potatosapien5

[potatosapien5]

Hello my supporting friends

I would extend my deepest gratitude and thanks for being supporters of people who are in dire and bad need due to the shortage of all living necessities. 😥😥😥

My family has been undergoing all forms of humiliation and oppression for almost ten months . Being jobless, my father is suffering much because lots of our basic living necessities can't be attained. 😢😢😢

Living circumstances are getting harder and harder, and this makes our daily life tragic and disastrous. Getting the basic needs has become our biggest challenges, leaving behind our dreams and aspiration. Our daily sufferings have become too great for us to bear. ,😥😥😥

A photo taken for the same girl before the war and nowadays.🤯🤯🤯

A photo of our beautiful house taken after the invasion of our neighborhood. Much destruction and rubbel have taken place. Nothing has been left for us to live in. Our belongings and possessions were completely destroyed😥😥😥

The life inside the tents under the hot weather is another tragedy. Such a life of sufferings and hardships is adding to our pain and sorrow. But with your support and standing by us, you have been lessening our loads lifted on our shoulders. So please keep helping us by donating whatever you can, sharing as much as you can and reposting messages to help get the campaign promoted.

[potatosapien5]

Hello, how are you, friends? I am Salah from Gaza. My wife needs treatment. She had an emergency operation with inflammation of the pancreas. She is currently in intensive care. Help and donations, please, please. 💔🙏🥹🍉

https://gofund.me/51a15a77

✅️ Vetted done ✅

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Our team at #GazaVetters has rigorously vetted and approved this campaign, earning it a spot on our official list at .

[potatosapien5]

Help Ahmed and Nour get through this war in Gaza

I am Ahmed Basem, 26 years old, an agricultural engineer from Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, and my wife Nour Jamal, 23 years old, is a nurse at the Indonesian Hospital in the Gaza Strip.🇵🇸

We got married in May 2022.

Our life is full of love, happiness and comfort in a beautiful, quiet, spacious and warm home that lacks nothing of all the requirements and luxuries. This home was all we had. Life was turned upside down in the Gaza ground war.

My family of 8 and I were forced to flee to Rafah city with nothing in a tent that could not accommodate three people in a cold and harsh winter with the difficulty of living without income and all the necessities of life that cost 10 times their normal price.

On the 105th day of the war, our beautiful home that I had not lived in for more than two years was bombed. The three-story family home was leveled to the ground and all that was left for us were some beautiful memories and some photos.

My wife miscarried her long-awaited baby after a nearby bombing ☹️

I lost my job because my workplace in Beit Hanoun was bombed, we lost our beautiful family car, and I stopped working because of this devastating war.

We became homeless and unemployed.

Help us provide for our daily needs and get out of Gaza.

Every dollar makes a difference and saves our lives🤲🍉✌️

Please Donate now:👇👇 👇

[potatosapien5]

We Need Your Support Now More Than Ever

Hello friends.

We are LGBTIQ refugees from East Africa, and we are facing unimaginable challenges in the refugee camps where we have been displaced. Every day, we struggle to survive in hostile environments filled with homophobia and persecution. Our lives are constantly at risk, and we need your help to make it through these difficult times.

Despite the challenges, we have some good news to share! The first group of LGBTIQ refugees from our community is finally heading to Canada. This is a huge milestone for us, and it wouldn't have been possible without your incredible support. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has stood by us, and we ask that you continue to support us in whatever way you can.

But we still have a long way to go. Many of us remain in these camps, living in fear and uncertainty. We are asking, kindly, for your donations to our fundraiser. Every penny counts—whether it’s for food, medication, or shelter, your contribution helps us survive another day.

Even though it's difficult to keep asking, we can’t stop. Our lives and futures depend on your generosity. Please, if you can, donate to our cause. Together, we can create a safer future for our community.

Thank you for your continued support, and let’s keep moving forward.

