I want to preface that the contents of this post is for informational purposes. I do not condone or approve of any harassments or witch-hunting or the attacking of anybody.
 
Richard Lewis recently did a stream talking about the terrible state of CS esports and I thought it was an important stream anyone who cares about the CS community should listen to.
Vod Link here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/830415547
I realize it is 3 hours long so I took it upon myself to create a list of interesting points from the stream so you don't have to listen to the whole thing, although I still encourage you to do so if you can.
I know this post is still long but probably easier to digest, especially in parts.
Here is a link to my raw notes if you for some reason want to read through this which includes some omitted stuff. It's in chronological order of things said in the stream and has some time stamps. https://pastebin.com/6QWTLr8T

Intro

• "The last month has convinced me, that we are going to be heading into a dark place for Counter-Strike esports in 2021."
  • "I think I've seen the scene essentially kill itself."
• "For the past 5 to 6 years, we've basically been in a holding pattern of people coming into our game wanting to run it, wanting to run all of the esports and wanting to profiteer and its been sort of a concerted effort to drive them off and push them away."
  • "We're spread way too thin."
• "If Riot don't get involved and stop the scumbags that have moved over to Valorant from getting their feet under the table, Valorant is going to have real problems."
• RL thinks too much has happened all at once for us to do anything except watch it play out, like:
  • Recent CSPPA strike against BLAST
  • ESIC failures and them not being supported enough
  • Teams cheating i.e. coaches/bugs
  • Widespread match fixing
  • The Pandemic
    • "People who try to hold bubble events are so incompetent and fuck up and people get the 'rona and its their fault."
    • "People who say Flashpoint is a bubble is full of shit and is a lie and people are now suffering for that lie."
      • "To save money they let people go home and break the bubble for a week."
      • "Not just Flashpoint peoples decision, they have a partner that handles the production." (hinting FACEIT)
      • "People are trapped in hotels essentially under house arrest because of COVID restrictions and has fucked peoples lives up."
• "It's all too much, all of this incompetence, all of this greed, maybe we ride it out."
  • RL says he has talked to the Riot devs (the ones working on Valorant) and says, "They are so cognizant of all the fuck ups and all the problems we have in Counter-Strike."
    • He continues to say that this is factored into their business plan and that we never had a competitor, but just so happens to have one coincide, when we are at our worst.

CSPPA - Counter-Strike Professional Players' Association

"Who does this union really fucking serve?"

• RL believes that the CSPPA is a mockery.
  
  • He points out the hypocrisy that they wouldn't strike for the pros who were kicked out of ESL Pro League, or for Jamppi or dream3r.
    • He also says ESL paid CSPPA and are racketeering and many other TOs have to pay them to get their "seal of approval"
      • He says they would strong-arm TOs saying "well if you don't give us the money, these guys are so we'll just have to commit to playing their event."
    • Also points out that they will strike against a competitor they are not in agreement with (Flashpoint)
    • RL: "It's what it says about every other time you haven't done it and it's about every time you don't do it now moving forward." "The issues they've chosen to ignore this year alone are embarrassing."
    • Then he points out that there was no strike for Valve qualifiers even if we have no major but Jamppi and dream3r can't play in them.
      • "and Valve have said 'Oh yeah we know actually their stories are accurate, Jamppi didn't cheat, now in a legally binding document. Yep dream3r did have his account hacked in a LAN café', but they still can't play. Where is the fucking solidarity? Gone. Doesn't exist. It's not important [because] it doesn't affect you." "That's what the union does right now, it looks after all the tier 1 people."
• He says the CSPPA doesn't represent all players all the time and has driven a divide where you have the haves and have-nots
  
  • "We have a tier of players that operate with impunity and do not help their tier 2 or tier 3 players out at all." "If you are not a tier 1 player you do not matter, they don't event ask your opinion."
  • He tells chrisJ to admit and own the fact that the reason he didn't speak up during the ESL Pro League debacle is because it didn't affect him
  • "They are looking after some players at the expense of other players. How the fuck is that a union?"
• He says the BLAST situation is a reasonable dispute and supports the players but is not the right time for a strike and have not even identified the correct enemy
  
  • He thinks players are lashing out now due to previous incidents and are upset that BLAST are working with ESIC
    • He stated that CSPPA shouldn't beefing with ESIC and they should be working in harmony
  • He says what they need to do is talk with the teams/organizations that have sold that right to BLAST
    • RL: "Your employers, the people who pay you that massive exorbitant salaries, when you don't stream and you don't do interviews and you offer no value beyond your ability to click heads and you get 25k dollars a month." "Why don't you talk to them about it? Oh right. You're happy to take away BLAST's paper, but you don't want to risk your own."
  • "I am seeing such unbelievable cowardice from the players here with the battles you choose."
  • "Where was the strike action when in the qualifiers for the world championship, there were teams and players engaged in huge conflicts of interest?" "Where was the strike action when your image rights were taken and sold to every league you've ever been in every union type organization you've ever been associated with like, WESA, to your org every time you sign a contract, to the leagues you play in."
    • "Your image rights are essentially worthless now, there's about 10 fucking separate parties that have them, and how many of them are giving you anything for it? Not much pretty much your org by the way."
    • "That's a big issue. Your image is you, your image is your brand. What are you doing about that? Nothing."
• He is also angry at SirScoots who is "popping off" at people on Twitter who all want the same thing, which is 'A unified Counter-Strike scene for everybody, that works for everybody, that has a sustained ecosystem that nourishes everybody.' "We don't have that now."
  
• He also says their rankings are a joke
  
  • "Just so happened, oh look TACO, that very important prominent member of the board, we pushed his team artificially up when they weren't even in the fucking top 20, not by a long shot."
• He also says the ineptitude of the CSPPA cost Flashpoint a monitor sponsor
  
• "Is it really a player association or is it like a fucking agency at this point"
  

ESIC - Esports Integrity Commission

"They have been put in an impossible position."

• RL says that Ian Smith, the founder of ESIC and who was done work in mainstream sports, is a good and honorable man who has dedicated his life to integrity and sports. He takes on both sides, ensuring match fixers are punished, but also doing appeals and ensuring those punishments were fair.
• "ESIC is a tiny organization" and are in need of money, "They didn't run a grift like the CSPPA did."
  • "Saying 'you want our support and you want the players to turn up you better pay us.' They don't do that."
  • "Had startup seed money from MTG and since then they've been pecking shit with the hens."
    • Ian Smith made sure that the money given by MTG (Modern Times Group, parent company of ESL, ESEA, DreamHack) was nothing more than startup money and wouldn't be in debt to them
      • Ian Smith sat down with other TO's not part of MTG and wanted to partner with them. They declined and called ESIC "ESL spies and we will never align ourselves with you"
  • "They only were just able to afford, hiring a PR guy on a full time salary to deal with the press and send out those releases you've seen, this year."
    • "They have a tiny group of staff investigating these things and they have taken on the biggest problems in our scene: the cheating, the match fixing."
• ESIC have had "unprecedented levels of cheating to deal with, because there's something wrong with our scene ever since we went online. There's something wrong with it, everyone's lost their fucking pride and self-respect and they got no passion for it anymore, so they think fuck it, what's in it for me?"
  • He calls out coaches who are talking about players rights when they would rob and steal from them.
    • Also says more coaches being banned are coming
    • He also points out flaws in community's reaction to the punishments to coaches bans: "Half of the cunts still have jobs and some of the cunts got new jobs. We didn't even shun the cheating coaches."
• ESIC have "found I think another 2 or 3 exploits like that one and they are investigating them all right now, it's going on right now."
  
  • "I know that there are going to be more names getting banned, again."
  • "So they're doing that on a skeleton crew while, investigating 3 continents worth of match fixing in MDL and semi-pro level CS." "They're doing this with half a dozen people." "They don't have any money or any help. People barely even fucking cooperate with them, they are treated like pariahs. It's ridiculous."
    • "Why are the CSPPA popping off at ESIC on my Twitter timeline, when you should be working together." "because its all about what's in it in for me." "2020, the online era of CS: 'What is in it for me?' How can I cheat, how can I get my paper, how can I bleed this scene one last time before I fuck off and play shooty shooty bang bang Riot Games babys first fps."
• RL says that in the CIS region, teams have gone to tournaments and have been eliminated multiple times by the same team. We found out they were cheating and those players who lost, have been cut from their roster, careers ended because of cheaters.
  

Stream Sniping

"They're all at it in the online era, they're all at it, they're all cheating, they're all using exploits, probably that see through smoke bug got used a bunch of times"

• RL talks about how there is no integrity from dead (the player), always denying when caught doing something
  • On the topic of 'BLAST never said we couldn't stream snipe': "Lies, BLAST never said you could do that, they had to sort of retcon it." "because what happened after that they fucking started snitching and squealing"
    • "Suddenly you had like, 10 of the top 15 teams in the world, staring into the abyss of being banned for 6-12 months in line with ESIC recommendations."
      • He says that ESIC was put in a tough situation and couldn't enforce the bans because it would have resulted in killing CS. What resulted was, BLAST, ESIC, and teams came together and gave them a warning and told them, in RL's words "don't do this again or you're gonna get got."
        • He then says the top teams brushed this off and didn't give a fuck
        • The new MiBR team playing Flashpoint, that wasn't involved in the previous incidents are doing it again (stream sniping). He gave credit to Flashpoint for the quick resolution and punishment and respect for cogu's response to the situation.
        • "ESIC came out and said, once more, 'Guys, zero tolerance from now on.'" RL then got upset at community's reaction calling ESIC "pussies" for their non enforcement and said if we want competitive CS we cant ban the top 10 teams.
• He points out how players have no integrity and will do anything for an edge as long as they won't get detected or banned or it's within a grey area.
• "All of this shit was mad avoidable, even in the pandemic era."
  • He talks about why aren't we filming them. Why aren't there representatives for leagues and tournaments making sure players aren't cheating?

Match Fixing

"How many years have we let our scene be fucking pillaged by these greedy cunts?" "We just let it happen."

