title: Epica (band)

text: Simone Simons had stated on February 1, 2020 that pre-production for the next album had been completed. On March 11, 2020, the band had entered the studio to begin recording their new album, while in turn released studio vlogs showing the album making process for their upcoming eighth studio album.


title: Epica (band)

text: Mark Jansen had said in an interview that the album's release date could be delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was reported that on April 17, 2020 that Simone Simons had finished recording vocals for the new album. Mark Jansen later confirmed on September 2, 2020 that the album had been recorded, mixed and mastered with orchestrations and choir having been wrapped up before the band began recording.


title: Epica (band)

text: Nuclear Blast later announced on October 7, 2020 the title for the band's eighth studio album, "Omega", along with a release date of February 26, 2021. On October 9, 2020, the first single off of the album, "Abyss of Time – Countdown to Singularity", was released with an official videoclip. The second single from the album, "Freedom – The Wolves Within", was released on November 27, 2020 along with a music video. The third single, "Rivers", was released on January 22, 2021 along with a visualizer video.


title: Epica (band)

text: On 29 April 2021, in support of "Omega", the band announced that they would be performing a livestream event titled "Omega Alive", which took place on 12 June 2021.


title: Epica (band)

text: On 16 September 2022, the band announced their third EP, "The Alchemy Project". It was released on 11 November 2022 via Atomic Fire. It was accompanied by official music videos for the songs "The Final Lullaby" and "Sirens – Of Blood and Water".


title: Epica (band)

text: Epica performs a blend of symphonic metal, progressive metal, gothic metal, thrash metal, melodic death metal, symphonic black metal and, more rarely, folk metal and power metal. Their former guitarist Ad Sluijter having described the band as "a bridge between power metal and gothic metal." Vocalist Simone Simons has expressed a preference for the group to be described as symphonic metal though the founder of the group Mark Jansen notes that they do not mind being called gothic metal. Mark Jansen having described the band also as "symphonic death metal" and a bridge between death metal and symphonic metal.


title: Epica (band)

text: The music of Epica is "epic, grand and majestic" and some of them is "more subdued and introspective." The band is also known to have progressive tendencies. A gothic atmosphere and sentimentality is also present in their music.


title: Epica (band)

text: Epica uses a "trademark of many symphonic and gothic metal bands" in contrasting "two extremes, death grunts and brutality on one side, airy female melodiousness on the other." Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic notes that the band's "attraction ultimately hinges on exploring the sonic contrasts of light and dark; the punishing intensity of those elephantine guitar riffs and hyperactive drumming cast against the soaring, layered sweetness of the orchestrated strings and keyboards." Simone Simons delivers classical (operatic) vocals in a mezzo-soprano range, she's begun to sing in a more modern style with belted vocals too (Rock/Pop, as she described it with the release of Consign to Oblivion on an interview) over time, and she has also been known to sometimes sing "with a clear alto voice that has a flawless tone and a lot of emotion." But, subsequently, Simone admitted that she was wrong and that she's not a mezzo-soprano, but a soprano. Mark Jansen delivers death growls "that are secondary to Simons' singing, but very important in terms of balance and variety." The group is also known to employ human choirs and orchestras with additional embellishments such as spoken word recitals and lyrics in Latin and Arabic.


title: Mathieu Amalric

text: Mathieu Amalric (; born 25 October 1965) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known internationally for his roles in the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace", in which he played the lead villain, Steven Spielberg's "Munich", Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "The French Dispatch", and for his lead performance in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", for which he drew critical acclaim. He has also won several César Awards and the Lumières Award.


title: Mathieu Amalric

text: Amalric was born on 25 October 1965 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, the son of journalists Nicole Zand, a literary critic for "Le Monde", and Jacques Amalric, who worked as a foreign affairs editor for "Le Monde" and "Libération". Amalric's father was French, while his mother was born in Poland, to Jewish parents, and moved to France at the outbreak of World War II.


title: Mathieu Amalric

text: Amalric first gained fame in the film "Ma Vie Sexuelle" ("My Sex Life...or How I Got Into an Argument"), for which he won a César Award.


title: Mathieu Amalric

text: In 2007, he starred in the critically acclaimed movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," portraying Jean-Dominique Bauby, a journalist who created his own system of communication after a stroke left him suffering from locked-in syndrome. Amalric's performance was universally acclaimed, and he won the Cesar Award for Best Actor.


title: Mathieu Amalric

text: He was selected to play the James Bond villain Dominic Greene alongside Daniel Craig (with whom he had previously starred in "Munich") in the 2008 film "Quantum of Solace".


title: Mathieu Amalric

text: His 2010 film, "On Tour", premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and won Amalric the Best Director Award.


title: Mathieu Amalric

text: The 2014 film "The Blue Room", which he directed and starred in, was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Mathieu Amalric

text: Amalric has three sons, two with his ex-wife Jeanne Balibar, and one with his former partner, a writer. As of 2019, he is in a long-term relationship with Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan.


title: WatchOS

text: watchOS is the operating system of the Apple Watch, developed by Apple Inc. It is based on iOS, the operating system used by the iPhone, and has many similar features. It was released on April 24, 2015, along with the Apple Watch, the only device that runs watchOS. watchOS exposes an API called "WatchKit" for developer use.


title: WatchOS

text: The second version, watchOS 2, included support for native third-party apps and other improvements, and was released on September 21, 2015. The third version, watchOS 3, was released on September 13, 2016, to emphasize better performance and include new watch faces and stock apps. The fourth version, watchOS 4, was released on September 19, 2017. The fifth version, watchOS 5, was released on September 17, 2018, to add more third-party support and new workouts, along with the "Walkie-Talkie" feature. The sixth version, watchOS 6, was released on September 19, 2019. The seventh version, watchOS 7, was released on September 16, 2020, to support handwashing and sleep tracking. The eighth version, watchOS 8, was released on September 20, 2021, with updates in health monitoring, visuals, and apps. The ninth version, watchOS 9, was released on September 12, 2022.


title: WatchOS

text: The home screen (rendered by and also known as "Carousel") is composed of circular application icons, which can be zoomed in and out with the Digital Crown and dragged and launched by touching the display.


title: WatchOS

text: Prior to watchOS 3, Glances provided fast access to a summarized view of the most popular native or third-party applications used on Apple Watch. The Glances view was opened with a swipe-up gesture from the watch face screen. With watchOS 3, Glances were replaced by a redesigned Control Center – much like the one in iOS. The friends menu, invoked with the side button, now acts as a dedicated dock for apps.


title: WatchOS

text: Different actions and options appear depending on whether the user taps or deep-presses, which an Apple Watch detects with its pressure-sensitive (Force Touch) Display. Force Touch was completely removed in watchOS 7, and all actions requiring the feature were moved to specific options in the Settings app or to long-press actions.


title: WatchOS

text: Since its inception, watchOS has supported an increasing number and variety of health metrics for measurement and tracking. These include:


title: WatchOS

text: For several years, Apple has been developing its HealthKit product in a bid to change the way people interact with their devices. There is also a conscious attempt to penetrate the lucrative healthcare and wellness industry, which many observers believe to hold a huge growth opportunity for Apple. This was confirmed by Jony Ive, Apple's former chief designer, in an interview. He said that health was a crucial element in the Apple Watch since the day of its inception and that the developmental trajectory of the hardware and the watchOS were geared towards health-based capabilities. Ive pointed out that one of the primary apps that shipped with the first watchOS allowed users to track and communicate as well as encourage them to move, exercise, and stand. He said:Many of us have our phones with us all the time, but they aren't connected to you. Imagine having something this powerful with you at all times, and what opportunities that might present to the user. The opportunity is phenomenal. Particularly when [you] don't understand just where we are today in terms of technology and capability, but where we are headed.One of the most recent updates to the watchOS included applications that not only keep users active but also diagnose illnesses. For example, there is the app called DeepHeart, a deep-learning network that can detect atrial fibrillation, hypertension, sleep apnea, and diabetes. It taps into the HealthKit platform to collect data, particularly those collected by the Apple Watch's heart sensor.


title: WatchOS

text: watchOS 1 was the first version of watchOS to be released. It came with iOS 8.2, instead of the initial release.


title: WatchOS

text: The first version of watchOS 1 was 1.0 and was based on iOS 8.2. The second version of watchOS 1 was 1.0.1 and was based on iOS 8.3.


title: WatchOS

text: watchOS 5 was first shown to the public at the 2018 San Jose WWDC developer conference held on June 4, 2018 by Apple. It had an instant watch-to-watch Walkie-Talkie mode. With this release, Apple dropped support for the first generation Apple Watch. watchOS 5 was the first version of watchOS to bring 64-bit support.


title: WatchOS

text: Apple announced a new version of watchOS that would contain features, such as the App Store, a calculator with tip tools, an audiobooks app, noise level monitoring, and Apple's Voice Memos app, at WWDC 2019 held on 3 June 2019. It also enables special games that can only be played on the Watch interface. With this release, Apple dropped support for iPhone 5, 6 and 6 Plus. However, watchOS 6 has limited support on Apple Watch Series 1 and 2. watchOS 6.3 is the final release supported on the Apple Watch Series 1 and 2.


title: WatchOS

text: Apple announced watchOS 7 at the 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference on June 22, 2020. With watchOS 7, Apple dropped support for Apple Watch Series 1 and 2. However, watchOS 7 has limited support on Apple Watch Series 3.


title: WatchOS

text: Apple announced watchOS 8 at the 2021 Worldwide Developers Conference on June 7, 2021. Apple Watch models supporting watchOS 7 can also support watchOS 8. However, like watchOS 7, watchOS 8 has limited support on Apple Watch Series 3. It is also the last version of watchOS to be supported on Apple Watch models with 32-bit processors.


