title: Dragonlance

text: "DL01 - Dragons of Despair" and "DL02 - Dragons of Flame" (corresponding to the events in the first novel, "Dragons of Autumn Twilight") were adapted into the video games "Heroes of the Lance" and "Dragons of Flame", respectively. Instead of being role-playing video games, they are platform games using the Silver Box game engine. "DL03 - Dragons of Hope" and "DL04 - Dragons of Desolation" (corresponding to the events between the first and the second novel) were adapted into the video game "Shadow Sorcerer". Released in 1991, this early real-time strategy game is a direct sequel to the first two games and a prequel to "War of the Lance" (1989). "DL11 - Dragons of Glory" is a self-contained tabletop strategy game (corresponding to the events in the background of the third novel, "Dragons of Spring Dawning") that was adapted into the turn-based strategy game "War of the Lance".


title: Dragonlance

text: "DragonStrike" is a 1990 combat flight simulation game whose plot begins halfway through the previous video game. The 1992 NES remake is a scrolling shooter that features an ending different from the one in the novels, but following and fixing a "bad ending" from "DL14 - Dragons of Triumph". Neither game is based directly on any tabletop module. The Gold Box trilogy ("Champions of Krynn", "Death Knights of Krynn", and "The Dark Queen of Krynn") are the only role-playing video games based on Dragonlance. They tell an original story that begins shortly after the events in the 14 tabletop modules.


title: Dragonlance

text: Apart from those, the MUSH game "DragonLance" is based on Krynn during the final stage of the War of the Lance.


title: Dragonlance

text: The series has inspired mention in music as well, including "Wishmaster", a song by Nightwish based partially on the master and apprentice relationship between Raistlin Majere and Dalamar. The Swedish metal band Lake of Tears also recorded a song called "Raistlin and the Rose" on their 1997 album "Crimson Cosmos", while the German group Blind Guardian wrote "The Soulforged", another song inspired by Raistlin's story, which appeared on the band's 2002 album "A Night at the Opera". Also Danish/American band Pyramaze recorded in their 2008 album "Immortal" song "Caramon's Poem". Another German metal band, Evertale, released "The Chronicles Chapter I" EP in 2008 and the full album "Of Dragons And Elves" in 2013 - both releases were composed entirely of songs inspired by and relating to Dragonlance. Yet another German metal band, Pegasus, bases all its material on the Dragonlance mythos. A Russian concept album (2009-2010) and musical (premiered 2014) based on Raitslin's story, "", was created by Anton Kruglov and Yelena Khanpira.


title: Dragonlance

text: In 2008, "", an animated movie based on the first "Dragonlance" book of the same name, was released direct-to-video. The animation was produced by Toonz Animation, and featured the voices of Lucy Lawless, Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Rosenbaum, and Michelle Trachtenberg. In late 2011, Holysoft Studios Ltd. released the first part of a German audio adaption of the Chronicles Trilogy, with subsequent releases of the later trilogies being announced.


title: Dragonlance

text: In comics, Krynn has been represented on the 1988 "Dragonlance" series by DC Comics and TSR. More recently, Devil's Due Publishing and Wizards of the Coast have also produced a number of comic book series: "The Legend of Huma" (2003), "Chronicles" (2005) and "Legends" (2008).


title: Dragonlance

text: The "Dragonlance" world is described in dozens of books and novels. The setting contains numerous characters, an extensive timeline, and a detailed geography.


title: Dragonlance

text: "Dragonlance" is set on the world of Krynn. The majority of the novels take place in the various regions of Ansalon, a small continent, though some have taken place on the continent of Taladas, located northeast of Ansalon. The world's major gods are the High God and his children: good Paladine, neutral Gilean, and evil Takhisis. The gods are opposed by Chaos, who seeks to destroy Krynn. Depending on the time period, the evil chromatic and the good metallic dragons are rare or plentiful. Humans are Krynn's most common humanoid race, but elves, dwarves, kender, gnomes, and minotaurs occupy the world as well. Clerics derive magical powers from their gods, and wizards derive their power from the three moon gods, good Solinari, neutral Lunitari, and evil Nuitari. Hickman had previously served as a Mormon missionary in Java for two years, and uses Indonesian in "Dragonlance" spells. During Krynn's various wars, armies of draconians are used as troops. Draconians are created by corrupting a dragon egg, thereby creating a reptilian humanoid. Any dragon egg can be used to make a draconian, although the ones most commonly used are good dragon eggs because the evil kings want more evil dragons to hatch.


title: Dragonlance

text: Other gods of the setting include the gods of good Branchala, Habbakuk, Kiri-Jolith, Majere, and Mishakal; the gods of neutrality Chislev, Reorx, Shinare, Sirrion, and Zivilyn; and the gods of evil, Chemosh, Hiddukel, Morgion, Sargonnas, and Zeboim.


title: Dragonlance

text: The history of the world of Krynn, and thus the settings for both the novels and gaming supplements, is roughly split into five separate ages. The first age is the time of creation, when the gods are born and Krynn is formed. The Age of Dreams, the second age, is marked by the rapid growth of the world's first great civilizations and the appearance of myriad new races. This era is also marked by three great wars between dragons and their minions. Following the Third Dragon War, in the Age of Might, the Cataclysm obliterates the great empire of Istar and changes almost the entire surface of Krynn. A 300-year depression follows this event, in what is called the Age of Despair. This period also marks the War of the Lance. When Dragonlance was first introduced to "Dungeons & Dragons", events such as the Lost Wars happened during The Age of Despair. Later Age of Mortals novels and game supplements took Krynn into the Fifth Age (the Age of Mortals).


title: Dragonlance

text: Dragonlances are weapons first created in the Third Dragon War, designed with the purpose of killing evil dragons, and are the only weapons with which mortals who cannot use magic can kill dragons. Dragonlances have this power because of the way in which they are created, which requires the use of "two god-blessed artifacts".


title: Dragonlance

text: Dragonlances are rare and not commonly traded. There are lesser dragonlances, which are made when only one of the artifacts is used to create them, and greater dragonlances, which are made when both artifacts are used to make them. Greater dragonlances are blessed with the power of Good, unlike lesser dragonlances.


title: Dragonlance

text: There are two sizes of dragonlance. The smaller footman's dragonlance is around eight feet long and functions as a pole weapon, while the larger mounted dragonlance is around sixteen feet long and most commonly used when mounted on a dragon.


title: Dragonlance

text: The Heroes of the Lance are the protagonists of the "Chronicles" trilogy, the first series of "Dragonlance" books. They were created by Weis and Hickman, then fleshed out as player characters in gaming sessions of "Dungeons & Dragons" at Hickman's apartment. One player at this initial gaming session was game designer Terry Phillips, who was playing as Raistlin. According to Hickman in the foreword to "The Soulforge", "[we] were just settling in to the game when I turned to my good friend Terry Phillips and asked what his character was doing. Terry spoke...and the world of Krynn was forever changed. His rasping voice, his sarcasm and bitterness all masking an arrogance and power that never needed to be stated suddenly were real. Everyone in the room was both transfixed and terrified. To this day Margaret [Weis] swears that Terry wore the black robes to the party that night".


title: Dragonlance

text: In a "Traveling Road Show" put on to publicize the novels, the Heroes of the Lance were played by various people. Authors Gary and Janet Pack played the half-elf Tanis Half-Elven and the kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot, respectively. Author Douglas Niles played the dwarf Flint Fireforge. TSR employee Harold Johnson played the Solamnic knight Sturm Brightblade. The rest of the Heroes are the barbarians Goldmoon and Riverwind, elf Laurana Kanan, and humans Caramon Majere (Raistlin's brother) and Tika Waylan. Weis played Fizban the Fabulous.


title: Dragonlance

text: In the beginning, Margaret Weis had problems depicting Tanis Half-Elven in the novels. Tracy Hickman finally told her that "he's James T. Kirk of the Starship "Enterprise"". After that explanation, Margaret had no more difficulty writing about Tanis. Other noteworthy antagonists, and sometimes protagonists, are the Death Knight Lord Soth and Kitiara Uth Matar, the half-sister of Raistlin and Caramon, and leader of one of the Dragonarmies of Ansalon. According to Hickman, Lord Soth is the most unpredictable character to write about, saying: "Every time that character made an appearance in one of our books he would try to run off with the story".


title: Dragonlance

text: The world of Dragonlance is set on the planet of Krynn, with most of the action taking place on the continent of Ansalon. Some of the key countries and areas on Ansalon are the Plains of Dust, Solamnia with its great metropolis, Palanthas, the Blood Sea Isles, the Empire of Ergoth, Istar, and Sancrist, the elven kingdom of Silvanesti, as well as the dwarven realm of Thorbardin. Important cities and towns and other locations include Solace (location of the Inn of the Last Home, and Sad Town), the High Clerist's Tower, Palanthas, Kendermore, Port Balifor (location of the Pig and Whistle Tavern), and the various Towers of High Sorcery.


title: Dragonlance

text: Like in many "Dungeons & Dragons" campaign settings, the fictional world of the "Dragonlance" campaign is shaped by the division by race, with white humans as the central focus, but also including elves, goblins, and many others. With the species in many cases clearly assigned to "good" and "evil", some critics have suggested that the setting had the potential to raise racist expectations. The authors take an active stance against racist ideology and ensure that a "fascistic genocidal campaign to wipe-out species that are considered 'impure'" would have catastrophic consequences. In contrast, the need for tolerance and cooperation between the races is emphasized.


