#Custom-Built Caravans

[aussielandrv]

When it comes to exploring the diverse landscapes of Australia, there’s nothing quite like traveling in a caravan tailored to your unique needs. Custom-built caravans offer the perfect solution for adventurers seeking personalized comfort, convenience, and style. Whether you’re planning a trip along the coast or venturing into the outback, having a caravan designed to suit your travel preferences can enhance your journey.

[motorhomeworld]

Get the parts you need for your caravan and custom build your dream camper van with Old Caravan Parts. We offer a wide range of new, used and vintage parts for caravans in NZ. More info: https://www.cmw.co.nz/products/

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Ford Thunderbird Italien Show Car, 1963. A one-off custom third generation Thunderbird is to be offered at auction. The car was built for Ford by Dearborn Steel Tubing for their Custom Car Caravan and has been fully restored to original condition

auction listing

[roobiedo]

or as the locals call it, the Bug Bus. (pills is bugs?)

squeezing in one last concept sketch for the week hehe

a note on the 'legs' on this guy: technically an isopod has seven pairs of segmented legs, which would've looked really cool and mecha-like in this design too! but i've been spinning the idea of a microbe-inspired vehicle in my head for a while now, and wanted to see what it'd be like if these two concepts were combined. it... kinda works?

the inspiration struck when i was playing a wonderful ttrpg called Wanderhome with a friend, wherein our characters came across a herd of giant isopod 'cows', just chilling, grazing, and rolling around in a wide open field. we could ride on them too! which got me thinking...

in my fictional solarpunk world, i envision 'herds' of these caravans gathered together on a grassy meadow, forming their own sub-communities outside the boundaries of the city. sort of like a car meet, or even a mini mobile town, since these vehicles also serve as an alternative home for those with wanderlust, or who prefer a more nomadic lifestyle. i imagine there aren't that many of these special vehicles, as each one is custom made with their own unique furnishings, aesthetics and quirks. maybe the people there swap homes every once in a while, so everyone gets a chance to experience the different themes each caravan has to offer.

i also think these guys would be great to take on wilderness expeditions! since they're built for navigating through difficult terrain, they'd be the perfect companion for a couple of scientists or rangers who want to venture into dense forests for their research (and probably stay there for months on end). maybe the 'ball mode' would then be a way to defend them from wild animals and natural hazards, or even a form of camouflage? idk, lots more to flesh out here 🤔

while this design was based on tiny terrestrial pill bugs, most isopods are actually much larger and ocean-dwelling, so i can definitely see this being reworked into some kind of submarine too! and since isopods also dig underground sometimes, perhaps another version has antennae that function as a drill, so they can act as construction machines, or even emergency rescue units. ALSO isopods are known detritivores, so maybe there's an isopod caravan clean-up crew, that collects and decomposes organic matter such as dead leaves as they drive through the city? yeahhh???

im just coming up with these as i type rn hfkjsh

OH and don't even get me started on the possibilities for their exterior colours, based on actual species variation of course! dairy cow, zebra, lava, panda, cappuccino, clown, RUBBER DUCKY...!!!! they'd all look so cute waaaaaaaagh

[hometoursandotherstuff]

I posted this magical property a while ago, and it's back on the market. I wonder why, b/c it's like living in a fairytale. Built in 1956 in Prescott, Arizona, it has 3bds, 2ba, and comes completely furnished with furniture & antiques, $975,014 (Wonder what $14 is for). There's also an antique horse drawn caravan that's great for guests and a carriage house on the property.

The front door, festooned with apples, opens to a whimsical stone foyer.

Look at these wonderful antiques in the living room. My mother had an antique shop and I can see that these are some of the finest.

This dining set is fantastic and look at the carved wooden fish.

Cute kitchen - love that little piece that serves as an island. The description says that the appliances are custom vintage- they are so cool.

The formal dining room is in a covered patio. Look at the colored stemware over the door.

Doors to the primary bedroom open to this wonderful antique piano. Whoever decorated this home knew what they were doing.

Bath #1 is just lovely.

Bedroom #2 is smaller but is a lovely guest room.

Bath #2 is a nice shower room.

Bedroom #3 is beautiful, too.

The carriage house is just as magical as the main house.

Downstairs houses an antique car- it's an antique, so I'd expect it to convey w/the rest of the antiques.

It looks like the upstairs is used for storage, but it would make a great sunny studio.

And, there's the caravan.

How is this for a guest room?

Look at the mailbox. There's so much to see here.

Cool fox statue with shades presides over the property.

The property measures .46 acre.

[aetherialfalmer]

Burial rituals headcanons

Nords obviously held their funerals with burning pyres but they tend to pass down the dead loved ones trusted weapon through the family. Usually the spouse holds the weapon until their children are ready to wield it. After death, the weapon is usually engraved with a personal quote.

Argonians who still hold the hist in high regard, often spread the ashes of their dead loved one in water ways like rivers, streams etc. Their belief is that all water is connected, so their loved one will find their way back to the hist and be reincarnated.

Khajiit when on the road will make custom urns for their fallen loved ones, some even wear small urns to take pieces of them with them. The passed's jewelry is often worn by their surviving family or caravan members as a way to remember them.

Bosmer preserve bones and make sentimental beaded necklaces out of their loved one's bones. The skull was respectfully kept in tact and often sat in an area the family gathered in. It was a way for the deceased to still watch over them.

Vampires, while being a wide variety in themselves, have a similar ritual noticed among the scattered clans of Tamriel. If the clan members can recover their body, the fallen is cremated and scattered before sunrise, so they can see the sun shortly before their soul would be sent to Oblivion.

Much has been lost on the Dwemer but interesting finds have been found in ruins across the land. Rooms that were built to resemble tombs had coffins against the walls. Inside were masks assumed to be worn by the corpse of a dead Dwemer. Each found seems to be personalized as no two have been the exact same. Sadly, mostly just ash have been found in the coffins, the whereabouts of the corpses is yet to be determined. We can guess that it was a similar process Nords went under when becoming draugr, minus being undead tomb caretakers.

The underground Falmer have been noted to have mourning rituals under careful study. The corpse is covered in a putrid oil that wards off hungry charus from digging up the grave and eating it. Then, they work on a grave marker shortly before burial. Instead of their loud shrieks and clicks, those in attendance were noted to make low rumbling and chittering noises.

[pan-problemed]

A body on the step and lies all about - i

cooper howard x angel!gn!reader

tags; slow burn, character study, cowboys, angels, religion, gender neutral reader warnings; none

masterlist | cross posted on ao3 inspired by the fallen by @geeks-universe! please check it out summary ; You are an angel, trying to help humanity build what their leaders destroyed. He is a man cursed to painful immortality, trying to survive in the world his leaders destroyed.

He thought he had squashed out all that remained of his humanity, but here you were, all gentle hands and knowing looks, throwing a wrench into the character he had so carefully constructed.

Some of the others questioned why you remained on Earth, even after Father’s creations had burnt it in fire and gamma. They had all given up hope that good may remain and therefore given up on all of them.

You knew not all of them were at fault - a single secretary could do nothing in the face of her government’s greed and hubris. She could not be blamed, could not be declared evil for someone else’s crime. 

Still, grief was something you had become intricately familiar with. Looking at the ashen remains of all Father and humanity had created, you felt nothing but grief in its rawest, most volatile form. 

But you remained. You held onto that hope, because what else were you without it? 

Few of your siblings remained on Earth, equally dedicated to protecting and nudging humanity in the right direction. You remained in contact, despite millennia-long arguments on right and wrong. 

If you asked yourself back in the 20th century whether you’d find yourself allies and almost friends with Lucifer himself, you wouldn’t have believed it. 

But here you were. Constantly tasting the acidic flavour of radiation in the air, watching as humans tore each other apart again and again and tried to undo what they had done each time.

