#!!WARNING!! NOT SCIENTIFICALLY SUPPORTED BY LORE

[automatonwithautonomy]

the entirety of the cavalier and necromancer dynamic is built on the cavalier being consumed. cam and pal circumvent this by creating a sort of ouroburos where their both eating each other, together, forever; therefore creating a singular entity. because love.

[pastel-medic]

So, wait, if Axel is the Spy that Red Medic removed the head of, how are they in a relationship? Wouldn't that spawn some kind of resentment?

I'm going to trigger warn this post for topics of s//cide, depression, and poor health because I can't exactly explain their dynamic without getting into Axel's mental health. I tried to make this as brief as I could but it ended up becoming an oc ramble anyway 😭 sorry in advance for the long post!!!

Also please note my personal lore and hcs for them isn't strictly based on canon lore, so RED Medic having Axel's head in fridge is due to different reasons than just being a crazy doctor :V

You have been warned!!!

This will be delving a bit more into Axel's character, and a lot of this I will try not to spoil too much as it is a plot point in an ongoing fic I'm writing.

Axel is, to put it simply, someone who struggles immensely with self identity and has a very nihilistic point of view. Working as a Spy for years since he was young has created a sense of worthlessness in his mind, as he viewed himself as a nobody who wears the faces of other people (especially after an incident that I won't detail since it's spoilers). He hasn't been able to hold relationships because he constantly "changes his identity", adopting a new fake name and fake history with every new assignment he's given while leaving the people he once formed bonds with behind once his work is done.

On top of that the people who had taught him to be a Spy often compared him constantly to his brother Pierre (RED Spy), so he never felt like he was good enough. He developed depression when he was a young adult and hasn't been able to cope in healthy ways, which led to him having very poor health and malnutrition. Every time he was offered help and support he rejected it out of fear and ran away (metaphorically and literally), the folly of pride and the guilt of being a burden to someone else. He's had many s//cidal tendencies (a lot of Axel is split from my personal trauma so bear with me), and believed that if he were to just disappear one day nobody would notice. He's waiting, HOPING, that one day he can just disappear forever...

So when he's taken by the RED Medic as a mere head in a fridge imagine his confusion when the enemy doctor refuses to kill him immediately no matter what he says. "Kill me" he keeps saying. "Later" is the only response he gets. Yet the doctor doesn't ever seem to want to. At first Axel thinks it's because of scientific curiosity, and he'd be right at first, but that's not the real reason Medic keeps him around. As it turns out Ludwig has a slightly twisted and odd excuse for keeping him around.

Seeing the Spy in a state of self destruction and withering health hurts Ludwig as a medical professional. A doctor's duty to heal others is something that even with his crazy mind still remains true. He can't help but feel the need to heal this person, his own enemy, who has become nearly broken beyond repair. He wants to help the Spy, but his solution is pretty bizarre and unconventional. If he keeps the Spy around he can try to heal the brokenness in his mind. As a head in a fridge he can't run away from the help offered to him. He realizes he doesn't want to just heal the Spy, he wants to help him; He wants to give Axel that feeling of value in his life that he struggles to have. He wants to be the person who can save Axel no matter how insane his methods are, a Don Quixote.

He wants to help Spy live.

"You are not the masks you wear, nor are you a nobody without them. You are you. And you are important no matter what."

As foolish as this logic is it's effective, as it doesn't give Spy that door to escape to. Now he HAS to see the damage to himself. Though the longer Spy stays with the enemy Medic the more he can see that he isn't the only one who needs healing. Out of all the people Ludwig can heal, he doesn't seem to be able to want to heal himself. All of his struggles are private, and he keeps the pain hidden away behind closed doors. It seems Spy is not alone when it comes to blocking others out. Medic knows he has sins crawling up his back, yet he actively pretends the Devil on his shoulder isn't there. Yet the more he ignores his mental strain the more volatile and unstable it becomes. He cannot see the damage he is inflicting on himself, and Spy knows he will continue to turn a blind eye unless he sees the harm it is causing. Regardless of how crazy it is, he realizes he wants to help the doctor too.

Spy wants to be someone who can help Medic see his self worth, a mirror to show him that he is more than simply a healer for others.

"How can you help those around you if you refuse to help yourself? You are deserving of healing too."

TL;DR to reiterate one of my previous posts about my MedicSpy ship their dynamic has always been about healing and finding security and comfort in someone who cares about you. Yes they have their flaws and are not perfect by any means, but they uplift and support each other because they care.

[lorre-logic]

If you could time travel and spend one day with Peter Lorre what would you want to do? 🤔

Time travel??? With my skin color??😭😭😭

I don't think that'll go well at aaaaall. Not because I think Peter Lorre would have any kind of prejudice (I actually heard many lovely stories about him and with people of color) however I feel like there's nothing fun I could do with him in whatever decade I'd time travel to. It just would be limited. If that wasn't an issue then I'd love to go on a shopping spree with him and yap about all kinds of nonsense as we pick out outfits.

Instead I'm going to suggest a different scenario. Lorre time travels to this time period and hang out with him. Mainly because I just wanna make him gawk at modern things.

As much as I said I'd love to traumatize him with the Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon, I actually wouldn't do it. I don't want to send him back to the grave twice. Though the desire for it is still there. I also would avoid telling him about his sad fate. He deserves to have a good time.

I'd just want to let him know that he's still very liked and show him what the current gen of Lorre fans are doing with the interwebz. He deserves to know that people are still being introduced to him and fall in love with his movies to this day. Also of course infodump about the lore of Lorre caricatures because I have no self control and I MUST share about the cartoon fish that had rotted my brain for the past 3 years and make him watch the Slappy's solo episode Slappy Daze.

Also show him all of the other Lorre caricatures but I'm picking the ones I think won't traumatize him. So obviously no adult party cartoon, and no strip club lorre caricature. Also gift him a copy of The Animated Peter Lorre, Slappy's character sheet, and various other things. Perhaps customize a tweety bird plush to make it that Tweety Ugarte from Carrotblanca. Maaaybe gift him some antibiotics too for his chronic lung infection and warn him about cigarettes and about the dude who squandered his money (gotta change space and time so I can get a few more years of Lorre movies ya kno)

Tbh that aside, I'm not sure exactly what else I'd lik to share with him? I'm not that talkative irl so I'd feel like I'd get overwhelmed and forget anything I'd want to say. I think I'd just die happy if I got to shake his hand tbh. I'd need another lorre stan to be there for emotional support and probably do most of the talking for me. I'd have more fun listening in and studying him like a specimen from afar. I need hair samples for...scientific purposes <3333

[ninjastormhawkkat]

Blood Curse Au

This idea stems from discord chats with my friend Eris who is known as @erraticeris and @dualnaturedscientist on tumblr. She came up with an idea for curse for her oc Athena Cartwright where Athena's family was cursed by a sorceress. The curse affects only women born into the family and it slowly drives them insane over time. Originally the "blood curse" idea was something for the mousebraingirl au and it was more scientific and had to deal with Lexiconian behavior combined with human blood. Then I thought, (with Eris's support and agreement) what if it could be magical in origin like with Eris's oc. The blood curse was born. There is a lot of dark stuff and gore. Trigger warnings are in the tags but be prepared for blood and devouring of flesh along with mention of mass killing. So the Blood Curse affects the Boxleitner (or Woods family depending on the au and lore). It only affects males born in the family. The curse originated with an ancestor who was a fierce and ruthless warrior from the Medieval period. This warrior was fighting an enemy army and had chased the remaining survivors into a village. Instead of waiting for the enemy soldiers to come out, the warrior set fire to the village, causing many to die by not only the flames but also by the warrior who slaughtered any male who tried escaping. After the village was destroyed, only one old man survived. This old figure was a powerful warlock. He was a kind soul but was horrified and outraged at what this warrior did. So, using eldritch magic, the old man cursed the warrior and his male descendants for the rest of time. The curse goes is that every male would have an insatiable urge to consume blood of living things born on this world through any means. They would also be prone to attacking and sometimes killing their victims to get the blood. They can still eat regular food and drink other liquids, but their desire to kill and drink blood will be a part of them like a need to satisfy hunger or to breathe. If they are near someone who has a simple cut on their finger, it drives them ballistic and animalistic. Their ears become pointed like wolves, their teeth become sharp fangs, their tongues elongate, their fingers become claws, and their eyes become a deep red. They can't be reasoned with nor can they control their will and actions in this state. It is almost like they are in a type of trance. The blood curse progresses with age. Newborns up till age 8 will only have desires and are satisfied with feeding on animal blood. 9 to 14 they will only be interested in the blood of those weaker and smaller than them and no longer can be satisfied with just animal blood. 15 to 19 those with the curse will only go after those just weaker than them. When they reach their 20s, then all human blood is a buffet to them. Each male in the Boxleitner (Woods) family has taken precautions to make sure they don't try to kill. Blood banks help to satisfy the curse. They also aren't attracted to the blood of females who are born into the family nor anyone who marries into family. Those with the curse are also not attracted to drinking alien blood as aliens are technically "not born of Earth" which negates the effects of the curse. Also the presence of alien blood in a male born into the family can delay the beginning of the curse which normally happens at birth. The only way to break the curse is not pretty either. The curse must be transferred to a descendant of the old man that cursed their ancestor or they must kill every last living family member of the old man. Let's just say about every member of the Boxleitner (Woods) family prefers to deal with their curse rather than let someone else suffer with it. Next post connected to this one will be called the blood brothers au which derives from this au. @melodythebunny @liloskull343

[darksidescorner]

Hey! I'm still making the fanfic, I've just been busy recently.

I'd like to take this time to talk about a piece of it, and a wider trait of V. Octavius, as well as how I imagine Miguel in this.

Fair Warning: this post is kinda long and 100% not proofread. It's a big rant.

Olivia wears a giant backpack out in public. I'll draw it one day. Think this, but bigger.

She has 4 holes in it, just like her shirts do, and she puts her tentacles in there. Lining the holes are electric magnets, which attach at the base of the tentacles. This make it to where it just looks like she has a very full, very big bag. And to be fair, carrying large bags is somewhat common in 2099, so it looks normal. That's the point.

Semi-related rant/lore dump ahead:

"But Darkside, why doesn't she just take the tentacles off?" you may ask. The simple answer is, she can't.

The spine was originally meant to be worn temporarily. It served as an extra-stable device that allowed her to be extra precise as she performed extremely delicate surgeries. However, it was always taken off at the end of the day, when she went home from work. It connected directly to her nervous system, very carefully. She didn't abstain any damage, because it was very temporary, and her body always had recovery time.

However, once Alchemax finally managed to get her failsafes disabled, she was fucked. She couldn't take it off. The power button can only be hit by the tentacles in a very precise place. This is to prevent her from accidentally bonking something and suddenly losing the spine. And when the tentacles basically ran her instead of vice versa, they prevented her from taking the spine off. This lead to her wearing them full-time, when they weren't supposed to be.

Eventually, when the failsafes got fixed and she was finally back in control years later, she managed to get some skilled doctors to try and take the tentacles off. But when they tried, it went terribly. If the doctors hadn't stopped the process, she would have sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI). Because she was wearing the tentacles for so long, her organic spine accepted the mechanical spine and tentacles as part of it. Essentially, by taking off the tentacles, she was ripping apart her nervous system.

So, instead of going into shock and possibly dying, the doctors in charge of removal stopped the process and put it back. Olivia was still in worlds of pain, but it wasn't as bad as what could of been. She still needed pain meds and medical attention, but it wasn't as bad as what could have been. Her back hurts a lot some days, especially around the pins, but she's generally okay.

End rant/lore dump.

Just like Miguel, she's very conscious of her differences and would like to blend in as much as possible to normal society. Her and Miguel both hide the "abnormal" aspects of themselves to the general public. They don't want people to recognize them for those traits, and they sure as hell don't want questions. Both of them have different reasons for it, and both of them respect and support each other's decisions. As seen above, they even help each other with it.

They are both rather self-conscious. Olivia because she's somewhat known by different scientific communities as Doc Ock, and she hates being recognized as evil. She still catches stares from people who somewhat recognize her face, and she avoids eye contact like hell. The glasses she wears, surprisingly, help hide her. She used to wear contacts as Doc Ock, because they meant her glasses couldn't get knocked off her face. She hated putting the contacts in, mind you. But if it meant she could fight easier, she'd do it. However, in her post-Ock life, she never needed to fight again, nor did she want to. So she went back to wearing glasses.

You'd be surprised how effective the Clark Kent method is. Her and Miguel both use it. He wears aviators to hide his red eyes, and surprisingly it works. Even if he gets somewhat funny looks for wearing sunglasses indoors, it's still better than having people stare at his eyes. Last thing he needs are tabloids being like "wHo iS tHiS mYsTeRy MuTaNt?" He hates the idea of being viewed as some cryptid monster. Unfortunately, in the past 150 years, tabloids haven't changed. They're still annoying and invasive to others' privacy. And while Miguel isn't super well known as the CEO of Alchemax, he knows how distinct he looks in general.

