I need to talk. Like, I really need to talk.
The trouble is, I don’t have anybody I can talk to. My family’s estranged, my friends are all gone, and the authorities think I’m a lunatic.
It's just five days from Christmas, and I’m alone. Isolated. If I don’t get this off my chest though, I’m afraid it’s going to start festering in my mind like a decaying carcass; I’m afraid it’s going to sink its teeth in.
So I’ll talk to you. All of you. It’s not perfect, but it will do.
My name's Terrance Sims. I’m sitting in my rocking chair, rifle draped across my lap, in bloodstained pyjamas that still reek with last night’s piss. I haven’t slept in two days, and I might not sleep for two more. Last night something came down my chimney, and I think it’s coming back.
I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me paint you a picture. I live alone, up in the mountains where the pine trees are draped in snow, and the rivers are an icy blue. I could be a bit more specific, but I don’t think it’s warranted. Besides that, I like my privacy.
All of this to say, where I am isn’t important. What matters is what I have to say.
I’m a researcher. Or at least, I was once upon a time. My funding has long been cut, and my job along with it, but I've stayed out here because I believed in the research my team was undertaking. It was revolutionary. It meant the possibility of bridging worlds, of seeing new forms of life.
Now I’m terrified that research has found me.
You’ve probably heard of monsters, or urban legends, of things that claw at our imaginations and lurk in the dark recesses of our minds. Perhaps you’ve even felt one. They wait there sometimes, prowling just beyond our vision, tearing at the fabric that holds our realities together. Desperate. Hungry.
My job was to study these beings. I was tasked with developing an understanding of not only what they wanted from us but how to gain access to their world: the place Beyond the Veil.
Needless to say, I wasn’t successful. The organization I worked for, the Facility, poured millions into my ideas and wasn’t forgiving of my failures. When my theories came up short, they cut ties with me -- he cut ties with me.
‘It’s unfortunate, but it’s business,” Mr. Reid had said, feet on his desk, long hair pulled back in a ponytail. “Your failures reflect on me, Terrance, and they’ve become an accounting nightmare.”
I had begged him. Groveled. It didn’t matter. I was terminated along with my research, and when you’re studying the kind of things I am, they don’t want that information leaking out into the world. It’s what they call a liability.
So I was blacklisted. Facility teams picked away at my reputation, whispering in the back corners of universities and at the water coolers of laboratories. My name became synonymous with paranoia and madness. I was a laughing stock among my peers. A joke.
It was the end of my life.
Only one person cared to associate with me afterwards, a junior colleague and a brilliant young man named Alexi Azimov. He believed in the research nearly as much as I did, and luckily for him, his name wasn’t attached to the project.
When the Facility pulled the plug and dragged my name through the dirt, they simply moved him to a new department, and that was that. Despite it, he spent his vacation days returning to the mountain, assisting me with further study whenever he could.
Until last year, when even he abandoned me too.
But now I’ve shown all of them. I’ve proven they were wrong -- dead wrong. It’s here. He’s here. I always suspected he lived among these mountains, or at least that his Bridge was located within them, but I had given up hope for so long. It had been years, after all -- damn near a decade. They called me absurd. Insane.
Then, last night everything changed.
I was lying in bed, winding down after logging the readings on the temporal measurement equipment, when the cabin shook. At first, I thought an avalanche had struck it, but then I heard it: a clatter of hooves upon the roof.
I shot out of bed, my breath trapped in my chest and my body cold with sweat. I sprinted to the closet and pulled out my hunting rifle. Outside, a blizzard howled, but all I heard was the voice, a menagerie of tone and emotion, high and low, guttural and smooth. It rang out from above me.
Ho ho hO.
My first thought was to contact the Facility, but my satellite internet wasn’t functioning in the storm. Even if it were, I knew better. I was too far. Too isolated for help.
The mountains I study in are remote, and the cabin even more so. It was chosen for its seclusion as a means of observing the being known as the Sleigh Father, but the circumstances were meant to be different.
Much different.
Above me, the ceiling creaked, and dust drifted down from the rafters. Boots crunched upon the snow-caked roof. You always think you’ll know what to do when the moment comes, that your training will kick in, and you’ll just go through the motions like some kind of pre-programmed robot. I wish that were true. I really do.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think.
I’d spent the better part of my career chasing that monster, and now that it’d found me, I was lost. My fingers played against the trigger of my rifle, my mouth dry, and my eyes latched open. Inside of me, my body thrummed with terror. My fight or flight response oscillated between cowardice and impulsive foolishness. I was paralyzed. Alone.
A chorus of chattering pierced the screaming wind. It came fast and jittery, like a ticking clock marking time in microseconds. I knew what it was before the hoofbeats followed. It was them, the creatures the Sleigh Father commissioned in the First Days when people still feared the night and all the horrors within. Eight abominations, stitched together by the innards of mutilated children.
Their agony acted as his gateway -- his Bridge between worlds. The souls of the children lived on in the beasts, while their vacant spirits stalked the earth, lost and hopeless, seeking the missing piece that would finally grant them rest. Their tortured existence was his Link to our reality. The sleigh the abominations drew, his Bridge.
The thought shook me from my trance. I’d spent years waiting for this—a chance to see the other side, to see other worlds.
I had to act, so I lurched forward, moving through the lonely cabin while the Sleigh Father’s footsteps creaked above me. HO hO ho. He lumbered toward the chimney while I shivered down the cold hallway, rifle trembling in my skinny arms.
It took me only a few moments to reach the living area, and when I did, I settled there, just behind the corner of the wall. I kept my gun levelled at the fireplace, and my eyes plastered open. A crackling blaze danced in the hearth. It cast the sparse furnishings in an orange glow, throwing shadows across the loveseat and the messy desks.
The night became still.
The snowstorm quieted. The hoofbeats vanished. There was no sound of boots, no sound of laughter, only the snapping flames and my heart pounding blood through my skull. My mouth moved, and words spilled out. Affirmations. Come on, I muttered. Slide down the chimney, you beast. The fire’s waiting for you.
I knew better. Of course I did. I’d spent years researching the Sleigh Father, consumed tireless hours reading into his history. Of all the monsters the Facility had dealt with, the terrors that haunted old email chains and the urban legends that spread through panicked breaths, he was the anomaly. He was celebrated.
Santa Claus, they called him.
It was an error I traced back to centuries ago when a young girl witnessed her abusive father taken by the Sleigh Father. The creature devoured him and left the man’s skull as a parting gift, having taken what he came for: a human soul. To the girl, the beast was a saviour.
A saint.
The words she spoke in the following weeks, months, and years became immortalized. They became history, and then they became legend. A jolly being, laughing and hungry, coming down the chimney and leaving gifts in its wake. It was as tantalizing a tale as they come, especially to young children, eager to be appeased in their search for comfort and joy.
Now he was here with me, looking for another soul to add to his collection.
Seconds stretched into minutes as I waited, tucked quietly behind the corner of the wall, rifle in my arms, elbow steadied upon my knee. Once, we had contingencies for this. Plans in place that provided the means to incapacitate the Sleigh Father should he pay us a visit, but those plans involved government agents no longer in my employ. They involved expensive technology and complex spells. They were a last resort.
A clump of snow fell down the chimney, and the fire responded with a hiss of steam. Its flame retreated for a moment, flickering, before lashing back in anger. Something heavy shuffled above—the Sleigh Father.
Emotions swam inside of me. Regret. Anger. Fear. Why had I stayed out here? How could I have been so stubborn, so goddamn arrogant?
The answer was obvious: my old boss, Donovan Reid. His mockery, his wanton destruction of my life. It left me with no other option. Either I remained on this mountain, burning through my life’s savings and hunting wayward game, or I returned home. One meant a chance at redemption, the other guaranteed humiliation and disgrace.
I hated Mr. Reid more than words could say. Alexi had seen it. He’d seen how much my loathing distracted me, and so he recommended methods to help get the snake off my mind. A list, he’d said in an email last month. Write a list of all the ways you want to hurt him. Write a list of all the horrible things you want to happen to him. I think it could help you get him out of your head and free up your attention.
It helped—a little.
hO ho HO.
The laugh came high and low, husky and slick. A crunch followed it, like something digging into brick, and panic found its way into my bones. Dust and debris fell into the flames. The Sleigh Father's legend was explicit in his form of entry: if possible, it was always the chimney.
A grunt came down the flue, followed by more pebbles and stones. Then, the cabin shook. It was as if something heavy had jumped from the roof -- and what comes up must come down.
A pulverizing cacophony filled the night like cannon fire. Rubble tumbled into the blazing hearth while the bricks of the chimney bulged outwards, crumbling as something massive shot down it. I barely brought my rifle on aim before a figure crashed into the flames.
Burning logs shattered with a thunderous crack, plunging the cabin into inky darkness. Wooden splinters ricocheted around the room like blazing shrapnel, their slivers slashing at my face and tracing my skin in searing agony. I swung back behind the protection of the hallway wall, rifle clutched to my chest.
My thoughts raced. This couldn’t be happening, I said to myself. It couldn’t. I slammed my eyes shut, trying to get my out-of-control breathing back in line. I was hyperventilating. Panicking. I had to calm down because if I didn’t, I would start making impulsive decisions, and impulsive decisions were a good way to die.
I opened my eyes.
The fire was gone. I could barely see a thing. A short distance away, boots groaned against hardwood, kicking past broken logs in the hearth. My finger quivered against the cold steel of the rifle’s trigger, and I desperately wanted to pull it, but I knew that if I did, then it was over. Either the Sleigh Father would die, or I would. The odds, I decided, were not in my favour.
So I waited.
A piece of me, infinitesimally small, wanted to see him, wanted to flick on a light or blindly fire into the darkness. I wanted to witness the monster that possessed my life for so long -- if only for a second. But I didn’t. It’s not worth it, I told myself. It’s not worth it.
The footsteps stalked to the window, dragging something heavy behind them. Against the faint light of the moon, I made out the Sleigh Father’s silhouette. He was tall, inhumanly so. His neck craned forward, pressed against the top of the high cabin ceiling. A cloak was draped across his broad shoulders, and from his head slumped the pom of a stocking cap. Beside him sat a large sack.
“NaUghty oR niCe?” his voice hummed, in discordant melody.
I didn’t reply. It seemed impossible, but a part of me held onto the belief that maybe he wasn’t speaking to me. Maybe he didn’t know I was there. It was just a monologue, perhaps—words for the night.
I raised the rifle, aiming it toward his massive figure. I could do it now, I reasoned. I could pull the trigger and hopefully make this nightmare disappear.
Ho HO hO.
The silhouette turned, its face masked in shadow, save for a single glint of bobbing light. “CaReFuL wiTh tHaT,” it said.
A cold breeze swept across me, and suddenly my fingers burned with agonizing frostbite. My rifle clattered to the floor while my hands trembled in pain. “YoU’ll TaKe yOur eYe OuT.”
“W-what do you want?” I stuttered, stumbling backward. My feet croaked on the floorboards as I came up against the back of the hallway. My heart hammered. Tears filled my visions as I cradled my cold hands against my stomach. “Please,” I whimpered.
“NaUgHty?” he sang. “Or NiCe?”
“N-nice,” I said. “I’m a good man. I just wanted to l-learn about you.” The words stumbled out of my mouth like lemmings falling to their death. “I don’t mean any harm. I swear--”
The footsteps creaked closer, and as they did, the silhouette vanished from the window's moonlight. All that remained of it now was sounds it made. I listened intently to the burdensome echoes of boots on hardwood and the heavy scratching of coarse fabric being dragged across the floor.
ho Ho hO.
He was close. So close. I slammed my eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable, waiting to die. Warm piss spilled down my leg, and my face screwed up as I fell to my knees, bawling on the floor. “Please,” I begged. “I'm a good man! I told you -- please!”
The rumble of footfalls stopped, and in their place came the sound of rustling fabric, like somebody opening a sack.
“NiCe, yOu sAy?”
A dim light formed, radiating out of a burlap bag some five feet away. Behind its glow, I could make out a white, singed beard hanging over a red suit. The Sleigh Father’s face was otherwise indiscernible amidst the suffocating shadow, save for one dancing speck of light.
“WoULd yOu LiKe a GiFt?” he asked.
My mind raced. Was there anything in the mythology that warned against accepting gifts? I couldn’t recall. “Yes,” I hazarded, in a small voice. "Yes, please." It seemed unwise to refuse the creature.
hO ho Ho.
A massive, red-jacketed arm reached into the burlap sack. My eyes widened in horror as I realized the sack was moving. Kicking. Like there was something alive inside of it. Muffled screams followed, and the great arm pulled back, clutching a man by his long, blonde hair. The man thrashed and whimpered. Tears soaked his pale face.
Our eyes connected, mine and the man’s, and something ran through me. It was a feeling I’d never experienced before, a mixture of dark excitement and absolute loathing.
“You,” I said slowly.
The light from the sack was dim, but to the man, it was all he had known. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the heavy darkness of the cabin, and as they did, he peered toward me, eyelids pinched together to discern the voice speaking to him.
“Who’s there?” he whimpered.
I gazed forward in stunned silence. Was this real? There was no way. He dangled in the Sleigh Father's grasp like the finest Christmas present I'd ever seen.
“Hello?” his voice called. “Please, I have resources -- more than you could imagine! I’m a powerful man in government! Just get me the hell out of here, and I’ll give you whatever you want.” His voice turned weak, broken. “Please… please get me out of here. I have a family.”
I opened my mouth, but if words were there, I didn’t speak them. No. It seemed wasteful, at this moment, to reply so thoughtlessly. This moment necessitated careful words and a measured tone. It required my best.
“NauGhtY,” the Sleigh Father hummed. “So, sO NaUgHty.”
I found myself nodding along. Yes, the man was naughty. The worst. He was an abomination, fit for disposal. He’d doubted me -- made a mockery of me, and torn apart the life I’d so carefully built.
“Donovan,” I said, doing my best to keep my voice level. “Donovan Reid, isn't it?”
The light was faint. So faint. In spite of it though, I could see Mr. Reid had finally realized who I was, whether because his eyes had adjusted or he recognized my voice. Perhaps a combination of the two. His expression fell.
“That voice…You used to work for me,” he choked out. “Didn’t you?”
I gazed at him, something horrible growing inside of me. It ate up all of my fear, my regret, my rage and it left only hunger in their wake—a desperate desire for retribution.
“I did.”
​
[X.X]
TCC

Hey everyone,
Unfortunately, I do find myself often struggling to come up with a comprehensive list of elements which I dislike about dogs or dog worship when I am having a discussion. Therefore, I decided to compile of list of elements which I dislike or sentiments which are uttered by others who share a similar disdain/indifference. In that regard, I compiled some items which I have collected from various threads and would like for everyone to contribute if they feel like something is missing.
Update: Added a disclaimer to clarify a few points due to some negative messages.

DISCLAIMER!

