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    1. Nick Offerman and Amy Poehler announcing their new show and telling about going back to Pawnee

      Video: https://youtu.be/fUIF9m737kI It's nothing official and not even something anyone is working on but I found myself smiling at the thought of a post-finale season that could shows what the...

      Video: https://youtu.be/fUIF9m737kI

      It's nothing official and not even something anyone is working on but I found myself smiling at the thought of a post-finale season that could shows what the various character are doing.

      During an interview, Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman were promoting their new show "making it" and were asked about going back to Pawnee. Apparently they would be glad to do it.

      Anyway even if this is just "por parley" I found nice to see Nick and Amy will be on screen again soon.

      What's your opinion on a sequel of P&R or the new show?

      Edit: damn autocorrect "telling" was "talking"

      9 votes
    2. Scoping of meta-discussion

      We currently have ~tildes for meta topics. What about a similar mechanism for meta-discussion, scoped to specific group hierarchies? I imagine something like ~tildes.gaming or...

      We currently have ~tildes for meta topics. What about a similar mechanism for meta-discussion, scoped to specific group hierarchies? I imagine something like ~tildes.gaming or ~tildes.gaming.leagueoflegends, mirroring the structure of the groups itself. This draws a little bit from how StackExchange does it, if anyone is familiar with that, but they do not have any nesting. They just have a "meta" site for every regular one for discussing the site itself.

      An alternative would be to discuss those things in the group itself. This might be reasonable as well, but since we already separate it out for the top-level, that approach seems somewhat inconsistent.

      9 votes
    3. Suggestion: show a "this tilde doesn't exist yet" page instead of a 404

      (Apologies if this has already come up) If I click on a link to a non-existent tilde e.g. https://tildes.net/~photography it shows a plain 404 "not found" page. Instead there should be a more...

      (Apologies if this has already come up)

      If I click on a link to a non-existent tilde e.g. https://tildes.net/~photography it shows a plain 404 "not found" page. Instead there should be a more informative page which says something like "this tilde doesn't exist yet".

      This could eventually be used for a mechanism for users to vote for/suggest a new tilde.

      18 votes
    4. Alts?

      So at the moment I'm guessing most people probably have just a single account, but eventually people are going to start wanting multiple accounts. How is this going to work? Only when public...

      So at the moment I'm guessing most people probably have just a single account, but eventually people are going to start wanting multiple accounts. How is this going to work? Only when public signups are allowed or can we use our invitations to invite ourselves in as it is? (since they're specifically allowed in the Terms of Service, but there's currently no way to get them except by invitation)? Are we going to require a certain amount of reputation to allow alts? Or will we introduce a nicknames or "identities" feature on top of a single account?

      13 votes
    5. Any language learners/enthusiasts around here?

      Now that a community is starting to build here, I'm curious if anyone else is interested in languages. Personally, I realized that I enjoy learning languages when I took a Spanish class in high...

      Now that a community is starting to build here, I'm curious if anyone else is interested in languages.

      Personally, I realized that I enjoy learning languages when I took a Spanish class in high school. The only languages I've studied seriously are Spanish and Russian, and unfortunately these days my Spanish is pretty rusty, but I still enjoy the process of learning about different languages, how they relate to each other, and learning how to communicate at least a little.

      Anyone here share my interest? What language(s) are you learning/have you studied, and what do you like or dislike about it? What has struck you as the most interesting or weirdest thing about it?

      28 votes
    6. Rename the groups after Geocities neighborhoods and please never allow a user to add a group. There has to be limits, and limits create communities.

      To me one of the biggest problems on the internet is the lack of a "hub" or somewhere it sort of centralizes. In my opinion the current "staleness" of the internet is due to a lack of central hub....

      To me one of the biggest problems on the internet is the lack of a "hub" or somewhere it sort of centralizes. In my opinion the current "staleness" of the internet is due to a lack of central hub.

      So i thought about how I could solve this problem. You see without a central hub, starting anything is a problem.