title: WatchOS

text: Apple announced watchOS 9 at the 2022 Worldwide Developers Conference on June 6, 2022. With this release, Apple dropped support for Apple Watch Series 3, making it the first version of watchOS to run exclusively on Apple Watch models with 64-bit processors.


title: London fare zones

text: Rail service fares in Greater London and the surrounding area are calculated in accordance with the London fare zones system managed by Transport for London. Within London, all London Underground, National Rail, London Overground, TfL Rail and Docklands Light Railway stations are assigned to six fare zones. Fare zone 1 covers the central area and fare zones 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 form concentric rings around it. Some National Rail stations and almost all Transport for London served stations outside Greater London in the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey are either included in fare zones 4, 5 or 6 or in extended zones beyond these. Transport for London fare zones are also known simply as zones or travel zones, referring to their use in calculating prices for the travelcards or pay-as-you-go caps. Before flat fares were introduced in 2004, fare zones were used on the London Buses network. London fare zones are also used for calculating the cost of single and return paper tickets, Oyster card pay-as-you-go fares and season tickets.


title: London fare zones

text: Before the introduction of fare zones, tickets for rail travel in Greater London were purchased on a 'point-to-point' basis between two stations, either as a single, return or season ticket; and were priced according to distance travelled. During the early 1980s the London Transport Executive of the Greater London Council made a series of revisions to fares which introduced the fare zones. The purpose of creating zones was to simplify fares, in order to speed up the process of buying tickets. On buses this became necessary as conductors were being eliminated in favour of the driver selling tickets, which was having an impact on the time it took passengers to board the bus and therefore on journey times.


title: London fare zones

text: The first zones were introduced on 4 October 1981. The whole of Greater London was divided into bus zones where flat fares applied. On the London Underground the area that is now zone 1 was divided into two overlapping areas called "City" and "West End". On 21 March 1982 fares to all other London Underground stations were graduated at three mile intervals, effectively creating zones, although they were not named as such until 1983 when the Travelcard product was launched covering five numbered zones. City and West End became zone 1 and the rest of Greater London was within zones 2, 3, 4 and 5. Further products were launched using the zones: One Day Travelcard (1984), Capitalcard (1985), One Day Capitalcard (1986). In January 1991 Zone 5 was split to create a new Zone 6.


title: London fare zones

text: All of Greater London is within the six principal fare zones numbered 1 to 6. Inner zone 1 forms a roughly circular area and covers central London. Each of five outer zones forms a concentric ring around it. Zones 4, 5 and 6 additionally extend into parts of Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey. List of boroughs in each zone:


title: London fare zones

text: For some services outside Greater London, where fares are set by Transport for London, there are three additional zones 7, 8 and 9. They extend into Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire to include all stations served by TfL services (except Shenfield, Watford Junction) and some c2c services that are outside Greater London. Unlike zones 2–6, they do not form complete rings around London.


title: London fare zones

text: As of January 2013, there were eight National Rail stations outside the nine numbered fare zones, where Oyster card pay as you go is permitted and fares are set by the train operating companies. They are located in Essex and Hertfordshire, and are organised into additional areas B, C, G and W. On maps, these stations are shown as being outside fare zones 1–9, but within the 'special fares' Oyster pay as you go area.


title: London fare zones

text: In January 2016, the Oyster and contactless system was extended to Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex, and the stations down that line (Horley, Salfords, Earlswood, Redhill and Merstham).


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: Between 1948 and 1972, Ceylon was an independent country in the Commonwealth of Nations, that shared a monarch with other dominions of the Commonwealth. In 1948, the British Colony of Ceylon was granted independence as Ceylon. In 1972, the country became a republic within the Commonwealth, and its name was changed to Sri Lanka.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: Following the Second World War, public pressure for independence increased. The British-ruled Colony of Ceylon achieved independence on 4 February 1948, with an amended constitution taking effect on the same date. Independence was granted under the Ceylon Independence Act 1947. Military treaties with the United Kingdom preserved intact British air and sea bases in the country; British officers also continued to fill most of the upper ranks of the Ceylon Army. Don Senanayake became the first Prime Minister of Ceylon. Later in 1948, when Ceylon applied for United Nations membership, the Soviet Union vetoed the application. This was partly because the Soviet Union believed that the Ceylon was only nominally independent, and the British still exercised control over it because the white, educated elite had control of the government. In 1949, with the concurrence of the leaders of the Sri Lankan Tamils, the UNP government disenfranchised the Indian Tamil plantation workers. In 1950, Ceylon became one of the original members of the Colombo Plan, and remains a member as Sri Lanka.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: Don Senanayake died in 1952 after a stroke and he was succeeded by his son Dudley. However, in 1953 – following a massive general strike or 'Hartal' by the leftist parties against the UNP – Dudley Senanayake resigned. He was followed by General Sir John L. Kotelawala, a senior politician and military commander and an uncle of Dudley. Kotelawala did not have the personal prestige or the political acumen of D. S. Senanayake. He brought to the fore the issue of national languages that D. S. Senanayake had suspended. Elizabeth II, Queen of Ceylon, toured the island in 1954 from 10 to 21 April (She also visited in 1981 from 21 to 25 October after the country became a republic.).


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: In 1956 the UNP was defeated at elections by the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, which included the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by Solomon Bandaranaike and the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party of Philip Gunawardena. Bandaranaike was a politician who had fostered the Sinhalese nationalist lobby since the 1930s. He replaced English with Sinhala as the official language. He was the chief Sinhalese spokesman who attempted to counter the communal politics unleashed by G. G. Ponnambalam. The bill was known as the Sinhala Only Bill, and also made Sinhala the language taught in schools and universities. This caused Tamil riots, as they spoke the Tamil language and it had not been recognised as an official language. These riots culminated in the assassination of the prime minister, Bandaranaike. His widow, Sirimavo, succeeded her husband as leader of the SLFP and was elected as the world's first female prime minister. In 1957 British bases were removed and Ceylon officially became a "non-aligned" country. The Paddy Lands Act, the brainchild of Philip Gunawardena, was passed, giving those working the land greater rights vis-à-vis absentee landlords.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: Elections in July saw Sirimavo Bandaranaike become the world's first elected female head of government. Her government avoided further confrontations with the Tamils, but the anti-communist policies of the United States Government led to a cut-off of United States aid and a growing economic crisis. After an attempted coup d'état by mainly non-Buddhist right-wing army and police officers intent on bringing the UNP back to power, Bandaranaike nationalised the oil companies. This led to a boycott of the country by the oil cartels, which was broken with aid from the Kansas Oil Producers Co-operative.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: In 1962, under the SLFP government, many Western business assets were nationalised. This caused disputes with the United States and the United Kingdom over compensation for seized assets. Such policies led to a temporary decline in SLFP power, and the UNP gained seats in Congress. However, by 1970, the SLFP were once again the dominant power.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: In 1964 Bandaranaike formed a coalition government with the LSSP, a Trotskyist party with Dr N.M. Perera as Minister of Finance. Nonetheless, after Sirimavo failed to satisfy the far-left, the Marxist People's Liberation Front attempted to overthrow the government in 1971.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: The rebellion was put down with the help of British, Soviet, and Indian aid in 1972, and later in 1972 became a republic and the name of the country was changed to Sri Lanka. In 1972, the country officially became a republic within the Commonwealth and William Gopallawa became the first President of Sri Lanka.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: The constitution of Ceylon created a parliamentary democracy with a bicameral legislature consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives, with the popularly elected House indirectly naming the Senate. The head of state was the British monarch, represented in the country by the Governor General. The head of government was the prime minister, and he/she and his/her cabinet consisted of the largest political party in the legislature.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: Initially, the prominent party was the UNP, the United National Party. In the first parliamentary elections, the UNP gained 42 out of the 95 seats available, and also won the elections in 1952. When the first prime minister, D. S. Senanayake, died of a stroke, his son Dudley Senanayake, the Minister of Agriculture, was appointed as prime minister. In 1956, the radical socialist SLFP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) won the elections, and Solomon Bandaranaike took power. He was assassinated by a Buddhist monk in 1959 and his widow, Sirimavo, succeeded him as leader of the SLFP. She held office until 1977, with two exceptions in 1960 and 1965–1970, when the UNP held power. During her rule, she implemented a radical economic program of nationalisation and land reform, a pro-Sinhalese educational and employment policy, and an independent foreign policy as part of the non-aligned movement.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: In 1948, when Ceylon achieved independence from the United Kingdom, the Governor was replaced with a Governor-General. The Governor-General was responsible not to London, but to the monarch of Ceylon, the local government, and the local parliament. The role was generally ceremonial, however it did come with the 'reserve powers' of the Crown which allowed the Governor General for example to dismiss the Prime Minister (with power such as this, the Governor General had to act as a responsible non-political 'referee' of the government, using the national constitution as the 'rulebook'). The monarch had the following styles and titles:


