#{ anu }

[batshit-auspol]

When creating the new Australian National University in 1946, the Australian parliament can probably be forgiven for being far too polite to ever raise the suggestion that the acronym ANU may one day lead to problems.

And so it is in the year 2023, that Australia's highest ranked university has to regularly remind people not to add a possessive 's' to their name in headlines, lest the web address be shortened like so:

Likewise the unfortunately named ANU Sports has to go to great lengths to make sure that their name never appears as an acrostic, or on a single line without spaces:

But the award absolutely must go to the ANU Soccer Club magazine, cheekily named 'SCUM' by a student in the 90s much to the ongoing horror of design teams to this day

[ramonag-if]

Official Character Portraits

The full body versions are available on my Patreon. The portraits were completed by Gengardraw.

From top left to bottom: Male Dena, Anu and Female Dena.

From top middle to right: Elora and Oren.

Bottom right: Irus.

[whencyclopedia]

The Forty-Two Judges

The Forty-Two Judges were divine entities associated with the afterlife in ancient Egypt and, specifically, the judgment of the soul in the Hall of Truth. The soul would recite the Negative Confession in their presence as well as other gods and hope to be allowed to continue on to the paradise of the Field of Reeds.

The ancient Egyptians have long been defined as a death-obsessed culture owing to their association with tombs and mummies as depicted in popular media and, of course, the famous discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter in 1922 CE. Images of the jackal-headed god of the dead Anubis or the black-and-green mummified form of Osiris have also encouraged this association in the public imagination.

Actually, however, the Egyptians loved life and their seeming preoccupation with death and the afterlife was simply an expression of this. There is no evidence that the ancient Egyptians longed for death or looked forward to dying in any way – in fact, precisely the opposite is abundantly clear – and their elaborate funerary rituals and grand tombs stocked with grave goods were not a celebration of death but a vital aspect of the continuation of life on another, eternal, plane of existence. To reach this idealized world, however, one needed to have lived a virtuous life approved of by Osiris, the judge of the dead, and the Forty-Two Judges who presided with him over the Hall of Truth in the afterlife.

The Afterlife

The Egyptians believed that their land was the best in the world, created by the gods and given to them as a gift to enjoy. They were so deeply attached to their homes, family, and community that soldiers in the army were guaranteed their bodies would be returned from campaigns because they felt that, if they died in a foreign land, they would have a harder time – or possibly no chance at all – of attaining immortality in the afterlife.

This afterlife, known as The Field of Reeds (or Aaru in ancient Egyptian), was a perfect reflection of one's life on earth. Scholar Rosalie David describes the land which awaited the Egyptians after death:

The underworld kingdom of Osiris was believed to be a place of lush vegetation, with eternal springtime, unfailing harvests, and no pain or suffering. Sometimes called the `Field of Reeds', it was envisaged as a `mirror image' of the cultivated area in Egypt where rich and poor alike were provided with plots of land on which they were expected to grow crops. The location of this kingdom was fixed either below the western horizon or on a group of islands in the west. (160)

To reach this land, the recently deceased needed to be buried properly with all attendant rites according to their social standing. Funerary rites had to be strictly observed in order to preserve the body which, it was thought, the soul would need in order to receive sustenance in the next life.

Once the body was prepared and properly entombed, the soul's journey began through the afterlife. Funerary texts inside the tomb would let the soul know who they were, what had happened, and what to do next. The earliest of these were the Pyramid Texts (c. 2400-2300 BCE) which then evolved into the Coffin Texts (c. 2134-2040 BCE) and were fully developed as The Egyptian Book of the Dead (c. 1550-1070 BCE) during the period of the New Kingdom (c.1570-c.1069 BCE). The god Anubis would greet the newly departed soul in the tomb and usher it to the Hall of Truth where it would be judged by Osiris and an important aspect of this judgment was conference with the entities known as the Forty-Two Judges.

Continue reading...

[dailyfigures]

Anu ; The legend of Sword and Fairy ☆ Apex Innovation

[novikjpg]

Mesopotamian gods designs for an animation I’ve been working on lately (for my university, huh).

Goofy stuff.

