#<- previously mundanely magical

[anam-mana]

It fascinates me that Alistair gets lumped in with the “Chantry Boys” in discussions about Dragon Age Archetypes because it’s just. Very untrue. But it’s an idea the text actually pushes you to connect with in a way I think is purposeful.

This guy introduces us to the lore of the Blight by asking if we want “the chantry version or the truth.” If we ask if they’re not the same thing he smirks and says with some attitude “they rarely are.”

He sums up his religious beliefs saying he’s “not especially” Andrastian, and that “believes in the Maker well enough.”

He’s actually LESS religious than Zevran, who describes himself as fully Andrastian with a regular prayer routine in optional conversation branches.

The things that people use to categorize Alistair’s supposed “Chantry Boy” boy status all have non-religious motivations.

For example, the big one, his virginity, is because 1. He’s nervous around women, which is the gender he finds most attractive 2. He’s actually the youngest Party Member, being freshly 20 years old. 3. And most importantly, he correlates sex with love and was brought up to see them as requiring the other and so feels uncomfortable having sex without what he sees as “true love.” And he just hasn’t been in love yet.

Another example would be his reaction to the Urn of Sacred Ashes. He reacts with wonder akin to Leliana where many others react with a contrasting blasee attitude. Even the Andrastian Zevran.

But you gotta read between the lines here. Zevran doesn’t hold remains as sacred. He’s an assassin. So his prophet’s body is in that urn. It’s a body. The least remarkable and most mundane, perhaps even the hardest to swallow, thing she could ever be to Zevran is a corpse. Kinda takes the wonder out of faith for an assassin if she dies and rests just like any one else.

But Alistair is fascinated, in awe. 1, probably because the Chantry he doubts so much now has some kinda proof that something they said was true, unlike what he previously believed. 2, Alistair is WAY more patriotic than he is religious and we gotta remember that the Fereldans pride themselves on Alamari heritage, and Andraste was probably the most powerful and influential Alamari person to ever live. 3, he’s actually a giant history buff. He info dumps history on you often, with the memorized readings of whatever question you ask. If asked about the King and Loghain before the betrayal at Ostagar, he shows respect for Loghain’s service in the War for Independance, and knowledge of his tactics. And when speaking about his time in training with the chantry as a child, he says the education was actually what he liked most. And a lot of his gifts are things like replica soldiers, Fereldan historical things, maps, (along with his interest in magical artifacts but that’s for another day.) etc. Given his patriotism and love of learning history, yeah, the Urn is a big deal to him.

I have more things I could say, but really, I just find Alistair to be one of the most misrepresented by fandom characters. His character has a TON of subtext that challenges you to look beyond what others represent him as and the low opinion he holds of himself.

The perception of him as Andrastian and devout is one pushed on him by people like Morrigan (and others to some degree) who fights Alistair more like a straw man representing society than she engages with him as himself. She sees him as a Templar even though he left the order specifically because they abused him And he fundamentally disagreed with their practices, The Harrowing specifically being what pushed him to fight to leave.

There are, textually, two ways to interpret Alistair. Through face value aesthetics and symbolism pointing to association with the Chantry and by observing other’s opinion of him. Or through actually listening to what he says and watching what he does.

And it’s just interesting to me that a lot of people get caught in the trap of what he represents aesthetically rather than who he is.

[noobsoconfusing]

nasty dog_hamzahthefantastic

gross perv sub hamzah, stalker!hamzah, raging virgin hamzah, dry humping, begging, crying, overstim kinda? weird hamzah pls dont hate

>_<

- if neediness was a person, it would be hamzah.

- if the concept of loser was personified, it would also be hamzah

- now, guess what? if being intense and a virgin at the same time could be shortened to a word, it would, oh! also be hamzah

- maybe it’s the way he’d sneakily steal glances at you from the hallways, or the way he would rush his steps to ride the elevator with you.

- though, you never really noticed his presence. it made him sad. super sad. was he not worth your time? was he not friendly enough? he thought.

- living in the same apartment complex as you made him notice many things… he was very observant! that, or maybe, he did his research just fine

- he quickly picked up on your schedule…

- you were not very social, never leaving your apartment if it was not needed, the only times he’d see you in the stairs or elevator was when you went grocery shopping

- hamzah adores to peak outside to your side of the hall from the peephole on his door

- if he’s lucky enough, he’ll catch you grabbing mail or fixing the welcome mat you have on the floor

- and he was not so discreet about it. his breathing was loud and erratic, and sometimes by the closeness of the apartments, you could hear it behind the wooden door..

- at first, he got nervous. his heart stopped when you’d pause your actions to look around, shrugging as you dismissed the situation

- ugh, it makes him so stupidly horny how clueless you are, how you never notice his long glances and the lewd gross intentions he means w them

- hamzah’s hidden album on his photos app is full of pictures and videos of you :(

- sometimes normal pictures of you entering your apartment or videos of you running up the stairs…

- the thought of you being naive made his heart flutter, it was almost endearing how his imagination could really flow with all the pictures he had taken of you doing mundane stuff ……

- he’s also the type to steal your clothes from the common dryer the apartment complex has down in the basement in the laundry area

- loves the scent of your softener, but actually loves your natural scent even more. he craves your attention and taste and wonders how soft your skin must be, how pretty you look always, how desirable your lips are to him.

- hamzah is pretty much losing common sense each time you wander his mind. or when he sees you around, he loses the ability to act normal.

- now,,, just as he is utterly lovesick, he is also fucking weird and gross

- jerks off with your underwear (the ones he steals from your laundry basket) and absolutely feels no remorse after finishing

- even after he cums a first time, he keeps going on and on until he pretty much can’t get to physically cum anymore :(

- quite literally passes out, shaking and shivering from the stimulation.. thinking of you is enough to make him want to milk his nuts dry #rip

- now, hamzah is loud. yeah, but when he thinks of you while doing it, he gets a tone or two louder. just hoping you’d hear him and magically appear inside his room to help him up :(

“y/n, y/n… please…” his head was thrown back into the pillows, eyes shut and a bead of sweat slid down forehead. “oh my god, y/n, just….yeah, just like that..”

- actually imagines his own hand is yours, it helps him finish, not quicker, but just more intense.

- spills load after load, the puddle of cum adorning his lower tummy and part of the sheets, but somehow he can’t get to stop :c not when his imagination does wonders while thinking of his pretty neighbour, you.

- when he feels like he’s getting too loud, meaning, when his common senses start kicking in, he’d shamelessly just use your previously stolen panties as a gag to muffle his moans.

- unhinged as this man is, he is also the type to clean his cum up with your underwear T_T pathetically shivering at the touch of the thin fabric against his skin, gathering the drippy fluids and smearing them up

- yeah, he knows he’s gross and weird, but somehow can’t get himself to stop.

- something about doing all that lewd stuff behind your back makes him warm inside, a crude excitement fills him up each time he touches himself to the image of you

- blushes extremely hard the morning after his doings, when he not so accidentally runs to you on the hallway

- not a single ounce of shame inside that perverted body of his…….. -_-

- there’s times when he can no longer use your belongings to cum, practically unusable after jerking off w them repeatedly #•_•

- so he opts for the pillow. just slowly thrusting his hips to gather a touch, the fluffy fabric barely in contact with his boner makes him feral

- he is so stupidly desperate is so embarrassing

“s-shit… owwww!” hamzah bit his lip down so hard he swore he drew a bit of blood, “please, please, y/n let me- fuuuck, let me cum please? can i- just..”

he doesn’t even care if nobody is listening to him let alone you, he still asks for your permission because he wants to be good so bad

- humps the pillow like it’s his last day on earth.. the squeaking of the bed gets repetitive as his movements get clumsy and fast while chasing his high

- maybe the neighbours from the floor below will finally think he got to get laid. shame is, that’s just his pillow.

- hamzah thinks a screw came loose inside his mind when he gets the sudden urge to knock on your door to make his presence known

- but not exactly to introduce himself

- his hands are sweaty and shaky when he fidgets with the lewd object between his fingers but smiles to himself as he thinks of how beautiful and precious your surprised face would be ^_^

- after knocking twice, loud enough for you and the whole damn building to hear, he runs ungodly fast back to his apartment, ready to uncover the peephole and watch your reaction

hamzah smiles when he admires how you slowly open your door with a greeting smile, one that disappears after you realise there’s nobody at the door.

your big puppy eyes get wide at the expectation of seeing someone maybe around the halls, but when you turn your head both ways and see no one, hamzah bites his lip, feeling the know inside his stomach get tight with anticipation.

god you’re so fucking pretty. so naive.

when your sight glances at the floor, your eyebrows furrow confused, you bend your knees to the ground and kneel infront of the object placed on your welcome mat. huh?

