These Flimsy Rituals

“And so the first Assembly formed, as our whole revolution broad and various, came with their grievances and their doubts, their dreams and their ideals, and their hopes for what would come next”

~~~

In the shifting halls of Winter’s Lodge, Embrace’s first People’s Assembly meets. The various revolutionary factions coalesce, attempting to find common ground and a shared path forward.

We play a very loose hack of The Quiet Year, by Avery Alder, adapted to tell a story of the early days of a revolution. There are loose alliances, attempts to find consensus and meaning, and wrangling over what the revolution actually means.

~~ FACTIONS AND THEIR NOTABLE MEMBERS ~~

The Ginnels: A group of radicals formed mostly from the workers of Calvary. They are radical and focused on direct action. They demand a total dismantling of Embrace’s political structures. Notable members: Boleth Erul Cater (prominent revolutionary), Boctive Deign (revolutionary thinker) Nilkat (firebrand and organiser), Xenarus Crow (Maybe leader)

People’s Ward of Atrium: Formed from a mix of Atrium’s workers, shopkeepers and lower-middle classes. They are internally divided between those who see reform as a path forward, and those more radical who align closely to the Ginnels. Notable members: Serrivomer Glass (Warden of Atrium), Coryl nim Triss (prominent shopkeeper)

The Associated Interests of Tail’s End: A group of ghosts seeking community and purpose, drawn into the revolution by necessity. Notable members: Trilvo (matron of Tail’s End), Artelish Scarren (clerk)

The Loven Street Baricadeers: A mix of radicals, criminals and workers from Loven Street, initially striking over rent. Notable members: Brahal Fret (Viol leader), Branch (Liklihood Lad clerk)

Winter’s Lodge: A group of weavers and ghosts, offering sanctuary to those who need it. Notable members: Environ Yves (weaver), Ido Ozk Erut (weaver)

Laceport Beneficiaries: Seeking protection for the docks and recognition for their communal membership model. They control trade for the revolution.

~~~

Episode title from Sitting on a Fence, by The Housemartins

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w state/police violence (intro: 1:30-4:20), injury descriptions, discussions of death and post-death, family drama

“The rest knew only the ryne of power. They were blades singing to be used, even if by a tyrant’s hand. They came with their Bismuth nooses and gave Mawk’s Mantle its name.”

~~~

Embrace bleeds. The nim Shifs are ascendant, their political rivals defeated. The tide was turning on the revolution. But then comes Winter’s Lodge, breaking through the night and bringing the dawn. It’s not only the nim Shifs that feel blessed by the arrival of the sun.

In the new day, the Jubilant Maybe make their plans. It’s time to strike hard.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Crik Rise: Leader of the Flint Street Knappers. Once a friend of Ezra and Nilkat.

Foible: The second ghostly member of the Jubilant Maybe, murdered by the nim Shifs and the Swifts.

Galena nim Ovid: Leader of the Umbral Provenders, who led them into an alliance with Lilylium. Ash’s Aunt.

Oxbow Lake: A member of the Jubilant Maybe, partner to Foible.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A former(?) member of the Shepherds of the Roil, sworn to keep envoys from Embrace. Ivar’s sister.

Serrivomer Glass: The unofficial Warden of the People’s Ward of Atrium. Revolutionary leader in hiding.

Cherib & Zedek nim Gorse: Neah’s parents. Respected members of Embrace’s upper-middle class.

Amris, Caoimhe & Panna Graft: Ezra’s family. Amris is the adoptive mam to them all and the leader of the Painted Hands.

Avery, Dalton and Mariana Pinder: Ash’s parents, run a shop in Atrium. Mariana was arrested for standing up to the Swifts.

~~ PLACES ~~

Atrium: An old neighbourhood near the docks, once home to wholesale markets and cafes. Bordered by the Castings, the Tear and the headquarters of the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers.

Calvary: The most densely packed warded, full of too-small houses and windmill factories. There are rumours you can disappear into the Cut if you take the wrong turn.

Hinter: At the tip of Embrace’s tail. A mixing ground of working class residents and upper-class visitors from neighbouring Acreage, come to watch races at its stadium.

Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. Shifting architecture home to the gall.

~~~

Episode title from So Sad (So Sad) by Martha

~~~

Find the show @flimsyrituals or flimsyrituals.com

Support us at patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w bribery, death threats, family conflict

“Within a matter of weeks all manner of scandal and blackmail, violence and assassination incident brought the council to its knees. And we were left unsure as to whether to celebrate its demise, or fear what appeared in its place. The nim Shifs ascendant, a dictatorship ruled by Valour and Vigor. The Sunspear banners like summer’s flowers blooming on near every corner.”