• RL says that gambling and skins betting which existed in moderation was "accelerated and blown up by the Call of Duty greedy fucks."
  • "Never forget TmarTn was on the board of EnVyUs." "His website, CSGOLotto, they had a bunch of off-the-books sponsorships." "NBK promoted them. People forget."
• "Those people who had access to the skins, go to the players" "Even people like s1mple, best player in the world, even he scammed knives and skins off fucking fans."
• Owners of skin casino sites would approach pros and lend them skins to use in tournaments and possibly keep them after reaching a deal
  • Players would tip off inside info about matches and teams in exchange for skins. Info such as: roster changes, how they played in scrims
    • They would use this info to bet and subvert the odds on their sites. "That happened religiously, I can't even tell you how many times it happened."
      • "I had access to the biggest database of information, from an inside betting circle in NA, and it would take information and screenshots from other pro players, who were feeding them info in exchange for money or skins."
        • "Some of these players are still playing." "Incredibly, there are players still in the CSPPA today, complaining about the BLAST recordings, that were embroiled in this murky shit back then."
• RL also says that there were tournaments where teams contrived with each other, who should throw, who should win.
• "There's a handful of people that are trying to fucking clean it up, and you think you get something over the line and you see something like the CSPPA and it's run by corrupt fucking chuckle heads, and now you've got another corrupt body you have to fight on a fucking daily basis, it's demoralizing."
  • "It's too far gone. Our entire semi-professional scene is compromised."
• "It's rife guys, I'm not going to lie any more. It's not just China, it's not just Russia, it's here, it's NA, it's Europe, it's Australia, so much more than you think, so much more than we can prove."
  • "I get sent chat logs all the time […] and they're morons, these players, short-sighted, amateur, morons and they're doing it on WhatsApp." People would get cut from the bets because they want to make more money, then they leak the logs. He says, from the chat logs, they spread "little" bets across every site they can (400 to 1k dollars) to prevent shifting odds
• He says the scumbags who've fucked off to Valorant will do the same there if Riot doesn't do something and says Valorant "is an esports scene heading for a very early fall based on the sheer volume of scumbags that are already there."
• "That's tier 2 CS in a nutshell these days. They know they're never going to play in a major, so what's the punishment?"
  • "All of these tier 2 fucks that are fixing games now they are like the fucking mafia compared to iBuyPower" "These guys are working with organized criminals to fix entire seasons worth of games. That's what's going on in your tier 2 CS."
• "I'm literally being told that there are players fixing games at all levels of Chinese esports and motherfuckers with guns are turning up to team houses and stuff."

North America

"Everyone in NA has left we've lost a continents worth of support during this pandemic and Valve haven't said a fucking word."

• RL says the Call of Duty "goblins" that destroyed CS for years are the same people who are now trying to leave CS. "The nerve to treat a game where the fans, and the community, and the TO's were nothing but good to you." "To just kick the players out now and go and leave and say 'It just doesn't make financial sense.' Oh you'll slither back when we have a major though for them stickers won't you."
• There's a cascading effect in NA where people don't bother with CS anymore and people like Chaos suffer.
• He says NA team owners are incompetent for always wanting it easy and always wanting a guarantee on their investment without skill or nuance.
  • RL says he would be able to market a team correctly and would have a good ROI and also points out how TSM wouldn't even be bothered to tweet that their team, which was one of the best in the world, was playing at the Major.
  • He also says not all NA owners are like that, compliments and respects Jason Lake who nearly lost everything to keep Complexity going.
• He then calls out the incompetence in Infinite Esports when they acquired OpTic Gaming and bought an Indian CS team.
  • He says HECZ is not to blame here and that they couldn't tell forsaken was cheating when it was so obvious.
    • They measured his reaction time to the likes of dev1ce and s1mple
    • When an enemy showed up on his screen he won that duel something like 44% of the time
    • "was like the number 1 player in the world statistically"
    • He brought a laptop to their bootcamp and refused to use the high end PCs that hey provided
• He respects Andy Miller (NRG CEO) and HECZ but says that the attitude of not being able to easily monetize their teams is "piss weak" and there needs to be a risk.
  • He says Chaos EC shouldn't be cutting their roster and should be competent enough to be able to figure out how to make money off their team.
• He says there are still opportunities in NA and people are panicking and pulling out, and says Valorant will be the same if not worse.
  • He also says "bums" who couldn't even get out of groups in NA competitions, are making crazy money in Valorant and says it will continue to inflate.
• He also said that he heard rumors that EG (Evil Geniuses) are done.
• He also thinks that the rumors of a Valve franchised league from before was sparked up from "these lazy fabled weak NA fucking team owners basically trying to see if Valve would bite at the hook if it was dangled and they didn't"
  • Slasher says NA team owners are really in favor of franchised leagues because they want to make more money. "Most of the powerful team owners right now are on board with ditching this third party organization structure, or they are trying to play this power politics with all the TOs, and that is contributing to a lot of the problems there"
• RL says that Riot has proved they can run a franchised league (LCS) and will be profitable in 2021 which is what a lot of team owners care about and says the competition will only serve to snatch people away from CS.
• RL continues to say, "I am so sick and tired of what we have done to this scene, I am just exhausted with it." "I think we have legitimately fucked it, I really think we have. I think we're staring into almost like a CGS (Championship Gaming Series) wasteland in NA." "Counter-Strike esports is a fucking joke."

Talent

"TO's have treated CS talent like absolute human garbage for years now."

• RL says that people like Sean Gares and ddk switching over to Valorant isn't for financial reasons because they are making less over there.
• He points out that TO's can't even give talent a 3 month in advance calendar.
• Because of the pandemic TO's won't hire certain people and some people are working more hours for the same money.
• He says we as a community don't respect journalists enough which is why we don't have good journalists.
  • He also says DeKay is leaving the scene soon and that Thorin is close to leaving also
• He says he had to talk a caster down from quitting and was struggling to find reasons.
• He says that DreamHack told Vince they would hire him but not if he wants to stick with dusT and says that this is the norm in esports. "Constant leveraging of people against each other." and says this is why we don't have a talent union.
• New gen casters are getting put into shit situations and the community's reaction to them is adding fuel to the fire
• He says the reason Moses left was because of the terrible conditions
• He says that Anders had to constantly leave his family and kid because someone fucked up or broke promises and had to constantly tell his kid to their face that "daddy can't be home this weekend."
• He says that esports has always been a lie to sell you this dream, "Meanwhile there's about 2% of the cunts getting all the checks."

Valve

"Anything that Riot does, is better than Valve's inaction"

• Slasher says that the larger aspect of esports as a whole compared to other entertainment mediums and Valve's lack of inattention are the bigger problems. He continues saying that the fact that Valve let their game be ran as an esport, they need to take on the responsibilities of it.
  • Both Slasher and RL wants Valve to take control but not on the level of Riot Games, there needs to be a balance.
• In case it was ever a question: Gabe Newell has been to 0 CSGO Majors.
• RL calls Valve out saying they could have done something during the gambling era.
• He says Valve used to come to the majors, but doesn't think they do anymore.
• RL had met with Valve at the Cluj-Napoca Major and had tried to appeal iBP's indefinite punishment and had also gave Brax's life story:
  • A recent family member passed away, they had lost a lot of income, they had to live in trailer, iBuyPower did not pay any salaries, and was pressured by family to make money who didn't support his career.
  • RL said that Valve told him, "How dare you try and make us feel guilty." "We shouldn't feel bad about enforcing the only thing that matters that we need to make players afraid of: cheating and match fixing"
  • RL also tried to share other info about match fixing and nothing came of it
• RL points out that Source 2 or a new engine is not something you will want based on the experience of transitioning from CS 1.6 to CS:S. "Valve's track record with brand new engines being launched, not fucking great from what I remember."
• Slasher says "If there is anything the community should do, is pressure Valve to hire a community manager."
  • They say that we need a commissioner, a community manager (not the person who runs the Twitter who posts memes all day), then we need to have a circuit
• RL reiterates that Valve doesn't care about CS esports and says they need to change the culture at Valve to make them care about CS esports
  • Slasher says a systemic problem is making it so working on CSGO would be a bad decision for you as an employee for Valve
• He also hasn't talked to Valve in ages and have sent over bugs and cheats and doesn't get emails back anymore
• Slasher says we should be directing attention at the developer leads, pointing out Ido Magal, if he even is still the project lead
  • RL thinks that Ido and Brian are the only people that "vaguely even give a fuck about CS" and were the only people that RL recalled that actually read Reddit and paid attention from time to time
• "It is really fucking precarious. Somebody has got to step the fuck up and start giving a shit"
  • Slasher suggests org owners, with CSPPA, with ESIC, with TOs have a concerted effort against Valve
• "Riot Games are doing better things than Valve in the esports space" which is something RL didn't think he'd say.
• "People who used to be talent, working with unions, arguing with other talent, when the unions fucked them over, can't understand their perspective, TOs fucking over broadcast talent, broadcast talent wanting to leave and go and work for orgs, orgs having no money, Valve might take coaches away because all the coaches are cheating, ESIC has about 4 people in a fucking call doing the investigations, everyone thinks they're spies for ESL, ESL are just the evil fucking overlords wanting to rule the scene and will just somehow, like cockroaches outliving a nuclear bomb, and Valve are in a fucking holiday in Hawaii thinking about the next Dota character because they don't give a fuck about us."

Closing Statements

"We've peaked. If we want to sustain and exist, now is the time to figure it out. No esports lasts as long as this, we've already done 8 years. We've already broke the records. We have got to figure out a way to coexist and drive the negative forces out and we need to do it as a collective and we're not doing that."