title: Dragonlance

text: "Dragonlance" is one of the most popular shared worlds, worlds in which writers other than those that created them place adventures. The first "Dragonlance" trilogy, "Chronicles", launched the "Dungeons & Dragons" line of novels, with many of its characters spun off into other novels. Along with "Forgotten Realms", "Dragonlance" is TSR's most popular series of novels. According to "The 1990s" by Marc Oxoby, what is most notable about the series is that "what may at one time been considered disposable, escapist literature" found "unprecedented popularity" in the 1990s. All of the "Dragonlance" novels remained in print during the decade, turning Weis and Hickman into literary stars and boosting sales of their non-"Dragonlance" novels. Although the series was initially published in paperback, its success led to hardcover printings. The hardcover version of "Dragons of Summer Flame" had an "impressive" first printing of 200,000 books. Every "Dragonlance" novel by Weis and Hickman since 1995 has been released in hardcover, and some previous novels have been re-released in hardcover collector's editions. "Dragonlance" made TSR one of the most successful publishers of science fiction and fantasy in the 1990s.


title: Dragonlance

text: By 2008, there were more than 190 novels in the "Dragonlance" franchise. Weis and Hickman's "Dragonlance" novels have made over twenty bestseller lists, with sales in excess of 22 million. The pair's novels have been translated into German, Japanese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Spanish, French, Italian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Greek and Turkish and have sold well in the United States, Britain, and Australia.


title: Dragonlance

text: Not all critics have praised "Dragonlance" and its creators. According to author Stephen Hunt, Wendy Bradley of "Interzone" magazine does not think highly of their work. Hunt feels that it is unusual for authors to receive such loathing among "fantasy's literary mafia", saying: "Behind every critic's scorn laden insult, there that unsaid thought at the end: 'But I could have written that! "Visions of Wonder", edited by David G. Hartwell and Milton T. Wolf, and published by the Science Fiction Research Association, argues that "Dragonlance" is published under the "omnivore theory" of publishing. In this theory, the readership is made up of teenagers, and completely replaces itself every three to five years. This allows publishers to release subpar novels and still reach a small yet profitable audience.


title: Falconry

text: Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person involved in falconry: a "falconer" flies a falcon; an "austringer" (Old French origin) flies a hawk ("Accipiter", some buteos and similar) or an eagle ("Aquila" or similar). In modern falconry, the red-tailed hawk ("Buteo jamaicensis"), Harris's hawk ("Parabuteo unicinctus"), and the peregrine falcon ("Falco perigrinus") are some of the more commonly used birds of prey. The practice of hunting with a conditioned falconry bird is also called "hawking" or "gamehawking", although the words hawking and hawker have become used so much to refer to petty traveling traders, that the terms "falconer" and "falconry" now apply to most use of trained birds of prey to catch game. Many contemporary practitioners still use these words in their original meaning, however.


title: Falconry

text: In early English falconry literature, the word "falcon" referred to a female peregrine falcon only, while the word "hawk" or "hawke" referred to a female hawk. A male hawk or falcon was referred to as a "tiercel" (sometimes spelled "tercel"), as it was roughly one-third less than the female in size. This traditional Arabian sport grew throughout Europe. Falconry is an icon of Emirati and Arab culture.


title: Falconry

text: Evidence suggests that the art of falconry may have begun in Mesopotamia, with the earliest accounts dating to around 2,000 BC. Also, some raptor representations are in the northern Altai, western Mongolia. The falcon was a symbolic bird of ancient Mongol tribes. Some disagreement exists about whether such early accounts document the practice of falconry (from the "Epic of Gilgamesh" and others) or are misinterpreted depictions of humans with birds of prey. During the Turkic Period of Central Asia (seventh century AD), concrete figures of falconers on horseback were described on the rocks in Kyrgyz. Falconry was probably introduced to Europe around AD 400, when the Huns and Alans invaded from the east. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194–1250) is generally acknowledged as the most significant wellspring of traditional falconry knowledge. He is believed to have obtained firsthand knowledge of Arabic falconry during wars in the region (between June 1228 and June 1229). He obtained a copy of Moamyn's manual on falconry and had it translated into Latin by Theodore of Antioch. Frederick II himself made corrections to the translation in 1241, resulting in "De Scientia Venandi per Aves". King Frederick II is most recognized for his falconry treatise, "De arte venandi cum avibus" ("The Art of Hunting with Birds"). Written himself toward the end of his life, it is widely accepted as the first comprehensive book of falconry, but also notable in its contributions to ornithology and zoology. "De arte venandi cum avibus" incorporated a diversity of scholarly traditions from east to west, and is one of the earliest challenges to Aristotle's explanations of nature.


title: Falconry

text: Historically, falconry was a popular sport and status symbol among the nobles of medieval Europe, and Asia. Many historical illustrations left in Rashid al Din's "Compendium chronicles" book described falconry of the middle centuries with Mongol images. Falconry was largely restricted to the noble classes due to the prerequisite commitment of time, money, and space. In art and other aspects of culture, such as literature, falconry remained a status symbol long after it was no longer popularly practiced. The historical significance of falconry within lower social classes may be underrepresented in the archaeological record, due to a lack of surviving evidence, especially from nonliterate nomadic and nonagrarian societies. Within nomadic societies such as the Bedouin, falconry was not practiced for recreation by noblemen. Instead, falcons were trapped and hunted on small game during the winter to supplement a very limited diet.


title: Falconry

text: In the UK and parts of Europe, falconry probably reached its zenith in the 17th century, but soon faded, particularly in the late 18th and 19th centuries, as firearms became the tool of choice for hunting. (This likely took place throughout Europe and Asia in differing degrees.) Falconry in the UK had a resurgence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when a number of falconry books were published. This revival led to the introduction of falconry in North America in the early 20th century. Colonel R. Luff Meredith is recognized as the father of North American falconry.


title: Falconry

text: Throughout the 20th century, modern veterinary practices and the advent of radio telemetry (transmitters attached to free-flying birds) increased the average lifespan of falconry birds, and allowed falconers to pursue quarry and styles of flight that had previously resulted in the loss of their hawk or falcon.


title: Falconry

text: Medieval Normans distinguished falconry from the sport of 'hawking'. Normans practiced falconry by horseback and 'hawking' by foot. An immediate impact of the Norman Conquest of England was a penchant for falconry enjoyed by Norman nobility. So much so, in fact, that they outlawed commoners from hunting particular lands so that nobility could freely enjoy both sports. Both falconry and 'hawking' were central to Norman cultural identity in medieval times. Normans transported their falcons on a frame called a cadge.


title: Falconry

text: The often-quoted "Book of Saint Albans" or "Boke of St Albans", first printed in 1486, often attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, provides this hierarchy of hawks and the social ranks for which each bird was supposedly appropriate.


title: Falconry

text: The relevance of the "Boke" to practical falconry past or present is extremely tenuous, and veteran British falconer Phillip Glasier dismissed it as "merely a formalised and rather fanciful listing of birds".


title: Falconry

text: In determining whether a species can or should be used for falconry, the species' behavior in a captive environment, its responsiveness to training, and its typical prey and hunting habits are considered. To some degree, a species' reputation will determine whether it is used, although this factor is somewhat harder to objectively gauge.


title: Falconry

text: In North America, the capable red-tailed hawk is commonly flown by beginner falconers during their apprenticeship. Opinions differ on the usefulness of the kestrel for beginners due to its inherent fragility. In the UK, beginner falconers are often permitted to acquire a larger variety of birds, but Harris's hawk and the red-tailed hawk remain the most commonly used for beginners and experienced falconers alike. Red-tailed hawks are held in high regard in the UK due to the ease of breeding them in captivity, their inherent hardiness, and their capability hunting the rabbits and hares commonly found throughout the countryside in the UK. Many falconers in the UK and North America switch to accipiters or large falcons following their introduction with easier birds. In the US, accipiters, several types of buteos, and large falcons are only allowed to be owned by falconers who hold a general license. The three kinds of falconry licenses in the United States, typically, are the apprentice class, general class, and master class.


title: Falconry

text: The genus "Buteo", known as "hawks" in North America and not to be confused with vultures, has worldwide distribution, but is particularly well represented in North America. The red-tailed hawk, ferruginous hawk, and rarely, the red-shouldered hawk are all examples of species from this genus that are used in falconry today. The red-tailed hawk is hardy and versatile, taking rabbits, hares, and squirrels; given the right conditions, it can catch the occasional duck or pheasant. The red-tailed hawk is also considered a good bird for beginners. The Eurasian or common buzzard is also used, although this species requires more perseverance if rabbits are to be hunted.


title: Falconry

text: "Parabuteo unicinctus" is one of two representatives of the "Parabuteo" genus worldwide. The other is the white-rumped hawk ("P. leucorrhous"). Arguably the best rabbit or hare raptor available anywhere, Harris's hawk is also adept at catching birds. Often captive-bred, Harris's hawk is remarkably popular because of its temperament and ability. It is found in the wild living in groups or packs, and hunts cooperatively, with a social hierarchy similar to wolves. This highly social behavior is not observed in any other bird-of-prey species, and is very adaptable to falconry. This genus is native to the Americas from southern Texas and Arizona to South America. Harris's hawk is often used in the modern technique of car hawking (or drive-by falconry), where the raptor is launched from the window of a moving car at suitable prey.


title: Falconry

text: The genus "Accipiter" is also found worldwide. Hawk expert Mike McDermott once said, "The attack of the accipiters is extremely swift, rapid, and violent in every way." They are well known in falconry use both in Europe and North America. The northern goshawk has been trained for falconry for hundreds of years, taking a variety of birds and mammals. Other popular "Accipiter" species used in falconry include Cooper's hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk in North America and the European sparrowhawk in Europe and Eurasia.


title: Falconry

text: New Zealand is likely to be one of the few countries to use a harrier species for falconry; there, falconers successfully hunt with the Australasian harrier ("Circus approximans").


title: Falconry

text: The genus "Falco" is found worldwide and has occupied a central niche in ancient and modern falconry. Most falcon species used in falconry are specialized predators, most adapted to capturing bird prey such as the peregrine falcon and merlin. A notable exception is the use of desert falcons such the saker falcon in ancient and modern falconry in Asia and Western Asia, where hares were and are commonly taken. In North America, the prairie falcon and the gyrfalcon can capture small mammal prey such as rabbits and hares (as well as the standard gamebirds and waterfowl) in falconry, but this is rarely practiced. Young falconry apprentices in the United States often begin practicing the art with American kestrels, the smallest of the falcons in North America; debate remains on this, as they are small, fragile birds, and can die easily if neglected. Small species, such as kestrels, merlins and hobbys are most often flown on small birds such as starlings or sparrows, but can also be used for recreational bug hawking – that is, hunting large flying insects such as dragonflies, grasshoppers, and moths.


