1 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:10,600 Speaker 1: It could happen here to welcome the Evans Robert podcast 2 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: End of the World at the beginning of news. Yeah, 3 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:19,560 Speaker 1: I think we did it right. Evans, Evans, Robert. Who's 4 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:25,040 Speaker 1: here with us? That would be kill Joy, Margaret and Lictorman, Sophie. 5 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:28,720 Speaker 1: I like this m M keeping Victiman, Comma Sophie, kill 6 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:34,040 Speaker 1: Joy Comma Margaret, Um Margaret Commas as I could also 7 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:41,599 Speaker 1: attorney's general you kill Joy's Margaret. One of my hobbies 8 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:46,479 Speaker 1: is anytime I pluralize something, attorneys generally it Um. Margaret, 9 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:48,720 Speaker 1: How are you? How are you doing on this beautiful 10 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: December day. I'm good. I just got my booster shot 11 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: and the negative effects haven't kicked in yet. That's good. Um. 12 00:00:57,400 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: How does it feel to have, like, as your interne 13 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: sped up, now that I have a boost? Yeah, I'm 14 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:07,840 Speaker 1: making the same fight that everybody makes, because it's easier 15 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 1: than thinking about the fact that, oh, Macron looks like 16 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,480 Speaker 1: it's going to be a real, real nightmare and the 17 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: world's never going to go back to you know, it's 18 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,240 Speaker 1: not going back to normal. I miss It's it's being 19 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:21,920 Speaker 1: able to walk into a bar and not worry that 20 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:27,720 Speaker 1: I was going to catch a new variant of a plague. Yeah, yeah, 21 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:33,800 Speaker 1: that's a yeah. Yeah, how are you doing with the plague? 22 00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: I live completely alone and isolated, so yeah, which I 23 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: you know, I'm not sure this is how I would 24 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: have built my life if I hadn't done it during 25 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,919 Speaker 1: a plague. Yeah. I mean, well, I dream about interacting 26 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: with humans. Yeah, just like hugging a person that that 27 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 1: you don't know all that well and it not being 28 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 1: like involving both of you risking your life. It's like 29 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: a blood packed Yes, we're going, Doug, and if we 30 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:11,200 Speaker 1: wind up in how we'll scream at Satan together. Hu, 31 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: you have written another story. I mean you wrote this 32 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:16,799 Speaker 1: a while ago, as you did with the last one. 33 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 1: But we're doing. We decided we one of the things 34 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: we wanted to do to close this year out was 35 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:24,640 Speaker 1: a little bit more fiction, because fiction, I think plays 36 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: an underappreciated role in uh revolutionary practice, in kind of 37 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 1: every aspect of being someone who envisions the different world. Um. 38 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: So we we've always I mean it could happen here 39 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,040 Speaker 1: from the beginning, there was always a strong kind of 40 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: um uh focus on fiction. Um. And I'm really happy 41 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:51,959 Speaker 1: to be presenting another one of your stories. Today. Thanks. 42 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:57,360 Speaker 1: You want to introduce this piece? Sure. This piece is 43 00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:59,639 Speaker 1: called The Free Yorks of Cascadia. It was first published 44 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: in Fantasy and Science Fiction, which is the name of 45 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,320 Speaker 1: a magazine. Um and this one was also really important 46 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:07,239 Speaker 1: to me because Fantasy and Science Fiction F and s 47 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 1: F was one of the magazines that my my dad 48 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:13,440 Speaker 1: had a subscription to. Yeah. Yeah, this was a very 49 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:17,520 Speaker 1: um uh and it was a very important piece for 50 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: me that it got published there. Yeah, that's awesome. Um well, 51 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 1: let's uh, let's let's let's take a take a hop 52 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:33,279 Speaker 1: in a publicly funded bus and roll down to Storytown. 53 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 1: Speaking of taking one's life in one's hands. The story 54 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: is called The Free Orcs of Cascadia. You all know 55 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:53,120 Speaker 1: the first part of the story. The song ended in blood. 56 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: It was two years ago in the summer. Rick Green, 57 00:03:56,480 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: the singer of Goblin Forest, crooned in his Osborne esque 58 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: voice to fifteen thousand Goblin metal fans. A short man 59 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:06,440 Speaker 1: wearing green body paint and brown leather, stepped out from backstage, 60 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: drew a sword and cut the singer down from behind. 61 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:13,120 Speaker 1: The last lyrics Green ever sang were take me back, 62 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:15,840 Speaker 1: take me Back, take me back to the misty Mountains. 63 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: The man with the sword, of course, was Golfin Bull, 64 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: the rhythm guitarist for Crimpatool the opening act. He and 65 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 1: his bandmates escaped in the ensuing chaos and remain at 66 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:28,839 Speaker 1: large to this day. Neither band has released a song 67 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:31,719 Speaker 1: or played a show since the rest of Goblin Forest 68 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,360 Speaker 1: decided to call it quits. Without Green and crimp Atool, 69 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:38,400 Speaker 1: no one knew what happened to Crimpatool. Fans deserted the 70 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:41,279 Speaker 1: genre and droves, and overnight Goblin Metal went from stadium 71 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: rock fad to a niche interest of the obscure Canadian 72 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 1: orc cults were originated. It was no longer hip to 73 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:50,320 Speaker 1: be Green. If golf and Bull had been trying to 74 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:54,280 Speaker 1: take the Goblin Metal throne, as it were, he failed spectacularly. 75 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:58,720 Speaker 1: Rumors have flown about motives and locations, but there have 76 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: been no arrests and no like statement from the band. 77 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:05,080 Speaker 1: All we've had to work with were rumors until now. 78 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:10,160 Speaker 1: Earlier this month, Orc Folk act Alsith listed golf and 79 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:12,240 Speaker 1: Bull as the harpist in their liner notes of the 80 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:15,920 Speaker 1: single The Gray Fog of a Ruined Forest. All Syreth 81 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:19,280 Speaker 1: was as obscure as Crimpatool was infamous. The band had 82 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:22,279 Speaker 1: never done an interview, not even a photo shoot. Like 83 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: everyone else these days in countercultural music, their videos featured 84 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:31,160 Speaker 1: only masked performers. I've been casually obsessed with post civilization 85 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 1: culture ever since the Communicate from the Junkyard Rats of 86 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 1: the Rust Belt, and I've been covering music of pretty 87 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: much every secessionist movement and subculture I could sink my 88 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:42,360 Speaker 1: teeth into. Since after I saw those liner notes, I 89 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:44,640 Speaker 1: put out feelers to friends and friends of friends, and 90 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:46,840 Speaker 1: I waited, and last week I was invited to go 91 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:49,720 Speaker 1: to an orc village hidden away in the burned forests 92 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:53,239 Speaker 1: of Cascadia. I was invited to be the first person 93 00:05:53,279 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: to tell Golf and Bull's story hell Fire Harriet Exclusive. 