Some of these are highly subjective of course and your experience and opinion may differ. Not all of these elements represent my personal feelings. The following list provides an extensive selection of issues which are not necessarily applicable to every dog or owner. Thus, it is inevitable that some generalisations are included due to the broad variety of points. The content is offensive at times and strong adjectives with a negative connotation appear.

Dogs as a pet

The look and smell:

• Dogs are aesthetically not pleasing and generally ugly. Some of course may look majestic but more often than not, they are hideous animals. Actually, some dogs look absolutely atrocious.
• Dogs often convey a feeling of being lost and confused, which is heavily represented in their movement and facial expression. Thus making them look brainless and vacuous. In essence, dead soulless eyes constantly staring at you.
• It is noticeable that dogs do tend to smell unpleasant or outright awful, this scent also often permeates through households in which dogs live. There are many reasons as to why dogs generally smell horrible.
• Often the fur feels extremely greasy.
• Dogs tend to lose a lot of fur and it sticks everywhere. Be it on furniture, clothes or areas which need to be hygienic such as a kitchen or bathroom.
• A lot of dog breeds do slobber everywhere and leave a disgusting trace of their saliva on everything they touch.

​
The behavior:

• Compared to other animals or pets, dogs have a very limited sense of hygiene. They are not naturally inclined to clean themselves compared to other animals (such as hamsters or cats). This results in the awful stench and unpleasant touch of the animal.
• Dogs adore to spread their feces everywhere in order to mark their territory, be it in public spots or at home.
• Dogs primarily use their mouths for every sort of interaction. They eat, greet and interact everything with their mouths. This is unpleasant considering that they also tend to eat feces and other trash, resulting in tons of bacteria and junk their mouth. Still they greet people or other dogs by licking them. Dogs cannot discern between unhygienic or unpleasant items, thus touching everything.
• They are loud animals and tend to bark a lot, it does vary quite a bit but it can be universally accepted that dogs are loud and never cease to emit any sort of noise. Constant noises such as scampering, panting, huffing, licking, snoring, clawing or playing with objects.
• Dogs seem almost unpredictable in their behavior and are after all a natural predator. They reactions are hard to identify as someone who is not familiar with the pet itself. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find the appropriate reaction considering that their behavior tends to vary so much.
• Dogs are clumsy and lack refined movement, thus causing damage to the environment and overall appearing quite dumb.
• Dogs are inherently obnoxious in their behavior, be it in terms of movement or noise. Especially compared to other animals and pets.
• Dogs can be massive in terms of strength and speed, thus posing an actual threat to pets, people or children. They are offspring or designated natural predators and still rely on their instincts after all. Therefore, they can easily hurt people and there are not any meaningful options to stop them except for the application of violence. Even when violence should not be the last resort or encouraged.
• Despite "extensive training" and "education", dogs seem especially hard to really keep under control (or owners are not capable of doing it). These pets can receive a ridiculous amount of training but still seem very unpredictable when confronted with elements that are new or different. Essentially, dog owners have trouble keeping their dog obedient. Even the best trained dogs require additional commands to keep them in check.
• Dogs have not a notion of private space or distance. Most dogs rush off and invade the private space of individuals without any restraint. Going right into your private areas or jumping you. The unwanted touches and physical movement is extremely annoying, unpleasant and insulting. Even if you actively try to undermine such a behavior, they will still try to get your attention in any way possible.
• Dogs tend to swirl around their owners or any person for that matter, for most of the time, still needing attention or constantly disturbing you while you are occupied (there are exceptions of course).
• Dogs are highly dependent animals which solely rely on their master for nutrition and shelter. Most of the time, dogs are absolutely inept to live on their own. This results in the fact that dogs are simply very needful and require a ridiculous amount of attention. The maintenance and care is extremely demanding, dogs never truly learn to adopt more self-preservation approach. Thus solely relying on their owner. They never evolve beyond basic commands or behavior. Inability to be alone or to deal with not being the center of attention.
• Dogs have very limited capabilities and there are no meaningful ways to interact with dogs. Just in very basic and simple ways.
• In addition with the 2 above-mentioned factors, dogs are extremely plain and unintelligent creatures as a whole. Nevertheless, they are being perceived as smart and intelligent (point will be elaborated upon in another section). They will commit the same mistake again and do not learn from past experiences.
• The "charactepersonality" of a dog is boring. It's just a mindless follower with no real realization or progression. Most dogs can simply be put into a category and stay static for all their life. Exempli gratia: "obnoxious and hyperactive", "lazy and boring" and so on.
• Dogs are easily manipulated by offering food and thus very shallow.

​

Dog worship and owners

Dog culture:

• Dogs being icons that are synonymous for loyalty, companionship and trust in western culture. Which is not representative of actual dogs which are mindless, easily manipulated and just generally follow the person who offers food and shelter.
• Dogs being considered as universally "good" animals that have a high sense of morality and thus cannot be subject to criticism.
• Equating dogs to humans when it comes to morality, emotions and cognitive processes.
• Attributing important roles and duties to dogs which have more or less become obsolete in our current times or are simply not applicable in a regular everyday life situation. Such as police dogs, avalanche dogs or hunting dogs. These dogs have a purpose but a generic household has no need for such a dog but still equates the family dog to the standard of service animals.
• The image that dog have always been Men's best friend which is fairly reductive in terms of thinking and perception. Many animals have been in service for human civilization but the dog always gets the spot as being loyal and caring.
• The notion that a dog is the best compliment or addition to the image of a happy family.
• If something is furry, small or clumsy; it is automatically cute. People immediately give in to dogs which appear cute and overlook everything else due to this fact. We all know the example "Aww, look how cute he looks his puppy eyes!"
• The concept that dogs are inviolable of responsibility due to their status in our society, thus condemning everyone who is neutral or has a dislike for dogs. Equating those people to concepts such as "evil" or "bad" without any further research. They have an impenetrable exalted status.
• Every person who is affiliated with dogs in one way or another is automatically deemed as great, caring and of higher moral superiority. This is especially applicable when it comes to dogs compared to other animals.
• All the above-mentioned elements lead to a selective perception where the positive traits of dogs are massively blown out of proportion and the negative aspects are simply neglected or downplayed.
• The sense of entitlement which results from the above-mentioned in dog owners or depiction of dogs as a whole. It leads to vilification of people who do not share the same sentiment (even to a casual extend) and causes a lot of conflicts which are not addressed. Dogs have caused tons of conflicts in the past.
• Many people do fear dogs and the reasons are fairly valid, yet it's reduced to a childish fear with a smirk or is not acknowledged at all. It is a very condescending approach towards people with dog phobias.
• The glorification of dogs in mediums such as movies, books and social medias. I cannot recount how many absolutely dumb and atrocious short clips I've seen about dogs being adopted and care for. People go absolutely nuts over these stories and it's plain dumb.

​
Dog owners/Fur parents/Dog lovers:

• Owners who adopt dogs which they neglect right of the bat due to time or financial limits.
• Owners who adopt dogs which are neglected out of boredom after a while
• Owners who adopt a specific breed of dogs which are not suited to their lifestyle.
• Owners who adopt dogs without having any prior knowledge or experience in keeping dogs. Furthermore, people who do not even bother to research about keeping a dog.
• Owners who adopt dogs as a support animal to treat mental illnesses
• Owners who adopt dogs from various third world countries which can be an extreme liability to the environment and people around.
• Owners who adopt dogs and completely change their nature by treating them like children or in an overly luxurious fashion . For instance, carrying dogs in bags or giving them clothing. Bringing dogs to massage parlors and the like.
• People who attribute the entire spectrum of human emotions and concepts to a dog. Essentially, talking to dogs like humans and applying human relationships to creatures which have a highly limited capability. Owners who "speak" for their dogs and how the dog is supposed to "feel".
• Individuals who believe in mystified concepts about dogs that are taken straight out of some nonsensical beliefs such as:

-Dogs smell you fear
-Dogs can sense your personality
-Dogs are cleaner than humans
-Dogs are utterly loyal and love their owner unconditionally
-Dogs are protector and guardians

• Everyone who equates dogs equally as important as humans and also on the same level.
• A person who believes that dogs have real rights and are "people" with full cognitive, moral and sensible capabilities.
• Putting dog ownership on the same level as being a real parent, equating the amount of responsibility for both situations.
• Owners who desperately try to keep their dogs alive despite old age, sickness or major wounds. At times, putting a dog to rest is a wiser decision instead of clinging on to the life of an animal that is barely capable to live.
• Owners who prefer to have a sort of slave/master relationship, craving unconditional love from an animal that has limited cognitive processes knowing that perhaps that this animal is the only way to deal with social issues or behavioral problems.
• Owners with an incredible sense of entitlement and who believe that society should accommodate to the needs of their dogs without really reflecting as to why it might not be correct. Many dog owners have very selfish and narcistic tendencies which are reflected on a lot of factors such as these:

-Not putting dogs on a leash and thinking they can roam wherever they please. Dogs need to be put on a leash and are not suited for every environment.
-Owners who take their dog with them to every location even if this is prohibited or unhygienic.
-Branding people as sociopaths and emotionless for not liking their dogs or dogs in general.
- Dog lovers who think that the life of their dog is more important than everything and everyone else.
-Owners expect everyone to like their dogs or perceive it as the "best boy" compared to others
-Prioritizing "dog rights" over any other sort of right.

• Owners who center all their discussions around their dogs and dog culture in general. Everyone has been in that situation where a person could just not shut the fuck up about their dog and even if it's obvious that you have no interest. The person still thinks that you should display any sort of excitement of their pet.
• Owners who have to suddenly rearrange their entire lives around the dog and the expectation that others do the same. Such as interior design or schedules.
• Owners who hijack every discussion or conversation with their dog, trying to impose their pet on everyone else even if it's not relevant to the situation. (I follow a group on social media about beautiful landscapes of my home country, probably half of the submissions are blurry pics of dogs sitting in grass.)
• Owners who create social media accounts of their dogs and seriously think that it would be that interesting to anyone, seeing another generic dog in the same kind of pictures that we have seen a million times.
• Relationship problems which occur due to a difference in pet preference, I cannot recount how many times I have received negative feedback for expressing my feelings in a polite way regarding dogs.
• Massive failure to realize that the behavior of a dog may be insanitary, annoying or offensive to a person
• The fanaticism and sheer will to defend dogs as blindly as possible when a dog is depicted in a negative light. For instance during dog attacks (plenty of examples in this sub-reddit as well). I can barely recount how many times I have seen dog owners blaming everything and everyone else instead of the dog who caused damage
• Owners who blame every external factor for their own failure or the failure of the dog in case of damage which might have occurred during an incident.
• Owners who actively downplay, ignore or laugh about the awful behavior of their dog towards strangers. How many times have people excused the behavior with nonsensical arguments? How many times were you in an awful situation with a dog and was just deemed as "funny", "cute" or "harmless" by the owner?
• Let dogs run free in parks and public places, thus resulting in dogs annoying everyone. Additionally, this is a major safety hazard when it comes to roads and traffic.
• The fact that incidents where dogs are harmed, dogs always get a pass for everything, even if that said incident was caused by the dog in the first place.

Miscellaneous

• Dogs have been bred and mutated for decades in order to create specific desirable character traits or look. This is a huge hypocrisy considering that some dogs are genetically modified to an extend where it is damaging the dog itself or you get insane mentally psyched dogs. It is absolutely unnatural and horrible, as a general concept and for dogs.
• There are dogs breeds which are inherently more aggressive and violent as depicted on our chart in this sub-reddit FAQ thread. Breeds such as Pitbulls should not be bred nor be accessible for the public. These breeds are serious threat for people as seen by the countless incidents.
• People are allergic to dogs and can have severe reactions which are harmful for their health.
• Dogs wreak havoc upon local ecosystems by hunting animals and destroying plants and wildlife.
• Dog littering is a serious issue in cities and many other places. Dog feces can be found anywhere and it's rare to see a dog owner taking responsibility for it. Many parks are covered in shit and the consequences are miniscule.

​
Anyway, I tried to keep them as tight as possible and not include to many examples because I would probably never finish.
On a personal note, I am just tired of it. I had plenty of awful experiences in my life despite having an open mindset and trying to make dogs my friends. Either way, it always resulted in bullshit that I cannot stand for, then I get antagonized for disliking dog. Just sick of this crap.

