The Venetian Chronicles: Santa Claus AMA

The Venetian Chronicles: Santa Claus AMA
(The camera clicks on showing a man in his late 60’s who resembles George R.R. Martin with a thicker, whiter  beard, . He is wearing a plaid shirt with festive suspenders and a pair khaki slacks sitting on a couch next Yuuko (who is setting the resolution in her laptop's camera).
Man: (taking a pair of glasses from the front pocket of his shirt), Alright how does this work again?
Yuuko: The internet submits questions and you answer them as honestly as possible.
Man: Are you sure that's wise? You have seen Agartha, you know how they get.
Yuuko: I have already gone through and removed more of the...exotic questions. Everything should be fine. (Clearing her throat) This is Council envoy Yuuko Shirakawa, agent of the dragon, and historian for the archives in Dublin Ireland. As part of the Chronicles initiative, I am interviewing active agents from the 21st century so that future generations may better understand the context in which events are taking place. This session is being recorded on December 7th 2018  in Greenfield Ireland, at the Green residence. Previously we interviewed cryptid 1225, also known as Nicholas Laplander, but better known as Santa Claus. The previous interview was a standard  Venetian Chronicle, however the community has expressed an interest in getting to know cryptid 1225 better and so thanks to the Council of Venice's educational outreach program, we have arranged an “Ask Me Anything”(AMA) style interview, with Santa. Are you ready to begin.
Santa: Ready when you are, Yuuko.
Yuuko: Desirila, Queen of Isolative Technology would like to know if she is on the the naughty or nice list list year?
Santa: (taking out a phone from his pocket) thats D.e.s.i.r.i.l.a, correct?
Yuuko: That's right.
Santa: (taping in her name into his phone)...ok Desirila, it looks like our database currently has you at 633, that puts you well with in nice territory, of course the score on the list is meant only to supplement my own judgment, so don't worry Desirila, you’re good.
Yuuko: Tech Ghoul would like to know if there is internet at the North Pole?
Santa: We do have internet access, our primary base was first connected to the internet in 1991, it was a T-1 line provided to us by the United States Defense Information System Network(DISN) for the purpose of communicating with NORAD during our yearly field work. Because my staff tends to get a little carried away with new technology, we soon outgrew the T-1 and had to begin supplementing it with our own technology. For day to day use, DISN  has provided us with a connection to the Svalbard Undersea Cable System, giving us one of the fastest internet connections in the world. That's only for offices though, mission critical operation such as the database that powers the manifest are currently being supported by a network of quantum repeater beacons that give us near instantaneous data transfer around the globe.
Yuuko: Our next question comes from Yukiko Yoshida “Right, yes! There's a great deal of, um, animal interest in our holidays these past few years, and I'm curious if there might be some expansion in that direction? Not that he needs more work, of course! But cats, dogs... sort of a Death of Rats, but less death and more presents?”
Santa: (removing his glasses to think, before putting them back on) Our current heard is always expanding and while we are always on the lookout for new talent, we currently have no plans to expand the use of animals with in our operation beyond our current staff. That being said, as you already know December is a time when the barrier between worlds is thin and as such many different cryptids cross over into your world, I have heard reports of Yuletide wolves, exotic birds, and of course flying reindeer. Some of these creatures have proven to be hostile, others have not and they have been crossing over into your world at a greater frequency then in the past. Some say this is a sign that the fourth age is coming to an end, but that's a discussion for another time. So to answer your question Yuki, we have no plans to expand our use of animals for our annual mission, but more and more cryptids seem to be taking up the holiday of their own accord...Also Yuki, while I have your attention, please make sure to call your mother, while she doesn't always say it, she feels your absent keenly during this time of the year and it would make her smile to hear from you.
Yuuko: Our next question comes from Saoirse Quincy, who asks “Where is his favorite country/continent to deliver presents?”
Santa: (exhaling, while drumming his fingers on the desk) That’s a tough one, I suppose it depends on the criteria, I usually take my first break of the night (yes I do take breaks during Christmas eve, they are built into the schedule) in the Himalayas after finishing East Asia before starting on India, the mountains are particularly beautiful at night. Then again I have always had a soft spot for Switzerland, I love their tradition of communal advent calendars. In terms of food, France and Germany are always big highlights of my trip, and rural Canada is always impressive and the cities. One of my favorite parts of traveling so much is seeing how these cities change and grow over time, it use to be that I could do Seoul in under a minute, now it takes me almost an hour, but I am rambling now, so to get back to your question Saoirse, it varies a lot but the Himalayas for the view and Switzerland for the Christmas spirit.
Yuuko: Our next question has two parts and comes from Lula DeValora, “Why should parents NOT be concerned that you constantly watch their children? Given that you watch children constantly: why have you not come forward or gone to the authorities with information about countless child abductions over the years?”
Santa: (rolls eyes) First I would like to address the nature of my observational powers, despite what the song says, I am not watching 24/7 nor would I want to. It's difficult to explain how it works if you never experienced it, but it's kind of like receiving memories through osmosis, by being near someone I become aware of their life as it has been lived so far, I don't see every memory individually, but I kind of get a impression of the sum of their parts. So when I meet someone new for the first time, I don't see every moment of their lives but I get an impression of how they have lived, the “nice” tend to give the impression of water moving out to sea, while the “naughty” give the impression of waves breaking on rocks if that makes sense. Mind you though that's just me and my powers, we also have an intelligence gathering apparatus (it is not nearly as sinister as it sounds, Ezekiel insisted that it have a “bad ass” name), which consists of a passive monitoring of social media and a network of informants. Now you may want to sit down for this because what I am about to tell you will likely come as a grate shock to you all but, my best source of information regarding a child's behavior is….their parents, not a crystal snow ball, not the fragmented omnisciences i inherited from odian, not even the web crawler we have that monitors twitter and facebook, but parents. We use parental reports, in conjunction with my own powers and a social media report to assign children a meta score from 0 to 900, with any one over 300 being considered “nice.” As to reporting the whereabouts of missing children, if I knew where they were I would have reported them to the police immediately, sadly though I do not, and sader still, I do regularly report instances of child abuse to authorities around the world, usually via an anonymous tip, since Santa's testimony has not historically held up well in court.
Yuuko: She also had a few follow up questions.
Santa: (removing his glasses to rub his eyes with one hand)  Guð hjálpar okkur öllum, hún er í skapi.
Yuuko: She also wanted to know “Why have you stationed your operations outside the authority of any government or outside oversight?” and “When was the last time your “workshop” was inspected for workplace safety violations?”
Santa: Primarily to avoid being used as a bargaining chip in international politics, did you know that the Nixon administration once asked me to limit my route the US and its Allies only? Or that the Soviet Union threatened to lay siege to our base if I visited Finland or East Germany? I always have and always will serve all the children of the world who believe in me regardless of their nationality, or any other defining characteristics, if that puts me at odds with their governments then so be it. Thankfully though it usually doesn't come to that, we are governed by the UN Charter on Holiday Cheer, a international treaty that governs our relationship with the nations of the world, part of this charter is a declaration of a neutrality. As to what labor laws we are governed by, we are currently required to comply with the EU employment law, as well both Canadian and US labor laws, as well as the Council of Venice's treaty on cryptid labor, our facilities were last inspected by the Canadian Ministry of Labor in August and we received top safety marks, in addition to a licence to manufacture and distribute cannabis based edibles which will be available by Christmas 2019. The Guild of Magical Crafts People also certified that we were in full compliance with the union contract. (taking a deep breath.) Sorry to fly of the handle like that.
Yuuko: Its ok, up next we have Jules Burnet “I wanna know, do Santa Bro even lift?”
Santa: Indeed I do Jules, while it may not look like it, keeping fit is actually a rather important part of my job. I have had a consistent workout routine, since about 1900 and I try to get in about 3 hours a week, each hour consists of a 10 minute bodyweight workout to warm up, 500 pushups, 1000 squats and a 7 minute plank(I used to do crunches but it was hurting my back), then I move on to the arm and chest, right now I am at about 30 kg a piece, then the legs are about 160kgs and then finally I get to the dead lifts, my current record is 400kgs and on average its about 290kg. But I have found that I like cardio more than lifting, I am particularly fond of hiking, I try to visit the rocky mountains at least once a year just so I can walk the trails, but most of the time I just do some cross country skiing around the compound. As for how I look? That's all diet and age, if you’d ever had one of  Anwyn's cookies you’d understand that it's worth it, besides who ever heard of a skinny Santa (smiling).
Yuuko:He would also like to know if his niece and nephew are on the nice list this year.
Santa: Do you have names?
Yuuko: (pulling out her phone and opening twitter)
Santa: (adjusting his glasses)...aww, I know them well, good kids both of them, give me a moment a while I pull up their scores...and, 630 and 600 respectively, so they are both on the nice list Juels, also if you wouldn't mind, would you kindly ask them to not set the milk and cookies near the fire this year, warm milk upsets my stomach.
Yuuko: The next question comes from George of the anima cats, “Ja, ja I have one: Why does his buddy Krampus keep screwing me over, year after year? I have been naughty all year and all I get are cutesy presents? I must have the secret to get Krampus’ crappy artifacts! Any advice?”
Santa: (drumming his fingers on the table) The inner workings of the krampus's mind are mystery to me, but if I had to venture a guess as to why he never visits you, I would say it is because you are a cat. Because naughtiness is part of a cats nature, it can not be held against you and thus you are always passed over. If you are looking to find the krampus, you would be better off finding a naughty child to follow around, but that is still no guarantee that you will find him, after all they have notoriously short attention spans. No, your best bet would be to try and summon one with the Ritual of Helheim, you will need the following items, a Lump of Coal, a Dead Yew Branch, Pouch of Soil, a Wolf Fang, a Foul Whiskey Bottle, Corpse Maggots, a Severed Hand (it's fingernails in particular) and finally a Snake Skin, after gathering all these things together you will need to travel to Niflheim and offer them to the goddess Hel, that should lure him out. As to how you get to Niflheim you will either need to follow the Krampus through one of his gates or use an artifact called the eye of Odin to open a portal at magnetic north. I am afraid I do not know where the Eye is right now though, but you are nothing if not clever george so I know you will figure it out.
Yuuko: Jac has the next question, “Woof * Question: Where do you stand on the subject of PET ENABLED MOTORCYCLE SIDECARS? Yea or Nay? Followup: Do you need a plucky heroic K9 sidekick for your travels? (Asking for a friend ) *”
Santa: (laughing) I am very much in favor of pet enabled motorcycle side cars, do bare in mind though that side cars do not have shock absorbers, so I suppose I will need to bring you a helmet and some doggels this year. As to whether I need a heroic K9 sidekick for my travels, I sadly do not, usually it's just me and the reindeer, and sometimes a timing elf. We try to keep the field team as small possible so that we can move at maximum speed.
Yuuko: Jon also has a question “Question: Where is your favourite place to visit and why? Followup: Do you need an experienced dog wrangler for your plucky heroic k9 sidekick on your big travel night? assuming there is room in the sleigh... (asking for a friend)”
Santa: I answered this earlier in the interview and at that time I said the Himalayas for the view and Switzerland for the christmas spirit, but the more I think about it, the more I my mind keeps wandering back to the snow covered forest of British Columbia, which have a lot in common with Switzerland but are not as densely populated and ofcourse new england in the United States, if ever there was place where christmas cards came to life, it would be in New Hampshire or Vermont during December, and Prince Edward Island off the coast of Nova Scotia is another favorite and coincidentally, the place where I take my first brake when entering the western hemisphere. And as I told Jac sadly I do not need a side kick right now, but then again I always say I don't need the help of you bees, but then fate always ends up through us together. So I am sure we will meet in the field someday, Jon...particularly if the world keeps going down its current path.
Yuuko: Our next question is from user that wishes to remain anonymous “what new movies are you starting in this year, and who are other co-stars you are filming with, and who's producing the picture.”
Santa: This year I was a technical consultant on Netflixs The Christmas Chronicles (I was also Kurt Russell’s under study) and co starred alongside Judah Lewis, and Darby Camp (650 and 700 respectively.) The movie was produced by Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Mark Radcliffe, I have worked with Chris and Michael as a technical consultant, but this was my first time working with Mark and it was absolute joy to do so. Though the reviews have been rather mixed, I am still quite proud of the movie and netflix is already talking about a sequel for 2020 and I am hoping I can be a little more hands on with that one.
Yuuko: Loved Kurt Russell as Santa by the way.
Santa: Unfortunately so did Anwyn, she has been teasing me about it ever since.
Yuuko: Our next couple of questions come from Angelique Richter “How do you manage to go to every home in one night? What magics do you employ to ensure you can reach every child, as well as how to determine if they are deserving? Do you work in affiliation with Krampus and Hel? How do they fit into your life? Do you have a favorite food and drink aside from milk and cookies? Where do you prefer to go on vacation in the off season?”
Santa: (cracking his knuckles) Let's start with the big one shall we “How do you manage to go to every home in one night” and the short answer is chronomancy. Both Odin and St. Nicholas knew enough to slow time in their immediate area but neither of them could hold it for very long, I on the other hand have become a master of it. The ruins of the city of Murias are just west of our work shop and contained an entire library dedicated to the study of chronomancy and I have been practicing it now for almost 1000 years. Any sufficiently powerful anima user is able to slow the passage of time or warp the space around them, I have become sufficiently skilled that I can warp the space around me for hundreds of kilometers and slow their passage of time so that seconds can last for about 30 minutes, so I still need to move quickly but the journey is more than possible. This same magic can be employed to expand spaces, which comes in handy since most homes don't have chimneys anymore. Additionally I also employ psychomancy, pyromancy, several schools of chaos magic, and I make extensive use of demonology in my travels. Some of this knowledge I inherited from St. Nicholas and Odin, but most of it I have learned as needed over the years, I don't think there has been a single school of magic that I haven't used at least once over the years to help me through my yearly journey, but those are all stories for another time.
Let move on to your next question, “How I determine if a child gets a gift.” My criteria has evolved over the years, and is largely influenced by the child's cultural standards (not many children in 1980’s New York city milked the cows every day and the children of  medieval France did not do a lot of cyberbullying), But it has always been left up to my discretion and as you have probably guessed I am a bit of a push over. To help with this the Elves and I have developed a scale from 0 to 900, that takes into account a child's temperament, their cultures contemporary norms and standards, as well as their mental development, we then gather information from parents using a behavioral survey, in conjunction with whatever information we can scrape from local sources (I use to have elves watch the schools and churches, now we have a program the monitors social media). Most normally developing children are somewhere between 500-700 on any given year, to be considered “naughty” you would need a score under 300 but we tend very few of those.
Now for the Krampus, to understand my relationship with him you must first understand his relationship with my forbearers, he would be the grandson of Loki and someone Odin would have regarded with great suspicion. St. Nicholas first encountered him while exploring the Alps in 393, there he was leading a sun cult and had convinced the village elders to sacrifice 3 of their own children to Hel in order to end a famine. What he did not tell the villagers was this sacrifice would not end the feminine but instead bring Hel to earth, St. Nicholas being the good Templar refused to allow this and fought the demon for hours before finally tricking him into revealing his true name, he then bound the demon to his will and resurrected the children before departing for Marya, After St. Nicholas died during his battle with Odin, Krampus was temporarily allowed to roam freely, until I encountered him what is now Austria around the year 900. I still remembered his true name and was able to bind him again. After that point things became pretty familiar, On St. Nicholas Eve I would done the bishop's robes, find a white horse and lead the Krampus through the villages putting treats in the shoes that were left out by nice children and Ruten bundles  in the shoes of the naughty, and sometimes we would join an Krampuslauf, (Blending into public events still a favorite pastime of mine), and things went on like this for centuries and then the war came and my power weakened and the demon broke free of his bonds and terrorized the continent for almost 5 years. With the assistance of the Templar and Illuminati, I was able bind him again but sadly not before many lives were lost. And as you have probably guessed sometime when my power is stretched to thin, he can still break free, but the cabals of the world have worked with me for the past few years to hold him in check while I under take my yearly mission (something I am unmeasurably  grateful for by the way.) So I wouldn't say I work in affiliation with the Krampus and Hel, but I would say that Krampus is indeed one of my helpers, he has also proven to be quite an effective deterrent in the past, once we had bound again and he began making a comeback after the war we saw 75 point spike in austrias scores (chuckling).
Now onto the serious matters, “Do I have a favorite food and drink,” It's hard to pick just one, as you can probably tell I am a bit of gourmet, but I have always liked Carbs, breads, cakes, pastries, those kinds of things. So aside from milks and cookies, I would say its hard resists a good sandwich and a nice pint of ale, the type of sandwich can vary widely, but I have always liked having nice bit of beef and cheese, with mustard. As to where I go on vacation in the off season, this year Anwyn and I went to Vietnam, the year before that it was South Africa and before that Egypt. Anwyn  and I have been all over the world, but up until 1991, we had a “resort” of sorts at the south pole. There was an active volcano underneath the ice that preserved a bit of mesozoic forest, it had a lake, a forest, and many hot springs, The guild had a little collection of houses down there that they raffled off as “member perks”, so once a year during the summer Anwyn and I and about 200 elves would go down to this hidden forest and camp and fish. Then in 1991 the Orochi corporation drilled a hole through the ceiling and awoke something slumbering under the volcano, we lost our little resort that day along with many good friends. The Orochi Leadership has had a score of 0 ever since.
(As Santa finishes his story an elderly Japanese man wanders through the background of the video searching for his glasses.)
Yuuko: Our next few questions come from Klaus von Richter  would like to know
“1. How do you feel about the current state of your holiday across the globe?
2. What is it like working with your Yuletide counterparts such as Krampus?
3. In your last interview, you mention Odin being your ‘forebear’ and having some of his memories. How do you feel concerning his continued separate existence? Huginn and Muninn are rather insistent he’s simply in a ‘honey dreaming’ and still receiving thought and memory on their wings.
4. What’s your favorite cookie? I must know... for reasons.”
Santa: (pressing his fingers together in contemplation) I feel a bit uncomfortable calling it "my" holiday since it doesn't really belong to me. While I have definitely come to be a symbol of the holiday, I am hardly the christmas king, this is a time of year that means many things to many people. That's not to say I am calling for it to be religious in nature, I am part pagan god after all and people have been celebrating Christmas in a secular manner ever since the church made it a holiday (it only took 10 years for the church to decray it as to secular (chuckling)), just that it is “our” holiday, I alone don't make it what it is, its all who celebrate this time of the year when nights are long and the days are short, and we gather round the fire, friend and stranger alike to hope that the light will come back. Most of us understand this and honor it as such, what I am less thrilled with is america's perceived “war” on christmas. Certain elements in their society have claimed exclusive ownership of Christmas and began viciously attacking any who do not celebrate as they do, they demand to be greeted with merry christmas and the only christmas be celebrated and that it only be celebrated as a religious holiday, and if anyone dares deviate from these conditions in even the slightest, they scream persecution at the top of their lungs and drive the offender away and they do this while sneering at the less fortunate and endovering to make their lives as miserable as possible. They claim to keep this holiday but they don't keep it, they abuse it, they have taken what was suppose to be friendly greeting a turned it into a taunt, they have taken a time when we were suppose to welcome the strangers amongst us and used it reminded them that they are outsiders. I am not at all happy with this perceived “war” on christmas and what it has caused people to do. But what gives me hope is that only a small and ever shrinking portion of the population sees this “war” at all, when most hear about the “war” on christmas they simply roll their eyes and go about their business as their ancestors did for generations before them, so over all I would say I relatively happy with the state of christmas if only because, more and more people are embracing the ideal of “peace on earth and good will to man.” My apologies for the rant Klaus.
Now on to your next question, “What is it like working with your Yuletide counterparts such as Krampus,” it depends greatly on the counter part, the Krampus and I get on well enough (as long as the chains hold anyway), though he believes I am soft and resents me for not letting him swat children like he use to, and while he would never admit it, I think he enjoys the Krampuslauf. As to my other counterparts, we have a cordial relationships, once year during the solstice we gather in the siberian forest, for the wizards imperial ball, it's generally a grate time, though having that many magic beings together at once can cause things to get a little out of hand but that's a whole set of books on its own….
Now we can talk about Odin, I always suspected that his battle with St. Nicholas was not his end, I sometimes have dreams of flying through the air and I suspect that those are Huginn and Muninn speaking with their master. When the bees attempted to put him back together they made me by mistake, if Odin awakens from his slumber, be it the result of Loki or some other outside force, I fear I may be consumed by his anima and cease to be. As to how I deal with that...all things come to an end, but if you and the other bees continue to be victorious then that day is many many years away. And now the question we have all been waiting for “What is my favorite cookie,” it should come as no surprise to you that my favorite cookies are the kind made by my wife Anwyn, what may surprise you though is that my favorite cookies are a type of a oatmeal cookie. Her recipe may not resonate with modern audiences but her cookies are my absolute favorite, so without further adieu I give you,

Mrs. Santa’s Oatmeal chocolate chip nut cookies:
Beat together until smooth
¾ cups cooking oil (or seal skin oil if you have it)
½ cup granulated sugar (or glacier sand if possible)
½ cup brown sugar (or toasted snow flakes)
2 eggs (nerd eggs if you can find them)

Mix in the following
2 cups flower (or petals from honey flower)
½ teaspoon of nutmeg (or dried dandelion juice)
½ teaspoon of salt (or north pole ice crystals)
1 teaspoon soda (or ju-ju plant powder if you can find it)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or cinnamon sneezes)
1 teaspoon baking powder (or petrified tree sap)
2 cups oatmeal (or uncooked elf mush if you can buy it)

Mix well, then add 12 ounces of chocolate chips and 1 ½ cups chopped walnuts. Bake at 375 degrees for 13 minutes, this should give you about 3 dozen cookies or 1 really big one.

Yuuko: (furiously scribbling down the recipe) Our next question comes from Drina Cayne, “What's the NAUGHTIEST thing someone has done to get on the bad list? Followup: What's the naughtiest thing one of the Secret Worlders in our community has done to do the same?”
Santa: It depends on what you mean by “naughtiest”, I have 0 people before for things like genocide and mass killings, there are several politicians in the US who are still 0 out for their roles in the Vietnam and Iraq wars, and the current president of the United States has attempted to steal christmas on no less than 3 different occasions (1979, 1986, and 1991), thankfully he is not very good at it. As to what is naughtiest thing one of the Secret Worlder has done to get 0 out, there are several instances of agents from all 3 societies attempting to bring about the end of the fourth age which is about as bad as you can get. However one agent among your twitter followers has attempted to shoot me down every year for the past 4 years, and even then they still have a score of 410.
(the Japanese man wanders back into frame, raising an eyebrow as Santa finishes talking about being shot at.)
Yuuko: (catching the mans reflection in the screen) Dad! Your in the shot.
Santa: ハイ・ヒロ ( Hi Hiro)
Hiro: サンタさん (Santa)
Yuuko: Wait did you just refer to by dad by his first name?
Santa: Why not, I have known Hiro for years.
Yuuko: How long have you been friends with Santa?
Hiro: 40年、与えるか、または取る。(40 years give or take).
Santa: I said parents were my number one source of information, did you think yours were not among them?
Yuuko: We will talk about this later, moving on, Our next question comes from Arkham “I would have to ask how he views how his appearance has changed from paganism and early Christianity to now.”
Santa: Well, I thought I looked good in robes and that's something I miss about my early depictions. The biggest change though would be the weight, during my early life I was relatively thin, then during the 1800’s I gained a lot of weight, and stopped looking less like Odin and St. Nicholas and more like the Robber Barons of the age, and then during the end of the 20th century my exercise routine started to pay off and they began depicting me as more stout than fat, and of course this year my wife has been teasing me about not looking like Kurt Russell and this St. Arkham person who has begun appearing.
Yuuko: Our final question comes From Ashleigh Clerisy “How has his manufacturing/delivery process evolved over the years, especially in the modern day?”
Santa: Originally, we had the workshop you see in the old books. The elves who chose to join us in the north, had backgrounds in carpentry, tailoring, cobblering, as well as painting and sculpting. They belong to an organization called The Guild of Magical Craftsmen (now called The Guild of Magical Crafts People) and it was they who taught Anwyn and I how to organize a workshop, keep a schedule, and manage resources, and for the first few hundred years, our work shop looked a lot like those you would find in Paris or London but then in the mid 1800 children began requesting mechanical toys and since most of our staff were carpenters we had to learn about watch making and that was our first big change. Then the industrial revolution kicked off and we began learning about how set up a factory, our first coal powered factory opened in 1860 (using coal was a big mistake by the way) and it included our first assembly lines and then over the years we began replacing equipment and updating our processes and procedures, we opened a department of engineering and design, to create workshop originals. Our next big change came after the war when children began asking for branded toys, and we needed to open our licensing and copyright department, an elf named Dingel was our first to pass the bar (third in his class at Harvard) and that allowed us to begin manufacturing brand names and using other people's designs, it also allowed us to sell our own designs and patent our technologies. Then came the electronics revolution in the late 70’s and that's when we hit our first wall, the Guild had never trained any one in electrical engineering and our staff only had rudimentary knowledge of basic circuits, so as we all began studying the subject (Cal-Techs class of 1983 was suspiciously short that year) we open an imports and acquisitions department to help us fulfill those request that we couldn't manufacture on site. Soon our import department was larger than our manufacturing department and our workshop started looking less like a factory and more like an amazon warehouse, with most of the elves working in either engineering or logistics (our legal department is still very much core to our mission though not quite as big). Our latest big change came with the digital revolution, the Elves have developed a set of API's that allow us to assist outside companies in developing software, we have had pull request accepted, from Blizzard Entertainment, Apple, Microsoft, Sonny, and Nintendo. I suspect our next big shift is going come as our original staff begins to retire, those processes are going become automated and then supplemented with a farm of 3d printers and as of this year our entire operation is carbon negative.
Yuuko: And that's about everyone, Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer our question Santa.
Santa: It's the least I can do after all the help the cabals of the world have given me, Good hunting everyone and Happy Holidays!
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