---

Purdue had grown into a careful little town in recent years. Before, they had called it West Lafayette, and before then it was Chauncey. But now it was Purdue, named after the title stamped into cracked signs and burnt textbooks. 

They still used the old street signs - someone had taken time to repaint the little forest green rectangles and white letters. 

Fondy was a bar built in the bottom floor of an apartment building, half of the letters had fallen off with age, the original name lost to time. Some of the apartments now were used as an inn, though not many travellers ended up in Purdue when Lucas Oil and Big State were only a day’s walk south. 

And here you were, sitting at the counter as Buddy Holly’s voice buzzed from the little restored radio on the counter. Lukas Striker had recently set up in Big State, and you had provided a generous donation of songs to the bright-eyed boy. What a King was doing starting a radio show in the remnants of Indiana was beyond you, but you were happy to indulge. 

You had always liked music, after all. 

You were nursing your first drink of the night - whisky, caravanned out of Kentucky. The bitter taste was familiar on your tongue. Nothing compared to the expensive drinks Lucifer would encourage you to indulge in back in the day, alongside corny movies and drunken exchanges of stories. 

He had been on a Western kick in 2076 and some of ‘77, particularly fond of one pretty little actor named Cooper Howard. His dark hair carefully slicked back reminded you of a gang you met back in the day, though it took quite a few more drinks to pull that story out of you. 

You reckoned, if they ever made a movie about them, put some facial hair and cigarettes on Howard and he was practically the spitting image. 

The ice clinked against the stained glass as you thought back to those late nights, drinking and laughing at the humans’ entertainment. 

Before the resources grew too few, and the humans’ greed too powerful. 

The ramshackle wood doors creaked open, announcing a new customer, but you didn’t look up from the spot you were studying on the counter. It had been built out of old signs and car parts, you could see a Toyota logo. 

He sat three stools from you and ordered in a low voice, heavy with a southern accent. Speaking of Westerns, you thought to yourself. 

You cast him a brief glance. He had rough skin, most of it covered with a ragged duster and clothes stained brown. His hat was angled to shield his eyes, despite being inside, and you could see the way his hazel eyes studied the room curiously. 

You recognised his kind - mortals cursed to immortality. Skin ragged and burnt. Some had their brains melt away with the cartilage and hair, but others held onto their sanity despite. 

His gaze met yours - intelligent, calculating, suspicious - and you held it for a moment, sizing each other up. 

There was something familiar about him that tugged at your tongue, but you couldn’t puzzle it out just yet. You would keep an eye on him, then - he had a dangerous look about him. 

The radio buzzed as the music rolled over to Billie Holiday. You didn’t look away, even as his drink was passed to him. 

Finally, he downed the thing in one gulp and slammed the glass on the counter, leaning forward. “Reckon I’ve seen you before.” He mused. 

“I thought the same.” You replied evenly, taking a careful sip from your drink. 

The two of you fell silent again. You wondered what he was thinking, why he wasn’t ignoring you as you had planned to do to him. 

He gestured for another drink, and the bartender hesitated for a moment. The man sighed and retrieved a few coppers, which seemed to appease the bartender for now. 

“What brings you to Purdue?” You decided to ask, growing uncomfortable with the tense silence in the nearly empty bar. 

He hummed, leaning back in his seat and draping one arm on the counter, tilting his head to look at you. 

It clicked, then, who you were looking at. Speak of the devil (haha), the hollowed out ghost of Cooper Howard sat in that torn duster, staring you down with curiosity and bitterness in those chesnut eyes. 

“Work.” He replied simply. “You?” 

You shrugged. “I travel.” 

He paused, tilting his head a little further, and you couldn’t help but compare him to a little labrador puppy studying something new for the first time. 

The conversation largely ended there, though both of you did ocassionally hum along to the music playing from the radio. He was much more quiet than you, but the tapping of his fingers and the soft rumble of his voice didn’t escape your attention. 

You gave him a friendly smile as you left, though he ignored it. 

And you wondered. 

[whencyclopedia]

Abraham, the Patriarch

In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Abraham is a venerated patriarch whose relationship with God provides the foundational story for God's beneficial relationship with humanity. According to biblical tradition (and some say myth), Abraham (c. 20th century BCE) was born in or near the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, most likely in southern Chaldea. Abraham (originally named Abram), married his half-sister, Sarah (originally named Sarai) and began a long journey from Mesopotamia to Haran, and then later to Canaan and Egypt. Detailed in the book of Genesis, chapters 12–25, Abraham's name comes to mean "Father of a multitude" and/or "the friend of God." His journey, as depicted in the Bible, is a long and dramatic one, with Abraham and Sarah encountering many different cultures, customs, and people groups along the Fertile Crescent from Mesopotamia to Egypt.

The Traditional Story of Abraham

The Bible notes that at age 75, Abraham received a divine invitation or calling from God (Yahweh) to travel to a distant land where God would reward him beyond measure. Genesis 12:1–3 states:

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. (12:2-3)

Despite the inherent dangers of traveling at such an old age and through unknown and unfriendly territory, Abraham trusted God and took his entire family (including his father and nephew Lot) and personal possessions on his trek to this promised land.

The first part of the trip purportedly took them to Haran, in northern Mesopotamia, where his father, Terah, died at age 205. In the second part of the trip, Abraham's caravan entered and toured through Canaan, where God appeared to Abraham, saying, "To your offspring I will give this land" (12:7). In celebration and worship, Abraham built an altar to God and then "went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east" (12:8). As earlier, Genesis notes that Abraham built another altar to God before moving again to the Negev, southwest of the Dead Sea.

Continue reading...

[cowboy-iliad-au]

Intro post!!!

My main blog is @please-be-nice-im-sensitive, so everything there applies here, but this is au specific!!

Here’s the community for this au:

Here’s the lore so far:

This is how it starts: There is an important man named Menelaus who owns an important insurance company focused on the potential of cowboy teams lose cattle so customers can be compensated for the loss of the cattle, and the cowboys can still get paid. So, of course he is vital for almost every cowboy out there. His wife is the leader of her own troop of cowboys, the Spartans, but one day her troop gets mugged, the cattle stolen, and everyone but her gets killed with her barely surviving herself. Soon enough, the owner of a popular railroad line, Aphrodite, notices her beaten up on the side of the road and takes her to a nearby town, Troy and has her apprentice, The mayor’s son, Paris, take care of Helen. Aphrodite believes since she and Paris helped out Helen so much, Helen should marry Paris so she can solidify a deal between the Spartans and the railroad company. But Helen is already married, and when Menelaus hears of this, he takes everyone who uses his insurance and takes them to Troy to get Helen back. In doing this, he sends some of his men out including his brother, Agamemnon, a famous gunslinger, who was able to trick Odysseus, leader of the Ithacan cowherds, into coming along. Eventually Odysseus himself is able to trick Achilles, a retired gunslinger, out of his job as a casino dancer by the name of Pyrrha, into joining the fight, and along comes his old troop, as well as his boyfriend Patroclus. A famous gunslinger named Diomedes joins the fight too because it sounds interesting to him, and this intrigues many rich folk into funding their side of the fight, while some decide to fund the trojans, who now have allied themselves with quite a bit of people as well. Soon, the mentor of about half of the major gunslingers in the country, Athena, joins the fight too on the side of the Myrmidons, and in return her rival, a retired famous wrestler, Ares, joins the Trojans. There is quite a bit of fighting, but nothing major occurs until Agammemnon steals the prize horse of a famous radio star, and has to return it. Enraged, he takes Achilles’s favorite horse and wrangler instead. Achilles is not happy by this happening, so he quits the fight but unfortunately doesn’t have the means to go home so he stays in his hotel room just outside of the fight with Patroclus. Patroclus himself is an incredible fighter so he does his best to make up for the loss of Achilles, but no one can match his aim, so after unsuccessfully begging Achilles to rejoin the fight, he takes Achilles’s hat, bandana, and one of his other horses and fights in his stead to build morale for the Myrmidons. Soon enough, Hector, the brother of Paris and sheriff of troy notices him and shoots him, mistaking him for Achilles. After finding out what happened to Patroclus, Achilles then finds new equipment and fights. He kills Hector and goes on a rampage including killing the bar tender. After about a week of nonstop fighting, Achilles collapses from exhaustion and Paris shoots him. However; Achilles put forward the turning point of the fight and soon enough Odysseus comes up with the idea of sending a caravan into Troy that was disguised as a shipment of gifts to Athena as gratitude for the help in the war, but was secretly full of cowboys. The trojans take the caravan and at night, the Myrmidons attack and take Helen back.

