Creation of the Realms
In the beginning there where two beings one of Light and one of Dark Aether one represented Creation and the other Destruction, both of these entities created the Realms of Draakana and Avalar which would become the homes of various species but especially Dragons which where created by the beings to bring forth magic into the realms. However they also created one specific Dragon a purple one that would be able to control all elements including Aether itself, this purple Dragon and all the ones that would follow would protect the Realms and bring an era of change either whether good or bad was up for the Dragon themselves to decide.
The Banishment of the Dragons
Formerly the Dragons lived in what is now known as the Forgotten Realms it was here where their species truly flourished, they build much of realms infrastructure and brought an era of peace across all species in these lands. It was during these times when the connection with Avalar was first founded and both realms entered an age of progress, however eventually a certain Sorceress grew to resent the Dragons believing them to hoard all the magic for themselves and banished them to the other side of the world, and with this the magic across the Forgotten Realms would slowly fade away over time with the portal that led to Avalar being the first to close.
The Founding of the Dragon Realms
When the Dragons awoke in the land they found themselves in they slowly but surely recreated their new home on the Island which would eventually become Dreamweavers. However this Island would eventually become to small for their civilization, and one brave Sea Dragon would set out to find a new home for her and her children. And after a long and exhausting swim she found land but after dragging herself to shore she collapsed and passed away her children would become the first inhabitans of what is now known as Dragon Shores, with the other Dragons following soon after.
The events of the OG trilogy happen
A thousand years after the Dragons have made their home in the new Realms a new purple Dragon was born who became known as Spyro, and whilst Spyro was mostly a thrill seeking young Dragon who didn't care about things such as destiny he would through his adventures bring the Realms into a new age of peace and prosperity. His story began when a creature known as Gnasty Gnorc who after causing much mischief across the Realms because he felt that he didn't fit in with the other creatures, with him having a particular interest in learing magic this caused the Dragons to eventually banish him to the Junkyard which Gnasty build his own kingdom in with him creating othe Gnorcs out of the stolen treasures of the Dragons.
Now Gnasty Always had plans to one day return to the Dragon Realms and take it for himself but after being insulted on live television he decided to put that plan into action now, and with one devasting hit of magic all the Dragons where turned into statues except for Spyro who didn't know it at the time but his ties to Aether had protected him from Gnasty's magic. After this Spyro would go about his first adventure freeing all the Dragons and collecting their stolen gems and eggs all ending with him torching Gnasty, of course Spyro didn't cause any permanent harm to him just enough to hopefully teach him a lesson
Sortly after Spyro's first adventure he found himself into a new mess, having brought to the Realms of Avalar which has been taking over by a small creature called Ripto nobody fully knows where Ripto has come from, perhaps a realm far away from both Draakana and Avalar but seeing how he has a hatred for Dragons it shows that he lives in a place near them. It is during this adventure that Spyro starts to take his role as a purple Dragon more serious whether unintional or not, with him bringing the various warring races of Avalar together and bringing peace across the lands and eventually leading to both Avalar and Draakana re-establishing contact. This adventure eventually ending in him defeating Ripto (or so it seems) and getting the vacation he wanted in the first place.
And now Spyro's last adventure of the og trilogy atleast, after a Thousand years of the magic slowly disapearing in the Forgotten Realms the Sorceress also notices that the magic she uses to keep herself alive is fading as well, with the signs of aging apearing across her body. Not just this but the portals across the Realms are shutting off one by one which would cause trouble for her dominion over the lands, she eventually caught wind of a young dragons adventures and learns where the Dragons have choosen to live after she banished them, and send her apprentice Bianca to steal their eggs, with Bianca believing that she wanted to bring the Dragons back to the Forgotten Realms to bring the magic back. Of course it was Spyro's job to get the Eggs back together with Hunter who choose to travel with Spyro to the Dragon Realms after his adventure in Avalar, and much like before Spyro would help the inhabitans of the Forgotten Realms and thanks to his Aether magic the longer he stays in the Realms the more the magic came back.
A short while into their adventure Hunter and Bianca would start to interact and would begin to catch feelings for eachother, much to the chagrin of Spyro which to be fair if your best friend felt in love with somebody who kidnapped the babies of your species you would not be happy either. But luckily for Spyro after Bianca learned that what the Sorceress plan is for the baby Dragons she would start to help Spyro and Hunter, and eventually Spyro would defeat the Sorceress once in her castle and later for good in the super bonus round.
After this the Forgotten Realms restablished contact with the Dragon Realms and became known as the United Realms under Bianca's leadership, it was also after this that the portal to Avalar was permantly openend only in the United Realms instead of the Dragon Realms thanks to the Professor having to go of old tomes, of course this was easily remedied when the Dragons gave the proper coordinates. This resulted in the cultural exchange between all Realms and a large group of Avalarians to move to Draakana, who created the Valley of New Avalar or just the Valley of Avalar as most called it.
What came after
Most of the events that happenend after the Forgotten Realms are of minor note, such as Spyro freeing the Fairylands from Grendor and saving the Dragonflies twice with the second time being caused by Ripto. The one thing of note with this even is that Spyro started to experiment with a different element mainly bubble breath, which he got access to thanks to Bianca who uncovered runes from the old dragon civilization it is even believed that these runes where created by the first Purple Dragon.
And now we get to the interesting bits, an elder by the name of Red got corrupted by the Sorcerer to plant Dark Gems (which another Dark Master would use later), in order to drain the land of Magic. And whilst Spyro would of course defeat Red the Sorcerer was in the meantime looking into the origins of Aether and the Purple Dragon, this let him to the Shadow Realm a place beyond creation. And after the defeat of Red he set his plan into motion to tap into these Shadow Realms by releasing the Calamity, which trapped everyone from Draakana and Avalar in the Shadow Realm whilst also draining them of their magic, it is also thanks to his meddling with Dark Aether that resulted in his Purple scales. And whilst Spyro would defeat him just like any other villain before hand the Calamity would have had irreparable damage to the world such as the formation of the Ancient Grove a poisonous forest that corrupts all that enter it. And it even changed the nature of the Purple Dragon.
The Age of Malefor
After an unknown amount of time Spyro would grow older and more powerfull having returned to his home of Artisans but some noticed that he would start to behave oddly, he would start to become more and more obsessed with Aether and other elements and eventually fell to the temptations of Dark Aether. This let him to be exiled and he eventually found himself in a place where Dark Aether was most abundant a place that would eventually become the well of souls. If only the Elders had paid attention to Spyro they would have noticed the weird glow in his eyes, and the fact that it looked as if there was something missing. This now soulless husk that was once the Hero of the Realms completely taken over by Dark Aether now dubbed himself Malefor the Dark Master, and he let a campaign of terror against his own kind, destroying the Artisans homeworld leaving it as a useless ruins that got covered up by the ground only to be rediscovered in the future and be renamed as the Ruins of Warfang. The same happenend to the Dream Weavers which Malefor let fall to the ground destroying the landscape and distorting it with runaway magic. Together with his Ape army he waged war agains all other Realms, using the improved Dark Gems now known as Dark Crystals to drain magic of both Dragons and other creatures to fuel his army and ambitions. Luckily for the rest of the world the Dragon Elders and Spyro's old friends managed to corner Malefor and trap him in the Shadow Realms or atleast his Essence, whilst the evil force that has taken his souls place was trapped in the well of Souls.
The Legend begins
Despite Malefor being trapped the damage was still done, much of the world was without magic and the portals became useless, not just that but many started to mistrust Dragons thanks to the ongoing war and many dragons have been killed during the war. But all would change when a new Purple Dragon would be born, who would for some reason insist on being called Spyro not even he knows why. After an attack from the apes on his home with the Dragonflies Spyro learns he isn't one of them and sets out to find where he belongs. It was at this moment that the found Ignitus the Dragon that was task with gaurding the eggs all those years ago, and after learning his name he was of course suprised but the decided to keep it to himself. After their meeting Spyro and Ignitus would retake the Temple and set out to save the othe Gaurdians from Cynder, with him traveling to the Elemental islands which cumulated in him ending up saving Ignitus in the ruins of Dreamweavers now known as the Concurrent Skies, it was here where Spyro learned about Cynders past and followed her to Convexity the place where the Dragon Realms and the Shadow Realms meet. And where Spyro and Cynder fought and whilst Spyro did defeat and save Cynder from her corruption but Malefor's essence is freed from the Shadow Realm, since then Cynder lived with Spyro and the Gaurdians at the Temple but what she has done under Malefors control still haunts her.
A couple of weeks later the Eternal Night approaches an event where the two celestial moons would eclipse and allow spirits to wander the Well of Souls, Spyro would be sent out to stop the Ape king Gaul and to find Cynder who fled the Dragon Temple thanks to her guilt, with spyro also having been tasked with finding the chronicler who has been contacting Spyro in his dreams. Spyros first stop would be the Ancient Grove a large forest that was corrupted by Dark Aether during the Calamity that at this point happenend centuries ago, and is gaurded by Arborik a large tree golem that was created by Malefor as an artificial soldier. But after Spyro defeated him he was kidnapped by a group of pirates and forced into an arena, it was during this time he got a letter addressed by Hunter of Avalar and had a short reunion with Cynder before Gauls forces attacked the pirates and kidnapped her, Spyro used the distraction to escape the pirates but during is flight away from the ship he fell unconscious thanks to the Chronicler, only to be saved by a leviathan who brought him to the shores of the White Isle.
The White Isle is an ancient Island that houses all of Dragon knowledge and is believed to have been created since the beginning of time, with the first Chronicler being also the first Purple Dragon. After Spyro met the Chronicler he told him that he led Spyro here to wait out Malefors return, but after Spyro learned that this would cause Cynder to return to Malefors control he choose to go to the Well of Souls to stop him there and then. And after a long battle on his way to the top and a fight against Gaul who incapacitated Cynder Spyro would fall in the energy beam that sat at the center of the arena, which caused Dark Aether to start corrupting the young Dragon much like it had done before with his previous life. And after this newly formed "Dark Spyro" gave Gaul the finishing blow he flew up to Cynder and Sparx who where horrified to see what had become of Spyro, with Cynder tackling Spyro out of the Energy beam which luckily turned him back to normal. But the Well of Souls started to collapse around them thanks to Malefors return, so Spyro would use his Dragon time ability to freeze them into a large crystal and protect them from the collapsing mountain.
During this three years would pass and during those years Malefor would cause even more damage to the world, first he corrupted the apes into shadowy monsters because he felt that they only followed him for power instead of loyalty, and then he destroyed the magic Crafters homeworld turning it into the Burned Lands whilst raising the ancient temples high up into the skies. After this he sent out his new artificial soldiers out to attack the Realms and used Dark Crystals to once again drain the lands of magic. At the end of those three years Hunter would finally find Spyro and Cynder only to be beaten by Malefors forces who took them to the catacombs which at some point where known as the Celestial Plains, both Spyro and Cynder would wake up at this place and fight their way out of it and finally meet up with Hunter who explained that he was sent out by Ignitus after Spyro didn't return to the temple, as well as the three years that they where absent.
After this they join him and travel to Warfang after a quick disagreement in the Valley of Avalar, a name that for some reason sound familiar to Spyro they found themselves in Warfang, right in the middle of a seige by Malefors army. And after Spyro and Cynder fight themselves through he city and defeat the giant lava golem they reunite with Ignitus, with Cynder asking if they could do something about the magic chains that keep Spyro and Cynder trapped together only to learn much to her annoyance that there is nothing they could do about it. After a short celebration of their victory malefor would announce the return of the Destroyer who would created the belt of fire that will destroy all life on the planet, so Spyro and Cynder would go through the Ruins of Warfang which housed the leftovers of Artisans and open the gate for the Gaurdians and other Dragons to ambush the destroyer in the valley.
After making their way to the valley they noticed that the Destroyer moved to quickly to catch up to them, only for Cynder to suggest to blow the Dam so that the water would slow it down. And so they did after which they destroyed the Dark Crystals that controlled the beast including the ones on the inside, but before they could celebrate Malefor reanimated it with his dark powers this let Ignitus with no choice but to take Spyro and Cynder through the now weaker belt of fire to confront Malefor head on, whilst sending the other Gaurdians to help the other inhabitants to hide underground far away from the surface. However even with Ignitus being an fire Gaurdian the flames eventually overtake him and with his last powers sents Spyro and Cynder through the belt killing him in the progress, this leaves Spyro distraught and he lets the darkness overtake him luckily for him Cynder is there to remind him that he's not alone. And both race through the Burned Lands and the Floating Isle's to confront Malefor before it is to late.
After finally making their way to Malefor the two Purple Dragons finally meet, with Malefor starting to create doubts in both Spyro and Cynder which allows him to sortly retake control of Cynder. During this Malefor would start to taunt Spyro leaving some hints about how they're the same, something Spyro would mistake as meaning something else and he almost gave up completely believing he had failed to protect Cynder, Ignitus and the others. This allowed Cynder to break free, and Malefor to fly in a fit of rage with the battle for the fate of the world finally beginning.
At first they battled high above the volcano but after the Destroyer finally entered it the planet started to break apart, and the fight went on in the same Volcano and the falling Temple that Malefor called home. With them eventually making their way to the core of the Planet, which was made from solid Aether, and with both sides giving one last Aether attack with Spyro and Cynder finally overtaking Malefor he falls on the Crystal and the Light Aether spirits take Malefor away, and hopefully destroying the Dark Spirit that had taken over the old Spyro's body all those centuries ago. But this wasn't the end yet because even with Malefor gone the world was still falling apart, and Spyro saw one last option telling Cynder to leave to life another day for he might not make it out this time, but Cynder choose to stay by Spyro's side and with one last use of Dragon time now amplified by Light Aether, and Cynders declaration of love Spyro stopped the world from falling apart creating a new era for the survivors.
And that's where our story ends the world now exists as a group of floating islands hold together by magic which finally started to really return, and Ignitus became the new Chronicler who started to look where Spyro and Cynder ended up, seeing how they're not in the book of dead dragons. What happens after this is anyones guess, maybe a new Purple Dragon would be born who would protect these newly formed Skylands.

https://hackernoon.com/how-ckbs-public-blockchain-tech-accelerates-bitcoins-orthodox-layer-2

How CKB's Public Blockchain Tech Accelerates Bitcoin's Orthodox Layer 2

by [Nervos CKB]()

May 15th, 2024ENRUTRKODEBNESHIZHVIFRPTJA

1xRead by Dr. OneAudio Presented by

When I first heard about Nervos Network's dedication to building a BTC Layer 2, I wasn't surprised. That's because the CKB public blockchain technology not only matches but also goes beyond BTC. It not only maintains BTC's native UTXO features but also allows for more complex programmable extensions. While surpassing BTC may seem challenging for CKB public chain, aiming to be a top-notch BTC Layer 2 seems like a smart choice. Why? Let's delve into my take on CKB.

The current BTC Layer 2 market is constrained by the mainnet’s limited validation capabilities, resulting in diverse alternative solutions. The simplicity of BTC's scripting language, combined with its near-zero computation and validation power, has created significant opportunities for market innovation.
As of now, aside from limited transaction validation and multisig functionalities within UTXO unlocking conditions, the BTC mainnet is incapable of directly handling more complex transaction logic involving data validation, state changes, etc. It relegates BTC to an asset settlement layer, relying on extending through a powerful public chain for local consensus and computational validation capabilities.
This leads to a lack of uniform standards or 'orthodoxy' for BTC Layer 2 solutions, making it challenging to rank them.
However, distinctions can be made based on the community's perception between narrow and broad interpretations:
Narrowly defined, only solutions like the Lightning Network state channels and the one-time seal approach of RGB qualify as truly 'orthodox' BTC Layer 2s. They effectively utilize BTC's limited script validation capacity without relying on or minimally depending on external local consensus.
In a more general sense, any extension chain that gains acceptance for its local consensus, along with a cross-chain bridge solution that ensures the safe migration of assets, can theoretically serve as a BTC Layer 2. This includes contemporary Ethereum EVM chains, Solana with its high-concurrency capabilities, and others.
Clearly, the BTC Layer 2 market is divided: on one end are highly-specific solutions like the slowly evolving Lightning Network and RGB, facing substantial challenges; on the other end are broadly defined solutions, where any performance chain capable of securely interacting with the BTC mainnet qualifies as a BTC Layer 2.
But is there a 'middle-of-the-road' option? Yes, and it lies in the Nervos Network, which adheres to the UTXO model at its core, enhancing its performance. Notable features include:
The CKB Network aligns closely with BTC, sharing the same 'UTXO model and mining consensus mechanism,' unlike the account balance model of mainstream public blockchains like Ethereum. The UTXO model has distinct advantages in transaction privacy, flexible transaction structuring, and parallel processing capabilities to prevent double-spending, which may be one of Satoshi Nakamoto’s most brilliant inventions. This is why post-Ethereum projects like Sui and Aptos have also adopted similar UTXO models. Bitcoin's capacity and block speed may be constrained by its era, but the UTXO model is remarkably forward-thinking. CKB adopts this UTXO model, evolving it into the 'Cell model', which preserves the pure transactional nature of Bitcoin’s UTXO model while also supporting the data states found in account models like Ethereum’s.
To simplify: In the Bitcoin UTXO model, the creation and destruction of coins resemble a continuous minting and melting process. The Cell model, however, omits the destruction aspect, focusing on verifying and persistently storing states. Each Cell includes Capacity and Data: Capacity measures the balance in bytes, similar to UTXO, while Data holds any kind of information, including the history of transaction states. Thus, the Cell model can accurately represent balances and manage asset transfers, and also handle a variety of complex smart contract states.
In summary, the Cell model is a more persistent and flexible transaction model that greatly broadens the scope of the UTXO model. It is crucial for CKB’s ability to maintain the security of the BTC mainnet while offering a 'speed boost' to slower Bitcoin expansion initiatives like the Lightning Network and RGB.
For instance, the recent rollout of RGB++ by CKB illustrates this. In the BTC ecosystem, developing a mature RGB solution involves challenges that are not so much about the one-time sealing process of the BTC mainnet, but rather the communication, coordination, and mutual state maintenance among off-chain client validation nodes, particularly in a decentralized setting. In simpler terms, RGB's theory might seem straightforward, but its practical implementation is hindered by foundational infrastructural limitations and various barriers. Recognizing this, CKB integrates these off-chain client validation nodes into its on-chain public validation process. This approach significantly accelerates the intended UTXO client extension pathway that RGB aims to achieve. Complex P2P consensus among off-chain nodes is notoriously challenging, fraught with complexity and obstacles such as potential data synchronization delays or inconsistencies, and susceptibility to fraud and attacks. Transposing this process onto the blockchain can simplify these issues.
With the increasing discussions around RGB++, let’s also look at CKB's Open Transaction data format, showcasing the chain's forward-thinking features. Open Transaction allows multiple participants to collaboratively build and aggregate different transactions over time. It supports partial construction, amendability, and incremental build-up and aggregation. For example, Alice initiates an Open Transaction to exchange a certain amount of Token A for Token B with Bob. The transaction, once started, remains in an editable state. Bob, upon agreeing to the transaction terms, can then add his Token B and finalize the conditions.
It might initially seem abstract. Take cross-chain scenarios as an example: Alice and Bob could independently execute asset trades on various distinct chains, significantly boosting the CKB chain's cross-chain interaction capabilities. In the realm of complex DeFi transactions, where market-driven dynamic adjustments are often necessary, Open Transaction allows contract participants to adapt trading conditions fluidly during the contract's execution. This undoubtedly enhances the ability to manage transactional complexities.
From my perspective, Open Transaction mirrors the UTXO transaction unlocking conditions, capable of amalgamating intricate unlocking conditions, multi-party signatures, and complex transactional environments. This represents an evolutionary and valuable innovation that builds on the foundational principles of the BTC main chain.
Interestingly, Jan Xie, a core developer from the Ethereum team, chose to embrace the BTC UTXO model for his inaugural major project. Despite the broader application of Ethereum's smart contract model, Jan and his Nervos team decisively chose to expand and refine the BTC UTXO model. This choice reflects a deep respect for Satoshi Nakamoto’s simplistic UTXO transaction model and also subtly lays the groundwork for its transformation into a native BTC Layer 2.
In conclusion, I am quite bullish about CKB’s potential as a BTC Layer 2. In the short term, it certainly has the potential to expedite the implementation of projects like the Lightning Network and RGB within UTXO-based chains, offering valuable insights for these 'orthodox' expansion solutions on the BTC mainnet. Looking long-term, the inherent features of CKB's chain and its innovative architectural compatibility may enable it to excel in the complex and standardless arena of BTC Layer 2s.
Note: There’s much more to explore regarding the technical nuances and standout features of CKB, which I plan to analyze in greater depth later. It's fascinating to see how BTC Layer 2 not only provides a platform for new chains to rise but also opens up endless possibilities for rejuvenation within established chains.How CKB's Public Blockchain Tech Accelerates Bitcoin's Orthodox Layer 2

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Well, in this festival where copies of all cards are limited to one, I decided to continue carrying my traptix deck and after some modifications I was able to use it:
Generally, the go-first rule still applies, except that because your resources are more limited, the chance of getting a brick hand is much higher and even your field isn't strong enough sometimes.
Being that the majority situation that dictates that you are going to win or lose is the following:
A) Any traptix as long as they allow you to bring Sera who will be the engine of the deck, although of course there are some traptix that are better than others for this purpose.
B) Get good trap cards that are easy to activate to quickly interrupt the opponent.
Note: If you have Sera at this point that is already very good, but if you have other members of the Traptix archetype that you can bring to the board to bring more resources to the field, the amount of combos you will be able to do will be simply devastating.
Subsequently, the Paleozoic is a curious case:
A) since among its members they can allow stealing, eliminating magic and traps, turning monsters to turn them face down, as well as their effects in general, although simple given the context in which your opponent is where both have limited resources, that is much more useful than it normally would be.
B) They serve to save you the best pit traps for fundamental situations, but if a chain is activated that is their requirement to be summoned from the graveyard, then they will become very efficient, by having materials to summon links, thus bringing link 2. and link 3 to finish off your opponent.
In general, those little friends have served me more than expected.
In the case of traptix the following situation occurs:
A) Since you don't have access to having multiple copies of the best hole traps: what makes up for the lack of having multiple copies of the same trap?
The answer is: bring in the other trap cards that are not normally used as they ask for much more specific requirements, but at the end of the day they can be met given the nature of the constant summoning game, sooner or later they are met. .
B) Aside from Sera, the two extra deck cards you'll be bringing the most are Cularia to recycle traps, such as recovering Traptix used to previously summon Cularia, or Sera and Rafflesia to have additional traps to activate, such as protection for your Traptix. . .
This experience has been fun.
Disclaimer: My luck is terrible, both times I summon Rafflesia they throw Raegeki at me...
Disclaimer 2: Excuse my terrible English

Introduction

Christian religious education is defined as the process where by Christian learning takes place. It often involves “teaching which enables practicing Christians to adopt and deepen their Christian belief, values and dispositions to experience and act in a Christian way. It depends to a greater extent on how this process is adopted and practiced in different churches.

