For those of you not familiar with the excellent fantasy webseries Ren : The Girl with the Mark, they're doing an advent run of making patreon-exclusive posts public - including one of a number of short fiction pieces I wrote for them to help give some more more viewpoints on the world of Alathia 🙂

For anyone who vaguely follows my politicking, an update to say that I did not get elected to the Liberal Democrat party committees I was running for - I came 29th of 48 candidates for Federal Council (top 21 were elected) and 17th of 46 for Federal Policy Committee (top 15 were elected).

If you want to understand the internal politics of the #LibDems, you might be able to glean some interesting things from who endorses who in internal election races. Here's a blogpost doing some social network analysis of that: thoughtsofprogress.wordpress.com/2025/11/29/w...

Announcing CODING MEDIEVAL WORLDS 6, our next workshop for historians and game developers! It'll be 20th-22nd February next year, and if you're an interested historian or dev we'd like to see you there! Please share widely to friends, all questions welcome :) #GameDev #Medieval

While I get this person means that Republicans are attempting to usher in a very bad, unequal form of government, I literally have no idea why this could be read a "feudal" or what people think "feudal" means at this point. (This is quite aside from the fact that feudalism never existed ofc.)

Final call reminder for anyone who's a member of the Liberal Democrats: this is the last evening for voting in the internal elections! (Relief on the horizon for non Lib Dems as I'll soon stop posting about internal election cycles for another three years).

The two child cap is a test of the government’s seriousness: if you are serious about child poverty, you lift it, and if you are serious about not wasting money, you don’t fritter away cash on dumb things like vouchers to try and manage the PLP.

Super grateful to have James Baillie's support for Federal Board! @jubalbarca.bsky.social

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

So, Dragonmeet is coming up, and if you want to hear me and @lostpages.co.uk talk about making magic in RPGs more, er, magical, why not come to our talk on Saturday 29 November at 1430? It's part of Seminar Track 1.

Finished another poem, this a rather grim one entitled "A Thing Done Nicely" if anyone feels like a read: exilian.co.uk/forum/index....

Polls are now open in the Lib Dem federal elections! We recommend votes for these excellent, radical candidates, who can be counted on to fight for a distinctive, bold and liberal identity for the Lib Dems.

Have come back on here for party reasons. Looking for your #1 vote for federal council. I’ll post my manifesto in the thread. But MAINLY, please push our president candidates to act better regarding the absolute scandal re gender / quota. #Libdem #poltics #terfsdni

I think "this is their home" is such an important message. That said, why are we writing to Kemi Badenoch rather than just dunking on her directly? Lam is a shadow cabinet minister, Badenoch shouldn't need to be written to in order to take responsibility.

Another #LibDems internal election post: I'm running to be a member of the party's Federal Policy Committee, and here's my pitch for why you should vote for me. Questions, boosts, and support are all very welcome!

Looking for a creative community online beyond social media? Check out Exilian!

Weekly Georgian Etymology: საბანი sabani 'blanket', from Middle Georgian, from Greek σάβανον linen cloth or towel, from Coptic ⲥⲁⲃⲟⲛ sabon cloth, from Egyptian 𓋴𓃀𓈖 seben bandage for wrapping mummies, perhaps reflecting Afro-Asiatic *sVp- weave, sew.

Our latest newsletter is out! We have several new little TTRPGs to report, more new free music and images for your projects, and new writing and music from our community too! Check all that out here: exilian.co.uk/forum/index....

The OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, along with members of the delegation, attended the protest on Rustaveli Street and then posted a video on X, saying that she supports the citizens.

Another post for #LibDems federal elections: please give April Preston a top preference for Federal Council. We need folks who live their liberalism and better working-class representation at the top of our party: April's a great choice for that. She's currently off BSky but here's her manifesto:

All I want are games that people took time, care & joy in making. Let it be weird. Let it look imperfect/messy. Let it have a frustrating gameplay mechanic or two. So long as I can feel the passion that went into making it I will always prefer it over hyper polished AAA titles churned out every year

Finished recording a song for the first time in a while - this one's a Fallout 2 fan-song, a post apocalyptic folk ballad entitled A Traveller's Song From Klamath. I hope you like it! www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxQm...

I've been disappointed to see second-hand (given I'm not on there) statements on X from @sarahdykeld.bsky.social and @paulkohlersw19.bsky.social that take what really looks very much like a deeply bad faith reading of our own party's LGBT+ campaign's work.

Historian friends, I'm thinking about relative value of small boats in premodern periods: presumably punts, rafts, and fishing boats were common, esp. for people doing fishing, eeling, etc. But there's also quite a bit of labour in making one. Anyone got a paper they can recommend?

Women are not loved by the regime, especially strong women, cos they are afraid of them, obviously. I want you to know Ia Darakhvelidze, recently detained by the regime. 2/1

Just found that a bunch of careful, well-cited edits I'd carefully made to Wiki articles have been reversed: I wasn't informed of this, there's no explanation, just someone having a petty editing war probably on weird ethnonationalist grounds. Sigh.

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