      Imagine I am a new user on the web, and I want to learn 3D modeling. Where do I go? This is a problem I am facing right now, like which site do I goto to be part of a community. I don't want to make an account on facebook and join ragtag groups with no real activity. There is no sense of community or anything, just random noise. All I can do is google, and youtube videos to learn 3d modeling. If I goto forums, they are all very stale or "dead" and I leave cause I don't know what to do there.

      I basically wanted to have a starting point where I knew for a fact that everyone knows this place and starts here and belong to a community. Two months, and I still have the same problem. I don't belong to a community within 3d modeling or feel like I belong there. Just hardly any chitchat, irc channels barely anyone speaks. Days go by without a new thread.

      The biggest problem I notice is that everyone is spread apart, some devs on twitter only, some on that certain site only. No one is really connected or rather there is no central hub. Still using 3d modeling as an example, I noticed that without a central hub, there is no real "right" way to do something. I mean this, no one has any idea on what software to use. I keep asking myself am I using the right software, what is he using, what are they using. It turns out they all have this question, I'm still not sure. NO ONE IS. So if no one is sure, then the communities unintentionally keep closing themselves off.

      But There is one rule that must be set

      YOU CANNOT EVER ALLOW A USER TO CREATE A GROUP. Do not make this mistake.

      Have Things constant at times, I'm tired of unlimited everything. A limit creates a sense of belonging.

      Why?

      Reddit's biggest flaw and strength is the subreddits and it made a mistake when it allowed anyone to create one and you are seeing the cascading effects now. When you can make a new group, you are no longer a tight nit community with set focus. You are separating the community on a large scale, right off the bat and as you can see on reddit, subbreddits clash which leads to drama and ultimately the destruction of the site from within.

      So what am I getting at?

      We go back to a tried and true method and something that we know everyone will like. Something that Appeals To Everyone ish.

      YOU BRING BACK THE GEOCITIES NEIGHBORHOODS AND KEEP THEM NAMED AS GROUPS.

      Have 29 Groups, or let the community decide the # of groups and lets start naming them. No petsburgh please

      Simple Short Descriptions. and the name creates an INSTANT connection with someone who might have an interest in that group.

      The Only Time You Add A Group is every 6 months to a year and ONLY THE OWNER CAN. Community Decides the name.

      YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SET # OF GROUPS. This creates unique culture.

      List of IDEAS:

      1: Add a count for the amount of posts in the group list if you can, might be database heavy.

      2: Everyone is subscribed to all the groups but can unsubscribe.

      3: A list of trending "topics" or call them "marks" or "underscores". (Suck it twitter)

      6 votes
    7. What is Tildes' plan for communities that "get too large?"

      One of the consistent discussion points of why this place is so great is because it's small. Do you all have any mechanics thought up for how communities can limit growth? I think I saw some...

      One of the consistent discussion points of why this place is so great is because it's small. Do you all have any mechanics thought up for how communities can limit growth?

      I think I saw some discussion about parent/child relationships for the ~tildes groups where it looked like you were using dot notation - is that your mechanic? Endless children? Will ~tildes be able to cap their subscribers? I don't have answers, just questions now. :)

      43 votes
    8. I made a thing: News Desk

      I've only been seriously programming for about a year now (and mostly in R), but I've been digging into Python for the past few months. Mostly I use pandas/numpy/scipy/scikit-learn, etc. for data...

      I've only been seriously programming for about a year now (and mostly in R), but I've been digging into Python for the past few months. Mostly I use pandas/numpy/scipy/scikit-learn, etc. for data analysis and some ML stuff, but in an effort to expand my skills I've also been playing around trying to build a few projects.

      It's not much, but I built this: News Desk

      Feedback is welcome. One bug that I'm aware of is that when you refresh the program, the url_list isn't cleared and the URLs from the refreshed articles are just appended to the list. So even though only 20 articles will show, you can select, for example, article 35.

      11 votes
    9. What's your favorite video game? Why?

      I'd like to see everyone favorite games to start a discussion and maybe get some recommendations. My favorite game is either the pokemon series or skyrim. I've played pokemon all my life but...