"We'll want to minimize the amount of our tech they can get their hands on before full capitulation," Intelligence Officer Rouel noted. "To go from undetectable from a distance to an orbital communications relay network in only five hundred years suggests a remarkably high innovation score."
​
Admiral Crassock flicked an ear tuft and nodded. "The less we give them to reverse engineer, the less we'll bleed. Are there any other warning flags?"
​
"No, sir," Rouel answered. "They launch their satellites with chemical rockets. Even first generation counter-grav is more cost effective, so we can reasonably assume they don't have it. Since you can't do FTL R&D on a planet's surface without destroying it, no counter-grav means no FTL, which means no reinforcements. A separatist colony would have retained enough tech for an outward facing system defense network; a penal colony would have an inward facing one. Since this system has neither, this must be this species's homeworld."
​
"Has there been any change in the habitability report since the original survey?" the admiral asked. CRX-4 sat right in the sweet spot of the habitability assessment, with most of its landmass in the subtropical zones, but enough temperate and arctic real estate to ensure that over 90% of galactic species could live there with only adornment grade protective clothing. Only a handful of the most extreme outlier species would need more than class three environmental gear to survive somewhere on the planet. The only reason no one had snapped it up when it was first discovered was that its location was simply too remote to be practical. But borders had expanded in the intervening centuries, and now the Wingover Heromancy was close enough to claim the planet and defend that claim against any contenders.
​
"Surprisingly little," the intelligence officer answered. "They must have had their industrial revolution at an atypically low population benchmark, and learned how to clean up after themselves fairly quickly. Another indication that they have an abnormally high innovation score."
​
"What about their physiology?" Admiral Crassock asked. "It won't constrain their combat effectiveness as much as it would for a less innovative species, but it must still influence their tactics."
​
Intelligence Officer Rouel nodded. "Here, we have visuals on them." He flicked a command to the display, but then began reading off the data anyway. "Mammalian bipeds, hair sparse except on the top of the head and a few other locations that vary by individual. Moderate sexual dimorphism--subtle but enough to render co-ed sports competitions impractical for any but strictly recreational purposes. Very conflicting reports on strength and stamina, suggesting that they have a use-it-or-lose-it physiology. Atypically high resting metabolic rates, even for endotherms."
​
"Meaning that a middle of the sleep cycle surprise attack will have to be perfectly executed in order to retain the advantages of a surprise attack?" the admiral interjected.
​
"Precisely," Rouel answered. "Viviparous with a gestational period of nearly a year and roughly two decades to maturity. Birthrate appears to inversely correlate with wealth, which suggests a lack of innate control over their reproduction. It's difficult to determine their typical lifespan--hereditary and environmental factors apparently can alter it by as much as 50%; the current primary suppression of their life expectancy appears to come from a tendency toward extreme recklessness in their adolescent males."
​
"That will make ground combat...interesting..." Admiral Crossack said. "I think i'll tell the training officers to put their most creative minds on designing the practice scenarios for the ground units."
​
"With a combination of innovative and reckless, i'd suggest putting the truly diabolical minds on the air unit training scenarios," Captain Hussend said, his reptilian muzzle parting in a grin of malicious glee.
​
"Looking for an excuse to pull out that black box scenario?" Admiral Crossack asked the captain of his fleet's contingent of planetary troops. Returning his attention to the intelligence officer he asked, "Do we have to worry about attempted MAD?"
​
"FTL research is noisy enough that we'd detect it long before they managed to weaponize it." Rouel answered. "As much easier as that is than using it for travel, it's still far from easy. They do have fission reactors providing some of their power. There's no evidence that they ever tried to weaponize that technology, however; we'd see fallout scars if they'd done any testing. I'd still recommend seizing those nuclear power plants and any fuel processing facilities as quickly as possible."
​
Admiral Crossack nodded. "Unless you find something else before we arrive within targeting range of the planet, i think we'll remain in stealth mode until we're in position to take out all of their satellites simultaneously. Their ground based sensors should be sufficient for them to realize we have orbital superiority. If that isn't enough to make them surrender, it will be Captain Hussend's turn to call the shots. Do we know what they call themselves? If we're going to demand that they surrender sovereignty of their home planet, we can at least do them the courtesy of using their name for it."
​
"They call themselves 'humans'," Intelligence Officer Rouel answered. "The planet they call Ferrari. Oddly, it's the same in all twelve of their languages; perhaps it was inherited from some archaic language that is no longer used."
​
---------------------------------------
​
The initial attack went off perfectly. All of the satellites around Ferrari disintegrated within a few seconds of one another, with no wasted shots from the WHN ships. Almost as soon as they realized that all of their satellite communications were down, the humans began evacuating their civilians toward a series of massive underground bunkers.
​
"I can't tell if that's an overpowered communications laser, or a weapons test modulated to carry data to give them plausible deniability if it fails," the Communications Officer reported when the humans finally replied to the Wingover Heromancy's surrender demands.
​
"Retaliation will make them assume their weapons are strong enough to damage our ships," Captain Hussend predicted.
​
Intelligence Officer Rouel concurred. "My recommendation would be to politely ask them to dial back the power on that laser as it's clearly intended for communication over much longer distances. Imply that it's merely signal degradation due to overexposure, not anything that threatens to actually damage our receiver."
​
Admiral Crossack considered the suggestion for a few moments and then told the communications officer, "Do it."
​
After some negotiation with the humans over optimal signal strength, the transmission settled on the image of a human in what appeared to be their civilian formal wear. "President Chen, of the Faction Arbitration Council," the human identified himself. "Since you're asking for our surrender rather than simply glassing the planet, you must want it intact, which means you're going to have to come down here and take it. It would be easier to negotiate a land for tech swap--except that none of us has the authority to order everyone else to stand down. You'd have to negotiate with each faction separately if you want the whole planet. And since you opened with an attack, even if it was just on infrastructure and not personnel, rather than a diplomatic contact, half of them are going to insist that you're nothing but thieves and bullies, no matter how big an empire you might happen to have behind you.
​
"The short version," President Chen continued. "If you want this planet, you're going to have to come down here and take it."
​
"If we refrain from firing on your evacuating civilians, will you refrain from salting the Ferrari?" Admiral Crossack asked.
​
"Salting the--?" the human President's forehead wrinkled as he tried to puzzle out the phrase. "You mean, 'salting the earth'?"
​
"Isn't that what i said?" Admiral Crossack asked. "I understand that the connotations of synonymous words can vary, but the denotation should be similar enough for understanding. And every terrestrial species calls their planet some cognate of Fertile Soil or Solid Ground. It requires relatively advanced astronomical knowledge to realize that the planet beneath one's feet has anything in common with the wandering stars in the night sky, after all."
​
The human's eyes widened, and then his face went curiously blank. He just figured something out, and he's weighing the tactical considerations against the strategic ones, Rouel guessed silently.
​
"We won't start an atrocity contest as long as you don't," President Chen said. "Not all of our cultures agree on what does and what does not constitute war crimes, but as long as you refrain from targeting civilians and don't use biological or chemical weapons, they should all remain within the parameters of what most warriors consider an acceptable level of occupational hazard."
​
"What's the most common opinion on eating your kills?" Captain Hussend asked, displaying his mouthful of large reptilian teeth.
​
"In extremis only," President Chen answered. "There are a few superstitions that hold that eating hearts or certain other organs can be a way to appropriate your enemy's virtues, but far more of us regard it as a way of declaring your enemy to be an animal rather than a person. Cannibalism as a last ditch alternative to death by starvation will generally be overlooked, but ritual practice is not tolerated."
​
Captain Hussend nodded. "That is a common consensus among most polities and species as well. I suppose that any trophy taking would best be justifiable as preserving DNA samples to determine who is dead and who is missing once the war ends?"
​
"Oh, the nerds are going to love you," President Chen muttered. "Is there anything else we need to discuss, or is it time for you to either reconsider your invasion or else 'bring it on'?"
​
"My troops are already dropping," Captain Hussend answered with another toothy grin.
​
---------------------------------
​
"Woah, hey, there's no need to get nasty," Pedro said as his eyes locked onto the tray of surgical implements. "I'm a civilian. I've got no reason not to spill the beans."
​
"Civilian," the mantis looking interrogator scoffed. "You killed at least forty of our soldiers, and crippled over a dozen more."
​
"I'm just a guy trying to defend his home. If your people had just obeyed the 'no trespassing' signs, nobody would have died," Pedro responded.
​
"In any case, it's your medical condition that's responsible for any nastiness," the interrogator informed the human captive. "The squad that dug you out from under that landslide thought they were recovering a corpse for autopsy. Growing replacement organs for your ruptured ones was straightforward enough, but your species is violently allergic to all of our existing bone glue formulations, so your broken bones are going to have to heal the slow way. I'm told that broken ribs are even more painful than a fractured thoracic plate."
​
"Convenient," Pedro said. "You get to dose me with enough painkillers to keep me from guarding my tongue and still claim you're just trying to help me."
​
"Quite convenient," the interrogator agreed. "Also a useful argument against those who claim that compassion is nothing but a waste of resources. May i have your full name for the next exchange of survival records?"
​
"Pedro Fook. I'm seriously tempted to give you the correct spelling instead of the one English speakers will pronounce correctly, but i'm too tired for that game."
​
The interrogator paused to listen to what the linguist was telling him through his earpiece and then clacked in amusement. "Very droll. I can accept that a civilian would have sufficient motive for attacking our troops, but i find your effectiveness implausible."
​
Pedro answered, "Why? Hunting the free-range livestock gets us kill training. Paintball games give us tactical training against opponents as smart and creative as we are. Wilderness hiking and camping gets us survival training. And VR lets us familiarize ourselves with the stuff that would be too dangerous to do for real."
​
"But how are you coordinating your attacks?" the interrogator asked.
​
"We aren't," Pedro answered. "We're spread out enough that we aren't likely to get in each other's ways; and we all grew up reading the same books, watching the same movies, and playing the same games, so we all have fairly similar ideas as to what tactics are likely to work in what situations. We don't need to win, we just have to keep harassing your people enough to prove we haven't abandoned our claim until the military gets here. If you had a prior claim, you should have planted a flag or left a beacon in orbit or something, so we'd have known we needed to negotiate instead of just moving in."
​
"Habitable planets are far to precious to be left in the hands of those who can't defend them," the interrogator replied. "There are a few interstellar species so xenophobic that they will glass a planet that someone else beat them to. If you can't keep us from taking it when we want to preserve it, you'd have no hope of keeping them from destroying it."
​
"You still could have tried negotiating first and attacking second," Pedro replied angrily. "Counter-gravity tech would be well worth sharing a planet over. Possibly even giving one up if we could have come to an arrangement regarding the people who have put down roots too deep to be willing to move to a different one. Too late for that now, though."
​
"You have no FTL," the interrogator said. "How would you leave, and how could you have come here from somewhere else."
​
"Why do you think we--ohhhhhh..." Pedro suddenly realized, "You never did solve the energy discharge from getting it almost right problem. You had counter-grav, you could just do your research and development in deep space where failures wouldn't destroy your planet. We had to focus on miniaturization instead, so the energy release was small enough to contain, until we could consistently get it right. Then we scaled back up until we had something suitable for a mass transit system. By the way, the emergency evacuation portals can be weaponized, so i'd advise against backing us into any corners. And our home planet isn't on this network, so even if you manage to capture a control unit intact, you can't get all of us!"
​
"Do you know where it is, in spatial terms?" the interrogator asked.
​
Pedro started to shrug and them stopped when his ribs objected. "Galaxy cluster on the other side of the Great Attractor from here, if i remember correctly. We've got at least a hundred planets scattered across a dozen different galaxies, as best the astronomers can tell. There's one that's suspected of not even being in the same universe."
​
"What does Ferrari translate as," the interrogator asked.
​
"Did anyone notice that paved track with the freestanding garage near my house?" Pedro responded. "That car in there, that's a Ferrari."
​
The translator listened to something on his earpiece and then said, "Four-wheeled ground vehicle, internal combustion engine--used for recreational racing?" Getting a nod from Pedro he went on, "The car is named after the planet?"
​
"No," Pedro answered. "The planet was named after the car; the car is named after the guy who founded the company that originally manufactured it. No clue what the etymology on his family name is."
​
"I see," the interrogator said. His insect-like anatomy and stridulatory vocal apparatus didn't prevent him from being noticeably disturbed by what he'd learned.
​
-------------------------------------
​
"But everyone calls their planet 'Dirt'," Admiral Crossack objected once he finished watching the recording of the interview.
​
"But they're not from here," Captain Hussend said. "It would have been obvious, except their method of getting here flies in the face of everything we know about FTL tech. We've got enough seismic surveys now to know those bunkers are nowhere near big enough to hold everyone who went into them. Not even with true stasis tech or physiology that would allow for adult cryofreeze. Can't swear on the former, but we know they don't have the latter."
​
"A pity this Pedro never studied enough physics to explain how their portals work. He can tell us what they do, but not why," Intelligence Officer Rouel said. "They probably sent anyone who did have that knowledge home in the first wave of evacuations. A pity we didn't know to stop them."
​
Captain Hussend disagreed. "Just as well we didn't. If that portal tech really does have the same energy discharge problem as conventional FTL, they have at least planetary, and possibly system scale, MAD. Firing on evacuees would have been a disaster."
​
"And Pedro thinks they've sent enough shuttle parts through that portal for them to reverse engineer the counter-gravity tech," Admiral Crossack said glumly. "Doesn't know enough to guess how long that will take, or which direction they'll try to hit us from once they have it. I suppose i can't really blame him for not bothering to study astrography with the way their portal network ignores physical distance, but it's blasted inconvenient for us."
​
"And President Chen still insists that negotiation is impossible until their military arrives in force--no one currently on planet has the authority or the firepower to force all factions to abide by any agreement," Rouel noted, equally glum. "We need to crack one of those bunkers open, see what's in there."
​
"Already in planning," Captain Hussend said. "And i just ordered it moved to the top of the priority list."
​
That was when the bunkers in question exploded. A number of blunt conical projectiles erupted from each site, propelled by an unholy mixture of chemical rockets and conter-grav.
​
"Those missiles have shields," one of the point defense sensor techs reported.
​
Captain Hussend's pupils went to full dilation and he lunged for the fleet wide communication toggle. "All personnel, stand by to repel boarders. Projectile loadout, not concussion."
​
Admiral Crossack stared at the captain in consternation. "That firefight is going to be a nightmare for damage control."
​
"If they can survive that kind of acceleration," Hussend waved a hand at the display that was tracking the missiles' progress, "and be able to fight afterwards, then while concussion injuries may still be a nightmare for the survivors' nearest and dearest to deal with, they won't do us any good."
​
"Notify me as soon as all of these presumed boarding missiles have either docked or been destroyed," Admiral Crossack told the sensor officer sorrowfully. Then he turned to the main console and began reciting a lengthy series of authorization codes, concluding with, "Assimilator boarding protocol to standby."
​
"You think they're that dangerous, sir?" one of the other ship commanders asked on a private channel.
​
"MAD only works if it truly is mutual," Admiral Crossack explained. "We don't know how many planets these humans have or where they are; we cannot allow them to have that information about ours. A species that scores as high as this one for both aggression and innovation is not something we want to have to fight a defensive war against."
​
Even with the deranged acceleration produced by the hybrid drive systems, it was several long minutes before the boarding missiles began impacting against the orbiting ships. The smaller, faster ships had been sent racing away from Ferrari. Half of them immediately headed to various WHN stations to relay the information acquired so far; half of them loitered on the fringes of the system to see how events played out. The larger ships, however, needed too much time to bring their main engines up to full thrust to escape the attack via distance.
​
The human soldiers from the last of the boarding missiles to arrive were greeted by an automated sounding, "Assimilation boarding protocol activated. Detection of any breaching charge will activate the self-destruct on all WHN ships within one astronomical unit."
​
"What did we do that spooked them that bad?" a human from a different boarding party wondered.
​
"If that translated correctly," the squads senior member answered, "they're using a protocol intended for somebody else. Still, we must have spooked them at least a little to go with one that all-or-nothing."
​
"I'm getting painted with a sensor laser," a third man reported. "Can they eavesdrop on us without cracking the radio encryption?"
​
Admiral Crossack figured it was time to offer his proposal. "If you refrain from penetrating any further into our ships, we will withdraw to the fringes of this system until we can negotiate terms for retrieving our planet-side personnel as well as your own return. We will also order our ground troops to return to and remain in the currently existing fortified positions for so long as there are no attacks on those positions. Is this cease fire acceptable?"
​
"You will refrain from attacking the positions we currently hold?" one of the human boarders asked.
​
"We will," Admiral Crossack answered.
​
"Terms accepted."
​
-----------------------------------
​
Negotiations went as well as could be expected when the humans were reluctant to allow enough Heromancy shuttles near the planet to lift all of their personnel at once and the WHN officers were reluctant to leave a contingent of the size they could lift at one time on the planet alone. The boarding parties, in contrast, had been returned as soon as the humans could satisfy themselves that the shuttle was not booby trapped--neither they nor the WHN was happy about the active self-destruct contingency.
​
Eventually a compromise was reached in which the last of the Heromancy bases on Ferrari was to be converted into an embassy. It wouldn't actually attain that status under Heromancy law until the Council of Winglords formally recognized at least one of the human governments, and required a Winglord's presence to attain at least consulate status--but nothing prevented the humans from granting it formal diplomatic recognition in the meanwhile.
​
President Chen and Admiral Crossack sat facing each other in one of the lounges of the future embassy. "Exactly how much authority do you have to negotiate?" President Chen asked.
​
"Officially, none," Crossack answered. "Treaties must be ratified by the council and negotiated by a Winglord. Unofficially, i should be able to give you reliable guidance as to what terms will be acceptable and what will not. How much of a courtship dance will be required to get those terms accepted, i can't guess until i know which Winglord will be conducting the official negotiations."
​
"Seems strange to give you the authority to start a war, but not to finish it," Chen observed.
​
"Ordinarily," Crossack explained, "a Winglord would have been dispatched as soon as we realized the situation was anomalous. However, they happen to be in the middle of the once a decade Grand Conclave, the one time when Winglords whose disputes cannot be reconciled by legal means are permitted to seek normally illegal forms of redress. Any Winglord not participating still wants to be there to keep an eye on those who are."
​
"Normally illegal...such as dueling?" Chen guessed.
​
"Precisely. I was able to attend the last Conclave, and the preparation rituals, intended to preclude cheating, are so humiliating that it can be safely assumed that the participants were not going to be satisfied by anything less than blood." Crossack added, "Technically it's not limited to Winglords, but the requirements for ordinary citizens to challenge anyone are much more stringent. The conventional wisdom is that the less one has to lose, the less likely one is to be deterred by death and dishonor."
​
"Hmm, i suppose i can see the logic in that." A communication device pinged, and President Chen looked at the display. "What is a Voice, among your people?"
​
Admiral Crossack's ear tufts straightened. Finally, for good or for ill, he would know what was to be. "Both a courier and a seal of authentication. They make no decisions, but they speak with the authority of the full Council of Winglords. They are generally superlative specimens of species that have powers of persuasion or coercion, which is another reason they are so rigorously trained to be bearers of law only and never lawgivers."
​
"I see," Chen said slowly. "If she's coming with an arrest warrant, like you were speculating about a few days ago, we're willing to offer you asylum."
​
"I find exile more unpalatable than death and dishonor combined, but i am honored by your willingness to have me," Admiral Crossack said. "I am a bit puzzled by it, however. I was the one who ordered the attack on your world, after all."
​
President Chen shrugged. "You only fought with those who wanted to fight, and the conter-grav tech we captured is more than adequate compensation for the infrastructure damage. And the special ops teams that boarded your ships were flattered by the fact that you felt you had to pull out your worst case scenario contingency to stop them. The penultimate contingency apparently wasn't good enough. Er, i hope that was your worst case contingency."
​
"Worst case for contingency triggers," Crossack agreed. "There's self-destruct every ship in the system now, and trigger a system sterilizing solar flare, but those are direct triggers, and the latter is for scenarios that so far remain purely hypothetical. And the problem was that your people only needed to capture one ship, while i had to keep every single one out of their hands."
​
"Your people haven't figured out that the counter to a gray goo scenario is to build nannites that eat nannites?" Chen asked rhetorically. "What are the Assimilators, anyway?"
​
"The reason we don't do implanted technology unless there's no viable alternative medically and keep augmented reality to the absolute minimum needed for non-lethal training," Crossack said. "As best anyone has been able to tell, the Assimilators started as a faction in a VR role playing game. Somewhere along the line the species that originally created the game switched from external device full immersion VR to cyborg tech augmented reality and the players started LARPing. Sometime after that, they stopped their practice of only cyborg modding volunteers who wanted to join their club and started modding anyone they could catch."
​
Crossack grimaced and continued, "As long as they needed a full surgical suite to perform the modifications, they were strictly a law enforcement problem. Unfortunately, before the last of them could be hunted down, they got their hands on some kind of replicant nano-tech that lets them infiltrate a neural link into a person without that person's knowledge."
​
"There's no such thing as a person with a direct brain-computer interface who isn't one of these Assimilators," Chen asked for clarification.
​
"No," Crossack sighed. "Any network they manage to link into, any person directly connected to that network immediately gets converted. How they do it, we're not sure; the leading hypothesis is that they've managed to create a computer-based intelligence with persuasive or coercive powers of a type and power that require a person to either take the Voice's Oath or else accept lifetime quarantine. But we just don't know. The good news is that as long as you keep your tech at arms length, it's perfectly safe, or at least they can't do anything that a conventional hacker couldn't. But it does mean that we can't infiltrate their network to figure out what in the seven blue perditions is going on with them. There are some aspects of a neural link that an external interface just can't mimic."
​
"That could be a problem," President Chen said. "Thankfully, we can't run cable through a portal--it gets cut anytime there's a power blip--but we've got way too many people with medical implants. Your people don't happen to know how to repair spinal cord injuries, do they?"
​
"Some species yes, others no," Crossack answered. "In our efforts to provide medical care to POWs of your species, we found that the treatment had to be provided immediately to be effective, and that which treatment protocol would work varied by both the cause of the damage and idiosyncratic factors. We had to guess right on the first try for treatment to work."
​
"Figures," Chen said. "Any vaccine for their nannite infiltrators?"
​
"A vaccine...for nannites?" Crossack asked in surprise.
​
"Why not?" Chen asked. "Any sufficiently advanced nano-tech is indistinguishable from biology; so why not borrow a page from the bio-control handbook?"
​
"I don't believe there's any such thing," Crossack answered slowly. "Many species can induce sufficient sensitivity to trigger a lethal allergic reaction, but that means walking around with a lethal allergy to many common structural and medical materials."
​
"That would be problematic," Chen agreed. "I need to pass this information about the Assimilators along as quickly as possible. Excuse me for a few minutes."
​
"Of course," Admiral Crossack said. Once President Chen had left the room he stood and began pacing. Curiously, knowing that a Voice was en route and that he would not have to wait much longer to have his hopes and fears regarding his future resolved was making the delay harder rather than easier to endure. After a few laps of failed attempts to resign himself to further waiting, he went to the door and asked the officer guarding it to find out how soon the Voice was expected to arrive.
​
"The Voice's shuttle has landed and the humans are trying to figure out what size and type of escort is appropriate to her rank," the officer reported. Then he blinked and flicked his tail in confusion. "Sir, a Voice is her own escort, isn't she?"
​
"The humans don't know that. A Voice speaks with the authority of the full Council of Winglords, but the humans have no official relationship to the Wingover Hegemony until the Voice delivers her words--assuming she has been given words to that effect."
​
"Precisely, Winglord Crossack."
​
Crossack turned to face the new arrival. The female was tall and so ethereally slender that she was nearly translucent. "Voice Laurelliana," Admiral Winglord Crossack said, having met this particular Voice before. He started to bow, but then the implications of her greeting caught up to him and his ear tufts straightened so hard they nearly snapped. "Wait, what--?"
​
"For recognizing that the impossible was possible in time to avert disaster, for valuing the welfare of the Heromancy above your own pride, for a lifetime of exemplary service, you have been granted the title of Winglord and a seat on the counsel."
​
Admiral Winglord Crossack needed some time to reply as he first had to persuade his throat to stop trying to swallow itself. At last he said, "I am well aware of how badly things could have gone if i had been any slower to admit that the humans must have some other, unknown means of bridging the distance between worlds--but i would have thought that barely enough to buy me an honorable retirement, given that i lost a war i chose to initiate. Then too, i would never have arrived at that understanding so quickly without Captain Hessend and Intelligence Officer Rouel, and their many subordinates who had the wisdom to recognize which reports required immediate attention."
​
"You followed standard procedure to the letter until it was made clear that you were not dealing with the kind of situation which that procedure was intended to cover. You therefore cannot be faulted for initiating the conflict. You were also able to admit that the inconceivable had occurred. To not only be able to stretch your thinking to accommodate what was previously unknown and unimagined, but to do so in time to keep defeat from becoming disaster--this is a capacity much needed in a Winglord, and rarest to find. Many prepare for the impossible; but how can anyone prepare for what he cannot imagine?"
​
Crossack nodded, conceding the point, and the Voice continued, "Many admirals find it almost physically painful to yield overall command to the captain of their ground forces and be relegated to providing fire support. Many of those who have no difficulty yielding command are reluctant to reclaim it when the priority returns to space-side operations, preferring to avoid responsibility. But you have never shown any hesitation in either direction, preferring to let the responsibility rest where it can best be fulfilled."
​
Crossacck shifted and flicked an ear tuft and said, "It helps that i trust Captain Hessend's judgement."
​
"And you never once have tried to claim the credit for your subordinate's efforts," Voice Laurelliana smiled at Crossack.
​
"Eh, stolen honor is not," Crossack replied.
​
"Many say it," the Voice said. "Few live it. The appropriate commendations for those you cited credited with identifying the anomalies here have already been issued. The Vaerins claim to have solved the regeneration resistance problem in draeliks; if Hero Hessend chooses to risk the as yet inadequately tested treatment, the Council will cover his expenses."
​
Hero fits a lot better on him than Winglord sits on me, Crossack thought. "I can't predict whether Hero Hessend will take that offer. He keeps his own counsel when it comes to his injuries."
​
"Is something wrong?" Voice Laurelliana asked President Chen, who'd returned partway through her conversation with Crossack and had been staring at her ever since.
​
"You look much like the description of some of our more insidious legends," Chen told her bluntly. "As unlikely as it is to be anything other than coincidence, it is still difficult to keep the resemblance from inducing significant levels of paranoia."
​
"At least you prefer to lance the boil at once rather than dance around the issue while it festers ever deeper," Laurelliana said, dropping her gaze to indicate that she was speaking as herself and not as a Voice. "Long and long ago, or so it is said, while we were still planet-bound, mine and certain of the other will-bending species dealt with those who abused their powers by exiling them to another world. Your portal network suggests that this is not so impossible as we had thought. If your species has suffered from predation by one of our outcasts, i wouldn't blame you for being paranoid where my kind is concerned."
​
"The conspiracy nuts are going to have fun when they hear that," Chen said with a sigh.
​
Voice Laurelliana lifted her head again. "The council wishes to extend formal diplomatic recognition to your people, but we are suffering from some confusion as to which entity we should be extending that recognition to. Some clarification as to your political structure is needed."
​
"Ah," President Chen said. "I can see how it might. Each of the factions on this planet is considered a sovereign nation, although they're a bit more easy-going about their borders than was, or for that matter still is, customary back on earth. The Faction Arbitration Council is precisely what the name says, a neutral forum in which the factions can hash out their differences and save face by accepting a compromise suggested by a neutral party instead of their opponent. We have no real authority, but we do provide a place where you can address all of the factions at once."
​
"It sounds as though you have all of the responsibility of a Winglord, and none of the power," Voice Laurelliana said.
​
Chen shrugged. "I may only have the authority of a debate moderator, but most of the time that's all i need. As for the times when it is not sufficient, well, the prospect of imminent destruction tends to have a remarkably clarifying effect on everyone's priorities."
​
"I suppose it would," the Voice said. "Whose military did you call in?"
​
"The Liberation Hegemony doesn't claim sovereignty over any but it's native States, but they do provide military protection and economic assistance to anyone who abides by what they regard as the minimum standard of human rights. Which usually works out in practice to 'you can have whatever laws you want as long as you make it easy for people who don't like your laws to leave'. Which is why you never see a planet on the Hegemony network with fewer than seven factions--easy to leave requires that there be a compatible place for you to go."
​
"So we can treat with your Faction Arbitration Counsel as a planetary power, and this Liberation Hegemony as a regional one?" Voice Laurelliana asked, and then added "--to the extent that that's a coherent concept with the way your portal network allegedly ignores distance."
​
"Yes," President Chen said. "There's also the Golden Bureaucracy Bloc. Don't buy anything from them without reading the fine print, and never take out a loan from them. The only reason they aren't ruling us all is that the Hegemony is perfectly willing to apply Alexander's solution to Gordian red tape."
​
"Cultural reference," the Voice said. "Not clear from context."
​
"Sorry," President Chen replied. "Gordias was some guy who tied a really complicated knot and said that the man who untied it would rule the world. Alexander came by a while later, looked it over, and used his sword to cut it apart. After he went on to conquer a larger chunk of the world in less time than anyone before him, the locals where Grodias left the knot decided that this counted as 'untying' it."
​
"So keep it simple, and in good faith, when dealing with the Hegemony, because you never know what they might decide is underhanded enough to void the contract?" Crossack guessed.
​
"This system of yours...works?" the Voice asked uncertainly.
​
"As well as anything else we've tried," Chen answered. "Mostly due to the fact that most of us have gotten too lazy to want to bother proving that we could run other people's lives better than they can. MAD helps keep the peace, too, of course. Although, the fact that exile is always an option does tend to leave people favoring lethal forms of self-defense."
​
"Now that would explain a lot," Winglord Crossack said. "I should go mention that detail to Hero Hessend--he's a bit sore over the fact that it was your civilians bleeding his men so hard."

