Postfurry Wiki - User contributions [en]

Communications

2020-01-04T02:34:59Z

Buni:

Please keep in mind that the following list represent an extremely limited list of publicly available resources for people. There are a great many more places where communications are happening, many private, some semi-public. Once you've established contact with people, you may be invited to other communications groups beyond what are listed here. If they're not listed here, that's for a reason. Please respect that.

== General chat ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Purpose !! Local Admin(s)
|-
| [http://discord.postfurry.net/ The Postfurry Embassy on Discord] || Open-access Discord Chat [[The_Postfurry_Embassy|(more info)]] || Xurnami
|-
| [[Postfurry MUCK]] || In-character socialization and roleplay (application required) || [[User:Indi|Indi]]
|-
| [https://postfurry.slack.com/ Postfurry Slack] || Diverse discussion topics (semi-private) || Zander
|}

Users of all the above venues are subject to the [http://postfurry.net/conduct Postfurry Worlds Code of Conduct].

== Subject-specific Telegram groups (Public) ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Purpose !! Guidelines !! Local Admin(s)
|-
| [https://t.me/luminescentkelpgarden Luminescent Kelp Garden -- Moon Pools] || Public meeting space for members and regulars at [[Luminescent Kelp Garden]] || This is a public channel about a private residence and its occupants; keep that in mind. || [[User:Tastymochafox|Sariya]], Adept Omega, Kyresti
|-
| [https://t.me/joinchat/CWPzdUyameRPdSDmKYGTxQ Hydroponics Bay Δ9 Redux] || New public discussion space for cannabinoids in the postfurry community. Strains, shops, experiences. || Don't harsh anybody else's buzz. There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's. Puff-puff-pass. Strong rules statement TBD. || [[User:Tastymochafox|Sariya]]
|}

== Subject-specific Telegram groups (Private) ==
The following groups exist and are listed here for the sake of transparency, but currently require manual invitation, usually for spam-mitigation purposes. Please contact the listed admins via another Telegram or Discord group for access.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Purpose !! Guidelines !! Local Admin(s)
|-
| Seattle Postfurries || General chat for Seattle-specific chatter and events. || Be nice to each other! || [[User:emanate|emanate]]
|-
| Blazewing Eyrie Landing || Public meeting space for members and regulars at [[Blazewing Eyrie]] || This is a public channel about a private residence and its occupants; keep that in mind. || Elanna
|}

== Mailing Lists ==
* [https://groups.io/g/postfurry-gamenights postfurry-gamenights] - Coordination list for boardgame nights for the Seattle postfurry crowd
* [https://stationbeta.groups.io/g/social Station Beta (social)] - List for various social events at [[Station Beta|Transliminal Station Beta]], a Seattle postfurry house.
* [https://groups.io/g/blazewing-conflux/ blazewing-conflux] - Announcement list for seasonal spiritual observances at [[Blazewing Eyrie]]
* [https://groups.io/g/SeattlePostfurryConcerts SeattlePostfurryConcerts] - Keep track of various live music events, and add new ones you'd like to attend with others!

Communications

2017-01-24T22:15:24Z

Buni: Fixing links.

Communications

2017-01-24T22:15:02Z

Buni: Additional resources, notes about public/private divide.

Communications

2017-01-24T19:58:21Z

Buni: Fixing links.

Communications

2017-01-24T07:08:47Z

Buni: /* Initial Creation */

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name !! Purpose !! Guidelines !! Local Admin(s)
|-
| Slack || To be the Slack || TBD || Zander
|-
| [https://t.me/joinchat/AAAAAECYkQ4PxDPebVTtdQ Station β Foyer] || Public meeting space for members and regulars at [[Station_Beta Station β]] || This is a public channel about a private residence and its occupants; keep that in mind. || [[User:Buni th' buni]], [[User:ElectricKeet Electric Keet]]
|-
| [https://t.me/joinchat/AAAAAEAc3r7_w-SkApktjQ Postfurry Weight Management] || Public meeting space for discussing weight management and body positivity. || No shaming, self- or other-. Everyone has off-days. We're here to talk about it. || [[User:Buni th' buni]]
|}

Transliminal

2017-01-24T06:48:27Z

Buni: /* Resources */ Added Other Communications Media

{{TOC right}}
'''Transliminal''' is a keyword or label for a number of postfurry community projects mainly centered around the Seattle area. It has been variously described as a grand experiment, a virtual commune, and a big pile of crazy plans.

== Resources ==
The below headings are links to various resources that have been established for the Transliminal community, an expansion of the information originally found in [http://transliminal.dreamwidth.org/1210.html this Dreamwidth post]. Access to the resources below is usually limited to people already closely involved with the Seattle community, so others should bear that in mind when deciding whether or not to request access.

=== [http://transliminal.dreamwidth.org Dreamwidth Community] ===
The first attempt at a centralized community organization blog. Mainly used as a roster of interested people and a place to post documents or ideas. Interested parties may [http://www.dreamwidth.org/community/join?comm=transliminal request access] to the community.

=== [https://trello.com/transliminal Trello Organization] ===
This has a few parts. The above link is to the general Trello page for the community. You'll need to [https://trello.com/signup set up a Trello account] before you can do much other than view stuff, but it's a nice quick minimal signup.

The most important thing there currently is the [https://trello.com/b/EyiZYWEa/general-planning General Planning] board, which you should be able to see on that page. The idea behind this is to have a place to write down what we're doing and what we want to do. We say "We should really..." a lot, and often everyone just nods and it gets lost. I think it'd be really cool to try to make a habit to put every single one of those things on this board. Even if they never get past 'To Do', it's better to have them there and visible then to have them dissapear into conversation.

There are also other project-oriented boards, so be sure to check the main organization page often to see what else is going on.

=== [https://app.groupme.com/join_group/10717651/zFd3rt GroupMe] ===
If you're not familiar with GroupMe, it's a group chat system that has both mobile and web clients. The really cool thing about it is it stores the entire history of a chat and makes it visible to anyone who joins at any point, so it's easy to catch up. You can also have it send updates directly to mobile, so you can use it like chat, or mute those entirely and just check in every once in a while. We have used GroupMe really effectively at conventions in the past, and hopefully it'll remain a good way to stay in touch.

=== Other Communications Media ===
Above and beyond all of these, there are a vast number of additional real-time systems for getting and staying in touch with others in the community. [[Communications|This page]] has a list of many of the offerings currently in use. Some of these are dedicated to a specific topic of interest to members, often a real-world interest or shared kink. Some are planning spaces for specific events, seasonal or semi-regular. Others are role-playing spaces in specific or freeform [http://wiki.postfurry.net/wiki/Category:Syncosms syncosma]. Please inquire within if you're interested. There are other groups available — there are always more frames — but these should serve as a good introductory set.

=== [http://text.postfurry.net/ text.postfurry.net] ===
There's no signup here, by design; this is just a place we've been using a lot to dump longer-form thoughts, especially for posting to Twitter. It's quick and anonymous and tuned for our own sort of text-sharing, rather than for code like most things of this sort.

Topwarp Houses

2016-09-30T08:40:19Z

Buni: /* Neptune House */

== Topwarp Houses ==

Everyone in Top is a member of a House, but membership lasts as long as you want to stay, and as long as others in the House will have you. Houses are known to split over the most trivial of disagreements as a matter of honor and pedantry, only to reform if a unifying synthesis can be found before the new Houses crystallize whole new etymologies around the reasons for their disagreement. Every House not only has its own feast days and punch recipes, but also its own units of weight and measure, time and currency, based on whatever its Founder or organizers thought were most elegant. Aesthetics can vary from the ostentatious, depending on the whim of the founder, the requirements of the beliefs, the time of day, and the interests in inspiring creative violations of the rules for "corrective" purposes. Woe betide the poor sot who doesn't get the memo that Goldsday is marked by a fuschia neckerchief now, instead of amber stockings!

Some houses have been around since just after the Fracturing, and are largely considered "The Main Houses," though nothing stops them from fracturing other than the fact that their founders are still around, and ''too'' much disorder would be swept aside by the [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|Order]].

Within the territory controlled by a given house, at least some sway over the laws of the universe seems to be extended. The members of Jupiter House have captured etheric force in crystal, which eludes even the brightest of Saturn House's natural philosophers. Meanwhile, Saturn House's talents with precognition, at least within their own demenses, seems to be near-guaranteed, at least as long as the Abbey doesn't intervene. Mercury House can store memory in a story or a song. Mars House can make materials beyond any other, and Venus House has cross-bred all manner of plant and beast. Strangely, no house named either Sun House or Moon House exists, and though records exist of people trying to found them, no record of either surviving more than a few days at most exists. The Abbey has always intervened, and when the Abbey gets involved... well, you don't have to be in Saturn House to know what will happen.

Every House has a chantry somewhere, a central location in which the commonplace of its founder is kept. Many have wondered what might happen, should a commonplace be edited by someone not its founder. Many suspect this is what happened

=== Major Houses ===

==== Mercury House ====

As near as anyone can tell, the head of Mercury House ''is'' its commonplace, a vast sprawling collection of stories, poems, and lists collectively titled ''The Chronicles of Hermes''. The main chantry of Mercury House is home to its Athenæum, which is dominated by the collective works of its founder. Communing with Hermes involves entering the Athenæum, slipping into a trance-like state and either reciting in stream-of-consciousness or recording via automatic writing, one's questions and desired engagement. Hermes' parts in the recitation are to be taken as canonical, even if the responses seem wholly out of character. Hermes has, despite the immaterial nature of their existence, found ways of making their parts of the stories come true and seem consistent.

Members of Mercury House have shown a remarkable gift for storytelling and song, and are well-known for embedding thought and emotion in their creative works. Many regard [http://www.thesecretknots.com/comic/music-and-pie/ Johann Sartory] as an honorary member.

==== Venus House ====

Venus House is ruled by a woman known only as "Mother." Mother's species is, after so many cross-breeding and cross-pollination experiments, wholly indeterminate even as to kingdom, to say nothing of genus or species, and yet her voice remains consistent across all her expressions: warm, cozy, and just the smallest bit good-naturedly nagging, as if always biting her tongue against reminding you to wear your gloves. Mother is pregnant, almost as a matter of course, and lives perpetually in a birthing pool fed by a hot spring on the lowest level of the chantry. There, she spawns her brood, birthing whatever creature comes to mind, man or monster as takes her fancy.

Members of Venus House have a green thumb and a knack for animal husbandry that extends to the truly extraordinary. Elder members could coax a horse and a gryphon to mate, then raise the baby hippogryph on a diet of custom grains.

==== Mars House ====

There's an open question outside of Mars House as to who its leader is. Ask any member of Mars House, and they'll tell you that Heron guides the members of Mars House with a literal iron fist in a velvet glove from the top floor of the factory that serves as the House's chantry. However, rumors persist that Heron is simply the spokesperson for Mars House, and that Factory itself is the true heir to the title. Regardless, Heron and the Factory spend their days designing new materials and new machines, and their nights dreaming of what inventions might come of the day's labors.

Mars House produces some of the finest machinists and alchemists in TopWarp. A few drops of their sage's water can dissolve metal without hurting flesh, and the glass of their zeppelins is harder than diamond and stronger than steel.

==== Jupiter House ====

Jupiter House's head is, perhaps, the most showy of all the classical houses, because they make no bones about their nature. Kassitë is a self-sustaining spell matrix, an animate and sapient illusion made manifest through the small cloud of ioun stones that flutter around their head. They love performing and will gladly put on a show for any who come by the Chantry, a reclaimed and rebuilt theater, in the depths of which are all manner of arcane experimentation involving the deconstruction of magic itself.

Of all the major houses, Jupiter House's members are the most explicitly magical. They've discovered the secret of "lightning in a bottle," capturing magic in physical form, and as such are artificers ''non pareil''.

==== Saturn House ====

Saturn House's head remembers the Fracturing, and holds the distinction of being one of the only beings alive that possibly predates it. She saw it coming, or so she claimed on the first page of her commonplace. Saturn House's leader is also one of the last beings in the Warp that isn't Archived, and so far she hasn't needed it. She lives, if one could call it that, as an anchoress, entombed within the walls of the Saturn House chantry, spinning out in her ever-growing commonplace all the ways that Death has failed to find her. Communing with her happens as a slip of paper passed through the lone hagioscope connecting her to her followers, followed by the sounds of furious scribbling, after which a note is returned in faded silvery ink.

The psychohistorians of Saturn House have proven on multiple occasions to be able to accurately predict the future, though small polite wars have erupted between various sects within Saturn House when the entrails, tea leaves, and clouds fail to agree.

==== Uranus House ====

The leader of Uranus House is politely known as "Ve who Speaks," but rarely is it ve who speaks. Rather, Uranus House's leader's body is a sheet-shrouded mannequin, possessed on occasion by the spirit of one trapped within the remains of Topwarp's backup system. Uranus House's chantry sits atop the remains of Topwarp's backup system, restored as best as possible with modern thaumaturgical tools, while the scribes of Uranus House come to listen to the mad rantings of those still trapped within, in hopes of deciphering enough clues to help either restore those souls to physical existence or else help them find final peace in the Beyond.

The members of Uranus House are psychometrists of the highest caliber, and from time to time receive messages from those still within the backup system. Membership in Uranus House is considered a sacred charge to many, helping put to rest the past and restore the present.

==== Neptune House ====

Masters of the Depths and Heights, Neptune House is actually ruled by a pair of twins, Irian and Arcus. However, like the poles of magnet, their twinned nature is a broken symmetry. Where one is outgoing, the other is withdrawn. Where one is vibrant, the other is sullen. However, whether Irian is one, or Arcus the other, seems to shift from day to day, even minute to minute, as though their identities were flipping rapidly back and forth between bodies. They themselves always refer to themselves as "we," and treat their identity as a collective.

Members of Neptune House are frighteningly good at knowing, controlling, and occasionally making the weather. Fire dancers, water tamers, and cloud wranglers all come to Neptune House to hone their skills, and rare is the zeppelin pilot who isn't a member, or at least insists one be aboard before debarking.

=== Minor Houses ===

Besides the major houses, Topwarp is littered with hundreds — perhaps thousands — of minor houses. These groups arise as points of heterodoxy arise within existing houses, last as long as their differences can't be reconciled, and then either consume or are consumed by others as members make or become converts.

=== Comets ===

It's been said that there's nobody in Topwarp who doesn't have a House. The Comets would disagree, but others would argue that the Comets are themselves a "houseless House." This gang of street toughs, hooligans, and layabouts reject the House system, trading territory for freedom, power for immunity. Comets' actions can't be foreseen by Saturn House, their goods can't be read by Uranus House, their minds can't be swayed by Mercury House's stories, and the adamant bars of Mars House's
prisons snap like balsa under their fists. The Comets are impermanence, in the truest sense. Membership in the gang is fickle, infrequent, and short-lived, as few others want a Comet around ruining their plans. Most Comets wear some form of mask clearly emblazoned with the symbol of the comet, from the simple domino to the fully-obscuring face plate.