94 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: Usually I post full interviews for everyone, but reserve my 95 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:02,720 Speaker 1: travel diary for the patrons of my blog. This time, though, 96 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,280 Speaker 1: I'm foregoing that this story is too important, so I've 97 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:08,800 Speaker 1: interspersed to the two below. All I knew before I 98 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:11,800 Speaker 1: went with what everyone else knew. Three years ago, a 99 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,240 Speaker 1: bunch of metal heads and hippies and burners and nerds 100 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:17,120 Speaker 1: all decided to dress up like orcs and goblins, and 101 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: some of them took it too far and decided to 102 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:22,960 Speaker 1: distance themselves from the rest of society. They got really 103 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: famous one summer, then that fame died in a single 104 00:06:25,560 --> 00:06:28,279 Speaker 1: bloody act, and who knows what kind of weird ship 105 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 1: they're up to. Now, before you get worried, no, I 106 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:34,920 Speaker 1: will never offer a platform to a fascist fascist. Fascism, 107 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:37,000 Speaker 1: as it turns out, is the furthest thing from golf 108 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 1: and Ball's mind. What he's into is a lot weirder 109 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:43,560 Speaker 1: than that. Still, it's sort of lucky that I survived 110 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:49,320 Speaker 1: to write this story. So you killed a guy, Yeah, 111 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: I killed a guy. We stared in silence at one 112 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: another for a while. He wore raw hide and fur, 113 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: and not much of either. He wasn't painted up, but 114 00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:00,440 Speaker 1: his skin was sort of natural olive is Our teeth 115 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: were filed down to fangs like any serious works. There 116 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:05,839 Speaker 1: was still something unassuming about him that I have a 117 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 1: hard time describing. You're waiting for me to tell you 118 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: about it, aren't you. The interview was not off to 119 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: a good start. Are you worried about how your words 120 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:20,239 Speaker 1: will sound in court? I killed Rick Green on stage 121 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:23,120 Speaker 1: with a sword in front of thousands of witnesses. Talking 122 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 1: to the media, isn't going to make anything worse for 123 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:27,600 Speaker 1: me at this point, and I don't respect the authority 124 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: of the US government to hold me accountable for my actions. 125 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:33,120 Speaker 1: I will not go to court, So why do you 126 00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:37,160 Speaker 1: do it? The old world is dying my world, the 127 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:39,840 Speaker 1: Free Orcs of Cascadia. We're not going to replace the 128 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:42,280 Speaker 1: old world, but we will be part of its replacement. 129 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: In order to do that, we have to take ourselves seriously. 130 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:48,600 Speaker 1: An element of that struggle is the struggle to create meaning, 131 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: to create a new sacred. I killed Rick Green because 132 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:55,560 Speaker 1: he was defiling something mint to be sacred. How so 133 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,680 Speaker 1: we share an aesthetic, but he didn't understand what it 134 00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:03,160 Speaker 1: meant to be an orc. You killed him because he 135 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:06,240 Speaker 1: was a poser. I guess you could put it like that. 136 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 1: So the lesson here is, don't be a poser. Don't 137 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:15,120 Speaker 1: be a poser. You heard it here first, kids, don't 138 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: be a poser, or golf and Ball will literally murder you. 139 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: They picked me up in the parking lot of grocery 140 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,960 Speaker 1: outlet in northeast Portland. That's a mundane detail, I suppose, 141 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: but perhaps the single most remarkable thing about my trip 142 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: was the ever present contrast between mandanity and the bizarre. 143 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:33,480 Speaker 1: I bought a case of coconut water while we waited. 144 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:37,200 Speaker 1: Works might like coconut water. Who doesn't like coconut water. 145 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:40,440 Speaker 1: They showed up in a mid teens Honda Civic sedan, 146 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: and I've been hoping for something out of Mad Max. 147 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:45,640 Speaker 1: The two women who got out, one cis one trans, 148 00:08:45,679 --> 00:08:49,120 Speaker 1: both white, were dressed in clean gray tank tops and leggings, 149 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: like half the women who live in Portland. To be honest, 150 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 1: I only noticed them in the parking lot at all 151 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:57,080 Speaker 1: because the trans woman was cute. Hell Fire this, this 152 00:08:57,160 --> 00:08:59,760 Speaker 1: woman asked. She was tall and severe, with the fierce 153 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:02,679 Speaker 1: but almost trustworthy look of a loan shark, or, as 154 00:09:02,679 --> 00:09:07,160 Speaker 1: it turned out, an Orchis enforcer. That's me, I said, Fenrik. 155 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:09,640 Speaker 1: This this woman offered her name, but no handshake, fist 156 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:13,760 Speaker 1: bump or hug. I nodded. Nor Inda, the trans woman said, 157 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:16,200 Speaker 1: Like a lot of trans women these days, she didn't 158 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:19,280 Speaker 1: bother to feminize her voice. Her name sounded familiar, but 159 00:09:19,320 --> 00:09:21,839 Speaker 1: I couldn't place it. How is this going to work? 160 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:24,360 Speaker 1: I asked. We're going to drive around back where no 161 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,600 Speaker 1: one can see us. Fenric said, We're going to take 162 00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: your phone, and laptop and any electronics and put them 163 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,079 Speaker 1: in a fair day in the car. Then we're going 164 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:32,800 Speaker 1: to put you in the trunk and drive out to 165 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:35,520 Speaker 1: the forest. Will provide you with a recorder and notebook 166 00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 1: when we arrive. You'll get your stuff back when we leave. 167 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,040 Speaker 1: I nodded, I'd pretty much expected this. Do you need 168 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:44,319 Speaker 1: to use the bathroom? Nor? In asked, have any medical 169 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:47,280 Speaker 1: conditions we should know about? No, and no, I said, 170 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:53,200 Speaker 1: either of you want a coconut water? Goblin forests sang 171 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:56,400 Speaker 1: in English. But Crimpletool's lyrics were all in Tolkien's Black Speech. 172 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:01,439 Speaker 1: Dark speech are lyrics were in Dark Speech. Each Token 173 00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:04,960 Speaker 1: referred to the language as black speech. Token meant well, 174 00:10:05,040 --> 00:10:08,280 Speaker 1: but he was about the most influential unconsciously racist author 175 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:11,559 Speaker 1: of the twentieth century. All his villains were either Green 176 00:10:11,640 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: or Middle Eastern. When you engage with the work of 177 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:17,640 Speaker 1: historical authors, especially when you make derivative works a century later, 178 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,199 Speaker 1: you have to adapt to one's own social context. Calling 179 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:25,040 Speaker 1: the language black speech today is at best wildly misleading. 180 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,520 Speaker 1: Its name is a translation. Anyway, It's possible that dark 181 00:10:28,559 --> 00:10:33,120 Speaker 1: speech is just as accurate. Besides, Token didn't write the language. 182 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:36,839 Speaker 1: He only wrote like sixteen words or something we wrote 183 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:39,319 Speaker 1: the rest Most of us prefer to translate the name 184 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:43,360 Speaker 1: of it as dark speech, since why our murderers PC 185 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:46,640 Speaker 1: My status as a person who has ended the life 186 00:10:46,640 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 1: of another person carries no implications about my personal ethics 187 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:52,960 Speaker 1: other than that I clearly believe there are circumstances under 188 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:57,800 Speaker 1: which it's okay to kill someone. Imagine being at the 189 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:00,960 Speaker 1: Renaissance Fair when the apocalypse hits and you're stuck trying 190 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:04,080 Speaker 1: to recreate society, surrounded by swords and minstrels and these 191 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:06,480 Speaker 1: and thous. You know how that sounds like either heaven 192 00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 1: or hell, depending on who you are and also who 193 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:11,920 Speaker 1: you're stuck there with. That was my first impression of 194 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,680 Speaker 1: the village of Gray Morrow. The fires out west have 195 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:17,720 Speaker 1: burned forest after forest and small town after small town, 196 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:19,720 Speaker 1: and no one tries to deny that pretty much every 197 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: bioregion on the planet is going through a transformation right now. 198 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:25,760 Speaker 1: It's in the worst spots, these dead ecologies that the 199 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:29,440 Speaker 1: post civilization movement has found its roots, like wild flowers 200 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:33,240 Speaker 1: growing up between paving stones, or rats hiding in the walls. 