      I'd like to see everyone favorite games to start a discussion and maybe get some recommendations. My favorite game is either the pokemon series or skyrim. I've played pokemon all my life but skyrim was my first big RPG, which I loved, I have owned it on 4 different platforms!

      44 votes
    10. Password reset

      I don't need to reset my password, and I really appreciate the way that it is done to maximize anonymity. However, I think there is a bit of a problem with how it is done in terms of users getting...

      I don't need to reset my password, and I really appreciate the way that it is done to maximize anonymity. However, I think there is a bit of a problem with how it is done in terms of users getting locked out.

      If you're locked out, as far as I can tell, there is no way to view the email hint associated with your account. It seems a bit counter intuitive to me that in order to see the hint for how to regain access to your account, you have to already have that access! I also think that it won't work in the case that someone has been away for a few months and has forgotten their password. I'm not sure what a good way of displaying the hint would be, however, since if it is done by username anyone who has seen your posts can look at your password hint.

      Hopefully with a bit of discussion we can cook something up that can solve this catch 22!

      11 votes
    11. Security flaws / bounties

      Hi! Something I've been wondering, is Tilde planned to eventually have a bug bounty program or something like that for security flaws in the future? Edit: RIP, forgot to separate those tags with...

      Hi! Something I've been wondering, is Tilde planned to eventually have a bug bounty program or something like that for security flaws in the future?

      Edit: RIP, forgot to separate those tags with commas...

      7 votes
    12. Tildes Technical Map

      Having just joined recently and made my way though the (technical goals documentation)[https://docs.tildes.net/technical-goals], I am interested in the lower-level stuff. How scaling is being...

      Having just joined recently and made my way though the (technical goals documentation)[https://docs.tildes.net/technical-goals], I am interested in the lower-level stuff. How scaling is being considered, off-loading static content to CDNs, fault-tolerance etc... As well as code testing, deployments, etc...

      I guess this will be a bit clearer when Tildes goes Open, but I think a discussion on it could also be helpful for roadmapping and growth if possible.

      5 votes
    13. Suggestion: Thread link in notifications

      I noticed when opening my notifications that they are missing a link to the originating thread. EDIT: just discovered that the # at the end of the header line is a link back to the topic. Maybe...

      I noticed when opening my notifications that they are missing a link to the originating thread.

      EDIT: just discovered that the # at the end of the header line is a link back to the topic. Maybe making that a bit more obvious then?

      7 votes
    14. Possible bug: using the ~ character preceding a word within inline preformatted text.

      In preformatted text blocks (three back ticks), group syntax with ~ doesn't get rendered as a hyperlink, but it does with inline preformatted text e.g. ~group. This seems like it would be...

      In preformatted text blocks (three back ticks), group syntax with ~ doesn't get rendered as a hyperlink, but it does with inline preformatted text e.g. ~group.

      This seems like it would be undesirable and unintended behavior. That being said, I'd rather have this verified before opening an issue on gitlab.

      Is this a bug or a feature?

      7 votes
    15. 1000 users (ish)

      So if we go by the number of users subscribed to the ~tildes group it looks like we're at about 1000 now. Seems like a fun little milestone to call out.

      23 votes
    16. The future of moderation on Tildes

      It seems like a large percentage of us that are also moderators on Reddit-- myself included. It seems that there's a generally negative attitude toward moderators on Reddit, which I totally get....

      It seems like a large percentage of us that are also moderators on Reddit-- myself included.

      It seems that there's a generally negative attitude toward moderators on Reddit, which I totally get. Moderation on Reddit is flawed. Community members feel a sense of ownership in the community (which they should have), but bad moderators can ruin that. How do you guys think moderation should be handled here?

      Here's a link from the docs that describes current plans: https://docs.tildes.net/mechanics-future

      It highlights plans for a reputation system, which I think is the right way to go.

