveillance. The angels and the renegades both constantly watch what everyone is doing. The renegades have minimal power, only able to communicate with others (whichs already a lot !), but the angels have administrative permissions. They can delete, ban, regulate people, in addition to seeing *everything*.
Another theme, which is intrinsically tied to the renegades (and to C6) is artificial intelligence. But I think It would be better to talk about it in C6. Just know that when C3 was written, AI was definitely not as big as it is now. Chatgpt and image generation was definitely not as big. You could analyze C3 in the lens of the modern digital landscape, but do keep in mind the landscape was quite different when it was written.
3.14
Enner's admiration of X is very interesting I think. There's definitely a kinship, in that Enner, who feels like an outcast, sees themselves in X. There's also an aspect of Enner admiring the simplicity of X. X is the ideal of fear itself. It's an ideal that is shunned, itself fearful, with no true form of its own.
X, more precisely, represents the fear of the unknown. For Enner to go past that and to approach X is quite formidable. Especially for Enner, a character who is fearful and plagued by nightmares that keep him awake for extended periods.
A very clear thing about Enner is that they are not thinking rationally. This is more apparent as we go, but them wanting to show off X to Lape so badly is telling of that.
Another interesting thing is how they immediately think about how they could use X.
3.15
C3 is at its most interesting when it's chatlogs. Even if R25 is hard to read and kind of tedious, it's more interesting than seeing Enner spout things alone.
We also get a glimpse at enner being a sockpuppet master !
3.16
Ignoring the bad writing, this is an interesting page. Firstly : this page happens at the same time as the ending of C2. The reason why the angels are unresponsive is that the main of the hivemind, the one that was in angelland, has been destroyed by the descendant.
Some angels were outside of it, of course, but still a majority of the hivemind has been decimated, and the angels have been left heavily weakened.
This is also the appearance of Ubu, or at least the first mention of Ubu. The cult in itself is very... simpleminded.
3.17
Ubu's hategame is WEAK as fuck. I wanted ubu to be a shallow copycat of the angels. After all, ubu is a copy of something the angels created. Ubu represents the ideal of an all powerful god. In reality, ubu is not all powerful, only as powerful as the cult will believe.
Also there is an explanation as to why the writing style sucks..... guys i'm a good writer....... its just that enner is full of themselves........ thats why the writing sucks;......
3.18
This final conversation feels... contrived. While the chatlogs are more interesting, I have a lot of trouble writing credible dialogue, which is why I mostly try to idealize it in some way. See knight lobster for more exemples.
This final part with enner directly talking to the angels and to the renegades is also interesting. It's something I had wanted to do from the very beginning. They know they're being watched and that their words will be read, and so they directly address their observers. Somewhat of a power move.
Oh I guess I should adress the title also ! In french, the 17th major arcana in tarot is sometimes called la maison dieu, or the house of god. In english, that would be the stars. It's an arcana that represents goals, hopes, and wishes. Somewhat fitting, is it not ?
3.19
Sudden perspective switch !!! I feel like this is more fitting. This is one of the longest pages in psatcwot too, as we get a somewhat lengthy action sequence intercut with chatlogs. This finale had the necessity of conveying a great amount of tension. This was shortly before all of humanity would end.
There's also probable explanation to that ! to the perspective switch I mean. All of C3 isn't exactly as we see it. Rather, it's a compilation made by R17 of all the things that led to this event- the destruction of humanity. In the end, this perspective switch is because R17 followed Lape's actions that night, either from security footage, or from a camera that Lape had installed on their person. Anyway, let's go.
Immediately it's apparent that this is more of my strong suit. Writing stuff with an external narrator, I mean. First person unreliable narrators are so much harder to write...
And the log begins ! I think having the worldess action intercut by the characters talk via messages is very interesting, and provide a nice contrast, leading to quite a bit of tension.
As for the chatlog being transmitted worldwide... I'm not sure what this accomplishes. In the end, except for Ubu i think, the characters that matter don't act is if it is and don't take it into account. It's also just a generally bad choice bc it means more eyes on lape and enner, and as such more security.
The general public is not really talked about much in this cycle ! This is a thing you see often in my writings actually, so I'm not surprised. Though it's important to know that few people know about the ideals and the angels, and that the church of Ubu is also not too known.
do you think the angel who's job in the hivemind is to shittalk people online has it nice. I'd like that job please.
Lape fighting ! I'm really sad I didn't have more stuff with Lape. They're one of my favourite characters in psatcwot, and their brainworm fighting is very interesting.
Enner's sense of justice is incredibly warped. Not so warped that they'd collaborate with the angels, but it's still not rational. Thankfully, depsite being in the middle of combat, Lape will be able to argue with them about it ! Not that it matters. At this point, all the participants of this log (except Ubu) know that whatever is going on cannot be stopped. X will destroy humanity, no matter what.
This is an interesting metaphore. The way it present the question, there isn't really a possible answer. Yes, people will continue to kill each other, but also detroying everyone is not the answer. To those who have given up hope, the actual answer is slow and gradual fighting. We can't change everything all at once. Instead we should fight for progressive change, to slowly make things better, but at the same not get trapped in the minutiae of things. Read Dream eye for more info !
So, lape's brainworm ! The brainworm has the ability to eat through reality. WHen it becomes active, lape feels reality slipping away, in a sort of dissociation. Why is Lape able to answer to Enner in a cognizant way ? It's like when you're at a party and you've drunk a lot, and you're kind of outside of reality a little bit, and then you go to the toilets and check your phone and you're still able to make good reflexions and write constructive messages to others.
SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI REFERENCE !!!!11!! Yes this last remark about the war between chaos and order is about shin megami tensei. But also, this is Enner saying that to have peace, it should be foreced onto people. I imagine that not everyone is happy with being erased from reality, but Enner does not care. Their plan will go through regardless.
This argument about humans being unable to understand each other is also interesting. Enner saying "i'm only human after all" is very interesting. They're deflecting the blame, refusing to consider lape's argument, but it also shows something. Enner still consider themselves a human. They still believe they have a human soul, and that they could disappear i X's fear network. ANd they still consider that they should.
Interesting that both angel and ubu are psuhing so hard for hivemind. They're only slightly interested in the conversation, the both of them just using it for hivemind propaganda.
The renegades are very interesting as a group. As R17 says, they have an incredibly different relation to the self. It's somewhat disappointing that, despite them sticking around for so long, I've never written too long about these existences apart from this part, some bits at the end of C2 and that's it.
And with that, Enner leaves the group chat, prompting others to do so as well.
Also some ideal use ! The thing Lape throws at the angel is an ideal, yes. Ideal of bread mould !
The angels and ubu leave, promising to talk to each other. It's possible that is ubu or the angels hadn't been invited in the gc, they wouldn't have grouped up in c4. Well, actually i don't know.
"everyone is scared of X. They are, after all, fear itself...
Enner's "death". They don't die here. this tied into the idea i had for the fianl cycle, but alas that idea is incompatible with many things, and will not happen. I'll talk more about it in c4 when we get to enner. So anyway, enner agrees to die, but becomes a sort of guiding spirit for a colony of roaches. Meanwhile, Lape gets so far removed from reality by the brainworm that X cannot touch their soul.
So what's with the "holes spring up..." paragraph ? It may not be immediately clear, but this is a bunch of phobias. We've got trichophobia, hemophobia, arachnophobia, hydrophobia, calustrophobia, fear of cars, fear of illness, fear of death, fear of fire, fear of heights, megalophobia, and agoraphobia. And of course, the primeval fear, fear of the dark.
And that's it for now ! See you for c4 in about 5 years.