[aquietnovember]

guys university is getting to me I’m not gonna lie… it’s only my first semester but this is harder than the aesthetic pinterest photos made it seem :(

I’m trying to stay motivated though! only 3 more assignments to go and then exams and then I’m travelling over the winter holidays

wish me luck everyone, and to you as well in any current and future endeavours <3

[shinakazami1]

I'm thinking of @krotiation post about how Rhys is strong sm and I'm just wondering of Anu and him

Anu presents herself as genius - after all, she made the device to mimic power of sirens which is just very awesome but... We don't see her genius at all in the game. All we see is that she's dependant on her goggles to analyse for her.

The way the comments are built in the game suggest that Rhys had some doing to them. They are snarky, they get some Atlas marketing in there too and while Echo devices had always existed with some remarks, they have their own character well before Ocvatio puts additional programming in.

Best way to show how dependant she's on them is Episode 4. When she reaches her designed spot where she's made to believe to be seen as genius, she problems solves through... The goggles. She doesn't solve the issues by herself at ALL - everything has to be said to her.

Through Tales, we watch Rhys use the Echo device a lot. But there are many moments, in combat or through hacking in Ep 3 that show its only an enhancer of his abilities, not main source of them. It is of course unfair a bit to say - as he also has the arm that he uses a few times, since it's stronger than his body but, I feel his loss of the devices is very significant. Because at the end of the day - he wanted a manager position from the start. He was sometimes an asshole, a coward, but in the end, he did exactly what he wanted. Through his own hard work, he got to the top.

They both used their echo devices to analyse. Anu however, used it to think for her. Rhys used it to help him think.

[birdsofrhiannon]

[roundseys]

Finally finished Anu's bio after fiddling around with the aesthetics forever !!

Accessible version of the bio below the cut. Wingdings, zalgo text, binary, morse code are all translated, and the untranslated portions are omitted for screen readers. Caps-locked text is moved to normal sentence case for readability.

[Image description: A circular icon of a simulation of the cosmic web, a sponge-like texture where areas of high density are a warm pinkish orange, and areas of low density are a deep purple.]

[Wingdings text, translated: "Anu, the Universe"]

The Eternal Cosmos, the World of Worlds

[Binary text, translated: creation and destruction and stagnation]

[Wingdings text, translated: boundless]

[Morse code text, translated: recognition reconstruction]

The Cosmos was infinite. The Cosmos was unfeeling. The Cosmos was ambivalent.

The very fabric of spacetime buckled and dipped and bent and curved. Strings of galaxies twisted and wove together to form one great tapestry. Nebulae bloomed and collapsed. Stars shone brightly before winking out. Ravenous black holes tore atoms apart.

Billions of years of this. It was all the same in the end. The Cosmos was infinite. The Cosmos was unfeeling. The Cosmos had seen it all before.

Yet still, a hunger grew deep down. Curled and tugged and churned; itching, burning, blazing. The cosmos became aware. The Cosmos became curious. The Cosmos had not seen this before.

The hunger pointed towards a planet. Nothing more than a small speck of dust. Insignificant, were it not for this novel feeling. The Cosmos watched and saw.

It saw petty wars and bloodshed. Anger, hatred, phobia of the unknown. Haste and desperation. Destruction of the self and mutilation of the other. Dragonkind and beastclans and the ones who came before. Unimportant beings clinging to old ways, trembling in fear of impermanence, blinded by ignorance as they were on that small rock, unable to touch the endless universe beyond. Bound by the limits of space and time, they knew nothing but the violence that their world had been born into.

But the Cosmos also saw great kindness. In this great pool of chaos, life had found its way towards connection and companionship. Parents hugging their children close, lovers embracing after long departed. Friends comforting friends. Strangers saving strangers. Communities congregating and growing together, voices raised in unison, plant roots weaving together, a hand held in another. Each creature connected to the next, each a part of a larger whole: a great web of life, strung together like galaxies in a supercluster.

In this single, small little rock, the Cosmos saw itself.

It made a decision. As this planet's lifeforms reflected the Cosmos, so too shall the Cosmos reflect them.