on his way back home from this, one of the smartest of the Achaean cowboys, Odysseus tries to head home to his wife and their separate herding business as the other cowboys try to overthrow their business and cause it to be bankrupt because they’re missing most of their employees at Troy. He meanwhile has to deal with a rich man who will stop at nothing to make sure him and his gang don’t succeed, a brothel owner who lets his men stay for the night but ends up making them pay the debt off tenfold, a one eyed animal who gives some of them rabies, and a crazy farm owner who kills and mugs most of his crew after they slaughter his cattle. He ends up stuck at a remote cottage with a girl who won’t let him leave and he lost his horse and they’re hours from anywhere so he can’t leave anyways but eventually he is able to hitch a ride to a town and overcome more obstacles before he gets back to his wife and fires the other cowboys

Thetis lore:

Thetis was the child of a wealthy cruise line owner and she had many sisters too. She worked on her father’s cruise ships for some time but soon enough she got tired of the incessant flirting from two specific people. Zeus, the untouchable politician, and his brother, the man who found large amounts of copper in mines near the Pecos river and had then struck up a deal to have complete monopoly of the river itself. One day, they cornered her and she revealed that she indeed did not want to be with a mega wealthy man like them. Because of this, they cut off all her ties with wealth and she was basically broke. Then she ends up in a small but powerful town called Pthia. The powerful casino owner took a liking to her and promised that if she was to marry him for one year, he could restore her connections. So she agreed. Nine months later, she gave birth to Achilles. A beautiful boy with golden hair and hazel eyes. She decided that she would dedicate her life to him. But still, when he is one year old, he loses his foot in a boating accident and is stuck with a prosthetic foot. She is devastated and refuses to let anything happen to him, and when Agamemnon steals his horse as well as the horse’s personal caretaker, Briseis. she begs Zeus to help her, in memory of the day he told her he would do anything for her, so he agrees to sabotage the Myrmidons until Achilles gets his horse and it’s caretaker back

Patrochilles lore:

Patroclus was the son of an infamous mob boss with a gambling addiction, and an unknown mother. His father would travel from town to town essentially robbing every casino of it’s riches and from an early age, Patroclus learned to do the same, though he was not as talented as his father. Unfortunately one thing he did get from his father was his temper. When Patroclus was eleven years old, he lost a gambling match, and went to grab the man’s gun and shot him dead. Patroclus knew his father would be angry, so he ran into the back of the Casino, and that is where Peleus found him. Peleus decided to take in this poor child with a sad backstory, and hired him to work at that casino. That is where Patroclus met Achilles, Peleus’s son and by his father’s request, a skilled sharpshooter and a master guitar player. They grew up together and seemed to grow closer by the hour. Achilles and Patroclus were taught by a famous man named Chiron who had trained all the greats of music and of shooting and soon they became masters, but Achilles was not happy. Achilles soon told Patroclus of his dream to be a dancer at a casino, but his father never let him dress up in the pretty skirts and dresses and jewelry. One day, Achilles and Patroclus visited a casino a couple towns away in Skyros and met the owner’s daughters: Deidamia. Deidamia hatched a plan with these two: Achilles was to marry Deidamia and she was to move in with him, they were also to move in with another couple: Patroclus and Pyrrha (Achilles in disguise). They were fine with this arrangement since they all had feelings for one another so the plan worked, for a while. Deidamia had a child who they named Neoptolemus, and they were all happy for a while in their polyamorous relationship. Though soon enough, Odysseus, who had heard of Achilles’s sharpshooting skills went looking for him. They say that Achilles is out of town, but Odysseus figures out one of the casino dancers is Achilles, so he tells the dancers that whoever can hold his gun correctly will get a caravan full of gold, and when Achilles picks it up, it is effortless. Odysseus figures out this is Achilles and blackmails him into joining the war or he will tell Peleus that he is secretly Pyrrha. So Patroclus and Achilles leave and Deidamia stays behind to raise Neo, nicknamed “Pyrrha” after his “godmother”. When Peleus finds out Achilles is going to war, he gifts Achilles with several prize horses that are incredibly fast and strong. Each horse had their own Caretaker. The horses were named : Ligyron, Pelides, and Podarkes. His favorite was Pelides, who had a beautiful and talented wrangler and caretaker that was specific to him named Briseis. When Achilles lost Pelides and Briseis, he lost his will to fight and stayed in his hotel room with Patroclus and cried for the loss of his favorite horse and his lovely caretaker who was also his friend. Patroclus though, had grown fond of many of the people on their side of the war and decided to fight while Achilles stayed back. He was incredible, but Achilles’s image brought glory and will to fight on their side, so Patroclus comes up with a plan. He is to wear Achilles’s clothes, ride Ligyron, put on his cowboy hat and bandana, and that way the Myrmidons would gain momentum. Unfortunately, though Hector sees Patroclus and thinks this is Achilles and shoots him dead, taking his clothes and his Ligyron with him off of the corpse of Patroclus. Achilles goes nuts. He does not eat. He does not sleep. He only fights. When Achilles rejoins the fight, the death rate in Troy multiplies by six, but after eight days of no food and no rest, he collapses from exhaustion, and Paris shoots him in the heart.

Clytemnestra lore:

Clytemnestra was a tomboy as a kid, but her parents didn’t mind much so she would remain that way. When she was nine years old, she saw her first rodeo show and was enamored. She immediately started doing everything she could to see these rodeos. When she was 14 years old, she had already created an alter ego, Clyton the abomaton Who would win every game and by 16 she became a bull wrestler. People would travel far and wide to see her, she loved the glory but she loved the job more. Soon, she started to gain notice from the son of the mayor, who fell for her even before she revealed that she was a girl. They were engaged but then she faced an issue, she was pregnant and could not pretend to be a man still. Somehow a famous wrestler named Agamemnon hears about this and he tells her that he can find her a job in wrestling even after she has given birth. She agrees, but does not realize she has to leave Tantalus behind for this. Soon enough though, Agamemnon uses his leverage on her to get her to marry him. Unfortunately though, she miscarries a week later. She is stuck in a town that he basically owns and her contract with him ties her down incredibly. Soon she is pregnant with his child and she is not ready for the world of being a mother and having Agamemnon be the father. But this child is different, she is sweet and cute and Clytemnestra’s whole world. Iphigenia is her name. Agamemnon seems to love her too, kissing her forehead before every match and buying her horses he will gift to her when she is older. When she is older, she is entranced by the horses and is soon the best horse wrangler in the town. Soon though, Agamemnon hears that his brother needs help with an issue with his wife, and he summons the whole town. One night as he is traveling to Troy, Iphigenia gets sick and instead of taking care of her, Agamemnon leaves. Iphigenia dies soon after. Clytemnestra shuts herself out, not letting herself give any love, even to her other children. She soon finds a rival wrestler to Agamemnon and they hatch a plan to kill him when he gets back from Troy, poison his drink. With a poison that would make him suffer the same way Iphigenia did.