Olivia has similar issues. She doesn't want people to perceive her as anything other than A Woman Living Her Life. Unfortunately, she doesn't always get that. Every once in a while, she'll see an article about her get posted, sometimes with photos neither her or Miguel knew were taken. When that happens, she usually doesn't go out into public for a little while. She either does administrative work from her and Miguel's home in the Babylon Towers, or she stays at HQ for a while. Usually it's at HQ, because she can go see Miguel whenever she wants. If she stays at HQ, Miguel usually stays there too. Unfortunately, Miguel can't really work from home, so staying with her isn't an option. They still spend plenty of time together when Miguel comes home.

If someone isn't slick about trying to get photos of Olivia, for example on the train, Miguel will turn to block her from view. Miguel knows he's a giant, and uses that to his advantage. Unfortunately, Olivia doesn't have that kind of an advantage. But if she did, she'd do it for him too. She hasn't yet come up with a way to stop people from taking photos yet, so she just holds his hand and warns him when someone has their camera on him. They usually change routes if they're walking together, or he just turns away from them if they're on the train.

Thankfully, both of them work in a place that doesn't require them to hide themselves. They don't have to hide it, because everyone there has something "different" to their universe's society. As soon as they get to HQ, Miguel's aviators and Olivia's purse come off. Taking off the purse is MUCH easier than getting it on. All she has to do is set the purse on a table level to it's usual height, disengage the magnets, and then walk forward. As she walks, she extends the tentacles and shuffles around in the purse to slide it off.

Funny enough, for a while Olivia didn't take off the backpack even at HQ. This was after she learned that some Spiders are afraid of her in some way, shape, or form due to their own experiences with their respective Doc Ocks. As stated above, she doesn't want to be feared. It took a lot of encouragement from Miguel to take the bag off, as well as multiple panels where she gave her story and Spiders could openly ask her questions. These panels lead to an FAQ page for new Spiders to read about her. Some questions are (questions are blue, she is purple):

"Can I spar with you?" "No. Please do not ask me to train you. I do not fight anymore and do not wish to start again."

"Can I ask about your past whenever I have a specific question?" "Sure! If it's a bad time or day, I'll tell you. Make sure you read the document on me as well as thr FAQ first."

"Do you let other Spiders work with you?" "Absolutely! I work in more domestic and administrative departments of running the Society. If you're ever interested in that, let me know."

"Do the tentacles get tired?" "Not unless I'm tired. There's no muscles in there, so there's no lactic acid that builds up or anything like that. The only way for them to "get tired" is if I'm tired."

"I need help with something. Can I come to you with it?" "Please do!"

On top of all this, Miguel encourages new recruits to talk to her and ask her for anything they need. He does a lot to make sure the new recruits aren't afraid. He actually actively redirects people to her, and if they're too scared or nervous to go alone, Peter B. may escort and stick with them.

She always cries a little when a recruit's Spider-Sense stops going off around her. It's happy tears.

—————

I don't really know how to close this out other than to say I'm sorry this is so long and I'm sorry it's a total rant. I wanted to explain her backpack and give some lore, but it ended up going off the rails. Oops.

@pinkpinkspidey (if you would like to be added to the tag list, let me know)

[penchanteds]

daemon / rhaenyra fic recs

watched the dragon show, became obsessed, and so here are some daemyra fic recs. original warnings apply. commentary is my opinion; go read and support authors 💗

modern au

potential by stannide

a masterpiece! required reading. this fic is probably a gateway drug, and it will ruin you for all modern aus after. the writing is luminous and intoxicating.

the beauty queen in tears by writingwhatidream

the crown meets a/b/o; there's something so addicting about this world where targaryens are modern royalty with a young princess rhaenyra at uni. the dual-pov is crafted so masterfully. [in-progress]

say my name, say it again by ineedyoursway

the prose is luscious and the story leans into the mafia-esque, age-gap vibes. it's sinister and alluring in the best ways. every single chapter takes my breath away and leaves me stunned. [in-progress]

somewhere in the haze by darkgods

corporate!targaryen is a deliciously fun modern setting, and this one peels back layer after layer. [in-progress]

scattered moonbeams by untouchable

they meet on a dating app after years of estrangement, but of course, it's so much more than that. miscommunication-fueled yearning is a gift.

ruled by siebilant 

they also meet on a dating app, but the prose in this one swelters. it's a push-pull, then take whatever you can get your hands on when it comes to these two.

anything charmtion publishes is poetry, including:

rosemary by charmtion

underbelly by charmtion

into dark, into water by charmtion

dirt nap by charmtion

(this is a non-scientific recommended reading order; the first pair has partners-in-crime family vibes, the second pair has running away-finding each other circularity)

other au

everything darkgods will ever write (consider this list a darkgods shrine), including:

a wing shaped from fire by darkgods

rhaneyra is betrothed to daemon from a young age, and a viserys consumed by dreams steps aside and crowns daemon king instead. one of my favorite characterizations of a young!rhaenyra, in all the fire and spirit she possesses as a dragon. [in-progress]

put down that gravestone by darkgods

this is probably the most beloved fic around the block. surprise, rhaenyra gives birth to daemon's twins after that fateful night in 1x04; daemon returns a decade later and our favorite scheming power couple reunites. [in-progress]

something wretched about this by darkgods

dead dove where king!daemon takes underage!rhaenyra as his ward and takes his tutelage very seriously, but he is very unserious about the extent of his feelings. [in-progress]

kiss my face and tell me i'm the chosen one by darkgods

domestic!daemyra with a brood of over a dozen little targs. after aegon ascends to the throne, rhaenyra retreats as the princess of dragonstone and slowly builds her empire. [in-progress]

a king for a queen | bone of my bone by FormerlyIR (Irony_Rocks)

a/b/o where daemon steals rhaenyra away and one of the story tags is "high valyrian as a love language" so they get it.

i only want your soul by sweetlovedoll

soulmatism, and the doom that befalls everyone in a three mile radius if you try to separate these two.

the tyrant king and his little queen by framboise

daemon targaryen and the boy!obsessed trope, describes how the king is endlessly doting upon his young niece-wife-queen.

the last beautiful thing i saw is the thing that blinded me by pentaghastly

more mythological dragon lore. the only way to describe this is incandescent poetry that drips down the sleeve after the first bite of an overripe fruit.

unwanted consequences by cartographies

we should all be team!rhaenyra begins to pick at the unresolved traumas around marriage and motherhood.

bad religion by stannide

a gorgeous daemon character study that unfolds through the first half of the season.

fix-it universe

crucible by stannide

sometimes we're all mad about the season 01 finale, and other times we read this as a salve for our wounds.



salt by charmtion

in the post-finale, simply unfold and dwell in the tender horror of this poetry.

bloodless by charmtion

daemon and rhaenyra survive the dance, but wounds linger and cannot be washed away.

burning times by lovily

the beautiful ebb and flow of these two losing and finding themselves in each other, hurt/comfort.

list last updated dec 2022

[maitarussa-old]

Some random Elven Biology, Growth, and Sex/Gender/Sexuality headcanons that I’ll probably make into a proper worldbuilding post or two for my lore blog eventually.

This is all very strangely LaCE-compliant (or rather, defiant? A lot of it is built on loopholes in LaCE lmao)

Obligatory disclaimer, I am ace/demiro and trans/intersex.

Content warning: Medical/Scientific discussion of sex, genitalia, childbirth, and pregnancy. Discussion of Elven queerness and the equivalent of lgbtphobia. Light references to suicide (fading) and non-consensual sex (these last two will be noted before their individual bulletpoints).

…

Biological Sex & Social Gender

Elves are born as one of three sexes, male, female, or both, which determine reproductive role and genitalia and not much else. Some cultures place more social weight on sex than others, but rarely until reproduction becomes a concern. Children are almost always referred to neutrally, as a sibling or child instead of brother or daughter. Gendered terms for family members only usually begin to be used after puberty.

There is very little “sexual” dimorphism among elves, but it exists. Aside from genitalia, children have no distinction until puberty. During puberty, one’s gender, not their biological sex, determines what traits they develop. These are marked by some variation in face shape and structure, body structure (men typically have broader shoulders), and voice pitch.

Sometimes elves relate strongly to their gender, other times not particularly strongly. This will influence how secondary traits develop during puberty— as it is the fëa that influences the hröa’s development to some degree during this time. At some point during puberty, an elf will typically “come out” and begin to use gendered language for themselves; though often those around them know in advanced due to their development, they will typically refrain from using gendered language until the individuals themselves announce it.

Social Gender may or may not match biological sex and reproductive role. Either is seen as within the bounds of “normal.”

Most elves are binary, or rather, many nonbinary elves don’t even fully realise this due to the flexible gender roles of most Elven cultures, and they will typically call themselves whichever binary gender is closer to how they feel and develop. Those who are firmly in the middle, if not in a culture where nonbinary genders are recognised, typically will choose based on whether their culture is more matriarchal or patriarchal, or based on their craft if they have one and such things are at all gendered in their culture. There are a few cultures that recognise nonbinary genders, or that do not use Social Gender at all, and still some with three or more distinct genders, but these are not usually found in the mainstream among the Eldar.

¡¡ WARNING for brief discussion of suicidal themes related to gender dysphoria !! *** While body dysphoria in relation to gender is relatively uncommon among the Quendi when compared to humans, it does occur in some cases. Typically, this dysphoria is discovered rather early, and treated as soon as possible. While reproductive capabilities could not be fully changed, even while still in Cuiviénen, Elven healers developed techniques and procedures to alter the body to appear and feel nearer to the proper sex. This was prioritised quickly, as dysphoria indicated that the hröa made an improper fit for the fëa, which is, among the Elves, the greatest possible ailment. However, treatment is not always so swift. In some cases, particularly in Ñoldorin culture where the body is seen as the craftsmanship of one’s parents, a child will hide their dysphoria to avoid disrespecting their craft (though most Ñoldorin parents would not see it this way, and would wish to support and help their child). While some may suppress this and are able to be content, if not happy, with presenting as the Social Gender of their choice, many suffering from severe dysphoria will not be able to bear it, and will fade, their spirits being unable to bear remaining within their bodies, and preferring to remain disembodied within the Halls of Mandos rather than be placed within an ill-fitting hröa.

Childbirth and Parenthood

The terms “mother” and “father” among the Elves don’t necessarily denote gender, rather, they apply to the role in child-bearing and early child-rearing that each member of a couple takes. The “mother” is the one who forms the physical body and carries it, while the “father” nurses the child for the first year of their life and primarily teaches them speech and movement.

The parents share responsibility for the spiritual nourishment of the child during this time somewhat— the father remains near the mother during pregnancy and shares strength of spirit, and the mother aids in the teaching of the child during their first year, but the physical nourishment of the child is undertaken by solely the mother during pregnancy and solely the father during nursing, while the mother enters a year-long period of recovery from pregnancy and childbirth.

On that note, Elves do not have permanent breasts. These only form during nursing, and as it is the father that nurses the child, it is the father that will obtain them for this purpose. If, by some ill fate, the father is not present to nurse the child, then the mother will obtain the capability of doing so. This is incredibly taxing upon the mother, though, who has already spent so much power and strength in the bearing of the child.

The withdrawal period after birth is observed differently by different cultures, but it is universal that a mother will refrain from the creation of new things during that period of time. The father will also typically do the same, and devote that time and energy instead to the raising of the child.

It is because of this sharing of responsibilities that elves do not have children during times of strife— the absence of a parent during pregnancy or the first year can cause great problems for both child and parent. This is also why there is typically an age gap of thirty or more years between the first and second child (though the intervals may be shorter between later children), so that the eldest sibling will be mature enough to help with the household.

As above, the older siblings will frequently help with household tasks such as cooking and cleaning during their parents’ child-bearing time. This may be why many older siblings also become accomplished in cooking and baking.

In some cultures (especially Ñoldorin culture), children are not seen by anyone outside of the immediate family (parents and siblings) until they are two— a year after their birth. That is because this first year is incredibly formative, and seen as part of the process of creation. This is far from universal, and some may not observe this at all, but there is typically some form of secrecy before the first year after birth has passed in many cultures. The customs during this time can frequently determine the way a culture’s social bonds form, with the Ñoldor, some of the most withdrawn during the first year, forming the strongest nuclear family bonds of all Elves.

Elves are typically considered “adolescent” from when they come of age until they have children of their own. While they are adults. they are socially considered to be somewhat akin to the typical college student among earth humans. The level of maturity they have frequently depends on where in their family’s birth order they are, with older siblings frequently being more mature than younger ones. It may also depend on the circumstances of their lives— and those who grow up amidst great strife often mature more quickly than those who live in peace, who hold onto their youth for far longer.