title: Falconry

text: Owls (family Strigidae) are not closely related to hawks or falcons. Little is written in classic falconry that discusses the use of owls in falconry. However, at least two species have successfully been used, the Eurasian eagle-owl and the great horned owl. Successful training of owls is much different from the training of hawks and falcons, as they are hearing- rather than sight-oriented. (Owls can only see black and white, and are long-sighted.) This often leads falconers to believe that they are less intelligent, as they are distracted easily by new or unnatural noises, and they do not respond as readily to food cues. However, if trained successfully, owls show intelligence on the same level as those of hawks and falcons.


title: Falconry

text: The "Aquila" (all have "booted" or feathered tarsi) genus has a nearly worldwide distribution. The more powerful types are used in falconry; for example golden eagles have reportedly been used to hunt wolves in Kazakhstan, and are now most widely used by the Altaic Kazakh eagle hunters in the western Mongolian province of Bayan-Ölgii to hunt foxes, and other large prey, as they are in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan. Most are primarily ground-oriented, but occasionally take birds. Eagles are not used as widely in falconry as other birds of prey, due to the lack of versatility in the larger species (they primarily hunt over large, open ground), the greater potential danger to other people if hunted in a widely populated area, and the difficulty of training and managing an eagle. A little over 300 active falconers are using eagles in Central Asia, with 250 in western Mongolia, 50 in Kazakhstan, and smaller numbers in Kyrgyzstan and western China.


title: Falconry

text: Most species of genus "Haliaëtus" catch and eat fish, some almost exclusively, but in countries where they are not protected, some have been effectively used in hunting for ground quarry.


title: Falconry

text: "See Hack (falconry) and Falconry training and technique. They can be trained by nurturing a deep bond between the falconer and Falcon.They should cover the falcon’s head with a leather band if not hunting."


title: Falconry

text: Falconry is currently practiced in many countries around the world. The falconer's traditional choice of bird is the northern goshawk and peregrine falcon. In contemporary falconry in both North America and the UK, they remain popular, although Harris' hawks and red-tailed hawks are likely more widely used. The northern goshawk and the golden eagle are more commonly used in Eastern Europe than elsewhere. In the west asia, the saker falcon is the most traditional species flown against the houbara bustard, sandgrouse, stone-curlew, other birds, and hares. Peregrines and other captive-bred imported falcons are also commonplace. Falconry remains an important part of the Arab heritage and culture. The UAE reportedly spends over US$27 million annually towards the protection and conservation of wild falcons, and has set up several state-of-the-art falcon hospitals in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital is the largest falcon hospital in the whole world. Two breeding farms are in the Emirates, as well as those in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Every year, falcon beauty contests and demonstrations take place at the ADIHEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi.


title: Falconry

text: Eurasian sparrowhawks were formerly used to take a range of small birds, but are really too delicate for serious falconry, and have fallen out of favour now that American species are available.


title: Falconry

text: In North America and the UK, falcons usually fly only after birds. Large falcons are typically trained to fly in the "waiting-on" style, where the falcon climbs and circles above the falconer and/or dog and the quarry is flushed when the falcon is in the desired commanding position. Classical game hawking in the UK had a brace of peregrine falcons flown against the red grouse, or merlins in "ringing" flights after skylarks. Rooks and crows are classic game for the larger falcons, and the magpie, making up in cunning what it lacks in flying ability, is another common target. Short-wings can be flown in both open and wooded country against a variety of bird and small mammal prey. Most hunting with large falcons requires large, open tracts where the falcon is afforded opportunity to strike or seize its quarry before it reaches cover. Most of Europe practices similar styles of falconry, but with differing degrees of regulation.


title: Falconry

text: Medieval falconers often rode horses, but this is now rare with the exception of contemporary Kazakh and Mongolian falconry. In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia, the golden eagle is traditionally flown (often from horseback), hunting game as large as foxes and wolves.


title: Falconry

text: In Japan, the northern goshawk has been used for centuries. Japan continues to honor its strong historical links with falconry ("takagari"), while adopting some modern techniques and technologies.


title: Falconry

text: In Australia, although falconry is not specifically illegal, it is illegal to keep any type of bird of prey in captivity without the appropriate permits. The only exemption is when the birds are kept for purposes of rehabilitation (for which a licence must still be held), and in such circumstances it may be possible for a competent falconer to teach a bird to hunt and kill wild quarry, as part of its regime of rehabilitation to good health and a fit state to be released into the wild.


title: Falconry

text: In New Zealand, falconry was formally legalised for one species only, the swamp/Australasian harrier ("Circus approximans") in 2011. This was only possible with over 25 years of effort from both Wingspan National Bird of Prey Center and the Raptor Association of New Zealand. Falconry can only be practiced by people who have been issued a falconry permit by the Department of Conservation. Tangent aspects, such as bird abatement and raptor rehabilitation, also employ falconry techniques to accomplish their goals.


title: Falconry

text: In the UK, the British Falconers' Club (BFC) is the oldest and largest of the falconry clubs. BFC was founded in 1927 by the surviving members of the Old Hawking Club, itself founded in 1864. Working closely with the Hawk Board, an advisory body representing the interests of UK bird of prey keepers, the BFC is in the forefront of raptor conservation, falconer education, and sustainable falconry. Established in 1927, the BFC now has a membership over 1,200 falconers. It began as a small and elite club, but it is now a sizeable democratic organisation that has members from all walks of life, flying hawks, falcons, and eagles at legal quarry throughout the British Isles.


title: Falconry

text: The North American Falconers Association (NAFA), founded in 1961, is the premier club for falconry in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and has members worldwide. NAFA is the primary club in the United States and has a membership from around the world. Most USA states have their own falconry clubs. Although these clubs are primarily social, they also serve to represent falconers within their states in regards to that state's wildlife regulations.


title: Falconry

text: The International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey, founded in 1968, currently represents 156 falconry clubs and conservation organisations from 87 countries worldwide, totalling over 75,000 members.


title: Falconry

text: The Saudi Falcons Club preserves the historical heritage associated with the falconry culture, and spreads awareness and provides training to protect falcons and flourish falconry.


title: Falconry

text: The successful and now widespread captive breeding of birds of prey began as a response to dwindling wild populations due to persistent toxins such as PCBs and DDT, systematic persecution as undesirable predators, habitat loss, and the resulting limited availability of popular species for falconry, particularly the peregrine falcon. The first known raptors to breed in captivity belonged to a German falconer named Renz Waller. In 1942–43, he produced two young peregrines in Düsseldorf in Germany.


title: Falconry

text: The first successful captive breeding of peregrine falcons in North America occurred in the early 1970s by the Peregrine Fund, professor and falconer Heinz Meng, and other private falconer/breeders such as David Jamieson and Les Boyd who bred the first peregrines by means of artificial insemination. In Great Britain, falconer Phillip Glasier of the Falconry Centre in Newent, Gloucestershire, was successful in obtaining young from more than 20 species of captive raptors. A cooperative effort began between various government agencies, non-government organizations, and falconers to supplement various wild raptor populations in peril. This effort was strongest in North America where significant private donations along with funding allocations through the Endangered Species Act of 1972 provided the means to continue the release of captive-bred peregrines, golden eagles, bald eagles, aplomado falcons and others. By the mid-1980s, falconers had become self-sufficient as regards sources of birds to train and fly, in addition to the immensely important conservation benefits conferred by captive breeding.


title: Falconry

text: Between 1972 and 2001, nearly all peregrines used for falconry in the U.S. were captive-bred from the progeny of falcons taken before the U. S. Endangered Species Act was passed, and from those few infusions of wild genes available from Canada and special circumstances. Peregrine falcons were removed from the United States' endangered species list on August 25, 1999. Finally, after years of close work with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a limited take of wild peregrines was allowed in 2001, the first wild peregrines taken specifically for falconry in over 30 years.


title: Falconry

text: Some controversy has existed over the origins of captive-breeding stock used by the Peregrine Fund in the recovery of peregrine falcons throughout the contiguous United States. Several peregrine subspecies were included in the breeding stock, including birds of Eurasian origin. Due to the extirpation of the eastern subspecies ("Falco peregrinus anatum"), its near extirpation in the Midwest, and the limited gene pool within North American breeding stock, the inclusion of non-native subspecies was justified to optimize the genetic diversity found within the species as a whole. Such strategies are common in endangered species reintroduction scenarios, where dramatic population declines result in a genetic bottleneck and the loss of genetic diversity.


title: Falconry

text: Laws regulating the hunting, import and export of wild falcons vary across Asia, and effective enforcement of current national and international regulations is lacking in some regions. It is possible that the spread of captive-bred falcons in falcon markets in the Arabian Peninsula has mitigated this demand for wild falcons.


title: Falconry

text: The species within the genus "Falco" are closely related, and some pairings produce viable offspring. The heavy northern gyrfalcon and Asiatic saker are especially closely related, and whether the Altai falcon is a subspecies of the saker or descendants of naturally occurring hybrids is not known. Peregrine and prairie falcons have been observed breeding in the wild and have produced offspring. These pairings are thought to be rare, but extra-pair copulations between closely related species may occur more frequently and/or account for most natural occurring hybridization. Some male first-generation hybrids may have viable sperm, whereas very few first-generation female hybrids lay fertile eggs. Thus, naturally occurring hybridization is thought to be somewhat insignificant to gene flow in raptor species.


title: Falconry

text: The first hybrid falcons produced in captivity occurred in western Ireland when veteran falconer Ronald Stevens and John Morris put a male saker and a female peregrine into the same moulting mews for the spring and early summer, and the two mated and produced offspring.