“w-what…?” you murmur, and hamzah lets out a tiny moan when your soft voice leaves your lips.

“oh my god!”

you yelp when you realise that in fact, it is your long lost panties right there in front of you! however something doesn’t sit right when you grab them from the floor…

why are they damp and sticky?

hamzah observes behind closed doors, he wishes he could just go out and admit his nasty crimes, but how could he? if he can admire you from anonymity.

how could hamzah ever show his true self to you? oh, you’re just so innocent, so blind and clueless. he loves how dirty he feels when thinking of you.

- a few days later, he makes sure to do down the laundry room at the same time as you usually do, hoping to see you there.

- to his surprise, there you are! sorting out your dirty clothes and throwing the wet items into the dryer.

- he hesitates to say hi, just a polite good morning! or maybe a damn that’s a lot of laundry! but decides to shut up.

- instead, his eyes widen in surprise when you are the one to speak up at him for the first time….

“hey, sorry to bother, could- umm, could you maybe lend me some of your detergent? please?” your eyes looked glossy and shiny and he just wanted to devour you right there

he gulped and swallowed hard. suddenly his hands started sweating abnormally. however, he put up with a gentle smile.

“sure, use as much as you need.” he passed you the bottle. your fingers brushed and while you didn’t really mind, hamzah felt like he was about to bust.

“thank you! im double washing and ran out of my own detergent, but i’ll make it up to you! thanks a lot!” you explained, and he found it so endearing how you took the time to explain even when he didn’t need an explanation.

i’ll make it up to you! your words engraved into his brain. for real. he had many, many ideas of how you could make it up to him.

“it’s fine, don’t worry, i really don’t mind sharing, hah.” he reassured you. then he swallowed hard again, getting closer to you. “why are you double washing for?” he tried to make small talk.

you stopped your actions and looked at the ground.

‘oh well, someone likes to steal my underwear and nut on it! that’s why!’ you thought. then quickly laughed it away.

“just because.” you said. “better to be clean, right?” you friendly bumped his shoulder and he giggled.

hamzah knew damn well.

“yeah, right.”

- after that interaction he a 100% couldnt keep his hands off his dick for a week straight, just thinking about the way you carelessly speak, how you move and how you exist

- he’d fantasise about you talking him through his orgasm…. he’s obsessed with your voice so fucking much.

“owww, fuck! yeah, yeah…. just… fuck, yeah thank you, thank you, thank you, y/n…”

his chest heaved with shaky breaths, he was exhausted. jerking off was exhausting when he couldn’t stop to rest, just kept going and going until his mind was blurry and could no longer even think of you.

he imagined how your pretty voice would praise him, how you’d caress his hair as he spilled over and over his hand. ugh, he was so needy.

- hamzah’s obsessive curious feelings towards you keep growing even more when you start greeting him in the halls

- or when you hold the elevator door open for him

- and he can’t help but think, that if he hadn’t cum on your panties, you would’ve never noticed him. ever.

- how cool is that? hamzah thought, very fucking cool.

>_<

i hate this BUT i had been writing this since last week i just needed to LOCK IN. bye sorry this sucks byeee

[flowercrowncrip]

Therapy today wasn’t emotional, but was one of the biggest shifts in perspective I think I’ve had so far.

We were talking about what I’ve learned from the experiences of worsening disability, and I mentioned a lot of positive personality traits I have now that are stronger than when I could still walk.

I listed things like my ability to return to be in the present when previously I’d always been anxious about the future. And my ability find joy and gratitude in seemingly small things. My ability to be able to take one day at a time in the face of potentially life changing medical things. And to be able to trust myself to navigate difficult times.

And then I realised that those things aren’t “personality traits” that magically appeared one day, they’re all skills that I developed due in part to the choices I made. Yes the circumstances I was in were a catalyst, and there was a degree of luck and privilege involved, but there was no guarantee that I’d come out with these skills.

I learned how to ground myself in nature, how to recognise when I needed a break and chose to make time for that.

I chose to continue to look for the good in things around me and to reject the voices saying I was being weird or cringey for getting emotional over mundane things.

I leaned in to focusing on the present and learned how to not try and catastrophise over my health. It wasn’t instantaneous and took time and effort and practice.

And I have never ever given myself even the slightest bit of credit for any of that before.

[shiftingwithsky]

✶ my shifting success story ✶

✶ backstory ✶

Let me set the scene: it was fall semester 2021 and I was a sophomore in high school. School had just gone back in person from being online and I desperately needed to go back online.

I have always had a lot of sensory issues related to being in in-person classrooms. However, since I hadn’t had to deal with them for a whole year, they got worse. A lot worse.

On top of that, I was being harassed and threatened every single day by a group of guys from my English class, which caused me severe anxiety.

Since the school was still holding some online classes for students who had opted to stay virtual before the school year began, my parents and I emailed the school asking if I could be virtual for the next semester. They said no.

So then we began exploring the option of transferring to a fully online school. There had previously been two online schools in my state, however one of them had closed a couple years prior. The one that remained was my only shot so we applied. Unfortunately, I was put on a waiting list of like 50 people.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺

✶ the shift ✶

On November 30th, 2021, while I was sleeping in my first period digital design class, I ended up in a dream version of the classroom I was sitting in and became lucid. That’s when I decided to shift. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and I felt myself being pulled / falling downward into a dark void. I kept repeating to myself “I am shifting to a reality where I get into online school.”

Suddenly, I opened my eyes in this CR. I knew I had shifted. It didn’t matter that my current school wasn’t going to let me go virtual the next semester. It didn’t matter I was put on a long waiting list for what I believed to be the only online school in my state. I was going to get into online school.

A day or two later I found out about a new online school in my state, which miraculously had no waiting list at all. I already knew that I had shifted but this really solidified it for me since this school had never even came up on any of my google searches in my OR. We applied to that school on December 15th and I got accepted on the 17th.

In January of 2022, after I had already started the new school, the other school reached out and told us that I had been accepted there too (which was a bit shocking since last I heard there was 29 people in front of me on the waiting list). I stayed at the new school though since I had already started and I liked it there.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺

Moral of the story is I shifted here. Shifting does not have to be to this exciting, magical thing. It can be done for mundane reasons. People shift all the time without even realizing. Shifting, in this case, saved my life. I don’t know what would have become of me had I not shifted.

This was the one known time that I shifted. There was another time where I think I might have shifted but I’m not sure if I did or if it was just a dream. Let me know in the comments if you want to hear more about that.

If you have read this far, thank you. I hope you enjoyed and happy shifting! ⁎⁺˳✧༚

[justalittleb-witchy]

Warding & Protection 101

What is warding?

Warding is the practice of shielding or protecting something, someplace, or someone. There are a million and two different types of wards you can create-- in many ways, you are only limited by your own creativity and knowledge.

Why/when should I use a ward?

I always recommend having, at minimum, a protective ward for yourself and your living space if you practice witchcraft (or something adjacent to witchcraft). What a ward does is dependent on what it was created to do. Different people have different needs, and wards are not one-size fits all. Wards can be generic or specific, but my personal preference is a well-defined ward. By well-defined, I mean "clear in what it will and will not do".

Basics

In order to figure out what sort of ward you may need, ask yourself these questions:

What does my practice focus on?

Where might I be vulnerable?

What are my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to witchcraft?

Who and what am I comfortable with having in my space?

When and where am I comfortable with having others in my space?

What do I need to keep out, and what do I need to keep in?

What existing practices/habits may affect my wards? (e.g. cleansing, banishment, rituals, etc.)

Do I have an energy source for a ward? How do I intend to upkeep my wards?

Do my wards need to be moveable or changeable?

What resources are available to me? Are there people or entities that are willing to help me?

What, in my mundane life, do I need help with? What do I need to protect?

What actions am I taking, in my mundane life, to protect myself? (e.g. driving safely, practicing good fire safety habits, etc.)

How to make a ward

As previously stated, there are a million and two different types of wards-- and a million and two different ways to create them. Best practice is generally to lean on your personal strengths and resources to make one. Here are some more specific examples:

Herbalism: A witch who works primarily with herbs could create a protective sachet or jar that is filled with protective herbs.

