What Gifts

2026-03-12T18:29:37Z

Caela Argent: Discrepancy between Down-Tree and primary Ode Clade article.

{{Cladist|name=What Gifts|pronouns=Fluid|downtree=What Praise|clade=[[The Ode clade]]}}

'''What Gifts We Give, We Give In Death''' of [[The Ode clade]] is a skunk and game designer on Lagrange. Within the Ode Clade, they are part of the ninth stanza, and was forked from What Praise We Give By Consuming. An introspective game designer and sim artist, she regularly works with other Clades on game projects.

== Appearances ==

* ''[[Motes Played]]'' (mentioned)
{{Stub}}
[[Category:Characters]]

Exocortex

2024-02-21T16:31:20Z

Caela Argent: Created empty page.

An '''Exocortex''' is a cybernetic implant taking the form of a column running along the base of the spine. Phys-side, it is used as part of the immersive simulation technology that makes up the net. Exocortices control much of the technology that consists of interfacing with a Phys-Side net sim.<ref>[https://post-self.ink/about/universe// the Post-Self Universe], Immersive tech.</ref>

Argents

2024-02-07T02:17:53Z

Caela Argent: Removed redirect to Caela Argent

The '''Argent System''' (comprised of '''Caela Argent''', '''Leanne Light''', '''Simon 'Clank' Knight''', '''Rensy C. Reach''', and '''What Gifts of the Ode Clade''') are a plural system of writers involved in the Post-Self Community.

Argents

2024-02-07T02:10:55Z

Caela Argent: Caela Argent moved page Argents to Caela Argent

#REDIRECT [[Caela Argent]]

Caela Argent

2024-02-07T02:10:55Z

Caela Argent: Caela Argent moved page Argents to Caela Argent

[[Category:Post-Self Induced Skunk Syndrome]]
[[Category:Creators]]

Caela Argent

2024-02-07T02:09:24Z

Caela Argent: Created page with "Category:Post-Self Induced Skunk Syndrome Category:Creators"

[[Category:Post-Self Induced Skunk Syndrome]]
[[Category:Creators]]

User:Caela Argent

2024-02-07T02:05:22Z

Caela Argent:

[[Argents]]
[[Category:Post-Self Induced Skunk Syndrome]]
[[Category:Creators]]

User:Caela Argent

2024-02-06T23:56:29Z

Caela Argent: added categories

Caela Argent (and their accompanying headmates, the Argent System) is an author for the Post-Self setting, having first gotten involved after ordering a copy of ''Qoheleth''. One thing lead to another, and now they have an Odist in their head.
[[Category:Post-Self Induced Skunk Syndrome]]
[[Category:Creators]]

User:Caela Argent

2024-02-06T23:55:57Z

Caela Argent: added information

What Gifts

2024-02-03T22:04:43Z

Caela Argent: Just filling out the basic information for the time being. -What Gifts

'''What Gifts We Give, We Give In Death''' of [[The Ode clade]] is a skunk and game designer on Lagrange. Within the Ode Clade, they are part of the ninth stanza, and was forked from What Praise We Give By Consuming. An introspective game designer and sim artist, she regularly works with other Clades on game projects.

The Ode clade

2024-02-03T21:51:04Z

Caela Argent: Added link to What Gifts character Article.

'''The Ode clade''' is one of the earliest clades on the System, and the subject of much of the canon to date.

== Structure ==
The members of the Ode clade — at least those who are explicitly members of it — take their names from the lines of a poem, "Ode to the End of Death", written by Michelle's friend and one of the fellow [[The Lost|Lost]], [[AwDae]]. Michelle Hadje forked the first ten lines in one go on systime {{Systime|2124|4|12}}.

The Ode comprises 100 lines divided into ten stanzas, each loosely based around a central theme. Because of these themes and because of the mindset that she was in when she forked each of the first ten, each stanza within the clade has tended to pick up a particular hyperfixation.

=== The first stanza: watchers ===
The first stanza was keenly focused on observing the System. This occasionally manifested itself as spying, but just as often played itself out in more innocent ways such as I Have Sight But Cannot See who became a sensorium toolmaker (protocanon) and [[Speaking|I Cannot Stop Myself From Speaking]] who became a private investigator.<ref>''[[Marsh]]''</ref>

=== The second stanza: historians ===
The second stanza focused on history. From Qoheleth's shaping of the System's memories from the early days on to [[Hold My Name|Hold My Name Beneath Your Tongue And Know]]'s fixation on tricksters both past and present.

