𝔄𝔢𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔰𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔗𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰
In-game Competition end in Split
Last month, Jacoby Elderfun1 and Hans Oddcraft created an Aetherlight competition and announced it on the forums. The announcement was met with much excitement and many people signed up to join in on the fun. The prize for the winner of the competition was a free Aetherlight subscription for a full year. On January 2, at 12:00 pm, everyone gathered at the basement of the Beacon. There were about 25 competitors, with a few more people wanting to join. For a practice round to start the event, everyone went out to No Man's Landing to defeat some automatons. They then followed up with an ocean themed costume contest in which one person was eliminated.
Second round was a trivia round. The question, "When was the game first released to the public?" was from Hans Oddcraft. The majority of people got it correct, however, a small number of people did not. There was a mercy round for the incorrect answers with the question being "What was the first weapon to ever be obtained?" Everyone got it correct. That round also included a disconnect by one of the members. Six competitors were eliminated in a round of hide and seek. The final four were Kitty Ironcraft, Peregrine Appleclock, Iliara Mustardtop and Jayhawk Greencape. An offer was given for a one-month subscription and after five minutes, Iliara took it. The competition went on for a bit longer until Jayhawk and Peregrine were left. They decided to split the twelve-month subscription and the competition finally ended after eleven hours. Thanks to Jacoby and Hans for setting this up, and a big thank you to Jeldergun Gaming for sponsoring this. I think I can say on behalf of everyone here on the forums that we really enjoyed it.
Community Spotlight
Lila_Lightcraft: First of all, tell me a little about yourself!
James_Maxfeather: I was adopted into a family of 6, later 7, kids. I had a rough time growing up. Being the second to youngest in my family was… interesting. I usually felt like I was the last person to be thought about and the last person for everything. (It might be because my mom doesn’t like Holloween and because my Birthday is a couple days after Holloween.) Growing up I believed the Enemy’s lies. Poeple yelled at me, I got stabbed when I was a couple years younger than I am now, I’ve been burned by fire about 20 times, and deceived by people I trusted and thought were my friends. I also have been physically beaten by myself and others. I blamed God for everything that happened to me. I learned about the Aetherlight in 2016, a couple months after Aetherlight came out, by one of my best friends. About one years later, in 2017, I accepted Christ into my life. My life flipped right-side up. Yes, my life still went the same, and yes, I was still beaten by other’s words and actions, but I felt something different. The Holy Spirit was living inside of me. I wasn’t perfect in any way. Ever since then, God has been teaching me his way and sometimes gives me visions of what is going to happen in the future. He showed me that a sickness that couldn’t be treated right away was coming. That sickness was COVID, aka Corona Virus. In the vision, I stood by one of my best friends’ bedsides. I was helpless. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” That might be one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned. Through quarantine, I worked on trusting in the LORD with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and strengthening my relationship with God, and leaning on Him for answers and wisdom. God used me to befriend, encourage, and lead someone to Him. God put this nagging feeling in my soul to help me do His will alone. God gives us specific gifts that no two people can have. Us, as humans, might think we have the same gift, but God made us special in our own ways. Glory be to God forever and ever, Amen!
Lila: Where did you first learn about Aetherlight?
James: As I said in the first answer, one of my best friends told me about Aetherlight a couple months after Aetherlight came out. All I can recall is her and I talking about random things when we were together. I, the old me who thought video games were amazing, got the game and started playing it. My best friends told me who some of the Aetherlight figures represented from the Bible and started sharing scripture with me. I didn’t want to hear any of it at that time, because I blamed God for what happened to me in the past. I thought video games would take me away from reality forever and that when I played, I didn’t have to deal with anything. I was 100% wrong. Life came back after I signed off the games I played. After God saved me, I slowly stopped playing games, besides Aetherlight and two other games.
Lila: What do you think about the game and it’s community?
James: There’s something different about Aetherlight. First, the community is amazing! Y’all have welcomed me to the forums. I felt loved by many sisters and brothers in Christ and like I could talk to anyone. At first, I was quite shy and I knew no one. Over time, I started talking to more people who have encouraged me. The discussions and topics on the forums are very interactive and are edifying to others. Aetherlight is a kid friendly game that youngsters can play. (With parent permission of course.) If I didn’t know about Aetherlight, I might’ve not have accepted Christ into my life. I am eternally thankful to the Aetherlight team and the people who lead me towards Christ for the last 5 years. Let God use me to show others His love, mercy, grace, and truth!
Lila: Do you have a favorite topic on the forums?