201 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:37,200 Speaker 1: I guess, depending on who you ask, Gray Morrow sits 202 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:39,600 Speaker 1: in the scorched graveyard of a Douglas fir forest, half 203 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:42,480 Speaker 1: way up a mountain, occupying the remains of an evacuated town. 204 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:46,200 Speaker 1: Slab foundations are all that remain of the original structures. 205 00:11:46,679 --> 00:11:49,120 Speaker 1: A seasonal creek runs through what was recently a river 206 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:51,600 Speaker 1: bed at the edge of the village, and long abandoned 207 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:54,960 Speaker 1: train tracks skirt the ridge above town. Even armed with 208 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,320 Speaker 1: all of that information, you'd still have at least seventy 209 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: or eighty possible spots to search. Satellite imagery would help, 210 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:04,200 Speaker 1: of course, I can't imagine that the Big six texts 211 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:06,480 Speaker 1: of the U. S. Government don't know where Gray Morrow is. 212 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:09,600 Speaker 1: The residence of Gray Morrow in general, in golfing Bole 213 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:12,320 Speaker 1: in particular, had an awful lot to lose by letting 214 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:15,920 Speaker 1: me write this report. Nourinda let me out of the trunk, 215 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,439 Speaker 1: and she smiled when she saw me. Her bottom teeth 216 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 1: were filed. That should have been unnerving, but I've always 217 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:23,640 Speaker 1: been a sucker for face tattoos or anything that really 218 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:26,800 Speaker 1: shows some one is going for broke. Fenric just stared 219 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: at me. Severe. Being severe was pretty much her thing, 220 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:32,120 Speaker 1: as far as I could tell. She took a sip 221 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:35,920 Speaker 1: from her cocoanut water. Three other cars filled a makeshift 222 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:38,520 Speaker 1: parking lot. The village itself was surrounded by a wall 223 00:12:38,559 --> 00:12:41,080 Speaker 1: built from black and logs set upright and buried in 224 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:44,720 Speaker 1: the ruins of the road. My escorts had changed clothes, 225 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:47,599 Speaker 1: and rout Fenric looked like a bandit out of Skyrim, 226 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,120 Speaker 1: complete with iron puldron on one shoulder and a hand 227 00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:53,160 Speaker 1: axe strapped to her belt. I won't lie, it was 228 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:55,800 Speaker 1: a good look. I'm no fashion reporter, but I figure 229 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:57,480 Speaker 1: half the magazines in New York would love to get 230 00:12:57,520 --> 00:12:59,520 Speaker 1: someone out here and take pictures of orcs like her. 231 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:04,120 Speaker 1: Nornda wore a simple, modest dress of undyed wool. Imagine 232 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:07,480 Speaker 1: a Viking kindergarten teacher who also wears a rather large 233 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:10,080 Speaker 1: dagger horizontally on her belt at the small of her back. 234 00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:13,840 Speaker 1: My crushing on her intensified. She handed me a spiral 235 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:16,560 Speaker 1: notebook in an old fashioned digital recorder, and we walked 236 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:21,280 Speaker 1: into the village. A lot of people say that you 237 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:24,920 Speaker 1: killed Ritt Green because you are jealous of Goblin Forest's success. 238 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:27,720 Speaker 1: That the Orchish code insisted that if you wanted the throne, 239 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:31,400 Speaker 1: you had to kill the reigning monarch. Golfin Bull stopped 240 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:34,440 Speaker 1: fidgeting and stared directly at me, his dark brown eyes 241 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:40,760 Speaker 1: boring into me. That's bullshit. I'm sorry, it's like three 242 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: layers deep of bullshit. He was still staring at me. 243 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,000 Speaker 1: I was starting to regret this line of questioning. Okay, 244 00:13:48,120 --> 00:13:50,600 Speaker 1: to start, there are pretty much two ways to interpret 245 00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:53,480 Speaker 1: the Orchish Code of Honor. It's not written down anywhere, 246 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:56,880 Speaker 1: but there's some strong central themes, like an interdependence between 247 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:01,120 Speaker 1: individual sovereignty and collective identity. We veou you strength, but 248 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:05,079 Speaker 1: the idea is that everyone develops their own strengths, whatever 249 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:07,440 Speaker 1: they may be, for the benefit of all. One should 250 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:09,280 Speaker 1: be as self reliant as one is able to be, 251 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:12,160 Speaker 1: both for one's own sake and again for the community's sake. 252 00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:16,320 Speaker 1: I cared deeply about this. That same basic idea, though, 253 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 1: can be interpreted two different ways. So there's a split 254 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:23,000 Speaker 1: in the ARC community. Damn right, there's a split. The 255 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: free Orcs are matriarchal and the or Seene are patriarchal. 256 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:30,160 Speaker 1: Golfin Bill produced a cigarette from god knows where, considering 257 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:32,480 Speaker 1: how little he was wearing, and lit it with a 258 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:35,960 Speaker 1: lighter from the same mysterious origin it wasn't tobacco, it 259 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:40,720 Speaker 1: wasn't weed, maybe mugwart. The matriarchal way of interpreting those 260 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:44,840 Speaker 1: tenants is roughly anarchist. It's anti authoritarian, an anti nationalist. 261 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,800 Speaker 1: At the very least. We respect the wisdom of elders, 262 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: children and women self identifying women. But the hierarchy is 263 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:54,080 Speaker 1: anything but rigid, and the guidelines are anything but laws. 264 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:57,920 Speaker 1: Most importantly, our sense of community or tribe is fluid. 265 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:02,160 Speaker 1: Gray Morrow is a free or village. Go fifteen miles 266 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,760 Speaker 1: southeast and you'll find a larger village lonely mountain there 267 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,480 Speaker 1: or seen. The patriarchal way of interpreting Orcish tenants is 268 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:14,120 Speaker 1: roughly fascistic. Authority is absolute. Rank within the hierarchy effects 269 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:17,400 Speaker 1: every aspect of one's own life. It's not racialized, but 270 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:21,040 Speaker 1: it's nationalistic. There are very specific considerations of who is 271 00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:23,800 Speaker 1: and isn't a part of any given social grouping, and 272 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,440 Speaker 1: definitions of strength tend to skew toward boring shit like 273 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:31,520 Speaker 1: physical size and power. So you tell any doubters that 274 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 1: you weren't trying to claim the goblin throne because your 275 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:37,560 Speaker 1: faction of ORCS doesn't work that way. No, Orcish culture 276 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:40,840 Speaker 1: works that way. Even those fascistic ships don't work that way. 277 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:43,560 Speaker 1: Among the or scene. If you kill your superior, people 278 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: aren't going to just suddenly start kissing your ass. They 279 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:48,640 Speaker 1: will literally flee you and turn your skin into a 280 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:52,320 Speaker 1: battle flag. You advance and rank by demonstrating your capacity 281 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:56,000 Speaker 1: to lead. This isn't some fucking Hollywood bullshit. Evil is 282 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:58,720 Speaker 1: a lot more banal than that. I didn't have the 283 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:01,120 Speaker 1: heart or maybe the courage to tell him that. To me, 284 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 1: to pretty much any outsider, Hollywood bullshit is exactly what 285 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:08,040 Speaker 1: the whole place looked like. When you say battle flag, 286 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: what do you mean? Who do they do? Battle with us? 287 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:15,280 Speaker 1: The free Orcs? Are you at war for the very 288 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,160 Speaker 1: soul of our culture? How did that start? When I 289 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:23,400 Speaker 1: cut down Rick Green, the Mountain King? You killed him 290 00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:25,240 Speaker 1: because he was the leader of a rival faction, then, 291 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: not because he was a poser. They weren't a rival 292 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:30,680 Speaker 1: faction until I killed him. But sure he was a 293 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:34,760 Speaker 1: poser though all fascists opposers. Did you go on tour 294 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:39,880 Speaker 1: with Goblin Forest specifically to murder him? Yeah? Probably? What 295 00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,760 Speaker 1: do you mean? Probably? That's a very specific question about 296 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: a very specific intention. I mean, I guess I had 297 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: been thinking about killing him for a while. It was premeditated, 298 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: and it wasn't you know, No, I don't know, because 299 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: I've never killed anyone. So it's like I've known Rick 300 00:16:56,560 --> 00:16:59,240 Speaker 1: Green almost five years. He and I and maybe thirty 301 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:01,960 Speaker 1: other people. We started this whole thing, Goblin Metal of 302 00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:04,600 Speaker 1: the Orcs. All of that. Rick Green has always been 303 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:07,239 Speaker 1: a fucking bastard. I figured I'd probably kill him one 304 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: day for being kind of a Nazi or whatever. Then 305 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:12,120 Speaker 1: we go on tour together and I tell myself, hey, 306 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:14,480 Speaker 1: if this goes badly, I can always just kill him 307 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: on stage. You've got to understand, Orcas culture wasn't even 308 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:20,560 Speaker 1: a year old at that point. We weren't split into 309 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:22,720 Speaker 1: the Free Orcs and the or scene yet. There were 310 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:25,840 Speaker 1: only maybe five villages total. We were just starting to 311 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:28,320 Speaker 1: explore what it meant to be ourselves, what kind of 312 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:31,160 Speaker 1: culture we could build. Then, while we were on tour, 313 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:35,240 Speaker 1: I hear he's got himself crowned the Mountain King. And 314 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:37,240 Speaker 1: this isn't a game. I don't know how to get 315 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:39,960 Speaker 1: that through to you or your readers. This is our life. 316 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:41,800 Speaker 1: It's one thing to put on a silly hat. And 317 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,320 Speaker 1: pretend to tell people what to do in some LARP somewhere. 318 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:48,679 Speaker 1: But Rick Green had gotten himself corornated for real dictator 319 00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:52,160 Speaker 1: over actual people. So I killed him. The free Orcs 320 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,520 Speaker 1: split off the or scene, closed ranks, and we've been 321 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:58,640 Speaker 1: at war ever since. Am I safe here? He didn't 322 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:00,879 Speaker 1: answer me, at least, he didn't dare me down again. 323 00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:04,399 Speaker 1: He just looked off into the distance, maybe towards lonely Mountain. 324 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:08,600 Speaker 1: I've been to LARPs before, where when you show up, 325 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:10,720 Speaker 1: they make you put on garb. That is to say, 326 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:13,359 Speaker 1: they make you wear period appropriate clothes, or whatever weird 327 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:17,040 Speaker 1: interpretation of period appropriate that particular group of larbers had 328 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:20,000 Speaker 1: come up with. As I met the denizens of the village, 329 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:23,600 Speaker 1: they all came out to the parking lot to introduce themselves. 330 00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:26,240 Speaker 1: I realized they didn't insist on anything like that because 331 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,440 Speaker 1: they weren't LARPing. Pretty much, every one of them was 332 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:32,359 Speaker 1: dressed like either a Viking reenactor or fantasy game villain, 333 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:36,200 Speaker 1: but it wasn't an act. About thirty adults and eight 334 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:38,960 Speaker 1: kids lived there, running the age Gamut from six months 335 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:42,399 Speaker 1: to seventy eight years. They told me their names and pronouns. 336 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:44,480 Speaker 1: About a third told me she a third heat in 337 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:47,240 Speaker 1: the third day. Many of them were white or past 338 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:50,720 Speaker 1: as such, but a significant minority were black. Nourenda told 339 00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:53,520 Speaker 1: me later their Orc villages with substantially higher proportions of 340 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:55,840 Speaker 1: people of color. That might be true, but I got 341 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:58,119 Speaker 1: the impression she said it to convince herself or me 342 00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:01,159 Speaker 1: that the free Orcs aren't a specif typically white phenomenon. 343 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,640 Speaker 1: No One, no one decent, likes looking around their community 344 00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:08,600 Speaker 1: or scene and seeing only white faces smiling back. After 345 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:11,879 Speaker 1: everyone introduced themselves, immediately forgot all their names. There are 346 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:14,840 Speaker 1: only so many fantasy names like Lazarre and Demlin that 347 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:16,600 Speaker 1: you can hear before they all just sound the same. 348 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:20,359 Speaker 1: Noriinda and Fenrik flanked me as we walked through a 349 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:23,119 Speaker 1: gate in the wall into the village. It's strange to 350 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:25,880 Speaker 1: say village in America. We don't really have villages here, 351 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:29,760 Speaker 1: But in some ways Graymorrow isn't the United States. And 352 00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:32,680 Speaker 1: to be certain, it was a village, maybe ten or 353 00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:35,480 Speaker 1: fifteen houses crowded together along either side of a single 354 00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:40,120 Speaker 1: potholed street. Two architectural styles reigned. Junkyard shacks built out 355 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:44,160 Speaker 1: of railroad cars in regular cars, and traditional American log cabins, 356 00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:47,480 Speaker 1: many of them were adorned with solar panels. At the 357 00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:50,560 Speaker 1: end of the street, near the Black Palisade, the beginnings 358 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:54,200 Speaker 1: of a stone tower stood fifteen feet high. I wasn't 359 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: sure if I was impressed or not. On one hand, 360 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:58,440 Speaker 1: the village couldn't have been around longer than three or 361 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:00,200 Speaker 1: four years, and they had already done so much much. 362 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:04,280 Speaker 1: On the other hand, it was filthy. Everyone was filthy. 363 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,399 Speaker 1: I'm kind of obsessed with the post civilization movement, so 364 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:08,080 Speaker 1: I wish I could tell you everyone looked well fed 365 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:11,680 Speaker 1: and happy. They didn't. People looked proud, and they didn't 366 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:14,160 Speaker 1: look miserable. But there was an intensity in everyone's eyes 367 00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:18,240 Speaker 1: you simply could not mistake for happiness. A trash pile 368 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:20,159 Speaker 1: needed tending near the front gate, and some of the 369 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,560 Speaker 1: animal hides stretched for tanning had begun to rot. Everything 370 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:25,760 Speaker 1: looked like it was about to fall apart, both physically 371 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:29,520 Speaker 1: and metaphorically. What now, I asked when we reached the 372 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: central square, a stone cobbled chunk of what had been 373 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 1: once an intersection, now decorated with poorly tended gardens and 374 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:39,439 Speaker 1: rustic benches of dubious quality. You're here to interview. Golfing 375 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,760 Speaker 1: Ball or you're not, Fenrick asked, I am. Golf Ball 376 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:46,280 Speaker 1: doesn't live here. I waited for her to elaborate. Golfing 377 00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:48,280 Speaker 1: Ball lives in the forest with the rest of his band. 378 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:50,760 Speaker 1: He's on his way. You'll meet him a bit outside 379 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:53,080 Speaker 1: of town. I'll take you to him when he gets there. 380 00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:57,000 Speaker 1: Someone near the gate shouted, and both of my escorts 381 00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,800 Speaker 1: flinched bodily and turned to look. It was just a 382 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,440 Speaker 1: kid chasing another kid with a wooden sword. Fendrick and 383 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:08,920 Speaker 1: Narindo were on edge. Something was about to happen. Tell 384 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:12,000 Speaker 1: me about your new band, Ulsare. What does the name mean? 385 00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 1: Alsyrith is the dark speech word for the phase of 386 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:18,200 Speaker 1: the moon on the last night before the new moon, 387 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:21,880 Speaker 1: the last sliver of light. Ulsareth is a holy day, 388 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: a day of self reflection. Our band's music attempts to 389 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:29,119 Speaker 1: capture that spirit of self reflection. On Alcyreth, we listened 390 00:21:29,119 --> 00:21:32,600 Speaker 1: to our naysayer and think about ourselves and our community 391 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:38,400 Speaker 1: your naysayer. Free Orchish villages don't have leaders. We have naysayers. 392 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:42,520 Speaker 1: Two years ago, we tried rotating leadership. It was ineffectual. 