Other ways to Donate.⬇️

PayPal: lwerephillip@gmail.com

With gratitude,

Phill and the LGBTIQ refugee community

[potatosapien5]

I speak to you directly from the heart of destruction, war, injustice and hunger. I am Nada from Gaza,🍉I am 26 years old, I have a 4-year-old son named Mahmoud, and the war is ongoing and the state of weakness and hunger is directly targeting us, the innocents. We have been at war for more than a year, and during the year we were displaced under bombing and gunfire more than 10 times. There are no words to describe what we are going through. My child, my husband and I have experienced death several times. It was not easy to leave because my mother was with me because I am her breadwinner. We lost our entire family and the occupier imprisoned my father. All I have left is my mother who suffers from heart disease and needs a heart stent operation after our house was demolished. We used to live in peace and had a steady source of income. Now we live in a dilapidated tent that is not suitable for living in the winter and water collects inside it. In the summer it is hot as if we are melting in an oven, so how can we as humans bear this? So I feel very shy when I ask you to help me with anything even if it is simple it means a lot to me and it may save my life and the life of my child and husband and it may save my mother's surgery or renew the tent and all the positive words do not express how generous you are especially sharing my posts to inform other donors about the people of Gaza who are still suffering from the terrible conditions caused by the unjust war on Gaza!

Please continue to support us by donating directly or sharing the link to inform others and do not hesitate to help people in difficult and miserable times until the dark days are over. 🙏🏻

Verified by: @90-ghost

[potatosapien5]

whateverr

[potatosapien5]

I am calling for a total and complete ban on tiktok pop psychology until we can figure out what the hell is going on

[potatosapien5]

[potatosapien5]

[potatosapien5]

Sinedenian wetlands 🐠🌾 Deep in the lands of the continent, lie many twisting rivers, lakes, temporary and permanent, with floods and rains they flow into one another, basking in the warm starlight and soaking it in like a sponge. Mixing all kinds of life, this crazy cocktail of all the living would drive any ecologist crazy, but for life on Sinedey its the norm, and any creature you see is ready for a sudden change of residency. So as this morning is perfectly normal, as the star slowly rises on the horizon, giving warmth to each little and big thing in here, giving them a fresh start for a new day. A pair of Yachtnik Rinsers slowly barges through the floaty boat vegetation and the young Khloppy tree thickets. They are ready for having their breakfast consisting of water rich with plankton of all kinds, these warm blooming waters provide plenty of food for even such 10 meter long giants. Yachtniks are members of an especially ancient taxa of sinedenian animals, that are characterized by their rows of false legs on their abdomen, only first two and the last one pairs of legs are their true limbs. They get their name from their unique feeding strategy, in which they use their net shaped fused lower jaw to swallow water and then rinse it inside of their mouths, swallowing all of the plantkton, and then spitting the clean water out of their mouth opening. Surrounding this pair of giants thrive myriads of many other creatures, that will be explored in way more detail in a video I'll be making soon! Stay tuned!

Close ups!.

[potatosapien5]

MORE ALIEN

Here's some more of the ocira! All that attention on my last post was mind-blowing, I thank you all!

Anywho, I wanted to share a unique fact about my alien. Instead of the 2 sexes most Earth animals have, ociras have 3! One who produces eggs, one who fertilizes the eggs, and the last, who incubates the eggs and gives birth to new oclets. For each step, the respective member contributes some of their genes. This leads to trinogamous pairings who mate for life. When a producer doesn't feel like raising young, he can eat his eggs, fertilized or not.

1: Producer lays eggs. 2: Fertilizer fertilizes eggs. 3: Carrier collects eggs into her womb. 4: Carrier carries eggs for around an Earth-year.

This unconventional breeding ritual has multiple reasons. Besides trinogamous pairings making for a strong bond, the oceans the ociras call home are extremely disease-ridden. Three pairs of genes strengthen their young enough to be resistant to illness.

Early ociras evolved in unpredictable and treacherous conditions, in which individuals would have to move often, with no idea of how the breeding pool in their new environment would look like. So, producers are able to fertilize their own eggs, and with three pairs of genes given to them by their three parents, a producer could have some semblance of assurance that their young would be able to survive.

(The second generation of single-parent oclets are infertile and susceptible to disease! Producers really only fertilize their own eggs in times of great stress...)