One of the relatively common questions I see on here is how the Astronomicon allows Navigators to navigate, since it is only a single point. This misunderstands how the Astronomicon works, and how Navigators navigate. I’ve put together a short summary, and then a bunch of excerpts, that hopefully support what I’m saying. This might go over one post, and if so, I’ll keep going with excerpts in the comments!
I’ve bolded the most relevant sentences. I’ve tried to take excerpts from as many different games set in the 41st millennium as possible. I’d also love to collect up more excerpts!

1. The Astronomicon

Most people think of this like a lighthouse, or the North Star, giving a single point in space. But it actually contains two pieces of information - positions and distance, i.e. a Navigator knows where Terra is, and how far away it is. The ‘strength’ of the Astronomicon determines how accurate these two pieces of information are.

1. Their own position

Since the Navigators know where they start off, they can place themselves at an exact position in a sphere around the Astronomicon. This gives them two positions in space (their own and Terra) and the distance between them (from the Astronomicon).

1. Warp Charts

Assuming the Navigator knows where they wish to go, they can then use warp charts. Presumably, these contain information about the Astronomicon’s direction and distance at known positions (e.g. certain systems).
Now they know where they are, where they wish to go, and what the position and distance of the Astronomicon are at these two positions. However, given the vagaries of the warp, they also make use of several other things.

1. Dropping back into real space

This is the simplest method - dropping back into real space, getting their new position, and seeing if it matches where they expected to be, and recalculating their route. They can do this again and again, each time getting their new position distance and direction from the Astronomicon. One of the things that differentiates skilled from unskilled Navigators is how often they have to do this.
5.Astropathic beacons / guidance markers / relays
There are Astropathic beacons for high traffic shipping lanes. We don’t know much about these, but they are mentioned in several sources. These are much weaker than the Astronomicon but give local positions in space.
I hypothesise that these are synonymous with Astropathic relays (i.e. that the Navigators can detect the high volume of warp communication ‘traffic’), but I don’t have much to support this.

1. Warp ‘landmarks’

There are certain landmarks in the warp, such as particularly large warp storms. These are supported by the fact that ‘warp charts’ exist, implying that a (relatively) fixed map can be made, at least temporarily. We also know that these charts show ‘calm’ or ‘rough’ tides in the warp, and that Navigators can sense these. It also seems that that Navigators can sense the presence of stars, and this may also help (e.g. I need to pass three star systems before dropping out of the warp).

1. Warp gates

Ancient, and possibly xenos technology, these are linked positions in the warp that allow much easier travel between them.