It's considered poor form to admit you recognize somebody who's a Comet, and poorer to identify yourself as a member. Nobody knows who the leader of the Comets is, and every member has at one time or another acted as head of the gang.

=== The Guest House ===

Visitors to Topwarp are, for politeness' sake, collected into the Guest House. Members of the Guest House may expect civility and courtesy, if not open arms, from every House, and those who refuse to offer a guest such a kindness may quickly find themselves without a House of their own, for all that entails.

Topwarp Houses

2016-09-30T08:37:51Z

Buni: Removed editorial notes

== Topwarp Houses ==

Everyone in Top is a member of a House, but membership lasts as long as you want to stay, and as long as others in the House will have you. Houses are known to split over the most trivial of disagreements as a matter of honor and pedantry, only to reform if a unifying synthesis can be found before the new Houses crystallize whole new etymologies around the reasons for their disagreement. Every House not only has its own feast days and punch recipes, but also its own units of weight and measure, time and currency, based on whatever its Founder or organizers thought were most elegant. Aesthetics can vary from the ostentatious, depending on the whim of the founder, the requirements of the beliefs, the time of day, and the interests in inspiring creative violations of the rules for "corrective" purposes. Woe betide the poor sot who doesn't get the memo that Goldsday is marked by a fuschia neckerchief now, instead of amber stockings!

Some houses have been around since just after the Fracturing, and are largely considered "The Main Houses," though nothing stops them from fracturing other than the fact that their founders are still around, and ''too'' much disorder would be swept aside by the [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|Order]].

Within the territory controlled by a given house, at least some sway over the laws of the universe seems to be extended. The members of Jupiter House have captured etheric force in crystal, which eludes even the brightest of Saturn House's natural philosophers. Meanwhile, Saturn House's talents with precognition, at least within their own demenses, seems to be near-guaranteed, at least as long as the Abbey doesn't intervene. Mercury House can store memory in a story or a song. Mars House can make materials beyond any other, and Venus House has cross-bred all manner of plant and beast. Strangely, no house named either Sun House or Moon House exists, and though records exist of people trying to found them, no record of either surviving more than a few days at most exists. The Abbey has always intervened, and when the Abbey gets involved... well, you don't have to be in Saturn House to know what will happen.

Every House has a chantry somewhere, a central location in which the commonplace of its founder is kept. Many have wondered what might happen, should a commonplace be edited by someone not its founder. Many suspect this is what happened

=== Major Houses ===

==== Mercury House ====

As near as anyone can tell, the head of Mercury House ''is'' its commonplace, a vast sprawling collection of stories, poems, and lists collectively titled ''The Chronicles of Hermes''. The main chantry of Mercury House is home to its Athenæum, which is dominated by the collective works of its founder. Communing with Hermes involves entering the Athenæum, slipping into a trance-like state and either reciting in stream-of-consciousness or recording via automatic writing, one's questions and desired engagement. Hermes' parts in the recitation are to be taken as canonical, even if the responses seem wholly out of character. Hermes has, despite the immaterial nature of their existence, found ways of making their parts of the stories come true and seem consistent.

Members of Mercury House have shown a remarkable gift for storytelling and song, and are well-known for embedding thought and emotion in their creative works. Many regard [http://www.thesecretknots.com/comic/music-and-pie/ Johann Sartory] as an honorary member.

==== Venus House ====

Venus House is ruled by a woman known only as "Mother." Mother's species is, after so many cross-breeding and cross-pollination experiments, wholly indeterminate even as to kingdom, to say nothing of genus or species, and yet her voice remains consistent across all her expressions: warm, cozy, and just the smallest bit good-naturedly nagging, as if always biting her tongue against reminding you to wear your gloves. Mother is pregnant, almost as a matter of course, and lives perpetually in a birthing pool fed by a hot spring on the lowest level of the chantry. There, she spawns her brood, birthing whatever creature comes to mind, man or monster as takes her fancy.

Members of Venus House have a green thumb and a knack for animal husbandry that extends to the truly extraordinary. Elder members could coax a horse and a gryphon to mate, then raise the baby hippogryph on a diet of custom grains.

==== Mars House ====

There's an open question outside of Mars House as to who its leader is. Ask any member of Mars House, and they'll tell you that Heron guides the members of Mars House with a literal iron fist in a velvet glove from the top floor of the factory that serves as the House's chantry. However, rumors persist that Heron is simply the spokesperson for Mars House, and that Factory itself is the true heir to the title. Regardless, Heron and the Factory spend their days designing new materials and new machines, and their nights dreaming of what inventions might come of the day's labors.

Mars House produces some of the finest machinists and alchemists in TopWarp. A few drops of their sage's water can dissolve metal without hurting flesh, and the glass of their zeppelins is harder than diamond and stronger than steel.

==== Jupiter House ====

Jupiter House's head is, perhaps, the most showy of all the classical houses, because they make no bones about their nature. Kassitë is a self-sustaining spell matrix, an animate and sapient illusion made manifest through the small cloud of ioun stones that flutter around their head. They love performing and will gladly put on a show for any who come by the Chantry, a reclaimed and rebuilt theater, in the depths of which are all manner of arcane experimentation involving the deconstruction of magic itself.

Of all the major houses, Jupiter House's members are the most explicitly magical. They've discovered the secret of "lightning in a bottle," capturing magic in physical form, and as such are artificers ''non pareil''.

==== Saturn House ====

Saturn House's head remembers the Fracturing, and holds the distinction of being one of the only beings alive that possibly predates it. She saw it coming, or so she claimed on the first page of her commonplace. Saturn House's leader is also one of the last beings in the Warp that isn't Archived, and so far she hasn't needed it. She lives, if one could call it that, as an anchoress, entombed within the walls of the Saturn House chantry, spinning out in her ever-growing commonplace all the ways that Death has failed to find her. Communing with her happens as a slip of paper passed through the lone hagioscope connecting her to her followers, followed by the sounds of furious scribbling, after which a note is returned in faded silvery ink.

The psychohistorians of Saturn House have proven on multiple occasions to be able to accurately predict the future, though small polite wars have erupted between various sects within Saturn House when the entrails, tea leaves, and clouds fail to agree.

==== Uranus House ====

The leader of Uranus House is politely known as "Ve who Speaks," but rarely is it ve who speaks. Rather, Uranus House's leader's body is a sheet-shrouded mannequin, possessed on occasion by the spirit of one trapped within the remains of Topwarp's backup system. Uranus House's chantry sits atop the remains of Topwarp's backup system, restored as best as possible with modern thaumaturgical tools, while the scribes of Uranus House come to listen to the mad rantings of those still trapped within, in hopes of deciphering enough clues to help either restore those souls to physical existence or else help them find final peace in the Beyond.

The members of Uranus House are psychometrists of the highest caliber, and from time to time receive messages from those still within the backup system. Membership in Uranus House is considered a sacred charge to many, helping put to rest the past and restore the present.

==== Neptune House ====

Masters of the Depths and Heights, Neptune House is actually ruled by a pair of twins, Irian and Arcus. However, like the poles of magnet, their twinned nature is a broken symmetry. Where one is outgoing, the other is withdrawn. Where one is vibrant, the other is sullen. However, whether Irian is one, or Arcus the other, seems to shift from day to day, even minute to minute, as though their identities were flipping rapidly back and forth between bodies. They themselves always refer to themselves as "we," and treat their identity as a collective.

Members of Neptune House are frighteningly good at knowing — and occasionally making — the weather. Fire dancers, water tamers, and cloud wranglers all come to Neptune House to hone their skills, and rare is the zeppelin pilot who isn't a member, or at least insists one be aboard before debarking.

=== Minor Houses ===

Besides the major houses, Topwarp is littered with hundreds — perhaps thousands — of minor houses. These groups arise as points of heterodoxy arise within existing houses, last as long as their differences can't be reconciled, and then either consume or are consumed by others as members make or become converts.

=== Comets ===

It's been said that there's nobody in Topwarp who doesn't have a House. The Comets would disagree, but others would argue that the Comets are themselves a "houseless House." This gang of street toughs, hooligans, and layabouts reject the House system, trading territory for freedom, power for immunity. Comets' actions can't be foreseen by Saturn House, their goods can't be read by Uranus House, their minds can't be swayed by Mercury House's stories, and the adamant bars of Mars House's
prisons snap like balsa under their fists. The Comets are impermanence, in the truest sense. Membership in the gang is fickle, infrequent, and short-lived, as few others want a Comet around ruining their plans. Most Comets wear some form of mask clearly emblazoned with the symbol of the comet, from the simple domino to the fully-obscuring face plate.

It's considered poor form to admit you recognize somebody who's a Comet, and poorer to identify yourself as a member. Nobody knows who the leader of the Comets is, and every member has at one time or another acted as head of the gang.

=== The Guest House ===

Visitors to Topwarp are, for politeness' sake, collected into the Guest House. Members of the Guest House may expect civility and courtesy, if not open arms, from every House, and those who refuse to offer a guest such a kindness may quickly find themselves without a House of their own, for all that entails.

Topwarp Houses

2016-09-30T08:29:25Z

Buni: Corrected ae to æ, fixed understores to actual italics.

== Topwarp Houses ==

Everyone in Top is a member of a House, but membership lasts as long as you want to stay, and as long as others in the House will have you. Houses are known to split over the most trivial of disagreements as a matter of honor and pedantry, only to reform if a unifying synthesis can be found before the new Houses crystallize whole new etymologies around the reasons for their disagreement. Every House not only has its own feast days and punch recipes, but also its own units of weight and measure, time and currency, based on whatever its Founder or organizers thought were most elegant. Aesthetics can vary from the ostentatious, depending on the whim of the founder, the requirements of the beliefs, the time of day, and the interests in inspiring creative violations of the rules for "corrective" purposes. Woe betide the poor sot who doesn't get the memo that Goldsday is marked by a fuschia neckerchief now, instead of amber stockings!

Some houses have been around since just after the Fracturing, and are largely considered "The Main Houses," though nothing stops them from fracturing other than the fact that their founders are still around, and ''too'' much disorder would be swept aside by the [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|Order]].

Within the territory controlled by a given house, at least some sway over the laws of the universe seems to be extended. The members of Jupiter House have captured etheric force in crystal, which eludes even the brightest of Saturn House's natural philosophers. Meanwhile, Saturn House's talents with precognition, at least within their own demenses, seems to be near-guaranteed, at least as long as the Abbey doesn't intervene. Mercury House can store memory in a story or a song. Mars House can make materials beyond any other, and Venus House has cross-bred all manner of plant and beast. Strangely, no house named either Sun House or Moon House exists, and though records exist of people trying to found them, no record of either surviving more than a few days at most exists. The Abbey has always intervened, and when the Abbey gets involved... well, you don't have to be in Saturn House to know what will happen.

Every House has a chantry somewhere, a central location in which the commonplace of its founder is kept. Many have wondered what might happen, should a commonplace be edited by someone not its founder. Many suspect this is what happened

=== Major Houses ===

==== Mercury House ====

As near as anyone can tell, the head of Mercury House ''is'' its commonplace, a vast sprawling collection of stories, poems, and lists collectively titled ''The Chronicles of Hermes''. The main chantry of Mercury House is home to its Athenæum, which is dominated by the collective works of its founder. Communing with Hermes involves entering the Athenæum, slipping into a trance-like state and either reciting in stream-of-consciousness or recording via automatic writing, one's questions and desired engagement. Hermes' parts in the recitation are to be taken as canonical, even if the responses seem wholly out of character. Hermes has, despite the immaterial nature of their existence, found ways of making their parts of the stories come true and seem consistent.

Members of Mercury House have shown a remarkable gift for storytelling and song, and are well-known for embedding thought and emotion in their creative works. Many regard [http://www.thesecretknots.com/comic/music-and-pie/ Johann Sartory] as an honorary member. (Mind Sphere)

==== Venus House ====

Venus House is ruled by a woman known only as "Mother." Mother's species is, after so many cross-breeding and cross-pollination experiments, wholly indeterminate even as to kingdom, to say nothing of genus or species, and yet her voice remains consistent across all her expressions: warm, cozy, and just the smallest bit good-naturedly nagging, as if always biting her tongue against reminding you to wear your gloves. Mother is pregnant, almost as a matter of course, and lives perpetually in a birthing pool fed by a hot spring on the lowest level of the chantry. There, she spawns her brood, birthing whatever creature comes to mind, man or monster as takes her fancy.

Members of Venus House have a green thumb and a knack for animal husbandry that extends to the truly extraordinary. Elder members could coax a horse and a gryphon to mate, then raise the baby hippogryph on a diet of custom grains. (Life Sphere)

==== Mars House ====

There's an open question outside of Mars House as to who its leader is. Ask any member of Mars House, and they'll tell you that Heron guides the members of Mars House with a literal iron fist in a velvet glove from the top floor of the factory that serves as the House's chantry. However, rumors persist that Heron is simply the spokesperson for Mars House, and that Factory itself is the true heir to the title. Regardless, Heron and the Factory spend their days designing new materials and new machines, and their nights dreaming of what inventions might come of the day's labors.

Mars House produces some of the finest machinists and alchemists in TopWarp. A few drops of their sage's water can dissolve metal without hurting flesh, and the glass of their zeppelins is harder than diamond and stronger than steel. (Matter Sphere)

==== Jupiter House ====

Jupiter House's head is, perhaps, the most showy of all the classical houses, because they make no bones about their nature. Kassitë is a self-sustaining spell matrix, an animate and sapient illusion made manifest through the small cloud of ioun stones that flutter around their head. They love performing and will gladly put on a show for any who come by the Chantry, a reclaimed and rebuilt theater, in the depths of which are all manner of arcane experimentation involving the deconstruction of magic itself.

Of all the major houses, Jupiter House's members are the most explicitly magical. They've discovered the secret of "lightning in a bottle," capturing magic in physical form, and as such are artificers ''non pareil''. (Forces Sphere)

==== Saturn House ====

Saturn House's head remembers the Fracturing, and holds the distinction of being one of the only beings alive that possibly predates it. She saw it coming, or so she claimed on the first page of her commonplace. Saturn House's leader is also one of the last beings in the Warp that isn't Archived, and so far she hasn't needed it. She lives, if one could call it that, as an anchoress, entombed within the walls of the Saturn House chantry, spinning out in her ever-growing commonplace all the ways that Death has failed to find her. Communing with her happens as a slip of paper passed through the lone hagioscope connecting her to her followers, followed by the sounds of furious scribbling, after which a note is returned in faded silvery ink.