Carriers are lot bigger than producers and fertilizers, who tend around the same size. Ociras, being warm-blooded, eat often to store a lot of fat. So, they are wonderfully rotund. While young adult producers and fertilizers are about as tall as humans, ociras continue growing (albeit very slowly) for life, so their size really depends on their diet and age.

Ociras become young adults at age 7. The average ocira makes it to their 60th birthday! With medicine and care, the oldest reach 110.

This white coloring is a placeholder! Ociras are usually grey-brown with stripes or splotches for camouflage.

Thanks for taking a look! I might post a bit more about them in the future 😺

[potatosapien5]

This has probably been said before but one of my favorite small details in the murderbot diaries is how in ASR we hear The Company called "The Company" and we as the readers assume that is it's name because of capitalist hell sci-fi reasons. BUT then we learn later in NE that we think its called that because thats what Murderbot inserts into the narrative and that isn't what the company's name actually is, it's just such a cool change I love it

[potatosapien5]

Despite Sparta’s reputation for superior fighting, Spartan armies were as likely to lose battles as to win them, especially against peer opponents such as other Greek city-states. Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War—but only by accepting Persian money to do it, reopening the door to Persian influence in the Aegean, which Greek victories at Plataea and Salamis nearly a century early had closed. Famous Spartan victories at Plataea and Mantinea were matched by consequential defeats at Pylos, Arginusae, and ultimately Leuctra. That last defeat at Leuctra, delivered by Thebes a mere 33 years after Sparta’s triumph over Athens, broke the back of Spartan power permanently, reducing Sparta to the status of a second-class power from which it never recovered. Sparta was one of the largest Greek city-states in the classical period, yet it struggled to achieve meaningful political objectives; the result of Spartan arms abroad was mostly failure. Sparta was particularly poor at logistics; while Athens could maintain armies across the Eastern Mediterranean, Sparta repeatedly struggled to keep an army in the field even within Greece. Indeed, Sparta spent the entirety of the initial phase of the Peloponnesian War, the Archidamian War (431-421 B.C.), failing to solve the basic logistical problem of operating long term in Attica, less than 150 miles overland from Sparta and just a few days on foot from the nearest friendly major port and market, Corinth. The Spartans were at best tactically and strategically uncreative. Tactically, Sparta employed the phalanx, a close-order shield and spear formation. But while elements of the hoplite phalanx are often presented in popular culture as uniquely Spartan, the formation and its equipment were common among the Greeks from at least the early fifth century, if not earlier. And beyond the phalanx, the Spartans were not innovators, slow to experiment with new tactics, combined arms, and naval operations. Instead, Spartan leaders consistently tried to solve their military problems with pitched hoplite battles. Spartan efforts to compel friendship by hoplite battle were particularly unsuccessful, as with the failed Spartan efforts to compel Corinth to rejoin the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League by force during the Corinthian War. Sparta’s military mediocrity seems inexplicable given the city-state’s popular reputation as a highly militarized society, but modern scholarship has shown that this, too, is mostly a mirage. The agoge, Sparta’s rearing system for citizen boys, frequently represented in popular culture as akin to an intense military bootcamp, in fact included no arms training or military drills and was primarily designed to instill obedience and conformity rather than skill at arms or tactics. In order to instill that obedience, the older boys were encouraged to police the younger boys with violence, with the result that even in adulthood Spartan citizens were liable to settle disputes with their fists, a tendency that predictably made them poor diplomats. But while Sparta’s military performance was merely mediocre, no better or worse than its Greek neighbors, Spartan politics makes it an exceptionally bad example for citizens or soldiers in a modern free society. Modern scholars continue to debate the degree to which ancient Sparta exercised a unique tyranny of the state over the lives of individual Spartan citizens. However, the Spartan citizenry represented only a tiny minority of people in Sparta, likely never more than 15 percent, including women of citizen status (who could not vote or hold office). Instead, the vast majority of people in Sparta, between 65 and 85 percent, were enslaved helots. (The remainder of the population was confined to Sparta’s bewildering array of noncitizen underclasses.) The figure is staggering, far higher than any other ancient Mediterranean state or, for instance, the antebellum American South, rightly termed a slave society with a third of its people enslaved.