393 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,560 Speaker 1: We didn't need leaders We stuck with it anyway because 394 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:47,560 Speaker 1: we felt like we had to, because those were the 395 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:50,960 Speaker 1: rules we had come up with. Then one person said, basically, 396 00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,320 Speaker 1: this is bullshit. We don't need someone to tell us 397 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:55,439 Speaker 1: what to do. We need someone to tell us what 398 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:57,719 Speaker 1: to stop doing. We need someone to tell us what 399 00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:00,920 Speaker 1: we're doing wrong. Every new moon, every village picks a 400 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,919 Speaker 1: new naysayer. That person spends the month picking apart group structures, 401 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:08,840 Speaker 1: observing what's happening, being critical and Alsareth, we fast and 402 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:12,439 Speaker 1: listen to the naysayer. They don't offer solutions necessarily, but 403 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:17,760 Speaker 1: instead bring our problems to light. Does that work surprisingly well, 404 00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:20,399 Speaker 1: except about a third of the naysayers end up leaving 405 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:23,120 Speaker 1: after their month. Some go to other villages, some good 406 00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:26,000 Speaker 1: to live in the forest, like Narinda Alsareth singer did, 407 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,560 Speaker 1: but most leave the woods. As we put it, most 408 00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:33,920 Speaker 1: go back to civilization. That's why Noarinda's name sound of 409 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,679 Speaker 1: familiar when she didn't she introduced herself. To be honest, 410 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:38,560 Speaker 1: I saw your name list in the liner notes and 411 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,919 Speaker 1: didn't pay much attention to the rest. That's an argument 412 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:43,960 Speaker 1: for me to take my name off our next release, 413 00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:46,760 Speaker 1: if there is one. Why did you put it there? 414 00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:49,200 Speaker 1: In the first place, Why did you agree to this interview? 415 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:51,600 Speaker 1: And what do you mean if there is one? I 416 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:56,520 Speaker 1: told you we're at war? Yeah, we're losing that war. 417 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:00,000 Speaker 1: He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself calm. 418 00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:01,800 Speaker 1: He didn't strike me as a man who is afraid 419 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:04,600 Speaker 1: to cry, but he was clearly trying to keep his composure. 420 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:08,119 Speaker 1: There's no way that Gray Morrow would have let you 421 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,199 Speaker 1: talk to me here if any of us thought that 422 00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,800 Speaker 1: Gray Morrow had a future. There's no way I would 423 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:14,000 Speaker 1: have talked to you at all if I thought I 424 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 1: was going to be alive to see another alsirath. Why 425 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 1: are you losing? Why are you going to die? It's 426 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,879 Speaker 1: not a question of military efficacy, or of bravery or 427 00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:26,159 Speaker 1: strength or any of that ship. It's just a question 428 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:30,280 Speaker 1: of numbers or seen society. As a military society, every 429 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:32,840 Speaker 1: member fights. As far as we can tell, they've got 430 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: fifteen hundred warriors, We've got five hundred, so use guerrilla tactics. 431 00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:42,960 Speaker 1: Golfing Bull shook his head. Striking Rick Green down from 432 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,360 Speaker 1: behind was a cowardly action. I can justify it almost 433 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,080 Speaker 1: by the fact that Green had declared himself my monarch. 434 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: But the orseeen warriors are my peers. They would not 435 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:56,000 Speaker 1: stalk me in the night. I will not stalk them. 436 00:23:56,160 --> 00:24:00,000 Speaker 1: That sounds, I know how it sounds. So that an 437 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,920 Speaker 1: interview I want to be remembered. I want the free 438 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,800 Speaker 1: Orcs of Cascadia to be remembered. I put my name 439 00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: on the liner notes so that someone like you, an 440 00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,440 Speaker 1: anti fascist music blogger, would talk to me. I leveraged 441 00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:13,800 Speaker 1: my own infamy to draw attention to what we're doing, 442 00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:18,240 Speaker 1: what we've done. I fucking hate the tragic utopian trope. 443 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,640 Speaker 1: What like seriously, like fuck you? Okay, I know I'm 444 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:24,159 Speaker 1: here as a journalist, but I'm not gonna write your 445 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:27,199 Speaker 1: fucking obituary. I don't think i've ever turned on an 446 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:31,000 Speaker 1: interview subject like that before. I get it. Hopeless causes 447 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:33,520 Speaker 1: are beautiful, But as I understand it, the whole goddamn 448 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,000 Speaker 1: point of holding onto your honor more firmly than your 449 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:37,800 Speaker 1: life is because the world is a better place for 450 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:42,240 Speaker 1: everyone if more people did that. Right, Okay, the world 451 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,359 Speaker 1: isn't a goddamn better place if you let your subculture. 452 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:46,000 Speaker 1: And I'm sorry, I know it's very serious and I'm 453 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:47,919 Speaker 1: not trying to downplay it, but that's what this is 454 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:51,840 Speaker 1: a musical subculture be taken over by fucking Nazis, and 455 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:53,480 Speaker 1: I respect that you're going to fight them for it. 456 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,240 Speaker 1: That's cool. But if you consider buying some guns, maybe 457 00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:58,640 Speaker 1: a few drones, they'll come in here with spears, right 458 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:02,280 Speaker 1: and you'll fight them off with other spears. It's there 459 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:04,520 Speaker 1: are fucking Nazis everywhere. If you don't give a shit 460 00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:06,960 Speaker 1: about going to jail or dying, then fucking shoot the 461 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,720 Speaker 1: Nazis were trying to kill you. You don't understand, You're 462 00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:15,280 Speaker 1: fucking right, I don't, if I'm being honest. Most of 463 00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:17,400 Speaker 1: the time I was waiting, I spent flirting with Norenda 464 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,160 Speaker 1: and avoiding talking to Fenrick. Horenda asked me to keep 465 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:23,120 Speaker 1: our conversation off the record. We didn't talk about Gray 466 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:25,880 Speaker 1: Morrow or the orc thing much. Anyway, everything I learned 467 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,480 Speaker 1: about the village and its culture I learned by observation only. 468 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:31,720 Speaker 1: An elderly man came by and offered us cold tea 469 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:35,199 Speaker 1: and wooden mugs steeped BlackBerry leaves sweetened with juice from 470 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,359 Speaker 1: the berries. He said, no caffeine, no other particularly strong 471 00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:42,359 Speaker 1: medicinal effects. The three of us took cups from his bladder, 472 00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,480 Speaker 1: and he continued down the street, passing out drinks. No 473 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,480 Speaker 1: one else approached us. I watched people go about their lives, 474 00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:51,560 Speaker 1: though the tension in the air was thick. I saw 475 00:25:51,560 --> 00:25:53,359 Speaker 1: a few people look at cell phones and spent a 476 00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:56,280 Speaker 1: not inconsiderable amount of time trying to decide if that 477 00:25:56,320 --> 00:25:59,800 Speaker 1: was hypocritical and or bad ops sec. Eventually I gave up, 478 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:01,720 Speaker 1: as frankly, it wasn't my business, and one of the 479 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:04,680 Speaker 1: most interesting things about all the post civilization groups is 480 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:06,760 Speaker 1: all the bits and pieces they choose to carry over 481 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:11,880 Speaker 1: from mainstream culture. Finally, after an hour, Fenric stood up 482 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,320 Speaker 1: come with me. I followed her to the other side 483 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:17,960 Speaker 1: of town and through a smaller gait. On the other side, 484 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,320 Speaker 1: a box truck that had seen better days sat on 485 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:23,160 Speaker 1: a road that had too. We skirted around the truck 486 00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:27,040 Speaker 1: and up into the black forest. The scorched hills looked 487 00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,040 Speaker 1: more like meadows than forests, with green grass and undergrowth 488 00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,639 Speaker 1: broken only by black