Sexuality and Queerness

The “typical” orientation for Elves is demisexual/demiromantic and monogamous. Everything outside of that falls into the realm of “queer.” The degrees to which queerness may be taboo among the elves vary widely by specific culture.

Complete asexuality and/or aromanticism are often seen as a bit strange, and frequently considered to be a result of “not finding the right person yet,” but these individuals are not usually shunned in society and there is no definite taboo against it. However, it is often invisible, treated as just a temporary state.

Allosexuality, however, is most certainly seen as “queer” and far more negatively. Especially if sexual attraction is felt without any desire for partnership or marriage. It is seen as “normal” for elves to appreciate and praise physical beauty— it is not seen as “normal” to be attracted to it physically. Particularly allosexuality with specific gender preference is seen as very strange.

This is so pervasive that many are led to believe that Elves do not experience sexual attraction or seek out sexual pleasure at all outside of marriage. This idea is incorrect— for though in many cultures (especially calaquendian), there is a strong taboo against extramarital sex, there is a surprisingly large minority that engage in it and enjoy it. Many of these individuals remain heavily closeted, as there are great social consequences for being outed as a “pleasure-seeker,” but hook-ups and friends with benefits are fairly common— or anything aside from a committed romantic and sexual relationship.

¡¡¡ WARNING for brief discussion of non consensual sex and suicide by fading !!!! Those that engage in sexual activity without marriage must keep two things in mind: that everything is mutually consensual, and that neither party harbours a desire to form a partnership with the other. In the best case scenario, two elves who had been in a casual relationship and both wished to be married would become accidentally “half-married,” as the will behind their actions formed a part of a marriage bond. Typically, though, if it is only one participant that has such feelings, they will begin to form a bond, but it will not be reciprocated, and all sexual activity will immediately cease between them. In the worse case, however, the attempt to form a bond will be a breach of consent and a violation— and will result in the immediate death of the other participant.

[greywindys]

i need your opinion on something. many people are saying that murdoc has changed, but is has gone back to the way he was. i tried saying that murdoc has changed as that he doesn't bash 2d like he used to do except for the few snide remarks, but that his core self hasn't changed, which is being self centered. despite this somebody i was talking to said that the effort murdoc had to want to change has stopped and that he's taking advantage of 2d in this current phase.

what do you think about it being said that murdoc is reverting back to his old ways?

Of course! Hmm this is complicated to answer. I'm not sure if you're reporting this back to any outside discussion, but I'll leave the fair warning that I'm blunt. I don't take debate personally, so if anything comes across like I'm annoyed, I'm not. I'm just direct. If anyone disagrees with what I say here, I'm open to listening to other perspectives, but I also can't promise I'll agree.

So

To be frank, I don't know how anyone could argue with 100% certainty that Murdoc is regressing or progressing with the information we currently have. Unless I've missed something, we have no idea what the "plot" will be this album, if it will even have a plot, or what everyone's role will be. There is no undeniable proof that Murdoc is "taking advantage of 2D" this phase. I have a hunch that it will go that way because Gorillaz writers are boring (imo), and too afraid to break their formula, but none of this is proven until we see more of the story line. Right now, I could make an argument for or against that statement if I wanted to, but the important part is that it's all predictions and theorizing. Nothing is certain.

As for Murdoc changing...If you can concede that the Murdoc of today is not that same Murdoc from P1-P3, then you agree that Murdoc has changed. The way I see it, Gorillaz is more toned down overall because they’re trying to appeal to kids and families so they can make more money to fund themselves. Murdoc will be "nicer" for this reason alone. Would they have made this change if they weren't trying to appeal to general public? We'll never know, but yes, the "lore" has made more of an effort to show his nice side as well as his insecure/anxious side. Last I heard, it was implied the band was merely humoring his cult phase. He's less "evil" and more "kooky and harmless" atm. I guess I can see why people would try to debate this, as this phase does bring us to a crossroad of sorts...which Murdoc will we get? Is he really going to continue to reveal different sides of him, or will he revert back to something closer to P1 Murdoc?

tl;dr - Murdoc has changed, there has been more effort to show his good side and scale back the edgy 2005 humor to make Gorillaz more accessible to kids. Give this information, we can assume his relationship with 2D is also more positive, but thus far, nothing can be confirmed about this phase until we see more of the "story." Gorillaz lore is like scientific research. Theories and character interpretations are hardly ever 100% proven, but they can be supported by w/e pieces of canon you choose to bunch together.

Hope that helped!

[knickynoo]

Highlights from: DeLorean Time Machine: Doc Brown's Owners' Workshop Manual

I pre-ordered this back in December, having read that it would include sections that add to the BTTF universe & expand the lore & BOY HOWDY. There is some great Doc Brown backstory info and answers to some things fans have wondered about. I devoured it in one sitting and enjoyed every minute of it. Here are some of the highlights, which I'll hide under a cut in case anyone wants to read the book for themselves. But, if you're not planning to, or you just can't wait to get your hands on it...here you go. There is some truly wonderful stuff in here.

• First things first: The beginning of Doc's introduction to the book. It is so very "Doc."

• A decent portion of the book is written in the form of Doc's journal entries dating from all different points in time, but starting in the 1940s where he laments a boring, "stifling" job he had to take after the war ended. There is a termination notice included in one of the entries, which states that Doc was eventually fired. The reason? Dress code violations. Apparently, after previous warnings, "Dr. Brown once again wore a Hawaiian shirt under his lab coat." Fantastic. I don't know what it is with Doc and wearing Hawaiian shirts, but I fully support him.

• Doc became an appliance repairman in 1949, and also mentions getting Copernicus from a shelter

• Doc mentions having hated his previous job because he wasn't free to be creative and focus on what he wanted. However, he likes the repairman job because it's easy, allowing him to be able to daydream/do other science in his head as he works. Y'all, Doc just wants to be left in peace to fixate on science, ok?

• He mentions his parents divorcing somewhere around 1940 (I think this is new information??) & that they had very little contact with each other in the following years. He also notes that he could only refer to his father as "father." The man straight up did not allow Doc to call him dad. The entry concerning his father's death basically boils down to, I feel nothing, I had no attachment to my father. He was a cold, unsupportive man and I need a hug.

Oh Doc, if only there was a small, disheveled child you could take under your wing, and work out your issues by being a wonderful father figure to him.

• After Copernicus passes, Doc gets Edison (who might have been mentioned in the comics but I can't remember). He says that the dog will be a "shining light" in his life and I just- Doc is such a good dog dad.

• He later gets Einstein in 1979, which RUINS a headcanon I had that Doc took a young Marty to help him pick out a new dog, but whatever, it's fine.

• We eventually get to the journal entry where Doc meets Marty! Doc recounts Marty sneaking into his lab and how he soon offered him a job. He refers to Marty as, "curious and fearless" & says that Marty passed the "Einstein test" because the dog loves him.

• ALSO, YES, THERE IS AN ENTRY WHERE DOC SAYS THAT MARTY ASKED HIM TO BUILD THE GIANT AMP AND DOC WRITES, "How can I say no?" AND WITH THAT I SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST GOODBYE EVERYONE

• An entry written after time travel shenanigans reveals that as Doc laid there in the parking lot for those few seconds that Marty thought he was dead, he was not only in shock but getting a rush of memories from the other timeline. So he remembered everything from Twin Pines timeline, including getting shot. SO...I guess that finally answers the question of whether or not Marty also has two sets of memories?

• Has it been previously established that Marlene and Marty Jr. are twins? Because yes, they're twins.

• More details on Marty's drag-race accident in the form of a newspaper clipping attached to a journal entry. Marty apparently broke his right arm, crushed his hand, and got a concussion. (Honestly, can Marty go 5 seconds without a head injury?)

• Doc is basically like, Yo, 2015 Marty is not a good dad.

• Doc's main motivation for building the time train was a recurring nightmare that Marty, upon returning to 1985, was immediately hit by an oncoming train. So, I guess Marty and Doc are both in the "Time Travel PTSD Nightmare Club."

There's, of course, many more gems in the book, so I for sure recommend checking it out. A lot of it is about the more scientific and technical aspects of the time machine, time train, etc, but even that is interesting.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I felt like I was unraveling as I wrote it, but like...in a good way.

[bakubabes-and-ramble]

Headcanon: The Gundalian culture is based on individualism, the Neathian culture is based on collectivism

Race interpretation part one: Neathia

Summary: The Neathian culture is built on the core values of communities and collective thinking. While conformity within the society is of a high level, they pursue a 'closed gate' diplomacy towards other races - resulting in a 'bubble' phenomenon and becoming vulnerable to losing their sense of belonging. Centralised urban system, with regional reciprocity and redistribution, whereby the Queen plays a coordinator role, and exists as a unifying symbol along with the military.

(Wall-of-text warning ; with block-breaker illustrations, but a huge amount of information ahead.)

Okay, this topic is something I was thinking about for a long time, and I finally hit the point to collect my thoughts and write them down. I've seen a lot of people trying to build up/further and enrich the cultural and social-political features of the alien races we've seen in the series (namely Vestals, Neathians and Gundalians), and I felt some inspiration to put my take on these things into words.

It's not only intriguing to try one's hand on the world-further-building, but I felt, I have to explain how I imagine the build-up of the Neathian and Gundalian culture and society to make the story of the 'Neathian Special Squad' ('NSS') more understandable 'symbolically' and from the aspect of a 'cultural clash'. /For those, who follow the NSS: This is something that definitely happens later on, you just don't know about it yet./

I have to put a small disclaimer here: This entire piece of writing was conspired out of fun and passion towards the series. It was not meant to be a 100% professor approved scientific research, but a seemingly logical untangling of my personal train of thoughts concerning the fantasy creatures of the third season. And this means, there is going to be some personal opinion mixed in as well (especially at the rewriting parts).

I wish the readers to enjoy reading it regardless. You are always free to disagree or not to take it seriously. :) To me, headcanonizing and imagining things always meant to be fun.

Side note: I'll add canon elements as examples or refer to the events of Gundalian Invaders, although I have to admit, I'll do this mostly from memory. So If I get anything wrong, or just remember incorrectly, you are welcome to add-in or correct me! :)

Season: Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders (and Mechtanium Surge)

Language: English dub

Okay, let's go!

Gundalian Invaders - Slightly rewritten

The first and foremost reason I actually started writing this post, is because I had some issues with the characterisation of the Gundalians and Neathians in the third season. One side is depicted blatantly, purposelessly and one-dimensionally evil, while the other is portrayed to be the goodie-two-shoes victims with no backlashes. I wanted to swing over this simplicity and make an attempt at explaining, how I imagined these races to function. These interpretations were explored with the intention of both keeping the main features of the races, staying canon-compliant where possible, but change canon elements/propose ideas to turn the races into interesting (and on a theoretical level functioning) societies.

For these added or assumed ideas to work, some lore elements have to be changed or removed: For example the way Bakugan got to be on the planets. For this explanation see: a further point below.

This post discusses only Neathia for now. (Gundalia will probably get it's own post, as there is much more canon-divergence to be talked about.)

Neathians

1. The beginnings and core values

Due to the power of the Sacred Orb, almost the entire planet have relished in a lush fertility since the beginnings. (And this is why there are huge plants in their jungles. The wildlife also experienced a great upsurge by the life-force of the Orb.) This prosperity quickly enabled the Neathian race to organize into a peaceful and sharing society, because the wars over resources became redundant and unnecessary. The established racial mindset reallocated the focus from the individual needs to the communal efforts, and gives a ground for the Neathian values and collective thinking up to even the days of the season.

Neathians think mainly in groups: Let those be pairs (e.g. Fabia and Jin as fiancés; Linus and Neo Zipperator as brawling partners), teams (Neathian Special Squad; Friendship circles), communities (Castle Knights), and the biggest of them all, their entire race. These are all bigger or smaller communities within communities, and they play a major role in how Neathians perceive the world and themselves. Being in these relationship structures defines their place, grants them their basic mental frame, which they are able to think in, and not only their resources, but also their goals are shared with each other. This kind of goal assimilation is what makes them really efficient team players, and also provides them a strong social support from a mentalhygiene perspective. This important role of the sense of belonging makes Neathians both empowered while being in close social constructs , and extremely susceptible to losing these connections.

Thinking like this, when Fabia lost her fiancè or Linus lost Neo, their grief extended further than their deaths or the traumatic events. Losing strong bonds like these put Neathians in a technical identity crisis, as it is a part of their personal perception and mental frame which were dismantled through these events. We have seen Fabia going to extremes to retrieve Aranaut - and to retrieve that part of her, which was lost with Jin. Just as when Rubanoid was handed to Linus, a new connection was formed to either replace or continue the old one in a different form. Fabia's communal bonds were successfully restored, when she also became a member of the brawlers.