A skilled Navigator can steer a ship anywhere through the warp, in theory at least. However, this task can be made much easier, and even allow vessels without a Navigator to make longer warp jumps, along certain shipping routes. These routes have a relay of Astropathic beacons along them, giving ships’ captains and Navigators guidance along a pre-set path. Some shipping routes are part of a system of warp gates which link areas of the Gothic Sector together through stabilised warp tunnels. During the Gothic War, as the warp storms made travel through any area of space around the region extremely difficult, the control of the shipping routes became vital. Important meeting points of the trade routes, such as Port Maw and the Lysades sub-sector, were the site of several major fleet battles, as whoever dominated these areas could move their ships around the sector much more quickly and with greater accuracy.

Battlefleet Gothic core rulebook, page 155

It is possible for a ship to make short warp jumps of about four to five light years with a certain degree of accuracy. However, over longer distances it is necessary to steer through warp space itself. The warp is like an ocean, with currents, storms and tides that must be used or avoided. For the Imperium, only the mutated Navigators are able to see the shifting eddies of the warp and direct a ship between them, thus steering the ship towards its ultimate destination.
Even the Navigators need a point of reference, and this is provided by the immensely powerful psychic beacon known as the Astronomican. Guided by the minds of ten thousand specially ­trained human psykers on Terra, the Astronomican pulses outwards 70,000 light years to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. A Navigator can sense the beam of the Astronomican and use it to plot his course. Weaker, shorter-ranged astropathic ducts and beacons are also used to mark out shipping lanes and to aid navigation through treacherous areas of the warp.

Battlefleet Gothic core rulebook, page 85

Able to perceive the warp’s shifting contours and impossible currents, he can guide a vessel by dint of his skill and the immeasurable aid of the light of the Astronomican, the Emperor-forged and soul-burning beacon that shines across the galaxy from ancient Terra.
…
Each Navigator perceives the warp in an entirely subjective manner as a reflection of his own unique nature, for even such as they may not stare into the abyss and face its true form without suffering the utter destruction of mind and soul. Some perceive the dimension in terms of a journey through a storm-wracked forest, knowing that to stray from the path is to surrender to the horrors that lurk within. For others, the warp appears as a raging sea, or a desert engulfed in a sandstorm, or a shifting city of night, or a million other potential forms. As Navigators gain in experience and power, the abstraction fades, and they are capable of observing the true warp through a polarised state—their third eye filtering the horror.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 60

By providing a single fixed point, the Astronomican forms a vital part of warp travel, allowing Navigators to effectively triangulate their position.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 156

Whilst the rest of the ship’s crew and the ship’s captain maintain the systems of the ship, keeping the vessel’s plasma and warp drives functioning and its Gellar Field strong, the Navigator carefully studies the currents and fluctuations of the warp as well as the distance and strength of the Astronomican. Using this information, he tells the captain to make course corrections and when it is wise to leave or enter the warp.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 183

When a vessel Translates into the warp, a Navigator must gauge the strength of the Astronomican, to judge just how far and in what direction he is from Terra so that he may then plot a course.
...
In some rare cases, the Astronomican cannot be found—especially turbulent warp storms and other unnatural phenomena may obscure its signal, or the Navigator’s vessel may simply have travelled beyond the Astronomican’s reach.
…
Without the Astronomican, the Navigator must rely upon his own experience, skill,
and ancient charts of real- and warpspace

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 184

Journeys are undertaken in short jumps of up to four or five light years. Longer jumps are unpredictable and dangerous. The tides of warpspace move in complex and inconsistent patterns, and ships attempting longer hops often end up widely off course.
Were this limitation to apply to all warp travel, then Humanity would not have spread throughout the galaxy as it has. It is possible to make long jumps of many light years by steering a ship in the warp itself—sensing, responding to, and exploiting its currents and thereby directing the craft towards a corresponding point in the material universe. Only the strain of human mutants known as Navigators can pilot a craft through the warp in this way.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 310

The Astronomican is a psychic homing signal centred upon Terra. It is powered by the continuous mental concentration of a thousand psykers. The Astronomican cannot be detected in the real universe—only in the warp. It is by means of this signal that the Navigators can steer their spaceships over long distances.
The Astronomican’s signal is strongest close to Terra and gets increasingly weaker further away. It extends over a spherical area with a diameter of about 50,000 light years. The Astronomican does not extend to the extreme fringes of the galaxy, and because Terra is situated in the galactic west, its signal does not reach a massive swathe of the eastern part of the galaxy at all. Nor is the extent or strength of the signal constant—it can at times be blocked by localised activity within the warp itself. Such activity may be compared to the hurricanes or storms of a terrestrial weather system and is known as a warpstorm. Warpstorms may be so bad, and so long-lasting, that entire star systems are isolated for hundreds of years at a time.
…
Once within warp space a ship may move by means of its main drives, following powerful eddies and currents in the warp, eventually reaching a point in the warp corresponding to a destination in real space. The most difficult aspect of warp travel is that it is impossible to detect the spatial movement of warp space once a ship is in the warp. The ship can only blindly carry on, its crew trusting that it is going in the right direction. The longer a ship remains in warp space, the greater the chances of encountering some unexpected current that can turn it unknowingly off-course.
Navigation of warp space can be achieved in two ways: the calculated jump and the piloted jump. All warp-drives incorporate navigational mechanisms. When the ship is in real space, these monitor the ever-shifting movements of that part of the warp corresponding to the ship’s current position. It is a ‘window’ into warp space. By means of observing these movements in the warp it is possible to calculate a course, corrective manoeuvres, and approximate journey time to a proposed destination. Calculation relies on the assumption that the warp-currents observed from real space don’t change significantly during flight. This method is known as a ‘calculated jump’. It is not safe to make a calculated jump of more than four light years at one go. The longer the jump, the greater the chances of a significant change in warp current movement.
The second, and more efficient, form of warp-navigation is the piloted jump. This method relies upon two factors: the Navigators and the psychic beacon of the Astronomican. The Astronomican is centred on Earth and is not only controlled by, but is directed by, the psychic power of the Emperor. The Astronomican is a psychic beacon that penetrates into warp space. A Navigator onboard a ship in the warp is able to pick up these signals and can steer a spacecraft through warp space, compensating for current changes as he does so. A piloted jump can cover a far longer distance than a calculated jump. Most piloted jumps are no more than 5,000 light years at a time, but longer jumps have been made.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 311

In theory it is possible to travel anywhere through warp space. However, the shifting tides of the warp make it easier to travel from some systems to others, and short warp jumps are always more accurate than longer ones. This is particularly true when moving a large fleet, which may become spread out across several light years of space over an extended journey. Long established and well-charted warp space channels connect star systems and entire regions, providing relatively predictable conduits through which the majority of shipping passes.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 312

The Stations of Passage are locations within real space at which ships can safely drop from the warp while navigating the Maw.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 342

It is extremely difficult to navigate a course into the Foundling Worlds, even if one is following a charted route. The warp trashes and twists as if trying to throw a ship onto another course, and furious tempests suddenly appear and claw at a ship’s Gellar Field. At other times the cluster gives rise to strange pockets of stillness that hold ships becalmed. Even established routes are unreliable, sometimes appearing to vanish altogether or suddenly lead to different locations. Many ships have been lost trying to make passage into the Foundling Worlds, and with every craft lost, the evil reputation of the Foundling Worlds grows. The strange localised nature of the storms, and anomalies that enfold the Foundling Worlds, have led some amongst the Navigator houses to privately speculate that the region is hidden and protected by something that does not wish its worlds violated by human presence.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 345

Astrographer: Used to create two- and three-dimensional representations of stellar locations and warp routes.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 88

Warp navigation is likewise deceptively difficult across the Abyss. There are few guidance markers, the light of the Astronomicon grows pale, and there are few established warp-routes.

Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 71

Navigator’s power allows him to guide a ship through the warp and reach its destination far faster than any ship could travel without him. Navigators use the great psychic beacon of the Astronomican as a fixed point to aid their route-finding. In this way they are able to complete a journey with far fewer drops into realspace to plot position

Dark Heresy: Core rulebook, page 55

As their souls burn within the spirit-cauldron of the Astronomican, they fuel the fire that shines out across two thirds of the entire galaxy. By that brightest of beacons, the Navigators of the Navis Nobilite are able to assay their positions and guide their vessels through the churning Sea of Souls.

Dark Heresy, 2nd edition, Core rulebook, page 307

The void station known as The Emperor’s Song has been a firm relay beacon of
the Astronomican for long millennia, its shining brightness in the Warp engaging in a never-ending battle against the darkness of the Pandaemonium’s rage.

Dark Heresy, 2nd edition, Enemies Beyond, page 76

Shining in the darkness of Askellon is the Astronomican Relay Station The Emperor’s Song. This mighty fortress has been a fixture of the Cyclopia Sub-Sector for over four thousand years, established in a past age to enhance the Emperor’s Light in this troubled area of space. While Askellon is within the range of the Astronomican, the presence of the Pandaemonium and other unstable Warp fields hampers the strength of the ætheric beacon. The Emperor’s Song aids in overcoming these hazards to allow for fewer dangers in Askellian Warp travel.
Construction on the station began when the Navis Nobilite realised that seemingly malevolent pulses from the Pandaemonium caused a number of vessels to end up wildly off course (with
some vanishing altogether). Growing the wealth and importance of Askellon required stable travel, and the only way to ensure this was to establish a relay station that could amplify the strength of the Emperor’s Holy Light. The Navigator Houses in Askellon approached the Adeptus Astra Telepathica and began negotiations to create the relay station.
…
The purpose of The Emperor’s Song is for its hosted Astropathic Choir to strengthen the Astronomican's beacon throughout the darkness of Askellon. By combining their talents, these initiates boost the signal emanating from Holy Terra and ensure that it reaches as much of the sector as possible.
The many psykers stationed on the Song are members of the Choir, learning how to use their powers and discovering what a great gift their abilities are for the Imperium. A triumvirate
of Chosen, members of the full Astronomican, aid and amplify the abilities of the psykers and oversee their day-to-day care. These specially selected individuals view this service as another
step on their eventual path to serving on Terra in the Chamber of the Astronomican.
Over five thousand psykers serve on the station, with roughly a thousand at any given time devoting all their energy to boosting the signal of the Astronomican. The remainder of the psykers see to the everyday operation of the station and spend their time in prayer and contemplation, preparing for their turn among the chorus. While not nearly as intensive as serving in the true Chamber of the Astronomican on Terra, the mental fortitude required to boost the signal in Askellon is still quite significant. Many psykers perish every month due to the psychic strain, and the Adeptus Astra Telepathica regularly supplies the station with fresh recruits.

Dark Heresy, 2nd edition, Enemies Beyond, page 95

The ship stopped once, for their Navigator to realign himself with the Astronomicon

Deathwatch, The Achilus Assault, page 52

Navigators fare worst of all. The Hadex Anomaly’s infectious brilliance overwhelms the light of the Astronomican, rendering all but the most keen-eyed Navigators unable to plot accurate courses along the Acheros Salient.

Deathwatch, The Achilus Assault, page 81

Astronomica Relay Substation 77-Epsilon is a tiny outpost defended by a small Imperial Guard garrison force. Its size and position belie the importance of the installation. A dozen worlds require it to safely communicate with the main Imperial forces.

Deathwatch, The Achilus Assault, page 124

Located in the halo margins of the Calixis Sector, the ancient and alien Warp Gate was first chanced upon by the Imperial frigate Spear of Tarsus when its Navigator sensed an unusual area of calm within the warp. In the years after the discovery, numerous Imperial vessels, explorators and agents travelled to the xenos gate to discern its purpose and assess its importance. What they discovered was a stable link to another system on the opposite side of the galaxy; the Jericho Reach. Long lost to the Imperium (the Jericho Reach had been cut off from Imperial control by terrible Warp storms for almost four millennia), scribes and adepts set to gathering what information was known about this area of space from deep data vaults and ancient cogitators. Scouts made the journey through the gate to bring back valuable maps and intelligence from the other side, painting a picture of a sector rich in worlds but wracked with strife.

Deathwatch, The Achilus Assault, page 14

Mortis Thule is quite simply one of the largest artificial objects found in Jericho space, easily outmassing even Bastion-class space stations. Like all space hulks it appears out of the Warp at seemingly random times, ejecting into real space with a roaring thunder of psychic energies such that Navigators across the region are alerted. Its violent appearance disgorges a trail of debris, as megatonnes of metal and rock crack away from the harsh arrival. This loss is more than made up for by new additions of void debris and those unfortunate vessels that find themselves melded into the Mortis Thule’s conglomerate mass by powerful Warp tidal forces or worse.

Deathwatch, The Achilus Assault, page 63

The gate in the great warp storms on the periphery of the Calixis Sector is discovered by the Imperial Navy Frigate Spear of Tarsus. Sensing something causing a localised area of calm in the great warp storm, the ship’s navigator drops the Spear of Tarsus out of the Warp. At the centre of this sea of ethereal calm is a vast Warp Gate of xenos design.

Deathwatch, Know No Fear, page 9

The third factor which makes warp travel possible is the immeasurably powerful psychic beacon called the Astronomican. Broadcast by a choir of psykers from Terra, the Astronomican reaches out through warp space, guiding spacecraft to their destination. Only a Navigator can sense the guiding light of the Astronomican, and only he can follow its psychic signal. It is the astronomican which allows a Navigator to use his powers to the fullest; without it, not even the most powerful Navigator could pilot his ship over the immense distances which separate the worlds of the Imperium.

Deathwatch, Core rulebook, page 291

The Reef’s reflection in the warp is an impassable mass of positive and negative energies constantly colliding and annihilating one another, in a dance of destruction that no Navigator would conscience sailing towards.

Deathwatch, Core rulebook, page 353

One of the keys to their success was the discovery of “Altaire’s Arrow.” Their Navigator, Altaire Vor’cle, discerned a narrow shaft of relatively calm space in the turbulence around the Hadex Anomaly. Not only does Altaire’s Arrow allow safe passage, but it also helps mask the presence of a ship travelling through it.

Deathwatch, The Emperor Protects, page 103

If the characters have the map Allewis provided, it appears more like a warp navigation chart than any land map. It is marked not with distances and fixed objects, but with currents, vectors, shifting landmarks, and tenuous equations. It suggests a region where space and possibly even time are malleable.

Deathwatch, The Emperor Protects, page 123

Shortly thereafter, Navigators began experiencing difficulties locating the Astronomicon and other, closer navigation beacons, while astropaths and other sanctioned psykers across the length of the Orpheus Salient began suffering from horrific nightmares, driving many mad with visions of an endless, hungry darkness and other portents of doom.

Deathwatch, The Jerico Reach, page 113

The rare phenomena that surround the system within the warp made it ideal for long range observation...

Deathwatch, The Jerico Reach, page 72

The Arkhas system is located deep into the frontier territories claimed by the Orpheus Salient, within a region dubbed the “Tuam Transitional Nexus,” a point where three distinct stable routes within the warp intersect, named for the Navigator who discovered it.

