At first, Vertin's team is mostly used to exterminate leftover traces of Manus Vindictae. They hunt them down all over the globe.
Vertin still recruits people to both the Foundation and her department along the way. That is one of the Foundation's main goals after all. However, she has all the "unhinged" or "dangerous" arcanists under her care since the Foundation doesn't know what to do with them, but doesn't want them causing trouble.
Then, the Timekeeper Department moves more toward problem solving. They are sent to investigate rumors and situations when the Foundation doesn't want to use their own manpower. They will also deal with Critters and Arcane shenanigans. Because Vertin's Department is so diverse, they also do humanitarian efforts. Druvis can help a poor village with failing crop yields. Lilya can deliver medication and other resources in emergencies. There are arcanists who can track down bad people and also find people who are lost. These are just a few examples but I'm sure there are many more. This also makes the Foundation look great and boosts their reputation.
However, as time goes on the problems Vertin's Department are sent to face become increasingly dangerous for them to handle alone. Things that the Foundation should be using their own people for or at least help with.
It's the same issue as before: the Foundation is afraid Vertin will turn against them. She now has the means to do so. The Foundation may have more people and resources, but Vertin's people have experience, pure power, and unwavering loyalty. Vertin has tried to assure them that she just wants to live in peace, but they are still terrified of the possibility.
So they've started sending Vertin's people on more dangerous and sometimes even unnecessary missions hoping to thin her numbers out. Her arcanists are too dangerous for society anyway. They will die as martyrs. At the same time, The Foundation hopes to make Vertin's people lose faith in their leader. They want to create internal conflicts and want to instill someone more loyal to the Foundation as the head of the Department.
But they can't find anyone who can reign in the Arcanists like Vertin. They've tried bribing and making offers to her people directly but it always blows up in their face.
Vertin's personal connections with her people seem irrational and far too emotional. Her people will follow her into hell but the problem is they keep coming back. The Foundation is forced to acknowledge that they have no control over the situation anymore. This insight causes more tension in the Foundation.
They thought they trapped Vertin, but it turns out their the ones trapped with her. They can't get rid of her or else her people will run loose. They can't replace her because her department won't accept anyone else.
Vertin still does the missions, but demands proper resources. She still leads her people to help others and save arcanists seeking refuge. However, whenever the Foundation gets too pushy or unreasonable during a meeting, all she has to do is place her Suitcase on the table. The unsaid threat is more than enough to shut them up.
Constantine is actually on Vertin's side in all of this. She's tired of all the cowards yapping. As much as she hates to admit it, she's seen Vertin grow into the force she is today. She and Vertin openly argue about things, which makes other people on edge but it's normal for them. They have an understanding: Vertin will help the Foundation, and the Foundation will help her. That's all there is to it but only Constantine seems to get that.
On that note, Vertin is one of Constantine's greatest achievements. Constantine is confident in her abilities and judgement, which in a way translates to an odd form of trust in Vertin. Maybe not in Vertin herself per say, but trust in the way Vertin will act.
Madam Z thinks Vertin has grown on Constantine, but Constantine looked absolutely disgusted by the assumption.
Honestly looking at some of the richer character's belongings I think about how rich Vertin must be.
It takes around 180 Clear Drops to have one pull. I heard some players having 100 pulls or the regulars having around 30-40 pulls. This means Vertin at some points can have 6 of Isolde's designer jewels or multiple copies of designer shoes.
The evaluation of their prices are based on Pandora Wilson's biases since Pavia's jewelry has gotten a negative value status (which I find improbable in real life objects).
The valuation of the objects are a little bit more unreliable because the characteristics of money is that it is:
Uniform (5 pesos is 5 pesos, 1 dollar is 1 dollar regardless of person)
Value (it is seen as a transfer of value) (This replaced barter since barter requires the "coincidence of wants" which means Person A wants what Person B has and vice versa. This doesn't always happen, thus the need of a universal transfer of value: currency)
Portability (can carried around)
Durability (not perishable)
So what currencies do we have in Reverse 1999? Well it seems that we have: Clear Drops and Sharpodonties.