The Neathian society is based on caring and cooperation to achieve a collective well-being. This is why communities play such a major role in their self-perception and world-perception.

2. Open-sources, but enclosed diplomacy

For most part, I've always imagined the Neathian race as an although proud and generous, but closed society. They share commodities with each other - within their society -, but it is very important, that only within it. The outside world (meaning outside of their habited planet) is fundamentally shut out of these transactions.

I often refer to this phenomenon of enclosedeness as the 'Neathian bubble':

Not only their mindset operates in closed communities, but their diplomacy too. They are generally passive towards other races, missing trust and a reason to pick up the communication /Up until the Gundalians came and the war started/. This perspective could be applied to understand, why could they be more insistent on and better at operating defensive mechanisms (layered shield generator), than initiating communication with the rest of the universe (Unlike Gundalians, Neathians have no ships or bigger means of transportation. Yes, teleportation is accessible for them, but I don't think they use it that often outside of Neathia.)

I treat this as an explanation for why Neathia had only asked for outside help after the second shield generator went down - the situation became desperate and already being involved in the conflict, it was time to try and reach out for aid. According to these headcanons, I also think, Serena wasn't putting - or at least shouldn't have put - faith in the Brawlers so easily. The reason they weren't tested to prove their trustworthiness further than one question, is because she trusted Fabia's judgement. Without the support of a Neathian, outlanders are almost automatically dismissed. Their (or their Queen's) empathy and compassion may overwrite this code, but even by then they have to be made certain by proving the cause.

Just as when Fabia accepted Ren, because she had seen how much he tried to prove himself. Winning Neathians’ trust is supposed to be a big and determining moment, because they ‘internalise’ you into their scoiety.

Neathians are capable of empathy and kindness (this is something they actively practice among each other), even towards outsiders, they just need time and proof to accept them. Trust is just not automatic towards them, and even so they keep their distance until they get used to it.

3. Personal paralel counterparts - Night elves and the Highborne of WoW

When I think about Neathians, I often put them into paralel with the Night elves and the Highborne from World of Warcraft. For most part, I use their artistic motives, architecture, fashion and cultural approach as an inspiration for Neathians, as they are recognised as 'The pretty space elves' in my book too.

Beside the above mentioned, what could be imported from their WoW counterparts is a rather matriarchal social apparat. For example, Neathians traditionally having a Queen, and women being present in the military or in higher positions, playing important roles. //Just as by the Night elves leadership, religious and military roles being traditionally occupied by women (priestesses, wardens, sentinels).//

Another elven impression, which is more or less universal, is their sense of pride (I like to say it as the expression of 'Neathian pride '). Highborne in World of Warcraft are a quite prestigious race and are usually said to be a little 'aristocratic'. I can imagine the Neathians being lightly less, but somewhat similar on these terms, when it comes down to interacting with their own or other races: For example being proud of their appearance (Emphasizing their unique V-shaped forehead with adequate clothing and accessories), structuring buildings and constructs based on aesthetic instead of real functionality (using diamond as the main material of construction, structuring buildings with elegant but futuristic shapes), or being confident and showing immovable standing and opinion on things (towards outsiders).

As far as I know, the Warcraft elves used to be similarly passive and uninitiative - even mistrusting - towards other races too. And in this, it played part, that they also had exclusive access to a powerful source of power and prosperity, the Well of Eternity (an almost one-on-one counterpart to the Sacred Orb).

While the half-tribal connections of the Night elves derive from their ancient bonds with nature and druidism, the Neathian society feels more likely being based on a futuristic envisionment of these social relations. A civilisation that perfectly blends technology (teleportation technology, communication devices) with classic fantasy elements (knights), while still remaining tribal in the core (shared communality is just put into a modern environment). /Although I like to lean more into the fantasy setting, the technical advancement is undeniable there./

4. Overall economy

If we wanted to negotiate about their economy, I would say reciprocity and localised redistribution are the dominant mechanisms of it. The basic definition of economy builds on the premise of distribution of scarce resources. In this case, resources are not scarce, in fact, due to the Orb they are very much prosperous and renewing. This accessibility discounts the value of the traditional market trading, and supports the establishment of semi-centralised recollection and redistribution. The semi-centralisation here means regional production and consumption, whereby the accomodation of the population happens mainly territorialy, but these regional centres still have a connection to each other and the capitol. This economy is based on caring and well-being, and the high level of conformity and trust within the collective society results in a lack of currency usage (so, my headcanon is basically, that they don't use money).

5. Urbanisation and territorial layout

The reason we talk about a more physical apsect of the planets, is because the core values of the races both play a role, and mutually affect how I imagine their civilised hubs being developed. Communities form hubs and cities with strong connections - just like their society!

When I mentioned localised redistribution, I was also refering to the urban structure of the Neathian planet. Important to note, that Neathia is not just a city, or a country - just like Gundalia, it's the entire planet. What we've seen in the show is the capital of their urban system - which makes sense to be technically built around / in the immediate enclosure of the Sacred Orb, for it's the source of the relishing power. Assuming this, along the capital there could be a centralised territorial layout with rural areas (cities, villages), and untouched wilderness (due to the overflourishing flora and fauna; the urbanisation doesn't affect the entirety of the planet, there are a lot of uninhabited/uncharted areas).

Here is a simple schematic illustration of the above.

The rural hubs not having physical connection with other centres due to the dangerous and untamable wilderness (see: Giant plants in the show) could have lead to the advancement of the teleportation technology. The cities are connected through this port-system, and also with the capital, which serves as the centre of the network.

6. The role of the queen and the military

The main purpose of the current Queen is an overall governance with the direct help of a council consisting of the local leaders of the hubs. The queen bears not only a political, but a symbolical importance to the people. The concept of the Queen is a unifying symbol, someone who watches over the nation. The Neathians can stand behind her and being represented by her. But it's important to note, that her status is not as glorified as to be a despotic being, and her power is not extending much further than overall policies, diplomatic representation and helping the transactions of the local leaderships. There is much more power and independence shifted into the regional governance, rendering the Queen's position to be an effective coordinator between them and unifier, who keeps the nation together. /Still thinking about the way the queen is chosen/comes to the throne, but I had the idea of the next Queen being elected by the current Queen, so the order of succession is not based on the Queen’s family, nor being a community vote of the people./

The peace-oriented existence in itself doesn't require a military to exists, therefore I treat the Castle Knights as a mainly defensive organisation. This military serves as Neathia's defenders, bearing symbolic and community building purposes. Among the Castle Knights - just as the name itself suggests - the traditional medieval knight values show up primarily, such as loyality, humility, courage, faithfulness and the act of mercy. In their comprehension, being a Castle Knight is an act of service towards their country and the Queen, and is not mainly for warfare reasons. (To some extent, I assume martial arts and other forms of fighting - even brawling - is essentially a spiritual activity, which they pursue in order to keep their inner- and physical balance.)

As we've seen it the show, I assume the Palace also functions as the military's operation base. The head of the military is the current commander (formerly Jin, recently Elright), and under them operate several divisions with captains as division leaders. The separate divisions are Physical Fighting (both with weapon, like those defensive shock-sticks the guards are using - formerly offensive melee weapons until the fall of NSS - and hand-to-hand combat, e.g. used by Fabia), Technical staff (operating the shield generators and overseeing their areas) and Bakugan Brawling (this headcanon part is still under construction, but Elright used to be the former leader of this, and the reason he was promoted to commander after Jin’s death, is because the Neathians' realisation of the war swinging in favor of the Bakugan fights, so it was logical to put him as the next 'general leader'). /There may be other divisions outside of these, I just put out some ideas here./  Every guard receives education to some extent in all of these fields, but they end up specialising in something.

//The Neathian Special Squad (NSS) had it’s own divison under Captain Pyrehart, they were a special strike team with a unusual task: Staggering, forcing back or just divide the Gundalian leadership’s attention from focusing on their assault. Basically poking them with melee weapons until they either go away, or can’t concentrate on helping their Bakugan on the field and their monsters get defeated. According to the story - made up by me of course - after a tragedic mission this unit wasn’t restored, and the war effort shifted onto long-range fighting with Bakugan, Gear and Bakugan Assaults.//

7. So...where are the Bakugan?

They have been mentioned here and there, but I'm sure, whoever made it this far into this theorising information dump, may wonder at this point: 'But what about the Bakugan?'

My simplest answer is, that I firmly want to believe, both Gundalia and Neathia had a civilised and established culture before the Bakugan appeared there.

According to the original lore, Bakugan existed on the planets since almost the beginnings. Now, this is part of those lore bits I would definitively change during a rewrite: I want to believe, Bakugan only appeared in their very recent history, almost as recently, as on Earth and Vestal itself.

Perhaps a Bakugan lore- and GI rewrite explanation deserved it's own post, but for the further understanding allow me to explain here a little: A similar event of raining cards - what the first season started with - occured on Neathia and Gundalia too, caused by the dimensional boom of Michael Gehabich and his transporter. The twist on this - and the effective solution to the problem of possible timeline inconsistencies - is that although the explosion caused this interference at one point in time, across cosmos and universes time flows differently. So technicaly the result of it - the raining cards and Bakugan being transported into the particular worlds - could happen at different point of their relative times - even years earlier or later! On Neathia and Gundalia it could happened a few years before on Earth, which covers most of the questions of the timeline-consistency /such as Ren being assigned to watch over Linehalt as a child etc./

Bakugan coming to these places has only an added effect: Just as on Earth, they are not (yet?) integrated into the society and culture of the planets so deeply to be any kind of pillar of their existence or basic civilisation. There could be a start (as having specialised researches, technology revolving around Bakugan, taking part in the war,..) regarding this internalisation process, but it still runs on the surface, and not in the 'veins' of the culture.

I hope this breakdown made sense in some form or another. I just felt an urge to pour out the content of my head. Looking back,this became longer and more detailed, than I originally intended, while also surely missing things because there is no worldbuilding without holes or further questions. The attempt to lay down the basics was made regardless haha!

As always, feel free to disagree and follow your own visions concerning the races and worldbuilding. :) This post was made to reflect back my personal interpretation of Neathians - just for fun and thinking out loud.

For the very end, I leave a disclamer here, which was supposed to go at the beginning, but it felt redundant to put there, so here it is:

I tried to approach it from a more sociological side, as focusing on a bigger, overall picture, common features, than create exact statements. (I would rather call this a speculation regarding the features of the races themselves, their core values, common attitudes, mindset - and this doesn't mean other questions are fully out of the picture. We are just discussing things, which can be derived from the features of the society itself, and make up a more or less coherent chain of thought for now. Other 'for fun' or miscellaneous headcanons, like fashion or physical traits will be covered another time.)

Thank you for coming to this TED mambling!

[breelandwalker]

Hex Positive, Ep. 021 - Witchcraft and Modern Law

Now available wherever you get your podcasts!

As promised, the followup episode is here! This time, I'm digging into witchcraft as it relates to modern law, plus covering a few key 20th-century events that I missed in Episode 20 and some legal codes that may apply to your practice even if they don't deal with witchcraft directly. We'll also be discussing some instances of modern witch hunts that are still occurring in some parts of the world and there are articles you can check out for more information below. (Massive trigger warning for violence and abuse in the ones discussing modern witch hunts.)

(Incidentally, the information I discovered while researching modern witch persecutions is EXACTLY why I get so cheesed off when some privileged politician whines about being the target of "a witch hunt." Like buddy, you don't even know the meaning of the word. Having to face the consequences of your own actions isn't a witch hunt. That's just cosmic justice serving up a long-overdue headslap.)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Witch With Me - Book Club and 2021 Witch Census

Samhain Witch Market Diversity Richmond, Richmond VA Sunday, October 17, 2021, 3pm-9pm Indoor/Outdoor, Masks Required Facebook Event Page

SOURCES

Folk Magic - Powwow: History and Practices (LearnReligions.com)

Analysis | In Canada, pretending to be a witch is a punishable offense (Washington Post, Oct. 31, 2018)

Victoria clears witches for takeoff (The Sydney Morning Herald, July 21, 2005)

Modern-day witches still facing 'endless abuse and threats' (The Independent, Feb. 09, 2020)

Witch Hunts: a global problem in the 21st century (Deutsche Welle, Oct. 08, 2020)

Chinese 'witches' are banding together after rural Chinese communities ostracise them (AP, South China Morning Post, Jan, 16, 2018)

Why Do Witch Hunts Still Happen? (Smithsonian Magazine, Oct. 30, 2015)

Witch Hunts Today: Abuse of Women, Superstition, and Murder Collide in India (Scientific American, Jan. 11, 2018)

"They Burn Witches Here"; Papua New Guinea: Asia's Fastest-Growing Economy Burns Witches (Huffington Post, Oct. 29, 2015)

Witch Hunts Are Back - And This Time They're Targeting Female Activists (HuffPost Brazil, Nov. 01, 2019)

Witch Trials in the 21st Century (National Geographic, Jan. 21, 2011)

Modern witches are stepping out of the shadow of Germany’s folklore (Sleek Magazine, Apr. 30, 2019)

Wikipedia Article - Rehmeyer's Hollow

Wikipedia Article - Satanic Panic

Wikipedia Article - West Memphis Three

Wikipedia Article - Modern witch-hunts

Wikipedia Article - Witchcraft Suppression Act of 1957

Wikipedia Article - Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill

BOOKS AND PODCASTS

America Bewitched: The story of witchcraft after Salem (Owen Davies)

American Hysteria, Eps. 4 & 5 - "Satanic Panic, pt 1 & 2"

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 10 - "The Satanic Panic"

BS-Free Witchcraft, Ep. 32 - "A New Satanic Panic?"