title: Falconry

text: Captive-bred hybrid falcons have been available since the late 1970s, and enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity in North America and the UK in the 1990s. Hybrids were initially "created" to combine the horizontal speed and size of the gyrfalcon with the good disposition and aerial ability of the peregrine. Hybrid falcons first gained large popularity throughout the Arabian Peninsula, feeding a demand for particularly large and aggressive female falcons capable and willing to take on the very large houbara bustard, the classic falconry quarry in the deserts of the West Asia. These falcons were also very popular with Arab falconers, as they tended to withstand a respiratory disease (aspergillosis from the mold genus "Aspergillus") in stressful desert conditions better than other pure species from the Northern Hemisphere.


title: Falconry

text: Some believe that no species of raptor have been in captivity long enough to have undergone successful selective breeding for desired traits. Captive breeding of raptors over several generations tends to result, either deliberately, or inevitably as a result of captivity, in selection for certain traits, including:


title: Falconry

text: Falconers' birds are inevitably lost on occasion, though most are found again. The main reason birds can be found again is because, during free flights, birds usually wear radio transmitters or bells. The transmitters are in the middle of the tail, on the back, or attached to the bird's legs.


title: Falconry

text: In 1986, a lost captive-bred female prairie falcon (which had been cross-fostered by an adult peregrine in captivity) mated with a wild male peregrine in Utah. The prairie falcon was trapped and the eggs removed, incubated, and hatched, and the hybrid offspring were given to falconers. The wild peregrine paired with another peregrine the next year.


title: Falconry

text: Falconry in Hawaii is prohibited largely due to the fears of escaped non-native birds of prey becoming established on the island chain and aggravating an already rampant problem of invasive species impacts on native wildlife and plant communities.


title: Falconry

text: In sharp contrast to the US, falconry in Great Britain is permitted without a special license, but a restriction exists of using only captive-bred birds. In the lengthy, record-breaking debates in Westminster during the passage of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Bill, efforts were made by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and other lobby groups to have falconry outlawed, but these were successfully resisted. After a centuries-old but informal existence in Britain, the sport of falconry was finally given formal legal status in Great Britain by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which allowed it to continue, provided all captive raptors native to the UK were officially ringed and government-registered. DNA testing was also available to verify birds' origins. Since 1982, the British government's licensing requirements have been overseen by the Chief Wildlife Act Inspector for Great Britain, who is assisted by a panel of unpaid assistant inspectors.


title: Falconry

text: British falconers are entirely reliant upon captive-bred birds for their sport. The taking of raptors from the wild for falconry, although permitted by law under government licence, has not been allowed in recent decades.


title: Falconry

text: Anyone is permitted to possess legally registered or captive-bred raptors, although falconers are anxious to point out this is not synonymous with falconry, which specifically entails the hunting of live quarry with a trained bird. A raptor kept merely as a pet or possession, although the law may allow it, is not considered to be a falconer's bird. Birds may be used for breeding or kept after their hunting days are over, but falconers believe it is preferable that young, fit birds are flown at quarry.


title: Falconry

text: In the United States, falconry is legal in all states except Hawaii, and in the District of Columbia. A falconer must have a state permit to practice the sport. (Requirements for a federal permit were changed in 2008 and the program discontinued effective January 1, 2014.) Acquiring a falconry license in the United States requires an aspiring falconer to pass a written test, have equipment and facilities inspected, and serve a minimum of two years as an apprentice under a licensed falconer, during which time, the apprentice falconer may only possess one raptor. Three classes of the falconry license have a permit issued jointly by the falconer's state of residence and the federal government. The aforementioned apprentice license matriculates to a general class license, which allows the falconer to up to three raptors at one time. (Some jurisdictions may further limit this.) After a minimum of five years at general level, falconers may apply for a master class license, which allows them to keep up to five wild raptors for falconry and an unlimited number of captive-produced raptors. (All must be used for falconry.) Certain highly experienced master falconers may also apply to possess golden eagles for falconry.


title: Falconry

text: Within the United States, a state's regulations are limited by federal law and treaties protecting raptors. Most states afford falconers an extended hunting season relative to seasons for archery and firearms, but species to be hunted, bag limits, and possession limits remain the same for both. No extended seasons for falconry exist for the hunting of migratory birds such as waterfowl and doves.


title: Falconry

text: Federal regulation of falconry in North America is enforced under the statutes of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA), originally designed to address the rampant commercial market hunting of migratory waterfowl during the early 20th century. Birds of prey suffered extreme persecution from the early 20th century through the 1960s, where thousands of birds were shot at conspicuous migration sites, and many state wildlife agencies issued bounties for carcasses. Due to widespread persecution and further impacts to raptor populations from DDT and other toxins, the act was amended in 1972 to include birds of prey. (Eagles are also protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1959.) Under the MBTA, taking migratory birds, their eggs, feathers, or nests is illegal. Take is defined in the MBTA to "include by any means or in any manner, any attempt at hunting, pursuing, wounding, killing, possessing, or transporting any migratory bird, nest, egg, or part thereof". Falconers are allowed to trap and otherwise possess certain birds of prey and their feathers with special permits issued by the Migratory Bird Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and by state wildlife agencies (issuers of trapping permits).


title: Falconry

text: The Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) restricts the import and export of most native birds species and are listed in the CITES Appendices I, II, and III.


title: Falconry

text: The Wild Bird Conservation Act, legislation put into effect "circa" 1993, regulates importation of any CITES-listed birds into the United States.


title: Falconry

text: Some controversy exists over the issue of falconer's ownership of captive-bred birds of prey. Falconry permits are issued by states in a manner that entrusts falconers to "take" (trap) and possess permitted birds and use them only for permitted activities, but does not transfer legal ownership. No legal distinction is made between native wild-trapped vs. captive-bred birds of the same species. This legal position is designed to discourage the commercial exploitation of native wildlife.


title: Falconry

text: Falcons can live into their midteens, with larger hawks living longer and eagles likely to see out middle-aged owners. Through the captive breeding of rescued birds, the last 30 years have had a great rebirth of the sport, with a host of innovations; falconry's popularity, through lure flying displays at country houses and game fairs, has probably never been higher in the past 300 years. Ornithologist Tim Gallagher, editor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's "Living Bird" magazine, documented his experiences with modern falconry in a 2008 book, "Falcon Fever".


title: Falconry

text: Making use of the natural relationship between raptors and their prey, falconry is now used to control pest birds and animals in urban areas, landfills, commercial buildings, hotels, and airports.


title: Falconry

text: Falconry centres or bird-of-prey centres house these raptors. They are responsible for many aspects of bird-of-prey conservation (through keeping the birds for education and breeding). Many conduct regular flying demonstrations and educational talks, and are popular with visitors worldwide.


title: Falconry

text: Such centres may also provide falconry courses, hawk walks, displays, and other experiences with these raptors.


title: Falconry

text: In 2010, UNESCO inscribed falconry as a living human heritage element of 11 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and the Syrian Arab Republic. Austria and Hungary were added in 2012, and Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and Portugal were added in 2016. With a total of eighteen countries, falconry is the largest multi-national nomination on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: Tommy Lynn Sells (June 28, 1964 – April 3, 2014) was an American serial killer. He was convicted of one murder, for which he received the death penalty and was eventually executed. Authorities believe he committed a total of 22 murders.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: Tommy Lynn Sells was born in Oakland, California on June 28, 1964. Sells and his twin sister, Tammy Jean, contracted meningitis when they were 18 months old; Tammy died from the illness. Shortly thereafter, Sells was sent to live with his aunt, Bonnie Walpole, in Holcomb, Missouri. When he was five years old, he was returned to his mother after she found out his aunt wanted to adopt him.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: Sells claimed that when he was eight, he began spending time with a man named Willis Clark, who began to molest him with the consent of his mother. Sells stated that this abuse affected him greatly, and he would relive his experiences while committing his crimes.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: Homeless, Sells hitchhiked and train-hopped across the United States from 1978 to 1999, committing various crimes along the way. He held several very short-term manual-labor and barber jobs. He drank heavily, abused drugs, and was imprisoned several times.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: In 1990, Sells stole a truck in Wyoming and was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment. He was diagnosed with a personality disorder consisting of antisocial, borderline, and schizoid features, substance use disorder (severe opioid, amphetamines, and alcohol dependence), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and psychosis.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: On May 13, 1992, Fabienne Witherspoon, a 19-year-old woman in Charleston, West Virginia, was driving when she saw Sells panhandling under an overpass with a sign that said, "I will work for food." She felt sorry for him and took him to her home, asking him to wait outside. She went into her home to get some food for him, and by the time she got back to her front door, he was inside. When she walked away to get something else, he got a knife from her kitchen, trapped her in a bathroom, and attempted to rape her.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: The woman fought back, hitting him in the head repeatedly with a ceramic duck and getting control of his knife and stabbing him, nicking his kidney and liver. In addition, his testicle was sliced. In retaliation, Sells beat her over the head with a piano stool. Sells tried to get away but his injuries landed him in the ICU and in police custody. Witherspoon sustained significant injuries herself including a gape in her head and a cut in her hand that required surgery. After this attack, Sells took a plea deal on malicious wounding charges and served five years in prison.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: While serving this sentence, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and married Nora Price. He was released in 1997 and moved to Tennessee with his wife. He then left her that same year and resumed his cross-country travels.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: Police investigators believe Sells murdered at least 22 people. Retired Texas Ranger John Allen said, "We did confirm 22... I know there's more. I know there's a lot more. Obviously, we won't ever know [a definite number of crimes by Sells]." Sells said he committed his first murder at age 15, after breaking into a house. While in the house, Sells claimed to have discovered a man performing fellatio on a boy and killed the man in a fit of rage.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: In July 1985, 21-year-old Sells worked at a Forsyth, Missouri, carnival, where he met 28-year-old Ena Cordt (November 15, 1956 – July 27, 1985) and her 4-year-old son Rory (August 3, 1980 – July 27, 1985). Cordt invited Sells to her home that evening. According to Sells, he had sex with her, fell asleep, and awoke to find her stealing from his backpack. He proceeded to beat Cordt to death with her son's baseball bat. He then murdered her son because the child was a potential witness. The bludgeoned bodies were found three days later, by which time Sells had left town.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: In November 2015, Melissa DeBoer "née" Tate contacted police after watching an episode of "Crime Watch Daily" which featured Sells. In 1982, DeBoer's mother, JoAnne Tate, was murdered in her St. Louis home; her testimony as a 7-year-old assaulted in the sexual attack helped identify Rodney Lincoln as the killer. However, DeBoer came to believe Sells, not Lincoln, murdered her mother in 1982. In 2018, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens commuted Lincoln's sentence to time served and he was released from prison.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: On December 31, 1999, in the Guajia Bay subdivision, west of Del Rio, Texas, Sells sexually assaulted, stabbed and killed 13-year-old Kaylene "Katy" Harris before slitting the throat of 10-year-old Krystal Surles. Krystal survived and received help from the neighbors after traveling a quarter-mile to their home with a severed trachea. Sells was apprehended after being identified from a sketch made from the victim's description. Police over time came to suspect him of "working the system" by confessing to murders he had not committed.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: The state's attorney in Jefferson County, Illinois, declined to charge Sells with the Dardeen family homicides in 1987 because his confession to the quadruple killing, while generally consistent with the facts of the case as reported in the media, was inaccurate with concern to some details that had not been made public. He also changed his account three times regarding how he had met the family. Investigators wanted to bring Sells to southern Illinois to resolve their doubts, but Texas refused, due to its law forbidding death-row prisoners from leaving the state.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: Sells was housed on death row in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice received him on November 8, 2000.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: In 2004, Sells confessed that on October 13, 1997, he broke into a home, took a knife from a butcher block in the kitchen, stabbed a little boy to death, and scuffled with a woman. Those details corroborated the account of Julie Rea Harper, who was initially convicted for the murder of her son, and then acquitted in 2006.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: On January 3, 2014, a Del Rio judge set Sells' execution date for April 3, 2014. Sells' death sentence was carried out at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville. When asked if he would like to make a final statement, Sells replied, "No." As a lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered, he took a few deep breaths, closed his eyes, and began to snore. Less than a minute later, he stopped moving. Thirteen minutes later, at 6:27 p.m. (CDT), he was pronounced dead. Krystal Surles and members of both the Harris and Perez families attended the execution.