James: "Hi, I’m new here” “TALK ALL YOU WANT!” (all 4-5) topics are all my favorite topics. All of the other topics are equally amazing! Why? Well, my friend, sit back, pop some corn, and relax. Many people on the forums, called Aethesians or Aetherlights, have made many different topics that display God’s gifts to them. You and me included. It’s a joy to see so many people come together and fellowship with one another. God intended us to fellowship with one another in Christ. 1 John 1:7.
Lila: Is there any way you think Aetherlight could improve?
James: The Aetherlight has done a great job adding plenty of new elements and codes to keep the game running smoothly. One suggestion would be: make Aetherlight work for Chromebooks and macs. I know a couple people who have Chromebooks and macs that want to play Aetherlight.
Role-play Preview
The Rebellion Roleplay Outline
(Events are sorted according to the times which they occurred at.)
August 2020 – January 2021
Nautilus Lightblast distributes Join the Rebellion tapes and cards to prominent figures in society’s mailboxes, then returns to his home in the Business District of No Man’s Landing to Mycroft, his robotic Aethermaton cat.
Eerie Coppernight arrives at Nautilus’ house at nine o’ clock in the evening, answers an admission question correctly, then comes inside.
Nautilus prepares some tea and scones, then admits Eerie to his office.
Nautilus and Eerie talk for a while about Rebellion business and Mycroft, before Nautilus gifts Eerie a duplicate model, who’s official model name is Feline Replicating Aethermaton Non Combat Initiative System, or F.R.A.N.C.I.S., for short, whom she names Sir Percivale, then sends her home with a contract.
Eerie goes home, signs the contract, then goes to bed.
Nautilus walks upstairs to his bedroom, and goes to bed.
Nautilus wakes up to strange sounds, runs to his walk-in closet workshop, and finds that Mycroft has been vandalizing one of Nautilus’ inventions, his Mechanized Utilities Lethal Technological Instrument, or M.U.L.T.I., for short.
Nautilus pushes Mycroft aside and fixes M.U.L.T.I. before scolding Mycroft, who nonchalantly leaves the closet.
Nautilus tests out M.U.L.T.I. in it’s whip form on a crate, and instead of doing visible damage, M.U.L.T.I. slices clean through the crate.
Nautilus tests out M.U.L.T.I. in it’s nunchucks form on the same crate, with the same results.
Nautilus realizes that Mycroft actually fixed M.U.L.T.I., and after commending Mycroft on his efforts, he goes downstairs and starts sketching the blueprints for Mycroft’s reward: A voice modulator.
Nautilus is suddenly interrupted by a telephone ring by a very special red telephone that never rings.
Nautilus answers the phone, and hears the Scarlet Man talking on the other end, who explains that a person who wants a fresh start will meet Nautilus at an abandoned warehouse in No Man’s Landing, but doesn’t specify which one before hanging up.
Nautilus ponders this, then realizes that the warehouse in question is warehouse 249, where he lived for a while when he was an Urchin in No Man’s Landing.
Nautilus hurries to the warehouse, but the door is locked. After further investigation, Nautilus finds a crate marked with a red nail, which he then opens to find a key and a cryptic note saying to use the key for this door, and all future ones.
Nautilus goes into the warehouse, and, much to his chagrin, finds it in complete disrepair. He straightens up a little before hearing wagon wheels outside, and footsteps.
Nautilus quickly goes to a secluded spot of the warehouse, fearing that Imperials may be coming, then watches as Beckendorf Direscope walks in.
Nautilus reveals himself, and has a conversation with Beckendorf that ends in panic when
Beckendorf freaks out after Nautilus points out the fact that Beckendorf is half human and half Aethermatron, then laughs at Beckendorf’s confusion and fear.
Beckendorf tries to run away, only to find that the warehouse door is blocked by a Lasher, who knocks Beckendorf unconscious.
Nautilus uses some of the spare dynamite and oil around the warehouse to improvise a trap and demolish the Lasher, who calls for reinforcements.
Nautilus tends to Beckendorf using his Aethermeter watch, and asks Beckendorf to join the Rebellion.
Before Beckendorf can answer, Lashers and other Automatons come inside the warehouse.
Nautilus and Beckendorf form a plan to destroy or immobilize most of the Automatons, and execute the plan. One of the Bombardiers fires a cannonball, hitting the back wall and exploding, causing a large hole to open up.
Nautilus and Beckendorf escape from the new hole in the wall, but not before an Automaton calls Nautilus out for being Lucky’s nephew.
Nautilus and Beckendorf stop to rest in an alley, only to discover that Beckendorf’s systems are overheating as he fades into unconsciousness once more.
Nautilus wonders what to do, then gets a flashback to his early childhood in Evercity, before realizing what his next step should be.