spikes of burned trees. We followed 489 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:35,840 Speaker 1: the path this way and that, and soon I was lost. 490 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:40,159 Speaker 1: Soon after fog set in, I was further through the 491 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,200 Speaker 1: looking glass than I had realized. I imagined us lost 492 00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:45,040 Speaker 1: a mile from a town full of people who gave 493 00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:47,080 Speaker 1: a double meaning to the word stranger, and probably at 494 00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:50,480 Speaker 1: least an hour's drive from civilization. My guard hadn't shown 495 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:51,879 Speaker 1: me much in the way of kindness, and I was 496 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:53,320 Speaker 1: on my way to meet someone I knew to be 497 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:55,919 Speaker 1: a murderer. It's the kind of shift I live for. 498 00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:58,600 Speaker 1: If I'm being honest, I love my stupid, fucking weird 499 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:00,879 Speaker 1: job and the stupid fucking weird world we live in. 500 00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:03,720 Speaker 1: Thank you, my readers, for making that possible for me. 501 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:05,480 Speaker 1: Be sure to check out my Patreon page if this 502 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,439 Speaker 1: is the first thing you've read by me. Lots of 503 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,760 Speaker 1: members only content over there, including a few snippets of 504 00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,280 Speaker 1: orc song from Nearinda. The only thing I saw in 505 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:15,679 Speaker 1: the distance was a single black spire, thicker than the 506 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:18,440 Speaker 1: dead snags around me. As we approached, it came into 507 00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:21,080 Speaker 1: focus as a boulder jutting up into the sky like 508 00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:23,600 Speaker 1: an angry finger. Sitting at the base of it was 509 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,800 Speaker 1: a short man with a sword across his lap, golfing bull. 510 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,240 Speaker 1: I'll leave you to to it, Fenric said. She left 511 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,080 Speaker 1: me alone with an armed murderer. I sat down across 512 00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:35,400 Speaker 1: from him, took out the notebook and recorder and asked 513 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:42,280 Speaker 1: him questions. All right, convince me we can't fight them dishonorably, 514 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,359 Speaker 1: because you can't protect an idea by defiling that idea. 515 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: We don't want them to destroy our way of life, 516 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:49,320 Speaker 1: but we don't want to destroy our way of life 517 00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:53,159 Speaker 1: ourselves either. The basic problem with your scene is that 518 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:57,560 Speaker 1: they're interpreting your code of honor to mean might makes right. Yeah. Yes. 519 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,280 Speaker 1: By facing them in open battle, nobly dying or whatever 520 00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:04,880 Speaker 1: your goddamn planet is, you're just letting them make my right. 521 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,159 Speaker 1: You're letting their superior numbers dictate what your cultures to 522 00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,399 Speaker 1: look like. It's like majority voting, but even dumber because 523 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,560 Speaker 1: more people die. I expected him to double down on 524 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:19,720 Speaker 1: his position. Most men would. What do you suggest instead, funk? 525 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:22,040 Speaker 1: I don't know. Don't be here when they attack, Go 526 00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:25,320 Speaker 1: somewhere else, stay on the move, build your strength. Oh ship, 527 00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:31,240 Speaker 1: That's what Rick Green was doing, wasn't it. Huh Goblin 528 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,040 Speaker 1: forest singing in English, a stupid name like Rick Green. 529 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,479 Speaker 1: All That ship was designed to make Goblin metal more 530 00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,880 Speaker 1: palatable to the masses, to get fans, to get recruits 531 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:45,960 Speaker 1: for his stupid, fucking fashy goals. Yep, do that. I mean, 532 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,080 Speaker 1: don't become fascists, or change your name, or make your 533 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,040 Speaker 1: music where everyone knows Goblin Forest and have shipped on Krimpazol. 534 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:54,200 Speaker 1: Just don't be obscure for the sake of being obscure. 535 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:56,960 Speaker 1: Fucking advertise you have a decent thing going here. People 536 00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:00,880 Speaker 1: abandoning mainstream society left and right, no coal pun intended. 537 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:02,880 Speaker 1: Make it easier for them to get here. Make it 538 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,600 Speaker 1: so that when you fight the fashion your epics swords 539 00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:09,440 Speaker 1: and spears Viking deathmatch, you win better. Yet, make it 540 00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:11,000 Speaker 1: so they don't even want to funk with you because 541 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:15,040 Speaker 1: they know they lose. I don't know whether that would work. Yeah, 542 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:18,680 Speaker 1: but dying doesn't work either. The Earth way of life 543 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:20,960 Speaker 1: isn't meant to be some revolution. It's not meant to 544 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,160 Speaker 1: supplant the mainstream. It will never appeal to the mainstream, 545 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:26,960 Speaker 1: not without losing its soul. Would you live like this? 546 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:31,120 Speaker 1: Would you want to? You're right, I'm obsessed with you 547 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:33,680 Speaker 1: weird subcultures, but I wouldn't want to live like you. 548 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:36,840 Speaker 1: We both stared at each other in silence. It wasn't 549 00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:41,320 Speaker 1: an uncomfortable silence. We're both just thinking, Okay, scrap that 550 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,160 Speaker 1: you're never going to get big numbers. You don't need 551 00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,000 Speaker 1: big numbers. You don't want big numbers. You don't need recruits, 552 00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:50,960 Speaker 1: you need allies. What would that look like? God damn 553 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,520 Speaker 1: due all Orcish men not actually listen to women's ideas. 554 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:55,840 Speaker 1: I'm used to guys just talking over me or shutting 555 00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,560 Speaker 1: down completely. If I get mad free Orkish men, I 556 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:04,080 Speaker 1: would hope know how to listen. Guns break the spell 557 00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,160 Speaker 1: and the spell you're casting here's powerful. It's good. So 558 00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:10,280 Speaker 1: no guns. Other people have guns, though, Let those people 559 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:13,120 Speaker 1: stand guard or make their arm presence. Note outside or 560 00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,640 Speaker 1: seen camps other people have access to, say dock singe. 561 00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:18,440 Speaker 1: How many recruits are the or Sine gonna get if 562 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:20,960 Speaker 1: every time some want to be forest Nazi dude joins, 563 00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:23,520 Speaker 1: someone tells his mother what they're about for access to 564 00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:26,160 Speaker 1: the media, How many recruits are going to join if 565 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:28,960 Speaker 1: everyone knows the or scene or posers putting out substandard 566 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,000 Speaker 1: water down goblin metal just to try and lure an 567 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,440 Speaker 1: impressionable military age men to fight their holy war. You'll 568 00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:38,240 Speaker 1: write those stories. I'm not gonna write you any propaganda, 569 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,680 Speaker 1: but sure I'll tell the truth. How do we get allies, 570 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,360 Speaker 1: but at another single, maybe a full length. The gray 571 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:47,080 Speaker 1: fog of a ruined forest was the best ship of 572 00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:50,240 Speaker 1: hurtin years. You're redefining folk music, just like you redefined 573 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:53,120 Speaker 1: metal without ship like that, and I'll cover it. Talk 574 00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:56,040 Speaker 1: to more press, maybe someone other than you. Not everyone's 575 00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,040 Speaker 1: going to be sympathetic to what you did, even if 576 00:30:58,120 --> 00:31:01,480 Speaker 1: that fucking guy was a fucking tree. Not see a 577 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,280 Speaker 1: hunting horn cut through the fog and through our conversation, 578 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:06,960 Speaker 1: and my subject's face fell into despair for a half 579 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:12,640 Speaker 1: second before determination took over. What's that? Interviews over? And 580 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,959 Speaker 1: I thought there would be more time another day. At 581 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:19,880 Speaker 1: least we have to get you out of here. Turns 582 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:22,760 Speaker 1: out Fenric had taken us on a purposefully circatuitous route 583 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:25,040 Speaker 1: into the woods. It wasn't a quarter of a mile 584 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,480 Speaker 1: straight downhill before golf and bowl and I reached the 585 00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:30,920 Speaker 1: box truck at the back entrance to Graymorrow. Norinda and 586 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:33,480 Speaker 1: Fenrick stood there talking with a kid, maybe fifteen, who 587 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:36,000 Speaker 1: was out of breath. She was dressed in scraps of 588 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,120 Speaker 1: fur and leathern cloth, like you might imagine a medieval beggar. 