Lore, Ep. 62 - "Desperate Measures"

Morbid Podcast - Ep. 122-125, “The West Memphis Three, pt 1-3”

Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel of the Year though Earth-Centered Sustainable Practices (Dana O'Driscoll)

This episode is sponsored by:

Portland Button Works - http://www.portlandbuttonworks.com

PBW Witch Shop - http://www.PBWwitchshop.com

Global Grey Ebooks - http://www.globalgreyebooks.com

Follow the show on Twitter @hex_podcast for the latest updates! You can also find me as @BreeNicGarran on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and Wordpress. For more information on how to support the show and get access to early releases and extra content, visit my Patreon.

Visit my shop to purchase my books and homemade accoutrements for your craft!

Proud member of the Nerd and Tie Podcast Network.

MUSIC CREDITS "Spellbound" & "Miri's Magic Dance" Ads - "Feelin' Good," "March of the Spoons," and "Danse Macabre - Violin Hook" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[kabira]

09 | scientific inspiration

pairing — spider-man!vernon x ofc

featuring — joshua, yeji (itzy), felix (skz), yangyang (nct)

word count — 3.6k

genres — spider-man au, marvel au, fluff, action, angst, humor

warnings — none.

note — so here it is, the big Science Dump that will form the basis for one of the major arcs of the story. now, i don’t pretend to know too much of what i’m talking about, but hopefully all the hours of scrolling through obscure genetics articles will hold up. hell, they probably won’t, but this is superhero fiction about a sixteen-year-old man-spider vigilante, so please excuse it !!! a lot of this is borrowed from the ultimate spider-man comics lore by brian michael bendis.

Vernon was still thinking about Luce’s offer when he got to work later that day.

Normally, he would have tried to keep his head clear during his work, but since all he had to do that day was log data entries, it didn’t really matter. Doc hadn’t come back to the lab yet, so it was just him and the janitor, but from the open holograph display on his table, Vernon figured he’d be back pretty soon. Despite the state of his office, the doctor didn’t like messes, especially not in his workplace.

He hadn’t expected Luce to even consider inviting the others, even though she had been friendly with them. Movie night was something that belonged to just the four—three—of them, something sacred and untouched by outsiders. The thing that had surprised him even more was his own willingness. For someone who had been so acutely ticked off by their unannounced arrival, he sure had warmed up to his new teammates quickly.

Vernon was only a few entries in when Dr. Connors entered the lab, holding a cup of steaming coffee from the cafeteria. He smiled at Vernon when he came in, not bothering to glance at the screen to check what he was doing before making his way over to the work table. One of the things Vernon liked the most about this place was that despite being nothing more than a research assistant, he was still allowed to help out in more impactful ways than simply entering and saving data.

“You’re here early,” Dr. Connors said, setting down the Styrofoam cup on his table. He looked tired, Vernon noticed, probably why he had bought that cafeteria coffee despite it being a thick, dark color and tasting like tar. There were dark circles under his blue eyes, and his usually neatly combed brown hair was slightly disheveled.

“I came here directly after school was over,” Vernon said. “Figured I’d save a lot more time that way, and I don’t really have much left to do.”

“Hm?” The scientist faced the holographic model, hitting a few keys on the pad below it. His movements were listless, but his shoulders were still tense. Reminds me of seniors before finals, Vernon thought. It wasn’t exhaustion like he had assumed, but stress. “Then perhaps you’d like to help me out here.”

“Really?” Vernon tried to keep the excitement out of his voice, but failed. Probably for the better, because it sparked a small smile on Dr. Connors’s face. “What are you working on right now?”

He didn’t get an answer for a long moment. Vernon spun in his chair and pulled himself to his feet, ignoring the remains of exhaustion weighing his body down as he made his way over to the doctor’s table.

“It’s something your father and I were working on before…before this project was abandoned, almost a decade ago,” Dr. Connors said. He was looking at the display with a different kind of intensity in his eyes, like it was something to be defeated rather than discovered. “When I lost your father, I gave up all hope of ever getting back to it, but after all my recent failures, I think I need to revisit my roots.”

Vernon pursed his lips at failures, but said nothing. The hologram looked like a DNA strand—a double helix blown to the size of a poster tube. It shone with a dull blue light, lighting up Dr. Connor’s features, illuminating the creases around his mouth and eyes that Vernon wasn’t sure had been there before. Standing next to him made his own tiredness feel like a minor inconvenience.

“This was your father’s brainchild, after all,” the man said, still staring at the display. “A completely independent protoplasmic model based on the body’s own genetic edifice built to fortify the weaker structure of a sick body.”

“A protoplasmic model?” Vernon’s eyes widened. “I thought it was supposed to be controlled AI, like nanobots or something.”

“Imagine that, except a sentient being with the ability to detect and eradicate weaknesses in the body on its own, without any direction,” Dr. Connors said. “Something to cure everything—the right combinations of proteins able to use the body’s own natural resources to fight any infection, overcoming the problem of grafting and able to treat everything from neural atrophy to genetic diseases to cancer, contained in a small tubule.” His eyes shone. “The perfect cure.”

The perfect cure. Vernon glanced back at the holographic model, now seeing the inconsistencies in its structure when compared to normal human DNA. The idea was intoxicating and exhilarating, made even more amazing by the fact that it had been proposed by his father. It made his chest ache with longing, thinking of the possibilities of fulfillment if his father had been alive still—not just for the experiment, but for Vernon himself.

“He was way ahead of his time, Richard Parker—in that sense, you are a lot like him,” Dr. Connors murmured in a low, wistful voice, as if speaking to himself. “It had become almost impossible for us to receive any support or funding for our project, because of how wildly imaginative it was. We were ridiculed, discredited, called mad for our ideas before we finally got the deal with Oscorp. We had worked on the cure for so long, and just a couple of days before the deal’s signing, your father called me one night, sounding excited about a fresh prospect.” He shook his head. “But then…”

He didn’t need to complete his sentence. Vernon caught the drift of it, and turned away to hide the pained expression brought onto his face by the flood of emotions. He didn’t know if he felt good about being so close to his father’s work, or bad about being so far away from his father himself. Even the mere presence of his old colleague, still alive while he wasn’t, seemed to taunt Vernon.

Snap out of it, he told himself firmly. His father’s death hadn’t been Dr. Connors’s fault—he knew that, but still had to avoid even thinking of that idea, because once the seeds had been planted in his brain, Vernon knew he wouldn’t be able to work with Dr. Connors in harmony. Plus, watching him talk about the work he and his dad had done together, no one could say that the scientist didn’t care about his former partner.

“What did he discover?” Vernon prompted.

Dr. Connors’s eyes turned sad. “I never did get to find out,” he said. “Just two days after the call, he was finally going to come back to the state to share his discoveries with me, so we could compare notes and build on what was lacking. The first step to phase two, he called it.” His jaw tightened. “And just when we thought something was going to go right for once…”

Vernon hung his head. Maybe knowing his father had been on the verge of a breakthrough should have made him feel better about his achievements, but he only thing that Vernon could think about was what all the world had lost when he had lost his dad. A revolution in medicine. A father. He was almost a little uneasy thinking about which kind of loss affected him more. The world could have been a much better place, but all Vernon wanted was his dad back.

“I’ve been unfair to you, Vernon,” Dr. Connors said, breaking him out of his reverie. He straightened while keeping his eyes fixed on the DNA hologram, then faced Vernon with a sad look. “You should have had someone to help you come to terms with your father’s death, someone who could have told you about his great ideas and even greater work. I shouldn’t have left you alone to deal with everything, but I simply couldn’t bring myself to…”

His voice had lowered with every syllable until he trailed off, making Vernon think that his voice had finally become too small for anyone to hear. Vernon swallowed, unable to think of anything to say. He was usually good at talking to people, even heart-to-hearts, but when the subject touched his obscure past, words failed him.

“I understand,” he said, the first words that came to his blank mind. He tried for a reassuring smile, unsure of what the result actually looked like. “You shouldn’t blame yourself for it. And anyway, I am here now.”

Dr. Connors smiled a little. “That, you are,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been doing your genius intellect a great injustice by assigning you all these menial tasks.”

“Hey, someone’s gotta do the menial tasks, right?” He smiled back. “My experience with research is next to nothing compared to that of the other people in this lab, so I’m fine with where I am. And not all the tasks are exactly menial.”

“Still.” The man sighed. “Since it was your father’s genius that came up with this idea, it feels only right to have you develop it further—or at least play a role in its creation.”

“I’m here whenever you need me,” Vernon said, glad about the lightening of the atmosphere. He wasn’t sure how much more of that weight he could have taken. He cocked his head, studying the listed proteins. “What made you want to work on this ‘cure’ again after so long?”

“A lot of different reasons,” the scientist said. “I think I had been avoiding this project for so long because I couldn’t bear to continue it without Richard by my side, but meeting you, his son, and having you take up a position in my lab felt like a sign.” He gave the boy a sideways smile. “And from a scientific viewpoint—before this, I’d been working on a different kind of cure, a serum with a principle based in cross-species genetics. It was supposed to be give a person the ability to regenerate lost limbs like a lizard, but the premature human trials went off the rails.”

Vernon nodded, keeping his mouth clamped shut. “I see,” he said, not wanting to bring up the Lizard incident unless he was sure Dr. Connors was ready to address it.

“However, after someone helped…fix the problem by making an anti-serum, the new formula for it gave me an idea,” the man continued. “Scientific inspiration, I guess you could call it. There’s a lot to be done, but I still have the anti-serum here in the lab, and have been studying it for over a month now.”

The gears had already begun turning in Vernon’s head. He had been the one to create the anti-serum as Spider-Man, and no one knew the methodology better than the original creator. Most of it had stemmed from the original Lizard formula, and with a bit of recalibration and measured reversal, the formula had worked. That makes me wonder…

“Hey, doc,” he murmured, brow pinched into a thoughtful frown, “if you had a sample of perfectly bonded human and non-human cell structure, do you think you would be able to mimic it and engineer a matching structure for the cure?”

The man frowned. “How do you mean?”

“I mean…” Vernon hesitated. Because of the OZ formula transferred into his blood by the spider bite, his DNA was perfectly bonded to spider DNA, which gave him what they called in post-human-speak a ‘healing factor’. It wasn’t as effective as Wolverine’s, but it was still something—and it was based on the same principle as the cure. Like the OZ formula helped his body develop a natural cure for anything he could be hit by—be it a paper cut or a head wound—by using its own resources.

The only difference was that it heightened his facilities by combining human abilities with spider abilities, which gave him things like his spider sense. However, if Vernon could use his own blood to develop a kind of skeletal structure for the cure. If it did work, it would only work on enhanced spider/human DNA, but at least then he’d have a start. The possibilities after that were endless.

“If there already existed a perfect sample of blood which had an in-built system like the cure,” Vernon said, trying not to give away too many details.

“Like mutant DNA?” Dr. Connors asked. “They have a completely different genetic structure in place, though, Vernon. They have the X-Gene. Their nucleotide sequence itself is mutated.”

“No, not like that,” Vernon said. “Like human DNA, just…enhanced. Bonded with something like the cure, just not—not living.”

Dr. Connors raised his eyebrows. “Well, having a perfect sample would reduce the needed brainwork to a tenth,” he said. “But you couldn’t acquire a sample like that, because, well, it exists only in theory.”

“Right,” Vernon muttered, but already the beginnings of a smile had started to curve his lips. “Only in theory.”

Vernon’s mind was buzzing with so much excitement from his idea for the cure that even web-slinging hadn’t been able to distract him from it.

He and the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. team had spent the evening scouring the city for any signs of something that could substantiate Vernon’s theory, but had come up with nothing except a few petty criminals, who had been easily stopped. The other three had left early, telling him to use their new communication devices (which looked an awful lot like kitschy wrist bands, except for the fact that they could turn invisible) if anything came up.