Deathwatch, The Jerico Reach, page 131

Located very close to the same warp route, the two systems have the same number of planets that orbit identical stars and the exact same frequency. In fact, they are so similar that the Imperium has established a vox beacon in each system, perpetually broadcasting the system’s designation to avoid confusion for ships just dropping out of the warp.

Deathwatch, The Jerico Reach, page 13

The Navigator character must gather the Explorers around an astrographics orrery, which the Navigator uses to plot the vessel’s course through the warp. Have the player then describe to the others just how his character perceives the warp. Each Navigator perceives the Empyrean in an entirely subjective manner, some imagining themselves as small fish darting through a predator-filled ocean, the sun above the sea representing the light of the Astronomican. Others see themselves as travellers passing along a narrow jungle path late at night, cruel eyes watching from the verges and the Astronomican taking the form of the illumination cast by a small sanctuary-shrine in a clearing up ahead. The Navigator should invite the other Explorers to join him in just such a journey, describing them setting out together, determining a heading, travelling, avoiding predators and finally arriving at their destination.

Rogue Trader, Lure of the Expanse, page 31

This encounter takes place during one of the periodic drops into real space that all vessels must make when undertaking long or arduous journeys. Translating back into the material universe, the ship’s Navigator takes readings of nearby constellations, and more importantly, calibrates his position in the temporal sphere. Having completed this, the Explorers’ vessel is ready to resume its voyage once more, when the augurs detect a faint signal.

Rogue Trader, Lure of the Expanse, page 34

The majority of the warp routes by which the Navies of the Imperium travel the voids are relatively well known, their dangers mapped so that void-farers might have some chance of traversing the perilous depths of interstellar space. Despite this, space is riven with stellar anomalies, many the remnants of the warp storms that engulfed the galaxy for thousands of years at a stretch in Mankind’s distant past. Others are entirely inexplicable, owing to phenomena for which the Cult Mechanicus and the great Navigator Houses can offer no explanation. Still more may be the result of the actions of long-since-destroyed alien civilisations, marking the sites of destruction on a scale so terrible that reality itself is scarred. The Koronus Expanse is host to a great many such dangers for those who would penetrate its depths, and the Explorers have just encountered one of the very worst.
…
Thankfully, he sees that this is the warp shadow of the death of a star in real space, and not a peril born of the powers that lurk within the Empyrean. The Navigator will also know that the only way to save the vessel is to drop out of the warp immediately.

Rogue Trader, Lure of the Expanse, page 36

However, every 17 minutes the installation still broadcasts its astropathic beacon-signal, detectable up to several light-years away.

Rogue Trader, Edge of the Abyss, page 27

The Stations of Passage are a number of locations along the Koronus Passage, better known as the Maw. Each was discovered through trial and error as bold and foolhardy Rogue Traders traversed the Maw to reach the Koronus Expanse. Some are extremely familiar to the Rogue Traders who navigate this precarious passage, while others are known only to a few. Thus, nobody knows for certain how many Stations exist. Each Station is different from the others—they are united only in that they are each a safe haven against the predications of the powerful warp storms that surround the Maw.
Those who journey through the Maw consider the secrets of the location of the Stations extremely valuable. Of those known, some are shunned as more dangerous than the storms they supposedly provide protection from. However, there are four main stations that are widely regarded as “safe,” and many renowned Rogue Traders claim these places have saved their vessels on more than one occasion.
…
As the Maw swelled and sealed with the strengthening and weakening of nearby storms, ships noticed certain locations of calm that remained untouched. What began as a few locations became an ever-changing network as Navigators and captains made discoveries. As time went on, many of the Stations fell out of use, with some being used as clandestine meeting points for Rogue Traders to broker deals away from the prying eyes of Imperial authorities. Other stations were cordoned off as they led to nowhere, or even put ships into mortal jeopardy.

Rogue Trader, Edge of the Abyss, page 25

The Temple has nothing of worth within it—its worth is its value as a Station of Passage. It provides an area of calm amongst the warp storms of the Halo Margins. More importantly, it is close enough to those same warp storms that Navigators can plot unusually accurate jumps when passing through the Maw.

Rogue Trader, Edge of the Abyss, page 26

Navis Prima
These are perhaps some of the most valuable items an Explorer can possess, as they outline safe routes through the warp, or at least as safe as warp travel can get. Some cover jump locations and travel times known to many, but others can reveal translation timetable plots known only to a few who guard their secrets with their lives. Even rarer are those maps presumed lost, describing jump passages thought forgotten or only known as hearsay or legend. These are all items that can spur decades-long quests, either establishing new fortunes and houses or wrecking them utterly. These items are exceptionally rare and can be the goals of lifelong pursuits to chase down even the faintest rumour of such a map.

Rogue Trader, Core rulebook, page 146

Given the risks inherent in venturing into the Koronus Expanse, a skilled Navigator is a necessity. Further, such an individual can create detailed Warp charts that his less gifted counterparts can use to safely navigate the passage.

Rogue Trader, Faith and Coin, page 56

Aleynikov’s Star Chart is an ancient set of diagrams, notes, and maps that a ship’s Navigator can use to locate a number of planets

Rogue Trader, Faith and Coin, page 106

The Chaos Reavers who make this place their home (and their far-flung compatriots who come for recreation and resupply) are inured to the system’s strange ways, and their navigators are aided by a blasphemous mockery of the Astronomican called the Beacon of the Damned. A constant sacrifice of slaves and prisoners to the Dark Gods by the Daemonettes known as the Sisters of the Sybaritic Host fuels the beacon, which is housed in Vall’s stronghold, the imposing Citadel of Skulls.
Although the Beacon has a much shorter range than the holy Astronomican, its tortured howl can only be divined within the Dioskouri System. Due to the pained shrieking and the malefic nature of the Beacon, it is dangerous for any Navigator to use it.

Rogue Trader, Citadel of Skulls, page 7

By looking upon the Warp and reading the ebb and flow of its shifting, unknowable tides, Navigators can guide starships across impossible gulfs of space.

Rogue Trader, The Navis Primer, page 6

In reality, this is the source of the Navigator Houses’ unimaginable wealth—in serving aboard a Rogue Trader vessel, a Navigator is amassing vast amounts of data in regards to new routes, which in turn makes him and his House able to command still greater shares of future endeavours. Over the millennia, each Navigator House has amassed a vast library of astrographic data, but to remain competitive, this must ever be expanded upon.

Rogue Trader, The Navis Primer, page 9

The Eye of Terror is perhaps the greatest example of a stellar phenomenon that owes nothing to laws of reason or nature, for it is a place where the beyond and all its slavering denizens shape and reshape reality according to their own insane whims. Numerous other features are to be found across the entire galaxy, some taking the form of transient but incredibly destructive Warp storms, others apparently stable but nonetheless capable of swallowing whole entire star systems and condemning the souls of the lost to an eternity of infernal torment. Of all Mankind, Navigators and Astropaths are uniquely aware of such phenomenon. Without them, exploration beyond the Imperium’s core sectors would never have been possible. No region of space is immune to the incursion of the Immaterium, even the smallest of Warp storms making black holes, hypernovas, dark nebulas, and vacuum instability fronts appear pathetically insignificant.

Rogue Trader, The Navis Primer, page 10

Thus, as Rogue Traders employ Navigators to forge new Warp routes, the Navis Nobilite profits doubly, for even while establishing those routes, they can improve their charts, to their own benefit and that of the Imperium.

Rogue Trader, The Navis Primer, page 11

It is impossible to plot the many Warp routes that connect the planets of the Koronus Expanse, as these passages through the Immaterium do not exist in reality and the normal concepts of linearity, time, and location have no bearing on them. Only a Navigator could visualise these routes, and in terms that he could not describe to a human who does not share his unique and supernatural abilities. The approximate position of these routes has been rendered on the map on previous pages in a manner that the human mind can comprehend, though this crude two-dimensional attempt bears no true resemblance to how they exist in unreality.

Rogue Trader, The Navis Primer, page 38

Caledon took hold of himself. His hands reached for the controls. His warped vision opened. Again there was a lurching in the stomach, like dropping in a high-speed elevator. The ship phased back into the warp.
Every navigator saw the warp in a different way. To one, it might resemble an endless green landscape, marked out in meadows and woods, dotted with lakes, and here in there towering palaces. Another might see a jumble of steel girders, like an endless three dimensional city. Still others saw hierarchies of heavens and hells, bursting with twisted inhabitants. For many, though, the warp appeared as a nightmare of mad colors and abstract shapes, not always in three dimensions - sometimes in only two sometimes in four, five or six. But always there were two constant features. One was that everything was continually moving, surging, swirling, in response to the passage of the warp currents. And the second was the Astronomican, in a pure white light that shone from a distant beacon and penetrated everything.
For Pelor Calliden the warp was a lush tropical jungle. It had no bottom, no top, and no boundary. As he guided it, the ship was pushing aside lush foliage, easing itself between enormous boles and tangling creepers. This jungle had inhabitants too. Leering faces, animal, human, and what might have been demonic, poked between the fleshy petals of luscious orchids, flitting by as the Wandering Star made its majestic progress.
None of this occluded the Astronomican. It was like a universal luminescence that filtered through everything, revealing its source, the god-like light that was the source of every Navigators deep-rooted faith.
…
This time Caledon obeyed, though tears were streaming down his face. He was looking for a patch of darkness. In the warp, that always meant proximity to a star.
Time went by. It was rarely possible to predict how long a warp journey would take. That depended on how swift were the warp currents available, and the skill and experience of the Navigator who utilized them.
...
‘Where are we, by the way?’
‘By the nearest star I could find.’ Caledon glanced at the instruments behind him. We're closer to the Eye than before. Right on the edge of it, in fact. This system has fifteen planets, one inhabited, though with only a small population. Nominally in the Imperium. Though not appointed planetary commander. It's called Caligula.

Eye of Terror, Chapter 3, by Barrington J. Bayley

No, I don't mean broken as in unstoppable. I mean broken as in does not play as every other person who has him plays. I was hesitant to do him at first but after reading all the amazing reviews and constantly getting pooped on by him, I figured I had to bite the bullet and complete him.
So far, I just do not see what the hype is about. I am playing him at ST with a Hunter chem style in a 4231 and sometimes change to a 41212 and have him up top with Messi. Let me also preface this by saying I am a Div 2 player (started there and good enough to stay above Div 3 but not quite good enough to reach Div 1) but rarely play WL.
For me, he is just nowhere to be found. He is never in a good position to score and makes the weirdest runs that don't get him open at all.
Shooting: A giant let down. Every time I shoot with him, it seems like he has about 30 shot power. Not to mention he misses finesse shots constantly, most of which seem to hit the post.
Dribbling: Does not feel agile at all. He really turns like a truck compared to the likes of Messi and Hazard. I know they are a dime a dozen when it comes to dribbling, but I'd think he'd at least come close. It seems like he turns on a dime and can outmaneuver my whole team when I play against him, but not when I use him.
Passing: A synonym I would choose to describe his passing is "dogshit." Man he just cannot consistently make good passes. I honestly feel like his long passes are more accurate than his short ones.
Pace: Another giant let down. Even with Hunter, I feel like he just does not outrun any defender. Breakaway through ball? He's going to get caught every time.
I wanted to see if anyone had some input on the struggle I am having with a player that everyone else seems to love and dominate with. Am I dong something wrong? Do I have the wrong chem style? Why can I not make this guy work???

"Peace is a lie. There is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength."
Thus begins a mantra that is lived by, meditated on, quoted frequently, and studied by people around the world who claim the label of Sith. It is the foundation and starting place of our pursuit for excellence and freedom from chains that would smother us in complacent surrender. But what is this passion at the beginning of the Sith Code that acts as the core of the philosophy? I hope to share my perspective on this.
I've seen passion used for anything from a synonym for an emotion (like anger, hatred, rage, etc.) to a placeholder for one's goals in life (working out, studying, climbing the corporate ladder, etc.). These are often phrased as "I'm passionate about (fill in the blank)" which, while a valid expression, is misleading as it shows the focus of passion but not the nature of passion itself.
Passion to a Sith is the drive behind our actions. It is the fire that burns deep within us that directly causes the intensity with which we take on tasks and obliterate obstacles. It is not just turned toward our natural inclinations, but rather can be applied as needed to any scenario. When it is said "I'm passionate about helping people", what is truly being said is "I direct my passion toward helping people." There are areas in life that are easier to direct our attention to (things which we turn our passion toward easily because of emotional tendency and therefore ready fuel); but really passion lies outside those thresholds and more in our possession than we may believe.
With this idea of passion, a few things become apparent.
First, great passion does not mean great results. A forest fire, while powerful, does not have direction or intent. It is blown where nature wills it and is subject to no one. But more intense heat can be found in a rocket engine as it is utilized and controlled for a purpose. In a similar way, our passion needs to be applied well, or it will be our own undoing. This is why the Sith Code does not end at "There is only passion", but goes on to show how it can be applied effectively.
Secondly, our passion does not need to be dependent on the nature of the current task. We can stir up our passion and determine where it is applied, for it lies outside the control of our current situation. Whether we would enjoy the task or not, our passion can be stirred up and applied as potently as our favorite task. We are able to say, "I am the master of my passion, and I direct it as I will."
Thirdly, our potential passion is limitless. The fire of passion can be fed to grow larger and hotter until it is hardly manageable, the only limitation being our capability to contain, direct it, and control it without it consuming us. While I would say most suffer from a passion deficiency rather than a passion overload, it still is a hazard that we should be aware of.
My advice to you is to meditate on your passion, not only what you are passionate about. Study your internal fire, how it moves and consumes with every breath of your being and every movement you make. Do you truly have that furnace stoked within yourself, or is begrudgingly awakened from time to time only when necessary? It should not be dependent on comfort or inclination, but burn brightly at every challenge you come across, using these victories as fuel to drive you to the next.
"There is no passion to be found playing small--in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." -Nelson Mandela
"It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind." -T. S. Eliot
"The larger the bonfire, and the brighter it burns, the more evident the fact that it has consumed more wood and more air than the smaller ones. You burn because you have to burn. And you're not burning for others, you're not burning to be a blessing; you burn because you have to burn." -C. JoyBell C.
"When you discover your life assignment, the inner fire automatically results to inner drive. You are inspired from your inside." -Benjamin Suulola