~~~

The streets of Acreage are broad and open. Despite the many-storied towering of the terraces, golden light always seems to bathe the ward.

There was a time when living in this ward wasn’t much coveted. It was a place of field, farm and vineyard; most of those who lived here worked on those estates. Limbus and Holm, both close to the bridges and markets, were the preferred wards of Embrace’s burgeoning middle classes.

But as fortunes grew and the city’s economy shifted, as political power diffused from Crown’s Ait to the Marrow, houses amongst the greenery seemed preferable to those amongst the new-raised factories.

It’s inside one of Acreage’s terraces that Neah Gorse waits. A trap closes around saim. Power’s hand extends from Crown’s Ait, to place a dagger against sair neck.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

The nim Gorse’s (Cherib and Zedek): Neah’s parents. They are respected members of Embrace’s upper-middle class.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

Acreage: Filled with farmland and vineyards growing crops for the city’s elite. Terraces on the riverbank house the upper-middle classes.

~~~

Episode title from Lofticries by Purity Ring

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w arrest, difficult parent/child relationships, lost pets

“You ever done much gardening Belka? You know how you never really see a sapling appear out of the soil. Just one morning it’s there? It was like that and, honest, it was hard to believe that it hadn’t always been there.”

~~~

For the first time that anyone living has known, the dawn breaks perfect across Embrace. Glorious, amber rays carry with them a new day.

The Jubilant Maybe watch it unfold from above the city. Ezra, Ash, Neah and Ivar exit the cut amongst the familiar bone-rooted buildings of Skulltop; meanwhile Oken, brings with him the unfamiliar. He’s hauled the Winter’s Lodge, in its entirety, back into the city.

What to do with this misplaced piece of geography isn’t the only issue the Jubilant will have to contend with, as they catch up with friends and family.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

Amris Graft: Ezra’s mam. A community organiser and member of the Painted Hands.

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Eviron Yves: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

The nim Gorse’s (Cherib and Zedek): Neah’s parents. They are respected members of Embrace’s upper-middle class.

Nilkat: A former factory mechanic, turned revolutionary. A member of the Ginnels and our story’s narrator.

The Pinders (Avery, Dalton and Mariana): Ash’s family, a group of Atrium shopkeepers.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A keen-eyed member of the Shepherds of the Roil. Ivar’s long-lost sister.

Sirus: Deputy of Tail’s End.

Trilvo: The matriarch of Tail’s End. A doctor, used to working on ghosts and spirit.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

Swifts: Embrace’s police force. Once a ragtag militia, formed of ward locals, they have been armed and outfitted by the nim Shifs.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Winter’s Lodge: A place pulled out from the cut. A shifting collection of mismatched architecture. A shell for the gall.

~~~

Episode title from The One to the East and West by Cinder Well

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w insects, eating of an envoy, temporary hearing loss

"The Gall, naturally, fell into Oken’s hands. That discarded thing, relic lost and living, vessel to a remnant’s power. I’m not sure whether then or later, he understood the potential of what he carried. Raised himself on power’s sap, could he truly read its dread portent? Maybe he saw it only as ember, in the carcass the jackal only sees a thing to be consumed, it does not behold the new life promised in the ground beneath."

~~~

The Jubilant continue facing off against Lilylium. Oken has just struck a decisive blow against one of the ancient envoy’s segments, but in doing so has revealed that he is the one carrying the gall.

The Jubilant are in over their heads. They’re fighting an envoy and now it knows with full certainty what its target is.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Foible: A former member of the Ginnels, a protest prepper. Killed by the Swifts on the night of the earthquake.

Midrib: One of Atrium’s dodgers, who sells the scrap, trinkets and treasures they find in the Castings. Ash’s pal.

Lilylium: An ancient and powerful envoy, rumoured to have survived Caerdroia. Seems desperate to claim the Gall and has allied with some of Embrace’s most powerful to do it.

Renna: A former Dodger. Joined Roan’s gardens after she found the strange caves beneath Atrium during the first earthquake.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A keen-eyed member of the Shepherds of the Roil. Ivar’s long-lost sister.

Valour nim Shif: The leader of the nim Shif family, alongside her twin, Vigor. A ruthless, ambitious and calculating politician.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

The Winter’s Lodge: A group of weavers and spirits who call the lodge their home. They provide a halfway-house to those who need it, largely ghosts new to the Cut.

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

Episode title from Nina Simone's Sinnerman.