Nothing did.

It was nine p.m. and Vernon had still not changed out of his Spidey suit, spending the free hour to swing around the city and try and clear his head. Too much had happened in one day, and his mood was seesawing between elation at his new project and trepidation because of the dreaded return of movie night. Funny that a high school hangout was a source of more nervousness for him than trying to imitate his own radioactive blood sample to finish his dad’s decades old design.

When I put it like that, it sounds even more absurd, he thought, scrolling through the usual evening homework-help texts on his phone as he waited in line to buy eggs and a carton of milk at the not-so-local grocery store. Even Spider-Man had to obey queues when he was out doing chores for Aunt May.

He paid for the eggs and milk without the tattooed cashier giving him a second glance, and stepped out into the street with the bags. Aunt May wouldn’t be back until ten; he had about an hour to kill until curfew, but he wanted to get home early to talk to her about movie night (yet another reaction to dread) and hopefully study his spidery OZ-bonded radioactive blood under the lens of his old microscope that Uncle Ben had gotten him over a year ago.

“Yo, Spidey!”

Vernon looked up to see a chubby, tanned guy in his late twenties beaming at him like an old friend as he jogged up to meet him. “Hey, I remember you,” he said, pointing at the guy. “You’re uhhh…” He squinted at him, trying to remember when he’d last seen him. “That pizza delivery guy who almost got abducted by aliens!”

“That’s me! Paulo!” the guy exclaimed, his wide smile widening even more upon being recognized. “You saved me from those killer robot aliens last month, remember? And I promised you free pizza in case you ever needed it,” he added. “How’s it going?”

“As usual.” He raised the bag containing the groceries he’d just bought.

“Running errands when you get a break from crime-fighting, eh?” Paulo asked, giving his thick dark curls a shake. His smile refused to dim even a bit, like someone had switched on a light bulb with a permanent power source. “Keeps the superheroes humble.”

“Tell that to Captain America.” Vernon checked the comm device on his wrist, almost groaning out loud when he saw it was almost half past nine already. “Great. Uh, Paulo, I’ll have to catch you later. It’s late, and I gotta get back well before curfew in case there are delays on the way.”

“Of course! Go do your Spider-Man thing.” Paulo lifted his hands, mimicking the thwip-thwip gesture of shooting webs, and grinned. “See you later, Spidey!” he called out from behind him as Vernon swung himself up to a lamppost before launching himself into the air. “Remember the offer with the free pizzas still stands!”

“I will!” Vernon yelled back as he swung away. And he wasn’t just saying that, either—free pizzas were free pizzas.

He had to change in an alleyway again, but thankfully this time it didn’t have an open dumpster or smell like someone had thrown out a decayed cheese slab in the trash. By the time he got back home, Aunt May was already back, as indicated by the lights in the kitchen. Just perfect, he thought miserably, as he unlocked the front door with his spare key and trudged into the hallway.

“Vernon! You’re back early,” a voice yelled from the kitchen when she heard the door shut behind him. A woman with short silver hair, clad in a comfortable t-shirt and yoga pants came out into the living room as he entered it, wiping her hands with a hand towel. “Did you get the milk and eggs like I asked you to?” Aunt May asked.

For an older lady, she sure has great hearing. “Yep,” he said, swinging his bag off his shoulders and unzipping it, internally praying he hadn’t squashed the milk carton from all his swinging like last time. Thankfully, they were undamaged. “Did you come back from yoga classes early?”

“Oh, Denise pulled a muscle in her back, poor thing,” May said. “I offered to bring her back home, but she refused to let me ice it for her, saying she’d get Mac to do it instead.” She disappeared into the kitchen once again, coming out without the hand towel this time. “Put the groceries in the fridge, won’t you?”

For an older lady, Aunt May also had a lot of things going for her. Yoga classes on Monday-alternating weekdays, squash sessions over the weekend, classes for baking and music and whatnot—she might even have been busier than Vernon himself.

“Will do,” he said, obeying. His mind was still swimming with all the older thoughts, but now that he was standing right in front of Aunt May, the worry about movie night had pushed itself to the forefront, demanding all of his nervous attention.

He stood at the fridge even after closing the door, chewing his lip and wondering how to bring it up. Words really had failed him today. “Aunt May?” he ventured, unable to keep the hint of nerves from his voice. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What is it, honey?” she asked, poking her head out of the kitchen. Around her waist was an apron that said Don’t Kiss the Cook. “Vernon?”

He kissed his teeth, teetering back and forth on the balls of his feet. “It’s about movie night.”

She stilled. “What about movie night?”

Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, Vernon thought, pursing his lips. Aunt May hadn’t exactly been close with the Osborns, but he knew she had cared about Harry in her own way, the same way she cared about any neglected kid that Vernon brought home like an abandoned cat. She gave them as much comfort as she could, tried to give them the family they never really had, even if she knew she couldn’t completely replace them. It had happened before: Harry, and Luce—and now, Vernon thought with a little sigh, maybe even the team.

“Luce asked me to ask you if you were okay with us doing movie night this weekend,” he said slowly. “And there are these new kids, and she told me to ask them too, but if you’re busy we can always—”

“Vernon!” Aunt May smiled widely, coming out of the kitchen to rest her hands on his shoulders and give them a big squeeze. “Of course I’m okay with it! Oh, you don’t know how I wished you kids would do one of those again, I’m sure that’s what Harry would have wanted too.” She gave him a motherly smile, one that was soft and sad at the same time. “I’ll leave the house to you kids that day.”

“Oh, no, Aunt May, that’s not necessary—” he started, but she cut him off with a wave of her hand.

“Don’t be so formal with me, kiddo,” she said. “I know movie night means a lot to you, and if you have new friends coming over, I’m sure you don’t want a chaperone around.” She raised her eyebrows. “Although I would like to meet them before I go out.”

Vernon sighed, but there was a tiny smile on his face. “God, you’re the best.”

“And don’t you forget it.” She winked. “Besides, even an old woman like me needs to go out with her friends every once in a while, too. This might just turn out to be a good break for both of us.”

He nodded, feeling a welling of emotion in his chest that wouldn’t go down no matter how much he tried to push it away. One less thing to worry about, he thought half-heartedly, trying not to think about how Aunt May’s agreement meant movie night was on, which had the potential to be an even more worrying prospect. “I hope so.”

[rpmemesbyarat]

RP meme from "Chapter One: A World of Darkness" in Changeling: The Dreaming (20th anniversary edition)

Dreamers are taught that they won’t amount to much, that their creativity is a pale imitation of what came before.

Well-meaning, or envious, parents and friends consistently suppress talent in their loved ones, secure in the knowledge that they’re saving them from a huge mistake.

Repeated altercations eviscerate creativity until all that remains is overwhelming self-doubt and insecurity.

Every day is a struggle.

It’s not that they don’t care, they are just unable to grasp circumstances beyond their own social circle.

It’s not that they don’t care, they are just unable to grasp circumstances beyond their own social circle.

Old legends define a changeling as the offspring of mortals and faeries, or a faerie child switched out for a human one.

Ancient curses affect entire landscapes, monsters hide in withered forests, roads made of stardust allows travelers to visit vistas hidden among clouds, and ancient dragons and bygone beasts still roam the skies.

In order to survive this onslaught on their very essence, the fae turned to an ancient ritual which locked their immortal souls in human bodies.

The child talking to her teddy is, in fact, discussing courtly politics with her chimerical bear companion.

The most common means of learning about the past, then, is through the traditional art of storytelling.

Despite the thrill and excitement of hearing legends brought to life by storytellers, academic history is an extremely important factor in the pursuit of lost faerie knowledge, turning myth into truth.

Ancient texts are written in several, often pictographic, faerie languages, and quite often the words seemingly come alive, constantly realigning, rotating, and shifting locations to avoid being decoded.

Even when enough common denominators exist for a decent decoding, the end results often cause further questions, rather than providing answers.

Events become history. History becomes legends. Legends become myths, and myths are forgotten.

Religions told mortals to worship new gods and to turn away from old traditions and rules.

As scientific methods began to explain what mortals previously considered magic, the common folk took to the church’s teachings, foreswearing their old ways in exchange for salvation and a steadfast faith on which to cling in the darkest days.

On July 20, 1969, humanity witnessed the moon landing live on television, and all of the hope, fear, and wonder of the previous decade burst forth.

Mortal witnesses describe friends or family collapsing for a brief moment, then rising, confused for a short time, but brimming with confidence and an aura of regal quality.

However, no matter the chosen human body, they all belonged to someone wealthy and influential, or were members of highly-valued and powerful families in society.

Despite conflicts, both parties openly declared their intent to find peaceful solutions, regardless of acts of violence intended to derail such hopes.

However, this decree didn’t prevent individual members of the houses to cast their allegiance with the side for which they felt an affinity.

The time for discussions ended with blood on the walls, and only war remained.

Theirs was a passionate, whirlwind romance, but one that ended in tragedy.

Without warning, the sky seemingly ripped open and, to those with faerie sight, a red sun appeared, bathing the world in a sinister scarlet light reminiscent of blood.

Behold! Your true king returns!

Better a nightmare than dreamless sleep

Nonetheless, the nobility is not immune to the changes in the world.

No matter how well hidden, however, the child’s true nature marks her as different.

It may start small, with a mortal witnessing strange occurrences no one else sees.

Those that are found are the lucky ones.

The term fosterage comes from the medieval practice, where nobles would take on the children of another family to cement alliances or to build connections between noble children for the next generation.

She will take the lessons from her mentor forward, spending the rest of her days honing what she has learned.

Banality seeks to explain away the fantastic and categorize, empiricize, contain, and render mundane anything outside of the scope of accepted mortal understanding.

This process doesn’t happen all at once.

Many legends and epic stories came from the search for extended life, with outcomes ranging from sad hilarity to outright horror.

Legends speak about treasures that can extend youth or grant immortality once more, like the fabled Fountain of Youth, but so far none have been recovered.

The adventure might be worth it, though.

It is a place woven into the fabric of the mortal world, hidden behind and without, though its magic and influence can affect the physical world and those that live in it.

The land responds to the thoughts and deeds of the creatures that live there and adapts to their every whim.

The shifting landscape is so unpredictable as to throw off any seasoned traveler.

Only a few trods lead to this wholly unpredictable and constantly-shifting landscape.

The space is influenced by the strong dreams of mortals and the expression of powerful mortal feelings and creativity.

They held nothing but hatred and contempt for one another.

History has taught them through many a hard-earned lesson that they are able to accomplish these tasks much more effectively when they work together than when they’re at each other’s throats.

The pageantry and rituals serve as thread that runs through the ages, tying the generations together.

Their customs and lore serve as the glue that binds each individual to one another.

Everyone, from the lofty noble on his throne to the lowly chambermaid, has their duties in a well-organized society.

Without everyone working together, doing what’s expected of them, society would not be able to support itself.

Even a lifetime of tragedy and loss has its own poignancy.

The act of creation holds an inherent beauty.

Each new work of art, new performance, and new thought is a unique manifestation of creativity undreamed of in the world before.

Beauty must be preserved because it is the basis for all life.

Society cannot operate effectively without an inherent fairness.

A favor is always paid back with a reciprocating favor.

An object or service given is returned with something of equal value.

Loyalty deserves fidelity, and acrimony deserves hatred.

The self comes from within. It is the basis of being, granting the ability to reason, to question, to strive for improvement.

To know oneself is to make life worth living.

Identity requires freedom — the freedom to buck trends, to say no, and to try new things.

The only things that remain eternally unchanged are those that are dead.

The alternative is nothing but stasis.

Even at its most benign, stagnation leaves people woefully unprepared when everything they know eventually gets upended.

Once outside rewards are involved, whether tangible or simply accolades, the concept of honor twists people, making them do monstrous things.

Honor is nothing more than an ugly little lie told by tyrants designed to keep their slaves docile and obedient.

No one can follow his dream when an overlord is standing above him, micromanaging his life.

Everyone has responsibilities, but if given the freedom to be themselves, people will find ways to do the necessary things in their own way that doesn’t prevent them from doing the things that make life worth living.

Pranks were played, sometimes in jest and at other times scathing, at the expense of those in power.

A merry time was had by all while allowing the disenfranchised a chance to air grievances and have an outlet for their frustrations.

Their only goal is to force a response from those capable of alleviating some of the suffering.

To fit in as part of the mundane world they became traveling circuses, freak shows, or other transient groups.

Those of higher rank are respected by those of lower rank and are also expected to meet their obligations to the less fortunate.

Many nobles see their main business to be that of gaining — or retaining — power.

Alliances may shift between the nobles and circumstances may change, but all try to expand their holdings and rise higher up the social ladder.

