I'm planning to give Janey first preference for the LD Federal Board vote - I've worked with her in the past pushing for restorative justice in our policies, she's a great liberal with a good sense of where the party needs to go and someone who's willing to stick her neck out for progressive change.

The difference made by Reform in government wouldn't really be in most policy areas: look at Italy where migration has been going somewhat up under a hard-right government! Reform's changes would IMV be in hard-line social policy and a much more aggressive approach to controlling the narrative.

Lib Dem friends: internal party elections going on, here's my manifesto for Federal Council. Boosts welcome, if you can vote please vote for me, if you know a Lib Dem then please ask them to do so! And please feel free to ask questions (whether you're a voter or not) about what all this is about :)

Sending much solidarity and love to the protestors in Tbilisi, especially those friends who are out there or whose loved ones are. The authoritarian nightmare will not win forever: freedom for Georgia and its people cannot come soon enough.

Netanyahu recently called for Israel to become a "super-Sparta" in a speech. Whilst he probably meant it in quite limited (and inaccurate) ways, looking at Spartan historical reality, it's... an awkward comparison, to say the least: thoughtsofprogress.wordpress.com/2025/09/23/n...

The UK petition against payment processors censoring services has reached 10,000 signatures! That's the point at which the government produce a platitude about how they're not going to do anything useful about the problem, but it's a good marker nonetheless. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose??? This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

Patreon backer @jubalbarca.bsky.social brings you this special episode all about what communities do with the monsters they can't get rid of! monsterman.libsyn.com/special-epis...

Unure how many Lib Dem members read my BSky but: I'm planning to run for the Federal Policy Committee and Federal Council in this year's internal party elections. If any party member would like to nominate me, please do: I need a minimum of twenty nominations for each position. #UKPol #LibDems

Even if immigrants WEREN'T a net good, immigrants are still humans and that should be enough 💚

"Bluesky: growing status as social media platform of choice for world’s scientists... ...more engagement and original scrutiny than on X" www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I've been working on some code for projectiles in my @godotengine.org testing project that I'm using to learn the system. They're now mostly working, but last night and earlier today I had a few minor hiccups including the one below... #ScreenshotSaturday www.youtube.com/watch?v=crrO...

I've written a UK parliamentary petition against payment processors using their near-monopoly power to dictate what legal content can and cannot be purchased. This is a worryingly fast-growing problem. Please sign it and share widely, UK friends! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

I wrote a thing! This is the fifth of my "Unexpected Bestiary" articles, in each of which I take seven curious creatures and discuss their lore, biology, and using them in fiction or RPGs. There's some great birds and beasts in this one - let me know what you think: exilian.co.uk/article.php?...

oc-media.org/opinion-my-f... Gulnara Mehdiyeva hits the nail on the head: "If Armenia & Azerbaijan have initialled a text that condemns intolerance & racial hatred, then jailing a researcher whose work has been about refusing hatred is an error that must be corrected." Bahruz Samadov must be freed.

Right first of the limited offers, 33% off the Sharclon Brutality Squad - £20 instead of £30 for what are some very heavy metal figures! heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.p... Or Etsy (🇪🇺/🇳🇴/Guest Checkout): heresyminiatures.etsy.com/uk/listing/1... Offer ends once I clear the £580 I need!

Updates from the Forge 58 is now out! You can discover new #GameDev and creative writing projects and resources in each issue of these community newsletters. And if you'd like your project featured for autumn, just drop by and post it on Exilian sometime :) Read on: exilian.co.uk/forum/index....

I'm sadly not getting to do much minis gaming lately - but it'd feel a tragedy if Heresy Miniatures disappeared, so many characterful models that were around when I first got into gaming & helped sell me on the hobby. Their shop is at heresyminiatures.com or you can support them by ko-fi below:

Call for papers! We at the Medieval Caucasus Network are having our first international conference next year in Belgium, on how to study non-elites across the medieval region. Look forward to seeing some of you there! Boosting and sharing very welcome :)

Does BlueSky have a good way to schedule posts yet? I should probably come here more and know that sort of thing, but I don't have a lot of energy for more online spaces lately.

I also met Hoggle, a gyrfalcon, who I had earlier spotted having a bath, so fluffy ❤️ He was quite distracted by the sounds of things being packed away, but we shared some brief moments. Thanks @jubalbarca.bsky.social for coming along - we were turned away at the axe throwing range though 🪓 🫠

Lots of great work on the wider Iranian world at last week's International Medieval Congress (@imc-leeds.bsky.social). From the IFI, we had Stefan Kamola on astrology & legitimacy in Mongol contexts, and @jubalbarca.bsky.social on masculinities in the medieval Caucasus. An exciting week all round!

Talk writing moments: rather than writing that combat roles in the medieval Caucasus were exclusive to men, I realised that I'd written that they were exclusive to *me*. Don't think I'm ready for the responsibility of having fought both sides of all the major C12th-13th battles single-handedly...

In the coming days we'll be writing our next quarterly newsletter! If you have a creative project or resource that you'd like to be included, just drop in and post about it over the course of this weekend. Questions welcome :) exilian.co.uk/forum/index.... #GameDev #TTRPG #AmWriting

CALLING ALL INDIE GAME DEVS! Come contribute to our charity indie game bundle for legal aid! Help us support the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society and the Legal Aid Justice Center! itch.io/jam/hellogoo... Help support marginalized folks facing deportation, eviction, and the loss of healthcare!