The psychohistorians of Saturn House have proven on multiple occasions to be able to accurately predict the future, though small polite wars have erupted between various sects within Saturn House when the entrails, tea leaves, and clouds fail to agree. (Entropy Sphere)

==== Uranus House ====

The leader of Uranus House is politely known as "Ve who Speaks," but rarely is it ve who speaks. Rather, Uranus House's leader's body is a sheet-shrouded mannequin, possessed on occasion by the spirit of one trapped within the remains of Topwarp's backup system. Uranus House's chantry sits atop the remains of Topwarp's backup system, restored as best as possible with modern thaumaturgical tools, while the scribes of Uranus House come to listen to the mad rantings of those still trapped within, in hopes of deciphering enough clues to help either restore those souls to physical existence or else help them find final peace in the Beyond.

The members of Uranus House are psychometrists of the highest caliber, and from time to time receive messages from those still within the backup system. Membership in Uranus House is considered a sacred charge to many, helping put to rest the past and restore the present. (Spirit Sphere)

==== Neptune House ====

Masters of the Depths and Heights, Neptune House is actually ruled by a pair of twins, Irian and Arcus. However, like the poles of magnet, their twinned nature is a broken symmetry. Where one is outgoing, the other is withdrawn. Where one is vibrant, the other is sullen. However, whether Irian is one, or Arcus the other, seems to shift from day to day, even minute to minute, as though their identities were flipping rapidly back and forth between bodies. They themselves always refer to themselves as "we," and treat their identity as a collective.

Members of Neptune House are frighteningly good at knowing — and occasionally making — the weather. Fire dancers, water tamers, and cloud wranglers all come to Neptune House to hone their skills, and rare is the zeppelin pilot who isn't a member, or at least insists one be aboard before debarking. (Forces Sphere)

=== Minor Houses ===

Besides the major houses, Topwarp is littered with hundreds — perhaps thousands — of minor houses. These groups arise as points of heterodoxy arise within existing houses, last as long as their differences can't be reconciled, and then either consume or are consumed by others as members make or become converts.

=== Comets ===

It's been said that there's nobody in Topwarp who doesn't have a House. The Comets would disagree, but others would argue that the Comets are themselves a "houseless House." This gang of street toughs, hooligans, and layabouts reject the House system, trading territory for freedom, power for immunity. Comets' actions can't be foreseen by Saturn House, their goods can't be read by Uranus House, their minds can't be swayed by Mercury House's stories, and the adamant bars of Mars House's
prisons snap like balsa under their fists. The Comets are impermanence, in the truest sense. Membership in the gang is fickle, infrequent, and short-lived, as few others want a Comet around ruining their plans. Most Comets wear some form of mask clearly emblazoned with the symbol of the comet, from the simple domino to the fully-obscuring face plate.

It's considered poor form to admit you recognize somebody who's a Comet, and poorer to identify yourself as a member. Nobody knows who the leader of the Comets is, and every member has at one time or another acted as head of the gang.

=== The Guest House ===

Visitors to Topwarp are, for politeness' sake, collected into the Guest House. Members of the Guest House may expect civility and courtesy, if not open arms, from every House, and those who refuse to offer a guest such a kindness may quickly find themselves without a House of their own, for all that entails.

Order of Saint Cosmas

2016-09-30T08:26:13Z

Buni: Created page with "The Order of St. Cosmas is the closest that Topwarp has to an ecclesiastical organization, dedicated to the proper maintenance of Compass Tower. Members of the Order a..."

The Order of St. Cosmas is the closest that [[Topwarp]] has to an ecclesiastical organization, dedicated to the proper maintenance of [[Compass Tower]]. Members of the Order are sworn to silence, though some have darkly muttered in forgotten quarters of the Warp that the truly devoted among the Order ''can't'' speak, rather than ''won't''. What those who say it mean by that, however, has never been fully explored.

itself is tended by the Abbey of St. Cosmas, whose members are forbidden from speaking, or perhaps can't. It's hard to say, and they don't. Becoming a member of the Abbey involves climbing the tower to the top and lighting the lighthouse at the top of the tower, which for a short time seems to create an artificial star in the sky, just on the horizon. When the light goes out, the newest devotee comes back down the steps and sets to work, keeping the universe on its schedule.

Occasionally the Abbey will send emissaries, low-ranking attendants whose mouths have not yet been taken from them and whose faces are still mostly flesh, out among the Houses, both to recruit new members and to issue "requests" for changes to policy or research.

Topwarp Houses

2016-09-30T08:25:30Z

Buni: Created page with "== Topwarp Houses == Everyone in Top is a member of a House, but membership lasts as long as you want to stay, and as long as others in the House will have you. Houses are k..."

== Topwarp Houses ==

Everyone in Top is a member of a House, but membership lasts as long as you want to stay, and as long as others in the House will have you. Houses are known to split over the most trivial of disagreements as a matter of honor and pedantry, only to reform if a unifying synthesis can be found before the new Houses crystallize whole new etymologies around the reasons for their disagreement. Every House not only has its own feast days and punch recipes, but also its own units of weight and measure, time and currency, based on whatever its Founder or organizers thought were most elegant. Aesthetics can vary from the ostentatious, depending on the whim of the founder, the requirements of the beliefs, the time of day, and the interests in inspiring creative violations of the rules for "corrective" purposes. Woe betide the poor sot who doesn't get the memo that Goldsday is marked by a fuschia neckerchief now, instead of amber stockings!

Some houses have been around since just after the Fracturing, and are largely considered "The Main Houses," though nothing stops them from fracturing other than the fact that their founders are still around, and _too_ much disorder would be swept aside by the [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|Order]].

Within the territory controlled by a given house, at least some sway over the laws of the universe seems to be extended. The members of Jupiter House have captured etheric force in crystal, which eludes even the brightest of Saturn House's natural philosophers. Meanwhile, Saturn House's talents with precognition, at least within their own demenses, seems to be near-guaranteed, at least as long as the Abbey doesn't intervene. Mercury House can store memory in a story or a song. Mars House can make materials beyond any other, and Venus House has cross-bred all manner of plant and beast. Strangely, no house named either Sun House or Moon House exists, and though records exist of people trying to found them, no record of either surviving more than a few days at most exists. The Abbey has always intervened, and when the Abbey gets involved... well, you don't have to be in Saturn House to know what will happen.

Every House has a chantry somewhere, a central location in which the commonplace of its founder is kept. Many have wondered what might happen, should a commonplace be edited by someone not its founder. Many suspect this is what happened

=== Major Houses ===

==== Mercury House ====

As near as anyone can tell, the head of Mercury House _is_ its commonplace, a vast sprawling collection of stories, poems, and lists collectively titled _The Chronicles of Hermes_. The main chantry of Mercury House is home to its Athenaeum, which is dominated by the collective works of its founder. Communing with Hermes involves entering the Athenaeum, slipping into a trance-like state and either reciting in stream-of-consciousness or recording via automatic writing, one's questions and desired engagement. Hermes' parts in the recitation are to be taken as canonical, even if the responses seem wholly out of character. Hermes has, despite the immaterial nature of their existence, found ways of making their parts of the stories come true and seem consistent.

Members of Mercury House have shown a remarkable gift for storytelling and song, and are well-known for embedding thought and emotion in their creative works. Many regard [http://www.thesecretknots.com/comic/music-and-pie/ Johann Sartory] as an honorary member. (Mind Sphere)

==== Venus House ====

Venus House is ruled by a woman known only as "Mother." Mother's species is, after so many cross-breeding and cross-pollination experiments, wholly indeterminate even as to kingdom, to say nothing of genus or species, and yet her voice remains consistent across all her expressions: warm, cozy, and just the smallest bit good-naturedly nagging, as if always biting her tongue against reminding you to wear your gloves. Mother is pregnant, almost as a matter of course, and lives perpetually in a birthing pool fed by a hot spring on the lowest level of the chantry. There, she spawns her brood, birthing whatever creature comes to mind, man or monster as takes her fancy.

Members of Venus House have a green thumb and a knack for animal husbandry that extends to the truly extraordinary. Elder members could coax a horse and a gryphon to mate, then raise the baby hippogryph on a diet of custom grains. (Life Sphere)

==== Mars House ====

There's an open question outside of Mars House as to who its leader is. Ask any member of Mars House, and they'll tell you that Heron guides the members of Mars House with a literal iron fist in a velvet glove from the top floor of the factory that serves as the House's chantry. However, rumors persist that Heron is simply the spokesperson for Mars House, and that Factory itself is the true heir to the title. Regardless, Heron and the Factory spend their days designing new materials and new machines, and their nights dreaming of what inventions might come of the day's labors.

Mars House produces some of the finest machinists and alchemists in TopWarp. A few drops of their sage's water can dissolve metal without hurting flesh, and the glass of their zeppelins is harder than diamond and stronger than steel. (Matter Sphere)

==== Jupiter House ====

Jupiter House's head is, perhaps, the most showy of all the classical houses, because they make no bones about their nature. Kassitë is a self-sustaining spell matrix, an animate and sapient illusion made manifest through the small cloud of ioun stones that flutter around their head. They love performing and will gladly put on a show for any who come by the Chantry, a reclaimed and rebuilt theater, in the depths of which are all manner of arcane experimentation involving the deconstruction of magic itself.

Of all the major houses, Jupiter House's members are the most explicitly magical. They've discovered the secret of "lightning in a bottle," capturing magic in physical form, and as such are artificers ''non pareil''. (Forces Sphere)

==== Saturn House ====

Saturn House's head remembers the Fracturing, and holds the distinction of being one of the only beings alive that possibly predates it. She saw it coming, or so she claimed on the first page of her commonplace. Saturn House's leader is also one of the last beings in the Warp that isn't Archived, and so far she hasn't needed it. She lives, if one could call it that, as an anchoress, entombed within the walls of the Saturn House chantry, spinning out in her ever-growing commonplace all the ways that Death has failed to find her. Communing with her happens as a slip of paper passed through the lone hagioscope connecting her to her followers, followed by the sounds of furious scribbling, after which a note is returned in faded silvery ink.

The psychohistorians of Saturn House have proven on multiple occasions to be able to accurately predict the future, though small polite wars have erupted between various sects within Saturn House when the entrails, tea leaves, and clouds fail to agree. (Entropy Sphere)

==== Uranus House ====

The leader of Uranus House is politely known as "Ve who Speaks," but rarely is it ve who speaks. Rather, Uranus House's leader's body is a sheet-shrouded mannequin, possessed on occasion by the spirit of one trapped within the remains of Topwarp's backup system. Uranus House's chantry sits atop the remains of Topwarp's backup system, restored as best as possible with modern thaumaturgical tools, while the scribes of Uranus House come to listen to the mad rantings of those still trapped within, in hopes of deciphering enough clues to help either restore those souls to physical existence or else help them find final peace in the Beyond.

The members of Uranus House are psychometrists of the highest caliber, and from time to time receive messages from those still within the backup system. Membership in Uranus House is considered a sacred charge to many, helping put to rest the past and restore the present. (Spirit Sphere)

==== Neptune House ====

Masters of the Depths and Heights, Neptune House is actually ruled by a pair of twins, Irian and Arcus. However, like the poles of magnet, their twinned nature is a broken symmetry. Where one is outgoing, the other is withdrawn. Where one is vibrant, the other is sullen. However, whether Irian is one, or Arcus the other, seems to shift from day to day, even minute to minute, as though their identities were flipping rapidly back and forth between bodies. They themselves always refer to themselves as "we," and treat their identity as a collective.

Members of Neptune House are frighteningly good at knowing — and occasionally making — the weather. Fire dancers, water tamers, and cloud wranglers all come to Neptune House to hone their skills, and rare is the zeppelin pilot who isn't a member, or at least insists one be aboard before debarking. (Forces Sphere)

=== Minor Houses ===

Besides the major houses, Topwarp is littered with hundreds — perhaps thousands — of minor houses. These groups arise as points of heterodoxy arise within existing houses, last as long as their differences can't be reconciled, and then either consume or are consumed by others as members make or become converts.

=== Comets ===

It's been said that there's nobody in Topwarp who doesn't have a House. The Comets would disagree, but others would argue that the Comets are themselves a "houseless House." This gang of street toughs, hooligans, and layabouts reject the House system, trading territory for freedom, power for immunity. Comets' actions can't be foreseen by Saturn House, their goods can't be read by Uranus House, their minds can't be swayed by Mercury House's stories, and the adamant bars of Mars House's
prisons snap like balsa under their fists. The Comets are impermanence, in the truest sense. Membership in the gang is fickle, infrequent, and short-lived, as few others want a Comet around ruining their plans. Most Comets wear some form of mask clearly emblazoned with the symbol of the comet, from the simple domino to the fully-obscuring face plate.

It's considered poor form to admit you recognize somebody who's a Comet, and poorer to identify yourself as a member. Nobody knows who the leader of the Comets is, and every member has at one time or another acted as head of the gang.

=== The Guest House ===

Visitors to Topwarp are, for politeness' sake, collected into the Guest House. Members of the Guest House may expect civility and courtesy, if not open arms, from every House, and those who refuse to offer a guest such a kindness may quickly find themselves without a House of their own, for all that entails.

Topwarp

2016-09-30T07:31:50Z

Buni: /* Psychology */

Topwarp is one of the six warps of the [[Puzzlebox]], an endlessly-refracting work of gears and astrology devoted to the Apollonian impulse: Rules and regulations, often arbitrary, and so many of them that they can't help but become self-conflicting.

== Environment ==

If there were an "origin point" in Top, a central point to which everyone in the warp could at least provisionally agree both exists and is important, it would be [[Compass_Tower|Compass Tower]]. By some unspoken agreement, it remains the tallest building in the Warp, visible from almost any rooftop. Even on the cloudiest days, its silhouette looms overhead, its back-lit clock like a watchful eye gazing across the ever-unfolding cityscape. Many have threatened over the ages to build some structure glorifying one House or another that could dwarf the Tower, but to date, all attempts at such a landmark have ended in disaster, both for the structure and for those who've proposed it.

One such story tells of one of the original founders of [[Topwarp_Houses|Mars House]], Katerin Wheel, who published a proposal to build an elevator that could reach the heavens, complete with blueprints and the materials research necessary to craft such a contraption, the better to gather stardust from the source. After three months of demolitions and ground-clearing, a prior from [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|a nearby abbey]] arrived at the proposed construction site and asked the heads of Mars House to reconsider. The prior was rebuffed, and left. Soon after, work crews began reporting seeing other from the Order gathering near the site in larger numbers, pacing around its perimeter in packs. Then, one morning, the site was simply gone. The morning laborers arrived to find that all that their adamant scaffolding and gossamer cable — as well as the cabin in which Mx. Wheel had been staying while overseeing construction — replaced with several blocks' worth of parkland. Of Katerin, there was no sign and no word. Not even the psychohistorians of Saturn House could explain it. When asked directly, a provost of the Order said only, "we did ask they reconsider."