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w insect-like envoy

“Lilylium was the second. Envoy born before there was Embrace, before there was Alamire. In many ways we were lucky that it was the Jubilant that faced them, even if it was to be in the labyrinth they’d made their hunting grounds.“

~~~

Hi! A quick announcement: we are now on Patreon! If you enjoy the show and want to support what we do you now can at patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals.

We’ve got a few tiers. Anything over a £1 a month gives you access to our episode notes (which are excellent and entertaining and written by Thryn each episode), through to our £8 level which lets you watch our monthly livestream where we talk about our prep and worldbuilding.

Thank you all for continuing to listen to and support the show!

~~~

Lilylium comes. The envoy’s forces, arranged around the Winter’s Lodge, move in to attack. They mean to take the gall for themselves.

The various allies inside the lodge can do little but attempt to buy enough time - to move the lodge’s inhabitants and the gall beyond Lilyium’s reach.

The Jubilant Maybe face Lilylium themselves. They mean to distract the ancient envoy, to draw their attention away from the lodge. Little do the Jubilant know that the gall is actually in their midst, carried inside Oken’s body.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Foible: A former member of the Ginnels, a protest prepper. Killed by the Swifts on the night of the earthquake.

Midrib: One of Atrium’s dodgers, who sells the scrap, trinkets and treasures they find in the Castings. Ash’s pal.

Lilylium: An ancient and powerful envoy, rumoured to have survived Caerdroia. Seems desperate to claim the Gall and has allied with some of Embrace’s most powerful to do it.

Renna: A former Dodger. Joined Roan’s gardens after she found the strange caves beneath Atrium during the first earthquake.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A keen-eyed member of the Shepherds of the Roil. Ivar’s long-lost sister.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

The Winter’s Lodge: A group of weavers and spirits who call the lodge their home. They provide a halfway-house to those who need it, largely ghosts new to the Cut.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

Episode title from Fighting My Way Back by Thin Lizzy

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Support us on patreon patreon.com/theseflimsyrituals

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w arrest

“But while we fought for the right to weave our own fates, the Jubilant stood defiantly against the forces of regression. The Cut has always been the domain of the dead and the ghostly, weighed down by the heft what came before. The labyrinth echoed with the siren song of glories past."

~~~

The Jubilant Maybe arrive at the Winters Lodge besieged. The displaced gardeners of the Green, and other strange allies beside, in tow.

Their intent is to check in on the weavers who call the lodge home and the revolutionaries who have sought shelter here. However, they meet a familiar face, Oken, who can’t quite believe that his new-found friends haven’t been lost amidst the irregular beat of his timeline. The crew is back together again.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Boctive Deign: A charismatic and cunning revolutionary, whose radical treatises on Embrace are widely distributed and eagerly read.

Eviron Yves: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Ido Ozk Erut: A prominent member of the Winter’s Lodge, who manages a lot of the day-to-day functions.

Lilylium: An ancient and powerful envoy, rumoured to have survived Caerdroia. Seems desperate to claim the Gall and has allied with some of Embrace’s most powerful to do it.

Mariana Pinder: An Atrium shopkeeper with a warm smile and a love for a good argument. Ash’s mum.

Rhian Fetch-Grimoire: A keen-eyed member of the Shepherds of the Roil. Ivar’s long-lost sister.

Roan nim Ovid: A former Umbal Provender who left to study the strangeness of the Cut. Ash’s cousin, Galena’s child.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

The Fettled Green: A community within the cut, created by Roan. A boundless garden, thicketed with experimental growth.

The Winter’s Lodge: A group of weavers and spirits who call the lodge their home. They provide a halfway-house to those who need it, largely ghosts new to the Cut.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

Episode title from Lord, Beer Me Strength by Onsind

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w possession, injury

“It shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that for some, the Cut were a better home than Embrace above. There were many who’d take dangerous strangeness over the hatred and oppression of the city proper.”

~~~

The Jubilant find themselves outside the Fettled Green, the lush garden in the Cut grown by Roan nim Ovid. Getting in is a problem though. It has balled itself up, roots knotted, the Cut folded around it.

And, they are not the only ones trying to find their way into the Green. There are people here, scratching and scraping at those twisted walls. Amongst them is a familiar face, Midrib, the dodger sent down here to find out what had happened to the garden.

Ash sets off an explosion, Ezra gets protective, Neah communes with a ghost, Ivar gets told off and Topaz has her loyalties tested.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Galena nim Ovid: The imposing head of the Umbral Provenders and Ash’s aunt. She has ambitious plans for the city.