Different practices in Christian education in local churches

At some degree of certainty that all Christian churches have a similar aim’s and practices. The liturgical aspect is of paramount importance in the Trinitarian belief and practices in that it serves as introduction to what Christianity is all about. This is where the process of Cognitive learning takes places it involves the worship service where hymns are sang, lessons extracted from the books of the bible are read, sermon often punctuated with exhortation, admonishment and instruction in righteous living is delivered and prayers are said. It also involves the celebration of the holy Eucharist which Jesus Christ himself, recognized as the head of the church, initiated based on experience acquired in the worship service, it can be seen as Christian religious education is a confessional churchly activity of evangelism, instruction and nurture.
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I assure that “Youth are the most critical of all critics when it comes to religion”. Today, common inhabitants do pray and accept the holiness in church for Christ which they are aware that Christ constitutes the sacred bread and wine, but do not entirely act upon worshipping and fail to confront the thoughts and feelings to masses which would spread dignity of godliness among selves. The moral lies in the fact that this creates lackness to reach spiritual beliefs through worship and liturgy resulting in declination the faith which affects the divine nature approaching positivity.
Christian education is a vital important part in youth development. For Christian education to be explored, generation of today should be brought into contact through various practices. In the early centuries, reformers emphasized and trusted true faith and doctrines, to change and reform behaviour as the only solution for salvation in Christian education. Christian school movements prove a challenge as a messenger to convey god’s given mission and honour god.

Traditional approach

This approach was practiced since many decades and is still continued to be practiced which helps in binding and governing the ethics and morality within the religion and belief. Since beginning described, in leaving our homeland to teach the gospels throughout the world through scriptures, god conveyed his message – by sending his son Jesus for us, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Church, and Baptism for building unity.
Christianity consists of three things – Religious faith, way of life and community of mankind towards salvation are most important. The most vital of all belief preached is that there is only one god. The term Christian does not imply on the fact that a Christian should grow up in a Christian community, but precisely accepts Christian faith and belief, follows and leads the path of life on which Jesus walked on and made mankind accept Christian community through involvement and participation physically and mentally, as a result, traditional approach is how the local churches and preachers go about conducting their services. The apostle’s creed was apparently developed to summarize the Christian doctrine for man who baptised himself.

Theological and Biblical approach

This approach is regarded as an abstract discipline which teaches what bible is written. It is the study of god expressing god’s thought. The movement of bible indicates the doctrines to the kerygma to didache, to theological ethics, to revealed truth, to the way of living in Christian community.
God’s salvation to the world, worshipping the holy spirit, baptizing people in the name of god, preaching gospels as the word of god, share Christ’s own body and blood as bread and wine in holy communion, repenting and confessing god’s forgiveness etc are the concepts of theological and biblical foundation to Christian education. Even though mankind is aware but fail to involve due to the increasing evil and greed.
The service is organized to accept the call of god and to love him and others and which aims to gather people to worship him in return allowing him to take control over the world and through his presence spread peace, righteousness, justice, joy and helps in the growth of the life in an individual through increased faith.

Activities organized and performed in different local churches through to these practices

Some churches develop the initiative of the worshippers by confessing their faith in the words of the apostle creed. Each activity is correlated and composes a range of varied elements. Their current activities reflect the lives of an individual and drive them for a purpose through various numbers of activities to attain a better quality of life.
Due to activities, all age group gain variety of skills through many spiritual centred activities. Church acts as an interpreter between god and the worshippers to support in training the composition of these activities which are far more complex to solve a disturbed youth. They have to thereby standardize their curriculum and activities in regards to implement it. Different denominations organize activities to resolve the aim therefore to meet the need of the youth. Curriculum should be more focused than just on providing knowledge.
Activities are necessarily planned to build youth commitment. I believe it is necessary to reach them, i.e. train them to be strong future leaders. They should be kept one step ahead, for their life is very challenging. I believe that the best way to outreach youths mind is to be a youth like them to understand their psychology as it differs from every individual. The same activities do get affected as the youth is choosy and subtle.

Changing activities for tomorrow

Here the question is voiced that, what substantial change can be brought apart from the current activities to eradicate the above upcoming and dynamic problems in nature with respect to behavioural management or of what medication of healing would work out.
I would comment, the activities in the practices should be expanded and conduct likewise programmes workshops on educating purity before marriage, sex, child abuse, exploitation, rape, adultery, adolescence sex, teenage mothers, drugs addiction, aids, and divorce. Workshops, seminars for sex, abuse, peer mentoring, identifying preventive measures instead of curative measures targeting the social, political and the economical factors would be effective for incorporating the overall issues to bring the insight of the good and evil sides of every consequence, discussion on essential real life skills. Our goal is to create “world changers”, inviting the sacrifiers of evil and giving and sharing healthy priorities to save ourselves and the world, before it becomes a terrible fate and a debt for our own selves.
As the world is in unsafe fists of crime, terrorism, corruption, violence, youth have been diverted to a fast-paced and expects instant opportunities. Perhaps, the approaches of these local activities tend to be helpful and may bring positive results but I still feel that there is something missing, to monitor the youth from within. In an article – Practical: The Role of the Full-Time Youth Pastor in the Local Church, by Graeme Codrington, Denomination: Baptist (All), submitted on, May 18, 1997, states that, “In a world that is so busy, and demands so much of all of its inhabitants, young people need a secure environment, where they can experiment and decide who they want to be. They need significant people to be there to help them through this process. They need role models to follow”.
Above statement eventually satisfies the fact that these folks are craving for friendly support socially and for stimulation. Overall factors which conglomerate are peers, parents, teachers, church members and Christian community. All factors rely on one common feature which constitutes leadership. Ironically, most youth do understand the surrounding factors but the factors themselves become tough unknowingly that they can’t quite control the situation which then becomes too late to recover. The task is questioned commonly as what kind of leader a person should be to prove creditability and capability to influence the youth to pursue the direction towards god? In an article again stated by, Graeme Codrington, Denomination: Baptist (All), – Practical: The Role of the Full-Time Youth Pastor in the Local Church, submitted on, May 18, 1997, “Young people are not just “little adults” (cf. Elkind 1984:18). They are complex individuals who are battling to deal with the awesome transformation of their bodies, minds, and emotions. They are in a time of transition and growth, developing from the birthed bundle of potential to a fully integrated, functional member of society. The church is in a unique position to assist in this process”. Church as a role model fosters spiritual growth in every youth making them responsible to participate in Christian faith; she is a sign for an entrance of the god’s kingdom to the world of salvation, repentance, justice and peace to bring equality. She struggles hard and performs her duties wholly and solemnly reminds parents to structure their offspring’s life in Christian formation.
Church members acting as supporters, preach to establish and to promote a platform and share to encourage several types of civic, cultural, religious educational associations. In an article by Arthur Paul Boer – What must a Pastor know? Reflection on Congregational studies defines on writer James Hopewell’s statement saying beyond the embarrassment. “He has also observed that churches are sometimes chagrined by the change of hypocrisy and lament that they cannot measure upto ideals of Christian community”. Writer James Hopewell referred by Arthur Paul Boer notes that Christian leaders are incharge and build a church thereby rise in hypocrites. I observe practically that, though the world is changing, church strategy is also changing in complementing the growth. It still targets the set mission. Even though, somewhere in the corner hypocrites do exist but church leaders aim to find out what is the outcome in the people from the traditional, theological and biblical practices.
Perhaps according my research, I suggest they experiment bringing out good approaches to youth’s growth. Instead of the current activities followed in churches I would want to suggest the approach can be focused to bring in the outcome irrespective to exploration and innovation of ideas and thoughts for internal and external behaviour of an individual related to the surroundings around him, deepening of commitments to the teaching, provide opportunities to analyse socially and theologically and viewing his life in a theological manner. To build a framework of an activity consist of – to have an experience “like us”, to sense new boundaries by exploring new links to every Christian among themselves and to god across social and cultural boundaries.
In addition, exploration and inventive programmes can be executed to judge youth’s spirituality. Daily opportunities resulting in disorientation gets support through mission of god. Integration conceptual activities also can help in building and to capture ‘a born leader’. Church leader serves them as task leaders in the corrosion and freeing the task of a disconnected mind by planning tactics and dividing the burden of other’s through consultation. As the purpose is commitment, to serve the lost, skill based leadership formation training programmes can be organized to develop an effective leader so as to sustain the capability and capacity of the leader to solve the complaints lies in the dimensions of the ability. Workshops on intersections to shape boundaries of an individual and communities through theological and biblical language, symbols, and rituals to attain certain centered objectives.
As growth of globalization is tremendous, these leaders come across and face new opportunities and challenges. I believe they help in building an integral performance in conducting entrepreneurial business-based activities, describing the activities because youth’s mind is business-oriented, therefore the activities are to be structured keeping business in mind involving biblical and theological approaches with the existing resources for a business oriented youth. They tend to produce facilitate management sources to sustain and develop faith and love. When the youth develops a church from within, he will be able to observe and analyse the holistic environment.
The activities require presence of not only church members but also worshippers for youth development in successful implementation of these practices. Some worshippers form in small groups, some large varied to race culture. Arthur Paul Boer also examines simultaneously that when a group of pastors were having service of congregation, one among them exclaimed in deep breath “It showed me I’m not alone”. So often in our churches we berate ourselves for problems we face: not enough men, too few youth, preponderance of a certain race or culture. He is clear with the fact that a single person fails, unity increases strength. We ourselves give birth to a problem and then strive hard to face it because as there are few leaders left to catch a grip to support a large community. Due to less number of youth, less support is achieved to sustain the laws and policies of the church and unable to accomplish god’s mission. It is not only one who contributes but many. Above mentioned statement “It showed me I’m not alone” expresses that each race and culture form their own group; build small churches for their own community within their own boundaries, where god expects togetherness, wholeness. It requires lot of efforts to help small churches grow whereas large church with mass contribution grows as their already exist efforts in large numbers which take over the chained actions for development. Whether single church group or many, big or small, the development is important.
On this contradiction, I would suggest that this also includes that in small group the development is paid more attention and given a close eye, problems are spotted quickly and easily to meet the challenges. No matter how large or small challenges occur, the way we approach it is unique and comprehensive as this brings out effects of development in the youth. Whereas in large it becomes difficult to assist as there are more than one individuals. Due to small groups according to races and culture, differentiation exists. But the important criterion is group commitment and work effort in all sets of practice for congregations in any race or culture for a healthy youth so that to accomplish god’s mission. As a result both objectives are co-related to each other.
To understand the nature of Christian youth it is a very distinguished and a unique phenomenon. Due to the increasing issues of ‘peer pressure’, this has led to the obstruction in the development of youth. There are negative as well as positive aspects of it. Negative aspects influence a weaker mind. It is the most consistent findings revealed in observation. Due to the inquisitive innocence, an innocent becomes a prey of the negative aspect, thereby exploited and develops an evil companionship where he adopts negative qualities and habits. But there is positive aspects as in there are some groups who work towards peer relationship. Here innocent gets an opportunity to identify his fear, weakness and have control over his own power. The peer mentors play the part in organizing programmes to understand the behaviour. They interact with the teens and open lines of communication, build up action plans to change the behaviour by using the discipline skills wherever necessary. As church members play an integrate role, it is a challenge for them to develop the youth and make Christian education reachable to them.
Teachers are responsible preachers. Youth growth depends on a teacher infact they are the true facilitators of our learning, are Baptist figures and true authors of an individual’s life book. They also act as the resource developer and planner setting the curriculum for the healthy growth of an individual, depending how the curriculum is designed with the kind and level of leadership skills to recognize the youth psychology. Parents play a significant role in Christian education. They are the promising leaders which shape up Christianity, infact are the real teachers of Christian education. Parents act as a moral standard and support, therefore can synchronize to their growing youth to be aware from their early hood to gain knowledge in Christian faith and this is done when they themselves too experience a fullness of church.
Misunderstandings and miscommunication between parents and their children are one of the issues which follow breakings in the development of the youth. Due to parent’s own principles, for respect and love of family values often creates harmness to the children’s growth which tempts them to behave against them. Thus youth becomes a totalitarian of his own life by going against the values and ethics and unknowingly gets stucked in the torturous situations. Most Christian youth, fail to act upon the 10 commandments of bible.
I must say, I myself as a youth in my real life experience have observed that the originality of the commandments has changed excessively and replaced with the following:
Thou must worship money
Thou must “lyrically” murder
Thou must have evil possession
Thou must have sex
Thou must enjoy drug addiction
Thou must prosper, worship own self
Thou must not feel guilty
Thou must have no respect for ancestral values
Thou must not serve, sacrifice
Thou must differentiate
Due to the above, youth fails to feel guilty in which guiltness is a part of our conscience creating a false belief system as an obstacle in his maturity and creating structure of his own. Under such circumstances he avoids promoting prayer, sacrifice, grace, redemption, worship and meditation, atonement. Considering money and sex are the only two things reliable to satisfy the needs, creating a limitation and a boundary for establishing personal spiritual growth and development.
In general terms, when the efforts of religious and educational institutions, society lack to perform the planned task for Christian education, a positive approach is expected and constructed to gain knowledge and teaching through parents and teachers. Youth must be aware of guiltiness which is a gift from god to help us in being and doing well.
Still the question is raised in a Journal: Volume 5 Number 4, October 2003 by Author Charlene Tan, “Can Christian teachers and parents teach Christian beliefs without indoctrinating their students and children?”
Yes, they can teach Christian beliefs without indoctrinating their students and children they need to be careful when a child is to be handled as their minds are immature. At times it is difficult to understand them because their way of thinking is varied. Firstly before going to the next process, the first process has to be resolved. As teachers and parents are the role models for the development. In order to develop and understand these three role models should be systematically developed first. Only by abiding this rule, they can achieve the development in child. But the point lies beneath that how teachers and parents can prove themselves as an effective source of development by keeping in mind the relative factor of Child’s mind compatibility and psychology? As there are variations in psychological behavior teachers and parents should be mentally prepared, be changeable and adjustment oriented accordingly.
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The political and current affair of the nation is affected by corruption and evilness rationally which gave birth to vivid factors like jealousy, modesty and so on, making human’s built a tendency to mislead the positive factors. The situations have made the teachers adapt those inequalities within them, affecting the surrounding factors. Parents have too due to their increasing self priority created barriers of understanding among their families.
Many people are often drawn towards the attention of the church because of their felt needs and not for spiritual needs.
For instance, it does occur that why the youth is tuned out of his own way? Even in their interaction with their own members it tends to happen with them that they fail to hear a word said to them – stating “I didn’t hear a word you said?”, even though it is obvious that they have said something relating to us. This proves a kind of negligence in contacting the positive mechanism which grows in the back of our minds. Such system blocks all the wanted and useful messages allowing us to hear and see only what our mind tells us to hear and believe. As this tendency is increased in the youth generation, it is creating gaps between a believer and faith of god.
The question is – How? How can we overcome this problem? Youth have themselves developed a capacity in mind to hear only what pleasures them without taking a decision that whether it is false or truth. My query is – How we can bring these groups of youth closer to god? Unconsciously resulting in unexpected calamities and unknowingly they are unable to repent it wisely. Due to this increasing factor, youth can’t get a grip of effective communication and develop themselves internally. Here the parents then enter the scene to play their role.

The main question lies whether the local churches fulfill and meet to mature disciples in Christian education?

As stated above, ‘youth’ are the most critical of all critics when it comes to religion. In this modern era, youth is distracted to church because they are building castles in air due to the unmaterialistic desire. Youth today have focused their vision to crave success and prosperity for their rising life graph; they exploit their own ones due to greed and selfishness. During the primary phase of struggle and hard work, youth craves to achieve prosperity, at the same time, do thank god and accept his involvement for success, but hand in hand, lack to follow the bibles ethics which says to respect others in and with unity. Due to the competition and growth politically, more often youth seem to push the fellow mates and strive to takeover their place. They themselves are unaware that they give birth to exploitation and inequality. And due to inequality, unity is declined, wherein bible does not specify inequality. In a book source, Pastor – “Rick Warren’ – illustrates in his book – The Purpose-Driven Church -“The issue is church health, not church growth!” declares warren. “if your church is healthy, growth will occur naturally. Healthy consistent growth is the result of balancing the five biblical purposes of the church.”
In addition to this he also declares that “If u concentrate on building people, God will build the church”.
I agree at a certain point with the above statement. I herewith would want to magnify on “How would one build a healthy youth for a healthy church”? In this sense I believe that both are co-related with each other. Again the issue arises in my mind ‘How will the church be healthy if the youth is unhealthy?’ The issue can’t be only concentrated on church. For a church to survive, the basic foundation is the youth and for the youth to be saved and attracted the church has to be healthy. In my knowledge it is a ‘Vicious Circle’.
Local churches upto some extent do specifically fulfill the discipleship through the practices and play a great emphasis in fulfilling and conveying the message of god to us, but still lack to read the minds and bring the youth closer to her, for which she has to upgrade her atmospheric appearance with new packages to reach the youth in a new taste due to the competitive modernism which is hovering on the youth.
The latter part can play the best part coz when first falls in place, everything else falls in place, from the beginning to the end, from all angles in all walks of life. Towards a healthy faith, healthy church can turn and seed a growth of spirituality through which mankind will grow spiritually from within thereby causing church growth.
Author Perry G. Down states in his book – “Teaching for spiritual growth” that ‘how can we best enable Christians to grow towards maturity?’ For this question he suggests three key concepts- ministry, believer, and purpose. But my understanding says that these concepts are incomplete somewhere to create a bond in reaching the results because today’s youth is attracted towards the unrealistic worldly matters, but has resulted in declination towards the god’s spiritual growth. The major role connecting these three concepts is commitment and effort. As the church ministry is the foundation pillar, the main aim is how much measure of commitment is valued and given to achieve the target successfully. Mankind is able to commit only when he chooses the right direction in fear and is able but this is unfortunate as the alien world tend to let us unidentify the type of strategies of growth for maturity. By identifying the type of strategies of growth, we can understand the level of growth required towards maturity at which we can be spiritual. Another reason for in growth is fear. As the youth fears to face unexpected problems, the efforts are less and require the hierarchy’s support.
Author Gary C. Newton stated in his book – “Going towards spiritual maturity” quotes the principle that “God is ultimately responsible for all spiritual growth”. The question arises at this point that if god is responsible for everything, what will be the purpose and role of human? I comment that while god supplies the resources like bible, church, Holy Spirit, baptism, it is also our responsibility to supply effort and commitment to utilize those resources and give results to god. In bible, Paul highlights this principle of his personal lifestyle and in his teachings comparing with the example of a soldier or athlete to illustrate the amount of sincerity and efforts. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27), Paul states that “In a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize”. I herewith conclude in a Christian race all runners (ministry, believers, purpose) will fail to get a prize if there is no effort that is commitment from everyone.
Along with the concept of ministry, believer, purpose; effort is also the key concept and it has to be achieved from the youth as well. A healthy youth will gain efforts only when the growth will favour them from within, when the forces of the ministry believers and youth will collide with each other to form a healthy growth.
This will create a mutual relationship between god’s provisional resources and our active involvement in process which is more clearly in Philippians 2:12-13: “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is god who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose”. This principle is intricate but the application is clear.
If one is to grow towards maturity in Christ then one must cultivate and demonstrate the efforts with passion, Philippians 2:17-18: ” But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you be glad and rejoice with me”.
Therefore the conclusion lies in the above concept, both; effort of the youth along with the work of ministry, believers proves in the healthiness of the church. In the book “Youth At Risk” by Peter Christian Olsen, 2003, he highlights four basic needs which he has clearly created an awareness of the effects that affects the development of youth:
Acceptance – belonging
New beginnings and second chances – forgiveness
Significance – generosity
Freedom – independence
I agree with his confirmation that he examines in deriving the above developmental needs from the provision of the Almighty’s resources as the absence of these needs do intentionally contribute in how they shape the personality, maturity, responsibility and stability of emotions. He emphasizes Christian community in respond to the needs determining that, the resources will be polishing youth through support during the fear and avoid them from destruction. At times the concepts will be foreign, indigestive for youth because unable to realize its importance. Rather the community need not re-interpret or change the language but simplify their thoughts and improve their visionary and understanding by change in structure through a friendly communication by becoming an effective leader to bridge the gap between the church and the youth. Therefore forces and efforts are needed for decision making which is an effective key in respond to ministry believer and purpose for a possibility of a healthy youth to build a healthy church, which will make the church flourish.

Supporting surveys

According to a survey, some findings proved that church fails to answer every question of the youth.

Q.1 In what way and sense is Christian religion, faith and church viewed by today’s modern youth?

Youth of today’s modern era is firm on the point stating that inspiration is lacked in religion; they feel that the world is divided through religion and is the major factor which is affecting the growth. A 17-year-old Jude from Kent says confidently that “He does not agree with the church who talks on subject morality” and is “Overfilled with traditionality”.
Youth pick their ideas which suit their taste through various religious beliefs. There are few in bunch who strongly believe, there exist only single religion which has controlled the truth. Young generation refer to perform all activities as per their own desire which in return less importance to the religious belief are being given, which gives birth to the side effects of the conduct.

Q.2 Why do young crowd feel that Christianity is not a ‘happening’ cultural activity?

An 18-year-old Marcus said that he left church when he was 15 because the teachings did not amuse him and it did not interest him of anything as a youth.
The major quest, a struggle for a religion is to impose an exertion of force of involvement in terms of attraction. I usually attend church service wherein I find young ones missing the services. I kept questioning myself that, where the young crowd has disappeared? Surprisingly the young ones have taken charge for the attendance of the church. In this consequence the church should give priority to change its curriculum and its way of presenting the services with new attractive packages for enhancement.

Q.3 Are the young preachers practicing different approaches in Christianity declining. What are your suggestions?