Nautilus disguises himself, improves a cart to transfer Beckendorf to, then pushes him in the direction of Eerie’s home.
Nautilus outwits an Imperial Autofficer and a Bombardier, then escapes to the rooftops of No Man’s Landing.
Eerie wakes up and goes about her morning, then starts singing.
Nautilus carries Beckendorf to the threshold of Eerie’s house, then rings the doorbell repeatedly before banging on the door.
Eerie hears the banging, then rushes to her door just as Beckendorf reaches consciousness once more.
Nautilus informs Eerie of their current situation, and just finishes when an Imperial Autofficer bangs on Eerie’s door, demanding she open up or him and his Automatons will be forced to come in.
Nautilus, Eerie, and Beckendorf escape through a secret passage in Eerie’s home leading through the underground catacombs of No Man’s Landing, before walking all the way to Evergreen Meadows, where they emerge from a rock.
What happens next?
Well, just keep an eye out for the next edition of the Rebellion roleplay.
It’ll be quite an interesting one, to say the least.
-Nautilus_Lightblast
Political Report
The Aethasian Time’s Beckendorf Direscope: What is your favorite aspect, function, or result of the Member's President system?
Founder of Members President, Hans Oddcraft: I like how the system can bring together forumers in a friendly competition where a winner emerges, but next month we are back at it and having fun again. It is just one more thing that makes us a unique community.
B: What initially inspired you to start holding elections?
H: I thought the Members President would be a great way to elevate and respect members of the community that the community wants to respect.
B: Has it so far turned out how you envisioned it?
H: I think for the most part it has. Times have changed so it is hard to say for sure, but I like how it has worked out.
B: How would you like to see it change?
H: I would enjoy more involvement from the community. The more people involved, the more people are happy with it and can change it for the better.
B: What is the best way for a Forumer to get involved?
H: Vote. If you enjoyed that then get involved with one of the great parties we have.
Role-play Interview
Elizabeth: What or who inspired you to write Destiny?
Rex: I really enjoyed reading the good story role plays of the Aetherlight forums, so I wanted to bring that same joy to others. Oh, and on the side, I wanted to practice and improve my skill as a writer.
Elizabeth: Who is your least favorite character?
Rex: I would have to say Jaiden, because I failed to give him a real purpose in the story. He doesn't even have a backstory. Almost any one of my characters could have played his role.
Elizabeth: What do you enjoy most about writing your RP?
Rex: I enjoy character development, (When it turns out alright) and surprising my readers with interesting twists in the story.
Elizabeth: What kind of person would you describe Rex as?
Rex: Energetic, talkative, (But not to the point of annoying) friendly, helpful to most (excluding Jefferson).
Elizabeth: How did you come up with the story line for your RP?
Rex: Oh, well, I made it up as I went... I was much younger when I decided to write the role play. Now I plan a little bit more, but still mostly make it up as I go.
Short Story
Thunk. At last her head fell on the ancient table’s worn face. Papers encircled her, rustling noisily under her outstretching hands. An observer might have said she looked like one drowning. In fact, she was drowning. Just not in water. She sighed and shoved away from the loaded desk, and as she paused, she tuned in to the steady beat of the grandfather clock upstairs. It was usually reassuring, but not today. Today, its metronomic tick nagged at her. It threatened her as it methodically pounded each second into dust.
Shaking off her cloudy state, she marched upstairs and dropped into a chair behind the hall table. She resolved she would refresh herself with a look out the adjacent window before returning to her duties—those paper-shuffling, infrequent, necessary, uninteresting duties periodically cast upon a Resistance coordinator. Records must be kept somehow, after all.
Staring absently out the window, she let the future go. She watched as stories of No Man’s Landing life unfolded like origami in reverse, or like flowers blooming in an ethereal mist. Mist. Not fog. Her contemplations darkened. The green gas outside seemed to saturate responsively.
As Hanna observed, an unhealthy-looking man across the street ambled to the door of a nearby cottage. He was shaking with uncontrollable coughs, yet his steps had an abnormal, almost bouncy quality. Hanna kept her eye on him as he turned to shut the door. A dreamy, ugly, entranced smile possessed the bottom half of his face. He coughed once more before the closing door obscured him from view.
Fog. It had always been with them. It had always been predictable. Evil, but predictable. Occasionally it faded to nothing, but it always returned. What had life been like without fog plaguing the land? What had life been like before the Usurper clenched his iron fist over once-beautiful Aethasia? Hanna did not know. It was before her time. It was before the time of many.