title: Tommy Lynn Sells

text: Eight years before his execution, Sells was one of the featured interviewees on episode two "("Cold-Blooded Killers")" of season one on the Investigation Discovery documentary series, "Most Evil". The interview was done by forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Stone. In the interview, Sells claimed to have killed more than 70 people. ABC News created a 10-minute mini-documentary "Tommy Lynn Sells - The Mind of a Psychopath". In 2021, A&E Networks original show "I Survived A Serial Killer" made an episode about the Fabienne Witherspoon story.


title: Night in the Woods

text: Night in the Woods is a 2017 single-player adventure video game. It was developed by Infinite Fall, a studio founded by game designer Alec Holowka and animator/artist Scott Benson, and Secret Lab, an Australian studio, and published by Finji. The game was funded via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, where it eventually earned over 400% of its funding goal.


title: Night in the Woods

text: It is a story-focused exploration game in which the player follows a young woman named Mae Borowski, who recently dropped out of college and has returned to her hometown to find unexpected changes.


title: Night in the Woods

text: Prior to the release of "Night in the Woods", a companion game titled "Longest Night" was released in December 2013 by Holowka and Benson, along with co-writer Bethany Hockenberry. In December 2014, a second supplemental game was released, titled "Lost Constellation".


title: Night in the Woods

text: The game was released on February 21, 2017 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and PlayStation 4. The Xbox One version was released on December 13, 2017. An extended version of the game, titled the "Weird Autumn" edition, was released for PC, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on December 13, 2017 and also for Nintendo Switch on February 1, 2018. It features new content not seen in the first release, as well as the supplemental games. A version for iOS was released later on September 9, 2021.


title: Night in the Woods

text: "Night in the Woods" received notable critical praise, mostly for its soundtrack, story, dialogue and characters.


title: Night in the Woods

text: Mae, an only child, has returned home to Possum Springs—a town populated by zoomorphic humans. Now living in her parents' attic, she discovers how much times have changed since the closing of the town's coal mines, uncovering a dark mystery that leads her into the nearby woods. She is forced to confront a horrible secret the town has hidden for decades involving not only the town's mine, but also the recent disappearance of her longtime friend Casey. Mae's friends also include Bea, a cigarette-smoking crocodile and Mae's childhood friend; Gregg, a hyperactive fox; and his boyfriend, a bear named Angus. "Paste" describes the themes covered as "mental illness, depression, the stagnancy of the middle and lower classes, and the slow death of small town America."


title: Night in the Woods

text: As Mae, players run, jump, and learn other mechanics that allow them to explore Possum Springs. Benson described the key actions for the player as "explore, converse, see and touch", while Holowka described their approach as "narrative-focused" rather than "gameplay-first". Players make decisions that affect the course of the story, though Benson said, "it's more like 'do you hang out with this person?' Okay, cool. That person might not know you as well by the end of the game, but this person you hung out with, you're going to get to see their storyline."


title: Night in the Woods

text: Margaret "Mae" Borowski is a 20-year-old college dropout, who relocates back to her Rust Belt-inspired hometown of Possum Springs, where the closure of local coal mines has led to visible economic stagnation. She meets up with her old friends, including gloomy but intelligent Beatrice "Bea" Santello, hyperactive delinquent Greggory "Gregg" Lee, and his quiet modest boyfriend Angus Delaney. Mae also learns that another one of her old friends, Casey Hartley, has mysteriously disappeared.


title: Night in the Woods

text: Mae spends several days exploring Possum Springs and spending time with her friends, but she also begins to have strange and vivid dreams. At the town's autumn "Harfest" (Halloween) festival, Mae witnesses a teenager being kidnapped by a mysterious figure, whom Mae believes is a ghost, but her friends are skeptical. The four begin hesitantly working together to figure out the goings-on, as Mae's mental health slowly deteriorates with each one of her dreams. After intensive investigation, the friends come across a mysterious group of cloaked figures in the woods, who give chase; Mae falls and lapses into a coma, while her friends manage to escape.


title: Night in the Woods

text: Mae eventually wakes up and returns to her friends after being rescued by churchgoers, and reveals that she dropped out due to her increasing dissociation from people and the world (implied to be a form of depersonalization disorder), seeing everything as merely shapes. Mae's journal, in which she draws pictures for each major in-game event, was given to her by the town doctor to write down her emotions after she bludgeoned a student with a softball bat six years prior to the game's events during a dissociative episode. This incident caused the townsfolk to become wary of Mae and imposed a financial and emotional strain on her family. As her dissociation worsened at college, Mae chose to return home, hoping that being in a familiar place would help her return to normal.


title: Night in the Woods

text: Still wounded, Mae ventures out into the woods alone to find the group who chased her and the others, only for Gregg, Bea, and Angus to arrive and refuse to let her go by herself. The group enters the old mines and confronts the mysterious cult, where they find out they have been kidnapping "those whom they deem will not be missed" - this includes their missing friend Casey - into the mines to be sacrificed to a god-like chthonic entity called the Black Goat, in the hope that it will revitalize the economy of Possum Springs. The cult's leader allows the group to leave, threatening them never to tell anyone about the cult – however while the group is leaving in the mine's elevator, a cultist ambushes them and attacks Mae. The others manage to save her and the elevator fails, collapsing the mine and presumably trapping the cult underground.


title: Night in the Woods

text: The next day, depending on whom the player interacted with the most throughout the course of the game, Mae sits down with either Bea or Gregg and discuss the events of the previous night, and all the happenings in Possum Springs. The others join them shortly after, and Mae learns that although they will all be forced to grow and adapt to life, for better or for worse, they can still enjoy their time together now. The game ends as the four decide to forget about their problems for the time being and have band practice.


title: Night in the Woods

text: "Night in the Woods" was announced on October 22, 2013, on Kickstarter. Holowka and Benson set a funding goal, which was reached in only 26 hours. The project eventually earned over in crowdfunding. The additional funding allowed Infinite Fall to hire animator Charles Huettner to create additional animations, and for Infinite Ammo and game developer Adam Saltsman to create a roguelike that is playable within "Night in the Woods". While Benson believed adding further stretch goals would result in additional backers, Infinite Fall limited the amount of stretch goals to avoid scope creep. Benson names Chris Ware, Mike Mignola, Mary Blair, Flannery O’Connor, and Richard Scarry as influences on his work on "Night in the Woods". He later stated the name was taken from the first song in "The World/Inferno Friendship Society's" album "The Bridgewater Astral League," which influenced certain themes in the game, as well.


title: Night in the Woods

text: In October 2017, it was announced that the game would be ported to iOS devices by Australian studio Secret Lab, who created the narrative engine used by the game. The port was tentatively due for release in 2018, but released on September 9, 2021. In January 2018, the game was officially announced for the Nintendo Switch, and was released for the console the following month, including all content from the "Weird Autumn" edition. A physical version was planned to be released through Limited Run Games, but was delayed indefinitely after the rest of the development team cut their ties with Holowka, following accusations of physical and emotional abuse by Holowka's ex-partner Zoë Quinn.Five years after the game's release, Limited Run Games would officially start accepting preorders for the physical version starting December 18, 2022 and lasting until January 29, 2023. The collector's edition includes the game, the soundtracks for both the main game and "Demon Tower" on CD, acrylic stands, a coin, a physical version of Mae's journal, a planisphere, glow-in-the-dark cards and sticker sheets.


title: Night in the Woods

text: Developer Alec Holowka created the soundtrack for "Night in the Woods". Three albums of the game's music were released via Bandcamp on March 9, 2017. Holowka named DIIV as a large influence on the game's score.


