These Flimsy Rituals

c/w graphic descriptions of violence and death, natural disaster

“The earthquake that rocked through the city would only be a footnote. A disaster that many would tie to other events of that day. Because, at the same time as our protest, the rest of the Jubilant were over the other end of the city. And they were about to do something really fucking stupid.”

~~~

When Oken killed Relict, the Sun Spear was his weapon. This legendary artefact, long held by the nim Shif family, is no longer in Oken’s hands. Instead, an imposter wields it. A scion from the family who have disowned him, masquerading as him. Oken would do anything to take it back.

As Hulling Day continues, many citizens in Limbus Ward turn to celebration, not protest. It has been a long time since the Ochre Hull wreaked destruction on their streets. Today the hero that protected them, Oken nim Shif, visits. The nim Shif family are hosting a parade leading to Scarrel market, the site of his victory over the many-limbed envoy.

What they don’t know is that as the imposter gives his speech, the Jubilant plan to strike.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: A scion of nim Shif and one of their enforcers. She’s had previous run-ins with the Jubilant.

Anancrik "Crik" Rise: Ezra’s childhood friend and rival. Leader of the Flint Street Knappers.

Oken nim Shif (fake): An imposter. Chosen and trained by his family to be a much more controllable tool of propaganda.

Valour nim Shif: Ruthless, calculated and brilliant. Leader of the nim Shif family.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Flint Street Knappers: A gang operating out of Limbus Ward, who use gliders to get around. Most are from families with heritage in the Rushes.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

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

~~ PLACES ~~

Limbus Ward: Embrace’s North-Eastern ward. Most of the city’s trade comes through here.

Scarrel Market: The hub of the city’s trade. Rebuilt following the Ochre Hull’s attack.

~~~

Episode title from Martha’s Curly & Raquel

~~~

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, and Steve Martin.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

c/w: mass protest, violence against protestors, death, natural disaster

"Heat in Embrace wraps close to the skin - saturating, condensation mingling with sweat. There’s a texture to it that I’ve not felt anywhere else. When the sun breaks, it doesn’t tip-toe through dawn. It’s there in its full fury, from moment of first light til its dusk retreat.

That summer the city blistered. The scrimshawers were kept busy repairing cracks in bone; the Trill’s moisture was the only thing that stopped the fleshwood from igniting. Our tempers though were frayed to wicks, ready to catch. Hulling day would be the spark."

~~~

On this day each year, the people of Embrace down their work tools, and instead tend to their homes and streets. A tradition formed in the days following the Ochre Hull's attack, as people refused demands to return to work and instead repaired the rubble of their communities. The day came to be known as Hulling Day.

This year those privileged few who get to vote gather in Marrow Ward. They cast their ballots for the new warden of Holm, the ward that Atrium officially belongs to. They chose between the incumbent, Tomer Lorving - favoured by nim Daker and nim Callad - and Parsib nim Corvanus, nim Shif's proxy candidate.

Sick of their disenfranchisement, the people of Atrium are on the march. Though they know it's a hollow act,  they're going to vote in a warden of their own.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Lena Fisher: The self-declared Tether of Rialla’s Harbour. A former sailor turned radical priest, who teaches a doctrine focused on community.

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

Topaz: Ivar's trusty companion. Somewhere between a bat and a labrador.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

People's Ward of Atrium: An old neighbourhood near the docks, once home to wholesale markets and cafes. It has declared itself its own ward, erecting barricades to keep the city’s officials out.

Ginnels: A broad revolutionary network, formed by the workers of Calvary Ward.

Syndics: Clerks and government officials aligned with nim Shif. Embroiled in extortion, corruption and conspiracy.

~~ PLACES ~~

Arrad Chambers: Part of Embrace's civic infrastructure. Here clerks and bureaucrats sign away the city's future.

Holm Ward: Traditionally Embrace's dock district. People here tend to make their living from the boats that dock in the harbour.

Episode title from Fever Ray's If I Had A Heart

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Ryan Evans and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin

“As much as Maybes had leaders, Ezra was the Jubilant’s. When we took Oken, others in the Ginnels had a dozen ideas for different ways we could use him - whether that be as a bargaining chip with the council or turning him into the weapon the Jackal’s said he was. It took all my sway to keep him with the Jubilant. I reasoned that if Ezra could help a fool like me, then just maybe they could do the same with Oken.”

~~~

After stealing the Jackal’s weapon, our crew head back to their headquarters - the Jubilee, Embrace’s first carousel - for some downtime. There they question the person that the Jackals had been smuggling through the city, the person claiming to be Oken nim Shalif.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Alin & Mara Pinder: Ash’s sisters. They both work for the Viols, a union of sex workers.

Amris Graft: Ezra's mum. A community organiser and member of the Painted Hands.

Cherib & Zedek nim Gorse: Neah’s parents. They see themselves as part of Embrace’s upper middle class, and are desperate to improve their station.

Mell: One of Relict’s envoys, leader of a gestalt consciousness. Once an enormous woman with a horn of bees, now a bee.

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

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Ginnels: A broad revolutionary network, formed by the workers of Calvary Ward.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

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

~~ PLACES ~~

Tail’s End: A small group of ghosts who’ve formed their own community at the tip of Embrace.