[potatosapien5]

POV: you are being Sniffed by a Beaſt

source: NamibiaCam

[potatosapien5]

reminder to all my disabled lovelies that "gross" symptoms do not make you gross or lesser in any way. incontinence, vomiting, irritable bowels, or gastrointestinal issues shouldn't be as demonized as they are. you are real, valid, and loved

[potatosapien5]

URGENT : Last week , this child, my nephew, was bombed next to the tents in which we live and burned, causing this child to burn, but we hoped that he would improve, but unfortunately his condition is urgent and very dangerous. I hope you support this child. It just made him smile when he heard that there were people who would care about him

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[potatosapien5]

Centaur Worldbuilding

this one has been in the works for a really long time! but here it is at last: the details about how I personally have chosen to worldbuild with centaurs.

My centaurs are based on chalicotheres, popularly referred to as "gorilla horses". I thought they were a perfect base to start from when making people that resemble a horse combined with a human. Though my centaurs lean way more into the chalicothere look and don't resemble humans much at all.

here are a few variations on color/pattern for centaur coats, based mostly on paleoart of chalicotheres.

(image description: six illustrations of centaurs with different coloration. The two main colors are a red-brown and a duller tan color. the three main patterns are soft gradients, stripes, and spots. end description.)

and it is a really really long post so the rest is under a cut for convenience.

The reason centaurs have six limbs is because somewhere back in their ancient ancestry, chimeric twins became more and more common and then became the default. There was most certainly some meddling from a Life entity in order to make this happen (the immortal beings who channel the world's natural magic energy to mess with living things as they please, though they can only use a limited amount of power before they fade into that vast well of energy and disappear). This does mean that the front "legs" of a centaur are actually a pair of arms. The main differences between the upper arms and the front legs are the placement of the shoulder, the amount of muscle, and how the centaurs trim their hooves for dexterity or support.

(image description: two drawings of a centaur standing while bending down to touch the ground with their hands. the second image shows an overlay of their skeleton, illustrating the chimeric twin anatomy with its split ribcage and two pairs of forelimbs, or arms. They have three hooved digits on each hand/foot on all six limbs. visually, their face is a bit horse-like and their whole body is colored reddish-brown with a pale belly. end description.)

and yes, they can use use their front legs as a pair of secondary arms when needed. They're not as dextrous a pair of arms, but they do make a lot of tasks easier, such as being able to buckle a bag strap around one's own belly, or catching hold of a rambunctious foal before they run face first into your knees.

(any inconsistencies in these proportions from here onward is entirely down to my own artistic flaws, as keeping character/creature designs perfectly consistent is not easy)

Because they are chimeric twins, it is far more common for centaurs to be born with congenital defects than it is for any other group. The second pair of forelimbs and the added height of the upper torso may be extremely useful for leaf-browsing creatures like centaurs, but the messy nature of their gestation often causes problems. Much of the time, this leads to stillbirths and miscarriage. but some defects are survivable and every herd has a good number of disabled members.

(image description: simple sketches of three visibly disabled centaurs using mobility aids. The first one has underdeveloped forelegs, and is using a combination of crutches and a wheeled platform under their lower torso. the second one was born without the chimeric twin, resembling a chalicothere. they have a folding support stand strapped to their belly to support their weight when they need to use their hands. the last one has a ribcage that failed to split, resulting in a short torso like the twinless centaur, as well as a pair of underdeveloped forelegs. they are using a wheeled platform under their chest, which they can push with their upper pair of arms. end description.)

These are just a few of the more visible and survivable disabilities common to centaurs. wheels are a very important invention for centaur life, not only for their disabled population, but also because pulling carts is a much more effective way to carry a lot of items at once, which is very useful.

Centaurs are also enormous. twelve feet, or roughly 3.5 meters, tall from the base of their front toes to the top of their head when standing upright. They tower over pretty much every other people species, as they are basically just a remnant ice age megafauna that became sapient.

(image description: flat colored drawings of an orc, an elf, and a centaur all standing next to each other. the orc comes roughly to the centaur's upper ribs, and the elf is roughly as tall as the orc's armpit. end description)

it would be extremely rude, but anyone the size of an average elf or smaller could easily play limbo under a centaur's belly. it's a really bad idea though.