An unexpected and familiar friend among the many treasures @worldwildlife.org Marchegg on the R. March/Morava. Thanks to @jubalbarca.bsky.social for inheriting the spider-spotting eyes!

My keynote for the Middle Ages in Modern Games conference is here! I talk about why I'm making a game about Welsh mythology in the Welsh language, and the importance of language and culture in video games. There's also some new footage from the game! middleagesinmoderngames.net/mamg25/playi...

Our session on Field of Glory: Kingdoms closes with ‘On Piety and Power: Faith in Field of Glory: Kingdoms’ and is delivered by @JubalBarca. It’s live: middleagesinmoderngames.net?p=649

The EU citizens' initiative to ban "conversion therapy" (quack pseudo-medical practices to try and force people to not be LGBT) only has a couple more days to collect signatures, they're piling on fast but if you're an EU citizen please take 5 mins to support this: eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#...

I am increasingly disappointed that the concerns of the #LGBTQ+ community over what the Supreme Court judgement means for them are not yet being addressed. I have written to the Government asking them to make clear how trans and non binary rights will be protected.

What are the rules at the intersection of video games & public history? In this talk (www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBuX...), I explore Viking-Age law, video games, & pose some questions about gamified heritage. Thanks again to @jubalbarca.bsky.social for inviting me and sorry for the glitch at the start!

James Baillie (@jubalbarca.bsky.social) shared his experience developing The Exile Princes, offering insights into the "curation" process of game design, and the practical considerations when putting medievalisms into games: www.historicalgames.net/between-imag...

Anyone in the game dev/history of games world have an example of a fire or lava slug in a game before 1998? I've been curious for a few weeks about whether they were actually invented in Ocarina of Time or if there's an antecedent. Some notes at the link: exilian.co.uk/forum/index....

New today on the HGN blog: in the first blog post from our "Medievalism" panel speakers, James Baillie (@jubalbarca.bsky.social) discusses reinterpreting elements of the medieval past in the strategic RPG The Exile Princes: www.historicalgames.net/between-imag... #gamingthepast #historicalgames

I wrote a poem yesterday, it's entitled "Loom over Mountains": exilian.co.uk/forum/index.... Thoughts always welcome :)

I'm doing a panel event for the Historical Games Network! It'll be on the 19th March - details here if you'd like to join on Zoom: www.tickettailor.com/events/histo...

I think it's actually pretty vital right now that someone does indeed stay standing. I'm glad the Lib Dems are keen to take on that role.

This is going to be great! I can't wait to hear from @blairapgar.bsky.social , @jubalbarca.bsky.social and Katie have got to say. Sign up for free.

#WorldPangolinDay: #DYK the name “pangolin” comes from the Malay word "pengguling" meaning "something that rolls up" (they curl up into a ball when threatened, protected by their scaly armor) Squat Jar in the Form of a #Pangolin Cambodia, Khmer, c.1000-1200 LACMA collections.lacma.org/node/240621

A back catalogue project that I revisit occasionally: a few years ago I made a Doctor Who themed adventure game. It has never had many players, but it's free on Itch if you want to give a janky old text parser exploration game (with some pixel location graphics) a try: jubalbarca.itch.io/life

New piece in our articles section! Not so much an article as the EXILIAN ROMANTASY BLURB GENERATOR, which can create hundreds of possible Romantasy plots and characters for you to be amused by or ponder genre tropes over! Have a go and let us know what you think :) exilian.co.uk/forum/index....

I noted down some musings on what the next few years might look like for the world, and on the claim that a Trumpian-induced collapse could spell the 'end of the American Empire': thoughtsofprogress.wordpress.com/2025/02/06/t...

bröther

Some new music if it's of any interest or amusement to anyone: it's a song about... narrative literacy, or something like that? Hope you enjoy it anyways :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWIi...

I've been playing Morrowind, broadly speaking on a 'good' run so I've been passing up all the actual murdery options, it's mostly bribery and a small amount of petty theft. ...honestly I'm not sure if I'm getting arrested for that or getting given a senior government position for it, in 2025.

New paper out! In Aegyptiaca 8, I apply historical game studies methods to Egyptology rather than my usual medieval studies, and talk about how the Necrons of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War reflect popular ideas of ancient Egypt in their game mechanics: journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/ae...

Genuinely mind blowing to me how many indie #gamedev folks have websites & press kits with no email address. You maybe don't care about e.g. me not inviting you to give a conference talk, but why make yourself inaccessible to journalists through the main backbone for direct digital communication?

Some sillier recent writing: you may have heard of the Two Cows Theory, an old joke format which explains how political systems affects someone with two cows. Well, I decided to apply it to explaining the world of medieval Europe - here's the result... exilian.co.uk/forum/index....

Our latest newsletter of creative geekery is out! Our quarterly newsletters like this one feature crafts, game dev, writing, discussions, and support/resources for creativity from across our community. Check it out - and do share/reskeet if you like what you see! exilian.co.uk/forum/index....