• RL compared the Counter-Strike scene to the people on the Titanic who ran around with guns robbing people while the boat was sinking.
• "We have given up on being a respectable esports scene." "We are now a conduit to make money for those who want to just milk it, just have one last ride, one last roll of the dice. It's done." "What a fucking mess. What have we done to our fucking scene?"
• "There's just too much self-interest driving all of this." "I don't see a way we stop the dominoes." "When it's that bad, when there's that many dishonest people that ESIC have to come out and say that if we punish them all there's no one left. What does that tell you?"
• "How many opportunities have we had to clean house? How many times have we said, 'this must never happen again', and another scandal." "The entire skins betting operations was the biggest criminal conspiracy in esports ever executed and no one has been punished for it." "The people who could be driving that don't want to."
• "Right now people are fans of those organizations because the scene has value. It is worth being a fan of Astralis because they are excellent at Counter-Strike. It is worth being a fan of s1mple because he is the best player in Counter-Strike, maybe the exception of ZywOo. If the scene is devalued, if the scene loses its meaning, those things lose its meaning too, and people will leave, people will stop tuning into the games. I have seen it happen in multiple esports, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I am getting big Brood War vibes right now and I don't like it."
• "The role you play in all of this as fans, as viewers, as listeners, as consumers of esports content, it's absolutely imperative that you know who the good guys are. It's absolutely imperative that you use your voice. It's absolutely imperative that when things are bad, you know who, at least, is trying to make them good, and you have to apply your criticism to the right targets."
  • He continues saying it's no good in continuing to attack ESIC and saying how they are bad, ESIC have it hard
• He says CSPPA are on the right side of the argument on BLAST but have been on the wrong side of many arguments many times.
  • "If you are not willing to stand along side the weakest member of the union, with the least amount of influence, and the least amount of power, then it is not a union at all and you shouldn't pose as one." "You wanna serve a bunch of special interest do it, everyone else in esports fucking does, but do not pose as something you are not." "We love the players. I've been fighting for players rights for as long as I've been able to, but the CSPPA is not what we needed."
    • "They are not applying the pressure to the right people, they are not fighting the right battles, they are not helping their weaker members."
• He says what orgs have done by keeping or hiring coaches is bad. "When you give up on holding an appreciable standard, you've lost the scene" "Competition matters, rules matter, punishments matter, achievements matter, excellence matters" "If you start stripping that away, you have nothing" "You guys need to take that knowledge and apply it sensibly."
• "Valve has sold you all down the river, they sold everyone in the esports scene down the river, tournament organizers are selling their talent down the river. Don't hate on them for sounding tired after a 16 hour day. Don't hate on them because the hype for a matchup they've seen for the 20th time in the past 3 months, they can't be as excited or it sounds contrived. Support your guys, they're there for you, these are your people."
• "This community has got to start acting like one for the first fucking time. Just put the petty shit away, let's try and fix this fucking scene while we still have one to save."
• "You can't rely on Valve, you can't rely on ESL, you can't rely on the CSPPA, you can't rely on anyone." "Once again, it's gonna be the likes of us, the amateurs, the people who give a fuck, rolling up our sleeves and grafting." "I'm old and tired and I don't want to have to do it again. People need to pick up the torch and do it."
  • "Like Michal did, like Dudenhoeffer did. You see something wrong, fix it. You see somebody doing something wrong, call it out. If you think something could be better, let people know."
• "Vote with your wallets if you're not happy with the direction Valve goes in. If when we do get to the Major, they serve up another subpar, same old bullshit stickers and signatures package again, do not buy it."
  • "You're a powerful block and if you use it correctly we can fucking avert this disaster."
• "I'm not doing another year in this broken, bust-up fucking scene, where everyone is miserable, everyone is broke, everyone is tired, and everyone is trying to fucking rob everyone else, blind, while the fucking people who are meant to be protecting you, are just fucking enhancing it and lining their own pockets."
  • "I'm not doing it anymore and you shouldn't want to do it either."
• "I stand by every fucking thing I said. I mean it, because this game fucking matters to me, this scene fucking matters to me. I put my life into this, my adult life, and to see it in this state is fucking sad."

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Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
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Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

Hi everyone,
I'm working on a New Player Guide before the fourth anniversary that could be linked in the Questions Megathread, since many new players often comment there looking for such a thing.
Below is the draft, refined once with feedback from helpful users about a month or two ago. Before it gets posted for real, I'd like more feedback:

• Is there anything missing that should be mentioned?
  
• Is there anything you disagree with or think could be misleading?
  

Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to provide feedback on this endeavor!
 

The New Player's Guide to FEH

Written 1.23.2021
Purpose: This guide is intended to provide high-level advice to new players. It intentionally avoids retreading descriptions of features and game modes, as this information is readily available on sites like Gamepedia. Instead, this guide seeks to capture advice and general wisdom from veteran players that is useful or recommended for new players.
Audience: This guide is intended for new players from casual players to semi-competitive. If your goal is to be highly competitive in PvP, this guide will be less relevant and I would recommend seeking advice in OrderOfHeroes.
First Priorities:

• Get all of the free 5* heroes available to you.
  
  • The following 5* heroes are given to you for free by clearing certain story maps: Legendary Ike (Paralogue: Xenologue 3), Fjorm (Book 2: Chapter 1), Eir (Book 3: Chapter 1), Peony (Book 4: Chapter 1), Reginn (Book 5: Chapter 1).
  • You can also choose one of the most recent set of Brave Heroes to receive for free as a one-time 5* Free Summon. As of this writing, those options are: Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, Lysithea. There's no wrong answers here, but if you don't have a preference I would recommend Edelgard for new players, since the power gap between her and the F2P armor heroes is much higher than the power gap between the other three and their respective F2P options for their unit types.
  • You'll also get a free Takumi at 4* at the start of the game, who is otherwise a base 5* hero. However, he is heavily outclassed by countless other archers at this point.
  • It's heavily recommended not to use any of these free 5* heroes for skill fodder until you know what you are doing. Many of these heroes are commonly used in video guides that could help you clear difficult content.
• Work on the Heroes' Path Quests.
  
  • These quests can be found by clicking on the shield-like icon in the upper left of the home screen. These quests give you multiple additional free 5* heroes as you progress through their stages, including some particularly powerful ones such as Reinhardt and Brave Ike.
  • These quests also do a decent job of introducing you to various features and game modes, making them a good starting place for new players.
  • Note: Some of these quests require you to do actions that consume valuable resources such as spending Heroic Grails. Although saving these resources is recommended, completing the Heroes' Path is worth the expense. If you don't have a preference/favorite to spend the Heroic Grails on, ask the community about good choices.
• Link to a MyNintendo account.
  
  • This is a crucial step in terms of account security, as it will allow you to recover your account if you lose or break your device (and allow you to switch your account to a new device). Follow the steps on the official nintendo site.
  • Notably, linking a MyNintendo account also allows you to earn Nintendo points for clearing story chapters, which can be redeemed for FEH resources such as orbs and feathers (a limited number of times) and stamina potions (unlimited times).

Pitfalls to Watch Out For:

• Don't use the Merge Heroes feature, Send Home feature, or Inherit Skill feature until you really know what you're doing.
  
  • Most players have a story of merging a hero that they never use that has great skill fodder, or sending home a hero that they wish they hadn't, or wasting a premium skill by inheriting it to a hero that doesn't use it very effectively. I would recommend not using these features at all until you've played the game for long enough to be more comfortable knowing what heroes you want to merge, who's useless enough to really send home, and how to use skill inheritance to build heroes effectively.
  • It's recommended not to merge any hero that isn't 5*, period. There are certain cases where it's justifiable, but for new players it's strongly recommended to avoid merging 3* and 4* heroes entirely.
• Spending money isn't necessary. Don't spend money until you understand what you're getting in return.
  
  • I would advise new players to stay free-to-play (F2P) while learning the game at minimum. In general, spending money is not at all necessary, as F2P players can thrive and easily clear all PvE content, as well as being competitive in PvP.
  • I would recommend avoiding opening up your wallet until you're familiar enough with the game to know what heroes might be worth it to you to spend money on, as well as understanding the gacha rates and mechanics so that you know and understand the odds you're gambling on.
• Don't ignore strong 3* and 4* heroes.
  
  • Many 3* and 4* heroes can easily match or even surpass 5* heroes in the same niche, so don't write them off just because of the lower rarity. 3* and 4* heroes are also easier to merge.
  • However, it's strongly recommended not to summon for a specific 3* or 4* hero unless they're one of the focus heroes. The chances of summoning a specific 3* or 4* off-focus are very poor.

What to Focus Your Time On:

• Prioritize limited-time quests and events.
  
  • While it can be tempting to spend all your time and stamina getting those sweet sweet Story orbs, I would recommend focusing on the limited-time quests and events first. Those story orbs will always be there, but if you don't capture the limited-time quest and event orbs, they're gone for good when their time runs out. Check the quests available by clicking on the fountain icons in the bottom right of the home screen, and check the events available by clicking on the yellow spiral icon in the bottom right of the battles screen.
  • Most events have nice participation rewards for very little effort/investment. Check the event rewards and try to at least do the minimum for easy resource gains.
  • Note that there are Story Quests that release with each new chapter and award orbs. These are limited-time only, so clearing these quests would be the exception to the "don't prioritize the story yet" advice above.
• Participate in the PvP modes (Aether Raids, Arena, etc.) right away.
  
  • You get good rewards just for participating, regardless of how you do. Additionally, even though you may not be able to climb that high in the ranks yet (or even care about climbing the ranks at all), you're limited in the number of ranks you can climb in a single week. If you want to get to the better rewards sooner, you'll need to start now.
• Ignore Chain Challenge, Squad Assault, Blessed Gardens.
  
  • All of these modes require a high amount of strong heroes to be able to complete, and they're also permanently available, so there should be no rush to complete them. I would only work on them after clearing the entire story, and only if you're completely caught up on events.

Resources to Prioritize:

• Orbs should always be your top priority for limited-time quest rewards.
  
  • Fairly self-explanatory, but as the gacha/paid currency, you'll want to capture as many of the free orbs as possible. Focus on capturing orbs from limited-time events and quests before the story mode.
  • Note: While you should focus on the limited-time orb sources first, it's useful to know that there are a ton of orbs available through the permanent story maps by this point - over 1300 at the time of this writing.
• Heroic Grails are very limited relative to how many you'll need/want.
  
  • Heroic Grails are used to acquire certain heroes, but at this point the number of heroes that need Heroic Grails to summon far outweigh the relatively low rate at which Heroic Grails are given out. For this reason, I would make sure to capture as many of the free Heroic Grails as possible, and would even say to not spend them until you're more familiar with what's offered in the Grails Shop.
  • Some of the heroes in the Grails Shop will be given out for free again if you wait long enough, but others will not, so it may be important to know which is which before you spend your resources.
• Stamina potions will be important if you want to play a lot at the start.
  
  • They're given out fairly liberally, but stamina can definitely become a bottleneck for new players, especially if you're playing a lot and/or trying to capture all of the resources available in limited-time quests and events. Manage your stamina carefully and take every opportunity to get more stamina potions, including linking a MyNintendo account. You'll also be able to get a stamina potion reward for your first clear of every normal story chapter, which adds up to well over 40 stamina potions - a substantial boost.
• Dragonflowers have a slow accumulation rate, so capture as many as you can.
  
  • They're used to increase your heroes' stats up to the max, but are slow to acquire and it takes a lot to max a single hero. Capture as many of these as you can.
• Feathers are very useful, especially for new players.
  
  • They're far more common as reward mechanisms than the resources listed above, but they're the primary gate on your progress of making your heroes stronger and growing your roster. Try to capture as many feathers as you can.
  • 20,000 feathers allows you to turn a 4* of your choice into a 5*, which can help you fill out the holes in your roster. Feathers can be used to make sure that you have a decent 5* hero of each weapon type, then expand to covering weapon type and movement mode.