title: Night in the Woods

text: "Night in the Woods" received very favourable reviews. On Metacritic, the PS4 version has an average score of 87 from 15 critics, and the PC version has an average score of 88 from 30 critics. Praise is mainly given to the writing and characters. In his review of both "Night in the Woods" and "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands", Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of "Zero Punctuation" called the game "a solid 'worth checking out'" and complimented its "strong writing" while stating his reservations about the game's pacing and tone. In Japan, where the PlayStation 4 and Switch versions were ported and published by Playism on March 28, 2019, "Famitsu" gave them each a score of one nine and three eights for a total of 33 out of 40.


title: Night in the Woods

text: "Eurogamer" ranked the game 13th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017", and "GamesRadar+" ranked it 17th on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017, while "Polygon" ranked it 23rd on their list of the 50 best games of 2017. The game was nominated for "Best Comedy Game" in "PC Gamer"s 2017 Game of the Year Awards. It won the award for "Best Adventure Game" in IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, whereas its other nominations were for "Best Art Direction", "Best Story", and "Best Original Music". In Giant Bomb's 2017 Game of the Year Awards, the game won the award for "Best Cast of Characters", and was a runner-up each for "Best Debut", "Best Story", and "Game of the Year". It also won the award for "Best Character" (Mae) and "Best Dialogue" in "Game Informer"s 2017 Adventure Game of the Year Awards. Before that, the game won the award "Best 2D Visuals" and the overall award "Golden Cube" in the Unity Awards 2017, whereas it was nominated for "Best Desktop/Console Game".


title: Night in the Woods

text: Penelope Scott's 2020 song "Rät," references the game in its lyrics, specifically Selmers' dream of leaving Possum Springs.


title: Night in the Woods

text: In June 2022, during a Portland Timbers match against Houston Dynamo FC, Mae was depicted in a banner with an axe in a three-banner display, reading "From Stonewall a brick and Portland an axe, respect our pride or expect our wrath". The developers have stated that Mae's character is pansexual. In a tweet in reaction to the banner, Scott Benson stated that he endorsed the message and that his "jaw dropped" upon seeing it.


title: Mahavidya

text: The Mahavidya (, , lit. "Great Wisdoms") are a group of ten Hindu Tantric goddesses. The 10 Mahavidyas are usually named in the following sequence: Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Bhairavi , Chhinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matangi and Kamala. Nevertheless the formation of this group encompass divergent and varied religious traditions that include "yogini" worship, Saivism, Vaishnavism, and Vajrayana Buddhism.


title: Mahavidya

text: The development of the Mahavidyas represent an important turning point in the history of Shaktism as it marks the rise of the Bhakti aspect in Shaktism, which reached its zenith in 1700 CE. First sprung forth in the post-Puranic age, around 6th century C.E., it was a new theistic movement in which the supreme being was envisioned as female. A fact epitomized by texts like "Devi-Bhagavata Purana", especially its last nine chapters (31-40) of the seventh "skandha", which are known as the "Devi Gita", and soon became central texts of Shaktism.


title: Mahavidya

text: Shaktas believe, "the one Truth is sensed in ten different facets; the Divine Mother is adored and approached as ten cosmic personalities," the Dasa-Mahavidya ("ten-Mahavidyas"). As per another school of thought in Shaktism Mahavidyas are considered to be form of Mahakali. The Mahavidyas are considered Tantric in nature, and are usually identified as:


title: Mahavidya

text: The "Maha bhagavata Purana" and "Brihaddharma Purana" however, list Shodashi (Sodasi) as Tripura Sundari, which is simply another name for the same goddess. The Guhyati guyha-tantra associates the Mahavidyas with the ten Avatars of Vishnu, and states that the Mahavidyas are the source from which the avatars of Vishnu arose.


title: Mahavidya

text: "Note": In the above list do not get confused the names of Matanga Bhairava with Matanga Rishi, and Narada Bhairava with Narada Rishi.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Bartolomé de las Casas, OP ( ; ; 11 November 1484 – 18 July 1566) was a 16th-century Spanish landowner, friar, priest, and bishop, famed as a historian and social reformer. He arrived in Hispaniola as a layman then became a Dominican friar and priest. He was appointed as the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians". His extensive writings, the most famous being "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" and "Historia de Las Indias", chronicle the first decades of colonization of the West Indies. He described the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Arriving as one of the first Spanish (and European) settlers in the Americas, Las Casas initially participated in, but eventually felt compelled to oppose, the abuses committed by colonists against the Native Americans. As a result, in 1515 he gave up his Native American slaves and "encomienda", and advocated, before King Charles I of Spain, on behalf of rights for the natives. In his early writings, he advocated the use of African and white slaves instead of Natives in the West Indian colonies but did so without knowing that the Portuguese were carrying out "brutal and unjust wars in the name of spreading the faith". Later in life, he retracted this position, as he regarded both forms of slavery as equally wrong. In 1522, he tried to launch a new kind of peaceful colonialism on the coast of Venezuela, but this venture failed. Las Casas entered the Dominican Order and became a friar, leaving public life for a decade. He traveled to Central America, acting as a missionary among the Maya of Guatemala and participating in debates among colonial churchmen about how best to bring the natives to the Christian faith.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Travelling back to Spain to recruit more missionaries, he continued lobbying for the abolition of the "encomienda", gaining an important victory by the passage of the New Laws in 1542. He was appointed Bishop of Chiapas, but served only for a short time before he was forced to return to Spain because of resistance to the New Laws by the "encomenderos", and conflicts with Spanish settlers because of his pro-Indian policies and activist religious stance. He served in the Spanish court for the remainder of his life; there he held great influence over Indies-related issues. In 1550, he participated in the Valladolid debate, in which Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda argued that the Indians were less than human, and required Spanish masters to become civilized. Las Casas maintained that they were fully human, and that forcefully subjugating them was unjustifiable.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Bartolomé de las Casas spent 50 years of his life actively fighting slavery and the colonial abuse of indigenous peoples, especially by trying to convince the Spanish court to adopt a more humane policy of colonization. Unlike some other priests who sought to destroy the indigenous peoples' native books and writings, he strictly opposed this action. Although he did not completely succeed in changing Spanish views on colonization, his efforts did result in improvement of the legal status of the natives, and in an increased colonial focus on the ethics of colonialism.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Bartolomé de las Casas was born in Seville in 1484, on 11 November. For centuries, Las Casas's birthdate was believed to be 1474; however, in the 1970s, scholars conducting archival work demonstrated this to be an error, after uncovering in the "Archivo General de Indias" records of a contemporary lawsuit that demonstrated he was born a decade later than had been supposed. Subsequent biographers and authors have generally accepted and reflected this revision. His father, Pedro de las Casas, a merchant, descended from one of the families that had migrated from France to found the Christian Seville; his family also spelled the name "Casaus". According to one biographer, his family was of "converso" heritage, although others refer to them as ancient Christians who migrated from France. Following the testimony of Las Casas's biographer Antonio de Remesal, tradition has it that Las Casas studied a "licentiate" at Salamanca, but this is never mentioned in Las Casas's own writings.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas' first encounter with Indigenous peoples happened before he even sailed to the Americas. In his "Historia general de las Indias", he wrote of Christopher Columbus' return to Seville, in 1493. Las Casas recorded having seen "seven Indians" in the entourage of Christopher Columbus, being exhibited in the vicinity of the Iglesia de San Nicolás de Bari, along "beautiful green parrots, vibrant in color" and Indigenous artifacts. Pedro de Las Casas, Bartolomé's merchant father, left in Christopher Columbus' second expedition. Upon his return, in 1499, Pedro de Las Casas brought to his son "a young Amerinidian."