== Sociology ==

Outside the Compass Tower and its gardens, if there's an "order," it's really the fractally complex intersection of geography, geometry, and personality. "Neo-Victorian [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela favela]" would be the best descriptor of the lay of the land, with buildings on top of buildings in a crazy-quilt pattern, cut through with back alleys and the occasional thoroughfare. The sky ranges from light grey to charcoal, and at night, the sky is lit from below by an endless sea of phlogiston-jet lamps. Steamstacks dot the landscape shooting jets of vapor and soot into the air, and at times the clouds themselves seem to be on fire. Blimps dot the skies, along with autogyros, ornithopters, and the occasional "tamed" dragon. Horse- and other beast-drawn carts roam the streets, interspersed with the rare spell-powered vehicle.

Keeping a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace_book commonplace] is typical habit, detailing personal observations about the universe. Occasionally someone's commonplace will evolve into a [[Topwarp_Houses|House]]'s codex, either as an addendum to someone else's or as a unique guide to itself. Visitors to TopWarp are, for the sake of politeness, sorted into a "Guest House," unless of course someone wishes to join one of the others.

== Psychology ==

The key to Topwarp psychology is in the subtle and indirect. As is typified in the books of Austen and Brontë, Topwarp culture is [http://ask.metafilter.com/55153/Whats-the-middle-ground-between-FU-and-Welcome#830421 ''guess culture'']. You will be expected to osmose the information you need without having to be told, and to synthesize the information you need from the information you receive. No Topwarper would ever nakedly proposition another for sex, but this doesn't mean they may not want it, or even be having it. Decorum, standing, and status are paramount. If you want something, you must find a way to get it without being so blunt as to directly inquire about it.

This isn't to say that you ''can't'' ask; a Topwarper will answer a direct question if it would seem more rude to avoid doing so. However, forcing a Topwarper into the ''zugzwang'' of having to pick which social rule to violate is a good way to get yourself disinvited from future parties, especially if it can be arranged that said parties will have exactly the sorts of encounters that you were asking about.

Likewise, beware the Topwarper and the ''grudge''. Just as directly asking for something is seen as shockingly bold, no Topwarper would be so crass as to challenge someone who mortally and morally wounded them to a duel. It's much more likely that they'd put a few drops of arsenic in your tea every Thursday for ten years, until you suffer a heart attack, at which point you'll wake up in the local hospital with a note on your bedside apologizing for the inconvenience and stating that now you're even. The Topwarper has learned patience, and will look for the perfect opportunity. They have eternity, and so do you.

Above all else, psychology in Topwarp emphasizes the ''unremarkable''. What's happening right now is ''normal'', no matter how extraordinary. To borrow a fae expression, "there is no blood." It won't matter if you walk into a room covered in the entrails of the damned; or if you have a small pack of gagged, plugged, and blindfolded "pets" on leashes behind you. If you act as though nothing is out of the ordinary, there isn't a Topwarper alive that will remark on it, whatever "it" is. Perhaps they fear retribution if they call attention to it, or perhaps they simply respect your privacy. The Topwarper impulse is to treat all things as circumspect, unless forced to pay attention to it.

== Inspiration and Reference ==
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_the_Winds
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_compass_winds
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_clock
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_astronomical_clock
* http://www.thesecretknots.com/comic/the-gif-day/
* http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-keep-a-zibaldone-a-13thcentury-answer-to-tumblr

[[Category:Puzzlebox]] [[Category:Stubs]]

Topwarp

2016-09-30T07:28:19Z

Buni: /* Sociology */

Topwarp is one of the six warps of the [[Puzzlebox]], an endlessly-refracting work of gears and astrology devoted to the Apollonian impulse: Rules and regulations, often arbitrary, and so many of them that they can't help but become self-conflicting.

== Environment ==

If there were an "origin point" in Top, a central point to which everyone in the warp could at least provisionally agree both exists and is important, it would be [[Compass_Tower|Compass Tower]]. By some unspoken agreement, it remains the tallest building in the Warp, visible from almost any rooftop. Even on the cloudiest days, its silhouette looms overhead, its back-lit clock like a watchful eye gazing across the ever-unfolding cityscape. Many have threatened over the ages to build some structure glorifying one House or another that could dwarf the Tower, but to date, all attempts at such a landmark have ended in disaster, both for the structure and for those who've proposed it.

One such story tells of one of the original founders of [[Topwarp_Houses|Mars House]], Katerin Wheel, who published a proposal to build an elevator that could reach the heavens, complete with blueprints and the materials research necessary to craft such a contraption, the better to gather stardust from the source. After three months of demolitions and ground-clearing, a prior from [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|a nearby abbey]] arrived at the proposed construction site and asked the heads of Mars House to reconsider. The prior was rebuffed, and left. Soon after, work crews began reporting seeing other from the Order gathering near the site in larger numbers, pacing around its perimeter in packs. Then, one morning, the site was simply gone. The morning laborers arrived to find that all that their adamant scaffolding and gossamer cable — as well as the cabin in which Mx. Wheel had been staying while overseeing construction — replaced with several blocks' worth of parkland. Of Katerin, there was no sign and no word. Not even the psychohistorians of Saturn House could explain it. When asked directly, a provost of the Order said only, "we did ask they reconsider."

== Sociology ==

Outside the Compass Tower and its gardens, if there's an "order," it's really the fractally complex intersection of geography, geometry, and personality. "Neo-Victorian [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela favela]" would be the best descriptor of the lay of the land, with buildings on top of buildings in a crazy-quilt pattern, cut through with back alleys and the occasional thoroughfare. The sky ranges from light grey to charcoal, and at night, the sky is lit from below by an endless sea of phlogiston-jet lamps. Steamstacks dot the landscape shooting jets of vapor and soot into the air, and at times the clouds themselves seem to be on fire. Blimps dot the skies, along with autogyros, ornithopters, and the occasional "tamed" dragon. Horse- and other beast-drawn carts roam the streets, interspersed with the rare spell-powered vehicle.

Keeping a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace_book commonplace] is typical habit, detailing personal observations about the universe. Occasionally someone's commonplace will evolve into a [[Topwarp_Houses|House]]'s codex, either as an addendum to someone else's or as a unique guide to itself. Visitors to TopWarp are, for the sake of politeness, sorted into a "Guest House," unless of course someone wishes to join one of the others.

== Psychology ==

The key to Topwarp psychology is in the subtle and indirect. As is typified in the books of Austen and Brontë, Topwarp culture is [http://ask.metafilter.com/55153/Whats-the-middle-ground-between-FU-and-Welcome#830421 _guess culture_]. You will be expected to osmose the information you need without having to be told, and to synthesize the information you need from the information you receive. No Topwarper would ever nakedly proposition another for sex, but this doesn't mean they may not want it, or even be having it. Decorum, standing, and status are paramount. If you want something, you must find a way to get it without being so blunt as to directly inquire about it.

This isn't to say that you _can't_ ask; a Topwarper will answer a direct question if it would seem more rude to avoid doing so. However, forcing a Topwarper into the _zugzwang_ of having to pick which social rule to violate is a good way to get yourself disinvited from future parties, especially if it can be arranged that said parties will have exactly the sorts of encounters that you were asking about.

Likewise, beware the Topwarper and the _grudge_. Just as directly asking for something is seen as shockingly bold, no Topwarper would be so crass as to challenge someone who mortally and morally wounded them to a duel. It's much more likely that they'd put a few drops of arsenic in your tea every Thursday for ten years, until you suffer a heart attack, at which point you'll wake up in the local hospital with a note on your bedside apologizing for the inconvenience and stating that now you're even. The Topwarper has learned patience, and will look for the perfect opportunity. They have eternity, and so do you.

Above all else, psychology in Topwarp emphasizes the _normal_. What's happening right now is _normal_. To borrow a fae expression, "there is no blood." It won't matter if you walk into a room covered in the entrails of the damned; or if you have a small pack of gagged, plugged, and blindfolded "pets" on leashes behind you. If you act as though nothing is out of the ordinary, there isn't a Topwarper alive that will remark on it, whatever "it" is. Perhaps they fear retribution if they call attention to it, or perhaps they simply respect your privacy. The Topwarper impulse is to treat all things as circumspect, unless forced to pay attention to it.

== Inspiration and Reference ==
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_the_Winds
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_compass_winds
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_clock
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_astronomical_clock
* http://www.thesecretknots.com/comic/the-gif-day/
* http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-keep-a-zibaldone-a-13thcentury-answer-to-tumblr

[[Category:Puzzlebox]] [[Category:Stubs]]

Topwarp

2016-09-30T06:33:14Z

Buni: /* Sociology */

Compass Tower

2016-09-30T05:34:05Z

Buni: /* Lighthouse */

== Compass Tower ==

Compass Tower is the only truly fixed point in [[Topwarp|Top]], and serves as its origin point. Widely believed to be the only building still standing that predates the Fracturing, Compass Tower is a convenient landmark for everyone regardless of [[Topwarp_Houses|house]]. Speaking colloquially, someone who refers to "the tower" in Topwarp is almost certainly referring to the Compass. Someone wishing to refer specifically to the tower itself will say, "the tower proper," while "the tower" may refer either to the tower or the land directly around it, including any of the other notable features.

=== Tower Proper ===
A semi-dodecagonal tower spearing towards the sky, Compass Tower is the tallest feature in Topwarp, visible from nearly any rooftop. in front of a pool of similar dimension and matching depth. The tower seems to be made of golden and silver bricks on its "rounded" side, while the flat appears to be highly polished granite in blocks so uniform and closely pressed that no mortar shows between them. The metallic bricks are themselves sized to the golden and silver ratios, laid height to width to depth). The edges of some bricks are notched eleven times, in a 2-1-2-1-2-1-2 pattern, giving twelve divisions of silver and gold ratios, which forms the basis of a standardized measurement system.

On the flat face of Compass Tower, situated at the golden meanpoint up from its base, is a massive astronomical and astrological clock providing the time, date, and star positions for a number of well-known heavenly bodies. The clockface is brilliant blue and white opaque glass, inlaid with gold and silver, and lit from within at all hours, projecting the time on the everpresent clouds. At the lower silver meanpoint is a slit in the granite, from which water pours into the tower deep below; many surmise that the current powers — or is a byproduct of whatever is powering — the machinery within the tower that moves the clock's hands and, some say, the universe around it. At the higher silver meanpoint is a small balcony and observation deck, where a massive telescope sits, aimed at the stars. At the very top of the tower is the Lighthouse.

The borealmost face of the "rounded" side has a door leading inside the tower. Above it is the inscription, "Όπως Παραπάνω".

=== The Lighthouse ===

The Lighthouse is the highest permanent constructed point in Top; zeppelins and rockets have flown higher, and some mountain peaks are rumored to rise above it, but no building has yet exceeded the Lighthouse in height, and most believe that none ever will. Were some builder succeed in thwarting the efforts of the [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|Order]] long enough to actually see such a monument through to completion, rumor has it that the Tower would grow to exceed it overnight.

Lighting the lamp within the Lighthouse is the final act required by an initiate of the Order to become a full member. Many have made the trek up as far as the observation deck and come back down to tell the tale, but none who have passed onto the higher floors beyond have spoken of what they've seen. Members of the Order are sworn to silence, and their thoughts remain a mystery to even the most talented historians of Saturn House. All anyone can say for certain is that, on some nights, at twilight, the Lighthouse will erupt in brilliant flame that burns until dawn, at which point the light goes out. A day or two later, a new member of the Order can be seen leaving the tower's main door.

=== Tower Deep ===

Surmised to be as deep as the tower is tall and lined with polished granite, the Tower Deep is a semi-dodecagonal pool of water, its flat face flush with the base of the tower proper. On the notalmost face of the pool, opposite where the door would be, is instead a ladder descending into the depths. Just in front of the ladder, etched into the granite, is the inscription, "Έτσι Παρακάτω".

=== Tower Paths ===

Twelve tower-shaped stone paths, four the same length as the tower is tall and the pool is deep, eight exactly half that height at thirty-degree angles off of the main directions, giving rise to a universal directional system. At the beginning of each path is an archway, on one side of which is inscribed a word indicating a direction, and on the other a single letter:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| Boreas || <abbr title="Eta">Η</abbr> || Red
|-
| Meses || <abbr title="Kappa">Κ</abbr> || Sienna
|-
| Caecias || <abbr title="Zeta">Ζ</abbr> || Orange
|-
| Apeliotes || <abbr title="Beta">Β</abbr> || Amber
|-
| Eurus || <abbr title="Delta">Δ</abbr> || Yellow
|-
| Phoenicias || <abbr title="Nu">Ν</abbr> || Chartreuse
|-
| Notos || <abbr title="Theta">Θ</abbr> || Green
|-
| Leuconotos || <abbr title="Mu">Μ</abbr> || Turquoise
|-
| Lipis || <abbr title="Gamma">Γ</abbr> || Blue
|-
| Zephyrus || <abbr title="Alpha">Α</abbr> || Indigo
|-
| Argestes || <abbr title="Epsilon">Ε</abbr> || Purple
|-
| Thrascias || <abbr title="Iota">Ι</abbr> || Fuchsia
|}

=== Tower Gardens ===

Between the tower paths grow beds of flowers, each surrounded by a different hue, giving a colorwheel effect to the whole of the garden. The foliage grows lighter in shade nearer the center, and darker as they approach the furthest edge from the tower. Small cobbled paths branch out from the paths into the depths of the flowers, giving ample opportunity for private conversations. Occasionally visitors will report wandering from one color to another without ever crossing one of the primary paths; how that could happen has never been adequately explained, but more than one credible witness has claimed it to be possible.

Compass Tower

2016-09-30T05:33:27Z

Buni: Created page with "== Compass Tower == Compass Tower is the only truly fixed point in Top, and serves as its origin point. Widely believed to be the only building still standing tha..."

== Compass Tower ==

Compass Tower is the only truly fixed point in [[Topwarp|Top]], and serves as its origin point. Widely believed to be the only building still standing that predates the Fracturing, Compass Tower is a convenient landmark for everyone regardless of [[Topwarp_Houses|house]]. Speaking colloquially, someone who refers to "the tower" in Topwarp is almost certainly referring to the Compass. Someone wishing to refer specifically to the tower itself will say, "the tower proper," while "the tower" may refer either to the tower or the land directly around it, including any of the other notable features.