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: In her coronation oath, Queen Elizabeth II promised "to govern the Peoples of ... Ceylon ... according to their respective laws and customs". The Standard of Ceylon at the Coronation was borne by Sir Edwin A. P. Wijeyeratne.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: From 1948 to 1972 the head of state of Ceylon was the same person as the Monarch of the United Kingdom. The Governor-General of Ceylon exercised the duties of the head of state.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: The government of Ceylon had several issues, the main being that the government represented only a small part of the population, mainly wealthy, English-educated elite groups. The Sinhalese and Tamil majority did not share the values and ideas of the upper-class, and this often led to riots.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: The economy of Ceylon was mainly agriculture-based, with key exports consisting of tea, rubber, and coconuts. These did well in the foreign markets, accounting for 90% of the export share by value. In 1965, Ceylon became the world's leading exporter of tea, with 200,000 tonnes of tea being shipped internationally annually. The exports sold well initially, but falling tea and rubber prices decreased the earnings, with a rapidly increasing population cutting further into those profits. In the early 1970s, the Ceylon government nationalised many privately held assets as part of the newly elected government's socialist policies.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: The Land Reform Law of 1972 imposed a maximum of twenty hectares of land that can be owned privately, and sought to reallocate excess land for the benefit of the landless workers. Because land owned by public companies under that was less than ten hectares in size was exempted from the law, a considerable amount of land that would otherwise have been available for redistribution was not subject to the legislation. Between 1972 and 1974, the Land Reform Commission set up by the new laws took over nearly 228,000 hectares, one-third of which was forest and most of the rest planted with tea, rubber, or coconut. Few rice paddies were affected because nearly 95 percent of them were below the ceiling limit. Very little of the land acquired by the government was transferred to individuals. Most was turned over to various government agencies or to cooperative organisations, such as the Up-Country Co-operative Estates Development Board. The Land Reform Law of 1972 applied only to holdings of individuals. It left untouched the plantations owned by joint-stock companies, many of them British. In 1975 the Land Reform (Amendment) Law brought these estates under state control. Over 169,000 hectares comprising 395 estates were taken over under this legislation. Most of this land was planted with tea and rubber. As a result, about two-thirds of land cultivated with tea was placed in the state sector. The respective proportions for rubber and coconut were 32 and 10 percent. The government paid some compensation to the owners of land taken over under both the 1972 and 1975 laws. In early 1988, the state-owned plantations were managed by one of two types of entities, the Janatha Estates Development Board, or the Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation. Additionally, a revamped system of education created a glut of skilled workers that could not find employment.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: The official currency of Ceylon was the Ceylon Rupee. The Rupee evolved from the Indian Rupee, when in 1929 a new Ceylon Rupee was formed when it was separated from the Indian Rupee. In 1950, the Currency Board, set up in 1872 as a part of the Indian monetary system, was replaced by the Central Bank of Ceylon, granting the country greater control over the currency. In 1951, the Central Bank of Ceylon took over the issuance of paper money, introducing 1 and 10 rupees notes. These were followed in 1952 by 2, 5, 50 and 100 rupees notes. The 1 rupee notes were replaced by coins in 1963. In 1963, a new coinage was introduced which omitted the monarch's portrait. Coins issued were aluminium 1 and 2 cents, nickel brass 5 and 10 cents and cupro-nickel 25 and 50 cents and 1 rupee. The obverse of the coins issued since 1963 carry the coat of arms. However, until 1966, the Ceylon Rupee remained pegged to the Indian Rupee at a value of 1:1. In 1966, the Ceylon Rupee was pegged to the US Dollar at 4.76 rupees per US Dollar.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: At the end of World War II, the Ceylon Defence Force, the predecessor to the Ceylon Army, began demobilisation. After Independence, Ceylon entered the bi-lateral Anglo-Ceylonese Defence Agreement of 1947. This was followed by Army Act No. 17 of which was passed by Parliament on 11 April 1949, and formalised in Gazette Extraordinary No. 10028 of 10 October 1949. It marked the creation of the Ceylon Army, consisting of a regular and volunteer force, the latter being the successor of the disbanded Ceylon Defence Force. The Defence Agreement of 1947 provided assurance that British would come to the aid of Ceylon in the event it was attacked by a foreign power and provided British military advisers to build the country's military. Brigadier James Sinclair, The Earl of Caithness, was appointed as general officer commanding Ceylon Army, as such becoming the first commander of the Ceylon Army.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: Due to a lack of any major external threats, the growth of the army was slow, and the primary duties of the army quickly moved towards internal security by the mid-1950s. The first internal security operation of the Ceylon Army, code-named "Operation Monty", began in 1952 to counter the influx of illegal South Indian immigrants brought in by smugglers, in support of Royal Ceylon Navy coastal patrols and police operations. This was expanded and renamed as Task Force Anti-Illicit Immigration (TaFII) in 1963 and continued up to 1981. The Army was mobilised to help the police to restore peace under provincial emergency regulations during the 1953 hartal, the 1956 Gal Oya Valley riots and in 1958 it was deployed for the first time under emergency regulations throughout the island during the 1958 riots.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: In 1962 several volunteer officers attempted a military coup, which was stopped hours before it was launched. This attempted coup affected the military to a great extent; since the government mistrusted the military, it reduced the size and growth of the army, especially the volunteer force, with several units being disbanded. In May 1972, Ceylon was proclaimed a republic and changed its name from Ceylon to the "Republic of Sri Lanka", and in 1978 to the "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka". All Army units were renamed accordingly.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: After gaining independence, strategists believed that the navy should be built up and reorganized. The previous navy consisted of the Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force and the Ceylon Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. On 9 December 1950 the Royal Ceylon Navy was created with the main force consisting of the former Ceylon Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. The first ship that was commissioned was the HMCyS Vijaya, an Algerine-class minesweeper. During this time the navy took part in several joint naval exercises and a goodwill tour visiting the far east. However, the expansion of the navy was dramatically halted in 1962 when the captain of the navy who was relieved of his duty at the time of the attempted military coup. The navy suffered a great deal as result of the governments retribution that followed, with several of its ships sold off, reduced its size by stoppage of recruitment of officers cadets and sailors for over seven years, the loss of important Bases and Barracks and the stoppage of training in England. As a result, the navy was poorly prepared when in 1971 the 1971 JVP Insurrection began, the navy had to send its sailors for ground combat operations against the insurgents.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: In 1972 "Ceylon" became the "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka" and the Royal Ceylon Navy became the Sri Lanka Navy. The Naval ensign along with the Flag Officers' flags were redesigned. The term "Captain of the Navy", introduced in the Navy Act, was changed to "Commander of the Navy", in keeping with the terminology adopted by the other two services. Finally, "Her Majesty's Ceylon Ships" (HMCyS) became "Sri Lankan Naval Ships" (SLNS).


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: During the 1970s the navy began rebuilding its strength with the acquisition of Shanghai class gunboats from China to carry out effective coastal patrolling and carried out several cruises to regional ports.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: Early administration and training was carried out by RAF officers and other personnel, who were seconded to the new Royal Ceylon Air Force or RCyAF. The first aircraft of the RCyAF were de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks, used as basic trainers. These were followed by Boulton Paul Balliol T.Mk.2s and Airspeed Oxford Mk.1s for advanced training of pilots and aircrew along with de Havilland Doves and de Havilland Herons for transport use, all provided by the British. The closure of British bases in Ceylon in 1956 saw the air force take over former RAF bases; Katunayake and China Bay became RCyAF operational stations while auxiliary functions were carried out at Diyatalawa and Ekala.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: In 1959 de Havilland Vampire jet aircraft were acquired. However, the RCyAF did not put them into operational use and soon replaced them with five Hunting Jet Provosts obtained from the British, which were formed into the Jet Squadron.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: The Royal Ceylon Air Force first went into combat in 1971 when the Marxist JVP launched an island-wide coup on 5 April. The Ceylon Armed Forces could not respond immediately and efficiently; police stations island-wide and the RCyAF base at Ekala were struck in the initial attacks. Later, the Air Force acquired additional aircraft from the US and the USSR.


title: Dominion of Ceylon

text: Because of a shortage of funds for military expenditure in the wake of the 1971 uprising, the No. 4 Helicopter Squadron began operating commercial transport services for foreign tourists under the name of Helitours. In 1987 the air force had a total strength of 3,700 personnel, including active reserves. The force had grown gradually during its early years, reaching a little over 1,000 officers and recruits in the 1960s. On 31 March 1976, the SLAF was awarded the President's Colour. That same year SLAF detachments, which later became SLAF stations, were established at Wirawila, Vavuniya and Minneriya.


title: Courtney Act

text: Shane Gilberto Jenek (born 18 February 1982), better known under the stage name Courtney Act, is an Australian drag queen, singer and television personality. Courtney first came to prominence competing on the first season of "Australian Idol" in 2003. After the show, she signed to BMG Australia (now Sony Music Australia), and she released her debut single, "Rub Me Wrong", which peaked at No. 29 on the ARIA Singles Chart and eventually gained a gold certification. While auditioning for Australian Idol, she also became the first LGBTQ contestant to openly appear on a reality TV talent show. In 2014, Courtney was one of the runners-up in season six of "RuPaul's Drag Race."


title: Courtney Act

text: In 2014, Courtney returned to recording music and released the extended play "Kaleidoscope" (2015), which included the title-track which was the official song for the 2016 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Courtney began performing in drag girl-group, The AAA Girls, released several singles and embarked on the North American, "Access All Areas Tour" (2015). In January 2018, Courtney appeared on season 21 of "Celebrity Big Brother UK" and ultimately won the series with 49.43% of the final public vote. She began branching into a hosting career, hosting "The Bi Life", the UK's first bisexual reality dating show, on E! and her own television special, "The Courtney Act Show". Courtney released "Fight for Love" in late 2018 for the "Eurovision - Australia Decides" final; she finished in fourth place.


title: Courtney Act

text: In 2019, Courtney competed and was runner-up on season 16 of the Australian version of "Dancing with the Stars", where she was paired with Joshua Keefe. This made Courtney and Keefe the first same-sex pairing in the history of the Australian version, as well as the second same-sex pairing on any version of the show. Courtney/Jenek uses the pronoun "she" when referring to Courtney and "he" when referring to Jenek. In 2022, it was announced that Act would be a judge on the ITV reality competition series, "Queens for the Night".