Kitchen Witchcraft: Someone who practices kitchen witchcraft could cook protective foods, or incorporate small actions into their regular cooking that add protective qualities into their food (i.e. stirring a certain way, routinely using certain ingredients, etc.)

Storm Witchcraft: A witch who works with storms could use the energy of storms to protect their home. They could call on fearsome breezes to blow away harm, rainfall to wash it away, darkness to hide their home, etc.

Glamour witchcraft: A glamour witch can work on how they are perceived. Don't want someone approaching you? Make them afraid of you. Have a fearsome appearance to those who would wish you harm. Make them hesitate. Or hide yourself altogether, as if you were never there.

Deity witchcraft: Ask your gods to guide your hand, to show you how to protect yourself. Ask them to protect you, and clarify what you need protection from.

Green Witchcraft: Grow a plant with the intention of having it take the blow for you, if anything negative gets sent your way. Or have it purify your space.

Divination Wards: Use the energy of specific tarot cards to protect yourself. Write protective runes on things you care about.

Music Witchcraft: Play empowering music. Belt out a song about how nothing can harm you. Hum a tune to make things go away.

Energy Witchcraft: Envision great shields and walls, fortresses and moats. Whatever screams "protection" to you.

Etc.

Types of Wards/Ideas for Wards

Keep in mind that any ward can be for both the magical and mundane (though, always act with common sense, and act as if your wards do not exist. A ward will not make you immortal, and they can be counteracted and/or destroyed. They are there for when shit hits the fan-- but they are not a free pass to start throwing shit AT the fan!)

Transmutative wards: Tranform harmful energy sent your way into something positive and useful. (e.g. negative rumors -> increased opportunities, bad intentions -> abundance)

Baneful wards: If someone hits you, hit them back. Reflect whatever they sent to you back on them, and thensome.

Banishment Wards: If something steps into your space, kick it back out.

Hiding Wards: Hide something from prying eyes. Make it invisible, or make it appear boring/uninteresting.

Reflective wards: Reflect something's image back at them, let them see what they expect to see, or let them see themselves.

Healing wards: Protect your health, or force healing upon those who brush up against them (e.g. if someone lashes out at you because they have not been working on themselves, a healing ward can be just as painful as an outright baneful one.)

Scrambling/maze Wards: Scramble any information someone/something gets, or make them lose their way. Commonly used for unsolicited divination.

Protective wards/wall wards: Stop anything from getting in or out. Stop or prevent harm

Alarm bell wards: Warn you about things coming your way.

Comfort wards: Keep comforting/soothing energy around you.

Examples of Useful Wards

Name/Reputation wards

Household/common places wards

Wards for safe travels

Wards to keep specified spirits/entities out

Wards for malicious intent

Wards for curses/hexes

Wards for natural disasters

Wards for misfortunes

Please feel free to ask any specific questions you may have, this is only a very brief overview to introduce the topic.

[panakina]

I'm having thoughts about Magic All-Caste Jason, and what could have been if he was invented with that destination in mind (and it wasn't written by scott lobdell).

Say he has the same backstory but we cut out the batman and robin interlude. At twelve he falls in with a group of magical warrior monks who are sworn to fight ontological Evil.

The thing is, the all-caste are a caste. What does that actually mean here? They don't interact with the rest of society (or the DC universe) in any meaningful way. Are they a caste above the rest? Below? Enveloping all others? Outside of all others? Why invoke the idea of caste systems at all in a Jason Todd story if you don't have something to say about social class (something Jason's entire character is in conversation with)?

So here's the pitch: the all-caste position themselves as outside of society to better serve their function in defending it. Jason, the previously homeless gotham orphan with a strong sense of justice joins up. He takes vows of poverty and abstinence, which seems redundant to him, he was doing that anyway. He gets the magic and combat training, and is the only human to survive the process in a thousand years etc etc. Upon reaching adulthood they send him out to work.

His mission is to a great hub of Evil, where the fight is most dire and the challenge great, but so too is the need. It's Gotham, obviously.

After a years of training in isolation, he's thrust back into the real world where there is no such thing as 'outside of society', evil looks a lot like the mundane, and people don't fall into discrete good and bad categories, regardless of supernatural influence. He knew all these things but now he has a new ideology and responsibilities and also magic powers. This is his old neighborhood and it is struggling. Some of it is demons. Most of it isn't. What part is The Evil? Jason's not interested in crime but in justice, legal or otherwise. This city is guarded by a warrior who claims to fight from the shadows but in reality fights from a place of power. Jason does the opposite, and he could take or leave the shadows. They are only nominally on the same side. To be outside of the system is to be counter to the system. There is no such thing as a moral billionaire. How do you fight Evil?

It's a story of struggle against the systems he is enmeshed in, idealism, utilitarianism, the desire to do right, the luxury to do right, and the luxury to do wrong. Also he has magic swords and fights a bunch of demons.

[markrosewater]

Hi Mark,

I brought this up before but I have been seeing Magic getting much more comfortable with modern technology and how much of a disconnect that is (to me) seeing it on the table. I am not talking about advanced technology, but rather mimicking directly our real-life technology. New Cappenna, Kamigawa, even Karlov and thunder junction touched this, but the high tops are tv sets from the duskmourn previews make everything feel mundane and not "magic" to me.

Is this type of world building direction something we are going to see more often? Do you think that UB living in more modern settings has allowed sets like this to be made, where previously they wouldn't have? I think people are excited I think the set is going to be loved, I think design and art has been amazing this year, but again for me every has been feeling less magical.

Magic does what it always does, push boundaries. Magic is not inherently tied to any time period. You can have modern settings where Magic plays a big role in the world.

We’ve been testing how modern Magic can be. Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was very modern and it was beloved.

But if the overall feedback is modern things are too much, we can pull back. Duskmourn is definitely pushing into new area.

What do you all think?

[hainuwelle]

The third man theory

Note: This theory takes as starting point Aurora's Fun theory. It states that the invention in which Gaster fell was a new version of a warp door that would have allowed the monsters of the underground to escape to a timeline in which the war against the humans never happened. If this experiment were to work, it would have allowed for a happier ending than the True Pacifist one, because more accidents and deaths would have been prevented.

Sadly, Gaster's experiments went wrong and he was scattered "across time and space". The only other time in Undertale this expression is used is when we call Papyrus in Sans's room, the one that gets us lost in a seemingly endless darkness when we enter it, with a door that suspiciously looks like Mystery Man's grey door and Deltarune's warp doors. This key expression used by Papyrus tells us Gaster's creation and untimely demise should have something to do with these doors.

If this theory is correct, the invention in which Gaster fell would have been under our nose the whole time.

With the FUN theory video in mind, something about Mr. Elegance's dialogues caught my eye.

Evidence 1 - Mr. Elegance, if we didn't previously talk to Jigsaw Joe:

Evidence 2 - Mr. Elegance if we previously talked to Jigsaw Joe:

For a flaming teleportation door one would assume to be magical, the vocabulary used to talk about it sure sounds mechanical and mundanely machine-like : « Fix up », « working on it », « got this door workin’ », « it might break », « fixed that door », « it should work without any issues ». Intriguingly, it looks old, and yet, it is new to the Darkners, who have never seen it before. Is it really Darkner technology?

Of course, to an experienced Undertale player, it looks familiar, similar to the one to Sans's room.

This brings us to my question: Why did Toby Fox add these two different Mr. Elegance dialogues about this door? What purpose do they serve?

It can't be to alert the player that they could malfunction if we haven’t previously talked to Jigsaw Joe, since they always work properly regardless. It’s not like this triggers a side quest asking you to talk to the puzzle man if you don't want a 1/6 chance of the door teleporting you into the void. And they don't serve a comedic purpose either. There is no joke, no punchline. So why warn us about the breaking hazard, if the warp doors never break in the first place ? Why specify that 3 people are needed to get them to work smoothly?

Because this isn’t really about the Scarlet Forest shortcut. The door might not break in the game, but it might have broken somewhere else. This is really about what went wrong with Gaster's experiments.

Time to bring in evidence 3:

First, let's note that this tweet isn't exactly talking about the same situation as in evidence 1 : Mr. Elegance talks about a door that two people got to work and that might break, while Toby Fox talks about a machine that's already broken and that two people could never repair.