      I also just realized that the same discussion was posted 18 days ago, but perhaps discussion with some of the newer users is worthwhile nonetheless:
      https://tildes.net/~tildes/6e/community_moderators

      31 votes
    17. Bug report (a minor one, where minor is written bold)

      Sorry, I skimmed the sidebar and announcement posts and whatsoever, but didn't find anything where to post. Found a simple bug, which may also be a feature:p If you delete a comment, you can't...

      Sorry, I skimmed the sidebar and announcement posts and whatsoever, but didn't find anything where to post.

      Found a simple bug, which may also be a feature:p

      If you delete a comment, you can't press reply on that same comment again, where you previously deleted your reply from. If I vote that comment after deleting my comment reply is again clickable.

      Thanks for your attention. Have a great day. :P

      €dit:
      I'm using a phone, with webview browser. (Entering into Google search and using that view instead of a browser)

      7 votes
    18. What about AZERTY users?

      I'm from Belgium. Belgium is one of the two countries in the world, along with France, that uses AZERTY. The big problem with an AZERTY keyboard is that there is no tilde key. So, in orde to use...

      I'm from Belgium. Belgium is one of the two countries in the world, along with France, that uses AZERTY. The big problem with an AZERTY keyboard is that there is no tilde key. So, in orde to use the key or tag a sub (ex. ~fantasy, like you'd do /r/fantasy), AZERTY users have to manually copy the tilde every single time they want to use it. Usually this isn't that big of a problem, but when the tilde is such a key feature on a website, I think it does become a bit of a problem.

      For reference, France has a population of 67M, while Belgium has around 11M.

      12 votes
    19. Any Pirates out there? (Sea of Thieves)

      I've been really enjoying Sea of Thieves lately, and I'm pretty enthusiastic about the new update coming on Tuesday. Anyone else feeling the same? I've only got a couple people who I play with...

      I've been really enjoying Sea of Thieves lately, and I'm pretty enthusiastic about the new update coming on Tuesday. Anyone else feeling the same?
      I've only got a couple people who I play with from time to time, so if anyone would like to crew up, just add me. My Xbox tag is the same as my Tildes username.

      10 votes
    20. Daily Tildes discussion - time to slow down a bit and figure some things out

      It's now been almost exactly a week since Tildes got its first "real" attention on Hacker News, and it's been a great week. We're going to have over 1000 users registered today, which is awesome...

      It's now been almost exactly a week since Tildes got its first "real" attention on Hacker News, and it's been a great week. We're going to have over 1000 users registered today, which is awesome and incredibly encouraging for me to see so much excitement this quickly. I'm also extremely glad that I decided to start out invite-only, because with the attention Tildes has been getting in various threads on reddit already, I think we could have easily had 20,000 or more users right now, and that would have been far too fast to grow.

      On that note, I think it's good to try to slow down for at least a few days at around this size while we get some things sorted out and improved. So at least for now, please don't go out of your way to post about Tildes in any major reddit threads or anything (I'm looking at you, @Vibe, you're too good at finding places to mention it). You don't have to hide it and are still welcome to mention it to friends and such (and send me a message if you need some invite codes), but it would be nice to try to avoid major public attention for a few days so we can catch our breath.

      As for what we should figure out while we're trying to pause the growth a bit, here are a few things from my perspective, but please let me know if you have any other suggestions:

      • Comment tags - I think I may just disable these entirely for now. They don't really do anything useful for the moment anyway, and I think the system for them needs some work so they're more likely to work as intended.
      • More groups - we could probably use a few more groups. A food/drink one has been suggested a few times and I think that's a good idea, any suggestions for the name? Other than that, any other ones you think we need urgently?
      • Various minor convenience improvements - there are a lot of little things that need tweaking, that weren't as obviously needed when the site was less active. For example, easier ways to find new comments in large threads, since we're already getting ones with hundreds of comments. I'd like to get some of that kind of stuff in place before it gets even worse as the activity keeps increasing, so please let me know also any specific ones that you think are urgent. Once the code is open-source I expect user contributions to help a lot with this kind of stuff.

