Grenat Querroux

Thanks for the replies. Might do that, although it's not the end of the world if one isn't found. I do think that the subrace would benefit from some kind of dedicated OOC community, if for no other reason than because it's still pretty vaguely described in canon. So it might be cool to coordinate some of the player-created lore that I know is out there about clans, customs, etc. Always glad to see that. A quick skim of your writing tag suggests Sonelle's got more than her fair share of Duskie baggage, too.

I'm curious to learn whether such a thing exists at the moment. A while back, there was the Moon's Dusky Den which, although a bit sedate, filled the niche. Far as I can tell, however, it has dissolved.

Thanks, Sounsyy. Impressively exhaustive as always and contains plenty of nuance I had missed. The bit about the moogles mediating the rapprochement is especially cool - they seem to like fixing things almost as much as Ascians like to break them. As is the notion of amber dispelling enchantment and perhaps acting as a talisman against Elemental influence. Do you have any more details on the sacking of Gelmorra by the Wildwoods specifically? I had (erroneously, apparently) thought that the city simply decayed/collapsed as a natural result of the mass exodus to the surface. Its active destruction seems like the kind of event that would wedge itself pretty firmly in the Duskwight historical memory, even for our various vague lineages/peripheral clans.

Although I cannot find the primary source, there seems to be a consensus among the various lore wikis that the Sixth Umbral Era (the great flood) happened about 1500 years ago. Since we know that the flood was a direct punishment for the misuse of magic in Fifth Astral, it is probably reasonable to assume that the Elementals would not permit surface settlement after the waters settled, and subterranean civilisation flourished under the Black Shroud. Which gives us a very rough idea of the interval of time (1500-500 y.a.) when the city would have been built and flourished. I had always assumed that the civilisation collapsed and Gelmorra had fallen into misuse once the early Padjali/conjurer types convinced the Elementals to allow the Elezen back up to the forest. Wouldn't be long enough for genetic divergence in our boring real world, but who really cares about that. So, I agree it'd be fair to claim Gelmorran descent, it wasn't that long ago, as long as one keeps a light touch and doesn't over-describe the traditions, etc., that come with it. Tinkering with the NPC clan my own character came out of, I'd assumed they were a bunch of families at the periphery of the Gelmorran civilisation (not city itself) who took over a small network of caverns during the chaos of the surface return five centuries ago and never looked back. I found the old Duskwight Discussion thread here on the site quite useful when thinking about these things.

On the economic front, the FTSE 100 stock index (higher cap with many internationals) has rallied - by all accounts solely because investors realised that the invocation of Article 50 will take more time than expected and business will continue as usual for a few months. FTSE 250 (more UK-centric) remains pretty awful, and the less said about the pound, the better. There is a real concern that once 'the City', (colloquial name for London's financial services centre, derived from the central area of the metropolis where many of the firms are headquartered) loses its ability to trade in euro-denominated securities, the financial industry will stampede to the Continent, which would hurt the economy considerably. Actually, that's another thing worth underlining: in contrast with participation in free trade zones, bilateral free trade agreements do not tend to be concluded in blanket, catch-all terms. They tend to go industry-by-industry, which is how advantages get extracted by parties with better leverage. The EU will be happy to trade freely in commodities and manufactured goods, where it has the upper hand, but not in financial services, the UK's domain. The 'Regrexit' petition (cute hashtag if there ever was one) has gotten something on the order of 4 million signatures, and the US Secretary of State has made headlines this morning by saying that the vote could be walked back because no one among the country's leadership has any idea how to actually go about getting the process started. While that strikes me as cozy wishful thinking, it is telling just how quiet the leaders of leave have been after their victory, and how little planning for the consequences of that victory was apparently done. One American op-ed invoked the cliché of a car-chasing dog perplexed by having actually caught one, and it's kind of hard to argue with that image. Scotland's special fast-track to the EU is indeed opposed by Spain and possibly other nations with restive independence-minded regions of their own, but Sturgeon is continuing her meetings with EU officials, and a new poll suggests that support for Scottish independence has been bolstered significantly from the 2014 referendum. As against that, the economic case for secession from the UK is far from persuasive. It is yet another one of the things that will take years to sort out. And, on a sad note, a big rise in reports of anti-immigrant hate crimes and abuse has been noted immediately following the vote, about 57% according to the National Police Chiefs' Council. My own dim opinion of Brexit aside, I suppose one thing that folks supportive of leave and remain can agree on, for the benefit of the American perspective which started this thread in the first place: succeed or fail, it's a pretty educational test case with some easy translations to American politics. Nativism and protectionism versus globalisation and international structures. Worth paying attention.

One thing worth adding to this, perhaps [edit: which Scarlet has already, but may as well underscore it] is that it will take years to disentangle the UK from the EU. Technically, the referendum has accomplished nothing in and of itself. It just made the popular will known. The UK government will have to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and initiate the whole process. So, nothing actually changes overnight. The UK government could even theoretically refuse to act on the referendum, but of course that would be politically impossible. It can, however, take its time with implementation. Going to follow the OP's request not to get polemical about this but I will say at least that it is hugely disappointing, to me. A victory for precisely the forces that ought not to be winning, on any side of the Atlantic or the English Channel.