589 00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:41,640 Speaker 1: It wasn't until I noticed all the twigs and sticks 590 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,040 Speaker 1: and moss tangled up in the fabrics. I recognized it 591 00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:47,560 Speaker 1: as camouflage. I saw about thirty the scout, for that's 592 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:52,160 Speaker 1: what she was said about. Fenrick asked, exactly thirty, ten 593 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:54,760 Speaker 1: with pikes, ten with tower, shields and swords, five archers, 594 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,920 Speaker 1: two scouts to command, one non combatant. I'd guess a surgeon, 595 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:01,680 Speaker 1: but I couldn't promise how far away I asked. Fenrick 596 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:05,440 Speaker 1: glared at me for interrupting. Five miles Nourenda said, probably 597 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:07,960 Speaker 1: three and a half by now downhill. We have time 598 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:09,760 Speaker 1: to get you out with the children and the elders. 599 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:14,360 Speaker 1: The scout had just run five miles uphill because she 600 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:16,160 Speaker 1: was too stubborn to use a walkie talkie or a 601 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,800 Speaker 1: cell phone. We should evacuate everyone. Gulf and Bull said 602 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,840 Speaker 1: what Fendrick asked. We've got walls and almost even numbers. 603 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,680 Speaker 1: Fuck them, this is our home. I wanted to shout 604 00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:28,520 Speaker 1: at her. I wanted to shake her, to tell her 605 00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:31,400 Speaker 1: this wasn't a fucking game, that it wasn't the twelfth century, 606 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:34,280 Speaker 1: and that killing people or dying over some squatted chunk 607 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,760 Speaker 1: of nowhere was somewhere between stupid and reprehensible. It didn't 608 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:40,960 Speaker 1: though I'm a good journalist. This isn't the place for 609 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:43,040 Speaker 1: us to debate this, Nourenda said, and all four of 610 00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:44,959 Speaker 1: them walked through the gate and left me standing by 611 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:48,320 Speaker 1: the truck. That was why the gardens were untended, and 612 00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:50,239 Speaker 1: with the trash was piled up and the hides were 613 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,600 Speaker 1: left to rot. They were expecting this. They'd lost their 614 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:55,720 Speaker 1: will to pretend like their lives were going to continue 615 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,520 Speaker 1: to progress forward. I'm not the first to suggest that 616 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,880 Speaker 1: Nila him as the dominant effect of society today, with 617 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:06,040 Speaker 1: climate change destroying communities and bioregions all over the map, 618 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,240 Speaker 1: with the economic crisis deepening and the wealth gap widening. 619 00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:11,400 Speaker 1: I think all of us are guilty of forgetting to 620 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:14,040 Speaker 1: tend our gardens. All of us have a hard time 621 00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,040 Speaker 1: figuring out why it matters whether or not we deal 622 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,520 Speaker 1: with our trash. All of us have proverbial or literal 623 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,880 Speaker 1: Nazis marching on us. The Nazis the free Orcs of 624 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:27,200 Speaker 1: Cascadia are dealing with are the literal variety. Some cosplaying 625 00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,320 Speaker 1: fascist was about to stick a sword between Noranda's ribs. 626 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:33,960 Speaker 1: Biole rows in my throat. I don't know I believe 627 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:35,720 Speaker 1: in love at first sight or any of that ship, 628 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:40,080 Speaker 1: but I just couldn't handle the idea. I fucking hate honor. 629 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,560 Speaker 1: I will never be an orc. I got lost running 630 00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:46,479 Speaker 1: through solutions to the problem of hypothetical arrows and swords 631 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,800 Speaker 1: that were going to interfere with Norinda's continued existence. Most 632 00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,520 Speaker 1: of those solutions involved assault rifles, which I didn't have 633 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:56,240 Speaker 1: access to. Cars, though were available. What's thirty warriors of 634 00:33:56,280 --> 00:33:59,080 Speaker 1: medieval armor versus one station wagon driven by an angry 635 00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,200 Speaker 1: woman with a lead foot. I put the odds in 636 00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:05,000 Speaker 1: my favor. I wasn't going to do it, though. Instead 637 00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:08,120 Speaker 1: I waited to evacuate. I don't think that speaks well 638 00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:11,920 Speaker 1: of me. Individually and in groups, people came out through 639 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:13,960 Speaker 1: the gate and loaded bags and baskets on to the 640 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:17,040 Speaker 1: back of the truck. Noriinda returned with a simple backpack 641 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,240 Speaker 1: sewn from raw hide. Most of her belongings were probably 642 00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:22,800 Speaker 1: wherever she engulfen Bule and the rest of Allsareth lived. 643 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: She handed me my phone, I didn't have service. I 644 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: wondered whether or not she engulfen Bule were dating. It 645 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:32,560 Speaker 1: wasn't relevant to the present moment exactly, but my mind 646 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:34,479 Speaker 1: always as a way of thinking about bullshit to avoid 647 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:38,200 Speaker 1: thinking about impending doom. Another important effect of our generation 648 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:42,400 Speaker 1: distract ourselves with disaster with petty things like love and jealousy. 649 00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:45,520 Speaker 1: I don't know what you said to Golfen Bull, Randa said, 650 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,480 Speaker 1: but whatever it was worked. He just convinced everyone to evacuate. Everyone, 651 00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:53,080 Speaker 1: I asked, shocked, everyone except him and Fenric and Gorn. 652 00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:56,560 Speaker 1: Which one's Gorn, the man who brought us tea? Do 653 00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:58,959 Speaker 1: you remember him? He's old a ship, though, I said, 654 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,479 Speaker 1: because I have no in manners or common sense. Yeah, 655 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:04,840 Speaker 1: he's old as ship. He's a linguist by training. His 656 00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:07,360 Speaker 1: main hobby is writing morbid poetry and dark speech, and 657 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:09,480 Speaker 1: when he can't figure out how to say something, he 658 00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:11,960 Speaker 1: just makes up new words. He developed about a third 659 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,440 Speaker 1: of the language, did all that ship before orc culture 660 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:17,439 Speaker 1: was even around. He's also a widower three times over. 661 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,080 Speaker 1: He doesn't give a shit about dying. His last chat 662 00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:24,720 Speaker 1: book was called soon I will return to the Earth. Oh, 663 00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:27,319 Speaker 1: Gorn is going to die today. Golf and Bull and 664 00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 1: Fenric they're going to hold the wall as long as 665 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,000 Speaker 1: they can and then fall back to the woods. And you, 666 00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:35,240 Speaker 1: I asked, I'm driving us out of here to another village. 667 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,960 Speaker 1: Then I'll take you home after that. I don't know, girl, 668 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:40,880 Speaker 1: I don't know. If I signed up for this, I 669 00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,080 Speaker 1: might leave the woods go back to being a vet tech. 670 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,440 Speaker 1: I just nodded. I was too biased to offer objective 671 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,440 Speaker 1: life advice. Oh, and golf and Bull said to give 672 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:51,839 Speaker 1: you this, He said, it's in case he dies. He says, 673 00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:54,200 Speaker 1: you're right, you shouldn't have to write his obituary, so 674 00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:56,920 Speaker 1: he wrote his own. She handed me a piece of 675 00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,760 Speaker 1: paper I piled into the back of the box truck 676 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,840 Speaker 1: with are to other people, many of them in tears, 677 00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:05,839 Speaker 1: many of them in shock, and we drove away from Graymorrow. 