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And shield wolf. And new sheep. And bitey bitey. And noble crow. And the flowers. And the big boys. And....

MC? What and where is that?

Also, we have a bot on the toplevel.

Server IP: nerdhaus.hopto.org

Mas and Delta have been hosting it for the last month, and we on the discord have been working out the kinks.

Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpjVUOJkX-s

To transcribe it to a tl;dr version...
- Gyms are back, yay! And they're now stadiums to make room for the new game mechanic, meaning your humiliating defeat at the hands of the Gym Leader will be in full view of thousands of people!
- The place to explore to find new Pokémon is called the Wild Area (pretty sure there's more than one), and they aren't restricted to simple paths and branching areas like in the previous games. In fact, it seems to be far more open-world like Breath of the Wild is!
- Kalos had Mega Evolution, Alola had Z-Moves, and now Galar has Dynamaxing! You can only do it once per battle but it causes the Pokémon to become giant and make its moves way more powerful. You can also fight in multiplayer against wild Pokémon that are Dynamaxed throughout the match, and hopefully that means you can catch ones that are already ABSOLUTE UNIT to begin with. The Gym Leaders have Dynamaxed Pokémon as well and the video recommends that you do the same with yours. Say it with me now: KAIJU BATTLE!
- The Pokémon professor is called Magnolia, a name which has been used quite a bit for the professor of fanmade regions in the past half-decade. Looks like we predicted the name years in advance! Her granddaughter Sonia meanwhile is lovely but I'm worried that she's gonna get a lot of attention from the... *seedier* side of the Internet. Uh. ._.'
- Leon as the champ is a slight let-down compared to all the memes of Queen Elizabeth or an expy thereof in that role, but he's got a lot of Prince Harry vibes to him and I appreciate him nonetheless. Hop meanwhile looks great and I look forward to seeing him in action... though I honestly think his name could be better, since it doesn't sound like any English name I know of among other reasons.
- And of course, new Pokémon! Wooloo looks like total besties with Mareep, and Gossifleur and Eldegoss are super pretty, but my two favorites have to be Dreadnaw and Corviknight because of how freaking cool and vicious they look. Corviknight had better have a pre-evolution, and if it's the final form of the regional bird then all the better!
- The Legendaries... were slightly underwhelming to me, but that's not saying much to be fair. They have a sort of heraldic beast influence to them, and the shield mane on Zamazenta is really flocking clever in my mind, but Zacian weirded me out upon first seeing it. Poor thing had better have a good place to store that sword so it can free up its mouth for Arceus' sake! (I'd have made the sword a bladed tail, personally, but oh well.) Still, I'm getting Great Gray Wolf Sif vibes from Zacian, and it looks pretty cool otherwise. Still, I'm siding with Zamazenta just for that inspired and fabulous-looking shield-mane. I hope to learn more about their themes and ties to Galar's history in the future.
- Release date: November 15, 2019

Well, what do you guys think? Which of these new bits of info is your favorite? Feel free to reply with your thoughts and feelings, and squee at all the new Pokémon besides! :D

- SkarmorySilver, still going "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-"

We know that the Wainriders were, while not an empire, still kind of A Thing during this time period - and we also know that they've got form when it comes to attacking Dale and the surrounding areas. I don't think it's too great a stretch to suggest that they returned in pretty large numbers. The Lidless Eye gathered all evil to it, after all.

However, I bring them up specifically in this context because I think they're going to be very useful in a siege. Wains obviously refers to charioteers, but could also describe something more akin to a Hussite war wagon or Dongwu Che; basically a cart with a big, tough roof over it to protect sappers while they undermined the enemy fortifications. It wouldn't surprise me if they started nicking lumber from the ruins of Dale and lashing them together into makeshift war-wagons as the siege lingered on, with the slightly worrying aspect for Dwarfish defenders that an entire town was on its way to kick their collective teeth in.

That's just my theory, anyway, you're more than welcome to rip it apart. =]

I don't think the Easterlings would have had mumakil; even if the beasts could stand the cold that far to the north, they were Haradrim animals, from far southern jungles. The people of Rhun wouldn't have had access to them, or the knowledge to use them.