When to Summon and What to Summon For:

• Don't be in a hurry to summon as a new player.
  
  • I would recommend saving up your orbs and only doing the free first summons until you have a better idea of who you want to summon for. Orbs are the premium currency and the free 5* heroes you'll get from the Heroes' Path and certain story chapters are strong enough to carry you through 99% of the content in the game. Don't feel pressured to summon before you've had time to figure out what makes heroes good or who your favorites are.
• Summon for your favorites even if they're not "meta".
  
  • Every hero in FEH is perfectly useable for PvE content, and can be made strong enough for most anything through skill inheritance, weapon refines, and stat increases. Use who you like first and foremost!
• Ask the community about meta heroes.
  
  • The meta can change frequently, so it's best to ask the community who the strongest characters are on the current banners. Given the many PvP game modes and character archtypes, there's a fairly wide range of heroes that could be considered "meta" in at least one game mode. If you don't have many favorites yet, or care more about climbing the PvP ranks, look for help identifying solid meta picks.
• Consider working towards getting a team of each unit type.
  
  • Quests requiring 4 armor heroes, 4 cavalry heroes, or 4 flier heroes, etc. are very common. When choosing who to summon for at the start, pay attention to when strong heroes are available that fill unit types that you need.

How to Build Heroes:

• Play to the hero's strengths.
  
  • Generally speaking, it's more worthwhile to capitalize on a hero's strong stats than try to patch up their weaknesses. The SPD stat is somewhat unique and can sometimes be an exception if their SPD isn't very low. A SPD stat of 30 or lower arguably isn't worth investment.
• Look at their weapon.
  
  • Many heroes will want to keep their original weapons rather than inherit one, and the effects their weapon has often indicate how they're designed to be used. For example, if a weapon increases RES and grants effects on enemy phase, you'll probably want to choose skills that increase or capitalize on their RES stat and activate on enemy phase as well.
• Decide if the hero is going to be player-phase or enemy-phase.
  
  • Look for phrases like "if unit initiates combat" to identify player-phase effects, and phrases like "if enemy initiates combat" to identify enemy-phase effects. Generally, you'll want the hero's skill effects to be activating on the same phase. If the hero's weapon has two effects that activate on enemy phase, it's a good idea to give them skills that activate on enemy phase as well. Mixed-phase builds do exist, but can be more complicated and often more situational.
• Assist skills are king.
  
  • You should treasure every summon that gives you Reposition or Draw Back skill inheritance, and use them effectively. Reposition is arguably the best skill in the game for pretty much anyone, though Draw Back is often preferred for ranged heroes in particular. Swap is also notable for tanks and armored heroes.

How to Build a Good Starting Team

• Have a balance of colors.
  
  • For starting players, I would recommend trying out a team with a red hero, a blue hero, a green hero, and a colorless hero.
• Have your heroes cover each other's weaknesses.
  
  • It can often help to start with your favorite hero or the hero you want to use most, and patch up their weaknesses first. For example, if you want to use Lukas, a high-DEF low-RES enemy-phase tank, you'll want to have someone on your team that can take care of the mages that would threaten Lukas, especially green mages that would be super-effective against the blue Lukas. A high-ATK player-phase red hero could be a good choice, but both might be weak to blue mages. Make sure you don't have a shared weakness across your whole team.
• Try some of the common team archetypes.
  
  • There are some team archetypes that ignore the suggestions above that are nonetheless quite powerful for other reasons. The "nuke and three dancers" team composition focuses on using a single ranged hero with high damage output (whether physical or magical) supported by three dancers to allow that ranged hero to attack four times. With the right nuke, you can handily clear most all of the content in the game; however, you may find yourself stuck if you have to go up against a strong enemy that hard-counters your nuke. Another common archetype is "omnitanking", where you primarily buff and support a single hero with high DEF/RES and close/distant counter, with the goal of taking out opponents with that tank on the enemy phase. Other archetypes such as Galeforce teams are more complicated than I would recommend for a new player.

Other Notes and Recommendations

• Re-rolling is not particularly necessary.
  
  • Re-rolling is the process of starting an account, going through the tutorial, and then spending your tutorial orbs summoning for a good 5* hero (or even just one of your favorites). If you don't get a good 5*, you uninstall the app and try again. The goal is to start the game with a strong hero without spending many orbs. Rerolling costs you nothing but time, so if you already have a favorite character that's on a banner you could re-roll to start with them. However, it's really not necessary to re-roll in FEH like it can be for some other gacha games.
• Adjust the settings to your liking.
  
  • I would recommend having Show Danger Area on, as well as Asset/Flaw Color Display. Turning off Combat Animation can also speed up combat significantly.

Introduction

If you've read Varieties of Faith and think you know everything there is to know about the Breton pantheon, you are sorely mistaken. Ask a Breton what gods he knows, and you can keep them talking for days.
Like how there are thousands of cults in the Imperial City, High Rock is home to hundreds of wyrds, covens and religious orders. What distinguishes the official from the false religions? Popularity? A consistent narrative between temples? Fealty to the empire? No, in High Rock, it is having the means to silence everyone who says otherwise. Each of the official Temples has a Templar Knightly Order to protect its own interests and expand its influence.
Each temple is its own separate political power and much like the Breton Kingdoms, the Temples have alliances and go to war with each other.
In this volume of The True Varieties of Faith: Bretons we will be delving into the venerated Spirits of High Rock with no hand in the creation of the Mundus, but who are worshipped for their actions in life.

Arius

Arius is one of many examples of animism in Breton culture. He is the God of Fire and the Soul of the Volcano on the aptly named island Vulcanus, loved for the nutritious ash, feared for the poisonous smoke, earthquakes, and deadly lava. He is considered an ally of Mehrunes Dagon.
Temple: The Temple of Fire is built on the rim of the volcano, heated by the lava below, cleared of poison gas by the sea breeze blowing through the halls. A formidable platform, possible of Nedic origin extends from the temple above the crater from whence offering are thrown to keep Vulcanos asleep for another season. Exhaust vents blocked by massive valves of stones are controlled from within the Temple. When the valves open, burning ash descends down the hills to bless the fields below, while the lava is directed away through canals and left to harden in a large basin where mineworkers stand ready to delve the hardened crust in search of valuable minerals.
Templar Knightly Order: The Knights of Vulcanus were established to put a permanent stop to the annual sacrifice of a young child to appease Arius. When Arius was appeased no longer, the island volcano erupted and killed hundreds. The Knights remained to repair the damages and maintain order. Shortly after the eruption, mineworkers started the excavation of the exhaust vents.
Allies: Daggerfall
Enemies: The Ashblood, a native uprising who seek to free Arius of his bondage and return to the old ways.

Bandi

The Bandit God worshiped by law breakers throughout the Iliac Bay. Bandi was a band of five Khajiit brothers: an Alfiq, an Ohmes, a Suthay, a Cathay-raht and a Senche, pretending to be one powerful shape shifting Wood Elf by the name of Bandi. They extorted village and city alike for money and power. By the time their act was uncovered by a sailor who had travelled to the far shores of Bruk'ra, one of the sixteen kingdoms of the Khajiit at the time, the brothers had secured themselves a castle and subjects, and though the magic they wielded proved non-existent, the political and military power was sufficient enough to lead five long and happy lives. The five brothers are still prayed to today for guidance in the art of trickery and thievery, although their veneration is quickly fading.
Temple: The Bandi Front. At the Order's founding the temple served to rehabilitate outlaws and thieves, but they have since grown into common cutthroats, hiding behind a dead religion to make their own fortune.
Templar Knightly Order: They know themselves as the Five-Clawed Knights, but they are more commonly known as the Bandi't.
Allies: The Thieves Guild
Enemies: The Anvil of Ebonarm, Daggerfall

Daegout

The bastard of Boar and Greenskinned Demon. It only knew violence and rage and devastated the lands when the world was still young. There are two different versions of its story told throughout Bretony.
The first story goes as follows: The monster was sad and confused as it understood how fundamentally wrong its mere existence was, and the only outlet it knew was destruction. After three days of battle against an adventurer named Erudarth it grew to be too tired to fight. That's when the adventurer asked Daegout a question it had never been asked.
"Why are you so sad?"
At that opportunity to lift its heart the monster started weeping about its woes. Erudarth listened to him for a long time. Listened to its loneliness, its hatred for the world for not belonging. Erudarth told him that as long as the monster refused to hurt the men of this land the monster would have a friend in Erudarth. The monster prowled the woods of High Rock for as long as Erudarth's kingdom stood, always looking for the enemies of his king. When the first kingdom fell, so did Daegout. From its flesh the first orcs were born. Even if Daegouts children oftentimes forget their ancestral duty, sometimes they do remember. The friendship that made the Daggerfall-Covenant possible oftentimes gets compared to this story. But only by Bretons, and only when no orc is listening.
The second variant of the story is less orc-friendly: The monster was unambiguously evil. It was slain by either Erudarth, one of the first knightly orders, or a village full of enraged farmers, depending on who you ask. But even in death Daegouts spirit was so hateful that it corrupted the earth, from which the first orcs arose. The monster's wrath haunts the Bretonic and Redguard people to this day.
Temple: The Fortress of Daegout
Templar Knightly Order: The Daegout Devout. Though their stated goal is the unification of the orc and Breton people, their knights are primarily employed to rout out unwanted orc strongholds in the name of keeping the peace between the people. Their primary income comes from selling the plunder of these raids, both items and body parts, and claiming the orc mines for their Order.
Allies: The Resolution of Z’en
Enemies: Malacath

Druagaa

A shy Fae Spirit of nature responsible for blooms and flowers. She is said to be one of the first of Dibella’s Daughters and a venerated ancestor to the nymphs as well.
Temple: The Conservatory of Druagaa. Their primary export is the seeds of flowering plants known to attract faeries (Or nixads, as they are known globally), which are considered lucky when happy.
Templar Knightly Order: The Druagaa Blossom. The Druagaa Blossom protect Nymphs and are the military arm of not just their own temple, but to their allied temples without a knightly order as well.
Allies: The House of Dibella, the Temples of the other Nymph Sisters and a slew of allied Wyrds dedicated to the veneration of fae kind.
Enemies: The Seed-Grounds of Wyrdah

