What I also wonder, who would @RubyMineshaft and @claire_yang have killed in the 3rd night?
As for the other two alternate reality branches, we now have the possible branch where I would’ve been on time, which, by the lucky switch from @fiddlehead to @claire_yang, would have ended the game that night, and the other possible branch where @bugcat would’ve been on time, but KAOS would’ve been killed at night, meaning the assassins would’ve won anyways.
That was an accident where there was no decision made, since we failed to confirm each other. It was during the Chinese New Year Period, and we had little free time discussing, but we sort of already targeting @Vsotvep.
—Valhalla you say…? 
200 years and I did not think of this before mumble mumble 
—Anemas stormed down into the library
It goes back to that first day when you made comments that were clearly sympathetic to the assassins. Whether you’re an innocent posing as the coward or the actual coward looking to advertise the fact, the strategy carries some risk. You identify yourself as someone who’s prepared to practice deception, possibly for the innocents’ benefit, but maybe not. If you choose to wear that hat early on you have to accept the possibility that you’ll be forced to wear it later on. It can definitely influence the way you are perceived as the game wears on, and obviously it had that influence on me.
I’m still a bit confused.
So KAOS and Ruby were the assassins, and I was the coward but never activated?
No, it was Claire and Ruby. There’s a chart on the first post.
Yes, you were the coward but never activated. The role itself played its function though, in my opinion. It was part of the discussions.
For what it’s worth now, when Kaos claimed earlier today that I targeted her after Vsotvep’s death, a simple check of the voting record confirms that I voted for her execution before Vsotvep died. A rather significant detail there. It might have tripped her up badly had the point been pursued. It seems mental fatigue had set in .
Thank you @Gia and @Leira for organizing a great game and story! And thank you everyone for playing!
Continuing from where we left off here: Werewolf Game 4: Discussion space - #234 by yebellz
Further background: Miscellaneous trivia, riddles, puzzles and other games - #39 by yebellz
Nearly a millennium in the future, Lt. yebellz stands in the cantina of the Chi Virginian Martian base and pensively fidgets with the 3-year token in his pocket. Just as suddenly as he lets it go, he takes a seat at the bar. The robotic barkeep pours him a whisky and the question of whether or not he even uttered aloud the request for it only briefly crosses his mind before he lifts the glass to drink it.
Many important thoughts and observations had only barely registered in his and the other human minds since they were enthralled by their Chi Virginian captors. Their judgment was clouded by strange alien powers and none had even seen through the false choice promising a safe return to Earth with memory wiped. Having spoiled two manned missions, which would soon prompt further investigation, the Chi Virginians were operating on borrowed time, but calculated that they still had plenty to see their schemes through. However, sending an astronaut back to Earth, even with their memory wiped, would immediately arouse suspicion with the mysterious return of an extremely recognizable human, which would accelerate probes and possibly jeopardize their experimental goals.
Lt. yebellz drank not only because his inhibitions had been weakened by alien manipulation, but also to drown away the torment of his demons that would come during times of great crisis and stress. Though he never fully understood them, these demons were a form of ancestral memory that manifests as a shared suffering from his ancestors rippling through the years and centuries and into his mind. As a descendent of a peasant bastard of Alexios, Lt. yebellz now endured the pain that maimed and crushed him into the passive shell of Cauliflower. The drink helped to sooth away these horrors as he focused his gaze on his wristwatch, which was still set to measure the position of the sun and the moon from the perspective of his home on Earth, in order to remind him of what he fought on for. The movement had remained reliable ever since his great-grandfather first set it in motion in his workshop in Geneva in order to present it to his son Stephen on the occasion of his wedding.
The memory of Alexios faded into shades of other ancestors. Another great-grandfather dribbling down the court during garbage time, having already run up the score against the bitter rival visitors to seal the win and clinch a spot at the big dance. With the student audience deliriously chanting “Rock! Chalk! JAYHAWK!”, he celebrates with an unnecessary, flashy jump shot and lands poorly as his knee buckles with searing, tearing agony. He never plays in the tournament and his dreams of a professional career are dashed, but changing the course of his life and returning to help run the family farm leads to the joyous birth of his son Kevin a few years later.
The memory of the newborn Kevin fades into the cries of the infant daughter of Benjamin that wakes him in a cold sweat from a recurring dream, where he see his wife Samantha on the beach, staring out at the swells looming in the distance. As they grow and rush toward the shore, Sam stands her ground and holds the line. Steadfast, she faces the towering wave as it crashes down upon her. Benjamin picks up and soothes his daughter, as he warms up one of the final few bags of milk from the freezer, when an alarm on his phone reminds him of his upcoming session of sitting shiva via Zoom.
And that’s my favorite student 
The most commonly known relevant story here is mentioned in this Μετάξι - Βικιπαίδεια (under the History part) and it dates the first official contact between Byzantium and China at about 5th century AD (backed up by archaeological findings).
From what I know the two empires established diplomatic relations at about 10th century AD, but I’ll need to dig deeper for more details.
@claire_yang I love everything history, if you can recommend any sources I’d be thankful 
They were only friends during college, although maybe Kevin sometimes felt a bit like a third wheel. They only get together sometime after their reunion at the beach trip (from the riddle answer).
I don’t want to read a whole new thread, but I can’t live without knowing.
How much for a tl;dr?
The background is only three paragraphs, that I wrote here:
The prompt that inspired that writing is only just the riddle that @Leira posted here:
667 words.
My fault, I asked the Pedant for a tl;dr. 
I mostly only able to find records from the Chinese or Japanese sources, but lack the linguistic and understanding for the Latins/Greeks or Middle East, central Asia sources.
The oldest record that might be related to the Byzantine empire is from 魏書 - the history book of Wei, recount the history of Northern Wei Dynasty (386~534) and is believed written by official historians at the time.
The record of 魏文成帝, with temple name 高宗, has these two records
(太安二年)冬十月甲申，車駕還宮。甲午，曲赦京師。十有一月，尚書、西平王源賀改封隴西王。嚈噠、普嵐國並遣使朝獻。劉駿濮陽太守姜龍駒、新平太守楊伯倫，各棄郡率吏民來降。
(和平六年)夏四月，破洛那國獻汗血馬，普嵐國獻寶劍。五月癸卯，帝崩於太華殿，時年二十六。六月丙寅，上尊謚曰文成皇帝，廟號高宗。八月，葬雲中之金陵。
They only mentioned a nation called 普嵐 came with envoy with gifts (precious swords), the first one in 456 AD, the second time at the final year of Emperor Wencheng in 465 AD. This is way too short of a record to be certain if they were really from Byzantine Empire. Although most agree on the sounds of these words were translated from the sounds of Frōm or Phuran, and possibly derived from Ῥωμαίων.
TL;DR
Sam, Ben and Kevin are friends from college (in California) that love surfing. They reunited to go surfing again some number of years later.
They were supposed to have gone to Switzerland, Botswana and Kyrgyzstan for vacation, but yebellz switched the places up.
Kevin married his fiancé Steve, but nothing was known of the love life of Benjamin and Samantha, only their jobs.
So I had no idea that @yebellz would take the characters to such depths.
All this canon-twisting narration is getting too big to keep track of.
So, here it is: 
The Oguesverse wiki (currently empty), someone had to do it.
Have fun with it. 
I was just trying to establish a character that had just been imprisoned for trying to take the throne, like we probably all were, since only the most severe traitors were locked up in this prison. 
And you just claimed to love history. Historians gotta read