~~~

Episode title from Dorian Electra’s Guyliner

~~~

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 blood, eyes, combat, discussion of police

“Then, there were the Jubilant. They weren’t professional or ruthless; they weren’t calculating or swift-tongued - but, they had their ways. They were resourceful, broad-hearted and brave. Uncertain in a way that kept them open to other means of doing things.

Others liked to dismiss them. All they saw was the messes they created but they never watched for long enough to see that, no matter how dire the situation, they always found a way back out.”

~~~

Before Oken nim Shalif, the faces of four strangers. The Jubilant Maybe, struggling to make sense of the man they’ve found in a box that should contain weapons. There won’t be long to take stock though. They may have fended off the cart’s guards, but there are reinforcements on the way - and these ones won't be so eager to give up what’s theirs.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and one of their enforcers.

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

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Ginnels: A broad revolutionary network, formed by the workers of Calvary Ward.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

League of Gunsmiths: Controllers of the licensing and manufacturing of spirit guns.

Maybes: A loose collection of radical cells carrying out direct action.

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

Syndics: Clerks and government officials, embroiled in extortion, corruption and conspiracy.

Umbral Provenders: A legitimised organisation of smugglers, who use the cut to smuggle contraband into and out of the city.

~~~

Episode title from Jesus Bill! by Delta Sleep.

~~~

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 body horror, possession, insects

"Us that used to play in the alleys and backstreets of Calvary had a game. A bunch of us would cluster together, locked arm-to-arm, roaring and vicious, pretending to be a remnant. Whoever was left got to be one of the Tenders, would try and take that giggling mass of bodies down. They’d pretend to be Carn nim Daker or Arbor’s Precident or another of their legends.

Everyone had their favourite, though there was one we always fought over. Oken nim Shalif, the slayer of Relict and the Ochre Hull. And on those streets where we played, we could see the tower where he was said to keep watch, asleep until Embrace needed him."

~~~

Before Oken nim Shalif lies the rapidly calcifying body of a god. Relict - remnant of preservation, of Eolith - dead by his spear. 

In its last moments, that vacant gives one last, parting gift. Time slips. Oken - wielder of the sun spear, Tender of the Dawn’s Embers, remnant-killer, and, at last, a hero worthy of his family’s name - becomes unmoored in time. Days, months and years begin to slip through his fingers.

This episode, we play a hacked version of Jason Morningstar’s The Skeletons, published by Bully Pulpit Games. We play to find out what happens to Oken, as he finds himself slipping through time.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Relict: Remnant of Eolith, focused on preservation. Slain by the Jackals Oken nim Shalif and Flint Erul Tun.

Mell: One of Relict’s envoys, leader of a gestalt consciousness. Once an enormous woman with a horn of bees, now a bee.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

nim Shalif: Embrace’s newest great family. Originally founded in Gallance, they are seen by the rest as opportunistic incomers.

nim Callad: Embrace’s oldest great family. Former monarchs of the city, they long to regain their title.

nim Daker: A great family, founded by the killer of Caerdroia and Rodella. Staunchly anti-remnant.

The Shorach: Embrace’s secret rulers. The Widow, the Slayer and the Bee.

~~~

Episode title from Alice in Chain's Man in the Box

~~~

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

“After their worldly Guidance, Tovak, died and Rialla’s Harbour was left without leadership, who else but Lena would dare say that they’re going to lead it as its new, folk-chosen head? Then to start harboring the likes of us - rebels and dissidents, maybes and ginnels - while her right to be there was still being questioned. Well, I guess shame on us for not seeing the day they built those barricades and declared themselves a free ward coming. That really was the start of things...”

~~~

After the death of the High Priest Tovak and the disappearance of the worms from the fleshwood, Atrium is left with nothing but bleak omens. The people here though are resourceful. In the face of hostility from other parts of the city, they band together. They begin to build new foundations, praying that they’ll hold strong when something comes to test them.

We continue our game of The Ground Itself by Everest Pipkin, exploring the neighbourhood of Atrium.

~~ PLACES ~~

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

Embrace: An island city, built on the corpses of the remnant’s Caerdroia and Rodella. It serves as one of the only crossing points of the river Trill.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Bismuth Bands: A rough group of semi-official treasure hunters, who have built their base by a tear into the cut. They are experts at navigating Caerdroia’s maze.

Dodgers: A group, mostly teenagers, who make their money in the Castings. They find and sell trinkets uncovered by the worms.