However, evidence 2 tells us that when three of them worked on it, the machine should work without a problem. So if we assume that these dialogues are really about the creation that led to Gaster’s demise, this means that the reason things went wrong is because one person was missing.

Two people worked on the machine instead of three, which led to Gaster's disappearance. Yet, we know that two people were trying to repair the machine once it was broken. This means that after Gaster's disappearance, the missing person came back.

Now let's imagine that Gaster formed a trio with two other colleagues that we'll name X and Y. The Royal Scientist is working on a door-shaped machine that would free the monsters from their imprisonment. As the fate of the Underground lies in his hands, a lot of pressure is resting upon his shoulders. The role that X and Y had in this creation is unknown. Gaster could have even built it on his own. But thanks to Entry n°17, we know that shared his experiments with two other people. And thanks to the Japanese translation, we know he was rather close to them.

After the construction of the machine, Gaster and X try to get it to work, but without Y. Maybe they walked away from the experiment, maybe the other two didn't trust them enough, we don't know.

Despite this, they manage to make it work with just the two of them. However, what Mr. Elegance predicts happens, and something goes wrong. Two people just wasn't enough to assure that the machine would work properly. It's too unstable. It malfunctions. Gaster falls inside, is shattered across time and space, and the machine breaks.

Now let's come back to the end of Toby Fox's tweet. ”Neither of them could fix the machine, no matter how hard they tried. No one can." Notice that "neither of them" means precisely two people.

After the incident, Y comes back, but Gaster disappeared. The trio is now a duo. Y and X do everything they can to repair the machine, but can't. No one can. Because Gaster, the person necessary to its reparation, is no more.

If this theory is right, what are X and Y’s identities? And why was Y absent during the creation of the shortcut door machine? A lot of questions have yet to be answered...

[anim-ttrpgs]

Is there something about vampires drinking blood in the game that's innately painful? Like, can vampires not drink blood that was previously drawn, do they need it "straight from the source"? If that is the case, does their bite innately cause pain? Does the pain it causes bypass all forms of mundane and magical anesthesia?

No, there’s nothing magically painful about a vampire bite in Eureka, it’s just two fangs going straight into your body, which is gonna be pretty painful. Of course, they could also use their claws, a knife, or a phlebotomy needle to get the blood. They do need it “straight from the source.” Blood that has been sitting on the shelf for a while is barely nutritious

Anesthesia could definitely dull the pain, but then the vampire might be getting a mouth full of anesthesia, so unless they wanna be zonked out too, they’re probably going to prefer unmedicated victims. That, and the fact that a lot of the “nutrition” vampires derive from blood comes from the pain and fear experienced by their victim. The blood is partially symbolic.

As for blood bank blood, they can technically do so, but it isn't very "nutritious."

There is no loophole that allows vampires in Eureka to drink blood without hurting someone, that's their whole deal.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[superectojazzmage]

There's been a number of posts observing the "isn't this superhero stuff so dumb?" syndrome that a lot of modern superhero media has. Where the creators are basically weirdly insecure about the fact that they're making something based on comic books and either refuse to take it seriously or strip out anything even slightly fantastical in favor gritty "realism" so nobody will think they're not serious filmmakers. And I just wanted to observe the patient zero of this phenomena, the case study that is Batman.

Because, for decades now, live-action adaptations of Batman have been so utterly terrified of being seen as remotely similar to the Adam West or Joel Schumacher versions - or really, most of the original Batman comics in general - that they obsessively try to scrub out (in a very superficial way) anything about the series that could be seen as fantastical, strange, or even just lighthearted. Every single Batman live-action adaptation after Batman And Robin has absolutely no hook beyond "it's Batman but TOTALLY GRITTY AND DARK AND REALISTIC AND NOT LIKE THOSE DUMB COMICS".

All of Batman's family and friends except Alfred will be thrown away, with the creators proudly boasting about how they'll never do Robin or Ace because sidekicks ruin the grounded maturity of a rich guy dressing up as a bat. All of Batman's less "mundane" enemies will be ignored or reimagined as mundane criminals; no Killer Croc, no Hugo Strange, no Maxie Zeus, just movie after movie of Joker but he shoots people instead of telling jokes or Riddler but he shoots people instead of telling riddles or Penguin but he shoots people instead of liking birds. All the decades of lore and worldbuilding around Gotham will be disregarded in favor or depicting it as just a vaguely defined crappy city that looks and feels no different from whatever city the film was shot in. Any stories that are even mildly "weird" will go unadapted or have all it's fantasy elements removed, so seminal arcs like Strange Apparitions or Knightfall or Night Of The Owls will be discarded or neutered in favor of endless repeats of the mob subplots in Year One and Long Halloween, nobody caring that they're locking themselves out of something like 90% of the Batcanon.

And, as alluded to previously, it's all done in a very shallow way that often ends up making things LESS realistic. Batman will always just be some asshole alone in his manor with nobody but Alfred for company, even though realistically he would absolutely NEED that huge family/support network of sidekicks and techies to achieve anything at all beyond dressing up in a costume and getting shot by the first guy he fights. There can be no "silly" characters but the creators desperately want to pretend that a furry beating up a clown is like The Wire. And even the more comic book elements are adapted, they'll be either altered in ways that make them unrecognizable for that precious faux-realism or have their unusual nature downplayed severely.

Just look at the Nolan movies; in his desperation to seem "serious", Nolan did stuff like having Bane not use a super-steroid or wear a luchador outfit, not caring that he was usually replacing the supervillain gimmicks with ideas that were even stupider and less real, like Bane wearing a mask to constantly huff painkillers yet somehow not being a crippled addict like such a thing would render him in real life. And Nolan likewise used the League of Assassins Shadows but was simultaneously crazed to avoid or downplay the supernatural aspects of that group in the comics, so Ra's is just some guy who presumably inherited his title and this secret ninja organization totally doesn't have magic or anything, shut up, and also them being an ancient cult will be remanded to, like, a single brief conversation than never mentioned again.

The consequences of this kind of thinking are becoming especially apparent with Matt Reeves' take. Reeves was a subscriber to that ideology of Batman having to be a bleak street crime drama instead of a colorful superhero, but also tried to pay lip-service to the Twitter discourse about Batman beating up poor people instead of being a symbol of hope. And now he's left himself trapped in this catch-22 where he can't adapt the vast majority of stories from the comics because they're too goofy and fantastical in the eyes of Hollywood but also has to keep playing into this idea of Batman as not just being a scowling brooder who goes out at night to beat endless waves of criminals into comas without making a meaningful change. The best he could manage is a mini-series about Penguin that, while not bad, has basically nothing to do with Batman as a series whatsoever and indeed has to bend over backwards to not acknowledge Batman's existence outside of a five-second shot in the final episode. The proper sequel to Reeves' Batman is stuck in pre-production hell, very probably straining to come up with something that hasn't been done before, isn't weird, and doesn't have Batman being overly dark. Good fucking luck with that.

It's especially bad because the animated and video game adaptations DON'T do this shit and embrace the crazier aspects of Batman as a series, and it works out great and produces works just as good or even better than the live action stuff. Batman The Animated Series wasn't afraid of adapting stuff like The Laughing Fish or Moon Of The Wolf alongside grittier arcs. The Arkham games had Batman punching sharks and dollotrons unironically and those are fantastic. Shows like The Brave And The Bold or Beware or Caped Crusader gleefully embrace stuff from all ages of Batman history and are better for it.

Something has to give on the live-action front. We need a Batman movie that dares to go beyond maybe three miniseries from the 80s, otherwise we're just wasting time and the potential of Batman as a character, whose success is partially owed to his ability to slot into all kinds of adventures.

[zhuoyichenpretty]

Eps 34-35

Not many photos here because anything I screenshot in these eps would literally just give me psychic damage at this point (-:

Spoilers under the cut!

Ep 34:

I'm being so brave watching this fucking opening scene again.

No actually though I've watched it several times by now and it just keeps getting worse. What can one even say about all this? Ow??? Fuck???

Probably the most gruesome onscreen death of a child character in cdrama that I've seen like I didn't know they could even go there like that. I guess maybe because it's not gory or specifically violent? Idk the rules but man. His expression.

The way they play TJR singing their song and then switch to LZY's version. Maximum pain thank you guys.