=== Tower Proper ===
A semi-dodecagonal tower spearing towards the sky, Compass Tower is the tallest feature in Topwarp, visible from nearly any rooftop. in front of a pool of similar dimension and matching depth. The tower seems to be made of golden and silver bricks on its "rounded" side, while the flat appears to be highly polished granite in blocks so uniform and closely pressed that no mortar shows between them. The metallic bricks are themselves sized to the golden and silver ratios, laid height to width to depth). The edges of some bricks are notched eleven times, in a 2-1-2-1-2-1-2 pattern, giving twelve divisions of silver and gold ratios, which forms the basis of a standardized measurement system.

On the flat face of Compass Tower, situated at the golden meanpoint up from its base, is a massive astronomical and astrological clock providing the time, date, and star positions for a number of well-known heavenly bodies. The clockface is brilliant blue and white opaque glass, inlaid with gold and silver, and lit from within at all hours, projecting the time on the everpresent clouds. At the lower silver meanpoint is a slit in the granite, from which water pours into the tower deep below; many surmise that the current powers — or is a byproduct of whatever is powering — the machinery within the tower that moves the clock's hands and, some say, the universe around it. At the higher silver meanpoint is a small balcony and observation deck, where a massive telescope sits, aimed at the stars. At the very top of the tower is the Lighthouse.

The borealmost face of the "rounded" side has a door leading inside the tower. Above it is the inscription, "Όπως Παραπάνω".

=== Lighthouse ===

The Lighthouse is the highest permanent constructed point in Top; zeppelins and rockets have flown higher, and some mountain peaks are rumored to rise above it, but no building has yet exceeded the Lighthouse in height, and most believe that none ever will. Were some builder succeed in thwarting the efforts of the [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|Order]] long enough to actually see such a monument through to completion, rumor has it that the Tower would grow to exceed it overnight.

Lighting the lamp within the Lighthouse is the final act required by an initiate of the Order to become a full member. Many have made the trek up as far as the observation deck and come back down to tell the tale, but none who have passed onto the higher floors beyond have spoken of what they've seen. Members of the Order are sworn to silence, and their thoughts remain a mystery to even the most talented historians of Saturn House. All anyone can say for certain is that, on some nights, at twilight, the Lighthouse will erupt in brilliant flame that burns until dawn, at which point the light goes out. A day or two later, a new member of the Order can be seen leaving the tower's main door.

=== Tower Deep ===

Surmised to be as deep as the tower is tall and lined with polished granite, the Tower Deep is a semi-dodecagonal pool of water, its flat face flush with the base of the tower proper. On the notalmost face of the pool, opposite where the door would be, is instead a ladder descending into the depths. Just in front of the ladder, etched into the granite, is the inscription, "Έτσι Παρακάτω".

=== Tower Paths ===

Twelve tower-shaped stone paths, four the same length as the tower is tall and the pool is deep, eight exactly half that height at thirty-degree angles off of the main directions, giving rise to a universal directional system. At the beginning of each path is an archway, on one side of which is inscribed a word indicating a direction, and on the other a single letter:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| Boreas || <abbr title="Eta">Η</abbr> || Red
|-
| Meses || <abbr title="Kappa">Κ</abbr> || Sienna
|-
| Caecias || <abbr title="Zeta">Ζ</abbr> || Orange
|-
| Apeliotes || <abbr title="Beta">Β</abbr> || Amber
|-
| Eurus || <abbr title="Delta">Δ</abbr> || Yellow
|-
| Phoenicias || <abbr title="Nu">Ν</abbr> || Chartreuse
|-
| Notos || <abbr title="Theta">Θ</abbr> || Green
|-
| Leuconotos || <abbr title="Mu">Μ</abbr> || Turquoise
|-
| Lipis || <abbr title="Gamma">Γ</abbr> || Blue
|-
| Zephyrus || <abbr title="Alpha">Α</abbr> || Indigo
|-
| Argestes || <abbr title="Epsilon">Ε</abbr> || Purple
|-
| Thrascias || <abbr title="Iota">Ι</abbr> || Fuchsia
|}

=== Tower Gardens ===

Between the tower paths grow beds of flowers, each surrounded by a different hue, giving a colorwheel effect to the whole of the garden. The foliage grows lighter in shade nearer the center, and darker as they approach the furthest edge from the tower. Small cobbled paths branch out from the paths into the depths of the flowers, giving ample opportunity for private conversations. Occasionally visitors will report wandering from one color to another without ever crossing one of the primary paths; how that could happen has never been adequately explained, but more than one credible witness has claimed it to be possible.

Topwarp

2016-09-30T04:25:37Z

Buni: /* Environment */

Topwarp is one of the six warps of the [[Puzzlebox]], an endlessly-refracting work of gears and astrology devoted to the Apollonian impulse: Rules and regulations, often arbitrary, and so many of them that they can't help but become self-conflicting.

== Environment ==

If there were an "origin point" in Top, a central point to which everyone in the warp could at least provisionally agree both exists and is important, it would be [[Compass_Tower|Compass Tower]]. By some unspoken agreement, it remains the tallest building in the Warp, visible from almost any rooftop. Even on the cloudiest days, its silhouette looms overhead, its back-lit clock like a watchful eye gazing across the ever-unfolding cityscape. Many have threatened over the ages to build some structure glorifying one House or another that could dwarf the Tower, but to date, all attempts at such a landmark have ended in disaster, both for the structure and for those who've proposed it.

One such story tells of one of the original founders of [[Topwarp_Houses|Mars House]], Katerin Wheel, who published a proposal to build an elevator that could reach the heavens, complete with blueprints and the materials research necessary to craft such a contraption, the better to gather stardust from the source. After three months of demolitions and ground-clearing, a prior from [[Order_of_Saint_Cosmas|a nearby abbey]] arrived at the proposed construction site and asked the heads of Mars House to reconsider. The prior was rebuffed, and left. Soon after, work crews began reporting seeing other from the Order gathering near the site in larger numbers, pacing around its perimeter in packs. Then, one morning, the site was simply gone. The morning laborers arrived to find that all that their adamant scaffolding and gossamer cable — as well as the cabin in which Mx. Wheel had been staying while overseeing construction — replaced with several blocks' worth of parkland. Of Katerin, there was no sign and no word. Not even the psychohistorians of Saturn House could explain it. When asked directly, a provost of the Order said only, "we did ask they reconsider."

== Sociology ==

Outside the Compass Tower and its gardens, if there's an "order," it's really the fractally complex intersection of geography, geometry, and personality. Everyone in Top is a member of a House, but membership lasts as long as you want to stay, and as long as others in the House will have you. Houses are known to split over the trivialest of disagreements as a matter of honor and pedantry, only to reform if a unifying synthesis can be found before the new Houses crystalize into their own views. Every House not only has its own feast days and punch recipes, but also its own units of weight and measure, time and currency, based on whatever its Founder or organizers thought were most elegant. Aesthetics can vary from the ostentatious, depending on the whim of the founder, the requirements of the beliefs, and the interests in inspiring creative violations of the rules for "corrective" purposes.

Keeping a Commonplace is typical habit, detailing personal observations about the universe. Occasionally someone's Commonplace will evolve to the point of foundational document to a House, either as an addendum to someone else's or as a unique guide to itself. House membership is seen as critical... as long as it lasts.

Some houses have been around since just after the Fracturing, and are largely considered "The Main Houses," though nothing stops them from fracturing other than the fact that their founders are still around, and _too_ much disorder would be swept aside by the Abbey.

Within the territory controlled by a given house, at least some sway over the laws of the universe seems to be extended. The members of Jupiter House have captured etheric force in crystal, which eludes even the brightest of Saturn House's natural philosophers. Meanwhile, Saturn House's talents with precognition, at least within their own demenses, seems to be near-guaranteed, at least as long as the Abbey doesn't intervene. Mercury House can store memory in a story or a song. Mars House can make materials beyond any other, and Venus House has cross-bred all manner of plant and beast. Strangely, no house named either Sun House or Moon House exists, and though records exist of people trying to found them, no record of either surviving more than a few days at most exists. The Abbey has always intervened, and when the Abbey gets involved... well, you don't have to be in Saturn House to know what will happen.

== Inspiration and Reference ==
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_the_Winds
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_compass_winds
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_clock
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_astronomical_clock
* http://www.thesecretknots.com/comic/the-gif-day/
* http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-keep-a-zibaldone-a-13thcentury-answer-to-tumblr

[[Category:Puzzlebox]] [[Category:Stubs]]

User:Buni

2016-09-15T18:26:09Z

Buni:

th' buni is a buni.

=== Names ===
* buni
* th' buni

=== Biography ===
From [[Prismatic Media]]'s [http://prismaticmedia.com/who.html "who we are" page], th' buni is "[a] small white rabbit that dreams of being a person that dreams of being a transcendent posthuman that dreams of being an alchemical automaton that dreams of being a small white rabbit. Multicontextual, polycontinuous, and transmaterial, th’ buni manages to be one of those few that dislikes being confined to a single narrative, but hates internal inconsistencies. Still, a few things are common across most of her histories, most notably that she started inventing words when she was three, was making up stories by eight and had started creating realities by fourteen. When she’s not trying to keep her stories straight, she can usually be found inside the server to help keep Prismatic Media running, in somebody’s kitchen committing foodcrime, or curled up in somebody’s lap dreaming of chasing butterflies."

=== Notable Traits ===
* Author of multiple novels
** [http://www.amazon.com/Child-Man-Kristina-Tracer/dp/1448690870 Child of Man]
** [http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-World-Kristina-Tracer-ebook/dp/B004YTP5BC Beautiful World]
** [http://www.amazon.com/Bonds-Silver-Gold-Kristina-Tracer-ebook/dp/B008TT3ZII Bonds of Silver, Bonds of Gold]
* [[Alchemy|Alchemist]]
* [[Hypnosis|Hypnotist]]
* Owner of [[Station_Beta|Station β]]

=== Other Sites ===
* [https://prismaticmedia.com Prismatic Media]
** The [http://ranch.prismaticmedia.com Ranch on Mars] — personal blog
** A [http://nail.prismaticmedia.com Nail from Which to Hang the Heavens] — writing blog
* Twitter
** [https://twitter.com/literorrery literorrery] — Public-facing/"professional" account.
** [https://twitter.com/alchemicalgears alchemicalgears] — After-dark account
** [https://twitter.com/litlbuni litlbuni] — Public, non-verbal
* Other accounts
** [http://buni.dreamwidth.org buni at DreamWidth] — crossposts from the Orrery, communal conversations

Station Alpha

2015-02-12T07:08:06Z

Buni: /* Paracosmic History */ Fix link destination

=== Paracosmic History ===
Station α served as the original set of the wildly popular "Transliminal Station" situation-tragicomedy series. The series itself focuses on a "Real Galaxy" style show featuring residents of multiple planets coerced — politely, with all consent negotiations monitored by Lunar squid-monitors and a contingent of Neptunian happiness engineers — into cohabitation. The original show featured a Belt-spider which was ejected with great fanfare at the end of Season One, which is likely partially responsible for the creation of the [[Solfax|Dance of Prettiest Refusal]] that is issued every year from the vicinity of Ceres during the celebration of [[Bandaza]]. After that cast error was gently corrected, a small rotating cast of secondary characters ensured the ongoing freshness of the series until its sudden relocation to a new set, [[Station_Beta|Station β]]. It's rumored that an outbreak of Westphall-17 and the fictionalization of several members of the recording crew forced the change of venue to prevent waveform collapse of one of the series' [[User:ElectricKeet|main characters]], but this is hearsay and cannot be substantiated by any surviving oneiroseismic readings.

=== Orthocosmic History ===
The first of the [[Transliminal]] residences, Station α was formed when the former residents of [[Charmdown_Park|Charmdown Park]] and the [[Lapinian_Embassy|Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia]] came together to experiment with shared hosusing to reduce collective living costs and provide better collective material and spiritual support for the community.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Resident !! Arrived !! Departed
|-
| [[User:Buni|th' buni]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Kin|Kin]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Rik|Rik]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| Peganthyrus || Founding || Year 1
|-
| [[User:Trouffee|Trouffee]] || Year 2 || Year 3
|-
| [[User:Emanate|Emanate]] || Founding || Year 3
|-
| Rowan || Founding || Closure
|-
| Timber || Year 4 || Year 4
|}

After four years of renting a house from a landlord, th' buni decided to pursue investigations into home ownership as a step towards building [[Transliminal_Dome|Transliminal Dome]]. While this was originally met with some skepticism and disquiet, she did her best to sell this to the remaining residents over several months, ultimately culminating in her decision to buy [[Station_Beta|Station β]] less than a mile from the previous house. The move into the new home was completed in 2014 June, and Station Alpha was officially considered "decommissioned."

Alchemy

2015-02-12T07:06:12Z

Buni: /* Lapinian Alchemy */ Fixed typo

Alchemy is, broadly speaking, the transformation of one substance into another through the application of magical processes. Orthocosmically notable for its efforts to create gold and other magical substances from base metals and compounds, it survives in several paracosms as both profession and spiritual practice.

=== Automata ===
The notion of the "self-made automaton" or "self-crafted golem" is common among alchemists. With every pass through the Great Work, the self is molded to more closely match some idealized form, and the self-image shifts closer to a product of magical influences, often incorporating a transition over to a wholly artificial substrate such as metal, crystal, or fabric. After enough loops, the self that remains may look nothing like the self that began, even though there is a clear chain of connections leading from one to the other. This closely resembles the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus "Ship of Theseus" paradox] and its attendant questions of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_and_change identity and change]. Rather than attempt to present an answer, however, the notion of the alchemist-as-self-crafted-automaton merely makes manifest what is usually hidden under the veneer of time, making changes explicit and visible. The automaton epitomizes change as an intentional process, tying particularly meaningful changes to alterations of self-image. Where some might commemorate a significant event or connection with a tattoo, the alchemist might replace a limb or add a pair of brass wings.

=== Lapinian Alchemy ===
As a field of study specific within alchemy, Lapinian alchemy is primarily focused on what is known as the Great Work, a set of transformative steps that describe both the process of creating the philosopher's stone and of transforming the self through spiritual exercise. Lapinian spiritual alchemy is the most widely understood of the Classic Arts as taught by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus], the "thrice-great" of antiquity.

==== Great Work ====
The Magnum Opus, also known as the Great Work, is the primary focus of Lapinian alchemy and refers at once to the universe in its slow progression and the alchemist in the role of "mover of the universe." This syncretism of the self and the universe is deliberate, as a statement of responsibility and accountability: "my role in the world is deliberate, and what I do matters."