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Three years later, in 1502, Las Casas immigrated with his father to the island of Hispaniola, on the expedition of Nicolás de Ovando. Las Casas became a "hacendado" and slave owner, receiving a piece of land in the province of Cibao. He participated in slave raids and military expeditions against the native Taíno population of Hispaniola. In 1506 he returned to Spain and completed his studies of canon law at Salamanca. That same year he was ordained a deacon and then traveled to Rome where he was ordained a secular priest in 1507.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: In September 1510, a group of Dominican friars arrived in Santo Domingo led by Pedro de Córdoba; appalled by the injustices they saw committed by the slaveowners against the Indians, they decided to deny slave owners the right to confession. Las Casas was among those denied confession for this reason. In December 1511, a Dominican preacher Fray Antonio de Montesinos preached a fiery sermon that implicated the colonists in the genocide of the native peoples. He is said to have preached, "Tell me by what right of justice do you hold these Indians in such a cruel and horrible servitude? On what authority have you waged such detestable wars against these people who dealt quietly and peacefully on their own lands? Wars in which you have destroyed such an infinite number of them by homicides and slaughters never heard of before. Why do you keep them so oppressed and exhausted, without giving them enough to eat or curing them of the sicknesses they incur from the excessive labor you give them, and they die, or rather you kill them, in order to extract and acquire gold every day." Las Casas himself argued against the Dominicans in favour of the justice of the encomienda. The colonists, led by Diego Columbus, dispatched a complaint against the Dominicans to the King, and the Dominicans were recalled from Hispaniola.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: In 1513, as a chaplain, Las Casas participated in Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar's and Pánfilo de Narváez' conquest of Cuba. He participated in campaigns at Bayamo and Camagüey and in the massacre of Hatuey. He witnessed many atrocities committed by Spaniards against the native Ciboney and Guanahatabey peoples. He later wrote: "I saw here cruelty on a scale no living being has ever seen or expects to see." Las Casas and his friend Pedro de la Rentería were awarded a joint encomienda which was rich in gold and slaves, located on the Arimao River close to Cienfuegos. During the next few years, he divided his time between being a colonist and his duties as an ordained priest.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: In 1514, Las Casas was studying a passage in the book Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 34:18–22 for a Pentecost sermon and pondering its meaning. Las Casas was finally convinced that all the actions of the Spanish in the New World had been illegal and that they constituted a great injustice. He made up his mind to give up his slaves and encomienda, and started to preach that other colonists should do the same. When his preaching met with resistance, he realized that he would have to go to Spain to fight there against the enslavement and abuse of the native people. Aided by Pedro de Córdoba and accompanied by Antonio de Montesinos, he left for Spain in September 1515, arriving in Seville in November.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas arrived in Spain with the plan of convincing the King to end the encomienda system. This was easier thought than done, as most of the people who were in positions of power were themselves either encomenderos or otherwise profiting from the influx of wealth from the Indies. In the winter of 1515, King Ferdinand lay ill in Plasencia, but Las Casas was able to get a letter of introduction to the king from the Archbishop of Seville, Diego de Deza. On Christmas Eve of 1515, Las Casas met the monarch and discussed the situation in the Indies with him; the king agreed to hear him out in more detail at a later date. While waiting, Las Casas produced a report that he presented to the Bishop of Burgos, Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, and secretary Lope Conchillos, who were functionaries in complete charge of the royal policies regarding the Indies; both were encomenderos. They were not impressed by his account, and Las Casas had to find a different avenue of change. He put his faith in his coming audience with the king, but it never came, for King Ferdinand died on 25 January 1516. The regency of Castile passed on to Ximenez Cisneros and Adrian of Utrecht who were guardians for the under-age Prince Charles. Las Casas was resolved to see Prince Charles who resided in Flanders, but on his way there he passed Madrid and delivered to the regents a written account of the situation in the Indies and his proposed remedies. This was his ""Memorial de Remedios para Las Indias"" of 1516. In this early work, Las Casas advocated importing black slaves from Africa to relieve the suffering Indians, a stance he later retracted, becoming an advocate for the Africans in the colonies as well. This shows that Las Casas's first concern was not to end slavery as an institution, but to end the physical abuse and suffering of the Indians. In keeping with the legal and moral doctrine of the time Las Casas believed that slavery could be justified if it was the result of Just War, and at the time he assumed that the enslavement of Africans was justified. Worried by Las Casas' descriptions of the situation in the Indies, Cardinal Cisneros decided to send a group of Hieronymite monks to take over the government of the islands.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Three Hieronymite monks, Luis de Figueroa, Bernardino de Manzanedo, and Alonso de Santo Domingo, were selected as commissioners to take over the authority of the Indies. Las Casas had a considerable part in selecting them and writing the instructions under which their new government would be instated, largely based on Las Casas's "memorial". Las Casas himself was granted the official title of Protector of the Indians, and given a yearly salary of one hundred pesos. In this new office Las Casas was expected to serve as an advisor to the new governors with regard to Indian issues, to speak the case of the Indians in court, and send reports back to Spain. Las Casas and the commissioners traveled to Santo Domingo on separate ships, and Las Casas arrived two weeks later than the Hieronimytes. During this time the Hieronimytes had time to form a more pragmatic view of the situation than the one advocated by Las Casas; their position was precarious as every encomendero on the Islands was fiercely against any attempts to curtail their use of native labour. Consequently, the commissioners were unable to take any radical steps towards improving the situation of the natives. They did revoke some encomiendas from Spaniards, especially those who were living in Spain and not on the islands themselves; they even repossessed the encomienda of Fonseca, the Bishop of Burgos. They also carried out an inquiry into the Indian question at which all the encomenderos asserted that the Indians were quite incapable of living freely without their supervision. Las Casas was disappointed and infuriated. When he accused the Hieronymites of being complicit in kidnapping Indians, the relationship between Las Casas and the commissioners broke down. Las Casas had become a hated figure by Spaniards all over the islands, and he had to seek refuge in the Dominican monastery. The Dominicans had been the first to indict the encomenderos, and they continued to chastise them and refuse the absolution of confession to slave owners, and even stated that priests who took their confession were committing a mortal sin. In May 1517, Las Casas was forced to travel back to Spain to denounce to the regent the failure of the Hieronymite reforms. Only after Las Casas had left did the Hieronymites begin to congregate Indians into towns similar to what Las Casas had wanted.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: When he arrived in Spain, his former protector, regent, and Cardinal Ximenez Cisneros, was ill and had become tired of Las Casas's tenacity. Las Casas resolved to meet instead with the young king Charles I. Ximenez died on 8 November, and the young King arrived in Valladolid on 25 November 1517. Las Casas managed to secure the support of the king's Flemish courtiers, including the powerful Chancellor Jean de la Sauvage. Las Casas's influence turned the favor of the court against Secretary Conchillos and Bishop Fonseca. Sauvage spoke highly of Las Casas to the king, who appointed Las Casas and Sauvage to write a new plan for reforming the governmental system of the Indies.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas suggested a plan where the encomienda would be abolished and Indians would be congregated into self-governing townships to become tribute-paying vassals of the king. He still suggested that the loss of Indian labor for the colonists could be replaced by allowing importation of African slaves. Another important part of the plan was to introduce a new kind of sustainable colonization, and Las Casas advocated supporting the migration of Spanish peasants to the Indies where they would introduce small-scale farming and agriculture, a kind of colonization that didn't rely on resource depletion and Indian labor. Las Casas worked to recruit a large number of peasants who would want to travel to the islands, where they would be given lands to farm, cash advances, and the tools and resources they needed to establish themselves there. The recruitment drive was difficult, and during the process the power relation shifted at court when Chancellor Sauvage, Las Casas's main supporter, unexpectedly died. In the end a much smaller number of peasant families were sent than originally planned, and they were supplied with insufficient provisions and no support secured for their arrival. Those who survived the journey were ill-received, and had to work hard even to survive in the hostile colonies. Las Casas was devastated by the tragic result of his peasant migration scheme, which he felt had been thwarted by his enemies. He decided instead to undertake a personal venture which would not rely on the support of others, and fought to win a land grant on the American mainland which was in its earliest stage of colonization.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Following a suggestion by his friend and mentor Pedro de Córdoba, Las Casas petitioned a land grant to be allowed to establish a settlement in northern Venezuela at Cumaná. Founded in 1515, there was already a small Franciscan monastery in Cumana, and a Dominican one at Chiribichi, but the monks there were being harassed by Spaniards operating slave raids from the nearby Island of Cubagua. To make the proposal palatable to the king, Las Casas had to incorporate the prospect of profits for the royal treasury. He suggested fortifying the northern coast of Venezuela, establishing ten royal forts to protect the Indians and starting up a system of trade in gold and pearls. All the Indian slaves of the New World should be brought to live in these towns and become tribute paying subjects to the king. To secure the grant, Las Casas had to go through a long court fight against Bishop Fonseca and his supporters Gonzalo de Oviedo and Bishop Quevedo of Tierra Firme. Las Casas's supporters were Diego Columbus and the new chancellor Gattinara. Las Casas's enemies slandered him to the king, accusing him of planning to escape with the money to Genoa or Rome. In 1520 Las Casas's concession was finally granted, but it was a much smaller grant than he had initially proposed; he was also denied the possibilities of extracting gold and pearls, which made it difficult for him to find investors for the venture. Las Casas committed himself to producing 15,000 ducats of annual revenue, increasing to 60,000 after ten years, and to erecting three Christian towns of at least 40 settlers each. Some privileges were also granted to the initial 50 shareholders in Las Casas's scheme. The king also promised not to give any encomienda grants in Las Casas's area. That said, finding fifty men willing to invest 200 ducats each and three years of unpaid work proved impossible for Las Casas. He ended up leaving in November 1520 with just a small group of peasants, paying for the venture with money borrowed from his brother in-law.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Arriving in Puerto Rico, in January 1521, he received the terrible news that the Dominican convent at Chiribichi had been sacked by Indians, and that the Spaniards of the islands had launched a punitive expedition, led by Gonzalo de Ocampo, into the very heart of the territory that Las Casas wanted to colonize peacefully. The Indians had been provoked to attack the settlement of the monks because of the repeated slave raids by Spaniards operating from Cubagua. As Ocampo's ships began returning with slaves from the land Las Casas had been granted, he went to Hispaniola to complain to the Audiencia. After several months of negotiations Las Casas set sail alone; the peasants he had brought had deserted, and he arrived in his colony already ravaged by Spaniards.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas worked there in adverse conditions for the following months, being constantly harassed by the Spanish pearl fishers of Cubagua island who traded slaves for alcohol with the natives. Early in 1522 Las Casas left the settlement to complain to the authorities. While he was gone the native Caribs attacked the settlement of Cumaná, burned it to the ground, and killed four of Las Casas's men. He returned to Hispaniola in January 1522, and heard the news of the massacre. The rumours even included him among the dead. To make matters worse, his detractors used the event as evidence of the need to pacify the Indians using military means.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Devastated, Las Casas reacted by entering the Dominican monastery of Santa Cruz in Santo Domingo as a novice in 1522 and finally taking holy vows as a Dominican friar in 1523. There he continued his theological studies, being particularly attracted to Thomist philosophy. He oversaw the construction of a monastery in Puerto Plata on the north coast of Hispaniola, subsequently serving as prior of the convent. In 1527 he began working on his "History of the Indies", in which he reported much of what he had witnessed first hand in the conquest and colonization of New Spain. In 1531, he wrote a letter to Garcia Manrique, Count of Osorno, protesting again the mistreatment of the Indians and advocating a return to his original reform plan of 1516. In 1531 a complaint was sent by the encomenderos of Hispaniola that Las Casas was again accusing them of mortal sins from the pulpit. In 1533 he contributed to the establishment of a peace treaty between the Spanish and the rebel Taíno band of chief Enriquillo. In 1534 Las Casas made an attempt to travel to Peru to observe the first stages of conquest of that region by Francisco Pizarro. His party made it as far as Panama, but had to turn back to Nicaragua due to adverse weather. Lingering for a while in the Dominican convent of Granada, he got into conflict with Rodrigo de Contreras, Governor of Nicaragua, when Las Casas vehemently opposed slaving expeditions by the Governor. In 1536 Las Casas followed a number of friars to Guatemala, where they began to prepare to undertake a mission among the Maya Indians. They stayed in the convent founded some years earlier by Fray Domingo Betanzos and studied the K'iche' language with Bishop Francisco Marroquín, before traveling into the interior region called Tuzulutlan, "The Land of War", in 1537.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Also in 1536, before venturing into Tuzulutlan, Las Casas went to Oaxaca, Mexico, to participate in a series of discussions and debates among the bishops of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. The two orders had very different approaches to the conversion of the Indians. The Franciscans used a method of mass conversion, sometimes baptizing many thousands of Indians in a day. This method was championed by prominent Franciscans such as Toribio de Benavente, known as "Motolinia", and Las Casas made many enemies among the Franciscans for arguing that conversions made without adequate understanding were invalid. Las Casas wrote a treatise called ""De unico vocationis modo"" (On the Only Way of Conversion) based on the missionary principles he had used in Guatemala. Motolinia would later be a fierce critic of Las Casas, accusing him of being all talk and no action when it came to converting the Indians. As a direct result of the debates between the Dominicans and Franciscans and spurred on by Las Casas's treatise, Pope Paul III promulgated the Bull "Sublimis Deus," which stated that the Indians were rational beings and should be brought peacefully to the faith as such.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas returned to Guatemala in 1537 wanting to employ his new method of conversion based on two principles: 1) to preach the Gospel to all men and treat them as equals, and 2) to assert that conversion must be voluntary and based on knowledge and understanding of the faith. It was important for Las Casas that this method be tested without meddling from secular colonists, so he chose a territory in the heart of Guatemala where there were no previous colonies and where the natives were considered fierce and war-like. Because the land had not been possible to conquer by military means, the governor of Guatemala, Alonso de Maldonado, agreed to sign a contract promising that if the venture was successful he would not establish any new encomiendas in the area. Las Casas's group of friars established a Dominican presence in Rabinal, Sacapulas, and Cobán. Through the efforts of Las Casas's missionaries the so-called "Land of War" came to be called "Verapaz", "True Peace". Las Casas's strategy was to teach Christian songs to merchant Indian Christians who then ventured into the area. In this way he was successful in converting several native chiefs, among them those of Atitlán and Chichicastenango, and in building several churches in the territory named Alta Verapaz. These congregated a group of Christian Indians in the location of what is now the town of Rabinal. In 1538 Las Casas was recalled from his mission by Bishop Marroquín who wanted him to go to Mexico and then on to Spain to seek more Dominicans to assist in the mission. Las Casas left Guatemala for Mexico, where he stayed for more than a year before setting out for Spain in 1540.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: In Spain, Las Casas started securing official support for the Guatemalan mission, and he managed to get a royal decree forbidding secular intrusion into the Verapaces for the following five years. He also informed the Theologians of Salamanca, led by Francisco de Vitoria, of the mass baptism practiced by the Franciscans, resulting in a dictum condemning the practice as sacrilegious.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: But apart from the clerical business, Las Casas had also traveled to Spain for his own purpose: to continue the struggle against the colonists' mistreatment of the Indians. The encomienda had, in fact, legally been abolished in 1523, but it had been reinstituted in 1526, and in 1530 a general ordinance against slavery was reversed by the Crown. For this reason it was a pressing matter for Bartolomé de las Casas to plead once again for the Indians with Charles V who was by now Holy Roman Emperor and no longer a boy. He wrote a letter asking for permission to stay in Spain a little longer to argue for the emperor that conversion and colonization were best achieved by peaceful means.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: When the hearings started in 1542, Las Casas presented a narrative of atrocities against the natives of the Indies that would later be published in 1552 as "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies". Before a council consisting of Cardinal García de Loaysa, the Count of Osorno, Bishop Fuenleal, and several members of the Council of the Indies, Las Casas argued that the only solution to the problem was to remove all Indians from the care of secular Spaniards, by abolishing the encomienda system and putting them instead directly under the Crown as royal tribute-paying subjects. On 20 November 1542, the emperor signed the New Laws abolishing the encomiendas and removing certain officials from the Council of the Indies. The New Laws made it illegal to use Indians as carriers, except where no other transport was available, it prohibited all taking of Indians as slaves, and it instated a gradual abolition of the encomienda system, with each encomienda reverting to the Crown at the death of its holders. It also exempted the few surviving Indians of Hispaniola, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica from tribute and all requirements of personal service. However, the reforms were so unpopular in the New World that riots broke out and threats were made against Las Casas's life. The Viceroy of New Spain, himself an encomendero, decided not to implement the laws in his domain, and instead sent a party to Spain to argue against the laws on behalf of the encomenderos. Las Casas himself was also not satisfied with the laws, as they were not drastic enough and the encomienda system was going to function for many years still under the gradual abolition plan. He drafted a suggestion for an amendment arguing that the laws against slavery were formulated in such a way that it presupposed that violent conquest would still be carried out, and he encouraged once again beginning a phase of peaceful colonization by peasants instead of soldiers.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Before Las Casas returned to Spain, he was also appointed as Bishop of Chiapas, a newly established diocese of which he took possession in 1545 upon his return to the New World. He was consecrated in the Dominican Church of San Pablo on 30 March 1544. As Archbishop Loaysa strongly disliked Las Casas, the ceremony was officiated by Loaysa's nephew, Diego de Loaysa, Bishop of Modruš, with Pedro Torres, Titular Bishop of "Arbanum", and Cristóbal de Pedraza, Bishop of Comayagua, as co-consecrators. As a bishop Las Casas was involved in frequent conflicts with the encomenderos and secular laity of his diocese: among the landowners there was the conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo. In a pastoral letter issued on 20 March 1545, Las Casas refused absolution to slave owners and encomenderos even on their death bed, unless all their slaves had been set free and their property returned to them. Las Casas furthermore threatened that anyone who mistreated Indians within his jurisdiction would be excommunicated. He also came into conflict with the Bishop of Guatemala Francisco Marroquín, to whose jurisdiction the diocese had previously belonged. To Las Casas's dismay Bishop Marroquín openly defied the New Laws. While bishop, Las Casas was the principal consecrator of Antonio de Valdivieso, Bishop of Nicaragua (1544).