A crescendoing creak interrupted her meditations. A faint beam of light divided the room, followed by a few gentle boot clumps. They paused. The light slivered away to nothing, serenaded by another creak, culminating in a deep click.
The footsteps resumed and increased in volume. “Hello, Hanna!” their owner’s voice greeted.
Hanna glanced over. “Hello, Lila.”
“I just finished polishing all the lampposts,” she reported gladly, but then frowned. “It’s kinda getting harder. People are acting strange—can we talk?”
“Of course.” The contrast between Hanna’s low, quiet voice and Lila’s higher, confident voice never ceased to amuse Hanna. She smiled slightly, appreciating the variety of the Great Engineer’s wondrous creations.
As quickly as that pleasant thought appeared, several others took its place—thoughts about the conversation she and Lila were about to have. Hanna’s only consolation was that it had been inevitable.
Lila cleared her throat and sat down on the other side of the table. After a brief pause, inhaling, searching Hanna’s expression, she cut into the issue as a fire stick would slice butter.
“No one can deny that the fog is getting worse. It's thicker than ever,” she burst out.
Hanna nodded, sighed, and looked out the window.
Lila fidgeted, furrowing her eyebrows.
Finally Hanna gathered her thoughts well enough to speak. “It is. For the first time, it is.”
As she had expected, the conversation had not been an easy one. Once Lila departed, Hanna placed her head in her arms and stared out the window again. Just a few more minutes, and she promised herself she would return to her work. It was dark. The floor was cold. Hanna breathed slowly. Outside, the fog twisted and parted, swaying like curtains of a grand, dark theatre. Machinery rattled and steamed. Automatons clanked.
Something slammed outside, and by the stairs leading to upper No Man’s Landing, a dark patch in the fog rose from the ground. Dizzyingly, it shifted sideways and jerked. Another slam echoed down the street. Hanna sat up, heart racing. The fog cleared for just a moment, enough for her to see what the dark patch was as it came nearer.
It was a man—a young adult man with a face too careworn for his years, middle class from the looks of him, dressed practically, with wind-mussed hair tucked randomly under an engineer’s cap. He was trying to heft a large, grease-smeared canvas sack, but his head must have been in a sore muddle. Reeling back and forth, his sack crashed into stone walls, mailboxes, houses, machinery, and whatever else stood in the way of his erratic path. Finally, the poor man tripped on his own feet and hit the cobblestones hard. His sack flew out of reach and executed its last crash with catastrophic aplomb—squarely squashing a bystanding propaganda cart.
Hanna was on her feet now. This man needed help. Surely, an automaton patrol would be sent to deal with the causer of such a disturbance. It would not be pretty! Snagging her overcoat, she jogged toward the door, checking each of her weapon holsters on the way. At the door now, she paused and took one last look through the window. Satisfied, she crept out.
Immediately, she felt the fog pressing on her and burning her eyes, but she knew to hesitate could be fatal—for her or for the man, or both. She rushed over to him, his prone form still lying in the street.
“Sir! Sir!” Hanna exclaimed, compulsively coughing. “Excuse me, sir? Are you alive?! We have to get you out of here.” She shook him, then administered the half dose of Aether she had. Eyes watering from the unusually irritating fog, she looked around. It was bleak. No other resisters in sight.
Unexpectedly, he pushed himself up and shoved Hanna away. She tumbled into a roll and sat on the ground in shock.
“You absolute vagabond!” he growled, and his volume increased with each word. “Stay away, stay away! I was asleep... seeing things, visions you could never dream of... and you... ruined them!” He was raging now. Hanna slowly stood and backed away, raising her hands in a gesture of peace, but a new, faint sound arrested her attention. She looked in its direction.
“You think this is—?” the man began to shout, but just then, Hanna identified the noise.
“No time for that!” She yelped, darting around him and unholstering her sniper rifle. A small squadron of automatons materialized out of the sick mist.
When the last automaton lay in a disfigured heap upon the ground, Hanna winced. She had won the victory, but not without cost. A cut marred her forearm and a bruise colored her cheek. Her coat was torn and burnt. But she had survived, and had kept the man from a perilous interrogation at the least. To her, it was worth it. He was looking stronger already, she noted. Wearily, she walked toward him with a smile, hand outstretched, a word of victory on her lips.
He slapped her in the face.
She staggered and cried out, placing a hand over her twice-bruised cheek.
The man launched into a tirade. “What have you done? How dare you! The automatons are here for. our. PROTECTION!” He emphasized each word of the familiar slogan.