Dugrod

Dugrod was a dragon who opposed the expansion of the Nordic Empire into High Rock, keeping the Nordic raiders at bay for over twenty years before he was slain by four Nord tongues. The bones of Dugrod were transported by the Nedes into a cave in the region of Ykalon hidden from the Nords. The priest of Dugrod, through whom Dugrod speaks by possession, wears a cracked mask said to have belonged to Dugrod's Dragon-priest before the Dragon War. Here the ancient dragon is consulted by king and rich merchant alike for his massive wealth of knowledge, and from here he rules the temple.
Temple: The Dugrod Cult. There are fourteen dragon skeletons around the Iliac Bay, each falling under the jurisdiction of the Dugrod Cult, but Dugrod is the only dragon to partake in conversation. The temples are each build on a dragon burial.
Templar Knightly Order: The Dragon Bone Knights guard the tombs and quest for Dugrod. Rumour has it that the Dragon Bone Knights are preparing for a grand event to the east and the return of Dugrod to his flesh.
Allies: The Akatosh Chantry, The Order of the Black Worm
Enemies: None

Èdelberth

God of the holy geometry. His followers are scholars, engineers, architects, and people interested in genealogy in particular. Many believe that elven traits in humans are part of the "holy geometry". He is thought to be a pacifist version of Trinimac whose sphere is also associated with holy geometry. Mithril is his holy metal.
Temple: Èdelberth is worshiped in (as far as possible) completely symmetric hexagonal buildings called Trinomicals (singular: trinomical). At best the worshipers of Èdelberth are masters of logic and a protector order, at worst they are zealous police of rigid rules that know no pity for human weakness, and heavily racist.
Templar Knightly Order: The Order of the Angle are not dissimilar to Summurset's divine prosecution, as strict protectors of their people's bloodline and culture. Oftentimes at odds with Redguards, Nords and especially Orcs as their features are not fitting the divine geometry. Their main objective seems to be the acquisition of Mithril, which they will at times slaughter or barter for.
Allies: None
Enemies: None

King Edward

The mythical king Edward is likely a historical king who lived during the late years of the Nordic occupation of High Rock. In every story Edward is said to have been a great mage, but who tutored him varies from telling to telling. In some stories it was a snow elf or a wood elf enacting revenge on the Nords, in other stories Edward travels to Summurset to study at the Crystal Tower under ArchMagister I'ric, in another tale the young prince climbs the ranks and studies with the Direnni in their tower and yet other stories link him to the Witch-King Moraelyn or the Great Dragon Akatosh.
With help of the Horn of Summoning, the divines and various cultural heroes (some from entirely different time periods), King Edward drives out the Nords. King Edward founded the Dragon Village to shelter the dragons and the elves who had lost their home to the Nords. Many Bretons and Redguards of the iliac Bay believe the Dragon Village to be a real place hidden in the Dragontail Mountains, others think the Dragon Village is an afterlife reserved for the worthy of any race who display the same qualities in life as King Edward.
Myths also link the Dragonskin, an ability many Bretons can call upon, to a deal between Akatosh and king Edward, but critics claim the name and the subsequent myth are merely a response to Alessian influence as before the Temple of the One the Breton’s unique ability to absorb spells was thought to be a gift of Magnus.
King Edward is the paragon of a Breton king, one who cares for all his subjects no matter the race, who is well studied, chivalrous, a skilled mage and most important of all, one who has quested far and wide before ascending the throne.
Temple: The Order of the True King was born from the remnants of the Fighters Guild after its collapse in High Rock during the Oblivion Crisis. The Order of the True King provides the same services as the Fighters Guild in other provinces, but also provides many of the same services as the temples in High Rock, with the exception of dancers and summoners.
Templar Knightly Order: The Companions, named after Edward’s closest allies who also called themselves The Companions.
Allies: The Firstkings Chauteau, The Fighters Guild, The Vigilants of Stendarr
Enemies: The Trinomical of Èdelberth

Ephen

The wood elf twin brother of Phen worshiped all around the Iliac Bay as a protector spirit of nature. Ephen was the last living wood elf Silvenar in High Rock when he was executed by the Nords. His spirit is said to still roam the woods where he leads wereboars away from the houses of Bretons that pay proper reverence to the forest, but where he also leads wereboars into the settlements of Nords and those who do not respect nature. Ephen's real name has long since been forgotten and replaced by another revered elf ancestor; S'Ephen, as the early Bretons believed saying his name aloud would invite him to haunt you.
Offerings to Ephen are left in Fairy Circles, so called because the Bretons believe these circular mushroom growths spring up where the spirits of wood elves have danced. The Bretons also believe that sitting on a particular big and sturdy species of tree fungus named Ephen's Throne angers Ephen, who slowly cannibalizes those that do not repent by leaving an offering to him in the next eight days. Sometimes the corpses of particularly hated individuals are set upright on Ephen's Throne so that Ephen drags their soul into the Underwoods to be hunted by boar-faced elves for eternity.
Temple: The Wyrd of the Woods is not an actual wyrd, but an order set on the preservation of Breton culture. The Temple spends great expenses on archaeology, despite how very little remains of the wood elf and Nedic cultures of the Merethic Era.
Templar Knightly Order: The Wyrdesses of the Woods have few warriors among its ranks. Most of its numbers consists of hunters and alchemists with a deep understanding of the forest, volunteers who look for signs of wandering spirits while they are in the woodlands.
Allies: The Shelter of Galen
Enemies: The Imperial Cult

Erudarth

Erudarth was the first Breton Monarch and greatest among the mortal vassals to the gods. All the brave warriors and heroes who go out into the world to establish kingdoms measure themselves to him. He is primarily worshiped by knights, adventures, and nobles. The mythical king Edward might have been named after or inspired by him. Erudarth is portrayed as a human knight with prominent elven characteristics, clad in armour, with a crown in his hand, never on his head. Almost all statues show him in a pose as to crown someone else king/queen. Monarchs and nobles oftentimes state that they are descendants of him, put can never really prove it.
Temple: He is worshiped in a small extra house on pretty much every castle-ground. They are called Firstkings Chateau, or often just Chateau. The temple is extremely free-form and has no real hierarchy, if you grab a sword and go out into the world to make a name for yourself you can call yourself a Knight of the Foundation. Of course, noble houses often try to impose structure, but those attempts are barely ever accepted and are as short-lived as their houses. At best the worshipers of Erudarth are just rulers and noble heroes, at worst they are a bunch of good-for-nothing braggarts and tyrants.
Templar Knightly Order: Knights of the Foundation, named so because Erudarth's knightly journey was the Foundation of the first Breton kingdom.
Allies: The Order of the True King
Enemies: None

Galen

Galen is a poorly understood deity without any shrines or real temples in High Rock, but nevertheless with one of the greatest following of the Spirits of Bretony. The Druids of Galen, or the Galenic Druids, is an ethnically separate group from for example the Reachfolk, Trollkiin and Witchmen of High Rock and one of the most prevalent ethnicity among the Bretons. The Druids of Galen claim to descend from wyrds and druids of Glenumbra Moor and Glenpoint but have since given up their worship of nature. Elements persist in their modern way of life, but the spirits they once venerated are now forgotten by all but the Wyrd Covens, such as the Glendanmoril Witches or the Supernatural Dreamers, found far away from the prying eyes of civilization.
The Druids of Galen still pray to Galen or the Archdruid for guidance and wisdom in their daily life, especially in interactions with nature-magic, but they don't know whether Galen is a place, a spirit, or an ancestor. Given the deep roots in animism and ancestor worship, all of these might be true at the same time.
The Galenic Druids spread as far north-east as Stormhaven. Galenhafen was that lands original name, named after the Archdruid, believed by this off-shoot to be the mortal son Vaermina. What was originally called "Galenhafen" first became "Galehaven" and later "Stormhaven". Some scholars suggest that Galen and Valen were the Nedic names for Hircine and Y'ffre, the Gods of the Wood Elves, but there is not enough evidence to make this claim anything more than conjecture.
Temple: The Shelter of Galen is more comparable to an exclusive club than to a proper temple. Outsiders can only join the Temple through marriage, and membership is only inherited from mother to child, never father to child. The Shelters provide the same services as other temples, with the notable exception of priests, even if the head of the Temple claims the title of Arch Druid.
Templar Knightly Order: The Knights of Galen guard the temples, but their protection doesn't extend further than this. The title of knight is more an honorary title than one truly earned.
Allies: A large, ever changing number of Wyrd Covens is allied to the Shelter of Galen and have pledged their services to the Arch Druid.
Enemies: None

I'ric

I'ric Harad Egun was a powerful wizard like no other during his lifetime, aiding the mythical King Edward on various occasions, even serving in his court in the later years of Edward's life. I'ric was the Archmagister of Crystal Tower in the early to mid-First Era, but has long since been forgotten on Summerset, where powerful mages are much more commonplace. In the Iliac Bay however there are still sparse altars. This Hero-God of the Bretons is often worshiped by those Breton mages who emphasize their Breton blood.
Temple: The Order of the True Mage is dedicated to many the same cause as the much larger School of Julianos, seeking to educate all scholars. Unlike the School of Julianos, the Order of the True Mage is only dedicated to teaching the arts of magic. The first temples was built in mimicry of the Crystal Tower, but later temples merely placed a small tower decorated with pieces of glass adjacent to existing buildings.
Templar Knightly Order: I’ric’s Apprentices are renounced spellswords.
Allies: The College of Whispers, The Synod, The School of Julianos, The Order of the True King
Enemies: None

Jhim Sei

A Breton musician god, who plays an unknown instrument. Shrines are found all over the Iliac Bay, and each of his hundreds of shrines depicts him with a slightly different instrument. Jhim Sei was once a mortal musician from Yokuda, Aldmeris or Aldmora, depending on who tells the story, who spend his years composing a song so beautiful it would lift any that played it from mortality to divinity. He succeeded and left behind his music sheet, which is inscribed on every shrine. The issue is that no one knows what instrument this song should be played on. Some theorize the instrument itself was made divine itself, making it impossible for mere mortals to replicate Jhim Sei's masterpiece.
Temple: The Temple of Jhim Sei dedicates all its funding into buying different musical instruments from all over Tamriel, its historians delve deep to find any instrument not around anymore, the temple mages experiment with Tonal Magic, its musicians experiment with hymns and rhythms, throat singing and ventriloquism and the researchers are constantly inventing new musical instruments hoping to reinvent that what was lost to time.
Templar Knightly Order: The Shepards of the Tone
Allies: Kieran’s Theatre, The Greybeards
Enemies: None