In the alchemical sense, the Work is a series of processes aimed at producing the Lapis Philosophorum. In the spiritual sense, these same processes are used to describe the process of making changes to the self.
# '''Calcination''', the declaration. The alchemist identifies the desired change. For instance, the alchemist may decide to get up at dawn and watch the sunrise.
# '''Congelation''', the freeze. The alchemist, having identified the change, attempts it and fails. The alchemist sleeps through every alarm, or forgets to set one.
# '''Fixation''', the longing. The alchemist, having failed at making changes, longs for the change to be over. The alchemist pines for the sight of the sunrise through the trees.
# '''Dissolution''', the union. The alchemist, longing for change, seeks help and support. The alchemist asks others for reminders to set alarms and go to bed early.
# '''Digestion''', the process. The alchemist, having sought assistance, starts to make progress towards the goal. The alchemist starts setting alarms and going to bed on time, and is waking earlier and earlier.
# '''Distillation''', the success. The alchemist, having made progress, begins to see the fruits of the change. The alchemist rises in time to watch the sunrise and gets the first glimpse of golden rays at dawn.
# '''Sublimation''', the setback. The alchemist, having seen limited success, experiences the unexpected setbacks of the change. The alchemist goes to a party that runs late and spends the next day groggy and miserable.
# '''Filtration''', the refinement. The alchemist, having suffered setbacks, identifies the improvements needed to correct for them. The alchemist shows up at next party early and leaves in time to get to bed on time.
# '''Ceration''', the doubt. The alchemist, having made these changes, questions whether this was the right change. The alchemist hears of great things that happened at the last party after having left and wonders whether getting up at dawn was worth it.
# '''Putrefaction''', the grief. The alchemist, having questioned the wisdom of the change, mourns what has been lost to make it possible. The alchemist talks with friends and expresses frustration or upset at missing out on late-night social events, ultimately coming to terms with the decision and accepting that the joy of seeing the sunrise consistently outweighs the loss.
# '''Multiplication''', the triumph. The alchemist, having passed through mourning, is now able to enact the change at will. The alchemist can get up at dawn and see the sunrise whenever it's desired.
# '''Projection''', the new normal. The alchemist is no longer making the change, but instead has made it. This is the last step, and the first. The loop completes, one level higher on the spiral staircase of progress. The alchemist rises at dawn.

The above example could a be seen as trivial, but the process itself is the same, or similar, regardless of the scope of the transformation. Some steps are non-linear — a setback in Sublimation may require falling back to Dissolution to seek additional help, or doubts in Ceration may lead back all the way back to a refinement of the change to be made in Calcination — and some steps may not be hit on a given cycle — Sublimation and Filtration may get skipped on minor changes that have no setbacks to overcome — but on the whole the cycle remains constant, descriptive of the overall process.

==== Classic Arts ====
In the classic "as above, so below," alchemy is strongly associated with the "so below," the transformation of self that in turn moves the universe. Its direct counterpart is [[Astrology|astrology]], the "as above" that reveals the alchemist's location inside the Great Work. The two are accompanied by [[Theurgy|theurgy]], or ritual magic often involving the invocation or evocation of spirits.

[[Category:Metaphysics]]

Lapinian Embassy

2015-02-12T07:03:19Z

Buni: Fix user link

The Lapinian Embassy is [[User:Buni|th' buni]]'s communal housing project prior to [[Transliminal]].

=== Paracosmic History ===
The Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia was one of the last known "safe houses" for [[Postfurry|postfurries]] stuck on [[Earth]] in the final days before the [[Wall]].

=== Orthocosmic History ===
Th' buni has long held a fascination for group housing, inspired by three specific background events:
# Reading ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' by Robert Heinlein while living in Australia with her then-boyfriend, with its Church of All Worlds and its implication of an "emotionally gated community."
# Perth's post-college housing community in the 1990s. A surplus of vacant housing and a lack of new apartment construction meant that students and recent graduates could more easily find and afford to rent a house together than to rent or buy an apartment. Large groups of friends would keep their leases coordinated within a few weeks of each other, and every year there would be some degree of roommate-shuffling.
# Her first boyfriend suggesting at one point that the two of them, his ex, and his ex's new boyfriend all getting a house together to save costs.

After her first relationship ended, th' buni got together with [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]], and for a brief time the two of them lived by themselves in an apartment in Texas nicknamed the Rathole because of its rodent infestation. Afterwards, they moved into the Pad, their first jointly-chosen living arrangement. Shortly afterwards, however, th' buni got a contact from a then-friend of hers who was leaving the military and needed a place to stay. Keet endorsed the idea of providing a landing space for her, and Erin moved in. This would be the beginning of an ongoing series of roommates over the remainder of Keet's and th' buni's relationship, culminating in what is the present-day [[Jaqlhive]].

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Years !! Nickname !! Roomnates
|-
| 1999 to 2000 || The Rathole || Keet, buni
|-
| 2000 to 2001-03 || The Pad || Keet, buni, Erin
|-
| 2001-03 to 2001-05 || Efrain's || Keet, buni, Efrain
|-
| 2001-05 to 2004-05 || The Swamp || Keet, buni, Jaql, Erin, Erin*, Allie
|-
| 2004-05 to 2006-10 || The Embassy || Keet, buni, Allie, Erin, Jaded, Mike, Jaql
|-
| 2006-10 to 2010-06 || The Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia (now the [[Jaqlhive]]) || Keet, buni, Jaql, Pathia
|}
* Erin lived in the apartment known as the Swamp on two separate occasions.

Not all roommates were present at the same time, but every roommate listed for a given residence lived there at some point.

In early 2008, during one of the many visits to Portland that th' buni and Keet took to see [[User:Emanate|Emanate]] and [[Rowan]] at their home, th' buni had a spiritual revelation that, for all the good she had done walking her path, she had yet to formalize and dedicate herself to the [[Alchemy#Great_Work|Work]] she had been doing, having mostly engaged in it on an ''ad hoc'' basis up to that point. This revelation, described as "the fourth time she had ever heard from Bear, and the first not the result of quasi-suicidal ideation," would become the basis for inviting together the original group that would later become the basis of the [[Transliminal]] project. It would be another six months of planning and one accidental snub — failing to inform Pathia and Jaql of their plans in any semblance of a timely fashion — before the first Transliminal [[:Category:Residences|residence]], [[Station_Alpha|Station α]], would come online.

Station Alpha

2015-02-10T00:19:28Z

Buni: /* Orthocosmic History */

=== Paracosmic History ===
Station α served as the original set of the wildly popular "Transliminal Station" situation-tragicomedy series. The series itself focuses on a "Real Galaxy" style show featuring residents of multiple planets coerced — politely, with all consent negotiations monitored by Lunar squid-monitors and a contingent of Neptunian happiness engineers — into cohabitation. The original show featured a Belt-spider which was ejected with great fanfare at the end of Season One, which is likely partially responsible for the creation of the [[Solfax|Dance of Prettiest Refusal]] that is issued every year from the vicinity of Ceres during the celebration of [[Bandaza]]. After that cast error was gently corrected, a small rotating cast of secondary characters ensured the ongoing freshness of the series until its sudden relocation to a new set, [[Station_Beta|Station β]]. It's rumored that an outbreak of Westphall-17 and the fictionalization of several members of the recording crew forced the change of venue to prevent waveform collapse of one of the series' [[User:Electric_Keet|main characters]], but this is heresay and cannot be substantiated by any surviving oneiroseismic readings.

=== Orthocosmic History ===
The first of the [[Transliminal]] residences, Station α was formed when the former residents of [[Charmdown_Park|Charmdown Park]] and the [[Lapinian_Embassy|Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia]] came together to experiment with shared hosusing to reduce collective living costs and provide better collective material and spiritual support for the community.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Resident !! Arrived !! Departed
|-
| [[User:Buni|th' buni]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Kin|Kin]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Rik|Rik]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| Peganthyrus || Founding || Year 1
|-
| [[User:Trouffee|Trouffee]] || Year 2 || Year 3
|-
| [[User:Emanate|Emanate]] || Founding || Year 3
|-
| Rowan || Founding || Closure
|-
| Timber || Year 4 || Year 4
|}

After four years of renting a house from a landlord, th' buni decided to pursue investigations into home ownership as a step towards building [[Transliminal_Dome|Transliminal Dome]]. While this was originally met with some skepticism and disquiet, she did her best to sell this to the remaining residents over several months, ultimately culminating in her decision to buy [[Station_Beta|Station β]] less than a mile from the previous house. The move into the new home was completed in 2014 June, and Station Alpha was officially considered "decommissioned."

Station Alpha

2015-02-10T00:19:12Z

Buni: /* Orthocosmic History */

=== Paracosmic History ===
Station α served as the original set of the wildly popular "Transliminal Station" situation-tragicomedy series. The series itself focuses on a "Real Galaxy" style show featuring residents of multiple planets coerced — politely, with all consent negotiations monitored by Lunar squid-monitors and a contingent of Neptunian happiness engineers — into cohabitation. The original show featured a Belt-spider which was ejected with great fanfare at the end of Season One, which is likely partially responsible for the creation of the [[Solfax|Dance of Prettiest Refusal]] that is issued every year from the vicinity of Ceres during the celebration of [[Bandaza]]. After that cast error was gently corrected, a small rotating cast of secondary characters ensured the ongoing freshness of the series until its sudden relocation to a new set, [[Station_Beta|Station β]]. It's rumored that an outbreak of Westphall-17 and the fictionalization of several members of the recording crew forced the change of venue to prevent waveform collapse of one of the series' [[User:Electric_Keet|main characters]], but this is heresay and cannot be substantiated by any surviving oneiroseismic readings.

=== Orthocosmic History ===
The first of the [[Transliminal]] residences, Station α was formed when the former residents of [[Charmdown_Park|Charmdown Park]] and the [[Lapinian_Embassy|Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia]] came together to experiment with shared hosusing to reduce collective living costs and provide better collective material and spiritual support for the community.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Resident !! Arrived !! Departed
|-
| [[User:Buni|th' buni]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Kin|Kin]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Rik|Rik]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| Peganthyrus || Founding || Year 1
|-
| [[User:Trouffee|Trouffee]] || Year 2 || Year 3
|-
| [[User:Emanate|Emanate]] || Founding || Year 3
|-
| [[User:Rowan|Rowan]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| Timber || Year 4 || Year 4
|}

After four years of renting a house from a landlord, th' buni decided to pursue investigations into home ownership as a step towards building [[Transliminal_Dome|Transliminal Dome]]. While this was originally met with some skepticism and disquiet, she did her best to sell this to the remaining residents over several months, ultimately culminating in her decision to buy [[Station_Beta|Station β]] less than a mile from the previous house. The move into the new home was completed in 2014 June, and Station Alpha was officially considered "decommissioned."

Station Alpha

2015-02-10T00:18:45Z

Buni: Created page with "=== Paracosmic History === Station α served as the original set of the wildly popular "Transliminal Station" situation-tragicomedy series. The series itself focuses on a..."

=== Paracosmic History ===
Station α served as the original set of the wildly popular "Transliminal Station" situation-tragicomedy series. The series itself focuses on a "Real Galaxy" style show featuring residents of multiple planets coerced — politely, with all consent negotiations monitored by Lunar squid-monitors and a contingent of Neptunian happiness engineers — into cohabitation. The original show featured a Belt-spider which was ejected with great fanfare at the end of Season One, which is likely partially responsible for the creation of the [[Solfax|Dance of Prettiest Refusal]] that is issued every year from the vicinity of Ceres during the celebration of [[Bandaza]]. After that cast error was gently corrected, a small rotating cast of secondary characters ensured the ongoing freshness of the series until its sudden relocation to a new set, [[Station_Beta|Station β]]. It's rumored that an outbreak of Westphall-17 and the fictionalization of several members of the recording crew forced the change of venue to prevent waveform collapse of one of the series' [[User:Electric_Keet|main characters]], but this is heresay and cannot be substantiated by any surviving oneiroseismic readings.

=== Orthocosmic History ===
The first of the [[Transliminal]] residences, Station α was formed when the former residents of [[Charmdown_Park|Charmdown Park]] and the [[Lapinian_Embassy|Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia]] came together to experiment with shared hosusing to reduce collective living costs and provide better collective material and spiritual support for the community.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Resident !! Arrived !! Departed
|-
| [[User:Buni|th' buni]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Electric_Keet|Electric Keet]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Kin|Kin]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| [[User:Rik|Rik]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| Peganthyrus || Founding || Year 1
|-
| [[User:Trouffee|Trouffee]] || Year 2 || Year 3
|-
| [[User:Emanate|Emanate]] || Founding || Year 3
|-
| [[User:Rowan|Rowan]] || Founding || Closure
|-
| Timber || Year 4 || Year 4
|}

After four years of renting a house from a landlord, th' buni decided to pursue investigations into home ownership as a step towards building [[Transliminal_Dome|Transliminal Dome]]. While this was originally met with some skepticism and disquiet, she did her best to sell this to the remaining residents over several months, ultimately culminating in her decision to buy [[Station_Beta|Station β]] less than a mile from the previous house. The move into the new home was completed in 2014 June, and Station Alpha was officially considered "decommissioned."

Bandaza

2015-02-07T06:16:39Z

Buni: Orthocosmic history, Lapinian language

=== Paracosmic History ===
Bandaza (IPA: /ˌbɑn-ˈdɑ-zɑ/) is an ancient [[Lapinian_Embassy|Lapinian]] holiday celebrating community and plenty. Traditionally, the "days of plenty" start with Veloja — Bicycle Day — and proceed through the end of the week. As winter approached, rabbits from across the warrens would come together and plan a last "big meal" as a celebration of the bounty that their fields had provided. "There is plenty for all" is a common phrase heard across these gatherings, a reminder of community before the worst of winter arrived. After Bandaza, most rabbits would plan on hunkering down in their respective warrens, not planning on travel or visitors until spring, unless expecting guests for Athamara, a mid-winter gift-exchange holiday largely supplanted by [[Glowtide]] since Lapinia's integration into the larger [[Transliminal]] community.

The name "Bandaza" itself is a modern-day corruption of [[Lapinian_language|Lapinã Eãn's]] "bandi žirã" (/ˈbɑn-dɪ ˈʒɪ-rjɑ/, "plenty days"). What is usually considered Bandaza itself is the Great Feast.

=== Orthocosmic History ===
Many years ago, [[User:Buni|th' buni]] had a friend who hosted what she called an "Orphans' Thanksgiving." Having a large number of friends from broken or divided homes, the Orphans' Thanksgiving was meant to be a place to go if you had no place else to be. This idea of a gathering aimed not at family but explicitly at those who lacked it touched th' buni, and she began opening her own Thanksgiving gathering to others in her community. Over the years, this concept has grown and expanded into a full-blown celebration of charity and community in its own right.

The name "Bandaza" is a corruption of the word "abundance" into a standardized Lapinian orthography.
[[Category:Celebrations]]

Prism Grove

2015-02-06T02:09:50Z

Buni: /* Occupants */

Transliminal Station β — typically called "Station Beta" or simply "Beta" — is a [[Postfurry|postfurry]] [[:Category:Residences|residence]], notable for the [[Observatory]] and the hosting of [[Bandaza]].