      Thanks again for being here, it's pretty amazing to already be worrying about growing too quickly.

      83 votes
    21. Staff tag?

      Can we get a tag next to usernames for Tildes staff? Kind of like an admin tag, but might as well just call it staff or whatever you prefer. For example in that donations thread I was unsure if...

      Can we get a tag next to usernames for Tildes staff? Kind of like an admin tag, but might as well just call it staff or whatever you prefer. For example in that donations thread I was unsure if it's an admin posting that or not at first glance. Would apply to comments too.

      (Are red titles from staff? But that doesn't apply to comments I guess)

      13 votes
    22. Must have Switch indie titles?

      Hey all! I got a switch early this year and I've been loving it so far. I've been browsing the store and there seems to be a ton of cool little indie titles. Any recommendations for some really...

      Hey all! I got a switch early this year and I've been loving it so far. I've been browsing the store and there seems to be a ton of cool little indie titles. Any recommendations for some really fun ones?

      I love strategy games and RPGs. I would also love any recommendations for games that my GF and I could play together as well.

      26 votes
    23. Ask Tildes: What is the best way to get involved with the development of Tildes?

      Hi everyone, I'm a frontend developer and do a bit of backend work as well. I'd really like to contribute some of my downtime to helping build this site. I've checked out the issue tracker on...

      Hi everyone, I'm a frontend developer and do a bit of backend work as well. I'd really like to contribute some of my downtime to helping build this site. I've checked out the issue tracker on gitlab and some of the docs, tech goals and announcement, but I'd like to start getting my hands dirty and contribute some code.

      • Is there a roadmap for development?
      • A feature list to implement?
      • Bugs to fix?

      How can I help out? What's the best way to get started?

      Also for all non-devs, what is the best way that they can start helping out?

      30 votes
    24. What is your favourite thing to do after Friday end of day to celebrate start of weekend?

      If not Friday, then replace your start-of-weekend day for off-business week schedules, but what's your usual 'get home and do what?' tradition to start your weekend time? I enjoy getting home,...

      If not Friday, then replace your start-of-weekend day for off-business week schedules, but what's your usual 'get home and do what?' tradition to start your weekend time?

      I enjoy getting home, setting my stuff down, pouring just a bit of port wine into glass and enjoying it for an hour or so just to unwind/disconnect.

      Saying hello to the cat and dog fits in there, intermittently, too.

      15 votes
    25. Regarding Verjigorm

      Tilde pretext - I have no idea what to tag this, but if anyone likes Shadowrun or Earthdawn pnp lore this info is a pain in the ass to find. I spent way, way too much time trying to track down...

      Tilde pretext - I have no idea what to tag this, but if anyone likes Shadowrun or Earthdawn pnp lore this info is a pain in the ass to find.

      I spent way, way too much time trying to track down information on Verjigorm. I enjoy exploring the lore of the Shadowrun universe, and the hoops I had to jump through to get this info was way more than I expected. I kept seeing references to books I didn't have, and finally actually got a copy of Earthdawn's Horror book to copy this down.

      I realize no one requested this, but I'm just posting this excerpt in the hope it will save people the massive amount of time I spent fumbling around trying to get anything substantial on this subject.

      This is verbatim from the Earthdawn Horrors book. If this is somehow violating a policy I missed let me know and I will edit and change as needed.

      I'm not sure who specifically wrote this, so here are the listed writers for the book:

      Writing: Robin D. Laws, Teeuwynn Woodruff, Greg Gorden, Sam Witt, Allen Varney, Chris McCubbin, Caroline Spector, Fraser Cain

      Additional Writing: Louis J. Prosperi, Rob Cruz, Dian Prion-Gelman, Andrew Raglan, and Rich Warren

      pg 66 Eathdawn - Horrors

      The following account was graciously provided by the Great Dragon Icewing. The Library of Throal, and indeed all the Namegivers of Barsaive, owe this generous dragon a debt of undying gratitude for the information he has provided on this entity. Scholars throughout the land agree that Verjigorm is the most powerful Horror that has ever existed-- a terrible, vile abomination whose strength towers above that of all other Horrors. May the Passions protect us all against the curse of the Horror called Verjigorm and its unnatural spawn, for its unmatched power and malevolent intelligence may yet spell the end of all that we know.