=== The third stanza: spiritualists ===
The third stanza focused on religion and spirituality, returning to the Judaism of Michelle's grandparents and her "vaguely Jewish" upbringing.<ref>''[[Mitzvot]]''</ref>

=== The fourth stanza: fighters ===
The fourth stanza started out keeping tabs on art and artists throughout the System, but eventually wandered off to do a leftism.

=== The fifth stanza: entertainers ===
The fifth stanza leapt into theatre wholeheartedly, with [[A Finger Pointing|Time Is A Finger Pointing At Itself]] starting the troupe [[Au Lieu Du Rêve]] with her up-tree instances.

=== The sixth stanza: caregivers ===
The sixth stanza picked up most of Michelle's feelings on motherhood and the role of caregiver that she felt as a teacher. This extended beyond just a parental role: [[Dry Grass|I Remember The Rattle Of Dry Grass]] became a systech, reasoning that that made her the System's mother, in a way.<ref>''[[Marsh]]''</ref>

=== The seventh stanza: emotives ===
The seventh stanza leaned hard into emotions and, eventually, therapy within the System.

=== The eighth stanza: conductors ===
The eighth stanza has played perhaps the largest role in the grand scheme of things, leaning hard into politics and guiding the System along its path. [[True Name|The Only Time I Know My True Name Is When I Dream]] in particular helped keep the System on the path of general anarchy and ensured its continuity and stability by any means necessary.

=== The ninth stanza: artists ===
The ninth stanza focused on the arts in various ways, from novelists to game designers, [[Sim artistry|sim artists]] to [[Construct artistry|construct artists]], [[Instance artistry|instance artists]] to [[Sensorium artistry|sensorium artists]].

=== The tenth stanza: "the part that suffers" ===
The tenth stanza was left with much of the mental health and instance problems that Michelle suffered leading up to forking. This is not to say that they were at all unhappy, but neither were they quite as whole as the rest of the clade.

== Overflowing ==
All of the Odists undergo what they have named "overflowing," which is something akin to a panic attack or dramatic mood shift which will affect them for anything from a few hours every few days to a few weeks every few years. Each expresses it differently, and usually it will involve an inversion of their own personal fixation. If it is notable, it will be listed on their own page.