Jode

Jode is worshiped all around the Iliac Bay as the goddess of Masser, also known as Mara's Tear. Breton legend holds the moons first appeared in the night sky when Lorkhan's trickery was revealed. Mara wept from the betrayal when she realized she would never see her children grow up, and from her tears was born the spirit Jode.
Temple: The Benevolence of Masser. When it is raining and Masser is full, the priests of Jode place a chalice on Her shrine to be filled with Mara's Tears. When a pregnant woman drinks from the chalice, Jode herself is said to come down from Masser to help as the invisible midwife, assuring that the baby and the mother both survive the delivery.
Templar Knightly Order: Knights of the Big Moon
Allies: The Benevolence of Mara
Enemies: None

Jone

Jone is revered all around the Iliac Bay also known as Stendarr's Sorrow. Breton legend holds the moons first appeared in the night sky when Lorkhan's trickery was revealed. Stendarr was so deeply distraught by the bloodshed and violence of the Ehlnofey War that his heart bled. The blood pooled up in his chest and Stendarr plucked it from himself as he could no longer live with the Sorrow.
In the region of Dwynned the most important court hearings are only held when Secunda is full or near full, as the Bretons of this region believe that Jone himself is present among the jury on these days. In the Alik'r desert the opposite is true: Court hearings are never held when Secunda is full, as the locals believe the jury to be too emotional on this day to speak proper justice.
Temple: The Temple of Jone
Templar Knightly Order: Knights of the Small Moon
Allies: The Temple of Stendarr, The Benevolence of Mara
Enemies: None

Kieran

Kieran is worshiped in theatres around the Iliac Bay as the god of Jesters and Poets. Kieran was the Madness-Kissed jester apostle of Dibella whom travelled from court to court to inspire kings and the populace. His wise and otherworldly performances were the beginning of an age of enlightenment for the Bretons.
Temple: Kieran’s Theatre is above all other services, a place for performance and art, blessed by Kieran.
Templar Knightly Order: The Kieran Knights are perhaps the oddest knightly order of High Rock, as they are armed exclusively with enchanted magic instruments and illusion magic, clad in plate armour and colourful robes.
Allies: The Opera House of Jephre, The Benevolence of Mara
Enemies: None

Kel

Kel is worshiped throughout the Iliac Bay as the Avenger. Kel is the family god, keeping bloodlines clean and resolving family feuds. Incest offends Kel greatly, and he curses those born of such a union. Kel often fights Molag Bal, Daegout and Sheor in his myths, almost always to stop rape from happening, but at times also to oppose an interracial marriage between a Breton and the dumb, savage and barbarically portrayed Orcs and Nords in these stories.
Temple: The Temple of Kel offers a place for anyone who has been sexually assaulted, raped or has suffered any other form of sexual assault. Family feuds are often settled on these hallowed temple grounds.
Templar Knightly Order: Knights of Kel
Allies: The Benevolence of Mara, the Anvil of Ebonarm
Enemies: None

Mai

Shrines to Mai are only found along High Rock's side of the Iliac Bay. Maia was a Nord priest of Mara when the First Empire of the Nords occupied this area. Maia filled many longhouses with orphans who had lost their parents to the Nord raiders. She raised them into great warriors, founding one of High Rock's first knightly order.
Temple: Mai’s Orphanage offers a place for all orphans to grow and study and when lukcy, be adopted.
Templar Knightly Order: The knights of Mai still exist today and are composed entirely of orphans and foundlings left at the Temple.
Allies: The Benevolence of Mara, The Temple of Kynereth
Enemies: None

Mannimarco

Mannimarco, the King of Worms, the Dark Lich and known by many other names was already a powerful mage during the Mythic Dawn before he joined the Psijic order. He surpassed all but one mage, Vanus Galeren, but was cast out for dark practices. He started his own order, the Order of the Black Worm, where he granted great necromantic power from all his followers in exchange for a portion of each of their souls. Some say Mannimarco ascending to godhood was what spurred the divines to action, leading to the Warp of the West. Mannimarco is said to have slain Numidium and filled its husk with the thousands of souls lost during The Warp in the West to ascend to godhood. He is worshiped in the Iliac Bay as the Necromancer Moon. Mannimarco is said to take possession of powerful necromancers to fight for the legacy of the dark arts.
Temple: The Order of the Black Worm is a still existing organization in this region. They devote themselves to the protection of legal practitioners of necromancy and allow this study within their temple walls. Reanimated skeletons of dogs, cats and cattle roam freely within the Order’s walls. The Order garners little respect from the populace, but they turn to the Order to reanimate their beloved pet or to seek a final audience with the recently deceased. The Order of the Black Worm have fought many legal battles and lost most of them but have nevertheless guided the mages of High Rock with clearer rules and better education of the ethical versus the unethical forms of necromancy. The undead of cattle is not allowed outside of the temples as of yet, but the Order seeks to change that and replace all beasts of burden in High Rock with the undead which require no food or sleep.
Templar Knightly Order: The Black Knights seek out any and all hedge-necromancers to bring them into the temple and educate them properly. They are renowned vampire slayers, knowing more about the undead than anyone, and are driven to give necromancy a good name and rout out all evil.
Allies: The School of Julianos
Enemies: The Black Knights are constantly at war with The Knights of the Circle and are fighting a legal battle over their name with the Anvil of Ebonarm.

Notorgo

A messenger god whose altars can be found on roads across the Iliac Bay. Notorgo is alternatively said to have been a powerful wizard, a daedra bound into service by the Direnni or a sentient crystal ball left behind by the Magne Ge. Messengers who pray to Notorgo are always able to find who they are looking for, even if they are traveling through the uncharted wilderness or delving through ancient tombs and caves no men has set foot in for decades. Looks like that's it.
Temple: The Postal Office of Notorgo offers most of the services other temples offer, including daedric summoning. Daedric summoning is even available to low ranking members of the temple, as it provides one of the fastest ways to transport a message. The fastest way is available to higher ranking members, or those with heavier coin purses, as teleportation is never cheap or reliable on long distances and thus multiple jumps are required, but this does get the message delivered to anywhere in High Rock in mere hours.
Templar Knightly Order: The Knights of Notorgo accompany paying messengers regardless of their affiliations.
Allies: None
Enemies: Vaermina (A personal feud with the Temple’s High Priest Mycha)

Numidium

God of The Warp of the West. The Miracle of Peace, as it is locally called, has been celebrated as the miraculous interventions of Stendarr, Mara, and Akatosh to transform the forty-four independent kingdoms, counties, baronies, and dukedoms surrounding the Iliac Bay into four peaceful, well-governed Imperial counties. The catastrophic destruction of landscape and life is understood to have been 'tragic, and beyond mortal comprehension.' The event took only two days, afterwards whole cities were levelled, thousands of lives lost, Gods, knightly orders and nobility were erased from existence, lakes were displaced, forests burned, and borders removed. Though no man had any memory of these two days, the Brass Titan haunted dreams and visions of the survivors. These rumours were for decades silenced by The Crusaders and The Order of the Hour but were fed by rumours that the nobility of the Iliac Bay knew ahead of time about a powerful artifact being activated, and massive cogs, springs and other objects having been found all over the Iliac Bay.
The new consensus is that Stendarr, Mara and Akatosh raised Numidium from the Iliac Bay, where it had fallen by the hands of Zurin Arctus, to set the Miracle of Peace in motion. He is revered at the many deep scars in the landscape and monuments to the fallen.
Temple: The Memorial of the Warp can be found at many scars in the landscape left by the Miracle of Peace. Here the thousands of dead are remembered.
Templar Knightly Order: The Knights of Peace
Allies: The Benevolence of Mara, the Temple of Stendarr, the Akatosh Chantry
Enemies: None

Phen

The wood elf twin sister of Ephen worshiped all around the Iliac Bay as a protector spirit of nature. Phen was the last living Spinner in High Rock when she was slain by the Nords. Phen does not have temples of shrines, but "Shelters" made from gathered dead wood. These Shelters are homes for the thousands of wandering wood elf spirits whose own homes were destroyed or burned by the invading Nords. Phen's real name has long since been forgotten and replaced by another revered elf ancestor; S'Ephen, as the early Bretons believed saying her name aloud would invite her to haunt you.
Her spirit is said to still roam the woods where she leads lost children to her Shelter if they pay proper reverence to the forest. She has a deep grudge against the Nords whom she turns into werewolves if they enter the woods carrying arms.
Temple: The Wyrd of the Woods is not an actual wyrd, but an order set on the preservation of Breton culture. The Temple spends great expenses on archaeology, despite how very little remains of the Wood Elf and Nedic cultures found in High Rock in the Merethic Era.
Templar Knightly Order: The Wyrdesses of the Woods have few warriors among its ranks. Most of its numbers consists of hunters and alchemists with a deep understanding of the forest, volunteers who look for signs of wandering spirits while they are in the woodlands and pass by Phen’s Shelters when they have the chance.
Allies: The Shelter of Galen
Enemies: The Imperial Cult

Q'Olwen

Q'Olwen is a powerful Spider Daedra who ruled as a suzerain and later king over the region between Ykalon and Daenia for hundreds of years after the Direnni Hegemony collapsed. When at last this cruel daedra, who demanded a weekly human sacrifice from its subjects, was send back to Oblivion, it immediately started to plot revenge. During the Oblivion Crisis it made its move, building a shrine where she could summon herself back to Nirn at will. After the Oblivion Crisis she lingered until again she was defeated by a large group of mercenaries. These mercenaries founded a knightly order, the Order of Q'Olwen's Demise. Each year on her summoning day, the twelfth of Evening Star, Q'Olwen returns at her self-made shrine.
Temple: Surrounding the shrine is a large adamantium cage enchanted with wards so that no magic nor daedra may leave the shrine, with a heavily fortified entrance. This knightly order lives primarily off donations but have also made a lucrative arrangement with the court mages of the kingdom of Camlorn who use Q’Olwen’s annual corpse for their own experiments.
Templar Knightly Order: The Order of Q'Olwen's Demise. Initiates must do battle with Q'Olwen to be knighted, but the main method of slaying the beast is to simply pelt it with crossbow bolts from safely outside the cage.
Allies: The Kingdom of Camlorn
Enemies: Q’Olwen