Dust is not a currency since it is a transfer of energy NOT a transfer of value. So it is more like a power up snack. It seems to be a gatherable resource from arcane energy.
(Does it have anything to do with Apeiron?)
Anyways, back to the two currencies, it is clear that Clear Drops are considered more valuable than Sharpodonties. It might have something to do with the storm since it's shape seems to be going up. At the same time, it appears to be like crystal...so like gold currency perhaps?
Sharpodonties, in the other hand, are the more commonly mentioned, used, and exchanged currency.
It seems to be a universal and exclusive arcanist currency that is used by arcanists around the world.
For example, Zima (Russian) and Kanjira (Indian) both use Sharpodonties.
It seems like it wasn't always this appearance since Sharpodonties underwent currency evolution like other currencies do. In Melania's event, she was in charge of protecting the Mainedonty.
The Donty currency family have a collective characteristic to bite and to sense arcane blood. The Sharpodonty then becomes a perfect currency for exclusive use by Arcanists. It is portable, valued, durable, and assumes a uniform form. Surprisingly enough, it is also...edible.
If we look into some stories, you would see that Sharpodonties are listed amongst ledgers.
In Medpoc's 2nd story, it is basically a ledger of their expenses:
Pioneer, who is a businessman, also seems to use US Dollars and Sharpodonties at the same time for transactions.
Now the question is: What is the exchange rate between a US Dollar and a Sharpodonty?
It is not always clear because we have to account for inflation, supply and demand, and other factors. But I have a clue.
Looking back at Medicine Pocket's ledgers, they listed different items that they purchased with Sharpodonties. Let us use DOG TOYS as an example using this example from real life:
Given:
$ 3.30 per 1 teething dog toy (real life)
o 40 per 15 dog toys (Medpoc)
Question: What is the exchange rate between US Dollars and Sharpodonties?
Let's determine the price of the dog toy in the 1990s.
We can reasonably assume that the exchange rate between Arcanist currency and dollars will change depending on the state of US currency. Using equivalent exchange, I determined that the price of a teething dog toy is $1.36 dollars per dog toy in the 1990s.
2. Find the rate of Sharpodonties per dog toy.
This will help both currencies have a comparable object to compare prices to. Let us summarize Sharpodonties into an abbreviation called ACS (Arcanist Sharpodonty) using the same naming convention used in real life currencies. 1 dog toy is equivalent to 2.67 ACS or 1.36 USD.
3. Find exchange rate.
Using equivalent exchange again, we can determine that the exhange rate between ACS and USD is:
1 ACS = 0.51 USD in the 1990s(forgive my error, the exchange rate from 1 USD to ACS is 1 USD = 1.96 ACS NOT the other way around)
If we are to consider that Arcanist currency hasn't deflated in value but USD has, then the current exchange rate as of 2024 will be:
1 ACS = 1.23 USD or 1 USD = 0.81 ACS (0.80909091) which means that ACS has become a more valuable currency.
I converted the ACS to other modern day currencies of Russia and Great Britain.
That means that Zima's quill costs around 758.85 Russian Rubles today and Kanjira's headband costs around 73.17 Indian Rupees.
Digger's Bubble Glasses will then be around 65.05 British Pounds. Feel free to use this chart for converting the price of items that the characters have.
I didn't account for Clear Drops since 1) it is not an often used currency, 2) I have not seen a general (not handcrafted or unique item) item that I can compare to a real life item.
What does this mean when it comes to Vertin's income? She earns 9000 ACS everytime she goes to Mintage Aesthetics. This means she earns around 11,070 Dollars for each trip. She also has passive income. If she uses all her energy (let's say 7 times a day to account for 190 stamina) each day, she earns around $77,490 each day or around $2,324,700 a month. Of course, we are not accounting the passive income that she can earn from the Wilderness or from rewards or gifts.
In conclusion, Vertin and her gang are easily rolling in dough!