Something has to give.

A noble expects obedience from his vassals and respect from all others. In return, the noble respects those superior to him.

Whether they like it or not, the nobility has had to concede that modern ideas of democracy and popular rule are realities now.

Still, most nobles rule through force, cunning, personal magnetism, and custom.

They must never reveal their true natures to humanity.

Some battles are fought to first blood.

[aurekfonts]

Translating the Sacred Jedi Texts - Part I

By Ender Smith

Adapted from the original twitter thread

This is the first part of an ongoing Jedi Text Translation series

The Sacred Jedi Texts are ancient writings of the Jedi religion in the world of Star Wars. Though their appearance is limited to just two of the films (The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker), they are given the thematic weight of representing the entire history of the Jedi religion.

In The Last Jedi, Yoda opines: “Read them, have you? Page turners they were not!”

Likewise, Phil Szostak (Lucasfilm creative art manager) has warned:

“designers don’t have time to add Easter eggs, lore hints or layers of symbolism (outside of the obvious). If you’re searching for hidden meaning in #StarWars art, it’s simply not there.”

Let us keep those thoughts in mind as we begin to explore and translate the Jedi Texts.

Jedi Texts Filler 01 by Dan Burke

Several unobscured pages of the Sacred Jedi Texts can be seen in The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker by Phil Szostak. The pages themselves appear to be assembled from individual blocks of text and illustrations, in order to meet the high demand of pages required for the film.

By cross-referencing these images with the Visual Dictionary, we learn that this language seems to be interchangeably referred to as “Protobesh” and “Coremaic.”

The implied etymology of the name “Coremaic” is that the language comes from the galactic core, the core worlds, or perhaps a specific planet such as Corellia or Coruscant.

“Protobesh“ meanwhile might refer to a precursor/prototypical form of Aurebesh, the most common alphabet in the Old Republic, Imperial, and New Republic eras.

Since many alphabets in Star Wars are simple substitution ciphers for English (equivalent to the in-universe “Basic”), I decided to try an automatic tool to decrypt them. (Boxentriq is my favourite).

After trying various blocks of text, and adjusting the decryption parameters, I was nearly ready to concede that it was untranslatable gibberish, until a single passage caught my attention, from the left-hand page of Jedi Texts Filler 01 by Dan Burke:

I noticed a couple of repeated words, one with 3 letters, and another with 4. After some trial and error, I began to see words resolve throughout the passage:

It reads [sic]:

IN THE SECOND PHASE OF EACH STAR CYCLE THE JEDI THE JEDI IS OFFER ED. ORCE OF THEIR.

While some of the sentences are incomplete, the pendulum had swung entirely the other way, and I was certain it could be translated!

So I turned to the right-hand page to see how accurately I could decipher it.

Translating a Lengthy Passage

There are definitely some new letters mixed in there, but because I had already accounted for over half of the alphabet in the first passage, it was possible to work out the missing letters using context:

It reads in its entirety [sic]:

IN THE SECOND PHASE OF EACH STAR CYCLE THE C THE JEDI IS OFFERED THE CHANCE TO ALIGN THEIR BEING WITH THTHE ORCEOF THEIR CHOSENCRYSTAL.

THE FORCEIS STRONGEST THE FORCE FLO WS FREELY THE FORCE IS ALL.

THIS M EANOTHING TO ME.

[this line is not readable, due to corruption in my source image] COMMON.

IS OFT EN AND EASIL Y MIS ALIGNED.

SPLIT PIECES CAN BE NO LONGER OF NEL TOANEL THE FORCEFAIL ED PIECES ARE HIGHLY. AND THEREFORE ILL EGAL TO TRAD E PIECES ARE TRADED AMOUNGST THE SMUGGL ERS AND BLACK MARKE EERS AS AS A POWER SOURCE.

KRC FOUR ALTHUGH COMMON IS OFT EN AND EASILY MIS ALIGNED FIVE SPLIT PIECES CAN BE NO LONGER THE FORCEFAILED PIECES ARE HIGHLY VOL ITILE.

A) AND THEREFORE ILL EGAL TO TRADE B) PIECES ARE OFT EN TRAD AMOUNG ST THE SMUGGLERS

C) AND BLACK MARKE EERS AS A POWER SOURCE

D) KCR FOUR ALT HOUGH COMMON

E) IS OFT EN AND EASILY MISALIGNED

F) SECTION NC TW O DENSITY RAT IO EIGHT SIXTHS CENTRAL ALITION

AND THER EFORE ILLEGAL TRADE PI ECES AR TO TRADE PI ARE OFT EN TRAD AMOUNGST THE SMUGGL ERS AND BLACK MARKE EERS AS A POW ER SOURCE

ALIGNMENT

IGNITION PROCESS

CRYSTAL WILL SDIVIDE INTO THREE PIECES IS MIS ALIGNE S IS MIS ALIGNED VOLITILE  ALTHOUGH COMMON.

Making Sense of it All

As you may be able to tell, there are several statements mixed together on this page with varying degrees of coherence.

I have attempted to reconstruct each source-statement as follows:

Regarding a ritual for the spiritual alignment of the crystal with the Jedi’s being:

In the second star cycle, the Jedi is offered the chance to align their being with the Force of their chosen crystal.

The Force is strongest when the Force flows freely. The Force is all.

Regarding the physical alignment of the crystal in the lightsaber:

Central alignment [with an accompanying illustration]

Ignition process [with an accompanying graph]

Section NC-2: Density ratio 8:6

Regarding flawed and damaged crystals:

[Crystals with some particular defect] are often and easily misaligned.

Split pieces can be no longer [functional? useable?].

The Force-failed pieces are highly volatile and therefore illegal to trade.

Pieces are therefore traded amongst the smugglers and black-marketeers as a power source.

Regarding the author’s personal feelings at time of writing:

This means nothing to me.

In Conclusion: Was Yoda Right?

If we take the literal text on the page as canonical, as existing exactly like this in the diegesis of the films, this particular Sacred Text seem to exhibit circular, stream-of-consciousness meditations upon complex scientific, religious, and economic systems. If so, I think we would be justified in agreeing with Yoda that “Page turners they were not.”

As for Phil Szostak’s statement from before, that “designers don’t have time to add Easter eggs, lore hints or layers of symbolism (outside of the obvious). If you’re searching for hidden meaning in #StarWars art, it’s simply not there,” I think it is important that we take it in context.

The concept artists behind Star Wars often do not spend more than a couple of hours on an individual painting. The pressures of the production schedule require artists to work quickly and iteratively. Ideas are thrown out and scrapped at a rapid pace as the story, design, and construction is undertaken.

While these pages are filled with references to kyber crystals and Jedi rituals, there is nothing too profound or complicated discussed. The repetition is the result of quickly copied phrases that are there to fill space and to visually tell a story of the volumes of Jedi texts and the writings they contain. That they contain any lore at all is remarkable, but we must not take that to mean that anything they say is immutable canon.

In other words, take the artist’s words at face-value here: “The Force flows freely. The Force is all. This means nothing to me.”

Resources & Acknowledgements

Here is my Protobesh alphabet chart based on my translations:

Ender Smith is the editor-in-chief of AurekFonts: the unofficial archive of in-universe Star Wars fonts.

Support future translations and typographic design at ko-fi.com/aurekfonts.

All photos used are the property of Lucasfilm Ltd. They have been used altered and unaltered for educational and critical purposes in accordance with Fair Use law.

[theobscures]

Summary of: Filgaia

Okay so since Wild ARMs is such an obscure RPG series and that a lot of it isn’t that well documented, I figured I would compile this post for my moots wanting to interact with my Jack muse or for those curious! Be warned that this will get wordy--WA gets pretty comprehensive with its lore--and also spoiler heavy for the first game.

Though Filgaia is a recurring world in each WA game, the cast, story, lore, and geography differ in each installment. (A bit like how Final Fantasy games share the same motifs but have completely different settings.) Since my muse is Jack Van Burace and since I’m most passionate about the first game, this post will only detail the first incarnation of Filgaia (particularly the PS1 original’s).

Geography and the Guardians:

Filgaia is an Earth-like planet that, in its current state, has been on a painfully slow decay for a thousand years now. Though the its ecosystems are still fairly diverse--with grasslands, forests, oceans, and even snowy mountains--most of it has increasingly turned into wasteland and threatens the areas still yet untouched. The planet’s continents form a sort of ‘ring’ that shapes two oceans; the Inner Sea and the Outer Sea.

The state of decay is caused in part by the Guardians’ diminishing powers--they are the 20 spiritual beings and beasts whose magic power protects and maintains the lifeforce of Filgaia. The Guardians and Filgaia are all connected by a spiritual channel called the “Ray Line” that lies beneath the planet’s crust and carries and supplies the shared lifeforce. They can lend their powers through protective tablets called Runes.

The Guardians’ diminishing powers are believed to be a direct result of the devastating war that occurred 1,000 years ago, which damaged most of the planet’s life and geography (there is a massive desert called the Sand Ocean created by the destruction). In reality the true cause of the Guardians’ loss of power was the inhabitants losing hope, courage, and love in their hearts (though that too was also caused by the war). The loss of these virtues have made the Guardians grow weak and themselves despairing.

Inhabitants:

Humans are the most populous on Filgaia. 1,000 years ago however, they used to share the planet with the Elw (”the ancients”) who were closely connected with nature but also very technologically advanced. The humans and Elws didn’t just share Filgaia, but also the human space colony Malduke that orbited around the planet. But as the colony was also equipped with the capability for mass destruction, the Guardians crucially sunk the connecting tower, Ka Dingel, to the bottom of the sea.

After the war, the Elws chose to abandon their homeworld for a new one in the Elw Dimension they created. One of the last things that the Elws did for Filgaia before leaving it was to create the “Elw Pyramids” to help amplify its lifeforce when the Guardians’ strength grew weak--essentially putting the planet on life support. But they also function as transports by teleporting people across Filgaia as energy with the use of satellites orbiting the atmosphere. Despite the Elw’s efforts, the pyramids seem to at most slow Filgaia’s decay.

The one other thing the Guardians are closely linked to are the women of the Adlehyde royal family. Though it’s not said why, the Adlehyde women are gifted with magic power and are the only ones who can hear and speak with the Guardians. The royal family’s heirloom is the “Tear Drop”, a blue gemstone that reflects the powers of the Guardians and also contains the essence of the shared lifeforce. In the right hands it can “give birth” to life.

With Filgaia’s never-ending hardships and the loss of valued virtues, there are a handful of people who have chosen to reject their former lives to become “Dream Chasers” (or drifters or migrant birds depending on translation); those who live for the thrill of adventure without a care in the world, though each person’s reasons are unique. Some are looking for treasure, some for fame or power, and some for simple belonging.

History:

Filgaia is defined by the very history of the great war. 1,000 years ago, the planet was invaded by the extraterrestrial Metal Demons--so called because they are of “living metal”. The Demons’ home world, Hiades, was destroyed by their parasitic Queen Mother and forced them to flee and conquer another world. Perhaps unaware of her true nature though, Mother’s sole desire and existence is to destroy everything in reality--which includes the Filgaia that the Demons hope to colonize.

The Metal Demons’ power was truly unparalleled and a grave threat to the inhabitants of Filgaia. To combat them, the Elws banded with the Guardians and humans to develop a series of powerful technological weapons. Many of these were far too powerful though and, after the war, the Elw sealed them away in tightly-secured ruins never to be unearthed. But treasure hunters and scientists eventually found them. These weapons were,

ARMs: Short for Ancient Relic Machine. These (I believe) can actually refer to any weapon the Elw developed for the war, but in this context they refer to very powerful firearms synchronized with psychic waves. In present day, they are highly feared and forbidden weapons--those in possession of one are often exiled from their homes, becoming drifters. They (along with other ancient technology) have been researched by the scientist Zepet and his six apprentices, now known as the ARMs Meisters. Despite the ARMs being taboo, there is a small growing interest and ‘economy’ in them as shops supplying bullets opened. 

The Golems: There were eight golems created for combat and defense. They are mecha-like, able to be controlled by issuing commands, and each represent an element. The golems have now long since turned inactive and lifeless.

The Guardian Blade: Little is known about it, but it was a sword infused with pure life energy and was devastatingly powerful--it is actually rumored to be the main cause of Filgaia’s decay. It tore across the planet, forming the massive Sand Ocean desert, before ultimately destroying itself. The Elw consider its creation to be their greatest sin and the forger of the blade, the Elw Vassim, is labeled a criminal by his kind. In present day, most still believe it is hidden somewhere in the desert and have died trying to find it.