title: Courtney Act

text: Jenek was born in Brisbane, Australia, and moved to Sydney at age 18. He was born to Gill and Annette Jenek and he has an older sister named Kim. His mother is of Danish descent and his father is of German descent. Growing up, Jenek would always dress up and sing and dance. In 1987, he entered a competition, Tiny Tots, which was a charity pageant show for children. At a young age, Jenek began attending The Fame Talent School where he became close friends with twins Lisa Origliasso and Jessica Origliasso, who would later become The Veronicas. The group would perform together for twelve years. Jenek found school difficult due to bullying over his sexuality. He began to think something was wrong with him during his teenage years. Jenek received high grades at school and he was going to study medicine to become a doctor instead of an entertainer. He first attended the Stonewall Club in the mid-90s and Jenek states that was the start of his "big queer life". He originally intended to take the name Ginger Le'Bon and be a "redheaded, smoky voiced nightclub singer." Instead, he took the stage name Courtney Act, a pun on the phrase "caught in the act" as pronounced in a non-rhotic accent such as Australian English. When growing up, Jenek couldn't identify with anything that was portrayed in the media.


title: Courtney Act

text: Jenek's drag queen career began in 2002 when he met Sydney drag queen, Vanity Faire. He was intrigued by the visual feminine illusion Faire would create once he was in drag and this inspired him to begin his drag career. He decided upon the stage name Courtney Act as, in a non-rhotic accent like the Australian accent, the phrase "caught in the act" is heard. Courtney has stated that in 2002, when she began performing in drag, one had to "fight" and "earn" one's place as a drag queen. She entered the Diva Rising Star competition in 2002 and won.


title: Courtney Act

text: In 2003 Courtney auditioned for the inaugural season of "Australian Idol". He first appeared as Jenek, but the judges, Ian Dickson, Marcia Hines and Mark Holden, told Jenek that his voice was "just not up to it". The following day, Jenek returned to audition but as Courtney Act. Hines said that Courtney was "great". Dickson said, "Shane only didn't just cut it. You've added another dimension and this time you've blown us away." Courtney continued through the competition and reached the live finals. In the first TV vote Courtney did not advance; however, the judges brought her back as a wildcard. During her time on the show she performed songs such as: "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy, "You Don't Own Me" by Lesley Gore and “You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC. Courtney finished in thirteenth place on the show, but remained highly popular throughout Australia. At the time, Jenek was the first and only LGBT contestant to openly appear on a reality TV talent show.


title: Courtney Act

text: Together with business partner and fellow drag queen Vanity Faire, Courtney operates Wigs by Vanity; they started the company in 2003, the year Courtney auditioned for idol, with the aim of producing wigs for drag queens.


title: Courtney Act

text: After the completion of the first season of Australian Idol, Courtney went on tour with the finalist of the show. It was in 2003, Courtney signed a major record deal with BMG Australia now known as Sony Music Australia. Courtney released her debut single "Rub Me Wrong" the following year in March 2004, where the song reached a peak of number 29 on the ARIA Charts and gaining a gold certification by the charts. However, due to the low charting figures of the song, BMG Australia decided to put Courtney's debut album on hold. Courtney returned to the club scene and began working with the up-and-coming Lady Gaga. In August 2011, Jenek moved to West Hollywood, California in order to find further success.


title: Courtney Act

text: In December 2013, Logo TV announced that Courtney was among the 14 drag queens who would be competing on the sixth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race". Courtney is the only queen from Australia ever to be featured on the show. Courtney did not feature in the first episode of season 6 due to the show being split into two openings. During the third episode, the week's challenge was to act in a horror movie, the original and the sequel. Courtney was ultimately given positive feedback and declared safe. Episode 4 featured Courtney as the main challenge winner. The main challenge was to perform in "Shade: The Rusical". Courtney was praised for her "strong" singing voice and acting skills. The fifth episode featured the Snatch Game, which is a spoof of "The Match Game".


title: Courtney Act

text: During the episode, the drag queens had to impersonate a celebrity. Courtney impersonated Fran Drescher and was ultimately declared safe. The following show, Courtney had to record a version of RuPaul's song, "Oh No She Betta Don't!" from his album: again, Courtney was declared safe. During the seventh episode, the queens had to create a commercial advertisement for RuPaul's new product, Glamazon by Colorevolution. Courtney worked in a team with Joslyn Fox. The pair got negative critiques from the judges, with Santino Rice saying the pair shouldn't rely on pretty and that they could have taken it "further". The next episode would see the queens being tested on their comedy: Courtney announced on the show she was nervous about the challenge because she does not see herself as a "comedy queen". Ultimately, Courtney was declared safe for the episode. In the ninth episode's challenge, the queens had to host their own talk show and interview celebrity guests: Cher's son Chaz Bono and his grandmother (Cher's mother), Georgia Holt. Courtney was praised by all the judges and through the show, Courtney and Bono made a friendship, which resulted in Bono inviting Courtney to perform in the musical he was producing. Courtney also won the ninth episode challenge. The tenth episode saw a makeover challenge, in which the queens had to make grooms-to-be into the bride. Courtney was declared safe. The following few episodes, Courtney was announced as safe and would proceed to the final in the top 3. Courtney was the fourth contestant during the show's six seasons not to have fallen into the bottom two throughout the competition. She placed as joint runner-up alongside Adore Delano, behind winner Bianca Del Rio.


title: Courtney Act

text: In July 2014, Courtney became the first drag performer in history to sing live with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Courtney appeared as a guest performer with Cheyenne Jackson in "Hello, Gorgeous! Cheyenne Jackson Goes to the Movies". The two sang a duet of "Elephant Love Song" from the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film "Moulin Rouge!" In September 2014, Courtney, along with Willam Belli and Alaska Thunderfuck 5000, were the first drag queens to become ad girls for American Apparel, known as The AAA Girls, also becoming the first drag queens to feature in "RuPaul's Drag Race" to form a drag girl-group. She worked for the campaign Support Artists, Support Ethical Manufacturing from the fashion brand, featuring three limited edition exclusive T-shirts that honour each drag queen's talents and allure. The group released their debut single "American Apparel Ad Girls" in late 2014 a parody of "Farrah Fawcett Hair" by Capital Cities. The song charted at number 10 on the Billboard Comedy Digital songs chart: the song would later feature in Belli's solo album, "Shartistry in Motion" (2014). In December 2014 the group released a Christmas song, "Dear Santa, Bring Me a Man", which was featured in the first "Christmas Queens" (2015). The album also saw Courtney cover a solo version of "Twelve Days of Christmas". The AAA Girls recorded a second song featured on the compilation album, "Christmas Sweater". Again in June 2015, the group reunited to record for Alaska's debut studio album "Anus" (2015), where they collaborated on the track "The Shade of It All".


title: Courtney Act

text: In July 2015, Courtney returned to her solo recording career and created the extended play "Kaleidoscope" (2015). The album generally received positives from critics and it saw the release of lead single "Ecstasy". This was followed by "Ugly", "Body Parts" and the title track song "Kaleidoscope". The latter featured as the official song for the 2016 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Courtney stated: "I feel that gender and sexuality are fluid and so often we get stuck in the rigidity. Who knows when someone outside your usual target zone might come also and sweep you off your feet? I read this quote from Lily Edelstein the other day it is seemed fitting “At the heart of Queer culture is revolution. The truest rebellion against a world built on categories, labels and binaries is coming from the emergence of identities that refuse to conform.”. In 2016, Courtney was the foreign correspondent for the Australian news website, "Junkee". Courtney covered the US Presidential election 2016 for the site, attending rallies of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Following Trump's election, Courtney also participated in, and reported on, the 2017 Women's March.


title: Courtney Act

text: In late 2017, Courtney made a return to reality television and appeared in "Single AF", with Marnie Simpson, which is a celebrity dating show, broadcast on MTV UK. In February 2018, Courtney was appointed one of two Fringe Ambassadors at the Adelaide Fringe, presenting the show "Under the Covers" there. In 2017, Courtney reunited with The AAA Girls for the "Access All Areas Tour" (2017). The tour was announced August 2017, a month after the release of their EP. Produced by Fullscreen Live, the tour played in 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The show was promoted as a full production with full staging, costume changes and choreography. As a thank you, the group live-called fans, on Instagram, who purchased tickets. The Squared Division served as creative directors and Jae Fusz served as choreographer.


title: Courtney Act

text: In 2018, Courtney entered the "Celebrity Big Brother" house, the day after New Year's Day, and remained in the house for 32 days, eventually winning the season, beating Ann Widdecombe. Jenek appeared as both Courtney and himself throughout the season, being referred to "him" out of drag and "her" in drag. Following Courtney's win on "Big Brother", her popularity continued to grow in the United Kingdom. Channel 4 confirmed "The Courtney Act Show", with Courtney saying that she would be "working with some of [her] favourite artists", which was broadcast on Christmas Eve of 2018. The show featured performances from Bianca Del Rio, Adore Delano, Darienne Lake and Leona Lewis. Jenek also hosted the dating reality show "The Bi Life", appearing both as Courtney Act and Shane, which premiered in Ireland and the United Kingdom on 25 October 2018 on E! Courtney competed with the song "Fight for Love" on "Eurovision - Australia Decides" in February 2019 to represent Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, but was not successful, losing out to Kate Miller-Heidke with the song "Zero Gravity". The show received positive reviews. In June 2019, a panel of judges from "New York" magazine placed her third on their list of "the most powerful drag queens in America", a ranking of 100 former "Drag Race" contestants.


title: Courtney Act

text: In 2019, Courtney competed in the 16th season of the Australian version of "Dancing with the Stars", partnered with Joshua Keefe, where they came second. Courtney is the first drag performer in the history of the "Dancing with the Stars" franchise, but not the first to perform in a same-sex pairing – fashion designer and professional dancer reached the grand final in the series of "Ballando con le Stelle", the show's Italian counterpart. Keefe was visibly surprised when Jenek arrived for their first meeting, before realising that he is the alter-ego of Courtney. Jenek and Keefe dance as a same-sex pairing in the rehearsal footage for each week's performance and he has expressed a desire to perform as Jenek as well, according to "Gay Star News". Courtney and Keefe topped the leader board with their performance in the first episode. On 1 March 2019, it was announced that Courtney had filmed a guest role as herself in the Australian soap opera "Neighbours". Her scenes aired in 2020. In late 2019, Courtney featured in "Celebrity Come Dine with Me". Courtney has appeared twice as a contestant on the quiz show "Celebrity Mastermind;" the British version in 2018, and the Australian version in 2020.