Episode 3 of the new event
do you guys see my vision (?
couldnβt finish this in time so now i leave this unfinished (which explains the blank parts). iβll come back tomorrow and finish this
anyways happy 1st year of existence reverse: 1999!!!!! π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯
Let's all bake her a cake in the shape of IDM-5100 computer and sing her a song in hexadecimal code!! [cute]
Thank you, universe, for bringing her into the world, she is a goddess, she is a queen, she is an amazing and marvelous arcanist, hexadecimal girl, she is John Titorπ
She's been around for a year and she even has a new garment now! It's definitely a success, guys
I love her, please love John Titor
48 61 70 70 79 20 62 69 72 74 68 64 61 79 (happy birthday!) <3
They could never make me hate you Theopil
Ever since I started playing Reverse 1999, Regulus has been portrayed as Vertin's energetic friend, pirate rocker, maybe with ADHD, and overall fun gal. I didn't pay attention to her much, but after watching her anecdote, I realized that there were many things that I glossed over about her.
During Regulus' anecdote, I saw this line. That means Regulus was old enough to remember her mother's demeanor towards her or what her mother was like.
Regulus is a street kid who was practically raised by Mr. APPle. Broadcasting music illegally in her pirate ship, she has gotten trouble in the side of the law several times.
Although she never went to school, she is very bright (knowing mechanical know-hows in Laplace and doing Math in Apeiron).
It pains me that Regulus can sometimes be reduced to a comedy gag by the fandom. She might be seriously funny and memetic but she is also profoundly devoted to Vertin and a sweetheart. She was the first one Vertin saved in the suitcase after all!
This was brought to my attention when I saw a line during her anecdote. The mayor of Gold Dust (who was part of the Order of Enlightenment) wanted to invite Regulus to a worship for the Sufferer (Arcana) and Regulus expressed contempt for that:
This line means that Regulus knows about Vertin's past! This means that Vertin must have been comfortable enough to open up to her regarding the Breakaway incident that happened during Chapter 3.
She was also first to hug Vertin when she came back and cried bitterly from being separated from her.
When Regulus joined Vertin for the first time, Vertin was worried that she might feel burdened or restricted going with her. Then Regulus says this:
She was sweet in the beginning and she had been a loyal partner to Vertin ever since. I know that for sure since she went to prison multiple times already for her. She never gave up on Vertin and never stopped trying when the Foundation kept her unconcious.
so let's say you want to write Vertin x Regulus (if so, pls link me your works) but have a hard time trying to describe their relationship, as it falls in a weird middle point between platonic and romantic
here's some ways you can do it:
-"girls who went to see the red sea together and came back closer to each other but also SO mad that the sea was blue like all the others"
-"what happens in the couch, stays in the couch"
-"bugs bunny and daffy duck in the looney tunes show (2011)"
-"britain's most wanted"
-"Wallace & Gromit"
-"two russians kissing each other before one hits the other in the back with a chair"
-"they found their second home in each other's lap"
-"the amount of stupid bets they do that end up with the loser having to dress in something like a maid suit, or a bunny suit, or like a milkmaid, etc., is becoming concerning for those around them"
Hi hi, my fellow! ^-^
A question, if I may:
When deepening Insight, we use books for the Arcanist; now, you could say that the reason Intelligence and Spirit use two is because they're Primal Afflatus (Afflati?), but my question instead is:
What do you think the three tiers contain in terms of information, for each Afflatus? ^-^
I like to think Vertin doesn't have books dedicated to the special afflatus so she decides that if they're so smart/unsettling then they can learn two things at once. You may be smart and/or creepy, but you're not above knowledge π«΅π
Perhaps the first ones, those papers, include poems and quotes. They're not long enough to contain anything aside from that, but they could still include enough information through their short content.
The second tier must be more into findings, it reminds me a lot of maps so it could be about the origins of their afflatus and how it travels through times and their own body.
And the third are encyclopedias π
can you tell who captivated me who my favourite character is