The Sage

The Sage is a wizard who has discovered the secret to immortality by experimenting on himself. He does not know which of his thousands of experiments lead to his immortality, however. He lives in a magical fortress in the Kurallian Mountains hidden from all but the worthy mages who require his help, and he always provides.
Temple: The Solitude of the Sage is devoted to directing mages to The Sage’s fortress and to aiding him when he wanders the land as he often does. Every temple has a large garden filled with the dozens of herbs used in the cure for ageing. They perform large scale experiments, using a thousand women and a thousand men from all ethnicities, birth signs, age, and backgrounds for each of these experiments. Each experiment attempts a different combination of herbs, different preparations, different times of the year, etc. Thus far without succeeding in reaching full immortality, but they have succeeded in finding a potion that will allow anyone who drinks it to grow two decades older, which has since become one of the main exports of the temple.
Templar Knightly Order: The immortals. Contrary to their name, they are not immortal, but they are incredibly capable mages.
Allies: The School of Julianos
Enemies: The Order of Arkay

Sai

God of Luck, known to his followers as Lucky. Lucky was a mortal who discovered that he brought luck to those around him, but never himself. He became a soldier and died during his first fight, but all the other soldiers miraculously survived, and the war was won. Ebonarm, Mara or Stendarr, depending on the telling, visited him, and offered him the choice: Live forever as a God and spread your luck to others, or die without responsibility. Sai, afraid of death, took the godhood. Sai fell in love with a Nord woman however, and he moved in with her. His luck spread to the Nords and the Nords only, and they prospered. They slew the ice elves all over Skyrim and the wood elves in High Rock and their borders kept growing until the Empire of the Nords span all of northern Tamriel.
Because Sai had been shirking his duties he was stripped of his physical form by Mara, Ebonarm or Stendarr depending on who tells the tale, so that he could not be tempted to linger and start a family, and he was forced to leave the Nords for a couple hundreds of years. It would be another two hundred years before the Nordic Empire fell, but Sai's luck was now shared with all the races.
Temple: The Temple of Luck gives blessings to the unlucky and is a shelter for all who had relied too heavy on Lucky’s Blessing and who he thus had abandoned. For all the gamblers who had win after win but are now out of gold to spend the Temple has a meal.
Templar Knightly Order: The Saian Order is devoted to the eradication of illegal gambling, as well as locating and protecting unicorns.
Allies: The Benevolence of Mara, The Anvil of Ebonarm, the Temple of Stendarr
Enemies: Sanguine

S'Ephen

Also called Ephen, S'Ephen was a Chimer noble during the Nordic Empire's expansion into Morrowind. When he was eventually slain, his half-brother Moraelyn established a temple cult in his memory. Statues of S'Ephen depict him wielding a hammer, atop of an anvil of adamantium. This hammer and anvil are both artifacts associated with him, but their location has long since been lost to time. When combined, the wielder is said to be able to manufacture anything with only a few strikes of the hammer on the anvil. Other artifacts associated with S'Ephen are the legendary Horn of Summoning, which was placed in his tomb by Moraelyn, and the Staff of Chaos which was placed in his tomb by General Symmachus when Tiber Septim took the Horn of Summoning for himself. The Staff was later also taken out of the grave by Jagar Tharn.
Temple: The Temple of S’Ephen
Templar Knightly Order: The Knights of S’Ephen are dedicated to finding the artifacts entrusted into S’Ephen’s protection and restoring them to him.
Allies: The Order of the True King
Enemies: None

Shandar

God of War-Magic imported by the Nedic tribes of Hammerfell when they fled from the Ra Gada to the Iliac Bay in the ninth century of the First Era. Scholars theorize that Shandar is a demonized version of Shalidor introduced to the region by the Dwarves who had fought this powerful Nord Arch Mage in the Rourken-Shalidor War during their exile from Resdayn to Volenfell. They had thought themselves victorious and expanded their territory and established trade routes with the Bretons. But Shandar had cursed them during their war, as the dwarves could no longer bear no children of the elven blood. Instead the children came out green and ugly and were cast out of the cities. When the Ra Gada came to the shores three centuries later, the once grand dwarven cities were buried under the dunes and infested with goblins and dunerippers. Shandar is said to be present wherever man uses magic against unclean creatures like orcs and automatons.
Temple: The Temple of Shandar. Shandar haunts the halls in the cursed dwarven ruins of Hammerfell. For a fee, the Temple’s blessings will protect any delving into the dwarven ruins or lift curses from items excavated from these sites.
Templar Knightly Order: The Shandar Knights are skilled mages armed with staffs and enchanted swords.
Allies: The Anvil of Ebonarm
Enemies: None

Talos

Talos, Tiber Septim, God emperor. Tiber Septim the man was never quite a popular spirit to the Bretons. Born an Alcarian, Tiber Septim was renowned as the general who freed the Nords of the Reachfolk, subsequently pushing them further into High Rock. When general Septim defeated the joined Nord and Breton forces on the cliffs of Sancre Tor, the Nords joined his side, but men of Bretony stood true, even when thrown into the bondage of slavery by the snake-tongued general. It is perhaps because of the Breton hatred for Tiber the Man that Talos the God is so beloved, for the end, a unified and prosperous Tamriel protected from Above, justifies the means.
In contrast to Tiber Septim, the God Talos has been revered by the Bretons bordering Skyrim for centuries. His veneration has crept into the Iliac bay since the last century and a half or so, spearheaded by the celebration of Tibedetha, or Talos Day in modern Tamrielic. A day of celebrating the empire above all, a religious event second, the holiday was taken from the region of Alcaire and spread all over High Rock by the Imperial Cult to appeal to locals, with success.
Temple: The Temple of Talos is a rogue temple, an offshoot of the Imperial Cult that wretched itself free by blood and by steel. The imperial forts converted to temples by the imperial cult have been reverted to fully operational bastions.
Templar Knightly Order: The Resistance as they are called are a renegade order dedicated to the protection of shrines of Talos and of his followers, hunting down Thalmor justiciars and freeing all who have been imprisoned for worshipping the Emperor God.
Allies: Letters and messengers between the Stormcloaks and the Resistance have been intercept, but not enough information has been intercepted to draw conclusions yet. Perhaps the Temple is lying in wait to see who will emerge victorious in the Skyrim Civil War before they choose to throw in their lot.
Enemies: The Imperial Cult is the official enemy of the Temple of Talos, acting in the emperor’s stead to secure Thalmor interest. They have been suspiciously unsuccessful in this.

Vigryl

Also known as Vir Jil to the Bretons wanting to emphasize their elven heritage, Vigryl is the God of the Sea worshiped over the entire Iliac Bay coastline. Depending on the story he was either a Direnni captain who taught the early Bretons to navigate by the stars, or he placed the stars in the sky himself. Some myths say he even wrestled his knowledge of the stars out of the God of the Deep Sea and Deep Knowledge Hermeus Mora himself, but others say this is merely allegorical.
Temple: Vigryl’s Harbour
Templar Knightly Order: Vigryl’s Vigilant Sailors
Allies: The Magnus Orrery
Enemies: Hermeus Mora