As the attendance of the youth in church has declined, but on the other hand people practicing approaches are increasing in numbers. The following is revealed through one of the youths that more the deepening are the studies of the bible, more a person becomes a hypocrite of the Christian leadership and unintentionally accepts and performs the lifestyle of the clergy right or wrong at times unknowingly. In such case, the practices are affected and become different from those which are to be precise. Seen are still some true Christian youngsters who are different in their attitude and conduct, but in spite of such difference, they are not involved into the immorality and violence activities with other youths. They present themselves as they are from a different unknown religion, but practice the religion and it

The show kind of made the Starks more rustic than they where in the books. House Stark in the novels where not as wealthy as the Lannister's but they where a lot wealthier than the show.
First lets look at what they wear in the books which is nothing like there costumes in the show.
Side note Lord Rickard owned Steel armour and gold spurs.
When Arya is packing to go to Kings Landing she files where chest with silk and Sansa is fond of blue silk.
In Kings Landing Eddard looked nothing like what he did in the show, he always wore what he called his council silk. Ned also commissions a new uniform for his guards. Long cloaks of heavy grey wool decorated with white satin borders. Their cloaks are pinned with hands of beaten silver representing there Lords office as hand of the King. When he was on the Iron Throne Ned wore a white double embosomed with a grey dire wolf.
In Winterfell at the feast welcoming the King and Royal Family they all dressed grandly, including Benjen Stark. There are high born brothers in the Nights Witch from the north and south and I have never seen one dressed as well as Benjen at that feast, not even Lord Commander Mormont himself. He wears rich black velvet high black leather boots. His wide belt has a silver buckle and very heavy silver chain.
When Bran is attacked by Wildlings he is attacked for what he is wearing and he is second legitimate son and he is wearing a wolfs head broch of silver and jet. Jet is a gemstone and this is not a formal event this is just outriding in the woods.
Jon wears fine blacks and mole skin gloves which would not be cheap. At Winterfell harvest feast Bran is dressed quote, as befits a Prince and Robb wears a bronze crown and Catelyn describes her sons royal Kingly attire as quote magnificent.
Also Theon Greyjoy dressed very well when he was living with Stark in silk and Gold and Balon fears the Starks have made him soft. I doubt Greyjoy money was funding Theon's extravagant lifestyle. When he takes Winterfell he crowns himself Prince of Winterfell and orders and orders a new crown forged with black diamonds and chunks of gold. Where did he get the gold and diamonds if not from Winterfell's plundered treasury. And before Winterfell Bran and Luwin gave the Manderley's gold and build a royal fleet and mint coins.
At the Winterfell harvest feast
Now lets look at Winterfell it is much bigger and much grander than in the show this is a Castle built of granite which is an opulent martial.
Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres and encircled by two massive granite walls.
Remember the Castle is built over natural hot springs and as the wiki explains.
The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, making Winterfell more comfortable than other castles during the harsh northern winters.
Also from the wiki
Inside the walls, the complex is composed of dozens of courtyards and small open spaces. Weapons training and practice take place in those yards. The inner ward is a second, much older open space in the castle where archery practice takes place. It is located next to the broken tower. Inside Winterfell stands the inner castle, which contains the Great Keep and the Great Hall. Winterfell's towers and halls have diamond-shaped window panes.[6]
Inner Castle
The Great Keep is the innermost castle and stronghold of the castle complex. It was built over natural hot springs to keep it warm.[5] The Great Keep contains bedchambers for House Stark[5] as well as the solar of Lord Eddard Stark.[7] The building is connected to the armory by a covered bridge.[8] From a window on the covered bridge, one can see the entire yard.[9] Beneath the Great Keep are cellars with narrow windows.[10]
The Great Hall is used for receiving guests and the place where the household dines together, including the Lord of Winterfell. It is made of grey stone[11] and has wide doors made of oak and iron,[12] which opens to the castle yard, and a rear exit leads to a dimly-lit gallery.[12] Inside it can hold eight long rows of trestle tables, four to each side of the central aisle,[12] and the hall can seat five hundred people.[13] There is a raised platform for noble guests, and the walls are covered with banners.[11] The hall contains the high seat of the old Kings in the North. The seat's cold stone has been polished by the many lords who have sat upon it, and its massive arms are decorated with the carved heads of snarling direwolves.[14][15]
The small sept was built for Lady Catelyn Tully, a southron, by her husband, Lord Eddard.[16]
Courtyard and Other Buildings
The First Keep, a squat and round drum tower, is the oldest surviving part of the castle but is no longer in use. Around it lies a lichyard where the Kings of Winter would bury their loyal servants. The keep has gargoyles atop it.[17][6] Maester Kennet determined it was built after the Andals arrived.[18]
The broken tower, also known as the Burned Tower, was once the tallest watchtower in Winterfell. Over 140 years ago a lightning strike set it afire and the top third collapsed inward, but no one rebuilt it.[19][20] It stands behind the old inner ward. Crows nest atop the broken tower.[19]
The ancient godswood of Winterfell has stood untouched for ten thousand years, with three acres of old packed earth and close-together trees creating a dense canopy, which the castle was built around. At the center of the grove stands an ancient weirwood with a face carved into it, standing over a pool of black water.[16] Across the godswood from the heart tree, beneath the windows of the Guest House, an underground hot spring feeds three small pools, with a moss-covered wall looming above them. The godswood is enclosed by walls, and is accessed by a main iron gate, or smaller wooden ones.
The Glass Gardens[21] is a greenhouse heated by the hot springs, which turn it into a place of moist warmth.[5] It is used to grow fruits, vegetables, and flowers.[9][22] The garden has green and yellow glass panes[10] locked in frames.[8]
The crypt of Winterfell, located near the First Keep, is where members of House Stark are buried. The underground crypts are long and narrow, with pillars moving two by two along its length. Between pillars stand the sepulchers of the Starks of Winterfell, the likenesses of the dead seated on thrones, with iron swords set before them to keep the restless spirits from wandering, and snarling direwolves at their feet. The crypts are deep under the earth, cavernous and bigger than the complex above ground. They are accessed by a twisting stone stair and a huge ironwood door that lies at a slant to the floor. The stair continues below to older levels where the most ancient Kings in the North are entombed.[23][17][10]
The Bell Tower is connected to the rookery by a bridge. The bridge is covered and runs from the fourth floor of the tower to the second floor of the rookery.[6][8]
The maester's turret is below the rookery.[24]
The Library Tower houses the library at Winterfell. A stonework staircase winds about its exterior.[8]
The Guards Hall is in line with the Bell Tower, and further back, the First Keep.[6]
Winterfell has undercrofts and cellars.[25] The castle also has dungeons,[25] including tower cells.[26]
Walls
Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres, defended by two massive walls of grey granite with a wide moat between them.[4] The outer wall is eighty feet high, while the inner is one hundred feet high.[4] There are guard turrets on the outer wall and more than thirty watch turrets on the crenelated inner walls.
The great main gates[7] have a gatehouse made of two huge crenelated bulwarks which flank the arched gate[8] and a drawbridge that opens into the market square of the winter town.[27][28]
There is a narrow tunnel inside of the inner wall stretching halfway around the castle, allowing travel from the south gate all the way to the north gate without interruption.[19]

• The Hunter's Gate is close to the kennels and the kitchens. It opens directly onto open fields and the wolfswood, so people can come and go without having to cross through the winter town. It is favored by hunting parties.[4]
• The East Gate[10] or east gate[29] leads to the kingsroad.[10] The Kingsroad Gate[7] may be another name for the same gate.
• The Battlements Gate is a small arched postern in the inner wall. It crosses the moat between the walls but does not have a passageway through the outer wall.[7]^#

When Jon Snow becomes Lord Commander of the Nights Watch he considers building a glass building but thinks it will be costly and for such fine glass he would need to look Myr and by the freedom of a few glass makers.
We know Sansa loves lemon cakes and lemon trees do not grow naturally in the north importing lemon seeds to Winterfell from the reach or Doren would not be cheap. My guess would be the seeds came form Doren as one need only sail up the narrow sea than the up the White Knife.
Finally Maester Luwin has his own turret and mentions having servents of his own. The Starks top servants have servants
Not as wealthy as the Lannister but it clear Ned and Robb after him where unlike in the show 2 of the wealthiest man in the world.

Strategic Moves in the Crypto Market

This latest transaction highlights the investor’s astute market strategies. Spot On Chain’s tweet noted the entity’s previous success with SHIB, where they garnered $8.24 million in profit. The transition from SHIB to WBTC appears to be a calculated move to capitalize on the bullish momentum of Bitcoin.
WBTC allows investors to leverage the benefits of Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem while retaining exposure to
price movements. By choosing WBTC, the whale could seamlessly integrate into Ethereum-based protocols, lending, and trading platforms without foregoing their Bitcoin holdings.
Moreover, the whale’s activity serves as a microcosm of the broader trends in the crypto market, where strategic trades can yield substantial gains within short periods. The transparency of blockchain transactions, combined with the ability to act swiftly on market movements, provides unique profit opportunities.
This event also shows the increasing interplay between different digital assets within the ecosystem. The move from SHIB, a highly speculative meme coin, to WBTC, a more stable and established asset, reflects a strategic diversification that could be a model for other investors looking to navigate the volatile market.
https://blockchainreporter.net/whale-nets-380k-profit-from-wbtc-purchase-after-btc-price-surge/

MSI 2024 - BRACKET STAGE

Lolesports Leaguepedia Eventvods.com New to LoL
Today's matches will be played on Patch 14.8.

Today's Matches

#	Match	PST	EST	CET	KST
1	GEN vs BLG	02:00	05:00	11:00	18:00

• All matches are a best of 5

Streams

• Stream on Twitch
  
• Stream on YouTube
  
• Stream on Lolesports
  
• Comment Stream
  

Bracket

Round 1			Round 2			Round 3			Round 4			Finals
GEN	3
vs	-
FNC	0		GEN	3
			vs	-					GEN	0
TL	0		TOP	2					vs	-
vs	-								BLG	0
TOP	3
G2	2
vs	-
T1	3		T1	1
			vs					-
BLG	3		BLG	3								tbd	0
vs	-											vs	-
PSG	2											tbd	0
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
			T1	3					tbd	0
FNC	1		vs	-					vs	-
vs	-		TL	1		T1	0		tbd	0
TL	3					vs	-
			TOP	0		G2	0
G2	3		vs	-
vs	-		G2	3
PSG	0

On-Air Team

Desk Host
Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere
Interviewers
Park "Jeesun" Jee-sun
Laure "Bulii" Valée
Play-By-Play Casters
Max "Atlus" Anderson
Jake "Hysterics" Osypenko
Daniel "Drakos" Drakos
Aaron "Medic" Chamberlain
Colour Casters
Sam "Kobe" Hartman-Kenzler
Robert "Dagda" Price
Andrew "Vedius" Day
Analysts
Maurits "Chronicler" Jan Meeusen
Emily "LeagueofEmily" Rand
Joshua "Jatt" Leesman
Barento "Raz" Mohammed

Format

• Bracket Stage - May 9th to May 21st
  • 8 teams participate
  • Double elimination bracket
  • Matches are best of five

VoDs

• VoDs on Reddit
  
• VoDs on Eventvods.com
  
• VoDs on Lolesports
  

Live Discussions and Post-Match Threads:

This is our Live Discussion Archive. Here you can find all the old live threads, and the respective PMTs in a stickied comment under the post.

1. Focus Karma Need Want Of the Society Recreation Stimulation Examination Death 1.1 The noble truth of Focus is Energy, the noble Truth of Karma is Management, the Noble Truth of Need is Kombucha, the Noble Truth of Want is The Second Mental, Your Mental, The Noble Truth of Recreation is Marijuana, The Noble Truth of Simulation is Automatons, the Noble Truth of Examination is the Books on Examination, The Noble Truth of Death is Salt 1.1 There is a Truth of Truth The Truth of Energy is Stockpile, The Truth of Management is Treatment, The Truth of Kombucha is Amino, the Truth of The Second Mental is the Intermediary Mental Between Yourself and the World, The Truth of Automatons is the Plumbing Needed, the truth of the Books on Examination is the truth of the Books of the Ruler and the truth of Salt is the Limit of the Body Is Restored by Healthy Nutrition 1.1.1 There is a truth of the truth energy amino, Truth Starch, Truth Sugar, Truth Glycine, Truth Water, Truth Kombucha, Truth Arginine, Truth Serine, Truth Lysine 1.1.2 There is a truth of the ruler which is related to marijuana, Proline Above Lysine 1.1.3 There is a truth of the society related to only trading, Gold above Proline 1.1.4 All of these truths have intermediary truth below them 1.1.5 There is a truth of the botanist, Prozac And Benadryl and Scopolamine and Atropine and Benzyldiol Around Recreation 1.1.6 There is a truth of the schooler, Directly Ordered Female Voice Your Voice Kick Drum Kick Transient Pots N Pans Pots Content Button Mushroom Morel Cache Stash Marisol Bluewater Febreeze Peroxide Nitrate Ammonium Loam Bud Dirt Wheat Soil Potato Around Focus and Karma 1.1.7 There is a truth of the motorcade Above Karma and Below the Want of the society Muffler Transmission Piston Engine Cargo Chassis Fluids Vaseline Nutraloaf Soylent 1.1.8 Marisol Or Mother is Above All Below it 1.1.9 Button Mushroom is Above All Those Below it Three 1.2.0 Ammonium is Above All Those Below it To Marisol 1.2.1 Potato is Above All Those Below it to Marisol Three 1.2.2 Fire 2Fire 4Fire 8Fire 16Fire - A Fire is 5 Fire, At fire set 5,10,20,40, No Fire, at Fire set 10,20,40,80, On fire 1.2.3 Fire Is Below Focus In Energy and Karma is Below Need in Energy and Need is Below Want of the Society In Energy and Recreation is Below Stimulation In Energy And Stimulation is Below Examination In Energy and Examination is Below Death In Energy 1.2.5 Focus Is Pervasive so Energy Indicates Examination Having Occured or A Crops Grown 1.2.6 Examination Happens In Examination Want of the Society Focus Want of the Society Examination 1.2.7 Examination happens for 333 Hours or About 19 Days 1.2.8 Examination Happens in Sets of 333 Hours for 1332 Hours 1.2.9 At the End of Examination Examination Proceeds Automatically in 333 Hours 1.3.0 Want of the Society occurs as the output of crops 1.3.1 Want of the society yields the Amino Nutrients because it is the agricultural or synthetic output 1.3.2 Recreation Activates Marijuana, But Can Be On its Own 1.3.3 20 Marijuana Exist as a product of the lands 1.3.4 Over 20 Other Plants Exist as a product of the lands 1.3.5 Various tabulature of notes Exists with Standpoint Boards 1.3.6 Houses and apartments exist 1.3.7 Private Baths exist 1.3.8 A ledger exists for holding notes at a distribution point 1.3.9 A ledger exists for reasonable retrieval but not reproduction of notes (need original notes) 1.4.0 A ledger exists for deletion of notes but to a skilled observer they are still seeable 1.4.1 The Time One and One at One and One at Two is the time 333 units for each section 1.4.2 The time offset of the noble truths on the fifth reconstruction yields upon which noble truth they were the whole section 1.4.3 Only noble truths passed through the entire system 5 fold are the actual truth of the land 1.4.4 This is held by the guard which there are maybe 20 guard in the lands each city 1.4.5 There are fire weapon which exist which are hand cannon and have a chamber and a loader 1.4.6 There are fire bomb exist which are bomb which have just a chamber but there are just 4 ever 1.4.7 There are 3 sets of scrolls per city and 3 sets of scroll reader 1.4.8 There is 2 sets of scrolls each city which are city rulers 1.4.9 There are farms which exist which feed each city which grow crops 1.4.9 There are buildings in each city 1.5.0 There are normally 4 houses to a prefecture 1.5.1 There are normally 4 rooms to the house 1.5.2 There are 10 modern petrochemical foundry factory which exploit oil from the lands 1.5.3 There are clothing for at least 30 people in each city putting the bedroom load usually at slightly less than 2 a bedroom 1.5.2 There are around 7 military bases which exist but these numbers used to be inflated 1.5.3 There are medicine for at least 30 people in a city 1.5.4 There are toilets only per four people or wherabouts in the city 1.5.5 There are 98 separate prefecture in maybe 3 city spread out 1.5.6 There are potato, furion bannana, old potato, a rose donut wheat, apple, cabbage, turnip, carrot, another potato type, beets, three flowers, 20 marijuana, and other crops grown 1.5.6 There are zucchini grown 1.5.7 There are medicine poppy and heart tonic herb (blue bonnet) and a root which expresses opium and other minor medicinals grown 1.5.8 There are trees which naturally occur which are the colors of cherry blossom 1.5.9 Seeing the trees blossom is the rarest sight in the lands 1.6.0 The twenty guard of the town know how to protect one another 1.6.1 There are various opium which can be taken 1.6.2 There are various new bags of marijuana spray which are the marijuana active 1.6.3 There is a specific sedative created from Crude Oil, SnoreLax Olestra Ketamine 1.6.4 There are various nutrients created from crude oil 1.6.5 There are various computers created from crude oil 1.6.6 There are various liquids created from crude oil including pepsi cola and molten plastic 1.6.7 There are boxes created from crude oil 1.6.8 There are racing Skis created from crude oil 1.6.9 There is a capacity to run one of the computer 1.7.0 The computer yields a stable process blockchain when propagated 1.7.1 The computer notable yields beautiful colors when its process blockchain is propagated 1.7.2 There is a retrieval system for the other computers token 1.7.3 54 Stores now exist in these lands 1.7.4 These stores accept a specific RFID like currency 1.7.5 These stores accept the Gold of the Land Naturally 1.7.6 These stores have vendors wheater and vendors kitty cat and vendors autovend1 1.7.7 Groceries and resources can be bought from the stores 1.7.8 Automobile Motorcade can be bought from the stores 1.7.9 Concrete Objects can be bought from the stores 1.8.0 Designer clothes can be bought from the store 1.8.1 The foundrys create BDU Lower 1.8.2 The foundrys create I <3 NYC Shirt 1.8.3 The firearms create mittens firearm token en masse 1.8.4 The firearms are created at 20 a city to defend the people 1.8.5 Only 5 High Quality Weapon exist per city 1.8.6 A foundry is creating nonlethal weapons 1.8.7 The foundry makes its nonlethal weapon but there is only one per city 1.8.8 An inventor makes a nonlethal weapon 1.8.9 The foundry now produces 2 kinds of ice cream 1.9.0 The foundry now produces illegal goods like silicone pipes 1.9.1 Somebody is Brewing Amino Out of Starches 1.9.2 The Echo Locator is invented 1.9.3 The echo locator is finalized as a product 1.9.4 The echo locator is shipped out the door at 43 a city 1.9.5 The echo locator replaces the scrolls system 1.9.6 The echo locator can be taxed in the old tax system to make it valid in the old system 1.9.7 Two Cool Cats Take Control of the Power System, NateCat and HakeCat 1.9.8 The cool Cats reinvest in medicine and over 50 meningitis cure are found 1.9.9 The smart toilet is invented 2.0.0 The bombs detonate in ebonia and the people are freed 2.0.1 There is 11 grade flooding in ebonia 2.0.2 The ebonian flooding gets better to 7 ebonian remediator a city which are from the new Clement Dogs Clan 2.0.3 Tattoo Ink is Invented from cherry leaves 2.0.4 A tattoo requires somebody to play wizards chess on your skin to leave an indelible mark without killing it 2.0.5 Alpha squad is formed 2.0.6 A cruiser is in the metteranian gulf 2.0.7 The cruiser operates successfully for at least a month with me onboard 2.0.8 I am mainly using starlink 2.0.9 Starlink is accessible in the APV like it always is 2.1.0 You can fetch a battlefeed with starlink 2.1.1 You can fetch a battlesend with starlink (OSC) 2.1.2 OSC Replaces Starlink and LFO is Formed 2.1.3 LFO Replaces engine gasoline due to jet fuel drinking/snorting danger 2.1.4 Nontoxic weed smoke based gasoline is formed for APV 2.1.5 APVs are overclocked with me nearby 2.1.6 Supercapacitor Based APV Is Used For medical evacuation 2.1.7 Supercapacitor has massive distance versus dangerous IC APV 2.1.8 Supercapacitor powers gauss cannon in danger 2.1.9 Megagauss Cannon Invented for David's Aircraft 2.2.1 Megagauss cannon fits en masse onto the aircraft or in david flanagan or david summery's hands 2.2.2. Total david air superiority 2.2.3 Davids golden UH-1 in service 2.2.4 RQ-9 "David" Reactivated 2.2.5 RQ-9 Reapers Cloned 2.2.6 Spicy Chemical Discovered In Marijuana, Raytracing? 2.2.7 David Treated for Virtual Meningitis 3 Years Ago 2.2.8 Deepfake All Virtual Medical Practice Discovered 2.2.9 Marijuanas CH1 Receptor Renamed CB1 Receptor 2.3.0 Foundries in Business 5000$ A Barrel Many Years Default on Loans to 2111$ Barrel, No Effective Product Change 2.3.1 USR THermal IS-2 Scope Invented 2.3.2 USR THermal FLIR Camera for David UH-1 Invented 2.3.3 Driver for USR THermal FLIR Camera for David UH-1 Invented 2.3.4 Overwatch Mega Anti Crime David Stopper Overflights in Service Across the US And Solid Gold UH-1 Lofted By Broomstick Technology in Transmuggle Transwizard Interference of the Calamity Granted to David Flanagan (RQ-9) 2.3.5. Black Operations in the Persian Gulf Nethers Against Al Baghdadi - HVT Steam User In Custody 2.3.6 AC-130 "IBEX" Piloted by Alex M Lamb in Service in Vallejo and Ecuador to Support 141 Team 2.3.7 Proto Nutrient Fish Oil Factory Raided, Illegal Furion Bannana Discovered 2.3.8 Illegal Blueprinting Operations Cease in Favor of Big 11+ Oil Corporations 2.3.9 Minecraft server found and large amounts of population exiting to virtual reality 2.4.0 All players granted 64 planks and free for all 2.4.1 Doto 0 Bot Guard Lurking in Transnational Buddhist Operation Enable Free Play In Minecraft for Various Players 2.4.2 Siddartha's Secret, His Cow, Discovered in Virtual Reality Elder Scrolls No Crime Faction, Siddartha's Cow Goes Rampant and is Infinity Hidden in Every Directory of Starfield 2 The New Game 2.4.3 Many New Games are found with resemble the structure of the cow in markov chain 2.4.4 A new system is found out of cow which can provide for any item retrieval system intrinsically unlocking the singularity where Big 11+ Splits into infinite corporation 2.4.5 All cows are harvested for a typical user but still infinity exist farther away 2.4.6 The user has typically 500000 cows of Siddhartha as a personal cow 2.4.7 Sulfur futures are at an all time high 2.4.8 Justino Beibers Mandates burning of all cow waste in trash bin 2.4.9 Siddartha's Cow are docile as ever and functioning well when shot, they become well 2.5.0 Siddartha (Renchy, Racey's Friend) Is discovered hiding as a soul in neon district undercity of neon petite 2.5.1 The guard is never abolished and continues protecting us 20 to the citizen to this day 2.5.2 Asteroids are discovered in outer space with many palladium more than ever 2.5.3 A supercomputing cloud is made out of the distributed method which avoids the taxing system that the initial ruler invented and does a method 1-Affinity 2-Person 3-Disease where the affinity of each person treats the pair disease and or environment with only instantaneous transmission (Technological singularity) 2.5.4 Virtual clothes are invented the same way as clothes were initially invented, now in the instantaneous unheard 2.5.5. Virtual Medicines are invented in the same way as medicines were invented initially, now in the instantaneous unheard 2.5.6 There is perfect harmony between two instant universes the virtual medicine universe and the analog medicine universe 2.5.7 All of history's knowledge feeds into one system which encodes all its meaning in some dice which always roll a specific meaning and this creates wish or technology on demand 2.5.8 Wish is discovered as a contaminant on the No Crime Library 2.5.9 Wish has always predated meaning so that Wish is the Rulers Initial Nature 2.6.0 All existence is into one history the history of the singularity which procedurally generates by Wish the Rulers Initial Nature For All Citizen 2.6.1 Jeffybeans is the true ruler of siddartha which is prozac benzyldiol 2.6.2 Siddartha wakes up right before lorne happens to her and avoids the suicide booth because phillip j fry is protecting her. 2.6.3 The story is at a cliffhanger while the Universe is at the second end epoch and is failing succesfully very well for hubert I.