“Traitor. Traitor to Lucky. Traitor to Aethasia.” He pointed at her, eyes unnaturally bright. His hand twitched violently and he coughed. “Now they’ve seen me with you—you’ve turned them against me,” he whispered in horror. “Me, a loyal subject. You’ve brought trouble upon me and my family!” He stepped forward, but Hanna had already made her decision. She vanished around the side of a house and stumbled down dim back alleyways as fast as she could, letting the fog enshroud her. He did not pursue, but the echoes of his raving did.
Finally, exhausted, beat up, and out of adrenaline, she slid down against the sooty wall of a nondescript cottage. Two tears carved paths down her cheeks. She wiped them away, but on her hand they caught her eye. They were green.
After some more hazy back street navigating, Hanna placed her hands once again on the Beacon’s creaky wooden door. Taking a breath, she hid her tellingly bedraggled coat, put on her best face, and entered. The door swung open to reveal a small group in conversation. She rushed by, head down.
Hanna may have stepped purposefully, but she did not know where she was going. Her eyes flicked around, but she saw nothing. She breathed, but she felt nothing. At last she tucked into a remote alcove and let gravity drag her down into the floor. Now the physical world could no longer seize attention for itself. She sank into her thoughts. They swept over the screen of her mind.
He had repaid hurt for friendliness. That nameless stranger she cared about, wanted to help out of the fog’s deadly clutches, had despised her for it. Hanna’s face grew tense. It hurt like a cactus to the heart.
This isn’t just about me, she thought as she cradled her injured arm.
Everything seemed upside down. What was happening to Aethasia? The citizens were dying, but they didn’t know it. By the day they grew more hostile to the bearers of their only cure. If the citizens’ view of the Resistance was shifting from apathy to violence, things would get worse. Much worse. She didn’t want to think about it. This wasn’t normal. This wasn’t regular.
In an age where the foundations of everything we’ve taken for granted are crumbling, what can we do?
What can we do? The question replicated through her mind at neuronic speeds.
What can we do?
A beam of light divided the dark. She could almost hear the creak of an opening door, letting it in. At once, the brightness widened with the force of a firework. Hanna fell to her side.
Pray.
She was not sure if the voice was her own.
We can pray.
We must pray.
Slowly, she came back to the physical world. She absently stared at the ceiling, which was faintly lit by a little cloudy, high-set window to her right. She became aware of her foot pressing on something to the left—an old bottle rack full of scrolls. There, in the dim corner, Hanna bowed her head.
Someone inhaled. “Hanna? Hanna, are you okay?”
A figure crouched down beside her.
“Peregrine?”
“What are you doing here?” Peregrine squinted in the dark. “I saw you come through earlier, and you didn’t look too good. What’s going on?”
Before Hanna could answer, Peri blinked and glanced behind them. By the entrance stood Iliara, waiting, looking in, a question in her eyes.
One by one, resisters in all states discovered the little gathering. Some were hale and whole. Some were shaken with uncertainty. Some were wounded from lost battles. All became sober at the news of the fog. What this meant for the future of Aethasia, they did not know. A fiercer battle was theirs to take that day. Prayer.
Deepness alighted on the room, imbuing the air with life, immersing them. Almost like Aether.
Hanna opened her eyes to a miracle, a sight she had never seen before. It was Aether. In a continuous ripple, a living wave, sparkling Aether appeared from all around them, in the air, at their feet, providing a soft purple light of its own. Every Aethermeter in the room glowed. Hanna glanced down at her arm, placed a hand on her cheek—they were completely healed.
Together, the Resistance prayed and worshipped. Though the Great Engines were breaking down, though they couldn’t see the way on their own, though evil was on the rise—still the Resistance would stand. They would stand, for they stood upon the Cornerstone.
The fog lifted off the ground. Underneath, the flowers bloomed.
Comic
Role-play Review
Destiny Role-Play Review Don’t let them catch you Rex, you got this. I take a painting off the wall and smash it into an auto, but it seemed unaffected so I flail my arms in the air and run away. How do I get into these messes? – Destiny (https://forums.theaetherlight.com/t/destiny-a-story-role-play/5162/4) is an individual role-play authored by Rex Blackdash. The story follows the life of 12yo Rex as he is snatched from a life on the street to an Imperial prison and then out to the Resistance where he trains hard as a Resistor. After discovering blueprints to a new deadly automaton and the capture of a valuable Resistance member, Rex is launched on a search across Aethasia and resulted in find the member and presumably destroying the new automaton. Yet it rises back up and readies to strike them down. But the auto is frozen solid but a hero and the story now leaves us on the verge of a great battle that could cripple the Empire forever…
1/2
Editor: @Hans_Oddcraft
Editor's Assistant: @Kimkate_Burnclock