ZYC's "I'm sorry" is so damn loaded. For not being there, for failing to protect him, but also for being the reason Bai Jiu made this decision. For giving Bai Jiu someone to love and protect and die for. For unknowingly and inadvertently causing this just by loving him and being loved by him. ZYC's remorse and regret as he makes the connections and pieces together Bai Jiu's thought process is so fucking haunting. Just the most awful way for his own words of comfort to come back. And like I'd commented previously—the way love begets grief.

I'm going to kms I knew when they put yet another cloak on ZYC that he'd be giving it to someone else but NO!!! Not like this oh my god

"哥帶你回家" (Ge will take you home) I don't even have the words for how painful this is. Is this the first time ZYC refers to himself as ge? Not just acknowledging that Bai Jiu's made an older brother of him? If not, it's certainly the most salient.

Both actors' skills can hardly be questioned atp (like, that's a damn difficult expression to die with), but I just have to marvel at the way TJR's acting (his micro-expressions!!!) is at once subtle and incredibly clear. That ZYC's every emotion is clearly telegraphed—his shock, his horror, his anguish, his regret, his desperation, his exhaustion—but so naturally done.

ZYC struggling with the weight of Bai Jiu's body and dropping it, on top of paralleling the flashback, is just so terrible in its reality. ZYC must already be so incredibly drained after that final battle. To have gone through such an unspeakable loss, to carry it on his back and find himself unable to even properly do that, to protect what's left of Bai Jiu from the mundanity of physical damage.

WX's dad nooooo you're leaving her to ZYZ but ZYZ's not planning on staying either nooooo

Are we sure the magic rain couldn't have saved WX's dad tho ):

WX don't tell ZYZ your self-sacrificial plan there's no way he'd let you go through with it girl!!! You gotta pull a ZYC and be vague as fuck and make sure everyone's feet are frozen to the ground so they can't stop you

ZYZ backing away after using the spell on WX, slapping himself when he nearly can't get himself to go through with dying. Good shit. But also my god I'm so sorry WX what a fucking traumatic ten minutes will anyone give her a fucking break? Living at any cost, at the cost of her beloved dying several feet away from her, yet another manifestation of her trauma with Zhao Wan'er, and knowing it's about to happen, begging to be given a say—cruel. PSJ has been offscreen for forever just because plot convenience (which, in itself, already sucks) but if she were here she would kill ZYZ herself for putting WX through this and the rain would just be a bonus.

The Cloud Light Sword stained with blood to the point it looks unfamiliar—good shit.

ZYC's fucking voice when he asks if there's any other choice. Art, I tell you.

Fucking hell. The twist on their fate being ZYC choosing it rather than being forced into it, to absolve ZYZ of the cruelty he's had to bear responsibility for in doing this to his loved ones. Zhiji was not misapplied in this damn story—ZYC understands and he understands over and over because who else could do this for ZYZ? To find one last way to lighten his burden in such a conflicting and complicated and impossible situation. To know exactly what must be hurting ZYZ and to bear the weight instead and to make sure he knows full well that's what's happening. For ZYC to take that hurt upon himself, entirely upon himself. The way that ZYC dealing the killing blow is actually the furthest thing from a moment of hardening his own heart, that it's in fact the height of his soft-heartedness. And how much that must hurt. Pain.

Also, imo ZYC making it purely his choice at the last moment is so clearly and specifically for ZYZ. Not for anyone else's sake, and precisely against his own and WX's wishes. Upon knowing ZYZ's commitment to death in this moment, whatever else happening has been made secondary. He is giving ZYZ all that he has left to give—fulfilling ZYZ's sacrificial determination, carrying out ZYZ's will to save the people, absolving ZYZ's guilt at what it's taken to get here.

(Totally tangential but I referenced AOT in my last post so I figured I'd make further reference: if anyone's familiar with Eruri—I'm somewhat reminded of Levi's choice. Being the only one with the power to save or let their loved one die. Choosing death for them, on their behalf, perhaps a decision opaque and counterintuitive to the rest of the world but completely and utterly made out of love and an inimitable understanding of the man they love. The most painfully and unimaginably selfless act, to give them peace at the cost of their own suffering.)

"小卓，你還是這麼..." (Xiao Zhuo, you're still so...) Oh this line kills me (ha). I love that it's unfinished. That it encapsulates ZYZ's surprise, his understanding and gratitude, and ultimately this sense of marveling at the man in front of him and what he's given ZYZ even now, at the very end. It tells me ZYZ recognizes ZYC's choice for what it is: the utmost act of a soft-hearted and boundless love that sees through him completely. Zhiji indeed.

The way ZYZ has unfulfilled promises with both WX and ZYC, the way they both call him a liar—good shit.

When I didn't know there was an episode 35 (or special episode I guess) I was boutta throw hands like what do you MEAN that's it??

Ep 35:

I do love a good hair-turning-white-from-grief trope (': But man, white hair like that at 24/25........Also though PSJ and WX finally have more noticeably different styling/silhouettes yayy they look gorgeous

God, but I can't bear looking at how small their group is now.

Searching all the mountains and seas, all 28 mountains in the Wilderness. ZYC, that kind of devotion...I really feel the need to echo ZYZ here, you're really so...

ZYC looking like ZYZ from behind because of his hair......ZYC's hand shaking holding Bai Jiu's bell............................

Also I'm really glad (I say this through tears) because I saw Bai Jiu didn't have his bell in ep 33/34 and I was like ??

Ah, are you kidding me I thought the pain was more or less over what do you mean Bai Jiu wants ZYC to 勿想勿念 [wù xiǎng wù niàn] (don't think of, don't miss)?? The way 不念不响 [bù niàn bù xiǎng] is literally the title of ZYC's character song, which then plays in the bg ('''':

(I can't really tell how well the subs explain it or how it comes across in translation so apologies if this context isn't necessary but the characters in the song title say "don't read, don't ring," but the character for "ring" is a homophone for "think of" and the character for "read" can also mean "miss." Missing someone/something is "想念" [xiǎng niàn]. Bai Jiu tells ZYC not to miss him through homophonous terms—a book he can't read, a bell that can't ring—and the song title is directly referencing that.) What an elaborate way to hurt me.

Bai Jiu really pulled a ZYC though with a box full of hurt/comfort just like ZYC had left WX

Ohhh the way WX's narration turns into ZYC's?? Honestly this drama's commitment to canonizing ZYC's love for ZYZ to the same level as WX's is really gratifying. And ZYC talking about a bone-deep sadness after ZYZ died. The parallel of baby!ZYC in front of the pond. I especially love the mention of ZYZ's age in comparison to ZYC's, these glimpses of the perspective ZYC has gained with hindsight. The distance of time and reflection and yet the unmistakable fondness and love. It is in part healing to hear.

Also imo ZYC if the scene chosen for ZYZ's POV of you is accurate I'd wager he saw you not as some angry child but as the pinnacle of humanity's beautiful bleeding heart.

ZYZ said it before right? That every human emotion is important? Well ZYC really has been constantly feeling the entire range of human emotion this whole drama lmao

Why yes I do think I need a heartwrenching MV-style montage of all the tragedies of this story that ultimately offers bittersweet catharsis and closure as the OST narrates about searching for someone and finding them in the end. Just what the doctor prescribed tyvm

WX saying ZYZ's final wish was to 落葉歸根 (translated as returning home, literally translates to "fallen leaves return to their root," implies returning home after a long time) the way humans do and ZYZ's soul literally being on a leaf of paper (which kinda sorta works in CN as well since "leaf" and "page" are homophonous) that, carried by the wind, returns to ZYC?? Home??? Are you joking bc I'm sobbing.

Gonna have to use this photo again bc literally how else do I describe how I'm feeling rn?

And that's a fucking wrap. I'm so. I don't even. Wow. Maybe in another couple of business days I'll throw together a brief review of the show as a whole, but right now I'm gonna drown myself in other people's metas and gifs and fics as god intended. Thank you as always for spending the time on my silly ramblings and I hope you enjoyed the ride!

[dailyadventureprompts]

Homebrew Mechanic: Fixing D&D’s Gameplay Loop with Item Degradation

Normally I have snappy titles for these, but in this case I wanted to be super upfront with what I was getting you all into. 

Some people are not going to like the idea of introducing item degradation into the game, and they’re ABSOLUTELY right to be hesitant. Just about every attempt I’ve seen (includig both RAW versions from previous editions, examples from videogames, and those I’ve put together myself in the past) have been horribly clunky exercises in beancounting that only ever existed to needlessly slow down gameplay for the sake of joyless realism. 

I’ve come at it from another angle however, but to explain we’re going to need to get into some game design talk. 