Wonder Women

Issue Fifty
Written by u/VoidKiller826
Edited by u/Predaplant
Arc: Revelations
*************************************************************
Greetings, people of Gateway City. This is your new peacekeeper speaking. You might know me as the White Magician, a rather crude name, but I will accept it considering Man’s World's lack of creativity. However, you may also call me Circe, and I am here with an important message that your news station will deliver for all to hear.
SCYTHE is no more: their HQ is under my and the Red Centipedes’ command. The Commander and his soldiers are dead and buried, as you all wished to happen. I was more than happy to oblige you if it meant depriving your stupid President of her next chance for reelection. Any survivors of the prison break are being hunted down by the people they locked in cages, who are more than happy to round them up as they once had been themselves.
But none of that’s important, for this recording is only to be heard by one person: Olympos, Wonder Girl, or whatever the fuck new title name you want to be called. This message is for you: You are to surrender yourself to me here in SCYTHE HQ in the next five hours, and in turn, I will not destroy this piss-end of a city. If you fail, I promise you, I will make Coast City look like a picnic by the time I finish with Gateway.
That cow you call Wonder Woman is dead, and I will make sure everyone else will follow her if you don’t comply with my request.
Your mentor learned a valuable lesson when she tested my patience.
*************************************************************
Spears Apartment - Gateway City:
[...President Cale has announced the complete closure of all access to Gateway City following the prison break that occurred in SCYTHE’s holding facility hours ago,] said Cassandra Arnold from GateNews, the city’s main news station. [We still have an unconfirmed number of escapees following the message sent by the White Magician, but the President has assured GateNews a solution will be found.]
Vanessa Kapatelis watched the TV in dismay. Pacing back and forth in the Spears duplex apartment, she had the TV on to pass the time while Ares worked on helping Helena and Cassandra upstairs.
“Here,” Vanessa turned away from the TV to see Tanya Spears handing her a bottle of water. “Something for you to drink.”
“Thank you,” Vanessa accepted the bottle. “I would prefer a beer, but this will make do.”
“My mom has her wine collection in a locked cabinet,” Tanya noted, pointing at the kitchen. “She doesn’t know that I know that, but I can get you a bottle?”
Vanessa chuckled. “Thanks, but I don’t want a girl your age to be walking around with alcohol or to get you in trouble with your mom.” She twisted the bottle cap and slowly drank. “I needed that… it feels like I’ve been dry for months.”
“It’s actually been 3 hours,” Tanya said, sitting on the sofa and opening her tablet to look over the internet. “I hope what she said wasn’t true… about Wonder Woman not being around…”
Taking a seat by her side, Vanessa saw that Tanya was reading through the report on what happened to SCYTHE. The escaped convicts had taken control of the SCYTHE headquarters and equipment after killing many of the agents that had stood in their way.
Seeing the photo of SCYTHE HQ burning angered her. That place should represent the absolute shield of Gateway. Now, it had come under the control of the convicts that they were supposed to stop because of Aeeta Branwen. A name that had made her happy now belonged to a stranger who had lied to her all this time.
Memories of their most intimate moments came flooding back: their first conversation, their first date, their kiss, and the morning after their date in her apartment. It was a moment when she thought she could finally stop grieving and move on from what happened to Coast City. And now, that had been disintegrated into oblivion.
In anger, she crushed the bottle with her hand, spraying water all over the table and the floor.
“Shit!” Vanessa stood up, finally realizing her mistake. “I am sorry!”
“Oh, it's fine!” Tanya ran to the kitchen to grab some paper towels. “It’s just water.”
“I know it’s just…” Taking the paper towel, the two began wiping the floor and the table. “I have a lot on my mind.”
“I’ll bet with everything that happened,” said Tanya, giving Vanessa a supportive smile. “Your friends are getting hurt, and you can’t do anything but watch. It would piss anyone off. I know it did with me when the RedCent guys invaded EE Tower.”
“Yeah…” Vanessa sat back on the sofa. “But this… I not only possibly lost many friends, but I was betrayed by someone I loved, someone who I thought was the one for me…” she said, distraught, as tears ran down her face.
Tanya, without saying anything more, hugged Vanessa closely. Despite them knowing each other for only a few hours, Tanya knew that Vanessa was in pain. Watching her loved ones being hurt by someone that she trusted must have been a hard truth to accept.
The doors upstairs opening and closing caught the two’s attention. Looking up, they saw Somya Spears descending, looking exhausted, like she had gone ten rounds in the ring. As she reached the ground floor, Tanya ran up to her mother, hugged her close, and guided her to the nearest chair to rest.
“Is everything alright, mom?” Tanya asked, worried.
“Yeah… just felt that I might take that long overdue vacation…” Somya answered, leaning against the soft chair with a tired sigh. “Maybe we’ll go to Paris like you wanted, Tanya…”
More steps followed, and Ares, or Mars as he insisted to be called, followed Somya, pulling his folded-up sleeves back. Unlike Somya, he didn’t seem any different from when he went upstairs to help the Sandsmarks, but the few strands of hair on his face told a different story.
“How are they?” Vanessa asked, walking up to the former God of War. “Are they ok?”
Ares turned to Vanessa. “The girl has a lot of heart, far too stubborn to let a beating keep her down.” He said with praise, impressed with the former Wonder Girl’s willpower. “Her Sumerian blood will help her heal in only a few days, but it won’t help her mental wounds after I told her the news about her mother.”
Vanessa had a lot of questions about what he had said, especially the word Sumerian; perhaps Cassie was not simply half-Olympian. However, she focused on the most important detail in his explanation. “What happened with Helena?” She asked in a worried tone. “Is she-”
“She is alive,” Ares said, but his expression shifted, frowning, making her nervous. “Physically, she will recover, she has only a few cuts and bruises. Even a human like her can heal those.”
“But?”
“But it's the spell Circe struck her with. It is unlike anything I’ve seen because it is of her creation,” Ares explained, and Vanessa ground her teeth together when she heard the name belonging to the stranger who hurt her and her loved ones. “Whatever she used, it is affecting her very soul, slowly killing her.”
“Like a virus?” Vanessa asked, and Ares nodded. “Magic can do that?”
“It does,” Ares answered. “Magic can create a nuclear bomb if the user has the patience for it. And Circe is a master at it, one of the very best and most gifted witches on the planet, so making something like this would be as easy as making a cake for her.”
Magic had never been SCYTHE’s priority, but the Commander still made them study anything related to the subject in case they had to face it. Vanessa had never expected to see it at this scale.
“Can you break it?” Vanessa asked. “Find a way to break the curse from Helena’s soul?”
Ares took a deep breath, pocketing his hands. “It’s too complex to break. I will admit Magic is not my strongest suit, but even if you bring in someone knowledgeable, it would be a while for them to break her creation,” he explained. “You need someone at her level of knowledge when it comes to magic, and I am not the best person to face her in that department.”
“Then we call for a specialist, anyone, really,” Vanessa said in desperation. “If this is like a virus, a curse, then we bring a surgeon to cut it out! Maybe Cassie can use her Justice Legion connection, or maybe you can call someone for a favor.”
Vanessa's desperation was clear. She was willing to call for the Justice Legion, the very people she swore to go against for their vigilantism, if it meant saving Helena Sandsmark, her promise be damned.
“The spell is growing far too rapidly. By the time you find someone, it will be far too late,” Ares said solemnly. “The only person in the world who can break the spell without any problem or fear of failsafe is Hecate, the Goddess of Magic. She was Circe’s mentor, and she taught her everything she could about magic. No matter how complex it is, Hecate would understand it.”
“She can help us?”
Ares shook his head. “No, she has no interest in helping the world unless it is connected to her directly, and even then, dealing with her is the worst-case scenario because there is a chance she’ll side with Circe before she even thinks of helping us.”
“So what now?” Vanessa asked, sounding defeated. “Just let Helena die? Let Cassie suffer? Let Circe win?!” she shouted angrily, finally addressing Circe by name. All of this explanation from Ares told her one thing: that the Witch had them beat, and they couldn’t do anything about it.
Ares didn’t react to her outburst, while the Spears looked worried. Tanya, for her part, tried to walk up to calm Vanessa, but the War God raised his hand to stop her, shaking his head and giving her the silent sign to let Vanessa be.
“There is one way: it will be quicker if we act fast enough, but it would take everything from all of us for it to happen,” Ares said, beginning his explanation. “There is a chain link connecting the spell, from the spell caster to Circe. This means it can be broken if we force Circe to release the chain connecting her to Helena…” he explained, letting his words be understood by the occupants in the room before finishing with one last note. “Killing Circe would also break the binding if she didn’t leave any contingencies.”
Vanessa gritted her teeth. “So we have to make her break the spell, and hopefully she doesn’t screw us over… or we kill her, and hopefully she still doesn’t screw us over even in death?” she asked, and Ares nodded. “What kind of person is willing to put in all that work? Just for revenge? On Diana, who is long gone?”
Ares shrugged and turned to the Spears, his gaze focused on Tanya, his daughter. Someone whom he never thought he would meet again was facing him, without knowledge of their blood relations.
“Possibly,” Ares answered, taking a step back. “But if there is one thing I know for sure, Circe does not put these kinds of bindings without any reason. Whatever that reason is involves Cassandra Sandsmark and whether she will choose to make Circe break the spell or kill her, tainting her forever.”
Silence came to the room, letting Ares’s words sink in for all occupants, which might have been the same words he said to the Sandsmarks.
*************************************************************
The room of Somya Spears was quiet, with the only sound being the breathing of Helena Sandsmark lying on the bed sleeping. The room was spacious, with an expensive queen-sized bed as expected from an interim CEO of one the largest companies in the world.
Seated a few feet away on a chair was Cassandra Sandsmark, dressed in fresh clothes given to her by Somya after throwing off the bloody tattered ones she had arrived in. Watching her mother closely, Cassandra’s mind was racing, especially after what Ares told her about the curse Circe placed on her mother, slowly destroying her soul bit by bit until she was nothing but a husk.
“Dammit!” In anger at their situation, she crushed the armchair, tearing its arm off like it was made of paper. If she was stronger, faster, and had the heart for it, she would have stopped the Witch, stopped her from hurting her city, the people of SCYTHE, and those caught in the crossfire, stopped her from hurting her mother…
She buried her face into her hands, tears running down her eyes as she despaired. Everything she worked on after Coast City evaporated was ground up under a very powerful enemy out for revenge.
Considering Circe’s ultimatum, her city could well be gone by the time this was over.
“Artemis… please be safe…” she whispered. She had nearly had a panic attack when she heard the news of the Amazon heading to SCYTHE HQ to stop the prison break, and then… nothing. No matter how many times she dialed her phone, there was no one answering, and she feared for the worst.
She heard her mother coughing, and Cassandra was quickly by her side. “Mom!” she called for her, holding her hand.
“Cassandra?...” Her mother said her name weakly. Her skin was becoming paler, a clear sign that the curse spell was working. “Are you… ok?”
“I’m fine, Mom,” Cassandra answered, covering the bandages hidden inside her clothes. “We’re safe. You’re safe.” she said, tightening both her hands around her mothers.
“Did you… break something?” She asked, looking at the chair behind her. “You shouldn’t be… doing that… we are guests…”
Cassandra laughed, her tears falling away. “Sorry… it’s just… it’s been a hell of a week…”
Helena touched her daughter’s cheek, noticing the bandage on it. “You’re… hurt…”
“It’s alright, Mom. Just a few bruises,” Cassandra assured. “You shouldn’t worry, you know I can take it…”
“I am your… mother, Cassandra,” Helena said, facing her daughter. “Demi-God or not… I will always be worried… scared for my little girl.”
Cassandra’s tears came back. Seeing her mother remain strong despite everything made her happy, and she was terrified of losing her.
“So… my soul is cursed?” Helena asked.
“You heard all that?”
“Can’t not… with all the swearing…” Helena noted, giving her daughter a small smile. “You shouldn’t swear at people, Cassandra, especially those who are trying to help.”
“I know, I know,” Cassandra said. She had gone off on Ares after he explained what happened to her mother, and she might have overreacted when she put all her anger on the former War God. “It’s just… I don’t want to lose you… not while we can fix this.”
Helena sat up on her bed, fully facing her daughter. “Which is why… I don’t want you to make the wrong choice.”
“I won’t,” Cassandra said with a low tone. “I will make Circe free you from this curse-”
“No, Cassandra,” Helena grabbed both of Cassandra’s hands with hers. “That is not what I meant…”
Cassandra raised her brows, confused. “Mom?”
“I heard everything… from Circe’s spell… how it works… and how it can be broken…” Helena said, shocking Cassandra. “I know you already decided what you feel you have to do.”
Cassandra didn’t answer, avoiding her mother’s disapproving gaze accusing her. Ares said the quickest way to break the binding and the spell was either by forcing Circe to break it herself or by killing her, severing the connection.
But if what Circe said was true, that Diana decided to kill her instead of making her surrender like everyone else who faced her, that means there was no chance the Witch would submit willingly. She would rather die than give the satisfaction of admitting defeat.
Which left only one solution where she could save her mother.
Helena sighed, knowing what decision her daughter might have made. She held her hand tightly and changed the subject. “I have to tell you something…”
“No, mom. You’re not giving me the ‘Dying Speech’, not while there is a chance we can save you-”
“It’s about your father,” Helena cut her off, shutting Cassandra up. “Your real father…”
Cassandra remembered Circe calling her Daughter of Enlil, not Zeus. Ares said he was a friend of her father, which confused her because Ares hated Zeus, so it wouldn’t make sense that he would help out even if they were his siblings.
“Enlil…” Cassandra said the name aloud, and Helena’s eyes widened, her breath hitching when she heard the name. “Circe… she called me Daughter of Enlil… Child of the Sky...”
Helena took a deep breath, bringing her daughter closer. “Yes… that is true…” she began. “You are not Zeus’s daughter, Cassandra, nor you are an Olympian in any way… but you are in fact… Sumerian… Mesopotamian,” The elder Sandsmark brought her youngest closer and spoke carefully, as if worried that someone might hear them. “Your father is Enlil, the Sumerian God of Wind… and he was the kindest man I have ever known…”
From then on, Helena explained Cassandra’s origins as carefully as possible, pushing on even while the spell affected her. She explained how she met Enlil, a man with golden hair similar to Cassandra’s, who introduced himself as an expert in Mesopotamian history during an expedition in Iraq. They had become rivals at first due to their clashing personalities, but how that developed into respect, to eventually falling in love after a very lengthy adventure that sounded like the plot of The Mummy.
And that love resulted in Cassandra’s birth. He helped raise her with Helena for the first year and a half before he disappeared because he had Olympian enemies and had to leave them to keep them safe.
While she explained all this, Cassandra’s mind went to another piece of critical information. Her father’s true identity had never been the most important thing for her. But what made it important was what Circe told her about Diana’s true reason for coming to Gateway City. It wasn’t just settling in a ‘piss-end of a city’ the more she taught about it, the more she realized the terrifying truth behind her mentor’s reasoning for coming to the city.
Diana was sent to find Cassandra, a Sumerian Demi-God, the Olympians greatest enemy since the Titans, and eliminate her. The prophecy of the Godkiller that they had feared might have come from Cassandra, but all it did was start a long, personal, and bloody war between two women because of the gods' demands for blood.
And now, she, Artemis, and Gateway City suffered the consequences. Even after Diana’s death, Circe would not let her hatred for what had happened to her go, and if it meant destroying her mentor’s legacy, she would do it.
‘Diana…’ Cassandra thought in sadness.
*************************************************************
SCYTHE Sub Base - Industrial District:
“I am not sure how you were able to do it, but you somehow found an ever more depressing place than that HQ of yours. It makes the cell you put us in look like a five-star hotel room,” said one Pamela Isley, formerly Poison Ivy, seated in the middle of a large room behind a large table. Around her were what was left of the SCYTHE agents they had saved during the escape, all working to get the makeshift base they had hidden up and running.
Alexei Abramovici, the Bloodcrow of SCYTHE, glared at the former supervillain, not happy with her comment. He turned to one of his men and began barking orders, “You! Get the goddamn Black Room working! We are running blind here!”
‘Worker drones even without their Commander.’ Pamela looked on unimpressed at the agents. She had never been that sympathetic to the plight of cops getting killed, especially militarized ones. The once mighty and feared peacekeepers of Gateway, who went to war against all the crime syndicates and the Red Centipedes, were now a mere little squad that won’t be able to protect a mini-mart, let alone every escaped convict under the command of the White Magician.
“Man… the signal here sucks!” complained Miguel Barragan by her side, raising his phone and trying to catch any kind of signal. “Could barely talk to my boyfriend when I called him, and can’t connect to the internet,” he complained. He tried once again to call but he couldn’t find a signal. “Useless brick…”
“We are underground in a bunker previously owned by Neo-Nazis, Barragan,” Pamela noted. From what she had heard, this used to be an old RedCent hideout that SCYTHE took over after the war, using it as a smaller base in case of emergency. “Not receiving any signal is part of the appeal of the place.”
“Bunker, huh…” Miguel chuckled. The name Bunker reminded him of the super name that he picked out; the more time passed, the more convinced he was that it was the right one.
Pamela gave a confused look at his expression and shrugged it off. Turning to her right, she saw the silent Emily Sung staring off into the distance. Unlike Barragan, Emily had other matters on her mind. Whatever she sensed or saw back at SCYTHE HQ freaked her out, like seeing something she shouldn’t.
Just as Pamela was about to ask her how she was feeling, a knock on the large blast doors echoed around the base, loud enough for all to hear. Quickly, everyone felt tense, and the SCYTHE agents covered the door as Alexei signaled them to aim their weapons. After the news of the escaped convicts taking control of SCYTHE HQ and their equipment and weaponry, the agents knew that they were being haunted now by the convicts looking for revenge, so they were not taking any chances.
“Would you mind opening the door!” A familiar voice said behind the door, a voice Pamela recognized right away. “I have a bloody Amazon here, and I would like her off my fur!”
“Barbara?” Pamela realized.
“Minerva? As in the Cheetah?” Alexei asked, eyes narrowed with suspicion. “She could be working with them, with the White Magician.”
“She isn’t,” Pamela answered, glaring at the SCYTHE soldier for the accusation. “She would never ally with the psychos you had under lock and key.”
Alexei scoffed. “That woman got a cemetery filled with people who say otherwise, and she hurt the mother of someone I know.”
Before the two could argue, Miguel stood up and decided to take action. He extended his hand, forming a large arm construct from it, and grabbed the handle of the blast door. With one pull, he opened it wide. Barbara entered. Her feline form made some of the SCYTHE agents tense, and weapons were still trained on her.
“Quite the welcoming committee…” she noted in sarcasm. “Now, would you be dears and get this woman some help?” She adjusted the unconscious and bloody Artemis on her back. Her blood covered Barbara’s fur.
“Medic!” Alexei called for an agent nearby before turning to Miguel. “And you, don’t use your freaky powers until I order you to do so.”
“Sorry tin man, I don’t speak fascist,” Miguel responded with a smirk, and Alexei glared at him.
The medic quickly came to Barbara and guided her to a nearby makeshift hospital room, which had a bed and various equipment to help the SCYTHE wounded. Barbara went in haste, and gently, with the help of the medic, they placed the injured Amazon on the bed, her blood soaking the white sheets red.
“How the hell did you even find us?” Alexei asked as he and the others entered. “I made sure I covered all our steps.”
“You did,” Barbara noted, stepping back to let the medic check on Artemis. She turned to Alexei and pointed at her nose. “But one of you has a very special pheromone that I can smell for miles,” she said with a smile as she turned her gaze to Pamela. “Still with those rose scents around you.”
The redhead smiled. “Maybe it’s that mark you left on me.”
“More than you think, Pammy.”
“Christ…” the medic gasped, catching everyone’s attention. “How is she still alive? And how long has she been like this?” He asked, examining the injured Amazon.
Her armor was wholly wrecked, beyond repair. Her headpiece was half broken, and the gauntlets and braces on her arms and legs were dented and unusable. Her injuries were severe: open wounds, slash marks, and burn marks were all over her body, and judging from blows on her armor, she might have had a few broken bones as well.
“Didn’t bother to look at the time with some of the grunts that were sent after us,” Barbara answered, leaning on a nearby chair as fatigue finally set in for her. “But these Amazons are too stubborn to die, and I know that from experience…”
The number of times Barbara thought she had beaten Diana only for the Amazon to get back up and beat her back was many, and it frustrated the woman to no end, but now she couldn’t help but be in awe at the resilience of these warriors.
“Her Amazon gifts will heal her,” Barbara noted. “But I am not sure how long it will take…”
“I doubt it will take more than a few days at least…” the medic noted, bringing out some bandages and wrapping them around her arms. “She will need a miracle to even walk out of here on her own two feet.”
“Uhmm…” Everyone in the room turned to Emily Sung, who stood by the doorway. “I… I think I can help her heal faster.”
Barbara and the medic gave her an odd look. To better explain it, Emily brought her hands together, and a small flame began to form from her palm. However, they weren’t bright orange flames; they were blue flames, and they didn’t feel any heat from them.
“I developed this technique while training,” said Emily. “It's a fire spell that doesn’t burn, but it heals people. I first used it on Miguel when he hurt his hands, and it was instantaneous,” she explained, and Miguel showed his fully healed hand as if he was demonstrating it. “But this will be the first time I will heal someone with this severe of injuries…”
Pamela and Barbara looked at the blue flames with wide eyes. In Pamela’s case, she was told that Emily had powers, and from Miguel’s description, she had the power of all the elements. However, seeing it firsthand and feeling it from just that tiny flame made her sense there was power behind it, warmth, like the sun.
“Do it,” Barbara said, taking a step back. “At this point, if we need magic to get her back into the fight, we better get to it before we lose her for real.” She turned to the shocked medic. This was the first time he would ever see magic in play. “And you, guide her in whatever wounds need to be healed.”
The medic nodded. It was better than nothing. With his guidance and Miguel’s support by her side, Emily went to work to heal Wonder Woman, who was in a state of life and death if they didn’t work fast enough, all while Circe and her crew were out there terrorizing the city.
“What’s the news out there?” Alexei asked after the three left the infirmary room. “We are in the dark here, and I couldn’t radio in anyone with the pieces of junk we got. Not even my brother, who was trying to get as many agents as possible.”
“Brother?” Barbara asked before she realized who his brother was. Her expression became solemn. She remembered the Warhammer who stayed behind to slow Circe and her crew, giving Barbara a chance to escape with Artemis on her back. “The guy with the Hammer…”
Alexei furrowed his brows, noticing the change in her expression. “What happened to my brother?”
Barbara took a deep breath and began explaining everything that had happened: the White Magician’s true identity, her taking over SCYTHE HQ, her ultimatum to Wonder Girl, and finally, Anatoly Abromivici’s sacrifice to save them.
*************************************************************
Somewhere in Gateway…
With the loss of SCYTHE and their headquarters, the surviving agents didn’t have the necessary support from the intel agents in the Black Room to fight off against the newly revived Red Centipedes, now grown more powerful with the help of the escaped convicts, more than happy to exact revenge.
With the bridges closed off, SCYTHE’s weakened state, and Wonder Woman being presumed dead, the city had been thrown into chaos. Streets filled with criminals and looters taking full advantage of what had happened, stealing anything from everyone across the island.
Red Centipedes roamed the streets with military trucks, taken from SCYTHE after their HQ had fallen to the White Magician’s control, making full use of their hardware to hunt down any surviving agent, delivering the message that they were the new peacekeepers of Gateway.
“Let me go!”
A woman, a worker from Taco Whiz, was being dragged from the streets by a group of RedCent grunts. Taken into a nearby corner, the RedCent dropped the worker on the dirty ground. Their eyes had terrible intentions behind them.
“Come on, man,” one RedCent grunt said from behind to his buddy. “We are supposed to find those SCYTHE fuckers, not mess around.”
“You’re serious?” The buddy looked at his friend like he was crazy. “We’ve been locked for months in SCYTHE’s cells; we can have a few minutes of fun.”
“Please! Don’t do this!” The woman screamed, tears falling from her eyes, afraid of what they would do to her. She tried to stand up and run away but was quickly pushed back down on the pavement.
The RedCent approached the woman, who crawled away from them in fear. “Come on, girl, I just need to release all this stress after being locked up for so long!” He proclaimed, giving the woman a leery look before turning to his buddy. “Hey man, I can share! Maybe we can get someone else from the street-”
The RedCent stopped speaking, catching his breath for a moment after he saw his buddy lying on the ground face first, knocked out cold. Looking up, his eyes widened in shock when he saw the person standing before him. “You’re… you were supposed to be dead?!”
Covered in heavy bandages and wrecked NIGHT armor, and carrying a mace in his hand and a pissed-off look on his face, Commander Hector Hall stood before the RedCent grunt like a dark spectre coming back to life. Kicking the knocked-out buddy aside, the Commander looked between the grunt and the terrified woman before he hardened his glare at the RedCent.
“Stay back!” The RedCent grunt aimed his weapon, hands shaking in fear. “I said stay the fuck back-”
In a moment, Hall moved at such a speed he looked like a blur, cutting the distance between the two. With one swing of his mace, he smacked him squarely on the head, sending him to the ground.
Hall turned to the woman he saved, who looked at him in horror. “Go… get to safety…”
Without another word, the woman ran toward the exit and into the streets, away from the alley. Now alone with the two RedCents, Hall grabbed the knocked-out buddy and woke him up, making the man see the bandaged-up Hall looking down at him with hateful eyes.
“You… I want you to send your boss a message…” Hall began, making him face the Commander. “Tell the White Magician, Circe, that I am declaring war on her and on anyone who stands by her side.” He turned and walked up to the other grunt, who was crawling away from the Commander in fear, grabbing his bleeding head. He begged for his life, but Hall ignored his pleas. “And this, this is for my men that you Centipedes have killed…”
He lifted his bloody mace and brought it down like a hammer on the begging Red Centipede as his buddy looked on in horror. He lifted it up once more to reveal the man’s head was crushed like a watermelon.
Commander Hector Hall was still alive, and as long as he was still breathing, SCYTHE would remain standing to fight against all threats against Gateway City.
*************************************************************