Midrib: One of Atrium’s dodgers, who sells the scrap, trinkets and treasures they find in the Castings. Ash’s pal.

Mikaja Stave: A member of the Death’s Defiant, fancies himself a gun-slinger. Has taken a (dis)liking to Ivar.

Renna: A former Dodger. Joined Roan’s gardens after she found the strange caves beneath Atrium during the first earthquake.

Roan nim Ovid: A former Umbral Provender who left to study the strangeness of the Cut. Ash’s cousin, Galena’s child.

Winter’s Yawl: An ancient ghost, plotting in the gaps between the cobbles. Allied with Lilylium.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Death’s Defiant: A group of spirits, hijacking bodies to further their plans. They are led by Winter’s Yawl and yoked to sair ambitions.

The Fettled Green: A community within the cut, created by Roan. A boundless garden, thicketed with experimental growth.

~~ PLACES ~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

Episode title from Everyone Up to the Wall by Blackbird Raum

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

CW: possession, body horror, use of corpses, insects, uncertain reality

"But you know what unites the theories we had about that place? In all of them, the Cut is subject. It’s something attached, a barnacle lodged to the city.

But the Cut is not addition or reflection or parasite. It’s not mirror, but window - mud-caked, fogged and frosted. If we’re lucky, we can spy glimpses of the silhouettes inside. We can see the wonder, a whole ecosystem - spirit-grown and built from alien perspective."

~~~

For millennia, the Winter’s Lodge has sat as anchor in the midst of the Cut. An enormity of forlorn architecture, stubborn and static. In that time it has been multitudes - temple and estate, battleground and meeting place, staging-post and hideout.

For the last few centuries though, it has been home to a covenant of weavers and spirits. They have turned it into a sanctuary, a halfway-house, a home.

It is here that Oken wakes. He finds himself in a room unexpectedly warm and comfortable, but this is not to last. The weavers of the lodge have taken on uncanny housemates. Mel is here - amongst her rebuilt hivemind - and she means to hold Oken to his promises.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Carn nim Daker: The slayer of Caerdroia and Rodella, the founder of the Jackals.

Eviron Yves: A weaver. The Winter’s Lodge, look to their wisdom for guidance.

Lillylium: An ancient and powerful envoy, rumoured to have survived Caerdroia.

Mel: Once an envoy of the remnant, Relict. Brought to Embrace with Oken, she has rebuilt her gestalt consciousness beneath the city.

Soka: A teenager who tried to rob Oken’s sanctum. She is now a part of Mel’s hivemind.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

The Winter’s Lodge: A group of weavers and spirits who call the lodge their home. They provide a halfway-house to those who need it, largely ghosts new to the Cut.

~~~

Episode title from Leisure Bees by Tacocat.

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak and special guest Nate Crowley.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

CW: possession, bothering animals

"I sent them to the Cut because it seemed like the best place for them. It's obviously not a safe-house, but it were out of the authority's control. As close to out of the city as I could get the Jubilant.  They'd still have to survive, to be canny; but at least there wouldn't be half a city baying for their blood. If I'd known what was waiting for them down there...

I don't know. I' don't think there was any other choice to make..."

~~~

The Jubilant Maybe lay low in the Cut. While they look for clues about the whereabouts of Oken, they have a chance to catch their breath and pay attention to their surroundings. 

First on the agenda is finding a way to the strange garden that Roan nim Ovid had been cultivating under Atrium. The Ginnels have had no word from them since the Earthquake. The messenger that they sent out, Midrib, has gone missing too. The Jubilant begin their search, trying to trace a path through the unmappable.

Ash looks for familiar markings, Neah plays with strange light, Ezra recruits new messengers and Ivar finds a pub (kind of).

~~~ PEOPLE ~~~

Foible: A former member of the Ginnels, a protest prepper. Killed by the Swifts on the night of the earthquake.

Midrib: One of Atrium’s dodgers, who sells the scrap, trinkets and treasures they find in the Castings. Ash’s pal.

Roan: A former Umbal Provender who left to study the strangeness of the Cut. Related to Ash and Galena.

~~~ FACTIONS ~~~

The Garden: A garden cultivated by Roan nim Ovid and Renna under Atrium. They grow strange plants inside the Cut, experimenting with its weird natures.

~~~ PLACES ~~~

The Cut: A ghostly echo of Embrace. Caerdroia’s labyrinth unspooled into unknowable maze. A broken assortment of bismuth lined tunnels that runs over, under and parallel to the physical city.

~~~

Episode title from Guising by There Will Be Fireworks

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin