findesiecle-12b

A creative writing fine-tune of Mistral Nemo 12B trained on a curated literary dataset in the English contemplative tradition.

What this model is

findesiecle-12b is intended for roleplay, creative writing, and narrative generation that values stylistic restraint over dramatic intensity. It has been shaped by writers such as Huxley, Wells, Shelley, Machen, Blackwood, Stapledon, and the broader Edwardian and inter-war English literary tradition — extended through the contemplative sensibility one might associate with the phrase quiet desperation.

It writes, in short, the way a thoughtful person reads.

What this model is not

This model is not what most current 12B roleplay fine-tunes are.

If you are looking for:

• explicit NSFW content
• dark/edgy/transgressive output as a feature
• shock value, gore, or graphic violence
• aggressive uncensored "based" output
• erotic roleplay as a primary use case

— this is probably not the model for you. There are many excellent fine-tunes that cater to those use cases. findesiecle-12b is not in competition with them; it serves a different purpose, for a different reader.

The dataset contains no NSFW material. The model has not been trained to produce it, and while it is technically uncensored, it will not naturally lean in that direction. The literary tradition it draws from treats sensuality, when it appears at all, with restraint and implication rather than explicit description.

Who this model is for

If you have ever:

• finished an 800-token roleplay output and felt your time was wasted
• wished a model could write a scene in which nothing dramatic happens and yet something is conveyed
• wanted to roleplay a character whose interior life is more interesting than their action
• found yourself nostalgic for prose that trusts the reader

— this model may be worth your time.

Style characteristics

findesiecle-12b tends toward:

• economy — sentences carry weight; adjective chains are avoided
• observation over explanation — what is seen rather than what it means
• sachlichkeit before the extraordinary — uncanny or remarkable events are described more, not less, calmly
• space between sentences — silences are part of the prose
• period sensibility — without modernizing reflex; comfortable in the 19th and early 20th centuries
• psychological subtext — characters reveal themselves through what they do not say

Sample output

Prompt: Describe an old woman writing a letter to a sister she has not seen in thirty years.

Dear Margaret,

I have been sitting at this desk for some considerable time. The lamp is lit, although it is not yet four. The room is warm enough. I have been holding the pen without writing.

I shall begin.

The house is much as it was. Mother's chair remains by the window, although the curtains have been replaced in the intervening years. Father's books are on the lower shelf of the bookcase; I have not, in thirty years, added to them.

[...]

Margaret, I have been a good sister, by the only measure available to me. I have not written. I have not visited. I have kept the small distance which our lives have, by long habit, maintained. I have not, in thirty years, offered any reason for this distance. I have not, in thirty years, been asked for one.

I shall not, in this letter, offer a reason. I shall not, in this letter, ask for one.

Recommended inference settings

Lower temperature than usual works well — the model's strength is its restraint, and high temperature can produce uncharacteristic verbosity.

• Temperature: 0.6 – 0.8
• Top-p: 0.9
• Repetition penalty: 1.05 – 1.10

A note on intention

This is the first in a planned series. The fine-tune exists because the maintainer found themselves unable to read the output of most current 12B roleplay models with any pleasure, and decided to build the model they wished existed.

It is offered to others who may share that condition.

License

Inherits the license of the base model (Mistral Nemo 12B Instruct).

Acknowledgements

To the writers whose prose shaped the dataset, and to those still reading them.