Ithaca Family lore

Icarius and Tyndareus were the owners of one of the most powerful banks out there. Icarius was for the most part, an introvert who didn’t let the public know a lot about him, and rarely left the bank. Tyndareus was the opposite. He flaunted himself openly and hogged every bit of attention he could find. They were close as they could be. When they got older, they both had children.

Icarius married a beautiful but reserved woman named Periboea. They had several children, but seldom flaunted them to the public, to the point that everyone thought they only had one, Penelope. Penelope grew up along the children of Tyndareus and they did everything together. They shared their hopes, their dreams, their lives with one another. Helen dreamed of being a wrangler for a cowherd, Clytemnestra dreamed of being a bull wrestler, but Penelope did not know what she wanted. She was always close to Helen, so she decided that perhaps they could work together as adults, that she could manage financials and Helen could herd the animals. They did however lack the funding, so they moved away and almost gave up on their dreams. Almost.

Although Helen and Penelope can’t see Clytemnestra as much, they still go to her wrestling matches, even when she is forced to move by Agamemnon. At one of Clytemnestra’s wrestling matches in Crete, Helen is cornered by companies trying to hire her for their cowherd. She has a way with animals and they were also quite eager to hire her because of her beauty. There is one man, however who draws her attention: Menelaus. He offers to give her a loan to start her own cowherd and she falls for him instantly, however the other companies are quite tense about who she chooses, threatening a fight to break out. One of Menelaus’s friends, Odysseus makes a plan to stop the fight, and to impress Penelope, who he had developed feelings for. Helen was to make the choice to be with Menelaus, and Menelaus was to provide a discount on insurance for the cowherds in exchange for them leaving Helen alone. It works. And he most definitely impresses Penelope along the way.

Odysseus was a skilled forager and sharpshooter, who wanted a new job. So he suggests to Penelope that they could work with Helen in her cowherd. They work together for a while, but Odysseus misses his home. One day after work, Odysseus tells Penelope his feelings for her, but he also tells her that he wishes to go home. He tells her that she can come with him if she wishes to, but it is her choice. She decides to stay with him. They set up a checkpoint at Odysseus’s home, Ithaca for Helen’s business. They have stations for where cattle can eat, there is grass everywhere, and they have a small inn for Helen and her troop to stay. Odysseus handles the cleaning and the managing, and Penelope handles the business aspect. They receive profit from their little checkpoint and they become quite happy. They marry soon and not long after, Penelope becomes pregnant with their child, Telemachus. Unfortunately while Telemachus is still an infant, Helen is trapped in Troy, and a Odysseus has to come to help. Penelope is left to raise Telemachus and to manage their checkpoint on her own. She teaches Telemachus everything she knows, but they very much struggle, since she had very different expertise than Odysseus. Odysseus faces many challenges in troy and on the way home. After about seven years of Odysseus being gone, the employees and the men in their town start to try to take over Odysseus’s position as the checkpoint manager, and as Penelope’s husband. She is very much outnumbered, so she and Telemachus must come up with clever plans to stall until Odysseus gets back. Odysseus is taking a very long time to come home and they have almost left home when Athena, Odysseus’s old mentor visits them to help out. She doesn’t know much about hotel management either, but she provides a shoulder to lean on when she can be there, and when she can’t she leaves one of her owls with Penelope and Telemachus (she has quite a few, but her favorite, Pallas, is the one to stay with them.) When Odysseus finally gets home, he and Telemachus fake a stampede to scare the men away and they can finally be a happy family.

Diomedes lore

Diomedes grew up with a father who was a legend.

Tydeus was a former bank robber in his home town of Calcydon and a very successful one at that. He ran a total of 36 heists and only one of them was stopped. He was arrested, he fled, but he had to leave his hometown forever. Tydeus decided after this that he was going to start his life anew, in service to the law instead of against it. He was loyal to the mayor of the new town he was in, named Adrastus, and even ended up marrying his daughter. However one day, Tydeus was summoned to fight to help his brother in law, Polynices, get his town back (he had been a mayor previously, but a riot forced him out of Thebes) Tydeus and seven other men ventured off to help Polynices, but the rioting continued and all of the men were killed, leaving Diomedes with only stories about his father. Despite this, Diomedes decides he is going to get revenge for his father’s death and climbs the ranks in the town Argos until he has gotten himself to the seat of assistant mayor, and having the mayor suggest a marriage between Diomedes and his daughter.

Ten years after his death, the children of the fallen men sought revenge for the deaths of their fathers and were able to get Thebes back and establish it as a democracy with the new mayor being the son of Polynices. As Diomedes was gone, the mayor of Argos died, leaving him as the one in charge, but he felt opposition since his family line was not tooted in the town. Because of this, he followed the previous mayor’s instruction and married his daughter, Aegialia. They were not compatible. Though not related by blood, they grew up together and viewed each other as less of spouses and more of a sibling that they simply cannot get along with. The only solace Diomedes found between his taxing job and the toxic relationship he had with his wife was sharpshooting. As a child he had trained with the famous sharpshooter Athena so he could avenge his father, but even after Thebes was taken back, he found that sharpshooting helped him stay grounded, and he was not alone. Sthenelus, one of the others who went with him, soon joined in, until it became an expectation that if Diomedes was to go sharpshooting, Sthenelus would be there. And not just that, Sthenelus became Diomedes’s assistant mayor and helped him stay happy in his life instead of drowning in the stress of his job and marriage.

Athena visits Diomedes some time later to tell him about the war in Troy, and how he would have a chance to get in on the action and start training with her again. He agrees, and brings many people from his town with him, including Sthenelus. Diomedes is stressed by all the sudden changes and the enormous amounts of hubris on the side of the Achaeans, but Sthenelus and his new friend, Odysseus help him keep in touch with his humanity, and he helps them keep in touch with theirs. Odysseus and Diomedes would train with Athena, and they would all celebrate every victory with some beans and whisky. Odysseus tells stories of home, his wife, and the inn they ran, and Diomedes and Sthenelus would tell stories of Argos, the times they would stay up all night shooting pumpkins and laughing. Diomedes finds happiness, and because of his, he also finds success. He becomes the second best warrior of the Achaeans after Achilles, even injuring ones such as Ares, the famous wrestler, and Aphrodite, the railroad line owner who had backed in to save her son, Aeneas from dying. While the conflict with Achilles and Agamemnon is going on, Diomedes continues fighting, even reaching a point where he nearly kills Hector.

When the powerful senator, Zeus shows that he is siding with the Trojans, the Achaeans almost lose hope, but one day Odysseus and Diomedes are able to spy on the trojans and figure out a weak point of one of the allied towns nearby that provided great support to Troy and soon enough Odysseus comes up with a plan to overthrow Troy once and for all.

Troy was near a gold mine that had run out decades priar, but The Acheans set up a rouse. They were to acquire gold, take it to a nearby cave and “mine the gold” build a caravan that appeared to be full of gold, but really had a large central area built into it where men could hide, The Trojans took the caravan into the walls thinking it would help them gain riches, but in the night, the Achaeans took down the walls of Troy and get Helen back.

After all of this has gone down. Diomedes soon learns that he has been marked off as dead in the town census and framed for embezzlement by his wife. Because Diomedes can no longer go home, Athena offers him an apprenticeship so that he will one day become famous like her

Lore snippets:

Remember this: Athena in this au canonically has many pet birds, each are named after her epithets. The one who stays with Penelope and Telemachus while she is away is Pallas!!

Helen of Troy was the most talented wrangler out there so every cowherd wants to hire her, but one time she mentions to Menelaus that she would just like to own her own company, he gives her a loan for it and she falls in love instantly

As Odysseus is going home, he comes across an armed madman who thinks he looks just like his ex-wife and tries to kill Odysseus and his other cowherds and running away after stabbing him in the eye, Odysseus tells the man his name. Little does he know that the only bridge to cross the river he needs to cross to get back home is owned by the madman’s father

Aeneas is a furniture maker!!! He is a small business owner of a furniture store in Troy when his second cousin, Paris gets involved in this drama, and so he joins the fight, but often gets swept away by his mother who is scared for his safety.