Orcs are also remnant megafauna, and it's not by coincidence. Their ancestors were the main predator of ancient centaurs. (this also means the ancestors of gnomes were the main predator of centaurs, but this fact is often overlooked since gnomes are so much smaller than their cousins). even into the modern day (of my stories) centaurs mostly live in their own isolated territories, actively keeping other people out. Especially the orcs. The journey from natural predator and prey, to sapient peoples who did not recognize each other as people, to enemies, and then to tensely peaceful separated populations, was a long and difficult journey, fraught with violence on all sides.

Where the line falls between animal and people is murky and difficult to define. When exactly did the natural behavior of hunting prey become grounds for warfare? No one is really sure. Even if the line is drawn, what would it change? nothing. the past already happened. their people already have an enormous divide between them; a chasm of blood that can't be forgotten.

(image description: a vividly colored digital painting of an ancient centaur trying to escape three ancient pig-like predators as they pounce and bite in their attempt to bring it down. end description.)

many orcish artifacts still remain in centaur territory as the result of many clashes and hurried retreats. The orcs conceded, in the end. they returned all their belongings that were made from the bodies of centaurs, allowed the centaurs to draw the territorial lines, and then kept themselves far away and avoided those areas for centuries.

Centaurs are a migrational species, so orcs were too. Orcish culture used to focus on centaurs as a sacred animal, and then they had to toss it all aside and build their culture back up from whatever they had left. and in the meantime, the centaurs who had spent so many generations fleeing predation, watching their most frail herd members be picked off, and fighting back at last to defend themselves, were free to rest and build their culture far beyond their prior means. they became master weavers, using a wide variety of plant fibers to create clothing and art and useful items they didn't have time for when they were more in danger of being hunted. Though most centaurs still choose to go around with very little clothing, if any, because it feels more practical.

(image description: three different centaur outfits. the first is minimal, all jewelry and simple gloves. the note on it says "small accessories and jewelry are often more practical for an active centaur." the second one is wearing bark cloth around both of their waists to act as a barrier between their body and the straps of large bags on their back. They are also wearing gloves and cloth wraps around their hands and feet. the note here says "centaurs are largely nomadic and have developed many durable weaving techniques to create high quality travel bags." and lastly is a ceremonial outfit, featuring a cape and gloves all dyed in vivid shades of green with leafy patterns in the cloth. the cape is decorated with a fringe of thin cedar strips, matching a headdress of the same material. behind their head, the centaur wears a skull. the note here says "Religious garb often uses centaur skulls to reflect the nature of their conjoined deities. The Withered Twins are more commonly represented because they are a healer and gentle guide." end description)

and one very common piece of clothing for all adult centaurs is the "I'm not your mom" blanket; a weighted cloth laid over the flank to deter nosy newborns during peak baby season.

(image description: a striped adult centaur wearing a cropped shirt with beaded straps and a fancy looking leaf-pattern blanket strapped around their lower waist shoos off a speckled foal who looks a bit confused. end description.)

nosy newborns very easily forget who their mom is and need to be redirected quite often. though some lactating centaurs are more than willing to share the burden of keeping all the babies fed, and their culture does involve a lot of communal child rearing. monogamous couples and exclusive marital bonds are uncommon in centaur herds.

Most herds are led by a council of elders, who are trusted to make wise decisions as they follow their ancestral migration paths and constantly assess the needs of the herd. Some of the most important elders are those who act as religious leaders, representing the conjoined deities. Centaurs generally have two main deities. The Perfected Twins, a warrior deity, and The Withered Twins, a deity representing both death and healing.