English grammar From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English grammar is the way in which meanings are encoded into wordings in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, right up to the structure of whole texts.
There are historical, social, cultural and regional variations of English. Divergences from the grammar described here occur in some dialects. This article describes a generalized present-day Standard English – a form of speech and writing used in public discourse, including broadcasting, education, entertainment, government, and news, over a range of registers from formal to informal. There are differences in grammar between the standard forms of British, American, and Australian English, although these are more minor than differences in vocabulary and pronunciation.
Modern English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system of Indo-European in favor of analytic constructions. The personal pronouns retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class (a remnant of the more extensive Germanic case system of Old English). For other pronouns, and all nouns, adjectives, and articles, grammatical function is indicated only by word order, by prepositions, and by the "Saxon genitive or English possessive" (-'s).[1]
Eight "word classes" or "parts of speech" are commonly distinguished in English: nouns, determiners, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. Nouns form the largest word class, and verbs the second-largest. Unlike many Indo-European languages, English nouns do not have grammatical gender.
Contents 1 Word classes and phrases 1.1 Nouns 1.1.1 Phrases 1.1.2 Gender 1.2 Determiners 1.3 Pronouns 1.3.1 Personal 1.3.2 Demonstrative and interrogative 1.3.3 Relative 1.3.4 "There" 1.3.5 Other 1.4 Verbs 1.4.1 Phrases 1.5 Adjectives 1.5.1 Comparison 1.5.2 Phrases 1.6 Adverbs 1.6.1 Phrases 1.7 Prepositions 1.8 Conjunctions 1.9 Case 1.10 Declension 2 Negation 3 Clause and sentence structure 3.1 Word order 3.2 Questions 3.3 Dependent clauses 3.4 Other uses of inversion 3.5 Imperatives 3.6 Elliptical constructions 4 History of English grammars 5 See also 6 Notes and references 7 Further reading 7.1 Grammar books 7.2 Monographs 8 External links Word classes and phrases Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs form open classes – word classes that readily accept new members, such as the noun celebutante (a celebrity who frequents the fashion circles), and other similar relatively new words.[2] The others are considered to be closed classes. For example, it is rare for a new pronoun to enter the language. Determiners, traditionally classified along with adjectives, have not always been regarded as a separate part of speech. Interjections are another word class, but these are not described here as they do not form part of the clause and sentence structure of the language.[2]
Linguists generally accept nine English word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, and exclamations. English words are not generally marked for word class. It is not usually possible to tell from the form of a word which class it belongs to except, to some extent, in the case of words with inflectional endings or derivational suffixes. On the other hand, most words belong to more than one word class. For example, run can serve as either a verb or a noun (these are regarded as two different lexemes).[3] Lexemes may be inflected to express different grammatical categories. The lexeme run has the forms runs, ran, runny, runner, and running.[3] Words in one class can sometimes be derived from those in another. This has the potential to give rise to new words. The noun aerobics has recently given rise to the adjective aerobicized.[3]
Words combine to form phrases. A phrase typically serves the same function as a word from some particular word class.[3] For example, my very good friend Peter is a phrase that can be used in a sentence as if it were a noun, and is therefore called a noun phrase. Similarly, adjectival phrases and adverbial phrases function as if they were adjectives or adverbs, but with other types of phrases the terminology has different implications. For example, a verb phrase consists of a verb together with any objects and other dependents; a prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and its complement (and is therefore usually a type of adverbial phrase); and a determiner phrase is a type of noun phrase containing a determiner.
Nouns Many common suffixes form nouns from other nouns or from other types of words, such as -age (as in shrinkage), -hood (as in sisterhood), and so on,[3] although many nouns are base forms not containing any such suffix (such as cat, grass, France). Nouns are also often created by conversion of verbs or adjectives, as with the words talk and reading (a boring talk, the assigned reading).
Nouns are sometimes classified semantically (by their meanings) as proper nouns and common nouns (Cyrus, China vs. frog, milk) or as concrete nouns and abstract nouns (book, laptop vs. embarrassment, prejudice).[4] A grammatical distinction is often made between count (countable) nouns such as clock and city, and non-count (uncountable) nouns such as milk and decor.[5] Some nouns can function both as countable and as uncountable such as the word "wine" (This is a good wine, I prefer red wine).
Countable nouns generally have singular and plural forms.[4] In most cases the plural is formed from the singular by adding -[e]s (as in dogs, bushes), although there are also irregular forms (woman/women, foot/feet, etc.), including cases where the two forms are identical (sheep, series). For more details, see English plural. Certain nouns can be used with plural verbs even though they are singular in form, as in The government were ... (where the government is considered to refer to the people constituting the government). This is a form of synesis; it is more common in British than American English. See English plural § Singulars with collective meaning treated as plural.
English nouns are not marked for case as they are in some languages, but they have possessive forms, through the addition of -'s (as in John's, children's) or just an apostrophe (with no change in pronunciation) in the case of -[e]s plurals and sometimes other words ending with -s (the dogs' owners, Jesus' love). More generally, the ending can be applied to noun phrases (as in the man you saw yesterday's sister); see below. The possessive form can be used either as a determiner (John's cat) or as a noun phrase (John's is the one next to Jane's).
The status of the possessive as an affix or a clitic is the subject of debate.[6][7] It differs from the noun inflection of languages such as German, in that the genitive ending may attach to the last word of the phrase. To account for this, the possessive can be analysed, for instance as a clitic construction (an "enclitic postposition"[8]) or as an inflection[9][10] of the last word of a phrase ("edge inflection").
Phrases Noun phrases are phrases that function grammatically as nouns within sentences, for example as the subject or object of a verb. Most noun phrases have a noun as their head.[5]
An English noun phrase typically takes the following form (not all elements need be present):
Determiner + Pre-modifiers + NOUN + Postmodifiers/Complement In this structure:
the determiner may be an article (the, a[n]) or other equivalent word, as described in the following section. In many contexts it is required for a noun phrase to include some determiner. pre-modifiers include adjectives and some adjective phrases (such as red, really lovely), and noun adjuncts (such as college in the phrase the college student). Adjectival modifiers usually come before noun adjuncts. a complement or postmodifier[5] may be a prepositional phrase (... of London), a relative clause (like ...which we saw yesterday), certain adjective or participial phrases (... sitting on the beach), or a dependent clause or infinitive phrase appropriate to the noun (like ... that the world is round after a noun such as fact or statement, or ... to travel widely after a noun such as desire). An example of a noun phrase that includes all of the above-mentioned elements is that rather attractive young college student to whom you were talking. Here that is the determiner, rather attractive and young are adjectival pre-modifiers, college is a noun adjunct, student is the noun serving as the head of the phrase, and to whom you were talking is a post-modifier (a relative clause in this case). Notice the order of the pre-modifiers; the determiner that must come first and the noun adjunct college must come after the adjectival modifiers.
Coordinating conjunctions such as and, or, and but can be used at various levels in noun phrases, as in John, Paul, and Mary; the matching green coat and hat; a dangerous but exciting ride; a person sitting down or standing up. See § Conjunctions below for more explanation.
Noun phrases can also be placed in apposition (where two consecutive phrases refer to the same thing), as in that president, Abraham Lincoln, ... (where that president and Abraham Lincoln are in apposition). In some contexts the same can be expressed by a prepositional phrase, as in the twin curses of famine and pestilence (meaning "the twin curses" that are "famine and pestilence").
Particular forms of noun phrases include:
phrases formed by the determiner the with an adjective, as in the homeless, the English (these are plural phrases referring to homeless people or English people in general); phrases with a pronoun rather than a noun as the head (see below); phrases consisting just of a possessive; infinitive and gerund phrases, in certain positions; certain clauses, such as that clauses and relative clauses like what he said, in certain positions. Gender Main article: Gender in English A system of grammatical gender, whereby every noun was treated as either masculine, feminine or neuter, existed in Old English, but fell out of use during the Middle English period. Modern English retains features relating to natural gender, namely the use of certain nouns and pronouns (such as he and she) to refer specifically to persons or animals of one or other genders and certain others (such as it) for sexless objects – although feminine pronouns are sometimes used when referring to ships (and more uncommonly some airplanes and analogous machinery) and nation states.
Some aspects of gender usage in English have been influenced by the movement towards a preference for gender-neutral language. Animals are triple-gender nouns, being able to take masculine, feminine and neuter pronouns.[11] Generally there is no difference between male and female in English nouns. However, gender is occasionally exposed by different shapes or dissimilar words when referring to people or animals.[12]
Masculine Feminine Gender neutral man woman adult boy girl child husband wife spouse actor actress performer rooster hen chicken Many nouns that mention people's roles and jobs can refer to either a masculine or a feminine subject, for instance "cousin", "teenager", "teacher", "doctor", "student", "friend", and "colleague".[12]
Jane is my friend. She is a dentist. Paul is my cousin. He is a dentist. Often the gender distinction for these neutral nouns is established by inserting the words "male" or "female".[12]
Sam is a female doctor. No, he is not my boyfriend; he is just a male friend. I have three female cousins and two male cousins. Rarely, nouns illustrating things with no gender are referred to with a gendered pronoun to convey familiarity. It is also standard to use the gender-neutral pronoun (it).[12]
I love my car. She (the car) is my greatest passion. France is popular with her (France's) neighbors at the moment. I travelled from England to New York on the Queen Elizabeth; she (the Queen Elizabeth) is a great ship. Determiners Main articles: English determiners and English articles English determiners constitute a relatively small class of words. They include the articles the and a[n]; certain demonstrative and interrogative words such as this, that, and which; possessives such as my and whose (the role of determiner can also be played by noun possessive forms such as John's and the girl's); various quantifying words like all, some, many, various; and numerals (one, two, etc.). There are also many phrases (such as a couple of) that can play the role of determiners.
Determiners are used in the formation of noun phrases (see above). Many words that serve as determiners can also be used as pronouns (this, that, many, etc.).
Determiners can be used in certain combinations, such as all the water and the many problems.
In many contexts, it is required for a noun phrase to be completed with an article or some other determiner. It is not grammatical to say just cat sat on table; one must say my cat sat on the table. The most common situations in which a complete noun phrase can be formed without a determiner are when it refers generally to a whole class or concept (as in dogs are dangerous and beauty is subjective) and when it is a name (Jane, Spain, etc.). This is discussed in more detail at English articles and Zero article in English.
Pronouns Pronouns are a relatively small, closed class of words that function in the place of nouns or noun phrases. They include personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and some others, mainly indefinite pronouns.
Personal Main article: English personal pronouns The personal pronouns of modern standard English, and the corresponding possessive forms, are as follows:
Nominative Oblique Reflexive Possessive determiner Possessive pronoun 1st pers. sing. I me myself my mine 2nd pers. sing./pl. you you yourself/yourselves your yours 3rd pers. sing. she, he, they, it her, him, them, it herself, himself, themself, itself her, his, their, its hers, his, theirs, its 1st pers. pl. we us ourselves our ours 3rd pers. pl. they them themselves their theirs The second-person forms such as you are used with both singular and plural reference. In the Southern United States, y'all (you all) is used as a plural form, and various other phrases such as you guys are used in other places. An archaic set of second-person pronouns used for singular reference is thou, thee, thyself, thy, thine, which are still used in religious services and can be seen in older works, such as Shakespeare's—in such texts, the you set of pronouns are used for plural reference, or with singular reference as a formal V-form. You can also be used as an indefinite pronoun, referring to a person in general (see generic you), compared to the more formal alternative, one (reflexive oneself, possessive one's).
The third-person singular forms are differentiated according to the sex of the referent. For example, she is used to refer to a female person, sometimes a female animal, and sometimes an object to which female characteristics are attributed, such as a ship or a country. A male person, and sometimes a male animal, is referred to using he. In other cases it can be used. (See Gender in English.) The word it can also be used as a dummy subject, in sentences like It is going to be sunny this afternoon.
The third-person plural forms such as they are sometimes used with singular reference, as a gender-neutral pronoun, as in each employee should ensure they tidy their desk. Despite its long history, this usage is sometimes considered ungrammatical. (See singular they.)
The possessive determiners such as my are used as determiners together with nouns, as in my old man, some of his friends. The second possessive forms like mine are used when they do not qualify a noun: as pronouns, as in mine is bigger than yours, and as predicates, as in this one is mine. Note also the construction a friend of mine (meaning "someone who is my friend"). See English possessive for more details.
Demonstrative and interrogative The demonstrative pronouns of English are this (plural these), and that (plural those), as in these are good, I like that. Note that all four words can also be used as determiners (followed by a noun), as in those cars. They can also form the alternative pronominal expressions this/that one, these/those ones.
The interrogative pronouns are who, what, and which (all of them can take the suffix -ever for emphasis). The pronoun who refers to a person or people; it has an oblique form whom (though in informal contexts this is usually replaced by who), and a possessive form (pronoun or determiner) whose. The pronoun what refers to things or abstracts. The word which is used to ask about alternatives from what is seen as a closed set: which (of the books) do you like best? (It can also be an interrogative determiner: which book?; this can form the alternative pronominal expressions which one and which ones.) Which, who, and what can be either singular or plural, although who and what often take a singular verb regardless of any supposed number. For more information see who.
All the interrogative pronouns can also be used as relative pronouns; see below for more details.
Relative Main article: English relative clauses For "who/whom" and related forms, see Who (pronoun). The main relative pronouns in English are who (with its derived forms whom and whose), which, and that.[13]
The relative pronoun which refers to things rather than persons, as in the shirt, which used to be red, is faded. For persons, who is used (the man who saw me was tall). The oblique case form of who is whom, as in the man whom I saw was tall, although in informal registers who is commonly used in place of whom.
The possessive form of who is whose (the man whose car is missing ...); however the use of whose is not restricted to persons (one can say an idea whose time has come).
The word that as a relative pronoun is normally found only in restrictive relative clauses (unlike which and who, which can be used in both restrictive and unrestrictive clauses). It can refer to either persons or things, and cannot follow a preposition. For example, one can say the song that [or which] I listened to yesterday, but the song to which [not to that] I listened yesterday. The relative pronoun that is usually pronounced with a reduced vowel (schwa), and hence differently from the demonstrative that (see Weak and strong forms in English). If that is not the subject of the relative clause, it can be omitted (the song I listened to yesterday).
The word what can be used to form a free relative clause – one that has no antecedent and that serves as a complete noun phrase in itself, as in I like what he likes. The words whatever and whichever can be used similarly, in the role of either pronouns (whatever he likes) or determiners (whatever book he likes). When referring to persons, who(ever) (and whom(ever)) can be used in a similar way (but not as determiners).
"There" The word there is used as a pronoun in some sentences, playing the role of a dummy subject, normally of an intransitive verb. The "logical subject" of the verb then appears as a complement after the verb.
This use of there occurs most commonly with forms of the verb be in existential clauses, to refer to the presence or existence of something. For example: There is a heaven; There are two cups on the table; There have been a lot of problems lately. It can also be used with other verbs: There exist two major variants; There occurred a very strange incident.
The dummy subject takes the number (singular or plural) of the logical subject (complement), hence it takes a plural verb if the complement is plural. In informal English, however, the contraction there's is often used for both singular and plural.[14]