The Holmcross Project: (Or Humonculus.) They were the successor to the Golems and the Elw’s final weapons. The Elw and human mages created them by replicating the “biometals” of the Demons they had captured, essentially creating an artificial man who is both organic and metal. Their enhancements enabled them to better synchronize with the ARMs and made them the best choice against the Metal Demons. However because they were blank slates and lacked empathy and understanding in their hearts, the Holmcross went on violent rampages and killed anyone they came across. The Elw were forced to destroy them all save for one, a prototype they sealed away. (Spoiler: He later became Rudy.)

By far the greatest threat to Filgaia, aside from all of the Elw’s advancements, was Queen Mother. Whether the weapons helped at all or not, the Guardians were able to defeat Mother by splitting her heart into three pieces. Each piece became guarded by a Guardian Statue whereas Mother’s body was sealed away in a cocoon (called the “Arch” in Alter Code F). Queen Mother is not actually dead though; she’s technically immortal and would be revived if reunited with her heart pieces and given life by the Tear Drop. The cocoon was housed deep in Arctica Castle in the north.

Mother’s defeat thwarted the Metal Demons’ goal and they disappeared from memory, having seemingly abandoned Filgaia, and became part of the war’s myth. But Filgaia has never able to move on from its devastating past as the planet continues to decay and the inhabitants must live with the consequences. It’s easy to lay blame on the Elw, but the drive to develop the weapons was likely a mix of fearful desperation, a lust for intellectual or physical power, or even at the pressuring of the humans.

Towns:

Village of Surf: A small farming community that has fell on hard times due to the encroaching decay. Rudy used to live and tend to the horses here.

Curan Abbey: A boarding school south of Adlehyde that teaches the magic arts. It is customary for women of the Adlehyde royal family to study here until their 17th birthday.

Adlehyde Castle Town: The fortified ‘capital’ in front of Adlehyde Castle. In the ancient Elw language, Adlehyde means “light”. The town praises itself for its scientific community and accomplishments and holds a festival dedicated to their findings.

Milama Village: Also called the “oasis of Filgaia”, Milama is built around a moat of clear water and is one of the very few places still untouched by the decay. A popular destination.

Baskar Village: Another tiny farming community populated by people who bond with nature. It sits close to the Altar of the Wind Caller where the Guardian Zephyr, the “west wind of hope”, may be summoned. It’s also close to a Guardian Statue and an Elw Pyramid. Baskar supplies the “Kizim Fire”, which is used to light the pyramids’ furnaces and reactivate them.

Saint Centour: A city settlement named after its Guardian Statue: Ione Paua the centaur Saint Guardian. The city is heavily fortified with tight security and an invisible ‘dimensional’ barrier that surrounds it. This barrier repels monsters, demons, and spirits, but fails if either are smuggled inside with a person. It’s also near an Elw Pyramid.

Port Timney: A seaside port town along the Inner Sea that is mostly populated by trade merchants and sailors. There is a local tradition here that people propose marriage with a crystal flower. It sits near an Elw Pyramid.

Town of Yard: A harbor that sits close to the Sand Ocean desert. It used to be bustling with trade but has turned desolate as a result of the tumultuous sea warding off ships. There is a famous beach here where almost anything lost at sea is said to wash ashore there; it earned the town the nickname “Ship Graveyard” and is what most call it today.

Rosetta Town: A prosperous town that has managed to avoid the decay, but it is now also facing threat with the lack of trade ships coming in. It is most notably the home of the sole Elw who chose to remain in Filgaia, Mariel. But the townsfolk are suspicious of her. The town sits close to the secret Elw Dimension gateway.

Court Seim: An orphanage town founded by the Maxwells: Nicholi the ARMs Meister and his daughter Jane. They originally lived in Milama but, unable to afford it there, were forced to move away to a small, desolate island to keep supporting the orphans. There is an evacuation sanctuary nearby in case of emergencies.

Elw Village: Not actually part of Filgaia anymore but in the Elw Dimension. When the Elws chose to leave Filgaia they picked a large plot of land and isolated it within a dimension they created for themselves, which became a floating island. Outsiders are forbidden. The dimension resembles Filgaia before the war and its decay.

Pandemonium: Though most of the Metal Demons were defeated in the war, a small handful of them survived and secretly built a couple strongholds for themselves, including the Photosphere and Demon Lab--this one being their castle fortress.

Arctica: A proud kingdom that used to exist in the northern tundra continent. It used to be guarded by the seven Fenril Knights, who not only protected the royalty and the people, but also Mother’s cocoon hidden deep within the castle. A few years prior, the kingdom fell when the Metal Demons attacked. There were no survivors. (Spoiler: Except Jack and Elmina.)

Ancient Arena (Devil’s Playground in Alter Code F): A castle that holds gladiator-style battle tournaments. The battles are overseen by the self-proclaimed “Duke” Pegucci who, frankly, enjoys watching contestants battle-to-the-death a little too much. It is rumored that the arena used to be the castle of the King of Illusions in ancient times.

Malduke: A space colony in Filgaia’s orbit where the humans originally lived before they came to live on Filgaia with the Elw. It’s also called the “New Moon”. The colony and Filgaia were connected by a tower called Ka Dingel that could teleport travelers to and from. The colony has now long since been abandoned ever since the Guardians sunk the Ka Dingel to the sea to prevent Malduke from using misused for destruction.

[harryp22h]

[FGO Fan Servant Redux] King Sejong the Great (Genderbent)

안녕하세요!   

This is a remake of last year’s attempt at making a fan Servant, intended for Hangeul Day to celebrate his legacy. (2 days late...) Probably the only Korean with an actual chance of making it into FGO, if DW ever allows that.   

Introducing, King Sejong the Great! Genderbent, of course. Because this is Fate, what were you expecting? (I know it’s not completely historical, but it makes for a fun story.) 

Name: King Sejong the Great 

Class: Caster 

Origin: Korea – Joseon Dynasty (1400s) 

Alignment: Lawful-Good 

Type: Man 

Bio: Curiosity. Generosity. Spite. The 4th King of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty.   

An insatiable thirst for knowledge, both scientific and magical, and knack for inventing that led to the kingdom’s first royal research institute. An all-giving kindness for her downtrodden people that weakened her status and health. A pure spite for the nobility, inheritance from her father and reinforced by tragedy. She sought to bring meritocracy onto an already stagnant society. Welfare for the poor. Knowledge to all. For in her eyes, all were genuinely equal.   

She who utterly shattered the status quo and changed the course of a nation with just one invention, personally handmade by the King herself. Hangeul, a written alphabet for her people that even a peasant could learn in a week. An invention that may have saved them centuries in the future. 

She truly earned the title of ‘The Great.’

[Skills, Additional Sprites, and Lore]

Class Skills 

Territory Creation Rank A-: The Hall of Worthies, her kingdom’s first Royal Research Institute, which contained the King’s personal workshop and gave birth to many creations. 

Item Creation Rank B: Was personally involved in the creation of Hangeul and many other projects at the Hall of Worthies in the fields of agriculture, astronomy, warfare etc. 

Personal Skills 

Patronage B: Served as patron to the Hall of Worthies, when she wasn’t busying herself there already. Heavily believed in meritocracy and held the belief that anyone, regardless of status or lineage, could succeed if given the chance. Personally, she handpicked a peasant for the position of Royal Engineer, a true embodiment of her beliefs. 

Charisma C: Wildly popular amongst the populous, and able to persuade the fickle Royal Court, regardless of how many times she pissed them off. 

Humanitarianism A: Improved literacy nation-wide. Supported paternity leave for both mothers and fathers. Introduced tax reform to reduce burden on famine-stricken areas. Funded many inventions to help improve citizens’ livelihood. She truly loved her people, no matter the costs. 

Rapid Words of Casting EX: Invented an entire alphabet for the express purpose of easier and faster reading and writing. Duh? 

Entertainment Revision EX:  Gains access to skills she does not normally possess. Stronger the more dramatic and flashier the skill is. Similar to Imperial Privilege. (Blame K-Drama.)

Quotes 

Edison: Anyone can learn my alphabet in a week. But moving pictures need no introduction. This would have been so useful for so many reasons! Show me more films, Mr Haechi! 

Nobunaga: ...For both our sakes, that ‘monkey’ of yours better not show his face to me.   

Shakespeare: This is the epitome of western entertainment? Fascinating. You know, I too dabbled in poetry a bit. Perhaps we can share notes?   

Touta: The people are the roots of a nation, and those roots should be well-fed so as to create a peaceful nation. That rice bowl of yours is truly beautiful. May I look inside..?   

Archer Gil: How could a king who should rule over all people and all things in the country with impartiality treat those of low birth any differently from the way he treats others? I am willing to bow my head towards my people if needed. What say you? 

Babbage: ...I want that! To the Hall! 

Bond 1: The third child of the third King Taejong (태종), three generations separated from their dynasty’s founder Taejo (태조). Ido was the apple of her father’s eye, her curiosity and (properly timed) rebellious spirit catching his eye, but was initially ignored regarding inheriting the throne. However, her two older brothers abdicated the throne to separate themselves from their father’s bloody legacy of murdering all his relatives and many more to maintain his power. With that, the path was cleared and Ido took to the throne upon her father’s surprisingly peaceful death, taking the name Sejong for herself. Contrast to the previous king’s blood-soaked reign, Sejong devoted herself to her people and to improving quality of life throughout the nation, even establishing the Hall of Worthies to advance the field of agriculture, astronomy, warfare etc. with her patronage and personal participation. She did inherit her father’s dislike for the nobility, and for good reason.   

Bond 2: She did not care for social norms and promoted meritocracy, holding the belief that if anyone, regardless of status or bloodline, could accomplish anything if they were giving a chance to prove themselves. Her embodiment of this belief would be Jang Yeong-sil (장영실), a former peasant-turned-Royal Engineer and close confidant. Having heard rumours of his cleverness, she personally invited the son of an escort to the palace, where he managed to impress the King. Excited, she took him under her wing, despite the protests of the nobility. Nevertheless, he would prove himself a worthy ally, helping to create independent advancements in the fields of astronomy and meteorology using his knack for inventing. Bonding over their love of the pursuit of knowledge, he and the King shared a very close friendship, one plagued with hijinks, ‘SCIENCE!’, and ink-soaked robes. Her trust in him was absolute, even willing to forgive him immediately when one of his inventions proved faulty and injured the test subject… who just so happened to be the King herself. Unfortunately, the nobility, jealous of the inventor and fearful for their own positions, seized upon this opportunity, having him tried and imprisoned in spite of the King’s protests. 

A betrayal unlike no other. A reminder of the callousness of the Royal Court and of her fragile power. 

Bond 3: Noble Phantasm: [훈민정음 – 한글] 

The Proper Words for the Instruction of the People. 

Rank: EX 

King Sejong’s most influential creation. The one that would forever earn her the title of ‘The Great’. Developed in secret at the Hall of Worthies, its very existence alone had the potential to put even a king’s life in danger. Penned by the King personally, it was a scientifically-designed featural alphabet with 17 constants and 11 vowels, created to replace the ill-fitting Chinese characters that had been in use up to this point, in spite of Korea having had a separate spoken language for centuries. Designed for ease of reading and writing, even a peasant could learn in a busy week, an afternoon for a noble. Upon its completion, it was initially announced to the Royal Court, who opposed its very existence. Even those loyal to the crown protested, fearful that a literate populous would prove unruly and rebellious. In spite of, or perhaps because of the protests of the nobility, it was released on October 9, 1495, immediate adopted by the public. 

Bond 4: Literacy reached an all-time high. It would kickstart a literary Renaissance that would last for generations, as even the peasants, now literate, could participate, partaking in others’ adventures while sharing their own experiences. Even the nobility, initially disdainful, would later adopt it, both in private and public affairs. But their warnings were right, in a way. An educated populace with ease of communication and plenty of grievances (for future kings) meant many rebellions to come. But it also united a nation. There were no true boundaries between the rich and poor, city and rural. All could communicate to one another, and thus all were made equal. Whether they wanted to be or not.   

It may have even saved Korea completely. During a time of both China and Japan pushing and pulling the nation apart, especially during Japan’s forced occupation and colonization, Hanguel allowed the culture and history of Korea to be safely preserved, when it might otherwise have been lost to history, losing them their future as a nation. They prevailed, all thanks to an alphabet anyone could learn, and were restored their heritage.   

Bond 5: She claimed to have lived a sheltered life in the palace, but her love for her people far exceeded that of someone who only saw them from above and beyond stone and wooden walls. Nevertheless, she truly saw all as equal, never dismissing a complaint just because it came from a peasant or allowing people with power to abuse those who were underneath them. Sadly a quality lacking even to this day... She is one of only 2 Kings of Korea to have earned the title ‘The Great’ and for good reason. Wise beyond her years and even her society, she devoted everything for her people.   

“The people are the roots of a nation, and the roots should be strong so as to create a peaceful nation.”