The basic gameplay loop of D&D is supposed to be: 

Seeking adventure leads you to face challenges

Overcoming challenges leads you to rewards

Rewards Help you get stronger 

Getting stronger allows you to seek tougher adventures

After a while this system starts to break down specifically with regards to gold as a method of reward. Even if you’re the smart sort of DM who flouts the rules and gives their party access to a magic item shop, there’s an increasingly limited number of things to spend gold on, leading to parties acquiring sizable hordes of riches early on in their adventuring career, completely eliminating the desire to accept quests that pay out in gold in one form or another. This is a pretty significant flaw because adventures that centre around acquisition of riches ( treasure hunts, bounty missions, busywork for rich patrons that will inevitably betray you) are foundational to storytelling within the game, especially early on in a campaign before the party has gotten emotionally invested.  Most advice you can find online attempting  to solve this problem tends to dissolve down to “let them pour money into a home base”,  but that can only really happen once per campaign as a party is unlikely to want more than one secret clubhouse. 

TLDR:  What I propose is the implantation of a lightweight system that forces the party to periodically drop small amounts of wealth into maintaining their weapons/armour/foci. The players will be motivated to seek out gold in order to keep using their best stuff,  giving value to treasure drops that previously lacked it.  Not only does this system act as an insulation against powercreep at higher levels, it also encourages a party to engage with the world as they seek out workshops and crafters capable of repairing their gear. 

The System: 

Weapons, armour, shields, and caster foci (staves, holy symbols etc) can accumulate “ticks” of damage, represented by a dot or X drawn next to their item entry on the character sheet. Because you get better at handling your gear as you level up, an item that exceeds a total number of ticks equal to its bearer’s proficiency bonus breaks, and is considered unusable until it is repaired. 

Weapons and Foci gain a tick of damage when you roll a natural 1 on an attack made with them, or if they are specifically targeted by an enemy’s attack.

Armour and shields gain a tick of damage when you roll a nat 1 on a saving throw or when an enemy beats your ac by 5 or more. A character equipped with both can decide which of the two items receives the tick

Creatures with the “siege” (or any “does double damage to objects” ability) deal an extra tick when attacking gear. 

A character with a crafting proficiency  and access to tools can repair a number of ticks of damage equal to their proficiency on a four hour work period. This rate is doubled if they have access to a properly equipped workshop.  A character with access to the mending cantrip can repair ticks on any kind of item, but is limited to their proficiency bonus per work period.  

Having an item repaired by an NPC crafter removes all ticks, but costs vary depending on the rarity of the item:    5g for a mundane item, 10g for a common item, 50g for uncommon, 250 for a rare, 1250 for a very rare, 6250 for a legendary.  The DM decides the limit on what each crafter can repair, as it’s likely small towns have access to artisans of only common or uncommon skill, requiring the party to venture to new lands or even across planes if they wish to repair end game gear.

As you can see, degradation in this system is easy to keep track of and quite gradual, leading players into a position where they can ignore obvious damage to their kit for the sake of saving their now precious gold.  It likewise encourages them to seek out NPC crafters (and potential questhooks) for skills they do not possess, and encourages the use of secondary weapons either as backups or to save the more potent items in the arsenal for a real challenge. 

Consumables

Everyone knows the old joke about players hoarding consumables from the first adventure past the final bossfight, it transcends genre and platform, and speaks to a nature of loss aversion within our shared humanity.  However, giving players items they’re never going to use amounts to wasted time, resources, and potential when looking at things from a game design perspective, so lets work on fixing that. 

My inspiration came from witcher 3, which encourages players to make frequent use of consumables by refreshing them whenever the character had downtime. The darksouls series has a similar feature with the signature estus flask, which provides a limited number of heals before it must be refreshed at one of the game’s checkpoints.  When the designers removed the risk of permanent loss and the anxiety it creatures, players were able to think tactically about the use of their consumables confident in the knowledge that any mistakes were just a resupply away from being fixed.  

My proposal is that while the party is in town they can refill the majority of their consumable items for a small per item fee. Just like with gear degradation, this encourages them to seek out crafters and do quests for the hope of discounts, while at the same time encouraging them to explore new realms in the hope of discovering higher level artisans. 

The price for refills is set at: 5g for common, 25g for an uncommon, 125g for a rare, 625g for a very rare, 3125g for  legendary.  I encourage my own players to keep a  “shopping list” in their inventory with prices tabulated so they can hand out a lump sum of gold and have their kit entirely refreshed. 

Characters with a relevant skill and access to their tools can refill a number of items equal to their proficiency bonus during a four hour work period. With access to a proper workshop, this rate doubles.   ( At last, proficiency with brewers supplies, carpenters tools etc become useful) 

I encourage you as a DM to check out this potion flasks system, which I’ve found adds a delicious factor of uncertainty back into the mix.  Attached is also my super lightweight rules for tracking gear and supplies, which I absolutely refuse to shut up about.

Artist

[chthonic-sorcery]

Direct Vision Spell for an Oracle 𓂀

A 2000 year old Greco-Egyptian magic spell

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

[PGM V 54 – 69]

So sick of all these fake bs Tumblr and Pinterest spells-

"what color candle means what lol" with zero cultural or historical significance, it's like they just pulled things out of their ass.

So, here is a real 2000 year old Greek and Egyptian syncretic spell from Thebes to receive a direct vision from the beyond....WITH cultural and historical context.

Because, yes, history is important, and anyone giving you "spell tips" without telling you where the fuck they're from or what they mean is bullshitting you.

Ancient Greek oracular spells were rituals and invocations performed to gain insights or predictions from the gods, the Theoi, as well as Daemons and the Dead, particularly through seers known as oracles.

The Spell: PGM V 54 – 69 from the Greek Magical Papyri

Context of the Spell:

This spell is an interesting blend of Egyptian and Greek oracular practice: the use of Coptic or Egyptian eyepaint, kohl, here is interesting– as well as it's mixture with water from a sunken ship. Water from such locations are normally reserved for love spells, as we see previously in the PGM. The relationship or correspondence between a literal sunken vessel and sinking into the throes of passion. However, here, with its use in an oracular spell, it seems to correspond more to the chthonic or otherworldly realm, giving te wearer the ability to see past the normal, mundane world; past the ‘veil’ so to speak and into the beyond.

The use of the magical mystery word or voces magicae “Akrammachamarei” here is also notable; it is quite often seen throughout the PGM, and is associated with the God/Daemon/Archon of both Gnostic (Jewish-Egyptian) as well as Greek origin, Abrasax.

In spell PGM V. 96-172, Abrasax is identified as part of the "true name which has been transmitted to the prophets of Israel" of the "Headless One, (also known as the Egyptian god Bês) who created heaven and earth, who created night and day ... Osoronnophris whom none has ever seen ... awesome and invisible god with an empty spirit"; the name also includes Iaō and Adōnai, the ineffablenames of the Jewish god. "Osoronnophris" represents Egyptian Wsir Wn-nfr, or "Osiris the Perfect Being.” Another identification with Osiris is made in PGM VII. 643-51: "you are not wine, but the guts of Osiris, the guts of ... Ablanathanalba Akrammachamarei Eee, who has been stationed over necessity, Iakoub Ia Iaō Sabaōth Adōnai Abrasax."

Instructions:

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

After you have purified yourself (through ritual bathing and declarations) you must put on your clean linen robes and sandals of Papyrus.

Then, taking a purified bronze censer, place the laurel leaves inside and light them until the smoke fills the room. Walk clockwise around the room, and your workspace, Chanting the Ephesia Grammata:

ΑΣΚΙ(ΟΝ) ΚΑΤΑΣΚΙ(ΟΝ) ΛΙΞ ΤΕΤΡΑΞ ΔΑΜΝΑΜΕΝΕΥΣ ΑΙΣΙΟΝ (or ΑΙΣΙΑ)

“askion kataskion lix tetrax damnameneus aision”

Then, taking the olive oil, pour it into the waiting bronze dish.

With your right hand, anoint your right eye with the prepared water from a shipwreck.

With your left hand, mix 1 part kohl with 1 part water until it is a viscous paint, from the same dish, and anoint your left eye so that it is completely surrounded by the paint.