The dummy subject can undergo inversion, Is there a test today? and Never has there been a man such as this. It can also appear without a corresponding logical subject, in short sentences and question tags: There wasn't a discussion, was there? There was.
The word there in such sentences has sometimes been analyzed as an adverb, or as a dummy predicate, rather than as a pronoun.[15] However, its identification as a pronoun is most consistent with its behavior in inverted sentences and question tags as described above.
Because the word there can also be a deictic adverb (meaning "at/to that place"), a sentence like There is a river could have either of two meanings: "a river exists" (with there as a pronoun), and "a river is in that place" (with there as an adverb). In speech, the adverbial there would be given stress, while the pronoun would not – in fact the pronoun is often pronounced as a weak form, /ðə(r)/.
Other Other pronouns in English are often identical in form to determiners (especially quantifiers), such as many, a little, etc. Sometimes, the pronoun form is different, as with none (corresponding to the determiner no), nothing, everyone, somebody, etc. Many examples are listed as indefinite pronouns. Another indefinite (or impersonal) pronoun is one (with its reflexive form oneself and possessive one's), which is a more formal alternative to generic you.[16]
Verbs Main article: English verbs The basic form of an English verb is not generally marked by any ending, although there are certain suffixes that are frequently used to form verbs, such as -ate (formulate), -fy (electrify), and -ise/ize (realise/realize).[17] Many verbs also contain prefixes, such un- (unmask), out- (outlast), over- (overtake), and under- (undervalue).[17] Verbs can also be formed from nouns and adjectives by zero derivation, as with the verbs snare, nose, dry, and calm.
Most verbs have three or four inflected forms in addition to the base form: a third-person singular present tense form in -(e)s (writes, botches), a present participle and gerund form in -ing (writing), a past tense (wrote), and – though often identical to the past tense form – a past participle (written). Regular verbs have identical past tense and past participle forms in -ed, but there are 100 or so irregular English verbs with different forms (see list). The verbs have, do and say also have irregular third-person present tense forms (has, does /dʌz/, says /sɛz/). The verb be has the largest number of irregular forms (am, is, are in the present tense, was, were in the past tense, been for the past participle).
Most of what are often referred to as verb tenses (or sometimes aspects) in English are formed using auxiliary verbs. Apart from what are called the simple present (write, writes) and simple past (wrote), there are also continuous (progressive) forms (am/is/are/was/were writing), perfect forms (have/has/had written, and the perfect continuous have/has/had been writing), future forms (will write, will be writing, will have written, will have been writing), and conditionals (also called "future in the past") with would in place of will. The auxiliaries shall and should sometimes replace will and would in the first person. For the uses of these various verb forms, see English verbs and English clause syntax.
The basic form of the verb (be, write, play) is used as the infinitive, although there is also a "to-infinitive" (to be, to write, to play) used in many syntactical constructions. There are also infinitives corresponding to other aspects: (to) have written, (to) be writing, (to) have been writing. The second-person imperative is identical to the (basic) infinitive; other imperative forms may be made with let (let us go, or let's go; let them eat cake).
A form identical to the infinitive can be used as a present subjunctive in certain contexts: It is important that he follow them or ... that he be committed to the cause. There is also a past subjunctive (distinct from the simple past only in the possible use of were instead of was), used in some conditional sentences and similar: if I were (or was) rich ...; were he to arrive now ...; I wish she were (or was) here. For details see English subjunctive.
The passive voice is formed using the verb be (in the appropriate tense or form) with the past participle of the verb in question: cars are driven, he was killed, I am being tickled, it is nice to be pampered, etc. The performer of the action may be introduced in a prepositional phrase with by (as in they were killed by the invaders).
The English modal verbs consist of the core modals can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would, as well as ought (to), had better, and in some uses dare and need.[18] These do not inflect for person or number,[18] and do not have infinitive or participle forms (except synonyms, as with be/being/been able (to) for the modals can/could). The modals are used with the basic infinitive form of a verb (I can swim, he may be killed, we dare not move, need they go?), except for ought, which takes to (you ought to go).
The copula be, along with the modal verbs and the other auxiliaries, form a distinct class, sometimes called "special verbs" or simply "auxiliaries".[19] These have different syntax from ordinary lexical verbs, especially in that they make their interrogative forms by plain inversion with the subject, and their negative forms by adding not after the verb (could I ...? I could not ...). Apart from those already mentioned, this class may also include used to (although the forms did he use to? and he didn't use to are also found), and sometimes have even when not an auxiliary (forms like have you a sister? and he hadn't a clue are possible, though becoming less common). It also includes the auxiliary do (does, did); this is used with the basic infinitive of other verbs (those not belonging to the "special verbs" class) to make their question and negation forms, as well as emphatic forms (do I like you?; he doesn't speak English; we did close the fridge). For more details of this, see do-support.
Some forms of the copula and auxiliaries often appear as contractions, as in I'm for I am, you'd for you would or you had, and John's for John is. Their negated forms with following not are also often contracted (see § Negation below). For detail see English auxiliaries and contractions.
Phrases A verb together with its dependents, excluding its subject, may be identified as a verb phrase (although this concept is not acknowledged in all theories of grammar[20]). A verb phrase headed by a finite verb may also be called a predicate. The dependents may be objects, complements, and modifiers (adverbs or adverbial phrases). In English, objects and complements nearly always come after the verb; a direct object precedes other complements such as prepositional phrases, but if there is an indirect object as well, expressed without a preposition, then that precedes the direct object: give me the book, but give the book to me. Adverbial modifiers generally follow objects, although other positions are possible (see under § Adverbs below). Certain verb–modifier combinations, particularly when they have independent meaning (such as take on and get up), are known as "phrasal verbs".
For details of possible patterns, see English clause syntax. See the Non-finite clauses section of that article for verb phrases headed by non-finite verb forms, such as infinitives and participles.
Adjectives English adjectives, as with other word classes, cannot in general be identified as such by their form,[21] although many of them are formed from nouns or other words by the addition of a suffix, such as -al (habitual), -ful (blissful), -ic (atomic), -ish (impish, youngish), -ous (hazardous), etc.; or from other adjectives using a prefix: disloyal, irredeemable, unforeseen, overtired.
Adjectives may be used attributively, as part of a noun phrase (nearly always preceding the noun they modify; for exceptions see postpositive adjective), as in the big house, or predicatively, as in the house is big. Certain adjectives are restricted to one or other use; for example, drunken is attributive (a drunken sailor), while drunk is usually predicative (the sailor was drunk).
Comparison Many adjectives have comparative and superlative forms in -er and -est,[22] such as faster and fastest (from the positive form fast). Spelling rules which maintain pronunciation apply to suffixing adjectives just as they do for similar treatment of regular past tense formation; these cover consonant doubling (as in bigger and biggest, from big) and the change of y to i after consonants (as in happier and happiest, from happy).
The adjectives good and bad have the irregular forms better, best and worse, worst; also far becomes farther, farthest or further, furthest. The adjective old (for which the regular older and oldest are usual) also has the irregular forms elder and eldest, these generally being restricted to use in comparing siblings and in certain independent uses. For the comparison of adverbs, see Adverbs below.
Many adjectives, however, particularly those that are longer and less common, do not have inflected comparative and superlative forms. Instead, they can be qualified with more and most, as in beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful (this construction is also sometimes used even for adjectives for which inflected forms do exist).
Certain adjectives are classed as ungradable.[22] These represent properties that cannot be compared on a scale; they simply apply or do not, as with pregnant, dead, unique. Consequently, comparative and superlative forms of such adjectives are not normally used, except in a figurative, humorous or imprecise context. Similarly, such adjectives are not normally qualified with modifiers of degree such as very and fairly, although with some of them it is idiomatic to use adverbs such as completely. Another type of adjectives sometimes considered ungradable is those that represent an extreme degree of some property, such as delicious and terrified.
Phrases An adjective phrase is a group of words that plays the role of an adjective in a sentence. It usually has a single adjective as its head, to which modifiers and complements may be added.[23]
Adjectives can be modified by a preceding adverb or adverb phrase, as in very warm, truly imposing, more than a little excited. Some can also be preceded by a noun or quantitative phrase, as in fat-free, two-metre-long.
Complements following the adjective may include:
prepositional phrases: proud of him, angry at the screen, keen on breeding toads; infinitive phrases: anxious to solve the problem, easy to pick up; content clauses, i.e. that clauses and certain others: certain that he was right, unsure where they are; after comparatives, phrases or clauses with than: better than you, smaller than I had imagined. An adjective phrase may include both modifiers before the adjective and a complement after it, as in very difficult to put away.
Adjective phrases containing complements after the adjective cannot normally be used as attributive adjectives before a noun. Sometimes they are used attributively after the noun, as in a woman proud of being a midwife (where they may be converted into relative clauses: a woman who is proud of being a midwife), but it is wrong to say *a proud of being a midwife woman. Exceptions include very brief and often established phrases such as easy-to-use. (Certain complements can be moved to after the noun, leaving the adjective before the noun, as in a better man than you, a hard nut to crack.)
Certain attributive adjective phrases are formed from other parts of speech, without any adjective as their head, as in a two-bedroom house, a no-jeans policy.
Adverbs Adverbs perform a wide range of functions. They typically modify verbs (or verb phrases), adjectives (or adjectival phrases), or other adverbs (or adverbial phrases).[24] However, adverbs also sometimes qualify noun phrases (only the boss; quite a lovely place), pronouns and determiners (almost all), prepositional phrases (halfway through the movie), or whole sentences, to provide contextual comment or indicate an attitude (Frankly, I don't believe you).[25] They can also indicate a relationship between clauses or sentences (He died, and consequently I inherited the estate).[25]
Many English adverbs are formed from adjectives by adding the ending -ly, as in hopefully, widely, theoretically (for details of spelling and etymology, see -ly). Certain words can be used as both adjectives and adverbs, such as fast, straight, and hard; these are flat adverbs. In earlier usage more flat adverbs were accepted in formal usage; many of these survive in idioms and colloquially. (That's just plain ugly.) Some adjectives can also be used as flat adverbs when they actually describe the subject. (The streaker ran naked, not **The streaker ran nakedly.) The adverb corresponding to the adjective good is well (note that bad forms the regular badly, although ill is occasionally used in some phrases).
There are also many adverbs that are not derived from adjectives,[24] including adverbs of time, of frequency, of place, of degree and with other meanings. Some suffixes that are commonly used to form adverbs from nouns are -ward[s] (as in homeward[s]) and -wise (as in lengthwise).
Most adverbs form comparatives and superlatives by modification with more and most: often, more often, most often; smoothly, more smoothly, most smoothly (see also comparison of adjectives, above). However, a few adverbs retain irregular inflection for comparative and superlative forms:[24] much, more, most; a little, less, least; well, better, best; badly, worse, worst; far, further (farther), furthest (farthest); or follow the regular adjectival inflection: fast, faster, fastest; soon, sooner, soonest; etc.
Adverbs indicating the manner of an action are generally placed after the verb and its objects (We considered the proposal carefully), although other positions are often possible (We carefully considered the proposal). Many adverbs of frequency, degree, certainty, etc. (such as often, always, almost, probably, and various others such as just) tend to be placed before the verb (they usually have chips), although if there is an auxiliary or other "special verb" (see § Verbs above), then the normal position for such adverbs is after that special verb (or after the first of them, if there is more than one): I have just finished the crossword; She can usually manage a pint; We are never late; You might possibly have been unconscious. Adverbs that provide a connection with previous information (such as next, then, however), and those that provide the context (such as time or place) for a sentence, are typically placed at the start of the sentence: Yesterday we went on a shopping expedition.[26]
A special type of adverb is the adverbial particle used to form phrasal verbs (such as up in pick up, on in get on, etc.) If such a verb also has an object, then the particle may precede or follow the object, although it will normally follow the object if the object is a pronoun (pick the pen up or pick up the pen, but pick it up).
Phrases An adverb phrase is a phrase that acts as an adverb within a sentence.[27] An adverb phrase may have an adverb as its head, together with any modifiers (other adverbs or adverb phrases) and complements, analogously to the adjective phrases described above. For example: very sleepily; all too suddenly; oddly enough; perhaps shockingly for us.
Another very common type of adverb phrase is the prepositional phrase, which consists of a preposition and its object: in the pool; after two years; for the sake of harmony.
Prepositions Prepositions form a closed word class,[25] although there are also certain phrases that serve as prepositions, such as in front of. A single preposition may have a variety of meanings, often including temporal, spatial and abstract. Many words that are prepositions can also serve as adverbs. Examples of common English prepositions (including phrasal instances) are of, in, on, over, under, to, from, with, in front of, behind, opposite, by, before, after, during, through, in spite of or despite, between, among, etc.
A preposition is usually used with a noun phrase as its complement. A preposition together with its complement is called a prepositional phrase.[28] Examples are in England, under the table, after six pleasant weeks, between the land and the sea. A prepositional phrase can be used as a complement or post-modifier of a noun in a noun phrase, as in the man in the car, the start of the fight; as a complement of a verb or adjective, as in deal with the problem, proud of oneself; or generally as an adverb phrase (see above).
English allows the use of "stranded" prepositions. This can occur in interrogative and relative clauses, where the interrogative or relative pronoun that is the preposition's complement is moved to the start (fronted), leaving the preposition in place. This kind of structure is avoided in some kinds of formal English. For example:
What are you talking about? (Possible alternative version: About what are you talking?) The song that you were listening to ... (more formal: The song to which you were listening ...) Notice that in the second example the relative pronoun that could be omitted.
Stranded prepositions can also arise in passive voice constructions and other uses of passive past participial phrases, where the complement in a prepositional phrase can become zero in the same way that a verb's direct object would: it was looked at; I will be operated on; get your teeth seen to. The same can happen in certain uses of infinitive phrases: he is nice to talk to; this is the page to make copies of.
Conjunctions Conjunctions express a variety of logical relations between items, phrases, clauses and sentences.[29] The principal coordinating conjunctions in English are: and, or, but, nor, so, yet, and for. These can be used in many grammatical contexts to link two or more items of equal grammatical status,[29] for example:
Noun phrases combined into a longer noun phrase, such as John, Eric, and Jill, the red coat or the blue one. When and is used, the resulting noun phrase is plural. A determiner does not need to be repeated with the individual elements: the cat, the dog, and the mouse and the cat, dog, and mouse are both correct. The same applies to other modifiers. (The word but can be used here in the sense of "except": nobody but you.) Adjective or adverb phrases combined into a longer adjective or adverb phrase: tired but happy, over the fields and far away. Verbs or verb phrases combined as in he washed, peeled, and diced the turnips (verbs conjoined, object shared); he washed the turnips, peeled them, and diced them (full verb phrases, including objects, conjoined). Other equivalent items linked, such as prefixes linked in pre- and post-test counselling,[30] numerals as in two or three buildings, etc. Clauses or sentences linked, as in We came, but they wouldn't let us in. They wouldn't let us in, nor would they explain what we had done wrong. There are also correlative conjunctions, where as well as the basic conjunction, an additional element appears before the first of the items being linked.[29] The common correlatives in English are:
either ... or (either a man or a woman); neither ... nor (neither clever nor funny); both ... and (they both punished and rewarded them); not ... but, particularly in not only ... but also (not exhausted but exhilarated, not only football but also many other sports).