Calypso is an independently wealthy plantation owner who lives hundreds of miles away from every nearby town and does not own any horses. So when she picks Odysseus up after he is mugged, he can’t leave, until someone comes by with a caravan across the road and takes pity on him

after lots of happenings, Odysseus and the cowherds are very tired and find the nearest place to rest, a brothel. But unfortunately the owner of this brothel charges incredibly high prices to stay there and it takes them forever to pay her back, and meanwhile they sleep in her pig Sty

used ideas made by @justvea18 and @nymphachilles and @nightmarearian and @brainrotroulette

[yoel-o-fellow]

Goblins live in Stackhouses, a series of custom built homes stacked one on top of the other. They are caravan-like structures, built with mobility for the purpose of fleeing angry mobs, if ever the occassion arose. Some of these buildings rise more than ten stories high, and have the unfortunate side effect of teetering too violently in winds. This architectural shortfall led to the Great Collapse in the early 1800s, where an entire Stackhouse community toppled like dominoes to the ground. Goblins have since taken additional measures to mitigate the swaying, but many top dwellers still complain of seasickness.

Zephry grew up on the top floor of one of these establishments and had to get used to sliding furniture, sloshing tea, and quickly redistributing the weight around the apartment if ever a storm occurred. It was oft remarked that he must have had the sturdiest sea-legs, despite rarely setting foot on a boat.

[mystery-moose]

GAMES I PLAYED IN 2024: A LIST

Went looking through my Steam Replay thingy, and decided to type up some thoughts on my favorite games I played this year! Here they are in roughly chronological order:

Helldivers 2 rules. It nails the tone and atmosphere of its inspiration (the Paul Verhoeven masterwork Starship Troopers) so well that it renders me almost totally uninterested in the officially licensed and apparently quite good Starship Troopers games that came out recently! It's a perfectly absurdist, hilarious satire that's played so straight it almost becomes cool! Right up until you get into the game. Because yeah, when things go well, you can feel really cool and badass and like you're in an intense sci-fi war movie... but the real strength of Helldivers is its comedy, and I don't mean the writing. I mean the ragdolling, the constant, impossibly big explosions, the deaths that come fast and furious and reduce you to giblet gravy, and the respawn being a whole new, fresh Helldiver that airdrops in to replace the dead one. It either feels incredibly tense and tactical, or it feels like cartoon slapstick comedy, and there's almost no middle ground. It threads both needles simultaneously like no other game before.

Now, some folks might be mad when, say, the Democracy Space Station the entire community contributed to building does nothing but shell the shit out of whatever planet its orbiting, to the point that most missions on said planet become suicide runs that result in dozens of dead Helldivers. They might also be mad when the devs add mines with blast zones so large they kill Helldivers as much as enemies, or rocket launchers that airburst almost immediately and teamkill constantly, or a car with a manual transmission that handles like a drunk walrus when its tires get popped. But I think these things rule, because these things contribute to Helldivers greatest strengths: comedy and chaos.

I did fall off it for a few months, when it got a bit stale. There was a period where they nerfed a bunch of guns, and frankly I understand why they did, and equally understand why they rolled it back. The game has had controversies, live service problems, Sony-driven publisher nonsense and recently some microtransactions I thought were poorly priced, but on the whole? The galactic warfront has kept me in their discord just to know how things are going even when I'm not playing, and that's not something I do for basically any other game!

If you want a good time in co-op, and you like third-person shooting and some crackerjack production values, and you like to laugh (sometimes at yourself), you will love Helldivers 2!

Dragon's Dogma 2 is not a perfect game. It's not even close. It has a ton of issues with a lack of variety in its content, a story that struggles with pacing issues and maintaining interest, and some awkward AI that renders a number of skills less useful than they should be.

That being said, there is no other game like Dragon's Dogma. It is tactile and mechanically deep, with class customization built around a combat system that feels exceptionally satisfying to use. It has a genuine sense of multiplayer shenanigans and camaraderie in a single-player game, through its customizable NPCs that you summon from other players. It creates stories about being dragged away by wolves or carried away on the back of a griffon and ending up in another part of the world, encountering monsters fighting each other or attacking caravans... and there's truly nothing like emerging into a canyon, seeing a troll fighting a dragon, running down and climbing all over the beastie and stabbing it until it dies. The vibes are immaculate, and that carried me through most of the game on its own.

I still need to get through the ending (that's not an ending) and the new game plus (that's not a new game plus) but even without completing it, I have a lot of fondness for this weird, weird game. I wish parts of it were better -- like a LOT better -- and I still think it has content issues that could have been solved by another year or two in the oven... but god (and Capcom) willing, some DLC or an expansion will get us there. I'd purchase it in a heartbeat!

Halls of Torment and Death Must Die are two "bullet heaven" games I played this year! Halls of Torment is aping the aesthetic of Diablo 1 and 2, while Death Must Die (pictured above) is doing more of a pixelart, Hades-like kind of thing with its buffs and boons. They both have a heavy loot focus, and a lot of progression, but they're both satisfying in different ways. They're both in early access, but content-rich, and I'd recommend them both -- that is, if you've already played Vampire Survivors and exhausted it and wanted more. Vampire Survivors is, of course, still king of its genre.

Homeworld 3 is the most disappointed I've been by a game in years. Blackbird Interactive have done good work in the past, helped put together the excellent Homeworld Remastered Collection, made Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak which for my money still has immaculate vibes and an excellent aesthetic, and also put out Hardspace: Shipbreaker! They've made great games in the past! So how this game turned out the way it did... I can only blame Gearbox and their meddling, because holy god.

There are mechanical issues like ships not following orders correctly, the pathfinding being kind of nightmarish, and the gimmick of superstructures and cover almost never mattering outside of a handful of campaign moments. The season pass (because of course it had one) had a bizarre focus on a very odd co-op multiplayer run-based mode, for some reason, rather than skirmish multiplayer -- which also had a dearth of maps and modes at launch.

But all of that doesn't matter so much to me, because what matters to me when it comes to Homeworld is the vibes. The aesthetic. The ice-cool, clinical, sweeping sci-fi space opera. Less a focus on named characters and more a focus on grander civilizations, politics, or enemies. Even Deserts of Kharak, set on a single planet, captured these vibes. And instead we got... some of the most awkwardly animated, ham-handedly written, and cartoonish cutscenes I've seen in a game in a good while. When the villain shows up in a main character's dream sequence and vamps around like a Dreamworks villain about to break into song, that's when I put the game down. I still haven't gone back.

I preordered the goddamn collector's edition of this. I never do that! I should know better! But I made the mistake of thinking a pedigree and proven track record are enough to bet on. Frankly, I think they should be -- maybe Gearbox and their story consultants and brand managers are just poisonous. Regardless, this was a real king-size bummer for me this year. Homeworld is dead now -- I can't imagine it getting another swing after this. But believe me when I say it deserved better.

The Dead Space remake is, against all expectations, absolutely fantastic. There are some quibbles I have here and there; I think the new performances from the supporting cast are a little flat. I think Kyne in particular loses a lot of ambiguity. The story and characterization elsewhere has been made less cartoonish or obvious, but given that Dead Space is a pretty corny horror yarn, it loses some charm as a result. But other characters like Isaac and especially Nicole benefit tremendously from a rewrite, giving them agency and likability they did not have before, and the wrinkles they add in their relationship are fantastic.

And mechanically? Wow. The game has never played better, moved better, been structured better. Some areas feel different, more a sidegrade than an upgrade, but others, especially in the new dark sections? Awesomely spooky. I happily started a new game plus of this and I fully intend to go back to it every October like I do Dead Space 2. It's SO good. That we were denied a new sequel is proof positive that EA sucks eggs.