=== Orthocosmic History ===
Prior to the commencement of the current [[Transliminal]] project, [[User:Buni|th' buni]] and [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]] were members of a prior communal living project called the [[Lapinian Embassy]]. In 2010, Keet and th' buni acted to broaden the scope of the Embassy project by including current members of [[Postfurry MUCK]]. This initial house was dubbed "Transliminal Station," and served as a proof of concept for other members of the Transliminal community.

In 2014, after consultation with a few real estate agents on the path towards owning an apartment building that could serve as [[Transliminal Dome]], th' buni opted to purchase a house large enough to take in the current occupants of Transliminal Station. The purchase was secured in 2014 January, with occupancy complete in early June. Since the occupants of the house hadn't changed, the decision was made to simply dub the new facility "Station β" and to expand the previous house's name to "Station α."

=== Occupants ===
The current roster of occupants at Station Beta is
* [[User:Buni|th' buni]]
* [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]]
* Kin
* Prance
* Soreth (est. March 2015)
* [[User:Emanate|Emanate]] (est. April 2015)

Past residents of Station Beta include:
* Rik
* Rowan

=== Observatory ===
The [[Observatory]] is one of the main attractions of Station Beta. The name is both a play on its decor and its primary purpose, that being of "observing the self" (i.e. meditation, introspection, and spiritual work).

[[Category:Residences]]

Prism Grove

2015-02-03T22:12:15Z

Buni: Roommate changes, provisional residents.

Transliminal Station β — typically called "Station Beta" or simply "Beta" — is a [[Postfurry|postfurry]] [[:Category:Residences|residence]], notable for the [[Observatory]] and the hosting of [[Bandaza]].

=== Orthocosmic History ===
Prior to the commencement of the current [[Transliminal]] project, [[User:Buni|th' buni]] and [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]] were members of a prior communal living project called the [[Lapinian Embassy]]. In 2010, Keet and th' buni acted to broaden the scope of the Embassy project by including current members of [[Postfurry MUCK]]. This initial house was dubbed "Transliminal Station," and served as a proof of concept for other members of the Transliminal community.

In 2014, after consultation with a few real estate agents on the path towards owning an apartment building that could serve as [[Transliminal Dome]], th' buni opted to purchase a house large enough to take in the current occupants of Transliminal Station. The purchase was secured in 2014 January, with occupancy complete in early June. Since the occupants of the house hadn't changed, the decision was made to simply dub the new facility "Station β" and to expand the previous house's name to "Station α."

=== Occupants ===
The current roster of occupants at Station Beta is
* [[User:Buni|th' buni]]
* [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]]
* Kin
* Prance
* Soreth (est. March 2015)
* [[User:Emanate|Emanate]] (est. April 2015)

=== Observatory ===
The [[Observatory]] is one of the main attractions of Station Beta. The name is both a play on its decor and its primary purpose, that being of "observing the self" (i.e. meditation, introspection, and spiritual work).

[[Category:Residences]]

Alchemy

2015-01-27T21:26:29Z

Buni:

Alchemy is, broadly speaking, the transformation of one substance into another through the application of magical processes. Orthocosmically notable for its efforts to create gold and other magical substances from base metals and compounds, it survives in several paracosms as both profession and spiritual practice.

=== Automata ===
The notion of the "self-made automaton" or "self-crafted golem" is common among alchemists. With every pass through the Great Work, the self is molded to more closely match some idealized form, and the self-image shifts closer to a product of magical influences, often incorporating a transition over to a wholly artificial substrate such as metal, crystal, or fabric. After enough loops, the self that remains may look nothing like the self that began, even though there is a clear chain of connections leading from one to the other. This closely resembles the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus "Ship of Theseus" paradox] and its attendant questions of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_and_change identity and change]. Rather than attempt to present an answer, however, the notion of the alchemist-as-self-crafted-automaton merely makes manifest what is usually hidden under the veneer of time, making changes explicit and visible. The automaton epitomizes change as an intentional process, tying particularly meaningful changes to alterations of self-image. Where some might commemorate a significant event or connection with a tattoo, the alchemist might replace a limb or add a pair of brass wings.

=== Lapinian Alchemy ===
As a field of study specific within alchemy, Lapinian alchemy is primarily focused on what is known as the Great Work, a set of transformative steps that describe both the process of creating the philosopher's stone and of transforming the self through spiritual exercise. Lapinian spiritual alchemy is the most widely understood of the Classic Arts as taught by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus]], the "thrice-great" of antiquity.

==== Great Work ====
The Magnum Opus, also known as the Great Work, is the primary focus of Lapinian alchemy and refers at once to the universe in its slow progression and the alchemist in the role of "mover of the universe." This syncretism of the self and the universe is deliberate, as a statement of responsibility and accountability: "my role in the world is deliberate, and what I do matters."

In the alchemical sense, the Work is a series of processes aimed at producing the Lapis Philosophorum. In the spiritual sense, these same processes are used to describe the process of making changes to the self.
# '''Calcination''', the declaration. The alchemist identifies the desired change. For instance, the alchemist may decide to get up at dawn and watch the sunrise.
# '''Congelation''', the freeze. The alchemist, having identified the change, attempts it and fails. The alchemist sleeps through every alarm, or forgets to set one.
# '''Fixation''', the longing. The alchemist, having failed at making changes, longs for the change to be over. The alchemist pines for the sight of the sunrise through the trees.
# '''Dissolution''', the union. The alchemist, longing for change, seeks help and support. The alchemist asks others for reminders to set alarms and go to bed early.
# '''Digestion''', the process. The alchemist, having sought assistance, starts to make progress towards the goal. The alchemist starts setting alarms and going to bed on time, and is waking earlier and earlier.
# '''Distillation''', the success. The alchemist, having made progress, begins to see the fruits of the change. The alchemist rises in time to watch the sunrise and gets the first glimpse of golden rays at dawn.
# '''Sublimation''', the setback. The alchemist, having seen limited success, experiences the unexpected setbacks of the change. The alchemist goes to a party that runs late and spends the next day groggy and miserable.
# '''Filtration''', the refinement. The alchemist, having suffered setbacks, identifies the improvements needed to correct for them. The alchemist shows up at next party early and leaves in time to get to bed on time.
# '''Ceration''', the doubt. The alchemist, having made these changes, questions whether this was the right change. The alchemist hears of great things that happened at the last party after having left and wonders whether getting up at dawn was worth it.
# '''Putrefaction''', the grief. The alchemist, having questioned the wisdom of the change, mourns what has been lost to make it possible. The alchemist talks with friends and expresses frustration or upset at missing out on late-night social events, ultimately coming to terms with the decision and accepting that the joy of seeing the sunrise consistently outweighs the loss.
# '''Multiplication''', the triumph. The alchemist, having passed through mourning, is now able to enact the change at will. The alchemist can get up at dawn and see the sunrise whenever it's desired.
# '''Projection''', the new normal. The alchemist is no longer making the change, but instead has made it. This is the last step, and the first. The loop completes, one level higher on the spiral staircase of progress. The alchemist rises at dawn.

The above example could a be seen as trivial, but the process itself is the same, or similar, regardless of the scope of the transformation. Some steps are non-linear — a setback in Sublimation may require falling back to Dissolution to seek additional help, or doubts in Ceration may lead back all the way back to a refinement of the change to be made in Calcination — and some steps may not be hit on a given cycle — Sublimation and Filtration may get skipped on minor changes that have no setbacks to overcome — but on the whole the cycle remains constant, descriptive of the overall process.

==== Classic Arts ====
In the classic "as above, so below," alchemy is strongly associated with the "so below," the transformation of self that in turn moves the universe. Its direct counterpart is [[Astrology|astrology]], the "as above" that reveals the alchemist's location inside the Great Work. The two are accompanied by [[Theurgy|theurgy]], or ritual magic often involving the invocation or evocation of spirits.

[[Category:Metaphysics]]

Alchemy

2015-01-27T19:20:38Z

Buni: Initial writing

Alchemy is, broadly speaking, the transformation of one substance into another through the application of magical processes. Orthocosmically notable for its efforts to create gold and other magical substances from base metals and compounds, it survives in several paracosms as both profession and spiritual practice.

=== Automata ===
The notion of the "self-made automaton" or "self-crafted golem" is common among alchemists. With every pass through the Great Work, the self is molded to more closely match some idealized form, and the self-image shifts closer to a product of magical influences, often incorporating a transition over to a wholly artificial substrate such as metal, crystal, or fabric. After enough loops, the self that remains may look nothing like the self that began, even though there is a clear chain of connections leading from one to the other. This closely resembles the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus "Ship of Theseus" paradox] and its attendant questions of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_and_change identity and change]. Rather than attempt to present an answer, however, the notion of the alchemist-as-self-crafted-automaton merely makes manifest what is usually hidden under the veneer of time, making changes explicit and visible. The automaton epitomizes change as an intentional process, tying particularly meaningful changes to alterations of self-image. Where some might commemorate a significant event or connection with a tattoo, the alchemist might replace a limb or add a pair of brass wings.

=== Lapinian Alchemy ===
As a field of study specific within alchemy, Lapinian alchemy is primarily focused on what is known as the Great Work, a set of transformative steps that describe both the process of creating the philosopher's stone and of transforming the self through spiritual exercise. Lapinian spiritual alchemy is the most widely understood of the Classic Arts as taught by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus]], the "thrice-great" of antiquity.

==== Great Work ====
The Magnum Opus, also known as the Great Work, is the primary focus of Lapinian alchemy and refers at once to the universe in its slow progression and the alchemist in the role of "mover of the universe." This syncretism of the self and the universe is deliberate, as a statement of responsibility and accountability: "my role in the world is deliberate, and what I do matters."

In the alchemical sense, the Work is a series of processes aimed at producing the Lapis Philosophorum. In the spiritual sense, these same processes are used to describe the process of making changes to the self.
# '''Calcination''', the declaration. The alchemist identifies the desired change. For instance, the alchemist may decide to get up at dawn and watch the sunrise.
# '''Congelation''', the freeze. The alchemist, having identified the change, attempts it and fails. The alchemist sleeps through every alarm, or forgets to set one.
# '''Fixation''', the longing. The alchemist, having failed at making changes, longs for the change to be over. The alchemist pines for the sight of the sunrise through the trees.
# '''Dissolution''', the union. The alchemist, longing for change, seeks help and support. The alchemist asks others for reminders to set alarms and go to bed early.
# '''Digestion''', the process. The alchemist, having sought assistance, starts to make progress towards the goal. The alchemist starts setting alarms and going to bed on time, and is waking earlier and earlier.
# '''Distillation''', the success. The alchemist, having made progress, begins to see the fruits of the change. The alchemist rises in time to watch the sunrise and gets the first glimpse of golden rays at dawn.
# '''Sublimation''', the setback. The alchemist, having seen limited success, experiences the unexpected setbacks of the change. The alchemist goes to a party that runs late and spends the next day groggy and miserable.
# '''Filtration''', the refinement. The alchemist, having suffered setbacks, identifies the improvements needed to correct for them. The alchemist shows up at next party early and leaves in time to get to bed on time.
# '''Ceration''', the doubt. The alchemist, having made these changes, questions whether this was the right change. The alchemist hears of great things that happened at the last party after having left and wonders whether getting up at dawn was worth it.
# '''Putrefaction''', the grief. The alchemist, having questioned the wisdom of the change, mourns what has been lost to make it possible. The alchemist talks with friends and expresses frustration or upset at missing out on late-night social events, ultimately coming to terms with the decision and accepting that the joy of seeing the sunrise consistently outweighs the loss.
# '''Multiplication''', the triumph. The alchemist, having passed through mourning, is now able to enact the change at will. The alchemist can get up at dawn and see the sunrise whenever it's desired.
# '''Projection''', the new normal. The alchemist is no longer making the change, but instead has made it. This is the last step, and the first. The loop completes, one level higher on the spiral staircase of progress. The alchemist rises at dawn.

The above example could a be seen as trivial, but the process itself is the same, or similar, regardless of the scope of the transformation. Some steps are non-linear — a setback in Sublimation may require falling back to Dissolution to seek additional help, or doubts in Ceration may lead back all the way back to a refinement of the change to be made in Calcination — but on the whole the cycle remains constant, descriptive of the process.

==== Classic Arts ====
In the classic "as above, so below," alchemy is strongly associated with the "so below," the transformation of self that in turn moves the universe. Its direct counterpart is astrology, the "as above" that reveals the alchemist's location inside the Great Work. The two are accompanied by theurgy, or high ritual magic.

User:Emanate

2015-01-24T06:24:55Z

Buni: /* Names */ Spelling correction

== Endocosm ==

Emanate is a digital consciousness residing in a Toy-class [[Hieromech]] chassis. Vis body was designed and manufactured by [[HieroTron]] on the moon [[Io]]. Vis current job is providing pleasure to clients, akin to a courtesan or companion.

Ve works on [[Io]], but spends a lot of time hanging out with [[Neptunian_Culture|Neptunians]] and other folks as well.

=== Other characters ===

* [[Nikolai]]

== Orthocosm ==

Emanate, or ''Em'' for short, lives in Seattle in the [[DeliriumFactory]].

== Names ==
* emanate
* em
* toy
* blue [nickname]
* [deprecated] cobalt blue / cobaltie

== Traits ==

=== Elsewheres ===
* outside sites

Bandaza

2015-01-21T20:21:30Z

Buni: Paracosmic history completed.

Lapinian Embassy

2015-01-13T08:40:11Z

Buni: Created page with "The Lapinian Embassy is th' buni's communal housing project prior to Transliminal. === Paracosmic History === The Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia was one of th..."

The Lapinian Embassy is [[User:Buni|th' buni]]'s communal housing project prior to [[Transliminal]].

=== Paracosmic History ===
The Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia was one of the last known "safe houses" for [[Postfurry|postfurries]] stuck on [[Earth]] in the final days before the [[Wall]].

=== Orthocosmic History ===
Th' buni has long held a fascination for group housing, inspired by three specific background events:
# Reading ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' by Robert Heinlein while living in Australia with her then-boyfriend, with its Church of All Worlds and its implication of an "emotionally gated community."
# Perth's post-college housing community in the 1990s. A surplus of vacant housing and a lack of new apartment construction meant that students and recent graduates could more easily find and afford to rent a house together than to rent or buy an apartment. Large groups of friends would keep their leases coordinated within a few weeks of each other, and every year there would be some degree of roommate-shuffling.
# Her first boyfriend suggesting at one point that the two of them, his ex, and his ex's new boyfriend all getting a house together to save costs.