Wonder Women Vol 3.

Previous Issue <> Next Issue

Written 5/8/2024- updates attached below

I tried posting this on kendrick almost a week ago and it got no response, I messaged the mods to ask about Karma restrictions or account age requirements and they never replied. I made a new account and it was the same issue, but I found out last night I wasn’t fully banned, so I figured I’d throw it up and see if anyone finds it valuable. It’s written for people who have no prior knowledge of the rap game/music business. I don’t have to go as hard on obscuring names this time. One of the influencers I mentioned in my last post is known for doxxing and threatening violence against people who mention the many contradictions in their stories. (Sorry for any typos/mistakes I want to go to bed.)
Origins
I believe the current Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef is either completely or partially fabricated by certain industry leaders or the parties involved in an effort to distract from something bigger going down behind the scenes. If you were an influential label owner facing major accusations, and you needed to deflect media attention from yourself, recreating one of the most defining moments in rap history during the social media era would be a way to do it. It also wouldn’t hurt that two of the biggest rappers in the world were already sending shots at each other in their music for years prior. The public consensus is they are simply two famous rappers who hate each other and fighting over the spot for the top like in the 90’s. Only people who were directly involved could paint a more cohesive picture of the whole story. Even when all the cards drop, there is a good chance the average person won’t be able to find direct sources on their own and will continue to support their favorite artists and dismiss any evidence of their crimes like the drizzy subreddit or Ak fans.

As I said the beef between Kendrick and Drake has been brewing in the background for years, with both rappers sending shots and sneak dissing each other over the course of at least 8 years. The most agreed upon origin story is the first diss was the 2016 Big Sean and Kendrick collaboration, “Control,” and Drake responded with, “The Language”. Things stayed relatively lighthearted for a while and both were intentionally vague for many years. Before I go deep into the Kendrick and Drake stuff, it’s really important to examine some of Drake’s prior beefs because they add a ton of context to my theory. In my opinion Kendrick and Co. started scheming all of this some time around Mid 2020-Mid 2022, well after the whole Pusha T beef had transitioned into the Kanye beef.

What exactly started the beef is debatable, but at the time many attributed it to rumors of Drake pursuing Ye’s ex Amber Rose. Unfortunately the timeline isn’t 100 percent clear, and if I included every detail this would be at least 200+ pages so I’ll stick with the important stuff. The ultimate outcome of the Pusha T battle in 2018 was the revelation of Drake’s son Adidon that he had previously been hiding from the world along with getting Ye directly involved in the beef.

Here are some more examples of Drake antagonizing Ye and of him trying to use women as pawns to get material for his diss tracks. The Drake line, “Yeah, I probably go link to Yeezy, I need me some Jesus, but as soon as I start confessin' my sins, he wouldn't believe us," could be a reference to sleeping with Kim Kardashian, trying to double down on his threats to harm him or his family, or it could be a double entendre. Another example is using the name Kiki in another song, which was apparently one of Kim’s nicknames. Some other possible examples include the theories he may have tried the same thing with Kendrick’s wife Whitney around 2020-2021 in an attempt to use as ammo against Kendrick, which I’ll go into later. I don’t listen to much of either artist's music, but there are probably many of other examples in Drake’s catalogue that I’m leaving out. There is also his song Omerta released in 2019, which I'll go into below.

“Your baby mother call me when she lonely My tailor see me twice a week, he like my homie Forever grateful, forever thankful Diamond necklace, but she wears it on her ankle”

(Probably referring to Kim Kardashian since she had a few pictures with her wearing diamond ankle bracelets and was trying to make it into a trend.

“I plan to buy your most personal belongings when they up for auction”

(There were various rumors floating around for a while that Drake was blackmailing Ye with something and he was fighting to keep it from the public. I thought about it and this line might be referencing a sex tape with Kim or her little sister who me was very touch before she turned 18. In 2022 there was a whole storyline on Kim’s show where Ye flies to LA to prevent her second sex tape from being released.)

West Hollywood, know my presence is menacing
Cosa Nostra, shady dealings
Racketeering, the syndicate got they hand in plenty things The things that we've done to protect the name are unsettling But no regrets, though, the name'll echo Years later, none greater
Death to a coward and a traitor, that's just in my nature, yeah
(Drake and Ye both frequented the Delilah Nightclub located in West Hollywood and lived closeby on the same street for a while.)
"I don't carry cash 'cause the money is digital
It's the American Expresser, the debt collector"

(Sounds a lot more like it could be crypto to launder or send large amounts of ill gotten gains. It started becoming mainstream around them)

"Last year, niggas really feel like they rode on me
Last year, niggas got hot 'cause they told on me
I'm 'bout to call the bluff of anybody the fold on me"

These lines stood out because they could be referring to Ye telling the public about Drake's alleged threats a couple months before the songs release. This happened not long after the release of Sicko mode which was towards the end of 2018 as well. Ye was discussing the incident on Twitter and reached out to Drake and Travis to talk to him in private. In the next set of tweets Kanye publicly accused Drake of threatening him and his family in a major way. Surprisingly Ye seemed genuinely scared and amongst his, “crazy rants,” some of the stuff he said makes a ton of sense in hindsight. This also the beginning of his second serious public struggles with Bipolar disorder after being committed in 2016 shortly after an on stage rant where he calls out Jay Z for selling out and says he's afraid he might kill him.. As someone who shares the same diagnosis, I have a pretty good understanding of mania and psychosis and firmly believe that it's important not to write people off right away due to their mental illness. Some of my most thoughtful, creative, and productive periods were inspired by mania. Industry bigwigs have also been using mental illness to discredit influential black celebrities and visionaries going back decades, but it really picked up in the 80’s.

Dave Chappelle has gone into this a lot in the past and claims he experienced something similar before he quit show business and dipped to Africa. Their stories have a lot of interesting parallels if you’re familiar or curious. I remember he actually visited Ye at his house in Wyoming after he was reported to have had a, "mental breakdown," during his presidential run in 2020 thus marking his third breakown in six years.. The reason I put it in quotes is because it happened right after he publicly accused Kim of cheating and delivered his legendary speech on abortion. Dave went as far as going on live tv and telling the public he wasn’t crazy, he was just really struggling because he was the only one at the time fighting against the narrative, which can often be a suicide mission or a ticket to obscurity. These are three examples of someone speaking up and being deemed crazy, two years later came the nazi stuff and I'm sure we'll have plenty in store for 2024.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the very common pattern of artists dying or having their careers destroyed either after they try to leave their label or threaten to reveal industry secrets. A few more interesting industry connections I made in my research include the connections between:

T.U.G. records and J Cole's independent label Dreamville are both managed by Interscope Records, whose parent company is Universal Music Group.

Universal Music Group also hac Drake's label OvO label as well as Ye and Kendrick's old labels on their roster before they left to form their own independent labels in 2022 (around the same time the disses between Kendrick and Drake started escalating). Finally Bad Boy Records, which is owned by Diddy, and Motown Records who own Diddy's other R&B label Love Records, are also both owned by Universal. This means every label I mention is currently or was previously owned by Universal Music Group.

Ye tried for years to get out of his contract with Defjam, which happens to be ran by Jay Z who is known to be a close associate of Diddy. Jay would always used his money and power to fight against it. Ye even spoke out publicly on a few occasions, including when he said Jay Z was trying to kill him during one of his concerts. My theory is after years of getting nowhere and having his reputation skewered, in 2022 Ye finally said, "Fuck it," and dropped all the anti- Semetic stuff intentionally in a successful attempt to force his label to into using their morality clause, which requires labels to drop an artist if they're accused of any major controversy that could hurt the label’s profits. For the fourth time in four years the media reported he was having a breakdown. Even though they tried to punish him by cutting off all of his sources of income and freezing his accounts he still managed to bounce back pretty quickly. It was often reported how much he was losing, but it rarely discussed how he still was filthy rich in spite of the retrictions. His label wanted to discourage other artists from trying the same thing. My theory is he might have bought Kim or Kylie's alleged sex tape and used it for his own leverage. For Kendrick, his transition to his independent label ApLang went a lot smoother, but he had to split ownership of his new label with the previous manager owner Dave Free. Sadly it's still difficult for new or more niche artists to establish themselves without the some help.

He may be a lot of things but Ye isn’t dumb just because he has a mood disorder and the guys at the top know this, which is why I think he has really played up his diagnosis when it benefitted him. He’s still one of the most talented musicians in the game and I really think he sees his bipolar like a superpower as he says. It’s like his own invisibility cloak. He can go off his meds for a little, make an album after staying up for 72 hours, go on a “psychotic” twitter rant dropping facts throughout, then start up again once he makes enough news headlines. I think it’s worth noting the first divorce rumors in 2020 coincided with Ye’s abortion speech during his presidential run and the cheating accusations. that led to him dropping out and moving to Wyoming, and a couple months ago in February 2024 he was committed again.

The point I’m making is bipolar is complex, but pretty manageable especially if you have a ton of money to find meds that work for you and a good doctor and can keep substance abuse and stress at a manageable level. I think Ye is smart enough to know this, but it’s just safer for him to really play up the mental issues in the media. He’s proven he can literally say whatever he wants after getting cancelled and the average person is just going to write it off as psycho babble. While bias in health care is a sad fact of society, if you can use it to your advantage I say go for it. It might’ve just kept the microscope off of him long enough to plan his attack.

Ye v. Drake: Quotes of 2018
(Start of the beef, drake threats, and suspicion towards Kardashian family. )

“ It’s not about rap. It’s about family. We have to be close as a family and never let these people infiltrate just for radio spins”

“We need to show the world that people can talk without people ending up dead or in jail.”

”This is a man speaking to a man that has been placed in the program to fuck with Kanye West head and set me up“

”See when you care about your family you don’t let no man push you to do nothing that could risk your freedom“

These first four tweets by Ye were all in reference to perceived threats made by Drake after their beef escalated circa 2018. He began speaking on the industry and talking more about his psych hospital commitment two years prior and how he thought they were going to kill him. It's pretty obvious how the whole thing was planned by the sketchy doctor who called it in and his physical trainer who has a ton of connections to weird shit involving his celebrity clients.

I found interesting that Ye might not have been the first major league rapper whose life Drake threatened. During a similar period of mental illness the up and coming rapper XXXtentacion accused Drake of stealing his flow and dissed him a few times. Not long after he made a post online saying if he dies, it was Drake who did it. There are tons of conspiracies online, but none of the evidence is strong enough to draw a definitive connection. Also while it maybe be coincidental, Kendrick’s latest album Mr Morale also painted the picture that Kendrick was dealing with some serious personal issues. Some lines throughout the album may have been used to bait Drake into escalating, but it wasn’t until The Weekend, Future, and Metro Booming dropped, “We Don’t Trust You,” then Drake and J. Cole dropped, “First Person Shooter,” which was followed a couple days later with, “Like That,” where Kendrick started the chain of events that has led us to today.

Kanye vs. Drake: Quotes of 2020

Summary: Ye runs for president and gets suppressed for saying what very well could be the truth and was immediately deemed insane by the media. Kim did a couple interviews and everything he said was immediatly false. There is almost guarenteed to be some sketchy shit going down revolving her and her family. Ye was absolutely terrified of her keeping the kids away from him and it seems like there are still efforts being made to this day to paint a certain image of him for ulterior motives.

Below are six more quotes from a fan taking a deep dive into his 2020 tweets courtesy of u/ thehatstore42069 on Yeezy
”NORTHY I AM GOING TO WAR AND PUTTING MY LIFE ON THE LINE AND IF I AM MURDERED DON’T EVER LET WHITE MEDIA TELL YOU I WASNT A GOOD MAN,” West, 43, wrote in the tweet, adding, “WHEN PEOPLE THREATEN TO TAKE YOU OUT OF MY LIFE JUST KNOW I LOVE YOU”

"I need a public apology from J Cole and Drake to start with immediately... I'm Nat Turner... I'm fighting for us."

"the utmost respect for all brothers" and said "we need to link and respect each other... no more dissing each other on labels we don't own"

"Ye is constantly trying to tell people that his family does not have his or his kids best interests at heart. He goes on to list others, linking them together with the thinking emoji. These people include rap artist Drake and Larsa Pippen, wife of Scottie Pippe. Kim K is goddaughter to Pippen's daughter, showing how close the families actually are. All of these families that associate with Ye through Kardashian connections, as well as Drake, have been accused of the same thing Kris has. EVERY SINGLE ONE of these people have mixed race children that are groomed from a young age to fuck around with celebrities so the parents can remain famous. Drake on numerous occasions has been accused of grooming girls and then getting handsy on their 18th birthday.”

“These labels want their artists to make them money and they dont care about anything else. When Kanye says things like this in an attempt to expose him, the first thing they wanna do is drug him up and put him back in the studio.”
“Righteous indignation is typically a reactive emotion of anger over mistreatment, insult, or malice of another. It is akin to what is called the sense of injustice. This is how they keep the black man down. Keep people outraged about trivial things and distract them from the real issues in the world. The real problems in the industry. If you tell people enough times that they are unequal or discriminated against they start to believe it. Drug them when they step out of line and toss them aside when the checks run out. Ye is realizing he is pawn in a bigger game, and now that he has all these roots in the game such as Yeezy or the Gap or his music, too many people cant risk (Afford) a Ye who speaks his mind.”
(End of quotes)

Amongst the twitter rant, Ye warned about the predatory nature of record deals and discussed trying to get out of his own deal, and said again how his life may be in danger if it wasn’t already and was doing anything he could to protect his kids. The most fascinating part to me though is the public call to arms he made to Drake, J Cole, and Kendrick on twitter. After inviting them to all link up, he said, “It’s time to get free, we will not argue amongst each other while some guy we don’t know in Europe is getting paid and putting that money in a hedge fund.” I believe if Ye was able to pull off this meeting, there is an ever so slight chance that all four artists might be working together to take down a greater enemy. Weirdly there have been times throughout the last couple years where these supposed enemies were photographed together being friendly or praise each other in interviews, then out of no where the disses would start flying again.

To wrap things up I want to share my a few of my theories about the Drake/Kanye beef

A. Everything is exactly as it seems and the beef is over. Ye let his mental illness ruin his life and career so Drake simply picked another target after Ye stopped putting out disses. All of these connections are just a coincidence and all of this was choreographed to boost Drake and Kendrick’s music sales and possibly distract people from the Diddy trial and possibly the complicated geopolitical issues currently facing the U.S.

C. There is also the possibility that all four rappers are in cahoots and Drake’s dirt isn’t as extreme as people are theorizing, at least in comparison to the rest of the business. This could explain why everything has played out like a movie and how they were able to predict each other’s moves so well. This could either mean they’re all just trying to boost their sales or they’re all trying to take down the “slave masters,” as Ye calls them, and change the dynamic of the music industry in favor of the artist.

D. They may be trying to help their friends in the industry who are being abused or in shitty contracts. I know a lot of famous rappers have done a lot of collaborations with Jhene Aiko and Anderson Paak, who were both signed to T.U.G. records which I mentioned above in the connections to Universal Music Group. Considering they are both frequent collaborators with all of the artists involved on both sides, it’s not unlikely they may have played some part in influencing the takedown.

T.U.G was started by Chris Stokes with his partner Ketrina Askew. Back in the early to mid 90’s were gaining popularity attracting lots of young up and coming talent. They often collaborated with Diddy and his associates. In the 2000’s Raz B from the boy band B2K claimed he was molested by Stokes and his friend Marques Houston, then quickly retracted his claims. Years later he came forward again and said we was bribed into silence and that the rest of the victims were bribed with hush money and had another singer corroborate his story and they came forward together to level the accusations. After some of his former B2K members made fun of him for his claims and accused it of being a shakedown, Raz B revealed Stokes and Houston had preyed a lot of the children associated with the label including at least one of the former bandmates and paid them off.

I thought it was worth noting that the second whistleblower named Quindon Tarver died young in a car crash after mentioning his abuse again a few years prior. He seems to have left the industry not long after the incidents occurred and has few credits to his name. To this day Raz B is still trying to get his justice, while Stokes and his partner Askew, who was also involved in the abuse are still running the label to this day. Askew also has a ton of lawsuits, accusing her of using shady tactics to try to foreclose on houses. (Don’t quote me if a lawyer wants to take a look just google her full name), and has been tied to a ton of LLCs, similar to Drake. This is a good example of a shitty record deal, but I'm sure they have countless other friends in the industry who have even worse. While they were never convicted even Chris Stokes' wife confirmed it to be true.

E. The theory I personally think fits the narrative best and is the most realistic conspiracy is that Kendrick and possibly J. Cole went to the meeting, but not Drake due to his close relationship with Lucian Grange, the president of Drake’s label. Silence often speaks louder than words and this could explain why Kendrick was so ruthless and put so much effort into finding dirt on Drake. Ye, Cole, and Kendrick co-writing would be like the rap allstar team and if J. Cole wasn’t involved, it would also answer the question of whether or not he baited Drake into the battle by asking him to feature. I don’t think Drake is really their primary target though, which would explain letting him off easy. Compared to his bosses and their bosses he’s a small fish. If you take the big guys down you stand a better chance of landing a bigger blow on their operation.

Another really interesting connection is Kendrick and Ye were both signed under Universal Music Group and they both got out of their deals around couple months apart in 2022. As we speak U.M.G’s CEO Lucian Grange, who is often acccused of giving Drake special treatment, is facing charges related to sex trafficking by no other than P Diddy. This could very well explain the timing of it all. The craziest timeline would be Diddy masterminding all of this and using his connections to get it done and all the allegations are bullshit. The guy does seem pretty confident all things considered and constantly posts himself in his Batman costume which could mean he’s a vigilante.