Space Marine 2 is a 7/10 action game from the Xbox 360 era, shined up and given some quality multiplayer features. I mean that as the highest compliment; we don't get many of those these days! It is one of the best representations of Warhammer as an aesthetic and a vibe, and mechanically it is incredibly satisfying. I don't think a parry and riposte has felt this good since Sifu or Sekiro, at least in terms of sound design and impact. And the multiplayer! Simple, effective, an satisfying, with fun separate progressions for co-op and PvP. Every part of this package is far better than it has any right to be, at every level. You don't need to be a Warhammer nerd to like this game, in fact it's a pretty neat introduction, but for super nerds or just sometimes fans like me? Certain setpieces are absolute cinema. Can't wait for that horde mode to hit next year!

If Homeworld 3 is the most I've been disappointed by a game, the Silent Hill 2 remake might be the most I've been surprised by one. I had zero expectations for this thing, given the developer's previous output, and Silent Hill 2 itself is one of those games that is genuinely Important Art. Not just on its own merits, but in how it influenced creatives in basically every other form of art there is. There's an argument to be made that Silent Hill 2 has quietly influenced more horror media than damn near anything else since 2002. And it earned that.

So when this remake turned out to be... like, actually great? And not just great, but restrained? Thoughtful, even? That's amazing. The core story remains the same, whole cutscenes lifted almost word for word, but the changes they do make are not made solely to be different or justify its existence; they're done purposefully, because time has passed, because the game now flows from its scenes and environments more fluidly. Because they wanted to add (or emphasize) certain aspects of characterization. And the scenes they do add are so in keeping with the rest that it's hard to tell where the new stuff begins and ends. Heck, even the new endings they added are kind of amazing!

This is the remake that Silent Hill 2 deserved. The original is still exceptional, and should be preserved, but if this is the only way someone can experience this story? That's okay. This has single-handedly made me interested in whatever Bloober Team makes next, and I hope that whatever it is, they can channel the talent that made this, rather than their previous output.

I have not yet completed Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but I can tell you now that it is good. Maybe not great! But good. Solid. It has mechanically dense and interesting combat, an exceptionally cool skill tree and class customization system, accessibility options out the wazoo, and some really great production values. It has fun characters (some more than others) and a really fun protagonist. Some of the writing can be... heavy-handed, I'll say. And some of it is obvious, or hammy, or kind of pat. It feels very different than past Dragon Age games, for better AND for worse. I'm gonna have a bunch of thoughts on it when I'm done, I can tell!

But as a showing for BioWare, to prove that they're still capable of putting out RPGs that matter? That their formula, as old as it is, still works? That they still belong in the conversation after Larian's Baldur's Gate 3? I think this is a tremendous success.

Maybe the ending will fumble the bag really badly. That's been known to happen in BioWare games! But even then, I'd still have had a lot of fun playing this thing.

And if nothing else? Man, the next Mass Effect is gonna be AWESOME. (If they're allowed to make it...)

I Am Your Beast is the latest game from Strange Scaffold, the folks what made El Paso, Elsewhere, Clickolding, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, and An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs. If nothing else, their title game is on point. My only experience with them was El Paso, a game written and performed by one of the main leads, Xalavier Nelson Jr. And let me tell you, that game put them on my radar.

And while El Paso, Elsewhere was a Max Payne pastiche, a game about relationships and a breakup and addiction and emotional catharsis filtered through slow-mo dives through windows shooting shotguns at werewolves, I Am Your Beast is a smaller, leaner production. It is about a guy who killed for the government, who doesn't wanna kill for the government anymore, and when they send men to make him do that, he kills them all. That's it, basically -- and yet the narrative, told entirely through voice acting and typography without a single animated cutscene or face in the entire game, is one of the most quietly confident and cathartic I've seen in a while. It's a revenge thriller, of the John Wick sort, but the simple humanity and humor that Xalavier and his fellow voice actors imbue into the characters in such a series of short scenes is really incredible. It's the sort of game I've kind of always wanted; a stylish riff on a popular subgenre of film that makes you feel like you're in it. Because for as much as video games ape movies, there's surprisingly few games that really do what this game does, or feel like how this game feels!

And mechanically? The game is a just a bit stiff, such that you can tell it didn't have as much money or time as maybe it could have used. But even with that, it is still fast and smooth and extremely satisfying. The game loads as fast as it moves, so when you fuck up, you can reset in less than a second and start right over, Super Meat Boy style. This is necessary, as it is a fast, score-based shooter that can demand a lot of you if you want to complete all the optional objectives, let alone S-rank everything. But really, the action IS the juice, the raw lizardbrain satisfaction of nailing headshot after headshot, running a route through a map that you've planned after numerous attempts and getting it just right, just perfect, with a little room for improvisation along the way. And your reward? Another great little bit of voice acting, some characterization, and another killer tune to vibe to as you shoot your way through another army of goons.

I Am Your Beast is very close to being the best possible version of itself, but even falling just short of that, it's still one of the absolute best games I've played this year, or any year. It's short, it's sweet, it's cathartic as hell, and it has one of the best final levels of any game I've played. I'm a sucker for when a song drops into gameplay, especially with lyrics, and boy they save that for a final level that's more a celebration than a challenge. This game kicks ass, and if you get anything from this list? I'd say get this one, for real.

Karate Survivor is another in the burgeoning subgenre of "bullet heaven," aka Vampire Survivors-clones. But this one is different, because it requires actual gameplay!

I jest, but this game does feel more active and more involving in terms of positioning than most games in this genre. Instead of building a suite of weapons that autofire, you're building a combo string that auto fires, and each attack goes in a specific direction with a specific arc of damage, and they're each part of different styles and different sequences that boost damage and add bonus effects when linked together and... you can see how there's some juice here!

But more importantly, Karate Survivor does something I did not expect: it made me feel like Jackie Chan. There are games that let you do a fight scene -- Sifu is one of my all-time favorite games, and that has some environmental stuff you can do, ottomans you can kick and bottles you can throw and tables to dive over, but it's all just a bit self-serious, a bit too cool. And that's good! I like those vibes! But a Jackie Chan movie, a good one? That has something different. There's an element of danger, of threat, of physicality and pain for sure, but there's also a distinct element throughout the choreography of slapstick comedy, of using the environment in creative ways.

And that's what this game does -- you have environmental interactions. You direct your karate man over to some bottles, and he'll automatically chuck them at the nearest enemy. He'll kick chairs and buckets, he'll pick up brooms and shovels and ladders, he'll kick out a support and send a shack tumbling down on his attackers. You can run up walls, you can throw open doors to smack dudes in the face (a move lifted directly from Rumble in the Bronx) and you can pole vault into locked rooms or across rooftops. The act of moving, of positioning yourself to funnel attackers and utilize the environment and grab whatever is laying around? That's Jackie Chan, baby. And no other game has really captured that feeling like this one has!

Karate Survivor fully justifies itself not as a clone of Vampire Survivors, but as its own game. It is unique, it has some excellent pixel art, it kicks ass, and best of all, it is very cheap. Absolutely check it out if you can!

Balatro is my game of the year. It kind of has to be. Yeah, I'm sure Astro Bot is incredible, I'll play it someday and love it death I'm sure. I hear that Indiana Jones game is shockingly excellent too! And Shadow of the Erdtree? I mean come on!

But you don't understand. You don't get it. I didn't either -- I thought I was over deckbuilding roguelikes, and the poker aesthetic? Who could care! I mean I like poker and all, but as a video game? Meh.

Then I watched someone play it for just a few minutes, and I knew I had to try it. Then I got it on mobile, and it was all over.