Parsant: Embrace’s main religion. Built on a denial of the remnant’s divinity, it centres humanity in its teachings.

Umbral Provenders: A legitimised organisation of smugglers, who use the cut to smuggle contraband into and out of the city. Based in Atrium, they use criminality to enforce their hold there.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Caerdroia: A vacant, said to be of labyrinths, whirlpools and destiny. Upon its death, the river Trill’s water became roil; a strange maze, known as the cut, unspooled beneath Embrace.

Rodela: An echo, said to be of dawn, renewal and growth. Upon its death, the dawn and the stars broke; its body would not lie still, strange flora erupts across the island.

Lena Fisher: The self-declared Tether of Rialla’s Harbour. A former sailor turned radical priest, who teaches a doctrine focused on community.

~~~

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.

“I’m getting ahead of myself though. I’m talking about Atrium and you’ve got no idea what or where that is.

Back then it was a forgotten sort of place, a few faded streets, not even a ward in its own right. All of Embrace had its weirdness from our departed remnants to deal with, but Atrium - jammed between the docks and the Tear, the Jackals and the Castings - had more than most.”

~~~

As the bioluminescent blooms of the Castings open, the people of Atrium welcome summer. It is a time to share good food, fished from the Trill and bought from the docks; to brighten the streets with cuttings from the strange trees that grow along Rodela’s body; to sit with friends on unsteady chairs outside fading awnings and argue about meaningless things.

This summer though will be different. It is wicked and fierce and hot, and the people of Atrium will face a choice - wilt in the fickle shade or stand bright against the tyrant sun.

We continue our game of The Ground Itself by Everest Pipkin, exploring the neighbourhood of Atrium. This season we’re taking a leaf out of Friends at the Table’s book, and including short descriptions with each episode of important people, places and factions.

~~ PLACES ~~

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

Embrace: An island city, built on the corpses of the remnant’s Caerdroia and Rodella. It serves as one of the only crossing points of the river Trill.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Bismuth Bands: A rough group of semi-official treasure hunters, who have built their base by a tear into the cut. They are experts at navigating Caerdroia’s maze.

Dodgers: A group, mostly teenagers, who make their money in the Castings. They find and sell trinkets uncovered by the worms.

Parsant: Embrace’s main religion. Built on a denial of the remnant’s divinity, it centres humanity in its teachings.

Umbral Provenders: A legitimised organisation of smugglers, who use the cut to smuggle contraband into and out of the city. Based in Atrium, they use criminality to enforce their hold there.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Caerdroia: A vacant, said to be of labyrinths, whirlpools and destiny. Upon its death, the river Trill’s water became roil; a strange maze, known as the cut, unspooled beneath Embrace.

Rodela: An echo, said to be of dawn, renewal and growth. Upon its death, the dawn and the stars broke; its body would not lie still, strange flora erupts across the island.

~~~

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.

“Belka, you asked me before about my exile, about how I came to join Vilte’s parish, about why I left Embrace. I think I’m just about ready to tell that story. Now, there’s a lot to hear - about the revolution, about the Ginnels and the Swifts, the bastard nim Shifs and the defiant Maybes.

First though, let’s start with what’s important: that city is a fucking hole.”

~~~

Welcome to season two of These Flimsy Rituals: Embrace. We’re playing a game of Blades in the Dark by John Harper, telling the story of a revolution in a city built on the corpses of two dead gods.

This season takes place in the same world as season one, Tiding, but it’s telling a stand-alone story. You don’t have to have listened to that season to listen to Embrace - in fact, we feel that Embrace to be a really good point to jump in. It’s set 25 years before the events of Tiding, it’s a little bit faster-paced, it’s going to be shorter and more focused.

This is the first of our worldbuilding episodes. We play The Ground Itself by Everest Pipkin, a game about places over time. In this, and the next two episodes, we’ll be focusing on one part of our city - Atrium - to build a picture of what life here is like.

Finally, we have a gorgeous map for the new season, created by Ben Swinden (@benswinden on Twitter). All of our new episode images, twitter banners etc. are taken from it. You can see the map in full on our website.

~~~

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.

"Where their corpses lay, an island formed. And then a city. Its citizens named it for the remnant's struggle, they named it Embrace."

~~~

Hey! We're excited to share the trailer for season two of These Flimsy Rituals, Embrace. We're going to be playing a game of Blades in the Dark by John Harper, following a crew of radicals fighting to change Embrace - a city formed on the bodies of two dead gods.

It's a stand-alone season. It shares the same setting as season one, Tiding - but it's set twenty-five years earlier. You don't have to have listened before, it's designed to be a good point to jump in.

We'll be kicking the new season off on the 22nd of March. 

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Chat to us on Discord 

~~~

Series art by Ben Swinden

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