After her first relationship ended, th' buni got together with [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]], and for a brief time the two of them lived by themselves in an apartment in Texas nicknamed the Rathole because of its rodent infestation. Afterwards, they moved into the Pad, their first jointly-chosen living arrangement. Shortly afterwards, however, th' buni got a contact from a then-friend of hers who was leaving the military and needed a place to stay. Keet endorsed the idea of providing a landing space for her, and Erin moved in. This would be the beginning of an ongoing series of roommates over the remainder of Keet's and th' buni's relationship, culminating in what is the present-day [[Jaqlhive]].

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Years !! Nickname !! Roomnates
|-
| 1999 to 2000 || The Rathole || Keet, buni
|-
| 2000 to 2001-03 || The Pad || Keet, buni, Erin
|-
| 2001-03 to 2001-05 || Efrain's || Keet, buni, Efrain
|-
| 2001-05 to 2004-05 || The Swamp || Keet, buni, Jaql, Erin, Erin*, Allie
|-
| 2004-05 to 2006-10 || The Embassy || Keet, buni, Allie, Erin, Jaded, Mike, Jaql
|-
| 2006-10 to 2010-06 || The Lapinian Embassy in Cascadia (now the [[Jaqlhive]]) || Keet, buni, Jaql, Pathia
|}
* Erin lived in the apartment known as the Swamp on two separate occasions.

Not all roommates were present at the same time, but every roommate listed for a given residence lived there at some point.

In early 2008, during one of the many visits to Portland that th' buni and Keet took to see [[Emanate]] and [[Rowan]] at their home, th' buni had a spiritual revelation that, for all the good she had done walking her path, she had yet to formalize and dedicate herself to the [[Alchemy#Great_Work|Work]] she had been doing, having mostly engaged in it on an ''ad hoc'' basis up to that point. This revelation, described as "the fourth time she had ever heard from Bear, and the first not the result of quasi-suicidal ideation," would become the basis for inviting together the original group that would later become the basis of the [[Transliminal]] project. It would be another six months of planning and one accidental snub — failing to inform Pathia and Jaql of their plans in any semblance of a timely fashion — before the first Transliminal [[:Category:Residences|residence]], [[Station_Alpha|Station α]], would come online.

Horn and Ivory

2015-01-05T08:09:36Z

Buni: Cleaning up wiki link.

'''Horn and Ivory''' is the general name for a setting used for some of [[User:Indi|Indi]]'s stories, as well as a story game currently in development. It's an urban fantasy setting based in a world that one might hope is our own, featuring people who change themselves, body and mind, in search of truer personal identities and ideals. The theme and goal of these is one of personal discovery and empowerment, they take some of the trappings that are normally seen in cyberpunk/transhuman fiction, and implement them as results of magic rather than technology, so individuals improve their bodies with magical bodysculpting rather than cyberware, and gather together in [[Oneiropolis|an urban spiritworld]] instead of cyberspace.

== Shapers ==
Most stories center around a small group of willworkers who call themselves Shapers; people who have found a thread of magic in their dreams that led them to try making those dreams real. One inherent part of Shaper magic is that it changes the wielder's body, though it's always in a way that brings them more in line with something already inside them (whether they know it or not). Therefore, these changes may start off as surprising, but do tend to end up being positive.

== Stories ==
* '''[https://www.weasyl.com/submission/377540/demonstration Demonstration]''' - The first story written for the setting, featuring an experienced Shaper giving a potential initiate a taste of what could be in store. (Transformation, male/male, all ages)
* '''[https://www.weasyl.com/submission/377604/reconciliation Reconciliation]''' - A newly empowered Shaper tries to come to terms with his surprising first change. (Post-transformation, anal, male/male, adult)

User:Buni

2015-01-03T11:19:24Z

Buni:

th' buni is a buni.

=== Names ===
* buni
* th' buni

=== Biography ===
From [[PrismaticMedia|Prismatic Media]]'s [http://prismaticmedia.com/who.html "who we are" page], th' buni is "[a] small white rabbit that dreams of being a person that dreams of being a transcendent posthuman that dreams of being an alchemical automaton that dreams of being a small white rabbit. Multicontextual, polycontinuous, and transmaterial, th’ buni manages to be one of those few that dislikes being confined to a single narrative, but hates internal inconsistencies. Still, a few things are common across most of her histories, most notably that she started inventing words when she was three, was making up stories by eight and had started creating realities by fourteen. When she’s not trying to keep her stories straight, she can usually be found inside the server to help keep Prismatic Media running, in somebody’s kitchen committing foodcrime, or curled up in somebody’s lap dreaming of chasing butterflies."

=== Notable Traits ===
* Author of multiple novels
** [http://www.amazon.com/Child-Man-Kristina-Tracer/dp/1448690870 Child of Man]
** [http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-World-Kristina-Tracer-ebook/dp/B004YTP5BC Beautiful World]
** [http://www.amazon.com/Bonds-Silver-Gold-Kristina-Tracer-ebook/dp/B008TT3ZII Bonds of Silver, Bonds of Gold]
* [[Alchemy|Alchemist]]
* [[Hypnosis|Hypnotist]]
* Owner of [[Station_Beta|Station β]]

=== Other Sites ===
* [https://prismaticmedia.com Prismatic Media]
** The [http://ranch.prismaticmedia.com Ranch on Mars] — personal blog
** A [http://nail.prismaticmedia.com Nail from Which to Hang the Heavens] — writing blog
* Twitter
** [https://twitter.com/krtbuni krtbuni] — Personal account
** [https://twitter.com/alchemicalgears alchemicalgears] — After-dark account
** [https://twitter.com/litlbuni litlbuni] — Public, non-verbal
* Other accounts
** [http://buni.dreamwidth.org buni at DreamWidth] — crossposts from the Ranch and Nail, communal conversations

User:Buni

2015-01-03T01:54:47Z

Buni:

th' buni is a buni.

=== Names ===
* buni
* th' buni

=== Biography ===
From [[PrismaticMedia|Prismatic Media]]'s [http://prismaticmedia.com/who.html "who we are" page], th' buni is "[a] small white rabbit that dreams of being a person that dreams of being a transcendent posthuman that dreams of being an alchemical automaton that dreams of being a small white rabbit. Multicontextual, polycontinuous, and transmaterial, th’ buni manages to be one of those few that dislikes being confined to a single narrative, but hates internal inconsistencies. Still, a few things are common across most of her histories, most notably that she started inventing words when she was three, was making up stories by eight and had started creating realities by fourteen. When she’s not trying to keep her stories straight, she can usually be found inside the server to help keep Prismatic Media running, in somebody’s kitchen committing foodcrime, or curled up in somebody’s lap dreaming of chasing butterflies."

=== Notable Traits ===
* Author of multiple novels
** [http://www.amazon.com/Child-Man-Kristina-Tracer/dp/1448690870 Child of Man]
** [http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-World-Kristina-Tracer-ebook/dp/B004YTP5BC Beautiful World]
** [http://www.amazon.com/Bonds-Silver-Gold-Kristina-Tracer-ebook/dp/B008TT3ZII Bonds of Silver, Bonds of Gold]
* [[Alchemy|Alchemist]]
* [[Hypnosis|Hypnotist]]
* Owner of [[StationBeta|Station β]]

=== Other Sites ===
* [https://prismaticmedia.com Prismatic Media]
** The [http://ranch.prismaticmedia.com Ranch on Mars] — personal blog
** A [http://nail.prismaticmedia.com Nail from Which to Hang the Heavens] — writing blog
* Twitter
** [https://twitter.com/krtbuni krtbuni] — Personal account
** [https://twitter.com/alchemicalgears alchemicalgears] — After-dark account
** [https://twitter.com/litlbuni litlbuni] — Public, non-verbal
* Other accounts
** [http://buni.dreamwidth.org buni at DreamWidth] — crossposts from the Ranch and Nail, communal conversations

User:Buni

2015-01-03T01:54:01Z

Buni: Created page with "th' buni is a buni. === Names === * buni * th' buni === Biography === From Prismatic Media's [http://prismaticmedia.com/who.html "who we are" page], th' b..."

th' buni is a buni.

=== Names ===
* buni
* th' buni

=== Biography ===
From [[PrismaticMedia|Prismatic Media]]'s [http://prismaticmedia.com/who.html "who we are" page], th' buni is "[a] small white rabbit that dreams of being a person that dreams of being a transcendent posthuman that dreams of being an alchemical automaton that dreams of being a small white rabbit. Multicontextual, polycontinuous, and transmaterial, th’ buni manages to be one of those few that dislikes being confined to a single narrative, but hates internal inconsistencies. Still, a few things are common across most of her histories, most notably that she started inventing words when she was three, was making up stories by eight and had started creating realities by fourteen. When she’s not trying to keep her stories straight, she can usually be found inside the server to help keep Prismatic Media running, in somebody’s kitchen committing foodcrime, or curled up in somebody’s lap dreaming of chasing butterflies."

=== Notable Traits ===
* Author of multiple novels
** [http://www.amazon.com/Child-Man-Kristina-Tracer/dp/1448690870 Child of Man]
** [http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-World-Kristina-Tracer-ebook/dp/B004YTP5BC Beautiful World]
** [http://www.amazon.com/Bonds-Silver-Gold-Kristina-Tracer-ebook/dp/B008TT3ZII Bonds of Silver, Bonds of Gold]
* [[Alchemy|Alchemist]]
* [[Hypnosis|Hypnotist]]
* Owner of [[StationBeta|Station β]]

=== Other Sites ===
* Prismatic Media blogs
** The [http://ranch.prismaticmedia.com Ranch on Mars] — personal blog
** A [http://nail.prismaticmedia.com Nail from Which to Hang the Heavens] — writing blog
* Twitter
** [https://twitter.com/krtbuni krtbuni] — Personal account
** [https://twitter.com/alchemicalgears alchemicalgears] — After-dark account
** [https://twitter.com/litlbuni litlbuni] — Public, non-verbal
* Other accounts
** [http://buni.dreamwidth.org buni at DreamWidth] — crossposts from the Ranch and Nail, communal conversations

Prism Grove

2015-01-03T01:22:48Z

Buni:

Transliminal Station β — typically called "Station Beta" or simply "Beta" — is a [[Postfurry|postfurry]] [[:Category:Residences|residence]], notable for the [[Observatory]] and the hosting of [[Bandaza]].

=== Orthocosmic History ===
Prior to the commencement of the current [[Transliminal]] project, [[User:Buni|th' buni]] and [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]] were members of a prior communal living project called the [[LapinianEmbassy|Lapinian Embassy]]. In 2010, Keet and th' buni acted to broaden the scope of the Embassy project by including current members of [[Postfurry_MUCK|PostFurry MUCK]]. This initial house was dubbed "Transliminal Station," and served as a proof of concept for other members of the Transliminal community.

In 2014, after consultation with a few real estate agents on the path towards owning an apartment building that could serve as [[TransliminalDome|Transliminal Dome]], th' buni opted to purchase a house large enough to take in the current occupants of Transliminal Station. The purchase was secured in 2014 January, with occupancy complete in early June. Since the occupants of the house hadn't changed, the decision was made to simply dub the new facility "Station β" and to expand the previous house's name to "Station α."

=== Occupants ===
The current roster of occupants at Station Beta is
* [[User:Buni|th' buni]]
* [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]]
* Kin
* Rowan
* Rik
* Prance

=== Observatory ===
The [[Observatory]] is one of the main attractions of Station Beta. The name is both a play on its decor and its primary purpose, that being of "observing the self" (i.e. meditation, introspection, and spiritual work).

[[Category:Residences]]

Prism Grove

2015-01-02T22:21:32Z

Buni: Fixed wiki formatting on th' buni.

Transliminal Station Beta is a [[Postfurry|postfurry]] [[:Residences|residence]], notable for the [[Observatory]] and the hosting of [[Bandaza]].

=== Orthocosmic History ===
Prior to the commencement of the current [[Transliminal]] project, [[User:Buni|th' buni]] and [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]] were members of a prior communal living project called the [[LapinianEmbassy|Lapinian Embassy]]. In 2010, Keet and th' buni acted to broaden the scope of the Embassy project by including current members of [[Postfurry_MUCK|PostFurry MUCK]]. This initial house was dubbed "Transliminal Station," and served as a proof of concept for other members of the Transliminal community.

In 2014, after consultation with a few real estate agents on the path towards owning an apartment building that could serve as [[TransliminalDome|Transliminal Dome]], th' buni opted to purchase a house large enough to take in the current occupants of Transliminal Station. The purchase was secured in 2014 January, with occupancy complete in early June. Since the occupants of the house hadn't changed, the decision was made to simply dub the new facility "Station β" and to expand the previous house's name to "Station α."

=== Occupants ===
The current roster of occupants at Station Beta is
* [[User:Buni|th' buni]]
* [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]]
* Kin
* Rowan
* Rik
* Prance

=== Observatory ===
The [[Observatory]] is one of the main attractions of Station Beta. The name is both a play on its decor and its primary purpose, that being of "observing the self" (i.e. meditation, introspection, and spiritual work).

[[Category:Residences]]

Prism Grove

2015-01-02T22:13:45Z

Buni: Created page with "Transliminal Station Beta is a postfurry residence, notable for the Observatory and the hosting of Bandaza. === Orthocosmic History ===..."

Transliminal Station Beta is a [[Postfurry|postfurry]] [[:Residences|residence]], notable for the [[Observatory]] and the hosting of [[Bandaza]].

=== Orthocosmic History ===
Prior to the commencement of the current [[Transliminal]] project, [[User:th' buni]] and [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]] were members of a prior communal living project called the [[LapinianEmbassy|Lapinian Embassy]]. In 2010, Keet and th' buni acted to broaden the scope of the Embassy project by including current members of [[Postfurry_MUCK|PostFurry MUCK]]. This initial house was dubbed "Transliminal Station," and served as a proof of concept for other members of the Transliminal community.

In 2014, after consultation with a few real estate agents on the path towards owning an apartment building that could serve as [[TransliminalDome|Transliminal Dome]], th' buni opted to purchase a house large enough to take in the current occupants of Transliminal Station. The purchase was secured in 2014 January, with occupancy complete in early June. Since the occupants of the house hadn't changed, the decision was made to simply dub the new facility "Station β" and to expand the previous house's name to "Station α."

=== Occupants ===
The current roster of occupants at Station Beta is
* [[User:Buni|th' buni]]
* [[User:ElectricKeet|Electric Keet]]
* Kin
* Rowan
* Rik
* Prance

=== Observatory ===
The [[Observatory]] is one of the main attractions of Station Beta. The name is both a play on its decor and its primary purpose, that being of "observing the self" (i.e. meditation, introspection, and spiritual work).

[[Category:Residences]]