678 00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 1: None of the three free Orc survived the battle. Goren 679 00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:12,480 Speaker 1: died and paled on a spear while holding the gate. 680 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,080 Speaker 1: Fedric was killed by an arrow that struck her in 681 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:16,839 Speaker 1: the back of the neck as she and Golfing Bull 682 00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:20,600 Speaker 1: ran golf and Bull, Fenric's lover turned and stood his 683 00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:23,960 Speaker 1: ground over her body. I didn't know any of that yet. 684 00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:26,680 Speaker 1: I found out when Mirinda found out two days later. 685 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:29,440 Speaker 1: Maybe all three of them would have survived if I 686 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: hadn't interfered, and they had all fought with equal numbers. 687 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:34,719 Speaker 1: Maybe more of them would have died. Maybe I can 688 00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:38,839 Speaker 1: forgive myself. Maybe there's nothing to forgive. In the back 689 00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:40,880 Speaker 1: of the truck, by the light coming in through a 690 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,879 Speaker 1: crack in the steel wall, I read Golfing Bull's note. 691 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:47,360 Speaker 1: All my life, I didn't give a shit about anything. 692 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,360 Speaker 1: I liked weed and metal in whatever counterculture trend was 693 00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:52,799 Speaker 1: big in a given year, but my heart wasn't in it. 694 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:55,920 Speaker 1: I just went through the motions until I became an orc, 695 00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:58,759 Speaker 1: saying I'm an orc and meaning it. Isn't like a 696 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:01,560 Speaker 1: transman saying he's a man and meaning it. Gender is 697 00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:04,680 Speaker 1: a social construct that goes back as far as I understand, 698 00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:07,680 Speaker 1: to the beginning of humanity. There has always been gender, 699 00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:09,839 Speaker 1: and there have always been people who transgress the roles 700 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,800 Speaker 1: assigned to them at birth. An orc is a social 701 00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:15,560 Speaker 1: construct that we just fucking made up. I mean, I 702 00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:17,640 Speaker 1: guess the orc is an archetype too, but it's a 703 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,640 Speaker 1: fantasy archetype. We know what's make believe. Make believe is 704 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,839 Speaker 1: what gave my life, meaning, I promise you that for me. 705 00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:26,960 Speaker 1: The day we decided we were orcs was the first 706 00:37:27,040 --> 00:37:29,759 Speaker 1: day that the sun shone benevolence upon the world. It 707 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:32,720 Speaker 1: was the first day that color radiated from everything I saw. 708 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:34,840 Speaker 1: It was the first day that the rain on my 709 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,560 Speaker 1: roof tapped out codes of meaning. It was the first 710 00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:41,200 Speaker 1: day of my life, my real life, my first Also, 711 00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:44,920 Speaker 1: I fell in love with the world. Everyone finds meaning 712 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,799 Speaker 1: in different ways. I found meaning by believing in some 713 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,120 Speaker 1: ship we made up and letting that be real. I 714 00:37:51,200 --> 00:38:04,800 Speaker 1: was born Jason Sanchez. I died gulfing Bull. I'm not sorry. 715 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:08,680 Speaker 1: That was great. That was so fun. I mean, not 716 00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:14,359 Speaker 1: my narration, the story. The story, not my narration. Mm hmm. 717 00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:17,720 Speaker 1: The second we finished, we all just got that little 718 00:38:17,719 --> 00:38:22,400 Speaker 1: smirk on her face. Think that was delightful. Yeah, Margaret, 719 00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:27,080 Speaker 1: you're the best. Yeah. I mean, if I were going 720 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:34,879 Speaker 1: to be an orc, there would be rifles but problems. Yeah, 721 00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,600 Speaker 1: this is absolutely This is like a really good example 722 00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:39,680 Speaker 1: of what I mean that when I write utopian fiction 723 00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,680 Speaker 1: or like fiction about other societies, I'm not saying, hey, 724 00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:45,280 Speaker 1: everyone go do this or like this is what people 725 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:47,680 Speaker 1: should do. No, I mean I liked that. I like 726 00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:50,640 Speaker 1: I like that. I've had that experience in other cultures, 727 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 1: you know, places like slab City and different kind of 728 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:55,160 Speaker 1: encampments and whatnot. That I've spent a lot of time 729 00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:57,920 Speaker 1: and as a journalist where it's like I'm fascinated by 730 00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:01,480 Speaker 1: and I respect aspects of this, but like, I also 731 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:04,000 Speaker 1: think some of these things are that you're doing or 732 00:39:04,080 --> 00:39:06,400 Speaker 1: dumb or I don't understand why you do it, or 733 00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,479 Speaker 1: this isn't like you know, but you don't Your notes 734 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:16,520 Speaker 1: don't matter. You know, that's not your job, although actually 735 00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:20,200 Speaker 1: having an impact in that way is is kind of Yeah, 736 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:25,360 Speaker 1: I don't know. Somebody go, somebody go make an work village. Yeah, yeah, 737 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:27,799 Speaker 1: I'll go out there, I'll report on it. We'll go. 738 00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:30,919 Speaker 1: It'll be fine. Don't take the band name all sort 739 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:35,480 Speaker 1: though I already stole that. There's a number of dope 740 00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:40,719 Speaker 1: band names in here. All right, people should make orc folk. 741 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:44,560 Speaker 1: I'd be really excited to hear make orc folk abandon 742 00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:54,279 Speaker 1: civilization to live as fantasy creatures. Um, fight fascists, all 743 00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,160 Speaker 1: that good stuff. Yeah, Margaret, is there anything you'd like 744 00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:02,120 Speaker 1: to plug? Well? I do have a new book out, 745 00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:04,640 Speaker 1: or a reprint of an older book called A Country 746 00:40:04,719 --> 00:40:07,759 Speaker 1: Ghost that is a more directly utopian book. It's out 747 00:40:07,760 --> 00:40:13,000 Speaker 1: from a K Press, came out last month, and um, 748 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:14,920 Speaker 1: I think that's it. That's the main thing. Oh, you 749 00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:17,200 Speaker 1: can support me on Patreon, although it's no longer supporting 750 00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,160 Speaker 1: me on Patreon. It's supporting a publishing thing that I'm 751 00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:23,200 Speaker 1: starting back up with people called Strangers and a Tangled Wilderness. 752 00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,400 Speaker 1: And it will publish fiction and memoir and like the 753 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:29,120 Speaker 1: kind of like more culture side of radical politics and 754 00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:34,320 Speaker 1: less the like theory and stuff. What's the patreon patreon 755 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,040 Speaker 1: dot com slash Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness? Because why 756 00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:41,040 Speaker 1: would I pick short names for things? Don't do that? Yeah, 757 00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,560 Speaker 1: and we have we have a live show coming up right, 758 00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:48,480 Speaker 1: Robert h. That doesn't sound like us. It's a virtual 759 00:40:48,719 --> 00:40:51,200 Speaker 1: live show of for Behind the Bastard to put our 760 00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:57,960 Speaker 1: friend prop that's on Thursday February allegedly moment House dot 761 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: com slash Behind the Bastards. I can't confirm or deny that. Okay, 762 00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:09,200 Speaker 1: you gotta a lawyer on here before you can sure. Yeah, 763 00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:12,600 Speaker 1: let's get Moira on the horn and where come on 764 00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:14,600 Speaker 1: the horn and tell us if we're actually doing this 765 00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:18,800 Speaker 1: thing that show? Yeah? Are we also? Are we alive? 766 00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:23,400 Speaker 1: That's another question? How I text here that most days? Um? 767 00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:26,200 Speaker 1: All right, well, thank you Margaret, and thank you all 768 00:41:26,280 --> 00:41:29,160 Speaker 1: for tuning in in the first year of the rest 769 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:38,440 Speaker 1: of the next year. It could happen here as a 770 00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:41,319 Speaker 1: production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool 771 00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:44,080 Speaker 1: Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, 772 00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:45,919 Speaker 1: or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, 773 00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:49,279 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 774 00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:52,000 Speaker 1: find sources for It could Happen here, updated monthly at 775 00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,280 Speaker 1: cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.