Then, pronounce the incantations:

"EEIM TO EIM ALALĒP BARBARIATH / MENEBREIO ARBATHIAÔTH IOUĒL IAĒL OUĒNĒIIE MESOMMIAS,

let the god who prophesics to me come and let him not go away until I dismiss him,

OURNAOUR SOUL ZASOUL / OUGOT NOOUMBIAOU THABRAT BERIAOU ACHTHIRI MARAI ELPHEŌN TABAŌTH KIRASINA LAMPSOURĒ IABOE ABLAMATHANALBA AKRAMMACHAMAREI.”

Once the incantations are finished, present any offerings and ask over the prepared olive oil dish what your question(s) are. Stare into the oil, lit only by candle or oil lamp light, and you will receive a direct vision.

─── ⋆⋅𓂀⋅⋆ ──

For more information & how to pronounce the incantations, check here.

[knowledge-from-the-abyss]

Psychic Abilities

What are psychic abilities? 

Psychic abilities are metaphysical powers that generally cannot be explained or observed by science (although there are scientific studies that are currently trying to understand and delve into psychic abilities). Everyone has access to psychic abilities; the most common psychic ability out there is intuition, that ‘gut feeling’ people get. I will list more psychic abilities down below. 

Please make sure that you are discerning mundane from magical; some of these abilities can and are symptoms of serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, so if these suddenly start happening (especially around the age of 20) please make sure you are checking with your doctor to make sure nothing medically is wrong. 

Clairsenses

Clairvoyance- also known as clear-seeing, this clair allows people to see pictures or images, or even visions in their minds eye or sometimes even manifesting in the real world. This is also a clair that can allow someone to see auras. 

Clairaudience- also known as clear-hearing, this clair allows people to hear deities, spirits and entities, again either in their mind or sometimes manifesting in the real world. This can also manifest as hearing music randomly or having a song repeat over and over and over in your head, or having a deities name constantly on your mind/in your head (this can sometimes be a sign a deity is reaching out or generally trying to get your attention as well). 

Claircognizance- also known as clear-knowing; this can be your intuition going off about something. Just ‘knowing’ that something is going to happen, and then it does. Being able to know what color an object is when its in black and white, etc. 

Clairempathy- also known as clear-emotion; this clair allows the practitioner to sense others emotions, sometimes this can almost manifest as if you are feeling those emotions, even if you aren’t. 

Clairsentience- also known as clear physical feelings; this clair allows someone to feel physical sensations and energies (for instance, feeling like someone is touching your head when no one is physically there). 

Clairtangency- also known as clear-touch; this clair allows someone to receive information through touching objects. This has manifested for me before. I will touch an object and sometimes have gotten downloads of information from that object about the person who previously owned it, or the energies that were commonly around that object. 

Clairsaliance- also known as clear-smelling; this clair is when you can pick up on smells that aren’t necessarily in the physical world. A good example is that sometimes I will smell my deities when they are around me. 

Clairgustance- also known as clear-tasting; this clair is similar to clairsaliance, but with taste. It allows the practitioner to taste different things in the spiritual realm. Similar to clairsaliance, sometimes when I am channeling, I can taste the things my deities have been eating. 

Can psychics read minds? 

This, along with anything you might see about psychics in media (movies, tv shows, etc) is probably fake, at least in the way it is usually presented in these media formats. Using clairsenses, and being able to pick up on subtle cues from the other person, can lead to some ‘mind reading’ or telepathic-like abilities. For example, I know my wife very well, and even if she doesn’t always outwardly say so, I can sense when her mood has shifted. There are other friends that I have been able to do this with as well, including online friends. So the answer to this question is ‘yes, but not in the ways you might think’. I cannot tap into people's minds and see their exact thoughts, but with a combination of my clairsenses, and picking up on cues I see from them, I can figure out what they might be thinking, or how they might be feeling. 

How can I train/hone my clairsenses? 

There are various ways to do this, depending on the clairsenses you’re wanting to hone. Firstly, I recommend figuring out what your strongest clairsenses are. This is basically just about observing yourself and how you experience the world; this can also sometimes correspond to your physical senses. Once you know what clairsenses you have that are strongest, focusing on using those in various settings is a good idea. For instance, if you find that clairvoyance is the strongest clair you have, practicing meditation and seeing things during meditation might be a good idea. 

How do I know it's not just my imagination and it is psychic abilities I’m experiencing? 

This is where discernment and using other tools can come in very handy. Double checking with divination is a very good way to know if you are really using your clairsenses, or if it's just your imagination. There may also be certain emotions or feelings that come with psychic abilities vs imagination. For instance, for me personally, I’ve found that a good way to discern my intuition vs imagination is the emotions that come with it. If I get a sudden feeling about something for instance, I ask myself if there is anxiety or other negative emotions surrounding that situation; if the answer is yes, I often use other tools to figure out if the feeling I’m getting is truly my intuition, or if it's just me being anxious about a certain situation. If there are no emotions that I can figure out are coming from a situation, but something feels ‘off’ I still use discernment, but am more likely to immediately trust the gut feeling I get. In certain situations (like if I’m driving and my gut tells me ‘don’t take this road!) I usually do trust my gut feeling, and later on am often shown why my intuition told me to do that (often it's because of road closures or traffic that my intuition was guiding me to avoid). 

Do mental illnesses (such as autism, ADHD, and dissociative disorders) affect psychic abilities/clarisenses? How do I distinguish the two? 

Yes, mental illnesses can sometimes affect psychic abilities and clairsenses. Again, this is where discernment and using other tools such as divination can come in handy. Practicing can help as well; I have autism and ADHD, and sometimes it’s hard for me to distinguish if it's a deity talking to me, or just my ADHD going ‘brrrrr’. However, as I have practiced over the years, I have learned how to distinguish between the two sometimes; a lot of times my inner voice sounds different than the voices my deities will use, which is a good way to know that I might be hearing something other than my own inner monologue (I also still use divination tools as an extra step to make sure that what I’m hearing is in fact metaphysical). 

What deities do you recommend to help with learning/honing psychic abilities? 

First and foremost, pretty much any deity can help you with learning to hone your psychic abilities; however there are a few (mainly infernals, since I work so heavily with the infernal divine) that I will list that specialize in helping with psychic abilities. 

Hermes is a good option when it comes to seeking help with honing psychic abilities. As messenger to the Greek gods, communication is part of Hermes’ natural wheelhouse; this can go for both mundane and magical communications. He is excellent at helping not only with psychic abilities and clairsenses, but with divination as well. 

Dehuty/Thoth from the Egyptian pantheon is also a very good deity to reach out to for help with psychic communication; he rules over writing and communication. 

Some of the infernals I have listed below are lesser-known or unknown, so the UPG (unverified personal gnosis) listed here are all from my own personal experiences with them.

In my own UPG, the infernal Alcanor is also very good at helping with psychic communication, clairsenses and mediumship. 

Also my own UPG, the infernal Martinet is also excellent at helping with the clairsenses. 

Acuar is another infernal who is listed (VPG, verified personal gnosis) at being good at helping with psychic abilities (especially those that have to do with emotions). 

Lucifuge Rofocale, Azazel and Forneus are also infernals who are listed as being good at helping with psychic abilities. This is also VPG. 

This is not an exhaustive list of course, and in terms of the infernals listed, if you’d like to find out more about them I have more info on them on my Reddit blog; r/DemonStudies. 

Why are some clairsenses/psychic abilities stronger than the others? 

Clairsenses are like muscles; the more you use them, the stronger they will get. That being said, everyone is different; someone who is a runner is going to have very strong legs, but their arms might not be as strong in comparison, but their arms also don’t have to be as strong compared to their legs either. Same goes with clairsenses; the ones you use and focus on more are going to be the strongest ones you have. Some people also have natural talent with certain clairs (again, similar to physical abilities, some people are way better at smelling naturally than others around them, and this might also reflect with them having better clairsaliance as well). You can always hone and practice any psychic abilities even if they are not the ones you are strongest in. 

Do I have to be honed into my clairsenses to do deity work/spirit work? 

You do not have to be honed into your clairsenses to do deity work/spirit work, although from what I’ve seen most people getting into deity work are naturally drawn to honing their psychic abilities as well. 

Can using psychic abilities give me headaches? 

Yes, just like how sometimes you get a headache from eye strain from staring at something too long, using your clairsenses can also give you a headache or affect your physical body in other ways. Taking breaks, allowing your body and mind time to rest, and doing self-care can help to prevent this strain. 

Why do some people hear specific voices for their deities/spirits, while others just hear their ‘inner voice’ as deities/spirits talking to them? 