Balatro is a dopamine factory. Not in the same way that Vampire Survivors is, where it's all in the presentation and after a certain point the game sort of falls away and it's just flashing lights making brain chemicals happen. Balatro is a thinker. You gotta plan, you gotta react. You gotta play the right hands, get your cards in the proper order to maximize score. You gotta build your run on the fly, depending on the jokers you find. There is not a moment in Balatro that you are not making some meaningful decision, no matter how small or short. It has one of the best UI designs in games, with some really smart flourishes that make my pleasure centers light up like a Christmas tree. It is a game that you can break such that your high score is in scientific notation, but luck is also a factor, and you'll rarely see this unless you dig into seed science. It has a bunch of different decks that all radically change how you play, and a bunch of challenge modes that demand you play a certain way, and you're always unlocking one of the 150 jokers in the game that each completely change how you build your strategy.

Balatro is available on PC and mobile. Get it on both. You pay like fifteen bucks, and you get everything. No DLC, no microtransactions, no actual gambling, ever. The whole game. I've put at least fifty hours into this thing, probably more, and I'll put more into it in 2025. If I get the PC version, I might investigate the mod scene! People are adding new jokers that break the game even more! One-man developer LocalThunk is a baller, and I can't wait to see what he makes next, but if all he ever does is this? He's earned a spot in the history of this medium.

Balatro is the closest to a perfect game I've seen since Vampire Survivors. That two games this monumental by solo devs have come out so close together is proof enough to me that, for all its many MANY problems, we are in a golden age of video games. I sincerely hope it inspires tons of folks to make their own! So I can lose hundreds of hours to those, too.

[aussielandrv]

Explore budget-friendly caravans designed for comfort and adventure. Our affordable caravans offer quality and reliability for your travels, providing everything you need for a memorable road trip. Find the perfect budget-friendly caravans to suit your journey and lifestyle today.

[motorhomeworld]

Are you looking Caravans for Sale Waikato? Check out our range of quality caravans for sale. You will find the perfect caravan for your adventure with great features. More info: https://www.cmw.co.nz/caravans-for-sale/

[mithrilhearts]

🌿 A Lesson in Morels ‣ Mushrooms are more than just edible to hobbits. They can symbolize a variety of things - protection, good fortune, but they can also symbolize that you're about to embark on a quest of intimacy with your significant other. (bagginshield, explicit, 7.9k)

🌿 An Ink-Stained Vow ‣ After the Battle of the Five Armies, Bilbo feels that he's lost more than just something precious in his pocket. To fill that void, Bilbo seeks something more permanent he can carry before it's time to head back to Bag End. (bagginshield, gen, 4.4k)

🌿 An Unexpected First Impression ‣ When news of the first caravan from Ered Luin hits the mountain, Bilbo and Tauriel find themselves anxious of meeting the Princess of Erebor. Together they set out to make a great first impression - hopefully. (bagginshield, gen, 7k)

🌿 Below the Belt ‣ Thorin, tired of being poked and prodded after his scuffle with Azog's warg atop the Burning Pines, refuses to care for his injuries and takes off, so what does the company do? Send Bilbo to take care of Thorin, naturally. And boy, does Bilbo go above and beyond. (bagginshield, explicit, 6k)

🌿 Blinded by the Scars ‣ Bilbo had never known scars could be so sensitive, even after years of healing and time to adjust. With that knowledge, and the idea of something a little different in bed, Bilbo is determined to help his dwarven husband relax. (bagginshield, explicit, 2.9k)

🌿 Can't "Rise" to the Occasion ‣ Every evening the Company of Thorin Oakenshield gathers for food, stories, and rest around the campfire on their way to Erebor. Some stories are fun, others are adventurous, but tonight’s theme is scary. Bilbo’s idea of scary and the dwarves’ understanding of hobbit customs throws Thorin’s mind for a loop. (bagginshield, gen, 2.3k)

🌿 Cold Is The Night ‣ After securing a place to stay within Beorn's lodgings, Thorin and Bilbo find themselves sharing a coat, newfound emotions, and then some. (bagginshield, explicit, 5.5k)

🌿 Concerning Dwobbits ‣ September 22 is a day of celebration in Erebor, not only for Bilbo Baggins but for his and Thorin's dwobbit son who sprouted from an all too familiar acorn. (parentshield, gen, 2.6k)

🌿 Heart's On Fire ‣ Along the quest, Bilbo notices how the dwarves are very affectionate and friendly with one another. Specifically, he sees just how Thorin is with his kin, and is a bit disgruntled as he longs for real touch and connection with the would-be-king that treats him so coldly. (bagginshield, gen, 11k)

🌿 A (Green)House Built for Two ‣ Two years after the Battle of the Five Armies, Bilbo begins to show signs of being homesick. Unable to fathom the idea that Bilbo may want to leave the mountain for his Shire home, Thorin takes on a project to bring a little bit of the Shire's greenery to Erebor. (bagginshield, gen, 5.7k)

🌿 The Icing on the Cupcake ‣ Bilbo Baggins has two great loves: molding young minds and baking. So it comes as a bit of a shock to him when at his nephew's 7th birthday party a third love is added to the list. (bagginshield, gen, 6k)

🌿 I'll Keep You Safe ‣ Fili and Kili are at the age where they are ready to brave the wilderness outside of Ered Luin's walls. Much to Thorin's uncertainty, he takes the boys into the mountains for a hunting trip in order to show them a slice of the big wide world. Naturally, it doesn't go as planned. (durin family, gen, 5.5k)

🌿 Lost In Translation ‣ Already struggling with the acceptance of dwarves in the mountain as future consort, Bilbo is disheartened to hear that his husband-to-be has less than kind things to say behind his back. Or so they tell him. (bagginshield, gen, 11.7k)

🌿 Mudùmel ‣ After leaving Erebor behind, Thorin is struggling to find his sense of comfort in the Shire. All it takes is an encounter with one of his new hobbit neighbors, and he realizes that the comfort he seeks has been at his side all along. (bagginshield, gen, 3k)

🌿 Right As Snow ‣ Yuletide at Bag End is different this year with Frodo as the newest addition to the smial. With a misunderstanding about how well one likes the other, Thorin and Frodo both struggle through their holiday. (parentshield, gen, 10.3k)

🌿 Sweet, Literal Nothings ‣ Ever since that hug upon the Carrock, Fili, Kili, and the rest of the company are always asking themselves: what is going on with Thorin and Bilbo? Across the campsite, sitting nice and cozy next to one another, the two individuals in question have another way of looking at it: how can we mess with the Company? (bagginshield, gen, 2.1k)

🌿 Wish Upon a Firefly's Light ‣ A brief respite allows Thorin the time he needs to reflect, gazing upon Rivendell's fireflies. (bagginshield, gen, 2.3k)

[civilizationmysteriesoftheworld]

Petra’s Untold Mysteries: Water, Worship, and a Lost Civilization

Welcome to Petra, the fabled “lost city” of Jordan, which conceals far more than its famous rock-carved facades reveal. While most visitors admire its iconic architecture, few realize that Petra’s secrets go well beyond the surface. Ancient Nabatean innovation, hidden tunnels, and forgotten customs paint a picture of a city thriving with life and mystery. Join us on a journey through Petra’s less-known wonders, where each stone and carving tells an incredible story.

If you’re fascinated by ancient civilizations, don’t miss our video here to uncover Petra’s deeper secrets in vivid detail!

The Nabatean Genius of Water

In the heart of the desert, the Nabateans, Petra’s original inhabitants, accomplished a near-miraculous feat: they created an oasis that sustained life and trade. Petra’s survival depended on an elaborate system of dams, cisterns, and channels built to capture and conserve every drop of rainwater. This ingenious water network made Petra a prime stop for caravans, bringing goods and cultures from across the world.

But did you know there are still sections of this water system undiscovered? Hidden deep within Petra’s rocks, these untapped resources could offer new insights into the secrets of Nabatean engineering.