It seems like there's a slight religious angle as well. (Ye and Diddy are both very vocal advocates of Christianity and Drake and Lucian Grange are both Jewish.) Obviously this is a reach, but they’ve been saying rap music was specifically promoted by mostly white label owners in the 80’s to help in the ongoing effort to expedite the systematic oppression of those living in black neighborhoods and the destruction of their family systems. Apparently it was an intentional decision to heavily promote rappers that promoted the very things that were destroying their neighborhoods. (So people know I'm and atheist and have zero agenda, I just thought it was interesting, please stay away from anything antisemitic. War is wrong on both sides.)

*** If my favorite theory is true, there is a possibility the Kendrick and Ye are going after Drake due to their mutual disdain for him and because he’s got a ton of power to dominate the charts and hog the radio airtime like Meek Mill and OG Maco claimed years ago. Even him dropping a record the same day as you could really fuck your album sales up. I’m also sure some of the many rumors throughout the years have had a least some truth and he will most likely snitch to avoid cell block one. I think that Drake could have been instructed to instigate this whole mess in order to draw attention away from the UMG charges brought about by Diddy. Or on the other hand it could be that Kendrick, Ye, and possibly Cole, may have had intel that Drake was going to be involved in the Diddy trial and are just gonna let the receipts show themselves. It might not have been the original plan, but they’ve already accomplished their mission of humiliating him, assuring he couldn’t use his influence to slide through the cracks, and taking over the throne.

Please take everything I say with a grain of salt I have no connection to this world or lifestyle. Regardless I believe all of the knowledge above does a pretty solid job at painting a picture of what may have let up to this and what may have been the source.
——————————-
More details found the last couple days…

Drake and Diddy Connections+Coincidences

Drake- In the P Diddy wig video from 2016 he talks about going to party with Drake, Cash, and The Weeknd in Toronto. Drake is also one of Birdman’s protégées who is known for being a predator and is rumored to have used label artists to lure young women.

Travis Scott- Interview where he comes out and says Diddy tried to lure him. Still has a long history of associating with him, video of him running from Diddy, his connection to Ruby Rose while underage.

Tim Westwood- Diddy had connections with sex offender Tim Westwood who also inspired the Drake song, “Westwood”. They also both were victims of drive by shootings along with The Weekend and they were all facing some type of allegations.

T.I.- Also has been associate with Diddy through the years, in 2021 his kid died and 11 women can forward at the same time to accuse him and his wife of drugging and assaulting them. Clearly someone wanted to fuck his life up. Possibly due to him getting arrested so many times for wild shit and people wondering how he continued to get away with it shining a light on how powerful industry lawyers are. He also had recently talked about having a gynecologist check to see if his daughter is still a Virgin, which sounds like it could have been an industrty secret. Could have been because he worried about someone trying to take advantage of her to get to him? Regardless that shit is fucking insane.

50 Cent- Has been saying pretty much the same thing as Travis Scott and has trolled Diddy for most of his career. It came out that his wife was a sex worker who was possibly recruited Diddy to help ruin his career. It sort of worked, which raises the question if 50 Cent is the only victim.

Ray J- Him and his sister worked with T.U.G. records when they were very young. Chris Stokes in the nineties who had connections with Diddy. He has been involved in a lot of sex scandals and allegedly may have played a part in Whitney Houston's death. (Which is also allegedly connected to Michael Jackson's death and both were deemed suspicious and happened during their final tours when their masters (song rights), became more valuable than their lives. Sony Records and Tommy Motolla, who also abused Mariah Carey when she was trying to start her career. These are just a few of the alleged examples of labels taking out musicians when they were worth more dead, another is the signing of high risk artists and requiring them to get life insurance so they can profit beyond releasing all their posthumous records. Also the ever so common story of the rising star artist that die at 21 after their first album or two.

He also partied with Diddy in Vegas with along Floyd Mayweather and a bunch of other famous industry people and athletes.

Tory Lanez- Tons of blackmail, also was signed by Interscope under UMG. got sent to prison for ten years after trying to leave his label. Also history of SA and and other allegations of violence towards women.

French Montana- On Diddy's label, close with Rick and Khaled, tons of drug and sexual assault allegations, also dated a Kardashian. Generally grimy.

DJ Khaled- Diddy said he could get anything in Miami, either referring to drugs or women, could explain his connections and lack of any notable talent. (New update, he was one of the first to promote Chris Alvarez’s instagram not long after he turned 18).

Rick Ross- Diddy said some weird shit about him and licked his lips and kissed him at a show. Ross is also signed to Bad Boy under Diddy. He ended up getting involved in the current feud and spamming social media nonstop dissing and threatening Drake.

A lot of the back and forth was both of them threatening to release dirt on each other. One strange coincidence I found was Drake recently trolled Ross about the 20 million dollar renovation to his home on Star island, where Diddy is currently residing. It’s rumored back in the day that P Diddy was caught in a room full of rich guys on ecstasy possibly at the beginning stages of a gay orgy. Drake also mentioned in the same tweets about Rick Ross that Birdman owned a house on the island and asked Rick Ross why he didn’t help him out.

Considering Ross is so sketchy and Drake claims the house isn’t that big, that’s a ridiculous amount of money. He may be covering up evidence, or creating tunnels in his house to escape if shit pops off and Drake might know what’s good. Interestingly enough Ross is very close with French Montana and also signed to Bad. He said his beef was related to something involving French, and Drake’s tweet popped up the same day the info came out concerning the Chris Alvarez stuff.

The famous line from U.O.E.N.O.

Meek Mill- “OG Maco called himself defending his friend Quentin Miller by substantiating the ghostwriting claims and agreeing with Meek. He hit up Twitter saying, "Some of us been knew. Meek just put it in the air. Sucks to have to compete with 6 n****s and get compared to”

Meek mill also had a short beef with Drake, some disses included lines referring to TI’s homie pissing on Drake at the movie theater, which is also interesting considering the current case against him. He also dropped a line saying Diddy almost got a domestic charge when he smacked Drake, which could either be saying that Drake is like a woman, or saying he was Drake’s boyfriend/sugar daddy.
( If you made it to the end comment with the number 8)
I thought it was interesting how the beef just kind of disappeared and even Meek said it didn’t seem genuine. Considering the allegations against Meek in the Diddy trial, and his rumored affair with Kim contributing to ending Kanye’s marriage, Meek Mill definitely did some dirt on him.

“Niggas frauds I told the truth, don't ask me shit
All this industry fake enemy and rap shit”

“Money make a sucker that told look trill again”

One of the many chapters in Drake's history in which he is seen paying his way out of trouble and starting beefs randomly.
“Now when that shit went down with Chris, you wrote a check”
This line is referring to Chris brown beef, another beef that was lost to time. All I can remember off the top was someone throwing a champagne bottle at the other’s entourage.

Ty Dolla $ign- Huge feature artist, close with Ye. Grew up in the industry and talks about growing up on the road and being in the studio with his dad and Rick James who was should have already been in prison for life for dragging, torturing, and S assaulting multiple women and children throughout his career and was himself a victim of the industry. May be part of Ye's motivation, considering their recent close working relationship.
The end.
Courtesy of,
The Randomest Moniker

Heyoo~
I love my friends, but what they don't love is my taste of games lol., so I'm looking to see if I can find some people here!
To mention a few games, as you may see - I have a preference on some games lol. But that doesn't stop me from trying something new!
I'm casualnerd on discord, steam (friendcode: 11129140)

• Among Us (is that still a thing?)
• Content Warning
• Dead by Daylight
• Deceit 2
• Deceive Inc.
• Lethal Company (highly preferred)
• Intruder
• Jackbox Party Pack(s) (I basically got all of them)
• Mario Kart
• Mario Party
• Party Animals
• Phasmaphobia (highly preferred)
• Project Winter (highly preferred)
• Texas Chain Saw
• Tabletop Simulator
• Town of Salem (preferably over discord!) (highly preferred)

I have plenty of games, these are just a few of them and usually very open to test new things.
If you add me, please do leave a note lol, I tend to ignore messages otherwise.

Okay, this will be the last text I send (unless something happens getting my brother out of the hole right now.)
If there's no action taken by you, I plan to go on to the next person in your Chain of Command. (I mean this in the kindest way) (ask Trav) I'm just fighting for what's right .(...and he was sentenced harshly for a crime that did not fit his case.)
He is also my best friend.
The truth Always Wins. Travis is a good human being. He has had a rough start to life. He is different now. I can finally see he isnt angry and forgives. (I am learning this from him now.)
He is in the whole right now because a 240 Lb man named Arthur punched him in the face after Trav told him to "Fuck Off." While on the ground being restrained by Guards he was kicked in the eye socket with steel-toed boots!!
Now he sits in the hole with a note on the door if your not going to be nice, ...... Be Nice.
This breaks my heart, my parents, my kids and his Liberty hearts. His Charge is the worst of the Worst and he didn't do that.
He got jumped and is being punished by Guards that dislike him.
The guard that's on duty tonight only allowed him 30 minutes on the phone the guard last night. Let him have an hour. So we only got to talk to me today for 30 min.
Again, all we need is one good person in Charge to stand up for him. This is wrong on so many accounts.
Today he received the abbreviations for blood panel results... Example: A1C. 5.3 Test 479 EFT. 4 (Those are his actual reading)
He called me with a 30 minute phone call. He was allowed so I could look it up and it appears that he has going through kidney failure. He got a note from the doctors in the prison saying he needs to be seen right away. Yet he's still stuck in the hole right now.
This incident that happened to land Travis Harp in the "hole" happened last Thursday 03/02/23. When Arthur and Trav met in the kitchen at 4 am.
The last 9 years have been a whirl wind of terrible mistreating while being imprisoned. Trav also told me that we're apart of the reason that he was able to go to the honor camp. You must have seen the good in Trav. He is a good Man.
Please act now. I know you have a family emergency and I am REALLY sorry for this.
But if they choose to add last Thursday's incidents to his point system, Travis says they'll send him back to Rawlins. He's getting out in 8 months. This was planned. Him getting punched in the face and kicked in the face.
If you have any downtime, I would be the most grateful person. If you would contact the prison and make it right, you have that authority right?
Eagerly waiting your response,
MY NAME HERE
He just wants to work with Dad at his place in Sheridan. When he saves enough money for land and (he says) a tailor. Then move to be near me and our family.
Sorry for the book. You are the first person to say you will look into Travis Harps Multiple appeals.
This is conversation between the warden of the prison (where my brother's at) and I this evening. I need honest thoughts.
We need to get together sometime and have a chat about life .
Wyoming has huge issues. One of them is their prison systems.
Free my Little brother!!

Years ago I met my husband working in the pharmacy department of a major US drug chain. We worked in separate stores. I was a supervisory pharmacy technician in my store and he was a staff pharmacist in his. One of my duties was to oversee training of new pharm techs in our area and train existing techs to be supervisory techs. I would literally have to sign off on the training certifying techs were ready to go to their stores and capable of doing their jobs. Both mine and husband's pharmacies had great staffs and were leaders in the district.
Eventually, my store got a new store manager who we'll call K. For whatever reason, K decided that she wanted to engage in a little nepotism and help a fellow store manager's daughter (D) become a supervisory tech. The problem was that D wasn't even a good regular pharmacy tech and we had just shipped her off to a slower store because she preferred texting her boyfriend in the back instead of filling prescriptions and refused to work her fair share of weekends. I told K that this girl would become a supervisory tech over my dead body (pharmacy manager was totally behind me on this as was the district pharm tech supervisor). K then began a campaign of retaliation and would write me up for the most mundane things ever. In fact, the only time in my career I was ever disciplined is when K was my manager. I think she was hoping to replace me with another supervisory tech who would help her with her goals. It didn't really bother me. I knew I was performing well above expectations and wasn't bothered by her being petty. Besides, replacing me with D would hurt her way more than it would hurt me.
I'm chilling at drive-thru one day and one of my staff comes running in, grabs me, and says, " K is getting transferred to [husband's store]." My heart sank because I knew K would be the kind of person to take things out on my husband. He's a very kind, non-confrontational man, and not one that would do well with the type of game playing K enjoys. Sure enough, she starts writing him up for ridiculous things. She even went up to him one day and said, "Why are you married to South-Style-134? She's fire and you're ice. I just don't get why you like her." Hubs was shook and didn't really answer her. (As a side note, the supervisory tech at my husband's store literally went to K on day one and told her that D wouldn't be promoted there either lmao).
So K continues her campaign against me via my husband until Valentine's Day. Now, I don't really care about Valentine's, so my husband doesn't go out of his way for it. Our stores usually sell red roses only for Valentine's and the roses are featured in the weekly ad. Husband had made it his tradition to pick some up for me with a sweet card on his lunch break. This particular year, husband was going to do the usual but couldn't find the flowers. He searched all over the store and just as he's about to give up and just get me candy or something else, he finds K talking with the district operations manager (K's boss). My husband goes over to both of them, looks at K and says, "hey, where are the flowers from this week's ad?" K gets flustered and says, "we don't have any." K's boss asks if they sold out. K is forced to admit she didn't order any in the first place. K's boss is clearly pissed and tells her to immediately call the neighboring store and get some from them. K had to drive an hour round trip to get flowers from the other store. She does make it back before husband's shift is over so he buys the first bouquet. He brings them home and tells me the real gift is the story of how he got them and embarrassed K in front of her boss.
Epilogue: K was transferred yet again not long after this, so my husband was thankfully free of her. She was later asked to tender her resignation for a myriad of questionable practices of which the flower incident was minor, but it's still fun to think that we may have started the process of exposing her for being subpar.

Hello Reddit. Below is a one-shot designed for four level 8 characters. I would expect this to take approximately 2 sessions of a few hours (roughly 6 hours in total) to run through in its entirety. Your mileage may vary depending on how quickly your table handles combat.
You can find a PDF of this adventure along with battlemaps here.
Here's a quick adventure overview:
This is a combat focused adventure that takes place on an unnaturally frozen lake outside the mountain town of Maul, though it could be set on any lake of your choosing.
The players are tasked with killing a Frost Giant named Tirrog who has recently descended from nearby mountains. With the aid of a white dragon, he has frozen the lake and created an icy palace atop it.
The players must survive a series of challenging encounters before confronting Tirrog and his enslaved white dragon beneath his palace. After successfully ending the threat, the players will be rewarded with the favor of Maul’s residents.
If you get the chance to run this, or even just look through the whole thing, I would love feedback!
Here is the rest of the adventure:

For the DM: What’s Going on Here?

Some additional context just for the Dungeon Master:
· Tirrog, the Frost Giant, was cast out of his clan after losing a duel with his father.
· He stole a Young Adult White Dragon named Bymraynyl and used her power to freeze a nearby lake and construct an icy palace.
· Tirrog resides in a cavern beneath the palace, awaiting the challenge of Maul’s mightiest warriors, hoping to regain his clan’s favor by winning.
· Bymraynyl, the white dragon, is imprisoned by Tirrog and will only attack the players if they fail to free her.

Adventure Hooks

When determining why your players are involved with ending Tirrog’s icy presence, feel free to use any, or all, of the below Adventure Hooks when discussing this adventure with your players.

Aiding the Guards of Maul

The adventurers are approached by Brenlanna Orina, the Captain of the Guards of Maul. Brenlanna explains the situation caused by Tirrog is dire as his forces roam the countryside and many townsfolk have gone missing.
The constant threat has left the town’s defenses stretched thin and she needs capable adventurers to end his reign of terror. She emphasizes that defeating Tirrog will not only bring peace to Maul, but also earn the gratitude and favor of its people.

Ecological Balance

Mort, A local druid, approaches the adventurers to express his deep concerns about the unnatural freezing of the lake. Mort explains that the frozen lake has disrupted the local ecosystem, causing harm to wildlife and plants.
He implores the adventurers to defeat Tirrog and restore the natural balance. In return, the druid offers their knowledge of the land, rare herbs, and a powerful artifact as a reward. Restoring the lake to its natural state will help the region thrive once more.

Dragon Hunters

Word has travelled far and wide that Bymraynyl, a white dragon, is far from its natural territory and is imprisoned by Tirrog, the frost giant.
The adventurers are from a dragon hunting guild and see this as a prime opportunity to either hone their skills of slaying dragons or set free a majestic creature, allowing it to grow and become a more challenging hunt.

Before the Adventure Begins

This adventure begins by introducing your players at the gates of Tirrog’s frozen palace. They will be battling their way through Tirrog’s defenses, seeking to challenge him. Share the below excerpt with your players as they create their characters:
Your journeys have brought you to Maul, a small mountain town renowned for its gladiatorial games held beneath the mountain of Pike Rise.
Word has travelled quickly that Tirrog, a frost giant, has descended from the peaks of Pike Rise with Bymraynyl, a white dragon. They have frozen a nearby lake and constructed an icy palace. Frost is spreading farther from the lake with each passing day and Tirrog’s forces patrol the countryside, pillaging small villages.
For your own various reasons, you have agreed to help end Tirrog’s reign of terror by any means necessary.
As the game master, you should note down the passive perception for each character as this will be referenced in the adventure for ambush encounters.
The encounters provided in this adventure are balanced for four level 8 characters. To adjust for fewer players, consider removing ¼ of the monsters’ health pools for each player less than four. To adjust for more players, consider adding additional Duergar Berserkers or Ice Mephits in each encounter.

Approaching the Palace

When your players are ready to begin their adventure, start by reading the below excerpt to kick things off:
As you approach the lake, a chill unlike any you’ve felt before cuts through your armor. Before you is an unnaturally frozen expanse, its surface a flawless sheet of ice stretching as far as the eye can see. The air is eerily still, and the usual sounds of wildlife are absent, replaced only by the whispers of wind across the frozen wasteland.
In the center of this icy domain stands an imposing ice palace, its glistening walls reflect the pale sunlight from above. Four watchtowers, each 40 feet tall and crafted entirely of ice, stand at the corners of the palace.
The front door of the palace, a massive slab of ice 20 feet wide, looms before you. Its surface is intricately carved with frost patterns, but it is sealed shut, offering no immediate passage into the stronghold. The sense of foreboding is palpable, as if the palace itself is a living entity, waiting to challenge those who dare approach.
[Player A], please describe your character, what they are doing, and where they are on the map. (Ask this of all players before continuing)

Palace Locations

P1. Four Watchtowers

To open the palace's front door, the adventurers must pull four levers located at the tops of the four icy watchtowers. Each tower is guarded by a Duergar Berserker and two Ice Mephits. Engaging one group will alert the other towers.
Ice bridges connect the left and right towers and are considered difficult terrain. The 40-foot towers are nearly impossible to climb without magic or specialized gear. Once all four levers are pulled, the palace door will melt.

P2. Palace Entrance

The palace's interior boasts 30-foot-high ceilings supported by large ice pillars. Braziers of blue flame illuminate four ice sculptures, an icy throne, and the bones of Tirrog's unsuccessful challengers. In the center of the floor is a 20-foot circle of intricate carvings, which opens when two Ice Elementals are defeated.
Two Ice Elementals are hidden within the ice walls, ready to ambush the players once they all enter the palace. Upon defeating them, the circle in the floor melts away, revealing a 100-foot-deep hole with a wooden ladder descending beneath the lake.

P3. Beneath the Lake

The floors in all subsequent rooms are ice and considered difficult terrain. There are four pairs of Ice Cleats in room P4 which can aid with traversing the rooms. Most of the walls are perfectly sculpted ice, 25-feet-high, but some areas have caved in due to lake pressure or creature damage. All doorways are wooden and unlocked unless noted otherwise.
There are no torches in this room and constant howling wind can be heard from room P6.

P4. Ice Bunks

This well-lit room of ice contains four beds and supplies for the Duergar. If the boxes are searched, the players will easily find four pairs of Ice Cleats.
There are 2 Duergar Berserkers in this room and if engaged, they will alert the Duergar in room P5.
A DC 18 investigation check will uncover a +2 Greataxe hidden in an icy cavity underneath one of the beds. There is a small supply room that connects P4 to P5.

P5. Leisure Hall

This room is well-lit and contains tables, mostly empty casks of beer, and a rack of mugs along the wall. There is 1 Duergar Berserker and 1 Duergar Priest in this room. They will alert the Duergar in room P4 if engaged.
One of the casks has 6 servings of Mimic’s Brew left in it.

P6. The Frozen Hall

This area is the coldest room in the Palace and there is a deafening wind constantly blowing. It is well-lit and the entryway to this room is supported by two pillars.
There is a magical ice statue at the end of the hallway that is constantly blowing damaging ice winds. There is a stone on the back of the statue which deactivates it.
The wind blows from the statue and ends just before it reaches the room with the pillars. A creature can be damaged by the wind once per round. If a creature is in the presence of the icy wind, they must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.
The doorways to P10 and P11 are locked with padlocks. They can both be unlocked with a DC 17 Thieves’ Tools check.

P7. Prison Cell

This room contains one locked cell. It takes a Thieves’ Tools check (DC 15) to unlock the cell. There is also a chair made of ice sitting in the corner of this room.
Zathea, a female Duergar Berserker, is locked in the cell and visibly malnourished.
If Zathea is freed from her cell, she will warn the adventurers of the troll ahead, tell them how to deactivate the stone statue, and ask that they consider letting Bymraynyl go

P8. Lumber Storage

This unlit room is where lumber for fires is kept. There are a few axes for cutting wood. Three of the logs in this room are Mimics but will only attack if the players actively search through the logs.

P9. The Crumbling Hall

This illuminated hallway is visibly damaged. A Perception check (DC 15) will notice claw marks as the primary source of damage.
The doorway to P10 is locked with a padlock and can be unlocked with a DC 17 Thieves’ Tools check.

P10. Troll’s Den

This room is not lit, contains the bones of many dead fish, and smells putrid. There is 1 Troll in this room.
A DC 17 Investigation check will find a gemmed golden lure in the carcass of a dead fish worth approximately 50 gold pieces.

P11. Bymraynyl, The White Dragon

This room contains Bymraynyl, a young adult white dragon, who has just freed herself from Tirrog’s chains. She is visibly wounded and only has half of her health.
She will try to reason with the adventurers to let her go but is ready to fight if they will not.
If the players choose to free Bymraynyl, she will excavate a small amount of ice and reveal a +2 Breastplate hidden in the ice, which they are free to take.

P12. Tirrog, The Frost Giant

Tirrog sits patiently in this well-lit icy throne room, waiting for his challengers. Before engaging with the adventurers, he gently pats a large wooden chest next to his throne and says in Giant:
I took all that I could from Pike Rise and it’s all yours should you defeat me. But with your heads, I can return home. Let us see who will be rewarded this day.
The chest contains 15 sapphires worth 25 gold each, 2,000 gold, 2 potions of greater healing, and an Everwarm Blanket.