== Clade listing ==

* [[Michelle Hadje|<s>Michelle Hadje</s>]] (quit)
** [[End Of Days|I am at a loss for images in this end of days:]]
*** I have sight but cannot see.
**** I build castles out of words;
**** I cannot stop myself from speaking.
*** I still have will and goals to attain,
**** I still have wants and needs.
**** And if I dream, is that not so?
***** [[No Longer Myself|<s>If I dream, am I no longer myself?</s>]] (lost in [[the Century Attack]])
*** If I dream, am I still buried beneath words?
*** And I still dream even while awake.
** <s>Life breeds life, but death must now be chosen</s> [[Qoheleth (cladist)|Qoheleth]] (assassinated)
*** for memory ends at the teeth of death.
**** The living know that they will die,
**** but the dead know nothing.
***** Hold my name beneath your tongue and know:
***** when you die, thus dies the name.
***** To deny the end is to deny all beginnings,
***** and to deny beginnings is to become immortal,
***** and to become immortal is to repeat the past,
***** which cannot itself, in the end, be denied.
** [[Oh, But To Whom|Oh, but to whom do I speak these words?]]
*** To whom do I plead my case?
*** From whence do I call out?
**** [[What Right Have I|What right have I?]]
*** No ranks of angels will answer to dreamers,
*** No unknowable spaces echo my words.
**** Before whom do I kneel, contrite?
**** Behind whom do I await my judgment?
**** Beside whom do I face death?
**** And why wait I for an answer?
** [[Those Who Forge|Among those who create are those who forge:]]
*** Moving ceaselessly from creation to creation.
*** And those who remain are those who hone,
**** Perfecting singular arts to a cruel point.
*** To forge is to end, and to own beginnings.
*** To hone is to trade ends for perpetual perfection.
*** In this end of days, I must begin anew.
**** In this end of days, I seek an end.
**** In this end of days, I reach for new beginnings
*** that I may find the middle path.
** [[A Finger Pointing|Time is a finger pointing at itself]]
*** that it might give the world orders.
*** The world is an audience before a stage
*** [[Slow Hours|where it watches the slow hours progress.]]
*** [[Motes|And we are the motes in the stage-lights,]]
*** [[Beholden|Beholden to the heat of the lamps.]]
*** If I walk backward, time moves forward.
*** If I walk forward, time rushes on.
*** If I stand still, the world moves around me,
*** and the only constant is change.
** [[Hammered Silver|Memory is a mirror of hammered silver:]]
*** [[Waking World|a weapon against the waking world.]]
*** Dreams are the plate-glass atop memory:
**** a clarifying agent that reflects the sun.
*** The waking world fogs the view,
**** and time makes prey of remembering.
**** I remember sands beneath my feet.
**** [[Dry Grass|I remember the rattle of dry grass]].
**** I remember the names of all things,
***** and forget them only when I wake.
** [[In Dreams|If I am to bathe in dreams,]]
*** then I must be willing to submerge myself.
*** If I am to submerge myself in memory,
**** then I must be true to myself.
*** If I am to always be true to myself,
**** [[In All Ways|then I must in all ways be earnest.]]
*** I must keep no veil between me and my words.
*** I must set no stones between me and my actions.
*** I must show no hesitation when speaking my name,
**** for that is my only possession.
** [[True Name|The only time I know my true name is when I dream.]] / [[Sasha née True Name|Sasha]]<ref>These are kept separate to differentiate between Sasha on Lagrange and the True Names who remain on the LVs.</ref>
*** [[Need An Answer|The only time I dream is when need an answer.]]
*** [[Why Ask Questions|Why ask questions, here at the end of all things?]]
*** [[Answers Will Not Help|Why ask questions when the answers will not help?]]
*** To know one’s true name is to know god.
*** To know god is to answer unasked questions.
*** <s>Do I know god after the end waking?</s> [[E.W.]] (no longer part of the clade)
*** Do I know god when I do not remember myself?
*** Do I know god when I dream?
*** [[May Then My Name|May then my name die with me.]]
** [[Praiseworthy|That which lives is forever praiseworthy,]]
*** for they, knowing not, provide life in death.
*** [[Rye|Dear the wheat and rye under the stars:]]
**** [[Serene|serene; sustained and sustaining.]]
**** [[Dear|Dear, also, the tree that was felled]]
***** [[Warmth In Fire|which offers heat and warmth in fire.]]
*** What praise we give we give by consuming,
**** [[What Gifts|what gifts we give we give in death]],
*** what lives we lead we lead in memory,
*** and the end of memory lies beneath the roots.
** <s>May one day death itself not die?</s> (quit<ref>''[[Nevi'im]]''</ref>)
*** Should we rejoice in the end of endings?
*** What is the correct thing to hope for?
*** <s>I do not know, I do not know.</s> (quit<ref>''[[Nevi'im]]''</ref>)
*** To pray for the end of endings
*** is to pray for the end of memory.
*** Should we forget the lives we lead?
*** Should we forget the names of the dead?
*** [[Should We Forget|<s>Should we forget the wheat, the rye, the tree?</s>]] (lost in the Century Attack)
*** Perhaps this, too, is meaningless.

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Clades]]

CPV

2024-01-31T04:08:18Z

Caela Argent: Page exists as a stub. Will properly expand on and add further citations when I have the energy. Please feel free to add what you can in the meantime.

A '''Contraproprioceptive Virus''' ('''CPV)''' is a tailored virus designed to crash a specific Instance on the System, leaving behind an unrecoverable Core Dump. For most of the System's history, it was the primary method of killing individuals Sys-Side. CPVs typically adopt a form on Sys-Side in a manner similar to a Construct, typically one symbolically associated with death or assassination.<ref>https://post-self.ink/about/universe/</ref>

Post-Self - User contributions [en]

What Gifts

Exocortex

Argents

Argents

Caela Argent

Caela Argent

User:Caela Argent

User:Caela Argent

User:Caela Argent

What Gifts

The Ode clade

CPV