Petra’s Hidden Tunnels and Mysterious Tombs

Petra’s Treasury and Monastery are iconic, but the city’s hidden tunnels and chambers hold a world of secrets. Below Petra’s surface lies a maze of pathways carved by the Nabateans, whose purpose remains a mystery to this day. Were these tunnels for ritual practices, defense, or something else? Recently uncovered tombs and burial sites, containing rare artifacts, suggest Petra may still have secrets to reveal.

Festivals and Forgotten Customs

Beyond being a trade city, Petra was a cultural hub. Historical texts describe grand festivals with feasting, music, and rituals at Petra’s center, celebrating long-lost deities whose identities are now shrouded in mystery. Today, these events are all but forgotten, their purposes and participants erased by time. Imagine a Petra filled with celebration, resonating with the music and energy of ancient festivities.

An Unsolved Mystery: The Disappearance of the Nabateans

The Nabateans’ greatest mystery may not be their accomplishments, but their sudden disappearance. Around the 4th century AD, Petra was largely abandoned. Why? Theories range from drought to political upheaval, but the true reason remains elusive. Could answers lie hidden in Petra’s undiscovered tombs, waiting for us to unravel them?

Petra’s beauty goes beyond its visible wonders; it’s a city of mysteries still waiting to be explored. From architectural ingenuity to forgotten rituals, the lost city invites us to wonder what discoveries still lie in wait. If you thought you knew Petra, think again—its secrets are far from fully revealed.

For a deeper look at Petra’s untold stories, check out our YouTube video here and join the journey of discover.

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The Life of The Prophet Muhammad(pbuh): The Battle of Tabuk and Afterwards 

Hajj is Rendered Fard

Hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam, was rendered fard in the 9th year of the Migration.

 “The first House (of worship) appointed for men was that at Bakka: full of blessing and of guidance for all kinds of beings:

In it are signs manifest; (for example), the Station of Abraham; whoever enters it attains security; pilgrimage thereto is a duty men owe to God―those who can afford the journey; but if any deny faith; God stands not in need of any of His creatures.”

The Messenger of God recited a sermon to the Muslims when the verses above were sent down in the 9th year of the Migration and informed them about this fard as follows: 

“O people! Hajj was rendered fard for you; perform hajj.”

When the Companions heard this sermon, they asked, “O Messenger of God! Is it fard every year?”

The Prophet kept silent; he did not answer.

When the same question was repeated for the third time, the Prophet said, “No, not every year. If I had answered your question as ‘Yes’, it would have been fard for you every year and you would not have been able to do it.”

The Prophet also taught the Companions the following regarding asking the same questions repeatedly.

“When I leave you as you are without proposing you anything, you leave me as I am. The nations before you were destroyed because of asking too many questions and opposing their prophets. Therefore, when I order you to do something, do it as much as you can; when I prohibit you from doing something, abandon it.”

The Prophet stated the following in another hadith:

“Islam has been built upon five things – testifying that there is no god save God, and that Muhammad is His Messenger; performing salah; giving zakah; performing hajj and fasting during Ramadan.”

The Prophet Postpones the Hajj He has Intended

When Hajj was rendered fard, the Prophet wanted to perform hajj. However, he later postponed it by saying, “The polytheists will be in the Kaaba and circumambulate it naked. I do not want to perform hajj unless this situation is eliminated.”

Indeed, the polytheists used to circumambulate the Kaaba naked at night, men and women together; they regarded it as respect to the Kaaba.

Hazrat Abu Bakr is Appointed as the Leader for Hajj

When the Messenger of God decided not to go to hajj, he appointed Hazrat Abu Bakr as the leader for hajj in the 9th year of the Migration so that he would lead hajj and show the Muslims how to perform hajj.

Hazrat Abu Bakr set off for hajj with three hundred Muslims from Madinah; when he arrived in Dhul-Hulayfa, the place of ihram for Madinans, he entered ihram and uttered talbiyah: “Labbayk! “Labbayk! Allahumma Labbayk! Lab­bay­ka la sharika Laka Labbayk! Innal hamda wan’ni­ma­ta la­ka wa’l-mulka la sharika laka.” (Here I am, O God, here I am. Here I am, You have no partner, here I am. Verily all praise and blessings are Yours, and all sovereignty, You have no partner.)

Hazrat Ali is Sent After them

A short while after the first hajj caravan of Islam left Madinah, the chapter of Baraa (at-Tawba) was sent down. The Companions said, “O Messenger of God! Will you send this chapter to Abu Bakr so that he will inform people about it.”

The Prophet said, “This declaration has to be made by me or someone from my household.”

According to the customs and traditions of Arabs, a treaty could be signed or annulled only by the leader of the tribe or one of his relatives.

Hazrat Ali was closer to the Prophet in terms of kinship. Therefore, the Messenger of God summoned Hazrat Ali and said, “Take this beginning part of the chapter Ba­raa.” Then, he said,

“When people gather in Mina on the day of sacrificing animals, call out loudly: No unbeliever can enter Paradise. After this year, no polytheist can perform hajj. Nobody will circumambulate the Kaaba naked. If anyone has a treaty with the Messenger of God, it will be valid until it ends; the treaties that have no periods of time will be valid for four months only from now on.”

Hazrat Ali wanted to find out why the Prophet wanted to send him.  He said,

“O Messenger of God! I am not old and I am not an orator.”

The Prophet said, “Either I or you will go. However, you will go. God will definitely strengthen your tongue and heart.”

Thereupon, Hazrat Ali set off from Madinah immediately. He went together with Abu Hurayra. They caught up with Hazrat  Abu Bakr.

Hazrat Abu Bakr asked him, “Are you the leader or an official”

Hazrat Ali said, “I am an official.” He explained the reason why he came as follows: “The Messenger of God (pbuh) sent me so that I will recite the people the chapter of Baraa and tell the people of the treaty that the treaties will be valid.”

Arriving in Makkah

The first hajj caravan led by Hazrat Abu Bakr arrived in  Makkah safely. Hazrat Abu Bakr recited a sermon. He told people how to perform hajj.

When Hazrat Abu Bakr finished his sermon, Hazrat Ali stood up and said,  “O people! I am the envoy of the Messenger of God.” Then, he recited the first thirty or forty verses of the chapter of Baraa (at-Tawba).

The first six verses of this chapter is as follows:

“A (declaration) of immunity from God and His Messenger to those of the pagans with whom ye have contracted mutual alliances.―

Go ye, then for four months, backwards and forwards, (as ye will), throughout the land, but know ye that ye cannot frustrate God (by your falsehood) but that God will cover with shame those who reject Him.

And an announcement from God and His Messenger, to the people (assembled) on the day of the Great Pilgrimage― that God and His Messenger dissolve (treaty) obligations with the pagans. If, then ye repent, it were best for you; but if ye turn away know ye that ye cannot frustrate God. And proclaim a grievous penalty to those who reject Faith.

(But the treaties are) not dissolved with those pagans with whom Ye have entered into alliance and who have not subsequently failed you in aught, nor aided anyone against you. So fulfill your engagements with them to the end of their term: for God loveth the righteous.

But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.If one amongst the pagans ask thee for asylum, grant it to him, so that he may hear the word of God; and then escort him to where he can be secure: That is because they are men without knowledge.”

Then, Hazrat Ali said, “I am ordered to tell you four things.” Then, he informed the people about what he was ordered: “No unbeliever can enter Paradise. After this year, no polytheist can perform hajj. Nobody will circumambulate the Kaaba naked. If anyone has a treaty with the Messenger of God, it will be valid until it ends; the treaties that have no periods of time will be valid for four months only from now on. After that, there is no treaty or protection for any polytheists.”

Along with Hazrat Ali, Abu Hurayra sometimes declared the issues mentioned above loudly to the people.

After completing hajj, Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat Ali and the Companions who were together with them returned to Madinah.