(image description: two vibrant illustrations of centaur deities, both with a long braid of hair, their heads framed by shining circular designs like halos.

in shades of red, the warrior deity, the perfected twins, is noted to represent defense, fury, power, and hope. they have two active heads, joined at an angle in the middle so they look in different directions, two pairs of upper arms holding a shield, a spear, and a bow and arrow, and four legs. They are wearing armor on their upper waist and all of their arms. They are rearing up and look to be charging into battle.

in shades of blue, the death deity, the withered twins, noted to represent protection, healing, love, and grief. they have one active head and a smaller, partly decayed head attached to the back of their skull. Their forelegs are also underdeveloped and scrawny. their whole body is overlayed with a skeletal design. They are curled into a protective pose, holding a twinless infant with their whole torso and front limbs depicted as bones with no flesh. the deity is also wearing a translucent cape attached to upper arm bracelets.

end description)

centaurs have been fully aware of their chimeric twin biology for centuries, though they did not have the means to study it in detail or understand exactly what was happening during gestation. it's not hard though, to notice that your species is made of fused twin bodies when so many of your people are born with their bodies fused wrong, especially those who are stillborn. They believe they also have twin souls, and that the twin who is sacrificed in the womb gets to be the dominant twin in their next life. those who are born twinless usually undergo a lot of spiritual meditation to connect with their lost twin so they can meet up again in death. the stillborn foals with more obvious conjoined anatomy are said to be twins who had a fight about which of them would be dominant this time, and so they came out wrong and had to try again.

the infant held by the Withered Twins represents the sacrificed twin who waits as a spirit for their turn in the next life while the living twin uses their arms and ribs. The Withered Twins are the most commonly worshipped deity, prayed to for comfort and healing and guidance, acting as a conduit for living centaurs to stay in touch with their twin's soul. but the Perfected Twins also play an important role in centaur culture, even though their fierce warrior nature is no longer needed since the centaurs were able to separate themselves from the orcs.

the Perfected Twins represent the idealize form; the possibility of both twins sharing a body, neither being sacrificed while the other remains alive and dominant. they represent community action, partnership, cooperation. when needed, they are prayed to for strength. their image guards the borders of centaur territories, a signal to all outsiders that the centaurs have not grown docile even in isolation. at a moment's notice, they will take up arms again to keep themselves safe.

in the canon of my main stories, there was a very important historical event involving centaurs. some centuries after the Goblin Revolution shook the world and put everyone through some rough patches as various populations turned to isolation and self-imposed segregation to prevent any other interspecies troubles, while other populations embraced interspecies cooperation, there was an orc in one country who took the lead of a large clan and decided to end their tradition of isolation and reach out to the other people species in the local area. his name was He-esh and he was the first orc in that part of the world to strike an alliance with the nearby dwarf clans. he did a lot of other notable things, acting as a diplomat and repairing the broken relationship his people had with their gnomish cousins.

most notable of all, however, was his bold decision to contact the centaurs and lay his life on the line to carry an apology for the actions of his ancestors and plea for alliance between their peoples, hoping it would someday turn into friendship.

(image description: a grayscale illustration with gold accents, showing an orc kneeling in front of an armored centaur while they hold a spear to his chest. both figures have a golden halo drawn around their heads. the orc is wearing simple but elegant looking clothes, including a fringe of black feathers on the hem of his coat, and a pair of long straight tusks in his hair. his own tusks are curled with the points facing backwards. end description.)

He-esh's plea to the centaurs was received with apprehension, quite reasonably. but he never asked forgiveness, only a chance to let the future be forged anew. eventually, the centaurs accepted his plea and he was able to strike an alliance with them, gradually opening trade between them and other people species in their area. though he was never allowed very far in, He-esh got to walk into the centaur territory once to meet with their elders. at the end of He-esh's life, a centaur diplomat made history again by being the first to enter orc territory in a peaceful manner, as far as any records could tell.

this event marks the beginning of my most central story project, so I won't give away all the details yet.

as a final note on my centaurs: they don't have genders. their pronouns are based on age (child and adult) and social hierarchy (important adults).

ila/ las (child pronoun) hul/ hes (adult pronoun) ma-hul/ ma-hes (important adult pronoun)

I haven't been using the correct fantasy pronouns for all my characters very consistently, because it is a little tricky to keep track of them all and I have yet again made changes due to dissatisfaction with a few of them lol. but when I eventually have completed stories, I'll be using all those pronouns to enhance immersion.

this post has been a long time in the making, so i'm glad to finally have it done!! thanks for being patient!