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The New Laws were finally repealed on 20 October 1545, and riots broke out against Las Casas, with shots being fired against him by angry colonists. After a year he had made himself so unpopular among the Spaniards of the area that he had to leave. Having been summoned to a meeting among the bishops of New Spain to be held in Mexico City on 12 January 1546, he left his diocese, never to return. At the meeting, probably after lengthy reflection, and realizing that the New Laws were lost in Mexico, Las Casas presented a moderated view on the problems of confession and restitution of property, Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga of Mexico and Bishop Julián Garcés of Puebla agreed completely with his new moderate stance, Bishop Vasco de Quiroga of Michoacán had minor reservations, and Bishops Francisco Marroquín of Guatemala and Juan Lopez de Zárate of Oaxaca did not object. This resulted in a new resolution to be presented to viceroy Mendoza. His last act as Bishop of Chiapas was writing a "confesionario", a manual for the administration of the sacrament of confession in his diocese, still refusing absolution to unrepentant encomenderos. Las Casas appointed a vicar for his diocese and set out for Europe in December 1546, arriving in Lisbon in April 1547 and in Spain on November 1547.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: Las Casas returned to Spain, leaving behind many conflicts and unresolved issues. Arriving in Spain he was met by a barrage of accusations, many of them based on his Confesionario and its 12 rules, which many of his opponents found to be in essence a denial of the legitimacy of Spanish rule of its colonies, and hence a form of treason. The Crown had for example received a fifth of the large number of slaves taken in the recent Mixtón War, and so could not be held clean of guilt under Las Casas's strict rules. In 1548 the Crown decreed that all copies of Las Casas's Confesionario be burnt, and his Franciscan adversary, Motolinia, obliged and sent back a report to Spain. Las Casas defended himself by writing two treatises on the "Just Title" – arguing that the only legality with which the Spaniards could claim titles over realms in the New World was through peaceful proselytizing. All warfare was illegal and unjust and only through the papal mandate of peacefully bringing Christianity to heathen peoples could "Just Titles" be acquired.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: As a part of Las Casas's defense by offense, he had to argue against Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Sepúlveda was a doctor of theology and law who, in his book "Democrates Alter, sive de justis causis apud Indos" (Another Democrates, or A New Democrates, or on the Just Causes of War against the Indians) had argued that some native peoples were incapable of ruling themselves and should be pacified forcefully. The book was deemed unsound for publication by the theologians of Salamanca and Alcalá for containing unsound doctrine, but the pro-encomendero faction seized on Sepúlveda as their intellectual champion.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: To settle the issues, a formal debate was organized, the famous Valladolid debate, which took place in 1550–51 with Sepúlveda and Las Casas each presenting their arguments in front of a council of jurists and theologians. First Sepúlveda read the conclusions of his "Democrates Alter", and then the council listened to Las Casas read his counterarguments in the form of an "Apología". Sepúlveda argued that the subjugation of certain Indians was warranted because of their sins against Natural Law; that their low level of civilization required civilized masters to maintain social order; that they should be made Christian and that this in turn required them to be pacified; and that only the Spanish could defend weak Indians against the abuses of the stronger ones. Las Casas countered that the scriptures did not in fact support war against all heathens, only against certain Canaanite tribes; that the Indians were not at all uncivilized nor lacking social order; that peaceful mission was the only true way of converting the natives; and finally that some weak Indians suffering at the hands of stronger ones was preferable to all Indians suffering at the hands of Spaniards.


title: Bartolomé de las Casas

text: The judge, Fray Domingo de Soto, summarised the arguments. Sepúlveda addressed Las Casas's arguments with twelve refutations, which were again countered by Las Casas. The judges then deliberated on the arguments presented for several months before coming to a verdict. The verdict was inconclusive, and both debaters claimed that they had won.