untold eons ago the aesir split from the vanir and leave vanaheim for asgard, stealing the tesseract in order to do so. this results in a massve war between the aesir and vanir that lasts for untold eons. (it does not end until odin's rule and the situation is pretty tense, but the balance tips towards asgard during bor's time.)

asgard's political system is an elective monarchy with a parliament called the Althing. there are smaller things across Asgard. in theory the Althing deals with domestic matters and the monarchy deals with everything else. over time this has dramatically shifted to the monarchy doing most things and the Althing being more ceremonial though it does still have power. the Althing elects the next monarch following the death of the previous one, but under Bor this shifts to affirming the king's choice of heir because Bor really wanted his second son (Odin) to inherit, not his first son (Cul) or his two youngest sons. Odin did the same thing with Hela, it massively backfired, and then there was a period of several thousand years for everyone to forget about that before he tried again with Thor. that also backfired but differently.

no one really knows the origins of Yggdrasil and the Nine Realms but the Nine themselves have a semi-governing body called the Conclave. this has largely been ceremonial for years since Asgard gained the upper hand in the Nine Realms, which happened under Bor though under Buri things were trending that way. the Aesir-Vanir war kind of got put on hold when Malekith started acting up and Asgard knocking out the Dark Elves pretty firmly put them in the driver's seat across the Nine. under Bor Asgard had claimed to the protector of the Nine and after he died and Odin became king he pretty much made that a reality (though obviously if you ask the other realms they may not agree on it actually being protection). he backed off after the Hela disaster but Asgard is still officially in that position and will enforce it if pressed. they are occasionally pressed.

this all happened over a period of tens of thousands of years.

Anyway, here are finally a few things that I have found useful getting started, focused on the wine/cider/mead side of things.

For a lot of basic info and beginner advice:

The r/mead wiki: https://meadmaking.wiki (Not just useful for mead. It includes links to handy calculators, and a lot of general info.)

Getting super basic: A Hooch primer for N00Bs (r/prisonhooch was actually the place that really sparked my interest, with the easygoing experimental approach there.)

I have always personally learned well from watching people do stuff, while explaining what they're doing and preferably why. So, a lot of the rest that I would point someone at is in video format. (Which I thought I still had sitting in open browser tabs, but evidently not.)

One series playlist from an overall excellent channel: How to Homebrew Beer, Wine, Cider, or Mead | So You Want...

Another from the same guy: Homebrewing hacks, tips, and tricks

From a different great channel, on the nerdier side: Beginner Mead Making Videos

How to Make Insanely Cheap and Simple Grocery Store Alcohol (No Equipment Needed)

Another good channel, with a lot of beginner-friendly walkthroughs (where I honestly had a hard time picking a good starting point): DIY Fermentation

he ABSOLUTELY cooks shit food in his nerd cave in his space bone fortress just so he can revive his academia days.

hm, I do enjoy unhealthy family dynamics and pretty clothing. what's it actually about?

@slashmarks in Fantasy Ancient China, ruled by families of aristocratic magic users, one very pretty man became widely feared and reviled as a master of evil necromantic dark magics. All the clans banded together to kill him, including his estranged adoptive family. 

16 years later he’s resurrected by a ritual and runs into his old love interest, who has been very intensely pining for him all this time. Together they have to solve an old murder mystery while trying to resolve their feelings. There’s a 30 episode flashback explaining How We Got Here. 

It’s based on a BL novel which I haven’t yet read and from what I understand it’s a subversion of the xianxia genre? There’s a lot of criticism of feudalism and the idea of good vs bad magic and actually it kind of has the exact same story beats as Wicked. 

   on the basis of previous experience, I think you *might* be obsessed with cabbage

The lighting in my apartment isn’t great; so a variety that needs lower light would be best, although I’m thinking of getting artificial full spectrum lights anyway because of that issue. (see also, miserable without enough plants.) Other than that nothing in mind right now! Do you have suggestions for that problem?

A phalaenopsis or a paphipedilum (”slipper orchid”) would be good options for low light. Phals have more flowers each time they bloom, so if that’s the big draw, go with that.

They’re both relatively easy to keep alive - I water mine twice a week, with one deep soaking and then a mid-week quicker watering, which I sometimes skip in the winter, if the plants still look damp, or turn into 2 mid-week waterings in summer.

Phals have thicker leaves so they’re probably more drought resistant, if you’re worried about how well they’d survive being potentially forgotten for a week or two (or if you have to go out of town). But also: putting plants in the bathtub (because bathrooms tend to be dimly lit and lower light = less water use) and loosely draping them with a sheet of plastic will help them survive vacations.

I’ve had more phals rebloom than paphs - I have probably not given the paphs quite enough light.

I have a terrible, unreasonable desire for one of the historical reconstruction models

I'm now really excited about this AU

:D

It’s basically turned into a big stew pot of every AU in which Anakin is actually a Jedi that I’ve ever come up with. A base of Pen Pals AU, with a strong smattering of Librarian Anakin AU, a heavy dash of crechemaster Anakin, and even a pinch of Fires on the Outer Rim. All completely transformed by the addition of a new character. :)