Fireside Chat #5: The Crystal Human Chapter Six · 2:40pm Aug 30th, 2023
(If you wish to read the previous fireside chat, that can be found here.)
Hello and welcome to the fifth Fireside Chat, the series of blog posts where I talk about stuff and things concerning my story “The Crystal Human”. As always, this will contain spoilers, so read the corresponding chapter first.
I finally managed to get through the Homeowners Associations blockade of my home with some grapeshot (just as the founding fathers intended) and went to the store to acquire the holy fruit known as watermelon. Now, we can get into…
Chapter Six: Yak and Yeti Lore, and Why You Should Give Your Eight Year Old a Crossbow According to Jackson’s Father
So in this chapter you might have noticed that I gave some lore concerning the Yaks and Yeti. Let’s talk about it, shall we?
The Yaks: The idea of a “Tribal Confederation of Yaks” was something I adapted from a completely different, non-MLP world building project I was working on years ago and abandoned years ago. It was a post-apocalyptic america scenario type of thing that I remember pretty much nothing about, other than the fact that it was very contradictory and bloated with utter nonsense to the point of it being a poorly written Fallout clone.
In my defense, I was thirteen at the time, but still. The point stands.
Anyways, I had this idea of a bunch of the native american tribes out west ganging up and deciding “hey, we should form a new nation!” and so they did. Is that realistic? I don’t think I really care at this point. I remembered this idea I had and decided to give it new life in the form of the “Confederation of Yak Tribes”.
As you can tell by the fact that I’ve used two different names for it already, I have not decided upon a final name for this nation.
The four hundred year period of near-total isolation and the centralization of the Confederation into the “Kingdom of Yakyakistan” was to stay consistent with MLP lore.
The Yeti Tribes: Since they won’t show up for a good, long while (if this story even makes it there) I’ll just say it now: Yes, this is my attempt at writing a backstory for the Storm King's Yetis. I’m sure there’s already one in the comics, but I never read any of the comics (with the sole exceptions of “The Fall of Sunset Shimmer” and bits and pieces of the Nightmare Rarity Arc) so I honestly couldn’t care less.
The relationship between these tribes and the Empire is based on the real life relationship between Medieval China and the Mongol Tribes of the steppes before Genghis Khan unified the tribes and conquered China. While I plan on exploring this history more, the yeti themselves aren’t planned to make an appearance for a while, so don’t get your hopes up just yet.
…
So… I’m sure you’re wondering why Jackson’s father gave his eight year old son a crossbow.
Let’s just say that he is a very responsible gun owner but not the most responsible father and leave it at that.
Miscellaneous things time!
1: This is the first chapter in the story to have two official titles (“Cabinet Man” and “Proper Introductions”). Any future chapters with two or more official titles will also have a forward facing slash. Examples include:
Bang! / Antonymph
Infestation / Extermination
CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FLAG BEARERS! YAY! / I hate children
2: The first example I used in the previous list includes the titles of two different songs: “Bang!” by AJR and “Antonymph” by Vylet Pony. (There’s also this neat version of “Bang!” by The Cog Is Dead if you wanna give that a listen)
3: The title “Cabinet Man” is a reference to the Lemon Demon song of the same name. Jackson’s dream in this chapter is also inspired by the ending scene of a fan animation of the song, which can be found here.
4: Do not fear the shadow standing in the corner of the room. Do not listen to the voices coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Do not acknowledge the sensation of being watched. These are simply your imagination playing tricks on you. Do not be fooled by your own imagination.
5: I’m actually typing this on the same day as the last Fireside Chat, just several hours later after a quick grocery run and some dinner.
That’s it for today’s chat. And for tonight's post chat entertainment, I shall give you two choices.
Choice A: This video of a man purchasing forty seven Xbox 360’s off of Goodwill and seeing what’s in them.
Or, if you're a history nerd with a good amount of free time like me…
Choice B: This hour and fifty minute long video about the United States Presidential Election of 1872.
That’s all for today. Have a good one, or else.
-Phoenix