      -- Leranto Myrn, apprentice scholar, Library of Throal, 1507

      Generations of Name-givers throughout Barsaive and the lands beyond have learned to fear the great dragons. Even your most powerful magicians are but bumbling children in things magical when compared to us, and your most celebrated heroes cringe like frightened old women at the thought of facing the sword-like teeth and scythe-like claws of a dragon in battle. There is no shame in this fear. Beings of much greater power than you little folk have learned to fear us, for we great dragons are ancient and powerful beyond imagining. We walked these lands and rode the wind thousands of years before the first t'skrang tasted the waters of the Serpent or the first windling unfurled its wings in the cool morning air.

      But one being exists that even great dragons fear, a being that existed long before my ancient race appeared in Barsaive. Some call if the Horror of a Thousand Faces, or the Corrupter. Others know it as the Horror That Is Worshiped as a Passion, or the Great Hunter. Even today, dragons speak its cursed Name only in whispers, for it is said to have ears that hear all and eyes that never close. It is the Horror that always was, the Horror that is, the Horror that ever shall be. It is Verjigorm.

      The words of Name-givers cannot describe this Horror's all-encompassing evil, but I will try to do so in the hope that some day the monster might be banished forever from our world. Perhaps the following story, which I heard often as a hatchling, may help you understand.

      Long before the first dragon soared through the sky, the world was darkness, a never-ending moonless night that even the sun and stars could not penetrate. Thick, black clouds choked the sky and spawned cold, biting rains that scoured the barren land like a plague of hungry locusts. The seas and rivers were foul, bubbling cesspools teeming with plague and death.

      This was the age of the Dark One. One thousand and seven eyes sprang from its head, so that it might watch forever its cursed kingdom. Its terrible ears never shut, so that it might always hear the gnashing of teeth and the wailing and moaning of all living things. From its mouth flowed countless foul poisons into the waters and the winds. Its decaying flesh gave birth to countless abominations--creeping, sightless many-legged things that crawled and slithered across the land; black-winged, cloven-hoofed creatures that swarmed in the storm-filled skies; powerful, many-toothed beasts that ruled the dark waters.

      As the ages passed the Dark One grew bored with its foul minions, for they were mindless entities. And so it spawned others in its own image. Soon the children of the Dark One, the horoi, began to birth their own foul spawn into the world. Each tried to outdo the others by creating the foulest creature to impress the Dark One, and soon the horoi grew insanely jealous of one another. Then the Dark One's children began to attack one other[sic], directing their terrible spawn as a general commands troops against an enemy. Their vile blood filled the oceans, and their minions fed on the putrid corpses that littered the land. The Dark One rejoiced at the carnage and spawned new horoi to replace those devoured by their brothers.

      Some time during the world's endless night, the Dark one bore a horoi that was not like the others. At first it seemed a little different from its vile brethren. But as time passed, the horoi slowly changed. First, it withdrew from the terrible battle that consumed all the others. It stretched its dark, webbed wings and soared into the sky. The grotesque minions of its brethren pursued it, clawing at its skin and pecking at its eyes, but it paid them no heed. It continued to climb higher and higher, until it passed the dark storm clouds and its tormentors could no longer follow it. It soared on the winds until it reached the other side of the world, a place the Dark One had not yet corrupted. Exhausted by its journey, it set down and fell into a deep, deep sleep.