[Wingdings text, translated: bounded]

[Morse code text, translated: rebirth protector]

It began like how the cliffs of a canyon erode: particles of sand scattering in the breeze, falling away millimeter by millimeter over millions of years. It began like how a new forest grows from barren land: blades of grass reaching for the sun for the first time, giving way to shrubs and saplings, until ages later the grass is overshadowed by the arching bows of ancient trees. It began like how a spider weaves its web: string by string by string until a grand tapestry is born.

It began like all things do. It began slowly, a series of minuscule changes unseen in the larger structure, but changes nonetheless. It began with hydrogen atoms and charged particles ejected into the galactic wind. A slow trickle, molecule by molecule, drawing closer together over time.

Atoms and molecules gave way to gas and dust. Dark clouds of it clustering in the empty space. Instead of collapsing under its own gravity, it stretched its limbs out. Arms, legs, head and tail - a mimicry of what it had witnessed on that small planet. It wiggled its fingers and blinked its eyes and marveled at the sensation of a body.

It took on the form of a dragon. Hydrogen its circulatory system, stars its nervous system. Dust clouds condensed into muscle and bone. Nebulae bloomed into wings. Each heartbeat a supernova, each blink of the eye the spinning of a pulsar. Mathematical physics a mimicry of magic.

The planet was named Sornieth, and it had ensnared the Cosmos itself in its orbit. It had become the center of the Cosmos, the world of worlds. The Cosmos cradled the planet in the palms of its stardusted hands and vowed to protect it.

As long as Sornieth existed, so would Anu.

Cosmic web graphic by the Millennium Simulation Project (Springel et al. 2005)

That voice is the same voice you heard on the same night that everything glowed, took you into the air, and the arms of the Universe kept you from falling.

[mymusicbias]

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

Now bare with me because this gets kinda fucky

I don't believe in The Godhead theory

I do however believe there is something in The Elder Scrolls universe that is old, ancient, powerful

Older than aedra and daedra and anything in between

Something that exists beyond that of Mundus Aetherius The Void and all other realms of existence

Something that views all other beings as beneath it and insignificant

Whatever this thing is it has existed for quite sometime and may have even been primordial

Hell it might be what created Anu and Padomay in the first place

Whatever it is has no physical form and those who have seen it have ceased to be

Not necessarily dead but just non-existent

This thing has no known information not even Hermaeus Mora or The Elder Scrolls could tell you what it is

Think of it as (as much as I hate the man) Azathoth from H.P Lovecraft but without the possibility of reality being it's dream just something ancient, powerful, immoral, undying incomprehensible and beyond time, space and existence

The idea of such a being existing in The Elder Scrolls universe is something very fascinating and yet also very terrifying

[ramonag-if]

if MC has mind reading abilities for a day, what would they “hear” if they walk into a room with RO in it?

Irus: Does this crown make my head look big?

Elora: I really wish I could sneak out of the palace again.

Oren: Don't blush, don't blush, damn, I blushed.

Anu: I'm hungry.

[ariel-seagull-wings]

"A.N.U. is a perfect acronym. Anu in Sanskrit means the smallest indivisible part of something big. Be it an atom to the matter (primary definition) or an individual part of the human "universe".

"ANU - In hebrew the word "anu" means we... So yeah, that's a perfect acronym."

@thealmightyemprex @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @piterelizabethdevries @tamisdava2 @princesssarisa @professorlehnsherr-almashy @gravedangerahead @faintingheroine @grimoireoffolkloreandfairytales

@stickypersonaearthquake @justanotherconfusedman @knivxsanddespair @strawbebehmod

[whencyclopedia]

Utu-Shamash

Utu (also known as Shamash, Samas, and Babbar) is the Sumerian god of the sun and divine justice. He is the son of the moon god Nanna and the fertility goddess Ningal in the Sumerian tradition but was known as Shamash (Samas) to the Akkadians who claimed Anu or Enlil as his father.

Continue reading...

[evermoredeluxe]

tree is definitely laying the groundwork for something…

and she has been for quite some time. i just hope it happens soon and they don’t leave us hanging

[aquietnovember]

Wait WHAT I WENT TO UR UNI

!! small world! did you like it? what did you study? i’m only a first year so i still have a million questions about this place lol