As the title says I’m turning 20 years old. I have learned a lot being a teenager, it’s the prime of our lives, it’s where we finish secondary school, get our first part-time job, choose a university, or leave school and get a full-time job. Personally, I have learnt a lot, most of it is from my own experiences but I wish someone else had told me earlier on before I found out for myself. I wouldn’t say I’m leaving this sub forever; I’ll give myself the “old” tag and give advice where I think I could be of help. I would still like to write the bulk of what I’ve learned here to help you. 1. I see a lot of posts about mental health and suicide and you need to know it’s okay not to be okay. Help is out there I love helping people I enjoy it, so please message me if you need help. I to have felt depressed at times, one major thing about me is that I care too much about what people think about me, if someone has a problem I want to know why. If you’re like this too learn to let things roll of your back and ignore them. 2. Stop worrying about relationships at 13 to 16 years old, at the time of writing this I haven’t had a girlfriend yet nor anything even close, nothing lasted more than a night 2 days at the most. We will all find someone at some point. I have thought about losing my virginity to a prostitute, it might fun, and I shouldn’t regret it, but I probably would. 3. Do well in school, one of my biggest regrets is being too busy trying to be the funny popular guy trying to be everyone’s friend, I failed at both having a huge circle of friends and failed school as well. 4. Your school grades don’t define who you are. There are plenty of options for you to take and still do what you want to do but doing as well as you can in school will make doing what you want easier. 5. Get a part time job once you are old enough. Even if it a volunteer job it will give you much needed work experience that will help you eventually get a paid job. Also looks good on a university application. Try and avoid customer service for your first! 6. Save up your money. I understand once you start working you might be tempted to spend your money on new games or PC upgrades I know I was, and that’s ok, it’s nice to treat ourselves every so often, however even putting just £50 aside each month into a savings account will help massively for when you wish to buy a car, pay for university or pay for when you decide to go on holiday with friends after you finish school and help you get a property for when you wish to move out. 7. If you know what to do you could invest your money in stocks, I wish I’d known to do that sooner, if you can invest £100 each month into shares over a few months or years your portfolio will grow and hopefully if you bought the right shares could make some sweet profit. 8. Carrying on from number 3. Use this time while you’re still at home to travel, I live in the UK so after we did A levels (I did engineering Btec) after saving up for about 2 years my friends and I were able to go interrailing (backpacking as the Americans call it!) through Europe for 4 weeks. But only do this with friends that you know you can have fun with. The people I went with didn’t enjoy going out to clubs and getting drunk as much as I do, so I wish I had gone with people I could do that with. 9. if it, it’s too good to be true it usually is 10. your Parents don’t always know best, if you want to follow a career path and your parents don’t agree do it, you will regret it. Thankfully I have parents that support me in whatever I do, but I know people that do. 11. Don’t hang around people who aren’t your friends. Fake people are the worst people, people like this will uses you, manipulate you and lie to you. 12. It is ok to have no friends, there is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Eventually you will find a small social crowds with whom you will do everything with. 13. As Chris Gardner once said Plan B and C are rubbish, stick to your plan A and you will succeed. 14. People don’t always change; some do I am completely different now than 2 years ago. But some people I was at school with are the same, they are the same dickhead who likes to be funny by putting others down, people like that are stuck in their own little world to scared to realize that they have been left behind due to still being immature. 15. As I said in 11 and 4 if you don’t have fun you will regret it, I promise you, one of the friends I went with told me he regrets not smoking weed in Amsterdam or getting drunk on £1 beers in Budapest and wants to go again to have the experience he didn’t. Life is fun enjoy it while you can. 16. You will probably have that night where you go to a party or a night out in town where you’ll drink too much and get beyond the point of wasted, at the time you’ll feel like shit and regret it but after time for me it was a year it becomes something you and your friends laugh at especially when they tell you all the things you can’t remember. 17. “In game theory, it serves you to be two-faced. Be everyone's friend 'til the moment you're not. Make them love you so much that when they're up against you, their own loyalty will act against their own self-interests”. That's game theory. This was taken from one of my favourite TV series prison break. And I think it perfectly describes social interaction between teenagers and young adults. People will use you and you will use people even when that wasn’t your intention. I’ve been used by people id call my closest friends some did it intentionally some not. 18. Find a hobby there is no such thing as an odd or weird hobby, it allows you to find a common interest with people allowing you to make new friends and meet people, when I turned 18 my hobby was cigars, I’d go to various cigar lounges around London and meet people obviously they were older but the best thing about a cigar is the great conversation that comes with it. That’s just my opinion. 19. You will most likely regret the things you didn’t do not the things you did. Don’t dwell on the past and your previous mistakes focus on the present and the future. If there is someone you fancy, ask them out what’s the worst that will happen? They might say yes worst case they say no. but at least you tried. 20. At a nightclub or festival where your surrounded by people you don’t know, never except a drink from anyone if it wasn’t poured out Infront of you. First time I went clubbing I excepted a drink of champagne from someone I didn’t know in one of London’s busiest clubs I was lucky that it was fine. 21. Never shake someone’s hand sitting down and always grip firmly and make eye contact. 22. In a negation never make the first offer. 23. Take the time to talk to a homeless person, they sometimes have the most interesting stories and lessons to teach. Everyone falls on hard times, someone I spoke to was a veteran and ended up losing his home. 24. Friends come and go 25. Never stop in the pursuit of happiness 26. Loneliness isn’t forever. The most popular person may also feel alone. 27. It might not be a good life, but it’s your life so live it. 28. You can never please everyone, live for yourself and not others I know this is a long post but below I’ve left a summary of all the things I’ve done and experienced being a teenager (2012 – 2021) 11-12: Started secondary school where I made new friends and experienced a whole new environment including no more packed lunches. 12-13: Another year of secondary school, made it into the higher level classes for science and IT, at this point I started to experience bullying for the first time from the same person I was friends with the year before, I also entered my schools coding competition where we competed against the neighbouring school in who could create the best game on scratch. During this year I re-kindled a past friendship with someone from primary school whom I drifted apart from. We remain close to this day. (He won the coding competition with a moon landing game). Joined my school’s car mechanics club too. 13-14 3rd year of school, the bullying started getting worse. Applied for the bronze Duke of Edinburgh award ( for the non-brits here it’s an award scheme where the participant has to take part in volunteering, something physical a skill and finally a hiking expedition) no you don’t get to meet prince philip until you complete the gold award too. Picked my GCSE options. Had my first real crush (this was a fiasco in itself) as well as had my first kiss with someone else (another awful experience). 14-15 Aight cool year 10, time to start my GCSE studies and think about the future. The bullying reached its peak I lost it tried to fight him failed sort of, I got a few punched in before teachers came and pulled us apart, spent the rest of that day and the whole next day internal exclusion room, him too. (was oddly fun ngl), might I add that even the headteacher was aware of the bullying and didn’t care neither did the pastoral manager who when I told her about the first time told me to go away and grow up. Completed my Silver Duke of Edinburgh award. I never completed the last level (gold). 15-16 Woo last year of high school time to sit the exams that so many people think will ruin their lives if they fail. Yes the best you do will allow you to go on and do better things like a good university or doing the A levels you want, but it won’t stop you getting the career you want, you will just need to take a different path to get there like I did. Towards the summer I was getting ready to go on Israel tour my first time away from home for more than a week and to a new country without my family. For those of you that don’t know what Israel tour is, it is when you go to the state of Israel for 3 weeks maybe more depending on the tour organiser and see various sites such as the western wall, dead sea, Masada, ride camels in the desert, live on an army base for a few days as part of a small boot camp type thing (my favourite part) and much, much more. On this though I sadly realised that some people can’t be trusted and will stab you in the back, my “friend” liked the same person I did and instead of saying something to me he just spoke shit about me to her. 16-17 Secondary school, been there done that got the fucking t shirt. After not doing as well as I expected to in my GCSE exams, I had to change my plan slightly. I wanted to go into forensic science to do this I wanted to study level 3 Btec in applied science, but because I had failed 2 of my exams (the important ones) I had to do a level 2 course instead (same subject but lower level) during this year being in a new environment from the last I bought and smoked weed for the first time as well as getting my first hangover. During this year I was able to re sit my exams I passed 1 but still failed the other. I realised that the subject I was doing was no longer my passion. I got my first part time job as a receptionist so I could build my first gaming PC. My other close mate: after helping him meet his first girlfriend which by this point was at the 8- or 9-months mark, the 2 of them wanted to help me find someone. After fancying the same girl for the last 3 years at this point they introduced me to someone else, we were all away on a summer camp together so after being introduced we got talking for the next 4 whole days became really close only for on the last night before the big party for her friend to talk shit about me to her (seems to be a pattern here). A week later I had my second snog (kiss, make out, get with) with someone else (whatever u want to call it), this one was decent this happened to me on the NCS award (national citizen service) it’s like the Duke of Edinburgh award. 17-18 As I said before science was no longer what I wanted to do, so I changed to engineering at a new college (community college for the Americans). As I still didn’t have a C grade or above in my remaining GCSE exam, I had to do another level 2 course to pass. I got a new job as a waitekitchen assistant. started talking to another girl who in many ways she was a female version of me, we agreed on everything and got on well had so much in common it was unreal. My mate sadly broke up with his girlfriend so he was on the market too looking for someone else, I suggested to him that for his 18th he should throw a massive party, he agreed. I saw it as the perfect opportunity to make a move on the girl I was talking too; so, I invited her as my plus one. I got to his house early to help setup the house, she arrived about an hour later. I made a poor miss judgment that night and drunk about half a bottle of Russian standard vodka (no mixers). Being my drunk self I stumbled over to her and we began talking, then guess who comes over to us the same girl who cock blocked me previously and she does the god damn same, I have to admit me being as drunk as I was at That point definitely didn’t help. As you could I lost my shit at the person who yet again ruined something for me I went off on one in front of the whole goddamn party by this point the full force of my drinking hit me, I was unrollable cursing at the bitch who for the second time ruined something I had with someone. By this point the girl I invited left early, and my parents were called to pick me up. FYI the party stared at 8 I was home by 9 30 passed out. The girl I invited never spoke to me again I tried to apologise she didn’t really want much to do with me (understandable). My 18th I went clubbing for the first time and experienced a casino for the first time (played blackjack with £25 walked out with £120(I don’t encourage gambling, only play with what you can afford to lose)). The night club itself was something I didn’t enjoy all too much, main reason being there was only a few of us and the club was full of much older crowd than us, drinks where a fortune too, it was fun I enjoyed being out in the capital with my close mates at that time. It’s all about finding clubs that offer student nights where the crowd will be younger. Summertime, before the majority from my year head to university they all host a second school prom a reunion. This night again I learnt that people can and will be 2 faced if it serves them better. A girl who my mate had been helping me get talking to decided that the night before prom at a separate party he would make out with her himself (I was fine with that; I wasn’t at that party). I got invited to pre-drinks at this girls house the minute I walked in something felt off, it wasn’t until later I knew why; I found out my mate had made out with her the night before, unexpectedly he apologised to me (he didn’t need to, however I told him it was fine and move on) I was still hoping to get with her. 20 minutes later Infront of me the same mate of mine and the same girl were making out again (now I was pissed, first you apologise and then 20 minutes later do it Infront of me and everyone making me look like a mug). And again he apologises I played the bigger man held myself back from sparking him in the face and said that once is a mistake, 2 times is a slap in the face) this mate of mine was coming traveling with me 3 days later we didn’t speak until then. I went interrailing (traveling) through Europe with 4 mates that summer. 18-19 What was supposed to be my first year at university turned out to be another year at community college. This was also the start of where things got bad for me, by this point all my friends have had some sexual experience except me. My social crowd at this point is dwindling slowly at the time I didn’t notice I was just being left out more, (looking back, with some of my friends I was a background friend). I was finally on level 3 Btec engineering and have finally passed my last exam that I needed (took 4 attempts but if at first you don’t succeed try, try again). 19-20 (Present) Ok things are bad, I’ve realised that only 2 of my close mates are my only friends ( I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known, don’t know where it goes but its home to me, I walk alone). I knew for a while since the previous summer that most of the people I trust and call my friends don’t care about me. I only ever spoke to them If I was lucky enough to be invited out on the rare occasion (I would usually have to be the one to make the effort). I wanted to rid of the people who don’t care about me, I never thought for a second 2 of my other close mates (separate from the ones I mentioned in 19-20, they will always be my close mates) would be the ones to go first. One of these mates was someone who I had so many memorise with, we went clubbing together, wingmen for each other, I allowed him to get off with someone at my house while I was asleep in the same room (didn’t know until the morning); and now since the start of the coronavirus pandemic we haven’t spoken or seen one another and is telling people it’s my fault. (he and many others know that if I have done something to upset someone I will always be happy to fix it, I hate beefing with people) I realised he didn’t care for me no more, the memories we had together meant so much to me and nothing to him, he’s part of a new social crowd most of them I know and have also tried to get close with but I was never able to. I know I did something wrong to make all these people pull away from me I just don’t know what, I run so many possible reasons through my head but none make sense or seem big enough to make to a huge social crowd no longer want me around (popularity baffles me, it’s one thing I’ve never been nor able to understand). Now in my FINAL year of college and looking at either looking at going to university to study either Aerospace or Electronics engineering, getting an apprenticeship or I may join the army or the royal air force. I kind of wish I studied law. All I really want for my self is a job I’m proud of, something that when someone asks what I do for a living I can tell them and not be embarrassed or ashamed and not have to lie or exaggerate about it. However, before coronavirus hit the UK badly, I started a new part time job in retail pays very well for what it is, and I get nice bonuses I still managed to keep it through the lockdown. Been predicted high grades for my course more than enough for my university choices and the apprenticeships schemes I want. As I said at the beginning, this isn’t goodbye. I’ll still be here offering advice where I see fit giving my wisdom to those who need it. Also, if any of you need to talk or any advice drop me a message on here and I’ll try my best to help. “life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all”
-u/randomhuman_23
Edit: i hope this doesn't get lost in new