      For ages it slumbered, as the carnage and suffering continued unabated in the domain of the Dark One. Then one day a break appeared int he ever-present clouds overhead, letting in a stream of sunlight that warmed the horoi and wakened it. As it looked about, it noticed that its slimy, pockmarked, blackened skin had turned into gleaming white scales. The formless hulk of its body had been replaced with four strong legs, a slender tail and neck, and a pair of graceful wings, all connected to a stout and powerful middle. As the horoi gazed at itself in wonder, it realized that the air was silent-- free of the cries of pain and fear that filled the Dark One's domain. As it surveyed its surroundings, the horoi realized that it was alone. Nothing crawled underfoot or slithered through the seas or swarmed in the sky. For a moment, the horoi felt a great relief. Then the horoi closed its great eyes for a moment and felt something else. For the first time in its life, the horoi knew it was lonely.

      As the thought entered its mind, a wonderful thing happened. Beneath its feet, it felt grass burst through the earth: then bushes and trees and entire forests. Suddenly, the sound of waves crashing against the shore reached its ears, and the horoi knew that an ocean lay over the horizon. Next came the sound of running rivers and waterfalls, then the sounds of animals in the forests. As the horoi surveyed what its loneliness had called forth, its heart grew full of something it had never know--joy. At that moment, nine large tears formed in its eyes and fell to the ground. At the spot where the first drop struck, a handsome winged creature resembling the horoi appeared. This created, it called Dragon. The second and third drops yielded creatures the horoi Named Elf and Human. The fourth and fifth drops created Obsidiman and T'skrang. The sixth and seventh formed Dwarf and Windling; and the eighth and ninth, Troll and Ork.

      These new creatures traveled across the new land, swiftly producing other of their kind. Their voices were like music to the horoi's ears, and their settlements were like jewels set upon a giant tapestry. As the days passed the horoi taught its children all it knew. It taught them how to harvest food from the forest and rivers, how to sing and write and paint. And with great sadness, it taught them how to forge and wield the sword and shield. The weapons puzzled the horoi's inquisitive children, for they knew not war; but the horoi told them that one day a darkness would descend on them and they must be ready to fight.

      Meanwhile, the Dark One's domain grew until its spawn reached the edge of the untouched lands. When the foul things saw the wonders that their transformed brother had wrought, they hurried back to their dark master and told it what they had seen. When the Dark One heard their news it cowed to destroy the heroi and its children, and fathered its minions together into a terrible army.

      The Dark One's army filled the sky like a storm cloud and teemed across the untouched land like a giant shadow. From all sides the Dark One's minions attacked the horoi and its children, spewing venom and gnashing teeth, cutting, and burning and striking and killing all in their path. For seven days and nights the battle raged, as the horoi's children fought with sword and shield against the overwhelming foe. Finally, only the horoi and its nine firstborn children remained standing against the Dark One and its legion of abominations.

      At that moment the horoi reared up on its hind legs, spread its wings and shouted in a voice that echoed like thunder across the plains, "I am Nightslayer, Mother of Beauty and Father of Good. Protector of All That is Light! I command you to leave this place! Be gone!"

      As the horoi's children watched, a strange thing happened-- the land itself, the water rose up against the Dark One and its spawn. Terrified before a power greater than their own, the wretched creatures fled, flying higher and higher until they disappeared from view. The Dark One watched helplessly, shouting at its minions to remain and fight, but it could not stop them. Enraged, the Dark One turned toward the horoi.

      'Ungrateful horoi, you know not what you do," the Dark One said. " But you will pay for your insolence. I, Verjigorm, will hunt your children for the rest of time. I will slay every last one of them, and my minions will feed on their pain and terror. But I will not give the mercy of death to your favorite--- The Dragon, the one you created in your image. The Dragon will know eternal pain. As you betrayed me, the children of the Dragon's line will betray you. I will corrupt them, twist their souls and make them my own. Then I will return to reign over all the world."

      With that the Dark One fled after its minions, throwing an enormous ball of fire at Nightslayer as it did so. As the flowing orb approached, the horoi gathered its children under its wings. When the ball struck Nightslayer, it exploded like a thousand thunderclaps. The earth and sky rumbled, and a vast cloud filled the sky. After a time the great rumbling stopped and the sun shone once again. Nightslayer's children then gathered near the horoi's head, but the great creature had died. They were left alone to await the return of the Dark one called Verjigorm.

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