Random Encounters

Roll 1 4-sided die every hour to determine which monsters return to the palace from their patrol around the lake. All monsters should roam freely as you see fit.

Result	Monsters returning from Patrol
1	3 Duergar Berserkers & 2 Ice Mephits
2	1 Ice Elemental & 4 Ice Mephits
3	1 Troll
4	1 Ice Elemental & 1 Duergar Berserker

Concluding the Adventure
Upon defeating Tirrog, the players will have reached the end of this adventure. If you and your players wish to continue adventuring from this point, this would be an appropriate milestone to increase their character levels to 9.
Thank you for playing through The Frozen Palace of Tirrog. I hope you and your players had a fun time with this adventure!

Magical Items

Everwarm Blanket

Adventuring Gear, very rare
This quilted blanket is surrounded by a comfortably warm aura.
While this blanket is in your inventory, you do not suffer any exhaustion caused by sources of cold.

Ice Cleats

Adventuring Gear, common
These blue metal cleats can be attached to any footwear.
While equipped, ice is not considered difficult terrain when moving across it.

Mimic’s Brew (Brown Ale)

Beer, Uncommon
When you drink this beer, you can change your appearance as though you casted Alter Self for one hour.
An hour after you consume this beer, your tongue hangs from your mouth until you finish a long rest.
The bottom of this potent brown ale is a small layer of slime

Tirrog’s Helmet

Helmet, rare (requires attunement)
You gain a +1 bonus to AC and Constitution saving throws while you where this helmet.
While wearing this helmet, you can gain the “enlarge” effect of the enlarge/reduce spell for 1d4 hours (no concentration required). Once used, this effect cannot be used again until you complete a long rest.

Hello Reddit. Below is a one-shot designed for four level 8 characters. I would expect this to take approximately 2 sessions of a few hours (roughly 6 hours in total) to run through in its entirety. Your mileage may vary depending on how quickly your table handles combat.
You can find a PDF of this adventure along with battlemaps here.
Here's a quick adventure overview:
This is a combat focused adventure that takes place on an unnaturally frozen lake outside the mountain town of Maul, though it could be set on any lake of your choosing.
The players are tasked with killing a Frost Giant named Tirrog who has recently descended from nearby mountains. With the aid of a white dragon, he has frozen the lake and created an icy palace atop it.
The players must survive a series of challenging encounters before confronting Tirrog and his enslaved white dragon beneath his palace. After successfully ending the threat, the players will be rewarded with the favor of Maul’s residents.
If you get the chance to run this, or even just look through the whole thing, I would love feedback!
Here is the rest of the adventure:

For the DM: What’s Going on Here?

Some additional context just for the Dungeon Master:
· Tirrog, the Frost Giant, was cast out of his clan after losing a duel with his father.
· He stole a Young Adult White Dragon named Bymraynyl and used her power to freeze a nearby lake and construct an icy palace.
· Tirrog resides in a cavern beneath the palace, awaiting the challenge of Maul’s mightiest warriors, hoping to regain his clan’s favor by winning.
· Bymraynyl, the white dragon, is imprisoned by Tirrog and will only attack the players if they fail to free her.

Adventure Hooks

When determining why your players are involved with ending Tirrog’s icy presence, feel free to use any, or all, of the below Adventure Hooks when discussing this adventure with your players.

Aiding the Guards of Maul

The adventurers are approached by Brenlanna Orina, the Captain of the Guards of Maul. Brenlanna explains the situation caused by Tirrog is dire as his forces roam the countryside and many townsfolk have gone missing.
The constant threat has left the town’s defenses stretched thin and she needs capable adventurers to end his reign of terror. She emphasizes that defeating Tirrog will not only bring peace to Maul, but also earn the gratitude and favor of its people.

Ecological Balance

Mort, A local druid, approaches the adventurers to express his deep concerns about the unnatural freezing of the lake. Mort explains that the frozen lake has disrupted the local ecosystem, causing harm to wildlife and plants.
He implores the adventurers to defeat Tirrog and restore the natural balance. In return, the druid offers their knowledge of the land, rare herbs, and a powerful artifact as a reward. Restoring the lake to its natural state will help the region thrive once more.

Dragon Hunters

Word has travelled far and wide that Bymraynyl, a white dragon, is far from its natural territory and is imprisoned by Tirrog, the frost giant.
The adventurers are from a dragon hunting guild and see this as a prime opportunity to either hone their skills of slaying dragons or set free a majestic creature, allowing it to grow and become a more challenging hunt.

Before the Adventure Begins

This adventure begins by introducing your players at the gates of Tirrog’s frozen palace. They will be battling their way through Tirrog’s defenses, seeking to challenge him. Share the below excerpt with your players as they create their characters:
Your journeys have brought you to Maul, a small mountain town renowned for its gladiatorial games held beneath the mountain of Pike Rise.
Word has travelled quickly that Tirrog, a frost giant, has descended from the peaks of Pike Rise with Bymraynyl, a white dragon. They have frozen a nearby lake and constructed an icy palace. Frost is spreading farther from the lake with each passing day and Tirrog’s forces patrol the countryside, pillaging small villages.
For your own various reasons, you have agreed to help end Tirrog’s reign of terror by any means necessary.
As the game master, you should note down the passive perception for each character as this will be referenced in the adventure for ambush encounters.
The encounters provided in this adventure are balanced for four level 8 characters. To adjust for fewer players, consider removing ¼ of the monsters’ health pools for each player less than four. To adjust for more players, consider adding additional Duergar Berserkers or Ice Mephits in each encounter.

Approaching the Palace

When your players are ready to begin their adventure, start by reading the below excerpt to kick things off:
As you approach the lake, a chill unlike any you’ve felt before cuts through your armor. Before you is an unnaturally frozen expanse, its surface a flawless sheet of ice stretching as far as the eye can see. The air is eerily still, and the usual sounds of wildlife are absent, replaced only by the whispers of wind across the frozen wasteland.
In the center of this icy domain stands an imposing ice palace, its glistening walls reflect the pale sunlight from above. Four watchtowers, each 40 feet tall and crafted entirely of ice, stand at the corners of the palace.
The front door of the palace, a massive slab of ice 20 feet wide, looms before you. Its surface is intricately carved with frost patterns, but it is sealed shut, offering no immediate passage into the stronghold. The sense of foreboding is palpable, as if the palace itself is a living entity, waiting to challenge those who dare approach.
[Player A], please describe your character, what they are doing, and where they are on the map. (Ask this of all players before continuing)

Palace Locations

P1. Four Watchtowers

To open the palace's front door, the adventurers must pull four levers located at the tops of the four icy watchtowers. Each tower is guarded by a Duergar Berserker and two Ice Mephits. Engaging one group will alert the other towers.
Ice bridges connect the left and right towers and are considered difficult terrain. The 40-foot towers are nearly impossible to climb without magic or specialized gear. Once all four levers are pulled, the palace door will melt.

P2. Palace Entrance

The palace's interior boasts 30-foot-high ceilings supported by large ice pillars. Braziers of blue flame illuminate four ice sculptures, an icy throne, and the bones of Tirrog's unsuccessful challengers. In the center of the floor is a 20-foot circle of intricate carvings, which opens when two Ice Elementals are defeated.
Two Ice Elementals are hidden within the ice walls, ready to ambush the players once they all enter the palace. Upon defeating them, the circle in the floor melts away, revealing a 100-foot-deep hole with a wooden ladder descending beneath the lake.

P3. Beneath the Lake

The floors in all subsequent rooms are ice and considered difficult terrain. There are four pairs of Ice Cleats in room P4 which can aid with traversing the rooms. Most of the walls are perfectly sculpted ice, 25-feet-high, but some areas have caved in due to lake pressure or creature damage. All doorways are wooden and unlocked unless noted otherwise.
There are no torches in this room and constant howling wind can be heard from room P6.

P4. Ice Bunks

This well-lit room of ice contains four beds and supplies for the Duergar. If the boxes are searched, the players will easily find four pairs of Ice Cleats.
There are 2 Duergar Berserkers in this room and if engaged, they will alert the Duergar in room P5.
A DC 18 investigation check will uncover a +2 Greataxe hidden in an icy cavity underneath one of the beds. There is a small supply room that connects P4 to P5.

P5. Leisure Hall

This room is well-lit and contains tables, mostly empty casks of beer, and a rack of mugs along the wall. There is 1 Duergar Berserker and 1 Duergar Priest in this room. They will alert the Duergar in room P4 if engaged.
One of the casks has 6 servings of Mimic’s Brew left in it.

P6. The Frozen Hall

This area is the coldest room in the Palace and there is a deafening wind constantly blowing. It is well-lit and the entryway to this room is supported by two pillars.
There is a magical ice statue at the end of the hallway that is constantly blowing damaging ice winds. There is a stone on the back of the statue which deactivates it.
The wind blows from the statue and ends just before it reaches the room with the pillars. A creature can be damaged by the wind once per round. If a creature is in the presence of the icy wind, they must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 22 (5d8) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much on a success.
The doorways to P10 and P11 are locked with padlocks. They can both be unlocked with a DC 17 Thieves’ Tools check.

P7. Prison Cell

This room contains one locked cell. It takes a Thieves’ Tools check (DC 15) to unlock the cell. There is also a chair made of ice sitting in the corner of this room.
Zathea, a female Duergar Berserker, is locked in the cell and visibly malnourished.
If Zathea is freed from her cell, she will warn the adventurers of the troll ahead, tell them how to deactivate the stone statue, and ask that they consider letting Bymraynyl go

P8. Lumber Storage

This unlit room is where lumber for fires is kept. There are a few axes for cutting wood. Three of the logs in this room are Mimics but will only attack if the players actively search through the logs.

P9. The Crumbling Hall

This illuminated hallway is visibly damaged. A Perception check (DC 15) will notice claw marks as the primary source of damage.
The doorway to P10 is locked with a padlock and can be unlocked with a DC 17 Thieves’ Tools check.

P10. Troll’s Den

This room is not lit, contains the bones of many dead fish, and smells putrid. There is 1 Troll in this room.
A DC 17 Investigation check will find a gemmed golden lure in the carcass of a dead fish worth approximately 50 gold pieces.

P11. Bymraynyl, The White Dragon

This room contains Bymraynyl, a young adult white dragon, who has just freed herself from Tirrog’s chains. She is visibly wounded and only has half of her health.
She will try to reason with the adventurers to let her go but is ready to fight if they will not.
If the players choose to free Bymraynyl, she will excavate a small amount of ice and reveal a +2 Breastplate hidden in the ice, which they are free to take.

P12. Tirrog, The Frost Giant

Tirrog sits patiently in this well-lit icy throne room, waiting for his challengers. Before engaging with the adventurers, he gently pats a large wooden chest next to his throne and says in Giant:
I took all that I could from Pike Rise and it’s all yours should you defeat me. But with your heads, I can return home. Let us see who will be rewarded this day.
The chest contains 15 sapphires worth 25 gold each, 2,000 gold, 2 potions of greater healing, and an Everwarm Blanket.

Random Encounters

Roll 1 4-sided die every hour to determine which monsters return to the palace from their patrol around the lake. All monsters should roam freely as you see fit.

Result	Monsters returning from Patrol
1	3 Duergar Berserkers & 2 Ice Mephits
2	1 Ice Elemental & 4 Ice Mephits
3	1 Troll
4	1 Ice Elemental & 1 Duergar Berserker

Concluding the Adventure
Upon defeating Tirrog, the players will have reached the end of this adventure. If you and your players wish to continue adventuring from this point, this would be an appropriate milestone to increase their character levels to 9.
Thank you for playing through The Frozen Palace of Tirrog. I hope you and your players had a fun time with this adventure!

Magical Items

Everwarm Blanket

Adventuring Gear, very rare
This quilted blanket is surrounded by a comfortably warm aura.
While this blanket is in your inventory, you do not suffer any exhaustion caused by sources of cold.

Ice Cleats

Adventuring Gear, common
These blue metal cleats can be attached to any footwear.
While equipped, ice is not considered difficult terrain when moving across it.

Mimic’s Brew (Brown Ale)

Beer, Uncommon
When you drink this beer, you can change your appearance as though you casted Alter Self for one hour.
An hour after you consume this beer, your tongue hangs from your mouth until you finish a long rest.
The bottom of this potent brown ale is a small layer of slime

Tirrog’s Helmet

Helmet, rare (requires attunement)
You gain a +1 bonus to AC and Constitution saving throws while you where this helmet.
While wearing this helmet, you can gain the “enlarge” effect of the enlarge/reduce spell for 1d4 hours (no concentration required). Once used, this effect cannot be used again until you complete a long rest.

Written by u/GoldWhale & u/JD397
Thanks everyone for your patience with us getting this written up. Much appreciation to my co-author u/JD397 for his work, scouting analysis, and comprehensive background knowledge on where Demidov sat compared to historical players, and the international analysis. Please note, this analysis won’t focus on why Demidov>Levshunov. In terms of BPA, Demidov is nearly unanimously over Levshunov based on consolidated rankings. With the Blackhawks publicly saying they want to go BPA, we hope to establish a case as to why Demidov truly stands above the rest, by a good margin. We hope that this was worth the wait, and we haven’t disappointed anyone who may have wanted more. We’re amateurs, give us a small break 😉
When Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly flipped the decisive card to reveal the number one overall pick, Blackhawks fans were disappointed. They were going to miss out on Macklin Celebrini, the consensus number one center and number one overall player in the draft. After winning Connor Bedard the prior year, many fans were hoping for a one two punch down the middle, their own version of McDavid and Draisaitl, Crosby and Malkin; this was not to be.
Despite the initial dismay, fans were still happy. The Blackhawks won the second lottery, and with that, the rights to select a franchise player at number two overall. Immediately, though, there was debate. Swirling on social media there were rumors that the Blackhawks were predominantly looking at two high end prospects: Ivan Demidov (RW/C) and Artyom Levshunov (D). On one hand Demidov is an elite prospect at wing with excellent hands, creativity, and legitimate top line wing with PPG+ upside. On the other, Levshunov is a dynamic offensive defenseman with a stellar shot, solid size, dynamic skating, and most importantly right-handedness.
The Blackhawks, realistically, need both positions. Last year the Blackhawks iced one of the worst offenses in the entire league, scoring the second least goals behind only San Jose. They also had the fourth worst defense, surrendering 290 goals on the season. Neither are acceptable in the push for a playoff spot in the coming years, but ultimately with number two, you can only choose one of the two players. After our hours of analysis, u/JD397 and I believe there is no debate – as good as Levshunov is, Demidov is closer in skill and projection to Celebrini than anyone else in the draft is to him.
So who is Ivan Demidov? He’s an 18 year old forward playing for SKA 1946, a MHL affiliate of SKA of the KHL. Since the 2023 draft the big story out of the KHL was the dominance of Matvei Michkov. This was a kid who destroyed the MHL by putting up 38 points in 22 games and going PPG+ in the playoffs his D-1 Year. Michkov then outperformed Connor Bedard by putting up 16 points in 7 games at the IIHF U18s in 2021. Michkov was, and still is, borderline generational but there was someone else waiting in his shadow. In his D-1 Year, Ivan Demidov put up 62 points in 41 games, and scored 1.3PPG in the MHL playoffs. While putting up a lower PPG pace than Michkov, Demidov’s game was substantially more well rounded and scouts started to take notice of another potential franchise winger in Ivan Demidov.
Demidov exploded in his D-0 Year, putting up a literal 2.0 PPG pace in the MHL the highest pace ever for a player 18 or under, and the third highest PPG in league history. In the playoffs, despite an injury, Demidov posted a ridiculous 28 points in 17 games. This production was unheard of beforehand and bested Kucherov’s 1.87 point pace at 18. Not only did Demidov have better production AND two way play, but he also did it nearly 7 months younger. Demidov remains a bright spot who is able to elevate his play to the competition. Before talking about playstyle, strengths, comps, projections, etc. it needs to be noted just how dominant Demidov was on the scoresheet.
Now that fans know who Ivan Demidov is, let’s address the elephant in the room. Demidov is Russian and with the political climate worldwide, being a Russian is associated with an inherent risk of a prospect not coming over. Rest assured – there is no such concern in this case. Last year, rumors swirled around Michkov not coming over due to three factors:

1. Michkov did not meet with more than two teams and actively told specific teams he would not play for them.
   
2. Michkov was incredibly difficult to get ahold of predraft and it made scouts and front offices skeptical on his character and desire to come to the NHL.
   
