The Squeeze

I HAVE TRAVELED ACROSS THE MANY HEAVENS AND SAILED ITS ASTRAL RIVERS AND SPOKE WITH THE GODMINDS AND LEARNED THE SECRET DOCTRINES FROM PROCESSOR-TREES. I HAVE SURVIVED AGAINST PIRATES OF THE TRUE PRIMORDIAL DAO. I HAVE SLAIN DRAGONS WHOSE EDDIES FORMED GALAXIES. I HAVE CULTIVATED MY HEART UNTIL I HAVE BECOME A STAR. THROUGH IT ALL, I DID IT WITH MY FELLOWS IN TOW— AND WE DID ALL SEE NO GOD BUT THE PROLETARIAT.

10,000 SWORDS AGAINST HEAVEN is a Dark Science Fantasy Cultivation TTRPG set in the Thunderbolt Dialectical Materialist cosmos of THE TRICHILIOCOSM. Communist Martial Artists struggle alongside Kung Fu Wizards against the bloody grip of Capital upon a wasted world.

10k SWORDS eschews narrative-first, story-generating mechanics in favor of a call back to the traditional conceit, where Players play characters that live and breathe in a world, not chained to Narrative Trope or Story Mould.

In 10K SWORDS, you play as WANDERERS. Traveling vagabonds, disenfranchised laborers, hard-working salarymen who know a bit of kung fu on the side. As a Wanderer, you are nothing alone. But everything when you have become ORGANIZED into the SECTS.

SECTS grant you LICENSES which teach and allow you to wield TECHNICKS, MAGICKS, and GEAR to be able to hold your own against the magofascist onslaught of the Ruling Class. And even that is not enough: once you have this, you must CULTIVATE YOURSELF.

Only in your Cultivation of Self can you become great enough to support the Working Class and help usher in Humanity's next stage. You must become the very negation. You become part of the little quantities that contribute to the explosive qualitative step into Humanity's burst into the stars.

As a Cultivator, you wield the power of SIDHI—the mystic life force of the Trichiliocosm that binds us, powers us, interpenetrates us, and reminds us of our inseparability from the rest of the world. YOU ARE MORE THAN THIS. It is the strength of emotion, and responds to a Clear Mind and a Thunderbolt Will.

But Hingsajagra is filled with wanderers of all kinds. And they are beings of their own accord. It is up to them whether they will keep fidelity with the Revolution... or be an obstacle destroyed in its wake.

UNTIL ALL THE HELLS ARE EMPTY

UNTIL ALL BEINGS ARE FREE

UNTIL THE HUMAN IS HUMAN

UNTIL THE PROLETARIAT ARE CHAKRAVARTIN

SWORDS UP, WANDERERS

WHAT YOU GET

10,000 SWORDS AGAINST HEAVEN has the following mechanics:

A new weird setting inspired by the likes of PERDIDO STREET STATION, NEUROMANCER, BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI, MARATHON, GHOST IN THE SHELL, and ARMORED CORE, skewered through by ESOTERIC BUDDHISM, FILIPINO FOLK ESOTERICISM, ESOTERIC RELIGIONS, GNOSTICISM, SOUTHEAST ASIAN LIVED EXPERIENCE, and SOCIAL REALIST LITERATURE.

A d6 dice pool system based on counting successes. Inspired by the simplicity of the Exalted 1e Quickstart and its ready-to-play nature, it also creates a robust enough scaffolding for resting fiction-first play upon, without being bogged down by too much sub-rules.

A combat system, LIQUID STEEL ULTIMAVIOLENCE, that is built into the world rather than attempting to be a combat minigame cut out from the world. It has in-world measurements and timings as much as possible. However, the world is built on kung-fu physics, and so the rules while adhering to the world also create moments of gritty martial arts. This is exemplified by the Interrupt system intermixed with the Attack Check.

Attack Checks are opposed rolls between an Attack Pool and a Defense Pool. Every 4+ on a Defense Pool roll cancels out a 4-5 on an Attack Pool. But 6s are CRITICAL STRIKES that cannot be defended against... unless the Defender rolled a 6 too, known as a PERFECT DEFENSE.

The combat system does not create an arbitary action list you must follow. As it is built out of the world, you can do actions as you would in the world. Liquid Steel Ultimaviolence then also allows you to INTERRUPT at any time, using your own Actions within that interrupt window to do whatever you would like, as long as you can do it.

Rules for Survival, for Resting, for Social Play (focused on finding Leverage and improving Disposition), and other World-focused details for running a game in the planet of Hingsajagra.

15 SECTS—think like Final Fantasy Jobs, but a bit more Marxist-Leninist and with more Social Organization, rather than just being combat roles—that you can gain Licenses from to learn Magicks, Technicks, and gain Gear, inspired by the Job System of Final Fantasy XII.

get it here

discord if u read allat

WARNING!

AI may be used to make things more exciting, or to make things cohesive. But AI will NOT be used to create the entirety of the story. Do not harass me about my choice in using AI to make this more interesting or more cohesive. I will also leave a disclaimer explaining that each chapter is enhanced only. So please, respect that it is for cleaning up, not writing in total.

So anyway…

I think an overlooked part of Signalis is how, in part, Elster and Ariane are incredibly codependent, to an unhealthy extent. To be clear, this was practically unavoidable. They were put into a spaceship with only one other person, and then told not to get attached to that person. There's no way they weren't going to be codependent to some degree.

However, I think it goes farther than that, and their relationship leans towards being toxic. Part of this naturally stems from the subordinate-supervisor power dynamic, however this isn't some be all end all.

Instead, I think this comes in the way that Elster becomes overly dependent on Ariane for basically any real emotional catharsis. She lives and breathes Ariane. So by the end, when Ariane makes Elster promise to eventually kill her, Elster is just completely unable to do it. She shuts down, deciding to die alone as opposed to being with her partner in her final moments.

This shows in the ending where Ariane remembers Elster. She's almost cold to Elster, not even truly acknowledging her beyond the promise they made. Only when Elster shows she's going to actually kill Ariane this time, does Ariane offer her any warmth. It's utterly horrific, and one of the reasons that the ending is so deeply affecting.

This isn't to say the game is problematic or some shit, by the way. This goes beyond subtext, and is in part, why the game is so beautiful and tragic. No promise, no game. No codependence, no game. It was a terrible, but necessary part of their relationship.

I don't feel like enough people acknowledge this, instead boiling Elster and Ariane down to, "Oh I remember :o waif :3"

FIRST:

The easiest way to get rid of the majority of the bullshit that Windows is forcing on us, as of October 2025, is this one-stop-one-click debloat solution from a modern day hero:

It's very easy, even if you're not tech savvy or get scared of pop up windows saying "ARE YOU SURE?" Yes, you are sure, I promise. This program takes maybe two minutes and will save you SO MUCH pain, time, and money (and exploitation).

Now that you've done that, here's the cleanup, to catch the little shit that the debloat might have missed (most of this will already be done by debloat, but hey, it's good to double check).

Even just reading about some of these features makes me angry. Fucking Copilot and "Discover" AI scrapers are in Notepad. NOTEPAD. And then there's this uncanny valley garbage:

No uncanny valley video calls for me, thanks! (Also, what else is it doing while it scans your face and listens to your calls? What else, microsoft? Because there was a lot of memory being assigned to this program for a simple "smooths your skin" add on).

The truly insane number of places they have stuck ads on your own home computer is sickening. Become Unmarketable.

Bonus:

Some background programs you probably don't need that are taking up space and how to remove them (Microsoft forums, 2024)

Your Samsung Galaxy Phone comes with 22 apps you don't need (Android Police, 2025)