title: Courtney Act

text: In 2021 it was announced that Courtney would become the new host of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's long form television interview show "Courtney Act's One Plus One", which was nominated for an AACTA Award. It was revealed that Network 10 had commissioned a pilot of Act's interview television series called "Courtney's Closet", which transformed a different celebrity guest into drag each week while also learning about their personal journey, and premiered on video on demand streaming website 10 Play as part of its Pilot Showcase series. Act's podcast with Vanity Faire, also got renewed for a second season, "Brenda! Call Me". The show was world's largest LGBTQIA+ podcast, with the first season reaching 750,000 listens across 170 countries worldwide since debuting in February last year. In June 2022, it was revealed that Act would become a judge on new "ITV" reality competition show, "Queens for the Night", where she will sit on the judging panel alongside Melanie C, Layton Williams and Rob Beckett, with Lorraine Kelly as host.


title: Courtney Act

text: On the 22nd of August 2022 It was announced that Courtney would play the Killer Queen in all cities except for Sydney in the Australian arena tour of the We Will Rock You (musical).


title: Courtney Act

text: Jenek is a vegan, and identifies as pansexual, genderfluid and polyamorous. In 2018, he was based in London, having previously lived in Sydney and Los Angeles.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: Planescape: Torment is a role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios, published by Interplay Entertainment, and released for Microsoft Windows on December 12, 1999. The game takes place in locations from the multiverse of Planescape, a "Dungeons & Dragons" ("D&D") fantasy campaign setting. The game's engine is a modified version of the Infinity Engine, which was used for BioWare's "Baldur's Gate", a previous "D&D" game set in the Forgotten Realms.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment" is primarily story-driven, with combat not being prominently featured. The protagonist, known as The Nameless One, is an immortal man who forgets everything if killed. The game focuses on his journey through the city of Sigil and other planes to reclaim his memories of previous lives, and to discover why he was made immortal in the first place. Several characters in the game may join the Nameless One on his journey; most of these characters have encountered him in the past or have been influenced by his actions in some way.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: The game was not a commercial success, but it received critical acclaim and has since become a cult classic, claimed by video game journalists to be the best role-playing video game of 1999. It was lauded for its immersive dialogue, for the dark and relatively obscure Planescape setting, and for the protagonist's unique persona, which shirked many characteristics of traditional role-playing games. It is commonly considered one of the greatest video games of all time, and continues to receive attention long after its release. An enhanced version for modern platforms was made by Beamdog and released for Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS in April 2017, and for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in October 2019.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment" is built on BioWare's Infinity Engine, which presents the player with a pre-rendered world in an isometric perspective in which player characters are controlled. The game's role-playing ruleset is based on that of "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" 2nd Edition. The player takes the role of "The Nameless One", an immortal man with amnesia on a quest to learn why he was created immortal. Exploration around the painted scenery is accomplished by clicking on the ground to move, or on objects and characters to interact with them. Items and spells may be employed through hotkeys, quick slots, or a radial menu. An alternative to armor is the use of magical tattoos which can be applied to The Nameless One and certain other characters to enhance their abilities.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: The game begins with character creation, where the player assigns attribute points such as strength, intelligence, and charisma to The Nameless One. The Nameless One starts the game as a fighter class, but the player may later freely change it to a thief or wizard. The player may recruit companions throughout the game to join the party. There are seven potential companions, but only a maximum of five may accompany The Nameless One at any given time. Conversation is frequent among party members, occurring both randomly and during conversations with other non-player characters. The gameplay often focuses on the resolution of quests through dialogue rather than combat, and many of the game's combat encounters can be resolved or avoided through dialogue or stealth. The Nameless One carries a journal which helps the player keep track of the game's numerous quests and subplots. The Nameless One is immortal, so running out of health points usually imposes no penalty beyond respawning in a different location.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment" uses the "D&D" character alignment system, in which a character's ethical and moral perspective and philosophy are determined based on the axes of "good vs. evil" and "law vs. chaos", with neutrality bridging the two opposing sides. The Nameless One begins as "true neutral" but can be incrementally changed based on the character's actions throughout the game, with reactions from the game's non-player characters differing based on his alignment.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment" is set in the Planescape "multiverse", a "Dungeons & Dragons" campaign setting which consists of various planes of existence, the creatures which live in them (such as devils, modrons, and deities), and the properties of the magic that infuses each plane. A large portion of "Planescape: Torment" takes place in Sigil, a large city located atop an infinitely tall spire at the center of the multiverse, that connects the planes with each other via a series of portals. The city is overseen by the powerful Lady of Pain, while numerous factions control different functions of the city related to each group's world view, with The Nameless One being able to join several of these factions during the game. The story eventually moves on to other planes, such as Baator and Carceri, where The Nameless One continues to discover more about his past. Throughout the game, The Nameless One slowly learns about his previous incarnations and the influence they have had on the world.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment" protagonist is known as The Nameless One, a man cursed with immortality for thousands of years. Every time he dies, another person in the multiverse dies to fuel his resurrection. Upon rebirth, The Nameless One has little to no recollection of his past life, and often with completely different personality than before. When the game starts, The Nameless One wakes in a mortuary as a result of his latest death. He then sets out on a quest to discover how he died and why he is immortal, also hoping that the adventure will help him regain memories of his past incarnations.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: During his quest, The Nameless One meets several characters who can join him as companions: Morte, Annah-of-the-Shadows, Dak'kon, Ignus, Nordom, Fall-From-Grace, and Vhailor. These playable characters can also interact with the Nameless One to further the game's plot. Morte is a cynical floating skull originally from Baator's Pillar of Skulls, a grotesque entity composed of the screaming heads of individuals who dishonestly advised others in their lifetime. He is introduced at the game's beginning in the mortuary. Morte loyally follows The Nameless One, partly out of guilt for having caused the deaths of some of his previous incarnations. The Nameless One meets Annah-of-the-Shadows, a young and brash tiefling rogue, outside the mortuary, but she does not join the group until a later point in the game. Dak'kon is a githzerai, who once made an oath to help The Nameless One until his death, but became enslaved to him for eternity due to not knowing of his immortality. Ignus is a pyromaniacal being who was once an apprentice mage of one of The Nameless One's past incarnations. In the Rubikon Dungeon Construct, the Nameless One can find Nordom, a modron disconnected from its species' hive mind. Fall-From-Grace is a succubus who acts as proprietress of the "Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts" in Sigil; unlike other succubi, she is not interested in seducing mortals. Vhailor, found below the city of Curst on the plane of the Outlands, is essentially an animated suit of armor dedicated to serving merciless justice.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: Notable non-player characters include Deionarra, a former lover of one of the Nameless One's past incarnations who died as a result of his amoral actions; Ravel Puzzlewell, a night hag who helped the Nameless One's first incarnation to become immortal; Trias the Betrayer, a fallen deva who decides to take matters into his own hands due to his disillusionment with the gods’ stance on fighting evil forces; Coaxmetal, a giant golem confined inside the siege tower in Sigil's Lower Ward who forges weapons for the inhabitants of the planes to destroy each other in the name of entropy; and the Transcendent One, the embodiment of the Nameless One's mortality and the final boss of the game.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: The game begins when The Nameless One wakes up in a mortuary. He is immediately approached by a floating skull, called Morte, who offers advice on how to escape. Morte also reads the tattoos written on The Nameless One's back, which were inked there as reminders by a previous incarnation of himself, that contain instructions to find a man named Pharod. After a conversation with the ghost of Deionarra, and passing by enslaved undead who work at the mortuary, The Nameless One leaves to explore the slums of Sigil. He finds Pharod, who is the chief of an underground village of scavengers and the adoptive father of Annah, and is asked to retrieve a magical bronze sphere for him before he will give answers. After returning, Pharod does so, giving him further hints to help piece together his forgotten past. Later on, The Nameless One learns from a powerful sorcerer named Lothar that the night hag Ravel Puzzlewell caused his immortality, but that she is imprisoned in a magical maze for committing crimes against the Lady of Pain. The Nameless One eventually finds a portal to enter the maze, but realizes that it requires a piece of Ravel to activate it; for this, he locates a daughter of hers and takes drops of her blood.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: Once in the maze, The Nameless One converses with Ravel, who asks him "what can change the nature of a man?" — a question that plays a prominent role throughout the game. Ravel is pleased with The Nameless One's answer because he offers his own thoughts; she claims she has killed many men in the past who, instead of giving their own answers, tried to guess what her answer, which they assumed was the only answer, might be. As the conversation progresses, Ravel explains that a past incarnation of The Nameless One had asked her to make him immortal. However, the ritual she performed was flawed, which causes The Nameless One to risk losing his memory each time he dies. She also reveals that the mortality she separated from him was not destroyed, and that as long as he was alive, his mortality must still be intact somewhere. Not knowing where it is, she suggests that the fallen deva Trias might know.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: Ravel then attempts to keep The Nameless One and his party there by force, with them having to defeat her in combat. After they do so and leave the maze, Ravel is revealed to have faked her death. A being known as The Transcendent One then appears, and kills Ravel after a short conversation. The portal that The Nameless One and his party found in the maze takes them to the city of Curst, a gate town on the border of the Outlands and Carceri, to find Trias. Finding him magically imprisoned underneath Curst, The Nameless One offers to help free him in exchange for answers. Doing so, Trias then claims not to know where The Nameless One's mortality lies, but points him in another direction. The Nameless One then visits the Outlands and Baator, where he learns that his mortality lies in a place known as the Fortress of Regrets, and that only Trias knows how to access it. Meanwhile, however, Curst has "slid" from the border of the Outlands to the neighboring chaotic plane of Carceri due to the chaos unleashed by Trias after The Nameless One freed him. After fights through the city against large groups of demons, The Nameless One and his party reach Trias, who they also fight. After Trias is weakened enough through combat, he tells The Nameless One that the portal to the Fortress of Regrets is located within Sigil's mortuary, right next to where The Nameless One awoke.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: In the Fortress of Regrets, The Nameless One encounters three of his past incarnations: one practical, one good, and one paranoid. The Nameless One learns that the "good" incarnation was the original man who was made immortal by Ravel, and learns that he had committed immeasurably terrible sins in his lifetime. Realizing that he would be damned to suffer in the Lower Planes when he dies, he sought immortality to give him time to atone for his sins. Unfortunately, the memory losses he suffered after each death and reincarnation foiled this plan. After merging with his past incarnations through dialogue or combat, gaining their combined experience and knowledge, The Nameless One confronts the embodiment of his mortality, The Transcendent One, who reveals that since being separated from The Nameless One, it has enjoyed its freedom and has been erasing clues that might lead The Nameless One to discover the truth. Depending on the player's choice, The Nameless One either slays The Transcendent One through combat, convinces it to rejoin with him, or commits suicide with a special weapon, with either option ending his immortality. The Nameless One then awakens on a battlefield in the Lower Planes, and accepts his fate to fight forever in the Blood War.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: In 1997, the game's designers produced a 47-page document that outlined the game's premise and vision statement, and was used to pitch the idea to management at Interplay. Initially, the game was to be called "Last Rites", and they described the game as "avant-garde" fantasy to distinguish it from high fantasy. The document also contained concept artwork for characters and areas of the game. It was one of three "Planescape" games being developed by Black Isle at the time, along with a PlayStation game by Colin McComb based on FromSoftware's "King's Field", and a PC game by Zeb Cook; the other two were canceled, and only "Last Rites" was released as "Torment". McComb, one of the designers of the overall "Planescape" setting, joined the "Torment" project after his game fell through.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: From the outset, "Planescape: Torment"s designers intended to challenge traditional role-playing game conventions: the game features no dragons, elves, goblins, or other common fantasy races; there are only three swords; the rats faced in the game can be quite challenging to defeat; and the undead sometimes prove more sympathetic than humans. The designers explained that most RPGs tend to have a "correct" approach to solving problems, which is almost always the morally good approach. They called this "predictable and stupid" and wished to make a game with greater moral flexibility, where a particular problem might have "two wrongs or two rights". The main quest is not about saving the world, but about understanding The Nameless One and his immortality. Death (of the protagonist or his companions) is often just a minor hindrance, and even necessary at times.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: According to lead designer and writer Chris Avellone, "Planescape: Torment" was inspired by books, comics, and games, including "Archie Comics", "The Chronicles of Amber", "The Elementals," and "Shadowrun". The game's 1997 outline also makes references to "The Lord of the Rings" to describe some characters. While working on "Planescape: Torment", Avellone was simultaneously working on "Fallout 2". In an interview from 2007, he says that "Fallout 2" helped him rethink the possibilities of dialogue in "Planescape: Torment" (and in later games he was involved with, including "Neverwinter Nights 2"). Producer Guido Henkel commented on taking liberties with the "AD&D" rules by simplifying them: "I think we still take the "AD&D" rules very seriously and we follow those rules. We just take the liberty of removing some of the 'overhead'." The game's credits also cite "Final Fantasy VII" as an inspiration.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: On developing the character of Ravel Puzzlewell, Avellone thought a cryptic puzzle maker who was in love with the player character and who genuinely tried to help people only to have it backfire on her would make an interesting antagonist. Avellone likened Ravel's life to a branching bramble "stretching across the planes" and alluded to other incarnations of her that exist as characters in Avellone's other video game works; in a 2007 blog post, he considered his work on Ravel to be one of the experiences he is most proud of in his career, and that it informed his writing for the "Knights of the Old Republic II" character Kreia.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: Avellone remarked that many of the ideas in the game "could only have been communicated through text, simply because no one would have the budget or resources to fully realise many of these fantasy works through TV or movies". Ultimately, Avellone has expressed some regret about the game's heavy focus on dialogue, as he feels this interfered with the overall game mechanics, particularly the combat system. The game's script contains around 800,000 words, after early previews had indicated that the game would be only about 20 hours long.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: In several interviews, producer Guido Henkel stated that he was increasingly frustrated by the pressure the management of Interplay put on the development team after Interplay's initial public offering. Although only a few additional subplots and characters had to be discarded to meet the planned release date, he accused the Interplay management of disregarding the development team regarding things like package design and marketing. Henkel said that it was his main goal to prevent the game from being "crippled" before leaving Interplay when the game reached beta status. He also claimed that his overall influence on the game was greater than that of Avellone, Eric Campanella, or Dave Maldonaldo, but since a producer often has to make unpopular decisions, his role was later downplayed. In 2011, Henkel also revealed that The Nameless One's face on the game box art is based on his real face, because the day before the cover photo shoot was scheduled to take place, the model contracted to appear on the box backed out over a scheduling conflict, so Guido Henkel was proposed to use his face. Make up lasted for about two hours, and photography took 45 minutes, Henkel said: "My face was red as a beet and burned for the rest of the day, because of the solvent that was used to remove the appliances. Nonetheless, it was all well worth it".


title: Planescape: Torment

text: The game used the Infinity Engine, a game engine initially developed by BioWare for "Baldur's Gate". However, "Planescape: Torment" was being developed using the Infinity Engine before "Baldur's Gate" had been released, leaving the engine's acceptance in the market still unknown. Black Isle made modifications to the engine to suit the game. For example, playable characters were able to run, and both the character sprites and backgrounds were larger and more detailed. The greater size and detail was achieved by bringing the perspective closer to the ground. Magic was also an important part of the game's design, and a team of four designers worked solely on the visuals and mechanics of spells.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: In addition to official localizations, for example the one by CD Projekt for the Polish market, fan communities developed Spanish, Hungarian, and Italian fan translations of the game. When Interplay dropped support for "Planescape: Torment" after the official 1.1 patch, several not yet fixed bugs were corrected by fan-created unofficial patches. Other mods add back items and quests omitted from the final version of the game or new features such as widescreen support.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: Initially, Interplay hired dark ambient musician Lustmord to create the musical score for the game. He worked on the project for four months, writing over 40 original pieces. However, just six weeks before the game released, one of the producers had a change of heart on the game's musical direction, who wanted it to sound less ambient and "more along the lines of John Williams". His first time working on a video game project, Lustmord considered the experience "terrible", eventually reusing some of the elements from the score in his 2001 album, "Metavoid". Needing a replacement soundtrack done quickly, Interplay then reached out and asked Mark Morgan, who had worked on other Black Isle Studios games, to do it. Two additional themes were penned by Richard Band. The game's cast of voice actors included Michael T. Weiss, Sheena Easton, Rob Paulsen, Mitch Pileggi, Dan Castellaneta, and Tony Jay.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: After the game's release, a reviewer for Game Revolution praised its sound, saying that "When you're in a crowded city, it "sounds" like a crowded city. Walk past a bar, and you'll hear the noise of the drunken patrons inside. Wander near a slave auction, and you'll hear the auctioneer calling. Go to a party in the festival hall, and it sounds just like a party". The same reviewer also stated ""Planescape" has just about the best sound I've ever heard in a game." IGN gave the sound 8.5 out of 10 and noted that "The game has fantastic speech and sound effects, but what's more impressive is the way they fade in and out depending on how close you're standing to them."


title: Planescape: Torment

text: A book by the same name was written by Ray and Valerie Vallese and released by Wizards of the Coast in 1999. The book's plot follows the game's only loosely, conferring a much bigger role to Fhjull Forked-Tongue, a minor supporting character from the game who advises the Nameless One to seek the Pillar of Skulls in the first layer of Baator for answers, and its ending differed significantly from the game's. The book also did not follow the source material in its adaptation of the game's characters; for example, in the game, the main character's lack of a name is a sign of his incomplete state and a source of protection in being anonymous. In the book, the protagonist chooses a proper name and is called "Thane" by his associates. Maciej Miszczyk from "Hardcore Gaming 101" found the book to be "bland and uninteresting", offering "nothing new to those who’ve already beaten the game", and an "inferior alternative" for those who have yet to experience the game.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: For the game's 2010 re-release on GOG.com, a second, more accurate, novelization produced by Rhyss Hess was bundled with it, based on the game script by Chris Avellone and Colin McComb.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: A third novelization was completed in 2013 by fans through a combined amalgamation of the in game text, the Rhyss Hess novelization, and a text based Let's Play by the user ShadowCatboy on the forum Something Awful. The project was edited by Logan Stromberg and is widely regarded as the best adaptation of the game.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment" received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. GameSpot's reviewer said that "It's clearly the best traditional computer role-playing game of the year", a comment which the website would later expand to "one of the greatest ever". Allen Rausch, writing for GameSpy's 2004 retrospective "A History of D&D Video Games", commented that Black Isle Studios "went "way" over the top for this one, crafting an utterly unique experience that has yet to be equaled by any RPG since". The gameplay was often compared to "Baldur's Gate", another Interplay game that used the same engine as "Planescape: Torment." Robert Mayer of Computer Games Magazine commented that it was "one dark and interesting game. There's lots of macabre humor, some rather deviant sexual references, and enough weirdness to send the devotees of Tolkienesque fantasy running for their copies of "The Hobbit"." Kieron Gillen of PC Gamer UK commented that ""Planescape: Torment" is attempting to be iconoclastic in the most stereotyped of genres. We're cheering it on."


title: Planescape: Torment

text: The game's premise and writing were warmly received; a review in "The New York Times" noted "The game's level of detail and its emotional impact have prompted some players to cast about for literary peers." Reviewers were pleased with the ability to shape their character's journey as they wished. In 2005, GameSpot stated ""Planescape: Torment" has quite possibly the best implementation of role-playing an evil character ever to appear in a computer or video game to date". The heavily tattooed, egocentric, and potentially selfish Nameless One was welcomed as a change of pace from the conventional RPG hero, who was considered a predictable do-gooder. Reviewers also approved of the protagonist's ability to gain new powers by "remembering" past lives. The dark and diversified representation of the "D&D" setting of Planescape was lauded as a fresh departure from the traditional high fantasy of computer role-playing games. A review in "Next Generation" praised the game, saying that ""Torment" offers the best RPG gameplay anyone can find on store shelves, hands down." Uros Jojic of "Actiontrip" commented that ""Planescape: Torment" proves that it is possible to make an inventive, fun and refreshing game in this "sea of clones". Creating a computer edition of Planescape system is another triumph for Black Isle Studios." In a March 2000 article for "Game Studies", Diane Carr called the game's setting "a freak show, a long story, a zoo, and a cabinet of talkative curiosities" and described the creatures and monsters in the game as "grotesque rather than scary". Cindy Yans of Computer Games Magazine describes the setting as "a world where knowledge and thoughts wield more power than the sword. Belief has the ability to reshape worlds, kill and resurrect powers and change the laws of physics." Cindy Vanous of Computer Games Magazine notes that ""Planescape"'s bestiary features legions of the unknown, and its landscape is an ever-changing tapestry of the bizarre." "Planescape: Torment" is the first video game to be set in the Planescape universe.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: The technical aspects of the game were also praised. Although by the time of its release in late 1999, "Planescape: Torment's" default 640x480 resolution was not considered particularly advanced, reviewers were pleased with the art design and color of the environments. The game's sound and music were described as "well above the norm" and "superb", and one reviewer stated that his only complaint about the music was that "there wasn't enough of it". Another reviewer said that "Planescape: Torment" had "just about the best sound" they had heard in a video game. GamePro stated, "... the characters talk with the talent of real professional voice actors during crucial bits of dialog". The game's graphics were moderately well received, with "incite PC Gaming" saying that "[the graphics] can be a little lackluster, although some of the spell effects certainly look very good", a statement echoed in "NextGen" which stated that "mind-blowing spell effects ... will remind you of a two-dimensional "Final Fantasy" game."


title: Planescape: Torment

text: The game's interface received positive remarks. The US edition of "PC Gamer" commented on the automap, which automatically marked important locations and allowed the user to add custom notes, and on the journal, which separated completed quests from unfinished quests. "PC Gamer" also praised the fine-tuning of the Infinity Engine, such as the use of a radial menu, which allowed the player to stay focused on the game instead of managing multiple screens and "messing with windows and buttons".


title: Planescape: Torment

text: Criticism of the game was minimal and problems were generally described as minor, but included complaints about long load times on computers of the day, or the game slowing down during combat. Bugs were responsible for slowing down the game when a high level of graphical assets were on-screen at the same time, but it was reported that a fix was released that solved the problem. Allgame's Derek Williams considered the game's combat simplistic (with a comparison to "Diablo)", which made the game too easy. The most negative major review came from "Eurogamer", who gave the game seven out of ten (and later increased it to eight when the game was patched). Their reviewer expressed distaste at the immortality of the player character, saying that it made the lives of characters "cheap and meaningless", although other reviews welcomed this aspect, saying it was "implemented perfectly" and did not make the game easier. "Eurogamer" also disapproved of the amount of experience that was awarded for certain dialogues later in the game. However, other reviews cited this as one of the main things that elevated "Planescape: Torment" above the standard RPG format. Some reviewers also criticized the game's pathfinding AI as being "less than impressive".


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment" was #1 on "CBR"'s 2020 "10 Of The Best DnD Stories To Start Off With" list — the article states that "Not only does "Planescape: Torment" provides a great introduction to the "Planescape" setting, but it also provides interesting ideas for non-"Planescape" "D & D" games. Those ideas are primary in how to set up a more cerebral "D & D" campaign."


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment" is considered to be among the greatest video games of all time and has attracted a cult following. It was given several Editor's Choice awards, was named RPG of the Year for 1999 by both GameSpot and "Computer Gaming World", and won the Vault Network's Game of the Year for 1999. "PC Gamer US" named "Planescape: Torment" "Game of the Month" in their March 2000 issue (the issue in which the game's review appeared). The magazine also nominated "Torment" for its 1999 "Best Roleplaying Game" award, which ultimately went to "System Shock 2".


title: Planescape: Torment

text: In 2006, "The A.V. Club" included "Planescape: Torment" in their list of "11 of Video Gaming's Strangest Moments", due to the game's use of death as a means to advance the plot. In 2006, Gamasutra polled video game industry professionals with the question: "Which role playing game over the entire history of the genre do you think has made the biggest 'quantum leap', and why?". "Planescape: Torment" was ranked second overall after "Fallout", earning it a "Quantum Leap Award". The game also received an honorable mention for the same awards in the "Storytelling" category. In December 2008, IGN listed it as 8th out of 10 in a list of "Franchises We Want Resurrected" and praised the game as having "some of the best writing and characterization seen in gaming". In 2009, Bit-tech included "Planescape: Torment" on their list of "30 PC Games to Play Before You Die". Chris Avellone was awarded Eurogamer's "Gaming Globe" award for Best Designer in 2000 for his work on "Planescape: Torment", and The Nameless One was considered to be the Best Male Lead Character.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: IGN ranked "Planescape: Torment" second on their list of "The Top 11 Dungeons & Dragons Games of All Time" in 2014. Ian Williams of "Paste" rated the game #1 on his list of "The 10 Greatest Dungeons and Dragons Videogames" in 2015. "PC Gamer" included "Torment" on their best RPGs on PC list. It was placed at No. 13 on "Game Informer" "Top 100 RPGs Of All Time" list, and was included among PCGamesN's "best RPGs on PC" as well.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: In the United States, "Planescape: Torment" sold 73,000 copies by March 2000, a figure that Desslock of "Computer Gaming World" regarded as substandard. Comparing the game's commercial performance to that of "", Desslock remarked that "most of "Torment"s sales have been in the year 2000, while "Ascension"s sales were predominently in 1999, even though "Ascension" was released later in 1999 than "Torment"." He attributed "Torment"s relative sales growth in its second year to positive reviews and word of mouth.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: In the United Kingdom, "Torment" appeared at #3 on Chart-Track's weekly computer game sales list for the January 9–15, 2000 period. The game remained in the Chart-Track weekly top 5 for another two weeks, and secured a third-place debut on the firm's monthly top 10. Richie Shoemaker of "PC Zone" noted at the time, "January saw only one new release make an impact: the bizarre role-player from Black Isle Studios, "Planescape: Torment"." In the German market, the game sold 50,000 units by mid-2000, after debuting at #6 on the charts in January. It proceeded to claim positions 12, 30 and 53 from February through April. According to "PC Player", Virgin Interactive was "only slightly disappointed" by its commercial performance in the region; writer Udo Hoffman noted that the game by nature was tailored to "a more mature and therefore smaller target group."


title: Planescape: Torment

text: Ernest Adams of Gamasutra later described "Torment"s overall performance as a "commercial disappointment". According to Chris Avellone, the game was not a major monetary success, but was ultimately profitable. In 2017, Brian Fargo estimated the game's lifetime retail sales as roughly 400,000 units.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: The game was re-released on DVD in 2009, and for purchase on GOG.com on September 28, 2010. Following the announcement of "", Beamdog's Overhaul Games announced their intention to make overhauls of more games set in the "Dungeons & Dragons" universes, at first naming only "Planescape: Torment". They said that such a release would depend on the success of "Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition". In November 2012, "Penny Arcade Report" wrote that Brian Fargo, the head of inXile Entertainment, had acquired the rights to "Torment". In January 2013, Brian Fargo announced that the spiritual successor, titled "", was in production and would be set in the Numenera universe created by Monte Cook. The game's design was led by Colin McComb, who helped design both the "Planescape" setting and "Torment", and was released in February 2017.


title: Planescape: Torment

text: "Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition", an upgraded version of the game, was created by Beamdog and released on April 11, 2017. It was announced in March 2017 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux PCs, as well as for iOS and Android devices. It features similar improvements that Beamdog has done for the other enhanced editions. Avellone provided assistance by helping to curate the improvements to the game. Beamdog had access to the original source code and design documents for the game, and through that were able to recover and include some content that was dropped from the original release, using Avellone's assistance to flesh out parts that were incomplete or missing. They otherwise did not significantly change the game, with the studio's CEO Trent Oster saying that making larger improvements to their work would have been comparable to "basically going in and repainting the smile on the Mona Lisa here". Skybound Games, a division of Skybound Entertainment, released Beamdog's remastered version to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 15, 2019.


title: Fear Street

text: Fear Street is a teenage horror fiction series written by American author R. L. Stine, starting in 1989. In 1995, a series of books inspired by the "Fear Street" series, called "Ghosts of Fear Street", was created for younger readers, and were more like the "Goosebumps" books in that they featured paranormal adversaries (monsters, aliens, etc.) and sometimes had twist endings.


title: Fear Street

text: R. L. Stine stopped writing "Fear Street" after penning the "Fear Street Seniors" spin-off in 1999. In summer 2005, he brought "Fear Street" back with the three-part "Fear Street Nights" miniseries.


title: Fear Street

text: R. L. Stine revived the book series in October 2014. In July 2021, a trilogy of films based on the franchise was released weekly on Netflix.