They almost certainly brought siege engines, because Sauron loves those (he had catapults early enough to kill Anarion with a rock during the Last Alliance, and sent both catapults and a ram against Minas Tirith). Catapults are pretty useless against a mountain, but would probably have wrecked Dale. It's hard to see why they wouldn't bring a ram - again, Dale was a walled town, with presumable gates - but without the Witch-King to add sorcerous power, it would just be a normal bit of wood (albeit huge).

We know Erebor had no gate at the end of the Battle of Five Armies, so Dain's people must have made a new one. Given that they'd just driven out a dragon... yeah, I think they'd have made something designed to keep out the next one. Maybe iron/steel, but... mithril? The stuff isn't exactly common, and I wonder whether Gimli's Gate of Minas Tirith wasn't basically a steel gate with mithril trim. I would guess that, if they used any, they melted down some old armour to make reinforcing bars, and built a steel gate around it.

But even that would probably keep out even the most determined door-hitting-stick. ^_^

hS

Hey, founts of wisdom! Regarding the battle of Dale in 3019, do you suppose the Easterlings had oliphaunts? And if they weren't able to break the gate I'd assume they didn't have any like... super awesome siege engines, though I'm assuming also that the dwarves had a metal gate similar to the mithril one they later built for Minas Tirith. Thoughts?

- abby

It's just that skarmory recommended I have someone else look over it.

...I just realized that one of my prompts is miles from the tone of the PPC and I will need to do something else entirely. Well heck...

I catch them with tweezers, so there's no real danger there. It's just the hours: my typical Saturday is, wake up at 4 am, zookeeper work from 6:30 am to about 6 pm, eat dinner, fall asleep on the kitchen for a couple hours, then wake up and start the hunt, which usually lasts from about 10 pm Saturday to 1 am Sunday. So, it's about seventeen hours of work with only a couple of hours of sleep towards the end.

—doctorlit, enslaved to his own sense of obligation

(cont)

"Isabella, you said for a ride that we could cuddle on, and that is exactly what we're building today." Phineas told Isabella while hugging her.

"Hey, Phineas! Whatcha doin?" Isabella asks Phineas.

Just about then, a green beam came from the sky and hit Phineas.

"I want to cuddle you, Isabella." Phineas replied.

Isabella isn't ready for the huge hug her crush is about to give her.

Baljeet walked in. "Aren't you supposed to be inventing?"

"Riding the teacups will be so much more fun with you, Isabella." Phineas told Isabella.

Oh man, rhyming. Rhyming that many lines at a time is hard. With all the times I ended up reaching a bit to get a concept across, I've learned to be a lot more forgiving about it. Also, RhymeZone and the OneLook Dictionary Search were extremely helpful.

Scorpion hunting all night sounds like it would rattle anyone. O.o

Thanks!

~Neshomeh

I was ready to declare that from the beginning, but I'm biased. ^_^

Happy will always be a stretch for Derik, I think, but yeah, he'll be okay in time.

~Neshomeh

...and that's all right. If you are happy with the work that your first beta (was that Skarmory?) did, then you are probably fine to post.

Of course, if you would feel better having a second beta, that is fine too.

-Phobos

Wow. Yeah, I'd love to hear this set to music someday, even though I don't follow Warhammer. I'm impressed with the sheer length of the poem, and all the different rhymes you came up with that still work to tell the story.

I like the description of Derik at the beginning, too. Being in a state of degenerated mental health due to staying up all night to compose music is simultaneously a little pitiful and a lot hilarious. I do have to wonder how I come off when I interact with people towards the end of my Saturday night/Sunday morning scorpion hunting shift, when I don't leave the zoo until two or three am; probably not much better than Derik looked here.

I'm glad for the confirmation that Agent Thoth is still capable of having feelings, as an entirely emotionless character wouldn't be much fun to read over time.

—doctorlit, reading an epic poem while putting the laundry away

That was...extremely well done. It all flows really well, both lyrically and emotionally.
As for Thoth's reaction, I can't say I didn't predict a Single Manly Tear, but I'm not complaining either :)

So, after having my permission attempt beta'd, it was recommended I get a second one for another opinion. So, anyone want to help?

You did a good job of describing the scene in a way that I can picture in my head

Now, if my birthday presents had all been more like this, I could be content. =P

Thank you for writing, Cousin!