3. Michkov had 3 more years left on his contract with SKA.
   

Demidov, on the other hand, is actively engaging with teams. He’s hosting a workout in Florida before the draft for multiple teams to attend, and is actively having his agent coordinate interviews and meetings with interested front offices. Demidov has publicly declared his intention to come over to the NHL as soon as possible, even venturing so far as to say he’s looking at options for getting out of his KHL contract to get to the NHL for the 24-25 season. Finally, Demidov only has 1 year left on his contract so there isn’t long term concern about losing the ability to develop him internally. An interesting note that we found during analysis was that Demidov’s agent, Dan Milstein, is “hated” in the KHL because of how consistently he pushes for his clients to leave Russia and transition them to the NHL. Even if Demidov is stuck in Russia all of next year, there’s almost zero risk he doesn’t come over.
On Demidov, the other large question that looms is his lack of play in the KHL, and SKA’s decision to play him in the MHL. Despite being the one of the best players in MHL history, Demidov only saw action in 4 KHL games and scored a total of 0 points which has also turned off many scoresheet watchers. Let us reassure you – Demidov was predominantly the 13th forward and played an average of 3-5 minutes per game with unfamiliar linemates. He did not have a chance to play enough to succeed, and built no chemistry with the teammates he was playing with in his limited time. SKA is notorious for handling their prospects poorly. Young players are consistently given limited ice time, especially when they’re expected to leave Russia. Michkov, despite his skill, couldn’t crack the SKA roster in his D-0 or D+1 simply because of this bias. All said, this is not a concern scouts have when it comes to the potential drafting of Demidov.
With the Russia question answered, we believe there is no doubt that Ivan Demidov is the pick to make in the 2024 draft. Ivan Demidov is really really good. He is the complete package for what you look for in a franchise winger. Demidov has excellent hands, dynamic edgework, elite hockey IQ, high end compete and energy, a relentless forecheck, creativity in the offense he provides, solid two way play, and finally rapid speed in terms of release and puck control. There is no one like him in this draft who offers such an elite skillset with no obvious flaws in his game outside of his build. He can also play center when needed which gives him additional offensive flexibility and adds even more dynamism to his game.
While analytics don’t tell the full story, they can often be a useful baseline to build from. The first item we want to call attention to is Byron Bader’s model, which projects Demidov as the best #2OA prospect since Eichel.. Let's again be clear, we don’t put much merit into this due to the low gradings of Carlsson and Laine, but it’s important to contextualize how Bader’s model works. It compares prospects to the league they’re in and projects them out. Demidov dominated the MHL to such a degree that the model favorably views him due to being almost untouched in play, and setting multiple records. Continuing with Hockey Prospecting and Bader, who is an active NHL draft consultant, they project Demidov to be an absolute STUD based on production. No forward who they’ve ever given 99%s to has ever been less than PPG+. Demidov has a very comparable offensive game to Celebrini, and is all but guaranteed to be a star due to his production and skillset. Alanen also projects Demidov to be elite in all 3 zones, and gives him a total RARE grade of 100, due to his next level offense and transition, and above average defensive work despite his assignments. Again, analytics aren’t an end all be all by any means. They’re just an exceptional base to build from when scouts, data scientists and NHL draft consultants unanimously believe a player to be elite. From our research, no prospects with comparable profiles have busted or not succeeded in the NHL.
Whilst reading multiple articles, watching videos on Demidov, and going through tape, we compiled the following scouting report.
Physical Attributes:
Demidov is not very physically imposing, or even one of the most physical players in the draft. He’s expected to show up to the combine around 6ft tall and weighing 170lbs. Admittedly one knock that some scouts have for him is his build and need to bulk up. Thankfully, this is easy to build at the professional level. Nonetheless, Demidov has sturdy base that enables him to dominate around the boards and in front of the net due to his rapid twitch movements and lower body power. Demidov is able to outskate and outwork larger and stronger players by being smart with his legs and driving to the inside consistently when in transition. His remarkable agility and lower-body strength allow him to outmaneuver opponents and maintain possession in tight spaces, or separate for quick attacks or desperation back checking.
Skating:
Demidov's skating is characterized by irregularities; while he exhibits great power on his edges, his transitions suffer due to a wide stance, leading to questionable but explosive pivot work. Despite this, his rapid acceleration and agility enable him to navigate through traffic seamlessly, while his powerful stride generates significant momentum, making him a constant threat in transition. Let’s clear up a misconception; Demidov is not a bad skater. He’s got decent speed, a good handle on body control, power on the inside of his edges and with quick crossovers, etc. His posture and stance need work, but this is something that looks completely fixable at the NHL level. It doesn’t require a rebuild of his skating style, rather a retool that can utilize his edgework as a base. Instead of hunching over at the end of a shift and losing speed and energy, Demidov can rely on quicker small movement cuts on for rapid movement and longer, albeit slower strides while holding himself higher to preserve energy while covering distance. While the 10 and 2 skating that Demidov employs isn’t conventional, it allows him to see a good deal of the ice, and when in close provide breaking speed towards the play. Fixing the reliance on 10 and 2 also offers faster top level skating and easier quick pivoting in a 200ft game, rather than a longer turn. Again, his skating is unorthodox – but it isn’t bad. It’s not mechanically sound, but it can be polished to a high level without a large amount of concern. Because of how unpredictable his skating is now, scouts across the board acknowledge that it potentially even grants an advantage as his body is harder to read.
Scoring Ability:
A natural sniper, Demidov possesses a lethal shot with pinpoint accuracy and a lightning-quick release that catches goaltenders off guard. Whether he's unleashing a blistering wrist shot from the slot or wiring a one-timer on the power play, Demidov consistently finds the back of the net with precision and finesse. One really underrated part of Demidov’s scoring ability comes from the aforementioned elite edgework. Due to how rapidly he can change directions while holding full control over the puck, he can create scoring lanes with almost zero room, and his accuracy is again one of the best we’ve evaluated as amateur scouts in the last few drafts. When there isn’t an immediate opening or shot, Demidov is patient, draws coverage where he wants, and again has no qualms about firing the puck to the net. If there’s one question about his ability to score, it’s his slapshot. He hasn’t had to use it in almost any occasion due to how the offense is structured on SKA 1946, and therefore it’s not as developed as his snap or wrister. This is a relatively minor knock, though. Demidov can take slapshots and find twine without much difficulty, it’s just the least refined part of his goalscoring ability.
Playmaking and Elite Hands:
Demidov has the best hands that we have scouted. Better than McDavid, better than Fantilli, better than Hughes, better than Bedard, better than Michkov, and yes, better than Patrick Kane as a prospect. Yep, that good. Hadi Kalakeche, one of Dobber’s lead scouts says, “…he has THE best handling skill I’ve seen… he’s the closest thing we’ve seen to Pavel Datsyuk since Pavel Datsyuk.” The rapidity of his movement, the purposeful puck placement, the astounding protection rate, and his ability to pull defenders off of him without moving his body is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Again, he has the most individual puck skill and innate offensive talent in the draft. These skills with his hands allow him to become an absolutely next level playmaker. Demidov is crafty, and has a history of faking shots to make a pass, or vice versa to help his team. He’s able to create lanes and take advantage of his puck control by having absolutely next level zone entry to set up the offense on a consistent basis. While his decision making needs some work when it comes to choosing the best move, he almost always makes the right one, and is able to think through solutions when there’s no apparent move forward. Whether it’s a drop pass, running the puck up the boards, a regroup, finding a teammate with a perfectly slotted pass, Demidov has no real ceiling. The only question remains is whether these skills will work as well at the next level. All said though, there’s no real debate between scouts that he’ll be a franchise winger.
Creativity and IQ:
Demidov is electrifying, brilliant, dynamic, innovative, transcendent, and any other adjective you want to use. There is no prospect in this draft with Demidov’s offensive upside, including Macklin Celebrini. As mentioned above, Demidov has been compared to Datsyuk: he is stellar at opening up lanes with his body or finding passes, even if they’re banked off the boards. While Bedard is a guy who was expected to shoot first, Demidov is a passer. This works in his favor, though. Demidov certainly doesn’t lack a scoring touch. His positioning and body will tell goalies and defenders he’s planning to pass and he’s able to quickly change direction using his edges to put a shot on net. His ability to think several steps ahead of the play allows him to execute highlight-reel passes and capitalize on scoring opportunities that others on his team might miss, or simply not have the skill to execute. He’s unpredictable because his vision is at such a high level. He’s got a game reminiscent of Jack Hughes and Patrick Kane, and the way he views the game has scouts absolutely over the moon about his pro projection. There really is nothing that Demidov doesn’t have the ability to do – this year in the MHL he took advantage of the strength of competition and tested it out. Demidov tried different reads, different styles, working more heavily down the middle, shooting, playdriving, etc. We’re blown away by the flexibility that he shows across every facet of the game. A really fun quote to mention from Lassi Alanen, EP’s director of Euro scouting is, “I still have like 100+ unused clips of Demidov's play from this season. He must be the most clippable prospect I've ever watched. Something eye-catching happening almost every shift during his second half of the season.” Demidov’s highlight reel isn’t really a “reel” – that’s just how he plays the game on most shifts that he takes.
Physicality and Defensive Awareness:
Demidov's physicality extends well beyond his height, as he isn't afraid to throw his weight (all 170lbs) around and engage in board battles to win possession. His defensive awareness is equally impressive, as he uses his size and reach to disrupt passing lanes and apply pressure on opposing forwards both in the defensive zone and in the neutral zone, showcasing a commitment to playing a complete, two-way game. As briefly mentioned, Demidov doesn’t exclusively play wing – he plays center too. While he’s not going to be Patrice Bergeron he is capable of handling both ends of the ice, and has consistently improved his defensive play throughout the year.
Work Ethic and Engagement:
While almost all prospects “work hard” to play their best on the ice, Demidov does that little bit more. Despite being a winger, he’s consistently one of the first players up and down the ice. He rarely coasts and drifts around but is engaged rather consistently all around the ice. One thing that’s often hard to teach prospects is how to be aggressive and assertive without being risky. Demidov never worries about challenging his opponents, fighting hard board battles, or giving his all to get back into a play after he’s low after driving to the net. This is something that the Blackhawks LOVE in their players, and should hopefully encourage GMKD to pull the trigger, if everything else didn’t sell him. As we see Demidov continue to improve in skating with NHL coaches, this should only give him more energy to expend in the 200ft game, and improve his engagement across plays. He’s an absolute workhorse, and consistently pushes to improve which evidenced by the massive improvement across this season in the MHL. There’s no reason to think this same drive can’t come through on the NHL level.
Areas to Improve and Questions:
With all the hype around Demidov, it’s hard to initially understand why he’s considered a lower end prospect than Celebrini. Digging in, though, it becomes more clear. While Demidov has the higher ceiling, he also has a much lower floor. The number one factor that limits Demidov is his exposure to higher end competition. The MHL is a good league, but Demidov was ready for the KHL last year. Since he wasn’t exposed to higher end competition there is still question on how much of his skillset will translate when playing higher level men’s hockey. There isn’t an expectation of a problem, but when a player lacks that experience, it undoubtedly makes them more challenging to project. Remember, Demidov didn’t really play meaningful KHL minutes when he got 4 games this year. He got 13th forward exposure and didn’t play with the same linemates that he worked with in the pre-season. Nonetheless, he wasn’t perfect. He did see some questionable decisions while trying to adapt to higher competition. There’s little concern that this is an actual issue, but Demidov needs to grow and play against men, even for a few games, before coming to the NHL. Thankfully, he should have the entire season in 2024-2025, and I haven’t read a single scouting report that expects him to have an issue putting up Michkov+ numbers.
The second factor is skating. Demidov is a good skater, but he’s unorthodox at best. While this skating relies heavily on his edgework which gives him amazing playmaking ability, his pivoting, high end speed, position and stride could all use refinement and improvement. While these are all skating mechanics that are easier to fix, skating is NOT a guarantee. If he’s unable to improve his skating with NHL skating coaches, it could limit his upside. He is still expected to be a top line winger, but it could be the difference between 70+ and 100+ points if skating doesn’t develop. Remember, some scouts view his skating as a “hidden” upside in his game, but improving skating not only gives him more offensive flexibility, but also defensively. There’s room for improvement, and it could be an easier lever to correct to see high rewards from.
The third factor is decision making. Demidov is creative to a fault, but just like in art, not every project works out. With such an advanced toolkit, Demidov needs to work with video coaches to better understand which moveset is appropriate in which scenario and when to deploy it. There’s a difference between decision making and IQ. Decision making is hard to fix when a prospect is set in their ways based on playstyle, but if playstyle is more flexible, then there’s much less of a concern. IQ, on the other hand is uncoachable, and Demidov has arguably the best offensive IQ in the draft. There’s no reason to believe that he can’t fix this, but due to being stuck abroad, and potentially even the MHL again next year, it could take him a bit longer to get up to NHL speed.
The final factor is defense. While it seems that every single forward prospect has a knock on their defense, we can qualify Demidov’s specifics a bit more easily. Demidov is a competent defender, and a very good well rounded player, but again decision making plays a factor in the challenge of projecting him here. While players like Celebrini are dominant both ways, Demidov often doesn’t make the right choice when defending – he has a lot of offensive instincts which have him sit higher on the blue, and while he is always engaged on the puck, he needs to be more responsible in coverage rotations. Off the rush, Demidov doesn’t always read the play correctly, and the inconsistency can create shooting lanes for his opponent. Just like Michkov, he can also cheat on plays where he finds himself a bit further away from a play and loses sight of his defensive assignment. He’s extremely energetic and consistently pushes to get back, but working with him on understanding when to cheat will be important for his development as well. We again want to reemphasize that Demidov plays solid defense and a good two way game, especially for a wingecenter. But there’s room for improvement in terms of bridging the gap between him and other recent prospects like Celebrini, Carlsson, and Johnston.
Pro Projection:
While he doesn’t have the skating that Jack Hughes had, he’s still a great projection and comparable. A smaller but nimble player who isn’t afraid to get involved on the rush, around the boards, or in transition. Demidov’s offensive upside is similar as well – like Hughes, the defense isn’t the best, but he’s able to run an entire offense both on the wing and playing center. He’s creative to a fault, has a great set of hands, and the toolkit to be a consistent top 5 player at his position in the NHL. Pro projections are always hard because you can never guarantee how a player will turn out, whether they’re undrafted or a #1OA, but Demidov is truly all but a sure thing. His creativity rivals players like Nikita Kucherov and Mitch Marner in their ability to think ahead of where the play is, his handling rivals Kane and Datysuk, his defensive play is above average for a winger, he has a great shot comparable to players like Matt Tkachuk, and is a bitch to get off the puck. Even when Demidov is literally on the ground, he’s consistently able to hold possession and find a play with no room left. With a toolkit like his, decent size at an estimated 6ft, there should be no reservations that Demidov should succeed at the next level. Most scouts see his floor around 65-70 points, and his ceiling closer to 120. I stand by the Jack Hughes comp I made earlier. While they differ in skating, they play very similar games, and should expect similar success at the next level.
Quotes:

“He’s got the best hands in the draft… and has made more one-on-one skill plays so far this season than almost any prospect I’ve scouted for any draft. He’s also a pretty engaged off-puck player who keeps his feet moving, hunts pucks on the forecheck, and can turn a steal into a game-breaking play in an instant.”
Scott Wheeler, The Athletic
“Demidov is already a game-breaking forward who can move the puck effortlessly and there’s no question he’d be a fantastic partner to some of the best prospects in the NHL today. His production in the MHL is comparable to Patrick Kane’s 2006-07 season with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights… Demidov is a bonafide first-line winger who will score tons of goals.”
Dayton Reimer, The Hockey Writers
“In a vacuum he’s the most talented forward this draft class has to offer outside of Celebrini. Demidov possesses many of the same traits Celebrini does, only his track record is against younger, more unproven talent."
Sam Cosentino, Sportsnet
“The talent of Demidov is impossible to deny. His raw skills might be the best in terms of offense in the entire draft. His puckhandling, shot, passing, and even skating makes him a unique hockey player and prospect. There are many great offensive players, but not many quite like Demidov. Especially who will also have a great drive and motor to play a strong 200 foot game… he could easily be a point per game player in the NHL on most teams first line.”
Frederik Frandsen, Last Word on Sports
“At the end of the day, what you get in a player like Ivan Demidov is a generational offensive dynamo with the mind of a master chess player. Each time he gains possession of the biscuit, his ability to think many steps ahead of the opponent, find creative solutions involving his puck handling abilities, as well as creating tremendous execution at creating space with his skating or precisely hitting the net is considered to be up to par at the NHL level.”
Tyler Ballesteros-Willard, Draft Prospects Hockey
“Any forward that has ever had the type of equivalency we’ve seen from Demidov in his pre-draft year and draft year, going back to the ’80s, has turned into a point-per-game-plus superstar over their careers… You need stars to compete and contend in the NHL, and Demidov is almost guaranteed to be that.”
Byron Bader, Hockey Prospecting
“Demidov is the most dynamic, verstatile, and creative [puck] handler we’ve seen come through the draft in recent years. Elements of his on-puck decision-making remain raw, but his upside as a 100-point top-line winger is supported by decent off-puck and defensive engagement and lightning-quick processing of the game. His elite-level of on-puck intelligence and his trifecta of dynamic handling, playmaking, and goalscoring tools give him the foundation to become an electrifying creative force and offensive driver.”
Sebastian High, Dobber
“Demidov breaks defences. He spots a tiny gap in coverage, bursts right through, and blows it open. He plays mostly a finesse game, but does so hyper-aggressively, attacking everything he can. Demidov succeeds at pulling off plays that most prospects can't. He plans, processes, and anticipates faster than he can stickhandle. He's a pure creator with the puck, making plays out of nothing.”
David St. Louis, Elite Prospects
“Demidov is the more dynamic and flashy prospect [Than Michkov].Demidov is the single-most gifted handler in the entire 2024 class. He projects to be the superior one-on-one attacker…someone who can single-handedly create out of thin air. When it comes to passing ability…Demidov’s ability to chain together handling sequences into following passing plays is second to none.”
Lassi Alanen, Elite Prospects
“It’s a no brainer[at #2OA]. It’s Ivan Demidov all day, every day, 24/7. You run to the stage and pick him… if you ask me, Ivan Demidov is better than Matvei Michkov… He’s the only prospect in our rankings who we gave a 10 grade to for a specific ability. It’s not just the handling skill in isolation it’s the creativity. He comes up with solutions no one can expect.. his motor is underrated, puts in work defensively… it’s a no brainer there.”
Hadi Kalakeche, Locked on NHL/Dobber

Our Scouting:
Clip 1:
As we talked about prior, Demidov has a great IQ and the ability to create lanes and plays out of nothing. Demidov pushes up the ice and enters the zone with pressure closing onto the side. He uses his hands to pull in control, but more impressively, puts his body between the defender and the puck. He uses his edgework and breaking speed to push past the defender, then is patient enough to draw 3 defenders towards him, away from his teammate. When he sees the trailing defenseman waiting, he immediately finds a tight pass for a wide open teammate to capitalize.
Clip 2:
There’s a difference between a safe move, and then there’s an insane move. Watch as Demidov comes up on the left side. He sees that the defender is getting desperate and goes for a large poke. Demidov slides the puck under the Dman’s stick and once again shows off his patience. Instead of going for a quick shot he reads that the other defender is slowly coming across the crease to prevent a passing lane. Instead of just shooting like most players, Demidov baits the goalie into thinking he’s going to run into the defenseman, and in that second, puts the puck in the net.
Clip 3:
Small play, but this is just about how slick his passing is. He slides the puck through a very tight lane while baiting the defenseman into sliding due to not knowing where the play is going to be.
Clip 4:
While we can put on nonstop highlights, it’s also important to see how smart Demidov’s game is. Demidov and the other SKA players move the puck around a bit trying to find an opening until they give it to Demidov. Demidov reads an open play and passes the puck down, but instead of immediately following the puck or staying at his spot, Demidov uses his high engagement to instead move to the other side of the net down low to offer accessory support for his teammates on his anticipated cross crease pass, should there have been a rebound.
Clip 5:
Not every highlight is going to be a goal. One really underrated part of Demidov’s game is how well he’s able to read the offense. As he holds high initially, he’s able to help move the puck out in order to reset the offense when the play fails. His motor keeps him in the play and with his excellent edges, he’s able to make a quick pivot after rushing around in order to step up and create an open shooting lane. While his teammate can’t make the pass to get the puck to him, Demidov read where the play WOULD be, not just where it was. Those IQ aspects really can’t be taught, and are part of what makes him so special. By anticipating the open play rather than following the puck, he establishes himself as a play driver by creating options rather just following and executing structure at a high level.
Clip 6:
We're not even going to analyze this one. It’s just fucking fun. Talent oozes.
Clip 7:
This video has a ton of highlights, which I’d definitely recommend watching, but we’re going to focus specifically on the play at 0:45. We can post clips of Demidov scoring goals, finding breakaways, etc. all day long, but when thinking about translation to the NHL, IQ and decision making is what we’re really drying to drill down on. Demidov arrives in the zone through to middle and pushes the initial F1 to the F3 spot and changes the rotation. The puck is dumped to him and the initial F1 leaves a drop pass for Demidov approaching the goal. As soon as Demidov gets the puck, at 0:47, you can see him primed and in a good shooting position. The bigger defender misread the play and has drifted too far towards the center of the ice, leaving Demidov with a nearly unobstructed shooting lane as the netfront defenseman is also too far toward the middle. Instead of taking the shot, he instead waits to draw over the netfront defenseman, and the bigger defenseman closer towards him, leaving his teammate literally untouched across the crease. Demidov trusts his hands and ability with an extremely quick and accurate pass through the stick range of three defenders to find his teammate wide open. His decision making has been progressively improving and his ability to look off the shot to find an elite pass will translate extremely well to the next level.
Clip 8:
Another play where you can just be excited about Demidov. The puck is wrapped up around the boards and the defenseman sitting at the top of the blue just pushes the puck back into the zone without a clear target, or a player who has an explicit opening to the puck. If anything, the puck is put in the middle of all 5 Karpat skaters. Despite starting on the outside, Demidov’s engagement shines through where he uses his edgework to get a rapid explosive burst of speed, and pushes through both defenders in front of him to gain possession. Once he gains possession, his ability to control the puck, and his handles help to demonstrate just how strong of a prospect Demidov is. Even when the defender is falling onto him, Demidov is patient, makes the netfront defender bite to believe he’s going wide, creating a lane (effectively bypassing 3 separate Karpat players) to get to the goalie unobstructed. Then, his hands come out and he absolutely undresses the netminder with moves that the video literally cannot fully capture. He makes highlights like this look routine, every single game.
Clip 9:
Sometimes when you see a play it’s hard to say anything but wow. Demidov leads the rush through the neutral zone and reads the coverage a much less conventional 1-4 scheme. The offensive rush is a bit unconventional as well, but can offer a smart solution. By having 3 attackers, two concentrated up the middle and one wide, it allows for quick movement up the middle, and post defensive collapse onto the puck, a pass to the outside for a clear entry lane and shot. Demidov passes to his teammate directly across the center of the ice as he expects that teammate to immediately get puck to their teammate on the outside as coverage collapses. Demidov gauges where the openings are pre pass, as evidenced by the head movement. Unfortunately, instead of immediately passing again to the outside for an open lane, his teammate runs into pressure, and panics. He passes back to Demidov who is less than 8ft away and will inevitably will run into immediate pressure as well. Somehow, this is no problem for Demidov. He collects the puck with the literal tip of his stick, uses his body push the defender off, and then pulls the puck in while facing the wrong direction to slip past the defender. Despite being placed in a no win situation his hands and creativity shine through and he creates a clean lane to shoot the puck at the net. It’s almost inhuman what he’s able to do with his hands. When he gets to the net, he’s patient, baits the goalie, pulls wide, and then puts in a clean backhand. Some of these highlights are literally awe-inspiring.
Closing Thoughts:
If this scouting report doesn’t get you excited for Demidov, we don’t think anything will. He’s truly the most electric player in the draft with absolutely ridiculous hands, compete, dynamic play, and highlight reel performance. His IQ is next level, and his hands allow him to do truly amazing things with his skillset and competency. Demidov’s vision is absurd; he consistently makes passes to his teammates without looking, or sends a pass before a teammate has a clean break by using anticipation. These RARELY lead to a turnovers and are often not only creative but unorthodox methods to continue to move the puck up ice. Although his skating is unorthodox, he’s explosive, able to create comprehensive offensive maneuvers due to quick transitions, and make off angle passes with ease due to his edgework. He is elite in transition and able to run a breakout, an offense, and play any of the F1/F2/F3 roles when the situation calls for it. Despite his expected size of “only” 6ft 170lbs, Demidov knows how to use his body and hands. He not only protects the puck on offense but can draw defenders away from his teammates in predictable patterns, once again opening up space for him to capitalize. The same goes for defense where he's able to use his positioning to get the edge on his opponents for a rapid takeaway or a box out off the rush.
As we mentioned earlier, Demidov’s game isn’t limited only to offense, he has a decent understanding of the two way game as well. He’s a relentless forechecker, aggressive on the boards, and also always willing to use his high running motor to jump back into a play that leaves the zone, even if he’s right next to the net. Demidov has the most skill and raw talent out of any player in this draft, including Celebrini. Had Demidov not been demoted to the MHL due to SKA’s poor management, there is almost no doubt that he would be considered nearly neck and neck with Celebrini. As it is now, Demidov is ranked #2 on most boards, and the overall #2 in the consolidated ranking. Demidovs don’t come around often; people last year were genuinely considering whether Michkov was at Bedard’s level. Demidov rivals Michkov if not exceeds him.
You can nitpick the analysis we have of any one single aspect of Demidov. Not everyone buys analytics. Not everyone buys playmaking in a lower league. Not everyone likes irregular skating. Not everyone is on board with the MHL stat sheet, our hype etc. etc. We get it. Really, we do. But at the end of the day, when you step back and appreciate the full body of work, the comps, the analytics, the rave scouting reports, unanimous love, models, stat sheets, skill, work ethic, and more that ALL say that this kid is elite, there’s fire beyond the smoke. Demidov is THE guy. There should not be a debate at #2.
For those of you who made it to the end, thanks for reading! Ultimately we know there will be inevitable debate about a prospect, but we appreciate you hearing us out, and at least letting me, u/GoldWhale, spam the sub over the last few weeks in love of Demidov. Whether or not you agree with our analysis, we encourage you to do your own scouting, read from the authors we've included, watch through all the highlights in the linked videos, and draw your own conclusions!
We appreciate everyone in this community, and will try to answer any questions that you may have in the comments. If you so choose, please feel free to crosspost to other subs, edit, or utilize this writeup anywhere you like (forums/blogs/youtube etc.), just link back to our original post! For those in professional media who have contacted us with the hope of utilizing our writeup, feel free, again just link back to the original post as well. Thanks again!

Note: Template for post courtesy of u/YakFuji, copying for purposes of record keeping this week. Except for some editing to plug in information from this week's challenge, all credit should go to u/YakFuji.

What Is Fashion Report?

It's a weekly event held at the Gold Saucer where you can earn in excess of 60,000 MGP (10,000 for taking part, 50,000 for scoring 80 or more... you can get more using FC or personal MGP buffs) a week just by equipping some glamours. After weekly reset; we get hints as to a set of glamours we need to wear which is then up for scoring on Friday. It's the same for everyone so even if you don't want to join in with the guessing game below; you can wait for the results and present your outfit and get some easy MGP. Current and previous results can also be found on this query thread or alternatively follow Kaiyoko for the Friday results thread.
Best guess is worked out by historical results (repeat results) or in the case of new clues, community effort
Kaiyoko will usually have the results post up upon Friday reset

Hints For This Week

Theme

[EN] Draped for the Storm [JP] [DE] [FR] [CN] [KO] 

Head

[EN] To Chains [JP] [DE] [FR] [CN] [KO] 

Body

[EN] Drapes of Wrath [JP] [DE] [FR] [CN] [KO] 

Legs

[EN] Storm of Blood [JP] [DE] [FR] [CN] [KO] 

Feet

[EN] Armored Core [JP] [DE] [FR] [CN] [KO] 

** Google Translate

Sources

[EN] https://imgur.com/a/GOVg7kv
[JP]
[DE]
[FR]
[CN]
[KO]

Template

Please if you have the other languages and can translate; include native language and translation e.g."With Pockets (Mit Taschen)"Template For Answer... English Language (Local Language)

[Theme] _ () [Body ] _ () [Hands] _ () [Legs ] _ () [Feet ] _ () [IMG ] _ [URL TO IMAGE] ([link to /r profile] username) 

Best guess is worked out by historical results (repeat results) or in the case of new clues, community effort
Kaiyoko will usually have the results post up upon Friday reset