This comes down to everyone being different and everyone experiencing things differently. Again going back to how people physically experience the world, everyone experiences the physical world slightly differently, one person’s perspective might be different from another person’s. This is the same with clairsenses and how we experience our deities. I know for me, Loki generally smells like cinnamon and smoke (like from a bonfire), but for others, I’ve heard that he smells of just cinnamon, or they say that he smells like cigarette smoke at times.  

Will I be able to hear new deities/spirits I interact with right away? 

The short answer to this question is maybe. Again, this is about personal experiences; for me, when I first started out, I had a lot of trouble hearing new deities that I interacted with, it was very easy for me to pick up on their energies and know they were there, but when it came down to hearing and seeing them, even though I was hearing and seeing the deities I interacted with regularly, it was harder for me to hear and see new ones. Now that I have been doing this for so many years, I do find that I can very easily hear and see the new deities I interact with on a regular basis. So again, this can also be about practicing as well as natural abilities you may have. 

How do I avoid burnout when honing my psychic abilities? 

This is similar to the question about headaches above; taking breaks and self-care are very important when honing your psychic abilities. Also, don’t be hard on yourself if you’re not getting it right away. Again, this is like exercising a muscle; even if you do have natural abilities for the particular clairsense you’re trying to hone, it can still be hard and frustrating at times. Giving yourself grace, and not trying to rush the process will be the best thing you can do for yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others either, learn at your own pace; everyone's practice is different and everyone learns at different paces. 

How do I hone my intuition? 

First and foremost, trusting yourself is a huge part of honing your intuition. Intuition can often be that little voice in the back of your head warning you or telling you about something, or that ‘gut instinct’ many people talk about. Sometimes, it really is ‘just knowing’ something, and trusting that knowledge even when there is no outside evidence is very important. There are also many intuition tests you can do to work on honing (and recognizing!) your intuition and what it feels like. A lot of times I use these intuition tests to test and hone my intuition. Don’t be too hard on yourself either when you get these types of things wrong, sometimes we have off days and it is a learning experience! 

Will every deity/entity want to communicate using clairsenses? 

No, not every deity or entity will want to communicate using the clairsenses; some may prefer to use divination tools or other forms of communication to talk to you. From my experience most deities prefer to work with a combination of some clairsenses (even if thats just you using your intuition to pick up on messages they want to share with you) as well as other forms of communication. 

Are divination tools still useful even after I’ve developed my psychic abilities/clairsenses? 

Yes, divination tools are always very useful especially when it comes to discerning and verifying what you are told through psychic abilities. Using divination alongside psychic abilities is a very good way to make sure you are not going into spiritual psychosis. I always encourage anyone who is getting into any type of spirit or deity work to use divination as a way to discern what they are being told. 

As always I would like to thank my friend @astralscraft for helping me with this; they always ask such wonderful questions that I include and answer in these!

[miseria-fortes-viros]

Lecture Notes: A Study in Lycanthropy

WERE•WOLF [from Old English wer-wulf, meaning MAN-WOLF, a horrific beast that hunts only when the moon is full]

All that is known about these terrible creatures can be attributed to Dr. J. Jeffrey Hydemann (d.) whose extensive studies have been posthumously ruled inhumane by the Board of Magical Wildlife. No further studies have been conducted since.

MAGICAL CLASSIFICATION

Previously, werewolves were thought to be some form of evolved bear or timberwolf, and it was not proven otherwise until Hydemann successfully captured one and the de-transformation was documented. The wolf in question died before it had fully turned back, and its human identity remains undiscovered.

The werewolf is its own unique, paradoxical classification of magical creature under the cryptid category. It is paradoxical in that a werewolf is only a magical creature during its mutational periods. When the moon is not full, it is simply a man. Under the influence of the full moon, it is simply a beast. The curse of lycanthropy is only magical in the sense that these two mundane beings share inhabitance of the same body. Silver or magical weapons will not harm man or wolf any more than they would harm woman or dog, but they work exceptionally well when the beast is at its most vulnerable. Of course, it is already very easy to harm a werewolf in this state, and nearly any weapon will do.

TRANSFORMATION (MAN-TO-WOLF)

Little is known, because Hydemann did not personally witness the initial wolf transformation. However, he theorizes in several of his papers that a werewolf spends an entire day—perhaps longer—preparing for the full moon by eating and sleeping as much as possible. Both transformations are said to require an unbelievable amount of energy and are incredibly long and painful. The process often kills: both wolf and man can starve to death if enough energy has not been stored beforehand. The transitional period lasts anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour, but outliers are always possible. Lengthier transformations have an exact inverse relationship to survival rates. A malnourished or hungry werewolf is much less likely to survive either of its transformations than a well-fed counterpart. However, starvation is not the only cause of death mid-transformation. It is equally likely for the heart or other organs to simply give out under such immense bodily duress.

Hydemann believes the wolf “hatches” from the body of the man. This is in part due to the rapid onset bone and tissue growth that occurs during the transformation. No living person has been ably to verify exactly how this change happens. Some theorize that the skin splits open, shedding the way reptiles do. The Department of Magical Sciences’ official stance on this matter is that the skin must simply stretch to accommodate a near doubling in size, citing the mammalian classification of both the common man and the common wolf.

DETRANSFORMATION (WOLF-TO-MAN)

This is the change observed by Hydemann and his research team. He describes the detransformation as “disgusting” and “vomit-inducing” and states that at least one of his technicians lost consciousness. Hydemann believes the transition from wolf to man to be far more painful than man to wolf, simply because rapid onset bone and tissue growth isn’t entirely supernatural, while rapid onset bone and tissue destruction only occurs within the realm of lycanthropy and a few highly illegal magical torture methods.

In his writings, Hydemann describes the wolf form as “breaking down and snapping into pieces” and that it is “like watching something be folded and stuffed into a container far too small to hold it”.

FULL MOON AND OTHER PHASES

Contrary to what most people tend to believe, werewolves are not actually creatures of the night. They are, in fact, creatures of the moon, and those two things are not mutually inclusive. The curse of lycanthropy does not care whether it is night or day. It doesn’t care whether the moon is visible, or even above the horizon. Lycanthropy is in effect from the exact moment that the moon becomes full, regardless of its position in relation to any individual werewolf, and it ceases to be in effect at the exact moment the full moon starts to wane. Two werewolves on opposite sides of the globe will begin their transformations within minutes of each other.

The full moon may be the crux of lycanthropy, but the curse is even more cyclical than one might think. A werewolf will be almost completely indistinguishable from its fellow man during the new moon, and its condition is more obvious in the days leading up to and the days directly after the full moon. For this reason, if one suspects they have met a werewolf, it is important to note the phase of the moon. It is entirely possible that one has simply encountered an abnormally large, hairy man.

THE MIND OF THE BEAST

Some have argued that lycanthropy could be classified in the same vein as demonic possession, but the relationship between man and wolf does not seem to be parasitic as it is between man and demon: in that case, the demon possesses the man, whereas in the case of the werewolf, man and wolf possess each other. Despite what we know about the separation between the two states of being, a werewolf often experiences slight changes outside of the full moon. A trace of the wolf exists in the man, and a trace of the man exists in the wolf. As such, the wolf is much larger than a common wolf and capable of walking on its hind legs for short periods of time, and thusly, the man is more animalistic in appearance and may have senses more advanced than the common man.

Consciousness is not transferable from man to beast; they know as much of each other as two strangers passing on the street. Once the creature has transformed fully, there is nothing remaining in its mind of the man it was just hours earlier: it is, simply, a starved predator. For this reason, it is imperative that one must never approach a werewolf, no matter what the relation is to the man it came from. It does not know you. You are prey.

FINAL NOTES

Until more is known about lycanthropy, wolf and man should be regarded as separate entities. Since lycanthropy is widely understood to be a curse, there must be a way to reverse it; as such, kill the beast to save the man. Further study is necessary. It would be ideal to conduct this in a humane fashion, but first one must identify a werewolf and recruit it to the cause, and with public opinion being what it is, this is likely not possible. We may never know more unless drastic measures are taken.

Thus concludes the summation of Dr. J. Jeffrey Hydemann’s many reports. God rest his soul.

[starlee246]

Golly gee I love that one Irish skeleton man whose first name begins with ‘skul’ from the series where the main character who previously lived in a mundane ordinary world gets introduced to a world of magic by a mysterious hat wearing man whose full face we never see.