title: Fear Street

text: The "Fear Street" books take place in the fictionalized town of Shadyside and feature average teenagers older than the typical "Goosebumps" preteens, who encounter malignant, sometimes paranormal, adversaries. While some of the "Fear Street" novels have paranormal elements, such as ghosts, others are simply murder mysteries. Whereas the "Goosebumps" books have a few tamed deaths, the deaths presented in "Fear Street", particularly the sagas, are far more gruesome, with more blood and gore.


title: Fear Street

text: The title of the series comes from the name of a fictional street in Shadyside, which was named after the Fear family. Their name was originally spelled as Fier; after being told that the family was cursed and that the letters could be rearranged to spell "fire", Simon Fier changed it to Fear in the 19th century. Despite the family renaming, the curse survived, and Simon and his wife, Angelica, brought it with them when they moved to Shadyside sometime after the Civil War.


title: Fear Street

text: The curse started in Puritan (17th-century) times when Benjamin and Matthew Fier sentenced an innocent girl and her mother, Susannah and Martha Goode, to be burned at the stake for allegedly practicing witchcraft. The father and husband, William Goode, put the curse on the Fiers to avenge their deaths, bringing misery and death to the family. Although a fire allegedly burned the last of the Fears, the series features some surviving Fears and suggests that one of the brothers survived. These events are described in the Fear Street Sagas, a spinoff of the main series.


title: Fear Street

text: Similar to the "Goosebumps" series, the characters change in each book, although some characters still live on and are mentioned (or show up) multiple times. Some of the previously-released novels' plots are also mentioned in later books, and some characters appear in multiple stories (for instance, Cory Brooks, hero of "The New Girl", is mentioned and shows up several times during the later novels). The plot for the books occurs between the late 1980s and early 1990s, although multiple novels occur within the same chronological year.


title: Fear Street

text: The "Fear Street" series takes place in a town called Shadyside. Much of the paranormal activity, the murders and other unexplained happenings occur either directly on Fear Street, in the woods surrounding the street or on Fear Island which sits in the middle of Fear Lake. Contextual clues in the text suggest Shadyside is either in southern New England or a northern Mid-Atlantic state of the US. For example, in book #3, "The Overnight", a character mentions that he goes to BU "up in Boston", suggesting Shadyside is somewhere near Boston, but south of it.


title: Fear Street

text: According to descriptions in book #1, "The New Girl", the Canononka River runs behind Shadyside Park, which sits behind Shadyside High School. Between the school and the park, multiple books mention a parking lot, alternately referred to as the teacher's lot and the student lot. From here, you can see a practice field and tennis courts. In book #4, "Missing", it is mentioned that the Canononka River marks the edge of town, suggesting that the river makes up some portion of Shadyside's city limit.


title: Fear Street

text: The Fear Street woods are situated between Fear Street and the rest of town, although some books suggest the woods are located at the end of the street. If you were to walk from Fear Street, straight through the woods, you would end up in another Shadyside neighborhood; people's backyards meet the woods in this neighborhood. However, it is very difficult to maintain a straight path, since the woods are so full of undergrowth. Also of note: "“There are no birds in the Fear Street woods. Scientists from all over the country haven’t been able to find out why.”"


title: Fear Street

text: Division Street cuts Shadyside into North and South halves; on this street sits the local mall. Division Street crosses Old Mill Road, which then crosses Fear Street, which is in the southern half of town. From this description, it seems reasonable to assume that Fear Street runs at least somewhat parallel to Division Street. The eponymous street is described as winding, with no clear view from end to end. Somewhere on this street sits the burned out shell of Fear Mansion. According to book #5, "The Wrong Number", there is a cemetery near the East end of Fear Street, which is also bordered by the Fear Street woods.


title: Fear Street

text: At some point in the timeline, between book #1, "The New Girl" and book #3, "The Overnight", the "...ancient collapsing mill built at the end of Old Mill Road before the town of Shadyside even existed, had recently been resurrected and re-opened as a teen dance club called The Mill." Old Mill Road crosses Hawthorne Drive, where you can find a small coffee shop called Alma's; this is the haunt of many local college kids.


title: Fear Street

text: There is a neighborhood called North Hills, which is distinctly different from the rest of Shadyside; it has large houses and well tended lawns. It is described as "...a quiet, peaceful neighborhood, the nicest neighborhood in Shadyside." Multiple books mention a neighborhood called the Old Village and it seems to be Shadyside's downtown/old town, with multiple businesses.


title: Fear Street

text: Waynesbridge is a town about a 20 minute drive from Shadyside. Between the two towns, there is a business park where a company called Cranford Industries makes its home.


title: Fear Street

text: The first "Fear Street" book, "The New Girl" was published in 1989. Various spin-off series were written, including the "Fear Street Sagas" and "Ghosts of Fear Street". , more than 80 million "Fear Street" books have been sold. Individual books appeared in many bestseller lists, including the "USA Today" and "Publishers Weekly" bestseller list.


title: Fear Street

text: After a hiatus, R. L. Stine revived the book series in October 2014. Stine had attempted to write a new "Fear Street" novel for years, but publishers were not interested. Some publishers thought that young adult literature has changed since "Fear Street" was first published, since the new world of young adult literature is dominated by dystopian worlds and paranormal elements. After Stine told his followers on Twitter that there were no publishers interested in reviving "Fear Street", Kat Brzozowski, an editor at St. Martin's Press, contacted him. Initially, the publisher bought three new books, but it was later announced that six new books would be published in the series.


title: Fear Street

text: "Party Games", the first book, was first published on September 30, 2014, in hardcover. The novel is Stine's first "Fear Street" novel since the last book in the "Fear Street Nights" series was published in 2005. The novel was followed by "Don't Stay Up Late", which was published in April 2015. Stine stated the new books are longer, more adult and more violent, to reflect how young adult literature has changed since "Fear Street" was first published.


title: Fear Street

text: At some point before October 1997, Viacom Productions had inked a development deal with Parachute Entertainment to produce a primetime TV series based on the "Fear Street" books. Soon after Disney-owned ABC bought a "Fear Street" pilot. The pilot episode for the unproduced "Fear Street" television series, titled "Ghosts of Fear Street", aired on ABC Television on July 31, 1998. The pilot's airing held 89% of its men 18-34 lead-in but just 55% of its women 18-34 lead-in. The result was ABC's worst rating on record in that slot and a third-place finish for the night in homes and adults 18-49.


title: Fear Street

text: On October 30, 1997, "Variety" reported Hollywood Pictures struck a deal to acquire the "Fear Street" series of books, which were set to be developed with Parachute Entertainment as a "Scream"-like feature franchise.


title: Fear Street

text: On October 9, 2015, "TheWrap" reported a film based on the series was again being developed, by 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment. On February 13, 2017, The Tracking Board reported that Kyle Killen would write the script for the film. On July 13, 2017, "Variety" reported that Leigh Janiak would oversee the development of the scripts as a trilogy, and direct the first film. On February 27, 2019, it was announced that Kiana Madeira and Olivia Welch would star as the lead characters in the trilogy. On March 12, 2019, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that Benjamin Flores, Jr. would play Josh, while Ashley Zukerman, Fred Hechinger, Julia Rehwald and Jeremy Ford joined the cast on March 27. On April 1, 2019, Gillian Jacobs, Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd and McCabe Slye were cast in the second film.


title: Fear Street

text: On March 13, 2019, filming for the first film began in East Point, Georgia. Janiak directed all three films in the series, after originally being set to direct the first and third films. Alex Ross Perry was previously set to direct the second film. Phil Graziadei and Janiak received screenplay credit, and with a "story by" co-credit shared by Killen, Graziadei, and Janiak.


title: Fear Street

text: While the trilogy had finished filming in September 2019, the series was placed in an uncertain status with the early termination of the Chernin Entertainment and 20th Century Fox production deal. On April 7, 2020, it was announced that Chernin Entertainment ended their distribution deal with 20th Century Studios, and made a multi-year first-look deal with Netflix. On August 11, 2020, it was reported that Netflix had acquired the trilogy for a planned mid-2021 release date with the original release strategy of one film per month. On May 19, 2021, Netflix announced the films to be released over three weeks, with "" on July 2, "" on July 9, and "" on July 16.


title: Public limited company

text: A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be freely sold and traded to the public (although a PLC may also be privately held, often by another PLC), with a minimum share capital of £50,000 and usually with the letters PLC after its name. Similar companies in the United States are called "publicly traded companies". Public limited companies will also have a separate legal identity.


title: Public limited company

text: A PLC can be either an unlisted or listed company on the stock exchanges. In the United Kingdom, a public limited company usually must include the words "public limited company" or the abbreviation "PLC" or "plc" at the end and as part of the legal company name. Welsh companies may instead choose to end their names with , an abbreviation for "". However, some public limited companies (mostly nationalised concerns) incorporated under special legislation are exempted from bearing any of the identifying suffixes.


title: Public limited company

text: The term "public limited company" and the "PLC"/"plc" suffix were introduced in 1981; prior to this, all limited companies bore the suffix "Limited" ("Ltd."), which is still used by private limited companies.


title: Public limited company

text: When a new company incorporates in England and Wales or in Scotland, it must register with Companies House, an executive agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Prior to October 2009 companies in Northern Ireland were registered with the Northern Ireland Executive's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, but since then Northern Irish company registrations are also handled by Companies House along with the rest of the United Kingdom.


title: Public limited company

text: Formation of a public limited company requires a minimum of two directors and one secretary (differing from country to country: in India three directors are required). In general terms anyone can be a company director, provided they are not disqualified on one of the following grounds:


title: Public limited company

text: The members must agree to take some, or all, of the shares when the company is registered. The memorandum of association must show the names of the people who have agreed to take shares and the number of shares each will take. These people are called the subscribers.


title: Public limited company

text: There is a minimum share capital for public limited companies: Before it can start business, it must have allotted shares to the value of at least £50,000. A quarter of them, £12,500, must be paid up. Each allotted share must be paid up to at least one quarter of its nominal value together with the whole of any premium.